REVIEW

AT 12,20; "PUDDING CHASE"

Reviewer: LiBruce
Developer: R Tape
Genre: Festive Coordination
Platform: Spectrum 48K
Language: BASIC

Cast your mind back to February where we had not one, but two exciting "Guess the coordinate" games; Remove The Logo in which you entered Attribute Block coordinates to blank out the unwanted developer credits and Quest For Ye Flask which saw you guessing two numbers between 1 and 100,000,000!

If, like me, you can't get enough of this type of game then Merry Christmas from R Tape!*

* Of course, if you're not a fan, then you'll just have to give an insincere smile and pretend you like it!

We start off with a loader which, while looking like a bit of a rush job, does manage to be both recognisable and make quite clever use of attribute colours and BRIGHT.

After loading it's straight onto the Musical Interlude which is, I believe, a beeper rendition of Taylor Swift's latest Billboard Hot 100 single; Blank Space. Disappointingly this isn't carried into the game itself on a permanent loop - something I feel would have been the cherry on the top of this particular Christmas Pudding.

The game begins and the first challenge is to spot the pixel representing your 2p coin. This can take a surprisingly long time, however, there's no time limit so don't worry. (Hopefully you should have spotted the Xmas pudding straight away?)

Next you have to figure out how many pixels you need to move horizontally and vertically in order to move your 2p 'inside' the Pudding and enter the two values into the sequential prompts at the bottom of the screen.

At this point the pixel begins to move towards its target and all you can do is bite your nails in anticipation!

Note: You don't need to bother with negative (-) numbers, as I originally assumed, as R Tape's clever code works out whether you need to go left, right, up or down to reach your goal. (Tut tut - Ed)

Statistically I underestimated the pixel difference more often than not and came tantalisingly close on a few occasions. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whether you like Miss Swift) this meant an instant Game Over and back to the title screen and musical interlude.

It turns out the distance between the first and second phalanx on my thumb is exactly 135 pixels, however, I found a more accurate way to estimate the distances was to;

1. Take a screenshot
2. Import the screenshot into Paint Shop Pro
3. Use the Selection Tool between the 2p and the middle of the UDG...
4. ... Well, cheat, basically!

All in all this is moderately more fun than Yoshiatom's entry, but not quite as much as leespoons', so I doubt I'll be rushing to ask Santa for Pudding Chase II next year.

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