CLS - Country Leisure Slotmachine
Post date: 12-Jun-2016 20:28:16
Game by: Anders Carlsson
Reviewed by: Simon Ferré
This entry to the KEYWORD INITIALS CHALLENGE is based on a fruit machine. Upon loading, we are greeted by a colourful loading screen:
There's an equally impressive Title Screen, which gives a great impact and highlights the colours of the ZX Spectrum in all their glory. It would appear that Chunk-O-Vision (TM) is still hanging on from last year.
Into the game, and here's where it all falls a bit flat. Not that there's anything really wrong, but it all seems downhill from here on in. The game displays either three horizontal or three vertical bands of colour, only taking up a small part of the screen to make up a flag. You may or may not get the option to hold one of the bands, sometimes being allowed to hold two of them by pressing 1 to 3. N holds none. Any other key spins the colours. If the three colours match a flag known to the game, you are greeted with a simple BEEP tune and are credited 10 of the rather ambiguous money. Here are two screenshots, one in each orientation:
I didn't have enough time or patience to wait for my money to run out (having won a couple of times already) so I broke into the program, changed the amount of money left and continued on, and after winning twice more I repeated the procedure but set my money to 1. Upon the next go, no winning flag appeared so I finally got to see the losing screen:
It's quite a good game. It could have been made harder by asking the user to name the country the flag belonged to before being awarded the points for the win. The idea is ok, the graphics leave a bit to be desired (the loading screen being better than the game) and the sheer sloth of the thing makes you want to go and burn a flag (ok, maybe not) but it is a bit frustrating and repeats on and on.
Score: White Flag (I surrender) out of Semaphore.