Review: Repton Infinity (The Next Generation?)
Price: 12.95 (cass), 14.95 (5.25in), 19.95 (3.5in Compact)
Supplier: Superior Software, Dept.M2, P.O. Box 6, Brigg, S. Humberside
DN20 9NH.
Tel: (0652) 58585
Requirements: Model B, B+, Electron, Master or Compact
The word Repton nowadays is past history, or so you thought. Superior
Software has released another Repton, at this many people will groan
'Oh God, not a another one'. But with this release Superior Software
has upgraded its previous system of screen editor, character editor
etc. and gone one step further, a complete games creator (well
almost).
For those that are new to Repton he can best be discribed as green,
scaley and a complete nutter as he wanders around just looking for
trouble. Basically Repton's whole life revolves around collecting
diamonds, killing horrible monsters, guiding spirts into cages,
stopping leathal fungi from growing, all the ususal stuff.
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First to the games supplied, there are four of them, called;
Repton 3 - Take 2
Repton 4
Robbo
Trakker
Repton 3 - Take 2
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As the game title suggests this a repeat of the Repton 3 style screens
and basic features. The only major difference is the absence of a time
bomb, which been excluded from the new games. So how do you finish the
game I hear you say, well its all done on a points basis, you get
enough points, you move onto the next level. To me this is a great
help as I always take ages trying to figure things out. All the other
characters are the same the diamonds, rocks, fungus etc.
Repton 4
--------
This game is much like the previous Repton's but here you have to
collect banknotes and jewels to score points. Ghouls instead of
monsters hatch out of eggs, you kill them in the usual way of dropping
rocks. Push Magicblocks together in a row to make diamonds, drop rocks
on magic walls to make more banknotes. One useful and intresting
feature is the photocopiers, with which you can duplicate objects, but
you may only use it once.
Robbo
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This game Robbo is the first major job for the creator, turning Repton
into a robot. The game has definity got a lot more in the way of
graphics and is considerably more difficult! You are Robbo (the
clapped out coffee-machine) and appear to resemble a tin can with
forks for legs. To test your logic circuits your inventors have placed
you in a 'time - space puzzle vortex'. In this vortex you have to
solve various puzzles in order to move onto the next level.
One thing is getting used to the difference in layouts of Robbo
compared to Repton style. Robbo also invloves a lot more thinking than
the Repton screens and so is a lot more demanding on your time. For
the first time the RETURN key is used. It is used as an action key and
you can do various things like activate toilets with it, get drinks
from cola machines etc.
Trakker
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This is the last of the four games and is certainly the most unusual.
You are a JAFFA driver - Jagga Annihilation and Fruit Flinging
Associates - and it is your task to kill the Hideous Jaggas and other
'orrible nasties.
There is a great amount of 'mashing' that goes on as you ride shotgun
on a bulldozer, you are given dynamite to help you in your job. Now
for some strange reason (the programmers twisted minds) you use a
person called Kevin as a sort of detonator, and by placing him near
some dynamite, backing over the nearest plunger and pressing RETURN
results in an explosion. Each plunger may only be used once though.
To kill the Jaggas you must push tomatoes at them, and this only works
if you push it from behind the Jagga. If you do hit it with a banana
it turns into a deadly tubular spider. Oh yes watch out for Repton,
he's quite anoyed at you for stealing his game.
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The Games Creator
-----------------
The games creator package is split into 4 sections. Three of the
sections create the actual game and the fourth links them up to make
one big game.
Land Scape - The Screen Designer
Blue Print - The Game Creator
Film Strip - The Character Designer
File Link - The Linker
Land Scape - The Screen Designer
--------------------------------
This part of the package is probably the easiest to use (apart from
the Linker) and if you have used the Repton 3 screen designer you'll
have no trouble. The designer is much better than the Repton 3 though,
with added features and some niggling problems removed.
The whole level now can be cleared by pressing CTRL C, the amount of
transporters per level has also been increased to six. You know when
you placed a transporter on Repton 3 you had be very careful when
handling the destination. Well now when your control box passes over
the desination slot a little yellow T appears so you don't accidently
put a character there.
One of the restrictions is a maximum of 4 levels per game instead of
the usual 8, but I found this to be no great problem. You may select
if there is a map for any level just by pressing 'M'. You can also set
the minimum score for moving on to the next level, any number between
0 and 9999. One new feature is a pop-up calculator, with which you set
the points for each character, then it counts up the characters and
provides the total for the screen. You can set a password on any level
that you want, except 1 of course. The passwords are computer
generated which means its very difficult to test the screens you
create.
A very useful feature is the ability for you to load up a new set of
editor characters (from Film Strip) which makes finding the right
character to place on the level a lot easier.
Blue Print - The Game Creator
-----------------------------
This is the heart of the creator programs where use your imagination
to bring your creation to life. Blue Print is basically an editor and
'compiler', it uses a language that is a cross between BASIC and 'C'
and is based on definitions. The definitions are then 'compiled' like
a two-pass assembler while checking for errors, the code is then
translated into an 'object file' which can then be linked to the main
game file.
The language you use is called Reptol and it is very powerful, also
quite easy to learn if you've programmed in BASIC. I won't go into
detail about the language here because it would take about 30 pages to
explain! With Reptol you can add sound effects, random occurences and
visual effects. This is also where you set the scoring for each
character. One piece of advice - write the scores down so you can
check them with the Land Scape score section.
Film Strip - The Character Designer
-----------------------------------
Film Strip is a sprite and character editor. It's very comprehesive
and not only allows you to edit the main sprites but also the map and
editor characters that are used. The screen layout is mostly devoted
to sprite boxes, of which there are about 5.
The editor has been vastly improved from the Repton 3 editor. You now
have advanced facilites like copying sprites to other sprites, sprites
can be turned through horizontal and vertical axies. You can create up
to 14 animated characters (I wouldn't advise it though) which can be
anything your imagination can dream up.
File Link - The Linker
------------------------
The Linker performs the task of taking screen, sprite and code files
and linking them into a proper game. Which you then load up and play
(if you haven't made a complete botch of it). You can enter a 'End of
Message' text into a box at the bottom which will be displayed after
the game is completed.
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Repton Infinity is one of the best games Superior Software has
released for a long time and has proved it's still the champion of the
BEEB. The game has been well thought out with immense care gone into
the design and detail. The manual is easy to understand and tells you
everything you need to about Repton Infinity. One of my main grumbles
is the differences I noticed in the speed of game, which has gone from
very fast in Repton 3 to quite slow in Repton Infinity. The reason for
this is probably the coding process used in Blue Print.
Here's a useful tip: If you have a double sided disc drive copy the
code files on the Repton Infinity data discs onto drive 2, and change
the data drive on the menu to 2. But make a backup of Repton Infinity
first!!
Well, when's the next version of Repton then?
Reviewer: Andrew Black
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Also if you have any Repton 3 or Repton Infinity game files that you
have created please send them. Please include instructions and
passwords so that we can test them. They will appear on the issue
discs.
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