Game Title:- REPTON 3 Four Game Compilation ( also includes
Repton Thru Time, Around The World In 40 Screens,
and Life Of Repton )
Available From:- ProAction 40,Honiton Road Romford Essex RM7 9AJ
Price:- £11.05 ( £8.05 to 8BS Members )
Format:- Various, to suit all 8-Bit machines
For those of you who have previously seen the results of me being
let loose on a wordprocessor, and don't fancy wading through yards of
woffle, I have put my concluding paragraph here at the top.
Repton 3 is one of the all-time classic games for our machines, and
now that it has been released with all it's subsequent add-ons contained
in the one package, it really is the time to add it to your collection. It
has all the addictive qualities that should really require it to carry a
Health Warning on the cover. However, the game being as good as it is, I
cannot do other than recommend this compilation to anyone who is looking
for a game that is at once simple yet challenging. The graphics are good
without being gimmicky, and respond very quickly to keyboard input.
Although the Screen Editor offers the possibility of endless new
variations, the game as it stands does have the potential to actually be
completed. So many other games only offer the chance to beat a previous-
highest score, relying heavily on your speed of reaction, ie how quickly
you can press the Fire button. Some of the screens in Repton also require
this fast and accurate fingerwork, but by no means all. The facility to
pause the game and study a map, or go and make a cup of tea, or phone a
friend for advice, means that mostly there is the time to think ahead and
solve the next puzzle on each game-screen. This is not to say that you
need to have a high forehead to both play and enjoy the game; my 8-year-
old son has been playing it for the past 3 years, and has quite often
amazed ( and thoroughly annoyed ) me by casually waltzing through a puzzle
which had sent my frown muscles into overdrive. ( I can still knock his
bloomin socks off at draughts though! ) To sum up:- If you ain't got it
yet, GET IT NOW!
The more adventurous among you, seekers after truth, anyone who is
waiting for the kettle to boil, anyone who CAN get a good picture on
Channel 5 but wants something more interesting, should read on. Remember,
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...........
I am not a games reviewer. Cries of 'Gerrahtovit then!' do I hear?
No, what I am trying to say is that I am not an EXPERIENCED reviewer of
games. In fact this is my first effort at putting finger to key in this
field, so even I don't know what will happen in the next few paragraphs!
I do know that I won't be comparing this game with any other; there
really are none to compare it to. I am not a great fan of zap-it-if-it-
moves games; I prefer those that offer their challenge in the form of a
puzzle, giving the grey cell a workout as well as the fingers. That is
why, when Chris gave me the choice, I jumped at the chance to review this
particular game, or perhaps I should say suite of games.
The package I got from Chris had two 5.25" 80-track discs ( only
side 0 of each with software on ) and one 3.5" ADFS disc ( this format
intended for the Compact but seems to work OK on my Master ) along with a
sheet carrying instructions for Game-play and use of the Screen Editor,
all contained in the familiar A5-ish sized wallet. Some parts of the sheet
I found very difficult to read, and there was no mention of the three
games accompanying Repton 3. There is room on the discs for a title screen
which could have listed their filenames, this would have been a nice touch
and was actually what I expected to find as they were not on the sheet. If
like me you are familiar with the Game and the Editor ( the Screen Editor,
not Chris ) then you won't need to read the instructions anyway. I wrote
to ProAction about the omission and David Bradforth very kindly phoned me
and, amongst other things, said that the sheet I had received was only an
interim measure, and that future versions would be more legible and also
contain the names of all the screen-files.
What can one say about Repton 3 that has not already been said? It
is poorly designed, the graphics are lousy, the puzzles present no real
challenge, it is boring to play and totally unaddictive. All these things
have not already been said about it, but only because they are not true!
This tiny character stands tall amongst the all-time greats of computer
games. Enough of the purple prose already! What I am trying to say is that
this game, unlike so many others before and since, is easy to learn and
play yet can be so frustratingly difficult to master.
Repton is the eponymous ( look it up, I had to ) character which
you move around the tunnels whilst collecting diamonds, releasing trapped
spirits, avoiding deadly spreading fungus, dodging falling rocks and eggs
which hatch into hungry monsters when disturbed. All this is accompanied
by some gentle sound effects and a jolly-but-repetitive tune, either of
which can be turned on or off at the status screen. A crown must be
collected and a timebomb defused before each screen can be finished. This
is not as easy as it might sound; whilst some of the tunnel walls can be
dug through, others are impervious rock. Those walls which can be dug
through often result in rocks falling; either onto Repton, resulting in
the loss of a life, or into a tunnel and blocking it, thus preventing
access to other parts of the screen. Sometimes there is a transporter to
get you to the parts you could not otherwise reach but, even using these,
most screens still need to be played in a particular sequence to enable
successful completion. All this must be done within a time limit, although
this is usually fairly generous, and the status screen tells you how much
time you have left.
Although filling the monitor screen, only a part of each entire
game-screen is actually displayed during play, so choosing the best route
is not easy. The game gives the option of viewing a map for some ( but not
all ) of the screens, at any time during play. Careful study of those
which are available ( the timer freezes when the maps or the status screen
are displayed ) should enable you to work out the best route to success,
but for the rest it is down to trial and ( very often, much ) error! Even
with the aid of the maps, it can still take a orful lot of practise, and
patience, as well as some nimble finger-work, to complete each screen.
Make certain that you are sitting on a comfortable chair, as the
addiction-quotient of this game is rather high, and you are liable to be
sat there for some time!
Having completed a screen, it's code-number is displayed; make a
note of this as you will need it for access if you wish to use the Screen
Editor to alter that particular screen. The title of the next screen is
then displayed, and off you go again. There is no facility for saving the
game up to the point you are at, but this need not be a problem, as I will
explain later.
Repton has been around since being released onto our screens by
Superior Software in the summer of 1986. Followed about 6 months later by
Repton 2, there was then a gap of about a year until the release of the
imaginatively-titled Repton 3, upon which this compilation is based. I
referred to this earlier as a suite of games; in reality, the three titles
accompanying Repton 3 should be regarded as extra screen files rather than
games in their own right. Repton assumes different guises appropriate to
the location or era of each file ( Clint Eastwood in one! ), and all the
other screen elements ( walls, rocks, diamonds, monsters etc ) are also
suitably altered. However, the game is played in exactly the same way,
albeit that the layout and puzzles differ from screen to screen.
Although the title of Repton 3 did not show much imagination, this
was more than made up for by the amount of thought that went into the real
difference from the earlier versions - a Screen Editor. This meant the
layout of each of it's 24 game-screens could be re-designed, as could the
various component parts which make up the screens. This further allowed
the possibility of designing totally new screens and puzzles, and there
are several examples of these to be found in the 8BS pool. The Editor can
be a bit tricky to get used to ( this seems to be true of all editors, be
they human or machine....... ) and great care needs to be taken to ensure
that you don't lose a screen that you have spent maybe several hours
working on ( as I did, several times! ), but once you do get the hang of
it, it really is a pleasure to use.
As I said earlier, Repton 3 had 24 screens altogether, contained in
3 separate files, with 8 screens in each file. With the addition of all
those from the three subsequent releases, this compilation contains 17
differently-themed files, and a massive total of 136 ( yes, one hundred
and thirty six ) screens! Each of the screens has a different title, the
first screen in each file also being the title of that file. This lets you
load any screen from within a file, rather than having to start at the
first screen each time. Of course, you need to find out the names of the
screens before you can do this; either by playing through the screens in
sequence or, as the game has been around for so long, getting hold of a
list of all the screen titles and code numbers ( there are also various
cheats which can give you infinite time/lives etc, some written by
otherwise respectable editors! TUT! 'nuffsaid. ), but I am sure I can rely
on you to find these out for yourself by solving each screen in turn,
can't I? Be sure that if you do decide to take some short cuts, you will
be found out! Should you manage to finish a file of screens in one
sitting, a message will be displayed. If you have used some cheats to get
there, the message will tell you to go back and start again. Of course, I
have never used these cheats, and so have not seen the message, but this
is what I have been told. Quick, duck, here comes another flying pig!
In conclusion, the summary is at the beginning, remember?
P.S.
You may wonder why Repton 3, which was originally published by
Superior Software over ten years ago, and still features ( along with it's
sequels ) in their catalogue, is now being offered by ProAction, albeit in
the form of the logical next step, ie Repton 3 and sequels all in the one
package? I certainly did, and wrote to both parties inviting their
comments. Both have now replied and, as I understand it, Superior intend
to continue supplying existing software from their catalogue in tandem
with ProAction, who will also be publishing any new software.
Paul Clucas (K6X)