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Fireater flops
GOODNESS gracious, great balls of fire! Coming at you every which way too in Dragonfire as, in the persona of Prince William, you attempt to cross the drawbridge, enter your castle and rescue the valuables in the Treasury.

The fortress is guarded by a powerful dragon who has clearly dined too well on chicken vindaloo and the fireballs fly thick and fast. Young Willy can be made to jump, duck and run towards the gate and, if he makes it, enter the second screen. That depicts the strongroom where the flatulent reptile lurks.

Willy must then collect items of value and escape once again avoiding incineration. If successful he returns to the drawbridge and begins all over again, only this time the action is faster and yet more dangerous. There are four levels like that, each apparently using the same screens.

The game is fast, challenging, with good strong graphics and clear displays. It is pure arcade and the storyline is minimal. All you need are fast reactions and the urge to play again and again. To begin with the program is exciting and difficult but with only two screens, the thrill soon wears off. That is a serious limitation on what is basically a well-designed game and is bound to reduce its permanent appeal.



Richard Price


DRAGONFIRE Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Joystick: Cheetah RAT, Kempston, Interface 2 Gilbert Factor: 5

DRAGONFIRE
Cheetahsoft / £7.95

Roger: Prefaced with barking hokum about militant rebels and their house-trained dragons depriving young Prince William of his treasure, this program is enough to put even you off royalty for life.
Our regal hero begins his attempt at regaining his birthright on the first screen depicting the castle gates and drawbridge. All the young lad has to do is nip across quick, dodging the odd gob of lethal dragon fire, to gain entry to the treasure.
So far, so good, and on to the second screen, which has even cruder graphics. The noble prince can be shuffled round safely out of dragon-range and the relevant goodies scooped up into His Highness's Post Office account - or wherever yer Royals keep their negotiables. Prince and player should then be trembling at the dire warning about how hard life gets after the second level ...
Although there's a voluntary choice of four difficulty levels, the game automatically gets more serious with success - but the grandiose let-down is that there isn't anything past the second level. That's your lot, mate! It's back to the first screen ... it just gets harder.
What we're actually looking at is a stunning lack of program content and detail. Boredom grows faster than skill rating and, quite frankly, Dragonfire has got about as much future as the feudal system. 1/5

Ross: How they ever managed to write this code in such a way that you need 48K to run it, I'll never know. This is one that wouldn't have been well received two years ago! 0/5

Dave: A real contender for the Turkey of the Year Award is this one, the graphics are awful (the jumps are particularly hilarious) and the game has no real challenge to it. 0/5

Ross Holman, Roger Willis, Dave Nicholls