2.99 Classics
£2.99
There's nothing fishy about Durell's Scuba Dive - you couldn't do better for a straight-forward arcader, which, if short on pace and thrills, is at least thoroughgoing and requires no little skill.
Your four scuba divers (your four lives) have to dive from a boat, avoiding various nautical nasties like jelly fish and sharks, to find assorted oyster pearls. Dive deeper, avoid the orrible octopussy and you'll find further delights in clam shells. Beyond the second Kraken you'll gain an extra life, be able to seek much needed oxygen (else you'll just have to hold your breath) and start looking for the real pieces of eight in the three treasure chests.
The only thing this game really lacks is Jacqueline Bissett's wet T-shirt from The Deep. Get your fish fingers on this!
Spectrum 48K
£5.50
Durell Software
I adopt my best stage French accent and usher you into a blue world of terrible submarine beauty where crystalline grace moves-side by side with sudden white-jawed, or manytentacled death.
Jacques Cousteau was never like this and even the famous French submariner would have his work cut out dealing with the denizens of the deep which inhabit Durell Software's latest program which has truly spectacular graphics.
You play the part of a scuba diver. The purpose of the game is to increase your score by collecting pearls from oysters and clams which live on the seabed and the undersea caverns. The scuba diver's legs thrash away realistically, and in the background, sharks slide sinisterly towards him. Not only do you run the risk of encountering the great blue and the great white, but also the great pink - a disturbing sight for any ecologist, usually indicating that the local nuclear power station has been taking some short cuts in waste disposal.
When the diver jumps out of the boat he has to be careful not to fall foul of the Portuguese man-o'war that is invariably lurking below. Most everything swimming around down here, normally so inoffensive when encountered in a sea-food restaurant, spells instant loss of a life if you bump into it, including the rocks.
Further down you discover an octopus guarding the entrance to an undersea cavern. Whereas up to now you have only been collecting pearls from oysters, at these depths the greater pressure has mutated them into clams - giant ones, even more dangerous than the oysters. This is one shell you won't come out of.
Further down again you encounter another cephalopod which blocks the way to another cavern containing treasure chests and giant clams. Where this game differs from the recently released Neptune's Daughters, by English Software for the CBM-64, apart from being less irritating to play, is that you don't have a spear gun to defend yourself with. So you are dependent on agility rather than brute force to roll up your score.
The keys selected on loading are Z to rotate anti-clockwise, X to rotate clockwise, Space to move forward and accelerate to full speed, and Symbol Shift to move forwards and decelerate to stop. Alter pressing K, you must press the key you wish to use for each direction as it appears on your screen. This means that the game can be programmed for use with most joysticks.
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