The BBC and Master Computer Public Domain Library

MONSTERS

Professional, Originally Released On Cassette Only

Game Type          : Arcade Platform Game

Author             : Tim Dobson

Standalone Release(s)   : 1983: MONSTERS, Acornsoft, £9.20

Compilation Release(s)   : 1988: ACORNSOFT HITS 1, Superior/Acornsoft, £9.95

                    1990: PLAY IT AGAIN SAM 11, Superior/Acornsoft, £9.95

                    1990: PRES GAMES DISC 4, PRES, £9.95

Stated compatibility    : Electron

Actual compatibility    : Electron, BBC B, B+, Master 128

Supplier            : ACORNSOFT, 4A Market Hill, CAMBRIDGE CB2 3NJ

Disc compatibility     : ADFS 1D00, CDFS 1D00, DFS 1D00

Instructions

Pursued by monsters along walls and up and down ladders, your only hope of survival is to trap them in holes which you dig in their path. If a monster falls in, the hole must be filled in completely or the monster will crawl out.

Monsters can be killed in one of two ways: either by falling through holes which you dig and fill, or by being hit by monsters from above. If a monster is hit by a falling monster, both die. If you manage to kill all the monsters, you graduate to another screen.

The longer you survive, the more you can score as the monsters vary and become more devious. Whereas RED monsters only need to fall through one level, GREEN monsters must fall through two levels and WHITE monsters must fall through three levels before they actually die. If they fall through more than the minimum number of levels, then your score will be even higher.

From the second screen onwards, any RED or GREEN monster that is allowed to crawl out of a hole, mutates into a GREEN or WHITE monster respectively.

Quite an exhausting business, so keep an eye on the oxygen level which drops during each screen and eventually runs out, whereupon you will die. You have three lives, however, and can earn another one by scoring 3,000 points.

Sounds can be turned on and off with S (Sound) and Q (Quiet). ESCAPE escapes from a game.

Game Controls

Z - Left,   X - Right,   : - Up,   / - Down,  D - Dig,   F - Fill

Standard joystick movements apply. To dig, hold joystick in down position and press fire button. To fill, hold joystick in up position and press fire button.

Scoring

Monster                      Monster Falls Through

           One level  Two levels  Three levels  Four levels  Five levels

RED           100         200         300           400          800

GREEN          -          300         500           700         1,500

WHITE          -           -          700          1,000        2,000

If you score 3,000 you earn an extra life.          

Instructions' Source   : ACORNSOFT HITS 2 (Superior/Acornsoft) Inner Inlay

Review (ELBUG)

This is an excellent game for showing off the quality of the Electron's colour graphics and is accompanied by a nice variety of sound effects.

You control a man who can run across floors and up and down ladders to other floors, in order to avoid being eaten by the multicoloured monsters.

When you find a quiet spot, you dig a hole and hope that a monster falls in. When it does, you can destroy it by filling in the hole again before it can escape.

There are many different types of monsters, each requiring slightly different tactics.

The more monsters that appear, the slower the game, since the screen handling is all in software on the Electron. This is rather disconcerting as in the course of playing, the game appears to slow down with each new frame and then speed up as the monsters are killed!

This is more a game of tactics that fast manoeuvres and quick reaction. It is quite a good program and has been popular on other micros. Rating: ****

Philip Le Grand, ELBUG 1. 1

Review (Electron User)

In MONSTERS the screen becomes a pattern of walls and ladders, along which you, in the guise of a little animated man, are chased by a series of colourful monsters. You've only got three lives and every time they catch you, you lose a life. To make things more difficult, while you're dashing along the tops of the walls and running up and down the ladders your oxygen supply is running out.

You have to destroy the monsters before that happens, and the only way to do this is to dig a hole in a wall, lure the monsters into it and fill it in quickly before they climb out. However, as soon as you get rid of one set of monsters, they're replaced by another lot of a different colour.

It gets faster and faster and more and more fun. The graphics are excellent and the instructions easy to follow. It's also compulsive, making you ask for the notorious "one more go". You could say MONSTERS grows on you.

Peter Gray, ELECTRON USER 1. 1