Review: Repton Infinity (The Next Generation?) Price: 12.95 (cass), 14.95 (5.25in), 19.95 (3.5in Compact) Supplier: Superior Software 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- First to the games supplied, there are four of them, called; Repton 3 - Take 2 Repton 4 Robbo Trakker Repton 3 - Take 2 ----------------- 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 ----- 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 ------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you written a review? Fame could be yours! (fat chance) Please send in any reviews you have written, it doesn't have to be games, anything will do, hardware, utilities etc. I promise that all reviews we receive will be printed in the PD magazine. Please send your reviews in ASCII or INTERWORD format. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------