Game Review: Super Nudge 2000 aka Fruitbank (Commodore 64, Mastertronic Plus/ PAL Developments)

Super Nudge 2000 is what the game says on its cover, and indeed, has the letters Supernudge on the Spectrum version of the game.  However, the Commodore 64 version was by Ash and Dave, and they had already submitted it with the name Fruitbank – and the cassette loader gives it this title too on the basic loading screen.  The Amstrad CPC version was a conversion based on the Commodore 64 version, so effectively two different games with the same branding.  Was it a case of two fruit machine games being submitted and that it was thought that Super Nudge 2000 sounded a more futuristic name?  It would be interesting to know.

Cherry Pie

Once the game has loaded, a jolly title tune from the sorely missed Johannes Bjerregaard plays and the bottom border shows the credits and how you can press space during play to see all the combinations that win you prizes.  The fruit machine itself is well laid out, with the letters spelling FRUITBANK across the top, and the left side showing money and credits left, the four optional games, the stacks of cash for the Cashplus below.  The middle has the reels and the buttons to nudge when needed, and the right-hand side shows the increasing prize money and the numbers to indicate the numbers and/or money you can gamble during play.  The bottom has all the buttons such as start, gamble, collect and stake.  It is all very clear and easy to follow and much less confusing than most fruit machines, with the graphics here showing lots of attention to detail.  It is time to get underway so pressing fire does that.

Orange Crush

You start with no money and 16 credits, and each go costs you one of those credits.  You can move between any lit buttons with the joystick and press fire as needed.  So, pressing fire on start spins the wheel, with the reels scrolling very smoothly and some lovely definition of the fruits and symbols, including cherries, oranges, lemons, blueberries, watermelons, pound signs, the Digital Design logo, bells, and bars.  Some of the fruits and symbols have a number on them, and that number counts towards lighting up the letters of FRUITBANK along the top – so you need a total sum of 9 numbers to light it all up.  Sometimes you get a feature held which keeps the number of lit letters active, so you need less to get next time, or the option to hold the reels too where you can select them by pressing fire, and can unselect too if you make a mistake.

I Carried a Watermelon

If you manage to get a winning combination along the win line, the right-hand side shows the option to gamble or collect with the amounts flashing on screen, so you can win the next amount up, or if at the bottom, lose. Once you lose a gamble, any winnings you have are then added to your cash on the left-hand side.  The top prize is three pounds, and you can also have the Digital Design logo in diagonal as well as vertical directions on the win line too for winning.  Pressing the space bar during play shows you all the combinations you can win with, which is very handy when first playing the game to understand what each win is worth and what you are likely to start gambling with.

Blueberry Hill

For the most part, you may win a prize on the win line.  However, if you manage to light up the letters of FRUITBANK, this then gives you the option of one of four games, selected at random by the gamble button.  From the top down it is Spin a Win, where the reels spin and you win whatever amount the win line says.  You then have Stop a Reel, where the left reel spins and you press on the collect button to stop, then the other two reels spin to give you a win line and win that amount.  Nudges gives you the option to randomly select a number with the gamble button, then gamble up or down or collect.  The arrow buttons above and below the reels can be selected and nudge your way to a win line accordingly.  Finally, there is Cash Plus, where the amount of cash in the cash pot below the Cash Plus lettering can be yours – this increases during play so can be a decent amount.   After each of those games, you have a repeat yes or no flashing and if yes, you can repeat the game again and win more money too.   Each of those games also has a nice little jingle which sounds when you select them which is a neat touch.

The Lemon Song

If you run out of credits, then it is game over – even if you have accumulated any money to put back into the machine as credits.  This is a bug and a bugbear which can spoil the game a little – as surely you should be able to keep going if you have money to add credits.  You can add the credits too at any time by pressing the F1 key (which is unhelpfully not documented in the instructions) and that does mean you can make the game play longer, if you do so with at least one credit left.  Each credit costs 10p from the cash pot, so 10 credits would cost one pound.  It is a shame that was not checked properly, because you could have had a prompt to add credits if a check was made to see if you had money to add.

Daring Dots

But that is not quite all.  Ash and Dave also managed to cram into memory their demo Daring Dots, which features a sampled tune from Jeroen Tel as well as his music from Gaplus too.  To get to this, you can reset the game and enter a SYS code, but if you want to do it from the game’s title screen, before you press fire, type (including spaces) cor blimey crikey an all that an everythin and then hit the return key.  The demo decompresses and shows the sampled title tune and when pressing space, you control the starfield using number keys 1 to 5 to select the parameter, and the plus and minus keys to adjust.  The F7 key toggles a useful help screen which explains what to do and how to get some nice visual effects.  It is a nice addition and is good to unwind with.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Super Nudge 2000 are very good – with a clear and well-defined fruit machine, laid out to be easy on the eye.  The graphics for the fruit and symbols use high resolution overlays, and scroll smoothly when the machine is spinning the reels too.  The sound is also of a very high quality, with little jingles for the games, sound effects for the reels, gambling and even a jingle when you win the top prize as well as one to accompany you when seeing what you could have won.  Full credit to the late Johannes Bjerregaard here for some excellent work that really works well with the game.

Final Thoughts

Super Nudge 2000 (aka Fruitbank) is a well-polished fruit machine game that does have some impressive graphics and sound, with attention to detail paid to ensure that playing the game is pleasurable.  Whilst there is still an issue around youngsters playing fruit machines, it has various gameplay elements to keep things interesting, but can eventually get repetitive.  The fact the game can quit when out of credits and despite having money in the bank does feel a letdown, but provided you are able to work with that and add the credits, then you can end up playing for quite some time on one go, and the extra ways of winning does give you a reasonably fair chance of collecting the computerised cash along the way.  It is a solid game and I can appreciate why certain reviewers at the time called it the best fruit machine they had played to that point.

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