Game Review:  Chuckman (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic)

Chuckman is on a mission to diffuse the bombs which have been randomly scattered around a maze.  You must run and skate through the passages and use items that you come across along the way.

The boots want to stomp over you, and the potholes need avoiding, although you can fill them with the wheelbarrow.

Keep your energy up as skating can take up energy and don’t run out of time.

Skill Levels and Maze Generation

There are three levels which you can choose to start on.  The default setting is level 3 (being the easiest) with level 2, Medium and level 1, the hardest.

The mazes are always randomly generated (so you never get the same game twice).  This is normally a good feature to keep the player on their toes and add longevity to the game.  The instructions (you can read them by pressing the F key on the main menu) mention that the maze can be up to sixty times the size of the television screen.

The Instructions

Its well worth reading the instructions (which are 5 pages long).  They explain about diffusing the eight bombs to get onto the next screen and what the various objects do and where and how to use them.  You even get some nice graphics (which are animated).

There is some humour in the instructions about how the author isn’t totally evil as well because he has put in objects that can be used to escape certain situations such as not having to fall down a pit by using a shovel.  Yes, there are some spelling mistakes, but nothing that muddies the waters.

Amusingly (you can tell it this is the early dawn of computer games © 1983) as the instructions also explain how to add your initials into the high-score table!

The Screen Displays…

The playing area takes up the bulk of the screen with the Hi Score, Score, Energy and Time

When you collect an item (eg. the shovel), it is shown on the right-hand side of the screen so you can see what you are carrying.

Now when you press the Space on the keyboard, you will see an overview of some of the maze and where objects are.  This costs you energy each time so you need to use it wisely.  What wasn’t good though is whilst you are looking at that, the game doesn’t pause and you can get killed as the action continues.  I feel that this is a design issue here as the overview picture is static.

Rules of Engagement

Despite there being four screens of instructions, it can seem a bit complicated at first.  The boots that roam the maze can’t move over pits and if you dig a pit, it will be behind you.

Toolboxes diffuse bombs so if you run into one without one, its an instant game over (fair enough).  You do only have one life though, so that can be quite harsh as the game moves rather quickly.

You do get used to the game after a while, but I found myself reading them a few times.

Graphics

These are rather good and nicely coloured.  It is clear what each object or item is.

Chuckman is always animated, whether he is moving or standing still.  So, when standing still, for example, you will see him tapping his foot, leant against a table or his hands on his hips or looking left and right.   A nice touch, especially for a very earlier game before that became more the norm.

When skating, you can clearly see that he is doing exactly that with the board and arms moving.  The bomb fuses are animated, and you can see the boots marching back and forth.

Sound but No Music

There are sound effects both during the game over message and in the instructions.  Nothing special but its good there is something to hear.

Playability

The control options are keyboard (not re-definable keys).  The keys are mostly bunched up in the bottom-left hand side (Q, A, C, B and Caps Shift.  The exception being Space to view the maze).  The easier alternative is using a Kempston joystick.

Despite all the game screens being randomly generated, I did find a few times that it dropped you right near an enemy at the start and it could be game over in just a couple of seconds!

Borderlines and Large Text

What is very clever is that when the game is playing, the border is changing two colours (almost as if it is loading).  This is very unusual but shows what can be done with the border of the screen even when playing a fast game.

When it comes to being game over, you will see yourself disappear into the ground.  This is then followed by some very large letters scrolling across saying game over followed by things like try again or you can do better!  Although it looks colourful and it does go on a while scrolling and you must wait for around 10-20 seconds before seeing the high score table and then going back to the main menu.  Maybe I’m a bit impatient, but I’d like to have been able to skip that and get straight back into the action for another go.

Final Thoughts

Chuckman is quite a fun game to play.  You do have to be very careful, as the game does scroll rather quickly.

Despite some fairly long delays when its game over, it does show initiative with the animated character almost being impatient as if you say it’s time!

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