Flash Beer
First appeared in Micro Mart issue 757 (July 2003)
Publisher: Weird Science Software (http://wss.sinclair.hu/)
Is it me, or do Spectrum game characters’ wives seem a tad on the tetchy side? First there was Maria, downtrodden Miner Willy’s Italian housekeeper (OK - not his wife - but we can’t ignore the rumours), of late the star of her very own game - the excellent Maria vs. Some B£$%ards - and generally more of a Norah Batty than a Victoria Beckham. But in Flash Beer, the latest Boulder Dash clone from Hungarian coders Weird Science Software, spouse sadism seems to have reached dizzy new heights.
One can only speculate on the marital mishaps that must have occurred between the Mr and Mrs of this title that such drastic domestic action has come to be taken by this instance of the female of the pixelated species. For, not only has she hidden every last bottle of her husband’s favourite brew within the confines of their extremely large house, she has also blocked his way to the bottles with death traps of falling boulders and an uncommonly large number of muscular, merciless guards.
Flash Beer is extremely hard, extremely big and extremely good. For your £2.99 you get not one, not two, but three complete games of our hapless hero moving his drunken way from room to room in his search for liquid contentment. If I tell you that game one by itself consists of no less than 44 rooms and that I - hopelessly - took ages to get past even the first of these, this should give you some impression of the size and ingenuity of this title. But don’t take my word for it: the first game of the trilogy is available as a free download from the WSS website.
Despite my own shameful performance, I have not been put off by Flash Beer one jot. For one thing, it’s an extremely well presented game that makes clever use of the Spectrum’s range of colours. Animation and sound are basic, but for this sort of puzzle game anything more would be obtrusive. What, in fact, you are left with is a great title that just happens to be a Spectrum game. If you happen to be reading this page out of idle, nostalgic curiosity, I urge you to consider grabbing an (free) emulator (www.spectaculator.com) and downloading this gem just to remind yourself what it’s still possible to achieve with 48K, 15 colours and a lot of attention to detail.
It’s a puzzle game; it’s a Boulder Dash clone. If first person massacres are more your cup of tea then Flash Beer probably won’t press any switches for you. But stick with it until you get past the first half of the first screen and then see if you don’t want some more. I can think of worse ways of spending no money...
