Infection

One of my biggest interests with any systems are games that were never released, but close to being finished. This brings me perfectly to this game Infection which was developed by Mark Incley, David Crummack and David Whittaker. The game was going to get published under the Virgin Mastertronic label if you go by the TOSEC ROM set. It was also made for the Amstrad CPC, but I don't think it was even released on that system either.

Before loading, I have to warn you that if you are using Spectaculator then it won't work. All you get is a loading error and I can only base that down to the loader that the game uses. It does work on Fuse and on Virtual Retro Machine without any problems.

Infection starts with a bit of a boring loading screen, but the loader that's been used fills a white bar at the bottom of the screen as it loads.

When the game is fully loaded the first thing you hear is the very eerie 128k music. Now you have to pick your control method which are all the normal bunch from keyboard (and this can be defined) to both Sinclair ports, Kempston Interface and Cursor. Once that's done you have 3 more options but this time you get a pointer to move to the boxes. We have options, Start Game and Edit Board.

In the Options we have a number of boxes and here we can play with 3 players and 1 computer opponent, select the level for the computer. You can also select a time limit for each move (it's a bit like chess).

Edit board is what it says. You can build walls on the board which once you start the game you have to work around. It makes the game more interesting when playing that's for sure.

When you start the game you have the scores in each corner of the screen to the relevant players. If you go over to your coloured blob and press fire on it then go to the next empty square and press fire again you infect that square. As the other players do the same you will be able to go near them and take over the squares they are occupying. You can even make one of your blobs jump to certain empty squares as long as they are close enough. This might sound like a good tactic, but when you leave a square it lets the other player invade that square and take anything around it. It reminds me of the game Othello, but not quite if you get what I mean.

Playing the computer is a nightmare, I have played it on all the levels and can't beat it. In fact, it hands my arse to me every time and I have changed tactics every time.

Graphically, it's not amazing, but then it doesn't have to be. I did like the music, David Whittaker did a great job, and it sets the mood and plays throughout the game.

I think this game would have been a budget title as I can't see it being full price. It's certainly an interesting game and if you like Chess, Othello and even draughts then this will be right up your street.

If you want to have a go at this game then I got it from the Spectrum Computing website.

Graphics    4    Sound    7    Playability 7

Overall    18/30