Roland in the Caves

Roland in the Caves

Developer	Paco Suarez & Juanjo Redondo
Company
Publisher	Amsoft / Indescomp
Musician	None
Release	1984
Platform(s)	CPC, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Platformer
OS
Game Modes	1 Player
Controls
Media
Language
Information

A conversion of their ZX Spectrum hit 'Bugaboo the Flea', Roland in the Caves was many a frustrated gameplayer's first encounter with Alan Sugar's machine thanks to its being bundled as a giveaway with the CPC464 in 1985.

Description

You are far ahead in time, the year 2464 AD and your Space Time Machine has landed on an alien planet, and being of an inquisitive nature, you decide to explore it. You have been gifted with a special kind of power that aids you when you are exploring strange planets. You are able to mutate into the alien beings' form. On this mysterious planet of Ivorus, the beings are minute and flea-like with amazing jumping powers. However, during your exploration, you take an unexpected trip and fall down and down and down through a deep and dark pot hole into a strange cave. All around you are flesh-eating plants, not to mention a hungry pterodactyl......

You must elude these dangers, so utilise your jumping powers to ward off your enemies til you finally escape from the disatrous cave. No sooner are you safe, then disaster strikes again! Down you go again, but this time the flesh eating plants have multiplied and they don't want you to escape. Good luck!

When you eventually get out of the cave, the score is multiplied by a number which depends on the game skill level.

Ratings

In perhaps a tiny overstatement, Amstrad Computer User declared that "One of the most original and brilliant games of all time has been further enhanced by the pixel precision of the CPC464." Take that with a truckload of salt - such was common practice in the early days of ACU keeping on the good side of the boss was always a good idea!

To slightly less biased reviewing then and Amstrad Action felt compelled to point out that there was no variation in task and far from pixel precision, the game had "Jumpy graphics and scrolling."

With their considerable Speccy background, Amtix acknowledged that there had been an improvement over Bugaboo but questioned the longetivity of the game feeling that although "getting to the top of the cave can be very enjoyable as well as taking a lot of practice but once you have mastered the technique of timing the jumps and their strenght, the game loses much of its point."

ACU:	Issue 01 (Aug/Sep '84)	Page 17	no mark
AA:	Issue 01 (Oct '85)	Page 67	49%
Amtix:	Issue 01 (Nov '85)	Page 43	47%

Solution

None

Cheats

Image:Roland in the caves map.jpg|Map (Spectrum Version)

Prequels / Sequels

None

Compilations

None

Trivia

Part of the original CPC464 bundle - the twelve programmes given away by Amsoft with the machine.
Released in Spain by Indescomp
Allegedly suggested as a joke when being shown the game, Alan Sugar thought that the character should be renamed 'Roland' after lead 464 designer Roland Perry. He was taken at his word, Indescomp rebranded Caves and one of their other launch titles (Fred) to incorporate the character - a mascot was born!