[Complete Games Index]    [Numbers]   [Games A - M]   [Games N - Z]

By the time Egghead was released on a Crash covertape, the quality of its' reader games had significantly improved. It was also obvious that Egghead was one of those games which would increase the standard again.

So on with the plot, tenuous as it is. Egghead has been on holiday and his house has been wrecked by aliens. So, he has to tidy it up. He does this by collecting various objects (keys, cutlery etc) which are positioned in fixed places across forty single-screen levels.

In other words, Egghead is a Manic Miner clone. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, Egghead is great fun to play! Jonathan Cauldwell has captured the essence of what makes an enjoyable platform game. The controls are uncomplicated (left, right and jump), the difficulty is pitched just right and the collision detection is spot on. This means that when you are playing the game and you lose a life, it's your fault and not some badly-programmed routine.

The graphics are clear and have a certain charm of their own. Jonathan (on his website) called them "clunky", but I disagree. All the sprites are in white, but there's plenty of colour around the screen. The sprites themselves animate smoothly, including Egghead himself. He occasionally flickers, but it's not off-putting. Overall, the graphics are as good as any commercially-released budget game (and better than numerous full price games as well).

There isn't a great deal in the way of music or sound effects, but what there is, it is effective. After loading the game, there's a pleasant [128K] tune playing away until you start the game. Whilst playing the game, the only sound effects are a jump noise, a collect noise and a crashing sound when you die. In all honesty, you don't need much more with this game and the trio of sound effects are good enough.

Playing Egghead is great fun. Each screen is named (which doesn't make that much of a difference, but it harks back to Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy et al when each screen had a title) and there's a general set way to complete it. It's finding this route and being able to complete it which makes Egghead so much fun. For example, level 6 - the lawn - took me a few attempts to work out the best strategy and then about three quarters of an hour to implement!

You not only have to plan a strategy and perform it, but you're also up against the clock. A timer will tick down and if you've not completed the level - bang goes another life. This is another aspect of why the game is so addictive.

You have five lives in total, which is a reasonable amount. I've not seen any indication of getting extra lives in the levels I've played so far, so try not to lose any in the earlier levels.

So; I'm about a fifth of the way through the game. It's addictive because you want to see the next screen. It's also frustrating because you can see what you need to do to move onto the next level but just quite can't master it. There aren't any level codes given which would be the only real improvement I could suggest.

Other than that, Egghead is a fine game and a refreshingly simple one to play compared to many of the contemporary games which make you worry about not finding all the 'hidden sub-quests' or memorising 8,000 different keystrokes. Etc.