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SPECIAL
DELIVERY (1984) SANTA'S CHRISTMAS CHAOS [Creative Sparks] Cassette Programming: Dalali Software Ltd Cover Artist: Blake Sears (Text from Rear of Cassette label): Jingle
Bells - Jingle
Bells
Its
the happy sound of Santa Claus on his merry way delivering presents to
all the excited children who have waited patiently for this special night.
 But what chaos as
Santa awakens to find that he only has five hours to deliver his presents
and worst of all he hasn't enough to go round.Santa
has enlisted the help of his helpers who are supplying extra presents
and you, to guide his sleigh through the sky avoiding clouds and picking
up presents as you go.Then
help guide Santa onto the roof tops, down the chimney and then finally
place the present underneath the christmas tree.
JOYSTICK CONTROL
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REVIEW
by AtariGrub
"It's
the season to be jolly, la-la-la-la-la, la-la, la-la!" Yes, its that time
of year where a large, white-bearded man dresses in red (thanks to Coca-Cola!)
and delivers presents to all the good boys and girls around the world. Unfortunately
this year Santa Claus (Father Christmas) has over slept (after one to many brandies
no doubt!) and only has five hours left to deliver his presents. Not only that
but Santa seems to have a shortage of presents too! (An elf workers strike maybe?)
Can you save the children from a miserable Christmas?
The game begins on the roof of Santa's house and from here you have to guide his sleigh through the sky, avoiding collision with any clouds, mountains or lightning. Every so often one of Santa's helpers will appear in the sky to drop a present, which you'll need to quickly collect. A target number on the bottom of the screen will tell you how many presents you need to collect.
Collision with the aforementioned obstacles will result in a lost present from your bag. If lightning strikes the sleigh, then you will lose an hour from your delivery time limit. If you fail to reach the target number of presents, then Santa will have no opportunity to deliver gifts to the large houses, but will instead need to drop them down the chimneys of the smaller homes. This is achieved by pressing the fire button when your sleigh is directly above the chimneys.
If
you successfully collect or exceed the target number of presents you will then
have an opportunity to land on the larger houses, where Santa will climb down
the chimney and onto the next stage of the game. Here you will find three ladders
that you must descend. Fireballs will gradually work their way up the chimney
and you will have to weave in-between them by alternating across the ladders
and down until you reach the fireplace. If a fireball hits Santa, then an hour
will be lost and you'll have to move onto the next house.
Inside the house, the screen is divided up into rooms, some of which contain sleep-walking children that will run from one room to another. These must be avoided or once again an hour of Santa's precious time will be lost. Your main target is the Christmas tree, where your bag of presents will be emptied. To exit the house you must first collect the key before unlocking and leaving through the back door.
The
game gets progressively harder once you complete your first large house delivery.
From here you can expect to see lightning from the clouds and Santa's nemesis
the Red Devil (!?) who will drop fake presents from the sky that deplete your
bag by one. Also, the amount of fireballs in the chimneys increase in speed
and numbers, along with the addition of snowballs falling from above just to
make Santa's job a little harder!
Interestingly, Santa never really dies in the game but only ever loses presents or time. Once the initial five hours are up the game is over. At least this avoided cries of "Mummy I've killed Santa!" from any young children playing!
In conclusion, this
game features a variety of game elements, which together form a fairly entertaining,
if seasonal game. The majority of your time will be spent riding the sleigh;
avoiding the obstacles and collecting dropped presents from the angels. So if
this doesn't appeal then the game is best avoided. My main criticisms are the
poorly represented graphics of Santa, plus the difficulty level, which rises
sharply after every successful large house completed. However, the initial present
target (difficulty level) can be selected at the beginning of the game from
5 up to 10.
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"Ho
Ho Ho!"
(7/10) |
GAME
TIPS
Try and stick to the
center of the screen whilst in the sleigh, this way you'll be able to catch
any presents both behind and in front of you. But as always - beware the Red
Devil!
Learn the pattern of the fireballs that ascend the chimney
stack and you'll know which order to avoid them in.
CLICK
HERE to Download an Infinite Time file for use in the Atari 800Win
Emulator.
Alternate Covers:
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Sparklers
(Creative Sparks) (1985)
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A History of Santa
Claus and Father Christmas
(From St Nicholas to Santa Claus)
www.arthuriana.co.uk/xmas/
Rudolf the Red
Nose Reindeer
(Sing along complete with music and lyrics!)
www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/midi/rudolf_the_red_nose_reindeer.htm
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