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THUNDERBIRDS are go! With a hiss the swimming pool slides back to reveal Thunderbird One. Meanwhile, Thunderbird Two makes a sudden exit from the face of a cliff.

"Virgil! I'm going in," screams Scott as he roars between the pyramids. "F.A.B. I'm right behind," yells Virgil and Thunderbirds One and Two disappear from sight as they enter the intricate maze of an ancient pharaoh's tomb.

Trapped in that crumbling monument are some eminent Egyptologists. The oxygen supply is almost exhausted. One rescue team has failed already. Scott and Virgil will have to use all their initiative to get them out alive. The pharaohs were a devious bunch and to prevent the tomb being ransacked, they erected a device whereby great stone blocks would fall in the paths of any who entered.


Thunderbird One can move the blue blocks, and Thunderbird Two, the green. Both can shift the red blocks. However, the passages are narrow, there are many that the bulkier Thunderbird Two cannot negotiate, and shifting blocks around without due forethought could leave Scott and Virgil in peril.

Artefacts and treasures can be picked up en route which will help your score, and fuel dumps can be utilised for a longer playing time. The famous Thunderbirds theme tune accompanies the rescue mission, but it can be turned off for some blessed silence.


Thunderbirds is brilliant, a gigantic puzzle which will tax your ingenuity and powers of logic. Blocks may have to be moved two or even three times until they are out of the way.

The game is nicely balanced with some arcade sequences - not that you have to shoot at anything. But you will have to negotiate a spider's web, patrolling guardians and mummies amongst others. A choice of weapons and equipment is given at the start and if you make the right choices, those will be implemented automatically when you reach the arcade screens, knocking out obstructions and affording you an easy path to the exit. I haven't enjoyed myself so much for a long time. The game is not particularly fast; the graphics are quite basic but more than adequate. But figuring out those puzzles has me hooked.

In the words of Scott, Virgil, Gordon and Co - F.A.B.


Publisher Firebird Price £3.95
Memory 48K Joystick Kempston
*****

Clare Edgeley

Thunderbirds are Go! But not in the form Firebird (any relation?) have naughtily notched up in a lazy maze based on the puppet show that had no strings attached. Of course, I'm not old enough to remember the original, but the Ed tells me they've got the logo, the music and even Thunderbird One taking off from under the pool dead right. But after that it wouldn't raise a F.A.B from Parker, m'lady.
Back on earth Thunderbirds 1 and 2, flown by Scott and Virgil, have to rescue two Egyptologists trapped beneath a pyramid with air running out. Both ships have to be flown in concert around the maze to rescue the asphyxiated archeologists - using the loaded gear to overcome obstacles or pick up treasure.
The maze is made trickier by different blocks dropping fore and aft of your access. Instead of making the game more interesting, though, they basically slow the whole thing down.