The Games That Time Forgot: 1987 Edition
- AlWo73
- May 4
- 4 min read
THE BOW
(The Power House)
"Bow" is one of those ambiguous words in this good old English tongue of ours. If you're taking a bow, are you bending in deference, looking to fancify your Christmas presents, heading for the front end of your boat or stealing from a sagittarian? You can see why our language is so hard to master, it's like we couldn't think of new words and just decided to duplicate the ones we already had. Soooo lazy. Which of these definitions makes most sense for this game then I wonder.
Before dealing with that dilly of a pickle, let's assess the credentials of those who gifted us with this 'bow' back in '87. The Power House, CRL's budget arm, the artist previously known as Alpha Omega, were undoubtedly more notorious than famous for their Spectral output. They did after all give the world Sqij, whose renown needs no introduction, and also Soft And Cuddly, from the uniquely disturbed mind of John George Jones. Their only vague whiff of a hit was Custerd's Quest, an adventure from their Alpha Omega days which managed to snag a Crash Smash. Gasp.
Their releases were mostly unimpressive and you have to wonder how they made a living, but looking back now you can't fault them for lack of effort. Their inlays are zany and over-exciteable and they put some strange '80s experimental house music on the B-sides of most of their titles, which is insane genius. If you want to know more about their audio adventures, I strongly urge you to check out "Al & Dave's Jukebox Jury" from a couple of years ago now (blimey). It's hidden away in Part 4 of this site's earlier pages - check it out at the top of the homepage, then scroll.... and scroll some more... then scroll too far and go back... and you'll eventually find it, I've got faith in you. Anyhoo it's a jolly good read in my unbiased opinion and could open your ears up to a new world of hurt if you manage to seek out the actual tunes, for which Spectrum Computing's site is as ever a great source. End of advert.
Back to "The Bow" now which was written by one Anthony Brown, whose photo looks at you out of the inlay, as all Power House programmers did, in a nice, refreshingly personal touch. He looks a little like Rick Astley, but didn't everyone at the time, especially your mum. He was born in 1966 surprisingly and was "currently working on a top arcade conversion" at the time allegedly. Sadly it seems that this title was his singleton Spectrum game, so history rubs its chin at that statement, saying "Chinny, chin chin" in an annoying voice.
Enough background, let's look at this game pacifically now. Assuming one doesn't get too distracted by the cover, which seems to be implying you are a be-thonged near naked female perched in a tree. Ooh the chafing! The plot is admirably as brief as said lady's briefs. "Guard your faithful travellers through their journey. You are armed with the BOW and you will need deadly accuracy to kill your enemies." Ah, so it's probably the weapon then, not the prezzie decoration. I'll make a note of that.
Choose keyboard or joystick, then press zero to "save your friends". A cute little map pops up showing your allies' route to... wherever it is they're going, up hill and down dale, forever in danger of meeting their doom, it seems. We have ourselves a crosshair for aiming, and our entourage slowly shuffles from stage left to stage right, oblivious to the myriad perils around them. These include birds which have escaped from Willy's mansion, stalactites but thankfully not stalagmites, and nasty bitey skulls.
It's a bit like Operation Wolf, but with an escort mission feel. I briefly got over-excited when I noticed that this game pre-dates Ocean's bloodthirsty classic, but then calmed down once I realised that Rafa Cecco's Cop-Out came out the year before. And probably lots of other similar shooty games to be fair. But this one seems fairly original in that you're trying to save lives rather than ending everyone's. It's a bit harsh on the birds if I'm honest, but do they really need to fly that low and peck people's eyes out? It's cheeky at best.
You start with three travellers to protect, which is bloody hard, but so long as you manage to keep at least one alive, you can progress to the next area. And sometimes you manage to add another follower to your number through your undeniable charisma. Once you've got them to their final destination (eek) the thing starts over again, only harder. Oh, and you only have 12 arrows in your quiver, so don't carry on like Legolas on Red Bull or you'll soon regret it.
It all sounds simple, not quite Tau Ceti perhaps, but this is of course a budget game. Question is, is it any good? And my answer is a resounding "Yeah, not bad actually". It's maddeningly addictive, moves fast enough and is tolerably attractive to look at. Occasionally an unfair enemy will appear right next to your fellows and take them out, but not too often to make it ragequittable. On the whole it's good, straightforward arcade thrills across the board.
So I guess the lesson we've all learned today, brethren, is not to judge a book by its reputation (eh?) Unheralded companies like The Power House did occasionally turn out some good chearp fare amongst the inevitable dross. So go take your place amongst history's most famous archers. Like Robin O' The Wood, or Loxley guy (also Robin), or Sir Fred occasionally, or a bottle of peach schnapps. Meantime, maybe I should go and try that Sqij game I've heard so much about, whaddya think?
BULLSEYE OR MISSED THE TARGET?
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