Go For Money & Go For Money 2 - ZXKerl

It's everybody's favourite offer a Two for One, almost a BOGOF, but no money needs to be spent. Which is a beautiful segue into the name of this game. Go For Money and as a bonus Go For Money2. Both games arrived as tap files and also basic listings. This is a thoughtful approach for the reviewer who doesn't need to get into the dirty business of pressing Break. 

The game was sent by ZXKerl, a person of very few words, below is the whole of the email

"This is GFM and GFM2. It's a one key game. Well the sequel has got two keys. I think GFM2 is less annoying (key E to erase items)."

Where to start? Since I have two .bas files the first move for me is to check the differences. It appears that version 2 differs by one additional line. There are no helpful REM statements commenting the code and I'm feeling a little too sleepy by the fire to start digging into what it is doing, at around 30 lines long it is a promising start for a crap game.

So with no more delay let's run GFM. I'm going to run directly from the basic first in BASin before trying the .tap files. The game opens with a screen that like its author is terse and to the point.

Pressing any key launches you into the action.

You play the little pink @ character at the bottom of the screen. It moves in one direction until a key is pressed which changes direction. Randomly green dollar signs or red crosses drop from above and slant their way to the ground. 

My initial assumption was if the green dollars make it to the ground then they would be lost, however thankfully they wait there to be picked up. moving over one of them awards you with a pleasing peep sound. However, beware of the falling red crosses moving over one of these will result in a fart-like sound and the game will end. It doesn't take too long before there are red crosses on either side of you and you are forced to die.

Before judging the various factors that will count towards its final score let's try the sequel Go For Money 2. As promised this has the addition of an erase function. Press 'e' and any items that have fallen will be erased. Ha! Farewell evil red crosses, but life is rarely so simple your score will also be reduced by one point each time you use the 'e' key. This introduces a hint of strategy to the gameplay.

For completeness' sake, I took a look at the two .tap files in case I was missing out on a fancy loading screen. Sadly I wasn't, but, the author was decent enough to set them up to autorun. It turned out running the .bas file in BASin had been a mistake, the game runs vastly quicker loaded in from the .tap files. There is no gentle increase of speed here as the game progresses, instead, you are thrown headlong into the action.

The problem with appearing with your siblings is that oftentimes you get lumped together, the two versions of this game are different enough that they will be judged separately.

Technical Ability - 10%

To call this game no frills (or should that be thrills) entertainment would perhaps be a tad unfair. There are two occasions where flash is used. It employs colour graphics and sound effects. It would have made a worthy type-in back in 1983. 

Like all the games so far it is written in Basic (admittedly Number Board Plus also employs machine code). Nothing stands out in the listings as being particularly clever or out of the ordinary. The author has eschewed the use of UDGs preferring to use the purity of symbols.

There is a slight oddity in that if a falling dollar or cross lands on your head it is erased without you scoring or losing a point. Maybe it is a way of dealing with the pesky red crosses? If so my fingers are not fast enough to reliably achieve it.

Achievement - GFM 90% GFM2 68%

As ever my assumptions of what the author was trying to achieve are only my opinions. GFM the original I am sure was designed to be a frustrating experience. Madly pressing any key to move back and forth avoiding death for as long as possible. If this was the goal GFM would achieve 90%

As crap games go it might have been wise to stop there. GFM2 increases the playability fourfold, you now have a level of control over when you die. There is a hint of strategy in choosing whether to clear the screen or preserve your score. The addition of the 'e' key reduces the achievement to 68%

Fun - GFM 5% GFM2 50%

Again the two versions score very differently in this regard.

GFM is no fun at all, press key, press key, die. Repeat if you are a masochist.

GFM2 there is an element of gameplay here, enough to make me play more than once. There is actually a chance to influence your final score and make it possible to aim for an all-time high score.

Crap Factor - GFM 90% GFM2 40%

As above the two versions differ.

GFM is undoubtedly crap level, yet it doesn't torture the player enough to make it to the lowest levels of crap, but it is well on the way.

GFM 2 is a different animal, that one line of code makes a huge difference, there is a glimmer of a playable game here. At the end of the day, fancy graphics are not needed, just a sense of challenge, the feeling that next time you might get a high score and that it is down to your skill more than pure blind luck.

Unlike Number Board Plus which felt like it needed a more powerful machine, this game is crying out for a Lambda 8300 conversion.

Roundup

Pros -

• For both games, short loading time.
• For GFM2 a hint of gameplay.
• Provision of basic listings so you can adapt the game to your heart's desire. For instance, why not change the dollar signs to pound signs for a more British feel to the game. Or add a routine to slowly ramp up the game speed.
• The game lives up to its name.

Cons -

• For GFM it is very much a load once and never again game. No sense of ability to really beat the game.
• Even for GFM2 there is limited appeal to want to replay.
• Only one game speed, fast!

I can't help feel these games are a commentary on the difficulties of handling your finances. No many how much you rush around trying to save money something always happens to reduce your efforts back to where you started (okay maybe not your finances, perhaps just mine.)

Due to the differences between the two versions, there will be two certificates issued, one for GFM which scores an overall 15%, the other for GFM2 which scores 30%.

GFM

GFM2

You can download the game here and try to beat my score of 3 for GFM or 2 for GFM2, but remember I have played this game so you don't have to.