Frak!

Nick Pelling, aka Orlando, one of my teenage heroes! I was at college learning computer science on a BBC Micro 32K machine when FRAK! came out. I had plenty of favorites from back then, but FRAK! was among the best of them. The game is surprisingly addictive, and incredibly simple. Take Trogg the caveman and using only his yoyo manage to navigate the maps, avoiding monster, rising balloons, falling knives and of course the other enemies - the names of which escape me at the moment. FRAK! Was a very simple game, and yet was harder than it looked. Timing is everything. Orlando, if you're reading this come on, give us some more of the classics! Arcadians (1982) Zalaga (1983) (a port of Galaga) Frak! ( 1984) Firetrack (1987)

the music is wrong on level 2 and the controls don't behave in quite the same way as the origingal BBC micro version.

Although this game has been out for a while, I've only recently heard about it being on Steam. I am very happy to hear that Orlando reproduced this very well known BBC Micro game on Steam - it's good for nostalgia. The game is a faithful reproduction of the original and plays well - at least as far as I can remember although it seems to be faster. Other than me being worse at this game as I've grown older, I have only a couple of minor negatives: 1) When you load the game as a new player, it doesn't tell you what the keys are to play until you've waited a few seconds for it to move to the next screen. The cursor keys work and they can be used to play also (but without the yo-yo fire button). 2) You can't change the keys. Those playing would have come from the BBC Micro days of Z,X,*,? which today would map to Z,X,',/ right? And the yo-yo would probably be the Enter/Return button or something? I'd have expected this within the Settings page to configure. Using O.K.P seems quite odd and unnatural to me, although better than the arrow keys. For just under £5, it's worth it in my view. It was always a unique game with a catchy tune, but it was also quite a hard game for the ave…

Having played the original BBC Micro game many moon ago, I was very intrigued to see what Nick Pelling would make with this new edition. I am happy to say it is as fun to play as it was all that time ago. The variety of gameplay and levels really do add to the experience, and it definitely has that addictive quality. The graphics remain as iconic as they were in the 80s, big, bright and bold sprites are dripping with fun and personality. Highly recommended!

It's a great 8-bit style computer leveller.......done by a marvelous programmer.

Yep, the 1980s are still kicking my butt just as hard as they did the first time around.