After Dark Games

                      Reviewed by Sue

What ever happened to After Dark? At one time it seemed like all
of us had one of their screensavers running. There were various
versions - even a Star Trek one. But the most famous ones included
flying toasters and Bad Dog.

This game celebrates eleven of After Dark's screensavers. They are
meant to be run and played when you've got time for a quick break.
To be honest, you wouldn't want to play many of them for long,
especially now, six years after the package was released in
1998. Most of them are blatant rip-offs of well known game styles 
but given an After Dark setting. Here's a quick run down of the 
games.

Hula Girl - a platform game staring Hula Girl. The aim is to keep
her on the screen as long as possible. The screen scrolls upwards
as you move her down the screen using the power of her hula hoop.
She starts with three but loses one when she falls off the screen.
Some platforms collapse or turn over, others move, tipping her
off. Her evil twin waits on some platforms to steal a hoop.
There's also a yuck-o-meter setting.  Some platforms have items
that increase the yuck setting - broccoli, spiders and frogs.
Other reduce it - ice cream, cans of soda and cakes. When she's
out of hoops or 'yucked out', it's 'game over' time.

Fish Shtick - a series of fish swim across the screen, each with a
letter on its side. What word can you make before they swim off
the screen?

Roof Rats - a bit like Tetris. You have to remove blocks from the
screen in sets. In this game it helps you rescue tenants from an
apartment block by lowering them from floor to floor. Each tenant
can be rescued from a particular floor or a lower one. This one 
was tricky but quite a bit of fun.

Solitaire - the classic card game using special After Dark cards.

Rodger Dodger - a strange one this. Chase round a maze, picking up
items and avoiding nasties, then reach the exit.

Zapper - this is a general knowledge yes/no quiz against the
clock. Like 'The Weakest Link' the more questions you answer
correctly in a row, the more points you score.

Mowin' Maniac - a PacMan style game where you drive a sit-on mower
round a maze, collecting points and avoiding nasties.

Bad Dog - rescue the Clock Cleaner by making as many words as you
can from the jumbled letters.

Toaster Run - find Baby Guy and put him in his crib. Sounds
simple? It isn't. Flying the toaster round the house is difficult
enough, but you also have to check your 'toastosterone' levels so
you don't catch fire. Collect up to 30 goodies for extra points,
pick up bread and touch outlets to increase your power. Avoid
things that drain your power. Very tricky!

Foggy Boxes - a join the dots game against the computer's ghostly
hand!

MooShu - a Mah Jong game with rather small tiles.

When After Dark was popular, this would have been a great pack.
But games are more sophisticated - much more - and After Dark's
time has gone. Shame.











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