Ratings

**** Excellent
 *** Very Good
  ** Good
   * Fair
   x Poor


Turkey Shoot *
Freeware; by Nathan Mates
Requires Apple IIgs


     Once, long ago, Appleville was a happy, prosperous community of
users and developers. Then the software pirates arrived! These turkeys
want to bury the land in Copies, stifle the creative spirit of
developers, and, bring ruin to Apple ][ computing.

     Well, enough is enough! In Turkey Shoot you grab your trusty
mouse/rifle and click-blast turkeys of every description. Big, little
turkeys, quick turkeys, plodding turkeys, even clever turkeys that roll
across the woodsy backdrop to confuse you-- all come into your sites
ripe for blasting. The bigger the turkey, the more points it's worth,
but, the more shots you'll need.

     True to their ilk, these turkeys emit pirated 'copy droppings',
small diskettes which drift toward the ground. You want to blast these
if you can because each disk that hits is one more Copy be-Fowling
Appleville and chipping away at your Health points.

     Indeed, you'd soon be a goner were it not for the extra Ammo,
Health Points, and Nukes some turkeys drop when they're potted. (A Nuke
wipes the screen of current turkeys.) Like the disks, the goodies have
identifying icons which must be hit before they reach the ground.

Hint: Actually, a goodie icon has some left or right momentum depending
upon the turkey's speed and direction. For the best chance of hitting an
icon before it moves off-screen, use rapid shots aimed at the front
lower portion of the turkey.


     Ultimately, your objective is to earn a respectable Score and win
the top Turkey Shooter spot in your group's High Scores roster. This
listing is saved as a separate file when the game is quitted. In fact, 
exiting play to insure a roster save after a particularly
excellent performance is a very good idea. At present, TS will crash 
should someone try to view the roster after a few games.
`

     I played Turkey Shoot for an hour or so and thoroughly enjoyed
potting those dastardly pirate turkeys. Featuring a non obtrusive music
score and decent effects-- the turkeys kind of squawk when they're
zapped-- TS delivers smooth action with or without acceleration against
a classy backdrop which looks good enough to be a pull from Links 386.

     As noted in the pre-play docs, you will eventually find yourself
without Ammo or zeroed-out on Health and the turkeys will prevail. Too
bad. This unsatisfactory conclusion is nearly as much a downer as the
discovery that the game appears to be rigged to limit high scores!
Around a score of 10,000, there will not be enough Ammo, Health, and
Nuke goodies available to keep up with the never-ending supply of
turkeys.

     Once a player catches on that, score-wise, 'the fix is in', much of
the incentive to continue with an otherwise addictive challenge
disappears. Still, if others are playing, you do have the scores
competition.

     
     For sure, Turkey Shoot is good for an hour or so of quality
old-time arcade turkey zapping and, maybe, some measure of satisfaction.
At least the ones you pot won't be dumping any more fowl Copies on
Appleville!

Rubywand, 1997