Farmer Jack - Treasure Trove

48K ZX Spectrum - 2008

'av a ganders at this coin... said Farmer Jack to Farmer Jon, up on a rare visit from his farm in Somerset to sunny Yorkshire. "M'combine dug it up yesterday, caused right damage to these 'ere blades.  What do you think it is?"

Jon looked at the coin, turning it over in his fingers, and rubbing off some of the dirt on it, "Wow Jack, that be one of those Roman coins, worth a bit I'd say, but I'd keep it quiet if I were you. Down in Somerset I've heard people are going around pretending to be archaeologists once they hear of things like this, digging them all up, and selling them on the black market. They should be in the county museum, for everybody to see." Jack certainly wanted the coins somewhere for everybody to see, but had also heard that along with the fake archaeologists wrecking his fields, the real ones would also appear, with camera crews in tow and turnip loving presenters, and be digging trenches all over his farm searching for buildings and the like - and he didn't want that either! "You should get 'em all up out of the ground yourself as soon as said Jon, "then the museum can get them, and nobody will need to dig-up your land"

"Aye I'll get right to it said Jack...

This is Jack's last outing in the world of single-screen maze games, this time based on Pac-Man with a little influence from Lock'n'Chase. It began life from the question that all such games involve collecting objects and dodging the monsters, but what if the monsters collected the objects to? And what if that undid all the good work you'd done trying to build up your score?

MicroMart - "Everyone's favourite 8-bit farmer is back in his latest (and last) single-screen affair, completing Bob Smith's trilogy of games quite handsomely. This game plays like an evil Pac-Man" - 7/10

RGCD - "Kudos to Bob though for creating the only game I can think of that has archaeologists as the enemy" - 85% (combined with Hedge Monkeys)