CRAZY CAPERS - "It's crazy! It's a caper! It's a Crazy Caper!"

"If you're going have a caper, you may as well make it a crazy one!", so the press release for Empire's Crazy Capers didn't read. It probably didn't go like this, either: "Empire announce the shock release of half-decent relatively original game, MD promises it won't happen again, and appeals for calm. NATO are said to be monitoring the situation, and if things get out of control, they'll bomb a few hundred innocent civilians to death. And probably the Chinese Embassy too, just to be on the safe side."

Crazy Capers is a product of Empire's transitional phase. They'd stopped producing feeble smudges of wank such as Ghost Train and The Gambler, but had yet move to on to the dizzy heights of genuinely good games such as Cash Strike and Money Monster.

Crazy Capers is an unusual Empire machine in that it isn't a cheeky copy of somebody else's idea (as far as I'm aware). That's not to say it doesn't feature some common fruit machine elements, but there's a dollop of original thinking in there which gives it its own appeal.

Gameplay is fairly straightforward; there's a "CRAZYCAPERS" feature entry trail, each overlaid number that's spun or nudged in lights a letter, should you fill the lot, you get to play the feature. Reel wins need to be successfully gambled once before a feature exchange is offered, the higher the win, the better the exchange. Bonuses are available but there's only a limited selection, with each bonus overlaid on a symbol. If you manage to get three numbers on the winline the trail is completed regardless of how many spaces there are to fill.

The feature itself consists of three pots and a wraparound trail. Various squares on the trail add to the pots (cash, features and blasts), with the usual assortment of mysteries, skill stops, bonus nudges, activates and a lose square all present and correct. Only activated pots can be collected. Once collected, you can attempt to gamble further up the pot, or stick with what's offered. If you lose the gamble, the value you lose to is automatically collected.

Of course, all of this would only really qualify as an "Average Caper", or perhaps a "Mildly Entertaining Caper". What makes it crazy? Well if you listen, I'll tell you. Crazy Capers resurrects the good/bad (delete according to personal preference) old chase element. At feature entry you're positioned about half the trail ahead of your pursuer, you make the first move, your would-be nemesis makes a move, you make a move, and so on. If you're caught, the game is over, however, as it's a wraparound trail you can also catch your pursuer, if this happens you become invincible (although no obvious indication of this is given) and can carry on (crazily) capering until you get the jackpot repeater.

A couple of other additions are the "special items" and "jackpot name fill" (I made those titles up, which is why they're shit). There are three special items to collect, Laurels, Champagne and a Trophy. If you manage to get all three you are awarded one of the four super features. The "jackpot name fill" requires that you fill the "CRAZYCAPERS" trail. You do this using bonus nudges to bring numbers onto the winline. The bonuses still work (so if you can get the skill stop to the winline it's an easy jackpot repeater), as does "three in a row". Keep an eye out for this, as you can sometimes be offered the jackpot repeater from a few nudges simply by getting three low value numbers on the winline.

I've never really been a fan of chase features, after all, it's hardly as if the machine needs another way to kill you off; but Crazy Capers manages to make a pretty decent job of implementing it. The way it does this isn't particularly subtle, but it does work. You can only collect an active pot, this means that you can make move after move adding to pots that you can't collect, it can be frustrating, but it does give you more of a run of the board. You can land on the bonus nudges square, and get tantalisingly close to filling the Crazy Capers name before being killed off. Most of the low-down stuff on all the trails isn't much good (although it is varied), so you can make a fair bit of progress and still not be offered anything earth-shattering. The mystery isn't too nasty, one of the traditional problems with chase games is that the mystery is as kill-happy as ever and you can get caught. Here, the balance is about right. Also, it can give you a couple of the special items, unless you get all three these are pointless.

What this all adds up to in reality (despite sounding like it'd just be very annoying) is high win and feature frequency, a good run of the board when you get the feature, and reasonably well-balanced gameplay. Granted, it isn't without its limitations, and it soon becomes apparent that there isn't a great deal of skill involved in getting the good stuff (the super features are often awarded from a mystery), but the overall entertainment factor compensates for this.

Unfortunately, the sound ROMs aren't yet available for Empire games, this is a shame because there are some catchy tunes (including very cartoony chase themes for the hi/lo gambles and the feature) and fitting sound effects. See if you can find Wacky Races on the Cartoon Network and have that on in the background to generate a bit of the atmosphere.

Note that at the time of writing the RES file that's available for download is flagged as being set to an 84% payout, the meter setting is also set to 84%. However, the dipswitches are actually set to a 70% payout. I would suggest that you modify the settings (see the MPU3/4 V6.0 readme file) so that the machine is set to an 84% payout, partly because the meter settings, and therefore the IN/OUT meters will keep proper track of things, but mostly because you'll get a much better game at 84%.

There's some real fun to be had with Crazy Capers, it was a machine that I used to enjoy playing in the pub. It does respond to an all-out force, often giving two or three jackpots for a comfortable profit. The features are a varied bunch, the blasts don't always tediously offer the minimum that they have to, the super features are a nice touch and the whole thing hangs together fairly well.

Crazy Capers. It's crazy! It's a caper! It's a Crazy Caper! (Look, I'm running low on inspiration, alright?).

11th August 2001