Back Track

The Good
At the time this was made the Dragon was close to its zenith in terms of the quality of software being put out. The parent company, Dragon Data, were relatively recently bust, and Microdeal had started to put out some high quality American titles that used the machine's full capability. Incentive produced this offering and it was unlike anything on the market. It had some pedigree- Chris Andrew wrote the Dragon version of "Mined Out", and Incentive went on to produce the successful "Ket Trilogy" for the Dragon. With a lovely scrolling action, and pleasing graphics Back Track was a far cry from most games outside of adventures, generally lacking in bad guys to shoot unlike most maze games before or after, the game being essentially a test of patience and planning, with only snakes and less than lethal skeletons to avoid. The aim was simply to find keys, use a map as minimally as possible and escape five mazes, and like most people, I never finished it. The last maze was always beyond me. I was not alone- according to the Microdeal magazine "Cuthbert Chronicle", despite thousands of sales only 59 people managed to complete the game by March '85, a figure they came about because Incentive had a free competition for those who managed it with a substantial disk drive prize. The game took a while to get anywhere near completion, but the separate stages gave a fair sense of achievement, the complexity going up by just about the right amount give or take and to its credit it was hugely addictive, and made good use of the Dragon's graphical capabilities.

The Bad
Looking back on it the game was well received and in many respects a breath of fresh air, but its strength at the time- a lack of shooting of bad guys and general lack of variety in objects that impeded your progress - was also a weakness. I can switch on a Dragon (or Tandy Co-Co) and play the superb Phantom Slayer for ten minutes, moving around a maze shooting random bad guys from time to time, or I can switch on Back Track, move around what is basically a series of very similar mazes, for over an hour, never seeing more than a map, a few snakes and a couple of immobile skeletons. This was undoubtedly because they had maxed out pushing what the Dragon could do at the time, but more advanced games later in the era on the same platform- such as Microdeals' Airball or Wizards' Quest- had a lot more variety in their rooms with superior graphics. I would have happily traded the last maze for a couple of more interesting obstacles, which is why much as I love the game I don't often feel the need to go back to it.

The Bottom Line
A fine but sedate maze game that appeals more to the adventure player than the arcade enthusiast.