Here’s a Real Beauty of a BEAST

Playing Lucasfilm Games’ frantic, twisted “Nightshift” is like living a Howie Mandel comedy routine. The result is a dizzy, wonderful, nonviolent arcade game.

As Lucas’ special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, gave life to the originals, “Nightshift’s” Industrial Might & Logic produces toys called Baby Vader, Obi-Wan Jr. and Mini-Threepio. The toys are produced from a 15-story machine called the BEAST (Bingham’s Environmentally Active Solution for Toys). It’s a one-stop, environmentally perfect manufacturing behemoth.

Players, as the lone night-shift worker, are responsible for keeping the fire lit under the BEAST and meeting precise production quotas. This is no simple task. High quotas and big bonuses mean lots of high-speed running, jumping and crawling around the BEAST. That can mean bruised bones and production delays. Failure results in job termination, never death.

New employees must start the BEAST, regulate a steam bolt, monitor the boiling temperature of the resin mix, pick up dropped tools and make sure all the conveyor belts are running the right way. And read your handbook. You’ll need it.

Additional duties and larger quotas will be assigned with each successfully completed shift. Mixing dyes, maintaining quality control, etc. After all, your blue Baby Vader bodies won’t pass inspection if they have pink Mini-Threepio heads.

Which, come to think of it, makes “Nightshift” sound more like a Gallagher routine.

NIGHTSHIFT

Rating: ****

IBM & compatibles, Tandy; 512K EGA and CGA,-640K VGA; joystick highly recommended; off-disc copy protection with decoder wheel. List: $39.95

Computer games are rated on a five-star system, from one star for poor to five for excellent.