Issue No. 18 JULY 1985

FEATURES

A GREMLIN IN THE WORKS
Roger Kean visits Sheffield to see the latest offerings from Gremlin Graphics including MONTY ON THE RUN

THE SINCLAIR STORY
Part 4 looks at the Televisionary

THE WALLY CLUB
We look at the results and draw some conclusions

GETTING IT TAPED
Magnetic Magazines for your computer

ON THE COVER
This month looks at the work of BOB WAKELIN, the man behind many Ocean covers

DIY

CLUMSY COLIN COMP
A colour TV plus loads of KP Skips to be won in this Mastertronic competition with a difference

WIN A SINCLAIR FLAT TELEVISION!
Three lucky winners of this Sinclair reserach comp will win a tiny pocket TV!

CRASH QUIZ

THE FIRST ICON DRIVEN COMPETITION
They said it couldn’t be done, but CRASH and BEYOND have! A chance to get some SHADOWFIRE T-shirts

FRANK BRUNO’S BOXING
Elite are offering a trophy plus 3 VTX5000 Modems!

WIN A PAC MAN ARCADE MACHINE
by playing the DESIGN DESIGN word comp, plus games to win

The next issue of CRASH will be on sale from 25 July. Don’t miss it or you’ll make us cry.

REGULARS

EDITORIAL
plus indexes to Advertisers and programs reviewed

MERELY MANGRAM
Latest games news and a quick look at NODES OF YESOD

CRASHBACK
Looks into some games from Issue 8

CRASH FORUM
The BUG BOX is beginning to work...

NEWS INPUT
A brief roundup for the month

PLAYING TIPS
Rob looks at the most popular games causing problems, plus the Atrium map from GYRON

CRASH HOTLINE AND ADVENTURE CHART

LLOYD MANGRAM’S HALL OF SLIME
More hi-scores from the man who hangs cheats from trees

ADVENTURES OF JETMAN
The little cult continues, loonier and loonier

TECH NICHE
Looks at LEONARDO (pt 2), Dk’Tronics sound synth, modems and other hard bits

ADVENTURE TRAIL
Tinderbox in hand, Derek takes the helm of a sub and gets bored

SIGNPOST
Adventure help, tips and letters

CRASH COURSE
Educational fun from Rosetta McCleod

FRONTLINE
The column they’re coming to call ‘Deadline’

REVIEWS

- Archon Ariolasoft
- Arendarvon Castle Addison-Wesley
- Ashkeron! Mirrorsoft
- Battle For Midway PSS
- Bored of the Rings Delta 4
- The Bulge Lothlorien
- Cauldron Palace Software
- Day at the Seaside Softlee
- Don’t Panic Firebird
- Dun Darach Gargoyle Games
- Dynamite Dan Mirrorsoft
- Frankenstein Icon
- French Listening Comprehension Softlee
- Glass Quicksilva
- Helichopper Firebird
- The Helm Firebird
- Herbert’s Dummy Run Mikro-Gen
- History Mystery Argus Press
- Knockout Alligata
- Leonardo Creative Sparks
- Mount Challenge Aasvoguelle
- Quackshot Creative Sparks
- Rocky Horror Show CRL
- Sub Sunk Firebird
- Super Gran Tynesoft
- Super Pipeline 2 Taskset
- Tales of theArabian Nights Interceptor
- Tinderbox Gremlin Graphics
- A View To a Kill Domark
- Wender Bender Ranks High
- Worldwise Nuclear Weapons Richardson Institute

Editor

Roger Kean

Assistant Editor

Graeme Kidd

Technical Editor

Franco Frey

Art Editor

Oliver Frey

Production Designer

David Western

Software Editor

Jeremy Spencer

Adventure Editor

Derek Brewster

Strategy Reviewer

Angus Ryall

Staff Writer

Lloyd Mangram

Contributing Writers

Matthew Uffindell, Chris Passey, Robin Candy, Ben Stone, John Minson

Client Liaison

John Edwards

Subscription Manager

Denise Roberts

Mail Order

Carol Kinsey

Circulation Manager

Tom Hamilton

Transcriptions

Matthew Wilson, http://www.crashonline.org.uk/

Additional review transcriptions

Chris Bourne, http://www.zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/

A GREMLIN IN THE WORKS

ROGER KEAN hurtles up the A68 to GREMLIN GRAPHICS in Sheffield

Quietly sitting at home one evening last summer, watching the evening news and with computer games far from my mind, the peace was shattered when this platform game suddenly appeared on the screen. Startled with injured surprise that some upstart new company should dare to feature a new game on telly before letting CRASH know, all I caught of the item was that it had something to do with Arthur Scargill, flying pickets and a mole. It seemed trendily topical — another cheap bunch jumping on the games bandwagon with a rip-off idea timed to catch the miners’ strike? The company’s name was Gremlin Graphics. In the event CRASH wasn’t missed out. We got an early Spectrum version, doctored so we would could visit any room in case none of us were able to withstand the flying pickets or the infamous crushers, and thus we were introduced to the delights of Wanted: Monty Mole, and became acquainted with Gremlin Graphics, the company that won the 1984 CRASH Readers Award for the best platform game — far from a rip-off. That was in July. Gremlin Graphics has now been going for a year and it seemed time to visit Sheffield and find out how things were going.

HOW TO GET A GREMLIN GOING

Alpha House, Carver Street is a gaunt Victorian office block that might once have been fashionable but now lies virtually, though tidily, empty. The Gremlins refer to it as ‘the prison’, an impression reinforced by the long, narrow corridors painted in institution maroon and cream. Gremlin Graphics has two rooms which for some obscure reason are situated high up in the building and quite some way from the ancient lift which no-one seems to use. When I spoke to Ian Stewart, Sales and Marketing Director, about the visit, he told me to stop outside a shop called Just Micro. This turned out to be a thriving and very busy computer shop which is owned by Ian and his partner Kevin Norburn, the Financial Director of Gremlin Graphics. A phone link between the shop and the office, soon brought Ian down to greet me and drag me away from the beeping, squawking screens that lined three walls of the shop’s interior.

The corridors of Alpha House may have been prison-like, but once through the door and into Gremlinland, a different atmosphere pervaded. Of the two rooms, one is a general office, and the other, larger, room is equipped with desks, computers and screens for the in-house programming team. The programmers had gathered specially for my visit (more to give a third-degree on CRASH reviews than in my honour I suspected — the usual reason programmers want to talk to magazine people), and were busy falling over the ubiquitous C5, which seems to have taken over from the Porsche as a software house vehicle. I never did ask what it was doing up there on the third floor.

Before founding Gremlin Graphics Ian Stewart had already accumulated 12 years retailing experience culminating in a group managership for Laskys, but the itch to work for himself proved too strong and he joined forces with Kevin Norburn to open a computer shop. ‘When Kevin and myself had opened Just Micro, we always said as soon as the shop got rolling and we found the time and the necessary programmer, that we would like to have our own software house.’

The shop did get rolling and the first necessary programmers transpired in the form of Peter Harrap and Tony Crowther. Ian and Kevin were well aware from the start that they would have to put together a professional team to get safely off the ground. Tony Crowther, already well known for his Commodore programs Loco, Son of Blagger and Killerwatt, was made a company director and went on to write Potty Pigeon and Suicide Express for Gremlin before differences on the board led to his leaving the company. Looking around to ensure good distribution, Ian reckoned Geoff Brown of US Gold, who had just started Centresoft distributors was going to be a power and invited him to become managing director. But it was with young Pete Harrap that Gremlin really got going.

GOLD COAL DIGGERS

‘Peter Harrap first came to us with a complaint,’ Ian recalls, ‘which was that his Currah Microspeech had blown his Spectrum up.’ At the time Pete was at university. He was into hacking and programming to some degree and had written a program that allowed you to redesign and rebuild the city in Quicksilva’s Ant Attack. He sent it to them, but Quicksilva declined to use it. Over the protracted matter of Currah getting the damaged Spectrum repaired, Pete visited Just Micro a lot. As Ian says, ‘We got to know him quite well, and although I think he got aggravated on a number of times, we made a friend more than anything else. We said to him, ‘well you’re into programming why don’t you spend a bit more time on it and develop a game?’ So we got talking and I came up with the idea of a mole, and we decided it would be a platform game. Pete’s father is a mine training officer, so we decided to use that and put the game underground — a mole can go above or below ground, which adds variety. As he was writing it the miners’ strike developed, so we introduced different criteria into the program to tie in with the strike like the flying pickets and the effigy of Arthur Scargill.’

Where Gremlin Graphics started, the JUST MICRO computer shop in Carver Street, Sheffield. Gremlin’s offices are up above.

It was the caricature of Scargill that gave Ian a hook upon which to hang his launch. Eight radio stations, national newspapers and national television news gave the game coverage. ‘It was a useful boost, but it was a lot of hard work, it didn’t just happen — wheels within wheels to see the program got the exposure it did. Really, from that point we’ve grown to the stage we’re at now.’

LOOKING BUOYANT

With so many software houses finding themselves in a dodgy condition lately, I asked Ian what he felt about Gremlin’s position in the market after one year.

‘I see it as being very healthy. As far as other software houses are concerned, their approach must be to be very careful about who they deal with and make sure their advertising expenditure is reasonable but not too low-key. They will also have to be careful about the quantity of games released through the year, with the fear of damaging the sales of one product up against another. I don’t mind marketing my product against someone else’s, but not against my own. It’s a waste of advertising for one, and obviously the programmers don’t get the rewards they should do from the sales their programs achieve.’

Ian reckons the business has got much tougher over the past twelve months and that it is no longer easy for people to set up a software house and make a success of it. ‘If we were starting this July instead of last July, it would be a totally different story. We came in at the right time with the right product and the right marketing and it worked for us. Now you have to have a track record, and the way you go about presenting games to a distributor has got to be professional. The way you market the product has got to be sensible and you must have your programs ready well in advance. I think we’re hitting a happy situation at the moment where we’re able to backlog software so we can release it when we want, but we propose to keep releasing right through the summer to keep the name in the forefront. I would like to think that Gremlin will be one of the top five software houses by the end of the year.’

On the Spectrum there are several planned releases kicking off with Beaver Bob (In Dam Trouble), followed by Grumpy Gumphrey — Supersleuth and Metabolis, and then onto October and the pre-Christmas release of Monty on the Run. In addition there are releases planned for the Commodore 64, some conversions and some originals, as well as games for the C16 and Amstrad, All of which must be keeping Gremlin Graphics very busy, and it seems that Ian is thumbing his nose at the traditional summer slump.

‘Obviously the sales figures that you achieve over Christmas are double those you achieve for the other times of the year, but I think keeping the market buoyant for the rest of the year is very important. I don’t mind getting lower sales through the summer — it keeps the Gremlin name prominent; and it keeps the programmers busy — it’s important for them to be able to work twelve months of the year rather than six and it’s important for us to have revenue coming in for twelve months of the year rather than six! I would hate to think I was holding product back just for Christmas.’

Looking at ‘the prison’ there is obviously plenty of room to expand, should they wish to. At present Gremlin employs four full-time in-house Z80 programmers all writing for the Spectrum, Pete Harrap, Chris Kerry, Shaun Hollingworth and Christian Urquhart. A company called Micro Projects consisting of three programmers write Gremlin’s Commodore games and conversions, and Ian is investigating other talent. ‘I would like to see our in-house personnel double this year, to a maximum of ten, so that we have at least one programmer who is competent on one of the major machines, by which I mean Spectrum, Commodore, Amstrad and Atari. That means we are on the look out for more programmers and more product.’

The Gremlins gathered: left to right, Shaun Hollingworth, Kevin Norburn, Ian Stewart, Chris Kerry, Peter Harrap and Christian Urquhart.

UNSOCIAL HOURS

Although the in-house team are employed full time, few of them work consistently at the offices, preferring to spend some time there but more at home working. ‘Programmers tend to work rather unsocial hours and as the time required might mean them working all day and then into the small hours they find it easier to work in the comfort of their own homes. But they do come into the office at least once a week.’

With this sort of working flexibility, I wondered whether there was any sense of ‘team spirit’.

‘Oh yes,’ Ian replied instantly, ‘each programmer will discuss each other’s work and they’ll discuss various routines that they’re using, the gameplay elements within the game and various graphics — Peter Harrap does a number of the graphics for other people, he has a bent towards designing graphics and he’s very quick. The bulk of the ideas for games come from the Gremlin office,’ Ian continued, ‘we have brain bashing sessions, sit down and discuss the types of program we would like to put out — I’m the culprit as far as the characters go. What tends to happen is that general ideas are thrown about and then the programmer goes away and draws up a plan of the way the program could work. Then we discuss that again before the programming starts, so we end up with a sort of storyboard. It works very well, because you can identify the areas that you could make within the program or the improvements you can make before it actually gets started. There’s nothing worse, and it has happened to us, to be halfway through a program and find that it’s not going to work. If you had sat down and spent a little more time at the outset you would have identified all the problems and saved a lot more time. I refuse to continue with something that I may not be happy with at the end.’

Before moving into the programming room to have a look at the new games coming along, I asked Ian, thinking of Monty on the Run, whether he thought platform games were a played out genre. ‘Oh no, definitely not. Hopefully with Monty on the Run you’ll see a different element enter platform gameplay. We have introduced some further exciting elements which I think the public will like. We see it as a great improvement on Wanted: Monty Mole and I think it will get a bigger following.’

Is he irritated when other companies try to jump on the success bandwagon of Monty Mole, or, as Software Projects has suggested, that platform games like Monty Mole are jumping on the success bandwagon of Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner?

‘Artic’s Mutant Monty was a direct hype of a number of games. We didn’t feel inclined to do anything about the fact that they had used ‘Monty’ and were obviously hyping off the success of Monty Mole. As to Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, Miner 2049er was the first, and as to whether the people that originated that program feel the same as Software Projects, I don’t know. I see no reason to diminish our own glory when they’ve had such a nice success with both programs, and they are both very good programs. Perhaps it’s a case of being a little bit jealous, I don’t know, maybe Monty Mole’s better.’

One thing for certain is that Monty on the Run is very much better than Wanted: Monty Mole. The mean elements of the first game have been made even meaner in the second. As Ian comments, ‘That is Pete Harrap’s sheer bloody-mindedness. If people thought the first Monty was bloody-minded, they’d better look at the next one! He’s done some very funny things on it.’

CHRIS KERRY

Chris is the baby of the team at 18 (19 in December), but of the team he has the longest list of credits to his name. He wrote his first game at 16. It was called Gremlins and no one wanted it. Computers first cropped up on the second year computer course at school, but failed to catch his interest. Then in the third year he joined a computer group. ‘We just used to mess about, but I became interested in how they actually worked. Then the ZX81 came on the market and I got me sister to buy me one, and I learned to program machine code on that. When the Spectrum came out I got one and spent a year trying to figure out how to do the screen because it’s got a right weird way of storing things. In the end, I really learnt to program by listening to other people and by reading magazines.’

After writing a Galaxian type game, Chris turned out Jack and the Beanstalk which Thor accepted and released. ‘It wasn’t very good, but you learn from your mistakes. The screen pictures were good, but the graphic movement was terrible!’

Chris wrote two more follow-ups to JATBS, Giant’s Revenge and The House that Jack Built. All these games featured heavily and brightly coloured backgrounds which distinguished them from almost every other program on the market. It was a trademark he kept when he moved over to Gremlin Graphics and produced the second Monty game, Monty Mole is Innocent.

Chris is now finishing off Metabolis, which is a departure graphically for him. The way the character is used in the game is quite comical, and there are what Ian Stewart calls ‘some nice, silly little touches to it.’ You play one of the last human beings free of the evil influence of aliens that have taken over the planet and are turning people into monsters. You haven’t entirely escape the effects of their plans, however, being a bird with a still-human brain. It is a giant, colourful maze, full of hazards of course, through which you just guide your birdman until discovering the potion that returns you to a human form. Having once again become human, you still possess the abilities of a bird, so you can fly as well as walk. One of the nice little touches is the reference to infamous Gremlin crushers, but these do not kill you outright — they just flatten you for a while. Metabolis looks like being the most unusual program Chris Kerry has written.

SHAUN HOLLINGWORTH

At 28, Shaun is the oldest of the bunch. His introduction to computers came through his previous job as a chief video technician for a certain TV rental company. ‘I had to know a lot about digital logic circuitry,’ says this softly spoken native of Sheffield, ‘so we were taught about microprocessors long before computers took off. I knew all about ANDing and ORing, so it didn’t come terribly difficult.’

Shaun came to Gremlin Graphics through Just Micro as well, buying games for his Spectrum, but a friend who works in the shop had also worked with Ian Stewart at Laskys, so they got to know each other. The first job was Potty Pigeon on the Spectrum. ‘It wasn’t really a conversion, everyone says it was a conversion, but it wasn’t. We thought we couldn’t really do the scrolling screen on the Spectrum like we did on the Commodore, so we thought we would extend the story a little bit. It was the first full length games program I’d ever done, and of course, I had a lot of things to learn, and I think if I’d done it now I could have made a far better job of it.’

Shaun’s technical background stands him in good stead when it comes to some of the team’s programming problems, and he is responsible for the disc system they use with the Spectrums. ‘We had to convert all the programs which meant breaking down the code used by the assemblers to get the disc system to run — we had that much trouble with microdrives it were unbelievable.’

Since he is more inclined to the technical side of programming, I asked whether he considered the programming or the games design more important. ‘The game, definitely. I wake up in the morning thinking, how am I going to do this next bit, but not from a program point of view — from the final effect, to get the game to a standard whereby people will really enjoy it when they play it.’

For his project, Grumpy Gumphrey — Supersleuth, Shaun has developed a masking technique for the moving characters so that they appear to pass behind objects. This type of thing takes a lot of testing to get it right. ‘When you write a routine for a certain part of a program you must test it to the full before going on to the next one, because otherwise if a bug crops up you can be in right trouble. What’s more, one part of a program can interact with another part and you can end up with such a mess you don’t know where you are.’

Some programmers use the technique of writing all the algorithms for a program and then slot in the graphics right at the end, but Shaun prefers to design and fit in graphics as he goes along. ‘The sprites aren’t as important but on the screens you’ve got to know where things are. Like the lift buttons in Supersleuth — if we wanted them, say, in a square instead of a line, we’d have to rewrite part of the program to make that happen because the program has to know where the buttons are for it to work.’

Shaun’s next project is a 3D version of a platform game, ‘like Monty Mole in 3D, but probably not Monty Mole.’ Meanwhile he is busy finishing Supersleuth, not the first ever program to be set in a Department Store (Herbert’s Dummy Run), but certainly one of the most frenetic. Grumpy Gumphrey is a store detective at (not surprisingly) Mole Brothers, an establishment with many departments on four floors. A central feature is the lift which may be directed to the desired floor by pressing the appropriate button. The lift is actually a ‘room’ which stands still while the floors whizz past. Shoplifters are abroad and it is Gumphrey’s principal task to apprehend them. If he makes a wrong decision about who it is, then a warning letter is issued and after three it’s the curtains dept. for Gumphrey.

The frenzy sets in, however, not because of thieves but because of all the other jobs Gumphrey has to do. These include taking the manager his 10.30 cup of tea, recapturing gorillas escaped from the pet department, clearing ducks and bugs out of the food hall, finding lost babies (Herbert perhaps?), fixing the lift when it breaks down, emptying the flooded boiler room, putting out fires in waste paper baskets and so on. All these jobs need specific tools which may be in obvious places or not at all — or they may have been stolen by shop lifters! No wonder Gumphrey is grumpy at times.

PETER HARRAP

When asked his age, Peter replied somewhat uncertainly, ‘Ooh, er, 20’. The son of a mining training officer, Peter studied at Sheffield University and was doing quite well until a Currah Microspeech unit decided to destroy his Spectrum and thus plunged him into a life of games designing. Like so many other young programmers, Pete started with ‘a little ZX81’ and then skipped a big ZX81 by selling some camera equipment to buy a Spectrum. He taught himself machine code programming on the 81 and ‘basically transferred that to the Spectrum’.

Until meeting Ian Stewart and Kevin Norburn in Just Micro, Pete used to do some hacking and design programs to alter existing games. His city redesigner for Ant Attack was sent back because Quicksilva told him they were already developing something themselves; although this never appeared, Zombie Zombie did allow the player to rebuild and change the city.

Peter Harrap hit the headlines (literally) with his first game, the CRASH Readers Award winner, Wanted: Monty Mole. A wicked sense of humour was apparent in the game, and it is this angle that is most noticeable in the follow up. Apart from programming entire games, Pete is responsible for many of the Spectrum graphics in other Gremlin games, he has designed the main character in Beaver Bob, for instance. This led to some ribald comments on Bob’s suggestive style of walking — the irrepressible Harrap humour sometimes verges on the — well, naughty.

Monty on the Run is the true successor to Wanted: Monty Mole. Like its forerunner, it is a platform game with many and varied elements. Perhaps the most significant is the fact that Monty can now somersault rather than just jump. When asked whether the Commodore game Impossible Mission might have been a (forgive the pun) springboard, Pete just smiled.

The story, as we know, so far: Monty Mole, suffering from a shortage of coal owing to the miners’ strike, enters a mine to steal some. After many misadventures he meets Arthur Scargill and is sent to prison for theft. His friend, Sam Stoat, has a go at rescuing him, but fails in the attempt, so Monty is left to complete his sentence. With time on his hands he takes to the prison gymnasium and becomes super fit, learning to somersault in the process. He gets out of gaol and tries to flee to Brazil. This is where the action of Monty on the Run takes place, as he boards a ship and tries to escape to France. Money is of the essence, and fortunately there are gold sovereigns to be collected, but in order for the ship to sail, Monty has to perform several tasks, all of which require the right tool for the job. On top of that there are hosts of malcontents trying to stop him.

The ’orrible ’arrap has programmed in numerous devious traps, some of which are so mind-bogglingly cruel it’s mind-boggling. There are lifts with nasty habits, teleport beams which are only safe if they are a certain colour and some of which can deposit you in a lethal situation. Objects to be collected are placed in almost impossible positions, and often, after hours of trying to reach them, they turn out to be useless or, worse still, positively dangerous. This is not a game for the squeamish! Peter, who is quietly spoken, tends to a calmness that is belied by the mischievious delight he takes in setting the hapless player up for a pratfall. But I’ve no doubt that thousands will be queueing up for a custard pie in the face by October when Monty on the Run is released.

CHRISTIAN URQUHART

Christian, now 19, moved to Manchester to join Ocean, and then onto Sheffield with Gremlin Graphics. His first program, Transversion was a fast grid game which Ocean marketed. Afterwards he became an Ocean in-house programmer and worked on Hunchback, Cavelon and Daley Thompson’s Decathlon. Since joining Gremlin, Christian has been working on Beaver Bob in Dam Trouble, which was the subject of a loading screen competition run in CRASH.

CRASH readers who visited two of ZX Microfairs last year, will probably remember seeing Christian on the CRASH stand, holding court with gamesters wanting to know how to win at Hunchback, and having a programmers’ battle with David Shea (Quicksilva Frenzy and Snowman, who now works at Mikro-Gen).

Beaver Bob in Dam Trouble is described by Ian, as a game for the slightly younger player, which isn’t to say that it’s easy. Above the surface of the river, stands a wooden hut with several floors. This platform section of the game sees Beaver Bob collecting dynamite. Below the surface of the river are the beaver’s two dams, and a secret hideaway where he keeps food and is able to take a breath. The river is infested with crocodiles which not only eat beavers, but also steal dam logs. The object is to replace the stolen logs to keep the level of the reservoir up, whilst avoiding crocodiles, schools of piranha and hunting scuba divers.

THE SINCLAIR STORY
part four

The idea of a portable television set small enough to fit into a pocket has been with Clive Sinclair for well over a decade, but his dream only recently became a reality, available in High Street shops nationwide in the last six weeks. Clive Sinclair began work on the pocket TV in the mid seventies. The project finally came to fruition in late ’83, £4 million-worth of development later, when the Sinclair Flat Screen Pocket TV became available by mail order, on a very limited basis. Now you should be able to pick one up from your local store for a fraction under £100.

In 1977 Sinclair launched a ‘pocket’ TV, which could be fitted into a pocket, but you had to have a very large pockets indeed — not just to fit the television into, but to take the £200 it cost out of! (about £500 in today’s money). The following year the Microvision appeared, and although the price was halved, it wasn’t a winner and the Sinclair small TV quietly disappeared from viewing.

Development work went on behind the scenes however, and the team at Sinclair developed a highly complex chip which could control all the routine functions of a cathode ray display — monitoring video and audio inputs, checking picture hold and maintaining the balance between brightness and contrast. This chip is at the heart of the Sinclair flat screen TV, handling the processes which produce the picture on its two inch screen.

While other companies developing small TVs have explored the possibilities of using liquid crystal displays — essentially those used on digital watches — and gas plasma displays, Sir Clive has always been committed to cathode ray tube technology.

Sinclair had to develop a new version of the cathode ray tube in order to make a flat screen TV, and the end result, incorporated into the Pocket TV provides a brighter picture, uses much less power and has half the volume relative to screen size to that of conventional cathode ray TV tubes.

In an ordinary domestic TV, a beam of electrons is fired from a ‘gun’ at the back of the cathode ray tube, through a vacuum, towards a phosphor coating on the inside front surface of the tube. When a point on the phosphor coating is hit by the electron beam, it emits light, and the image is built up on the screen as the beam scans lines across the phosphor coating, moving down a fraction at the end of each scan before starting the next.

A mini-screen TV using a conventional cathode ray tube would be difficult to fit into your pocket as it has to be comparatively thick to allow the gun to be at the back of the tube, firing forwards.

The Sinclair flat-screen TV cunningly has the electron gun at the side of the screen, firing electrons at right angles to the plane of vision. And the phosphor coated screen is at the back of the tube, not the front.

Enough of the technical details, how does the Sinclair Flat Screen TV perform? In Ludlow, where there are all sorts of TV reception problems, not terribly well — but it provides a better picture than the one the colour portable in the office can manage using its own aerial. The Sinclair TV has a telescopic transistor radio type aerial, which needs to be fully extended to pick up a decent signal, and the telly is very sensitive to its position — a couple of inches movement can make all the difference to the quality of the reception. With a bit of fiddling about, it proved possible to get a reasonable picture without too much grief. In a longer test, which involved our review model travelling to London, it performed very well. Our software editor managed to watch two complete films on it, and caught Barry Norman’s Film 85 in a motorway service station!

No, you can’t plug a computer into the Pocket TV; it doesn’t have an aerial input socket which is a bit of shame — it would have been handy to have been able to plug the flat screen TV into a more meaty aerial, perhaps the one on the roof for bedtime viewing . . . but then again, it is meant to be pocketable and you could buy a cheaper black and white telly for your bedroom.

The picture resolution is fine — with a little effort it proved quite possible to read the information on the Ceefax and Oracle pages broadcast in the morning, and while ‘Star Wars’ might lose some of its impact on a two inch screen, for most purposes the size of the picture is fine — you’re supposed to watch close up anyway.

Two controls are provided on the front panel: an on/off volume knob and a tuning knob which moves a linear pointer. Tuning is simple, just like on your faithful tranny but there’s a picture too! While the sound quality isn’t HiFi, it’s perfectly acceptable and with the earphone provided, totally private viewing and listening is possible.

For an extra £7.95 a mains adaptor is available mail order from Sinclair, which would be a worthwhile investment if you plan to watch much mini-telly indoors. The batteries used to power the set are flat lithium packs which have a life of some 15 hours continuous goggling, but they weigh in at £10 for a pack of three — could get a bit expensive.

Overall the Pocket TV is a smashing little device, and for £100 is not earth shatteringly expensive. It is genuinely tiny and light. Carrying it in an inside jacket pocket is no problem — if anything it’s easy to forget it is there — and the TV weighs less than many portable stereos.

Without doubt, portable TVs will catch on and may well be available in full colour before too long. Sir Clive’s Flat Screen TV is an excellent product, a lot of fun to have and use, and while far from essential in daily life, much more than a toy.

Apart from allowing you to watch your favourite programmes virtually anywhere, there are a host of applications for such a device. It could, for instance, bring a whole new dimension to watching live sport — you could have the best of both worlds by taking your pocket TV into the stands at a football match which is being televised. Action replays on the terraces no less!

Tape magazines aren’t small beer nowadays. Argus Press Software publishes two titles for the Spectrum, and also covers the Atari, Commodore, Amstrad and MSX. If you added up all the tapes duplicated by APS for all the issues of its magnetic magazines in a year, the figure you’d end up would be very big indeed. Big enough to make them one of the largest software houses around.

Three other fish swim in the Spectrum tape magazine sea as well, so we take a look at no less than five potential competitors on these pages... fearless ain’t we?

Shortly after the first home computer that could load from and save to cassette tape came into being, you can be sure that some bright spark had the idea of producing a magazine or club newsletter in software.

The Americans started the ball rolling, with a couple of magazines appearing on tape in the late seventies — and there’s never been a shortage of program listings in conventional computer mags for keenies to type in for themselves. Some listings publishers offer their readers the chance to buy a tape of ready typed in listings too as a supplement to the printed publication. It wasn’t until 1983, however, with the launch of Spectrum Computing and 16/48 that Spectrum owners were given the chance to leap on the magnetic bandwagon.

SPECTRUM COMPUTING’s long running animated cartoon strip.

Argus Press led the field, putting out the first issue of Spectrum Computing early in the year, and they were followed by an independent company, Magnetic Magazines Ltd who began publishing 16/48, and then sold the magazine to Argus Press after ten issues. Thus the two main cassette publications are now produced indirectly by a mainstream paper-and-ink publisher, but three independent tape magazines for the Spectrum are alive and kicking. MSWM (MicroSoftWareMagazine) is produced in Moseley, Birmingham, by Infinite Software; Magnetic Mag lives incommunicado in Romford, Essex and a new title for youngsters, Kiddisoft is being produced in Cornwall.

As a medium for publishing news, views and gossip, cassette tape isn’t that wonderful — you’d need an awful lot of tapes to store one issue of CRASH, and it’s not that easy to flip through a cassette mag in the bath or on the bus... no, we’re not too worried here in CRASH Towers.

But they do have a definite advantage in that programs contained in a tape mag are loaded straight into the computer — no longer do you have to spend hours typing in a tedious magazine listing only to find that the gumby who wrote the game managed to diddle £20 out of the magazine publishers for a rotten game not worth the wear and tear your keyboard suffered during the inputting. No, it’s all there, up front and loaded straight into your machine — and the commercially produced titles are now filling a gap in the software market, publishing quite good games that might otherwise never have seen the inside of more than a couple of Spectrum RAM chips.

Ho ho lolo, the Santa of SPECTRUM COMPUTING, makes a point familiar to magazine editors everywhere.

‘Programmers of intermediate ability can’t sell their work very easily,’ commented Roy Gibson, big cheese on Spectrum Computing, ‘and we provide an alternative outlet to magazine listings. It’s the same idea as printing the listings, but at least all our readers get to see a program we publish in the magazine. Not everyone will go to the bother of typing in a listing published by a conventional magazine.’

In many ways, tape magazines tend to be more ‘clubby’ in nature than their printed counterparts. MSWM is published by the Microsoftware Club in Moseley and is meant to be a means of communication between club members — ‘one thing that we all have in common is that we all own a Spectrum, an ideal means of communication’ as they say themselves in Issue 6. As with all magazines, the tape ’zines encourage readers’ letters, and there’s quite a lively exchange of tips and hints to be found in all of them. MSWM has a deliberate policy of leaving all their programs in listable form, and of filling them with REMarks. Readers are encouraged to break into the software, examine it and learn more about their machines as a result.

The content of the MSWM magazines that we got to see was generally interesting and strongly reflected the club nature of the publication. Their readers merrily swop hints and tips and send out appeals for help via the magazines ‘pages’, while the editorial team provide features on programming and getting the most out of your Spectrum. There’s a positive ‘we’re all in this together’ club feel to MWSM, and it makes you want to join in...

And that’s perhaps the major appeal of tape ’zines — they are an ideal medium for communicating slightly more technical information, as a tutorial feature can actually demonstrate the theory as part of the presentation rather than relying on the reader to type in acres of code, debug it and then refer back to the printed page. The straight entertainment side, games programs, reviews and editorial pieces themselves are not exactly rubbish, either...

The great tit. Need we say more? Should we say more? From the KIDDISOFT Nature trail.

Roger Swift, who started 16/48 and now produces it for Argus Press Software pays between £20 and £100 for a program published in his magazine: ‘We provide an outlet for games which are not megagames, and are becoming a market for people who can write games which provide our readers with an example of what they could do on their computers, Nowadays I’m rejecting material that I’d have been delighted to receive a year ago — the standard of submitted work has improved enormously.’

And Roy Gibson of Spectrum Computing takes a similar view: ‘The amount of material generated for the Spectrum is massive, and we fill a nice little gap between the Top Ten commercial aspirants and the type-it-in-yourself-from-a-magazine-listing brigade.’

Magnetic Mag remains firmly anonymous — their ’phone number is ex-directory, and two separate letters failed to elicit any kind of response from them. You might, therefore, be a little reluctant to send off the £2.50 they ask for an issue! Enough of them!

In case you couldn’t work it out, the title screen from MSWM.

The lady behind Kiddisoft is, however, quite happy to answer the ’phone and explained that her magazine is a new venture, aimed at youngsters between the ages of four and eight. Anne Menneer has a degree in Psychology and is a trained teacher too. Her tape magazine is intended as a comic: ‘slightly educational, and fun’, and should come out monthly after the first few issues.

‘Edu-tainment’ is one of those horrible compound American words used to describe entertaining educational programs. And in a way that’s what Kiddisoft sets out to provide in a magazine format. Overall, Issue 1 is a jolly package of games, which could do with a bit of polishing — while the graphics in some of the games could do with a little more thought (or programming skill), the game content was good. The simplified adventure, which asks the player to choose between options rather than dream up and input commands, was particularly attractive, with pretty graphics and an appealing storyline, if a little repetitive (you could visit and re-visit corners of the program endlessly, doing the same thing every time).

Save the KIDDISOFT Humpties; get the sum right, and Humpty won’t fall!

The balloon game — a cheerful little challenge from KIDDISOFT.

The first issue of the Kiddisoft magazine is indeed a worthy pilot. All the programs are in BASIC, and have been written ‘in house’. Once the magazine builds up a readership and starts receiving programs and letters from outside contributors it could easily make quite a comfortable niche for itself in the educational market. Meantime, we’re passing our copy over to Rosetta McLeod....

16/48 is a monthly magazine, and as its title suggests, is aimed at both users of the 16 and 48K machines. Roger Swift set it up back in 1983 and published ten issues of the magazine before deciding to accept Argus’s offer to buy out the title — largely because the business side of the operation became too much hassle.

16/48 is put together every month by Roger and two colleagues — an adventure columnist and graphics whizz by the name of Yaz, and Barry, who writes the serial adventure Ludoids and the odd piece of machine code. And of course, there are the readers’ contributions.

The Ludoids adventure is a particularly neat idea on the part of 16/48 — a 48K text with graphics adventure which started in issue 14. You can play each month’s game on its own, but can play through the serial as you are given a code on successful completion of each month’s instalment which you can use to kick off with on the next ‘chapter’. And of course the magazine is in a strong position when it comes to offering help on previous chapters of the continuing adventure....

Despite the title, 16/48, like the majority of Spectrum tape magazines no longer worries too much about having to cater for owners of the 16K machine — there’s not that many of you left, it seems!

The June issue contained the usual editorial and contents pages, reviews, a crossword and competition, and a continuation of the magazine’s machine code course. A neat explosion routine was also supplied, explained and demonstrated, and offered as a utility for inclusion in readers’ programs.

On the games front, a competently programmed machine code platform game lived on side One, which lost out on playability a bit by being too pernickety, and a golf simulation lurked on side Two which could have provided hours of enjoyment for some people....

The May/June issue of Spectrum Computing which is about to go monthly, was slightly better equipped with games, featuring a neat and compelling machine code arcade game called Piggy, a rather pretty but fiendishly difficult maze game and a very tidy implementation of Cribbage. Why anyone should bother to program Solitaire as a computer game is a little beyond this ’umble reviewer, but someone did, and now you can own a copy by getting hold of this issue of S.C.!

Reviews, a chirpy editorial and the regular animated cartoon also appear on the tape with a column by Wizard Prang who is the resident machine code expert/tutor.

Spectrum Computing has recently changed editor, and will now be produced from a bungalow in Merseyside by Roy Gibson, having lived up till now in Iolo Davidson’s farmhouse. Roy plans to change the magazine’s emphasis from a contributor-driven publication to one that picks a subject each issue, and involves contributors more directly in the advance planning of the magazine. Roy makes a point of always criticising submissions constructively, sometimes writing a little machine code routine to improve the original program, or referring the programmer to appropriate reference books.

Both 16/48 and Spectrum Computing feel that the core of their readership lies with the more serious Spectrum user and less with the committed arcade player. Consequently in coming months the emphasis is likely to move towards supplying more material on the machine code and utilities front, while continuing to publish games programs as ‘freebies’.

Of course, there’s no real reason why tape magazines shouldn’t include taped interviews with people in the software industry, or indeed combine recorded sound with software in the same devious way as Softlee Systems have with their educational software (see this month’s CRASH COURSE). The possibilities are endless, and they certainly serve a complementary function to the traditionally produced, hard copy computer magazine.

A subscription to one of the tape magazines would provide a regular fix of software and technical information, and should go down well with any serious computer user. But the game player has a lot to gain from tape magazines too — for the price, they’re hardly a rip-off, each containing at least a couple of perfectly respectable budget games, together with features presented in a clubby manner. Worth checking out.

When Bob Wakelin was a lad at school, all he ever wanted to do was artwork for comic books. This didn’t please his art teacher, who felt that such a talented lad shouldn’t channel his artistic energies into something which wasn’t quite ‘art’. During his three year stint at art college in Wales, his homeland, Bob’s lecturers also tried to put him off the idea of working for comics — to little avail.

ON THE COVER

Shortly after completing the Graphics course, and once he’d finished the obligatory spell on the dole, Bob started work for a Liverpool studio which specialised in artwork for the entertainment industry, and executed a lot of commissions from rock bands, producing artwork for album covers.

Working his way up from Whipping Boy, graduating to Lackey and then achieving Studio Manager status, Bob decided it was time to branch out. Starting as a freelance in 1978, he at last became involved in his first love — comic books — working for Marvel Comics. Sadly, the dollar exchange rate in those days meant it didn’t pay too handsomely, though.

In 1980 Bob joined a band, playing synths. ‘It was a whim really. I’d got bored with drawing and some friends had a band. I joined them for a while, and we did reasonably well. Then, as is so often the case, we had a row and split up.’ And the manager departed with funds.

Should the ex-manager of this particular band happen to be a CRASH reader, Bob would like to state publicly that one day, he’s going to catch up with you. ‘Revenge is a great thing,’ Bob told me, ‘it gives me a reason to live.’ There was a slightly evil undercurrent to the jocular tone in which that remark was delivered.

Back in Liverpool, his adopted hometown, and with the band’s spilt behind him, Bob started looking for freelance work again. Through the uncle of a friend of a friend, of a friend etc. he learnt that David Ward was starting up a software house down the road in Manchester and was looking for an illustrator.

Just as he did the first job for Dave Ward’s new company, Ocean, all sorts of people started to get in touch, offering work. Mrs Wakelin wasn’t too pleased with some of the commissions her husband accepted. Something to do with girlie calendars... but all that’s behind him now. Mr Wakelin does all the inlay illustrations for Ocean.

‘I’m still doing occasional covers for C&VG and comic books too — just so I don’t forget how to draw superheroes,’ Bob explained, ‘but Ocean has grown and expanded so quickly that I’m doing nearly half my work for the one client.’

It takes about four or five days from start to finish to complete a painting for Ocean. ‘I spend a day referencing it, and then three or four days completing the artwork. I start off by doing a very tight drawing in pencils, filling in all the detail and then airbrush over so that some of the pencil lines come through the colour. I don’t like the tubular, plastic look of most airbrush work and find that the pencil technique avoids that... I generally finish the painting off, adding tiny details in gouache or felt pen.’

It would seem a fairly logical move for an artist working on cassette inlays for computer software to transfer his attention to the screen, designing characters or game screens: ‘I was asked eighteen months or so ago, but I’m not interested in designing screens at the moment. I’m not a lover of computer graphics... I’m not happy with the medium. Sure I’ll have to get into it eventually, but at the moment I would get frustrated about not being able to get the detail I want into a picture on a TV screen. Maybe when the technology catches up, and the price of high resolution equipment comes down I’ll get involved... anyway, I haven’t yet done all I can with the traditional media of paint, pencil and ink!’

So what plans does this thirty-two year old ‘honorary Liverpudlian’ have for the future? ‘There are several things I really want to do, not least get back into comics, but I like not knowing what’s going to happen next.’

Firmly a freelance, Mr Wakelin explains that planning ahead is not his forte: ‘I’ve got such a short attention span, that if I made plans for the future I’d get bored before I brought them into action, and change everything... there isn’t really time for forward planning anyway,’ he added, ‘I haven’t had more than a couple of days without work in the last few years and haven’t taken a holiday. I could only take a holiday if I had a couple of weeks without any work on — but if that happened I would be pacing up and down the room, biting my fingernails, worrying what was going wrong, rather than enjoying a holiday.’

The Wakelin fingernails are fairly safe, methinks....

THIS TORMENTED BUSINESS

I was struck by reading a phrase in an edition of a software trade paper, it was, ‘... this tormented business of ours.’ It rather neatly summed up the first six months of this year in which the pre-Christmas gloom merchants appear to have been vindicated. To the vanished or quietly disappearing software houses, we can now add Bug-Byte, Fantasy and Micromania, the latter two certainly helped on their way by the collapse of software distributor Tiger.

Bug-Byte looked like it was ailing for some time despite, or in spite, of rumoured tie-up deals with Argus. A shame really, because it severs any final link with the original flowering of Liverpool programming talent that began with Bug-Byte and flowed into Imagine, Software Projects and many of the programming houses that now exist. Micromania had too much stock of their latest game in Tiger to withstand the loss of revenue. The irony is that, by all accounts, Future Project sold very well, mostly through Menzies with whom Tiger largely dealt, but because Tiger ended up owing Menzies money in the form of credit for returned, unsold tapes, companies like Micromania who should have received payment did not — for Menzies dealt with Tiger and not Micromania.

The way in which companies go bust is often telling. There are, of course, very strict legal rules covering the matter, but they are often easy to get around. Bug-Byte’s receivers informed all creditors (including CRASH) of the situation. Micromania’s Dominic Wood wrote a letter to the effect that he was bankrupt — at least you know where you stand. Fantasy’s demise was less ethical. For several weeks managing director Paul Dyer was unavailable because he was ‘moving house’, according to the female voice answering the phone. Then the voice was unavailable — then the phone was disconnected. Paul Dyer and Fantasy had vanished, leaving huge unpaid debts behind. According to one programmer who is still owed his last salary, it was a real moonlight flit. Like many others, he has no idea where Paul Dyer has gone to ground. There are rumours that a new ‘Fantasy’ aims to rise from the ashes, probably with the near completed Super Pyramid game.

I hope not, Paul, I really hope not...

FROM BACK ROOMS TO BOARDROOMS

There is a prevalent feeling among many figures in this tormented business that more software houses will bite the dust this summer, but what is tending to happen is a swallowing of smaller individual companies into larger conglomerates. Britons like to think of themselves as individuals, so we frown on this, feeling (rightly so at times) that we will get less value for money from the giants, and that genius and talent will be strangled in favour of conformist marketing policies.

There is nothing new in this; it seems inevitable that all ‘new’ industries must start in back bedrooms and move to the conglomerate boardroom. If an industry is worth it, big money will move in. Competition increases, tougher marketing emerges, and the under-capitalised pioneer suffers. The benefits of programmers marketing their games through the larger software houses shouldn’t be overlooked though. The programmer is free to concentrate on what he does best while being linked to sufficient finance to market the game well, and at the same time is freed from the real headache of all companies — financial controls (a euphemism for ‘getting the sods to pay’ — the Mafia have one of the most effective systems, they break people’s knees).

I said that there’s nothing new in this — it happened in the music business (and has happened in publishing too) with independent labels being swallowed by the likes of CBS, EMI and Decca. Eventually talent and/or originality is stifled and the general public suffer until rebellious elements in the street put together an alternative music. It happened after the Beatles in the 60s and it happened again with Punk Rock in the 70s. It seems to be a cyclic event, and no doubt it will happen with the entertainment software business. There are too many talented games designers around for this industry to torment itself to death. All that’s occurring at the moment is a change of colours. It’s down to us as reviewers and players of games to ensure that the conglomerate software houses don’t get complacent with their product.

Roger Kean

ROBIN CANDY and LLOYD MANGRAM patch up their grievances and work together to bring you this month’s CRASHBACK on the highlights of issue 8.

GAMES REVIEWED

Blackhawk

Micro Olympics

Match Point

Stage Coach

BLACK HAWK

Creative Sparks

The time is in the future, the place is a group of heavily defended islands. You fly your Black Hawk aircraft and your mission is to seek and destroy the enemy airfields and missile launching sites. The task is made all the harder by tanks, anti-aircraft guns, helicopter gunships plus many other things that only appear if you get to a certain point in the game. Your aircraft has a computer attack system which features a two screen display — the defence screen and the attack screen. In the attack screen a small yellow U at the bottom indicates vertical position and a white cross sight may be moved over targets. When this sight goes red a missile is automatically fired towards it to detonate the target. This can be used to destroy ground installations, tanks and flying targets. If a tank or a flying target or an enemy missile reach the base of the screen the computer automatically switches to the defence screen. On this screen you can actually see your Black Hawk aircraft, which is at the base of the screen, and you must destroy the on-coming enemies with your cannon before they get you. Success at this returns you to the attack screen.

At the end of a mission you are given an Optimum Target Percentage Figure (OTPF), this is calculated by how many enemy installations you have successfully destroyed. If this percentage is high enough then you will be given additional weaponry. This can also be removed if on your next mission your percentage isn’t high enough.

At the time Black Hawk was released it was a very good shoot em up but by today’s standards it seems to be just above average. The graphics while they do their job aren’t perfect but the sound is still reasonable. Black Hawk is still quite addictive and as with most other shoot em ups it is instantly playable but for me it just seems a bit dated. If you really like shoot em ups then it’s worth buying, otherwise you might as well stick to Moon Cresta.
RC

Black Hawk is still one of the best shoot em ups around in my opinion. Okay, the graphics aren’t the best in the world but the game is so addictive you don’t mind. The biggest advantage Black Hawk has over many other games is that it is instantly playable and what’s more it doesn’t wear off after a while. The sound is quite good especially the tune at the end of a bombing run. Overall still a good shoot em up which makes an enjoyable alternative to all those arcade adventures and platform games.
LM

Use of computer

91%

Graphics

89%

Playability

95%

Getting started

92%

Addictive qualities

95%

Value for money

87%

Overall

92%

(Rob) Most of the ratings should go down by about 10―15%, except perhaps the use of computer and playability which should go down by about 5%. This game hasn’t survived the test of time at all well, I think that its graphics let it down the most, otherwise a reasonable shoot em up.

(Lloyd) I disagree, only the graphics rating should go down by about 10% the rest can stay the same. It is still very enjoyable and definitely worth buying.

MICRO OLYMPICS

Database

Micro Olympics is an adaptation of the well known arcade game, ‘Track and Field’. There are 11 events to choose from, 5 running events, which include 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 metres, 3 throwing events, javelin, discus and hammer and 3 jumping events, long jump, high jump and pole vault.

The running events are controlled in the usual manner, by waggling the joystick left to right. In each running event you compete against the computer and the clock. Most of the events require three keys to be defined before starting. The computer goes first on all the field events to show how it is done, you then take part to see if you can beat the computer and create a new world record.

Micro Olympics was the first good ‘Track and Field’ game on the Spectrum, all the previous efforts seem to feature boring little stick men as the main characters. The graphics are quite poor but they do serve their purpose. Sound is also poor but colour is used quite well. The game has a few nice features, try releasing the hammer or discus at the wrong moment. If you like ‘Track and Field’ games it is not really worth getting Micro Olympics now because it is very dated.
RC

When Micro Olympics was first released we hadn’t been treated to the wonders of the track-and-field-destroy-your-keyboard type games before and this was quite novel. For its time it was a pretty, decent game, the graphics were well above average and the animation was quite good. If Micro Olympics was released now I fear it would get a hostile reception from the reviewers because it looks very tacky when compared against today’s cream of the games, although the colour is quite well used. This is certainly not addictive because it doesn’t have a proper scoring system like Daley’s Decathlon so there are no goals to aim for. The playability isn’t too bad but the game soon loses its appeal. Overall a pretty run-of-the-mill game by today’s standards.
LM

Use of computer

79%

Graphics

76%

Playability

78%

Getting started

79%

Addictive qualities

74%

Value for money

75%

Overall

77%

(Rob) Most of the ratings should go down by about 10% or more except perhaps the Getting Started and Use of Computer. Overall Micro Olympics is quite dated now but for its time it was very good.

(Lloyd) I’m afraid I have to agree with Rob for once (is this the end of an era?) Micro Olympics is no longer worth forking out for.

MATCH POINT

Psion

Match Point is a 3D tennis simulation that can be played with one or two players. The view of the green court is from the commentator’s box. At the back of the court is the scoreboard showing all the relevant details about games, sets and matches. On the right hand side of the court is the umpire and on either side of the net are the ball boys.

The game closely follows the rules of lawn tennis, a match being played over three or five sets and the winner winning two or three sets respectively. You must win at least 6 games and have a two game lead to win a set. If both players win six games then a tie break comes into being automatically except in the final set when play continues until one player has at least a two game lead. Scoring, changing ends and service all follow the accepted rules of lawn tennis.

The game can be controlled by either keys or joysticks, the fire button being used to serve, to change racket swing and hit the ball. The height of the ball and its speed are determined by how the ball is hit and with what swing.

Match Point was incredibly advanced for its time, it still outshines many of today’s sports simulations. The graphics and animation of the players and the ball are superb, the only niggle being on first playing the game you tend to think there are two balls because of the shadow. There isn’t much sound but you get so engrossed that you forget all about it. Quite a bit of skill is required to gain full control over your character but as with all games practice makes perfect. If you like sports simulations then this is certainly worth buying.
RC

Match Point is THE tennis simulation for the Spectrum. Even by today’s standards it is a very good game. The graphics are excellent and put many recently released simulations to shame. It takes a while to get used to the way you control your character but once you have sussed it out it becomes quite easy. Addictive qualities are quite hard to judge on sports simulations of this kind because you can play two player games which means that you can always have plenty of competition but if your opponent is useless at the game then you can get bored of it. Of course you can play against the computer but it is only a matter of time before you can beat it on the harder levels of play. Match Point should go down as one of the Spectrum classics, it is a pity that Psion don’t release more games.
LM

Use of computer

87%

Graphics

92%

Playability

90%

Getting started

87%

Addictive qualities

92%

Value for money

86%

Overall

89%

(Rob) Looking at the rating now I am tempted to put the Use of Computer up by about 5% because you can cater for most joysticks with user definable keys. I am also tempted to put the Overall up by about 2% because I think it is a great game that is well worth buying.

(Lloyd) I wouldn’t quarrel with the ratings at all. Match Point is simply a classic!

STAGE COACH

Creative Sparks

The driver of the San Pedro stage coach has been shot! The object of the game is to get the stage coach under control, collect the stranded passengers, steer a safe route through the treacherous Sierra Peligrosa mountains while collecting the gold, avoid the Comanche indians and finally arrive at the small mining town of San Pedro.

The first stage, called the Jump, has you riding behind the San Pedro stage coach and you must ride up behind it and climb on board. Once on the roof you must crawl to the front and grab the reins. With this done you must steer through the desert avoiding cacti and picking up the waiting passengers. If you fail to pick up a passenger they will jump up and down angrily or even worse — you may run over them!

Once enough passengers have been picked up the game moves on to the next stage, the Sierra Peligrosa mountains. Here you steer through the mountains without receiving too much damage. You must pick up the boxes of Gold or ammunition while avoiding the deadly rock slides. All these details can be seen on the map facility.

The last section is all on the indian plains. The indians go into a formation that hems you in while another indian attempts to climb onto the back of your coach to either kidnap one of your passengers or yourself. Your only defence is to climb onto the stage coach’s roof and try to shoot the indians.

Stage Coach never actually grabbed me when it was first released, looking at it now I’m not surprised. The graphics are a bit small for my liking though there is quite a bit of detail. Both colour and sound are used well but for me the game isn’t addictive enough. Within a couple of games it is possible, on the lower levels, to get near to completion. Overall a pretty bad to average game today.
RC

Hmmmm, this is a bit of a tricky game to judge, the graphics are poor by today’s standards but strangely enough it is quite playable and kept me amused for a while. As with many games the idea may be good but the implementation suffers, normally because the graphics aren’t good enough. Of the three stages the first and last are probably graphically the better and the more playable of the three, the mountain stage lets the game down tremendously. I found the game quite playable for a while but I don’t think I will lose any sleep over it. To sum up; not exactly good but I have seen a lot worse, let’s just say ‘average’.
LM

Use of computer

89%

Graphics

75%

Playability

73%

Getting started

89%

Addictive qualities

72%

Value for money

76%

Overall

79%

(Rob) Most of the ratings except the Use of Computer and Getting Started should go down by about 10% especially the Addictive Qualities, which should go down by about 15%.

(Lloyd) I agree (this is getting to be a habit!), Stage Coach does become tedious after a while and isn’t really worth buying unless you’ve played it before and know you like it.

N·E·W·S   I·N·P·U·T

SINCLAIR IN TROUBLE?

Shock, horror, probe, drama, crisis...

In the last few weeks the papers have been full of tales of Sinclair woe. How the company is in trouble over a fifteen million pound overdraft, how the bottom is falling out of the home computer market and how the people making the C5 have gone back to assembling washing machines.

The Sun has to win the spot prize for grossest incompetence, for describing the C5 as an ‘open topped, battery-powered four wheeler’ under a banner headline of ‘SINCLAIR TRIES TO SELL OFF C5 TRIKE’. Well done lads, keep on taking the photos of naked ladies. It’s what you’re good at...

The official line from Sinclair, reported in the Financial Times, was that the company was aiming to raise £10 to £15 million ‘to fund long-term growth and restructuring plans’.

It’s clear that Sinclair Research is experiencing some financial difficulties. £30 million pounds worth of stocks are being held, and Thorn EMI and Timex have extended credit to Sinclair to aid cash flow problems. Two and half million pounds have been written off by Sinclair Research as a result of the price cuts made after Christmas in combination with returns, and a further million pound loss was incurred by the demise of Prism — which apparently caused such major problems to the company, that Sinclair is still trying to work out quite what went where.

Ten percent of Sinclair Research was sold to shareholders a couple of years ago for 13.5 million, and even the most mathematically untalented could work out that the share sale valued the whole company at £135 million. Recently a report in The Guardian placed a value of £20 million on the whole company.

Problems with the QL can’t have helped the predicament that the City now feels Sinclair is in. It seems that components for 50,000 QL’s were ordered before prototyping, and somewhere in the vaults of Sinclair Research there are presumably 50,000 little batteries that were once intended to provide back-up to the internal QL clock. And there are probably quite a few 128K chips going spare for similar reasons, which may have prompted recent speculation about a 128K Spectrum.

Not so daft, really, given that Sinclair Research may well have a significant quantity of suitable silicon lying around. 128K of paged RAM wouldn’t require a vast investment in time or money: the TMS2068 had paging ROM and RAM can be paged in the same way. And remember, Interface 1 pages the ROM...

Admittedly, the Spectrum BASIC interpreter uses 16 bit pointers, which means the maximum amount of RAM that can be addressed in BASIC is 64K, but such problems could be avoided in machine code.

Word has also reached us of the LC-3, ‘the ZX84 that never was’. Apparently the LC-3 was an abandoned Sinclair prototype which ran on the Z80 processor, like the Spectrum, and had a QDOS ROM, which mean that QL software could be compiled down to run on it as all the system calls were the same. With a built-in, double mapped screen (which meant that 1 byte rather than the Spectrum’s 8, is needed to display a character), and a microdrive the LC-3 could have, and who knows, could well still catch on.

And one shouldn’t forget that the Pocket TV is out and about — over 1,000 independent dealers have taken it on, and Dixons are currently doing a whizzo deal, packaging a Pocket TV, Spectrum Plus and 6 games, and ZX Printer. Yes ZX Printer... all that lot for £199.00.

Meanwhile the rumours are still flying: is Sir Clive trying to raise cash by selling Sinclair Vehicles? Will he raise £15 million from the City, which is populated by ‘sheep’ as one high powered accountant recently put it ‘who follow each other blindly, even if it means pushing someone over a cliff’? Speculation is, as usual, rife, but the official Sinclair line as we write is that Sir Clive is not about to step down, and is looking to raise money for further development work.

All, no doubt will be revealed shortly in the continuing saga of manic panic in the micro-computer industry....

NOT SO MUCH A SHORTAGE ... MORE A RACE?

A mole gets in touch, muttering darkly about there only being two machines in the whole world capable of making blank microdrive cartridges. The conversation continues, and we are told that when the order was given by some financial wizard to cut back on QL production at Chateau Sinclair, the microdrive cartridge manufacture was also cut back, demonstrating a slight lack of understanding, given that the price had just been cut drastically.

Was our mole accurate? We rang Terry Blood Distribution, announcing that we were from CRASH and learn that no, there isn’t really a shortage. ‘We’ve sold 518 4-packs today, and still have 212 in stock, and we’ve currently got 111 of the 100-packs for software houses... they do tend to come in and go out very quickly, and some people are being greedy. If we receive a cheque with an order, once the cheque’s cashed we have an obligation to fill it as quickly as possible, but no, there’s not a shortage. They just come in and go out quickly’. Thank you very much we say, and have a little chat about life, the universe and CRASH before ending the conversation.

Being trained in the art of investigative journalistic practices, we then telephone TBD again, this time asking for ‘Sales’ and enquiring about the availability of microdrive cartridges from the point of view of a customer. The lady (this time) explains that they have got the cartridges in stock today, but the chances are that the remaining 4-packs will have gone within 24 hours. ‘They’re difficult to get hold of,’ she says, ‘If you place an order, we’ll put it on hold and you might have to wait up to two and a half weeks.’ Hmmm.

A similar ’phone call to Lightning elicits the information that they only sell the single cartridges, and that they do have stocks at present. ‘If you want to place an order I’d do it very quickly,’ the lady says, ‘people do order hundreds at a time’. Double Hmmm.

But then there has been a heavy demand, occasioned partly by the price reduction and by the need for microdrive cartridges for the QL application packages produced in languages other than English for the export market. Spanish, for instance... and translations for ten other languages are well under way. So, one supposes, our mole was sort of right.

LICENCE GAZUMPING

The battle for grabbing licences to produce games is hotting up, the latest round of deals with Spanish software house Dinamic having caused considerable confusion between Gremlin Graphics and Silversoft/CRL. As Lloyd Mangram reports in ‘Merely ...’, both companies are planning to release games licenced from Dinamic, but what he doesn’t say is that Silversoft thought they had an agreement with the Spaniards to release not only Saimazoom and Baba Liba but also Rocky and Profanation. An agreement was thought to have been reached only a matter of days before Ian Stewart of Gremlin Graphics announced that he had effectively ‘gazumped’ Silversoft on the latter two games. Ian Ellery, Software Development Manager for the CRL Group which is ‘affiliated’ to Silversoft, said that he was disappointed in the turnabout and surprised, since they had had a long association with Dinamic.

With competition becoming so ferocious, running a software house begins to look more like an arcade game every day...

MORE MODEM MANIA

In the last issue of Tech Niche we promised you a review of Spectrum modems. On the face of it that was a little bold, not only because there are so many modems about but also because the manufacturers of them are either a) mean b) hard to find c) don’t want to be found or d) they never really had a modem in the first place.

Anyway enough excuses. We did manage to decide on the two most important modems to review in this issue and we’ll pass over the other for the meantime.

The VTX 5000 and the Protek 1200 modems are both front runners simply because they provide an uncomplicated means of communicating with Prestel or, perhaps more importantly Micronet, at a reasonable cost. These two modems are limited because they do not provide the facilities that would allow you to communicate easily with every sort of on line computer there is — there are modems that do, but generally they cost a lot more and are more complicated to set up. When we reach the stage of examining hobbyist bulletin boards and specialist databases we shall also examine some of the kit that is needed to make those connections. But they will have to wait for a future Niche.

To begin to explain why modem compatibility is nearly as big a laugh as computer software compatibility, it is necessary to take a look at the workings of modems. As stated in the last issue Modem is simply a shortened form of MOdulator DEModulator. We all know that computers hump information around internally as representations of one’s and zero’s. Computers really aren’t that smart: to a computer life is very simple, a situation is either black or white, on or off, one or zero. All this means is that if a computer wants to tell somebody that it knows The Answer it can’t simply shout out ‘forty two’, well it can, but only because the computer knows how to turn its version of ‘forty two’, 101010, into our version of ‘forty two’ — 42.

So if one computer wants to chat to another computer it will do so in a signal representing binary numbers, and all that the modem does is to take the binary message and turn it into a form that can be sent down a standard telephone line. Fed with data in serial rather than parallel form, all a modem does is convert characters into sequences of notes for transmission, and decode incoming signals which have been sent down the telephone line, assemble them into characters and hand them over to its host computer.

In the case of the basic Spectrum, which doesn’t have a RS232 port fitted as standard, you either need to get hold of a modem which connects directly to the edge connector and sorts out the interfacing problem for itself, or use a suitable RS232 interface for your Spectrum which should allow you to connect it to any modem. The RS232 interface provided on Interface 1 isn’t up to the job, although people are rumoured to be working on that problem.

Once you’ve got a modem attached to a Spectrum and working, the next problem is to make sure that it is compatible with the modem at the other end of the line. They must both talk the same language in order to hold a successful conversation. A number of variables are involved, the two most important of which concern the speed with which the signal is sent and the pitch of the notes used.

In Europe we have two main standards. CCITT V.21 which is for 300/300 baud communications, and the V.23 for 1200/75. The baud rate is a measure of the speed at which data is transmitted. Typically, 300 baud represents a rate of about 30 characters a second, while 1200 baud is about the fastest speed of transmission achievable on a normal telephone line, and works out at about three lines of text on the Spectrum screen per second.

The V.21 standard is used by most hobbyist bulletin boards and on-line services. If you want a modem to talk to these chaps then it must be able to adopt that standard (neither the VTX or the Protek can). The most widely used standard now being used by Spectrum owners, due largely to Micronet, is the 1200/75 baud V.23. This is the standard adopted by Prestel which sends frames at 1200 baud and receives instructions at 75 baud. It was this standard that the VTX and Protek modems were designed to use. Some bulletin boards cater for 1200/75 communications, however, and user-to-user communication is also possible with these modems.

If you have a burning desire to go truly international and communicate with systems in the USA or Canada, then you will have to consider yet another range of standards. The American Bell 103 is similar to our V.21 and the Bell 202 is like our Prestel (V.23) standard except that Bell uses different pitches to CCITT systems. Modems are around that can switch between all these different standards — but at a price. We hope to bring you news of one of these, the new Miracle Modems Spectrum version soon. There’s no point on lashing out on super whizzo (and expensive) hardware if your main interest is in talking to Prestel and Micronet, however.

Apart from the communications software needed to drive the modem itself and sort out such housekeeping problems as word length and parity so that the receiving modem on a system is sent what it expects to receive, a further problem can arise from lack of compatibility with software. Clearly the computer that you want to talk to and your computer both need software to organise a multitude of functions be it simply transmitting chunks of text to another computer or sending a message to a mailbox on a large system.

The problem is that each computer has a different view of the outside world. For example, problems may be caused by incompatible character sets. Prestel would never understand what a Spectrum SYMBOL SHIFT keypress was meant to mean, but software converts it to be sent as a star — that’s fine because the Prestel machine knows that the star means an instruction is on it’s way. Saves a lot of argument and down time with grumpy computers does the software.

Remember that no matter how smart a modem is, without the software it’s just a pile of chips and capacitors. The software that comes with the VTX and the Protek modems is able to convert the Spectrum’s output into a form understood by Prestel, and a few more clever tasks besides.

The Prism VTX 5000
Supplier: Modem House
Price: £49.95

This modem really seems to have become the standard for clever people (a recent survey shows that most clever people own Spectrums Source: SEOS 1985). The principal advantages with the VTX are two fold. Firstly the software is held on ROM (read only memory) which means the machine is raring to go on power up so time is saved especially when, as often happens, your connection with the mainframe is broken and you have to re-set the Speccy. The second advantage is that the modem is hard wired, plugging into the phone socket and then the phone plugs into the back of the modem. This greatly reduces the chances of the modem being interfered with by outside noises! The software has most of the functions that you could need including automatic log on and off. Micronet frames can be saved to tape or microdrive and printed out, you are able to download the software or compile messages off line loaded to tape ready to be sent when you are on line. The VTX can be used as a user to user modem to allow you to communicate with other users so long as the same V.23 standard is observed. Other software is available for the machine which allows you contact databases and bulletin boards that use the same speeds but transmit text in a rolling form as opposed to screen by screen. Specnet by Stephen Adams costs £5.95 and a similar package by Stephen Gold can be downloaded from Micronet for a small charge.

The Protek 1200
Supplier: Protek and high street shops
Price: £39.95

The battery powered Protek machine is £10 cheaper than the VTX, but it presents the disadvantages of having to load the software into your machine before you can go on line. Also, the modem is acoustically coupled, which can give you some very undignified moments as you try to squidge your handset into the two rubber cups. If you have a trimfone or a phone in a style other than the traditional one then forget it, but being battery powered the modem has certain portability advantages (only really advantageous when you get your Spectrum running off batteries too, though!) While the software is as useful as that of the VTX it is not as easy to use since some functions require you to load in the odd chunk. If you want to use the modem user to user you have to agree which one of you is to be the original sender and who is to receive and then load in the appropriate code. With the VTX modem you only have to slide a switch.

Conclusion

In my opinion the extra £10 for the VTX modem is more than justified. It is easier to use and simple to set up, it is moderately idiot proof as well as being neat and tidy when in operation. The only advantage that the Protek may have is that the acoustic coupler could, in theory, be used with any computer that can supply it with RS232 input providing you can write, buy or scrounge the appropriate software to drive it.

GETTING IT ON MICRODRIVE

Interface 3
Supplier: Evesham Micro Centre
Retail price: £39.95

By now you will have seen a few ads from the chaps at Evesham Micro Centre claiming that they can sell you a machine that transfers any program to microdrive. Well we wouldn’t blame you if you took it with a bucket of salt: We did. I mean to say transfer any software, get past all protection? come on chaps.

Evesham Micro are not exaggerating, Interface 3 will load every game from tape to microdrive, with no exceptions. CRASH technospert Franco Frey tells me that the actual electronics in the box are pretty old hat, not to say cheap, but the way the thing has been worked out makes it a masterpiece. To transfer (please note fanatical avoidance of the word copy!) a program follow nine simple steps:

1. Attach Interface 3 to Spectrum
2. Load game
3. Find place in game where it naturally pauses (eg stops to display score)
4. Push red button
5. Insert blank tape and hit any key
6. Watch file save
7. Take off interface and load the transfer software
8. Follow prompts to load the game file
9. Follow prompts to save file with new header to microdrive.

That’s it. The whole operation can take less than fifteen minutes and what you get at the end is a perfect microdrive version of the game that starts from where you stopped it.

The device is totally passive until you press the button, so no game can detect its presence. None of those smart anti-hacking methods will work because you don’t have to load the game from the start — so they may as well not be there.

The software supplied with the interface even checks through the loading screens for hidden machine code, if there isn’t any then why waste space saving the pretty piccy? One other useful little trick the box can perform is to take a snapshot of whatever is on the screen. When you press the button, that screen is then saved as a SCREEN$.

At nearly £40 Interface 3 is a considerable investment but as it seems to beat all other transfer systems hands down it is a certain method of getting your favourite games onto microdrive and thus onto your computer in a much faster time. Since you have paid out so much for those anyway, and many software houses seem to do little to help you utilise them, it must be considered a worthwhile investment.

LEONARDO

Producer: Creative Sparks
Author: Mark Stoll, Clive Thomas, Peter Chandler
Price: £9.95

FRANCO FREY, now fast becoming a leading authority on how to draw things on a computer screen, concludes his review of the Creative Sparks utility that aims to turn you into an artistic genius....

LEONARDO PART 2

Having got rid of the general drawing facilities of LEONARDO in the last issue of Crash, several of the more exotic routines such as windowing and the programmed drawing facility can be examined. Leonardo must be the most comprehensive drawing utility for the Spectrum, offering a multitude of options which might or might not prove useful to the user. Careful examination should avoid any disappointment as to how useful all the various functions are and should also provide some help in assessing the performance of the competition.

WINDOWING AND PICTURE ELEMENTS

A window may be defined in the picture by setting the two opposing corner points of the frame. The lower left corner is set in cursor mode by pressing key 2 with the cursor in the desired position, the top right corner with key 3. To display the edge of the window key 4 will provide a black frame. Key G will save the window element into the computer memory as picture number 1. To recall at a later stage the stored picture, key 4 will reveal the window. Key N is pressed and the desired picture number entered. The program then prompts for the display mode. This can be either print, add, common or difference, executing either replace, logic or, logic and and exclusive or operations with the existing pixels within the window. The different modes provide interesting effects and these can be used to advantage. For example logic and (common) can be used to fill solid objects on the screen with any pattern created and saved as a window. The picture element can be used as a brush by setting the x and y steps to the same width and height of the picture element and after having pressed L and toggled the joystick button or 0 the pattern can be painted by moving the cursor over the screen.

MAGNIFYING PARTS OTHER UTILITIES CANNOT REACH

Magnifying makes use of the windowing technique. Only a small area of the screen can be magnified. The program will warn the artist if the area selected is too big. Placing the cursor at the lower left corner and pressing D, moving to the upper right corner and pressing D again will locate the area to be magnified. The cursor is positioned in the receiver area and shift D will initiate proceedings. Prompts for x and y magnification factors must be answered and the program will copy the designated window in magnified form. By magnifying onto the original window area the process can be repeated several times.

UDGS AND PRINTING CHARACTERS

UDGs are created in pixel cursor mode with the use of the plotting or drawing techniques described in part one. Once the graphics have been created, the cursor is positioned at the top left corner of the area to be stored and the cursor step is set to 8 wide by 8 deep. After pressing key T the program prompts for the memory location of the UDGs. This can be either in the Spectrum’s usual UDG area A-U, or into the main store which can hold up to 774 characters (select any of 1-774 start positions). X and Y block size is asked for and the graphics are copied into memory. To display the UDGs character cursor mode must be selected and characters printed in graphics mode. This can be done with key P, which sets a line of text or UDGs that is repeatedly printed at the cursor position, or key L which prints a block of UDGs in various ways on the screen. The function prompts for the UDG memory area (A-U or 1-774) and the block size. The block can be inverted horizontally, vertically or not at all by answering prompts and similarly rotated 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees clockwise. In fact by combined use of Save UDG and Print Block any area of the screen may be inverted and or rotated.

PROGRAMMED DRAWING

Leonardo provides a routine drawing of figures and patterns. This programmable feature provides the facility for drawing patterns and shapes, singly or repetitive at linear or non-linear scale expansion, translation and rotation. Key E displays the Draw Table. The Table displays all the parameters which can be set and is also a menu of available options within Programmed Draw. Each parameter can be set in turn or skipped with Enter. Scale sets the initial scale factor for the first drawing operation with the beginning point as origin. Scale increment is the amount added to the X and Y scale factors after each drawing operation. Start gives the relative position to the beginning point of the start of the next drawing process. Link is the point relative to the start point from which successive drawing operations take their beginning point. Displacement is the absolute displacement for each successive drawing operation. Rotation is the initial rotation in degrees of the first drawing operation clockwise about the beginning point. Rotation increment is the additional amount of rotation to successive drawing operations. Cycles is the number of drawing operations to occur automatically. Three different brush modes may be used. A (Picture) is used for picture mode and the picture element together with the mode of drawing (print, add, common or difference) has to be entered. B (Co-ords) is used for figure mode and the first and last coordinate pairs to be used from the Figure Table for the creation of the figure. The Figure Table contains up to 10 coordinate pairs, so that quite complex base figures may be used. The Figure Table may be called up with I. C (Brush Mode) is the mode in which a rectangular brush is used if Brush is selected. The brush size is determined by the scale factors and the mode can be set independently. This can be Plot, Unplot or Invert. 4 drawing modes may be selected. D (Line) will join each cycle with a line. E (Figure) will draw the defined figure at each cycle of the programmed draw. F (Picture) will deposit the defined picture element at each cycle of the function. G (Brush) will draw the rectangular brush at each cycle of the programmed draw. Last there is a Reset option (H) which will reset the first eight parameters to their initial values. Although complex, the programmed draw option is quite fun to use and easily learned. The complexity will guarantee some rather fancy looking graphics, especially if enough time is spent playing with the various parameters.

SCROLLING

Leonardo provides the facility of scrolling the entire picture or only the part within a window. Scrolling in any direction may be accomplished by scrolling in several steps. Picture and attributes are scrolled individually. Scrolling the entire picture may therefore be useful for settling attribute border problems.

TEXTURE

Cover is a function which generates interesting texture. It uses a scrolling technique. The picture is scrolled a distance and in the direction chosen, and copies itself repeatedly filling to the edge of the screen. The entire screen or only the pixel window is ‘covered’ upon selection and after giving the direction of the scroll movement the repetition interval must be entered.

IN CONCLUSION

Leonardo has a tremendous amount of functions to offer and anyone with the doodle bug will get lost in the maze of options provided in this package. The Programmed Drawing Feature alone can keep anyone awake for several nights. As a serious screen development tool for professionals the program is too fancy. Here Melbourne Draw with the excellent magnifying option for detailed pixel work is still unbeatable. But Leonardo aims at a very different user. By providing an immense amount of special functions Leonardo can be seen as a game in its own right, where the user takes a very active and creative role. Leonardo is very user friendly with its many menus and tables. Loading, saving and creating pictures, UDGs or non screen graphics is straight forward and there is a prompt round every corner. Leonardo uses a signalling system to inform the user of the program’s condition. Whenever operating, the program draws a colour coded strip to indicate the state of affairs. This is especially useful for the programmed Draw mode, leaving no doubt as to whether something awful has occurred or not. The 100 page manual is written as a straightforward introduction to all the operations and functions of Leonardo with extensive examples on the Programmed Draw mode. Now, what about all these competition entries....

KEEPING UP WITH THE SIDses

The Dk’Tronics three channel sound synthesiser is a fairly nifty little gadget which, for £30-odd, upgrades your standard BEEPing Spectrum to a machine with sound capabilities comparable to those on a BBC or Amstrad. Based on the AY-3-8912 programmable sound generator chip, the unit comes complete with a plug-in speaker and cassette based software to get you started.

The chip itself has fourteen registers, which may be accessed from the BASIC ‘OUT’ command, and sounds may be controlled on the three channels available. This direct approach is probably not for the beginner, and to avoid total despair on the part of the new user Dk’Tronics have thoughtfully written some software which allows you to interact with the chip by driving a cursor round the screen. Displayed options may be selected with a single key press — or by pressing ‘fire’ if you’ve added a Sinclair or Kempston joystick.

Adding a joystick is advisable, as it makes programming sound effects from the screen menu simplicity itself, as the software is really very slick, taking the pain out of experimentation and allowing the complete novice to start making a respectable racket very quickly!

Using the demo Music Designer software, you are able to program up to three tunes (or sequences of sounds), using all three voices simultaneously and ‘record’ them into memory. Once you’ve set up a voice with the associated parameters of waveform (either tone or noise), enveloping, attack and decay and shape, notes may be entered into memory by moving the cursor up and down a keyboard displayed at the base of the screen and pressing ‘fire’ to enter a given note. As each note is added to your growing composition, it is played back to you, and a simple editing function allows you to space back to the last note added to the stream and delete or change it.

The instruction booklet that comes with the unit is the tiniest bit impenetrable, but all the information you might require to program the unit directly is there. A little time spent experimenting with the demonstration software would certainly pay dividends if you wished to delve into programming the sound chip directly. Most people would probably be quite happy to stay with the software supplied.

One minor niggle with the program is the fact that you cannot immediately hear the effect of changes you make to the wave formations — it’s necessary to keep scampering down to the screen keyboard with the cursor to play a note, which can get a bit frustrating.

The title screen from the Sound Generator’s musical software. Plug a joystick in and drive the cursor around to assemble your tune.

The unit itself, quite naturally, fits onto the edge connector, and sound is output via a minijack socket on the top of the unit, which has a little volume knob for you to twiddle. Don’t be surprised if you soon get disappointed with the effect of twiddling this knob when the speaker supplied is connected — the output level is little short of wimpy, and is better suited to headphones. Connecting the output to your stereo is also a viable option, especially if you want to hear the delicacies of the envelope shaper, but be careful. It would be fairly easy to damage your speakers if you don’t watch the volume level.

From the musical point of view, the unit is definitely a lot of fun, but it is not really capable of generating the more complex sounds that a musician might expect. The attack and decay isn’t quite true to form, altering the pitch of sounds rather than the amplitude (volume), which is a little naughty, and not the way a true music synthesiser works. Similarly, the manner in which the wave forms are manipulated by the envelope is interesting, but not really conducive to really first rate music synthesis.

To be perfectly fair, the unit is sold and described as a sound synthesiser, and for the purpose of experimenting and generating interesting sounds (which may be incorporated into your own software), the package represents good value and is well supported by the Music Designer software. If tuneful and more complex sounds are your goal, the Dk’Tronics package could prove a bit of a let down.

However, if you are thoroughly bored with the possibilities of BEEP, and want to go a stage further in computer sound generation, the facilities offered by the sound Synthesiser will allow you into the same league as BBC and Amstrad owners. If you really want to be a computer musician, then there’s probably not much of an alternative to lashing out on a Commodore 64, which contains a very smart custom sound chip by the name of SID!

A WALK IN THE PARK

FOR SOME TIME now one aspect of adventuring has become ever more prominent in my mind as I’ve walked through a local park. This park has a river flowing through it, buildings of some interest, both genuine historical structures and more fanciful follies, alongside the traditional embellishments of a city park — layers of flowers of every hue lining sinuous pathways. What struck me on my stroll was the realisation that every device needed to fill an adventure lay not in a darkened room festooned with the latest bits of microcomputer hardware, but out there in the sunshine and sudden summer rain. Why not base an adventure on this very park? This got me thinking about adventuring and microcomputing and where it was all going. Why indeed had adventures come to be based upon myth, legend and fantasy when they could concern themselves with the real world and all its infinite variety and natural abundance.

I noticed a little while ago an artist featured in CRASH went to all the trouble of obtaining a real specimen before attempting to draw an ant. Rightly, the artist judged no better feel for the subject could be infused into his work than that derived from the real thing. So it is with novelists. Authors, even when they can’t visit the real location which provides the backdrop to their book rely upon the most authentic second-hand accounts they can find, such as tourist guides, street maps and other novels, and by so doing, enrich the final draft.

Adventures, until greater memory and perhaps finer resolution can produce more meaningful graphics, are closely related to the short novel and it is nothing short of amazing that no-one has attempted to write an adventure which deals with a real life structure or situation. Surely there is an area between frivolous amusement and erudite education where microcomputing can play a part in broadening our whole perception of where studying and work finish and leisure and relaxation begin? It seems only fair that microcomputers should cushion the bumps along the road of social upheaval which leads to the revolutionary world of computers and robots (remember them? They were all the rage on Afternoon Plus about two years ago when discussing the future seemed like a good idea).

How about an adventure where the subject matter concerns itself with a real Scottish castle and a story which gives an authentic rendition of its history? Or perhaps it could traverse a real park (say Hyde Park in London, Central Park in New York or your local Jesmond Dene) whereby at the end of the adventure the player has not only enjoyed an entertaining game but has also picked up the rudiments of some tourist spot.

Two games this month had me thinking even more about the possibilities. Although I do not know for certain, I think an Arendarvon Castle does not truly exist in NW Scotland, and when considering the layout of the submarine in Sub Sunk I find it hard to believe the author has consulted any reputable works on the subject of submarines or their internal design. It is hard to imagine indeed any author embarking on a novel concerning submarine warfare without first consulting the facts so freely available to anyone with the time and tenacity to unearth them. By and large, considering the high standard of published novels, most authors look on research as an essential prelude to writing itself. It is my hope that adventure authors will consider carefully their subject matter and what relevance it might have.

ARENDARVON CASTLE

Producer: Addison-Wesley Productions
Author: Hal Renko, Sam Edwards, Arend Rensink
Price: £5.70

Playing adventure games can become quite monotonous at times when each has the same ingredients and, in some cases, the same problems. So it was with a certain especial relish I loaded up this game which promises something a little different from the rest. The point is this game is so different that for £5.95 you don’t load it up — you type it in! It is a book (or just a book if you want to be derogatory about it). However, should the thought of typing machine code listings into your Spectrum fill you with horror, you can additionally buy a cassette with the programming already done for you. Hence we have a Micro-world Adventure for the ZX Spectrum from the book publishers Addison-Wesley with an International Standard Book Number.

This game is a noble attempt to totally immerse the player in the world of Arendarvon Castle supposedly situated in the far NW of Scotland. You play the role of a journalist who has disappeared while investigating the strange past of the castle. At your disposal are the numerous newspaper cuttings and magazine articles detailing its mysterious past along with a guide which includes detailed pictures of both the inside and outside of the fortress. Set against the desolate, barren but wildly beautiful highlands the castle is at once imposing, impregnable and invincible.

The rather substantial and crisply produced book contains a great deal to keep the player occupied for some time. A brief introduction leads you on into the journalist’s article itself which tells of how the journalist, speaking aloud a timeless riddle, finds himself transported to the castle within — a world of magic and wondrous happenings. A tall man dressed in a fantastic cloak and tall hat speaks to the journalist with a rich musical voice. It is Zazar the Great, most powerful of the ancient Order of Magicians. He relates how by uttering the riddle aloud the journalist has committed himself to a quest beyond his imagining. ‘Your task is this,’ he goes on, ‘to retrieve the all-powerful cube of magic and the subtle spells associated with it’. The balance in equilibrium between the simple laws of Earth Science and the higher laws of alchemy can only be restored by regaining the cube of magic.

A Guide to Arendarvon Castle follows detailing its history along with the pertinent facts concerning The Library, The Armoury, The Bedroom, The Great Hall, The Chapel and The Sitting-Room. Reading these sections is vital for your understanding of this game as within is much that will help you distinguish those areas most helpful to your quest. A whole section is devoted to James Douglas, a most celebrated sorcerer and instrumental alchemist, who once inhabited the castle and created the magic sign and alphabet where the letters themselves are a reservoir of The Force.

The second part of the book concerns itself with playing the adventure and begins with a super summary of the difficulties crafting an adventure game can present, the chief one being communication. This project has chosen a sensible solution to the user-friendliness problem: it lists very precisely which words can be used and how and when they are most useful. A definitive list of 8 spells (eg Reveal, Charm, Disclose) is followed by the commands listed under subheadings such as Door-Handling Commands (Open, Close, Lock, Unlock, Strike) and Object-Handling Commands (Take, Drop, Give, Put, Strike, Use). Each of these words is given the full treatment in order to dispel any remaining ambiguity. How about this description for TAKE. Syntax: Object-class, Effect: The object comes into your possession, on condition it is not too heavy for you to carry, if it is a fluid, you drink it; if the object can be worn you put it on, Examples: take sword, take the coat. This detail is shown for each and every word which can be used in this adventure and although it may seem at first long-winded proves in practice to add considerably to its playability.

If you know anything of my views of adventuring you might guess that I most welcome this kind of detail. It releases the players from hours of tedious word-matching and gets them straight into the more enjoyable aspects of exploring the fantasy world before them. It is some indication of the thought put into this game when the authors have tackled the absurdity of being able to pick up objects of varying weights with the same ease. Here this problem is tackled by insisting on a considerable forfeit of strength whenever a heavy object is picked tip. On buying this book a far more pressing problem may surpass all others. The task of typing in the program is an onerous one but is made more bearable by splitting the workload up into 7 sections, one for each day of the week, and an error-check which is better than that for BASIC.

But of course, if you feel flush enough to pay Addison-Wesley the additional £5.70 for the tape, you can enter the world of Arendarvon Castle immediately and in the normal way. Incidentally, although the book is sold on its own, the cassette is not; this is, after all, an attempt to involve the adventurer in the process as well as the game. But the radical approach of this game and its unrivalled documentation may just make the program inputting labours worthwhile as the game has a special flavour and atmosphere all of its own. Arendarvon Castle is only available direct from Addison-Wesley Publishers Limited.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: moderate
Graphics: none
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: instant
Special features: program typed in from book (optional)
General Rating: Quite good.

Atmosphere

8/10

Vocabulary

6/10

Logic

9/10

Addictive Quality

9/10

Overall Value

7.5/10

ASHKERON!

Producer: Mirrorsoft Ltd
Author: Texgate Computers Ltd
Price: £5.95

I suppose I could sink this review on its launch by saying something silly like if you’re bright you’ll get the Mirrorsoft but, don’t worry, I won’t say anything of the sort.

Ashkeron is notable for its huge size, its unique walk-through graphic system which gives the feel of wandering through a castle, and also, its conspicuous lack of the kind of puzzles which so engaged the early adventurers weaned on Artic games. However, this game is no walkover and the more you play it the more involved you become as it builds consistently upon the charming little world it creates.

Ashkeron is the name of the principality where a Princess Zeraphina lies weeping on account of her forthcoming marriage being held up by the absence of five treasures bequeathed for the well being of the peoples of Ashkeron. The curse of the wizard in the nearby castle will be complete unless her dowry can be wrested from his grasp. What is needed is a powerful and resourceful man, say a blacksmith, to go and sort out this evil magician and, if he should return in one piece, who knows, he might get to marry the princess and start up his own foundry (sorry folks, someone left that journalese machine on — it’s off now and the rest will make complete sense, I promise). At the crack of dawn on the day of the Spring Equinox, the people accompany Stephen (that’s you, the blacksmith) to the gates of the wizard’s castle. Suddenly, the sky darkens, lightning flashes and a clap of thunder bursts overhead. The skies clear and the panic subsides but Stephen is now on his own.

There are two options from which to choose on loading; a standard version or a randomised version. It is some measure of just how interesting this game is to say that the standard game proved quite surprising enough without having to resort to random elements. That said, it’s good to be offered a second option where the objects are scattered randomly and the game different every time. An added interest is the competition run by Mirrorsoft to find an adventurer of the month who will be the player to produce the highest score for each month until Feb 86. £25 in cash each month awaits the player with sufficient wit and diligence to achieve the month’s best.

The first frame, funnily enough, brings just the sort of puzzle so rare in the remainder of the adventure whereby either it gets solved or you’re left wandering excluded from where it’s all happening. Here you might guess your quest lies across the drawbridge and through the portcullis rather than in the forests that surround the castle. One little tip at this crucial point for those who end up buying screw-in light bulbs or bags of minted peas, or who can be relied upon to put their feet in it — don’t fool around switching the sound off with QUIET half way through this delicate problem otherwise you’ll be back on the wrong side of the drawbridge before you can say SOGAT82. Best to leave any fine adjustment until safely ensconced within the castle.

Moving east you notice the perfectly adequate and sometimes rather good graphics which only occasionally stretch the imagination too far toward the abstract. A distasteful smell naturally pervades the stables and the stable boy warns that the horse here is very frisky. Exploring the castle further you will come to realise cold, damp towers mark the NE, SE, SW, and NW corners of the building and their heights afford access to the upper and lower levels. Exploring the second level above might be better left till later as it is guarded by sentinels who pose little threat while you are on the move but are only effectively, and finally, dealt with once certain knowledge has been gathered elsewhere (you know, not being able to give away clues causes this column to make about as much sense as instructions for self-assembly furniture). Much more of an immediate threat are the small whispering winged creatures which grasp and lift you high into the air. These creatures left me stumped time and time again — even when they drop you they grasp again as you struggle in vain to make good your escape. Were this not enough, also wandering about many levels is the green slimy dwarf who slices at you with his magnificent sword while he circles you warily.

A very strong point in favour of this adventure is its making full use of the examine command. EXAM POT in the kitchen gives ‘Bubbling inside is a horrible green liquid in which the odd bone can be seen’ while EXAM BOOK in the library brings forth ‘It is bound in leather and is obviously very old’. (Incidentally, picking up the book makes it difficult to read, and once you get into a position to read it, much haste is recommended). Throughout, examining things will either take you further into the intricacies of the plot or add to your involvement, or enjoyment, as for example, when examining the pictures that line the walls of the art gallery.

It won’t be too long into the game before you meet ‘Suddenly it grows cold... You see a patch of green fog, which, writhing and swirling, transforms into the wizard.’ This passage will mark the beginning of a period of time when everything turns topsy-turvy due to some nasty piece of cunning magic from the wizard. North becomes south, up is down, OPEN is CLOSED and other inversions occur which, if not fully understood, will leave you baffled at your lack of progress. Fortunately, the wizard’s spell fades after a time and is abruptly shortened by changing levels.

Ashkeron! is a real-time adventure which not only involves the ‘time passes’ every 20 seconds (and the occasional graphic of the wizard asking ‘Have you gone to sleep?’ to which the inevitable reply is YES) but also the real threat of being waylaid by a patrolling sentinel or marauding green dwarf overpowering and eventually killing you should you delay. It is highly professional, sophisticated software with many fine features (you can even use a joystick). Its appeal will be very broad due to its open structure, which can be quickly and easily explored even by the most novice of adventurers, and its endearing storyline set within a most impressive and believable castle ensure that in its walls lies a challenge everyone will find interesting and rewarding.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy to get into, not so easy to complete
Graphics: on every location, quite good though a little chunky
Presentation: not bad, the white background is an unfortunate choice
Input facility: basically verb/noun though also allows speech input
Response: very fast
Special features: game plays in real time
General Rating: Good.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

8/10

Logic

8/10

Addictive Quality

8/10

Overall Value

8/10

BORED OF THE RINGS

Producer: Delta 4 Software
Author: Fergus McNeill
Price: £5.95

When I was at tech college taking one or two A levels (makes them sound like long cool drinks which in many ways is what they were) I remember some member of an adjacent peer grouping going on about some great book he had just read entitled something like ‘Bored of the Rings’ which apparently was a send up of the Tolkien classic. I was at that age (and a good age, methinks) when things like Tolkien and Star Trek were such brilliant stars against the dour backdrop of everyday existence (activities like hoovering corduroys and searching for green biros that work) to denigrate, such was the esteem in which they were held. Of course the years have brought their changes (I now regard hoovering corduroys a perfectly respectable recreation) but my increased background cynicism only gently impinges upon these great works as I still largely regard them as timeless classics (Tolkien the incongruity of believable fantasy, Star Trek a fresh, scientifically optimistic, look at the future).

Now you’re thinking, this can hardly be a kindly introduction to a game which satirises Tolkien’s greatest work. Well, despite early reservations, I can say this game is mostly amusing, which you might expect, but further, is true enough to the original to be an interesting version in its own right. To summarize, all the names have been changed but the story’s the same. The booklet which accompanies the program is broader, parodying other such guides which accompany other such programs. The Foreword and Prologue are disarmingly honest concerning the beginnings of this work.

One or two facets of this game mark it out in my mind. One is the submission of my review game on a microdrive — the first so far — and with the occasional shove in the right direction it performed just fine (elaborating on these shoves, however, might weaken microdrive sales)! Another is a letter from Fergus McNeil of Delta 4 to Lloyd, the man who gets the grams, which is about as friendly as my bank manager’s asking me if I should like to ‘service’ my overdraft. All is sweetness and roses when Lloyd gets a mention but I am made out to be the uncaring oaf who delights in stamping on any game that doesn’t come up to the mark and pressing it firmly into the substratum. The annoying thing is it’s all true!

Despite the above, and the mention of a rival magazine in its HELP reply (not many rivals left now) this game has got that little something going for it. The redesigned character set is attractive, the pictures are generally passable and more important, quite fast (though the first is remarkably similar to that of The Hobbit — no — identical were it not for the chest) and the storyline is certainly a very full computer version of the original Tolkien classic. By the way, mentioning the Bored of the Rings book is no less than inflammatory given the aforementioned letter’s express desire not to be associated with the Harvard Lampoon book — whatever that may be.

Working out how the Bored names (and I exclude the mysterious Judith who seems to crop up everywhere) relate to Tolkien’s provides much humorous diversion. Can you sort out some of the following? — Fordo, Bimbo, Spam, Pimply, Murky, Tom Bumbadil. Place names get the same treatment with a Brandname Bridge, for example, looking remarkably like the Forth bridge. Other abbreviations include a Farmer Faggot’s Triffid Farm and a trendy body-popping barrow wight.

Starting the game you are quickly introduced to the humour which pervades the whole, a gentle lampooning which keeps to the character of the Hobbit world itself. Bimbo disappears with a large explosion killing several of his Boggit guests while a little later Bimbo and Gandalf discuss the small task of ridding themselves of the ring ‘and so we’ll need to get some dense lemming to take it and dump it where old eyeball can’t get it.... They both looked at Fordo’. An aspect of play really strikes home early on — the fact that copious amounts of text can be produced simply by pressing any key. This, I am sure, is all part of the send up and makes the game all the more humorous for it. Nothing quite beats that faintly ridiculous feeling you get on discovering how the game allows you onward no matter how clever (or dismal) your attempts — I only hope telling you about this won’t detract from your own feelings of embarrassment.

Bored of the Rings is not as boring as the title might suggest and has obviously been construed by a programmer who enjoyed Tolkien’s original. Its humour is directed both at the world of the hobbit (or Boggit in this case) and more broadly at the whole adventure fraternity. Being someone who has been known to laugh at himself, for example, when munching mint peas and contemplating a pile of screw-in light bulbs, I welcome the opportunity to laugh at the whole fantasy/adventure world in a way which remains true to that world. As if checking the internal temperature of a thick pizza with a carefully inserted index finger (why does this column always degenerate into food)? I make a habit of prodding my way into the uncharted depths of an adventure. This one has three parts. Probing part two I found much to commend confirming what I had suspected — this game has been dutifully constructed and carefully finished.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: mostly quite easy
Graphics: a few but not particularly good
Presentation: nice redefined character set and colours
Input facility: basically verb/noun
Response: instant, except where pictures are drawn
General Rating: Quite good.

Atmosphere

8/10

Vocabulary

7/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

8/10

Overall Value

7.5/10

THE HELM

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Simon Jay
Price: £2.50

The Helm, a text-only Quilled adventure, is another Firebird game on offer at a budget price. The game’s chief characteristic is a curiously verbose approach to the business of communicating with the player. These witty distractions dominate and dictate the character of the game and it is to the extent that you can stomach such incessant loquacity which will decide your opinions on this game. It is a little unfortunate the game combines such a windy style with a redefined character set which is so difficult to read along with curious colour combinations (like the dreaded red on black) as this slows the proceedings to a snail’s pace.

Whatever the criticism that can be levelled at the long-windedness of the dialogue it must be said this game has a distinctive flavour and it would be wrong to assume everyone will find it too much to take. As in all comedy, some lines are really funny while others leave you non-plussed. To give you some idea of what you can expect here is a fair representation of some of the lines you will meet.

‘Upon further opticular contemplation of the immediate surrounding environment I find the following’,

‘What would you have me do next your Brillianceness?’.

‘Thy wish is my command your most eminent eminence. The task has been completely completed Sire’.

‘Give me your next wondrous command oh all intelligent one’.

On cutting a rope loose you are greeted with, ‘It drops to the floor with the distinctive sound that only a rope hitting the ground can make. Hit me with another gem!’. When attempting something foolish, like picking up an object you already have you meet, ‘Far be it for me, a mere servant to criticise such an omnipotent one as you, but I’ve got that!’ or, ‘Although your last command was intellectually superior, I was unable to comply with it’.

You see what I mean — it either drives you potty or you secretly find it rather amusing.

It’s not just the replies which get this treatment, how about this location description? ‘I am standing on a vast mountain plateau with barely anything in sight worth mentioning except an old cigar butt (probably from the same not-so-litter conscious native as found elsewhere), and one tree (probably not the same one as mentioned in the Covenant Chronicles)’.

A lesser, but no less unusual feature of this game, is the sound, where typing a letter creates a noise not unlike that emanating when a pacman gobbles a pep-pill while ENTER finishes it off with one reminiscent of a pacman catching and munching a fleeing ghost. All part of the humour.

There is a bit of the cheap game syndrome about this one which was not so apparent in Sub Sunk which keeps itself to the very precise task of escaping from a sunk sub. The Helm has a small sleepy village adjacent to a barren desert and all the environs occupy just the one location. The overall impression is of an old fashioned game, the sort that was once played in order to gain experience of adventuring with the sure knowledge that better was soon to follow.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: quite difficult
Graphics: none
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: instant
General Rating: Amusing.

Atmosphere

6/10

Vocabulary

5/10

Logic

6/10

Addictive Quality

5/10

Overall Value

6/10

SUBSUNK

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Peter Torrance, Colin Liddle
Price: £2.50

Sub Sunk is one of two cheap offerings from British Telecom’s Firebird label reviewed this month. This is probably the better of the two as it concerns itself with just the one immensely engaging activity — that of escaping from a sub sunk to the bottom of the sea by a surprise enemy attack.

You are Ed Lines a reporter from the Seafarers Gazette on board the Sea Lion assigned to write an in-depth insight into life aboard a modern working sub. An alarm bell rings and before the sub can submerge the crew are overrun by the enemy who fail to find our intrepid reporter hiding under a bunk in the wardroom. Your prime objective now is to get to the telex room to send the message that will bring a rescue party. The message is: sub-sunk.

Up and running, the program has an attractive appearance on a b/w TV, but bright white glares too strongly on a colour set. Since this review is on the whole favourable let’s just say I played the remainder on a b/w set after the glare of the coloured instructions, and in monochrome, all looked well. For an inexpensive Quilled game the graphics are presentable and sometimes rather good (as in the sickbay and the cold store). What’s more, in places like the control room, with its sonar display (and bleeps), and in the reactor compartment, the control panels show some life like the flashing control desks which lined every spare inch aboard the sub in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (‘Captain, a huge octopus has grabbed the ship’, ‘don’t just stand there, melt 10 lbs of oil and serve with a little garlic’).

I must say, for the asking price I thought this game wasn’t at all bad. The logic required to solve one or two of the problems was thin in some places and suspect in others but anyone who has played many adventures can soon get that self-congratulatory glow of satisfaction within a reasonably short space of time as problem after problem bites the dust. The balance between getting somewhere and solving problems is about right and on your travels you will find much to keep you interested and entertained. As you might guess the DDDeep FFFreeze CCCCompartment is rather cccold, so much so you are quickly returned back to the Cold Store before you freeze to a block. Most of the rest is freely accessible right from the off and almost all you care to examine, pull or otherwise fiddle about with causes something to happen, or gives an opportunity for the program to show off some new witticism. In the torpedo handling area PULL LEVER and ‘whoosh! A huge column of air leaves the tube’. In the Control Room EXAM SONAR to find ‘You’re on the sea-bed matey!’. In the Navigation Area you can examine the map but the torn bits left reveal little that’s intelligible. I can’t remember a single location where something new wasn’t discovered with only the most cursory poking around.

Sub Sunk is a much fairer attempt to bring adventuring to the cost-conscious consumer than, say, the offerings from Scorpio reviewed earlier this year. The graphics are by no means minimal — in many locations they add to the atmosphere and make play more enjoyable. Almost everything can be examined and every lever pulled maintaining a high level of involvement throughout. Getting out of this submarine is a challenge and you could do a lot worse than devoting some of your Summer hols pocket money towards having a go.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: moderate
Graphics: on some locations, relatively simple
Presentation: poor, black text on white background and graphics scroll off with text
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: instantaneous
Special features: some sound effects
General Rating: Quite good.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

7/10

Logic

6/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall Value

7.5/10

TINDERBOX

Producer: Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd
Author: Colin C. Chadburn
Price: £4.95

Tinderbox is a Softaid supportive product produced by Gremlin Graphics. All profits will be donated to the Ethiopian Relief Fund. The game comes complete with a whole storybook on tape and has options to select the colours on screen and whether or not to display the pictures.

Tinderbox is a fairytale adventure very much aimed at a young audience and is the story of a common foot-soldier and his rise to become the husband of the beautiful princess, Rowella. On one side of the tape the whole tale is laid out before you so making the game itself that much easier and tells of how Tom, the wounded foot-soldier, leaves hospital with only a sword and five golden guineas to his name. Toying with the idea of turning in his sword at the pawnbrokers he begins to wish he’d listened to his mum and become a Civil Servant.

A fortune teller is much disturbed by his presence as legend has it that the princess, the king’s pride and joy, will end up the bride of a common footsoldier. Tom, naturally enough, thinks this not such a bad turn of events and decides to do his utmost to make the prophecy, and his dearest wish, come true.

Crucial to his success is the witch’s tinderbox which magically controls the ferocious hounds. Winning first prize in the local archery competition impresses the Captain of the Royal Guard and wins him a magnificent lute with which he serenades the princess, winning her undying admiration. But how to exile the king to an island, and how to escape the jail are problems which lie between him and the glorious wedding. All obstacles are overcome in the end and Tom becomes the Prince Regent, helping the princess in matters of state and ending the king’s despotic rule over the land.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: very easy, aimed at the younger adventurer
Graphics: very small graphics on some locations
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: reasonable
General Rating: One of the very few adventures catering for the younger player.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

6/10

Logic

8/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall Value

7/10

The rapidly expanding market in educational software is reflected by the sheer variety of programs now being issued. While not all of them strike me as as being of great educational value, it is nevertheless heartening to note that some publishers are now prepared to experiment with new ideas in this area.

One of the most exciting concepts is the See Hear range of programs from Softlee Systems, which provide audio material for the user to listen to through headphones while watching the screen. Each See Hear package comes complete with a connection lead for a standard ¼ inch stereo headphone socket, and other types of lead, suitable for personal stereos for instance, are also available from Softlee.

Using a stereo cassette deck, the tape is loaded into the computer in the usual manner, and the user will hear the instructions for the program through the headphones while the tape is actually loading. This is achieved by recording the spoken word onto one of the two tracks on the stereo tape, and putting the program onto the other track. Although the concept of audio-visual presentation in education is not new, Softlee are probably the first company to bring the whole idea within the reach of the ordinary home-computer-user.

From a teacher’s viewpoint, the See Hear programs seem to me to have an extremely useful role to play in our quickly-changing educational system. Over recent years, teachers of both primary and secondary school children have become increasingly aware of the importance of teaching listening and talking skills as well as those of reading and writing. Indeed, future exams may actually test levels of competence in all four of these skills.

At present, there is a dearth of materials specifically designed for teaching and assessing listening skills, and it would be valuable if the See Hear concept could be extended to cover a variety of subject areas. Tony Lee of Softlee Systems is very interested in developing software with a strong educational content, and hopes to add languages other than French to his range of programs.

Another novel program is Worldwise: Nuclear Weapons from the Richardson Institute for Conflict and Peace Research at Lancaster University. This program is not available in the shops, and can only be obtained from Lancaster University. Although it is therefore unlikely that the program will achieve any real commercial success, it is nevertheless good to know that, at last, minority interests are being catered for in the field of educational software.

It seems, however, that it is only the small publishers who are beginning to wake up to the needs of the large number of people involved in education. They are realising that educational software should not be directed solely at children involved in the traditional areas of learning, but at people of all ages who have a wide range of different educational interests. Let’s hope the larger publishers will soon follow suit.

A DAY AT THE SEASIDE

Producer: Softlee Systems
Price: £7.75

A Day at the Seaside is a spelling story tape for young children which should be used with a stereo system as mentioned previously. The detailed instructions included in the pack clearly explain how to set up the equipment, using the connection lead supplied. Side One of the tape contains the instructions for the story itself in software, and while the program is loading the user is treated to an explanatory commentary. This is particularly useful for a parent running through the program before using it with the child.

Side Two contains the story itself, A Day at the Seaside, which is read very clearly by a female voice. At specific points in the narrative, the child is asked to spell some words. The words can be introduced to the child before the program is used, using the flashcards provided in the package. Twenty words, such as ‘beach’, ‘sea’, ‘crab’ and ‘pier’ are clearly printed on one side of the card, while a writing tutor for the word is on the other. A parent or teacher can decide how to use these flashcards to best advantage — before, during or after the story.

One very useful feature of the program is that, after the child has typed in the fifth word, there is an assessment of progress. If reasonable progress has been made, a further assessment and score is given after every other subsequent picture displayed on screen. If the child has made a lot of errors, however, the computer may advise the user to stop and do some preparation before starting again. In this case, the computer will empty its memory and refuse to continue. Another excellent feature is that the parent can alter the normal lower case spelling to upper case (capital letters) if required.

This program has been very well thought-out and is professionally presented. The sound is excellent and the speaker’s voice is clear and pleasant to listen to. The music and sound effects contribute to the child’s enjoyment of the whole. The five-year old who tested the program for me loved the story and was particularly amused by the humorous touches in it — for instance the family forgetting to put the baby in their car when they set off for their day at the seaside.

My assistant was totally motivated to spell the words correctly so that the computer would show him the picture of the word, and allow him to continue with hearing the story. His final comment when we had completed the program was ‘When can we do some more stories like that?’ Faced with such an enthusiastic reaction, I highly recommend A Day at the Seaside for use both in the home and in schools.

COMMENTS

Control keys: words to be typed in by the child. No need to use ENTER
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: simple, but bright and attractive
Graphics: clear and effective
General Rating: An excellent program which young children will love. The adult (teacher or parent) can decide on the best way to use the flashcards to meet the needs of the child.

FRENCH LISTENING COMPREHENSION 1

Producer: Softlee Systems
Price: £6.50

This listening comprehension is one of the See Hear programs already described. The program contains three different sections, each with ten questions and of increasing levels of difficulty. The user will hear the instructions for use in French while the program is loading, although they are printed on the package in English too.

In the first section, short snippets of conversations can be heard, and the task is to answer questions on who is speaking, where the speaker is, and what he is doing. Each time, the screen shows a choice of four possible answers, and the user must position the red band over the answer of his or her choice. One might, for instance, hear the contents of a shopping list, and have to decide if the speaker is in a cafe, a grocer’s shop, a chemists’ or a bakery. At the bottom of the screen, a green strip diminishes in length to show the amount of time remaining.

Section Two contains short descriptions of various situations, followed by part of a conversation. This time, the user must select the correct reply from the options on the screen. One conversation is between a policeman and the witness to an accident, who is asked ‘Was the lorry travelling too fast?’ The final and most difficult section features a conversation and a story, each of which is heard twice. This time, the questions are also displayed a second time with the initial responses highlighted, so that the user can alter the answer given if he or she desires.

If the user scores 16 or more out of a possible 30, the correct answers can then be displayed, with accompanying explanations, for the questions incorrectly answered or the user may choose to see just the number of each question he or she answered incorrectly, together with the answer chosen.

This program definitely scores over the other language programs on the market because of the listening element. All the audio material is read clearly and at a sensible pace by two native French speakers, and the sound quality is very good indeed.

COMMENTS

Control keys: any key to move red band downwards to chose an answer, number keys to move it up
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: limited
Graphics: none
General Rating: Highly recommended.

HISTORY MYSTERY

Producer: Computer Tutor
Author: Nigel J. Hardcastle
Price: £7.95

The aim of the five games in this package is to teach children about the Bible in an entertaining way by giving them the task of finding various Biblical treasures, such as Moses’ basket, the Ten Commandments and Herod’s Crown. A clue (a Bible reference) is given for each treasure. The first game, Easypeasia, involves only seven of the treasures and is intended to familiarise the player with the controls. After this, the games become progressively more difficult, building up to the final challenge, Plunderthunder, where the player has to race the evil Dr Plunderwerst to the treasures avoiding a variety of dangers on the way.

The player is referred to the Today’s English Version of the Bible, although a short summary of the Bible stories which occur in the game is supplied with the cassette.

A teacher of Religious Education, who looked at the program for me, had some reservations about its use. He felt that the maps were a useful way of reinforcing the geography of the areas involved, though the inclusion of a world map would have been helpful for the child to see the position of the biblical lands in relation to his won country. He also thought that the game encouraged children to interpret the Bible literally, instead of increasing the awareness that it contains not only history but also myth, legend and parable. Nor does it consider the fact that the real function of Bible study is to help people learn more about themselves and the modern world they live in. The Good News Bible would probably have been a more suitable source of reference that the Today’s English version.

COMMENTS

Control keys: move by using the arrow keys; L to see list of treasures, C for clues, D to find out if you have landed on a treasure
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: mainly maps, but quite good
General Rating: With a fair amount of adult direction, this program could be useful, though I doubt if it is the kind of game a child would choose for him or herself.

WORLDWISE: NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Producer: Richardson Institute
Author: Paul Smoker
Price: £6.00

This is probably one of the most unusual programs I have seen. Worldwise is described as ‘a microcomputer atlas that can be used to study a variety of world problems’ — in this case it is the nuclear threat that is focussed on, though it is hoped that future programs will deal with such topics as literacy, food, health and wealth.

The program comes complete with a twenty seven-page user manual which gives very detailed instructions on using both the Worldwise Atlas and the Nuclear Weapons sections of the program. The Atlas holds more than 130 countries, and maps may be reduced or enlarged in the Atlas part of the program.

While the User Manual suggests that individual or team games may be played to test knowledge of the names and relative positions of countries, with the best will in the world, I cannot see that the games suggested would provide much fun or enjoyment, though they would certainly be of educational value.

When it comes to using the Nuclear Weapons section, the player is asked to select from the frightening list of weapons owned by the USA, USSR, France and China. It is then possible to choose an area of the world and call up on the screen the various weapons deployed there.

In this respect, the program succeeds in making one aware of the reality of the nuclear threat, and of the proliferation of weapons distributed around the world. Again, this section in the Users Manual is followed by suggestions for simulation games involving two negotiating teams representing the West (USA, UK, France) and the East (USSR. China). These games are proposed for use in the classroom but would, I think, only be successful with the brightest of senior pupils, and only with a vast amount of preparation and guidance by the teacher.

Paul Smoker, the author of Worldwise has used the simulations very successfully with groups of students at the Richardson Institute who are following Peace Studies courses, but while appreciating that the program might appeal to undergraduates, I doubt if it will enjoy much success in schools.

Certainly the idea of classroom simulations as a way of focussing discussion on the problems of the nuclear age is a very worthwhile one, but I feel that the rather dull presentation of the program would not endear it to school pupils. More clearly-defined situations, which took the players step-by-step through the decision making processes involved would have made the game more accessible. Nor, as it stands, is the program likely to have immediate appeal to teachers, because of the vast amount of direction and help they would have to give to their pupils.

I’m sure though, that the program will be very successful with the undergraduate audience that it was devised for — perhaps too with other groups, like the Greenham Common protesters, although I don’t think there is much call for home computers in their tents!

COMMENTS

Control keys: the variety of keys to be used in the different sections of the program is explained very clearly in the Users Manual
Keyboard play: very fast
Use of colour: good
Graphics: mainly maps, but clear representations
General Rating: Aimed at an academic audience.

I am intrigued by a recent development in computer games — that of promoting the designer, or design team, behind a game rather than the software company. It seemed that almost half of last month’s mag was devoted to Denton Designs, one team currently very much in favour. The Dentons are probably the prime example of the new breed of star programmers, but they’re not the only ones.

One of the games that I’ve reviewed this month has been published by one company, while everything to do with the game has been created by another. In this case, what was formerly a relatively successful software publishing company has now become just a design house. This trend is going on all around — the companies with the marketing muscle become publishers for a number of design houses, themselves often created from the remains of smaller software publishers.

Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing; it could mean that the quality of product reaching the consumer improves. But the problem with ‘star’ programmers and teams could be that they will only add to the corporate inertia that the new heavyweight software publishers are already acquiring. The fact that a programmer has created one bestselling game does not mean he is a good enough programmer to do it again; the only way he may be able to do it again is to regurgitate the same formula — hence anything that comes remotely close to being a hit these days immediately spawns a sequel.

While it may be handy for the writers of press releases to be able to say ‘the new game from the authors of XYZ and XYZ II’, it may not be good for the industry as a whole, because every ‘safe’ sequel, or new game by the star team, may be blocking the way for new, original, material from fresh sources. If design teams are really going to create benefits by becoming stars, they will have to move away from doing commissioned work, and try to establish firmer identities on their own account — not as puppets of the major labels. Ironically, probably the only way they could do this at the moment is by setting up their own companies!

A good example of what I’m talking about is Jeff Minter’s company, Llamasoft. Jeff is a ‘star’ programmer who has developed a unique and instantly recognisable style — and because he doesn’t work to commission is regularly producing original (and bizarre) software. Any major label taking him on would have to give him a totally free hand — much as record companies do with their stars. Perhaps the software market is not yet developed enough, but as the polarisation we are seeing at the moment continues, and the heavyweights mop up the marketplace, design houses will find that the onus of originality rests with them — and they will have to discipline themselves to demand the right to be creative.

And on a completely different subject, I was astounded to read that Sinclair will not be producing a 128K Spectrum in time for Christmas. It seemed like an eminently sensible idea to me, probably Clive’s best since, well, the 48K Spectrum. If it’s true that they have millions of pounds worth of speccies they can’t shift stashed away somewhere, they should either 1) take them all down to Highway 61, or 2) convert them to 128K at fairly marginal extra cost.

For watchers of Angus and Nicola’s house (new series coming soon folks) we have (alas) done very little lately except acquire some plants and a compact disc, which, while doing wonders to the Mozart, has singly failed to bring the toilet any closer. Also, I now have a new motorbike, which is red with yellow spots on, to replace the one which some thieving hyena (probably one of my fans) nicked a couple of weeks ago. VROOOM!

THE BULGE

Producer: Lothlorien
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £9.99
Authors: By David Bolton and Colin Gordon
Publishers: Argus Press Software

One of the problems of being a software reviewer is that one tends to become very jaded about the games that are available, and the idea of actually playing computer games for recreation often goes down the plug hole. Which is why I find it such a pleasant surprise to find myself engrossed in a game, and wanting to carry on playing until I master it. The Bulge is such a game; it’s highly addictive, and that’s a very rare thing amongst strategy games.

I recently reviewed a game by Lothlorien called Overlords, which I said at the time looked likely to be their last independent release. The Bulge bears that out, and is the first release featuring Lothlorien in the role of design house only. The difference is incredible! It looks as though, freed from the incessant hassle of overdue bills, VAT returns, sales pitches to distributors, printing foul-ups and all the rest of it, Lothlorien have finally managed to concentrate their energies into the game.

The Bulge is without question the biggest (in terms of playing area) strategy game I’ve seen, it’s also incredibly fast (responses, cursor movement, scrolling) and works in simulated real time — half an hour in the game passes every 15 seconds or so. The game is very user-friendly to play, and has the facility to change the background and unit colours — very useful if you’re playing on a black and white TV (see the review of Midway for more thoughts on this!). It can be played as a one player or two player game, and for once neither game loses out.

The scenario follows history pretty closely: the Germans, in a last ditch attempt to avert the course of the war (in December 1944) launched a massive attack at a weak point in the Allied front line which was then lying roughly along the line of the current German/French border. The intention was to break through the Ardennes — a fairly mountainous forest area — and push on towards Antwerp.

The game presents an accurate representation of the terrain, and a major feature is the weather — in the real Battle of the Bulge, the heavy snow that fell over Christmas was a major factor in stopping the German advance and in the game it can play an equally decisive role. The playing area is (I think) 65 x 100 units, and you have a fully scrolling map window of 24 x 24 units. You also have a ‘strategic’ map window which shows you about a quarter of the total playing area at once, and you can swap between the two. Using a cursor, you move around the map, giving each of your units directional orders. They move towards their allocated target until told otherwise; combat is determined by strength of numbers and a few other factors, such as infantry in towns, gaining extra defensive power from the town.

Placing your cursor over a unit will cause its strength to be displayed on screen, so it is possible to keep track of relative strengths; but I have so far found that the game moves so fast (even with pausing at every opportunity!) that I have been forced to conduct a mad scramble eastwards to try and contain the advance of the Germans (you can play the German role if you want). At the start of the game each side has around thirty units, and reinforcements arrive during the game; the allies have only two unit types, infantry and armour, while the Germans have both artillery and mobile artillery as well. Unit defeats are shown on a continual scrolling headline on the screen, as are the weather forecasts, and news of reinforcements.

It can be difficult to keep up with all the information being pumped out at you, and play the game at the same time, but it’s reassuring to note that the enemy apparently makes mistakes too — not taking the easiest routes, for example. The graphics are clear and crisp, and the colour-changing facility is a boon. The overall presentation has improved immeasurably since Lothlorien’s earliest outings, and the influence of Argus on aspects such as pack and booklet design is discreet and totally beneficial. This is one collaboration that I can only applaud — and if Argus’ involvement means you will actually see The Bulge in your High Street, then it’s even better.

If I wanted to find a couple of points in the game to complain about, I could — I mean, obviously it’s not perfect, but simply the overwhelming scope and power of the game would make objections niggardly. Lothlorien have come good at last.

Overall Verdict: A CRASH Smash. An excellent Wargame.

THE BATTLE FOR MIDWAY

Producer: PSS
Author: Alan Steel
Price: £9.95

PSS have recently scored a remarkable success with a wargame on the C64 called Theatre Europe, so I had high hopes of Midway, their first outing (as far as I know) into wargames on the Spectrum. It’s always good to welcome newcomers to the market, especially when they show every sign of moving in permanently.

Midway breaks new ground in packaging, and looks very impressive; it comes in a large ring-binder, with the cassette held in a plastic sleeve inside. This, I feel sure, will come in handy for keeping note-cards and file-cards in, if you’re that sort of person, not to mention correspondence with the bank, etc. Perhaps next time, chaps, if you could make it a little bit bigger I could get all my Access bills in it... Well, you may have guessed that what I’m trying to say here is that I don’t know what the price of this game is, but the pack makes it look like a ten quid job, while the game definitely is not.

It’s not as bad as the ‘Great Space Waste’ for example, but it definitely does not live up to the promise of the pack. There are a couple of maps and a bit of blurb on the pack which attempts to elevate the mystique of the game still further; very nice maps, mind you, of Admiral Yamamoto’s Operational Plan, but bearing virtually no significance or relation to the game. Furthermore, apparently Midway was commended in the strategy games section of the ‘Golden Joystick Awards’ which are voted by the readers of Computer & Video Games. I’ll leave the readers of CRASH to vote on that one (as I value my free lunches).

The game itself is fairly straightforward — there are three American groups (two naval and one from the Midway air base) and three Japanese (all naval). Each American group has aircraft (carrier-launched at sea) while the Japanese have four carriers, but all in one group. Your objective is to destroy the four Jap carriers (you play the Yankees) (no racial bias here).

You have two search aircraft (based at Midway Island) which you use to locate and track the Jap forces. In the easy game, the courses of the Japanese groups are actually marked for you, so finding them is a piece of cake: but even in the hard game finding them is not overly difficult, as you can only play on one screen, and there is no scrolling.

Once you have located the enemy you must launch air attacks against them. Each group has effectively three flights of aircraft which can be launched and the real-time element of the game means that you have to wait a minute or two between aircraft launches. Once airborne, the attack groups are directed to the enemy by a cursor — you select the target position, and they move there in their own time. Aircraft run out of fuel after a while, so if you don’t remember to land them, they will crash. And that is more or less all the strategy there is in the game: locate the enemy, launch aircraft, blast enemy, land aircraft.

It is certainly far less complex than some other games of a similar type, eg Air Defence by CCS which I reviewed a couple of issues back. Of course, what Midway has that other strategy games do not is ‘arcade’ sequences — which are referred to as a ‘Real Time Air Attacks’ in the booklet. These occur whenever you attack the Japs or vice versa, and what you see is the relevant naval task force laid out before you, and a horde of gnatlike aircraft zooming around above them. You man an anti-aircraft gun and can shoot them. This applies to your own planes as well as the Japs’, which I suppose may appeal to some arcade freaks, but which is totally irrelevant to the rest of the game, and irritating in the extreme.

These suicide shoot em up bits are reminiscent of Beach- Head, but not as well done; it really does seem to me that, in order to appeal to a wider audience, a vast amount of wargame has been jettisoned to make way for an arcade section which is petty and pointless. There is no indication on the cover of these ‘Real Time Air Attacks’ and no screen shots to show what these sections are like — this might create a little disappointment with the punters, methinks.

And I have another gripe about Midway — it’s very difficult to play on a black and white TV, as the status of the game is indicated by the colour of the cursor, which is difficult to determine. Now I know that in these affluent days of economic growth, full employment etc, everyone except me has a colour TV for their computer, but I still believe in designing for the lowest common denominator. So just as, for example, I criticised a game I reviewed last issue because it needed two Spectrums with Interface 1s to be fully playable, so I also think that software designers should bear in mind that their games might be played in mono. Or perhaps put a sticker on the front saying COLOUR TV REQUIRED.

In other aspects the game is up to current standards; the cursor is easy to use, the realtime element works well, information can be accessed about the various fleets and squadrons. But what it comes down to is that there is not enough of a game here — with only two seaborne groups, nine air attack units, and two air search units there are just not enough units under your control to allow for much in the way of thoughtful campaigning.

General Rating: A reasonable debut (though not very good value); PSS need to target their audience more directly, and stop messing about with arcade hybrids.

ARCHON

Producer: Ariolasoft
Author: Paul Reiche III and Anne Westfall
Price: £10.95

Archon is a strategy game requiring quite a high degree of arcade skill. The main playing area looks remarkably like a chess board until you notice that while some of the squares are either black or white others are in tones of grey, and changing. As with chess you have two opposing forces facing each other but unlike chess the forces are not matched. Each of the two armies have different pieces, each having individual strengths and weaknesses.

Before the game begins you must decide between playing for the good guys or for the powers of evil — naturally a sportsman would select the former. The game can be played either against the computer or against another player but in any event to be successful you must learn to appreciate the individual powers of each of your pieces. Each side has different characters, or icons, but overall they are matched. As with chess some icons are able to move ahead only two or three squares while others may be able pass over other icons or even, with the aid of a spell, teleport to any location on the board.

To move you simply manipulate a cursor square over a piece, press fire, then move the square to the position you desire. If the move is over a distance greater than is allowed, or is illegal for some reason, perhaps because it is blocked by other pieces or has been imprisoned by your enemy, then the computer will tell you. When playing the computer it moves its pieces in exactly the same way, so it’s easy to follow its moves.

The object of the game is to take and hold the five ‘power’ points but to do that you must destroy the enemy forces and this takes a great deal of shrewd planning. Apart from having to know the strengths and weaknesses of each of the pieces and remembering how best to use them, it’s good to take advantage of situations unique to this game. For example perhaps you have just lost a major piece and in doing so have severely wounded the opposing icon, are you in a position to send in a minor icon and finish the job before the enemy has a chance to heal its wounds? When you are ready to attack all that is required is to move your icon over to the occupied square then the computer will ask if you want to challenge the occupant. A positive response causes the main display to change for the battle screen.

The battle screen has a life strength indicator for each of the icons in combat, a first time player may be horrified to notice the life bar of his opponent’s icon is three times greater than his own. At the start of battle the two icons are positioned on opposite sides. At various and constantly changing locations around the screen blocks are located, these act as barriers for either side to cower behind. The two icons must fight it out to the death and the winner will, of course, win the square for which they are fighting. Depending on the nature of the icons involved, the mode of attack will vary, for some are able to fire bolts and can cause damage at a distance while others must make contact to strike a blow. The meat of the game, however, is making sure that your icon is able to defeat the enemy and this is where strategy comes in. Try not to take on an opponent that has greater strength. While some icons are able to move at great speed they may only be able to fire at close range, others move very slowly but a direct hit from one of these could kill you. Other icons may possess speed and strength but require long intervals before they can fire again. The minor icons enter the battlefield with very little strength, but with luck and nifty play perhaps you may inflict a lethal blow.

To make the strategic element of the game even more complicated the program introduces concepts such as ‘luminosity cycles’ and ‘power points’. If you decide to attack an icon on a power point then that icon will be much stronger than normal as well as being protected from the effects of magic. The luminosity cycle dictates that while icons on squares of their own colour are stronger (dark on black etc) some of the squares will change in colour. The effects of the magic applied by the magicians make for greater complexity, the spells can only be used once and their use weakens the icon. The revive spell allows you to bring back from the dead a useful icon while the summon spell allows you call an icon that did not previously exist. While these icons will only last for one battle, they are very powerful and will almost always win. Other spells include teleport, heal, exchange and imprison. Since the use of a spell at the appropriate time can make significant changes to your progress, you must make very sure that your magician is protected while at all times trying to find ways of destroying the enemies.

CRITICISM

‘Archon looks similar to chess but don’t turn the page yet, in play this is nothing like chess. All I can really say is that this is simply the most addictive strategy game I have ever played! It will appeal to strategy and arcade players alike, in fact it is essential that you possess the talents of both. My only complaint is the price at almost £11 I think it’s a little bit steep.’

‘Archon has revitalised my interest in board games, at the best of times I had little or no talent for playing chess but I am trying very hard to master this because it is so much more fun. I love all the subtleties the game offers, not only the effect of the luminosity cycle but also how different pieces behave on the battle screen. Have you ever known a time in chess when a Pawn takes a Queen and they both lose? Well it happens here, because the piece I attacked had been so weakened by earlier attacks my icon just managed to administer the death blow before catching a fireball that was already in flight. I most strongly recommend those of you who enjoy strategy games to buy this — Archon really is a game that you will keep coming back to play. Complaints? Well only two, the graphics could have been better and for that matter so could the sound. The second complaint relates to the movement of icons, once a piece has been selected it must be moved — not even chess is quite that strict, but then chess was never this good.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, Z/X left/right, C to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: limited
Graphics: average
Sound: very little
Skill levels: 1
Lives: N/A
Screens: 2
General Rating: An involved game, very good, though pricey.

Use of Computer

81%

Graphics

72%

Playability

85%

Getting Started

83%

Addictive Qualities

92%

Value for Money

69%

Overall

83%

CAULDRON

Producer: Palace Software
Memory required: 48K
Retail Price: £7.99
Language: machine code
Author: The Ram Jam Corp with Steve Brown

On a hill many miles away there is a green door behind which there is a Golden Broomstick, a thing so powerful that the it is sought after by the best and cleverest witches in the land, but only you are prepared to face the dangers that lie behind the door. It’s not that you are being particularly brave but you have this spell that should defeat the powers of the pumpkin’s room and leave you, as a prize, with the witches’ golden broom.

Your spell needs six basic ingredients not normally found on supermarket shelves, in fact they can only be found behind other coloured doors for which you will need the coloured keys. So your first task is to find the keys by flying on your own tatty broomstick round the locality. The keys can commonly be seen propped up against trees all that remains is for you to land and pick them up. As you peruse the skies you are attacked by all manner of things. Witch-eating bats, cloak-scorching fireballs, murderous pumpkins and badly behaved seagulls are just a few of the hazards facing you. Of course your magic defends you from their onslaught (witch is to say that your broomstick is actually a 4.5mm quick-firing cannon) but your life force is depleted by as much as four or five points. However by firing directly at the attackers will only cost you one point per shot so since each of your eight lives (or hags) only have 99 points to start with you really can’t afford to be flippant.

With the correct key you can get into any of the caverns although you will have to discover for yourself which caverns to visit first. Each cavern presents a sort of platform game problem that requires great skill and dexterity to negotiate. When you have reached whatever it is that you are looking for you must return home to add it to the pot. After collecting the six main ingredients you will be able to complete the spell that will rid the land of the pumpkin and win that new broom.

As a bonus, on the B side of the cassette is a Spectrum version of the earlier Palace game, The Evil Dead.

CRITICISM

‘I find the graphics in this game very pleasing but I think the movement could have been improved. Rather than the whole screen scrolling from one side to another as you fly, it scrolls in pages, as you reach the far side of one page it rapidly scrolls across so that you are back on the other side of a different screen. The ‘how do I get over there’ problems in the caverns are very tricky and demand great skill. The attacking nasties are a real pain because there are so many of them, even killing them costs energy so you really will need those lives if you want to complete the game. Very attractive game, playable and I find it fairly addictive.’

‘I’ve nothing but praise for this game, graphic detail is marvellous and colour is exceptionally well used. Animation is great too. It’s not an easy game by any means — flying through the air seems fun at first until ferocious bats (vampires?) try continually to drag you down. Finding the well spread and randomly placed keys isn’t easy either, using them is even worse — as you open up one of the colour-coded doors a new underwurlde appears, offering you screens in a platform — or should I say ‘stepping stone’ — game. This is even more difficult than the aerial sequences, because for half of the time you don’t know where you’ll land up when you step blindly off one screen into another. Eight hags might seem a lot of lives to you, but you could have eighty and it wouldn’t be enough. A delightful game that is bound to prove popular.’

‘Here’s another game that has been converted from the 64. They’ve had some trouble with the continually scrolling screen, but the Spectrum page scrolling, though nowhere near as attractive, is a reasonable compromise. The graphics look very good though. Flying on your broomstick is a tricky business with the ghosts, bats and deadly pumpkin pods all homing in on you — don’t hang about in one place too long! The caverns present a totally different game with different problems, so Cauldron represents good value in gameplay, and the good graphics, hard to get to rooms, size of the game and difficulty level makes it addictive to play, and with a second free game on board, good value too, although Evil Dead isn’t the most mega-fab program.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Cap/Z left/right, X/C down/up, and V to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Sinclair
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: detailed, well moving
Sound: good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 8
Screens: 64 below ground — a lot above!
General rating: a large, engaging and difficult game for the arcade player

Use of computer

80%

Graphics

89%

Playability

90%

Getting started

86%

Addictive qualities

91%

Value for money

90%

Overall

91%

DON’T PANIC

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Andrew Rogers, Martin Craig
Price: £2.50

Now here’s a very simple little task for you. You are in control of a droid stranded in some far and distant alien cargo hold which is littered with Teddy bears. The cuddlies are desperately needed on Earth to satisfy the world Teddy bear shortage.

The game is played over four platforms, one above the other, each of which would be continuous but for the gap that your spaceship fits into. Elevators are placed at regular intervals allowing movement up or down between the platforms. The droid moves the bears along the platform by firing his blaster at them, so making them chunter along until they fall over the edge into the spaceship’s hold. All pretty simple so far... one little problem is that the bears are contaminated and must be purified with a burst of blaster before the droid can touch them. Easy if you remember to administer a quick blast before passing them. The droid can only manage to move two bears at a time otherwise forward progress will be very slow indeed and speed is important because of a little green alien which bears more than a passing resemblance to Tyrannosaurus Rex (the prehistoric version, not the seventies glam group). This chap seems to have all the cards stacked in his favour, well it is his planet after all. You can’t shoot or outrun him, the only advantage being that you can change platforms by more than one level at a time (if you’re near the lift) and the alien can only hop up or down one level at a time, but even so staying out of the monster’s way while trying to load the ship is far from easy.

When a batch of Teddies have been loaded into your space craft it will rise up a level. The craft will take off for the next screen after it has received a load from each platform. The following screens are progressively harder with the introduction of more monsters but these additional monsters can be disposed of by knocking them off the edge.

CRITICISM

‘Don’t Panic had me panicking, it must be one of the most infuriating games that I have played this year. You get a nice long line of Teddy bears ready to push into your space ship when out of nowhere a monster appears and starts chasing you. I feel that this game is totally unfair on the player, you are provided with a lazer that doesn’t work on the alien who you can’t run away from because he runs faster than you. Don’t Panic has nice big graphics which are well animated and scroll well. The sound is okay, being mainly spot effects and a sort of ticking noise from the droid. I enjoyed playing this game until I reached the point at which I could go no further after that it was just very frustrating.’

‘Don’t Panic is a simple game in both design and concept, and it’s pretty hard to load up enough teddies to get your rocket off the first screen. The Green Monster is a real menace, and I’m only glad that his mates don’t wander around the streets of Ludlow! Overall good value for the price, but I didn’t find it terribly addictive.’

‘Just what have Firebird got against Teddies then? Pushing the cuddly little beasts around and hurling them off platforms into a rocket fuel making plant potters. At first glance the game seems overly simple, but once I started playing it I found I was hooked. That green monster is infuriating — it would have been nice to have been able to take the odd shot at it and slow it down or something. As it is, the Green Meanie tends to follow you round, and appear just when you thought you’d cracked it and got a good herd of teddies lined up for the push. A bit of strategy is needed to get anywhere on this game, it’s no good just aimlessly pushing bears in the right direction. I think I’ll be playing it for a while yet. Don’t Panic? I hardly stopped.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: no problems
Use of colour: limited
Graphics: better than average
Sound: limited but at least average
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5
Screens:
General Rating: A better than average game.

Use of Computer

75%

Graphics

70%

Playability

71%

Getting Started

68%

Addictive Qualities

78%

Value for Money

80%

Overall

70%

DUN DARACH

Producer: Gargoyle Games
Memory required: 48K
Retail Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Greg Follis and Roy Carter

The hero is back! We were first introduced to the 7-characters high Cuchulainn the great in Tir Nag Nog, now he returns in this epic game, Dun Darach. This time there is a very subtle difference between Cuchulainn as seen in Tir Na Nog and Cuchulainn in Dun Darach, he is alive! No he hasn’t been reincarnated for reuniting the Seal Of Calum, this adventure is set in the early years before Tir Na Nog.

Following a bloody and pointless battle against the Conachta, in which the Amhair, a prince of the Conachta, had been killed, Cuchulainn the Great was returning home with his faithful charioteer, Loeg.

Towards the end of the second day they stopped at a wayside inn, leaving the chariot beside a strange horse drawn carriage. While they waited for food they were approached by Skar, a strikingly beautiful girl. She told them that she was the owner of the strange chariot and that she required assistance to mend a broken axle. Loeg, unsurprisingly, leapt to assist her and left the inn with Skar.

After a while Cuchulainn ventured outside, but to his astonishment there was no sign of either Loeg or Skar. Instead one of the proud horses that pulled the chariot lay slain. Of the Oak carriage, there was only a cloud of disappearing dust and on the wind a hint of ghostly girlish laughter.

Skar was, it seemed, a Sorceress and ally of the Connachtmen, and she had seized Loeg in retribution for the Princeling’s death, and had taken him, body and soul, to the secret city of Dun Darach....

So the scene is set and you as Cuchulainn must seek out the whereabouts and rescue Loeg from Skar. On the way to achieving this you must complete several sub quests such as finding a particular gift for someone in return for another object which will prove useful in your quest.
The city of Dun Darach is split into several parts which all have their own characteristics, the pleasure area has gambling houses and the finance area has banks. Within each area the streets all have their own names and all the doors are numbered, which makes mapping and navigation easier. Doors can be entered by standing in front of them and pressing enter, the scene then cuts to the interior of the room. The reverse is true should you wish to exit a room.
The main difference between Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach is interaction. In Tir Na Nog you rarely needed to interact with the other characters, but interaction plays an important part in Dun Darach. There are two basic forms of interaction — trading with shopkeepers and brokers, and trying to prize bits of information out of the main characters.
Trading with shopkeepers is very simple. On entering a shop a message is displayed at the top of the screen which tells you what goods the shopkeeper sells or buys and at what price. If you are buying something then you pick up the object and offer the shopkeeper money. If you have enough money then the shopkeeper says ‘thank you’ and the goods are yours. If, on the other hand, you don’t have enough money you can always try stealing the goods. This is done by picking up the object and walking out of the shop with it. Some of the more expensive goods, like the thieves’ licence cannot be stolen and if you try to steal them the door locks until you have either paid for the goods or put them back.
Sometimes you are in the position where you have some goods which another shopkeeper wishes to purchase. Just offer the shopkeeper the goods and he will give you money in return. Of course instead of buying and selling at a profit you could always steal some goods and sell them to another shopkeeper for huge profit. Should Ryde, a sort of local bobby, catch you in possession of some stolen goods then all your money, unless you have banked some of it, and all the possessions you are carrying will be taken.
Communicating with the characters that roam the streets is slightly harder. First of all you must find out what each character wants, which sends you on a sub-quest to find the object. Once found you can offer the object to a character who may give you something in return. While walking the streets you must beware of the local pick-pockets who will gladly take your money and many of your goods should you happen to bump into them, unless you are a member of the Thieves Guild of course. All together there are ten main characters to interact with and you must get to know each one’s personal likes and dislikes.
As well as the shops and the brokers there are several other different types of room. There are the bankers, deposit rooms, portals, gambling houses, magic rooms and galleries. The is a good honest way of making money at a steady rate. The minimum deposit is 1000 iridi (the local currency) and the interest rate is 1% per day. The days are calculated by the torches that appear on the walls, night when they are on and day when off. This only applies when outside a building, inside the torches are permanently on. While your money is in the bank it is safe from all the other characters.
Deposit rooms are, as the name suggests, rooms where you can deposit goods, for a fee of course. You just enter the room and drop the object on the table and a fee is deducted as you leave.
In Tir Na Nog there were a set of rooms which would transport you to other parts of the land. The same principle has been implemented in Dun Darach except on most of the portals you have to pay a fee. This is a quick and easy way to travel about the city should you be in hurry.
Gambling houses are a quick and easy way of making money or losing it! On one of the walls is a set of two dice. These spin around and after a while stop to show two numbers. The game is played by placing a bet on either the A or B table. Each table has its own numbers and odds and if the sum of the dice adds up to a number on one of the tables you have either won or lost. This in itself provides an enjoyable alternative to all the walking about and trading.
Magic rooms tend to give you messages which are clues if you buy spells from there. Also scattered throughout the city are rooms which are called Hail- followed by another name. If you take a shield with the same name and place it on the table in the room then a picture in the room changes to another symbol which gives you a clue.
The galleries contain pictures of objects or just pictures of things connected with objects. If you have got one of the objects connected with a picture then drop it on the nearby table and a tick will appear on the picture. Here the Gargoyle sense of humour is best displayed, as it was in Tir Na Nog — remember the N and egg (the connection being N’s lay eggs), this makes working out some of the clues very hard, but if all else fails you could always try trial and error. On completing a gallery you are given a new object or a clue about how to do something else.
The screen is a bit smaller than that used in Tir Na Nog but none of the detail has been lost, the upper and lower parts being used to display messages and objects carried etc. The same ‘camera view’ technique that was used in Tir Na Nog has been used in Dun Darach which means it is possible to get views of both sides of a street, this can also help you avoid other characters such as the pick-pockets. Cuchulainn is positioned in the centre of the screen and the streets scroll smoothly as he walks. The other main characters as represented by one basic male and female character. When a character besides Cuchulainn is on screen (except shopkeepers and brokers) then their name is displayed at the bottom of the screen and a coloured square follows them with their initial in it. This means characters can easily be identified especially when there are several on screen.
As you can see Dun Darach relies heavily on interaction with other characters and finance. Don’t let this fool you into thinking that all the types of problems experienced in Tir Na Nog have vanished, you still have to work out various puzzles. Dun Darach should prove tricky to solve for a couple of months because the game is so complex. It comes supplied in a lavish box complete with a detailed booklet and a rough map of the city.

CRITICISM

‘Oh no! Please not again! I’ve only just completed Tir Na Nog and I thought I deserved a well earned rest. But alas I have been forced to roam the streets of Dun Darach and try to work out all the nasty problems that Greg Follis has thought up for us, which will no doubt mean more sleepless nights. I don’t think I can stand it any longer! The graphics are as good as those in Tir Na Nog, if not better, and the animation leaves nothing to be desired. Fortunately there are no nasty horrible Sidhe to contend with just characters the same size as Cuchulainn which, fortunately, don’t kill you. I didn’t think it was really possible to improve on Tir Na Nog but somehow Gargoyle have pulled it off. Colour is used well with no attribute problems, even when characters walk across each other. Overall a superb game that should keep you glued to your TV sets throughout the summer (and autumn, winter and spring). Definitely a strong contender for game of the year!’

‘Cuchulainn the Great is off on his travels again in this epic game from Gargoyle Games. I was amazed by the sheer quality of the graphics which are amongst the best I have ever seen! The animation is fantastic and now that there are more characters in the game it means it is one of the best looking games around. The game is a bit hard to get into but once you start getting somewhere you will love it. I found the game totally addictive and utterly playable. Overall a truly fantastic game that deserves to be a huge hit in fact I’m pretty sure it will be a hit!’

‘The long awaited sequel to Tir Na Nog has at last arrived and it was certainly worth the wait. It must have been hard to surpass the graphics in Tir Na Nog, but Gargoyle have done it, just look at the other characters, the rats and the torches and you will see what I mean. Sound isn’t up to much, just the odd spot effect but you tend to get so engrossed in the game itself that you don’t care what the sound is like. As with Tir Na Nog there are no attribute problems which is surprising because there are more than one colour is being used on screen at a time. The adventure element is a bit tough to get into but you can always go gambling or just stealing goods and selling them at a huge profit, a bit risky but worth it. The save game facility is one of the best I have ever used and it is very quick and reliable. How Gargoyle packed so much into 48K I will never know, there is just so much going on that it is unbelievable. If you liked Tir Na Nog (or even if you didn’t) you will love Dun Darach. Excellent value for money and a must for any respectable Spectrum owner. Terrific — just buy it!’

1(-2) King Street — home of CRASH?!

COMMENTS

Control keys: Left/Right alternate keys from Z to Symbol shift, change camera view A to L, enter a door ENTER, pick up/drop alternate keys on the third row Q to P, select object 2 3 7 8 9, offer object the four corner keys
Joystick: only programmable
Keyboard play: quite a few keys but easy to use and responsive
Use of colour: excellent, no attribute problems
Graphics: unbelievable animation and stunning backgrounds
Sound: limited spot effects
Skill levels: just the one, but you can’t die, you can only be robbed and taken in by confidence tricks
Screens: scrolling streets plus over 100 rooms and doors
General rating: an excellent value for money game which has a lot of scope coupled with brilliant scenario and graphics. Truly a megagame.

Use of computer

85%

Graphics

96%

Playability

89%

Getting started

91%

Addictive qualities

97%

Value for money

94%

Overall

97%

DYNAMITE DAN

Producer: Mirrorsoft
Memory required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Author: Rod Bowkett

Designing elegant graphics so that loads of screens add up to some sort of building, has been all the rage since JSW, but this new Mirrorsoft platform games takes the idea about as far as possible, and features one of the most classically elegant buildings in any game. Dan’s girlfriend (our pre-production copy lacks a scenario) appears to have been locked in the vast safe tucked in the depths of a massive porticoed, pillared mansion inhabited by a variety of unpleasant denizens. Dan arrives on the roof (trendily in time for the new Bond movie) in an airship, descends from it, and commences a mission of rescue. Should you enter the screen containing the safe, you’ll see the girl pacing up and down in frustration and, presumably, in an advancing state of asphyxiation.

The collectable objects in this game are sticks of dynamite (eight needed to blow the safe), a weapon to defend yourself with against the rioting rotters, and food to keep up the energy level that distressed damsel rescuing demands. Food is a relatively simple find — being a wealthy house, there’s plenty lying around, but dynamite tends to hide in very inaccessible places; worse still, it isn’t in the same place each game.

The house is divided up into 48 slightly overlapping screens, six high, eight wide, but they wrap around horizontally, making the building effectively a cylinder. All along the bottom runs a river. This can be negotiated by waiting for a raft to float by, jumping down onto it and keeping up with it by walking at its speed. Falling into the river is quite fatal, unless you have been lucky enough to discover an oxygen bottle somewhere. Above the river is a warren of foliage-lined caves and grottos, gradually mingling with the bowels of the house, pump rooms, boiler rooms, electricity-generator and store rooms. Above these are the commodious living apartments with libraries, bathrooms, dining rooms, sitting rooms and the like. The building is topped off by the roof with its chimneys and classically domed towers.

Different features include trampolines and entire trampoline rooms, tightropes, several teleports and an all-floors lift. Dan himself is a large animated character with a fair-sized jump, which he needs to negotiate the complexities of the house and avoid the numerous nasties, although if he falls too far he loses a life.

And just to add a little extra excitement to solving the puzzle, a nice lady at Mirrorsoft told us that the first person to phone them with the name of the tune played when the airship takes off at the end of the game will win a flight in the Goodyear blimp.

CRITICISM

‘Mirrorsoft have certainly come up in the world with this game, I can remember Caesar the Cat — that had nice graphics and was a start. Obviously this game is going to be compared with JSW but I don’t think it’s fair to do so because the graphics are so much better, more detailed, more colourful, more lively and there’s much more of them — each screen is action packed. Also, this must be the first game that has had continuous tunes (and many of them) as well as normal sound effects — I don’t think it could be bettered. There seems to be more to the game element in this than in JSW as well.

Exploring the rooms is great fun, solving the different ways of how to get at the dynamite to be able to blow the safe is not an easy task, but the game would have no lasting appeal if it was an easy one. You certainly need the ten lives they have given you and even with infinite lives I still haven’t solved the problem of collecting all the dynamite.

Is it addictive? Well I’ve spent a good six hours so far reviewing this game, that speaks for itself when you get to see hundreds in a year. The newly created super-hero Dan is bound to become very popular. (Part of a trilogy of games?) If you had the tiniest inclination to like JSW then you’ll absolutely adore this game — it is much better and has much more content — highly recommended. Brilliant! I must now go and find the rest of the dynamite.’

‘The graphics used in this game are outstanding — a joy to look at. The detail of the buildings and especially the grass and caves is marvellous — it just makes you want to play. The way the screens are laid out is pleasingly logical and there are some nasty traps like the well which goes all the way dooooowwwwn! The arrangement is really a cylinder with a great chasm between the halves of the house, but small platforms, often tiny triangles, do stop you falling to your death in the river.

One thing I enjoyed is the way you have to leap from some platform high in the sky into another screen without knowing where you will land — although after a few exploratory trips, you get to know the layout. However, the placement of objects is altered between games to add to lasting appeal. Another favourite are the trampolines, these work by sending you higher each time you land pressing fire. They allow you to make gigantic leaps up through screens and even running jumps across several screens at a time — useful. The animation of the nasties is excellent, very varied, very colourful, and this game as the largest assortment of tunes I’ve come across. Dynamite Dan is a JSW clone, but it’s definitely a worthy successor, and a highly playable, fun and addictive game.’

‘Mirrorsoft don’t produce many arcade-action games, but certainly the ones they do release are of a pretty high standard. Dynamite Dan has to be one of the most tuneful games I’ve encountered, and it is not surprising to learn that its author, is a musician in his day job. While platform jumping games are regarded as out of fashion in some circles, the overall combination of sound, graphics and effects in this game combine to make it extremely good value entertainment. There’s life in the old genre yet!’
COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: first class
Sound: mega-brill
Skill levels: one
Screens: nearly fifty
General rating: Superb, value for money game

Use of computer

95%

Graphics

96%

Playability

96%

Getting started

94%

Addictive qualities

96%

Value for money

94%

Overall

94%

FRANKENSTEIN 2000

Producer: Icon Software Ltd
Author: Peter Fothergill
Price: £6.95

The theme of this game is very similar to Fantastic Voyage in that you control a sprite making its way through the inner workings of a human body. This time the sprite is in the form of a little space craft (as in the film ‘Fantastic Voyage’) and the body is that of some humanoid monster. Your task, as Freddy Frankenstein descendant of Victor Frankenstein, is to guide the craft through the ten main regions of the body to find and activate the bionic implants within it. But before he can be allowed to get up and hobble about you must also find and destroy the neurons responsible for the monster’s wicked behaviour in the past, otherwise he will get up to his old tricks of chasing young maidens and killing off cobblers.

Your journey begins in the Trachea where you have to dodge left and right to get past the ranks of oncoming frogs (you may well wonder, but trachea means throat — geddit)! When you collide with a frog, or indeed with any other moving object within the body, the damage bar shown at the base of the screen increases. Another bar shows the amount of oxygen remaining and when it reaches zero or the damage bar reaches maximum then the game is over.

Your next stop after the throat is the right lung. Here you must get past the bouncing cigarette packets to activate the implant and then make your way out again. Each part of the body is explored in order, after the lungs you move onto the stomach, the liver, kidneys, intestine, heart and finally the brain. The graphics for each of the organs vary widely but essentially the task is the same — those areas that do not contain a transplant may simply require you to work your way to the other side collecting bits and pieces as you go. In the stomach, for example, you must collect the six pieces of bacon while avoiding the eggs. After every second organ you find yourself in a blood vessel where you can restore your oxygen level by shooting the air bubbles, but colliding with them will increase your damage and that can only be reduced by finding, and absorbing the odd spanner left about the place.

After each screen has been completed you are returned to the main screen which shows those parts of the body that can be reached and the next area about to be negotiated. On this screen you are given your current score and the highest score achieved.

CRITICISM

‘Frankenstein 2000 has rather nice colourful and smooth graphics. The program also has a neat sense of humour with frogs in the throat, cigs in the lungs and fried eggs in the stomach. This is a game to work out, damage is easily accumulated and not so quickly repaired, oxygen is also a precious commodity. To do well you must move quickly and accurately, so expect the first few games to end in death pretty quickly. Icon have come up with a good game here, I enjoyed it.’

‘What a strange game this is, a multi-platform arcade adventure (touch of) all taking place with a human body. There are lots of different ideas within the game like dodging frogs in the throat and shooting oxygen bubbles for more air. The sound could have been improved but it’s alright. The graphics themselves are very smooth with a lot of detail. Keyboard play is very responsive which is just as well. This game is worth a look as it represents pretty good value.’

‘I thought the route round the body was a little strange, you start in the throat down to the lungs, stomach, intestines and then you go back up the heart and finish up in the brain. While the graphics worked well I was a little disappointed with the sound simply because there was so little of it, when you collide with a nasty all you hear is a minute ticking noise which is easily lost. Sound aside this game does require skilful play, mostly because of the limits imposed by the oxygen and damage levels, also it has quite a lot of variation from screen to screen.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, space to fire
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: good response
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: fast and smooth
Sound: pretty poor
Skill levels: 1
Lives: depends on damage and oxygen level
Screens: 10
General Rating: A better than average game.

Use of Computer

69%

Graphics

80%

Playability

80%

Getting Started

78%

Addictive Qualities

79%

Value for Money

75%

Overall

76%

GLASS

Producer: Quicksilva Ltd
Author: Paul Hargreaves
Price: £7.99

Glass, believe it or not, is a flight simulator but one designed for a very special task which is to train you for a specific task. With the aid of Glass you must acquire the skills needed to be a starfighter pilot. The problem, you see, is that the planet Hygon has been taken over by a bunch of clever but nasty aliens. They have built three citadels which act as bases for further military expansion. The citadels are heavily defended and only good pilots stand a chance of destroying any one of them let alone all three.

The simulator has been designed to test your abilities to the limit as you must destroy hundreds of droids before you even catch sight of a city. For most of the time the action takes place on the planes of Hygon which is a pretty boring sort of place to be, mostly because the surface is reflective, flat and devoid of just about anything except, of course, the droids. You are going to meet three main types of droid, the first are sproingy bouncy ones, you know the sort, they never seem to sit still long enough for you to kill them, but you must if you are to avoid being killed yourself. The second class of droid appears to be patrolling a boundary, in herds. They march, relentlessly, from one side of your view-screen to the other happily lobbing tennis balls at you, only these balls do nasty things to shields. The last breed of droid is bigger but less bold, they cower over the horizon and then pop up and fire at you.

The simulator has two other hazards for you to cope with. Firstly you are given practice shooting up enemy ships as they sidle past your viewscreen. Secondly, you experience the thrill of flying across the less boring parts of Hygon at low level and at high speed. The simulation gives the appearance of travelling, on a high speed Fly-mo across a very large graveyard complete with highly coloured grave stones. When you collide with one of the ‘headstones’ your shield suffers damage. Many alien deaths later you reach the first citadel and a nuclear warhead is launched against it automatically, letting you sit back, relax and watch the spectacular end of one of the cities. But not for long, one down two more to go.

You’re equipped with twin rapid fire lazers, centred on the screen so aiming is done by moving the craft from side to side. Points are awarded for hitting enemy targets and the first 20,000 are hard work, after which the bonuses are generous and top scores can well go into the millions. A score such as that would earn you the highest title of ‘Game Lord’ but more often than not early missions will attribute less flattering ranks to you like ‘Galactic Dustman’ and ‘Commodore Owner’. There is an infinite lives option but scores from each mission are not cumulative — you can’t become a Game Lord by cheating you know!

CRITICISM

‘I am very impressed with the graphics, they are very attractive, very smooth and delightful. To be honest the game itself is really nothing more than a shoot em up but what’s so bad about that? The sound is almost up to the standards of the graphics so that helps to make it exciting, as do the huge variety of alien beings — seldom will you see the same creature twice. In between conflicts with the aliens your craft passes through a most alluring transition, best described as a journey by a slice of high speed cheese through the middle of a sandwich made with chequered bread. One scene reminds me of 3D Deathchase but much faster so it’s quite thrilling. My only reservation is the price, I admit the graphics are superb but it is a little steep.’

‘This game is instantly appealing in the sense that everything is graphically ‘fast’ and fairly detailed. But there didn’t seem to be much of a game to it. Various sequences have some nice effects and, in the main, the game is built up of effects — the warp effect is the best I’ve seen on the Spectrum. Speeding through the towers is difficult because they come towards you at such a rate and the key responses don’t match that rate, which adds a bit to the forward thinking. Another nice touch is that you can continue with your game from the point at which you were killed. As a game I can’t really recommend it, although if you’re into effects, it’s nice to see what can be done and it gets very fast.’

‘I enjoyed playing Glass as it didn’t get boring. The graphics were so varied that I only saw each type of alien once. The sound was well used and gave the game a bit more depth, the graphics apart from being very varied were very well drawn and perfectly animated and all the 3D effects worked very well. As a shoot em up Glass is very addictive and playable, in fact I only have one main niggle and that is that you don’t have sights for your laser so you can only guess what you are going to hit. I played it all the way through, (it took about four hours to complete) and the final screen was well worth it.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right, Z-M to fire
Joystick: Kempston and Sinclair
Keyboard play: very fast
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: varied, large and fast, very good
Sound: agreeable
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: 3 main types
General Rating: Graphically an excellent and very pleasing shoot em up.

Use of Computer

75%

Graphics

92%

Playability

82%

Getting Started

85%

Addictive Qualities

80%

Value for Money

69%

Overall

82%

HELICHOPPER

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Tony Beckwith
Price: £2.50

Apart from the flying ducks, the rising lethal bubbles, the murderous disks and the bombs there is little difference between your role in this game and that undertaken by those brave chaps of the Air-sea-rescue service. Your mission is simply to chunter around the screen in your little helichopper and rescue the clones stuck on the other side of the swamp. In the meantime the creatures in the swamp below are attacking you with a wide variety of weaponry, and while your chopper is armed, it can only destroy objects that are immediately below it.

The rescue of clones is affected by flying to one side of the swamp and waiting while he/she/it climbs on board, and then you deposit your passenger safely on the other side. A sort of IF clone to be picked up THEN do so operation.

While flying you must brave the objects buzzing around all of which are bent on your destruction. Subsequent screens offer the same terrain but with even more nasties to counter. Some of the screens have an aerial maze for you to negotiate, touching any of its component parts (the third screen’s maze is made up of what appear to be bricks with eyes) will result in the destruction of your flying machine.

Points are awarded for shooting the aerial greeblies, the number of points will, oddly enough, depend on their colour. Points are not awarded for transporting the clones but you will have to move them all before you are allowed to go to the next screen.

CRITICISM

‘When I first played Helichopper I thought it was Firebird flop but now, about two hours later, I just can’t put it down. The graphics are small neat and well animated, they remind me of some of Ultimate’s early games. There is hardly any sound but what little there is, is adequate. I think the time limit was a little too long on some screens because they where a little too easy to complete. One feature that really annoyed me was the key define option, if you weren’t quick enough then you could end up with all of the controls on one side. While Helichopper was a very playable game it wasn’t as addictive as I had hoped.’

‘Helichopper, part of Firebird’s Silver Range, is pretty good value at £2.99. The graphics are smooth, and the game is at first fun to play, but it become less exciting the more you play it because of its limitations and repetitive nature. Cheap and cheerful, better than average and for the money not a bad deal.’

‘Apart from a fatal misunderstanding when I first started playing the game, which led to me parking the helicopter on top of the electric fence (which meant that the little clones wouldn’t come out to play and I couldn’t do anything), I soon got to grips with Helichopper which is really quite jolly. Your helicopter whizzes round quite merrily, bouncing off the top of the sky, and the various nasties which include homing killer ducks make it quite a-challenge to play. Once I’d stopped bouncing the helicopter in frustration on the head of uncooperative clones, and worked out that you had to land by the electric fence and wait for it to disappear before collecting a clone, I was well away. Hours of fun....’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: simple but clear
Graphics: average
Sound: fair
Skill levels: 5
Lives: 4
Screens: 23
General Rating: Pretty average game.

Use of Computer

65%

Graphics

71%

Playability

75%

Getting Started

70%

Addictive Qualities

78%

Value for Money

80%

Overall

67%

HERBERT’S DUMMY RUN

Producer: Mikro-Gen
Memory required: 48K
Retail Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: The Mikro-Gen team

Now you should all remember Herbert. He’s the little chap from the Week family whose ineptitude became world renowned in Everyone’s a Wally. In this game Herbert has become separated from his Mum and Dad during a visit to the local department store. It is up to you, the player to guide him back to his parents who are waiting for him in the ‘LOST AND FOUND’ department.

The game begins with Herbert in the toy department at 1 pm: the store closes at 5.30 and you have four and a half hours to reunite Herbert with his parentals, since the game is played in real time. In both style and presentation Herbert’s Dummy Run is similar to Everyone’s a Wally, which is not surprising as it’s the third game in the Wally trilogy! Dummy Run is a graphical adventure game that calls for a high degree of arcade skill as well as a degree of lateral thinking. The opening screen is typical of the game: Herbert finds himself standing on a box in the toy department; you notice at the top of the screen a series of shelves loaded with a wide variety of toys. How can Herbert reach up there? Well of course the box he’s standing on is a Jack-in-the-box, and when the key has been fetched the spring action will propel him up onto the shelf.

As with the other Wally games, many of the screens take the form of well known arcade games. One screen can only be solved by dismantling a wall, ‘Breakout’ style — if you manage this the resultant pat on the head is well deserved.

The game would be too easy if you could pick up and carry every object that you came across. Only being able to carry two objects at a time forces you to do a little forward thinking. At the top of the screen you are reminded of what objects are in your possession — the one that you have had for the longest is automatically exchanged for another ‘collectable’ piece as you walk past it. As you explore the store looking for the ways and means to solve the game you are under constant pressure from a wide variety of mobile ‘thingies’. You have three lives and when you come into contact with some of the nasties your energy, shown by a large tear that fills up, will be reduced until you escape the meanies, or lose that life. A few mobiles kill immediately on contact so you will have to learn to identify them quickly. You are able to reverse the drain on your energy by eating the sweets found scattered around the store.

For his efforts, Herbert is rewarded with his favourite jelly babies, and the closer he is to finding his parents the more he will get. All told the game extends for over twenty-five screens, but don’t expect Herbert to get fat on jelly babies too soon!

CRITICISM

‘I have mixed feelings about this game, on the surface it is an excellent program but I feel that Mikro-Gen may be repeating the formula once too often. If you don’t mind that, then Herbert’s Dummy Run may be worth having. The graphics are excellent, even better than those in Everyone’s a Wally, the sound is reasonable and the colour is used well. The game is as infuriating as its predecessor and should please the arcade/adventure addicts. Those horrible colour attribute problems are still with us but they really can’t be helped, after a while you tend to ignore them. I think the asking price of £9.95 is a little steep — I feel the game would be much better value at £6.95. Overall it’s a very good program if you don’t mind more of the same. I hope Mikro-Gen’s next game is graphically as good but with a substantially different game format.’

‘Herbert’s Dummy Run contains graphics which are well up to Mikro-Gen’s high standard. They are both colourful, large and detailed. The game is fun and very addictive and contains many mini games within its overall structure. While these mini games are nothing than fairly simple shoot-em-ups they add to the overall peril of the game. Herbert is destined to be another Mikro-Gen star. At this rate I don’t think the Wally trilogy is ever going to stop, with all those characters to choose from. I’m glad they’ve only got one character in this one — let’s face it, when you’ve got five characters all stealing the object you need next, infuriating isn’t the word!’

‘Staying on the same lines as before — Herbert’s life while he grows up in a wildly strange place — Herbert’s Dummy Run is set in a large department store. Graphically it seems to be far better, perhaps it’s the use of more colour, or even more detailed characters. One room that I liked particularly was the one with a huge bed and lots of ‘Z’s floating around. Plenty of arcade sequences are included in the game, which follows on from the general idea of the previous Wally games and requires some thought to enable you to progress with it. I only wish that Mikro-Gen had included some other characters that wander about, as in some of their other games, but sequels are based on on the fact that the production is better in some way than the last game. Overall I think that this is another winner for Mikro-Gen.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q,E,T,U,O/W,R,Y,I,P left/right, Z-M to jump
Joystick: Sinclair and Kempston
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: excellent
Sound: good, nice opening tune
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: over 25
General rating: more of the same excellent stuff.

Use of computer

90%

Graphics

90%

Playability

89%

Getting started

83%

Addictive qualities

89%

Value for money

82%

Overall

90%

JACK CHARLTON’S MATCH FISHING

Producer: Alligata Software Ltd
Author: Elliot Gay, F. David Thorpe
Price: £6.95

This is a pretty unconventional game by any standards, the player does not play against the computer but against fellow beings, the more the better.

The program simulates a day out match fishing beside a very attractive lake. (Drawn by David Thorpe, see issue 17). The game caters for up to eight fisherpersons all of whom must enter their names at the start. The computer will ask how for long you want the match to last and you can select any period between 1 and 90 minutes. The program next allocates each player a peg number and describes in detail the conditions of the bank and surrounding waters. For example, the player who draws peg 7 is told that his section has two large trees adjacent to him and the water, which is only between seven and twenty feet deep, has a lot of leaves and twigs on the surface. To a fisherperson I suppose that this would suggest the use of a luminous hook and a torch but whatever tackle you decide on you must choose the most appropriate from the tackle section.

You are offered a choice of rods, floats, reels, lines, baits and hooks. At this stage you must specify the type of cast — strong, medium or weak. When all of the players have selected what they assume to be the most appropriate tackle we can move onto the actual fishing.

A page of instructions explains that all of the contestants must gather round the computer. They will be shown a picture of the lake with the eight pegs around it. When a player’s peg flashes it means that a fish has taken the bait and the player whose peg it is must dash to the computer and press the appropriate number to strike. The picture changes to show a little chap sitting on the bank with a fish moving towards the line, when it reaches it you press SPACE and hope that the tackle you selected is up to the fish you are trying to catch. At any stage during the wait you can ask to see your peg description and change tackle if required.

At the end of the time period the results are displayed. Each player’s name is printed to the screen in an order dependent on the total weight of fish caught. Displaying the total weight of fish caught neatly avoids those traditional, arms outstretched arguments about the ones that got away.

SILLY WARNING

Please don’t take Your Spectrum near the water’s edge, it could prove harmful and may be dangerous.

CRITICISM

‘Fishing has got to be one of the most difficult sports to simulate and I think this program manages to capture the tactical and technical aspects rather well. The view of the pool is superb and it’s quite fun just to sit in front of it and relax. The graphics of the fisherman on the river bank are (forgive me) another kettle of fish — a little on the simple side but they are colourful and effective enough. The blurb that came with the game stressed the importance of a group of players rather than just one or two. On the whole an interesting and well designed program.’

‘The game manages to be quite realistic. You are told the conditions of your peg including details of water speed and light and if there any weeds about. While I am interested in fishing I do not consider myself an expert but the game certainly seemed to pose the sort of problems that any match fisherman would have to face, interesting for anglers.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 1 to 8 and space
Joystick: N/A
Keyboard play: N/A
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: superb view of the lake, others indifferent
Sound: very little
Skill levels: 1
Lives: N/A
Screens: 2 effectively
General Rating: An interesting game with probably limited appeal for those who prefer making a lot of noise on the river bank. Ratings from a fisher-persons viewpoint.

Use of Computer

66%

Graphics

75%

Playability

60%

Getting Started

70%

Addictive Qualities

60%

Value for Money

65%

Overall

74%

KNOCKOUT

Producer: Alligata Software Ltd
Author: Steve Cattell
Price: £6.95

I suppose a boxing game is a natural progression from the likes of Bruce Lee and this Alligata offering is the first of many.

In all you will fight three bouts with each of two opponents, Italian Stallion and Slugger Sam, and a gruesome looking pair they are too. Your first opponent will come out fighting from the blue corner. Using either the keyboard or the joystick you control your man through some simple boxing manoeuvres to inflict as much damage on him while trying to avoid his fearsome punches. The game allows you to throw head or body punches or to defend yourself by putting up a guard. A stamina bar with eighteen graduations suffers the loss of a graduation per blow received. For every blow you score against Slugger a little arrow appears at the top of the screen and when the line of arrows extends across the screen and reaches the ‘KO’ marker then you have won the round.

Slugger has an advantage because his punches not only reduce your stamina bar but reduce his damage by one arrow. A skilful player can reduce this advantage by delivering body blows while Slugger’s guard is up — that scores two arrows.

After winning three bouts with Slugger you are given a secret code to be entered before you can load the next opponent from the other side of the tape. Defeating Italian Stallion requires a great deal more skill because he is an extremely unpleasant being.

CRITICISM

‘I didn’t really like playing Knockout, I’m not sure why because it’s got great graphics and even a bit of the tune from Rocky 3 at the start. I just found it totally unplayable and not at all addictive, I think it was something to do with the speed of your man’s reactions which were both slow and unrealistic.’

‘Boxing is a very difficult game to simulate on a computer and it can only be done adequately by including a lot of detail and skill requirements to make it addictive. Knockout lacks both ingredients, after two rounds I was bored. Neither a crowd or a referee are represented and the player only has a choice of two punches. The movements are pretty real and fluent, at times they look effective. The sound is okay but does drive you mad after a while. I think more could have been made of the game if a wider choice of competitors had been offered.’

‘If I hadn’t played the arcade boxing game I may have been a little more impressed with the game. The graphics are adequate but the whole game is let down by the slowness of the action and what appears to be a poor response by the player’s man.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: I to body punch, O to head punch, G to guard, Q/W left/right
Joystick: Protek, Kempston
Keyboard play: lacks response
Use of colour: fair
Graphics: good
Sound: alright
Skill levels: 2, not selectable
Lives: 1 for each bout
Screens: N/A
General Rating: Below average.

Use of Computer

60%

Graphics

60%

Playability

45%

Getting Started

62%

Addictive Qualities

47%

Value for Money

50%

Overall

52%

MOUNT CHALLENGE

Producer: Aasvoguelle Productions
Author: Bill Percy
Price: £6.95

I would like to think that this game was inspired by the Shropshire hills that surround its author’s home but the deadly creatures and unpleasant plant life found in this game are thankfully not to be found on the Long Mynd, at least not in such numbers.

Mount Challenge is an unusual game. The player guides Professor Burk to the top of the mountain. For the sake of scientific research he must battle his way to the top while being under constant threat from the nasties that live on the mount. Even the little birdies tucked up in their nests are lethal. Burk must be guided from one ledge to another (in reality, platforms of varying length and colour). The length of a ledge can be described in terms of blocks or steps since this is how Burk moves, either one or two steps across or by one or three jumps up or down. So to play the game you consider the ledge that Burk is on and try to map out a route in advance. If Burk is on a green ledge then he cannot move at all until the energy is turned on, and then only one step at a time. If a ledge is red then movement is by one step at a time with the energy off or by two steps with it on. If you are one step from the edge of a red ledge with the energy on and you jump to the side then you are going to jump one step too far into who knows what.

On some ledges monsters await you, attacking as soon as you move onto their level, at which point escape at full speed is the only course and under that kind of pressure sorting out whether you should have the energy on or off is very difficult.

The game is played over 160 screens, the mountain being 20 screens high with the other screens taking up its various faces. Some faces have no ledges — so any attempt to jump onto them will be met with mild disappointment. Getting to the mountain’s summit takes a great deal of time because the author has laid so many traps. More often than not you think you’ve found a way up to the next level only to discover yourself trapped because the colour of the ledge you land on prevents you jumping back.

While the game does not provide a score as such this can measured by noting how many levels you have managed to scale. Three lives are allowed and in the very likely event of your losing one you find yourself back on the screen on which you died but back at the place of entry. On the B side of the tape there is a pretty standard dominoes game — generous chap our Bill. The game is only available mail-order .

CRITICISM

‘When I first played Mount Challenge I thought ‘Oh no not another half hearted platform game’ but I was wrong. The program is definitely more of a puzzle than a game but I am sure that’s as intended. The graphics are OK for the type of program though a little on the boring side. I found the game extremely addictive and challenging. Most of the time was spent experimenting with different routes. It is a great game for the price and with the dominoes game on the B side it must have some appeal.’

‘Mount Challenge really is an oddball game because the movement is dependent on the colour ledge on which you are standing. The game demands really quick decisions. At the edge of most screens one has to decide whether to jump one or two blocks but since you cannot see it’s really a gamble — most of the time I was wrong and either ended up either stranded or shark bait. While Mount Challenge has very simple graphics they are smooth and every now and then you encounter minor graphical niceties that implore you to explore further. The game design is superb because the idea behind it is so deviously simple, it is frustrating, challenging and addictive. Playability was marred until the controls had been mastered. In deference to Mr Minter I will describe the game as ‘brill ’n fab’ so there.’

‘When I was first shown this game by Mr Percy I (in Minterese) ‘got negative vibes man’ and my first impression was a bad one. When I settled down to play it I was impressed by the puzzle that the game presented and I would dearly love to get to the top of that wretched mountain. I am only sorry that more effort was not made to produce much more attractive graphics, in themselves they would have made no difference to the playing of the game but I am not happy that the existing graphics do the game itself justice. One oddity I found in the inlay was the claim that the game had been made ‘deliberately harder when using a Kempston...’ as the player could only change energy when the stick was centred .... Hmph! sounds rather like a bug being turned into feature. Perhaps Mr Percy will combine his obvious talents with those of a good designer for his next game.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, I/P left/right, W for energy on/off
Joystick: Kempston but the game is harder to play
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: generally very simple
Graphics: smooth and simple, Burk is rather ungainly
Sound: nice tune
Skill levels: 2 if you consider the Kempston
Lives: 3
Screens: 160
General Rating: A highly unusual, addictive, difficult game demanding a sense of rhythm and fast reflexes, a bit let down by the standard looking graphics.

Use of Computer

70%

Graphics

57%

Playability

65%

Getting Started

65%

Addictive Qualities

88%

Value for Money

80%

Overall

76%

QUACK-SHOT

Producer: Sparklers
Author: Clement Laurence Stephen Pryke
Price: £2.50

With games such as Toy Bizarre and Chucky Egg 2 there really does seem to be a spate of industrial crisis games, after a childhood spent playing of these games I’m not surprised that nobody wants to go into industry — it’s too dangerous.

In Quackshot the player assumes the role of a nightwatchman at the Acme Clockwork Toy Factory, who, no doubt had hoped that his first night on the job would be a quiet one, not a chance! He is going to face a revolution. As he explores the factory complex he is faced with numerous toys, ducks, spiders and snakes to name a few. For some reason all the toys have taken a strong dislike to watchmen and are out to kill him. His only means of defence are a stun gun and anti-duck bombs. The gun only fires left and right so the bombs are needed to rid those toys not prepared to come out and chance a straight fight. In fact a bomb will clear the whole screen of every sort of nasty but as the bombs are limited you can’t use them too liberally.

The game is played over a series of 16 linear mazes. Each maze is about 5 screens long and access to the next maze is gained by finding the key which unlocks the door. Each progressive maze has an increasing number of locks within it, forcing you to collect more keys to work your way to the next door. As you can only carry one key at a time this means exposing yourself more frequently to the nasties while you go back to get the next key. The maze is full of surprises, the least pleasant being a helmet shaped creature that homes in on you at great speed. Transport chambers allow you to relocate yourself, a useful means of escape. Points are scored for moving from one maze to another and for picking up strange objects from within the maze, apart from the keys these objects have no other purpose. As you move the maze scrolls sideways. A map of the current maze is shown at the top of the screen and a countdown is provided to allow the player a measure of progress in any particular maze.

CRITICISM

‘Quackshot is a very original and very addictive maze-cum-platform game. The scrolling screens bear a strong resemblance to Skool Daze but the game is very different. The graphics themselves are a gem being perfectly smooth, no flicker at all. Creative Sparks must have been proud of the graphics because they actually print a screen picture on the front of the inlay card. My only criticism is that the pattern of the maze walls never changes but this is a minor point because the game is so addictive. The sound is excellent with a tune and additional effects. The map at the top is a great help but beware of being attacked while studying it. The action is pretty quick (certainly quick enough for me) so it’s going to take some mastering. Quackshot is a superb arcade game, well worth a look at.’

‘Quackshot is one of the best maze games I’ve seen over the past few months. It just seems to have so much life in it, it’s really wacky! With many stages, the game builds up in difficulty from reasonably challenging to dead hard. Quackers proves that you don’t need complex plots and tasks to make a great game — just plenty of action!’

‘I’m sure everyone’s got a game like this — it’s fun to play and very addictive, but you never seem to play it because you always play the brilliant games instead. Quackshot has great graphics that scroll well and are nicely drawn, the sound is quite good and there is a lot of it (which makes a change). One thing that the instructions don’t say is that you get a limited number of bombs and shots with your stun gun which makes playing even harder! I love all the different keys that are out to get you.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: D/C up/down, N/M left/right, SS for bomb, S to fire
Joystick: Kempston and Sinclair
Keyboard play: comfortable
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: very good
Sound: good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4
Screens: about 80
General Rating: A very good game especially when you consider the price.

Use of Computer

78%

Graphics

83%

Playability

88%

Getting Started

81%

Addictive Qualities

85%

Value for Money

85%

Overall

86%

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

Producer: CRL Group PLC
Author: Jeff Lee, Jay Derrett, Jared Derrett, Ian Ellery
Price: £8.95

‘The Rocky Horror Show’ was a cult stage play and an even bigger cult film in the States, where night after night for years, the same audience would sit in the theatre repeating the lines in unison with the actors, dressed in the same type of clothing — crazy. It was a crazy film, and the game actually does go a long way in recreating the atmosphere and sense of madness, which is to its credit.

If you are one of the last people left on earth who knows nothing of the ‘Rocky Horror Show’, film or stage play, then you might be forgiven for not knowing what is going on. Good, middle class American youngsters, Janet and Brad, through some mechanical defect in their car, end up in this weird house for the night and one of them gets turned to stone — well, it’ll do for a start.

It’s entirely up to you whether it’s Brad or Janet who gets stoned by the wicked Dr Frank’n’Furter and his dreaded Medusa machine, but clearly the least solid of the pair must do the rescuing. The task ahead is simple; guide the rescuer around the house and find the pieces of the De-Medusa and put it back together, then you can wipe that rather stoney smile from your partner’s face and run like blazes. Of course finding the pieces isn’t a piece of rock cake, you need to look for them and that means opening doors and that means finding keys — the right keys. And while you are lurching around this rather attractive period dwelling you are going to be chased by quite a few people who would rather you didn’t, and they have some pretty mean ways of expressing their preferences, like killing you. If you are lucky something might just walk up to you and say something silly like ‘I didn’t like my Teddy!’ or ‘it’s just a jump to the left....’ These remarks seem to move Brad and Janet into a state of total confusion (know how they feel) and after a few more from the right sort of person that confusion moves up a grade, to total death.

The De-Medusa is made up of fifteen separate bits which must be collected piece by piece and deposited in the chamber next to your stiff friend. At the start of each game you find that the characters and the vital pieces have all been left in random locations around the house. While there are fewer than fifteen rooms within the house, some rooms have more than a mere lock to get past, the worst being a strange electric beam. The beam removes your one and only life if you get too close — it can be turned off but it’s a bit tricky. Your other problems move around on their own, they are the characters of the play and each one of them will have a lasting effect on you. The Butler (Riff Raff), for example, is nuts, he wanders round all day long complaining that nobody loves him while at the same time he is trying to zap you. One of the girls, Columbia, simply strips you naked when you bump into her. Eddie is a chap/thing who is particularly unpleasant. He was one of Frank’s failed experiments. Fortunately he spends most of his time in the freezer, unfortunately the freezer doesn’t work that well, the thermometer at the base of the screen lets you know when he is thawing out.

Oh one last point, the whole house is a space ship, yes it is difficult to believe but there you are. From your arrival you have 99 time periods (that’s not as long as it sounds) to rescue your mate and a run for it otherwise by then, you see, Frank will have grown tired of your feeble efforts and left for home. Apparently Frank is this guy from outer space and he wears the wrong clothes, well that seems to explain it all.

CRITICISM

‘On the whole this is a very appealing game to play, the backdrop of the house is great, the animation is superb, I particularly admired the manner in which the characters moved around of their own free will, and around objects. The way the screen changes from one room to the next is very smart. But something has come out of all of this cleverness, bugs, I’m sure of it. On two occasions when I died and sent Janet back she appeared at the starting position, the hall, but in the hall was the lift from the other end of the house and one of the electric beams from the floor above. Well being the adventurous sort I got in the lift, guess what? it went DOWN to the floor on which I got in it. Other annoying things tended to happen. The motorcyclist could be seen momentarily as part of the front door, he would appear again, just for a flash, in the dining room. This business about the clothes I thought one of the characters was meant to steal them yet you can be quite happily wandering across a room and woomph — you’re stark staring naked. The electric beams are tricky yes, but more often than not you can get killed when they are not on and that makes it a lot more than just tricky. Very nice game shame about the bugs.’

‘Unfortunately due to my not being able to receive Channel 4 I missed the ‘Rocky Horror Show’. I assume that the game follows the same theme but in any case it’s a good game. CRL have used some nice graphics. I found the collecting of bits a little repetitive after a while. The hero sprites went into some weird dance routines on occasions. I regret not being able to understand the point of the whacky conversations but even so a playable game but not that addictive.’

‘It’s about time CRL produced some decent software, especially now they’ve gone public, well maybe The Rocky Horror Show is a new leaf. The idea of the game (getting the De-Medusa machine parts and putting them all together) is quite simple really, although a little long-winded. Some puzzles are a little tricky to solve at first but become apparent enough as you progress through the game. The graphics are of high quality, detailed and there are no attribute clashes between the moving characters and the backgrounds. It looks as though lots of people are starting to copy Gargoyle’s Tir Na Nog style. After playing the first few games, I noticed that there is no score — a little bit off-putting because you don’t know how far you have got through the game. Overall quite a playable game and definitely the best CRL have produced, and hopefully not the last. I don’t think it will take too long to solve once you’ve got going.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: A/Z up/down, N/ M left/right, Space to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair and Protek
Keyboard play: fine
Use of colour: a bit one tone but avoids clashes
Graphics: very effective, despite some oddities
Sound: pleasant effects
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 1
Screens: about 14
General Rating: An exciting and different game with adventure elements.

Use of Computer

77%

Graphics

85%

Playability

78%

Getting Started

78%

Addictive Qualities

70%

Value for Money

70%

Overall

79%

SUPER GRAN

Producer: Tynesoft
Author: Donald Campbell
Price: £9.95

Not that CRASH readers get much opportunity to watch television but you may have noticed a Television series called ‘Super Gran’. It is based on the unlikely adventures of a turbo charged Grandmother. The story began when she was sitting in the house feeding something when she was accidentally zapped by a special ray fired from the upstairs room of a tenament block. The ray was in the care of one Mr Skunner Campbell, the bad guy of the game. Skunner in his turn had pinched it from Professor Black, the ray’s inventor. Anyway enough of this, the fact is that the otherwise quiet and feeble Granny was instantly convened into a mega-being able to perform feats that make Daley Thompson look like our assistant editor. The game is based on the dear old lady’s adventures, her attempts to put right wrongs where no Gran has righted wrongs before.

The game consists of five different game-screens and you must survive each part to move onto the next. First off, Gran flies over Chisleton on her flycycle, battling it out with an imposter Gran on a similar machine. Screen Two sees you equipped with an anti-gravity belt which, when activated, allows you to drift up. Turn it off and down you go again. You must stop cars running over the cats while at the same time dodging planes and balloons. Gran can move left or right, but only when hovering, the background scrolling behind her.

The third game uses a scrolling road. The Professor is trying to get his new invention to the science exhibition and your task is to guide him there, avoiding the pot holes and kerbs as you speed along the winding way — of course Skunner is making a nuisance of himself. Onto the fourth — here you must scale a cliff to recover the invisibility machine left at the top. Moving from ledge to ledge, you find yourself facing all sorts of perils — weak ledges, nasty animals and the like. Mr Skunner has gone to the massive expense of hiring a helicopter from which he drops bombs on you. On top of all this the tide’s coming in so don’t dally. If you manage to get hold of the machine then its powers may help to defeat the mob on the next screens, all of which follow similar themes.

CRITICISM

‘And I thought the days of low resolution graphics were dead! This game has managed to revive them for use in some of the screens. Super Gran is following the lines of the more feeble TV/film rip offs, it will be the name that sells this game. Thank God the sound can be turned off it nearly drove me round the bend. The keyboard response was less than brilliant especially when trying to fire. I had hoped to find Billy Connolly on the B side but no, what a shame, something like that is desperately needed to put some life into this expensive package.’

‘Well here we go with yet another TV spin off. ‘Super Gran’ is a programme that I am unfamiliar with so perhaps I am unable to appreciate the game fully. While the various arcade games are challenging and the game is playable I found that it was not addictive and I am not sure that knowing the TV programme would have helped. On the whole then a fairly ordinary game and certainly nothing to fall over about.’

‘I hate it. If you enjoy badly drawn and frustrating games then this is for you but I would rather forget I had ever seen it. What annoys me most of all is the price, I mean £9.95! What on earth do they think they are selling here, TV air time? It is not just the price that makes the graphics seem so bad: while there are some acceptably well drawn images that manage to move smoothly, the backdrops are ludicrous. I’ve seen better graphics in Snowball. The opening screen is typical, the flycycles are good except they are so huge there is virtually no room for them to manoeuvre. I have found a way of making sure that you win the first screen. Position yourself in the centre of the screen and fire rapidly left and right, that way you are certain to hit the targets before they get onto the screen fully. Good playing tip ya, well I have a much better one: Don’t bother.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right, Q/A up/down, Space to fire, also user definable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: poor response
Use of colour: boring and flat
Graphics: in some cases very poor
Sound: awful
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4
Screens: 8
General Rating: Waste of money.

Use of Computer

80%

Graphics

46%

Playability

48%

Getting Started

67%

Addictive Qualities

45%

Value for Money

15%

Overall

43%

SUPER PIPELINE 2

Producer: Taskset Ltd
Price: £7.95

Super Pipeline became something of a cult game on the 64 and gave software house Taskset a big following. The Spectrum version of Super Pipeline2 is the first ever game Taskset have done on the Spectrum, and is a conversion from the 64 version of the same name.

In Super Pipeline 2 you are in charge of a gang of busy workmen who repair various long, convoluted pipes that get damaged by the nasties that come from all angles. Some of them are harmless to the pipes but not much good to yourself or your team, whereas others, like the two types of drill, make holes in the pipes. This is a Bad Thing because water is flowing down from a cistern at the top left, through the pipe, to issue at the end into a barrel. The object is to fill the barrel(s) before the supply in the cistern runs out. It takes a while for the water to run all the way through the pipe, so nothing is being wasted if holes are made before the water reaches them, but after that precious time and water is awasting.

To repair a hole you must guide one your workmen to the hole, at which point he will start hammering away and repairing it. It takes a few seconds to repair, and in the meantime you must protect him from the predators. This is done by using your blaster which, however, may only be fired left and right which puts you in a vulnerable position while you are climbing up or down a pipe. The workmen run on to the screen and dash around the pipe complex until they are either snatched by a nasty or come up against you, in which case they huddle at your back until led off to a repair job.

When a barrel is filled, a tune plays and various inter-screen animation sequences take place. Each subsequent pipe is longer and more complicated than the last, later ones require more than one barrel to be filled, and of course there are more and nastier nasties. Lobsters can only be shot up from behind and the tacks are completely invulnerable.

CRITICISM

‘This may sound like a betrayal, but we ought to admit that there are some games where the graphics work so well on the 64 and less well on the Spectrum — the reverse is also true of course. Super Pipeline 2 is such a game. I do play games on the Commodore, and this looks so much better on that machine. Anyway, having said that, I think Taskset have done a good conversion of this madly addictive piece of frenzy. I always enjoyed the way your workmen have a mindless mind of their own, and true to British style — there’s never one around when you need one! Niggles are that the horizontal pipes are hard to get onto, control is slightly tricky (and it is a test of your joystick too), and if there are a couple of workmen sheltering behind you, their characters overlap, making it hard to see the damned pipe! Still, it is an addictive game, a playable one although a bit tough because of the things I’ve just mentioned, one well worth getting.’

‘This was one of my favourites on the CBM. The Spectrum version has not done too badly either, it has very good cartoon like graphics which are well drawn and animated. The sound is very good for the Spectrum but it leaves a little to be desired. Playing the game is as manic, or more so, than the CBM64 version and I am very addicted to it as it is so playable. It has little sequences at the end like ‘Pacman’ which are very jolly. My only niggle is that when you want to cross over to another part of the pipeline you have to move your foreman exactly to the right position or else he won’t move at all so if you aren’t very good at playing or you have two workmen following you (so you can’t see the pipe) you tend to lose lives as it takes time to get it right.’

‘Super Pipeline 2 is a fast, addictive and very difficult game to play. Graphics are along the usual pipeline style but plenty of nice animation and colour. The meanies are extremely vicious and at first I thought the game was too difficult to play — I still do! I soon got very frustrated with it because as soon as I had plugged one hole, another appeared. The water pouring out is realistic and nicely described. I found the up and down a little hard to get the hang of — a bit finicky. A nice game but a little too difficult for my liking. Frantic plugging!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right. E/D up/down, Space to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Keyboard play: very positive response, but finicky control
Use of colour: generally fine, each pipe in a different colour, but some graphics clashes
Graphics: nicely sized characters with good animation
Sound: good tunes between screens, otherwise spot effects
Skill levels: progressive difficulty
Lives: selectable between 1 and 8
Screens: 16
General Rating: A conversion which suffers in comparison, but a tough and addictive game nonetheless.

Use of Computer

77%

Graphics

80%

Playability

81%

Getting Started

80%

Addictive Qualities

86%

Value for Money

79%

Overall

79%

TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

Producer: Interceptor Micros Software
Author: I. Gray and others
Price: £5.50

This game first appeared sometime before Christmas on the Commodore 64 and generally received favourable reviews.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that Sultan Saladin is some form of cold and healthy crinkly green meal served with dried fruit. He is in fact a very unsavoury character from the Tales of the Arabian Nights who practised the same nasty habits as the black widow spider only with the roles reversed — as a result, the Sultan’s brides last a short time! Prince Imrahil’s sister has been seized by the Sultan and is taken to Bagdad. It’s up to you to help him rescue the girl.

The journey to Bagdad begins aboard one of the Sultan’s ships where you must collect, in order, the golden jugs each bearing one of the letters in the word A-R-A-B-I-A-N. As you scamper about the rigging a multitude of nasty monsters from above and below the water attack you.

From the ship it’s up river by raft to a great cavern where you encounter Al-Khemized and his dreadful genies. While you’re in the cavern perhaps you could just have a quick jog round and put the jugs in order then you can move on; to the desert. The desert scene, like the river, is to be noted for its lack of jugs, it’s just you against the nasties. Next stop, the city gates, but mind out for the arrows and boulders as you sort out those jugs. Among the platforms of the next scene, the garden, you find some more golden jugs and this time the arrows are small fry compared to the nastie genies. At last the Palace; more golden jugs but don’t forget to duck and weave as you sort them out. After the Palace you pick up Anitra and with her in tow you’re only a magic carpet’s flight from home, just mind out for the arrows and those nasty birds.

CRITICISM

‘After admiring the rather ‘flash’ cassette case I was really looking forward to taking on The Tales of The Arabian Nights, but when I started wow was I bored! One of the first things I realised on the ship scene was that once at the top of a mast you could not go down, the instructions gave no indication of this. The graphics are reasonable and after you have passed the first screen the game develops a little. The sound could have been a great deal better, a few measly bleeps as you collect a jug but at least one is given the option to switch the sound off. This appears to present the game as good value for £5.50 but I’m not so sure.’

‘Not the world’s most challenging arcade game this, in fact if you you can spell Arabian you should have no trouble rescuing Anitra and then she can sort out the wretched jugs.’

‘Arabian Nights has to be one of the most bug-ridden games I have ever played. It has a demo mode that doesn’t go away, I had to break into it to actually play the game, and once you do get into it you really have to try hard to avoid the bugs. I only saw the first screen because avoiding one of the nasties means you have to walk off the edge of the ship and then you fall into the sea and disappear under the waves only to reappear at the top of the screen falling back into the sea. This continues to loop infinitely until you pull the plug as there isn’t an abort option. This game has hardly any sound and fairly jerky graphics that are painful on the eyes.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, N/M left/right, SS to jump
Joystick: Kempston or Protek
Keyboard play: narrow selection of keys but otherwise OK
Use of colour: pretty good
Graphics: above average
Sound: great when you turn it off
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5
Screens: 8
General Rating: Slightly better than average.

Use of Computer

51%

Graphics

55%

Playability

46%

Getting Started

65%

Addictive Qualities

43%

Value for Money

55%

Overall

55%

A VIEW TO A KILL

Producer: Domark Ltd
Author: Softstone Ltd
Price: £10.99

Surprisingly, this is the first game to be based on Ian Fleming’s superhero James Bond. Taking the form of a three part arcade adventure, A View to a Kill is based on the three main action sequences of the film of the same name which is due for release any day now.

The basic plot of both the film and game is quite straightforward, involving Bond in a battle with a superbaddy who has delusions of grandeur and seeks world domination. This time, the evil one is called Max Zorin and plans to blow up Silicon Valley with a thermonuclear device so that he can corner the silicon chip market and put every other computer company out of business. (Who needs Max — Mark Butler, Chris Curry, Paul Dyer et al.)

You have to guide 007 through the three games, acquiring a special code on successful completion of each task which you input to start the next game in the trilogy. This code contains information about your performance in the game just completed, and while you can use the same code to jump to any particular game, the best way to improve your performance is to play each game until you have done really well, before moving on to the next section. To complete the final game, you must have done as well as James himself would have in the first two scenarios, so unless you’re really secret agent material a little practice will be in order!

The game is played in real time but you are allowed to pause, so you can sit back and sip your Martini. A choice of background music is offered: you can select the Bond theme or the tune from the Duran Duran single. More sound effects are provided in the form of speech output, phrases such as ‘my name is James Bond’ and ‘Dammit’ make occasional appearances.

Not quite icon driven, the adventure elements of the games are controlled via a ‘duck shoot’ system which is displayed in a window on the right of the screen. The upper part of this window shows the symbols for the items that you have in your possession, and by using the keys or joystick they can be made to scroll past a pointer to make a choice. Once an item has been selected it can be used according to the instructions entered in the lower part of the window. This lower area contains phrases such as ‘return’, ‘search’, ‘drop’, ‘use’ and ‘give’. The command you select in the lower section will act upon the object you selected in the section above.

Part One of the game is set in Paris. Bond has been briefed by ‘M’ and is having lunch with a fellow agent, when suddenly his colleague is killed by the ruthless assassin, May Day. Bond chases her to the top of the Eiffel Tower and watches in amazement as she leaps off the top, parachuting down to safety. Commandeering a taxi at the foot of the tower, Bond attempts to guide it through the streets of Paris to the spot where May Day will land.

Using the controls, you have to guide the taxi to May Day’s landing spot. The main screen provides a 3D view of the road ahead, while the lower part displays a map of the immediate area. You have a radio tracker which gives an indication of May Day’s position. Driving round the Paris streets you encounter many hazards, and driving the wrong way down one-way streets will have the police on your tail, setting up road blocks or maybe taking a few pot shots. And watch out for the manic Parisian drivers — too many collisions and your car will stop working.

Miss May Day’s landing, and it’s back to the start for you....

San Francisco provides the setting for Section Two, the City Hall to be exact. Bond and his girl, Stacey, have found Max but he has turned the tables on them by trapping them in the lift and, because he’s a nice sort of guy, setting fire to it. Bond has escaped from the lift but now you must guide him. He must rescue Stacey and escape from the burning building.

Not all of the objects found inside city hall will have any immediate use, the geiger counter, for example, is needed for the next game. As you move from room to room the fire is taking hold, and time is of the essence. Your progress and that of the fire is shown on a front elevation of City Hall displayed at the base of the screen. A thermometer on the right of the screen lets you know when things are getting too hot.

If you managed to get past the first two games then you are given the chance to save Silicon Valley and next year’s Spectrum production. To complete this section of the trilogy Bond must enlist May Day to help him get to the nuclear device by convincing her of the error of her ways. The geiger counter shown at the top right of the screen will help you locate the bomb and while there’s a great deal of jumping and rope climbing to do, you must always be on the look out for useful objects.

The mine is really a huge maze, and you can examine the area immediately around Bond, so avoiding those spectacular but annoying jumps into oblivion. When you locate the bomb you must disable it. Then you and May Day can make off into the sunset, safe in the knowledge that Max has had his chips and the world is once more a safe and happy place.

CRITICISM

‘This is a huge game with many interrelated elements that make it extremely playable. Some of the graphics are a bit of a let down — I’m sure they could have been a lot better. The sound? well a great deal has been promised and if it is only half as good as the CBM version then they have done well. The speech is OK but perhaps a little feeble, the effect is very similar to the speech on Deathstar Interceptor. The facility to play any of the games in isolation is useful but I feel that once the problems have been learnt and tackled a few times the game will lose a great deal of its attraction. On the whole though I think it fair to say that for any Bond fans this game is a must — especially if you intend to see the film because that should help it all make sense, and provide you with some valuable clues to solving the game.’

‘If you’ve seen Impossible Mission on the Commodore, and hoped for an equally good Spectrum secret agent game you would be sadly disappointed by A View to a Kill. The graphics leave a general impression of being crude, and the games themselves weren’t exactly gripping. Perhaps if you see the film first in Glorious Living Technicolour Cinemascope or whatever, your imagination will make up for the shortcomings. Between them, the three games make up a reasonable entertainment package, but somehow I don’t think I’d be totally gripped for very long.’

‘This is the first arcade game about Ian Fleming’s super (unkillable) character James Bond, Agent 007. I was quite surprised when I found out that this was the only one on the market as software houses seem to be buying up heroes like hot cakes. I loved the opening sequence — it was a very good effect although it did go on for ages. The games themselves were playable and addictive, with fair to good graphics. There is some nice speech in there too, but other than that the sound was a bit uneventful. I like the way you can select your weapons, hardware etc, although it can lead to some problems in the mine when jumping. I wish 007 would show some sign of injury, his resilience became a bit annoying after a while. For instance when in the mine after falling the equivalent of 100 feet and landing on his head he would lie flat on his back for half a second and then get up and walk off as if he had just tripped up. Still, a fun game overall, and not a bad tie-in.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: vary from game to game, displayed on each title screen along with options
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: average
Graphics: average, better in the mine
Sound: occasional bit of chat
Skill levels: 1
Lives: infinite
Screens: three linked games
General Rating: Certainly worth having.

Use of Computer

73%

Graphics

67%

Playability

75%

Getting Started

84%

Addictive Qualities

69%

Value for Money

65%

Overall

76%

WENDER BENDER

Producer: Rankshigh Ltd
Author: Frank Woodcock, Max Barr
Price: £7.50

This name was reviewed way back in issue 9 under the name Block Busters. A rather sad story is associated with it. When the author originally applied for a licence to use the name he rather got the impression that it was not needed, but the owners of the name must have changed their minds because they granted rights in it to an associate of the author who then was able to claim that only he had the right to use the title of the TV programme. As a result, Ranks High changed the name to Wender Bender, which is substantially the same as the author’s original game with a few differences. Firstly the blocks have been changed from the flat honeycomb shape to a more acceptable ‘W’ shape. Another improvement incorporated into this release is the availability of additional question tapes — an extra one is already included with the program itself and others are available for £2.50.

Most people are probably familiar with this sort of game. The main display shows a block of 25 Ws arranged 5 by 5. Each node has a letter in it and the questions are based around that letter. For example a player asking for the block with letter R may get ‘What R is a contest of speed’ : answer ‘Race’. Not all of the questions are as easy as that, in fact the quiz is a good test not only of general knowledge but of spelling as well since the answers must be spelt correctly when they are input.

At the start of the game you can select a two-player game or one player can pit wits with the computer. The colour selected by a player dictates whether he or she tries to form a line of Ws from top to bottom of the screen, or from left to right. For every correct answer you give the associated node turns into the colour of your side. Whoever answered the last question correctly will get first call on the next. Since the object of the game is to try and form a bridge of nodes between the two sides one would normally pick letters that are adjacent to each other but you could block your opponent instead. The computer keeps a score for both players and allows a game for as many matches as you please.

CRITICISM

‘The new layout of the main screen is in fact a great improvement over the old. It’s much clearer and easier to read as well as being a good deal brighter. The addition of extra question tapes makes a good deal of sense since you could get bored if you had to cope with the same old ones doing the rounds time and time again. In essence the game is much the same to play as Block Busters but it is much more refined. Quiz games have a strange sort of appeal and I think that for those who enjoy them Wender Bender is probably the best general knowledge quiz game on the market. I am mildly concerned that every now and then when a two-line question is printed the last few characters tend to drop off until the time up bell is heard. This can make some questions next to impossible but as I say that’s pretty rare. All in all a well thought out and nicely produced game, well worth considering.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: very simple
Joystick: N/A
Use of colour: neat and bright
Graphics: much improved but still with Spectrum text
Sound: lots of bleeps and a very sweet tune
Skill levels: nine
Lives: N/A
Screens: N/A
General Rating: Interesting and entertaining, well produced.

Use of Computer

71%

Graphics

77%

Playability

75%

Getting Started

77%

Addictive Qualities

73%

Value for Money

75%

Overall

78%