CRASH - The Online Edition — Issue 19 Contents

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Editorial

Issue No. 19 AUGUST 1985

FEATURES

THE 64K SPECTRUM
We get an early look at a cunning new add-on from Mikro-Gen which will lead to bigger games on your machine.

COMPUTER RENTALS LIMITED
Roger Kean zooms off to get the inside story of CRL, the people behind ROCKY HORROR SHOW, the game, amongst other things...

PULL OUT POSTER
With all these fighting games on the Spectrum, Oliver Frey decided it was time to give you all a treat.

THE STUFF OF LEGEND
John Peel agrees to give Jeremy Spencer the Scoop on KOMPLEX CITY — but he has to work for it!

THE SINCLAIR STORY
Part Five looks at the C5, and includes a mini-review.

BEHIND THE MIRROR
John Minson peeks into Mirrorsoft, part of Robert Maxwell’s empire — now not the only bit which involves the Spectrum!

A BIT OF FUN
See for yourself...

ON THE COVER
This month’s featured artist is RICH SHENFIELD, who was with Quicksilva in the early days.

DIY

MONTY GOES RUNNING
So could you, in a designer track suit in this Gremlin Graphic competition.

LEISURE GENIUS OFFER MONOPOLY AND CLEUDO
A chance to win two of the better boardgames to play on and with your rubber-keyed chum

WAY OF THE EXPLODING FIST
Bang! Your chance to pick up one of a hundred copies of this fighting extravaganza from Melbourne House

CRASH QUIZ
Something a little different this month...

ARNHEM
We spare you the ignominy of winning Angus Ryall, and have persuaded CCS to offer 50 copies of their wargame Arnhem instead

The next issue of CRASH will be on sale from 29 August. Make sure you get a copy, and we won’t sulk. Deal?

REGULARS

EDITORIAL
plus indexes to advertisers and games reviewed

NEWS INPUT
A quick look at what’s happening

CRASH FORUM
In which Lloyd looks at your literary works...

PLAYING TIPS
Robin Candy shows you how, and announces the results for the mega-brill Pokes Competition. Also a map of SHADOWFIRE in Glorious Olicolour, and DYNAMITE DAN cartography.

CRASH HOTLINE AND ADVENTURE CHART

LLOYD MANGRAM’S HALL OF SLIME
More mutilated mug-shots, gore and high scores

ADVENTURES OF JETMAN
Spaceship trouble for our hero in his quest for the Eye of Oktup

TECH NICHE
Our Swiss Technical Editor takes a look at the TIMEX 2068, from Portugal, while we provide an overview of BASIC Compiler programs from England

ADVENTURE TRAIL
Derek gets involved in the world of espionage, and one or two other strange worlds to boot...

SIGNPOST
Help and tips on adventures, together with your letters and an invitation to become a SUPERHERO!

CRASH COURSE
Once more into the background jungle with our intrepid Educational Software Reviewer

RESULTS
In which your ’umble Competition Minion sorts his mail.

REVIEWS

- Action Biker Mastertronic

- The Antagonists Addison-Wesley

- Baba Liba Silversoft

- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Hill McGibbon

- Chemistry Merit/Cloud 9

- Confidential Radar Games

- The Covenant PSS

- Cylu Firebird

- Fourth Protocol Hutchinson

- Frank Bruno’s Boxing Elite

- French Vocabulary Rose Software

- Frankie Goes To Hollywood Ocean

- Go To Hell 666 Software

- Hypersports Imagine

- Jet Set Willy II Software Projects

- Juggernaut CRL

- Jungle Jumble Clever Clogs (APS)

- Monopoly Leisure Genius

- Mordon’s Quest Melbourne House

- Nodes Of Yesod Odin

- Party Time Clever Clogs (APS)

- Paws Artic

- Picture Logic Addison Wesley

- Pipeline CSM

- Postman Pat’s Trail Game Longman

- Profanation Gremlin Graphics

- Rocco Gremlin Graphics

- Roly Poly Goes To Hospital David Todd Software

- Saimazoom Silversoft

- Science Clever Clogs (APS)

- Spy vs Spy Beyond

Publishing Executive

Roger Kean

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, Mark Hamer

Client Liaison

John Edwards

Subscription Manager

Denise Roberts

Mail Order

Carol Kinsey

Cover by

Oliver Frey

Transcriptions

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

Additional review transcriptions

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

Breathe new life into the user port

WITH THE 64K SPECTRUM

GRAEME KIDD and JEREMY SPENCER pay a visit to the land of High Technology and very short stay car parks, Bracknell, home of Mikro-Gen

MIKRO-GEN are not well known for their hardware add-ons. In fact their last dabble into that market was with the very first ZX81 joystick (ZX81: an early 1K sub-£100 machine with built in BASIC and membrane keyboard — Galactic Encyclopaedia, Early Earth Computers). Their latest project, the Mikro-Plus promises to make a much greater impact on the Spectrum world.

How often have you heard that computer games could be infinitely better if only there was more memory in which to put the things. Way back in the good old days, Imagine promised us a ‘mega game’ that would only be possible through an extra box of bits stuck onto the back of a Spectrum. We held our breaths; and nearly asphixiated. But, if any of you are still without breath you can relax. Mikro-Gen have taken over where Imagine failed to tread. At this year’s PCW Show they are launching an add-on and two games that they hope will set new standards for Spectrum software.

The add-on that makes it all possible — the Mikro Plus

As we all know, the Spectrum uses the Z80 processor which is capable of addressing 64K bytes of memory. Of that 64K only about 42K odd is available for use by software, the rest is either screen working space or taken up by the 16K monitor program. The monitor program is responsible for storing the machine code routines that perform all of the operations we take for granted. For example if you want your Spectrum to print a flashing character to the screen it will have to look up the machine code operations that it needs to do this — and the instructions are held in the form of routines inside the ROM. If you can replace the Sinclair ROM chip with one of your own, with your own routines built into it, you could alter the entire machine. There are disc systems which, while they don’t physically remove the Spectrum chips, are able to mask or shadow them. With the shadow ROMs in place the disc can download the routines of its own; the Spectrum can be changed into a dedicated word processor, or communications terminal.

The ability to shadow the monitor ROM is not in itself new, it’s an old trick and the BBC and Amstrad machines have such facilities built in. Mikro-Gen have put together a piece of hardware which replaces the Spectrum instructions with code for a game: the rest of the game is loaded in from the cassette. But, the real breakthrough is the price — £14.95 will get you a complete hardware and software package.

The hardware itself looks rather like a joystick interface and conveniently enough it has one of those built in. With this unit plugged into the Spectrum the programmer can put together a program 50% larger than is usual, Mike Meek of Mikro-Gen claims. Because routines designed specifically for that particular game can be put into the chip the memory of the whole machine can be used more efficiently. The built in joystick port is a good example: memory does not have to be wasted catering for a number of different joystick protocols. Some areas of the Spectrum’s memory are shared by other functions, those ‘slow’ areas cause delays in accessing the routines. Up till now programmers have had little choice, they had to use what memory was available. Now the fastest areas of memory can hold the code that does the hard and fast work. Filled in vector graphics can become a reality.

Because of the extra space available and because specific routines can be tailored for each game, Mikro-Gen are able to add extra features. Two such features are planned to appear in the first two releases. The first allows users to make a microdrive copy by giving a single command, the routine will do the rest. Mikro-Gen’s Mike Meek feels strongly about the problems caused by poor cassette recorders and so wants an Azimuth alignment routine built into the Plus. More and exciting extras are being considered for the future.

A group of Wally programmers!

Initially the system will be launched with two games, Battle of the Planets and Shadow of the Unicorn. Each one comes complete with cassette and the add-on, the add-on being specific to the individual game. Battle of the Planets is a massive, superbly animated arcade shoot-’em-up split into three linked, but separate games. ‘I would feel happy selling each part of the game separately,’ Mike told us, ‘so all three together we see as a real blockbuster’.

The second game, Shadow of the Unicorn is a role playing adventure featuring ten individual characters where Everyone’s a Wally had only five. The game is so involved that a book is provided to set the scene for the game.

The future possibilities for this system are fantastic. If volume sales take off as expected then the games will soon cost even less than the £14.95 you’ll have to fork out at the start. Some software houses are tentatively talking about licencing deals. Asked what Uncle Clive thought about the system Mike replied, ‘Well I can tell you that there is a definite tie-up between ourselves and Sinclair Research. I do know what Sinclair’s plans are but we have signed a non-disclosure agreement and intend to abide by it.’

We tied Mike to the chair and threatened to nail his hands to the table. ‘Tell us this Mike, are these plans going to help Sinclair,’ (ready the nails). ‘No... (hammer raised) yes — no question about it.’

Sinclair aside, Mikro-Gen’s hardware could represent one of the most exciting developments the Spectrum has seen for a long time. When you look at the deal, a superb game, a built in joystick interface, a microdrive routine and an Azimuth alignment routine all for £14.95 I think you will agree that Mike’s pet term ‘megagame’ sits on Mikro-Gen’s shoulders more easily than it ever did on Imagine’s. And it couldn’t have come from a nicer bunch of Wally....

JS

FROM CAVEMEN TO ROCKY HORRORS

Writing about the longer established software houses always brings our own short history to mind. I can very clearly remember sitting down with a list of games drawn up by Franco Frey to decide which we should order for the first CRASH MICRO GAMES ACTION mail order catalogue. One of the games quite high on the list was 3D DESERT PATROL by Computer Rentals Limited. The company has become better known simply as CRL.

CRL’s list of software releases is impressive, their chart successes less so, but as a producer of games they have strenuously avoided a ‘house style’ and kept a low profile, which means that it’s easy to forget the quantity of releases and the ones that were very good. Just look at the mixture; there was the 3D Omega Run, the terrible pair of releases Caveman and Lunar Lander, the attractive under water Glug Glug, the TV tie-ins Terrahawks and Magic Roundabout, the musical tie-in War of the Worlds, the driving tie-in Highway Code as well as some of their most successful early programs, the sports simulations like Test Match, Derby Day and my favourite among the golf programs, Handicap Golf. CRL was also the first out with an Olympics tie-in last year, modestly named Olympics. It wasn’t one of the best by any means, something tacitly admitted by Clement Chambers when he says with some surprise that people still ring in asking for help on it!

CRL was founded by Clement Chambers, a young man who received a fair bit of media attention in the early days of the computer boom for being a teenage whizzkid. Perhaps the unusual photographs helped — ‘I usually have me finger stuck up me nose when I’m photographed,’ he said, but his easy-stream-of-conscious style of talking made good copy — it still does! He’s no longer a teenager, but at 21 must count among the youngest in the ranks of business moguls who run Public Limited Companies. He is the first to tell you that CRL was able to go public because in the early eighties it was a simple matter to make a lot of money from selling computer games. Those days are over, and any software house now has to watch the pence per unit margins with extreme care.

The Chambers public image is one of attractive, slightly remote superiority, but it breaks down quickly enough in the office, especially when he tells you with some pride that for two years running he has won the Quick Byte Award for ‘The Person Most Renowned in Computer Knowledge’. The byte in the tail being that these awards mean the opposite of what they say! Tongue firmly fixed in cheek, he describes himself officially as Managing Director and assistant programmer, which is to say he tests the joysticks each morning.

Recently, CRL has joined forces with another of the older software houses — Silversoft. It’s a purposefully mysterious alliance, and when I asked about it Clement, who was sitting cross-legged on the office floor, sat upright, hummed for a moment and then in a ‘press release’ voice announced, ‘You can describe us as Affiliated Companies and we wish we were half owned by US Gold...’

CRL House sounds impressive enough. Actually it is rather like a house, set apart from the other business premises in the East London industrial complex between Hackney, Bow and Stratford. Kings Yard is a quiet enclave in this vast area, surrounded by high walls and protected on one side by a canal. The two-storey CRL building houses the administrative offices of the company as well as the software development and programming areas.

On the morning of the day I arrived, Clement was fast asleep on the sofa in his office. There had been a burglary somewhere which had done something to the alarm system, so he had slept in the office as they had just taken delivery of a vast quantity of Rocky Horror Shows which were going on to Germany that day. Still rubbing sleep from his eyes, Clement led me upstairs to Ian Ellery’s office. Ian is CRL’s Software Development Manager, ‘The man who released Caveman!’ Clement whispered in my ear as we went through the door.

Unlike his boss, 23 year-old Ian Ellery looked very awake, and confessed to me that he hadn’t had any desire to sleep until Rocky Horror Show was safely released and on its way. As we sat down the phone rang with a call from someone who had just completed Rocky Horror and wanted to say how good it was. Ian asked me to take the phone and speak to him. ‘It’s brilliant!’ said the young voice at the other end, ‘It should be a CRASH SMASH!’ The caller was 13 year-old Stephen Day.

‘It’s nice to get calls like that,’ Ian told me. ‘I get really nervous before a game comes out, and then — phew, it finally gets into the shops.’

Clement coughed and unkindly said, ‘He thought he might have released Caveman 2!’

Moments later the phone rang again with an Andrew Murphy to speak to Roger Kean. It was Stephen Day’s friend ringing to say that if Stephen got a mention, so must he, because they completed the game together.

To many people, Ian Ellery might be better known when he’s wearing another hat, that of computer artist, author of many drawings and cartoons in various magazines, notably C&VG. Ian produced all the photo-drawing montages on these pages. He also designs a number of CRL’s cassette inlays, and it is his artist’s eye that keeps a careful watch on the games’ graphics as they develop. He’s an outspoken sort of guy, and managed to startle Clement momentarily out of his post-burglary lethargy by telling me that he doesn’t like Oliver Frey’s artwork in CRASH. ‘That’s how you go round making friends and influencing people,’ Clement told him sharply.

CRL has an in-house programming team who work on Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad games. There’s Jay Derret (17), graphics designer and programmer, Andy Stoddart (20), Ian Foster (17) who works on both the Spectrum and the Commodore, and Jeff Lee (18), who did Rocky Horror Show, although Jeff is giving up programming to became a photographer (he took the photos for this article). Richard Taylor, who did CRL’s famous Hi Res program (and Rocky Horror on the Amstrad), works with CRL but not as an in-house programmer.

Every company has to have its administrative back-up, which at CRL comes in the shape of Yvonne Walters, Guy Spooner, stock boss Tim Vernon and Clement’s personal assistant Belinda Carling.

Belinda accompanied Clement, Ian, Andre Posumentov (Silversoft) and myself to a nearby Italian restaurant where, between discussions of whether the ‘live lobster, split down the middle and grilled’ would actually scream when it was split down the middle, Clement went into a stream-of-consciousness about the software industry and Ian Ellery told me about CRL’s plans for future releases.

A lot of the programs in preparation are being worked up on the CBM 64 with Spectrum conversions being done on some of them. One of them, Skyship 6000 (it’s a working title) is planned only for the 64, but looking at the storyboard graphics (not unlike the 3D effect achieved by Vortex in TLL and Cyclone) I thought it would convert to the Spectrum rather well. It’s a simulation based on the new British air ship and involves the player in ferrying goods and people between islands set in a rough and dangerous sea, while rescuing stranded sailors from their sinking ships. Another CBM only game which is on the ‘semi-secret’ list, so I won’t say much about it, is Blade Runner. The kind of graphics involved look like the sort that might not travel onto the Spectrum too well, but we’ll see. It’s a 3D graphic adventure shoot em up, where you play Rick Deckard as he chases Nexus 6 Replicants through the untidy streets as they seek out the scientist who created them. One game that will definitely appear on the Spectrum is Space Doubt. The action takes place on a huge spaceship with animated backgrounds, and it has an unusual way of presenting the 3D. It’s as though the ship had been chopped through in the middle so that each room you enter is seen like a stage set. Walking off ‘the front’ switches you into the other half of the room. There are null gravity lifts and room doors that slide up and down, but as most of the ship’s workings have been badly affected by a space storm, their working is very erratic. The object (not unlike Silversoft’s Worse Things Happen at Sea) is to get the ship and cargo safely to its destination against all odds, which include plenty of nasties as well as external influences. Through the various window ports the stars can be seen in movement, which tells you which way you are going as well as giving an indication of your orientation on the vessel.

These games are intended for release along with other ‘secret’ projects in the pre-Christmas run up, and what with the in-house team hard at work and some licence deals being set up, CRL look like continuing their spate of releases for some time to come.

Not having heard any squeals from the kitchen, everyone settled down to their ‘live lobster’ with relish, much to the relief of the waiter who had already supplied Clement with a year’s supply of Italian bread sticks to keep him going until the main course arrived. Under cover of the gunshot noises of cracking lobster claws, Ian Ellery asked for an art job on CRASH and Clement proved that big ears are what get you to the top. Still, I accepted Ian’s offer to provide the illustrations for this piece, and after lunch everyone went back to the perennial worry of ‘what next?’ and I headed west for Ludlow.

THE STUFF OF LEGENDS?

In which our intrepid Software Editor The Rt Hon Spencer sails his Morgan to the shores of Chingford in search of John Peel, Legend, and Komplex City...

One Baddie who will never make it to Chingford

AS I WEAVE through the pot-hole ridden streets of North East London I note, a little cynically perhaps, that it seems strange that Legend have a London phone number and yet, are not actually in the London A to Z. It sums them up rather well. I don’t care what you say John, Chingford is not in my ‘A–Z’, (and for the record it’s not in the ‘ABC’ either). So begins the first argument of the day. Having spent the greater part of the morning touring the outskirts of The Smoke — in a hot and dusty Morgan accompanied by an equally hot, and very nearly as dusty dog — I am miffed to be told on eventual arrival that if Legend isn’t on the map then the map is wrong.

Legend have acquired a reputation for hype, not in itself a Bad Thing, as long as the product hyped is up to it. The Great Space Race is the game that damned them most of all. John believes that Legend was unfortunate to have made some very bad mistakes. Just at the time when the public were waking to the reality of the Imagine fiasco, Legend was branded with the same iron. Producing a camera, he admits to mismanagement of the Space Race project, and points to the hazards of a disloyal programming team. Two elements that made The Great Space Race such a flop. Whatever you believe about that era, there remains one truth — Imagine have gone but Legend are still, very much, in the game.

The invitation to spend the day trying to find Chingford came about because Legend had something very important which they wanted to share, with us, and the rest of the world. Komplex City was nearing completion. I decide I want to go home. I have to admit I wasn’t one of the thousands who, John assures me, raved over Komplex. I could wonder at the technical excellence of the graphics and even find myself inspired by the size and complexity of the thing, but the truth was I was bored, nothing really seemed to happen. ‘Komplex is the ultimate mapping game,’ says John as he takes yet another photograph of the dog — the only one not irritated by this constant image stealing — even John’s charming wife, Jan (the Boss) wants to know how anyone can avoid thumping him? ‘Komplex is only the beginning’, he assures me, in between snapping the dog. The beginning of what John?

It seems that Komplex is the first part of a trilogy. Part one was the ‘Ultimate mapping game’. The second part, Komplex City, is to be one of the most exciting and graphically perfect arcade games available. The second game is still based around a map, but this time the computer takes care of the directional side of life leaving you to find the letters and shoot the baddies. Part 2, in terms of layout, is many more times complicated than Komplex, a figure something akin to seven with 16 zeros was bandied about, but that’s not important. If that is the number of maze variations you won’t live long enough to verify the claim anyway.

Three and a half hours after the discovery of Chingford and I haven’t seen a thing yet. I still want to go home. How about it? We argue again. How about a peek through the crack in the wall John? We argue. More very well rotted grape juice slides down throats and in the end he decides to compromise. He’ll take the dog for a look and, if things are going well and the dog is impressed, perhaps I can have a look.

John gone, I turn to Jan and we chat, discussing just about everything — except this game and the successor to Valhalla. She is keeping very mum on that one.

John returns and explains that the demonstration is just about ready, soon, Peel willing, will have a chance to see what all the other software houses said could not be done... real time animated 3D full colour graphics without attribute clash. It is Chingford Discovery, T plus Four and a Quarter, and I am getting close. While I wait, trying to ignore John’s insults, I quietly ponder the idea of a world without attribute problems... imagine, Everyone’s a Wally without all of those funny flashing squares — sounds very tempting, but can this chap do it?

At Chingford Discovery T plus Five I wonder if I will see anything. Suddenly the phone rings. John, surprised, drops his camera and takes a photo of his foot. Jan picks up the receiver, she listens intently. And calmly announces that Colin has got a cold but he’s as ready as he’ll ever be. Panic, did she mean that Colin has got cold feet and doesn’t want to show me the graphics? Perhaps he’s lost his voice because of a cold and won’t be able to explain anything and then I... Aaargh... the dog’s licking my leg.

Wonders will never cease, here I am at last — ages after finding Chingford — at the heart of Legend. John shows me the main body of the new game. The graphics are every inch Komplex except this time the player has a view flying down tunnels, switching from this to that. There are doors which can be docked with (automatically for those who didn’t work it out last time) and enemy objects that must be shot and destroyed. Fly badly and you bang and scrape down a tunnel wall — this alerts more and yet nastier foes to your presence. The screen displays information about shield strength, your location, location of targets — it all looks very busy indeed.

John explains that there is a faster way of getting from one location to another: hyperspace. He leads me to another Spectrum still being fed with fresh hot code, via an umbilical cord trailing from a BBC. Fed with bytes, the Spectrum screen bursts into life. ‘That’s what hyperspace will have, only more and better’. Different coloured objects, some box shaped, others cylindrical, iris in and out while they rotate in 3D. They pass in front of or behind each other with no flicker and not a single attribute clash. John looks as if he has discovered the philosopher’s stone. It may not be the stuff that legends are made from but it should certainly put them on the map. Find out next month if I was had or not.

(NOTE: CRASH would like to apologise to those readers who may live in Chingford for its absence from our reference works. The art department would like to correct the situation and would appreciate your help: Write to ‘I know where Chingford is’, CRASH Micro, Ludlow, Shropshire.)

THE SINCLAIR STORY part five

From the beginning, the C5 was meant to be a new concept in personal transport. In Sir Clive’s own words ‘... as revolutionary in its own terms as calculators in the early ’70’s or home computers in the early 1980’s.’ A £400 vehicle which can be driven by anyone over 14 on the roads without a driving licence, road tax, compulsory insurance or helmet, travels around 1,000 miles for the equivalent cost of a gallon of petrol and can be serviced at your own home by a travelling engineer. Sound almost too good to be true?

Produced by Sinclair Vehicles as the first in a range of electric vehicles, the C5 is very much a personal project for Sir Clive. Sadly, it hasn’t sold as well as he expected — we take a look at why this might be, and at the C5 itself.

Clive Sinclair’s electric vehicle project started nearly twelve years ago, back in 1973 when an in-house team of engineers began looking at the problems of powering vehicles with electricity. Serious design work started in 1981 at Sinclair Research, and in 1983 Sir Clive acquired the project personally from the company. A new company, Sinclair Vehicles Ltd, wholly owned and financed by Sir Clive was set up and moved to Warwick University’s Science Park to continue development work on a range of electric vehicles.

When the C5 was launched, in January this year, it was greeted with interest by the media — it was fairly common knowledge that Sir Clive had been working on an electric vehicle, and when it finally arrived journalists flocked to see what the latest piece of innovation from Sir Clive’s stables had to offer.

The C5 was launched as the first of a ‘family’ of electric vehicles which Sinclair Vehicles plans to introduce during the next ten years. Sales of over 100,000 units were forecast for the C5 by its makers, and 2,000 of the electric tricycles had been built and put into stock before the mail-order launch. Production targets of 1,000 C5’s a week were set at the Hoover factory in Merthyr Tydfil, and a massive £3 million advertising campaign swung into motion to promote sales.

Within days the C5 trike was being panned by the media. Criticised for being unsafe, unstable, dangerous because it wouldn’t be conspicuous to other road users — a deathtrap on three wheels. Very rapidly, Sinclair’s first electric vehicle acquired such names as ‘the pregnant rollerskate’ and ‘the electric clog’ from journalists eager to write some easy knocking copy.

Quite rapidly, it became clear that the level of sales forecast would simply not be achieved in the UK market. To date only 8,000 C5’s have been sold — less than a fifth of the targetted sales levels — and some months ago production at the factory was cut from 1,000 units a week to 100. ‘C5 workers go back to making washing machines’ was one told-you-so newspaper headline.

Early in June this year, Sir Clive wrote, in the Mail on Sunday: ‘... before the first customer had taken his C5 onto the road, a vast tidal wave of criticism had surged over my revolutionary new form of transport... last week I found myself in the headlines every day — as the misguided creator of a disaster.’

The man was clearly unhappy — but what of the critics? Is the C5 unsafe? Well, according to figures compiled by the Department of Transport for the first six months of the vehicle’s road-going life, there have only been two accidents. Neither accident involved another vehicle, in both cases being caused by ‘driver error’, and the extent of injuries went no further than ‘grazing’.

An exploded view of the bits and pieces that go together to make a C5. Taken from the Owner’s Handbook supplied with the vehicle.

‘The safety criticisms have been made out of context in the main,’ said a spokesman for Sinclair Vehicles, ‘the only safety argument is on the basis of the C5’s conspicuity to other road users — and in the context of two wheeled vehicles, specific criticism has only come from two sources. ROSPA thinks the C5 is more safe than bikes and other motorised two wheelers.’

Six thousand C5’s are currently held in stock by Sinclair Vehicles, and there are no plans to increase the low production levels in the immediate future. Is the C5 finished? ‘We could see sales improve in the UK with the better weather — perhaps a mid-winter launch was not ideal for an open topped vehicle,’ commented the spokesman, ‘but we see the longer term strength of the C5 lying in overseas sales. We have come up against the inhibitions of the British public, and should do better in countries such as France and Holland where they are already used to the idea of low-powered two wheeled vehicles such as the velocipede.’

Without doubt the C5 has attracted a vast amount of unflattering press comment. It could be that when people heard that Clive Sinclair was working on electric vehicles they formed a mental picture of a small car, like a Mini, powered from a battery. The reality was bound to be a disappointment, when a one-person motorised tricycle was launched onto a public expecting greater things.

In its own terms, however, it is clearly a revolution in transport — even if there aren’t that many people joining in. A whole range of companies with specialist skills were involved in the development and manufacture of C5 components, including Lotus Cars who helped with the development of the steel chassis, the steering geometry and handling and stability.

The battery used to power the C5 is very different to the standard car or lorry battery, which simply couldn’t stand up to being repeatedly charged up and discharged and it delivers its power in a different way, being able to cope with prolonged heavy loads. Oldham and Sinclair Vehicles co-operated to produce the power pack used in the C5, a technological development that will no doubt pay dividends on future electric vehicles.

The body mouldings are the largest mass produced polypropylene injection mouldings in the world. The bodyshell is created from two halves using an electrical fusion method — an electric current is passed through conductive sticky tape joining the sections, which heats up and effects a weld.

Motive power is supplied by an electric motor developed by a firm which specialises, amongst other things, in making torpedo motors. Power is delivered through a gearbox incorporating glass reinforced nylon gears which connects directly to the motor’s shaft.

All in all, the C5 represents a range of advances in technology assembled together in one innovative package. Other electric vehicle projects, all of which foundered, started with the concept of a traditional car powered by a petrol engine and sought to replace the engine with an electric motor. Sinclair Vehicles started at the other end: having found a motor and battery combination, they then designed the vehicle out from there. And it is only the first in a promised range of electric vehicles — by the early 1990’s Sinclair Vehicles plans to introduce an electrically-powered family vehicle.

Having heard so much (most of it uncomplimentary) about the C5, we decided the only fair way to assess the vehicle was to do a mini-review. The ubiquitous Robin Candy of Playing Tips fame, our very own Software Editor and a ZZAP! reviewing minion Gary Penn were dragged to a car park in Ludlow and given a C5 to play with for a while. This is what they found...

‘Not being a particularly adventurous type, it was not my life’s ambition to drive a vehicle that a lot of the press described as a death trap. But after much debating and squabbling I found myself being lifted into the plastic interior of a C5 by a rather burly Software Editor. After the initial terror had faded away I started to quite enjoy trundling around the local C5 hire emporium.

‘The only problem with controlling it I had was the acceleration button — but that soon became second nature. While I respect the views of sceptics who proclaim the C5 as a death trap, used correctly it is perfectly safe; indeed it is as safe as any other vehicle IF used correctly. In fact after about half an hour’s use of a C5 I’ve changed from laughing at the mere mention of one to actually wanting one.’

Robin Candy

‘I have always been a bit dubious about the C5 as a form of travel from what I’d seen and heard about it, and I have never really taken it seriously. It doesn’t exactly look and feel that stable or roadworthy. Due to their width they are annoying to overtake on the road.’

‘My opinion has changed somewhat though, after actually zipping around in one for a while. I must confess to feeling adequately secure as I drove about (if driving a C5 is the correct term) and I was impressed with the reasonable speed that is attainable (even through pedalling). I still feel that the whole thing is rather poor in actual construction, though not in design as the ride was a comfortable and enjoyable one. The price seems fair for what it has to offer but I think it would benefit from being slightly cheaper (if that is in fact possible).’

Gary Penn

‘What a fantastic surprise! The C5 was a great deal more comfortable than I had imagined it to be, and a good deal quicker. I would have welcomed the chance, to have given it a full road test but I think four CRASH-odians dropping in on the poor chap at Temeside was quite enough, without our disappearing over the horizon in his buggy...

‘Apart from the comfortable driving position I am pleased to be able to report that the pedal power is easy to use — the driver can exert a lot more force than an ordinary bike. My only dislikes where the LED warning lights which I found hard to see. There was a lot of creaking from the chassis which was a little unsettling. On the whole I think that it has the potential for being more than just a fun car. I would be more than happy to make my daily 5 mile journey into Ludlow in one. I want one!’

Jeremy Spencer

Minson, Minson on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Well before Robert Maxwell and Sir Clive came to their arrangement, we despatched the intrepid journalist and playwright John Minson to MIRRORSOFT’S headquarters in London to find out what was going on in Robert Maxwell’s Software publishing company. It’s not all educational programming — DYNAMITE DAN has just been awarded a CRASH SMASH....

LOOKING BEHIND THE MIRROR

Not every publisher of educational software can boast as high a profile as Mirrorsoft, but then again few software houses belong to organisations as large as Mirror Group Newspapers. Jim Mackonochie, their development manager, is the man responsible for bringing the Mr Men and others to the micro, and when I met him recently my first question was how he had brought a newspaper publisher into the software market. He explained that it was a logical progression:

‘In June 1983 it became apparent to me that the way technology was moving was that by the 1990s most homes would have a terminal, based on a home computer. We’re basically a communication company, and it was essential for our long term objectives, moving to the turn of the century, that the Mirror Group Newspapers had an association with the home computer software market — not necessarily for what it was in 1983 or even 1984 but for what it’s going to develop into by 1990.’

However there was a vast gap between the new technology of Fleet Street’s electronic information gathering and the humble Spectrum, so why go for an initial position primarily in educational and serious material? The option in mid ’83 was between going into games and having a major buying-up spree; or again looking to the future.

‘Games will always be important in the market but it’s going to start shifting in the next five years and education will become more important. When more powerful computers are in the home, serious applications will start coming to the fore, so a cold decision was taken — “Let’s build up our strength in the early learning section of the market to begin with.”’

From the start Mirrorsoft were able to draw on the resources of the parent group. Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Men, who appear in a daily strip cartoon in the Mirror, are unquestionably popular with the junior school age group. ‘Characterisation can go in fads but the Mr Men are proven over a number of generations of youngsters. If the Mr Men characters can be used in the software effectively it makes sense to use them. The trap we assiduously try to avoid is saying, “we have the Mr Men characters; how can we create a program to use them?” We prefer to have a sound programming concept and if we can use the Mr Men on that storyboard, we’ll do it.’

When a decision was made to provide an introduction to directions, the result was Here and There with the Mr Men, replacing the Logo turtle with the cartoon characters. The Logo similarity hasn’t been pushed in public, but schools in which the program was tested recognised it immediately and commented favourably. As yet there are no plans for the Mirror’s other cartoon characters, such as The Perishers or The Fosdyke Saga, to make their micro-chip debut though.

Mirrorsoft have tried to cover a broad range of topics, with adult education, games and creative computing for a range of machines. While Jim Mackonochie admits that their current strength is in early learning, this year should see reinforcement in other areas. Recently two new games have appeared, aimed at the under-tens market who can’t yet cope with the complexity of Knight Lore. Phineas Frog and Ancient Quests are both arcade adventures, but with learning undertones. First impressions of the latter indicate that it should keep the intended age range entertained. Jim firmly believes that adventure simulation is the best way to bring creativity into this market.

Ideas come to Mirrorsoft in a variety of ways, from basic concepts to a finished program in the case of Caesar the Cat. There are also in-house creative meetings which can result in communications from development teams. One long standing collaboration has been with Ivan Berg Software who have been responsible for most of the Home Discovery titles. These include Know Your Own Personality and the Joffe Plan diet program, aimed at the broad (no pun intended) adult market. Jim agrees that they reflect the mass-market popular approach of the group’s papers.

‘All the market surveys showed that the main users of home computers were in the 12–17 year old age group, who primarily used them for games. We thought, there are all these Spectrum computers in homes — let’s see if we can produce a range of software which may not necessarily have mass market appeal. There will be parents who’ll be interested in looking at a diet program, or software such as Starseeker which is particularly relevant this year with Halley’s Comet coming through.

‘It was a calculated decision to build up a reputation for producing entertaining software for adults. But it’s an error to have too high expectations of this market. If you’re looking for the long term you have to recognise it’s a very young industry and the non-games market is a minority area. One has to build up a reputation and not go mad over-playing it. It’s a long-term market with a long shelf-life. If you promote over a long time you generate sales.’

In the case of Know Your Own Psi-Q and Personality the basic idea comes from the successful books by Hans Eysenck with Carl Sargent for the former, Glenn Wilson for the latter. The computer versions avoid the tedium of scoring, and more importantly remove the temptation to cheat — some questions are repeated to test consistency! In all of these programs, the authors have not just lent their names to the product, but have been closely involved with the development of the software.

Mirrorsoft have also used the group’s resources to ensure high standards of presentation, conscious of the fact that their image reflects back on the image of the newspapers in the group. They’ve drawn on the journalistic talents contained within the organisation to produce properly edited documentation. ‘Voluminous manuals that are badly written just turn everybody off the product,’ is their maxim.

As the group was created with the future in mind I wondered what lies ahead. Of course the Mr Men will be back later this year with more animation and arcade adventure elements, and there are also plans for in-house programmers as part of general expansion, but the real excitement lies in the coming generation of computers. Jim looks forward to an increased use of disks, though he admits that there could be problems of response time when interacting with microdrives.

It’s when Mirrorsoft is seen as part of the mighty Pergamon/BPCC/MGN Corporation that things really happen. Robert Maxwell, chief executive of the empire, takes a great interest in the technological revolution and the family of companies of which Mirrorsoft is a part includes information services with massive databases and the Rediffusion cable network. As Jim Mackonochie says, ‘The implications for the next decade are very interesting. There’s some very interesting potential’.

It’s quite a relief to come down to the individual level again and find that Jim himself began computing with a ZX81 and now has a Spectrum, QL and BBC at home. His knowledge and enjoyment of games goes beyond mere business awareness. ‘I enjoy playing games. I enjoy using computers. It’s more than a job — it’s a little bit of a crusade element.’

Shortly after this interview was conducted, Robert Maxwell’s involvement in Sinclair Research was announced. No doubt there will be a number of ramifications for Mirrorsoft as a result — will they become another Psion? Are they going to preserve their independence fiercely?

Answers to these and other questions had not been obtained as these pages were prepared for the printers, not least because Mirrosoft were in the middle of moving premises. Cast an eye over the NEWS INPUT pages for an update on the position.

One day, some years ago, Rich Shenfield was browsing through the wares on offer in a Southampton Army Surplus store, looking for a greatcoat. He bumped into a friend, who had just started a software house. The friend was Mark Eyles, the software house was Quicksilva, and Mr Shenfield was hired to provide artwork for their cassette inlays and advertising material. Thus began Rich Shenfield’s association with the software industry...

Rich Shenfield and a very mobile example of his art, snapped in sunny Ludlow. Just before the local traffic warden caught up with him...

Richard Shenfield is a man of many talents. He left school with A levels in Physics, Maths and Chemistry (and art!) and was set to become an engineer, taking up a place on an electronics degree course at Southampton University.

After a year of electronics, however, his artistic nature got the better of his engineering side and he resigned from the course, spent a year painting and preparing a portfolio before taking up a place at Bath Academy of Art. While he was at college, he began freelancing for Quicksilva, in the days when the company operated from a terraced house which was bursting at the seams with cassettes and dismantled arcade machines — much to the dismay of a certain landlord who arrived one day to collect the rent to find most of the furniture had been moved into the garden!

Since leaving college, Rich has pursued a free lance career, continuing to provide illustrations for Quicksilva and a number of other commercial clients. ‘Commissions help to pay the rent,’ he explained, ‘but I am always painting for myself, following my own interests. If I’m not working on a commission I am almost always working on a painting for a friend, or for myself’.

And his technological background enters his art — one painting, which formed part of a travelling exhibition, involved a fair bit of electronic wizardry which triggered off light emitting diodes and played an audio tape if sensors picked up movement. The gizmo even had a back-up battery, which cut in if the gallery owner unplugged the painting in an attempt to silence it!

‘I’m keen to bridge the gap between engineering and art — people say you can’t move from one to the other. On the one hand, artists can be luddites, claiming that engineering has little to offer, while engineers can consider art to be a waste of time as it does not deal with the mathematical values which form the basis of engineering thought.’

Rich Shenfield is fascinated by older civilisations and the contrasts between their level of technology and that of the modern world. He has recently returned from a nine month spell in India, where he spent many months living and working with ancient communities whose engineering skills are comparable to those that could be found in Europe five hundred years ago. The experience of visiting the Indian continent has recharged his artistic batteries, providing the artist in him with a variety of new experiences and images.

‘For instance I came upon a ruined city containing a temple which was built two thousand years ago. Everything bar the major buildings had been etched away over the years leaving a network of towers linked by roads — and the area had a striking resemblance to the architecture of Large Scale Integration microchips.

‘And it was intriguing to disappear into the desert for a couple of days — the ‘moonland’ in Kashmir is just a vast tract of dust and rock, where the geology is naked. Returning from the desert, having cut yourself off, you see things in a new detail, which is very useful for drawing!

‘Having spent three years painting alien landscapes, to spend nine months in an area of this world which is totally alien was like spending nine months on another planet — it was like being in a huge adventure game.’

Richard’s airbrush paintings are only a part of his output — his thesis at college was on 3D television, and he has been working with holographs for a couple of years with a firm called Holographix, producing 3D logos for computer companies and developing the techniques involved in creating images using laser light. He also has an animated film under his belt, produced with a Spectrum — mind you, he did use a 16mm camera to boost the computer’s memory!

And he uses computers in creating pictures. The cover for Mined Out for instance, was partly created on a mainframe using vector graphics to produce a line output which he then airbrushed over. This is an area of work he would like to get involved in further: ‘If anyone out there has a mainframe with a wonderful multi-colour, high resolution monitor I can use, I’d love to meet them. I simply can’t afford fifteen or twenty thousand pounds worth of equipment for my back room! Unfortunately the resolution from all but the most expensive systems is simply not coherent enough to be of much use to me.’

During the summer months, Rich has got into the habit of travelling the country in a caravanette, with his 12 volt airbrush, painting whenever and wherever the fancy (or a commission!) takes him. When he visited us in Ludlow, he had just finished designing the circuitry for a top-of-the-range stereo amplifier, which will deliver a massive 500 Watts per channel of almost distortion free sound.

A multimedia man, Mr Shenfield bade us goodbye, on his way to purchase some cellulose paint with which to decorate his van....

A NEW EDITOR

After exactly one and a half years of publishing CRASH, it seems an opportune moment for a change of editorship. I am moving over to become the editor of our sister magazine, ZZAP! 64 because its editor, Chris Anderson, has now left Newsfield. The responsibility for CRASH falls into the experienced hands of Graeme Kidd, who has been the assistant editor since Christmas. The change around hardly represents a big move, since both our desks face each other across some six feet of the same office area and barely a rubber band’s flick away from software editor Jeremy Spencer.

It’s an opportune moment, as well, in terms of timing, for CRASH has now become, thanks to you the readers, just about the most popular computer title in Britain, with sales rivalling those of the biggest and longest established publications in the field. Every indication points to the fact that sales are still rising rapidly — so, hello to the 4,000 (approximately) new readers this month!

I haven’t entirely abandoned CRASH, however, as there are still lots of things to write for the magazine, but from now on, the day to day headaches will all belong to Graeme! So with no more ado, I’ll hand over the page to your new editor, who has a few strong things to say about... what follows.

Roger Kean

Mr Graeme Kidd

WHAT A SILLY HUNT!

There’s more to a good magazine than a string of exclusives. In the last couple of months, however, the race for ‘scoops’ in the software industry has been on — with a vengeance — and a few people have been left with egg on their faces in the hunt for exclusives.

Some software houses have a very strange idea of what constitutes an exclusive story — one in particular peddled each part of a three-part game as three separate exclusives, while another managed to hand out an exclusive on the same product to several magazines simultaneously, which left everyone looking rather foolish. ‘It all depends on what you mean by “an exclusive”,’ as one software house said recently.

All good fun really, except a couple of magazines, annoyed at having missed out on previews and exclusives have resorted to ‘dirty tricks’. ‘We don’t hold discussions with companies which advertise with CRASH’ was the message given to a software house by one of our supposedly reputable competitors at the start of a meeting the other week: the meeting ended rather abruptly! A day or so later a carload of executives from the meetingless magazine was sent up the M1 to buy an expensive lunch far the people who advertised in CRASH. (We don’t have to buy our advertisers large lunches — cheers lads!)

Another editor, this time from a Commodore magazine, was miffed by an exclusive review of a certain game in our sister magazine ZZAP! 64, and rang up the software house concerned to inform them that someone had been in touch with his classified advertisement manager trying to sell pirate copies. It would be strange, considering the circumstances, if he hadn’t recognised perfectly well that this would cast aspersions on ZZAP!’s integrity, as these copies must either have been taken from the one and only working version of the game, lent to ZZAP! for the review, or have been supplied by someone from the software house itself; indeed to make the point, the software house was told that the classified ad contained wording to the effect ‘...as seen in ZZAP! magazine’. As it was, the editor concerned was unable to provide any names and addresses to substantiate his allegations — nor was the software house through their own private investigations. No pirate copies existed, and the whole exercise was a set-up.

The same thing happened to CRASH — the same software company was contacted about a Spectrum game by the same magazine publisher, who claimed that pirates had contacted them having obtained copies of their Spectrum game which we reviewed exclusively. Oddly, the magazine claimed, these pirates mostly lived in the Midlands. (Ludlow’s in the Midlands — geddit?) This time, the allegation was that either CRASH mail order had supplied the game, well before release date, or that the pirates had clandestinely received an illegal copy from someone at CRASH. Trouble was, the ‘informant’ didn’t know that the name of the game had been changed at the last moment, and that we had been given such an early copy, that ours still had the original name. If we had supplied a pirate, he would be offering copies of the game with its original name — which the informant didn’t know. Moral: If you’re going to cast aspersions, make sure you get your facts straight.

But such behind the scenes wranglings between supposed grown-ups, involving peeved magazine editors and fibbing advertisement salespeople telling untruths about our circulation figures are not really of direct impact to CRASH readers — a band which grows in number by thousands every month. And they have little impact on CRASH itself.

If our competitors stopped to think for a moment, they might realise that giving a full review to a game which has only been seen in a part finished state, just so they can use the banner ‘EXCLUSIVE’, is really ripping off their readers.

Giving a couple of paragraphs by way of a review to a game which hasn’t even seen the inside of their office as one Spectrum magazine recently did, is really a total con job. On the Commodore 64 front, the ZZAP! team has noticed exclusive reviews of ‘Commodore’ games in other magazines which have been illustrated by Spectrum screen shots (Rocky Horror Show, for one) and are really reviews of Spectrum games!

Writing an exclusive review of an unfinished game by lifting chunks from Press Releases, and joining them together with well-chosen phrases so it sounds like the writer has played the game is little short of fraudulent. Especially if the author has only played the game on another computer, or had a ten-minute run through during a visit to the software house’s offices.

A few true stories, each from a different magazine, all of which are probably losing readers to CRASH (and ZZAP!) as a result of their dirty dealings. Suits us!

Like all journalists, the CRASH team enjoy getting a good exclusive — but if it is an exclusive preview, we’ll call it that, and not pretend we’ve had a chance to play the game and then go on to invent a ‘full’ review. We’ve had a couple of early looks at new products in this issue of CRASH, from Mikro-Gen and Legend amongst others, but we’re not calling them exclusives.

We’ve dropped out of the race — we’re winning a far more important one. Anyway, our readers are quite bright enough to work out where they can read genuine comments ahead of the crowd, without having to be told so in big letters. Nor have we got time for petty wranglings and smear campaigns — we’re too busy having fun and putting together magazines we enjoy writing as much as we hope you enjoy reading.

Graeme Kidd

N·E·W·S   I·N·P·U·T

ZX MICROFAIR — A HALL FULL OF THINGS?

What a smashing day out we had at the ZX Microfair the other weekend. Apart from having to wait nearly half an hour for breakfast at a Little Chef on the way, everything went smoothly. Arriving in the Horticultural Hall, we set up our stand — and began selling copies of the July issue of CRASH.

After a couple of hours, the 600-odd copies we could spare had all gone and we had time to wander round and take a few photographs. Jeremy Kirsch and Barrie Gordon, pictured here, were just two readers we had to disappoint, having sold out.

The fair was quite fun, all in all, but there were few new or innovative products on show. Lots of cut price games on offer, however... and there was plenty to spend your money on, as Matthew Ablewhite and Chris Benington explained to Jeremy Spencer, our Software Editor.

GO FISHING WITH ALLIGATA

Next month we’ll be running a competition and a half with Alligata who are offering a Week’s Adventure Holiday and a full set of fishing tackle to the winner of their Jack Charlton’s Match Fishing competition.

As a sneak preview, we can say that the competition will require you to identify a whole of range of little swimmy fish from their portraits. So nip down to the library and get hold of a copy of ‘Five Hundred Famous Fish’ or a similar spotters guide and start boning up...

NEW DEVELOPMENTS AT THE MIRROR

Following the interview with Jim Mackonochie which formed the basis of John Minson’s profile on Mirrorsoft in this issue, news broke of Robert Maxwell’s financial rescue bid for Sinclair. As our deadline looms, details remain uncertain as to how this will affect Mirrorsoft, but bearing in mind the philosophy of Mirror Group Newspapers to take a positive investment in the future of new technology as outlined in the interview... prospects are intriguing. At this stage, however, nobody is willing to say too much. We’ll keep you informed of further developments.

Meanwhile, the past couple of months have seen two new junior educational packages from the company, plus a highly successful adventure into the world of arcade action with the CRASH smashed Dynamite Dan. Jim Mackonochie promises a new program in the Home Discovery series (to be launched at the PCW show later this year) which will continue Mirrorsoft’s commitment to quality, whichever area they are involved in.

ROSETTA TURNS TURTLE

Our very own Educational Software Reviewer, Rosetta McLeod of CRASH Course fame, is about to launch into the world of educational software in her own right. News reaches us from Turtle Software that Rosetta is currently working on a program for them which is based on the oil industry is centred on her home town of Aberdeen. No doubt it’ll be a goody... but should we let her review it?

HOLIDAY TIME

This issue Lloyd Mangram took his annual holiday immediately after completing the Forum pages, which accounts for the lack of Merely Mangram this issue. One game which deserves a quick mention here — Fairlight from The Edge. All we’ve seen is a couple of screen dumps from a very early version of the game, but from what we’ve been told by Tim Langdell, the man behind the company, it promises to be quite a stunning game.

Fairlight will have all the logic of a certain well-known role playing game, and features amazing 3D routines, part of a programming technique the chaps down at The Edge have dubbed ‘The Worldmaker’. Much more of that, and the other new release from The Edge, That’s The Spirit next issue.

Lots and lots of other goodies are also sitting on Lloyd’s desk... but there’s simply not time to tell you about them this month. Sorry folks, you’ll just have to wait for a suntanned Lloyd to return from his hols and catch up with him next issue.

As we write this the men from Argus Press Software have arrived to show us a host of new games, including Rupert and The Toymaker’s Party, the first of four games, which are part of the celebrations being held to mark Rupert’s birthday (we daren’t tell you how old he is this year!)... must dash, it’s time to go to Nutwood. ‘Yabadabbadoo!’, commented Peter Halme, alluding to another character who will soon be appearing in APS games....

CHARTING THE INDUSTRY

The big cheeses upstairs in Newsfield’s financial division suggest we should run a new chart in forthcoming issues of CRASH — a totally innovative ranking of software houses, not by games but by debts. This chart could be the one that takes the temperature of the software industry, month by month, letting you see which of the software companies are not being good snakes, and haven’t been coughing up for the advertisements they’ve placed in our hallowed pages to encourage you to buy their games. Could be interesting...

But our financial wizards do have a point to make. In the last few months several companies have gone bust or disappeared owing us money, having delayed payment for ages. Fantasy Software for instance, with £4,190, Bug Byte with £1,220 and Micromania with £3,475.

Some advertising agencies are being a bit naughty too, collecting money for advertisements from their clients and not passing it on to us for ages and ages.

So the idea of having a chart of the top ten companies who owe us money came to mind, naming names and stating sums. Could make interesting reading throughout the industry — and who knows, dear readers, you might not want to support the companies that don’t want to play fair with CRASH.

We’re compiling the chart in time for next issue. Look out for it — it could cause a stir!

TIMELY TIMEX

While confusion reigns as to whether Sinclair Research is or is not developing a replacement or upgrade with or without 128K of RAM (WHO said that...) CRASH has received at its offices a machine which at first sight appears to be the much aligned TIMEX 2068 from the United States. On closer inspection however, and with an astute reviewer pointing a joystick-battered finger in the right direction, the small PAL logo was discovered hiding in full PAL-colour on the front of the machine leaving no doubt that this was a European version of the same said brute (Nice one Mr. Holmes). In fact, it was later discovered that TIMEX of Portugal was the perpetrator of this crime (Who on earth would send CRASH a computer to review)? In their defence it must be said that they were only trying to promote their baby (a bastard by inception and certainly on closer inspection) with the hope of creating some interest here in the UK (wake up you boys and girls)! A thought crossed our minds here at Ludlow (the lights dimmed in the offices for a couple of seconds) whether this could possibly be the replacement/upgrade for existing and future Spectrum users?

ON THE FACE OF IT

The good looks of the machine certainly provoked a lot of appreciative grunts from Spectrum addicts. Th e computer squats on the table trying to cheat its own shadow and looks like some jumbo family-pack portable calculator in a neat silver metallic costume. The keyboard layout is an exact copy of the rubber-gumption Spectrum sloshboard, but sports some extra useful items such as a full length space bar and a complementary caps shift key on the righthand side. The annotation is only in mono (What happened to PAL colour?), but differentiating between the four key-modes is in fact easier than on the Spectrum due to the inverted logos for the symbol shift operations. The key-action is a lot more crisp and sharp and is a space leap for Spectrumkind, although it’s still light-years away from the full-sized, full travel keyboard standard.

To the right of the keyboard a large flap uncovers the TIMEX COMMAND CARTRIDGE ‘dock’ which will accept TIMEX specific ROM/RAM modules complete with carrying handles. These are sideways ROM/RAMS using the ingenious bank switching technique (more of this later...) and can be the carriers of autostarting commercial programs (games, utilities etc) or special languages or operating systems. To the lefthand side of the unit is located a power toggle switch (yes, no add-on required!) and further back a nine pin D type plug reveals the existence of an inbuilt joystick port, lo and behold, two joystick ports — the companion plug residing on the opposite side of the computer. Great, no fuss and worry about joystick interfaces, but wait, the software access to the joysticks is anything but standard, requiring access to ports 245 and 246. The trouble is compounded by the fact that the joysticks share these ports with the inbuilt sound generator chip. Before a read of port 246, one of the sound chip registers must be selected which will enable the free input port dedicated to the joystick. This is done by writing the correct value to the sound chip address port 245. Confused, well this means that the joystick ports can only be accessed with machine specific software or by using an extended basic command called STICK, that is if you do your own programming.

At the rear of the unit are a range of input and output ports, the most familiar being the PAL compatible UHF modulated TV output, the 9V power socket and the MIC and EAR sockets for the cassette recorder. A monitor output is provided, which delivers a composite video signal. Unlike the Spectrum, the TIMEX features three extended display modes besides the usual 32 column screen with the character size attribute mode (display mode 1). Display mode 2 provides a 24 x 64 character display (512 x 192 pixels) with one ink and one paper colour. Only fixed paper and ink colour combinations may be selected with bright on and flash disabled. If the character set is redefined by the user, up to 80 characters can be displayed per column and here, obviously, the monitor output is essential.

Display mode 3 displays a secondary screen and attribute page similar to display mode 1, only this time the display file is not at 4000H―57FFH, but at 6000H―77FFH and the attribute file not at 5800H―5AFFH but at 7800H―7AFFH.

Display mode 4 is the high colour resolution display with the same pixel resolution as mode 1 but with a choice of ink, paper, brightness and flashing for every pixel row of eight pixels. The attribute file is located at 6000H―7AFFH in this case. As last item there is a 64 pin bus expansion edge connector, which has a different pinout to the Spectrum version and so precludes any ideas of peripheral compatibility.

DEEP INSIDE...

Having extended facilities such as joystick ports, sound generator chip and ‘dock’ memory port, the TIMEX requires a different approach to the system memory configuration. As the Z80 can only access 64K of memory at any given time, the TIMEX people have resorted to the bank switching technique. Up to 4 different banks of 64K can be accessed via the memory bank controller located at ports 252 (DATA) and 253 (ADDR). Memory is selected in 8K chunks and up to eight of these can be selected from the whole bank range as long as they are not located at the same 64K address position.

The Home bank is selected by default and contains the 16K ROM with the Basic Interpreter, routines for in- and output (graphics, keyboard, joysticks, printer, sound chip etc) and 48K of RAM with the Display files, system variables and BASIC program. This is equivalent to the structure of the Spectrum memory. The second bank is the EXROM bank which only contains an 8K ROM with the cassette in-output routines, the bank switching code and the System initialisation routines. The third bank is the DOCK bank, which serves the cartridge programs, and contains either AROS (Application oriented software) or LROS (Language oriented software) or both. The system will detect the presence of these modules and will pass control to these. Bank 4 is the EXPANSION bank. The system will support up to 2 of these (up to 253 of these with a Bus Expansion Unit) and the banks can be used for controlling intelligent devices or for memory expansion. Expanding the TIMEX machine to 128K is therefore a doddle.

SOUNDS RIGHT...

As mentioned earlier, TIMEX has provided the machine with a bit more audio power with the help of a 3 channel sound generator chip extra to the normal BEEP output. The General Instrument Ay-3-8912 chip consists of a tone generator for three channels A, B and C, a noise generator and mixers. There is ample control provided for various envelope shapes, amplitude levels (up to 16 levels) and tone and noise generator combination selections either via Basic or via machine code instructions.

EXTENDED BASIC

To access all the extra little goodies, several BASIC commands have been implemented.

SOUND reg, value; reg, value; etc.

This command controls the 15 registers of the sound chip and allows the programmer to manhandle the chip in BASIC and create a symphonic background to the graphic activities on the screen.

STICK (device type, player)

The function allows the player to read the status of the two joysticks within BASIC. The value returned can be a combination of several activities and must therefore be evaluated within ranges.

DELETE m,n

This command allows the deletion of a sequence of lines from a program (lines m to n).

FREE

This function returns t h e number of bytes of free space currently available in the Home RAM for either programs or variables.

RESET ($c) (*)

This command causes the device associated with the specified stream to be reinitialised. If a channel number is not provided, the system initialises any new devices it finds. The RESET command does the equivalent of turning the machine off, then on again.

ON ERR GOTO linenumber
ON ERR CON'T
ON ERR RESET

These statements disable the automatic program termination upon encountering an error condition. The ON ERR GOTO linenumber can capture an error with a error routine residing at the specified line and the error number and line location can be peeked at the locations 23739 and 23736. The statement number with in the line that caused the error is stored in location 23738. The ON ERR CON'T statement causes the program to resume execution at the statement in which the error originally occurred. If the command is encountered and an error has not occurred, the command is ignored.

A complete set of commands is available for accessing disk or disk-like storage devices which are present on an Expansion Bank. The Home ROM is responsible for passing the command and calling the appropriate routine in the specified Expansion Bus. These include commands such as OPEN, CLOSE, SAVE, LOAD, ERASE, MOVE, VERIFY, PRINT, INPUT and MERGE with microdrive style arguments.

COMPATIBILITY

Few hardware manufacturers will deny that launching a new computer without a large existing software base can cause initial sales delays, especially if the target market is games related. Timex in the States obviously underestimated this point by not ensuring full compatibility with existing Spectrum games. They rejected access to the world’s largest games software base and lost the advantage of winning several years of free software development. TIMEX of Portugal realised this and are offering an emulator cartridge to fit into the ‘dock’ port. Several ROM routines and their start addresses are different on the home bank ROM and machine code programs accessing these routines will encounter several obstacles. So many arcade games program will probably not run in the standard configuration. The emulator replaces the home ROM and provides full compatibility with the Spectrum. Several Spectrum games were tested and performed as normal with the use of the emulator.

VERDICT

The TIMEX computer offers an improved performance when compared to the Spectrum 48K and the Spectrum Plus, but it is about two years too late in appearing. It does not offer enough improvements to warrant users to upgrade to this machine, as there are several very exciting new computers appearing on the market. For new users the machine could prove to be a better machine than the Spectrum, although the changes will only be noticed with specially written software which will make good use of the sound generator chip, the inbuilt joystick ports and the bank switching possibilities. The major question will be what price level the machine will be offered at. At £70–80 the TIMEX would be a very good entry level computer, but no official price indications have found their way to the CRASH offices...

The Niche takes a first look at Basic Compilers for the Spectrum

MACHINE CODE WITHOUT TEARS

There’s a world of difference between ZX BASIC and machine code. Programs in BASIC tend to be slow, with jerky graphics and poor sound effects. Programs in machine code run hundreds of times faster — which doesn’t mean that the graphics just jerk around the screen at Warp Factor ten. No, machine code programming permits smoother movement, ‘3D’ perspectives, simultaneous sound, animation and so on.

BENCHMARK TESTS — Comparing the compilers

Eight standard BenchMark programs were used in the comparison: timings for the execution of each benchmark program are given in seconds, with the speedup ratios achieved by each of the compilers printed on a grey background.

BM1

BM2

BM3

BM4

BM5

BM6

BM7

BM8

ZX BASIC

4.9

9.0

21.9

20.7

25.2

62.8

90.0

25.0

MEHMOOD

0x

138x

2.4x

4.9x

6.0x

0x

0x

0x

*

0.065

9.0

4.2

4.2

*

*

*

SOFTEK FP

2.8x

4.3x

2.5x

2.2x

2.7x

3.2x

3.8x

1.1x

1.75

2.1

8.7

9.4

9.4

19.7

24.0

22.5

SOFTEK IS

84x

118x

38x

21x

25x

48x

0x

0x

0.058

0.076

0.57

0.98

0.99

1.32

*

*

MCODER2

113x

93x

35x

23x

27x

54x

61x

0x

0.043

0.097

0.62

0.90

0.92

1.17

1.47

*

ZIP 1.5

158x

141x

113x

192x

219x

235x

191x

0x

0.031

0.064

0.194

0.108

0.115

0.29

0.46

*

Of course, machine code doesn’t necessarily make a game playable, and some classic games have been programmed entirely in BASIC — Mined Out, Football Manager and Velnor’s Lair for instance. But if you want to write a shoot-em-up game, or a program with sophisticated graphics, you’ll almost certainly find BASIC too slow.

Back in the olden days of Spectrum programming, when programmers assembled code in their heads, and the back pages of the old orange manual were the first to fall out, there wasn’t much alternative to learning machine code once you’d come up against the limitations of BASIC.

Learning machine code was a traumatic process: before disks and microdrives (which brought their own meaning to the term ‘random access’) every programming mistake meant a crash. Teaching yourself machine code was a frustrating process as, after each mistake, it took several minutes to re-load your assembler, debugger and program source from tape in preparation for another crack at the problem.

Predictably it wasn’t long before someone figured out that, if the computer was so fiendishly clever, it really ought to be able to make up machine code for itself. In this article we take a look at currently available BASIC to machine code translators, or ‘compilers’. Next month we hope to examine Colt and Blast, two new and aggressive-sounding BASIC compilers which are under development. In future Niches we’ll blow the dust off other Spectrum languages such as Logo, Forth, C, and Pascal.

Meanwhile, back at the keyboard....

WHY IS BASIC SO SLOW?

BASIC is slow because everything you type is carefully checked to make sure it is correct. This would be fair enough if it only happened once, when the program was entered, but the exhaustive checking continues even while a program is running.

If you write a program in BASIC to add 2 and 2 a hundred times, the computer will take as long to work out the answer the last time as it did the first 99 times. The actual adding is done fairly quickly in machine code (which is the only language the Spectrum’s Z80 processor can really understand), but the overall effect is still very slow. This is partly because BASIC checks the syntax of lines over and over again, even after they have been entered (in case some stray POKE or Cosmic Ray has changed the contents of program memory?)

BASIC is also hampered by the need to cope with all sorts of special cases. The routine to add numbers in the Spectrum ROM has to be able to cope with functions, arrays, numbers and variables; these can have almost any value from minus several zillion upwards. The Z80 processor can only cope with a few digits at a time; it has to do all its arithmetic in several steps, just in case. Worse still, it can’t multiply and divide at all, so these operations must be performed ‘longhand’.

Much of the code in the Spectrum’s ROM is taken from the earlier ZX81 BASIC, which was squashed into just 8K. In order to keep the size down, parts of ZX BASIC were written using a leisurely version of the compact Forth language, rather than machine code. A new ROM for the Spectrum is planned (though not by Sinclair), but nothing has materialised yet.

One of the nice features of Spectrum BASIC is the way that it lets you type in new lines of program and scrub out old ones as you test your program. This is hell for the BASIC system, which has to keep scrabbling around in tables to keep track of shifting variables and program lines. The longer your BASIC program, the worse this gets, so that a 20K program may run at half the speed of a 2K one. In compiled BASIC, however, the position of every line and variable is fixed. This makes programs fast, but means that you have to re-compile the whole lot if you changed one line.

Finally, ZX BASIC is cursed by the stupid way humans like to write things. We write ‘X = 6 + 7’ when the computer would be much happier with ‘6 7 + = X’. It can’t do anything with the name X till it finds the equals sign (meaning that a value must be stored). Similarly, the equals sign isn’t really relevant till the computer knows what is to be stored. The plus sign means add two values — there’s no point telling the computer about it until it has found both the numbers. ZX BASIC actually performs calculations in the second sequence (which is called Reverse polish Notation), but it has to re-order them from the first sequence every time it finds them, and that is a slow process.

WHAT’S A COMPILER

The Spectrum BASIC compilers are programs which read a BASIC program and produce a machine code equivalent. The compiler and both programs have to be in memory all at once, which limits the size of compiled programs to 10-20K.

Compiled code may be anything from 2 to 200 times faster than the original, depending upon the compiler you are using and the intricacy of the original program. We ran (or at least, tried to run!) the standard BASIC benchmark programs on each of the compilers. The results are shown in the Timing Table, along with the published timings for ZX BASIC.

The timings are not as fast as for pure machine code, which allows much more freedom to the programmer, but they are easily fast enough for most games programming. A number of commercial games are written in compiled BASIC (including Frank ’N’ Stein, published by PSS) and look none the worse for it, although you’d be hard put to write Knight Lore with a compiler.

A few of the positions in the table contain asterisks, because the test program could not be processed by that compiler. In order to keep compiled programs fast, and reduce the complexity of the compiler, the packages all impose restrictions on what they can compile.

COMPILER CONSTRAINTS

Softek’s FP compiler is the only one that can cope with decimal values, for instance — this makes it much slower than the others, but means that it is the only compiler suitable for use in business programming. But who wants to run a business on a Spectrum anyway? The other compilers restrict you to whole numbers between -32767 and 32767, although you can use values up to 65535 in POKEs and suchlike.

You can switch back and forth from normal BASIC, machine code and compiled code with USR calls and RETURN instructions, so it is possible to write programs in a mixture of languages if you need speed at one point and sophistication elsewhere.

The Softek compilers (FP and IS) are the only ones which allow use full BASIC string-handling; Mcoder gives you a fairly complete set of facilities to work with short strings (up to 255 characters) but Zip and the Mehmood compiler can only offer simple routines to read and write characters. You could probably write a text adventure using Mcoder or one of the Softek compilers, but you’d be much better off using The Quill.

Array handling is similarly limited — none of the compilers allow arrays of more than one dimension, and the IS and Mehmood programs won’t allow arrays at all. You can use long variable names with Mcoder and the Softek compilers, but the cheaper packages restrict you to 52 short variables names.

The ‘core’ of ZX BASIC commands — PRINT, INPUT, PLOT, DRAW, LET, GO SUB, IF, and so on — are allowed by all the compilers. The Mehmood compiler doesn’t allow FOR loops, which meant that we couldn’t run some of the benchmark programs.

One of the snags of real machine code is the fact that you can’t ‘break in’ to programs. This suits software houses, who want to discourage piracy, but it is very inconvenient for programmers. The only way you can stop a machine code program is to pull out the plug and re-load it. Zip and Mcoder allow you to break into compiled programs at will, but the Softek compilers require a special command wherever you might wish to break into compiled programs. You can’t break into programs produced by the Mehmood compiler at all.

The Softek compilers allow you to put special instructions in REM statements. These instructions only work once a program has been compiled, which is inconvenient since you can’t test such programs fully in normal BASIC — one of the big advantages of BASIC compilers over machine code is the fact that you can test your programs interactively, with all the BASIC checks and hand-holding to help you, before you compile them.

Softek’s special instructions allow you to check for the Break key, enter machine code into the program, and move simple (character-sized) sprites smoothly around the screen. On the FP compiler you can also trap errors and simulate the ON... GO TO statement. None of the compilers let you GO TO a calculated line number — you must always GO TO a specific number.

Mcoder offers some REM instructions, but these are designed for program testing. You can turn off BREAK checks, giving marginally faster code, or turn on a ‘trace’ facility which shows the current line as it is executed. Mcoder and Zip allow you to pass variable values back and forth between BASIC and machine code.

THE COMPILERS COMPARED

So far we’ve taken a broad overview, looking at the compilers together. In the following section we look closely at each of the five Spectrum compilers (there were six, but the first Spectrum BASIC compiler, SUPER C is no longer available).

COMPILER
£2.75
A Mehmood

This compiler was featured in a trio of Popular Computing Weekly articles in April this year. It doesn’t come with any instructions, so you’ll need a copy of PopCW Volume 4 No 17, and ideally the two following issues as well. A simple demonstration game is supplied on the other side of the tape.

Compiler is written in BASIC, so it works very slowly, and line numbers below 1000 are reserved for the compiler program. As soon as an error is found a message is printed and compilation stops. The messages are usually quite helpful, but the stop is annoying since you have to start again to find the next error, and this might involve a wait of several minutes.

At £2.75 this is not a bad low-cost compiler, and would probably be useful for ‘spicing up’ BASIC program. It is a shame that it doesn’t allow FOR NEXT loops or even PRINTing of strings. The poor timings it achieves on the Benchmarks result from the fact that the Spectrum’s very slow, built-in ‘division’ routine is used.

MCODER
£8.95
PSS

Mcoder has the longest history of all the Spectrum compilers. It began life in the July 1983 issue of Your Computer magazine; in those days it was a 2K program for the ZX81 called ZX-GT. Like the Softek compilers, Mcoder now occupies about 6K.

The Mcoder documentation is unimpressive: seven cassette-sized pages, in the form of a brief question and answer session and a list of commands allowed by the compiler. PSS offer a three page ‘help sheet’ to users who miss the significance of some of the comments in the cassette insert. The code produced is faster than that from the IS compiler, especially when it comes to string handling.

Mcoder looks very much like the Softek compilers (or should that be the other way around?) and performs in a similar way, with the same fast compilation and simple error indication. Mcoder and IS are very similar — Mcoder handles numeric arrays and has better debugging facilities, while IS is slightly more compatible with normal BASIC and offers simple sprites.

ZIP 1.5
£5.50

This is yet another refugee from a computer magazine — an early version of Zip was listed (in the wrong order, mainly) by the troubleshooting goblins at Your Spectrum last year (issues 3-6). Zip is mainly written in BASIC and consequently works more slowly than Mcoder or IS, although it’s not as lethargic as the Popular Computing weekly offering. Line numbers above 5000 are used by the compiler and optimiser.

Zip produces faster code than the other compilers, as the benchmark timings show. Like IS and Mcoder it works with whole numbers only — unlike them, it doesn’t allow strings or DATA and variable names are restricted.

The documentation is better than for the other compilers, consisting of twelve pages of A5 (reduced from the A4 originals), with appendices covering benchmark performance, useful subroutines and error messages. There is also a section on customising the compiler program. A demonstration game is recorded after the compiler.

As compilation takes place your program is listed on the screen, and errors are shown in context. Zip is the only compiler which detects all the errors in a program at once — this is just as well, in view of the compilation rate. Zip produces error messages in plain English, whereas the other compilers just stop at the location of the error.

FP COMPILER
£19.95
Softek

This is the most expensive compiler by a clear tenner, so it had better be good — or at least different! As the benchmark timings show, it produces fairly pedestrian code, typically 2-10 times faster than normal BASIC — but it is very flexible. You can use FP to speed up almost any ZX BASIC program that doesn’t use arrays of more than one dimension, or the VAL and VAL$ functions. The compiler also disallows calculations in DATA and GO TOs, but we wouldn’t dream of using those, would we?

The documentation is barely adequate — a single large sheet of paper with an introduction, list of compiled statements and brief technical discussion.

The FP compiler displays the current line being processed as it works. When an error is found the compiler stops and shows the line containing the problem, with a question-mark to show where the problem was found. You can’t go on to detect subsequent errors, but this doesn’t matter much since the compiler is very fast. You can compile several programs into different areas of memory by using CLEAR between one compilation and the next.

FP is a well-written program, but it is expensive and may not be useful to many Spectrum users, since it doesn’t offer a dramatic speed increase over well-written BASIC. We’ll look at it again next month, when we examine BLAST, a new compiler also designed to process ‘off the shelf’ progams.

IS COMPILER
£9.95
Softek

This program is very like the FP one in presentation — it shares the same instruction sheet but it restricts itself to arithmetic using whole numbers (IS stands for Integer and String, whereas FP stood for Floating Point). This restrictions makes IS about ten times faster than its stablemate. Again, compilation is fast and you can compile several programs into different areas of memory.

The compiled code is slower than that generated by Mcoder, and quite a lot slower than Zip, but the IS compiler has the bonus of support for very simple sprites. The lack of array-handling is annoying, although not too hard to get around if you’re prepared to use PEEK and POKE or string-slicing instead.

None of these compilers really offer ‘instant translation’ for your BASIC. With the possible exception of Softek’s FP you really have to write your program with compilation in mind — it is hard work to convert existing BASIC to suit any of the compilers. Also, there are some things which are hard to do without the flexibility of real machine code. That said, the packages all produce working code pretty effortlessly, and you can be reasonably confident that compiled programs will work first time — unlike hand-coded ones!

Next month, PR companies willing, we should be able to report on two new compilers — Colt, from HiSoft, which is a development of Mcoder, and Oxford Computer Systems’ Blast, which promises to compile absolutely any ZX BASIC program, without alteration. At the moment we’re having a bit of trouble wheedling copies out of the manufacturers — they both seem to be holding back until they’ve had a chance to dismantle their competitor’s product! We’ll compile more information next Niche....

MONEY FROM YOUR SOFTWARE

Published by: ESC Publishing, Oxford
Author: Anne Staines
Price: £6.75 (plus 80p Postage if you buy mail order)

The days of the backroom software house are not yet over — we seem to get a constant stream of letters and phone calls from people who have just written, or are about to write their mega-game, the ultimate adventure or a super-dooper simulation. ‘Can you recommend a software house I could sell it to’, ‘How do I avoid being ripped off’ and ‘Should I publish it on my own’ are probably the three main questions asked by budding Matthew Smiths and Mike Singletons.

And some of these questions are difficult to answer during a five minute telephone conversation — the commercial world is a jungle at the best of times, and even the most experienced business types can fall foul of the traps and pitfalls that exist. Apart from having a worthwhile product, it’s wise to be equipped with a fair understanding of topics such as copyright, marketing, the law of contract, finance and taxation before embarking on the quest for your fortune. Apart from the sharks, there’s a whole host of legal requirements, rules and regulations waiting to confuse and confound the entrepreneur.

We have been advising people who’ve asked us how to go about making money from their programs to get hold of a copy of Anne Staines’ book. For £6.95 it’s probably one of the most cost-effective investments anyone contemplating selling their software could make. Ms Staines is a barrister — they normally come very expensive — and she has drawn on her professional knowledge and experience to provide a readable introduction to a whole host of topics, including basic details on setting up a limited company, protecting and defending your copyright, contracts, raising finance and marketing. All in one book, which costs about as much as ten minutes with a member of the legal profession, face to face. A good deal indeed.

MIRAGE MICRODRIVER

You may recall that only last month we reviewed a product called Interface III, a machine that would stop and transfer any game onto microdrive. We said then that we expected there to be others, but not so soon. Essentially the Mirage and Interface III perform the same trickery but the Mirage does seem to be better thought out. In appearance it’s another famous Spectrum black box with a little red button on the side. After opening the box we spent some time doing a chip count, there are three, all black and well legged. All in all there isn’t much inside, nothing even remotely resembling a hoover, as we had expected.

Using the Mirage is a dream. Interface III required the user to make two copies of a game in order to a final copy, only one of those copies could be made onto microdrive. The Mirage is fitted to the Spectrum and stays there while the user loads the game. After the game has loaded simply press the little blip on the side and the game will freeze while at the top of the screen a two line deep blue box appears which sternly offers a copyright warning for itself(!) and then invites you to press any key. Now you are presented with five options; Load, Save, Poke, Run and New. To save the game you have loaded press S and Mirage asks you for a filename. After that simply enter the microdrive number and next a touching message appears... ‘Please wait...’ After a long drawn out 30 seconds the microdrive burst/grinds into life. As long as you remembered to format the cartridge and the microdrive is behaving, you are asked if you want to verify the saved game, if you don’t trust your drive you [...] -ation completed, you can now pocket the saved version of your game. The whole operation is completed in the time it takes to load a game plus a little over a minute.

The Mirage unit can copy a game to tape. Instead of the microdrive number you enter T. Tape copy facilities are generally frowned upon and Mirage clearly hope to win friends by designing the system so that games copied with the unit can only be run again if it is still connected to the Spectrum. One very good reason for keeping the unit attached at all times is that all the loading functions are handled by the software within the Mirage. To load a game press the red button and obtain the main menu, press L for load, enter the file name and then the drive number and that’s it, much easier than using the normal microdrive commands. When a game has loaded from drive, the menu will appear again, to start the game enter R for run and off you go. The Poke option allows you to enter, say, an infinite lives poke without having to break into the game. You are prompted for the address and then the data. The poke option makes the creation of cheat games a doddle.

Because the Mirage must be connected at all times, any other equipment has to plug into its through bus, that’s simple enough until the little boxes start to argue. More often than not such rare problems can be prevented by changing the order of the devices hung on the Spectrum. On occasions when using the box we noticed the Mirage system ‘invades’ the current game with its menu but pressing R returned everything to normal.

The Mirage definitely outstrips the Interface III in terms of ease of use, flexibility and speed. However Interface III does allow the user to decide whether to save the opening screen or not. By not saving that screen two games can be fitted onto one cartridge whereas Mirage only allows one game per cartridge. The system would have been even better if a format routine could have been built into the list of Mirage options.

This device is a must for the serious microdriver.

Price: £39.95
available via Mail order

DON’T BLAME ME I’M ONLY THE PROGR...

ONE GOOD RULE in life is ‘never boast about anything until you have seen it through’. And the other pearl of wisdom you tend to hear is ‘things are always more difficult than they look’.

Taking the first rule, I think we can safely say there have been many companies who, in retrospect, would have done well to take heed of it. You don’t have to look too far for examples of games which demonstrated this rule; here are a few of the notables: Sherlock, The Great Space Race, Swords and Sorcery, and, of course, Psyclapse and Bandersnatch. Big things were expected of these games, not because of previews generating interest but on account of rather large advertising campaigns. Their high public profiles suggested that an enormous expenditure on hype could only possibly indicate a similar expenditure in time and effort on the program itself. Which leads me on to the second rule...

Things are always more difficult than they look — but in the case of programming, things become nigh-on impossible. Take the balance between speed and length. The number of moving graphics will determine how quickly a game will play: too many moving graphics and all will be reduced to a snail’s pace. If the graphics are stored in a compact form then the code to decipher them may well slow the game appreciably. The length of code becomes critical if the graphics are stored in the form to be displayed on screen, as a vast amount of memory is required.

It is difficult to know how this balance between speed and memory will work out until the project is well under way. Indeed, it may only be at this later stage when it is discovered the whole programming project was too ambitious in the first place. This problem besets all programmers but will affect those who work on orders from above to a greater extent.

Every software house worth its free publicity has a whole menagerie of Managing Directors, Marketing Managers, Public Relations Officers, Secretaries, Graphic Artists, Games Designers, Cover Artists and someone to make the tea (teaperson). This is a considerable number of people — even if the ‘s’ signifies at the very most two people with each job title, and there is much overlapping of roles, eg a Marketing Manager may make the tea, while Public Relations ensure each cup has the correct amount of sugar in it.

The problem is that the orders from above can come down so thick and fast, that they soon form a heavy overburden which begins to exert a significant pressure on the poor guy at the bottom — who is none other than our poor little programmer, struggling with the implications of our second rule. He may be having difficulty implementing some big idea from above, perhaps a film/TV/superstar endorsement, and and be desperate to get the game finished knowing how much the software house paid to secure the rights.

Don’t get me wrong. The marketing, graphic and design skills are a very important part of the new mega-game blockbuster. All I am saying is spare some resources for the people actually programming — it may well pay off.

THE ANTAGONISTS

Producer: Addison-Wesley Productions
Author: Hal Renko, Sam Edwards, Hermie Hermens
Price: £5.95

The Antagonist, a Microworld Adventure from Addison-Wesley Publishing, follows Arendarvon Castle, reviewed last month. Once again you can buy the book and type in the program or buy both the book and program. Both games have a very similar format with an interesting and highly informative book supporting unimaginative and somewhat primitive software. It’s difficult to do the game justice in this review with such lacklustre coding, so much of what I will say will necessarily pertain to the book which looks very much like any other that might be found lining the shelves of a bookshop. Its content is also impressive and sets in motion a process I very much admire in that it encourages the player to seek out and use information from a dossier file which, taken as a whole, describes the strange world in which you find yourself.

The file you carry has some diary entries of one Albert Renshaw, more of whom later; a book on flowers by a learned professor; a publication from the James Arwell Society commemorating one of the greatest scientists who ever lived; and a guide to INSECTOLAND, an insect Disneyworld built in the 23rd century.

Albert Renshaw’s diary might just be as boring as anyone else’s were it not for one thing — in a world dominated by insects and ruled by ants it was he who had the dubious distinction of being the last surviving member of planet Earth, a sort of Omega Man armed with fly spray. As every budding 20th century biologist knows, the insects, which are the largest single group of animals on Earth, have one serious limitation imposed upon them by the way in which they breathe — through pores and the tubes which lead from their tough outer skeletons — which prevents them from reaching any threatening size. So why doesn’t our Renshaw chappie don a large pair of boots and simply walk all over his assailANTS?

Well the answer lies in the curious delight afforded any blue blooded scientist by meddling in areas he knows next to nothing about. In this case the 21st century had not only produced curios like chemical sociology and psychological physics but a wondrous growth hormone which certainly grew livestock and foodstuffs more quickly, but also had the disconcerting effect of spawning whopping great big creepy crawlies which had the wherewithall to try and flush YOU out of the bath.

All good science fiction turns humour into a satirical scalpel, and this book is no exception. Two funnies stick in the mind particularly. The first relates how, as insects got bigger, so did the movement concerned with insect welfare and the second how the prefaces to The Book of Flowers tells of the way in which a Professor Rosebush’s classification supercedes that of the deceased Professor Lanuski’s even though Lanuski, the previous editor of the treatise, had expressly attacked Rosebush’s classification in an earlier preface. Hence the prefaces relate how classifications only last as long as their proponents and, more generally, how science is full of pompous pedants.

Turning to the adventure itself, much of the early play is within fields and the caves beyond them. Throughout the adventure you must research and make reference to your dossier (which in reality is the glossy softback book) and this first part is no exception. In the fields are scattered various flowers and as you climb their stems you relate the on-screen information with that in the Book of Flowers. This however is no easy task as the program is deviously sketchy with one or two of its descriptions, but of course, some are instantly recognizable and you then refer to the guide with renewed confidence. The flowers are realistically, and usefully, divided into the niches of marine, fresh, swamp, wet and dry.

There’s just a touch of sci-fi philosophy within the James Arwell Soc publication. It puts forward the hypothesis that the hallmark of true genius lies not in the complexity of a theory but in its simplicity and accessibility and so it reckons Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were the real geniuses when compared to the likes of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. (An interesting theory on the rise of popularism and the decline of Radio 3). The publication also tells of the Lepries, who have a total lack of physical beauty but are friendly enough, and the Tenins, who are similar to elves but can change rapidly in mood to become dark and deceitful. Lepries enjoy a kind of blueberry soup which turns the leprie blue except for the hands which become a bright yellow hue.

The guide to INSECTOLAND gives information and clues concerning the various giant ants, bees, flies, beetles and butterflies which inhabit the park. A creature you will soon be looking up in the guide is the glow-worm which emits light during its whole life-span, and we learn how the production of light decreases if the worm is deprived of honey.

The Antagonist is a fine book, but the poor quality of the software on the tape lets it down. It’s a little amateurish to expect the player to type RUN after the first part of the program has loaded in. The appearance of the screen is very dull with the original black Spectrum print left on a glaring white background. If you load the first part of this program you may find it better to then add 100 INK 6 : PAPER 0 : BORDER 0 : CLS and then SAVE ‘ANTAG’ LINE 1 which will allow an auto RUN.

Although the book creates a good atmosphere, the location descriptions in the program are sparse and disappointing. Some locations have nothing on your present predicament but merely tell you what is in adjacent areas, which gives certain regions an anonymous feel. As with the first game, the vocabulary is very limiting and there doesn’t appear to be any equivalent of EXAMINE. The game is not difficult but trying to correlate the cave system to its textbook equivalent may take some time.

The Antagonist is a noteworthy project but I feel more effort could have gone into the programming aspect which, after all, is what most software is all about!

COMMENTS

Difficulty: quite easy
Graphics: none
Presentation: poor
Input facility: generally verb/noun though needs a weapon specified for combat
Response: very fast
General Rating: Detailed and interesting book, program locations poor.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

5/10

Logic

8/10

Addictive Quality

6/10

Overall Value

6/10

CONFIDENTIAL

Producer: Radar Games
Author: D. Healey, C. Guest
Price: £6.95

Confidential is undoubtedly from a small software concern, but the effort expended in making this an interesting game to play is evidenced in the extensive literature which accompanies the cassette. As well as the super (and accurate) map and notebook which every player receives, I had a good read of the Confidential File hints list, without which I would have found the going rather difficult to say the least.

The supporting literature makes much of this game finding its setting in the real world with real streets, bank, shops, nightclubs and a taxi office. Of course they aren’t actually real in that they exist in the fictitious town of Fox Bay, but considering this game was written some time before last month’s editorial it’s certainly a welcome change to wander about a town which at least has a street map provided.

Confidential is the story of the disappearance of a Mr Richards, a property developer, from the small coastal town of Fox Bay, and the subsequent investigation carried out by the local private detective, Craig Adams. With suitable deference to one or two notables in this area, the game attempts to bring something akin to Cluedo to the adventure world.

You find yourself in the Craig Adams Detective Agency and faced with the immediate scourge of any office worker — the ringing telephone. But you are no sedentary 9 to 5 type and this call is a real humdinger, dropping a juicy pomegranate of intrigue right into your trench-coated lap. A Mrs Richards of Dale End, a western suburb of Fox Bay, is worried about her husband who has been missing for 5 days. All she knows is that he left for work as usual at 8.30 am on Monday morning and was to collect a special present for his son’s birthday. Your mission is quite simple — find out what has happened to her husband.

The game which builds up from around this conversation involves you travelling around (by car when out of town) collecting snippets of information which domino you around the circuitous route followed by the missing man. Your chief allies in this search are a keen ear for those salient facts which point toward the ultimate truths, and the passport discarded in Mr Richard’s car which affords the very necessary identification when quizzing store assistants and other suspects who haven’t got the foggiest who this Mr Richard is, or was, for that matter. I never did quite play enough to find out what exactly did happen to the guy, though I did begin to fear the worst.

Some aspects of the plot are quite complex, and to be honest, I would have found much of it a struggle were it not for the hint sheet kindly supplied by Radar. The vocabulary is not restricted to verb/noun to the extent that phrases like GIVE THE PASSPORT TO THE WOMAN must be entered to do the simplest of things. Since I tend to keep to verb/noun in the interests of time I entered PASSPORT WOMAN a seemingly illogical statement. On the whole the game is not a friendly one. Which part of a name is accepted? For example, the Club part of Club Tropicana and the Store part of Department Store, but the Richard part of Richard & Ellis Developments, is annoyingly inconsistent — where only one part of a noun is accepted it helps if the program keeps to one approach throughout.

There are one or two onerous tasks every player will meet during play. One is the constant need to UNLOCK then ENTER the car when any distance is to be travelled. Another is the task of dropping an item before another can be picked up, made all the more essential by the program’s devious construction which ensures there is little option but to do this every time. One curious one-off hitch is the inability to leave the maintenance bay with LEAVE MAINTENANCE. LEAVE GARAGE is needed and so to leave the garage LEAVE GARAGE must be repeated twice, once to leave the bay and the second time to leave the garage proper. Another (one-off!) is the necessity of opening a door in the taxi office which is described as being already open. Incidentally, I very much doubt if I could have got past the taxi office were it not for the hint sheet.

A more fundamental irritant is the need to interview suspects in the correct preset order otherwise certain crucial events, like the opening of banks and stores, will simply not occur. Interviewing Mr Ellis, a partner in the missing man’s firm, is a particularly crucial stage; missing it could leave you thrashing around the garage or high street to no avail. This interview also marks the time when the local constabulary decide your car would be safer in their car pound.

Because of this fundamental constraint on your actions, and the order in which you may carry them out, the adventure takes on that distinctive linear look, where before a problem can be tackled the one before it in the line must be laid to rest.

Confidential is a well-presented, attractive, Quilled, text-only adventure. In terms of storyline and plot it is significantly above average and clearly represents a considerable amount of work on the part of the programmer.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: quite difficult
Graphics: none
Presentation: quite good
Input facility: basically verb/noun
Response: instantaneous
General Rating: Original plot, definitely worth exploring.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

6/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall Value

7/10

THE FOURTH PROTOCOL

Hutchinson Computer Publishing, £12.95

If the last book you read was the Beano annual 1978 then you may not be aware of the standing of The Fourth Protocol (the book) in the literary world — where it was received to great popular acclaim. Much of the panache of that Frederick Forsyth novel dealing with the murky depths of counterespionage is retained in this computer game. It boasts a development team of games designers, graphic artists and programmers, and on loading you can well believe it. The game’s concept has been very well implemented and the graphics are attractive and impressive.

The plot goes like this: in a remote cottage just outside Moscow a Soviet General Secretary and the British traitor Kim Philby plot the most audacious offensive of the cold war, codenamed Plan Aurora. The plan is to destabilize Britain and force the disintegration of NATO. With the NATO pact out of the way Soviet forces would then be free to overthrow Western Europe. The idea is to renege on the Fourth Protocol, a part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty signed by the 1968 nuclear powers of Britain, USA and Russia. This involves the smuggling of a nuclear device into the UK and exploding it there just before the 1987 General Election. A KGB disinformation program will ensure the nuclear disaster is blamed on an American military installation. The election of a hard left government committed to withdrawal from NATO will lead to a totalitarian state in Britain. Your role is to play John Preston, MI5 investigator, who must uncover Plan Aurora and ensure that its insidious results are never realized.

Even as you take up your post as head of CI(A) a burglary is taking place somewhere in England. The burglar steals the Glen Diamonds but, more important, disturbs some secret NATO documents. The MOD mandarins receive these files and immediately get the Paragon Committee, whose sole concern is the source of the lost documents, onto the case. Your task is to find who is leaking the secrets, to whom they are being leaked, and why. Meantime, however, you must run a busy secret service department from your Cencom control network, maintaining as low a public profile as possible.

Nato Documents is the first of three parts on the tape and is an adventure/strategy game which uses an icon driven control system, i.e. you point to what you want and then press ENTER to reveal further options. The heart of the game is the Cencom display which allows access to news reports, sitreps (situation reports), files, telephone calls (both in and out), surveillance of suspects, and self-assessment to see how you are getting on in your role as head of CI(A). By way of this series of menus and sub-menus the player can effectively control the whole organisation: all its in- and outgoings of both personnel and messages. A file can be read into your Cencom system’s memory over the telephone from Blenheim, a building which contains the vast archives of MI5. As you might expect, however, codes must be deciphered and entered correctly.

Playing, the first thing you might like to do is to track down your personal list of telephone numbers as there is some important information available to you at Blenheim. You will need your one-time decoding sheets in order to enter the code of the week (which, strangely enough, lasted well over a month when I played it). This allows you to download into your Cencom console valuable lists of Cabinet and Foreign Office staff who had access to the stolen documents. Those staff with access to photocopying facilities are shown — which may be significant, as the stolen documents were photocopies. All the while you must concern yourself with the running of a busy secret service department and this can even go as far as probing the private lives of the workers in your office. Miss Abbs has a fling with a foreign diplomat and you must decide what you are going to do about it, if anything. More important is finding out who leaked the NEC privatization documents to the national press and dealing with the culprit.

An important part of security is surveillance and choosing the surveillance icon allows you the option of allocating up to 25 watchers to any one suspect, and withdrawing some or all of them as their activities become less critical. The assessment icon is also of great interest to the player as it reports back just how well the player is doing. Your prestige rating will change with the competence of your decisions and has a tangible effect on how many watchers MI5 are prepared to allocate you. These decisions are realistically difficult and you must take care not to air a scandal in public or feed the press any intrigue.

The Fourth Protocol: The Game consists of three independent programs — The Nato Documents, The Bomb and The SAS Assault. Secret codes are given when programs 1 and 2 are successfully solved and these words allow entry to the next part. The different parts make up a game which is truly original. It has been exceptionally well planned in that it is very easy to play right from the start and keeps your interest throughout.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: intricate plot
Graphics: good icon graphics
Presentation: professionally designed
Input facility: icon driven, sometimes has a tendency for an annoying auto repeat
Response: instantaneous
General rating: a highly playable and addictive adventure/strategy game

Atmosphere

9

Vocabulary

N/A

Logic

9

Addictive quality

9

Overall

9

MORDON’S QUEST

Producer: Melbourne House
Author: John Jones-Steele
Price: £6.95

The cassette inlay proclaims ‘The Classic Adventure continues’. And so it does, as not only is this offering from the same author as Melbourne House’s Classic Adventure (based almost entirely on the famous mainframe program) but it marks a return to traditional values in adventuring — puzzles galore, text compression to ensure a worthy length and the complete absence of pictures that might otherwise use up precious memory.

You wouldn’t need a marketing executive to tell you that the best way to spruce up a text adventure is to redesign the character set and that’s what we have here. Further, 40 characters a line, justified for a square, neat look, and a dash of attractive colouring convince the player someone has taken the time to get the appearance just right. As for the substance, here again, there is much to admire. The location descriptions are long, detailed and well-written. The plot is entertaining and each part of the story is interesting and imaginative. Offering six lives to save the player starting all over again each time a life is lost is a super idea.

Your quest is awe inspiring enough, to save the universe, and this is achieved by recovering the lost components of an immortality machine. The machine’s owner is Mordon, the Ancient One, who appears before you early on, shrouded in light. Finding Mordon while you play is not so easy and needs a little wandering before he finally reveals himself. The exit from the curiously familiar house in which you find yourself leads into a mist-filled jungle where you encounter quicksand and many other sticky situations. You finally stumble into the ruins of an ancient city which conceals many old relics beneath its dust, such as pieces of machinery and old coins. These spare parts and treasures are very significant as your SCORE is comprised of these alongside the number of turns taken so far. On through caves, tunnels and jungles and seemingly thousands of years pass with each step as you are transported into a fantastic future world of perspex domes, flashing lights and ambient music.

The nuts and bolts of this adventure are on the whole encouraging, with the text compression allowing long narratives — the speech of Mordon lasts two full pages. Take this first location description for example. ‘You are in the master bedroom, despite the richness of the bed and the oriental carpet underfoot, the room is sparsely decorated. An indefinable atmosphere permeates the room, as if some great tragedy once occurred here. Tall sash windows face north and west. Large double doors open to the south’.

However, some aspects are unusual or perhaps even disappointing. I have previously stated an opinion on non-standard vocabulary so no two guesses for what I think about a game which chooses to use WHERE for LOOK when trying to redescribe a location or to see the result of some action, like switching on a torch. The EXAMINE command does not prove as useful as it might, and what is more, it is not error checked so EXAMINE XXX and EXAMINE TRANSPORTER both throw up ‘You can see nothing special’. Most problems are logical but the first, which leads to the apparition of Mordon, is illogical and arbitrary.

There are many humorous interludes to your deadly serious quest of saving the known universe. I’ll leave it to you to discover the consequences of EXAMINE ASHES or KILLing the carnivorous PLANT. More fun can be had in the cannibal’s hut while you desperately try to find a way out.

Mordon’s Quest is a traditional adventure and is in many ways an updated supplement to Classic Adventure from the same author. Due to extensive text compression the game is long — over 150 locations with a vocabulary of over 400 words. After playing many much more fanciful efforts this summer I very much enjoyed this game as it has long, atmospheric descriptions and the puzzles have been ingeniously interwoven into a fascinating fabric of clues and apparent dead ends. If you enjoyed Classic Adventure you’ll like this one.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: moderate
Graphics: none
Presentation: reasonably neat and readable, uses 40 characters per row
Input facility: accepts sentences
Response: very fast
General Rating: Very good; a long, atmospheric game.

Atmosphere

9/10

Vocabulary

8/10

Logic

8/10

Addictive Quality

8/10

Overall Rating

8/10

DOCUMENTATION AND BACKUP MATERIAL...

I imagine that many readers of this column will have been watching the series of programmes The Learning Machine on BBC television, which look at the use of computers in education.

One point that was made quite forcibly by teachers and educationalists who were interviewed about the merits or demerits of educational software, was that publishers are simply not listening to what they require for school use. Few teachers would buy a textbook to use with their pupils which was not written by someone with teaching experience: they are, however, expected to purchase educational software which has not been designed by experts. Even well-known and respected educational publishers like Longman and Macmillan are not exploring fully the potential of the software they are marketing.

What is needed, both for use in the home and in schools, is greater documentation to accompany the software. The Postman Pat program reviewed in this month’s column, for instance, is very good as far as it goes — but even Nicholas, the three year old who tried out the game for me, was quick to point out the demerits. Although it gives useful practice in directional skills, this game does little to extend the child’s creative imagination, and Nicholas said he would have liked a story to go along with the package.

There is now an increasing number of programs, particularly those written for children, which have the potential for directing the user towards literature or other textual materials and could easily be used as a springboard into other related areas of activity. Programs intended for use in schools should be accompanied by reasonably comprehensive notes for the teacher, at the very least, and ideally by workbooks for the pupils.

Unfortunately, though, software producers seem to consider the programs as entities in themselves, and not as a core or stimulus for other related tasks. These producers bemoan the fact that their products are not being purchased as avidly as they would have liked by parents and teachers, yet they fail to realise that the purchasers want more support and direction.

If more publishers were waling to provide additional material for use with their educational software, they would be meeting a real need and encouraging micro users to make much more constructive use of their machines. No doubt they would also sell more software!

CHEMISTRY

Producer: J&L Randall Ltd
Author: Cloud 9 Software
Price: £3.45

The programs in this package have been designed specifically for use in conjunction with the Merit range of Chemistry sets — indeed without the Merit sets, the cassette would be of little value. I felt the packaging is rather misleading, as it does not make this point guile clear to the prospective purchaser.

There are six programs on the tape: Introduction, Titration, Metals, Reactions, Gases and Electrochemistry. The idea is that the user completes the relevant experiments using the Merit sets, reads a textbook for further information and works through the program to consolidate what has been learnt. Demonstrations, simulations of experiments, information databases and a few games are included in the package.

For home education purposes, I doubt that Chemistry will have much impact, but in the hands of an experienced teacher, the programs might be useful. The experiment simulations could never rival the excitement of actually participating in an experiment in the science lab, but of course that isn’t the purpose of the package.

Certainly, for revision purposes, the cassette would be quite useful, and some of the games are enjoyable to play, particularly the space adventure game which reinforces knowledge of metals, and the investigation game Inspector Kluedeau — which is part of the section on gases.

COMMENTS

Control keys: clearly explained in each section
Keyboard play: fairly responsive
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: the simulation experiments are very well done
General rating: don’t buy it for home use unless you have a Merit chemistry set! Budding young chemists, however, would probably find it very useful.

FRENCH VOCABULARY

Producer: Rose Software
Price: £6.95

This French vocabulary package contains six short programs aimed at the ‘O’ Level pupil. The first three test knowledge on specific topics such as shopping, weather, the home and travel. The user can choose from several options, translating from English to French or vice versa and can opt to either key in the answer or just think it out!

The fourth program is the homework tester, which allows the user to type in words in order to test vocabulary, while programs 5 and 6 revise common expressions and irregular verbs respectively.

The main problem I found with the programs in this package is that they demand complete accuracy. In the section on personal descriptions, for example, the program will not accept the answers ‘I am ten’ or I am 10’ as the translation for ‘J’ai dix ans’ . The only acceptable answer is ‘I am ten years old’. Having said that, however, I am sure that the package will be of use to pupils studying for the ‘O’ Level examination, although I found it to be rather dull and repetitive but studying for exams can be dull and repetitive at the best of times!

I doubt, though, that the incentives for achieving success in some of the programs (building a wall with the words ‘Très bien’ written on it, in one case) will have much appeal for fifteen or sixteen year old pupils!

COMMENTS

Control keys: answers are typed in with number keys being used to insert the various accents in the English to French options
Keyboard play: very slow
Use of colour: adequate
Graphics: reasonable
General Rating: There is a place for this type of rote-learning package in exam revision, but although the six programs include a variety of topics, the presentation could have been more interesting. Also the programs crash if BREAK is inadvertently touched, which is a rather extreme approach to software protection!

JUNGLE JUMBLE

Producer: Computer Tutor
Price: £7.95

This user friendly program contains two games for young children. In the first, the player has to answer a series of questions correctly to reveal a picture of either a real animal or a silly animal. The questions are mainly based on simple arithmetic and general knowledge such as: ’2 stars plus 3 stars — How Many?’ and ‘Which is the mummy? 1) bull, 2) cow, 3) ram’.

When the child has successfully revealed the animal, then he or she can move on to the Safari game in which the player has to move a car, controlled by the cursor keys, across the countryside to the camp in only 40 moves. Occasionally an animal will pop out, and the player is asked to type in the first letter of its name.

Like most of the programs in the Clever Clogs series, Jungle Jumble contains the facility for editing or resetting the questions, and some useful tips are provided for parents who wish to do this.

My young testers thoroughly enjoyed this program, delighting particularly in the silly animals such as the ‘Tigeroo’ and the ‘Diobra’.

COMMENTS

Control keys: answers to be typed in and ENTERED. Cursor keys to guide car in safari game. CAPS SHIFT and O for Parents page
Keyboard Play: very responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: good on the whole, though a couple of animals are tricky to identify
General Rating: Recommended. Children will enjoy it, and as the questions can be changed, the game represents good value for money. You can also load in science questions from a data tape (see following review).

PARTY TIME

Producer: Computer Tutor
Price: £7.95

This superb package contains six simple educational games for very young children. At the start, the player sees on the screen an invitation to the party, then the list of the games which can be played (sometimes the computer will choose the game which is to be played). All of the games are very short, so that the child does not become bored and lose interest too easily, and they all end with a burst of music, which he or she will soon come to recognise.

In Matchup, the computer draws a set of five shapes, one of which has to be matched with the sixth shape which is drawn. Counting, Find It and How Many all teach the use of numbers, simple arithmetic and basic keyboard skills. The parent can specify the maximum number to be used in the counting game and the highest number achieved in the answers to the addition game and can also enter specific numbers and letters for the child to practice with.

The final two games, Gobbler and Paintbox, are particularly good for developing manual coordination and directional sense — my young testers enjoyed Paintbox most of all the games. The player begins by selecting the colour he or she wishes to use and can then draw onto the screen. If a printer is attached, a permanent record of the picture can be output, which could then be coloured in...

This is an extremely well-designed package and, as with all the Clever Clogs programs, has been thoroughly researched with the help of children, teachers and parents.

COMMENTS

Control keys: parents can choose which keys to feature some of the games
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: very clear
General Rating: Highly recommended.

PICTURE LOGIC

Producer: Addison-Wesley Productions
Author: Heather Govier, Malcolm Neave
Price: £22.75

Picture Logic is really a version of Logo, the simple programming language suitable for young children. The idea behind this program involves the use of an arrow displayed on the screen (Picture Logic’s version of the Logo Turtle), which the user moves around to create geometric patterns and pictures.

In order to tell the arrowhead what to do, the child needs to analyse what he or she would have to do to make a path of the same shape. Careful thought is therefore required, before the arrowhead can be given appropriate instructions.

In common with all Logo type software, Picture Logic’s most significant feature is that it is interactive. The child should be able to see the effect of commands at once, so that he or she can see right away if the instructions given to the computer produced the expected pattern. In this program, however there’s a delay of quite a few seconds between the command being entered and the response appearing on the screen, which can be rather frustrating for a young child. This delay can be slightly reduced, although not completely eliminated, if the arrowhead is ‘hidden’ rather than displayed continually. Unfortunately the package has been programmed in BASIC, which partly accounts for its lack of speed.

Another problem is that each line of a multi-line procedure has to be ENTERED separately. This results in each line being cleared from the screen as the subsequent instruction line is ENTERED. It would have been better if an entire procedure could be typed onto the screen and then ENTERED as a block after the END statement. A further shortcoming is that the maximum angle that can be turned right or left is 180 degrees, which is rather limiting in that the child is not able to see the relationship between turning right through 90 degrees and turning left through 270 degrees. (Incidentally, the error trapping routine used to check that you haven’t attempted to turn through more than 180 degrees is also used to govern movement.)

Having said that, however, there are a number of excellent touches to the program. A scale facility has been incorporated, which makes the program easier to use with very young children, and a HELP facility gives access to a list of all the commands available and an optional explanation of the effect of each command. The HELP facility is not global, however, and cannot be accessed from any point in the program which limits its usefulness.

Picture Logic comes complete with two excellent booklets: one, a User Manual, aimed at the adult and the other a book of guidance for the child’s use, which is beautifully laid out and details the various stages in using the software in simple terms. This booklet also contains Challenges for the child to complete as a way of reinforcing learning.

Though expensive, this is a very professional and thorough package, which should be enjoyed by every child interested in computing.

COMMENTS

Control keys: the child uses the keyboard to enter Logo-type commands, such as FD 60 which draws a line 60 units long from the position which the arrow is occupying in the direction it is pointing (Forwards)
Keyboard play: very slow
Use of Colour: black and white only
Graphics: clearly drawn
General Rating: The slowness of the response to commands spoils an otherwise excellent program. The documentation is of a high standard, but the programming detracts from the advantages of the language it seeks to emulate — LOGO.

POSTMAN PAT’S TRAIL GAME

Producer: Longman Software
Author: Micromega
Price: £5.95

This program is, of course, based on the popular character Postman Pat from the children’s books and the television series. The aim of the game is to drive Postman Pat’s van around Greendale to find the person or animal which has left a trail or footprints along the road. He then has to return to the post office with help from the tracks. Points are lost each time the van is driven into the verge or into a cow blocking the road, and the quicker you deliver the message and return to the post office, the fewer time penalty points you lose.

The game has six levels of difficulty, which encourages the child to develop his or her problem-solving skills. The higher the level, the more cows will be blocking the road and the player needs to decide whether to wait until the animals move or attempt to follow another route, possibly trying a short cut instead of following the tracks on the road. The van is moved with the cursor keys or with a joystick, and the program is useful for developing manual dexterity as well as for encouraging an awareness of directions.

Although children love anything to do with Postman Pat, I didn’t find that this program held their interest for very long. A bit more variety in the tasks would have livened things up a bit, and the irritating sound drove us all to distraction after a while.

I welcome programs, based on popular characters, which have been written for young children but it would be nice to see the games directly related to stories in which the characters appear. In this way, children could be required to read the stories before playing the games. The inclusion of more detailed guidance for parents would also be useful, as programs like this for the very young child are beneficial only with fair amount of adult support.

COMMENTS

Control keys: move van with cursor keys — 5,6,7,8. Much easier with the joystick option.
Keyboard play: keys have to be pressed very firmly, which is a problem for the very young child.
Use of colour: bright and clear
General Rating: Quite good for the very young pre-school child. Five and six year olds find it rather uninspiring.

SCIENCE

Producer: Argus Press Software
Author: Computertutor (Clever Clogs series)
Price: £5.95

This is a science data pack for use with the other Clever Clogs programs — Jungle Jumble, Whizz Quizz, Star Trucker or Blockbuster. You load the main game as normal, press CAPS SHIFT and Q to get to the Parent Page, then load in the data of your choice. There are 6 sets of data to choose from, each set containing 100 question: Living world; Physical Sciences; Mathematics and General Science 1, 2 and 3. Living World, for instance, contains questions such as ‘We can move because of our 1) skin, 2) liver, 3) muscles?’ and ‘What makes bread rise? 1) air, 2) yeast, 3) mould’.

I used the questions with Jungle Jumble, but the data would be more suitable with a game like Whizz Quizz for slightly older children. The program would be a worthwhile addition to any of the Clever Clogs games mentioned above, both for use in the home and in schools.

ACTION BIKER

Producer: Mastertronic Ltd
Author: M.J. Child
Price: £1.99

It will not escape your notice that the name KP Skips is plastered all over the inlay and even the game, it’s all part of a promotional tie up between said KP and Mastertronic. Clumsy Colin is the star of the KP Skips promotional campaign, has stepped off the front of a Skips bag to mount his Action Bike for the duration of this game.

Colin has a friend called Marti who needs to be taken to the local spaceport. A spaceport may seem a little out of place but it seems that Colin is having a bit of a dream. In this dream he must find Marti, but at 8 O’clock he will wake up to the bitter clanging of his alarm clock. Marti must be found before Colin wakes up but Colin’s first task is to get some extra equipment together. Problems. First, he needs extra equipment if he is to find his friend — you know the sort of thing, a periscope for example. His motorbike will be very useful but alas it also needs add ons. Colin must collect these extras from his friends to improve the bike’s performance. The more auxiliary equipment he has the easier the task becomes.

An example perhaps? This particular town has a great many oil spills, there are mini oil slicks everywhere. If Colin’s bike runs into one then he is going to spend a lot of time spinning and generally falling about. The answer, of course, is a better set of tyres. Out of the 150 houses in the town only 50 contain anything of value. When you think you have found a useful house you can enter it and, from the birds eye view on the screen, examine its contents. Your progress is frustrated by people not being in when you visit, or if they are in they may tempt you with a cup of tea. If you stay you are wasting valuable time.

Out on the streets, life is fraught with dangers, the worst being the other traffic. When you collide with another vehicle this will lessen the amount of time left for sleep and if you crash too often, Colin will wake up and that will be that.

Apart from the crash damage you must keep an eye on your fuel. The amount you have is shown on screen, and you can top up your tank from the garages in the town. Scattered about the streets there are packets of Skips for you to pick up, each one gains you a point. A record of the score and high score is kept and presented above the amount of sleep time remaining.

CRITICISM

‘Action Biker has inter-game pauses that are far too long. The game itself is pretty decent and scores well for value for money. While it was playable I can’t say that I found it addictive. I was also disappointed with both the sound and the degree of control one had over the bike. It was really very difficult to change directions at junctions, for instance.’

‘Action Biker seems to following along with the trend for arcade/adventure games. I am not over keen on the presentation of the screen, a lot of space has been wasted. The sound was annoying after only a short time. Has the potential for being a good game but does not quite make the grade.’

‘I don’t like this game at all. I find it very hard to play and unrewarding to boot. The graphics are poor by Mastertronic standards: there’s a lot of flicker, no smooth movement and characters seem quite able to vanish for a while. The other vehicles made the game very frustrating. Before you even get a chance to move from home you are attacked and lose sleep points. I found it very hard to find and enter a house, mostly because the instructions that came with the game are so vague.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: N/M left/right, A/Z accelerate/decelerate, SPACE to change gear
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Fuller, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: below average
Sound: very limited
Skill levels: one
Lives: one
Screens: scrolling
General Rating: Disappointing.

Use of Computer

40%

Graphics

53%

Playability

57%

Getting Started

41%

Addictive Qualities

51%

Value for Money

64%

Overall

52%

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Producer: Hill MacGibbon
Author: Soft Option Ltd (A. Curtis, N. Head)
Price: £9.95

The five games included in this package are loosely based on Roald Dahl’s best selling children’s book of the same name. The literate among you may well remember the story that went something along these lines... The owner of the local chocolate factory was getting near his time and wanted to find a successor to take over the factory. He sent out five little coupons inside 5 bars of chocolate and then told the world. Well, everyboydy went bananas and started buying lots of chocolate, everybody except Charlie because his family could only afford one bar. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Charlie got his voucher and went with four others on what they thought was just going to be a day trip.

The five games each relate to the five voucher winners, Charlie, Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike. All of you will know that all of the others perished (for a while) due to a combination of nosiness, greed and gluttony. Charlie, being a kind-hearted sort, has taken on the challenge of rescuing his foolish companions.

The game on side ‘A’ is divided up into four parts. Each one is a single screen arcade game relating to the events surrounding the demise of Charlie’s four companions. Augustus Gloop is trapped inside a network of pipes and you must guide him to the bottle by closing off sections of the pipe. Violet Beauregarde is having a bad time with a load of blueberries. The berries are raining down from above and you must deflect them into the juicing machine. Only when the vat is full will she be safe. Veruca Salt has upset the squirrels and they are after her blood. The only way she can avoid being caught is to poison them all by placing poison nuts in their path. Careful though, the poison only has a very short life. Meanwhile Mike Teavee, the nerd, is trying to pinch all of the Wonka bars off each of the five platforms in the warehouse. Not in itself difficult, except that the cameras are after him firing their lethal shrinking ray. Being able to hop on the inter-platform lifts may not be enough to save this wally...

The fifth game, which is loaded from the ‘B’ side, is the final part of the story. If you are successful in the first four games you will be given a code which allows you to play the main game for real, otherwise you’ll be stuck with the practice mode. Charlie’s objective is to collect the six gold keys which will allow him into the glass lift. To do this he must work his way through 43 screens avoiding being squashed by platforms, sweets, marshmallows and the like.

And they all lived happily ever after....

CRITICISM

‘When I received my copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I thought that it might be something a bit special. The packaging was excellent, including a free book. But what a disappointment! The graphics on both sides of the tape are very flickery and do not flow at all, although the colour and sound brightened things up a little. The keyboard selections were not very good and, to make matters worse, the game did not respond well to keyboard play. I am sorry that for £9.95 the games did not do justice to the packaging.’

‘You might think that almost a tenner for a game is quite a lot. Some people moan about Ultimate’s prices but they do produce rather good games. This package includes four arcade games and a sort of arcade adventure as well as a book. The arcade games are not at all special. While the graphics are reasonable the games are not very playable. The graphics in the adventure are OK but again not inspired by any means. The game itself is pretty hard — perhaps too hard, because I think if this game has any appeal at all it must be to the little ones.’

‘I didn’t like any of the games presented in this package. The standard of the graphics and the sound is poor. The graphics are jerky and hard to follow. I found it very hard to move the characters in any of the games, probably because the keyboard responded so badly. If I had to pick one out of the games it would be Augustus because it was pretty original. A shame that what looked like being good value turned out so badly.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 6/7 left/right, 8/9 up/down, 0 to fire
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: poor response
Use of colour: pretty tatty
Graphics: dated and slow
Sound: nice tunes
Skill levels: one, with practice mode for the fifth game
Lives: between three and twelve
Screens: total of 47
General Rating: A bit of a disappointment.

Use of Computer

58%

Graphics

61%

Playability

58%

Getting Started

63%

Addictive Qualities

52%

Value for Money

50%

Overall

63%

THE COVENANT

Producer: PSS
Author: Paul Hutchinson
Price: £6.95

The name Covenant refers to a long lost parchment which carries the entire cultural record of a long dead people, a race whose once proud members have now mutated and been scattered, along with fragments of the Covenant among the 256 caverns of a subterranean horrorscape contained within a planet. You are the last survivor of the race, and as such it is your duty to find the 64 pieces of parchment and restore the knowledge that it bears. You must also gather the poor miserable mutant creatures from within the caverns, so that when you have the complete parchment the planet surface can be repopulated.

Alone you may be, but unaided you’re not. Your equipment includes a globe (for getting about in) and a stun gun. Now it may seem odd that the wretched creatures you are trying so hard to rescue need to be stunned, but it’s safe to assume that at this stage they have no idea what you are up to — so they tend to regard you as an enemy. The globe itself isn’t a bundle of fun to manoeuvre — its movement is designed to mimic that of submerged bodies, ie awkward. Whenever you or your globe come into contact with a creature energy will be drained, so the first task in any cavern is to stun the creatures within and take them on board by manoeuvring your craft over them.

The whole cave system is divided up into blocks of four rooms. Each area has a key, a piece of the Covenant and some anaesthetic. Get the anaesthetic for the stun gun so you can capture the critters, which you must do, because you can only move into the next area when they’ve all been rounded up.

You only have one life so you must be careful not to get too close to the creatures, especially when you are not in the globe the rate at which you lose energy increases. Fortunately you can recharge by standing on a power point.

At any stage of the game you can inspect the status screen by pressing the space bar. This screen shows how much of the parchment you have collected, your energy level and how many objects (keys etc) and creatures you have gathered. A record of the time and score is also displayed.

CRITICISM

‘As the ratings may well show, getting started on this game was far from easy. The instructions showed the anaesthetic to be a sponge like blob, but in fact for the first area it looked more like a bowl of flowers, and there was a bowl of flowers on another screen. A joke perhaps. The game itself has some very well drawn and colourful graphics. The movement of the character and the globe take a lot of getting used to, but that’s all part of the game. On the whole I found this to be a reasonably difficult game but this was mostly due to the ‘bad’ handling of the craft. I have a feeling that this is a game to keep all of you mappers hard at work. Overall pretty addictive but don’t expect to finish it too soon.’

‘I have to admit that I found this a very difficult game to complete and I’m not sure that the reasons for this are good ones. The characters are very difficult to control and the initial supply of energy wouldn’t be enough to get a C5 down the hallway. I suppose that is really the challenge of it, one is expected to learn how to control the characters and have the foresight to find a recharge point in time. Nevertheless the graphics are very good and I am sure that the game is interesting enough to make the hard work required worthwhile.’

‘This is not an easy game to play. The movement of the globe is almost unpredictable, as it is meant to be, but it’s still pretty confusing. When the character leaves the globe he is pretty happy just pottering around the floor of the cavern, but cannot be controlled when floating upwards. I have decided that there really isn’t enough energy for the first part of the game — I know there are power points available but I’m sure I would have made more progress if a difficulty level had been provided. On the whole this is a very attractive game; there is a great deal to see and it should keep the patient and persistent going for a long time to come.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: great
Sound: a little distressing at times
Skill levels: one
Lives: one but can be re-charge energy
Screens: 256
General Rating: An inspired but difficult game.

Use of Computer

73%

Graphics

84%

Playability

75%

Getting Started

68%

Addictive Qualities

83%

Value for Money

82%

Overall

83%

CYLU

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Geoff Foley
Price: £2.50

It wasn’t long ago that we all raved about Knightlore and Alien 8, well now Firebird have produced a game that graphically is very similar but much larger.

To set the scene. The people of Tslu need a leader and it seems that they are prepared to consider any old trog that comes in off the galactic by-ways. You, Cylu, play the part of just one such trog. The Tsluvians have devised a test to make sure that you are capable of leading them and a very complicated test it is too. (Why can’t they just hold an election like everybody else?). The Evolians have a very large and unpleasant maze and they have scattered 24 objects around it. To prove your worth you must retrieve all of the objects and return them to the start point, do that and you get to become the TBC (Tsluvian Big Cheese).

The journey around the maze is fraught with dangers hitherto unimagined. To kick off with there are 32 forcefields which can only be passed by finding and loading the appropriate processor into the main computers I/O unit which is located in the start room. There are isolated areas of the maze which can only be reached via a teleport link and to operate the link you will need to find the correct key. You must always keep your eye on the fuel situation units are consumed very quickly. Scattered around the maze are lots of fuel pods which can be collected and used when needed.

The character on the screen is steered with reference to the direction that it is facing rather than in relation to the screen. In other words if you want to move left you must turn to the left and then move forward, this can be a little confusing at times but one soon gets used to it. You can only carry five objects at any one time. When an object is picked up it is placed into one of the five coloured boxes on the upper right of the screen. You are able to select which item you would like to use, perhaps a fuel pod, by entering the number of the box. When you approach a forcefield you can determine which coded chip you need to turn it off by pressing the examine button. The screen will come up with the code number and then it’s up to you to pop off and find the appropriate CPU.

Against all of the odds you may manage to impress the leaderless ones, but by how much rather depends on your efficiency level. This is given as a constant reading at the side of the display and depends on how much time you waste and how quickly you manage to locate items of importance and put them to use.

CRITICISM

‘The first Alien 8 lookalike is here in the form of Cylu. This game has graphics which are very similar to Ultimate’s 3D effects but obviously not quite as good. The sound is not very well used, only a few beeps here and there, which is a shame as it might have livened up the game a bit. Playability wise this game doesn’t rate too highly as there are a few mobility problems with your man which make the game more infuriating then fun to play. Generally I wouldn’t strongly recommend this game — but as it only costs £2.50, you can’t really go wrong.’

‘There’s no point pretending that this game is anywhere near as elegant as those it flatters. But for all of that Cylu is a playable game. I say the graphics aren’t as elegant but they are still very good and create a passable effect. The game itself is complex but perhaps a little thin. I enjoyed playing it even though some of the Ultimate perfectionists in the office scoffed at it. Well worth the asking price.’

‘I am greatly impressed both by the graphics and by the size of this game. Although the graphics on any one screen are washed in only one colour the effect is still pretty good. If you enjoy making maps I am sure you will have some fun with this but don’t expect the scenery to be too varied. A very high quality budget game and a must for the mappers.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: very wide selection
Joystick: programmable only
Keyboard play: fine
Use of colour: only one colour to each screen
Graphics: Knightlore style but smaller and less detailed
Sound: clicking for movement
Skill levels: one
Lives: one
Screens: two hundred
General Rating: For the price this game is a must.

Use of Computer

66%

Graphics

75%

Playability

70%

Getting Started

68%

Addictive Qualities

72%

Value for Money

85%

Overall

79%

FRANK BRUNO’S BOXING

Producer: Elite Systems Ltd
Author: Andy Williams, Trevor Perks, Paul Holmes, Gary Priest
Price: £6.95

It’s almost as if the Elite team have been in hiding since their last effort 911 TS but they have in fact been very busy, putting together their contribution to the current fad for boxing games: Frank Bruno’s Boxing.

Like in Rocky, your view of the action is given from behind your character. The characters are smaller, but they are able to move around the ring to a degree. Unfortunately you cannot control their footwork; this is a shame because this means that not one of the boxing simulations leaves any room for what has to be the smartest tactic — legging it.

The program allows for a wide variety of movements. Not only are left and right head punches allowed, but body punches too, and if you opponent is tottering on the brink you can deliver a right upper-cut or even a right hook just to finish him off. You can make your boxer dodge left or right, and should you suspect a biggy coming your way you can duck. If you don’t fancy exposing yourself to violence by dodging, you are able to put up a guard although you will have to drop it to deliver the body punches or the upper cut. As the two combatants slug it out, they give the appearance of moving round the ring, but this movement is all controlled by the computer.

The type of blow you can deliver rather depends on the state of your opponent’s health. At the top of the screen there are two pictures, Bruno on the right and the current contender on the left. Between the two mug shots a clock, two status bars and a knock-out meter are displayed. The status bars increase or decrease depending on the performance of the appropriate boxer: if a boxer catches a lot of punches then his status will decrease until he topples. If his status is low but he manages to turn the tide for a while and give the other guy some gyp, then as his opponent’s bar diminishes his own will increase.

If a boxer takes a count because his status bar has reached zero, he will get up to find that his status bar has only partially recovered, thus reflecting his weaker condition. The knock-out meter registers the number of successive blows dealt. If you rain down a hail of blows on your opponent, the arrows on his knock-out meter will build up with each punch until they reach the letters ‘KO’. When they flash you can administer your final blows, the hook or upper cut. Should your opponent break your volley with just one return blow, then the arrows will rapidly diminish.

Thus there are two ways you can knock down your opponent: wear him down by reducing his status bar before he reduces yours; or administer a volley of punches culminating with a hook or cut as the knock-out blow. If you achieve three knockouts in under three minutes then you win that round, otherwise your opponent wins on points and you can only ask for a rematch.

After winning your first fight you are given a code which will allow you to load, from tape, the next opponent. The fighting styles of the eight boxers are all different, and each one is harder to beat than his predecessor.

The game keeps a record of the best knock-out times against each of the boxers and also a highscore table for the points scored. If you want to defer a bout to a later date, like after Star Trek, then keep a note of the code number. They aren’t so easy to come by!

CRITICISM

‘The main question we were asked at the ZX Microfair must have been “which do you prefer, Rocky or Frank Bruno?” Well now it’s time to stop beating about the bush. I prefer, as boxing simulations go, this one. I agree that the graphics in Rocky are a good deal better and clearer but the movement is so limited and repetitive as compared with Bruno. This shortcoming is made worse because Rocky has four different levels of skill but only the one character. For my part, I would rather leave boxing simulations alone, but I think it must be plain that Elite, for once, offers much more.’

‘Frank’s boxing game is the type of game that gradually grows on you. At first, using a fair few keys, things were difficult. Using the joystick alone, the game was unplayable. Eventually, using a combination of both joystick and keys, I began to make progress. The graphics are messy at times when the boxers cross, but they are generally OK. I found this game addictive.’

‘In my opinion this is the best of the boxing games that I have seen this month. Even though its graphics are slightly confusing I prefer them to Rocky’s as there is more expression in the faces of the boxers. There are eight different characters in the game, each with their own personality. The first is a bully type who sticks his tongue out at you if you hit him while his guard is up. You can really get into playing this game as it seems very realistic in the way the boxers move and act. Generally this game is very good, although I can see myself getting bored with it as there are only eight characters to fight.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 1/A guard up/down, I/O jab left/right, I/O with 1 body punch left/right, U/P dodge left/right, 0 to duck, any on bottom row for knock-out
Joystick: Kempston and Interface 2
Keyboard play: easier than using a joystick
Use of colour: very little used
Graphics: lack clarity but have a lot of movement
Sound: pretty limited
Skill levels: eight
Lives: three per bout
Screens: N/A
General Rating: Much more scope than the others. There, now we’ve said it!

Use of Computer

74%

Graphics

83%

Playability

82%

Getting Started

82%

Addictive Qualities

79%

Value for Money

87%

Overall

86%

FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

Producer: Ocean
Memory required: 48K
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Denton Designs

Frankie Goes to Hollywood was previewed at length in the June issue of CRASH (otherwise known as 17). A great deal was written about this game so a brief introduction should suffice.

It’s not really fair to talk about targets or objectives in relation to Frankie Goes to Hollywood but at the end of the day your ultimate desire should be to reach the Pleasuredome. That’s going to be a problem because at the start of the game you play a dull and drab character, one of the great unwashed who leads a life that is special only because it is so drab. However, this dreary lifestyle is shattered by the discovery of a murder.

Perhaps this single event can be the beginning of the re-awakening, an event so horrible that only a ‘real’ person would want to discover why? and who? To be a ‘real’ person (only real personages are allowed into the Pleasuredome) you must prove your worth by making the most of the opportunities presented to you in your drab world of terraced houses and Radio One disc jockeys. But the terraced houses of today are filled with elements of the world, television and, of course, murder. Within the drab ordinary houses you are offered the means to escape to the Pleasuredome.

Throughout the game you control a character (not Frankie, he has already been to the Pleasuredome) which can be made to walk through doorways and so into houses and rooms, and can also be made to reach out and touch objects. This reaching action is later extended in some of the games to a firing action. At most times the player is able to call up an inventory of the items collected so that they may be used if the situation demands. A bottle of milk can be collected and later given to a cat for instance; a key can be kept in the same way. The inventory is displayed on a sub-screen, which opens out rather like the iris of your eye to reveal a window in the main screen; a hand within the window can be moved about until it is positioned over the object required.

Whenever you do something tremendous, like feeding the cat, another window will open onto the screen giving Frankie’s latest opinion on your performance in the form of pleasure points and an indication as to how much of a ‘real’ person you have become.

While you explore the houses you must touch the objects within. The touching action can open everyday items like chests, fridges and cupboards. Inside a fridge you may find a kipper or a floppy disc, these objects can be added to your inventory for future use but the number of items that can be carried is limited. You may find yourself forced to choose what to keep and what to get rid of. By touching other objects like a television or phone, you can sometimes open a doorway onto another level, when another type of ‘window’ opens on the main screen. If you decide to accept the challenge then move the character into the sub-screen, and it will expand to fill the whole screen and your character will be in a new location.

There are a number of mini-games incorporated into the main one, which are of a pretty simple format and are accessed by stepping into them. You may only have to bounce a pleasure pill through a tiny hole, or control Reagan while he spits at Andropov over a breakout-type wall. One game takes the form of a jigsaw puzzle; another requires you to solve a complex maze, yet another sub game requires you defend Liverpool by shooting German bombers as they fly over Merseyside.

For some sub-games you will need acquired objects, and in that sense there is a very strong adventure element. Pleasure points are awarded if you do well in the mini games, but if you lose or even decline to play at all by not walking into a windowed gamelet, then your pleasure rating will take a tumble. Failing to complete an element of the main game does not spell the end. This is a perpetual game — you will always get another chance because although you may have activated all of the ‘events’ in one room, sooner or later you will be able to go back and activate another, perhaps different event. The only problem that you will have to be wary of is using an object in an inappropriate place — if you do, you lose it and it may be some time before you will be able to replace it.

The game has many subtle features that can be easily missed. Associating the bottle of milk and the cat is one of the more obvious means of scoring some extra pleasure points. The intention of the player must be to achieve enough personality points to get to the Pleasuredome; only by doing good, playing and winning the games against evil and by solving the puzzles can you hope to qualify. Apart from the frequent reports from Frankie you can keep a check on your performance by looking at the four-bar graph on the side of the screen which shows how much of the pleasure equation you have managed to fulfil.

The game comes complete with an audio cassette which incorporates a new idea called Datatune. The player loads the game and then plays the audio cassette which will have music and a voice over describing how the game is played. Other music, a lot of it previously unpublished is included on the ‘B’ side.

CRITICISM

‘At last, the long awaited Frankie game has arrived and it has been worth the wait. Even though it so happened my copy had little in the way of instructions I found the game pretty easy to get into; it is a very playable game. The graphics are, as we have come to expect from Denton Designs, very good with plenty of attention paid to detail. I especially liked the room with Reagan and Andropov spitting at each other. The sound is limited to spot effects and a neat version of ‘Two Tribes’ before the game starts. Frankie looks set to be one of the best games this year with plenty of games and puzzles within the main game. I think it’s immense fun to play and very addictive — a sure winner.’

‘When I first loaded the game I was a little disappointed. The actual screens area is pretty small for the opening scenes of the game and the main character clashes a great deal with the background. However, after only a short time at the keyboard I grew to love the mystery of it all. I must confess to being anything but a Frankie fan even though some of the music appeals. I thought I would have a hard time understanding the game. Well I did, not because I don’t understand the music it’s simply that the game is very deep. What appears, at first sight, to be just a graphically neat game has a great deal under the skin and I am looking forward to being able to spend more time playing it. Great.’

‘Fun doesn’t begin to describe this experience. The initial impression is quickly bolstered by the seemingly never ending stream of new events. I have had the benefit of playing the game without the full instructions, it took ages to get an understanding of even the most elementary parts of the game but I don’t resent a moment. The fun I have had just exploring it and enjoying the surprises that are waiting round every TV set! I understand that the game is to come with verbal instructions on tape, my advice is to throw it away (well at least don’t put it on), JUST RELAX AND DO IT.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: probably better than using a joystick
Use of colour: excellent once you accept the attribute problems
Graphics: very imaginative, excellent
Sound: limited but nice opening tune
Skill levels: one
Lives: no limit
Screens: over 124 mind-boggling locations
General rating: this is a highly innovative arcade/adventure that you must not be without

Use of computer

93%

Graphics

94%

Playability

93%

Getting started

95%

Addictive qualities

94%

Value for money

94%

Overall

94%

GO TO HELL

Producer: Triple Six Software
Author: J. Jones (!)
Price: £6.99

Your fate, in this game, seems to have arisen by the unfortunate use of the phrase ‘Go to Hell’. You must have cursed someone, a person near and dear to you, with the result that they actually went to Hell. Now you must follow, and rescue them.

The game takes the form of a complex maze. The walls are ‘built’ from such strange graphics that one can get lost following the same wall from screen to screen. To rescue the person you cursed you must scour the maze looking for seven crosses; only a complete collection allows you to escape. The search for the crosses is hazardous, not least because contact with the walls and all stationary objects rapidly drains the life force from you, and once drained you will have to re-start from the beginning.

Your energy will also be depleted when you are hit by one of the wide variety of gruesome objects being hurled at you by an even larger collection of gruesome creatures — anything from large hairy spiders to mad headless monks. Your only defence against these creatures is a well aimed mini-cross, and a direct hit will replenish your energy a touch. In this nightmare world you will be distracted by the horrible events taking place around you; heads being crushed, victims on the racks, heads being sawn through and masses of other equally revolting scenes.

CRITICISM

‘I managed to steal a glance at the press release that came with this game and read that we would find it hard to do this game justice. That may be so but when all is said and done it is a maze game: a fairly well drawn maze game; a complex maze game and a maze game that often requires a high degree of control skill. It is still only a maze game, and one that is full of revolting, crude and downright vile images. Now I am going to give Triple Six (whoever) the benefit of the doubt and assume that my reaction was exactly as they had hoped for... let’s see if they are right and maybe they can sell lots of games to punters who only want to buy it because it’s so horrid. But — to do the game justice — if you really want a maze game that’s full of lots of silly, nasty pictures then buy this one.’

‘After looking at the subtle cover I was expecting a game that would reflect the same. Wrong. With lots of nasties and all sorts of things that one might expect to go on in Hell. Go to Hell’s graphics are above average except that the main man is pretty poorly animated. This is a playable game but not at all addictive.’

‘This is certainly a very unusual game, full of very strange graphics. Movement round the maze is very hard, not because of the other things throwing objects at you — it’s the nearness of the maze walls that make for the difficulty. Frequently there is exactly enough room to fit your character through, one slip and you’re as good as dead. All in all it’s an annoying game to play.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, M to fire
Joystick: cursor, Interface II and Kempston
Keyboard play: fine
Use of colour: varied, lots of attribute problems
Graphics: novel, fairly well drawn
Sound: lots of chewing and sniffing sounds
Skill levels: one.
Lives: three
Screens: over fifty
General Rating: A bit sick, otherwise above average.

Use of Computer

62%

Graphics

72%

Playability

65%

Getting Started

69%

Addictive Qualities

72%

Value for Money

74%

Overall

70%

HYPER SPORTS

Producer: Imagine
Memory required: 48K
Price: £7.95
Language: machine code

Imagine continue their comeback with what could be called the real follow-up to Daley Thompson’s Decathlon. Hyper Sports is the official Spectrum version of Konami’s arcade game which followed in the footsteps of the highly original Hyper Olympics (or Track and Field as the Taitel/Konami version was called).

To Track and Field fanatics this scenario will seem very similar, but don’t worry! Hyper Sports isn’t just a test of brute strength like its predecessor, but involves timing and skill too. Each event has a qualifying time, distance or target, and to go onto the next event you have to qualify in the preceding one — failure to do so results in the termination of your game. There are six of the original events; swimming, skeet shooting, horse vaulting, archery, triple jump and weight lifting.

When you start a game you are given the familiar letter ‘star’ and you use this to enter your initials. Once you’ve identified yourself, you move onto the events, which commence with swimming. Smash the keyboard (or your joystick) to bits to get speed and when given the prompt, press the jump button to let your man breathe. If you don’t he’ll slow down, and if you press breathe at the wrong time your man will cough and splutter and REALLY slow down.

The swimming is reasonably simple and so is the next event, the skeet (or clay pigeon) shooting. Your man stands at the bottom of the screen with a shotgun while two boxes move up and down the screen, acting as sights. Shoot as many of the skeets that fly over by pressing either the left or right key as one passes through the corresponding sight. If you time your shot correctly then you hit the skeet. You have three separate attempts to qualify, and when you’re successful your man turns, winks and gives you a big grin!

Next, into the gym and onto (or over) the wooden horse. Your man automatically runs up to the horse but you must time his jump onto the springboard correctly, using the jump button, for him to vault. Too soon and you won’t get much of a jump; too late and he will trip up. Time the jump correctly and he will be launched through the air, to land hands first on the horse. When his body is horizontal press fire again and hit the speed buttons as fast as you can to make him somersault. Time the somersault so he lands on his feet otherwise he’ll cartwheel along the floor or bounce on his head, both of which lose points.

After this comes the archery — one of the most difficult of the events. Pressing fire determines wind speed and then a target is winched down the screen which you have to hit. To do this allow for wind speed and let go of the arrow by pressing the jump button. Make sure your angle is as near to five degrees as possible and if you have timed right you will get a bullseye (worth 400 points).

Onto the triple jump now and it’s all hands on the speed buttons. Zoom up to the line and press the jump button, trying to get as near to 45 degrees as possible. Repeat twice for the step and the jump and then wait for the measuring. After three jumps you can progress to the final and the most strenuous round, the weight lifting.

This is a pound-your-Spectrum-keyboard-through-the-floor screen. First select the weight you want to tackle then it’s off on a merry pound that’ll bring tears to your eyes and quite possibly a nasty mess oozing from your Spectrum. Once you start the weightlifting you have to pound away until your man lifts the weight to his chest. When he has done this press jump to ‘snatch’ the weights and pummel away at the key board to keep them above his head. Once that is over you can go to hospital to get an organ transplant and come back to start the series of events again, only this time it’s a lot harder with all the qualifying times upped.

CRITICISM

‘A superb arcade clone with Imagine getting as close to the original as possible within the limits of the Spectrum. All the events represented here are very close to the original, as fans of the game will find out when they try out their arcade tactics. The graphics are excellent with few attribute problems and the colours are well used with nice use of normal and bright. The man is excellently animated as he swims, jumps, and shoots his way through the events. Sound is excellent too, with all the familiar noises of the arcade game which are superbly reproduced. The game itself is very addictive and as strength draining as Daley’s, but this time your reflexes and timing are tested too, giving welcome breaks between bouts of keyboard destruction. A brilliant follow-up to World Series Baseball and one which shows that Imagine are well on their way back to the top.’

‘It’s nice to see the name Imagine associated with good games again. Hyper Olympics, the arcade hit, has now been Spectrumised. This version follows the original really closely, even down to the bird which flies across the screen when you get a maximum on the skeet shooting. Also like the real thing, the game is no piece of cake either. It’s really frustrating having to go back to the start if the odd arrow is a couple of points of a degree out. Never mind, great game, just like the original.’

‘Being a lover of sports simulations, I was very pleased to hear that this great game was to be converted to the Spectrum, but I had doubts about what the quality would be like. I’m pleased to announce that this conversion is excellent. The graphics, of course, aren’t as good as those seen in the arcade game, but with that said they are still pretty good. Hyper Sports is instantly playable due to its simple game style and it is quite addictive, as was DTD. There might not be as many events, but it is definitely a more slick and polished program. If you want a true-to-the-arcade-game copy, then this is the one to get. Another winner from Imagine!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: any
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: brilliant, with nice landscapes
Graphics: smooth, detailed, well animated with nice scrolling
Sound: excellent applause, tunes and effects
Skill levels: as you progress qualifying targets get smaller
Lives: 1
Screens: 6 events
General rating: excellent arcade conversion, one of the best yet

Use of computer

89%

Graphics

90%

Playability

93%

Getting started

87%

Addictive qualities

96%

Value for money

86%

Overall

92%

JET SET WILLY II

Producer: Software Projects Ltd
Author: Derrick P. Rowson
Price: £6.95

There really isn’t a great deal that can be said about this game that hasn’t been said about its predecessor Jet Set Willy. Jet Set Willy II is a pretty faithful sequel.

The story begins soon after poor old Willy has had a nasty fall down the stairs. He should be in bed recovering but due to the mess left by some rather strange builders his wife Maria is having a fit and insisting that Willy tidies the house. On his journey round the mansion Willy is shocked to discover that it has a lot more rooms than he is paying rates for. The Builders are responsible, but why?

As before you must guide Willy around the house avoiding the myriad hazards — razor blades and flapping loo seats to mention just two. As you pass from room to room you will notice objects be they bottles, glasses or even taps. These objects must be collected by guiding Willy over to them and touching them. This may mean having to dodge ‘things’ scampering up and down in your path, in which case you will have to apply a little skilful jumping. Some very nasty traps have been set for you, the conveyor belt is a cinch compared to some. Repeat the gathering process for each room of the house and hope that you make it to the end, whatever that may be.

CRITICISM

‘I think that Jet Set Willy II is a brilliant game, but it’s a shame so many of the screens are the same as Jet Set Willy. The graphics are identical — they still have the same degree of smoothness and clarity. I reluctantly have to conclude that I don’t consider Jet Set Willy to be a sequel... it’s more of a Deluxe version. That said, the game is still up to a pretty high standard, better in some respects.’

‘No doubt there are many people that have eagerly awaited the arrival of JSW2. It has been a long wait and my goodness, it wasn’t worth one tiny minute! Admittedly there are thousands of people who bought JSW and no doubt there will be thousands who will buy JSW2, but what you get for your £6.95 is an extra forty rooms to explore and work your way through. Great isn’t it? The graphics are now somewhat dated and long past their prime. It’s a shame that Software Projects didn’t put their time and effort to better use and produce a totally new idea instead of extending an already dead and well-poked game. Definitely not my idea of a fun playing game, but I suppose it’s quite a good buy if you haven’t already got JSW1.’

‘Here we go again on the final part (hopefully) of the Willy Trilogy. At the end of eighty-three we marvelled at the superb graphics and addictiveness of Manic Miner; in mid eighty-four we were astounded at the sheer size and playability of one of the first arcade adventures Jet Set Willy, which sparked off Poke Mania (or Candyitis as some people call it). Now a year on we can again be astounded by the playability and larger size of the same game that we were astounded by last year... I’m afraid to say that JSW 2 is not a great improvement on its parent. The main differences between JSW 2 and JSW are the extra screens and the speed — which is a touch faster, making the game slightly more playable. Another difference I have noticed is that it is easier to get into loops where you lose all your remaining lives. This is obviously very infuriating if you are well into the game. If you haven’t seen JSW 1 yet (where have you been?!) I would recommend this game. I wouldn’t tell players of JSW 1 not to buy this game either as it is interesting to play the extra screens. Generally I found this game playable, but I can see my interest deteriorating after a few weeks.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q,E,T,U,O: left, W,R,Y,I,P: right, shift to space: jump
Joystick: Kempston and Ram Turbo
Keyboard play: very good
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: as good as ever
Sound: nice tune
Skill levels: one
Lives: seven
Screens: over 100
General Rating: Very good... but not much progress.

Use of Computer

70%

Graphics

50%

Playability

60%

Getting Started

70%

Addictive Qualities

45%

Value for Money

72%

Overall

61%

JUGGERNAUT

Producer: CRL Group PLC
Author: Pete Cooke, Ian Ellery
Price: £7.95

CRL have produced what just has to be the world’s first truck driving simulation. The aim of the game is to make a profit at the end of the working day. Money is earned by collecting a variety of goods and delivering them to the depot from where you start.

The lorry, as well as the game, is partly icon-driven. To start, five icons access the options Start game, Select lorry size, Practice, Highscore and Key define. Clearly it is easier to drive a short lorry but the disadvantage is that delivering the allocated tonnage will take longer. Selecting the appropriate icon offers a selection of 4 different vehicle sizes. Practice lets the player get the ‘feel’ of the truck on the open road, at crossroads, roundabouts and in simple parking.

Selecting Drive starts the game for real. The first screen shows a map of a town — the computer can choose from a variety. Apart from the street layout, the map only shows the depot’s position. Alongside the map you are given a list of goods that must be collected. Each type will vary in total tonnage and, more often than not, involve several trips to different suppliers.

The next screen offers six more icons. Start, Phone, Load/fuel, Unload, Pause and Resign. At the beginning of the game the only icon you can use is Start.

The main display is a bird’s eye view of a section of road with your truck on it. The upper third of the screen contains a list of freight to be collected alongside a list of the amount delivered. The rest of this area is taken up by the instruments, bar graphs for damage (registers the amount of damage due to poor driving), fuel indicator and a speedometer. Alongside the bar graphs a large circle with a line across it is the steering wheel. A gearstick offers three gears, reverse, first and second. When the truck is stationary ‘fire’ will toggle between reverse and first, on the move, between first and second. At the very top of the screen a clock lets you know how much of the day has gone.

After moving away from the depot your first task is to plan your trip so find a phone box, park and call up the working icons. A phone call allows you to ask different suppliers where they are, and the different goods, including Derv, are given in icon form. If you select the fuel icon a little cursor will scan over the street map on the left and mark the position of any garages. Once you have located your stops it’s all up to you.

Apart from the danger of destroying your truck by going off the road too often, you can be fined for speeding. Any damage inflicted on your truck can be put right at a garage but for a price. When the day is over you are scored according to how much money you have made. Your pay includes a bonus for completing the job multiplied by the number of minutes left in the day and a bonus for the tons delivered. The cab and trailer repair costs are added to any speeding fines and that total deducted from your gross earnings, leaving a final score. Sounds complicated? Try driving the truck.

CRITICISM

‘This is certainly a very novel game and one which I enjoyed playing. The graphics are very neat if a little over simple, but when you are trying to drive that lorry the fewer distractions the better. Games which call on you to dash hither and thither along complicated streets, have a certain appeal and Juggernaut is no exception. I can’t really claim that it’s action-packed but the task is certainly very challenging and should keep you at it for some time. I would have preferred it if the screen could have scrolled smoothly rather than in blocks but I suppose that would have made it even harder to steer the truck. An addictive and novel game.’

‘Juggernaut is a lorry driving simulation, big deal? Believe me if driving the real thing is anything like driving this thing I’ll leave it to the experts. The game is fairly enjoyable but very difficult to complete. The lorry is simply but effectively drawn, as are the background graphics. The game is clever and well done but I don’t think it has enough going on to maintain its initial appeal.’

‘The idea behind this game is really rather neat — making phone calls to find the pick up points, getting there, and worst of all, reversing into the loading bay. Getting the hang of the lorry takes some time. I have to assume, from the way it saunters down the middle of the road, that it reacts something like a real artic. Keeping the truck on the road is quite absorbing but I can’t help feeling there should be rather more to it. A lot of concentration is required to keep it straight and the work involved in getting the loads is all against the clock. It’s a bit too much like hard work for me!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable, except S for working Icons
Joystick: Cursor type and programmable
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: not much used
Graphics: neat but a bit basic in design
Sound: not a lot
Skill levels: 4
Lives: 1
Screens: lots
General Rating: Different but not exceptional.

Use of Computer

70%

Graphics

74%

Playability

78%

Getting Started

80%

Addictive Qualities

68%

Value for Money

67%

Overall

73%

MONOPOLY

Producer: Leisure Genius
Author: Various
Price: £9.95

At last it’s arrived — fifty years after Monopoly was first produced as a board game — the Spectrum’s very own, and official, version of Monopoly. An appropriate way to celebrate a fiftieth birthday!

The game is played according to the rules laid down for the official version of the game and that’s going to lead to more than a few surprises — but it should stop the arguments. The game allows for between two and six players, any number of whom can be played by the computer. You could set up a game with you playing five opponents, all run by the computer which has six inbuilt personalities available for random allocation to the tokens it plays.

The playing characteristics are meant to simulate different playing styles: Mean, Reckless, Greedy, Steady, Cautious and Entrepreneurial. Each computer-played token will act according to one of these personalities. The role of the bank is always taken by the computer which plays impeccably fairly!

Before the game begins you will be asked to enter the names of the players and which ones are to be played by the computer. Players are allowed to select the token they prefer. Next the program asks if you want to play a short game, which is played until the time limit (also prompted for by the computer) is reached. The player having the greatest worth at ‘time up’ will be the winner. The ‘who starts first’ question is resolved by the computer rolling some dice on screen. The player with the highest number starts.

The game display splits the screen into two parts. The upper two thirds show a three-dimensional view of the board with the individual properties clearly marked according to colour groups. While a token is being moved, the lower third of the screen gives a bird’s eye view of the property that the token is on and the two preceding properties. In this view the properties appear exactly as they do on the real board.

When a token settles on a property the square changes to show the information normally held on the back of the real property cards. A prompt will appear asking if you want to buy the property or not. If you answer ‘yes’ the cost is deducted from your account. Answer ‘no’ and, according to the rules, the bank auctions the property. The bank handles all money transactions including the collection of rent. If an opponent lands on your property you must claim rent by pressing ‘R’, after that the bank takes over. Should the tenant not have enough cash the bank will automatically start selling or mortgaging the impoverished tenant’s property to settle the debt. If a token lands on a Chance or Community Chest square the computer selects a card and displays that in the board square — that’s the end of taking the nasty ones out (Bunch of cheats round their Monopoly board, the Spencer family it seems! Ed.).

All of the other transactions that the game allows, buying and selling houses and trading properties, can be initialised by keying in the appropriate command letter when the computer will prompt for details of the transaction. All prompts and general information appear on the lower part of the screen. At almost any point a player can request a list of the properties and who, if anyone, owns them. When the list is presented individual players can then ask for a portfolio and examine each property in detail. Key ‘M’ and the bank will set up mortgages, a player indicates the property by positioning the cursor over it. The bank deducts a ten percent fee for all mortgages. If a player becomes bankrupt, the bank will sort out his affairs and then retire his token. A ‘long game’ continues until all but one of the players have been retired or until someone terminates the game with CAPS/SHIFT SPACE whereupon the assets of each player will be displayed.

CRITICISM

‘I am very impressed by this program. All of the features of the real game have been inbuilt very well. The bank acts with startling efficiency, all transactions are conducted quickly and neatly. The idea of having 6 different personalities is great and seems to work well; it appeals to me because now I can play Monopoly on my own. The thought of converting Monopoly to run on a computer fills me with horror, there are so many complexities even putting aside the complexity of the board. Monopoly handles them all so well and with ease. It can be great fun getting the computer to play all six players and then just sitting back and watching. A truly great version of a very good game.’

‘Being a true Monopoly fan I found the computer version very exciting. It is exactly the same as the original. Of course this game is only going to appeal to those of you who enjoy playing Monopoly in the first place, but that must be quite a few. I think the dice are fantastic, they fly in from the left hand corner and settle near the middle, they look pretty realistic. I highly recommend this game if it appeals.’

‘This is an amazingly faithful transfer of the well known board game. The only problem that I found was, apart from being unable to cheat, that I had to play according to the real rules. That can often take a bit of fun out of the game. I also miss not being able to leaf through the piles of money and property cards. The view of the board is much better than I expected possible: the idea of giving a detailed close up on the lower part of the screen as you move along is very neat. When playing against the computer you will have to pay very close attention, it’s very easy to miss a rent. A great game. A must for fans of the board game.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: as required by prompts
Joystick: N/A
Keyboard play: very good
Use of colour: very effective
Graphics: make for a good, easy to follow board layout
Sound: a few warning beeps
Skill levels: can be played against 6 different personalities
Lives: ’till your money runs out
Screens: one, split into two
General Rating: An excellent transfer, pass GO and get it!

Use of Computer

75%

Graphics

80%

Playability

85%

Getting Started

82%

Addictive Qualities

87%

Value for Money

75%

Overall

88%

NODES OF YESOD

Producer: Odin Computer Graphics
Memory required: 48K
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: the team

The blurb sheet that comes with the game goes on at length to describe the home, breakfast and lifestyle of The Rt. Hon. Charlemagne ‘Charlie’ Fotheringham-Grunes (our hero, and alleged apprentice saviour of the universe). You may fancy the mission, set him by a little chap in a rhodedendron bush, rather less than the breakfast (butter dripping kippers etc) he has just downed. What the chap from ICUPS tells him in rather broken English (either that or the Odin spell-checker needs a good kick) is that they are getting some rather strange signals from the moon. Would Charlie be so kind (and so stupid) as to go and find the ‘erbschectt’ responsible?

The game begins with you wandering about on the surface of the moon (it must be the moon because in the background there is a very nice piccy of the earth). As you amble along, try to avoid falling down the holes before finding a friendly mole — the lunar moles are a helpful bunch compared to the peskies found on (and in) your average earth lawn. To give you some idea of the humour incorporated into this game the wall chewing tunnel finding mole has braces!

With mole in tow leap down one of the holes and you will find yourself in a cavern with ledges and monsters, and more ledges and monsters! Most of the monsters are a nuisance — they merely get in y our way rather than doing you harm — but they are quite fun to squash. Lower down in each of the caverns you find monsters of a different composition; they are not so easy to kill, and if you get too close you will be thrown all over the place and lose a great deal of energy.

Monsters aside it’s best not to forget the main purpose of Charlie’s trip and which is to find the Monolith. He has already worked out that to get to it he needs to find and collect eight ‘keys’ or alchiems, so he must explore the caverns and stay alive. The alchiems are rather attractive crystal objects. Indeed, it is so attractive that you are not the only one collecting them, so proceed with great care if you don’t want to become a victim of what could be the first lunar mugger.

The task is pretty simple but is hugely complicated by the size of the cavern system; not all of the access routes are clear so you will have to use the mole to make extra tunnels. The game includes features such as whirlwinds that teleport you to somewhere that you would rather not be. Huge and deep shafts also exist, which can mean the certain loss of a life if you tumble down one — unless you get lucky and find that the one you just fell into has a very powerful updraft.

Extra lives can be found scattered about the sub-lunar environment, which is just as well because on the bottom of the screen you can see your vital signs ticking away, your current life force ebbing away and your movements slow with every beating you take. When you get an extra life you will also find yourself with some things called gravity sticks. These are very useful because not only do they render galactic muggers harmless but also induce a gravity field in the immediate area causing all monsters (if you can count a cuddly teddy on a spring as a monster) to fall to the bottom of the cavern.

CRITICISM

‘After starting the game I had to look twice to make sure that it was not by Ultimate. We are talking fab graphics here, a really detailed main character which somersaults with a degree of smoothness that puts a Rolls Royce to shame (RR’s work better greasy side down — Soft Ed). I really enjoyed Nodes of Yesod but I was slightly disturbed by the similarities to Underwurlde, but that aside, it’s a SMASH to say the least. Little things like the feature of the mole that chews its way through walls really add to the game. Overall an excellent game which is certainly related to one of the mega-whatsits from Imagine that we never got to see.’

‘Nodes of Yesod has got to be one of the best games this year and probably one of the most playable I have loaded into my Spectrum to date. It has brilliant graphics which are very well drawn and animated. The sound is great, and there is a fantastic speech sequence just before the last block of code loads. I love the way that your man jumps, very similar to the character in Impossible Mission on the CBM. At first sight Nodes of Yesod seems much like Underwurlde by Ultimate; in fact there are a number of other similarities, the music for example sounds very like that from Shadowfire, and the mole acts in a similar way to the servant in Dragontorc. I had trouble loading the version I was given but I understand this fault was a unique one (which is a relief). This game is certainly a CRASH SMASH.’

‘Immediately this game had loaded I was overwhelmed by its quality, and after a considerable time playing it I am even more impressed. There is so much attention to detail, the chewing noise of the mole, the movement of the characters, the inside of the caverns and tunnels, everything is well done, even down to the little oscilloscope which shows your energy level. The graphics are superb and very rewarding. There are some fantastic surprises in store and that’s what makes the game so playable. Add the fact that the game does not require the brain to work overtime to solve hundreds of ever-so-subtle problems and you have a game that is addictive but not over frustrating. A very worthy SMASH and I can’t wait to see more from Odin.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q-R/A-F up/down, alternate bottom row keys for left/right
Joystick: Kempston, cursor and Interface 2
Keyboard play: probably better than using a joystick
Use of colour: exceptional
Graphics: superlative
Sound: not extensive, but when it is used it’s great
Skill levels: one
Lives: three but more can be found
Screens: 256
General rating: you’ll be over the moon with this one (!)

Use of computer

92%

Graphics

96%

Playability

93%

Getting started

91%

Addictive qualities

90%

Value for money

89%

Overall

93%

PAWS

Producer: Artic Computing Ltd
Author: Anthony Adam
Price: £6.95

Before you jump up and down in fits of excitement proclaiming that this game was reviewed months ago, in another Spectrum mag (which, for the sake of your health at least, you should not be reading) we should point out that the other mag is better known for being rash at the expense of accuracy. CRASH at least decided to wait until Artic had settled on a name for the game.

Paws is about a poor little cat called Selwyn who is being harassed by Bull Dog Billy and his gang of Bully dogs. Up until now, nasty old Billy has never managed to rid his patch of Selwyn because the cat and kittens were protected by catoplexic energy, a force generated by them as a whole. Well, imagine Selwyn’s surprise when he returns home to find that the kittens have strayed. ‘Oh this is awful’, cries Selwyn, ‘without the kittens we are no longer protected from the dogs and when they get to hear of this they will be after me again’. Well it goes without saying that Billy hears the news and barks an order to one of his lackies, ‘Gruff’, says he, ‘round up the boys and we can get rid of those cats for ever’.

Your task is to guide Selwyn round the maze of city streets, the suburbs and refuse tips, collecting the kittens one by one and returning them to the haven. As you wander the lonely paths you are bound to come across the dogs. You can attack by firing fur balls at them, or even paralyse them for a while by depositing a noxious substance in their path. If you do get caught by a dog them a paw-to-paw fight will follow and that will cost you a great deal of energy. Your stamina, needed for the fur balls, and energy can be built up by eating different objects as you make your way around the maze, but the more you travel the maze the rarer the food becomes. With ten kittens to recover you face a race against time: soon the dogs will form a pack, and then watch the doggies get the moggies.

To help you with your task the game provides a map of the maze giving the locations of the kittens, the dogs, home and of course Selwyn. Underneath the main screen your score and high score are displayed, together with the levels of stamina, energy and the number of lives remaining. You lose a life when you run out of energy and if you are carrying a kitten you will lose that as well. The last figure on the screen gives the ‘K9’ level, this is a measure of pack formation and is, in effect, the time period in which you must collect the kittens. The five different skill settings simply give five different pack gathering rates.

CRITICISM

‘It’s no use pretending anything else, Artic wanted to call this game ‘Cats’ and base the scenario around the stage play. It used to have great music but even ignoring that it seems to have lost a lot more besides. It’s a graphically pleasing, well animated, race-against-time maze game, and not a bad one at that.’

‘A pretty straightforward idea this. The graphics are nice, detailed and colourful. The map adds a great deal to the game and the dogs are a constant menace. To win you really have got to get your skates on to collect all ten kittens before the dog pack forms. The food idea seems a little banal at first until you realise that by racing round the maze the supply runs a little thin. Good fun.’

‘Paws has Sabre Wulf-like graphics, bright colourful and well detailed. Playing the game seems quite easy and doesn’t pose any real challenge once you’ve mastered the different aspects of the game. With the useful map provided on screen at any time life isn’t too difficult when it come to finding your way around the large maze. I like the idea of the maze taking place in different zones, which are indicated on the map by different colours. Quite novel really. Your weapons are different to say the least — you can zap the dogs that are after you, or lay them off your trail by depositing a pile of ... well, it’s a pile of something or other! Quite an enjoyable game, but I think the effect of it will wear off after several hours of playing.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, bottom row to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair and cursor
Keyboard play: fine
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: pleasingly detailed
Sound: a little garish
Skill levels: five
Lives: nine (of course)
Screens: over 150
General Rating: An attractive and mildly challenging game.

Use of Computer

73%

Graphics

75%

Getting Started

74%

Addictive Qualities

77%

Value for Money

71%

Overall

78%

PIPELINE

Producer: CSM Ltd
Author: Simon Ffinch
Price: £6.95

This is in effect the Speccy version of the original Commodore pipeline game produced by Taskset. This conversion, produced with the co-operation of Taskset, makes only two minor changes to the original: instead of the foreman firing bullets at the foe he throws spanners; and there are two more screens to entertain you. The game also comes with an improved version of an old arcade favourite. SOS is the game where you have to guide a module down to the planet surface to rescue the folks and then return to the mother ship. Both journeys require you to dodge the streams of space debris and the laser blast from the nasties.

In this version of Pipeline you control a foreman and one workman. Your one and only task is to make sure that the flow of petrol to the barrel underneath the network of pipes is not interrupted. The one little pest who seems determined to make sure the flow is stopped can be seen running up the ladder onto the gantry above you. From above he will drop objects that will damage the pipe so you must either kill him by throwing a spanner at him or simply dash around the network, with workman in tow, so the damage can be made good. Your task will be made a great deal easier if you bash the anarchist as often as you can, but you are likely to be distracted by the ladybird-look-a-like pipe bugs. These bugs also use the ladder and once they are above you can drop down onto the pipe — you must knock them off, because if they reach you it’s curtains for certain.

An impressive array of difficulties has been programmed into the game. To begin with there are eight different pipe structures, each one more complex than the one before. Three skill settings allow you to select how many attacks you are going to suffer from either the anarchist or the bugs. Finally you can select how many lives you would like to be allowed for each game, any number between one and eight. Select any but the easiest pipe system and you are going to be in for a nasty surprise in the shape of a well armoured and very persistent lobster.

CRITICISM

‘Pipeline is quite an original game which has good graphics. The pipe menders are rather funny to look at but I suppose the looks go with the job. Unless you start throwing spanners at the other man to begin with, you land yourself with an almost endless task. This is a pretty good game. I enjoyed it.’

‘I have played Pipeline a lot on the CBM so I was pleased to see it out for the Speccy. Initially I was a little disappointed because this version is a good deal slower and so became monotonous after a while. The graphics are large, jolly and very well drawn but the sound, as usual, isn’t very good — though adequate. After about half an hour I had managed to perfect a simple routine to get me through most of the screens. To start with I enjoyed this game a lot but it does tend to get boring after a while.’

‘Until I reviewed Super Pipeline I had never seen a game like this. This version could have been a lot better with only a few modifications, an increase in speed for a start would have gone some way to making it as exciting as the Super Pipeline game. I did find the repeating cycle of pipe systems a bit too much towards the end. However having said that when you consider the game on the ‘B’ side which really is pretty good I think the cassette is good value for money.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z/X left/right, K/M up/down, L to throw
Joystick: Kempston and Interface II
Keyboard play: very good
Use of colour: not extravagant but clear
Graphics: very neat
Sound: spot effects only
Skill levels: three
Lives: up to eight
Screens: eight
General Rating: Slightly above average.

Use of Computer

74%

Graphics

74%

Playability

68%

Getting Started

76%

Addictive Qualities

63%

Value for Money

75%

Overall

76%

PROFANATION

Producer: Dinamic Software
Author: Victor Ruiz
Price: £6.95

This is the second of the two Spanish games from Dinamic Soft to be released by Gremlin this month (the other being the boxing simulation, Rocco). It is, in its simplest form, a platform game cum arcade adventure. So why Profanation? Well, it’s not that it might be blasphemous to buy or even play — there’s nothing remotely immoral about it. Neither has it got anything to do with the fact that a few profanities will escape your lips during play. No, the profanity is the Pharoah’s curse that has been inflicted upon our poor hero and intrepid explorer, Johnny Jones (Pause for breath) Gasp! Shock! Horror!

Yep, the highly inquisitive Johnny’s gorn and got himself trapped in the Temple of Abu Simbel, erected over 3,000 years ago by Ramses II himself, no less. This temple wasn’t the only thing left behind by the Pharoah (cue Vince Price voiceover) No, there was also the threat that an evil spell would be set upon anyone brave or foolhardy enough to enter the Pharoah’s tomb! All the temple’s secrets remained hidden from the curious eyes of humanity for over 30 centuries. That was, until JJ decided to take a look. Now he’s been turned into a hideously deformed... well, thing is the best description I can think of (I don’t think he looks so bad, in fact he’s quite cute — he looks rather like an armless purple spud on legs, with a large nose and for some strange reason he’s always smiling — obviously nose something we don’t!).

So now JJ’s in a mess, or rather a tomb. (Cue tense muzak...) Can JJ free himself from the spell and find his way to the mortuary chamber and discover its secrets...? Well he can if he can get out of the first location!

The Temple itself consists of 45 chambers, each containing its own platform arrangement and particular group of nasties. Most of the nasties move in regular, predictable patterns while others are stationary problems such as spikes that shouldn’t be fallen on. Other cosmetic things adorn the locations such as spider webs and skeletons. The screen flips to the next location on moving from chamber to chamber rather than scrolling.

Large slabs of stone are present in some locations, blocking further progress and they can only be moved by ‘collecting’ the correct ‘keys’ (touching small blocks with heiroglyphs on them). There are also a number of traps throughout the temple’s 45 locations that are only noticable once you’ve fallen into one! You soon learn what’s what. Deeper into the temple there’s a large coloured diamond (I won’t say what that’s used for), deadly pools, stalactites that fall and crumble, snakes, mummies, a row of stepping stones over a river of piranhas and some damn-near-impossible-to-negotiate Van der Graff generator thingies amongst a multitude of other objects.

Control is simple left/right movement with two heights of jump (depending on how far you need to safely leap) — a normal jump or an extra high one. You initially start with ten lives — believe me, you need ’em — and one is lost each time you hit something nasty, such as a deadly water drip, a spinning monolith or even some spikes for example (usually found in traps).

The instructions are deliberately sparse, giving only a brief scenario, the keys used and how to load the game (always useful). This is to allow you to find out things for yourself... well there are arcade adventure overtones, after all.

CRITICISM

‘This is one hell of a difficult game to play, but one I didn’t find too offputting because of it. The graphics are very good, the main character being humorously and well animated. I particularly like the way he looks innocently around if left standing doing nothing for a while. Other characters and objects are very well defined/animated and colour clash is very rare (even when it does occur it’s rarely offensive). The title screen music wasn’t bad, nor were the sound effects. Although Profanation doesn’t offer anything outstandingly original in terms of gameplay, it does offer a tough challenge for its price.’

‘Ten lives, that’s surely a generous helping... or is it? Well, if perhaps another zero was added, then it would feel about right. This is a pretty evil game, it’s got lots of nasties in store to kill off the unwary adventurer. The graphics are great, they really give an authentic, spooky atmosphere. To compliment this, you are portrayed as a zany-looking creature. Abu Simbel is simply a brill game that is as hard as it is good. Its difficulties will frustrate you, while its charms will addict you. Not for the casual player: pro’s only!’

‘Those of you who despise platform games will probably find yourself loathing this one as it is incredibly difficult and proves too frustrating to be worth playing for any great length of time. There’s not a great deal new about it, with the usual monotonous left/right/jump stuff that is found in your average platform game. The graphics are the most appealing aspect of the whole game with some excellent sprites and a great use of colour all round. The sound wasn’t too hot and the title screen music drove me up the wall. Still, any platform freaks who still enjoy this sort of thing will probably love it, but the rest of you shouldn’t expect too much.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right, Q-T/A-G high/low jump
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: very good
Sound: good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 10
Screens: 45
General Rating: A good but very difficult game, nothing outstanding though.

Use of Computer

62%

Graphics

86%

Playability

75%

Getting Started

54%

Addictive Qualities

80%

Value for Money

73%

Overall

78%

ROCCO

Producer: Gremlin Graphics
Author: Dinamic and Armid

In the last issue of CRASH we reviewed a boxing game from Alligata called Knockout. Well in this issue we have two more, Rocco (originally released under the title Rocky), which owes its origins to a team of Spanish programmers, and Elite’s Frank Bruno’s Boxing. There must be something of a trend under way.

The graphical presentation of the fighters is very important in this type of game. In Rocco you view the action from a point behind your fighter who appears to be a good deal shorter than your opponent. Both figures are solid and shaded. As a fighter, you have four basic moves available: a left and right head punch, and a left and right block. Every time you land a punch on your opponent you can see his head reel with the blow and his energy bar diminish a touch. A fighter is knocked out when his energy bar reaches zilch. The winner of a round is the first boxer to drop his opponent thrice. Each time one of the fighters is knocked out he will get up again (unless it was his third fall) and continue the fight with a re-charged energy bar — the other fighter continues with his energy at the level it was when he laid the other guy out.

In effect, this means that a boxer who has just been knocked out has the advantage over his opponent. Once you’ve won your first round you’ll have had a taste of what is to follow, but to achieve ultimate victory you must defeat all four fighters. Each one is harder to beat than the one before. At the start of each new fight you are presented with a picture and the weight of your opponent displayed in a box under his energy bar. The graphical figure in the ring does not change in appearance from fight to fight. When you lose against any one of the fighters then the game is over. No score is given, so if you find you have a score to settle, you must start from the beginning.

CRITICISM

‘Rocco is the second boxing game I have seen this month. Looking at this one in isolation I think the graphics are very appealing. However, I think it lacks playability not only because the opposing character never changes, but also, on account of the limited number of moves available, it all became so repetitive. On its own an original game but compared with Frank Bruno I don’t think there is as much of a game here.’

‘At first sight I must say the graphics in this game won me over. They are very good indeed. The figures are large, detailed, and move well. But the game itself I am not so keen on. The actual game it is far too limiting. It’s a shame that despite the other four contenders being gradually better they each take on the appearance of a black-eyed Spaniard! The movements available in a fight are just too limited, especially when you look at other fighting games, Way of the Exploding Fist on the CBM for example, and realise just how involved you can become. One more point: I don’t recommend the use of a joystick with this game, it’s just too tempting to sit there and wiggle it about.’

‘Yet another boxing game. We seem to be inundated with them here at CRASH at the moment, and I don’t think any of them are particularly good. The novelty of them wears off after a few goes and you are left with nice graphics and a pretty boring game. Anyway, back to reviewing Rocco. At first sight this boxing game seems to be reasonably good. It has fair graphics and even a bit of sound every time you get belted, but after a few goes it turns into a ‘slugging match’ with no other option. All you can do is hit the bloke in front of you in the face with either your left or right fist. When you have beaten your first opponent, you are presented with a different picture at the bottom of the screen but the actual character you’re fighting doesn’t change at all, which I think is a bit of a cop out.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 1-5/6-0 left/right punch, Q-T/I-P left/right block
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: better than joystick
Use of colour: very little
Graphics: solid, detailed and pleasing
Sound: a sort of squidgy sound for punches and a good bell sound
Skill levels: four
Lives: three
Screens: N/A
General rating: a good attempt but doesn’t quite make it.

Use Of Computer

60%

Graphics

79%

Playability

62%

Getting Started

70%

Addictive Qualities

68%

Value For Money

68%

Overall

70%

ROLY POLY GOES TO HOSPITAL

Producer: David Todd Software
Author: David F. Todd
Price: £4.99

Roly Poly is a new character to the computer games scene and in this game he is trying his best to help our National Health Hospitals out with their equipment shortage.

The game features more than thirty rooms, each containing at least two items of urgently needed medical equipment. The little rotund character, Roly Poly, must be guided past obstacles as he explores the building, The hazards include just about anything on the screen. For instance, the first screen has a series of little pyramids on the floor which must be jumped over but at the same time you must avoid being squashed by flying bus stops. The first object to be picked up is a scalpel but that can only be reached if you jump onto a very narrow little wall. Later on the rooms become a little more complex and other features, such as a lift, can be used to reach the different levels.

CRITICISM

‘My first impression of Roly Poly in Hospital was “gosh chaps this looks a bit like Manic Miner in Hospital”. Yes I know there’s no such game but if there was... I found the game pretty difficult to play because the character seems to jump such a long way, but I suppose that’s part of the game. Nevertheless the game is both fun and challenging. The graphics are neat, smooth and fairly colourful. Maybe worth a look for the price.’

‘This game resembles Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy but it is very much harder to play, even after the practice mode. I have only managed to get to the seventh screen so I’m sure that it will take ages to play though the whole game. The graphics are well animated, small and neat. The sound only has spot effects but there is a smart if disjointed tune at the start. I think on the whole that the game is a little too hard, otherwise it would have been much more addictive. Without some victories you begin to lose the sense of achievement that drives you on.’

‘While I was impressed by the quality and the colour of the graphics I think the game could have been a little faster. I have spent a long time playing this game and I am a long way from solving it. I’m not sure that just because a game is ultra hard that should make it good. But considering the quality of the programming I think I can safely recommend it to the masochists among you.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q to P in pairs for left/right, A to jump
Joystick: Kempston and cursor
Keyboard play: responds well
Use of colour: flat but smart
Graphics: smooth and detailed
Sound: limited to spot effects
Skill levels: one, and a practice level
Lives: five
Screens: over 30
General Rating: Clever, neat but over difficult.

Use of Computer

65%

Graphics

72%

Playability

57%

Getting Started

60%

Addictive Qualities

61%

Value for Money

60%

Overall

62%

SAIMAZOOM AND BABA-LIBA

Producer: Dinamic Software
Author: Victor Ruiz Tejedor, Santiago Morga
Price: £6.95, 7.95 respectively

These two games, which are sold separately, form a two part graphical adventure game. The central character is a chap called Professor Indiana Smith (no relation to the Joneses) and his ultimate goal is to rescue poor Victor and nick a bit of loot (salvage treasure) in the process.

In the first game, Saimazoom, our hero is trying to explore a hundred-screen region for some treasure. In effect this area is a maze because hills, rivers and trees act as barriers. As Smith wanders about the joint he will occasion upon a variety of items, most important of which are canisters of water — his water level is always falling and needs constant topping up. Other finds include canoes, pickaxes, guns, keys et al (Al plays no part however). These items are placed into a ‘bag’ able to contain only four items, which are shown on the side of the playing area. Now, if Smith finds himself in a tight spot because he is being chased by the Tibag Indians or the occasional wild animal the assorted goodies can come in very handy.

The canoe can be used to escape over a river, the gun to kill or the pickaxe to move mountains. These objects can only be used once, so if you cross a river you must find another to come back. One item that can be retained takes the form of a key. Some of the treasure could be locked in one of the strange locked rooms — the key will let you in for a quick explore but mind the snakes.

For his second mission Smith finds himself in the gardens of Baba Liba. His task: rescue Victor, find the treasure and pinch a princess. Again the garden forms a vast maze except that this time the barriers cannot be penetrated. You must use your skill to find a route and get the three keys that allow you into the palace. There are even more nasty people and unpleasant wildlife to deal with but at least you have the means. You start the game with 14 short-fuse bombs. If you find your path blocked by something, drop a bomb and dash into another screen, put your fingers to your ears and wait. When you return the personage will have been killed. Alas one cannot use bombs for blowing up the shrubbery, then the task of reaching the palace would be just too easy.

CRITICISM

‘Saimazoom is essentially a collect the bits game. The graphics are unremarkable but this type of game can be instantly playable but, as in this case, has little lasting appeal. I found the animals too easy to dodge and the game too easy to play. Baba Liba is marginally better than part one. The maze area is more enclosed and better drawn, the nasties are a lot nastier so the bombs come in handy. Of the two parts I preferred the latter.’

‘Saimazoom is one of those games, you know the sort, you buy it and feel you have been ripped off. Later on you begin to get into it a little more, until you buy another game, after that it rots in a corner. Apart from being very dated I can’t find anything desperately wrong with it, but it is rather a step back for Silversoft. The graphics are big and jolly and jerky. Playability wise Saimazoom becomes boring after a few goes, I would give it a miss. Baba-Liba on the other hand is a much better game. The graphics, while still dated, seem to fill up the screen a little more (like my Art teacher I hate empty spaces). What little sound there is, is good, more would have helped a lot. Baba-Liba is the more playable and more addictive of the two games.’

‘I was pretty disappointed with these two games, I can’t help feeling they slipped through some sort of time thingie, perhaps from the days of the ZX80. While they are both fun, Saimazoom more so, they get boring pretty quickly. Neither are hard games to play so perhaps there rests the answer. I will recommend them for the toddler gamers, lots of mini fun, not too much aggravation.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right, Q/A up/down, Space to fire
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: good choice of keys
Use of colour: very basic
Graphics: neat but dated
Sound: limited
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4 and 3
Screens: 100 each
General Rating: Dated, perhaps a good toddler starter kit.

SAIMAZOOM

Use of Computer

52%

Graphics

65%

Playability

46%

Getting Started

65%

Addictive Qualities

57%

Value for Money

50%

Overall

53%

BABA-LIBA

Use of Computer

52%

Graphics

65%

Playability

46%

Getting Started

65%

Addictive Qualities

57%

Value for Money

42%

Overall

48%

SPY VS SPY

Producer: Beyond
Memory required: 48K
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Tag and the Kid

At long last the Speccy version of this much loved CBM game has mysteriously materialised on my desk. Spy vs Spy is a game based around the antics of that crazy duo from the esteemed pages of MAD magazine. The two spies, one black and one white, constantly battle for supremacy in the cut-throat world of espionage and general skulduggery. The game introduces two new concepts: Simulplay, which is a facility that allows two players to play the game together, each of them controlling one of the two spies; and Simulvision which is a little more novel. If the two spies are in separate rooms then the two rooms are shown on the screen, one above the other. However, if the spies are both in the same room, then only one room is displayed. Without this facility you would never know what the opposition was up to, and that could be very unhealthy!

The basic theme of the game is very simple. If you play against the computer, you play the white spy. You and the guy in the black mac are located in a building near an airfield, and the object of the game is to get out of the building and reach the plane waiting on the runway. You won’t be able to leave the building until you find the correct door and you can’t go through the door unless you are carrying four objects — if you try the security guards will get very nasty. Since you can only carry one object at a time you need to find a briefcase, which is also hidden.

Searching a room simply involves looking behind each of the fixtures and fittings; if an object is behind something then it will be added to your inventory when you look there. Finding the articles is one thing, keeping them is something very different. Your enemy also wants to escape and is equally desperate to acquire the means to do so, and the hunt is complicated by the fact that the spies can set traps for one another.

If the two spies are in the same room then you are unable to search or use traps, in which case you can either indulge in hand to hand combat with your opponent or leave. The advantage of the former course of action is that if you win you will be able to recover the other guy’s inventory, but of course you might lose.... This is where the game has a fairly strong strategic element. If, for example, you had failed to find any of the objects you could wait while the other chap does all of the graft and then ambush him — it could pay off.

To master the game you will have to learn how best to deal with your enemy. A little device called the ‘Trapulator’ is displayed on the side of each screen, which bears six little pictures, the first five of which are booby traps. Via the trapulator, you can use a bomb, a large spring, a bucket of water, a gun and string or a plain old time bomb with a 15 second fuse. The sixth ‘icon’ is a map which helps you find the objects you are searching for and must find in order to escape. The traps must be set according to their type. The gun and string, for example, can only be tied to a door, while the spring or bomb can be left under any piece of furniture. All of the traps, except the time bomb, have remedies. A fire bucket will douse the fuse of a bomb while a pair of scissors will get you past the gun and string. The remedies are located about the building but they can also be moved around by picking them up and and dropping them in a different location. A good trap layer will make sure the appropriate remedy is not to hand when a trap is set. One important point to remember as you dash about setting traps: remember where you put them!

If you are playing against the computer, you can reset its ‘intelligence’ at the start of each game. A rating of five for the computer means the black spy is going to be pretty smart and probably set a lot of traps — on IQ one you are dealing with a dumb thug. And the environment in which the game is played can also be changed at the start of each game. The size of the building can be pre-set, with the smallest having only six rooms while the largest has thirty six rooms and a lot of hidden passageways to boot. Points are scored for giving the other spy a hard time, e.g. killing him. How many points rather depends on how you did it. Points are deducted for using the map as well as for being a victim. If you do get killed, though, you are going to lose a great deal more than a few points. First, unless the other spy is a real gorilla, you will lose the articles you have gathered and secondly you will lose time — that’s very precious because the plane only waits for so long. You can still lose the game, even as you make for the exit, if the plane leaves without you.

CRITICISM

‘I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun playing a game. I think the immediate appeal of Spy vs Spy is that it is pretty easy to understand. Once you have learnt how to move, search and lay traps and you are off. There are so many degrees of difficulty that the novice is in with a very good chance of winning, but without a hope unless he is well practised. The scope for weird and nasty tactics is immense. Let there be no doubt that bloke in the dark mac brings out the worst in me... it’s as much as I can manage to keep life in perspective when playing against another person. I love it.’

‘To be honest Spy vs Spy was one of my favourite games on the CBM (well, no one’s perfect) and I wondered what the conversion would be like knowing the Speccy’s attribute problems. But then again it was being converted by Tag and the Kid. The main display has been produced in black and white, thus avoiding any problems but this does not detract from the overall feel of the game. The unique split screen system means that the game is instantly playable and addictive because there is terrific scope for games either against the computer or a friend. Spy vs Spy is an excellent game which offers a pleasant change from all of those arcade adventures and shoot ’em ups.’

‘At first I found myself utterly confused by what appeared to be two separate events taking place on the one screen. It’s very important to keep an eye on the other spy but it’s also very difficult. The idea of setting an IQ level for the enemy is great since this allows you to play against a pretty thick opponent and work your way up to something a bit smarter than your average KGB goon. At first I thought the best tactic was simply to dash around the building setting traps and then picking up the pieces but as the building gets larger I tended to run into my own traps so I had to rethink my policy a little. A very absorbing and highly addictive game.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: player 1 — definable; player 2 — N/M left/right, Q/S up/down, 1 to fire
Joystick: not Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive, a little complicated with two players
Use of colour: colour would have meant less detail in the main displays
Graphics: very good, very close to the original
Sound: aiding bleeps and bashing noise for hand to hand combat
Skill levels: 5 IQ levels, times eight buildings gives forty levels of play
Screens: depends on level
General rating: an exciting and demanding game, should last for yonks

Use of computer

96%

Graphics

92%

Playability

93%

Getting started

89%

Addictive qualities

93%

Value for money

87%

Overall

93%