Issue No. 23 DECEMBER 1985

FEATURES

MELBOURNE HOUSE
Our very own Sean Masterson takes a trip to London and meets the Melbourne House crew. And gets treated to chicken salad without the chicken. Well, he IS allergic to cheese...

SURF’S UP
An Irish software house, very keen on Surfing, have come up with a surfing simulation for the Spectrum which uses a mini-surfboard. They invited the press to a launch in Ireland and John Minson went for the weekend. A telling tale indeed

THE DOINGS OF DESIGN DESIGN
The final instalment in the story of Simon’s Game and Graham’s Game. Next month we should be able to review them both. (No, not Simon and Graham)

PREVIEW: Friday 13th
A real scary scenario for Domark’s latest offering. We were treated to an early look at the game which stars Jason, a very nasty piece of work indeed.

PREVIEW: Sweevo’s World
A bit of a departure for Gargoyle games, this one. You control a blundering robot who is pestered by all sorts of nasties in his world. Robin Candy did some research into this whimsical little number

PREVIEW: Swords and Sorcery
At last! It’s here! One of the most long awaited games is almost ready for release. PSS have been working on Swords and Sorcery for over eighteen months and the project is about to bear fruit.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS
A taster of what’s possible to put on a computer screen nowadays. But is it art?

ON THE TV SCREEN
Dave Beeson, who works for Central ITV producing animations and graphics for TV programs once used a Spectrum to illustrate a program on hacking. We talked to him.

DO IT YOURSELF

BC’s QUEST FOR TIRES
Win a Midi Hi-Fi system in Software Projects’ trundling competition, plus copies of the game and a couple of “Complete Works” packages

TAU CETI
A stunning game. A stunning competition with more musical hardware to win. This time it’s a Toshiba portable cassette deck. Plus games, of course.

XCEL
No less than a hundred copies of this elegant arcade/strategy game are on offer. Design an alien spacecraft and win, win, win.

ROBOT MESSIAH
A joint competition, in which you could win a SAGA keyboard to encase your Spectrum in. And there’s fifty T-Shirt on offer, to encase you in.

HACKER
Hack, hack, hacketty hack. Save on telephone bills by entering this Activision competition in which copies of the hacking game, HACKER can be hacked.

REGULARS

EDITORIAL
With the indexes, too.

MERELY MANGRAM
A three-page pre-Christmas extravaganza. Lloyd gives the lowdown on some software that could make a few people happy over the festive season

NEWS INPUT
A whistle-stop tour of what’s been happening over the past few weeks in the industry we all love.

FORUM
Lloyd’s Live Letters: your news and views aided and abetted by the Bug Box illustrators

PLAYING TIPS
Robin’s tensing up like a spring to release a megadose of tips next issue. Meanwhile, he lets a few secrets slip...

LUNAR JETMAN
More herocs from the dimmest spaceperson in the known (and unknown) universe

CRASH COURSE
Back in front of the blackboard, Rosetta checks out some more mind-expanding software. Perhaps we should ask her to review Back to Skool?

CRASH HOTLINE AND ADVENTURE CHART

TECH NICHE
Franco Frey embarks upon the penultimate (LMLWD) part of his round up of fast storage media for the Spectrum, Jon Bates looks at two more MIDI compatible devices and Simon Goodwin reveals the secrets of the Spectrum’s keyboard in TECH TIPS

ADVENTURE TRAIL
Derek’s really impressed by the game based on the life of Adrian Mole, the schoolboy antihero. Packing his bucket and spade he heads for Terrormolinos too — and visits a few other strange parts

SIGNPOST
Tips and hints from the quill of the master adventurer himself. All in Brewstercode

RESULTS
“Draw some dragons”, the competition minion said a little while ago. This is the sort of thing you drew. Plus the names of more than a few lucky winners.

FRONTLINE
Sean Masterson goes on a campaign in the Napoleonic War this month. He’s impressed with what he finds.

The Bumper Christmas Issue, with free giant OLIPOSTER goes on sale on 12th December. Miss it and your Christmas won’t be happy

REVIEWS

- BC’s Quest for Tires Software Projects

- Back To Skool Microsphere

- Big Ben Strikes Again Artic

- Bomber Bob Bug Byte

- Brainstorm Bubble Bus

- Chicken Chase Firebird

- Critical Mass Durell

- Discs of Death Artic

- Dogsbody Bug Byte

- Grumphy Gumphrey Supersleuth Gremlin

- Gyroscope Melbourne House

- Hacker Activision

- International Rugby Artic

- I, of the Mask Electric Dreams

- Journey’s End Master Adventurer

- One Man and His Droid Mastertronic

- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Mosaic/Level 9

- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Mosaic/Level 9

- The Snow Queen St Bride’s

- Sorderon’s Shadow Beyond

- Spike Firebird

- Tau Ceti CRL

- Terrormolinos Melbourne House

- Thunderbirds Firebird

- Tomahawk Digital Integration

- Waterloo Lothlorien

- World Series Basketball Imagine

- Xcel Activision

- Zoot Bug Byte

Publishing Executive

Roger Kean

Editor

Graeme Kidd

Technical Editor

Franco Frey

Art Editor

Oliver Frey

Production Designer

David Western

Production Assistants

Gordon Druce, Matthew Uffindell

Software Editor

Jeremy Spencer

Adventure Editor

Derek Brewster

Sub Editor

Sean Masterson

Staff Writer

Lloyd Mangram

Contributing Writers

Chris Passey, Robin Candy, Ben Stone, John Minson, Mark Hamer, Gary Liddon, Julian Rignall, Gary Penn

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/

Thanks to those CRASH authors who have allowed their work to be reproduced.

A LEPRECHAUN IN LONDON — SITTING IN ON A MELBOURNE HOUSE WORKING LUNCH

Sean Masterson goes to see PAULA BYRNE (She’s wonderful) and GEOFF HEATH of Melbourne House

For some reason, British Rail and I just don’t get on. It’s something I haven’t quite managed to put my finger on yet, but it seems that they know whenever I’m going to catch a train. I amble down to the station (any one, it doesn’t matter) and their look-outs see me coming and warn their superiors. Then, just as I enter the station, they announce late departures which inevitably include my train. I suppose I’ll just have to learn to live with it. This particular morning, I was patient. I got a coffee and waited for another announcement. Soon I was on my way, regardless of their pitiful attempt to prevent me.

Actually finding the Melbourne House office, when I arrived in London, was fairly easy. It’s one city I never seem to get lost in even though I can’t claim to be familiar with the sprawling metropolis. Catching a couple of tubes to Richmond Park followed by a brisk walk in the autumn sun, and I was at their door.

The company occupies a spacious ground floor office in a well hidden, but new block. Gold tinted windows guard secrets of upcoming games from over inquisitive eyes. Impressive. Almost as high-tech looking as CRASH Towers.

‘Melbourne House are an independent sales and marketing team.’ That was a fact repeated several times by Paula Byrne, the company’s publicity manager, determined from the start to make me understand just what Melbourne House is. She typifies the strong sense of teamwork that pervades the Richmond offices.

Geoff Heath, the man who makes a ritual out of pizza consumption

I had arrived there just in time for lunch. That meant pizzas or chicken salads. Somehow I managed to have a chicken salad without the chicken. Sat at a massive table with everybody tucking in to steaming hot pizzas, their eyes all glued to the food, I felt part of some pagan ceremony — out of these pizzas great games do come. I felt really guilty telling them I was allergic to cheese. Ex-Activision man, Geoff Heath now runs Melbourne House UK. I realised that I was dealing with a dedicated business man when he decided that lunch was no excuse to stop working. He began quizzing everyone present (including myself) about what they thought of the PCW show. I thought I’d take advantage of the situation. What did he think of this year’s show. ‘We see it as a success,’ he assured me. Paula added, ‘We got an amazing feedback from the people who actually buy the games, not just the dealers.’

Mind you, it’s easy to understand why they did think of the show as a success. Way of the Exploding Fist zooming up the charts and a promising looking product called Fighting Warrior on constant demo. That hasn’t done too badly either. But then again, as members of the team are quick to point out, Melbourne House rarely make mistakes. This air of self confidence was the next thing to strike me about the atmosphere in their office.

They’re a funny bunch, who look at life very matter of factly. ‘I don’t think we’ve ever had an unfair review,’ said Paula. That sums them up. Mind you, working for MH, it’s not a difficult boast to make. Most of their reviews have been praising rather than critical. They have always been known for coming out of the void every now and then to produce a classic game. Then they disappear again, out of sight. Now they see that as changing. Quantity and quality are two factors they want to combine. The Hobbit allowed them to achieve fame and strength while the English computer games market was still young and very healthy. Situations change, however. No company can afford to wait most of the year in the hope that the next title will pull in a fortune. Even so, the company still has one of the largest research and development budgets in the UK.

Few people are aware of the way that the company works, but all was soon revealed. As Paula had already told me: the English Melbourne House is an independent outfit. They contracted a software development team called Studio B. From here, Fighting Warrior had emerged. They work at the rear of the main office, partitioned off and existing, for most of the time, in a kind of techno-squalor. A brand new C128 and disk drive lay sprawled almost un-noticed on a table, while a Sargasso Sea of power supplies, peripheral leads and other paraphernalia defied anyone to pass without risking life and limb.

The Studio B band gave me a look at Gyroscope while it was being developed. There wasn’t much to see at the time, however. I did catch a more interesting glimpse of Mugsy’s Revenge though. Now this was something interesting. An incredibly well animated sequence of a murder in a club as seen from a nearby office block. Apparently, the plot is that Mugsy is out of prison after his last series of escapades and this time he has to start from scratch to build his hoodlum empire. The new animated sections will really make your eyes water.

When they work on putting one of their games onto another machine, they don’t see themselves as just converting it. Each different machine has something to take advantage of and this is a factor they bear in mind constantly. As a result, fast conversions may not always be possible. But each one stands on its own, in no way looking derivative. It’s the work of dedicated programmers. Often burning the midnight oil to see their ideas turned into reality, they prove Paula’s point about teamwork perfectly.

The company also work closely with their Australian and American sister companies, who deal mainly with Commodore software because of the markets over there. Even so, it was the Australians who came up with Way of the Exploding Fist, the biggest success on the Spectrum so far, this year. Then of course, there is the book publishing section of the company. They have produced more technical and games books for the whole range of modern micros than could possibly be mentioned here. Yet, like the software side of the company, they keep a very low key.

‘Some games material comes from outside sources,’ said Paula, talking about Gyroscope, ‘but then our people work on it.’ Fine, but what about Lord of the Rings? Ah, well. I couldn’t see the game working at the time, but I was given a little appetiser. At the time of the visit, it had not been decided what the graphics proportion of the adventure would be, but there was plenty of quality material ready for the game. Not only that, but there would be an improved parser, much like Level 9’s improved interaction device. The game is presented in a thick video case package with two cassettes, the first volume of Tolkien’s trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, a guide book to get you started if you’ve never played The Hobbit and game specific instructions. Gimme, gimme!

Between Paula’s desk and the Studio B hovel, was Andy Wood’s domain. Andy, a refugee from Activision, came to Melbourne House to become their National Sales Manager. He already had the experience needed, gained from promoting Ghostbusters last year. With Melbourne House he had his Christmas work cut out for him. Massive emphasis on point of sale presentation for the new games was required. For Andy, that meant a lot of phone calls and no mean amount of co-ordination. An unimposing and genial man, it’s hard to imagine anything worrying him. He just does his job and enjoys it.

To complicate matters for Andy and everyone else, the company are aiming for simultaneous release for their new games. It makes advertising easier, stocking easier and stops the kids from becoming frustrated. This however, will probably be achieved gradually rather than with the very next game.

But what of the next game. Everybody is aware of the imminent release of Lord of the Rings and Mugsy’s Revenge but there are others. Although, Paula explained that a release date has not been set, there is Big Daddy’s Rock and Wrestle, a departure from the boxing look-alikes that could well spawn a few clones of its own. Gyroscope a maddening game in which you guide a gyroscope across a scrolling course, should be in the shops by the time you read this (certainly is. There’s a review in this issue — ED). Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race promises to add something new to the sports simulation scene while fans of the ‘cartoon adventures’ currently being developed should enjoy the smooth and colourful animation in Asterix. Like they said, quantity and quality are the company’s targets from now on.

Further into the future, and company strategy isn’t quite so apparent. The sixteen bit revolution is just around the corner (so they tell us) but when it does come, Melbourne House should be able to take it in their stride and come out showing a profit. They are a friendly bunch who work in a subtle but amicable atmosphere. That comes over from the moment you enter the office. I doubt if anything the future holds bothers them too much.

Originality is one quality the company never seems to have lost. The know the strength of a good idea and the kind of marketing it will require to reach the top. They are open minded and will consider anyone’s ideas. If they’re sound ideas, they can and do make the most of them. Although nobody mentioned it, the level of professionalism in their office is difficult to surpass. Perhaps that’s why they are so successful.

Must be all those pizzas...

RIDING ALONG ON THE CREST OF A WAVE...

It’s quarter to six on a cold Monday morning and I’m standing in a North London tube station waiting for a train to Heathrow. All the while, my body reminds me I should be at home in bed. Why am I here? Well, if anyone asks... Tell ’em I’m Surfing!

The call came four days earlier. Did I want to attend the European Surfing Championships in Rossnowlagh, Eire? A sudden vision of waves rolling under a blazing sun, bronzed surfers with their gleaming boards and blonde surfer girls in bikinis flashed through my mind. Yes, yes, yes... And there I was, waiting for the first tube of the day without a single bikini in sight.

But this is true journalism; flying visits abroad... okay, across the Irish Sea, but a journey into the unknown nevertheless. My passport was primed in my pocket, ready to flash at any officious immigration officers. Profession — reporter. I didn’t need it once.

Five of us were flying out, courtesy of Irish newcomer to the software scene, New Concepts, who were launching their surfing simulation. Surfing? Listen, the only water I like is a wee drop with my scotch. I’ve listened to the Beach Boys in my time, but never forget that Brian Wilson was up in his room writing all their best tunes, not risking his neck in the waves.

The tube took longer than the flight. I celebrated touchdown with a breakfast glass of fresh orange juice, neatly spiked with vodka. After all, it was nine am and high time to prepare for the five hour drive to the Atlantic breakers. I already had a vision of that pale foam — yes, my first pint of Irish Guinness.

Time to introduce ourselves. Robbie from SID, the distributors, Paul from C&VG, and Bill and Jim from Sinclair User. And there was New Concepts’ top man, Norman McMillan, a softly spoken and instantly likable chap with his fourteen year old son, Doug. Robbie and I were to travel in his car.

The cross country trek, surf boards attached to the roof, produced strange contrasts. Somehow, it was difficult to relate microchips to all those winding roads. And as we crossed the heavily armoured border, it was impossible to reconcile bloodshed and terror with the rolling green fields. We ate lunch in a cafe facing a blackened shell of a shop, advertising a ‘Bomb Damage Sale’.

Here was a chance to quiz Norman. Why surfing? “I wanted to get into sports simulations but I wasn’t sure how until June of last year.” But do you surf? “Yes. For the last five years... all that wasted time,” and he wasn’t talking about the hours he had spent on the waves. But surely the swell isn’t big enough in the sceptered isles. “I’ve ridden ten foot waves,” so has Doug. I was in the company of fanatics and it was too late to stave off the inevitable invitation. “Would you like to try it?” I smiled sweetly. Not while I’m sober, thought I.

We arrived at the hotel just before dinner. It was like walking into a colony of Californians, a surreal gathering of bronzed, blonde young men and women who talked with American or Australian accents — even if they came from Sweden. I heard a rumour that they used Vim to get that sun bleached look. Not an application I’d recommend. Instead, I thought of inner comfort with that glass of Guinness.

During the evening, one thing became obvious. Surf is not a sport. It’s a religion. The competitors formed a close knit community, bound by the search for the ideal wave. And that spirit began to communicate itself as I watched surfing videos and marvelled at the way they mastered the rolling ocean.

In the lounge, another contest was in full swing. New Concepts were offering a specially airbrushed surf board to the highest scorer in their simulation. Four televisions and rubber keyed Spectrums had been set up and knots of spectators cheered their teammates on. The on screen surfer is controlled by a keyboard overlay, shaped like a surfboard, which responds to the position of your hand in much the same way as a real board responds to body weight. So pressure on the side makes you turn. Norman told me there was no way the game could be played via traditional means; twenty keys have to be read to calculate how you’re positioned and allow for stunts like trailing your hands in the wake of the board. I made a mental note: “Let your fingers do the surfing.”

I didn’t get a chance to try my hand (an attempt at wit) that night but I did sample a few more pints, just to confirm my initial impression. It had been a long day and as I lay on my bed, the waves gently rocked it... or was it just that last Guinness?

The Surf Board overlay for the NEW CONCEPTS surfing simulation in place on the rubber keys — not as dramatic as waves, but nearly as much fun

Tuesday and up with the lark and a pounding head. Still, the sea breeze was bracing as I walked across to breakfast. There I was in for a nasty shock. “We’ll be seeing you in the water today, then?” I vaguely remembered that while all around me were making excuses, last night the lure of the surf had overcome common sense and I had said I would have a go. Let this be a warning against the inebriating effects of Dutch Courage... sorry, Irish Guinness.

Luckily for me, but to the competitors’ frustration, the sea was like a mill pond. Not enough to move a matchstick, let alone a six foot fibreglass surfboard. The blonde posse continued to whoop it up on the Spectrums until the time came for the swell, which give us hacks a chance to get down to the programs.

I always find public demonstrations of my inability to master micro-games profoundly embarrassing. It took half and hour before I was able to paddle out, “porpoising” under the incoming surf that tried to sweep me back to the shore. Even then, I could only stay on the wave for a few seconds, gliding gracefully down and off the bottom. But at the next monitor, Sinclair User’s Jim was proving himself to be a natural, performing a ‘360’ — that’s a complete turn on the spot. I made a note to buy him some Vim for his too-dark locks.

On the grounds that even inter-magazine rivalries fade between drinking partners, and with bribes of promised pints, I squeezed into Bill Scolding’s hire car. We failed to locate the beach where most of the competitors spent the morning paddling about on a serene sea (poetic huh) so we went on a detour to conduct another interview of which more next month.

Later, re-united with the surfing fraternity, we actually saw some action, including our hosts Norman and Doug, gliding into the beach. As I scrambled down the headland to get some piccies, I again admired the grace of the wet suited figures balanced on the narrow boards. Okay, so maybe I couldn’t ‘hang ten’ (that’s hang ten toes over the side of the board, for the uninitiated) but... well, it looked kinda fun.

The evening ended at a celebratory dinner for the contestants and the New Concepts surf board was presented to Jed Stone of the English team. He was marked out of ten on the waves and while the micro mirrors the judging criteria it scores out of 100,000 — much more satisfactory for the arcade player.

Afterwards I cornered Jed, who was keen to sing the praise of the game’s accuracy, but then again you’d expect him to — he was holding his gleaming new board. However members of other teams backed him up. New Concepts have taken a lot of care in this respect, even at the expense of graphics sophistication, but there’s a lot of science, from wave behaviour to human energy expenditure, being calculated. What really matters is that the mini surfboard provides a satisfying link between player and on screen action.

Norman McMillan sees this as educational. “Sport is a relationship of body and mind — not something which has been properly addressed by computers except pressing buttons quicker, and that’s just finger exercise.” You’ll learn just as much from choosing the right equipment for the conditions and discovering which are the best waves to ride. The higher the wave, the better your scoring potential, so it’s worth waiting for one set of rather puny waves to pass and then catch the big one. Wave direction plays a part too, as on the left of the screen there are some rocks and you wouldn’t want to get washed up on them, would you? Meanwhile, your energy is being used up and, while this shouldn’t present any problem to the experienced surfer, the novice wearing only ‘pods’ (shorts) in the wintry water won’t last long. There’s a lot of practice before you graduate from the stable, single fin boards to ones capable of riding off the lip and performing aerial manoeuvres before plunging back into the soup. But once more unto the bar, dear friends; once more unto the beer... and once more the feeling that surfing can’t be that hard, can it?

An action screen, as you ride your board towards the shore in SURF CHAMP, from New Concepts

This time I’ve done it. Now there is no backing out. During the previous night’s revelry, Jim said that he’d have a go. So now it was up to me to defend the honour of Newsfield. Luckily, I came down to breakfast with a handful of specially selected straws which ensured that he drew the short one first. It was nine am as he paddled out into the grey Atlantic, clad in Norman’s wet suit. A thought: if he forgets to stop before he gets to New York, I won’t have to go. But he turned. Another thought: will CRASH pay for my funeral? By the end of his turn, Jim was riding back to the shore, lying on his stomach.

Norman and Doug had been very disappointed with the sea. As I stood chest deep in salty water, I couldn’t understand why. Each successive breaker lifted the board and I realised that my attempt to master the sea was somewhat less successful than Canute’s. The Atlantic is BIG. “Get on the board and find your balance,” Doug told me. Lying on a flat surface two feet wide shouldn’t be much of a problem, but when the board has a life of its own because of the surging swell beneath it, it’s a different matter. Many attempts and then, I had it. For five glorious seconds I was surfing on the wave... too soon, I was off. White water over my head as it flew above me. Then a tug on my ankle from the leash and I was gasping to the surface.

It had not been an auspicious start. At least Jim hadn’t been there to see me walking back to dry land and a warming whisky bottle. But did it matter? Not a bit. If we had not been rushing for a flight, I’d have been there until I got it right. On the way back, Norman told me of future plans, including a few finishing touches to the program.

“Would I like to write some music?” You bet! And there will be prizes for people who break the high score. New beaches from around the world will be added to the program. Each beach has its own characteristics and one will include a ‘tube’ — that’s when you surf along the hollow below the curving water. Most spectacular!

Okay, Norman, Doug, I’m hooked. One problem though, the only tubes we get in London are crowded during the rush hour. But I begged a pre-production copy of Surf Champ and since then I’ve learnt how to control the board as I ride the rubber keys of my micro. I’ve given up alcoholic excess, bleached my hair and changed my name to Christopher Wave. Like I said, surf is a religion — and I’m a convert. Surf’s up!

John Minson

DESIGN DESIGN — THE FINAL PANIC

OH DEAR! Here we go again, it’s 12.00pm and CRASH want this article tomorrow. Yet another mad panic! On the whole it’s been a month of mad panics. I wonder if any of you out there have ever sat down and thought about how long it takes to put a game out and what’s actually involved?

First one needs the artwork for the game, or in our case two games. This usually starts life as a few lines scrawled on either Dave’s or my note pads. From these humble beginnings our Ad Agency has the arduous task of producing the full colour air-brushed masterpieces that appear on the finished product. In the case of Forbidden Planet we used a photo which made life easier, though it wasn’t one of Keith’s in the end. Something to do with the vibration passing juggernauts cause if you’re standing on a Motorway bridge, hoping those headlights coming slowly up the hard shoulder don’t belong to a member of the local constabulary! However 2112AD’s cover had to be air-brushed, and this takes about a week to do. Anyhow, we did end up with some excellent artwork in the end (see our ad somewhere in this CRASH).

Once the problems with artwork have been sorted out there comes the business of posters and adverts. Posters obviously take some time to be printed, and adverts have to be designed, produced and delivered to the Mags about two weeks before they are due to be published. Well I say two weeks — there are Magazines which demand ads six weeks in advance. CRASH I’m glad to say is not one of them.

Next in the line of tasks that lead up to the release of a game is the great packaging fiasco. This time round, “packaging” involved looking at all the available boxes and library cases, deciding on one we all liked, and then discovering that the manufacturers have sold all the cases they can produce up until January. Rumours are running round the industry that U.S. Carat have bought all the 250,000 available double-audio cases.

As luck would have it Keith Miller of PDD, our tape duplicators (More of him and them next ish, maybe — ED), found another similar case that we could use with our design of packaging. A word of thanks to PDD at this point, largely for continuing to meet our unreasonable demands (Hello, can we have a thousand Dark Stars and five hundred On The Runs by tomorrow please? etc).

Having organised the advertising, posters and packaging I can turn to Graham and Simon and say “O.K. Guys we’re releasing the programs on the 19th of November.” This is rather akin to typing launch codes into ICBMs, at least in terms of the explosion such statements usually cause amongst our programming department. Still, after the listings and floppies have settled back to the floor, and Simon’s blood pressure has returned to normal, our programmers start their own mad rush to provide PDD with masters, and enough time to duplicate the tapes. During this final bit of the Great New Game Panic we see the battle of Dave, Brian (Ad agency bod) and myself versus Graham and Simon, in which we try to get the programmers to write their inlays, and they complain that they can’t as they don’t know what their games are going to do. This is all quite pointless as I usually write the inlays anyway. The CRASH Minion complains! He should try coping with this lot!

At lunchtime today a black streak flashed past the office window heralding Graham’s imminent appearance. Brandishing microdrive cartridges by the dozen, he gleefully bounced into the office like a young cruise missile, took over Simon’s desk, lugged his revolting microdrive into the office Spectrum and demoed a nearly completed 2112AD to us. So here we go lads & lassies it’s PREVIEW TIME. (Yeeeaaah !!!).

GRAHAM’S GAME

The action in 2112AD takes place in the Central Government Computer Complex, after the said computer has thrown something of a wobbler and decided it can run the country far better on its own. Your mission is to enter the C.G.C.C. and gain control of the computer. This is achieved by finding the ten security codes and feeding them, in the right order, into the main terminal.

Your task is not made any easier by the presence of a maintenance droid which regards you as garbage since you happen to be organic. Nor is life made any simpler by the fact that most of the interconnecting doors are locked. To open or close one of these doors you will need the relevant access card. These, too, must be searched for. To help you in your task, you have a robotic dog ‘Poddy’ to assist you. Poddy can do certain things you cannot. To start with he lugs your food about for you, and the all important first aid kit (You’ll have to wait for the game to see what you need that for!).

Poddy’s main function is to carry things around for you. Your character can only carry three objects at any one time, whilst Poddy can carry far more. However, a well loaded Poddy does not move as fast as an unloaded one. Being an electric creation, not unlike a canine C5, Poddy will need his batteries charging from time to time. This is done by plugging him into one of the power outlets dotted about the building; Graham tells me they will look like 13 amp sockets!

You are provided with status displays for both your character and Poddy. These are got at by use of the icon game control system. There are various icons displayed at the bottom of the screen, such as pick up, drop, drive Poddy about and so on, some of which execute a specific function while others take you to other displays and icons. There is also a HELP icon. When selected this shows all the icons and their functions.

It is through the icon system that you control Poddy, though to exchange objects you are carrying with objects Poddy is dragging about, your character must be standing next to him. Throughout the game you MUST pay attention to Poddy’s whereabouts and state of being: remember, he cannot move about as fast as you can, and you can’t complete 2112AD without his help.

SIMON’S GAME

As to the great Forbidden Planet, beware of three other programs we’ve stuck on the tape because we thought they were amusing: Spectacle 2; a recently modified version of Halls, and something written by Simon’s girlfriend Leslie, and rumoured to be very embarrassing. (in fact Simon has just finished converting Halls for the Amstrad whilst I have been writing this.)

Forbidden Planet itself is proceeding well. All the windowing is now going, and a myriad of new objects has been created, including a particularly nasty fighter that flies about in front of you then launches a pair of air to air missiles at you. Flying low is a good way to avoid such things, but this puts you in the line of fire from the surface to air missiles. The maps are also now working, though Forbidden Planet’s map is much larger than Dark Star’s surface maps. It also works as a window onto a much larger map. It is worth spending time flying around and feeling out the defences before ploughing into them in search of the central command bunker.

The object of F.P. is to destroy the last Stronghold of the now largely eradicated Galactic Tyranny. This involves flying through surface defences far more complex than those seen in Dark Star to the central site. Should you achieve this and destroy the Central Command Bunker, it then becomes your responsibility to get you and your ship back through the now disorganised defences and off the planet. There will be a lot more to it than that, but at the moment ideas are still being accepted and rejected on a day to day basis. The game is changing overnight, almost every night and improving every time, but you’ll have to wait and see how it all turns out.

So off to Ludlow in three hours! I wonder how Graham is going to react to finding his car has been fitted with a cardboard window. Graham borrowed the hire car we have at the moment (this is because someone broke into Simon’s Astra and nicked the front seats), and left us his Astra. When Simon and I went out at about 1.00am in search of coffee, we discovered that some member of the ungodly had broken into Graham’s car. I really don’t think he’s going to be very pleased about this! Oh well, at least I can run faster than him.

See you in the Christmas Special if Graham doesn’t get me first!

There’s not that many people who’ve used a Spectrum to generate graphics for broadcast TV programs. DAVE BEESON, Graphic Designer for Central Independent TV has done just that. He’s also used an Atari 800 to produce title credits for a computer program — The Magic Micro Mission. It just goes to show what you can do with a home computer if you put your mind to it...

TEEVEE WIZARDRY

Scenes from the Title Credits of Central TV’S MAGIC MICRO MISSION. Amazing what you can do with an Atari if you try.

First the little space shuffle flies round the Central TV globe logo, then the screen wipes to reveal the console of the ship flying over a scrolling road with alien nasties cycling round that are blasted by the on board cannon — the nasties are blurred a bit in our dynamic photo!

The next phase has the ship flying towards the computer in the mountains, again over a scrolling road, this time dodging pillars. The shot we have here is of a development screen, and doesn’t include the scrolling road, the ship or the pillars. Sad, eh?

Once the approach run has been completed, the ship then flies into the screen of the computer perched on the hill, and then the sequence inside the works begins with chips scampering around inside the circuit board. Then a cut to the MAGIC MICRO MISSION main logo follows, and the title sequence ends.

Dave Beeson, the man himself

Dave Beeson began his artistic career by following a three year degree course in Graphic Design at Birmingham Polytechnic. During the course, students were supposed to specialise in either General Design or Illustration. Dave wanted to do both, and managed to convince the college to allow him to have his way.

A wise move on his part. When it came to the end of year show for final year students two talent scouts from the Birmingham based Independent TV station, ATV, saw Dave’s work, realised he was an all-rounder and invited him for an interview. Mr Beeson got the job, and joined ATV’s graphics department as an assistant. That was nearly seven years ago.

So what does working in the graphics department of a TV company involve? “I’m an all-rounder rather than a specialist,” Dave explained, “as we all have to be. You never know what’s coming through the door in this job: maybe it’s cartoons that are wanted one day, a logo the next, with charts and maps needed for current affairs programs all the time. I love the variety — the job only gets boring when there’s nothing to do.” Which rather explains why Dave is happy to work in any medium, and doesn’t have a particular specialism. “I can latch on to most techniques and copy styles fairly easily.”

Which is just as well. When Central TV (as ATV became in the last round of franchise reshuffles) decided to produce a computer program it was logical to have a go at producing the title graphics on home micros. Dave had bought a Spectrum a few months before work started on The Magic Micro Mission at the end of 1983 and had been telling everyone in the Graphics Department how wonderful these home computers were. He was the obvious choice when it came to working on graphics for a program on home computers...

“It was fun working with the people who wrote programs to run the graphics,” Dave remembered, “I produced screen designs on the Atari using Paintbox and Simon Goodwin wrote the programs that moved them round. I was very pleased with the end result.”

More recently, a program made in Central’s Nottingham studios on hacking required some short animated sequences to demonstrate classic hacking techniques. Out came Dave’s trusty Spectrum, reams of graph paper and four days of sitting up till two or three in the morning later... the finished result was put on videotape and edited into the program.

But what of the more expensive, professional graphics computers — does the life of a TV Graphic Designer involve much work at the top end of the computer graphics range? “The problem is that the graphics budgets for most programs are not large enough for computers yet. The more expensive machines can cost up to £500 an hour to buy time on, and that could be the entire budget. We tend to rely on traditional techniques — although some programs, like News at Ten and the BBC’s Nine O’clock News rely heavily on computer generated graphics.”

Dave’s looking forward to the arrival of a Quantel Paintbox — a whizzo computer system used to create effects and produce graphics directly onto videotape — The Nine O’clock News graphics, for instance owe a lot to Quantel... “There’ll be a bit of a scramble to get time on The Quantel, once it arrives,” Dave chuckled.

Apart from collecting Superman memorabilia — Dave’s got jumpers, radios, hairbrushes, masks, pencil sharpeners, all sorts of things with Superman on them — house decorating is currently the main Beeson hobby. Dave’s recently become a father and is decorating his family house, aided and abetted by his wife Roz who’s a textile designer by trade.

It’s a while since he last did any freelance illustrating — work for a Polish magazine several years ago was the most recent Beeson freelance job. A little bit more freelance work may be in the pipeline soon, just to help keep the family finances flourishing! Meanwhile his schedule of work includes a stint on The Price is Right in July, four months on Central News East and two series: Troubles and Strife and Parents and Teenagers. Snooker fans will already have seen some Beeson graphics — the title sequence using the triangular grid...

A piece of Vintage Beeson. Freelance work done for a Polish magazine to accompany a translation of Douglas Adams’s HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

The CITIZEN 85 GUIDE TO HACKING, courtesy of the 48K Spectrum

RINGING THE CHANGES

The Christmas Rush is about to start again. So-called industry commentators are beginning to predict another record selling season for the retailers — but this year it seems the emphasis will be on software rather than hardware.

Not surprising, really — there’s an awful lot of people who’ve got the basic hardware they need to get to grips with computing, all they need is the software to complete the package. Entertainment is the name of the game in home computing nowadays.

There have been several attempts at marketing utility programs — home utilities rather than machine code utilities — and they have all fizzled out, or continued as rather quaint, non-mainstream products. It seems that no-one is terribly interested in using their computer to run the household menu, and other ‘useful’ applications of the home computer are just too much grief to set up and maintain. What on earth is the point of keeping track of your personal bank account on a Spectrum for instance, when you can do 98% of the analysis on the cheque stubs? And no-one in their right mind is going to keep their telephone or address books on computer — what a pain having to switch on the computer and load in a file just to get Auntie Doris’s telephone number. With an indexed book, the whole process takes a fraction of the time. Sadly, we will have to wait for much more sophisticated hardware before the computerised household becomes a reality.

And Educational software hasn’t really caught on. Most home computers were no doubt bought by (or conned out of) parents who believed that the purchase of a computer would open wide new educational horizons for the whole family. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a vast amount of money to be made flogging educational software and it no longer attracts much in the way of serious attention from any of the major software producers. Again, a little sad because the computer has so much to offer educationally. But then the Government’s commitment to computer education has been pitifully inadequate.

It’s quite clear that the future of home computing lies firmly in the field of entertainment, and will do so for quite a while yet. And the quality of entertainment that the computer can now offer is really quite stunning, given the advances in software design and coding techniques. Lots of excellent games are now available on the Spectrum, and more are coming weekly. There’s no shortage of willing customers, either....

People’s attitudes to home computers have changed, and the shift in emphasis has been reflected by changes in the magazine publishing world. The general titles, covering a whole range of computers are apparently in something of a decline and titles concentrating on a technical approach seem to be having a bit of a lean time. Quite a few magazines that were doing very well a year or so ago, no longer exist.

The only people who haven’t really caught on, are the members of the traditional entertainment media. There’s a lot of gibberish still being written about computers and computing, in the pages of even the more weighty newspapers and Television is still preoccupied with coo gosh wow, stories or technobabble rather than concentrating on the entertainment value of computing. But then these media are in competition with computers, competing for people’s leisure time.

All this may well upset the computer “purists”, who feel that such wondrous technology is being vastly under utilised — or trivialised with adventures and shoot em ups. Poo to them. A fairly sound entertainment industry is now developing in this country, producing high quality entertainment packages on computer cassette. Few other industries have done so well over the last couple of years.

Few other industries have been so much fun, either, which may upset the computer puritans even more.

NEWS INPUT

THE MAD HATTER GOES SAILING!

Mastertronic has gone MAD! No, that’s not a comment on their mental health but the acronym for their new range of games, standing for Mastertronics Added Dimension or some such. Excuse if I’m a bit hazy about that aspect because they also went mad (as in wild) and really pushed the boat out (pun!) to launch (megabad pun!) the new games with the London lig of the year. Four hours of free bar and excellent buffet on a boat on the Thames, plus the charming Debbie, Denise and Marianne attending to the every need of tired and emotional hacks.

MAD as a hatter in topper and dickie bow, Colin Johnson of Mastertronic dresses up and loons around all in aid of the launch of a new range of games from Mastertronic

Is the boat listing, or was it the photographer. All aboard for a party on a London boat to mark the launch of MAD games

Spellbound is the first Spectrum title in the new range, an arcade adventure from David Jones, author of smash hit Finders Keepers, one of the programs that has given budget software a good name. With this range of supergames, to be released at the rate of only one or so a month. Mastertronic have sent their prices soaring to an extortionate £2.99!!! That’s almost as much as CRASH pay me for news items. (It will be, if you carry on like this — ED)

Also on display was the game that introduces us to Andromadous, the planet where men are mechanical and alien sheep are worried. One Man and His Droid is an everyday tale of intergalactic shepherding. It’s part of the standard £1.99 range, which now also includes The Quest for the Holy Grail, a very silly adventure previously from Dream.

It is thought that the whole event cost a little more than even £2.99, but it was well worth it, let me assure them (hic).

John Minson

BIZZI BODIES

The Micronet crew have added a whole new area to their frame store. A whole five hundred pages are now devoted to financial information — including advice on most aspects of money management, from mortgages through taxation to starting your own business.

And if you’re jobhunting, The Bizznet will be carrying executive job advertisements supplied by Reed Employment. So now you don’t need to be in The City to be in The Know when comes to loot.

MUD LAUNCH DATE CLOUDY

British Telecom’s Multi User Dungeon has been hit by "unforseeable technical problems", which mean it won’t be up and running for a while. BT persons assure us that it should be on line before the end of this year, however, and Dungeon Itchy modem owners will have to wait awhile.

The Great Mud Challenge, in which the champions from 10 computer magazines will slug it out for fame and fortune inside the Dungeon will now take place in the New Year.

YOU CAN HAVE YOUR SPECTRUM AND EAT IT!

It just goes to show what you can achieve with a little perseverance and a desire to achieve something. Neil Whitehead, a reader from County Durham, sent us in these snaps of a cake made to celebrate the 21st Birthday of a friend of the family. The celebration scoff was created by a Miss J Campbell, who just might find herself taking orders, once this gets out. Looks yummy.

LENSLOCK LOCK OUT

Digital Integration have apparently been having a few problems with the Lenslock installed as front end protection on their new helicopter simulation game, Tomahawk. It seems a few magazines had difficulty in getting advance copies of the program to run (not us, we hasten to add smugly).

A few improvements have been made to the final production version of the game, with a tutor mode added so you can practice code reading and entry and the instructions on how to use the protection system have been expanded considerably.

PUTTING THE ELECTRONIC PENCIL TO PAPER

Further to our profile on the men behind The Fourth Protocol, which was the result of an interview conducted in a rather hostile cafe in London, the Electronic Pencil Company would like to clarify one of the points made. They contacted CRASH Towers with the following missive.

In the interview in the September issue of CRASH, we inadvertently gave the impression that John Lambshead and Gordon Pier, gave us a design ‘for a very standard text input adventure.’ Their design was highly original and made use of detailed atmospheric and concurrent plot lines set in a well conceived framework. We enjoyed working with them and The Fourth Protocol’s icon driven mechanics were very much a joint effort. We have parted company in order to pursue our own design ambitions.

We are very sorry to have created such a misleading impression.

The Electronic Pencil Company

THE BIG PLAYOFF

Any day now some lucky Gyron player will be richer to the tune of a small sackful of money or better off by one Porsche 924. A special version of the game has been written for the playoff which will take place in London on 11th November. More details next issue, winner willing.

Bruce Everiss, for it is he

MORE PROCESSING WORDS

Oxford Computer Publishing are justifiably proud of their new Word Processor for the Spectrum — at £12.95 they have high hopes for it. Bruce Everiss, Marketing Manager for OCP is convinced that it will become the best selling serious program on the Spectrum. To make the package more attractive, a free copy of Address Manager is on the flip side of the cassette which as its name infers, is an address filing, indexing and retrieval program.

Next issue, we’ll really have a competition for you to enter. Rotronics Wafadrives will be on offer as top prizes, and complete sets of OCP software will go to runners up. You’ll need to get hold of a copy of the Word Manager program to enter, though. We’re going to be asking you to write something with it!

WHAT A FESTIVE STUNT

Seasonal greetings from the men at the Virgin Megastore checkout desk. Yes chips, this is the Virgin animated Christmas card. All that is required is for you to load in side ‘A’ and then type in the name of the recipient and the sender. Once the formal bit is done the ‘card’ will do its thing and play a little melody followed by the animated picture.

In the foreground there is a very Christmassy house. If you look carefully you can see Santa zig-zagging from left to right all the time getting closer to the house. As soon as he arrives he parks the reindeer and walks over to the chimney. The view then switches to the inside of the house, on the right hand side there a very cute Christmas tree, Santa mooches over and stuffs something into a stocking. As soon as he has completed the obligatory gift planting he turns and makes for the table where some refreshments have been left. The mince pie vanishes in a blink of the eye, quickly followed by a glass of Sherry. No wonder Santa emits a quick ‘Hic’ at the speed he has to work! Indigestion must be an occupational hazard for Santa but he doesn’t let it get him down, he just makes for the chimney and zooms off for the next delivery.

All very jolly and festive, but there’s more. If you grow weary of the Santa stunt, flip the tape over and load in your ‘free’ game, Space Command. You find yourself in control of a space ship and your mission is simple. Destroy all alien life forms as they enter the confines of the screen. In order to frazzle the foe efficiently you will have to manoeuvre your craft about the skies and avoid colliding with the enemy. You can select a mode in which the aliens actually shoot back in which case the whole affair is considerably more dangerous.

Since the game is staged on one screen only, anything flying off one edge of the screen wraps round to appear on the opposite side. This can be very confusing if you insist on flying about at great speed as you are certain to collide with a nasty. The aliens will push home their attack, wave after wave. If you manage to destroy a complete wave then you will be rewarded with an extra life — but no mince pies.

MARVELLOUS! WONDERFUL! FANTASTIC!

I always seem to be complaining about the poor variety and quality of educational software in this column, but now I’ve found a series of early learning programs which I can be totally enthusiastic about. The Learning Box programs written by Five Ways and published by Arrow, is an outstanding series which encourages young children to develop basic letter and number skills.

Five Ways have put a great deal of thought and effort into the programs, and have realised that educational packages should include not just the computer tape, but also other materials such as books, together with clear guidance on their use. Each of the programs in the Learning Box series follows the same format: the attractive plastic case contains the tape (which has the program on one side, and a story or rhymes to listen to on the other); a beautifully illustrated story-book to accompany the audio tape; a parents’ book containing step by step instructions for all the learning activities; and an overlay which simplifies the keyboard for even the youngest child.

The programs themselves all feature a carefully structured range of activities designed in a clear sequence so that children can work from the easy to the more difficult. This logical structure of subject matter is extremely important for effective meaningful learning. The inclusion of detailed guidance for parents ensures that the foundations on which a new learning activity rests can be introduced before the concept is presented using the computer.

For very young children, learning material must be bright and attractive, and the colourful screen graphics of The Learning Box series are quite excellent. Sound is also used to very good effect, and it can be turned off if required. Other extremely useful touches include the facility for exiting from an activity at any point and return to the menu, as well as a pause facility. The control keys for all of these options (caps shift/break and the appropriate number key) have been carefully selected to make it virtually impossible for the child to carry out any of these actions accidentally.

It really is hard to find any criticisms of these programs — the only real snag that arose concerns the overlay which doesn’t fit the Spectrum Plus and could possibly have been a bit more robust. The main thing, though, is that in terms of their educational value and the enjoyment they offer, the programs are streets ahead of most other early learning software. Daniel (as you know, he’s my five year old tester) loved the series, even demanding to see them again as soon as he woke up in the morning — though at that early hour, his father could perhaps be forgiven for being less than enthusiastic!

THE LEARNING BOX

The Number Programs
£9.95 each

Title

Age Range

Educational Aim

Mister Mac’s Money

up to 6

telling the time

Nine Currant Buns

up to 6

simple sums

The Magic Shop

up to 6

using money

Five Little Ducks

up to 6

counting

The most simple of the number programs for the younger age group, Five Little Ducks, begins by teaching sorting and matching skills, then develops the concept of counting using the numbers 1–5. There are ten activities in this program and, again, all of them are nicely related to the rhyme of the Five Little Ducks in the booklet and on the listening tape. The most outstanding feature of this program is the way in which it relates the number of objects represented pictorially on the screen to the figure symbol for the number.

This relationship is also used to good effect in Nine Currant Buns, which goes on to the next stage and introduces the numbers 6–9, before giving practice in counting, adding and subtracting using 1–9. This time there are, would you believe, no less than seventeen activities arranged in graded steps! The simple sums using plus and minus signs are very clearly presented. This is exactly the kind of approach which brings arithmetic to life for young children.

Mister Mac’s Day, the telling the time program, is a very clever way of teaching children a very complex skill. When you consider the variety of types of clock available these days — analogue, and both 12 and 24 hour digital — and the different ways of expressing time — five thirty, half past five, seventeen thirty — you’ll begin to realise how difficult it can be. The designers, though, have thought of every eventuality, and have created a charming story to form the background for the activities. Children will love reading about, and listening to, Mr Mac’s Day and then helping Mr Mac drive his train so that it arrives at the stations on time.

Using money is another skill that children must master, and in The Magic Shop the child has to buy the ingredients to make magic potions. The coins are pictured on the overlay, so the child can press the appropriate keys to count out the money needed. Once the youngster can manage to count out the exact sum required, guidance is given on counting out the nearest amount of money, and then checking that the correct change is given by the shopkeeper. The parents’ guide stresses the importance of practising with real money, and offers some helpful advice. One child of seven who tested the game for me spent over an hour, totally engrossed in it. He particularly enjoyed the Making Spells activity, where the child chooses from the spell book and makes a potion by using the coins to buy the ingredients needed. (My tester usually began with "squirt of anti-spook spray"!)

The Learning To Read Programs
£9.95 each

Title

Age Range

Educational Aim

Red Riding Hood

up to 6

reading words

Goldilocks

up to 6

reading sentences

The Enormous Turnip

up to 8

building words

Hansel and Gretel

up to 8

spelling

Based on well-loved children’s stories, these programs are a superb example of how computer-assisted learning should be integrated with other methods of learning. The Red Riding Hood tape contains eight graded activities moving from various matching pictures games to matching letters, then building up to matching words. The children’s book contains beautifully illustrated pictures of characters and objects from the story, each one clearly labelled, and children will love listening to the story read on tape by Toni Arthur.

Goldilocks goes on to the next stage of learning to read, which is decoding sentences. Again, the skills are broken down, this time into five graded activities, and, as with the programs, clear instructions are given to the parent as to how best to help the child. The fourth activity, for instance, has been especially designed for the child to play alone (though the parent is advised to be on hand to help if necessary). The random ordering of sentences in this game ensures that the words have to be read rather than memorised.

For children up to eight years, The Enormous Turnip is a very clever way of teaching letter sounds, word making and spelling. The various computer activities are closely related to the story of the old man who has to rope in all his relatives in order to pull up the huge turnip, and the graphics are superbly entertaining. I particularly liked the mouse which does a somersault when the child gets the answer correct!

Hansel and Gretel is the most difficult of all the reading programs. It introduces some of the more complex letter combinations (words beginning with sl, pl, br) and vowel sounds (as in kite, bone) and gives the child practice in spelling words from the story. This time, the child moves on from using the overlay to spelling the words with the letter keys.

GENERAL RATING

All of the programs succeed remarkably well in their learning-through-play aim. They are interesting and imaginative enough to hold a child’s interest, and the variety of carefully graded activities ensures a steady progression of tasks as the child learns. The listening tapes are of a very high quality as are the children’s booklets, and the screen graphics are quite excellent. The guides for parents are both comprehensive and informative, giving detailed support to those who are unsure about how to help their children. A great deal of thought has gone into the design of these packages, and they are by far the best series of early learning programs I have seen.

Highly recommended!

DIGITAL TAPE RECORDING WITH MIDI

Jon Bates continues his MIDI musings...

This month, in the continuing Saga of MIDI, we take a look at two interface devices which turn the Spectrum into a very powerful music processor. Linked via cables to a MIDI compatible synthesiser, both interfaces offer the user a staggering array of musical possibilities, the results of which can be stunning. Your ’umble reviewer managed to get each of them to turn out not only Axel F, but also a pretty decent version of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for Strings (pretty classy, huh?)

Enough bragging, and down to the hard and software. The main difference between the two systems as reviewed here is that the Performer is a real time sequencer and the Micon is a step time sequencer. It must be said, however, that both interfaces have software available and in the pipeline that will extend their possibilities.

MIDITRACK PERFORMER

Electromusic Research
£120.00

The hardware comprises two small and tough plastic cases connected by a short ribbon cable. One part plugs in to the Spectrum’s edge connector, while the other has flush-fitted five pin Din sockets to connect it to MIDI instruments. The sockets provide MIDI in, MIDI out (twice) and Clock start/stop, which is used for non MIDI devices such as drum machines or analogue synths that are capable of accepting the old pre-MIDI synchronisation format of 24 clock pulses per second. One nice feature on the unit is the provision of LEDs to indicate whether MIDI data is flowing in or out — handy when you can’t work out what’s plugged in to what and your connecting cables resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

An eight track tape recorder is capable of recording eight instruments on separate tracks simultaneously; alternatively, a recording can be built up track by track — known as multitracking or overdubbing. What Miditrack Performer does is to simulate an eight track digital recorder for approximately one tenth of the price of the real thing. It will record exactly what you play on your keyboard with every subtle nuance and variation in speed, including pitch bending. As there are eight tracks to record onto, even the most ambitious of us will have plenty of room to develop our talents! On loading, the program presents a screen display that gives the status of the tracks. Recording is simple: move the cursor to the track you want, enter ‘R’ and answer the simple question to confirm that this is indeed your intention — then play away.

When you are happy with your performance you can then record over the top of your first efforts onto a separate track, thus building up the sound. You hear your first track being replayed and can therefore add chords, perhaps, over your original tune. This process can be repeated over and over again — should you look like filling all eight tracks, you have the option of track merging. This combines all previously recorded tracks onto one — leaving lots of space free for more dabbling. There is one serious problem here, though. If you make a mistake, then you have no option but to build that track up all over again, which can be more than a little frustrating.

The program allows you to play as many notes as you wish, including chords, on each track — in other words each track can be polyphonic. The only limitation is the number of notes your synth is capable of playing simultaneously. To keep things in some semblance of order, there is a count-in (user definable) and a metronome option that bleeps away at whatever speed (tempo in musical terms) you want. The display also informs you of what bar you are at, and how much memory is left. Even for a beginner, this is pretty simple to follow. I did find the flashing background a trifle annoying, especially as it seemed to go beserk with more complex pieces.

The program comes with excellent documentation, which is easy to follow, and two demo tunes one of which shows you how to build up a piece, track by track. For the professional whizkid the program gives you more options on manipulating each track. You can repeat the whole piece (but not sections), define the number of beats per bar, change the pitch of the track, and if you’re blessed with more than one MIDI instrument, you can tell each track which synthesiser it’s going to play on. (MIDI instruments can receive on sixteen separate channels). However, you can’t get the program to change sounds for you.

The capacity of the program depends on how much information you give it. If there’s lots of touch sensitivity information for it to record from your touch sensitive keyboard, for instance, then memory is used up significantly more rapidly. Given a modest synth or two and an average tune, however, lengths of up to fifteen minutes should be possible.

MICON

XRI Systems
£108.00

Another sturdy box to clip on to your Spectrum’s edge connector — this time with MIDI in and out sockets, and two separate sockets for Clock in and out. Micon is supplied with copious detailed documentation which I found a bit difficult to follow — although the initial start up procedures of the program are straightforward. However, I understand that XRI are taking their documentation in hand and a rewritten set of instructions is on the stocks.

The Micon is aimed at the more serious musicians amongst us. It’s an eight track recorder that has a scrolling music stave screen with excellent notation, but each note has to be entered manually by playing it on a synth and defining its length by tapping the space key. Each tap on the space key is called an ‘event’, and each track is capable of holding 2,950 events. Micon is a step-time sequencer which allows you to enter rests and pauses as well as notes, as well as expression. A note may be specified as abrupt or smooth in execution (staccato or legato) and the velocity and pressure sensing that some synthesisers are capable of can also be defined for each note.

Micon’s editing features are also very powerful. Any note can be removed and replaced at any time, and at any place in your piece. It is also possible to change the sound of the synth from a command inserted within the music. This is known to musical boffins as a ‘patch change’ — but all it does is tell the synth to stop playing one sound and look elsewhere in its voice library for another.

Any bar can be repeated, and this means that repetitive sequences on just one track can be created with ease. Axel F is a case in point, as the bass line is three sequences set to repeat in a certain order. This takes very little time to set up, and the result is very impressive. Once you have created your recording, you can store it on microdrive — and you can put the program on cartridge too. Most thoughtful of XRI! In short, Micon is an exceptionally powerful composing tool.

CONCLUSIONS

It’s a clear case of ‘horses for courses’ when comparing these two products. On the one hand is the EMR system, MIDITRACK PERFORMER which is easy to use and relates very nicely to the way a tape recorder works. However, it lacks a bit in the editing features and there’s no display of the music you’ve just played. (If there was, it would probably take up most of the remaining memory and render the whole program pretty useless!) In tests, it did give the Casio CZ101 some problems as it kept on reverting to mono mode, but this may have had more to do with the way in which the MIDI code is ordered within the Casio itself than any shortcomings in Performer.

XRI’s MICON, on the other hand, has complete and full editing facilities but is rather more laborious to use. However, you do get a real-time sequencing program thrown in as well, and I understand that multi-tracking software is also on its way. XRI also offer additional software to store and edit on screen the voices of Yamaha, Roland and Casio synths, while Miditrack Performer only supports Yamaha equipment in this way at present.

The two systems were tested using a Yamaha DX7 and DX9, a Korg Poly 800 and the acid test was tried using the most modest of set ups, the excellent Casio CZ101. Thanks must go to Musicmakers of Selly Oak, Birmingham for supplying the synths used for this and other MIDI reviews...

THE EXPRESS GANG PART 3

FOLLOWING THE EXCELLENT Rotronics Wafadrive, and the Beta Plus (TR-DOS V4) interface of last issue, here's a look at two further units, the Kempston Disc Interface and the Opus Discovery 1. The Kempston belongs to the Shugart compatible interfaces and can run with any Shugart standard 3", 3.5" or 5.25" disk drive which incorporate a power supply unit. The drives must however, be capable of double density recording. The K-DOS operating system displays itself as an extended BASIC, where commands have to be called up via a PRINT #4 command. This proves to be laborious and a lot more effort is required when comparing with the simple Beta operating commands or even the Rotronics and Microdrive extended commands. A nice feature for BASIC programmers is the BASIC OVERLAY facility using the excellent MERGE with autorun, and the line definable CLEAR functions. The Kempston unit must be the smallest disk interface for the Spectrum, but this isn't necessarily a plus, as there is no extension port for other peripherals.

The Opus Discovery 1 is probably the most comprehensive add-on for the Spectrum next to the Timex drive. It incorporates a 3.5" disk drive, a parallel printer interface, a Kempston compatible joystick interface and a monitor output port and provides an expansion port for any further peripherals. The Opus Discovery 1 comes as a fully integrated unit, into which the Spectrum 48K or Spectrum Plus plugs. Provision is made to incorporate a second drive, but for this the unit has to be returned to the factory. The operating system is similar to the microdrive extended BASIC and the various ports for printer and joystick are accessed via separate streams. The Opus Discovery 1 is the ideal unit for users who abhor a multitude of separate enclosures and cables littering their precious desk space.

The next issue will feature the Timex disk drive and a complete comparison table featuring all the fast storage devices looked at in this series will summarise the various findings.

KEMPSTON DISC INTERFACE

HARDWARE:

The Kempston disc interface must be the smallest unit of the series, measuring only 100 x 67mm. It has no expansion port and must therefore be connected as last in the chain of add-ons. Up to four disc drives (40 or 80 track, single or double sided) may be connected via a Shugart compatible 34-way IDC cable. To save space or cost the 34-way plug is not polarised, which means a trial and error connection. No harm can be done, as the Shugart pin layout only uses one side of the connector. A power indicator and a reset button are incorporated in the unit.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION:

On powering up the system, the Spectrum will display the copyright message to indicate the presence of the Kempston DOS. This K-DOS is an extension of the Sinclair BASIC and is implemented via a software switch triggered by a PRINT #4 command. Parameters are passed on via a further PRINT statement. K-DOS can be included on the same line as BASIC statements, but care should be taken with standard PRINT statements, as these must be separated by use of a double colon to distinguish them from the parameter passing PRINT statements.

OPERATING SYSTEM:

Kempston DOS Version 2.0

SYSTEM COMMANDS:

All commands with the exception of INPUT #, PRINT # and INKEY$ # are preceded by PRINT # 4:

CAT: PRINT d gives a catalogue of all files of drive d (1-4)

CAT: PRINT d, "string" gives a catalogue of all files on drive d, whose name contains "string"

CLEAR: PRINT m1, m2 deletes a block of BASIC lines starting at m1 and ending with m2

COPY: PRINT d is a tape to disc transfer utility which allows the transfer of most unprotected cassette programs to disc. The command batch processes the tape files until a BREAK is detected. The tape must be stopped on a command prompt to allow block storage to disc. On saving, the command displays the filename, the start address and the length of file in decimal notation. Headerless blocks are saved using a "default n" filename. A break into the BASIC loader allows the modification of LOAD, SAVE and MERGE to K-DOS syntax. The transfer of tape programs obviously requires some knowledge of BASIC and possibly machine code.

ERASE "filename" erases "filename" from the directory of the current drive. The UP ARROW acts as a WILD CARD character

ERASE "filename": PRINT d erases "filename" from the directory on drive d

FORMAT "diskname": PRINT i,j,k,l formats a disc on drive i (1-4) with j tracks (35, 40 or 80), k sides (1 or 2) and stepping rate (6, 12, 20 or 30ms delay)

GOTO m forces a BASIC program to jump to line m on any error (Error trapping)

INKEY$ #n reads the next character of a sequential file opened to stream n (n can be 0 to 15 with the exclusion of 4)

INPUT #n; var1; var2; reads the next record of a sequential file opened to stream n

LOAD "filename" filetype: PRINT d loads a program from the specified drive. The drive specifier is optional. The filetype may be CODE, SCREEN$ , DATA a(), DATA a$ () etc. Programs will AUTO-BOOT after a reset or power on if they are saved as file "AUTO" with a line number

MERGE "filename": PRINT d loads a BASIC file from the specified drive and merges it with the program currently in memory. This function provides the use of BASIC overlays to reduce the memory requirement of large BASIC programs by autorunning from the line number specified in the SAVE function after having been merged in the main program residing in RAM. K-DOS's CLEAR acts as a block delete to prevent the execution of lines from the previous program.

MOVE "file1","file2": PRINT d2 copies files from a specified drive to another specified drive. It can also rename files or discs on the specified drive (Back-up on same disc). For single drive users d1 equals d2 and prompts for disc change are displayed automatically. If filename2 is a nullstring, then a copy with the same name as the source file (filename1) is created. Block copy is performed if filename1 is the nullstring. This option allows the back-up of a complete disc to be made. With filename1 a nullstring and a specified filename2 any files on the specified drive with the substring filename2 will be copied to the specified drive. This is useful for file extension systems (MOVE "", "/BAS";PRINT d1,d2 copies all files on drivel with the extension /BAS to drive 2)

NEW is similar to BASIC NEW with the exception that K-DOS remains enabled (K-DOS variables are not cleared)

OPEN #n,"filename": PRINT d opens a stream n to a sequential file "filename" of the specified drive d and assigns a buffer to it. If the file already exists, it is opened for reading, otherwise for writing

PRINT #n; var1; var2; writes records var1, var2 etc. into buffer n for transfer to a sequential file

SAVE "filename" LINE m: PRINT d saves the BASIC program "filename" onto the specified drive d. The drive specification can be omitted if it is the current drive. The optional line number will provide autorun from the specified line. If the filename is "AUTO" the program will autoboot when loaded.

SAVE "filename" filetype: PRINT d saves CODE, SCREEN$, DATA a(), DATA a$() etc.

ERROR REPORTS:

27 error reports

EXTRA FACILITIES:

None

MANUAL:

24 page manual with introduction, installation, explanation of disc interface commands, error messages and K-DOS summary.

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:

None

CRITICISM:

Slow access times.
Complicated command structure with PRINT #4 calls.
Complicated handling of variables with the use of PRINT statements.
No machine code access to the DOS commands due to lack of information.

COMMENTS:

Average disc interface with good CLEAR and MERGE commands enabling simple BASIC OVERLAY system configuration.

MEDIA:

Depends on drives connected.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Number of drives supported per system: 4
Storage capacity depending on drives connected.

PRICE:

£85 including VAT

OPUS DISCOVERY 1

HARDWARE:

The disk drive is integrated in a large metal housing painted in black and incorporates the 3.5" disk drive and the large interface card with a parallel printer interface, a software switchable Kempston protocol joystick interface and a monochrome composite video output. The unit also features an extension port for further peripherals, but the NMI line on A14 is not brought out, which means further ROM based peripherals cannot be connected. Provision is made for a second disc drive which may be fitted into the unit by purchasing the Discovery Plus package. This, however, must be installed by the Opus factory. Discovery 1 accommodates both the Spectrum and the Spectrum Plus, and both computers may be screwed permanently to the unit.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION:

Except for minor differences, the Discovery 1 system is completely software compatible at command level with the microdrive system and includes some extra extensions to various commands. Streams and channels are used for the access to the individual input and output devices. The main channels are: K for input from keyboard and output to the lower part of the screen; S output to the upper part of the screen; P for output to the ZX printer; M for input and output to a disk file; B for binary input or output to the parallel port; T for ASCII input or output to the parallel port; CAT for access to the disk catalogue file; CODE for writing or reading directly to memory; D for disk access used in conjunction with a MOVE command; J for switching the joystick port on and off and # to open one stream to another.

An excellent feature provided by Discovery 1 is the possibility of creating a RAM disk within the Spectrum RAM area for fast file handling. To this purpose the RAM area needs to be formatted similar to a normal disk and files created or transferred to the RAM disk area for processing. When the processing is completed, the files may be moved back onto disk for permanent storage.

Data storage can be performed via serial or random access files. An existing datafile may be extended with the use of the EXP command extension, random access requires the setting up of fixed record lengths when opening a new random access file.

The Discovery 1 is a 2 drive system using only one drive. By using drive 1 and drive 3 the operating system remembers which disk is currently in the drive and asks for a change of disks whenever it needs to write or read from the other disk. The Discovery 1 has a socket for a 2K RAM chip and this may optionally be fitted. All the operating system tables get copied into it and this means the whole drive system may be configured. New commands and channels may be added and error messages changed. All the floppy disk parameters are stored in the RAM chip and this means that Discovery can be used with any sized disk. The sector size may be changed to 1024 bytes for very fast operation or to 128 bytes for memory saving applications. The RAM disk may also be reconfigured to reside anywhere in memory, be of any length and even have a variable block size. Programming expertise is a requirement for this kind of configuring, but Opus will provide technical information for machine code programming.

SYSTEM COMMANDS:

CAT(drive) displays the catalogue of the disk in the specified drive

CAT #(stream); (drive) sends the catalogue of the disk in the specified drive to the given stream

CLEAR # clears out all open streams and makes them available for further use

CLEAR # (stream) clears out the specified stream

CLOSE # (stream) closes the specified stream

CLS* clears the screen and sets the display attributes to their defaults

CODE(start address), (no. of bytes) is an extension to the LOAD*, VERIFY* and SAVE* commands which allows a block of memory to be saved, loaded or verified

DATA(array name) () is an extension to the LOAD*, VERIFY* and SAVE* commands which can be used to save and load numeric or string arrays

ERASE(file spec.) erases the specified file

FORMAT is used to set up channels "j", "m" and "d"

FORMAT "j"; (status) is used to turn the joystick on or off

FORMAT "m"; (drive); "(drive title)" is used to format a disk. "m" may be omitted since it is the default channel. To set up a RAM disk a RAM area has to be cleared and drive number 5 used: CLEAR 32767 ENTER followed by FORMAT 5; "ramd" after which the disk system will recognize RAM disk as disk number 5

INKEY$# (stream) reads one character from the specified stream. If the stream is associated with an "m" channel the command will only return a null string when EOF has been reached. Other slow channels ("K", " t " and "b") will return a null string when a character is not available

INPUT #(stream); var1 ; var2; ... inputs values from the specified stream. If used when inputting from a file, the variable list must be separated by semicolons and not commas to make sure there is no output to the stream. In the file the values to be read must be separated by the ENTER character

LOAD*(channel spec.) loads a programme and variables from the channel specified

LPRINT #(stream); var1, var2, ... prints the values of variables in the variable list to the specified stream

LPRINT sends the variables to the stream 3 (the ZX printer)

LLIST lists the programme to stream 3 (the ZX printer). To list programmes using the parallel port stream 3 must be opened to the "t" channel

MERGE* (channel spec.) merges a programme and variables with the programme and variables already in the memory

MOVE A TO B transfers information from an input channel or stream A to an output channel or stream B. The process is terminated with an End Of File. For input from a slow channel, an End of File must be generated by pressing SHIFT and ENTER simultaneously

OPEN # (stream); (channel spec.) (access) associates the specified stream with the channel given. Possible types of access are IN or OUT. For the "m" channel the following options are available: EXP expands a serial file for output only and RND allows input and output for random access files

OPEN #4; "m"; 1; "sample" RND 15,10 creates a random access file "sample" with a record length of 15 bytes and with room for 10 records. For the "t" channel a printer width can be specified: OPEN #4; "t"; 0 RND 80

POINT #(stream); (record number) sets the file pointer to the start of the given record in random access files

PRINT # (stream); var1; var2; ... prints the values in the variable list to the specified stream

SAVE*(channel spec.) saves the current programme and variables to the specified channel. If a BASIC programme is saved with the filename "RUN" followed by the LINE extension, the programme will automatically run after being loaded

USR 0 resets the Spectrum, but not the disk system

USR 14070 resets the Spectrum and the disk system

USR 8 returns the version number of the disk software

USR 432 returns the number of bytes remaining in the current stream

ERROR REPORTS:

13 error reports.

EXTRA FACILITIES:

Centronics parallel printer port, software switchable Kempston type joystick port and monochrome composite video monitor output.

MANUAL:

Comprehensive 34 page manual with extensive introduction to the disk system, detailed description of the operating procedures, command reference guide, error reports description and connector details.

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:

None included. Selection of disk software available from Boots.

CRITICISM:

None

COMMENTS:

Comprehensive disk system with good extended BASIC commands, excellent filehandling facilities including random access file management, time saving RAM DISK feature and host of extras such as the parallel printer port, joystick interface and monochrome video output.

MEDIA:

3.5" hard cased disks as used with Amstrad and Tatung computers. Price of media: Single sided from £2.40 to £4.10 excl. VAT, double sided from £3.60 to £4.75.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:

Number of drives per system: 2
Storage capacity: 180 Kbytes per side
Number of tracks: 40
Number of sectors per track: 18
Sector size: 256 bytes

TIMING:

Formatting: approx. 17.5 sec
Cataloguing: approx. 4sec
Loading a screen: approx. 4sec

PRICE:

£99.95 including VAT

SPECMATE

Producer: AT & Y Computing Ltd.
Price: £32.95 incl. VAT (P&P for Europe £2, outside Europe £4)

A MATE FOR YOUR SPECTRUM?

Yet another peripheral for transfer of protected commercial software is AT & Y's SPECMATE. Unique in that it can transfer programs to tape at normal or double speed, to the Challenge Sprint tape recorder, microdrive, Wafadrive and last but not least to the BETA disk drive system (Version 3,0). SPEC-MATE seems to resolve any kind of transfer problems for less than £40.00, but does the transfer fee also include a lot of hassle and lots of debugging?

SPEC-MATE could be mistaken for another of the long line of uncharacteristic looking joystick interfaces housed in a non descript black box. An extension port and a push switch at the top right of the unit are the only visible features.

The transfer procedure is simplicity itself. After installing SPEC-MATE, the program is loaded in the normal way and run. It can be frozen at any point by just pressing the push-button. The border flashes for a second and then turns black. This is where the first of up to four selections have to be made. The first decision is whether to save to tape (t), to microdrive (m), to BETA disk (d), to Wafadrive or to save at double speed to tape (f). A further option lets you examine the screen for any hidden data by removing the screen colours.

Pressing the required option takes you to the red border mode. Here you decide how to save the program — with or without the loading screen. 'N' saves the program with the frozen screen, 'S' saves it without any screen. If you want to save the loading screen as well, you need to load the program until the full loading screen is visible and then interrupt the loading. Then, in red border mode, select 'A' which saves the screen. Next, you need to reload the program entirely, freeze it and then select 'B' in the red border mode to save the program itself.

After the red border mode comes the blue border mode which allows you to specify which part of the screen area SPEC-MATE will use for its work data. It requires a third of the screen as workspace and, as some programs have hidden data in some area of the screen, it is important that you can choose which part of the screen SPEC-MATE is to use. If you choose the wrong section of the screen, hidden data is overwritten by SPEC-MATE and the program crashes.

Last of the border modes is magenta, which allows you to enter the name of the program after which ENTER starts the saving procedure. If backing up to tape, the tape recorder should be in recording mode. If everything is hunkydory, the program will unfreeze and continue running. If it doesn't, the back-up will not have been successful and you may have selected the wrong part of the screen memory for SPEC-MATE to use.

If saving to Wafadrive, the red and blue border mode are skipped. The only other difference in procedure between the various back-up media is number of characters allowed in the title.

Several programs were backed up successfully onto various media and SPEC-MATE seemed to perform both well and as promised. Saving at double speed to tape was impressive, reducing the loading time of Way of the Exploding Fist from 4min 33sec to 2min 10sec, for instance. A certain amount of trial and error may be necessary to secure a successful save — some programs may not save out if they are frozen at certain points during execution, while the choice of screen area for SPEC-MATE's workspace is also critical.

Not all programs load successfully to Wafadrive. Barry Blitz of AT & Y explains that this is due to a higher memory requirement of the Wafadrive operating system work area. He reckons that about 80% of programs will transfer easily to Wafadrive. Further problems were encountered with the BETA disk interface. Apparently there are several sub-versions of version 3.0 DOS. At present only particular issues of the BETA DOS 3.0 seem to work with SPEC-MATE. It appears that earlier versions of the DOS have different call addresses and the drive does not respond. Barry believes that Cumana have batches of earlier versions still on sale. AT & Y is investigating the possibility of accommodating these earlier versions into the SPEC-MATE ROM. Also on line is an improved version of SPEC-MATE which will be able to operate with the OPUS disk drive system (in 2-3 weeks).

File handling programs such as TASWORD can be saved with their files to produce working versions on Wafadrive or disk. An interesting feature of SPECMATE is the fact that back-up programs run without the presence of SPEC-MATE: they are fully independent. Perhaps this is the reason why AT & Y stress in the SPEC-MATE manual the point of not pirating software...

Franco Frey

BLINKING GOOD TIME

’VE JUST FINISHED reading the last issue of CRASH and in Lloyd’s FORUM is a letter suggesting some of the CRASH team have been working too hard. Well in my case perhaps this is true. If you’ve been with this industry right from the start (and for the sake of argument we’ll conveniently draw this particular line at the launch of the Spectrum on mail order only) then you will have seen some changes in software.

In the early days of microcomputer software there was only one real consideration: did the new piece of software take the Spectrum a step further? This was the era of the programmer when everyone looked to the Z80 gurus to lead the loyal flock to a new glorious technological high. Often, games design was complex and intended to be so. Microcomputing was a closetted environment for those who were fed up with watching the likes of Tomorrow’s World on TV telling of the future age that never seemed to appear. (Indeed the old joke — ‘if it’s been on Tomorrow’s World you’ll never see it’ — finally came home to roost). Anyone who really wanted a microcomputer could afford one and had already gone out and bought one. So no matter what the media tried to do or say they were powerless to stop the ground swell of enthusiasm for the new technologies. And herein lies the irony of the whole situation. It was the media which hounded and harangued the public for being so slow on taking up new technology when it was the media and the bureaucratic hierarchy itself which was dragging its feet.

Now the world of microcomputing software is a little different. It is a mass market and has all the risks and responsibilities of any other mass market. A game which pushes the Spectrum to its limits is now not automatically acclaimed but is only judged upon how good a game it is; can a twelve-year-old play it without reading the instructions and if he can, will he notice gameplay slowing at any point due to moving large spites/vast numbers of sprites etc... ? Better to keep all the sprites the same size and pilfer other companies’ ideas and routines.

If all the cynicism which has built up in, say, TV and film marketing, now comes to software there won’t be a single person over the age of twenty playing games software. And that would be a shame.

Perhaps it’s time to take the blinkers off.

JOURNEY’S END

Producer: Games Workshop
Author: M. Prescott, C. Gonsalves, T. Everson
Price: £1.99

Journey’s End describes itself as a Sword and Sorcery adventure but is probably better described as a hotch-potch of three mini-games strung together. In Part One you move your character around a dungeon in what amounts to a poor man’s version of Out of the Shadows, with your lantern lighting the way before you. I say ‘poor man’s’ because the lighting effects are crude when compared to Shadows and the feel of the game is not as air-tight with points lost and gained willy-nilly.

Part Two sees you and your party travelling up a map searching for a way across the river you meet half way up it. Part Three has you roaming the corridors and chambers of a castle. The poor quality of the first game is a shame since the trilogy as a whole has some redeeming features. The local sage Thorvald tells you of your father’s quest to banish the evil curse on the emperor which keeps him bed-ridden with the hell-fever. The object of his quest was the Elixir of Hagar the Demonic, an elixir named after the scoundrel who set the curse upon the emperor. Part One sees you continue your father’s quest from a dungeon on the edge of the empire.

Part One is a rather poor game where the cursor keys are used to propel your little character around a dungeon lighted around you by your lamp. Presumably, as you make your way, you fix lights to the walls, as once lit any part of the dungeon you have visited remains lit. There are two parameters by which you can judge your progress. At the top of the screen you are kept informed on the tally of gold pieces you possess (found scattered around in money bags, in the form of gems, or as gold dust in bottles) while next to this is the state of your character’s strength.

The standard of presentation throughout these games is generally very slick but on this occasion your gold tally can cause the display to jump or even wrap around onto the next line should it grow too large. As you move about, your character is subjected to various nasties like mysterious arrows shooting from walls, low rooves banging your head or even collapsing upon you, rocks tripping you up or bottles exploding on you when what you expected was a refreshing drink. Some of these fates may not sound too horrific but when you consider that each represents a significant loss in strength points, and a score of 0 means death, then you feel each and every blow that comes your way. In addition, opening doors before you have found the key for that level’s doors requires strength and so you may well consider it unwise to open any doors before finding the all-important key (this key also allows you to leave the level and teleport to another).

The over-riding factor with this first part of the adventure is luck rather than skill. Where you might bang your head, or whether a bottle you open contains a healing potion or poison is totally arbitrary. Thus the game reduces to no more than keeping a cursor key depressed until progress is barred by some report or other. There is literally no skill which you can bring to bear on the game. You leave this part by way of a genie from a bottle offering freedom or by way of steps chosen randomly from a level. If, like myself, you tire quickly of this first part you’d be wise not to refuse the genie’s kind offer (indeed, I can see many of you reading this review simply in order to work out just how you do escape this wretched part of the adventure).

If you survive Part One which, considering the pitfalls just waiting to decimate your meagre strength points, is no easy matter, you then must advertise and then select the best mercenaries to take with you into Part Two. One diversion at this stage is the Gambling Option which allows you to gamble some of your gold coins on a curious selection of rodent race meetings with names like The Ratokill Classic or some such other humorous titles. There is more humour when changing from one part to another when Arfin Goldbeard says ‘There is one thing you must do to continue your quest’. What is that?’ you ask. ‘Press any key and start the tape’ Arnfin replies. Part Two of this game has some very noble features whereby the six characters you’ve chosen to accompany you on your mission search for food and attack the enemies you meet in rather impressive combat routines.

Journey’s End is the type of adventure where progress through the various terrains is achieved by pressing a cursor key. It consists of three parts which are linked by a transfer of gold, strength and members of your party which you select from advertising paid from the proceeds of your booty or gambling. Part One is very arbitrary with no skill involved, Part Two slightly less so as you do need to take care over your route through the landscape, whom within your party you choose to fight in the front line, and which members of your party should reap the benefits of any food found. Sleep will conserve strength but two men must guard the party.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: tricky in places
Graphics: good in places
Presentation: good (in places)
Input Facility: cursor key movement and number options
Response: yes
General Rating: Part One — very poor. The rest is quite interesting.

Atmosphere

6/10

Vocabulary

N/A

Logic

6/10

Addictive Quality

6/10

Overall

6/10

THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE

Mosaic, £9.95

Adrian Mole the computer game is a super implementation of the highly successful and very funny diary books written by Sue Townsend. Playing the game takes you through a year in the fascinating life of Adrian Mole, a worried spotty adolescent, frustrated intellectual and poet. He has to contend with the rocky marriage of his parents, the insensitivity of his school mates and teachers, and bits of him that won’t keep still.

The problems of human existence take up much of his time but diversions lie in his relationships with a fourteen-year-old feminist named Pandora who sits next to him in geography, and an eighty nine-year-old man whom he visits with the good samaritan group from his school. He is dogged by ill-health and ill-healthed by his dog.

The aim of the game is to make our adopted hero as popular as possible with everyone — family, friends and dog. Every so often during the game your score appears on the screen with the likes of 38% indicating a middling thicko and 26% a spotty creep. The results of some actions may not be immediately obvious, for example, being too neat and tidy may arouse his mother’s guilt feelings. A number of random elements alter your course through the troubled path of adolescence and so play may vary each time you load up.

To any person who has read the Adrian Mole books, the program can still offer some challenges as some familiar scenes have a new twist. The game consists of a number of separate programs with the first two programs on Side One and the remaining two on Side Two. Each program covers a few months of Adrian’s life.

This game is not your usual adventure. The flow of text is much more like a book with the player only being asked to alter the course of events via a choice between one of three options. The fourth option, so easy to forget, displays a help menu which includes a service you would be wise to make use of early on: simply typing in the name of a character from the diary will bring up onto the screen a fact-file on that character in true Star Trek computer style. Features such as this, plus options such as RESTART and DEMO, really give this game a classy feel.

The cassette inlay speaks of an illustrated text game and this is very much what it is, as the pictures above the scrolling text do not show every new location, rather an abstract interpretation of the types of things running through our young hero’s mind. They are of similar style and frequency as those found in illustrated paperback books. As is often the case with such illustrations decorating a copious and highly absorbing text, you may well play most of the game without recalling one single picture.

If you haven’t read the Mole diaries, or seen the recent ITV television series (partly spoiled by the typecast parents) then you are in for a treat. Although the series stars a pubescent fourteen-year-old it is in fact universally funny. It, in a manner of speaking, chronicles the demise of civilisation through the miscomprehending eyes of a young budding intellectual. The idea that the world is running down is not a new one and must be pretty obvious to anyone gullible enough to have been harangued into buying a TV licence by those ridiculous BBC adverts. The fact that the Mole books soothe with laughter our institutionalised paranoia is nothing new. What the books, and this computer program, do bring out afresh through some very subtle writing is an atmosphere where even the most blinkered half cretin can see just what is so patently ludicrous about the lifestyles and mores being forced upon us by the advertising media (television and the Sunday Times etc).

At one point in the program, after doing his own washing, Mole wonders why his mum can’t be like those washday housewives on the telly. At another point he thinks of War and Peace as a Russian Dallas. I could go on with many examples but suffice to say that Adrian Mole is a tonic for so much of the nonsense behind our society’s decline into an uncaring and ludicrous bureaucracy. He is a likeable and very human person at a time when just about every character depicted in films, books and on television, is so uncaring, unashamedly self-motivated, and inhuman.

We join Mole’s diary on the first day of the year where he enters his new year resolutions which include hanging trousers up, a stop to squeezing spots, and, after hearing the disgusting noises from downstairs the previous night, a vow never to drink alcohol. The next few months see Mole observing a Mr Lucas, the next door neighbour, serving up a cup of tea while Mrs Lucas concretes the front of the house, sending a poem entitled ‘The Tap’ to the BBC, and a rebellious phase were both he and Pandora wear red socks to school. The story is peppered with humorous comments on modern life at the end of a cul-de-sac. At one point he comments on his ill-health and wonders at the amount of boil-in-the-bag food the family has eaten. His red spots could be an allergic reaction to plastic.

The idyllic lazy life of a schoolboy is far from our young hero as he has to come to terms with a mother fresh from assertiveness training who has him cleaning the whole house, and a fusty old codger called Bert Baxter who smokes, drinks brown ale and keeps a ferocious alsatian but who can’t have long to live as he is older than Ronald Reagan. But when life’s frustrations and inconsistencies become too much there’s always that intellectual medium which is the home of all greatwriters — the poem. I’ll leave you with this one concerning Adrian’s English teacher’s transportation. Dock Leaf’s got a Fiat, Covered in red rust, Its paint is blue, Its smoke is too, The wing mirrors are bust, Dock Leaf’s in his banger, Bouncing down the lane, the engine coughs, Exhaust falls off, And then it stops again.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy to play
Graphics: abstract
Presentation: good
Input facility: one of four options
Response: very fast
General rating: Mole is brilliant, and so is this game. Find somewhere that sells it, before we all go insane

Atmosphere

9

Logic

9

Addictive quality

9

Overall

9

THE SNOW QUEEN

Producer: Mosaic Publishing Ltd
Author: St. Bride's School
Price: £7.95

The Snow Queen is based upon the work of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish chap who lived between 1805 and 1875 and was quite something when it came to spinning a yarn or two. (If that’s not a popularist introduction, I don’t know what is). His other works which became famous are the Tin Soldier and Ugly Duckling. Software has pilfered the ideas of comics, TV, films and books in the past but this attempt to bring the flavour of the book to the computer program has worked quite well — much as Tangled Tale from Pocket Money Software reviewed last month was true to the flavour of Lewis Carrol.

In the Snow Queen your job is to help Gerda through her long journey and many adventures to find her lost friend Kay, ensconced within the palace of the queen. We are told of how Gerda, a little Danish girl, can only comprehend simple English like GO EAST and LOOK UNDER THE CHAIR. The game follows the story very closely so it’s a good idea to have the relevant part of the story (chapter III) close by while you play. There are also many events which are an addition to the story, little things which happened to Gerda which were never written down.

There are quite a number of things about this game which are truly pleasing to a weary adventure reviewer. First, there’s its friendly vocabulary. If you are new to adventuring (and if you are a column regular you’ll notice I’ve been putting the odd explanation in for just this sort recently) then ‘friendly vocabulary’ refers to the fact that one can expect to approach this game with a keen sense of fun rather than trepidation as much more often than not the program will understand the first thing you input (even if, for reasons of plot or logistics, it cannot carry out your request). In a friendly game you are often told why you can’t do something or that you are attempting some action too soon, before acquiring the necessary tools for the job. The adventures I like best are those which have a fresh reply to anything you might like to input.

Secondly, the useful EXAMINE command, as is often the case in a friendly game, adds much to your feeling of genuine exploration. Thirdly, the location descriptions are never terse or abrupt and are always well written and mostly informative. Take this one for example:- “I am in a town street. Our house is north, the street runs east/west. Across the road, to the south, is a narrow alley. The town is just coming to life. The bakers are at work, the cocks are crowing and a few early risers are opening the shutters at their windows. The aroma of fresh-baked bread wafts on the breeze. Can you advise me?” Descriptions such as these add immensely to the atmosphere of adventuring.

One further feature which I especially liked is the odd occasion when the program has been so constructed as to deliberately build up suspense. For example, when you tackle the rough girls on the bridge just south of the town, and it looks like the only way to pass them is to offer them something, the program holds you in suspense as it comes out with “Oh, but it is the only thing I have to remind me of Mama”. What then seems like a long time, but of course really isn’t, passes before “But you are right. It must be done. The girls have snatched the gift and run away to town” comes up onto the screen to tell you that what you chose to do was indeed right.

The Snow Queen is the follow up to the St. Bride’s school romp reviewed in the October Trail. It is a text-only Quilled game which makes very good use of the Gilsoft programming utility. It is atmospheric and consistent and I really quite enjoyed playing it.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy as it mostly follows book by H C Andersen
Graphics: none
Presentation: pleasant
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: instant
General Rating: Most interesting.

Atmosphere

8/10

Vocabulary

8/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall

7/10

SORDERON’S SHADOW

Producer: Beyond Software
Author: Nick Eatock, Simon Welland
Price: £9.95

Sorderon’s Shadow describes itself as a new type of adventure game combining landscaping, first seen in Mike Singleton’s Lords of Midnight, with the ability to input sentences and to talk with other characters. To be more precise, it is the first landscaping text adventure (although Runestone, reviewed herein June but yet to be released by Firebird, featured text input and very impressive vistas).

As with the Midnight series this game is accompanied by a story within which lie one or two clues to the game’s solution. What is a little different about this game, and I must be honest, is not an altogether welcome departure from the norm, is its insistence upon spilling the beans as regards finding your way about the Land of Elindor. You, the un-named one, must tackle the nine tasks set you by Karavor the far-seeing. These tasks appear toward the end of the now familiar Beyond glossy booklet, just after the map of the Land of Elindor, and at a point when all the instructions seemed to augur well for a fine adventure game.

However, loading the game coincided with my reading these nine tasks and I began to become just that bit circumspect as I began play. The point is (and there seems little reason to beat around the bush any longer) these nine tasks take you stage by stage through the whole adventure, right up to the assault on Sorderon’s Lair and to the Scroll of Immortality which bears the words that spell Sorderon’s doom. You might ask, what’s so wrong with that? Well, the impression it gives me is that this information was deemed essential as the game is so difficult to play, that without it play would have been impossible. Of course, first impressions can be misleading, but in this case playing the adventure only served to strengthen my reservations on this game rather than banish them.

Let’s have a look at the story. Out of the east came a surly hedge-wizard going by the name of Sorderon. He teamed up with another no-good named Caradach the Watcher with the intention of turning the good king Ba. When Sorderon tired of feeding the king lies he slew the sleeping king and stole away into the night with the fabled scroll of Dorian, a key to immortality. Having learned the scroll’s secrets he lodged the scroll in forgotten Baramund. Not being one to forget old friends, Sorderon decided to call on Caradach and unceremoniously slew him. No one was safe now. Of lords he made Kremen and soldiers, Krillan. Lord Plavor escaped to his shelter beyond the lava lakes to the north while Karavor and Aravor hid in the forest of Balinor. Needless to say, in Elindor the fields fell barren and men wept for good king Ba. All who were free awaited the coming of the un-named one.

You’ll see what I mean about being lead by the nose through this adventure by telling you about what you have to do first. ‘As you awake in Elindor a guide will go before you. Follow him north, stay close and pay heed to his words’. The guide then goes on ‘Bear greetings to the headman. Shirk not the task he sets you’, and on: ‘Summon the Balord with Lonar’s help’. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find part of the fun in adventuring, especially landscaped adventuring, is to wander freely about the environs and discover for myself what I have to do and in what order I might have to do it. It spoils the fun somewhat, and indeed makes it something of a school exercise, to be hounded into following a set path of puzzles in this manner.

Now, before you get the impression this review is no more than a vicious assault on a game which has had tremendous reviews in other magazines, let me say now that this game is graphically stunning with some great art and design work by the Denton Designs team. Time is a major theme of the game with real time character movements going on all the while. During the day a bright sun burns across the sky in realistic procession while at night it is the moon which transcends the heavens. Flames flicker atop candles burning to either side of the display area which houses the characters in your present location. A drop of something which looks like blood constantly drips down to form a skull rising above flames. When the skull is clear of the flames it is night and the krillan zombie warriors are abroad.

Through the landscaping window can be seen stunning vistas of Elindor, too cluttered to be quite as impressive or effective as those in Midnight, but entertaining enough. In the landscapes can be seen hillocks, trees and distant mountains with drifting clouds above. Representations of characters can be seen some distance ahead. However, these figures are much cruder than those superb drawings seen in Midnight. Some compensation lies in the graphics below the landscape window which depict the characters in your location in true Denton Design style. The game has not just gone for stunning graphics though, it has also tackled the thorny problem of vocabulary. A 3 line editor allows the manipulation of three stored input commands which can be summoned and subsequently altered. Any word not understood by the program is clearly pointed out in the error message slot.

The apparently finished copy of Sorderon’s Shadow sent to me was, to be honest, somewhat of a disappointment. Some of the keys did not function as the manual (or keyboard aid) suggested, and many of the abbreviations mentioned were not accepted by the program. These minor niggles, sadly, were symptomatic of a deeper flaw to this game: its play design has not worked out so well and it can take a considerable effort at times to muster sufficient will to carry on. What the game can offer is good graphics and a stiff challenge to any adventurer. It’s early days yet but how much money on this game being compared to Valhalla?

COMMENTS

Difficulty: difficult to get into
Graphics: rather good
Presentation: superb
Input: sentences, command store
Response: reasonable
General Rating: A biggie.

Atmosphere

8/10

Vocabulary

7/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

6/10

Overall

7/10

TERRORMOLINOS

Melbourne House, £7.95

Some games are pretty big even before they’re released and Terrormolinos certainly falls into this category. The authors of this holiday spoof are the very same as those who composed the Quilled classic Hampstead which was the first Quilled game to do anything in the charts. I was very pleased at Hampstead’s success, not just because I liked it, but for the reason that it tried something new, and a company had the sense to back it at a time when just about every other company was (and to a worrying extent still is) trying to produce the exact same game as its rivals.

The question you must want to ask now is, does Terrormolinos keep up the same standards of humour and user-friendliness seen in Hampstead? Well, the answer is, yes it does, and in many ways Terrormolinos is a far superior program to Hampstead — it features some terrific postcard pictures and keeps you in touch with your score, number of turns, and number of pictures successfully developed via a score table at the bottom of the screen. Verily, Terrormolinos is a very worthy successor to Hampstead.

You start your holiday, not in the Spanish Costa Brava, but in a semi in Slough one sunny Saturday morning. The wife Beryl has ordered the taxi and it suddenly strikes you it may be a good idea to get some packing done before the taxi arrives. As with all last minute packing you are almost certain to leave something important behind so it may well take you a few attempts to get over the first hurdle and board the plane. There is an added complication at this stage as you must pack your things and get the family off in the taxi to the airport within a limited number of moves. Hence you soon learn how to conserve moves and watch the number of moves taken tally at the bottom of the screen (the taxi starts honking its horn about move 35).

It is on the plane you first meet your fellow holidaymakers, a Miss Peach and a Mr Snargsby. Mr Snargsby would seem to have a penchant for intoxicating beverages while Miss Peach doesn’t object to having her picture taken; however, others may well object once they see the photo which results. Checking into the hotel is simple enough though its name, The Excrucio, is a little unnerving. Up to this point the adventure is very straightforward with simple problems and a very friendly vocabulary. In Spain itself the program offers more of a challenge as some of the disasters that befall any package holiday make themselves felt. But, all the while, you must keep an eye out for the occasions when a good photograph might be taken. Usually it is quite obvious when you should take a photograph and you shouldn’t run into the problem of running out of exposures too easily (you are given twelve and so to bring back ten snaps you can only make two mistakes).

One thing you’ll notice about Terrormolinos is its attempts to distance itself from The Quill around which it was developed. There are a machine-coded bottom two lines on each screen carrying your score etc, while your input line has no cursor and no beep accompanying input. The input routine is sure-footed, however, and even with no beep or cursor, inputting errors are rare.

There are two features about this game which I think make it a winner. The first is the magnificent sense of humour which runs through the whole program from the ‘garishly patterned wallpaper... obscured in places by works of art purchased at Boots and Woolworth’ and ‘your bedroom, scene of many a dull night’ in the semi in Slough, to the nightclub in Terrormolinos ‘where tourists attempt to emulate John Travolta to the sound of flamenco guitars’. The second is the impressive postcard pictures which either you take as reminders of your trip (and can be reviewed in order at the end of a game — a bit like a slide show) or are seen after a fatal mishap, eg after being gored by a bull or burnt to a bacon crisp by the ferocious Spanish sun. These pictures are simple and colourful, like seaside postcards, and I enjoyed them immensely.

Terrormolinos is a superb adventure which will appeal to a very broad audience. It has enough problems to keep the avid adventurer happy, enough humour to counter the winter blues, and picture postcards which are bright enough to colour even a black and white TV set. Above all is its user-friendliness and ease of play — even an adventure novice could quite quickly get to grips with this holiday saga. First it was Hampstead, now its the Spanish package holiday which gets the Lever/Jones treatment, and a jolly good job they’ve done too. Terrormolinos is a nice holiday from zapping little green aliens.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy
Graphics: very attractive
Presentation: good
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: quick
General rating: super

Atmosphere

9

Vocabulary

9

Logic

9

Addictive quality

9

Overall

9

Mr Masterson, the new Strategy and Wargaming minion on CRASH reflects on the fluff that has been gathering in his navel since last he wrote FRONTLINE, pauses to ponder what a strategy game about the Falklands war could have in store for us (conveniently ignoring penguins) and gets stuck into a good Napoleonic dust up.

Since someone on our sister magazine for the Amstrad, AMTIX!, roped him into reviewing strategy games on that machine and then called him a leprechaun into the bargain, our Sean has had a bit of a downer on Amstrads and just about everything to do with them. So don’t hold too much store with his inability to write the word Amstrad in full. He’s only sulking. Anyway, enough of this, on with the show. Over to you, SEAN MASTERSON. (Rah! Rah!).

GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY DESERT

IT WOULD APPEAR that I’m getting noticed. That isn’t necessarily a good thing for a poor, CRASH minion. It’s hard to tell whether you are achieving popularity or notoriety, sometimes. Still, the world will go on regardless, and while it does, so shall this column. I’m glad last month’s comments on morality in wargaming went down well (as far as I could tell). I shall try not to be too provocative in future. No news is good news after all.

Recently I dealt with PSS’s Battle of Britain for the A****** computer, in another magazine. (Oh all right then AMTIX!) It’s a superb game. When I see the Spectrum version, I shall let you know. Of course, there is now news that PSS are doing a Falklands ’82 scenario. Some people are saying that this is a little too close to the knuckle. Bad taste. I would say perhaps the issue was being pre-judged. It may even point out some interesting details presently unknown to interested parties. It all depends on how well the simulation is done.

Perhaps it will put you in full command of the task force — unlike the commanders of the actual battle. It may allow strategic decisions to be made that were not made available to the officers of the force in the conflict. High level bombing of enemy mainland airstrips before the arrival of the task force, for example. I wonder what effect that could have had on ship and personnel losses? I honestly think that everybody should give PSS the benefit of the doubt until the game is published. Then we will see.

WATERLOO

Lothlorien, £9.95

French infantry (on the left) push the English troops back towards Waterloo. Cavalry units guard against any outflanking attempt by Wellington’s forces

This must be the most popular period enjoyed by the traditional wargamer (with the possible exception of Ancient) and so it was a pleasure to find a new Napoleonic game released — on the classic battle itself. I was doubly impressed to discover Lothlorien were the publishers. They got off to something of a dodgy start but The Bulge was a classic and my respect for them has been far higher since. The packaging of their products has certainly improved since the early days. Waterloo comes beautifully packaged in a large format cassette holder with excellent artwork and a slim but excellent manual which many conventional wargames companies would do well to examine before they released their next title.

The game is a strategic simulation on divisional level of the battle that finally brought Napoleon to his downfall. Napoleon was on his way to Brussels to gain support for his forces from Brussels. However, he must first defeat the Anglo-Dutch force commanded by the Duke of Wellington from the Seventh Coalition. Napoleon had a stronger force than his opponent but Wellington had superb defensive positions that cut across his adversary’s front lines. Plus, he knew that if he fought a defensive strategy long enough, reinforcements would soon arrive in the form of General Blucher’s Prussian army. And so the stage is set for a one player game with the human participant playing Napoleon.

The game has has a smooth scrolling ‘plan’ of the battlefield as a display. The scrolling really is smooth on this game — far superior to other games of this nature that boast the same feature. Units are displayed as divisional markers, each unit coloured according to nationality. Displayed on the markers is information pertaining to the nature of the unit such as whether it is cavalry or infantry. On the French units the Corps number and command status is also shown. On requesting a detailed report of a unit, the marker widens to twice its original length and the units strength in terms of fighting men and its morale are displayed. On enemy units however, only the strength is displayed.

Handling the units is accomplished by using a straight-forward mini-menu at the bottom of the display area in conjunction with cursor control. Units can be commanded as a Corps (by giving a general command to the leading division) or individually. It’s possible to alter the level of difficulty of the game by varying the number of unit orders that may exist simultaneously. Units may actually leave their set positions to follow commanding units if they leave the immediate vicinity.

One of the interesting features of the game is the way a unit may be prevented from achieving its orders because of enemy resistance (or maybe just presence) but after the threat is passed, the unit will continue on its original course of action. This isn’t a totally original feature to computer wargaming but rarely is it used so realistically. One up for Lothlorien.

Movement is affected by type of unit and terrain, as you would expect but terrain also affects combat strength to varying degrees, depending on whether they are attacking or defending. Combat strength is also (logically) affected by how many active men exist in the unit and its morale. Combat takes place between any two adjacent enemy units. Combat losses are displayed as they occur, over the relevant unit. This is only brief but you can study the situation more fully at the end of the game turn.

Combat can, of course, result in one of the divisions involved retreating or routing. Routing units are removed from play immediately. Retreating units may be eliminated of their paths of retreat are not clear. Because such units are considered to be at least in partial disarray, they will inflict fewer casualties when fighting.

When orders have been issued to all the units for that turn, the computer carries out all the movements and combat actions in a clearly defined manner. During this time, various commanders will communicate with you and explain that the orders you have given them are problematical because of a change in the unit’s situation. They will suggest a course of action as an alternative and you answer the question depending on your strategy.

The manual contains detailed explanations of the victory conditions and they, themselves offer a challenging game for the player whilst remaining balanced. On the subject of which, Lothlorien have made one omission and two alterations to details of the battle in order to make it more playable. Firstly, there is no consideration taken of artillery (a shame considering all the trouble Napoleon took to get it there), so there is no indirect fire phase. Secondly, Napoleon has been given an extra Corps, to balance numbers, whilst Blucher’s minions arrive on the scene earlier to add to the difficulty.

Lothlorien really have come a long way since those early days. This wargame is fast, playable and deceptively complicated. Designed with a care rarely encountered in computer wargaming, it employs some of the best features of the purists’ hobby — and to good effect. A classic game for a classic subject.

Presentation 90%
Excellent

Rules 85%
Deceptively simple but very direct

Playability 87%
‘Fool proof’ approach successfully implemented

Graphics 92%
Beautiful scrolling for a wargame

Authenticity 87%
Details only modified slightly and for playability. General historical integrity maintained

Value for money 95%
Plenty of scope within the game. Won’t wear out overnight by any means

Overall 92%
It’s great to have a classic game to review

BACK TO SKOOL

Producer: Microsphere
Price: £6.95
Language: machine code
Author: Dave Reedy

About a year ago Skool Daze was released and was a highly acclaimed game. Back to Skool has you once more playing the part of the mischievous Eric, and is a follow on from the last game. The object of Skool Daze was to steal your terrible school report; now a new term has started, you have spent the hols forging a glowing report for yourself, and must sneak it back into the headmaster’s safe.

A couple of years ago your big brother encountered the same problem and he has very generously lent you his copy of the School rules, on which he has scribbled a few notes in invisible ink. Holding the paper over a fire made from the swot’s cap reveals some hints on how you can go about achieving your task — and Microsphere have kindly printed them on the cassette inlay to help you get started.

On loading the game a 10 second countdown commences and if you press a key during this time then you can select from the joystick options or alter the names of the characters in the game. Once you have finished this, then the game itself starts with you in the playground controlling Eric.

As might be expected, Eric is still a true Menace and much use of catapult, stink bomb and water pistol is required to progress through the game — you start off with the catty, but will have to find other weapons en route. Teachers roam the corridors and classrooms, always eager to dish out lines and generally be obstructive. While you don’t have lives as such, collect too many lines and the game ends.

Over the holidays, a few building alterations have been completed. There is now an assembly hall where the Headmaster puts the whole school in detention etc. Also the science room has expanded and it is from here that frogs are obtained — very useful in the Girls School down the road! You have to venture into the other school in order to get the key to the safe. In this game you also have a girlfriend: appropriately enough, you have a kiss option... There’s also a bike available, which starts off locked to a tree — a bit of teacher torturing is needed to collect the combination to the lock, but once the bike’s free you can cycle around performing a range of stunts.

One of the most innovative features in both Skool Daze and Back to Skool is the way in which you have to interact with other characters in order to complete the game. Eric has the ability to punch other school chums (including the girls) as well as walk, jump, ride the bike and write on blackboards. In order to complete your tasks you inevitably have to ‘bunk’ off lessons, which can mean the Swot telling on you and thus a lot more lines — but then if you are extra nice to your girlfriend then she might do some of them for you. A status block at the bottom of the screen lets you know your score so far, the number of lines you’ve collected and the high score so far. As you enter classrooms they are identified for you via a message at the bottom of the screen. Calls for assembly, playtime and other hallmarks of the school day also appear for your guidance.

“I hate girls” someone’s scrawled on the blackboard in BACK TO SKOOL. Well, at least they spelt it write!

CRITICISM

‘Skool Daze was one of the best games of 1984 and I’m sure it would still be a hit if it was released today. Back to Skool continues the formula but extra dimension has been added to the game. This game is very playable from the word go but it takes a lot of practice and a lot of time to get anywhere. As for the graphics, they live up to the standards set by Skool Daze, indeed they have been improved upon and the extra playing area makes it a delight to look at. This is a very involving and tough arcade adventure, yet it’s very simple to actually play. Overall it is a fantastic game that is well worth the asking price.’

‘I thought Skool Daze was a fine game on the Spectrum and it’s one that still ‘perplexes’ gamers a year after its release. The sequel sees a much improved ‘skool’ with more detailed classes and pupils and better scrolling. The game also has a girls’ ‘skool’ which works really well in relationship to the plot. Back to Skool is the sort of game which you can play many times and ‘mess about’ with just to find out what you can do. You’re supplied with plenty of armament — water pistols, stink bombs, catties and the like which are essential parts of the game. I really loved this game. Go out and buy it.’

‘Though a little overdue (a year overdue to be precise) Back to Skool certainly proves itself as a worthy successor to Skool Daze. Despite the initial similarities between the original and follow up you soon realise that Back to Skool has far greater depth than its predecessor. Some of the problems and solutions will require a great deal of thought indeed. The graphics are just as effective as the original — in fact the backdrops have been improved. Microsphere have come up with a winner here, helping old crumblies like me to remember the best days of their lives. Well worth a look.’

BACK TO SKOOL from Microsphere — more schooltime fun, this time round with a romantic interest provided by Tracy

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up and down, O/P left and right, F fire catapult, C catch mouse/frog, D/U drop stink bomb, G shoot water pistol, H hit/punch, J/L jump/ leap, M mount bicycle, R release mouse, S sit/stand, T throw away water pistol, W write
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor and Interface 2
Keyboard play: lots of keys but they are very responsive
Use of colour: very good with few attribute problems
Graphics: excellent characters plus detailed backgrounds
Sound: not a lot, but it is used reasonably well
Lives: after gaining 10,000 lines you are expelled
Screens: scrolling playing area
General rating: An excellent sequel to an excellent game, bound to please Skool Daze fans

Use of computer

91%

Graphics

94%

Playability

93%

Addictive qualities

92%

Getting started

86%

Value for money

91%

Overall

93%

I OF THE MASK

Producer: Electric Dreams
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Sandy White, Angela Sutherland and Paul Fik

Sandy White, author of 3D Ant Attack and the follow-up Zombie Zombie has now produced his third game for Rod Cousens, who is publishing it under the new Electric Dreams label.

The game revolves around the tortuous Newgama III space trials. Equipped with an A4A Pack Jet Suit, you are cast into a massive maze containing 32 universes. To escape you need to construct a robot from active robot spares lying around within the universes which may be accessed from nodes in the maze.

There are enough parts within the maze to create at least one robot, but before a robot part can be added to your collection it must be deactivated. The parts also have to be located and deactivated in a specific order, starting from the feet upwards. Upon collecting the final component, the mask, the greatest award is bestowed: you become Of The Mask.

The top half of the screen is taken up with the view of the maze and includes a little effigy of your good self on the lower part. The bottom of the screen contains various status indicators and keeps track of the robot you are assembling, with parts being added as you collect them.

The corridors of the maze are displayed in one colour, each wall being shaded with a different pattern depending on the angle of the wall to your view. As you move through the maze, the perspective changes, together with the shading. When you turn a corner, instead of just flipping ninety degrees into the next corridor, the corner and walls move around smoothly.

The maze is split into different sections or zones, each having a colour allocated to it. In the corridors the colour of the walls matches the colour of the zone you’re in, and flashing areas shown on the map also have flashing walls when you move through them. On the bottom right hand comer of the screen is a small window showing your position upon the overall map, with your direction and position marked by a small arrow. As you move about the arrow stays central and the window scrolls over the larger maze map. Pausing the game is quite helpful, since the full map of the maze is displayed.

Along the various corridors are handily positioned node points: these are gateways to the robot parts and other sections of maze. Upon entering a node section the view flips to three giant crystals which rotate about the screen and you are given ammunition for your laser — the number of shots you have remaining is shown on a little counter in the status area.

When you fire on a crystal, it beams you to another place. The top crystal transports you to a different node with a different set of three crystals, while the bottom right crystal takes you to a section of the maze. (These crystal gates are shown on the main map of the maze by flashing areas). The bottom left crystal will transport your man into the parts store in the universe behind the three crystals.

Once in a universe you are twisted and rotated around the robot part it contains and must blast it three times in the time you are allowed. Do this, and the component is deactivated. Bonus power is awarded whenever you deactivate a part, but the component is not added to your robot unless it is the next part in the sequence.

Throughout the game a digital power counter decrements — if you don’t visit a node, enter a universe and deactivate a robot part before your energy runs out, it’s time to start another game. You start with three lives, however, and if energy’s getting desperately low you can enter a universe, deactivate a part and gain the bonus energy. If the part is not in the correct sequence, then you keep the energy but lose a life.

Legging it down a yellow section of the maze corridor in I OF THE MASK. You’re not far from a node, as the little map window bottom right reveals. So far you’ve lost a life, gained eleven shots for your laser and haven’t got a single bit of robot

CRITICISM

‘This highly original program got many a gasp when it was loaded up in the office. If you merely look at the graphics objectively they’re not that hot, but once you get into playing the game it’s possible to get totally lost within the illusion. I of the Mask is technically very cunning, and there’s a fair bit of strategy to back it all up in the gameplay. There’s quite a challenge in assembling a robot. Deactivating the activated robot components was probably the strongest section. A major portion of the game depends on mapping out the vast maze area — not really my scene, though I can see the appeal for other users.’

‘The game employs some of the most remarkable graphics I’ve come across on a Spectrum. Some of the perspective shots are brilliant. Sandy White’s obviously learned a lot since 3D Ant Attack. The game contains far more than meets the eye and in fact at first, I wasn’t aware that half of the game actually existed! The extremely vague instructions didn’t help — giving no clues about how to use lives for instance — which was quite annoying. As it turns out, I of the Mask is a deceptively subtle game. It’s an attractive game too, and will doubtlessly appeal to many. Evidently, Sandy White is far ahead of his time.’

‘About two years ago Sandy White released a game called 3D Ant Attack which, at the time, was very impressive. His latest game continues the 3D theme but his techniques have advanced a bit from 1983. I of the Mask is graphically superb and a delight to watch. Essentially I of the Mask is a maze/strategy game with a few differences. While being very playable I suspect that once I completed it I wouldn’t go back to it again. With that said, it’s not going to be a game that can be finished quickly. I of the Mask represents a step forward in 3D graphics. Overall, it is a very impressive game and if you like maze games, there’s no excuse for not buying it.’

The Mask which taunts you until you succeed in assembling a robot in I, OF THE MASK

COMMENTS

Control keys: 0 to fire, H to pause and view the main map, direction keys according to joystick option selected
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Protek/Cursor
Keyboard play: unusual arrangement (see above), very responsive
Use of colour: monochromatic, avoiding attribute problems
Graphics: Sandy White ... excellent
Sound: adequate, but not outstanding
Skill levels: one
Screens: corridors linking 32 universes
General rating: technically excellent, backed with a fair bit of strategic gameplay

Use of computer

91%

Graphics

96%

Playability

92%

Getting started

89%

Addictive qualities

88%

Value for money

87%

Overall

92%

BIG BEN STRIKES AGAIN

Producer: Artic Computing Ltd
Author: John Prince
Price: £6.95

Here’s your chance to meet some of the big names in politics! With the release of Big Ben Strikes Again Artic have brought the caricatured faces of some of the most well known Members of Parliament to your Spectrum. The game is basically a platform arcade affair with nasties being the members of Mrs Thatcher’s government, assorted notes of varying currency, bouncing barrels and helicopters! All the mobile nasties patrol an area of the screen rather than seeking out Ben, but are deadly if he blunders into them. Ben (he of the title) is in fact a reporter looking for an exclusive about the government, for his paper, rather than the famous clock-tower.

Ben is on a mission — his nose for news has caught a whiff of a potential scoop, and he’s travelling round the Houses of Parliament trying to piece together the big story he’s sure is about to break. Ben has to collect gifts for the various political figures in the game, and present them in exchange for leaked items of news. All kinds of bits and pieces can be picked up on the way around the screens and added to Ben’s inventory by simply walking over them.

To get the rather portly character you control from one screen to another, you use doorways which may be anywhere on the screens. You don’t have to complete one screen before moving on to the next, so it’s fairly easy to go exploring straight away. Jumping and falling gets you to different levels (though falling too far is fatal), and there’s the odd ladder to scamper up and down too!

The game comes with a fairly comprehensive screen editor which is menu driven and allows you to tinker with the contents of individual rooms or completely redesign them if you so wish. Once a screen has been modified or designed from scratch you can save it to tape and play it again whenever you like. Indeed you can fine tune selected screens in the game as supplied, making them harder or more difficult according to your taste. Alternatively, there’s no reason why you couldn’t assemble a completely new game to amuse yourself with — but you are stuck with the library of mobile characters and can’t design new nasties of your own.

CRITICISM

‘Oh dear. Flickery sprites abound. Poor graphics and error checks riddle the game with faults. Good caricatures of some of the politicians are lost in this otherwise abysmal game. Very, very primitive. Don’t buy this...’

‘Apart from the slight amusement caused by the mega headed caricatures of the Tory cabinet, the overall fun got from this game was, as near as makes no odds — nothing. The sprites flicker at a horrendous rate, and the checks to see if you’ve hit a baddie are appallingly poor on occasions. After Mutant Monty, which I really liked, Artic have really come down in the world. Definitely not a winner.’

‘At first glance this just looks like a boring platform game with a few interesting little caricatures of politicians, but little else going for it. Then you find out about the screen redesigner and things look up. In tests I couldn’t change the position of the moving characters once I’d put them in a screen I was designing without scrubbing the whole lot and starting again. A bit frustrating. Lode Runner did this sort of thing much better. For the price, this game falls short and lets Artic down. They can do better.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up, A down, O left, P right, BOTTOM ROW jump
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: adequate
Use of colour: overdone
Graphics: very poor, with odd exceptions
Sound: below average
Skill levels: one, but you can adjust the difficulty
Screens: 20
General Rating: Not a wonderful offering; unattractive at £6.95.

Use of Computer

40%

Graphics

39%

Playability

39%

Getting Started

69%

Addictive Qualities

50%

Value for Money

33%

Overall

42%

BOMBER BOB IN PENTAGON CAPERS

Producer: Bug-Byte Software Ltd
Author: Timothy Closs
Price: £2.95

The story is thus — the really evil Kaptain Kleptor has planted bombs all over the Pentagon in an attempt to try to blow it up. Why? Well, like most power crazed loonies, he wants to rule the world and is trying his hardest to get to the position of World Leader. In the Pentagon he’s not only left bombs but also robot guards to make sure that his explosives explode. The FBI refuse to give in to such pressure and have hired you, Bomber Bob, to deactivate the bombs.

There are no less than fifty rooms in the pentagon, which are laid out platform style in various configurations with bombs lurking everywhere. Taking the role of Superhero BB, it is up to you to travel round the room, defusing the bombs. At the start of the game you are given the choice of four doors, each of which leads into a different room in the pentagon. As you complete each screen, you are again given a choice of four doors and quite often get a little witty message thrown in for free!

On the face of it, BB’s task doesn’t appear too horrendous. While the bombs have been put in tricky corners, Bob’s an excellent jumper and has no difficulty in reaching the explosives. All he has to do is touch a bomb, and it is instantly disabled, disappearing from view.

Just to make your superhero life a little more difficult, however, Kaptain Kleptor has left his robot guards behind him, as well as bombs. There are five types — globes, walkies, grabs, dynamiters and homers. Globes continually float around in the rooms rather like balloons and are deadly to the touch. Bob’s got an Anti Globe hat on, and can head them away — but if any other part of his anatomy touches a globe, it’s curtains for sure. Walkies do just that — they trundle along platforms and floors and pose problems, being deadly to the touch. Occasionally a walker will fall off a platform and turn into a globe. Homers are slightly intelligent (but not very) and are pretty deadly since they try their best to home in on you. Grabs appear on later levels — these are attached to the ceiling and one nip is deadly. Grabs also drop dynamite on Bob if he stays too long in one position.

The odds are not totally stacked against you, however, as the mad Kaptain Kleptov foolishly left a few of his Robot Control Pads lying around the place. If Bob picks one up, he can freeze robots for a little while in a room at the press of a button.

CRITICISM

‘I found the game a bit dull really — although it resembles an arcade game Bomber Jack it’s nowhere near as good. Some of the screens are diabolically hard — not the type of difficulty that keeps you coming back for more, but the underhand, totally unavoidable difficulty which makes you want to throw your Spectrum out of the window. There are a few nice touches, like the witty comments when you move between rooms, but overall it’s disappointing. Although it’s cheap, the contents aren’t worth that much.’

‘Nice big graphics and a jolly tune are about the only thing Bomber Bob has to offer. The gameplay is incredibly slow — your character moves around the screen at such a slow pace that the game becomes very monotonous after a few goes. Some of the screens are so hard that I couldn’t see myself completing them without the hours of practice that are required — especially since the game doesn’t deserve such attentions. Generally I wouldn’t recommend this game as it is boring and totally infuriating. Even so there are far worse cheapo games on the market.’

‘Well, Mastertronic started out with far worse games than the new Bug Byte budget range, so the future of Bug Byte doesn’t look all that black. Bomber Bob is a well finished game with some highly detailed characters, especially the main character, Bob, who is great in the way he flies around defusing bombs with the greatest of efficiency. I enjoyed flying Bob around, and the comments during the changing of screens added that extra touch of humour that I reckon every game needs. Not too bad an attempt at all.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z left, X right, O up, K down, P jump, M activate the control pad, A pause, S start
Joystick: Kempston and Interface 2
Keyboard play: unresponsive
Use of colour: not very exciting
Graphics: big, but undetailed
Sound: burble
Skill levels: four
Screens: 50
General Rating: A tricky game to play, nothing special.

Use of Computer

40%

Graphics

49%

Playability

43%

Getting Started

46%

Addictive Qualities

43%

Value for Money

55%

Overall

49%

BRAINSTORM

Producer: Bubble Bus Software
Author: Tom Prosser
Price: £1.99

Far into the future, a mad scientist called Professor Brainstorm (P Brain for short) created a system for cloning any living creature. Generally, the idea went down none too well and led to P Brain becoming a recluse on a desolate planet, deep in the centre of the universe.

In the best tradition of mad scientists, he built a castle where he could continue his weird experiments. The creation of a ‘warp tunnel’ allowed him to capture creatures to experiment on. Of course, also in the best tradition (this time the one to do with The Fate of Evil Men) the professor’s experimental results turned against him. They ate their creator, once they realised there wasn’t a burger bar for several thousand light years. As time passed, they grew bigger and weirder and generally had a lot of fun romping round in the professor’s castle. Oh yes, they grew hungrier too. Important point, that.

This is where you, Robin Banks, come in. You happen to be passing by, when the ancient but still active warp tunnel sucks you inside the castle. As far as the other creatures are concerned, Supper’s Ready! And very, very late. To avoid becoming the futuristic version of a quarter-pounder, escape from the castle is imperative. That implies a lot of searching... for keys to open doors and the appropriate weapons to destroy Eight Guardians.

There are twenty eight different kinds of potential ‘consumer’ and although some of them bare a rather unnerving resemblance to cart wheels, they are all just as deadly. The screens flick-change, rather than scroll, and various nasties are sure to materialise soon after you enter a new screen. You travel ‘Jet Pack’ style, laser handy and one good shot dispenses with most unwanted company.

There are also eight guardians to be dispensed with. These vary from a snake head, to such things as a teapot. To get rid of these guys, special weaponry is needed. There are sixteen special weapons lying around for eradication of guardians, but eight of them are useless. To make things that bit more complex, the correct weapon for each guardian must be found and used to zap it.

It’s only possible to carry one special weapon and up to three keys at a time. Objects carried are displayed at the bottom of the screen alongside two gauges. One gauge indicates the damage you’ve sustained as a result of collisions with clones while the other displays your energy level. Energy can be used to repair damage, but if you run out of energy then the laser packs up. If you suffer too much damage, then you lose a life. Both Energy and Damage readings can be improved by collecting damage repair and energy pods, and the odd extra life can be found.

CRITICISM

‘The game is reasonably good to play for a while. It’s quite tricky to avoid the hundreds of creatures constantly trying to bump you off, though I must admit to not getting very far. It comes down to whether or not you like simple shoot ’em ups with a few problems to get your brain ticking. It’s fast enough, and there’s plenty to see on the screen but none of it struck me as stunning. For the money, it’s not bad. Highly derivative stuff that could provide some fun.’

‘Maybe it was just our copy, but sometimes, when the creatures appeared on the screen, they left a few of their pixels behind, picking them up later on, if they crossed that area again. Sloppy, if it’s a ubiquitous bug. Some of the rooms are cleverly designed but unimpressive graphics detract from their appeal. If you’re an expert at Jetpac et al, then you should find this one no problem at all. Even at £1.99 though, this kind of thing is beginning to look more than a little dated.’

‘After Bubble Bus’s copy of Sabre Wulf, I see they have now resorted to copying the even older Jetpac. Unfortunately, there are too many similarities. I haven’t much sympathy for companies who use the excuse of a cheap price to copy other games. There’s no originality to be found in the plot either — that’s reminiscent of Atic Atac. After Starquake I know that Bubble Bus can do better. A run of the mill game really. Let’s hope they release some original games for the rest of their budget range.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up, O left, P right, pick up/drop A, any key on bottom row fires laser, 1-4 or H-L to repair damage, ENTER to pause
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Keyboard play: no problems
Use of colour: average, not wonderful
Graphics: unremarkable
Sound: poor
Skill levels: one
Screens: 650
General Rating: Not bad for the money, but nothing new or original.

Use of Computer

61%

Graphics

56%

Playability

65%

Getting Started

80%

Addictive Qualities

55%

Value for Money

69%

Overall

65%

CHICKIN CHASE

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Price: £2.50

Sacre bleu! Well yes, in a way it is blue. The private life of the local henhouse explodes onto your screen in this rather unusual, but definitely tongue in cheek offering from Firebird.

Set in a henhouse with two doors to the outside world on the left and right walls, a central “bedroom” and two nesting platforms against the back wall, the idea of the game is to keep Madam Chicken satisfied by... hmm... well... ahem... doing what Cockerels are best at. All this takes place in her boudouis BEHIND A CLOSED DOOR. For every... hmm... thingybob ... you do (takes a few seconds you know) she’ll produce a fertile egg and a heart appears at the top of the screen.

When you feel you’ve had enough, leave her room and Madam will follow a moment later, make a bee line for the nesting boxes and lay the same amount of eggs that you... um... leftgooseberrybushesunderherbed.

It is here that the game now gets rather frantic. You see all the nasties that loaf around the farm — racoons, snakes, porcupines, rats and the like start to come into the henhouse and try to break the eggs. If you don’t peck the bad guys (this sends them away) in time then they’ll break the eggs and madam won’t be too pleased to say the least: in fact she’ll come out and biff you with her handbag. You’ve got three lives available and you lose one each time your wife biffs you.

Just to make life a little more difficult, as well as guarding the eggs you’ve got to enter madam’s little room and give her something to help her produce more eggs. As the eggs hatch the chicks rush down and go into their Mummy’s little room. If there aren’t any more eggs and the last chick disappears into your birdy wife’s boudoir, then she’ll get very angry and give you more of the handbag treatment. So there’s always got to be at least one egg on the nest waiting to hatch at any one time.

All this hectic exercise makes you pretty tired out. As you get more and more tired you begin to slow down — a big disadvantage if you’re to catch those beastly baddies. Luckily there’s plenty of grain lying around which you can peck up to keep you fit and energetic. Occasionally worms which stick their heads out of the ground. Peck these up and you’ll be truly rejuvenated.

You score points according to how long you manage to keep all the eggs safe and madam happy. Extra lives can be gained throughout the game and later on, when the going gets frantic, you certainly need them!

CRITICISM

‘Chicken Chase appeared on the Commodore quite a while ago and received a warm welcome, not just because of its sauciness, as it is in fact a great little game. Rushing round with all the different factors — your energy situation, madam and the baddies demanding your attentions makes the game very frantic and enjoyable to play. The graphics are good, smooth and fast and the game has a nice feel about it. The fact that it’s a mere £2.50 makes it even more enjoyable!’

‘Quite an original game this, a real change in style for Firebird’s budget range. The scenario is a mite bit base but to play Chickin’ Chase is fun. Keeping your time split between the several different tasks can be difficult and certainly the challenge is constant. Graphicswise, Chickin’ Chase is quite competent, the monochromatic sprites moving around fairly smoothly. Overall an above average offering for a below average price.’

‘Ooh La La. Isn’t it risque? A daft little game really, but lots of fun to play and about as offensive as a wet Wednesday. Not the most brain straining in terms of strategy or the most demanding in terms of arcade action but a neat idea, with some tidy graphics and enjoyable gameplay. There’s plenty of things to keep in balance — the life of a real-life rooster must be tough if the game models reality! For the price, not one to be missed.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 5 left, 8 right, 6 down, 7 up, 0 peck also redefinable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: great!
Graphics: big and jolly
Sound: nice tunes and effects
Skill levels: gets progressively harder to survive
Screens: one
General Rating: Cheap and saucy little number, but great.

Use of Computer

81%

Graphics

78%

Playability

79%

Getting Started

84%

Addictive Qualities

78%

Value for Money

86%

Overall

79%

CRITICAL MASS

Producer: Durell
Price: £8.95
Language: machine code
Author: Simon Francis

Once again, your mission to is save life, the universe and everything. Alien forces have captured an anti matter conversion plant which supplies power to colonists in a planetary system. The aliens are threatening to turn the anti-matter plant onto ‘self-destruct’ — which would wipe out the entire planetary system and a couple of neighbouring stars as well — unless they receive unconditional surrender. Unconditional surrender is a fate worse than death, so it’s up to you to travel across the surface of the asteroid on which the power plant is sited, infiltrate the alien enemy’s positions and disable the anti-matter converter before it achieves Critical Mass.

You are in control of a rocket-propelled hover craft with high speed strike attack capabilities, according to the armaments manufacturer’s sales blurb. The craft doesn’t make contact with the ground, and thus avoids seismic detection, and is equipped with a powerful laser device. It’s defended with a force field which protects the ship against collisions or alien attacks — but every collision with the force field drains a little more energy, and the field will eventually implode, destroying the ship if energy gets too low. Your energy status is displayed on a horizontal bar to the left of the screen and is replenished if you can avoid bumping into things or firing for a while. Too many collisions, or indeed too much rapid firing, and your ship turns into a collection of bouncing pixels...

For the benefit of less skilful pilots, a further protection device detects when your craft is about to implode, and ejects you before the event. All is not lost, however, for your character then uses the emergency jet pack to travel to a dome shaped energy pod where a new ship can be found. On the journey, the shipless pilot is unprotected and must avoid contact with rocks and other life forms which drain energy. An indicator, in the form of a large arrow, shows you the direction you should be travelling in, and in this phase you have to try to avoid large sandworm-like nasties that pop up out of the ground.

Your mission is to travel east with all speed, to the power unit. During the early phases of the game you will only encounter alien long distance raiders plus unfused mines, but as you progress through the zones you will encounter increasingly hostile opposition including fused and guided mines. Once you have travelled through all of the zones you will find yourself near the power plant. This is protected by a score of nasties such as amorphous clouds of molecular disorientation. To enter the power plant you will have to disable the force field gates by shooting the front of the turret that is between them. This is not easy and with the addition of the clouds you are likely to end up spinning off into the distance.

Once inside the plant you will find yourself being drawn into an energy beam — this you must destroy by shooting the centre of the pyramid shaped energy concentrator in the middle of the device. Failure leads to vapourisation for you and your craft.

The whole game is played against the clock, which ticks off the time remaining before Critical Mass is achieved. Points are collected for doing away with alien defences on the way to saving the universe.

You’re the Little Blue Man With a Jetpack in the centre of the screen. A nasty sandworm has just popped its head up close to a quartzite rocky outcrop. CRITICAL MASS from Durell.

CRITICISM

‘Remember Scuba Dive way back in issue 2 of CRASH? Even then we said that Durell had set new standards in graphics; now they have gone one better and produced a game that has great graphics, good sound and compelling game play. Critical Mass takes the form of a fast action shoot em up that is totally addictive. The movement of your craft reminds me very much of Vortex’s Cyclone where you have to wrestle with the controls when you encounter a problem. The sound is pretty good for a Spectrum with great blowing up effects and a nice tune at the start of the game. The inclusion of an automatic eject is quite a good idea, though the game could have been made a bit more exciting if you had to operate the ejection system yourself. If you’re into shoot em ups, then you couldn’t do much better than buy this.’

‘This struck me as being pretty boring when I first encountered it — a touch of the ‘nice graphics, shame about the game syndrome’. On further playing I started to discover things deeper within the game which were highly original and excellent. The graphics on this are of a very high standard, and the scrolling is something of a miracle for a Spectrum. If you like shoot em ups then you can’t go wrong with this one, it’s one of the best in my memory.’

‘The music on this game in the opening screens is great but when you start the game the first thing to strike you are the amazing graphics, which are so detailed. The only problem that I could see was that the screen tended to empty at times. Some of the graphics are a touch on the small side, but this doesn’t detract from the overall impression of excellence. The thing that really surprised me was the handling of the craft; the inertial effects produced by hitting rocks and firing your laser are wonderful. They are some of the best on any Spectrum game that I’ve played. Controlling the craft adds an extra dimension to the game that, when combined with the graphics and frantic game play, makes for an excellent game.’

Loosing off your laser in CRITICAL MASS from Durell. Don’t be mislead by appearances — the cuddly looking round sponge thing at the bottom of the screen is deadly.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z/X left and right, Q accelerate, A fire, plus definable key option
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2 and Downsway
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: only two colours and black used but attribute problems are avoided
Graphics: good and detailed but at times the screen gets a bit blank
Sound: limited during play but nice tune to start off with
Skill levels: 3
Screens: vast scrolling area
General rating: very good shoot em up that is fast, fun and furious

Use of computer

92%

Graphics

93%

Playability

92%

Getting started

90%

Addictive qualities

89%

Value for money

90%

Overall

90%

DISCS OF DEATH

Producer: Artic Computing Ltd
Author: Ian Rich
Price: £6.95

Touring the arcades a few years ago was an arcade game of the name, Discs of Tron. Discs of Death is a version of the highly popular arcade game. Based upon the disc fighting sequence in the film Tron the idea is to topple an opponent off the platform he’s standing on while evading his attempts at toppling you.

The two competitors face each other across a bottomless pit and hurl discs at one another. Each competitor has a row of three platforms and can jump from platform to platform to avoid being hit by his opponent’s missile. Each player has three discs to hurl across the void, and they work rather like boomerangs, coming back to the sender if they don’t hit.

You view the arena from behind the player you control, looking across the perspective view and aiming your discs with a cursor that moves left and right on the wall behind your opponent. When you release a disc it homes in on the cursor and either hits the enemy, in which case he dissolves into oblivion, or it comes snaking back to your hand automatically. Your disc can score a hit on its way to the back wall or after it has rebounded and started for home.

The three platforms you can leap between to avoid your opponent’s discs hover automatically above the perilous drop — but fortunately the program is kind enough to save you the worry of timing jumps between platforms carefully. You can’t fall off! You can shuffle left and right on the platforms and when you get too close to the edge you leap nimbly and automatically across the gap if there’s another platform in the direction you’re moving.

If the opposing fighter lets lose a stream of discs heading directly for you, it’s possible to avoid death by using your shields. They are limited in supply, but very useful as while they’re activated all your opponent’s disks will bounce harmlessly off you.

As you tot up a pile of corpses, you find successive competitors are made of sterner stuff, and take more effort to vapourise. As the sheets progress the scenery changes as well: some screens contain two platforms instead of the normal three. Other hazards are introduced such as force fields, and there’s no shortage of willing challengers, eager to meet you across the pit.

CRITICISM

‘Even though this is an arcade clone, with all the hard work of design having already been done, leaving the programmer to copy what he’s seen, Artic’s copy isn’t that good. The graphics are of a low standard and the animation of the man walking across the platform makes him look he’s shuffling rather than bounding athletically across the platform. The movement of the discs themselves, as they fly across the arena isn’t bad but they do tend to flicker a little bit. Really not a very impressive or outstanding game in the final analysis. And at the price, worth a miss.’

‘This game is of a lower quality than most budget software. The blocky graphics may have been passable a couple of years ago but they look very poor compared to today’s standards. Sound is fairly well used, although the ‘tune’ or whatever the noise on the title screen should be called, is exceedingly infuriating as you can’t turn it off. Gameplay is monotonous and unvaried and it wasn’t long before I was bored with it. Generally, I wouldn’t recommend this one, as it is very primitive and not at all compelling.’

‘There aren’t many games of this type on the Spectrum and as far as this one goes it is quite playable. The graphics are crude and tend to flicker a lot, which lets the game down terribly. The biggest problem with the game is that there is a distinct lack of variation. This makes it unaddictive and after a while quite boring. I’m sure Artic can turn out better stuff than this. On the whole it is a bit of a let down but it may appeal to some.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursor keys
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: slow and difficult
Use of colour: clash and gory
Graphics: undetailed and very jerky
Sound: almost non existent
Skill levels: 3
Screens:
General Rating: Tired old arcade clone that’s far too late.

Use of Computer

34%

Graphics

30%

Playability

30%

Getting Started

38%

Addictive Qualities

29%

Value for Money

35%

Overall

31%

DOGSBODY

Producer: Bug-Byte Software Ltd
Author: Steven Monks
Price: £2.95

This game is of the ‘trapped in cavern and need to collect all the objects to get out’ type. Dr Dogmush has carried out a plan of despicable daring and kidnapped 192 puppies, and stashed them away in his lair. He’s now planning to carry out vile genetic experiments to turn them from cute and playful puppies that could easily be used to advertise toilet paper, into vicious killer dogs that will go for the throat as soon as say “woof”. Animal liberationists, determined not to take any of this lying down, have sent in special agent Dogsbody. Dogsbody is a mission hardened operative, with skills honed for this type of mission. Dogsbody, by the way, is a dog.

The puppies are incarcerated within the Dr Dogmush’s stronghold. Built upon red sandstone, the caverns are patrolled by a number of the doctor’s robotic denizens. There are fifty beings guarding the maze, each of whose touch is deadly to agent Dogsbody. Also, the nasties aren’t stupid. They track and trace Dogsbody even when they’re not present on the screen with him.

Some of the corridors and pathways are blocked with soil: this can be eaten away by Dogsbody but is impassable to the stronghold’s guards. All Dogsbody needs to do to clear a pathway is travel over the soil, and it’s automatically eaten away. There are also impassable boulders scattered around the mad doctor’s lair, and they’re generally supported by soil. Eat away the soil and the boulder falls down, rather like those in Boulderdash. If Dogsbody is fortunate enough to land a boulder on one of the baddies, it’ll then get squashed but it’ll be reincarnated and teleported back to its start position.

Dogsbody is able to move around in the up, down, left and right directions. Standing still he just pants and looks miserably out of the screen, but once on the move a grin hits his face as his little legs jog up and down. As he crosses over the screen boundary a new cave full of nasties flicks into view. There are twenty five such screens, each sheet covering nearly the whole screen. A majority of the maze is made up from bricked walls, impenetrable to special agent Dogsbody, who has to find his way round the tortuous caverns.

Extra obstacles added include the mega quick growing flowers, sitting innocently about the maze with their heads jammed against some soil. If you eat away the earth above the flowers’ heads they quickly grow up as far as they can. The trouble is flowers block pathways in the maze, so you can end up blocking yourself in. Horticulture can also be handy if a fiend is hot on your trail and you want to bar its way.

The puppies are inanimate and are little replicas of Dogsbody. For some reason they constantly glow and shimmer until you run over them. They are then rescued and duly disappear, and you collect points for rescuing puppies and for eating earth away.

CRITICISM

‘Though quite nice in conception and execution, Dogsbody falls down because of a couple of flaws. The main problem that ultimately makes things a bit difficult is the way the error detection works. Sometimes you can walk through Dr Dogmush’s robotic fiends without coming to harm, and other times you can’t. Things can really get confusing! Some of the game ideas are good — but the whole game maintains a slight resemblance to Boulderdash: the earth and rocks seem to behave in exactly the same way. Dogsbody would have been greatly improved had the main screen scrolled about Special Agent Dogsbody — as it is, it’s just all too easy to rush blindly off the edge of the screen and cop it. Overall all though, a nice little game that just wasn’t programmed too professionally.’

‘This game must take the biscuit for cheat bugs of the year! Once a boulder’s dropped on you, if you’re careful you can walk through it; which can also be done with the flowers. If you bought Rockford’s Riot and liked it then I’d recommend this one because the graphics are much better, but the sound does tend to get on your nerves. This is the sort of game that would appeal to the younger Spectrum owner who hasn’t got that much money. Personally, I’d rather be playing the other new Bug Byte game, Zoot.’

‘This one has qualities about it that remind me of the popular arcade game Mr Do. Although it is a lot more involved and it doesn’t really look the same, it has the same feel about it. The graphics are large and colourful and nicely animated. Unfortunately, these large and colourful graphics mean that there are a lot of attribute problems. Sound is not well used but it does its job adequately. There are several things about this one that annoys me, the main being the way that you only die sometimes when you are touched by a nasty. This can be a little disconcerting. Generally, I wouldn’t recommend this one but you can’t really go wrong for the cheap price that its being marketed for.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: P up, L down, Z left, X right, SPACE to abort/exit demo mode, Fire/Enter to restart game
Joystick: Interface 2 and Kempston
Keyboard play: a bit sticky at times.
Use of colour: no attribute clash because of large graphics, though colours could have been better chosen
Graphics: nicely animated, though rather bland
Sound: nothing special
Skill levels: one
Screens: 25 screens
General Rating: A pleasant game, slightly flawed by a few blunders.

Use of Computer

52%

Graphics

69%

Playability

65%

Getting Started

62%

Addictive Qualities

60%

Value for Money

69%

Overall

65%

GRUMPY GUMPHREY SUPER SLEUTH

Producer: Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd
Author: Teque Software Development Ltd (Shaun Hollingworth, Marco)
Price: £7.95

Grumpy Gumphrey Super Sleuth isn’t the first arcade adventure to be set in a department store, but the central character Gumphrey must be the first geriatric hero to star in a computer game!

Poor old Grumpy Gumphrey is definitely the department store’s dogsbody. Apart from the fact that he is supposed to be guarding the shop’s stock from marauding thieves (he is the Store Detective after all) Grumpy is also set a whole variety of tasks by the mean and moody manager. In between shooting mad, rampant ducks on the ground floor, Grumps has to make tea for his ungrateful boss and cope with a whole host of minor and major emergencies in the store.

Each task has to be completed within a time limit — gametime is relentlessly ticked off by a digital display at the foot of the screen. Failure to complete a task in time results in a summons from the manager. Once summoned, Grumpy has to make his way to the Manager’s Office within half an hour to receive a warning letter. If he fails to arrive in time, it’s instant dismissal and time for a new game.

The store is crowded with shoppers (and the odd toy soldier), who mill around manically getting in Grumpy’s way as he tries to complete his tasks. If any of the characters other than the harmless hippy bump into him, Grumpy is pushed about and may be knocked off his feet in which case he sits down. While he is sitting down, Grumpy gets closer to his next warning letter — sitting down on the job is frowned on at Mole Bros Stores! A bar at the bottom of the screen indicates how close Grumpy is to his next warning letter — as it gets shorter another missive gets closer. Four letters and he’s out of a job.

A horizontal message area at the bottom of the screen displays the latest order from on high and is used to remind Grumpy of the next task he needs to complete in order to survive the day. Whenever the Manager calls, he must be obeyed immediately, and the current task put on ice.

There’s a variety of objects scattered throughout the store which can be used to help Grumpy in his chores. To pick up an object, Grumpy has to be moved up to it and the pick up key pressed whereupon the object is transferred to his pocket — an area at the bottom right of the screen. Once an object has been picked up it can be dropped, used or knocked out of Grumpy’s hands by jostling shoppers.

The Mole Bros. store has four floors, each containing a number of departments selling a wide range of goodies to the shoppers. Grumpy can travel between floors in the lift, pressing the appropriate button to select a level. Watch out for the light switch though! There’s also an escalator which travels up and down alternately and needs to be hopped onto at the right moment. Try to go up when the stairs are coming down and Grumpy takes a tumble.

Points are awarded for completing tasks and picking up objects, but the real score is collected by completing a day — worth 10,000 points no less. A whole variety of useful items can be found scattered around the weird and wacky store in which the action takes place. It’s up to you to work out how they can best be used to assist Gumphrey in his campaign to avoid the sack.

If you don’t succeed in completing all the tasks in one working day — from 9.00 in the morning till 5.30 in the evening — then there’s always another day ... providing Grumps hasn’t had his cards!

CRITICISM

‘Graphically, this game is very good. The characters are well drawn and animated, although there are a lot of attribute problems. The sound is not very exciting. I didn’t get very far in the game, and didn’t find it very playable, but I can see potential in it for people who want to persist and get to grips with the game. On the whole I think there are too many games of this type on the market already — and this is not the best of them.’

‘Another long overdue game — well worth the wait, though. The graphics reminded me of Thor’s Jack and the Beanstalk type games, but much improved. The animation of Gumphrey is smooth and flicker free and the whole presentation of the game is very professional — a credit to Sean Hollingworth. This is an enjoyable game which I found easy to get into. While this game will mainly appeal to arcade adventurers, it’s very good and well worth getting if you like the type.’

‘After spending a bit of time guiding Gumphrey round the store, I realised that the idea behind the game had something in common with Technician Ted, with the different tasks to be completed in set time limits. Graphically the game’s impressive, especially the way Gumphrey walks convincingly in front of and behind certain objects, creating a realistic 3D effect. Considering the amount of colours on screen the lack of attribute clash was quite impressive. There’s a lot of nice little touches — lots of thought and attention to detail behind this one. I loved the way all the clocks in the store kept game-time for instance. Overall a nice little game and though it may not appeal to everyone, I really liked it.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q Left, W right, P up, L down, Space fire, D drop/pick up, T re-read message, S scroll objects
Joystick: Interface 2 and Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive, well placed keys
Use of colour: bright and cheerful
Graphics: interesting 3D effect owing to masking of characters
Sound: walking and ‘resting’ noises, spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: 39
General Rating: A game with lots of attention to detail and plenty of humour that should please arcade adventurers.

Use of Computer

84%

Graphics

90%

Playability

84%

Getting Started

78%

Addictive Qualities

82%

Value for Money

85%

Overall

86%

GYROSCOPE

Producer: Melbourne House
Price: £7.95
Language: Machine Code
Author: Steve Lamb and Tony Mack

Gyroscope puts you in a similar surrealistic situation to the arcade classic Marble Madness. The basic gameplay is very simple — you take control of a gyroscope with the task of getting from the starting post at the top of the course to the finishing post at the bottom within the allotted time. Each time the gyroscope topples, a life is lost. The course is very strange, presented with a surrealistic 3D effect featuring tall geometric buildings, ramps and steep slopes along and around which you have to guide your gyroscope. The course also provides a home for some rather strange (and vaguely familiar) aliens whose touch topples your spinner.

There are five courses in the run, each containing four screens. When you complete one screen the display turns purple and the next part of the course scrolls into view, replacing the section you’ve just traversed. The whole game is played against a clock, which ticks off the time relentlessly as you try to complete each quartet of screens. Completing each screen earns you bonus points, and completing a course of four screens earns you a bonus related to the amount of time remaining on the clock.

You begin the game with seven lives in store, and pick up a bonus life for each 1,000 points scored. If you fail to complete a screen course within the time limit, the gyroscope topples when the count hits zero, a life is lost and you resume play from the spot you’d reached at timeout with the clock reset to start a new run. If things are going badly, you can press fire at any time and restart the game from scratch.

There are some very thin catwalks between the buildings and here the main danger lies. If you stray too near the edge of a construction or catwalk your gyro will become unbalanced and totter over — another life gone. When this happens your gyro is put back to the top of the screen on which you died, and thus time is lost as well as a life.

Taking control of a gyroscope takes some getting used to — once you start moving in one direction it takes a while to slow down. The beast will accelerate down slopes, and constant checks have to be made when you trundle down a slope to make sure you’re not going too fast — if there’s a sharp turn at the bottom you could find yourself in deep trouble, and run out of road.

Inanimate hazards on the course complicate matters further, and include glass slopes (which send you spinning in all directions), knobbly floors (which makes control of your gyro next to impossible), red discs (which send you completely out of control) and directional floors (which act like slopes only they’re flat).

The landscapes are very deviously created; starting from relatively easy they get more tricky very rapidly. Some of the difficult courses contain thin catwalks, horrendous slopes with tight corners, holes in the floor and combinations of all these with the aforementioned hazards — being a gyroscope isn’t all just spinning around.

GYROSCOPE from Melbourne House — pilot your spinner across a three dimensional landscape trying to avoid spills.

CRITICISM

‘Although I’m not supposed to say it Gyroscope obviously owes a lot to the arcade classic Marble Madness. It’s graphically very similar and some of the gameplay elements are identical to the coin-op machine. That aside it’s a brilliant game in itself, difficult and frustrating at times, but well worth persevering with. The graphics are excellent, with fabulous use of normal/bright. The sound is pretty good too, with a nice atmospheric tune and sound effects. In my eyes this is one of the most addictive games I’ve played on the Spectrum and is one that any games player just can’t afford to miss.’

‘Gyroscope is the nearest thing we’ve had to Marble Madness on the Speccy. The graphics are a bit mixed in quality — I noticed rather a lot of flicker apparently due to the sound — but the 3D playing area is excellent. Controlling your gyroscope takes a lot of practice, and the inertia takes a bit of getting used to. The first couple of games are bound to lead to most of your lives being lost very swiftly. Care has to be taken at the beginning of each screen as you often start in a potentially hazardous position, like at the top of a steep slope or on a thin ledge. Generally I would strongly recommend Gyroscope as it is very playable and addictive.’

‘I’ve never seen Marble Madness in the arcades but if this is the nearest thing on a Spectrum to it then I’ve obviously been missing something very good. The graphics in this game struck me as being simple but effective, and without too many attribute problems. The best thing about Gyroscope, though, is that it is very playable and proves quite addictive. On the whole it is an extremely good game — but it might just become a little repetitive after a while. A neat arcade type game. If you know you like this game type then buy it!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up, Z down, I left, P Right, O to abort
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: neatly done, minimising attribute problems
Graphics: simple design which is remarkably effective
Sound: excellent, two channel simulation
Skill levels: progressively more difficult
Screens: twenty
General rating: up with the best arcade games available for the Spectrum

Use of computer

93%

Graphics

94%

Playability

92%

Getting started

89%

Addictive qualities

92%

Value for money

93%

Overall

92%

HACKER

Producer: Activision Inc
Author: Softzone Ltd (Steve Cartwright)
Price: £9.99

Imagine it’s late at night and you’ve been using your modem to access some bulletin boards. You’re tired and want to go to bed but you decide to ring just one more number. Accidentally, you misdial one of the digits and your screen turns blue with the prompt ‘Logon Please.’ Somehow you’ve hacked into another computer network. Now all you have to do is get out! In Hacker, that is easier said than done. There are no instructions other than those necessary to load the program. The rest is up to you.

Assuming you do succeed in accessing this ‘network’ (and help comes from the least likely source), then the game proper starts. The screen now shows a schematic of a Subterranean Remote Unit (SRU). You are asked to help complete a diagnostic scan of the device to ensure that it is in working condition. A successful scan satisfies the computer, which then sends you on to the next stage of the game. You are officially welcomed into the Magma Corporation’s central computer which garbles cryptically about everything being nearly ready and the prospects of world domination. You are then presented with a screen displaying a world map overlaid with a grid. You are asked your name (no trick there) and to set up the map so that the night and day areas match those of your current setting.

When all this is done, the position of your SRU is highlighted on the map. The top half of the screen is split into three displays. On the left is a kind of option menu. This allows you to leave the subterranean network at certain junctions which correspond to locations of various major cities, use infra red to enable night vision and a variety of other functions. The centre section displays the view from your SRU. The right hand section contains a compass and message window (which only tells you that there is a message for you — to read it you have to press the ‘M’ key).

You can move about the network grid, though there are specific routes to certain locations which you have to discover, and ‘pop up’ in various cities. You soon discover, via messages, that the company has lost a secret document and various spies across the world each have part of it. By buying items off spies and giving them money or other items, you can collect all the parts of the document and then take them to ... ah, that would be telling!

Your task is made complicated by several factors. First, there is a time limit. Of course, you have no idea what to trade with whom. Eventually, satellites begin searching for you (as Magma Ltd realise that there has been a security break) and if you fail to satisfy their security checks, you are thrown out of the system. All this, coupled with the fact that the spies are only out to satisfy their own ends and therefore, can mislead you, makes winning a complex task indeed.

CRITICISM

‘This is a totally original game with an excellent theme and atmosphere. It is well implemented (with the exception of the satellites, which could have been better) and very addictive. Because it isn’t really all that fast paced, it may not appeal to some but it still deserves success. The whole thing is littered with puzzles and clues and would make a great plot for a suspense movie. Well done.’

‘This might be the game for budding hackers, but experienced hackers may find it a bit too easy. DO NOT be disheartened with the welcoming message of ‘LOGON’ because it really is a letdown after the initial happiness of hacking into this mega-big company, only to find that the same thing happens each time you attempt to hack in. The game reminded me of the film War Games, but instead of protecting the world, you, as a recognised secret agent, must help the company go for total world domination. This is obtained by trading with other agents, and digging tunnels across the South Atlantic. Try to avoid the satellites as every time they get you, you are confronted with a high-level security check which becomes harder the further you get. Hacker has nice colourful graphics but hardly any sound. The bad point of the game is that there are no random features at all, even the passwords. An interesting and challenging game for the would-be hacker who can’t afford a hundred odd pounds to get into real telephone naughtiness.’

‘This isn’t an arcade game, and it’s not an adventure either — it’s sort of in between the two. Generally games like this and players like me don’t go together — but I found it easy to get into Hacker, which was a surprise. Graphically it is a bit of a disappointment, and sound is very poorly used but I found the game fun to play, with a continuing sense of achievement which spurred me on to complete the next bit. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes “think” games, but I don’t think arcade players would enjoy it too much as it can get a little boring at times.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursor keys to move, ENTER to confirm
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: some attribute problems
Sound: poor
Skill levels: 1
General Rating: A demading and interesting game.

Use of Computer

81%

Graphics

76%

Playability

78%

Getting Started

73%

Addictive Qualities

83%

Value for Money

82%

Overall

81%

INTERNATIONAL RUGBY

Producer: Artic Computing Ltd
Author: Donald Campbell
Price: £6.95

For those of you who were wondering if there were any sports left for software houses to simulate, the answer is clearly, YES. The latest offering for armchair sportspersons is International Rugby from Artic.

The scenario places you among the world’s finest rugby teams, trying to win your way through to the championships. The teams playing are England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France, and you can choose which team you want to control at the start. If you choose to be one of the Home International teams, England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales, then you can have a go at the Triple Crown, and try to defeat the other three home teams. Alternatively, you can choose to go for the Grand Slam, by thoroughly defeating all the other contestants.

The game can be played in two ways: practice or contest. Both modes can be played with either one or two players taking part. Practice allows a one off game to be played with either the computer or another human as an opponent. The competition mode sets up a sort of league with the five different teams taking part, up to two can be controlled by humans, with the computer controlling the rest of the teams in the league. As you play through the different games the computer presents a table at the end of each game, giving details on games won, games lost, games played and other such statistical information.

When it actually comes to playing, the field is represented in a semi 3D perspective. The rugby ball stays central while the screen scrolls around it. You can only control one player at a time and control is automatically switched to the player nearest the ball. The player you can control is highlighted by the computer to keep things easy.

A number of moves are available to the player you are controlling. Passing is effected with the fire button. To tackle and gain possession of the ball from the other team you’ve got to run past the man in possession from the back. Score a try by placing the ball over the touchline, and a kick is awarded. The kick is actually taken on a small screen which shows a front view of the posts and stadium lights up in the top right hand corner. Two arrows show the direction of the wind and you position a cross which marks the path the ball will take once the kick has been taken. You’ll have to take the wind into account if you are to convert the try...

When two people are playing against each other at the same time, two sets of keys are provided on the keyboard, though things may get a bit cramped and there might be a bit of a real-life scrum on the keyboard!

CRITICISM

‘Not really my scene, these sports simulations. International Rugby pleasantly surprised me, however, by being quite playable. The graphics are crude and move rather dodgily and the scrolling can not really be termed as unflickery either — but the game’s just got something that makes it playable. A minor moan was the difficulty levels — when you first start the easy level proves too easy and the hard level is way too hard. But after four or five games acclimatisation, things fall into place a lot easier. Though not being a mega slick, well presented release, I quite enjoyed International Rugby and I can see it appealing to others.’

‘I must admit to being a bit of a sports fanatic so when International Rugby came you can imagine my excitement. So I rushed of to my computer and immediately loaded it. Fantastic loading screen, I thought. When loaded, the presentation was very pleasing so I went straight in to the championships. The game itself was a bit of a let down: all I had to do was a few ‘Solo one’ efforts down the wing and I was thrashing them 21-0. The game was too slow and the scrum looked like a line out in the middle of the field. It doesn’t obey championship rules either — there was no 22 yard dropout when the opposition missed their conversion attempt. Overall a bit disappointing for rugby fans I think, though I hope other companies will have an attempt at this sort of game.’

‘As an ex rugby player (two manky kneecaps are constant reminders of being at the bottom of a scrum too many times) I really hoped that this was to be something special. Unfortunately it’s nothing extra special but is still great fun to play. Not all the rules of rugby apply in this game — but then it would be next to impossible to produce a Matchday quality rugby game! Naturally attribute problems do hinder play somewhat, but if you are after a rugby game on the Spectrum then give this one a bash — it’s great!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 1/Q up, down S/A left, right and bottom row pass or kick.
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive enough to play
Use of colour: colour clash abounds
Graphics: a bit ancient stylistically, but sufficient
Sound: adequate
Skill levels: 2
Screens: 1
General Rating: Though a bit crude still quite enjoyable.

Use of Computer

60%

Graphics

59%

Playability

71%

Getting Started

72%

Addictive Qualities

68%

Value for Money

66%

Overall

67%

I OF THE MASK

Producer: Electric Dreams Software
Author: Spaceman Ltd (Sandy White, Angela Sutherland, Paul Fik)
Price: £9.95

Sandy White, author of 3D Ant Attack and the follow-up Zombie Zombie has now produced his third game for Rod Cousens, who is publishing it under the new Electric Dreams label.

The game revolves around the tortuous Newgama III space trials. Equipped with an A4A Pack Jet Suit, you are cast into a massive maze containing 32 universes. To escape you need to construct a robot from active robot spares lying around within the universes which may be accessed from nodes in the maze.

There are enough parts within the maze to create at least one robot, but before a robot part can be added to your collection it must be deactivated. The parts also have to be located and deactivated in a specific order, starting from the feet upwards. Upon collecting the final component, the mask, the greatest award is bestowed: you become Of The Mask.

The top half of the screen is taken up with the view of the maze and includes a little effigy of your good self on the lower part. The bottom of the screen contains various status indicators and keeps track of the robot you are assembling, with parts being added as you collect them.

The corridors of the maze are displayed in one colour, each wall being shaded with a different pattern depending on the angle of the wall to your view. As you move through the maze, the perspective changes, together with the shading. When you turn a corner, instead of just flipping ninety degrees into the next corridor, the corner and walls move around smoothly.

The maze is split into different sections or zones, each having a colour allocated to it. In the corridors the colour of the walls matches the colour of the zone you’re in, and flashing areas shown on the map also have flashing walls when you move through them. On the bottom right hand comer of the screen is a small window showing your position upon the overall map, with your direction and position marked by a small arrow. As you move about the arrow stays central and the window scrolls over the larger maze map. Pausing the game is quite helpful. since the full map of the maze is displayed.

Along the various corridors are handily positioned node points: these are gateways to the robot parts and other sections of maze. Upon entering a node section the view flips to three giant crystals which rotate about the screen and you are given ammunition for your laser — the number of shots you have remaining is shown on a little counter in the status area.

When you fire on a crystal, it beams you to another place. The top crystal transports you to a different node with a different set of three crystals, while the bottom right crystal takes you to a section of the maze. (These crystal gates are shown on the main map of the maze by flashing areas). The bottom left crystal will transport your man into the parts store in the universe behind the three crystals.

Once in a universe you are twisted and rotated around the robot part it contains and must blast it three times in the time you are allowed. Do this, and the component is deactivated. Bonus power is awarded whenever you deactivate a part, but the component is not added to your robot unless it is the next part in the sequence.

Throughout the game a digital power counter decrements — if you don’t visit a node, enter a universe and deactivate a robot part before your energy runs out, it’s time to start another game. You start with three lives, however, and if energy’s getting desperately low you can enter a universe, deactivate a part and gain the bonus energy. If the part is not in the correct sequence, then you keep the energy but lose a life.

CRITICISM

‘This highly original program got many a gasp when it was loaded up in the office. If you merely look at the graphics objectively they’re not that hot, but once you get into playing the game it’s possible to get totally lost within the illusion. I of the Mask is technically very cunning, and there’s a fair bit of strategy to back it all up in the gameplay. There’s quite a challenge in assembling a robot. Deactivating the activated robot components was probably the strongest section. A major portion of the game depends on mapping out the vast maze area — not really my scene, though I can see the appeal for other users.’

‘The game employs some of the most remarkable graphics I’ve come across on a Spectrum. Some of the perspective shots are brilliant. Sandy White’s obviously learned a lot since 3D Ant Attack. The game contains far more than meets the eye and in fact at first, I wasn’t aware that half of the game actually existed! The extremely vague instructions didn’t help — giving no clues about how to use lives for instance — which was quite annoying. As it turns out, I of the Mask is a deceptively subtle game. It’s an attractive game too, and will doubtlessly appeal to many. Evidently, Sandy White is far ahead of his time.’

‘About two years ago Sandy White released a game called 3D Ant Attack which, at the time, was very impressive. His latest game continues the 3D theme but his techniques have advanced a bit from 1983. I of the Mask is graphically superb and a delight to watch. Essentially I of the Mask is a maze/strategy game with a few differences. While being very playable I suspect that once I completed it I wouldn’t go back to it again. With that said, it’s not going to be a game that can be finished quickly. I of the Mask represents a step forward in 3D graphics. Overall, it is a very impressive game and if you like maze games, there’s no excuse for not buying it.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: 0 to fire, H to pause and view the main map, direction keys according to joystick option selected
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Protek/Cursor
Keyboard play: unusual arrangement (see above), very responsive
Use of colour: monochromatic, avoiding attribute problems
Graphics: Sandy White ... excellent
Sound: adequate, but not outstanding
Skill levels: one
Screens: corridors linking 32 universes
General Rating: technically excellent, backed with a fair bit of strategic gameplay.

Use Of Computer

91%

Graphics

96%

Playability

92%

Getting Started

89%

Addictive Qualities

88%

Value For Money

87%

Overall

92%

ONE MAN AND HIS DROID

Producer: Mastertronic Ltd
Author: Clive Brooker, James Wilson
Price: £1.99

You’ve been sent off to the planet Anromadus to round up members of a species of alien animal named ramboids and teleport them to market. Despite the name, ramboids are not Sylvester Stallone look-a-likes, but are the Anromadian equivalent of male sheep — hence the name ramboids. Technologically things have moved on quite a bit since the days when a shepherd’s only friend was his dog. The modern shepherd has traded in Shep and got himself a droid, a multi functioning device specially designed for the job. Capable of four different modes of operation the droid is used to guide the ramboids into the teleport chamber.

When you start the game you are given the option of inputting a password in order to resume a game you were playing earlier, otherwise you start at the beginning. There are passwords for each of the twenty different ramboid-filled caverns, and as you progress through each cavern, the computer releases the corresponding password to you.

At the start of a game the screen is split up into seven different windows. Largest and centrally placed is the main window which looks into a cavern, displaying a view of your droid placed centrally amongst the scenery. Your first task is to guide the droid to the start position. When you arrive at the start the computer takes over and places the droid in the first cavern.

Once into the first cavern, the other six windows activate. A narrow, vertical window to the left of the main screen randomly shuffles eight different ramboids within itself to set the collection sequence, which is the order in which you have to get the ramboids into the teleport. A window on the right of the main screen charts your progress, indicating the ramboids you’ve penned so far with those herded into the correct place in the sequence flashing.

The four remaining windows, arranged horizontally below the main viewing window display the four modes in which the droid can be operated. The mode the droid is currently in is highlighted by a white bar above the relevant icon. The most useful mode of transport is jet mode: using the jet it’s possible to zoom about in the normal, left, right, up and down directions. The droid stays central while the bricks and earth of the cavern whizz by in the main window display. Burrow is the second mode: the droid can move left and right along ledges and will burrow into the floor while fire is held down, popping up again leaving the floor intact when it’s released. The third utility mode allows the droid to alter the cavern by digging tunnels. If the droid walks into a wall while it is in this mode, a large portion of the barrier is eaten away and the floor and ceiling of the newly formed alcove is supported with purple girders. To switch between the different modes, press fire; holding fire down reveals a map displaying the positions of all the ramboids left to be collected.

Ramboids are dim. They move very predictably, and will always reverse their direction of movement if their way is blocked. Once you know this, and watch the set patterns of movement herding them is relatively simple — but they are delicate creatures which only live for about twenty minutes. You are working against the clock all the time. Should you fail to get at least four ramboids in the teleport in the right order within the time, it’s back to the first screen.

CRITICISM

‘The game idea for this one actually contains elements of originality! An quality rarely found even in full priced mega releases. The game idea is rather neat, and is fun to play showing little derivation from any other known piece of software. Graphically One Man and his Droid is also very good — the scrolling in the main window is impressive. The droid itself is a little ill-defined, I felt, but overall the standard is quite high, especially for Mastertronic. I must admit to being favourably impressed to this release: it provided far more than £1.99’s worth of entertainment for the time I played. The only slightly marring feature was the fact you can’t restart once you’ve started a twenty minute ramboid rounding up session.’

‘Have you ever fancied yourself as an intergalactic sheep farmer? Well, if you have you’re bound to find this game pretty useful. Essentially, it’s a maze game but with a few good, new ideas added. The game takes a bit of getting used to, and careful reading of the instructions is vital but once you’re up and running it’s definitely fun and a bit of a brain teaser. Maze-lovers shouldn’t miss this game — and at £2.00 it’s difficult for anyone to go wrong.’

‘This is a game with very nicely drawn and animated graphics and quite a few neat little touches. It’s a sort of arcade/strategy game which can be quite absorbing. For the price, considering the level of finish, it’s a good deal. Well worth a second look, unlike quite a few games on the market at three or four times the price.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: A to ENTER down, Q to P up, 1 to 5 fire
Joystick: Kempston or Interface 2
Keyboard play: a little awkward, but responsive enough
Use of colour: very neat
Graphics: thoughtfully done, attractive
Sound: spot effects and constant clicking, which can annoy
Skill levels: progressive
Screens: 20 cavern systems
General Rating: A neat product, especially at the price.

Use of Computer

78%

Graphics

77%

Playability

73%

Getting Started

69%

Addictive Qualities

71%

Value for Money

85%

Overall

76%

THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE

Producer: Mosaic Publishing Ltd
Author: Level 9 Computing Ltd (Richard Kelly, Caroline Holden)
Price: £9.95

Adrian Mole the computer game is a super implementation of the highly successful and very funny diary books written by Sue Townsend. Playing the game takes you through a year in the fascinating life of Adrian Mole, a worried spotty adolescent, frustrated intellectual and poet. He has to contend with the rocky marriage of his parents, the insensitivity of his school mates and teachers, and bits of him that won’t keep still.

The problems of human existence take up much of his time but diversions lie in his relationships with a fourteen-year-old feminist named Pandora who sits next to him in geography, and an eighty nine-year-old man whom he visits with the good samaritan group from his school. He is dogged by ill-health and ill-healthed by his dog.

The aim of the game is to make our adopted hero as popular as possible with everyone — family, friends and dog. Every so often during the game your score appears on the screen with the likes of 38% indicating a middling thicko and 26% a spotty creep. The results of some actions may not be immediately obvious, for example, being too neat and tidy may arouse his mother’s guilt feelings. A number of random elements alter your course through the troubled path of adolescence and so play may vary each time you load up.

To any person who has read the Adrian Mole books, the program can still offer some challenges as some familiar scenes have a new twist. The game consists of a number of separate programs with the first two programs on Side One and the remaining two on Side Two. Each program covers a few months of Adrian’s life.

This game is not your usual adventure. The flow of text is much more like a book with the player only being asked to alter the course of events via a choice between one of three options. The fourth option, so easy to forget, displays a help menu which includes a service you would be wise to make use of early on: simply typing in the name of a character from the diary will bring up onto the screen a fact-file on that character in true Star Trek computer style. Features such as this, plus options such as RESTART and DEMO, really give this game a classy feel.

The cassette inlay speaks of an illustrated text game and this is very much what it is, as the pictures above the scrolling text do not show every new location, rather an abstract interpretation of the types of things running through our young hero’s mind. They are of similar style and frequency as those found in illustrated paperback books. As is often the case with such illustrations decorating a copious and highly absorbing text, you may well play most of the game without recalling one single picture.

If you haven’t read the Mole diaries, or seen the recent ITV television series (partly spoiled by the typecast parents) then you are in for a treat. Although the series stars a pubescent fourteen-year-old it is in fact universally funny. It, in a manner of speaking, chronicles the demise of civilisation through the miscomprehending eyes of a young budding intellectual. The idea that the world is running down is not a new one and must be pretty obvious to anyone gullible enough to have been harangued into buying a TV licence by those ridiculous BBC adverts. The fact that the Mole books soothe with laughter our institutionalised paranoia is nothing new. What the books, and this computer program, do bring out afresh through some very subtle writing is an atmosphere where even the most blinkered half cretin can see just what is so patently ludicrous about the lifestyles and mores being forced upon us by the advertising media (television and the Sunday Times etc).

At one point in the program, after doing his own washing, Mole wonders why his mum can’t be like those washday housewives on the telly. At another point he thinks of War and Peace as a Russian Dallas. I could go on with many examples but suffice to say that Adrian Mole is a tonic for so much of the nonsense behind our society’s decline into an uncaring and ludicrous bureaucracy. He is a likeable and very human person at a time when just about every character depicted in films, books and on television, is so uncaring, unashamedly self-motivated, and inhuman.

We join Mole’s diary on the first day of the year where he enters his new year resolutions which include hanging trousers up, a stop to squeezing spots, and, after hearing the disgusting noises from downstairs the previous night, a vow never to drink alcohol. The next few months see Mole observing a Mr Lucas, the next door neighbour, serving up a cup of tea while Mrs Lucas concretes the front of the house, sending a poem entitled ‘The Tap’ to the BBC, and a rebellious phase were both he and Pandora wear red socks to school. The story is peppered with humorous comments on modern life at the end of a cul-de-sac. At one point he comments on his ill-health and wonders at the amount of boil-in-the-bag food the family has eaten. His red spots could be an allergic reaction to plastic.

The idyllic lazy life of a schoolboy is far from our young hero as he has to come to terms with a mother fresh from assertiveness training who has him cleaning the whole house, and a fusty old codger called Bert Baxter who smokes, drinks brown ale and keeps a ferocious alsatian but who can’t have long to live as he is older than Ronald Reagan. But when life’s frustrations and inconsistencies become too much there’s always that intellectual medium which is the home of all greatwriters — the poem. I’ll leave you with this one concerning Adrian’s English teacher’s transportation. Dock Leaf’s got a Fiat, Covered in red rust, Its paint is blue, Its smoke is too, The wing mirrors are bust, Dock Leaf’s in his banger, Bouncing down the lane, the engine coughs, Exhaust falls off, And then it stops again.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy to play
Graphics: abstract
Presentation: good
Input facility: one of four options
Response: very fast
General Rating: Mole is brilliant, and so is the game. Find somewhere that sells it, before we all go insane.

Atmosphere

9/10

Logic

9/10

Addictive Quality

9/10

Overall

9/10

SPIKE

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Anad
Price: £1.99

The platform game is far from dead. Spike is the latest offering from Firebird in their budget Silver range, and the game is filled with ledges and platforms to leap between as you help star of the game, Spike, to make his way through the caverns of the Golden Dream World.

Spike is on a quest to find the Dream Sphere and then lead it to the Hall of Dreams where he can swap it for a reward of his choice and thus finish the game. As is always the case in such affairs, each cavern contains at least one Guardian of The Sphere, or mobile nasty whose only purpose is to remove a life from the intruder. Other static hazards, including fires and sharp pointy bits are scattered around the caverns and have to be circumvented.

Each screen has only one entrance and one exit, so you have to move through the game sequentially. The caverns are linked by corridors, and the screens are drawn Manic Miner fashion.

Spike himself is a tiny little guy with a pointed nose and-rounded stomach who scampers around the caves very quickly indeed, with his little legs spinning round in a blur. Apart from tucking his tootsies up into his body when he leaps. Spike performs no other animated trick and is without arms. This presents no problem however, as the Golden Sphere will follow his once found and need not be carried. Once he’s found the sphere, it can still escape — so the return journey needs to be conducted in a sober manner, without too many jolts to sever the link between the Sphere and Spike.

The caverns contain a variety of hidden switches, some of which reveal hidden platforms essential for Spike’s safe progress through the chamber. Others contain keys which open doors for the little chap, hastening him on his way. At the bottom of the screen is a row of reserve Spikes — when the active Spike loses a life a replacement marches promptly onto the screen and begins at the start of the cavern where the accident took place. There are only five little Spikes in a team, however, and once they’re played out it’s time for a new game.

CRITICISM

‘Spike is another in the never ending stream of arcade adventures. My main criticism with Spike is that he is too small — you would have thought that software companies would have learned by now that the public like big colourful characters. Never mind the colour clashes — that’s why Wally was so successful. Spike is a very highly polished game, even right down to the excellent scream when the guy gets hit by a guardian. The constant clicking when Spike walks does become annoying after a while. If you’re not a fan of Manic Miner type games or arcade adventures, then this one is unlikely to change your mind. But for £1.99, you can’t complain.’

‘There are some very sloppy parts to this otherwise very well programmed game. You can sometimes see where a platform is going to appear by walking behind it. It will cut off part of Spike until you move out of the way. Also, the very fast movement prevents fine manoeuvres unless a great deal of practice is put in. Some of the leaps needed have to be almost pixel perfect. The rest of the game I thought was very unimpressive. Far too much like Manic Miner and not enough new features. At £1.99, some will think this is good buy, but I find it a poor excuse for an outdated idea.’

‘The game provides some fun — especially if it’s a while since you played this kind of thing. It’s old hat but harmless, unpretentious fun. I don’t see why all the awful plots have to be put behind this kind of game. They add nothing and are often embarrassingly incongruous. I didn’t mind playing this game and just for something different, I wouldn’t mind buying it — but no more inane plots, please!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: V left, B right, Space jump
Joystick: keyboard only
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: limited
Graphics: detailed, but small
Sound: one very good effect, otherwise mildly annoying
Skill levels: one
Screens:
General Rating: Dated format, but pleasant all the same.

Use of Computer

49%

Graphics

50%

Playability

59%

Getting Started

81%

Addictive Qualities

60%

Value for Money

71%

Overall

61%

TAU CETI

Producer: CRL
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Pete Cooke

Location: Tau Ceti System
Stellar Data: G Type
Distance from Earth: 19.4 light years
Galactic co-ordinates: 13 degrees Galactic South West
Colonisation Data: First wave left Earth in 2050 arriving 2090. Tau Ceti III colony lost within ninety years due to plague. This was to become the first major disaster in man’s involvement with space. Soon after, a second expedition met with an even worse fate...
Excerpt from Encyclopaedia Galactica

Man’s first colony on Tau Ceti III was wiped out by a previously undiscovered plague. When a cure was found, a second expedition left for the world. Unfortunately, the planet’s automatic self defence system had malfunctioned meantime, and the ships of the second expedition and all the colonists were wiped out. After much deliberation back on earth it was decided that a small one-man vessel might manage to penetrate the defence screens and shut down the central nuclear reactor which powers the robot guards. A tricky mission — but it just might be possible. ‘Like a fool, you volunteered,’ as it says on the box cover.

Tau Ceti is a complex game to play. You control a Skimmer, and begin from a docking bay in a city on Tau Ceti III. Basically, you have to wander around this and other cities finding and collecting cooling rods which need to be installed in the planet’s main fusion reactor in order to shut it down. Once the reactor has been switched off, the guardian robots will cease to prowl the planet’s surface and colonists will be able to move back in safety.

Your view into the game is from the cockpit of the skimmer. The display is dominated by your viewing window which shows the surroundings in a shaded, 3D perspective. Below this window is a communications screen used for entering commands into the skimmer’s controls and for receiving system messages such as ‘missile launched’. To the right of this smaller window are two orientation markers and ship’s status indicators. Here the shield strength, skimmer height, fuel level, laser temperature, speed and weapon inventory are all immediately visible to the player.

Above this is another window which displays a radar map of the skimmer’s current location. Finally, at the top of the right hand part of the screen a compass, view indicator and clock are found.

The main screen can present a view out onto the planet which may be to the front, back or to either side of the skimmer. A map of the planet and the links between the cities can also be called up and zoomed in and out of, and when it comes to manipulating the cooling rods, it’s all done from the viewscreen. You can also make notes in this area of the screen.

Various kinds of robot inhabit the different cities, including prowling flying saucers. Some are harmless, but most will send laser bolts plummeting into your sides immediately. The only answer to such action is return fire. Your lasers have to be aimed but, unless they are damaged, they last forever. Missiles, once fired, home in for the kill — but you only have a limited supply. Take your pick. A successful hit turns your target into a shower of shimmering pixels which slowly fall to the ground.

As the day progresses the angle of the sun changes and the shadows cast by buildings and the way in which objects are illuminated alters. At night, because of the graphic technique involved, most robots and buildings become practically invisible. To counter this, you can use infra red to view the world. This lasts for as long as you need it, but tends to leave after images on the screen. Flares, on the other hand, are as good as daylight for a while, but there are only a few of these.

To get from one city to another, you have to reach certain nexus points. Docking the ship in one of these gives you a rest, more fuel and the opportunity to reach other cities in the network.

CRITICISM

‘The graphics featured in this game are very good, in fact they’re some of the best filled-in graphics I’ve seen on the Spectrum. The shading, which alters depending on the position of the sun, adds to the realism. The only thing that lets the game down is the sound, which is slightly disappointing. Every once in a while, a new game comes along which is destined to become a classic; Tau Ceti is on the same par with games such as Elite and Lords of Midnight. The depth and the complexity of the game make a sure fire winner with people who like involving software, but for me the nice touches make the program worth while — like infra red mode and the note pad. Though the game is complex, it is very easy to get into once you have mastered the controls of the craft.’

‘Tau Ceti is one of the best games I have seen for a long stretch of time. The game just oozes originality. Even the scenario is original. When it first loaded up I was amazed at the display as it bore little resemblance to any style of graphic I had previously seen on the Spectrum. Seeing a saucer glide gracefully across the screen with the shading adjusting, according to its relative position to the sun, is just amazing. The sense of reality is something to behold indeed. Normally, after such an amazing technical show, I’d expect the actual game to be of a below average standard. Not so. The game shows a depth of design normally found only in arcade machines. Blasting alien artefacts is fun and the section with the damping rods is very good, showing some similarities with Impossible Mission’s puzzle section. Definitely worthy of space on anyone’s software rack.’

‘Superb game. What else can you say about something that captures the imagination so brilliantly and has no flaws at all. This is the kind of game that just doesn’t date. There are too many good features and no sickly gimmicks. When we saw the preview version, I suspected that it would be excellent but it has far surpassed anyone’s expectations. Pete Cooke should go far. He has brought us a game that will be remembered as an all time classic. There’s not much more to say.’

Looking out onto the planet’s surface in TAU CETI. The stars shine brightly in the yellow sky adding an air of mystery to the weird buildings to be found. Waxing poetic, you go out to destroy the nasties

TAU CETI. You start the game docked with the Gal Corp lander, safe and snug — but this state of affairs doesn’t last long...

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: keys only
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: superb
Sound: average
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolling
General rating: an excellent game, combining several elements with stunning graphics

Use of computer

94%

Graphics

94%

Playability

90%

Getting started

87%

Addictive qualities

94%

Value for money

92%

Overall

94%

THUNDERBIRDS

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: John F. Cain, Kevin A. Moughtin
Price: £3.95

A team of Egyptologists have accidentally been trapped within the deep recesses of a newly discovered ancient maze-tomb. Their oxygen is rapidly running out and they manage to send out a plea for help on their radio transmitter in the hope that someone, somewhere will hear their cry for help. Well someone does. Their call is received by Thunderbird Five, orbiting high in the stratosphere and it is John Tracy, member of International Rescue who hears the Egyptologists’ message. The information is soon relayed to International Rescue’s base and Thunderbirds One and Two are scrambled into action.

This is where you come in. After sitting through a multi channel rendition of the Thunderbirds theme, the game starts on a menu screen, where you choose the equipment you wish Thunderbird 2 to carry. Thunderbird 2 can move a forty ton payload, and you must choose your equipment accordingly. A variety of useful items and equipment is available, including Thunderbird 4, The Mole, weed killer, earthquake bombs and scanning equipment as well as extra fuel. For each tonne of equipment you take you forfeit a hundred of the two thousand points you start with. Moving a pointer labelled select against the name of an item and pressing fire causes it to be loaded into Thunderbird 2.

The action flips to the launch screen once you’ve loaded up. In a blaze of pixels Thunderbird One takes off, followed by Thunderbird 2 unless it’s overloaded in which case the overweight message is flashed up and some of the equipment chosen has to be replaced.

The Egyptian tomb is split into many rooms, each bordered and split into a maze with character wide squares. Both Thunderbird One and Thunderbird Two are in the tomb, though you can only control one at a time. The ships move in the four basic joystick directions with the control being switched between the two via the fire button.

The idea of the game is to pass through the mazes to reach and rescue the scientists. The trouble is, some of the passages are blocked with coloured slabs of stone and others are not wide enough to allow Thunderbird Two to pass. Blocks can be moved by nudging then with the craft. While red blocks can be shifted by either ship, blue blocks can only be moved by Thunderbird One while green ones only respond to Thunderbird Two. At times the two ships will have to co-operate closely to clear a path. A limiting factor introduced to make the game a bit more difficult is the inability to swap control when the ships are on adjacent screens: you have to be two screens away or on the same sheet as the other Thunderbird to change control.

Throughout the game when you come onto a sheet where a piece of the equipment you’ve chosen to bring can be used the relevant machines comes automatically into action.

Other little problems confront you later in the game — it’s not all block moving and passage clearing — there’s water to be passed and insects to be bypassed to mention just a couple of hazards held in store but there’s also some treasure to be collected if you’re in the mood. All the time you’re in flight, fuel is being used, and while there are supplies to be found in the tomb, it’s quite possible to run out... It’s quite possible to get stuck on a screen, with the way forward blocked — so you can save a game position out and reload later if you think you’re about to make a fatal mistake.

CRITICISM

‘Though Thunderbirds is quite an enjoyable logic game I must admit to being disappointed — the Thunderbirds series could have given rise to a really brilliant game. As it stands, Thunderbirds is an original, but ultimately simple game. Not a bad idea, but nothing exceptional. The graphics move poorly and don’t look too wonderful. The music is very good though and gives a surprisingly accurate rendition of the Thunderbirds theme music. I don’t think this game is really worth of Firebird’s Super Silver label although it can be quite enjoyable.’

‘Thunderbirds is a bit of a let down for me. I had imagined a fantastic game of really high quality, and this didn’t live up to my expectations. The graphics are large and nicely animated but they’re a little primitive; there’s a nice tune but it tends to get on your nerves after a while. I enjoyed playing Thunderbirds for a while, but it got a bit boring, solving the same kind of puzzles continually.’

‘It’s a shame really — this game almost loses out because of the name it’s got to live up to. Thunderbirds, the game, has some nice touches, like the title screen and music and general scenario, all of which tie it in with the telly programs — but what on earth are Thunderbirds One and Two doing flying round inside a giant Egyptian Tomb? Solving puzzles, that’s what pal. Neat puzzles, tricky puzzles, but not Thunderbirds are Go puzzles. It’s almost a waste of a name this one — little more than the shape of the ships and the theme tune ties it into the TV series. In its own right, though, not a bad little game.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston.
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: not always in the best of taste!
Graphics: large graphics that avoid colour clash but are a bit chunky
Sound: excellent multi-channel tune, very good indeed.
Skill levels: 1
Screens:
General Rating: A good game for puzzle and logic problem enthusiasts.

Use of Computer

65%

Graphics

62%

Playability

69%

Getting Started

71%

Addictive Qualities

66%

Value for Money

67%

Overall

64%

TOMAHAWK

Producer: Digital Integration
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Dave Marshall

Following the success of Digital Integration’s Fighter Pilot based on the Tomcat, Dave Marshall sat down and studied the specifications for the Hughes Apache Advanced Attack Helicopter. Now, after a long wait, the fruits of his labours are finally available with the release of Tomahawk, the helicopter flight simulator which puts you in control of one mean machine. Once you’ve got past the Lenslok the main menu is displayed, which allows you to choose from a range of flight options and weather conditions:
Flying Training — this helps you become familiar with the helicopter instruments and develop ground attack skills;
Combat — which puts you in a battlefield scenario with live hostile targets;
Day or Night — at night there is no artificial horizon and your view is limited to the pilot’s night vision system;
Clear or Cloudy — you can choose an overcast sky for instrument flying;
Cloudbase — selectable cloudbase, you chose the height at which you wish the clouds to appear if any are desired;
Crosswinds and Turbulence — for the experienced pilot. Allows for variable crosswinds and turbulence effects;
Sound — if set to ON then it mainly consists of effects generated by the rotor blades;
Pilot Rating — effectively the skill level option. There are four choices ranging, from the Trainee to Ace;
Controls — joystick or keys option. Allows for two ports to be used on Interface 2 for enhanced helicopter control.

You view the game from the cockpit. The top half of the screen is dedicated to the horizon and any features that might appear on the landscape (or the map, in map mode). The lower section of the screen takes the form of an instrument panel which displays the status of all the flight controls. These consist of bar scales for throttle position, fuel, engine torque, turbine and rotor RPM, engine temperature and collective position indicator. There are also readouts on altitude, time to target, ground position, speed in knots and vertical speed. Also featured on the instrument panel is the artificial horizon. This gives information on roll and pitch, while to the right of this is the Doppler Navigation/radar; using this it is possible to find your way to other landing pads as well as track enemy targets.

At your disposal are three types of weapons: Guns which have a range of about 2000 ft; Rockets — the Apache is equipped with 38 of these (19 each side) and they have a range of 4000 ft; Missiles are laser guided and automatically lock on to the target. You only have 8 of these. Each type of weapon is controlled by a different type of sight.

When in combat mode there are a number of possible targets such as tanks, field guns and enemy helicopters all of which are depicted in 3D vector graphics. Fighting is not easy and it is advisable to train for quite a while before going into combat mode. As well as using the tracking system, the map is in constant use in combat, so it is necessary to learn how to fly ‘blind’, without the graphic representation of the horizon.

The number of variables that can be set on the main, option screen allows you to almost redefine the game. If you get bored playing one way, for instance, you can make the game a lot tougher by selecting a cloudy option and adding in crosswinds and turbulence.

CRITICISM

‘When Fighter Pilot was first released I had just bought my Spectrum and remember thinking what an ace simulation it was. Now, almost 2 years later, the sequel has been released and it is every bit as good as the original. My first impressions were that it looked just like Fighter Pilot but after playing it for a while, you realise that it has been improved a lot. The graphics are very good with nice representations of enemy tanks and helicopters. The only real problem that I had with the game was that it was a bit tough to get right into — but if it wasn’t so tough then it wouldn’t be so realistic. I would definitely recommend this game to anybody who is keen on simulations. Arcade addicts would find it a touch boring, perhaps.’

‘This has to be one of the most awaited proggies ever: the development time was even longer than The Great Space Race. Well the end product is certainly better than Legend’s little problem and all in all a very competent flight simulator indeed. The best thing about Tomahawk is that it’s instantly accessible. I found it very easy to power up and fly around with practically no skill involved at all. As you get into the game and start using the combat options, things get more complex and a fair bit of practice will be required. The graphics move fairly well considering the complexity of some of the shapes that are handled. At one point, though, I’m sure I managed to fly through a mountain.. Overall a very good simulation indeed, even if it is a mite late. Non-flight freaks should see before buying, but flight maniacs will love it.’

‘This is the sort of game I couldn’t honestly recommend to someone who likes sitting down to a game which can be competently played instantly. As with most flight simulators, practice makes perfect. The 3D works pretty well once you get into the air and the update on the horizon is about the quickest you’ll get on the Spectrum, considering everything else the program is doing. The multitude of missions and combat sequences must make Tomahawk potentially the most durable program yet to be released on the Spectrum. The instructions are excellent and show you in detail how you can fly the Apache. Perhaps Digital Integration should have made more of them — a bigger box with glossier bumph would have added even more finesse to an already brilliant program. If you liked Fighter Pilot then this is the natural progression; if you’ve never seen it, give this one a go — it could well get you hooked!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q decrease collective, A increase collective, Z/Caps Shift rudder left/right, C combat mode, N next objective, P select weapon, 7/6 nose down/up, 8/5 roll right/left, 0 fire button, W/S open/close throttle
Joystick: Interface 2, Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: lots of keys but quite a good response
Use of colour: not a lot of colour but generally well used
Graphics: nice vector graphics
Sound: limited but put to good use
Skill levels: 4
Screens: massive playing area
General rating: a very good, very realistic simulation but it may not appeal to arcade players.

Use of computer

93%

Graphics

93%

Playability

89%

Getting started

86%

Addictive qualities

95%

Value for money

92%

Overall

93%

WORLD SERIES BASKETBALL

Producer: Imagine Software Ltd
Price: £7.95

When you load the game you are presented with plenty of options. You can select six levels of play against the computer or play against another human player. If the action is all too intimidating at first, there’s always the practice mode if you’re new to the game. This allows you to try scoring goals solo against three players and gives you the chance to practice ball control and dribbling skills. You start off in your own half and have to dribble your way up to the basket, evade the opposition, and plonk it in. You can also change the colours of the team and ground — useful if you’ve only got a black and white telly.

Once you’ve set all the options and want to play press the start button! The teams run out of the changing rooms and take their positions for the tip-off. A peep of the ref’s whistle sounds and the game starts with the ball being thrown into the air between two players from opposing teams. You have to jump up into the air and knock it down to one of your team-mates before your opponent does in order to gain possession.

As the ball travels around the pitch the playing area scrolls from left to right. In all the playing area is between two and three screens long and is viewed panoramically like Match Day. Indeed, World Series Baseball works very much in the same way as Ocean’s classic football game Match Day, and those who have played the football game won’t have any difficulty with getting into basketball. Playing a whole computer basketball team is fairly straightforward — the nearest player to the ball is chosen by the computer and put under your control. You’ll know which player it is because his shirt will mysteriously change colour. If you pass the ball then the player receiving is automatically selected for you to control.

The general aim of the game is to retain possession of the ball as much as possible and to take as many shots as you can at your opponent’s basket. A scoreboard keeps track of the game and tells you the time remaining and, of course, the score. It also acts as a message board when a team scores ‘GOAL’ scrolls across it.

A game is divided into two halves, each half being three minutes long.

CRITICISM

‘First it was baseball, a relatively unheard of game over here which Imagine made into a big hit. I hope they have similar success with basketball, as it’s a great game. As a rule I’m not a sport simulation person, but I’ve been playing this one for hours and I can’t see myself putting it down until I get a decent score. The only niggle I have with this game is that it’s hard to tell which of your four players you are controlling — and you can only change the player you control when you are in possession. Generally, though, I thought the game was exceptionally playable and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sports simulations.’

‘The only other Basketball game presently on the Spectrum is One on One and that wasn’t too hot. Luckily, if you like this type of game, World Series Basketball is very good. The graphics allow you to change the colours of the teams and reminded me of Matchday. The game follows the rules of basketball, but they aren’t too tough — you should be able to get into the game easily. Overall this is a good simulation, well presented (although it does crash now and again), but only worth getting if you know you like games of this sort.’

‘What a funny game this is: only four players per side and no referees. I was really looking forward to this after the brilliant World Series Baseball, but I suppose it couldn’t be matched. The options page isn’t as good as the other Imagine 84 games and the sound is a real let down, but the graphics make up for some of this. I’m not sure that all basketball fans will go for WSB (I didn’t to begin with). There’s quite a few niggly shortcomings with it which might annoy basketball fans. My advice would be to hang on for a while until Elite release their basketball game and compare the two rather than rushing out and buying this one now.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Definable.
Joystick:
Keyboard play: confusing with two players
Use of colour: bland
Graphics: no shortage of attribute problems
Sound: Peep!
Skill levels: Six
Screens: N/A
General Rating: Bound to impress simulation fans.

Use of Computer

76%

Graphics

78%

Playability

82%

Getting Started

77%

Addictive Qualities

78%

Value for Money

78%

Overall

81%

XCEL

Producer: Activision Inc
Author: Program Techniques (Graeme Devine)
Price: £7.95

Eons ago mankind set up a network of giant computer systems to watch over the interests of the human race. As time passed, the computers gathered more and more information and these Sentinel computers gained a kind of intelligence. A Golden Era dawned and man became totally reliant on the Sentinel systems based on thirty planets spread across the galaxy.

Gradually, however, this massive computer network became corrupted. The systems on the Sentinel planets began to change — intelligence, acquired gradually, evolved into consciousness. With consciousness came a desire for power, and gradually, very gradually, the Sentinels took over. Without noticing, mankind became subservient, existing only to fulfil the needs of machines. You have come to realise what’s happened.

Stealing an alien spacecraft from a museum, you pause only to tinker with the ship’s systems to produce some English in the displays, before setting out into space with the noble aim of liberating the human race from slavery. You must find and destroy the thirty Sentinel Bases scattered across the galaxy.

You view the console of the alien ship, which has a large central viewscreen about which eight icons are grouped. Using these icons you can call up one of two onboard computers; check your status; access maps; launch a probe onto the surface of the planet your ship is orbiting; hyperspace to another planet or system; view communications; or return to the main display, which shows the moving surface of the planet which you’re orbiting.

The first computer controls the game itself, allowing you to save a position out to tape, load a previous position in, quit the current game or go to a help screen. The second computer holds information on the planets and allows you to view maps of the landscapes to be found on their surfaces.

Your status is recorded as a percentage rating for shields and a ratio of hits over shots loosed off — which is part of the scoring system for the whole game. You can see how you’re doing via the status icon, which displays a graph on the viewscreen. Messages are displayed if the communications icon is selected and a horizontal window is used for scrolling details of planet systems and mission outcomes. Icons flash to indicate that you should select them.

Each of the 100 planet systems in the game contains three worlds and the map icon provides you with a means of choosing which planet or system you wish to visit next. Once the choice is made, accessing the hyperspace mode via the icon takes you to a hyperjump display sequence; then the viewscreen reverts to the display of planetary orbit — you’ve arrived at your destination and it’s time to launch a shuttle. Shuttle launch is achieved via the appropriate icon, and then the whole screen changes to the combat mode — you pilot the shuttle in a mission, travelling along the surface of the planet you are exploring, which scrolls down vertically.

You have five shuttles to go exploring with — contact with anything on a planet’s surface destroys a shuttle and you must guide the shuttle between trees and other objects. Trees can’t be blown away — and part of each attack run requires you to negotiate a maze of trees. At the end of each arcade section you meet up with the mobile sentinel defenders and need to fight your way through an attack wave. If you run the gauntlet of planetary defences without losing a shuttle you will be returned to the mother ship — if there is a Sentinel base on that planet it will be destroyed.

Changes between screens and modes are executed by a “wipe” sequence which moves out from the centre of the viewscreen, clearing the screen as it expands. Text messages generally appear in alien script and are then translated but some of them remain in the original script. The game’s authors insist that useful information can still be gleaned from the untranslated messages ... And the alien digital clock and the bottom of the viewscreen ticks off upwards!

CRITICISM

‘Something about the game reminded me of Pole Position — the way the keyboard/interface options were given and the game over logo at the end. But it’s got nothing to do with cars! This is a sort of shoot-em-up-overnite game where you have to cover some 300 play areas. I soon got bored with it, partly because of the ten second delay between ending one game and starting the next when I’d lost my five shuttles. Some of the graphics are outstanding — technically excellent — but overall there’s not enough to do. Some may go mad over this, but I’ll stick to Hacker.’

‘Wow! The graphics on the console ... The presentation of this game is excellent; from the loading screen through the main console and the way in which the alien script is translated to the hyperspace jump where the stars get bigger as they approach. But the actual arcade section, with scrolling trees and doobries, lacks polish and finesse. The scrolling speed varies noticeably depending on how much is on screen and the shoot em up sequences get monotonous after a while. Technically brilliant front end, leading to a vast playing area and mediocre game. Pity really — I couldn’t be bothered to keep up the search for the bases...’

‘Activision aren’t exactly renowned for their Spectrum software, but XCEL is better than most of their games on the Spectrum. The graphics in the main ship are very impressive, but once the game on the surface of a planet starts it’s little more than a glorified shoot em up. Playability wise it is enjoyable, but after a while it became boring and repetitive. As shoot em ups go this is quite good, but if you’re after a game with lots of depth than forget this one! Sorry Activision, but you’ve a way to go yet...’

COMMENTS

Control keys: icons accessed with Q computer 1, A computer 2, Caps Shift status, Z map, P launch probe, Enter hyperspace jump, Space communication, Symbol Shift main viewscreen
Joystick: Interface 2, Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive, keys sensibly placed
Use of colour: very neat indeed
Graphics: very slick
Sound: spot effects, a little annoying at times
Skill levels: one
Screens: three hundred planets
General Rating: Technically excellent, graphically stunning, but not really that much gameplay.

Use of Computer

78%

Graphics

85%

Playability

81%

Getting Started

78%

Addictive Qualities

70%

Value for Money

72%

Overall

75%

ZOOT

Producer: Bug-Byte Software Ltd
Author: Zip
Price: £2.95

If you have never heard a computer talking ‘Scratch’ then Zoot could offer you a new experience. As soon as the game has loaded you are greeted with a bit of verbal which, though quite intelligible, defies the confines of the written word.

Zoot is a fairly large, cumbersome sort of a chap. His passion, we are told, is playing marbles but he’s lost them down a drain. Well Zoot does what any devotee would do — he follows them. So begin the adventures of Zoot and his friend Zip.

Life past the drain cover isn’t at all what you might expect. In order for Zoot to recover his marbles he must make his way through eleven caverns, and each one demands the performance of a specific task. On the first screen you are greeted by the Dumb Goopas. You know they’re dumb because the instructions say so; you are also told to move Zoot about the cavern bashing each one. Goopas don’t like being bashed, so as soon as you hit them they explode and die.

Moving about the cavern is a complicated business. What you see is four platform levels, with each level divided into a total of eight separate segments or gaps. You guide Zoot left or right along a platform until he meets an obstruction or comes to a gap in the path. If there is a section missing from the platform Zoot can still move: he squats down, grins, and flies one complete segment across the gap. There’s no way Zoot can cross a gap two or more sections wide, however.

Zoot can also pilot platform segments downwards providing there is a section below him to land on which is free from obstructions. If there are no segments below Zoot in the column, he will cycle round the top of the screen. When he travels vertically, Zoot claps one hand to his eyes and looks distinctly worried! No wonder — if Zoot moves a segment down when it is the only segment in the column, then he meets a sticky end: if there isn’t platform left for him to land on, he loses a life.

Each cavern in the game is, in effect, a giant sliding puzzle and the puzzle element in the game becomes clear by the time you are into the second screen. The task here is not simply to go round biffing the creatures but to trap them on single platform segments so they cannot move. This takes careful planning as it’s very easy for Zoot himself to become trapped. Other screens involve collecting marbles while dodging the flying Zip (who can be a help as well as a hindrance), collecting or punching bells, removing all of the sections and picking up as many points from as many ledges as you can work your way round. The last five screens require you to perform a combination of the tasks encountered in the first six screens.

The creatures, or Mankins, which Zoot encounters on his journey, vary in their own little ways. The Goopas are dumb while the Bodkins are shy. The one called Cheeky is indestructible when his tongue is out. Others like Spike, Uggy, Bogie and Grimbo have their own nasty habits. For most of the time the Mankins are pretty harmless but they can deprive Zoot of one of his four lives if he comes into contact with them. When Zoot loses a life he must negotiate the screen again. The same is true if Zoot miscalculates his movement and attempts to move down onto a section where one does not exist. If the Gods are smiling down on Zoot he might get the opportunity to collect extra lives or even an object called an IDC tablet. Picking up the tablet seems to remove random sections and may benefit Zoot by trapping some of the Mankins for him.

CRITICISM

‘Zoot is a pretty boring chap. Although the graphics are large, clear and jolly the game was altogether too slow for my liking. The theme of the game is both clever and original but isn’t involved enough to fall comfortably into the puzzle game category, while the lack of speed bars it from being classified as an arcade game. A cheerful and jolly game with little substance to it, really.’

‘Another game from the new budget software label, Bug-Byte — as with the rest this one is quite well finished with nice graphics and sound. Zoot’s even got a bit of speech included. Generally, though, I felt there wasn’t much of a game behind it all. The graphics are large and jolly and the sound is satisfying. As for the game itself... I played it for about half an hour before I sussed out what I was supposed to be doing! It grows on you after a while though, and I found myself quite enjoying it after several goes.’

‘Though I was quite impressed with the style of graphics, I wasn’t that overjoyed by the game. If it had been a bit better implemented, perhaps a little faster or a bit less jerky then maybe it would have been received a bit better. Presentation wise I was very impressed — the title screen with accompanying scratch track was amazing — but when it comes down to it, it’s not a bad game, but not a remarkable one either, even for a budget label.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right, A for down, 0 to punch
Joystick: Kempston and Interface II
Keyboard play: fair
Use of colour: simple
Graphics: witty and jolly, but very slow
Sound: superb speech synthesis at the beginning and end
Skill levels: one
Screens: eleven
General Rating: Cheap and cheerful, fun for a while.

Use of Computer

75%

Graphics

60%

Playability

53%

Getting Started

55%

Addictive Qualities

57%

Value for Money

65%

Overall

59%