Issue No. 24 1985/86

DIY

THIRTEEN MAY BE UNLUCKY FOR SOME
But there’s going to be lots and lots of winners in our Christmas competitions this year. Can you afford [to miss] the chance to pick up so many free goodies?

SWORDS AND SWORCERY
Well, Swords and Sorcery really. Win a Dragon’s Lair laser disk video machine

THE OCEAN EXTRAVAGANZA
Ocean Goodiebags and bags of games up for grabs

WIN A SYNTHESISER
In Micro Musical’s MIDI competition

WIN THE COMPLETE WORKS — TWO CHANCES
Melbourne House sponsor a couple of caption comps for Rock’n’Wrestle and Fighting Warrior

YABBA DABBA DOO
A colour telly and three VTX5000s up for grabs in the Fred Flintstone comp

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Or a diary for your dates. 50 Letts computer diaries to be won, with educational software as top prize

EEK! A SCARY ONE
Fifty T Shirts for fifty runners up and a weekend in London for the winner in Domark’s Friday the 13th Comp

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTING MACHINE
You’ve got to design it in Martech’s Zoid Challenge

BALLBLAZER CASSETTES TO BE WON
Apart from the VTX5000s, that is

CREAM OF THE CROP
US Gold have a couple of Microdrive and Interface 1 packs up for grabs. 50 Impossible Missions, too

ONE FOR THE OLIFANS
Your comp minion secures an Oli Original to give away. And the winner can collect it from Ludlow and have a day out at CRASH Towers

THE SINCLAIR STORY
Duckworths, the publishers, are giving away copies of their biography of Sir Clive Sinclair

HEWSON’S EXTRAVAGANZA
Play Programmers’ Photofit and win Hewson’s goodiebags. Worth lots of money, they are

FEATURES

LOOKBACK
Lloyd Mangram peers into his backward-looking Crystal Ball and revisits the games of 1985

GOING GA-GARGOYLE
A trip to the Dudley lair of Gargoyle games reveals the secrets behind the men who brought you TIR NA NOG, DUN DARACH and MARSPORT

OLI FREY POSTER

THE HUMAN TOUCH
A Little Christmas Diversion — a short story by Wilf Prigmore

THE CRASH READERS’ AWARDS
Your chance to have your say about what went on in 1985

AT THE CONSULTANTS
Hewson Consultants, that is. Roger Kean (for it is he) learns a few secrets of the future

ON THE COVER
Another treat. Lots and lots of background on Oli Frey, our very own Airbrush Maestro

REGULARS

EDITORIAL

CRASH FORUM
Once again Lloyd picks over your letters. For the festive seasons, he’s arranged a Bug Box Special

CANDYRAMA — PLAYING TIPS PART ONE
A veritable compendium of POKEs, lots of tips and a map of Starquake

CRASH HOTLINE AND ADVENTURE CHART

PLAYING TIPS PART TWO
Is there no stopping the lad?

CRASH COURSE

LLOYD MANGRAM’S HALL OF SLIME
Christmas Creepy Crawly High Score types air their egos

TECH NICHE
Fast Storage roundup; The Plastic Policeman; Art Studio and more

RESULTS
A selection of lucky winners get their names in print and prizes in the post

ADVENTURE TRAIL
Derek Brewster’s thrown into a dungeon in Swords and Sorcery, and visits a whole host of strange places

SIGNPOST
Including Signstumps, tips for adventurers in difficulties as well as another Superhero and letters

FRONTLINE
Mr Masterson’s Strategy Shop

The 23rd January is the first date in 1986 not to miss. February CRASH is in the shops, that’s why!

REVIEWS

- Austerlitz Lothlorien

- Beach Head II US Gold

- Chimera Firebird

- Commando Elite

- Endurance CRL

- The Evil Crown Mind Games (Argus)

- Geoff Capes Strongman Martech

- Gladiator Domark

- International Karate System 3

- Ludoids Bug Byte

- Panzadrome Ariola

- Quest for the Holy Grail Mastertronic

- Robin of the Wood Odin

- Robot Messiah Alphabatim

- Rockman Mastertronic

- Roller Coaster Elite

- Saboteur Durell

- Screenplay MacMillan

- Seas of Blood Fighting Fantasy

- Shadow of the Unicorn Mikro-Gen

- Souls of Darkon Taskset

- Spellbound Mastertronic

- Swords and Sorcery PSS

- Vectron Insight

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

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.

LLOYD MANGRAM’S LOOK BACK AT 1985

In the last Christmas Special ‘Look Back’, I said 84 was probably the year of CRASH, but as during 85 our sales per month rose from 49,000 to over 100,000 copies, it seems I was happily pessimistic about the year to come. Now it is passed — and what a year it has been!

Last year I was able to spot some trends — the death of the arcade shoot em up, the software slump, the dramatic improvement in software programming and the rise of the TV/Film/Game link up.

During 85 I think it would be fair to say that the arcade shoot em up made a significant come back, the software slump continued with many big and small companies vanishing, software programming techniques continued to improve and the TV/Film/Game tie-ins added books and commercial enterprise endorsements to become the most important aspect in games marketing. I’ll be looking at all these trends as they appear month by month, starting with the 84/85 Christmas issue, which was really our January 85 edition.

JANUARY

It’s becoming a tradition that the year should begin with the end ie Ultimately. Play The Game dashed out with the dual release of Underwurlde and Knight Lore. It was a bit ‘controversial’ in the sense that the high price tag remained and there were those who said Underwurlde was too similar to Sabrewulf despite the former being turned upright. Knight Lore was a different matter with its spanking new 3D interactive graphics (‘filmation’) which got around the fact that the game itself wasn’t so big.

Fantasy had good pre-sales of their trilogy first part, Backpackers Guide to the Universe partly thanks to early publicity in CRASH, but the review wasn’t that hot because, despite very pretty graphics by Stewart Ruecroft and some amusing ideas from Bob Hamilton, the action content seemed to be lacking and the zoo-strategical element wasn’t sufficient. However, it looked like a promising start to what would eventually build into a gigantic three part game — but it was never realised. In the February issue we coolly reviewed Drive In and shortly afterwards Fantasy ceased to exist.

Software Projects had been a bit quiet, but in January had two games on the go, Astronut and Lode Runner, both reasonably well received critically but under-advertised and neither seemed to seriously grab the public’s attention. Instead, the Soft Proj ad budget went on their Software Super Savers, latest in the growing line of low-cost games. Despite good sales, budget games were still a bit of a joke (apart from one or two of Firebird’s), and with games like Fred’s Fan Factory and Moon Lighter among the six released, Software Super Savers didn’t seem to be breaking the tradition very much, but at least some of them were quite difficult to play.

Wanted: Monty Mole (CRASH readers’ Best Platform Game from 84) had put Gremlin Graphics right on top, but their Spectrum Potty Pigeon was a bit of a disappointment in the New Year, although it was an original re-working of Crowther’s already weak CBM64 version. Throughout the year, Gremlin would try to recapture the fresh spirit of Monty without complete success until Peter Harrap’s true follow up Monty on the Run.

Not unlike Ultimate, Vortex is another software company whose reputation rests on few and usually good games written by Costa Panayi. Their follow-up to TLL was Cyclone. It employed very similar 3D graphics to the former game with the addition of a slight strategical element, but generally we felt there was no significant advance made and it seemed to lack the lustre of excitement needed to make it a big game.

ZZAP! 64’s hero Rockford made his first appearance on the Spectrum in Boulder Dash, a game I thought absolutely marvellous despite its initially primitive-looking graphics. To play it was to become instantly addicted. It came from State Soft but was marketed by Front Runner, K-Tel’s re-named and somewhat short-lived software company.

Two big releases this month were (finally) Atarisoft’s Pole Position and Domark’s Eureka! Atari had a difficult task to beat the many previous releases all based on their road-racing arcade hit, and in fact they didn’t really manage — the game was reasonable but too late. They did try an abortive earlier release at the 84 PCW Show, but criticism was so heavy it was withdrawn for improvements to be made. Eureka!, the multi-part adventure with a £25,000 prize for the first to complete it, was described as a real game despite the hype, but Derek Brewster didn’t agree. However he did like the second ever release from Dorcas (formerly Doric), Runes of Zendos, but sadly the distribution network failed to see eye to eye with CRASH and the adventure never received the exposure and sales it deserved — very like Mizar’s Out of the Shadows.

Two other games are worth a mention — Steve Davis Snooker from CDS and The Prince from CCS. The snooker game was a typical example of endorsement games, using a well known personality to help sell a product, in this case one of the best ever snooker/pool simulations. The Prince went some way to prove that sponsorship (The Cambridge Awards) can result in good programs.

The only other item of note is that this issue saw the first column from Robin Candy, an enlarged edition of Pokes. Robin was to become a fixture if not exactly a fitting from this point on, and the bane of my life (but that’s another story).

FEBRUARY

February saw a few major releases, four from Ocean, still chasing that seemingly elusive CRASH Smash. The worthiest was probably Gift From the Gods, the first game from a new team called Denton Designs, who were all ex-lmagine programmers, partly financed by Ocean and soon to delight with several more games. The best was Match Day, the football simulation to beat them all, and a game many readers felt we dismissed unfairly without it being a Smash. The third was Hunchback II, not perhaps as delightful graphically as Hunchback, but a better game to play and at least it didn’t earn the nickname Hunchbug like the first one did. The fourth was another comeback in the form of Kong Strikes Back, an interesting but slightly indifferent game that lacked content but proved fairly tough.

Hewson Consultants came out with Technician Ted and proved that platform games could be tougher and better than Jet Set Willy. The public seemed to like it as well and it made the charts in a big way, upsetting those software houses who had turned the programmers down on the grounds that the game was merely a Willy clone. Firebird proved they could release non-budget games in Buggy Blast and made a move towards reinstating the shoot em up with knobs on. Elite did the same with their next TV tie-in Airwolf and sparked some controversy — CRASH liked the game because it was tough (though not very big), whereas some other mags slated it as absolute rubbish. It did pretty well in the charts though.

But the two biggest releases in the sense of expectancy were Legend’s The Great Space Race and Beyond’s Doomdark’s Revenge. Alas, the former turned out to be the grandest flop in games software history — for once every magazine critic and virtually every reader was in agreement, the box was fine, the contents amazingly poor. Beyond, of course, fared much better and Mike Singleton’s follow up to state-of-the-art Lords of Midnight was an even better program (though some readers disagreed). The other big hype release was the Spectrum version of Ghostbusters. This Activision ‘mega tie-in’ has been claimed as the biggest seller of all time — perhaps however we felt that the great CBM64 sound track covered a lack of real game, and this was more strongly highlighted on the Spectrum with a flat and inadequate rendering of the disco hit song.

On the budget front, Mastertronic came of age with an excellent platform/maze/adventure game called Finders Keepers, upsetting some cherished beliefs (including some of ours) that budget software couldn’t crack it, while a relatively new house, Dynavision chased the definitely elusive ‘Zaxxon’ game with a similar rendition called Havoc — we felt it was pretty poor.

A quiet behind-the-scenes battle for the TV quiz series ‘Blockbusters’ came into the open when Macsen released a game of the same name, properly licensed, and forced Compusound to change their earlier version to something else. This turned out to be Wender Bender, marketed by Ranks High. They bullied us for some time to re-review Wender Bender on the grounds that they had had a raw deal, having received permission to do ‘Blockbusters’ in the first place. Eventually we did re-review it, only to find that Ranks High suddenly weren’t answering the phone.

Another battle loomed within the pages of CRASH as a result of Derek’s dismissive review of Interceptor’s adventure Jewels of Babylon. One of the directors of the company rang and became quite insulting on the phone about both the review CRASH and Derek Brewster. Roger Kean, as is his wont, replied stingingly in the following issue.

MARCH

March saw six major games with widely differing appeal. Firebird kicked off with another large game in their ‘Gold’ range. After some frenzied last minute name changing, it emerged as Gyron, a mega-maze game with a Porsche as a prize to the first completion. Although reviewed in March, readers had to wait some time for its actual release. Shoot em ups hit the vogue in a big way with Moon Cresta from Incentive, the first time this venerable and difficult arcade original had turned up on a home computer.

Micromania hit gold with their maze shoot em up Project Future, but sadly it was to be Micromania’s last appearance and within another two months they were gone, owed a fortune by the collapsing distributor Tiger. Mikro-Gen’s fortunes however, never looked better with the release of another Wally Week program, the multi-character graphic adventure Everyone’s a Wally. The game was reckoned to be good enough not to need the song of the same name by Mike Berry, and if Mikro-Gen had hoped it might make the pop charts they were to be disappointed — however it did for a while become a regular musical catchphrase on the Steve Wright Show on Radio 1.

A company better known for their CBM64 games was Bubble Bus who, with their second ever Spectrum release Wizard’s Lair made a Smash. Despite the game’s visual similarity to Atic Atac and Sabrewulf, in play it was sufficiently exciting and difficult to earn its own spurs.

For adventurers, Derek thought Spiderman from Adventure International was a worthy hit from the Scott Adams stable. Sadly, the Steve Jackson games promised from Ad Int and reported in the previous issue have never materialised (although they are still being worked on). Another adventure (one from a time previous) well regarded was Castle Blackstar, slightly rewritten from its original marketing, and put out by CDS.

US Gold, riding high with their rash of American Commodore games, were not doing quite so well with the Spectrum conversions. This month saw the release of Blue Max and (finally) the real Zaxxon. Both were disappointing, the latter proving that ‘Zaxxon’ was still to be done properly on the Spectrum.

Melbourne House offered us an oddity in Hellfire, a three-part game with good graphics but some strange gameplay — it didn’t really hit home. Another game that didn’t hit (probably because it simply wasn’t different enough) was Artic’s Mutant Monty, and the lack of advertising to back it up seemed to point up Artic’s continuing decline as a software house. Virgin Games was another house in some decline (at least on the Spectrum although Strangeloop for the CBM64 and Sorcery for the Amstrad did very well), but their strategy/simulation based on the evil doings of the pop business and called The Biz was well received. Evil doings were responsible for getting Monty Mole into prison but Gremlin Graphics still hadn’t recaptured the right form for their hero in Chris Kerry’s Monty is Innocent — it looked as though it required an escape to get things moving again.

Ski Star 2000 was one interesting program we reviewed, one of the first to start using icons to help the player, in this case to redesign the ski slopes. It was from Richard Shepherd — an unusual departure for them. But the news everyone wanted was the password to access the very carefully protected second program on Design Design’s 84 hit Dark Star. I was able to ‘exclusively’ reveal that to see Spectacle you had to type in ‘Everyone’s a nervous wreck’. I was thrilled — my first ever scoop.

APRIL

April was an interesting month not so much for the volume of software produced, which was actually quite low, but because Ultimate released the well advertised and eagerly awaited Alien 8 — and within days, the letters began to flow. ‘It’s a rip off’, ‘Knight Lore in space with no improvements’ were typical of some of the comments. But many thought otherwise, the CRASH team included, and decided that Alien 8 was an improvement. Besides which, a fair person might have realised that after spending so long developing the 3D graphics used in Knight Lore, Ultimate was bound to employ them again. In fact within a few months many other software houses were to have a go at similar interactive 3D graphics, proving, if nothing else, that the industry believed Ultimate were right.

Gremlin Graphics gave us a new hero in Sam Stoat (Safebreaker), related in theory to Monty Mole, but again it didn’t quite hit the spot. Mastertronic also dipped a bit with Chiller, a game that had done reasonably well on the 64 but translated poorly to the Spectrum. Ocean’s offering was the intriguing Pud Pud, a game that was definitely odd odd.

TV tie-ins continued unabated with the masters Elite and their Dukes of Hazzard and the less often heard of Red Shift and a strategical adventure based on the BBC’s Tripods. Dukes of Hazzard seemed typical of Elite’s recent games, pretty good graphically but lacking in content. Both Derek Brewster and Angus Ryall slammed Tripods into the ground. Strategy and tie-ins turned out to be a winner, however, for Argus Press Software with the release of their tense adventure based on the movie Alien — the first CRASH Smash from Angus.

US Gold finally struck pay dirt and a Smash with Raid Over Moscow, a game that finally presented a reasonable ‘Zaxxon’ style screen among others and was successfully hyped by the press as ‘controversial’ because of its Kremlin-attacking scenario. The ‘new look’ shoot em up was given a boost by System 3’s Death Star Interceptor, which we thought was pretty good, especially the space sequence, but which some other mags regarded as utter rubbish. Romantic Robot, better known for utilities, surprised everyone by releasing Wriggler and getting a CRASH Smash, while Micromega surprised us by releasing A Day in the Life (of Sir Clive) and disappointing us for the first time. Addictive Games had lived successfully off Football Manager for an eternity, so the release of a similar game based on the software business and called Software Star was greeted with some interest, but it failed to live up to the more exciting world of soccer.

One of the other ‘majors’ Bug-Byte gave us a combo had been quiet for some time, came out with two very different games, Fantastic Voyage and Mighty Magus, but although they were both quite good in their own ways, neither really made much impact and it looked as though another established and major house was in search of the right product. Unlike Melbourne House who released Starion and for a while looked as though they might have beaten Firebird onto the market with an Elite like game. The 3D vector graphics were just about the fastest and smoothest yet seen on the Spectrum, and the addition of historical puzzle games made it quite unique.

MAY

In fact May was a pretty good month. Hewson Consultants came out with Steve Turner’s follow up game Dragontorc of Avalon and it was even better than its forerunner, Avalon. US Gold had two smashes in the arcade conversions of Spy Hunter and the pre-karate rage Bruce Lee. A software house that had been a bit quiet since its Ket Trilogy adventures, was Incentive, but they put that right with the furious puzzle game Confusion — and at long last Ocean made its second CRASH Smash with World Baseball Series although that was under the newly acquired name of Imagine. Even Elite, about whom we had been despairing of a game to match the graphics, came up with a strong product in the endorsed Grand National — the best yet horse racing game and one which boasted excellent equestrian animation. On the adventure front, Derek was pretty thrilled with Level 9’s latest graphic and text Emerald Isle. By and large, everyone was so pleased that even Robin Candy went psychedelic in the Playing Tips.

JUNE

A mixed bag this month with some disappointments and one or two pleasant surprises. The one ‘dead cert’ was Beyond’s Shadowfire, the first fully icon-driven graphics adventure. There was a danger that the novelty of the icons might disguise the lack of a game, but Denton Designs did a good job and the game matched its tremendous look, although Dentons themselves admitted to wanting more game elements in the follow up when they got going on it. The other Smashes for the month fell to adventure and strategy with Gremlins from Adventure International, Games Workshop’s Runestone, a ‘landscaping’ adventure to rival Lords of Midnight and Witches Cauldron, an adventure based on Mikro-Gen’s famous Wally graphics and reviewed a bit later than it should have been as it proved too difficult for Derek to get through without help! And on the strategy frontline, Angus was pleased with Arnhem from CCS, a company he had always regarded with mixed admiration and amusement for their dogged struggle to convince an uncaring world that war games could be fun. He was also surprised that Lothlorien turned in another worthy strategy game called Overlords. Lothlorien was about to be taken under the expanding wings of Argus Press Software — would it make any difference to their performance?

Legend fought back against the poor publicity generated by the flop of The Great Space Race by providing us with the graphically interesting 3D game Komplex, but despite its programming worthiness and its immense size, it still seemed to lack something in play. A & F were also back with a follow up trying to recapture the enigmatic success of Chuckie Egg with the appropriately named Chuckie Egg 2. In addictive terms it wasn’t a patch on the first game, but it did offer numerous platform leaping locations and plenty of adventure elements to keep fans happy for some hours. Another follow up was Falcon Patrol 2 from Virgin Games (although the original had only been on the 64). This was a disappointment, a rather thin game and graphics that didn’t look as though they had progressed beyond Durell’s much earlier Harrier Attack which the game strongly resembled.

One surprise hit was Tapper from US Gold. The game appeared a month before on the 64 and looked like a difficult one to translate well, but the Spectrum version from Platinum Productions was well up to scratch despite the inevitable animation clashes and proved to be one of those hugely and enjoyably frustrating no-win games and one of my personal favourites.

Tie-ins and endorsements were on the increase this month; after much pre-publicity, DK’tronics released Minder their tie-in game, based on the Thames TV series of the same name. CRASH had seen one or two very early versions, and wasn’t particularly impressed. A number of points made by Derek Brewster were passed back to the programmer, but in the event the finished game failed to excite us over much. Another tie-in was Give my Regards to Broad Street, a novel travel and search adventure with arcade overtones based on Paul McCartney’s musical film, which Argus Press Software brought out under their ‘Mind Games’ series. As mentioned previously, there was Gremlins, our preview of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jonah Barrington’s Squash and 911TS. The latter, from Elite seemed to play too heavily on the graphics used in Grand National to be very different and the tie-in with Dunlop Tyres turned out to be more of a marketing element than it first seemed, in as much as the game had originally been developed purely for Dunlop. Dunlop also make sports equipment, possibly even Jonah Barrington’s squash balls (I’m no expert!), which featured in the tough simulation by Malcolm Evans of New Generation.

On the budget front Mastertronic released the unpronounceable Nonterraqueous, not a bad big-maze semi-shoot em up, and to underline, as it were, the joke about budget software, Firebird came out with Don’t Buy This, a compilation of the worst ever programs that had been sent in over the past few months. Naturally enough, it sold rather well.

JULY

Into the second half of the year; traditionally the first of the slump summer months. Yet Spectrum software was holding up very well and many more good quality games were being released than during the same months of last year. One which arrived too late to do it justice in a full review was Odin’s Nodes of Yesod, so it merely got a Mangram and more of that later...

Tie-ins had a veritable field day with the big guns — Rocky Horror Show from CRL and A View To A Kill from Domark. The former, based on the decadent seventies stage show and film did rather well to capture some of the film’s feeling, and the graphics were pretty good too, sadly the game just lacked enough content to make it great. Domark’s effort (programmed by Softstone, who took over Perfection Software, who produced the early CRASH success Odyssey 1) was far weaker. The three-part game followed some of Bond’s exploits from the movie, but the game ideas were thin, Bond looked like a stick insect and all the publicity over how much money Tony Crowther was paid to write the music was wasted on Spectrum owners anyway. Nevertheless, the CRASH review was pretty kind and the game was better on the Spectrum than on the 64.

A third tie-in, however, managed to be even more awful — Super Gran from Tynesoft sent the ageing maternal heroine of Tyne & Tees TV fame hurtling through landscapes of appalling graphics with a control over her actions that only a World War I flying ace would remember. Looking at Super Gran was like looking through a time tunnel and seeing the past — at least graphically it was. Quicksilva also held a mirror up to us in the beautiful looking Glass. It had some fine points but missed one or two in the shoot em up stakes and ended up giving a slight feeling of dissatisfaction on completing it. Mirrors seemed to be in the news when we Smashed Dynamite Dan from Mirrorsoft, one of my favourites (though Robin Candy has never agreed — his tough luck). The graphics lifted this platform game above most others, but some clever innovations, incredibly tough gameplay and jolly music added the spice.

Endorsement of the month award went to Alligata for their Jack Charlton’s Match Fishing. Some people reckon fishing is as interesting as watching a river cutting a valley, but the valleys are busy enough with weekend anglers and the sport is among the most popular. Match Fishing boasted an absolutely excellent lakeside scene by David Thorpe and, although the rest of the graphics weren’t up to much, the atmosphere it lent carried the rest of this enjoyable simulation along quite happily.

On the Smash side of things apart from Dynamite Dan, there was Herbert’s Dummy Run, the enjoyable romp of Master Week through a department store full of Mikro-Gen arcade games, but with a tinge of warning that perhaps the Wally Weekers were getting a touch too similar in style and content; there was Cauldron from Palace, a hit on the 64 that had been really well translated to provide a broomstick ‘Defender’ and a very hard series of platform games; and surprise of the month was Lothlorien’s Battle of the Bulge, their first under the Argus banner, which left Angus Ryan nonplussed with admiration for both Lothlorien and Argus, two companies for whom previously he had had few good things to say. But for many, the big thrill was Gargoyle Games’s Dun Darach, starring Grego-celtic hero Cuchulainn in his second graphics adventure. It was a big thrill for then CRASH editor Roger Kean, who got credited on the inlay for inventing the idea of door numbers used in the game. This was one of Robin Candy’s personal favourites, and I don’t know whether that says more for him or less for the game (but at least he can spell Kookulainn, when I can’t).

Two other games in July worthy of note were Archon, a weird mix of chess-like board game and arcade action from Ariolasoft, and Super Pipeline II by Taskset, a company venturing off the 64 onto the Spectrum for the first time. The game suffered in translation with colour clashing characters, but still managed to be addictive and difficult.

AUGUST

The August issue of CRASH suffered a bit of a setback when it ran into trouble with EMAP and their Sinclair User magazine — but enough of that...

Somewhat belatedly, Nodes of Yesod got its airing and a CRASH Smash. The graphics action and ideas all contributed to making a great game from Odin (who had previously been Thor). In fact there were some great Smashes in August. Frankie Goes To Hollywood arrived and proved again that Denton Designs could come up not only with an extraordinary mixture of fluent graphics but also with some extraordinary game ideas. They also gave Ocean (proper) a real CRASH Smash. Ocean got yet another through the Imagine label with Hypersports. Not to be outdone Beyond released the two totally hateable Mad Magazine espionage experts, the Black and White spies in Spy vs Spy. Once again, the graphics were excellent, using split screen simultaneous displays for the two players, but it was the humour (taken straight from Mad) that made the game a great one.

Clever graphics were also responsible for the slick presentation of the adventure Smash The Fourth Protocol released by Hutchinsons and programmed by The Electronic Pencil Company — a name to be reckoned with in the future. Here, for the first time, Macintosh-like business icons were used to drive the adventure along, and it worked a treat — so did the adventure.

The tendency to ‘self copy’ was once again rearing its head with all sorts of people about to release karate games, but first came the boxers. Elite produced just about their best ever game in the endorsed Frank Bruno’s Boxing. The fluidity of the animation just had the edge over Rocco, a game from Spanish software house Dinamic and marketed here by Gremlin Graphics. Gremlin had won a battle with Silversoft for the rights to this and another game called Profanation, a very tough jump and seek game that was, in theory at least, the third part of a trilogy of which Silversoft ended up with only the first two parts, Saimazoom and Baba Liba. Gremlin Graphics got the best of the bargain.

We finally reviewed Artic’s latest release Paws, having deemed it sensible to leave it until Artic had made up their minds what to call it. Originally named Cats, after the famous musical, Artic had trouble in obtaining copyright clearance so the name changed but the game didn’t, and it was cute but hardly mega-stuff. The Covenant from PSS was much better as was CRL’s unusual Juggernaut — the sort of vehicle that gets hung up under the low half-timbered frames of quaint Ludlow town. Biggest disappointment of the month, perhaps even the quarter, was Jet Set Willy II. Software Projects had, of course scored an enormous hit with Jet Set Willy, and there was always rumoured to be a sequel on its way (Jet Set Willy and the Taxman — or something). So news of a second game was good news indeed, except that it turned out to be 40 more rooms added onto the existing game and that was pretty disappointing, especially as programmer Matthew Smith had nothing much to do with it.

SEPTEMBER

The last month of this unusually busy summer turned out a handful of goodies. Everyone had been awaiting Costa Panayi’s latest 3D developments, and expectations were well rewarded with Highway Encounter from Vortex — a very linear game with extraordinarily attractive graphics and a hero-bot looking not unlike a Dalek. It was voted a CRASH Smash within minutes, and protracted play didn’t diminish the delight. Gremlin Graphics, after much pre-warning, launched the proper follow-up to their huge molar hit of last year by Peter Harrap — Monty on the Run followed a similar pattern to its predecessor, but there were more rooms and some of the nastiest little traps yet devised for the unwary platform gamer. It tended to rather over-shadow the other Gremlin release, written by Chris Kerry, Metabolis. I thought this attractive and unusual maze/search game deserved better than it got, and its sense of humour was refreshing.

One game based more on a humorous character than on incipient humour that just arrived in time to be reviewed and Smashed, was Popeye from Dk’Tronics by the venerable author Don Priestly. Not only did the game boast super large graphics, but ones that suffered no attribute problems.

Attractive graphics have characterised 1985, often giving new life to well tried ideas. The usually novel and innovative Design Design turned their hands (or Graham Stafford’s hands) to a collect em up maze game with great graphics by Stuart Ruecroft (who had been responsible for the graphics in Backpacker’s). Despite the obvious format, On the Run turned out to be likeable, fast and difficult and a Smash.

There were two ‘red’ releases in September, one an adventure and a Smash from ace writer-explorers Level 9, and one a flight simulator from Database. Red Moon impressed Derek as much for its indication of Level 9’s durability as for the game’s undoubted qualities of excitement, atmosphere and entertainment value. Red Arrows was another matter however, a disappointment after the drawn out wait for the program’s release. It put you in the cockpit of a Red Arrow team jet, flying exhibition formation aerobatics. Unfortunately the simulation turned out slow and somewhat unrealistic.

Probably biggest disappointment of the month, though, was Ocean’s Roland’s Rat Race, a TV tie-in with really very little tied into it. Thinly disguised as a platform/maze game, you had to untangle the knot of passages in search of Roland’s kidnapped friends and get to TVAM on time. US Gold also turned out a disappointment in Buck Rogers, although a very good conversion from the 64, it lacked any real spark, not perhaps surprising in such an old arcade game.

However, another, even older game made its appearance on the computer in the form of Cluedo from Leisure Genius — the official version of this ever popular board game. The Spectrum version was rated pretty well, with everyone looking forward to the following release of Monopoly.

If the Red Arrows simulation was a let down, two others this month were not, ASP’s Nick Faldo Plays the Open turned out to be the best golf game yet using fashionable icons to make setting up shots as easy as pie and comfortably realistic; while for choo choo fans, Hewson Consultants’ Southern Belle gave us the freedom of the engine driver’s footplate on an old steam locomotive doing the Brighton run. An unusual area for simulations, and one which led one reviewer to think it easier to control an aeroplane than a train! Southern Belle, however, captivated all those who had ever wanted to grow up and be an engine driver.

That more or less rounded up September except for Domark’s release of our very own Derek Brewster’s Code Name Mat II, the follow up, not surprisingly to Code Name Mat. We had loved the latter game, with its complex 3D graphics, but the sequel seemed too similar to score heavily, and got hit hard by reviewers for not having ‘advanced’ with time. The resulting review upset Derek, a man who hardly ever complains unless it’s about me, but at least it shut up critics who had made great capital of the fact that all his other games had been CRASH Smashes, and was something funny going on?

OCTOBER

As if to calm everyone down before Christmas, October turned out to be a bit arid with only the Spectrum version of Way of the Exploding Fist from Melbourne House really standing out. Of the long promised spate of self-copy karate games, this was the first to arrive. It converted from the 64 quite successfully, and playing it well meant combining hand and eye co-ordination skills with action in such a way as to offer plenty of enjoyment and mirror the real martial art in as realistic a manner as possible on a computer.

It’s true that Ultimate scored with Nightshade, but nevertheless, there was an undertone in the reviewers’ comments that they were taking Knight Lore/Alien 8 a bit too far, and that something original was required to revitalise the classic software house image. It also wasn’t missed that a company other than Ultimate was credited with the programming...

The only other Smash was Touchstones of Rhiannon, an adapation of the Robin Hood story from Adventure International and based heavily on the recent TV series.

There was a handful of ‘solid’ games, two from US Gold having been heralded for some time — Dambusters and Bounty Bob, both big hits on the 64, both slightly flawed on the Spectrum. Bounty Bob especially seemed unable to carry its cult status across from machine to machine and resulted merely in a good platform game. Beyond’s second label Monolith offered us a rockin’ good time with Rockford’s Riot, the follow up to very successful Boulder Dash which, while still a fine game, mostly contained the same gameplay elements as its predecessor.

It was left to Derek to discover the two most unusual games of the month in the adventure section, The Rats from book publishers Hodder & Stoughton and The Secret of St Brides by a dubious organisation purporting to be St Brides School for Young Ladies, whose packaging came complete with supporting literature of a slightly off beat British ‘gels’ school type a la St Trinians (a feeling reinforced by your playing the heroine, Trixie Trinian). The Rats, based on the best seller Herbert book, made a strange combination between adventure of the ‘select an option’ type and strategy covered in a thick custard of gory horror as the player waded knee-deep through the bloodied remains of rat-gnawed London (reminding me yet again why I left the place)!

Another slightly unusual game turned up from PSS, marketing a French pinball table construction kit under the name of Macadam Bumper (it led to the review compiler being able to use the joke: Language: French machine code — yawn). With this you could play a preset table or redesign it. An excellent offering, but there’s still room yet for a really flexible pinball designer program. We also reviewed a program from our old friends at Eclipse aimed at the then-about-to-be-current craze for comet spotting and aptly named Halley’s Comet.

But if there were few heavenly bodies to be seen screaming across October’s software sky, our forward-looking telescopes were trained on deep space at new games from Gargoyle Games and Hewson Consultants, an extraordinary looking one with the appropriately heavenly body name of Tau Ceti from CRL and one set on the Zoids planet from Martech...

NOVEMBER

Hewson’s Astroclone saw veteran 3D progger Steve Turner back in space from his sojourn in the remote past of Maroc and pitted once again against those indefatigable foe the Seiddab in a complex combination of space shoot em up and 3D room exploration game. To some degree Steve and the men from Gargoyle Games seem to have been moving on parallel courses in recent months and Astroclone had uncanny similarities to Gargoyle’s release Marsport. This introduced us to a new hero, John Kepler Marsh and the return of Gargoyle to space. Marsport was the first of a planned trilogy of space games called The Siege of Earth, complete with an excellent background story from the pen of Greg Follis about man’s meeting with aliens and its consequent results. The subtle additions to the previous Dun Darach together with Gargoyle’s inimitable mix of puzzle, pun and action made Marsport a sure fire hit.

Tau Ceti and Zoids got previewed, but The Edge got Fairlight out for us to rave over. Here was another 3D room exploring game with puzzles to be solved, using graphics that improved upon those employed by Ultimate and one in which objects behaved realistically in interaction with the playing character. Fairlight has been the outstanding achievement of The Edge to date. Turning the page of that issue, another Smash emerged — Elite. Firebird had purchased this cult BBC game for a fabulous sum from the programmers, converted it to the 64, where it was well received, and had spent considerable time making the Spectrum version even better (though alas, not the music)! It’s the sort of game (space trader/shoot em up) you either love to death or hate. If the former, then you can’t put it down for months.

Bubble Bus also flew us to the deepest regions of space and a black hole with Stephen Crow’s follow up to his excellent Wizard’s Lair called Starquake. It had visual overtones of Underwurlde and the more recent Nodes of Yesod in its superb graphics and offered a high degree of playability with many neat touches and novel ideas.

Back on Earth, Melbourne House disappointed us slightly with Fighting Warrior, a sort of ancient Egyptian martial arts program, where it was felt that there wasn’t quite enough going on to overcome the fact that much of its content was actually the ‘Exploding Fist’ control mode.

Ocean, too, brought us and our joysticks back to earth with a thump and Daley Thompson’s Super Test. Although undeniably fun, Super Test really offered nothing new over Decathlon and was over-shadowed by Hypersports.

US Gold’s November game was another monster hit from the 64, Impossible Mission, but like its stable mate Bounty Bob it somehow failed to carry the adulation with it over to the Spectrum, resulting in a respectable enough and tough platform/exploring game.

We also saw the first ever release of a new software name, Electric Dreams, backed by Activision and fronted by ex-Quicksilva boss, Rod Cousens. The game was called Riddler’s Den and sparked a bit of a controversy with US Gold, who were also launching a budget label under the same name. Riddler’s Den was a good start priming the market for their December release...

DECEMBER

Last month is still fresh in everyone’s minds, so l won’t dwell too long on its bright points, which were numerous. At last Tau Ceti arrived and Smashed, Sandy White (of Ant Attack fame) gave us Electric Dreams’ Smash I, of the Mask. In similar visual vein, Melbourne House came up with Gyroscope and got a Smash. Microsphere surprised us with the quiet release of their skool follow up, Back to Skool and proved you can add even to a fabulous program and get another Smash. Durell got one as well with their Critical Mass, and at long, long last Digital Integration brought out Tomahawk — the game we waited almost 18 months to see. This flight simulator showed some advances over Fighter Pilot and convinced everyone of its Smash merits. Derek enjoyed (and Smashed) the Melbourne House spoof ‘adventure’ Terrormolinos, although he failed to rate Beyond’s Sorderon’s Shadow quite as highly as the Mike Singleton Midnight trilogy which it vaguely resembled. On the other hand he gave a Smash to The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole from Mosaic/Level 9.

And that just about brings us up to date. So what characterises 1985 as a software year? One thing that stands out to my mind is the way that this summer software kept on coming out, and good software too. 3D has been almost an obsession with many programmers working in all its aspects and proving that last year’s ‘comprehensive’ 3D article is way out of date! Gameplay has been worked on very carefully too, supporting our earlier optimistic view that computer games would not die, only improve and change their nature. But to balance the increasing complexity of games like Dun Darach and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, we’ve also seen the rebirth of the classic shoot em up — except the graphics have been vastly improved over earlier efforts. Software prices have crept up of course, but budget software has come of age with Mastertronic leading the way, and on the pricier end of the range, we’ve generally been given much more for our money to make up for it.

Some software houses have disappeared — or been swallowed up or revamped, Bug-Byte for instance, one of the oldest companies, has just re-emerged as a budget label for Argus Press Software, having been bought out of receivership. Some well known names like Artic and, sadly, Micromega seem to have faded into the background and some companies have dropped out wilfully like the sadly missed Games Workshop, who after toying with some games and producing some excellent material, chose to get out of software altogether. But new names have emerged, often with startlingly strong product.

This year has also seen the growth of professional programming design teams like Denton Designs and The Electronic Pencil Company, who write games but don’t market them, leaving that to software houses who buy their talent in. In itself this is a fine idea, leaving the designers to concentrate on doing what they are best at — designing good games. I would say 1985 has been a vintage year for the quality and range of games, and current trends bode well for 1986. Games in the pipeline are promising indeed — we still await Zoids from Martech as I write — and the software business seems content with the results and hopeful of next year.

We wait with bated breath...
LM

PLAYING WITH GRANDFATHER’S ABACUS

FEW software houses have encountered the success that GARGOYLE GAMES has enjoyed and remained in the background of the industry. It’s not that the people behind the company are so secretive, just that they feel their market isn’t interested in them because they aren’t teenage whizzkids. So ROBIN CANDY and ROGER KEAN hitched a ride up the M5 to investigate the creators of such computer heroes as Cuchulainn the Great and more recently Commander John Kepler Marsh, GREG FOLLIS, ROY CARTER and TED HEATHCOTE.

King Street, Dudley is unprepossessing and busy. Far from being some gilded cathedral to computer art, complete with gruesome figurines attached to the high corners, the headquarters of Gargoyle Games is on the third floor of a modest, four-floor brick and concrete office block with an insurance company just below it and the smell of disinfectant haunting the cold stairways. The space consists of an office for Ted, who does the selling, a writing room for Greg and Roy, and a stock room with some games and boxes of toys. The toys are important.

The computer industry has always been associated with wizzkids who discovered computers overnight and made a fortune but Gargoyle Games’ graduation into the home computer market has been a different pan of chips altogether. It all started about seventeen years ago in a computer research department where Royston (his full name, though Roy will do) and Greg worked for a large services bureau. This entailed them working at the larger end of the computer market and gradually throughout the years they’ve come down in machine size, though Greg admits that the mini computers they worked on weren’t necessarily more powerful than the home micros today.

‘The first one I started on,’ he says, ‘had the same power as an Amstrad and wouldn’t have fit in this room, it was an 8K machine, an ICL 7901. It was very slow. We used to play Grandfather’s Abacus on it. That’s how it all started, I suppose,’ he adds, referring to games.

‘No you were hatched,’ quips Roy disproving the myth that Greg is the only one with an operative larynx. In fact listening to these two is like watching two stand-up comedians.

‘I started on computers at a company called Hewitts,’ continues an unperturbed Greg Follis. ‘I was employed by them as a programmer in the central computer. I worked as a programmer for a few years until they decided my talents might be more usefully employed in analysis. I asked ‘What’s the money like?” They said, “It’s better,” so I said, “I’m an analyst”’. Greg’s new job brought him more into contact with Roy. ‘When we started, we didn’t like each other very much, I can’t remember why — well I can, I can remember exactly...’

‘It was nothing to do with you at all,’ snaps back Roy.

‘You didn’t like me!’

‘That’s right, and you didn’t like me!’

Having established this hate relationship, they ended up getting together over a computer program and decided what everyone knew all along — they liked each other, and because they had a lot of fun working on the program they decided that if they could be in the same department it would mean that they could have a lot more fun. So they developed a brilliant scheme.

‘We invented this new department called New Products — Research and Development,’ continues Greg. ‘The management said, ‘What a great idea! You can make up new products,’ which of course we never did. We actually got our own office, I suspect simply because we had a lot of fun and made a lot of noise which never actually stopped us with the work we were doing, but stopped everybody else working. But we had an awful lot of fun, more fun than we have now. We did eventually write some very good programs for them in the end, one of which was fairly important, which they’ve just started selling, something that we felt should have been sold three or four years ago.’

They had been working for the company for around 15 years when press rumours that teenage ‘programmers’ were earning fortunes prodded their own feelings about getting on and prompted them to turn their attention to games outside daily business work. At this point Ted Heathcote, long term friend of Greg’s, was roped in to sell games for the envisaged firm and book advertising. Feeling that they could duplicate the standard of software presently on the market without any massive financial (or time) commitment of any sort they dived straight in at the deep end with their first game Ad Astra.

Follis and Carter in playful mood — the guns are for sniping passing security guards

‘The thing that actually attracted us to games was that it was a method to make money that we could afford,’ says Greg. ‘We both have mortgages and commitments that you can’t throw away. We couldn’t have done it any other way because we simply didn’t have the backing. We had been involved in business, though, and knew some of the pitfalls. At the time we were still working in the New Products Department, so Ad Astra was developed in our spare time. Consequently it took nine months to develop which was an appallingly long time. We could put Ad Astra together in a few weeks nowadays.’

Ad Astra was released when CRASH was still a fledgling magazine and it was a mild surprise to find a young, promising software house so near to home. The game rated 80% with particular recognition of the Graphics, which at time were stunning. As soon as Ad Astra was released work on Tir Na Nog began. Contrary to popular belief, Tir Na Nog’s origins do not lie in Fighting Fantasy.

‘One day after releasing Ad Astra I wrote this routine which showed a character walking in a scrolling background, Roy recalls. Greg thought it ‘looked nice’ so then they looked around for a scenario which fitted the character.

‘Eventually we found Cuchulainn and so Tir Na Nog was born.’

With the exception of Ad Astra, all of Gargoyle’s games have carefully worked out plots which lend an almost unique atmosphere to the game. It is this atmosphere and the intricate problems that make games like Marsport classics.

‘The apparent literary content of our storylines comes about simply because we enjoy reading stories,’ Greg says modestly. ‘We make stories that we enjoy. We make stories that seem to be the tip of the iceberg, so you always have the impression that there was a lot more going on that you didn’t know about, and the resultant effect is that you are completing the story as you complete the game, something like a movie where the outcome is up to you. That is what we’re aiming for, a true computer movie that is realistic. And we like to think that we achieve that in our games. I think a lot of adventure type stuff needs a story behind it, and fantasy material like Lord of the Rings, can provide an ethos to build problems and work out a taxing game.’

Greg and Roy work closely together. ‘We get an idea for a scenario and then make up the problems as we go along, two thirds of the game’s ideas are my creation, the rest come mainly from Royston. Our next game Sweevo’s World, however, is aimed more at the arcade market but it still fits into the Marsport/Siege of Earth trilogy, scenario. The game is intended to be a bit of fun. If people play it and say “that was fun” then the game has achieved the purpose for which it was designed. The industry is far too serious now. It needs more fun injected into it, after all it is an entertainment industry.’

On the thorny subject of piracy Gargoyle Games have been almost alone in preferring to concentrate on perfecting a program rather than spend the time developing protection routines for it. Roy is quite forceful on this point, especially when it comes to discussing how many potential sales are lost through illegal copying. ‘I would suggest that we lose 50% of potential sales on every game not through piracy but by not having adequate PR. That’s a fairly reasonable figure. Protection routines are obviously directed towards the odd few hackers that are around, but who cares if they know what your code is? I can’t see that it is that important if someone knows what your code is. There is no way of stopping tape-to-tape copying.’

After Sweevo’s World Gargoyle intend returning to the more serious game with the second instalment in the Siege of Earth trilogy, Fornax. The format for this will be totally different from anything that Gargoyle have done before. Although there will be still be various problems which have to be overcome to complete the game, the presentation will be radically different. Greg suggests that Fornax will probably end up as a mixed media game, perhaps using icons and/or sentence input using semantic analysis of sentences rather than syntactic — this will be quite new. Before starting Gargoyle they had been sent on artificial intelligence courses where they learned certain elements of AI which Greg and Roy now hope to incorporate into later games to form what Greg calls a sort of cross between Dun Darach and ‘Crossroads’. But whatever turns up in Fornax you can be sure that it will have plenty of animation and beautiful graphics along with intricate puzzles. Fornax should turn out to be innovative while still being fun, the ingredients Gargoyle feel are necessary to make a hit game.

‘There’s a lot of new ideas about at the moment,’ says Greg. ‘It’s very difficult, but you have to constantly learn from previous hits released by other software houses. I would be quite happy to turn out Dun Darachs but there’s a market out there and say 50% of it is buying Daley Thompson’s Decathlon so you’ve got to go with the market trend. We have plenty of ideas which we know we could develop but time isn’t on our side. We’ve got to release a game every few months in order to live. If we had six months to develop a game we could turn out something at the end of that time that would demolish the competition but we’ve all got mortgages to pay. In order to translate our ideas into software form we would probably need a Spectrum 349!

‘Before we can develop true mega games we have to expand, to employ a few people to take away the things that take up so much of our time — a person to answer the phones would be a real boon as would someone to write some of the less complex but time-consuming routines in our games. There is also the possibility of us stopping the manufacturing side and becoming a development house similar to Denton Designs,’ he says looking wistfully at Roy and Ted. ‘That isn’t a bad idea, it would take out the task of PR straight away.’

Mention of Denton Designs leads us to talk about the old Imagine and the state of the post-boom industry. Gargoyle entered the games industry shortly before the crash of Imagine but even though doom and gloom is spouted by the media they believe computer games are here to stay.

‘I don’t think that computer games are a fad, they’re an industry,’ Roy claims. ‘It’s like TVs and videos are not a fad, it is all encompassed by the electronic entertainment industry and will always be maintained. Eventually Newsfield may not publish magazines but someone will. The industry may change, for example video shops may become laser holograph lenders, the medium will change but the concept of electronic entertainment will continue because it’s big business and you can be sure that we will be helping it along.’

To relieve the tension of programming and planning ahead, the backroom of the office is dedicated to toys. The remnants of their programming days with Hewitts litter the floor in boxes of varying sizes, guns of differing calibre wait to be fired once in a while at passing security guards.

‘We used to have terrific fun with these,’ Greg laughs, holding up a tatty football boot.

‘Tell them about the football boot, Greg,’ Roy prompts. Greg glances at it as though surprised to see it in his hand.

‘Ah, the football boots. A professor friend of ours sent us a pair of football boots (don’t know why), which we promptly sent back. He then gave us a load of clues as to their whereabouts which eventually led to us going to Ibiza to dig up a football boot. We will have to hide this one and give him a set of clues to find it again.’

Leaving the tiny offices, with their disinfectant-smelling stairways and a playroom full of mechanical fly swatters, whoopee cushions and toy guns, I am left with the distinct impression that it is their creators and not Cuchulainn and Marsh who are truly the heroes. The spirit of the software industry lies in such small but professional outfits who, by hard work and excellent products, are leading the way towards an electronic environment where reality and fantasy will be indistinguishable. It may not have been a world-shattering event, but for the Spectrum and computer games in general, the hatching of the Gargoyle was a truly remarkable event.

Poster (by Oli Frey)

By way of a Christmas treat, we present a short story from the pen of Wilf Prigmore. Meet Max Helpmann...

THE HUMAN TOUCH...

Only the very, very rich went to the Holiday Belt. Max Helpmann wasn’t rich — yet he was going there. As an ex-con he shouldn’t have even been aboard the Sinclairways’ Shuttle now speeding beyond the reach of Earth’s gravity and its law enforcement agents.

‘The Lord helps those that help themselves,’ grinned Max, unfastening his seatbelt and making himself comfortable. His drink tasted good. Pollution-free ‘Syntheau’ from one of the moon based conglomerates, reminded him of his childhood. It used to be available from a tap. Then came rumours that the treatment plants couldn’t cope with the amount of bleaches, detergents and disinfectants which were ending up in the system... Naturally, people turned to the bottled water which, advertisers assured everyone, was far more healthy. If you wanted free water after that, the only way was to sink a well in the garden.

Max skipped over memories of the next twenty-odd years and concentrated on the events which had taken place that very day. Hard to believe that only a few hours ago he’d been conning his way into homes and taking any valuables which hadn’t been screwed down. (The campaign supporting screws as an ideal anti-theft device had been particularly compelling. To Max’s way of thinking it was rather distasteful. And bad for his line of work.).

To avoid early detection of a pattern, Max liked to vary his story fairly often. He’d had some success as a ‘rodent exterminator checking on black rat sightings in the area’ and thought he’d do his gasman. He banged on the target’s door and rushed past the startled occupier when it was opened. In reaction to Max’s urgent request to check a serious gasleak, the occupier unleashed two savage-looking dogs, which sent Max stumbling back into the kitchen. Only his quick thinking — throwing the occupier’s lunch on the floor between the two dogs saved his hide and allowed him to nip out the back door and over the wall.

‘Bloody Solar Power Houses!’

The alarm was raised and Max knew he could soon have his collar felt. Figuratively speaking that is, for Max had often noticed how computer-directed lawmen these days lacked feeling! In his hurry to get away, he didn’t see the man coming out of an alleyway and ran straight into him. Old habits die hard. Max apologised profusely, dusted the man down, and relieved him of his securibelt...

Normally, a shuttle ticket would have ended up in the street Litter-Vapourizer (Keep Earth Tidy), but not this time. It was the jammiest bit of luck to smile on Max in years. The ticket and interzonal ID Card belonged to one Arthur Plumtree, a fourth-rate impressionist who Max had been embarrassed to watch on channel 28 recently. Word was, Plumtree had bribed the producer to let him appear. The TV station got the equivalent of a month’s advertising money, Plumtree got his appearance and only the viewer lost out. A flimsy escape plan fluttered in Max’s mind. The odds were heavily stacked against him, of course, but who’d expect him to head for the shuttleport. Criminals never got past the check-in, did they!

‘Hi, chum. Just spoke to your brother. Put money in him for a chewbar and he read my horoscope. You might say he gave me thought for food. Haha! Where do I stick the ID? Oh, I got it. Catch my show the other night? No, I guess not. You guys are kinda tied to the job, eh!’ Max couldn’t believe what he was was doing. Imagine trying to fool an Excise Droid (Mark 3 2D Klair, according to the manufacturer’s label), that he was Plumtree putting on silly voices. The voice pattern strip in the ID would betray him. Oh well, it’d give the lads in Their Majesties Prison Wadmoor something to laugh about.

‘Plumtree? Arthur Plumtree?’ asked the Droid officiously.

‘Y-Yessir!’

‘Arthur Plumtree. You are cleared for take-off.’ The Excise Droid accurately spat the ID card into Max’s trembling hand. That was about all Max could remember of what had gone before. (Apart from the smell of fear rising from his armpits). The ride on the travellator, boarding and lift-off — these were all like areas of fresh, untrodden snow in his brain. But now he felt good. He had beaten the unbeatable machine. The human touch was still supreme.

...Max knew he could soon have his collar felt. Figuratively speaking that is, for Max had often noticed how computer-directed lawmen these days lacked feeling...

‘Land ahoy!’ shouted one of the merry holidaymakers, and Max found himself looking out of the porthole. Even from this distance he could see the garish lights of the holiday belt — a chain of artificial planets designed by an advertising company as the ultimate ‘Shuttle away from it all’ dream. They flickered like some vast, unearthly candle luring monied moths towards it. But they spelled welcome to Max. For soon the shuttle would be landing and he would be free to ply his trade.

Trade on The Belt, Max found, was far easier to ply than on Earth. Here, there was little security. The filthy rich didn’t need to rob each other and the likes of Max were not permitted to travel in space, so why bother with any fancy door locks?

Back home however, it was different. Robberies at one time were so frequent and credit cards so easy to obtain that cash became obsolete. Then robbers turned to computers to hack their way into accounts, transferring funds to their own numbers. In the end, people were employed round the clock to check incoming instructions to bank computers. He had laughed about that. It had reminded him of stories that his grandfather used to tell him of men riding shotgun to guard money for Wells Fargo.

Underworld friends laughed at Max’s old-fashioned ways. But he had the last laugh. Before long, computers ran everything and made themselves virtually foolproof. Much of the criminal fraternity became redundant.

Yes, it was much easier up here. While ‘The Belters’ were out doing their own particular things, Max was doing his. Without sophisticated electrolocks to crack, he could use the despised credit cards to let himself into hotel rooms. Old-fashioned skeleton keys, fashioned from one of his bed springs, gave him access to every drawer and cupboard. And anyone who slept with the key in their lock would not have seen Max push it onto a piece of waiting paper, pull it under the door and let himself silently in and relieve them of their jewellery.

Trouble was, it wouldn’t be long before people talked and realised that they hadn’t merely lost their items, but that the unthinkable had happened. Max would need to be long way away by then. But to do that he’d need to make a really big haul. Shuttle pilots only took megabribes!

Now Max had been keen to get started. All this work on The Belt was carried out over a mere twenty four hours. Having hidden his loot in a park, he was making his way back to his hotel for some well-earned rest when he passed the casino. People were coming out with wads of — money? Max blinked. He saw pictures of getaway cars screaming from a bank, notes fluttering from a suitcase as passers-by stood in amazement. Max had only seen money in a museum — people stopped using it when he was a kid... It might have been the shuttle-lag, or lack of sleep, maybe even nostalgia brought about by another of Grandfathers’ stories. Whatever it was, Max decided he wanted some money for himself. He’d find an excuse to get into the casino vaults and case the joint.

A crate of beer outside the cellar gave Max the excuse he wanted. He picked it up and strode purposefully down. Even in his present befuddled state Max should have been more suspicious. More cash than he’d ever managed to count in his mind to induce sleep lay before him in boxes next to the crisps. Grabbing an armful, he threw it madly above his head and enjoyed the new sensation of notes skidding off his head and face.

‘If Sir would just care to leave his account number, we will gladly fetch the chips to the table for him!’ A Tuxedoed figure looking patronisingly down at him. A few drinks and people did the most incredible things!

Max was embarrassed. Casino chips — made of paper? What a gimmick! But they were not negotiable outside the casino. What a fool!

‘I think you’d better have a word with Lowsy, Umble and Vyle, sir!’

Max gulped. They must be what passed as law in these parts, or the casino’s heavy boys. Either way he didn’t like the sound of it.

The coffee in front of Max reassured him. He was alone in the room save for a large screen on one wall. Why give him coffee if they were going to do nasty things to him? He started when the screen spoke to him.

‘Welcome Max!’

‘Wh-what the-? My name’s not Max. You’ve got the wrong man. And where are the three I’m supposed to see?’

... he saw pictures of getaway cars screaming from a bank, notes fluttering from a suitcase as passers-by stood in amazement. Max had only seen money in a museum — people stopped using it when he was a kid...

‘Lowsy, Umble and Vyle, you mean? That’s me, Max. But you can call me Luv for short. I’m an advertising agency you see. Silly I know, but it’s traditional to have several names. I’ve noticed you’re a traditionalist in your own way Max. That’s why you’re here. Oh, you think you were so clever getting here. But while you were putting on your ridiculous act, my Excise Droid was telling me all about you. I ordered him to let you on the shuttle.’

Max was lost for words. Luv, however, wasn’t. She continued.

‘I Max, am a computer. We took over the advertising business a year ago. I was — am — the best agency there’s ever been. You may know some of my work. The bottled water campaign was good. Kept me at the top of the league for ages. The others were green with envy. Then the plastic credit cards. My idea... Trouble was I never got the idea patented so everyone else jumped on the bandwaggon. You know the result. After that things got boring. Nobody went out and bought things on impulse anymore — they just ordered things they saw on the TV screen. And it never looked as good as the real thing, so not many people bothered. I could see a slump coming so I invested my money in the Holiday Belt. The press said it was a bad move... came up to personally see to the operation. It’s working. But I want to go back down. Start a campaign that will shake them all up. And that campaign will happen — because of you Max.’

‘Sorry, I don’t follow Luv. I don’t know anything about advertising except that I hate it! Flaming bottled water and plastic money!’

‘Quite Max, but with your help things will change. I am going to shake the world with my exciting new concept of commercialism — cash! Money. It will be the greatest thing since sliced bread. A bit before your time Max, but I modestly admit that that too, was my idea!’

‘You’re crackers! It’ll never catch on!’

‘But it will, Max. You love money, don’t you? Look at your behaviour in the casino vaults just now! I tell you it’s a winner! We sell it on nostalgia. We tell people it’s wholesome, old-fashioned and what they’ve been missing — the human touch — you’ve shown me the importance of that Max! Take the money out to a shop — see people — talk about your personal problems. Money will bring you friends, happiness.’

‘I think you have a point there Luv. And if you patent money, nobody else will be able to make any. They’ll have to come to you for it! And I could go round nicking it from them — so they’d have to get more!’

‘You’re a fast learner Max. I have seen the correlation between cash and human emotion. We will play on that emotion to make them part with the cash. I desire to be respected, and this scheme will secure it. Look, Max, I have even designed the notes. Pretty aren’t they? I searched my memory dump and came up with the motifs. Something called ‘knitting pattern!’ But very human, I think. I would like you to have these first copies as a gift. A first payment.’

Max stifled a laugh as he accepted the notes. His mind was already racing. He didn’t want to work for a stinking computer, but it might serve his purposes for the time being. His grandfather had been a money forger in the last great money age and Max had inherited his artistic talents...

When Luv’s campaign got underway, Max Helpmann was planning to get very, very rich!

AND THEN THERE IS LEGLESS O’DONNELL

Roger Kean (on loan from ZZAP!) pokes about into an enigmatic mystery at Hewson Consultants that involves a drunken reporter, a faithful waggy-tail dog, a beautiful girl and her uncle, a professor of ancient antiquities.

If ever you thought that writing a computer game today is a simple matter of getting out your compiler and squeezing some BASIC into a 42K pint pot of code, then a visit to Hewson Consultants might be salutory. For tucked away inside their (near to) Abingdon offices in Oxfordshire is a programmer by the name of Mark Goodall who is deeply engrossed in the mystery of the Sphinx. At least he is at the moment, for Sphinx is the working title of a forthcoming Hewson Consultants graphic adventure. By the time of its release — some six months away yet — its name will undoubtedly have changed, the reasons for which, Mark explains:

‘It was originally set in Egypt — we started off with this idea of Egypt being a fruitful inspirational area — but is now set in South America partly because Egypt has been done to death as far as mystery is concerned and with this game it’s the mystery that we were looking for.’

Another six months may seem like a long time, but Mark has already put hundreds of hours in, and what I was able to see was largely created as a demo in his purpose built graphics designer/editor. This amazing piece of software underlines Mark’s skills as a utilities designer, something he has been doing in-house for Andrew Hewson for a while now. Sphinx, however, is his first ever game program.

Andrew Hewson: ‘This project has been up in the air since Christmas when we kicked around a lot of ideas and gradually we pulled together what we were aiming for. Mark’s written a lot of background software, there’s been a great deal of talking, so once we get the idea right we’ll be able to turn out several games in a series quite quickly. This is the turning point now, where the actual format is worked out and we’ve got the utilities worked out and we’ve got everything worked out except the sound generator. The graphics are important because obviously it’s the graphics that have to transfer the impact of the game to the player.

Mark Goodall’s graphics designer/editor system, here shows various units of pre-designed wall (lower part of screen), which can be cursor-driven and placed in the scrolling display area at the top, thus allowing the building up of a vast ‘littered plain’.

‘What’s happening now is that we’re getting the storyline together. We’ve got somebody working on the script and he has a brief to write 10,000 words on it. He uses phases like ‘literary induction’ which we were very impressed with. It’s a tremendous script. He also provided us with the idea to have a separate motivation for each of the characters so for instance the reporter is there to make money to finance his drinking! It’s a multi-character game, something like Scooby Doo the cartoon, where four people in some sense work together to finish the job. The individual characters are important. The team consists of Daphne, the whimsical female who screams and runs away from everything. She’s very slim and elegant so she can nip into tight corners and she is the one whose family is cursed and it is the curse that they are trying to release. Then there is Legless O’Donnell, the drunken reporter who is fat, heavy and gets drunk. He’s the strong one but if you let him get drunk he becomes unmanageable, Trashman’s done that and it’s the same sort of philosophy. Spot is the dog and you can play his character too. He’s the one used for frightening away the nasty bones that come and get you. Finally, there’s the archaeologist who is an upright sort who can’t do anything useful except that when he sees a hieroglyphic he goes up and reads it.’

Mark Goodall takes up the story as he shows me not only the animated characters and their 3-dimensional environment, but also how the graphics editor works, scrolling pre-designed ‘building blocks’ through four selection windows, while a cursor allows him to drop them in the top display area wherever he chooses. ‘Obviously the characters can only do what comes most natural to them, as with the dog he is terribly good at digging, and by kicking great piles of sand around it’s possible to retrieve some important item like a chain or a bone — but he won’t be able to do anything with it. If it’s a question of using a key in a lock, when that’s needed you change control over to another character. Similarly, you can use the reporter to lift heavy objects up, the archaeologist to read inscriptions and so on. It’s partly fun, partly mystery and partly just watching the graphics.

‘We’ve tried to introduce a horror element to the graphics. The way they’ve turned out they tend to be ultra-realistic so the actual design of the game gives the possibility of horror inherent within the idea of realism. So, if we can make a player believe that they are that character then if we have some horrible thing emerging from a wall or a mummy suddenly shooting out, getting hold of somebody and ripping his arms off and throwing bits of body everywhere, then that is going to make more impact on the player.’

Mark’s relish at the thought of this kind of mayhem is mitigated somewhat by his obviously honest face, but Andrew hurries the subject on by telling me that the ‘key phrase’ to the game is ‘littered plain’. Each level in the game (there may be many) can in theory be virtually infinite in size. This would obviously make it unplayable, so Mark is aiming to have spacious open areas, and then claustrophobic spaces. Within the Egyptian/Aztec temple areas where the action will take place, they have literally littered the playing plain with buildings, walls, jars, and other appropriately archaeological artefacts. Among them statues which, since they are constructed along identical lines to the playing characters, can be brought to life in an instant, using the same animation routines as the main characters and therefore eating up no memory — a touch of Mark’s ‘horror’.

‘The system we’re using is so flexible it’s hopeful that we can proportion out these claustrophobic parts and open out some locations and then close them down again, so if you were going down wells or holes we perhaps could get lots of contrast.’

Some of the graphics we may expect to see in the finished game, including the archaeologist’s beautiful daughter, Spot the dog and some useful jars that may contain something nasty...

All of this is seen in 3D from a bird’s eye point of view, the problems of which Mark is presently coping with. ‘There’s so many ways of approaching the problem. For example here we’ve got a forty-five degree angle as a perspective angle for these objects. Now it turns out that the implications of that are rather awkward and I’ll have to change it to a twenty-two and a half degree angle of perspective and there are so many problems like this which need to be chewed over.’

As the characters move about, they pass behind objects and buildings, so all the moving graphics have to be masked correctly to make it appear as though they really are passing behind something, and there are quite a few moving characters, and on top of that, the screen scrolls about all over the place. ‘It’s actually quite difficult,’ says Mark. ‘We’ve finally solved the problems now but keeping the speed up is very difficult and requires some very peculiar bits of coding which I spent most of last week trying to sort out to make sure it is fast. Also you’re moving quite a large area of the screen here as well. The actual area of the screens is very large and with all this it’s obviously quite a challenge.’

Writing any computer game with this complexity of graphics and character interaction is a challenge, but as one of the new generation of Hewson programmers, Mark Goodall seems cheerful enough at the daunting prospect, and if, through the strains of work, he ever feels in need of some convivial drinking company, there’s always Legless O’Donnell...

Hewson Consultants’ Sphinx (or whatever it’s finished title will be) should be available round May to June — more detail when we have it.

ROGER (ON LOAN) KEAN

ON THE (CRASH) COVER
OLI FREY — NEWSFIELD’S AIRBRUSH MAESTRO

The first thing you notice about CRASH is the cover. Oliver Frey is responsible for all the covers — and a great deal more in the way of illustrative material that graces the pages of the magazine.

We made an appointment with the Olibugs, and were granted an interview with their master, who works on a desk covered with little bottles of Luma ink (used in his airbrush), right at the pinnacle of CRASH Towers in the draughty Artroom Garret. There was a time, before CRASH started, when Oli made his living as a freelance illustrator — but nowadays he’s holding down what must seem like the equivalent of a couple of full time jobs, painting covers for CRASH, ZZAP! and AMTIX, as well as Christmas posters, Olibugs, the Hall of Slime — and lots of fiddly bits, like logos, competition illustrations and giant capital letters to pretty up the text in all three magazines produced by Newsfield.

THE TALE BEGINS nearly thirty years ago, when the Frey family came to Britain from Switzerland. The very young Oliver Frey started school and was soon introduced to Eagle by his comic-mad classmates. Oli was immediately taken by the quality of the artwork in Eagle, and immersed himself in the doings of Dan Dare and his battles with the Mekon. Already exhibiting an artistic leaning, Oli began copying drawings — and his first brush with fame came when a teacher caught sight of a giant cowboys and indians picture the nine year old artist had produced and wheeled him round all the classes in the school showing off his work!

After a few years the Frey family moved back to Switzerland, and Oliver’s education continued — a friend in England continued to send copies of Eagle to him, however, and his weekly dose of comic fun came through the post. He was addicted to the work of such greats as Don Lawrence (Trigan Empire), Frank Bellamy (worked on Dan Dare and other features in Eagle) and Frank Hampson (creator of Dan Dare). Indeed, Oli sent several of his own drawings into his favourite comics, and was once rewarded with a reply from Don Lawrence — it wasn’t the last time they were to have dealings. Oliver decided that he wanted to become an artist, and he persuaded his parents to let him to take a correspondence course in illustration while he was at school. They paid for an American course called The Famous Artists, a series of three books written by a team of a dozen illustrators. Each of the thirty six lessons ended with an assignment, which had to be completed and sent off to be marked.

By the time Oli finished his A levels, he had completed the course and was keen to become an illustrator. Or a film producer — he had been making films with an 8mm camera, with his brother Franco and sister Lauretta as stars. Or an army officer (military service is compulsory in Switzerland). Or a diplomat.

The London Film School attracted his attention, and during a visit to England he approached them, explaining that he was keen to begin a career in films and had been making them at home. They were interested, but wondered whether his preference for action movies was quite what was needed — Oli had been making films about the Swiss version of James Bond named James Tell, appropriately enough (we might print a few stills of Franco Frey, Secret Agent one day...). In the event, the London Film School advised that he was a little young to start a course, and he returned to Switzerland to begin his army service.

Double page marine illustration for Look and Learn, 1977

Plan B swung into action. At the time, the minimum period of national service in Switzerland was 3 months of basic training. Oliver decided to carry on for a while longer, and go for Corporal. After six months, his first spell in the army finished, and Plan C came to the fore — he started at Berne University, reading History, German Literature and English Literature with a vague view to entering the diplomatic service.

“Unfortunately, my university career wasn’t a roaring success,” Oli remembers, “I started going to the cinema seriously while I was at university, instead of going to lectures and it wasn’t long before I realised that I was much more interested in making films. After a term I left university and approached the London Film School again. I was accepted, and started a two year course in 1969. In those days it was called The London School of Film Technique, and the course covered all aspects of film making.”

And of course, while he was in London, Mr Frey had to support himself, to some extent, so he looked for some freelance comic work. “I went to the War Picture Library, who still publish war stories in comic-strip farm, and persuaded them to let me illustrate a story so I could show them what I could do. I was given a script and told to go away and draw a five page strip. They liked the work and I was commissioned to do a whole book — that took two months, working in a bedsit during the evening, and it was accepted.” Thus began a long association with the War Picture Library, which resulted in dozens of covers and illustrated stories.

At the end of the Film course, another period of compulsory army service in Switzerland followed, during which Oliver was given the chance to go to Officer School, and could have embarked on an army career. By now he had made up his mind. Neither the Diplomatic Service nor the Armed Forces tempted him — he was thoroughly hooked on films. So when he finished his army service, he returned to England to continue with his freelance illustration while he wrote a film script.

Returning to England, Oli looked up a friend from Film School days — one Roger Kean — and together they came up with the notion of setting up an industrial film company in Switzerland. The film script came to nothing, and Messrs Kean and Frey went to Switzerland with 16mm camera and professional sound equipment to make their fortune producing films for companies. “Unfortunately I’ve never been very good at selling,” Oil explained, “and Roger, while being more of a salesman, was hampered by the fact that he couldn’t speak German.” The film company gradually petered out, and Roger and Oliver returned to England.

Book jacket illustration for the Hamlyn Book of Horror, 1977

While he was in Switzerland, tying to sell the services of the film company to Swiss businesses, Oli continued to draw War Picture Library material on a freelance basis. Returning to England, he found an agent who specialised in comics, and a wide variety of freelance illustration work began to come Oli’s way. (Mr Kean disappears from the story for a few years, scampering off into the distance and becoming a film editor with the BBC, finally going freelance before being roped into the CRASH Editorship some years later).

IPC comics soon became a regular source of work for Oli. He finally caught up with his childhood heroes: for a couple of years he took over from Don Lawrence and drew The Trigan Empire for Look and Learn (before the novelty wore so thin that he had to stop or crack up), as well as general feature illustrations; then his interest in Dan Dare came full circle. He found himself drawing the very same strips as the artists he had admired as a lad!

Throughout the late seventies and early eighties Oliver established himself as a freelance comic artist — but other fields also opened up. Apart from regular work for IPC and the War Picture Library, Oli produced book covers for Souvenir Press, Video covers, and illustrations for children’s books, including Oxford University Press. More than a few history books (and the odd horror story compilation) have been graced with Oli’s work.

Oliver’s work was reaching a large audience — but one piece of work in particular reached a massive circulation... Oli had been seeking to diversify, and move gently away from comic work. Having heard that there might be a vacancy for a storyboard artist at Pinewood Studios, working on Superman, The Movie, he drove to the studios and met the Art Director. At the time, they were re-working the flying sequences, and while the Art Director was impressed with the Frey portfolio, he couldn’t afford the time to teach him about the technicalities of camera lenses and the like needed for this particular very specialist vacancy. It was no job.

A Dan Dare spread from an Eagle Holiday Special done for IPC Magazines in 1984.

Then, a week later, the Superman Art Director called Oli. They needed a 1930’s style Superman comic for the title sequences. Thus Oli found himself in an anteroom to the Director’s office, waiting for a couple of hours while a landslide scene was argued about, and discussed endlessly. Suddenly, the Director realised that someone had been waiting for hours to see him, ushered Oli in, explained what they wanted and asked for some pencil roughs of a 1930’s street scene “perhaps with a policeman swinging his nightstick....” A couple of days later, Oliver returned with a pencil rough of the strip and a comic cover inked in: “In the 30’s, Superman was drawn in a very rough style,” he explained, “and I was worried that I might let myself down by copying the rough appearance of the originals, so I inked in the cover and held my breath while I handed the work over.”

He needn’t have worried. The Director was well impressed and the rough of the cover was accepted on the spot and was used in the title sequence along with the finished version of the strip.

The Oliver Frey story moves, with him, to Ludlow in 1982. In the late seventies Oliver had visited Ludlow several times — long enough to fall in love with the town. It just so happened that the rest of the Frey family were looking to move from the Home Counties, and in 1982 an exodus to Ludlow took place. Franco, who’d gained a degree in Engineering since playing James Tell, and had been working on a variety of high-tech engineering projects, got involved with a German company which wanted to import Spectrum software from England. Franco bought a Spectrum and was busily playtesting games, researching the market for his German contact, when he came up with the idea of starting a magazine — or at the very least, a mail order service selling Spectrum Software. So it was all his fault.

In July 1983 the first mail order advertisement for CRASH MICRO GAMES ACTION was placed in Personal Computer Games, and Oliver was embroiled in producing illustrations for the catalogue... as well as publicity stills. Mr Kean was roped in, and somehow, the whole thing grew into CRASH Magazine, and Newsfield Publications.... The freelance work came to an end.

Most of Oli’s colour work for the magazines is executed using an airbrush to paint in large areas of colour, and backgrounds, with details being added with pen or brush. “I like the airbrush because it is simple, and is a very quick method of applying colour and adding effects. It’s a time saver. I remember one painting I did for Look and Learn, in which the foremast of a ship is shrouded in mist. All I had to do was paint the mast and rigging in solid black and then airbrush colour over it to give the effect of mist. If I had attempted that part of the painting using ordinary brushes it could have taken several days to achieve the effect I wanted, rather than a couple of hours. And time is of the essence, when you’re working as an illustrator.”

Several stages showing the development of this issue’s CRASH cover as Oliver works it up to completion

Oli’s only been using an airbrush for five or six years though. Most of his comic work was created using traditional brush and pen techniques, using acrylics. “It’s easy to overpaint with acrylics, and you have to be more careful in the planning stage when you’re using inks and an airbrush — it’s easy to lose the depth of colour if you try to put ink on top of another colour. Generally, I’ll produce a pencil rough onto the board I’m working on, and then spray the background and large areas of colour on top, adding the fine detail by hand.”

It took quite a while to convince Oliver that an airbrush would be useful — he remained convinced that far too much time would be spent masking off areas, applying a colour, removing the masking and then applying another mask for the next colour and so on which is the ‘classical’ way of working with an airbrush. Finally, he was persuaded to get a Thayer and Chandler airbrush after he had seen Terry Gilliam’s effortless use of airbrush technology. “I’m not very good at coping with technical things, and equipment,” Oliver confesses freely. Which is why he can often be spotted prodding his airbrush, looking puzzled, after it has clogged up — which it has a habit of doing every so often, despite the fact he uses special non-clogging American inks. “They’re strange things, these Luma Inks,” Oli explains, “you’re supposed to keep them in a cupboard locked away from the light. And whenever I’m spraying an orange background everyone tends to leave the Artroom — it smells disgusting, like someone’s been sick.” Which all goes to show what Oli’s prepared to go through to produce his paintings!

Given his background in comic strips in combination with his interest in films, it would seem logical for Oli to get involved with animated movies — perhaps involving computers. “I’ve never been tempted to get involved with computer art — I’m not really very patient. I find it difficult enough coping with the airbrush, which I like because of its simplicity; and I couldn’t sit down in front of a computer and fiddle endlessly with the keyboard to produce the result I wanted.

“When it comes to animation, there’s so much work involved that I’m sure I couldn’t put up with it. I’ve looked at the process, and gave up the idea of making cartoon films before stalling. So much of the work is mechanical, tracing hundreds and hundreds of cells and inking them all in — I simply wouldn’t be able to apply myself to such a task. Though if I had a team of animators at my disposal, to do all the finicky work....”

It’s not difficult to spot the influence Oli’s background in comic strip illustration has had on the overall look of the magazines — bold images zooming out of the pages are fairly typical of the design, which is the way comic illustrations work, picking on particular elements and emphasising them. “I became an illustrator in the first place because I liked comics, I’ve always liked comics,” he explains, “and this carries over into other areas of work.” Comics are fairly firmly ingrained on his consciousness nowadays!

‘When you’re working on a comic strip you tend to be illustrating stories provided for you by a writer — you work as a team. A good comic strip author has to realise what is and isn’t possible visually, and it can get very tricky, working as an illustrator, when someone who hasn’t such a strong sense of what is possible demands a very specific drawing.

By the time CRASH starter [...?] each illustration — which means he has to come up with ideas as well as paintings. He’s still producing pieces of work to suit a particular purpose, but he has more control over the whole process than he would have as a freelance.

Nearly all his paintings have a theme set in the past or the future — including the pure fantasy illustrations. Where does the inspiration come from? “I’ve never really liked the Here And Now — the Now doesn’t really inspire me. I’ve always liked historical things. All my paintings are bigger than life, mainly because life isn’t as exciting as it appears in pictures. I escape into a picture when I’m painting. When I’m really concentrating I sort of imagine I’m really there, looking onto the action in the painting — otherwise it’s difficult to see the things in my mind’s eye. It can take a couple of hours for me to go away from a picture — when I finish I sometimes spend an hour just sitting in front of the painting, staring at it. I’m in an alternate reality, I suppose. To work, the picture has to be convincing to me, which means I have to get really involved in what’s happening.” Which accounts for some of the rather strange facial expressions that sometimes rest on Oli’s face when he’s drawing a monster, or an action sequence... he has been known suffer from facial cramp as a result of some pictures!

“I’ve always been a dreamer, a romantic if you like. Ever since the games I played as a child when I was The Famous War Hero, or The Brave Sheriff Dealing With The Baddie, I’ve been able to get totally immersed in a fantasy world. I’m very interested in history, and read a lot of history books for relaxation, imagining I’m there. History is about real people, and I enjoy illustrating scenes from history, even though it involves quite a lot of reference work for accuracy. In some ways it’s more pleasing to draw futuristic scenes and fantasy — the referencing isn’t a problem, in that I make it all up, and it’s just a matter of producing a painting that has its own accuracy and detail. It’s more pleasing to make fantasy real than represent reality accurately.

“What I’d really like to do is direct a film, I suppose,” Oli mused. “Film is the ultimate fantasy-fulfilling medium. The closest you can get to film in a printed way is a comic strip, and there are a lot of common elements. I’d still like to be the director, sitting above a massive battle sequence with thousands of extras all re-enacting a scene from history. I would really be there, in control of the ultimate fantasy...”

FESTIVE FELICITATIONS

Ho Hum. Another eventful year comes to an end and the only polite thing to do is thank all the people and organisations whose efforts made 1985 fun and successful. Ta.

CRASH Towers started the year with what seemed like an endless supply of empty dungeons and corridors in which half a dozen people rattled around like peas in an empty supertanker. The spiders had room to breathe — but little to eat.

Now, twelve months later, we share our pitifully small offices with mountains of binders, the ZZAP! crew (whose arrival with a vanload of chattels and mess from Yeovil dramatically reduced our Lebensraum) and lots of new members of staff. It’s difficult to avoid tripping over people, nowadays, as CRASH Towers is bursting at the seams with minions, reviewers, writers, gophers, gophers’s gophers, artpersons, editors, NECs, Apricots, Commodores and Amstrads. And the spiders are growing fat on the scraps of hurried office lunches.

Soon we will be wading through your Readers’ Awards forms, and collating the results. On a lighter note, let’s proceed with the CRASH Writer’s Awards:

Oliver Frey — an award for remaining in the Art Garret of the Towers, painting covers with stinky inks with little regard for his health, sanity and complexion. AN UNCLOGGABLE AIRBRUSH

Franco Frey — for ploughing his way through endless reams of technobabble to render the incomprehensible, comprehensible. And for ruling the Mail Order department with a rod of... well with a firm hand. A SELF-SIGNING GOLDEN CHEQUEBOOK.

David Western — for liaising with advertisers beyond the call of final deadlines, and for convincing our printers that we may be a day late but are still nice fellows. A SELF-FILLING, BOTTOMLESS TEA MUG.

Jeremy Spencer — for Editing Software, introducing us to Amstrads, wittering on endlessly about Amstrads, and then deserting to AMTIX! (and continuing to witter on about “Straddles”) A FRIENDLY POKE IN THE EYE WITH A WET SPONGE while he witters on about Amstrads

John Minson — for scampering round the streets of London, attending launches and getting lots of freebie booze and grub down his neck before writing news items. A NICE, SOBER, PLAIN WHITE Van Heusen SHIRT

Gary Liddon — for deserting Domark, leaving them tealess, and coming to CRASH Towers and leaving us tealess while he covers the office in breakfast breadcrumbs. AN INEDIBLE RUBBER SANDWICH

Roger Kean — for running off to an becoming a Publishing Executive. SECOND GO AT THE WET SPONGE

Robin Candy — for spoiling the fun of people who can’t bear not to read his pages, and for covering the office in Crisp Packets (empty). THE OLD PLAYING TIPS LOGO FOR ALL TIME

Auntie Aggie — for wearing her fingers to the bone as she sends off all your goodies while entertaining telephone callers. A GOLDEN JIFFY BAG

Dennis, the Subscription Queen — for appearing in the gossip column of the industry newspaper, Computer Trade Weekly. A PAGE THREE APPEARANCE IN “COOKS AND COOKERY”

The Competition Minion — for pestering people to stump up prizes, setting competitions and hiding in the broom cupboard. A ROUND OF DRINKS AT THE FROG AND LILYPAD (he pays)

Lloyd Mangram — for assiduously (LMLWD) declining to be photographed, continually demanding more money and less work despite immense royalties earned on his dictionary, and for fighting off all the bugs in Bug Box. A BOTTLE OF HERMES CLEANING FLUID

Graeme Kidd — as nominated by the other inhabitants of the Towers — for frightening us all by shaving his head, wearing big shiny red Doc Martens and drinking too much Old Flatulence Bitter. A GREEN MOHICAN WIG

Messrs Penn and Rignall from ZZAP! — for mess-making beyond the call of duty, and changing the air in CRASH Towers to a subtle shade of blue. A TANKER FULL OF STYLING MOUSSE (three week’s supply)

Ben Stone — for being a trendy London wide-boy who feels undressed without at least a Pringle Jumper, Nike shoes and stonewash jeans. A TESCO TEARAWAY ROMPER SUIT

Sally Newman, Mail Order Dragon — for nagging everyone beyond the call of duty A BOX OF FIRELIGHTERS TO GET STARTED ON COLD WINTER MORNINGS

De Grays, purveyors of sandwiches and sweetmeats to the Ludlow cognoscenti (LMLWD again), and to Gary Liddon — A REQUEST. Could you bar Gary Liddon? Pretty please?

And finally, to Poddy, Mr Spencer’s Dog — for keeping the office plant well watered. A BITE OUT OF MR LIDDON (And serve them both right, too)

And on that fine note, all that’s left to do is wish all our readers, advertisers, printers, distributors, newsagents, typesetters, as well as software houses A HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

End of public service announcement. It’s time to start work on the February issue. See you then...

A LITTLE LEARNING FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON?

This month, with the help of a panel of children, Crash Course looks at some Christmas crackers!

First of all, though, there is some good news on the educational front. A new organisation, British Educational Software Associates, has recently been set up to improve the availability and distribution of educational software. Eight firms (ASK, Bourne, Calpac, Collins, Griffin, Hill MacGibbon, MacMillan and Widgit) have formed this new marketing consortium to help selected retailers service a market which, according to Roy Davey, marketing director of Collins Soft and Hill MacGibbon, is ‘diffused and frustrated’. He feels, quite rightly, that schools have difficulty in finding a retailer who offers a good choice of software together with a fast ordering service, and who allows the customer to view programs before purchase. BESA has now appointed 200 retailers throughout Britain who will stock a ‘core list’ of 40 programs and will be able to meet orders for other titles from some 250 in the catalogue within 48 hours. Support for retailers will be handled by Proteus, the leading educational software distributor.

This is a very welcome move, both from the point of view of schools and of home users. Up till now, most of the high street stores have paid only lip-service to the area of educational software, and it is hoped that the promotion of BESA in local newspapers and in information hand-outs to schools will begin to rectify matters. If the experiment proves successful, the consortium would hope to expand in 1986.

But now on to this month’s software selection. I asked a panel of children, ranging in age from 7 to 13 years, to look at the programs with me, and to decide whether or not they’d like to get the games for Christmas. Each game was awarded a score out of 10.

BLOCKBUSTER

Producer: Computer Tutor
Price: £7.95

Blockbuster (not to be confused with the popular TV quiz game) is a puzzle ‘with a million billion variations’. The child has to make a rectangle out of 12 different blocks which appear on the screen. The screen itself is divided into three parts. At the top is the STORE where the blocks are displayed before being used: on the right is the WORKBOX where the blocks can be rotated before being positioned on the board; and to the left is the BOARD marked with a grid where the rectangle is to be made.

The game is very good for developing skills of spatial awareness, and there is also the option of playing it in its quiz version. If you get 12 questions correct, you are given a complete solution as to the creation of the rectangle. As with all the programs in the Clever Clogs series, pressing CAPS SHIFT/Q takes you to a secret Parents’ Page, and enables you to reset the questions. Another useful and flexible game.

COMMENTS

Control keys: P to place a piece on the board, M to move a piece to the workbox, S to move a piece back to the store, Q to end the game. CAPS SHIFT/Q to reset the questions
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: bright and clear
Graphics: simple but effective
Panel’s comments: we thought it was a reasonably good game, but it would be better for schools rather than home use.
General Rating: Surprisingly difficult for young children. An adult really needs to be on hand all the time for help and advice.

Overall

6/10

CARGO

Producer: Macmillan Software Ltd/Sinclair Research Ltd
Author: Five Ways Software Ltd
Price: £7.95

The aim of Cargo is to demonstrate the careful planning that is needed to allow a cargo ship to carry its maximum load in safety. The player first has to load the ship making sure that the cargo is distributed evenly in the holds, and of course has to pay attention to the Plimsoll line markings in doing so. The player can select a rank (Master, Chief Officer, Second Mate, Cadet) and at the end of the game may be promoted or demoted depending on performance. The child can also choose a starting point and a port of call — all of the ports are clearly marked on the screen map. After the ship has been loaded and has begun its journey (a line appears on the map to trace the course), the screen display indicates how it is sitting in the water — the higher the salinity, the more buoyancy it gives to the ship. The program also gives a continuous report on conditions at sea. If you reach your port of call safely, you must unload the cargo and get your score.

This game covers a lot of ground (or should it be sea?) in terms of educational content. Children will learn about salinity and sailing conditions in different parts of the world, improving their geographical knowledge by constant reference to the map. The booklet also gives useful background information about Samuel Plimsoll.

COMMENTS

Control keys: SPACE and ENTER
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: good
Graphics: excellent
Panel’s comments: the boys liked it more than the girls did. The map was very good and we liked the way your trail was marked by dots. The program is good value, and the boys would be happy to get it for Christmas.
General Rating: A very well designed program which is both enjoyable and educational.

Boys

8/10

Girls

5/10

GLIDER

Producer: Macmillan Software Ltd/Sinclair Research Ltd
Author: Five Ways Software Ltd
Price: £7.95

This is probably the weakest of the three Science Horizons programs we looked at. Its aim is to acquaint the user with the scientific principles of gliding — taking into account the need for rising currents of warm air (thermals) and how these are influenced by what is on the ground as well as by the weather conditions and the time of the day. When the program has loaded, the player can chose the time of day, and then, when ENTER is pressed, the glider is towed to the appropriate height and released. A variometer on the right of the screen shows the rate of climb or fall, and when you reach a thermal you should press H to circle and gain as much height as you can. A rough map of the island above which you are flying is shown in the booklet, with a key to the thoroughly confusing list of symbols used. You can get the Air Traffic Controller’s report on your performance together with your final score at the end of the flight (you may have landed safely or crashed), which is a nice touch.

COMMENTS

Control keys: T, Y, U, G, J, B, N, M to change the direction of the glider, P to pause, C to continue, SPACE to choose your time of day at the beginning of the game, and for the report and final score at the end
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: could have been used to greater effect
Graphics: dull
Panel’s comments: a lot of room for improvement in the graphics and game play. The picture on the box makes the game look much more exciting that it really is. We wouldn’t want it for Christmas.
General Rating: I’m afraid we gave this a thumbs down as lacking entertainment value, and with a minimal educational content.

Overall

4/10

QUIZTIMER

Producer: Macmillan Software Ltd
Author: Blackboard Software (Eve Gorton, Paul Gorton)
Price: £5.95

There are many quiz programs on the market, and this is one of the best I’ve seen. The computer is ideally suited to the role of quizmaster of course, but not all the available quiz games are as flexible as this one, which can be played by one or two players, or even by two teams.

One side of the cassette contains the game and information about it, and you really have to run through the instructions quite carefully. The game consists of a word supplied with several letters missing, and also a clue. The time taken to answer the questions is also important as this will affect your score. Once the main program has been loaded, the player has to choose a password which is necessary if you want to see answers and clues before starting the game, or if you want to change the questions. The menu gives the following options: load quiz data (from a choice of 10 subjects ranging from Food and Drink to Greek Mythology); single or two player game; alter the time allowance; select pictures or words; view/alter quiz data and create and save new quiz data. The best thing about this program is its flexibility — it has endless potential both for home use and for schools. The game is thoroughly enjoyable to play, and it also provides a useful educational experience, giving at the end a list of all the words you didn’t get or that you spelt wrongly. You can also obtain a print-out of what is being shown on the screen, and the whole thing can be transferred to Microdrive if desired.

COMMENTS

Control keys: whole keyboard used
Keyboard play: fast
Use of colour: clear and vivid
Graphics: good
Panel’s comments: Good game! You could play it for ages without getting bored, and it was quite easy to put in you own questions. This is the best of all!
General Rating: An excellent multi-feature game which provides superb value for money.

Overall

9/10

SURVIVAL

Producer: Macmillan Software Ltd/Sinclair Research Ltd
Author: Five Ways Software Ltd
Price: £7.95

The programs in the Science Horizons series each concentrate on one key scientific idea and try to bring it alive for primary children. Survival is concerned with the basic principles of ecology (the interdependence of living things and their environment). When the program has loaded, pictures of six creatures (hawk, robin, lion, mouse, fly and butterfly) appear on the screen. The player chooses one of them, and has to keep it alive in its habitat by finding food and water and by steering clear of predators. A grid represents the world in map form, with ice caps to the north and south, and the player moves the chosen animal around, one square at a time. As the game progresses, the child will be building up a profile of each creature, based on the knowledge acquired about its energy requirements, predators, life span and so on.

The useful booklet which is included in the package gives brief notes about the six animals, but of course children could be directed towards reference books to increase their knowledge.

COMMENTS

Control keys: T, Y, U, G, J, B, N, M move the animal round the grid, P to pause, C to continue, 0 to switch sound off/on, K to see a key for the habitats, SPACE to speed up the action
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: attractive
Graphics: quite good
Panel’s comments: We quite liked it, but it was hard to remember the control keys. We learned a lot about the animals.
General Rating: An interesting and enjoyable program which can be used to reinforce learning, or on a self-discovery basis.

Overall

7/10

THE EXPRESS GANG PART 4

In Which Franco Frey concludes his survey of fast storage media, that allow you to get more out of your Spectrum. Well, more out in a given period of time. And more in, too. That’s what Fast Storage is all about really.

LAST IN THE SERIES of fast storage media is the Timex disk drive. Featuring its own Z80A processor with external ROM and RAM, the Timex drive treats the Spectrum as a terminal. By changing the interface unit, the system could be connected to any other type of computer — indeed work is in progress at Timex Towers on a Commodore 64 interface right now. Theoretically at least, this means that a change of computer needn’t mean making your Timex drive redundant.

The Timex disk system has been designed so that it does not require a single byte of the Spectrum’s own RAM memory, and as a result it simply can’t interfere with any commercial software. Unfortunately, however, RAM ‘photography’, using a hardware interrupt switch (similar to the BETA PLUS system) is not catered for. The Timex Operating System (TOS) is the only Spectrum based operating system to include a complete tree-structure directory facility similar to professional systems such as MS-DOS or CP/M. This enables the user to maintain a tidy household containing all the disk files. Other good features are the excellent random and sequential file handling, and the pair of serial communication ports (RS232C) which are fully software supported.

FRANCO FREY’S “SORRY” SPOT Also Known As: ERRATA!

As is usual (and perhaps, inevitable) several errors have crept in during the Fast Storage Series. The worst of the lot was in last issue, with the statement that the OPUS drive has the same format as Amstrad and Tatung — which it doesn’t. The timings given for the OPUS drive proved to be wrong: Cataloguing happens in a split second and loading a screen takes approx. 5 seconds not 4.

Dimitri Koveos from Abbeydale Design Ltd, designers of the K-DOS, has cleared up several errors in our Kempston drive review, notably to do with the speed of the drive. The review stated that the drive had a slow access time. As indicated in our comparison table, this is not so — in fact, owing to the clever coding, K-DOS is the fastest system for the Spectrum and apologies are deserved to both Kempston and Abbeydale Design. Sorry. Also, no mention was made of the CLEAR 0 function, which compresses BASIC programs to save memory.

Furthermore, Dimitri reckons the command structure is no more difficult and tedious than the microdrive/wafadrive commands — a point one can argue about ad infinitum.

Running the operating system outside BASIC, BETA PLUS can have very short and simple commands for regular file access and only runs into problems when disk access is required within BASIC, where PRINT USR statements are used for link up.

Further corrections should be sent to the department of errors, Crash towers...

TIMEX DISK DRIVE

HARDWARE:

Hardware abounds with no less than four separately enclosed units. The three main units, consisting of the 3 inch disk drive, the controller and the power supply, are fitted in three identical enclosures. The small interface unit plugs into the expansion bus of the Spectrum. Connection to the controller is via a hefty coiled cable and D-plug. Up to four drives may be linked to the system, but drives 3 and 4 necessitate an extra power supply. The controller features two serial ports which require special cables with edge connector sockets. The controller also features a system reset button and power LED, while a reset switch on the interface provides a Spectrum only reset. The interface does not feature an expansion port and if the ZX printer or ALPHACOM 32 printer is to be connected, a T extension connector will be required.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION:

Unlike all other disk units in this series, the Timex disk system is a complete computer with its own Z80A processor. This system treats the Spectrum as a terminal only and the interface passes commands and data onto the controller. The Timex Operating System (TOS) is configured as an extended Sinclair BASIC and resides in a shadow ROM. It has 1 kbyte of external RAM at its disposal for storing the drive characteristics, buffers and variables. These must initially be booted up from any pre-formatted disk.

The BASIC Extension instructions can either be executed directly from the keyboard or from within the program like any other BASIC instruction. The TOS commands may also be accessed directly from machine code by selecting the external ROM with a jump to address 0008H. In the external ROM there is a routine to call routines in the BASIC ROM, so that all BASIC functions may be accessed at any time. Calling 0603H or 0604H reselects the BASIC ROM.

TOS supports a subdirectory ‘tree-structure’. There is a root directory which may contain other directories. Directories can be nested and the specific route from the file to the current directory is called a pathname. Any Filename extensions such as for example .BAS and .COD may be used to separate the different file types, although only .DIR (for directory names) and .SCP (for communication channel names) have a specific meaning to TOS.

File names may contain ‘masks’ or ‘jokers’. The plus sign can be used to replace all or several characters in a name field, while the question mark replaces one character only. File names with masks (templates) can be used with most instructions and provide access to a group or batch of files.

TOS supports random access and sequential files. A data file must be opened and a channel for input or output linked to it. INPUT* and PRINT* are the only instructions that allow access to a specific part of a file. When the OPEN #* instruction is executed, the file structure is defined. The file can either be a stream file with no record structure, where you can read or write a variable number of characters up to 256, or a record file with a fixed record length of a specified amount of characters. Stream files can only be read sequentially or in random fashion with an AT command.

TOS provides up to 16 channels. Channels 1 to 4 are fast (each have an dedicated 512 byte buffer) and 5 to 16 are slow (common 512 byte buffer). The floppy disk controller is equipped with two RS232C serial communication ports (SCP’s). These have to be set to the correct format and baud rate by configuring the two dedicated SCP files with a FORMAT* statement. The files may then be opened in a similar way to the stream or record files for sending or receiving data.

OPERATING SYSTEM:

TOS (Timex Operating System) configured as a BASIC Extension.

SYSTEM COMMANDS:

CAT* displays the disk directory contents. The list displays the name, the file type (extension), the file size in bytes, the disk allocation (sectors occupied) and two columns indicating whether the file is write-protected (by means of the TOS software facility, not the write-protect tab). The only two extensions that have special meaning for TOS are .DIR indicating a subdirectory and .SCP a communication channel.

FORMAT* "drivename" TO "diskname" formats a disk in the requested drive. TOS is copied onto each disk (requiring 16K) for booting up. The directory requires 4K. TOS requests confirmation before proceeding with the formatting.

SAVE* pathname LOAD OPTIONS saves a file to disk. The pathname consists of the subdirectory (or subdirectories) and a filename. The LOAD OPTION may be LINE number for BASIC autorun, SCREEN$ for a screen file, CODE start, length for a machine code file and DATA arrayname () for a numeric or string array. If an existing file is specified, TOS displays a warning with a prompt to overwrite the existing file (unless the save syntax includes an overwrite enable). If the program saved is called "START" with a linenumber for autorun, TOS will autoboot from a reset if the disk is in drive A.

LOAD* pathname LOAD OPTION loads a file from disk.

MERGE* pathname merges a BASIC file from disk with the existing program and variables in the Spectrum memory.

DIM* pathname creates a 0 size file or an empty directory. The use of the path means that files can be created outside the current directory. For a directory, a filename with a .DIR extension must be used.

GOTO* pathname or GOTO* "drivename" d changes the current directory/disk. Special pathnames exist for moving up or down the directory hierarchy. GOTO* "↑↑ ..." moves up one or more nested directories and GOTO* ":" goes to the Root directory.

LIST* displays the current directory location (pathname of source directory, its level and the drive). TOS allows the change of the current directory to another drive without knowing the disk name with a GOTO* "drive name" d.

GO SUB* (pathname) or GO SUB* "drive name" d changes the current directory/drive and stores the return directory/drive on a directory/drive stack ready to be recalled with a DRAW* command. This is very useful for applications requesting a change of directory/disk to perform a task with subsequent return (using DRAW*) to the source directory/disk. TOS allows up to 8 levels of nesting.

DRAW* pops the source directory/disk. Used in conjunction with the GO SUB* command.

ATTR* pathname P, U, I or V write/erase protects, unprotects, hides (I) or unveils (V) files or directories. The pathname can be a template, so more than one file can be affected. A FORMAT* instruction can still destroy a protected disk.

MOVE* source-pathname TO destination-pathname copies a file or SCP to another file or SCP. The source is not destroyed or modified.

ERASE* pathname (N) erases files. TOS will ask for confirmation. The instruction will generate an error report if the file is write protected or belongs to a tab-protected disk.

LET* old pathname TO new pathname renames a file, directory or SCP.

FORMAT* SCP-pathname changes the configuration of the SCP. The parameters are text or bytes, autolinefeed on or off, software protocol, input with wait, baud rate, parity, and number of stop-bits and databits.

OPEN #* expression 1; pathname, mode (expression 2) opens a file or SCP and associates a channel with it for access through PRINT* and INPUT* statements.

PRINT* #n; STR (;AT P) writes characters or records to a file or SCP via a channel. Maximum record number is 65535.

INPUT* #n; VAR (;AT P) reads a character or record from a file or SCP via a channel.

CLOSE #* expression closes the open file linked to the channel number given by the expression.

LIST*# (channel number) lists information of all or specified channel numbers. The information includes the channel number, the channel type (fast or slow), mode (input, output, random, append), type (record or stream), current record (file pointer position), size (file size in bytes) and number of free channels, or if it’s an SCP: mode, type, record length (1 if stream), baud rate (50 to 19200), data type (text or bytes), autolinefeed, XON or XOFF and number of free channels.

ERROR REPORTS:

46 error reports, extensive and detailed.

EXTRA FACILITIES:

Two serial communication ports (SCP’S), baud rate adjustable from 50 to 19200 baud. Utility program provided on disk for operation of LPRINT and LLIST commands through serial port A.

MANUAL:

Excellent manual providing startup and introduction to new disk drive users followed by detailed description of TOS system and commands, directories and pathnames, random and sequential file handling and serial ports application with example programs. Appendix with TOS command summary, error reports, description of utility programs and RS232C connection details. Guidance is provided for the programmer wishing to operate from machine code (detailed list of TOS routines together with their call addresses) and for error trapping control.

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:

None, but selection of utility programs on disk including BACKUP (copies an entire disk), LOSYS (updates the TOS on existing disks without losing any data on the disk), DUMP (displays selected file on screen in hexadecimal and ASCII notation) and LPRINT (provides LPRINT and LLIST commands for 80 column printers connected to the serial port A).

CRITICISM:

No Centronics parallel port for low-cost 80 column printers available.
Extensive amount of hardware cluttering the desk.

COMMENTS:

Excellent TOS with directory filing structure, random and sequential data file handling and full SCP software support.

TOS operates as BASIC extension with very short and uncomplicated commands (unlike microdrive commands) and easy access from machine code is possible through well documented call addresses.

TOS does not use a single byte of the Spectrum RAM.

MEDIA:

3.0 inch hard cased disks in double density format. Price of media starting from £2.70.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:

Number of drives supported per system: 4
Storage capacity: 160K per side
Sector size: 1024 bytes

TIMING:

Formatting: approx. 31sec
Cataloguing: approx. 3.5sec
Loading a screen: approx. 5.5sec

ROUNDING OFF THE SERIES

A table of all the tested drives concludes the series on fast storage media, and provides a basis for direct comparison of all the different systems available to the Spectrum owner. The various features listed enable any future disk or cartridge drive owner to make up his or her mind as to which drive is particularly suited for the required application.

Before delving into the comparison chart, it would be wise to clearly define what the system is going to be used for. At present it would appear that there is a total lack of application programs to support the disk based systems, and the drives may be regarded as purely tools for BASIC and machine code programmers. Disk drive producers should be made aware of the fact that a very large proportion of Spectrum owners are not dedicated programmers, but are more avid consumers of commercially available software, be it games software or wordprocessing and database packages.

Some effort on the part of drive manufacturers expended in providing application programs for their system could result in an opening up of what is at the moment still a fringe market...

MICRODRIVE & INTERFACE 1

HARDWARE:
ZX Interface 1 stacks under the Spectrum and includes the Microdrive interface, RS232C serial interface, local area network and expansion port. Microdrive plugs in via short flat cable and has extension connector for further drives.

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Extended BASIC residing in shadow ROM, which gives access to the drive and provides software support for the serial interface and local area network.

SPEED:
Average access time with long search periods

MEDIA:
Microdrive cartridges with over 85K formatted capacity

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
Although the support has not reached the expected level, it is still the most widely supported fast storage media tested

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Software supported serial interface

- Local area network links up to 64 stations for multiplayer games or school environments

- Still the cheapest fast storage device

CRITICISM:

- disappointingly slow performance for a fast storage device

- Some users complain of the short cartridge life due to tape roller pinching

PRICE:
£99.90 inc.

TRITON QD

HARDWARE:
Large cream coloured 2.8 inch disk drive connected to black Spectrum interface unit with expansion port.

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Extended BASIC residing in shadow ROM

SPEED:
Fast Access (never longer than 8 sec)

MEDIA:
Unusual 2.8 inch hard-cased disk with up to 100kbytes capacity (both sides)

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
No drive specific programs available yet, but utility included for transferring files from tape to disk

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Fast formatting

- probably more reliable media and faster than Microdrive and wafadrive

CRITICISM:

- rare disk format may cause supply problems

PRICE:
£119.00 inc.

BETA PLUS

HARDWARE:
Interface for Shugart compatible drives in single and double density format. Magic button for storing complete RAM memory to disk. Interface includes expansion port.

OPERATING SYSTEM:
TR DOS V4 commands are accessed in operating system environment but can be called from BASIC with PRINT USR and REM statements. DOS resides in ROM and caters for 35, 40 and 80 track drives

SPEED:
Fast access times

MEDIA:
depends on drives installed, 3 inch, 3,5 inch and 5.25 single and double density up to 640K capacity

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
Very little support from software houses. Magic Button provides back up facilities for games and utilities

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Excellent RAM image saver

- Sequential and random datafile access

- Short commands in DOS environment

- Utility disk for tape copying and filing work

- requires only the printer buffer area of the Spectrum RAM

CRITICISM:

- needs more support from software houses

PRICE:
£109.25 inc. plus £4 P&P

ROTRONICS WAFADRIVE

HARDWARE:
Complete system including two stringy floppy drives and serial and parallel ports

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Extended BASIC residing in shadow ROM with commands similar to ZX interface 1

SPEED:
Variably slow depending on tape length of cartridge. Compares to Microdrive spec.

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
Spectral Writer by Softek included in package. Small library of games and utilities available.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Software supported Centronics and serial interface

- Standard unit includes two drives

- Wafadrive Operating System not apparent until initialised

- Wildcard facility

CRITICISM:

- Wafadrive is faster than cassette, but a lot slower than floppy disk media

- Fairly expensive media

- Requires more support from software houses

PRICE:
£129.95 inc.

OPUS DISCOVERY 1

HARDWARE:
Complete disk drive system with 3.5 inch drive, Kempston joystick interface, Centronics parallel port, mono video output and expansion port

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Extended BASIC. Syntax compatible with Microdrive commands. Supports data storage with serial and random access files. Fast RAM disk operation for fast file handing

SPEED:
Fast access time

MEDIA:
3.5 inch singlesided single density providing 180K capacity

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
Games, word-processing and database packages available in OPUS format

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Sequential and random access files

- RAM disk option

- Autoboot facility

- Software supported Centronics interface

- Several add-ons integrated in one unit including joystick interface and monochrome video output

- can be expanded to twin drive unit with integral second disk

CRITICISM:

Requires more support from software houses

PRICE:
£199.95 inc. VAT

KEMPSTON

HARDWARE:
Interface for Shugart compatible double density drives. System reset switch

OPERATING SYSTEM:
ROM based Kempston Operating System developed by the same company as Watford Micro’s SP-DOS (Abbeydale Design Ltd). K-DOS is accessible through BASIC using PRINT 4: command: PRINT variables statements. Provision for 35, 40 and 80 track formatting

SPEED:
Very fast access times due to careful machine coding and variable track access delays to accommodate the faster drives. K-DOS can access a complete track in one revolution (no skewing) averaging 15Kbytes/sec. Proves to be the fastest DOS tested

MEDIA:
Depends on the drives installed, 3 inch, 3.5 inch and 5.25 double density with up to 820K formatted capacity

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
Tasword 2, Omnicalc 2, Masterfile, OCP editor/assembler, OCP address/stock/finance manager, Word Manager, Extended Art Studio can be configured to run with K-DOS

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- BASIC overlay facility

- Autoboot option

- BASIC compression routine

- Error trapping function (ON ERROR GOTO...)

- Wildcard facility on CAT. ERASE and MOVE for batch file handling

- Selectable track access timing

CRITICISM:

- No expansion port

- No random record file access

PRICE:
£85 inc VAT

TIMEX

HARDWARE:
Four units incorporating the Spectrum interface, controller, power supply and 3.0 inch disk drive. The controller is an independent Z80A processor system with disk interface and two serial ports.

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Timex Operating System configured as an extended Sinclair BASIC, residing in ROM. Supports drive functions and the two serial communication ports.

SPEED:
Fast access times

MEDIA:
3.0 inch hardcased with 320K formatted capacity per disk (2 sides).

APPLICATION PROGRAMS:
Very few, very little support from software houses.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Efficient command structure within BASIC

- Excellent directory structure facility

- Sequential and random access of datafiles

- Doesn’t require a single byte of the Spectrum RAM

CRITICISM:

- Extensive amount of hardware

PRICE:
approx. £260

INSIDE THE ART STUDIO

After much eager waiting, ART STUDIO has arrived at CRASH Towers. Franco Frey got his hands on it first, and as a result, was told to write the review. Here it is...

Having ART STUDIO personally demonstrated by Supremo Without Portfolio, Bruce Everiss, at the last PCW show, everybody at CRASH towers was eagerly awaiting the review copy from OCP. Little was it known that the final copy was to come from RAINBIRD SOFTWARE, a new subsidiary of British Telecom and part of the New Information Services, who have now taken over the marketing of the product. The packaging has not been finalised, so the comments are directed entirely to the program content, which is after all of more importance...

ART STUDIO follows the popular trend, commercially introduced by APPLE, of basing the program on a windows — icons — mouse — pointing-device concept. The main aim behind this concept is to provide a program which is easily operated by the first time user with all relevant information on the screen and no complicated keyboard sequences needed to access commands. Commands are issued by simply pointing at options contained in screen menus. The pointing device, the icon, indicates by its shape the current instrument or mode.

A menu bar at the top of the screen contains the major headings. Pointing at any of these causes a sub-menu to be pulled down (a window is overlayed). This contains a number of options, which may lead to further sub-menus, or cause certain commands to be executed. An option is chosen by moving the cursor down the list and the options which is highlighted may be accessed and chosen by pressing the select button (‘clicking’ an option). If the option is a command, the pulldown menu disappears and the arrow cursor changes into an icon indicating the present status. Whenever it is moved back into the heading area, the cursor reverts back to an arrow. To remove a menu pulled down by mistake, the cursor is moved outside the submenu box and the select switch pressed.

Some menu options are neither commands nor submenus, but are flags or switches. These can be toggled on or off to modify the behaviour of other options. The on state is represented by a tick, the off state by a cross.

The full Spectrum screen occupies 24 lines, but the menu bar occupies 3 lines. Two boxes are provided in the menu bar containing arrows, which if accessed by the cursor, will scroll the screen up or down by up to three lines to make the hidden portion of the screen visible.

ART STUDIO comes supplied as a master tape configured to produce a ‘personalised’ copy of ART STUDIO, which allows you to produce a customised version ready to run under your particular hardware environment. To install ART STUDIO, the master copy is loaded and run. Following prompts, you enter all the required hardware data, and the installing program then saves the ‘personalised’ copy of ART STUDIO. The data to be supplied for configuring defines the input device, the printer interface and printer details regarding graphics printing mode. The flexibility of ART STUDIO allows any dot matrix printer to be accommodated and if the user should not have any of the listed Centronics devices, details are given in the concise manual on the three required machine code routines to control the particular interface.

Despite the fact that ART STUDIO is configured to be run by first time users without the need to delve into long-winded manuals, RAINBIRD provide an excellent and easily digestible reference work, which at the time of the review is still in draft form.

RAINBIRD make available to microdrive and Kempston interface owners an extended OCP ART STUDIO at £24.95 (mail order only), which includes Microdrive and Kempston Operating Systems, a screen compression facility and four extra text fonts. Owing to the fact that some lesser-used functions are stored on cartridge or disk as ‘Overlays’, the program has the ability to maintain a RAM based catalogue, which is displayed within the menu environment of EXTENDED ART STUDIO and includes an extra shape, Arc, which is a fractional part of a circle defined by three points. EXTENDED ART STUDIO is also available as an upgrade for £12 inc. P&P by mail order.

ART STUDIO is an excellent state-of-the-art graphics package and must be the best available for Spectrum owners. Despite the fact that the very structure of the program is based on a mouse operated system, the intelligent cursor, which speeds up the longer it is moved in the same direction, together with a sensitive microswitch joystick such as the Flightlink or Voltmace provide an excellent low cost replacement for this expensive controlling device.

The only criticism that could be found, if one tended to be finnicky, is that the spray patterns should also have been user-definable, especially as the existing patterns are very inked and don’t allow for a fine regulation. At £14.95 ART STUDIO is an excellent buy. For the more pecunious, the pack includes a mouse offer from OCP and a hard copy offer from DIMENSION, who will immortalise your favourite screen creations on a £16,000 ink-jet printer: A4 size at £4.95 and DELUXE (320mm x 250mm) card mounted and gloss laminated at £7.95.

Product: ART STUDIO
Producer: Rainbird Software
Programmer: James Hutchby

FEATURES

- Windows — icons — pull-down menus — pointing devices

- All information on screen

- Works with keyboard and Kempston, cursor, Interface 2 joysticks

- AMX and Kempston Mouse option

- Dot matrix printer dumps in five sizes and grey-scale

- Supports 17 Centronics and RS232C interfaces

- Save and load pictures to cassette

- Full control over attributes

- 16 pens, 9 random sprays, 16 user-definable brushes

- Attribute grids

- Undo facility

- Windows can be cleared, inverted, cut & pasted, enlarged, reduced, squashed, stretched, flipped and rotated

- Solid fill

- Textured fill — 32 user-definable patterns include stipples, hatches, bricks, roof tiles etc.

- Wash texture facility

- 3 levels of magnification with pixel edit pen and zoom

- Text — 9 character sizes, 2 directions, sideways, bold

- Font editor — clear, invert, flip, rotate characters or whole font, copy ROM, capture font from window

- Save and load fonts to cassette

- Lines, rectangles, triangles, circles and rays

- Snap and elastic shapes

PRINT

PRINT provides facilities for hardcopy on a dot matrix printer. Five sizes dictated by number of dots on paper to one dot or pixel on screen. Height to width scale depends on resolution of printer selected, ie number of dots per inch on a line to line spacing pitch. Two resolutions can be accessed within ART STUDIO, single density and double density. No colour information is used unless grey scale dump is used. Here the different colours are represented with stipples of varying density. Grey scale dumps are always in a 3 x 3 size. The picture can be printed sideways, allowing bigger dumps, or from top to bottom, and can be situated left, right or in the centre. If an 80 column printer isn’t available, the screen can be dumped to the ZX or ALPHACOM 32-column printer.

FILE

FILE features all the commands for saving, loading and verifying screen files to and from tape. The files must be either SCREEN files or CODE files not longer than six and three quarter kilobytes. Saving will prompt for a file name. For loading, verifying and merging a file name can be specified or ART STUDIO can be instructed to load, verify or merge the next file on tape. A tape file can be merged with a current screen file either on an OR basis (if the OVER switch is off) or on an XOR basis (if the OVER switch is on).

ATTRIBUTES

ATTRIBUTES deals with the colour control. The attributes once set apply to all painting and drawing that is done via shapes, pens, brushes, fills and text. All ink and paper colours may be set including transparent, OVER and INVERSE can be toggled on or off, transparent sets all attributes to transparent and STANDARD sets the attributes back to their default values.

PAINT

PAINT provides access to the various drawing tools.

Selecting PEN displays the sixteen pens available. The pen sets pixels by pressing select or if the INVERSE switch is on, resets pixels (erasing function).

8 SPRAY CANS of varying diameters spray a random pattern of dots on the screen. If the spray can is held in place, the dots build up to a solid disc.

16 BRUSHES are available of various sizes and designs and each brush has an associated mask with it. When a brush is used to paint on the screen, first the pixels corresponding to the mask are reset, then the pixels corresponding to the brush itself are set. The first brush in the menu is a null brush and can be used to colour an existing picture with new attribute settings without upsetting the screen pixels.

Each of the 16 brushes can be edited. To edit a particular brush, it must be made the current brush. The newly edited brush can be used by simply pointing the cursor at its normal size image in the BRUSH EDIT window and pressing select.

FILL

Apart from the usual solid fill, ART STUDIO provides a TEXTURED FILL which displays a menu containing the 32 textures available, from which a choice has to be made. All fills are done in the current attribute settings (INVERSE and OVER does not apply) and can be aborted with CAPS SHIFT and SPACE. The texture at the end of the first row is a null texture and is useful for setting the attributes within a section of the screen without altering any pixel states.

WASH TEXTURE maps a chosen texture onto any pixels on the screen that have been changed by a previous operation. This provides the facility of texturing outlines or even text.

Each of the 32 textures can be edited by making it the current texture and calling the EDIT TEXTURE window. The new texture can be used by clicking its normal sized image.

MAGNIFY

Three levels of magnification are available with facilities to edit pixels, pan and zoom the current screen part. Selecting a magnification converts the arrow cursor into a magnifying glass which can be positioned over the required screen area. Three modes of editing are provided under magnification, SET, RESET and TOGGLE. The ATTRIBUTE menu is available directly from the menu bar. The area magnified can be scrolled over the entire screen area by clicking the boxes with arrows in them, or homed by clicking the box containing the linked squares. White bars between the pairs of arrow boxes indicate the relative position of the magnifying window to the whole screen. The magnification can be changed at any time by clicking the appropriate magnification box. A grid is available in the x8 magnification mode with one square in the grid representing one pixel on the screen. This grid can be switched on or off from the initial Magnify menu.

WINDOWS

WINDOWS sets up a rectangular section of the screen marked by a dotted outline, upon which certain functions can be performed.

CUT & PASTE copies the window to another area of the screen by displaying a duplicate dotted outline which can be moved around and set. Similarly CUT, CLEAR & PASTE copies the window but clears the source window. Multiple copies of a window can be made with the MULTIPLE switch on. MERGE combines the copied window with the existing screen contents on an OR or XOR basis depending on the state of the OVER switch.

A window can be enlarged, reduced, squashed or stretched by using the RESCALE option, which works similarly to the normal window copy command, but allows the destination window to be redefined in size. This function is extremely useful and provides a replacement for the missing ellipse function in SHAPES. Windows can be inverted, flipped, mirrored and rotated or just simply cleared.

SHAPES

SHAPES provides up to seven different drawing routines, namely single point, lines, a continuous line, rectangles, triangles, circles and rays. All shapes are drawn (in current ink and paper colours) by moving the cursor about the screen and pressing select to define the vertices. Shapes can be drawn elastically by setting the corresponding switch. The shape can be expanded or contracted on screen until it is the right size and then fixed with the select switch. Again similar to text, the vertices of shapes can be snapped in two directions to come within attribute boundaries.

MISCELLANEOUS

VIEW SCREEN removes the menu bar to display the entire screen.

Both grids use alternate bright and normal squares and can be used to position details within the attribute grid to cause minimum clash of colours. CHANGE COLOUR works in conjunction with a defined WINDOW and changes one colour into another as specified in the ATTRIBUTE menu. Paper is the source colour and ink is defined as the destination colour. The option then converts all occurrences of the source colour to the destination colour.

TEXT

TEXT can be printed in two directions, left to right and top to bottom, in normal or sideways orientation. Three character widths and three character heights provide up to nine different sizes. A bold switch is provided which prints characters twice with a one-pixel shift. All characters are printed in the current ink and paper settings (Inverse and Over apply), and provision is made to SNAP characters into attribute squares in both directions, horizontal and vertical, so that they occupy an exact amount of attribute characters.

The FONT EDITOR enables the editing of character sets (fonts). There are 96 characters in a font. Whole new fonts can be created and stored on cassette, and loaded into memory as required. The 96 characters are displayed at the bottom of the screen, with the current character marked in vertical brackets. The current character and the characters immediately to its left and right are shown in enlarged form above the font. Pointing to any character in the font and pressing select makes it the current character. Alternatively, the current character can be scrolled through the entire font by clicking the boxes with arrows. The character may then be edited by toggling the pixels on or off.

Special operations can be performed by pulling down the CHARACTER box. This includes clear, invert, flip horizontal, flip vertical, rotate, scroll right and scroll down. The same set of operations can be performed upon the font as a whole by pulling down the FONT menu. The character set contained in the Spectrum’s ROM can be loaded into ART STUDIO’s font.

CAPTURE FONT copies blocks of pixels from a defined window on the screen in the font and can easily be used to create user defined graphics. Fonts can be saved and loaded from cassette. Character sets created with ART STUDIO can be used in the user’s own program with a simple BASIC routine.

THE PLASTIC POLICEMAN

Just about every known technique has been used to protect Spectrum software against copying. This month Tech Tips looks at (and hopefully), through Lenslok, the latest trick to reach the Spectrum marketplace. But first, Simon Goodwin puts protection into perspective...

Spectrum software has always been protected to try to stop illegal copying. The aim is to make the code run straight away, so that copiers can’t save after loading.

Many early programs were saved as CODE, partly to make them hard to copy with a normal SAVE command, and partly to give the impression that the program was written in machine code when in fact it was probably written in BASIC.

CLONE ME ANOTHER

At the start of 1983 the first ‘clone’ programs became available — programs to read any tape into memory and dump all of the data back onto cassette. These programs hit the software producers hard — a cloned copy was as good as the original, having come directly from the computer. Clones could be used to make any number of further copies, whereas tape-to-tape copies were inferior, and could only go through two or three generations before the hiss and distortion added at each step made further copying impossible.

The first response was to increase the size of the files to fill all the Spectrum’s memory. This defeated the simple copying programs, which were ‘crowded out’ of RAM, but it made loading slow and created technical difficulties for the supplier. The pirates soon caught up and wrote programs capable of copying even a 48K file.

BEHEADING THE FILE

Software houses retaliated by re-defining the way in which programs were stored on tape. Spectrum files are written in two parts: a fixed size ‘header’, containing the file name and other details like its size; and a second part containing the data itself. Clone programs use the information in the header to work out where to store the rest of the file. This approach is foiled by the ‘headerless file’ — a short program is used to load a file with no identifying header. Without the header a simple clone program can’t copy the rest of the file.

Another approach was to encode ‘extra’ information on the tape. One simple trick was to record a brief period of silence onto the tape, between one file and the next — this quiet moment on the tape can be detected by simple software to read the cassette port. Most clone programs ignore gaps and pack files together on tape. Illegal copies can be detected because they are missing.

One Dk’tronics program used a short ‘tune’ at the end of the tape, immediately after the program. The sequence of notes was ignored by copiers, since it did not form part of the file, but the program checked for it and crashed (pretending there had been a loading error), if the notes were not present. The whole tune lasted for a fraction of a second, so it was almost impossible to detect the notes by listening to the tape.

ROM WAY

These tricks worked, in the sense that they put off the majority of casual copiers, but there was a constant battle between the authors of protection routines and clone programs — in some cases these were the same people!

The root of the problem was the ease with which cassettes could be copied, and Sinclair responded by borrowing an idea from Atari. That US firm was the first outfit to publish computer games in chip form — on plug-in cartridges. Sinclair produced the Interface 2, an adapter to allow the Spectrum to accept cartridges.

This idea failed, for a host of reasons. Unlike the Atari, the Spectrum already had a well established, reliable and fast cassette interface. Interface 2 was expensive; it included a pair of joystick ports, but these were not compatible with many games.

The cartridges themselves cost more to produce than tapes. They took a long time to manufacture and were limited to a 16K capacity, regardless of the memory of the computer. Programs were becoming more and more sophisticated — few software houses were willing to shoe-horn their next megagame into 16K.

A few games were converted for the format, but nothing new was launched on cartridge, again denying users any reason to buy the ROM interface. Mikro-Gen have recently relaunched the idea at a more reasonable price, but it seems unlikely that Spectrum ROM games will ever take over from cassettes — the performance improvement is too marginal.

THE COMING OF COLOUR

Meanwhile, trick tape schemes became more and more devious, and increasingly irritating for the producers as well as the would-be copiers. Then Software Projects came out with Jet Set Willy, a game that used a quite different system of protection.

The JSW tape is quite easy to copy, but there’s a colour-coded table printed in the cassette inlay. When the program is loaded it displays a row of randomly coloured blobs — these have to be matched up with the table, and appropriate keys must to be pressed before the game starts. The system has several snags — it is irritating for legitimate owners of the game, who have to go through the same ritual every time they want to load their copy. It is also a major obstacle for those with poor eyesight or grotty TV’s. And the colour-coded chart turned out to be quite easy to copy — once the colours have been written as letters it takes less than 10 minutes to copy the whole chart, and the job can be done several times over in the course of a boring lesson!

HYPERLOADS

So software houses went back to tinkering with their tape recorders. The next step was to completely change the way in which programs are recorded, by re-defining the tones used to represent each bit of information on the tape. This approach allows programs to be loaded more quickly, since the tones can be more densely packed onto the tape.

Thus the first of the so-called ‘Hyper-loaders’ came into being. They have a big weakness. They are often unreliable — the densely-packed tape is more prone to the effects of duplication faults, and some early systems used high-pitched tones which could not be reliably reproduced by cheap tape players.

Many software producers deliberately made their systems intolerant of uneven levels or background noise, in the hope of detecting tape-to-tape copies. This lead to loading problems for legitimate users of original tapes, and Hyperloads gained a bad name, both with retailers and customers.

ENTER THE LENS

At this point software producers were pretty stumped. They’d fiddled as much as possible with the two component parts of a software package — the tape and the documentation — but they still couldn’t stop photocopiers and tape-to-tape copying. They’d tried to by-pass the cassette altogether, but ROM cartridges had failed because they were too expensive and required special equipment (Interface 2).

What they needed was something cheap, small (so that it would fit into a cassette box) and hard to copy. Unlike Sinclair ROMs, it must work with the standard equipment possessed by every Spectrum user. Electronics was out — tape scramblers, ‘dongles’, ROMs and so forth are expensive and hard to manufacture in bulk. The solution was to use the only part of the system that had not yet been harnessed against illegal copying — the TV set.

TV’s and micros both work by displaying a pattern of small dots which look like pictures, or text, when viewed from a distance. The first diagram shows the way a letter A might be represented as a pattern of dots.

A DISTORTED VIEW

Wedge-shaped transparent plastic prisms can be used to deflect light. Take the pattern of dots in the figure A, in diagram one. If you look at a same pattern through a group of narrow prisms, the columns can be swapped around — as light passes through the arrangement of prisms, the order of columns can be scrambled, so that they don’t form a pattern representing a recognisable character. See diagram two.

The columns are always swapped in the same sequence by a given group of prisms, or ‘lens’, so it follows that a lens used to scramble the dots which make up a letter can be used to un-scramble a pattern of dots produced by swapping the columns in a letter, providing those columns have been swapped round appropriately. This is shown in the third diagram.

This principle forms the basis of Lenslok, an optical ‘key’ invented by a new firm called ASAP Developments. (Indeed, the diagrams used here are taken from their brochure — with thanks.) Lenslok is used on new Spectrum programs like Elite. Interestingly, Firebird also use headerless files in Elite, which will make Microdrive owners legitimately angry — yet again they have to resort to subterfuge to get their games to load onto Microdrive. One would have thought that Lenslok protected their Microdrive copies just as well as their cassette. Perhaps this ‘belt and braces’ approach is a sign that Lenslok has weaknesses...

WORKED EXAMPLE

Anyhow, Elite displays a scrambled pattern when it is first loaded. If you look at the pattern through the lens you see two characters, and you have ten seconds to type them at the keyboard. If you’ve not got the lens all you see is a jumble of dots. If you can’t type the correct characters within three trys — and there are hundreds of possibilities — the computer resets and you have to re-load the program before you can try again.

Two characters are used, rather than one, since this makes it much harder to guess the correct code — there are more possibilities and the columns which make up the two characters can be inter-mingled. Some columns on the screen are not visible through the lens at all, so it is difficult to recognise the patterns by eye, especially when you only get ten seconds to think about it! Diagram four shows the way that two characters can be muddled together.

There are millions of possible ‘scrambling’ patterns, so that a different scrambling routine, and hence a different lens, can used for every program. It’s no good trying to use the lens supplied with Elite to get started with Digital Integration’s Tomahawk, for instance...

The lenses can be moulded in one piece from polystyrene (like parts for model kits) so they can be economically produced in small numbers (but not on the kitchen table); a few thousand lenses cost less than 20p each. Each lens comes in a holder which fits inside a cassette box — there are even holes for the prongs which hold the cassette spools.

However, display units vary enormously — the rich and famous have crystal clear monitors, some people have old 26 inch tellies, some use black and white portables and so on. Lenslok has to cope with every possible variation, with the exception of Uncle Sir Clive’s Microvision, which luckily doesn’t have an aerial socket!

The answer is to let you scale down the display to suit your TV. The Lenslok software displays a pattern which can be expanded or contracted to match the width of the lens holder. In theory, the computer can use this to work out the size of your telly, and hence the width of each column in the scrambled pattern — the bigger your TV, the less dots there will be in each column, since the display must be the same physical size on any set if the lens is to work.

I say ‘in theory’, because I found that in the case of Elite, the lens worked best when the pattern was set up rather wider than the lens holder; but this wasn’t too much trouble since, like most people, I treat instructions with healthy scepticism! As part of the set up routine, the computer displays the pattern for the letters "OK" as you expand or contract the display, so it is easy enough to set the right size by eye.

There are a few pitfalls for the unwary; the lenses don’t work unless you look directly into them, so you can’t use them properly if your TV is on the floor or on a high shelf. They don’t work if you’ve got both eyes open, and they have to be lined up quite carefully to avoid distortion of the image.

That said, Lenslok is a major step forward in the Spectrum software market, because it is an effective way to dissuade tape-to-tape copiers. It remains to be seen whether or not Lenslok will make a major difference to the amount of copying that goes on — Elite is not much fun without the instructions anyway — but if it does, that’s good news for everyone that buys software.

Micro software is becoming more and more sophisticated and development costs are going up and up. Some of the best ideas never make their way into code because they would cost more to develop than could be recouped from sales — if the pirates take their cut. Effective software protection, at a low cost, ought to bring down the price of top software. It could also encourage software houses to produce some of the special purpose programs which never see the light of day at the moment.

Don’t turn a blind eye to Lenslok!

YOUNG AND INNOCENT
(Daddy, What was the future like?)

T IS ALWAYS a difficult task summing up a year in home computing. Even more difficult is to try and predict what the coming twelve months might unleash upon us. I say unleash because whatever else might be said about the home games world, it is never dull: the competition is ruthless, and it is peopled by the sort of mathematical genius who is past his mental zenith at the age of twenty-five years, give or take a few million brain cells.

The press and media are at a loss to explain why Britain, a rather insignificant and petty nation, should concern itself with such an exciting and blatantly intellectual pastime. After all, isn’t this a country in decline, a divided nation where the people who read the lightweight newspapers await an answer to all the problems while the people who read the heavyweights are struggling hopelessly with the economic conundrums of interest rates and exchange rates. Perhaps it’s time to start thinking straight and doing things which come rather more easily to nations not so schizophrenic. Buying your own country’s goods isn’t a bad start.

I remember when I was at school, and it wasn’t all that long ago, much time in geography lessons would be spent learning about the manufacturing base of the British Isles. In Lancashire they had the cotton industry, in the coalfields of the Midlands and North they had steel, while in the mountains that divided these areas you had hydroelectric power, sheep, and mineral mines. I’d give away a whole shelf-load of silly pencil-top gonks to sit in such a geography lesson now (just how many different breeds of sheep are there)?

The House of Lords, by far the most coherent chamber as, despite the participants’ ages, they are not honour-bound by political allegiance, stated Britain should look to the new technologies as herein lies the next revolution. Couldn’t agree more. And so it would seem to be with the public who went out and bought the Sinclair computers despite much in the press about the unreliability of the machines. Much was made of the lack of sound when everyone knew full well that Sinclair’s competitors were caught in the no man’s land between beeps and buzzes and the full-bodied melodies of a synthesizer. The truth is the sound on these machines grinds after a short time and the demure bleeps of the Spectrum come as a blessed relief.

I read a local paper recently that put forward the reasons behind buying a microcomputer this Christmas. Quite rightly some of the points they raised included amount of software available, price, and whether little Johnny’s friends had the micro. It was curious to find the article extolling the BBC computer over the Spectrum. Let me put this as bluntly as I can. The Spectrum microcomputer is a brilliant device both for learning BASIC etc. and for playing games. I own, or have owned, an Atari, a BBC, an Amstrad, and a C64 and all have some major flaw in design, screen layout, add-on capability or available memory. What is more, the Spectrum was quite merrily computing away long before the others and so has a quantity and breadth (and availability) of software which leaves the others looking nice in the shops.

As for the QL, yes, the microdrives are unreliable, but we live in times where rapidly-developing technology must be offered at an affordable price, and who would begrudge Clive Sinclair when NASA’s budgetry constraints had DIY men throughout the world laughing at some tiles which just wouldn’t stick.

And it’s no use laughing at the C5 while you pollute the atmosphere in your heap of rusting junk whose technology has changed little since its inception. Arthur C Clarke’s (and Daddy’s) visions of the future, with the printless world, gigantic space colonies, and the kind of mentality that goes with them, may not ever be quite as anticipated, but there is no need for the cynical techno-fear as displayed in such media mishmashes as Tomorrow’s World and Micro Live. I suggest the first person who had the ludicrous idea of making technology more palatable in this dreadful manner go and write some techno-fear soap operas and leave the task to someone who is prepared to deal with the facts sensibly and reliably. Admittedly, this would remove any chance of political tampering with the facts, but it is a political reality that the new technologies are coming whether we like it or not. Any nation which actually gets to grips with the technology as opposed to the ‘subject for discussion’ will reap the undoubted rewards.

1985 was notable for the demise of MSX. MSX was a good idea, making a range of machines between which software was fully compatible. The only problem was, there was already a great deal of compatibility between the Spectrums that everyone was buying in droves. The Spectrum has, and will, last longer than either myself or other commentators thought possible.

This year was notable for the escalation in the tie-in battles with major film titles such as Gremlins, Rambo, View to a Kill and Never Ending Story gracing the computer store shelves. The advantage to these deals is the recognition a product gets through the public’s familiarity with the concept and storyline. TV tie ins can be even more effective in terms of public awareness of the product. These thoughts lead me on to an area which, to me, has really made itself plain over the last year.

The perceivable age of the home games playing market seems to have dropped steadily down through the teens to the point where anything beyond a platform game is seriously questioned in terms of its likely viability in the market place. There’s nothing inherently wrong or worrying about the spectre of a carry-cot Spectrum attachment with that all important fire button within reach of tiny hands, it’s just that one shudders to think what popular music there would be right now if it wasn’t for the older listeners pulling the whole standard of music up by its bootstraps. It is my guess that if the reading age of Sounds and NME fell by a few years those who, on paper, would benefit by such a fall would lose interest in the whole ostensibly uplifting exercise.

And all this brings me back to adventuring (believe it or not). The demise of the intelligent, text-only, adventure epitomised by Level 9’s Snowball, and mourned in SIGNPOST, is a part of this lowering of the intellectually exacting nature of computer games. In a nutshell, programs have become simpler. Utilities such as the Quill and Illustrator will continue to figure prominently in adventuring, and it doesn’t take much of a jump to realise that they will be more important in all games’ design in the near future. In America the computer games market is older because the machines Americans own are larger and more expensive, and more useful to the whole household. In Britain home computers are toys. It remains to be seen whether the market is going for the gutter or searching for the stars.

THE LUDOIDS

Producer: 16/48 Tape Magazine
Author: Barry C. Thorne, Jim Dann
Price: £2.95

Ludoids is a quadruplex adventure which means it comes in four parts. These parts are loaded separately but are linked by the codewords left, in the first part for example, by a graffitti-inspired agent who presumably has passed this way before you. In the first part you are disguised as a spacetrucker who must search a robot space-station, in the second you trans-mat down to the planet Glacia which is rather cold and has igloos and things, in the third you take a kind of Westworld holiday on the planet Vacatia, and in the fourth a submarine provides you with one or two problems.

As you might guess from the above Ludoids is a curious adventure. Each part has full screen pictures at a number of locations, many of which are rather evocative and pleasing. A few of these pictures have simple animation such as clouds rolling by, a burger sliding out of a food dispenser on a tray and beacons flashing. The character set has been tastefully redefined being both futuristic and readable. It’s a shame the whole lot, pictures and text scrolls off, but on the whole the game is attractively presented. What is remarkable is the short length of each part. This may be partly due to the machine code introduction sequences which greet each mini-adventure, which are delightful in themselves, but surely cannot explain the brevity of the adventures which follow.

Your overall mission is to find the Ludoids and destroy their trans-mat jammers with the wrist detector given to you at the beginning. Many of the pictures, like that of a Sinclair C5 seen early on, are very impressive but the plot that links them together is flat-footed and it wouldn’t take much from any adventurer to complete the whole four parts within one afternoon. It’s not as if the codewords you need to carry on from one part to another create much of a challenge. At the beginning of part two the following gem comes up onto the screen:- ‘If you found the key behind the desk you will have been able to find the code-word that you need’. The code-word for part three, hidden within part two, is somewhat obvious as it is highlighted by an arrow leading from the word HINT. Since this adventure clearly won’t take much solving by anyone, I suppose you could say it’s the gourmet equivalent of boil-in-the-bag for the adventurer who is too busy to play adventures.

One of the most interesting parts of the game, and certainly the most difficult, is the gun duel in the western world of Vacatia. To draw your gun and then fire it with a different key is very difficult in the split second allowed you by your opponent. Your first few efforts will no doubt see you biting the dust.

Ludoids is a curious piece of software as it comes in four parts, each of which is very short and very easy. There are a number of machine code routines to bring the adventure alive and there are many worthy pictures. It is hard to see what attraction the game would offer to hardened adventurers but it may offer some entertainment for the adventure dabbler or the young at heart.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy
Graphics: rather good
Presentation: good
Input facility: a little beyond verb/noun
Response: fast
General Rating: Unusual.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

6/10

Logic

6/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall

6/10

THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL

Producer: Dream Software Ltd
Author: Chris Newcombe
Price: £5.95

The Quest for the Holy Grail may seem a familiar title. For one thing, it was the name of a Monty Python film which formed for itself a cult following. Normally thrifty and reserved persons would lose all poise and decorum and rush out to the nearest bookshop and buy the script to the film thereby causing the sort of arguments which raged throughout the land; who would play the geezer (John Cleese in the film) who says in a French accent (now thought essential in all TV comedies) ‘I empty my nose in your general direction’ or something to that effect. Now, I don’t wish to be seen as a kill-joy, but this game leans rather heavily on the film and will now presumably sell more copies than when marketed by Dream Software (under which company’s banner it was reviewed in the May 84 CRASH). So one must wonder at the legal implications after many a harmless Star Trek derivative was forced from the market by overbearing directives sent out by Paramount Pictures.

In a nutshell this game is a Hobbit look-alike. The differences lie in its speed (it is written in BASIC and seems unnecessarily slow by today’s standards), its simpler graphics, and its lack of real time. As in The Hobbit it often takes a key depression to scroll up the location description before you can start to input. You begin in a blacksmith’s forge where you are at once confronted with the humour which gives the game its distinctive flavour and cult following. ‘You see the nuclear powered lamp. A CND picket. The yellow/green spotted key. The CND picket is sitting next to the lamp chanting, ‘We shall, we shall not be moved!!’ When you take the nuclear powered lamp the CND picket walks off in a huff.’

Having said that this game loses out technically to The Hobbit it does in fact have many features to commend it. The use of the full gamut of Spectrum colours is noteworthy, both in pictures and borders and within the text. The problems, so often featured in adventure helplines, are really entertaining and funny, and, as is always the case with problems pitched at just the right level of difficulty, they give a real buzz when finally solved.

The Quest for the Holy Grail is an old program first marketed by Dream Software. It had a cult following in its old format due to its association with a very funny film and its own highly unusual and entertaining problems. What the game lacks in technical competence it compensates with super text and funny goings-on. Well worth the asking price.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy
Graphics: average
Presentation: good
Input facility: basically verb/ noun
Response: slow
General Rating: Good value.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

7/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall

7/10

SEAS OF BLOOD

Producer: Fighting Fantasy
Author: Mike Woodroffe & Brian Howarth
Price: £9.95

Seas of Blood is a game fashioned by big names from both the Fantasy Game and Adventure worlds. From the role-playing, Fighting Fantasy book corner come Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, who wrote the book of the same name. From the Adventure corner we have Mike Woodroffe and Brian Howarth who are the names behind Adventure International’s impressive Robin of Sherwood. Put them together and you could get something which might knock the spots off the opposition, or you might end up with something just that bit smaller than either of these two giants. Read on to find out which is true...

Seas of Blood has been specifically written to encompass both the playability of the fighting fantasy combat system and the problem solving of the adventure world. The game features over 300 locations, all with graphics, together with an animated dice sequence that represents the fighting fantasy combat system.

The city of Tak, at the northern end of the Inland Sea, is the greatest den of thieves, pirates and cut-throats the civilised world has ever seen. In this city of scum there are many pirates infamous for their ruthless greed, daring raids and countless skirmishes with death. One of these scoundrels is you, the captain of the pirate vessel Banshee. Together with your band of seasoned cut-throats you search for treasure around the Inland Sea which is the vehicle of much of your exploration. To be a successful pirate you should locate and retrieve 20 treasures and take them to the top of the mountain on Nippur at the southern end of the Inland Sea. Movement around this sea is achieved with the use of commands like SAIL NORTH. Leaving and boarding the ship is achieved with SWIM while at sea, with GO ASHORE when adjacent to land, and GO BOAT when by another vessel. BOARD BENSHEE takes you back onto your own vessel.

This is one of those adventures where you could either say ‘I’ve seen all this before’ or ‘this really has got a number of new features’. The curious thing is neither of these statements is incorrect it’s just that the overriding feeling is more in line with the ‘I’ve seen it all before’ argument. Yes folks this is yet another Brian Howarth implementation of a big idea. The reason I take this tone is not because it is necessarily a bad thing when a programmer takes on many such projects. No, not at all, it is only a bad thing when that programmer keeps churning out the same string of programming faults so painstakingly picked over in this very column time and time again. When a programmer stands still it’s bad news in an industry which never will. A glaring white background is bad enough (especially on a colour set which often needs resetting just to play the one inconsiderate game after all, how often do TV broadcasts choose white as a background colour: send your answers to Adventure International) but when it is constantly removed and flashed up again as in this game it becomes irritating in the extreme.

Whenever something is picked up or dropped, or the ship you captain is moved along, the whole screen is taken away and placed back up again. It is particularly strange when you choose to sail in a direction which is not permissible and the screen does its ridiculous flash routine.

On the new features front the game can offer one or two surprises. The best of these is the combat routine. This ties in with a status page that can be called up along with the inventory by pressing the letter I. On this page are you and your crew’s vital statistics: Log, Provisions, Skill, Stamina, Crew Strike and Crew Strength. The number of days you have spent on the voyage are recorded under Log while Provisions generally decrease accordingly as one provision can maintain a ship for one day at sea. Provisions are not used on shore and food can be found under various guises as you go on your pirating way.

Skill is your personal skill as a fighter and you will probably want to compare it to that of your opponent in any hand-to-hand combat. Its value is important as during combat its figure is added to the random figure which is the sum of the values shown on the two faces of dice which spin and stop before you, Your opponent’s dice are stopped from spinning by the computer, while your dice spin until you chance your arm. The spin of the dice is shown by very quickly changing figures as well as dice faces. These figures are in random sequences.

Stamina will generally decrease as you are wounded during a battle but hopefully not as quickly as your opponent’s who is seen off once his Stamina reaches zero. Crew Strike and Crew Strength are of greatest interest during ship-to-ship conflict where Strike represents the attacking power of your crew while aboard the Banshee, and Crew Strength shows how the shipmates are holding up to the onslaught of the battle.

Seas of Blood is a very entertaining game but will not automatically attract those adventurers, both experienced and novice, who delighted in the sheer slickness of Robin of Sherwood. One obvious reason might be the lack of the kind of stunning graphics found in Touchstones of Rhiannon as the skills of the artist Teoman Irmak were not available for this game. Another might be the less than friendly vocabulary, or the lack of the GET EVERYTHING and AGAIN commands which bring a touch of class to adventure games (the A for AGAIN command would have been very useful when sailing repeatedly in the same direction).

The problem is, Adventure International have set themselves very high standards to maintain and we reviewers are easily disgruntled. The plusses, like the combat system, are welcome additions — it’s just the minuses begin to jar a little in this one.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: difficult to get into but then easier
Graphics: good
Presentation: white glares on colour TV (still)
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: reasonable
General Rating: Aaaahh, Jim lad!

Atmosphere

8/10

Vocabulary

6/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall

7/10

SHADOW OF THE UNICORN

Producer: Mikro-Gen Ltd
Author: Mikro-Gen team
Price: £14.95

This latest game from Mikro-Gen has a lot to live up to. It has been hailed as the first Mikro-Plus game with an additional 16K memory supplied via a piece of hardware which plugs into the back of the Spectrum. This Mikro-Plus interface has a joystick port and so the game can be played with a joystick. This facility also allows copies to be transferred to tape or microdrive. Without a joystick the game plays well on a keyboard and on side two of the tape you receive with the game is a head alignment routine to ensure trouble free loading from your tape recorder.

Shadow of the Unicorn is the first piece of software to be actually marketed with a hardware add-on (Psyclapse and Bandersnatch from the old Imagine team never saw the light of day). The surprising thing about the game is its conspicuous lack of the sort of mind-blowing features one might expect from such an innovative breakthrough. The celebrated Lords of Midnight is now one and a half years old and it must be a sad reflection on games design when this game is far inferior in terms of basic structure than that first Midnight game.

The fundamental flaw in Unicorn is the curious state of affairs that has your character looking, say, south when he is travelling west. The character is literally not looking where he is going! Were this not strange enough there is an added complication found when a character is in a town or village. He may be in a settlement but may only know it for sure after looking through all four compass directions. Getting to a village, castle or other distant object isn’t as effective as in the true landscaping adventures, as, ignoring the virtually unchanging backdrop of distant mountains; you can only see the terrain of the adjacent square next to you in the viewing direction. You don’t feel as if you are approaching them, you literally see them, you turn and move toward them and then that’s it, you’re on top of them, whether it be a castle or a windmill. Compare this to Lords of Midnight where you could aim for distant lakes and towers and you might see the point I’m making. In these games you get the impression that the towers, keeps etc. actually exist whereas here it is only too obvious that they are an artifice of computer memory. When considering some of the finer aspects of this game, these flaws in design may shrink somewhat but only when games such as Lords of Midnight and Runestone have temporarily slipped the mind.

It is not only in the area of games design where Mikro-Gen have me puzzled. The game is marketed with a (too) large booklet which is fashioned along Tolkien lines but, as in so many books and booklets that accompany adventures, falls somewhat short of the narrative powers of the great master himself. None but the final two chapters has any great relevance to the computer program.

You might think that a game which makes use of a new piece of technology would have a fine instruction booklet. Not a bit of it. This game has only a flimsy sheet of card giving you a very short summary of the story (much too short given the length of the book) and a few instructions concerning the hardware and its implications. I found on one occasion some difficulty in finding out exactly how to save a game and ended up losing it, much to my chagrin as I had put in a long session and had progressed well. After the joystick controls (Left — Right for movement, Up to take or drop, Fire to fight, Down to turn view to the right) you get a rather plain list of the characters with 1) Mithulin, King of Oronfal, 2) Avarath, Wizard of the Zim-Faranid, and 3) Holdin, Captain of Falforn up to 10) Lairmath, another Captain of Falforn. Not all of these characters hold equal sway in the stormy lands of Falforn and the royal lands of Oronfal. The three main characters are Mithulin the king of the royal lands, Rolquin queen of the storm lands and Avarath the wizard who is distinguished by his ability to fireball the irritating monkey-like figure who attacks characters willy-nilly throughout the entire course of the game (later research reveals this persistent assailant to be a nalesh).

Actually, while I’m about it, how about this tip for avoiding the pain in the neck nalesh. Because characters are safe unless you select to move them (there is no real-time element or any urgency with the other characters), and because the nalesh always attacks from the side of the screen furthest from you, avoid the beast by quickly flicking between characters as you move your chosen character across the screen. After only two or three flicks your character ends up being attacked by the nalesh from the wrong side of the screen leaving the character to peacefully leave the screen in the direction chosen and be happily on his or her way.

A convenient way to take you through the logistics of this game is to look at the screen which retains the same format throughout (and should be on this page somewhere unless the powers that be mix up the pictures as with Warlords/Red Moon). At the top left is the name of the character you are using at that particular time. Next to this name is the location you are passing through which generally is helpful enough to locate your approximate position on the map supplied with the game (if you are following one of the paths, or you have entered a castle, this position can be verified accurately). Below the name of the character presently playing is the compass whose arrow does not indicate direction of travel but the viewing direction which only becomes the direction of travel if you swing it around to lie left or right on the screen. The yellow and red bars adjacent have variable lengths to represent generally decreasing energy and (thanks to the aforementioned pain in the necks) increasing injury. Decreasing energy is reversed on eating at one of the magical berry bushes which can be puzzlingly sparse when you really need them, and no doubt there exists some spell to undo the harm of injury. To take no action with either injury or energy can result in a character’s death, and losing an important character can see you starting a new game.

The standard of graphics in this game is rather puzzling given its added memory resources and its destiny as a mega-game. There are quite a number of heavy-handed colour clashes and one piece of animation has the king doing a sort of constipated break-dance. One thing you can do is hand it to the game for clever music effects; the music is in keeping with the game and is very tuneful indeed.

Shadow of the Unicorn is a very good game by any standards. It is complex, has a story-line which is worth the considerable effort getting to know and yet is instantly and enjoyably playable. The tone of this review has been F flat for one very significant reason; the game is costly due to the Mikro-Plus add-on necessary for the additional 16K the game offers. What is a little puzzling (even worrying) is just where this extra memory has been allocated, as the improvements such additions might bring are not immediately apparent.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: the most difficult thing is reading the book
Graphics: good, but not as might have been expected
Presentation: simple and easy to get to terms with
Input facility: perhaps could have done with some textual information
General Rating: Good.

Atmosphere

7/10

Graphics

7/10

Logic

6/10

Addictive Quality

7/10

Overall

7/10

SWORDS AND SORCERY

PSS, £9.95

Some games are big because of large budgets, others because of large and prominent advertising. And some games are big because they attempt something new, and advance the limits of programming just that bit further. Swords and Sorcery is one of the games which has earned a reputation solely on the length of time and concerted effort expended on its completion. As with all ambitious programming efforts the date of completion was put back time and time again — but it hasn’t surfaced at such a bad time, being in sight of Christmas and those long winter evenings.

Recently, complicated games haven’t been given the reception which was their due in the early days of home computing. I think the reasons behind this are twofold. The first reason is the way in which the home computer games market is becoming both broader and shallower as if the bubbling cauldron of energy and ideas that was this industry had run its course and now lines up with all the other consumables, stuck in the mud of a silted up estuary. Reason two is the average age of games players which has fallen right down through the teens to the point where anything greater than keeping a fire button depressed for five minutes is thought educationally over-demanding. Now you might think, wouldn’t all this be better placed in an editorial (and indeed, since I haven’t written this month’s, these very words could reappear there yet) and not in a review. Well, if this game does not recoup in chart success all the man hours put into it this paragraph may seem just that bit more interesting.

It would seem every major new project requires a buzz word, as if the computer games industry were out to create a subculture language all of its own. In this case S & S presents us with MIDAS where, for the very first time, the computer plays the part of your eyes much as the camera plays the part of that geezer’s eyes when he crashes that medics party in St. Elmo’s Fire. You know the bit, he’s dripping wet and she turns round and she ends up telling him how she just puts out the rubbish and things like everyone else. (I hope the Ed doesn’t delete this stuff — this is very inventive writing). On the left side of the screen your view of the catacombs is smoothly animated and does indeed give the impression of a cartoon film. As you approach a chest or a bottle you seem to bounce up and down — just as you do when walking on a street — and you can even jump: the room and objects before you fall and rise again as you land on your feet.

The other characters and creatures you meet in the dungeon are also smoothly animated as they wander the corridors. There are treasure rooms to plunder, caverns to explore and pits to avoid. Failing to successfully negotiate a pit results in the walls of the pit whizzing past you as you plummet to an early exit. The goal that transcends all others is the search for the four parts of the priceless Armour of a Master Armourer who fashioned the masterpiece in distant antiquity.

On the right side of the screen is either displayed an aerial view of the quadrant you are in or a rather intimidatingly complicated set of labels and figures which flash up once combat has begun. At the bottom of the screen is a revolving sequence of options. Keys 0 and 8 revolve the options while key 9 chooses that option at the far left end of this strip. Flashing arrows indicate where movement is possible and I’ll doubt whether a single person could play this game and not come away with the impression that this arrangement is both awkward and clumsily designed. The truth is it doesn’t quite work.

In battle, momentary panic can set in followed quickly by frustration as the player struggles to get the right set of options flowing one after the other. But even when in a comparatively calm situation the clumsiness of this system is all too apparent. Take this attempt to get an object from a chest where OPEN CHEST, GET SANDWICH, EAT SANDWICH would suffice in, say, The Hobbit. EXIT, ACT, SMASH, CHEST, HANDLE, TAKE OUT, CHEST, SANDWICH, HANDLE, ACT, EAT does the job in S & S here, which is not only longer but, remember, involves all that revolving option palaver at the bottom of the screen.

Loading up the game you are presented with three options: Default Game which sees you take on the role of Flubbit the Dull, a ready-made character with an uninspiring name, Load Game which restores a previously saved character, and New Character where you select a name and training scheme for your character. This training scheme allows you 14 days to train with 12 masters and gives your character the opportunity to improve its sword skills, or perhaps its thievish abilities, eg picking locks. Forty dragons teeth is your budget for armoury.

As with all complex subjects S & S has an authorative and full account of the world you will enter. To summarise all that is said therein would be a difficult task indeed. Perhaps a good way of showing what to expect is to give three examples (which will probably remind many of D&D guide books):

SPELL — FIREBOLT: a small blast of magical fire which will burn some of your foes. It does about the same as a hefty sword blow (from an inexperienced swordsman), range — line of sight.

SPELL — UN-POISON: this spell will neutralise any poisonous substance imbibed, ingested or injected into the user, preventing it from doing any more damage (poison damage is spread over a period of time), range — normal.

MONSTER — MAGES: there are two sorts of mages, the lesser and greater varieties. They are visually identical and the greater is recognised by the fact that he uses more powerful spells. Mages disdain hand-to-hand combat and will always attempt to keep their distance and cast spells. Due to the fact that they do not wear armour or carry much equipment they also move quite quickly.

You will notice the period of time aspect to poison noted in the UN-POISON spell and this is a very sophisticated concept in this game. For this reason a close eye should be kept on your character’s strength and spell power whilst handling mysterious objects. Some items you pick up will instil within you tremendous powers and the ability to deal with all but the deadliest of foes. On the darker side some artefacts will parasitize your strength and negate your efforts, draining the very blood from your hapless character.

Swords and Sorcery is a super attempt to bring the sheer depth of D&D to the computer screen. Rare for this type of game are the impressive graphics and brilliant animation showing in the best way possible the excitement of exploring monster-filled dungeons. Considering the amount of time spent programming it, and the high quality of the graphics, it is hard to imagine many who wouldn’t be prepared to invest the time in getting to know how to play the game in order to delve deeper, cultivate their character and reap the rich rewards.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: playing is hard to begin with
Graphics: very good
Presentation: super
Input facility: revolving options from larger menu
General rating: ambitious and outstanding addition to the games playing world

Atmosphere

8

Vocabulary

9

Logic

8

Addictive quality

9

Overall

9

SOULS OF DARKON

Producer: Taskset Ltd
Author: the Taskset team
Price: £7.95

Beyond the sun of Crenal lies the planet Megron. Its people were of genius IQ; they practised both the art of sorcery and that of science. However their quest for knowledge became a dangerous obsession and they ventured into a realm of evil where they released the devastating power of Darkon. The people live in terror. Will they be the next to suffer the curse of Darkon? Only you and your faithful robotic friend, Komputa can free the people from this tyranny. But can you succeed where so many have failed?

Souls of Darkon is already in the shops on the Amstrad as I write, so whether or not you’ll be able to buy the game in the high street is probably academic. The reasons for this game’s acceptance by the shops is quite obvious as soon as you load up. Taskset have successfully met their task of taking the adventure and tidying it up. Gone are the messy lists of endlessly scrolling text and graphics. In their place we have here a neatly boxed-off picture set on the lower left hand side of the screen. Above this is the location description which does not budge an inch throughout — quite an advantage over other adventures where you are constantly wondering where you are. Framed by the static picture and location description is a scrolling area carrying your input and the program’s responses. The text has been clearly and atmospherically designed, in fact, what with the stylised, cartoon-like graphics, the whole program reveals a novel appearance.

One minor irritation is Taskset’s inability to get to grips with the Spectrum’s input routine (the Amstrad version works just fine). Even when you are carefully typing the auto-repeat effect can catch you out with words like L O O O O K ending up on your scrolling list of past inputs (rather embarrassingly, the input recorded is the exact word you entered and not the word from the program’s own word store).

Another gripe is an error which is common to many adventure instructions (Sorderon’s Shadow did the very same thing last month). The error I refer to is the habit of listing a so-called example of the vocabulary going beyond the simple verb/noun couplings only to find that the program’s input routine can’t handle such a long sentence, for example, in this case, ATTACK THE WOODMAN WITH THE LUNAR AXE is too long to be accepted. A curious side effect of allowing the location description to remain on screen is the need for a LOOK command which tells you what you can see, eg a bottle, a mushroom, along with the exits. The reason for this, presumably, is the restriction of space on the location description. It may have been better to have made the adventurer work for his/her information with a more intelligent LOOK/EXAMINE command.

Programming the DELETE key to act without the need of the CAPS SHIFT is a nice touch as is the list of words in the vocabulary which comes up onto the screen and stays there while you try and match up some of the words from it.

Souls of Darkon is a very well presented adventure and a welcome change at a time when just about every mainstream adventure is Quilled. The cartoon-style graphics are very effective and suit the game well.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy to start, then the usual brick wall
Graphics: one colour — green — but attractive
Input facility: a little beyond verb/noun
Response: fast
General Rating: Some good features.

Atmosphere

7/10

Vocabulary

7/10

Logic

7/10

Addictive Quality

6/10

Overall

7/10

After last month’s little mistakette (something to do with the way in which Leprechaun was spelt), we’ll keep the introduction brief. Over to you, Sean Masterson...

Because of the limitations of space and and time (this being our Christmas suicide attempt), there will probably be the odd title released during the festive season which won’t be reviewed until the new year. I couid try and do one of those ‘pseudo’ reviews based on unfinished games or versions for other machines but well, that wouldn’t do at all, would it.

AUSTERLITZ

Lothlorien, £9.95

The enemy’s forces gather on the right of the screen. Never mind the quantity though, what about the quality?

Imagine a cold December morning in 1807. Around 150,000 men are gathered on the field of battle before some of the most powerful leaders of Europe — and you have Austerlitz, Lothlorien’s successor to Waterloo in their solo Warmaster series.

The packaging for Austerlitz is the same ‘video case’ affair that graced their previous effort. Inside the beautiful case, there’s the usual manual and cassette. I was given photostats of the manual pages, as the finished booklet has not yet gone to print. However, as with Waterloo, the finished instructions will be in a slim, glossy A5 size booklet. In fact, much of the layout and text has been lifted from the previous game, as both use the same rules system.

The manual provides all the details on the mechanics of play, historical notes to accompany the game itself and character sketches of Napoleon’s Corps Commanders (a brilliant idea which unfortunately couldn’t be incorporated in Waterloo). All the instructions are clear and concise and within minutes of reading them you should be able to begin the game.

Austerlitz has three levels of difficulty. The first is a training level to allow you to become accustomed to the game. If you are familiar with the system (as I was after playing Waterloo for ages), this level fails to provide serious competition. However, do not under-estimate the difficulty of other levels. The second is the standard game which takes some time to achieve a good result on, but the third alters some of the setup conditions pertaining to the efficiency of the Austro-Russian forces (otherwise known as the computer), in order to create a very difficult situation for the French.

Once the game level has been selected, the battlefield is displayed. This is approximately four times the size of the screen display and can be viewed by scrolling with the cursor keys (making use of a scrolling routine that would grace many an arcade game, at that). The player’s units (French) are displayed in blue whilst the Austro-Russians are shown in yellow. Terrain features are simply, but adequately defined and the only new feature is the frozen lake — a nasty affair which should be avoided at all costs (unless you can force the enemy onto it).

Many of the other details of the game come directly from its predecessor; infantry and cavalry actions only; terrain effects on movement; unit display and movement and combat procedure. Units are displayed as character blocks with crossed swords for cavalry and a rifle for infantry. Whether or not they are Commanders is also shown, as is the Corps they belong to. If desired, unit strength and morale may be shown (although strength only is revealed for enemy units). Combat is automatic, given that one or more units have entered an enemy zone of control (one adjacent character block on any facing from an enemy unit).

One of the interesting ideas employed in the game is the use of limited intelligence. This is to simulate the early mists that clung to the battlefield on that December morning and added so much confusion to the battlefield. After the first turn, only those units spotted by your advanced units or those encountered before combat, are revealed. Otherwise, during the computer’s turn, ‘blank squares’ may be seen to begin to move to simulate partial awareness of the Austro-Russian dispositions. Otherwise, you’re in the dark.

Game turns consist of giving orders to all your units and then entering them in one command, to the computer. Before entering your command sequence, moves for any unit may be changed at will. French movement and combat sequences follow, after which the computer’s turn takes place using the same format. It’s during your movement phase that various Corps commanders may offer alternative courses of action. Indeed it may be the case that they are more fully aware of the situation in that area than you, and to begin with, their advice is extremely useful. In more sophisticated games, however, be sure to read the character sketches from the manual. On one occasion, a commander who had been involved in very heavy fighting was down to his last five hundred men when he suggested that rather than retreat to a nearby hill, as I had ordered, he could intercept a 6,000 man infantry unit. On checking the notes, they referred to him as ‘incapable of individual command’ but ‘personally brave: wounded 34 times in combat’.

The game looks almost identical to its predecessor and its aesthetic features are deliberately so. But as with all good wargames, the subtleties of the game are vastly different. Austerlitz plays well and makes an excellent addition to Waterloo. This is another goodie. Get it when you can.

Presentation 90%
Up to the standard now expected of the Warmaster series

Rules 87%
The character sketches are an excellent addition to an already superb set of rules

Playability 87%
Very user friendly

Graphics 92%
Uncluttered, appealing display

Authenticity 90%
An excellent simulation

Value for money 95%
Hardly a byte of unused code

Overall 93%
Character sketches and limited intelligence make this better than Waterloo. If Lothlorien keep going like this, my ratings will not be able to do them justice

THE EVIL CROWN

Producer: Argus Press Software Ltd
Author: Concept Software Ltd
Price: £9.99

This one player game is all about running a Barony in feudal medieval England. It’s an icon driven game which allows the modification of various factors surrounding the running of your estate. Apart from the now fashionable use of icons, the game employs some animated sequences (to depict battles and revolts) and a redesigned character set adds atmosphere to the game.

The main screen is split into two halves. On the left is an overhead view of the fields worked on by the peasantry. The cultivated areas are shown in blue, over the forest region. If the harvests are not too good, it’s possible to select new areas for farming, using an arrow cursor. To the right of the screen are nine main icons which allow you to alter the tax rate, alter the toll rate for passing traders; pay scutage to the king (to avoid having to send your militia into battle for him); modify the size of the militia; give food hand outs (if the peasants are particularly poor); spend money on tournaments; check your progress; continue to the next stage of the game and quit.

All of these icons are well defined and responsive to commands. The idea is that from the first year (1156), the estate has to be managed in yearly turns. By maintaining the right balance of taxes and forces and proving yourself in the annual tournaments. The main strategy part of the game takes place in the first part of the game where the allocation of available resources is planned. The option to continue is then selected.

The first part of this section shows a repetitive sequence of animals wandering through the forest. The more creatures, the less efficient the use of labour and land. A ‘go away’ icon allows the scene to change to the tournament sequence. This is the only part of the game that requires physical dexterity. The player takes part in a joust, and the top half of the screen displays the riders approaching each other. The bottom half has the jousting score on the left, and a view of the oncoming knight on the right. The cursor now becomes the point of a lance, itself made to move jerkily to simulate the effects of the galloping horse. By the time the two riders meet in the centre of the screen, the point of the lance must have been guided into a position that will result in a strike against the opponent. Enough successful passes and the tournament will be won. This section is particularly difficult to master, however, so practice will be necessary.

Whatever the outcome of the tournament, the next stage of the game deals with any battles and/or revolts by the peasantry that have to be resolved. Another option, to pay the militia for their participation in these events, is provided. A simplified graphic sequence showing a couple of figures in combat is used to convey the result. The colour of the figures also reflects how large the battle is. Assuming you are not totally defeated at this point, the next screen shows the harvest result. The greater the harvest the more efficient the labour force and use of land. Random elements like the effects of weather are accounted for by animated clouds covering the sun. If all is well at this point, the game progresses to the next year.

In some ways, the instructions to the game were misleading, saying that icons would be highlighted when they were not, and they failed to explain the jousting display. Moreover, the actual quantities of money used in various aspects of the game were simply left as abstract units without any guidance as to what those units were actually calculated in.

Having said that, eventually the game mechanics become clear (before frustration with the game has mount too high) and enjoyment can be got from the different extremes of game type employed throughout the turn — from the rather exploratory nature of choosing new land for cultivation to the deadly sequence in the tournament section. The game could have been a lot better, however, had it explained the consequences of your actions. As it stands, you are left somewhat in the dark when it comes to deciding on a strategy for play. If you can handle the initial ambiguities, this could provide a stimulating and entertaining change from the conventional wargame.

Presentation

78%
Good use of icons with the exception that they are not highlighted as they should be for extra clarity.

Rules

70%
Reasonable. Notes on the consequences of particular strategy would have been welcomed.

Playability

79%
With or without a joystick, the game is responsive and adequately designed for the beginner.

Graphics

80%
Some clever touches, marred slightly by occasional flickering.

Authenticity

63%
By no means a historical simulation but responds well to decisions made during the game.

Value for Money

75%
The games structure hides a complexity that should lead to many hours’ enjoyable play.

Overall

77%
Not without its faults but a pleasantly different and thought provoking game.

BEACH HEAD 2

Producer: US Gold Ltd
Author: Platinum Productions (David J. Anderson, Ian Morrison, Alan Laird), F. David Thorpe
Price: £7.95

After his numerous defeats in the pacific during World War II, the Allies’ enemy, ‘The Dragon’ has set himself up as an evil dictator commanding a squadron of crack troops who worship him as a Demigod. The man is a lunatic and a megalomaniac — something has to be done. Stryker, the Allies’ most competent Commander leads an attack upon the crazed power monger’s stronghold. To defeat him, a number of defences must be overcome so the evil warlord can be killed.

In the interests of variety, you can take on the role of either the Allies or the Dictator when playing a one-player game, or can battle it out in a two-player contest.

On the first screen, Allied troops have to be airdropped into the warzone from a helicopter. Fire drops a soldier, but if the helicopter’s too low to allow the chute to open in time you get people burger all over the terrain. On landing, the soldiers make a dash for the nearest wall, trying to avoid fire from a machine gun manned by one of the Dragon’s stooges. The machine gunner is hampered by the fact that it takes time for him to react and turn the gun to point at the helpless troops. Once all the men are safely hiding behind the walls at the top they have to make their way to the bottom of the screen, avoiding the manic machine gunner’s eagle eye.

The edges of the walls flash in a cycle along the length of the line. Pressing fire brings a man out, and he’s controlled by the joystick as he runs down to the next section of wall. From the third wall, nearest the gun emplacement, the troops have to be manoeuvered to the bottom of the screen. The control method is the same, except pressing fire when controlling a man allows a grenade to be lobbed in the hope of totalling the pill box. Pressing fire twice when you select a wall sends down a computer controlled soldier — handy if a decoy is needed to draw fire.

On the second screen, hostages must be protected as they run the gauntlet against the Dragon’s troops. Running short of ammo the enemy are desperate and throw just about anything at the fleeing captives. The allies have captured a gun that is used against the four different hazards that the escaping prisoner can easily fall foul of: a soldier drops stones from the top of the wall the hostages have to walk beneath; a tank trundles on from the right and will happily squash anyone in its path; an armoured car drives from the left, firing a small calibre machine gun mounted inside and finally, enemy soldiers dump mines, popping out of trap doors to lay them. All these obstacles can be shot up, but accurate shooting is needed. If you shoot a hostage by mistake he doesn’t get wounded, but just pauses for a while before moving on.

The penultimate scene is your chance to ferry the hostages to safety in four helicopters that fly over a vertically scrolling landscape. Tanks and lookout posts placed upon the terrain at inconvenient locations hurl shells at the helicopters, making life tricky for the pilot. The difficulty of the terrain is decided by the Dragon before the section starts. Once the four helicopters are through, Commander Stryker finally gets to meet his arch enemy, the Dragon, in mortal combat.

The two opponents stand opposite each other on parallel platforms on either side of a river. The idea is to hit the other man with poonta sticks until he falls into the water. Poontas are small, sharp pointed sticks, made especially for throwing. Each time a combatant is hit three times, he takes a topple and there are five rounds to be battled out before the contest is decided.

CRITICISM

‘Wargames aren’t really my cup of tea to be honest — I’m not one for mindless violence. Looking at Beach-Head as only a game, it’s not that bad — an awful lot of program has been squeezed into a 48K Spectrum for just one load. The only trouble is that it’s a bit easy to complete and once completed the only incentive to play again is to get a high score. The two player game is quite fun, however, and there are lots of ways you can play the game — no shortage of options here. The graphics, though a bit crude, work quite well. The end sequence is ridiculously easy once you’ve figured that your opponent won’t move till you do. If you liked Beach Head then you’ll like Beach-Head II.’

‘Another sizzling American game hits the Spectrum, the only trouble is that American games and Spectrums don’t seem to mix very well. Quite a lot of the games which have made their way across the Atlantic (usually CBM 64) have fabulous graphics and sound which mask a pretty boring game — Beach Head II is one such game. On the Commodore it was great with its speech, amazing animation and smooth graphics, but these have been lost in the transition from 64 to Spectrum leaving a pretty simple and boring game. If gunning down loads of men really is your cup o’ tea then fine, take a look at this. If it’s not then try something a little more intellectually stimulating.’

‘At last! US Gold kept us waiting for more than a year for the follow-up to their Mega-Seller Beach Head. It’s well worth the wait, though. Four screens, each in its own right a separate arcade game, make this much better than the last. I suppose most people will buy it because of the original, but as it stands it’s a great game. The graphics in all stages are good, as is the playability. (My personal favourite of the four is Screen Three.) You really get your money’s worth, give the variation in the game, so I suppose Beach Head will be found in Christmas stockings up and down the land.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: some attribute clash, nothing remarkable
Graphics: some good animation
Sound: a tune, and some effects
Skill levels: 3
Screens: four
General Rating: A lot of options crammed into one game; some may find the gameplay weak.

Use of Computer

85%

Graphics

79%

Playability

81%

Getting Started

75%

Addictive Qualities

75%

Value For Money

71%

Overall

74%

CHIMERA

Producer: Firebird Software Ltd
Author: Shahid Ahmad
Price: £3.95

New from Firebird’s Super Silver range is Chimera, an arcade adventure set upon a large Flying Dutchman look alike spaceship. A strange ghost ship has appeared far above the earth and placed itself in orbit over the USA. Apparently, its weapons are trained on Earth, so America, thoughtful and caring nation that it is, has decided to destroy the ghost ship. Placed around the ship are a number of warheads, all of which need to be primed before they can be activated. You have been sent upon a one man mission to prime the warheads and activate the destruction sequence to blow bits of the spaceship all over sunny America. Not a trivial task for a single operative, for who (or what)ever placed the ship into orbit also placed many barriers in the way of anyone trying to activate the warheads. Your first problem is to get past an electric fence. Hint: wander about the maze and you will soon find a spanner that can be used to manually deactivate electric fences.

Displayed from a very Alien 8 point of view, Chimera uses the now trendy Ultimate style of graphics. The main sprite has to be rotated until it points in the direction you want to move, then moved. Along with the directional controls there’s also a grab/use key for picking up and using handy objects found around the derelict hull. A scrolling message indicator is also included and provides a running commentary on what’s happening. If you do cop it in your quest, then it’ll even give a short analysis as to you why you died.

Death is waiting for you in many shapes and sizes. Grabbing certain objects can end the game rather quickly — if you reach for an activated electric fence, for instance, and you don’t have the spanner then you’ll have to start again. And radiators lap up your limited water reserves. You have a limited quantity of provisions when you set out on your mission, and it has to be completed before they run out. There’s no mistaking when you get killed either, as the computer yells out a hefty synthesised scream.

Upon activating the warheads you then have a limited amount of time to return to your start position before the bombs go off. Naturally you want to save yourself as well as the rest of the world. Get back to home and the game’s over and everyone lives happily ever after.

CRITICISM

‘What a plot! I’ve seen better in an Irwin Allen movie. Still the game’s not bad. It’s highly derivative, in terms of Ultimate’s Knight Lore and Alien 8 but when all is said and done, it looks good, plays well and kept me interested for quite a while. If more titles like this are released for £3.95, we will all have something to be pleased about. If you bought the Ultimate games, then you may have had your fill of them by now. If you missed out, or are just an addict, then this has to be worth getting!’

‘Chimera is graphically very similar to the Ultimate games; one difference though is that it is definitely more of an arcade adventure than Ultimate’s hits. As far as gameplay goes, it is very easy to get into and can prove quite addictive but I can’t help thinking that there is too little to the game. While the graphics are very good, there is hardly any significant animation, which is a bit of a let down. Chimera is well worth the £3.95 asking price but I suspect it will mainly appeal to people who don’t like complex arcade adventures.’

‘The thing that really gets me is that there is nothing to kill off in the game because of the logic problems. These, unfortunately, are trite, inane and (after figuring them out) leave nothing substantial to do. Bearing that in mind, there are some clever sound effects, good graphics and a game that will be something of a challenge (if for slightly annoying reasons). It’s a well priced game. Perhaps it will encourage better.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z, C, B, M rotate left, X, V, N, SYMBOL SHIFT rotate right, A to ENTER move forward, Q to P collect/use, CAPS SHIFT or SPACE to pause game
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Keyboard play: Very responsive
Use of colour: Reasonable
Graphics: Good
Sound: Good sound effects
Skill levels: One
Screens: 64
General Rating: Better than many full price games.

Use of Computer

69%

Graphics

72%

Playability

73%

Getting Started

75%

Addictive Qualities

67%

Value for Money

81%

Overall

71%

COMMANDO

Producer: Elite
Price: £7.95
Language: machine code

Elite’s Commando is the licensed version of the classic Capcom arcade game which has captivated thousands and thousands of arcade gamers all over Britain.

The game involves you taking the role of a super crack commando with a mission to penetrate deep behind enemy lines and destroy their two main fortress. This mission takes place over a vertically scrolling landscape and you, armed with a few grenades and a sub machine gun, have to take on the entire enemy army single handed. There are boxes of grenades lying around the battlefield which you can pick up to replenish your stocks, but otherwise you just have to use your skill, reflexes and sub machine gun to survive.

To reach each fortress you first have to go through four areas, each with its own mini fortress at the end. When you take a mini fortress you are transported to the second area, and so on until you reach the main fortress. If you take and destroy that then you’ll start the second mission which has to be completed in similar style, although the landscape and soldiers are far more hostile.

When you approach a fortress its doors open and loads of soldiers pour out, spewing bullets from their guns and lobbing grenades all over the shop. To take the fortress you have to destroy every soldier — not a trivial task. When you’ve killed all the soldiers then your man automatically runs through the fortress gates, a message of congratulations is printed up on screen and you’ll be transported to the next area.

Each area has its own features and hazards. Level one is comparatively easy, but by the time you reach level four the going gets really tough, with lots of obstacles to thwart swift forward progress. Naturally, there are loads of enemy soldiers swarming all over the place, but luckily they’re only armed with single shot rifles and grenades. Even so their sheer number often becomes totally overpowering.

There are two specialist weapons used by enemy soldiers: bazookas and mortars. Mortar bombers don’t pose too much of a threat, since they can only fire one pretty inaccurate shot at a time. Bazooka carriers, on the other hand, are deadly and fire round after round of lethal shells which explode in a large cloud of deadly flak.

Vehicles trundle about the landscape. They come in various shapes and sizes and include trucks, jeeps and motorbikes. They’ve all got to be avoided, but can be destroyed with a well-aimed hand grenade. Jeeps can cause problems, as they carry a gunner armed with a sub machine gun and spell doom if you’re not busy pegging it in the opposite direction. Lorries, too, are deadly and carry many soldiers which pile out when their transport stops.

The landscape is very barren — well, what do you expect for a desert? Dotted around are trees, little hills (usually the enemy come belting down the slopes) and rivers (there are always bridges to cross them — you might be a commando but you can’t swim!).

Area one is pretty deserted with only a few trees and hills, although there is a bridge which you have go under. The bridge is narrow, and there’s usually plenty of enemy soldiers just waiting to pounce on you on the other side. After the bridge there are rocks which the enemy use for cover and after them, the first mini fortress.

Area two is where things start getting tough. Foxholes filled with soldiers block your path, and the only way to kill the soldiers is by lobbing grenades on them. While you’re trying to do that they’re busily trying to machine gun you down, just to make your life a misery. There are also another two bridges, one to go under and one to go over (it gets you across a river). Buildings and bunkers start to make an appearance too. Yet more soldiers pour from the buildings, while a fusillade of bullets comes from the bunkers.

Areas three and four feature all the hazards found in the earlier sections, only in far greater numbers. On area four, the final run up to the first fortress, you are forced to cross an airport which has lookout towers complete with machine gun wielding soldiers at the top. The areas which lead to the second fortress are diabolical, by comparison with what goes before them. And if you manage to destroy the second fortress then you’ll be transported back to the very first area, to start over, but the enemy are more numerous and they fire more accurately.

Points are awarded for disposing of enemy soldiers and vehicles and a hefty bonus can be earned by killing two guards who hold a colleague of yours prisoner. Once you liberate your ally, he disappears, rather than helping you fight your battle, however.

CRITICISM

‘Speaking as someone whose youth was spent toggling the joysticks of arcade games this is about the best arcade conversion your Spectrum is likely to see. The arcade machine had some of the most photographic graphics and brilliant stereo sound — naturally these have been lost in the transition from megabyte memory 68000 to 48K Z80. Nevertheless, the rest of the game has faithfully been incorporated — all eight areas have been copied with meticulous attention. All the hillocks, trees, bridges and everything are all there — the soldiers even attack from the same points! The highscore table is the same as the arcade one too, with its spinning letters and all that. The gameplay is brilliant, although playing with the keys is a bit of a pain — it all gets rather confusing at the end of an area. If you want a game for Christmas then look no further than this, it’s ********* amazing!’

‘Elite have done a brilliant job, converting this arcade game for the Spectrum. The action is fast and furious, and should present a lasting challenge to anyone addicted to shoot em ups. Plenty of practice will be needed to get far into the game — it’s very easy to concentrate on wiping out the enemy but you’ve got to remember to dodge their bullets too! Horribly violent, and not much of an intellectual challenge — but great fun. Get it.’

‘I must confess that I never expected this game to turn out quite as well as it did. I found the game very easy to get into and not so easy to leave alone. The movement of the characters is very effective, I particularly enjoyed the way the enemy troops jumped down from various heights and then set about trying to do you in. There are some graphics which might have been better left out — in particular to the jeep which looks more like a tape deck. All in all Commando is a great game for those into fast moving violence, it requires fine tuned reactions and a fair bit of daring.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor, Fuller
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: rather bland
Graphics: excellent scrolling, and fast, especially with the amount of little mateys hacking about
Sound: great spot effects, but no tune
Skill levels: increasing difficulty
Screens: eight areas to fight through
General rating: A first-rate arcade conversion — very addictive indeed

Use of computer

86%

Graphics

92%

Playability

95%

Getting started

94%

Addictive qualities

95%

Value for money

92%

Overall

94%

ENDURANCE

Producer: CRL Group PLC
Author: G.B. Munday, B.P. Wheelhouse
Price: £7.95

Endurance allows you to participate in Formula One motorbike racing without risk to life, limb or wallet. Avoiding any kind of arcade action, Endurance puts you in the position of team manager — rather like Football Manager of the racetracks really.

The racing team in your charge consists of two bikes and four riders, and you have to juggle with a variety of variables while you try to make your team successful. Pitstop skills are well worth practising, as keeping the bikes in good order is as important as your riders’ racing skills. In the pits you can swap riders or service a bike... Several things can go wrong with a bike: brake pads can wear, tyres can burst, fuel can run out and engines go out of tune.

You can choose to compete in individual races, or take them together as a world competition. When a rider wins, points are given to both the team and the rider as an individual. Four of the six races are fairly short, while two tracks are twenty four hour races, and take around an hour to complete in real time.

Up to six players are allowed to take part in one game, and five skill levels are available. Selections are made with the joystick controlling a pointer, using fire to select options. There’s a choice of riders and bikes, and once chosen they can be renamed to make things a bit more personal. Then chassis and bike specification of each vehicle needs to be set in the pits by a mechanic. The first thing to do is tune the engine. Below the bike are three bar graphs, one for safety, one for power and another for miles per gallon. Using the arrow selector each rating can be boosted to fit your requirements. Strategy comes into play here, as an increase in one factor causes a decrease in the other two.

The handling of the bike then has to be set in a similar manner, but this time the different factors are speed, safety and wear. Tyre selection allows soft, medium or hard compound tyres to be fitted to the back and front wheels. Lastly, the team member to ride first is chosen.

Before a race the riders line up on the opposite side of the track to their bikes, then the starter drops the flag and the riders leap onto their machines. Each lap is computer controlled and you see a view from the grandstand, watching the bikes whizz past. After every lap the positions of the bikes in the race is updated. The main scoreboard displays the first six places, showing the leader and the distance each of the next five riders is behind him. Along a smaller board above the main track the numbers of the first sixteen racers are shown. If any of the bikes on the course are having problems, then their numbers are highlighted in red.

Instructions can be issued to your riders on the completion of every lap by pressing the I key. In all, there are three options: Go Go Go, Ride normally, and Take it easy. If the fuel on one of your bikes runs out or a fault gets too bad to cope with, then an automatic pit stop is called by the computer.

When in the pits, you control a mechanic. By moving him along the body of the bike various options appear for the maintenance of the bike. The engine can be tuned, the wheels can be changed and the brakes can be repaired. These sections are operated in the same way as the start up screens, using histograms and pointers. Fuel can also be replenished and the riders can be changed — a rider’s energy rating goes down, the longer he races.

When the bike has been returned to spick and span condition it returns to the track. The time for your pitcall is displayed and if you spent too long in the pits, then you can opt to quit the race.

CRITICISM

‘Though initially seeming very tedious, badly programmed and on the whole, totally inept, I found that this game has a spark of addictivity once I gave it a go. It really brings out an urge to win in me. I don’t know why, but even with the peeping and parping sounds and absolutely prehistoric graphics, I actually enjoyed Endurance. Real bike fans will probably enjoy the game even more. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to run out and buy a copy now, now, now — but it’s definitely worth taking a look at.’

‘A game that allows me to strip a bike down without getting oil all over me mum’s kitchen floor — great! The sound would be awful, if there was enough to be noticed and the graphics are poor and annoyingly slow, especially when in the pits. All the same, I found it difficult to stop playing this strategy game. As an arcade game it’s a non starter but treated as a strategy game with the graphics and sound added to use up the spare memory, it’s very addictive. I like it, and I’m going to play it until I win! So there.’

‘Very much one for the sports management simulation fans — one of the best since Football Manager, and in many ways it’s really quite similar. The tension it creates is quite fabulous. During one game, a championship, I was just 6 minutes from the end of the Le Mans 24 hour race when guess what? The power went off! I went nutty. The only thing against this game is the graphics — they’re terrible. I really enjoyed this one, all the same. The five skill levels, the wide range of tracks and the choice of championship or single races mean this game will last a long time. If you liked Football Manager for the strategic elements, you’ll love Endurance.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: no problems
Use of colour: poor
Graphics: simplistic to the point of crudity
Sound: quite a lot, but all very similar
Skill levels: 5
Screens: menus, the pits and grandstand view
General Rating: Though not stunning in any way at all, it has a certain something.

Use of Computer

39%

Graphics

32%

Playability

67%

Getting Started

69%

Addictive Qualities

74%

Value For Money

67%

Overall

69%

GEOFF CAPES STRONG MAN

Producer: Martech Games Ltd
Author: Software Communications Ltd (Ian McArdle, John K. Wilson, Dave Dew)
Price: £7.95

Unlike some sports simulations Geoff Capes Strong Man requires more than mere joystick waggling. The game begins with a training session, the outcome of which governs your performance for the six events. The task for this session is to build Geoff’s strength up as much as you can. At the bottom of the screen you see an empty bar graph. You have to waggle the joystick like crazy for a few seconds to get the red bar as far up the scale as possible. You can wimp out, and accept the default strength, but it’s not that macho.

Every event begins with a rest period, when you share out the strength you have built up. The energy shown on the main bar graph can be allocated to the eight body parts represented by icons around the edge of the screen. Moving the arrow over an icon, you hold down fire until the desired amount of energy has been transferred onto the smaller bar graph contained within the icon. Repeat this process until all parts of the body are awarded some strength.

During an event, the rate at which a muscle’s energy reserve is depleted depends on the level of effort you selected at the start and how often that particular part of the body is used during the task. Care has to be taken in allocating strength reserves, for if any part of the body is called upon during an event and found to have no strength, then Geoff collapses exhausted and you have to begin the game afresh.

During an event, the action is viewed on the central area of the screen, around which eight icons are grouped. The most novel feature of this game is the way in which joystick waggling has been replaced with ‘icon chasing’, making it much more than a ‘how much punishment can you give your joystick’ game. The Z and X keys are used at the start of each event to move a horizontal bar up and down on a scale from 0 to 100, indicating the effort Geoff is to put into the task in hand. The more effort Geoff puts into an event, the more rapidly he can complete it, and the more difficult it is for you!

During the Lorry Pull, Barrel Loading and Car Roll events, the eight muscle icons around the screen flash, indicating the order in which the muscles are called upon as Geoff gets going. You must follow the order of the flashing icons by moving a yellow arrow over each icon in the sequence and pressing fire.

If you manage to follow the order, then the icon you selected flashes green. If you select an icon out of sequence then it flashes red. If you fall too far behind the sequence, Geoff grinds to a halt — and if you mess up totally, you can wait until all the icons flash red, indicating that the sequence is about to start again. The speed at which the icons flash yellow depends on the amount of effort you have selected — at 100 percent you daren’t blink. You are competing against the clock in all three events.

The Log Chop requires you to press the fire button with split second timing. An Axe moves to and fro across the screen, above a log. When fire is pressed it descends and chops a lump out of the wood. Sections of softwood take one chop to cut through, hardwood needs two chops and knots, toughest of all, three chops. The aim is to select an easy section of log to attack, so you can cut through within the time limit.

Barrel Loading uses both joystick waggling and icon chase. Geoff must load five barrels onto a truck within the time allowed. Waggling the joystick moves him over to the barrel and makes him pick it up. From here on, chase the icons until he reaches the truck, then press fire at the right moment and Geoff lobs the barrel into the truck. Then it’s back across the screen to collect the next barrel...

The Fairground Bell relies on a sustained period of waggling, until all of the muscle icons flash red indicating that Geoff is ready. Hitting the fire button brings the hammer down with a vengeance. The quicker you are at hitting fire after the muscles have flashed red, the better Geoff does.

Sumo Wrestling is the last event, and the only event where Geoff is forced to take on another competitor, face to face. The winner is the person who pushes his opponent out of the ring within the qualifying time. Pressing the fire button at the right moment gains ground for Geoff: bad timing loses ground.

Although Geoff is awarded a score for the completion of each event, the aim is to complete all six. If he fails in any event, either because he was exhausted or because he failed to qualify, then a new game starts. Should Geoff emerge from the events victorious you can have another training session and begin again, but this time the events are harder to complete than the time before. If you want to keep measure of your muscle power, then remember to enter your name on the high score table.

CRITICISM

‘Though not being over keen on this type of simulation I was quite impressed by Geoff Capes Strong Man. Unlike other sport type simulations, this one was not wholly dependent on joystick waggling. The muscle selector is a great idea — combined with the effort selector, quite a bit of control is available over Geoff. For a one-load game, there is quite lot scope, with the six events being quite different from one another. This is definitely one of the best games of this type to appear on the Spectrum. Worth a look at over the yuletide season.’

‘Sports simulations have become a bit long in the tooth now but Martech’s latest release injects new vigour into the now worn idea. Because the game doesn’t depend so much on smashing your joystick it is much more enjoyable. The graphics aren’t that impressive and the game suffers from a distinct lack of animation, but overall it presents a fair challenge. This type of game is very playable but after you have played all the events it can start to get a bit boring. Geoff Capes is definitely one of those games worth getting if you know you like the type.’

‘I liked the way in which reaction skills as well as joystick destroying ability have been combined in this game. The events all present a fair challenge — with the possible exception of the Log Chop, which is graphically uninspiring and fairly simplistic. You just have to crank effort up to maximum and keep pressing the fire button at the right moment. Overall a nice competitive game, from a different mould to Daley’s and the rest. The tunes which accompanied each event were quite jolly, too!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q to T left, Y to P right, 1 to 0 up, A to L down, SPACE to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: not recommended, especially for building up strength
Use of colour: effective
Graphics: nothing special, really, but adequate
Sound: appropriate tunes at the start of each event
Skill levels: one, getting progressively more difficult
Screens: 6 events, plus High Score table and training screens
General Rating: A pleasant change from perpetual joystick waggling ‘athlete’ games.

Use of Computer

77%

Graphics

71%

Playability

85%

Getting Started

81%

Addictive Qualities

73%

Value for Money

79%

Overall

78%

GLADIATOR

Producer: Domark Ltd
Author: Mike Green
Price: £7.95

Beat ’em up’s look like they’re here to stay. Domark have just released one by the name of Gladiator. No prizes for guessing the what the scenario for this one is...

As a slave, Marcus was none too happy. Tired with a life of toil among the Roman fields, Marcus decides to try and battle for his freedom among the gladiators in the stadia of Rome. To buy his freedom, Marcus must win 180 times 180 eagles, a very high price indeed.

To get so much money you’ll have to vanquish up to seventeen fighters and then take part in a gambling session, betting on the outcome of a two fighter fight. As you win fights, you are matched against more skillful opponents who come into the arena with better weapons. Both Marcus and his opponents are capable of twenty five different moves, ranging from offensive to defensive and during combat the idea is to reduce Marcus’ opponent’s energy supply, which is indicated by a bar graph on the side of the emperor’s box. Bash your opponent a bit, and his energy reading falls depending on the weapon he’s been hit with and where he’s been hit. Marcus has an energy bar and that’s also prone to depletion from the attacker’s advances. If the energy bar fills up, a big thumb looms out of the royal box and gives the thumbs down sign.

A weapon selection screen pops into view at the start of each contest, containing forty five different weapons, each with its own power and defence rating — though the program doesn’t tell you what they are. Arming Marcus is a process of trial and error to begin with and deciding which weapon is best plays quite an important part in the game. Marcus can use a weapon in each hand as well a set of wrist knives.

After choosing the weapons, the gladiators move to the arena, where the action is viewed by the player from a spectator’s eye view on the edge of the arena. The arena is three dimensional: the gladiators can move in and out of the screen as well as left and right. In the background you can see the other side of the arena, and the milling crowds shouting slogans to the fighters.

Once the fight starts, moves are made using a combination of fire button and directions. Three sets of moves are available: one using the directions only, another using the direction keys or joystick after fire has been pressed once and the third set is accessed after fire has been pressed twice.

At least fifteen opponents have to be beaten in the arena before you get to the betting screen. Once you get to the bookies the points accumulated can be gambled, using the 1 key as up and Q as down to select the amount to be gambled. Press fire and then, using the same keys, you decide who to gamble on. If you win, then you double your money. Lose and the stake money becomes the bookie’s. If all your money is lost then Marcus gets thrown back into the arena. Get 32,400 eagles and a Marcus gets his coveted Certificate of Freedom.

CRITICISM

‘I was initially impressed when I clapped eyes on this program — the big figures fighting away with one another looked really good. It was only when I got down to playing it than I started to see the niggly glitches in the graphics — sometimes the men start climbing up the wall. The thumb which comes out when a player is defeated is pretty rotten — it’s so-o-o-o slow and has about three frames of animation. Playing Gladiator is pretty tricky too; I’m sure the control method could be improved no end. As it stands, it’s very confusing, even when you’ve played it a few times. Even so, it could be called a follow on from Exploding Fist, and if you like games of that genre then you could well like this.’

‘It seems to be all gore and violence at the moment with Domark. I mean, with Friday the Thirteenth and now Gladiator. I must admit to getting a bit tired of fighting games. Though lacking a lot of the arcade appeal of other such programs, Gladiator does hold a great deal more depth. Being allowed to choose weapons before a match adds a great deal to the game. Gladiator isn’t really hit material, though if you do like this type of game then it really would be worth seeing, since the depth of play involved is far greater than in any of its rivals.’

‘After A View To A Kill I wasn’t expecting much from Domark, which is just as well after playing Gladiator. At first look Gladiator seems to be a very neat and realistic copy of the old gladiator fights, but when you finally get into the fight you realize that the game is totally unplayable. I found the game very confusing, and very unuserfriendly. Your gladiator has too many controls which are accessed in too hard a manner. With less controls which were easier to use, I would have given it a higher rating. Gladiator is trying to enter an area where Exploding Fist rules supreme. For me this comes nowhere near it.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Player One: 1 to 5 up screen, Q to T down, A, D, G left, S, F right, Z, X, C, V fire. Player Two 6 to 0 up screen, Y to P down, J, L left, H, K ENTER right, B, N, M fire.
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: unresponsive, and complicated
Use of colour: monochromatic, to avoid attribute clash
Graphics: adequate backdrops
Sound: a bit of white noise to indicate a hit
Skill levels: one, gets harder
Screens: five
General Rating: A complicated fighting game which has a lot of depth.

Use of Computer

73%

Graphics

81%

Playability

72%

Getting Started

65%

Addictive Qualities

82%

Value for Money

75%

Overall

77%

INTERNATIONAL KARATE

Producer: System 3 Software Ltd
Price: £6.50

The flavour of the moment seems to have a definite bias towards the oriental. System 3’s long awaited, and somewhat overdue Karate simulation finally joins the ranks of combat games, which are all the rage on the Spectrum just now.

International Karate is another beat em up fought against backdrops depicting famous cities around the world, rather than in an oriental setting. The game scenario itself is very simple — it’s a battle between two Karate masters played over three rounds; the first to win two rounds wins that bout. The idea is to outscore your opponent in each round within the 30 second time limit. If you win, bonus points are awarded according to how much time remains on the clock at the moment of victory.

The game allows you to play either one or two players. If you’re playing single player then the computer takes control of the opposition. As in such fighting games, there are a multitude of movements available — a total of sixteen punches and kicks — with which to terrify and generally damage your opponent. Moves are made using different combinations of key presses, using a total of nine keys for each player.

The competition is overseen by a judge, who monitors the skills of the combatants and starts each fight by shouting ‘begin’ in very clear speech — and in case you don’t quite catch the command, the words are also printed on the screen in a speech bubble above the judge’s head. The battle then ensues and the players have to try to knock down their opponent. The judge bursts into speech again when one of the players achieves a ‘knockout’, announcing his decision as to whether a full or half point has been awarded. The first player to reach two points wins the round — and if neither combatant clocks up two points, the winner is the fighter with the most points. The player who’s the first to win two out of the three bouts is then allowed to tackle a bonus screen.

The first bonus screen is a woodblock-kicking exercise where you have to try to break as many pieces of wood as possible, with points awarded according to the amount of firewood you create. The second bonus screen, tackled by the winner of the second round is a sort of dodge ’em/punch ’em screen. A variety of objects is thrown from either side of the screen and you have to destroy them by punching or kicking them into oblivion. Again, bonus points are collected according to the amount of damage you wreak.

When the bonus screen stage is completed, the winner is transported to another part of the world where the battle resumes and you can find yourself scrapping away in Rio, New York, London and Sydney.

CRITICISM

‘The blurb on the cassette cover says ‘and you thought you’d seen a Karate game’. Unfortunately I have — it’s called Way of the Exploding Fist and it’s better than this. The animation on International Karate is a lot cruder than Fist, it takes up less frames than the latter and consequently looks rather flickery when compared directly. There are some glitches as well, like the ‘wrap round’ when a player gets killed near the edge of a screen — half his body appears on one side and half on the other. The gameplay is a bit awkward too — the multitude of keys makes the game very difficult to get into, but once you’ve got them sussed it’s very easy to beat the computer opponent. IK’s redeeming feature is the excellent speech — in my opinion the best I’ve heard: it’s very clear and understandable. When it comes down to the nitty gritty — ie which Karate game is the best, then I must confess that Fist still comes out top. But if you’re well into beat em ups, then you might want to add this one to your collection.’

‘Yet another fighting simulation. I wasn’t much of a fan of this type of game in the first place, and there’s now so many of them... I admit that some of them are fun for a while but they do get very boring when all you have to do is beat up your computer. This one is no different from the rest. The graphics are a bit below average for this type of game — I felt the characters were badly drawn and very jerky. Sound is fairly good: there is a nice title tune, spot effects during the game and some very good speech. As for gameplay I can’t really say that it’s compelling — I found that I didn’t need much strategy to beat the computer. Not a bad offering really, considering the price I suppose, but I wasn’t really grabbed by the game.’

‘Such a long wait — this game has been dogged by disaster and problems, and now arrives very late. Maybe a bit too late — lots of fighting games are already nestling in software collections already. International Karate has got a few nice touches, such as the speech, and the backdrops are quite pretty. Somehow, though, it doesn’t come across as a polished game: four or five months ago, however, and it might have had a different reception... One for fighting fans, really, to complete the collection.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Player 1 W to jump, E lunge punch, D walk forward, C chest kick, X foot sweep, Z crouch punch, A walk backwards, Q back lunge punch, W and S flying kick, E and S front somersault, D and S front kick, C and S front side kick, X and S back crouch punch, A and S back side kick, A and S roundhouse, Q and S back somersault. Similar arrangement for player two. 7 to quit game
Joystick: Ram Turbo
Keyboard play: could have been a lot better
Use of colour: reasonable
Graphics: nice backdrops, shame about the rather crude characters
Sound: excellent speech, and some good effects
Skill levels: gets harder!
General Rating: Disappointing overall, given the wait.

Use of Computer

75%

Graphics

71%

Playability

57%

Getting Started

61%

Addictive Qualities

67%

Value for Money

69%

Overall

68%

PANZADROME

Producer: Ariolasoft UK Ltd
Author: RamJam Corporation
Price: £7.95

The Panzadrome is an island inhabited by robot tanks of varying levels of viciousness. The mission that’s been foisted upon you is to destroy the Panzadrome. Each tank is remotely controlled from a central computer, from which it gets its power. This central computer is powered by a geothermal based energy source. Plasma vents are a central part of the power grid, and they have to be destroyed in order to knock out the computer. The computer is well aware of this weakness, and wherever you find a vent there is also a very hefty guardian force as well. Apart from the tanks, you have to reckon with heavily armed gun emplacements, which spit death at any unknown passer by. You are unknown, so beware.

When you start, the tank that’s allocated to you can’t really be described as top notch. In fact it’s positively sub standard, with a one-shot turret and stone wheels! Fortunately, factory depots are scattered around the island, each specialising in a different type of tank component. Originally placed there to make and repair the robotanks, it’s possible for you to sneak in and collect whatever weapon system a factory makes.

Though the robot part stores are not wise to your little suicide mission, and merrily upgrade your tank, the computer run tanks are well aware, and will do their best to blow you away. Three different types of weapon are available to you, though only one is supplied when you power up a single shot turret cannon. Mortars and mines are definitely worth having, but they have to be collected from the appropriate factory.

A Polycrete™ module is well worth collecting. While it’s possible to avoid the fire from the enemy tanks by moving quickly, both their shells and yours leave impassable craters in the ground if they hit the deck. With tanks constantly taking pot shots at you it is quite easy to get permanently stuck between a couple of impassable craters. The polycrete module is like having Taylor Woodrow in the back of your tank. The P key lets forth a jet of a cement-like substance that fills in craters beautifully.

The Panzadrome itself is a 64-screen island — each screen flicks to the next when the edge boundary is reached. A scanner, consisting of an eight by eight grid, helps you navigate by highlighting the screen you are currently occupying. A short range scanner covers the screen you’re on, showing the tanks, which you can see, and the mines, which you can’t. Also shown on the status screen is the state of repair of any equipment you may have. If your tank takes too much punishment you can lose the use of peripheral equipment. Only one life is supplied, and if your shields run out a direct hit on your tank ends the game. Status bars depict shield level, plus other handy information like stock counts on the amount of mortars and mines left in your possession.

As you progress through the game and manage to total a few plasma vents, the enemy slowly gets aware of your designs, and the tanks and defences get more vicious still.

CRITICISM

‘I’m not overkeen on military type games, but Panzadrome was a pleasant surprise. It’s pretty good fun just as a hack round and blast the tanks game, but you soon realise that there’s also a greater strategic depth within it. I like the idea of the game a great deal but I do feel it could have been a bit more competently executed. The movement of the tanks slows down horrendously once there’s more than a few of them on screen, making retaliation near impossible. The graphics are very pretty and are nicely presented, though the actual tank sprite would not have suffered if it had been a bit larger. Panzadrome should appeal to quite a few people, though I found it a bit dull after a while because of its sporadic slowness. Worth checking out though.’

‘Being temporarily joystick-less when I reviewed this one at home, I found this game more difficult than it should have been because all the control keys were in the same row — I thought software houses gave that up years ago! I’ve got no major grouches about Panzadrome: essentially it’s a good game but it’s spoilt a bit by a few things that wouldn’t be difficult to alter. The graphics, with the exception of the rather too small tanks, are superlative, even casting shadows on the streets. The most aggravating aspect of the game, for me, was getting stuck in a narrow street between two craters when I hadn’t got any Polycrete™, leaving me no option but to restart. Generally, a very good piece of software, but not quite good enough for me to rave over.’

‘I liked Panzadrome. It’s not a classic game, but the graphics are interesting and the gameplay is a bit different. You’ve got a large playing area to explore, and plenty of things to shoot at (and avoid). The tank graphics are perhaps a little crude, and things tend to slow down a bit when the screen’s full, making your tank a bit sluggish when it comes to responding to orders. At times the game is really wicked — if you don’t watch out it’s easy to get trapped, and a fair bit of strategy is involved in playing successfully. When you get the top-of-the-range tank, though, all the effort is worthwhile!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: CAPS LOCK/Z rotate left and right X/C forwards/backwards, V to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: some people will find the key layout awkward
Use of colour: attractive scenario that’s prettily presented
Graphics: blocky, but nicely detailed producing a good effect
Sound: neat rendition of Beethoven’s 9th at start but nearly non existent after that
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 64
General Rating: A very good idea that is let down a bit by the execution.

Use of Computer

65%

Graphics

80%

Playability

72%

Getting Started

75%

Addictive Qualities

78%

Value For Money

69%

Overall

77%

ROBIN OF THE WOOD

Producer: Odin Computer Graphics
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: Odin team

From a time outside history, before the language of the English was ever written down, there come to us stories and legends of heroes and valiant folk. One such story tells of Robin, son of Aleric, keeper of the Arrow. This silver arrow was a symbol of freedom and peace to the Saxon nation and it came into the Sheriff of Nottingham’s possession after he arranged for Aleric’s death. The arrow meant nothing to the Sheriff, and the years passed as the Normans continued to rob and exploit the Saxons.

Many years later, Aleric’s son, Robin, became a thorn in the Sheriff’s side. He had grown up and become the hero of the Saxon race, creating havoc by robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Realising the value of the Silver Arrow to the Saxons, the Sheriff announced that it would be the prize in an archery contest. Knowing that Robin would not be able to resist the challenge, the Sheriff sent his Norman knights out into the wood to hunt for Robin.

It is the day of the archery contest and you play the part of Robin. It is your mission to recover the arrow, The Shaft of Power, for the Saxon nation. Before making your way to the Sheriff’s castle to enter the contest, you must first complete several other tasks in the forest. The old wise Ent (remember them from Lord of the Rings?) has in his keeping your bow, your sword and three magical arrows. In order to get these you must give the Ent three bags of gold for each weapon. The gold is in the possession of the Evil Bishop of Peterborough, who has an escort of crossbow-wielding Normans: some nifty fighting is needed before he can be robbed.

There are three areas in the game: the forest, the castle dungeons and the castle itself. The forest is a maze of leafy glades and tree-lined pathways through which the animated figure of Robin runs. Objects, including extra lives, flowers and arrows are scattered round the forest floor. All Robin has to do to pick them is move over them and squat down. Apart from the marauding Norman soldiers who have orders to shoot on sight, and do their best to inflict wounds, there are other characters in the wood who will help or hinder you. While travelling to the castle you will encounter witches, who materialise from time to time. A witch will send you to the castle dungeon unless she’s given the right amount of flowers. On the other hand, if a witch is given flowers, she may help by transporting Robin to another location. A visit to the hermit doctor will pay dividends if you have been injured — but he isn’t too nice, if you’re carrying weapons.

Boars run loose in the forest, and contact with a tusked terror leads to injuries. Occasionally you cross the path of the Sheriff of Nottingham, who has you imprisoned in his dungeons if he spots you. It is possible to escape from the dungeons, but not without a key!

Once you have got all the weapons and got into the castle you are able to enter the tournament and have a chance of winning the arrow. The three magical arrows purchased from the Ent will safeguard you against being recognised by the Sheriff, but once you have fired the last magic arrow you will be spotted, and must escape before getting caught.

Throughout the game your status is displayed at the bottom of the screen, together with the objects carried. Robin’s health is represented by a pair of antlers which change colour according to his energy level. Naturally, if Robin’s wounds become too severe, he dies, and care must be taken as you only have one life at the start of the game.

Just below the antlers the objects carried and extra lives obtained are displayed. Robin begins the game with a quarterstaff, which is perfectly adequate for despatching the Normans, but will only work in hand to hand combat. Other weapons can be used against the foe, and will come into action as appropriate, once you have bought them from the Ent.

Just when he was doing so well! Hemmed in by two nasty Normans, Robin is about to be banished to the castle dungeons by the nasty Sheriff who’s just appeared. Robin’s collected three flowers, a quiver full of arrows and two extra lives. So he shouldn’t have too much trouble escaping from the dungeon

A forest scene, with Robin resting after having just done a Norman to death — the little blue helmet’s all that’s left...

CRITICISM

‘Odin’s first release, Nodes of Yesod, was quite unexpected and proved to be an excellent game. Could they keep up the standards set by their previous and produce the goods in Robin of the Wood? Thankfully, the answer is yes! Graphically this game is excellent, and the attention to detail is evident throughout. The programmers are obviously perfectionists. The high standard of the graphics has not been at the expense of colour: there are few attribute problems. Some cynics may say that the game looks like a Sabre Wulf variant, but it is much more involved, and character interaction plays an important part in Robin of the Wood. The animation is very well done — just watch Robin use his bow or attack a Norman with his trusty sword! The game makes quite a fun beat em up! Robin of the Wood is definitely another hit from the Odin stable. I can’t wait for The Arc of Yesod.’

‘Everyone at CRASH Towers was eagerly awaiting Robin of the Wood. Then the finished copy arrived and was loaded up. ‘Wow! What colour’ I thought as Robin materialised on the screen. When everyone else had had their go, I finally got my hands on it. Robin’s a great little character in the way he plods around the forest. After a few plays I realized that there was more behind the forest than first meets the eye. And it’s a very colourful one — even with red and blue trees. You get a taste of the aggro to come when you go around hitting everyone in sight with your staff — which is great fun. After a while you get to hate witches. Every time I came across one I had no flowers and she nicked my money bags. The Bishop and other characters are fantastically animated and when you get into the castle the colour used is amazing. This game is one of the most addictive I’ve played and I would recommend it to anyone.’

‘Though first impressions lead you believe Robin of the Wood is yet another Sabre Wulf clone, upon closer inspection it soon becomes apparent that a lot more thought and ingenuity has gone into its creation. The graphics are impeccable, animationally superior to nearly every other release on the Spectrum. The statics are very good too, giving a really woody atmosphere with realistically drawn flora and fauna. I thought the red boars were great, scuffling realistically across the screen. This is certainly a great step forward for Odin — it’s even better than the excellent Nodes of Yesod.’

The bluestone walls of the castle dungeon close in on Robin

Robin takes a breather outside the castle walls

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Protek and Cursor types, Interface 2
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: excellent variety, with few attribute problems
Graphics: beautifully done, detailed and well executed
Sound: some recognisable speech plus a nice tune at the start of the game
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 330
General rating: an excellent game that should appeal to everyone

Use of computer

89%

Graphics

95%

Playability

96%

Getting started

88%

Addictive qualities

94%

Value for money

90%

Overall

94%

ROBOT MESSIAH

Producer: Alphabatim
Author: Christian F. Urquhart, Mike Smith
Price: £7.95

The Android planet is one of the worst places to live if you happen to be a robot. The planet is ruled and dominated by a race of androids who, in a fit of synthesised evolution, managed to acquire the majority of human feelings and attributes such as ambition, determination and greed.

Thousands of robots working in the planet’s mines are exploited by the Androids. Leading a hellish existence, the robots’ life spans are very short and unpleasant. The robots are purposely made to be of a docile nature and are too weak to contemplate rebellion. SID is a freak though. He is not as servile as his metallic brothers. One day, in the hope of escaping his grim fate, he wanders away from the mines into the deep cave network that weaves endlessly below the planetoid’s surface.

Frightened of being discovered by the evil gnome patrols that keep the workers in step, SID eventually found a cold and particularly well-hidden cave. Socrates, a philosopher from among the ruling robots who had preached the unpopular view that all machines were created equal was hiding in this cave. For his beliefs, Socrates had been exiled.

Realising that SID might be able to liberate the robots and become their Messiah, Socrates instructs him: to achieve upgrade and become an Android in order to lead the worker robots to rebellion, SID must collect three envelopes, each containing one part of a computer program. The complete program must then be input to the Android’s main computer. SID agrees to the philosopher’s requests and sets off on his mission to liberate robot-kind.

SID is a quite normal robot capable of quite a few useful tasks. For a start he can walk, and when it comes to getting over obstacles that block his way, a hefty robotic leap allows him to pass any barrier. The cave system is shown in a rather similar way to many adventures that have run before it, using the familiar flick screen method. Many harmful objects and creatures are to be found underground. Water isn’t very healthy when your prime constituent is iron, for instance...

There are some useful things to be found, too. Advanced high protein energy reboosters perk up your energy bar — they come in the form of sticky buns and bits of fruit. As an energy based organism your energy bar gives a direct indication of how much life you have left. Three energy bars are given on your quest for robot liberation: lose them and the game ends and your brothers are condemned to eternal slavery.

To get the three envelopes, three sections of the labyrinth must be negotiated, starting with the caves. To leave the caves a weight must be found to place upon a pressure pad to allow entry to the next section. Moving SID over an object and pressing the pick up key adds objects to your status line — only three objects can be carried at once.

You aren’t the only inhabitant of the caves. Strange energy-sapping beings float around, and finding a gun is a good move — though you’ll need to collect a magazine of bullets as well before you can start blasting away. Twelve bullet magazines of ammo are dotted round the caves.

Once through to the second section SID finds himself in a buggy travelling down a long corridor towards the next part. The buggy is equipped with a shield that can be activated if any cave creatures drift towards it, though the shield saps energy. A scanner at the top of the screen shows how far away the test centre is. Once through the corridor you’re plonked within another room with a pressure pad. The only way out is through the door that the pad activates — without a weight you’ve got problems! If you do get out of the room then SID is placed into the test centre. Here the envelopes must be found and the teleport activated to zap SID back into the first set of caves so the computer can be reprogrammed.

CRITICISM

‘After a glut of similar programs I must admit to being a little bemused by Alphabatim’s decision to release something so derivative as their launch game. As an arcade adventure, Robot Messiah contains problems that are both logical and fun to solve, and the game compares well with the opposition. Things can slow down a bit when quite a few objects are on screen, and the action can get a bit ploddy at times. Graphically the game isn’t all that exceptional — it’s adequate apart from the animation on SID which is excellent. Overall not a bad game though there are so many of this sort already on the market and some are better: Robot Messiah may well be worth a look at if arcade adventures are your type of game.’

‘Robot Messiah looked like it was really going to be something special, but unfortunately I found it rather boring and repetitive to play. The main character walks around really slowly, transforming any initial adventuring excitement into extreme frustration because it seems to take so long to get anywhere. The scenery is also pretty dull and samey making the game seem like a poor man’s Nodes of Yesod. I do like a good arcade adventure, but this one failed to spark any real enthusiasm — when I played it I had a constant feeling of deja vu.’

‘Robot Messiah, Alphabatim’s entry into the software jungle reminded me a bit too much of the fabulous Nodes of Yesod, The game itself is very colourful and the movement is very smooth with lots of well animated baddies. The sound effects contain too much clicking — a good constant tune would have been better. The accuracy of the blocks is appalling: it’s possible to stand at least a character space over the edge of a platform in mid air without falling to the ground. At first look a pleasing game, but after a few games you notice lots of problems with it.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: N left, M right, S leap, A fire, X pick up
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responds adequately
Use of colour: pretty, no attribute clash
Graphics: good animation, nice graphics but a bit repetitive
Sound: not a great deal
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 152
General Rating: A passable arcade adventure, but nothing particularly special.

Use of Computer

80%

Graphics

76%

Playability

71%

Getting Started

68%

Addictive Qualities

69%

Value For Money

70%

Overall

72%

ROCKMAN

Producer: Mastertronic Ltd
Author: Dean Carter, the smiling assassin
Price: £1.99

Rockman is an underevolved little Troglodyte whose main motivation in life is food. Rockman knows what he likes and his favourite food is Mushrooms in huge quantities. The mushrooms proliferate throughout the network of caves that Rockman lives in — a pretty idyllic lifestyle, all things considered, except for the smiling faces. Though of a jolly grimace these vaguely intelligent spritettes spell death for Trog if they touch him. After all, smiling faces have to eat too, and they don’t like mushrooms so Troglidytes have to do as munchies for the faces.

Though he lives in the stone age, Rockman does possess some form of primitive technology. He has a hammer. Bashing any of the rocks with his mallet causes it to instantly crumble or fall to the floor, depending on what was beneath it. If Troglidyte eats all the Mushrooms on one screen then he’s instantly transported onto the next screen where another feast of mushrooms is laid before him, which he just has to eat.

Rockman’s on-screen antics are represented as a side on 2D view. With spritely vigour he can run along, and drop off, the ledges of rocks that make up the majority of the maze. Also making a part of the caves interior are the vertical red zoom tubes which allow him to scamper up and down between levels. The mushrooms are large red fungi, and it’s hard to see how Rockman fits them inside his mouth — still, he gobbles them up as he runs over them.

Also part of the scenery are the totally inert marble ledges. They don’t do a lot and there’s not a lot you can do to them. These are usually placed around as barriers or ledges. Another component of the caves are the inanimate skulls, sitting innocently until Rockman is foolish enough to hop onto one, whereupon it’s a case of instant dismissal.

The blocks of rock in the cave crumble beneath a mighty blow from a prehistoric hammer, unless the space below is empty, in which case the rock falls harmlessly to the next layer. The hammer works by pressing fire and if a block of rock is sitting in the direction Rockman is facing, he’ll give a mighty swing and bring the hammer down. If a smiling face is below a rock when it falls to the floor, Rockman gets his revenge — it’s splatted to oblivion. Two smiling faces wander the caverns and if one is killed, another materialises to take its place. The faces roam semi randomly but they do have a slight tendency to follow Rockman, a factor that can be used to Rockman’s advantage on the later screens when they have to be lured in the direction you want.

Though some people like to take time over their lunch, Rockman doesn’t, and actually needs to consume all the mushrooms present on a screen within a time limit. If he’s a good boy and eats them all up, bonus points are awarded according to how much time is left.

Upon starting a game you are asked for a password, or to press space. If you’ve previously completed five screens then a password will be known to you and it’s possible to start from where you left off. Fives lives are given for Rockman to stuff himself silly, one being lost for every ill encounter with a cave nasty. Not eating lunch in the time given also incurs a nasty loss of life. Ho hum, just like Crash Towers at dinner time.

CRITICISM

‘Rockman is yet another budget program from Mastertronic that impressed the hell out of me. Though lacking amazing graphics and state of the art programming, Rockman is very playable indeed. There are enough screens to hold interest for a fair amount of time and the codeword system means there’s no need to play the same old screens again and again. Rockman himself moves at an adequate pace and is very responsive indeed. Some of the bigger firms should really take a good hard look at some of Mastertronic’s latest product as it really puts some of the latest megagames to shame.’

‘This one seems to be very similar to a ruck of games we had in around issue 9, Hyper-action etc, and Rockman is about the average for that type of game — although it is a little out of date now. Graphically, this offers nothing new: the characters flicker too much and the colour is garish. I quite enjoyed playing this one for a while but found I got bored with it very quickly.’

‘What a jolly little game! Lots of cute colourful graphics, that do flicker, but look good all the same. For 1.99, what we have is a nice platform game, that brings the old lateral thinking skills into play again. Some parts are rather amateurishly programmed, but all the same it’s entertaining, and once you’ve bought all the really good progs you might be tempted to have a look at this; it’s in no way shockingly good, but after all you can’t expect perfection every time for 1.99.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor or Interface 2
Keyboard play: fast and pleasingly responsive
Use of colour: no attribute clash, though colour choice a bit garish
Graphics: blocky, and pleasantly animated though a mite bit flickery
Sound: pleasant tune with some good game effects
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 20
General Rating: Yet again, a worthwhile buy from Mastertronic.

Use of Computer

73%

Graphics

69%

Playability

68%

Getting Started

73%

Addictive Qualities

71%

Value For Money

75%

Overall

69%

ROLLER COASTER

Producer: Elite
Price: £6.95
Language: machine code
Author: S Brocklehurst

Roller Coaster from Elite, is a fun fair simulation. Playing a punter, the idea is to collect all the cash left around the place during the day by the milling masses. The money is placed in the most awkward and precarious of perches and to get at it, various bits of active fairground machinery has to be negotiated. The background is that of typical American theme park with sideshows, palm trees, buildings and candy stores. These are located along the bottom of the playing screen while the amusements, usually, are a bit more skyrise.

Apart from a giant log flume, mini bumper cars and ferris wheel type rides, you’ll also come across numerous waltzers scattered around the park. Made up of a number of separate cars that aren’t connected in any way, they spin around the screen in weird sinusoidal patterns and yet retain their shape as a waltzer. Another attraction is the funhouse, a building full of platforms which cycle round, contorting and twisting while bouncing your little man along different paths.

Your character can travel and ride on any of the attractions he may find, by just jumping on. There’s no need to pay! Since he’s an athletic little chap, he’s able to walk, run and jump, and can hitch a ride by hopping on at the right moment. Though looking big and butch with his ten gallon hat, our little hero is not invulnerable. Doing silly things like leaping off unreasonably high buildings or jumping into water takes away one of the ten lives supplied. If he is in imminent mortal peril, a little bit of zip can be added to his step by holding down M as well as a direction key. This near doubles the little sprite’s pace and can be handy when attempting leaps over large gaps.

The money around the fair is represented by small blue objects that look nothing at all like money, really. Jumping through a square piece of money lets loose a satisfying squeak, and boosts the figure in the little box at the bottom of the screen which displays the money collected so far.

There are three major rides around the sixty screen fair, all of them sort of rollercoasters. The first is on the screen to the right the start location, and is an olde worlde log flume. One of the others is a gold mine and a cave trip completes the trio. Any attempt to run up and down the track of one of the big rides is deadly, so it’s best to wait for the roller coaster carriage to come along, and leap into it. As you zoom along in the car, you pass under money hanging tantalisingly in the sky. Careful timing is needed if you’re to jump up, collect the loot and land safely back in the car.

As you travel throughout the fair the different screens flick into view as the central spritette moves off the edge of the current screen — as in so many other arcade adventures. Collect all the money and you’ve completed the game, but there’s no need to be so avaricious — you could just scamper around and explore, having fun on the rides.

CRITICISM

‘I thought I’d seen all there was and could ever be in the form of platform games after Dynamite Dan but I’ve been proved wrong again. Graphically, Roller Coaster is very good: your man and the various rides are very well drawn and animated, and the backgrounds are very colourful — which leads to a bit of attribute clash, but nothing too glaring. Controlling your bloke is very easy; I liked the idea of the ‘run’ key, as this helps you get out of trouble. Generally I enjoyed playing this game as it is different from the usual type of platform game.’

‘Roller Coaster was not written by the usual Elite team, and it shows. Not taking Elite’s usual ‘Every Game a Mega Game’ attitude, the author has turned out an enjoyable and very impressive product. Though fundamentally just an arcade adventure platform game there are so many clever extras added it makes the whole thing seem almost original. Looking at static shots in this review, Roller Coaster may not look all that impressive, but when you see the different objects move it takes on a whole new dimension. I really like Roller Coaster and it’s one of the most deserving titles yet to appear from Elite. It’s what a game should be, just totally unpretentious and fun to play.’

‘This game is brill! No longer do we poor country bumpkins have to wait till May for the fair: Roller Coaster brings all the fun of it into your living room! Wonderful graphics, terrific use of colour, and amazing addictive qualities — it’s just a great game. Big wheels, cafes, bumper cars and log flumes are all found in abundance on the many screens of this, the best from Elite for a long time. It owes a little in places to the legendary Manic Miner, in that here and there the old lateral thinking skills come in handy. All it needs now is an automatic, free candyfloss vendor!’

COMMENTS

Control keys: O left, P right, M run faster, CAPS SHIFT to jump
Joystick: N/A
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: neatly done, but a few attribute problems
Graphics: some very cunning animation on the rides, neat
Sound: jolly tune to start with, and good effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: 60
General rating: a different kind of platform game altogether. A great little game

Use of computer

87%

Graphics

88%

Playability

92%

Getting started

93%

Addictive qualities

93%

Value for money

90%

Overall

94%

SABOTEUR

Producer: Durell
Price: £8.95
Author: Clive Townsend

As a gun for hire you’ve been hired to liberate a computer disk held within a high security fortress cunningly disguised as a warehouse. The disk holds the names of a number of rebel leaders and you’re up against the clock. The idea is to find a bomb, hidden somewhere within the complex, get the disk and leave the bomb behind, ticking down to detonation. All this before the time limit expires and the information stored on the disk is sent to outlying terminals. Being a sensible sort of chap, you want to escape and there’s a helicopter lurking on the warehouse roof, just waiting to be stolen.

The trouble is that the headquarters are heavily guarded by a number of armed guards and watchdogs as well as automatic defence systems which monitor your position in a room and then start zapping you with a laser. Your mission starts in a rubber dinghy moored just off a small pier leading to one of the warehouse entrances. Clad totally in SAS attire, black jumpsuit and bootpolish all over your face, you are initially equipped with a throwing star. As you wander through the security complex various other weapons can be found, picked up and used — each weapon can be used once only, but can be aimed at your target. Trained to a very high degree in various martial arts, you can also partake in a bit of physical baddie bashing rather than just lobbing the odd throwing star or brick about. You have a choice too: a killer punch or a ninja style dropkick are both equally deadly to any guards you may find.

The security complex is split among three different sections. The first is the warehouse front, containing the helicopter and primary defence force. If you get down into the sewers then you can link up to the underground train taking you into the first part of the computer centre. From here the second underground train has to be found to get you into the second computer centre. This is where the disk and bomb are held. Once the disk has been rescued and the bomb primed a countdown starts showing the remaining time in which to reach the helicopter. A quick dash back through the sewers and train systems is required unless you like having dead mercenary smeared all over the walls.

Whilst bashing your way through various adversaries your progress is charted via two screens, the main screen shows a sideview of the room you are in. Your saboteur is about a quarter of the screen high and sproings and cavorts about in full animation. As well as running and fighting he can also perform a nifty tuck jump for bouncing over chasms and gaps. Using the ladders, platforms or steps provided, your hero travels around the complex of colour coded levels.

The bottom quarter of the screen is used to display your status. Only one object can be held at a time, the object you’re holding appearing in a window on the left hand corner of the status area, while objects close by and available for collection are shown in the window to the right side of this screen. Pressing fire uses the object within your grasp, or if another object is within reach it’ll be transferred into your possession.

An energy bar along the bottom of the screen shows how your energy level is faring. Your lifeforce is sapped by contact with fighting guards, who fire rubber bullets, guard dogs, which bite, and the laser defence system which is generally bad for your health. Standing about doing nothing for a while, however, allows ebbing energy force to return.

The game isn’t played for points — what self respecting mercenary works for points? Money’s the name of the game; and a paymeter clocks up a few hundred dollars each time you do for a guard. The big money is only picked up for collecting the disk in the time limit, planting the bomb, and escaping. The programmer’s obviously a dog lover, though. There’s no money in killing dogs — “so why bother?” the inlay reminds you.

CRITICISM

‘Though bearing some initial resemblance to Impossible Mission, Saboteur holds a lot more upon further inspection. The game is absolutely great, it’s like playing a part in a Bond movie. Maybe this is the sort of game that should have been used by Domark. Level one is quite easily solved, given a bit of time and thought, but there are nine different levels each subtly harder than the last. The animation of the man is great and he’s very responsive indeed. Overall a this deserves to be a hit and should have pride of place on many a Spectrum users shelf.’

‘After Critical Mass I was expecting great things from Durell and they’ve certainly come up with the goods. Saboteur must be one of the most original games of ’85. The drawing point of this type of game is that it puts you in the shoes of a hero/spy just like Spy vs Spy and when you walk you crouch down just as if you were an intruder. The overall game is very addictive due to the variety of routes you have to take on the higher levels. Great use is made of colour — the characters are huge, with no attribute problems at all. One thing that made me laugh was the so called ‘underground train’, it really does look like a brilliant picture of a holiday caravan. I hope Durell gets a CRASH Smash for this ’cos it certainly deserves it.’

‘Durell Software really have pulled their act together this year. After a couple of years of mundane releases they’re now producing classics like Saboteur. The game concept is fairly original, and as such the game is quite fun to play but what really put Saboteur up in my esteem was its sheer playability. Graphically the main sprite is a bit similar to the one in Impossible Mission but his range of movement is far greater. Overall the best release yet from Durell and one of the better releases for the Spectrum this year.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface II
Keyboard play: extremely responsive, adds to the excitement
Use of colour: mostly monochromatic, but still effective
Graphics: lovely animation, though backgrounds could do with some more detail
Sound: pretty neat two channel tune once loaded, and effective white noise during the game
Skill levels: 9
Screens: 118
General rating: very imaginative: deserves star status

Use of computer

84%

Graphics

92%

Playability

92%

Getting started

91%

Addictive qualities

94%

Value for money

92%

Overall

93%

SCREENPLAY

Producer: Macmillan Software Ltd
Author: Pippa Lewis
Price: £8.95

I’ve been handed this piece of software to review because I’m supposed to be an expert, having spent much of my pre-CRASH time as a film cameraman and TV film editor. Whether this really qualifies me is another matter...!

Screenplay is described as a means of creating your own film or TV programme on a computer. The package comes as a cassette with two programs on it and a booklet which describes some film techniques and has a section telling you how to use the software. Oddly, it doesn’t really explain what the end result is going to be, although it does tell you that you can save your programmes on video — if you have a video recorder.

The 26-page booklet is the obvious, indeed only, starting place. The first 16 pages are broken up into general chapters on the subject. How film works describes very briefly the technical history of film, showing ‘flicker toys’ and ‘flicker books’. It attempts to show how moving images are created by revealing lots of still shots, each action slightly advanced on the last. How the camera works explains the basic mechanism of a film camera, what photographic film is, camera shutters, lenses and film paths. Film tricks explains such devices as fades, dissolves, front projection, mattes, double exposures and the like. This is followed by How TV works, a quick run through of the electronic process and camera, which runs neatly into TV tricks, where mixes, double shots, digital machine effects, character generators and Chroma key are explained.

Making a film or TV programme outlines the roles of the producer, script, wardrobe and so on, and simply explains the function of animation, sound tracks and editing. This is followed by a section on cell animation, and then we’re into using the software.

So far so good. The booklet is not a handbook on film making, and its explanations are of the simplest kind, accompanied by useful illustrations. I suppose all of this could awaken someone’s interest sufficiently to go into the subject in more detail but of itself it barely scratches the surface. Using the software however, is less successful in its presentation — but first let’s look at the computer program.

Screenplay is icon-driven. A main menu presents seven icons, load, save, wordshot, soundtrack, action, screenshot and Take 1. Load and save speak for themselves — a vital function since everything you do must be saved for combining with other elements. All the other options present sub-menu icons. Wordshot is the storyboard and dialogue department. Text can be written in normal or italic mode, in several directions across the screen and in a range of ink and paper colours. Double sized letters may be used. One icon allows rubbing out of a screen, and other work may be loaded in or saved out.

Soundtrack is a music editor. Films rely heavily on sound effects (FX), but there’s no provision for that, and the Spectrum isn’t exactly the best beast for effects. Notes may be entered, heard or rubbed out as well as saved. Other music pieces may be loaded in for adding to them or altering.

Action is a character generator and editor, which allows you to build up figures or objects, invert them, mirror or rotate them and two-frame animate them. Icons are used for all the actions, with a grid being drawn in the display area and the cursor keys used to fill in the character grid. Black or white (rubs out pixels) is toggled on or off with the zero key. Again, ink and paper colours may be selected, and everything saved or earlier work loaded in.

Screenshot is another graphics generator/editor, allowing the creation of background scenery for your movie. A ‘thick’ or ‘thin’ pencil may be used, designs and shapes being done on a blow-up grid similar to that used in action. Closed shapes can be filled from the Spectrum’s colour palette, differentiating between ink and paper.

Take 1 is the editing department, the moment when all your elements are combined to your own choosing. ‘Frames’ may be dealt with one by one. Characters may be brought from memory onto the screen and positioned with the cursor, then taken through the screen to complete their action. It’s possible to have up to 12 sprites on screen at one time. Music may be added at appropriate moments, and the dialogue you have written can be scrolled across the bottom of the screen to complete the effect. A final icon allows a ‘premiere’ of your masterpiece.

The booklet details how to set up computer and video recorder to save out the finished film for a later viewing on the telly (this is where you amaze your family and friends)!

Side two of the cassette has a program to load in with several elements already in there. This can be used as your first exercise in using Screenplay. The software is described as ‘easy to use’, but in truth I found it rather complex and fiddly and not particularly obvious in its use. The icons help, but the inter-relation of the elements is far from clear, and the booklet’s descriptions of how to use the various editors or cursor functions within a mode lacks clarity, despite the icons being shown with brief explanations of their functions.

Clearly it’s possible to create a semblance of a film, but the final result is somewhat primitive, looking more like an early French talkie with English subtitles. Whilst I think there maybe quite a bit of appeal for the budding film director in Screenplay, and the price of the package isn’t extraordinarily high, I can’t really see that there is all that much point to it, and in truth the creation of film or TV programme using this computer software seems to me to be stretching the point further than it wants to go.

Roger Kean

SPELLBOUND

Producer: Mastertronic
Price: £2.99
Language: machine code
Author: David Jones

As a continuation of his adventures in Finders Keepers, Magic Knight now reappears in a new Mastertronic release, Spellbound. Part of the new Mad Games range, Spellbound is a true graphic adventure.

Magic Knight’s mentor and teacher, Gimbal the Wizard, has accidentally managed to bind you and seven other characters within a summon spell. The spell was intended to be an aid to Gimbal’s quest for better tasting rice pudding. Due to a slight typographical error that arose when the incantations were translated from ancient English to slightly less ancient English, things went a little bit wrong. Now our hero is trapped within a strange and unfamiliar land with a bunch of people from different slices of history. Being the brave good guy among the collection of oddities it’s down to Magic Knight to return the various peoples to their respective time/space zones. First on your list of major things to do is to release Gimbal from a self inflicted white out spell but, as in any good adventure, there’s a number of smaller tasks to perform first.

Though Spellbound looks very similar to any run of the mill left/right and jump game, pressing fire soon shatters that illusion. Based around a windowing system by the name of Windowvision, fire opens up the primary menu replete with a list of options available to Magic Knight. A pointer controlled by the up and down keys highlights various options as you move it about, and fire takes you to the sub menu for that option. For each option on the menu there’s a corresponding button on the keyboard — thus avoiding any hassle for people who’re a bit kack-handed when it comes to using the pointer.

When you change to a sub window it opens up over the main one and a pointer appears on the sub directory. Using this system, the amount of options available to you easily equals those within many text adventures. As you progress through the game the options and actions open to you change, allowing Magic Knight to take advantage of any new objects or powers he may have acquired — extra options are highlighted in white.

Apart from using the menu system, you can move Magic Knight around the screens with left, right and jump. Obviously Magic Knight has developed some pretty impressive leg muscles since his last game: jump causes him to take a real mega leap skywards.

Any object or character you may come across can be examined via the main menu. While a character is being examined, a small screen with a graphic of the character under scrutiny appears. Such details as strength, happiness, stamina, spell power and food level are detailed. You can even examine yourself; very handy, since being a brave knight expends strength quite a bit and if it reaches zero the game's over. When it comes to examining objects, a graphic of the object under scrutiny is displayed together with details on the four different attributes possessed by objects: weight, magic power, read and drop status. The read and drop information tell whether you can drop the object you’ve acquired or use the read function on it to glean information. The weight reading can be critical as well. The more the the knight carries, the quicker his strength is sapped. If Magic Knight is too weak then he won’t be able to pick up heavy objects.

There’s a large strategic element to the game. The other captives of the summon spell wander about in a bit of a daze and need looking after. You need to command characters to do things for their own good, and you have to get hold of the wand of command before the option which allows you to tell people what to do appears on your menu. Since the characters don’t have the sense to fend for themselves, it’s up to you to tell them to go away, eat, drink, and be happy.

If your fellow captives aren’t kept in good health they may well die.... The characters also have to be kept happy or it’s likely they get in a bit of a sulk and be loathe to obey any commands that may be issued to them. Other people may well be in possession of objects you need but understandably they like to keep hold of any thing they’ve got. Command a character to go to sleep and anything they have can be easily pilfered. When a character is asleep it’s also possible to give them something they wouldn’t normally accept.

The domain in which the spell of summoning has trapped the cast of characters is split into seven floors, each spanning around seven or eight screens. To travel between floors the Knight has to use the lift found at the extreme left hand side of each floor.

Some objects can be found which can’t actually be used — they do offer clues, however, and the clue they contain can usually be liberated with the read function. A few totally useless, though amusing, objects litter the place as well. Upon starting, Magic Knight’s only possession is an advert: read this and you’re informed that David Jones created Spellbound and suggests going out and buying Finders Keepers. Another addition to the Knight’s worries is that there’s only 48 hours to complete his task. Oh dear. Better get going...

CRITICISM

‘I’m always a bit cynical of software houses’ claims to produce true graphical adventures but it seems that Mastertronic have actually come up with the goods. Finders Keepers was excellent but Spellbound is superlative. Windowvision is about the best selection method for using and interacting with objects and characters I’ve seen yet. It blows away both Frankie and Shadowfire making them both seem awkward and outdated. Graphically, the game is well above average: the movement of Magic Knight as he athletically leaps about is great. Convincing gravity too. Overall, about the best game of its type on the Spectrum to date. Even if it were priced around the ten pound mark I’d still recommend it as a bargain but for £2.99 you’d be MAD not to buy it!’

‘Finders Keepers was Mastertronic’s best game until now. David Jones has improved on the features in Finders Keepers and has come up with a first rate game. The graphics are generally good, but not some of the best around. What makes this game is the presentation. It’s very easy to play without actually reading the instructions and subsequently it doesn’t take long before you are addicted. The menus that appear make the game easy to understand and they cut out the need for mega quick reactions which other arcade adventures depend on. If you’ve got £2.99 to spare then get this, you won’t regret it!’

‘My blue knight materialised: ‘What now?’ I cried! But then as I started bouncing all over the millions of screens, I was really getting into the feel of it; when I pulled myself away from it, I could easily say I was well and truly hooked. Fab sound and mega-brill windowing with the odd bit of great graphics gave me the feeling that this was going to be a smash! And when they told me that it was only £2.99 I really freaked out! Next time you find yourself with three quid, this is something you must get.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: A/Z up, down N/M left, right and space for fire
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: a bit of attribute clash, but hardly noticeable. Very good
Graphics: Big, bold and detailed
Sound: Not a lot but what it does do is good
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 50
General rating: An outstanding game, especially for the money

Use of computer

96%

Graphics

89%

Playability

91%

Getting started

92%

Addictive qualities

89%

Value for money

98%

Overall

95%

VECTRON

Producer: Insight
Price: £7.95
Language: machine code
Author: Mike Follin

The scenario that lies behind the second game from Insight bears more than a passing resemblance to Tron. Tron the film, that is, not Tron the game. You have been transported to a weird ‘sub-spatial’ dimension, and find yourself inside a computer at the helm of a fighting machine equipped with an energy shield and the obligatory Plasma Blasters.

Vectron is a game split into four sections. The action begins in a maze, displayed on the screen using vector graphics from the viewpoint of the pilot of the ship — in a similar way to Buggy Blast. You are at the controls of a craft that is incapable of stopping and moves around at a constant and very fast speed. As you approach the end of a corridor in the maze, it’s necessary to change direction very rapidly to avoid an energy-sapping collision. Up and down move a sight vertically over the screen while left and right govern the way your craft shifts at a junction as well as moving the sight horizontally. The laser, or plasma blaster, fires a pulse towards the centre of the gunsight and delivers a burst of energy that’ll zonk any enemies in view.

To clear the first section, all enemy craft must be destroyed. The maze is patrolled by sinister Randomizers — sort of inverted U shape craft that patrol the corridors. The randomizers tend to inhabit the border areas of the maze, flying around the edge section enclosing the maze. In the inner reaches of the maze lurk the fireball spitting tanks. Unlike the randomizers, they can shoot at you, though if you approach them from behind they’ll be unable to swivel their turret fast enough to total you.

While you’re whizzing about, if you wish to see where the enemy craft are, a stab at the bottom row of keys calls up a full screen representation of the maze. Displayed with character blocks of colour, the normal screen display still functions in the background and you can plan your route on the head-up map while continuing to drive through the maze. Upon the enlarged map your ship is shown as a white attribute square, randomizers are red, and tanks appear as magenta blocks.

Only one life is supplied, and your craft begins with a limited amount of energy. Bashing into walls or enemy craft depletes your energy status drastically. Extra energy, displayed as cyan squares on the map, is available. Unlike the enemy they stay stationary and to collect the life force you must shoot them. If, by accident, you fly over an energy globe, the globe disappears and you’ll be a bit nearer to death.

Once the baddies in the maze have been zapped, you have to return your ship to the portal located in the middle of the maze. As you approach it, a sort of stargate whizzes into view and zaps you into the second screen. Here you have to blast at the Rom Robot’s eyes with the laser as they flash. The robot, superimposed upon a starfield, spits globules of death at your spaceship. The energy shield remaining from the first screen is carried forward but the globes fired by the robot deplete it badly.

During the second phase, the ship’s map computer is destroyed and when you return to the main maze for phase three of the game you’re on your own, mapless. The idea is to reach the warp in the bottom right hand corner of the maze, through which you can make good your escape. The trouble is that the ship is placed randomly within the maze and some keen navigational skills are needed to suss out where you are. Two randomizers fly around the maze, just to make life more complicated.

The last screen is the escape section, displaying a rear view as you try to shoot the pursuing Randomizers and Tanks that are thrown at you while you try to run away. Zap them and you’re free, fail and it’s back to the title screen.

As well as your energy limitation, there is also a limited amount of time for your escape attempt: the time remaining is constantly shown on a countdown timer on the bottom left of the screen, and you’d better make good your escape if you want to fly again.

CRITICISM

‘Vectron is just about one of the best games I’ve seen for the Spectrum for eons, it really is a classic. Even the first screen alone would have made Vectron a classic for me but there are four very different sheets, each presenting a considerable challenge. The graphics are exceptional, the speed they move at really amazed me. Recognizers move in a truly outstanding way, keeping definition however close they get to you. Using the attribute file to overlay a map of the maze was an inspired idea. Mike Follin and Insight should go a long way with such a high standard of product.’

‘If you want a first class Tron game-of-the-film then look no further than this. Although diverging slightly from the main storyline of the classic computer film Vectron has many of its elements, like the baddies and the maze sequence. The sheer speed of the program is well impressive and the 3D graphics are THE best I’ve ever seen. Vectron is pretty hard, but is that sort of game which keeps you coming back for more. A real classic which should definitely appear at the bottom of your Christmas stocking.’

‘To begin with I wasn’t all that keen on this game, but after a few hours of practise I really started to get into it. My only gripe, apart for the initial difficulty of the game, is the fact that there isn’t a high score table or anything similar to tell you how close you’ve got to the end of the game. The use of graphics is very good, as is the use of sound — the tune is excellent. I greatly enjoyed playing Vectron, although I’m not sure it would offer much to the games player who likes to use his brains as well as his quick reactions. A first-rate shoot em up, though.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: incredibly fast, and cunning
Sound: fab — great when amplified
Skill levels: gets harder as you go
Screens: four different sections to the game
General rating: A brilliant arcade shoot em up

Use of computer

93%

Graphics

93%

Playability

92%

Getting started

85%

Addictive qualities

94%

Value for money

91%

Overall

92%