THE SHAPE OF THRILLS TO COME

THRILLS ON TAPE:

Welcome to the NEW CRASH. A live-action magazine that will keep you busy for the next four weeks and longer! We decided it was all very well writing about games, but the really exciting thing is playing them. And we want you to join in the thrill straight through CRASH.

Tapes on magazine covers aren’t new, of course. CRASH has had a few, and you wanted more. Other mags have stuck them on their covers month in month out, often full of duff tripe hardly worth the tape, just for the sake of it. What you want is GOOD games, worth buying the magazine for, where you don’t feel cheated after loading.

It was a challenge. Could we secure enough great programs to keep you excited for the next year or so at three to four games a month? We pulled out all the stops, and thanks to a lot of friendly software houses and independent programmers we think we have mega thrills lined up for you to Christmas and beyond.

To make your enjoyment more complete we’ll devote pages full of hints and tips to make the most of them.

But future releases are exciting too. So we’ll include playable levels of hot new games on your tape. Demos that will send you running to your nearest friendly computer shop for the complete product — because Britain’s and Europe’s software studios have a load of goodies lined up for you this year!

We couldn’t (and didn’t try to) keep Nick from wanting to squeeze a selection of the latest POKEs in either. So that will be a regular feature too.

To cap it all, we’ve put the tape in a box and given it an inlay so it can join your collection without feeling ashamed of its packaging!

And what’s happened to the cover price? It’s down! Four games and more for £1.50! But if you don’t think that’s cheap enough, check out our subscription offer for a really great deal! (It’s def. Nick)

Right! it’s time to dive into your multimedia(!) CRASH! Let game thrills begin...


DIZZY
The CRASH Edition

We couldn’t stop dizzy Richard Eddy who moved heaven and earth (let alone a ton of Cornish pasties) to get you this game from giving you his version of what it’s all about:

Cue general amazement and rapturous eggplause: ‘Blimey O Riley! It’s fab!’ Yes, it is rather. It’s Dizzy from The Oliver Twins and Code Masters — not your original Dizzy, no! A Special CRASH Edition with loads of changes to the original. So, eggheads, listen up to the instructions and the rubbish egg jokes for the game in question. (Oh no, here we go...)

Dizzy is an egg. Eggsactly, an egg who’s in for a lot of eggcitement and eggsasperation in this eggdaptation of the eggcellent arcade eggventure. By the way, currently on-sale is Dizzy II — Treasure Island Dizzy (£2.99 Code Masters) which is well worth shelling (Groooan!, that’s une-oeuf eggs!) out for.

IT’S NO YOKE

No, seriously, though, yolks (aaaaaarrrrgh!), there are no yolks. You control Dizzy either by keys or joystick with a Kempston interface. Controls are:

Dizzy starts off with one life but you can collect eggstra (scrrreeeeam!) through the game — lives are shown as little eggs on screen. There are some hidden messages in the game, too, activated by picking up certain objects. Eggsample: pick up the flashing key on the start screen. Tiddly um pom pom.

Ahem. Dizzy is out to triumph over evil and save his fellow yolkfolk by creating a wibbly wobbly magical potion to kill off Wizard Zaks. By all eggcounts (stoppit!), this vile Wiz cast spells that made eggs rotten, blinded men and caused it to rain every Sunday afternoon during Cricket. The utter beast!

To dispose of the Wiz, Dizzy has to collect a potion bottle and fill it with four magical ingredients. Once collected they must all be chucked into the cauldron, and Puff! the Wiz goes. Cries of ‘ding dong the Wiz is dead! Which old Wiz? The wicked old Wiz...!’ will ensue. Sort of.

Your only clue as to the identity of the ingredients is hidden in this ancient message:

‘Fill a potion bottle with a cooked Leprechaun’s wig, clouds’ silver lining, Vampire dux feather and some troll brew — put it all in a pot and the Wiz’ll be dead in a shot.’

So there you go, world savers, it’s up to you now to save ickl Diz from the Wiz. So, do the biz but if you mizz you’ll be in a tizz... (SNIP! That’s enough Eddy-esque rhyming sentences).



MICRONAUT ONE

If you’re a Spectrum super-hero you’ll remember that Pete Cooke is the programmer of brilliant games like Tau Ceti and Academy, both CRASH Smashes and now on re-release. Micronaut One is no exception, it too was a CRASH Smash in August 1987 at 92%.

Don your shiny badge, proclaiming you a member of the Guild of Equalisers. Board your sleek, laser-death-pumping ship and prepare for action: You’ve been slapped in the middle of a biocomputer — a huge tunnel network of living computer — which is infested by vile creatures known as Scrim who thrive on its energy. Unfortunately, your position in the Guild of Equalisers is caretaker, and it’s this biocomputer you have to take care of. Or else...

When you’ve loaded up the game, you’ll have to work through a barrage of menus controlled by the four directional keys and a fire key (or joystick if you prefer).

There are two variations on Micronaut One to play. The one we advise you to start on is the race game — select race on the set-up menu and press Fire: You will see the RACE MENU with five options. RACE puts you into the race tunnels. Races are over five laps against the clock. TRACK provides a choice and maps of three tracks. PACER gives you a computer-driven pacer to race against at a chosen speed. TIMES shows best time achieved. EXIT is back to the main menu.

The Scrim has a three stage life cycle. Eggs are laid by adult Scrim. They’re tough and mostly impervious to weapons. They grow very quickly and hatch into Larvae. These crawl and feed until they split and become Jellyfly who are fast and will search out tunnel sections to build an energy web and lay eggs.

Your objective: to rid the tunnels of Scrim and keep the energy balance in the biocomputer.

Energy is the key factor. The bio-computer has four Energy Transfer Units (EYE symbol), where energy can be transferred to and from your ship (see ETU menu). Energy must be kept at a safe level or the whole complex may explode! Green: safe — Red: ...!

Firing your weapons eats energy. Replenish from energy clouds in tunnels. Stop the Scrim from completing a web as it will block the tunnel section. Multiple webs stop flight completely, and ETUs go critical quickly!

When you’ve blasted all the Scrim from the first level you’re transported onto the next level, where infestation is even worse.

To Play: Select PLAY option on MAIN MENU, FIRE. This gives you the GAME MENU. VIEW: Screen shows your view of the tunnels. Left, right, up, down moves your ship. Fire! Q and W keys let you move up and down in tunnel to avoid obstacles. BREAK back to GAME MENU. Ships instruments below: Scanner shows tunnel section you’re in, direction you’re facing, time and whether weapons are targetted. Three bars show speed, ship’s energy level, messages on bio-computer condition. MAP: Wraparound map of tunnels, scroll left or right. You are X. You can set markers to any section by pointing at it and pressing fire. These markers are used by your Navigational Locking System (Nav Lock on map menu bars) to plot a route to anywhere in the system. Markers menu also lets you pick out the ETUs or to refer to a sector by number. ETU menu shows energy level of the four ETUs. If your ship is docked in an ETU (blinking EYE) the ETU number is highlighted, and you can transfer energy to or away from the ETU. INFO MENU: Overview of bio-computer, identification chart for life stages of Scrim. PAD: pull-down note pad to keep track of egg, webs positions. MISC MENU: Clear pad, Status is tally of Scrim destroyed, Scrim left. Abort game is give up and back to main menu.

Micronaut One is no picnic and a real test for tough gamesters only.

Pete Cooke says ‘It’s a whole new ball game!’ And well he might too, guys. Why? Because he’s written a game especially for CRASH. So watch out, it’ll make its debut on a Mega Cassette soon! Pete’s game is a further development on Brainstorm, the CRASH Smash puzzle game that gives your brains a run for their money. We’ve been playing it non-stop for days here in the office.

Get your thinking cells around Pete’s mystery brain blower very, very soon only from CRASH!


MOONCRESTA

Cold concentration and split-second reactions are required for this legendary shoot ’em up from Incentive Software! Mooncresta (Trip to the Space War) was one of the first licensed shoot ’em ups ever to appear on the Speccy. Licensed from Nichibutsu (bless you!!) it’s a fast and furious CRASH Smash at 90% (March 1985).

The action explodes against a downward scrolling starfield as your craft swerves left and right along the bottom, annihilating the alien hordes swooping down on you. Nine waves of aliens are on the attack: four waves consisting of blues, then yellow aliens (which split into smaller aliens when hit), and a red and magenta wave of fighters to destroy to reach the bonus stage.

Five waves of dancing aliens now shoot in, diagonally opposed asteroids and twirling white flecks which transform into missiles if not shot down sharpish. In the Bonus stage you must dock with two segments of your ship — to make a docking press fire for retro-firing. The quicker the docking the higher the bonus. Docking completed leaves you better armed for the continuing battle, and you need all the weaponry you can get!

MoonCresta can be played by one or two players on redefinable keys, or joystick through the Kempston interface.


SANXION : The Spectrum Remix

This first release from Thalamus scored 85% last issue, and to prove just how amazing it is, Dave Thompson, who devised the conversion form the Commodore original, has snipped a level from the game to let you have a taste of the action!

Steer your craft through the dual view battleground and shoot your way to survival — them aliens are mean...

Control: Joysticks supported; cursor, Sinclair port one, Kempston. Keyboard: Q — up, A — down, O — left, P — right, SPACE — fire. Redefinable.

TIPS ON TAPE!

Your tape is loaded with POKEs, so crack those games!


WANTED: MONTY MOLE

Time travelling ahoy! CRASH takes you back in time to days when blokes were blokes, chicks were chicks and a dead good game was flippin’ amazing. And here’s one from Gremlin Graphics to blow your socks off — Wanted: Monty Mole, the first appearance from Gremlin’s naughty mole, a CRASH Smash no less (92% October 1984). Let’s take a look at this amazing animal...

What a wonderful creature, the Mole! Velvet black fur (awwww!), little paws (double awwwww!!) and a criminal record as long as Nick Roberts’s intestines. Eh? That’s not right.

Well, it is in Monty Mole’s case. You see this particular mole is a devilish creature (Latin: Moleus Mischievius) who goes around screwing up the works at Miners’ Union elections by pinching all the ballot papers — the tease!

And now all the union big-wigs are after him, so Monty makes a quick escape down the mine... where his troubles begin.

The action is spread over 21 screens of platforms and ropes with positively heaps of vicious mining nasties for Monty to contend with. Problem is that Monty is defenceless — the poor creature has no weapons so the only hope of survival is to avoid the enemies who kill him if touched.

There are objects to be collected, but only picking up lumps of coal give points. The objects, however, do have their uses — but for the time being we’ll leave it up to you to find out what does what, where and when and all that.

If we feel generous we’ll get our illustrious Nick Roberts to get a bucketful of tips together for next issue. But for now here’s, well, a yoghurt pot full o’ tips:

Screen one: Get the coal bucket outside the miner’s house, or the coal in the mine is invisible.

Screen three: Get the whip-shaped object (bottom mid-right). This lets you collect the candle.

Screen six: The electric drill allows you to collect the candle (as well)

Screen seven: The spade in the narrow passageway lets you collect the rotating circle which guards the piece of coal.

Screen eight: Collect the a...

Phlurrrrrph! Yechl The yoghurt pot’s full; you’ll have to wait for the bucket next month. Now then...

MOLE’S WHISKERS

...are great for guiding a mole around their tunnels, but for Monty you’re going to have to use the keys or a joystick (Kempston, Sinclair). And they are as follows...

WHAT NOW, MOLE FANS?

So you think Wanted: Monty Mole is dead brill, eh? (If you don’t you’re a complete prawn) Well, Monty has two more adventures captured in computer games and they are: Monty On The Run and Auf Wiedersehen Monty. Are they good? Swipers! They’re absolutely wonderful! Monty On The Run was a Smash and Auf Wiedersehen Monty came in at a hot 84% (it should have been a Smash but there were miserable reviewers in those days!).