CHEETAH’S HANDY CHUM IS HERE!

In a bid to see off the Japanese and American console giants, long-time British peripheral suppliers Cheetah have launched their own hand-held console called the Gamate. Developed in the Far East by the Bit Corporation, the Gamate faces stiff opposition from Atari’s colour Lynx and head-to-head competition with the mighty Nintendo’s GameBoy. The Gamate’s advantage is its retail price of £59.99. This makes it a tenner cheaper than the GameBoy and £70 cheaper than the Lynx.

Like the GameBoy, which has already established a following since its October launch, the Gamate is a very compact machine and features a green screen (52mm x 50mm) which displays LCD graphics in four shades of grey. Cheetah have also launched a series of seven games cartridges which rely on classic styles of gameplay and retail at £14.99 a piece. Witty Apee, the cartridge supplied in the Gamate pack, is a variation on the Digger games of old. Other games available include: Galaxy Invaders (a reasonable Galaxians clone), Money Maze (a horizontally-scrolling Pacman game) and Mini Golf (crazy golf viewed from overhead).

The Gamate itself features a fourway directional rocker switch, two action buttons, a start button, a select button, an adjustable contrast dial, an adjustable volume dial (yes, it actually plays music!), a networking cable socket (so you can link a couple of Gametes together), an earphone socket (a pair of stereo earphones are supplied) and a six volt socket (so you can run Gamate off the mains, through a transformer). Four AA size batteries sit in the back and should provide 15 hours of gameplay.

Though the hardware is good, it’s a pity the initial range of software doesn’t offer anything new. The games are of average quality and reminded everyone who played them of the Speccy games of 1984. Though there has been a frantic battle for the high-score on Galaxy Invaders in the office! Cheetah promise that the second batch of games, a further 12 titles should be available soon, will offer more originality and quality. If the Gamate makes it into your high-street shops have a go — it’s well worth trying out!

GREMLIN’S HERO QUEST

Last year’s top-selling adventure board game Hero Quest is being brought to life on the Speccy at Easter by Gremlin Graphics. Hero Quest is an absorbing fantasy adventure game where elves, wizards, barbarians and dwarves do battle with dark forces in search of hidden treasure. Doesn’t it sound exciting? Gremlin sent CRASH a copy of the board game to play with and it looks like a lot of fun — when it’s been set up! Y’see, the big box contains about three billion playing pieces (all the characters, the scenery and objects) which you have to assemble and place on the board before play. We built a set-up, which took about an hour, and then decided not to actually play the game because the set-up looked too good.

NOT ANOTHER ONE!!

Ooooo dear! Where are we to put ’em all?! Yet another person has been dragged from sanity and brought into the CRASH office. Justine Pritchard from over Birmingham way (I’m not a Brummy. I’m a Yam Yam! — Justine) joins the ad dept this month to help out last month’s new boy Kevin Gallagher (whose photo got missed out from the news last issue). Should you brave, manly Speccy gamesplayers be putting pen to paper and dashing out a couple of love sonnets? Check out Justine’s personal file and find out!!

At weekends, CRASH parties permitting, Justine transforms into the hostess with the mostess when she works in a Birmingham pub! She’s now known as the Bet Lynch of CRASH due to the immense size of her... erm, dangly earrings!!

Justine’s doing her bit for perestroika and helping the Russian economy. If you search deep enough in her handbag there’s a bottle of vodka lurking somewhere!! (Lies, lies, lies!!! — Justine)

Justine’s a bit of a beach baby and would love to live, during the winter months, on the sun-soaked shores of Gran Canaria. Sadly, she keeps getting sent back by the authorities because she thinks the parasols on the table are to decorate her rather large drink!!

Rumour has it that Justine drives an XR2. However, latest reports indicate that she’s is to driving what cows are to synchronised swimming.