Welcome to the Crash Micro Cosmos of Spectrum games! This magazine lists over 180 exciting and varied programs for the ZX Spectrum from 50 of the top 100 software houses to guarantee you the best possible quality. Well over 100 games are reviewed in depth and the others are listed by title at the end because we had no room to do them all!

This is our second catalogue in two months, demand for the first was so great, and it is twice the size of the first. If you would be interested in receiving our third, further expanded catalogue/magazine, please let us know. It will have even more reviews and a section comparing similar games from different software houses.

SENTINEL

Producer: Abacus, 16K £5.00
Author: Kevin Flynn

Prevent the enemy from attacking the Sentinel space station with your four ships. Careful though — your extra ships can be destroyed before you get to use them! Fortunately there are five stations, but the enemy is numerous and there are loads of meteroids at avoid or shoot. On the other hand we all know your skill as a Deep Space Fighter Pilot, don’t we? Profusion of control keys actually makes this a game for the 4-handed player! Watch out for your guided missiles — they’re as likely to destroy you as the enemy! A good game with fast and furious action all the way.

E.T.X

Producer: Abbex, 16/48K £5.95

This game has a charm of its own because it talks — mostly ET says ‘Ouch!’ as he either falls into one of the numerous wells or is forever hit by the mad Professor and the nasty man from MI5. Loading uses up both sides of the cassette and a printer is useful for the tons of instructions. Very nice graphics. Basically ETX must assemble a machine from parts hidden all over the planet with which he can phone home for rescue, whilst collecting points by eating the fruit dotted about. Just about everyone except friendly young Ernie is out to stop him.

WIZARD’S WARRIORS

£4.95 Abersoft, 48K

A fast moving game that matches your skill as a player by becoming increasingly more devious. You’re in a maze-like complex haunted by laser-blasting robots, earlier ones are pretty stupid but as the game goes on, other, more intelligent ones appear to track you down. Features a radar screen to tell you the position of the invisible warriors. Continuous sound effects, arcade graphics, double point scoring, and — for the artful — bonus lives. Machine code.

CRAZY BALLOONS

£5.75 A&F, 16K

The simple maze is only just big enough to let your waggling balloon through in places, elsewhere you must use precision and timing to squeeze through without touching the sides. Extra points for using the narrowest passages and you’re against the clock!

JUNGLE FEVER

Producer: A&F, 16K £6.90

Get your man to leap over the pits dug by Pigmys or swing over them using a rope tied to a tree. Nowhere near as easy as it looks at first since timing between walking and jumping is critical. Good graphics.

GRIDRUN

Arcade, £5.50, 16K

Robot security picks up your trail just when you thought you had given them the slip (trust robots to be bloody minded). Now they’re catching up with you — and no one has survived the grid (as we’re sure you know). This is not a ‘grid-runner’ game so much as a ‘pac-man’ style maze game. You drive round the concentric grid using the compass point crossovers to avoid the robot car which goes in the opposite direction. Fast reflexes needed.

RAIDER OF THE CURSED MINE

Arcade, £5.50, 48K

NEW UPGRADED VERSION! Boulder throwing trolls, thieving bats and man-eating spiders add all their charms to those of an unpleasant ghost in this all action arcade game. You are deep down a mine littered with diamonds which you must collect on your way to the surface. Without all the diamonds or your lamp (which the bat will try to steal) you can’t get to the next level. 30 levels of increasing difficulty. Use the 3 lifts to go up or down — clever players get all the lifts lined up first.

3D COMBAT ZONE

Artic, £5.95, 48K

Based on the popular arcade game. Travel across the flat plains and battle with the enemy tanks and flying saucers. Absolutely excellent 3D graphics which include a battle read-out and radar above your sights. It’s not so much a speed game as one of tactics and timing because the enemy is very clever at outguessing you. As you succeed in destroying the enemy saucers and super tanks begin to appear. This is the first real 3D game for the Spectrum which gives a true sense of depth and space.

COSMIC DEBRIS

Artic, £4.95, 48K

Your spaceship must survive by destroying asteroids that plummet through space towards you. Clear the cosmic debris by shattering it. Rotate, thrust and hyperspace in this arcade action with typically nasty flying saucers that appear just when you don’t need them.

GALAXIANS

Artic, £4.95, 16K

Machine code makes this full colour hi-res program as fast and exciting as the classic arcade version. 9 levels of play and swooping Galaxians. Good explosions, high scores, personalised scoring. Still among the top sellers, satisfying the zap urge in us all. 1 or 2 players.

DODO

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

Subtitled ‘Dodo and the Snow Bees’ this is not some 60’s pop group but yet another highly innovative game from Blaby. Dodo is alone (the sole remaining one too) among the icy blocks of the Antarctic, perpetually chased by the vicious snow bees. By shunting the ice blocks around Dodo can keep the bees at bay, squash them to death, or even electrocute them on the walls. Recommended.

KILLER KONG

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

5 screens ranging from damned difficult to the impossible as Mario struggles to rescue his girlfriend whilst dodging Kong’s fireballs. An excellent adaption with all the arcade games features including barrels, elevators and even hamburgers (which must have escaped from Barmy Burgers).

KOSMIC PIRATE

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

There’s a factory below on the planet you need to plunder. Between your craft, hovering above the Mother Ship, and the goodies a constant stream of alien space traffic is passing in both directions. This is a deceptively simple looking machine code game which requires skill to dodge through the alien craft, and a clever variation on the ‘frogger’ theme.

BARMY BURGERS

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

All the Blaby games are characterised by their original wit and titles, and smooth animation of the graphics. Barmy Burgers is no exception. Assemble the burgers in the correct order (bun, lettuce, burger, cheese, bun) whilst avoiding the voracious sausages and fried eggs. It has the charm of looking good in demonstration and being vicious in the playing. Get your apron on.

HIGH RISE HARRY

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

Harry has a lot of girders to paint on five torturous screens — and the rust bugs are out to get him. Strategy plays an important part in this excellent ‘painter v. kong’ style game with its beautiful animated graphics. Machine code makes for speed and quick thinking/forward planning is essential to get through the screens. Features down slides and variable gaps between girders which Harry can jump — and sometimes not...

CHOPPER RESCUE

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

As is their wont, scientists are being entombed by radioactive waste which enemy aircraft are dumping on them. You are a helicopter pilot — but how good? Can you rescue them all in time. Aim your machine and blast tunnels to get to them without touching the waste and avoid the falling blocks and aircraft. This extraordinarily high speed game demands the use of a joystick if you are to get very far and avoid serious underpopulation of the scientific community.

GOLD DIGGER

The 8 games by Blaby we are offering are all new, mostly unseen by all but the worst addicts, and In our opinion are of a high order of playability with excellent graphics and use of sound. Machine code makes Gold Digger just as blurrily fast as Chopper Rescue! Tunnel mines to find the gold nuggets but make sure you construct your tunnels so that you can drop dirt on the wicked nugget gnashers chasing you. Good hand and eye control needed with fast reflexes.

SHUTTLE

Blaby, £5.95, 48K

One of our favourites! Take your shuttle craft from the Mother Ship down to the planet surface below and pick up the stranded astronaughts which throng the hillsides waving their arms. You must come down through lines of alien craft without touching any of them. If you succeed in landing, the nearest astronaught leaps up in glee and runs to the shuttle, then you can take him back to the Mother Ship. Absolutely not easy.

TURBO DRIVER

Boss (UK), £5.95, 16K

For the racing car addicts. Turbodriver features special ‘giant graphics’ and is a super-fast game where you stall on the starting line and must then catch up with the 6 other cars, whilst avoiding the 7 hazards. Go too slow and carefully and you’ll run out of fuel. Good sound and colour with machine code.

HIDDEN CITY

Bytewell, £5.95, 16K

A variation on the ‘penetrator’ theme, this game has good smooth graphics with lots of shoot ’em up features. The Hidden City is guarded by a narrow entrance low down the approach, once you get inside the complex there are mazes and caverns with fuel dumps and rocket launchers everywhere. Difficulty levels.

3D PAINTER

C.D.S, £5.95, 16K

Paint the 3D mazes without getting caught — and you’re up against the clock for bonus points. Each maze is more complicated than the previous one and if you complete all 4 then the game gets faster. This program automatically selects the joystick mode if one is connected. Demonstration mode. Simple but solid graphics make this an addictive game to play.

BOZY BOA

C.D.S, £5.95, 16K

Guide your Boa round the flowers to the tune of ‘An English Country Garden’ eating the beetles and ladybirds and snails. You must avoid hitting the fence, the flowers and yourself. Each time you eat a beetle another segment is added to your body and another flower appears. Get all ten beetles and you enter another garden with a higher fence. Snails and ladybirds get extra bonus points. 5 skill levels — in the highest level Boxy resembles a demented express train. Maddeningly frustrating and addictive. Automatic joystick selection if connected.

KRAZY KONG

C-Tech, £5.50, 48K

Still one of the biggest crazes in the arcades. Several versions for the Spectrum around and this 100% machine code game features 3 screens of hi-res graphics, Gorilla, barrels and fireballs, conveyor belts and a running, jumping man who must rescue his girlfriend from the enraged Kong. And remember — it was beauty killed the beast!

SUPER CENTIPEDE

C-Tech, £5.50, 16K

You are one of the few surviving humans after the holocaust, and you are to protect the remaining greenery from a giant centipede, which confronts you from a forest of mushrooms. Watch out for the maneating spider which tries to spin its web around your laserbase. Fast arcade action all the way. Cassette also contains PAINTER; your mission is to defuse all the time bombs in your path in numeric order. As you move a trail is left behind which you cannot cross, so be careful where you tread. Against the clock.

ROCKET RAIDER

C-Tech, £5.95, 16K

In this ‘penetrator’ variant there are 4 trenches in the planet’s surface infested with mutant aliens their missile installations, fuel dumps and drifting mines. Annihilate all with your bombs and laser torpedoes.

FROGGER/SPECMAN

C-Tech, £5.50, 16K

In their variation, C-Tech use one screen for the busy road, and then a second one for the river crossing. As the game progresses the traffic gets heavier and the logs and turtles get less. Five lives. The cassette also contains SPECMAN, a ‘pac-man’ style maze game with 5 skill levels and 5 lives plus the familiar assortment of power pills and ghouls.

FROGGY

DJL, £5.95, 16K

Our favourite version of the popular arcade game for the Spectrum. Hop your five Kermits across the busy 3-lane highway without getting squelched, then cross the river using the logs and turtles and jump to the safety of the 5 frog homes. Hungry snakes and crocodiles fancy you almost as much as you fancy yourself. For bonus points there’s a stranded froglet (or princess in disguise if you are normally an adventure game player) to rescue and carry home. Time limit makes each frog life difficult and if you get one home the next one only has the left over time to use. 4 skill levels and 7 speeds which increase with each sheet. Superb colour graphics and good sound. RIVET-ing

3D TANX

DK Tronics, £4.95, 16K

One of our favourites, a completely addictive game which relies less on speed than dimensional skill and timing to get good scores. Starts okay — then gets faster as more tanx appear on the bridge and fire at you. Excellent graphics and very realistic 3D ballistics. Nowhere near as easy as it looks either. Watch your ammo because when it runs out it takes time for the ‘back-up’ team to get you more.

METEROIDS

DK Tronics, £4.95, 16K

In our opinion, the best Spectrum version of this eternally popular arcade game. 3 meteor types which increase and decrease in frequency and shatter into fragments when hit. Plus evil alien ships, space walk, ship drift and decelerate.

JAWZ

Elfin, £4.95, 16K

If the sharks don’t get you the poisonous jelly fish probably will. Oh — and there’s not much oxygen left either. Isn’t that life? In this game you have a target sight at the base of the screen for shooting the sharks, meanwhile the jelly fish keep dropping gunge on you which you must avoid because it hurts. Nice use of colour and good graphics in this amusing game.

SHADOWFAX

Imaginations Unlimited, £7.99, 16K

Fight tne black riders, whose touch is death. Guide Shadowfax as Gandalf’s swift white horse braves the dread riders of Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor. How many will your thunderbolts destroy? You fire your bolt and explode it on contact with the enemy, The game is perhaps limited in scope, but it is more difficult than it seems as the onslaught of black riders begins to mesmerise. Excellent graphics with a special mention for the animation of the flying horses.

ZZOOM

Imagine, £5.50, 48K

Imagine are the computer games leaders with good reason — their programs are clever, witty and fast. ZZOOM boasts the best ever 3D view seen in a computer arcade game. Machine guns and air-to-sea missiles are your weapons as you fly your aircraft against awesome enemies. Impossible speeds for the arcade addict with 100% machine code and hi-res graphics.

ZIP ZAP

Imagine, £5.50, 48K

Your circuits are damaged, motor won’t switch off, energy is running low, you need fuel, you’re the last ’droid around to warn the colonists, there are tons of evil aliens swarming everywhere ... sounds like another relaxed, laid back game for a quiet Sunday! 100% machine code.

JUMPING JACK

Imagine, £5.50, 16K

As the screen comes to life you might suffer a sense of disappointment at the extremely simple graphics (Jack is nicely animated though). BUT DON’T SIGH! One moment of inattention in this brain-bustingly frustrating game means certain death. Jack is on the moving platforms and must jump up through several levels to reach the top. He does this by jumping up through 2 constantly moving holes, one going up and one going down. Each successful leap adds one more hole. But he can fall through the holes as well and then remains unconscious for a period, depending on how many levels he falls. Get to the top and hazards start appearing. This is the arcade game for 83 and we guarantee you won’t leave it alone.

ARCADIA

Imagine, £5.50, 16K

Specially created to be the fastest and meanest, most addictive shoot ’em up game ever. Wave after wave of loathsome (ugh!) and deadly (naturally) aliens billow hypnotically towards your space fighter. But then, you have dual Plasma Disruptors (hooray) and Ion Thrust Drive, don’t you. Very popular and difficult to master.

MOLAR MAUL

Imagine, £5.50, 16K

“A real nerve-tingler from the moment an enormous set of teeth appears on the screen like something out of Jaws!” (Your Computer July 83). Take part in the fight against tooth decay (a dig at their rivals, DK Tronics, they call the bad germs Dentorium Kamikazium or DKs for short). You’re armed with a tooth brush and a tube of Imagico toothpaste. Starts off OK — gets faster as the apparently harmless Jelly Babies and toffees clog up the works. The real skill here is in aiming the toothbrush accurately to receive the supply of toothpaste. And you need a strong stomach — a ring of confidence is insufficient! Zap ’em!

AH DIDDUMS

Imagine, £5.50, 16K

Don’t be fooled by the title — this is no game for cissies! The complications can be frustrating at first but it gets to be great fun and very difficult by level 5 (there are 9 levels). You are a teddy bear (makes a change from deep space doesn’t it?) and you must overcome the terrors of the toy box to reach and comfort your crying baby. Watch out for the clockwork soldiers, the play people and the aggressive train. The building blocks, which must be assembled in the correct colour sequence, help, pea shooter protects, spinning tops hinder, the baby’s crying — there, there, there...

TERROR DAKTIL 4D

Melbourne House, £6.95, 48K

From the people who brought you the best-selling Hobbit. Prehistoric flying monsters keep swooping down on you, content with nothing less than your total destruction. And what has the author of this ‘Lost Land’ jaunt given you for protection? Well he seems confused on this point as it is referred to as a battered old pistol at one point and one of a group of old cannon at another. Anyway, it does work, and you are a marksman, aren’t you? So it’s no problem killing off as many as you can before nightfall (when you can only see their eyes). The grouped Daktils in the background are really 3D Galaxians and the swoopers come at you as very well animated 3D TDs. Ballistic effects are very good although we were disappointed by the unimaginative sound — no splats when your balls land. Not easy though, especially in hitting 3D sweepers at the correct height and position.

COSMIC RAIDERS

Mikrogen, £5.95, 16K

“BUY THIS GAME (Personal Computing Today says) one of the few times an arcade game has been improved upon.” In this ‘defender’ type game you must race across the planet and destroy the aliens’ master ships in their lair, but as you do so, evil green grabbers are scooping up humans and dropping them to their deaths (good splats when they land). Smart bombs will knock them out and you must catch them as they fall. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

PENETRATOR

Melbourne House, £6.95, 48K

Your mission is to penetrate 4 defense rings and blow up a dump of neutron bombs — and then get out again. Missiles and radar bases track your movements getting more accurate if you fail to destroy them. Special feature is the ability for the player to re-program the landscape to suit his own design. We think this is the best ‘scramble’ game for the Spectrum. Good graphics and continuous sound. Essential training routine and machine code.

EGG FARM

Lasersound, £5.50, 16K

“I’m a real mean chicken,” says the hen on the cover — and boy, does she mean it! This is a ‘pac-man’ variant with a dotty maze and the world’s two nastiest hens who are out to stop you taking all the eggs. What makes this one so different is that the hens home in on you inexorably and they can cut corners where you can’t, which gives them a speed advantage. One second lost at the start and you are as good as dead. Power pills merely block their paths for a moment. Fast and furious.

ESCAPE

New Generation, £4.95, 16K

This game is characterised by its beautiful graphics, from the excited adventurer (that’s you) waving his arms enthusiastically outside the maze, to the five dread monsters, everything is pure Walt Disney. The main feature is the 3D maze seen from slightly from above in perspective, so it’s not easy to see the paths. 5 levels of skill (1-5 monsters). This must be the most panic-inducing game we’ve ever played as the monsters always seem to know exactly where you are and where you’re going too. They are quite relentless. Find the axe, hidden behind a hedge somewhere and try to get out. If you pick it up you lose your speed advantage.

KNOT IN 3D

New Generation, £5.95, 48K

A mind-bendingly difficult game to understand, but one which will teach you how to play the next generation of 3D air combat games to come out. Put simply you have to weave your way through a maze which you create yourself with your string. There are 4 other strings which you must dodge, never touching them or your own string. The ‘string’s shoot out of the screen at you in big 3D blocks and rapidly fill the available space. If that doesn’t make everything clear - well...

ROBOTICS

Ocean, £5.90, 16K

Ocean used to call themselves Spectrum Games, and they used to call Robotics, Frenzy, but perhaps there were too many same names, so they changed! In Robotics you have penetrated the HQ of robot planet ZETUS, which is planning to invade Earth, so naturally you must eliminate them all. The walls of the complex are electrified and kill instantly. Only the robots’ heads are vulnerable to your laser and their leader in his floating transporter is invulnerable. You must avoid him by escaping into another sector. The game speeds up as you clear sectors and more patrols appear. Move and fire in 8 directions.

ROAD FROG

Ocean, £5.90, 16K

The graphics may be straightforward, but there are more of those hazards than usual in this version of the old favourite. Snakes on the verge, sinking logs, corocodiles (as the blurb puts it) which, as we all know, are much nastier than plain crocodiles, and the frog homes are mean little lean-to shacks which makes it more difficult to leap safely into them than with the Palladian mansions of the D.J.L. version.

TIMEGATE

Quicksilva, £6.95, 48K

Save the human race before tea. Excellent moving star backgrounds in 3D give real space feeling to this 5-skill level game in 4D. Versatile scanning status and battle computers offer endless and furious fun. Travel to the sector where the aliens lurk, watch the computer read out on the screen as they approach, and then blast them out of the sky before they get you. If you suffer damage, then your ship’s functions start to fail.

DIGGER DAN

Ocean, £5.90, 16K

A brand new game along the ‘dig-dug’ lines. Dig holes to save yourself from the monsters. Check for availability first!

ARMAGEDDON

Ocean, £5.90, 16K

Another brand new game, which we haven’t had time to review as this issue goes to press. Check for availability first!

XADOM

Quicksilva, £6.95, 48K

Battle through a sophisticated alien maze in 3D and search for the ‘artifact’. Unreviewed as yet so check for availability.

AQUAPLANE

Quicksilva, £6.95, 48K

Ski through Marine Maniacs, G&Ts, Regattas, but beware the Great White Hungry! Full screen display, continuous sound and great colour. Another brand new game — so check for availability first!

PASEMAN

Pasesoft, £4.99, 48K

Good version of the favourite game and a must for pac-man addicts. Good graphics and high speed.

LIGHT CYCLE

P.S.S, £5.95, 16K

All the speed and excitement you could want with this Tron-type grid-runner game. Race and block the computer or another player. Simple graphics belie the actual complexity of playing well. The 2 traces start from opposing sides of the screen at random points and after that it’s up to you to force your opponent into his or your trail, or the edge of the screen.

GHOST HUNT

P.S.S, £4.95, 16K

Exceptionally fast maze arcade game. Gobble your way through the maze and survive the ghosts. Power pills help — but you knew that, didn’t you?

DEEP SPACE

P.S.S, £5.95, 48K

Guess what — you’re in deepest space at the controls of your Auto-Cruiser when all of a sudden the warning lights start flashing. Know the feeling? A check of your tracking screens shows you to be entering the worst space storm ever recorded in that quadrant. How’re we doing? ’Bout the same as usual. That bad, huh? Unless you blast your way through with your laser cannon your ship will be crushed.

MAZE DEATH RACE

P.S.S, £4.95, 16K

You are in your car, lost in this endless maze and there are hazards everywhere, rocks, oil, and ice on the road, as well as a bunch of maniacs out to get you in their evil cars. Collect the flags as you go for points, and watch out for the essential fuel dumps. Fast action on this 9-screen maze and a good sense of direction is a help in finding your way round. The scrolling from screen to screen works nicely. Good Luck!

VIOLENT UNIVERSE

Quest, £5.50, 16K

This new arcade game has a difference — you don’t fire ahead but release vapour clouds behind you to destroy horrid aliens. They explode in a satisfying frenzy of graphics too. Movement is in 8 directions and one trick to escape an alien craft is to hide in your own just-released vapour cloud. The screen is wrap around in all directions. A complex scoring system adds to the fun with 1000 points needed to reach the next level — and that is not easy. Top scores every month are published in Video & Computer Games — so don’t miss out! 100% m/c

THE BLACK HOLE

Quest, £5.50, 16K

Ahead of you (centre screen) is the Black Hole from which emerge aliens in 3 directions. You’ve got 3 weapons with which to destroy them; Positive and Negative Ion gun (the Black Hole deflects their unlimited range up or down), and a Neutron Blaster, which isn’t affected by the field but has a limited range. Indiscriminate shooting results in temporary loss of power. The aliens don’t like you shooting at them, so they fire back, and if that wasn’t enough, the so-called safe area of operation (left screen) is infested with asteroids. Ship control is in 8 directions. This is a game for the quick and ambidextrous. 100% machine code and a useful practice mode - you’ll need it!

ORBITER

Silversoft, £5.95, 16K

Greedy aliens with a taste for human flesh are about to attack mining colony OMEGA ONE, and you are the sole remaining Orbiter Patrol Craft (here we go again). You have scanners, reverse, hyper space, thrust, lasers and smart bombs. But there are so many starving aliens. Will you save the colony or end up as an alien elevenses? Classic ‘defender’ type game with 100% machine code, good sound and continuous scoring for the successful.

GROUND ATTACK

Silversoft, £5.95, 16K

Okay, smartass, so you avoided becoming a snackette for the flesh-eating aliens, but they’re still on the attack. Federation ships have located their home planet, but their base is deep underground in a torturous, twisting network of caverns. Your Ground Attack Craft has all the latest gizmos to let you penetrate their defences and destroy their vital fuel supplies — but no one has ever survived an attack on the base before (Oh yeah — who’re you kidding?). Full arcade features including lasers, rockets and bombs, explosions, fuel dumps, airborne aliens, meals on wheels and 9 skill levels. Get out of this one if you can.

STARSHIP ENTERPRISE

Silversoft, £5.95, 48K

An update on the original, this is really more of an ‘arcaventure’ which uses machine code, colour and full use of sound to create the space ship simulation. Your mission? Save the Galaxy etc., what else?

FIREBIRDS

Softek, £5.95, 16K

The Devron are almost devoid of Good and they’re sending their Firebirds to destroy mankind’s last outpost (and that’s certainly No Good). Joined by Blue Weavers & White Bombers, your position looks hopeless (Use your Hypergrav Drive and Blitzer Lasers you dummy!). Excellent hi-res graphics and 100% machine code action in this ‘galaxian/phoenix’ style game. Fire rate and left-right movement are the best we’ve seen, and the dance of victory the Firebirds do when they hit you is truly evil.

JOUST

Softek, £5.95, 16K

One of our reviewers saw a reproduction of a screen of this game in a magazine crit. The crit was good, but our reviewer thought the game looked boring. He changed his mind when he played it, which just goes to show that you can’t always rely on the immediate appearance. In fact the graphics are very attractive and the animation is good. There’s a lot of the, “you’re the sole remaining — White Knight — Dark Lords,” sort of thing in the cover blurb, but basically you’re on this electronic ostrich (Ostron they call it), and the enemy are multi-coloured buzzards that look like something out of YELLOW SUBMARINE. You can move left or right and make your Ostron’s wings flap to fly up from the base platform. The idea is to ‘joust’ with the enemy, which you do by touching them, as long as you are higher in the air than they are. If you aren’t — POW — that’s you dead. The first, green buzzards are pretty daft and easy to beat, but later additions are cleverer and actually attack. Don’t hit the water — you drown. 100% machine code. Very good.

MONSTERS IN HELL

Softek, £5.95, 16K

Go to hell and get lost in a maze of ladders and platforms, get chased by Vampire Monsters, Ghouls and the Mad Monk, and yet more... This is a ‘dig-dug’ type arcade game in which you kill the monster horrors by digging holes for them to fall through. The higher the play level, the further they must fall to die. Machine code and Softek’s great graphics.

MEGAPEDE

Softek, £5.95, 16K

A version of the popular arcade game. There’s Sid the Spider, Scorpi the Scorpion, forests of mushrooms and, of course, the star of the show, Megapede, whose very touch is death. Machine code.

CRUISING ON BROADWAY

Sunshine Books, £4.95, 16K

You’re behind the wheel of your car, cruising along Broadway. Suddenly you spot a Black & White pulls onto the strip behind you — and the chase is on. It could be East Cheam just as well since the simple graphics only outline the street grid on which this zip-fast chaser game takes place. You only have one life so your skill at dodging is the sole hope. The longer you stay alive, the more chasers join in. There is a feature which allows you to open up a temporary gap in the street which slows them down. It’s a ‘no win’ game where you play for higher and higher scores and is totally addictive since the frustration of losing all just as you approach a new high score can be terminal. Makers say cash prizes are being offered for the best scores each month.

BLIND ALLEY

Sunshine Books, £4.95, 16K

Machine code action of the future! It’s the year 3017, you’re in your craft and you must use strategy to outwit and corral the opponent. Succeed and more come up against you. Fast, fast, fast.

GALAXY ATTACK

Sunshine Books, £5.95, 48K

This is a real zaparoony of a game with lots of playability and the requirement of the Urrugian 15-digit hand for control. It comes in three distinct parts. First you must guide your ship through waves of enemy fighters, destroying them as you go. The screen is the view through your cockpit window and the aliens get bigger as they approach. The control keys move the crosshairs of your sights. When the sight touches an alien craft you can fire. 8 fingers are needed for directional movement, a ninth for firing, and the tenth for light speed escape routine. If you survive 5 minutes you can land on their planet to make repairs, but your grounded craft is then attacked by Walkers and space craft. Same procedure for shooting. Survive another 5 nerve-wracking minutes and you can take off to attack the Mother Ship in orbit for a grand finale. We can’t review that section because no one survived parts 1 and 2 — yet...

ANDROIDS

Sunshine Books, £5.95, 48K

How long can you survive in an endless maze populated by homicidal robots? 5 lives and 7 laser shots, but there are replenishment squares in a sector. Find an exit for bonus points, but this restores the robots to their original numbers. Sunshine seem to specialise in the ‘no win’ game and this is no exception — it’s you versus the high score. Best scores can win cash prizes in Popular Computing Weekly, the magazine published by Sunshine Books.

GROUND FORCE ZERO

Titan, £5.00, 16K

At first glance this game looks simple — but it isn’t. Your ’plane keeps crossing over the towering skyscrapers of New York, looking for a place to land. The only way to do it is to use your endless supply of bombs to destroy the buildings and flatten the ground. It’s a sort of genocide game. At each pass over the city you get lower, so it’s important to knock out the taller buildings first. Several skill levels with taller skyscrapers.

WINGED AVENGER

Workforce, £5.00, 16K

Something of a cult among the ‘galaxian/phoenix’ fans, Winged Avenger has 2 parts (2-part load) for the brave and the also-rans. 6 skill levels, laser and force field protection. Simple but effective graphics and very fast.

JAWS REVENGE

Workforce, £5.95, 16K

This is a game for hungry people. You are the shark on a jaws agape feeding frenzy. Fish, swimmers (moving at Olympic speeds) and boatman all go down your throat for points. But some fish turn red and poisonous, so don’t eat those, and the fishermen in their boats throw harpoons and drop depth charges to stun you. If you succeed in catching the depth charges before they reach the sea bed you can defuse them. And the sea bed itself isn’t flat, so don’t run into it. An amusing and fast game with good graphics.

JETPAC

Ultimate, £5.50, 16K

Here are 4 games from a new software house who have rapidly established themselves as market leaders. Kidnapped American Arcade programmers are rumoured to be kept prisoner in Ultimate’s secret base in the wilds of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, so it’s no wonder their games look so good. Just about the best graphics around. JETPAC is for the pirates! You must assemble your rocket ship from a kit form scattered over the planet’s surface, while keeping the alien’s at bay, then collect fuel, food and gems and take off. At the next planet you need more fuel and you can steal goodies for extra points. After 4 planets plundered your ship wears Out and another kit-form is supplied for assembly. Continuous fire with your Quad Photon Laser Phaser, movement in 8 smooth directions, 1 or 2 player games. 100% m/c

PSSST

Ultimate, £5.50, 16K

For insect-phobes, a 100% machine code novelty game with amazing hi-res graphics and great sound. Spray the little crawling and flying devils that want to eat your plant (or you). If you keep them at bay the your plant will grow and finally flower. Then you can go onto the next level. First level is simple once you have established which of the several spray cans kills the creepies. But on subsequent levels further types of bug appear which are only killed by their specific spray — and you can only carry 1 can at a time. Spades and growmore bags for extra points — if you’ve got the time. The animation is excellent, movement control, as with all Ultimate games is instant and smooth in 8 directions. 1 or 2 player games.

TRANZ AM

Ultimate, £5.50, 16K

It’s post-holocaust America and the country is a barren desert populated by a clutch of Mad Maxes in deadly Black Turbos. Your red car is better equipped and faster but you’re outnumbered. Hazards litter the desert sand (mostly gravestones!) but certain cities still linger on with fuel pumps. Find the 8 gold cups in their secret hiding places. Left of screen has instrument displays; time taken; miles travelled; a map of the States with cities marked and your present location; local radar which will show cup positions and the Black Turbos; a speedo; fuel gauge; temp. gauge; and lives left. The total playing area is 600 times the actual screen area. Dots litter the desert surface, but these are for directional reference, and are not hazards to be avoided. This is a very playable game — you won’t tire of it.

YOMP

Virgin Games, £7.95, 16K

A new 2-stage game, basically a variant of ‘frogger’ and Mined Out. First get your Paras across a 4-lane highway, then use a scanner to cross the enemy mine field. Movement sensors mean sudden death if you make too many mistakes. Timing and positioning of your man is essential to get him across the highway as only split-second timing will do it. A pity Virgin’s games have so much basic in them, it makes the control keys slow to respond, but the strategy of timing makes for a nail-biting game.

SHEEPWALK

Virgin Games, £7.95, 48K

Hard to say whether this is an arcade or strategy game. The speed is certainly slow, but we have the feeling that good luck rather than skill is required to get the wretched sheep into the corral. Again, too much basic makes for slow control responses, but the game certainly has tremendous frustration potential. Counting sheep is a thing of the past when you have your favourite electronic collie dog. The object of the game is to get the little woolly devils into their pen without their falling into the river where they drown (slowly), or letting them rampage over the vegetable patch. A game for those not into shoot ’em up action.

STARFIRE

Virgin Games, £7.95, 48J

Strategy as well as skill plays an important part in this aliens v. humans game as you try to rid the galaxy of the Xtardan Battle Cruisers. As with most ‘trek’ style games, there are endless control keys to master before playing, but when you have got yourself into an enemy occupied sector, the arcade action starts. There is a view from the bridge and keys control the direction of your weapons. Damage comes thick and fast if you are not quick, rapidly impairing your ability to hit back or escape.