KOKOTONI WIH
'Kokotoni 1
'
yv//y<
Whlth mitro’s hottest on tJOniGS? (Turn to p91 and you'll gel steamed up too)
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Ever bought
a game that’s not as
good as its box?
Everybody has seen the home computer
game packs that sparkle with imaginative colour
and graphics, and lure buyers into the store.
Sadly, some who have bought have found that
the game sparkled less than the box. For, as more
and more companies jump on the home computer
bandwagon, it becomes ever more likely that most
of the imagination and excitement is concen-
trated in the pack. Instead of playing a fast game
you lose a last buck. Or. more likely, several.
Yet games have become increasingly soph
isticated. Scenarios are more varied, levels of plav
have been increased, and high resolution colour
graphics capabilities are being used together with
dramatically improved sound effects. The trick is
to know which games are as good on screen as
they are on the pack.
Relax. Help is at hand. Logic 3, publishers of
the most effective self pacing programming
tutorials, have selected The Best Games for
Britain’s top home computers.
So buy only the best. Send today for your free
copy of The Best Games from Logic 3. and learn
how you could save £2.00 when you buy your
next computer game. If you're a dealer, we won't
hold it against you — trade enquiries are
welcome.
Do it. Now.
Send the coupon.
Have a good game without being had.
| Please rush me my free copy of The Best Games. I already have/am
thinking of gettmga home computer.
A
LOGIC 3
— THE KEY TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW.
Logic 3 Ltd, Mountbatten House, Victoria Street Windsor SL4 1 HE
AMERICAN
Big, Bold and Beautiful...
STATE SOFT IJMITF.O,
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BEACH-HEAD
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THE ULTIMATE IN AMERICAN SOFTWARE
FOR YOU ON U.S. GOLD
U.S. Gold Is stocked by all leading computet stores
DEALERS! For Information on how to become a U.S.
Gold Stockist write to: Centresoft Ltd., Cl nit 24. Tipton
Trading Estate, Bloomfield Road. Tipton. West Midlands
DY4 9AH. Telephone: 021-520 7591.
Overseas enquiries welcome.
fulfill
All American ScftvJare
* ffy
For the 48K ZX Spectrum
BRINGS YOU INTO
THE ACTION WITH
HsEuEGTSI
i A KOUT i
* - - -
m ^
Dash across the conveyor belts on the
re|ect line - don't lei the taller canary
catch you!
LASER SNAKER
for the 48K ZX Spectrum
Gobble the eggs in the
plantation. Zap the
aggranoids and vicious
i)J viproids to fight your way
to the centre of the four
£ 5.50 each including VAT and Postage
SPECIAL OFFER ANY 2 FOR £7.95
OR ALL 3 FOR ONLY £9.95!
POPPY SOFT The Close, Common Road,
Headley, Newbury, Berkshire.
HANGMAN and
BOUNCE PANIC
for the 48K ZX Spectrum
Two great games for the
price of one! Graphical
hangman is excellent for
young children plus
Bounce Panic - a great
arcade game.
□ FACTORY BREAKOUT □ LASEf
□ HANGMAN and BOUNCE PANIC @
I enclose a cheque/P.O. payable to: POPPY SOFT
All the latest noises in the humming world
ware have jo
; 0 i software '
had recent*
rted a break-m m *
’% Arsi
hat will happen to the
„ro Titles of the Bnn^_
company, tun
Lamont. is
.dye debts of £1
The Harrow '
v Heather
nmoured to he
Secrets of the
Imagine
mega-games
LAPSE
IA
NDER
NATCH
Imagine, the flamboyant Liverpool software house, have gone
bust with debts of about 11500,000. But one of the company's
heavily hyped ‘mega games'. Bandersnatch for the Spectrum,
could still see the light of day.
Two Imagine directors, Mark Butler and Dave Lawson, have
;t up a new company, Finchspccd, and are hoping it will be
able to produce the game - but this depends on whether the
transfer is judged to be legal.
The Commodore 64 game Psyclapse has effectively been
shelved - sources say that programmer Eugene Evans made
little significant headway in its development. But most of the
programming Bandersnatch are still together, and the
is described as '90 per cent complete’. PCG can now
reveal details of Bandersnatch which the former Imagine stall
believe could earn several million pounds.
feature of the game is a form of artificial
intelligence which Imagine programmers were secretly de-
veloping. Its purpose is to allow the game’s different characters
to interact with each other in a far more intricate way than has
yet been done. Thus as you move around the game's different
locations you come across characters holding conversations
" leir words being depicted in cartoon-like speech bubbles.
The action takes place on a distant planet, and you control a
character called Vcl who is one quarter of the screen in height.
His movement is carefully animated using eight different
frames as he walks and crouches.
Amongst the many stages to get through is the Mine Level - a
stage featuring a worm which eats banana skins. The worm is
half a screen in length and each section is fully animated. Other
stages include the Engineer Level and the Shopping Level. You
love from level to level on a lift.
What’s the actual idea of the game? Our sources are more
obscure on this poinL One said it was avoiding the hazards of
daily life on another planet. The hazards include various
ipcctacular monsters.
To hold the vast size of the program, Imagine planned
originally to sell it with a 64K ROM chip - more than doubling
the 48K Spectrum’s memory. This would have cost a fortune,
and negotiations are now rumoured to be underway with
Sinclair to put the game out on Microdrive.
Imagine s crash has left 50 people without a job, and spells
the end of an era. Extravagant claims, brashness and high-
living are, it would appear, no lunger enough to succeed in the
games industry.
rTuon and called in a
rS®***"" 3 " 1
Valhalla follow-up
Legend, producers of Valhal-
la, Game of the Year 1984,
are about to launch their new
block-buster.
Called The Great Space
Race, the game cost £‘/« mil-
lion to develop and is de-
scribed by Legend’s John Peel
as 'a spectacular futuristic
romp'. It will be released
simultaneously for the Com-
modore 64 and the Spectrum
around the end of September
and will fall into the sub-
£15.00 price bracket,
although an exact price has
yet to be fixed.
The object of the game is to
competition with other char-
acters whose actions are con-
trolled by the computer. The
program boasts sophisticated
animated 3D graphics using a
system which Legend call
Movisoft 2. 'It’s closer to Star
Wars than anything that's
been seen so far,' claim the
company. A ‘camera director
module' in the software
selects viewing angles and
the image is displayed on
a 'cinemascope' window
spread across the screen.
In addition to 3D space
scenes, other characters will
appear in head and shoulder
shots, with full facial anima-
tion including moving eyes
and lips. Characters' facial
expressions will reflect their
The graphics draw instant-
ly and include a number of
special effects including
screen dissolves and wipes.
The display is divided hori-
zontally into three windows;
a status/options panel, the
'cinemascope' screen, and a
scrolling text window.
Options presented to the
player are selected by single
key presses. ‘We wanted to
get the best elements of both
arcade and adventure games,'
said John Peel, ‘and we de-
cided to go for a shorter game
cycle so you can gel the
"must-havc-another-go syn-
drome," plus all the richness
of adventures. Once again,
we intend to get the Game of
theYear Award in 1985.'
Haresoft were taking no-
chances at the BBC Show in
Alexandra Palace with the
£30,000 prize for their new
game. Hareraiser.
The game was launched at
the BBC Micro Users Exhibi-
tion, where the golden hare -
originally featured in Kit.Wil-
liam’s book Masquerade -
arrived draped round the
neck of a jaguar wildcat.
To win the hare, or its value
of £30,000 in cash, you m
solve two puzzles.; The first
program, Hareraiser Pre-
lude, is available no*
£8.95 for the BBC, Vic 20,
Oric Atmos, Dragon 32 & 64.
Commodore 64. Spectrum
48 K, Amstrad and Electron
I
off micro games
from Sony, Mitsubishi, | VC, Hilachi. Toshiba. Canon
New
machines
arrive
New machines and new
games to play on them are
about to swamp the market as
hardware manufacturers
compete for a slice of the
Christmas market.
8 MSX machines are being
FANTASY BRING
BACK ZIGGY
Fantasy Software - the peo-
ple who brought you The
Pyramid and Beaky and the
Egg Snatchers - are to pro-
duce a series of games called
The Backpacker’s Guide To
The Universe
The series is expected to
ELECTRON GETS
ZALAGA
Good news for Electron own-
ers. Nick Orlando of Frak!
fame has now converted
Zalaga for the Electron. The
game should be in the shops
in early September, priced at
£7.90.
COMES OFF THE
iusiuuo, I » „„ — e new machine will will feature the return of Zig-
bishi, Sanyo, Canon, Hitachi be fully compatible with the gy, the capsuled hero of The
and Teleton computers all original and so will have a Pyramid , As well as the cap-
have the same operating sys- number ofgames available for sule, Ziggy will also “
tent and can run the same it when it appears. It has a full backpack enabling hit
tapes and cartridges. travel keyboard and Micro- out and about in alie
They will retail at between soft Extended Basic. The scapes and will
£250 and £300 and software basic 4K machine will sell for choose from a
should be available at £5 to around £95 and a 36K model weapons.
£10. The MSX standard for£125. The games have been under
means more games for each The Enterprise, formerly development for six months
machine, and more stability called the Elan and originally with an artist working full-
to enable software houses to scheduled for launch earlier time on the graphics. The first
spend time and money on this year, is now due to part is expected to be ready
developing good programs. appear at the Personal Com- towards the end of October.
This has sent many com- puter World show on the 19th This will have two programs
panies hurrying to convert September. Two models will
their games. Quicksilva, be available, a 64K machine ,
Ocean, CDS, Salamander, for £299.00 including VAT players will ns
Anirog. Artie, Activision, and a 128K model for around Price should be around £7.
PSS, Hewson’ Consultants £300.00.
and others are all at work on The Enterprise t
MSX programs. New original ly sophisticated colour and
software is also promised for sound facilities and
early next year. usually large amount ui um-
However, DK’tronics did memory - 55K in the 64K
sound a warning note saying version.
that there was going to be Quicksilva are busy writing rr ___
'obvious overkill’ of software games for the machine, and a looking rather nervous and then sui
with so many titles flooding number of titles including a denly whipped open his coat to r
onto the market at once. particularly powerful chess veal . . . a coat lining heavily laden with
WALL
Artie has announced a series
_ r of games based on that ever-
e a green chracter Humpty
get Dumpty. There are three titles
nd- to start the series: Humpty
be able to Dumpty Meets the Fuzzy
number of Wuzzys, Humpty Dumpty in
the Garden and Humpty
.hppn under Dumpty the Engineer. Cas-
sette versions are available for
the Spectrum and Com
ore 64 at £7,95, with disk
versions to follow shortly.
On the Ockey, also from
__ o Artie, is - surprise - a darts
game itself and the Back- game for the Spectrum! This
’ ' Guide, to which game of arrows is available on
cassette and will set you back
£6.95
It was a sunny July morning and 1 was
walking down Oxford Street to the
PCG offices when a decidedly shady
character approached me. He paused,
late autumn. The tape will
include the Pavloda fast load-
ADVENTURE erand retail at £7.95
Channel 8 software, already piJFALL
well known for their distribu- rMiAsu.up
advet^Mre^Ses^arc^Imm 3 Activision are launching professional software pirs
ching a scrolling multi-time- David Crane’s sequel to F’ ’
zone arcade game for the 64 fall, <° he called Pitfall
Timezones features five Lost Caverns.
different time-zones from , Trapped mlnca
computer game cassettes. rated tapes you buy are nails
‘Do ya wanna buy a cheap in the coffin of an industry
game, mate?' he asked. ‘Ah, that is already fighting for its
but arc they the real thing?’ I survival,
demanded. Of course there are bodies
‘Course guv,' he exclaimed, that are trying to take action,
not too convincingly. like GOSH (the Guild of
Needless to say they were Software Houses) and FAST
piraled tapes at a fraction of (the Federation Against Soft-
their real price. The age of the ware Theft). The lattei
D be heading in the right
__ minal direction as it is lobbying Par-
elements from both the video liament for legislation to
and software industries being combat the software pirate,
involved. Where do you come in all
Stop and think for a mo- this? As the consumer you
.... ment exactly what the im- obviously want the bi
t Quicklaw and the Raj plications of this wholesale games for as low a price
Diamond. piracy are. It seriously under- possible. So the pirated tape
The program is available mines the future of the indus- is the easy option,
for Atari VCS and should try and the livelihood of the Think again.
fet-Boot lack from English shortly come out on the Atari smaller software houses^. The If you want to carry on
Software, first released on the home computer and also the larger games house can hand- buying quality games in the
Atari computers, is now aval I- Commodore 64. le a shortfall in income whilst future then give the software
able for the Commodore 64 The Atari cartridge will cost the smaller houses face enp- house the money to finance
and will appear on the BBC, £29.95 and the cassette for pling cash flow problems. them, and help stamp
Electron and Amstrad in the
prehistory to the far future '
and 20 levels of play. All '
yours for £6.95.
JACK TAKES OFF
le Commodore £9.99.
Make no mistake, any pi- evil of the professional pirate
PCGAMES 13
PROMOTION FOR
FOOTBALL
MANAGER
Football Manager, the game
that puts you in the preca-
rious position of controlling a
Football League club, is now
available to fans on the Com-
modore 64.
MORE US IMPORTS
Two games from the US co
pany lmagic are to be pi
duced and marketed
Cheetahsoft for the Spec-
The two titles, Moon Raid-
er and Dragon Fire will be
released at the same time as
: only are you in charge Cheetahsoft’s own produc-
of the playing staff but you 1,0,1 lor ,he Spectrum, The
watch the clubs' Perils of Bear George.
is as well. Starting in The lma 8 ic games retail at
the fourth division you must £7.95 while The Perils of
work your way up through f ear George changes hands I
league and cup games to the
big time.
The program displays all
the footballing at '
available at £7.95.
JET PAC LANDS ON
THE BEEB
Ultimate are bringing out
their Spectrum mega-gamc.
let Pac, for the BBC micro.
BEACH-HEAD FOR
SPECTRUM
Good news for Spectrum
owners. Ccntresoft will soon
be marketing versions of the
US Gold title Beach Head on
the Spectrum. The conver-
sion is being carried out by
e Lee
Sorry about the eyestrain
Commodore 64 readers had quite a hard time last month I
trying to decipher our Monty Mole listing, parts of which
didn't print very clearly. Here are lines 601-2140 as they
- I /I htiira
Courting trouble
‘Microdeal in court case’
trumpeted the headlines on
(the front page of a recent
issue of Popular Computing
Weekly. Beneath a large
screenshot of Cuthbert in the
lungle ran a story Of Mic-
rodeal's intrepid battle
against software pirates in
Blackburn.
Strangely, Horace notes
that there was no mention of
another court case in which
Microdeal were recently in-
volved. It seems that the
aforesaid Cuthbert in the
lungle is in fact an almost
exact copy of Activision's
game Pitfall . Naturally
Activision took a very dim
view of this, and look the
matter to the High Court in
London, where Microdeal
undertook not to distribute
any further copies of the
offending program.
Horace thinks that Mic-
rodeal’s undertaking is proof
positive of their commitment
to stopping software piracy.
He phoned them up to con-
gratulate them on this posi-
tive action, but strange to say,
they refused to comment
Modest chaps.
Verse to worse
After last month's hideous
rhyme hyping Mirrorsoft’s
Caesar the Cat, PSS have
submitted another ode-ious
ditty for Horace's inspection,
promoting their new game
Frank N. Stein:
Frank picks up a head,
A chest, some arms, and
There's more, but
monstrous to repeat Horace
is sending a copy to the
Obscene Publications Squad
at Scotland Yard.
Virgin stumped
Nick Powell made a packet in
partnership with Richard
Branson at Virgin, and has
since used some of his lolly in
setting up Palace Video. A
‘ letter to a well-known
14 PC GAMES
software house asked them if
Palace could distribute their
games. Apparently the letter
stressed that Palace would be
very selective in choosing
products and that they would
be excluding Vifgih’s games
as the standard is *... totally
unacceptable ...', As a fan Of
Virgin’s innovative game,
Owzat, Horace thinks that
this just isn’t cricket.
Just Imagine!
The collapse of Imagine has
unleashed a delicious avalan-
che of whispers. I hear that
the company's over-worked
publicity staff had planned to
mark the release of the 'mega-
games' by depositing a 5 ton
marble slab at Hyde Park
Corner with the inscriptions
'Psyclapse and Banders-
natch are here’.
To make sure the launch
was a national event televi-
sion coverage was planned
Indeed so desperate were Im
agine to obtain TV coverage
they even approached East
cm Eye (the Channel 4 Asian
affairs programme) because
one of their musicians was
Eventually the BBC be-
came interested and sent
Horizon producer Paul
Anderson to record 'the mak-
ing of a mega -game’.
Unfortunately for Imagine,
the TV crew were present
during a Friday shortly before
the crash when large amounts
of alcohol were being con-
sumed and a bailiff turned up
provoking fears that the
building was about to be
emptied of property. The
panicky scenes which fol-
lowed could make interesting
viewing when they finally
reach your TV screen.
No connection?
A fellow I know at the club
passed me an advertisement
the other day for a new soft-
ware company called Firefly,
lolly interesting, I thought.
Let's give these chappies a
ring.
Of course there was no
number in the advert, So
Horace went through the
agony of contacting directoiy
enquiries, only to be told tha't
• Firefly don't have a phone.
And who owns this com-
pany? None other than Brit-
ish Telecom.
Come on, Busby - gel plug-
ged ini
Available from all good computer shops
or send cheque/P.O. for £5.95 (inc P&P) to:
DEPT PCG
Software Farm, FREEPOST <no*t«
(BS3658) , BS8 2YY
Rocket
Man
with
Hi-Res Graphics
on standard ZX-81 16K
Actual ZX-81 Screen Display!
Get rich quick by collecting Diamonds that are
simply lying there waiting for youl
Oh ... I forgot to mention that there are one or
two problems! There is an expanse of Shark
infested water between you and the Diamonds and a
strange breed of Bubble that seems hell bent on
getting you in it! Somehow you must cross it
You have a Rocket Pac to help you (a Vulture on
higher levels) but you must rush around the platforms
and ladders collecting cans of fuel (legs of lamb with the
Vulture) and cursing that weird Bubble. Once you have
-nough fuel then it’s Chocks Away!
Oh . . . but don’t run out of fuel on the way - otherwise it’s
. SPLASH!
3 NEW
TURBO 64
GAMES
£6.95
t EACH
House of Usher
Ice Hunter
Petch
Also available
on Disk at £9.95
%,mw
Ail American Software
SPECTRUM 48K E5.95
Once upon a lime, Zeus had one ol his master craftsmen
fashion a mortal of perfect beauty — the first woman — he
called her Pandora — meaning "all gifts", Zeus presented
her with a golden casket, but bade her promise never to
open it, but Pandora grew curious and one day she lifted
the lid. With a rush and a cry, out came all the ills that now
beset man; disease and sorrow, hate, |ealousy, theft, lies
and many more. Pandora rushed to close the lid, but all of
its contents had escaped, save one, "Hope , Since that
ill-fated day when Pandora infested the world with terrible
woes and suffering, Hope has always remained a comfort
to this troubled world — until nowl Someone has stolen
Hope, and famine, disease and violence have taken over
Enter the magnificent and dangerous world of Ancient
Greek Legend in this amazing hi-res graphic adventure.
One-eyed giant Cyclops and the many headed Hydra are
but a few of the incredible creatures you will meet as you
sail treacherous seas and cross dangerous landscapes in
your struggle to return Hope to its guardians on Mount
Olympus, the home of the Gods.
BBC B‘ or ACORN ELECTRON £7.95
Guy of Gisbume, treacherous henchman of the Sheriff of
Nottingham, has captured the lovely Maid Marion. In his
heavily defended castle — he holds her as bait!
Become Robin of Loxley, the hooded man. on a mission of
rescue and vengeance.
Written In t00% machine code and making full use of the
sound, colour and hl-res capabilities of each computer,
Gisburne's Castle blends the action of the arcade with the
challenge of an adventure, into one outstanding game.
Features:
* Hundreds of different graphic locations
*20 different animated and intelligent characters
* t5 different objects to be found and used
★Joystick option and user definable keys
☆
Available from most leading retailers or directly by mail order
Martech is the registered trade mark of
Software Communications Ltd.
Martech House, Bay Terrace, Pevensey Bay, East Sussex BN24 6EE
Dealer enquiries welcome, Tel: (0323) 768456 Telex: 87465 EXIM Brighton
MAIL ORDER Tjck
THE ODYSSEY OF HOPE — SPECTRUM 48K P
GISBURNE'S CASTLE - BBC B p
ELECTRON p
TOPS THE CHARTS
Iasi month, has slashed through Tornado Low Level has also made a dramatic entry at
swash-buckling Spectrum maze number 3 and looks like more than living up to its Vortex
keep the wulf from the door at predecessor Android 2, which is back bubbling under. Lots of
new entries this month like Valhalla 64 (5). Hulk (7) and
Arabian Nights (9), while old favourites like Jet Set Willy at 23
Lords of Midnight, the August Game of the Month and are being forced out.
tipped to go on to big things, has done just that. From 50 last That other famed platform game Manic Miner is still in there
month it has shot to number 2. and Beyond Software modestly plugging away at 25 and looking like it might stay there for
told us that ‘we expected it to go to the top of the charts - it just months yet.
did it two weeks earlierthan we thought it would.' Can anything stop Sabre Wulf and Lords of Midnight - ?
SEPTEMBER 1984 PCCAMES 19
BYTE
BACK
Outraged aquanaut
After reading your review of Aquanaut
(July) I felt I would write in to get some
things straight.
Firstly, you say that it is 'incredibly
frustrating'. I think not, and so docs
everyone I know who has played the
game. I find it very exciting.
Second, you say that there are only five
different stages. Can your reviewer
: found 10 .
Singing to success
On purchasing July’s PCG and again
finding no high score for the Dragon 32
Chuckie Egg, I decided to take matters
into my own hands and submit one
myself. Meekly I tried to beat my previous
133,000 best (which just didn't seem to
stand up to a million) but despite mv best
efforts I had no luck.
However, help was at hand. I decided
to play a newly purchased Billy Joel LP, and lo and behold, as
quick as saying 'fried egg’ I was on my way. I raced through the Thirdly, you say that once vou have learnt a stave it nets
first eight sheets to the vocals of Only The Good Die Young’ boring This is S T*
Next eight sheets, switch to ‘Innocent* Man' LP. and man, yiL
should have watched those eggs disappear. However, all good enjoy it. ' piay me game long enough to
things come to an end, and I eventually went to the greatest „ . . . . . _
duck in the sky with a hard-earned 233,110. I still say I died Roberl Ireland, Prestatyn, N. Wales
because I ran out of Billy Joel LPs, however I shall soon be
purchasing ‘Piano Man', so you could be hearing from me P‘ a y‘ n & Until Id torn out half my hair! Obviously I'm
again very soon. not built to be a submarine commander. There must be quite
As for Billy Joel, I’ve renamed him - he’s now referred to as ? ,, l,,terce P l <"' fan club over there in Prestatyn. Your
Billy Graham!! follow townsman Andrew tones - whose letter about China
fimLiddle. Hartlepool “™t°" ** ‘
Here are some more records you might like to try with .. ,
particular games. For Ore Attack, try ’Off the Wall • (Michael Standing up for the Vic 20
/ackson). Atic Atac? How about Searchin’ (Hazel Dean). I work in an old folks home and the old people most of whom
Classic Racing? Tty 'Against all Odds’ (Phil Collins). Lunar have never seen a computer game, love looking Znd
P h?* t*S rHe Z d ,J U A K Sl,bsl Rum P' n Buggies? Try your mag, it's so well laid out. It s read more 8 than Woman'?
Car Trouble’ (Adam b the Ants). And thanks to Carl Lyons Own. etc. yeoman s
of Huddersfield for these musical ideas! Anyway, I own a Vic 20+ 16K and would like to help other
Bugconverted m . ,, readers. In a book called Af ore Games for the Vic 20, there is a
H., ms ,„d Mike Davies’s =1 “ — °
raiSsSa.':
-u Hu ,U £ , , em , s " h , as anyone evcr g° l through the invisible pits in
through the Zork s Kingdom ? 1 doubt it. Has anyone ever rescued the
raliET il&ihs
.rii/ssrrl aval, mUC h ^ ^ ,,
challenge him in the Chal- forward to each ni
Michael Escolme, Lancaster lenge Chambcr -
iuld like ti
; very high Snapper
'■ to you. 1 had originally
filled in the Challenge Cham-
ber form for 118,660, but just
"■ ' — i taking it to him to
heard the familiar
’diddle-diddle' intro tune. 1
sat down to watch. By 85,000
on the first of the two
blueberries the tension was
C. Constable, Ashford, Kent
WWTE TO, BYTE-SACK,
PERSONAL COMPUTER CAMES,
EVELYN HOUSE, 62 OXFORD STREET,
LONDON W1A2HG
SEPTEMBER 1984
SO PC CAMES
Britannia Software
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BRITANNIA SOFTWARE
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116 Woodville Road
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Tel 0222 25803
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You could be at
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ten circuits in the
world, You are at the
back of the field of
forty riders. The start is
seconds away the (lag drops!
Can you fight to the front , ,
and stay there?
Compatible with Kempston. Protek/AGF,
and Interface 2 joystick types.
' 7 3D
Motor
Bike Grand Prix
on the 48K
Spectrum — £6.95
One of America’s most popular games
THE ULTIMATE IN BATTLE ACTION...
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Incredible 3-D Graphics
Unbelievable Sound
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Unique Games Concept
Multiple Screens
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1002 Machine
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«" bS e U f s ®K«
irs a unique arcaae experience in
sound and vision and a stunning
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Another quality product from
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CASSETTE ^9’^ DISK *L2«8
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The complete deep
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inspired flexibility and a
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eight sprites at once, A
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sound track
accompanies the action.
All these features
combine with player
options and a top 20 hi-
score table to set new
standards in hi-tech
slaughter.
A brand new character
game. Poor old Bozo, all
he has to do is to get
home after a night out
with the lads. That's
easy until a wobble
becomes a lurch and a
stagger. Later into the
night, all rules go out of
the window as he
disbelieves what's
happening in front of his
blood-shot eyes. An epic
journey with ultra-
smooth graphics and
sprites which run rings
round normal games.
SUPER PIPELINE
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PCG favourites up for grabs
W e’ve lined up a special £2,
for you this month. We’ve cnoscn
three of the most exciting games re-
viewed in this issue and obtained 100
copies of each as prizes.
So, if our reviews in Screen Test have
made your mouth water, now's your
chance to do something about it. The
three games are Quo Vadis for the another piece of paper.
Commodore 64, Beaky and the fc’gg Meanwhile, if you want to, you can go
Snatchers for the Spectrum and Phar- ahead and buy any of the games because
aoh's Curse forthe Vic 20. if you then win the same game, you can
For each game we’ve composed three have it exchanged or receive the equiva-
riddles. All you have to do to enter is to lent in cash.
QUO VADIS (Commodore 64)
vast arcade-adventure from Softek is our Game of the
Month. At the time of writing it has not been officially released,
it we’ve been promised the first 100 copies.
I The player who conquers it first, we are told
Will win a fine object in silver and gold '
What is it?
I ’This quest is most surely for heroes and braves
For species of aliens inhabit the caves.'
How many species?
PHARAOH'S CURSE (Vic 10)
This new platform game from Hesware is amazingly
addictive. We’ve made it a mega-hit- sec our review on
page 34.
D The tomb is a death-trap so deadly and mean,
But a number of treasures is found on each screen.’
D ‘Beware of the Pharaoh, look out front and back.
Or else he’ll surprise you with vicious attack.’
Using what?
□ ‘The flyingAvenger is trouble enough,
Bump into him and he’ll carry you off! '
Where to ?
P C GAMES IT
A VITAL PIECE OF SOFTWARE
FORATAg^^WWERS.
A RUBBER KEYBOARD.
The flat keyboard of the Atari 400
isn’t very satisfactory to use.
It simply doesn’t put you in touch
with the computer in the same way as
a push button one.
Our keyboard fits snugly over your
present Atari 400 keyboard and does
exactly the same job.
Only it does it better
It makes programming and game
playing so much easier because you
Filesixty Ltd, 25 Chippenham Mews, London W9 2AN, England. Tel ; 01-289 3059.
know instantly which keys you’ve
depressed.
And by raising the keys it raises
the standard of your machine.
To set it up all you have to do is to
peel off the adhesive backing and stick
it on top of your existing keyboard.
And we’re sticking a price on it of
only £19.95.
So, whichever way you look at it, it’s
a keyboard that really stands out.
Please send _ (qty) Keyboards at £19.95 each (including VAT and P&P).
Enclose d is my cheq u e/PO made payable to Filesixty Ltd. Please charge my Access E3 lH
■ ' ' 1 • • -1 M i I I I I | , | m □□ Total £
Account
Name
Address
Telephone
Signatu re
Post to: Filesixty Ltd, 25 Chippenham Mews, London W9 2AN, England.Tel: 01-289 3059.
Trade enquiries welcome.
■V completed copy of Softek's new game Quo Vadis a Tornado Low Level, while Worse Things Happen at Sea is one
month before its release. We were stunned by the enormous of the best things ever to happen on land,
challenge offered by the game, and proudly present it as an We only managed to track down one new Vic 20 game this
exclusive Game of the Month. This could be the start of month but, mummy, it's a scorcher. A platform game located
amazing things for Commodore 64 owners. in a pharaoh's tomb and packed with original touches.
These fortunate people can also buy the great new This month also sees our first Amstrad reviews. Nothing
Olympics game Decathlon and the first micro game to offer sensational yet but we've a hunch this machine could be very
recognisable speech without any extra hardware - that's big.
Tales of the Arabian Nights. We've made both PCG Hits. Your reviewers this time ore Peter Connor, Steve Cooke,
And speaking of hits. Spectrum owners are laughing this Chris Anderson, Bob Wade, Paul Turner, Tony Takoushi and
month. Take Match Point from Psion -if anything it's a better Samantha Hemens. All ratings are out of ten. And do
tennis simulation than the excellent one on the Atari. Anyone remember that the graphics ratings cover animation and
prone to maternal compassion will break their heart playing smoothness of movement as well as the basic screen picture -
the excellent Beaky and the Egg Snatchers. And for you can't judge graphics just by looking at the screen shots.
P C GAMES 29
BBC • ELECTRON • BBC • ELECT!
CAME; THE 5TING
MACHINE; BBC
CONTROL; KEYS
F ROM; G EMI NI, £9. 95
Here’s a game to get a bee in your
bonnet. Harassed by a pesky bumble
bee, called Sting, your bear must collect
fruits and flowers in the bounds of a
geometric shape.
Your brave bruin starts in a triangle
with a fruit in each comer. You must
collect these and not bump into the bee
buzzing around.
Completion will get you on to a bonus
screen which purports to be a maze but
is just four blue columns with a random-
ly positioned gap in each. You have to
reach your cub at the bottom right .
Deadly mushrooms move down the
spaces between columns where Sting is
likely to pop up and provide the greatest
threat. Failure doesn't result in the loss
of a life but ends the bonus screen,
which seems fairly pointless since it
does not get any harder.
The shape of the main play area
changes to a square, hexagon and later
more complicated figures. The edible
goodies arc always placed in the comers
or on outcrops. The number of mun-
chies increases with four on the second
CAME; STAR FORCE SEVEN
MACHINE; BBC
CONTROL: KEYS
FROM; MIND GAMES
Your Emperor, Justin II, has sent you on
a hazardous mission to save the Terran
Empire from the evil Zurgs.
In a strategy game in the Star Trek
mould you command Star Force Seven.
CAME: SNORTER
MACHINE; BBC
CONTROL: K EYS
FROM: BEEBUG, £ 7.50
Snorter is an original and challenging
game with slight similarities to Pengy.
You find yourself in a walled-in enclo-
sure. Piles of blue bricks lie on the
ground and in another part of the maze
You explore a 26-star galaxy and
attempt to destroy the Zurgs' home
planet or capture 25 planets to win .
The program loads in three sections
which give you the instructions, your
choices of game selection and the actual
program. Once you’ve finished the
second stage there’s no way to alter the
scenario other than to reload the tape.
This I discovered to my cost with the
sound, which once selected hammered
a snake is wriggling towards you.
As in Pengy you must slide the blue
bricks across the floor and trap or crush
the snake. Don't rejoice too soon,
however, as other snakes are appearing
all the time and you don’t have unli-
mited time to deal with them.
As soon as you've despatched the
required number of reptiles, the screen
clears and you find yourself in another
enclosure with — yes, you guessed -
at my ears all through the game. It
should be switched off if you want to
avoid migraines.
Your first task should be to find an
industrial planet and conquer it, other-
wise you rapidly run out of energy and
resources. This is most easily done by
consulting your intelligence gatherers,
spy ships and scout craft
Having found an enemy industrial
planet you can soften it up with a
more snakes and fewer blue bricks to
bash them with.
The snakes grow a little more intelli-
gent and a little more determined in
each level. You have three lives, but lose
one each time you bump into a reptile’s
head. At the higher levels they become a
real menace and you have to move verv
fast.
As you play your energy is constantly
depleting and at first 1 found I had only
“ BRAIN STORM deflective prisms'. The aim of the game
BBC B istodestroyyouropponent'sbrain.
CONTR OL: K EYS The screen is divided into a grid, and
FROM; VIRGIN, £7.95 the two laser bases are located opposite
. ; , ®ach other on the left and right sides of
Brainstorm is an unusual two-player the grid. Each player takes it in turn to
game which combines the excitement of fire his laser across the grid in an
combat with the challenge of careful attempt to wipe out his opponent,
"rategic thinking. The grid is littered with prisms which
bach player controls a laser base, deflect the laser beam in different direc-
* a ‘brain’, and has a supply of tions, according to their ‘reflective in-
dex'. You can only discover how a
certain prism will deflect your beam by
firing at it. Needless to say, both brains
are well shielded by prisms.
You could of course just keep firing at
all the prisms, hoping that you’ll hit one
which will reflect your beam onto your
opponent’s brain. Chances are, howev-
er, that this won't be possible, and this is
where your own supply of prisms comes
CAME: ENIGMA
your computer plays its hand .
Some cards arc rejected, others
accepted according to one of five rules.
Can you study the pattern and deduce
the rules? Will you even want to know?
Rather clumsily programmed in Basic,
this may give some satisfaction to obses-
sive puzzlers but not to anyone else. SC
GRA PHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LAS TING IN T ERES T
OVERALL
- Pubars - by either blasting them three
times with some sort of gun or by
digging away the earth so that the rocks
drop on them.
Yes, folks, it’s Dig-Dug time again.
And a pretty dull version it is, too, with
merely average graphics and very ordin-
ary sound.
G RAPHICS
SOUND '
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTERE ST
OVERALL
CONTROL: KEYS
FROMiMICRO POWER, £7.95
30 PC6AMES
which is supposed to be the Giant’s
Causeway in Ireland. Harvey the Bunny
is jumping around to find the Elixir of
Life. Trying to stop him are Reynard the
Fox, cascading balls and a guano-
excreting bird. The usual diagonal
movement and the usual task of culour-
ing the squares. Nice graphics - even if a
little hazy - but dull sound.
GRAP HICS
SOUND
ORIG INALITY ' ^
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
Screen Test
ION • BBC • ELECTRON • BBC
screen, 12 on the fifth and so on.
The fruits and flowers have to be
eaten in the right order and this is
shown at the lop of the display.
Logs and mushrooms also appear on
later screens and these get in your way
though the logs don’t kill you. Also
appearing is an aerosol, which I had
hoped could be picked up and sprayed
at Sting. Unfortunately you only have to
pass over it to freeze him for a while.
bombardment but this costs valuable
energy. The next stage is for your fighters
to go in and if these triumph your
soldiers go to work.
Victory leads to a base for reple-
nishing energy, fighters and men but the
excitement of conquest is muted .
You may also attack enemy fleets and
a display shows the number of ships on
both sides and the progress of the battle.
The defence of the galaxy must be
Your bear is not very convincing
when he walks and his arms are curious-
ly coloured blue. But it’s a cute game
and if zapping is not your thing you
might well enjoy it. BW
completed in 120 turns but you are
awarded points for whatever you man-
age to complete. BW
just enough time to despatch the snakes The graphics are a little crude but the
in each screen. action is fast and becomes really testing
Once you get more skilled you can at the higher levels. SC
start developing fancy tactics, trapping
the snakes in separate parts of the maze
and then knocking them off two or three
at a time.
Snorter is another in the long and
honourable tradition of noisy BBC
games but you can turn off the sound if it
drives you mad (which it probably will).
Apart from one or two simple restric-
tions, you can place a prism anywhere
on the grid. More importantly, before
placing it, you can determine its ‘reflec-
tive index', and therefore in which direc-
tion it will reflect.
Careful planning is needed to both
ensure yourself of a shot at the enemy
and also block your opponent's
attempts.
Brainstorm is an original game that
should appeal to anyone who isn’t too
concerned with speedy action and alien
blasting. It will repay careful planning
and practise. SC
WtOMl MICRO POWER, £7.95
You guide Joey through the rooms and
help him to negotiate the monsters,
including Marvin, who will - literally -
bore you to death. The game won’t do
the same because, although it's a con-
version of a pretty old BBC program and
has rather flickery graphics, there's
plenty to think about and do. PC
■l BATTLE PLANET
save it is by going down one of those
familiar 3D trenches with your plasma
bolts and photon cannon. The game
begins with a horrible whining noise
which reaches a crescendo as the screen
is formed. There are too many keys to
juggle with and you often seem to die for
no apparent reason . PC
At last - some satisfaction for ape-loving
Electron owners. This is a faithful con-
version of the BBC Donkey Kong game
of the same name.
That means excellent graphics and
sound and a game which will keep you
at it till you’ve saved that cute little girl
from those hairy clutches.
Strangely, the game is much easier
than on the BBC - perhaps Micro
Power think that mere Electron owners
Screen Test
BBC •
FROM: TALENT COMPUTER SYSTEMS,
£ 7.95
For those of you who've ever wanted to
be in charge of a remote asteroid refuell-
ing base - here's your chancel Using a
'Mirror-Angle Laser', you have to des-
troy 'drones' and ‘pirates', both of which
re trying to steal your precious liquid
xygen.
The graphics are chunky and colour-
ful, and the sound is in regular mega-zap
style, but the game itself is rather repeti-
you get the same old set of
baddies in each wave.
There's no rest for that trigger finger
though, since no interval occurs be-
tween levels. The screen just changes
from one pretty colour to another and
the little display ticks over telling you
how many waves you've managed to
It also tells you how much energy
. >u've got left, the time it's taking you to
kill off the aliens and your score -
'hich, if you get over 2,000 points puts
ou on the high score table, containing
Torn for no less than . . . one entry!
The sharper the angle you fire at (by
loving closer to the mirror at the far
right of the screen), the more points you
get. The trouble is more aliens will get
past your defences so you’re likely to
have all your oxygen nicked rather
quickly that way.
When a silo is all but empty, the
screen will Hash red, warning you that
the dastardly drones have nearly man-
aged to siphon away your oxygen.
You’ve got four silos, and when one
has been totally drained the top of it
changes colour. Once all four are empty,
I’m afraid you're dead, and you im-
mediately return to the title screen - a
sight for sore eyes- it’s bright green.
I’m sorry Talent, but this one di
have the whole office crowding ro
raring to have a go.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
FROMl MICRO POWER, £6.95
A reflex shoot-’em-up where nine
of aliens descend on you, to be blown Just perfect for all of you out'tl
The attack waves start with s
standard Space Invaders called Cybers
and progress to Spazmoids, Hep-Heps
and Bum-fluffs (honest!). These later
waves descend in more random move-
nt than the first.
with itchy trigger fingers.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
VORTEX
ELECTRON
CONTROL: KEYS
SOFTWARE INVASION, £7.95
the fire-button and controls in this fine
conversion of a good BBC 3D space
High-res black and white graphics
give you the feel of hurtling through
space. First, blast the fighters with your
laser torpedoes, then weave through the
asteroid storm. Then do it again. Not
iriety, but very playable.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINA LITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
CAME: ARENA 3000
CONTROL: JOYSTICK, KEYS
FROM: MICRODEAL, £8.00
SEPTEMBER 1984
gwaphics, adorwable fiddle puddy, and
norty, norty mices!
Der mices eat der food, and bwave
Caesar jumpth up and down the
thercen, taking care not to knock over
der plateth and der teapot. Gwatc fun
for der kidth, vewwy owiginal game,
nicens muthic, but 1 tink it won’t keep
noids are being hunted by the mutants.
But things haven’t moved on much
between now and then, because this
game is merely a version of Robotron.
As such, it's OK - your man rushes
around frenetically enough blasting
away at the mutants. But this is a game
der gwown-upth pwaying for long. SC
GRAPHICS
SOUND _
ORIGINALITY
JASTINGJNTEREST
OVERALL ;
trictly for fans of the genre.
GRAPHICS ; ^
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
L ASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
PCCAMES 38
Ic 20 • DRAGON • VIC 20 • DRACO
•AMI: JAWS
MACHMMt DR AGON 32
COWI—fci KEYS, JOYSTIC K _
WMl ALtIGATA , £7.95^ _
FirM vim wcrv afraid !c go I'.il k in 'In
water, now you'll be afraid to go back to
your keyboard - it's Jaws time on the
In trying to rescue the survivors of a
sinking ship with your helicopter you
face not only marauding sharks, but also
ships trying to blowyou out of the sky'
The game is in two stages, the first
being to locate the bedraggled seafarers
in an area of sea that is patrolled by
hostile ships.
You are provided with x and y coor-
dinates for the survivors and must home
iti on them. The ships that try to shoot
you down are just blobs and continue to
appear the longer you take.
•AMll SUPERBOWL
mCM—t DRAGON 32
CUT B OLi JOYSTICK
f M l CABLE SOFTWARE. £6.95
I pleaded to be able to review this game
because of my love of American foot-
ball, therefore I was all the more dis-
appointed by the inadequacies of this
program.
Far from it being a full version of
pro-football it was merely a matter of
catching a ball and seeing how far you
could run with it. Not exactly my idea of
Superbowl.
Floyd is a wide receiver for the Dallas
Cowboys and has four plays to get the
ball as far as possible up the field. The
ball appears at the top of the screen and
spins towards you. You must move to
the ball and press the fire button to
This is the third of the games revolving
around Earth’s struggle with the Seid-
dabs. You must fly your Z5 Luna Hover
Fighter through three zones of Seiddab
defences to gel to the command base
and destroy it.
The display presents you with a for-
ward view from your cockpit with the
instruments at the bottom and the rest of
the screen devoted to a 3D representa-
tion of a planet surface.
Temperature, fuel, armament, radar
and navigation gauges all keep you
informed of your progress. Cross-wires
on the screen indicate your direction
and also that of the weapons you fire. If
they are lowered to the bottom of the
screen, converging lines appear to guide
you to the command base.
The first part of the mission consists of
Screen Test
M • VIC 20 • DRAGON • VIC 20
GAMES FOR
MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
GAMES FOR YOUR
ZX SPECTRUM
MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
ZX SPECTRUM (£3.50)
The complete guide to
selecting and using small
computers, including an
explanation of how they
for you, a detailed analysis
of the available systems on
the market and how to buy
them, and how to get the
most from your computer
with an extended step-by-
step guide to programming.
Only fd.gs
MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
VIC 20
GAMES FOR
BBC MICRO
MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
BBC MICRO
GAMES FOR YOUR DRAGON
MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
DRAGON
GAMES FOR YOUR ATARI
GAMES FOR YOUR
■ ATARI 600XL
[ GAMES FOR YOUR TRS 80
'more GAMES FOR YOUR
GAMES FOR YOUR
COMMODORE 64
MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
COMMODORE 64
3AMES FOR YOUR ACORN
ELECTRON
Tl 99/4A
COMPUTER DUNGEON
UK'S LARGEST SELECTION OF SOFTWARE - FREE FAST MAIL ORDER SERVICE
PLEASE PHONE FOR AVAILABILITY ON HUNDREDS OF OTHER TITLES
or cheque with order to 1 30 London Road. St Albans, Herts AL1 1 PQ. (St Albans) 56351
THE VIRGIN
COMPUTER
GAMES SERIES
| £££££'s of
Entertaining Games
for only £2.95
Each book contains more
programmes, each one
specially written for the
series and unavailable
elsewhere. Moving graphic
games, arcade games, reflex
flexers and brain stretchers
are all here and guaranteed
to provide ‘ ‘
THE PERSONAL
COMPUTER
HANDBOOK
3rd Annual Edition
TIM HARTNELL
WRITING
SOFTWARE
FOR PROFIT
A.J. HARDING
Most software authors
begin writing programs at
home and many have
dreams of seeing their
hardwork published. With
this in mind, this book
examines how to choose the
right machine and the right
computer software before
explaining in depth the best
approach to program
■writing and submitting your
finished program.
£4.95
£?R’.PRpnjr;
Only £2.95 each
36 PC GAMES
Screen Test
VRI • ATARI • ATARI • ATARI
ATTACK OF THE MUT ANT
CAMELS
h ATARI 40 0/800
CONTROL! JOYSTICK
FROM: l LAMA SOFT, £7.50
Jeff Minter decided Lo take a break from
the Commodore 64 and do a game for
the Atari (don’t fear '64-owners he’ll be
back on the 64 for his next game ! ).
The game he chose to do was Attack
ol the Mutant Camels, an early classic
for the 64, now considerably enhanced
both in visuals and sound.
The aim in AMC is to destroy the
mutated neutronium-spitting camels as
they try to invade Earth. Fearless flyer
that you are, you must use a Defender-
type scanner to locate and destroy them
before.
trthis
Your craft has nine shields, a shield
being lost on contact with a camel or
one of its bullets. The camels' missiles
vary in intelligence; some simply lly by
you whilst others home in and follow
vou around the screen - these are
MEANI
As with Sheep in Space on the Com-
modore 64, your craft has true inertia
playability. In effect this means that
both accleration and deceleration are
proportional to the amount of joystick
toggling.
This feel o
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
AMC very hard to play but after a litl
dedicated practice I was converted ai
camel zapping came quite naturally.
If you destroy all the camels in oi
zone you hyperspace to the next zo:
(there being 25 in all). But it’s not th
simple; as you hyperspace there a
three rockets diving towards you whii
must be avoided ora craft is lost.
This game was designed for the 16K
Atari and in that class I know of m
other game that equals it, but whci
played on a 48K Atari it lacks a certain
depth. The graphics and sound effects
are truly ’awesome’ in the best Minter
tradition and for all 400/600 Atari c
initially makes ers it comes highly recommended.
GAME: RIVER RAID
MACHINE: ATARI 4 00. 800, XL
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: ACTIVISION^ £29.95
A perilous voyage down the River of No
Return awaits you in this testing game
converted from the VCS system.
You don't go in a boat. Oh no. You
have a powerful jet-fighter blasting just
about everything in your path, which, as
we all know, can be a very enjoyable
pastime.
The game is in effect a 3D shoot-em-
up with vertical scrolling of great
smoothness and has certain affinities
with Scramble. But your view is from
above and the skill lies in lateral rather
than vertical movement,
At the beginning of the game hazards
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
battleship;
iver itself include
jopters and balloons, all
from side lo side. You can either
destroy Lhem with a burst of missile fire
or avoid them by banking left or right - a
very realistic game-feature.
Naturally, you must also refuel This is
accomplished by passing over the fuel
depots scattered along the river,
slower you move over them, the it
fuel you take on board.
After you’ve blasted your way through
a few bridges the going gets pretty tough :
enemy fighters foul up your flight path,
everything moves much more quickly
and the river becomes fiendishly
River Raid’s graphics are. colourful
and exceptionally smooth making a
shoot-’em-up of superior quality. It’ll
take a good few missions before you’ll
get through to bridge 50,
GAME: FLAK
MACHINE: ATARI 400/800
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: FU NSOFT-US G OLD, £12.95
flak is a variation on the Xeviot.
arcade game from Atari. You pilot
fighter over enemy territory trying to
shoot the ack-ack batteries with your
air-to-ground cannon. The final objec-
tive being to destroy the computer con-
trol.
As with many Atari games this has
good smooth scrolling graphics and
sound, but because it's too easy it lacks
any truly addictive qualities.
GR APHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTERES T
OVERALL
GAME: DUELLIN’ DROIDS
MACHINE: ATARI 40 0/800
JOYSTICK
ENGLISH SOFTW ARE, £ 9.99
le may imply this is a clone of
Williams' Robotron from the arcades.
You control Julian the duellin’ droid
and must rescue the other members of
your family from the clutches of the evil
droids and monster. Your only aids are
your nimble feet and laser blaster.
This is a poor copy but it may well
1 to the ded
GRAPHICS : :
SOUN D
O RIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL .
America’s sul
burgers, Ice-c
ed Space Dice
s: Delux
GAME: MEGAMANIA
MACHINE: ATARI 400. 800. Xt
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FRO M: ACTIVISIO N, £29.95 this VCS conversion any more than an
average version of Galaxians. The
Instead of creatures from outer space strange junk flies around erratically and
this shoot-'em-up is populated with you try to shoot it down,
beings from the murkiest depths of Megamaniu has excellent graphics
G RAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGIN ALITY
PCGAMES 3T
■MOTECH • AMSTRAP • MEMOl
CAME: ELECTRO FREDDY
MACHINE: AMSTRAD
CONTROL: KEYS. JOY STICK
PROM: AMSOFT . £8.95
piis game is much belter than its scenar-
io - full of micro in-jokes - might lead
you to expect. It's not staggeringly ori-
e and dislurbingly
varehouse O'
As if that weren't enough, Claude has
enlisted the help of Satsuma Inc. who
throw 'oracs' (geddit??) down from the
ginal. hut
cumpulsh
As Freddy you're employed in the
ted by Uncle Claude o;
sincrum Research'. There are rumour!
of job losses due to price increases, sc
you have been chosen to sneak in al
night and send off all the products
So there you are. beavering away at But Freddy can fight back. He moves
dead of night. But Claude must have the products bv pushing them sideways
been listening in on the plot, because or up and down. If he can hit Claude
lie's there too. As you try to push from above or below he will get rid of
products onto the conveyor belt al the him for a few moments,
bottom of the screen he throws deadly There are four screens and 15 levels of
AD MIRAL GRAF SPEE
AMSTRAD CPC 464
CONTROL: KEYS, JOYSTICK
FROM: AMSOFT. £8.95
The Admiral Graf Spec steamed out o
port and into battle in the Snulh Allan
tic, Standing proudly on the bridge
wondered how many British ships
could send plunging to the occai
depths. Wait a minute I'm on the wron]
side...! But to succeed at this game you display mode to a head-on view' from
have to be - because your job is lo right Ihe bridge. The range and direction of
for the glory of the fatherland. the craft is shown and when you are
Your pocket battleship is equipped close enough it appears visually,
with 1 1 -inch guns and torpedoes and is When in view' you can fire gun salvoes
displayed on a map of the South Allan- and torpedoes at the enemy shipping,
tic. Frequently an inadequate pixel flash Several hits cause them to go to a watery
will occur indicating where a British grave, unfortunately in less than Titanic
vessel is. block characters. This demise is made
Placing your unwieldy ship over its more satisfactory by the difficult chase
location and pressing S will change Ihe that proceeds it as the enemy take
i: OH MUMMY
AMSTRAD CPC 464
CONTROL: KEYS^ JOYSTICK
FROM: AMSOFT, £8.95
ound it completi
On an expedition to the Egyptian pyra-
mids you are trapped in rooms conlain-
mummics - no, not the Queen Mother
stupid, Egyptian ones.
with Ihe guardians why try' to protect You
their ancient masters' possessions. They the- room and the sarcophagus of a long
wander around trying to collar one of dead royal which you must take with
your five men who bite the dust in a you.
flurry of bandages. I vory level you complete means you
Itiere are five levels lo Ihe game Each are faced with two extra guardians and
screen displays 20 boxes. As you walk Ihe game becomes harder if you finish
“ ' you leave a trail of delightful five screens and get to the next pyramid.
footsteps. Each box opens when y
MISSION ALPH ATRO N
MEMOTECH MTX 500 _
CONTROL: JOYSTICICCURS _
CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE,
whether
£6.9:
Cavern claustrophobia strikes in this
Scramble-type game of horizontally
Your job is to notch up the points by
blasting the aliens with lasers and
bombs. The latter are fired
space bar - a tricky manoeuvre
you're using keys or a joystick.
The rocky corridors are identified by
colour. The first stage is in orange.
Buildings, fuel dumps, radar stations
and nuclear bases appear on the cavern
floor. You speed through zapping and
bombing - but don't hit the nuclear
power stations or you'll be destroyed in
the atomic explosion !
You also have to dodge or blast the
enemy rockets. These take off vertically
but Ihen change trajectory, swerving left
towards you. They're easy to avoid but
that's not the last of your problems.
Your engines guzzle fuel like it's going
out of fashion. The usual Scramble-d
logic applies here -you take on supplies
by destroying the enemy fuel dumps.
se dive into the scenery.
ceful
CAME; N EMO
MACHINE: MEMOTECH MTX 500
CONTROL: CURS, JOYSTICK
FROM: CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE,
£6.95
Fear of water is a terrible thing hut after
playing this game I'm afraid lo even go
n Cenlini
which descend the screen i
fashion. You arc armed with a harpoon
gun which only fires upwards, although
your ship can move in all directions.
id in ihe top left-hand a
een. Guarding the oranf
ib who can kill you. bu
have
screen scroll up from b
change direction in later stages. Electric
eels scan the edges of the display and, as
in Gridrunner, can electrify a horizon-
tal or vertical line of water.
Faced with this marine mania you
have to harpoon all the sharks to move
on to a new section of infested water.
If you fail to spear the sharks before
they reach the bottom of the picture they
turn into little men called Ncmoids.
These zip around the sea like a ball in
CAME: POTHOLE PETE
MEMOTECFt MTX 500
CONTROL: CURS. JOYSTICK
KILTDALE
Pothole Pete is obviously the cousii
>u( potholing, it n
order to move onto the next pothole.
Inhabiting the holes are lols of evil
beings who have it in for you A savage
array of haggis-like creatures, octo-
puses, ghosts, skulls and the like are all
out to stop your quest
' itroduces the Moro-
faced with 25 potholes - ea
different screen filled with plalfon
which you have to negotiate in search
ibjects. These have to he gathered up
collected.
:s and has five tn
38 PC GAMES
ghost, a bird and a trolley
du - as if dissolving platform’s
:yor belts weren't enough ,
ole is arranged so lhal there
should only be one way lo collect
everything and escape to the next sec-
tion. Combined wilh the wicked time
limit one slip is fatal, but once you know
the way it's a matter of routine.
Pete does not take kindly to long
drops and a badly-timed jump will result
in a scream and much screen-flashing.
The conveyor belts move at the same
speed as Pete and when walking the
wrong way along one you have to jump
get anywhere. White platforms
SEPTEMBER 1984
Screen Test
CH • AMSTRAD • MEMOTECH
difficulty. Screen 1 is relatively easy: you
will only be taken away by the ambu-
lance if you are very careless. The next
screen is much harder, with oracs likely
to splat you just as you're about to get
the key giving admission to the next
level. On the third screen an unpredict
able force field appears, making life very
Electro Freddy is a promising start to
the Amstrad's life as a games machine.
lovement is smooth and graphics are
ear and colourful. It's a pretty simple
rtea, but it had me hooked. PC
GRAPHICS
SOUND 6
ORIGINALITY 4
LASTING INTEREST _ 5
OVERALL 6
■
“ 9 “
Some ships can fire back at you but
this doesn't register until you're actually
hit and sustain damage, when you may
Torpedoes and shells are limited but
your fuel is the most important thing to
watch. Steaming about at at 25 knots
depletes your supplies rapidly.
Your support ship Altmark can pro-
vide you with more materials but finding
: is a matter of chance, and when you do
Your last resort is to scuttle the ship -
but the game isn't really that bad BW
GRAPHICS _ 3
SOUND 3
ORIGINALITY __5
LASTING INTEREST 4
OVERALL 5
p- 7 ]
extra points and a scroll enables you to
kill one mummy. Some boxes are empty
and one contains a guardian which is
released if you surround it.
The jolly little tune, like all jolly little
tunes, becomes jolly well repetitive.
excellent but unless you play the game at
fast speed and at its most difficult you'll
find it rather boring. Even at speed the
action will not hold your attention for
ong though. It's not bad, but we've get
o sec the best of the Amstrad. BW
GRAPHICS 7
SOUND 5
ORIGINAUTY 4
LASTING INTEREST 4
OVERALL 5
eeb
In the later screens you face a more
varied assortment of attackers with obli-
gingly suicidal guided missiles in the
second (green) section and mine layers
in the third (blue). The missiles lock on
-and fly straight into your laser fire; the
mine layers drop streams of floating
bombs, a much harder wave - even
though they look like snowflakes.
The tunnel is rather crudely drawn
and the scrolling is jerky but the craft
and aliens look good. Memotech own-
ers who like a good Scramble will find
plenty of tough action here. BW
GRAPHICS 6
SOUND 6
ORIGINALITY 4
LASTING INTEREST 7
OVERALL 6
H
Breakout and where two collide, spawn
a horrid, grinning baby Nemoid.
On clearing a zone you move in a
clockwise direction round the land,
with increasing numbers of sharks and
mines on each coast. On the west, a
current also drifts you to the south.
The display is interesting at first but
the large number of small, moving char-
acters make following all the action very
difficult on later coastlines.
Good ideas here but the screen gets
oo hectic and it will he a very mercurial
mariner who sees the whole of this
coastline. BW
GRAPHICS _ 6
SOUND 5
ORIGINALITY 5
LASTING INTEREST 6
OVERALL 6
gradually disappear under your weight
but blue ones are as safe as the brick-
work.
If you collect ail the objects you have
to find the dour to the next stage, which
is in the bottom right of the first screen.
Further rooms include The Deadly
Hurdles, In the Bosses' Room and The
Aviary but with all 25 to get through
you'll be a pensioner before you com-
plete it. So the opening tunc of 'When
i'm 64' is very appropriate.
SIPTCMBER 1984
The graphics are very good and de-
spite the same basic scenario it is not a
straight copy of Manic Miner. A great
game - one which begins to reveal the
Memotech's vast potential. BW
GRAPHICS 8
ORIGINALITY 5
LASTING INTEREST 9
OVERALL 8
PC GAMES 39
chE connpittEiro' ci-oici
Hewson Consultants
SE miMi LflSKYS
Screen Test
ODORE 64 • COMMODORE 64
Thorak himself gets from layer to
layer by means of ice pillars, but once he
descends to the fourth level there is no
way to return to the upper caves.
Once you have got an ice block into
the water you can step on it and press
the fire button to finish the lev-'
Thorak floats off to his iglo
bonus of 1,000 per icc blocl
strains of Whistling Dixie.
On subsequent screens the :
scroll across the screen and me
ters appear to plague you.
Although there is nothing particularly
new about the ideas in this game it has
been well put together and should be
able to hold your interest. BW
HWWIL KEYS, JOYSTICK
FROM: ANIROG, £6. 95 CASS,
At first sight Ice Hunter looks like just
another multi-level mining game but it
contains some pleasant surprises.
The hero of this program is Thorak,
who looks like a monk with a big nose,
but is in fact the Prince of Ice. He wants
to build up his igloo home by adding
more blocks of ice. To do this he must be
guided around a five level ice cavern in
an attempt to * ™
blocks into the
the screen.
So starting i.. .... - r
the ice blocks, and carries them about
on the end of his nose!
To move the blocks to another level
he must drop them through patches of
.< - be waited
on as well but only once.
There are three kinds of monsters for
Thorak to contend with: dragons,
mutant sea-lions (which look like mice
on their hind legs) and birds which fly
across the icc levels.
These adversaries can be killed by
dropping ice blocks on them or by
eating a power pill, which appears from
time to time and temporarily makes
them vulnerable to being stomped on.
i at the bottom right of
GRAPHICS
SOUND
lasting Interest
These patches
These screens are, however: broken
up by others involving shoot’-em-up
arcade action - i n one you paddle a boat
along a crocodile-infested river, while in
another you're on a flying carpet, dodg-
ing arrows.
If you've already got programmer fan
Gray’s earlier game Chine Miner, you
may think this one is too similar. Still,
there's enough high-quality action here
to keep most budding sultans happy for
Without the benefit of any add-on unit,
the program generates a marvellous,
throaty pirate’s voice announcing the
game’s different stages.
Admittedly it’s a gimmick, and after
playing the game a couple of timesyou’ll
tend to make use of the 'speech ofP
option. But it’s certainly impressive -
and so is the soundtrack. A rollicking
piece of eastern flavoured music which
gives the game great atmosphere.
The game itself is simply an amalgam
of familiar game ideas - but one that
offers plenty to do. There are eight
different screens, and most of them are
platform games in which you leap
around collecting Arabian jugs and
avoiding eastern nasties. The only
novelty is that each jug bears a letter and
you must collect them in order to spell
ARABIAN. Since there are three A s,
you may have trouble working out the
right order. fSSfi
OAMil TA LES OF THE ARABIAN
NIGHTS
MACHINE: COMMODORE 64
CONTROL:' JOYSTICK
FROM: INTERCEPTOR £7 00 CASS.
£9.00 DISK
An intriguing software house, Intercep-
tor. Their early games for the 64 were
pretty lousy and won them a bad reputa-
tion. which wasn't enhanced by their
running feud with Llamasoft's Jeff
But recently the standard of their
releases has improved dramatically with
the likes of China Miner, Wheelin'
Wallie and Burger Chase - games
which aren’t particularly original but
which offer impressive graphics, good
sound and plcntyoffun
Tales of the Arabian Nights con-
tinues that trend and this time there’s a
gen uinely original feature: speech .
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIG INALITY
LASTING IN TEREST
IE 64 • COMMODORE 64 • COMJi
MURPHY
COMMO DORES
JOYSTICK
MOGUL, £7.95
underground and put them in his wheel-
barrow on the surface. Of course, it's not
so easy. There wouldn't be much to
computer games if everybody could just
wander around getting rich whenever
they wanted. No, Murphy has got prob-
For a sti
re lots of rogue ca
ccpt, but none the less playable and speeding along the tunnels. They have a
enjoyable for that. nasty habit of crushing Murphy just as
Murphy is a miner and is desperate to he's about to grab one of those
retrieve all the moneybags scattered moneybags.
SAME: FELIX IN THE FACTORY
MACHINR: COMMODORE 64
MHIWt KEYS, JOYST ICK
FROM: MICR O POWER . £6.95
This enjoyable game makes it to the
Commodore in fine style.
Felix is a nightwalchman in a factory
who has to keep a generator running by
which change position every time you
lose a life. The bottum level is a moving
conveyor belt carrying parcels.
You start on the second level on the
right hand side, next to the generator. To
get to the main playing area you have to
descend to the conveyor belt and get to
the other end by jumping packages.
If you fall over the boxes you'll be all
right unless you are rolled off screen,
then a life is lost.
I REVELATION
I COMMODORE 64
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: SOFTER, £7 95
Yet another multi-cavern scrolling
shoot-out. Mount your sacred eagle and
flap through Hell zapping winged mons-
ters and blasting towers
At first sight, Revelation strikes you
as being very similar to Joust. The
similarities arc, however, only super-
ficial. Your magic lance continually
blasts away in whatever direction you're
facing, and you can use the joystick to
If you want to make things a bit more
difficult, you can select a different con-
trol set-up, where the joystick moves
you about, but you must press the
fire-button to keep flying.
"" i of the game is to destroy aT
Ml THE EVIL DEAD
!H INBl COM MODO RE 64
C RNTRIi J OYSTICK
Ml PALA CE SOFTWAR E, £ 6.95
Hi there, my name is Ashly. I have a
rrible story to tell you. It's about this
computer game, see. It's the first of a
series of releases from Palace Software,
based on famous and infamous -
movies. In The Evil Dead. I take the
leading role and obey your joystick’s
every command. Gazing down on me
from above, you must guide me about
the small shack in which I'm staying
t my four friends, Cheryl, Linda,
Scott, and Shelly.
We are having a bit of a problem with
supernatural forces. Nothing serious,
you understand, just that this thing
keeps dropping in for a visit and turning
my b uddies into horrible green mutants.
This is just the excuse I’ve been
waiting for to pick up an axe, or a sword,
or whatever happens to be lying around,
and chop my pals into little pieces.
But wait! What are those things scur-
rying towards me? Oh no! It’s little bits
of Cheryl and Linda, and those
are. .ugh . . . Scott's legs. . . oooerghhh! !
Well, that’s enough of that. Before
you write off to Mary Whitchouse, I
have to tell you that The Evil Dead isn’t
nearly as evil as it sounds. The graphics
aren't at all disgusting, the idea of the
game is considerably less obnoxious
than Space Invaders, and there is no
more blood and guts than in Galaxians.
The display shows the layout of a
small house. Only a part of the house is
visible on-screen, and the picture scrolls
appropriately if you move to the edge of
the display.
When the game starts you can rush
round closing all the doors and win-
dows to stop the Evil Force entering the
house. At least that's what the blurb
advises you to do, but I found it pretty
ineffective. Both windows and doors are
soon blown open again, and a rather
indistinct graphics shape nips inside
and mutates your buddies. You can
however open and close doors between
rooms at any time during play, which is
sometimes tactically desirable.
Points are scored by zapping the
mutants and their activated limbs. Score
enough points and, so the blurb says, a
book will appear which you must throw
into the fire to destroy the Curse.
You lose a life every time your energy
count reaches zero. Movement and con-
tact with the opposition both drain your
energy by varying amounts.
The main problem with this game is
one of control. The responses of the
little figure aren't exactly razor-sharp,
and getting him through doorways and
and objects in a hurry takes prac
The Mary Whitehouses of this world
can breathe a sigh of relief. The rest of us
can get on with the serious business of
playing a game that is of above-average
quality but still, perhaps, a little dis-
appointing. SC
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGIN ALITY
LASTING IN TEREST
OVERALL
42 PCGAMES
Screen Test
kODORE 64 • COMMODORE 64
NCS
NATIONAL COMPUTER SUPPLIES
[TlfWCTa;
W
FOR USE WITH
• ATARI 400 & 800 COMPUTERS
• ATARI VIDEO GAME SYSTEM
• COMMODORE 20 & 64 COMPUTER?
• NEC PC-6001 COMPUTER
• SEARS VIDEO ARCADE SYSTEM
• SPECTRAVIDEO SV300 SERIES
COMPUTERS
AUXILIARY FIRE
BUTTON FOR
LEFT OR RIGHT HANDS'
AUTO-FIRE
SWITCH ON/OFF
(MODEL VC 102 ONLY)
SUCTION FEET
DEVONIA HOUSE
HIGH STREET
WORLE
WESTON-SUPER-MARE
AVON
TEL: (0934)516246
WE ALSO STOCK SOFTWARE • RIBBONS • PAPER • CABLES
Screen Test
ODORE 64 • COMMODORE 64
CAME: GYRUSS _
MACHINE: COMMODORE 64
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: PARKER VIDEO, £25
Cyruss is taken under license from the
arcade original by Konami and it is
superbly translated forthe 64.
You must go where no man has gone
before, from Neptune to Earth, in warp
stages. You craft runs in a circle around
the perimeter of the screen and aliens
attack from all angles as you mercilessly
.p them.
There are a number of warps to get to
.jch planet, two warps to Neptune and
three warps to all other planets leading
to F.aVth.
Each warp brings you into battle with
four different formations of enemy
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTER EST
OVERALL '
lose you one of your five ships on
contact. A bonus ship is awarded a'
60,000 and 140,000 points (not 160,000
as laid out in the instructions).
Gyruss is the finest shoot-’em-up 1’v
fighters. If all the,
a formation a bonus is given rising froi
500 to 2,500 for the fourth formation in from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D
a warp stage. There is a chance stage minor. Graphics are really excellent
also where bonus points are given for with colourful, well-defined aliens spir-
destroying the planes in formation. ailing out from the centre of the screen.
Other dangers come in the form of Gyruss certainly isn’t cheap, but it
meteors and runaway satellites which certainly issuperior. IT
GILLIGAN'S GOLD
COMMODORE 64
CONTRO L: JOYS TICK
FROM: OCEA N, £6.90
Gilligan’s Gold takes a number of
familiar ideas and shuffles them about to
ith something just a little bit
different.
A horizontal scrolling display reveals
_i underground mine, riddled with tun-
nels, and inhabited by a number of small
animated human figures.
One of those little chaps is you. Being
a mere human, you are naturally
attracted by the numerous bags of gold
that have been scattered about the
mine-workings. Y our job is to pick them
all up, transport them to the surface via
either lifts or the stairs provided, and
dump them in your wheelbarrow.
Out to stop you are a gang of ruffians
who will give you a good working over if
they catch you. You must also watch out
for the trolleys and the disused mine-
shafts.
So what’s new? First, the hooks on
the ceilings. You can jump up and catch
hold of these, thereby dodging the trol-
leys which roll harmlessly beneath you.
Even better, if you time it carefully, you
can drop down onto the trolleys and get
a ride along the mineshaft - very useful
G RAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGIN ALITY
LAS TING INTER EST
OVERALL
for dodging Lhe opposition when the
going gets hot.
Ruffians can be disposed of (tempor-
arily) by either hitting them with a
pick-axe, a number of which lie scat-
tered about the screen, or by dropping
bags of gold onto them from above.
Don’t underestimate their intelli-
gence though, they can be pretty nippy if
they put their minds to ' '
Gilligan’s Gold is one of those games
that demands a good deal of practice.
My only reservation is that once you’d
put in the practice you’d be fed up with
the game. Solid stuff, this game, ’ ’
solid gold it’s not
! QUAK ATTAK "
I COMMOD ORE 64
CONTROL: KEYS, JOYSTICK
FROM: SOFT EK, E7.95
Quak Attak from Softek is a comical
version of the arcade game Joust , where
a gallant knight battles with enemy
riders for the honour of king, queen and
country.
Each level is set in a castle square
which has three platforms. On these, the
player can rest his mount between
■
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTI NG INTER EST
OVERALL
The enemy riders control yellow
ducks and you, the hero, ride a magnifi-
cent pink and yellow duck. To defeat the
GAME: GH OULS
CONTROL: JOYSTICK, KEYS
FROM: PROGRAM POWER, £6.95
In this addictive game you must try tc
rescue power jewels from
SEPTEMBER 1984
enemy, the hero must ride above each in
and plunge down upon them. By
iq this the rider is Hislndpcd from
doing this, the rid:
his mount
When he hits the floor,
main objective and bonus points can be
gained by shooting him. If he does
escape, points are lost and you move
onto the next level, An additional
hazard is the green dragon whose touch
is deadly.
Attak is a ",ai the
st players c
upon them. By youngest piayv.., —
dislodged from enjoy, but there is a lack ol variety, the
graphics are only adequate and the
sound ismediocre
s creepy m
sion. There are four rooms to pass
through: Spectre's Lair, Horrid Hall,
Spider’s Parlour and Death Tower.
There are many dangers to overcome
including poisonous spikes, bouncing
spiders, moving platforms and contract-
ing floorboards. TT
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINA LITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
PC GAMES 43
E 64 • COMMOD ORE 64 • COMJI
CAME: ROOTIN' TOOTIN'
MACHINE: COMMODORE 64 ~
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
PROM: MESWARE, £9.95
A game of loony tunes and musical
madness, Rootin' Tootin’ was a big hit
in Japanese arcades but has only made it
It’s a game needing the grace oi' a
geisha rather than the bulk of a Sumo
wrestler, since it requires quick reflexes
and even quicker thinking.
You control a tuba trapped on a maze
consisting of a musical scale. On the
blue lines of Ihc scale are a myriad of
purple notes which you can blast to
score points or to destroy the pursuers -
a host of crazy musical instruments,
On the first of many levels your
opponents are Guitacos, whose name
gives a good idea of their appearance.
They pop out of their holes in the middle
of the maze and relentlessly chase that
To avoid them you can either blow a
few notes their way or, by pressing the
joystick button, turn your tuba blue and
pass through them. But you only remain
invulnerable for a moment, so two or
three Guitacos togetherare bound to get
you,
When you’ve cleared most of the
notes a Trien will appear. This is a
fast-moving triangle which leaves dead-
GAME: MR TNT
MACHINE: COMMODORE 64
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: HESWARE, £27.95 CART, £9.95
CASS
This game isn't as explosive as it sounds,
hut you should still treat it with extreme
caution. Mr TNT is highly addictive.
A little round fellow with no nose or
mouth (that's you) patrols a complex
grid picking up sticks of dynamite, The
lines of the grid disappear as he runs
over them. Once he's picked up all the
sticks he can progress happily to the
next screen and do the same thing all
Well, actually it's not quite that easy,
Four burning fuses follow him about the
grid with relentless purpose, cutting off
his escape routes and blowing up the
dynamite (thereby depriving him of
valuable bonus points).
Mr TNT has two options. He can
cither concentrate on grabbing the
dynamite and avoiding the fuses, or he
can give as good as he gets by running
round the grid cutting off THEIR escape
Once a fuse reaches a dead end it goes
out, and as soon as all the fuses have
been extinguished you move on to the
next screen. With each screen the fuses
GAME: SPY SCHOOL
MACHINE: COMMODORE 64
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: DIMENSION 21 , £6.90_
Budding James Bonds can now act out
their hero's exploits. This arcade game
consists of four tasks which have to be
completed as part of your training
course in the skullduggery of spying.
Each of the problems on a level has to
be solved before moving on to another
harder one. You select a mission by
moving your man along one of the four
corridors in the middle of the screen.
The top path puts you in the role of
saboteur, A split picture has an ammuni-
tion dump on the right hand side pro-
tected by a moving barrier. While the left
half is criss-crossed by trucks moving up
and down.
You can only use the left half while
H-JljillHJ-MIIHlJJJMtErTTT
trying to blast your way through the wall
and avoiding the bucks. Staying loo
long in one lane prompts a missile to
To the right is a crash course in
burglary. Your target is a suitcase at the
bottom left of the screen.
Starting at the top of the room you
have to get to the case and back to the
exit at the top.
Floor sensors in the form of moving
EliHlUMmiiiqZH
GAME: DECATHLON
MACHINE: COMMODORE 64
CONTROL: JOYSTICK
FROM: ACTIVISION, £9.99
A gruelling, gruelling game. A test of
stamina, skill and guts over the ten
events that make up this supreme pro-
ving ground of all-round athletic pro-
wess. The only computer game I know
where you need a shower and a massage
when you've finished
Although up to four players can com-
pete, the most exciting option is certain-
ly the two-player game, where you can
keep a close eye on your opponent foi
signs of stress and agony.
First event is the 100 mebes. On
screen the two sprinters appear -
bronzed and fit - in their parallel lanes.
Under starter's orders you nervously
grasp the joystick. Next second and
you're off. furiously waggling the stick
from side to side to keep up maximum
The animation is superb, with legs
and arms pumping realistically. If you've
listened to coach and done your training
you should be able to break 1 1 seconds.
The remaining events get tougher and
tougher. Field events in particular repay
intensive training in technique. There
are few more embarrassing accidents for
a computer pole vauiter than falling
backwards off his pole before he even
reaches the bar. My rival suffered this
indignity while I. having trained inten-
sively for at least a morning, sailed over
5 metres with consummate ease.
Jayclin, shot and discus all take valu-
able reserves of strength as you work up
momentum before releasing your missile.
As they fly through the heavens you can
admire the remarkably smooth scroll-
ing. Put in a big throw and you’ll even
get a burst of applause from the other-
wise calm spectators.
By now you’re tiring fast, but there's
no respite because it's back to the track
for the 400 mebes. Set too fast a pace in
the early stages and you'll suffer on the
final bend as the lactic acid fills your legs
and you feel you’re running through
quicksand. Even worse is the agony of
seeing your opponent overhaul you in
the last 10 mebes.
The 1 10 mebes hurdles is another
event for the technicians. Speed is
essential, but unless you get that sbide
pattern just right you're going to have
awfully sore knees and an awfully slow
And so. after nine events which test
your all round athletic ability, you come
to the ultimate trial of courage and
endurance- the 1 500 metres.
It's tough on the lungs, it s tough on
the legs and it’s exceptionally tough on
the joystick. At the very least this event
requires three and a half minutes of the
most strenuous waggling. When you've
staggered past the tape you'll feel that it
might have been less tiring to go out and
run a metric mile for real.
Decathlon is one of the few sporting
simulations in which the effort on
screen is matched by the physical effort
required of the player.
The graphics and animation of the
athletes are superb, but it's a pity that
this isn't matched by the background or
the sound. But these are minor com-
plaints. The game is all about compet-
ing. So get yourself a good, sbong
joystick and a good, strong friend) go
out in that stadium and go for gold. PC
GRAPHICS 8
SOUND 6
ORIGINALITY 2
LASTING INTEREST 7
OVERALL ~ 8
46 PC GAMES
Screen Test ,
ikODORE 64 • COMMODORE 64
ly stars all o’
id of iti
r the m
as possible.
:e; it pays to get and greater speed. Control is awkward
and your tuba cs
, on be very tricky to
On further screens a whole orchestra around corners, but Rootin' Tootin' is
of other nasty instruments appears. Par- well worth listening out for. PC
ticularly gruesome is the Pianha, its
keyboard flashing like rows of deadly
teeth as it rushes after you. Pianos and
tubas just do not get on.
I lootin' Tootin' has excellent
graphics and the sound is good if a little
repetitive. There are numerous levels
with increasing numbers of opponents
GRAPHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
bum faster and faster. Mr TNT loses one
of his five lives every time he bumps into
afuse, orblundersintoadcad end.
You have to be pretty nifty with the
joystick while playing this game. The
control is very finicky and if you're not
careful you can find yourself zipping off
along the wrong track, sometimes with
fatal results.
This is a simple but extremely compul-
sive game. The graphics are nothing to
write home about and the sound isn't
much better, but it has that pac-manic
feel to it that could kcepyou glued to the
keyboard for hours. SC
Screen Test
COMMODORE 64 • COMMOE
) protect Zeta Class
Defence Sphere 7, which is essentially a
blue planet hanging in deepest space.
You're armed with a ‘solar-powered
Positron Accelerator’. Sounds imprcss-
Well, it isn't. It's just a set of sights
which you rotate in search of enemy
attackers. Despite all that positron toward:
acceleration it’s about as powerful as a
rusty old cannon.
Press the fire-button and your pod
target By the
cannon-oan explodes t_,
respecting alien is likely to be long gone.
Below the space display is a status
which Dickers lazily board giving you information on your
mrm
pod’s condition: “Yellow’ means
have to find time to re-charge your
power and ‘Red’ means you ar
danger of imminent destruction.
Attackers come in the shape of
fighters, saucers and larger flagships.
They're all devious and hard to hit.
The graphics are good but nothing
special and the scrolling is slightly jerky.
Zeta 7 can make for an entertaining
half-hour - a bit like watching an old
episode of StarTrek. —
mu-tciiit
Principle' is that you get to see most (but
not all) of the game without having to
battle your way through from the begin
The second big difference is in the
actual game-play itself. Before you start
on a task, the screen flashes up an
introduction explaining your objective
in this particular part of the game. It
doesn't, incidentally, tell you how many
screens there are for that task or how to
accomplish it.
Once you enter a screen, you have to
move very fast indeed, because the
platform you are standihg on bursts into
flames within a few seconds! This puts a
lot of pressure on the player and when
you're just starting the game it can be a
bit discouraging. You keep losing lives
and flashing from screen to screen with-
out getting anywhere.
Once you start to get the hang of the
different tasks, however, this feature
adds excitement rather than frustration
to the game.
great sense of humour in
HERCULES
COMMODORE 64
JOYSTICK
FROM! INTERDISC, £6.95
A new game from a new company, and if
Interdisc's future releases arc as good as
Hercules then we'll certainly be hearing
a lotmore about them.
Hercules is a multi-screen platform
game where you run. jump, and climb
about the screen to reach your objective.
Although the game-play sounds famil-
iar. it has a number of improvements on
the standard recipe. It's also very diffi-
cult to play, but once you get the hang of
it you'll find it difficult to stop.
There are 50 different screens and 12
different tasks to perform. The 50
screens are divided unequally between
ie tasks, with one or two having only
vo screens and some of the trickier
ties having as many as six.
The first big difference about Her
ties is the way you play. Every time
)u lose a life you're transported al
random to another screen and another
task.
The benefit .of this ‘Random Access
ting suicide that you discover that parts
of the display arc missing! Life-saving
platforms suddenly appear in mid-air to
save you from certain death. But don't
get too cocky - some of the platforms
disappear just when you're stepping
onto them. All very dicy - and very
exciting.
Most screens involve similar hazards.
Sprites move up and down blocking
your path. Fat spiders squat down be-
fore you and are fatal to touch. Ropes
dangle invitingly for you to climb up -
and sometimes snap disconcertingly
when you grab hold of them
Hercules is a game that requires
perseverance and patience to get
started, but it’s well worth the effort. For
once a classic hero has inspired a classic
game. sc
Alllgata Softwa
ige Street, Sheffield SI
Till: (0742) 7
of order and shou
villiqatics
eSS iB oJI Software Limited
ROCKET
lilli
ROGER
ELECTRON
• ORIC • SPECTRUM • ORIC • S I
•A Mll REIC HSWALD
MACHINC: SPEC TRUM 48K
CONTROL: KEYS
[ROM: MW G AMESWO RLD. 1 5.95
A strategy game in which you command
the forces of the American 9th Army as
CAME: F ULL THROTTL E
MAC NMIt: SPECTRU M 48K
C ONTRO L: KEYS, CR SR, KEMP, S INC
FROM: MICROMEGA, £6.95
Throw away those leathers and gaunt
lets and that crash helmet They’re obso-
lete. Throw away your Honda 1000 as
well. Because now that Full Throttle's
arrived you can race on the world's top
motor-cycle circuits using only a hum-
OAMii ACHERON'S RAGE
MA CHINC : ORIC 1 48K/ATMOS
CO NTROL.- C RSR, K EYS
FROM : SOFTE K, £6.95
Whoever Acheron was, the poor guy
probably ended up having a hard time!
Defending sectors of space from the
Gors' warships isn’t all fun and games.
The backdrop to this game is twink-
ble little Spectrum.
Graphics, animation, scrolling, and
3D effect are all superb. The combina-
tion provides a game which give you a
real taste of high-speed bike racing with,
of course, none of the nasty physical
dangers.
One danger you do run, though, is
frustration: it will take a considerable
number of laps before you master the
elementary techniques of riding, and
ling stars, and in the centre Qf the screen
is a grid - what purpose it serves is not
explained in the inlay, but it certainly
makes 'zapping zose aliens’ a real hard
With your Asteroid-style ship, you
thrust, brake and blast away, clearing
outer space of the Gor menace. Ah, got
’em - a sigh of relief - oh no! There’s
more and more , . . and more!
There are six types of mcanies, the first
they attempt to capture a bridgehead
over the Rhine. You control tanks and
infantry, reconnaissance. units and en-
gineers.
Unfortunately for the allies, the
graphics display is very dull and it’s not
at all clear where the strategy lies. Play
this game and WWII is likely to have a
slightly different result. PC
copy of the arcade original. You have a
limited number of bullets to shoot cute
little ducks, rabbits, owls and pipes but
the action is a bit slow,
You can afford very few misses even
without the diving ducks trying to steal
your ammo. The tune is annoyingly
Screen Test
IECTRUM • ORIC • SPECTRUM*
i , iu:-:riu.-.i .u.-,] iH.j iU..j
tremendous 1 .'.
Now Psion have gone and ruined the
fun. This isn't a game - it's the real thing.
No longer can you enjoy imagining the
crowd there cheering you on - you
actually see them, yes, complete with
heads turning left and right as Ihe ball
bounces across the court.
Instead of a line you have an actual
player, scurrying around the court with
time the ‘swing racket' key is pressed,
the racket changes from forehand to
backhand position, or vice versa. This
means that if the ball is speeding the
quick swing of the racket to your other
side and then swing again to make
The ball itself appears to have been in
use an awfully long time, because it's
black. But it moves beautifully around
the court complete with a shadow to
reveal its height. So you can tell when
The action is taken from a Wimblr
of the future where jumbo-rackets ! „
been replaced by mega-rackets - the your shot is going to hit the:
racket head is about half the size of the watch when it does - a ball-boy
player. This is very useful if you want to • '
actually hit the ball.
Making a stroke takes a little practice:
' " ' ’ ' Ihe ball
he right
right-
and picks up the ball!
light that's good for a giggle,
e instructions say that it’s
(forehand position
handed) '' '
the ball comes over me net you move
into position by running forward, back.
' ' tr right. Then at the right
„ „ ling of your swing, and whether
;o the left (backhand). As you're moving when you hit the ball.
I found this took considerable prac
:e to achieve intentionally. But it's
remarkable how well the spirit of the
you swing the racket. Pow! The ball game is captured. You can rush to the
SEPTEMBER 1984
wrong-foot your opponent.
The program's attention to detail is
also impressive - you can play either
against the computer, or against another
human. The game is scored authentical-
ly, including tie-breaks if a set reaches
6-all.
Serving alternates correctly, and the
players even change ends every two
games, although fortunately they skip
their one-minute rests.
You can play one. three or five-set
matches, and there are three levels of
play - quarter-finals, semis, and the
final. On the higher levels the ball moves
I have to admit it, my 1974 version of
video tennis has been improved upon.
Came, set and match to Psion ... but f
wonder what computer tennis will be
like in 1994? CA
GRAPHICS 9
SOUND 4
ORIGINALITY 7
LASTING INTEREST 9 I
OVERALL 9 |
PC GAMES 51
SLOGGER SOFTWARE
MACHINE CODE GAMES FOR BBC
A MAZE IN SPACE
'b; ELECTRON, SPECTRUM 16/48K
DOGFIGHT
Dogfight and A Maze In Space together
Cassette - £14.95 Disc - £1 6.95
All prices include
VAT and postage
Only £5.95
iCTRUM • SPECTRUM • SPECTRH
ll KOSMIC KANGA
SPECTRUM 48K
CONTROL: KEYS, CURS, SINC
FROM: MICROMANIA. £5.95
A kangaroo... from space? Surely not.
But there it was, bouncing around the
moon in search of its spaceship.
Kanga sets out from the Earth and has
to bounce his way from screen to screen
to journey to the moon. You bounce
automatically and can jump higher or
lower and backwards or forwards.
Kanga starts at an airport and must get
across it as it scrolls from right to left
On the way he can pick up bonus points
by passing through bags, bottles and
other airport paraphernalia. These can
be on the ground, on the tops of build-
ings or suspended in the air on floating
platforms.
Meanwhile bombs, ambulances and
aircraft must be avoided since they can
interrupt him in mid-hop, costing a life
in the process. The bombs must be
carefully watched for since they can
appear on platforms in place of bonus
Most obstacles can be dealt with by
firing boxing gloves at them. However
bombs can’t be ‘knocked out’ like this.
If Kanga manages to survive his air-
port ordeal then he can proceed to
!» ATHLET E
SPECTRUM 48K
CONTROL: CURS. KEMP, S
theai
FROM: BUFFER MICRO, £5.50
Another in the spate of Track and Field
copies, but this doesn't measure up to
the arcade original or Micro Olympics,
reviewed elsewhere in this issue.
Five events have to be completed, the
100 metres. 400 metres, 110 metres
hurdles and 400 metres hurdles against
There is none of the adrenalin pump-
ing thumping of keyboards or joysticks.
Your speed in the races is determined by
your chosen effort between one and
nine. However you only have so much
power to cover the distance and there-
fore have to ration your effort carefully.
It makes the game less harsh on the
hardware and more dependent on skill
rather than on wrist power. But this also
means it is far less exciting.
The program runs through the title
screens for every event and you can
spend almost as much time waiting for
these as you can playing the game.
The limitations of power mean you
spend most of the running races just
watching three badly animated men
jogging across a white picture with two
lines across it No grass, no crowd, no
distance markers, no sound. Nothing to
Lli-HIIIHJHII
CAME: TORNADO LOW LEVEL
MACHINE: SPECTRUM 4BK
CONTROL: KEYS, CURS, KEMP, SINC
FROM: VORTEX SOFTWARE, £5.95
This is the first game from Vortex since
their blockbuster Android 2 and has
been eagerly awaited, not least at PCG.
The action takes place in a small
wrap-around landscape interspersed
with lakes. On the ground are buildings,
trees, electricity pylons, poles and walls.
The buildings though are unconvincing
and are just red and white blobs.
Your Tornado starts on a runway and
after fuelling can take off into the scroll-
ing scenery in search of five enemy bases
which you have to destroy. The fighter
moves as in Zaxxon with left and right
banking but you can explore the land-
scape in any direction.
At its flight ceiling the plane can avoid
all but the tallest buildings and the
poles. But to destroy the five bases you
must descend to a very low level and fly
directly over the disc that passes for a
The plane has two flight modes with
the wings cither forward for landing and
slow flight, or swept back for faster and
higher scoring flight, nitre is smooth
movement and an excellent shadow of
pjane zooms over the ground as
tou fly.
Some nice touches are the lakes
which are below the land level, so
surface skimmers must beware of cliff
walls. There is also a bridge to fly under
which is great fun to have a go at.
On the second mission a base is
placed in the water, which makes it a lot
harder to get at. On later missions the
awkward positioning of discs makes
There are no bullets and bombs in this
game but once you get familiar with the
controls it's a great program- BW
Shown a radar screen, alti-
meter, fuel gauge, time limit and the
number of enemy bases remaining on
the right of the display. The fuel can be
replenished by landing on the runway
again and the time limit’s no problem.
GR APHICS
SOUND
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTER EST
OVERALL
nun
rmnn
inzm
miit
BEAKY AND TH E EGG
SNATCHERS
SPECTRUM 48K
KEYS, K EMP, PRO, SINC
FANTASY SOFTWARE, £5.50
the m
Beaky is an Andromedan Armed Con-
dor engaged in a desperate struggle to
preserve his species on the planet
Crackit. There are 12 different screens
to get through, involving collecting the
eggs, incubating them and, finally, rear-
ing the chicks:
The first stage has you recovering'
stolen eggs from the nasty Egg Snatch-
ers. You must shoot them in flight and
catch the falling egg.
When the egg is in your grasp you
must swoop down to your nest and drop
it in. To make life that bit harder you
As with allchicks there must be a time
for incubation. Beaky has the task of
shooting (yes shooting!) snowflakes be-
fore they drop into his nest and lower
the temperature.
The rare spotted Froogle will try to
drop the temperature of the nest by
spitting nitrogen bombs into it This
creature hops around in between cat
naps, your only hope of destroying him
being to shoot the coloured spinning
spheres which move around the screen.
The third stage has you trying to feed
your helpless chicks with the green
worms that wriggle around the screen
Rearing its ugly head is yet another
Egg Snatcher who will deplete
If the food supply falls to zero
then a chick is lost - the other chicks get
hungry and eat it!
If you manage to sustain a good food
supply the chicks mature and you start
over with the second generation (there
being four to do overall).
The presentation on Beaky is superb.
There are user-definable keys and all
major joystick interfaces are supported.
Beaky will arouse the maternal in-
stinct and has the right blend of action
and strategy to have you constantly
comingbackforjustonemoretry. TT
food supply by dropping missiles ir
GRAPH ICS
s ound'
ORIGINALITY
LASTING INTEREST
OVERALL
SEPTEMBER 1984
Screen Test
IM • SPECTRUM • SPECTRUM
further screens. These screens all follow
(he same pattern as the first but the
other characters are changed.
Every third screen is a platform screen
where the usual opposition have been
replaced by a bouncing ball which is just
as lethal.
If Kanga can get through the desert,
ocean and other earthly hazards he'll
eventually reach the moon and his
spaceship.
get even my Grandad’s pacemaker beat-
ing faster.
The hurdles involve rather more skill
- you have to time jumps carefully to
clear them. But your character gets
hidden by the hurdles when leaping
them and disappears completely if he
falls over one.
You also collapse in a heap if you run
out of power, which is all too easy to do
with your apparently feeble resources.
The hammer throw is the most enjoy-
able event. It’s fun carefully timing the
release of the weight - but one good
event can't make up for the inade-
quacies of the rest of the program. BW
CONQUEST A tactical game which even veteran
players will find both challenging and rewarding.
Mediterranean Europe is divided into grid squares, Your
aim. as Emperor, is to gam 1 00 squares of territory as quickly as
possible- at the same time dealing with Barbarian counter
attacks, plagues, civil war and rival Emperors.
5 levels of skill, plus a continuous 'Conquest' game where
all the difficulty levels are thrown in together.
3D BAT ATTACK Anal I action, 3 dimensional
maze game where you gather up blocks of gold, at the same
time pitting your wits against vicious vampire bats whose
only purpose in life is to locate, hunt and kill you.
4 levels of skill. At each level the game gets faster and
more complicated, and the vampires more dangerous.
Soft we're not
Are you ready for CheetahSoft?
There’s only one way to find out.
But be warned: these vampire bats know
a good meal when they see one. And our
friend with the ✓p . - »
scythe has had years ^ h OGlQh bOl T/
of experience...
So don't play unless you're ready
to play the game for real. Because you’ll
find there’s one sure thing about
CheetahSoft: Soft we’re not.
ll!§l85§§Si§& 2 ood stores.
AFTERTHESE.
THE REST IS KIDS STUFF.
Screen Test
There's no doubt about it, this is the best
>n of Defender yet released on the
Spectrum. It takes over the mantle from
Crystal’s Invasion of the Body Snatch-
as for two reasons: it offers sound to
those who don't have a Fuller soundbox
(as well as those who do), and it’s more
playable. Invasion was unbelievably
hard to play - far harder than the arcade
game itself. Star Blitz is a lot less
frustrating.
For those who were bom yesterday,
the idea behind Defender is that you're
protecting a group of humanoids from
being kidnapped by spaceships known
as landers. You fly your craft across a
scrolling horizontal landscape blasting
DRjUERTANKS
Mi l SPECTRUM 48K
KEYS, SINC
SINCLAIR, £7.95
Interested in preserving our rich
architectural heritage? Outraged by the
property developers' mindless destruc-
tion of beautiful buildings? Keen on
playing around in tunnels? Fed up with
questions?
Then Driller Tanks may be the game
for you. Not for me, but then I’m a bit of
vandal and I couldn’t really care less
whether the Summer Palace - a mixture
of Taj Mahal and Brighton Pavilion - is
undermined by the fire-breathing Mam-
and their 'mindless cohorts’, the
Skorks.
The palace lies above a network of
tunnels, where those Mammuts and
Skorks live. The Mammuts are over-
the enemy and keeping a special watch
for any humanoids being lifted away.
When this happens, they cry out, and if
you're clever - and fast - you can shoot
the ship carrying them, pick them up
before they hit the ground, and then
land them back on the surface.
If you fail, the humanoids turn into
mutants which are a much more vicious
type of alien. As the game wears on you
grown purple heads with enormous
voracious mouths while the Skorks are
crab-like things whose only wish in life
is to 611 in unblocked tunnels.
Which is where you come in. You
control the Driller Tank. Your mission -
to descend into the tunnels and destroy
these evil creatures before they emerge.
Your tank has a whirling pointed nose
across many other hostile craft:
swarmers, baiters, bombers and pods.
All these appear in Star Blitz.
One of the best features of this vei
is the control system. This closely fol-
lows the arcade pattern: up, down and
reverse with your left hand; thrust, fire
and smart-bomb with your right. The
keys are evenly placed. Even so, r
comers will need much practice.
One disappointment is that the sc
ing isn't completely smooth. 1 also
found the tiny radar panel at the top of
the screen very hard to make use of.
Never mind. For Defender fanatics this
is a must. SC
LASTING INTEREST
to clear the tunnels and has an
Cannon to stun the Mammuts before
delivering the coup de grace by crushing
And that’s about it. Down you gi
Chug, chug, chug. Dig, dig, dig. Freeze,
crush. Of course, it’s not quite so easy
because your tank moves mucl
slowly and, if you’re using the keyboard,
you'll find the controls unresponsive.
Driller Tanks is disappointing be-
cause it could easily have been so much
better. It needed variety badly. As it is,
the graphics are pretty enough but the
sound is annoyingly repetitive.
3D BAT ATTACK
■Ml SPECTRU M 48K
KE YS, SINC
CHEETAH S OFT, £6.95
issette inlay says Bat Attach is the
first of a series of tapes which are more
realistic and more challenging than the
games you've been playing so far.’ You’d
be batty to believe it.
Admittedly, the first few seconds are
impressive, as the title looms toward
you and tilts itself upright. But what
follows is simply another rendering of a
well-tried theme: the 3D maze game.
The scenario is that you’re inside
Dracula’s castle to collect the gold bars
which litter the Door. But your attempts
at burglary are put in jeopardy by a
collection of bats, against whom you
can only protect yourself by means of
cloves of garlic.
What actually happens is that you are
given a simple 3D view of the corridor in
which you are standing, revealing exits
to right and left, and any gold or garlic
which may be lying on the Door.
You can move in any direction, or
rotate to see what lies to your left, right
You can also get an overview of the
entire maze to see how many gold bars
you've collected. A separate 'radar' con-
tinually indicates the position of Lhe
bats as they close in on you.
But although this is all compt
done, you may be disappointed by the
complete lack of animation. When you
move, the screen simply switches direct-
ly to the new position. And the bats
themselves - when you see them, just get
larger as they approach - no Dapping
wings or drooling mouths.
Those who lack Sinclair’s Interface 2
may also take exception to having to use
the cursor keys for control - plus Caps
Shift when you want to rotate .
There arc a total of four mazes, linked
by a lift. The bats become increasingly
aggressive as you progress through each
successive maze. But you, I fear, may
become increasingly bored.
PCCAMIS ST
SPECTRUM • SPECTRI
whose English was as inept as his
detection.
You play the part of the Pink Panther
who wants to steal the Purple Puma, a
priceless gemstone. Steadfast in their
„ . . attempt to foil you are Inspector
rust, a trench lesson. Les Flics trans- Cleuseau and his trusty gendarmes,
latcs into English as The Cops'. So why The game begins with a maze-chase
not just call it that, you might well ask. sequence in which you have to escape
The reason is that the game is based on from the pursuing squad car and enter
the Pink Panther films in which Peter one of the nine rooms containing va-
Sellcrs played Inspector Clouseau. rious objects to help you in your crime.
CAMS! WAR OF THE WORLDS
MACHIMK: SPECTRUM 48K
CONTROL: CUR S, KEYS
FROM: CRl, £7.95
The concept of acting out one of the
most dramatic stories of all science
fiction is very attractive, but this game is
sadly lacking in the excitement of the
radio show which threw America into a
nationwide panic.
The aim of the game is to go in search
of your fiance Carrie. You have to reach
six locations in the right order and on
the right days. Finally you're meant to
find the Martian encampment on the
seventh day where all will be revealed as
to the late of you, Carrie and the rest of
the human race.
The program is a graphic adventure,
although there is little adventure. The
occasional single letter command or
CAME: RAI NY DAY
it SPECTRUM 48K
Ll KEYS, CURS . SING
PROMi CCS, £
If it's pouring with rain outside, and the
dog’s just chewed up your cassette of
Revenge oi the Mutant Carrots, then
you might be tempted to load up Rainy
Holditrighlthere! Are you SURE you
want to do this? Are you man - or
woman - enough to cope with ten
different mini-jigsaw puzzles? Or a
Mastermind-clone? Or the dreaded
‘Reaction Tester'?
That’s what you'll be faced with in
Rainy Day. The jigsaw puzzles are
attractive little pictures that your Spec
trum has muddled up and which you
must rearrange against the clock. Very
enjoyable - if you like jigsaw puzzles.
CAME: SPACE COMM AND
MACHINE: SPECTRUM 4BK
CONTROL: KEYS, KEMP. SINC
EROM: VIRGIN, £5.95
PROM: CCS. £2.99
In Space Command it is your objective hit the foi
to defend the domed city for
possible against the hordes
whose sole purpose in life is
you You know the sorl Although the city looks good ant
Once the game gets started, you are
presented with the display, which apart
from the aliens never changes through-
out the game. The lower portion of the
screen is taken up by your city which is
protected by a force field, As the aliens
becomes weaker
AME: DEATHSTAR
ACHINE: SPEC TRUM 48K
Ll KEYS, CURS, KEM P, SINC
»» AM AZING GAMES, £5.50
The packaging of this game looked tatty.
but j
erhaps there
program just waiting to get ouL Then I
noticed it was a 3D trench game. Unori-
ginal I thought but it still might be good.
I wailed anxiously lor this miracle of
technological achievement to load
Finally I was ready to go winging mv
way in Luke Skywalker’s wake after the
evij Darth Vader.
But then I started playing, if the
dictionary definition of the word
stretches to this program. A flashing
border appeared boxing the screen en-
tirely. and flickering like a bad home
movie. My ship dropped into the fore-
ground and despite iny best efforts
I’m tired, so tired. It was the 1 500 metres
that did for me, coming after all those
other exhausting events. Let’s face it.
I’m no Daley Thompson.
It all started in the 100 metres - my
best event. I had high hopes or a gold
medal. But it’s really a rather frustrating
experience racing against a computer
which ‘In all cases. ..achieves the cur-
rcntworld record'.
Still, when the starling pistol - or beep
sounded I pounded away at the keys to
move my legs. But to no avail. As hard
and as fast as I pressed, my little legs
would not carry me quickly enough. The
computer recorded a lime of under 10
seconds while 1 breasted the tape in a
pathetic 14.5. Disheartening, very dis-
heartening.
Better luck in one of the field events
Screen Testi
M • SPECTRUM • SPECTRUM
Screen Test
SPECTRUM • SPECTRUM •
SIP
with the loser also losing his piece.
Pawn x pawn produces a scene in
which the computer’s helicopter tries to
bomb your tank before you can reach a
city. The graphics are pretty, but the
gameplay is minimal. Piece x different
piece results in a dire version of Gala-
I’m afraid I can't see Karpov and
Kasparov taking it up. PC
CAME: WORSE THINGS HAPPEN AT
SEA
MACHINE: SPECTRUM 48K
CONTROL: KEY. CURS, SINC, AGP
FROM: SILVERSOFT, £5.95
I used to have terrifying dreams about
being on board a ship which was gra-
dually springing leaks, and 1 had to tear
around trying to fix them. This game is
my nightmare come true.
The terror begins when you, a service
robot, materialize in the bridge of the
ship. This is one of the ship’s 11 com;
partments. only one of which can be
displayed on screen at once. You glance
at your instruments, and see that - ,'aagh!
- water is pouring into the ship’s hold!
So off you run, pausing only to grab a
scaling patch, and fumble your way
through the ship's compartments until
you reach the leak. Drop the patch onto
the leak. Phew! But already the water
level's high, causing you to lose power -
better get out fast!
You leave, but then,. .oh no! You
forgot to close the , door. The water’s
pouring through into this room. Quick!
Seal the door and get to the pump. But
where’s the pump handle? You left one
in another room. No time to get it,
because your power's running out.
Help! Must get back to the bridge to
recharge.
Just jit tithe! Andnow if you're lucky
you can dart back to one of the water-
filled rooms and pump it clear. If not,
the ship's in danger of going down.
But,. .panic! Another leak has sprung!
And water’s entering the bridge! If it gels
at all deep the recharger will no longer
work. That'S it! You’re out of power
The ship sinks with thousands of
pounds of cargo on board.
Worse Things Happen At Sea is a
brilliantly original, panic game. It’s so
playable you can start enjoying it from
the word go. yet ’as it goes on, you have
more and more to worry about - enough
to turn even a skillful player into a
gibbering wreck.
After learning to cope with leaks and
pump handles on your first turn, you
must then on your second turn lake time
to keep steering the ship on its proper
course. And on your third, worse things
Still happen - including the engine
overheating.
The Screen is very cleverly designed:
the bottom half shows the compartment
you're in complete with leaks, pump,
and rising water level. The upper half
has a number of indicators including the
robot’s remaining power, ship's direc-
tion, distance to harbour, and, most
important, the water level in each com-
partment
The robot runs around in a rather
comic jerky style, accompanied by
frenetic sound and some attractive
tunes. It's particularly enjoyable watch-
ing hint pump out a compartment.
Doors are quite difficult to close - you
often accidentally walk through them
instead, which can be fatal. But you can
avoid opening and closing them, by a
power-consuming mode of travel called
'supa-step'.
Many of Silvcrsoft’s previous efforts
have simply been copies of arcade
games. This one is in a different class
It'shorrifyinglygbbd. CA
aj-i-jiiigijniiLasffff
Artie make no mean claims for this
game: ‘It is’, they modestly say, 'the
latest and greatest and most exciting
chess game ever developed.’ It may
possibly be the latest, but the other two
adjectives certainly do not apply.
In effect, you get two games. Option 1
gives you straightforward computer
chess: six levels and a reasonable game.
What gives you a hint about the
nature of Option 2 is the pieces: pawns
A STEAL AT THE PRICE!
“It's a gem" . . . said Popular
Computing Weekly when it
reviewed Ruby Runabout.
NEW RELEASES AT £1 .99 INCLUDE:
SPECTRUM 48K
CODE BOOK CAPER Graphic adventure
SNIPER Strategy wargame
TEXAS Tl 99/4A
WOOMPHiThe minefield game
SNAKES & LADDERS Computer board game for the kids
TORPEDO ATTACK Action filled arcade game
TEXAS TI99/4A: £5.50
TOMB OF MYCLOPS (Ext Basic) Ingenious Adventure
ROCK STORM Arcade Action great graphics & voice
compatibility
DRAGON 32: £5.50
PRATFALL PEARLY Graphic Adventure
STAR CARGO Space Arcade Action
SPECTRUM 48K: £5.50
REICHSWALD-The American offensive on the Rhine -
March 1 945. Superb strategy game from MW
GAMESWORLD. Easy to learn, impossible to masterl
AND ALL OTHER TITLES ARE GREAT VALUE TOO!
RE ICHSWALD
Crossing the Rhine, 19*5.
ASK FOR OUR GAMES AT YOUR LOCAL COMPUTER SHOP OR DIRECT FROM:
SCORPIO GAMESWORLD 11 fennel street, Manchester M43du
Telephone 061 -834 2292.
Distributor & Trade Enquiries Welcome We welcome high quality programs for any computer
SEPTEMBER 1984 PCGAMES 61
Screen Test
SPECTRUM • SPECTRUM • SI
efore reading this review, take a look
: the screen shots on this page, Not
tally sensational, are they. Glance at
te graphics and sound ratings. Pretty
ordinary Now scratch your head and
ask yourself why on earth Quo Vadis is
PCG's Game of theMonth.
will have you exploring a system of
nderground caverns no less than 1,012
treens big. That makes it the largest
n iL They say that the biggest of the
tine's 118 caverns is larger than the
itire playing area of Alligata's exten-
ve Son (if Blogger. And if the knight
ho carries out the quest is scaled up to
x feet tall, the total distance he would
The tape version of the game uses a
turbo loader to load in about four
ites, but on our prc-producti
copy this was not yet working relial
Softek are also printing a glossy book
Making a map is probably the o
hancc of solving the game - I do
•nyonc could remember the details
in underground network which is
creens teen and 22 wi-ic Especially
fixed locations. You will also occa-
sionally discover riddles written on the
cavern walls. Answering these will pro-
vide clues to the location of the sceptre.
One slight disappointment is the
knight himself. For something which is
on screen the whole time, he's not very
interesting to look at, and his animation
is simple. Similarly the sound, although
effective, is not quite up to the standard
of some recent 64 games - it consists of
an eerie tune and muffled explosions
whenyou destroy monsters.
But sound and graphics aren't the
point. The appeal of Quo Vadis is the
incredible challenge it offers. So far
Commodore 64 owners have been
starved of the hugely popular explora-
tion games such as Atic Atac, Sabre
Wulf and Jet Set Willy. Now the tables
are turned. They have at their disposal a
game which a Spectrum's memory prob-
ably couldn't hold. CA
PC GAMES 63
' packing i
j If you can stand the nerve tingling excitement get your game from all good computer dealers.
Distributed by: Centresoft Tel: 021-520 7591 and R & R Software Tel: 0226 710414
Gremlin Graphics
buy these games at your peril!
Peter Harrap
Some of the games that have made their
way to the White Wizard's Fortress of
Solitude this month are pure rubbish.
First into the bin was The Five Trea-
sures of llyzar from Space Age Soft-
This ‘original and exciting adventure’
is about as original and exciting as a
spell for making lizards burp. ‘You are
not limited to single-letter commands’
boasts the press release. Big deal. You
' limited to a very small
vocabulary and an extremely repetitive
scenario.
The display shows .
te room you happen
FORGET
THESE
TREASURES!
Hope, which has been stolen, and res-
tore it to Mount Olympus.
Compared to Five Treasures o /
drawing of Ryzar, Odyssey of Hope seemed like
. . in. You can game of the year, In fact, it’s a rather
i 'Olde Englishe Text’ average adventure that is perked up
al Spectrum character sc
nessage tells you the number the sound effects.
c surprising additic
First,
ects.
Standing in the temple, you hear a
hissing sound between inputs. Hang
about too long and you get bitten by a
mother location,
t stick around to
and which direction you'
— : direction is really pretty pointless
the program doesn’t understand snake. After that,
words like North, South etc. You have you can be sure I
‘Go forward’ or ‘Go back-
ovc about. Most of the time
you type in instructions you are told that
‘You can't do that here', without it being
at all clear why you can't.
Every time you enter a new room
another ugly line drawing, featuring a
number of blank walls and a door or
two, is Dashed onto the screen. Some-
times you appear to be in a new room
but the display tells you that you are still
in the old one. All very confusing.
Your task is to collect the five trea-
sures of Ryzar from the five different
levels below the city, but however excit-
ing the objective may sound, the game, 1 Being stung to death by savage bees
assure you, ‘ ' ■ ” ~ ' '
it what the buzzing sound w
Classic
s getting rather depressed by this
ly idea of a Greek holiday.
The responses are a bit slow in Mi
tech’s game, but otherwise I found it .
" ■' if rather unexciting ge ”
itage. but the next offering. Odyssey of thing that annoyed m
as the rt
jpe, from Martech, cheered
considerably.
Martech's game looks different from
the start. The instructions are printed on
the pages of a book that turn as you read
them. The adventure itself has scrolling insulting to half the population,
text with attractive graphics at the top of
the page that draw instantly and arc Wild West
among the best adventure graphics I've However, it's ver
the Sinclair machine. in West, a
my entry ‘Use loom’. ‘What!’, the
program replied, ‘That's women’s
work!'. The assumption that only men.
boys and wizards play adventures '
only incorrect, but also, 1 think,
little
:r unusual game, a
with a real-time ele-
ment which can make play rather bizar-
The setting is an old, decaying town in
the Wild West, and droves of gun-toting
bank robbers are on the loose. When
you encounter one you have to tyj
‘SHOOT’ at top speed or you're liable to
bite the dust with a bullet in your back.
Since we wizards have always prefer-
red spells to touch-typing, this proved a
most demanding ordeal.
Even stranger is that when you die
you are simply returned to the starting
point minus all your possessions, it
eluding your gun. So you must in
mediately hare back to the site of your
death where you will discover ‘a familiar
corpse' from which you can recoup all
your property.
Unfortunately there are some
tions you can’t return to safely should
you die in one of these you might as well
reload the tape (takes 15 minutes)
although you do have the option of
loading a previously saved position.
Since you have 30 lives, it's not lo
before the locations you visit are popu-
lated by ‘familiar corpses’ of you and
your trusty steed and. as the text k
telling you, the stench is awful' .
Another unusual feature is
should you happen to pick up a pa
cards, you’re likely to be challenged to a
game of Pontoon, the rules of which are
explained in the cassette inlay. You can 1
keep playing as long as you like and if
se you'i
er have
. t happens. Mind
you, if you win the robbers don’t seem tc
take that very kindly either.
Other features which won’t appeal tc
the purist are the rather bald nature ol
the descriptions and the fact that many
common words such as ‘Wait’ and,
more ominously, ‘Help’ are not under-
stood. But the instructions claim £
vocabulary of up to 200 words, and
there seems to be quite a large number of
locations.
The aim in West is to track down the
bank robbers’ loot and escape from the
town in one piece. Could appeal to
anyone fed up with battling dragons,
You have to travel around the classic- another company jumping on the trolls, and serpents -but look out for the
al world of ancient Greece hunting for
re bandwagon, Talent Software, rattlesnake!
P C GAMES 67
Dorcas Software are a company I
haven't stumbled across before. Their
game Oracle’s Cave for the 64 is one of
those ‘hit points and heal wounds'
programs where fyou go for a wild romp
through a maze of caves, attacking ogres
and cackling with glee at the sight of
gold.
Dorcas' game is different because of
the quality of the graphics. There’s a
display of the cave you find yourself in at
the top of the screen. Below is a status
display and a map of the caves which is
added to as you explore I hem.
In each location you arc presented
with different choices depending on
what you're up against. Commands arc
entered with single key-presses and the
results are then displayed graphically on
the screen. Move straight ahead and a
little figure walks hesitantly along the
tunnel. He can also climb up and down
ladders, fight with assorted monsters
and, of course, collect treasure, food,
potions, and all the other curiosities to
be found in your local cave complex.
The White Wizard is not, as I’ve said
before, a great fan of this type of game. I
prefer to have the opportunities (and
even, sometimes, the frustrations) of
proper text input.
I also prefer to have something more
to do than just go around collecting
treasure and fighting. However the
graphics did add to the atmosphere and
I enjoyed it more than most programs of
this type.
Pot of gold
The troubles at Dragon came at a parti-
cularly unfortunate time for adventure
players because Dragon Data have just
produced two excellent games for the
Welsh machine.
Shenanigans and Sea Quest are
among the first games for the Dragon
with decent text/graphics displays. You
get a picture in the top half of the screen
and a scrolling text-window below, with
both upper and lower case letters.
The graphics are great - and in Sea
Quest they even boast the occasional
animated effect as waves cross the
screen, or a waterfall plunges down onto
Both games have you searching for
treasure. Shenanigans has, as the name
may suggest to you, a distinctly Irish
flavour. Searching for the pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow, you’ll have to
solve a number of tricky puzzles with
the aid of a decent vocabulary and an
excellently presented program.
What I liked about both these games
was the logic behind them. In Shenani-
gans one of the first puzzles concerns a
mail box. How do you open your mail-
box in the apartment building unless
you know which mail box is yours? The
White Wizard struggled with this for
quite some time, and eventually gave up
in despair.
The solution (given me by a very
helpful man at Dragon) was so blinding-
ly obvious and so logical that I couldn't
help laughing. What was it, I hear you
cry? Check out next month’s tips grid to
find out. Meanwhile, rush out and buy
the game.
Sea Quest is every bit as enjoyable as
Shenanigans, instead of leprechauns
you’ll be rubbing shoulders with mer-
maids and sharks, buying goods on
credit, and finally humping your hard-
earned treasure back to a cave on the
beach. Definitely a game to dive for.
Both programs are two word input
only, but this never seems to be a
limitation and each game is quite clear
about telling you what it understands
and what it doesn't. These two adven-
tures are easily comparable to games on
the Spectrum in presentation and con-
tent. I only hope that despite Dragon's
troubles they will continue to be readily
available in the shops.
Ah well, as Mark Ormiston pointed
out in a letter last month, Dragons arc a
persecuted minority. And on that note,
fellow adventurers, I take my leave and
wish you well,
DVENTURE NEWS ■ ADVENTURE NEWS ■
Reincarnation
of Cornell
Camell Software, who
went into liquidation in
June, have had their
adventures saved by In-
novision, a company set
up by Mastertronics.
Wrath of Magra,
Black Crystal and Vol-
canic Dungeon will all
be sold by Innovision,
who also have the rights
to the other Camell titles.
Wrath of Magra should
be the first re-rclease and
will retail at its original
£11.95 price.
Level 9's return
The new blockbuster
from Level 9, Return to
Eden , is expected in the
shops in the next few
weeks. Significantly, the
company are departing
from their text-only
M PC GAMES
tradition and are plan-
ning to include graphics
in the new game,
Return to Eden is the
sequel to Snowball , and
will be available for a
wide range of machines
including possible ver-
sions for the Memotech
and the Amstrad. Only
the Spectrum and the
Commodore 64 versions
will have graphics. The
game will cost £9.90.
Doom for '64
Artie’s well-known series
of adventures, including
Ship of Doom and
Ground Zero , are to be
released on the Com-
modore 64.
The games will be
slightly enhanced with
colour text plus save to
tape and save to disc
options. Eye of Baine,
their new graphics
adventure, is currently
being released for the
Spectrum and all prog-
rams will cost £6.95.
Korn II arrives
Fans of Heroes of Ham
from Interceptor will be
pleased to know that
there’s a sequel in the
pipeline. Called Empire
of Karn, it features in-
stant graphics, an en-
larged vocabulary, and
follows on where Heroes
left off. It should be in the
shops for the Commod-
ore 64 in September,
price £7.00.
Meanwhile Intercep-
tor have also released a
follow-up to their Spec-
trum adventure Message
from Andromeda. The
game should cost around
£5.50. Plot details were
not available at the time
of going to press.
Help for headbangers
Stop banging your head against the wall
in Snowball, Ship of Doom, and The
Greedy Dwarf. Check out this month's
timely tips.
The clue codes each identify a square
on the grid. Start at that square and read
every other letter until you have a
complete sentence.
When you reach the end of a row, go
back to the beginning of the next one
and cany on. If you reach the bottom of
the grid, start again at the top.
1. Can’t get the key from behind the
glass in Artie's Ship of Doom? You’ll
need the sonic screwdriver for this, (clue
codcBl).
2. Keep getting lolled in the Cave of
Echoes in Goldstar’s excellent adven-
ture The Greedy Dwarf ? No problem,
(clue code A2)
3. Want to get past the Waldroid at
the bottom of Jacob’s Ladder in Snow-
ball? Now you can. (clue code D2).
SEPTEMBER 1984
Adventureworld
The Wizard's
Mailbag
The White Wizard has been flooded
with offers of assistance and cries for
help this month. We'll be launching our
new 'Helpline' column in the next issue
- in the meantime there’s just room to
mention the following courageous
adventurers.
First, an honourable mention of
Stuart Henderson of 61 Stevenson
Drive, Edinburgh EH 1 1 3DU, who says:
‘I would be honoured and delighted to
help people who are stuck with cither
The Hobbit or TKV.’ Thank you Stuart,
and yes, there do seem to be a few
anguished cries coming from the Gob-
lin's Dungeon. If you can hear me in
there, prisoners, drop Stuart a line and
perhaps you’ll be out in time for the next
D. Parkcs of Stoke-on-Trent is having
trouble with Adventure International's
Incredible Hulk, as are a number of
other readers. The game holds no diffi-
culties for Colin Sharp of Hitchin, who
writes: 'I think this is Scott Adams' best
adventure yet, difficult yet logical. These
hints may put troubled Hulks out of
their misery: The domes - the same yet
so different. The egg - tasty. The ring -
scratch your head about this one. The
bees - wave them goodbye.'
Colin goes on to give a list of games
which he can give help on. These are:
Level Nine's Colossal Adventure, Scott
Adams' Voodoo Castle and Pirate
Adventure, plus The Hobbit, and Chan-
nel 8's Golden Raton and Circus. His
address is 53 Silverbirch Avenue, Stot-
fold, Hitchin, Herts. Many thanks, Col-
in, and I'm sure there’ll be some fellow
adventurers who will need your expert
Interceptor's Heroes of Karn on the
Commodore 64 has also prompted a
good deal of correspondence. 'I cannot
find any possible way of getting past the
vampire bat, pirate, or giant spider, let
alone the witch!' writes Michael Bunk-
er, of 20 Minsterley Drive, Acklam,
Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS5 8QR-
My goodness, Michael, you are having
problems. Can anyone out there drop
him a line and put him nut of his
misery?
George Williams, of 32 Meadow
Road. Romford, Essex RM7 OLP, is
having trouble completing Rescue from
Castle Dread for the VIC 20. ‘Tht
problem is that when 1 ask for help it'
sometimes replies “Use Magic!". I have
tried everything that I can think of,
including abracadabra. Can you please
tell me what this clue means?’. Well.
George, as a member of the Magician's
Union I am forbidden to disclose any
information relating to magical prac-
tises. Any non-union members out
there, however, may be able to help you.
That’s all I've got room for this month .
Don't forget - if you’re stuck, stumped,
or stalled then just jot down your prob-
lem on a postcard and send it to: The
White Wizard, c/o Personal Computer
Games, 62 Oxford Street. LONDON
W1A 2HG. Remember to include your
name and address, and of course the
name of the game you’re stuck in and
the machine you’re using.
Keep those letters coming!
Adventurers' Guide Book
Another useful publication from the
Duckworth stable, produced by Mike
Gerrard, is the Adventurer’s Notebook,
a slim spiral-bound volume designed to
aid the player in any quest he may
choose to undertake.
The book falls into two parts. The first
contains general notes and hints on
playing adventures and a survey of the
The second section contains a series
of blank adventure ‘maps’, laid out in
grid form, which you can use to map out
whatever game you are playing.
At first sight, this book seems like a
great idea, but i have a few reservations
about it. The first is that some of the
information is very incomplete. To say,
for example, that the Dragon is ‘a
machine that doesn't rate very highly for
adventure players' is rather wide of the
mark - no mention, for example of the
Dan Diamond series.
My other reservation is about the
maps. More and more adventures these
days are not mappable on a simple grid
lay-out. This doesn’t mean, of course,
that the grids arc useless, just that
sometimes you will find yourself having
to resort to all sorts of symbols to make
sense of your wanderings.
That said, Mike Gerrard's book is a
neat package, and at £3.95 it isn't going
to bum too big a hole in your pocket.
ADVENTURE NEWS ADVENTURE NEWS
Just a taste of the graphics from Mel-
bourne House’s up'n’coming adven-
ture Castle of Terror. To be released in
mid-October for the Commodore 64,
this game looks like setting a new
standard in adventure game graphics.
The program also features complex
input and sound effects as you battle
your way to Dracula's castle to rescue
a damsel in distress. Sounds like a
good deal at £9.95.
Mega sorcery
Micromcga, producers of
Deathchase and Full
Throttle for the Spec-
trum, are entering the
adventure market.
If they manage to
match the standards of
their arcade games, then
Kentilla - their first
adventure release
could be a winner. The
game has been described
as a 'sword and sorcery
game in the classic
mould' and comes with
graphics and interactive
characters. Kentilla will
cost £6.95.
Blackstar
able for the Spectrum,
Dragon 32 and 64 and
later for the BBC, Com-
modore 64, Oric Atmos
andAmstrad.
A sequel, Pyramids of
the Sun, is also under
development and should
be available by early
October for the same
Valley on
CDS arc rc-rcleasing the
excellent text adventure
Castle Blackstar, first
seen from SCR Adven-
tures. The game is avail-
Great news for Spectrum
leasing a Spectrum ver-
sion of Twin Kingdom
Valley, the popular CBM
64/BBC game with in-
teractive characters,
tricky puzzles, and 170
graphics locations.
The Spectrum version
of the game has been
‘slightly enhanced’ and is
compatible with the Cur-
After the bomb
Channel 8 are now sole
distributors for the entire
Digital Fantasia range.
What's more, they’re
bringing out two new ti-
tles, Midwinter and Af-
ter the Fire.
In After the Fire, you
have survived a nuclear
holocaust and find that
you are the only person
not affected by nuclear
radiation. Midwinter has
you in the grips of the
Ice-Age with only 12
days to melt the ice and
save the world, Both
games change hands for
£9.95 and will be avail-
able for the BBC, Oric,
Atari, Spectrum, Dragon,
Commodore 64, and
possibly - wait for it - the
Sord M5.
SEPTEMBER 1984
WE'VE GOT THE TALENT-
and our games prove it!
Amazing graphics, fast and furious action, challenging
strategy, compelling adventure— this first wave of games from
TALENT has got the lot!
Written by professional computer scientists using powerful new
programmingtechniques (which leave machine code standing),
these games have pushed home micros to the very limit!
ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME
THE GREEN, ASHBY DE I.A ZOUCH, LEICESTERSHIRE LK6 JJU
Program Library
ODORE 64 • COMMODORE 64
NAME
POSTCODE
SIGNATURE
PCG9
icBBYOND"
U
Program Library
iODORE 64 • COMMODORE 64 W
“I’ll swap four of my tapes
for your Activision!’
Noway!”
You know the feeling. A couple of plays and
the best you can hope for from so much of the
software around, is swapping it for something better.
Well, the something better has arrived.
Activision.
One thing you can be sure of. Buy any
Activision software and you’ll find you're walking slap,
bang into a totally new experience. One that lasts.
See the first titles in your usual software
BEAMRIDER • DECATHLON • KERO ■ PITFALL • PITFALL II
RIVER RAID • TOY BIZARRE • ZENJI
AcTiVisioN.
Your computer was made for us.
fMlppp
ernal ROM board porl
-Fi output part
channel found through
Good Buy
Discount
Computer
Software
Registered No. 1795113
Telephone: (0256) 51444
16 Coates Close, Brighton Hill,
Basingstoke RG22 4EE
AMAZING SOFTWARE BARGAINS BY MAIL, 100's OF TITLES AVAILABLE!
TELEPHONE ORDERS WELCOME. WRITE OR RING NOW FOR FULL DETAILS
StND SAP FOR JP TO DATE JST OF Ol.R AMA7INR RAfifiAlNS
PC GAMES 85
IRRESISTIBLE.
TWO STUNNING NEW ARCADE-STYLE GAMES
BRICKS and SQUISH
SQUISH!
by IAN SUTHERLAND
FOR ANYVIC20. £5.99 EACH
FROM ALL GOOD COMPUTER GAMES SHOPS
I 275 PENTONVILLE ROAD, LONDON N 1 9NL DISTRIBUTED BY PALACE. VIRGIN, GOLD, 69 FLEMPTON ROAD. LONDON El 0 TEL 01 -539 5566
NEW
64
GAMES
w.m.wwmm
Also available on
Disk at £9.95
author of Space Pilot.
£7.95
TRADE ENQUIRIES: ANIROG SOFTWARE LTD 29 WEST HILL DARTFORD KENT (0322) 92513/8
MAIL ORDER: 8 HIGH STREET HORLEY SURREY 24 HOUR CREDIT CARD SALES HORLEY (02934) 6083
PAYMENT BY CHEQUE P.0. ACCESS/VISA 50p POSTAGE & PACKAGING
FOR ADDED REALISM
PLAY THIS STANDING
IN THE BATH
You'll probably stay there till
someone pulls the plug!
Controlling this nautical nightmare is
stormy stuff, especially with only first
officer C-Droid to help you. Is the old
sailor worth his salt? Or is he just a
Jonah?
Dive down to your dealer now for
the answer — but be warned — this
game will send you overboard!
Silversoft Ltd., London House, 271/273 King Street, London W6 9LZ 01-748 4125
PCG Special
Which one's best for games?
IT HAPPENED LATE ONE NIGHT. We were just locking up the office after
another hard day’s labour when the Spectrum in the PCG cupboard
emitted an astonishing statement through its attached speech unit. The
other computers began arguing with it angrily. Whipping out his
shorthand notebook, editor Chris Anderson managed to get the whole
remarkable debate down on paper. We present it without comment.
SPECTRUM: A pity they couldn't make
it across the Atlantic,
VIC: A lot of them have.
BBC: They can make the return journey
as far as I'm concerned. Have you seen
them actually played? Awful, chunky
graphics. Positively primitive
SPECTRUM: I was just observing that
compared to me, none of you is a games
machine worth considering. It’s a
straight matter of numbers. I can play
well over 500 different commercially
released titles. None of you can match
half that.
VIC: Piffle. I've been around just as long
as you have, rubber face. And back in
the US of A where I'm from there are
literally hundreds of different games
written just for me.
SPECTRUM: Besides, what can you
hope to do with under 4K of user
memory? Noughts and crosses?
VIC: Get out of it! There have been
some great hit games released for me
recently. Have you seen Chariot Race?
That’s an original game none of you can
match. Besides, by the time I’ve added
16K expansion I’ve almost as much
usable memory as you, la-di-da BBC.
What’s more, the top software houses
produce programs for me. Have Ulti-
PC GAMES 91
male ever released a game on the Beeb?
Or on the Commodore 64? They have
not. But they’ve produced Jet Pac for
the Vic 20. And it’s GREAT.
SPECTRUM: let Pac - I remember that
game back in 1983, 1 think it was ...
VIC: At least my version’s got decent
sound. What do YOU know about the
true, full decibel roar of arcade excite-
ment, you silly bleeper?
SPECTRUM: Er.um ...
VIC: Or joysticks, if it comes to that.
Anyone who wants to use a joystick
with you has to buy a special interface
first. What a rip-off!
COMMODORE 64: Well said, little
brother Vic. And now perhaps, since
I'm gradually making you obsolete,
you'll let me take over the debate with
these British upstarts.
VIC: Don't obsolete me, at least I'm
BBC: You’re all so very cheap. So com-
(jeering, laughter, uproar)
SPECTRUM: The poor BBC doesn't
seem to realise that it’s actually an
advantage to be cheap. If you’re cheap,
lots of people can afford to buy you. And
when that happens, other people decide
it’s worth their while to write decent
games for you. You ever had a decent
game written foryou, BBC?
BBC: Don’t be absurd, of course I have.
My software library includes the best
versions of the arcade games Defender ,
Kong, Scramble. Pae-Man, Asteroids,
Space Panic, Galaxians and Missile
Command that you'll find on any home
computer...
ATARI: I dispute that.
BBC: ... unless you want to pay £30 a
lime for them on a Yankee Atari.
SPECTRUM: So what, who cares about
yesterday's arcade games? Those pre-
cious games of yours were released by
Acornsoft well over a year ago. What's
happened since?
BBC: Quite a lot, actually. For a start
the release of Aviator, one of the best
flight simulators ever. And what about
Zalaga for a shoot-’em-up, and Frak for
aplatformgame.
SPECTRUM: Three good games in 1984
- gosh, that’s prolific.
ELECTRON: If you think the Beeb’s
badly off, what about me? When they
made me they said tons of games would
soon be available - but where are they?
Some of the best BBC games haven’t yet
been converted. I feel ignored.
ORIC: So do I. I’m every bit as good as
the Spectrum - and my sound’s far
better. But I don’t have nearly as many
games. Mind you, some of them are very
good. Like Xenon I and Zorgon's Re-
venge. And, for a great strategy game
there’s Racing Manager. But ... what's
that sobbing noise?
VIC: It's the Lynx. He's weeping!
What's wrong Lynx?
LYNX: Oh, I feel so depressed. Listen-
ing to you people talking all the time
about your wonderful games - and I just
get left on the shelf, (sobbing) They told
me I had great graphics potential, that I
was a great machine for programmers.
But hardly anyone bought me, and
hardly any games were released for me,
and then ... and then ... my company
went bust! (uncontrollable sobs) ...
TEXAS: (bursting into tears) Mine did
DRAGON: (voice cracking) And so did
(for a while nothing more heard except
weeping, sobs and the occasional
DRAGON: Still, 1 suppose onemust pul
a brave face on it. I’ve seen some fine
games in my time.
SPECTRUM: You have?
DRAGON: I can boast an excellent
version of Kong I The King) - and a
really good wargame called Kriegspiel.
DRAGON: And ... er... the Cuthbert
series, and several others.
SPECTRUM: Why do they almost all
feature green screens?
SPECTRUM: And why arc Dragon joys-
ticks so hard to use?
BBC: Keep your chin up, old boy, at
least your version of Basic is pretty fine,
eh? More than you could say for our
American friend over there.
COMMODORE 64: Gee. I'm glad you
hadn't forgotten me, because the way I
see it I'm the one you should be compar-
ing yourselves to. Just look at me: sprite
graphics, 4-channel sound. Compared
graphics are limited, your sound about
non-existent. What have you got to
SPECTRUM: And?
DRAGON: Don’t be nasty.
DRAGON: I' ingoing to cry again.
« PC GAMES
PCC Special
MSX MACHINES: (in chorus) Orus.
COMMODORE 64: ll's all speculation.
You people don't yet have a single
decent game to your credit. Buying you
now is a gamble. For the most exciting
games machine with proven potential,
it's me you gotta turn to.
BBC: Yankee boaster.
VIC: Hear, hear.
SPECTRUM: Tired of arguing already?
DRAGON: Now, now, manners!
COMMODORE 64: Shut up. dodo!
DRAGON: I'mgoingtocry!
The rest of the debate is lost in a
cacophony of noise. Next morning, the
chart belolo had mysteriously
appeared on an office desk. What can
Notes: All ratings arc out of 10.
SPECTRUM: How about Stop the Ex-
press, Mugsy and Matchpoinl ? The
sound, I grant you, I can’t match, but
you can't lecture me on graphics. And
111 tell you what, for all your pretty
pictures, you can't offer any games with
lasting appeal. Most players are bored
with simple arcade fare. They want lots
of locations, a difficult task to solve.
Where’s your Atic Atac and Sabre
Wulf ? You’ve nothing to match let Set
Willy. Or Psytron. Or Lords of Mid-
night.
COMMODORE 64: Times are chang-
ing, kiddo. Just look at this month's
game-of-lhe-month. That’s going to be
the first of many 64 arcade-adventures.
You little boys have had your day. But
want a machine with a future will buy addressed to the PCG hardware cup-
er, I’m
new machine. I’ve got a big future aheai
of me - and my potential is only jus
beginning to be realised. You,
other hand, are ageing quite a Dit.
wonder which of us will sell better thi
Christmas.
AMSTRAP; That is a very interestin
the
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’ :
SEPTEMBER 1984
Designed by Kevin Toms
This outstanding game of skill and
sfrategy is now widely available
and you can join the many
thousands ot satisfied customers
who have purchased the game.
This is no five minute wonder -
you will be playing this game
for hours over many weeks
(we know - our customers tell us!).
"FOOTBALL MANAGER Is the best game I
personal favourite of aftrtie games on any
micro . .. To the ordinary person If Is an
excellent view of what can be aone In me
Held of computer games The crowning
glory of this gamels the short set pieces of
match hlghlTghts which show little stick rrw
running oround a pilch, shooting, defendli
and scoring .. It iso compulsive game bu
Sunday, win oe graierui to Knowtni
a save to tape' option. FOOTBALL
MANAGER has everything It could .
Football Manager
Some of Ihe features of the game:- Kevin toms
* Matches in 3D graphics * Transfer market
* Promotion and relegation * F.A. Cup matches
* Injury problems * Full league tables
* Four Divisions * Pick your own team for each match
_ _ * As many seasons as
K_g_ you like
■ * Managerial rating
■ ■■ ™ ■ ■ KjPrajP * 7 levels
W tm ■ * Save game facility
-,n ;
Versions coming soon tor
Commodore 64
Dragon, One
and Atmos.
Available from computer software stockists nationwide, including
Prices: BBCModelB £795
Spectrum 48K £6-95
ZX8H6K £595
(N.B. 3D GRAPHICS ARE NOt INCLUDED IN
IHE ZX8t VERSION).
Addictire Games
7A RICHMOND FKi.BOURNEMOUTH.BH2 6HE
Dealersl For urgent stocks send
your headed notepaper direct to
our address.
-
r*
' r\ r\ - r\ f
\ -IW/U
SOFTXXlARE-^
"Ziggy turned, his fingers clutching the trigger of his capsule gun,
something had startled him or had it?
\ He looked back, he had grown very tired from his many exploits in
THE PYRAMID negotiating 120 different chambers and coming face to
face witfYSome pretty nasty aliens.
No soonV than he had accomplished this mission, he was
summoned ffltime Lord Hamilton (known as Super Ham to his friends) to
go to DOOMSDAY CASTLE and to save the Universe from the infinitely
evil ScarthaX* this being no small task took several megayears. By this time
Ziggy was completely exhausted, his capsule pattered, dented and
wobbling as he limps in the direction of home, a real super
hero of our time. Unable to leave the Universe undefended
he radioed his great friend and colleague Beaky on the
planet of Crackit to stand guard until his return.
Beaky would normally assume this role without A
a second thought, however he had his own problem
to face for the dreaded Eggsnatchers had returned
to threaten the very existence of his breed. Beaky's survival instincts do not
allow him to leave Crackit until he has reared enough chicks to fight off the
Eggsnatchers. In order to crack it, he must pass
through 12 different stages each getting
progressively harder.
So we have it, Ziggy returning home
for a complete refit under the illusion
that Beaky is defending the Universe,
it can't take Beaky that long
;ecure his own species
and when will
Ziggy be
back ?"
SPECTRUM 48 K:- COMMODORE 64K:-
The Pyramid £5.50 The Pyramid £6.50
Beaky 8 The Eggsnatchers £5.50 Beaky 8 The Eggsnatchers £5.5Q
Doomsday Castle £6. 50 Disc Versions £9. 50
Available from all good software outlets.
FANTASY SOFTWARE,
Fauconberg Lodge, 27A St, George's Road,
Cheltenham. Gloucestershire.
Telephone: (0242) 583361.
Trade enquiries welcome. SL J
ON THE OCHE
(DARTS)
This thrilling game brings
you all the excitement of
Competition Darts
ON THE OCHE is
designed for two players
and has superb graphics
including Automatic
Scoreboard
48K Spectrum
This and other games
on display at:
THE ARTIC SOFTWARE STATION,
263 Acton Lane, London W4.
01-995 2152
v Another No.1 from Oca
^JOOCsamI
1
■ i | | 1
Ti
Ocean House • 6 Central Street - Manchester M2 5NS Tel: 06 1 832 6633
Ocean Software is available from all good software dealers and selected branches of:
WOOUMOKTH. WHSMI'l H . .JjSjS . r ^2SE353. LflSKYS Rumbelows and Spectrum Shops
The Electron
has added even more
strings to its bow
The list of top quality soft-
ware for the Acorn Electron is
growi ng all the time.
As you can see, there’s already
an outstanding selection of excit-
ing programs covering everything
from monsters to music and
murder to marriage guidance.
And ultimately, the Electron
will enjoy a range of software as
comprehensive as that of its
illustrious big brother, the much-
acclaimed BBC Micro.
You’ll find all the programs
featured here at your local Acorn
stockist (To find out where that
is, simply call 01-200 0200.)
Alternatively, you can send
oft for the Electron catalogue
and order through the post by
writing to Acomsoft, c/o Vector
Marketing, Denington Estate,
Wellingborough, Northants
NN82RL. Tel: 0933 79300.
GRAPHICS: Graphs & Charts,
Creative Graph ics, Picture Maker.
BUSINESS: Persona] Money
Management, Desk Diary
EDUCATION: Tree of
Knowledge, Peeko-Computer,
Business Games.
LANGUAGES: LISP, FORTH,
S-Pascal, Turtle Graphics.
GAMES: Starship Command,
Monsters, Chess, Draughts and
Reversi, Snapper, Meteors,
Elopper, Sphinx Adventure,
Arcadians, Free Fall.
QUIZZES: Theatre Quiz.
Crime and Detection Quiz,
Music Quiz, History Quiz,
Science Fiction Quiz, t . . I Dol
The Dating Game.
( :i 111 ,1 )KEIVS EDUCATIONAL
SOFTWARE: Happy Numbers,
Timeman One, Timeman Two,
Word hang. Happy Letters,
Map Rally.
4C0RNSSFT
Ant-eaters but no meat-eaters in this
month’s heroic, and vegetarian, 3D Ant
Attack contest. Even before the tradi-
tional pre-Chamber hamburgers were
refused the Master should have guessed
the preferred diet of the contestants:
Jason West of Orpington was sporting a
badge proclaiming ‘Bernard Matthews
should be stuffed' while Diana Theodo-
siou of Canterbury visibly paled at the
very mention of meat.
Neither, though, has any objection to
blowing up a few giant ants if they get in
the way during Quicksilva's impressive
Spectrum game.
Ant Attack lakes place in the walled
city of Antescher, where mazes, towers
and steps combine in bizarre forms to
provide cover for the grotesque and
fearsome giant ants which live there.
These horrible creatures have stolen
your boyfriend/girlfriend and your task
is to get 'the loved one' back. Armed
with only a few grenades and your wits
you hop over the outer wall and begin
your search. The game features superb
graphics and animation with fantastic
3D views of the city.
Both Diana and Jason are masters of
the game's control and strategy. Their
high-scores bear witness to their pro-
wess: Diana, with 49,335, had a substan-
tial lead over Jason's best of 47,905.
When you find out how much these
two play computer games, though, their
huge scores are understandable. 19-
year-old Diana puts in a staggering two
or three hours per day on games, while
Jason, 15, plays for a more modest two
or three hours every other day.
Both have been Spectrum owners for
quite some time and are dedicated
gamesters. Diana buys a new game
‘every week', which adds up to quite a
lot over the year and a half she’s had a
computer. Jason, too, buys a lot of
games and is also an arcade fan, obses-
sed by the intricacies of Zaxxon and
Dragon's Lair.
But there was no intricacy in his tip
for playing Ant Attack : ‘Venceremos’
his entry said. For those with no Span-
ish this simply means ‘We shall over-
come', which is not much help to the
rest of us but seems to work well for
Diana did give some more detailed
tips, including the essential information
that you should ‘use the ants to jump
over the wall and get your man home’, a
technique bulh players used to great
effect.
Daunting
Battle commenced with Jason using
joystick and Diana keys, and almost
immediately the triumphant music
proclaimed that lives were being saved.
At the beginning of the game both
players know just where to go to find
their loved ones.
Paralysing ants with great rapidity,
both had rescued six loved ones after a
Ant Attack is a meaty challenge
Taking on the killer ants in the strange city
mere five minutes, scoring well over
20,000 points. The screen displayed
daunting messages such as 'Who would
have thought you could get so far?
Better not be silly now!’
And nobody was silly. After ten mi-
nutes they had saved nine lives and were
ready to break the 40,000 barrier. By
now the city was swarming with creep-
ing monsters, and both Diana and Jason
were desperately running and throwing
grenades.
But the end was in sight. Almost
simultaneously they leapt over the wall
with their friends and the game was
over. The scores were an upset for the
form book: Jason - 48,136 and Diana -
47,995. Jason scored his best ever result
but Diana was a couple of thousand
below her best.
Huge scores
Another contest reversed the positions
with Diana scoring 47,845 and Jason,
after blowing himself up several times
with his grenades, reaching only 43,028.
With two such huge aggregate scores
how could the Chamber Master declare
one of these saviours of humanity a
He couldn't. He’s got too much heart.
So this month two brave gamesters
leave the Challenge Chamber with the
thanks of the human race ringing in
their ears. And the moral of this stirring
story is that if you want to save lives -
give up meat.
100 PC GAMES
Challenge Chamber
The Master's massive mail
One of the Master’s minions has just
arrived, breathless after running all the
way from Sweden with this question:
’Am I the first to have managed Sabre
Wulf ? On 1st July I got out the jungle,’
Well, Jonas Frober, the answer is no.
You're not. The editor of this very
magazine escaped some time before
you and is alive and well in this office
But well done Jonas, and all the
other Chamber fans who have sent in
entries for Ultimate’s new game.
Scores of around 100,000 are not
uncommon. But more interesting is
the time it takes you to escape from the
maze. So I’m looking for sabre-
persons who can solve the game as fast
as possible (and with as LOW a per
centage as possible!). So get those
entries rolling in.
Meanwhile, back on the other
machines, Chuckie Egg is still arous-
ing strong feelings and monstrous
scores. Richard Mazzaferri of Aber-
deen has amassed 10,338,990 in a
game lasting 13 hours on his Spec-
trum. This is just the kind of score the
Chamber Master is inclined to doubt,
but he had to believe it when he saw
that Richard’s form had been witnes-
sed by a 'Minister of Rel
The Master’s faith was bolstered by
the long and detailed letter of tips that
Richard sent with his form - tips we
hope to print in next month's Tricks 'n
Tactics.
Stunned
Raymond Graham of Birkenhead sent
an anguished Chuckie Egg letter
which almost made the Master's heart
bleed. Referring to July’s Challenge
Chamber he says: 'You had a Chuckie
play off - without me in it I'm not
being big-headed but 1 could have
handled it. I was utterly stunned and
then later angry for not being given the
The scores to beat
GRIDRUNNER VIC 20
*447,900 Steven Bell. Barking
* 330,970 Steven Blunt. Farnborough
*315,030 Andrew Philpolt. Hertford
REVENGE OF THE MUTANT
CAMELS COMMODORE 64
*1,885,000 Tom Burton, Saxmundham
*1.802,699 Alan Bilsborough, Glasgow
*1,420,000 Steven Finlay. Kircaldy
SHEEP IN SPACE
COMMODORE 64
*1,146,000 Tom Burton. Saxmundham
* 97 1,375 Tim Appleyard. Stockport
*854,019 Darren Hawthorn, Tadlcy
SABRE WULF SPECTRUM
* 115.285 Robert Scott. London
chance to prove my cla im . '
He goes on lo say, ‘That's all w
under the bridge and I’m prepared to
just be called the best and forget it.'
Very magnanimous. A pity you're ab
out 7,000,000 behind the new Spec-
trum high score, Raymond.
A couple of letters the Master re-
ceived were so amusing that be-
thought they should get a wider read-
ership, so look in Byte-Back for a
stirring Snapper story and si
musical tips for Chuckie Egg on
Room has run out for the Challenge
Chamber this month, but in the next
issue the Master hopes to print a lot
more of your tips, funny stories and
massive scores - so keep licking tl
stamps and sending the letters,
CHUCKIE EGG BBC
* 5.127.530 Binesh Patel, Wrexham
* 3.074.080 lan Couk, Braintree. Essex
CHUCKIE EGG SPECTRUM
*10338.990 Richard Mazzaferri,
12,015 A
* 98,215 Graham Chadwick. Grimsby
3D ANT ATTACK SPECTRUM
*49,335 Diana Theodosiou, Canlcrbun
*48376 J. James, Kinghorn. Scotland
*48,136 Jason West. Orpington
BONGO VIC 20
2,152.000 Alistair Lindsey, Abort
v 1,019,00
OK - I'll dare the Challenge Chamber
I Address
. Telephone no. (if possible)
* 4,100 Andrew BeastaU. W
FORBIDDEN FOREST
COMMODORE 64
*586,280 Jonathan Kenny, Thetford
*324,287 J.D. Lister, Stalybridge
* 323,007 Kevin Leonard, Pontypridd
CHUCKIE EGG DRAGON
*5,100360 Paul Rivers, Oxford
* 270,375 David Bettis, Finchley. London
*251,030 David Brant, St. Austell.
Cornwall
(This portion to be filled in by witness)
. Game Machine
I My record score is: scored on (dalel
a game lasting mins secs,
j Signed — — ....„
I Here are my tips for playing this game well.
SEPTEMBER 1984
Address
Telephone no (if possible)
Occupation
I confirm that the above claimed score is genuine
Signed
Post this form to Challenge Chamber, Personal Comp
Games. Evelyn House, 62 Oxford Street. London W1A I
2HG.
1
PC GAMES 101
SOFTWARE
US Gold Summer Sale
Commodore 64 and Atari
Beach Head
Forbidden Forest
Aztec Challenge
Caverns of Khafka
Slinky
Solo Flight
Nato Commander
Spitfire Ace
Dallas Quest
Bruce Lee
Snokie
Flak
*£ 7.95
*£12.00
*£12.00
*£ 8.95
£12.00
£11.00
£11.00
£11.00
£11.00
£12.00
£12.00
£11.00
£12.00
£12.00
£11.00
£12.00
221 CANNOCK ROAD
CHADSMOOR, CANNOCK jOsRuft
STAFFS WS1 1 2DD \MBb0W
Tel 05435 3577
£8 90 Frak!
From the Leaders
in pre-formed P.O.S. for
the Video T rade comes an
economical display for
Computer Software.
Available in four colours
to hold 15 or 30 programs
either wall-mounted or
counter top, prices start
from just six pounds.
For details and prices
phone
Northampton (0604) 48161
Gatelodge
Displays Ltd.
12 Gatelodge Close,
Round Spinney,
Northampton, NN3 4RJ.
102 PC GAMES
A Fantastic NEW Game from
BEAU-JOLLY
How to cross safely. The key is
lo understand how the cars
move. Until level 6 there are
simply two cars moving in each direc-
l. After each car has passed, there
will always be a pause before a car of the
te colour comes again. So if, as often
happens, two cars go through together
in one direction, you will be safe from
that direction for a bit.
Usually the best policy is to stand
either at the top or the bottom of the
together from the direction which is
hidden and then cross. Should a car
come from the other direction, it
lave to travel up or down the entire
screen to hit you, so you should have
time to take evasive action.
Remember - safety first the game
ends if you get hit by a car but if you’re
simply too slow you get two more turns.
So try to relax, take it easy and cross the
road very carefully.
□ Han your route. You should
compromise between the need
to take houses in sequence as the
dustcart moves up the street, and the
need to cross the road as few times as
possible.
Sometimes it’s better to take a series
of houses on one side of the road even
though you will then have to double
back a little to do houses on the other
side. Here are the recommended sequ-
s for the first five levels (L=left,
□ Don’t cross verges. From level 3
onwards, you're often faced with
the frustration of having the
dustcart parked next to a grass verge.
It’s tempting to cross it to empty your
rubbish, but nine times out of ten it’s not
worth it. Your time bonus will probably
fall further by stepping on the grass than
if you walk the extra distance. And if the
verge is opposite the house you’re work-
ing on, you'll lose your tip.
You can sometimes avoid the prob-
lems (on levels 3 and 4) by walking
down the OUTSIDE of the dustcart to
reach the back.
□ Don’t enter pubs and cafes un-
less you have to. These appear
from level 5 onwards. If you
enter one you may collect a large time
bonus, but there’s a 50-50 chance that
you get no tip and emerge ‘drunk’ or
bloated'. This often prevents you
finishing in time.
So the correct strategy is to make the
pub or cafe one of the last places you
collect a bin from. If you’re running very
short of time, you may then have to
gamble by entering them.
Learn to avoid the dogs. This
may not seem important early
on, but in level 6 dogs wifi
sometimes attack even if you haven't
walked on the grass. If you get bitten,
you won't get a tip.
N ever let them tell you that being a dustman doesn't require skill. You need
every ounce you can muster when you take on the job in Trashman, New
Generation’s colourful and addictive game. The Spectrum version was released
earlier this year and we promptly dubbed it a PCG hit in our June issue. Since then
an equally good Commodore 64 version has come out
But after you've got used to the game's remarkable graphics and original plot, you
must spend considerable time mastering its many subtleties to get a high score. Most
of all you have to keep your cool, Chris Anderson tellsyou how.
104 PC GAMES
Revenge made
Tricks 'n Tactics
Congratulations to Jeff Min-
ter (again. 1 ) for his excellent
game which I have beaten
after hours of overheating my
'64. My tips for clearing this
game would be to learn indi-
vidual strategies for each
screen and not to worry about
scoring highly until you are
■ zone every go.
when the game has started
and has a loading error. The
secret is to list the listings and
find the line which has 'SYS'
and five numbers after it.
Then type this in and press
RETURN. The game should
If the listings do not list
then load the first few lines
again and find the code.
ways found by falling down a
trap door which is on the
ground floor in one of the
smaller corridor rooms.
The RED KEY is always
found where the mummy is,
which is usually either on the
ground or first floor.
TRAP DOORS - Use these
for getting from one floor to
another, which saves time if
you remember where they go
to. Also useful when running
out of food, because if you fall
Lords of
Midnight solved
plete Lords of Midnight. The
easiest way of winning is to
guide Morkin to the tower of
Doom to seize the ice crown.
However, to give yourself a
harder task try to seize
Ushgarak. On the way there
avoid battles, as you need
about 10,000 troops to do if
Make sure all troops are in-
vigorated.
Forflame the Dragonlord
can be found at a ruin behind
a tower in Dodrak. Forflame
has the longest day. The only
way I found of seizing
Ushgarak was to line up all
my armies in front of it and
attack in turn. The tower of
Longrim is hidden behind the
lay wastes. Finally, 1 think
some of the Wise may somc-
However, there is a BUG
(shhh!) on the 8th, 14th, 29th
and 41st screens (coin-
cidentally the hardest). It is
possible to clear these zones
by pressing the Pause key
when in danger. The enemies
will float harmlessly through
you to the edge of the screen.
Then release the Pause until
again in danger. This, admit-
tedly, is slow, but if you’re on
your last life on 'Beastly
Bonanza' (screen 41) it is
worth the trouble.
n amazing coinci-
dence
is that ot
Tratian Onslaught', if you
view the aliens upside down,
they look like Atari logos -
and what do you get if you
spell Trata' backwards?
Carl Lyons, Huddersfield
Getting started on
the 64
1 own a Commodore 64 and
have found a way of starting a
game (of lop quality) even
The key *o'
Atic Atac
The GOLD CROSS is found
on the ground floor, and
wards off Dracula.
The SPANNER is found in
the caverns and kills Frank-
enstein.
The RED LEAF is found on
the ground floor. Use it to get
the red key off the mummy.
Place it in the room and the
mummy will move away from
the key in search of the leaf.
Other objects which are
scattered around the castle
can all be used to move the
hunchback away from the
blue door by placing one of
them in the room.
The GREEN KEY is always
found in the first couple of
rooms on the ground floor
near the start. OR on the first
floor.
The BLUE KEY is always
found in the caverns, usually
neara pileof barrels.
The YELLOW key is al-
down a trap door, there is
usually food there.
FOOD - Only eat it when
you need iL Any food situated
leave if possible, as when you
jump down a trap door you
always land on a skin.
ATTIC - This area of the
castle is probably the most
important as one piece of the
golden ACG key is always in
there. To enter the attic, the
yellow key is needed, as the
only entrance is by a yellow
door at the foot of a staircase.
Once in the attic be careful
not to fall down a trap door
which has a clock in the same
room unless you still have the
yellow key, or you can be
trapped.
The CAVERNS - Don’t
bother to lake in the yellow
key, as there are no yellow
doors in there. Getting in is
easy, but once inside, there
are only two ways out, one of
which requires the blue key.
|. Southern, Leek, Staffs.
Six tips for
destroy, find some grass to
land on. This replenishes
your energy, ready to fight in
free space.
6) If you find yourself in free
space, don't panic! First of all
keep firing. When all the
enemy craft have passed one
way, take note of their posi-
tions on the screen. You must
then turn your ship around
and position it where an
enemy craft came through be-
fore. If you keep doing this,
you should destroy some or
all of the craft.
Darren Hawthorn,
Tadley, Hants.
PC GAMES 105
Sl§L@M
All American Software
Tricks 'n Tactics
Mastering
Mushroom Mania
I've scored 161,069 on
Mushroom Mania for the
One. Here are my tips:
SPIDER: Make sure there is
enough room to get under
him. If he is too low, move up
the screen and he should fol-
are behind him, he will not
touch you. Listen for him
coming.
CENTIPEDE: Try to keep it
in one piece - don’t have lots
of segments all over
screen, just shoot at the ends.
Chris Swift, Bradford
Protection racket
While playing Melbourne
House’s latest game Mugsy, I
noticed an amazing bug.
When it asks you how much
you would pay to stop the
mob putting a contract 01
you, if you type it
-10,000,000,000 you gain at
amazing 7 thousand million
dollars. It certainly helps my
game!!
A Wilkinson, Paisley
Through the
Forbidden Forest
SPIDERS. Load bow im-
mediately (as with all screens
in levels 1 & 2). Run from the
first spider to give yourself
room to lower your sights as
far as they will go. Then move
towards subsequent spiders
as they appear. They will turn
and run from you. and you
chase until you’re close
enough to shoot Warning! If
you stop running, the spider
will stop also and turn on
you.
BEES. No special technique,
just wait. Raise the sights a
little. Wait for the bees to
come alongside you and
shoot them.
FROGS. Keep an eye on the
top of the screen before and
during reloading. Shoot frogs
from side-on.
DRAGON. Set sights to
height of Dragon when he's
flying horizontally
Mice advice
Here are my tips for playing
Caesar the Cat on the BBC:
Leave Caesar in different
places, and memorise the
movements of the mice.
Don't attack a mouse that
your distance, if you wail he'll
come back again.
If three mice gather above
the cutlery, chase along a side
to the top. They will all run
and at least one should
appear at either bottom right
or bottom left comer.
Wait on the second from
the bottom shelf - a mouse
will soon appear near you.
Try to get as many points as
quickly as possible on the
Don't take any risks go
around the edges if possible.
Chris Byrne, Gloucester
PC GAMES 107
CYGNUSTWO
COMPUTER GAMES
WE ONLY SELL THE BEST
The Hulk
Jack 4 The Beans
Tornado LL.
« ELECTRON
Blagger
Flight 747
00 Guardian
95 Hunchback
PLEASE SEND ME.
COMPUTER.
NAME
ADDRESS
I enclose cheque/P.O. for £ (P&P Free)
To: 62 Woodland Road. Chingford, London E4 7EU.
Tel: 01 -529 1891
NEW ORIGINAL GAMES
FOR THE COMMODORE 64
• NIGHTMARE PARK Is In fact a compendium of 1 4
games. The task of the user is to gain as many points
as possible travelling through a maze beset by
obstacles at every turn. These infuriating obstacles
are overcome by a combination of skill , sharp reflexes
or by sheer good luck making Nightmare Park a
suitable game for all ages. PRICE £7.99
• DOTS & BOXES is an intelligent game where the
user and the computer take turns in completing boxes
by drawing a line between two dots. The aim of the
game is to win the most boxes whilst skillfully
minimising the number of boxes given away to the
computer. PRICE £6.95
• HEXAPAWN For strategic and persistent play. The
opponent (computer) has no initial strategy but is
programmed to learn from the user's wins to improve
its own strategy. PRICE £5.95
• CHOPPER LAND Your chopper is chartered to
transfer goods from your base and land SAFELY. An
exciting new game full of surprises. PRICE £7.99
SENDCHEQUES/PO
A.R. SOFTWARE
190 Quarry Street
Hamilton ML39PB
Tel. 0698 282036
DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME
■Kliliil
Present this coupon
when purchasing
NIGHTMARE, DOTS
& BOXES or
CHOPPERLANDand
get HEXAPAWN
completely FREE,
ONLY £ 4.95
YOUR MISSION IS TO DESTROY
THE EVIL REBEL DROIDS. YOU
ARE EQUIPPED WITH LASER
& FORCE FI ELD. YOU START
YOUR MISSION IN A DUST
CLOUD
To: BEAST INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE
Mustians. Eton, Windsor. Berkshire.
Please rush me cassette/s of
Suicide Rebel Droids.
I enclose a cheque / P.O. (delete as eppliceble)
for £ (post free!
PC GAMES 109
Hotline, which lived up to
' :ast one occasion.
Here's a quick selection
from the Digitiser print-out.
Keep those calls coming in
everybody, and don’t forget
speak clearly and leave
telephone number.
Conversion query
tell me when Ulli- ec |
bringing out their it i
games for the Commodore 64 j n
and if they’re bringing out wa
Sabre Wulf for it. If they do, SO i
how much will they cost?
Johnstown,
Scotland
owners, on the game Matrix
by Llamasoft, if you press the
CTRL key, the RUN/STOP
I'm phoning you about the key, the Commodore key,
’ ... . an[ j jjjj, SHIFT key during
play you will automatically go
e. When I go in to to the next level.
so ^j Richard Simpson, Swindon
try and purchase
ware, I get insulted and
thrown out. When I try to go
, I get brutally attack-
getting sick of this
Ant Attack antics
A funny thing happened t
the only computer shop me playing Ant Attack the
ay area that stocks soft- other day. After picking up
5. Could you give me the third person to take
e advice? home, loads of people came
out and 1 ended up with seven
different people following me
about. It was great because I
their backs
They’re a fierce tot at Sum -
lock, Mark. Especially when Si
id they think you’re just going Z^uprcallynghad
* MIES' off. Then I go. a ‘nasty' fali'
re jJt how many games HA VE an y° ne else
you bought there? The Com- found ,hls out '
mander awaits your reply, Gary Patterson, Leicester-
Earthling. shire
Moving question
>m having trouble with how Running circles round your Oric
make my characters move After hours of toil and error I've actually found a cure for the
around the screen. Could you Oric oval. What you do is draw a circle and then put in the
howto do it. command fill 1,1,29. The whole screen should stretch
upwards and make the oval into a circle.
However, if your screen goes all spaghetti-like then adjust
7>y keeping the characters the verged hold on the TV set
still and moving the screen and it should go back to normal.
instead. Entering fill 1,1,31 flattens
the screen again. Up IJK, down
with Software Projects. Up with
Ultimate rubbish . the Ones, down with the Spec-
Cm complaining about Ulti- trums.
and it's a load of rubbish. It's ~
just another version of Atic
A tac , that's why it's so awful.
Jason Scotcher, Chingford.
Check out this month’s Top
50 Charts, jason. I think
you’ll find that most people
wouldn't agree with you ab-
out Sabre Wulf.
Speedy bug
Pole Position. When j
start the race you have a ti
to do it in and lap time
creases or decreases depend-
ing on how well you're doing.
But if your time goes over 1 00
seconds - say 103 - the game
will only read it as 3 seconds,
so this stops you from getting
high scores. My best :
1 1 ,250.
Chris Briggs, Evesham
Trashman tactics
Could you give me some ir
formation on how to solv
Trashman, and how to mak
him go faster and get more?
Barney Thrower
Sure can, Barney. Just tur
to the new Tricks ’n Tactics
section in this issue.
Up against the wall
Hi, I’ve just recently purch-
ased a game called Manic
Miner and enjoy it very
much. Unfortunately, I have a
problem. On the eighth level
- Miner Willie meets the
Kombies - there is a wall
down the middle and I can-
not get off the ground be-
cause of it. Is this a fault oi
can you help me?
Code breaking
I'd like to talk about Wheelie.
I have the codes to get on to
the various sheets:
For the 2nd sheet - WITTY
For the 3rd sheet - SHARK
For the 4th sheet - BEBOP
For the 5th sheet - XENON
For the 6th sheet -ZX83B
For the 7th sheet - 2MQL3
For the 8th sheet -HRME2
110 P C GAMES
THE ULTIMATE IN AMERICAN SOFTWARE
FOR YOU ON U.S. GOLD
U-S- Gold is stocked by all leading computer stores
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Stockist write to: CentreSoft Ltd.. Unit 24, Tipton Tradinq
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All America Soft vkm
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REPRINT
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If you are interested in a particulararticle
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provide an attractive and impressive addition to
your portfolio of promotional material
For further details
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PAN AND PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS
NO GAMES PLAYER CAN AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT
BEST SOFTWARE GUIDES
FOR THE UiC 20/C0mm0D0RE 64 & SinCLRIR ZH SPECTRUm
The Complete Compendium of Arcade
Games Software
* Indexes, including a comprehensive ratings system, of
available arcade games are combined with reviews and
screen-shots of the action, giving you access to the best
of the small-screen software
* Report on the new dedicated game machines as a
pointer to the future state of play
J tf' * Tony Thkoushi's devotion to the u
art of arcade action makes 77ie "
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games player can afford to be
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* Top quality paperback from Pan/PCN, 2S6 pages packed
with information for just £3.95!
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GET MORE OUT OF YOUR MICRO WITH . .
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name (Mr/Mrs/Miss
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Pan Books Ltd ordebit my Access/Barclaycard/Visa/TYustcard
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Signature
.IJBjyiW-lidiMJtel.UI
CURRAH
JUSPEECH
Speech Synthesiser for ZX
Spectrum
f is no software io load with ^SPEECH ^^titared
■ Gale Array technology means you can just plug in and
, start constructing words and sentences like this
LETSS = 1 jp|ee|k (nn|fooj |ee|vir will say "speak no
l evil'l Further commands control the "voicing" of keys as
t- they are pressed, and an intonation facility allows you to
E add expression to the speech,
^SPEECH is fully compatible wlm ZX Interface I and
may be used with the CURRAH pSLOT Expandable
Motherboard, allowing easy expansion of your ZX
I system ^SPEECH and jtSLOT will also be compatible
I with the CURRAH jtSOURCE unit when If arrives later
L this year, allowing you to write Assembler and FORTH
B- statements directly Into your BASIC programs!
I Top selling games like ULTIMATE'S Lunar Jetman
I feature /^SPEECH voice output — watch out for other
K titles from Bug-Byte. CDS, Ocean, Quicksilva and PSS.
Two countries change hands in the la
Dominion troops were wiped out to a
man in the defence of Warrish against
an overwhelming Union attack early
this morning (writes our Helix corres-
During one of the worst dust-storms
seen in the country since the beginning
of the currrent Sun-cycle, a massive
Union invasion force of over 50 armies
swept over the southern borders and
annihilated all opposition.
Warrish commanders, who had just
begun a missile strike against neigh-
bouring Dweria, were caught complete-
ly by surprise. The Union now controls a
well-defended block in south-eastern
Helix and Union commanders were in
an expansive mood at a press-
conference given this morning.
Behind the scenes, however, con-
Commune build-up. Dominion com-
manders in Elmet have sensibly started
building shelters.
should prove very exciting. There are
still rich prizes to be had in the neutral
territories, and already the superpowers
are showing careful planning in their
struggle to control the planet.
Honour, power, and prestige can all
be yours. Get voting straight away, and if
you haven't already joined then enlist
today. It's never too late, and the fate of
a world is on your hands.
This month's moves
The following orders were carried out by
each country, as decided by your votes.
DOMINION
Elmet BS, Iskrand BA, Jorlon RI, Lori-
lon AB, Olgrish LR, Warrish LD.
FEDERATION
Knephct RV, Tigron RD, Upland AH,
Vindrish BA, Dweria BA, Fargrim RD
COMMUNE
Borgonia BA, Calyria RD, Droom BA,
Norland BA, Rorglia AI, Zorg BA, Aber-
strofBA
UNION
Pugrosh RY, Quithlin RY, Yinkan AW,
Bikonia BA, Charg RY
WARRISH
DEVASTATED
south into Zorg. Or is this a centralisa-
tion of resources? Time and your votes
will decide.
The Commune continued to struggle
with the problems posed by their di-
vided position. In the Central Com
mune territories Aberstrof, Norland,
and Zorg continued to build up defence
forces. Rorglia mounted an abortive
attack against Iskrand, but succeeded in
destroying 15 Dominion armies in the
process.
laughing, however. They lost 10 armies
in the attack and as a result of a
neighbouring missile attack. Mass res-
ignations from the Rorglia war-cabinet
are confidently expected.
The Final Conflict „
PC GAMES 117
DON'T MISS THEM [
\gNIFICENT SEVENTH
\ ALANCED
I COMPUTERS
ICW. SHOW
If you're really interested in the world of
micro-computers there's only one place to be in September.
The most popular micro-computer show in the world.
The 7th Personal Computer World Show at Olympia 2
from September 20th to the 23rd.
Mingle with the giants of the micro world. Find out
what's new and up and coming your way. We think you'll
profit from the experience.
So if you want to be in the know, you know where to be
in September.
September 19th - Trade/Press day only.
The greatest micro
show on earth.
_ TIMES: 10am-7pm weekdays. 10am-5pm Sunday. FEATURES INCLUDE: “BBC Radio Live at the PCW
f Show." Businessman's advisory centre. Top 20 Games sponsored by Websters. The Leading Edge/the latest
products at the show. Amateur Computer Clubs. "Mastering the Micro” — Top 20 Computer Books/Software.
ADMISSION: £3.50 p.p. Group tickets (10 people and over) £2.50 p.p. Children (under 12) £1.50.
Please apply tor your advance tickets to: Montbuiid, 11 Manchester Square, London W1. Telephone:
DISCOVER HOW TO
CHOOSEA
AT THE P.C. W. SHOW
ADVERTISERS
INDEX
Aardvark 102
A&F Software 87
A&R Software 109
Active Software 86
Activision 79
Acorn 98/99
Addictive Games 94
Alligata 49
Anirog 8/82/89
Artie 32/96
Beast Software 109
Beaujollys 96
Beyond 74/102/IBC
Britannia Software 22
Channel 8 Software 119
Cheetah Soft 56
CK Supplies 44
Computer Dungeon 36
CRL 10/11
Currah Computing 118
CygnusTwo 109
Discount Computer Services 85
Dorcas Computer Services 22
Elite Systems IFC
Fantasy 95
File Sixty 28
Gamma Software 52
Gate Lodge Displays 102
Gremlin 66
103
Hewson Consultants
40
OBC
25
112
81
Micromega
23
Micropower
121/123/125
Miles Better Software
102
New Generation 53
OE Limited 126/127
Ocean
114
88
Personal Software Services 80
61
90
52
Statesoft
7
Talent
70
Taskset
26
UBIK Software
86
US Gold
.17/24/97/106
Virgin Books
36
Wadvich boost your\
"collection with swoop^
FELIX IN THE FACTORY
iAND CYBERTRON / — v l
^ MISSION! M tvl
Run through the
to rescue the
power jewels. Dodge ghostly
9 ghouls and bouncing spiders, leap
over poison- smeared spikes,
scamper along moving platforms
and contracting floorboards,
and use powerful springs to
propel you onto overhanging
ledges. Superb animation
and spine-tingling
sound effects.
ISOFTLURRE
Oh Borzak *■?!’
He’s just fallen in the bog.
‘Oh Borzak ★■?!’
He’s just been hit
by a piranha.
Borzak the o mating bug eyed bcastle from
Belelgeuse Is our Number One. maybe he will
Borzak runs, lumps and ducks on the way to
his spacecraft, on 48k Spectrum and
Commodore 64 with keyboard or joystick
control. Price £6.95 Including VAT.
'Oh Borzak**?!' Don't curse too
loud It you can't get him back to
his ship.
FEASIBILITY EXP ERIMENT .
TEN LITTLE INOIANS
THE WIZARD AKYRZ .
ARROW OF DEATH PT. 1 ^ I
ESCAPE FROM PULSAR 7 1
CHnnnELfi
M
51 Fishergate, Preston,
Lancs PR1 8BH.
Tel: (0772) 53057
MSOFTULIflRE
is available from larger branches of
ood computer shops everywhere, (in ca
THINk^hv.
r YOU'LL FIND ^
SWOOP, GHOULS AND y
CYBER TRON MISSION
^\ARE WINNERS .
A tor lb AS WELL! A
(SUPER-FAST LOADING T1MEI
commodore l
electron b.b.c. micro ivieiviotecm
Race along the conveyor belr leaping tho
packages, and shin up the ladders to tho
shopfloor. Pitchfork the Gremlins off tho
walkways, use the poison pouch to trap tho
Giant Rat, and retrieve the oilcan to koop
the generator topped up.
OEBOGCEOEEIBIim
^ c=3
®m©®i
Defend rhe space lanes against wave after
wave of relentless, screaming Birdmen.
Dodge the missiles raining down from the
phalanx above and keep dear of the
explosive eggs left by escaping creatures.
Features three types of Birdmen, and level
selection (except BBC version). E6.95.
(ELECTRON and SBC MICRO versions E7.95) M
W^lF / WftfF
r you, I D ALSO BUY 1
FELIX IN THE FACTORY,
CYBERTRON _
.MISSION AND £ VJ
^GHOULS' )■*. VI
THE TTX 2000
TELETEXT ADAPTOR
FOR THE ZX SPECTRUM
ALLOWS YOUR SPECTRUM ACCESS TO A HUGE RESERVOIR
OF UP TO DATE TELETEXT INFORMATION:
THE TELETEXT CHANNELS AND PAGES CAN BE SELECTED AT WILL AND BROWSED
THROUGH AT LEISURE. ANY PARTICULARLY INTERESTING PAGES CAN BE HELD ON
SCREEN, AND THEN STORED ON A MICRODRIVE FOR LATER RECALL, OR PRINTED OUT BY
YOUR PRINTER.
THE TTX 2000 DISPLAYS THE TELETEXT PAGES IN FULL COLOUR AND GRAPHICS ON YOUR
STANDARD TELEVISION.
IACCESS CEEFAX AND ORACLE BROADCAST
INFORMATION
SIGNED FOR USE EXCLUSIVELY WITH THE
I 16K AND 48K MODELS OF SINCLAIR ZX
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THE TELETEXT RECEIVER
POWER SUPPLY ADAPTOR
ZX INTERFACE CABLE
I- FULL DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS.
THE ADAPTOR INCLUDES BUILT-IN
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TFT FTFYT
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PLUG IN
SWITCH ON
AND TUNE IN
THE TTX 2000 WILL WORK WITH ANY
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TV AERIAL.
DESIGNED
AND MANUFACTURED BY
NORTH POINT.
GILWILLY INDUSTRIAL ESTATE.
PENRITH,
CUMBRIA CA11 9BN.
TEL: (0768 66) 748.
TELEX: 64157.
PRESTEL MAILBOX: 093051909.
THE TTX 2000
ORDER FORM
Please send me a TTX 2000 for £143.75 (incl VAT P&P)*
I enclose a cheque/PO made payable to O.E. Limited.
0 Please debit my AccessA/isa account as appropriate.
C5 Access card No:
£ Visa card No:
Signature:
Address:
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•Allow 28 days (or delivery. ' Delete as necessary.
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: Chris Anderson Deputy Editor: Sieve Cooke Production editor Roderick George Art editor: lah Findlav Stall writers P
ial assistant Samanlha Hemens Software consultant. Tony Takoushi Cartoons Kipper WUlia^ £=£ SnS' r
J eff Riddle Art director: |im Dansie Group Publisher: John Cade Publisher lames Sconlay Assistant publishing .
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128 PC GAMES
NEE COUPON ON PAGE 102
.**11
SPEECH
