The Drive-In

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 4/10

Clare Edgeley 4/10

THE DRIVE-IN Fantasy Software Memory: 48K Price: £5.50 Joystick: Sinclair, Protek, Kempston Drive In from Fantasy has not, as the name might suggest, anything to do with burgers and movies - instead it is set round a drive-in garage some- where in space. Dezzy's space ship is disintegrating. With no spare parts she finds an old drive-in where hopefully she will be able to find some rusty replacements. The garage is a confusing jumble of rooms and objects, half of which seem to have little to do with the game. The object is to pick up spare parts which must then be assembled in Room 189 - the only room with a number. Some rooms contain banks, swap shops and time machines which must be used if Dezzy is to survive. You will come across the symbols of those facilities early on in the game but identifying each takes rather longer. Objects placed in the bank are swallowed and never seen again. Certainly a game to tax your ingenuity and patience and one which might tempt you to throw your joystick away in frustration.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Sinclair Programs

Rating 80%

Colette McDermott 80%

PRICE: £5.50 GAME TYPE: Arcade Some games you can load into your computer and play as soon as they appear on screen, without even glancing at the story on the cassette insert. Drive-In, the new release from Fantasy is not like that at all. It is complex. Really complex. To start with there are lots of different rooms, 189 in all, each complete with two different brands of energy sapping alien. Then you have to find the parts to build a space ship, although you can only carry four things at a time. You must carry them to room 189, which you must, of course, find, and then assemble them in the correct order. To help you on your way there are garages, swap shops, banks and time machines. Even reading the cassette insert will be no help here, and you are left to work out for yourself which of these machines is which, what they all do, and how you make them do it. You will need all your wits about you for this game. A map is essential, and making notes on what you have collected is also important. There is a maze so, following adventure techniques, you must enter it carrying enough objects to enable you to map it. You must remember what is going on everywhere, and you must either zap the aliens, or act fairly nippy in order to avoid them. Clues? Well, just this once. The map is wrap-round vertically, so if you keep moving upwards you will unsuspectingly find yourself at the bottom of the map. Room 189 is down and to the right of the start. You cannot remove anything from a swapshop until you have put something in the bank. Now go and solve the rest yourself. Totally addictive, with the complexity of all the other arcade games from Fantasy, Drive-In is produced by Fantasy Software, Fauconberg Lodge, [redacted].

Your Computer

Overall 2/5

Paul Bond 2/5

Spectrum Fantasy Arcade Adventure £5.50 Good stock Fantasy stuff - 189 screens, 28 different aliens and various objects to be collected. If this software house were a movie star it would he Clint Eastwood - there is a strict unvarying formula to all their products which must presumably be popular with the user. This is one of those games where you have to reassemble your spaceship by collecting all the various bits. A slight twist is added by the fact that the central character - the one doing all the zipping about and zapping is a superheroine called Dezzy. Beautiful she may be but a big space suit and only a few pixels make it hard to tell. What happened to Ziggy, the customary star of Fantasy games? Well, Dezzy is on her way to help him. Lured into an abandoned drive in by the villain of the piece she has to piece together an old starship to escape. This must be assembled in the correct sequence inside room 189. You can use a joystick or keyboard to control the character and there is a redefining option. You use keys 1-4 to pick up and drop objects when Dezzy is directly over them. You can also score by shooting the aliens, of course, but when the points score reaches 10,000 it resets to zero and the percentage completed of the game increases. You don't just collect objects - you can also trade them for other objects and some of the rooms have automatic garages, banks and time machines. These can all be used to assist you complete the game. It's a little bit like a poor man's Atic Atac, but for people who like compiling maps and puzzling over functions of gadgets, I'm sure it'll be a great hit.

Crash

Use of Computer 82%

Graphics 77%

Playability 65%

Getting Started 69%

Addictive Qualities 58%

Value For Money 70%

Overall 70%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Fantasy Software Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.50 Language: Machine code Author: David Harper While you are struggling to save the universe from the infinitely evil Scarthax, spare a thought for Ziggy's daring friend, the infinitely beautiful Dezzy, who's dashing to aid her super hero comrade when she runs into a dreadful space storm and is thrown into a part of space she doesn't know well. The space ship is damaged, and seeking somewhere safe to repair it, finds herself heading for a supposedly deserted old Drive in planetoid in a disused asteroid mining belt. To her surprise the Drive in is flashing its neon welcoming signs. She enters and the doors slam shut! Dezzy has entered Scarthax's trap! Your task is to help Dezzy escape. Within the Drive in is a maze of rooms inhabited by 28 different types of alien. Dezzy can escape by assembling an old intergalactic spaceship, parts of which may be found within the 189 rooms. Energy is in short supply, and you must find ways of replenishing it. Some rooms contain automatic garages, swap shops, banks and time machines. There are also useful objects to be collected, four being allowed at a time. Some of these will let you do different things and aid in your task, some will be useful to swap for energy. Some rooms need keys to enter and exit, others are controlled by traffic lights. The discovered parts of the ship must be reassembled in room 189 in the correct sequence, which you must also discover. Points are scored for destroying aliens, and a percentage is awarded for the amount of the game you have completed. Each room in the game is represented by a single screen with exit and entry points marked. Four boxes above the playing area are used to show what you are carrying, and the Fantasy logo changes colour progressively as your energy runs down. COMMENTS Control keys: user definable, four direction and fire, plus keys 1 to 4 for pick up/drop Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2, Protek, AGF Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: good Graphics: very good, varied and imaginative Sound: average Skill levels: 1 Lives: 1 Screens: 189

Ziggy's bestest friend Dezzy comes to the rescue, and finds herself trapped in the DRIVE-IN.