Enduro

Sinclair User

Overall 3/10

Tony Dillon 3/10

Label: Firebird Author: Activision Price: £1.99 Joystick: various Reviewer: Tony Dillon Pressing on regardless, releasing all the old Activision stuff on budget, and after failing with River Raid, Firebird is still trying to do the impossible. To do a decent Atari 2600 conversion. It carries on the trend with that old rad-racing classic, Enduro. In it you must ride a cross-country course over land and snow, occasionally riding through the night. You race against hundreds of other cars beautifully drawn in glorious block-o-vision. (Except in the night where they are portrayed by their headlights only.) The road is two lines on either side and the only impression of movement is an occasional wave in the line that passes at regular intervals Another pathetic effort by Firebird. Let sleeping games lie, that's what I reckon.

Your Spectrum

Dave Nicholls 3/5 HIT

Roger Willis 3/5 HIT

Ross Holman 1/5 MISS

JOYSTICK JURY What's on your software shopping list for Christmas? Let Ross Holman, Dave Nicholls and Roger Willis help you make your mind up! This month, our motley crew of Joystick Jurors include Dave Nicholls, a self-confessed adventure fanatic and seasoned hacker; Ross Holman, ace games player and winner of the Jet Set Willy prize; and, last but by no means least, Roger Willis, a relative newcomer to the Spectrum scene. Dave and Ross you'll already know from our monthly major games reviews. Roger Willis, on the other hand, is probably more at home in the saddle of a massive motorbike... but that was before he discovered the thrills and spills of the Spectrum. Check out what they thought of the latest in games software... ENDURO Activision £7.99 Roger: Although we're talking racing cars here rather than motorbikes, the scenario and practical action of Enduro is very similar to Micromega's Full Throttle. The player uses a pair of keys to steer, and has both throttle and brakes on the keyboard. Joystick control is easier and obviously more instinctive, with a simple pull-back on the stick to hang out the anchors. The challenge is to keep on going in any weather or visibility condition, overtaking the requisite number of other cars each 'day'. During the first cycle, 200 cars must be passed and in subsequent 'days', the opposition increases to 300. Apart from 'day' and 'night' driving conditions - only tail lights are visible during the latter - ice and fog also appear, demanding slower, more careful and precise car control. The essential similarities to Full Throttle are tracking control and graphics, in as much as the visuals are dominated by a wiggling ribbon representing the road, tapering off to the horizon. I suppose it's got the same ability to excite, amuse and addict 'go-faster' merchants, but it ain't sufficiently different to justify acquisition if that other program's been LOADed in the recent past... To be honest. I got quickly tired of it, but there again, I've been tired all my life...

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Personal Computer News

Overall 7/10

Ian Scales 7/10

PRICE: £7.99 PUBLISHER: Activision [redacted] This is a hypnotic game, replicating many of the qualities of fast motorway driving. Playing it for more than 20 minutes confuses your eye, frays your nerves, and makes you sweat. The object of Enduro is to pass as many cars as you can during a day, a night and a morning of an endurance race. The player has a 'bird's-eye' view of the car, and mountain ranges and competing cars looming ahead. Conditions change as you charge along. One second they're perfect, the road meandering lazily in front of you and cars being overtaken at a satisfying rate, the next you're confronted with sheet ice and a commensurate loss of driver control. Then night draws in - tail-lights are the only indication of your looming victims. Eventually, time runs out and the game's over, unless you pass the requisite number of cars, at which point you move up to a harder level where there are more cars to pass in the available time. Trying to occupy the same piece of track as another car causes an immediate loss in your performance rating. The penalty for hitting the side of the track or brushing another car is having half a dozen competitors pass you. The best tactics seem to be to go flat out and take the collisions in your stride. Enduro is a compelling game in small doses. The graphics aren't brilliant - certainly nowhere near Pole Position or Full Throttle.

Crash

Use of Computer 73%

Graphics 67%

Playability 69%

Getting Started 69%

Addictive Qualities 70%

Value For Money 54%

Overall 67%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Activision Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £7.90 Language: Machine code Author: Larry Miller Enduro is another Activision translation from a dedicated games cartridge to the Spectrum, the adaption here being done by James Software. Once more you are down on the grid, ready to race through all sorts of conditions against 200 other vehicles. The race starts in broad daylight, takes you through snow and ice, fog and rain towards the sunset, dusk and finally night. Your car is red, the others are all black. At night time all you can see of them is their headlights until night really settles in, when only their red tail lights glimmer dimly and the road, too, is foreshortened. The overall perspective used is a rather high one, although the road does reach the vanishing point properly. The screen display is mostly green (road and landscape) with the road edges indicated by thin perspective lines. A blue sky is separated by hill details which do move about realistically. Sunset is well shown with the sky beginning to turn red. Ice and snow conditions are represented spy the predominant green turning white and the car controls in a somewhat sluggish manner to simulate driving conditions. Below the playing area is a panel containing the day number, number of cars still to overtake and a timer. Running along the edge of the road will slow you down, although this is one of the few road racer games where your vehicle cannot actually run off the road. Also, rather like Full Throttle, hitting other vehicles doesn't result in an explosion, but just slows you down. There is only the one, seemingly endless track to play on, but there is an increase in difficulty as you go from day to day, with the cars bunching more together as you go along. COMMENTS Control keys: 2/W accelerate/brake, O/P right Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, Protek, AGF (accelerate is fire button) Keyboard play: very responsive, good positions Use of colour: good Graphics: not over detailed but fast and smooth with better than average 3D effect Sound: good Skill levels: 1 with progressive difficulty Lives: 1

The endless road of ENDURO.

When night falls, all you see is the whites of their headlamps.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 6/10

Sound 5/10

Value 7/10

Playability 8/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Activision PRICE: £7.99 Unless you've a Atari VCS video game system tucked away at home, you will not know about the joys of Enduro. When it first came out in cartridge form for the VCS members of the C&VG staff could be seen sneaking off to the computer room for a quick blast around the Enduro race track - in fact we were in danger of not reviewing anything else that month. Anyway, this ace racing game has now come to the screens of the Spectrum. The idea of the game is simple. You have to complete as many laps of a long distance endurance race as possible. At the start of each lap, or day, you are given a target number of cars to pass in order to qualify for the next lap. You drive through day and night, snow and fog during each lap, passing cars as you go. Hit another car and you slow down - a delay which might prevent you qualifying for the next day of racing. The graphics are pretty crude by today's standards and the sound not up to much - but the game scores highly on playability. You keep wanting beat it. Enduro is guaranteed to get you coming back for more. The controls - either keyboard or joystick - are extremely responsive. So you'll need a few practice laps to get the feel of your Enduro-car.