F-16 Fighting Falcon

Your Sinclair

The View 60%

Realism 5%

Dakka Factor 79%

Net Weight 4%

Overall 41%

Jonathan Davies 41%

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO FLIGHT SIMS Oh cripes. Whose idea was this? Couldn't we do it on something else? Nah, we promised. How about putting if off for another month? Or we could make JONATHAN DAVIS do it? Heh heh. Right, where's he got to? Ah ha! Neeeeeow! Dakka dakka dakka! Kaboom! "Crikey, Ginger, pull up! Over." "I can't! I think my flaps have gone a bit funny. Over." Neeeow! Boom! "Bail out! Bail out! Over." Dakka dakka dakka. (Ricochet noises.) "Er, okay then. Over and out." Sorry about that, just trying to inject a bit of excitement into this thing because, let's face it, flight sims aren't exactly the most exciting bits of software around. Or are they? No, They're not. But there are loads of them about, and people keep buying them. Why is this? Perhaps we'd better investigate. For thousands of years man has dreamt of flight... (Cut the crap, Ed) Erm, well, perhaps it's because they demand a bit more thought than your average arcade game. Fast reactions are all very well, but what about using your noddle occasionally? Keeping a plane in flight isn't just a matter of wobbling your joystick about a bit, which is the impression that lesser games give. You've got angles of attack to worry about, altitude, navigation, weapons systems, undercarriage... the list is endless. As are the manuals usually. And that's another thing. If you've never played one before you'll need to spend hours wading through one of these breeze-block tomes before you can even get off the ground. Once you've got the thing up in the air though you're well away. With any luck there'll be lots of scenery to look at and plenty of enemy thingies to 'take out'. You might even like to indulge in a bit of aerobatics to pass the time. The one thing you should always keep an eye on though is the ground. Stay away from this at all costs. Unless you're landing, of course, which is another story altogether. SO WHAT'S A FLIGHT SIM THEN, EH? In compiling this guide I was faced with the usual problem - what exactly is a flight simulation? What are the criteria? Where do you draw the line? I decided to seek the advice of one of Europe's leading experts in the field of computer games. "Er, Matt? (Cough.) Matt?' I ventured. "Mmm?" "Would you have said that, say, Fighter Pilot was a flight sim? Huh? Matt?" I enquired cheerily. "Er, probably," he replied. "How about Harrier Attack?" "I expect it is, yes." "Or Night Raider?" "Um, look, I've got to go out. To the, er, shops. I'll see you later. Maybe." Unperturbed. I decided to try Andy, but he didn't appear to hear me. I also tried ringing up a few friends. They all seemed to be out. So it's all down to me then. Well, I reckon that really, in a flight sim, you ought to be in control of a plane of some sort. Ideally you'd get a 3D view out of the cockpit, but I'll be flexible and allow ones where you see the plane on the screen from the back (like ATF) and even ones where you see the view in 2D (from the top or something). Another important guideline is the number of keys. Preferably there should be at least 2,452 of them, each with about three different functions. But, again, I'll allow a generous margin of error and set the bottom line at six. And finally there's the manual. Obviously this should be as large and impenetrable as possible, with lots of incomprehensible acronyms that you have to keep looking up in the glossary at the back. A rough guide to length? Let's say 500-600 pages for a decent one or, if the game comes in an ordinary cassette box, an inlay card that folds out into a thin strip long enough to wrap round Matt's tummy at least two and a half times. So now we know just what makes up a flight sim, let's take a look at a few… RATINGS Once again, the normally-so-versatile YS rating system doesn't really seem too appropriate here (Instant appeal? Addictiveness?). So what we've done is to come up with a revised system, specially tailored to meet the needs of today's flight sim. Let's have a nosey... The View: Can you see anything nice out of the window? Or is it all just green and blue wiggly lines? And does the scenery glide around smoothly or jerk around like an Allegro with a dodgy clutch? Realism: This can often be determined by the number of keys the game uses. So that's just what we've done. Counted 'em. As there are 40 keys on your basic Speccy, and each one can be doubled or even tripled up, the maximum comes out to exactly 100. Handy, eh? Dakka Factor: Is there much to shoot? Or is it all a matter of map-reading, gauge-watching and other such nonsense? And once you've shot whatever it is, does it explode dramatically and plummet to the ground leaving a trail of smoke behind it? Or not? Net Weight: A crucial part of any flight sim is all the junk that comes with it. So, adding together all the disks, maps, manuals, stickers and the box, what do the YS scales make of it? (All weights are, of course, approximate.) (In degrees.) THE CHEAPO SIDE OF THINGS You've got to give them credit - the budget people'll have a crack at anything. And flight sims are no exception. A full-pricey can take anything up to 18 months and a massive team of highly-trained programmers to develop, so what does your average beer-swilling cheapo programmer manage to come up with in the two weeks (evenings only) he's allotted? Let's brace ourselves and take a look. F-16 Fighting Falcon Mastertronic A couple of major questions hang over this one. Firstly, why has it got a picture of a Harrier (with an extra tail fin) on the loading screen? And, secondly, why bother releasing it at all? (It's a bit crap.) The second question is easy enough to answer. It originally came out with the highly successful (?) Magnum lightgun, and obviously appeared to have some mileage left in it. Flight sim-wise, things don't look too hot either. It's a blatant Afterburner rip-off (but without the rocking landscape) and as Afterburner wasn't a flight sim this isn't either. Oops.

Never mind the planes and tanks. Look at the size of that ruddy cactus!

EVERY FLIGHT SIM EVER (IN THE WORLD)* *(near enough) Ace - Cascade Ace II - Cascade Ace Of Aces - US Gold Acrojet - US Gold Airliner - Protek ATF - Digital Integration Biggies - Mirrorsoft Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer - Electronic Arts Combat Lynx - Durell Dambusters - US Gold Delta Wing - Creative Sparks Deep Strike - Durell F-15 Strike Eagle - MicroProse Flight Path 737 - Anirog Fighter Bomber - Activision Fighter Pilot - Digital Integration Flight Simulation - Psion Flyer Fox - Bug Byte Gee Bee Air Rally - Activision Gunship - MicroProse Nightflight - Hewson Nightflight II - Hewson Night Raider - Gremlin Project Stealth Fighter - MicroProse Red Arrows - Database Software Skyfox - Ariolasoft Space Shuttle - Microdeal Spitfire 40 - Mirrorsoft Strike Attack - Micro Mart Strike Force Harrier - Mirrorsoft Top Gun - Ocean

GAMES THAT AREN'T FLIGHT SIMS, BUT MIGHT JUST WELL HAVE BEEN Caesar The Cat - Mirrorsoft Mr Wong's Loop Laundry - Artic ZX Tool Kit - Star Dreams

GAMES THAT MOST DEFINITELY AREN'T FLIGHT SIMS Beaky And The Egg Snatchers - Fantasy Blue Max - US Gold Harrier Attack - Durell Heathrow Air Traffic Control - Hewson Monty Python's Flying Circus - Virgin Night Gunner - Digital Integration P47 - Firebird Scramble Spirits - Grandslam Spitfire - Encore TLL - Vortex

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-BEHIND ONES These ones are really the next step down from the True Flight Sim. They're essentially the same, except that instead of a view out of the cockpit you get a view of the back of your plane. This isn't quite as pointless as it sounds, because usually the plane is small enough so that you can see past it to the 'scenery' beyond. This type of view generally makes it easier to judge landings and to see if you're about to fly into anything, but there is often a corresponding reduction in the number of knobs and dials, and an increase in things to do. Not what we want at all. ATF is the perfect example of this sort of thing. "Chuck Yeager. (Well, he sort of belongs in this box.)"

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-JUST-ABOUT-ANYWHERE ONES Now these really are the business. They're like a cross between the True Flight Sim and the Looking-At-It-From-Behind one, with lots more as well. In fact, what you can do is look at your plane from all sorts of different angles, including weird ones like from-the-ground and from-the-front-of-the-plane. To tell the truth, games like this are a bit scarce on the Speccy (they tend to flourish on posh computers like the Atari ST) but there are one or two good ones. Chuck Yeager is a notable example, as is Fighter Bomber.

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-THE-SIDE ONES Now we're looking at things like Harrier Attack And they're certainly not flight sims. In fact, they're usually just scrolling shoot-'em-ups with planes instead of spaceships. There's always plenty of stuff to shoot, but technical accuracy is very limited indeed. You never have to worry about setting your flaps at the right angle or the navigational computer to the appropriate beacon, or watching your airspeed in case you stall. Useless. "Harrier Attack - definitely not a flight simulator. (Clear now?)"

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-THE-TOP ONES Now we're in dicey territory. We're talking about things like TLL here. Quite frankly, they're not really, are they? Flight sims, I mean. They've rarely got more than four or five keys, placing them firmly on the arcade side of things. So let's pass over them.

SO, YOU WANT TO WRITE A FLIGHT SIM? Er, are you sure? Stick your tongue out. Hmm. Say "Ahh". Crikey. Okay, let's take a look at some essential ingredients... THE SETTING Flight sims are always set in a spooky 'alternative' world where the sky is always blue and the grass is always green (and so is just about everything else for that matter). Other vegetation is pretty sparse, apart from triangles on sticks which look a bit like trees. These are usually about 600 ft high (if your altimeter is anything to go by). The only buildings tend to be in a modernist cereal packet style, with no-one living in them. Mountains are handy for flying into. KNOBS AND DIALS There should be a ridiculous number of these, all of which are unmarked and of no obvious use. If they start reading 'zero', eject. There should also be little red lights which start flashing and making a beeping noise for no apparent reason. They only stop when you press every key on the keyboard very hard, at which point the plane crashes. THE MAP Any relation to a normal map should be avoided. Flight sim maps consist of a large and (usually green-on-yellow, or something else that's probably outlawed by EEC legislation) covered in little splotches. Quite what these are isn't entirely clear. Somewhere in the middle is a flashing square - you. This never seems to move, no matter how long you look. Meanwhile, back in the cockpit, your plane has just been shot down. THE CONTROLS As previously explained, there should be as many as possible, and then lots more on top of that. They should all have obvious purposes (eg P for throttle up, K for map, Symbol Shift, Caps Shift and 3 for left etc). There should also be a disconcerting delay (say, five minutes) between pressing a key and anything happening. The need for constant reference to the manual can easily be incorporated, during which time the plane flies into a tree. SOUND Don't put any in. Apart from the 'crash effect', of course. THE ENEMY Somewhere on the screen there should be a radar with a little flashing dot on it. This is the enemy aircraft. The player will turn to face it, prime the air-to-air missiles and wait for the two aircraft to meet. This, of course, never happens. After a certain length of time the player will get bored, engage the autopilot and nip out to put the kettle on. His plane then gets shot down. LANDING As you'll no doubt be aware, this is impossible. Real F-15s and things land perfectly first time, every time. But not simulated ones. You get them lined up exactly, set the speed rate of descent and everything exactly according to the instructions, flaps and undercarriage down, set it down oh-so-gently and... kaboom. PLAYTESTING Once the game's nearing completion you'll have to thoroughly test it. Sit yourself down in front of it and ask someone to come and check up on you after an hour or so. If you're still awake the game is obviously in need of modification.

THE 'TRUE' FLIGHT SIM The obvious example of one of these is the original Flight Simulation, but that was pretty crap. What we're basically talking about here is the sort where you're placed in the cockpit looking out of the window in the bottom half of the screen (or, worse, on another screen altogether) is the instrument panel, which can generally be ignored, and in the top half is the view. This is generally green on the bottom and blue on the top. If it's the other way round you're probably in trouble. Scattered about will be lots of squiggly lines, and maybe a few dots on the ground to give the impression of 'speed' (ahem). "Night Raider - not of the best but it'll do."

THE A-Z OF FLYING TERMS Ammo: A Latin verb. Being Tail Gunner: Going to the loo. Chocks Away: Someone's pinched your lunch. Dogfight: These are illegal. Eject: If in doubt... Flaps: Do lots of these if the propeller stops going round. Ground: The main hazard faced by most pilots. Heading: See Football Guide, YS Issue 54. Instruments: In-flight entertainment. Joystick: Long thing between your legs with a red bit on the end. Kippers: Probably the nickname of a World War 1 pilot. Landing: The bit at the top of the stairs. Mae West: Something pilots like to keep handy. Normandy: A nice place to go on holiday. Orange: If you paint your 'crate' this colour you'll probably get shot down. Piece Of Cake: Dreadful drama series about planes on telly. Quebec: Keep an eye on the map if you don't want to end up here. Roger: (Er, do S. Ed) Six O'Clock: Tea-time. Take Off: Spoof or parody. Undercarriage: See Joystick. V-Formation: Give one of these to the enemy as you fly by. Wings: Something to do with Paul McCartney. X-Ray: You're meant to say this over the radio quite often. Yellow: See Orange.

THE FIRST FLIGHT SIM EVER Ha. This one's easy. It was Flight Simulation, one of the first games that ever came out on the Speccy. It was also the first game I bought. (Aargh! The secret's out.) It was one of those Psion games which came out on Sinclair's own label, and despite the mind-numbingly tedious piccy on the box (the instrument panel of a plane) it hung around near the top of the charts for years. In actual fact, Flight Simulation is a conversion of a ZX81 game of the same name. Yikes. We'll take a closer look at this one later on.

Sinclair User

Graphics 55%

Playability 60%

Sound 35%

Lastability 30%

Overall 40%

Jim Douglas 40%

Label: Mastertronic Plus Price: £2.99 Reviewer: Jim Douglas I do love a game with completely illogical controls. Look, I know that Falcon Patrol doesn't bill itself as a realistic simulation. I realise that it's supposed to be a knockabout bit of blasting fun, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the controls to be the right way round. When you fly a plane, pulling back on the joystick pulls the nose up (you go up). Pushing forward on the joystick tips the nose forward (you go down). And the same is true of a thousands of coin-ops and conversions the world over. Alas, F16 doesn't follow such dreary conventions. Your plane behaves as if it was an airborne cursor. Pulling back on the joystick to climb sends you earthward while pushing forward to dip your nose out of trouble cause you to climb into oncoming bullets. You can't even remedy the situation yourself since there's no option to redefine the keys. Although billed heavily as being compatible with the Magnum Lightphaser, the extent of Lightgun controls is minimal. You shoot your plane and the computer picks a safe direction and automatically moves you that way. So apart from the fact that it's completely unplayable, what's it like? Crap, I'm afraid. Remember Afterburner? Well, take all the good bits and F16 is what you've got. Each of the four (count 'em!) stages takes place in a distinct global environment. There's the blistering heat of the Sahara desert, the close humidity of the tropics, the icy wastes of the Arctic and finally the, er, damp wetness of the Ocean. Unfortunately, it doesn't really matter where you're fighting, since the baddies you face (enemy jets and choppers) are common to all levels. Did I mention that it was extremely easy? Oh, it's appallingly easy. You can get through the level simply by letting go of the joystick and firing occasionally. If you're bonkers about flying then maybe you could just about justify the three quid. Other than that. You'd be bonkers.

Push forward on the joystick and watch your aircraft scream up the screen into oncoming missiles.

Skimming low over the Sahara, the skies filled with enemy aircraft and {INDECIPHERABLE}ath-splintering action.

Your Sinclair

Overall 69%

Marcus Berkmann 69%

BARGAIN BASEMENT Another delve into the recesses of Speccy softstuff with Dr Marcus "stand very still and try not to scream" Berkmann. F-16 FIGHTING FALCON Mastertronic £1.99 Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann Another game to be played with Mastertronic's exciting new Magnum Lightphaser (I wonder how much that costs - more than £2.99, no doubt...). But strip away the gripping new technological requirements, and underneath it's just another aircraft combat game, with few differences, if any, from nine billion similar games we've seen in the past. True, your F-16 does beetle over four different scenarios - Sahara, Tropical, Arctic and Ocean - but, graphical backgrounds aside, there's not as much variety to it as there initially seems. What there is is immense speed - your react ions need to be incredibly fast and it's really dead easy to get killed. Quite what difference the Magnum Lightphaser™ makes I can't tell you, but with joystick or keyboard it's very much business-as-usual. Shoot them down before they shoot you, and all will be well.

Crash

Overall 53%

Nick Roberts 53%

BIG BUDGET BONANZA A veritable mini-flood of lo-price thrill packs to keep DJ Nicko from waggling his girl friend's ear and stuck to joystick wielding instead! Here we go... F-16 FIGHTING FALCON Mastertronic £2.99 Get up, up and away with the second of the new Mastertronic games for use with a Magnum Lightphaser. F-16 Fighting Falcon is a thrilling 3-D flight combat game, along the lines of Afterburner. You take part in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat using weapons such as heatseekers and sidewinders to blow Soviet MIGs out of the sky. The detailed graphics of the F-16 and the enemies that fly towards it give the game a very professional feel. The ground below flies by at high speeds in a realistic way - the only trouble is it's all in glorious yellow monochrome (aww). Sound is not too impressive either, the effects are very basic and the tune drives you mad after a couple of plays. The playability of the game using the lightgun is severely reduced. The idea is to shoot the F-16 when you want it to move. The inlay says it will take 'automatic, intelligent evasive action'. In fact the F-16 either stays put and ploughs into an oncoming chopper, or blows up! Using the normal control method improves the game a bit, but there's nothing new about flying around shooting things, is there? If you're desperate for lightgun games then give this a whirl, but you will have to be pretty desperate!

Your Sinclair

Overall 55%

Phil South 55%

DEFENDER YOURSELF You may remember we reviewed the Sinclair Magnum Light Phaser a couple of issues ago. And you may also remember what we thought of it - good, but not that good. Now there's a new shoot 'em up contender in the lightgun wars - the Defender from joystick makers Cheetah. It comes with its very own specially penned selection of games too, this time written by those loveable CodeMasters chappies. We let our own Philip Snout loose with it for an afternoon. Product: Defender Light Gun Designer/Manufacturer: Cheetah Marketing Price: £24.95 As we all know, lightguns are basically a fun, if limited, addition to Speccy gamesplaying. I mean, they'll never take over from joysticks as the best all-round game controllers, but a change is as good as a rest I always say, so it was as inevitable as a slap in the gob with a mullet (but not as red) that sooner or later one would become available for the Speccy. First off the mark was actually the Stack Light Rifle years ago, but it was a bit crap. The biggie, of course, was the recent Amstrad/Spectrum Light Phaser. But that had its disappointments too, namely the rather flimsy construction and horrible black and white bars it splattered across Operation Wolf. This was one of a handful of games specially converted to the lightgun standard. The actual weapon was built by Trojan, best known for its lightpens, and it sort of showed. Nasty people around the office started describing it as "a lightpen with a handle on", which was a bit unfair, but that's the YS team for you. So it was only a matter of time really before joystick manufacturers started entering the fray (in fact it was only a matter of months which meant they must have had it planned all along) and the first of these to do so is popular joystick and musical funbox maker Cheetah Marketing. The Defender is a nice piece of work. The moulded plastic body is dark grey with bright red handgrips. The design is quite modern and sturdy looking I s'pose, but still with slightly naff Buck Rogers-like tendencies. The handgrip is raked forwards to make it aim and hold, and weights have been added inside the body to improve the feel and balance of the thing. It certainly seems quite hefty and gun-like, unlike the feeble Sinclair. Accuracy-wise the Defender seems to be pretty sharp. Most of the time I aimed at something I hit it, which means one of two things - either the gun is accurate, or the software is really good at reading the gun. (Of course the other thing it might mean is I'm flipping skill at using it!) You do have to be fairly square to the screen though, and not too close, or the focus of the gun goes all to cock. You'll hit everything on the screen with one shot, and that's no good if you need to be selective, like in Bronx Street Cop for instance (one of the games bundled in with it). So care should be taken, and a few experiments done, before you challenge someone to competition Unless you don't ever want to get to the second level. THE GAMES! (They made me deaf you know!) There are six games bundled in with the Cheetah Defender, all specially written by the wacky CodeMasters (those Darling, Darling boys!). The games will be available on cassette to start with, with disk loading versions to follow. JUNGLE WARFARE An out'n'out Op Wolf clone. You scroll sideways through a series of backdrops, from airports to bridges and jungles, as a battalion of enemy soldiers, choppers and tanks comes into your sights. You must shoot them in order to stay alive. (Nah, you don't say!? Ed) Unfortunately, you have limited ammo, so splattering the gooks all over the landscape on rapid fire is fun but won't get you far. The graphics aren't too bad, and there's some impressively life-like banging noises as your gun goes off. I think I could do without the screen flashing every time you shoot though. It's not half as bad as the Phaser but a little divot of earth flipping up to let me know where I hit would suffice. Still, the game isn't too bad, just a little bit repetitive, and it's obviously the ideal sort of thing to use a lightgun for. Overall: 60° ADVANCED PINBALL SIMULATOR Yegads, what's this? Pinball?! This is as good an example as you can get to show how odd the pairing of gun and games can sometimes be. What on Earth possessed the designer of this game to make it a 'shoot-at-the-flippers-'em-up'? It almost seems deliberately perverse! What happens is you shoot at the plunger to eject the ball into the machine. Then you shoot at the flippers to punt the ball back into play if it looks like it's going to make a break for it. Just like a normal game of pinball really (well, sort of). Works okay though, and although a bit strange at first, the program does play a mean pinball! Overall: 60° F16 FIGHTING FALCON This one is an Afterburner clone in which you shoot at all the incoming fighters and missiles, and shoot at your own F16 to make it perform what the manual calls "automatic intelligent evasive action". Hmm. Just looks like it bounces out of the way if you ask me. The scenery scrolls by underneath you as you fly along blasting the poop out of anything that moves and a few things that don't Trouble is you don't get much time to anticipate a plane coming on to the screen, and, if you leave it too late to blow it up, it gets a chance to launch its missiles at you. There are four levels to the game, over the Sahara, Tropics, Arctic and Ocean. Okay, I s'pose, but not enough control over the plane for my taste. Another slightly peculiar use of the gun. Overall: 55° SUPERCAR TRANS AM Hey, don't I remember something just like this by the late lamented Ultimate Play The Game about a million years ago? Trans Am it was called. This new CodeMasters version bears more than a passing resemblance to the old Ultimate smasheroo, but this time of course you've got God, or at least a lightgun, on your side. You steer by shooting steering icons and change from forward to reverse by zapping the car itself. There are five stages to the journey going from LA to NY, starting at the California Beach, then moving on to the Rocky Mountain Pass, the Grand Canyon Jump, past the Great Lakes Stage, and finally on to New York City in Sight. It's a sort of arcade road movie really. I dunno, I found it really hard to concentrate on steering the car without bumping into stuff let alone shooting as well. All along the route men with guns try to blow your bum off, and usually they succeed. Not as good as the original, but it probably rewards persistence. Overall: 56° BRONX STREET COP At last, a classic shooting gallery type game. You're a rookie cop on the Bronx street beat. In order that you don't wax some poor passers by in the process of blowing away... hem hem... In the process of apprehending a villain, you are put on the shooting range and presented with a couple of targets to shoot at. As they come up into the gallery you must decide whether they are legitimate targets or innocent bystanders. Brilliant. Overall: 89° BILLY THE KID Not quite as good as Bronx Street Cop, but nearly. You get to blow tins off cactuses in the practice round this time. The cowboy at the side of the screen also throws a tin which you can keep aloft by shooting at it - if you're skill enough that is. Then you go on to 'help Billy The Kid shoot his way out of' various sticky situations. You only have limited ammo for the main parts of the game, but in the practice round you can put on the rapid fire switch and blast everything to ribbons. This is one of the funniest ways to play any of the games. Skill to Middling I'd say. Overall: 76° HEAD TO HEAD So, how does the Detender stand up against the recently released Sinclair Magnum Light Phaser by Trojan/Amstrad? At first, it seemed the guns were compatible. This was, we thought, the idea. But whilst the Magnum gun worked with the Defender games, the reverse wasn't true. Jon 'Techno Flash' Davies was on hand at the time I tested them and his theory was that the Cheetah was being read by the games as if it was always aimed at the top right of the screen! Weird. Anyway, the possibilities for a standard are out the window unless someone makes a game which works with both methods, or at least can be selected. The Defender seems much more solidly built, and the weights in it do a lot to improve balance and handling. Having played with the Magnum beforehand I really did notice how much heavier and more business-like the Defender is. It seems to be more accurate too, but that could just be the way the software itself reads the gun. The stupid problem of the Magnum causing huge white flashing bars across the screen has been solved in the Cheetah software, and all the games react much more smoothly. The games in the free pack are a bit samey in their presentation I s'pose, as compared to the varied range that comes with the Magnum, but this is to be expected as the games in the Defender pack all come from the same publisher. Also, the way the handgrip on the Defender is raked forwards, automatically pointing the gun level at the screen, differs with the Magnum's upright hold. This means you have to bend your wrist back ever so slightly to aim the gun. A minor quibble, but worth bearing in mind. The down side is that it takes less effort to keep the Magnum aloft than it does to hold up the Defender. 'Cos the Def is heavier, it makes your arm ache after a bit. But the Defender does have a rapid fire button, and this is brilliant fun, especially on things like Billy The Kid, when ammo isn't limited. The major plus for the Defender is that the lead is longer so you can get further away from the screen. CONCLUSION I prefer the Defender as a gun, and its games are good overall. My favourite must be Bronx Street Cop, with Billy The Kid a close second. I still don't know why they bothered to do it but the pinball game is pretty enjoyable (so perhaps there's the reason why). The Defender looks better, it's cheaper and in general seems to be much more fab than its only current competitor. Let's hope we see more lightguns using this same Cheetah standard, and even rifles or Uzi submachine guns. Watch this space (or another very similar).

Crash

Richard Eddy

Go ahead punk, make my day!! Cheetah Marketing Not Known £24.95 Lean, mean and accurate... BLAM!! The new Defender light gun from Cheetah is here, and Richard Eddy takes an exclusive peek at the latest Speccy add-on that's aiming to rival Sinclair's very own Magnum. It's a fact! The people from Wales are absolute boffins when it comes to producing Speccy stuff. There's the Sam Coupe from MGT, the Sinclair Magnum developed in Swansea by Trojan, and now Cheetah in Cardiff have a spiffing new light gun called the Defender, which looks like it's going to knock the Magnum into a cocked hat when it's released any time now. Mainly 'cos it looks dead good, but especially as it's a fiver cheaper at £24.95. The Defender is the end result of a year's work by a group of Cheetah's top engineers, and it's just a smidgeon off being finished. Unlike the Magnum (featured in the August issue) it actually looks like a gun, rather than a space phaser, and is constructed to give the same feel as a real pistol with weight, trigger balance and precision. So remember - don't point this at your granny unless you're prepared to get into heaps of trouble! The 128K/+2/+3 version is the closest to being finished, This connects to the Speccy via the Keypad/Aux port. A 48K version is also underway, and will connect via a joystick interface. Unlike the Magnum, the Defender has the smart inclusion of a sliding autofire/function select switch. This, if the software suits, turns the Defender into a machine gun, or allows you to select different weapons on screen. Until recently Cheetah hadn't seen the Magnum - but when they did get their paws on it, they thought it a tad primitive. They're now confident that their Defender is designed, and works, a lot better. Of course, the TV screen will flash when the trigger is pulled, but Cheetah say it shouldn't interrupt gameplay as much as the Magnum does. Gameplay? Coo, yes! While Cheetah have been busy constructing the gun, best-selling budget house CodeMasters have been programming six super games to make the most of the Defender. And what are they all about? Read on and find out.. BRONX STREET COP Author: Pete Williamson It's tough on the streets... especially the streets of New York's Bronx area - unless you own a Defender! There's five levels to the game, starting with a training session. The action really hots up in the first mission, where you have to track down armed robbers and bump 'em off. More missions follow, each getting progressively more difficult as you face crazed muggers. evil drug pushers and other vile pieces of work. SUPERCAR TRANS-AM Author: Pete Williamson (prolific) Jump in the driving seat of a V12 turbocharged armour plated flyer and prepare to race from the beaches of California to the skyscrapers of New York. You're armed with ground-to-ground and remote-controlled air defences. You decide the direction the car takes by firing at a right/left icon on screen. Sounds like a novel way of getting about. ADVANCED PINBALL SIMULATOR Authors: The Oliver Twins A previous CodeMasters hit gets the light gun treatment with fast flippers, gates, barriers, bonus lanes, extra balls, a ball trap and loads more pinball features, and it's all controlled by the light gun firing at left and right flipper icons on the side of the table. BILLY THE KID Author: Gary Priest Become the most famous cowboy of them all and load up for gun-slinging action from the wild, wild west. You can practice shooting cans hurled into the air, and then go on to to become a fully-fledged outlaw in a bank raid. Watch out for the Sheriff now, or you maybe challenged to wild west high noon shoot out - five paces, turn, fire and all that milarky! F-16 FIGHTING FALCON Author: Pete Williamson (even more busy!) Four levels of 3-D flight combat. To defend your Falcon against the Soviet MiGs and 'copters, point the light gun at enemy targets and let rip with a barrage of heatseakers, sidewinders and heaps of other missiles to blast everything outta the sky! To avoid oncoming planes and their missiles, shoot(!) your plane to take evasive action. JUNGLE WARFARE Author: Jason Falcos Level after level of hostile forces to destroy - tanks, 'copters, jeeps, crack commando snipers, enemy aircraft... the list goes on. It's taken from Super Tank Simulator (reviewed this issue), the action viewed side on with the scenery scrolling right to left while you shoot at a seemingly endless onslaught of enemy troops.