Gangsters!

Crash

Overall 59%

Producer: CCS, 48K £6.00 (1) Author: P Boulton The object of this amusing game is to become top dog of Spectral City. You're gang leader up against 4 other rival gangs trying to own the city through operating speakeasies, distilleries, casinos and brothels. This can be done by buying up various joints, raiding those of your rivals, bribing the appropriate authorities, assassinating your rival gang leaders and generally carrying on like an utter rotter. The success of your gang will rely heavily on their numbers, equipment and morale, all of which must be carefully regulated. The game follows the traditional strategy formula of option menus and results. The Moral Majority are unlikely to approve! Good value. Overall CRASH rating 59%. Offers 9 skill levels. BASIC.

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Crash

Overall 59%

Producer: CCS, 48K £6.00 (1) Author: P Boulton The object of this amusing game is to become top dog of Spectral City. You're gang leader up against 4 other rival gangs trying to own the city through operating speakeasies, distilleries, casinos and brothels. This can be done by buying up various joints, raiding those of your rivals, bribing the appropriate authorities, assassinating your rival gang leaders and generally carrying on like an utter rotter. The success of your gang will rely heavily on their numbers, equipment and morale, all of which must be carefully regulated. The game follows the traditional strategy formula of option menus and results. The Moral Majority are unlikely to approve! Good value. Overall CRASH rating 59%. Offers 9 skill levels. BASIC.

ZX Computing

James Walsh

Written for the 48K Spectrum, as the name implies, this is a game involving 1920's style gangsters, but this is where the obvious part ends. Surprisingly enough this is not a game of the shoot-em-up variety, has nothing to do with space, and does not use high speed hi-res graphics. Rather it is a game of strategy, thought and cunning. As with other CCS games, Gangsters! is based on your feeding the computer with various decisions on spending and deployment of non-capital resources ie manpower etc. With the computer returning facts and figures on your success or failure. Gangsters! is set in the US during the 20's and is based around the legendary gangland activity of the time. The aim of the game is to take over the City from the other gang leaders. To do this you must take control of the assets, make raids, kill off the other gangsters and their leaders, whilst also managing to stay alive yourself. There are nine levels of play - an advantageous factor for the beginner. You are given a certain amount of money depending upon level of play. With this money assets may be bought - Speakeasies, Distilleries, Casinos, Brothels, as well as gangsters. At all time you must have enough men to carry out raids, sufficient protection to safeguard yourself, as well as spare cash for bribery. The game is fully active hence the opposing gangsters are likely to raid your assets and hunt for your weapons. Gangsters! has been well put together, nicely presented and the instructions are also well thought out. The scenario is original in many respects. It gives the idea of strategy games a new breath of life. Finally I have to say that it is excellent and well worth the money.

Crash

Use of Computer 50%

Graphics 55%

Playability 60%

Getting Started 63%

Addictive Qualities 53%

Value For Money 70%

Overall 58.5%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: CCS Memory Required: 48K Recommended Retail Price: £6.00 Language: BASIC Author: P Boulton As their name suggests, Cases Computer Simulations (CCS) specialise in simulation and strategy games. They had two hits with Dallas and Corn Cropper during 1983, and are now following up with a number of original ideas based around the notion of turning some money into lots of money. Gangsters! is set in the heyday of Al Capone, but the Windy City is now called Spectral City. After a lively title page of splattered gunshots you are shown a grid of the city with the various joints of four rival gangs marked on it. The gangs, identified by the colours blue, red, magenta and green, each have a selection of Speakeasies, Distilleries, Casinos and Brothels. They also have gangsters in varying numbers, and the gang as a whole has a morale value which dips or rises, as the gang's fortunes go up and down. After selecting a skill level (which dictates how much money you will be given at the start), you're shown the Gang Strengths Summary. This tells you how many joints they own and how much money they have banked. Depending on the level of play chosen, your money appears at the bottom. You may then buy up casinos, distilleries etc., followed by the number of gangsters you want and a personal protection factor to help prevent anyone bumping you off. It's worth setting this quite high! Now the game really starts, following the customary pattern of strategy games, where you are offered a stream of unenviable decisions; there's The Thorny Question of Bribes, which lets you keep the risk of arrest to a minimum, or have a go at shopping a rival gang member; there's Raid Rivals assets in which you select the gang to be raided and then use the cursor keys on the map to select the gang to be raided and their particular joint, and the number of gangsters you are going to take. The report shows the percentage of damage done and the cost of the repairs to the rival gang. Of course if you do raid someone, they're as likely to raid back and cost you. You can also opt to murder a gang leader, in which case a menu of five killers and their rate for the job appear (avoid Bugsy Spitoone - he's expensive and incompetent!) Now and again the law has a goat you by arresting one of the gang. You can have a go at bribing the Attorney or the Jury if you have the money left. In the end it's a question of taking over the other gangs by killing off their leaders, or one of them taking you out. Income is earned monthly from your various operations. COMMENTS Keyboard play: slow Use of colour: good Graphics: slow to build up but very clear Sound: useful Skill levels: 9

I think I'm about to lose a Brothel...

Spectral City, divided up between the GANGSTERS.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 3/5

Playability 4/5

Use Of The Machine 4/5

Value For Money 4/5

Mike Gerrard 4/5

NAME: Gangsters SYSTEM: 48K Spectrum PRICE: £6 PUBLISHER: CCS, [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Basic OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Retail and Mail order. THE BOYS ARE BACK This strategy game based on the prohibition days in 1920's America casts you in the sort of role formerly played by James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson. OBJECTIVES For a change you're not required to take over the world, merely a city. Spectral City, and you do it by hook or, more likely, by crook. The game sets you against four rival gangs with nine levels, of difficulty. IN PLAY You know when this tape stops loading, as there's a loud rat-tat-tat and the screen is spattered with bullets. This sets the tone. You're first shown a grid map of the city, then a table showing the respective strengths of all five gangs with regard to cash in the bank and the numbers of distilleries, speakeasies, brothels and casinos owned... a very degenerate game. You can buy more assets, or hire more gangsters, then state your 'Protection factor'. The higher this is then the safer you are, but this takes protection away from your assets. Stage two is 'The Thorny Question of Bribes'. The more you pay the less likely you are to be arrested. Here you can also try shopping one of your rivals to the police, but if they're then found innocent in court you'll be in trouble. Next stage gives you the chance to raid one of your rivals' assets, and you'll also be given some indication of their secret armoury's whereabouts. Finding it could put one of the other gangs out of business. You can also do this in 'Murder Mode'. You take out a contract on one of the gang leaders. If you have enough in the bank to hire a rather expensive killer, such as Wild Pete Garuchi or Bugsy Spitoone. This is one of the sections of the game which has a little graphics, though I'm sure even the programmer would agree that they're not going to win any prizes. If your contract is successful you may then be able to take over the other gang's assets, after being given a message like 'Congratulations! Morale in Gang 4 has reached zero.' The final stage is a monthly summary of your activities, with a very business like income and expenditure account and a chance to read your intelligence report on what the others are up to by way of recruitment or buying up casinos. Then it's February 1920 and you're back to stage one again, till you either get to be top dog or bumped off in the process. VERDICT Buy it or CCS will undoubtedly be sending the boys round.

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

48K Spectrum £5.95 Strategy Games January 1920. This is Spectral City - your city. And you are a leading mobster in the days of American Prohibition, when the government made drinking alcoholic liquor illegal. You mean to take over the city from the other gang leaders and control it. The relative strengths of the rival gangs of hoodlums are first presented on the screen in the form of a grid. You can see how many distilleries, speakeasies and houses of ill repute tile opposition have in their grip of vice. Next is raised the "thorny question of bribes". You must figure out how much a month you can afford to keep the precinct sweet. This is certainly worth doing as the police raid your distilleries with monotonous regularity. There is an alternative: you can shop your rivals, but presumablydue to their own activities in the area of palm-greasing, they are sometimes found innocent - then they get real mad with you. The distillery raids are graphically displayed on the Spectrum by three police cars rolling up to your warehouse door sirens and all. When I raided an opponent's brothel - this is done by moving a gunsight over a schematic map of the city and pressing S when you wont to move in - I discovered an arms cache. This boosted my gang's morale and another graphic showing the doors opening and the guns inside was displayed. Gang morale is key: it starts at 20, but changes depending upon the success.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

TAKE-OVER STRATEGY FOR CITY Another recent offering from CCS is Gangsters, a strategy game for the 48K Spectrum. As the leader of a gang in the U.S. In the prohibition era, your objective is to take over a city from other gang leaders. You start with a certain amount of money and a certain number of gangsters, and can invest in assets such as speakeasies, distilleries and casinos. You can also use your funds for your personal protection and the bribery of city officials and must cope as best you can with unforeseen events, such as raids from rival gangs or being arrested. It is even possible to go into murder mode and hire a killer to wipe out your rivals and a sub-plot concerning the search for the other hidden arms of the gangs is an appealing twist to the story. At the end of a round, your monthly position is shown and you go on to the next month's tribulations, attempting to move up the player league table by increasing your income. Gangsters is very similar to a board game, with the computer throwing the dice and keeping track of assets, gang members killed, and so on. The graphics are simple but the game is carefully-presented and there is plenty of variety to keep you playing. You can also choose from nine levels of difficulty. Gangsters is available from Cases Computer Simulations, [redacted], and costs £6.

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