Glug Glug

Your Spectrum

George Price HIT

Mark Manning HIT

Mike Skinner HIT

JOYSTCK JURY Evaluating the batch this month is the Gloucester Computing Club. Any club wishing to offer their services should contact Ron Smith, Your Spectrum, [redacted]. This month's reviewers (all ten of them!) are members of the Gloucester Computer Club and, in alphabetical order, they are: Stephen Avent (28), Andrew Base (15), Robert Ledbury (22), Mark Manning (15), Nigel Newland (13), Peter Newland (15), Johnathan Norman (15), George Price (35), Mike Skinner (30) and Richard Vernon (15). They all set to work with Spectrum, pen and paper to tell us what's right and what's not so right with the latest new releases. THE GLOUCESTER COMPUTING CLUB In a moment we'll get on to the verdicts of our nimble-fingered, boggle-eyed band - to find out which new games are bound for the YS Top 20. But first, some details on the club. It was formed approximately eight months ago by Mr B Ledbury (who happens to be the father of Robert - one of our reviewers) and it's already built up a membership of 35 enthusiasts - ages ranging from 10 years to 'mature'. Meetings are currently held in two rooms at Mr Ledbury's home; one for games evaluation, the other for more serious studies. Membership is free and for more information, contact Mr Ledbury, [redacted]. GLUG GLUG CRL £5.95 Down on the ocean floor are goodies like gold, jewels and silver, and it's your job to go down there and get them. Naturally, the sea is full of vicious fish so you have to shoot them first, then bring up the treasure.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 8/10

Sound 5/10

Originality 6/10

Lasting Interest 7/10

Overall 7/10

Steve Cooke 7/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys, Prot, Kemp FROM: CRL, £5.95 The final frontier is no longer space, but the mysterious world beneath the waves where strangely beautiful creatures glide up your mask and block your snorkel. A little diver hangs by an airline from a boat on the surface. Armed with a spear-gun (and limitless spears), his task is to collect three items of treasure from the sea-bed beneath him. There are 32 screens in Glug Glug, and the player's objective is the same in each one. The game isn't as easy as all that, though. In each screen there are all manner of marine nasties on the lookout for you. Fish swim to and fro, jellyfish drift towards you, piranhas appear in shoals and follow you relentlessly, and crabs patrol the bottom of the screen. As the game progresses you also have to keep an eye out for sharks who will attack your airline, and mines which rise up from the sea-bed at the end of long chains and block your progress. As soon as you play Glug Glug you notice the resemblance with Ultimate's Jet Pac. There isn't a lot of difference between finding three pieces of treasure and collecting three stages for your rocket. There are also similarities between the two games' graphics and sound. Glug Glug can be played by one or two players. It's made more enjoyable by a good choice of control keys, and it doesn't take long to get the hang of the game and start notching up some high scores. CRL have produced a very playable game. The only possible objection could be that it is almost too playable and doesn't present enough of a challenge, but it's good fun and the later screens should get even the most hardened gamesters into deep water.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 6/10

Memory: 48K Price: £5.95 Joystick: Kempston or Protek Don your diving suit, load your spear gun and prepare to do battle with the monsters of the deep. While you are down there, get rich quick by bringing up the treasure lying on the ocean floor. That is the basic story-line of Glug Glug, an arcade game by CRL for the 48K Spectrum. Using the keyboard, Kempston or Protek joystick, the diver figure must be dropped to the sea bed as quickly as possible to pick up various items of plunder. The skill is in avoiding the animal life below the surface - piranhas, sharks, giant squid, jellyfish and the like, all of which are looking for a fast meal. If you are not fast enough with the gun and winch then it is Davey Jones' locker for you. Instructions are laid out clearly on the insert and the graphic display is smooth and fast. The sound is suitably watery and when you are caught by the fish the diver vanishes with the requisite glug-glug. There are 32 skill levels according to the cassette insert. After level seven things hot up considerably and you will be lucky to get the whole way through.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 70%

Graphics 85%

Playability 84%

Getting Started 74%

Addictive Qualities 74%

Value For Money 78%

Overall 78%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: C.R.L. Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: Stephen Evans Under-water games seem popular themes lately. Perhaps computer games are echoing the scientific interests of the late 60s and early 70s where a disaffection with the space race resulted in a development of what was referred to as the 'Inner Space.' Rather than go whooping through the caverns of some far off planet in a laser-equipped ship, we're now diving under the oceans of the computer game to collect valuables from the sea bed. In Glug-Glug you are fitted out with a hefty deep sea diver's suit which should be protection against all but the biggest giant squids - only it doesn't seem to be! The screen depicts the sky as a thin sliver of pale blue at the top, with your somewhat insubstantial looking boat floating above the black void. The diver is connected to the boat by his life-line and may be lowered to the sea bed. Left and right movement is effected by moving the boat above, with the diver haplessly following. On the sea bed are several glittering golden objects per screen to be recovered by touching them and carrying them up to the boat, where, by some scientific sleight of hand, they disappear into the boat, so that your diver may return for the next object. He can only carry one at a time. The sea is filled with wild life: small yellow fish which later gang up into shoals which would make Piranha look tame, squids, jelly fish, sharks and crabs. Fortunately the diver is equipped with a gun to shoot them, for if any touch him he's dead. The crabs are the worst in a way because they linger on the sea bed, below the effective line of fire. The more screens you progress through the more the fish proliferate, until it begins to resemble a zoo aquarium. Floating mines attached to anchored tethers also make an appearance and effectively prevent you from taking advantage of the wrap-around screen to escape the fishy attentions. Sharks also have the endearing habit of eating through your diver's lifeline, with unenviable results: Scoring depends on how many fish you shoot and how much treasure you recover. COMMENTS Control keys: A/Z up/down, /SYM SHIFT left/right, SPACE-fire Joystick: Kempston and Protek, AGF (cursor keys may also be used, if preferred, by selecting joystick mode on returnable menu) Keyboard play: very responsive Use of colour: good Graphics: smooth and detailed, very good Sound: average Skill levels: 32 progressively difficult Lives: 5 Screens: 32 Features: sound on/off selection

Jetpac under water in CRL's Glug-glug.

Sinclair Programs

June Mortimer

Kill the giant squids. Dodge the killer crabs. Avoid the hunting piranha fish. Grab the sunken treasure. If those activities appeal to you, Glug Glug from CRL is a computer game you will enjoy. The player's role is that of a diver, leaping from a ship on the surface of the ocean, dodging or killing the aquatic wildlife, and returning to the surface with treasure found in the sand at the bottom. Once all the treasure on a screen has been returned to the boat a new, more difficult screen is produced, stocked with bigger, more dangerous creatures . A strange feature is the use made of the wrapround screen which allows you to walk off the right-hand side and reappear on the left. It poses several questions. Why can many creatures move on and off the screen easily while the piranha fish appear to be completely confused by the wrapround feature? If all the sea is visible at any time, from where do all the new fish appear? More to the point, could CRL not have dispensed with an effect which shows half a giant squid on the left-hand side of the screen while the other half is on the right-hand side? Glug Glug is produced for the 48K Spectrum by Computer Rentals Ltd. [redacted] and costs £5.95.