The Great Fire of London

Sinclair User

Overall 3/5

Clare Edgeley 3/5

Publisher: Rabbit Price: £3.99 Memory: 48K Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, Protek Fire razes London to the ground. As the blaze sweeps through the city, firemen, demolition workers and gunpowder gangs work round the clock to check the flames. They have four days to complete the job. Work is hindered by the wind, which keeps veering, driving the flames even further through the city. The only hope now is to contain the fire by demolishing buildings and dousing others with water to create fire breaks. The mayor is still on the scene, organising the work teams and guiding them to new areas of danger. The water pumps need to be refilled from the Thames and the firemen are running back and forth like yo-yos. The demolition gangs are working to rule and keep downing tools for their tea breaks - especially when the going gets tough. The mayor has enjoyed himself so much that when the fire of London has been put out he will start another, creating a new map with different street names and layout. You are given two options - whether you want the wind to keep changing direction and the time it takes the fire to spread, making the game more of a challenge. The Great Fire of London is the first offering from the newly resurrected Rabbit Software under the Virgin label.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Your Spectrum

Dougie Bern 8/10

Rick Robson 6/10

Ross Holman 8/10

JOYSTICK JURY Where do you go for arcade action? Rick, Ross and Dougie are game for a graft as they tackle this month's hot new releases. THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON Rabbit Software £3.99 Rick: Rabbit Software takes a few Pepys into the past (Groan! Ed) with a re-enactment of the Great Fire of London. 1666 style, that is, not the summer of '81 or the autumn of '86. Forget all that stuff about it starting in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane because Alfred burnt his cakes while watching a spider. This fire can start anywhere and if you choose the variable wind option this bright spark of a burn-up will need some fast thought and action if it's to be extinguished. Don't be diverted by the flashing graphic depicting the fire - even if it does look more like a stroboscope. Essentially this is a strategy game with a degree of maze built in. A pretty accurate scrolling map unfurls as you. the mayor, frantically beetle around mobilizing water pumps, demolition gangs and gunpowder men to deploy in a complete frenzy to contain the conflagration. All in all a thorough quick-fire strategy game, which, if not exactly hot stuff has no obvious defects and might give you something to do other than fiddle while London burns around you.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Presentation 70%

Rules 56%

Playability 65%

Graphics 89%

Authenticity 50%

Value For Money 73%

Overall 71%

Sean Masterson 71%

FRONTLINE SEAN MONTgomerY ON THE RUN MASTERSON, ponders on the morality of wargaming in general and finds himself fighting fires in olde London. It seems as if not only is it all quiet on the western front this month, but on every front. Horror of horrors, is this column going to disappear into oblivion just when I had begun to make it worth while reading? Maybe - but just on the assumption that it won't, I'll take this month's lack of review material as an opportunity to present a discussion for your consideration. It's a subject which many have discussed before but not, to my knowledge, within the pages of Crash, therefore it shouldn't be redundant. Consider the morality of wargames. When you load a wargame (no matter what the subject), your sole aim is to cooly and precisely kill people of conflicting ideologies. Many modern wargames bring this point closest to home with the subject of nuclear exchange. Now I'm not arguing that limited nuclear exchange is possible and that such a war could be won, but nevertheless do any of you pause before hitting the red button? Even in a game, would you rather lose before resorting to the most desperate means or is winning that important? There are those who argue that wargaming is unhealthy because it breeds cynicism and callousness. Having been a wargamer for some years now, I often overheard conversations by table-top generals boasting about how they had won an engagement by 'napalming the lot of them' or 'nuking them and got away with it.' Then, in more conventional games there are those whose fumbling, incompetent handling of a situation causes them to throw entire units (or armies) away on lost causes. Or they fight to the death so they can say they have never surrendered. If you have come across any of these people, you can see why there are those who think the whole hobby is a perverse waste of time. My argument would be that these boastful buffoons are the ones who have totally missed the point of wargaming. They are the egotistical bigots who exist in any society and have simply clung to wargaming to fulfil their need to sound superior. Unfortunately wargaming does attract rather more than its fair share of this sort. But wargaming, if it breeds anything, breeds pacifism. If there is any point to wargaming at all, then this must be it. Rarely does anyone win their first wargame. Instead they see their armies wiped out (usually by the computer) all because of the instructions they gave to their troops. They learn that it can be no fun to play with men's lives. Or perhaps wargames can show the futility of war itself. Certainly, from an abstract point of view, they can discipline the mind and encourage logical thinking. But never, never should they be used as a vehicle to revel in the grotesquerie of the real thing. It may be that you decide to employ nuclear weapons in a game and that as a result of your actions you win. But it should be important to remember that if the game makes such a victory possible, then it is only reflecting the designer's philosophy and not hard fact. And the best, indeed ideal commander would be the one who could win a battle without any losses at all. That would be the most efficient and palatable victory. Obviously, as an ideal it is unlikely to be realised, even in a game. However, it can still act as a guideline and if you had to use even one small tactical nuclear device, it would have resulted in a phenomenal number of casualties. It should encourage you to find a better way next time. I will leave you to consider this. I once had an Atari computer which meant I had access to SSI wargames (arguably the best home computer simulations in the world). I was playing Reforger 88, a tactical simulation of a Soviet invasion of West Germany, centered around the crucial Fulda Gap. I only won the game once. The East Germans began their advance and I immediately withdrew. The only combat which took place was air to air, where I fared well and suffered few casualties. At the end of the second turn, unopposed, the Soviets took Frankfurt. At this point, I called a truce. I was given a marginal victory. THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON Producer: Rabbit Retail Price: £3.99 This interesting new title from Rabbit (now under Nick Alexander's watchful eye at Virgin) puts you in the position of the chief fire officer at the time of the great fire in 1666. You have to co-ordinate the city's fire fighting resources and stop the entire city from being totally putted. You have at your disposal several water pumps, demolition gangs and gunpowder gangs, each capable, to a limited degree, of stopping the fire from spreading. You can also make the wind variable and even give the fire time to spread before you actually start playing the game (if you like having your work cut out for you). You can only take control of one unit at a time and you have to take it to wherever you want it to begin fire fighting. Some units are more difficult than others to control. Although I followed the instructions to the letter, whenever the water pumps were used, the main character was killed off. Water From need constant resupply from the rivers or they become useless very quickly. The various gangs you can employ also need to be recalled into action on various occasions. The screen itself is a large, smooth scrolling map depicting London in the late seventeenth century. The map is in full colour and all the streets are labelled in a redefined character set. Because of the rapid movement required (even on the simplest settings, the fire moves incredibly quickly) it is highly advisable to use a joystick (and there are several joystick options available from the main menu). There is a great deal of rapid thinking required to figure out which places are the best to build fire breaks and how to deploy your forces, once you have located them all. Once the basic game is mastered, there are options for building and saving your own map, so this offers a great deal of scope for those pyromaniacs like Robin Candy out there. The main faults with this game seem to lie with the ambiguity of the rules. All the time I was playing this game, I felt that I wasn't getting the best from my resources and yet there didn't seem to be any better way to employ them. This led to constantly having to restart the game as the chief fire officer repeatedly died in the course of his duty. Even though I didn't allow the fire to spread before playing, it spread incredibly quickly, presenting an almost impossible task for the beginner. Perhaps it's just me... Having said that, it's one of the best presented and programmed low price games I have ever seen and it certainly offers something new for those weary with panzer bashing. If you keep your wits about you and a steady hand on your joystick, then this could be one of the best value for money buys you're likely to come across in the near future.