Harrier Attack!

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Overall 26%

Encore Spectrum, C64: £2.99 This is more than slightly past its sell-by date, isn't it? Well over five years ago, Hariier Attack burst onto Spectrum screens across the nation and met with howls of adulation. As pilot of a Harrier jump jet, the player must run the gauntlet of a barrage of enemy gunfire from land, sea and air, to reach the friendly aircraft carrier on the other side of the country. What made Harrier Attack so successful in its day was its deceptively simple gameplay, plus the fact that there weren't that many games around at the time. Fortunately, time waits for no tin of peas, and looking at the game in 1989 it's very disappointing. Awful, juddery scrolling, titchy user-defined graphics, dodgy sound effects and lousy playability may have been acceptable back in the early eighties, but now? Take it away, please.

C64 SCORES Overall: 19% A complete and utter pile of tosh. Horrible, garish colours, juddery scrolling and ghastly gameplay combine to produce a game guaranteed to leave both you and your C64 feeling very ill indeed.

Crash

Lloyd Mangram

Matthew Uffindell

Durrell's Harrier Attack was a B.C. game. At the time of its release a number of magazine reviews commented on the tastelessness of a game which sends Harriers into strafe and bomb an island town in the wake of the Falklands Conflict. Well, that's as may be, but it seems a rather pointless criticism to level at a game which is firmly in the tradition of computer games - knock hell out of the enemy! This game is fun to play. I have to say that this is the first time I've played it, so it really is like a new game review for me. I think the various skill levels play a major role in its addictive qualities. Graphically it is quite primitive by today's smooth standards, but by no means does this interfere with a great game. Colour has been used realistically and wisely. I can't really fault it at all as a simple shoot em up except that I wish Durrell would update some of the graphic features, such as increasing the size of the playing characters, and perhaps adding a bit more sound. Overall it has stood up very well. MU I remember first off being struck by the nice effect of the sun glinting on the waves of the sea and thinking that because of the more solid looking graphics it was more fun to play than say Penetrator, which it resembles. But after a few plays I realised that there is less fun here than in Penetrator, which isn't to say that Harrier Attack is boring, but I do think it lacks content. Having taken off, bombed, landed, there isn't much more to do except improve the old hi-score. The game still looks quite good by today's standards although the landscape scrolling is a bit jerky. In its day, Harrier Attack was one of the new generation of somewhat better looking shoot em ups, and that was its strength. Spectrum programming has overtaken its look now. LM (Matthew) Although the control keys are the cursors, you only really need up and down for the most part, and they are responsive, so I'd give use of computer 73%. Graphics, oh, about 70%, and playability 71% - it's quite good fun. Addictivity a little lower, high sixties I think. (Lloyd) I wouldn't go quite so high today as I would have a year ago. Graphics, yes, not bad, around the 68-70% mark, playability about 68%, but its addictive qualities drop off rapidly. Once you've landed you don't want to bother again somehow, only 60% - medium addictive.

Taking off for another straffing run over enemy territory in Harrier Attack.

Crash

Producer: Martech/Durrell, 16K £6.95 This game seemed to upset a lot of magazine reviewers because of its unstated reference to the Falklands War! Bad taste perhaps? In any event, a completely daft reason to give an excellent game a poor review. You must take off from an aircraft carrier, dodge guided missiles fired at you from an enemy ship, then fly over a heavily defended island, bombing the anti-aircraft guns, avoiding the enemy fighters and shooting them down. Keep your speed up or you'll run out of fuel before reaching the climactic bombing run on the town (Port Stanley perhaps?) Then it's back to the aircraft carrier to land. Fast responses and first rate graphics (the sun on the sea is particularly good). Five skill levels. Keys are cursor (pity) with zero to fire, nine to bomb and SPACE to eject. Joystick: Protek or AGF on the cursors. Highly recommended.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Producer: Martech/Durrell, 16K £6.95 This game seemed to upset a lot of magazine reviewers because of its unstated reference to the Falklands War! Bad taste perhaps? In any event, a completely daft reason to give an excellent game a poor review. You must take off from an aircraft carrier, dodge guided missiles fired at you from an enemy ship, then fly over a heavily defended island, bombing the anti-aircraft guns, avoiding the enemy fighters and shooting them down. Keep your speed up or you'll run out of fuel before reaching the climactic bombing run on the town (Port Stanley perhaps?) Then it's back to the aircraft carrier to land. Fast responses and first rate graphics (the sun on the sea is particularly good). Five skill levels. Keys are cursor (pity) with zero to fire, nine to bomb and SPACE to eject. Joystick: Protek or AGF on the cursors. Highly recommended.

Crash

Producer: Martech/Durrell, 16K £6.95 This game seemed to upset a lot of magazine reviewers because of its unstated reference to the Falklands War! Bad taste perhaps? In any event, a completely daft reason to give an excellent game a poor review. You must take off from an aircraft carrier, dodge guided missiles fired at you from an enemy ship, then fly over a heavily defended island, bombing the anti-aircraft guns, avoiding the enemy fighters and shooting them down. Keep your speed up or you'll run out of fuel before reaching the climactic bombing run on the town (Port Stanley perhaps?) Then it's back to the aircraft carrier to land. Fast responses and first rate graphics (the sun on the sea is particularly good). Five skill levels. Keys are cursor (pity) with zero to fire, nine to bomb and SPACE to eject. Joystick: Protek or AGF on the cursors. Highly recommended.

Personal Computer Games

Steve Mann

MACHINE: Spectrum 16K FROM: Durell Software PRICE: £6.95 Format: Cassette First of all, I must admit to a prejudice against this game. Harrier Attack has unpleasant overtones of the Falklands conflict - although, to be fair to Durell Software, there is not direct reference to Argies, Task Forces or, indeed, the Falklands. But then what would you make of a game in which you take off from an aircraft carrier, fly over an island bristling with defensive positions, bomb an enemy base, and then return to the safety of your ship? Could be coincidence, of course - and maybe it's only my uncharitable mind jumping to unjustified conclusions... Or is it? Anyway, ethics aside and, let's face it, micro games are hardly noted for their morality, concentrating as they do on wiping out aliens, bombing cities, etc, etc), what do you get for your money? What you get is an adequate, if not spectacular, 'shoot 'em down' game that makes very few intellectual demands and which - in my case, at least - palls fairly rapidly. Harrier Attack begins with your Harrier aircraft in position on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Pressing the 'cursor up' control takes you into the skies, and from this point on it is simply a matter of avoiding or shooting down the various obstacles in your path. Fly low and you'll avoid most of the enemy fighters, but will run into a lot of flak from the ground defences. Fly high, and the fighters will attack in force. You have the choice between trying to blast the opposition to pieces or adopting a lower profile and simply taking evasive action. If you elect to fight, you have to make sure that you keep enough bombs and bullets to deal with the enemy base when you get there. Points are awarded on a sliding scale, with a mere 10 points for hitting an enemy guided missile, and 750 for shooting down an attacking aircraft. If you get into serious trouble, there is the chance to hit the eject button and bail out - do this just before your plane is destroyed and you'll pick up 1,000 points. Landing safely brings a bonus of 2,000. There is a choice of skill levels ranging from 1 to 5, and level 1 is a doddle, with the enemy flak making little impression. As the skill level is raised, enemy guns do more damage and you have to fly faster since you are considered to be carrying more ammunition, and fuel has to be burned quickly to reduce weight. On screen indicators tell you your speed, how much fuel you have left, and the number of bombs and rockets remaining. And that's all there is to it. I found Harrier Attack a disappointment - taking off could have been made considerably harder, and after bombing the inhabitants of the enemy base back to the Stone Age a few times, it all became too predictable. There are some excellent Spectrum games around, most of which make much better use of sound and graphics - your money would be better spent on them. Harrier Attack is also available for the Oric.

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

16/48K Spectrum £5.50 Durell Software Lurching away from the salt-lashed flight deck and skimming over the whitecaps towards the grim outcrops of an island languishing in the grip of enemy rule, your mission is to bomb the hostile base. In a game that betrays a little of Defender in its lineage, you have to take off from an aircraft carrier - not always easy in itself - and fly towards the unfriendly coast. The Harrier must fly reasonably fast or else it runs out of fuel while still over enemy territory. That is, if you get there - first dodge the sea-to-air missile launched from the lurking enemy patrol boat. There is ample opportunity here for rolling up your score prior to engaging enemy fighters, apart from destroying the missile it is a cinch to rocket the boar three times and fly straight through the wreckage. If you fly high enough to avoid the ship, you will attract the attention of the fighter defence who shoot air-to-air missiles at you. You will also be under constant attack from land-based anti aircraft fire. At the easiest skill level it is possible to fly through most of the flak but at higher levels the chances of having to walk home greatly increase. Mid air explosions as a result of destroying airborne hostiles are also dangerous to you, so the game is a non-stop commitment to weaving, looping and hunting past the various bits of flak and shrapnel that make war such a tiresome business. The game has five skill levels and requires you to deal with seven different controls - but you can get by in combat with four controls. Pressing the space-button means it's a case of goodbye - a little man on a parachute floats free while your machine hits the ground as fast as sound. The graphics are simple but well-implemented and this game proved popular with many people while under test. I counted them all out and I counted them all back.