Helichopper

Your Sinclair

Graphics 6/10

Playability 7/10

Value For Money 4/10

Addictiveness 5/10

Overall 5/10

Rachael Smith 5/10

Firebird £1.99 Reviewer: Rachael Smith It's whirlybird time again as you get in a spin rescuing clones - though why you should want to I don't know. Seen one, seen 'em all. Twenty three budget screens of chopper action in all, in a very standard (I mean, just how standard can you get?) dodge and bomb sprite based arcade game. Land screen right where the Xerox Man will board; take off; dodge what look like jelly beans, the projectiles from the ship and the deadly homing ducks. Drop unlimited bombs though be careful as some of your opponents actually breed by having twenty tons of TNT dropped on them. Land on a ledge, screen left, when the ledge above it flashes white and the man disembarks, Next man; beat the clock; try to stay awake. It may hold the attention for thirty minutes but I can't see any critical player coming back for more.

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 5/10

Sound 4/10

Value 4/10

Playability 3/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Firebird PRICE: £1.99 Airwolf this isn't. But it still involves a super-helicopter on a mission to rescue - not scientists or maidens in distress or prisoners of war - but clones. There's a new twist for you. Unfortunately the game is pretty uninspiring - even for a budget title. You have to fly your chopper around a cramped screen full of blobby aliens, pick up the clones and land them safely on a series of platforms on the left hand side of the screen. There are four screens to this game - each with varying difficulty levels - more, nastier, quicker aliens. You can bomb the nasties as you dodge about if you really want to. Frills like a joystick option, an instruction screens, comprehensive menu screen and a hi-score table don't stop this effort registering a high mark on the old boredometer. Save your two quid and put them towards a full price game!

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

Lee Paddon 3/5

Spectrum Firebird Dodge About £1.99 Another one of those hoary old plots which refuses to expire like any respectable theme. You have to use your helicopter to rescue things. Naturally, there are many other things trying to zap your chopper and stop your mission of mercy. Pleasant graphics, fast and wacky game play - have you ever bombed a duck? Well, now is your chance - prevents it from being intolerably dull. The whole thing is against the clock, you have five lives and 23 screens of little chaps to rescue.

ZX Computing

Firebird, the BT company who made such an impact with their first collection of SW have added to their range with the introduction of seven new programs in their Silver, £2.50, series. HELICHOPPER is a bomb and dodge game which again is very enjoyable and good value, though as with all these games, the quality reflects the price to a certain extent.

Crash

Use of Computer 65%

Graphics 71%

Playability 75%

Getting Started 70%

Addictive Qualities 78%

Value For Money 80%

Overall 67%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Firebird Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £2.50 Language: Machine code Author: Tony Beckwith Apart from the flying ducks, the rising lethal bubbles, the murderous disks and the bombs there is little difference between your role in this game and that undertaken by those brave chaps of the Air-sea-rescue service. Your mission is simply to chunter around the screen in your little helichopper and rescue the clones stuck on the other side of the swamp. In the meantime the creatures in the swamp below are attacking you with a wide variety of weaponry, and while your chopper is armed, it can only destroy objects that are immediately below it. The rescue of clones is affected by flying to one side of the swamp and waiting while he/she/it climbs on board, and then you deposit your passenger safely on the other side. A sort of IF clone to be picked up THEN do so operation. While flying you must brave the objects buzzing around all of which are bent on your destruction. Subsequent screens offer the same terrain but with even more nasties to counter. Some of the screens have an aerial maze for you to negotiate, touching any of its component parts (the third screen's maze is made up of what appear to be bricks with eyes) will result in the destruction of your flying machine. Points are awarded for shooting the aerial greeblies, the number of points will, oddly enough, depend on their colour. Points are not awarded for transporting the clones but you will have to move them all before you are allowed to go to the next screen. COMMENTS Control keys: definable Joystick: any Keyboard play: good Use of colour: simple but clear Graphics: average Sound: fair Skill levels: 5 Lives: 4 Screens: 23

Walking to the helicopter in HELICHOPPER, while above, circles an evil duck.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 7/10

Sound 5/10

Value 9/10

Playability 7/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Firebird PRICE: £2.50 It could turn out to be mission impossible. Your task is to rescue the clones from the swamp using an armed helicopter with an unlimited supply of bombs. But beware seeking Dollopoids.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT Buying computer games can be an expensive business. Some can cost anything up to £14. To buy all the latest titles as they come onto the market would cost a small fortune. And that's beyond the pocket of most people. So it's no wonder that software companies have started producing a range of games costing no more than a couple of pounds. Unfortunately, besides being cheap, some were very nasty and a waste of money. It seemed far better to save up and buy a top price game. But such is the potential of the market that the quality of the games has improved while the prices have been kept low. So Computer & Video Games thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at some of the current budget games on the market from software houses. Firebird, British Telecom's software company, is now in the process of updating its Silver catalogue which was launched in October 1984 with great success, with all the games selling for £2.50. Star of the original 20 titles was undoubtedly Booty on the Spectrum 48k and Commodore 64 which, claims Firebird, has sales now in excess of 100,000. It's now being converted to the Amstrad and should be available by late summer. In Booty, Jim the cabin boy faces death by drowning or at the hands of the Ghost Pirate as he searches through the hold of the Black Galleon in search of treasure. Another favourite is Gogo the Ghost on the Commodore 64 which has, believe it or not, 150 frames of haunted happenings. New games shortly to be introduced into the Silver range are Microcosm for the BBC B, Subsunk for the Commodore 64 and Don't Panic for the 16k and 48k Spectrum. Mastertronic, formed in April 1984, now claims to be the brand leader in budget games - its extensive range sells for just £1.99 each. In its first 12 months of trading, Mastertronic says it has audited figures of sales for two million games. New developments for 1985 in the £1.99 range include two semi-educational games in its Mistertronic titles - Make Music with Mistertronic and Type Rope - aimed at the six to 11 age range. Earlier this year, Atlantis Software launched three games under its new Atlantis Gold label, selling at £2.99 each. They were the Dungeons and Dragons-style Adventure Velnor's Lair for the Commodore 64 and Nicotine Nightmare and Self Destruct, both on the Spectrum 48k. The last two have proved so popular that Atlantis is in the process of converting them for the Amstrad - a move which again points to the growing popularity of the machine. Mike Cole, of Atlantis, says: "We believe in the Amstrad as the next thing to come. It's a lovely machine. We will be supporting it." Being launched this spring is The Sparkler range of games from Creative Sparks at £2.50. Sandy Mackenzie, of Creative Sparks, says: "There is a a need to supply good quality software at prices affordable to kids". The company's decision to produce cheap software was prompted to a great extent by the large number of excellent games sent in by amateur writers. "By promoting games in the budget range," says Sandy, "we are opening the industry to new talent, and also serving the interest of games buyers by publishing good games at reasonable prices. After all, low prices doesn't have to mean low quality." Soit seems that pocket-money power is being recognised at last and computer star wars could soon become computer price wars. About time, too!

Sinclair User

Overall 2/5

Clare Edgeley 2/5

Publisher: Firebird Price: £2.50 Memory: 48K Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair Cursor Another original game of 'grab the survivor and we'll bomb the rest' has been released by Firebird. Though Helichopper scores nothing for innovation, it is saved from being totally awful by fast and clear graphics. Zip down in your copter and spend a harrowing few moments ferrying a little pink Clone across a duck pond to deposit him on a ladder. You can only deposit a Clone when the rung above you changes white. Bombs and balloons move slowly upwards to annihilate you and killer 22 ducks are rife. The chopper has unlimited bombs and you can rain those on the heads of the hapless birds. Further screens are about as exciting as a wet sponge and follow the same pattern with minor differences.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online