Aquarius

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 6/10

UNDERWATER CHALLENGE Aquarius for the 16K Spectrum will remind any aspiring James Bond just how perilous life can be under water. You have to imagine that you are the commander of a frogman team whose mission is to destroy the death machines an enemy government has built in an underwater cavern. At the beginning of the game you are given a secret colour code to remember, your eventual aim being to shoot at the colours in the correct sequence to wipe out the enemy lair. You may find, however, that proceeding that far is an impossible task. You will he pursued by jellyfish, poisonous sea squirts and sharks, and if none of those gets you, you can be blown up by mines or entangled in deadly weeds at the bottom. You can shoot your way out of trouble, scoring points as you do so, but remember that the shark, which even after you have avoided it advances towards you from the other side, must be shot square in the head. To add to your troubles, you must remember to pick up oxygen tanks on your way or you will die from lack of air. If you manage to survive the first set of hazards, level two offers a jagged cave to swim through, with an electric barrier at the end of it. The number and awkward placing of the keys needed to play Aquarius present an additional challenge and you may find it easier to succeed in your mission if you use a joystick. Aquarius is available from Bug-Byte, [redacted] and ccts £5.95.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Your Computer

Peter Connor

NO OTHER MICRO HAS THE SOFTWARE BACK-UP OF SINCLAIR'S SPECTRUM. PETE CONNORS PLOUGHS HIS WAY THROUGH SOME OF IT FROM GRAPPLING WITH EVIL MAZIACS TO HELPING CHARLIE THE CHEF. Every software house, from the giants to the leprechauns, seems to have programmers chained to terminals, frantically churning out products for the massive Spectrum market. For Spectrum owners the pot of gold under the rainbow is the now huge variety of software available: their only problem is distinguishing the genuine article from the fake. One game you certainly will not need to bite into is Zzoom from Imagine. This is the Real McCoy, a quality arcade-style game of skill and destruction in the comfort of your own armchair. The game starts with the Dambusters theme tune, enough on its own to make you start twirling imaginary handlebar moustaches and warn Ginger about the bandits at 4 o'clock. You find yourself in command of an aeroplane whose gunsights appear on the screen; also displayed are a dibar to show your relation to the ground and a long-range scanner. Before you have time to think, hostile aircraft are approaching from the east; they speed in and suddenly, unexpectedly, wheel 90° towards you, presenting the slightest of targets for your cannon. Those earthbound refuges you are trying to protect do not have much of a chance. Poor blighters, I wish I could have done more to help. After the waves of planes, the landscape changes. Now its the desert, complete with palm trees. Over the horizon come battalions of tanks. More skill is now required, as you have to dive low enough to shoot your earthbound adversaries without crashing to your doom. After the desert - the sea, with enemy destroyers trying to blast the refugees' lifeboats. The standard of graphic display and excitement combine to make Zzoom a most exciting game, one that has deservedly become a micro-classic. DK'tronics, though, has produced a game which could rival Zzoom's popularity. Maziacs may seem, initially, to be just another maze-game. In fact, it has subtle qualities which make it one of the best available in this genre. The scenario is familiar: you must get through the maze, collect the treasure and get out. You can ask the way from prisoners, and pick up swords to combat the maziacs. What lifts Maniacs above the common land is its graphic sophistication. The monsters are the most grotesque I have ever seen on a micro; nightmarish squatting creatures, all legs and jaws who enjoy nothing more than gobbling you up. The prisoners are sad creatures, writhing in their shackles inside blue circles. One feels great pity for them but, sadly, one can do nothing to help. And you, the brave treasure-hunter, are a perky little fellow with a jaunty rhythmic step. You are never downhearted and your jubilation when you have destroyed a marine is quite heart-warming. These qualities give Maniacs that something extra, and make it a very compulsive game. Best of the other offerings from DK is Hard Cheese, in which you have to eat your way round the board, creating your own maze, in order to get at the cheese in the middle. Naturally, you are pursued by monsters. Naturally you can shoot these monsters, but this is not so easy as they move very quickly and you must replenish your energy. Again the graphics are of a high standard, and Hard Cheese is almost, but not quite, as compulsive as Maziacs. In comparison, DK's Road Toad and Jawz are rather dull. The first needs no introduction and is as expected; though the graphics are, perhaps, a little clearer than usual, and the tankers are truly fearsome. Jawz is a disappointment; here you are underwater, firing at Sharks and Jellyfish. It is quite tricky to hit them as you have two cannons converging from either side of your control. Otherwise the game is low on interest. Ultimate Play the Game has a reputation for quality software, and it does not besmirch it with Cookie and Tranzam. Cookie has one of the wackiest situations for a long time; Charlie Chef's ingredients have escaped from the pantry-yard and he must recapture them by dazing them with flour bombs and knocking them into his mixing bowl. As well as the runaways Crafty Cheese and Colonel Custard there are nasties such as Wally Washer and Terry Tack. Crazy, but true. The graphics are very good and Charlie is a sympathetic little figure in his white chef's hat. It is very difficult to avoid the nasties; if they get you, you end up in a dustbin. Cookie is a witty and enjoyable game, but one which you might do well to use a joystick for. Tranzam is set in the year 3474; it is your Red Racer versus the Deadly Black Turbos in the search for the Eight Great Cups of Ultimate. The screen displays a barren landscape where the only land-marks are cacti and petrol stations. You guide your car around looking for the cups, while trying to avoid your enemies and the obstacles. This is a tricky business if you are doing 400 mph and steering on the keyboard; again, a joystick would be useful. Tranzam is an exciting game which gives a taste of the Mad Max experience. GAME OR BLURB? And so to Quicksilva. Do people buy their programs for the game or the blurb? Aquaplane's scenario begins "The contrasting blues of sea and sky provide a perfect backdrop as I relax with a Pernod and lemonade..." and goes on in the same vein for two sides of packaging. Indeed, Aquaplane's sea and sky are very blue, suggestive of hot Mediterranean summers. And, the game is very good. There you are, out for a bit of water-skiing, when the speedboat goes bananas. You are being pulled away to almost certain death. Rocks, driftwood, tacking yachts, cruisers piloted by drunken play-boys, snapping sharks; get through all those and you have mastered the game. Aquaplane is made more intriguing because, as the boat accelerates, you are pulled to one side or another, thus increasing the risk of meeting a sticky end on a piece of driftwood. The graphics, too, are very colourful and realistic. Aquaplane is a highly entertaining game - almost as good as the blurb. On the subject of watery graves, Bug-Byte has Aquarius "an underwater espionage game". As commander of a frogman team you must destroy the bombs planted by an enemy nation. Problems you will encounter are sharks and electrifying jellyfish. Your oxygen will run out and must be replenished by collecting fresh tanks from the sea-floor. While the undersea world is fairly convincing and the sound effects are genuinely squelchy, Aquarius is not a very exciting game, lacking the speed and variety top-class programmes. ENCOUNTER WITH THE DARK ONE In Styx, also from Bug-Byte, you are supposed to be battling your way across the mythological river to Hades "towards an encounter with the Dark One himself". In fact, it is a rather boring maze game, where the "deadly spiders" look like bits of dried grass and the Piranhas - did you know there were Piranhas in the Styx? - are most unconvincing. If they have micros in Hades as well they may well be playing Pool, another Bug-Byte game. The graphics are much better than Styx; a bright green for the baize and red for the bolls. Curiously, the object balls are all the same colour. Control is straightforward, using the cursor keys. But perhaps these denizens of Hades might prefer CDS Micro Systems' Pool. I know I do, if only because the object balls are divided into blue and red. Otherwise, it is much the same as Bug-Byte's version, easy to control and pleasant to look at. Both programs are for one or two players. Purer pleasures of the mind are entered for by Artic's Chess Tutor. The novelty of this program is that it not only plays chess - at three levels - but takes the beginner through three different opening variations; King's Indian, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Dragon. There is also a section which demonstrates the moves of each piece. This is indeed very useful and would be suitable for the absolute beginner. Unfortunately the board is none too clear, as the white pieces do not show up well on the light squares. As a game chess is not in much danger of being overtaken by any of three new programs consisting of logical board games: Hanoi King from Contrast Software, Lojix from Virgin and 3-D Strategy from Quicksilva. In the first of them you have three pillars on which are a series of rings. You have to transfer them to the third so that they are in the same order, moving only one ring at a time ind without placing a larger on top of a smaller ring. It sounds easy, and with only three or four rings, it is. More than that and it can become fiendishly difficult. Lojix is a game in which you have to fit 18 irregularly shaped pieces onto a board. A sort if fiendish jigsaw puzzle, it is difficult and interesting. Virgin is offering a cash prize for the first correct solution. 3-D Strategy is billed as "a multi-dimensional mind game". It is 3-D noughts and crosses on a 4 by 4 by 4 cube. After 3-D chess Mr Spock might not have much trouble with his, but ordinary earthlings will find it very hard to beat. Despite being essentially simple ideas, all three of these games are well produced and will provide hours of entertainment for the puzzle happy. Perhaps the most interesting new program for the Spectrum is The Forest, from Phipps Associates. This is a complex simulation of orienteering, the sport in which you have to follow a course over difficult terrain using only map and compass. The program comes with a beautifully printed orienteering map ind a long, but clear, explanatory booklet. The screen displays various topographical features and, using the map, you have to negotiate the course. Thus, The Forest is not merely a game, but an help introduce people to map-making and the relation between maps and the physical features they represent. As the program notes say, this program will be of particular interest to students and teachers of geography as well as armchair orienteerers. Plunder is a strategy game from Cases Computer Simulations. Set in 1587, the year before the Spanish Armada set sail, the game gives you the opportunity to be an English privateer whose task is to prevent gold from the New World getting back to Spain. You must also be more successful than your deadly rival Sir Francis Drake. There is more to this than mere yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum; you must weigh up the chances of success in taking on merchant, troop and warships. Too much damage or too many lost crew and the game is up; it's Davy Jones' locker for you. Camelot, an adventure-game from the same company, is not quite so good. As Arthur Pendragon you have been banished from Camelot by the Black Knight. Understandably you want to get back; who knows what Lancelot and Guinevere are up to round the Round Table? You have some warriors and money to help you find the necessary seven items. There are graphic displays of landscapes and obstacles, unfortunately rather crude. The "evil magician" looks rather like a conjurer at a children's party. Those Spectrum owners keen to develop the machine's graphics potential should look at Melbourne House's 48K Melbourne Draw. This program will take you on a tour of the Spectrum's graphics, allowing you to choose colours, draw, and store graphic displays. Once you have drawn your picture, you might want to make it say something, in which case you are referred to Abbex's Supertalk which, with no extra hardware, will enable your Spectrum to speak. The demo facility lets you hear Supertalk's Dalek-style voice exercising its small vocabulary. To enter your own vocabulary you record the words on tape and then feed them in, afterwards adjusting them to make sentences. First "Jolson Sings!" now "Spectrum Talks". Program: Aquarius Company: Bug-Byte Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.95 Program: Styx Company: Bug-Byte Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.95 Program: Pool Company: Bug-Byte Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.95 Program: Pool Company: CDS Microsystems Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.95 Program: Jawz Company: DK'Tronics Memory: 16/48K Price: £4.95 Program: Hard Cheese Company: DK'Tronics Memory: 16/48K Price: £4.95 Program: Road Toad Company: DK'Tronics Memory: 16/48K Price: £4.95 Program: Maziacs Company: DK'Tronics Memory: 48K Price: £4.95 Program: 3-D Strategy Company: Quicksilva Memory: 16/48K Price: £6.95 Program: Aquaplane Company: Quicksilva Memory: 16/48K Price: £6.95 Program: The Forest Company: Phipps Associates Memory: 48K Price: £9.95 Program: Lojix Company: Virgin Games Memory: 48K Price: £7.95 Program: Plunder Company: Cases Computer Simulations Memory: 48K Price: £6.00 Program: Camelot Company: Cases Computer Simulations Memory: 48K Price: £5.00 Program: Hanoi King Company: Contrast Software Memory: 16/48K Price: £4.95 Program: Melbourne Draw Company: Melbourne House Memory: 48K Price: £8.95 Program: Supertalk Company: Abbex Memory: 48K Price: £5.95 Program: Chess Tutor Company: Artic Computing Ltd Memory: 16/48K Price: £6.95 Program: Zzoom Company: Imagine Software Memory: 48K Price: £5.50 Program: Tranzam Company: Ultimate Play the Game Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.50 Program: Cookie Company: Ultimate Play the Game Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.50

Personal Computer News

Mike Gerrard

Steve McClure

SPORTING SPECTRUM Mike Gerrard and Steven McClure set up a two-man defence against the latest Sinclair hordes. Spectrum games keep coming thick and fast - some of them more thick than fast, it must be said. But this latest consignment includes at least a couple that match arcade standards and even one in which it's your shout - you literally call the shots! Start yomping .. PHEENIX (£5.50) - Megadodo Software, [redacted] Why should anyone write a fast-moving machine code version of an arcade classic, then make you wait 20 seconds between each and every game while the screen fills with stars? It's a pity because this is otherwise an enjoyable version of Phoenix... go on, admit it, you'd never have guessed. You can use the keyboard or either Kempston or AGF joysticks, and select from five skill levels. There are several screens of birds and eggs to be scrambled before you get to assault the Flagship. The hardest level is suicidal, but a few instructions wouldn't have gone amiss. It is colourful, but due to the frustrating wait between each screen change I recommend you look for a better alternative. AQUARUIS (£5.95) - Bug-Byte, [redacted] Bug-Byte bites again with a game that would grace any arcade. Using Kempston joystick or keyboard, you must negotiate your diver through a scrolling sea filled with sharks. Jellyfish, mines, strangleweed and other fishy nasties. Most of these can be despatched with a direct shot from your gun, but your oxygen is also expiring, so pick up the supplies from the seabed when you can. If you're lucky, or extremely skillful, you'll eventually come to dark caverns, at the end of which is your mission - to defuse the death machines by shooting the three-colour coded panels in the sequence given at the start of the game. Amusing graphics, if a little jerky here and there, but definitely the pick of this batch. ANT ATTACK Macronics Systems, [redacted] After a hard day's gardening you fall asleep, but your dream turns nasty as the ants decide to get their own back on you. At least that's the story behind what's claimed to be the first Spectrum game controlled partly by your voice. Yell 'fire' at your tape recorder and that's what's meant to happen. I couldn't make it work, but that's not to say it won't on other tape recorders. More of a gimmick than of practical use, unless you can shout at a very fast rate indeed. Settling for keyboard control, I enjoyed a fast and furious Centipede-type game, shooting at ants and other pests as they descend the screen in that well-known fashion. The cassette insert is cheaply done, but there's nothing wrong with the game itself. ALIEN INSECTS Macronics Systems, [redacted] Armed with a laser bolt, you must shoot down the fat little insects that are buzzing all over the screen. You can move in four directions, with a sensible layout for keyboard control. This is a game worth getting just to see what sounds can be squeezed out of the Spectrum. If you kill enough nasties then space eggs start to appear at the top of the screen, waiting to descend on you. By this time the insects are about as easy and pleasant to deal with as a swarm of wasps. 3D STRATEGY (£6.95) - Quicksilva, [redacted] As a change from killing ants, aliens, birds or jellyfish, here's a game where you could cheerfully kill the programmer. It is so hard to beat the machine in this 4x4x4 version of Noughts and Crosses or Connect Four, and I was only playing on the easiest of the four skill levels. The only drawback to this piece of software is the instructions. They drivel on for pages about how totally wonderful the game is... auto-play option, timer that can be set per move, per game or switched off, on-screen ticking clocks, two styles of play, an average response time of 1.7 seconds, machine code, over 200,000 decisions per move, and so on. The board is displayed as four separate grids at the bottom of the screen, which is a little confusing, though We no doubt a proper three-dimensional cube would have been even more so. However, it does offer a very tough opponent, and it may be as good as it claims. YOMP (£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted] A paratrooper opera which is fairly easy to figure out. You use four keys to manoeuvre your way through four columns of trucks and tanks and all you have to do is learn how to place yourself in the optimum position to sneak through to the other side of the moving convoys. As a video game memento of the Falklands conflict it's a pretty weak effort. SHEEPWALK (£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted] Sheepwalk is almost as dull as Yomp once it's in play. You're a sheepdog moving around the screen trying to catch up with miscreant sheep. While doing this you risk trampling the vegetables or bumping into walls. GOLF (£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted] In its Virgin form, Golf is an interesting enough game to play. It requires players to plot out each shot's direction and strength, while using the right club. There's enough of a random element to make the game more than a little irritating. When your ball lands in the rough it can take three or four strokes to get it out. This is where having a low handicap (you can choose between 1 and 28) is a real advantage. The game's designers have assumed real duffers are going to have problems in getting out of the woods.