Hyperblaster

ZX Computing

Instructions 80%

Presentation 95%

Addictability 100%

Value 95%

ZXC Factor 9/10

David Harwood 9/10

Penultimately, we come to Hyperblaster, which is another asteroids type game. For many people this will obviously be an instant turn-off as the number of invader/asteroid type games on the market is innumerable and when you have seen one, you have seen them all. BUT - this game is different. This game seemed to have an unknown addictability force surrounding it and once sitting in the pilot seat of the G.P.4.U. hi-tech galaxy surveillance craft, it is very difficult to get off. Unfortunately there was not a joystick option, which would have helped, but as the controls are simple to use - 1 for clockwise, 2 for anti-clockwise, 6 for thrust, 7 for fire and any key on the bottom row for Hyperblast there should be no problems. HYPERBLAST is just a posh name for Hyperspace with effective sound and graphics as your G.P.4.U. is beamed to another position in the galaxy. Having selected the skill level and either 1 or 2 players, the action begins. You have got 99 seconds to completely clear the first screen of aliens. There are 17 screens totally and each screen has got its own detailed shapes to be destroyed, from rotating balls to discs to diamonds to barrels etc. and each shape is peculiar to where it can be shot to be blown up. There is not much more that I can say about this game, apart from its detailed graphics and arcade quality sound make it up into an exciting and addictive game. Great fun.

Your Spectrum

David Lester 3/5 HIT

Roger Willis 1/5 MISS

Ron Smith 1/5 MISS

JOYSTICK JURY Success in the charts doesn't always mean it's the best game around. Check out the thoughts of our jury this month - Ron Smith, Roger Willis and David Lester - and you'll see what we mean... HYPERBLASTER Lothlorien £5.95 Roger: Get ready for a thoroughly hyper-yawn experience, because this is nothing but a down-market and down-wind re-work of that lounge bar favourite of yesteryear, Asteroids. Read an then instantly forget the fantasy blurb on the cassette liner, as the game's got virtually nothing to do with "hi-tech galaxy surveillance craft". If there's anyone left in the universe who isn't familiar with the game format, then tough - I'm not about to bore you all by describing it. It's enough to say that for the sake of 'originality', the victims of player aggression have been named 'Deltanoids'. Their spherical appearance and painful manners, which are alleged to become "more brutal and devious" as infantile skill level rises, should really have attracted the seminal title for games of this ilk, which has to be Heamorroids. And if you haven't got it yet, let's just say this one's guaranteed to give you a meaningful pain in the bottom - especially if you've clawed yourself up to a respectable height on the evolutionary ladder.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Use of Computer 80%

Graphics 64%

Playability 70%

Getting Started 78%

Addictive Qualities 74%

Value For Money 69%

Overall 73%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Lothlorien Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: Matthew Rhodes In the midst of a summer concerned with the depredations of software piracy, slump and the manic drive towards originality often at the expense of playability, Hyperblaster comes as a welcome return to the days of games infancy. There's nothing all that original in the concept of this 'Asteroids' type game, but it is certainly a modern one rather than suffering with yesterday's graphics as so many 'throwbacks' seem to. The cassette cover even has one of those 'old fashioned' scenarios that bring tears of nostalgia to your eyes for the good old days of a year ago! You're out in space testing the newly developed G.P.4.U. when a bunch of unpleasant Deltanoids jump your ship. Risking all, and despite demands for your return to base from control, you decide to push the ship to the edge of its conceived capabilities, and engage the unarmed Deltanoids. That's when you realise that there are more waiting beyond the range of your sensors - thousands more... In respect of the newly developed G.P.4.U. the graphics we standard and would be recognised by any 'Asteroids' fan as a good old laser blasting triangle fitted with rotational controls and forward thrust, and possessing the ability to hyperspace - or hyperblast as Lothlorien refer to it. But the Deltanoids are a different matter. They may be unarmed and easily dealt with in screen one, but they are guided by intelligence, each wave getting worse - and there are seventeen waves to survive. COMMENTS Control keys: 1/2 rotate left/right, 6 for thrust, 7 for fire, bottom row to hyperblast Joystick: none, but the keys are simple Keyboard play: responsive, with good positions Use of colour: average, but well used Graphics: fairly large, detailed and smooth moving, good explosions Sound: above average Skill levels: 3 speeds Lives: 3 Screens: 17 sheets Features: 1 or 2-player games Originality: obviously not original, but one of the best implementations

Varied and intelligent asteroids make for one of the best Spectrum shoot em ups of its type in Hyperblaster.