I'm in Shock

Crash

Overall 55%

Producer: Artic, 16K £4.95 The inlay, uncharacteristically for Artic, is way over the to in description! This is a grid/shoot em up. Alien craft inhabit the top squares between the fine grid and you have a laser base at the bottom, moving left and right. Between you and the aliens are reflecting mirrors at 45'. These are sometimes in singles, sometimes in ranks, and they deflect your shots off at right angles. The trick is to use several ranks of these reflectors to shoot up, across then up again to hit the aliens. There is a command ship which crosses the screen every now and again for bonus points. The aliens move from square to square horizontally, also descending slowly. Small graphics and over-responsive control on the laser base which makes it difficult to line up shots accurately. An original idea, reasonably playable, perhaps not terribly addictive though. Simple control keys, no joystick option - fair to average, overall CRASH rating 55% m/c.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Use of Computer 58%

Graphics 47%

Playability 52%

Getting Started 62%

Addictive Qualities 50%

Value For Money 58%

Overall 55%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Artic Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £4.95 Language: Machine code So this was what we were returning to; a scarred battlefield and ashes. We'd travelled across the universe to save the Earth, we'd seen off the invaders and suffered the casualties, only to find It had all been a decoy. So I'm In Shock sets the scene for this grid/shoot em up game. You can move your laser base left and right, while shooting up. The screen is divided into one character squares by green grid lines with you (and the aliens above) sitting in the squares. The number of aliens depends on how many waves you have killed off. They move about randomly, very slowly descending. Should one reach the bottom the game is over. Some squares have diagonal lines filling them, which cause your shots to rebound at right angles, whereas the aliens can fire through them quite happily. This requires some strategical thinking to use the shields to double rebound and thus still hit an alien. Every 3 screens, a command ship, resembling a spider, crawls across the screen half way up, and scores a bonus if you hit it. COMMENTS Control keys: very simple, CAPS - V left, B - SPACE, right, H - ENTER, fire Joystick: none Keyboard play: fast and over-responsive Graphics: average, small, 1-character size Sound: good Skill levels: 5 Lives: 3

Wide frozen shrieks of laughter - I'm in Shock!

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 2/10

Sound 2/10

Ease Of Use 6/10

Originality 3/10

Lasting Interest 0/10

Overall 1/10

Chris Anderson 1/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K JOYSTICK: No CATEGORY: Arcade SUPPLIER: Artic PRICE: £4.95 Your suspicions about this program are first aroused when you discover that it loads in well under a minute. They're confirmed when you start playing. It's junk. According to the drivel on the cassette inlay you're supposed to be a battleflier shooting up alien ships in a battlefield constructed by the enemy. What actually appears on screen is a grid speckled with a few coloured blobs, one of which is you, the rest the enemy. You can move right or left (not up as the instructions tell you) and fire. The game's only hint of novelty is that the 'rays' from your gun bounce off shields placed at angles on the grid. This means you can destroy aliens which aren't directly above you - while they can't destroy you because their shots don't bounce. Strange way to build a defensive battlefield. The game is pathetically easy to master and is unlikely to sustain interest for more than a few minutes. Although the motion is smooth, all the moving objects are the size of single characters, and there's no attempt at animation. The game's title, incidentally, bears no relation to what happens - it must be a reference to the reaction of people who actually buy this rubbish.

Personal Computer News

Mike Gerrard

Mike Gerrard and his Sinclair go adventuring with a bagfull of games. SPECIFICALLY SPECTRUM Arcade games and adventures still dominate the Spectrum software market, and this round-up reflects that by looking at two arcade games, two adventures, and an adventure that includes three arcade-style games. I'M IN SHOCK (16K, £4.95), Artic Computing, [redacted] This simple but addictive zapping game fills the screen with a 31 x 23 grid, and you patrol the bottom firing at the vicious creatures that are buzzing above, bent on your destruction. This may sound like Gridrunner, but the difference is that some of the columns contain deflecting plates that turn your shot through 90°, and if you can't fire directly at the aliens you can use these plates to bounce your shots round a few angles, like an intergalactic Alex Higgins. This is no mean feat as the creatures move quickly. Control, is by the keyboard and the most important feature is the high-score record, because that's what you'll always be aiming to beat. The graphics don't need to be anything special as the action is fast and the sound relentless. TUTAKHAMUN (48K, £5.95), Micromania, [redacted] When you tire of killing aliens, move on to Mummies from ancient Egypt, which, along with skulls, spiders, snakes and indefinable monsters, are the hazards out to get you in five mazes. Using Kempston or AGF joysticks, or the sensible keyboard lay-out, you manoeuvre along the underground tunnels, and collecting goodies and shooting baddies along the way, you search for the key that will open the door to the next level. The screen scrolls automatically, and a scanner shows the whole of the that particular maze at the top of the screen. The machine code movement is fast, and while it obviously owes a lot to several other berserk-style games that are around, it is well done and extremely difficult to master. CASTLE COLDITZ (48K, £5.95), Felix Software, [redacted] To escape from Castle Colditz you must make your way from the prisoners' room to the castle's main gate, and this could be described as the archetypal text-only adventure. You move using N, S, E, W, U or D; C lets you know what you're carrying (up to six) items); L redescribes your location if the text has scrolled off the screen; the optional instructions advise you to make a map and warn that some exits are one-way only; there's a Save option; you're given a list of verbs you can use in the verb-noun commands, these include take, leave, use, fight and so on; you'll find objects such as a rope, torch, pencil, chisel; and finally there are Nazi treasures you can try to smuggle out. Though in machine language and quick to respond, the adventure is traditional and reliable - even the surprises were unsurprising as I moved round the Gun Room, or the Blanket Store, trying to escape, I was just waiting to find myself in a room with no apparent means of escape, and eventually it turned up, the Wine Cellar where all you can see is a barred window which proves very difficult to break open. The game is perfectly well done and thorough, but lacks sparkle and imagination, as if it were the latest to fall off the adventure production line. THE CROWN (48K, £4 mail order, £4.60 retail, also available for 16K ZX81 and Lynx), Symbol Software, [redacted] The Crown was put out originally on the 16K ZX81, but it's hard to see where that extra memory has been used up since the whole adventure has rather an amateurish look. It is set in the mists of time when everyone had funny names: 'After the fall of the House of Rof and the theft of the ancient sceptre by the Orckind, Invi the Elder took the great Crown of Rof... Your task is to recover the crown and ensure that once again good triumphs over evil. The scene descriptions will hardly win any literary prizes: 'Fork in road, Exits: N, W, E, you see: (followed by a blank). Unfortunately 'You see:' appears even when there's nothing there, which looks a bit odd on the screen, as do some of the responses. In one location I could see an axe. 'Take Axe,' I said. 'What?" it replied. "Take Axe,' I repeated. 'What? Take Axe,' I insisted, there being an axe staring us both in the face. 'You carry the Axe,' it finally agreed, and in other places too some perfectly acceptable commands were greeted by the uncomprehending 'What?" This adventure doesn't have a lot going for it, cheap though it is, and as far as I'm concerned evil can triumph over good if it means I don't have to play again. MAD MARTHA Mikro-Gen, [redacted] The adventure/arcade bridge is provided by the follow-up to the very successful Mad Martha, which the cassette cover claims contains 'three exciting arcade-type games.' I would take that 'exciting' with a generous pinch of salt. The hen-peeked Henry, ie you, is on holiday in Spain with Martha and son Arbuthnot, who have both gone off on a coach trip leaving you sitting in the sunshine enjoying a cool drink. Waiter Manuel, who also happens to be Martha's cousin, brings you a letter doused in perfume, and off you set on your travels around the town to find out what's going on. After all, you can't read the letter till you find your spectacles, and you can't get out of the dark alley without something to light the way, and what does the bullfight poster mean, and when will that phrasebook come in handy? The graphics are rather limited, the speed of response is slow, and there was also the occasional unusual reaction from the program. On the beach I tried the command 'Dig,' only to be confused by the reply 'You must wear your spectacles'. What can this mean? There are three skill levels, and this is a race against the clock - once you've found your time-piece, of course. The program allows for multiple command entries, and can be saved. Although I didn't feel it was testing my powers of deduction to the full, it still has a certain appeal and is definitely different, which is all to the good when there's so much mediocrity about.

Your Computer

Overall 2/5

16K Spectrum Shoot-'em-up Artic £4.95 "The moon was the colour of wide frozen shrieks of laughter, the frost line ran down the window... I'm in shock". So goes the blurb for this engrossing grid game. You are zipping around the bottom of the screen as per Gridrunner, but without the peripatetic plasma cannons. Instead fiendish diagonal step deflectors are laid across the screen, so you cannot shoot straight up at the invaders, but have to allow for deflection.