Jawz

Crash

Producer: DK Tronics, 16K £4.95 On the same theme, Jawz is the other way round. You must use your underwater gun sights to shoot up marauding sharks, whilst avoiding the gunge dropping from poisonous jelly fish on the surface. The game was originally made by Elfin - it's being marketed by DK Tronics probably hasn't made all that much difference because unfortunately it has a very limited appeal for serious arcade addicts. Good for younger children.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Producer: DK Tronics, 16K £4.95 On the same theme, Jawz is the other way round. You must use your underwater gun sights to shoot up marauding sharks, whilst avoiding the gunge dropping from poisonous jelly fish on the surface. The game was originally made by Elfin - it's being marketed by DK Tronics probably hasn't made all that much difference because unfortunately it has a very limited appeal for serious arcade addicts. Good for younger children.

Crash

Producer: DK Tronics, 16K £4.95 On the same theme, Jawz is the other way round. You must use your underwater gun sights to shoot up marauding sharks, whilst avoiding the gunge dropping from poisonous jelly fish on the surface. The game was originally made by Elfin - it's being marketed by DK Tronics probably hasn't made all that much difference because unfortunately it has a very limited appeal for serious arcade addicts. Good for younger children.

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

SPECTRUM SPECTACLE Mike Gerrard looks at Spectrum releases, confronting amazing mazes and alien invasions. And still they come at you, trying to turn your home into the ultimate arcade. Games good, bad and indifferent - this latest batch of 16K Spectrum cassettes has examples of all three. BEETLEMANIA £4.95, AWA Software, [redacted]. To start with the good. Beetlemania is a Pacman style game, written in machine cod, in which four beetles chase you round a maze. I found it even more addictive than the original it is based on. For one thing, the graphics are excellent, with the green beetles scuttling round like scorpions, while the man races frantically along with his little legs going at nineteen to the dozen. The game begins with a brief demonstration showing you how you're to collect the eggs, which are left one at a time by the beetles, and deposit them safely in what is described for some reason as a lock. Eggs and locks appear randomly in the maze, and when four eggs have been safely collected an exit will flash, and you must scurry out of that to the next level. This is the same maze, but with several of the walls joined up, so giving you a little less breathing space. Succeed here and the same thing happens again, making it very tricky indeed to avoid the beetles in the increasing numbers of blind alleys. Further success takes you back to the original maze, opened up again, but this time with a purple spider racing along the corridors to add to your problems. Beyond that I don't know, as the spider got me every time. This increasing difficulty is a welcome feature, as is the sensible way the control keys are spread: Q for up, Z for down, I for left and P for right. You have five lives, three skill levels, and while there is a high-score record the game's only fault is that as soon as the last life is lost it switches instantly back to the opening screen without giving you a chance to check your score. But that apart, congratulations to the game's author, Steve Hughes, for improving on a good original. MAZE CHASE £4.95, Hewson Consultants, [redacted] What a contrast to Maze Chase, which is a simple (and I do mean simple) variation on the same game. The action is quick enough, being also in machine code, but this isn't so much Pacman as Matchstickman. Control here is by use of the arrow keys, which has never seemed to me the most sensible part of the Spectrum keyboard layout, and the graphics are disappointing after Beetlemania. There are four mazes in the 16K version, with 12 in the 48K program also on the tape, and your opening options are instructions, demonstration, resetting the high-score to zero, or play. A major complaint is that if you don't press any key within about 30 seconds, which is quite possible if you've left the tape to load, you automatically get a long demonstration game, with all three lives, and no way to break out of it that I could find. Otherwise you get the usual features of four ghosts, fruit to eat, and increased speed as you go. Not a patch on the original, though. JAWZ £4.95, Elfin Software, [redacted] Jawz is the underwater Space Invaders which most people will know - in fact you'll need to know it as there are no instructions in the program to explain exactly what you're meant to be doing. You are told the control keys and the cassette insert tells you that you're meant to be killing the sharks while avoiding the poison pellets the jellyfish at the top of the sea are dropping down on you. This isn't a game that ever particularly appealed to me, but Jawz is an adequate if slightly limited adaptation offering you a one or two-player game, a high-score record and three skill levels. Unfortunately the sharks look as frightening as a bowl of goldfish. GALAKZIONS £5.95 each, Micro-Gen, [redacted] The aliens in Mikro-Gen's Glakzions are more menacing - or at least the first five rows are. The final row contains what look remarkably like two pairs of flying yellow knickers. The action in this game should be fast enough to appeal to the addicts, though the creatures don't move off the side of the screen and back on again. In fact the aliens are quite restrained to begin with, the first wave peeling off in ones and twos and firing very few shots at you - but you have to watch the shots they do fire, which spit down the screen with great speed. From the second wave on, though, they come at you in great swirling bunches, and while they don't exhibit the usual nasty tendency to herd you into a corner for the kill, they are nevertheless very nippy movers - especially those knickers. Not a perfect copy, then, but still a satisfying version. PANIC £5.95 each, Micro-Gen, [redacted] Panic, or Space Panic as it's better known, comes from the same company. It is the familiar aliens and ladders game where you control a little man, or as in this version, a tall thin man, who is being pursued along levels and up ladders by nasty little creatures which he must kill by luring them into holes and then bashing them on the head, it's just as well they're not an endangered species. With the wealth of colour available on the Spectrum, it's hard to see why anyone would choose to make the creatures purple against a black background, unless they have a strong sadistic streak. As with Galakzions, if you like the original you probably won't be disappointed with the speed and features of this version. The man turns into an ominous skull and crossbones should he be sent to meet his maker, while if you fail to bash an alien after luring him into a hole he will change colour (or she will, it being difficult to tell with aliens). It will then take a plunge through two holes to see the alien off. If you fail again you get another colour change, and will need three holes to despatch him. After that, forget it. A choice of skill levels would have been nice, but you can't have everything, I suppose. Both these Mikro-Gen games will work with MikroGen joysticks, though when I attempted to use my Kempston ones I got some very odd results. Or maybe I've just been killing too many aliens lately, I don't know.