Luna Crabs

Crash

Overall 62%

Producer: Micromega, 16K £6.95 (1) Author: Mervyn Escourt You must know the feeling - there you are, on a Saturnian moon, away from the safety of your explorer's ship, taking samples of moon rocks, when suddenly there are all these nasty red crabs surrounding you and gobbing green spit all over the place. Fortunately, you have your guided missile cannon. Descriptive 3D graphics are effective in this simple shoot-back-at-'em game, as you whirl and turn to avoid the green goo and to aim at the fiendish crabs. Good animation and colourful graphics, but in the end a game with limited playing appeal. Sensible control keys, no joystick option and only one skill level. Overall CRASH rating 62% M/C.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Overall 62%

Producer: Micromega, 16K £6.95 (1) Author: Mervyn Escourt You must know the feeling - there you are, on a Saturnian moon, away from the safety of your explorer's ship, taking samples of moon rocks, when suddenly there are all these nasty red crabs surrounding you and gobbing green spit all over the place. Fortunately, you have your guided missile cannon. Descriptive 3D graphics are effective in this simple shoot-back-at-'em game, as you whirl and turn to avoid the green goo and to aim at the fiendish crabs. Good animation and colourful graphics, but in the end a game with limited playing appeal. Sensible control keys, no joystick option and only one skill level. Overall CRASH rating 62% M/C.

Crash

Use of Computer 70%

Graphics 72%

Playability 68%

Getting Started 65%

Addictive Qualities 40%

Value For Money 55%

Overall 61.5%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Micromega Memory Required: 16K Recommended Retail Price: £6.95 Language: machine code Author: Mervyn Estcourt You're a part of the Solar System Resources Research team down on one of the Saturnian moons, taking samples and away from your craft, when suddenly you find yourself surrounded by nasty red crabs which spit green acid gob at you. Fortunately you have your guided missile cannon to try and keep them at bay, but they're all around. This is a 3D game which shows you the view of the mountainous planet's surface with the cannon in the foreground. As in such games as 3D Tanx, a hit from the green goo on the gun turret means a loss of a life. COMMENTS Keyboard positions: good, 1/zero left/right rotation and guide missiles, 9 to fire Joystick options: none Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: good Graphics: good Sound: average Skill levels: 1 Lives: 5

Dressed LUNA CRABS are on tonight's menu.

ZX Computing

Documentation 4.5/5

Addictive Quality 4.5/5

Graphics 4/5

Programming Achievement 4/5

Lasting Appeal 4/5

Value 4.5/5

James Walsh

MEMORY REQUIRED: 16K You have been sent to one of Saturn's moons to gather data and samples of minerals much needed on the planet Earth. A simple and routine exercise until the bio-sensor detects creatures following you. Suddenly, they start to spit deadly acid balls. You have no alternative but to stop and fight. One caterpillar track on your land crawler has been hit so you may rotate left or right and fire. The game is in 3D. The screen shows the latest view from inside your crawler. The turret of your gun is shown at the bottom of the screen - if this is hit you die. As the crawler rotates the display moves in one direction or the other. When firing your photon bolt it may be guided to hit one of the rather ferocious Luna Crabs. Technically the game is good; fine movement though rather jerky in the case of the crabs themselves. The overall graphics are pleasant and enjoyable to look at, it is fast whilst still being relatively easy even for the novice. Micromega have followed a very admirable policy of showing screen photos of the game on the cassette inlay so as to give you, the potential customer, a better idea of the game before buying. On the whole the game is surprisingly easy to handle, though still a challenge after playing a while. Though it is not up to the top professional standard of such companies as Ultimate, Crystal, etc, it is an enjoyable and surprisingly addictive game to play.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

CRUSTACEANS LURK IN OUTER SPACE Luna Crabs and Haunted Hedges are two new 3D-style arcade games for the Spectrum. These two all-machine code games are carefully constructed to achieve the correct 3D perspective and push the Spectrum's graphics capabilities to the limit, according to the manufacturers Micromega. Luna Crabs returns to the essential simplicity of the classic arcade games. The crabs behave semi-intelligently, swarming and bunching in changing patterns, and hiding behind hills to reemerge at unexpected intervals. The patterns are reset for each round, so the player cannot learn how to beat the computer The photon bolts used to blast the crabs are steerable so you have more chance to hit a moving target. Haunted Hedges is a new version of the most popular arcade concept of all - the maze chase. The features include full 3-D visual effects. An animated figure with arms and legs moving as it chases and is chased around the maze. The intelligence level of the ghosts is included as a variable the player can set. Full instructions are included on screen, and again the controls have been simplified. A feature of the programming is that the player can chose which keys suit him best to control the action at the start of the game.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 3/5

Playability 4/5

Use Of Machine 4/5

Overall Value 3/5

Eric Salbine 3/5

NAME: Luna Crabs SYSTEM: Sinclair 16K or 48K PRICE: £6.95 PUBLISHER: Micromega, [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Basic OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Retail CUTE CRABS Should we sympathise with our enemies on the moon in a fight to the death? Is there a tinge of remorse as we wipe them out? Thanks to convincing 3D graphics the luna crabs have acquired an attractively crafty personality. It is this which distinguishes the game from a typical Space Invaders battle. OBJECTIVES Playing the game is simple. You score points if you manage to shoot the furtive luna crabs while attempting to avoid their return fire. They dart forward, open their mouths and spit green acid balls. Your weapon is a cannon which is restricted in action to rotating to the left or right when firing its photon bolts. The cannon may be controlled only by keyboard as there is no joystick version. It is fairly easy to score, particularly if you pick off the little creatures one by one. When they make a concerted attack you are advised to cut and run. FIRST IMNPRESSIONS The cassette comes sealed in cellophane and has an accurate if rather fuzzy colour picture of the graphics on the cover. It is always good to see an honest representation of the game instead of an artist's wildly idealised impression. The simple operating instructions are couched in florid science fiction twaddle but are easy to follow. IN PLAY A clicking sound heralds the appearance of cute red crabs which scuttle from behind purple lunar rocks, over a lemon terrain, against a black sky. Their random approach and withdrawal is displayed in good 3D which creates the clever illusion of skulking, canny opponents trying to avoid your fire. As you move to the left or the right, the horizon rotates around your gunsight. Your landing craft sits invitingly in the middle distance. It is a disappointment in the game to discover that however many crabs you destroy it seems you are never allowed to reach its safety. VERDICT The controls are simple and easy to master. The graphics are clear and colourful and the 3D effect is pleasing. An obvious weakness is that the skill level cannot be altered and the only objective is to obtain a high score by hitting as many crabs as possible. Nevertheless these nervous and unpredictable creatures are a more likeable, amusing and challenging opponent than the stereotyped, geometric, alien with all the character of a match-box.