Metagalactic Llamas: Battle at the Edge of Time

Your Spectrum

Frank Pelling MISS

Ian Hemmingway HIT

Phil Morse MISS

JOYSTICK JURY Your Spectrum is on the lookout for clubs to take part in Joystick Jury. Interested??? Just drop a line to Ron Smith, Joystick Jury, Your Spectrum, [redacted]. This month's joystick jurors are all members of the Stevenage Computer Club, [redacted]. They are: Ian Hemmingway, Phil Morse, Frank Pelling, Owen Pugh and Monty Trent. The club was formed about 18 months ago and currently has a membership of about 45, with members' ages ranging from eight to 70 years. It meets twice a month - at the Stevenage Library and the Leisure Centre. Membership costs £6 per year... half price for children and OAPs. For more details, phone Frank Pelling on [redacted] (evenings and weekends). METAGALACTIC LLAMAS Salamander Software £6.95 Mutants descend from webs that break when bombarded with well-aimed spit. The creatures then drop to the surface and mutate into Weeviloids.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

UNLEASH YOUR LLAMAS ON SINISTER SPIDER MENACE Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Joystick: Programmable Meta-Galactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time, from Salamander Software, is a reasonably simple game with an extremely long and inventive name. Like the name, the game, for the 48K Spectrum, is inventive and its simplicity it deceptive. You will find that as soon as you start playing you are hooked. The hero is an alien llama which destroys swarms of creatures which look like spiders, as they absail lengths of web ready to kill you if you touch them. When you fire at the spiders your laser bolts will bounce off a force field at the top of the screen. You can lower the field as the spiders descend so that you can find the correct angle for the shot. If you hit a spider's web-cable the creature will fall and turn into a worm which tracks you along the ground. If it touches you one of your llama lives will be lost. The skill involved in the game is to hit the spiders while they are still in the air. Once you have passed a level you can proceed to the next which is faster and contains more spiders. If you are feeling really masochistic you could start at a more advanced level. Meta-Galactic Llamas is a Jeff Minter game and as such was meant originally for the Commodore computers. For that reason the game is not so good as the original. It is still, however, a very impressive game although the graphics are not stunning and the sound is nothing to rave about. Minter, with the help of programmer Chris Clark, has gone for originality and addiction instead of the things which usually make a good Spectrum game.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 78%

Graphics 51%

Playability 52%

Getting Started 63%

Addictive Qualities 43%

Value For Money 37%

Overall 54%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Salamander Software Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £6.95 Language: Machine code Author: Concept by Jeff Minter, translation by Chris Clark The large cassette box carries an attractive picture of a very determined looking Llama, spitting venom at an exploding arachnid. Thus the strange animal vision of Jeff Minter, who brought us Mutant Camels, trundles inexorably onward in this new Spectrum version. The inlay contains long detailed descriptions of how Metabeasts, mentally and physically enhanced animals, have come into being. This appears to have been as a result of the abortive attack on Earth when agents of Zzyax mutated camels into awesome war machines. Now Earth have turned the tables by developing super Llamas. The drama unfolds on the Earth outpost of OP/37 - the station set at the edge of time. It is now under attack by Zzyaxian Cyborg Arachnid Mutants, which descend on to the outpost on strong strands of web. The Llama guarding the outpost is only equipped with its laser spitting capability and an experimental Planer Field Generator. The screen is quite simple, a green base line along which the Llama can run in either direction, wrapping round it necessary, and at the top is a dotted red line, the Planer Field Generator. The Llama fires his laser diagonally upwards, the blasts ricocheting off the screen sides and off the underside of the field force. This may be lowered or raised to alter the ricochet period. Arachnids can be shot while they are descending, and so may their web strands. The arachnids that land on the surface immediately change into disgusting Weeviloids, which resemble snakes. These will crawl along the ground at a pretty fast rate to get the Llama. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/W left/right, O/K up/down, SPACE or CAPS SHIFT to fire. Keys are user-definable as well. Joystick: almost any via UDK Keyboard play: very responsive Use of colour: good Graphics: small, undetailed, overall below average Skill levels: 99, of which the first 32 are selectable Lives: 3

Prancing Llamas with a powerful spit are pitted against spiders and snakes.