3D Defender

ZX Computing

Joseph Nicholson

AND WHAT IS YOUR DEFENCE Defending the earth in three dimensions sounds pretty impressive. Thirteen-year-old Joseph Nicholson from Chilton tried out the latest offering from J K Greye Software. The program loaded with no trouble, and after about four minutes the program auto-ran. Impressive instructions rolled up the screen telling me that I was the only space ship that the planet had and I must defend it to the last. Who, me? They must be joking! When I bought this game I was under the impression that this was just an upmarket version of the usual defender games, the idea of 3D Defender hadn't really clicked in my mind. The screen in 3D Defender is what you would see if you were looking through the cockpit of the space craft. The aliens actually fly towards you in full 3D, getting larger as they get nearer. A few instruments appear on the screen as well: a radar, an altimeter, a proximity meter (how near you are to an alien space craft), the number of shields you have and your score. After pressing newline the game began. The graphics was outstanding. After getting myself accustomed to the nonstandard movement keys (the game does not use the cursor keys to move, but the movement keys are arranged to stimulate joystick control. Once this has been mastered, the game feels much more realistic) I decided to try and "save the planet from the marauding alien space craft" as the instructions for the cassette put it. This was nowhere near as easy as it seemed. Whenever I got near to the beggars they would either shoot their Plasmo at me and shoot me down or I would actually collide with one of their space craft instead of shooting it. Every now and again meteors would zoom across the screen and if you hit one of them one of your lives would be lost. After about one hour, yes, one hour!, I shot my first alien. 250 the score read, but that didn't stay there for long as every time an alien lands on the earth 50 points is deducted from the score. My score was reduced to 0 in about 30 seconds! it took me almost another hour to really get the hang of it, this is certainly not an easy game. In the instructions for the cassette they told you how to alter the speed of the game, you and the aliens. I decided to change the speed of the aliens (slower of course!). You get out of the program by pressing the EDIT key (the break key has no effect). This proved rather difficult, as the program recognised the SHIFT key as a key in its own right. I soon found that by pressing the 1 key (the key with EDIT written on it) without the shift depressed it worked perfectly. Inspection of the program revealed that the game was written almost completely in machine code with only 2 lines of BASIC. A SAVE line (which makes it RUN automatically upon loading) and a RAND USR line. Having POKEed the alien to its slowest speed, the game was still fast, but not so fast that I couldn't play properly. About the best way I can sum up this game is "GREAT"! The game is good value at £4.95, with graphics second only to the real arcade game. My only minus for the game is that it does take quite a long time to learn to play properly. But then, most games that are too simple become boring after a time anyway. Recommended.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

WATCH OUT, ALIENS ARE ABOUT! Seated in the cockpit of your Defender ship you'll witness alien attackers, meteors, and scintillating clouds flying head-on towards you. The ground is also not far below and you must be careful not to crash into the hills. Armed with photon torpedoes you will score 250 for each direct hit and 50 if you fly low enough to entice an alien to attack you. As the alien onslaught proceeds you must be cautious to keeping your shield strength - set initially at 10 and reduced by one each time you are hit by plasma or meteorites, and by two for a collision or crash landing. Flying controls include a for ward radar screen which shows you what to expect to find in view a few seconds hence. A "proximity warning' tells you about imminent alien craft. This 3D Defender cassette is available from the Bath based firm J. K. Greye and runs on a Sinclair ZX81. It costs £4.95.

Sinclair User

Phil Garrett

GREYE DEFENDER IS ANOTHER 3D WINNER If you are the type who goes to the seaside to spend hours - and pounds - in amusement arcades, there is a new crop of ZX-81 action games to tempt you to stay at home. J K Greye, famous for its remarkable 3D Monster Maze, has scored again with 3D Defender. This all-machine-code game for 16K ZX-81s has the player steering the last surviving craft of a once noble battle fleet into action against marauding invaders. Using the keyboard like a joystick, you can climb, dive and bank, watch the stars wheel about and the ground slip past, but keep an eye open for the bad guys and their plasma bolts. The game requires quick reactions and good coordination - a minimum of five fingers are in action - and takes a good deal of practice before any score is achieved. Amazing graphics effects are created as the enemy draws closer, more and more detail appearing as the flying saucers loom in your forward scanner. Another winner for £3.95. If you have spent the money you had saved for your RAM pack on your holidays instead, J K Greye offers arcade-game action in just 1K. Its full-screen Breakout, written in an incredible 500 bytes of machine code, has all the capabilities of the bigger versions. The bricks are inverse 52 signs, which turn into 3 signs when hit, and then disappear altogether when hit again. The game has adjustable bat size and speed, plus on-screen scoring and variable rebound angle. All for £1.95 from J K Greye Software, [redacted].