Sabotage

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 6/10

GERONIMO'S REVENGE Fort Apache Memory: 16K Price: £3.95 Sabotage Memory: 48K Price: £4.99 City Patrol Memory: 16K Price: £4.99 With the rapid approach of school holidays, games software is in even greater demand. For those unfortunate people who are not visiting the sunny beaches there are still many games on the market for the 16K ZX-81. The Siege of Fort Apache is a strategy game in which you take the role of a general with 300 men at his disposal. You must launch an attack on a fort in an attempt to destroy its walls and gain entry. On each day of the siege you must assign your men to such tasks as building battering rams and ramps, manning cannons, collecting spare ammunition and fetching rations so that your troops can survive. You must then decide your plan of attack. You can move in on the gate, try to bring down the walls or burrow your way underground. At the end of a day the computer will give you a status report on your situation, which includes how many casualties you have suffered and how many rations have been stolen. If you lose more than half your troops during an encounter with the enemy you are outnumbered and lose the game. Your should keep an eye on the positioning of your soldiers, as you must leave sufficient men at your base camp to protect it from the enemy which may invade at any time. Another reason for keeping an eye on the troops is to make sure nobody deserts. If they have insufficient supplies your valiant men might do that. Fort Apache has a simple presentation and lacks graphics. The range options and the results of the decisions you make in the game make it an absorbing strategy game, original and inventive in its use of subject. The siege can be continued for several days if you keep your food supplies stocked and your men happy. You might also like to try to increase the life span of your armies through a series of games by trying various battle tactics. The Siege of Fort Apache is produced by Contrast Software, [redacted]. It costs £4.95. Sinclair Research is retaining its collection of ZX-81 games tapes, the most recent of which are Sabotage and City Patrol. Sabotage is a novel game in which you take the role of one of two people, either a saboteur or the guard protecting some highly-explosive material. If you choose to be the guard you must corner the saboteur before he can plant his bomb in a secret place. If you take the part of the saboteur you must plant your bomb without being caught. Your score is determined depending on which role you take. The guard's points decrease the longer he takes to reach the bomber. The saboteur scores his points by being destructive. City Patrol is another destructive game, but in 3D. You take the part of a policeman moving round a city trying to destroy the alien invaders who try to raze tower blocks to the ground. At the very least you must prevent the destruction of as many skyscrapers as possible. The 3D representation of the city is impressive, since producing 3D effects on the ZX-81 is difficult. Many hours of thought went into the screen display and, although the plot is a little weak, people who like out-of-the-ordinary games should be satisfied. Sabotage and City Patrol can be obtained from Sinclair Research or from some W H Smith and Boots.

ZX Computing

James Rendell

READERS REVIEWS Next time anyone claims that we are a nation of illiterates I'll just let them read your letters! I have never read so much well thought out, individualistic, critical literature. The old saying, 'spoilt for choice' was never so appropriate - perhaps we'll run a special supplement later in the year. For new readers, this feature provides space to air your views on any software, be it for the ZX80, ZX81 or ZX Spectrum. If you've had a good or bad experience of any of the commercial software packages available for your micro, why not write and tell us. Your reviews should contain your critical thoughts about the software and the relevant details concerning the availability of the package, its price, etc. If you can provide any screen dumps to illustrate the review, so much the better. Any reviews published in this section of the magazine will be rewarded with the price of the tape you review. So, if you buy a cassette and send in a review that gets published, you'll get your software for free! SABOTAGE Sinclair James Rendell Sabotage for the ZX81 gives you your big chance to live out that 007 type dream of becoming a saboteur. After loading the program, which takes three minutes, a well prepared opening page urges you to choose which destructive role you wish to take. There are two variations of the game and in both games the screen represents a compound in which the boxes are placed. In game 1 you play the guard and must defend the randomly placed ammunition boxes. At the start of the game the saboteur, played by the computer, spends a few seconds working out where the best place to put a charge is: i.e. where the most boxes will be destroyed. The explosions spread as a chain reaction if adjacent boxes explode. When the computer has decided where to go you have twenty free moves with which you must race to intercept the saboteur. Your only defence in this (somewhat one-sided) battle is a truncheon which swings through a 5 x 5 area with you in the middle. If you can corner the guard or prevent him reaching his prime target you get extra points, but you lose them if you are caught in the blast (thank goodness it's only a game!). Game 2 will appeal to those of us with a destructive mind. Here you play the saboteur and have to blow up as many of the two hundred boxes as you can (up to a maximum of fifty). You are encouraged to try and catch the guard in the blast; after all, there are eight hundred points to be gained for this sociable achievement. Once you have laid your charge you have ten seconds to run for it otherwise the saboteur's life expectancy is drastically reduced. If at any time during your destructive mission an unbroken vertical or horizontal path develops between you and the guard he will shoot with his rifle, and beware, he's a crack shot. You have ten charges to play with but the game ends if the guard shoots you. Overall these are entertaining strategy games. The graphics are quite smooth since the bulk of the program is in machine code. However, the instructions are written in a rather informal manner and certain parts of the game are learnt by experience rather than by instruction. Sabotage is £4.95 and is one of the latest Sinclair releases.

ZX Computing

THE ZX81 SOFT SELECTION In which Nick Pearce scrutinises the latest software packages for the ZX81. CITY PATROL/SABOTEUR Macronics 'City Patrol' is a superb high speed action game set in a futuristic city which you have to defend from alien suicide ships. The moving screen display is first class. The city consists of four streets of skyscraper blocks giving a 3D effect, and judicious use of the control keys allows you to move slowly, or at breakneck speed, in either direction as you search out the aliens. They are tantalisingly difficult to capture as they pass behind buildings and descend to ground level. If they reach the ground, their mission is accomplished and they set off a series of explosions which can destroy a large portion of your beloved city. There is a scoring system, but I was usually too absorbed in chasing the aliens to worry about my score - more often than not it seemed to be negative. All in all, 'City Patrol' is a very impressive game. 'Saboteur' is another novel game from Macronics for the ZX81, but not in my opinion as absorbing as 'City Patrol'. Nevertheless, it is based on a good idea and runs faultlessly. In this game the screen represents a plan of a compound containing randomly placed boxes of ammunition. You can either be the guard, who has to protect the ammunition, or the saboteur who must blow up as much of it as he/she can, with the computer taking the opposing character. Your character is moved around the compound in the usual way. If you are the saboteur, you must find a suitable place to plant your charge and retreat a safe distance before it explodes. If you opt to take the role of the guard, you can adopt one of two alternative strategies: try and guess where the saboteur will go, and get there first; or attempt to trap the saboteur in a corner. Both 'City Patrol' and 'Saboteur' are written largely in machine code, but the programs can be LISTed; indeed the parameters of Saboteur can be altered using POKE commands to make the game more difficult - I must admit I found it hard enough as it was. Both games require 16K of RAM. These Macronics cassettes are attractively boxed and well presented with full instructions on the cassette insert cards. City Patrol and Saboteur cost £5.00 each from Macronics Systems Ltd, [redacted].

Sinclair User

USER-UNFRIENDLY GAMES GUIDE Sinclair Research has launched two new games, Sabotage and City Patrol, for the 16K ZX-81. Sabotage is a game in which you must take one of two roles, either the guard or the saboteur. If you choose to be the guard you must protect the randomly-placed boxes of ammunition which litter the compound. If you are the guard, you will have to corner the saboteur before he can plant explosives in a secret place. If you are not quick enough, the explosives will detonate and you will lose some of the boxes of ammunition. Your score will decrease depending on how many boxes you lose. If you capture the enemy, the points added to your score will, of course, be unaffected by the number of boxes blown-up. You may want to take the role of the saboteur. In that case the game changes and you must evade the guard, played by the computer, and plant your explosives. Your score depends on how destructive you can be. The program has an original games concept and the action is reasonably smooth. The only problem occurs in the instructions which are printed on the cassette insert card. The game is explained in simple fashion and the movement keys are shown. The difficulty is that Sinclair Research seems to have taken it for granted that the user will know which key moves the figure which way on the screen. The W and S keys move the character up and down respectively and the H and J keys move it left and right. Sinclair may be correct in thinking that most users will know which keys do what but many users will certainly be beginners who have just become accustomed to the keyboard. In City Patrol, a city is on the verge of destruction as enemy lighters zoom in and try to raze buildings to the ground. It is your task to take on those Invaders and destroy them. At the very least you must prevent them destroying the skyscrapers. The game produces a 3D view ofthe city on the screen. There are four levels of the city and you can select which one you want to enter at the start of the game. We rate the game highly because of its depth of graphics and plot. It is difficult to produce such a smooth 3D effect on the ZX-81. The instructions are easy to understand but, as with Sabotage, they could be more clearly set out on the cassette insert. We found it difficult to keep track of the instructions because they were cramped into such a small space and, in certain parts, were too verbose. Each instruction insert starts with a story line and if that was abbreviated, more room could be allocated for the playing instructions. Sabotage and City Patrol are available separately from Sinclair Research, [redacted].