Pioneer

Crash

Use of Computer 68%

Graphics 63%

Playability 63%

Getting Started 64%

Addictive Qualities 63%

Value For Money 78%

Overall 67%

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Producer: Atlantis Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £1.99 Language: Machine code Author: Andy Backhouse The cassette cover for Pioneer shows a jetcopter firing blasts at what looks like a group of Manhattan skyscrapers. Only we know that this isn't New York, but the fabled city from 'Scramble'. Pioneer is a sort of 'Scramble' type game in which you fly your helicopter across various types of terrain, through caverns and a convoluted city while asteroids, missiles and other alien things try and stop you. On the ground there are installations to be shot up for points and - what makes Pioneer quite different to any other 'Scramble' type - humans which wave as you flypass and may be winched up to safety, along with various sorts of valuable cargo. The game itself may be defined by the player to a degree, and the option menu allows for selecting whether you will have no guided missiles, intelligent missiles, unlimited fuel, unlimited rockets, an easy, moderate or hard landscape to cope with. On the harder levels of landscape, life becomes very hard indeed. The terrain includes hilly landscape, rocky caverns, the same with asteroids, a straight series of caverns with forcefields to be shot away and some with enemy craft, and finally the city. The copter takes off from a helipad at the start, and if you get far enough through a section before losing a life, the game returns you to the start of that section. COMMENTS Control keys: A/Z up/down, M = hover, SYM SHIFT = accelerate, SPACE = fire and CAPS = winch Joystick: Kempston Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: good Graphics: block movement, big well detailed, above average Sound: average generally, helicopter start up Skill levels: several options to select Lives: 5

Your PIONEER helicopter approaches a pair of lost humans.