Asteroids

ZX Computing

Nick Pearce

THE ZX81 SOFT SELECTION Nick Pearce gives us his critical views on some of the latest ZX81 software. FORTY-NINER AND ASTEROIDS Software Farm If you are still prevaricating over whether to purchase the ZX Spectrum, maybe you should forget it and get Forty-niner instead. Forty-niner is an excellent game. It requires a little practice to master, but persevere, it's worth it. No sound or colour but the high resolution screen display gives another dimension to the trusty ZX81. The 1949 Great American Gold Rush has just started and you are out there with the best of them excavating for the precious metal. Somewhat unusual hazards (for a gold digger anyway) are present to hinder you. Giant rats search through your excavations after you and there are snakes which when released, head straight for the surface and destroy everything in their path. There is also a gremlin to contend with and you have to deposit excavated soil on the surface to delay it capturing you. The aim of the game is to collect all the nuggets of gold. When you have accomplished this awesome task, you pass on to a more difficult stage with more rats but less snakes to destroy them. An interesting feature of Forty-niner is the facility for the player to select his own control keys. A hi-score chart is kept by the computer and displayed at the end of each game and there are five levels of play. The hi-res display is excellent, those rats really do look like rats. A great game. The Software Farm game of Asteroids is similar to the MikroGen version reviewed above. It has three levels of play, and you have three lives per game. It requires a 16K RAM pack and the graphics are in "normal" ZX81 resolution. There is an option for up to four players to hold a contest, each player's highest score being separately recorded and identified in a score table. I thought the action rather jerky, even at the hardest level but the game works well and is good fun nonetheless. More expensive than Mikro-Gen's game but with the additional facility to keep score during a contest. Not possessing a joystick, I had to use the ZX81 keyboard although a joystick option is included. It is a 16K game and is recorded both sides of the cassette. Romik Software, [redacted]. Mikro-Gen, [redacted]. Software Farm, [redacted]. Fawkes Computing, [redacted]

Sinclair User

ASTEROIDS WITH SMOOTH ACTION Asteroids is a fairly standard game on the ZX-81 and many software houses have produced a version. The Software Farm has now jumped on to this bandwagon and produced its version. The graphics of the game are fairly chunky but the action is very smooth. The screen has a wrapround effect, so that as well as being able to spin around in space your ship can move forward. It will disappear from one side of the screen and reappear at the other. If you fire when the ship is off the screen or just about to disappear, a very strange effect occurs. You press the fire button and the laser beam, shot from the nose of your ship, continues off the edge of the screen and appears on the other side. That effect is on several versions of the game at present available and it seems to be a disadvantage of having a wrapround screen. Apart from that, the game is reasonably fast and the asteroids are very difficult to miss, as they break-up after you have fired at them, only to fly back in the face of your ship. Asteroids is sold by The Software Farm, [redacted], and costs £5.95.