Super Invasion

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

NO HIDING PLACE IN THIS INVASION American professionalism has brought home the shortcoming of many of our own software houses by producing two of the best Sinclair games cassettes around. U.S. firm, Beam Software, offers Double Breakout and Super Invasion at £6 each - distributed over here by Essential Software. Super Invasion is available in two forms - one for the original ZX80 and the other for the ZX81/ZX80 with 8K ROM. The documentation on all the Beam Software programs is very good, with the rear of the instruction sheet having a comprehensive description for foolproof loading of the cassettes. Super Invasion is a very basic form of Space Invaders without the usual "barriers" that give protection from the invader's bombs. This makes it rather difficult to win, especially as you only have five lasers to fire, and you lose one each time you are hit. Once all the lasers have been destroyed, the game stops for a few seconds and then starts again. There are three levels of skill, and even the lowest is relatively difficult! The graphics are very good, with no screen flicker (even on the old ZX80) and smooth control of the laser platform. A slightly more sophisticated version is available for 2K ZX80 old ROM on the reverse of the ZX80 version. ZX80 Double Breakout is another machine code program which also has some very smooth graphics. There are seven levels of skill, with four being for the average player. You are given nine tries to break through two "walls". A bat is manoeuvrable in the vertical direction and the object of the game is to keep hitting the ball back at the wall so that bricks are dislodged progressively. Unfortunately, the ball bounces back at different angles. Sometimes you need to hit the ball with a moving bat to get the required spin. All three games represent good value for money, and are highly recommended.