Sheepwalk

Crash

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K £5.95 This can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K £5.95 This can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.

ZX Computing

Jim Lock

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! SHEEPWALK Virgin Games Jim Lock Give your laser finger a rest, take time out from defending the Galaxy against marauding meanies, and try your hand instead at this interesting and original game which simulates a sheepdog trial. You control a sheepdog which tries to round up nine sheep. If left for too long to their own devices, the sheep will eat the corn, carrots and other crops growing in the field. Your dog too can damage the crops by trampling them underfoot whilst attempting to drive the sheep away. Additional hazards to negotiate are two haystacks in the centre of the field and a river which takes up a large part of the left hand side of the field. Your sheep, of course, cannot swim! When all the surviving sheep have been penned, your score is given and points deducted for drowned sheep and crop damage. The time taken is also displayed and points taken off for that, too. It is possible to end with a minus score, as I did on my first attempt, despite successfully penning five of the sheep. Scores do, of course, improve with practice, and with the discovery that the dog can swim across the river. It really is an advantage to have watched "One man and his dog" before you play, as the game is very realistic - the sheep move in an infuriatingly lifelike manner - they will sneak out of the pen while the dog is occupied elsewhere, and stampede if the dog gets too close, particularly the last two sheep. The game has attractive graphics and runs in Basic at a gentle pace. It is easy to master the essentials of the game but difficult to get a high score. The presentation of the cassette is, however, disappointing. The loading instructions are well hidden (on the cassette label), and the program is only recorded on one side of the the tape. The other side is taken up with a boring bit of music. I would unhesitatingly recommend Sheepwalk to all armchair shepherds, if it were not for the price. £7.95 is too much for this game, enjoyable and original as it is. How about a price reduction, Virgin Games, say to around £5.50?

Crash

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K £5.95 This can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.

Personal Computer News

Mike Gerrard

Steve McClure

SPORTING SPECTRUM Mike Gerrard and Steven McClure set up a two-man defence against the latest Sinclair hordes. Spectrum games keep coming thick and fast - some of them more thick than fast, it must be said. But this latest consignment includes at least a couple that match arcade standards and even one in which it's your shout - you literally call the shots! Start yomping .. PHEENIX (£5.50) - Megadodo Software, [redacted] Why should anyone write a fast-moving machine code version of an arcade classic, then make you wait 20 seconds between each and every game while the screen fills with stars? It's a pity because this is otherwise an enjoyable version of Phoenix... go on, admit it, you'd never have guessed. You can use the keyboard or either Kempston or AGF joysticks, and select from five skill levels. There are several screens of birds and eggs to be scrambled before you get to assault the Flagship. The hardest level is suicidal, but a few instructions wouldn't have gone amiss. It is colourful, but due to the frustrating wait between each screen change I recommend you look for a better alternative. AQUARUIS (£5.95) - Bug-Byte, [redacted] Bug-Byte bites again with a game that would grace any arcade. Using Kempston joystick or keyboard, you must negotiate your diver through a scrolling sea filled with sharks. Jellyfish, mines, strangleweed and other fishy nasties. Most of these can be despatched with a direct shot from your gun, but your oxygen is also expiring, so pick up the supplies from the seabed when you can. If you're lucky, or extremely skillful, you'll eventually come to dark caverns, at the end of which is your mission - to defuse the death machines by shooting the three-colour coded panels in the sequence given at the start of the game. Amusing graphics, if a little jerky here and there, but definitely the pick of this batch. ANT ATTACK Macronics Systems, [redacted] After a hard day's gardening you fall asleep, but your dream turns nasty as the ants decide to get their own back on you. At least that's the story behind what's claimed to be the first Spectrum game controlled partly by your voice. Yell 'fire' at your tape recorder and that's what's meant to happen. I couldn't make it work, but that's not to say it won't on other tape recorders. More of a gimmick than of practical use, unless you can shout at a very fast rate indeed. Settling for keyboard control, I enjoyed a fast and furious Centipede-type game, shooting at ants and other pests as they descend the screen in that well-known fashion. The cassette insert is cheaply done, but there's nothing wrong with the game itself. ALIEN INSECTS Macronics Systems, [redacted] Armed with a laser bolt, you must shoot down the fat little insects that are buzzing all over the screen. You can move in four directions, with a sensible layout for keyboard control. This is a game worth getting just to see what sounds can be squeezed out of the Spectrum. If you kill enough nasties then space eggs start to appear at the top of the screen, waiting to descend on you. By this time the insects are about as easy and pleasant to deal with as a swarm of wasps. 3D STRATEGY (£6.95) - Quicksilva, [redacted] As a change from killing ants, aliens, birds or jellyfish, here's a game where you could cheerfully kill the programmer. It is so hard to beat the machine in this 4x4x4 version of Noughts and Crosses or Connect Four, and I was only playing on the easiest of the four skill levels. The only drawback to this piece of software is the instructions. They drivel on for pages about how totally wonderful the game is... auto-play option, timer that can be set per move, per game or switched off, on-screen ticking clocks, two styles of play, an average response time of 1.7 seconds, machine code, over 200,000 decisions per move, and so on. The board is displayed as four separate grids at the bottom of the screen, which is a little confusing, though We no doubt a proper three-dimensional cube would have been even more so. However, it does offer a very tough opponent, and it may be as good as it claims. YOMP (£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted] A paratrooper opera which is fairly easy to figure out. You use four keys to manoeuvre your way through four columns of trucks and tanks and all you have to do is learn how to place yourself in the optimum position to sneak through to the other side of the moving convoys. As a video game memento of the Falklands conflict it's a pretty weak effort. SHEEPWALK (£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted] Sheepwalk is almost as dull as Yomp once it's in play. You're a sheepdog moving around the screen trying to catch up with miscreant sheep. While doing this you risk trampling the vegetables or bumping into walls. GOLF (£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted] In its Virgin form, Golf is an interesting enough game to play. It requires players to plot out each shot's direction and strength, while using the right club. There's enough of a random element to make the game more than a little irritating. When your ball lands in the rough it can take three or four strokes to get it out. This is where having a low handicap (you can choose between 1 and 28) is a real advantage. The game's designers have assumed real duffers are going to have problems in getting out of the woods.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 3/10

Playability 3/10

Value 0/10

WILL YOU FLOCK TO BUY THIS GAME? Sheepwalk is one of the much publicised new titles from Virgin Games - a spin-off from the Virgin record and publishing company. If this is the standard of their games then I would respectfully suggest that Mr Branson stick to records. At £7.95 it has got to be the rip-off of the year and a dead cert for our Great Software Disasters page. The idea of the game is to round up all the sheep which have strayed from their pen. You play the part of the sheep-dog - although you could be forgiven for not realising this as the hound is nothing more than a tiny black speck on the screen. The animal must also have a gammy leg as it moves with the speed of a farmyard ox rather than a scampering dog! Points are awarded according to the speed at which the sheep have been rounded up and the amount of crops saved from the rampaging flock in the vegetable patch. The idea for the game is a good one though not entirely original. It falls down on its execution. Written in Basic it's just far too slow. I can't think of any other professional software house who would bring out a game of this type and at this price without first improving its graphics and then speeding it up with machine code. Perhaps this is the point. Do Virgin Rah see themselves as a software house at all, or is this just another example of the gold-rush mentality which is killing the computer games business with poor quality products. The idea behind this approach to the business seems to be grab any program you can, and publish as quickly as possible to make a quick killing. Never mind the quality, just look at the full colour cassette inlay. You have probably gathered by now that I'm not going to rush out and hand over almost £8 for Sheepwalk. Despite this there is something good about the game which I think is worthy of mention. The author of the game is fully credited on the cassette inlay. We are given a picture of Gregory Trelise as well as a short biography. Software, like records and books, has to be thought of, programmed, and put forward for publishing by the author. The programmers therefore deserve our recognition for their efforts.

The trials of a sheepdog feature on Virgin's new tape. Our review on page 106.