Space Command

Your Spectrum

Alan Grier MISS

Alan Hunter MISS

Alex Entwhistle HIT

JOYSTICK JURY On the jury this month are Alex Entwhistle, Alan Grier and Alan Hunter - all members of the Saltcoats Computer Club. Meeting every Tuesday evening (7.10pm) at the Argyle Centre, [redacted]. Contact Daniel Canavin on [redacted] if you'd like to join them. SPACE COMMAND Virgin Games £5.95 Encounter alien life-forms, whose orders are to seek and destroy, as you guide and protect the asteroid and its doomed city through many star systems. The city is protected by a two-stage forcefield which only actually protects the populated areas.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Big K

Graphics 3/3

Playability 2/3

Addictiveness 1/3

Overall 1/3

Steve Keaton 1/3

BETTER BUT... MAKER: Virgin Games FORMAT: cassette PRICE: £5.95 Space Command is the best offering yet from the elderly (cough) team of Poole and Murray, authors of Yomp and Rider, also from Virgin. Here the quasi-militaristic tone of their earlier work has been replaced with good ol' SF. You play Defender (no relation) to a domed Kandor-style asteroid which is busy ploughing through the galactic spacelanes. As you might imagine this reckless behaviour is guaranteed to arouse the ire of local lifeforms and they do their best to flatten the flying city. It's all very similar to Imagic's old Atlantis ROM. The graphics are nice, although nowhere near as sensational as the promo blurb would have you believe, and the gameplay is tough. I've yet to clear the first wave, who look like renegades from Jet Pac. Limited laser fire and shallow fuel tanks add to your problems. I guess if you're still in the market for a space shoot 'em up then this is worth a look, although after an hour or so I wasn't so much addicted as cheesed off. Hope the next one's a little more original boys.

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 5/10

Sound 3/10

Originality 3/10

Lasting Interest 1/10

Overall 2/10

Jeremy Fisher 2/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Sinc FROM: Virgin, £5.95 In Space Command it is your objective to defend the domed city for as long as possible against the hordes of aliens whose sole purpose in life is to destroy you. You know the sort. Once the game gets started, you are presented with the display, which apart from the aliens never changes throughout the game. The lower portion of the screen is taken up by your city which is protected by a force field. As the aliens hit the force field it becomes weaker and eventually reduces its range. A hit by an alien on an unprotected area costs you a life. Although the city looks good and is well coloured the remainder of the graphics are poor. You can have one of three spaceships, ranging from a space shuttle-type to what looks like a green fish, none of which are spectacular. There are a variety of aliens from an uninteresting asteroid storm to an attack of Mutant Cornflakes, and although they scroll across the screen smoothly, they occasionally jerk as they descend. Your laser beam is a straight line and the explosions are too fast to be effective. Sound during the game is substandard consisting of beeps and bangs for shooting and explosions. Not being able to move diagonally makes control of your craft extremely difficult. Another complaint is that level 1 is far too difficult for a beginning stage. The chances are you'll die of boredom before reaching the second. Virgin have produced one or two good games, but this does not rate amongst them. Space Command isn't worth the time it takes to load.

Crash

Use of Computer 61%

Graphics 75%

Playability 58%

Getting Started 70%

Addictive Qualities 44%

Originality 68%

Value For Money 62%

Overall 63%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Virgin Games Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: Terry Murray and Roy Poole Your task in this game is to protect a domed city on an asteroid from the ravages of alien attack. You control a small spacecraft armed with lasers, in this game written by the authors of Yomp and Rider. The city is protected by a two-stage force field whose energy banks become weaker after many impacts. This force field will be lowered to protect the civilian parts of the city, thus leaving the large communications dish unprotected. If the dish is destroyed, you lose a life. Your ship's lasers will run down with repeated use and take time to recharge; similarly fuel may run out before the attack wave of aliens. The screen shows the surface of the asteroid at the bottom with the force field emanating between opposed wins of hillside. Between the hills can be seen the domed city, communications dish (in the centre) and the space port. Below the display are two bar codes for laser strength and fuel level. An eight-option menu allows for joystick or keyboard selection, customisation to the extent of having armed or unarmed aliens and the type of space ship you would like. There is also a very good demo mode on offer. Aliens hitting the force field weaken it, so having unarmed aliens does not necessarily make the game any easier. The screen wraps around horizontally, and diving your ship into the force field will kill you off. COMMENTS Control keys: Z/CAPS up/down, M/SYM left/right, SPACE to fire, ENTER = engine boost; alternatively, cursors and 0 Joystick: ZX 2, Kempston, AGF, Protek Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: good Graphics: reasonably smooth, large, detailed and fast Sound: above average Skill levels: 1 Lives: 4 Attack waves: 10 Originality: quite a novel space shoot 'em up

Wrap around rotters are virgin' on the suicidal as they try and wreck your Space Command.