West

Your Sinclair

Overall 6/10

Graham Rydout 6/10

THE COMPLETE QL SOFTWARE BUYERS GUIDE At under £200, the QL has started to look a real bargain. If you've splashed out on one already or you're considering taking the plunge this Christmas, you'll want to know just how much software is available for the machine. The answer is still not much but things are starting to look up. Graham Rydout surveys the field. THE LANGUAGE BARRIER Very soon after its launch eighteen months ago, the QL was blessed with a wide range of languages and a couple of 68000 assemblers from Metacomco and Computer One. Now that range has been further complemented. Title: Assembler Development Kit Publisher: Metacomco Price: £39.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: QL Pascal Publisher: Metacomco Price: £89.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: BCPL Development Kit Publisher: Metacomco Price: £59.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Lisp Development Kit Publisher: Metacomco Price: £59.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: QL C Publisher: Metacomco Price: £99.95 Rating: 9/10 All of these come supplied with the Metacomco full screen editor that has now become the QL standard. So much so, in fact, that Metacomco have licensed it out to other companies for inclusion in their packages. Title: Assembler Publisher: Computer One Price: £29.95 Rating: 7/10 Title: Forth Publisher: Computer One Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Pascal Publisher: Computer One Price: £39.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: Assembler Publisher: GST (via Sinclair) Price: £39.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: Editor Assembler Publisher: Adder Price: £34.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Publisher: Hisoft Coming Soon This list will give you an idea of the range of Assemblers and language packages available from companies other than Metacomco Title: Mon QL (Microdrive) Publisher: HiSoft Price: £14.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Mon QL (EPROM) Publisher: HiSoft Price: £39.95 Rating: 10/10 Title: QL Monitor Publisher: Computer One Price: £24.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: QL Monitor Publisher: QJump Price: £24.95 Rating: 7/10 With only three disassemblers/debuggers on the market, HiSoft comes out tops with MonQL on EPROM but the others are expected to follow suit shortly. Title: QL Monitor Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £18.05 Rating: 2/10 This is a very simple package and suffers greatly from a sever lack of features - not one I'd recommend. Title: C Compiler Publisher: GST Price: £59.95 Rating: 7/10 This isn't a complete implementation of the language but it's well suited to the beginner. Title: Supercharge (compiler) Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £59.95 I haven't yet seen the finished version or this compiler out it promises to be a product that everyone can make use of. It's written by Simon Goodwin oi Zip compiler fame (take a look at Your Spectrum 3) and it claims to convert almost every SuperBasic program into fully multi-tasking 68008 code. Title: SuperBasic extension Publisher: QJump (via Sinclair) Price: £24.95 Rating: 9/10 Title: SEE (EPROM) Publisher: Hisoft Price: £39.95 Rating: 9/10 Of these two SuperBasic extensions, QJump's leads the way but HiSoft's SEE has some very useful facilities. It gives the QL true windowing capabilities and as it's on ROM you don't have to keep loading it in. Title: Microdrive Toolkit Publisher: Compware Price: £9.99 Rating: 5/10 Title: Microdrive Toolkit (with source code) Publisher: Compware Price: £34.99 Rating: 5/10 The toolkits change the QL#s microdrive commands into functions so that values can be returned and errors such as 'drive full' trapped. Title: Keydefine Publisher: Psientific Software Price: £9.95 Rating: 10/10 This is a complete key redefinition package that'll let you use the redefined keys in almost every QL package. You could, for example, define the P key so that when you press it with the Caps Lock held down, the current document from within Quill could be saved and then printed. Freebie programs provided are a fast copier (a multi-tasking directory lister that lists directories from within other programs) and a printer spooler. Title: ICE (EPROM) Publisher: Eidersoft Price: £49.95 Rating: 9/10 ICE (Icon Controlled Environment) gives the QL a full Icon based Desktop Manager and Frton End to QDOS. It removes most mundane file handling tasks and I can thoroughly recommend it. Title: WD Utilities Publisher: WD Software Price: Microdrive £7.50, 5.25" £10.00, 3.5" £12.00 Rating: 6/10 WD Utilities are a complete set of SuperBasic procedures providing a menu driven system to manoeuvre files. Title: Cartridge Doctor Publisher: Talent Price: £14.95 Rating: 9/10 If you're frequently visited by the 'Bad or Changed Medium' error message, you'll welcome this program. It's a fully automatic set of routines to recover corrupted and deleted files. Title: Q Doctor Publisher: Talent Price: £14.95 Rating: 5/10 If you prefer doing things the hard way, Q Doctor only allows you to load and edit sectors from the microdrive. Unfortunately, there are no similar products available for disk users. Title: GraphiQL Price: £34.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: M-Paint Publisher: Medic Price: £49.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Paint Master Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £14.95 Rating: 7/10 Title: Tascopy Publisher: Tasman Price: £12.90 Rating: 8/10 Title: Sprite Generator Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £24.95 Rating: 6/10 Graphic printers are a personal choice. GraphiQL suits highly detailed work but is extremely difficult to use. For dedicated artists only! M-Paint is a coloured clone of Apple's MacPaint. Simpler to use but a shade less accurate on detailed work. Least sophisticated at all, PaintMaster is none the less the most appropriate tor your average QL user. Its ability to compile a drawing into a SuperBasic program that then copies it makes it practical if you want simple illustrations within your program. All have simple screen dump programs but Tascopy copies all or part of the screen in a variety of shades. Sprite Generator does just that but it's a complex to use package that isn't worth the asking price. DOWN TO BUSINESS The high reputation of Archive, Abacus, Quill and Easel is based on their quality - it's not just that they come with the QL. Other companies haven't released similar packages because most people are happy with what they've got. Doubtless improvements could be made but I expect these'll come from Psion rather than an independent house. Title: Q-Spell Publisher: Eidersoft Price: £19.95 Rating: 8/10 Pore spillars will welcome Q-Spell - a full-spec spelling checker to Quill. But be warned! Extra mamory's needed to check your document with Quill still in memory. Title: Home Finance Publisher: Buzzz (via Sinclair) Price: £24.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Self Employed and Cash Trader Publisher: Quest Price: £69.95 Rating: 7/10 Title: Small Business and Accounts Publisher: Sagesoft Price: £89.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Payroll Publisher: TR Rating: 8/10 Of the accounting packages aimed at home users Smallbusiness is the most professional. It has integrated Purchase, Sales, and Nominal Ledgers. Transferred from the IBM PC it just goes to show that the QL can compete in the business world. Payroll provides a perfect complement and deals with data for up to 75 employees. Title: Decision Maker Publisher: Triptych Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Entrepreneur Publisher: Triptych Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: Project Planner Publisher: Triptych Price: £39.95 Rating: 8/10 The Triptych products help solve various problems and educate you in the process. Title: Equate (Microdrive and disk) Publisher: Flite Price: £39.95 Rating: 7/10 For mathematicians, Equate can solve most problems - polynomial, linear, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, curve fitting and various graphical problems. Title: QL Gardener Publisher: Gordian Computing Services Price: £24.95 QL Gardener is a database with information on over 1100 plants. Just a shame that the package won't dig or even weed your garden for you! QL ADVENTURES When you consider the QL's large memory and excellent graphics you'd expect plenty of adventures. But only three quality games exist, and they're all text only. Title: Lost Kingdom Of Zkul Publisher: Talent Price: £19.95 Rating: 8/10 Title: West Publisher: Talent Price: £19.95 Rating: 6/10 Title: The Pawn Publisher: Magnetic Scrolls (coming soon) Rating: 10/10 The Talents were released early on in the QL's history and they're still looking good. Zkul is based on the popular Dungeons and Dragons format and plays very well. West is set in the desert wilds - complete with menacing Indians. Few reservations about this one! The Pawn is extremely high quality, similar to that of the Level 9 adventures. It's set in the magical world of Kerovnia during a period at social upheaval and includes a very complex command interpreter that can understand commands as complex as "Get all except the cases but not the violin case then kill the man eating shrew with the contents of the violin case. Remove the shrew's tail and use it to tie the pole and the noose together!" See what I mean? This game's by far the QL's best adventure yet. A WINNING STRATEGY If you compare this list of strategy games for the QL with the selection for the Speccy, it looks pretty paltry. Still, there are some good 'uns here. Title: Chess Publisher: Psion Price: £19.95 Rating: 9/10 Computer chess takes on a new dimension with a full 3D board display that makes impressive use of the QL's graphics. Title: Match Point Publisher: Psion Price: £14.95 Rating: 9/10 Match Point is converted from the Spectrum and improved graphics make the game more playable. Title: Area Radar Controller Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £14.95 Rating: 2/10 This is a very poor aircraft control simulation written in SuperBasic. Title: Bridge Player Publisher: CP Software Price: £14.95 Rating: 5/10 Title: Backgammon Publisher: Digital Precision Price: £12.95 Rating: 5/10 Title: Reversi Publisher: Games of Skill Price: £12.95 (Coming Soon) Aimed at novices, Bridge Player and Backgammon are of little value to the experienced. Coming soon is Reversi - a full version of Othello. Title: Comos Publisher: Talent Price: £14.95 Rating: 7/10 Patrick Moores, stand by your QLs. This is an astronomy package that allows you to display star and solar patterns as seen from any place on Earth at any point in time. From the star map you can choose any star with the cursor to find out extra data. ARCADE ACTION This list of arcade games for the QL may produce a snigger from Speccy owners - it doesn't exactly rival the selection on offer to them. Still, it's growing all the time! Title: QL Cavern Publisher: JMF (via Sinclair) Price: £12.95 Rating: 7/10 A massive 50 screen Jet Set Willy clone with 395 gems to collect. Good value, with a good many improvements over the standard platform game. Title: Meteor Storm Publisher: Arrakia (via Sinclair) Price: £12.95 Rating: 4/10 A bog standard version of Asteroids. Title: Booty Publisher: Firebird Price: £9.95 (Coming Soon) A locks and doors classic on the Speccy that sells for £2.50. Microdrive problems push up the price on the QL. Looks impressive! Title: EVA Publisher: Westway Price: £12.95 Rating: 9/10 A Jetpack-style game with very large sprite graphics. The most annoying feature is the almost continuous sound. Title: Star Guard Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £14.95 Rating: 5/10 Title: Galactic Invaders Publisher: Shadow Games Rating: 5/10 Shadow Games range from the reasonable to the pathetic. This pair come on the one cartridge and are just copies of Arcadia/Invaders. Title: Night Nurse Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £12.95 Rating: 3/10 This uses Digital Precision's Sprite Package (see The Language Barrier) and it just goes to show that commercial games cannot be produced with it. Shame. Title: Quazimodo Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £12.95 Rating: 7/10 Reasonable I suppose, very colourful and should satisfy if this is your thing. I'd back it! Title: Space Paranoids Publisher: Shadow Games Price: £12.95 Rating: 4/10 Another Arcadia style game - hardly worth loading up. Title: Zapper Publisher: Eidersoft Price: £10.95 Rating: 6/10 Similar them to Paranoids but slightly better value. Title: Master Blaster Publisher: Compugem Price: £9.95 Rating: 8/10 Excellent shoot 'em up that puts the rest to shame. Very smooth animated graphics and a wide range of aliens. Title: Cuthbert In Space Publisher: Microdeal Price: £14.95 Rating: 7/10 Microdeal has a very varied quality range. Cuthbert's aimed at the younger game's player and the hidden strategic elements make it more than a quick shoot out. Title: Lands of Havoc Publisher: Microdeal Price: £19.95 Rating: 8/10 A well packaged 2,000 screen arcade that players very well but could've made better use of colour. Title: Crazy Painter Publisher: Microdeal Price: £12.95 Rating: 8/10 You can hardly call this an Arcade copy - it's so different. Crazeee! Title: QL FLight Publisher: Microdeal Price: £19.95 (Coming Soon) A flight simulator that's due for release soon. Title: Hyperdrive Publisher: English Software Price: £14.95 Rating: 8/10 The QL's official Pole Position - rather disappointing considering what could've been achieved. It's on a par with the Spectrum version. LET US KNOW... We've tried to make this guide as comprehensive as possible but a list like this can never truly be complete. If you own a piece of software, or if you produce one, that's not included here, tell us about it and we'll pass the info on to Your Sinclair's software hungry QL readers. The address to write to is Your Sinclair, [redacted].

Micro Adventurer

Andrew Pennell

QUANTUM LEAP ADVENTURES Andrew Pennell looks at two adventures for the QL from Talent Computer System - Zkul and West. Unlike Zkul, West is a QL version of a game Talent originally released for the Commodore 64. The change in processors does not seem to have been unduly difficult for Talent. It's a text only game, consisting of around 48K of machine code and compressed data. Loading is simple; you simply press RESET, insert the cartridge into the left hand drive, and press F2, and about 20 seconds later the game is loaded. Apparently there will be a graphic loading screen on the final version, but my pre-release copy lacked such a screen. Being pre-release I received no instructions at all, but it seemed pretty clear what to do - you are a cowboy, starting near a deserted town, and your aim is to find some form of treasure. I found about 25 locations but there are many more, though death occurred too regularly to allow exploration any further. West is a real time adventure, which means that if you pause for too long in thought then the action will go on without you. Some of the time this just adds to the atmosphere, by printing 'a ball of tumbleweed rolls past', but usually the real-time events are more detrimental. A common one is 'there is a bad tempered bank robber here', which, unless you act very quickly, is soon followed by 'he shoots at you', and the bank robbers in West are regrettably rather good with a Colt. Apart from the bank robbers, there are a few other entities dotted around the town, including a horse who is supposed to be a 'trusty steed'. In practice his trustworthiness is doubtful, as he has a habit of wandering off when it is least convenient, and I'm not sure of his use in the game. Its possible to mount him and examine the town from horseback, but there seems no advantage to such action. Indeed it is more dangerous, as the bank robber has a preference for shooting your horse rather than yourself, and if you're on him at the time then he crushes you as he falls. In this town re-incarnation is commonplace, with the horse, the bank robber and yourself all having 'infinite lives', and when any die they just leave a body around the place, which remains subsequently. After a long game, the locations can become quite crowded with corpses of various sorts. I think I found the location of the treasure, but was unable to verify it until I found a key, which I have yet to do. In fact, I only ever discovered three different objects - a box of matches, a spade, and a gun. The gun is the only one I have found a use for, and it does not come with nearly enough bullets - with the town crawling with bank robbers and Indians, six bullets don't go very far. There is a wide range of locations, though to confuse the map-makers some locations move about between re-incarnations. There is also a barren area that seems to go on infinitely in all directions, which is rather unfair. There may not be many objects, but there are loads of different ways of dying. Apart from being shot, which is the most common, you have to avoid snakes, vultures (especially around the corpses), rampaging Indians, and Rock Mountain Spotted Fever. It has a Save & Load to Microdrive options, though only one filename is allowed at the moment. West has a lot of atmosphere, with very descriptive locations, but its 'real time' element tends to make it too random for me - apart from shooting the robbers, there seems no way to avoid the other disasters that can put a quick end to an otherwise successful attempt at completing it. West is a nice adventure, except for the inevitably of regular death.

Dr John Malone, Veronica Colin, and Professor Andrew Colin, founders of Talent Computing Systems.

Personal Computer Games

Steve Cooke

SHERLOCK IS HERE! The White Wizard was rudely awoken the other morning by an ill-mannered dwarf clutching a small parcel, which contained - No! It cannot be! It is! The legendary Sherlock from Melbourne House has finally arrived. Drop wand, grab Spectrum, and here we go... You are in your sitting room. There is no graphic display because, to tell the truth, there aren't many graphics in the game - just the occasional 'illustration'. Watson is sitting in his armchair. You attempt to follow Watson's example, but the program tells you that it can't see a chair for you to sit in. You enter 'armchair', your entry is accepted, and you settle down bra nap. At this point, Watson usually pipes up with a story from the paper he's reading. It appears that a couple of ladies in Leatherhead have been rubbed out by a mysterious villain and the police are baffled. Sherlock Holmes to the rescue! Yes, it looks as if Melbourne House have done it again. Sherlock is an excellent adventure, bursting with atmosphere, challenge, and inventiveness. It's extremely difficult to solve, but the joy of it is that there is enough scope within the game for the player to enjoy failing in his quest almost as much as succeeding. Take getting to Leatherhead for example. To reach your destination you'll have to first get a cab, then a train - and make sure it's the right one! Otherwise you could end up at Aldersgate, Victoria, or even Paddington. And of course, you'll have to have enough money to pay your fare. What's more, everything in the game, including travelling, takes just as long to do as it would in real life - and in the case of travelling to Leatherhead that's quite a time, believe me. You can however speed up the passage of time by typing WAIT or WAIT UNTIL followed by a particular time. Because Sherlock is so complex, it takes some time to get used to. This is particularly the case with minor actions, like getting in and out of trains for example. The program won't understand 'Get into train' or 'Board train' - you have to 'Climb into train'. You also have to climb into your armchair (not your chair, please note) and be similarly energetic about getting into cabs. Once you've got the hang of it you can talk to other characters, but in a more comprehensive fashion than in any other game. Not only can you tell them to do things, but you can also ask them questions about what they know, and even tell them things about the case you're working on if you feel the information would be valuable to them. All the characters are entirely independent of you and play a much more active role in other games. It has to be said that this degree of complexity has its drawbacks. All too often you'll ask a character to 'Tell me about so-and-so' and the character will reply 'I'm afraid I can't help you with that'. Watson also has a strange habit of telling you how brilliant you are when you merely happen to be passing the time of day with him. One intriguing feature mentioned in earlier publicity by Melbourne House was the ability to send notes to other characters. This has unfortunately been left out of the finished program, but the new methods of communication outlined above are still very impressive. The game comes with a 20 page booklet of instructions and a train-timetable. The vocabulary is claimed to be in the region of 800 words and you can enter complex instructions using commas and full stops up to 128 characters long. Yes, the White Wizard can heartily recommend Sherlock. This is a complex adventure that will challenge you, frustrate you, and reward you for long after you've bought it. What's more, unlike The Hobbit, it doesn't matter a jot if you've read the Sherlock Holmes stories or not. For once, here's a game that was really worth waiting for. TKV Spectrum owners have been particularly fortunate this month, since in addition to Sherlock, Bug-Byte's Twin Kingdom Valley is now available for the Sinclair machine, Incredibly this new version is every bit as good as the Commodore original. The graphics are astounding - considering that there are over 150 full-screen illustrations (even MORE than on the 64). If you haven't had a crack at this game, then it's a must. Interactive characters (of Hobbit standard), tricky puzzles, good vocabulary and an assortment of varied challenges to keep you interested right through to the very end. The graphics draw extremely quickly, and there are a number of control options to select different location descriptions/illustrations. For those of you who don't know, TKV has you searching for treasure and, ultimately for the Secret of Life. Definitely not to be missed. KENTILLA Also this month for the Spectrum, a very impressive offering from Micromega of Code Name Mat and Full Throttle fame. This is their first adventure, called Kentilla, and it is well worth a place on anyone's shelf. Armed with the legendary sword Kentilla, you must destroy Grako and rid the land of evil. There are some very attractive (though rather small) graphics, and you will be accompanied by at least one other character on your travels. Kentilla has a reasonable vocabulary, simple input that nevertheless stretches occasionally to allow interaction with other characters, and a very good feel to the game. You'll meet some unusual creatures (well, their names are pretty unusual) and have to do quite a bit of sword-wielding to get anywhere. You'll also have to be very cautious because death is never very far away. It's good to see another company entering the adventure market, and Kentilla is a very worthwhile first attempt - come on, Micromega, let's have another. GATEWAY TO KAROS Meanwhile, Acornsoft have been busy on behalf of Beeb owners, and come up with Gateway to Karos. This is a traditional text-only treasure hunt in which you explore the legendary land of Karos hunting for the Talisman which you must then return to your starting point. As with Gisburne's Castle (reviewed last issue), the size of this game makes up for a lot of shortcomings. There are 250 locations to explore, not all of which are easily mappable, and visiting each one will take you quite a while. While you're roaming the countryside. however, you rapidly become aware of the program's deficiencies. First, the vocabulary is extremely limited. You can't even EXAMINE objects, let alone do anything like WAIT in a location. Furthermore the program does not tell you which word it doesn't understand when it rejects an input. For the most part this is a lonely adventure. The few other characters you'll come across can't leave their locations and have very limited roles. You can QUESTION a character or ASK simple questions and sometimes they'll answer you. In essence, the characters function as occasional HELP commands who will give you a hint if asked. The word HELP itself is not understood by the program. This isn't a bad game as Beeb adventures go. The puzzles aren't difficult but the game will keep you busy for a few hours and location descriptions are detailed enough to generate an atmosphere of exploration and discovery. QL GAMES The White Wizard was particularly intrigued to receive two adventures for the QL recently from talent Software. This machine is obviously a promising candidate for some impressive adventure software because of its memory and advanced processing capabilities, so I was interested to see whether these new arrivals lived up to my expectations. West is a conversion of Talent's existing game (reviewed in the September issue) and is made no more impressive by being on the QL. It's fast real-time action if you can keep up with it, but handy 128K blockbuster. Zkul is a much more promising program and while still in real time is much more a game for hardened adventurers. Your task is to find the Domed City of an ancient dwarf civilisation in which a wizard has hidden the last secret of its people. Along the way you explore the mountain domain of the dwarves picking up treasures and trying to find your ultimate goal. It is not just a matter of exploring, though. since there are problems to be solved and real-time battles with the occasional dwarf or adventurer who pops up. The game has obviously been some while in production and this is demonstrated by the size and complexity of both the locations and the vocabulary. There are, unfortunately, no graphics. One original touch is the ability to save a message when stopping the game so that you can remind yourself of where you had got to, and how, when you reload it, For QL owners starved of software it was a welcome relief to see such a good adventure to start the machines software career. Far from being a rushed-out conversion or an inferior game it is an excellent adventure likely to sell well and perhaps become a classic as the first great QL program. Sadly, the cost of microdrives is going to put a premium on QL software, so expect to pay between £15 and £20 for Zkul, although the exact price has yet to be announced. ZIM SALA BIM Finally a brief word about Zim Sala Bim for the Commodore 64. This unusual offering from Melbourne House is an arcade adventure where you use a joystick to control an animated figure on the screen as he wanders about a horizontally scrolling landscape. When I first saw Zim Sala Bim I was inclined to dismiss the program as a gimmick, but having played it more I'm not so sure. First, unlike most arcade adventures, there are some decent puzzles to he solved and the program generated a considerable atmosphere by the clever use of some excellent music. Playing the game you guide your figure from side to side and enter appropriate but limited instructions via the keyboard. Different locations have different tunes, all with a delicious oriental flavour, and although the graphics aren't exactly bursting at the seams with detail they are of a quite acceptable standard. My only complaint about ZSB was the way the pace of the game was dictated by the speed with which you could move the character about Moving from one place to another takes some time. However there are some very nice touches - enter LOOK for example and the figure looks all about him before the program tells you what he's seen. I doubt whether ZSB will appeal to hardened traditionalists, but I expect that newcomers to adventuring - and certainly younger children - will get a lot out of it. Melbourne House are planning another game along similar lines, so possibly the 'joy-stick adventure' is here to stay. Meanwhile it's worth noting that Kyle Hodgetts, the Australian author of Zim Sala Bim, is also bringing out games in conjunction with Interdisc (who produced the arcade hit Hercules). We'll be looking at one of these in the next issue. The next couple of months look like being a gold-mine for adventurers, so make sure you don't miss out on December's issue. In the meantime, the White Wizard wishes you a charmed life and keen blade in all your adventuring. GAME: Sherlock MACHINE: Spectrum 48K Atmosphere: 9/10 Complexity: 10/10 Interaction: 8/10 Overall: 9/10 GAME: Twin Kingdom Valley MACHINE: Spectrum 48K Atmosphere: 8/10 Complexity: 7/10 Interaction: 8/10 Overall: 8/10 GAME: Kentilla MACHINE: Spectrum 48K Atmosphere: 7/10 Complexity: 8/10 Interaction: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 GAME: Gateway To Karos MACHINE: BBC B Atmosphere: 6/10 Complexity: 7/10 Interaction: 5/10 Overall: 6/10 GAME: Zkul MACHINE: QL Atmosphere: 8/10 Complexity: 8/10 Interaction: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 GAME: Zim Sala Bim MACHINE: CBM 64 Atmosphere: 7/10 Complexity: 6/10 Interaction: 3/10 Overall: 6/10

Astounding graphics in Twin Kingdom Valley.

Sherlock to the rescue in this great, challenging adventure.

Zim Sala Bim: not just a gimmick.