Star Firebirds

ZX ComputingZX Computing Globert

Overall Good

Firebird £1.99 I well remember reviewing this game when it was sent to us by Insight and saying that it was a good game but overpriced. Either they harkened or sold out to Firebird. It remains a good game and more realistically priced at £1.99, so much so that I have no hesitation in recommending it to Zap-Em-All fans everywhere. You may have gathered from the above that this is a game in the "if it moves, shoot it" class, and so it is. Forget the insert blurb, the game consists of wave after wave, each comprising of 50 "birds", of aliens attacking you and you have to zap them quickly as they circle swoop and dodge. As you progress through each wave the action gets faster and other problems occur, such as scatter bombs! The animation is simple but effective the birds appear and get larger as they follow their patterns and you move let! and right and blast away at them as fast as you can. Just to make life that extra bit difficult they will sometimes appear from beneath you or fly along the bottom of the screen making the task of avoiding them awkward, if not impossible. Of course they are not helpless sitting pigeons, they drop bombs at you and contact with one is fatal, your five lives are soon depleted. Sound is limited to a few burps during actual play and a respectable intro tune, colour is bright, clear and doesn't clash, and movement is smooth. A range of options including joysticks and starting levels is provided and a full high score "hall of fame" is included. It is very easy to beat the scores which start the Hall of Fame, but no problem, your own sets can be saved and reloaded if you wish. A nice unpretentious mindless killing game, and I'm not knocking it, after a day of reviewing the latest mind stretching arcventure it's just the job to finish off with before going to my well earned rest.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 4/10

Sound 4/10

Value 1/10

Playability 4/10

Chris Cain

MACHINE: Spectrum/Amstrad SUPPLIER: Firebird PRICE: £1.99 Good grief! Where on earth did Firebird dig this up from. It looks as though it comes out of the ark. Star Firebirds is nothing but a sub-Space Invaders clone with absolutely nothing to recommend it. Every expense has certainly been spared. At £1.99 it's still over priced.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 8/10

Playability 8/10

Value For Money 9/10

Addictiveness 9/10

Overall 8/10

Phil South 8/10

Firebird £1.99 Reviewer: Phil South It's blimmin' amazing y'know. Just when you think it's safe to go back into the computer shop, something like this happens. I refuse to play Space Invaders/Astro Fighter/Galaxians or any of their million clones unless I'm in a small room on an island in the Pacific where no-one will see me and laugh. No, don't you start... Okay. I'm gonna come out of the closet and declare myself to the world. I like to play Invaders always have done, and always will. So getting into a new version that you can play without embarrassment is a breath of fresh air. Although this is one of Firebird's cheapest games, the gameplay is lovely and quick, the sound effects are impressive (good synth music too!) and the explosions satisfying enough to sate even the most demanding BEM (bug-eyed monster) butcher. Interesting note. The names on the Hi-Score Table when you boot up are quotes from Star Wars, as the older film buffs among you will suss immediately. Obviously the product of SW fans... ah, I remember, back in the dark ages of 1977... (snip!) I strongly advise you to buy this game, because for two quid you really can't go wrong!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Sinclair User

Overall 2/5

Graham Taylor 2/5

Label: Firebird Author: Insight Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, cursor Reviewer: Graham Taylor No question about it, Star Firebirds is a shoot 'em up. No frills, just things moving around the screen and you firing at them. It's closely based on Galaxians the ancient arcade hit that ruled the arcades several years ago (its still pretty big in Southend). However, I was disappointed. The gameplay is authentic but the graphics are very poor. The Star Firebirds themselves are dozens of multi-coloured birds that swoop around in curves and circles dropping bombs on your laser base. If you are smart you will move it. Survive long enough and you may get a visitation from the enormously large emperor bird which hovers around - blast it enough times and you get bonus points. The game falls down with its graphics. Everything is small and unimpressive which seriously detracts from the appeal. I find it hard to get seriously interested in blasting when the thing I am to blast is not much larger than a pin prick. Star Firebirds gets bonus points for being a faithful reproduction of the original acrade game and for having part of Stravinsky's Firebird suite moderately well played at the beginning of the game. Buy it only if you are an addict of the original game or have an enormous monitor.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 5/10

Playability 9/10

Value For Money 3/10

Addictiveness 8/10

Overall 6/10

Rachael Smith 6/10

Insight £7.95 Reviewer: Rachael Smith No relation to either Firebird (unless it's a by-product of Don't Buy This) nor Star Birds, this is a recreation of an old arcade machine. A very competent recreation - but also a very old machine. And it came to pass that Space Invaders begat Galaxians and Galaxians sort of begat Space Firebirds, who swoop around in various Red Arrows style flight patterns, dropping what the instructions say are bombs, though we all know what birds usually drop! For protection your titchy little ship has got an umbrella... no, a cannon and a faulty warp which operates once only as and when it feels like it, wiping out everything you encounter in your race for the top. So you blast away at the birds shoot out the odd mega-bomb for bonus points, and finally take multiple pot-shots at the big red bird that swoops in at the end. All of which is so simple on the two easier levels that you'll soon be in a High Score Table that took umbrage to my name and crashed. The two higher levels are for speed freaks only! So, the high scorers will love it, as will nostalgia buffs, and even I'd play it for a hour or two of brainless pleasure but for one thing - £7.95 is an awful lot of ten pees down the arcade. At this price it's strictly for the birds!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Sinclair User

Overall 2/5

John Gilbert 2/5

Publisher: Insight Price: £7.95 Memory: 48K Joystick: user-defined keys The phoenix rises from the ashes and a game is born with truly flickering displays, rasping sound and character square graphics. Star Firebirds has nothing going for it and uses a plot which is five years old. Travel to the outer limits of the known cosmos to launch an attack on the Firebirds. Don't worry though, the birds are so bungling in their efforts to shoot at you that all you have to worry about is getting them into your sights and keeping the laser firing. As you travel through to higher levels the action gets faster, you will be attacked by World War Two bombs and the Firebird motherships. I was intrigued to find that an artist had painted the screen displays on the inlay. From those the game looks incredibly exciting. If you are not of an artistic bent, you may as well ignore this game.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 78%

Graphics 67%

Playability 84%

Getting Started 75%

Addictive Qualities 65%

Value For Money 43%

Overall 73%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Insight Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £7.95 Language: Machine code Author: The Insight Team In days long gone by there used to be an arcade game called 'Star Firebirds'. It was a very 'hip' game to be good at and came to be one of the cheaper ways of becoming a super hero because you didn't have to spend a fortune learning how to play it. Star Firebirds is a one or two player game based on that once popular arcade game. If you think back you will probably remember the format; you are in control of a little space craft weaving your way through space when you are persistently pestered by wave after wave of weird and aggressive bird-like space ships. The basic idea is that you move your craft left or right dodging the onslaught of missiles while at the same time firing like crazy in order to reduce the enemy's ranks a little. If at any time you find yourself in rather a tight spot there is a 'chicken switch' which allows you to warp out to the top of the screen to appear again at the bottom. Very useful, but you only get one opportunity to do that on each wave. The speed at which the game starts depends on which of the five levels you select, and you can choose a one or two player game. The number of enemy ships in each attack wave is set at 50. During a battle the number of ships that remain to be destroyed is shown at the top of the screen, underneath the number of lives remaining to you. The current score for each player is given at the top left and right of the screen respectively. Each successive wave will be harder and, as the screen scrolls faster and the speed of the enemy ships increases, staying alive becomes just that little bit more difficult. It's at the higher levels that the large bombs become a real problem - they descend from the top of the screen and make their way towards you. If you can, it's best to hit them before they explode and spray the bottom line with shrapnel - which they will do even if you score a hit, but at least you will get some points for your trouble. The points depend on how far away the bomb is when you hit it: 50 if it's right at the top, 200 if it's nearly down your throat. After the first wave you get a chance to re-shape the Firebird itself. It appears at the top of the screen and makes a bee line for you. If you let it get close enough it will start spraying you with missiles. Destroying it is a little difficult because you really do have to hit it quite a few times before it does the honours and turns into a ball of flame; never fear though, true to legend it will return to pester you for the next wave. The rate at which the space craft move is governed by the level you are on, but the rate at which a bomb comes at you can and does switch between three speeds. Also, the number of missiles fired by the Firebird is likewise variable. Finally, if you manage to end up with a reasonable score you could have a little fun cracking the secret messages hidden in the high score table... COMMENTS Control keys: definable, excluding space, symbol shift and caps shift keys Joystick: Kempston, cursor type and Sinclair Keyboard play: very responsive Use of colour: well used but a few attribute problems Graphics: very good and quite smooth Sound: very little during the war but it plays a very good tune Skill levels: 5 Screens: one scrolling, 64 attack waves

Don't get cocky kid. Just because you can zap a STAR FIREBIRD or three doesn't mean you're a hero.