Sun Star

Sinclair User

Overall 4/10

Tony Dillon 4/10

Label: CRL Author: Glenn Cassin Price: £8.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Tony Dillon Way back in the mists of time, a company by the name of Ocean released a game called Transversion. In the game, the player had to fly around a grid colouring lines. I always wondered what it would be like to be in that ship, racing across the lines and now it looks like CRL has granted my wish. In Sun Star you get to fly around a grid collecting energy crystals and shooting thingeys. Wow! Sounds OK. Does it have astounding graphics? Well, no, it doesn't. It has a few lines drawn in perspective to make a grid and whatever colour fills in the gap defines what is in the square, ie. blue is a wall, green is an energy pulse, etc. So, the game relies heavily on colour. Unfortunately the Spectrum cannot come up with the goods and comes up with colour clash or blank spaces. Not one of CRL's best.

Crash

Presentation 41%

Graphics 25%

Playability 29%

Addictive Qualities 26%

Overall 30%

Nick Roberts 49%

Paul Sumner 20%

Richard Eddy 31%

Producer: CRL Retail Price: £8.95 Author: The Zen Room Realising that the sun can be used to obtain something other than a tan, scientists construct 16 solar grids in space. These orbit all the suns of the universe, efficiently creating energy crystals. However, the craft that once collected this raw product can no longer do so because of the accumulation of unstable energy pulses. The Sun Star supply craft has therefore been built. Four white disruptor pulses exist on the gridwork of each solar panel. Firing at these with laser bolts makes them jump to another part of the grid, leaving behind a green energy crystal. But if this crystal isn't quickly collected by sliding the Sun Star over it, it loses energy and burns out all the crystals already collected. When ten crystals have been gathered from one you move to the next grid by passing through the revolving warp gate and firing a laser bolt into the heart of an orange hyperwarp cell. The Sun Star's energy, reduced by laser firing, high-speed travel and space obstructions such as red energy pulses, can be supplemented a limited number of times by entering the hyperwarp cell. Each time, one of the collected crystals is lost, though. The Sun Stars position is pinpointed by a global scanner and a short-range viewer identifies nearby targets. The main 3-D screen shows the grid with the positions of the coloured cells and the dangerous red energy pulses, and the position of the last disruptor pulse fired is given at the head of the screen. COMMENTS Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair Graphics: terrible colour clash on the 3-D grid - and generally poor Sound: weak spot FX

Weird 3-D action in CRL's Sun Star.