Terror-Daktil 4D

Crash

Producer: Melbourne House, 48K £5.95 Not, you might think by the title, a galaxian/invader type game, but it is really. There's a 3D landscape and, 2D massed Daktils in the distance moving just like space invaders. To hit them you must get the dimensional trajectory of your 'battered' cannon correct. Frequently one will swoop down on you in very good animated line drawing. You get more points for hitting the swooping ones, but it's safer to dodge them. Not up to Melbourne House's usual standard and the sound - what happened to it?

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Producer: Melbourne House, 48K £5.95 Not, you might think by the title, a galaxian/invader type game, but it is really. There's a 3D landscape and, 2D massed Daktils in the distance moving just like space invaders. To hit them you must get the dimensional trajectory of your 'battered' cannon correct. Frequently one will swoop down on you in very good animated line drawing. You get more points for hitting the swooping ones, but it's safer to dodge them. Not up to Melbourne House's usual standard and the sound - what happened to it?

Crash

Producer: Melbourne House, 48K £5.95 Not, you might think by the title, a galaxian/invader type game, but it is really. There's a 3D landscape and, 2D massed Daktils in the distance moving just like space invaders. To hit them you must get the dimensional trajectory of your 'battered' cannon correct. Frequently one will swoop down on you in very good animated line drawing. You get more points for hitting the swooping ones, but it's safer to dodge them. Not up to Melbourne House's usual standard and the sound - what happened to it?

ZX Computing

Documentation 4.5/5

Addictive Quality 4.5/5

Graphics 4.5/5

Programming Achievement 4.5/5

Lasting Appeal 4.5/5

Value 4.5/5

James Walsh

MEMORY REQUIRED: 48K Melbourne House have a string of excellent titles to their name, The Hobbit, probably being the most well known. Just from the cover this looks as if it could be a winner. On loading, a stunning intro screen is displayed - an outline version of the cover, in fact. Once the whole game has loaded the screen just stands still, and gives no indication that it has successfully loaded. By pressing a key the next display is shown with the top scores in the middle. By pressing another key the game begins. If left for thirty seconds it will enter a limited demo routine. Now the introductory program begins. Because it is relatively long and merely an intro, it can be missed by pressing the appropriate key. During this routine the display becomes the window of an aeroplane flying through the clouds. Then, as trouble starts, it is possible to see the volcanoes over which you are flying. Finally, after attempts at landing have failed, your plane crashes. Next day you awake to see Terror Daktils flying in the distance. There are three cannons in a nearby valley. You drag a cannon over and prepare for the onslaught. In the distance, the Terror Daktils look like space invaders moving from left to right and back again in a jerky manner. As they individually fly at you they may be destroyed by a direct hit from the cannon - far more easily said than done. If you survive the first wave of 'Daktils then night falls and day breaks for the next day. If you survive six days a rescue plane will arrive. The Daktils have an affinity for landing on you, hence stunning you till the next day and damaging the cannon beyond repair. The graphics are quite superb, though jerky at times. The sound is good, though rather overdone at times. Terror-Daktil is a fast, highly addictive and a difficult game to master. The quality of the program itself is up to the best around the Spectrum. It may be thought of as too hard, hence not recommended for most young children. Melbourne House have succeeded in continuing their tradition with another excellent game.

Personal Computer Games

Wensley Dale

MACHINE: Spectrum FROM: Melbourne PRICE: £6.95 FORMAT: Cassette Pterodactyls are huge winged dinosaurs which have not put in an appearance since the close of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. They used to eat fish. Now at last, they're out of retirement in Terror-Daktil, and boy, are they hungry. Before the terror commences, you are in an aircraft flying over a distant land. Control of the plane is lost as you pass huge black volcanoes. The volcanoes approach like shambling blancmanges until, to the accompaniment of sinister music, you crash, and all goes dark. When the sun rises, the plane is lying broken like a squashed moth, by a winding river. From a vantage point on high, you notice that red blobs are building up over the horizon, into a space-invader-like configuration. They can be shot at with a cannon which can be moved left-right, and the range of the cannonball can be altered by swinging the cannon between 45' and 73' to the horizontal. The blobs break off to reveal themselves as Terror-Daktils, illustrated in detail, and flying at you with speed and an open jaw. Shooting them down in formation earns 20 or 30 points, and during attack, 100 points. If you fail to shoot or avoid a TerrorDaktil, one life is lost, and you must wait till the next day when they appear afresh, after dawn. You have three lives in all, and if you can eliminate three arrays of Terror-Daktils, you will be rescued on the sixth day. The game describes itself as 4D - the fourth dimension being time. Since any game not involving time would be a still frame on the screen, it's an idle claim. However, Melbourne House's use of the three spatial dimensions has resulted in very sophisticated graphics. When the Terror-Daktils fly at you, they increase in size and flap convincingly. Likewise the cannon-balls recede and follow convincing trajectories. There are some strange things about this game. First, two people called Alan and Fred have got scores already built into the high score table. Second, I found that the computer itself often launches cannon-balls, without me being anywhere near the keyboard, and it went on to get a higher score than me. A good score is over 10,000, but initially scoring is almost a matter of luck. Get as many shots in roughly the right place, and hitting something is a surprise. Skill with this game comes slowly, which is good, but once acquired, it offers no great challenge except perseverance. Terror-Daktil is an unusual variation of the vertical shoot-up theme, and it will take longer than average to tire of.

Sinclair User

John Gilbert

LIMITED TERROR IN 3D Melbourne House has taken its time in releasing Terror-Daktil 4D for the 48K Spectrum. The reason may be that the company wanted to produce a program which is up to the standard of The Hobbit but that adventure is a difficult act to follow. The game displays a three-dimensional landscape over which the terror-daktils fly in their attempts to destroy you. Your cannon and cannonballs are ready but you have to hit the creatures in the body if you are going to score. The bodies of the birds are difficult to hit when they are in the distance as they look like over-sized space invaders. The best part of the game is when the birds swoop from formation and dive at you and your thimble-sized cannon. Once the action starts you will have your hands full with birds swooping from nowhere. We were surprised to discover that you can hit a bird even if your cannon shot is too high in its trajectory. That effect is a mark against the game but is necessary as the cannon will not move very far up or down. The three-dimensional effects are interesting but at the beginning of the game is a three-dimensional sequence which is unnecessary and tedious to watch. When you start to play the demonstration mode, which is more than a minute long, it is very dramatic and picturesque but it can become monotonous if you want to get into the game. Terror-Daktil 4D is available from Melbourne House, [redacted]. It costs £6.95.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Getting Started 9/10

Graphics 9/10

Value 7/10

Playability 6/10

PREHISTORIC WAY TO GET THE BIRD! The perfect arcade game is a combination of superb graphics and a challenging game. Terror Daktil from Melbourne House, the people who brought you the Hobbit, is half perfect. The graphics are among the best that I have ever seen on a micro, but the game itself is fairly ordinary if not boring. In a place forgotten by time, says the blurb, the beating of wings heralds an incarnation too horrible to believe the dreaded monsters swoop down intent on your destruction. The idea in this game is to destroy the terror-daktils which inhabit the strange land onto which your plane has just crashed. A pilot's eye view of the crash is displayed before the game actually begins although this can be skipped if you wish. The crash portrayed is almost too realistic and in superb 3D. I found myself looking under the seat for that paper bag. (It wasn't there.) After the emergency you find yourself alone on a plateau somewhere in the South-American Jungle. In the distance you suddenly see some strange creatures grouping together. Is it a space invader? Is it a Pac-Person? No - it's the terror-daktils. Your only hope of survival in this situation is to drag out an old cannon which you find and use it to fire at the gathering terror-daktils. You can move the cannon in four directions although it does not physically move up and down, vertical movement being shown by a digital degree indicator instead. Occasionally a single terror-daktil breaks away from the group and sweeps towards you. Again graphics are superb. The beast itself is beautifully drawn and comes towards you in 3D, growing larger as it approaches. If its claws touch you then you lose one of your three lives. As for the game itself, there's little more to it than that. If you survive for six days and six nights then a rescue plane will come to your aid. The game cycles through day and night by changing the screen colour - so that's what the fourth dimension is. If you want to show off your Spectrum's graphics to your friends then this is the game for you. If you want a game which you'll keep coming back to play, then you can probably find something else to spend your £6.95 on.

Your Computer

Overall 2/5

48K Spectrum £6.95 Melbourne House Some years ago Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs made their one mark on the pop charts. Unfortunately the tune was so much like Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime that now only Keith can still remember it was called Seaside Shuffle. Terrordactyl is likewise doomed because of its similarity to Space Invaders. There is nothing wrong with the 3D graphics or with the setting. You are on a flight of Lost Jungle Airlines which crashes leaving you staring across a plain with a smouldering volcano on your right. You are armed with a tank-Style gun which you fire at waves of invaders that come over the horizon and get bigger as they move towards you. Every so often a very life-like Pterodactyl comes screeching towards you and you must avoid it or kill it first time. If you can survive you are treated to a glorious sunset and sunrise and you go on to Day 2, Day 3, and so on. But the game soon becomes tiresome, which is a shame because dinosaur mania has been sweeping the country since July when a 200 million-year old meat-eating fossil called Claws was discovered in a Croydon clay pit. Claws may have been the most exciting thing ever to come out of Croydon but Terrordactyl is certainly not the most original program to come out of Melbourne House.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 4/5

Playability 4/5

Use Of Machine 5/5

Overall Value 4/5

John Lettice 4/5

NAME: Terror-daktil SYSTEM: Spectrum PRICE: £6.95 PUBLISHER: Melbourne House FORMAT: Cassette OUTLETS: Most retail, mail order. INTO THE VALLEY... You've probably never really thought about what you'd do if you were stranded in the South American jungle, being attacked by flying lizards, and with nothing to defend yourself but three rusty old cannon. No? Well, we now have the chance to get a bit of practice. OBJECTIVES Terror-daktils comes from Melbourne House, which brought us the Hobbit, and the flying lizards in question do bear more than a passing resemblance to Smaug. You've been stranded in the valley time forgot after a plane crash, and you have to fend off 3D pterodactyls whose sole aim seems to be to... ah, land on you and stun you? Even killer lizards seem to be more user-friendly these days ... IN PLAY Once you've got through the plane crash and dawn breaking graphics - both very good - you see a 3D representation of a river valley, with your crashed plane to one side and a smouldering volcano in the distance. Up by the volcano the Terror-daktils are massing for the attack. You use one of your three cannon to pick them off as they come at you, and if you can last for six days, help arrives. The cassette sleeve claims you use a battered old pistol, and indeed you can whip your armoury along the bottom of the screen as if it was a pistol, but it's quite clearly a very large field gun. You can move the cannon back and forth along the bottom of the screen, and change the elevation of the gun, so you can theoretically hit any point on the screen. Fairly frequently one of the' little blobs on the horizon peels off from the formation and, as it gets closer, turns out to be a very natty 3D pterodactyl heading straight for you. You get more points if you can hit one while it's swooping, but it's a lot safer dodging it and sticking to knocking off the ones parked up by the volcano. If you slip up and one of the beasts lands on you, you're stunned for the rest of the day, and one of your three cannon is bent. If you can survive for six days, you've won. VERDICT The game's worth having for the graphics alone, but in addition to this it's good because it's a more thoughtful version of the invaders-type game. It doesn't move too fast, and you rely heavily on your powers of anticipation to survive.