Cyborg Wars

Sinclair Programs

June Mortimer

SOFT FOCUS New this month. Softfocus will be a regular feature, providing short reviews of the newest software for the Sinclair Computers. This month the focus is on the way ahead for software. Late last year, programs produced for the Spectrum Christmas market pointed the way for software in 1984. Ant Attack by Quicksilva and Android 2 by Vortex both included stunning animated graphics routines, setting a new standard for other programmers. Artic Computing has now produced Bear Bovver for the 48K Spectrum, a shining example of animated graphics, which are used in an arcade-style game. Satan's Pendulum by Minatron Computing (48K) also includes animated sequences and, for keen programmers, gives a guide to how they were produced in the accompanying booklet. While such excellent original software is being produced, software houses which cling to versions of Space Invaders and Pac-man are looking more and more outdated. The Romik Galactic Trooper and 3D Monster Chase are competent and bug-free games but do not have sufficient new ideas to make them attractive in 1984. Realistic screen displays are becoming more and more common. Wheelie, from Microsphere for the 48K Spectrum, sends the player hurtling past obstacles and through caverns in search of the ghost rider. In the program, crash sequences are very graphic and tend towards the tasteless, while in Deathchase from Micromega - 16K Spectrum - the view from a motorcycle is shown in realistic detail but the death of another rider is not depicted at all. Problems as to how players should be made to suffer for the misdeeds of their on-screen persona, whether they should watch deaths in graphic detail or miss them completely, are resolved in the new Automata game for the 48K Spectrum, Pi-Eyed. The hero, the Pi-man, wanders from pub to pub, drinking beer and avoiding obstacles. Wandering into other buildings for safety results in the telling of very bad jokes, a fate far worse for the player than any graphics representation could be. With programs such as the Legend Valhalla (48K) and Melbourne House Hobbit (48K) on sale, other adventures fade into insignificance. The Island, produced by Virgin Games for the 48K Spectrum, is an enjoyable adventure, with added sound effects and short games contained in it. Demon Lord by Javlin Software is an enormous adventure, made up of four 48K adventures on two separate cassettes. Pictures are given, in painstaking detail, of each location, but the vocabulary is small, making it extremely difficult and very frustrating to play. Computer magazines receive a constant stream of letters enquiring about software other than games for computers. Mansfield Park and Nineteenth Century England, both by Sussex Software for the 48K Spectrum, act as secondary-school-level revision aids. Their subjects are those suggested by the titles and each subject is divided into different areas, for which questions and detailed answers are given on which the user can be tested. New ZX-81 games, so plentiful a year ago, are becoming rarer and rarer. Contrast Software has produced Fort Apache, a 16K strategy game, in which the player takes the part of a general with 300 men to command, laying siege to an Apache fort. It is a game involving thought and forward planning rather than fast reactions. Cyborg Wars, by Stratagem Cybernetics, is a more complex 16K strategy game involving up to four players in an imaginary galactic conflict between four nations of androids. The game relies more strongly on the instruction booklet than could be expected from a computer program but it is a carefully-thought-out and exciting game. Three games for the ZX-81 are included on the cassette accompanying the book ZX-81/TS-1000 Programming for Young Programmers, published by McGraw Hill. Bomb Run, written in machine code for the 1K ZX-81, is a version of the popular City Lander type of program in which the player must bomb buildings from an aircraft to avoid running into them. Mazer, also for the 1K ZX-81, is a simple maze game in which the aim is to avoid the ghost for as long as possible. More complicated is Golems, on the same cassette, for the 16K ZX-81, a strategy and fantasy adventure in which the aim is to outwit the Lord of the Black Tower. More detailed reviews of all these games, together with their respective Gilbert Factors, can be found in Sinclair User.

Sinclair User

COMPLEX GALACTIC CONFLICT You will need at least one opponent, writing materials and plenty of time for Cyborg Wars, produced by Stratagem Cybernetics for the Timex Sinclair or the 16K ZX-81. A complex strategy game for up to four players, Cyborg Wars is an imaginary galactic conflict between four nations of androids battling over the resources of a small asteroid. Each player takes the role of the ruler of one of the nations and can send spies to enemy states, convert farmers to soldiers, stockpile rations, or decide to launch an attack againSt any other nation. The outcome of such battles is decided by the computer, and the ruler's fortunes will fluctuate accordingly. The eventual aim is either to establish dominion over the entire asteroid or to depose all the other rulers. The game continues from year to year, with the computer issuing a report on the state of each country's resources at the end of each year - or round. If 35 years go by without a military confrontation, the ruler who can boast the biggest population is the winner. The cassette is accompanied by record sheets on which the players can keep track of population figures, spies lost, rations, crops and other vital statistics. The fact that Cyborg Wars has to rely on such old-fashioned methods somewhat detracts from its value as a computer game. The game is in two parts and the instructions in the accompanying booklet must be followed very closely if the game is to be loaded successfully. It is important not to make typing errors when inputting your password - make sure that you can reproduce them if you make any - or you will not be able to proceed. Despite those disadvantages it is a carefully-thought-out and elaborate game, providing ample scope for entertainment for anyone who has patience and a taste for games involving a mixture of luck and judgment. Cyborg Wars is available by mail order only from Stratagem Cybernetics, [redacted]. The cassette cost $15.