Buggy Blast

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

Spectrum Firebird Shoot'-em-up £5.95 Graphically pleasing little number from the BT software house, which has inexplicably missed being reviewed in Your Computer. Fly down corridors shooting at assorted robots, orbs and flying saucers.

ZX Computing

Graphics 5/5

Addictivity 4/5

Overall 4/5

£5.95 Firebird This is a graphically excellent 'zap the aliens' type of game, which I found very difficult to master. One of the reasons I found it difficult was that there are no joystick options. There is a choice of two sets of keys, OWOMXP for Life, Right, Up, Down, phaser and normal fire, and the cursor keys plus X. I personally preferred the first option, but, although the cassette tells you to remove all peripherals, I tried it with the AKG Protocol 4 joystick interface and guess what? it worked. Life became easier. There is a lot happening in this game, different aliens attack you from all sides, and deciding which one to try and hit needs quick assessment of the relative value of each. On my first go I killed nine or ten and scored nothing! This is a full blooded program and it is quite hard to score in the early stages - it's not for those who give up easily or want a purely mindless slaughter of offending aliens. Experienced players may find this challenge will keep them on their toes for some time. Your task is to progress through eight sectors which are variations on the corridor flying theme, finally destroying 20 Lurgons in that sector in order to cause a power reversal which will destroy them. There are a lot of things to watch, scanner, computer, life mode, phaser lights and energy, and all the while the attacking aliens!

Your Spectrum

Dave Nicholls 3/5 MISS

Roger Willis 2/5 MISS

Ross Holman 3/5 HIT

JOYSTICK JURY From their bench on high, our regular panel of jurors - Ross Holman, Roger Willis and Dave Nicholls - pass judgement on the latest and greatest games software! Here they are again - that motley bunch of joystick jockeys, ready and waiting to sift through the plethora of software to help you make that important decision! WARNING! Just in case you find our scoring system too confusing, here's what it's all about. The score out of five at the end of each person's review is based on their own experience of the game. But that's pretty subjective... so they also use the HIT and MISS system to indicate its potential as a commercial success. BUGGY BLAST Firebird £5.95 Roger: Now as years come and go, the few remaining hairs get torn from my wrinkled scalp in abject frustration and anger at the production of games like this! Sure, you can get them good ol' rocks off zapping orbital thingies, totalling heli-somethings and body-swerving round the occasional radiation-storm-in-a-teacup or, er, was it another orbital saucer? Your space/ground attack vehicle may well be splatting robotic mutant Lurgons with the photon laser or Xion phaser equivalent of a knuckle sandwich but, in the final analysis, you will still be playing Space Invaders. And that, if you remember, is where we all came in. Fiddle-faddling on-screen antics lead eventually to you guiding your blastercraft down a 3D tunnel. But then it's just a matter of zapping robots and the (Kid flying saucer! Thrills ... As we tear pages off the calendar and save for our toupees, the plot thickens in both senses. 3D graphics, programming complexities and fanciful story lines may prolong active life like any reasonable dog's dinner, but it's still the same plot and you've got to be thick if you haven't noticed.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 8/10

Sound 7/10

Value 9/10

Playability 9/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Firebird PRICE: £5.95 Want an interesting space shoot out with lots of action? Then look no further! Firebird's Buggy Blast features great graphics, good sound, multi-level play and a fairly original plot. And all for a reasonable price. You are the pilot the space Buggy, a spacecraft specially designed for an attack on the Lurgon base on the planet Endra. The ultimate mission is to fly along the central Lurgon corridor and destroy enough Lurgons to cause a power reversal that will destroy the entire Lurgon race! But before you do that, you must prove yourself capable of the task by flying qualifying missions which test your skills. After each mission, you must return to the mother ship in time to refuel and get essential repairs carried out on your Buggy. After each run, you get a Cycredit Rating - this shows your current skill level and decides which of the sectors of the Lurgon base you are talented enough to attack next. The mothership's computer automatically launches you into the right sector. As I've already mentioned, the graphics are really nice. The launch sequence from the mothership will be familiar to all of you who used to watch Battlestar Galactica on TV. The "corridor" is similar to the Star Wars trench - except it is inhabited by nicely drawn Lurgons, who are robot like creatures, and other hazards. Lots action, lots of variety and plenty of fun! My only criticism is that Buggy Blast isn't joystick compatible which means lots of finger-tangling moments!

Personal Computer News

Overall 8/10

Bob Chappell 8/10

PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: Firebird [redacted] 'Blast' is the operative word in this space shoot-'em-up game. The graphics and movement are extremely impressive, but the game has a serious flaw - no joystick option. The game starts inside a detailed mothership where your buggy is being prepared for launch. At this point you are given the option of using either the cursor or another set of predefined keys. The buggy is powered up, launched into space, and then down into the dreaded Lurgon Corridor, the enemy stronghold. Your buggy will zoom along the wire-frame Corridor under its own steam (sorry, Argon Crystal Converter). What you have to do is point and fire your lasers at the various approaching aliens. The laser sights are twin prongs that move up, down, left and right. For really mean aliens, you may need to fire a Xion Phaser instead. The Lurgons have a wide range of defences in their six sectors: cytrax cannons, helibombs, orbital saucers and doomships (most impressive), and argon magnets. As if that wasn't enough, there's also time spinners, radiations storms,reverse gravity zones, time zones and mine jammers. Alternatively, you can jump from the Corridor back into space and try to dock with the mothership. The whole game is graphically superb: colour, movement, and sound are all used effectively, and there's enough variety of action to keep you interested.

CrashCrash Smash

Use of Computer 84%

Graphics 94%

Playability 91%

Getting Started 93%

Addictive Qualities 94%

Value For Money 92%

Overall 91%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Firebird Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: P. Hibbard & D. Lowe Buggy Blast is the first of Firebird's Gold Edition games, which explains the higher price. Buggy Blast is a 3D space shoot em up of some complexity. The story goes like this: For over three centuries the planet Endra has been inhabited by the Lurgons. The key to their power is held in the Central Lurgon Corridor (Sector 8 of the game). A pilot skilled enough to gain entry to this sector and destroy 20 Lurgons will cause a power reversal that will consume the whole complex. You start, seated in your space buggy, in the impressively complex launch tube of the Mother Ship. A vidscreen lowers before your canopy and informs you of the imminent launch and the sector of corridor you will be entering. The scoring system only allows you access to the sector for which you are currently fitted and all launch procedures are fully automatic. The launch fires you down the tube and out into space, then lowers you into the 3D corridor of sector 1. The fight is on! Buggy instrumentation includes space scanners to warn of mine jammers (see below), onboard computer damage status reports, life mode indicator, Xion phaser indicator lights and an energy counter. Your enemy, the Lurgons, have developed from defective robots and are dedicated to the task of destroying all life forms. They have developed ten sophisticated weapons systems which you will encounter singly or severally depending on the sector being penetrated. These appear in increasing numbers in the narrow corridor, firing at you and wearing down your force field. The twin lasers are aimed with the left/right up/down keys, the buggy always travelling centrally down the corridor. A wary eye must be kept on the energy level, for when it is depleted a return to the Mother Ship is essential. This takes you back into space whereupon the Mother Ship appears in the view screen which is equipped with a docking sight. This must be lined up on the central docking tube of the Mother Ship. It is at this point that the mine jammers try and destroy you. Successfully destroying a mine jammer will bring the Mother Ship back into range for auto-docking. At this point the score is updated which determines whether you will be returned to sector 1 or sent on to the next level. Naturally enough life gets harder with each level/sector! COMMENTS Control keys: Q/W left/right O/M up/down, X for Xion phasers, P for lasers (or the cursor keys) Joystick: Protek, AGF Keyboard play: well positioned and responsive Use of colour: very good Graphics: very good 3D, detailed, large and fast Sound: excellent and varied Skill levels: 8 sectors Lives: 1 with percentage of damage Screens: 8 sectors and several in-between screens

'The fight is on' in sector one.

Preparing to dock with the Mother Ship.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Personal Computer GamesPCG Hit

Graphics 9/10

Sound 8/10

Originality 6/10

Lasting Interest 8/10

Overall 8/10

Bob Wade

Chris Anderson

Peter Connor 8/10

Steve Cooke

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys FROM: Firebird, £5.95 At last - a really good 3D shoot-'em-up on the Spectrum. None of that nonsense about guiding twee little animated creatures around cutesy nightmares collecting pieces of china to put on your mantlepiece. No, this game is about surviving the evil Lurgons, a 'virulent robotic life-force' infecting the planet Endra. And there's only one way to do that - kill with skill. You are in control of the Buggy, a space and ground attack vehicle armed with Photon lasers - guns controlled by the four direction keys - and Xion Phasers, which are powerful bombs. You start your mission in the womb of the mother ship. This is a very pretty graphic sequence with all sorts of colourful gizmos twinkling and flashing. The Buggy's dashboard displays instruments and readings, some of which give you useful information. After taking on some gas you zoom into the wastes of space and head for the planet. On the ground you find yourself in a special trench, dug by highly-skilled Lurgon navvies. You move along it at impressive speed with oily smoothness. First opponents to give you trouble are the Lurgons themselves. These green or yellow robots, very sharply defined, lurk at the sides of the corridor and shoot at you. You shoot them back - if you can swing your Buggy in time. Still in this first sector you have to cope with Helibombs, which hover around and do nasty things, Orbital Saucers, which come whirling down the corridor like manic frisbees and Orbital Doomships, whose name is selfexplanatory: if you don't hit them it's game-over time. The game has eight sectors in all, with more evil problems added in each one. Not that it's easy to confront them: on each run you must earn a minimum number of Cycredits before you can progress to the next sector. Once you think you've got enough of this currency you can return to the mother ship to stock up on energy. The trouble is that between you and the ship are the Mine Jammers - they hang around and frighten mummy away. The number of jammers depends on the frequency figure displayed at the left of the Buggy's dashboard. If this low - 1 to 3 - there aren't too many. If it's high you could be a long time trying to get back. On the higher levels of Buggy Blast, the player comes up against some really fearsome adversaries. Time Dimensional Spinners whirr around furiously - you've got to stick them with a Xion Phaser as they stop their noise. Argon Magnets upset your Crystal Converters: you have to jump over them or die. Radiation Storms make it very difficult to see, while Reverse Time Zones do funny things with your temporal adjustment. Buggy Blast is not an easy game to do well on: it will take considerable practice to earn enough Cycredits to reach the higher levels. Graphics throughout are excellent and the sound provides a good range of explosive noise. Control is keys only and can be a bit finger twisting, but it is definitely worth the trouble.