Bump, Set, Spike!

Your Sinclair

Graphics 4/10

Playability 6/10

Value For Money 4/10

Addictiveness 5/10

Overall 4/10

Rick Robson 4/10

Mastertronic £1.99 Reviewer: Rick Robson Now were really getting down to basics. Double Volleyball is a veritable dinosaur amongst Speccy games and despite its title this is an unsubtle development of the original telly table tennis. The whole crux of the game is to get the ball over the net without giving your opponent a chance to retrieve it. The clever bit (unlike doubles table tennis) is that you can pass to partner before shooting. Points are scored only when you're serving, as in badminton. Actual volley ball tactics such as bumping and spiking are only cosmetically reproduced. Catching the ball is the tricky part - the keyboard equivalent of learning chopsticks. You have to anticipate where a mystery X is going - this is the final position of the ball after it's been smashed. Suss this and you've sussed the game. Your two men, I assume they're men - it's not easy to tell I'm afraid - have forward, back and lateral movements, otherwise Mastertronic have spared all expense. There's only one screen, no progression of difficulty, absolutely zilch special effects (apart from the Morris dancing by the players when they've won) and you're left to define your own keys. Wee ones might enjoy this on a wintry night when there's little one to do but if you're really into reflex honing reaction games, then it's probably worth paying the extra for Imagine's Ping Pong or CRL's Room 10.

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

John Gilbert 4/5

Label: Mastertronic Entertainment USA Author: P Ranson Price: £2.99 Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: John Gilbert Sport was never my strong point, but Bump, Set Spike ?alias international Volleyball - is great. Volleyball is just like tennis doubles but the court's narrower, the ball is the size of a football, it's thrown - there are no rackets and you only need ten points to win. Well, OK, it's not just like tennis is it? When you throw the ball an X is shown on the place where it will land and the opponent has to rush to the X before the ball gets there. On some occasions you need to pass the ball from one of your players to another. They each have an identity key set when you select the keyboard only controls at the start. Bump Set Spike is a budget game of reflexes which compares favourably with some of the Imagine Konami titles. My only reservation is there is a way to play it so you always win - which I discovered after an hour or so. A definite drawback.

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

Ken Alexander 3/5

Mastertronic Sports £1.99 Volleyball can safely be called one of the least popular of all sports played in the U.K. That might have something to do with the fact that England has very few miles of golden sandy beaches and what small strips of sand we have are very rarely shone upon by the sun. Mastertronic, however, has seen fit to release Bump, Set, Spike, a volleyball simulation for all the family. The animation is good but, overall, the game lacks the addictive quality which normally makes Mastertronic games such firm favourites.

ZX ComputingZX Computing Globella

Overall Great

Mastertronic £1.99 Here's something a little different for sports simulation fans - doubles volleyball! This latest offering from Mastertronic's Entertainment USA range is a highly enjoyable game and the first attempt to my knowledge to put volleyball on the Spectrum. You are in control of two players against a pair controlled by the computer. It's a keyboard only game and you define your own keys. It's deceptively simple however to work out the best arrangement of keys so that you can switch easily between your two players. I had to redefine them several times before I found an arrangement that meant I wasn't accidentally hitting the wrong key. This I should add was down to my cack-handedness. To get good team work between your two players rather than just bashing the ball back first time requires a lot of dexterity on the keyboard. Controlling the ball is quite simple, when the ball comes to your player and you are in a position to hit it you press the fire key and a cross is shown going up the court to where the ball will land. Release the fire key and the ball is on its way. It's not perhaps the most sophisticated of games but there are some nice touches - for instance if you hit the ball high into the air it crosses unexpectedly in front of the scoreboard at the top of the screen. One game playing tip which is not down to my skill but rather an oversight in the programming is that there are blind spots from where the computer opponents seem unable to return the ball. If you serve on the left hand side of the court to a point just inside your opponents baseline they are stymied. Using this tactic will of course take a lot of the edge off the game if you choose to exploit it but its handy if you need a vital point and certainly doesn't detract from the game if you are sporting and choose to ignore the computers achilles heel. The animation is fair and as simulations go it's pretty representative of the game itself even though its only two a side (but as even doubles will give you a bad case of entangled fingers two players are certainly enough). For the enjoyment it gives it's more than good value for the price and seems to suggest that there is potential for someone somewhere to produce a fully fledged full price volleyball simulation. For now though Bump Set and Spike is in a class all by itself. PS. There is however one curious feature about the game. The crowd, who are totally immobile throughout all seem to be wearing white masks over their faces and the entire game looks as though it's being playing in front of a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan or are my eyes deceiving me?

Crash

Use of Computer 38%

Graphics 44%

Playability 37%

Getting Started 42%

Addictive Qualities 36%

Value For Money 39%

Overall 38%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Mastertronic Retail Price: £2.99 Author: Paul Ranson Volleyball comes to the Spectrum! The player controls two volleyball players on a court. The controls are the usual four directions, plus a fire button and two keys to select which player to control. When you are serving, hit the fire key, and a little cross moves away from the player presently under your control. When the fire key is released, the ball travels through the air to wherever the cross was. The computer will then have a go at returning it. If the ball comes back over the net, you've got to get a player to the point where the ball is going to land, indicated by the cross, and then press and hold the fire button. Once the ball is caught by the player, the cross starts moving away from the player in the direction the player is facing. When the fire key is released, the ball hurtles off to where the cross is... You can either bash the ball straight over the net, or if you're feeling fancy, pass it to the other player who then bumps it over. This is quite a useful tactic - if you only use one player, since the ball only travels in the direction a player is facing, the ball merely gets returned to the opposing player who just hit it. A good trick is to try to get close to the net and then just bump it over, this usually wins the point. The computer opponent is no slouch: if you get in the lead, it suddenly starts to play a bit better, so just when you thought you had the hang of the game, things get a whole lot harder. Scoring is simple, you only score a point if you win the point whilst serving, otherwise you just get to serve. The first team to score ten points wins. COMMENTS Control keys: redefinable up, down, left, right, fire Joystick: none Keyboard play: a little disjointed Use of colour: minimalist Graphics: stick men, mainly Sound: not impressive Skill levels: one Screens: one

The little message box in the status area rubs it home that Cameron is being thrashed by the computer - 3-0 no less. Not a sporting lad, our Cam!