Supersnails

Your Spectrum

John Hall 5/10

Mark Knight 6/10

Tony Samuels 4/10

Your Spectrum is continuing to scour the country's computer clubs to get the undiluted thoughts, feelings and impressions of dedicated games enthusiasts - thus providing our readers with unbiased evaluations. Any club wishing to offer their reviewing services should contact Ron Smith, Spectrum Soft, [redacted]. This month we visited the Heald Green Computer Club (which meets fortnightly at the Public Hall, [redacted], on Wednesdays from 7.30 to 10.30pm). Three of the club's leading members each played the games we gave them for review and in some cases found them so well-conceived and written, went completely over the top with the superlatives. In others, the games were deemed to be re-hashes of old ideas and evaluated accordingly. The club was formed four months ago, and has already managed to attract over 40 enthusiasts. All members are being brought up to the same standard of proficiency by the more experienced members who are running formal courses in both Basic and machine code. Membership is offered at a very reasonable rate, and all enquiries should be referred to Tony Samuels on [redacted] (after 6pm). Tony, incidentally, is currently working on a new program for the Spectrum (called Ugh - see Rumbles in this issue) which will be available from Softek in the near future. SUPER SNAILS Games Machine £5.95 Snails are being bred in a laboratory and two of them escape one of which is controlled by the player. As they move they leave a trail of Super Glue. And it's your task to trap the other snail, at the same time avoiding your own trail and that of the fellow escapee - all in an effort to avoid a sticky end.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Overall 63%

Producer: Games Machine, 16K £5.95 (2) Author: David Hay There's a crazy story about a Doctor Winkelhoff who is keeping giant supersnails in his lab, which want to get out, and they leave superglue trails behind them, but what we have here is a TRON-style grid game. Therefore the graphics are extremely simple, although extremely fast. The idea is to trap your opponent against the wall, his trail or your trail. If you succeed a door in the wall opens up and lets you escape. The two features in this game which make it a worthwhile addition to the grid collection (of what are now rather old games in themselves) is that it allows the use of 8 directons instead of the usual 4, which opens the potential of the game up enormously and the game allows 1 or 2 players to play against the computer as well as against each other. Sensible control keys, joystick: Kempston, 9 speeds, addictive. Overall CRASH rating 63% m/c.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Use of Computer 71%

Graphics 34%

Playability 70%

Getting Started 68%

Addictive Qualities 74%

Value For Money 60%

Overall 63%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Games Machine Memory Required: 16K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: David Hay Despite a story about Doctor van Winkelhoff who has genetically engineered snails imported from West Africa into a breed of Supersnails who leave super glue trails behind them, and are now trapped in his laboratory trying to escape, this game turns out to be a 'Light Cycle' grid type game made famous by the movie Tron. The aim of the game is to trap your opponent and kill him or her off by forcing him into a wall, your trail or his own trail. If you succeed in this, a hole opens up in the wall and allows you to escape. There are four directional controls for your snail, and in common with other games like it, hitting reverse of the direction in which you are currently travelling is instant death. COMMENTS Control keys: player one, Q/A up/down, Z/X left/right: player two, P/L up/down, M/SYM SHIFT left/right Joystick: Kempston Keyboard play: very responsive Colour: sparse! Graphics: extremely simple but very fast Sound: continuous but poor Skill levels: 9 speeds Features: 1 or 2 players against each other or the computer

Superglue trails in the lab.