Zone 00

Your Computer

Overall 2/5

Spectrum 48K Blow-'em-up Allanson One of these games where you have to dodge around planting one bomb at a time to destroy your assailants. These include octopi chasing you round shipwrecks that look like Blue Peter badges, and later on yellow submarines and blue meanies.

Crash

Use of Computer 40%

Graphics 52%

Playability 47%

Getting Started 35%

Addictive Qualities 45%

Value For Money 53%

Overall 45%

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Producer: Allanson Computing Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.50 Language: Machine code Allanson claim that Zone 00, unlike many others, is not based on a single theme. You battle your way through a fantasy world opposed by enemies from every facet of human experience, both real and imaginary, all assembled in the computer matrix that is the zone. There are 20 stages starting with octopi pursuing you around wrecks of ships on the sea-bed. As you progress there are different nasties in different settings. Basically each screen has objects dotted around that act as obstacles, like the shipwrecks on screen one. The nasties perambulate around randomly chasing you. You drop bombs behind you and then detonate them when a nasty passes over a bomb. To progress to the next stage you must kill off a set number of enemies before the severe time limit runs out. Allanson believe that Zone 00 is the most challenging arcade game produced for the Spectrum so far and doubt that anyone will be able to master the game before Christmas 1985. A promotional competition is being run with the game with 'Master of the Zone' T-shirts and a telephone hotline to keep prospective winners informed of competition progress. COMMENTS Control keys: 5/V up/down, 1/2 left/right and 6 to drop bomb and explode Joystick: none Keyboard play: quite responsive but not at all well laid out Use of colour: varied from screen to screen, but rather uninteresting within each screen Graphics: large, but jerky and slow, they look compiled Sound: quite good 'arcade' type effect, but gets pointless and irritating, no on/off facility Skill levels: 1 Lives: 1 Screens: 20

A typical screen from Allanson's ZONE 00 sees our hero battling against wrecked sailing ships and octopusses (or - pi if you prefer).