Grand Prix Tennis

Your Sinclair

Graphics 5/10

Playability 4/10

Value For Money 3/10

Addictiveness 3/10

Overall 4/10

Tony Worrall 4/10

Mastertronic £2.99 Reviewer: Tony Worrall I've always been a great tennis fan. There I am, at Wimbledon in front of the TV, a six-pack in one hand and a bowl of strawberries and low fat cream (gotta watch the calories y'know), in the other. Ah! There's nothing like it. Well, there probably is, but I'll tell you about that another time. Grand Prix Tennis is another great game for all us armchair sporty types. All the excitement and none of the sweat. Well it would have been, except for one glaring point - the game is about as playable as snooker on a sloping table. Trouble is, the game is far too easy, yet far too hard at the same time. I found it practically impossible to keep a rally going for more than two seconds, my opponent seemed to be Lendl, Becker and Borg rolled into one! On the other hand, it is possible to serve an ace with every - er - serve, thus making it tres easy to win that game. These two poor gameplay design points make the program a bit of a laff to play, but add to that the terrible collision detector and you have a game that would make John McEnroe rotate in his tailor made Nike sports shoes. In fact Grand Prix Tennis adds nothing new to tennis sims, and as far as I'm concerned, that oldie but goldie Match Point still wins game, set and match every time.

Sinclair User

Overall 7/10

Chris Jenkins 7/10

Label: MAD Author: Garry Hughes Price: £2.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Chris Jenkins The Summer days of Wimbledon are long over, but you can recapture all the thrills (except getting soaked) with MAD's Grand Prix Tennis. It's a oneor two-player game which very sensibly includes a full explanation of the rules of tennis, even down to the most obvious ("tennis is played between two players, one on each side of a net..."). The screen design is fairly realistic, with an isometric view of the court and the umpire sitting on his little tower. The court's yellow, the players are black, the scores are at the top, and that's yer lot in terms of graphics. As usual with this kind of game, the main skill is in timing and positioning your player. Serving is a bit of an effort; you hit the Fire button to throw the ball up, move the joystick to select the type of shot, and hit Fire again to shoot. There are eight kinds of shot available: forehand, forehand lob, lob, backhand lob, backhand smash and smash. Your computer opponent masters these all with consummate ease; for you, things will be more difficult. The movement of the characters is gratifyingly fast, the ball's motion is very realistic. Extra touches like the players dashing off for a sit down and a glass of Robinson's Barley water add to the atmosphere. Basically Grand Prix Tennis is very fast, requires a good deal of skill and reproduces most of the important features of the real game.

Crash

Presentation 26%

Graphics 30%

Playability 20%

Addictive Qualities 20%

Overall 23%

Kati Hamza

Nick Roberts

Paul Sumner

Producer: M.A.D. Retail Price: £2.99 Ever dreamed of playing the Wimbledon final on centre court? Were you Bjorn to be a star? Grand Prix Tennis gives you the chance - grab your gear and your racket and get ready to pit your wits against a top professional player (human or computer!). The contest is fought on a yellow monochrome tennis court, complete with umpire and players' chairs. Each match consists of three sets, and is played according to the rules of lawn tennis with a couple of minor alterations: players don't change ends, and the score table always shows player 1's score as the first (in the real game the server's score is the first). Strokes ranging from simple forehands and backhands to complex smashes and lobs are available. Service is controlled by the FIRE button: make one press to throw up the ball, a second to make the shot. At the end of a set the players can take a well-earned break on their courtside chairs, and the interval can be extended indefinitely to act almost as a pause option - though real stars shouldn't need a rest. COMMENTS Joysticks: Cursor. Kempston, Sinclair Graphics: crude animation of stick characters Sound: simplicity at its limits Options: definable keys: one or two players