Astrocade

Your Sinclair

Graphics 6/10

Playability 8/10

Value For Money 8/10

Addictiveness 7/10

Overall 7/10

Max Phillips 7/10

DDS £4.50 Reviewer: Max Phillips Pick an old Queen from the history books, perform a little Quincy-style autopsy and you'll find the word 'Calais' engraved on her heart, much like it says 'Brighton' all the way through a stick of rock. Likewise, take any unshaven, baggy-eyed YS reader with worn fingers and do the same thing (preferably after they're dead) and you'll find the words 'Stewart Green, Alien, Issue 2' written in BRIGHT 1; FLASH 1 on their delicate parts. Not that Stewart's game was at all bad; it's just that it was only after you'd typed it all in that you noticed that YS had surgically removed some of the more useful bits. Enough to cause an instant autopsy on the spot. Having justly become famous, Stewart is now back with his own 75p-a-game tape, including the complete, unabridged and much-updated version of Alien. You also get a Simon game, a Moon-Rover clone, a City Bomber (with the added extra of four backdrops, meteors and missiles), a demented version of Zombie island and a weird D&D-ish adventure called Caverns D'Or (don't they drink that in Calais? I knew this joke was going places....) None of the games are exactly original but, with the possible exception of Zombie and Caverns (in which you jus' keep dying), they are all very playable. The graphics are adequate and the sound excellent. Shame some of the games use some types of joystick but not others, some are just keys and so on. There's enough in Astrocade to make it better than many cheapies but not enough to come close to the best ones. If you fancy a notalgic bash (it's absolutely aaages since I've potted a good Zombie!) then rush £4.50 to DSS at [redacted]. In the meantime, we'll strap this guy to the operating table and write 'New Ideas' all over his Hammond organ...

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Value For Money 2/5

In the past few weeks there has been a flood of game compilation tapes onto the market. Are they the bargain they seem? C+VG investigates and asks are the V.F.M. - that's value for money? The automatic response to getting anything up to 30 games for a few quid is that they're a great bargain. But are they the big deal they at first appear? Or is it case of software houses desperate attempt to make money on games that weren't successful first time round? First up is a gigantic offering from Argus - 30 games on two cassettes. Titles on the Spectrum version include Jet Set Gerties, 3D Tunnel, Carpet Capers, Meteor Storm and Blood and Guts. The list seems endless. Perhaps the best known of the bunch is Jeff Minter's Gridrunner, a game with plenty of zip and a lot of zap. And Commodore owners aren't left out. Argus has also put together another package of 30 Games for them. Titles include many of those in the Spectrum collection plus others such as the Quicksilva's Schizofrenia, a fiendishly difficult game to play. Both packages offer good value. It could be months before you finish all these games. Off the Hook, the charity package put together by Electric Dreams, offers even better value for money - ten games for £6.99. And at the same time you can ease your conscience about the many hours spent hunched over your computer by the fact that all money raised by Off the Hook goes to the Prince's Trust for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Goodies on the Spectrum include Beyond's Psytron, Blue Max from US gold, and Melbourne House's Mugsy. It also includes Elite's Fall Guy but we prefer not to talk about that. Beau-Jolly also has its Computer Hits Volume 2 out on the Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad, BBC B and Electron, price £9.95. We took a look at the BBC B collection and Amstrad. The BBC tape includes Micropower's Frenzy and Jet Power Jack and Kissin' Kousins from English Software. Perhaps the best is Superior's Starstriker, a version of the arcade classic Moon Cresta. Hewson's Technician Ted and Micromega's Codename Mat are the stars of the Amstrad collection, ably supported by Superpipeline 2, Tasket and Moon Buggy, Anirog. Remember Creative Sparks? They've been a little quite recently but now they've bought out two compilations of the Sparklers range of budget games, price £2.95. The Spectrum "TRIO" features: Desert Burner, Ouackshot and St Crippens. In Desert Burner, a fast scrolling arcade game, the lacier of a group of freedom fighters travels through the night on the Desert Burner, a powerful gun-carrying 200 mph road bike. His aim is to deliver top secret plans to the other resistance members without getting caught by his enemies. You need to be a "Quackshot" to survive in the next of the three games, where a revolution of clockwork ducks gets out of hand. St Crippens is the world's worst hospital. Escape is only possible if you can beg, steal or borrow new clothes to fool the guards who try to stop you leaving. First you must find your way through the dozens of wards. The Commodore 64 "TRIO" is equally testing with a choice of Chopper, Kayak or Merlin. The first game, "Chopper'' concerns a mighty helicopter gunship which has set Out to annihilate the enemy base. It needs a combination of both courage and skill to reach it as both man and machine are taxed to the limit. Kayak is a canoe simulation which requires first class presence of mind to negotiate the course ahead. In the third game, Merlin needs assistance in conquering the powers of evil that he encounters in this orginal arcade game. Anybody still got a VIC 20? Well grab £6.50 and splash out on Llamsoft's Viva Vic collection, included are Abductor, Gridrunner, Traxx, Andes Attack, Laserzone, Matrix, Megagalactic Llamas, Battle at the edge of Time and Hellgate. Fancy a bit of arcade fun for £4.50? Then Astro Cade on the Spectrum from DDS Software could be for you. The six games on offer are Simeon, Caverns D'Or, Bomber, Zombier, Luna Rover and Alien. The Complete BBC from Audiogenic is also worth checking out. Titles include The Chrysalis, arcade action in the cabbage patch, Drain Mania, a fairly standard platform game, and The Genesis Project, deep space action. Perhaps the most interesting game is Flip. Although it's not much fun to look at, it's good fun to play. It's a two player graphical strategy game in which hidden words must be uncovered. And last, but by no means least, Gremlin Graphics has come up with probably the two best quality compilations of the lot with 4 Zzap! Sizzlers and 4 Crash Smashes. As you may have guessed all the games have received high praise in a rival magazine. The Commodore 64 games are Who Dares Wins II (Alligata), Wizard's Lair (Bubble Bus), Drop Zone (US Gold) and Thing on a Spring (Gremlin). The Spectrum games are Spy Hunter (US Gold), Night Gunner (Digital Integration), Dun Darach (Gargoyle) and Alien 8 (Ultimate). Good fun, and excellent value at £9.95. All are well worth buying. 30 Games Argus £9.95 Off The Hook Electric Dreams £6.99 Computer Hits Vol 2 Beau Jolly £9.95 Trio Creative Sparks £2.95 Viva Vic Llamasoft £6.50 Astro Cade DDS £4.50 The Complete BBC Audiogenic £19.95 4 Zzap Sizzlers Gremlin Graphics £9.95 4 Crash Smashes Gremlin Graphics £9.95

Crash

Graeme Kidd

THE GAMES GATHERINGS There have always been collector's editions of books, records, tapes, and nowadays even of videos. The computer game industry has featured compilations from the very earliest days, but there have been a few recent developments in the compilation market, as GRAEME KIDD notes... ALL HIS OWN WORK... Many programmers began their careers with compilations of their own games, but nowadays collections of games tend to be put together by buying the rights to existing software. The tape magazines, which seem to have faded away, were perhaps the last widely available medium for 'minor' games. Halesowen based programmer Stewart Green, has leapt into the world of software publishing with a compilation of six of his own games sold for £4.50 as the Astrocade Collection. Taken separately, the individual titles range don't have a great deal to offer, but as a collection the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Simeon is a competent implementation of the classic Follow the sequence of lights and notes game which has nothing much to offer in the way of originality but should prove mildly entertaining nevertheless. Bomber sets you in the air against flying nasties that scroll across the background and which have to be eliminated. Collisions with the background or the enemy proves fatal to you and your craft - and while a selection of backgrounds can be called on to the screen, the gameplay remains basic and simple. Luna Rover is perhaps the most addictive of the six games. As the title suggests, the player controls a vehicle scampering from left to right across a rather awkward landscape. To survive, careful timing of jumps is needed as well as some nifty work with the rover's accelerator and brake pedals. Alien is a tried and tested version of a 'shoot the nasties as they move down at you from the top of the screen' game, which tests reactions and hand-eye coordination. As a stand alone budget title, this game would be a bit of a rip off, given the standards achieved on budget labels nowadays, but at 75p it's value for money rating, at least, increases to a respectable level. In Zombie the aim of the game is to scamper round the onscreen playing area gathering up goodies and avoiding the baddies. Leave one edge of the screen and your little man sproings back into play from the other side - which can lead to some hairy moments. Quite a compulsive little reaction game, all in. The sixth game in the collection is a single key entry adventure in which the player has to search a network of caverns looking for treasure. No tedious typing in of text in this fast moving adventure game! Overall, the Astrocade collection should keep any games player quiet for at least an afternoon, although the games are ultimately very simple and unlikely to have a massive impact on the addictivity front.

Zooming along in your LUNAR ROVER, one of the six games on offer in the ASTROCADE collection.