Shaken But Not Stirred

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Getting Started 5/10

Value 7/10

Playability 9/10

Keith Campbell

At last a realistic 007 adventure! The mode of play is quite different from most Adventure games, successfully recreating the world of James Bond on a computer. You are 007, of course, and M takes you to Q to choose your weapons. You then repeatedly select destinations from a list of cities around the world and the micro takes you there. On arrival you may be offered a ride by a mysterious taxi, or given clues in the form of one letter of an anagram to enable you to solve where a missing jet with a nuclear bomb has disappeared to. Meanwhile, you must save London from a threat of destruction by Dr. Death. An original presentation. from Richard Shepherd Software of Maidenhead, with authentic 'feel' of a James Bond novel. It costs £6.50.

CHILDHOOD FANTASY Adventure is what all small boys - and most bigger ones - long for. Remember all those childhood books that took you into a world at excitement and fantasy? Didn't you, like me, wish you were one of the Famous Five? Adventure gaming will take you one step nearer to your dreams. In the comfort at your own home. Originally written tor large mainframe computers, these games have now been brought to the masses via the micro. Adventures are being published in ever increasing numbers for every popular machine. An Adventure game makes you the would-be here. You move about from one location to another, examine things, pick up and manipulate objects, and solve puzzles. But all the time danger lurks and hidden enemies may strike at anytime. Your goal may be anything from collecting priceless treasures to saving the world from disaster. You become part of the story, the computer working to calculate what your actions will achieve within the plot devised by the author. Don't expect fancy graphics in an Adventure - although there are graphic Adventures. Expect words. Your imagination will provide the pictures - just like it does when you read a good book. And like a good book, you will find it just as difficult to put down. When buying an Adventure first discover if the scenario and degree of complexity suit your tastes. Games reviews will help here. Find out if the speed of the game is right for you as there is a great deal of variation. From my experience a minimum of 16K of memory is required for a decent adventure and from there on up the bigger the better. A "save game" feature is useful as it enables you to return to a game where you left it at a later stage without having to leave the machine running all night. If your computer has sound and colour these will enhance game. But for the purist a good plot is enough. Keith Campbell

GAMES GLOSSARY If you can tell a Pacman from a Defender and a Galaxian from a Space Invader you probably know your way around computer games. But if some of the game terms we have used in this supplement, or in the issue itself, are new to you, then this page should supply the answers. In it we take some of the best known types of computer game and describe how they are played and what features these games normally incorporate. So, if we claim that Penetrator is a "Scramble-type game" and that leaves you just as much in the dark about what to expect, then below there is a full description of Scramble to put you in the picture. ASTEROIDS The Asteroids came into the arcades courtesy of Atari. It features a small dart-shaped craft controlled by the player which can rotate left or right and thrust or fire in the direction it is facing. There is one further control, the panic button (hyperspace) which lets you travel to another part of the screen chosen by the computer. The enemy is mainly made up of large asteroids which sweep across the screen in large deadly groups of rock. When blown up these break into smaller fragments worth extra points. There is extra danger supplied by two UFOs. The first larger creature you'll meet fairly early on. It tends to spray shots in all directions and often crashes into an asteroid. The smaller variety is far more deadly in its own shooting and also more difficult to hit. Each cleared screen means you start again with extra asteroids. DEFENDER You can't expect to keep a finger on every control button in Defender or you'd end up in knots. The action, which takes place above an alien landscape, involves some seven control buttons and takes patience to gain proper mastery of your lone craft. That patience can be rewarded though, as Defender is challenging from the word "Go". The Defender craft can go: up, down, thrust forward, reverse direction, fire, smart bomb and hyperspace. Ten humanoids wander on the landscape and these may fall prey to raiding alien creatures known as Landers. Landers pick up the humanoids and take them to the top of the screen. If they succeed in getting there the Landers turn into fearsome mutants hellbent on your destruction. In all there are six alien opponents. On top of Landers and Mutants, these are: Pods are quite harmless but contain the small and persistent Swarmers; Bombers seed space with white bombs and Baiters only appear if you take too long clearing a screen of the rest of the aliens. If all 10 humanoids are captured, the planet explodes and all remaining alien life attacks your craft at once. Defender games usually feature a small radar screen which shows what is going on at all parts of the planet surface. FROGGER Frogger has spawned a whole host of computer games with a similar theme. This game features a frog hero who must jump across a road and make his way across a river torrent to five frog-holes in the bank. The busy road usually features live streams of traffic travelling in both directions at varying speeds, between which the player must hop his frog without wrapping it around any fenders. Once across the road, the river can be crossed by leaping onto floating logs and onto the back of swimming turtles, until our frog can enter a vacant spot in the far bank. Turtles have a habit of diving though so don't let a frog dally too long on one. Being carried off the edge of the screen (by log or turtle) also results in a note in the funeral column of Amphibians' Weekly. When all five frog-holes have been filled, the game becomes more difficult with extra traffic being added to the road, snakes traversing the bank between road and river and alligators appearing instead of logs in the river. A timer running down on each frog also adds to the difficulties. The arcade original also featured a small lady frog who could be "picked up" on the logs and offered a lift home for a bonus. Other bonuses can be scored by entering a frog-hole in which a tasty fly meal has come to rest. DONKEY KONG Donkey Kong is the strange name for a climbing and jumping game which features a starlet-grabbing monster gorilla. Often referred to as Crazy Kong or Crazy Climber in the computer circles, it has only just found its way onto the home screen. The game features a gorilla holding a girl captive at the top of the screen and an intrepid hero (Mario the carpenter), who starts at the bottom of the screen. Between the two is a connecting network of platforms and ladders up which Mario must run to achieve his rescue. Kong hurls barrels down the screen and Mario makes use of his "jump" button to leap over them. He can also grab a hammer and smash the barrels as they approach him. Once at the top of the screen a new complex is built with Mario, again starting from the bottom with a view to rescue. This time the screen features a series of conveyor belts and deadly fires which travel around on the ladders and belts. GALAXIANS The Galaxians were the sons of Space Invaders. Instead of proceeding down the screen at a leisurely pace, they wavered at the top of the screen before swooping down in batches of two or three (or more often on a solo mission) firing bombs. The player has the usual left, right and fire controls on his laser base and must take care not to get trapped in a corner. He scores double points for a galaxian hit in mid-swoop and there are bonus points for taking out the red fleet commanders, who usually descend flanked by their generals, dispersing bombs at such a rate that the first instinct is to flee for cover. That is the essence of Galaxians but with each destroyed platoon, new waves appear at screen top and their attacks become more frequent, more accurate and, all too often, more deadly! PACMAN The ghostly world of Pacman is made up of a dot-filled maze, a hungry dot-eater and four pursuing spectres. Pacman variations can be found under a whole range of titles from Vic-men to Gobbleman, Snapper to Super Glooper and many others. Most dot-eating games are related to it. The main character is the dot-eater, which travels around the maze, eating every dot he touches. His objective is to clear the screen of dots. He is hampered in this by the four chasing ghosts whose touch is lethal. The Pacman's main defence against the ghosts, who usually number four, are energiser dots. These pulse in the four corners of the maze and, upon being eaten, reverse the roles for a short while. This means that Pacman can turn the tables on the ghosts and eat them for bonus points. He is allowed only a few seconds of dominance before the usual hunter and hunted rules come back into operation. It is also usual for fruits to appear on the screen occasionally and these too can be consumed by Pacman for bonus points. When Pacman has cleared the screen, it refills with dots and the game restarts except that this time the ghosts are a little livelier and a new fruit, worth extra points, appears at this level. SCRAMBLE Scramble should have a big one-way sign on its cabinet. The screen rolls from right to left, taking the player's craft along it into ever-increasing danger. Scramble variations often contain the word "Mission" or "Attack" but there are some weird and wonderful titles about. The player controls a craft heading right across the screen over hilly terrain His craft can never turn around and opt out of its mission but he does have some control over his destiny. His controls are up and down, fast and slow and he can both bomb and fire at his enemies. The Scrambler is not usually equipped with enough fuel to complete his task, but it is normal to obtain more fuel by bombing fuel tanks on the ground and so (mysteriously) replenish his own stocks. The enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Most common are missiles which fire up from the ground as your craft passes overhead and alien invader creatures which frequently inhabit caves and fly at the player's craft. The original Scramble game sent the player through a series of different terrains with new challenges in each section. And most computer Scrambles attempt to duplicate this with a number of different stages. Scramble requires a cool head which can find the right control in a crisis, but it makes an ideal computer game as success naturally leads to new and more difficult stages. INVADERS Space Invaders started the whole computer game craze back in 1977 and most gamers know the format backwards. Still, just a brief resume... The invaders come in waves above the ground and move in rows across the screen one step at a time, firing missiles earthwards. When one row of the aliens reach an edge of the screen, the whole platoon jump down a line and return back the way they came. When they achieve their slow progression to the bottom of the screen, the game ends. The player controls a laser base which moves left to right and fires directly up from its position. His aim is to blow up the entire fleet before it reaches the bottom of the screen. Flying saucers move across the top of the screen in both directions and can be hit for a mystery bonus score. In the arcade original, top saucer scores of 300 were achieved by firing 22 shots before shooting at the first saucer, then firing 14 shots in between each subsequent saucer. Some computer versions have copied this technique.

ZX Computing

Phil Garratt

The 48K Spectrum rather than the cinema is the venue for the latest James Bond epic. In Richard Shepherd Software's 'Shaken but not stirred' you play the part of 007 sent on a dangerous mission to disarm a nuclear missile, which has been stolen by the dastardly Dr. Death. Having been briefed by M and after selecting your weapons from the range that Q has to offer, you set out on your adventure. In the first stage, you must travel the world and try to stay alive long enough to gather sufficient clues to identify the island on which Dr. Death has his base. Muggers, midgets and priests are out to get you, and you will also have to cope with offers of mysterious meetings, unidentified packages and suspicious bowls of fruit. As long as you don't do it too often, you can return to London to replenish your strength and restock your personal armoury. If you manage to find the island, you go on to the second stage in which you have to discover the entrance to Dr. Death's underwater lair. The locations on the island are logically connected (although different for each game) so you can build up a map. The sea, beach, woods and plantation all hold their own special terrors which attack without warning as you move around. If you run out of weapons with which to beat off the attentions of sharks, wolves and scorpions, then you will have to resort to brute force, which leads to a rapid reduction in strength. There is no going back to London so it is important to try and discover the secret stock of benzedrine which restores your strength. I don't remember James Bond ever taking drugs (apart from the occasional Mickey Finn!) and I'm not sure it's the sort of idea that should be incorporated in a game. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY I never managed to find the lair, but if I had I would have been confronted with a 10 by 10 room maze, displayed three dimensionally on the screen. Somewhere in it is the control room with the warhead, and also Paws, the steel fisted baddie who is too strong to fight against, and so must be avoided at all costs. Movement is by using the cursor controls, and you can also get a map of the maze, but this is displayed for just 10 seconds and can only be used three times. If you find the control room, you then face a mastermind-type puzzle to crack the secret code which defuses the bomb. And if you manage that then I think you deserve a vodka martini - shaken not stirred, of course! This is the best program I've seen from Richard Shepherd, and there is certainly plenty of it. The game can be SAVEd, but once restored cannot be SAVEd again. I think it's a shame that all the graphics are left for the last section, which is very hard to reach. Little use is made of sound and rather too much use is made of the RND function for me to be hooked. 'Shaken but not stirred' is priced £5.50 and is available from Richard Shepherd Software, [redacted].

Sinclair User

THE SPY WITH THE GOLDEN CHIP Now James Bond has managed to find his way on to the 48K Spectrum in an adventure game called Shaken but not Stirred. The game is in two parts. In the first part a nuclear missile is abducted and the player, James Bond, must find and disarm it. The first section of the game is a chase round the world, where Bond is threatened by spies, attacked by muggers and invited into taxis for secret meetings. At various points clues, in the form of anagrams, are given to the player to indicate where Dr Death's hideout is located. Once you have found that you can load part two of the game and visit Dr Death's island. You must explore the island and attempt to discover the secret entrance to Dr Death's underwater hide-away. If you find it you will find yourself in a three-dimensional maze. You must find the control room and de-activate the deadly weapon. To add to your troubles in the maze, a villain called Paws will stalk you and try to kill you. If you manage to find the control room and de-activate the missile, you must rush to London for your favourite drink, a Vodka Martini. The game is a fast-moving, machine code adventure but stage one can be slightly monotonous as it is all too easy to be killed. There are also random elements in the game which hamper the planning of strategy. Shaken but not Stirred is available from Richard Shepherd Software, [redacted]. It costs £6.50.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

DR. DEATH MEETS MR BOND Secret agent 007 comes to the screen of your computer. The game kicks off in true Bond style with an action packed scene in which a jet carrying a nuclear missile is stolen by the baddies. Your mission is to locate the missile and neutralise it. The game introduces the evil Doctor Death who is holding the world to ransom. The missile is hidden in a three dimensional maze in Doctor Death's under water lair. The maze is patrolled by Paws who is Doctor Deaths top henchman. With sheer luck or Bond-like professionalism you may reach the missile control room. All you have to do now is crack the secret code. Shaken but not Stirred runs on Sinclair Spectrum in 48K and costs £6.50 from Richard Shepherd Software of Maidenhead.