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Atari ST
Amiga
CBM 64/128
Spectrum
Amstrad
IBM O more

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PANY OF WOLVES
VE PICK
THE
LEADER

CLAIR OF THE
PACK
200
, BAD OR JUST PLAIN UGLY?

R-TYPE POWERDROME

TYPE
OF
 start
button

RESCUE THE HOSTAGES

SPECTRUM AMSTRAD

SPECTRUM COMMODORE Ocean Software Limited • 6 Central Street ■ Manchester M2 5NS

 SPECIALS
26 The PC alternative
Do you really want to get
an ST or an Amiga
(assuming you don't have
one already)? Could it be
that the machine for you is
actually...gasp...a PC?
ACE takes a close look at
the IBM hardware spec
and asks whether this
could be the games stan¬
dard of the 1990s.
114 Play your ace! GAME PLAY
We've got some goodies to give away to those who've
got the guts to tell us what they really think about ACE, 41 Screen Test
32 Playing games with IBM life, the universe, and games software. If you want a
Operation Wolf stalks this month's pages; R-Type
If you bought Amstrad's PC200, what would you have real say on what goes in the mag, this is your chance.
blasts in, Rocket Ranger takes [Link] what should
to play with? Having checked out the hardware, we you stake on Joan of Arc? We play the games, you
take a close, critical look at PC-games.
INTERFACE get the verdict.

36 It's a rip-off!
...or is it? Clone software is threatening the future of
7 News
licensed games. Whatever their legal status, angry The biggest secret at the PC Show was a new
protests have recently forced the withdrawal of machine that could change our ideas about consoles.
Katakis and The Great Giana Sisters. Who's next? Get your ear to the ground...

119 The ACE Fido awards 18 Previews

We've seen some turkeys in our time, but these A glimpse of Thun-
games really take the biscuit. ACE institutes the Fido derblade on Spectrum
awards for those rare titles and ST, plus other
that aspire to unique goodies snatched
standards of awful¬ from the drawing
ness. Keep your board.
sick bag handy...
The ultimate fighting
machine? Thunderblade
flies in from the arcade,,
and is due to land soon...

107 Letters
The burning issues of today, discussed by the people
94 Get smart who matter-you. Page 42: Operation Wolf - how much bark
and how much bite?
Andy Wilton calls out for a new kind of game - one
that bites back (and doesn't go woof!). 170 The Blitter End
90 Arcade ACE
After 170 pages, you need a rest. This isn't it...
84 Radiant Role-play? When it comes to 3D realism, The Last Apostle Pup¬
pet Show is something else...plus Forgotten Worlds,
Pools of Radiance attempts to encapsulate the
AD&D experience in an a computer game. Does it
SIGHT... Gangbusters, and POW.

succeed?

WffHOON Brian Larkman checks out the new picture-making

products at the PC Show, visits the people behind
Knightmare, and assesses the PC's capabilities as a
iI'iIHT
STR
16
15 SOLD graphics terminal. Kung fu

;BDtX
ms 12
1? W£SgM %
puppets pull
the strings in
iteon is
cm is £ i _
£ AND SOUND The Last
Apostle Pup¬
pet Show.
h»m» .p0, •
109 Jean Michel Jarre and
chips 127 Tricks N' Tactics
THflCO 20 DrtMQ£ 1D2 The complete solution to Starglider II and a map of
Just what sort of hardware do you need to produce
Equinoxe and a string of other hits? Mark Jenkins Barbarian II, not to mention Elite tips for ST owners
bods hxer investigates. and host of other tips and pokes.
 99 Adventures
Lancelot from Level 9, Chronoquesthom Psygnosis,
tips on Lords of Time and other teasers, plus the final
instalment of The Pilgrim's Guide to The Pawn. PLAYING SAFE?
BUY LINES The whole future of computer entertainment could depend on what happens
next. Household name Amstrad have taken no risks by launching a cut-price,
15 The Ace Card unexciting PC compatible aimed at the home market. Meanwhile, a little known
Win an Amiga! hardware firm are taking a terrifying risk with a high-power, completely non¬
Plus dozens of
standard console. They'll both want support from the UK's software houses
other free gifts
every month in over the next six months - but who's going to get it?
the great ACE There's a lot more riding on this than just the bank accounts of the two
giveaway. firms involved. The micro scene is crawling with new-age machines - technical
wonders like the Acorn Archimedes, Atari ABAQ and Flare One - that can't
quite seem to break the stranglehold of compatibility. This month ACE sizes up
the opposing forces: how does the incredible power of modern custom silicon
11 The ACE Competition stack up against the PC's safety in numbers? Is there still money in being origi¬
It's not every month you get a chance to win a prize
nal, or do people just want more of the same?
like this... Like what? we hear you cry. Look for your¬ Originality's not just a hardware issue of course. On the software side of
self-we're not here to spoonfeed readers y'know. things, cloning can mean big business and even bigger [Link] you know
your Ramparts from your Rampage? Can you tell the difference between
116
_
.
Special Offers Road Blasters and Overlandeft Check out our expose of copycat games, and
OK-you're mean, lazy, and fussy. Too mean to pay find out why the big software houses don't think imitation is the sincerest form
full price for your games, too lazy to go to the shops,
of flattery.
and too fussy to play anything but top-notch games.
These pages, with great titles at up to £4 off, were Oh, and while we're on the subject, take a look at the ACE masthead
made for you. (that's the box directly below this one). Notice anything different? In the spirit of
originality, we've got ourselves a new editor. Graeme Kidd first wrote for us
115 Subscription way back in issue 4, but now we've got his awesome experience and ency¬
A subscription to ACE puts you at the front of enter¬ clopaedic games knowledge on our side full time. Just as well now that Pro¬
tainment technology AND gives you the chance to
duction Editor Rod Lawton has moved over to work on our startlingly innova¬
recover your whole subscription charge by ordering
US Gold games at half price. Go for it! tive sister publication New Computer Express. We're still looking for a new full¬
time staff writer, by the way, so if you think you cut the crumpet, write to us
ACE PINK PAGES and tell us why. You should be over 18, know games backwards, and be able
to express yourself well using the written word. Go for it!
139 Buyer's Guide
This month's round-up of recommended titles pinpoints
The Ace Team.
the best puzzle and brain games you can buy. It's all
part of ACE's monthly service to help you save money
by buying only tried, tested, top-quality software.

148 Upgrade Guide Future Publishing Ltd, 4 Queen Street, BATH BA1 1EJ Tel 0225 446034
The machines, the facts, and the prices to help you Fax 0225 446019, Telecom Gold 84:TXT152
make that crucial upgrade decision presented in at-a-
glance form.
Editors Steve Cooke, Graeme Kidd Reviews Editor Bob Wade Features Editor Andy Wilton
151 Random Access Staff Writer Andy Smith Consultant Editors Mark Jenkins (Music and Midi) Brian Larkman

ACE goes ape with N'Gar Thrombobo, the ACE prize (Graphics) Art Editor Trevor Gilham Additional Design Angela Neal
crossword, prize puzzle, and other totally mindless Advertisment Manager Jonathan Beales Advertising Sales Executive David Lilley
diversions that should keep you busy till the next issue. Publisher Kevin Cox

165 Reader's Pages SUBSCRIPTIONS Avon Direct Mail, PO Box 1, Portishead, Bristol BF20 9EG, 0272 842487 •
SPECIAL OFFERS (Christine Stacey) The Old Barn, Somerton, Somerset, TA11 7PY,
Small ads, big business. ACE readers make deals, 0458 74011 • COLOUR ORIGINATION Wessex Reproduction, 325a Wells Road, Bristol BS4
offer help on adventures, sell hardware, seek penpals, 2PG • DISTRIBUTION SM .Distribution, 6 Leigham Court Road, Streatham, LondonSW16
and form user groups. The hustle of the marketplace in 8DX, 01-274 8611/5 • PRINTING Chase Web Offset, Plymouth • © FUTURE PUBLISHING
the peace of your living room, brought to you by...you. LTD 1988 • No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without our permission.
 N E WS

NAVIGATION
AND DENIAL...
W elsh hardware wizards
Konix, makers of the mega¬
selling Speedking joystick, are set
to release a pair of products that
should make the games-playing
world a happier place to inhabit.
Official confirmation is
available for the release of the
Konix Navigator, a joystick which
Konix claim looks and feels even
better than the Speedking. "The
Speedking is a tough act to
follow", commented Sandra
Holloway one of Konix's Directors,
Overall winner: the WIRED title sequence, designed by Matt
"and we wanted to be sure that we
Forrest and produced by David Botterell of Snapper Films.
Computer animation by Digital Pictures Ltd. excelled ourselves with the
Navigator" she continued.
Designed to fit snugly in either
GRAPHICS UNLIMITED hand, the Navigator contains
microswitch-based innards and
■ Matt Nicholson reports from the Computer Animation Film Festival should be available in your local

C omputer animation is an expensive business,

and the Computer Animation Film Festival -
computer shop as you read this,
priced at £14.99.
While happy to wax on
held in Wembley on 11th October - was dominated enthusiastically about their new
by the flying logos and flashy advertisements of the joystick, Konix are at pains to deny
companies that can afford it. Here was the Smarties rumours of a new games console
ad and the Crest toothpaste ‘Sparkle Singers’, but apparently due for launch in the
in amongst them was some genuinely inspiring and middle of next year. "Console, what
innovative work. console" was about as far as Konix
It soon became obvious that last year’s winner supremo Wyn Holloway was
‘Luxor’ had set a style that appealed to advertisers, prepared to go when quizzed, but
so it was the Students section that proved the most here on ACE we're pretty certain
innovative with four entries from the US (this is an international festival) that Nintendo and Sega will find
against just one from the UK. From MIT came ‘Cootie Gets Scared’, Cootie themselves getting a good run for
being a little six-legged creature that has been endowed with some of the their money in the console market
latest Al techniques, so that the animator can leave the creature to work out during 1989.
what it would do in the next frame. Another entry had been animated by a While confirmation for the
Cray X-MP, possibly the most powerful computer in the world, and no prizes rumoured console is nigh
for guessing it wasn’t ours!
It also became obvious that the judges were looking for something a bit
different this time round: winner of the Features & Shorts section went to
‘Technological Threat’ which used computers to generate characterisations
straight out of those Chuck Jones shorts drawn 40 years ago. An award could
also have gone to Apple Computer here, whose ‘Pencil Test’ was created
solely on its Mac II micro - rather than on the £50,000-plus machines usually
employed.
After some rumination, during which an experimental sequence from the graphics and sound like you've
Walt Disney labs was given an exclusive showing, it was announced that the only ever previously heard
title sequence from Channel Four’s ‘Wired’, by Digital Pictures, was judged coming out of a dedicated
the overall winner. And so it should be, as it shows what can be achieved in a synthesiser. And expect to be
commercial environment.
playing some amazing games on a
Konix-backed console by the
An officially acknowledged middle of next year. Software
SHOW NEWS Konix product - the Navigator,
in Artist's Impression form...
won't be exclusively cartridge-
based, and a variety of interesting
T he 20th Electron and BBC Micro User Show runs from
November 11th to 13th, and if you find the Archimedes an
impossible to obtain, clearly Konix
peripherals are likely to be
released to complement the basic
are preparing to launch a major unit. (Much more in the way of
interesting machine, a trip to the New Horticultural Hall, Greycoat
product of the console variety next controllers than Speedkings or
Street, London could pay dividends - visit the wittily-named
year. The 'console that doesn't Navigators.)
’Wonderful World of the Archimedes' section and be amazed.
exist' is set to be a thoroughly Despite the fact that the
Atari owners may prefer a trip to Alexandra Palace for the Atari
amazing piece of hardware packed console 'doesn't exist', a number
Show which runs from 25th-27th November in the West Hall, while
with custom chips that will give the of leading software houses appear
owners of Commodore machines will find plenty of interest at the
user more than the computing to be engaging in intense
Commodore show, running in the Novotel, Hammersmith, between
power of machines such as the discussions with Konix. Maybe
18th and 20th November. Further details from Database
Amiga, and will cost about as they're just working on a
Exhibitions, on 0625 878888.
much as the Spectrum +3. programmable joystick...? We
Expect very, very fast know otherwise.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 7

NEWS

ACE ON THE ROAD

M anchester. Home of The
Smiths, Granada Television
and long-standing software house
Ocean. The ACE team jumped in the
staff BMW (for BMW read 2CV) and
headed up the M6 to see what the
Mancunian Big Boys were going to be
releasing on an unsuspecting games
playing public this Christmas... and
early next year.
The official version of the Taito
coin-op hit Operation Wolf (reviewed
this issue) is the first game due in the
shops, and will be swiftly followed by
another conversion of a coin-op hit,
this time Data East's Bad Dudes
Versus Dragon Ninja (which must be

This early shot shows you the Batman ready for action. Note the window upon window display that gives the feel of the comic
kind of graphics you can book original.
expect in Dragon Ninja for the
Amiga.
confronting some of his arch enemies,
like The Penguin and The Riddler.
Expect plenty of puzzles and objects
to collect and manipulate (store them
in your Bat Utility Belt!).In keeping
with the Batman image, no-one will
actually get killed in the game.
Continuing the licence theme,
Ocean are also working on the micro
versions of two recent cult films,
Another screen from Dragon Robocop and Rambo III. Robocop's
Ninja. That's the girl taken due on the 8-bit machines just before
care of, but the big guy at the
Christmas with the 16-bit versions
bottom looks tough
following in the New Year. An arcade
in the running for the 'worse game version of the game is also being
name of the year’ award). Because developed by coin-op company Data
it's such a mouthful it's not surprising East and although Ocean may be
Ocean have shortened the name to incorporating features of the coin-op,
plain ol' Dragon Ninja. The game is a their version of Robocop won't be a Orions Belt on the ST showing the cockpit view of a strange
alien structure - should you blow it up or ask it to take you to
horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up in straight conversion, but a game that
it's leader?
which you have to work your way follows the plot of the film closely -
through hordes of baddies (male and including a confrontation with the through Rambo's eyes and have to moon around Saturn. The action is
female) by punching and kicking them impressive ED209. negotiate minefields, lay boobytraps viewed from the cockpit and you'll
to oblivion. If you're lucky you might and search a Russian camp, blowing have over 60 robotic adversaries to
be able to pick up a dagger or sword away soldiers and anything else that contend with, all presented in
to make your job easier. moves while you do it. Unlike stunning solid 3D animation. It won't
And the Ocean licences don't Batman, Sylvester Stallone's image is all be all blasting however: expect to
stop at coin-ops. If you were to learn far from bloodless, so action fans will contend with puzzles to get extra
they were developing a game based find plenty to keep them happy. weapons and equipment for your
on the character Batman, you'd Ocean's next original product vehicle, and part of the action will
probably think you were reading a looks set to be a solid 3D take place in underground mine
magazine that's some two or three strategy/shoot-em-up tentatively complexes.
years old. But no - not content with Robocop slugging it out on called Orion's Belt for development It looks like games players
producing a superb isometric 3D the Spectrum with the ED209. purposes. Mike Crowley and Danny country wide are going to be in for
puzzler written by Jon Ritman, Ocean Gallagher, who used to work with some late nights in front of their
are currently working on another, new, Rambo III also follows the film Vector Graphics Ltd (Star Wars and monitors over the coming months,
arcade adventure game based on the plot and as John Rambo it's down to Empire Strikes Back) are the men courtesy of Ocean. Perhaps The
Caped [Link] game has a. you to rescue Colonel Trautman who behind Orion. Appearing on the ST Smiths were thinking of Ocean when
strong 'comic book' feel and though has been captured by the Russians in and Amiga only, your mission to wipe they said 'Manchester, so much to
the plot(s) haven't been finalised, Afghanistan. Playing with a point-of- out aliens will contain at least ten answer for'. Tired trigger fingers all
you'll be controlling Batman and view perspective, you see things levels - each one set on a different round...

8 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 NEWS

D anish software development

teams have been making a
Rocket Ranger, and Virus. Yeah, but
everyone's seen all these games, we
strong pitch for business recently, with hear you cry. Oh yes? On the
the most notable example being Amiga?? Sure thing, bud, these were
Swords of Sodan, a horizontally¬ all full-blown Amiga versions at
scrolling hack'n'slash scenario with budget Spectrum prices...
very large animated figures. Although
actually produced in the States, FALLING BEHIND
demos of this game were up and If some of you out there are misguided
running in Denmark long before enough to think that the Danes are
anyone here saw it. So were versions onto a good thing, just consider the
ofAfterburner, Katakis, and Amiga following. No British software house is
Virus. What's going on? ever going to bother setting up in
Anyone visiting Denmark soon Denmark and producing proper
wakes up to two facts. First, the Danish versions of software. In fact no
Danish are computer-crazy or, more software company with any sense at
specifically, Amiga crazy. Commodore all is going to even ship its product out
have really cleaned up inb Denmark, there. There are a couple of Danish THE MUNSTERS RIDE AGAIN
first with the C64 and now not only
with the Amiga but also with their
distributors representing some UK and AGAIN
American software houses, but so far
PC's. It's an odd feeling to walk into a
computer store selling 8- and 16-bit
computers plus PC clones and see
no-one deals direct. With piracy like
that, it's hardly surprising. In the long A lternative Software have launched a new label, Again Again, producing
full-price games across all formats. First release is to be The Munsters,
term, the Danes are going to be left
nothing but Commodore hardware, based on the aged TV serial currently being revived on Channel 4.
with bacon and precious little else.
but you can do it in Denmark. Programmers Harrap and Hollingworth, previously responsible for
If you think we're exaggerating,
This concentration on a single Grandslam's Terramex, are leading the Teque coding team on this one, which
consider this: a good Danish computer
manufacturer has bred a huge gives Granpa, Herman, Lilly, and Eddie the chance to flex their limbs in an
magazine sells around 20000 copies.
community of enthusiasts, all working arcade-style environment.
A good game in Denmark sells...wait
on the same machines. The result? A for it...around 200 copies. No prizes for
Again Again will also be producing a game written by Durell, of Combat
vast network of...gulp...pirates. guessing why...
Lynx fame, for which story see opposite.
And that's the second thing you While ACE sampled the Danish
Operation Hormuz is an aircraft carrier scenario set in the Middle East
notice in Denmark - all those games where you must destroy 7 enemy bases using the FI 6 planes at your disposal.
beer and chatted with the hackers,
you've heard about but haven't yet In addition to dodging the anti-aircraft missiles, there are also opportunities for
one thing emerged quite clearly. None
been released in the UK are up and air-to-air combat. The game will be released for Spectrum, Amstrad, C64, PC,
of them thought they were doing
running in everybody's bedrooms in anything wrong - on the contrary, they
and ST later this year. If it's as good as Combat Lynx was in its day, it should be
pirated versions. There's nothing worth watching out for...
were quite proud of their efforts - and
secret about it - just check out any all of them blamed the Danish
old classified ad column (like the one Government, who put a 200% import
shown here, taken from a well-known tax on software and other items,
Danish newspaper) and you'll see
dozens of ads for pirated software at
making the real thing virtually
unaffordable.
DOMARK GET ATARI COIN-OPS
absurd prices - often as low as £1, Under those circumstances, it's
including the disk!
So it was that we saw Swords of
difficult not to be, at the very least,
understanding...and it's certainly NOT
T he terrible twins hjave scooped
a very impressive licensing
the-cash-now-chums app-roach.
So, stand by for Vindicators,
Sodan demoed, plus the other titles difficult to guess why these same lads deal with Atari, giving Domark the Zybots, Toobin, Dragonspirit, and
mentioned above - fully playable are looking for other countries to rights to produce all Atari's coin-op APB. Coin-op freaks will have already
versions of Katakis, Afterburner, publish their games in! titles over the next three years. That read up on the arcade versions of the
could mean as many as twenty big first three titles in ACE - and will

These ads come from a

Star Wars and The
releases to follow know that they're not to be sneezed
Amiga, Infocom adventures, aiie 30 pA
well-known Danish disk., m. manual disk, kr. 225,-. Empire Strikes Back. at. Dragonspirit and APB have
newspaper and show *97 06 2124 72 How come Domark got the job?
Amiga, Pac. mania. Street S. Basketb., excellent reputations as well, and
what's available. The Star Goose, Turbotracks, Menace Mega After all, us games players are Domark plan to release at least
prices are in Danish T., Cybemoid, Summer OL, Spider Tronic,
Netherworld, Nebulus, Bundesliga Man., accustomed to seeing coin-op titles another three titles in addition to the
Kroner (about 12 to
Rocket R., Zynaps, 25,-/stk. incl. disk. being auctioned off to the highest
the £). Pirates even 06 44 55 55
above before the end of next year. All
offer subscriptions to bidders, with little attention paid to the the games will be put out under the
customers, so they Amiga, Rocket Ranger,Summer OL,Virus,
Katakis,Platoon,Major M, Whirligig,Down probably quality (or lack of it) of the new Atari Tengen label, recently
get a whole series at the Trolls,BoB Moran. Ring for ny- final release.
of the latest games hedsliste. Garanti pi spillene. Henv. after
- often downloaded kl. 18:00. Kr. 20,-/stk. incl. disk. According to the Do of Domark
over the phone line
direct from certain dirty
databases' in the
^Mn-

Rp iett®
05 22 02 56
Amiga: nye spil, progr., kr. 25,-, incl. dis-
06 43 39 30
C* 81 Amiga: synops, major motion, rocket ran¬
(Dominic Wheatley), it's all down to
Atari's desire for a long-term
TEIMGEIM
ger, bomb jack, the three stooges, alien relationship - which could mean that established in the States to handle
States.' V syndrom, volleyballsimuJator, platoon,
Vpogieboy, incl. disk, kr. 25,-/stk. the big arcade companies are at last the company's coin-op conversions.
V 07 52 32 47 paying serious attention to us
;e: Bomb Jack, Minigolf, Zynaps, In- Since The Empire Strikes Back
V. Alien Syndrom, Attack on Lon- gamesters at home, rather than wasn't too bad as coin-op
kr. 20,-/stk. 08 25 68 69
* *^naer^ Platoon, Major simply off-loading their titles onto the conversions go, this deal looks like
market in a devil-may-care, give-us- being a Good Thing for all concerned.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 9

 SNIPPETS
• UP AND COMING TITLES FOR YOUR MICRO
players choose an army then design animated enemies and boobytraps,
DARK FUSION
the terrain over which battles are to the quest involves finding and
Gremlin
be fought. Could prove a real assembling the parts of a magic
Spectrum £7.99cs £12.99dk
challenge to Universal Military medallion and then confronting an
C64 £9.99cs £14.99dk
Simulator, but then UMS II is on the evil dragon who is the cause of all
Amstrad £9.99cs £14.99dk
way so wargamers will have to wait the problems in the land.
This scrolling shoot-em-up pits you
while the two programs fight it out... Dragonslayer should be in the
up against a host of alien attack
shops at the start of January.
craft and gun emplacements.
Survive the gauntlet of fire and you
ESPIONAGE DUGGER
Grandslam Linel NAVY MOVES
have to fight the monster from the
Atari St £19.95dk Amiga £29.95dk Dinamic
Pit of Despair before facing the
Amiga £19.95dk Atari ST £24.95dk Spectrum, C64, Amstrad,
agonising decision of whether to
PC £19.95dk Herbie Stone is back. In his latest Atari ST, PC
fuse lifeforms with your vanquished
Spectrum £8.95cs £14.95dk adventure, the star of Crack is in a (all prices to be announced)
foe or face the next challenge
alone. Watch out for Dark Fusion in
Amstrad £8.95cs £14.95dk desperate race to catch the
C64 £8.95cs £14.95dk stonecrushers and dragons who As the name suggests, this follow
early December.
MSX £8.95cs terrorise his underground lair. To up to Army Moves is set in and
This one to four player board game defeat the marauders, he has to around the ocean. Starting out in a
BUTCHER HILL
conversion takes you into the attach his inflator to the monsters dinghy, you have to jump waves
Gremlin
devious world of industrial and pump them up until they go pop. and avoid aquatic motorbikes
Spectrum £7.99cs £12.99dk
espionage. The playing area Look out for Herbie in the New Year. before donning scuba gear to
C64 £9.99cs£14.99dk
represents the World's capitals, penetrate the enemy base Pinch a
Amstrad £9.99cs £14.99dk
airports, deserts and so on, and DRAGONSLAYER mini-sub, navigate another
Atari ST £19.99dk
each player has to rush around Linel underwater cavern crammed with
Amiga £19.99dk
collecting micro-films that contain Amiga £29.95dk killer octopi and you're onto the
A three-part action game due 'real
details of The Ultimate Weapon. A Atari ST £24.95dk second load. The aim of the mission
soon now', Butcher Hill begins in an
really nasty player could forget (provisional prices) is to capture and destroy a nuclear
inflatable dinghy. Travelling deep in a
about the micro-films and Despite the title, this arcade submarine, and the second stage
jungle, you need to collect supplies
concentrate on bumping off enemy adventure has no relationship with takes place in traditional arcade
and ammunition while avoiding mines
agents. If the dangerous world of the classic books. Featuring some adventure style amongst the
and attacks from enemy aircraft.
Smiley and his people gives you a 600 screens and over 50 fully- platforms and ladders of the sub.
Then a jungle maze full of mantraps
thrill, watch out for this one... Wonder if Dinamic will have a
and enemy soldiers has to be
available soon. gorgeous, pouting frogman on the
negotiated before the final showdown
cover of this one?
takes place in a jungle village.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WAR:
JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE PART 1 ANCIENT BATTLES
OF THE EARTH CCS

Soft Gold
Spectrum £14.95cs £14.95dk
Atari ST £19.99dk Amstrad £14.95cs £19.95dk
Amiga £24.99dk PC £24.95dk
Ancient battles is a one or two
PC £19.99dk
player wargame from the author of
C64 £14.99dk
Arnhem and Vulcan, [Link], that
Based on the Jules Verne book, this
simulates pitched battles in ancient
arcade adventure requires you to
times. Armies from the earliest
travel to the Earth's core and return
times up to the fall of the western
alive. Falling rocks, giant
Roman Empire are offered, and
mammoths dangerous pterodactyls
SPITTING IMAGE
and sea snakes are just a few of the
Domark
perils awaiting the intrepid explorer
Spectrum £9.95cs £ 14.95dk
-zut alors!
C64 £9.95cs £12.95dk
Amstrad £9.95cs £14.95dk
THE MUNCHER
Atari ST £19.95dk
Gremlin
Amiga £19.95dk
Spectrum £7.99cs £12.99dk
Hands up who remembers
C64 £9.99cs £14.99dk
Domark's old game called Splitting
Amstrad £9.99cs £14.99dk
Images? You know, the one they
First billed as T-Wrecks, Muncher is
renamed Split Personalities? Well,
a modified version of a program
now Domark are set to release the
Gremlin were planning to release
official Spitting Image game starring
before they signed a deal with the
some of those wacky puppets. This
manufacturers of Chewits. Now the
potentially hilarious licence has to
cute monster from the Chewits TV
be one of the strangest yet for a
ads is the hero and the action takes
computer game. The Walking
place in Japan. Explorers have stolen
Circles (ex Design Design) crew are
your eggs, and you want them back..
putting the finishing touches to the
A real gobstopper of a game.
game as we write, so expect to see

Muncher it in the shops before Christmas.

10 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 1. Employees of Future Publishing
Infogrames, and their families are
eligable for entry
2. The closing date is 1st Decembei
3. The decision of the judges is final
correspondence will be entered ii
4. Only one entry per househol

5. No purchase of ACE magazine

I necessary and photocopies of t

entry form are acceptable.

simple - capture the enemy...and lagRber for us to contact you

survive! Remember - there will be ^^^thfday if possible). Then
The first two prizewinners will other readers and journalists from answer the three questions
spend an action packed weekend rival magazines taking part too, correctly before posting your
(early in the New Year) with a so ACE expects every man (or entry to ACE INFOGRAMES
member of the ACE editorial team woman) to do his (pr her) duty! COMPETITION, 4 QUEEN STREET,
on a private estate in war-torn At the end of the battle, the BATH. BA11EJ to arrive not later
Herefordshire. Why? To shoot war-weary troops will be taken than 1st December We’ll pick 12
people, that's why! back to the hotel by luxury coach correctly-completed forms at
The £300-per-head weekend to change and ‘freshen up* before random - the first two winners
starts on the evening before the boarding the coach again and will be off to fight for the honour
fighting with a sumptuous dinner. being whisked to a magnificent of ACE early next year, while ten
Then it's off to a hotel for a good moated manor. A six- course more winners collect the game of
night's kip before an early break¬ banquet that includes carp, veni¬ their choice. Go for it!
fast and briefing with John 'lofty' son and grouse, all washed down
Wiseman - one of the three ex- with lashings of cider follows. MPtH :
SAS servicemen who'll also be After the meal, Lofty Wiseman
taking part. Uniforms will be de-briefs the troops and show the
hhhHh
issued before the exclusive group video of the day’s events - just
of twenty are split into 'Hit like Action Service, in fact. ENTRY FORM Tick the correct answer to

Squads' and airlifted, by Everyone then gets a signed copy each of the three questions

helicopter, onto the estate. Each of The SAS Survival Handbook below:

group is then set three tasks and before returning to the hotel for a
by avoiding guerilla forces and a well earned rest. 1. The SAS motto is:

whole range of pyrotechnics - It’s going to be |ough out a. Never Say Never Again

from simulated napalm bombs to there, and only the bravest will b. Who Dares Wins

thunderflashes - the group must survive so get in training now, c. Geronimo!

avoid capture and complete their whilf there's still time.

tasks, watted at all times by In addition to the two main 2. The Infogrames logo is:

marshalls. 11 prizes, ltfS|N|pf either Action a. A bat

Betweehi and 2pm everyone Service or Hostages are available b. An armadillo

meets up fotiiull survival luncip for runners-up! c. A bullfrog

before being tfcwn the merits of

man-traps, mines and basic sur¬ 3. In Hostages, your aim is to

vival techniques. Now fully a. Blow up a building

trained, the group then gets the WHAT YOU HAVE TO b. Defuse a bomb in an

opportunity to put new-fpund DO... Embassy

skills to the test in a pitched bat¬ c. Rescue some hostages

tle amidst an enormous barrage Just fill in the form with your age,
of pyrotechnics. The objective is name and address (and telephone
 Ten Olympic events include Your plane has ditched on a
Long Jump, Shotput, High Jump, ®T\m From the SNK stabli
mountainous plateau
100m Sprint, 400m, 110m Hur¬
somewhere in deepest - l-J !8‘ E the coin-op smash I
dles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin
and 1500m. You will need all Tibet. You and your now for your home
your skills to build on what you companions are alive. A micro. This multi¬
hope was, an impressive work¬
out, and, as is necessary for all
large shape moves toward level, vertically
you, you rub your eyes in scrolling arcade
top flight athletes, your judge¬ ATTEMPT 2
disbelief; a Dinosaur! -
ment to select the most effective thrillerthrows you
equipment for each event is now where are you ... and
vital - a decision which can win when? Stunning,
deep into the jungl<
or lose you a place on the monochromatic 3D and ruined cities of
podium. This isn't just another nation held in the g
graphics and 4 way
sports simulation, this is a Daley
Thompson 'event' where all his scrolling, give that '50's of a cruel oppressor
talent and humour burst through cinema mood as you learn Freedom is your air
to make a thrilling and entertain¬ not only to survive, but
ing game play for all the family. . . . Guerrilla War is
also that your companions
Go for the Olympic Challenge!
are not all they first
the means!
seemed!
© 1988 Ocean Software '
5HSG51
innr ii

6 Central Street • Manchester • M2 5NS • Tehone

 Kli
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IFIRIOIMI
 lTARI ST - £24.99. AMIGA - £24.99
COMPATIBLES - £29.99
SPEEDBALL-TOTAL ACTION,
TOTAL AGGRESSION-THE
ml ULTIMATE SPORT FROM THE
BITMAP BROTHERS.
ipPEEDBAll IS FAST, FURIOUS
"A AND GRAPHICALLY VERY
STYLISH." COMPUTER GAMESWEEK 94%.

Headway House, 66-73, Shoe Lane, London, EC4P 4AB. Tel: 01 -377 4645 Fax: 01 -583 3494 Telex: 265451 MONREF G
 ACE CARD

THE DECODER PROGRAM

This short program listing will DECODE the 4-letter codes printed below next to the
prizes. It turns each code into a five-digit number such as the one printed on your ACE
card. All you have to do is type-in the program using the instructions for your computer
printed below.
Then RUN the program. It will ask you to input each of the prize codes in turn
and will then reveal on screen the winning numbers. If your number comes up, YOU
WIN AN AMIGA!
Has your ACE card come up trumps this month? There are 25 great prizes.
CAN IMMEDIATELY CLAIM YOUR PRIZE!
If you are unable to get the program to work, a list of the winning numbers, cor¬
rectly decoded, may be obtained by sending a stamped addressed envelope to:
ACE November winners list, 4 Queen Street, Bath BA11EJ For everyone who’s received a free ACE
card (if not, see below on how to get one),
C64, CPC, ST, AMIGA version
here's another great opportunity to win
10 FOR A=1 TO 28:INPUT "Code";B$
prizes.
20 B=0:FOR C=1 TO 4:B=B*26
Using the program listed on the right,
30 D=ASC(MID$(B$,C,1))
just type in the 28 new 4-letter codes print¬
40 IF D>90 THEN D=D-32
ed on this page. If the program converts
50 B=B+90-D:NEXT C:PRINT "Winning
one of them into your personal number,
Number is";B:NEXT A
you’re a winner!!

SPECTRUM version
10 FOR A=1 TO 28:INPUT "Code";B$
20 LET B=0:FOR C=1 TO 4:LET B=B*26 WE WANT A WINNER!
30 LET D=CODE B$(C TO) Note that we are now printing FOUR
40 IF D>90 THEN LET D=D-32
winning codes for the ACE card. If the
50 LET B=B+90-D:NEXT C:PRINT "Winning Num¬
owner of the 1ST CLAIM code hasn't claimed his prize by
ber is";B:NEXT A
the closing date it goes to the owner of the 2ND CLAIM code. If
he hasn't claimed his prize by then it goes to the owner of the 3RD CLAIM
TYPING IN THE PROGRAM code...and so on. Should the 1st Claim owner claim his prize, the owners of the 2nd,
SPECTRUM 3rd and 4th claim codes automatically qualify for one of our SECOND PRIZES.
48K: Power on, and type the Spectrum listing in as shown, pressing ENTER at the
end of each line. To get the word CODE in line 30, hold down caps shift and symbol
shift keys together and press the letter I key. When you've typed all five lines in cor¬ NEW PROGRAM!
R (for RUN) followed by ENTER. Now type in the codes one at a time,
rectly, press
If you're a long-standing ACE card-holder, you should make sure you use the list¬
pressing ENTER after each one: the program will stop after you've typed in all 25
codes. ing entered in this magazine and not one you may previously have SAVEd. This is
because we have to make changes to the program on a regular basis to accomo¬
128K: Select 128K BASIC mode from the start-up menu and type in the Spectrum list¬
ing as shown, hitting ENTER at the end of each line. Type RUN, hit the ENTER key date the large numbers of people entering the ACE Card scheme each month.
again and type the codes in as for the 48K Spectrum above.

C64/128
Type the listing in as shown, hitting the RETURN key at the end of each
line. Type RUN (Don't use the RUN/STOP key), hit RETURN and then type
the codes in one after the other.
LOOK AT THESE PRIZES!
AMSTRAD CPC
RETURN key (6128) or the larger of the two
Type the listing in as shown, hitting the
ENTER keys (464 or 664) at the end of each line. Type RUN and hit RETURN or the ONE 1 St PRIZE: AMIGA + COLOUR MONITOR
large ENTER key again - don't use CONTROL and the small ENTER key here - and
1st claim WMFD 2nd claim WAXD 3rd claim ZTTZ 4th claim XIHY
type the codes in one after the other.

ATARI ST
Put the LANGUAGE disk in the drive and switch the ST on. Double-click first on the FOUR 2nd PRIZES: £50 of software - chosen from the ACE
drive A icon and then on the [Link] icon to boot Basic. Type EDIT and press the Special Offer pages
RETURN key. Now type the listing in, hitting RETURN after each line, and press the
F10 key when you've typed all five lines in. Now type RUN, press RETURN again, and
The winning codes: YSEJ • XCPV • UQLP • UIBX
type the codes in one at a time.

AMIGA TEN 3rd PRIZES: £25 of software - chosen from the ACE Special Offer
Switch on, put your 'Workbench' disk into the drive and wait for the desktop to appear. pages
Now put your 'Amiga Extras' disk in the drive, double-click on the EXTRAS icon and
then double-click on theAMIGA BASIC icon. Type the listing in as shown, hitting The winning codes: YXHH • YVIO • YEXP • VXIQ • VUCF • WEGZ • VHQM
RETURN after each line, and then click on the BASIC (rather than the LISTING) win¬ • VYBF • XMOS • VPVJ
dow. Type RUN, hit RETURN and then type the codes in one at a time.
TEN 4th PRIZES: A year's free subscription to ACE magazine
OTHER MACHINES
The 'C64, CPC etc' listing is standard Microsoft Basic, so it ought to work on most
The winning codes: YMUE • VCAH • XJDV • WXTB • WNAP • WEJE • ZKBG
micros. If you can't get it to work on yours, write to us for a list of winners — details of • WFZT • XYES • YAAZ
this are printed above.

RULES
[Link] promotion is open to everyone with the exception of employees of Future Pub¬
lishing Ltd and anyone involved in the distribution or retailing of Advanced Computer HOW TO CLAIM A
Entertainment magazine.
PRIZE HOW TO OBTAIN AN
2.0wnership of the ACE card is limited to one per household.
If you are one of the winners, you may claim your prize simply by posting us your ACE CARD
3. Each four-letter code printed in the magazine corresponds to a winning 5-digit num¬
ACE card together with a note saying which prize you are claiming (and from which If you missed the April issue of ACE, you may obtain an ACE card
ber on one of the ACE cards.
issue of ACE). free of charge by sending us a stamped self-addressed envelope
4. The codes must be correctly decoded using the program printed each month in this
If your prize is for software, list carefully the software you would like from the together with a signed statement saying that neither you nor anyone
magazine.
selection printed in the ACE Reader Offer pages (115-118). else in your household already owns an ACE card. Apply to:
5. Claims for prizes must be received by first post on the closing date at the latest. The
Assuming your claim is valid, we will forward your prize and return your card within ACE CARD REQUEST. 4 Queen St. Bath BA11 EJ
value of any unclaimed prizes will be carried forward to future issues.
28 days (probably much sooner).
[Link], due to a production error, more than one person claims a single prize, the publish¬ (This offer valid while stocks last).
ers reserve the right to divide the prize between the claimants. Post to: ACE CARD PRIZE CLAIM, 4 Queen Street,
[Link] the event of any dispute, the decision of the publishers is final. Bath BA11EJ Closing date for claims December 3rd 1988

Advanced Computer Entertainment 15

 1 ' ft | vou juut uur
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1-4.r «.» < * j ' *7 'v7*i«aMaE«i*v - *• * , / » V X J '•;>•• •> •,; . * -
11 Screen shots from various formats.
vx ■ i« • 7, • ^iiur• -*i - r\; *. % -■ i4 x' s' Vm.t im r*m*»k
’ \'1t lv, 1I Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd., Alpha House 10 Carv
; '• | * 7;••':
'..V* * V : ' V - / . ' . IM-4 ■ &,y V ' .
 F SPORTING POWER ^e^ER'S

Ho'on^®" ssopersW”^cornmonP°drctrt-,0n-
Soccer
e„«[Link]
s sw str,keirieain
. n„\ tean «'ea°!,d
and troin'°9:
rra ve-
sever '6^
iw vwr dS?«"' si,o£i° rS»' «n",'<’
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Mg'SS cosset
11 'e hai» cu* .-celt to
£9 dfeV
gjS» prove youralert? 99 d*
^nUv °^e° <,9 ^<14.99^ enthro"*n9 _Q 99 cassette
cosset <**
CB*64nnC§5** ^;f£l2.99 d$
,.-
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10 Carver Street. Sheffield SI 4FS. Tel: 0742 753423

 REVIEWS

AFTERBURNER • Activision
Take to the skies in your F-14 Tomcat and dog¬
fight your way through stage after stage of enemy
territory. Rip into the enemy fighters with your Vul¬
can Gun or lock on to them and loose off a mis¬
sile. You'll hardly have time to think as you bank
and dive your way through danger - it's action all
the way here folks!

(Right) C64 -
Bingo! that's one
down, several
thousand more to
go!

(Left) Spectrum -
Banking to avoid
the enemy who
come at you from
in front and behind.

The games are getting hot. ACE takes its monthly look at the products that software houses will be tempting us
with in the near future. Let's hope they turn out to be crackers and not turkeys...

CHRISTMAS
IS COMING!
TOTAL ECLIPSE
• Incentive

The year is 1930, the setting is Egypt and your

mission is to stop the curse of the sun god Ra
being triggered by the moon that is due to pass
between the Sun and Earth. You have two
hours to crack the problem. Armed with just a
revolver, you'll need quick reactions, cunning
and a full water bottle to avoid the curse being
activated. This is the third Incentive release to
feature the Freescape system and if the other
Freescape game, Driller and Dark Side, are
anything to go by, this one is going to be a hot
contender.

Spectrum - that's your bi-plane parked

outside the pyramid at the start of the
game.

944 TURBO CUP • Loriciels

As Loriciels have recently started sponsoring the Porsche 944 Turbo driven by top French racing
driver Rene Metge, they've got together with the great man himself and are currently developing a
racing game based on the great French racing event. Turbo Cup features several circuits which,
Loriciels claim, are as authentic as possible. As all the cars are the same in the real race, it’s driv¬
ing skill that makes a winner, and the same is going to be true in the game.

18 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 RE VI

F-16 COMBAT PILOT Spectrum - viewing the action from

behind as you weave between tower THUNDERBLADE
• Digital Integration blocks - not dodging the flak this time! • [Link]
Going head-to-head with Falcon this winter will be Following their success with Out Rifh last Christ¬
Dl's combat/flight sim based on the American F- mas, [Link] are hoping to do the same again
16 fighter. Although the game will have a quick- this year with home micro versions of the smash
start option, serious pilots will be assigned to the Sega coin-op Thunderblade. You're piloting an
Tactical Fighter Training Squadron where they'll attack helicopter through several stages of hostile
be assessed in five main operations areas. Grad¬ territory, with the view of the action changing with
uate, and you are assigned one of eight the stage. Sometimes your view is from directly
squadrons and each squadron is responsible for above, sometimes it's from behind. Get your joy¬
sorties within their operations area. The game is stick arm and trigger finger in shape now, because
due for release on the ST and PC. this one promises to test even the toughest!

Looking forwards on the ST as you come ST - viewing the action from above as you
into land. dodge the flak and inflict the damage.

Looking over your right shoulder as you

bank to fly over the airfield.

WEIRD DREAMS • Rainbird FALCON • Mirrorsoft

Lying comatose in a hospital bed, you drift helplessly into the strange world of your subconscious. In the
One of the best ever PC and Mac combat/flight
Dali- esque landscape, everyday objects become distorted and nightmares come to life. Weird is an accu¬
sims is being converted to ST and Amiga.
rate description of the environment in the game, so the sooner you can solve the intricate and imaginative
Added features include improved ground
puzzles and return to the real world, the better.
scenery and moving ground targets. The game
contains some 12 missions and even gives the
Andy Wilton on a good day perhaps?
player the chance to dogfight with up to three
MiGs. Remember, Falcon's the game adopted
by the Pentagon to train pilots in 'situational
awareness and BVR combat, so it has go to be
good...

ST - looking over your left shoulder as

you taxi onto the runway.
From the SNK stable, the coin-op smash hit now for your into the jungles and ruined cities of a nation held in the
home micro. This multi-level, vertically scrolling arcad% grip of a cruel oppressor. Freedom is your aim ...
thriller throws you deeply Guerrilla War is the means! c.x .

VJ \ T\T\AlS
Jh ]lid \ ^'JB
1 HUHWm

! &Nn Nihon Kikaku Corp.

»SNK ELECTRONICS CORP

TEL: 061-832 6633 • TELEX: 667799 OCEANS Q

 GRAPHICS
GALORE
ACE resident pixel professor, Brian Larkman,
tries to tell the future this month by looking at
Amstrad's new VGA machines from the
artists point of view. The man himself is in
doubt as to what HE'D go for.
Brian's also co-opted the help of John
Downie in the form of a short piece about the
Travelling Matte company, who produce com¬
puter-generated images for TV (including
Hitchhickers and Knightmare). They probably
won't be using the new Amstrads - they go
for things in the PtiQELbracket.
There's even roo
reader's letters, tm
becoming a cq
forget _ if you
Brian a line

A This mfnth» some of the secrets behind the TV programme Knightmare are revealed,
as we interview The Travelling Matte Company, the people who bring creatures like
Eric to life. No, not an ACE staff writer, merely a model that is animated and superim¬
posed on live action by a Supernova computer. TTirn the page for more details...

Despite a lead of several years in the Desktop Presentation field with the Amiga,
Commodore seem to be cutting things a bit fine as now ever Amstrad, together with
the other 'A' level companies, Apple, Atari, and Acorn, develop and promote their
latest contenders in the graphics arena. With the new challenge of VGA MS-DOS
machines from Amstrad, which machine should the graphics fanatic go for?

GRAPHICS M A f*

WORKSTATIONS
A
■ CHEAP 'N' QUICK 'N' EASY
budget graphics workstation has
got to be cheap and it's got to get
good graphics up on that screen
quick and easy. To quality as bud¬
Transputer Workstation ATW (formerly
ABAQ) at about £5000 fails the price test.
They are also both rather short of software
shades and display them simultaneously at
a maximum resolution of 640x400, appar¬
ently beating both the Amiga and the
at present, though limited compatibility Archimedes static capabilities. In most
get, it seems reasonable to set a with earlier machines - the ST and b8cw other respects, however, the 8086 is a fairly
cost limit of about £1000. Most people Mac - confuse the issue slightly. ordinary PC clone.
would think that bit high, but compared to So the only machines able to compare That's the core of the problem. Although
commercial workstations, most of which with the new Amstrad on the basis of at first sight such an impressive display
start at 5 figure sums, £1000 is very cheap. cheap graphics are the Atari ST, the Amiga specification should make the Amstrad an
With that limitation it is only the new 500, and the Acorn Archimedes 300 series. excellent graphics workstation, there is
Amstrad 8086 model that bears compari¬ Let's start by examining what the Amstrad more to good graphics than loads of colour.
son - the 8286 and 8386 are too expensive has got to offer. It is also important to quickly and easily
for the average home user.
transform the screen with a wide range of
Although it is much cheaper than dedi¬ A MESS DOS? techniques; the Amiga and Archimedes,
cated 'professional' systems Apple's MacII The most exciting development on the and to a lesser extent the ST, can all support
also falls at this point. The Mac may be a Amstrad 2086 is the VGA display. As you painting, 3D modelling, ray-tracing, image
common 'home micro' in the States but here will see elsewhere in this month's issue, you processing, and animation. All these
it's just a fantasy. Similarly, Atari's new can choose 256 colours from a 260,000 require large amounts of computation. As
Advanced Computer Entertainment 21
GRAPHICS

several of the more advanced graphics ori¬ plc

ented packages on the standard Atari ST
RISC OBLITERATION? have shown, working with numerous
colours over a large area can tie up the
Th
op
tio:
main processor and effectively lock the grc
Computer graphics places the for many other applications, the Archimedes range offers the machine for minutes at a time. me
heaviest burden on the computing especially those unforeseen in only one available at anything like This results in excessive tea drinking, the
power of any processor. To get the design stage. Nevertheless a budget price. The result of this frequent visits to the fridge for fattening en
round this computation problem for graphics applications the software oriented strategy is. at munchies, and much boredom and frustra¬ for
the Amiga and the Archimedes Amiga is still supreme in this least in the case of the tion. The Amstrad 8086 chip is considerably De
use diametrically opposed solu¬ price range. The new Amstrads Archimedes, an amazingly fast slower than the Atari 68000 and it is unlike¬ pa
tions - hardware and software ori¬ also have some 'custom' chips computer than can undertake ly that much advanced graphics software on
ented respectively. but it is unlikely that these will graphics operations so quickly will be able to operate effectively on the
The Amiga is still the only shoulder enough of the comput¬ that its normal operations are cheapest Amstrad. The faster 8286 and ell
common home computer to use ing load to make more than a hardly impaired. 8386 should partially overcome this difficul¬ pr<
a BLITter (BLock Image Trans¬ marginal difference to the 8086's With software like Clares' ty, but they are much more expensive and on
fer) chip. This provides a system graphics power. Pro Artisan. AMS's Flair, and ACE still just barely as effective as the basic m<
of optimised instructions that An alternative way to cope Software's Euclid all providing Amiga 500 with its blitter or the RISC’based dk
allow large areas of screen mem¬ with a heavy computational load superb facilities using the RISC Archimedes 310 for graphics applications fui
ory to be manipulated quickly by is to strip the main processor architecture, it is a great pity that (see box - BLIT or RISC). of
a separate chip, ensuring that down to its minimum number of the Archimedes is unlikely to In terms of a budget graphics worksta¬ VC
colour and movement calcula¬ essential instructions so that it make much of an impact outside tion therefore the new Amstrad 8086 has a SO]

tions take place independently of ‘ can operate at very much faster education and science - and per¬ fine display but probably not enough or
the central processor. The Amiga speeds. When a specific task haps broadcasting - within the power to do much with it. Time will tell how he
also has several other dedicated needs to be undertaken, the UK. Where Acorn may be able to limited a graphics engine it really is. that ar
chips specifically designed for required 'optimum' instructions have more success is with ARC said, there is still a whole lot of graphics m<
particular tasks allowing the main are provided in the software so based add-on boards for the PC software available for it, is there not? Well, of
processor to operate unimpeded that the computer works most effi- market. Several of these are yes and no... be
for much of the time. Although • ciently on any specific job. This already on the market, any of erl
this method works well for specif¬ sort of reduced instruction set which could provide almost SOFT SELL th<
ic tasks like screen and sound (RISC) chip is one of the current Archimedes power for the When it comes to painting, there is only a co
computations, it is of limited use flavours of the month. At present. Amstrads - at a price. small choice of software available at rea¬ efl
sonable prices for MSDOS machines - and foi
even that is aimed at standard VGA dis- PL

FANTASY FACTOR
Robert Harris, the techno-brain behind ITVs
award-winning Knightmare program, is chief
The Travelling Matte Company specialise in passing off fantasy as reality. ACE
of the Travelling Matte Company and also went to find out more...
responsible for, among other things, the com¬
puter graphics on the BBC’s Hitchhikers Guide to
the Galaxy. When we met him on a prome¬
nade in Brighton, he was sitting at a graphics
terminal displaying a live image of the pier,
apparently subjected to electrifying bolts of
lightning and clutching a chipped enamel
mug topped up with champagne. 'We are com¬
mitted,’ he announced chirpily, 'to dabbling
with reality.'
You may already have seen Knightmare,
in which real people do physical and intellec¬
tual battle with a mix of reality and electronic
fantasy in a world peopled with computer ani¬
mated monsters like Eric. Four skeleton legs sur¬
mounted by a skull go to form him, and he
exists as 16 video frames which can be subtly
animated so that Eric appears to watch the
adventurer enter his lair.
This requires some deft work by the anima¬
tor, for Knightmare is recorded live' and is shot
on a single occasion to maintain the adventur¬
ing team's belief in the fantasy. Only then, says
program creator Tim Childs, can the audience
feel part of the adventure too.
The Mercedes van, which is Travelling
Matte’s mobile studio, is a little like the Tardis. Eric, superimposed on a painted background. (Inset)Robert Harris, the man at the controls
The day we visited, during the International of the Spaceward Supernova that makes Knightmare possible, eyes up the model of Eric.

22 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 GRAPHIC

plays at best - 256 colours at 320x200 lines.

The Atari and the Amiga can both display
approximately 4,000 colours at this resolu¬
tion as a result ot some fairly devious pro¬
gramming tricks. Similar methods might
make 260,000 shade displays available on
PIXEL POST
This month the Pixel Professor has just enough space to check out scanners and
the Amstrad but it requires the will of some
enthusiast to do it. The best we can hope
hear how difficult it is to become a computer graphic artist...
for is a 256 colour, 640x400 version of
Deluxe Paint PC - and even this will be Dear Brian, Both types are capable of scanning in
painfully slow and greedy for disk space Do you know of any good but cheap scanners black and white or a number of grey scales,
on an 8086. available for the Amiga 500? If so, what equip¬ though the second option usually costs more.
As for other requirements - 3D mod¬ ment would I need and how much would it cost? In any case, flatbed scanners are more expen¬
elling, ray-tracing, animation, and image I've tried looking in the classified ads but there sive because they usually scan a larger area
processing, all these ARE available to run don't seem to be any scanners advertised. and often produce higher resolutions. Mouse
on MSDOS machines - at a price. But in Miss B. Scott, Meols, Wirral scanners only 'grab' a strip about 3 or 4 inch¬
most cases they can only function if hard es wide. Typically the flatbed types cost £800
disks and co-processors are fitted adding As always, cheap is a very relative term. There to £3000 and the mouse type £150 to £600.
further to the cost. In time, just the presence are three scanners that I know of for the For the Amiga, Burocare (01-907 3636)
of a vast number of cheap Amstrad MSDOS Amiga at present but none of them is particu¬ have AMISCAN, a flatbed scanner that doubles
VGA machines on the market will result in larly cheap. as a thermal printer and photocopier costing
some of this software coming down in price Scanners are devices that allow flat art¬ £800, which is therefore relatively cheap but
or cut-down versions being released. This work, photos, text (or sometimes even 3D probably outside your budget. Closer to a real¬
has certainly happened with commercial objects) to be easily digitised for use in graph¬ istic price is the Handy Scanner from Cameron
and office packages. MSDOS machines ics and DTP applications. Two types are cur¬ UK (01 499 9192) but costing around £360 it is
may even end up selling a greater volume rently available: a flatbed scanner and a hand¬ still almost as expensive as the Amiga itself.
of home-oriented graphics software just held 'mouse' scanner. Flatbed scanners are Even cheaper is the hand scanner (£300) avail¬
because of their predictable profusion. Nev¬ similar to photocopiers in operation, flat art¬ able from the Amiga Centre, Scotland (031 557
ertheless, in graphics terms its the software work being placed face down on the top sur¬ 4242). All three of these scanners 'grab' at
that counts, so the Amstrad is really only face and scanned from below. Mouse scan¬ approximately 200 dots per inch.
competition for the Atari ST. If you want an ners are very much like large versions of the
effective and versatile graphics workstation normal computer mouse. In operation the art¬
for under £1000, an Amiga 500 is still the work is placed face up on a desktop and the Dear Brian,
Pixel Professor's choice! • scanner is slid slowly over the required area. Just a quick letter on the Graphics F/ont aimed at
anyone who is keen on starting a career as a
Computer Graphic Artist. Many people think that
getting an artist position within a software house
is MEGA TOUGH. In most cases this is true,
mostly due to the large amount of artists that are
about. I started out on an Amstrad 464 and tried
to get a GAC game published, but to no avail.
After this first attempt I was a bit GLUM but stuck
Broadcasting Convention, a gale was polishing sion in which even translucent objects can be at it.
a very clear blue Brighton sky, turning the electronically introduced.
world into a sort of chroma-key fantasy whilst Harris claims that the technology to create Rule 1. Keep On Trying. You may lose sleep and
inside the van a beautifully detailed video this fantasy world has only been available for time, postage money, cassettes/disks, but in the
world was being developed, albeit one which is the last two years. His training and experience end your efforts will pay dividends. Of course
divided into rooms with exits to North, South, with theatrical set design has, however, been there is no substitute for a good portfolio. Think of
East, and West... built up over many more years and his artistic it like a hobby and enjoy it, sooner or later you will
The Knightmare program uses electronic flair provides the touch of class which makes develop a style of your own and then this will get
scenery generated by a Spaceward Matisse the programme work. recognised.
System on Supernova hardware (12 Mbyte The format is being sold to the USA and I'm
RAM, 380 Mbyte hard disk). The images are sure that over the next few years the freedom Rule 2. Make your first portfolio your absolute
accurately keyed or 'matted* to live shots of a generated by electronic scenery will blossom best. It may have taken you 2 weeks or 2 years
chroma-key studio in which the adventurer into many more TV programs of increasing (usually the latter), but at least you will know that
pursues his quest directed by his team, The complexity. The superimposition of a 2D image it is you best effort.
viewers and the team see the scenery superim¬ on a 3D set means that only one fixed camera
posed and by techniques of lighting control position is possible but, as software develops, Rule 3. Protect yourself. It is very difficult for a
and subtle matting, creating an effective illu- camera movements will be linked to complete starter to save up loads of dosh for legal advice
3D generated images allowing much more over breach of copyright. Get yourself a registered
dynamic action than is currently feasible. Har¬ envelope and address it to yourself. Then have a
ris says that they would like to store scenes on a word with your (or 'a') bank manager and pop in
laser disk, though this is not currently possible. the disks/cassettes, which will be put in the bank's
The idea of a mobile graphics studio is a vault. Any dubious activities with your work, if not ,
clever one. Next time you're having trouble returned, can then be proved to belong to you as
with your favourite 'paint' program, your artistic it is dated and held safe.
efforts are leaden, and your animations are My first work was for Exocet Software who
truly awful, just pop out into the garage, slip received the control panels and title screen for
into your Mercedes van, and boot up a few Phantasm. Now I have started work for Ocean
hundred thousand pounds worth of hardware, Software in-house. This job took me five years to
Travelling Matte's mobile studio - you'd
not to mention the team of professionals ready land - so as you can see, it can take ages. There
never believe so much techno-gadgetry at your command. Their rates are really very are a hell of a lot of AMAZING artists, 8 and 16 bit
could be crammed in such a small space. reasonable... out there, why aren't they being snapped up?
Roy Lewis, Warton, Lancs.
Advanced Computer Entertainment 23
G

Shades off glory from Electric Image. Will they ever make a James Bond movie this way?

Other than the new Amstrads (see elsewhere in this month's issue), the most interesting graphic software at the recent PC(w) Show was
the now expanding range for the Acorn Archimedes. Come on a quick trip round the lastest developments on the software front...
PRO ARTISAN and instant scene and object transformations. It compete, Hyperpaint 2 must provide a very
The most versatile drawing package so far is the is even fast enough for some degree of real-time wide range of colour facilities or concentrate on
'professional' version of Clares' Artisan, Pro Arti¬ animation of solid 3D objects, something no doing one job really well. Perhaps a cut-down
san. Every facility imaginable including 'Bezier package on the Amiga can achieve. Ray trac¬ version of Adobe Illustrator would be a better
curves, a wide range of fill options, irregular cut ing modules are in preparation. John Downie is role-model for a machine that is being promoted
and paste, extensive colour manipulations, and getting to grips with Euclid at the moment and as a cheap Macintosh. Illustrator is an object-ori¬
image processing, has been included. his report will be on these pages very soon. ented drawing system someway between CAD
Using 256 colours on-screen selected from and'painting designed to produce illustrations
4096 at a resolution of 640x256, Pro Artisan NOT SO TAXING for DTP applications. Look out for this sort of
compares well with Amiga packages like Pho¬ The name Forms in Flight always makes me package soon on the ST and Amiga.
ton Paint and Deluxe PhotoLab. 26 high-quality think of my tax returns winging their way to the
fonts and a wide range of printer dumps are tax-man. Forms in Flight 2 (Amiga + 1 Mbyte, QUANTUM STUMBLE
also included in this comprehensive package. available from the Amiga Centre, Scotland on Another disappointment is the latest version of
Advanced Memory Systems of AMX Mouse 031 557 4242) is a vastly improved version of Quantum Paint vl.05c for the ST. After months
and Finesse fame are about to release both the the 3D graphics and animation system from of waiting with bated breath because of various
ST and Archimedes versions of Flair Paint (origi¬ Micro Magic. With surface patches, texture delays including the postal strike, it is still far
nally called Finesse Paint before Logitech took mapping, phong shading, and path extrusions from perfect. Bugs haunt the screen including a
over). Archie's Flair Paint operates in the 16 Forms in Flight 2 seems to hold the crown as the 'ghost' of the control panel carried over occa¬
colour 640x256 resolution to allow faster opera¬ most advanced graphics package for a home sionally to the drawing area. Worse there are
tion and smaller files. Both versions are specifi¬ computer. However, with Sculpt 4D well on the still no functions that actually 'use' the 512 or
cally designed to optimise printed output with a way if may be unthroned soon. 4096 shade 'wide-band colour' mode - i.e. smear
large page area as well as all the usual draw¬ and colourising (see Quantum Paint, ACE Issue
ing tools thoughtfully implemented. For exam¬ MORE PAINT HYPE 6). Again, despite its omni-colour modes, Quan¬
ple, variable rotate operates with the cut section Not seen at the PC Show was the promised Atari tum Paint is still not as useful as Degas Elite.
visible at all times. At this budget price, Flair ST paint system tfyperpaint (Atari £24.99) which
Paint seems very good value. To be sure, watch claims to 'herald the next generation of graphics ...TO THE SUBLIME
this space for a full review. Contact AMS on packages'. After a week of intensive use it Electric Image, arguably the most innovative
0925 413501 for more details. became apparent that Atari have used more producers of broadcast-quality computer graph¬
hype than paint, for Hyperpaint is really just an ics in Britain have now acquired the first stage of
IT S ALL GREEK average paint program - better than their new hardware system. Based around an
Continuing the Greek theme Euclid (£45.00 from Neochrome for sure, but no competition for AT&T Pixel Machines parallel processing render
ACE Computing on 0223 322559) is a 3D mod¬ Degas Elite or Art Director. This conclusion is machine, they are now able to produce photo¬
elling and animation system. It is fast, versatile, borne out by the suggestion that Hyperpaint 2 is realistic ray-trace type animated graphics in
and relatively easy to use, though without already under discussion. real-time. The potential of this machine is such
Sculpt 3D's user friendliness. It includes orthogo¬ The only unique feature of Hyperpaint is its that we might soon be seeing a full-length ani¬
nal or perspective projections, line or surface ability to work on really large scanned images. mated film with the visual complexity of the
drawing, full hidden line and surface removal, Only on 1 Mbyte machines or larger, though. To Access 'Duck Pond' advertisement. •
24 Advanced Computer Entertainment
A COMPILATION OF THE THREE CLASSIC
16 BIT HITS FOR THE ATARI ST & AMIGA
£29.99
 SPECIAL

B
Restore
[Link]
i ♦’

Min i m i >
H ! V i. H i .
Bullseye
Rifc*f5
silt * wm...
ft i ? *
ft I t *
ft 1 t *
i
ALTERNJ
You've been saving all your pennies up so that you can replace your 8-bit machine a
h<
with an ST, Amiga or Archie. But wait a minute ■ could you be missing something?

H
: ! fv ■ » ft l f » m tb
ipr ]
Mightn't that hole in your lifestyle be PC-shaped?
§gff|| k(
Big;; - 2§ij| h(
ow's this lor an idea: the world's mean, you might as well go and buy a Z88 if re
leading computer companies all you want entertainment - mightn't you?
mm d(
build 16-bit micros to a common
to
H;ttC-vv vvyv?* design so that the same software BORING bi
runs on each of them. Thousands of In the UK, PCs have traditionally been in
other manufacturers working to the same expensive machines. A £1,000+ machine is
design turn it into the number one micro pigeon-holed in the business sector almost
_ ir
standard, and vast numbers of programmers automatically, and even Amstrad's price- Ti¬
write software for it. Amstrad, Atari and busting antics over the last year have done er
Commodore all get on the bandwagon, little to change that view of them. It's a self- th
prices plummet and soon everyone can fulfilling prophecy: game-buyers shun the PC he
afford one of these universal machines. as 'boring', software houses don't find PC tu
Sounds exciting? Well, it isn't: in fact it's games very lucrative, produce fewer of w
very, very boring. It's already happened you them, and so the PC really is boring. m
see, and the machine everyone settled on Left to itself, the British market would re
was the IBM Personal Computer. Now of probably never break out of this vicious cir¬
course, we all know the PC and its many, cle. It's not going to be left to itself though, IB
many clones are the dullest things going. I thanks to the totally different attitude to PCs ce
that you'll find on the other side of the sic
Atlantic. e\

THE 8086 FAMILY In the USA, home computers have to do

all manner of different tasks. People don't just
want to play games: they want to do word
de
se
de
processing, programming and any number sa
The PC series is based on Intel's 8086 family of of other things as well. Because of this need m
chips. Dating from the late 1970s, the early mem¬ for versatility, and because US buyers are er
bers of this family took an inelegant approach to typically prepared to spend a good deal
the problems of handling large memory sizes. It's gr
more than their British counterparts, the PC
hard to dispute that the 8086 is a poor chip for use makes a natural machine for the American G
in micros compared to Motorola's 68000: it's home. Be
tougher to program, can't handle as much memo¬ The upshot of all this is that American n't
ry (only 1 Meg compared to the 68000's 16 Meg) software houses produce large numbers of th<
and is slower at normal clock speeds. PC games, and many of these are very high ec
The newer 80286 and 80386 chips are a quality items. (You can check out the best of it
good deal faster than the original 8086, but they them, and some strong UK competition, on m<
cost more and are still complex beasts to pro¬ pp32-33.) Bearing in mind what Dungeon W(
gram. The improvement is welcome, but compara¬ Master and Interceptor did for the ST and
ble advances in the 68000 series keep Motorola Amiga respectively, a few good imports pr<
ahead in the 'bangs per buck' stakes. could certainly help the PC's games reputa¬ wc
There's a school of thought to the effect that tion over here. bu
upgrading the 80x86 line still further is just throw¬
ing good money after bad. Why handicap new gr<
ENCOURAGING thi
chips just in order to keep compatibility with old
But why, you might reasonably ask, does it do
ones? With micro power increasing in leaps and
matter? At best a games-orientated PC could W€
bounds, it's possible for totally incompatible chips
be almost as good a games machine as an the
like the Inmos Transputer or Acorn ARM to run
ST or Amiga, and cost about the same. Is the
8086 programs at a reasonable speed. These
that really what the world needs?
emulation techniques are already paying off for
In a word, yes. If graphically powerful dif
Archimedes users, who can expand their
PCs were available at a low enough price po
machine's meagre range of games with PC titles
here, that would probably mean better EG
(see 'Catch 32', ACE issue 13).
games and more of them. The enormous ca
American PC user base wouldn't just provide wt
26 Advanced Computer Entertainment
 CIAL

1ATIVES
attractive imports, but also otter some very
healthy overseas sales tor games authors in
it - but be warned, full
VGA facilities call for very
this country. expensive monitors. Other¬
With a multi-million machine world mar¬ wise, go for EGA if you
ket - something neither the ST nor the Amiga possibly can.
has yet achieved - thered be enough of a CGA is very poor stuff
return for software houses to take their time by modern standards, but
developing games. They wouldn’t have to for many PC buyers it's the
top the charts to get their money back, only game in town. While
because even the also-rans would be selling EGA is gaining more and
in vast numbers. more ground with games
writers, and is unquestion¬
INTERESTING ably a whole lot better,
The terrific thing about compatibility is that it there's still no ultra- cheap
encourages software development. The bad machine available with
thing about it is that once the software base built-in EGA. Until there is,
has built up, it gets very tough for manufac¬ serious gamers and bud¬
turers to improve the machine design. Users ding computer artists will
would rather have an old, low-performance have to carry on paying
machine that runs the software than a the extra.
revamped one that doesn't.
Unfortunately the original design of the CGA
IBM PC centred around Intel's 8086 family of The original PC colour
central processors (see box), and with hind¬ graphics standard, CGA
sight that was a very poor choice. While has looked rather creaky
even the cheapest modern PC is a great for quite a while now
deal faster than IBM's original machines, pre¬ Most games run on a four-
sent day users are still paying the price for colour 320x200 screen
design decisions made some years ago. That rather like the medium
said, the typical cut-price PC of today has
more than enough processor power for most
entertainment purposes: what it lacks is
graphic power. THE PC 200
GRAPHIC
Because of the PC's age, and because it was¬ Just about the cheapest PC compatible ever sold
n't exactly state-of-the-art when brand new, in this country, the Sinclair Professional PC200 is
there was no real graphics standard includ¬ a bog-standard 8086 machine with a 3.5" disk
ed in its specification. This wasn't the disaster drive and a CGA display. The use of the Sinclair
it sounded like: the PC's *open architecture* name suggests that Amstrad see the PC200 as a
meant that you could plug in extra hard¬ home machine and are trying to distance it from
ware later on if graphics became important. the parent label’s new PC2000 range. It's not sur¬
If this hadn't been possible, the PC would prising then that the cheapest system, weighing in
probably be dead and buried by now. As it at around £344 including VAT, has no monitor and
was, graphic add-ons soon became very big is fitted with a TV modulator.
business indeed. A wide range of colour In practice it's rather hard to see the benefits
graphic standards appeared from various of such a set-up. Plugged into a TV, you lose the
third-party manufacturers, but the three 80-column definition needed for most serious
dominant ones all came from IBM: they applications. In return you get a colour display, but
were the Colour Graphics Adapter (CGA), that's small consolation given how poor CGA
the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) and
the Video Graphics Array (VGA).
graphics tend to be.
With a monitor, the PC200 will doubtless be
i mppiii
You can check out precise details on the a very useful machine to have around for all the ( YIJI
pMA! (J
different standards below, but the important usual text-based applications. Its entertainment
points are as follows. VGA can do anything potential seems low, and anyone looking for an I pw I
EGA can do, and EGA can do anything CGA expandable machine would certainly do better T,
I ft| »fm0i 1|
1 l
can do, so there's no room for argument over with one of the roomier PCI 512s or 1640s I ||
which one's best. If you can afford VGA, get -1—
Advanced Computer Entertainment 27
 resolution mode of the Amstrad CPC. The big
weakness here is that there's no palette as
such - just two colour schemes, either white-
cyan-magenta-black or red-green-yellow-
THE MAST
black. Most CGA games use the former
scheme because of its higher contrast, but
MACHINES
Elite got by very nicely in red, green and
yellow. In America the Macintosh, Amiga and ST - collec¬
Though it's primitive stuff even by 8-bit tively known as the MAST machines - are com¬
standards, the CGA screen does have one monly seen as the next step on from PC compati¬
big advantage: it's very small. Small in bles. They certainly offer more power for your
memory terms, that is to say. The advantage money, and don't suffer from the PC's memory
here isn’t in the space taken up - all PC dis¬ restrictions. That said, these 68000-based
play cards come with whatever memory machines don't come anywhere near challenging
they need - but in speed. the PC's vast user base even when the three of
The main factor in a micro's speed as a them are taken together.
games machine is its The whole problem is that the three
power . to screen-size machines can't really be taken together. They've
ratio. Most of the proces¬ got incompatible hardware and disk formats, are
sor's time during a game aimed at different markets, and are built by fierce¬
goes on altering the con¬ ly protective manufacturers. They've also got dif¬
tents of screen memory: ferent operating systems, and because these are
clearly a more powerful based around WIMP front-ends they're all difficult
processor can get this things for programmers to get to grips with.
job done quicker, but
equally a smaller screen
(in memory terms)
speeds things up by EGA-equipped PC does lose out on palette
leaving the processor size - you only get 64 colours to choose from
with less to do. - but has useful high-resolution modes the
On the power front the 68000 machines can't match.
typical PC central pro¬ Of course, that kind of colour freedom
cessor can't match the and pixel resolution makes an EGA screen a
MAST machines' pretty sizable thing. That doesn't mean EGA
MC68000 (see box), but games run slowly mind you, even with a
the CGA's tiny 16K bog- standard 8MHz 8086 providing the
screen more than makes power. The screen memory is very cleverly
up for this. By contrast organised to help speed things up, so that for
the ST has to work with a many purposes a 32K EGA screen can take
whacking 32K for a full less work to handle than its 16K CGA
colour display, while the equivalent.
Amiga may have to
handle upwards of 40K. VGA
The hottest display standard around right
EGA now, VGA offers screens of up to 640x480
If CGA is curling up a lit¬ pixels in 16 colours out of 64, or 320x200 in
tle crt the edges, EGA is 256 colours out of 250,000 odd. Both of these
still alive and kicking. modes require high-class, high-price moni¬
As a games standard it's tors, making them rather a small market for
at least in the same games authors at the moment.
league as the ST and The 256-colour mode has other problems
Amiga, with a typical too as far as game-writing goes. In particu¬
game mode of 320x200 lar, the screen is huge (64K) and there's no
pixels in 16 colours. The hardware help to reduce this burden. That
kind of load would tax an ST severely, and a
PC 2086 - VGA at a impressively low typical PC clone doesn't even have the
pitoe power of an ST. The programmer's left with
THE PC2086 an unenviable choice: either (a) stick to
nmnimw imn

game styles that don't need large, frequent

screen alterations or (b) restrict their games
The cheapest of Amstrad's upmarket PC2000 to high-speed 80286 or 80386 machines, cut¬
series, the PC2086 offers VGA graphics at an ting the potential market still further. Not sur¬
impressively low price. A single drive system with prisingly, most people go for option (c) and
high-res colour monitor will set you back a hefty stick to EGA modes, on the basis that the
£976 including VAT, but that set-up gives you VGA can manage these too.
VGA art power and EGA games potential. It also It's on the art side of things that the 256-
provides' a great workhorse for all those useful, colour mode really comes into its own. The
serious applications you’d normally associate potential here is enormous: while the Amiga
with PCs. To justify spending so much money may be able to manage more colours on
mm I mi pii^ * you're going to have to want that serious side of
things - but you can still have great fun with
screen at once, the VGA's freedom of colour
use and enormous palette more than offset
I ! I I f Deluxe Paint II and Falcon AT after hours! this. For ray-tracing or hand- painting it'd be
a natural.

28 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 o

Armed with new

BOUNCE power,
PAC-MAN faces new
i PAC-MAN IS
challenges as he
enters the worlds BACK&
of Block Town,
Pac-Man’s Park, dUNCING IN
Sandbox Land
and 3D!
Jungly Steps.
AVAILABLE ON:
ATARI ST & AMIGA £19.95
rC64&AMSTRAD CPC DISK £14.95
C64 Cassette £9.95; SPECTRUM,
AMSTRAD & MSX Cassettes £8.95

er & T~.rg
©1987 NAMCO LTD. All rights reserved *7 is? w m *
Licensed from Tengen Pfo^
©1988 Grandslam®Entertainments Ltd. m mr.&:
12-18 Paul Street, LONDON EC2A4JS.
j sata mas,'
_| i Sm\ mmf} r
Screenshots taken from ATARI ST. Screenshots taken from SPECTRUM
 THUNDER BLADE™
CBM 64/128
£9.99c - £14.99d
SPECTRUM 48/128K
£8.99c-£12.99d
AMSTRAD CPC
£9.99c-£14.99d
ATARI ST
£19.99d
AMIGA
£24.99d
IBM PC & COMPATIBLES
£24.99d

ECHELON™
CBM 64/128
£12.99c - £14.99d
SPECTRUM 48/128K
£9.99c-£12.99d
AMSTRAD CPC
£12.99c - £14.99d
IBM PC
£24.99d ROAD BLASTERS™
AMIGA CBM 64/128 £9.99c - £11.99d
£24.99d SPECTRUM 48/128K £8.99c - £12.9
AMSTRAD CPC £9.99c - £ 14.99c
AMIGA £19.99d
ATARI ST £19.99d

THE GAMES SUMMER EDITION™ TIGER ROAD™

LED STORM™
CBM 64/128 £9.99c - £14.99d CBM 64/128 £9.99c - £1
CBM 64/128 £9.99c - £14.99d
SPECTRUM 48/128K £8.99c - £12.99d SPECTRUM 48/128K £7.99c -
SPECTRUM 48/128K £8.99 c - £12.99d
AMSTRAD CPC £9.99c - £14.99d AMSTRAD CPC £9.99c - £1
AMSTRAD CPC £9.99c - £14.99d
ATARI ST £19.99d ATARI ST £19.99d
ATARI ST £19.99d • AMIGA £19.99c
MSX 64K £9.99c AMIGA £ 19.99c
IBM PC £24.99d

U.S. Gold, way ahead of whoeve,

 NORTHWEST Virgin (Retail) 28-32 Union Street, Glasgow G1 30X. Tel: 041 204 0866
Alan Heywood Computers 174 Church Street, Blackpool. Tel: 0253 21657 EIRE
Bits 'N' Bytes 18 Central Station, Ranelagh Street, Liverpool LI 1JT. Tel: 0517094486 Virgin (Retail) 14-18 Aston Quay, Dublin 2. Tel: 777180
Just Micro 22 Carver Street, Sheffield. Tel: 0742 752732 SOUTHWEST
Micro-Chip Shop Computer Store 190 Lord Street, [Link]: 0391779511 ACE Computers 42 Cannon Street, Bedminster, Bristol B531 BN. Tel: 0272637981
Micro-Snips (Mail Order) 37 Seaview Road, Wallasey, Merseyside L45 4QN. Computarbase Co. 21 Market Avenue, City Centre, Plymouth, Devon PL1 1PG.
Tel: 051 630 3013 Tel: 0752 671228
Northwkh Computers 79a Wrtton Street, Northwich, Cheshire CWG SDW. Eagle Business Computers Glamorgan House, David Street, Cardiff CF1 3FH.
Tel: 0606 47883 Tel: 0222 390286
Orade Computer Systems 230 High Street, Winsford, Cheshire. Tel: 0606861253 Judya Computers 7/9 Exeter Road, Exmouth, Devon. Tel: 0395 264593
PV Computers 104 Abbey Street, Accrington, Lancashire BB51 EE. Tel: 025435345 Software Plus Unit 8, The Boulevards, Wellington Centre, Aldershot, Hants.
Tel: 0252 29862
Tim's Megastore 29/31 Sunderland Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire SKI 1 6JL
Tel: 0625 34118 Virgin (Retail) 18 Merchant Street, Bristol, Avon BS1 3ET. Tel: 0272 294779
V U Data 221 a Old Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire OL6 7SR. Tel: 061339 0326 The Computer Shop 329 Ashley Road, Parkestone, Poole, Dorset BH14 OAP.
Tel: 0202 737493
The Computer Shop Unit T, Knightsbridge Mall, Amdale Centre, Manchester.
Tel: 061832 0878 LONDON
Double Vision 32 High Street, Ealing, London W5. Tel: 01 566 1004/840 6278
NORTHEAST
The Computer Shop 7 High Friars, Eldon Square, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Erol Computers 125 High Street, Walthamstow, London El 7 7DB. Tel: 015207763
Tel: 091 2616260 Goel Computer Services 45 Boston Road, Hanwell, London. Tel: 01 579 6133
Sunderland Computer Centre 29 Crowtree Road, Sunderland SRI 3JU. MicroTek Grove Green Road, Leytonstone. Tel: 01 556 2275
Tel: 091 565 5711 Shekhana Computer Services 221 Tottenham Court Road, London W1R 5AF.
TopSoft Computer Software 3 Hambletonian Yard, Stockton-on-Tees, Tel: 01800 3150
Cleveland TS18 1BB. Tel: 0642 670503 Logic Sales, 19 The Broadway, The Bourne, Southgate. Tel: 01 882 4942
TopSoft Computer Software 6 Wellington Court Mews, Grange Road, Darlington, Silica Shop 52 Tottenham Court Road, London (ST & Amiga Specialists). Tel: 01 580
County Durham. Tel: 0325 486689
Virgin (Retail) 94-96The Briggate, Leeds, North Yorks LSI 6BR. Tel: 0532443681 Software Plus In Shops, 37-43 South Mall, Edmanton Green, London.
York Computer Centre 9 Davygate Arcade, Davygate, York YOl 25U. Virgin (Retail) 527 Oxford Street. Tel: 01 491 8582
Tel: 0904 641862 Virgin (Retail) 100 Oxford Street, London. Tel: 01 637 7911
HEROES OF THE LANCE' C.H.I.P.S. Computer Shop 151/153 Linthorpe Road, Middlesborough, Cleveland. SOUTHEAST
CBM 64/128 £19.99d Tel: 0642 219139 Bits 'N' Bytes 47 Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, Suffolk. Tel: 0473 219961
iTRAD CPC £9.99c - £14 C.H.I.P.S. Computer Shop Clarkes Yard, Darlington, County Durham DL3 7QH. Bits 'N' Bytes 45 Orwell Street, Felixstowe, Suffolk. Tel: 0394 279266
AMIGA £24.99d Tel: 0325 381048 Computer Leisure Centre 117 High Street, Orpington, Kent BR6 0LG.
ATARI ST £19.99d MicroGamer 20 Cleveland Street, Doncaster DN1 3EF. Tel: 0302 329999 Tel: 0689 21101
IBM PC £19.99d The Computer Shop 9 Maritime Terrace, Sunderland. Tel: 091 510 8142 Crawley Computers 62 The Boulevard, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1XH.
The Computer Shop 14 West Row, Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland TS18 1BT. Tel: 0293 37842
Tel: 0642 606166 Computer Business System 88/90 Lurdon Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
WEST MIDLANDS Tel: 0702 335443/330995
Burton Software 51/52 High Street, Burton-on-Trent, Staff OE14 US. Computer Plus 40 New Conduit Street, Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Tel: 0553 774550
Tel: 0283 34388 Estuary Computers Victoria Precinct, Southend on Sea, Essex. Tel: 0702 614131
Castle Computers 11 Newcastle Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Tel: 0782 575043 Faxminster Ltd 25 Market Square, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Tel: 0442 55044
Comtazia Shopping Mall, Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Briertey Hill. Tel: 0384261698 G B Microland 7 Queens Parade, London Road, Waterlooville, Hampshire P07 7EB
Comtazia 204 High Street, Dudley, West Midlands. Tel: 0384 239259 Tel: 0705 259911
Mr Disk 11-12 Three Shire Oaks Road, Bearwood, Birmingham. Tel: 021 429 4996 JKL Computers 7 Windsor Street, Uxbridge, Middlesex. Tel: 0895 51815
Software City 3 Lichfield Passage, Wolverhampton. Tel: 0902 25304 Logic Sales 6 Midgate, Peterborough PEI 1TN. Tel: 0733 49696
Software City 1 Goodall Street, Walsall. Tel: 0922 2482 Silica Shop 1 -4 The Mews, Hatherfey Road, Sidcup, Kent DAI 4 4DX. (ST & Amiga
Software City 59 Foregate Street, Stafford. Tel: 0785 41899 Specialists) Tel: 01 302 8811
Spa Computers 108 Clarendon Street, Leamington Spa CV32 4PE. Tel: 092637648 Softsellers 36a Osbourne Street, Colchester, Essex C02 70B. Tel: 0473 57158
Venture Television Broad Street, Sidemoor, Bromsgrove. Tel: 0527 72650 SoftSpot Computers 61 Meredith Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Tel: 0255436462
Virgin (Retail) 98 Corporation Street, Birmingham B4 6SX. Tel: 021 236 1577 Software Plus 8 Buckkwins Square, Burnt Milk, Basildon, Essex Tel: 0268 590162
Watchdog Home Entertainment 40 Queen Street, Wolverhampton. Software Plus Liberty Shopping Mall, Basildon, Essex Tel: 0268 27922
Tel: 0902 313600 Software Plus 15 Kingsway, Colchester, Essex Tel: 0206 760977
Have you got what ittahes to be a Castle Computers 6 Hope Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. Tel: 0782 267952 Software Plus Unit 1,28/31 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, Essex Tel: 0245491746
Miles Better Software 221 Cannock Road, Chadsmore, Cannock, Staffs. Software Plus 336 Chartwell Square, Southend-on-Sea, Essex Tel: 0702 610784
Tel: 0543 466577 Software Plus Unit 1, Queensgate Centre, Orsett Road, Grays, Essex
Bull Ring Computers 7 Waterloo Terrace, Bridgnorth WV16 4EG. Tel: 0746 766839 Tel: 0375 391164
EAST MIDLANDS Software Plus 22 St Matthews Street, Ipswich, Suffolk. Tel: 0473 54774
D K Sound & Vision 7 Lightwood Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SKI 7 7RT.
Software Plus 35 High Street, Gravesend, Kent. Tel: 0474 333162
Tel: 0298 72066
Software Plus 13 Town Square, Stevenage, Herts. Tel: 0438 742374
Gordon Harwood Computers 69-71 High Street, Alfreton, Derbyshire.
Software Plus Unit 94, In Shops, The Mailings, St. Albans, Herts. Tel: 0727 64347
Tel: 0773 836781
Software Plus Unit 2, 4-6 Orange Street, Canterbury, Kent. Tel: 0227 458112
Mansfield Computers A Electronics 33 Albert Street, Mansfield, Notts NG181EA
Software Plus 43 Burleigh Street, Cambridge. Tel: 0223 353643
Tel: 0623 31202
Software Plus Unit 11, The Boulevards, Harpur Centre, Bedford. Tel: 0234 66598
Mays Computer Centre 57 Churchgate, Leicester LEI 3AL. Tel: 0533 22212
North Notts Computers 23 Outram Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts NG1 4BA Video City 45-47 Fisher Green Road, Stevenage, Herts. (ST & Amiga Specialists).
Tel: 0438 353808
Tel: 0623 556686
Video City 10 Station Road, Letchworth, Herts. (ST & Amiga Specialists)
Virgin (Retail) 6-8 Wheelergate, Nottingham NG1 2NB. Tel: 0602 476126
The Video Machine 194-196 Canterbury Street, Gllingham, Kent ME7 5XG.
The Computer Shop Unit 250, The Victoria Centre, Nottingham. Tel: 0602410632
Tel: 56460
SCOTLAND
GIANTS™ Capital Computers 12 Home Street, Tollcross, Edinburgh EH3 9LY. Tel: 0312284410
Viking Computers Ardney Rise, Norwich NR3 3QH. Tel: 0603 401982
IETII- OUTRUN - ROLUNGTHUNDER The Micro-Shop 271 -275 Dumbarton Rood, Glasgow G11 6AB. Tel: 0413390832 Virgin (Retail) 157-161 Western Road, Brighton, Sussex Tel: 0273 725313
720* - CALIFORNIA GAMES Inverness Computer Centre 15 Market Arcade, Inverness IV1 1PJ.
Worthing Computer Centre 7 Warwick Street, Worthing, West Sussex
Tel: 0903 210861
*M 64/128 £9.99c - £14.99d Tel: 0463 226205
RUM 48/128K £8.99c - £12.99d Virgin (Retail) 131 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 4AH. Tel: 031 225 4583

istrad CPC £9.99c-£14.99d

er^snumber 21
 T Cl AL

he British public don't know quite

what to make of PC games. If the PC
belongs in the office, as most people
seem to think it does, what are peo¬
ple doing producing leisure software
for it? The odd pop-up, high fun-factor game
like Tetris makes sense as an executive toy,
and on the same basis you could understand
adventures with 'boss mode’ imitation
spreadsheet displays. But what about great
epics like Elite or DrilleT?
PC games certainly are strange things.
While more and more of the big UK houses
are converting their mainstream titles to the
PC as a matter of course now, these are a
recent phenomenon. There's usually little
effort made to use the PC's power effectively,
and the resulting games tend to make the
PC look like an honorary 8-bit micro. The
great classics of PC gaming hail form across
the Atlantic. This isn't just a legacy of the
machine's origins either: the driving force
behind PC game development is still the

THE SOFT
UNDERBELLY
OF THE PC
Never mind the hardware ■ what about the games? Whether you've got a super-fast American market, and it's pushing things for¬
ward at an impressive pace.
80386 machine with a £1,000 monitor, or just a Sinclair PC200 plugged into a telly, a
THE AMERICAN EFFECT
PC's only as much fun as the software running on it. Andy Wilton investigates the The PC may be a business machine as far as
games PCs play. the British are concerned, but across the
Atlantic it’s big news in the games market.
PC games are hardly a novelty in them¬
selves of course - after all, the PC's been
around longer than the Spectrum or the C64!
What's making the headlines now is the
explosion in EGA games, and the enormous
improvement in graphics that this means.
A renaissance in PC games is long over¬
due. The average American PC is a powerful
beast, some fair way upmarket of its British
counterpart. Fast 80286 central processors
are becoming increasingly common, and
EGA capability is reckoned to be just about
essential. Running a CGA game on this kind
of equipment is like using an ST to emulate a
Spectrum, so it's only natural that there's a
big demand for better looking software.
That's not to say the CGA standard's
been bad for the US games industry, mind
you. While the obsession in Europe has been
with brighter, faster, smoother graphics,

The Bitmap Brothers' Speed Ball (Image-

works) looks.a whole lot better when
your PC's got EGA graphics.

32 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 SPECIAL

(Left and below) The arrival of Defender trum or C64 owner is going to choose a PC
of the Crown (Cinemaware) in EGA form
over an ST or Amiga solely on the basis of
shows just how far the standard's come
on over the last year. some rather naff-looking screens and a glow¬
ing write-up. A classic game won't win
THE EGA
upgraders over if it hides its light under a
bushel.
REVOLUTION
Graphic advances can change all this,
banishing the 'worthy but drab’ image. At
For details on the EGA (Enhanced
long last the heavyweight titles are getting
Graphics Adapter) display, you'll have
EGA-ised, giving them the visual appeal they
to leaf back a couple of pages. In a nut¬
so richly deserve. They're being joined by
shell though, EGA gives the PC a 16-
new titles, and conversions from elsewhere in
colour high- resolution screen to rival
the 16-bit arena. Cinemaware, a software
ST or Amiga displays. It also provides
house you'd normally associate with the
cunning hardware help, allowing games
Amiga, are about to release their glossy Nor-
to update the screen faster than would
man-basher Defender of the Crown for EGA
normally be possible.
PCs, and there must be plenty of others eye¬
ing up that huge pool of potential buyers.

OVER HERE visually orientated French and German pro¬

It's not just America that's getting on the EGA grammers away from their Amigos.
bandwagon: we're catching up in the UK
too. Solid 3D merchants Realtime have taken WHAT NEXT?
a good look at EGA and VGA systems with a The hope now is that the EGA PC will
game authors in the States have looked to in- view to writing for them, though they say become an automatic second or third choice
depth gameplay as a way of selling their you're unlikely to see Carrier Command on 16-bit machine, getting conversions of major
wares. the latter! games almost automatically. This process
The effort paid off: role-playing games have The Bitmap Brothers are another set of will take time: after all, the Amiga had a
flourished, and text adventures are still programmers working on EGA products, struggle for a while back there and ST
going strong. Could Seven Cities of Gold, the with the recently released Speed Ball shap¬ games will port directly over to it. Converting
Ultima series, or Infocom's Zork adventures ing up as their PC debut. Bitmap PC expert a 68000 game over to a PC is an enormous
have topped the charts in the UK? They did Eric reckons that EGA's a very handy game task by comparison.
in America! You can see the same trend at standard, and makes for a far better Speed For the time being, EGA machines are
work in the field of flight sims. Spectrum Ball than CGA could hope to manage. the exception rather than the rule in this
Holobyte's Falcon is immensely complex by Incentive's Driller made striking use of country. Eventually standards will move on
UK standards, while Sublogic's definitive that 16- colour EGA screen too, turning an as they have done in the US, so that CGA
Flight Simulator series of games are so adventure-speed 8-bit classic into a cracking falls by the wayside and EGA becomes the
detailed they aren't really games at all. arcade-paced puzzler at the same time. minimum acceptable set- up. The potential
The trend's even reached the continent now, rewards are vast: sales into the US market
OLD GLORY with games like Chip's 900-rated Joan of could give UK software houses a huge boost,
This depth reflects an important fact about Arc appearing in EGA PC form. The strong if they can provide the depth and realism
the American computer market as a whole. graphics potential could even lure those that American gamers demand.
Computer users in the States are a mature
bunch by UK standards, typically in their 20s
or 30s: Bob Jacob of Cinemaware reckons,
'The average person who buys one of our
products in the US is probably about 32 years
old.' This age factor is particularly pro¬
nounced with the PC because of its strong
office presence: there's a significant 'knock-
on' effect of people buying PCs to take work
home to.
These older users tend to like brainy
games with a lot of long-term appeal, and
don't mind spending a few hours wading
through a manual. US games players don't
go in for hand-eye coordination and fast
reaction games so much, partly because
their reflexes just aren't up to teenage stan¬
dards. They also care for a different type of
subject matter: toy-related games are rare
things in the States, while sports personality
licences are much sought-after.
The problem with carefully wrought,
heavyweight PC games is that they tend to
look rather dreary. PC users will soon get to
hear how good games like Falcon or Ultima
V are, and won't be put off by rather unin¬
spiring CGA screenshots. The same doesn't go
for people thinking of buying PCs: no Spec-

In four colour CGA, Falcon (Spectrum

Holobyte) was a game for purists. In 16,
Falcon AT is great stuff all round.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 33

 i 9 $ 9
TH E

Destroy the credibility of six world •«

leaders (although Ronnie s got a
new job) and SAVE THE WORLD.
. . »* 1 . . * * ' ..»' . » • • .
► • PREVENT ARMAGEDDON FROM
/ THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN DOmmJBji
' * ' PARK BENCH. * mfflmBl
**•#«*•••»«

|||| ***“' tltllllllllli

1 _

-X f t

What they
COMPLETELY BRlLLlA ’ tents W
(jf
“STUNNING” COMPUTER GAME I HAVE

STo« the Spittln* Image switchboard.

WARNING:DAMAGE
A good way to really damage your cassette or disk is to smear
marmalade all over it or leave it overnight in a bucket of creosote.

© Spitting Image Productions Ltd. 1988

Writer: Geoff Atkinson • Music: Phil Pope
Illustrator: Paul Cemmick • Puppets created by Fluck and Law
DOMARK Ferry House, Lacy Road, Putney, London, SW151PR.
PUBLICATION Telephone 01 -780 2224
TO CLONE
Imitation: it's been going on for years. Chaucer and Shakespeare collected up other people's stories and re-worked them, each
producing similar versions of Troilus and Criseyde/Cressida for example. But Troilus wasn't a coin-op, and nobody minded
much.
Nowadays, pop producers are sampling recordings, borrowing other people's sounds as well as other peoples tunes.
Software publishers, too, draw inspiration from each other's work, sometimes to the point of abject plagiarism. In the trade
corporate piracy of ideas and licences is a hotter issue than home piracy nowadays... With the big companies relying more and
more on arcade licences to provide the hits, they're getting aggressively protective about what they regard as their 'property'.

OBut the record of time reveals that the sinned against are as much the software sinners, as we discover...
fficial versions of coin-op games
stand a good chance of cleaning
up at Christmas, to the point where
smaller software houses that con¬
games, and as it grew, it fuelled itself by
drawing 'unofficial' inspiration from existing
products. For a long time, people didn't even
think about buying licences.
software industry who are now getting a hot
under the collar about clones were involved
in small software enterprises that began by
selling totally unofficial versions of games
Despite today's legal shenanigans, pub¬ like Space Invaders. Rod Cousens of Activi¬
centrate on original games can't
lishers and programmers are set to keep on sion, for instance, began his career in the
get a look-in during the festive season. No
cloning - or least borrowing and re-working software industry with Quicksilva, but more
wonder licence-holders are tetchy about pro¬
ideas. Maybe there really are only a handful of that later... Programmers now earning
tecting their rights.
of basic game ideas, which are bound to very tidy livings from producing official
Recently, Activision has been getting
crop up again and again, or maybe the cre¬ arcade conversions often learnt their craft
fiercely protective of its R-Type licence, scru¬
ative spark that brought games like Valhal¬ adopting and adapting games they had
tinising five games from other software hous¬
la, Knight Lore and Manic Miner has been seen in the arcades, with never a whiff of a
es (hardly surprising, when one Katakis
demo apparently featured a message from extinguished by the scrabble for coin-op licence agreement in the air.
licensing opportunities. Industry veteran Andrew Hewson recalls
the programmers to the effect of 'thank you
The naughtiness began right at the start, the early days: "It simply didn't occur to peo¬
to R-Type and the inspiration it has given
when the first home computers were ple that there was any kind of problem with
us').
released. Many of the captains of today's rights. Everyone was doing versions of
A month or so ago, US Gold withdrew
arcade games, so you just joined in."
Great Giana Sisters following pressure from
Some companies changed the game-
Nintendo who felt it looked a bit too much
play and fiddled with the title - like Intercep¬
like Super Mario Brothers. Wearing the boot
on the other foot, US Gold prompted Elite to
"Larger companies, like ourselves and Activi¬ tor, with Krazy Kong, PSS with Crazy Kong, or
Artie with Monkey Bizness - even Ocean
make noises about libel after making claims sion are beginning to realise that if you're
started that way, but at least they were the
that Overlander bore too striking a resem¬ going to pay large amounts of cash for first company to buy the an arcade licence
blance to its coin-op licence, Roadblasters.
licences, you're not going to put up with other (for Hunchback, with Superior Software who
Last year there was a Breakout Revival.
went for the BBC rights). Others just went out
The official licence to Arkanoid acquired by firm's duplication of the game." David Baxter, and cloned shamelessly. Like Quicksilva,
Imagine met up with Krakout, Addictaball,
Batty, and Giganoid along with a host of oth¬ US Gold. who produced Defender, Invaders, QS
Scramble, Asteroids and Galaxians.
ers that led a French magazine to review six¬
As official licences were acquired, direct
teen games that bore a striking resemblance Firebird's version off Space Invaders cloning of 'classic' games continued. Just
to Arkanoid, and admit that they hadn't cov¬
before its demise, Mikro-Gen was preparing
ered all the possibilities. Ironically, while the
to launch a series of budget 'arcade classics',
owners of the official Arkanoid licence
and a few years ago Bubble Bus had the
growled in defence to their rights, the coin-op
same idea, releasing Classic Muncher as a
company which had sold them the licence
$ # #*#*#*#*•$$ m - budget Pacman. Classic cloning still hasn't
was itself sued by the people who brought
died out. About a year ago, Firebird released
Super Breakout into the arcades. Funny old P <S> P P P P P P Arcade Classics and enjoyed great success
world, isn't it?
P.P.P.&. & & & with its quartet of clones - Space Invaders,
Asteroids, Snakes and Space Wars - which
THE OLD, OLD STORY
apparently became one of its top-selling
The only thing that is new, is the fuss. The
entertainment software industry came into
PI budget titles. And not an official licence in
being with back-bedroom clones of existing sight.

36 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 Cl AL

SEEKING INSPIRATION tot up the advertising bills, count in the

Looking to the arcades tor inspiration was expense of producing the disks, tapes, inlays
common in the early days of games pro¬ and so on, and you realise that an awful lot
gramming, as David Llewellyn of Walking of US Gold money was riding on the success
Circles (nee Design Design and Crystal) or failure of the title.
recalls: "When we started Crystal nobody Publishers need to sell a lot of units in
thought two hoots about bringing out Space order to recoup that sort of investment, and
Invaders and calling their game Space they are understandably wary of having an
Invaders. We didn't do exact copies, but bor¬ expensive hit title undermined by a 'clone',
rowed here and there." Tank Busters owed or 'lookalike' game produced without a
quite a lot to Battlezone, and then the line licence. The arguments that there's plenty of
vector routines from Tank Busters were room for everyone, or that a real fan of an
improved and adapted for a space game, arcade game will buy the official version
which appeared a little while after the Giganoid: judged to be 'a mirror image' of
along with unofficial versions doesn't con¬
arrival of Star Wars in the arcades: Dark Star. Arkanoid in Issue 12
vince the owners of expensive licences.
"In those days, we were just kids getting SOFTWARE PROTECTION Last year, there was a fair bit of up-front
on with it", David remembers, "every now Buying arcade rights has become a highly sabre-rattling in Computer Trade Weekly, the
and again we heard of someone being competitive and expensive business. Lead¬ industry newspaper - several companies
warned off but we were a bit naive - for ing software publishers bid against each announced the acquisition of licences with
instance, we wrote a game and called it other for the opportunity to produce the offi¬ aggressive adverts pointing out that their
Nemesis, not even knowing that there was cial version of coin-op games; the stakes are solicitors would be watching for clones. This
an arcade game with that name. It would high, and are getting higher. Last year, for year the issue has gone slightly more public.
have cost a lot of money to fight the issue in instance, the Out Pun licence is rumoured to But where does drawing inspiration end
court, whether we won or lost the case, so have cost US Gold in the region of £250,000 - and cloning begin? Were programmers such
we called the game Nexor." add in the cost of programming five versions, as John Ritman and Steve Crow guilty of

"You must have heard it said that there are

only six jokes in the world, and every joke is THE SAGA OF MONOPOLY
directly related to one of those six. Well, there Arcade games were not the only their case on the grounds that
are probably only six or seven games in the source of inspiration in the early their computer game was not
world too." Steve Wilcox, Elite days of the software industry. Tra¬ based on Monopoly, but on a tra¬
ditional entertainments, such as dition of property-trading games
card games and board games that was nearly as old as chess.
If challenged, companies tended to back were converted for the home The injuction was withdrawn 'at
off. Microdeal, for instance, ran up against computer in droves. Clearly, no- the doors of the High Court'
Activision with Cuthbert in the Jungle, as one owns the rights to chess, according to Mel Croucher, and
John Symes remembers: "they said our game draughts or bridge - they are 'in about six months later it became
was a copy, and that they were going to the public domain' and anyone ties are ranged around the edges clear that Waddingtons didn't
sue. Talking to our solicitors, we learnt that it can come up with a computerised of the board, Public Services are intend to take the matter any fur¬
would probably cost us £18,000 to go to version without fear of alienating featured, players have to deal ther. By this time, most of the
court, before we got a decision, so we said someone who holds rights. with a Go To Jail square and col¬ other small software companies
okay, well kick it into touch." In the absence Property-trading games, like lect £200 for completing a circuit backed off, however, withdrawing
of legal aid for companies, as John points chess, go back a long way - as of the board. Sound familiar? And their property-trading games.
out, a large company can bankrupt a small far back as Egyptian times - but this game was on commercial Sadly, the boss of one such soft¬
one before a case gets to court. Monopoly, produced in this coun¬ release some 20 years before ware house committed suicide
John still believes that you shouldn't be try by Waddingtons under licence American boardgame giants Park¬ around that time - the pressures
able to copyright an idea. "Copyright exists since the 1930's, has enjoyed a er Brothers bought up the rights to of running Rabbit Software
in the artistic content - if someone copies monopoly on commercial proper¬ three games - one called became too much for Alan Sav¬
game graphics then there's reason for people ty-trading boardgames for around Monopoly and two others on age, one of the first casualties of
to get upset." fifty years. In the early 1980's, a which it was based, The Land¬ the entertainment software indus¬
Atari was amongst the first companies to handful of software houses pro¬ lord's Game and Finance. try.
get protective about the rights to a game - in duced monopoly-style property¬ In May 1983, Mel Croucher Nowadays Leisure Genius
1982, it produced a version of Pacman for its trading games without approach¬ and Christian Penfold released a publish the official, licensed ver¬
consoles, and started making noises about ing Waddingtons. Waddingtons game called Automonopoli on the sion of Waddington's Monopoly,
home computer clones of the game. Bug got upset - even though the US Spectrum - published by their and have the market to them¬
Byte was warned off and withdrew Vicman, Appeal court had ruled that Park¬ company Automata, it was just selves.
while arch hardware rivals Commodore got er Brothers, the company that one of a number of computerised Interestingly, between Aprii
into a spot of bother with Atari over Jelly granted Waddintons their property-trading games released and November 1983 a period
Wars. Monopoly licence, had no right to around that time. Waddingtons when the 'opoli' computer games
The cloning continued, however, in a the 'Monopoly' trading name, and reacted with an injection, so were selling well, sales of the
fairly unashamed manner. Pacman is one of despite the fact that property-trad¬ Automata changed the name to Monopoly board game also went
the 'great game themes', which has ing games have a long history. Go To Jail. Late in 1983, just as very well for Waddingtons, appar¬
appeared over and over again - while In the Museum of Childhood the peak Christmas selling period ently increasing by 36% over the
Grand Slam has done the decent thing and in Edinburgh, for instance, there’s was looming, Waddingtons threat¬ same period in the previous year,
collected official licences to the more recent a boxed boardgame called Brer ened Automata with another injuc- so fie argument that imitation is
Pacman arcade machines, other companies Fox an' Brer Rabbit which was tion, to prevent the marketing of not only the sincerest form of flat¬
have continued to borrow Pacinspiration, manufactured in 1910 by Newbie Go To Jail. tery, but actually increases sales
right up to US Gold with their recent Pepsi games. It has a square board with Automata made it clear that may have some grounding...
Mad Mix Challenge game, reviewed this a Treasury in the centre, proper¬ they intended to fight, defending
issue.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 37

 Cl AL

traditional cardgames or sports - there can't lowed leaders like Knight Lore, Atic Atac
plagiarism with Batman and- Wizard's Lair, or
be much of a case for copyright infringment. and Sabrewuli. But then Ultimate came from
were they just programming in the Ultimate
Or can there? Monopoly caused quite a row the arcades in the first place, made their
School in much the same way as Monet
five years ago (see box). Sometimes it's diffi¬ money and went back...
painted in the Impressionist style? And does
the same hold true of Rainbow Arts, the peo¬ cult to determine who owns what - as in the
ple behind Great Giana Sisters and a num¬ case of the Arkanoid/Super Breakout row
that broke out in the arcades after the
ber of other 'lookalikes'?
Personalities come into copyright rows,
too, it seems. Mark Cole of System 3 had a
Arkanoid licence had been sold for home
computer conversion.
ALTERNATIVE
spot of bother in the States over Internation¬
al Karate, which Data East thought resem¬
Activision had the rights to Rampage,
bought from the coin-op company, and then
STRATEGIES
bled their arcade game Karate Champ. "I US Gold came up with Ramparts while
Spending money on a licence nowadays is a
think that might have been a personal thing Gremlin were working on T-Wrecks (now to
speculative investment, a form of venture capi¬
between Data East and Epyx (who released be released as part of a licensing deal with
talism in effect, with work often subcontracted to
IK in the States). The men were different and the manufacturers of Chewits). Three games
programmers. No wonder the giants of the soft¬
the moves were different, but there is only so involving monsters smashing the place up,
ware industry are protective of their rights.
much you can do in a Karate game - karate but where does the copyright lie? As Ian Stu¬
Under British copyright law, as it exists at the
is karate, after all", Mark observes. art of Gremlin points out, Chewits have been
moment, taking action is expensive and the out¬
So long as the theme for a game is in the running a commercial that stars a Ram¬
come against a clone arranger is uncertain.
public domain - like chess, backgammon, page- type monster for fifteen years.
One strategy that no-one has tried yet is to
There's certainly an element of publicly
buy an licence, announce the aquisition to the
flexing coporate muscle in the disputes
trade and sit tight. After six months or so, sever¬
"We will not tolerate infringement of our copy¬ about licences, along with the desire to nur¬
al companies would have produced clones from
ture the fruits of an expensive licence deal.
right. ft prove this requires an enormous the coin-op, so the licence holder could step in,
Sometimes the big boys can co-exist in har¬
annexe the best version for publication and
amount of work and time - often looking at mony, as happened with US Gold's Gaunt¬
issue injunctions on all the others, thereby sav¬
let, Firebird's Druid and Electric Dreams'
games frame by frame - but we are willing to Dandy. Sometimes they fall out. And some¬
ing all the expense and hassle of hiring pro¬
grammers...
do it." Rod Cousens, Activision times they don't care - like Ultimate, who did
nothing about the host of imitators that fol¬

THE WOLF PACK

The 'military shoot-em-up' is hardly new to the home computer or the coin-op sure that any Ocean licence makes unofficial imitators look just like pale imitations.
machine, and Operation Wolf is the most recent in a line of soldier-killers that "We've tried to get as close as possible to the feel of Operation Wolf - you can't do
include Commando and Ikari Warriors. This Christmas, Ocean is set to wow shoot- games like WEC Le Mans, Outrun and Wolf and actually simulate the controls, but
em-up fans with its official licence of Taito's machine-gun mayhem game. This issue, we've got as close as possible. Our game stands up - we've created the feel and
Screen Test looks at Wolf from Ocean, and also casts a critical eye over two other atmosphere of the coin-op in so far as it is possible to do so."
games that could easily have been inspired by the arcade machine: POW and Vet¬ He's not too impressed by Veteran "to be very objective, our game stands up
eran. But where does the chain end? Operation Wolf itself is hardly amazingly origi¬ well in comparison - we’ve got better graphics, better control", nor is he too worried
by POW "we saw it a while ago, and again didn't feel too threatened - it's all small
nal...
Gary Bracey of Ocean is philosophical - it’s highly unlikely that Ocean will be sprites in the distance."
rushing off to the courts to take action against Wolf-like games. "It's a shame", he Mungo Amyatt-Leir of Software Horizons, the people behind Veteran, can see
some similarities between his
comments, "we're paying for a licence, and
game and Operation Wolf:
other people may be cashing in on the
"Obviously, it has a similar type
back of the arcade machine's success, but
of gameplay - nobody can deny
we don't feel too threatened by it". Ocean’s
that". But it seems unlikely that
line seems to be that they will pass on any
any arcade cloning has taken
potential Wolf clones to Taito rather than
place... "Our programmer lives
take action themselves.
and works in Yugoslavia, and I
Gary Bracey's strategy in the clone
doubt he's had the opportunity
wars is to produce the best game, making
to play the arcade machine.
[Top left) Veteran. The brief we gave him was to
[Above) P.O.W. make an exciting 3D comman¬
[Left) Operation Wolf
do shoot-em-up, and Veteran is
just what he came up with."
Actionware's Howard Newmark sighs when he is asked about POW in the con-
»xt of Operation Wolf. "It's going back to the same old subject", he says, "like how
iany different types of Karate game are there, or how many different types of game
an you have that involve using a gun. POW is certainly not plagiarised from Opera-
on Wolf". Although he admits that POW might have drawn some inspiration from
ames like Wolf, Howard Newmark points out that it was being designed and written
lonths ago as a game to go with Actionware's lightgun peripheral.
It seems unlikely that Software Horizons or Actionware set out to clone Wolf (for
start, it could be argued that they would have done a much better job). As Mungo
vmyatt-Leir says "It's quite a popular game theme at the moment, to kill a lot of peo-
ile, and you can't really licence a game theme. The problem in the marketplace at
he moment is to come up with an original theme that is popular with the public."
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 SCREEN TEST
Welcome, to the biggest Screen Test section ever. It's not just big either, it's

INDEX
absolutely bursting with headlining games that will make this the hottest
Christmas yet. There are no less than six 900 rated games and another five
that got close, scoring over 800.
Among them, are some classic coin-op conversions for which we have
ACE RATED
devised an additional rating - the new Arcade Accuracy rat¬ 59 BOMBUZAL Imageworks
ing indicates just how well the programmers have managed to 78 DRILLER (ST & Amiga) Incentive
reproduce the graphics, sound and overall feel of an arcade 44 JOAN OF ARC GO
79 NEBULUS (ST & Amiga) Hewson
game, given the limitations of the machine been converted for. 84 POOL OF RADIANCE US Gold
It doesn't reflect how good a computer game the conversion is: 47 POWERDROME Electronic Arts
for that you still refer to the ACE Rating. Operation Wolf, FI-
Type and SDI are the pick of the month's conversions - great REVIEWED
programming, great games. 58 ACTION SERVICE Infogrames
There are some fantastic original titles in the form 58 ALBEDO Loriciels
86 ARTURA Gremlin
of Powerdrome - futuristic racing action; Bombuzal- 86 CAPONE Actionware
a puzzle game set to be a classic; and Joan of Arc - 82 [Link] Hewson
a marvellous strategy game. They all weigh in with 76 DT'S OLYMPIC CHALLENGE Ocean
67 ELEMENTAL Lankhor
900 ratings. Still not enough for you? Well, how about 86 FINAL ASSAULT Epyx
the pick of the updates, as Nebulus and Driller 62 FUSION Electronic Arts
arrive on the ST and Amiga to rave receptions? Role-play¬ 53 FUTURE MAGIC Electronic Arts
74 GAME OVER II Dinamic
ers are in for a treat as well, with Pool of Radiance also
82 GAMES: SUMMER EDITION Epyx
busting the 900 barrier. 56 HOSTAGES Infogrames
It's the biggest and it's full of the best, enjoy. 52 MENACE Psyclapse
42 OPERATION WOLF Ocean
56 PEPSI MAD MIX US Gold
76 P.O.W. Actionware
49 ROCKET RANGER Cinemaware
THE RATINGS 50 R-TYPE Electric Dreams
75 SDI Activision
44 SPACE HARRIER Elite
HOW they're all you need to glance at is the Rod Lawton prefers to reason with 67 SPACE RACER Loriciels
calculated... renowned ACE RATING. This is aliens - then shoot them. Bob 74 SUPERSPORTS Gremlin
If you buy a game, how much calculated according to the area Wade (ex-Personal Computer 62 TRACK SUIT MANAGER Goliath
enjoyment will you get out of it, under the PIC. The bigger it is, Games, Zzap!64 and Amstrad 52 TYPHOON Imagine
and for how long? Just check out the better the game. Add to that Action) has played more computer 86 VETERAN Software Horizons
our revolutionary PIC (Predicted our definitive ratings for IQ Factor games than any sane person
Interest Curve) for the full story. (will it give your brain cells a work¬ ought to. Add Graeme Kidd, who
Brilliant arcade games start high out?) and Fun Factor - a measure joins us this month as Editor with a UPDATES
on the curve, and then steadily of instant appeal and exhilaration background in computer games • ST
tail off as you as you dive into the that's nearly as wide as his waist is
lose interest; 78 FERNANDEZ MUST DIE
game. And, of course, round (he started with Central TV-
powerful puz¬ we rate the Graphics and but remember him on CRASH or
zle games Audio effects too...for The Games Machine? read him in
may ride the EVERY machine the Your Sinclair or The One? Enough
crest of the game's available on. said).
curve for months - but the Every game on the follow¬
moment you solve them they'll WHY you can rely ing pages has been seen by all of
come tumbling down; complex on them... us. We compare notes, express
strategy games may stump you at The ACE reviewing team covers a differing opinions, and only then
first - but climb up the scale as broad spectrum of computer enter¬ do we decide who's to take final
you begin to appreciate the scope tainment talent. Andy Wilton - responsibility for getting our views
of the gameplay. And as for the ACE's resident technical wizz - is into print. What follows, then, isn't
turkeys - they start low, stay low, as handy with a smart bomb as he just a collection of casual com¬
and have nowhere to go but is with hexadecimal. Andy Smith ments, but the definitive ACE ver¬
down, down, down. wouldn't know hexadecimal from a dict on this month's software.
Once you've seen how long hole in the ground, but can wipe We've checked it out - now you
the game can hold your attention, the floor with any number of aliens. can too.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 41

 N T

C64 version - If you run out of rockets Spectrum version - your damage meter C64 version - out of ammo! Line up on
you can always revert to pumping has reached the top. Another hit and that magazine and hope you hit it with
machine gun fire into the tanks. you'll be finished, here. one of the few free shots you're given.

OPERATION W
OCEAN spray bullets
'Op Wolf as it's lovingly know by the
tally-scrolling stage contains a detatchment
thousands of arcade tans who've hadof enemy forces which has to be blown C64 VERSION
amusement halls up and down the country away before the section is complete. Larger The only one of the three reviewed here that gives
ringing to the sound of hundreds of machine
opponents in the form of tanks, helicopters you the option to play with either mouse or joystick.
guns bratt-a-tat-tatting. The otfical version of
and gun boats back up the foot soldiers, and Playing with the mouse is the easier option, but you
do get more ammo and grenades at the start of the
the game hass been a while coming to the can only be destroyed with multiple bullet
game if you play with joystick. The collision detec¬
home micro, but now the 8-bit versions arehits or a single rocket.
tion is the tightest on the C64 so you can find your¬
complete with ST and Amiga due to follow Targetting the enemy involves moving a self shooting through the gap between baddies' legs
shortly for an all-formats releae. Has Ocean
crosshair sight around the screen. Hitting the if you're not careful. Playing on joystick is very tough
managed to capture the excitement of the fire button changes the cursor into a bullet to begin with, but like most things perseverance
coin-op? hole (or a line of dust spitting up from the pays off.
The game is divided into six stages and
floor, if your aim is not that good). Setting
your prime directive is to get to the fifth stage,
out with seven magazines of bullets and five GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 1
rescue the hostages held there in a concentra¬
grenades, you are under-equipped - so resist AUDIO 8 FUN FACTOR 9
tion camp and make sure they all get aboard
the urge to keep the button pressed as you
ACE RATING 894
a getaway plane that's found in stage [Link] to wipe everything out, and make sure to
Armed with a machine gun and a fistful
pick up ammunition as you go. This can
of rockets,you have to shoot and blast away
prove to be tricky at times, because you
at the enemy, killing as many of them as have to shoot the extra ammo clips and AMSTRAD VERSION
The most colourful and with the fastest scroll of the
you can before they shoot you. Each horizon¬
rockets that are lying on floor before they go
8-bit lot which affects the gameplay quite a bit if
scrolling off the screen. If the enemy is
you've played the other versions. Terrific, if very
Stage one on the Amstrad - with no rockets ganging up on the screen, you have to mindless, fun.
remaining and five tanks and four helicopters decide whether you can last until the
left to destroy, your chances are slim. next clip appears, when you might GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 1
have fewer opponents on screen and AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 9
less chance of sustaining hits. Small
ACE RATING 894
animals scurry across the screen, and
are an extra source of ammunition - if
you manage to shoot them you're
awarded with extra ammo. SPECTRUM VERSION
The graphics are all in monochrome (though the
A meter monitors your health,
colour changes for each stage) so it can be tough to
diminishing as you take hits and
see the baddies sometimes. The game loads in one
falling dramatically if you blow away go on 128K machines but is multi-load on 48K
one of the non-combatant natives, machines. You'll find yourself playing this for a long
nurses or hostages. Shooting small bot¬ time to come - even if you manage to complete it
tles of medicine on the ground reduces you’ll find yourself coming back whenever you feel
your damage level, and completing a the urge to blast away at some baddies.
section allows for a bit of restorative
GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 1
R&R. Other extras that appear on the
ground include sticks of dynamite AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 9
which act like smart bombs, clearing ACE RATING 887
mnmE the screen if you shoot them.
42 Advanced Computer Entertainment
 The stages get progressively harder.
Alter Stage Three some of the baddies get
cunning and start wearing bullet-proof vests,
so you have to shoot them in the head to
despatch them.
Operation Wolf was never a game to test
your brain power - it's undiluted mayhem
and mass murder all the way. The 8-bit ver¬
sions of the game are surprisingly faithful to
the original coin- op: not only has all the
action and gameplay been captured, but so
has the excitement, making it one of .the
most satisfying and compulsive shoot-em-
ups to have appeared in a long time.
• Andy Smith

RELEASE BOX
ATARI ST £19.95dk IMMINENT
AMIGA £24.95dk IMMINENT
IBM PC £19.95dk IMMINENT
C64/128 £9.95cs£14.95dk REVIEWED
SPECTRUM £8.95cs £14.95dk REVIEWED SCORI

AMSTRAD £9.95cs£14.99dk REVIEWED

Advanced Computer Entertainment 43

 REEN

Fortunately there isn't any of

that distasteful burning at the
stake nonsense in this game.
UPDATE SPECIAL Instead, it concentrates on the
m battle to crown a King of
France and rid the French
countryside of the scourge of the English

SPACE HARRIER I and II invaders.

After a history of events presented in a
pleasant storybook form, you're shown a map
ST* Elite £19.99dkeacK of France that reveals the current political lie
of the land and the location of armies. Joan of
Harrier is one of the fastest, Arc commands an army that is alone and
aliens to deal with, although they haven't
SPACE most colourful and action- been altered much for the additional data
under attack. You take the role of Charles, heir
packed arcade games around. On the home to the throne and can control Joan’s army.
disk. They range from massive gun-toting
computer, it was very successful in its 8-bit The first objective is to gain the throne, which
robots to bouncing oranges that look like the
forms and is proving just as good in its ST involves conquering Orleans and Reims.
alien from the film Dark Star. At the end of
incarnations. The main game menu offers seven
each level is a massive guardian that has to
Harrier takes the interesting perspective of options, but at the start, all that is available is
be hit many times before it expires.
having everything coming straight at you out The basic game is certainly a great one
of the screen. You control a man with a jet- for sheer speed and zapping action. Space volande of mm
mm
pack who can fly anywhere around the JOHN OF ftfiC
Harrier II - essentially a second data disk - JEAN, Me of ALENCON
screen and shoots from the hip with a laser. doesn't really offer much that is new, but fans OiLtES Of RAfS
LAHfRE
fissites at the
the Kings Court
The landscape rushes forwards, bringing will probably enjoy the extra challenge. KAINTRAfLLES
RE6NAULT of CHARTRES
static ground objects and all sorts of alien • Bob Wade WN0l$, 6*Urd of ORLEANS REGNAULT of CHARTRES
TREWILE CHANCELLOR
waves straight at you. With the ground
?*•*" politics. tmm
objects it's a simple matter of seeing them
ATARI ST VERSION stmtwy. fmm
coming and getting the hell out of the way or
The sprites are giant-sized and move very fast - too WHY LESSER...UEftk
blasting them if they're destructible.
fast at times. It makes excellent use of colour and
The aliens of course aren't such a simple has some superbly designed aliens. The music is
2 charecterU) to choose

matter. Not only to they follow many different good and there are competent blasting effects.
movement patterns but they also shoot accu¬ A list of the French characters currently
rately, and can come zipping onto the screen GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 1
available to you. On the right are the
from right next to you or gradually advance attributes of one of them. Clearly he's a
AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 8 good man to send on a diplomatic mission.
from the far distance. This element of perspec¬
tive is what makes the game so enjoyable ACE RATING 729
the option to commence a campaign by mov¬
and yet so difficult. No matter where they are ing the army commanded by Joan and
in terms of perspective the aliens can still attacking other armies or towns. Armies meet
shoot at you.
in combat on the open field, while conquering
There's a very impressive collection of a town or fortress is a matter of fighting your
way inside.
ARCADE ACCURACY In open field combat you use icons to con¬
Obviously the ST offers the trol soldiers, archers, cavalry and bombards.
closest of all the conversions Generally, weight of numbers will triumph, but
and has all the colour, speed a lot can depend on factors such as the weath¬
and challenge of the arcade er, who's got the high ground and when you
version. commit the forces. Attacking towns is more
arcade-based. First there a combat sequence
COIN OP SCORE 9 where you have got to fight past several sol¬
diers at the gates, then the walls must be
Big, bad robots are just one of the many awkward aliens. scaled, avoiding the rocks and boiling oil
thrown down at you. The situation is reversed
when someone attacks one of your towns -
you defend the wall by throwing rocks and oil.
Failure to gain the crown results in Joan
being pensioned off and the game ending,
but as King you can access the other options
on the menu and the real game begins. The
King has to liberate the whole of France from
the control of English and other rebel forces,
and all the commands at your disposal need
to be used: diplomacy, espionage, helping
hand, Royal Treasury, Royal Justice, raising a

44 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 REEN T

JOAN OF ARC
A well-done game from RAINBOW ARTS
and as a 'helping hand'. Espionage can
reveal what's happening all over the country,
while the helping hand is a sinister option,
that allows the King to bump oft or kidnap
opponents. If an opponent has been cap¬
tured; you can dispense some Royal Justice
and execute him. French characters can also
be arrested and executed, or pardoned if
you're in a good mood.
The Royal Treasury is absolutely vital
because you can't pay armies, spies or any¬
one else if you haven't got the loot. The only
way to get cash is to impose tithes on the
provinces controlled by the King - don't be too
harsh, and remember that one type of tythe
has to be collected at the appropriate time of
year; miss the moment, and you're in trouble.
There's an obvious comparison with
Defender of the Crown, and Joan of Arc wins
convincingly. As well as the arcade
'sequences, the strategy side of the game is
well thought out. When you become King the
game isn't over - it has only just begun, and it
gets better and better.
• Bob Wade
(Above) The initial map of France showing
Joan of Arc's army as the blue flag, and
French held territory in blue. The icons at
the right access the option menus.

(Inset above) Battling your way into the

castle you have to have swordfights with
several soldiers and avoid the arrows, in
order to get to the gate.

(Right) The battlefield where armes col¬

lide. All the figures are tiny, but the action
is cleverly put together as the various
groups of soldiers, archers and cavalry
clash.

ATARI ST VERSION
The graphics and presentation are very slick and
atmospheric indeed, rivalling Defender of the Crown
for quality. The still pictures and animation all look
good, but there isn't much sound and no music at
all. One problem is the disk accessing which leads
to pauses between the action, but this niggle doesn't
harm the gameplay much.

GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 7

AUDIO 2 FUN FACTOR 6

Royal Army and starting a campaign.
ACE RATING 912 Most options involve dealing with the PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE
game's 30-odd characters. These split into
three main groups: French characters, English
IBM PC VERSION and other potential hostiles, and six spies.
The EGA graphics are comparable with the ST's and Each character has strengths for politics, strat¬
all the gameplay operates in exactly the same man¬ egy, and as an army leader. Good politicians
ner. The CGA version doesn't look half as good but
are useful for diplomatic negotiations for the
still plays just fine.
release of prisoners, peace treaties and 0KSQB9 I
alliances. Good army leaders are obviously
GRAPHICS 8(4) IQ FACTOR 7 Imin Ihour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear
good commanders for campaigns, while strat¬
AUDIO 2 FUN FACTOR 6 egy appears to affect most things... Plenty to do right from the start and the depth to
ACE RATING 912 The- attributes of the spies are somewhat last as well.
different, because you use them for espionage
Advanced Computer Entertainment 45
 CHRISTMAS#
adi(fRi\imes NEW YEAR
ABC gjj 9.00pm EXPLODING FIST +
When the snow starts a-falling and the wind starts
a-howling there’s nothing better to warm up those frost
bitten fingers than the blistering heat of
EXPLODING FIST+.
If you’re feeling guilty after stuffing your face with all
9.00am SAVAGE that Christmas turkey, here’s your chance to get back into
First out of the stocking this Christmas has to be shape — or get kicked into the middle of the New Year!
SAVAGE. An epic of gargantuan proportions in three Spectrum cassette £7.99
mind blowing action packed levels. Commodore 64 cassette
Savage features graphics so stunning they’ll put £9.99, disc £12.99 ....
Commodore 64 screen shot
your Christmas tree lights
to shame!
Spectrum cassette £8.99
Commodore 64 cassette
£9.99, disc £12.99
Amstrad cassette £8.99,
disc £14.99
Amstrad screen shot

11.00am ELITE
Intergalactic action hits the 16-bit screen with a bang as
the all time classic ELITE explodes into solid 3D
splendour. Be warned, this
game is so addictive you’ll
be up all night... and Santa
won’t leave any goodies
if you don’t get to
bed on time!
Atari ST £24.95
Amiga £24.95

3.00pm DYNAMIC DUO

Going underground takes on a new meaning as you
battle through pitch black tunnels and passageways in
search of wealth beyond your wildest imagination. But
beware of lurking monsters with no sense of tradition, it’s
duck not turkey on their
Christmas menu.
Spectrum cassette £7.99
Commodore 64 cassette
£9.99, disc £12.99
Amstrad cassette £8.99,
disc £14.99 HTnriTtal

6.00pm BLAZING BARRELS

Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without a rip
roarin’ Western. So Firebird are proud to present, fresh
from their famous ICOM studios, BLAZING
BARRELS, featuring the all star cast of...
Bammo
THE MEXICAN BANDITO
TNT Tom
THE REALLY BAD GUY
You, alias Blackjake
THE BOUNTY HUNTER Sequel to the blockbuster
Atari ST £19.99 WAY OF THE EXPLODING FIST!
Amiga £19.99 Afar/ Sr screen shot

Christmas Viewing
For mail order please send your order and remittance (cheques payable to British Telecom pic or
direct debit from Access/Visa card by stating number and expiry date) to:
The Marketing Department, Telecomsoft, First Floor, 64-76 New Oxford Street,
London WC1A IPS.

Telecomsoft, First Floor, 64-76 New Oxford St, London WC1A IPS. A LEGEND IN GAfAES SOFTWARE
Firebird and Firebird Logo are trademarks of British Telecommunications PLC.
© Imagine a game that has the
sort of mouse control found
in Ferrari Formula One, but
with up and down controls
thrown in as well. A game
that takes you into a whole
new dimension of race games and a provides
a vision of the future along the way.
Essentially, this is like any other race
game. You're taking part in a championship
run over six races against four computer
opponents. The tracks and weather conditions
vary, and pit stops are available - the differ¬
ence is that the tracks go underground, loop-
the-loop and even try to crush your craft. The
weather includes particle storms and ammo¬
nia and sulphur atmospheres. As for the pit
stops, they consist of replacing large chunks
of the ship, which takes a battering from ram-

There's a tight left turn coming up - can

you sneak past that guy in front of you?
INSET: Fly under that bridge and you'll
be plunged into shadow, emerging into
the light on the other side.

POWERDROME
ELECTRONIO ARTS pedal to the metal
ming into the walls and floor. best done during the qualifying session, rather aren't challenging enough, you can use the
The six tracks will test anybody's flying than during a race. datalink option to hook up to another ST or
skills because they twist and turn all over the The other competitors are of varying qual¬ Amiga and fly against a human player.
shop. There are thin gaps to squeeze through, ity but it's going to be no easy thing to beat The controls are pretty tough to get used
walls that close in, and tight hairpins both any of them, let alone win a race. As for win¬ to, but right from the start you'll be hooked on
horizontally and vertically. At first they seem ning the championship that's one of the tallest it and have the hang of things after half-an-
impossible, but practising and modifying your orders going. If the computer-controlled racers hour's play. A classic concept, beautifully
highly-responsive ship will soon change that. implemented and which will have you totally
The ship has many variables that affect absorbed for months.
the way it performs, including different fuel • Bob Wade
mixtures, aileron sizes, brake sizes, pitch-roll
settings and filters. The filters are necessary for
flying through different atmospheres like ATARI ST VERSION
The graphics give an excellent impression of speed
ammonia and methane - pick the wrong one
and movement, and you can toss the ship around in
and the engines won’t perform at all well in a all sorts of ways. You actually need to sit back from
hostile atmosphere. the monitor to get the best effect. You'll be throwing
Flying round the course you'll inevitably yourself around with the ship as it banks, climbs and
bump into the walls, floors and ceilings. Even¬ dives. The real disappointment is the sound - it's
tually, bits of the ship get damaged, and the lousy. Turn it off and enjoy the game without it.
damage starts to affect the controls. With both
You're at the back of the grid at the GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 4
wings bust and the nosecone in tatters, the
start. As soon as the lights change
craft steers like a supermarket trolley with all you've got to whack on the engines and AUDIO 2 FUN FACTOR 7
four wheels headed in different directions. race to that first corner.
ACE RATING 925
The only way to cure this is to make a pit
The pit screen where you can replace
stop.
bits of the craft and get refuelled.
The pits are a very hi-tech affair where PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE
damaged body parts can be replaced, fuel
taken on board and data on the race
accessed. You can also modify the trim of the
craft to make it handle better, although this is

RELEASE BOX
ATARI ST £24.95dk OUT NOW
AMIGA £24.95dk EARLY '89 Imin 1 hour Iday 1 week 1 month lyear

It's a beast to start with but it’s always got that

IBM PC £24.95dk SPRING'89
special something that keeps you at it.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 47

 — — OFFICIAL —

Advanced
Dungeons^pragons
HIQTORY ^ never be the same
rllw I Vn I QgoiH who ever heard of

Zeppelins, rocket men, lunarium and moon

bases during World War II? Put reality on
hold when strapping on your rocket pack
because all manner of strange things are
going to happen, in tact the further you get
the weirder things become.
At first it looks like you’re in for a fairly
conventional WWII setting, as Hitler rants
away on the opening screen. This impression
rapidly evaporates as your first task is to put
on a rocket pack and chase a Zeppelin
across the Atlantic ocean from America. This
is just one part of the main mission to stop
Nazi Germany conquering the whole world.
They're doing it using lunarium bombs - pro¬ After a bruising fist fight you've knocked out the Nazi guard and can escape with one
duced from mines on the moon. To stop of the five rocket parts.
them you will have to get to the moon and
destroy the base.

ROCKET
To get to the moon you have to find the
five parts that make up a moon rocket, steal
enough lunarium to fuel it and meanwhile
stop the Zeppelin fleet from invading Ameri¬
ca. To achieve this you have to complete
many action sequences jetting around the
world as Rocket Ranger, and also the strate¬
gy elements from your home base at Fort
Dix.
In the war room you have a map of the
world and five agents. Each agent can be
sent to a country to infiltrate it. They will
send back information on what is there -
lunarium supplies, rocket parts or other
potential targets. They can also organize
RANGER
CINEMAWARE at full thrust
resistance to slow down the Nazi advance. There are two types of aerial combat,
Unfortunately they can also be discovered one against squadrons of Messerschmidt
and killed, so use them carefully because 109's and the other strafing ground based
without them it's very difficult to track down ack-ack guns. On the ground there's a gun
all the rocket parts. battle with guards in a ruined temple and
Once RR has loaded up with lunarium in hand-to-hand combat with soldiers guarding
the rocket pack he has to go through a take¬ the rocket parts. You aren't given much help
off sequence at Fort Dix. This isn't easy, par¬ on how to complete them at first, but the tac¬
ticularly with a heavy fuel load, but it's tics are relatively easy. However, every time
essential you practice it, because failure you complete a sequence it gets harder the
wastes a lot of time. You get three attempts The war rom is where you can use your next time you attempt it.
at taking off, and you'll be glad of them. five agents. A rocket factory has been The sub-plot that runs throughout the
Which action sequence you get depends on found in the middle east and the Zeppelin game is to rescue Professor Otto Barnstorff
fleet is busy conquering Europe.
which location you fly to. The journey hap¬ and his daughter from the Nazis. This will
pens automatically and depends on how considerably reduce the Nazis efficiency but
much fuel you put in the pack. Choose the is not essential to completing the game.
wrong amount and you'll end up splashing This is probably the best Cinemaware
down in the ocean and ending the game. game yet, blending superb graphics with
arcade action and strategy. There's enough
variety and depth to it to keep you interest¬
RELEASE BOX ed, although the pace of the game is still
slow because you have to go through a lot of
AMIGA £29.99dk REVIEWED
graphic sequences where you do nothing.
ATARI ST £24.99dk JANUARY • Bob Wade
You're in the foreground and have to
shoot the gunners in the temple. Get
them all and you'll get lots of lunarium.
AMIGA VERSION
The graphics and animation are out of this world.
There's a tremendous range of scenes that get the
best out of the Amiga. The music and effects are
also excellent. There's also some digitised speech.
Great entertainment value, but still tends towards
frustrating repetition.

GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 6
AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 8

ACE RATING 814 Can you convince the professor and his
daughter that your intentions are good?

Advanced Computer Entertainment 49

SCREEN

uN. ££ iif <r'i; v**fc4'

<$&■* m «w W'?#

yimg

❖fs#
mil 111 >
Ulli rn'ir

The front of the third end-of-level

guardian (and you thought the last one
..'»ur- was tough!)
ie
t W'i'fw
wl
WBR

Mte HfiafitittMP* .•alfiii-?

;’•*'.ft

R-TYPE
(Above) The middle of the third end of
level guardian. Keep firing! Keep firing!

(Below) You've got really big bullets now,

but only one life left.

The genuine article from

ELECTRIC DREAMS
(Above) Pumping away with your laser at
RELEASE BOX the start of level two.

ATARI ST £24.99dk IMMINENT (Below) Hold the fire button and you get
AMIGA t.b.a a super dooper laser bolt.

C64/128 £9.99cs*£14.9dk IMMINENT

SPECTRUM £9 99cs REVIEWED
AMSTRAD £9.99cs • £14,99dk IMMINENT

ARCADE ACCURACY

A superb conversion, with little

(if anything) missing from the
game.

COIN OP SCORE 9

SPECTRUM VERSION
One thing R-Type doesn't lack, even on the Spec¬
trum, is colour. The sound effects are just about
what you’d expect from a Spectrum. What you
wouldn’t expect is just how close the programmers
have managed to get to the original coin-op. It's
maddeningly addictive and guaranteed to give you a
sore trigger finger.

GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 1
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 9

ACE RATING 871

50 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 ◄ (Inset) The second nd of level guardian.
He's proved too much for you this time...

(Main picture) ...but now you've got the

measure of him. Being able to detatch
your probe is especially helpful here.

A AC first bought you news of this Irem fire button down causes a meter just below back, depending on where it was first
coin-op way back in Issue One. the main playing area to start creeping up. If attached - this is a handy move when you're
Now, some 15 months on, Electric Dreams you release the button as the meter reaches up against one of the end-of-level guardians
have completed the home micro conver¬ the top, a more powerful laser bolt is fired - because they each have a vulnerable spot
sions. well handy when you come up against that you need to shoot and it's usually in an
Controlling an R-9 interstellar attack craft tougher baddies who can take more hits awkward place. Hitting the spacebar again
out to exact revenge against the evil Bydo before blowing up. returns the probe to your ship.
Empire, you travel through eight increasing¬ Extra weapons are available if you man¬ Other weapons include three-way laser
ly difficult stages, dealing death against a age to shoot the small harmless creatures shots, which beef up the fire power of your
horizontally-scrolling background (each sec¬ that hop across the screen and then pick up probe, and homing missiles. Extra weapons
tion loads separately). In each stage there's a the tokens they leave behind. collected from the earlier stages are lost
multitude of flying enemy ships and ground- One of the most useful add-on weapons whenever you lose a life.
based gun emplacements to contend with, is the probe. This ball-like object comes onto Up to 25 ships are available to complete
and of course an end-of-level guardian to dis¬ the screen from left to right and fires a shot the game with - you have a total of five
pose of before progressing to the next level. whenever your ship does. Collect the probe, credits, and each credit buys five ships. Once
The action commences with your craft and it can be placed to the front or the back the fifth ship in a series has been lost, you
equipped with a front-firing gun which can of your ship where it acts like a shield. Hitting have ten seconds to press the fire button and
operate in two modes: tapping the fire button the spacebar on the keyboard detaches the continue the game from the last restart posi¬
releases small laser bolts, while holding the probe from your ship, sending to the front or tion with another five ships (doing that costs
you one of your five credits), or you can elect
to start back at the beginning again.
R-Type is a superb coin-op game and
Electric Dreams have done a remarkable
conversion job. The gameplay is terrific, the
graphics are great and it's tough and addic¬
tive enough to keep you playing for a long
time. R-Type doesn't win any prizes for origi¬
nality, but for sheer speed, addictive game-
play and manic action it's a winner.
• Andy Smith
4 (Inset) Collect some tokens and your
firepower is greatly increased.
(Main picture) Go for that white token!

Advanced Computer Entertainment 51

 start, the crew is a pretty puny bunch, so the

SENTINEL WORLDS 1: immediate concern is money, which is need¬

ed to buy fuel, extra training, and weapons.
This is where the fun really starts, as you go
planetside to carry out scientific missions (700

FUTURE MAGIC credits apiece), mine minerals, and meet

natives - some of whom might know about
the mysterious Raiders.
ELECTRONIC ARTS send in Colourful places are to be found in this
galaxy, from the Metropolis-style Utopia of
the cadets the Caldorre Towers to the distinctively West¬
m control of an Interceptor Class space¬
craft and its crew, you are told to sort
tative of future combat: as soon as an enemy
craft appears, simply press one key for 'shad¬
ern outback flavour of Norjaenn. Most of the
characters are pretty shallow but occasional¬
out a spot of trouble out in the colonies. ow' and another for 'lasers' and let the ship's ly, particularly as your crew gains experi¬
Transporters shipping from Caldorre and computer take over. It's all a bit boring as ence, you meet someone who can reveal a
Norjaenn to new outposts in the Rouyn and you sit back and watch the fireworks, drawn bit more about what's going on. With luck,
Mistassini systems have been attacked by in a particularly low-res fashion. from time to time you are referred to a para¬
Raider ships that appear from nowhere, take Despite appearances, you have consid¬ graph from the 'Paragraphs' booklet supplied
no prisoners and disappear before they can erable control over the outcome, as the Com¬ with the game, and take another step
be identified. It is your job to find out who munications Officer can 'hack' into the com¬ towards solving the mystery.
they are, and put a stop to their activities. puter's programs, tailoring them to the situa¬ Sentinel Worlds 1 is unusual in bringing
The initial briefing is rudely interrupted tion's requirements. The degree of success together a well-implemented RPG system of
by an attack, and you are suddenly seated depends on her (no sexism here!) experience character development and exploration with
in front of the spacecraft command screen. level - which is where the Role Playing a real mystery demanding considerable
It is immediately obvious that, despite Game (RPG) elements come in. detective work. The action sequences are
the Star Trek plot, Sentinel Worlds 1: Future In true RPG fashion, each crew member pretty weak and of course the sound up to
Magic is no full-3D battle-simulation has Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Compre¬ the PCs usual appalling standard, but per¬
demanding instant reactions on the old fire hension and Charisma points - enhanced by haps it is a bit early to expect Starglider 2
button. Indeed play is rather more represen- Experience gained through the game. At the realism combined with a plot of this com-

ln orbit above Norjaenn - you don’t get On the surface in your ATV, about to You’ve entered a local hostelry and
this range of colour on a CGA monitor! explore the delights of Western Town engaged the owner in conversation

Pit. PliKe Dotan teuet 1 east

j*J I 30 <30> hit points

tun cr ■ ldq M| \. norjaenn Town

You-
Do you Know who is behind the raids?

^ Jason Depend -
I da not Knou who* but I Know uhat
is behind then.

m
___
Seuect.. (1) Fiore (s ) Hew Topic; <3> Exit

the skies above an aircraft carrier. Head-on

TYPHOON still, you're faced with the same job of dodg¬

ing missiles, but you now have to shoot the
missile launcher on the aircraft carrier. Not
too difficult once you know how to time it,
but the missiles rob you of a life if they make
11 MAG IN EE go carrier-bagging contact.
Once you've destroyed the aircraft carri¬
Rl OW ctlon9 to tois tough airborne er the scene changes and the game
DLVVV blast, complete with six levels becomes a vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up
of ever-escalating action. where you pilot an armoured helicopter
Things start off quite tame, with an doing battle with attacking helicopters, jets
Afterburner-style sequence of shooting and anti-aircraft turrets. Apart from your
waves of enemy aircraft attacking head-on, front-firing guns you can also drop bombs OB'
and missile-dodging. At this early stage you
don't lose any of your initial five lives if you SPECTRUM VERSION
get hit, but neither do you get any points... The graphics are fair, with smooth scrolling, and the
After a short time, the scene moves to sound effects are good. Combined with action that’s
tough and unremitting and a wide range of attackers
to contend with, it's a sure-fire recipe for success.
RELEASE BOX Tough, but fair - and plenty to do!
SPECTRUM £7.95cs £14.95dk OUT NOW
AMSTRAD £8.95cs£14.95dk IMMINENT GRAPHICS 6 IQ FACTOR 3
AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 8
Stage 2. Those attacking aircraft look
C64/128 £8.95cs£12.95dk IMMINENT
pretty mean, but they're going to be the ACE RATING 654
least of your worries...

52 Advanced Computer Entertainment

plexity. Some of the graphics look pretty
good on an EGA display, but it you have to
put up with CGA be warned - the game
has obviously been designed for EGA and
can get downright confusing at times. The
main shortcoming is the inordinately slow
response time to the keyboard - almost
MENACE
unforgivable on a 16-bit machine.
PSVGNOSIS blast the
It may be a bit rough round the edges, opposition
but Sentinel World 1 is certainly a step in an
interesting direction. THF inhabitants of Draconia have got to gatory end-of-level guardian, and fire is trad¬
• Matt Nicholson ■ ■■" be some of the most ghastly, malev¬ ed until one of you bites the dust. Success
olent and fearsome creatures this side of a with a guardian moves play on to the next
_RELEASE BOX_ DHSS office. They inhabit an 'unnatural' plan¬ level with all your benefits intact - vital, as
et formed by six of the 'most feared rulers the levels get harder.
IBM PC £24.95dk REVIEWED that have ever existed'. Apparently, a large There's nothing to tax the old grey cells
scale attack would prove too costly, so it's one iota, but there is that short term addic¬
down to you to fly your craft through six tiveness central to all good arcade games.
increasingly difficult levels in an attempt to You'll either fight through the six levels or lose
IBM PC destroy Draconia - what do you mean, interest quite soon, though, so don't expect to
Aside from the weak combat sequences, most of the you've heard it all before? be playing it months from now.
graphics take full advantage of the Atari ST-standard
Psygnosis make no bones about this •Rod Lawton
graphics offered by EGA - particularly as you roam
the planet surfaces. The CGA display, on the other
being yet another arcade blast - and
hand, is simply not up to the planetside graphics, indeed, it's been done very competently.
and some of the text can be hard to read. The game Each hit you take from the monsters that AMIGA VERSION
is still very playable though. zoom in to attack reduces the strength of Both sound and graphics are up to the usual 16-bit
standards, but alas the gameplay remains stubborn¬
your shield. Shoot all the aliens in a wave
ly 8-bit. The action is fast and furious, but no better
GRAPHICS 8(3) IQ FACTOR 8 and a '1000 points' symbol appears. Either
than the other half a dozen other good Amiga shoot-
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 3 collect the bonus, or shoot the symbol first, to em-ups currently available.
cycle it through a range of benefits that
ACE RATING 880 include cannons, lasers, increased speed, GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 2
drones, temporary invulnerability - and AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 8
shield replenishment.
PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE ACE RATING 678
At the end of each level is the now obli-

RELEASE BOX
ATARI ST £24.95dk IMMINENT
AMIGA £24.95dk OUT NOW
No firm plans for 8-bit versions
Imin Ihour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear
Complicated at first, but utterly addictive when
you discover the main plot
You're at the end of level 1 and up against
a nasty alien monster throwing all sorts
of... well, things... at you. Your shield's
good, though, and you've picked up a
juicy extra weapon along the way.
ARCADE ACCURACY
The head-on sequences were
never going to have worked
well on the Spectrum, but oth¬
erwise the game has been
translated accurately.

COIN OP SCORE 6

on the keyboard) and smart bombs ('M' -

one per life). And look out for collectable
weapons, while you're at it.
• Rod Lawton

PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE

 AFTERBURNER - THE AROEN
TkeliVisioN
Afterburner™ Sega® are trademarks of Sega Enterprises Ltd. Game has been manufactured
under license from Sega Enterprises Ltd., Japan. Marketed and distributed by Activision.
$ m E3 Mail Order: Activision, Blake House, Manor Farm Estate, Manor Farm Rd.,
Reading, Berkshire. Consumer Enquiries: 0734 311666 Technical Support: 0703 229694. Available on C64 cassette (£9.99) and disk (£14.99), Spectrum (£12iAmst

Amiga (£24and H
 [Link] IT..

Amiga screen shots shown ST screen shots shown

AFTERBURNER - You've played the arcade smash - now experience the

CASSATION OF THE YEAR' white-knuckled realism of a supersonic dogfight at home! Using your heat-seeking
missiles and laser anti-aircraft fire, can you be top gun against a seething supersonic
swarm?
Experience brain-numbing G-forces; bones rattling with the body-jarring pitch
and yaw... scan with your radar, lock on your target and FIRE!
i (£12.9 Amstrad cassette (£9.99) and disk (£14.99), Atari ST (£24.99),
i (£24.9 and MSX (£9.99).
— Mfflirn— -- - -
 ST

HOSTAGES
INFOGRAMES' captive audience
ATARI ST VERSION
Each sections is drawn, animated and put together
very well, giving a very atmospheric feel. Sadly this
does little to dispel the general impression that a lot
of French games have great graphics but precious
little in the way of meaty gameplay.

GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 4
INTERNATIONAL rSc 5 AUDIO 8 FUN FACTOR 7
this French blend of strategy and arcade
ACE RATING 689
action. A group of hardened terrorists have
taken control of an embassy and are holding
several hostages for ransom. As the head of a Several difficulty levels affect the
crack French SAS squad, it's down to you to amount of time you have to complete the
'neutralise' the terrorists and free the hostages. mission. Though the nature of the game may
The game breaks down into three sec¬ be a little dodgy, it's fun to play and will
tions. The first part of the game is concerned have you on the edge of your seat for the
with guiding three of your team to pre¬ most part. However, once the novelty of the
marked positions outside the embassy. These graphics has worn off you'll find that there's
chaps are your marksmen who'll watch the Terrorist searchlights silhouette one of actually very little gameplay and after
embassy windows. Once you've positioned your marksmen in the first stage... you've completed it a few times you’ll be
the marksmen, a helicopter drops off three looking for a fresh challenge.
more men who you have to guide down the • Andy Smith
outside of the embassy and in through the
windows. Once inside, you have to clear the
three floors of terrorists and rescue the
hostages before taking them one by one to a
'safe' room for collection.

_RELEASE BOX_
ATARI ST £24.95dk_OUT NOW
AMIGA £24.95dk_IMMINENT
No other versions planned
Commando Hotel confronts a terrorist
inside the Embassy.

WHAT'Q a Corona Bubble doing, get-

^ ting fizzical in the Pepsi Mad
Mix game? Well, this cute, grinning little bub¬
ble has gone undercover, changed drinks
and called himself Mad. What more do you
MAD MIX
need to know? US GOLD'S soft drink
Poor old Mad finds himself in the Pepsi Vil¬
lage, a sequence of fifteen tricky mazes, and Pepsi comes in one flavour only - but on the life gets more difficult on later levels. For
his task in life is to stomp through the corridors plus side, Max can step on panels on the floor instance, Max can't move on to another maze
gobbling up bubbles lying on the floor. And if and temporarily mutate himself into other until all the bubbles have been cleared from
the bubbles remind you of Power Pills, you creatures... like a ghost-stomping hippo. the current suburb of Pepsi Village: on the sec¬
won't be surprised to learn that a quartet of Treading on another icon makes Max a Pac ond level, a bubble-blowing ladybird crea¬
ghosts also roam the streets of Pepsitown. Drac - he grows fangs and can suck the aura ture roams around undoing his work, and
There's no fruit to gobble up - after all, out of ghosties, sending them Pacing, back to needs to be stomped.
their electro lair. A few neat touches embellish the basic
RELEASE BOX The rotund hero has a total of five alter Pacman gameplay, but the Pepsi Mad Mix
egos into which he can mutate in order to game offers little new or exciting, other than
SPECT £7.99cs • £11.99dk REVIEWED bubble-gathering and . the chance to win a
deal with the hazards encountered on the
C64/128 £7.99cs •£11.99dk OUT NOW mission - ghosts aren't all that are out to stop prize in the joint promotion between US Gold
AMS £7.99cs • £11.99dk OUT NOW him on his quest, and as you might expect, and Pepsi Cola.
Remember: take the bubbles out of Pepsi
ATARI ST £14.99dk IMMINENT and it goes flat...
AMIGA £T.B.A. T.B.A. • Graeme Kidd

SPECTRUM VERSION
Mediocre - no wicka wicka sound effects as to bub¬
ble'gather, and despite the embellishments, little
more than a competent pacman clonette. Compe¬
tent, but zzzz unless you really want to win a prize
from Pepsi/US Gold.

GRAPHICS 4 IQ FACTOR 5

AUDIO 3 FUN FACTOR 6

ACE RATING 524 In PacDrac mode, the fanged bubble sees

off a ghostie.

56 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 ★★ ★ ★ r w rfr hfri E ywy r4 w y W mo ^b... J -A-
INTRODUCING THE FASTEST CRAZIEST CAME SHOW ON EARTH ¥
REQUIRING FAST REFLEXES...NERVES OF STEEL... AND A PASSION FOR PAIN
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ACTUAL SPECTRUM SCREEN SIIOTS IL
AND TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH IT !>-

THE HOST WITH THE I^OST...THE< ¥

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bring hours of fun!!... 85%... CRASH
lot...C & VC 4c
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COMING SbOlM Jf
ATARI ST |*
SAM S AND MARKETING l!Y
Disc £19.95
COMMODORE 64 AMIGA
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Disc £19.95
Disc £14.95
'llGAPPIlEj ¥
IBM PC EGA/CCA
Disc £19.95
NOW AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA FROM Y.I’.A 4P.
DISK DESTINY son WAKi:
'■ i'mhtiie big aiti.e entestainment co [Link]. am. sights reserved. unauthorised goryinc,
LENDING; OS RESALE IIY ANY MEANS IS STRICTLY I’EOIHIIITEI) "DESIGNEE PACKAGING" . I9»i THE IIIG
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 REEN

you lose points. Rex the dog also needs to be

ACTION SERVICE evaded.

Stage Two is the Risk Route. Grenades
and bombs must be picked up and hurled
while you avoid mines and rifle fire. Again,
Rex must be evaded. After that comes the
INFOGRAMES play soldiers Combat Test where hand-to-hand skills are
called for: duff-up anyone you meet on the
TRAINING with crack Cobra com‘
■ nMllilllW mandos is certainly not
way and dodge rubber bullets, exercise
grenades and opponents' punches. Stage
lor cowards. Four gruelling assualt courses Four is a combination of the three previous
must be endured before you can embark on trials.
a top secret mission - which has yet to An interesting video replay feature
appear in the guise of Action Service II. allows you to record and then replay and
The commando under your control is a examine your efforts over a course. You can
spritely character capable of all manner of see where you went wrong, learn from mis¬
movement; this does mean, though, that takes and do better next time you attempt
control takes a little getting used to. the stage. An icon-driven construction mode
Your basic physical fitness is checked on also exists which lets you create your own
the First course where you must negotiate routes and tests.
walls, ditches, barbed wire, ladders and Watch out for Rex. Grabbing onto the • Richard Monteiro
other objects - and run like hell. Officers monkey bars keeps your trousers intact.
scream orders at you during the tests -
"pushups", "go", "get up", "air raid" - and their
ATARI ST VERSION
orders must be obeyed instantly, otherwise Good fun once you have found out what to do. Ani¬
mation is good as are the digitised images of your
RELEASE BOX leaders. Sampled gunfire, explosions and screams
add atmosphere. Enjoyable to start with, but lack of
ATARI ST £24.95dk OUT NOW demanding tasks means Action Service palls quickly.
AMIGA £24.95dk OUT NOW
GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 3
IBM PC £19.95dk IMMINENT
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 5 Imin 1 hour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear
8-bit versions under development Too easy to beat to keep you playing for long.
ACE RATING 597

ALBEDO
Laser-light lampoonery with GRAPHICS
AMIGA VERSION
Tune is marginally better than the ST’s. Smoother
animation and control during gameplay, but other¬
wise much the same as the ST version.

7 IQ FACTOR 5

LOR IGI ELS AUDIO 9 FUN FACTOR 6

ACE RATING 711

|%|^|#' is creator and master of the plan- until you rid it of every grisly inhabitant,
etoid Albedo. Made of metallic including Dick.
corridors and infested by a variety of The first thing that hits you when playing dictable. Although shooting is the theme, dif¬
unpleasant creatures ranging from Novas to is the music: meet sampled sound like ferent levels demand different strategies. For
Bubble-Eater Worms, Albedo is your home you've never heard before. The music plays instance, in Nova you must shoot everything
throughout the setup procedure, where icons quickly before it touches you, while in Virus¬
surround a pulsating orb shooting a constant es you must prevent certain aliens from
stream of energy that you direct at the icons. touching other aliens. *
Your mission comprises eleven levels Albedo will be remembered more for its
which must be conquered before you get a music and flashy menu system than its
bash at Dicky. The first four can be complet¬ gameplay. Underneath all the gloss there is
ed in any order, but the remainder must be a game. - certainly not of the most mind-
polished off in sequence. bending variety, but one that requires at
The scenario for each level is amusing, least half a brain and provides enjoyment.
even convincing... what a pity the levels • Richard Monteiro
look so similar. While the backgrounds and
aliens are different, the layout is very pre-
Do you feel lucky? You’ll need to be ‘cos
that brute eats laser bolts for breakfast.
A few power shots will make him think ATARI ST VERSION
twice about attacking you.
Wonderful tune. Even the in-game digitised effects
are excellent. Control is sometimes sluggish - espe¬
_RELEASE BOX_ cially when there’s lots on the screen. Menu and
sprite graphics look good.
AMIGA £19.99dk_OUT NOW
ATARI ST £19.99dk_OUT NOW GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 5 Imin Ihour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear

AUDIO 9 FUN FACTOR 6 Sound and menus will grab you. Expect disap¬
No other versions planned pointment when you see the game, but play more
ACE RATING 711 and you’ll like it.

58 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 teleport that whisks you away from the blast.
Mines are more of a problem because you

BOMBUZAL
can't cross their tiles as you can with bombs.
They have to be detonated by a bomb near
them or by some other remote device.
Two other types of bomb make life even
more complicated. Swell bombs aren't so
swell because they, well, swell. They change
IMAGEWORKS on a short fuse in size so that depending on when they're set
off they can produce a small, medium or
Crowther Ritman, Minter - walked oft the tile. An exploding bomb can large explosion. Then there are the handy A-
three names you'd never also set off other bombs and mines that are bombs which detonate all the other bombs
expect to find on the credits within or adjacent to its blast area. on a level when they are exploded
tor a single game, but You can set off larger bombs as well, but The floor tiles have different characteris¬
they've all contributed to this only if the adjacent tile you walk onto is a tics, too. Normal ones are destroyed by
one. Tony Crowther was explosions but Riveted tiles are blast-proof.
responsible tor the programming, but both Slippery Ice tiles are impossible to stay on,
the other two designed their own fiendish RELEASE BOX while Dissolvers disappear when you step off
levels. AMIGA £19.99dk IMMINENT them. Finally there are slotted tiles, which
There are 120 levels of explosive may¬ you can use to move bombs around.
ATARI ST £19.99dk IMMINENT
hem, in which you have to set oft all the Tiles can also have other features on
bombs and mines without ending up as a C64/128 £9.99cs£12.99dk OUT NOW them that affect either you or the bombs.
large red stain on the ceiling. Each level is No other versions planned Power pyramids suck in an explosion on an
composed of floor tiles all in one plane, but adjoining square, no matter how big the
you can view the game from a 2D overhead bomb. Spinners throw you off in a random
perspective or from an isometric 3D view¬ direction, while Switches are a crucial part of
point. There's also a map that can be called many levels because activating them
AMIGA VERSION
up to reveal the whole level. Both the 3D and 2D graphics are excellent, but you
changes the map.
Each screen has to be completed within can see more on the 2D view. The music and effects Unfortunately you're not the only thing
a time limit. It this runs out or you fall foul ot are good too, making a superb package. that can move around the place. Two char¬
one ot the many traps you lose a life. The acters called Dexter and Sinister trundle
timer keeps running when you've got the GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 7 along turning, right and left respectively,
map on screen, although the action is AUDIO 8 FUN FACTOR 7 whenever they can, killing you on contact.
paused. Fortunately, not everything is Two droids - Bubble and Sqweek - can be
stacked against you. When you die there's ACE RATING 919
remotely controlled to set off bombs and
the option to restart at the screen you were mines while you sit still, immune to disasters.
on, and passwords enable you to return to The puzzles are brilliant and the levels
the game another day and avoid ploughing C64 VERSION numerous and tough enough to keep you
through all the screens you solved in a previ¬ It's much harder to tell what's what on the 2D view glued to the screen. You'll manage all the
but it looks good in 3D as well. The levels differ in
ous session. levels eventually, but you'll really get your
places from the Amiga version and generally it's a
The only way to explode a bomb is to set money's worth in the process.
bit easier, but just as addictive.
it oft yourself. This might sound a damn silly • Bob Wade
thing to do, but small bombs only destroy the GRAPHICS 6 IQ FACTOR 7
tile they're on - it won't explode until you've
AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 7
Amiga - this maze of bombs, slots, tele-
Amiga - the 3D view looks great. You're ACE RATING 919 ports and ice could take ages to work
the blue guy with the bug eyes. out.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 59

^blazer
mmm- ■«-

_ ** flr*. - ^

Irf
'Mk• 'A

All mail order enquiries to:

Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd.,
Alpha House, 10 Carver Street, Sheffield SI 4FS
Tel: 0742 753423
SCREEN TEST

fusion is the combina-

FUSION
»i||fl| pip
NUvLCAn tion of two nuclei to
form one nucleus with the consequent release
of large amounts of energy. Software Fusion is
the combination of two game styles to form
EA's first UK programmed game. ELECTRONIC ARTS
The styles in question are a shoot-em-up
and a maze puzzle. The two types of game
go fission...
are also played using two different craft.
has to be detonated back in the start area.
There's a mothership which flys over the land¬
You'll encounter five types of enemy - four
scape, and a crawler which can be carried
released by ground emplacements and the
by the mothership or trundle along the
fifth a static gun. The projectiles released all
ground. Obviously the crawler is more restrict¬
home in on you, but not all of them can fly
ed in movement by the ground objects, but
over ground obstacles. They can be
there are tasks which only it can complete.
destroyed by shooting them, as can the gen¬
There are 13 game areas which have to
erators if they're shot while producing an
be searched for parts of a bomb which then
alien.
The crawler is much less manoeuverable The skull at the bottom right off the
and more vulnerable than the mothership, so screen will replenish energy. To get at
AMIGA VERSION
the yellow switch you'll need to get a
The graphics are good but the actual display size is it's best to strafe the landscape in the mother-
green circle first and use the crawler.
small, not using the full height of the screen. The ship before venturing out in the crawler. The
music and effects are also of high quality, but fail to mothership can pick up enhanced weapons
make an impression on the mediocre gameplay. and shielding but these aren't transferred to PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE
the crawler.
GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 5 The crawler has to operate the switches
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 4 that allow you access to other parts of the
game. Combinations of switches are needed
ACE RATING 607
to remove bits of scenery or to open gates to
other areas. The main problem is that
the gameplay is too slow when accessing the
RELEASE BOX
switches. There's too much wandering around
AMIGA £24.95dk REVIEWED with nothing to do. If you can put up with that Imin 1 hour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear

ATARI ST £24.95dk IMMINENT it's tough to complete, but it's never going to Never reaches adrenalin-pumping heights, but
get you very excited. isn't easy to complete.
• Bob Wade

similar depth.

TRACK SUIT MANAGER

GOLIATH over the moon
There’s no graphic action for the games,
but you can have kick-by-kick reports of
games if you want them. These are very
detailed but do take a long time. You can
speed these up, or for matches not involving
your team get just a quick statistical break¬
games have always friendlies, tours and the finals. down of the games.
FOOTBALL been big sellers and Your control over the team is extensive - Other teams and players can be scouted
hardly a month goes by without someone you can choose from a squad of 100 players, to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
claiming to have released the 'ultimate' sim¬ each with individual reports on them and There’s tremendous variety in the tactics that
ulation. This one dispenses with the money face opponents who can be inspected to the team and individual players can use.
and administration side of things and lets It's not a football game to be played
you get on with team management. lightly because you have to analyse a lot of
You're in control of a European national
RELEASE BOX information to get the best team and results.
team - it doesn't have to be one of the home SPEC £9.95cs REVIEWED This means it takes a lot of work before you
countries - and are trying to qualify for, and get rewarding results. It also means that foot¬
AMIGA £19.95dk IMMINENT ball freaks will be able to get totally
win, the Nations and World Cups. Everything
is run via the calendar - group matches, ATARI ST £19.95dk IMMINENT immersed in it.
• Bob Wade
AMS £9.95cs IMMINENT
C64/128 £9.95cs IMMINENT
IBM PC £24.95dk IMMINENT PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE

SPECTRUM VERSION
There aren't any graphics or sound to speak of, pre¬
sumably you're supposed to add your own 'ere we
go' chants, baton charges and head wounds.

GRAPHICS 1 IQ FACTOR 8 Imin 1 hour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear

AUDIO N/A FUN FACTOR 1 Lacks sparkle but football fans are guaranteed
Scotland and Paraguay are deadlocked
many months of challenge.
at 0-0, but there's plenty of time left in ACE RATING 588
the game.

62 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 REPLAY® PROUDLY PRESENTS...
The New Microblaster Joystick,
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FEATURES INCLUDE
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4. Non-slip rubber feet on base for secure

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5. Large, dual-fire microswitched fire
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Suitable for use with a wide range of

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Price inc. VAT, free postage & packaging U.K. only subject to availability. E. & O.E. LE11 OBR
 rnn 0(

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COODEC
QUALITY APPROVED REPAIR CENTRE Jt I ll\l_f
HOWTO GET Y0UR48KSPECTRUM REPAIRED FORONLY £™5
m NOW AVAILABLE - the official Spectrum upgrade!

■Turn your Spectrum into

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- includes 17 extra Keys
Responsive typewriter style ac tion
Accepts all current Spectrum
software ana peripherals

me official Spectrum upgrade. Naturally your upgraded computer

will accept all the peripherals in your Sinclair system-interface 1,
Microdrives and so on • as well as all Spectrum software. Just as
important, new Spectrum software and peripherals will be designed
with the spectrum + in mind. So the Sinclair upgrade adds stylish
Here's some exciting news looks, new capabilities... and new potential for the future,
for Spectrum owners. .. me bigger, better Spectrum keyboard
the official Spectrum upgrade Kit. The upgrade has everything me Spectrum + measures 12W x 6". It has a large typewriter-style
you need to turn your Spectrum into the stylish new Spectrum keyboard, with hard, moulded keys. You'll find the new keyboard has
a smooth, positive action - ideal for touch-typing, word processing,
+. You don't even need an understanding of electronics, just simulation programs, and extended programming sessions. Two
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gives clear, step by step instructions. If you're not sure about including 17 new keys. Programmers will be pleased to see dedicated
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TEN ★ REPAIRSERVICE
from your computers memory without disconnecting the power
supply.
HOW TO ORDER BY MAIL
1. If you require us to do the upgrade for you please send £31.90-£1.75
p-p. Total £33.65.
EXTENSION 2 Should you require the do-it-youself kit just send £24.95 - £1.75p*p.
★ While you wait repairs £22.50 48K Spectrum. ★ Six top games worth £39.00 free with every
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’ 3. If you require your Spectrum to be repaired
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only £25.00 fully inclusive. only). Just £10.00 including p+p
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" - design]
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URGENT NOTICE Don’t be misled by adverts showing between prices.’ A recen " + 3 CASSETTE _
complaint against a Manchester repair firm, Mancomp, was upheld by the Advertising LEADS
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THE VIDEOVAULT COMPUT Arc
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Old Kingsmoor School, Railway street, Hadfield, Hyde, Cheshire SK14 8AA
Tel: 04574 66555/67761/69499 Main Office, enquiries and orders only.
Manchester telephone 061-236 0376 While you wait centre only,
we regret the Manchester Branch cannot take mail order orders,
please use main office number
• c COPYRIGHT VIDEOVAULT NO. 885050 FAX NO.04574 68946
 Brand
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design
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loesn't
a plug,
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'board
1.75 p&p

F ight your way through this stunning sequel to International Karate.

Spectacular animated backgrounds, amazing new moves including
double head-kick and bone-bending backflips. This must be an ultimate
hit; at the sure hit; not against one but two opponents!
Out of all the fighting games that have appeared since the ST hit the
streets. International Karate + is undoubtedly the best.
Gallons on gratuitous fightin' and fumpin’ fun to be had here.
Watch out for many neat touches, such as falling leaves, leaping fish,
birds, spiders, inch-worms and even a periscope!
There’s plenty more too - all activated via the keyboard. Leave the
fighters alone or press 4T* and their trousers end up around their ankles!
Now available on Atari ST £24.99 - also available on Commodore 64
cassette & disc. Spectrum, Amstrad cassette and disc.

E3 Hi Mail Order: SYSTEM 3, Blenheim House, Ashill Drive, Pinner, MIDDLESEX

HA5 2AE. Consumer EnquiriesTechnical Support: 01-886 5692
REDSTORM ISRISING
Standing between the Russian bear and global
domination, you play a crucial role in the conflict. Missions
take you to an astonishing variety of undersea
environments, plunging you into challenging and
The storm has broken. MicroProse's latest title is here. exciting situations.
Thishightechnologysimulationofstrategyandtactics Prepare for action in this heart-pounding simulation.
is based on one of the most dramatic and detailed stories Available for Commodore 64/128 for Cassette £14.95, Disk
of modern warfare — Red Storm Rising, the international £19.95.
best-seller by Tom Clancy and his technical collaborator
Larry Bond.
Working with the authors, MicroProse have brought
the book's intense action and excitement to your
computer screen. You are put in command of an American
nuclear attack submarine at a time when the two super
powers collide.

MicroProse, 2 Market Place,Tetbury, Glos, GL8 [Link]: 0666 54326

RED STORM RISING by Tom Clancy© 1986 by Jack Ryan Enterprises Ltd and Larry Bond.
 SCREEN TEST

ELEMENTAL ATARI ST VERSION

Graphics are subtly attractive and the sampled
sound effects are great, but as a game it comes a
poor second to beating your head against the wall.

LANKHOR'S great ordeal. GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 1

AUDIO 8 FUN FACTOR 1

MCCI/MII TV * a tae art' The Roundline you control (actually a little
ACE RATING 273
UirrIUULI I folks. It's also a vital ball) is continually pursued by spherical and
one: get it wrong and you've got a surefire rather more exotic-shaped nasties. By clever
turkey on your hands. No amount of techni¬ manoeuvring you can lure the spherical nas¬ and you're halfway to completing the
cal skill, imagination, artistry or wit can save ties into indentations, but their exotic cousins screen. Got all that?
a game that's way too easy or way too hard. just keep after you. To stop them you'll need If this doesn't exactly sound earth-shatter¬
Ludicrously easy games are all too common to pick up yellow blocks from one of the ing, it might at least be nice to try it out.
these days, but Lankhor have come up with screen's M squares. Unfortunately you won't be able to. The nas¬
a bit of a rarity here: a game that's absurdly Drop a yellow block in an exotic nasty's ties home so fast and so purposefully that
difficult. path and the nasty turns into a red capsule. you can't do a thing. It's often impossible to
The scene is the planet Elemental, where Pick up the red capsule, take it to a 'V' get from your start point to an M square
you're about to go through The Great Ordeal. square and it turns into a green capsule. without dying, so taking things any further is
In essence this is a test that qualifies you as Take this to a capsule holder, slot it into place a matter of luck rather than skill. What is the
an adult, in the unlikely event that you actu¬ point?
ally survive. Roots fans will be delighted to • Andy Wilton
know that the Ordeal involves nothing nasti¬
er than trundling around a series of over¬
head-view screens collecting things, turning
them into other things and putting them
down again.
That's quite nasty enough, mind you.

_RELEASE BOX_
ATARI ST £19.95dk_REVIEWED
No other versions planned.
That's your ball up by the orange 'M' tile,
but it has only seconds to live!

SPACE RACER
LORICIELS future biking
AMIGA VERSION
The graphics are very fast, smooth and slick. The
backgrounds and obstacles look good too. The
crashes are excellent and have plenty of variety.
Sound too is pleasant from the opening title tune,
through to the digitised speech and driving noises.

bikes are the use of energy. IQ FACTOR 1

HOVER the wild Staying near the centre
GRAPHICS

AUDIO FUN FACTOR 7

racing machines of the line is tough because not
only does the road weave ACE RATING 702
future. Astride one of these
throbbing machines you left and right, but it also
can travel at high speeds dips up and down. Get¬ The other bikes will try to stay on the
across the undulating, haz¬ ting too high above the centre line as well. You can bump them or
ard strewn landscape. ground will slow you shoot them when they get in the way, but
This death race of the down, running into it even they can still slow you down considerably.
future takes place on three Whizzing through the pylons, more so. You can tackle the three courses individ¬
courses. On each one your trying to avoid other racers Ail along the route, on ually or together as a championship. It's
task is simple - follow the both sides, are pylons, addictive driving stuff which won't be beat¬
dotted line as closely as possible and avoid advertising hoardings, signposts and other en easily. What it lacks is variety in the
the roadside hazards and other bikes. The hazards. Driving into tham can have a num¬ opposition. A few more levels and types of
crucial thing about the dotted line is that the ber of effects - instant explosion, stop you obstacle would have been nice.
closer to it you stay, the more economical dead or spin you out of control for a while. # Bob Wade
Crashes deplete your energy, which effec¬
RELEASE BOX tively acts as a time limit.

ATARI ST £19.99dk REVIEWED

ATARI ST VERSION
AMIGA £19.99dk REVIEWED Virtually the same as the Amiga. The road is, if any¬
SPECT £8.99cs£12.99dk IMMINENT thing, easier to follow but there's little to choose
between them.
AMS £9.99cs £14.99dk IMMINENT
C64/128 £9.99cs£14.99dk IMMINENT GRAPHICS IQ FACTOR 1

IBM PC £24.99dk IMMINENT AUDIO FUN FACTOR 7

ACE RATING 702

Advanced Computer Entertainment 67

The meanest fighting machi
Hold on to your stomachs, unscramble
your brains for the journey of a lifetime
as you take the controls of the most
advanced Helicopter armaments
specialists could ever conceive -
outmanoeuvre the fastest jet fighter,
outgun the most dangerous gunship.
Traverse the war-torn skyline of
skyscraper city as you sharpen your
skills for the battle ahead. Plunge out
to sea for an epic encounter with an
immense, heavily armoured gunship.
Race on to a shoot-out in the rocky
canyon and dense forests, where your
flying expertise is tested to the limits as
you dive, hover and skilfully
manoeuvre your way through this
fortified maze.

CBM 64/128 £0.99 tape £14.99 disk SPECTRUM 48/128K £8.991

 TH€ PGPSZH
GAMG OFHI
This gas been i
from Seerp rises
THUNDDETM
tradem Sega Em

M 48/128K £8.09 tape £12.99 disk AMSTRAD CPC £9.99 tape £14.99 disk
 :haligngg
HG YGAR!
This gan been manufactured under license
from Seg rprises Ltd., Japan, and
THUNDEk )E'M and SEGAh (or SEGATM) are
trademar Sega Enterprises Ltd.

ATARI ST £19.99 disk AMIGA £24.99 disk IBM PCl

 Screen shots taken from various formats

Thrusting forward you gallantly roar

ahead blazing enemy gunships,
armoured tanks, jet fighters -avoiding
heat seeking exocet missiles through
the perilous oil installation to reach the
final encounter - the awesome APACHE
battle cruiser, the action never ceases.
Never that is until you emerge
victorious — Golden Gunner—master of
the meanest fighting machine ever to
hit the skies.

U.S. Gold Ltd., Units 2/3 Holford Way

Holford, Birmingham B6 7AX.
Tel: 021-3S6 3388.

IBM PC & COMPATIBLES £24.99 disk

GAME OVER II
Daring-do from DINAMIC
■■■ is not over yet. There cue still baddies on the quest for the access code that allows
IT for the intrepid hero encountered in you to sample the second load. A strange
Major Locke is in his ship and blasting
Game Over to deal with, and so he sets oft space-hopper sequence leads into a spot of away at the incoming waves of aliens.
on another mission, this time to tree the arcade adventuring underground before
you gain the controls of a helicopter, fly over
imprisoned hero of the rebellion.
A spot of horizontal Galaxians warms another volcanic zone to duff up the guards
in the prison that holds Arkos, the man SPECTRUM VERSION
you up, then it's time to Scramble over a vol¬ A good deal, in that you get Game Over I included in
canic landscape before descending into a you’re trying to save.
the package. Effectively a compilation of linked bud-
cave system and doing battle with squirly Lots of different things to do, but nothing
get-standard games that is fun but not enthralling.
serpents, enemy fighters and bolts of pure
energy. Survive that, and it's time to mount a a short and sweet selection. GRAPHICS 5 IQ FACTOR 4
strange steed and gallop across swampland AUDIO 4 FUN FACTOR 5
• Graeme Kidd
ACE RATING 513
PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE
RELEASE BOX
ATARI ST £19.95dk OUT NOW ATARI ST VERSION
Relatively pretty graphics and creditable effects can't
AMIGA No firm plans for this version
make up for the run-of-the-mill gamplay. Offers noth¬
IBM PC £19.95dk IMMINENT ing new or amazing, but reasonably entertaining.

C64/128 £8.95cs£12.95dk IMMINENT

1 GRAPHICS 6 IQ FACTOR 2
SPECTRUM £8.95cs £12.95dk OUT NOW 1 AUDIO 5 FUN FACTOR 4
AMSTRAD £8.95cs£12.95dk IMMINENT ACE RATING 513

AMSTRAD VERSION

SUPERSPORTS The graphics are colourful and well-animated. The

gameplay is good and you're left with the overall
impression that if Gremlin had managed to include
more events or made the existing ones tougher, they

GREMLIN get on the would have had a much stronger product.

GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 1
Seoul Train AUDIO 8 FUN FACTOR 7

W the wake of the Seoul Olympics comes

Gremlin's collection of alternative
off a board from anything between 40 and
400 feet up in the air, aiming to perform
ACE RATING 535

acrobatic stunts before landing in a pad¬

sports, compered by 'Gilbert', total of six bolts at three targets placed at dii
Five events feature, starting with Crack- dling pool. Then it's on to the Slate Smash,
where two Sumo wrestlers holding slates ferent ranges. The final event is the Under
shot, in which you have 90 seconds to shoot water Assault Course where old tyres, mine;
targets that pop up in an alleyway. Mind stand either side of your character - smash
as many slates as possible in 60 seconds. The and stinging jellyfish have to be negotiated.
you don't shoot the alley cats or your score Supersports has been well put togethe:
penultimate event is a Crossbow contest
suffers. High Diving follows, where you jump and is great fun to play, but the multiload i
where joystick-waggling gains tension on the
bow, before you line up the sights and fire a annoying and the events are not tough i:
Slate smashing on the Amstrad. master. The facility to play with four peopk
increases its lasting interest slightly, but eve:
SPECTRUM VERSION then there just isn't enough in the game t
Great graphics and good gameplay can't mask the keep you playing for very long.
lack of challenge. • Andy Smith
GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR

ACE RATING 535

60

RELEASE BOX 0 50
£ 40 ''

C64/128 £9.99cs £14.99dk IMMINENT U 30 ...

SPECTRUM £7.99cs £12.99dk OUT NOW

O
Imin 1 hour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear

iiimiiiiiimniiiir AMSTRAD £9.99cs£14.99dk OUT NOW

What’s there is great - there’s just not enough
No plans for 16-bit versions
5HR5HEB
74 Advanced Computer Entertainment
 tant you try to wipe everything out, because
if any offensive weapons get past you enter
a defensive stage at the end of the level.
The weapons soon start to get nastier
and come in greater numbers. There are fast
moving ones that try to crash into you, others
that shoot at you, and a particularly nasty
group that spiral into the middle of the

ACTIVISION'S peace shield screen, corailing you into a spot where they
can get an easy kill.
The defensive screen doesn't scroll, but
RAM 7 ft Rea9cm may be on his way shows the base which has to be defended
DvRfcv out of the White House but his
from the incoming missiles. These fly in from
'peace shield' - the-Strategic Defence Initia¬
the horizon and from the sides. Again you
tive - continues to be developed. As a hope
use the satellite to shoot down the missiles
for mankind's survival it has still to be
before they hit home. If the base survives the
realised or proven, but it sure provides good
attack, it's on to the next offensive section.
inspiration for game authors.
There are 12 levels and while the early
Multi-megatons of nuclear death-dealers
ones are easy, the action starts to get tough
are roaring their way through the iono¬
at Level Four. Progress is aided considerably
sphere on their way to turning Earth into a
by picking up pods that give a larger firing
radioactive wasteland. Just like bunging a
spread, faster movement and extra sights.
meatball in the microwave. You are a satel¬
The blue weapons circle you, closing in These additional sights can be quite confus¬
lite whizzing peacefully around in orbit
and then shooting for the kill. ing because they move in a delay pattern
when suddenly all this hi-tech explosive
behind the main sight and it's easy to lose
hardware pops into view. Naturally you're
track of which one you are moving directly.
going to get your laser tips warmed up and
Addictive, tough and packed full of fea¬
stop everything getting pasT.
tures, SDI belies its coin-op origins by being
You control the movement of both the
very well paced to boot. One of the best
satellite and its laser sight, using the mouse
coin-op conversions this year.
or a mouse in combination with a joystick.
Mouse-only control moves the sight, or the • Bob Wade
satellite when the left button is held down.
Alternatively, a joystick can be used to ARCADE ACCURACY
move the satellite, which can allow simulta¬ An excellent conversion for
graphics, gameplay and even
neous two-player games, one person on the
the control method. If you liked
mouse controlling the laser and the other
The defensive screen where you have to it in the arcade you'll love it on
moving the satellite via joystick.
stop the missiles hitting your base. the ST.
The screen scrolls slowly from right to
left, bringing on background scenery and of COIN OP SCORE 6
course the nukes. The weaponry starts off RELEASE BOX
simple enough: rockets cruise slowly across ATARI ST £19.99dk OUT NOW
the screen and ground bases appear on the
planet background. The rockets won't even
C64/128 £9.99cs £14.99dk IMMINENT SPECTRUM PREVIEW
The action looks just as hectic as the ST and you'll
harm you if they hit the satellite. It's impor- SPECTRUM £9.99cs IMMINENT
need two joysticks to get the best out of it. The back¬
AMSTRAD £9.99cs £14.99dk IMMINENT grounds aren't there because of the need for speed,
You're satellite has enhanced weapon but it still looks like it's going to be good.
power via that big blue circle.

ATARI ST VERSION
it t *%*#***%§•
’HP luioiuimi
ft
Excellent scrolling, colour, sprite design and explo¬
sions. There's a different piece of music on every
level and the tunes sound good too. The dual control
*.v *,v
works well, but it's definitely recommended you have
either two players or a joystick that can be suckered,

c
clamped or otherwise strapped down.

GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 2

AUDIO 9 FUN FACTOR 9

—»*- ACE RATING 844

PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE

V \

ST Ai: Imin Ihour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear

i■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ It's easy to get into, packed with features and
sets some tough tests.

Advanced Computer Entertainment 75

 DALEY THOMPSON'S
OLYMPIC
CHALLENGE
OOEAN going for gold
Daley prepares to launch himself into
the long jump pit

but there are a couple of additional factors

thrown in. One is the choice of footwear for
each event - a range of shoes is available,
and picking the wrong one for an event can
m ■ pu Thompson is not a stranger to ing games. This is his third jostick-waggling seriously impair performance. The other
1/ALE T Olympic success - or to endors- game endorsement, addition are the training scenes, in which
The ten decathlon events are the 100 bottles of Lucozade can be won after, pro¬
RELEASE BOX metres, long jump, shot putt, high jump, 400 longed bouts of hard waggling which can
metres, 110 metres hurdles, discus, pole leave you absolutely knackered.
ATARI ST £19.95dk IMMINENT vault, javelin and 1500 metres. They are all Waggling games aren't exactly new, but
AMIGA £24.95dk OUT NOW included, along with gome training this one is nicely put together. It's certainly
sequences which help competitors prepare better than the original DT's Decathlon and
C64/128 £9.95cs£14.95dk OUT NOW should appeal to most sports freaks.
for the events.
SPECTRUM £9.95cs£14.95dk IMMINENT The events are the usual combination of • Bob Wade
AMSTRAD £9.95cs £14.95dk IMMINENT joystick-waggling and button-press timing,

AMIGA VERSION
Unsurprisingly, it's got the best graphics both for pre¬
C64 VERSION sentation and the action itself. Music and effects are
Much easier shoe selection here and the training competent as well. Choosing shoes is a bit confus¬
sessions aren't as sadistic as the Amiga version ing because you aren't told whether you have made
either. The graphics and sound are up to scratch. the correct choice.

GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 2 GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 2

AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 7 AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 7
ACE RATING 644 ACE RATING 680

row
Hungry like the ACTION WARE
The

GRAPHICS
AMIGA VERSION
graphics, scrolling

8
and sound

IQ FACTOR
are great.
Although it's fun to play, you'll probably burn it out
within a couple of weeks and will only load it up in
the future for a quick bit of mayhem.

1
pATU Sega and Nintendo have light of your buddies and seeing they make it AUDIO 8 FUN FACTOR 8
■ ■■ guns that attach to their systems, safely to a pick-up point.
ACE RATING 753
and software that allows you 'to use the gun You’re'armed with a machine gun with
to shoot various on-screen baddies from nine ammo clips and six rockets initially,
across your living room. Now, thanks to and if your using the mouse a small sight sight over a vehicle, press fire and a rocket
American ■ software house Actionware, appears on screen and you use this to line launches automatically.
Amiga owners can do the same. up your shots on the enemy. Care must be Kill the enemy off quickly, because it
Whether you use the light gun or simply taken during several sections as innocent doesn't take long for them to start shooting at
stick to playing the game with the aid of a monkeys and dogs often wander across the you, and doing damage to your health
mouse, the objective's the same. You have to screen. Shooting an animal is not disastrous, meter. First aid boxes appear now and again
work your way through several stages killing but it does reduce your score drastically. and boost health a little if they're shot on the
off enemy soldiers before finally rescuing six Shooting the enemy however, is a jolly good ground. P.O.W. is not going to strain your
idea, especially as many of then drop ammo brain, but it's a satisfying blast while it lasts.
clips and extra rockets which you shoot to • Andy Smith
collect. Shooting tanks and helicopters that
appear later in the game is no problem pro¬
viding you've got some rockets - move the
u.
mm

Imin 1 hour Iday Iweek 1 month lyear

In the jungle on level one. Watch out for It's playable stuff, but not challenging enough.
those poor innocent animals.

76 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 AGreatDeal More
For a Good
(Monitor not included)
520 STFM
SUPERPACK
Buy this terrific Atari pack now and
you get a 520 STFM with built-in
Modulator, 1 meg. drive, Vi meg.
memory, instruction manual and a
mouse with ....

21 exciting action games

WORTH £400
Organiser' integrated business
software WORTH £49.99
Atari joystick WORTH £9.95

CREDIT
TERMS
AVAILABLE Phone for other great ST deals!!

PRINTERS ] j SUNDRIES
LISTING PAPER
2000 sheets high quality
11* x 9V2*, microperf
all round, 60gsm. J
PRINT 9 Pin • • • • • JOYSTICKS
HEAD 24 Pin • The new 'Microblaster'
COLUMN 80 Col. • • • • •
joystick from REPLAY,
order today and . .
WIDTH 132 Col. •
Take Control
PAPER Friction • • • • • •
MOUSE MATS
FEED Tractor • • • • • •
High quality Mouse Mats
PRINTER Draft cps 120 120 175 160 160 288 for your desk top.
SPEED NLQ cps 25 28 30 40 35 96
DISK STORAGE
CREDIT INTERNAL BUFFER 4K IK 4K 2K IK 8K
TERMS
MD 70L Lockable 3Vi" disk
AVAILABLE OUR PRICE £159.85 £175.95 £182 85 £217.35 £263.35 £428 95 storage box, holds up to
70 disks.

WITH A FREE 3Vi" DISK I ! I

QUALITY BLANK DISKS MONITORS
Philips CM8833, 14" colour £274.85
Why buy unlabelled disks when you can have Prices are per box of 10 disks Atari SMI24, 12'' mono £128.80
branded quality at prices like these ! ! 1-4 5-9 10 + WITH A FREE ST CABLE WORTH £12
Boxes Boxes Boxes
DISK DRIVES
3.5" SS 15.99 14.84 13.69 All 1 meg. with internal power supplies

3.5" DS 20.59 19.44 18.29 TRIANGLE £99

"The Specialists "All You Need '
in Data Storage" and More"
CUMANA £99
Please state type (TDK or BASF)
Both are certified 100% error free and offer a lifetime warranty when ordering POWER £109

Service Guarantees
P> Usually same day despatch on most items
> If any item proves to have a manufacturing
fault within 30 days we will replace free of
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Any problems quickly resolved to your

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complete satisfaction
COMPUMART LTD
hardware, allow 2-5 days for other items
After 30 days and within the warranty period, FREEPOST (ACE)
Large stocks for immediate despatch we will repair at our expense £> Special offers to existing customers
We aim to please . . . and usually do!
LOUGHBOROUGH
£> FAST, efficient service
All prices inclusive of VAT LEICS L E 1 1 0BR
Prices/delivery subject to availability and only applicable to UK mainland, N. Ireland and BFPO's. E&OE TEL: 0509 610444
Compumart are licensed credit brokers. Simply ask for written details. FAX: 0509 6 1 0235
 UPDAT

FERNANDEZ MUST DIE UPDATE SPECIAL

ST • Imageworks £24.99dk

side rooms and other features. On the ST it The actual aim of the game has also
^CMEDAI Fernandez and his mili- been modified slightly. Instead of-destroying
UtNEnAL tary Junta are at it again has reverted to being a more standard
clone. It's purely vertical scrolling and loses bases you have to kill the seven members of
and you’ve got the glorious task of giving
other features from the 64 like planes, the Junta. They are found in buildings with
them a one-way ticket to oblivion. It's the
parachutists, and gold to collect. red crosses on, as is Fernandez at the end of
same basic idea as the C64 version reviewed
Graphically the ST version is infinitely the game.
in Issue 13, but there have been quite a tew
superior to the 64. It has also gained a cutting This version is a little disappointing
changes - by no means all tor the better.
edge to the gameplay. It really is extremely because I'd expect the ST to have more fea¬
The 64 version made quite strenuous
tough to survive the constant attentions of the tures. However, it's still got plenty going for it.
attempts to distance itself from games like •Bob Wade
Commando and Ikari Warriors by having enemy soldiers and gun turrets, but it lacks
variety in the task. There are still armouries to
raid, safes to blow up and prisoners to rescue
but these are just point-scorers that help top
up your number of lives.

ATARI ST VERSION
Sharp, clear graphics but not as good as
Leathernecks. The explosions and sound effects
also lose in comparison.

GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 2
AUDIO 3 FUN FACTOR 7

ACE RATING 674

78 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 REEN

form further down the tower - it just serves as

NEBULUS UPDATE SPECIAL

a setback.
What does kill you is plummeting to a
watery grave at the base of the tower or fail¬
ing to reach the top before the time limit runs
ATARI ST & AMIGA • Hewson £19.99dk
out. This means you get plenty of chances to
learn the towers, even when you're making
VERY few games have stood out in the past
lots of mistakes at the beginning.
year as exceptionally original, but this was
You'll also learn to hate the spinning alien
certainly one of the few. It mixes platform
who periodically appears from the edge of
action with amazing tower turning graphics,
the screen heading straight for you. The only
to produce one of the most addictive and
way to avoid it is to go up or down before it
challenging games ever. Nearly a year on
arrives, or go through a doorway just before it
the 16-bit versions arrive, not just with the
reaches you. Doorways take you straight
enhanced graphics and sound you would
across to the other side of the tower, but you
expect, but with extra levels as well.
can't tell what surprises lie in wait for you.
You control a cute little thing called Pogo
You can shoot snowballs, but these will
who is always centred on the screen. He
only take out flashing blocks that bar the way
appears from a submarine at the bottom of a
and pink bouncing balls. The other dangers
cylindrical tower, which you view from the
Amiga - that pink ball is headed for Pogo. come in various guises and all follow similar
side, and have to climb to the top of. The
You must shoot it with a snowball or movement patterns. They either shuttle verti¬
most original thing about it is the viewpoint you'll be tumbling back down the tower. cally or horizontally, bouncing back and forth
you have on the action - as you walk round
off whatever gets in their way. This means
the tower it revolves, revealing what was hid¬
there are a lot of timing problems to be over¬
den from view. It's a very simple idea, but it
come, usually in tandem with some other haz¬
brings a nerve tingling edge of the unknown
ard.
to the gameplay and creates a unique dis¬
In between towers is a bonus stage where
play.
you control the submarine and shoot fish
Having marvelled at this innovative
which then have to be collected to give extra
graphic style you'll soon get caught up in
time on the next tower. You're also treated to
some astounding gameplay. When boiled
a whole new series of towers which make the
down to its essential elements it's a platform
games lasting appeal even greater.
game composed of nasty timing problems
This game can't be praised highly enough
and complex puzzles, often requiring lateral
for its originality, graphic presentation, addic¬
thinking. What makes it different from the run
tive gameplay and lasting challenge. Every
of the mill, 2D platform offerings is the
last detail has been well thought out in the
wraparound tower idea and the sheer inven¬ ST - a nasty trick this one. To complete
the tower you have to let the spinning programming to make a classic game even
tiveness that author John Phillips has put into
alien to the right of Pogo knock him better.
the puzzles. down to the platform below. There anoth¬ • Bob Wade
Climbing up the towers Is mostly a matter er pink ball awaits him, so you've got to
of following a route of platforms and lifts. shoot fast too.
Along the way there are plenty of horrid haz¬ ATARI ST VERSION
ards to await the unwary. The cheapest trick Graphics are just as good as the Amiga, but the
Amiga - one of the nice touches on the
sound effects aren't quite as hot. The levels are all
of all is the disappearing block, that vanishes ST and Amiga is the water at the base of
the towers. It ripples delightfully and identical to the Amiga.
as soon as you tread on it plunging you down
reflects the movement above it. Howev¬
the tower. However, this is where another of er, in this shot you're about to be plunged GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 8
the games' brilliant touches comes in. Falling into it by the spinning alien - and you AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 8
doesn't kill you as long as you fall onto a plat- can't swim.
ACE RATING 952

AMIGA VERSION
The graphics and sound effects are the best of any
of the versions, just pipping the ST. The new levels
are superbly designed and will give even experi¬
enced Nebuloiders a good run for their money.

GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 8
AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 8

ACE RATING 952

BF5r* -!
- =ss mmm xzz z? ssaK —a—11

WW*-

Advanced Computer Entertainment 79

The new Atari Games Cctr
It's what every computer games player has been waiting for. Hundreds of brain- stu
boiling software titles that'll push your skill and judgement to the limit. All under one roof.
When it comes to packing hardware, Rambo's got nothing on us. Everything from the Cei
 AATARI

Cheshire
Toys 'ft' Us Ltd. Gt Portwod St Peel Centre. Trading Park.
Stockport
610Europa Boulevard, Westbrook. Warrington
Toy & Hobby 48 Foregate St., Chester
12-16 Princes St., Stockport
A.5. Wooton 160 Eddleston Rd, Crewe
Cleveland
Chips Computer Shop Clark's Tbrd, Darlington
Multi Coloured Micros In Shops, Dundas Arcade,
Cleveland
Greater Manchester
Toy & Hobby 16 Spring Gardens, Manchester
Unit 1, Bryan House, Standishgate, Wigan
Unit 33, Town Square Shopping Centre, Ashcroft St, Oldham
Atari World 11-15 Fennel St., Manchester
Computatil 77-79 Chadderton Way, Oldham
Humberside
Tomorrow's World 27 Paragon St, Hull
Lancashire
Toy & Hobby Lowthian House, Market St., Preston
Ladbroke Computers 33 Ormskirk Rd., Preston
Merseyside
Toy & Hobby 230-240 Grange Rd., Birkenhead
The Hardshaw Centre, Church St., St. Helens
Microsnip 37 Seaview Rd., Wallasey
Bits ’N' Bytes 18 Central Station, Ranelagh St, Liverpool
North Yorkshire
Computer Store 29 Parliament St., York
York Computers 8 Davygate Arcade, \brk
South Yorkshire
Computer Store 21a Printing Office St., Doncaster
West Yorkshire
Computer Store 13 Westmoreland St., Wakefield
10 Square, The Wool Shops, Halifax
42 Trinity St Arcade, Bond Street Centre, Leeds
34-36 Ivygate, Bradford
4 Market Place, Huddersfield
White Rose Computers Bradford Rd.,C!eckheaton
Tyne & Wear
Toys 7T‘ Us Ltd. 1 Cameron Park, Metro Centre, Gateshead
Computer Shop 7 High Friars, Elden Square, Newcastle
Maughan Micros 93 The Galaria, Metro Centre, Gateshead

SOUTH
Avon
Toys ‘R‘ Us Ltd. Centaunis Rd., Patchway, Bristol
Bedford
Software Plus Unit 11, The Boulevard, Harpur Centre, Bedford
Cambridge
Software Plus 43 Burleigh St., Cambridge
Toys ’R‘ Us Ltd. Bourges Boulevard, Peterborough
Devon
Software Express 9 Exeter St, The Viaduct Plymouth
East Sussex
Gamer 71 East St, Brighton
Essex
Toys W Us Ltd. Southernhay, Basildon
Software Plus 15 Kingsway, Colchester
Liberty Shopping Hall, Basildon
Unit 1,28-31 Moulsham St, Chelmsford
Unit 1, Queensgate Centre, Grays
336 Chartwell Sq, Southend
Hampshire
Computer Choice Unit 5,122-124 London Rd, Northend,
Portsmouth
Electronequip 59 West St., Fareham
Toys 'R‘ Us Ltd. Western Esplanade, Southampton
Software Plus Unit 8 The Boulevard, Wellington Centre,
Aldershot
Hertford
Toys 'FT Us Ltd. Roaring Meg, London Rd., Stevenage
Software Plus Unit 94, In Shops, St Albans
13 Town Centre, Stevenage
Kent
Toys 'R‘ Us Ltd. Horstead Retail Park, Maidstone Rd., Chatham
Silica Shop 1-4 The Mews, Hasserley Rd., Sidcup
Software Plus Unit 2,4-6 Orange St, Canterbury
35 High St., Gravesend
Oxford
Pied Pedlar 3 North St, Thame
Soft Spot 5 George St., Banbury
Suffolk
Software Plus 22 St Matthews St., Ipswich
Surrey
Toys 'R' Us Ltd. Church St West, Woking
Warwick
Spa Computer Centre 68 Clarendon St, Leamington Spa

LONDON
Toys R‘ Us Ltd. 78-80 High Rd, Wood Green
Till Rd. NW2
Silica Shop Inside Selfridges, Oxford St.
Lion House, Tottenham Court Rd.
Hamleys Regent St
Software Plus In Shops, 37-43 South Mall, Edmonton Green
Wiltshire
Ttowbridge Computers Unit 11-12, White Hays South,
West Wilts Trading Estate, Westbury

MIDLANDS
Northampton
Toys 'R' Us Ltd. Towcester Rd., Northampton
Stafford
Toys 'R' Us Ltd. Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent
Miles Better Software 21 Cannock Rd., Chadsmoor, Cannock
West Midlands
Toys »' Us Ltd. 31 Dale End, Birmingham
Wolverhampton Rd., Oldbury, Warley
Computerwize 10 Wiseman Grove, New Oscott,
Sutton Coldfield
Mr Disc 12, Three Shires Oak Rd., Beanwood, Warley
Greens Pharma Hold 22 Market Way, Coventry
Software Express 514-516 Alum Rock Rd., Alum Rock,
Birmingham

SCOTLAND
Grampian

res have hit town

RMS 75 Rosemond Viaduct Aberdeen
Highland
Inverness Computer Centre 15 Market Arcade, Inverness
Lothian
Graf fix 14 West Main St, Whitburn
Capital Computers 12 Home St., Edinburgh
Strathclyde
Megabyte 12 Elterick Square, Town Centre Cumbernauld
John's Computers 4 Graham St., Airdrie

stunning Atari VCS to the mindblowing Atari XE Games System. Microshop 271 Dunbarton Rd., St. Patrick, Glasgow

WALES
So get down to your local Atari Games III AT A HI South Glamorgan
Eagle Business 48 Charles St, Cardiff
Toys 'R‘ Us Ltd. Hayes Bridge Rd, Cardiff
West Glamorgan
Centre. They're smashing. SI V I#\l xl Toys 'R' Us Ltd. Parc Tawe, North Dock, Swansea
 C64 VERSION
THE GAMES: Graphics and animation are up to the usual high
standard that Epyx maintain on the 64. The musical

SUMMER EDITION
pieces that pop up in between the action are also
good.

GRAPHICS 6 IQ FACTOR 4

AUDIO 7 FUN FACTOR 7

EPYX have fun in the sun ACE RATING 753
qfi IlfC all those thrilliHQ moments [Link] three most technically compli¬
nCUVC from the Seoul Olympics by cated events, and therefore the ones with
most lasting challenge, are the parallel bars, some memorable moments from each event
taking part in eight varied events. Up to
rings and diving, which involve a series of and offers hints and tips on tactics.
eight players can join the tun with two play¬
joystick moves that require skill and practice As you would expect from Epyx, each
ers going head-to-head in cycling and hur¬
to do well. section is both well put together and chal¬
dling. Yes, those prolific producers of sport
The presentation is excellent with open¬ lenging. It’s best played by a group of peo¬
simulations are at it again...
ing ceremony, medal cermony and a com¬ ple - where the competitive instinct will be
The events are sprint cycling, hurdles,
prehensive instruction booklet that details strongest. A worthwhile addition to the Epyx
pole vault, hammer, parallel bars, rings,
archery and diving. None ol them are out- sporting range.
• Bob Wade
and-out wagglers, but the cycling, hurdles
and pole vault all involve a fair bit of joystick

RELEASE BOX
ATARI ST £19.99dk MAR '89 -
AMIGA £19.99dk MAR '89
SPECTRUM £8.99cs£12.99dk FEB '89
AMSTRAD £9.99cs £14.99dk FEB *89 S §
l

C64/128 £9.99cs £14.99dk OUT NOW

IBM PC £24.99dk IMMINENT Whoops! You've taken a tumble trying to do
the hurdles. You're not getting up from that
one...

CYBERNOIDII
Pirate pranging with HEEWSON
TUOCC pirates are back again and sents a bunch of nasty aliens who have to
I flwwE stealing Federation cargo, so be turned into ex-aliens or just avoided.
naturally you've been delegated to slap a The bad guys come in all sorts of shapes,
few wrists, pop a few heads and get it all sizes and behaviour patterns. On most
back again. screens they come in great numbers and
The mission is not dissimilar from the youll need all your skill and weapons to sur¬ Entering at the bottom left you are confront¬
original game, although additional features vive. ed by a screenful of alien killers
have been added to try to jazz it up. It's a The weapons have been beefed up,
which is just as well with all those vicious odds are stacked against you and after
flick screen cross between a shoot-em-up
aliens around. You're now armed with dying once, losing weapons in the process,
and an arcade adventure, with the empha¬
bombs, time bombs, shield, bouncing it's even harder to survive. This sort of manic
sis firmly on the blasting. Each screen pre-
bombs, seeker, smart bombs and tracer. gameplay appeals to many game freaks but
These can kill virtually all known aliens, there's not much originality and no conces¬
AMSTRAD VERSION dead, but are in short supply at the start. sion to those wanting a less demanding task,
The best looking of the three, with the same testing Extra killpower can be picked up along the • Bob Wade
gameplay. way as ammunition, or extra weapons in the
form of a backward firing gun and a large
GRAPHICS 9 IQ FACTOR 2
sphere that circles the ship.
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 7 Despite the impressive firepower it's still
ACE RATING 672 an extremely difficult game to play. The

SPECTRUM VERSION
_RELEASE BOX_ Graphics and sound up to the standard of the first
game - they're very slick. Gameplay is just as addic¬
SPEC £7.99cs £12.99dk OUT NOW
tive and frustrating.
AMS £9.99cs £12.99dk OUT NOW
GRAPHICS 8 IQ FACTOR 2
C64/128 £9.99cs £14.99dk OUT NOW
AUDIO 6 FUN FACTOR 7
16-bit versions under development
ACE RATING 672

82Advanced Computer Entertainment

How you tan test your skills on
land. Sea & Air op challenge
new frontiers. ^

muam

Electronic Arts produces Home Entertainment Software on most Computer formats. For a product brochure
and the location of your nearest stockist, please contact: ELECTRONIC ARTS, 11-49 STATION ROAD,
ELECTRONIC ARTS'
Home Computer Software LANGLEY, BERKS SL3 8YN. TEL: SLOUGH (0753) 46465. DEALERS PLEASE CALL (0753) 40906,
 RADIAN1 I
You simply can't get the entire system for running a Dungeons and Drag¬
ons game onto a home computer - but more and more people are having
a good try. American strategy/simulation experts SSI turn their hand to
the second AD&D licence, and Andy Smith checks out how well they fare.

POOL OF RADIANCE
#
US GOLD/SSI start playing for keeps
Heroes Of The Lance may
have been the first game
released by SSI to carry the
offical Advanced Dungeons
E
E
HrtWC

WS8
HUTK1NS
SHORTS
and Dragons label, but it
wasn't much of a role-play¬
ing game (RPG). It had some strong role-
playing elements, but the emphasis was E £ He o:03 3,A
placed on the arcade-style animated action.
The second AD&D licence, Pool of Radiance,
is however very much closer to that ever
popular board game format. RfcTURN OR 'BUTTON
Pool of Radiance isn't a game you can
Outside the City Council building in New
get up and running in a moment - but then
Phlan. Right, who's for some Ore bashing?
that's true of most RPG-influenced software.
It's also rather more intricate in structure than system has become far too complex, replac¬
games like The Bard's Tale series, which ing imagination with regulations at every
again is not surprising - one of the criticisms possible opportunity. There's little danger of
levelled against AD&D itself is that the rule that in the case of Pool of Radiance, howev-

INTO THE FRAY

Try as you might, you won't be able you're fighting. For example, a long
to play the game for very long with¬ sword has more effect against large
out getting into a fight. Once a opponents such as Trolls and
combat situation occurs (how you Ogres than a broad sword would,
encounter the enemy determines whereas the latter is more effective
whether you or the enemy, if any, against smaller opponents such as
has the element of surprise) the Kobolds.
screen changes to show icons of The fight continues until either
your party and the opposition. The you kill all the enemy (or they sur¬
characters then move, in turn, In combat. Don't forget to render) or your party is destroyed.
according to their 'initiative rating' - bandage wounded players!
When a member of your party
the higher it is, the more moves takes a severe beating, he falls
they get during combat. unconscious and the corresponding
You can turn over control of icon disappears from screen. If
characters to the computer or opt another member of the party man¬
to make all the tactical decisions ages to bandage the wounded
yourself. The basic types of character the injured colleague
weapon at your disposal are remains unconscious but recovers
ranged weapons (slings, cross¬ after a few days rest. Forget to
bows, long bows and so on) and bandage a wounded character and
melee weapons (like swords, death ensues. Win in combat, and
After most battles you get
maces, and spears). Which you the chance to share out you' divvy up the loot and weapons
use depends on the type of enemy the spoils of war. carried by the vanquished enemy.

84 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 SPECIAL

1ROLE PLAY?
er, since no-one is ever going to tit ALL the
ig- AD&D system into anything under a giga¬
ng
byte or two.
You start the game by creating a party
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
to of up to six characters (see Characters box)
before you're given a brief tour of the city of
e. New Phlan and left to seek fame, fortune Before you start the game, you society. A chaotic evil character will
and adventure wherever you wish. have to create your band of adven¬ disdain law and order, kindness and
The screen display during the majority of turers creating a party of up to six any good deeds. Once you've cre¬
the game is divided into three sections. The characters from a choice of six ated your party, you can save their
top left of the screen is your view of your sur¬ races, including dwarves, elves, attributes and begin to play the
roundings and the top right shows the halflings and humans. Once you've game proper.
names of your party members and their decided on a name, race and gen¬
s armour and hit point levels. The game is der for your character the computer The character creation
screen. Here you get to
randomly generates six ability
choose just what your
scores. These include strength, character should look
wisdom, dexterity and charisma rat¬ like.
ings which affect how the character
plays during the game.
Next you have to choose a ^WRHOOH
class for your character. Do you *ae it
want your character to be a fighter?
Magic-user? Or a combination of
STR 18(88) 3EWELRX 1
several such classes? Note the 1? PLflTlHUM 11
race of the character is important
7ms
ms 17 OOLD _ 34
fiDEX 13 ELECTRUW 241
iCOH IS SILVER 197
here - for example, human charac¬ fCHR 13 corrtR 83
ters can only belong to single class,
whereas dwarves and gnomes can if* un
w In the slums. Behind this door's a party of
•> the the meanest bunch of Ores this side
be jacks-of-all-trades. «C 4
ALOHQ BOW
of Mordor. Finally, you must decide the MHDED IWIL
^THRCO 2 0 MMfTQE 1D8
c- alignment of the character. Align¬
ry ment is the philosophy the charac¬
of _RELEASE BOX_ ter lives by. A character with a law¬ PlEW'lTCHS EXIT
V- C64/128 £14.99dk REVIEWED ful, good alignment strictly inter¬
Your character's vital statistics, including what
prets law and order and uses these weapons he/she/it is carrying, armour class and hit
PC, ST, and Amiga formats T.B.A.
principles to bring the benefits to points.

the party and you then get a 'leader's eye Whether you pay any heed to what you
C64 VERSION view' of the surroundings as you move about hear, or whether you decide to undertake
Though the graphics may not be state-of-the-art and the environment, interacting with its extra tasks is entirely up to you.
the sound effects dire, you'll find you soon become
denizens. Trying to capture the complex concept
absorbed in the game world and you'll be playing
The City Council building is a good place of the AD&D system on a home micro, along
this for months to come.
to start looking for things to do. The Council with the social aspects fo the game is an
GRAPHICS 7 IQ FACTOR 5 often has work for willing bands of adventur¬ ambitious project. SSI have gone a long way
ers and they pay well for a job well done. to achieving that aim and have produced
AUDIO 4 FUN FACTOR 8
You don't have to accept any of the jobs if an admirable RPG-influenCed computer
ACE RATING 921 you don't want to, but a good introduction to product, one that will not only please hard¬
the game is provided if you elect to go and core AD&D fans but will appeal to anyone
controlled by selecting various options from help rid the city's slums of monsters and other looking for a game to keep them enthralled
the menus at the base of the screen. unsavoury characters. and playing for a long time to come.
For example, by selecting a party mem¬ Once you enter the slums, it doesn't take
ber from the list at the top of the screen, and long before you find some nasties (see
then by selecting the view option at the Encounters box) and battle commences. Vic¬
base, the screen clears to show you that tory means that your characters are award¬
character's attributes, job type and so on - ed a number of experience points, which are
plus a cameo of the character that you crucial to the development of their skills and
choose at the start of the game. Another ratings. For example, fighters get stronger as
menu gives you the option to view that char¬ they gain additional experience, magic-
acter's equipment. Select the option to users can wield more powerful spells, and
choose which weapons the character will thieves become more adept at their art.
have ready when entering battle. By select¬ Occasionally you might meet non-
ing EXIT from the sub-menus, you're taken aggressive characters in the game who may
back to the main menu, where the MOVE be able to give you some information, or
I option puts you in direct joystick control of who may ask you to do them a little service.
Advanced Computer Entertainment 85
CAPONE VETERAN
ACTIONWARE play da Chicago piano. E
A sheep in Wolf's clothing from
AS this point-of-view target (smart thinking!) or dropping i
SOFTWARE HORIZONS ~ i
game alternates between static sticks of dynamite. These fea¬
indoor and scrolling outdoor tures and a collectable machine THERE are three missions to ent firing rates and ranges. The i]
scenes, your task is to shoot the gun don't exactly amount to complete in this Op' Wolf clone. screen doesn't scroll at all - E
gangsters who saunter onscreen depth, but they're all you're get¬ You've got several machine rather, the enemy come onto it C
or peek out from cover. Take too ting. guns to choose from at the start from the sides. As you'd expect, t]
long and they open up with Old style snipe-em-ups like of the missions, each with differ- you've got a limited supply of r:
Tommy guns. this are a big step down from ammo and rockets with which c
Innocent bystanders pop up Operation Wolf or Actionware's to destroy the soldiers, tanks, c
occasionally, and must be own POW, and it's a shame to helicopters and machine gun
avoided. Explosives also put in see an Amiga wasted on such nests, but you can pick up extra i
an appearance, with gangsters shallow gameplay. supplies from the ground by
hiding behind cases of TNT • Andy Wilton shooting them.
The gameplay's slow, the
fe
RELEASE BOX digitised speech is awful and it's
AMIGA £29.95dk OUT NOW
doubtful you'll be playing this in
ATARI ST £t.b.a. IMMINENT
a year's time.
• Andy Smith
IBM PC £t.b.a. PRE-XMAS

PFEEDICTED INTEREST CURVE

PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE cx mmxm
i°° mmm ■1 ■■ ■m ■■■
■piL >
8C
■■Oi ■■■■ HBH
1I IU
Hi
Bjtti v-..
. . I t-
RELEASE BOX in
: I a
IU 3C
ATARI ST £14.95dk_OUT NOW H
AMIGA £14,95dk_IMMINENT
Z
am
Mm Imin Ihour Iday Iweek tmont
1 No other versions planned
ACE RATING 49:3
Lews X
 SCREEN

FINAL ASSAULT ARTURA

EPYX climb peaks
GREMLIN travel through time
THIS first appeared way back in You're still left with a 'wag¬
ACE issue 5 and was then an gle the joystick to climb the TRAVEL back to the fifth century hits, but can be restored if you
Infogrames game endorsed by mountain' game that gives you in this magical quest to collect a know where to look for the
Eric Escoffier and called six climbs to complete (you can series of mystical rune stones appropriate symbols.
Chamonix Challenge. Since string up to three climbs togeth¬ that allow you to liberate Artura is not terribly difficult,
then Epyx have bought the er if you wish). You have to Nimue, apprentice to the van¬ and the determined player will
rights to the game and have make sure you're using the right ished Merdyn who alone knows complete it all too soon.
apparently made some 100 equipement at the right stage of where the sacred treasure of • Bob Wade
changes. the climb or you could find your Albion are hidden, which you
climber getting into difficulties, need to...
but select the training option And so it goes on, disguising
and on-screen prompts will tell the. fact that this is really just a
what equipment you should be Black-Lamp type arcade adven¬
using (and why). ture. You need to explore (and
The gameplay has been map) a series of rooms and lev¬
improved but it still won’t get els searching for the runes, at
you very excited. You'll soon be the same time avoiding the
looking for new mountains to deathtraps and the nasty crea¬
try. tures. Your vitality is reduced by
• Andy Smith
PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE
RELEASE BOX
RELEASE BOX
ATARI ST £19.99dk IMMINENT
ATARI ST £19.99dk OUT NOW
SPEC £7.99cs, £12.99dk OUT NOW
SPEC £8.99cs IMMINENT
C64/128 £9.99cs, £14.99dk IMMINENT
C64/128 £9.99cs, £14.99dk OUT NOW
AMS £9.99cs, £14.99dk IMMINENT
AMS Not planned
AMIGA £t.b.a. PRE-XMAS
AMIGA £19.99 OUTNOW
IBM PC £t.b.a. 1989
IBM PC £t.b.a. OUT NOW ACE RATING 476

mflSTRRD CPC

f ZEPHYR ONE, CALLEVA PARK, ALDERMASTON,

LTD BERKSHIRE RG7 4QW. TELEPHONE: (07356) 77288
 1

APPROACHING
PHANTIS

You must rescue ARKOS,

the hero of the rebellion
against GREMLA, who has been
imprisioned. You combat
the kamikaze hordes, dodging amstrad
missiles and avoiding balls of
incandescent magma.
Once you enter the caverns of the
planet PHANTIS you fight your way
through.

STRUGGLING comm
ON
After abandoning the ship you
capture an ADREC in order to
continue advancing on the planet.
A dagger is the sole weapon
you rely on to fend off the
inhabitants. You fight against the
enemy troops. You have to steal a
weapon. And advance forward,
straight ahead. Nothing can
detain you.

THE PRISON

You cross swamps,

mountains and forests... ATARI ST
there are enemies all over.
The way to the prison becomes
more hazardous the further you
advance. You take command
of a helicopter, descend into
the entrails of the planet, and
arrive at the prison. It is heavily
guarded. Will you be capable of
freeing ARKOS?.

* SPECTRUM *AMSTRAD CPC * COMMODORE 64 * MSX

* PC COMPA TIBLES * ATARI ST*

DISTRIBUTED BY

For a full broadsheet describing the complete range or information on your nearest stockist write to:
Electronic Arts. 1149 Station Road, Langley, Berkshire SL3 8YN, England. Or call our
Customer Services Dept, on 0753 46465
 THE LAST
SUSPENDED APOSTLE PUPPET
SHOW

ANIMATION
Andy Smith plays with some puppets and saves a world from destruction before
Homedata 30p
Don't let the wacky title put you off, this beat-
em-up packs a fair old punch. The game's for
one or two players and in it you try to work your
way up a mountain fighting various increasing¬
ly difficult opponents. So far, so standard, but
escaping from a prisoner of war camp and capturing some gangsters in this what makes this game big news is the display.
Most coin-ops have stunning sprites and
month's round up of what's hot and new in the arcades. backgrounds, but somehow they don't have
On the second stage. You're about to slug it out with Xi Tai Hou.
that 'real' look to them, and at best they look
like cartoons. L.A.P.S on the other hand has
stunning characters and backgrounds with a
tremendous 'real-life' quality. The characters
look just like the puppets you might see in a
children's T.V. programme (the puppets on
strings, not the glove variety). The animation of
the characters is not brilliant but the shading
and the backgrounds give it one of the most
believeable 3D displays yet.
The actual game's fun to play, and you
have a wide variety of moves to use against
your opponents using the standard punch and
kick buttons. As in most of these types of games,
how you position the joystick while you press a
button affects just what move you make. Pull
down on the joystick and press kick and you'll
do a leg sweep, push up and kick and you’ll do
a high kick aimed at the enemy's head. At the
start of the game it's just you versus another
'puppet', but as you progress up the mountain,
the opponents become more numerous until
you can be fighting off hordes of the enemy
that come running at you from all directions.
Don't let the puppet idea fool you into thinking
the enemies are soft though, they're not and
once your energy bar at the top of the screen
reaches zero your head goes flying across the
screen (bloodlessly, thank goodness!).
The game concept may be old hat, and the
animation may leave a little to be desired, but if
this is the sort of thing we're going to be seeing
more of, in our local arcades then the future
does indeed look bright.

(Right) On stage And it's all over bar the shouting. Oh well, time to put some more money in the slot.
three. That small
character's a mean
one!

(Below) Ooof! He's

knocked you back
on your heels.

90 Advanced Computer Entertainment

 1
EXTENDED PLAY
SCRAMBLE SPIRITS • Sega 30p
This viewed from above, vertically scrolling shoot-em-up's
set in the 21st century and gives you a small, twin-engined
plane to fly. You're armed with a front firing gun, and power¬
ing up gives you a fighter escort that you can use to attack
either airborne or ground targets depending on which button
you press. Great fun, but again it's nothing original.

P.O.W. • SNK 30p

Escaping from a Prisoner of War camp's no easy task -
especially when the guards know you're trying to bust out
and come after you armed with knives and machine guns.
The game's a beat-em-up essentially, but any armed guards
you manage to overpower, you can rob. As a Renegade
meets Rolling Thunder game,
it's not half bad and is well
worth checking out.

P.O.W.- ready for a

fight. Pick up that
machine gun and you
won't have to bother
throwing punches (at
least until you run out
of ammo).

ASSAULT • Namco 30p

Bingo! That's put paid to that end-of-level guardian. A bit like Vindicators this one (see ACE issue 11), in that
you've got two joysticks to control a tank viewed from above.
You're driving through a maze-like network of canyons, and
FORGOTTEN WORLDS instead of turning corners you flip the tank over before pow¬
ering forward again. This control method's easy to get used
Capcom 30p to and is also a handy method of avoiding the shots the
enemy tanks fire at you.
Wanna go shopping next time you're playing a shoot-em-up? This latest one or two-player Cap¬
com offering could be just what you're after.
In the game you take control of an airborne character armed with a front firing gun, and GANGBUSTERS • Konami 30p
you slowly fly over several 'worlds' shooting all the baddies that attack you from every direction. Large cartoon characters make an appearance in this
Controlling your character involves using two joysticks - the first moves your character up and viewed from above shoot-em-up. Some nasty bank robbers
down the screen while the other is one of those paddle affairs. Twist the paddle and your charac¬ have stolen a whole wodge of cash and as a police officer
ter rotates. Push the paddle and you start shooting. it's down to you to round them up. They do have friends,
Now, here comes the shopping bit. As you destroy certain aliens, they drop Zenny coins. Fly though, who do their level best to stop you by shooting you,
over these and collect them, and at various points during the game a shop will appear from the but should you see one of the bank robbers (it's not hard to
background. Fly in through the door and you can purchase your power-ups. You can, of course, spot them, they're usually sat in the middle of the road
opt not to buy anything but wait 'till the next stage when you'll have more Zenny coins and be counting the lolly), you simply have to shoot them and go
able to buy some meatier weapons (that's if you survive the end-of-level guardian). pick ’em up. You then
'Blast everything in sight' fans are going to enjoy playing Forgotten Worlds, which may not deliver them to the
be a terribly original game, but is great fun to play. nearest waiting Black
Maria where you'll
(Left) Flying through the Egyptian stage receive a power-up.
with plenty of firepower. Yahoo! There goes another guardian It's a tough game to
play, but it is great
fun.

SKY SOLDIERS • SNK 30p

This vertically scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players
gives you half a dozen missions to complete, each set in a
different country and time period. You're flying a spaceship
and the enemy craft reflect the country and time period
you're fighting in - doodlebugs appear when you're fighting
over 1945 Germany, and monoplanes and biplanes show up
in 1914 France.
Not quite the corner store is it? Extra weapons are given to you at the start of each
mission, and you have a choice of several, including homing
missiles and 'busters'. You only have limited amounts of
extra weapons though, so make sure you save some for the
end-of-level guardians!

CABAL • Tad/Electrocoin 30p

It's not long before an original idea spawns a batch of
clones. This one's an Operation Wolf-type game for one or
two players. You don't get a machine gun mounted on the
front of the cabinet however, but a trackball to whizz the
sights around the screen, picking off the baddies as you go.
 IT'S MECHANICAL

Available soon on Commodore 64/128

cassette (£9.99) and disk (£ 14.99),
Spectrum (£9.99), Amstrad cassette
(£9.99) and disk (£14.99), Atari ST
(£24.99) and on Amiga (£24.99).
RTYPE™
ELECTRIC DREAMS © 1987 IREM CORPORATION
SOFTWARE
LICENSED TO ELECTRIC DREAMS
 1

' -V

SIMULATIONS (U.K.) LTD.

Coming soon on... 'j

Atari ST.£19.99
Amiga.£19.99

Telecomsoft, First Floor, 64-76 New Oxford St, London WC1A IPS.
Firebird and Firebird Logo are trademarks of British Telecommunications PLC.

A LEGEND IN GAMES SOFTWARE

 T
SPECIAL

ired of dumb opponents? Bored by all

those electronic thump-puppets that
just wander into your field of fire?
Well so you should be. Just because
modern nasties move in slightly more
complex patterns than the Space Invaders of
yesteryear doesn't mean they're interesting.
If the bad guys are brainless, they aren't
really bad guys at all - just targets, obstacles
or timing problems to be dealt with.
Unfortunately, once you get beyond
Invaders-style 'canned' behaviour you can
turn up some thorny programming prob¬
lems. Even where coders are feeling adven¬
turous, they rarely go beyond a mixture of
canned and homing behaviour just because
these are the simplest patterns to program.
Random elements can make homing slightly
more interesting, but the bad-guys remain
rather predictable.
The next step after homing is evasion.
At its simplest this is just the homing routine
used in reverse: so it was in PacMan once
you'd eaten power pills, and in Spore when
you activated your repulsors. This was a
fairly minor improvement on total stupidity, Nether Earth (Amstrad), a sugar-coated wargame where you could see the results of
but better things are possible with a little your orders in real time, isometric 3D form. If the ordering system had been a little
more effort. more complex, you'd have had some really smart robots to work with.

What if games were packed with nasties that could think for themselves? What if you could program your own forces to
attack intelligently? What if programs could actually slug it out for control of your computer? Andy Wilton looks at how artificial
intelligence and programmability could change the face of gaming.
ARTFUL DODGERS line of fire, but the way the game's mutants game turns into a turkey-shoot. The same
As early as Elite, bad guys were weaving and fighters work at getting a height advan¬ technique works against the nasties time after
and dodging to try and stay out of your gun- tage is positively unpleasant. Be warned, time, so the tactical challenge evaporates.
sights: flight sim Messerschmitts and MiGs complex behaviour patterns . can make This is the 'dead hand' problem rearing its
have been similarly slippery ever since. In things uncomfortably difficult! ugly head. The bad guy behaviour patterns
Alien Highway, Costa Panayi gave us bad There's still a lot of ground to be covered. may be intricate, but they're also fixed. The
guys who could actually duck (telescope Even complex behaviour patterns can be fig¬ only intelligent opposition you've got is the
their necks in fact!) to avoid your Vorton's bul¬ ured out, and an effective countermeasure programmer, and when you figure out a
lets, while in Virus David Braben came up found. Work at it long enough and you'll still way to beat him he has no way of respond¬
with a real mixed bag of behaviour patterns. be able to find the Achilles' heel of the bad ing (or not without publishing a sequel, at
It's bad enough when pests 'viff out of your guy's tactics - and once you've done that the any rate). Here at ACE we've always been
keen on multi-player games as a way round
this problem, but there could be another
answer.
As suggested briefly in Aliens Alive (ACE
issue 8), there's no reason why bad guy tac¬
tics shouldn't develop to cope with any killer
techniques you use. Aliens Alive suggested
doing this by an evolutionary process, so that
future waves of aliens would be shaped by
whichever ones survived longest this time
round. In practice that probably wouldn't be
the best way of doing things. Techniques
used in certain experimental chess and
draughts programs ought to let arcade nas¬
ties learn quickly from their comrades' mis¬
Carrier Command (ST). You can set a destination for your Walrus amphibious tanks, but
takes, while building up a long-term knowl¬
you can't tell them what to do when they get there - so massed attacks, coordinated
bombardments and simultaneous air cover are all out of the question. A higher level of edge base on what tactics seem to work best
command system would allow games with whole fleets of ships in them. against you.
94 Advanced Computer Entertainment
 SPECIA

HELP WANTED! from over the horizon or pass on the news to

Once the bad guys start getting smart, you'll your own submarine flotilla. In real life, espe¬
have to wise up too. If you're all alone cially in WW II or some similar period, you'd
against a vast horde of high-IQ aliens you only get the results of the search when the
clearly aren't going to last long. You'll need recce planes got home safely. If they were
help, and it had better be intelligent help. downed by flak, exceeded their endurance
Of course, if a games author can make or simply couldn't find their mother ship
your opponents brainy he can do the same again, you'd never know a thing about it.
for your helpers, but that may not produce a Clearly this knowledge limitation won't
game most people would want to play. After translate very well to a home micro if you
all, if your buddies are doing half the work actually have to control the recce planes
you may not feel very involved in the pro¬ yourself. The planes may get shot down, but
ceedings. Far better if their intelligence is Cyrus Chess (PC): could techniques from you'll have seen the carrier group yourself
part of your game effort: if you've pro¬ intelligent games like this help make
shoot-em-up aliens smarter? and can act accordingly. Programmable
grammed them, that is. forces could carry out complex commands,
Don't panic - we're not talking about guage would let you do this, and it would while at the same time maintaining the 'Chi¬
learning machine code and writing your have other advantages as well. For one thing nese walls' necessary to prevent you finding
own routines (though that can make an it would help prevent God's-Eye View, the out too much, too early.
excellent game in its own right: see the problem whereby a wargame commander Of course, this needn't mean that you miss
Core War box). In fact, programmable can get information that a real-life comman¬ out on all the action. A 'de-briefing' phase
helpers would only be a slight advance on der wouldn't have access to. Another exam¬ afterwards could let you watch highlights of
the sort of order-issuing you get in games ple in the same carrier wargame should illus¬ each mission - reconnaissance or gun-camera
already on the market. trate this point a little more clearly. film in real life - and give details of how your
In last year's Argus Press (now Grand orders were put into practice. This would
Slam) game Nether Earth you could order RADIO SILENCE serve the additional purpose of letting you see
your robots to attack enemy droids or instal¬ You've sent out reconnaissance planes to what the shortcomings of (or even bugs in)
lations. It wouldn't be going that much fur¬ search for the enemy carrier group. If you your orders were, so that you could improve
ther if you could give them secondary tar¬ find it you can attack with aircraft, shell it your programming style in future. •

CORE WAR
It's a programmer's nightmare: you rips the enemy's data area apart! enemy program's lap. it'll crash
write a piece of code, it looks like it Writing a successful Core and your program will have won. If
ought to run perfectly and yet it War program is a tricky business. your program copies itself over an
keeps crashing. Could there be When the fictional mainframe's opposing piece of code or data,
some malign intelligence at work in operating system 'MARS' - actual¬ that may do the trick just as well.
gets for any spare munitions they have left
the machine - an enemy program ly a simulator running on your Rather like objects in Life
afterwards, or set damage levels beyond
sowing the seeds of chaos? If the machine - loads the two programs (see Aliens Alive. ACE issue 8).
which they should retreat for repairs. Throw
answer’s yes then you must be into core memory, neither knows successful Core War programs are
in standing orders on what to do if they
playing Core War, one of the most where the other is. Time is of the given names by their creators. The
encounter obstacles or come under enemy
bizarre and intriguing computer essence: MARS multi-tasks classic ones tend to be extremely
fire en route, and you've got the beginnings
games ever devised. between the programs, executing short, so as to present the smallest
of some serious smarts - and it's all your own
Though Core War does have instructions from each alternately, target possible. The highly aggres¬
work too!
a certain air of Battleships. or pos¬ so a Core Wargame is a race to sive Dwarf is only four-lines long,
sibly of Sentinel with the lights see which program can disrupt the and given time will destroy any
PLANS OF ATTACK
turned off, there's a crucial differ¬ other first. longer program that doesn't either
Building programmability into a game could
ence. Unlike either of these - or Core War programs can do copy or repair itself. Smaller still is
transform our notions of what gameplay is all
almost anything else - Core War almost anything. They can build Imp, a one-line self-replicator that's
about. Imagine a few possible scenarios.
isn’t actually a game that humans copies of themselves elsewhere in hard to destroy and will, in due
Take a task-force wargame in the style of
can play. The contestants in each memory, repair themselves when course, wipe the whole of memory.
Carrier Command, for example. You form up
bout are programs: all your effort damaged or even modify their own Slightly larger programs can
a bombing group to attack enemy shipping,
goes into writing a program clever, logical structure, if you're a sharp defend themselves against such
but you don't actually want to have to com¬
brutal or lucky enough to make its enough programmer to write them unsubtle onslaughts. The cleverly
mand the mission personally. If the game's
opponent crash. that way. This kind of irregular designed Raidar positions 'pick¬
running in real time you might well have to
Developed in Canada ten behaviour is possible because ets' - large areas of cleared mem¬
repulse an attack on your own fleet, organise
years ago, Core War is little known Core War programs are all written ory - either side of itself, so that it
anti-submarine patrols or prepare for the
nowadays. It revolves around a in a special language called Red- can detect approaching attacks
amphibious landing you'll be making soon.
tiny area of memory deep inside a code. and relocate itself out of danger.
The problem is, you're sending those
fictional mainframe. The area or Redcode is very like an Scanner. another defensive clas- ,
bombers out to attack a moving target -
'core' is just 8000 locations in size, assembly language, so each of sic, keeps copies of itself, trans¬
enemy warships don't normally sit at anchor
but that's plenty big enough for its your program's instructions can ferring control to them when the
obligingly waiting to be sunk - so you're not
only real function: as a battlefield. also be considered as data. This original is threatened. As the arms
quite sure where it'll be when they catch up
When the game commences, two lets your program copy or change race accelerates, nastier attack¬
with it. What's more you don't know how
programs load into the core at ran¬ itself freely but it lets the enemy ers come out of the woodwork.
strong the anti-aircraft fire will be, precisely
dom positions. The electronic program change it too. The stan¬ Mutant versions of Dwarf can get
what sort of ship they'll be attacking, whether
cockfight that follows can be dard aggressive tactic is to strew very vicious indeed, while the
they'll run into an enemy combat air patrol
viewed onscreen: watch helplessly memory with illegal instructions longer Imp-style replicators Jug¬
or any number of other important factors.
as your marvellous piece of coding which MARS will refuse to exe¬ gernaut and Bigfoot also pose
What's needed is some system whereby
founders, or cheer manically as it cute: if one of these drops in an tough problems.
you can give detailed orders covering differ¬
ent eventualities. A simple programming lan-

Advanced Computer Entertainment 95

TIGER ROAD- An ancient tale from ancient China ... birthplace of martial arts disciplines. As Lee Wong you must halt
the savagery of ruthless Ryu Ken Oh by overcoming flying Ninja warriors, awesome dragons and acrobatic Sumo wrestlers
to name but a few. You’ll need all your martial arts training and skill with the spear, chains and sickle to seek out and
defeat Ryn Ken Oh in a furious and bloody battle with the scourge of the Orient.

CBM 64/128 £9.99t £14.99d * Atari ST £19.99d • Spectrum 48/128K £8.99t £12.99d
Amiga £24.99d • (Tiger Road £19.99) • Amstrad CPC £9.99t £14.99d_
 1943™ At last, your chance to take part in the Battle
of Midway. This sequel to the highly acclaimed ‘1942’
places you at the controls of an American fighter
plane. Your mission is to destroy the Japanese carrier
Yamato. Exhilarating action!
STREETFIGHTER^TiELvel around the globe and do
battle with the best fighters that Japan, Thailand, USA,
England and China can throw at you.

GIANTS OF THE VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY

© 1088 CAPCOM CO. LTD. Manufactured under licence from Capcom Co. Ltd., Japan. Tiger Road™, Street Fighter™and 1943™and CAPCOM™are trademarks of
_CaPcom Ltd- licensed by GO! Media Holdings Ltd., a division of U.S. Gold Ltd., Units 2JZ Holford Way, Holford, Birmingham B6 7AX. Tel: 021 356 3388
 ytmmmmg -jmun;.

GRYZOR Featuring all the game-play of the arcade BARBARIAN THE STORY SO FAR ..The evil sorcerer CRAZY CARS You are racing in the world's craziest PREDATOR You've heard about Predator, the
original, Gryzor takes you into a thrilling alien world Drax has agreed that if a champion can be found who race: "The American Cross Country Prestige Cars Schwarzenegger movie - now you can play the
of force fields, fanatical guerillas and strange enemy is able to defeat his demonic guardians, the Princess Race". If you are able to complete the race before the leading role. Take a crack commando unit into the
defence systems - but you have the fire-power and Mariana will be released. From the wastelands comes time runs out, you will get a faster car. You start with South American jungle to rescue a bunch of trapped
maybe, with a 'little' skill, grit and split second an unknown barbarian, a mighty warrior, wielding his a Mercedes 560 SEC, and only the world’s best diplomats. Should be easy enough...and so it would
timing, you can infiltrate the aliens' headquarters. broadsword with deadly skill. Can he vanquish the drivers may drive a Ferrari GTO. be, if it weren’t for the mysterious alien who keeps01
Play Gryzor once and you’ll be hooked! forces of Darkness? ONLY YOU CAN SAY... PREPARE TO START, READY? GO!!! taking out your men.
(C) 1987 Koriami •■ (C) Palace Software Ltd. ip Titus Software Ltd. (C) 1987 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. All rights
LAST NINJA rcplacos [Link] on-CfM .reserved.

KARNOV Join Karnov, the fire-breathing Russian COMBAT SCHOOL Konami's arcade hit now for TARGET RENEGADE Every move you make, every PLATOON Lead your Platoon deep into enemy
stongman, on his hazardous quest to defeat the evil your home micro and already a No. 1 hit. Seven step you take, they're watching you. Fight your way territory, you can almost feel the humidity, sense the
dragon Ryu and find the Lost Treasure of Babylon. gruefling events featuring the Assault Course, Firing through the precinct - the back alleys, the car parks, threatening dangers as you encounter the enemy am
Karnov is a vast 4-way scrolling game that combines Range, Arm Wrestling and Combat with the fight your way through the villainous community, the his many booby traps. Having found the undergroui
both strategy and fast action in nine challenging instructor himself! Combat school throws down the skin-heads, the Beastie Boys, the bouncers. This is maze of tunnels, enter at your peril! Enemy soldiers
levels of gameplay. It is recognised by arcade addicts challenge to the toughest of thoroughbred just the tip of the iceberg on you chilling quest to lunge at you from the murky waters within, but this
everywhere as one of the best games of its kind. gamesters, confront "MR. BIG ”. the only way you can find vital information. If you
Karnov also has something special in the way of p 1987 Konami come out of this alive, you'll be just one of the few!
characters - have you ever been killed by a skeleton tp 1986 Hemdale Film Corporation. All Rights
on an Ostrich? Reserved
p Electric Dreams Software Ltd.

AM5TRAD
COMMODORE
Oman Q/^ft\Aiorck I r^rsrrtrol Ctroot. CMC . "Iril, QOO CCOO . TX1.
 ADVENTUR

This month the Cowled Crusader takes a critical look at Lancelot, brings you the Paladin's guide to Lords of Time, plus the final
instalment of the Pawn solution. All that, plus more reviews, hints and tips from the country's premier adventure reviewer...

> pictures
Lancelot was in Arthur's echoing hall. Hundreds of wall torches gave a
flickering gold giw to the row, Raking it seen yeicofiing despite its size
Lancelot could see fiuenever, Sir Kay and King Arthur,
Sir Kay grovelled backwards towards the exit. King Arthur said, ‘lielcofte to
Canelet, Lancelot, Berlin has foretold that you are fated to becoae the
greatest of all knights. He are honoured to nave you at our court".

Lancelot on the Amiga

LANCELOT
LEVEL 9/M AN DARIN's Holy Grail?
Y||IQ game has been expected tor some claims tor this game. They are on record as
* niw months now. Following Level 9's saying it is their 'best yet', and furthermore
ritt with Mandarin, it seems likely that we have been informed that Pete Austin is
Lancelot will be the last Austin adventure an expert on Arthuriana. To a certain extent
produced under that label. What sort of epi¬ these claims do have some substantiation in
taph does it otter? the game. To start with, the locations have
A pretty dodgy one. I'm atraid. Last an undeniable air of authenticity about
month we saw Ingrid's Back, developed after them, as do the characters of the various
Lancelot, and although I wouldn't normally knights and the occasional flourishes of early
put gnomes before knights, I would in this Englishe prose.
case. This is a disastrous disappointment So what's the problem? Simply that the
because the Arthurian scenario is surely one game, while superlative for certain brief
of the great opportunities in adventuring. moments, keeps getting spoilt by apparent
Even that awful old game Quest tor the Holy carelessness and poor design. For example,
Grail, with its exploding rabbits and Nic-ing the characters are great and - as in Ingrid's
knights, managed to borrow a little lustre Back - lead interesting lives that greatly
from the days of Lancelot and the Round enhance the atmosphere of the game. How¬
Table. ever, they also have sloppy speech tenden¬
Level 9 have made some pretty tough cies that do not do much credit to anyone,
least of all themselves.
For example, it's quite amusing when
the Damosel Maledisant says to Lancelot,
who is carrying a hot cauldron, 'Bet you
drop it!'. It is not amusing, however, when
she says it again after he's put it down. At
other times, the characters' responses and
outbursts appear even more illogical. Even why not be more direct?
an innocent suggestion to Arthur can get However, all this can be forgiven when
you the reply 'Don't bother me with that! I you find characters engaged in interesting
am the king!' (or words to that effect), activity or, for once, replying with convinc¬
which may amuse once, but never again. ing relevance. You can also forgive the poor
Once suspects that the character is simply graphics on some versions (see screenshots
scrying 'I don't understand', in which case for some idea of the variety here) because
Advanced Computer Entertainment 99