Issue 7, September 1984 - Joystick Jury
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| J O Y S T I C K J U R Y Your Spectrum is on the lookout for clubs to take part in Joystick Jury. Interested??? Just drop a line to Ron Smith, Your Spectrum, 14 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DE. | ||
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This month's joystick jurors are
all members of the Stevenage
Computer Club, 106
Mobbsbury Way, Stevenage,
Herts. They are: Ian
Hemmingway, Phil Morse,
Frank Pelling, Owen Pugh and
Monty Trent. The club was formed about 18 months ago and currently has a membership of about 45, with members' ages ranging from eight to 70 years. It meets twice a month - at the Stevenage Library and the Leisure Centre. Membership costs £6 per year ... half price for children and OAPs. For more details, phone Frank Pelling on 0438 353659 (evenings and weekends). |
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 BULLSEYE Mastertronic / £1.99 The five darts games on this tape comprise 501, Cricket, Round the Board and Noughts and Crosses, all of which can be played on any one of four difficulty levels. Monty The graphics are below average and the colour is only a little better. But the speed is what really lets this game down; the whole thing is written in Basic. It also has a tendency to 'crash' unaccountably. 
Frank This will probably appeal to older gamesters, but might be a bit tedious for youngsters. Graphics, speed and colour are all fairly average and the absence of a crowd-roar for a high score is disappointing. 
Ian Darts is a difficult game to transfer on to a computer, and is probably a bad idea anyway. But this could have been improved by a speeding-up and better use of colour.
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 METAGALACTIC LLAMAS Salamander Software / £6.95 Mutants descend from webs that break when bombarded with well-aimed spit. The creatures then drop to the surface and mutate into Weeviloids. Frank Both colour and graphics are fairly pleasing, if not spectacular, and the speed seems to match the action quite well. It's easy on the eyes and fingers, but not particularly addictive.
Phil The distracted Llama and the ricocheting spit are both quite novel, and graphically very good There are different speeds for spiders, Weeviloids and the Llama, all of which are adequate.
Ian Everything in this game looks good - well-defined graphics, fast speed, excellent choice of colour and pleasant sound The only problem is it requires almost no effort to succeed
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 PSI-SPY Postern / £7.95 In the labyrinth of the wandering planet, there is great wealth and adventure for anyone willing to challenge the active guardians. Collect the five keys of Zar, for without them, exit is impossible. Ian Excellent graphics with some very fine detail - all made even better by the choice of some vivid colours. It can even be bewildering until you've worked out what's going on.
Phil It looks good, and probably sounds good (it supports the Currah MicroSpeech unit), but it does appear to be needlessly complicated. After a dozen attempts, it's still not really clear what you should be doing.
Frank A photographic mind would be an advantage for memorising all the instructions in this over-complicated game; even so, once understood, it's enjoyable.
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 THE FALL OF ROME ASP / £6.99 Take command of Rome and help it to survive while the Eastern Empires are causing trouble. You have the resources of the entire Empire at your disposal; used wisely, they might just stop civilisation being swept away by the warring tribes. Frank Attempting to quell the fall of Rome can really be quite addictive - providing you don't expect too much razmataaz-type action. A few battle scenes would improve matters.
Ian This is a good idea for a strategy game, even though the graphics aren't exactly spectacular. The map is drawn well and the result is an acceptable screen display.
Phil The inputting of all the variables is very tedious - and so is waiting for the program to make its calculations. It even responds with "Please be patient ..." while it's thinking.
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 BUFFER ADVENTURE Buffer Micro Ltd / £5.95 You enter the Buffer Micro shop in order to discover what goes on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, it's not possible to leave until you locate your missing credit cards and the beastly staff insist on you buying your way out. Frank It's refreshing to come across an adventure with a theme that's quite different from all the others ... it's just a pity there are no graphics. The humour is good.
Ian An adventure behind the closed doors of a well-known, south London computer shop is a very good idea and this one is particularly well executed; very playable and difficult.
Phil While the idea behind this game is fairly good, it does suffer from being text- only and the overall presentation is average. It also takes a long time to escape.
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 REVENGE OF THE KILLER TOMATOES Visions / £6.95 Meanwhile, back on the vegetable patch, help the market gardener to escape from the killer tomatoes, manic mushrooms and psycho swedes. Ian Play begins at a fairly fast speed and increases as you progress, though not to the point where the game becomes too difficult.
Frank The graphics aren't really very inspiring, and the colours are rather dull - neither of which exactly encourage you to play on. However, the game improves a little if you're using a joystick.
Monty Sorry, but this one's really boring and unoriginal - despite the title! Gardening isn't much fun at the best of times, but it's made even worse here with the threat of angry vegetables coming after you. It's lasting appeal is absolutely zilch.
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 3D BAT ATTACK CheetahSoft / £6.95 Trapped inside a 3D maze, trying to gather up gold blocks, your task is to fight your way along to the next level. Frank Oh, no, not another maze game! The 3D representation of the walls is OK, and so are the bats. Use of colour is adequate, which gives quite reasonable clarity. But it's still just another unoriginal program.
Phil This game (or one very like it) first appeared as a listing in a certain magazine under the title of 3D Dracman. It was OK for free, but as a commercial product, it's awful. Graphics, colour and speed are all uninspiring.
Ian Players can choose their own degree of difficulty by entering on different levels, with a greater or lesser number of bats. Both the graphics and the colour are above average, making for a very playable game.
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 CARNIVAL Eclipse Software / £5.95 This is a good old shooting gallery game where your job is to clear all the targets from the first round, then shoot the prowling bears before moving on. Owen The sound sets the right mood for a stint in the shooting gallery, and the graphics spur you on even more. The problem is the game is easy, and soon gets boring.
Ian The graphics are average and not too exciting, and much the same can be said for the use of colour. The six available speeds help things along a bit, and it's probably very suitable for young children.
Frank While it might be ideal for computer games novices, it's still Just another version of an arcade shooting gallery program Most disappointing of all is the distinctly unimaginative use of colour.
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 ANTICS Bug-Byte / £5.95 Boris Bee has been captured by the vicious ants and is being held captive somewhere in their nest. Luckily, help is at hand in the shape of cousin Barnabee. Frank The idea's quite good, but it's not clear why a bee should be found in an ants nest. Nevertheless, realistic use of colour, high-standard graphics and a comfortably slow playing speed make playing enjoyable.
Ian A very addictive game that'll give hours of amusement, even though there are many similar programs on the market. A lot of thought has gone into the graphics.
Phil Barnabee buzzes sedately around, while the ants and bugs tramp after him. The 'nibbling' sound effects are rather nice and it's well worth buying if only for the superb demonstration of the sound capabilities.
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 MILLIONAIRE Incentive Software / £5.95 Having just written what you consider to be a commercially viable program, your job now is to try and sell it. With just £500 of your own, the ultimate aim is to achieve millionaire status. Frank Since 95 per cent of this game is question and answer; the graphics aren't really important - even so, they look good. For me, there's nothing like testing your ability to succeed in business.
Ian There are many games of this type on the market, but wheeling and dealing in an effort to make a million is great fun - especially with characters like 'Honest Harry'.
Phil While it's fun to play, the lack of originality is a big problem, and I found the virtual absence of graphics and sound tended to make playing just a little tedious.
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 PAC-MAN Atarisoft / £9.95 The Pac-man, as usual, scores points by eating all the dots in the maze while avoiding the pursuing ghosts. There are four flashing power pills, located one in each corner of the screen. Owen It's totally unoriginal, but that doesn't make a bit of difference to the playability. The speed increases as you progress and the colour is just right.
Ian Atari has Spectrumised its old favourite - it's just as good as the original and is not likely to be equalled. It's also nice that all the sound effects have been included.
Frank Technically it's as good as most other Pacman type games and no doubt some people will go for it. However, there must be better similar games now available, even though the speed gets quite challenging.
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