[{"TitleName":"Orpheus in the Underworld","Publisher":"CRL Group PLC","Author":"Jay Derrett","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0010019","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 5, Jun 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-05-24","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":126,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial/office [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nPhotosetting by SIOS [redacted]\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: C.R.L.\r\nMemory Required: £5.95\r\nRetail Price: £5.95\r\nLanguage: Machine code\r\nAuthor: Jay Derrett\r\n\r\nThe instructions on this game contained on the screen are written in a specially designed character set. It seems odd that programmers can go to the trouble of doing this and then say a 'missile flys' at you and that it is 'indestructable'. No one is perfect, and typographical mistakes can occur and fail to be spotted, but there should be no excuse for such poor spelling in a game intro.\r\n\r\nAs for the intro, it describes Orpheus as being a task to deliver a secret document to headquarters by way of an enemy occupied tunnel. The enemy will send Tai fighters at you, which by some odd freak of nature are alternately destructible and indestructable. There are land-based objects like Quarsar silos (remember those?), fuel dumps and etcs. (whatever they are).\r\n\r\nThe screen view is looking down the length of the tunnel which is represented by two converging lines and a ragged tunnelish line which zooms out in four frames to convey movement. The various land-based objects (etcs. must be the purple pyramids) grow bigger as you fly over them. After a while the fighters come out and then a real protagonist with heat seeking missiles.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: Get this - T= up, B=down, F=left, H=right, 5= bomb, U= fire laser. Despite cursor key joystick selection the cursors don't work as a key layout.\r\nJoystick: Kempston, ZX 2, AGF, Protek\r\nKeyboard play: virtually impossible\r\nUse of colour: fair\r\nGraphics: extremely poor\r\nSound: fair\r\nSkill levels:\r\nLives: 3","ReviewerComments":["I can't understand how on earth C.R.L. can keep going up and down like this! Orpheus is simply terrible! It's unplayable and silly. Describing it as being in 3D is like trying to describe a slide show as Star Wars. The graphics are pre-Spectrum, jerky, undetailed and the game is played on the most bizarre and difficult layout I have ever come across. With both bombs and laser fire, it seems pointless saying it can be played on cursor joysticks or interfaces. My programmable interface left me with a strange problem - dropping a bomb resulted in the fighter plunging to the base of the cavern and exploding. Awful.\r\r\nUnknown","What on earth are Qasar Silos? Reading the blurb on the inlay, it says, -Unbelievable 3D Arcade Action ...' Well, I could just about see the 3D effect - but where's the arcade action? Judging the fighter's position relative to the cavern walls, floor or ceiling is impossible. Bombing causes problems with AGF or Protek interfaces as the fighter has to be moved downwards to enable the bombs to be released - great, just crash into ground installations and you might score some points. The graphics are very jerky and slow down by almost half when the laser or bombs are used. Also, as there is no time/fuel limit, you can leave your fighter hanging in space and go off for tea. A very uninteresting and unplayable game.\r\r\nUnknown","After reading what it has to say on the cover of this game, I thought Orpheus was going to be a mega brill shoot 'em up game (all in one breath too). I was wrong! The graphics and the game are far below average. Shooting things seemed to be difficult. Getting killed was equally difficult unless I ran into the cave walls (which is easy enough as there is no graphic indication of where they are). I was disappointed with the game - there should be (probably is) a law against misleading cassette cover blurbs!\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Below average, not really worth the money.","Page":"91","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Un-believable 3D arcade action in Orpheus, as rthe Quasar Silos and 3D Etcetras come hurtling out of the cavernous void..."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"35%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"30%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"44%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"48%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"32%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"28%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"36%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]