[{"TitleName":"Afterburner","Publisher":"Activision Inc","Author":"Focus Creative Enterprises Ltd, Jon Paul Eldridge, Keith Burkhill, Mark A. Jones","YearOfRelease":"1988","ZxDbId":"0000103","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 59, Dec 1988","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1988-11-17","Editor":"Dominic Handy","TotalPages":213,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Dominic Handy\r\nAssistant Editor: Stuart Wynne\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Philip King, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Jon Bates, Graham Callum, Raffaele Cecco, Mel Croucher, Ian Cull, Paul Evans, Philippa Irving, Ian Lacey, Barnaby Page, Ian Philipson, Paul Sumner\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nAssistant Art Director: Wayne Allen\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nProduction Team: Ian Chubb, Melvin Fisher, Robert Hamilton, Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Yvonne Priest\r\n\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nAdvertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nSales Executives: Sarah Chapman, Andrew Smales\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris, Lee Watkins [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group. Distribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop the Sticky Solutions Department a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\nHAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL CRASH READERS\r\n\r\nTotal: 96,590\r\nUK/EIRE: 90,822\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1988\r\n\r\nISSN 0954-8661\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Sega scorcher sears spectrum.\r\n\r\nProducer: Activision\r\nMoney to Burn: £9.99 cass\r\nAuthor: Keith Burkhill\r\n\r\nOne of the hottest coin-ops of all time has arrived. You begin your mission being catapulted off the deck of a beautifully-drawn aircraft carrier. Once airborne you come under attack from wave after wave of enemy jets, half armed with machine guns, the other half relying on missiles. To evade them the F-14 can bank left/right and even perform a 360° roll (with practice). It's also equipped with those essential afterburners for extra thrust - turn them on/off with space bar.\r\n\r\nTo reply in kind the F-14 is armed with a unlimited cannon fire and a couple of dozen extremely useful heat-seeking missiles. Extra missiles are provided by the automatic refuelling stages - either landing on a runway or mid-air refuelling. Including these stages there are 23 levels (multi-loaded three at a time). Apparently everything in the arcade game has been replicated (apart from the hydraulic seat!).\r\n\r\nDespite the conversion's exhilarating speed Afterburner remains of dubious lasting value. The gameplay is just too repetitive, constantly dodging around the screen firing and trying to avoid occasionally indistinct missiles. But even so, to begin with Afterburner really does set your pulse racing.\r\n\r\nPHIL 85%\r\n\r\nTHE ESSENTIALS\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: stunningly fast 3-D, although ground features aren't very detailed\r\nSound: catchy 128K title tune and ingame music which can be replaced by some hot sound effects\r\nOptions: definable keys. Choose between ingame music or sound effects","ReviewerComments":["With its breathtaking speed, amazing graphics and pounding soundtrack, the arcade game was brilliant. But what about the Spectrum version? Well, it's certainly fast. The main sprite is simply excellent. Some of the backgrounds are just as nicely detailed, with tanks and so on, but for the most part they're rather empty. Sound is well implemented with a choice of a rousing tune or FX. Yet despite the speed of the graphics, and the urge to see the next stage, it's really only a 'dodge-left/right-and-fire' game. Lacking the speed and definition of the arcade original the underlying simplicity of the gameplay is sadly revealed. Nevertheless fans of the original will, like me, still love it.\r\nMark Caswell\r\n83%","The one game above almost all others I thought impossible to successfully convert has arrived - and totally amazed me. The speed is fantastic. Each level of the game is a different colour monochrome with small but well-defined jets flying by and brilliant graphics at the beginning and end of each level. The Spectrum version doesn't seem to have lost any of the speed, but the graphics on the ground have been reduced from the brightly coloured houses and structures of the arcade machine to just bushes - but this doesn't effect the game too drastically, the playability is still there. The multiload is a bit annoying but nothing can be done about that and +3 owners will hardly notice it. Afterburner is a great game, you'll be a fool to miss it.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n91%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A great conversion of a very popular coin-op, which perhaps loses out in the long run due to its repetitiveness.","Page":"9","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil King","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"83","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"91","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Gruman F-14 about to be steam catapulted into high-speed arcade action."},{"Text":"Head-to-head combat with deadly MiGs"},{"Text":"Not another BP advert! - vital fuel supplies for a hungry Afterburner."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"TOO HOT TO HANDLE?\r\n\r\nConserve your missiles for the really tough sections.\r\n\r\nDon't stay still - keep moving left and right to avoid enemy planes.\r\n\r\nSlow down to fly through the tricky canyon section.\r\n\r\nIf a missile is on your tail, get out of its path and slow down to let it pass."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"83%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"84%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"85%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"83%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"86%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 87, Apr 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-03-21","Editor":"Richard Eddy","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Richard Eddy\r\nSub Editor: Warren Lapworth\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction and Circulation Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Judith Bamford\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Christine Moore\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting Apple Macintosh Computers using Quark Express and Bitstream Fonts.\r\n\r\nSystems Manager: Ian Chubb\r\n\r\nColour origination Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted].\r\n\r\nDistributor COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nYearly subscription rates: UK £17.20 Europe £24.00, Air Mail overseas £37. US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US$47.00, Canada CAN$57.00 Back Issues US$5.20, Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available; If something untoward happens we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop us a line). No person who is related, no matter how remotely, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material on 35mm transparencies is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Copy published in CRASH will be edited as seen fit and payment will be calculated according to the current printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1991 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover design and illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"The Hit Squad\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nJust like the coin-op - wobble your fighter plane from left to right shooting incoming attackers as you fly (at high speed) over different terrains. Entertaining if you loved the coin-op, okay-ish as a stand-alone game.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"85%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 39, Mar 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-02-16","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Higgs\r\nDeputy Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nStaff Writer: Duncan MacDonald\r\nDesigner: Thor Goodall\r\nEditorial Assistant: David Wilson\r\nTechnical Consultant: David McCandless\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Sean Kelly, Catherine Peters, Rachael Smith, Phil South\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Simon Stansfield\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Stephen Bloy\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Katherine Balchin\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nPublisher: Terry Grimwood\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1989 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"Activision\r\n£9.95 cass/£14.95 disk\r\nReviewer: Jonathan Davies\r\n\r\nIf US Gold was foolhardy enough to tackle OutRun, Activision must have been utterly crackers when it bought the licence to this one. With more hydraulics than a fleet of JCBs, and extraordinarily fast graphics, Afterburner is another one for the \"Gosh! Wot, on the Speccy? Gerraway!\" brigade. However as we all know, if it's got the right name on the box, just about any old dross can be made to sell like, well, like very fast.\r\n\r\nNot that Afterburners is any old dross, of course. Certainly not. But while it packs quite a punch graphically, there seems to be a gaping void where the gameplay should have been inserted. Just like the coin-op version, in fact.\r\n\r\nHokay, for those of you who haven't seen it in the arcades and missed the Megapreview a couple of issues ago, the game goes like this. Launch your F-14 Tomcat from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, zoom along at Mach 96 and shoot the marauding hordes of Russi... sorry, enemy aircraft who scoot around taking pot-shots at you, stopping for refuelling occasionally.\r\n\r\nNothing frighteningly original there, I know, but where Afterburner excels is in the graphics. Even on the Speccy conversion, the speed at which sprites are wanged around the screen is phenomenal, especially considering that as your F-14 banks, the ground and all the clobber littered about on it bank too, so all the sprites have to be rotated around. The mathematics behind it doesn't bear thinking about. But then what maths does?\r\n\r\nAs you can probably imagine, colour pretty well goes out of the window once again, making me wonder where the Spectrum got its name.\r\n\r\nWell fast it may be. So fast that you'll often be wiped out without knowing what's hit you. The trouble is, though, that there's very little to do. Your guns fire automatically, missiles lock on as soon as your sights pass over the target, so all you have to do really is dodge enemy fire and launch the odd missile now and then. This may be fine for some people, but after a few minutes I was pounding my fists on the keyboard, demanding to see the manager.\r\n\r\nWhile I can't help but quake at the sheer power of the graphics routines, hum along to the 128K tunes and snigger as yet another Comm er, baddy goes down in flames, the thing that amazes me most about Afterburner is that it's totally devoid of any addictive qualities whatsoever. Not many, anyway. I suppose that some of you might want to keep going to see all the various levels and refueling sequences, but it's not really worth playing just for the shooty bits.\r\n\r\nBuy it for the speed, graphics, free stickers and posters if you must, but be aware that they're covering up a serious lack of content. Damning perhaps, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A technically brill conversion that can't quite make up for the original's shallowness.","Page":"83","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jonathan Davies","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Yer akchawi 'flying through a canyon' sequence. Very difficult, as it twists about causing you to pile into the sides on a regular basis."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 65, May 1991","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1991-04-11","Editor":"Andy Ide","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Andy Ide\r\nArt Editor: Sal Meddings\r\nGames Editor: James Leach\r\nStaff Writer: Linda Barker\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Jon North, Rich Pelley, John Pillar, Adam Waring, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Jane Richardson\r\nPublishing Assistant: Michele Harris\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg Ingham\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistributors: MMC [redacted]\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair is published by Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1991. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"AFTERBURNER\r\nHit Squad\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Rich Pelley\r\n\r\nLet's face it, the only reason you're reading this review is because you've got nothing better to read - not because you've never heard of Afterburner and want to know what it's about. I mean, everyone's heard of Afterburner! I even had an in depth discussion with my Gran about it once! But seeing as the more I write the more I get paid, let's have a quick recap.\r\n\r\nOn first play, you'll probably think \"wow' and go around annoying your family by telling them how good this new game you've just got is, and then wondering why from then on every time you enter a room everyone else suddenly leaves. The graphics, if a little lacking in any colour whatsoever, chugg along at a cracking rate, and your plane dips and dives, turns and rolls as you fly into the screen very effectively. Hoards of baddies zoom at you, you fire your machine gun at them, then lock on and despatch a missile or 2. There's then a convincing explosion and a 128K explosion-type-noise (or 48K beep).\r\n\r\nBut this is just about all that you can do - for level after level. It's very easy too as there's nothing you can crash into (not even other planes - you can only be hit down by enemy missiles which are for the most part easy to avoid), and your machine guns and missiles fire and lock on automatically. You've got absolutely tonnes of lives too, so games tend to be pretty lengthy. Okay, so there are loads of levels (which load in a few at a time), including various (automatic) re-fuelling sequences, and a natty bit where you have to fly though a big canyon, but the gameplay does remain very samey throughout. It is however very addictive and cheap, so by all means scoop it up now if you didn't before.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"69","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rich Pelley","Score":"78","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"1 There's a variety of enemy planes - these are the nastiest as they fire both missiles and bullets. 2. Ammo is limited, and shown here with a big missile representing 2 rows of little ones. (Your stock is of course replenished when you refuel.) 3. You."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"78%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 55, Jul 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-06-07","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Kevin Hibbert\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Joe Davies, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Jo Fulton, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Kate Hodges, Duncan MacDonald, Jon North, Rich Pelley, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertising Executive: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nAssistant Publisher: Jane Richardson\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistributors: SM Distribution [redacted]\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair is published by Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1990. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"Afterburner\r\nActivision\r\n\r\nA prime example of the sort of arcade conversion everyone said 'can't be done on the Speccy' and guess what? Yes, everyone was right! Still, that doesn't mean Activision didn't make a very brave try. Indeed, the speed with which they've got the various pretty large sprites (massive in the case of the F14 Tomcat you control) whanging around all over the screen is pretty impressive, to say the least. The only problem is - there isn't really much of a game hiding underneath the flash (and I know plenty of people will disagree with me, but I found pretty much the same thing to be the case with Space Harrier, Galaxy Force and all those other into the screen jobbies), a fault of Sega (the coin-op people) rather than the people who worked on the Speccy version.\r\n\r\nThe scenario, as you all probably know, is your slightly oudated 'shoot down all those nasty Russian planes' jobbie. There are some neat touches (the inflight refueling sequences spring to mind) but with automatically firing guns, automatically locking missiles and so on it's really just a case of dodging enemy fire (try a constantly circling movement around the screen) and launching the odd missile. Sorry, but for me this 'unconvertible' game turned out to be exactly that.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"33,34,35,36,37","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"67","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Chocks awaaaaaay!"}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"EVERY SHOOT-'EM-UP EVER\r\n\r\nHa! You've got to be joking - I started working on it and got up to 150 names - and I was only half way through the poxy thing! Forget it!"},{"Text":"GIANT ALIEN MUTHAS FROM HELL\r\n\r\nA few good end-of-level baddies can make a shoot-'em-up, a lack of them break one. Let's look at a few typical monsters, shall we?\r\n\r\nDominator: Impressive pink mouth affair firmly in the R-Type mould, and nicely animated too - the eyes blink and teeth move. Unfortunately the rest of the game didn't live up to it.\r\n\r\nMr Heli: A giant eye thing with lobster claws - not bad, the grey and yellow graphics don't help it to stand out as much as they might, do they?\r\n\r\nSilkworm: This is the other way to do it - not a giant fixed mass (like the other two) but a moving baddy in the vein of stuff you've already met on that level, but bigger. This super chopper is delightfully guppy-like."},{"Text":"HOW TO DESIGN A SPACESHIP\r\n\r\nWe cant really express how important a good central sprite can be - after all, other sprites may come and go, but you're looking at this one the entire time!\r\n\r\nHalaga: Hmm. Your basic Space Invaders/Galaxians thing - not too impressive, is it?\r\n\r\nSidearms: Anyone able to tell me what's meant to be going on here? It just looks like a bit of a mess to me! Answers on a postcard please.\r\n\r\nDark Fusion: A-ha! Now this is more like it - simple, clean design, easy to see but not too distracting. It's the biz."},{"Text":"SHORTS\r\n\r\nBlimey! Space doesn't go very far when you've got a subject as big as this, eh? So, dotted across the next four pages, we've squeezed some mini (mini) reviews into snazzy white blobs (just like this) - not wham-bam classics, but all good representatives of a type…"},{"Text":"SO, YOU WANNA WRITE A SHOOT-'EM-UP?\r\n\r\nWould you believe it's not as hard as it looks? (Actually, the way loads of people seem to write shoot-'em-ups it doesn't actually look all that hard anyway!) Here are a few of your central ingredients...\r\n\r\nThe Main Spaceship\r\nA little square box thing with another square box on the front will do fine here - nice and simple and to the point. Alternatively you could go the whole hog and stick as many spikey bits as possible all over it so the sprite looks 'interesting' from all angles.\r\n\r\nEnemy Spaceships\r\nNothing wrong with a whole squadron of polo mints zooming through space towards you - after all, it's the cunningness of the attack formations that counts!\r\n\r\nThe Name\r\nSomething gun-like sounds good and hard (say Side Arms or Armalyte) though anything vaguely aggressive-sounding will do (Eliminator, Dominator, Xecutor, H.A.T.E). If you're desperate you can always go the pseudo-scientific route (R-type, P47, Ultima Ratio), opt for an animal name (Salamander, Silkworm) or go for that old standard, the meaningless, vaguely futuristic-sounding word (Triaxos, Xeno, Zynaps, Xarax, Sanxion, Uridium, Xevious). Lots of 'Z's and 'X's are good.\r\n\r\nBackground\r\nNice and complicated is fine - let your imagination go wild. Don't worry about bullets (or even smaller enemy squadrons) getting lost amongst the mass of background detail - you can always pass it off as 'challenging gameplay'.\r\n\r\nCollision Detection\r\nDon't make it too easy for them! It's perfectly all right if any alien coming within inches of the player kills him dead, while he needs to blast baddies six times for any effect to be felt Again, it's all in the cause of challenging gameplay!"},{"Text":"THE FLIP-SCREEN\r\n\r\nNot all that common, but these can work very well indeed - check out Raf Cecco's Cybernoid duo, for instance. The thing seems to be that if you dispense with trying to write decent scrolling routines (since the background doesn't move at all - you simply progress across the screen until you get to the far end, when a new one flashes up with your little ship in its new starting position) you can spend a lot more time making everything else very pretty and colourful and inventive. Thus flip-screen games have some of the best, clearest, most colourful graphics ever seen on the Speccy.\r\n\r\nOn the minus side however there's the disconcerting, disorientating bit where your ship flickers off the right hand side of the screen, only to reappear on the far left of the next one.\r\n\r\nBut they can be incredibly addictive (it's always a temptation to try for 'just one more' screen to see what it looks like) and, in the case of the Cecco games at least, can strike a fine balance between mindless blasting and working out the best route past each new obstacle. They're still pure shoot-'em-ups, but slightly more cerebral ones.\r\n\r\nFlip screen a la NOMAD - no place to run to, no place to hide. (It's a bit like playing Murder In The Dark really.)"},{"Text":"THE HORIZONTAL SCROLLER\r\n\r\nThis is the other main option, and usually a much more sensible way to go about things. Not only is the screen the right shape, but you can have a very complicated and pretty bottom and/or top bit to it (the ground, or the edges of a tunnel, say), while leaving the bulk of the play area relatively free from obstructions. Most the great shoot-'em-ups (but by no means all) are built like this, including the Your Sinclair all-time fave raves like Uridium and R-Type.\r\n\r\nGame over, man! (Well, Game Over II to be precise.)"},{"Text":"THE 'INTO-THE-SCREEN' JOBBIE\r\n\r\nAlthough occasionally attempted with reasonable success by budgeteers like CodeMasters, these often constitute a less than satisfying experience. All too often someone responsible for coin-op licence acquisition will pick out an arcade favourite with a giant hydraulic cabinet - say an Afterburner or Thunder blade - with little thought as to how it's going to translate to the home computer. (Not very well, usually.) Thus most 'into-the-screen' shoot-'em-ups are technically impressive and rather brave attempts to reproduce the thrills and spills of the original, but almost inevitably doomed to failure. Robbed of 3D, moving cabinets, and whizzo graphics, the limitations built into the game become abundantly clear - there's little real feeling of speed (difficult enough to create even with a rolling road as reference point, let alone without one), oodles of almost identical levels and very little to actually do. Boring.\r\n\r\nVideodrome, here we come - it's 'into the screen' time with F-16 Fighting Falcon."},{"Text":"VERTICAL SCROLLERS\r\n\r\nOne obvious option for a shoot-'em-up, and one that's used all over the place, is the vertical scroller. This is where the action is viewed from a God-like perspective above it all, looking down on everything from a distance. The action scrolls up (or on the very odd occasion down) the screen. This has some advantages - it's easy to lay out complicated attack formations and the little spaceships can he the simplest blobby shapes and still function quite well but it can suffer from some rather major flaws too.\r\n\r\nThe first is that the shape of your average TV or monitor is all wrong. Think about it - you're trying to present portrait-shaped action (taller than it is long) on a landscape-shaped screen (wider than it is tall). In a coin-op, which is where 85% of vertical scrollers originate, there's no real problem with this because you can easily build a cabinet with a tall thin screen to contain the action, but in Speccyvision the programmers have to waste large portions of the side of the potential play area to reproduce it Subsequently, all the sprites have to be fairly small to fit in, and on most TVs become next to invisible. You've effectively castrated the game before you've even started.\r\n\r\nThere's one other major problem too - the background. Since most scrolling Speccy games have to be largely monochrome, any sort of backdrop (say a forest which you're flying over) can cause real problems. You'll be safe (but probably rather bored) if the programmer opts for a simple black starfield over which all the sprites will show up well, but anything beyond that courts disaster. All too often overzealous background artists, small sprites, even smaller bullets and the sort of slightly crappy TVs most of us use with our Speccies conspire to render your brand new vertical scroller virtually unplayable. Don't think I've got a total downer on them though - despite all the limitations some of the real classics use this design. Xenon, anybody?\r\n\r\nClear backdrops, that's what vertical scrollers need. (So Gemini Wing's a sorry loser.)"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Alien-Death-Scum-From-Hell Factor","Score":"52%","Text":""},{"Header":"Shopability","Score":"63%","Text":""},{"Header":"Copycat Factor","Score":"49%","Text":""},{"Header":"Visibility Factor","Score":"75%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"67%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 81, Dec 1988","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1988-11-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":123,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham 'Oh Yeah' Taylor\r\nDeputy Editor: Jim 'Any colour will do for me' Douglas\r\nProduction Editor: Alison 'Demarkation' Skeat\r\nArt Editor: Tim 'Lager Lout' Noonan\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nContributors: Tony 'I haven't done it' Dillon, Chris 'I'm keeping it' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine Lee\r\nSenior Sales: Shane Hussien\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry 'I'm not your boss as such' Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive 'Zxxx' Pembridge\r\n\r\nPhone: [redacted]\r\nFax: [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Jerry 'Ninja' Parks\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1988 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n24 Hour Order Line: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: Back Issues Department (SU), [redacted]"},"MainText":"Label: Activision\r\nAuthor: In-house\r\nPrice: £9.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nVerrroom! Swooooshhhh! Kerblaaaaammmmm! Er... KERSPLOSHHHH! And any other sound effects you can think about. Afterburner is here, and it's just as spectacular as it promised to be. After months of previews, teasers and tickles, the official conversion of the best-selling coin-op from Sega has arrived.\r\n\r\nIt was with trembling legs and dribbling chins that we loaded Afterburner and prepared to put it to the test. Would it be the most amazing convo ever? Or a complete load of old sausage-meat? Fortunately, it's better than we could have expected; just about as close to the coin-op as the Spectrum can manage.\r\n\r\nNot much has been left out of the gameplay. Let's face it, there wasn't much to leave out. Afterburner was never about complex gameplay; it's just about zooming through the skies, gawping at the incredibly fast, detailed, colourful graphics, and blowing to hell everything that moves. All these elements are still there, bar the colours.\r\n\r\nAs your F-128 sooper-dooper transonic interdiction fighter lifts from the deck of the Sega Enterprise, you feel that you're in for something special. When you lift into the air, the horizon suddenly fills with enemy planes, and you know that you have a fight on your hands.\r\n\r\nThe speed and smoothness with which your targets come out of the distance has to be seen to be believed. Your cannon fires continuously; you just have to line up your sights, dipping and veering to keep on target When the LOCK ON notice appears on the bottom of the screen, your guided missiles have selected a target. A cursor box appears around the doomed enemy plane, and by pressing the fire button you can launch a deadly missile.\r\n\r\nYour speed, and remaining stock of ammunition, are shown at the bottom of the screen. At the top is shown your current score, as well as the stage of the game you've achieved The first stage is relatively easy; the targets almost line up to be zapped. As you progress, though, you find yourself facing waves of missiles. The best way to avoid these is a quick barrel-roll; move the joystick over to the right or left, then give it a quick nudge. Your plane rolls alarmingly, the horizon spins around you, and with any luck you'll avoid the missiles. If you don't have any luck, your plane goes down, trailing what look like soap bubbles, which I'm sure are meant to be smoke rings.\r\n\r\nIf you survive through stage one, you'll rendevouz with a tanker which will top up your fuel and ammunition. Then it's on into the unknown, with a different coloured background, new types of planes, and a faster, more furious fight.\r\n\r\nYou must select music or sound effects during the game; the music's a jolly bouncy sort of affair, while the sound effects include some nice metallic bonglings and swooshings. The overall impression is of a game which is more than the sum of its separate parts; hence the rather strange marks in the faxbox.\r\n\r\nIf you survive long enough, you'll get to see the Super Hang-On motorbike chasing you off a landing strip, an Outrun sports car and a Thunderblade helicopter. Nice to see that the programmers had enough memory space to get all the jokes in - of course, this means that the game has to be multi-load, or use continual disk access.\r\n\r\nOK, there's not much to Afterburner; it's just continuous, spectacular blasting. Don't let that stop you investing in what must be one of the big hits for Christmas.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Top-class coin-op conversion destined for the top of the charts.","Page":"12,13","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"75%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"79%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) Issue 16, Jan 1989","Price":"£2.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-12-01","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":196,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Future Publishing [redacted]\r\nTelephone [redacted], Fax [redacted], Telecom Gold 84:TXT152, Prestel/Micronet: 0458 74011\r\n\r\nEditor: Graeme Kidd\r\nReviews Editor: Bob Wade\r\nFeatures Editor: Andy Wilton\r\nProduction Editor: Damien Noonan\r\nContributing Production Editor: Martyn Lester\r\nConsultant Editor: Brian Larkman (Graphics)\r\nAdventure Editor: Steve Cooke\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Phil South, Andy Wilton\r\nArt Editor: Trevor Gilham\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Angela Neale\r\nProduction: Diane Tavener\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jonathan Beales\r\nAdvertising Sales Executive: David Lilley\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\n\r\nCover by Sebastian Quigley\r\n\r\nSUBSCRIPTIONS\r\nAvon Direct Mail [redacted]\r\n\r\nSPECIAL OFFERS\r\n(Christine Stacey) [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOLOUR ORIGINATION\r\nWessex Reproduction [redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION\r\nSM Distribution [redacted]\r\n\r\nPRINTING\r\nChase Web Offset [redacted]\r\n\r\n© FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD 1989\r\n\r\nNo part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without our permission."},"MainText":"Activision Lock On.\r\n\r\nTake a game, almost any game, put it in a large, colourful and very animated cabinet then plonk it in an amusement arcade and what have you got? Large queues waiting for their turn on the latest sure-fire arcade hit.\r\n\r\nAfter Burner was THE machine to play in the arcades earlier this year. It came in three versions: The upright cabinet, which is the standard arcade machine, the sit-in version, which shook and rattled as you played, and the Deluxe version, which shook and rattled enough to knock your false teeth into your lap. Now Activision bring us the home micro versions of the game - which come without a cabinet, so you'll have to do your own gyrating console impressions.\r\n\r\nThe object of the game is very simple - fly your F-14 Thunder Cat through stage after stage of enemy territory and survive for as long as possible. Chances of survival are increased by shooting down as many of the enemy aircraft as you can before they shoot you. Your plane is armed with a continually front-firing machine gun and heat-seeking missiles. A small square sight just in front of your plane indicates where the machine gun is firing, and if an enemy plane wanders into the sight, it locks on to the enemy plane. You then let loose with a missile which will rocket towards the target - meanwhile, your small sight's still out in front so you can end up with half a dozen or more targeted enemy planes at once.\r\n\r\nDealing with the enemy like that is not such a problem at the start of the game as long as your reactions are swift enough to bank left-right to avoid the incoming missiles. The problems start when enemy planes and enemy heat-seeking missiles start coming from in front and behind. The best way out of this kind of situation is to start using the throttle control to speed away from (or slow down and sneak in behind) the enemy. In later stages the skies are empty of enemy craft and it's a simple case of blasting away at ground targets such as oil tankers and look-out towers - occasionally you have to do this whilst flying through a narrow canyon.\r\n\r\nAlthough your machine gun has an inexhaustible magazine and keeps firing away happily, the number of missiles is limited and should you be so foolish to use up all your missiles early on, you'll have to survive without them until the refuelling stage, when either a large tanker plane comes flying over and drops a cable which your plane attaches itself to automatically, or a landing strip comes into view and the plane lands and gets refuelled.\r\n\r\nAfter Burner is pure sky-high mayhem, the ol' brain cells won't get a work-out but your joystick arm certainly will. It's playable stuff, but once the novelty has worn off you'll soon realise it is just a standard scrolling shoot-em-up with little in it to keep you interested and playing for any great length of time.\r\n\r\nReviewer: Andy Smith\r\n\r\nRELEASE BOX\r\nAtari ST, £24.99dk, Out Now\r\nAmiga, £24.99dk, January\r\nSpec, £9.99cs, £12.99dk, Out Now\r\nAmstrad, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent\r\nC64/128, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent\r\nIBM PC, No plans.\r\n\r\nPredicted Interest Curve\r\n\r\n1 min: 80/100\r\n1 hour: 85/100\r\n1 day: 60/100\r\n1 week: 30/100\r\n1 month: 20/100\r\n1 year: 5/100","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A standard arcade shoot-em-up.","Page":"54,55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Smith","Score":"656","ScoreSuffix":"/1000"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"At the start of a new stage on the arcade machine."},{"Text":"Below - C64 version, notice how blocky the graphics are."},{"Text":"Blasting off at the start of the game on the Spectrum. Tilt your chair back as you power skywards (not too far!)."},{"Text":"Re-fuelling and re-arming on the Spectrum. The player takes no part in this so it comes as a welcome break."},{"Text":"Spectrum - in the thick of the action. You're locked onto four planes so let them missiles fly!"},{"Text":"Spectrum - powering through the canyon in stage eight. There are no enemy planes to worry about as you blast everything on the ground. Mind the walls though! Far right - you're hit! You're going down! You've only got eight lives left! Oh no!"},{"Text":"ST - Blam! A missile hits home. Watch out for that incoming missile at the top of the screen though or you'll go crashing to the ground."},{"Text":"ST - stage one and some enemy planes come screaming past you. Get 'em in your sights and fire off a missile."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"ARCADE ACCURACY\r\n\r\nIt's fast, colourful and has all the features of the arcade game that you could reasonably expect.\r\n\r\nCoin-op Score: 8"},{"Text":"ATARI ST VERSION\r\n\r\nThe sound effects are good as are the graphics and gameplay. It's still not a stunning game though and you're liable to bored sooner rather than later.\r\n\r\nGraphics: 8/10\r\nAudio: 7/10\r\nIQ Factor: 1/10\r\nFun Factor: 6/10\r\nAce Rating: 687/1000"},{"Text":"C64 VERSION\r\n\r\nThe graphics are the worst of the bunch, They're colourful but very blocky - to the extent that it's often difficult to see what is going on and where the missiles are coming from. The sound too is poor - the effects especially.\r\n\r\nGraphics: 4/10\r\nAudio: 5/10\r\nIQ Factor: 1/10\r\nFun Factor: 4/10\r\nAce Rating: 519/1000\r\n\r\nPredicted Interest Curve\r\n\r\n1 min: 80/100\r\n1 hour: 85/100\r\n1 day: 75/100\r\n1 week: 55/100\r\n1 month: 25/100\r\n1 year: 10/100"},{"Text":"RIPE FOR CONVERSION?\r\n\r\nThe programming team who converted After Burner have done a first rate job - very little, if anything, has been left out and the game plays very well. The only problem is, was After Burner really suitable for the home micro? Unlike R-Type, which is a challenging and enjoyable shoot-em-up, A.B. outside of the sit-in cabinet is dull. The cabinet made the game popular in the arcades and, without the frills, the home computer versions are poor cousins. Operation Wolf is another great arcade game, and although the coin-op featured a huge rattling machine gun mounted on the front of the cabinet that couldn't be emulated on the home micro versions, the game itself was good, and a competent conversion that compensates for the lack of machine gun should be (and is) a good computer game. Can the same be said for After Burner?"},{"Text":"SPECTRUM VERSION\r\n\r\nGreat graphics, great gameplay and OK sound effects and music. Unfortunately the game soon gets repetitive and you'll see your interest waning fast."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Audio","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"IQ Factor","Score":"1/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Fun Factor","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Ace Rating","Score":"656/1000","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 86, Dec 1988","Price":"£1.2","ReleaseDate":"1988-11-16","Editor":"Eugene Lacey","TotalPages":180,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Eugene Lacey\r\nDeputy Editor: Julian Rignall\r\nSub-Editor: Seamus St. John\r\nStaff Writer: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Andrea Walker\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Garry Williams\r\nSales Executive: Joanne Cook\r\nAdvertisement Production: Lora Clark\r\nGerman Correspondent: Carsten Borgmeier\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]"},"MainText":"MACHINES: Spectrum/Amstrad/C64/Atari ST/Amiga/MS/PC\r\nSUPPLIER: Activision\r\nPRICE: Spec/C64/Ams/MSX £9.99 cass, C64/Ams £12.99 disk, ST £19.99, Amiga £24.99\r\nVERSION TESTED: Spectrum\r\n\r\nArguably the hottest arcade game of the year, Sega's Afterburner has finally arrived on home computer format courtesy of Activision.\r\n\r\nThe unenviable task of converting this monster machine was given to Keith Burkhill, whose previous masterpieces include Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Space Harrier and Commando. Has he been able to work magic and reproduce Afterburner on the Spectrum? Well, the answer is a resounding yes - believe it or not.\r\n\r\nFor the arcade virgins among us, Afterburner is an aerial combat game in which the player flies an F-14 against an entire enemy airforce. The action is viewed in 3D from behind the plan, rather like a traditional race game. Formations of enemy craft fly over the horizon and attack before peeling away. Sometimes planes emerge from the sides of the screen, swooping across the F-14's flightpath, and attack from behind, requiring some nifty manoeuvring to shake off the pursuer.\r\n\r\nThe solo mission of death and destruction starts on an aircraft carrier. The F-14 takes off automatically and heads for the sky, and from then on you're on your own.\r\n\r\nThe plane is armed with an unlimited supply of bullets, which fire constantly throughout the mission, and a limited amount of air-to-air missiles. When an enemy plane comes into firing range, a box appears around it and a missile can be launched by pressing the fire button to send it haring across the sky to home in on the target. Bullets are a good means of bringing down planes that fly front of the F-14, but otherwise they're pretty useless in combat.\r\n\r\nThe first few formations of planes are merely cannon fodder, but the jets that follow launch missiles at the F14; one hit is fatal and the plane plunges to the ground and ploughs a great furrow as it comes to a standstill. As the player progresses the missiles become faster, more numerous and very accurate, and swift reflexes and good hand-to-eye co-ordination is needed to fly the plane safely through the seemingly unceasing assault.\r\n\r\nOccasionally a plane or homing missile approaches from behind with the sole intent of destroying the plane. This frantic situation prompts only one course of action; a spin. This particular manoeuvre is tricky to master, but essential if the player is to complete the mission. A short tug of the joystick in one direction, followed by a quick switch sends the plane - and the horizon - into a complete rotation, shaking off the aggressor in the process.\r\n\r\nAt regular intervals a big tanker plane flies in and the F-14 automatically docks in mid-air for refuelling and rearming.\r\n\r\nThere are 23 levels in all - like the arcade game - the majority of which involve aerial combat. There are two canyon runs, where the plane is guided down the middle of a steep-sided valley to strafe ground targets that litter the plain. The sides of the canyon have to be avoided, so its useful to slow the plane down as much as possible - that way there's more time to pick the juiciest targets and notch up as many points as possible.\r\n\r\nThere are also two friendly airfields to land on, where the plane is quickly serviced before resuming combat; it provides a very welcome breather from the frenetic action. The programmer has included the little Hang-On bike and Outrun car which follow the plane up the runway as it takes off - it's good to see that sort of attention to detail.\r\n\r\nThe original arcade game had lavish and very fast graphics. Unfortunately the colour is lost on the Spectrum - the playing screen is always a combination of two colours to avoid attribute problems - but the speed has been retained, and the game is as fast as its coin-op big brother.\r\n\r\nThe main sprite is clearly drawn and the 3D update on the enemy planes is smooth. There are few ground features, the majority of them seem to be bushes, but you tend not to notice when you're flying - there are far more important things happening on-screen to spend time gawping at that scenery. The canyon section is well executed, and again the update is convincing.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, the game is extremely playable. The plane handles beautifully, and targeting and firing missiles is easy. My one single gripe is that it's sometimes difficult to see incoming missiles due to the colour restrictions - but it doesn't ruin the game. Play is exciting, and the frenetic action keeps you on your toes constantly - the only time you can ever afford to relax is when the plane is on the runway!\r\n\r\nThe difficulty level is set quite high, and even though the game is started with a generous number of lives, it doesn't take long to blow up all the planes. Nevertheless, this small fact didn't stop me playing it incessantly!\r\n\r\nAfterburner, is an excellent conversion, and while Keith Berkhill goes for a stroll on water, Spectrum owners at least can revel in one of the fastest and most impressive arcade games to appear in the six-year history of the machine!\r\n\r\nAnd now that Activision has proved the seemingly impossible, the ball is now in US Gold's court. Will Thunderblade shoot down Afterburner? Or will Afterburner leave Thunderblade in its jet wash? One thing's for sure: Thunderblade will have to be exceptional to beat this.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"52,53","Denied":false,"Award":"C+VG Hit","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Julian Rignall","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Banking steeply on the Speccy."},{"Text":"Near perfect title screen on the 64."},{"Text":"Speccy has the right opening sequence."},{"Text":"Swoop down to take out ground targets."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"UPDATE...\r\n\r\nThe 16-bit versions are being programmed by Argonaut Software, producers of Starglider I and II. Hopefully their usual high standards will be in evidence in their first arcade conversion.\r\n\r\nAfterburner on the C64 & Amstrad should be as fast as the Spectrum, and have more colours."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 113, Apr 1991","Price":"£1.3","ReleaseDate":"1991-03-16","Editor":"Julian Rignall","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Julian Rignall\r\nAssociate Editor: Paul Glancey\r\nArt Editor: Jon Billington\r\nStaff Writers: Richard Leadbetter, Robert Swan\r\nDebonair Advertisement Manager: Nigel Taylor\r\nTough-Talking Deputy Advertisement Manager: Martha Moloughney\r\nAmiable Sales Exec: Alan Dykes\r\nBeautiful Production Assistant: Emma Sadler\r\nWicked Publisher: Graham \"Nyee-hahaha!\" Taylor\r\nStunt Double For Miss Moloughney: Ruby Wax\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: C+VG Subscriptions, [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]. Look! No more calls asked for tips, OK?\r\n\r\nPrinted By: Kingfisher Web, [redacted]\r\nColour By: The lovely Proprint people of [redacted]\r\nTypeset By: Your knackered editor. I thank you.\r\nDistributed By: BBC Frontline\r\n\r\n©Computer And Video Games\r\n1991 ISSN No: 0261-3697"},"MainText":"Hit Squad\r\nSpectrum £2.99\r\n\r\nThis conversion of the hit Sega coin-op puts you in the seat of an F-14, pitted against hordes of enemy aircraft. Its all really very good, considering the machine's limitations. Fans of the coin-op, grab three quid and check it out pronto!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"72","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"82%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"The Games Machine Issue 15, Feb 1989","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1989-01-19","Editor":"Jon Rose","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Jon Rose\r\nReviews Editor: Nik Wild\r\nFeatures Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Robin Hogg, Warren Lapworth, Robin Candy\r\nEditorial Assistants: Vivien Vickress, Caroline Blake\r\nResearcher: David Peters\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Jon Bates, Mel Croucher, Robin Evans, Richard Henderson, Jez San, John Woods\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT\r\n[redacted]\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSenior Designer: Wayne Allen\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nProduction Team: Ian Chubb, Yvonne Priest, Melvin Fisher, Robert Millichamp, Robert Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nADVERTISING AND ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENTS\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nGroup Advertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Andrew Smales, Sarah Chapman\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris, Lee Watkins [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by the Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow and on our Apple Macintosh II running Quark Xpress 2.0. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset [redacted] - a member of the BPCC Group. Distribution effected by COMAG, [redacted].\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of TGM. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop Viv Vickress a line at the PO Box 10 address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into TGM - including written and photographic material, hardware or software - unless it's accompanied by a suitably stamped, addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photographic material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Occasional material from Electronic Game Player reproduced by kind permission of Sorjana Publications, California. Other Newsfield publications are CRASH (Spectrum), ZZAP! (Commodore 64/Amiga), FEAR (fantasy and horror) and MOVIE - THE VIDEO MAGAZINE. Now that's interesting, but why are you reading all this when there 120 pages to go?\r\n\r\n©TGM Magazines Ltd, 1989\r\nA Newsfield Publication ISSN 0954-8092\r\n\r\nCover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"THE GAMES MACHINE TRASH\r\n\r\nSpectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £12.99\r\nCommodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99\r\nAtari ST £24.99\r\n\r\nF F F FOURTEEN\r\n\r\nThe Grumman F-14 Tomcat - capable of Mach 2.34 at height, armed with the longest range air-to-air missiles in the world and the US Navy's premier carrier-based fighter. Sega - Japan based maestro in producing top quality coin-ops. Activision - one of the most successful software houses in the UK. These three leaders in their field join forces to bring you home computer conversions of the 1988 top grossing coin-op - Afterburner.\r\n\r\nAfterburner stormed its way into arcades around the world and became Sega's biggest selling machine to date. Featuring three megabytes of superlative graphics, sound and heart-rending action, how could Activision be expected to convert it to home computers?\r\n\r\nFor those who failed to notice the blanket promotion for the game, it is a flight-combat shoot-'em-up set over 23 levels. Your F- 14 is ready, waiting and armed with unlimited cannon shells for close combat and a lock-on fire-and-forget missile system. To destroy MiGs, lock-on target, squeeze the trigger and watch your missile heat-seek home.\r\n\r\nThrough war torn skies you pilot the F-14, taking on, and hopefully defeating, a seemingly endless enemy force of fighter planes. Enemy craft and a salvo of heat seeking missiles rush toward your plane in an attempt to stop you - its a case of avoid or die!\r\n\r\nONE MIG-HELL\r\n\r\nThe basic theme is dodge enemy missiles, launch your own and survive to the next level. Added to this mayhem are canyons to negotiate - hit the sides and your mission comes to an explosive end.\r\n\r\nAt certain stages you refuel in mid-air and also land at secret airbases to top up your firepower. Running out of missiles is not a good idea.\r\n\r\nAfterburner may not seem awesome from the plot - in fact the coin-ops success comes from the incredibly fast action and marvelous graphic quality. Actual gameplay is limited and can even become repetitive.\r\n\r\nIronically, home computer conversions have had to make graphics a secondary priority. The most important requirement was to feature the simple gameplay of he coin-op.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Keith Burkhill must have had many a sleepless night when it came to converting this to the Spectrum. Those sleepless nights have paid off in producing a game of thoroughly enjoyable playability. It may not look much with its mainly monochrome display, fast moving but limited ground graphics and narrow screen width, but it incorporates gameplay to match the arcade machine and is just as much fun to play amazing!","Page":"59","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Gosh, how can you destroy enemy planes when they're protected by huge square forcefields (C64 screen)."},{"Text":"No, you don't have to destroy this big mother, it's here to refuel you."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"\"A case of avoid or die!\""},{"Text":"ATARI ST\r\n\r\nOverall: 47%\r\n\r\nWith Argonaut Software's programming pedigree, 16-bit versions looked set to be superb - they're not. There is no impression of high speed, confusing graphics make firing and dodging missiles tricky, and mystifyingly jerky plane moves kills all emotions of being there. Graphics feature primitive bushes and unreal runways but radar towers and trees are nicely detailed (unfortunately you do have time to admire them!). Urgent vocal messages are included but they add little to play."},{"Text":"COMMODORE 64/128\r\n\r\nOverall: 29%\r\n\r\nIf you can put up with the barely adequate graphics, confused play and at times horrific presentation, you may find a barely playable game. The worst feature is the presence of character blocks around missiles and aircraft when they pass over the ground such crudities haven't been seen for at least five years. If you've a perverse desire to waste your money, give this version of Afterburner a whirl."},{"Text":"OTHER FORMATS\r\n\r\nAfterburner is soon to be converted to the Amstrad (Cassette £9.99, Diskette £14.99), Amiga (£24.99) and MSX (Cassette £9.99)."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"83%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]