[{"TitleName":"The Deep","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Damian Scattergood, Fran Heeran, Mark Cushen","YearOfRelease":"1988","ZxDbId":"0001311","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 62, Mar 1989","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1989-02-23","Editor":"Dominic Handy","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Dominic 'bye bye' Handy\r\nAssistant Editor: Stuart 'here I come' Wynne\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Philip King, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nContributors: Raffaele Cecco, Mel Croucher, Ian Cull, Mike Dunn, Paul Evans, Ian Lacey, Barnaby Page\r\nEditorial Assistants: Caroline Blake, Vivienne Vickress\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nSenior Designer: Wayne Allen\r\nDesigners: Melvin Fisher, Yvonne Priest\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nProduction Team: Robert Hamilton, Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris\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, Lee Watkins\r\nAssistants: Jackie Morris [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\nTo DW and DH, thanks for all the good times!\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1989\r\n\r\nISSN 0954-8661\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Relax on a leisurely cruise (missile)\r\n\r\nProducer: US Gold\r\nDepth Charge: £8.99 cass, £12.99 disk\r\nAuthor: Emerald Software\r\n\r\nApparently The Deep is a conversion from a coin-op, in which case a) an old one, or b) one that bombed for possibly both). In it you're the skipper of a ship under attack from squid, jellyfish and octopi, not to mention enemy submarines launching mines and homing torpedoes.\r\n\r\nFor defensive reasons only, of course, you have eight depth charges automatically, slowly replaced after use. Blast enough enemies and a flag will float to the surface, collect it and a helicopter rushes to the scene. There are five types of flag providing diving bells, homing missiles, speed-up, smart bombs and energy bombs.\r\n\r\nOnce enough enemies have been destroyed a small icon flashes at the bottom of the ocean and pressing ENTER turns your ship into a diving bell. You must then 'dive, dive, dive', collect the icon and return to the surface to go on to the next level. There are three levels of mine-dropping fun (mind-dropping?) before the bonus stages. In the first bonus stage a large ship is heading towards you at full steam, your must destroy it with energy bombs. Succeed and you are then placed in a Missile Command-type situation where you use a cursor to aim a laser. You must protect passing ships by hitting the enemy laser beams with your own laser. This done it's back to depth-charging.\r\n\r\nClearly rather lacking in depth (sorry), this game suffers even more from appalling graphics: small blobby sprites wobbling unconvincingly across the screen. Actual playability isn't bad, but the price of passage is unacceptable.\r\n\r\nMARK 35%\r\n\r\nTHE ESSENTIALS\r\nJoysticks: Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: primitive sprites, but decent scrolling\r\nSound: beepy title tune, simple effects","ReviewerComments":["This is one of the most primitive-looking full-price games I've seen for ages. Sprites are simply animated, while colour is used in large blocks causing much attribute clash. Worst of all, collision detection is very dodgy - it seems to be character block instead of pixel. Sound is pathetic as well. The one professional technical aspect is the smooth horizontal scrolling of the well-drawn background. Even so, this is a strangely compulsive game, proving simple ideas are often best. Better presentation, faster action and a lower price tag could've made a flawed game good.\r\nPhil King\r\n52%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: it plays better than it looks, but it's still overpriced.","Page":"64,65","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil King","Score":"52","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"35","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Those famous arcade makers Woodplace inc give the Speccy a history lesson."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"36%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"32%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"46%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"49%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"44%","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":"US Gold\r\n£8.99 cass\r\nReviewer: Sean Kelly\r\n\r\nThe Deep is, apparently, a coin-op conversion which comes aqualunging its way to the Speccy courtesy of US Gold. I'm not sure whether it's got anything to do with the film which came out years ago, but one thing's for certain, the game plays like it was written years ago. Read on...\r\n\r\nYou begin your life on the ocean wave as a ship on the surface of the water floating above the nautical equivalent of the M1, where submarines and squids plod about slowly below you. The squids insist on rising to the surface and smashing your ship up, while the subs sneakily stay below the surface firing homing missiles at you, or releasing surface mines which rise up and wait for you to bump into them and explode. But they're easy to dispose of, cos they move so slowly - simply drop your depth charges on them.\r\n\r\nOn occasion, bombing a sub sends a little pod floating to the surface which turns into a flag with a letter on. Your ship should scud across and collect it, thus releasing a helicopter to fly over, and drop another package.\r\n\r\nDepending on what letter was displayed, you'll get one of five extra weapons.\r\n\r\nAs each flag only crops up occasionally too, you sometimes have to wait for five minutes before you get a pod to go on to the next screen, and believe me, five minutes is a long time for just moving left and right and dropping depth charges.\r\n\r\nAnyway having raced through three or so of these screens, your ship then ploughs onto the next screen. But by this time I couldn't help thinking that perhaps this game should have been titled Deep Over Moscow, 'cos the graphics and gameplay were very similar to that game. And whilst looking to the past might be fine when it comes to 501's and the pop charts, there's no excuse for going primitive when it comes to computer games.\r\n\r\nYour ship suddenly develops laser power in the next section, where you've got to stop the laser bolts being fired at you by four cannons on the sea bed.\r\n\r\nThis is the fastest of the sections I played, at which point the game moved up from boring to nearly vaguely interesting. Nearly.\r\n\r\nAfter this, the game seemed to progress to the depth charge thingie again with different backgrounds, and my brain cells, realising they were in for another gripping treat, began leaping out of my earholes in their thousands.\r\n\r\nThis game defies description, it's not fast enough to be a shoot 'em up, and not intelligent enough to be an arcade adventure. I can't imagine why US Gold should choose to release this game? The standard of gameplay and graphics is literally years old, and although it is tedious to continually make comparisons, there really is tons of much better stuff around for two or three quid. Let your braincells keep their dignity, and don't bother.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A dull, tedious game from US Gold, which deserves to sink without trace.","Page":"84","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Sean Kelly","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Move left! Move right! And, er, that's it."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"2/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"3/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"The Games Machine Issue 18, May 1989","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1989-04-20","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL AND HEAD OFFICE\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Roger Kean\r\nFeatures Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Robin Hogg, Warren Lapworth, Robin Candy\r\nEditorial Assistants: Vivien Vickress, Caroline Blake\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Mel Croucher, Don Hughes, Marshal M Rosenthal (USA), John Woods\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT\r\n[redacted]\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSenior Designer: Wayne Allen\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nDesign Assistants: Yvonne Priest, Melvin Fisher\r\nProduction Team: 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: Sarah Chapman, Lee Watkins\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: [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. Colour photographic material should be 35mm transparencies wherever possible. The views expressed in TGM are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\n©TGM Magazines Ltd, 1989\r\nA Newsfield Publication ISSN 0954-8092\r\n\r\nCover Design and Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.99, Diskette: £12.99\r\nAmiga £24.99\r\nAtari ST £19.99\r\n\r\nA DIFFICULT GAME TO FATHOM\r\n\r\nNothing to to with the movie based on Peter Benchley's novel, killer whales, sea snakes, jelly fish and Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt don't even get a look in. The game is, however, a conversion of the coin-op of the same name from obscure arcade manufacturers, Woodplace.\r\n\r\nEnemies in The Deep come in disappointingly conventional form - a variety of submarines. Nevertheless, they're more than a little dangerous, and should be stopped before they invade the good or US of A, or something equally monstrous.\r\n\r\nThe game shows a cross-section of the sea, its rocky floor at the bottom of the screen. Near the top, you guide a ship on the surface and release depth charges from it to destroy subs. Some release pods: collect one and a helicopter is summoned which drops an add-on device. Homing missiles, submersible pods, extra speed, smart bomb and increased depth charge power are available.\r\n\r\nThe game is formed from three short scrolling levels. At the end of each, a submersible pod is guided to collect a token from the sea bed. When three have been collected, an enemy mothership threatens.\r\n\r\nIn stage two, a ship slowly approaches. You have a short time to stop it with a projectile whose launch angle is determined by the fire button.\r\n\r\nA peaceful convoy must be defended in the third stage: missiles are launched from the sea bed towards it and. In Missile Command manner, you use a cursor to halt them in flight.\r\n\r\nThe weak coin-op consisted of just long scrolling stages with a mothership at the end of each. Though in the conversion US Gold have added some new features and stages, the game remains an unexciting rehash of old ideas.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"The stretch of sea depicted on the Spectrum is extremely polluted - it's pitch black! Your ship is also black, which makes the game ugly to begin with. The sea bed scrolls adequately but the subs lack detail and there's some ugly attribute clash.","Page":"33","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"The graphics differ, as you would expect, between versions (Atari ST above), but essentially the gameplay hasn't been updated since some of the earliest 1984 Spectrum fare."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"AMIGA\r\n\r\nOverall: 38%\r\n\r\nFaster than the ST version so a little more playable, there's still not much to the game. The sound is obviously better, but an endless sonar bleep and unchanging explosion effects can"},{"Text":"ATARI ST\r\n\r\nOverall: 38%\r\n\r\nGraphics are a little lacking in detail and sprite movement could have been smoother. The use of bands to give an illusion of watery depths is weak to say the least. Scrolling is a bit jerky, and like ship movement, is rather slow. The sound effects are sparse."},{"Text":"OTHER FORMATS\r\n\r\nCommodore 64 (£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk) versions are out now, with PC versions coming soon (£19.99)."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"41%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]