[{"TitleName":"D.N.A. Warrior","Publisher":"Cascade Games Ltd","Author":"Alan Z. Jones, Nigel Pritchard, S.W. Scott, Stewart Green","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0001410","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 63, Apr 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-03-30","Editor":"Stuart Wynne","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Stuart Wynne\r\nAssistant Editor: Phil King\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nContributors: Ian Cull, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Richard 'smasherooni' Eddie, 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: Oliver Frey\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nAdvertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nSales Executives: Sarah Chapman, 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\n©CRASH Ltd, 1989\r\n\r\nISSN 0954-8661\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Battling in the bloodstream\r\n\r\nProducer: Cascade\r\nMiniature Money: £9.95 cass\r\nAuthor: Data Design Systems: Stewart Green, S.W. Scott, Nigel Pritchard, Alan Z. Jones\r\n\r\nPrepare yourself for a fantastic voyage. You've volunteered to undertake a dangerous mission inside Nick Roberts's stomach! With Raquel Welch by your side, you must guide a microscopic ship through places where only 9-inch pizzas have ventured before.\r\n\r\nThe reason behind this strange mission is that Nick, an expert at poking games, recently decided to do a similar thing to himself. He implanted raw DNA (a kind of groovy acid) and a growth accelerator into his own brain, in a bid to improve his intelligence. Unfortunately, the experiment failed, and left the Tips man with a rapidly-expanding noddlebox (no wonder he's been getting big-headed!).\r\n\r\nBefore Nick's head explodes, you must reach his brain and kill the implant with the help of a growth inhibitor, broken into six parts, scattered around his body. While doing battle with Nick's natural defences, you must find keys to enable you to pass through blood vessels to other horizontally-scrolling body parts.\r\n\r\nWhile floating around in someone else's body doesn't appeal to me a great deal, this game is initially quite playable. Control of the craft is a bit suspect though: even with the speed-up feature active, it moves very much like a drunken tortoise. Despite its unusual setting, DNA Warrior is another unexceptional shoot-'em-up.\r\n\r\nMARK 56%\r\n\r\nTHE ESSENTIALS\r\nJoysticks: Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: not bad, if a mite dull\r\nSound: blip, blip, blip...","ReviewerComments":["DNA Warrior seems like a fairly well-programmed beast, but unfortunately its addictiveness is sorely marred by one or two frustrating factors. The ship-turning procedure can be absolutely maddening - it takes one whole screen-width to turn around! This very nearly wrecks the enjoyment of the game, because the ship often flies all around the screen by accident, usually ending in the loss of a life! The graphics are fine, but the action is very slow: unlike most similar shoot-'em-ups, it doesn't romp along at a fast rate - instead, it crawls! DNA Warrior isn't the sort of game likely to appeal to blast freaks - it's too frustrating to be addictive, and too slow to be particularly playable.\r\nMike Dunn\r\n50%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: There are far more enjoyable ways to explore someone's body!","Page":"16","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"56","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"50","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"27%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"57%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"51%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"53%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 41, May 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-04-17","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa 'You're Fired' Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Catherine 'Head in Bucket' Higgs\r\nDeputy Editor: Matt 'Hi It's Mattie' Bielby\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie 'I Want It Yesterday' Ryan\r\nStaff Writer: Duncan 'What Time Do You Call This' MacDonald\r\nDesigner: Thor 'No Worries' Goodall\r\nEditorial Assistant: David 'Yo' Wilson\r\nTechnical Consultant: David McCandless\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Sean Kelly, Catherine 'Nosebag' Peters, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Phil South, Ben Stone\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Alison Morton\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":"Aartronic\r\n£9.99\r\nReviewer: Marcus Berkmann\r\n\r\nThis one looked promising. The company I had never heard of, but the packaging was pretty impressive, and the screenshots (Atari ST, natch) gave the impression of a really spanky new shoot 'em up.\r\n\r\nAh, but what a disappointment. Aartronic only turns out to be the latest new label from Cascade, and the game to be distressingly mediocre.\r\n\r\nThe idea's quite neat - a rip-off, essentially, of the film Innerspace, which was itself a rip-off of a really silly sixties movies called Fantastic Journey, starring the young Raquel Welch (yum). You, you poor sap, have been miniaturized, along with your ship and injected into the bloodstream of some barmpot professor who has been experimenting on himself with pure DNA. In fact the plot's quite ingenious, particularly in the maze-like way it all boils down to a simple shoot 'em up.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately the same care has not been lavished on the game itself. Like every shooter since Nemesis, this one involves a sideways scrolling screen, lots of things coming at you, and the ability to get extra weapons if you polish off an entire wave of nasties. But even though others in this genre have been lightning fast, with amazing backgrounds and brilliantly zappy nasties, DNA Warrior somehow manages to be incredibly slow, dull to look at and initially very confusing.\r\n\r\nYou start by moving at a very leisurely pace along what appears to be an artery (it's red - there's no other clue). Nasties come at you in familiar formations, but just as you're getting the hang of it, they stop. In fact everything stops when you reach what appears to be the end of the artery, and you sit there and wait, sometimes for up to five minutes, for your craft to turn around and go back. (Clearly some sort of bug is at work here). On the way back boulders come flying at you, which seems a little strange, but then perhaps the Prof is a vegetarian and eats loads of rye bread, with all the healthy sand and soil that the stuff seems to contain. Anyway, this part is the most fun, even though you're never to clear why you're doing it.\r\n\r\nAfter half an hour or so of this, you notice that there's a crater down below, and you wander down to it. To your initial surprise and pleasure (soon followed by excruciating boredom) you see that there's another artery down there, with more nasties, and at the end, a key, which needs to be picked up. The boredom hits you when you realise that this artery's almost exactly like the first, and the only way out is the way back.\r\n\r\nThere are other backgrounds - most looking so like alien cities that you suspect that this originally started out as a completely different game. But after wrestling with it for an hour and a half I was bored.\r\n\r\nIn fact DNA Warrior does have the seeds of a decent game hidden somewhere in its unchallenging and drab exterior, but you have to search mighty hard to find them. The Speccy market is still going strong, years after everyone went to the funeral, but games like this do little for its life expectancy. Don't encourage them.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Shoot 'em up with neat storyline sabotaged by relentlessly dreary and unoriginal gameplay. Simply not a full-price product.","Page":"57","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Marcus Berkmann","Score":"41","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"48%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"52%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"48%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"41%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 85, Apr 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-03-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Meet the groovy aprils guys (and girlie)\r\n\r\nGRAHAM TAYLOR (Editor)\r\nHistory: Graduated from the Vienna Conservation at the age of six, studied under Serlioz and then joined the Southend Philharmonic.\r\nPlays: Stairway grand piano and kazoo.\r\nInfluences: Karlheinz Stockhausen, James Joyce, Timothy Leary and George Formby.\r\nHobbies: Erecting satellite dishes, wrestling with cats and cleaning weeds from the goldfish pond.\r\nMessage: \"In an indeterminate universe, only the subjectivity of the ovserver maintains the dualism of the animus. Orright?\"\r\n\r\nJIM DOUGLAS (Deputy Editor)\r\nHistory: \"Elvis Costello came up and spoke to me once in the queue in the Wimpy. He said, 'Push off ya git, I was in front of you'.\"\r\nPlays: Saxophone (actually he jogs about in the background holding a sax and looks moody).\r\nInfluences: Mickey Rourke in 9.5 Weeks (\"Now there's a bloke I can identify with\".)\r\nHobbies: Ignoring Sam Fox in Stringfellows (\"I hate fat bimbos\")\r\nMessage: \"Never trust women\".\r\n\r\nALISON SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nHistory: Auditioned for Bucks Fizz' new girlie - was laughed off the stage.\r\nPlays: Triangle and with certain other members of the band.\r\nInfluences: Bananarama (they're so talented) and her mate Kelly who was in the Stu Stu Studio Line advert.\r\nHobbies: Picking up Greek/Spanish/Italian male tourists outside the Hippodrome (\"I'm very cosmopolitan me\").\r\nMessage: \"Always keep your dancing knickers ironed\".\r\n\r\nTIM NOONAN (Art Editor)\r\nHistory: Lead chair chucker at Milwall v Luton.\r\nPlays: Drums and the silly fellow.\r\nInfluences: Lager and vindaloo.\r\nHobbies: Getting thrown out of pubs/clubs/salvation army hostels.\r\nMessage: \"I'll 'ave you John, you're well aat of order\"\r\n\r\nCHRIS JENKINS (Contributor)\r\nHistory: Born on the planet Zob, came to earth in 1960 and has been trying to absorb our strange culture ever since.\r\nPlays: Synths that make widdly widdly noises, Japanese woodflute and zither.\r\nInfluences: Klaus Schultz, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwek and various other German hippies.\r\nHobbies: Trying to get Sabrina to notice him in Stringfellows.\r\nMessage: \"Phasers on stun, sequencers armed and pump up the volume\".\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nContributors: Tony 'saucy' Dillon, Chris 'whingey' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine 'top girlie' Lee\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Martha Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma 'choccy face' Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry 'location unknown' Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive 'starless and bible black' Pembridge\r\n\r\nPhone: [redacted]\r\nFax: [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Brian Talbot\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1989 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: Atrtonic\r\nAuthor: In-house\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nThere should be a law against this sort of thing. To state, as Artronic do, that DNA Warrior has \"excellent graphics\" is simply a lie. It's got hopeless graphics. Fortunately, the rest of it isn't as bad. Well, not quite as bad.\r\n\r\nThe plot, similar to a few games at the moment, centres around the mad antics of a brilliant scientist, who, so intent on learning more and more in his advancing years, goes to unnatural lengths to enhance the process. Obviously, had God wanted us to have two brains, he would have given them to us, and to the scientist's dabblings go horribly wrong and endanger the boffin's life. Your mission is to enter the man's body in microscopic form, zoom around the blood stream and deconstruct all the growth from the implant, thus saving the scientist's brain from being overrun.\r\n\r\nDNA Warrior is, at first glance, is a rather pale imitation of R-Type. It's not quite as simple as that though. True, the screen scrolls and a variety of aliens appear to shoot and there are extra weapons to collect, but there are differences too large to ignore.\r\n\r\nOnce you've travelled a certain distance in one direction, you'll find an exit to the next level. You'll need a key to get through these. The further into the body you get, the more difficult it is to find the correct key for the door.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are poor and while the scrolling (bi-directional) is perfectly fine, your ship moves in a continual series of jerks. Your fire rate is dreadful and even the Rapid Fire icon had little effect. The weapons options work a la Slap Fight - you collect tokens, each of which allows a more sophisticated add-on. Hitting FIRE will activate the option.\r\n\r\nAliens come at you in uninteresting swirly patterns that have all been seen before. Since your rate of fire is so hopeless it's almost impossible to kill the aliens quickly enough in order to earn another token.\r\n\r\nSo why don't I hate DNA Warrior completely? Well, there are some nice touches. Once you've headed in one direction and decide to turn around, the ship glides back and turns around in a most satisfactory manner. On the way back through a level - in search of the elusive key or exit - asteroids (well, corpuscles) fly past, smashing into you and draining your energy.\r\n\r\nThese bits are nice touches, although the overall feeling I have is that DNA Warrior is pretty disappointing. There just isn't any point in trying to reproduce the feel and play of R-Type unless you can beat it. DNA Warrior falls a long way short.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Nice touches embedded in lots of mediocrity.","Page":"24","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"59","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"59%","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: £9.99\r\nCommodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99\r\nAmiga: £19.99\r\n\r\nTHE MAN WHOSE HEAD EXPLODED\r\n\r\nProfessor Szymanski is a brilliant but power-crazed man. A Nobel Prize in genetics was not enough for him, and in an incredible experiment he injected DNA and a growth accelerator into his brain, thinking this would increase his memory potential and intelligence quotient tremendously. Now he is on the brink of death.\r\n\r\nSzymanski is in a coma and his brain is expanding to dangerous proportions. A growth inhibitor cannot reach the affected area - his natural defences have mutated too far - so a miniaturised one-man submarine must be piloted to the spot. So far so Azimov and Steven Spielberg et al...\r\n\r\nThe Professor has a number of artificial limbs and organs, so the various sprites which attack the would-be body voyager include both biological and mechanical mutants. Your ship's rather tame laser cannon and slightly cumbersome handling can be exchanged for better add-on systems by collecting plasma spheres.\r\n\r\nIn the crowded world of shoot-'em-ups, DNA Warrior's originality lies in its horizontal two-way scrolling and selectable exit levels which allow a choice of route to the brain. This isn't much use if the game is essentially lacking in guts, and unfortunately, it is.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"The definition of this version is weak and unthrilling, and the problems are compounded by the game's slow pace. The sub floats around as if in treacle rather than bodily fluids (yehkk!). The beep sounds effects are simple even for the Spectrum.","Page":"56","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"AMIGA\r\n\r\nOverall: 49%\r\n\r\nThe sub is surprisingly large and makes evasive action a chore on occasions. The Amiga's capabilities are decidedly underused, with definition at best adequate and at worst infantile and shades of the same two colours used throughout a level."},{"Text":"COMMODORE 64/128\r\n\r\nOverall: 62%\r\n\r\nBright graphics are neatly defined but short of detail, while funky music makes up for weak sound effects. Its all quite competently done but games like this have been seen endless times on the Commodore - and several at budget price."},{"Text":"OTHER FORMATS\r\n\r\nAn Atari ST version will be released shortly."},{"Text":"THE ADD-ONS\r\n\r\nOne sphere: extra manoeuvrability\r\nTwo spheres: rapid fire cannons\r\nThree spheres: vertical cannons\r\nFour spheres: multiples\r\nFive spheres: absorption shielding\r\nSix spheres: 'starburst'\r\nSeven spheres: energy replenished"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"51%","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":"DNA Warrior\r\nAartronic\r\n\r\nHere, I'm afraid, we have a representative from the ranks of what we loosely term 'crap shoot-'em-ups'. Note little white tadpole baddies, the little white spaceship, the total lack of anything of any interest at all really. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"33,34,35,36,37","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"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":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]