[{"TitleName":"Fruit Machine","Publisher":"Zeppelin Games Ltd","Author":"David Sanders, Tink","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0000235","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 75, Apr 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-03-22","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Caroline Blake, Christian Testa\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nSubscriptions\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers using Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator '88, output at MBI [redacted] with systems support from Digital Reprographics [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution 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 Viv Vickress 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. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photo 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 CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1989 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"ARCADE FRUIT MACHINE\r\nZeppelin Games\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nOh no! All I seem to do these days is play either arcade quiz games or arcade fruit machines! I know so much about all the machines from playing these budget releases I might as well move into the local arcade. So exactly what has Arcade Fruit Machine got to offer that the other fruit machine sims left out? Nowt much. Despite having a slightly different screen display to a game I played recently (mentioning no names!), it's almost identical.\r\n\r\nYou get 50p to start off with and have to nudge and gamble your way to the jackpot of £1.50, woo! Some features on this fruit machine are unique. You can choose whether you want a reverse or forward start to spin the reels, and there are of course the usual 'special' features like cash pot and skill run. The general idea is to light up all the letters in the 'CASH 'n' GRAB' then select your special feature and win hoards of cash.\r\n\r\nAll the fruit and coins are quite well drawn in a cartoon style. The scrolling is also very smooth on the reels, but not so on the message at the beginning - yuk! The best graphics in the whole game are on the loading screen, they're really neat. Sound wise, well there is some sort of attempt at a tune on the start screen and the odd 'zoop' effect when something is won. Arcade Fruit Machine's reel let down (groan) is the lack of excitement: you can go for ages without winning a sausage.\r\n\r\nWhile definitely not one of the best fruit machine simulations about, you can get some enjoyment out of it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"47","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"59","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"59%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 53, May 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-04-12","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":92,"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, Amanda Cook, Joe Davies, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Simon Goggin, Duncan MacDonald, David McCandless, Paul Morgan, Rich Pelley, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertising Executive: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nAssistant Publisher: Jane Nolan\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":"ARCADE FRUIT MACHINE\r\nZeppelin\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Marcus Berkmann\r\n\r\nYet another fruit machine sim on the market (I think we all know what computer programmers spend all their money on, don't we?), but Arcade Fruit Machine is not, sadly, one of the best. It's playable enough, as you'd expect - the graphics are perfectly acceptable and I have no complaints about speed. But with some of the more recent sims becoming really rather advanced - and needing about as much concentration and brainpower as a flight sim - this could be a little too straight forward for modern tastes. I suppose we've just been spoilt really - CodeMasters' recent Fruit Machine Simulator 2 is light years ahead, and Zeppelin is probably just nine months late. At £2.99, too, it's a touch on the pricey side. For younger players only perhaps (if, that is, you don't mind younger players mucking around with fruit machines). For the rest, the CodeMasters title is a better bet.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"42,43","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Marcus Berkmann","Score":"55","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"55%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 96, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":93,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"TRAVEL SPECIAL\r\n\r\nJIM \"private jet\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nBeing a bloody stinking yuppie, our Jim just had to go on the piste, that's skiing to you. He's bought his dayglo green end purple salopettes, got some mirrored raybans and applied some of that gungy white zinc stuff to his kisser and now he's ready for a mega pose on the top of a snowy slope. God, what a poser, I hope he breaks both legs.\r\n\r\nGARTH \"where's me backpack man\" Sumpter (Staff Writer)\r\nGarfy baby has decided it's time to find himself (maan), so he's booked into a Kibbutz in The Himalayas for the summer. He's bought himself some loon pants and a string of love beads and a pack of josticks, and is now practising his spaced-out Hippie look (maaaaaaaaaaaan).\r\n\r\nOSMOND \"a nice quiet break\" BROWNE (Designer)\r\nOz decided to go for a peaceful holiday so the team recommended an 18-30's trip to Benidorm. He's hoping to meet some interesting chums and a better class of girlie (fool). He's just heard he's sharing a room with his predecessor Tim 'lagered up' Noonan and 25 of his mates. Rather you than me, matey.\r\n\r\nAL SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nPoor old Al. She did all the ringing around for the others and booked up their vacations and the rotten sods have spent all the cash in the holiday kitty and left her with nothing. She's currently on the blower to her Auntie Vi, who says she's welcome to stay at her 'smashing' caravan on Canvey Isle, with her and Uncle Eric, as long as she doesn't mind sleeping with their incontinent Wire-haired Terrier. Al can hardly wait. \r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a data retrieval system or transcribed without express written permission from the Publishers. (Who are all in a foul mood at the moment, so don't bother asking.)\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nI've Got This Problem: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nSinclair User, EMAP B+CP, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright Sinclair User 1990"},"MainText":"Label: Zeppelin\r\nAuthor: Dented Designs\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nJust what the world needs. Another fruit machine simulator. Whilst there's already a glut of turgid simulations filling the toilet of the budget's it's amazing that yet another chocolate log can be produced.\r\n\r\nI suppose the production meeting went like this; \"OK lads, we need a really big budget success. What's been at the top of the budget charts for the last eleven decades? Oh, Codemasters' One-Armed Bandit simulator. They're easy to write, aren't they? Three rolling graphics, a couple of flashy lights, a few bloopy noises and you're there. Get Daz, Gaz and Waz onto it, and we'll have it in the shops the day after tomorrow.\"\r\n\r\nWell, they got it in the shops alright, and it's a perfectly good fruit machine simulator: you can give yourself up to 99 credits to start with, hold the reels, roll them forwards or backwards, (so long as you ignore the wrong control key given in the instructions), go for the Cash 'n' Grab bonus by lighting up the letters along the top of the reels, nudge, win spins, use the Feature control to stop the reels at a particular point, and all that stuff, but what is the ruddy point? Surely the idea of a fruit machine is to lose all your money, and since you don't have that excitement on the micro version, it all seems rather silly. In any case, anyone mad enough to want to play fruit machines on a computer will already have the Codemasters game, and Zeppelin's isn't sufficiently better to make it worth the effort.\r\n\r\nAdmittedly, if you're so addicted to one-armed bandits that you pour all your money into them, this might be a cheap way to break the habit. Unless you're a Fun City psycho I really can't see any point in bothering with this one.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Roll them reels! Punch them buttons! Yawn yawn!","Page":"69","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"58","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"56%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"57%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"64%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"54%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"58%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 102, May 1990","Price":"£1.3","ReleaseDate":"1990-04-16","Editor":"Julian Rignall","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Julian Rignall\r\nArt Editor: Andrea Walker\r\nDeputy Editor: Paul Glancey\r\nStaff Writer: Paul Rand\r\nAdvertising Manager: Nigel Taylor\r\nDep Ad Manager: Joanna Cooke\r\nSales Executive: Tina Zanelli\r\nProduction Assistant: Glenys \"Teddy\" Powell\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries to: EMAP Frontline, [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted By: Kingfisher Web, [redacted]\r\nColour By: Proprint, [redacted]\r\nTypeset By: Jaz and friends on one heck of a big printer\r\nDistributed By: BBC Frontline\r\nMegadrive Software courtesy of SpectreSoft, [redacted]\r\n\r\n©C+VG 1990\r\nISSN No: 0261-3697"},"MainText":"Zeppelin\r\nSpectrum £2.99\r\n\r\nHere's one for the bandit addicts out there - a whole fruit machine inside your computer! It's got three reels, skill chance, gambles, repeat, and a loadsamoney jackpot!\r\n\r\nHowever, even though it's got all the features you'd find on an average fruit machine, I honestly cannot see any point whatsoever in playing it. The attraction of a bandit is to win money, not points. And saying that, this isn't a particularly good machine either - it's frustratingly tight with the feature holds, and the repeat function is completely obscure.\r\n\r\nA complete and utter fruit machine nutter might glean a few hours entertainment from this, but after that it becomes incredibly tedious to play.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A fairly average fruit machine simulator which should keep a bandit addict happy for a couple of hours - but nothing more.","Page":"62","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"39%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]