[{"TitleName":"Jail Break","Publisher":"Konami Ltd","Author":"Andrew J. Glaister, Stuart J. Ruecroft","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0002576","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 38, Mar 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-02-26","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nPublishing Executive/Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nSub Editor: Ciaran Brennan\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Lee Paddon, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Philippa Irving\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrators: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Seb Clare, Tim Croton, Mark Kendrick, Tony Lorton, Nick Orchard, Michael Parkinson, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1987 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Konami\r\nRetail Price: £7.95\r\nAuthor: Andrew Glaister and S Ruecroft\r\n\r\nThere's been a jail break. The warden is tied to a stake in his own prison yard, and the inmates have taken over the town and are holding the citizens hostage. It almost makes you wish that you'd never joined the police force. Orders come down from above - free the warden at any cost. This gives you carte blanche to shoot just about everything - the kind of mission you really enjoy.\r\n\r\nThe prisoners are armed with guns and are lobbing tear gas grenades at anything official looking - like yourself.\r\n\r\nCombatting the revolting prisoners isn't going to be easy, all you have, is a fast-repeating pistol - hardly a match for the horde of jail breakers. But releasing hostages (simply done by moving over them), adds new weapons, either a bazooka or a tear gas grenade launcher. They're shown on screen and can be swapped over by pressing SPACE. Additional weapons are lost each time a hostage is accidently shot, so it's back to the pistol again.\r\n\r\nThe screen scrolls from right to left, the policeman moving and firing in four directions. Most of the convicts come from the right hand side of the screen, although occasionally one may try and sneak up from behind.\r\n\r\nThe hostages are to be found strolling around town, blissfully unaware of the mayhem and carnage around them. But some sit in the road or in windows of houses, pathetically waving their hands, waiting to rescued.\r\n\r\nStage one is the town where the villains are on foot. Stage two moves to the city park where the escapees have hijacked trash vans and are intent on driving the heroic policeman into the dust. The final section takes place in the prison itself, where the warden awaits rescue - prisoners are particularly thick on the ground here.\r\n\r\nThe pistol is favourite for disposing of running convicts, and the bazooka comes into its own when clearing obstacles and prisoners who hide under manhole covers. Finally the tear gas launcher is handy for flushing out well dug-in convicts.\r\n\r\nIf additional weapons are lost through indiscriminate shooting, it may be necessary to wait for a hostage to come along for rescue before continuing the carnage.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: Q left, W right, I up, J down, O fire. SPACE select weapons\r\nJoystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2\r\nUse of colour: minimal\r\nGraphics: dubious sprite collision and poor scrolling routines spoil otherwise pleasant graphics\r\nSound: sparse spot effects\r\nSkill levels: one\r\nScreens: scrolling play area","ReviewerComments":["At last, the long-awaited first release under KONAMI'S own label has arrived. We eagerly loaded it up, and then... what a disappointment! Over the last hour I've squeezed-out every last ounce of playability that is to be had from Jail Break. Now I'd be extremely happy if I never had to see it again. The game is fairly well presented, and the sound is quite bearable (although effects are used minimally). But the game... I'm sorry KONAMI but I won't be awaiting your next release with quite as much enthusiasm.\n\r\nBen Stone","Jail Break is an extremely hard game. It takes quite a while to get used to the collision system - the bullets seem to be able to go through your legs, but if they hit your hat you've had it. The scrolling is atrocious. The background moves jerkily and slowly, although the graphics are nice and detailed. The characters don't move about very smoothly and often get lost behind each other when two appear at once. Jail Break is quite good fun to play, and fairly addictive. However, it doesn't excel in any areas, and is not one of the best games with which to launch a new label.\n\r\nPaul Sumner","Wow, what a totally trashable box. Wow, what incredibly poor graphics. Wow, what a generally rubbish game this is. At least KONAMI have got the courage to actually take the blame for it; probably because no-one else would! The scenario is hardly original, and the game itself lacks any amount of playability, addictivity, and most of the other things that would usually convince someone that a game is worth buying. Boring, not very playable, and poor value for money. KONAMI have already started to lose their reputation.\n\r\nMike Dunn"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: An alarming disappointment, coming as it does from the arcade masters.","Page":"25","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Ben Stone","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A policeman's lot is not a happy one, but at least the convicts had the decency to erect a headstone."},{"Text":"Save us from the ball and chain... our heroic cop must dispose of two convicts before rescuing the housewife."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"54%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"41%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"48%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"51%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"47%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 16, Apr 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-03-12","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":114,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nSenior Art Editor: Hazel Bennington\r\nProduction Editor: Sara Biggs\r\nAssistant Editor: Phil South\r\nStaff Writer: Markus Berkmann\r\nDesigner: Darrell King\r\nContributors: Luke C, Chris Donald, Mike Gerrard, Tony Hetherington, Ian Hoare, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Tommy Nash, Rick Robson, Rachael Smith\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Julian Harriott\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nManaging Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nPublisher: Roger Munford\r\nPublishing Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press 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 ©1987 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":"Konami\n£7.95\nReviewer: Gwyn Hughes\n\nPee-oww! Pee-oww! Akka-akka-akka! Emergency! Jail break! The warden has been taken hostage! Along with half the town. Quick - give that PC a pistol. This no time for community policing!\n\nIf the arcade king was ever crowned, Konami would be a sure front-runner. It's no stranger to our Spectrum's, either, with conversions courtesy of Ocean and the rest, But now the company's got it together and started its own software label.\n\nJail Break's a test of frantic firepower as your sole cop strolls along the mean streets, picking off escapees and picking up hostages, for which he gets extra weapons.\n\nBut one shot wrong and your arsenal's slimmed back down to your shooter. The public doesn't take kindly to the accidental annihilation of cute little old ladies, the lily-livered crew. You'd think they'd never seen a Dirty Harry movie!\n\nThe extra armoury consists of a rocket gun, which is a pocket weapon - if you've got very large pockets! - and tear gas bombs. What with the criminals building barricades and taking hostages in buildings as well as on the streets, you'll need both of these to reach the warden.\n\nThis could provide a few hours of innocent, bloody amusement, but for the fact that the conversion isn't quite good enough - it lacks polish. For instance there's a character who sometimes appears from behind you at the start, who's almost impossible to avoid - and there are few things more annoying than the ISDS (Initial Sudden Death Syndrome).\n\nThere also appears to be some confusion in the collision detection. You may think you're going to slide by that savage brute, but the computer says not. If only your cop moved a little faster, you could get out of the way, but he doesn't appear to be in a hurry.\n\nKonami has lots of great games to draw on, and is sure to get it right in the future, but this gets shot-down by the opposition.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"71","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Gwyn Hughes","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"The first barricade. If you haven't got the rocket gun, hang about here (it's a fairly safe place) until a hostage wanders by. The blast out the oil drums, followed by the men as they appear from their manholes. You can only get the top two from the side, then firing straight down will clear the third."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 60, Mar 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-02-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Chris Jenkins, Clare Edgeley\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Mike Corr\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Lee Sullivan\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by PRS Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1987 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Konami\r\nAuthor: In-house\r\nPrice: £7.95\r\nJoystick: various\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: Graham Taylor\r\n\r\nJail Break is the first conversion of an arcade game attempted by coin-op kings Konami all by itself. Past form has always been to do the games via licences with the likes of Imagine.\r\n\r\nWith a few ifs and buts I'd say its first solo outing is a big success. Better, mostly, than the usual standard of the Imagine licenced deals.\r\n\r\nYou're a lone American cop with strange legs and a nifty peaked cap. And what with the hoards of criminals making a break for it from The State Pen you're kept pretty busy. Them and their hostages assorted men, women, children and wardens who it's best not to kill. (Occasionally, well pretty often actually, they are called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for an orderly society and you'll just have to kill them).\r\n\r\nIf instead of killing a hostage you manage to actually rescue one you are rewarded not only with a warm glow and plenty of bonus points but a handy too like a bazooka or a tear gas gun. The three types of weapons - standard pistol, bazookas and tear gas gun - are all necessary at different times to achieve different tasks.\r\n\r\nThe pistol will kill convicts and fires repeatedly quickly.\r\n\r\nThe bazooka will knock out almost everyhting including the barrels the convicst have placed to block your way.\r\n\r\nAnd the tear gas gun deals with people for one reason or another immune to bullets like the skeleton in the first section.\r\n\r\nConvicts come in two main types, those with guns and those with what may be either bricks or bottles (I'm not sure which). Guns must just be avoided carefully - these convicts run in approximately straight lines (thought the bullets seem to curve mysteriously). Brick-wielding baddies are much more tricky - they run straight for you in an act of mindless aggression. Don't try to reason with them.\r\n\r\nI'd say the game was pitched at just about the right level of difficulty. The first couple of times you die immediately and yell 'fix!' Then you survive a minute and finally you start surviving for several minutes at a time.\r\n\r\nGraphically the game looks good. Fair sized sprites for cop and convicts, goodish background detail, smooth movement (mostly).\r\n\r\nBad points? Well the screen scroll is very jerky and sometimes you bite the dust for reasons that do not seem entirely fair - just passing within feet of a convict sometimes kills you and generally there is something peculiar about the perspectives.\r\n\r\nJail Break is a good start for Konami. A better than average conversion that tops the mindless violence league for the year so far.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Good adaption of the original arcade game, compulsive and frenzied. Good start for Konami's DIY approach.","Page":"70,71","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Graham Taylor","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"HINTS AND TIPS\r\n\r\nKill bomb throwers the moment you see them. You won't get a second chance.\r\n\r\nYou need a bazooka to blast barrels the tear gas gun to get the skeleton.\r\n\r\nBlast the convicts in the manholes before trying to get past them.\r\n\r\nEven approaching near a convict can kill you.\r\n\r\nTry to fire at specific targets, stray bullets are bound to kill hostages."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 66, Apr 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-03-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nDeputy Editor: Paul Boughton\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lesly Walker\r\nSub-Editor: Seamus St. John\r\nDesign: Craig Kennedy\r\nAdventure Writers: Keith Campbell, Steve Donoghue, Matthew Woodley\r\nAmerican Correspondent: Marshall M. Rosenthal\r\nArcades: Clare Edgeley\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nPublicity: Clive Pembridge\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Garry Williams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Katherine Lee\r\nAd Production: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\nCover: Mark Bromey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nJuly-December 98,258"},"MainText":"MACHINES: Spectrum/CBM 64\r\nSUPPLIER: Konami\r\nPRICE: £7.95 (Spectrum)/£8.95 (CBM)\r\nVERSION TESTED: Spectrum/CBM 64\r\n\r\nIt's a breakout. Everybody is trying to bust out of the computer room - trying to get away from Jailbreak.\r\n\r\nKonami's conversion of Nemisis - one of C+VG's Games of the Month in March - was wonderfu. Jailbreak, on the other hand, is a complete and utter no, no.\r\n\r\nThe story is simple. The bad guys have broken out of jail, taking the warden prisoner. Guiding your little copper, armed with a pistol, you must shoot the convicts, rescue the warden and free other hostages. Just for the record, you can also pick up extra weapons, namely a rocket gun and tear gas bombs.\r\n\r\nWith the rocket gun, you can blast barriers and cars and the tear gas comes in handy for escaped prisoners hiding in buildings. With Jailbreak I didn't need tear gas to bring tears to my eyes.\r\n\r\nA rising scale of points are awarded for freeing the hostages, 500 for a man, 1,000 for a woman - that smacks of inequality, surely - 2,000 for a child, right up to 50,000 for the warden.\r\n\r\nBut the graphics are awful and the gameplay is boring. Even the game's packaging has been designed to annoy - a naff cardboard box which quickly falls to bits. Yuk!\r\n\r\nKonami may well be the King of the Coin-Ops but they'll have to do better than Jailbreak to establish any sort credibility on computer.\r\n\r\nWhen you think of the wealth of games Konami has. It's really surprising that they came up with this for a first outing on their own for the micro. If the lure of the name Konami is too much, then buy Nemesis.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"38","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Boughton","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"C64 SCORES\r\n\r\nGraphics: 5/10\r\nSound: 5/10\r\nValue: 2/10\r\nPlayability: 4/10"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"4/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]