[{"TitleName":"Joust","Publisher":"Softek","Author":"Andrew J. Glaister, Stuart Hughes","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0002645","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 21, Jul 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-06-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":156,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nStaff Writer: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nReader Services: Robert Schifreen\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAdvertising Executives: Louise Matthews, Mick Cassall\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Louise Flockhart\r\nPublisher: Tom Moloney\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £10.00, Overseas surface mail: £12.00, Airmail Europe: £20.00. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Computer & Video Games Limited ISSN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover: David Scutt\r\nNext Issue: July 16th"},"MainText":"DON'T STICK YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND\r\n\r\nIn days of old when knights were bold they rode around on ostriches. Yes, ostriches. What's that? You've never seen a knight riding one of these bad-tempered birds.\r\n\r\nWell, just look out for this latest conversion of hit arcade game - Joust.\r\n\r\nYou play the part of the good knight on his trusty ostrich armed with a lance and doing battle with the dark lords on their buzzards.\r\n\r\nThe Dark Lords are no easy opponents as they have been programmed to predict your next a move and lay traps to ensnare you.\r\n\r\nSoftek have also looked to the arcades for the idea behind their second new game this month.\r\n\r\nCalled Firebirds - it is a shoot 'em up hybrid of arcade favourites - Phoenix and Firebirds.\r\n\r\nAn assortment of aliens have to be wiped out before you get to their home base.\r\n\r\nJoust and Firebirds run on the Sinclair Spectrum in 16 or 48K and are available from London-based Softek at £5.95 each.\r\n\r\nDragons meet Monsters in Softeks first release for the fire-spitting micro. The idea of the game is to get your little man safely through several levels to the bottom of the screen and pick up a power pill. Take this safely back to your craft before your oxygen runs out or you get nabbed by one at the monsters.\r\n\r\nMonsters is based on the arcade game Panic, where you have to dig holes for the monsters with an ice axe. In this Dragon conversion the pick axe is replaced with a laser gun.\r\n\r\nThe game runs on the Dragon 32 and is available now from Softek at £7.99.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"18","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 20, Jul 1983","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1983-07-28","Editor":"Cyndy Miles","TotalPages":90,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nAssistant Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nProduction Editor: Keith Parish\r\nSub-Editor: John Lettice\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writers: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nSoftware Editor: Shirley Fawcett\r\nSystems Editor: Max Phillips\r\nHardware Editor: Richard King\r\nPeripherals Editor: Ian Scales\r\nListings Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditor's Assistant: Harriet Arnold\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Robinson\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Floyd Sayers\r\nArt Assistant: Dolores Fairman\r\nPublisher: Fiona Collier\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nPublishing Assistant: Jane Green\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nAdvertisement Director: John Cade\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Sue Hunter\r\nSales Executives: Robert Stallibrass, Matthew Parrot, Bettina Williams, Ian Whorley, Sarah Barron, Roxanna Johnston, Christian McCarthy\r\nProduction Manager: Eva Wroblewska\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper\r\n\r\nCover photography by Ian McKinnell"},"MainText":"NAME: Joust\r\nSYSTEM: Spectrum 16K\r\nPRICE: £5.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Softek, [redacted]\r\nFORMAT: Cassette\r\nLANGUAGE: Machine code\r\nOUTLETS: Mail order\r\n\r\nBEAT THE BUZZARDS\r\n\r\nThings are so bad in Joust's world of the Shadow Lords that it's up to you, astride an Ostron (or ostrich) to defend the universe from the evil flying buzzards which are the bane of everything good and decent.\r\n\r\nOBJECTIVE\r\n\r\nOnce mounted on your Ostron your task is to destroy as many of the evil buzzards as possible by flying into them at an altitude higher than theirs. If you should be unfortunate enough to meet one of these avian menaces head on or below, you become so much buzzard bait.\r\n\r\nEach buzzard has a different value according to colour. The dreaded Shadow Lords themselves add 150 points to your total.\r\n\r\nYou start out with five lives, a fair number considering the difficulty of the task before you. These are mean buzzards.\r\n\r\nIN PLAY\r\n\r\nI soon became aware of basic tactical manoeuvres essential to the success of any serious buzzard-beaters. These include using the various vertical barriers that divide up the field of play as barriers against the attacks of the buzzards.\r\n\r\nIt's also worth noting that these dastardly fellows have a way of suddenly doing tricky little dips and darts that leave the inexperienced Ostron flyer quite unprepared for the inevitable attack.\r\n\r\nEach time you kill off a wave of buzzards you move on to a harder category of play in which ultimately the screen seems to be full of nothing but the evil green Shadow Lords themselves. These fellows are much harder to kill than their comparatively dull-witted cousins. And just to make matters worse your poor Ostron moves more slowly in each succeeding stage.\r\n\r\nThis is in fact one of the best things about Joust - no matter what level of skill you reach it will always get harder.\r\n\r\nSound effects for the game are adequate - there are no bells and whistles, just a convincing sort of squelch sound each time a buzzard finds his target and rather pleasing zap sound when you bring down one of the enemy.\r\n\r\nScores are tabulated clearly in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and a high score table featuring the top ten scoring players of any given Joust session is shown at the end of each game.\r\n\r\nVERDICT\r\n\r\nJoust is a good, straightforward and challenging game that becomes more interesting the more you play.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve McClure","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Lasting Appeal","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Use Of Machine","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall Value","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]