[{"TitleName":"Killer Ring","Publisher":"Reaktor","Author":"Ben Daglish, Edgar Belka, Caryn Gough","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0002697","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 43, Aug 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-07-30","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nAssistant Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Richard Eddy, Ian Phillipson, Ben Stone\r\nPhotographers: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nOffice: Sally Newman\r\nTechnical Editor: Simon N Goodwin\r\nAdventure: Derek Brewster\r\nPBM: Brendon Kavanagh\r\nStrategy: Philippa Irving\r\nLondon: John Minson\r\nContributors: Gareth Adams, Jon Bates, Robin Candy, Mel Croucher, Mike Dunn, Franco Frey, Dominic Handy, Nick Roberts, Mark Rothwell, Paul Sumner\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrator: Oliver Frey\r\nLayout: Tony Lorton, Mark Kendrick, Tim Croton, Seb Clare\r\nProcess and Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Jonathan Rignall, Nick Orchard\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\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios [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 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: Reaktor\r\nRetail Price: £4.99\r\nAuthor: Tony Crowther (The Byte Engineers)\r\n\r\nWe all know what Killer Rings are - large fried doughnuts in space, generally attacked by a menagerie of toads, bunny heads, flop-eared whatchamacallits, and orbs. Some of these approach in a series of attack waves from the top of the screen, whilst others move in an unpredictable fashion from any screen direction. Others, if they pass off the screen, scroll once more into view from the other side.\r\n\r\nThe killer ring has three lives, lost on contact with another occupant of the screen, or the pulses that they fire. All the attackers can be destroyed, though they require sustained hits, and their death throes award you points, with bonuses added when sufficient numbers have been destroyed.\r\n\r\nWhen the required number of attack waves has been destroyed the killer ring is confronted by a spaceman sifting in a hovering craft. The defensive underbelly of the ship can be blasted through and the spaceman killed. With this done, the killer ring returns to take on the first attacking wave once more.\r\n\r\nFor added difficulty, the vertically scrolling antimatter beam can be activated, which nullifies the killer ring's initial blast, and must be pierced before the blaster can reach its targets.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: cursor keys\r\nJoysticks: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor\r\nUse of colour: monochromatic (a colour on black)\r\nGraphics: large and well defined, but simple shapes\r\nSound: no 48K music, but excellent 128 tune, average spot FX\r\nSkill levels: two\r\nScreens: seven attack waves to go through ten times","ReviewerComments":["Oh wow! A updated version of the original Space Invaders game. Shoot-'em-up games have always been a favourite of mine, but I can't say this had very much appeal. The alien's are a bit nastier and the sound is very much improved, but that's about all. Amazingly, though, it still has loads of addictiveness, and gave me lots of hours of fun, but I think the thrill of this type of game has become a little cob-webbed.\r\r\nGareth Adams","Killer Ring is really just a glorified Space Invaders game, with a Phoenix style bit thrown in. The graphics are quite well defined but when a huddle of monsters stay in one place it's hard to pick them out. The colour is monochromatic but it has a mufti-coloured title screen. The best element is the sound by WE M.U.S.I.C. - it's fantastic. This game would be more suited to a budget price, but it isn't that bad.\r\r\nNick Roberts","Although there have been some changes since we were last there, the aliens have got meaner and bullets have become a newfangled laser, it's immediately obvious where Killer Ring's roots are firmly planted. I liked the improvements over the old style Invaders, especially the music, and Killer Ring can be very addictive if you've got a worthy competitor to hi-score against.\r\nPaul Sumner"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: An unashamedly old shoot-'em-up which manages to moderately addictive, but with a short playing life.","Page":"32","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Gareth Adams","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"With the remnants of a recently blasted alien flying about him, Killer Ring struggles on (and still only on level one!)."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"61%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"52%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"49%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"47%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 66, Sep 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-08-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nStaff Writer: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Andy Moss, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\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\nSubscription Enquiries [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Lee Sullivan, Jerry Paris, James MacDonald\r\n\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\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 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 84,699 July-Dec 1986"},"MainText":"Label: Reaktor\r\nAuthor: Tony Crowther\r\nPrice: £4.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Tamara Howard\r\n\r\nBats get a bad press. Quite unfairly they always get put down as nasty, flitting about and squeaking a lot. 'Praps that's why they're the enemy in Killer Ring from Reaktor.\r\n\r\nKiller Ring is the sort of game to bring a spring to my step and joy to my heart. Remember Space Invaders? Dull, ploddy, but jam-packed with aliens to kill and nothing else. No radars to scan, no fuel-gauge to check, just simple blast, blast, blast. Well, Killer Ring is remarkably similar to that - or Phoenix - except with bats. A lot of them. And it's very fast.\r\n\r\nYou begin to realise just how simple the game really is when you check out the instructions on the packaging. There aren't any. What you do get is a recipe for K-Ring cup cakes, and very tasty they are too.\r\n\r\nThe message is simply, an happily: if it moves, shoot it. If doesn't shoot it anyway.\r\n\r\nSo I joyfully pressed the Fire button and got on with th serious business of bat hunting. And they weren't anything like your ordinary average vampire. These bats fly in waves, preceeded by an Anti-Matter beam, which must be shot through in order to hit anything at all.\r\n\r\nAs the game claims to get harder each time you play, even when you're on Idiot Level, if you don't can't hack it first time around, you're certainly not going to get much further each time you play. (Personally I think this is just a ruse to make you think you're being really clever when you manage to get past a wave.)\r\n\r\nAfter many, many, increasingly hard waves, you'll reach a spaceman, and the simple requirement where he's concerned is that if you blow his heart out you'll get lots of points and win the game.\r\n\r\nKiller Ring is beautifully simple to play. Just stay put and Fire at will. The odd bullet, or perhaps it's a bat dropping, will come your way, but, on the earlier waves at least, these are quite easy to dodge. What you may find disconcerting at first is the enormous amount of bat debris that flies about the place, but don't panic. Bat entrails may be a bit on the unpleasant side, but they won't damage you in any way.\r\n\r\nYou'll find yourself represented by a gun-sight sort of object, which fires beams from the top and bottom. The odd bat will get past you and fly down behind you. Leave it until it comes up, round and above you and then give him one right on the nose. That'll take care of him, and allows you to progress to the subtleties of the next set of bats.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are nice an simple. All one-colour - again a very similar sort of effect to Invaders. The bats - which look a bit like frogs (but then I never was very good at biology) - break away from the rest of the bunch one by one and circle round, in a fetching manner, wings outstretched, evil grins on their little faces...\r\n\r\nBut I digress. What we've got here is a nice straightforward game with continuous shooting and some good music and sound effects too. One happy reviewer.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Space Invaders with bats. Turns away from complexity of modern games, and offers wholesome violence.","Page":"53","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tamara Howard","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]