[{"TitleName":"Starquest","Publisher":"Pixel Productions","Author":"Pixel","YearOfRelease":"1982","ZxDbId":"0029330","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 2, Mar 1983","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1983-03-25","Editor":"Cyndy Miles","TotalPages":90,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nProduction Editor: Keith Parish\r\nSub-Editor: Peter Worlock\r\nNews Editor: Margaret Coffey\r\nNews Writers: David Guest, Wendy Pearson\r\nSoftware Editor: Shirley Fawcett\r\nSystems Editor: Max Phillips\r\nHardware Editor: Richard King\r\nPeripherals Editor: Ian Scales\r\nFeature and Micropaedia Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nListings Editor: Sandra Grandison\r\nEditor's Assistant: Harriet Arnold\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: Jimmy Egerton\r\nArt Assistant: Dolores Fairman\r\nPublishing Manager: Fiona Collier\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Sue Hunter\r\nSales Executives: Robert Stallibrass, Matthew Parrot, Bettina Williams, Simon Treasure, Ian Whorley, Sarah Barron\r\nProduction Manager: Brian Humphrey\r\nMicroshop Production: Eva Wroblewska\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Simon Maggs\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by\r\nVNU 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\nTypeset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]"},"MainText":"NAME: Starquest/Encounter\r\nAPPLICATION: Adventure/quiz games\r\nSYSTEM: Sinclair ZX81, 16K\r\nPRICE: £3.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Pixel Productions, through Quicksilva [redacted]\r\nFORMAT: Cassette\r\nLANGUAGE: Basic\r\nOTHER VERSIONS: Vic 20, £7.95\r\nOUTLETS: Mail order, various major computer stores\r\n\r\nINTERSTELLAR TOURIST\r\n\r\nBoth these games, on a single cassette, deal with man's first steps away from this planet.\r\n\r\nThe first, Starquest, sends you on a space adventure. You and your interstellar exploration ship Starquest must search for new worlds to colonise.\r\n\r\nThe second, described as an IQ Game, casts you as an Earthling kidnapped by aliens wishing to probe your intelligence and cultural development.\r\n\r\nThese games are written by Pixel and marketed by Quicksilva, and come in versions for the Vic, Spectrum, and ZX81. I tried the ZX81 version.\r\n\r\nOBJECTIVES\r\n\r\nIn Starquest, you wander around the universe investigating stars. You are on the lookout for Earth-like planets ripe for colonisation, though your goal is also to chart and claim any planets suitable for mining.\r\n\r\nThere are hazards to be faced including meteor showers, unidentified missiles, supernovas, and black holes - and the latter two can wipe you out. The game ends if you lose your ship or manage to find a habitable planet orbiting a star.\r\n\r\nThere is no winning or losing; at the end, you are simply given a score screen that lists stars visited, planets claimed for Earth, and shuttle ships lost.\r\n\r\nFIRST IMPRESSIONS\r\n\r\nApart from a brief scene-setting blurb on the back of the cassette label, no instructions are given. But as the game is a simple cycle of finding a star, looking at planets, and claiming them if they are of any value, none are needed. You get a brief LOADING test before the program itself, so you can set your tape volume correctly.\r\n\r\nIN PLAY\r\n\r\nYou have very little to do in this game, and I found that disappointing. You get to press the odd key when you' re told to at various points, but you can't modify the action at all.\r\n\r\nAt the start you see a black scree n with a handful of stars, and hit a key to select a star to visit. You are told that your spacecraft is going into hyperdrive, then your arrival is announced seconds later.\r\n\r\n'This is Procyon', you may be told, along with de tails of the star jump you just made and the star's vital statistics. You scan the star system for habitable or mineral-rich planets, and you may orbit any of interest.\r\n\r\nBut most of the time all you do is sit there and admire the screen. And as the program is written in Basic, everything is rather slow.\r\n\r\nThe second game on the tape, Encounter, really carries on where you finished with Starquest. It is, says Pixel, 'A simulation of primary contact with extra-terrestrial life.'\r\n\r\nThat sounds promising, but Pixel warns you that the experience may be rather one-sided. 'It is a much greater intellect that brings these travellers to our insignificant orb', trumpet the game instructions. 'Is man yet ready for membership of the galactic union?'\r\n\r\nIf you can answer the questions the alien sets you... well, why not try it and see?\r\n\r\nVERDICT\r\n\r\nStarquest's format is so repetitive that I don't think anyone will play it for long. I found it downright boring after the first half hour, since you are only required to do anything once every few minutes.\r\n\r\nEncounter did have a couple of surprises in store, but all in all, despite a fairly low price tag, I think there are much more interesting games available.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"60,61","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mel Pullen","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Lasting Appeal","Score":"1/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Use Of Machine","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]