[{"TitleName":"Magnets","Publisher":"Macmillan Software Ltd","Author":"Five Ways Software Ltd, Stuart Hughes","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0002988","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 5, Jun 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-05-24","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":126,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial/office [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nPhotosetting by SIOS [redacted]\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Sinclair/Macmillan\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £9.95\r\nLanguage: Machine code\r\nAuthor: Five Ways Software Ltd\r\n\r\nMagnets is part of the Science Horizons Series of software, and is educationally aimed to give an understanding of the polarity of magnets. This might sound like a rather dry subject, but the model has been simplified so that the attraction force operates only in two dimensions, and the scenario has been provided as a draughts board game.\r\n\r\nThe result is an entertaining game of strategy. It is played on a 12 by 12 square grid between two players or one against the computer. Each player has five supermagnets, one on the board at a time and 10 pawn magnets with a force value of one. The supermagnets are lettered A to E and each has an increasing power. Each player's pawn magnets may be used to attract or repel the opponent's. A player may also combine his own magnets by lining them up so that their values are added together, and sucking up an opponent's pawn magnets will result in their value being added to the winner's pawn magnet.\r\n\r\nA further 25 pawns are stored in a bank and may be brought out on to the board at will.\r\n\r\nTo win you must either conquer all you opponent's supermagnets, or remove all your opponent's pawn magnets from the board.\r\n\r\nCRITICISM\r\n\r\nMagnets is a game of very simple graphics and with a rather simplistic attitude towards the way they work. It's rather doubtful that anyone will really come away knowing much more about them beyond the fact that like poles repel and unalike poles attract and that a stronger magnet is, capable of exerting a greater force over a weaker one. However, what does have to be said is that the resulting game is curiously satisfying, involving quite a lot of skill in the manoeuvering of pieces to gain the upper hand.\r\n\r\nThe game comes complete with detailed playing and objective instructions.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: Y/N up down, G/J left/right, C to rotate, SPACE to move cursor\r\nUse of colour: very simple, red, green, white and black\r\nGraphics: just grid and colour blocks","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Of probably dubious educational value but certainly a game worth playing.","Page":"68","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Roger Kean","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A red pawn magnet has just blown away one of Green's few remaining super magnets."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]