[{"TitleName":"QS Scramble","Publisher":"Quicksilva Ltd","Author":"Quicksilva Ltd","YearOfRelease":"1982","ZxDbId":"0031770","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 22, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-19","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nConsultant Editor: John Campbell\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nStaff Writer: June Mortimer\r\nDesign: Elaine Bishop\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Holly Fleming\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Rick Holloway\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nAssistant Managing Director: Barry Hazel\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nU.S. Press representative Mr J. Eisenberg, JE Publishers' representative, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like your original programs to be published in Sinclair Programs, please send your contributions, which must not have appeared elsewhere, to\r\nSinclair Programs\r\nEEC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included. We pay £10 for the copyright of each program published.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Design: Ivan Hissey"},"MainText":"GOOD MICRO: SHAME ABOUT THE GAMES\r\n\r\nManufacturers reproach ZX-81 owners for lack of interest in buying programs. We look at software for the ZX-81 and its value for money.\r\n\r\nZX-81 owners have reason to be annoyed with the software industry. A cursory glance at computer magazines each month reveals ample signs of the 150 or so companies producing software for the Spectrum. Spectrum software supports entire magazines devoted to its reviews. So few ZX-81 games are produced that the entire computer press could be read for a month, without producing more than two pages of reviews, most of them of old products.\r\n\r\nSoftware Farm took high-resolution graphics to the ZX-81 earlier this year with its Forty Niner. Half the letters to Sinclair Programs from ZX-81 owners that month were written in praise of the new game. The success of Forty Niner has not led to production of high-resolution graphics programs by other software houses and the field has been left clear for Software Farm to follow its success with its new program, Rocket Man, to be reviewed in the next issue.\r\n\r\nOther companies are also producing good software for the ZX-81, although they are few and far between. Sinclair Programs has looked at some of the products on the market to see where the best programs are to be found.\r\n\r\nBears in the Wood from Unicorn Micro Systems is a good example of an original game for the 16K ZX-81. The player begins with a mother bear and three cubs which head across the screen towards their cave, collecting honey as they go. Of course, the little bean have a tendency to lose their mother and, as soon as they do so, they become prey to the evil hunters in the forest. Hunters must be charged, bears guarded, and the time limit watched. Once inside the cave, honeypots must be filled and there is a chance to gain an extra cub. Then the player returns to the forest.\r\n\r\nBear in the Wood is a difficult game at which to succeed and consequently holds the attention. The opportunity to return to the forest more than once can be attained only with a sound knowledge of the scoring system and a variety of tactics which keep mother and cubs united with plenty to cat. One small bug is that the mother bear can become blocked in a corner by the cubs, unable to move until one of them is shot by a hunter.\r\n\r\nClimber, also produced by Unicorn, is much less enjoyable. It is a version of Kong in which the player must climb from level to level on one screen, jumping the monsters and picking-up points on the way, and finally moving to the next screen by reaching the appropriate point on the top level.\r\n\r\nDOES NOT ADAPT WELL\r\n\r\nKong is not a game which adapts from arcade to ZX-81 particularly well, as much of its interest relics on speed and good graphics.\r\n\r\nThis version is not particularly difficult, once the movement of the various obstacles has been understood, but it is very repetitive.\r\n\r\nA style of game more suited to the ZX-81 is represented by Ocean Trader from Quicksilva. It is a form of simulation in which the player takes the part of a ship's commander, sailing from port to port round the coast of England.\r\n\r\nPrices of commodities in the ports change from day to day and from place to place and the aim is to profit by buying goods in one port and selling them for a profit at the next.\r\n\r\nThe game is rather slow-moving, taking some time to display option or to print details of prices. This type of game, though, is well-suited to the ZX-81 and this is a well-thought-out a.ample.\r\n\r\nBlack Star from Quicksilva has an impressive storyline printed on its cover. The story tells of the Cosmic Guerillas and of your plan to bomb their Black Star base in your Svlegian Raider. Enemy ships must be dodged and the energy ducts in the tunnel leading to the Black Star must be destroyed. All very impressive.\r\n\r\nOn RUNning the program, however, the tunnel proves to be a black rectangle, or sometimes a rectangle of asterisks. Immediate acceleration means that no enemy ships appear and, when your ship travels slowly enough to sec them, they appear as small Vs at the bottom of the screen.\r\n\r\nSimilarly uninteresting is Croaka Crawla from Quicksilva, a version of the arcade oldie Frogger. According to this version Frogger has gained nothing in its old age and has lost much. There is a huge variety of skill levels, ranging from the very low to the ultra-fast but, other than that, the program has little to commend it.\r\n\r\nQS Scramble from Quicksilva is yet another arcade adaptation. The player flies above the surface of a planet, firing at approaching aircraft and bombing those still on the ground. The game loses less than others from its adaptation to the ZX-81, perhaps because its interest is almost totally in controlling your craft. As the screen display changes continually the square graphics are less glaringly apparent than in games where the screen display remains constant.\r\n\r\nArcade games can do little on the ZX-81 other than to demonstrate its weaknesses. The ZX-81 also has advantages which Psion has put to excellent use in its program Vu-File. Vu-File allows the user to store information on record cards, to re-arrange, sort, store and print that information. Unlike other filing systems it does not pre-define the index card but allows the user to design one. Information can then be entered into the computer and can be rearranged according to any one of the headings on the record card.\r\n\r\nA demonstration program on the B side of the cassette demonstrates one use to which the program can be put. A gazetteer has been recorded, including basic details about a number of countries. The program can be used for reference or taken as an example by those who want to test the efficacy of Vu-File before entrusting their records to it.\r\n\r\nINEXPENSIVE PROGRAMS\r\n\r\nAlso reviewed by Sinclair Programs were programs from two small companies which produce inexpensive programs on a mail order basis. They give some idea of the quality of programs sold through magazine small advertisements, rather than those produced by large companies.\r\n\r\nSwag is produced by Howard Software, [redacted] and costs £3.45. In it the player takes the part of a burglar who wishes to rob a bank. The first section is a street chase, in which the player navigates a car through a maze, pursued by two police cars which move more slowly. Speed is slow and it is easy to avoid the police.\r\n\r\nSection two takes place inside a building. The aim is to walk into each of three rooms, pick up treasure and return it to your lorry outside the building. The problem here is to avoid the forcefields on the doors. As they appear to flash in a completely arbitrary fashion it is difficult to use any skill in that section. Section three is combined with section two. The treasure in room two is inside a safe with a combination lock and the combination must be cracked quickly before the alarms ring.\r\n\r\nOverall the pace of Swag is slow and the game unexciting. It would keep few players interested for as long as half an hour; most would lose interest more quickly.\r\n\r\nBank Raid is from Senior Software, [redacted]. Again the theme is bank robbery, this time with an emphasis on shoot-outs. A maze is printed on-screen and the player must escape the two gunmen who are out to kill. On the next screen the tables are turned and this time it is the player who must shoot the gunmen before they escape. The next screen returns the player to the beginning to escape again, and so it continues. Again, the game is deadly slow and lacks the excitement necessary to a maze game.\r\n\r\nAlso from Senior Software is Allotment, a utility program for gardeners planning how to allocate space in their vegetable gardens or allotments. The program works on a three- or four-year crop rotation system and divides the vegetables which it has stored in it accordingly. On a diagram of the allotment vegetables chosen by the gardener will be placed automatically at the correct distance from each other, so that the number to be planted is readily apparent.\r\n\r\nESSENTIAL ADD-ONS\r\n\r\nAllotment is an easy way of planning a garden to advantage, of recording where vegetables are planted and when they are likely to appear. A large number of vegetables and information about them is stored in the data section and gardeners who prefer to plant exotic plants can include their own data.\r\n\r\nAvailable by mail order also are essential add-ons for the user on a limited budget. Glaston Computers, [redacted] produces clear, self-adhesive plastic pads which can be stuck on to the keys of a ZX-81, or only on to those keys used for games playing. Forty pads cost £2.99 and they make the ZX-81 keyboard usable for games or for typing.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"32,33","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"June Mortimer","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 10, Aug 1982","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1982-07-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nAssistant Editor: Elspeth Joiner\r\nEditorial Assistant: Susan Cameron\r\nDesign: Linda Freeman\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAdvertising Executive: Neil Wood\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 SERVICE SUBSCRIPTION. 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\r\nISBN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover: Stuart Briers"},"MainText":"ARMED, FUELLED AND ON THE MOVE\r\n\r\nScramble aptly describes the player's desperate antics as he attempts to score points above a world on which he is barely equipped to exist!\r\n\r\nAlready a big arcade success, the game puts you in charge of a plane, armed, fuelled and on the move across a mountainous landscape.\r\n\r\nQuicksilva is the company responsible and it is quickly making a name for itself for adapting arcade games onto the limited graphics facilities of the ZX81.\r\n\r\nThis version costs £4.95 (including post and packaging) and allows up to five ships to appear on the screen at any time and has the fuel dumps, ground defences and changing terrain of its video predecessor.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"15","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 11, Sep 1982","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1982-08-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nStaff Writer: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Susan Cameron\r\nDesign: Linda Freeman\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAdvertising Executive: Neil Wood\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 SERVICE SUBSCRIPTION. 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\r\nISBN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover: Walt Disney Productions"},"MainText":"WHO NEEDS GRAPHICS?\r\n\r\nThis version of Scramble proves that you don't need sophisticated graphics to produce an enjoyable arcade game replica.\r\n\r\nThe missiles here are capital \"A\"s fired up in a looping flight from the hillsides and valleys. The alien planes are made up of \"less than\" signs arrowing their way through the skies and the fuel tanks are grey smudges dotted along the landscape.\r\n\r\nBut for sheer compulsion it is going to be hard to beat this game. You play the part of a aircraft armed with bombs and guns, on a mission over enemy territory.\r\n\r\nThe screen scrolls from left to right, forcing you forwards but allowing you to alter altitude above the crags and chasms of the landscape.\r\n\r\nFuel tanks and missiles can be blown up to score points, either by dropping to their level and firing out ahead of you, or by sending looping bombs over the hills to drop down on them.\r\n\r\nThe missiles periodically takeoff and it is advisable to try and destroy them before you have to pass over them or retreat to the top of the screen where they are less likely to surprise you.\r\n\r\nBut the greatest danger is posed by the enemy airborne fleet which descends from the heavens in groups of up to four, spitting fire and rising and falling in flight as they search for you.\r\n\r\nThe tactics are pretty obvious but the race to beat a friend's high score is thrilling. It has all the addictive ingredients of being a game simple enough to make you believe you can always do better, so you never finish satisfied with your performance.\r\n\r\nQuicksilva have already won themselves a good reputation for producing good arcade replicas within the limitations of the ZX81, this cassette will further that reputation.\r\n\r\nIt costs £4.95 from Southampton-based QS and runs on a ZX81 with 16K Rampack.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"82,83","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]