[{"TitleName":"Mindtrap","Publisher":"Mastertronic Ltd","Author":"Aleksandar Petrovic, Predrag Beciric, Predrag Milicevic, Vojislav Mihailovic","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0003211","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 64, May 1989","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1989-04-27","Editor":"Stuart Wynne","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Stuart Wynne\r\nAssistant Editor: Phil King\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nContributors: Ian Cull, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Paul Evans, Robin Hogg, Ian Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistants: Caroline Blake, Vivienne Vickress\r\nEditorial Consultant: Dominic Handy\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nSenior Designer/Illustrator: Wayne Allen\r\nDesigners: Melvin Fisher, Yvonne Priest\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nProduction: Robert Hamilton, Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nEditorial Director: Oliver Frey\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nAdvertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nSales Executives: Sarah Chapman, Lee Watkins\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Productions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group. Distribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop the Sticky Solutions Department a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1989\r\n\r\nISSN 0954-8661\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"£1.99\r\nMastertronic\r\n\r\nThere seems to be something about people from the other side of the Iron Curtain that makes them devise fiendishly difficult puzzles for us Westeners to blow our minds trying to solve! I mean, look at Tetris, and good ol' Ernst Rubik, and now this! Mindtrap (as you've probably gathered from the title) is of those disgustingly addictive, simple puzzle games that seem to hold your attention for weeks for no logical reason whatsoever!\r\n\r\nEach screen has a set of blocks, of different colours. All you have to do is swap them around into columns of one colour each; the colour for each column is shown at the bottom. You control a frame which can contain four of these blocks at time; this can be moved about the screen, and fire and left or right rotates the colours in either direction. Don't worry about the appalling explanation; the idea is incredibly easy to pick up.\r\n\r\nAs I said before, Mindtrap is fiendishly addictive; the only moan I have is the ridiculous password system; OK, so it's fairly secure, but who wants to type in a 32 character line of what looks like random characters just to get onto the next level? The graphics aren't exactly stunning, but then they're not usually on this sort of game! A lot of mental effort is required on Mindtrap, particularly on the higher levels; you need to move quickly and think at the same time. It's very addictive, though, and well worth buying.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"29","Denied":false,"Award":"House Hit","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"84%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 46, Oct 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-09-18","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Higgs\r\nDeputy Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nStaff Writer: David Wilson\r\nDesigner: Catherine Peters\r\nTechnical Consultant: David McCandless\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Peter Shaw, Phil South\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Lynda Elliott\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Stephen Bloy, Chris Skinner\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nNewstrade Circulation Manager: Stephen Ward\r\nSubscription Manager: June Smith\r\nPublisher: Teresa Maughan\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Point Five [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1989 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"MINDTRAP\r\nMastertronic Plus\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Jonathan Davies\r\n\r\nIf there's one thing budget labels always seem to do well, it's these little puzzley things. ones featuring coloured blocks seem to crop up particularly frequently and, as chance would have it, Mindtrap is one such game.\r\n\r\nIn this case, you move the blocks around by rotating groups of four of them through 90° about a central axis, if you see what I mean. The ultimate aim is to get them all lined up in columns of the same colour before the timer runs down, at which point you'll move onto the next of the 999,999 levels.\r\n\r\nEh?\r\n\r\nYeah, there're rather a lot, really. Shame they couldn't make it to 1,000,000 which would have been quite an achievement, but that still works out to about (prod, prod...) 25 screens for every byte of free memory. Not bad going. You're not expected to sit through from start to end in one sitting though. Good Lord no. There's a password system (32 letters and numbers to scribble down per level), so you can split up the (prod, prod...) 40,000-odd hours it would take to complete them all into manageable chunks of, say, four hours a day. Keep that up every day and it would take you (prod, prod, prod...) 27 years to finish the game. Not bad for a couple of quid.\r\n\r\nI'm hooked. Buy it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"46","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jonathan Davies","Score":"83","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"83%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 87, Mar 1993","Price":"£2.5","ReleaseDate":"1993-02-11","Editor":"Linda Barker","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"YOUR SINCLAIR\r\nABC 40,648\r\n\r\nEditor: Linda Barker\r\nArt Editor: Andy Ounsted\r\nStaff Writer: Jonathan Nash\r\nEditorial Contributors: Steve Anderson, Craig Broadbent, Dave Golder, Tim Kemp, Simon Cooke\r\nArt Contributors: Phil McCardle\r\nCover Artwork: Paul Kidby\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Jackie Garford\r\nProduction Co-ordinator: Tracy O'Donnell\r\nProduction Technicians: Chris Stocker\r\nScanning: Simon Windsor, Jon Moore, Simon Chittenden\r\nPublisher: Colin Campbell\r\nPromotions Manager: Tamara Ward\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg Ingham\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair, Future Publishing [redacted]\r\n\r\nManaging Director Chris Anderson\r\n\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: Future Publishing Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1992. No part of this magazine may be reproduced unless you phone us and ask us incredibly nicely. A small bribe might just help - bubbles, small furry mammals and Tunes all gratefully received.\r\n\r\nISSN 0269 6983\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune along with Commodore Format, Amstrad Action, Amiga Format, PCW Plus, PC Answers, Mega, Super Play, PC Plus, Sega Power, Amiga Power, Amiga Shopper, Classic CD, Needlecraft, Cycling Plus, Photo Plus, Mountain Biking UK, Games Master, PC Format, ST Format, Total!, Today's Vegetarian and Caravan Plus."},"MainText":"Virgin Mastertronic\r\n£3.99\r\n[redacted]\r\nReviewer: Jonathan Nash\r\n\r\nMy prowess with puzzle games is legendary. The number of swaggering letters that arrived after Mental Block appeared on the cover tape, claiming that the game was so easy even a badger could complete it was, oooh, quite large indeed. But I defy anyone to shout me down on Mindtrap. It's blimmin' tricky.\r\n\r\nThe first thing is, it's got nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine levels. (Oh, go on! Ed) No. it's true. It really has. (Blimey, eh? Ed) The second is, although the idea is to rearrange mixed-up dice so they're in nice neat coloured rows, you can only manipulate 'frames' of four dice at a time. This means that, inevitably, you twiddle the vital cube off into the ether before you realise what's going on, then spend the next twenty minutes mucking everything up to get the blessed die back again. What fun.\r\n\r\nActually, it is quite good fun. but incredibly frustrating. The time limit is very generous, but the different levels have a habit of restricting your moment with loads of invisible walls. Bah. Also, the gameplay's very limited - just move the cubes. No extra features are added until Level Thirty, when another layer of dice pops up.\r\n\r\nThe main problem with Mindtrap is that you're often more likely to succeed by swapping dice madly and randomly than if you sit down and think the level out. And that can't be a good thing, unless you really enjoy moving things madly and at random. 'Can you escape the mindtrap?' asks the blurb. The answer is, regrettably, who cares? Not me, that's for sure. It's back to Level Five of Logo and yah boo sucks to the rest of you. (How terribly ill-mannered. Ed)","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"18","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jonathan Nash","Score":"56","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"7BPGYR9BX19JC1YXGU79UH7B7URRYEH. Hardly trips off the tongue, eh? It's actually a Mindtrap password. But only if you use the name DRJ. Good grief."},{"Text":"Scientists at NASA are engaged up a fifteen-year project to contact intelligent life in space. Who can predict what they'll find? Not us. So here are some dice."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"56%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 89, Aug 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-07-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Meet the Team\r\n\r\nJIM \"Pedal Car\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nTo see Jim hurtling along the by-pass towards EMAP each morning, you'd never believe that he was pedal-powered. But it's true, brightly-coloured, high-impact polyurethane Jim has no motorised parts whatsoever. Safe for children above the age of 6, Jim comes in a variety of colours with optional go-faster stripes, rear-view mirrors and a big knob on the gear stick.\r\n\r\nALISON \"Sindy\" SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nSupercool Sindy Skeat features a super Mediterranean tan, extra long hair, brilliant T-shirt and bikini, super trendy sunglasses and hair twists. She's ready for fun on the beach, in a boat, back at the hotel, in fact anywhere you fancy - and you can bend her into the most incredible positions. Optional accessories extra.\r\n\r\nTIM \"Play Skool\" NOONAN (Art Editor)\r\nJust the thing for boys and girls with enquiring minds. Nontoxic, shatterproof Tim is perfect for ages 4 and upwords. Tim teaches shape recognition and hand-to-eye co-ordination, and no matter how much the little terrors kick him around the room he'll come up clean and sparkling with a wipe of a damp cloth.\r\n\r\nCHRIS \"Fluffy Pig\" JENKINS (Contributor)\r\nSoft and cuddly on the outside and soft and cuddly on the inside too, Piggy Chris is everyone's favourite toy. He might have some disgusting habits, but with his little piggy eyes, big piggy nose and curly tail he's hard to resist. Completely fireproof and with locking safety eyes, Piggy Chris is the toy you'll want to take home and fondle.\r\n\r\nSpecial thanks this month: John 'If not tomorrow, the day after' Cooko, Tony 'I've had her' Dillon, Gary 'Ner-ner-ner-ner-ner, Boat-Maan' Whitta\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nDirty Tricks: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine 'It's a bit orange' Lee\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Martha 'Is he not?' Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma 'Jaffa Cakes' Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie 'I must be going' Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry 'Body Language' Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive 'Hopkins' Pembridge\r\n\r\nDrop us a line at: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Lone Wolf from Audiogenic\r\nCover Artist: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nTypeset by Professional Reprographics Services [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Frontline.\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n24 Hour Order Line: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: Back Issues Department (SU), [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1989 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be copied, translated, transcribed, yodelled, made into paper aeroplanes or otherwise abused without the permission of the publishers, EMAP B&CP, which we should warn you hasn't been given for centuries."},"MainText":"Label: Mastertronic\r\nAuthor: ?????????\r\nPrice: £1.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Tony Dillon\r\n\r\nI can't understand why Mastertronic should have tried to put a plot to what is nothing more than an enjoyable arcade puzzle game, but try they did. Basically, we're told you are trying to keep the world in some sort of neat tidy order. This is difficult not because of political problems or certain attitudist racial inequalities. (Get on with it - JD). No Sirree. The reason it's very hard to keep the world in some sort of neat working order is because somebody keeps leaving all the lovely coloured blocks in a mess.\r\n\r\nAnd so your task is to rearrange all the blocks and place them in rows of colour corresponding to small markers at the bottom of the screen.\r\n\r\nJust because you're a real stickler for detail and order, you have decided that the only way you can rearrange the blocks is by rotating them within blocks of four. This is done by positioning a cursor over a group of four blocks, holding down the fire button and pressing left or right to rotate the group of four left or right.\r\n\r\nTo add insult to injury, you are restricted to the amount of positions you can place the cursor. The places you are allowed to centre the cursor on are marked with a dot, and the places you can't aren't. It's pretty annoying when you think all you have to do is rotate a certain block of four to finish the screen, and it turns out you can't because you can't actually put your cursor over it.\r\n\r\nAnd that's the game. Well, not quite. For the first thirty levels, that's the game. Then the fun really starts. The game goes 3D. Then you have two planes to play on, taking blocks from one plane to the other. The number of planes increase as you work your way through the challenge, which could be pretty tough, taken as there are 999,999 screens.\r\n\r\nThe game is simple, and for this particular game, it's a problem. With a game of this type, there are only so many different types of puzzle you can come across, and once you've worked out all the little tricks, you find yourself flying through the levels at an alarming rate. So much so that the game becomes boring through repetition. I can't see anyone other than AS playing this through to the end.\r\n\r\nBut that's what they said about Rubik's Cube.\r\n\r\nGraphics are simple and functional. Sound is simple and functional. A simple functional game. Worth checking for a challenge, but MENSA won't use it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Infinitely huge arcade puzzly thing. Interesting until it isn't.","Page":"24","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tony Dillon","Score":"71","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"57%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"71%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 94, Sep 1989","Price":"£1.2","ReleaseDate":"1989-08-16","Editor":"Julian Rignall","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Julian Rignall\r\nArt Editor: Andrea Walker\r\nStaff Writer: Paul Glancey\r\nAdvertising Manager: Nigel Taylor\r\nSales Executive: Joanna Cooke\r\nProduction Assistant: Glenys Powell\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nThis Month's Cover: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries to: EMAP Frontline, [redacted]\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]"},"MainText":"Mastertronic\r\nSpectrum/Amstrad £2.99\r\n\r\nShades of Erno Rubik and his Cube here, partly because this is a very compelling 9,999 level puzzle game, and partly because the programmers, Messrs Selakovic and Beciric, sound as if they might - just might - be of Eastern European origin. In it you have to shift a jumble of numbered squares into ordered rows by rotating groups of four around fixed points. Also, after level 33 you have to switch blocks in three dimensions which, as you can imagine, is well tricky. Screen display is naffness incarnate, but gameplay makes heavy demands on the old cerebral logic centres and is strangely addictive.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Plays as well as the Amstrad version, but is much jollier to look at and even has better music!","Page":"67","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"AMSTRAD SCORES\r\n\r\nOverall: 78%\r\n\r\nLooks really boring, but plays like a logician's dream."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"83%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]