[{"TitleName":"Outlaw","Publisher":"Players Premier","Author":"Jabba Severn, Bizzare, Grabuge","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0003561","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 82, Nov 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-10-18","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction and Circulation Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard, Lisa McCourt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Judith Bamford\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: George Keenan\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting Apple Macintosh Computers using Quark Express and Bitstream Fonts.\r\n\r\nSystems Manager: Ian Chubb\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted] - a member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nYearly subscription rates: UK £17.20 Europe £24.00, Air Mail overseas £37. US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US$47.00, Canada CAN$57.00 Back Issues US$5.20, Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \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 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 us a line). No person who is related, no matter how remotely, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo 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 on 35mm transparencies is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Copy published in CRSH will be edited as seen fit and payment wil be calculated according to the current printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1989 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Players Premier\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nFour outlaws are on the loose and must be caught. Seeing the huge rewards you take up the challenge to track 'em down and give 'em a showdown at high noon. Outlaw is played in a very similar fashion to the cowboy shoot-'em-ups that used to proliferate in the arcades. The playing area scrolls towards you and you're free to run your gunslinger around the area pumping lead into the seemingly neverending army of opponents. Obstacles also litter the route and crashing into one loses you one of your lives. But do look out for helpful objects: there are extra lives, extra speed, weaponry, ammo and more.\r\n\r\nOutlaw is a difficult game to master: the main problem is that the ground is speckled so it's almost impossible to see enemy fire, or your own bullets for that matter! There have been a few games of this type before and none have worked especially well on the Speccy. Outlaw is pretty much the same as the rest. A good looking game but when it comes to playability it's a greenhorn (ie: not much cop).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"56","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Richard Eddy","Score":"53","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"53%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 60, Dec 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-11-01","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Sal Meddings\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nStaff Writer: Linda Barker\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Duncan MacDonald, Jon North, Julia O'Shea, Rich Pelley, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nAssistant Publisher: Jane Richardson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistributors: MMC [redacted]\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair is published by Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1990. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"OUTLAW\r\nPlayers Premier\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Rich Pelley\r\n\r\nArkansas, 1880. Your name is Braithwaite. Will Braithwaite (well, it would be!), and you're broke. Not a sausage, nor indeed a dollar. Oh dear. The only solution is to pick yourself up out of the horse trough, slip on your holster and go bounty huntin' for one of the roughest, toughest, fluffiest outlaws in the west to get enough money to lose in another gambing game. So. pausing only to order yourself a gravestone, off you trundle.\r\n\r\nHo hum. What we have here is a rather thinly-disguised Ikari Warriors rip-off. Y'know - a vertically-scrolling overhead-view 'move a little man about and shoot everybody else in sight before they shoot you' job. Thing is, Ikari Warriors was really good. And this isn't.\r\n\r\nIt's extremely monochrome, the graphics are poor, the scrolling is really slow, it's completely repetitive, not addictive in the slightest, the sound's crap and it's more than a little bit unplayable.\r\n\r\nOh dear A complete waste of time. Why have this when you could have Ikari Warriors (or even Commando) instead?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"84","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rich Pelley","Score":"47","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Blast away at those petrol drum thingies and you may well find yourself a bonus object (or something)."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"47%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 105, Nov 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-10-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nActing Dept Editor: Gary 'Wide Boy' Liddon\r\nDesigners: Jenny Abrook, Gareth 'Boyo' Jones\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jim 'Brummie Git' Owens\r\nAd Production: Emma 'Cor Blimey' Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistants: Sarah 'JR' Ewing, Sarah 'No vices' Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Graham 'Interesting' Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry '....er..' Pratt\r\n\r\n©1990 EMAP Images, [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by G'n'G, output to a 20260 Liddontype\r\nColour work: Pro Print.\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher Web Ltd, Peterborough.\r\nDistributed: Frontline.\r\n\r\nIf any part of this magazine is reproduced without permission you're in BIG trubs sonny!"},"MainText":"Yee haaay! Annie get your gun and see if you can blow the belts off them thar chaps. Or alternatively you could try to blow them thar chaps off their belts. Then agin' you all could star in a daft musical and collect more bounty than you'll find in this game.\r\n\r\nOutlaw casts you in the role of the roughest, toughest, most billious bounty-hunter in Arkansas. Your task is to gun down gun totin' gangs of bandits and finally take on the head honcho. There are four rounds to complete; each round offers a higher bounty than the next, but you can tackle them in any order, choosing villains such as Butch Moonwalk or the Man with No Name from the opening selection menu.\r\n\r\nSounds good fun. Trouble is, it looks awful, the animation is poor and the gameplay is monotonous and unsatisfying (other than that it's fine).\r\n\r\nThe backgrounds, varying from Western towns to gulches and back again, scroll jerkily past in a downwards direction, as your little man, viewed from above, scuttles up, left and right avoiding bullets fire from the sidewalks and from the attacking bandidos. Your ammunition level is shown at the bottom of the screen, and you can collect extra bullets and other bonus objects by shooting barrels as you fight onwards.\r\n\r\nThe problem is that while your gun seems to have a very limited range. you have to get right up close to the baddies before you can off them - their bullets fly at you from all directions and ranges, so it isn't long before you get cut down. Things improve if you find a rifle or extra pistol, but it takes some time to get to this stage.\r\n\r\nEven more annoying are what seem to be wagons and boulders which roll towards you - your man moves so slowly that in some cases it just isn't possible to get out of the way in time, and you get squashed (turning into a collapsing skeleton more suited to a vampire game).\r\n\r\nAs a big fan of B-Westerns I didn't enjoy this game one teeny bit; despite some decent music it's a big disappointment for a mean-eyed, ornery, bean-guzzling, snake-wrestling crittur like myself. I think I'll stick to watching re-runs of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Clint Eastwood wouldn't like it and neither would you. Heap big disappointment.","Page":"71","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"49","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"45%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"38%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"49%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]