[{"TitleName":"P-47 Thunderbolt","Publisher":"Firebird Software Ltd","Author":"Ross Harris","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0003575","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 74, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-22","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Caroline Blake, Christian Testa\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nSubscriptions\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers using Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator '88, output at MBI [redacted] with systems support from Digital Reprographics [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution 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 Viv Vickress 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. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Colour photographic material should be 35mm transparencies wherever possible. 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":"Firebird\r\n£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk\r\n\r\nIt's World War II and flying a P47 you're pitted against eight levels of heavy enemy action. Don't panic - the P47 was one of the most heavily armed and armoured planes the allies possessed.\r\n\r\nYou start your mission with a single shot cannon, but as you destroy enemy planes icons pop up here and there: Scoop them up for a boost. They come in six variations - 'B' loads bombs, 'E' gives spray missiles, 'M' multiple missiles,'T' directable fire, 'S' extra speed, and '1UP' bestows an extra life. Collect multiples of the same icon to increase weapons potency. Just remember that it your bonus weapon or feature is up to full power any accidental pick up of another icon loses you the one have.\r\n\r\nThe enemy you face is not just airborne, gun turrets both stationary and mobile on trains plus tanks fire at you too. Make it through a level and you're greeted by the end of level guardian, a giant mechanical killer. Learn how to use the power ups to dispose of these menaces: on level one use bombs.\r\n\r\nThe arcade version of P47 isn't one of my all time favourites. The Speccy version does nothing to change that impression. It may be good graphically, with small but nicely detailed sprites - especially the train chuffing along with its deadly cargo of guns -, but there's nothing to write home about in the other departments.\r\n\r\nP47 Thunderbolt is hardly likely to set the gameplaying scene alight with its novelty, but gun crazy arcade action veterans should get some fun out of it.\r\n\r\nMARK 79%","ReviewerComments":["That's right, change the graphics in a game, keep exactly the same gameplay and rename it! That's basically what's happened in P47 (sounds a bit like a government form!). It plays just like any old horizontal shoot-'em-up with you having to collect extra icons for ammunition and lives, etc. The only difference with P47 is that the space ship has been replaced with a bomber and the starry backgrounds are now a World War II skies. There are some digitised graphics in the game too. Between levels and on the game over screen you get pictures of bombers which look like they've been taken straight from a documentary on flying. Soundwise it isn't too bad: an unexceptional tune on the title screen plus the odd machine gun and explosion effect. P-47 holds nothing new in the way it plays, but could just give the hardened shoot-'em-up fan a challenge.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n63%"],"OverallSummary":"World War II vintage shoot-'em-up action for old faithfuls.","Page":"44","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"79","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"63","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"74%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"67%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"63%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"66%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"71%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 52, Apr 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-03-18","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Kevin Hibbert\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nTechnical Consultant: Jonathan Davies\r\nContributors: Ollie Alderton, Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Amanda Cook, Jo Davies, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Simon Goggin, Sean Kelly, Duncan MacDonald, David McCandless, Paul Morgan, Rich Pelley, Catherine Peters, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertising Executive: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions/Mail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nDistributors: SM Distribution [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":"Firebird\r\n£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk\r\nReviewer: Robin Alway\r\n\r\nAfter all the vest-wearing, keep-their-lunch-money-in-a-purse type quiz show licences and sports games they've been making me play lately, it's a relief to get my hands on a real man's game for a change. Something Dennis the Menace would play on his Speccy, rather than Walter the Softy.\r\n\r\nAnd P47, needless to say, is just such a game - a traditional horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up, in that, um, it scrolls horizontally and you have to shoot things. It's also pretty traditional in the authenticity stakes. Okay, so it's set in World War II, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the historically inaccurate helicopters, SAMs and other bits of weird machinery zooming across the screen. It's enough to make Planespotters rip up their Pan Am bags in annoyance.\r\n\r\nThis is the type of game in which you don't have to buy the farm - there are sufficient numbers of dirty scoundrels out there more than willing to give it to you for free. Their arsenals include missiles, bombs and some rather nifty bullets which fragment in mid-air - all the usual stuff you find down at the Super Weaponry Warehouse basically. And guess what, most of the planes leave behind these pretty little weapon tokens when they're hit. Blimey.\r\n\r\nJust as compulsory for this type of thing are the large, ginormous, huge and really quite big enemies you've got to cope with at the end of every level. Here, you come up against a massive train, a humungous plane, a whopping great tank, a ginormous ship (which fills about three screens!!) and, erm, that's as far as I got!\r\n\r\nYou destroy most of them by knocking out a section at a time, until eventually they explode in an impressive mass of beefy explosions, a fine example of P47s solid-looking, detailed sprites.\r\n\r\nOther graphics are pretty scrummy too. For instance, there's a serene and smoothly-scrolling mountain backdrop on Level One and a red and yellow sunset on Level Two both of which would almost be beautiful were it not for all those rum enemy-types intent on blocking your view and downing your bird. But here's where we come to the game's one and only prob. Die to the gritty detail of these backdrops, the bullets sometimes get lost among the pixels and sneak up on you unseen (especially since there's often so much going on-screen that you can't take it all in anyway). Luckily, the programmers saw fit to include a mono option on the title screen to take care of this - it might not be as pretty in black and white, but at least you can tell what's going on. But I shouldn't care really. There are a hundred games that are much worse in the \"I can't tell what's going on!\" stakes - it's just an unwelcome reminder that the Speccy can't always be colourful and playable at the same time.\r\n\r\nAnd so to the conclusion, and it's pretty positive actually. P47 may be no R-Type, but it's a perfectly competent and satisfying addition to the Speccy stable of shoot-'em-ups. It's just a pity that there are so many of them about already, and some really neat ones at that, both at full price and on budget. It's good but it's no Megagame. Still, this may well be the last game Microprose puts out on the now more-or-less obsolete Firebird label, so it's good to see the name going out in (some) style. Yep, if you want a good old reliable horizontal-scroller in which the machine guns go ratatatat, the explosions look a bit dangerous and the bandits can be depended on to turn up dead on three o' clock (well, you might not be that lucky!) then this will do nicely.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Nothing revolutionary or amazing but it's a jolly wizard blast for all that. Not a bad one to be remembered for, Firebird.","Page":"31","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Robin Alway","Score":"79","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Bandits at - 12 o' clock, one o' clock, quarter past three, seven minutes past five, 18.3 picoseconds to seven.... (Help!)"},{"Text":"This is the beautiful sunset I told you about. V2 missiles zoom up from the bottom of the screen SAM-style, planes and helicopters zoom about all over the place, and the bullets get a bit lost in those dark red bits. Oh well."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"P47 - TOO FAT TO FLY\r\n\r\nThe US P-47 Fighter - one of the podgiest (so easiest to hit) fighter planes ever built. Ah well.\r\n\r\nYour score. (Hmm. Not doing too well so far, are we?)\r\n\r\nSome incredibly historically accurate helicopters.\r\n\r\nSome much thinner (and more sensible) enemy planes.\r\n\r\nThe weapons you've collected so far - Not doing too well, are we?\r\n\r\nLots of lovely extra lives.\r\n\r\nAnd, finally, the bullets - blooming millions of the blighters. Quick, duck!"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"82%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"79%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 96, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":93,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"TRAVEL SPECIAL\r\n\r\nJIM \"private jet\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nBeing a bloody stinking yuppie, our Jim just had to go on the piste, that's skiing to you. He's bought his dayglo green end purple salopettes, got some mirrored raybans and applied some of that gungy white zinc stuff to his kisser and now he's ready for a mega pose on the top of a snowy slope. God, what a poser, I hope he breaks both legs.\r\n\r\nGARTH \"where's me backpack man\" Sumpter (Staff Writer)\r\nGarfy baby has decided it's time to find himself (maan), so he's booked into a Kibbutz in The Himalayas for the summer. He's bought himself some loon pants and a string of love beads and a pack of josticks, and is now practising his spaced-out Hippie look (maaaaaaaaaaaan).\r\n\r\nOSMOND \"a nice quiet break\" BROWNE (Designer)\r\nOz decided to go for a peaceful holiday so the team recommended an 18-30's trip to Benidorm. He's hoping to meet some interesting chums and a better class of girlie (fool). He's just heard he's sharing a room with his predecessor Tim 'lagered up' Noonan and 25 of his mates. Rather you than me, matey.\r\n\r\nAL SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nPoor old Al. She did all the ringing around for the others and booked up their vacations and the rotten sods have spent all the cash in the holiday kitty and left her with nothing. She's currently on the blower to her Auntie Vi, who says she's welcome to stay at her 'smashing' caravan on Canvey Isle, with her and Uncle Eric, as long as she doesn't mind sleeping with their incontinent Wire-haired Terrier. Al can hardly wait. \r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a data retrieval system or transcribed without express written permission from the Publishers. (Who are all in a foul mood at the moment, so don't bother asking.)\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nI've Got This Problem: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nSinclair User, EMAP B+CP, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright Sinclair User 1990"},"MainText":"Label: Firebird\r\nAuthor: In House\r\nPrice: £9.99/£14.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K/+2/+3\r\nJoystick: Various\r\nReviewer: Garth Sumpter\r\n\r\nNeerrrrowwwww! Kaa BOOOOOM! Tally Ho chaps and yoiks. You can have more destructive power at your command than Johnny Fartpants on a vindaloo crawl in this latest conversion of a Jaleco coin-op where you find yourself at the controls of a P47 Thunderbolt, the fastest and biggest single seater fighter/bomber of World War II.\r\n\r\nIt was sooo big that Gabby Gabreski, America's highest scoring ace pilot of the war, said that the best way to take evasive action in a P47 was to undo your straps and run around the cockpit!\r\n\r\nConvinced? Well all of you who've seen the arcade will be relieved to know that P47 follows the same formation as its big brother. After having defined the keys or joystick movements (clever stuff that) and confirmed them, it's on with the flying jacket, stick a piece of gum in your mouth and take off. You fly from west to east and the general brief is to blast anything that moves. Enemy planes will appear and disappear as soon as a well aimed volley rips it's cockpit out (oo-er!). Destroy any helicopters that appear and they will leave icons that either add bombs, multi-missiles, speed ups, spray missiles, directable fire or an extra life, most of which weren't available on the original but then this is no simulator, it's a straight forward blast 'em to hell.\r\n\r\nEight levels of action takes your plane through northern France, Africa and even above the clear skies of the Med, where you must bomb tanks and with an end of level nasty that can either be tanks, battleships or even bigger tanks. All of which adds up to a game that whilst is graphically very good (especially with its colour on colour off option), remains a shoot 'em up that is very playable and looks and feels very much like Silkworm - with the helicopter replaced by, a P47 Thundercat.","ReviewerComments":["JIM SEZ: 69%\r\nJust like Scramble circa 1943. Lots of action but nothing new.\r\nJim Douglas\r\n69%"],"OverallSummary":"A clean conversion of an average coin-op. Low on skill but high on kill.","Page":"34,35","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Garth Sumpter","Score":"76","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"69","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"'Ere what's this? They look like flying pneumatic hammers pack about the same amount of punch. Blast em to bits!"},{"Text":"Oo-er! A big boss end of level nasty - this one's particularly nasty, with multi directional shots that you'll have to dodge."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"FACT FILE\r\n\r\nThe P47 Thunderbolt: Designed and Built by Republic Armement: 8 x 50 cal (.5 of an inch bore) machine guns with 2,000lbs bomb load or 10 x 5\" rockets\r\n\r\nThrust: Trubo charged Pratt and Whitney developing 2,500 (shaft) horse power.\r\n\r\nSpeed : Cruising 380 mph/Flat out clean (straight and level with no bombs tanks) 460 mph/Power dive 500+mph\r\n\r\nBelieve it or not the design brief for the P47 was for an American lightweight fighter, but it's massive armement earned it the nickname of the \"Lead Sled\"; it was also known as the \"Jug\", apparently because of its sheer size.\r\n\r\nFacts and figures supplied by Wing Commander Tom \"High as a Kite\" Glennister."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"74%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"82%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"76%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]