[{"TitleName":"Plotting","Publisher":"Ocean Software Ltd","Author":"Jason McGann, Peter Tattersall, Sean Conran","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0003771","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 81, Oct 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-09-20","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 (Pie Scan!) Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nArt Director: Mark (Sparkie!) Kendrick\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Manager: Ian (\"E\") Chubb\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Production Assistants: Jackie Morris, Joanne Lewis\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nUK Subscriptions and Back Issues enquiries Robert Edwards [redacted]. Yearly Subscription Rates UK £15.40 Europe £22 Air Mail Overseas £35.\r\nUS/Canada subscriptions and Back Issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly Subscriptions Rates US$47 Canada CAN$57 Back Issues US$5.20 Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \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 BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted] - a 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 main 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":"Ocean\r\n£9.99/£14.99\r\n\r\nPotatoes are funny vegetables, aren't they? But they can play a mean puzzle game, as you'll find out in Plotting! Controlling said vegetable, the action involves throwing tiles emblazoned with different coloured shapes at other tiles bearing identical designs. Each level is timed, and the idea is to clear each screen of a set amount (shown in the status panel) of tiles. You start each game with three special tiles: your little potato pal's lives. He starts each level with a special tile, which he chucks at the stack of tiles. Having destroyed one tile, another tile comes flying back into his hands and then this tile can only be thrown at a corresponding one. It's easier to play than describe, but you get the idea.\r\n\r\nTiles can be thrown at tiles at the side of the stack or, by using a big yellow arrow as a pinpointer, at the tiles at the top. You play like this until the timer runs out, you run out of special tiles or the tile held doesn't match the tiles in the stack: then it's game over.\r\n\r\nIn later levels obstacles such as pipes appear, which block a tile's trajectory. This can get very frustrating!! My straitjacket size is large, by the way. From the start, this is great fun. Each move must be planned because one false move means a life is lost.\r\n\r\nGraphics are good, but then the sprites are very simplistic (a few tiles and a potato shaped hero). Sonics are also pretty impressive (in 128k mode) though title and in-game tunes are a little twee for my taste. Still, they're jolly and bouncy and add a lot to the atmosphere. Plotting is a very playable puzzle game, but it falls just short of being completely amazing due to limited content.\r\n\r\nMARK 85%","ReviewerComments":["Plotting - it's simple, but it's dead hard! What a rummy game this is, and a strange fish from Ocean; y'see it's an arcade puzzle game. With the objective of clearing each level of a set number of tiles, Plotting's gameplay can be easily learned, but it'll take hours of play to master. Well presented, graphics are clear and colourful, make it look and feel more exciting than many other puzzle games. The first few levels get you into the style of play and you can whizz through these after a while. It's after level four that things get tricky, but also very addictive. And just because there's a jolly 128K tune warbling in the background doesn't mean you can lose concentration; to succeed in Plotting careful studying of the blocks and planning strategic play is all part of the fun. Though arcade blaster fans will probably find it tiresome after a few plays, all gamesters who like to use their brain will get their money's worth here.\r\nRichard Eddy\r\n86%"],"OverallSummary":"Wonderful puzzle game - simple to learn, addictive, and attractive!","Page":"37","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Richard Eddy","Score":"86","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"84%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"88%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"81%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"86%","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":"Ocean\r\n£10.99 cass/£15.99 disk\r\nReviewer: Matt Bielby\r\n\r\nBags of colour, crispy clear sprites, and gameplay identical to the 16-bits (or, indeed, the arcade original) - how often can you say that about a conversion, eh, Specchums? Plotting is just the sort of game that transfers perfectly to the Speccy (there's no need for scrolling, and just a bunch of bricks to animate), but why look a gift horse in the mouth? This is exactly the same game as the original.\r\n\r\nLuckily then, the coin-op was a rather appealing little puzzler. You play the cutsie 'potato man' (or whatever) in the bottom left-hand corner, and it's your job to get rid of all the coloured bricks stacked across on the right-hand side. You do this by throwing the brick you have in your hands (well, it'd be in your hands if you had any) at a like-minded brick - if you've got a red circle-coloured brick you throw it at a red circle, if you've got a Taito sign-splattered brick (the blue triangle-thing) you throw it at a Taito sign. Things aren't limited to your throwing the thing straight across the screen though - you can bounce it off the knobbly ceiling onto the top row of the stack too.\r\n\r\nWhen the two bricks hit they both disappear (of course), and you receive the one placed immediately behind them, which you've then got to get rid of in the same way. And so it goes on, extra points being awarded if you manage to do anything clever like clear a whole bunch of blocks at once.\r\n\r\nIt all sounds easy enough so far, doesn't it, so what's the trick? Well, lots of concentration is required for one thing (always a bit of a problem, I find). You have to think out each move before you make it, you see - it's no use landing yourself with a block you're not going to be able to get rid of next go (because there's no suitable exposed partner), is it? Scupper yourself like that once and you're given a 'wild card' block which you can use to take out anything you like, but do it enough times and it's game over, matey.\r\n\r\nAnd that's it, just about. Obviously things get a bit more complicated later on (pipe-things appear in the air between the ceiling and the blocks you want to hit, for instance, limiting the angles from which you can attack from above) but the basic gameplay is all pretty simple and appealing.\r\n\r\nSo what's the verdict? Well, as you could probably have predicted I'd say right back at the beginning, it really all depends on whether you like puzzle games or not. This is quite a good one - colourful, professionally-presented and smooth-playing, and with a fair smattering of cutsie appeal. However, it's probably not got the lasting appeal of, say, Plotting (also reviewed this issue). Each screen is just too similar to the one before - it's not a fault of the Speccy programmers, simply a limitation of the game design, which can get repetitive and samey. My attention tended to wander at times, meaning I didn't pay enough notice to planning my next move - a potentially fatal way to go about things. It's not to say I didn't enjoy the game though - far from it - just that there've been 'simple yet incredibly addictive' puzzle games one too many times already. Somehow they just don't seem quite so original anymore - which is a bit weird for a genre where original-but-simple gameplay is the stock-in-trade, isn't it?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Likeable, well-presented but slightly repetitive puzzle game. Very addictive in the short term.","Page":"16","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"84","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Ha-ha! I've got myself a 'wild card' block, meaning I can aim it at anything I want (in this case that green one on the top)."},{"Text":"Oh no! What a silly sausage! I had a red to throw, and since the only other red on screen is land-locked I've scuppered myself a bit really. (How stupid.)"}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"Eeek! By some miracle (don't ask me how) I've got onto a later level - hence these move-limiting pipe things.\r\n\r\nHere's our little potato-headed hero. He's got an 'X' block, so he wants to either move slightly upwards and fire it at that other X, or move further up the screen and bounce it off the wall at the one on the top row.\r\n\r\nThere are just four designs of block, so while for early moves (like the one you're about to make here) there're any number of bricks you can go for, you can soon find yourself utterly, utterly (utterly) stumped if you're not careful.\r\n\r\nScore, number of remaining blocks and so on - I'm sure you can work it out."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"83%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"88%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"81%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"84%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 104, Oct 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-09-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Jim Douglas\r\nDeputy Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nDesigner: Turncoat Osmondo\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSales Executive: Alan Dykes\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Executive: Sarah Ewing\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\n©1990 EMAP Images, [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by J'n'G Type\r\nColour work by Pro Print.\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher Web Ltd, Peterborough.\r\nDistributed by BBC Frontline."},"MainText":"Label: Ocean\r\nPrice: £9.99\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nVelly stlange, these Japanese. You always feel that their game plots result not from in-depth planning sessions, but from nightmares induced by an overdose of bad sushi.\r\n\r\nPlotting, (and that must be one of the oddest titles for a computer game ever). is a coin-op conversion, and it's all about blocks. A bit like Breakout, really, only with elements of Rubik's Cube and Tetris in it. Oh, and a bit of Pacman, but only in the sense that the hero is a little yellow blob.\r\n\r\nHere's how it goes. The little yellow blob can move up and down on the left-hand side of the screen. On the right-hand side are piles of blocks, and a sloping roof again composed of blocks, the layout of which changes on each level.\r\n\r\nBlobby has a block in front of him, and the idea is to fire it at the pile of blocks, trying to hit one bearing the same design; a Taito symbol, cross, red circle or green square.\r\n\r\nIf you hit a block of the correct design, the next block along, whatever its symbol, flies through the air to land back in front of Blobby. But, you ask, what happens if you can't see a block of the right design? Well, you can try moving to the top of the screen and bouncing your block off the roof at 90 degrees; this allows you to hit blocks on the top of the pile. A flashing yellow arrow shows you the point you're aiming at, but doesn't actually indicate whether it's a worthwhile shot or not.\r\n\r\nIf there's a row of blocks of the same design, you can wipe out the whole lot in one go, earning big points bonuses. The ultimate idea is to clear a certain number of blocks (not necessarily the whole amount) in the time allowed, which decreases for each subsequent screen.\r\n\r\nIf you manage to completely miss a block of the correct design, you'll still get a block back, but instead of one of the normal patterns it will bear a terrifying lightning flash. This means that you've lost a life, but the lightning block can be used to hit any design. Your game will come to an end, though, if you put yourself in a position where no blocks of the current design are accessible; \"Sorry, you have no current move\" appears, and that's your lot.\r\n\r\nOn later levels the plot is complicated by tubes which appear dotted over the screen. These prevent you from hitting some columns of the pile, but let you shoot through them to hit others. What with these, the decreasing time limit and the increasingly demanding numbers of blocks required to qualify for the next level, Plotting should keep you occupied for level after level (if you're a bit mad).\r\n\r\nThe graphics are pretty plain. I don't see any reason why the same gameplay couldn't have been accompanied by a few slobbering space aliens or massive explosions. But if you're the sort of chappie who says \"I know it looks simple, but the gameplay's great!\", then you should check out Plotting.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Looks okay, plays brilliantly. An absolute must for puzzle fans.","Page":"8","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"88","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Boing! By hitting the Taito symbol with a similar one, you dislodge the shape behind it, in this case a green box."},{"Text":"Cah! Bodged! Thirteen blocks left and you total was nine. AND there wasn't even a next move to make. Back to Plotting School!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"88%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]