[{"TitleName":"Powerama","Publisher":"The Power House","Author":"Craig Galley, David Crummack","YearOfRelease":"1988","ZxDbId":"0003856","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 54, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-30","Editor":"Steve Jarratt","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Steven Jarratt\r\nDeputy Editor: Dominic Handy\r\nAssistant Editor: Katharina Hamza\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Philip King, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nTechnical Writers: Jon Bates, Simon N Goodwin\r\nEditorial Assistant: Frances Mable\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Raffaele Cecco, Mel Croucher, Paul Evans, Philippa Irving, Brendon Kavanagh, Paul Sumner\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nAssistant Art Director: Wayne Allen\r\nDesign & Layout: Yvonne Priest, Melvyn Fisher\r\nPre-Print Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics/Film Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard, Ian Chubb, Robert Millichamp\r\n\r\nPublishing Controller: David Western\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nSales Executive: Andrew Smales, Sarah Chapman\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\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 Frances Mable 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.\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 is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\nTotal: 96,590\r\nUK/EIRE: 90,822\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1988\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: The Power House\r\nRetail Price: £1.99\r\nAuthor: David Crummack and Craig Galley\r\n\r\nEarth is under attack from a fleet of colossal alien ships and you're the only one that knows about it. Your tiny scout ship is the only thing that stands between earth and its imminent destruction.\r\n\r\nEnemies fly in over a monochrome, vertically scrolling background of aerially viewed space cruisers, firing bullets. Collision with aliens or their fire results in the immediate loss of one of five lives. Shooting the energy-giving solar panels on the huge cruisers slows down the fleet giving time for Earth's forces to regroup.\r\n\r\nEquipment can be improved by flying over a series of flashing squares which hold extra speed, lives and ammunition.\r\n\r\nEach level culminates in a confrontation with an alien mothership. Destroys it or simply avoid its shots to allow passage to the next level.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: monochromatic. Originally drawn aliens, very smooth animation\r\nSound: limited spot effects","ReviewerComments":["As another vertically scrolling, monochrome shoot 'em up to add to the ever-growing list, Powerama definitely holds its own. It's nothing spectacular but, within the limits it sets itself, it's competently presented and very playable. As much as possible has been done to increase the life-time of the game. Aliens descend in different formations on every level so you don't need to go into automatic pilot every time you play and you can begin on any one of the first four stages. If you're after a cheap and standard shoot 'em up, and as long as you're not too bothered about designer graphics, Powerama might just be the one.\r\nKati Hamza\r\n62%","For two pounds Powerama is quite a pleasing little shoot 'am up. At first the graphics may not seem up to much, but the alien hordes are originally drawn and swarm around the screen at a controllable pace. Colour, not extensively used in games of this type, is limited - only a few blobs on bonus objects - but are, like the game in general, smoothly scrolled. Some of the ground objects may seem familiar (like the main ship and those little blocks, both from Uridium) but for £1.99 you can't complain. Good to see a starting level option - although even the first level is reasonably frantic. Let's hope that The Power House continue producing software of this higher quality.\r\nPaul Sumner\r\n60%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: An addictive little shoot 'em up representing good value for money.","Page":"21","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Kati Hamza","Score":"62","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"60","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"The Power House's best."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"61%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 32, Aug 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-07-12","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nProduction Editors: Jackie Ryan, Sophie Moorcock\r\nDesigner: Catherine Higgs\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Owen & Audrey Bishop, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Mike Gerrard, Sean Kelly, Graeme Kidd, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, John Minson, Nat Pryce, Peter Shaw, Ben Stone\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nArt Director: Hazel Bennington\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\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: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 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":"POWERAMA\r\nPower House\r\n£1.99\r\nReviewer: Nat Pryce\r\n\r\nA fleet of huge alien spaceships is heading towards earth and only you, a humble scout ship, can stop them in time. Isn't it fortunate how routine patrols are always around when megalomanic aliens go on the rampage?\r\n\r\nFortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on how good a pilot you are), you decide to do what any empty headed space hero would do, blow them aliens to smithereens! So you zoom along each alien dreadnought and suddenly... you're in a vertically scrolling monochrome shoot em up! As with all blasters these days, there are some bolt on goodies to stick on your ship and great lumpy mother ships to blow away at the end of each level. The scrolling is smooth and the graphics are neat, if not incredibly imaginative, but unfortunately the game itself is incredibly run-of-the-mill. I'm not saying that it's bad, mind, but just that there are better games, in a similar vein, in this price range.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"36,37","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nat Pryce","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 76, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham 'El Presidente' Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nProduction Editor: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nDesigner: Andrea Walker\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nContributors: Tony 'I'm a headbanger' Dillon, Chris 'Leave off my jelly babies' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine Lee\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Margaret 'I'll spell that for you' Caddick-Adams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Alison Morton\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive Pembridge\r\n\r\nPhone: [redacted]\r\nFax: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Bryan Talbot\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1988 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458"},"MainText":"Label: Power House\r\nAuthor: D. Drummack and C. Galley\r\nPrice: £1.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nWhat a spiffy little shoot-'em-up! Not a jot of originality, to be sure, but the software equivalent of a really hot, steamy Big Mac - greasy but satisfying.\r\n\r\nPowerama (is it meant to be Power-ama or Pow-erama? I dunno) features some neat designs, excellent sprite masking and scrolling, and a good deal of vertically-scrolling havoc. Whilst your spaceship looks a bit like a distorted Smiley Face (I think the features are meant to be portholes and vents) the alien fighters are suitably sinister and threatening, and the features of the enemy battle cruisers over which you fly are nicely designed.\r\n\r\nAll you have to do is blast the surface features in order to deactivate the fleet's solar energy converters and give your fleet a chance to regroup and attack. Rather than sitting watching Neighbours, the aliens churlishly decide to blast you to atoms, so as you proceed upwards you'll have to fight them off. The attack waves are semi-random, so every game is different. Swirling from the top and side of the screen, all the aliens can be destroyed with one blast from your laser, but some move faster and less predictably than others.\r\n\r\nAs you progress you'll see small flashing icons which you must fly over. This gives you extra speed (which you'll definitely need if you want to get through the early stages), extra bullets and bonus lives.\r\n\r\nAt the end of each level there's a mother ship which can probably be destroyed, but as it throws bombs at you at a generous speed, it's better to keep well out of its way. Get yourself killed, and you'll disintegrate convincingly.\r\n\r\nOn the high score table you can choose to start on any of the first four levels. I can't see anyone regretting investing in Powerama; gameplay's fine, the sound's OK and the graphic design is good. I particularly like the way in which the alien ships are always highly visible, despite the fact that your own ship, the aliens and the background are shown in the same colour. That's the sign of meticulous work.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Excellent budget vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up.","Page":"45","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"82","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"92%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"82%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]