[{"TitleName":"Sabotage","Publisher":"Zeppelin Games Ltd","Author":"Michael Owens, Nicky Rutter","YearOfRelease":"1988","ZxDbId":"0004291","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 53, Jun 1988","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1988-05-26","Editor":"Steve Jarratt","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Steven Jarratt\r\nSoftware Editor: Dominic Handy\r\nStaff Writers: Katharina Hamza, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram, Mark Caswell\r\nTechnical Writers: Jon Bates, Simon N Goodwin\r\nEditorial Assistant: Frances Mable\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Julian Rignall Paul Evans, Roger Kean, Raffaele Cecco, Rosetta McLeod, Brendon Kavanagh, Paul Sumner, Robin Candy\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\n\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nSales Executive: Andrew Smales\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting 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: Zeppelin Games\r\nRetail Price: £2.99\r\nAuthor: Nicky Rutter\r\n\r\nThe eight sectors of your planet are under alien attack. As a trained mercenary you do not hesitate in volunteering to clear each sector of enemy craft and hunt out the vital pieces of a blueprint which, when assembled, allow your ship's weapon computer to lock on to the alien leader's mothercraft.\r\n\r\nThe player hurtles through space over a vertically scrolling background of futuristic structures, bridges and platforms. Hostile enemy craft appear in various formations from above, and collision with any of these causes instant death.\r\n\r\nCollectable lettered icons temporarily improve the defensive equipment of the player's craft. Forcefields provide a few moments of invulnerability, and pockets of gravitational acceleration increase speed.\r\n\r\nFollowing a climactic confrontation with the sector's mothership, the players vessel automatically lands in the alien camp. The player is transported into a maze of passages viewed from above. Carefully avoiding the deadly flight of deadly birds, the complex is negotiated in order to collect a section of blueprint and return safely to the ship.\r\n\r\nSuccessful completion of a level rewards the player with a password to the next, and the appropriate password allows access to any level at the beginning of the game. Once all the blueprints have been collected the alien leader's fate is sealed.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: oversized monochrome graphics on first stage - tiny and tiny and colourful on the second\r\nSound: mediocre sound effects","ReviewerComments":["Why can't people come out with something even slightly original in the budget market nowadays. The fist stage of Sabotage is very reminiscent of FTL's Lightforce, except in monochrome, negating the whole point of Lightforce, which was its clever use of colour. The bonus stage is hardly worth mentioning: it contains crude characters and present very little challenge to the average player (ie Nick Roberts!). If you're after a simple and cheap Lightforce clone then Sabotage may appeal to you; I detested it though.\r\nPaul Sumner\r\n35%","Sabotage is an attractive and competent rendering of the ageing shoot 'em up theme with a couple of small variation: the password system (an effective antidote against the boring repetition of levels you already know back to front) and the maze element which comes as a welcome break from bombing and blasting. Although sound is virtually non-existent, the monochrome backdrops are suitably atmospheric, difficulty is nicely graded and the scrolling is smooth. All the elements of a compelling (if unspectacular) game are present; whether you take up Zeppelin's challenge ultimately depends on just how addicted to quick-fire blasting you are.\r\nKati Hamza\r\n60%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A low starting point for a new company.","Page":"86","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"35","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Kati Hamza","Score":"60","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"It's all a (Light)farce."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"53%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"53%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 31, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-14","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nDesigner: Catherine Higgs\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Mike Gerrard, Gwyn Hughes, Sean Kelly, Graeme Kidd, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, David Powell, Nat Pryce, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, 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":"SABOTAGE\r\nZeppelin Games\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Nat Pryce\r\n\r\nWo-oh-oh-oh Sabotaaage. Things are never quite the way they seem... dum de dum de... Yes well, apologies to Stan Ridgeway for that terrible rendition of his tune, and I know I've got the words a bit wrong, but it's a bit more relevent that way. 'Cos just when you think that Sabotage is a pretty good scrolling shooter, it suddenly turns into a naff maze game. Do you like it? Norralot!\r\n\r\nYou start off with the scenery scrolling smoothly down the screen, and streams of alien cannon fodder flying in front of your guns. Get far enough through the level and a huge ship appears which takes several shots to destroy. Then all of a sudden you're plopped into a maze of blocks and must rush through and collect a piece of blueprint which is under a dustbin lid for some reason. Escape with the blueprint and you can enter the next level.\r\n\r\nAs scrolling shoot 'em ups go, Sabotage isn't bad, but I can think of many better games, even at this price.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"79","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 75, Jun 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-05-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nStaff Writer: 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 '10 o'clock isn't late' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine Lee\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Margaret Caddick-Adams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Alison Morton\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry 'Great idea, I'll put it on the back burner immediately' 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: Clive Goodyear\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: Zeppelin\r\nAuthor: Nicky Rutter\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Tony Dillon\r\n\r\nOh woe! Woe again. Our happy planet is under attack and is practically falling apart because of the never ending waves of armed spaceships. Why are these ships attacking? Who knows. All you need to know actually is that you are a mercenary who has been hired to help destroy the might of the hideous 20-headed 3-tentacled aliens who now control a reign of terror over said planet. Thankfully, you're not alone. The aliens are organised into 8 groups, and a 5th columnist rebel has smuggled him/herself aboard each of the sector HQs. You must make contact with them and collect pieces of blueprint they give you. Only with the blueprint safely in your hands will you have any hope of saving your planet and its people.\r\n\r\nEnough of this tosh. Sabotage is nothing new. I don't care what impression I just gave you. I know the plot makes the game sound wildly exciting. I know the plot gives the impression of stunning originality. But the game is, in fact, simply Lightforce without the bells, whistles and colour. For those of you who read Crash, and therefore have absolutely no idea what Lightforce is and are probably not allowed to use sharp instruments, such as candles, this means that Sabotage is a vertically-scrolling shoot-everything-that-moves-em-up. You control a single spaceship up a series of vertical 'corridors' and have to defend yourself from incessant attacks by waves of marauding enemy craft. There are asteroid fields to navigate, plus the maze of birds. Huh, you say, what maze of birds? Oh, didn't I mention them?\r\n\r\nAfter you have passed through the level, you meet the normal multi-hit mothership. Hit her a few times, which is really easy to do, and she'll explode. You then land your ship on the runway at the end of each level, and you're into the sub-game.\r\n\r\nA small maze appears, with you at one end and the 5th C. rebel in the middle. You have to work your way through the maze and avoid the divebombing birds which appear at the top of the screen, wait a few seconds, then fly directly downwards and vanish at the bottom. One you reach the 5CR, you collect the piece of blueprint, and it's time to trot off to the next level Trot, trot, trot.\r\n\r\nSabotage is a very good game. Not it's not often you hear me say that. I like it because it plays very well, although your ship moves very slowly, too slowly for any really fast joystick waggling. Still, you can speed it up temporarily by collecting a speed icon. Unfortunately the speed doesn't last very long and you soon find yourself back at snails' pace.\r\n\r\nGraphics are average for this kind of game. Your ship is animate, well enough and the crafts move very smoothly. The aliens are varied enough to be interesting, though things do get a bit repetitive.\r\n\r\nA very playable shoot em up, and one that has done Zeppelin proud. One of the better budget releases around, it makes you want to see more from Zeppelin.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Playable upward scroller with some nice graphics. A worthwhile budget buy.","Page":"44","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tony Dillon","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]