[{"TitleName":"Sheepwalk","Publisher":"Virgin Games Ltd","Author":"George Trezise","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0004453","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 1, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Virgin Games, 48K\r\n£5.95\r\n\r\nThis can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"62","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-02-23","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Virgin Games, 48K\r\n£5.95\r\n\r\nThis can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"65","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 4, May 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":128,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Plymouth Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\nAdditional setting and process work by The Tortoise Shell Press, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Virgin Games, 48K\r\n£5.95\r\n\r\nThis can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"71","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 22, Aug 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-07-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nAssistant Editor: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nReader Services: Robert Schifreen\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAdvertising Executives: Louise Matthews, Mick Cassall\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Louise Flockhart\r\nPublisher: Tom Moloney\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £10.00, Overseas surface mail: £12.00, Airmail Europe: £20.00. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Computer & Video Games Limited ISSN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Bob Murdoch\r\nArcade Arena Illustrations: Stephen Gulbis\r\nNext Issue: August 16th"},"MainText":"WILL YOU FLOCK TO BUY THIS GAME?\r\n\r\nSheepwalk is one of the much publicised new titles from Virgin Games - a spin-off from the Virgin record and publishing company.\r\n\r\nIf this is the standard of their games then I would respectfully suggest that Mr Branson stick to records. At £7.95 it has got to be the rip-off of the year and a dead cert for our Great Software Disasters page.\r\n\r\nThe idea of the game is to round up all the sheep which have strayed from their pen. You play the part of the sheep-dog - although you could be forgiven for not realising this as the hound is nothing more than a tiny black speck on the screen. The animal must also have a gammy leg as it moves with the speed of a farmyard ox rather than a scampering dog!\r\n\r\nPoints are awarded according to the speed at which the sheep have been rounded up and the amount of crops saved from the rampaging flock in the vegetable patch.\r\n\r\nThe idea for the game is a good one though not entirely original. It falls down on its execution. Written in Basic it's just far too slow. I can't think of any other professional software house who would bring out a game of this type and at this price without first improving its graphics and then speeding it up with machine code.\r\n\r\nPerhaps this is the point. Do Virgin Rah see themselves as a software house at all, or is this just another example of the gold-rush mentality which is killing the computer games business with poor quality products.\r\n\r\nThe idea behind this approach to the business seems to be grab any program you can, and publish as quickly as possible to make a quick killing. Never mind the quality, just look at the full colour cassette inlay.\r\n\r\nYou have probably gathered by now that I'm not going to rush out and hand over almost £8 for Sheepwalk. Despite this there is something good about the game which I think is worthy of mention.\r\n\r\nThe author of the game is fully credited on the cassette inlay. We are given a picture of Gregory Trelise as well as a short biography. Software, like records and books, has to be thought of, programmed, and put forward for publishing by the author. The programmers therefore deserve our recognition for their efforts.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"106","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"The trials of a sheepdog feature on Virgin's new tape. Our review on page 106."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"0/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 11, Feb 1984","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-26","Editor":"Ray Elder","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"ZX Computing\r\nVol. One\r\nNumber Eleven\r\nFeb/Mar 1984\r\n\r\nEditor: Ray Elder\r\nEditorial Assistant: Fiona Eldridge\r\nSpecial Publications Editor: Wendy J Palmer\r\nAdvertising Manager: Barry Bingham\r\nDivisional Advertising Manager: Beverley McNeill\r\nCopy Controller: Ann McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Ron Harris\r\nChief Executive: T J Connell\r\n\r\nOrigination and design by MM Design & Print, [redacted]\r\nPublished by Argus Specialist Publications Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nZX Computing is published bi-monthly on the fourth Friday of the month. Distributed by: Argus Press Sales & Distribution Ltd. [redacted]. Printed by: Henry Garnett Ltd., Rotherham.\r\n\r\nThe contents of this publication including all articles, designs, plans, drawings and programs and all copyright and other intellectual property rights therein belong to Argus Specialist Publications Limited. All rights conferred by the Law of Copyright and other intellectual property rights and by virtue of international copyright conventions are specifically reserved to Argus Specialist Publications Limited and any reproduction requires the prior written consent of the Argus Specialist Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Argus Specialist Publications Limited 1984"},"MainText":"SHEEPWALK\r\nVirgin Games\r\nJim Lock\r\n\r\nGive your laser finger a rest, take time out from defending the Galaxy against marauding meanies, and try your hand instead at this interesting and original game which simulates a sheepdog trial.\r\n\r\nYou control a sheepdog which tries to round up nine sheep. If left for too long to their own devices, the sheep will eat the corn, carrots and other crops growing in the field. Your dog too can damage the crops by trampling them underfoot whilst attempting to drive the sheep away. Additional hazards to negotiate are two haystacks in the centre of the field and a river which takes up a large part of the left hand side of the field. Your sheep, of course, cannot swim!\r\n\r\nWhen all the surviving sheep have been penned, your score is given and points deducted for drowned sheep and crop damage. The time taken is also displayed and points taken off for that, too. It is possible to end with a minus score, as I did on my first attempt, despite successfully penning five of the sheep.\r\n\r\nScores do, of course, improve with practice, and with the discovery that the dog can swim across the river.\r\n\r\nIt really is an advantage to have watched \"One man and his dog\" before you play, as the game is very realistic - the sheep move in an infuriatingly lifelike manner - they will sneak out of the pen while the dog is occupied elsewhere, and stampede if the dog gets too close, particularly the last two sheep.\r\n\r\nThe game has attractive graphics and runs in Basic at a gentle pace. It is easy to master the essentials of the game but difficult to get a high score.\r\n\r\nThe presentation of the cassette is, however, disappointing. The loading instructions are well hidden (on the cassette label), and the program is only recorded on one side of the the tape. The other side is taken up with a boring bit of music.\r\n\r\nI would unhesitatingly recommend Sheepwalk to all armchair shepherds, if it were not for the price. £7.95 is too much for this game, enjoyable and original as it is. How about a price reduction, Virgin Games, say to around £5.50?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"98,99","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Lock","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 26, Sep 1983","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1983-09-08","Editor":"Cyndy Miles","TotalPages":90,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nAssistant Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nProduction Editor: Keith Parish\r\nManaging Editor: Peter Worlock\r\nSub-Editor: John Lettice\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writers: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nHardware Editor: Max Phillips\r\nPeripherals Editor: Ian Scales\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard King\r\nPrograms Editor: Ken Garroch\r\nListings Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditor's Assistant: Harriet Arnold\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Robinson\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Floyd Sayers\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nAdvertisement Director: John Cade\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Duncan Brown\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Mark Satchell\r\nSales Executives: Ian Whorley, Christian McCarthy, Marie-Therese Bolger, Jan Martin, Julia Dale, Dik Veenman\r\nProduction Manager: Eva Wroblewska\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper\r\n\r\nCover illustration by Paul Tupling"},"MainText":"SPORTING SPECTRUM\r\n\r\nMike Gerrard and Steven McClure set up a two-man defence against the latest Sinclair hordes.\r\n\r\nSpectrum games keep coming thick and fast - some of them more thick than fast, it must be said. But this latest consignment includes at least a couple that match arcade standards and even one in which it's your shout - you literally call the shots! Start yomping ..\r\n\r\nPHEENIX\r\n(£5.50) - Megadodo Software, [redacted]\r\n\r\nWhy should anyone write a fast-moving machine code version of an arcade classic, then make you wait 20 seconds between each and every game while the screen fills with stars? It's a pity because this is otherwise an enjoyable version of Phoenix... go on, admit it, you'd never have guessed.\r\n\r\nYou can use the keyboard or either Kempston or AGF joysticks, and select from five skill levels.\r\n\r\nThere are several screens of birds and eggs to be scrambled before you get to assault the Flagship. The hardest level is suicidal, but a few instructions wouldn't have gone amiss.\r\n\r\nIt is colourful, but due to the frustrating wait between each screen change I recommend you look for a better alternative.\r\n\r\nAQUARUIS\r\n(£5.95) - Bug-Byte, [redacted]\r\n\r\nBug-Byte bites again with a game that would grace any arcade. Using Kempston joystick or keyboard, you must negotiate your diver through a scrolling sea filled with sharks. Jellyfish, mines, strangleweed and other fishy nasties. Most of these can be despatched with a direct shot from your gun, but your oxygen is also expiring, so pick up the supplies from the seabed when you can.\r\n\r\nIf you're lucky, or extremely skillful, you'll eventually come to dark caverns, at the end of which is your mission - to defuse the death machines by shooting the three-colour coded panels in the sequence given at the start of the game.\r\n\r\nAmusing graphics, if a little jerky here and there, but definitely the pick of this batch.\r\n\r\n\r\nANT ATTACK\r\nMacronics Systems, [redacted]\r\n\r\nAfter a hard day's gardening you fall asleep, but your dream turns nasty as the ants decide to get their own back on you. At least that's the story behind what's claimed to be the first Spectrum game controlled partly by your voice.\r\n\r\nYell 'fire' at your tape recorder and that's what's meant to happen. I couldn't make it work, but that's not to say it won't on other tape recorders. More of a gimmick than of practical use, unless you can shout at a very fast rate indeed.\r\n\r\nSettling for keyboard control, I enjoyed a fast and furious Centipede-type game, shooting at ants and other pests as they descend the screen in that well-known fashion.\r\n\r\nThe cassette insert is cheaply done, but there's nothing wrong with the game itself.\r\n\r\n\r\nALIEN INSECTS\r\nMacronics Systems, [redacted]\r\n\r\nArmed with a laser bolt, you must shoot down the fat little insects that are buzzing all over the screen. You can move in four directions, with a sensible layout for keyboard control.\r\n\r\nThis is a game worth getting just to see what sounds can be squeezed out of the Spectrum.\r\n\r\nIf you kill enough nasties then space eggs start to appear at the top of the screen, waiting to descend on you. By this time the insects are about as easy and pleasant to deal with as a swarm of wasps.\r\n\r\n3D STRATEGY\r\n(£6.95) - Quicksilva, [redacted]\r\n\r\nAs a change from killing ants, aliens, birds or jellyfish, here's a game where you could cheerfully kill the programmer. It is so hard to beat the machine in this 4x4x4 version of Noughts and Crosses or Connect Four, and I was only playing on the easiest of the four skill levels.\r\n\r\nThe only drawback to this piece of software is the instructions. They drivel on for pages about how totally wonderful the game is... auto-play option, timer that can be set per move, per game or switched off, on-screen ticking clocks, two styles of play, an average response time of 1.7 seconds, machine code, over 200,000 decisions per move, and so on.\r\n\r\nThe board is displayed as four separate grids at the bottom of the screen, which is a little confusing, though We no doubt a proper three-dimensional cube would have been even more so.\r\n\r\nHowever, it does offer a very tough opponent, and it may be as good as it claims.\r\n\r\nYOMP\r\n(£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted]\r\n\r\nA paratrooper opera which is fairly easy to figure out. You use four keys to manoeuvre your way through four columns of trucks and tanks and all you have to do is learn how to place yourself in the optimum position to sneak through to the other side of the moving convoys.\r\n\r\nAs a video game memento of the Falklands conflict it's a pretty weak effort.\r\n\r\nSHEEPWALK\r\n(£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSheepwalk is almost as dull as Yomp once it's in play. You're a sheepdog moving around the screen trying to catch up with miscreant sheep. While doing this you risk trampling the vegetables or bumping into walls.\r\n\r\nGOLF\r\n(£7.98) - Virgin Games, [redacted]\r\n\r\nIn its Virgin form, Golf is an interesting enough game to play. It requires players to plot out each shot's direction and strength, while using the right club.\r\n\r\nThere's enough of a random element to make the game more than a little irritating. When your ball lands in the rough it can take three or four strokes to get it out. This is where having a low handicap (you can choose between 1 and 28) is a real advantage. The game's designers have assumed real duffers are going to have problems in getting out of the woods.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"49","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Gerrard","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Steve McClure","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]