[{"TitleName":"Silkworm","Publisher":"Virgin Games Ltd","Author":"Barry Leitch, Ned Langman, Nigel Brown, David John Rowe, Junior Tomlin","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0004507","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 66, Jul 1989","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1989-06-29","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nEditorial Assistants: Viv Vickress, Caroline Blake\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Robin Hogg, Mark Caswell\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robert (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nDESIGN\r\nRoger Kean, Mark Kendrick, Melvin Fisher\r\n\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nGroup Advertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Lee Watkins, Wynne Morgan\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":"Virgin Games (licensed from Temco)\r\nRandom Access\r\n£8.99\r\n\r\nDespite the title, I can't find anything very silky for wormy for that matter) about this game! It's a perfectly normal scrolling shoot-'em-up, in which you have to clear 11 levels of super-'ard pasties to liberate the planet and bring peace and by to the universe etc... etc...\r\n\r\nTo complete this 'awesome' task, what mighty ship are you given? An interplanetary battle cruiser with multimega laser cannons and hyper warp drive? Not quite. Instead, you get a helicopter and a jeep. Can't you see those alien meanies quaking in their boots? No, nor can I! Still, along the way, there's a multitude of extra armoury to be collected; including rapid fire, bonuses and shields. When the kill counter reaches zero the bits of the 'goose' helicopter fly on screen. Shoot them before they assemble, and you get an extra bonus item (if you're too slow, you only get one item).\r\n\r\nAs destruction games go, Silkworm is fine. It's definitely a bit easy (I completed it after a dozen goes), but if you find the normal level of blast-'em-ups too difficult, this one should be rewarding. The two-player option is brilliant (one takes control of the jeep and the other the helicopter) and increases the addictivity. Nice graphics and excellent playability make this a good choice for the non-expert game player!\r\n\r\nMIKE","ReviewerComments":["What can I say about Silkworm that you can't tell from the screenshot? it is another shoot-'em-up in the same style as R-Type. All the graphics are nicely drawn and animated but there is a distinct lack of colour. Armoury's not that great either, you can only build up your weapons to double lire (wow!). There are some big nasties which help the addictiveness, but there's little variety. The two-player option is the game's best aspect, allowing real cooperation for advancement. Sound effects are of the bang-bang variety, with a military-style lunette on the front end. Silkworm is a decidedly average shoot-'em-up, with a primitive addiction that will only appeal to poor arcade players.\r\nNick Roberts"],"OverallSummary":"Simple fun for arcadesters who requires little depth to their gaming.","Page":"24,25","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"73%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"73%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"69%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"72%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"73%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 87, Apr 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-03-21","Editor":"Richard Eddy","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Richard Eddy\r\nSub Editor: Warren Lapworth\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction and Circulation Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Judith Bamford\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Christine Moore\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting Apple Macintosh Computers using Quark Express and Bitstream Fonts.\r\n\r\nSystems Manager: Ian Chubb\r\n\r\nColour origination Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted].\r\n\r\nDistributor COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nYearly subscription rates: UK £17.20 Europe £24.00, Air Mail overseas £37. US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US$47.00, Canada CAN$57.00 Back Issues US$5.20, Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \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 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 us a line). No person who is related, no matter how remotely, 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 on 35mm transparencies is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Copy published in CRASH will be edited as seen fit and payment will be calculated according to the current printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1991 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover design and illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Mastertronic Plus\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nEntertaining horizontally-scrolling two-player blasting affair. Viewed side on, with one player controlling a helicopter and the other a jeep. Lots of awesome weaponry and the game's quite addictive!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"72","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"72%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 43, Jul 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-06-16","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Higgs\r\nDeputy Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Duncan MacDonald\r\nEditorial Assistant: David Wilson\r\nDesigner: Thor Goodall\r\nTechnical Consultant: David McCandless\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Jonathan Davies, Phoebe Evans, Mike Gerrard, Sean Kelly, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Phil South, Wag\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Stephen Bloy\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nCirculation Manager: June Smith\r\nAssociate Producer: Teresa Maughan\r\nPublisher: Terry Grimwood\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\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1989 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":"Virgin\r\n£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk\r\nReviewer: Matt Bielby\r\n\r\nWe seem to be seeing some well spanky shoot 'em ups around at the moment, which is fine by me 'cos I'm pretty partial to a touch of senseless violence every now and again. Just look at this issue - Dominator, Forgotten Worlds and this one, which for my money is the best of the three. Want to know why? Nope! Um, well be like that. Hmm, just you and me left now, is it, Mum? Well, I'll just tell you then.\r\n\r\nSilkworm is one of the licences Virgin/Mastertronic has picked up in its deal with the Sales Curve and it's a whole barrel of laughs. Not very colourful, it's true (all the sprites are monochrome, though some of the scrolling background areas are quite bright) but it's so fast and busy and full of all sorts of things going on that you hardly notice.\r\n\r\nBasically it benefits from being based on a very playable and non-too ambitious coin-op (quite how I can get away with such rash statements is quite beyond me - I've never played it in my life) and reproduces all the various enemy craft and progressively more difficult attack formations very faithfully. It's a horizontal scroller featuring a helicopter (a nice little sprite which dips and swings very realistically, featuring a moving tail rotor) with two main points of interest, the first of which is the bizarre assortment of enemy copters. Half of them are very organic, semi-alive looking, the most memorable of which is probably the large goose-shaped craft that forms together from various component parts in front of your eyes. Very hard to kill, this.\r\n\r\nHowever, there are also froggish vehicles that hop along the ground, insect look-alikes that hover threateningly then buzz straight for you, and giant end-of-level monsters that Jackie insists look just like big goldfish. Blow one of these giant choppers fnar) and you get all sorts of bonus points and extra guns and stuff.\r\n\r\nThe other snazzy thing is that it's a true two player - it you've got a mate who doesn't mind being hunched over the keyboard while you sit back with the joystick, that is. While you fly the chopper he gets his mits on the jeep that cruises along the ground beneath you.\r\n\r\nBasically your chum'll have a much rougher ride, because he's limited to tooling along on the ground and blasting things as opposed to having the whole screen area to duck and dive in. He can change the angle of his gun though and jump in the air at the jab of a button to either avoid tanks and ground objects or to get a different angle of attack on incoming aircraft.\r\n\r\nOccasionally, you can work together quite effectively to clear the screen, at which point everything gets incredibly busy with bullets, missiles, tanks. choppers, jeeps and even Duncan's granny's garage thrown in for good measure. Brill fun.\r\n\r\nMy one real complaint was to have been that every successive level has pretty much the same sequence of enemy craft - just a few more of them each time - until I realised that this was total cobblers and a few levels into the game they throw a whole new assortment at you. Yikes! Don't let the fact that you can quite easily blast your way through the first few levels fool you - there's some tough, nicely designed and well thought out stuff in here. Sound on the 128K is spanky too, with some good bullet and metallic hitting noises.\r\n\r\nOne last thing - this game isn't to be recommended for anyone suffering from epilepsy. When you are near to killing one of the big end-of-level monsters the screen very quickly flashes black and white which made my eyes go all funny. Just thought I'd mention it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Phew! What a spanky little shoot 'em up. Buy it!","Page":"54,55","Denied":false,"Award":"Your Sinclair Megagame","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Blimey, guv. It's a helicopter. It's also a goose. Good job I picked up the double bullets earlier to help me wring the feathered fiend's neck. But where's the smart bomb when you want one, eh?"},{"Text":"Oh my goodness it's a big 'goldfish' thing. I'll need my pal in the jeep to help finish this one off. Interesting point - if you don't have a pal you can operate the joystick with one hand (sort of) and use your other one to operate the jeep. Or you can use your elbows. (Worth a try anyway.)"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"92%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"85%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 62, Feb 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-01-03","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":84,"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: Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Duncan MacDonald, Angela Neal, Jon North, Rich Pelley, John Pillar, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nAssistant Publisher: Jane Richardson\r\nPublishing Assistant: Michele Harris\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\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 1991. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"SILKWORM\r\nMastertronic\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Rich Pelley\r\n\r\nAlthough Silkworm, sideways scrolling shoot-'em-up number 92150430702, is hardly the most original game on the planet, it certainly is one of the corkiest. The world is about to blow up and only you, dear reader, can stop it - by flying along in a helicopter and shooting things. And should a friend be coming round for tea then he or she can help by driving along in a little jeep at the bottom of the screen at the same time.\r\n\r\nEverything is beautifully clear and moves around pretty convincingly (including your sprite). There are plenty of different baddies along the line, including other choppers, blobby things, funky little jobbies which join up in mid-air into a sort of goose, missile launchers, strange spikey things on the floor and a unfeasibly large chopper at the end of each level.\r\n\r\nAnd it's blimmin' addictive, I can tell you, matey - I've just spent all evening playing the thing when I should've been writing this pesky review instead (ahem). Well worth three quid out of anyone's pocket (except for mine, of course).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rich Pelley","Score":"93","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Blimey! What on earth are those big bouncing ball things on the right meant to be? (Goodness knows, but they spell trouble, that's for sure.)"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"93%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 88, Jul 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-06-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Meet the Team\r\n\r\nJIM \"Invisible Man\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nWrapped (warped?) from head to fool in bandages to disguise his horrible secret, Jim is forced to wander the world trapped in a crepe tomb. While lie likes to put about the rumour that he concocted a potion so strong that it turned him invisible, the actual truth is that the rest of the SU Team were so fed up with him being \"away on business\" they endowed him with the name and handed out a right good punching into the bargain, hence the bandages.\r\n\r\nALISON \"Wunder Woman\" SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nFaster than a speeding thing, able to correct pages in a single bound. Skeat wreaks terrible havoc upon poor copy with her special Red Pen in her quest to rid Sinclair User of any spelling mistekes. She can deflect bad grammar with her super steel ear-rings and head butts away repetition every single time, and head-butts away repetition every single time.\r\n\r\nTIM NOONAN (Art Editor)\r\nIs it a plane? Is it a bus? Is it a Bond Bug? No, you bloody idiot, it's Timothy Noonan. An Editor extraordinaire, cutting a swathe through the barren wasteland of computer magazine layout, producing colour pages to STUN, SHOCK and DELIGHT every single month. Unfortunately, Tim has only one leg. Well, it's more unfortunate for Tim than anyone else, since he can never stay upright once he stops moving.\r\n\r\nTONY \"Ice Man\" DILLON (Contributor)\r\nTony knows no fear. He doesn't know many people, but he certainly knows even less fear. His super-cool demeanour and ability to fit nearly all his bottom into a medium sized refrigerator have made him legendary through the games industry. If a job wants doing, tell Tone to dry his trousers and get going.\r\n\r\nSpecial thanks this month: John 'Er, tomorrow?' Cook, Gareth 'Grandad' Jones, Clive '43' Pembridge, Graham 'Still here' Taylor.\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nDirty Tricks: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine 'Ooh my sore throat' Lee\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Martha 'A diddly diddly' Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma 'Wonderful' Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie \"Have you seen this photo?\" Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry 'Well...' Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive 'Knuckle Sandwich' Pembridge\r\n\r\nDrop us a line at: [redacted] or Fax us on: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Silkworm from Virgin Mastertronic\r\nCover Artist: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nTypeset by Professional Reprographics Services [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Frontline.\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n24 Hour Order Line: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: Back Issues Department (SU), [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1989 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be copied, translated, transcribed, read aloud in the pub or used to swat flies without the written permission from the Publishers, EMAP B&C, which - we'll tell you now - is pretty hard to get."},"MainText":"Label: Mastertronic\r\nAuthor: Sales Curve\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nWoooooow! Reactionary or what! Silkworm involves so much killing that I'm almost ashamed to tell you how great it is.\r\n\r\nLook at the ingredients; Two players (one in a jeep and one in helicopter) a million enemy soldiers in tanks, helicopters, planes and gunships, power-up options and continual blasting action.\r\n\r\nWhile Silkworm is a largely frills-free affair; not much colour, no complex bonus stages, its pitch of difficulty and sheer scale and escalation of violence make it stand out from the crowd of sideways scrolling shoot-outs.\r\n\r\nThe feeling of teamwork is really strong. You can make it on your own (fnar) but it's not easy. Half of the fun of the game is working out a strategy and setting up the chopper and the jeep in the most effective positions. I found it most useful to fly the chopper about half way up the screen, slightly ahead of the jeep. This way mines on the floor can be shot out. While the jeep can jump them, it becomes vulnerable to shots from enemy helicopters all the time it's airborne.\r\n\r\nEach vehicle behaves in a slightly different way. Obviously the helicopter is in the air (yes, really) so its prime function is taking out squadrons appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen and providing cover for the jeep. Since its downward fire is quite limited, the jeep's task is to shoot out ground-to-air missile launchers. So far as I could tell, the helicopter gets a slightly better deal, since it can fend for itself to better effect than the jeep. Especially gung-ho and ruthless players will be able to exploit the defence offered by the jeep while hardly returning any support, thus scoring more points by concentrating on high-point-values enemies.\r\n\r\nAfter a specific point, you'll be awarded a double-up token which will enhance your firepower, making the next attack more plausible.\r\n\r\nAfter each wave of escalating carnage you'll encounter two end-of-level bad guys.\r\n\r\nThe first is a strange metal metamorphose affair which assembles itself before you eyes and then drifts around the screen blasting away like a demon. This guy is so heavily armoured only strategic shots from underneath will affect him. If you've lost the jeep by this point, you're in trouble.\r\n\r\nThe second is simply huge. No, sorry, HUGE! He takes up about half of the screen and fires bouncing bombs at the jeep and a continual stream of rockets at the chopper. If you beat this boy, you can be proud of yourself.\r\n\r\nWhile it's easy to level lots of criticisms at Silkworm. Lots of the graphics are similar and it's true that, for the most part, the gameplay is pretty samey. However, it's easy to get going. Nothing complex or convoluted to get to grips with and the difficulty level is pitched perfectly.\r\n\r\nThe only problem is that if you are going to be successful, you really do need two players.\r\n\r\nAside from this, it's perfect. Tight, crisp and polished combat, a real feeling of teamwork and high-speed action. A Classic!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Fantastic team blast! Superb.","Page":"26,27","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"86","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"HINTS AND TIPS\r\n\r\nWork as a team! You won't get far on your own.\r\n\r\nExperiment with the positions of both vehicles. You can tweak your angle of fire to the optimum degree, offering better protection.\r\n\r\nAlways prepare an escape route for yourself - your partner may lost concentration or get killed and you'll be left with no cover.\r\n\r\nMost of the big craft have weak points. They'll buy it quicker if you can find them."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"88%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"86%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 107, Jan 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-12-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nDesign Editor: Andrea 'Hotlips' Walker\r\nDesign: Amanda Young, Margaret Goldrick\r\nStaff Writer: Jason Nalk\r\nSU Crew: Chris 'Hateful' Jenkins, Matt Regan, John Cook, Pete Gerrard, Gary Liddon\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jim Owens\r\nAd Production: Jo 'Titters' Gleissner\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistants: Sarah Ewing, Sarah Hillard\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1990 EMAP IMAGES\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION; FRONTLINE\r\n\r\nTypesetting by Garthtype\r\nTypos by A.C.C. Ident\r\nColour work by Proprint. B&W filming by PRS. I'd just like to say a merry Christmas to all you SU Crewers and Squaddies out there. Have a great time and the all new Crew and I will see you in January.\r\n\r\nReproduction of any part of this magazine is illegal. However, as it's Christmas, we might not sue you this time. Also, the first person to write in with the last word of this sentence will win the Christmas number one game. Have a nice break - Garth."},"MainText":"Label: Virgin\r\nPrice: £2.99 Cass 48K\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nIf you like fast-moving, mega-destructive shoot-'em-ups, you will be scorned and humiliated behind the bikesheds if you don't have Silkworm in your collection.\r\n\r\nThis is one of the few SEU's which go to the trouble of explaining the amount of sub-nuclear destruction involved; it's set in a future where nukes have been banned, but you can go wild with any other weapon you fancy! The choice boils down to a mega-equipped helicopter or a super jeep, or in two-player mode you can control one of each. The chopper has two weapons systems - one fires forwards and the other diagonally downwards - and the jeep the opposite, so you can zap land-based or aerial targets. Hit a landmine and it releases a cloud of plasma gas; fly into it, and it will act as a shield for a time, protecting you from enemy missiles (very imaginative use of previously unknown laws of physics by the programmers). Even more unlikely, if two plasma clouds are on screen at the same time, you can collect the first then shoot or run into the second to create a smart-bomb style explosion. Uncanny! The backgrounds are minimal, the moving objects monochrome, but the graphic design is good and the animation smooth (though it does slow down jot when there's lot on screen). As you would expect, apart from the waves of helicopters, missile launchers, tanks and rockets, there are excellent end-of-level nasties. You might think that the goose-neck helicopters, which fly onto the screen in sections, assemble themselves them blast the hell out of you, are the nastiest nasties; in fact there are bigger and more vicious command vehicles lurking at the end, such as a super helicopter and a giant tank. It's greet, mon, as Gazza would no doubt say if anyone bothered to ask him.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Top hole spiffing blast-'em-up which all the chaps should bally well buy if they can.","Page":"55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"88","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"66%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"88%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 110, Apr 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-03-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth 'Desert Rat' Sumpter\r\nDesign Editor: Andrea 'Frantz Klammer' Walker\r\nDesign: Evette 'Kiwi' Nicholls\r\nStaff Writers: Steve '60's' Keen\r\nSU Crew: Chris 'Hateful' Jenkins, John Cook, Pete Gerrard, Phillip 'Mein Gott' Fisch, Ian 'Indie' Watson\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jim 'Trivia' Owens\r\nAd Production: Jo 'Titters' Gleissner\r\nMarketing Department: Sarah 'Blondie' Ewing, Sarah 'Helpful' Hillard\r\nPublisher: Graham 'Slasher' Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry 'Huggy' Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1991 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION: BBC FRONTLINE\r\nSU SUBSCRIPTIONS: [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by Garthtype Laser hooked up to Richardson PR407 Iron Lung. Colour work by Proprint, B&W filming by PRS.\r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system or I'll make you wash your face in my sick (or sink).\r\n\r\nAndrea's going on holday next week and it's been unbearable. She's been strutting around in the office, dressed in her ski suit and making Whooosh! noises as she jumps down the stairs. I wouldn't mind so much, but she's only going off to Clacton with her mum and her strange cousin Claude who wears Coke bottle glasses and has a respiratory problem - he's still breathing!"},"MainText":"Label: Mastertronic Plus\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nProgram By: Random Access\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nIt's a stonkler, there's no doubt - you should be grateful to alive in a world where games like Silkworm cost only £2.99 (if you have the patience to wait for them to turn up on budget).\r\n\r\nA horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up par excellence, Silkworm takes place in a world where nuclear weapons have been banned - which means that the conventional ones have become bigger, better and nastier. But this is not enough to make the commanders of the One Continent Alliance happy - they want an excuse to try out their toys (whoops, bit of politics there!)\r\n\r\nPiloting an advanced helicopter (or ground attack vehicle, or both on two-player mode) your task is to smash the warmongers once and for all.\r\n\r\nThere's a time limit to complete each level, and time remaining at the end of a level is converted into Hero Points. Your chopper (fnar!) fires downwards and forwards: landmines, when shot, release a cloud of plasma. Fly into it, and it acts as a shield for a short period. If there are two clouds on screen, collect the first and shoot the second to create a smartbomb effect - very logical and realistic. I'm sure.\r\n\r\nYou'll enjoy shooting bits off the gooseneck helicopters, which fly onto the screen in sections and assemble themselves: and even more laughs are to be had with the giant helicopters and tanks which are the true end-of-level nasties.\r\n\r\nIt has to be said that Silkworm's graphics are more exciting than its gameplay, but if you like the things you're blasting to look pretty, at budget price this is one you really shouldn't miss.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Wipe down your giant chopper (oo-er) and prepare for a blast which will really take it out of you. A classic of its time!","Page":"34,35","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Here are the latest publicity shots for Fly/Drive holidays in Kuwait. They're popular, but not as popular as Silkworm's left to right classic arcade coin-op conversion. Tally Hoooooooooooooooooooo!"},{"Text":"There's nothing that can be said of Silkworm even nowadays that can belittle the fact that it's a super duper shooter!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"82%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"92%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 119, Jan 1992","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-12-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Commander Coloninabadway\r\nDesign: Captain Ooneneeky Cheeky\r\nSoftware Editor: Star Commander Angus Headrush\r\nAdditional Design: Earthling Jane Davies\r\nSU Crew: Garth 'Lost in Space' Sumpter, John 'Bad Boy' Cook, Alan 'Space Cruiser' Dykes, Pete 'Astro' Gerrard, Yvette 'Brightstar' Nichols, Phillip 'Black Hole' Fisch\r\nAd Manager: Jerry 'Astonomical' Hall\r\nAd Production: Jo 'Venus' Gleissner\r\nMarketing Man.: Mark 'Starman' Swallow\r\nMarketing Women: Sarah Ewing, Sarah Hillard\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1991 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nColour by Proprint\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher\r\n\r\nIncidentally, just before Garth disappeared into a spaceship, he said that he would always believe in Santa and wished all the readers (including his mum and dad) merry Christmas and the rest of the Crew wished a merry Christmas to mum and dads everywhere, without whom, nothing would be possible! Would it?"},"MainText":"Label: Tronix\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £3.99\r\nReviewer: Big Al Dykes\r\n\r\nTake one helicopter and a jeep, mix in a truckload of fast and furious enemies and what do you get?\r\n\r\n(A rather strange car full of Arsenal and Tottenham supporters and one huge fan on the roof - Ed)\r\n\r\nNo, actually it's Silkworm.\r\n\r\nA stonking good shoot 'em up that stands the test of time well, Silkworm takes place in a futuristic nuclear free zone where XR3is and SRis are longer in vogue and jeep mounted blasters and helicopter mounted blazers are all the rage. The Jeep can shoot in two directions, forward and above. The helicopter has a similar spec except it's angled cannon shoots downwards.\r\n\r\nThe action is fast and furious. In two player mode one person controls the chopper and the other the Jeep. In single player mode it plays like lightning. The graphics are well drawn and although the sound isn't Jean Micheal Jarre, the sheer blast 'em up quality of Silkworm makes it well worth a look at.","ReviewerComments":["Silkworm is a fabulous shoot 'em up - even without the Tottenham supporters.\r\nGarth Sumpter"],"OverallSummary":"Pure shoot 'em up action in land or airborne form. A very fast shoot 'em up with lots of action and lastability. You won't put it down 'till you've finished.","Page":"40","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Alan Dykes","Score":"83","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Garth Sumpter","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"It's gripping Hell! Jeep big bang sort of stuff."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"83%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 93, Jul 1989","Price":"£1.2","ReleaseDate":"1989-06-16","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nDeputy Editor: Julian Rignall\r\nArt Editor: Andrea Walker\r\nStaff Writer: Paul Glancey\r\nAdvertising Manager: Nigel Taylor\r\nSales Executive: Joanna Cooke\r\nProduction Assistant: Glenys Powell\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\nThis Month's Cover: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries to: EMAP Frontline, [redacted]\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]"},"MainText":"Amiga, ST, Spectrum\r\nSpectrum £9.99, ST/Amiga £19.99\r\n\r\nWa-hey! It's wartime again, and as usual, you're in the thick of things, piloting your supercharged helicopter over land and scrolling sea towards the enemy's favorite nuclear reactor which you have to blow up. Luckily, you can bring a friend along, and while you tear through the sky, he chugs along the ground in a jumping jeep.\r\n\r\nBoth vehicles are armed with an unlimited supply of missiles (Silkworms?) which fire two at a time. As well as the usual forward fire, the helicopter simultaneously launches a rocket diagonally downward, and the jeep has a directable launcher in the back.\r\n\r\nThis being one of those \"you against unassailable odds\" sort of games, you and your jeepster chum are joined by the entire enemy air force as well as much of their armored ground forces. All sorts of weird and wonderful whirlybirds swoop about the airways launching heat-seekers at you, and on later levels jet fighters zoom at you out of a clear sky. Providing extra grief are goosecopters, which fly onto the screen piece by piece and can only be shot by dodging under the \"head\" and firing at the \"neck\". Pretty tricky when the sky is full of missiles which are locked onto your bum! If you manage to shoot the goosecopter it leaves behind an extra weapon - double firepower, speed ups, rapid fire the usual stuff.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, on the ground there are tanks, missile carriers which fire eight shots simultaneously, rocket launching robots, SAM sites and underground missile silos which fires ICBMs at you. The jeep is caused particular problems by land mines, but if the helicopter shoots them, they turn into sparkly clouds providing an energy shield for whoever picks them up. Shoot the cloud or pick it up when you already have a shield and KABOOMA! - it becomes a smart bomb.\r\n\r\nActually, it's loud noises like this that make the Amiga version really worth playing. Shooting anything produces the kind of sound effects that induce shell shock in the dog and give flashbacks to TV Vietnam veterans. Turn up the volume and the neighbours will think you're re-filming Apocalypse Now in your bedroom.\r\n\r\nGraphics are equally slick - super smooth parallax scrolling and loads of neatly detailed sprites. I mean, the jeep even leaves a cloud of dust when it jumps for goodness sake! Even when the screen is packed out with pursuing rockets there's no loss of speed or smoothness.\r\n\r\nSurprisingly enough, gameplay lives up to the presentation. A three-credits system should let any experienced blaster should through the first few levels without too much trouble, but after that things get very fast and furious. You can be dodging several homing missiles at once, blasting helicopters and watching squadrons of jets taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the distance. \"Action-packed\" is a very applicable term and if Silkworm doesn't quicken your pulse, you must be in a coma.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Obviously lacks some of the visual and audio wonderments of the 16 bit versions, but the Spectrum version is a nonetheless a very playable and addictive blast.","Page":"36","Denied":false,"Award":"C+VG Hit","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Glancey","Score":"80","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Noisy, fast and colourful blasting fun."},{"Text":"Shades of Apocalypse Now."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"AMIGA SCORES\r\n\r\nGraphics: 88%\r\nSound: 87%\r\nValue: 87%\r\nPlayability: 88%\r\nOverall: 87%\r\n\r\nTremendous sound, super-smooth graphics and fiendishly addictive gameplay puts this amongst the cream of Amiga shoot 'em ups."},{"Text":"ATARI ST SCORES\r\n\r\nOverall: 84%\r\n\r\nLacks the explosive sound effects of the Amiga version, and it's not quite as smooth, but the gameplay is just as good."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"80%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 113, Apr 1991","Price":"£1.3","ReleaseDate":"1991-03-16","Editor":"Julian Rignall","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Julian Rignall\r\nAssociate Editor: Paul Glancey\r\nArt Editor: Jon Billington\r\nStaff Writers: Richard Leadbetter, Robert Swan\r\nDebonair Advertisement Manager: Nigel Taylor\r\nTough-Talking Deputy Advertisement Manager: Martha Moloughney\r\nAmiable Sales Exec: Alan Dykes\r\nBeautiful Production Assistant: Emma Sadler\r\nWicked Publisher: Graham \"Nyee-hahaha!\" Taylor\r\nStunt Double For Miss Moloughney: Ruby Wax\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: C+VG Subscriptions, [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]. Look! No more calls asked for tips, OK?\r\n\r\nPrinted By: Kingfisher Web, [redacted]\r\nColour By: The lovely Proprint people of [redacted]\r\nTypeset By: Your knackered editor. I thank you.\r\nDistributed By: BBC Frontline\r\n\r\n©Computer And Video Games\r\n1991 ISSN No: 0261-3697"},"MainText":"Mastertronic\r\nSpectrum £2.99\r\n\r\nA 'copter and an armoured jeep against the rest of the world is the setting for this brill conversion of the Tecmo coin-op. Neat graphics and a highly addictive nature ensure this is a definite must-buy for the magic budget price.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"72","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"88%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"The Games Machine Issue 20, Jul 1989","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1989-06-22","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL OFFICE\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Roger Kean\r\nFeatures Editor: Dominic Handy\r\nStaff Writers: Robin Hogg, Warren Lapworth, Robin Candy, Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistants: Vivien Vickress, Caroline Blake\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Mel Croucher, Jeffrey Davy, Don Hughes, Paul Rigby, Marshal M Rosenthal (USA), John Woods\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT\r\n[redacted]\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSenior Designer: Wayne Allen\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Rob (The Rev) Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nDESIGN\r\nRoger Kean, Mark Kendrick, Melvyn Fisher\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nGroup Advertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Lee Watkins, Wynne Morgan\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by the Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow and on our Apple Macintosh II computers running Quark Xpress, Adobe Illustrator 88 and PhotoMac, output at MBI, [redacted] with systems support from Digital Print Reprographics, [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset [redacted] - a member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution effected 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 TGM. 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 Viv Vickress a line at the PO Box 10 address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into TGM - including written and photographic material, hardware or software - unless it's accompanied by a suitably stamped, addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photographic 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 TGM are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\n©TGM Magazines Ltd, 1989\r\nA Newsfield Publication ISSN 0954-8092\r\n\r\nCover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99\r\nCommodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99\r\n\r\nThis 11-level shoot-'em-up in which an evil dictator is terrifying a peaceful country was well received a couple of issues back. The C64 Silkworm is certainly tough, even seasoned blasters will find the going difficult, but this is a good blast that whilst it suffers slightly from the Commodore's blocky graphics, is very playable. The Spectrum's largely monochrome works well with huge sprites and satisfying explosions, perhaps a touch easier to get through. It's still one of those games to go back to.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"43","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"ATARI ST Overall: 83% TGM017\r\nAMIGA Overall: 86% TGM017"},{"Text":"COMMODORE 64/128\r\n\r\nOverall: 75%"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"77%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 55, Jul 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-06-07","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Kevin Hibbert\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Joe Davies, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Jo Fulton, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Kate Hodges, Duncan MacDonald, Jon North, Rich Pelley, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertising Executive: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nAssistant Publisher: Jane Richardson\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [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":"Silkworm\r\nVirgin\r\n\r\nAn excellent little helicopter shoot-'em-up from last year. Silkworm managed to do just about everything right. Not only were the sprites nice and big (and distinctive - the giant baddie choppers are especially neat) but the plain backgrounds, lovely metallic sound effects (in 128K) and well-paced gameplay made it one of the most entertaining blasts of last year. Nifty two-player mode too, with the second chappy controlling a ground based jeep a la Army Moves.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"33,34,35,36,37","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"EVERY SHOOT-'EM-UP EVER\r\n\r\nHa! You've got to be joking - I started working on it and got up to 150 names - and I was only half way through the poxy thing! Forget it!"},{"Text":"GIANT ALIEN MUTHAS FROM HELL\r\n\r\nA few good end-of-level baddies can make a shoot-'em-up, a lack of them break one. Let's look at a few typical monsters, shall we?\r\n\r\nDominator: Impressive pink mouth affair firmly in the R-Type mould, and nicely animated too - the eyes blink and teeth move. Unfortunately the rest of the game didn't live up to it.\r\n\r\nMr Heli: A giant eye thing with lobster claws - not bad, the grey and yellow graphics don't help it to stand out as much as they might, do they?\r\n\r\nSilkworm: This is the other way to do it - not a giant fixed mass (like the other two) but a moving baddy in the vein of stuff you've already met on that level, but bigger. This super chopper is delightfully guppy-like."},{"Text":"HOW TO DESIGN A SPACESHIP\r\n\r\nWe cant really express how important a good central sprite can be - after all, other sprites may come and go, but you're looking at this one the entire time!\r\n\r\nHalaga: Hmm. Your basic Space Invaders/Galaxians thing - not too impressive, is it?\r\n\r\nSidearms: Anyone able to tell me what's meant to be going on here? It just looks like a bit of a mess to me! Answers on a postcard please.\r\n\r\nDark Fusion: A-ha! Now this is more like it - simple, clean design, easy to see but not too distracting. It's the biz."},{"Text":"SHORTS\r\n\r\nBlimey! Space doesn't go very far when you've got a subject as big as this, eh? So, dotted across the next four pages, we've squeezed some mini (mini) reviews into snazzy white blobs (just like this) - not wham-bam classics, but all good representatives of a type…"},{"Text":"SO, YOU WANNA WRITE A SHOOT-'EM-UP?\r\n\r\nWould you believe it's not as hard as it looks? (Actually, the way loads of people seem to write shoot-'em-ups it doesn't actually look all that hard anyway!) Here are a few of your central ingredients...\r\n\r\nThe Main Spaceship\r\nA little square box thing with another square box on the front will do fine here - nice and simple and to the point. Alternatively you could go the whole hog and stick as many spikey bits as possible all over it so the sprite looks 'interesting' from all angles.\r\n\r\nEnemy Spaceships\r\nNothing wrong with a whole squadron of polo mints zooming through space towards you - after all, it's the cunningness of the attack formations that counts!\r\n\r\nThe Name\r\nSomething gun-like sounds good and hard (say Side Arms or Armalyte) though anything vaguely aggressive-sounding will do (Eliminator, Dominator, Xecutor, H.A.T.E). If you're desperate you can always go the pseudo-scientific route (R-type, P47, Ultima Ratio), opt for an animal name (Salamander, Silkworm) or go for that old standard, the meaningless, vaguely futuristic-sounding word (Triaxos, Xeno, Zynaps, Xarax, Sanxion, Uridium, Xevious). Lots of 'Z's and 'X's are good.\r\n\r\nBackground\r\nNice and complicated is fine - let your imagination go wild. Don't worry about bullets (or even smaller enemy squadrons) getting lost amongst the mass of background detail - you can always pass it off as 'challenging gameplay'.\r\n\r\nCollision Detection\r\nDon't make it too easy for them! It's perfectly all right if any alien coming within inches of the player kills him dead, while he needs to blast baddies six times for any effect to be felt Again, it's all in the cause of challenging gameplay!"},{"Text":"THE FLIP-SCREEN\r\n\r\nNot all that common, but these can work very well indeed - check out Raf Cecco's Cybernoid duo, for instance. The thing seems to be that if you dispense with trying to write decent scrolling routines (since the background doesn't move at all - you simply progress across the screen until you get to the far end, when a new one flashes up with your little ship in its new starting position) you can spend a lot more time making everything else very pretty and colourful and inventive. Thus flip-screen games have some of the best, clearest, most colourful graphics ever seen on the Speccy.\r\n\r\nOn the minus side however there's the disconcerting, disorientating bit where your ship flickers off the right hand side of the screen, only to reappear on the far left of the next one.\r\n\r\nBut they can be incredibly addictive (it's always a temptation to try for 'just one more' screen to see what it looks like) and, in the case of the Cecco games at least, can strike a fine balance between mindless blasting and working out the best route past each new obstacle. They're still pure shoot-'em-ups, but slightly more cerebral ones.\r\n\r\nFlip screen a la NOMAD - no place to run to, no place to hide. (It's a bit like playing Murder In The Dark really.)"},{"Text":"THE HORIZONTAL SCROLLER\r\n\r\nThis is the other main option, and usually a much more sensible way to go about things. Not only is the screen the right shape, but you can have a very complicated and pretty bottom and/or top bit to it (the ground, or the edges of a tunnel, say), while leaving the bulk of the play area relatively free from obstructions. Most the great shoot-'em-ups (but by no means all) are built like this, including the Your Sinclair all-time fave raves like Uridium and R-Type.\r\n\r\nGame over, man! (Well, Game Over II to be precise.)"},{"Text":"THE 'INTO-THE-SCREEN' JOBBIE\r\n\r\nAlthough occasionally attempted with reasonable success by budgeteers like CodeMasters, these often constitute a less than satisfying experience. All too often someone responsible for coin-op licence acquisition will pick out an arcade favourite with a giant hydraulic cabinet - say an Afterburner or Thunder blade - with little thought as to how it's going to translate to the home computer. (Not very well, usually.) Thus most 'into-the-screen' shoot-'em-ups are technically impressive and rather brave attempts to reproduce the thrills and spills of the original, but almost inevitably doomed to failure. Robbed of 3D, moving cabinets, and whizzo graphics, the limitations built into the game become abundantly clear - there's little real feeling of speed (difficult enough to create even with a rolling road as reference point, let alone without one), oodles of almost identical levels and very little to actually do. Boring.\r\n\r\nVideodrome, here we come - it's 'into the screen' time with F-16 Fighting Falcon."},{"Text":"VERTICAL SCROLLERS\r\n\r\nOne obvious option for a shoot-'em-up, and one that's used all over the place, is the vertical scroller. This is where the action is viewed from a God-like perspective above it all, looking down on everything from a distance. The action scrolls up (or on the very odd occasion down) the screen. This has some advantages - it's easy to lay out complicated attack formations and the little spaceships can he the simplest blobby shapes and still function quite well but it can suffer from some rather major flaws too.\r\n\r\nThe first is that the shape of your average TV or monitor is all wrong. Think about it - you're trying to present portrait-shaped action (taller than it is long) on a landscape-shaped screen (wider than it is tall). In a coin-op, which is where 85% of vertical scrollers originate, there's no real problem with this because you can easily build a cabinet with a tall thin screen to contain the action, but in Speccyvision the programmers have to waste large portions of the side of the potential play area to reproduce it Subsequently, all the sprites have to be fairly small to fit in, and on most TVs become next to invisible. You've effectively castrated the game before you've even started.\r\n\r\nThere's one other major problem too - the background. Since most scrolling Speccy games have to be largely monochrome, any sort of backdrop (say a forest which you're flying over) can cause real problems. You'll be safe (but probably rather bored) if the programmer opts for a simple black starfield over which all the sprites will show up well, but anything beyond that courts disaster. All too often overzealous background artists, small sprites, even smaller bullets and the sort of slightly crappy TVs most of us use with our Speccies conspire to render your brand new vertical scroller virtually unplayable. Don't think I've got a total downer on them though - despite all the limitations some of the real classics use this design. Xenon, anybody?\r\n\r\nClear backdrops, that's what vertical scrollers need. (So Gemini Wing's a sorry loser.)"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]