[{"TitleName":"Skate or Die","Publisher":"Electronic Arts","Author":"Drew Northcott, Mike Talbot, Richard Cheek, Sarah Day, Tim McCarthy","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0004534","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 64, May 1989","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1989-04-27","Editor":"Stuart Wynne","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Stuart Wynne\r\nAssistant Editor: Phil King\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nContributors: Ian Cull, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Paul Evans, Robin Hogg, Ian Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistants: Caroline Blake, Vivienne Vickress\r\nEditorial Consultant: Dominic Handy\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nSenior Designer/Illustrator: Wayne Allen\r\nDesigners: Melvin Fisher, Yvonne Priest\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nProduction: Robert Hamilton, Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nEditorial Director: Oliver Frey\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nAdvertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nSales Executives: Sarah Chapman, Lee Watkins\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Productions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group. Distribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop the Sticky Solutions Department 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. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1989\r\n\r\nISSN 0954-8661\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Electronic Arts\r\nKinetic Designs\r\n£8.95/£14.95\r\n\r\nDown at the skate park the other day I was really impressing the betties with some kickturns, handplants and ollies. Yep, even if I say so myself, my skating is bio! And if you haven't any idea what I'm on about, then maybe Skate Or Die is for you, teaching you hip skateboarding lingo while you compete in five gruelling events.\r\n\r\nYou start off in a road junction where you pick a multiloaded event to compete by skating down a street, and it's not as easy as it sounds. In the Freestyle event there's a large U-shaped ramp - you have ten passes to pull such rad stunts as Rail Slides, Rock 'n' Rolls and Footplants. Stunts are chosen by moving your joystick in two grey-coloured 'pump zones'and timing is vital. The U-shaped ramp is also used for the High Jump, you have five passes to score a maximum height by pressing fire at the top of your jumps, building up momentum.\r\n\r\nA completely different sort of event is the Downhill Race, here you have a tilted, overhead view of your skater as he zooms down a smoothly-scrolling obstacle course. There's one and a half minutes to jump over, duck under and dodge around all the objects in your path. Or if you'd prefer a bit more violence there's the much tougher Downhill Jam where you race through city backstreets in competition with another skater, controlled either by the computer or another player. If the other guy looks about to overtake you can punch and kick him!\r\n\r\nYet more violence crops up in the Pool Joust where you confront either a friend or one of three computer opponents. The rules are simple: two guys enter the empty pool, and one has five passes to try to knock over his opponent, using a buffing stick (oo-er). The first person to win three bouts is declared the winner - a tough event, but too simple to make you persevere.\r\n\r\nSkate Or Die is an interesting collection of games, most of which are quite playable and enjoyable but none of which really stand out. If you're a skateboarding freak this is good value for money, and even it you're not there is some quite compelling gameplay, but it's not a game I'll be returning to that often.\r\n\r\nMARK 67%","ReviewerComments":["Skate Or Die isn't really much fun at all. The graphics are poorly drawn and badly coloured. Gameplay is limited, either whizzing about in the U-shaped ramp, zooming downhill or suffering the awful Pool Joust. Most of the events are reasonably enjoyable to get to grips with, but addictiveness is low - particularly if you haven't got a disk drive. As for the sound, well if you do actually find any, then congratulations to you - I couldn't! Skate Or Die is unattractive, unaddictive and uninspiring.\r\nMike Dunn\r\n41%"],"OverallSummary":"Poor graphics, no sound and unexciting gameplay won't impress the betties.","Page":"14","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"41","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"67","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Boffing sticks at the ready in the Pool Joust section."},{"Text":"Never mind the betties, you'd better impress the judges with your bio skating."},{"Text":"The contestant comes to grips with the Downhill Section."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"54%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"0%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"53%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"54%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 41, May 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-04-17","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa 'You're Fired' Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Catherine 'Head in Bucket' Higgs\r\nDeputy Editor: Matt 'Hi It's Mattie' Bielby\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie 'I Want It Yesterday' Ryan\r\nStaff Writer: Duncan 'What Time Do You Call This' MacDonald\r\nDesigner: Thor 'No Worries' Goodall\r\nEditorial Assistant: David 'Yo' Wilson\r\nTechnical Consultant: David McCandless\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Sean Kelly, Catherine 'Nosebag' Peters, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Phil South, Ben Stone\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Stephen Bloy\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Katherine Balchin\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\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\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [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":"Electronic Arts\r\n£8.95 cass/£14.95 disk\r\nReviewer: Matt Bielby\r\n\r\nI'm a sausage. There I was, thinking There's something a wee bit odd about the controls on this one matey,' and I was playing in the ridiculously silly 'goofy foot' mode all along. What an embarrassment, eh?\r\n\r\nPerhaps I'd better explain. Skate Or Die is a skateboard sim, and whilst you're groovin' along on your wheels you can execute your moves using two different sets of controls - the 'regular foot' option which means the board goes more or less the way it's meant to, or the 'goofy' one that makes it all a bit more wibbly. This oddity apart, you'll find that this is actually very much along the lines of last year's 720°.\r\n\r\nYou start in Rodney's skate shop where you sign in. Then it's off to the town square where you must choose the event you wish to take part in. Do this by skating down the right path. But beware you don't always end up playing the 'deadly' downhill race which is very easy to select if you're not paying attention.\r\n\r\nYou have a choice between playing the events in a set order, or going to whichever you prefer and plugging away at that. I've outlined the various events in the box to the side, so I won't go into too much more details here, except to say that unlike its rivals this seems to rely more on a sort of violent 'knock the other guy over' gameplay than on executing neat tricks all the time. Should you not have a pal at hand, you can always play the machine which provides three villains - Poseur Pete (he's easy to beat), Aggro Eddie who's a pretty tough customer and shop owner Rodney's little lad, Lester, who's one mean mutha.\r\n\r\nAnd that's basically it really, except to point out Skate Or Die's particular strengths, the biggest of which is the colour - certainly. when compared to the monochrome 720° - it's a riot of seasonal brightness.\r\n\r\nA rather addictive and very playable game then, as these things tend to be, even if it adds nothing to what 720° and the bonza roller-skate game Skate Crazy have done before.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Competent and absorbing new skate sim, but no better than 720° and not as good as Skate Crazy.","Page":"18","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"74","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"THE EVENTS\r\n\r\nTHE DOWNHILL RACE\r\nThis is a basic speed trial, though there are bonuses to be earned for taking the trickier routes - down the tunnel, through the openings and closing gates and so on. Jumps, ducks and sliding turns can be executed, but take some practice. You can play in either 'regular' or 'goofy' foot modes, which is the difference between having approximate control over the board and, erm, having approximately no control over the board.\r\n\r\nTHE FREESTYLE RAMP\r\nComplete trick jumps for points. You make ten passes executing tricks all over the place.\r\n\r\nTHE HIGH JUMP\r\nBuild up speed over a number of runs to make an extra high leap without becoming a cropper. In the YS offices we were all shouting, \"I've got six feet ten inches!,\" \"That's nothing I've got eight feet\" Fnar fnar.\r\n\r\nTHE DOWNHILL JAM\r\nA back streets free-for-all race across various obstacles with an opponent who you have to punch, kick or knock over, and who will stop at nothing to similarly get rid of you. probably the highlight of the game, though I found myself strangely out of control of the character at times.\r\n\r\nTHE POOL JOUST\r\nKnock an opponent off his board taking turns using a sort of paddock stick. You get to take on one of your three opponents, of which 'Lester' is by far the toughest."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"69%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"77%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"73%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"74%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"The Games Machine Issue 18, May 1989","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1989-04-20","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL AND HEAD OFFICE\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Roger Kean\r\nFeatures Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Robin Hogg, Warren Lapworth, Robin Candy\r\nEditorial Assistants: Vivien Vickress, Caroline Blake\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Mel Croucher, Don Hughes, 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 Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nDesign Assistants: Yvonne Priest, Melvin Fisher\r\nProduction Team: Robert Millichamp, Robert Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nADVERTISING AND ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENTS\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nGroup Advertisement Director: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Sarah Chapman, Lee Watkins\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 running Quark Xpress 2.0. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset [redacted] - a member of the BPCC Group. Distribution 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 and Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.95, Diskette: £14.95\r\n\r\nICE COLD AND JAMMIN\r\n\r\nIf you enjoyed the half-pipe freestyle event in Epyx's California Games, Skate Or Die is for you, because it's devoted to that most rad of transports - the skateboard.\r\n\r\nEvent one is similar to the Games one but with more moves available. High Jump also takes place on the half-pipe ramp but altitude is the aim. There's a swift journey through a park in the Downhill, and an equally fast but perhaps dangerous one in the Downhill Jam two-man race. The rivalry gets stronger in Pool Joust, where the two skaters roll around an empty swimming pool and attempt to knock each other over with a 'boffing stick' (oar or paddle).\r\n\r\nReleased a long time ago on the Commodore 64, it's almost as enjoyable now on the Spectrum. While the High Jump's too simple and Pool Joust too tricky and boring, the remaining three events are great fun, particularly with friends.\r\n\r\nMost screens and their elements are black on white, and though things sometimes become a jumble of pixels, the visual elements work reasonably. Sprite movement and scrolling, where used, is adequately done. A fun package of events that's well worth a look.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"64","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Though the rotation method of steering is hard to use at first, you won't need to be threatened into playing Skate Or Die on the Spectrum because it's as jolly as it was on some time ago on the Commodore 64."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"76%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]