[{"TitleName":"Street Sports Basketball","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Dave Worton, James Bagley","YearOfRelease":"1988","ZxDbId":"0004942","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 54, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-30","Editor":"Steve Jarratt","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Steven Jarratt\r\nDeputy Editor: Dominic Handy\r\nAssistant Editor: Katharina Hamza\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Philip King, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nTechnical Writers: Jon Bates, Simon N Goodwin\r\nEditorial Assistant: Frances Mable\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Raffaele Cecco, Mel Croucher, Paul Evans, Philippa Irving, Brendon Kavanagh, Paul Sumner\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nAssistant Art Director: Wayne Allen\r\nDesign & Layout: Yvonne Priest, Melvyn Fisher\r\nPre-Print Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics/Film Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard, Ian Chubb, Robert Millichamp\r\n\r\nPublishing Controller: David Western\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nSales Executive: Andrew Smales, Sarah Chapman\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group. Distribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop Frances Mable a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\nTotal: 96,590\r\nUK/EIRE: 90,822\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1988\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Epyx/US Gold\r\nRetail Price: £8.99 cassette, £12.99 disk\r\nAuthor: J Bagley and D Worton\r\n\r\nForget official tournaments, professional teams and airconditioned arenas - real basketball is played in the streets. All you need is a ball, a makeshift court and a couple of teams...\r\n\r\nYou can choose from a selection of four courts, including a playground, alley, suburban street and parking lot. A human or computer opponent (with three skill levels: easy, intermediate and tough) is selected. Team names are chosen and a coin is spun to determine who gets to select a team first. Three players, recruited from a gang of ten streetwise kids (each with their own abilities) make up each side.\r\n\r\nThe scene then switches to the horizontally scrolling court itself. Still portraits of each team member are depicted at the side of the screen, and one player is controlled at a time. Should the ball move out of his reach, control of another team member is assumed by pressing fire.\r\n\r\nVarious offensive moves can be performed: dribble, hook shot, slam dunk and jump shot. Running head-on into an opposition player dribbling the ball transfers possession. Pressing fire while facing one of your team-members initiates a pass. To shoot, a player needs to be in the correct position, facing the basket. At a press of the fire button he (or she) attempts the most appropriate type of shot, and the current score is displayed at the base of the screen.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: well drawn, transparent characters and colourful backgrounds\r\nSound: lacking in all respects\r\nOptions: one or two players, definable keys","ReviewerComments":["Epyx has a reputation for excellent presentation and Street Sports Basketball matches up to expectation. The elaborate selection process, the spinning coin and the streetwise players create an atmospheric urban environment. Unfortunately the basketball lets it down. Control is extremely awkward: instead of automatically playing the team member that's nearest the ball, you have to toggle between the characters highlighted on the screen display, which is clumsy and time-consuming. The teams and characters are hard to distinguish on court; identifying your players is a matter of trial and error. This isn't so bad when there are two players but in terms of fluidity the game still leaves something to be desired. If you're after a really good sports simulation look elsewhere.\r\nKati Hamza\r\n56%","Streets Sports Basketball looked promising with its array of options, but the game itself has turned out to be pretty tedious. One of the main problems is the awful control method, where instead of control automatically passing to the nearest player to the ball, Match Day-style, you choose control of each player individually. This can lead to annoying mix-ups. Even when the control method is mastered, gameplay is very dull: scoring is simply a matter of running up to the basket and shooting when underneath it. Both teams are black and white making it difficult to tell whose side a player is on, the animation is very jerky, and sound virtually non-existent. Overall it's a pretty poor version of the sport.\r\nPhil King\r\n48%","Hot on the heels of Basket Master a couple of issues back, comes another dose of Harlem Globetrotteritus in the shape of this mediocre basketball game from the Epyx stable. I found the presentation of the option screen to be good, but was not askeen on the actual gameplay. The main character sprites look and move like cardboard cut-outs; if this is indicative of the state of health of the kids who play Street Sports Basketball, I'm certainty glad that I'm an armchair sportsman. Not that I'll find myself coming back to it very much in the future, since the gameplay is far too easy. I'm afraid to say that Street Sports Basketball is a game to be missed.\r\nMark Caswell\r\n46%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Initially exciting, but the game lacks all of the presentation's sparkle - real fans will be disappointed.","Page":"85","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Kati Hamza","Score":"56","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Phil King","Score":"48","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"46","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Come on girl, I thought this was basketball not football."},{"Text":"They don't call him Cameron 'stretch' Pound for nothing."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"72%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"57%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"49%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"45%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"49%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 32, Aug 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-07-12","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nProduction Editors: Jackie Ryan, Sophie Moorcock\r\nDesigner: Catherine Higgs\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Owen & Audrey Bishop, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Mike Gerrard, Sean Kelly, Graeme Kidd, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, John Minson, Nat Pryce, Peter Shaw, Ben Stone\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nArt Director: Hazel Bennington\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"US Gold\r\n£8.99\r\nReviewer: Jonathan Davies\r\n\r\nIf phrases such as 'slam it through,' 'slow dribblers,' and 'pop 'em from the corners,\" mean anything to you, then you'd probably be better qualified to review this game than me. I'm afraid that corpuscle redistribution is more in my line, but I'll give anything a go.\r\n\r\nStreet Sports Basketball puts you in the dubious position of having control over a team of, ...yes, basketball players. Only three, admittedly, but we all have to start somewhere. Your side is picked from a selection of ten possibilities, none of whom I'd want to be seen with in public. Then either another player or the computer goes through the same ordeal to select the opposing team.\r\n\r\nHaving done this, and named the teams, you're now almost ready to start. But wait for it... you've still got to decide where to play. You can choose between such picturesque locations as the school playground, a back alley, a street out in the suburbs and even, for those romantic, poetic moments, a parking lot.\r\n\r\nBy the time you've got to this stage, you'll have endured hours of tape starting, stopping and turning over, some horribly average graphics, a beepy tune and, most stomach-churning of all, the original Sinclair character set! Urgh! And it would only take them 768 bytes to design a new one, he says knowledgeably.\r\n\r\nSadly, things don't improve a lot presentation-wise during the game, either. The players stagger around as if they're recovering from the side-effects of a particularly violent tandoori, none too inspiring when they're just about the only things that move in the whole game. The playing area is a small window in the centre of the screen, hemmed in by some close-ups of your team members, just in case you forget what they look like. That's just what I was trying to do, in fact.\r\n\r\nAnd then we get onto problem number four hundred and sixty two: controlling your players. Rather than adopt the normal method of the guy (or girl, for a change), nearest the ball coming under your control, this game has plumped for a different system, whereby pressing fire flips between your players, unless one of them's got the ball, in which case it'll make him pass or shoot with it. Well I said it was different didn't I?\r\n\r\nHaving sussed that lot out, the next stage is to get hold of the ball. Not easy, I can tell you. Jiggling around next to the bloke you're trying to get it off sometimes works, but it's usually easier to wait till he takes a shot at the basket, invariably misses and lets you grab it. To have a go at shooting yourself (that wasn't meant to come out like that, but I came close at times!), position your player near the basket and press fire. Then it's mainly down to Lady Luck whether it goes in or not.\r\n\r\nWhich leads me (and rather neatly, I think), onto my next point. The main snag is that you simply haven't got a lot of control over what happens. The moves available to you are minimal and ball control is a very hit or miss affair. Compared to the likes of Match Day II with all its subtleties of gameplay, SS Basketball looks pretty poor.\r\n\r\nNo doubt this one will find a home with a select group of basketball fanatics out there, but I'd advise even them to give it a thorough checking out before parting with any of the folding (or jingling if you want to annoy the shopkeeper), stuff.\r\n\r\nIt's tough on the streets, as the bumph points out, especially after its been lying there for a few days (Eh? Ed).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Unimpressive sports sim that won't set your joystick on fire (ouch!), let alone the world.","Page":"67","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jonathan Davies","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 76, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham 'El Presidente' Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nProduction Editor: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nDesigner: Andrea Walker\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nContributors: Tony 'I'm a headbanger' Dillon, Chris 'Leave off my jelly babies' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine Lee\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Margaret 'I'll spell that for you' Caddick-Adams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Alison Morton\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive Pembridge\r\n\r\nPhone: [redacted]\r\nFax: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Bryan Talbot\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1988 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458"},"MainText":"Label: US Gold\r\nAuthor: Jimmy Bagley\r\nPrice: £8.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nYo! Slamdunk! Well crucial! Squoddlyl (I made that one up). All these are things which you might be expected to shout while playing Street Sports Basketball. As I understand it, stealing hubcaps or selling drugs in playgrounds, but Epyx tactfully decided to show them playing basketball instead.\r\n\r\nYou can play against the computer or another human, and the first task is to pick teams. You're shown a motley array of thugs with nicknames like The Slammer, Captain Hook and The Brain. There are even a couple of token girlies to add a bit of variation to the playing styles. Each player has his own characteristics; speed, powerful jumps, accurate passes or whatever; many also have disabilities, like Theo whose peaked cap sometimes slips over his eyes.\r\n\r\nAfter spinning a computerised coin to decide who has first pick, the two players choose three 'dunkers' each. You then get to choose a background; playground, alley, suburban street or parking lot. Once everything has finally loaded - and this is a major three-cups-of-tea business - you can get on with playing the game. At each side of the screen appear the players for each team, while the play area scrolls left to right in the centre of the screen. The backgrounds are nicely detailed, but it doesn't seem to make much difference which one you choose to play against; oil slicks and high curbs are supposed to affect your performance, but I didn't really notice them.\r\n\r\nGameplay is at once simple and complicated, as silly oriental people say. All you have to do is move the chosen player around, blocking your opponent's moves, until it's time to tackle, pass or shoot for the basket, all of which are done by pressing the Fire button. Turning your back on an opponent makes it harder for you to be tackled, and type of shot, jump hook or slam dunk, is chosen automatically. The complicated part is that, unlike other sports simulations, where joystick control automatically passes to the character nearest to the ball, here you have to hold down the Fire button until the player you want to control is highlighted at the side of the screen. The problem is that you tend to forget to do this in the heat of the moment, and assuming that the closest player to the ball is under your control, you zoom off in the wrong direction and leave the mohicaned punk Pogo to slam in another.\r\n\r\nYou can set the number of points needed for a win before the game starts, but there's nothing much else in the way of sophistication, like penalty shots, time outs, fouls, all the little things which make basketball a sport rather than a game. So if it's an accurate simulation you're after, forget it.\r\n\r\nDreadful music and sound effects add nothing to the game. Overall a great deal of effort has gone into adding the illusion of sophistication to something which plays no better than the average budget game.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A flashy program which doesn't satisfy as either a simulation or an arcade exercise.","Page":"64,65","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"60","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"HARVEY\r\nA slow mover, but a wizard at the hook shot.\r\n\r\nBENNY\r\nGood at jump shots, his legs are like springs.\r\n\r\nMELISSA\r\nA fast little mover, oo-er!\r\n\r\nTHEO\r\nQuick and agile, but his cap sometimes slips over his eyes.\r\n\r\nKATHY\r\nHer nickname 'Butterfingers' says it all.\r\n\r\nPEPPER\r\nA hot player with good all-round skills.\r\n\r\nLES\r\nThey call him Captain Hook.\r\n\r\nNORM\r\nThe Brain calculates every shot precisely.\r\n\r\nPOGO\r\nHe's cool under pressure and an accurate shot.\r\n\r\nALVIN\r\nNo superstar, but a good team player."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"59%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"60%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]