[{"TitleName":"Styx","Publisher":"Bug-Byte Software Ltd","Author":"Matthew Smith","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0004974","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 1, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Bug-Byte, 16K\r\n\r\nYou must move your man through three horizontal areas; top, a simple maze infested with spiders to get to a door into the middle section, which is the river full of pirahnas, and then to the beach, to pass through the lower area where the dead spirits lurk. If you make it through, the exit is guarded by a shrouded figure whose touch is death. It's a simple set up and would not be interesting if it weren't for the fact that it's not easy. The screens are always the same but with more denizens as you go along. Keyboard positions are good, the graphics neat and excellent eight directional movement. No joystick option.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-02-23","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Bug-Byte, 16K\r\n\r\nYou must move your man through three horizontal areas; top, a simple maze infested with spiders to get to a door into the middle section, which is the river full of pirahnas, and then to the beach, to pass through the lower area where the dead spirits lurk. If you make it through, the exit is guarded by a shrouded figure whose touch is death. It's a simple set up and would not be interesting if it weren't for the fact that it's not easy. The screens are always the same but with more denizens as you go along. Keyboard positions are good, the graphics neat and excellent eight directional movement. No joystick option.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"52","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 3, Apr 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-03-16","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":128,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Plymouth Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\nAdditional setting and process work by The Tortoise Shell Press, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Bug-Byte, 16K\r\n\r\nYou must move your man through three horizontal areas; top, a simple maze infested with spiders to get to a door into the middle section, which is the river full of pirahnas, and then to the beach, to pass through the lower area where the dead spirits lurk. If you make it through, the exit is guarded by a shrouded figure whose touch is death. It's a simple set up and would not be interesting if it weren't for the fact that it's not easy. The screens are always the same but with more denizens as you go along. Keyboard positions are good, the graphics neat and excellent eight directional movement. No joystick option.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"69","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 20, Nov 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-10-20","Editor":"Nigel Clark","TotalPages":164,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nDeputy Editor: Nicole Segre\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nSoftware Editor: John Gilbert\r\nProgram Reviewer: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Brian King\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nSales Executive: Annette Burrows\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nAll departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to any of the Sinclair User group of publications please send programs, articles or ideas for hardware projects to:\r\nSinclair User and Programs\r\nECC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1983\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Photograph: Peter Dawney"},"MainText":"SUFFERING IN THE STYX\r\n\r\nEmerging from the perils of Styx unscathed is not easy. A three-level arcade/adventure game for the 16K Spectrum, it has a spider-filled maze at the top of the screen, a piranha-infested river fringed with deadly seaweed in the middle, and infernal regions haunted by an evil, shrouded figure at the bottom. All you have on your side are fast fingers and your laser power. Nevertheless, a reasonably lively game, if you do not let the piranhas get you down. Styx can be obtained from Bug-Byte, [redacted].","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"40","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Computer Issue 11, Nov 1983","Price":"£0.8","ReleaseDate":"1983-10-20","Editor":"Toby Wolpe","TotalPages":292,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nStaff Writer: Simon Beesley\r\nProduction Editor: Ian Vallely\r\nSub-Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Dawson\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Bill Ardley, Nigel Borrell, Julian Bidlake\r\nNorthern Office: Ron Southall\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Jeanette Mackrell\r\nClassified: Claire Notley\r\nPublishing Director: Chris Hipwell\r\n\r\n©Business Press International Ltd 1983\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £10.50 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\nPrinted in Great Britain for the proprietors of Business Press International Ltd, [redacted].\r\nISSN 0263-0885\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted], and typeset by Instep Ltd, [redacted]"},"MainText":"NO OTHER MICRO HAS THE SOFTWARE BACK-UP OF SINCLAIR'S SPECTRUM. PETE CONNORS PLOUGHS HIS WAY THROUGH SOME OF IT FROM GRAPPLING WITH EVIL MAZIACS TO HELPING CHARLIE THE CHEF.\r\n\r\nEvery software house, from the giants to the leprechauns, seems to have programmers chained to terminals, frantically churning out products for the massive Spectrum market. For Spectrum owners the pot of gold under the rainbow is the now huge variety of software available: their only problem is distinguishing the genuine article from the fake.\r\n\r\nOne game you certainly will not need to bite into is Zzoom from Imagine. This is the Real McCoy, a quality arcade-style game of skill and destruction in the comfort of your own armchair. The game starts with the Dambusters theme tune, enough on its own to make you start twirling imaginary handlebar moustaches and warn Ginger about the bandits at 4 o'clock. You find yourself in command of an aeroplane whose gunsights appear on the screen; also displayed are a dibar to show your relation to the ground and a long-range scanner.\r\n\r\nBefore you have time to think, hostile aircraft are approaching from the east; they speed in and suddenly, unexpectedly, wheel 90° towards you, presenting the slightest of targets for your cannon. Those earthbound refuges you are trying to protect do not have much of a chance. Poor blighters, I wish I could have done more to help. After the waves of planes, the landscape changes. Now its the desert, complete with palm trees. Over the horizon come battalions of tanks. More skill is now required, as you have to dive low enough to shoot your earthbound adversaries without crashing to your doom.\r\n\r\nAfter the desert - the sea, with enemy destroyers trying to blast the refugees' lifeboats. The standard of graphic display and excitement combine to make Zzoom a most exciting game, one that has deservedly become a micro-classic.\r\n\r\nDK'tronics, though, has produced a game which could rival Zzoom's popularity. Maziacs may seem, initially, to be just another maze-game. In fact, it has subtle qualities which make it one of the best available in this genre. The scenario is familiar: you must get through the maze, collect the treasure and get out. You can ask the way from prisoners, and pick up swords to combat the maziacs.\r\n\r\nWhat lifts Maniacs above the common land is its graphic sophistication. The monsters are the most grotesque I have ever seen on a micro; nightmarish squatting creatures, all legs and jaws who enjoy nothing more than gobbling you up. The prisoners are sad creatures, writhing in their shackles inside blue circles. One feels great pity for them but, sadly, one can do nothing to help. And you, the brave treasure-hunter, are a perky little fellow with a jaunty rhythmic step. You are never downhearted and your jubilation when you have destroyed a marine is quite heart-warming. These qualities give Maniacs that something extra, and make it a very compulsive game.\r\n\r\nBest of the other offerings from DK is Hard Cheese, in which you have to eat your way round the board, creating your own maze, in order to get at the cheese in the middle. Naturally, you are pursued by monsters. Naturally you can shoot these monsters, but this is not so easy as they move very quickly and you must replenish your energy. Again the graphics are of a high standard, and Hard Cheese is almost, but not quite, as compulsive as Maziacs.\r\n\r\nIn comparison, DK's Road Toad and Jawz are rather dull.\r\n\r\nThe first needs no introduction and is as expected; though the graphics are, perhaps, a little clearer than usual, and the tankers are truly fearsome. Jawz is a disappointment; here you are underwater, firing at Sharks and Jellyfish. It is quite tricky to hit them as you have two cannons converging from either side of your control. Otherwise the game is low on interest.\r\n\r\nUltimate Play the Game has a reputation for quality software, and it does not besmirch it with Cookie and Tranzam. Cookie has one of the wackiest situations for a long time; Charlie Chef's ingredients have escaped from the pantry-yard and he must recapture them by dazing them with flour bombs and knocking them into his mixing bowl. As well as the runaways Crafty Cheese and Colonel Custard there are nasties such as Wally Washer and Terry Tack. Crazy, but true. The graphics are very good and Charlie is a sympathetic little figure in his white chef's hat.\r\n\r\nIt is very difficult to avoid the nasties; if they get you, you end up in a dustbin. Cookie is a witty and enjoyable game, but one which you might do well to use a joystick for. Tranzam is set in the year 3474; it is your Red Racer versus the Deadly Black Turbos in the search for the Eight Great Cups of Ultimate. The screen displays a barren landscape where the only land-marks are cacti and petrol stations. You guide your car around looking for the cups, while trying to avoid your enemies and the obstacles. This is a tricky business if you are doing 400 mph and steering on the keyboard; again, a joystick would be useful. Tranzam is an exciting game which gives a taste of the Mad Max experience.\r\n\r\nGAME OR BLURB?\r\n\r\nAnd so to Quicksilva. Do people buy their programs for the game or the blurb? Aquaplane's scenario begins \"The contrasting blues of sea and sky provide a perfect backdrop as I relax with a Pernod and lemonade...\" and goes on in the same vein for two sides of packaging. Indeed, Aquaplane's sea and sky are very blue, suggestive of hot Mediterranean summers. And, the game is very good. There you are, out for a bit of water-skiing, when the speedboat goes bananas. You are being pulled away to almost certain death.\r\n\r\nRocks, driftwood, tacking yachts, cruisers piloted by drunken play-boys, snapping sharks; get through all those and you have mastered the game. Aquaplane is made more intriguing because, as the boat accelerates, you are pulled to one side or another, thus increasing the risk of meeting a sticky end on a piece of driftwood. The graphics, too, are very colourful and realistic. Aquaplane is a highly entertaining game - almost as good as the blurb.\r\n\r\nOn the subject of watery graves, Bug-Byte has Aquarius \"an underwater espionage game\". As commander of a frogman team you must destroy the bombs planted by an enemy nation. Problems you will encounter are sharks and electrifying jellyfish. Your oxygen will run out and must be replenished by collecting fresh tanks from the sea-floor. While the undersea world is fairly convincing and the sound effects are genuinely squelchy, Aquarius is not a very exciting game, lacking the speed and variety top-class programmes.\r\n\r\nENCOUNTER WITH THE DARK ONE\r\n\r\nIn Styx, also from Bug-Byte, you are supposed to be battling your way across the mythological river to Hades \"towards an encounter with the Dark One himself\". In fact, it is a rather boring maze game, where the \"deadly spiders\" look like bits of dried grass and the Piranhas - did you know there were Piranhas in the Styx? - are most unconvincing. If they have micros in Hades as well they may well be playing Pool, another Bug-Byte game. The graphics are much better than Styx; a bright green for the baize and red for the bolls. Curiously, the object balls are all the same colour. Control is straightforward, using the cursor keys.\r\n\r\nBut perhaps these denizens of Hades might prefer CDS Micro Systems' Pool. I know I do, if only because the object balls are divided into blue and red. Otherwise, it is much the same as Bug-Byte's version, easy to control and pleasant to look at. Both programs are for one or two players.\r\n\r\nPurer pleasures of the mind are entered for by Artic's Chess Tutor. The novelty of this program is that it not only plays chess - at three levels - but takes the beginner through three different opening variations; King's Indian, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Dragon. There is also a section which demonstrates the moves of each piece.\r\n\r\nThis is indeed very useful and would be suitable for the absolute beginner. Unfortunately the board is none too clear, as the white pieces do not show up well on the light squares.\r\n\r\nAs a game chess is not in much danger of being overtaken by any of three new programs consisting of logical board games: Hanoi King from Contrast Software, Lojix from Virgin and 3-D Strategy from Quicksilva.\r\n\r\nIn the first of them you have three pillars on which are a series of rings. You have to transfer them to the third so that they are in the same order, moving only one ring at a time ind without placing a larger on top of a smaller ring. It sounds easy, and with only three or four rings, it is. More than that and it can become fiendishly difficult.\r\n\r\nLojix is a game in which you have to fit 18 irregularly shaped pieces onto a board. A sort if fiendish jigsaw puzzle, it is difficult and interesting. Virgin is offering a cash prize for the first correct solution.\r\n\r\n3-D Strategy is billed as \"a multi-dimensional mind game\". It is 3-D noughts and crosses on a 4 by 4 by 4 cube. After 3-D chess Mr Spock might not have much trouble with his, but ordinary earthlings will find it very hard to beat. Despite being essentially simple ideas, all three of these games are well produced and will provide hours of entertainment for the puzzle happy.\r\n\r\nPerhaps the most interesting new program for the Spectrum is The Forest, from Phipps Associates. This is a complex simulation of orienteering, the sport in which you have to follow a course over difficult terrain using only map and compass. The program comes with a beautifully printed orienteering map ind a long, but clear, explanatory booklet. The screen displays various topographical features and, using the map, you have to negotiate the course.\r\n\r\nThus, The Forest is not merely a game, but an help introduce people to map-making and the relation between maps and the physical features they represent. As the program notes say, this program will be of particular interest to students and teachers of geography as well as armchair orienteerers.\r\n\r\nPlunder is a strategy game from Cases Computer Simulations. Set in 1587, the year before the Spanish Armada set sail, the game gives you the opportunity to be an English privateer whose task is to prevent gold from the New World getting back to Spain. You must also be more successful than your deadly rival Sir Francis Drake. There is more to this than mere yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum; you must weigh up the chances of success in taking on merchant, troop and warships. Too much damage or too many lost crew and the game is up; it's Davy Jones' locker for you.\r\n\r\nCamelot, an adventure-game from the same company, is not quite so good. As Arthur Pendragon you have been banished from Camelot by the Black Knight. Understandably you want to get back; who knows what Lancelot and Guinevere are up to round the Round Table? You have some warriors and money to help you find the necessary seven items. There are graphic displays of landscapes and obstacles, unfortunately rather crude. The \"evil magician\" looks rather like a conjurer at a children's party.\r\n\r\nThose Spectrum owners keen to develop the machine's graphics potential should look at Melbourne House's 48K Melbourne Draw. This program will take you on a tour of the Spectrum's graphics, allowing you to choose colours, draw, and store graphic displays.\r\n\r\nOnce you have drawn your picture, you might want to make it say something, in which case you are referred to Abbex's Supertalk which, with no extra hardware, will enable your Spectrum to speak. The demo facility lets you hear Supertalk's Dalek-style voice exercising its small vocabulary. To enter your own vocabulary you record the words on tape and then feed them in, afterwards adjusting them to make sentences. First \"Jolson Sings!\" now \"Spectrum Talks\".\r\n\r\nProgram: Aquarius\r\nCompany: Bug-Byte\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Styx\r\nCompany: Bug-Byte\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Pool\r\nCompany: Bug-Byte\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Pool\r\nCompany: CDS Microsystems\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Jawz\r\nCompany: DK'Tronics\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Hard Cheese\r\nCompany: DK'Tronics\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Road Toad\r\nCompany: DK'Tronics\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Maziacs\r\nCompany: DK'Tronics\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\n\r\nProgram: 3-D Strategy\r\nCompany: Quicksilva\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Aquaplane\r\nCompany: Quicksilva\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\n\r\nProgram: The Forest\r\nCompany: Phipps Associates\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £9.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Lojix\r\nCompany: Virgin Games\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £7.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Plunder\r\nCompany: Cases Computer Simulations\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £6.00\r\n\r\nProgram: Camelot\r\nCompany: Cases Computer Simulations\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £5.00\r\n\r\nProgram: Hanoi King\r\nCompany: Contrast Software\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Melbourne Draw\r\nCompany: Melbourne House\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Supertalk\r\nCompany: Abbex\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Chess Tutor\r\nCompany: Artic Computing Ltd\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\n\r\nProgram: Zzoom\r\nCompany: Imagine Software\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £5.50\r\n\r\nProgram: Tranzam\r\nCompany: Ultimate Play the Game\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £5.50\r\n\r\nProgram: Cookie\r\nCompany: Ultimate Play the Game\r\nMemory: 16/48K\r\nPrice: £5.50","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"82,83,85","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Peter Connor","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 21, Jul 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-06-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":156,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nStaff Writer: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nReader Services: Robert Schifreen\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAdvertising Executives: Louise Matthews, Mick Cassall\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Louise Flockhart\r\nPublisher: Tom Moloney\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £10.00, Overseas surface mail: £12.00, Airmail Europe: £20.00. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Computer & Video Games Limited ISSN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover: David Scutt\r\nNext Issue: July 16th"},"MainText":"SPECTRUM GETS THE BIG VOTE\r\n\r\nWill she won't she? That's the question being debated over lunch, dinner and tea at Westminster as 635 MPs try to work out when Maggie will call the General Election.\r\n\r\nSome say June, some September, and others believe she'll hang on to the New Year.\r\n\r\nWhenever she does decide to go to the country one thing is clear. Spectrum owners will be ready for her.\r\n\r\nThis latest game for the Sinclair machine enables you to experience some of the excitement of the great contest in your own home.\r\n\r\nChoose your favourite party - either Labour, Conservative, SDP, or Liberal. Communists, Ecologists, and Official Raving Loonatics need not apply. Once you have picked your party you are ready to play this computerised board game.\r\n\r\nAs you move around the board you land on squares which represent key constituencies in the provinces. Depending on how you place the important issues in order of priority the seat will be won or lost - with the computer measuring your answers against the correct formula stored in its memory.\r\n\r\nTo help you plan strategy the computer also has a series of opinion polls and charts which can be called up to show you your standing with the electorate.\r\n\r\nGeneral Election runs on the 48K machine and is available from Bug Byte of Liverpool at £6.95.\r\n\r\nIf taking on the Iron Lady in a tussle at the polls is not enough excitement for you then Bug Byte's other Spectrum release this month will take you to hell and back.\r\n\r\nStyx challenges you to get safely across the river of the underworld, rendevous with a mysterious monk, and get back across the river again. As you travel you will have to do battle a with monsters of land and sea. The games runs on the 16 or 48K machine and is in the shops now at £5.95.\r\n\r\nAlso in the Liverpool pipeline is a new game for the Spectrum called Manic Miner, Spectrum Pool, and an original game for the BBC 32K called Sea Lord.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"16","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 23, Aug 1983","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1983-08-18","Editor":"Cyndy Miles","TotalPages":90,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nAssistant Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nProduction Editor: Keith Parish\r\nManaging Editor: Peter Worlock\r\nSub-Editor: John Lettice\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writers: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard King\r\nSoftware Editor: Shirley Fawcett\r\nHardware Editor: Max Phillips\r\nPeripherals Editor: Ian Scales\r\nListings Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditor's Assistant: Harriet Arnold\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Robinson\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Floyd Sayers\r\nArt Assistant: Dolores Fairman\r\nPublisher: Fiona Collier\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nPublishing Assistant: Jane Green\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nAdvertisement Director: John Cade\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Sue Hunter\r\nSales Executives: Robert Stallibrass, Matthew Parrot, Bettina Williams, Ian Whorley, Sarah Barron, Christian McCarthy\r\nProduction Manager: Eva Wroblewska\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper\r\n\r\nCover photo by Pete Smith"},"MainText":"NAME: Styx\r\nSYSTEM: 16/48K Spectrum\r\nPRICE: £5.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Bug-Byte, [redacted]\r\nFORMAT: Cassette\r\nLANGUAGE: Machine code\r\nOTHER VERSIONS: None\r\nOUTLETS: High street dealers\r\n\r\nSTYX AND BONES\r\n\r\nThis game is based on that cheerful belief that on dying we must cross the River Styx to reach Hades. But first you must negotiate a maze full of spiders before plunging into the river, swimming across, and finally facing an encounter with the Grim Reaper himself.\r\n\r\nTo help you in all this you have a laser gun, which is conveniently waterproof but only has a limited amount of ammunition. This is fired using any key on the bottom row, with Q, A, O and P controlling the little man.\r\n\r\nStyx is a game for one player, and the fact that you're provided with three lives does seem to be rather cheating under the circumstances.\r\n\r\nIN PLAY\r\n\r\nAlthough Styx is in three phases, they all lead into one another. The top third of the screen is the maze, which has an exit leading down into the river that flows acrOss the middle, and this in turn has an exit into the underworld at the bottom.\r\n\r\nThe maze is filled with spiders which emanate from a mother-spider who sits in the top right-hand corner. They're not intelligent enough to come after you, but they do get in the way. Shooting the mother-spider seems rather cruel to me, but doing so will recharge your laser (don't ask me how).\r\n\r\nIt took only about half a dozen attempts to master this section and get to the river below.\r\n\r\nYou have to swim the length of this to get to the beaching point. The piranha fish are harder to get past as they move up and down as well, and you also have to avoid getting caught in the weeds at the bottom of the river.\r\n\r\nWhy anyone should go to so much trouble to meet the man in the black hood I don't know.\r\n\r\nThe final part of the journey provides no challenge, as long as there are bullets in your gun, because there's a recess where you can hide until the four Spirits of the Dead pass in front of you. Then it's across to the man in black, and provided you can avoid his outstretched hand you can then send him off to meet his own maker, whoever that might be.\r\n\r\nVERDICT\r\n\r\nAlthough the idea and the graphics are quite good, and the responses are quick, the game itself doesn't really come off. While getting through the entire sequence is by no means easy, once you've done it a few times there's nothing much left.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"48","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Gerrard","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Lasting Appeal","Score":"2/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Use Of Machine","Score":"2/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"2/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]