[{"TitleName":"Survivor","Publisher":"Topo Soft","Author":"Gominolas, Javier Cano Fuente, Rafael Angel Garcia Cabrera, Rafael Gomez Rodriguez, José María Cañas","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0005081","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 44, Sep 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-08-27","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nAssistant Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Richard Eddy, Lloyd Mangram, Ian Phillipson, Ben Stone\r\nPhotographers: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nOffice: Sally Newman\r\nTechnical Editor: Simon N Goodwin\r\nAdventure: Derek Brewster\r\nPBM: Brendon Kavanagh\r\nStrategy: Philippa Irving\r\nLondon: John Minson\r\nContributors: Jon Bates, Robin Candy, Mike Dunn, Franco Frey, Dominic Handy, Nick Roberts, Mark Rothwell, Paul Sumner\r\nEducational Software: Rosetta McLeod\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrator: Oliver Frey\r\nLayout: Tony Lorton, Mark Kendrick\r\nProcess and Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Jonathan Rignall, Nick Orchard\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1987 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: US Gold\r\nRetail Price: £8.99\r\nAuthor: Topo Soft\r\n\r\nWhile a lone spaceship drifts aimlessly through space, you try in desperation to fulfil your mission: to save your alien race by getting ten pods into the incubators dotted around the ship. But the ship's hundreds of colourful screens are packed with lovable - and some not-so-lovable - aliens.\r\n\r\nBy pressing SPACE you can call up a status mode, which reports on your Force and Attack powers and the number of pods left. If you run low on Force and Attack, they can be topped up by dropping the pods in the incubators or by eating the small engineers who trundle around the ship mending things.\r\n\r\nThe ship consists of 142 areas divided into four zones, which are connected by a network of lifts, doors and air vents. But inside the air vents lurk small flying aliens which can only be dodged by hanging onto the ceiling - just hold tight till the danger has passed.\r\n\r\nOn entering a lift, your alien undergoes a metamorphosis and becomes an array of dots. These dots can be guided up or down to access any level. Once there, a simple left or right movement gets you back to the action.\r\n\r\nPlay techniques include ducking before you jump - this lets you jump higher and avoid awkward jutting obstructions. And your defence methods include spitting paralysing acid.\r\n\r\nBut don't forget: aliens don't like to be provoked!\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: cute and well- defined; colour is used effectively, though there's some clash\r\nSound: beepy FX but a good title tune","ReviewerComments":["The graphics are really good: there's loads of colour and the characters are defined nicely. But I'm simply not impressed by Survivor. There's not enough gameplay, and it grows boring very after the pleasant teleporting effects and the neat presentation, play is a real letdown. Somebody's worked hard at this, but I'm afraid...\r\nMike Dunn\r\n61%","I'm pleasantly surprised by Survivor. There's been no hype, no freebies and no great build-up - so US Gold has actually spent some time creating a decent and playable game. The best thing in Survivor is the astounding graphics. The ship deck is intricately detailed and complemented well by some simple but colourful platform-type graphics. And I loved little features such as spitting acid at the enemy, the Star Trek-like lifts and the babies crawling on the floor. It's very playable, mostly addictive and well worth a fiddle.\r\nPaul Sumner\r\n70%","At first this didn't appeal to me, but after exploring for a while and mastering the controls I'm addicted. The play area is massive and the graphics are top quality, despite some colour clash. There are some neat touches, like teleports and air vents, and the programmers must have a really sick sense of humour - who'd think of eating little engineers?! US Gold should have a hit with Survivor, the most addictive game I've played recently.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n80%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: An enjoyable, recommended game.","Page":"21","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"61","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"70","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"80","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"...and it's no joke surviving an interplanetary tank."},{"Text":"Deep down in the bowels of the spacecraft, the one survivor struggles to stay alive…"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"75%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"79%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"70%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 22, Oct 1987","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1987-09-10","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Peter George\r\nActing Production Editor: John Leach\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nSoftware Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nDesigner: Darrell King\r\nEditorial Assistant: Angela Eager\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Audrey & Owen Bishop, Chris Donald, Mike Gerrard, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Tony Lee, Rick Robson, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Mischa Welsh, Tony Worrall\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Julian Harriott\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nManaging Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nPublisher: Roger Munford\r\nPublishing Director: Stephen England\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 ©1987 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\n£8.99\nReviewer: Marcus Berkmann\n\nOne fascinating development of the last few months has been the sudden emergence of Spanish software houses as a force to be reckoned with. Ocean signed up Dinamic, whose Army Moves and Game Over have already made quite an impression. Alligata nabbed Opera Soft and released Livingstone I Presume. Now it's US Golds turn - Topo Soft is the latest bunch of Manuels to be given UK distribution, and Survivor is the company's first game to hit the shelves.\n\nWossit like? Well, not unlike Army Moves, Game Over and Livingstone I Presume, to be frank (I thought you were Marcus. Ed). The Spanish have already developed an easily recognisable style in their Spectrum games, one that pushes the machine to its limit in terms of graphics and size, but which in my opinion is less convincing on the ol' gameplay front.\n\nIn Survivor you play an Alien - capital A because you look very similar to the slithery funster who munches through so many innocents in the fillums of the same name. Your object is to perpetuate the race by insinuating ten pods that you have lying about your person into incubators that can be found all over the ship. It's a big ship - 142 screens divided into four zones, each of several levels, that you move between via a network of lifts. Levels are connected by doors and air vents that are not immediately obvious. Nasties patrol the maze, and unfortunately the only weapon you have to dispatch them is your saliva - which just happens to be sulphuric acid. You can spit this about if you like, but it's hard to aim and always ends up hitting some totally harmless alien which then rears up and attacks you. Energy dribbles away constantly - more quickly if you insist on hitting things. The only ways of replenishing it are to drop a pod in an incubator or to nosh on one of the little engineers who wanders around, seemingly waiting to be noshed. (This is a particularly gruesome and entertaining graphic, as your alien devours his snack.)\n\nAs you can see from the screenshot, the graphics are lovely - large, colourful and detailed. Considering this, the game's not as slow as it might be. Even so, gameplay is monotonous and hardly subtle. Too often you find yourself having to judge a jump to the last pixel, and although there's loads to map, it all looks much the same. Air vents are fun, but as soon as you get to level 2 you get killed by all the millions of patrolling nasties, so what's the point?\n\nComparisons? Well, Alien's an obvious one, if only for the design of the main sprite. The platform screens are like Underwurlde, but harder and duller. And the graphics are very much in the style of Game Over and those other Iberian spectaculars - everything huge and attribute problems ignored.\n\nNot that these are bad pedigrees, but I still thought Survivor a failure. Perhaps it's because there's no coherent character to the game, nothing special or unusual about it, just too many ideas half-inched from other games and cobbled together randomly. There's nothing here to suggest that Survivor's a survivor.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Beautifully colourful maze shoot 'em up which fails badly on the gameplay front. Seriously unaddictive.","Page":"77","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Marcus Berkmann","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 67, Oct 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-09-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nStaff Writer: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Andy Moss, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Mike Corr\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 84,699 July-Dec 1986"},"MainText":"Label: US Gold\r\nAuthor: Toposoft\r\nPrice: £7.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nThis game is so similar to the Alien movies in graphical style and plot that I completely refuse to believe that it wasn't intended to be Alien in the beginning. Anyway, taking the role of a seriously endangered alien, you've got to wander around an 'enormous' (142 screens) ship, collecting pods and plopping them into an incubator unit.\r\n\r\nAll that you seem to do throughout the game is wander through the corridors (which, it has to be said, are rather attractively laid out) spitting a mouthful of acid or two at the numerous aliens which wibble around along the floor and picking up the odd pod as you come to it. The gameplay is very much tried and tested, involving left, right. Fire and jump, and the trip in the occasional lift.\r\n\r\nThis may not sound particularly exciting and, well, it's not really, because despite the rather pleasing graphics and the fact that you get to wander around spitting acid at things, it's really only a rather tedious exploration.\r\n\r\nSurvivor is disappointing, despite being professionally programmed, exploiting none of the opportunities its plot offers to the full. Nothing new here.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Colourful and moderately Alien-like exploratory space game. Lacks longevity and action despite being quite well coded.","Page":"62,63","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) Issue 1, Oct 1987","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1987-09-03","Editor":"Peter Connor, Steve Cooke","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Advanced Computer Entertainment\r\nFuture Publishing [redacted]\r\nTelephone [redacted], Fax [redacted], Telecom Gold 84:TXT152, Prestel/Micronet [redacted]\r\n\r\nCo-editors: Peter Connor, Steve Cooke\r\nReviews Editor: Andy Wilton\r\nStaff Writers: Dave Packer, Andy Smith\r\nArt Editor: Trevor Gilham\r\nPublisher: Chris Anderson\r\n\r\nSUBSCRIPTIONS & SPECIAL OFFERS\r\nCarrie-Anne Porter [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOLOUR ORIGINATION\r\nWessex Reproduction [redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION\r\nSM Distribution [redacted]\r\n\r\nCopyright - FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD 1987 - No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without our permission."},"MainText":"Supplier: US Gold\r\nVersion Tested: Spectrum\r\n\r\nDEEP space floats an enormous and powerful spaceship, filled with lifeforms from a thousand planets. You control a solitary creature on board that spaceship in its attempts to perpetuate its race. You carry with you ten pods, the last of your species; introduce the pods to the incubators scattered around the levels of the ship and ensure the survival of your race.\r\n\r\nThis 2D arcade-adventure covers a playing area of some 140 screens, which flip rather than scroll when your character reaches a screen border. The ship is divided into various levels, which are accessed by lifts and air vents. Your creature has a limited energy supply that is reduced on contact with other creatures (who come in all shapes and size from mini space-shuttles to overgrown aspirins.) Replenishing your energy involves dropping the pods into the incubators. Alternatively you can get a tasty snack by eating one of the engineers who stroll around the ship looking like animated jelly babies.\r\n\r\nYour defence from the energy-leeching aliens is to spit at them. Your saliva contains a paralysing acid, thus making it possible to jump over the creatures. Escape is your only alternative either by hiding in the air vents or the lifts.\r\n\r\nSurvivor's gameplay is pretty tough, demanding accurate positioning of your character to jump obstacles. Platform game elements creep in when you have to jump your way up several shafts in order to progress. Extra power for your jumps is obtained by ducking.\r\n\r\nThe animation of the characters is very smooth. Colour is used liberally and there are no attribute clashes as everything adopts the colour of its current background - this does cause the occasional problem as the aliens can be a little difficult to spot.\r\n\r\nSurvivor will certainly test your powers of endurance and perseverance, the game will take time and effort to complete. Sadly, despite its polish and classy construction it lacks that touch of originality that might make you want to take the trouble to try and finish it.\r\n\r\nReviewer: Andy Smith\r\n\r\nRELEASE BOX\r\nSpectrum, £8.99cs, Out Now\r\nAmstrad, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent\r\n\r\nPredicted Interest Curve\r\n\r\n1 min: 4.75/10\r\n1 hour: 5/10\r\n1 day: 4.5/10\r\n1 week: 3/10\r\n1 month: 2/10\r\n1 year: 0/10","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"54,55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Smith","Score":"604","ScoreSuffix":"/1000"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Survivor: inside the ship."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Visual Effects","Score":"4/7","Text":""},{"Header":"Audio","Score":"2/7","Text":""},{"Header":"IQ Factor","Score":"3/7","Text":""},{"Header":"Fun Factor","Score":"4/7","Text":""},{"Header":"Ace Rating","Score":"604/1000","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]