[{"TitleName":"T-Bird","Publisher":"Mastertronic Plus","Author":"Mongee Boswell","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0005159","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 80, Sep 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-08-23","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick (Pie Scan!) Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nArt Director: Mark (Sparkie!) Kendrick\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Manager: Ian (\"E\") Chubb\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Production Assistants: Jackie Morris, Joanne Lewis\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nUK Subscriptions and Back Issues enquiries Robert Edwards [redacted]. Yearly Subscription Rates UK £15.40 Europe £22 Air Mail Overseas £35.\r\nUS/Canada subscriptions and Back Issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly Subscriptions Rates US$47 Canada CAN$57 Back Issues US$5.20 Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \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 BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted] - a 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 main 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":"Mastertronic Plus\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nCapable of 0-600 in 5.6 seconds and with a maximum speed of 1346 mph, the Foourd T-Bird racing machine is real mean! This revolutionary transportation system has everything you could wish for (except the kitchen sink!), but you've driven it into the alien part of town. These aliens are a mite jealous of your new purchase and will do anything to ruin it. You must now fight off the swarms of alien beings and dodge their fire if you're going to make it home in time for tea!\r\n\r\nT-Bird is a 3-D style shoot-'em-up. Aliens and objects on the ground fly towards you at great speed. The 3-D effect isn't bad with objects getting bigger as they move down the screen. Colour is (wait for it) glorious monochrome with a different colour for each level, and just for luck there's the compulsory end of level big monster to be destroyed.\r\n\r\nYou can increase you weaponry by collecting the pods that arrive when an alien swarm is destroyed, but then this style of play has been used over and over again. The simplistic gameplay and lack of variety will soon have you reaching for the off switch.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"48","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"50","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"50%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 59, Nov 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-10-11","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Sal Meddings\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, 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 Director: 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":"T-BIRD\r\nMastertronic Plus\r\n£2.99\r\nReviewer: Rich Pelley\r\n\r\nImagine a totally fabby game which is full of colour, massive spaceships, squillions of different nasties, huge explosions and ace sound. Right, now let's talk about T-Bird (ho ho).\r\n\r\n(Sorry.) Okay, so T-Bird isn't exactly a Speccy game of Spielbergian proportions, but the weird thing is it isn't actually all that crap. No, it's quite good - pretty simple, and pretty addictive. It's a fly-into-the-screen jobby (a bit like Afterburner but with a puny spaceship instead), shooting loads of waves of unfeasibly large aliens and dodging large pillars and things while you're at it. Oh, and you can pick up icons for extra add-on weapons as well (better firepower, shields etc). The graphics are minimal, although they are reasonably varied and fast, but the best bit is the playability - there's loads. It's sooo simple you'll be craving for just one more go. Totally brilliant. Buy buy buy!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"54","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rich Pelley","Score":"74","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Well, they may look like a load of munchy doughnuts to you, but they don't half blow you out of the sky!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"74%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 103, Sep 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-08-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Jim Douglas\r\nDeputy Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nDesigner: The Great Osmondo\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSales Executive: Alan Dykes\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean 'Timing' Barrett\r\nMarketing Executive: Sarah Ewing\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\n©1990 EMAP Images, [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by J'n'G Type\r\nColour work by Pro Print.\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher Web Ltd, Peterborough.\r\nDistributed by BBC Frontline."},"MainText":"Label: Mastertronic\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nIn the thirtieth century no-one walks to work - that would be a bit diff because everyone works on the planet Pluto in the golgafrinch factories. You need something with a bit more OOMPH to get to work - something like a Foourd T-Bird, ca-able of 0-600,000 in 5.6 seconds and equipped with all the weaponry you need to fight off the traffic wardens and space pirates along the way.\r\n\r\nAll this scene-setting is a thinly-veiled excuse for yet another multi-level alien shoot-'em up, but let's be generous, at least it's a decent one.\r\n\r\nViewed in that sort of forward-scrolling method normally reserved for motor-racing games, T-Bird sees you taking a wrong turn on your test drive and heading into a seething wasteland of space aliens. The two-level background scrolls cleanly, with monochrome pillars, space statues and other obstacles moving towards you smoothly and convincingly.\r\n\r\nYour ship is free to move all around the screen, and this too is fast and smooth. The baddies, which include saucers, TIE fighters, space jellyfish and unidentifiable blobs, come at you in set patterns, dancing backwards and forwards and around the screen until you blow them to bits.\r\n\r\nYou can do this in two ways; with your standard zapper or with a smart missile (just hold down the fire button and everything on the screen explodes). You have only five smart missiles to play with, but you can pick up more sexy devices by destroying a whole wave of aliens and picking up the token which appears. Bonuses include a roving sight, sideways-firing missiles, extra lives, extra missiles and so on.\r\n\r\nBetween each wave of aliens there's a meteor shower, and at the end of each level the usual Guardian - the first is a huge octopoid thingy, and to be honest this is so scarey that I was surprised to see it in a budget game! To make it even scarier, you can't use your smart missiles against these big mothers.\r\n\r\nFortunately, your ship is supplied with an anti-collision shield, but this has a limited power supply which is drained by each impact, so in the end you're going to be a write-off one way or another.\r\n\r\nYou aren't going to faint with surprise or amazement at T-Bird, but you won't regret parting with your measly £2.99 either, take it for a spin.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Liven up your afternoon by taking T-Bird for a drive.","Page":"75","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"67","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"56%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"63%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"67%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]