[{"TitleName":"Bismarck","Publisher":"PSS","Author":"Alan Steel, Roger Pearse","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0000540","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 41, Jun 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-05-28","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nAssistant Editor: Ciaran Brennan\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Richard Eddy, Ian Phillipson\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Philippa Irving\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrator: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Tony Lorton, Mark Kendrick, Tim Croton, Seb Clare\r\nProcess and Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Jonathan Rignall, Nick Orchard\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\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\nBookings [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 Magazine 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":"BISMARCK\r\n\r\nProducer: PSS\r\nRetail Price: £9.95\r\n\r\nThis game occupies a position somewhere hazily between strategy counter-moving and simulation. It is in PSS's familiar house-style, as opposed to what seems to be their 'imported'style; that is, we have slick machine code programming, nice presentation terms of rather bland and pretty graphics, and the admittedly handy 'com-box'.\r\n\r\nThe arcade sequence, which is predictable from this description, is not, in this case, an optional frill. It attempts to occupy a central position in the game, and justifiably so when you consider the scenario; it concentrates on the part played in World War II by the Bismarck - one of those unsinkable ships which inevitably go down. Historically the Bismarck lived up to the tradition set by the Titanic, and the gameplay of this computer simulation of the brief serving life of the 'pride of the Kriegsmarine' does its best to be authentic in this respect.\r\n\r\nThe Bismarck was launched into active service on 18 May 1941 and sunk by the flagship of the British home fleet, King George V, on 27 May. It was trying to head towards the mid-Atlantic, where it would keep the British battleships busy and allow its companion-ship, the Prince Eugen, to attack the merchant convoys safely. Before it could break out into the open ocean it was barraged not only by half the British navy, who had intercepted its radio messages and were able to track its position accurately, but by air attack. There is a detailed and well-narrated account of the Bismarck's nineday reign in the rulebook, which sets the scene admirably and individualises the various British ships which appear on the screen.\r\n\r\nThe map shows Western Europe, Iceland, and a portion of the North Atlantic. If you accept the default option to play the German side, it shows very little else when the game starts; the Bismarck, a small square with a cross on it, awaits orders at the top of the screen. Although the surrounding ocean is teeming with British battleships, convoys and aircraft carriers, the German player is only intermittently made aware of their positions.\r\n\r\nThere are icons on the map, in the form of a flag and windsock, representing the command centre and weather station of whichever side you're playing. The weather centre can always be accessed with the corn-box and shows what the weather conditions across the map are; a pattern of clouds, reminiscent of those new trendy electronic weather-maps, appears superimposed over Europe. If you really want to imitate the television weather forecast on your Spectrum, successive key-presses call up a prediction of where the cloud will be any number of hours later. Cosmetically this is an attractive feature, and the theory is that the German player ought to keep the Bismarck travelling under cloud to minimise the danger from British air attack.\r\n\r\nThe command centre can only be accessed when it flashes. For the German player it reports U-boat sightings of British ships, which come regularly and are very helpful in attempting to avoid their path. The British player is told of radio intercepts, which pinpoint the Bismarck's position. These radio sightings don't start happening until about halfway through the game, so there's little the British player can intelligently do until then, beyond making sure the navy is in a fairly central position ready to steam towards the Bismarck when it shows up.\r\n\r\nThe main function of the combox is, as with other games in this style, to give movement orders to the units. The German player only has control over the Bismarck, while the British player can give orders to a number of battleships and an aircraft carrier. The only order which can be given via the com-box is movement but it also accesses the unit's battlescreen.\r\n\r\nThis is where the famous - or notorious - PSS arcade sequence begins to look surprisingly like a serious attempt at simulation. The battlescreen, which unlike conventional arcade sequences, can be accessed at any time, is split into three sections. The upper part of the screen shows a featureless view of the sea in front of the ship and the enemy if there is one in the vicinity. Other ships appears as highly detailed outlines on the horizon. The middle section is a complex bank of icons and information, which are used to control ship movement and to fire the weapons. The lower part of the screen shows a diagramatic representation of the ship from the side on; as soon as you start getting shelled the point of this display becomes alarmingly apparent as fire spreads through the hull towards the engines and fuel tanks.\r\n\r\nWhen the Bismarck sails near an enemy unit it appears on the map screen, and even if the other side decides not to engage in battle the ship will probably be visible if you access the battlescreen. Once in view, you can attempt to close on the enemy by selecting the appropriate icon, and when it's in range of your guns you can fire. There seems to be little skill involved in the actual firing. It's a matter of pointing the viewfinder in the right direction and pressing the button, discharging an apparently limitless quantity of shell. PSS tell me that the real skill lies in outmanoeuvring the enemy ships, and certainly, it you let the Bismarck sit there and take substantial damage from an opponent, then you will inevitably lose. Somewhat artificially, hits to the enemy ship are displayed above hits to your own. The Bismarck can take 99 points of damage before sinking, but as shells hit, fires start around the ship and unless these are dealt with you risk having an explosion in the fuel tanks before you're actually shot to pieces.\r\n\r\nA separate icon allows the player to move a fire-fighting crew to the scene of the blaze, but in the meantime the enemy may still be firing. Am I being too exacting to point out that on a battleship like the Bismarck, which carried a crew of 2,300 men, it was hardly necessary to stop firing to run with a bucket of water to put out a fire? Probably not, because it puts the player at a disadvantage. The enemy doesn't pause to repair its fire damage. Juggling between combat and fire-fighting mode can become wearisomely fiddly.\r\n\r\nThe Bismarck is attempting either to reach the southern edge of the map reasonably intact, or to get to Brest with at least one sunk British ship to its name. This sounds easy and is extremely and depressingly difficult, as the historical disadvantage the Bismarck was under is ruthlessly reproduced. The ship only has 99 hit points and no way of recovering them once lost, several at a time, to enemy shells. It follows therefore that the Bismarck ought to avoid any combat if at all possible and head for the south edge of the map, despite an injunction in the rules to keep clear of battleships but 'sink everything else. In practice, It's very difficult to avoid being caught up in battle. Obvious British tactics unfortunately encourage a kamikazi mentality, for sending weaker ships to certain death against the Bismarck can do a significant amount of permanent damage. There ought to be penalties for suicidal strategies; as it is, you get 'A British Victory' and a respectable percentage for scuppering all of your ships except one which was on the point of exploding from fire damage. It's good to note at least that actually shooting at your own ships is not tolerated.\r\n\r\nThe game proceeds in real time, with a choice of pace between fast, medium and slow. Fast is not particularly speedy, and there should be no reason to want to slow up what happens on the map screen. The quick pacing means that the game is unlikely to last for a long time, and that - to me - contributes to an impression of shallowness. Other players may like a game which has fixed boundaries and a definite resolution within the space of an hour. The rules come in a small high-quality booklet and are nicely presented; there's an index table, illustrations of symbols used on the screen, and useful Information about the military capabilities of the ships. All aspects of gameplay are clearly described in a meaningful sequence, and the historical overview is well-written and interesting. The standard of PSS documentation seems to be improving.\r\n\r\nBismarck is a smoothly-presented, undemanding game which tries to make an arcade sequence work as an integral part of a wargame. Of that type, a type PSS are creating, it is successful. I remained unconvinced that this particular style of wargame has anywhere to go; it's too glib, it seems too much of a pale reflection of what it's attempting to blend, and it doesn't offer enough of a long-term challenge. But there's a lot packed into Bismarck, and this may be a game which younger and inexperienced wargamers will enjoy.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"87,88","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Philippa Irving","Score":"75","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"87%","Text":"Options offerred are comprehensive, the packaging is attractive (though PSS have gone over to those boring double cassette boxes now) and the on-screen impression is polished."},{"Header":"Rules","Score":"85%","Text":"Not voluminous, but detailed in all important respects, well-presented and helpful."},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"80%","Text":"Very easy to get into."},{"Header":"Authenticity","Score":"79%","Text":"The introuctory material in the rulebook creates an atmosphere, but aspects of the simulation sequence are unconvincing."},{"Header":"Opponent","Score":"74%","Text":"As the British the computer is vicious, as the Germans, it knows its own victory conditions."},{"Header":"Value","Score":"70%","Text":"Depends what your looking for - some people may find its over all over too quickly for their money."},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":"The unexciting appearance of the map-screen is offset by very pretty touches, such as the weather forecast, the icons and the ship outlines."},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"75%","Text":"Well produced, with some scope for varied play; not a long-term challenge."}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 96, Feb 1992","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1992-01-16","Editor":"Lucy Hickman","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Coming to you live from CRASH Towers are:\r\n\r\nEditor: Lucy 'Hot Lips' Hickman\r\nDeputy Editor: Nick 'Get Yer Kit Off' Roberts\r\nStaff Writer: Mark 'Gas Mark 6' Caswell\r\nProduction Editor: Warren 'Technicolour Neck' Lapworth\r\nAdventures: Ian 'Gerald Kaufman' Osborne\r\nArt & Design: Charlie 'De-cherried' Chubb, Mark 'Newt' Kendrick\r\nSystems Manager: Ian 'Modest Bast' Chubb\r\nScreenshots: Michael 'Anorexic' Parkinson\r\nPublisher: Roger 'Milton' Kean\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Sheila 'Omni-present' Jarvis\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: George 'Cassanova' Keenan\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jo '0898' Lewis\r\nProduction: Jackie 'Memo' Morris\r\nReprographics: Rob 'I've got a brand new shower' Millichamp\r\nManaging Director: Jonathan 'Liquid Lunch' Rignall\r\nCirculation Manager: David 'Birdie-dick' Wren\r\nAccounts: Sheila 'Morticia' Adams\r\nSubscriptions: David 'Bradford and Bingley' Bingle(y)\r\n\r\nTypesetting Europress Impact, using Apple Macintosh II computers, running Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator 3.0. Printing BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd. Distribution 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 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 write to us at the address below). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either EUROPRESS IMPACT 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, hardware or software - 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. Copy published in CRASH will be edited as seen fit and payment will be calculated by the printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nEuropress Impact Ltd, CRASH [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis month's cover: Never Ending Story II. Cover design by Oliver Frey. Powertape inlay by Mark Kendrick."},"MainText":"Summit\r\n£3.99 cassette\r\n\r\nThe great German warship, Bismarck, weighed in at 41,700 tons and was launched in April 1941, making us Brits quake in our boots. So we sent put more than 30 ships to blow 'er out the water. Luckily (for us), a Swordfish from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal blasted her rudder beyond repair, leaving her a virtual sitting duck and easy prey for our ships.\r\n\r\nBismarck, the game, brilliantly recreates the last days of its nautical namesake. Control either the German vessel and escape to more friendly waters, or the pursuing British fleet. If you can't cope with the historical scenario, there are five set battles to practice on.\r\n\r\nIt's very complicated (as all good strategy sims should be), but intelligent use of icons and an ended joystick option stop it being tedious. Unfortunately, the instructions don't come up to the game's high standard and seriously mar enjoyment for the first few plays.\r\n\r\nAn amazingly accurate simulation of naval warfare, all-important elements such as weather and visibility are well covered. When engaging an enemy ship, careful study of direction and gun elevation wins the day, not lightning reflexes and mindless button-bashing. Watch out for damage to your own ship, too - delay sending that firefighting party too long and you may not live to regret it…\r\n\r\nAgain true to life, there's more to the game than open warfare. Some strategy hints are offered, but don't expect an easy time of it - Admirals aren't trained in a day (not even in the Italian navy!). It's up to you to know what's going on around you - it won't be offered on a plate. (I was once relieved of all duties for sinking one of my own ships!)\r\n\r\nStrategy games don't appeal to everyone, but those who like a challenge will like Bismarck. It takes a while to get used to, but it's atmosphere, playability and incredible degree of historical accuracy make it a real winner.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"63","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Ian Osborne","Score":"89","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Ready, aim, fire! Oops, it's one of our ships!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"85%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"91%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"89%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 19, Jul 1987","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1987-06-11","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":98,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nSenior Art Editor: Peter George\r\nAssistant Editor: Phil South\r\nProduction Editor: Sara Biggs\r\nStaff Writer: Marcus Berkmann\r\nDesigner: Darrell King\r\nEditorial Assistant: Angela Eager\r\nContributors: Peter Berlin, Chris Donald, Mike Gerrard, Ian Hoare, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Tony Lee, John O'Molly, Rick Robson, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith\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":"PSS\n£9.95\nReviewer: Peter Berlin\n\nThe hunt for the Bismarck is one of the most famous tales of World War II. The story of the sinking of the mighty German battleship has been told in books and films again and again, but up till now wargamers haven't been offered the chance to recreate the tense cat and mouse game in the North Atlantic, as the pride of the Kriegsmarine tried to challenge Britannia's rule of the waves and threaten her lifegiving convoys.\n\nIt may seem strange that such a significant encounter should have been left unsimulated while every other military match-up in history has been recreated on screen. However, if you think about it, you'll see the problem. The Germans only had two ships, and they sailed so close together for the most part that they really can only be shown as one unit. The British had 30 ships themselves, but this isn't really likely to stretch a veteran wargamer far.\n\nBismarck, as a result, is a very simple game, but designer Alan Steel has tricked it up with some neat features. There's aerial reconnaissance from the British aircraft carriers, weather (with some very pretty clouds) and, to make the real wargamers squeal, there's an arcade section! However, if you're a real wargamer, don't worry. It's really quite easy to score a hit when you're blasting away, battleship to battleship. Hitting the Bismarck in an aerial attack is a little harder. But once you've stopped flying your Fairey Swordfish into the drink, as I started out doing, it isn't too hard.\n\nThe strategic possibilities aren't huge. Either the Bismarck goes north of Iceland, or it goes south. All you have to do then is bring up either of the two aircraft carriers and a couple of the four battleships you have to play with, then it's over to the arcade section and good luck.\n\nThe whole game is well-organised, clearly presented and good to look at. You have a choice of three levels of difficulty, and you can choose to command either the Royal Navy or the Bismarck. It's a good introduction for those who are getting bored of arcade games and fancy something a little bit tougher.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"27","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Peter Berlin","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 77, May 1992","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1992-04-02","Editor":"Andy Hutchinson","TotalPages":67,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"WE'D DIE FIRST\r\n\r\nAbstinence is a good thing,but it should always be practiced in moderation. So just what couldn't you bear to give up? Hmmm?\r\n\r\nEditor: Andy (Flirting) Hutchinson\r\nArt Editor: Andy (300 BPM speed rock) Ounsted\r\nDeputy Editor: Linda (Brown cord cap) Barker\r\nStaff Writer: Jon (Apple pie sprinkled with cinnamon) Pillar\r\nArt Assistant: Maryanne: (Brass bedstead) Booth\r\nAdvertising Manager: Cheryl (Red lipstick) Beesley\r\nProduction Coordinator: Lisa (Chips) Read\r\nPublisher: Jane (Black Russians) Richardson\r\nPromotions Manager: Michelle (White handbag, matching stilettos and Saturday Night Fever album) Harris\r\nPromotions Assistant: Tamara (Toast and Marmite) Ward\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg ('o'er-reaching ambition) Bingham\r\nCirculation Director: Sue (Open University course) Hartley\r\nAssistant Publisher: Julie (Holidays and Harriet) Stuckes\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair (Insanity), Future (Your Sinclair) Publishing, [redacted]\r\n\r\nManaging Director: Chris (Curries. Any colour or strength) Anderson\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1992. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission from Bishop Longbottom and his band of rubber ink doughballs.\r\n\r\nISSN: 0269 69683\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair zooms out of its boogie box with such groovesome and arse-kicking magazines as: Commodore Format (The right to vote; grey area that this is!), Amstrad Acton (Third Man video), Amiga Format (Watching footie on the box), PCW Plus (Trainspotting), PC Answers (Classifying fungi), PC Plus (Sticking bookmarks in their paperbacks), Sega Power (Pork chops, chips and Kellogs Supernoodles), Amiga Power (American Hard Gums), Amiga Shopper (Sunday roasts), Classic CD (Shostakovich's String Quartet No 7 in F sharp minor), Needlecraft (Being obsequious), Cycling Plus (Pink silk whalebone basque with matching suspender belt and stockings), Photo Plus (Agfa film), Mountain Biking UK (Mushroom and hummus pittas with really hot chilli sauce), PC Format (Money), Public Domain (Pretending to like bands), ST Format (Herbal cigarettes), Total! (Giving up) and Today's Vegetarian (Lying in bed on Saturday mornings and watching Going Live) and coming soon... Fishmonger's Weekly.\r\n\r\nBut what we really want to know why is... why it that as soon as you actually get a girl/boyfriend, three other equally suitable and utterly tasty possible partners turn up?"},"MainText":"BISMARCK\r\nAlternative\r\n£3.99\r\n[redacted]\r\nReviewer: Lesley Quigg\r\n\r\nStand by all you sim fans, you're about to meet your maker. Personally, I despised simulations, but then I'm a girlie. Girls are supposed to like dolls and ballet dancing, not macho sims.\r\n\r\nOf course, you all know exactly what the Bismarck was, don't you? No? Oh dear, you really shouldn't have skived off all those history lessons. Well, just for the record (and those empty pages in your history jotters), the Bismarck was a wonderful ship built by the Germans during World War Two. The Germans claimed the Bismarck was unsinkable which meant that the all had very red faces when she finally met the wonderful British Navy and was gloriously sunk. Hurrah! And who said YS wasn't educational? (Erm, nobody actually. Ed)\r\n\r\nBefore you toddle off to impress your friends with your new-found intelligence you're going to have to either play the game. You can either take the British side and sink that darn ship, or get all Germanic (boo!) and try to save that darn ship and so rewrite history. Either way, you'll find that the Bismarck nearly always sinks, so she couldn't have been that commendable.\r\n\r\nThere's no great complexity to Bismarck; just tonnes of strategy, loads of time-wasting and a helluva lot of fire extiguishers which you have to use to save your blazing ship. The gameplay is nothing special and it's highly likely that you've seen it all before. This really is a yawnsome game, so try not to hit your held on poor old Spec. Take the Keep Britain Tidy campaing approach - it doesn't take a minute to bag it and bin it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"61","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Lesley Quigg","Score":"39","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"\"See here squire, I can do you a nice little deal on the battleship. Sixteen-inch armour plate, forty-four cannon and part-exchange for a Morris Marina. How about it?\""},{"Text":"Hello Bill. My name is Alicia and I saw your advertisement in last month's issue. You sound an interesting kind of guy. Can we meet?"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"39%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 63, Jun 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-05-18","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\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: John Higgins\r\n\r\nTypeset by PRS Ltd, [redacted]\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 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: PSS\r\nPrice: £9.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: Gary Rook\r\n\r\nThe Bismarck was a German 'pocket battleship' and during the second world war it had much the same effect on the British Navy as Freddy the Bogeyman has on assorted teenagers in Nightmare on Elm Street part whatever.\r\n\r\nNot only did she (ships are always female for some reason - even those with butch names) raid convoys and send defenceless merchant ships to Davy Jones Locker, she also sank HMS Hood, the pride of the British fleet, which went to the bottom of the Atlantic with all but three of her 1,415 crew.\r\n\r\nNow PSS's strategy game Bismarck gives you the chance to show just how the hunt for the Nazi commerce raider should have been conducted - or can you, as the Captain of the Bismarck, evade the Royal Navy, cut Britain's Atlantic lifeline, and escape to safety in Brest harbour?\r\n\r\nThere are two parts to the game. The first part, the search phase, involves you moving your ships around the map of the Atlantic, flying off your aircraft to look for the enemy, and basically waiting for the Bismarck (or the Prinz Eugen, the slightly smaller warship which accompanied it) to get spotted. Of course, if the Bismarck has been sighted, then the British navy will converge on her as fast as it can.\r\n\r\nThe map shows the Atlantic Ocean the North Sea and the English Channel. Marked on it are Scandinavia, the British Isles, Iceland, a bit of Greenland, and the North West coast of France. Dotted about this area are the various ships and groups of ships which are at the players' disposal. These are shown as squares, about a character to a side. The Bismarck is a black cross on a white background, while the various British ship types - destroyers, cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers and convoys - are represented by different symbols. The game uses \"hidden movement\" so if you're playing the Germans, the only units on screen will be the Bismarck and Prim Eugen, and any British ships they can see. With the British, it's vice versa - you'll see the pride of the Royal Navy, about a dozen symbols, but no Germans unless you've spotted them.\r\n\r\nAlso on the map are various strange little symbols - wind socks, clouds, flags and anchors. The wind socks represent the air search capability each player has - move your command box over wind sock, hit Fire, and the areas your planes are covering at present will be highlighted and any enemy ships they can see will be shown. The cloud symbol represents the players' metereological experts. The flags are the respective headquarters - you sometimes get message from them - and the anchors are the various naval bases on the board.\r\n\r\nMovement is simple - use the cursor keys to put the command box (an open white square) over the ship to move, hit Fire, move the cursor to wherever you want the ship to go to, hit Fire again, and off they go.\r\n\r\nIf movement is simple, combat isn't. In fact, it's so complex, that you'd be well advised to take advantage of the 'training programs' option.\r\n\r\nWhen one of your fleet contacts an enemy vessel you become captain of that ship. The screen changes from the map to a sort of control panel/view from the bridge. The top part of the screen is what you can see from the bridge. Lots of sea, with the odd silhouette of an enemy battleship dotted around. The bottom part of the screen has a series of icons on it. By using the cursor keys to highlight the icon you want, you can order your ship to run away, charge, or maintain your distance, in non technical terms. Other icons control which way you're looking, and the weaponry the various types of ships have - guns for battleships, torpedos on destroyers, and planes on aircraft carriers.\r\n\r\nEverything's done in an almost-arcade-but-not-quite- exactly style. The enemy ship appears on your radar screen, you get it in your gun sights, then you fire off a salvo of shells or a brace of torpedos and try to avoid enemy fire and so on. The problem is that it's not easy to switch from one activity to another quickly, as you have to keep accessing the different icons all the time.\r\n\r\nI got blown out of the water on two occasions while I was still trying to work out how to stop firing my guns and run away - but then I was attacking the Bismarck with a measly little destroyer, which I understand may not be such a good idea.\r\n\r\nThere's certainly enough action in Bismarck. I don't know if you can call it a true wargame but, what the hell!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Tense and exciting blend of strategy and arcade simulation - a long way from playing Battleships!","Page":"98","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Gary Rook","Score":"4","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"4/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 121, Mar 1992","Price":"£2.1","ReleaseDate":"1992-02-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nDesign: Yvette Nicholls\r\nSoftware Editor: Big Al 'Bagels' Dykes\r\nGirlie Tipster: Hannah Smith\r\nAdditional Design: Jane Davies \r\nSU Crew: John Cook, Pete Gerrard, Phillip Fisch, Graham Mason, Matthew Denton\r\nAd Manager: Tina Zanelli\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Man.: Mark Swallow\r\nMarketing Women: Sarah Ewing, Sarah Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1992 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nColour by Proprint\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher\r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system or used to wrap your chips without the consent of the Publisher (if you offer him a chip he'll think about it though). And on behalf of the SU Crew we'd just like to say that it's great to be back on Earth Even with wars, famine, disease and misery it's a better place than some of the deepspace cruisers that we've been playing on for the last two months."},"MainText":"Label: Summit\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice: £3.99 Tape\r\nReviewer: Garth Sumpter\r\n\r\nAchtung! Achtung! It's the Bismark and it's sailing right on back to either death or glory as it enters the budget fight.\r\n\r\nAnd you can elect to either blow her out of the water or try to command her to victory by escaping the British Admiralty Atlantic blockade.\r\n\r\nThis is well-balanced strategy game, with the British/German options adding variety. Apart from the overall strategy game, there is a fast set-up option that has you put straight into the action.\r\n\r\nYour mission is to get the Bismark through the British fleet and off the southern edge of the map to safety or if you choose the British Navy, to sink the sucker before it escapes into the Atlantic and wreaks havoc with the ships there.\r\n\r\nThe game features firing the big guns, using radar to pinpoint targets, torpedoes and even using planes as spotter and/or attack aircraft. A damage control section is used to put fires out before they spread to engine rooms or magazines with even an option to use anti-aircraft in defence.\r\n\r\nPlay is icon driven and whilst simplistic, is straight-forward and easy to use - graphics too are simplistic but functional making Bismark not the prettiest of games, but if you scratch the veneer you'll find game with thought and depth.","ReviewerComments":["Strategy game don't have to rely on graphics and these are very basic. The game however, is far from it.\r\nAlan Dykes"],"OverallSummary":"Bismark will be a joy for strategists, and a nightmare for anyone who wants joystick-pumpin' action. Poor sound and graphics are a thin disguise for what is an excellent game.","Page":"56","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Garth Sumpter","Score":"70","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Alan Dykes","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"70%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 70, Aug 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-07-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"C+VG TEAM\r\n\r\nEditor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nDeputy Editor: Paul Boughton\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lesly Walker\r\nSub-Editor: Seamus St. John\r\nArt Editor: Craig Kennedy\r\nAdventure Writers: Keith Campbell, Steve Donoghue, Matthew Woodley\r\nAmerican Correspondent: Marshall M. Rosenthal\r\nArcades: Clare Edgeley\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nPublicity: Clive Pembridge\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Garry Williams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Katherine Lee\r\nAd Production: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\nCover: Gary Ward\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nJuly-December 106,571"},"MainText":"MACHINES: Spectrum, (Amstrad/CBM 64 due shortly)\r\nSUPPLIER: PSS\r\nPRICE: £9.95 (cass), £14.95 (disk)\r\n\r\nThe handful of German battleships and battle-cruisers pinned in their harbours in Germany were, throughout the Second World War, of immense concern to the British Admiralty.\r\n\r\nIf any one of them could have broken through the British air and sea defences between the Channel and Greenland it could, being resupplied by submarine, have briefly devastated the shipping routes across the Atlantic on which British survival depended.\r\n\r\nSo close was the British watch on the exits into the Atlantic that this was never very likely, but the closest the Germans came was the attempt of the Bismarck, with the battle-cruiser Prinz Eugen, in May 1941.\r\n\r\nThe PSS game offers the player either side against the computer, and a choice of difficult levels.\r\n\r\nIts main screen is the strategic map from Sweden to Greenland and from northern France to the Atlantic ocean, showing the air cover and patrols provided by both sides, The main skill for either side is guessing when and how the Bismarck will attempt to break out.\r\n\r\nThe Bismarck's best chance is at night in bad weather.\r\n\r\nOn encountering an enemy ship the player can opt for the combat screen. This is an improvement on the usual arcade screen offered by the PSS Wargamers Series.\r\n\r\nThe main skill in the battle screen is manoeuvring the ship and estimating the range to the enemy target.\r\n\r\nThis is a historically good application of the \"hunt the enemy\" program which features in a number of PSS Wargamers Series games. My one criticism is that, although a joystick option is offered, it is so sluggish as to be virtually unusable, and often causes the program to crash. This makes flying a torpedo bomber on keyboard controls alone rather harder than it should be.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"57,58","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Badsey","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Bismark"}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"THE WARRIOR\r\n\r\nRT Smith is generally held to be the best British computer wargames programmer around. He's the man responsible for Arnhem, Desert Rats and now Vulcan. But who is the mysterious RT Smith? C+VG's Man of War Steve Badsey yomped his way down to deepest, darkest Surrey to confront this unknown warrior. Advance and be recognised, he ordered. The rest, as they say, is history.\r\n\r\nWherever serious wargamers gather and discuss computers, the name of R.T. Smith is mentioned with respect and admiration.\r\n\r\nThe author of Arnhem, of Desert Rats, and now of his latest offering, Vulcan - covering the Tunisian campaign in the Second World War is perhaps the only British computer wargame designer whose work can be compared with the best American and Australian games.\r\n\r\nThe \"common sense\" command and control system which is the distinctive feature of his work enables the player to concentrate on a winning strategy, rather than fussing over game mechanisms, and his judgement in modelling historical probabilities is second to none.\r\n\r\nAll of this made me rather apprehensive when I asked to meet R. T. Smith. He clearly knew too much about history, and about wargaming, to be just one of the mathematically brilliant writers in their teens who provide the bulk of computer games.\r\n\r\nSo who was I going to meet? Was he perhaps an elderly civil servant with a lifelong interest in military history who had taken to computers late in life? Or did those initials hide a beautiful young lady with a rare interest in warfare? Perhaps I would simply be confronted with the sort of person who knew everything about everything, and in his spare time wrote games like Vulcan for fun.\r\n\r\nAs it happened, I needn't have worried. Bob Smith turned out to be a polite, impeccably mannered 23-year-old living quietly in a Surrey village.\r\n\r\nBob learned about computers first at school, with the old mainframe language Fortran using punched cards to input the data. He taught himself BASIC while still at school, and his parents bought him a Spectrum for Christmas.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, he got interested in wargaming in the Ancient period, using the almost universal Wargames Research Group rules.\r\n\r\nYes - in answer to my question - he read campaign histories before writing his wargame programs, but more important was that early knowledge of conventional figure wargaming. Having grown up with wargames and computers, he knows if his program \"feels right\" in recreating history.\r\n\r\nBob's first game was written while he was still at school, and vanished more or less without trace. Called Confrontation, it was a twentieth century, battalion tactical level game which allowed the player to design his own scenario before playing.\r\n\r\nHe wrote it for the Spectrum only and approached Lothlorien, who published it in their Warmaster series. He wrote a conversion for the BBC while at Birmingham University reading physics, and decided to become a full-time programmer.\r\n\r\nSo began an attempt to write a two-player expanded version of Confrontation which was intended to be an arcade-style game. But, between the wargaming and reading A Bridge Too Far something happened, and the result was the solo game Arnhem, finished in 1984. Bob wasn't happy with Lothlorien by now, and so offered the game first to PSS, and then to CCS who accepted it. Arnhem proved a major popular success, reaching number 10 in the W.H. Smith best sellers, and remains one of my own favourite games.\r\n\r\nThe five-scenario Arnhem was one of the best games of its year, and Bob was given an Amstrad to write a conversion for it. He agreed with me that he was missing out a large number of people, but the conversion to 64K for the Commodore and the Atari would involve a great deal of re-writing, and I get the feeling he doesn't like writing conversions much. His next game was Desert Rats, which took more than six months to write and appeared at Christmas 1985 in Spectrum, 128K Spectrum and Amstrad versions.\r\n\r\nThe appeal of Desert Rats is that the advice given to all armoured commanders - press on as rapidly as possible, a punch protects itself - really works, except for those infuriating moments when your master plan grinds to a halt on empty petrol tanks.\r\n\r\nDesert Rats, as Bob put it to me, got much better reviews than Arnhem but didn't actually sell as well. I thought that the only thing which stopped it being perfect was that lack of aircraft, and the ability of an opponent to see all the forces all the time.\r\n\r\nVulcan, which has both air power and hidden movement, appeared before Christmas and is probably the outstanding British computer wargame of the year.\r\n\r\nHis next work will probably be the lively arcade game that he always meant to write. Going back to the days of figure wargaming, when he commanded armies of Selucids and the Macedonians of Alexander the Great, there is also the idea in the back of his head of a game covering ancient warfare, which has been surprisingly neglected by computer game designers. Vulcan, I remembered as I left, is in ancient mythology the Smith of the Gods!"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Realism","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]