[{"TitleName":"Turbo the Tortoise","Publisher":"Hi-Tec Software Ltd","Author":"Dave Thompson, Dennis Mulliner, Jarrod Bentley, Shan Savage","YearOfRelease":"1992","ZxDbId":"0005466","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 79, Jul 1992","Price":"£2.5","ReleaseDate":"1992-06-18","Editor":"Andy Hutchinson","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"SCHOOL'S OUT FOR EVER!\r\n\r\nWhen you have nothing to say, say nothing. I did. Anyway, what was the first thing you did after your last exam?\r\n\r\nEditor: Andy (Got arrested for being drunk and disorderly while at college) Hutchinson\r\nArt Editor: Andy (Flicked the V's at a teacher and then skipped home) Ounsted\r\nDeputy Editor: Linda (Went baby sitting) Barker\r\nStaff Writer: Jon (Sat down with a cream tart and a nice cup of tea) Pillar\r\nArt Assistant: Maryanne (Tried Sherry for the first time) Booth\r\nAdvertising Manager: Alison (Sighed) Morton\r\nSenior Sales Exec: Jackie (Went shopping) Garford\r\nProduction Coordinator: Lisa (Burned her books) Read\r\nPublisher: Jane (Went for a wee) Richardson\r\nPromotions Manager: Michelle (Went to see David Bowie in concert) Harris\r\nPromotions Assistant: Tamara (Burst into tears) Ward\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg (I Went screaming off in a customised Beetle across Waterloo Bridge shouting along to Talking Heads' Psycho Killer & The Only Ones' Another Girl Another Planet)Bingham\r\nCirculation Director: Sue (Went and had a froffy coffee) Hartley\r\nAssistant Publisher: Julie (Left Coventry instantly and vowed never to return) Stuckes\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair (Went to bed for a week). Future (Considered a career as a dentist) Publishing [redacted]\r\n\r\nManaging Director: Chris (Drank most of a bottle of bubbly and then... can't really remember) Anderson\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1992. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission from Bertie Arbuthnot of Calcutta Deirdrie's motorway cafe.\r\n\r\nISSN: 0269 6983\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair fails its exams, but just doesn't care with other rebellious mags like: Commodore Format (Went on a Venture Scout jamboree), Amstrad Action (Burnt school books), Amiga Format (Went down to the beach in Bournemouth), PCW Plus (Dived fully clothed into a swimming pool), PC Answers (Signed up for re-sits), PC Plus (Cried), Sega Power (Won a race to get out of a three hour exam and into the bar first [winning time 45 mins]), Amiga Power (Asked everyone else what question five had actually meant), Amiga Shopper (Caught a plane to Venice), Classic CD (Listened to a nice symphony), Needlecraft (Stitched a noose), Cycling Plus (Went home), Photo Plus (Joined the moonies), Mountain Biking UK (Went to see a personal supervisor to explain why they'd only turned up for half an hour and written their name in the first exam of the season), PC Format (Fed school blazer to the dogs and watched them rip the thing to pieces), Public Domain (Broke wind), ST Format (Went inter-railing to Greece, France, Germany etc). Total! (Dossed in the sun until shoehorned out of the garden by mom and dad to go and get a job) and Today's Vegetarian (Went hurtling to the pub faster than you could say transcontinental plate tectonics) and coming soon... What Scart Lead.\r\n\r\nBut what we really want to know is... if Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck and Pluto's a dog, what the hell is Goofy?"},"MainText":"Hi-Tec\r\n£3.99 cassette\r\n[redacted]\r\nReviewer: Andy Hutchinson\r\n\r\nRight well, the immediate question which springs to mind is just what exactly the difference between a turtle and a tortoise is. So it's over to The Cambridge Encyclopaedia for this one. (Some page-flicking moments later.) Right, it seems that turtles can swim and tortoises can't. Turtles it would appear, are also generally larger than their land-bound brethren. All of which suggests to me that turtles are infinitely superior to tortoises and this game should have been Turbo The Turtle.\r\n\r\nAny road up, Turbo is a tortoise and if Hi-Tec have got anything to do with it, hell be our very own Sonic or Mario. Given the popularity of those particular chaps, the boys at Visual Impact (who brought you Potsworth & Co) have taken some of the better platformy elements and created their own game-world on the Speccy, a world populated by legions of hideous creatures and loads of attractive (if roughly hewn) items to collect.\r\n\r\nBAD CASE OF THE PLOTS\r\n\r\nTurbo started out life as Wal, the pet tortoise of one Dr Mulliner, a world renowned scientists and part time pub singer. Unfortunately Wal decided to hibernate in an anti-matter pod and was transformed into the super-human (or should that be super-tortoise?) Turbo. The doctor sends our newly transformed reptile on a trip through time to locate some key ingredients to his latest experiments. There are six time zones to battle through: Prehistoric, Ice Age, Egyptian, Mediaeval, 20th Century and (dun dun duuun), the Future.\r\n\r\nTurbo is a thoroughly controllable dude. He can jump to varying heights over varying distances and he can change direction in mid-flight. All of this means that you'll need some finely honed jumpy skills in order to complete all six worlds.\r\n\r\nThe creatures which populate the different lands can all be killed by bouncing on their heads. However if you really want to do the job on them, then pick up a power-up and you'll be able to shoot them. Personally I far preferred bouncing on them because you can also reach inaccessible platforms which hide goodies such as power-ups and extra lives. Turbo also possesses the ability to pick up rocks and boulders and carry them about. These can be plonked into rivers and placed near walls to enable you to cross caverns and climb steep precipices.\r\n\r\nSOUNDS AWFULL SPESH!\r\n\r\nIndeed it is. The graphics are smooth (if a tad mono) and the puzzles inventive. Best of all though are the end-of-level baddies. These gruesome chaps take quite a bit of punishment before they succumb and sink beneath the translucent waves of life harboured... (Snip! Linda) To complete the game you'll need to bash up a fire-spitting dinosaur, an ice ball-lobbing yet, a spell-casting mummy, an axe-wielding suit of armour, a hammer-fisted thug and a gnarly laser-firing robot.\r\n\r\nTurbo The Tortoise is a superb game. It's thoroughly playable and wonderfully varied. The gameplay is spot-on, the villains tough and the jumping pulse quickening. Alright, so there's a considerable bit of Sonic and Mario in here, but hey, Manic Miner started it all, right? At four quid, this game's a barg, nip down to your local software emporium and demand a copy now. Right, where did I leave that tongue-spitting balloon?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Jumpy, spinny, leapy frolicsome joy, which leaves one feeling 'pletely happy.","Page":"12","Denied":false,"Award":"Your Sinclair Megagame","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Hutchinson","Score":"94","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Hampton was shocked to find himself doing the Monster Mash in ancient Egypt. He'd only gone to the shop for a bag of peanuts."},{"Text":"Squiffy was in mortal danger. The killer skulls were closing in and an unfashionable concertina was threatening his street cred."},{"Text":"While the scene of drama was played out in the cavern, away in the distance Tom played his flute and dreamt of Cornwall."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"BLIM!\r\n\r\nThe oldest tortoise lived to be 152 years of age. It was brought to the Seychelles by the Chevalier de Fresne who presented it to the Port Louis army. It went blind in 1908 and was accidentally killed in 1918. Interestingly, all of the above is true."},{"Text":"WHY TURBO IS BETTER THAN BOTH SONIC AND MARIO\r\n\r\nHe comes from a far older genetic breed. Tortoises are related to the first dinosaur and thus older, wiser and better than a cruddy hedgehog with a blue-rinse hairdo or a pot-bellied Italian with appaling taste in clothes.\r\n\r\nTurbo doesn't require any dodgy mushrooms or curious pills to increase his performance. Both Sonic and Mario are dreadful abusers who don't deserve to be called computer heroes. YS say, book into a detox centre.\r\n\r\nMario requires the help of his brother Luigi on his trips around Koopa-land, so he's obviously soft as anything.\r\n\r\nSonic's a big girl's blouse who goes around ostensibly freeing woodland animals. Secretly however he's making millions from merchandising and has admitted to his manicurist that, \"...all woodland animals really get on my nerves. They tweet and growl and moo and then go and poo all over the place. My agent advised me to stick to Glade freshener adverts...\"\r\n\r\nHedgehogs have got zillions of fleas because they smell of poo all the time.\r\n\r\nYou can cook a hedgehog if you cover it in clay and roast it. Try doing that with a tortoise.\r\n\r\nHedgehogs hibernate in really stupid places like bonfires so that they get torched on bonfire night, oh and if you feed them milk and bread they die. Ha! Hal Ha!\r\n\r\nThe Italians are always changing their minds. History proves this. Mario's always changing his mind.\r\n\r\nIn order to play Sonic or Mario you'll need to part with at least 30 quid. Turbo can be yours for a mere four quid. YS say, Mario and Sonic are over-priced crap-faces."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"92%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"93%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"93%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"93%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"94%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 126, Aug 1992","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1992-07-18","Editor":"Alan Dykes","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Alan 'Out and about' Dykes\r\nDesign: Yvette 'West Coast' Nicholls\r\nSU Crew: Garth 'Bright shirt' Sumpter, Steve 'Rainy Holiday' Keen, Ed 'Skate' Laurence, Pete 'Master of the Runes' Gerrard, Graham 'Machine Code' Mason, Phillip 'Morse Code' Fisch, Phil 'The Lift' Anglin\r\nAd Manager: Tina 'Schwing' Zanelli\r\nAd Production: Matthew 'Leaving on a Virgin jet plane' Walker\r\nMarketing Man.: Mark 'Daddy' Swallow\r\nMarketing Persons: Sarah 'Green Tartan' Ewing, Sarah 'Alan, it's going to be late' Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Mike 'Volkspublisher' Frey\r\nManaging Director: Terry 'Meetings' Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1992 EMAP IMAGES\r\nPhone: [redacted] (just call to say you love us)\r\nFax: [redacted] (Ask Heather to pass on the paper please)\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nColour by those wonderful Colourtech people\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher\r\nTypeset by Altyp Inc\r\n\r\nAbsolutely no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system or copied, resold etc with the prior permission of the publisher, who is a very nice and helpful sort of chap (NOT!) SU - the answer to all your problems. Need to send someone a get well gift? Pop a copy of SU through their letterbox. Troubled by the common cold, flu, nasty insect bites? Never mind, read SU and it'll take your mind off it. Want to know what's going on in the world of Spectrum? Look not further. All this and more can be yours with SU. Nut I don't think we'll try to show you how to throw plastic objects to your friend."},"MainText":"Label: Hi Tec\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £3.99 Tape\r\nReviewer: Paul Rand\r\n\r\nFor some lime now tortoises have been losing out to turtles on the amphibian popularity front. There's been the famed Ninja Turtles, the all in one shine \"Turtlewax\". But it seems as though they're about to get a much better deal as a newly Turbo Charged member of their brethren takes the field.\r\n\r\nDoctor Mulliner (PhD. S.A.D.) has got bored of singing in seedy pubs and has decided to fall back on his second rate job... a world class scientist! In the middle of a top notch experiment the Doc encounters a large explosion and consequently his docile pet tortoise is transformed into the aforementioned turbo charged hero, hurrah what a guy!\r\n\r\nThis is where the trouble really begins. To complete the original experiment the doc still needs six vital components. Funnily enough they're scattered over six horizontally scrolling landscapes all of which are in different periods of time. (What ever happened to driving down to Do-At-All on a Sunday afternoon?) And guess who gets roped in for the job? Of course! - Our shelly pal Turbo, off on his - very first all important mission.\r\n\r\nAt first Turbo the Tortoise may look more than a touch similar to Yogi Bear, but then that's no bad thing in itself! Graphically it's very good and all the main sprites are well drawn and clear, (Turbo even has that lazy tortoise look about him - a bit like Big Al' on a Monday morning) while scrolling remains nice and smooth. The sound is nothing to write home about, but the effects suit the style of play very well.\r\n\r\nWell here we are again, back at the all important playability stakes. What nasty surprises and foul gameplay niggles are lurking within this seemingly innocent game's shell? None, not a sausage. It's addictive, enjoyable, challenging and reasonably cute though, I don't think it's going to set the Spectrum world alight but Turbo the Tortoise is definitely worth the £3.99 that is being asked for it (and more if you fancy tipping your local shopkeeper). The overall verdict... buy it. I would.","ReviewerComments":["Remember when everyone used to name their family tortoise Flash, considering it a jolly jape to laugh at its slow ways? Well this tortoise's no joke. Turbo is a really cute and playable title and well worth a not so high speed look.\r\nAlan Dykes"],"OverallSummary":"Hmm... \"A nice simple non frustrating yet challenging platform romp\" or I could say \"A fun and enjoyable game starring a once forgotten hero\" But why use twenty words when three say it just as well, \"A great title\".","Page":"20,21","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Rand","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Alan Dykes","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Aggh, it's ball of death."},{"Text":"Aggh, it's end of level mayhem."},{"Text":"Aha, a coconut tree! (Eh?)"},{"Text":"Do I see a power up?"},{"Text":"Keep out of the water."},{"Text":"Now he has a lump on his head."},{"Text":"Wow, a marshmallow with legs!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"74%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"84%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"85%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]