[{"TitleName":"Blind Alley","Publisher":"Sunshine Books Ltd","Author":"Simon Lane","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0000566","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: Sunshine Booka, 16K\r\n£4.95\r\nAuthor: Simon Lane\r\n\r\nBlind Alley is what passed for sport in the year 3017, you are told on the inlay. In fact the game looks confusing at first, but that's because it is fast and there's no time to think. This really is a game where those with quick and sure instincts win. You must steer your ship round the grid in such a way that you block off other ships, forcing them into a blind alley where they are forced against your trail, their own trails, or the edge of the screen. Of course it usually happens the other way round... You start off against two ships, then four, then 6 and so on. It gets very hard! Works with Kempston joystick. Avoid hitting reverse of the direction in which you're travelling - it's instant death. Recommended","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"54","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: Suns h,ne Booka, 16K\r\n£4.95\r\nAuthor: Simon Lane\r\n\r\nBlind Alley is what passed for sport in the year 3017, you are told on the inlay. In fact the game looks confusing at first, but that's because it is fast and there's no time to think. This really is a game where those with quick and sure instincts win. You must steer your ship round the grid in such a way that you block off other ships, forcing them into a blind alley where they are forced against your trail, their own trails, or the edge of the screen. Of course it usually happens the other way round... You start off against two ships, then four, then 6 and so on. It gets very hard! Works with Kempston joystick. Avoid hitting reverse of the direction in which you're travelling - it's instant death. Recommended","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"56","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: Suns h,ne Booka, 16K\r\n£4.95\r\nAuthor: Simon Lane\r\n\r\nBlind Alley is what passed for sport in the year 3017, you are told on the inlay. In fact the game looks confusing at first, but that's because it is fast and there's no time to think. This really is a game where those with quick and sure instincts win. You must steer your ship round the grid in such a way that you block off other ships, forcing them into a blind alley where they are forced against your trail, their own trails, or the edge of the screen. Of course it usually happens the other way round... You start off against two ships, then four, then 6 and so on. It gets very hard! Works with Kempston joystick. Avoid hitting reverse of the direction in which you're travelling - it's instant death. Recommended","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"73","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 20, Jun 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-05-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nStaff Writer: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nReader Services: Robert Schifreen\r\nArt Editor: Lynda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Linda 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: Hunt Emerson\r\nNext Issue: June 16th"},"MainText":"NOT THE GAME OF THE FUTURE\r\n\r\nBlind Alley is a snake chase type game where you have to avoid your own tail and attempt to make two pursuing snakes crash into it.\r\n\r\nDespite this, the cassette inlay depicts a space scene and gives some blurb about Blind Alley being the sport of the future. New software house - Sunshine - are not alone in producing misleading cassette inlays. Some of the worst offenders are the established software houses.\r\n\r\nThe idea of the game is to hem in the snakes before they can do the same to you. You score a hundred points for each snake successfully crashed.\r\n\r\nYou begin with two fairly slow snakes and then progress to two quicker ones, then four snakes and so on. Trouble is its all rather slow. The snakes are difficult to control with the keyboard and, if you accidentally press the wrong key they have the annoying habit of disappearing.\r\n\r\nThe graphics were not the most colourful have seen on the Spectrum to say the least. I also felt that the game would have been much better if you had something, or things, to gobble up as you guided your snake around the screen.\r\n\r\nIt is not possible in Blind Alley to rectify a mistaken move by steering yourself out of trouble - instead you must start all over again from the beginning.\r\n\r\nAbout the only good feature of Blind Alley was the high score board which enabled you to write your name in full, congratulated you on a high score, and kept a \"Hall of Fame\".\r\n\r\nBlind Alley is available from Sunshine Software at £4.95 and runs on the Sinclair Spectrum in 16 or 48K.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"107","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"3/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 8, Aug 1983","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1983-07-22","Editor":"Roger Munford","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"ZX Computing\r\nVol. One\r\nNumber Eight\r\nAug/Sept 1983\r\n\r\nEditor: Roger Munford\r\nAdvertising Manager: Miriam Roberts\r\nManaging Editor: Ron Harris\r\nManaging Director: T J Connell\r\n\r\nOrigination and design by MM Design & Print, [redacted]\r\nPublished by Argus Specialist Publications Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nZX Computing is published bi-monthly on the fourth Friday of the month. Distributed by: Argus Press Sales & Distribution Ltd. [redacted]. Printed by: Henry Garnett Ltd., Rotherham.\r\n\r\nThe contents of this publication including all articles, designs, plans, drawings and programs and all copyright and other intellectual property rights therein belong to Argus Specialist Publications Limited. All rights conferred by the Law of Copyright and other intellectual property rights and by virtue of international copyright conventions are specifically reserved to Argus Specialist Publications Limited and any reproduction requires the prior written consent of the Argus Specialist Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Argus Specialist Publications Limited 1983"},"MainText":"PRICE: £4.95\r\nMemory: 16K\r\n\r\nThe instructions on the back of the box tells that this game is a deadly duel, deep in space - the sport of the year 3017.\r\n\r\nThe idea is to trap your opponent or opponents by enclosing them in the trail that you have left. It is rather like the game in the movie, Tron. The graphics of the introductory screen are good, though the graphics of the rest of the game are less than brilliant. Though there is only one level of play it does get progressively more difficult, with more and more opponents sent against you.\r\n\r\nSunshine seem to have a habit of producing games which are not technically brilliant, but manage to be highly addictive and great fun to play.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"108","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"James Walsh","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Documentation","Score":"3.5/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Quality","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Programming Achievement","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Lasting Appeal","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"4/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]