[{"TitleName":"Wizball","Publisher":"Ocean Software Ltd","Author":"Mark R. Jones, Paul Owens, Peter Clarke, Steven L. Watson, Bob Wakelin","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0005713","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 45, Oct 1987","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1987-09-24","Editor":"Barnaby Page","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Richard Eddy, Lloyd Mangram, Ian Phillipson, Ben Stone\r\nPhotographers: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nTechnical Writers: Simon N Goodwin, Jon Bates\r\nAdventure Column: Derek Brewster\r\nPBM Column: Brendon Kavanagh\r\nStrategy Column: Philippa Irving\r\nEducation Column: Rosetta McLeod\r\nLondon Correspondent: John Minson\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Mike Dunn, Paul Evans, Dominic Handy, Nick Roberts, Mark Rothwell, Paul Sumner\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrator: Oliver Frey\r\nDesign: Tony Lorton, Markie Kendrick, Wayne Allen\r\nProcess and Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Jonathan Rignall, Nick Orchard\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Andrew Smales\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\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: Ocean\r\nRetail Price: £7.95\r\n\r\nIf you were a wizened Wizard with a magical cat on a planet filled with colourful landscapes you'd be jolly fed up if someone tried to turn it into monochrome, wouldn't you? Of course you would. It's like suddenly being told your Amiga has attribute clash.\r\n\r\nAnd that's exactly how Wiz feels when Zark and his unpleasant horde of helpers bleach his colourful Wizworld.\r\n\r\nSo, with a spherical Wizball space transporter to help him, Wiz begins to eliminate the invading colour-blind hordes. When the game begins, the transporter can spin to the left or right and bounce through the now drab Wizworld. As Wiz progresses, he encounters lethal aliens: waves of crabs, diamonds and multiarmed spindles, all threatening poor Wiz's three lives. These creatures can be destroyed, for points, by the transporter. Many of them reveal green, smiling pearl faces when killed; by touching these faces Wiz collects extra capabilities, including supa-beams and blazers, protective sprays, smart bombs, shields, and a thruster and anti-grav powers to give him more control of the bouncing transporter.\r\n\r\nBut probably the most important thing for our crumbly warlock is Catelite, the magical feline.\r\n\r\nWizworld is composed of three colours: red, green and blue. To restore the brightness that Zark and his mob have drained away, Wiz must burst floating colour bubbles. As droplets from them fall earthward, Catelite can gather them up.\r\n\r\nAs he does so, each droplet is placed in one of three empty cauldrons - one cauldron for each colour in the magic land. When a cauldron is full, one colour of Wizworld comes back to life; Wiz and Catelite can then concentrate on gathering the remaining colours.\r\n\r\nCompleting a colour also allows Wiz to visit his Wiz-Lab and gather yet more unbelievable powers.\r\n\r\nWhen all three colours have been collected, Wizworld is restored to its old glory, and Wiz and his cat can go home to toast the defeat of Zark with the wizard's favourite drink - a well-earned glass of bat's bowel and hemlock fizz. Yum.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoystick: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: weird, wonderful and well-defined despite some attribute clash\r\nSound: some pleasant ditties","ReviewerComments":["Wizball is one of the most playable games I've ever seen, despite some trivial bugs. The controls are perfect, though they're incredibly difficult to get to grips with (the instructions are less than clear, too)! The smooth-moving graphics are strikingly original, and the colour clash doesn't affect them too much. This is one hell of a game, so go geddit.\r\nBen Stone\r\n92%","Wizball's graphics are fantastic and well-defined, and the higher levels reveal more and more delights - including wild assortments of aliens. And the bouncing Wizball looks like a cross between a Critter and Bobby Bearing! There are some decent spot FX, and a good 128 tune. Though the controls are difficult at first, it gets more playable and rewarding as you progress - an ace game.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n90%","Wizball is a classic. The graphics are brilliant, despite some colour clash, and sound is excellent on the 128s (but a bit limited on the 48s). At first the bouncing is difficult to control - but once it's mastered and you've picked up a few of the right icons, Wizball becomes one of the best shoot-'em-ups I've played for ages. It's so polished it shines!\r\nMike Dunn\r\n93%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A few control problems hardly detract from entertaining and playable game.","Page":"22,23","Denied":false,"Award":"Crash Smash","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Ben Stone","Score":"92","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"93","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"All the President's men look on..."},{"Text":"Choosing a weapon in the Wiz-Lab."},{"Text":"Wizball floats on in search of a little local colour."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"88%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"93%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"92%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"92%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 23, Nov 1987","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1987-10-12","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Peter George\r\nProduction Editor: Lucy Broadbent\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nSoftware Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nDeputy Art Editor: 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":"Ocean\n£7.95\nReviewer: Rachael Smith\n\nWe've had games about wizards and we've had games about balls before so now let's have a game about a wizard with only one ball. The other was in the Albert Hall.\n\nSorry, old habits die hard. It reminds me of scrubbing up with the rugby team (well. where else do you think I met Gwyn?). Anyhow, this is a hybrid of genius bouncerius and genius shoot 'em upius, sub-species additional weaponius. Which means lots to kill and bonuses to be gained but nasty controls to master.\n\nIt seems that the wizard Wiz, is trying to save his home planet, Wizworld (obviously he loves its novel name). The menace is Zark who is robbing the world of its colours... which sounds the best excuse for the Spectrum's dodgy attributes I've heard in a long while.\n\nAccording to the inlay, Zark has an army of horrible sprites, though they looked pretty good to me as I blasted away. Far better than the Wizard's Wizball, in fact, which resembles nothing more than a nauseous smiley badge.\n\nThe only way to save the planet is to shoot red, green and blue colour bubbles and release droplets of pigment, which you can catch with your pussy (you knew wizards had cats, didn't you). Wiz's is a catelite, a sort of feline satellite which resembles a junior wizball rather than the furry little thing you'd all love to stroke.\n\nYou collect colours from three levels at a time, moving between them by a series of tunnels. The drops top up your paint pots until you've collected enough to redecorate the landscape, after which everything reverts to its technicoloured hues and you can proceed to a bonus screen where Wiz can earn a Wiz-perk in the Wiz-lab (such staggering imagination!).\n\nThe problem is that you don't start off with a catelite. In fact you don't start off with anything more than a weapon and an irritating habit of bouncing whichever way you're spinning. Somehow you have to shoot an alien or two to produce a green pearl to collect it.\n\nYou've heard of pearls of wisdom, right? Well, these are pearls of purchase and they let you stock up on useful attributes such as steering power, extra shooting power, smart bombs, and yes, of course, your catelite. Once you start to get equipped the game becomes much easier.\n\nMy major complaint is that at the start it's infernally difficult. Quite often you don't stand a chance and lose a life almost immediately as you're unable to negotiate a floating alien. You could also drop down a tunnel, which results in a hostile reception requiring all your manoeuvring skills.\n\nWizball's an odd game, which can be extremely addictive if you're willing to carry on regardless of all the unfair early deaths. But if you're not quite so obsessive, you may just whizz off for something else!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A novel game with cheerful graphics and clever gameplay but hard to get into.","Page":"44","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rachael Smith","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Another sprite dies and you have to choose from the shopping list on the side. Some icons are only available once you've received another object from the same box. First priority should be for the two steering attributes in the first box - one to let you swerve in mid-bounce, the other to provide more traditional control. After that it's probably worth collecting three pearls until you illuminate the catelite then go back to box two for a supa-beam weapon and two way firepower."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","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: Ocean\r\nAuthor: In-house\r\nPrice: £7.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nIf you're looking for a cracking arcade style game with more inventive ideas than just about everything else around at the moment put together, Ocean's Wizball could be the business.\r\n\r\nHow to describe it? It's a complex left-right bouncing thing - with interlinking tunnels. It's as infuriating as any Ultimate game ever was - to start with you haven't a clue what's going on.\r\n\r\nSo what's it all about? The world you find yourself dropped into has been drained of all its colour by the evil Zark. To trash the monochrome madman you've got to collect up drops of paint you find scattered around the surreal environment to fill up your paint pots.\r\n\r\nI'm sure you won't be too surprised to learn this is a whole lot more tricky than it sounds... Your Wiz object, looking remarkably like a curious giant pea. starts off bouncing and rolling along and is extraordinarily difficult to control.\r\n\r\nIn action on the planet's surface you come up against numerous infuriating obstacles resembling stalagmites and stalagtites. While the obstacles themselves are quite inoffensive, Wiz's movement in the early stages (bouncing high in the air and ricocheting off everything in sight) makes it horribly infuriating.\r\n\r\nYou quickly discover what you really need is a more precise way to control Wiz. Just as well then there's a strip of icons all the way down the right-hand side of the screen, each enabling you to control Wiz in a more precise manner. Lawks. Now there's a stroke of good fortune.\r\n\r\nThere are seven options in all, though some can be activated twice in order to enhance their initial enhancement, if you see what I mean.\r\n\r\nObviously, you're not going to be allowed to simply skip through the icons at will. In order to highlight one, you need to wipe out an alien which will change into a green circle. By flying Wiz into the circle, the icon box will turn blue, indicating that it can be selected should you choose to do so. Then, to select the icon, you've got to waggle the joystick furiously left and right for a second.\r\n\r\nAll this could be rather overwhelming and, in a moment of uncharacteristic generosity, the programmers have given you an assistant - called Catelite. By working your way to the third icon and hitting Fire, a Cat (disguised as a small pea) will be summoned up. You could be forgiven for thinking that a cat wouldn't be of great help in a game like this. You'd be totally wrong. Cat is completely invaluable. He'll follow you around and gallantly throw himself (on your command) into the aliens.\r\n\r\nOK, so you've flown around and shot some things and got quite handily tooled up, thank you. So how do you go about getting the colour back into Wizworld? Easy, some of the sprites, when shot will change into drops of colour which can be picked up by Cat. As you zoom around, picking up the correct colour (indicated by a cauldron on the bottom of the screen) the little pots (check out the screens here) will gradually fill up.\r\n\r\nAs for gadding about, there's some mapping needed, if you're that way inclined.\r\n\r\nThere are tubes in the surface of the Wizworld lunescape which lead to other levels. The deeper the level, the more ferocious the aliens. Since it's possible to return to an early level from a tougher one, you can build up the colour pots as you go, without having to complete one level in one go. This means, first, it's very playable and, second, it's quite a challenge.\r\n\r\nThough simple to look at, everything moves smoothly and the scrolling is flawless. Should you be fortunate enough to become totally equipped with all the icons, you can wreak immense havoc on the aliens.\r\n\r\nWizball is virtually flawless. It's addictive qualities, combined with super-smooth graphics and highly original gameplay make it one of the very best games to appear this year. A classic.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Strangely wonderful arcade blast. Frenetic stick-waggling of the highest quality. Splendid graphics too.","Page":"52,53","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"10","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"HINTS AND TIPS\r\n\r\nStick with the first level 'til you've got the hang of controlling Wiz.\r\n\r\nDon't move on to the later levels before properly equipping yourself with Cat and some better firepower.\r\n\r\nSelect your extra options carefully it's often better to get Cat (Icon 3) before doubling your supa-beam (Icon 2).\r\n\r\nUse Cat to your advantage Make him block the on-coming aliens as well as scooping up their colour.\r\n\r\nMove slowly. You only need to race around when there are too many aliens for Cat to deal with."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"10/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"The Games Machine Issue 1, Oct 1987","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1987-09-17","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nCo-Editor: Gary Penn\r\nContributors: John Minson, Jon Bates, Ciaran Brennan, Martin Coxhead, Mel Croucher, Sue Dando, Simon Goodwin, Martyn Lester, Barnaby Page, Jeremy Spencer, Nik Wild, John Woods\r\nEditorial Assistant: Fran Mable\r\nArt Director: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: David Western, Gordon Druce, Mark Kendrick, Matthew Uffindell, Jonathan Rignall, Nick Orchard\r\n\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nSales Executive: Andrew Smales\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by the Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow with colour origination taken care of by Scan Studios [redacted], and printing achieved by the Artisan Press [redacted]. Distribution effected by COMAG, of [redacted].\r\n\r\nQuite simple, really. The Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to competition 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, and promise to publish the names of winners in the magazine. 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 arrive, in which case drop Fran Mable a line at the PO Box 10 address). Naturally, no-one who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to a person living or dead, who works for Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. Well they can enter, but they stand no chance of winning anything.\r\n\r\nEveryone's gone to a lot of trouble and effort to produce the material that appears in this issue of the magazine, and as the copyright holders, we're going to be very annoyed if we find it turning up elsewhere. Like the SUN says when they get a juicy exclusive, 'Our lawyers are watching'. So don't be tempted...\r\n\r\nWe can't promise to return anything you send us, unless it's accompanied by a suitable postal receptacle and the requisite amount of stamps - and should you provide any unsolicited words or photographs that we use, we'll pay for them at our usual rates. That just about wraps up any letters...\r\n\r\n©1987\r\n\r\nPhotography by Cameron Pound\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey\r\n\r\nNEWSFIELD\r\n\r\nA NEWSFIELD PUBLICATION"},"MainText":"PSYCHEDELIC WIZARDRY\r\n\r\nSpectrum and Amstrad owners can now sample some of the delights experienced for three months by Commodore 64 owners... Sensible Software's bizarre horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up Wizball has finally been converted to the Z80 machines and is available from Ocean. Taking control of the Wiz and his cat in their protective spherical shells, the objective is to collect the colour stolen by Zark and put it back into the Wiz-worlds eight monochrome levels.\r\n\r\nSadly, both new versions lack a lot of the humour and playability of the original - including the bonus stage and the ability to 'hide' in the landscape. The Amstrad version's scenery doesn't scroll - the screen flicks irritatingly from one part of the landscape to the next - and it isn't overly playable. Amstrad owners who have seen the Commodore original are likely to be disappointed, whether they spend £8.85 (cassette) or £14.95 (disk). On the other hand, the Spectrum version provides sufficient action for £7.95 on cassette incidentally look out for an Amiga version early next year.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50,51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"AMSTRAD CPC\r\n\r\nOverall: 65%"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"80%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]