[{"TitleName":"Xecutor","Publisher":"ACE Software [1]","Author":"Christian F. Urquhart, Mike Smith","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0005783","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: ACE\r\nRetail Price: £7.99\r\nAuthor: Cybadyne\r\n\r\nFaced with the unenviable prospect of a Sunday afternoon sitting in front of the TV, you decide to take to the space waves and blast a few alien bad boys into oblivion.\r\n\r\nAs you venture through a vertically-scrolling corridor, waves of attacking alien craft appear wielding deadly laser blasters.\r\n\r\nSo it's 'do as you would be done by' as you try to take out these entities with a series of forward-firing weapons. Equipped at first with just a low-level gun, you can enhance your arsenal by destroying certain alien craft; this reveals weapons that can either be collected or themselves destroyed to take you on to a more powerful system.\r\n\r\nAt the end of each corridor section is a large ominous craft: accurate fire knocks out vital components, but the ship is then transformed into an even more formidable opponent ready for blasting. A measly three lives, fast manoeuvring and expert fighting are the only things that can get you home tonight...\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: excellent, colourful and detailed with smooth scrolling\r\nOptions: two-player mode, definable keys","ReviewerComments":["Xecutor's colourful graphics make it an attractive game to play, but it's a bit annoying to 'crash' on touching the corner of a curved piece of scenery. The scrolling is smooth, and in two-player mode the gameplay is a lot more fun and doesn't slow down; otherwise, Xecutor is just a standard shoot-'em-up with neat graphics.\r\nMike Dunn\r\n80%","Xecutor is one of the best shoot-'em-ups I've seen in ages. It's got great graphics with brilliant scrolling colour scenery and detailed superbaddies. Some of the add-on weapons are very original - the split firing and the pod are really devastating. Xecutor's only drawback is that it's very difficult, difficult to the point of being infuriating after an hour or so stuck on the first level!\r\nBen Stone\r\n86%","OK, so it's Zynaps turned through 90 degrees... but at least it's a credible clone with a few attractive variations. For instance, the two-player option is a clever addition in which you cannot only help but also hinder the other player, and this adds a new dimension to the Nemesis concept. The pickup technique also requires some skill. Forget the monochromatic Slap Fight and Moonstrike - what you've got here is a playable shoot-'em-up with a superb splattering of colour that doesn't spoil the game one iota. Once you've completed Zynaps turn your hand to Xecutor, and you'll find the same appeal with more challenge.\r\nPaul Sumner\r\n87%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A superb shoot-'em-up - a must for anyone who liked Zynaps - getting The Edge's new ACE label off to a fiery start.","Page":"134","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"80","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Ben Stone","Score":"86","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"87","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Hordes of marauding foes and other alien cliches…"},{"Text":"Prepare to meet your doom, you hulking great mother ship!"},{"Text":"Shooting 'em up starts with the weapon option shown in that box on the right of the screen."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"82%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"84%","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":"Ace\n£7.99\nReviewer: Phil South\n\nWhen it comes right down to it, there'll always be a market for a good nippy shoot 'em up. If you can make one with a two player option, so that two players can play at the same time, then you're going to laugh all the way to the bank. In that case, Ace, a new arcade label from The Edge, is going to be spending a lot of time chortling up the high street. Xecutor, its first game, is a one or two player scrolling shoot 'em up, with a brainsquishing variety of weapons and death-dealing baddies to choose from.\n\nThe major drawback of shoot 'em ups these days is they tend to be a bit on the easy-peasy side. Oh sure, there's plenty of thrills, spills and about eight billion baddies to shoot, but as you've usually got unlimited firepower, and all the time in the world, you just spray the baddies with bullets and hope for the best. That's the trend, so where does Xecutor's trousers hang? Well, it's nice to see that somebody's writing hard games (and don't say oo-er). Xecutor is just that.\n\nYou, and a buddy in a twin ship, if you play two player, are flying up through a vertically scrolling landscape. Coming down towards you are a handful of heavily armed space bozos in their custom-built ships. Okay? Now what makes this different is that there's only a few aliens shooting at you, and you've only got a smallish cannon to hit 'em with, so you've got to be economical with your shots, and accurate if you want to kill any of them. So that's quite hard to start with, but as you progress through the game, you can pick up new weapons and shields, which make it slightly easier to hit things. So you have to use all your arcade skills if you want to stay in the game.\n\nHaving sweated your way through each wave of fiendishly weaving death-dribblers, you're faced with a massive ship about six times as big as your own! Having blasted that to golden shred, you would expect to be let through into the next level, right? Wrong! The ship compacts and starts blasting at you and you've got to fight it before you can get through. Phew!\n\nI must say that this is the hardest shoot 'em up I've seen for a while, and as such is great value for money. If you like torturing yourself with tough games, then shell out (peeoww! zip! ka-boom!) for Xecutor.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A tough and gritty shoot 'em up, with lots of action, but needing lots of skill to finish. A blast!","Page":"41","Denied":false,"Award":"Your Sinclair Megagame","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil South","Score":"9","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Flying through the airborne spacejunk on your way to certain doom is more fun with two players. Best played with a friend to back you up, it's the skill needed to hit anything and avoid being hit that makes Xecutor a game for hardened spacers only."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"9/10","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: Ace\r\nAuthor: Cybadyne\r\nPrice: £7.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Graham Taylor\r\n\r\nWant to know one sign of a really brilliant game? The reviewer has to be dragged away from it to write the review.\r\n\r\nAnd Xecutor is one such magnetic game.\r\n\r\nIt's a shoot-'em up from Ace, a new label which is basically The Edge doing arcade games.\r\n\r\nXecutor is also about the only thing that is going to give Zynaps any sort of competition.\r\n\r\nThere is no plot worth discussing in the game. It's about firing fast and dodging faster, about precision control of your space fighter and instant reflexes. That's the basic requirements of any arcade game but, like Zynaps before it, Xecutor is also a blinding technical achievement. It looks great and plays even better.\r\n\r\nComparisons with Zynaps are inevitable though unfair in some respects since Xecutor has plenty of features which are uniquely its own.\r\n\r\nIt scrolls from top to bottom - like Lightforce - and features a variant on what is rapidly becoming this season's big trend - namely firepower bonuses. This is where your ship begins the game armed with only a rickety old laser which splutters fairly uselessly at the bad guys, but where collecting bonus points can win you more serious weaponry.\r\n\r\nIn Xecutor you can graduate from intermittent laser beam to double speed to double barrel to torpedoes to spray-fire, 360° blasts and so on.\r\n\r\nYou can get to be pretty mean.\r\n\r\nTo begin with the aliens sweep moderately slowly across the screen - the problem is not so much avoiding them or the bullets they occasionally drop, but actually killing them all.\r\n\r\nIt is only by wiping out a complete wave of aliens that you get a bonus symbol and this is the only way you have of surviving later waves Basically if you don't wipe out all the first wave of aliens you might as well just forget it...\r\n\r\nThe bonus system works in an interesting way. If the bonus star comes up on screen you can either collect it - by flying over it - or shoot it.\r\n\r\nCollecting it gives you the current level of firepower - as indicated by an icon on the right-hand side of the screen - and sets the icon back to zero.\r\n\r\nOn the other hand you can simply shoot the bonus star - this doesn't change your firepower but instead advances the weapon select icon. Thus in Xecutor you have to constantly decide whether to take the weapons on offer or to take a chance on getting something more dangerous the next time you clear a wave.\r\n\r\nOne thing is certain, if you want to acquire meaningful points in this game you are going to need, at the very least, photon torpedoes because at the end of the level you get The Big Alien.\r\n\r\nThe Big Alien which reappears in many guises throughout the game spits out bullets and needs to be hit dozens of times before it turns into a fighter and chases you around the screen. H you manage to blast it then, and only then, do you get to Stage 2. The destruction of the big alien is pretty spectacular. Bits of metal come spinning off at all directions as it disintegrates only to reform as a fighter Fabulous stuff.\r\n\r\nGraphically Xecutor is more than you could hope for. Large coloured sprites, smooth scrolling, inventive details, the lot. Whatever happened to attribute clash? Xecutor has never heard of it.\r\n\r\nIf the quality of Spectrum software gets any higher people will start trading in their STs!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Superb vertically scrolling bash-em-up. Fiendish gameplay, large multi-coloured graphics and a two-player option!","Page":"24,25","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Graham Taylor","Score":"10","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"PROGRAMMERS\r\n\r\nXecutor is the work of Cybadyne which is Mike Smith (right) and Christian Urquhart (left).\r\n\r\nChristian Urquhart did the coding. Christian is well known for a number of previous games, mostly for his work for Ocean.\r\n\r\nSoftography: Daley Thompson's Decathlon (Ocean, 1984), Hunchback (Ocean, 1984), Robot Messiah (Alphabatim, 1985), Gunrunner (Hewson, 1987)\r\n\r\nMike Smith contributed the excellent graphics."},{"Text":"TWO-PLAYER OPTION\r\n\r\nXecutor also features an unusual two-player option. When selected this allows two people to play at once controlling two space fighters on screen at the same time. Although essentially you are both fighting the computer you can decide to play either in consort or in competition. For example you could both try to help clear the screen of aliens for extra bonuses and share bonus weaponry evenly or you can try to 'steal' bonuses and generally try to get each other killed. Virtually every joystick and keyboard permutation you can imagine is offered on the move control screen to make it as easy as possible for two people to control two ships without ending up in a jumble of fingers and joysticks leads."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"10/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 76, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham 'El Presidente' Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nProduction Editor: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nDesigner: Andrea Walker\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nContributors: Tony 'I'm a headbanger' Dillon, Chris 'Leave off my jelly babies' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine Lee\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Margaret 'I'll spell that for you' Caddick-Adams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Alison Morton\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive Pembridge\r\n\r\nPhone: [redacted]\r\nFax: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Bryan Talbot\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1988 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458"},"MainText":"Label: Micro Selection\r\nAuthor: Cybadyne\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nRe-released incredibly quickly after its full-price launch, Xecutor was described in its original SU review as, \"A blinding technical achievement... looks good and plays even better.\" Although basically it's a straightforward vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up, it has a couple of features which make it stand out from the crowd. For start there's a two-player simultaneous option. As the wonderfully-detailed backgrounds scroll past you, you just zap the waves of enemy fighters, and knock out laser bases. These leave behind weapons pods which you can pick up to add multiple lasers, smart bombs and shields to your arsenal. In two-player mode, you can either play co-operatively or competitively, destroying the weapons you don't need so your partner can't pick them up.\r\n\r\nAt the end of each level you get a lovely multi-weapon mothership to destroy, and on later levels dodging through the ironmongery becomes as challenging as seeing off the fighters. Excellent buy.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"SU Classic vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up, excellent graphics make it a bargain.","Page":"39","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"92","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"92%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) Issue 3, Dec 1987","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1987-11-05","Editor":"Peter Connor, Steve Cooke","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Advanced Computer Entertainment\r\nFuture Publishing [redacted]\r\nTelephone [redacted], Fax [redacted], Telecom Gold 84:TXT152, Prestel/Micronet [redacted]\r\n\r\nCo-editors: Peter Connor, Steve Cooke\r\nReviews Editor: Andy Wilton\r\nStaff Writer: Andy Smith\r\nArt Editor: Trevor Gilham\r\nPublisher: Chris Anderson\r\n\r\nSUBSCRIPTIONS & SPECIAL OFFERS\r\nCarrie-Anne Porter [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOLOUR ORIGINATION\r\nWessex Reproduction [redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION\r\nSM Distribution [redacted]\r\n\r\nPRINTING\r\nChase Web Offset [redacted]\r\n\r\nCopyright - FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD 1987 - No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without our permission."},"MainText":"Have a blast on The Edge.\r\n\r\nAnother vertically scrolling shoot-em-up? Another load of blasting, collecting weapons, and blasting some more? Well, yes - but don't write Xecutor off immediately.\r\n\r\nIt's colourful for one thing, in a field which is (on the Spectrum at any rate) mostly drab or just plain monochrome. It's also got a tremendous combo option that has both players on screen at once, competing (unwise) or cooperating (much better).\r\n\r\nThe object of the game is to blast the aliens, without getting blasted yourself or crashing into the scenery. Attacking nasties descend in waves, four at a time, firing vertically down at you while defensive gun emplacements cling to the scenery and fire horizontally. Destroy an emplacement or a wave of bad guys, and a customising token appears in the debris.\r\n\r\nWhen a token appears you have a choice - shoot it, or pick it up. Shooting tokens stores them away to earn you bigger, more impressive features while picking one up cashes in any you've stored and adds the appropriate feature to your ship. Increased speed, withering firepower and a handy protective shield can all be yours.\r\n\r\nSo far so good, but your initial firepower and speed are very puny indeed and this makes the game rather tough to get into. Worse still, the gameplay has senseless flaws in it: in particular, if you lose a life your craft may well reappear in an instantly lethal position. This can cut games extremely short and could easily have been avoided.\r\n\r\nNot tremendous stuff then for a single player, but switching to two-player mode transforms the game. You can play a combo game competitively, but with the aforementioned problems you wont get too far that way. Cooperate instead, and you'll soon get the firepower to really trash those aliens - and have a lot of fun along the way.\r\n\r\nReviewer: Andy Wilton\r\n\r\nRELEASE BOX\r\nC64/128, £8.99cs, £12.99dk, December\r\nSpectrum, £7.99cs, Reviewed\r\n\r\nPredicted Interest Curve\r\n\r\n1 min: 77/10\r\n1 hour: 80/10\r\n1 day: 77/10\r\n1 week: 60/10\r\n1 month: 40/10\r\n1 year: 20/10","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Even for two, the fun doesn't last.","Page":"69","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Wilton","Score":"757","ScoreSuffix":"/1000"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A wave of aliens dives towards you. Shoot them all, collect a token from the debris and you'll increase your rate of fire."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Visual Effects","Score":"5/7","Text":"Colour and scrolling are very slick."},{"Header":"Audio","Score":"3/7","Text":"Nice enough tune but effects are sparse."},{"Header":"IQ Factor","Score":"3/7","Text":"Customising strategies to ponder."},{"Header":"Fun Factor","Score":"4/7","Text":"Dreary for one but great for two."},{"Header":"Ace Rating","Score":"757/1000","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]