[{"TitleName":"X-Out","Publisher":"Rainbow Arts","Author":"Arc Developments, Celal Kandemiroglu","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0005804","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 73, Feb 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-01-25","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Mark Kendrick, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Caroline Blake, Christian Testa\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nSubscriptions\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers using Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator '88, output at MBI [redacted] with systems support from Digital Reprographics [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution by 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 (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. 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 drop the Viv Vickress a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield 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, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Colour photographic material should be 35mm transparencies wherever possible. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1990 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Rainbow Arts/Probe\r\n£8.99 cass, £12.99 disk\r\n\r\nThey came from outer space and built heavily defended battle stations in our oceans. For many years mankind was unaware of their plans, until they started to rampage across an unprotected Earth. In desperation mankind initiated Project Deep Star, its mission to throw a final challenge to the aliens, and you're the pilot who must guide the most technically advanced submarine type the world has ever seen against the alien defences.\r\n\r\nYour first task is to buy subs from a rather nasty looking alien creature (up to nine can be purchased, if you have the dosh) and arm them. There are four types, though the only real difference apart from design is their weapons carrying capabilities. The most basic model can carry three weapons, the next six, the third nine and finally the top of the range can be armed with up to twelve different weapons Choose wisely between smartbombs, various missiles, bouncing bombs and drones which girdle your sub With 12000 points at the start you will only be able to afford the most basic options, but as you collect more points bigger and better weapons are available.\r\n\r\nEight horizontally scrolling levels stand between you and mankind's safety, and they're infested with every kind of psycho alien you can imagine: huge gun turrets, submarines, mobile guns, assorted missile launchers and more.\r\n\r\nOne thing is damn certain, you won't complete X-OUT on your first couple of tries, we had a cheat version that gave us all the weapons available, and even then the going was tough. Don't get me wrong, the game is hell to get through, but it avoids annoying you enough to make you chuck the computer away. The sprites are monochromatic, but some of the backgrounds are very detailed, as indeed are the end of level monstrosities which cost me most of my lives. X-Out is nothing new, but it is playable enough to warrant purchase.\r\n\r\nMARK 85%","ReviewerComments":["Shoot, shoot, dodge, shoot! That's all there is to it. This format of game has been used so many times that it just gets boring after a while. While playing X-Out you can cast your mind back to other games you've played, and it's almost identical. Who exactly gets enjoyment out of playing the same 'shoot all aliens in the level then the big monster' format? if it wasn't completely unoriginal, X-Out would be quite a good game. All the graphics and sound are reasonable with well detailed sprites, animation and plenty happening on screen. Colour is... well not there, except for monochrome, but then what isn't these days? All shoot 'em up fans will probably find X-Out a challenge and will get some enjoyment out of it, but it's not going to be a favourite of mine.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n67%"],"OverallSummary":"Essentially playable wholly unoriginal shoot 'em up prone to a mixed reception.","Page":"42,43","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"67","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"85","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"69%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"73%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 51, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-18","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Peters\r\nDeputy Editor: David Wilson\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesigner: Martin Sharrocks\r\nTechnical Consultant: Jonathan Davies\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Robert Corradi, Jonathan Davies, Tony Dillon, Mike Gerrard, Ivan Hawksley, Duncan MacDonald, Tanya Maldem, David McCandless, Jackie Ryan, Wag, Louise Willers\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Lynda Elliott\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Caroline Day\r\nClassified Advertisement Executive: Chris Skinner\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nNewstrade Circulation Manager: Stephen Ward\r\nMarketing Services Manager: Zoe Ringrose\r\nSubscription Manager: June Smith\r\nPublisher: Teresa Maughan\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Point Five [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1990 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":"Rainbow Arts\r\n£8.99 cass\r\nReviewer: Matt Bielby\r\n\r\nWell, let's get one thing out of the way to start with - this isn't as good a game as R-Type. It's got no colour, it's not as difficult, and you don't get as much feeling of real danger when you play it. But (but! but!) that's not to say it isn't an exceptionally good horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up, because it is! in fact, all round, it's a bit of a corker. Let's see why...\r\n\r\nWell (ahem), actually, let's see why in a minute. First I'd better tell you what it's all about, starting with (groan) the scenario (don't worry, it won't take long). Here goes. \"They came from deep space to infest our deep oceans.\" And, um, that's more or less it.\r\n\r\nBasically, its your old 'all the worlds nations just about manage to cobble together one solitary space ship (or in this case, submarine) between them to go up against the bad guys, and you happen to be picked as the pilot'set-up. Except (except!) there isn't one sub at all, but oodles of them - it's just that you're only allowed to use them one at a time. (In other words, Rainbow Arts has cheated a bit in its scenario.) Still, there is a rather spiffing and incredibly comprehensive shop sequence in which you get to pick which basic craft you want, which weapons and drones you need, and which order you want to use them in (as each bites the sea-bed the next appears), so I can't complain. There's so much choice here (a large number of smaller ships or a few tougher ones etc) you could easily fiddle around with the configurations for hours. Marvellous!\r\n\r\nThe shop sequence aside, it's not the most original game ever, I have to admit. What Rainbow Arts seems to have done is take a fair smattering of the most popular and successful elements from recent shoot-'em-ups (R-Type-style snake things, four-way-scrolling play areas and so on), slot them all together quite neatly, get some pretty competent programmers to work on it (in this case Arc Developments, who did Fog Worlds) and Bob's your uncle. Or rather Cross-Outs your game (or 'Ex-Out' - there seems to be some dispute over how you pronounce the name), if you see what I mean.\r\n\r\nOriginal it may not be, but play well it does. Everything's well drawn, fairly large and often nicely animated, with little crab creatures making little crab creature-type movements with their pincers, fish robots swishing their tails menacingly and the larger end- and middle-of-level monsters being particularly well designed. I 'specially liked the little mermen-riding sea snakes, who take refuge behind rocks when their mount gets zapped, and the giant oil platform-type fortification at the end of Level Two.\r\n\r\nThe only problem is that being in monochrome things often get very confusing. Stop firing your weapons and you soon realise that a good half of the bullets are your own and not the enemies' at all! The scrolling helps make things a bit less claustrophobic though. As well as left to right it moves up and down as you swing your little ship about, effectively doubling the size of the play area and giving you plenty of room to manoeuvre. While this does give some of the challenges the game presents you with a bit of a vague feel (instead of the tight, well-defined attack formations and problems faced in R-Type you get more spread-out and random-seeming waves of baddies) it also helps to open the game up a bit. Each of the eight levels feels fairly weighty and substantial because there's so much room to move.\r\n\r\nSo what are the minus points? Well, there aren't really that many at all (but just enough to conspire to rob it of Megagame status). The worst (and it isn't particularly a fault of this game - I felt a lot of others suffered from it too, including Fog Worlds) is that there's little real feeling of danger. You get hit so many times and lose energy in such little dribs and drabs that when you die you'd be hard pushed to notice why. I far prefer the R-Type 'one hit and you're dead' method. It's much more 'edge of the seat playable' (to coin a phrase).\r\n\r\nStill, it's perhaps Rainbow Arts' best Spectrum product yet (and its games have been steadily improving lately) which bodes well for the future. As shoot-'em-ups go it's well worth checking out (in fact, it's halfway to being a bit of a classic). We liked it lots. Hurrah!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Smooth, large and well-implemented shoot-'em-up, with a great shop sequence and just enough originality to get by. Excellent.","Page":"56","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"84","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Told you it get's complicated! Okay, half these things are your own bullets and droids, but there's still a fair smattering of baddies about. With these plain black backgrounds surely a little colour would have been possible and helped things out a bit?"}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"All the various sorts of misssiles. I can't be bothered to list them, but they range from the very useful (bounding bombs, guided missiles) to the hard-to-control (fire claws, energy wall) and the simply bizarre (the set of drones, which you can lay like a stream of eggs and watch do your fighting for you for a while, before scooping them all up again.) Weird!\r\n\r\nBasic shots, ranging from pathetically weak to hard as nails.\r\n\r\nHere are the satellites. They fly around you in pre-set arcs, or hang around in a fixed position. Either way, they're very useful indeed.\r\n\r\nFinally, it's the trash can. Throw old weapons you bought by mistake down here and try again.\r\n\r\nThis is the shopkeeper. Um, a quarter-pounder of your best guided missiles, my good man.\r\n\r\nHere are the ships you can choose between. They range from the really crap to the not-crap-at-all.\r\n\r\nAnd here's how much cash you have to spend (you collect more as you progress through the game.)"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"82%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"88%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"84%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"83%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"84%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 95, Feb 1990","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1990-01-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"AaaChhhoo!\r\n\r\nJIM \"Black Death\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nGood grief, he's looking pretty manky this month, eh readers? Poor Jimbly has been struck by the dreaded Flu epidemic. He's almost overdosed on Chloraseptic and is feeling very sorry for himself, and would like someone to give him a cuddle, please. Eurgh yuk, go away drippy bogey snout.\r\n\r\nALISON \"Super Fit\" SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nBig Al's looking well smug with herself as she's the only one who's managed to avoid the lurgie. That's because she's been holed up in her Michael Jackson-style oxygen tent munching on garlic pills and Halibo-range tablets. But naughty Oz has set about her bubble with his designer scalpel and all the germies are getting in, tee hee. Somebody pass All the Junior Disprin please.\r\n\r\nGARTH \"Firestone\" Sumpter (Staff Writer)\r\nAfter a major bout of Christmas jollies, poor Garthy is certainly a wee bit worse for wear. Jim made him attend every software house chrimbo doo because the rest of us were too \"ill\" to go, but it looks like he had a few too many beakers of Um Bongo. Quick lads abandon the loo, here he comes.\r\n\r\nOSMOND \"wibbly limbs\" BROWNE (Designer)\r\nPoor little Ossie. Wicked Uncle Jim has been working him so hard, that he's developed a rather severe case of Designer's elbow. He's been scribbling away so hard that both of his elbows have turned to gungey runny stuff and his arms have gone all loppy. What a shame, looks like he's headed for the Municipal home for crumblie old clapped out Designers.\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nI've Got This Problem: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nOur Address: [redacted]\r\nOur Phone Number: [redacted]\r\nOur Fax No: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright Sinclair User 1990\r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be reproduced/transcribed, stored in a data retrieval system etc, without permission of the publishers, EMAP B+CP. Special thanks this issue: Kevin at Nene, John Cook, Jaz Rignall and of course, old Santa himself for forcing us to produce this issue in two weeks flat. Hope you get terminal frostbite, fatso."},"MainText":"Label: Rainbow Arts\r\nAuthor: ARC\r\nPrice: £8.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\n\r\nHands up who likes destruction and mayhem?\r\n\r\nOne...two...three... eleven thousand...twelve and a half million... oh, lots and lots of you anyway. Good. You'll like X-Out.\r\n\r\nIt's pronounced Crossout, by the way, and I'm sure there's a plot in there somewhere, probably involving the Deathlord Dargon and his plan to infect the oceans of the world with a hideous new kind of brain-sucking jellyfish or something like that, but you can forget it all anyway, because what we have here is a horizontally-scrolling blaster in the R-Type mould, but set in the watery deeps where no-one can hear you gurgle, rather than in space.\r\n\r\nUp until now most R-Type imitations have been pale reflections of the original, but, blasphemy sacrilege heresy, X-Out may be even BETTER! Gaspo de gasp! I base this opinion mainly on the sheer amount of weaponry shooting around the screen. In the opening section, after a spot of sampled music and a quick flash of your grim-jawed sub pilot, you get the chance to tool up at the underwater weapons shop. Depending on how many credits you start off with, you can choose to buy either a small number of well-endowed insect-like ships, or a larger number of punier ones; weapons available include single, double and triple cannon, different types of lasers, and drones which can be dropped from your ship to deal death and destruction until you pick them up (but you'll lose them if they crash into a solid object). There aren't any weapons to pick up in each level; but the more aliens you blast, the more credits you get to spend in the shop at the end. You can end up with a fearsome array of death-dealing hardware which fills the screen with destruction at the touch of a button, and, let's face it, that's what life is all about.\r\n\r\nYour targets include a vast array of buildings and aliens; mid-level aliens, end-of-level aliens, big aliens, little aliens, slow aliens and fast aliens. But like all aliens, they're slimy scum and they deserve to die. In addition to all this blasting there's also a lot of manoeuvring around solid objects such as stalactites and reefs to do, because a collision costs you a life. This adds an element to the game which other blast-'em-ups just don't have.\r\n\r\nThe great thing about X-Out is that although it's very very monochrome, the background scrolls upwards and downwards as well as right-to-left, so you get a big playing area, unlike some R-Type derivatives where it's a pain to play because there isn't enough space to manoeuvre. And the aliens are great; well-designed, clear, fast-moving, and they die explosively. My favourites include the spitting Sea-snake with the diver mounted on its back, the huge end-of-level nasty looking like a cross between an in side-out chicken and a bicycle pump, and the gigantic seabed fortifications which spew out endless heat-sensing missiles and bombs.\r\n\r\nAs you'd expect (well, demand actually), in addition to your everyday lasers and missiles you get a BIG weapon which works on the energy-pump principle; hold the fire-button down and release when the charge builds up enough. You also get the obligatory energy level meters, credit indicator and so forth on the bottom of the screen. When The Big Guy hands out the lifetime awards for originality, the programmers of X-Out won't be towards the front of the queue. But they'll be well up there in the Death-spittin'-lasershootin'-alienzappin'-brain-meltin'-megablast stakes, and well deserved too.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Get stuck into the best horizontally-scrolling underwater blast-'em-up of all time.","Page":"22,23","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"94%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"91%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 118, Dec 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-11-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nDesign: Andrea Walker\r\nDesign: Yvette Nicholls\r\nSoftware Editor: Steve Keen\r\nSU Crew: John Cook, Pete Gerrard, Phillip Fisch, Ian Watson, Alan Dykes\r\nAd Manager: Jerry Hall\r\nAd Production: Jo Gleissner\r\nMarketing Man.: Mark Swan\r\nMarketing Women: Sarah Ewing, Sarah Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1991 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nColour by Proprint.\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher"},"MainText":"Label: Kixx\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £3.99 Tape\r\nReviewer: Garth Sumpter\r\n\r\nImagine diving beneath the waves to find a whole, underwater city eh! I'd like to see the smug milkman in the t.v. advert deliver his rancid red tops then. Especially if it's the underwater city of X Out, with all its defence drones and firepower.\r\n\r\nProgrammed by Walsall based software development team Arc Development, X Out has the lot. You have a choice of three subs, which you then kit out with various weapons, including three way missiles, homing missiles, drones which can be sent ahead and the recalled and three types of super weapon - flaming hands, a fireball and a forward radiating shield of doom that takes out all the enemy subs, gun emplacements and everything else for that matter with one blast.\r\n\r\nThere are four levels of fast furious action; graphics are monochrome but are as clear and precise as a surgeon's whistle, but of course you can't blow one of these underwater. Which is a a bit of ruptured cod because, X Out really is something to blow your whistle about. X Out really is one of the Porsches of the budget scene - fast, furious and fun but unlike a Porsche, you can afford to buy it now and garage it lovingly with all your other collectors' classics.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Fast, furious, frantic fun with loads of sprites on screen at the same time and large end-of-level guardians. If you want finger-pumpin' action, then X Out is a great blaster from the past (er?).","Page":"49","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Garth Sumpter","Score":"87","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"87%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]