[{"TitleName":"Byte","Publisher":"CCS","Author":"Ofer Ben-Ami, Shelly Ben-Ami","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0006055","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: CCS\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRecommended Retail Price: £5.00\r\nLanguage: BASIC\r\nAuthor: O & S Ben-Ami\r\n\r\nByte is a text adventure. The object is to enter a three dimensional maze to find the ten computer circuits needed to build a computer. The inlay card specifies the ten circuits to be found, and they may be lying about or hidden in boxes or caches. As well as the electronic bits and pieces there are also monsters sent to get you by the great computer BYTE. These can be dispatched either with bribery or by fighting them mentally or physically. Mental battles take the form of a spelling or maths test. If you choose a physical combat, this is shown graphically, for instance, a bow and arrow which you must position to aim at the monster. If you miss the monster has a go.\r\n\r\nBefore entering this maze of words, you must select a skill level. There are seven with level one having only 27 rooms and level seven having as many as 125. You must also decide just what computer you are going to build ranging up from a Jupiter Ace (they'll have to update that one!) to an IBM PC. The ZX Spectrum comes in at number three, by the way.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nKeyboard play: reasonably responsive\r\nUse of colour: very good\r\nGraphics: clear, neatly drawn when not text\r\nSound: average\r\nSkill levels: 7","ReviewerComments":["The instructions are rather complicated to follow at first what with the computer you want to build, and a complicated set up called TRAITS. But once into the adventure it is fairly conventional. Instead of the more common scrolling up of text and input commands this game presents you with a description and a 'press any key' cursor, it then tells you what you can see in the room, your traits (strengths) and an enter command in the centre of the screen. Simple abbreviations may be entered which saves all that typing in.\r\nUnknown","For what is largely a text adventure, this has some very colourful lettering, but the constant use of reverse flashing gets a bit tiring on the eyes alto a while. The game itself is a standard type adventure, but on meeting monsters you do seem to have a fair chance of survival. I suspect that the technical terminology of this game may put off a lot of people although a technical knowledge of computers is hardly essential. A reasonable adventure generally with plenty of skill levels.\r\nUnknown","I think the story is novel, unfortunately the processing of commands seems unnecessarily long-winded, and after a while it becomes irritating. Good use of colour though.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Average.","Page":"75","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"53%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"52%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"57.5%","Text":""}],"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: CCS, 48K\r\n£5.00 (1)\r\nAuthor: O&S Ben-Ami\r\n\r\nThis is a text-with-some-graphics adventure, where the battle field is the depths of a 3D maze in which various computer components must be located to build your own computer. They may be lying about, they may be hidden and generally they are defended by all sorts of electronic monsters you must defeat to remain alive and progress. The seven skill levels are neatly categorised by the sophistication of the computer you want to build, each having its own strength characteristics. Battles with the monsters may take the form of mental bouts like spelling tests or maths questions, or they may be physical where, for instance, you may have to do semi-arcade battles with cross bows or swords. Graphically the text is pretty clear, but the inputting of commands is rather irritating and there's too much reverse flashing going on which tires the eye. Medium fast response times. Overall CRASH rating 58%, average BASIC.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"66","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"58%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 4, May 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-19","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: CCS, 48K\r\n£5.00 (1)\r\nAuthor: O&S Ben-Ami\r\n\r\nThis is a text-with-some-graphics adventure, where the battle field is the depths of a 3D maze in which various computer components must be located to build your own computer. They may be lying about, they may be hidden and generally they are defended by all sorts of electronic monsters you must defeat to remain alive and progress. The seven skill levels are neatly categorised by the sophistication of the computer you want to build, each having its own strength characteristics. Battles with the monsters may take the form of mental bouts like spelling tests or maths questions, or they may be physical where, for instance, you may have to do semi-arcade battles with cross bows or swords. Graphically the text is pretty clear, but the inputting of commands is rather irritating and there's too much reverse flashing going on which tires the eye. Medium fast response times. Overall CRASH rating 58%, average BASIC.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"72","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"58%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]