[{"TitleName":"Bug-Eyes","Publisher":"Icon Software Ltd","Author":"Peter Fothergill","YearOfRelease":"1985","ZxDbId":"0000742","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 16, May 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-04-25","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nAssistant Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nTechnical Editor: Franco Frey\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nSoftware Editor: Jeremy Spencer\r\nAdventure Reviewer: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Reviewer: Angus Ryall\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey, Robin Candy, Ben Stone\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1985 Newsfield Limited.\r\nCrash Magazine is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]; Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd (Member of the BPCC Group), [redacted].\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCirculation Manager: Tom Hamilton\r\nAll circulation enquiries should ring [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £10.50 (UK Mainland post free), Europe: 12 issues £17.50 post free. Outside Europe by arrangement in writing.\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 Magazine 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. The opinions and views of correspondents are their own and not necessarily in accord with those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Icon\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £6.95\r\nLanguage: Machine code\r\nAuthor: Peter Fothergill\r\n\r\nNasty little bug-eyed monsters have decided to destroy all intelligent life in the universe. For some inexplicable reason they decided to start with Earth. You, the player, have been recruited to save us. The enemy space ship is closing in and you must secretly enter it, outwit the alien beings within and destroy its power source.\r\n\r\nBug Eyes is a fairly easy game to sum up, it's a platform game. Each of the 10 screens has two main types of hazard objects that go up and down threatening to crush the hero should his timing be anything less than perfect; or the second main hazard which takes the form of bridges that exist only just long enough for them to be crossed. In the unlikely event of your getting past those problems you will occasionally be called on to deal with a few minor hazards such as descending doors or 'the big nosed gliding ogre'. In the first screen, called 'stamping stompers' the player has to avoid being crushed by Romanesque type pillars. Should he manage that then the next screen's crushers take the form of the 'blinking bouncers' in fact the author of this program is something of an artist when it comes to alliterations, the game is drenched with such goodies as 'dreaded dastardly descending door' or 'the terrible twisting thingies'. The game doesn't require great speed from a player but it does require impeccable timing and judgement.\r\n\r\nThe game is made even more difficult because the time allowed to complete each screen is limited, as you make your way through the screen you will notice that the energy level drops as time passes, fail to reach the exit before zero energy and you lose a life. The energy counter, shown at the top of the screen on a bar chart, is renewed with each new screen or life. Points are awarded for each obstacle that is cleared but sadly there is no high score facility.\r\n\r\nSome times you will escape death by virtue of a feature called 'automatic alien repulsion device', there is no means whereby the player can invoke this machine it simply means that there will be times when the player should have been got, but wasn't. In fact the only controls required to play the game are left and right, no jumping or blasting is required.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: 6/7 left/right\r\nJoystick: yes but type not specified\r\nKeyboard play: very responsive\r\nUse of colour: very good indeed\r\nGraphics: chunky but well defined and attractive\r\nSound: not extensively used but amusing\r\nSkill levels: 1\r\nLives: 4\r\nScreen: 10","ReviewerComments":["This is really a very ordinary game, except perhaps for the graphics which are very attractive not to say smooth. The most outstanding feature of Bug Eyes is the characters portrayed within, but I gave up drooling over those after only ten minutes. I will confess that I have had more than a little difficulty penetrating the starship but that's because my sense of timing lands me in trouble crossing the road. I think this is one of those games that is immensely challenging and addictive until you've cracked it. It does make a change to have a platform game that doesn't require zapping and leaping, just not a very good one. It would be fair to say that this game would suit people who enjoy playing challenging computer games but don't require an extra pair of hands and a double jointed hip to play, from that point of view it's an ideal beginner's game but not up the level of adept arcaders.\r\r\nUnknown","Bug Eyes is a very hard platform game. It only has two keys, so it seems quite simple at first, but after a couple of screens, timing your runs correctly becomes increasingly difficult and your four lives go very quickly. Bug Eyes has nice big graphics and fair sound with all the characters being well animated. The only thing that really gets up my nose in this game is at the very start - a message appears on the screen and an utterly untune-like noise is played. I quite enjoyed playing this game and on several occasions it had me going for the jump button that didn't exist\r\r\nUnknown","Bug Eyes is a very simple game to get into after all you only need two keys to play the game. The graphics are quite good and the sound isn't bad either. Colour is used well and the whole game is quite good. I found Bug Eyes moderately fun to play at first but after a while I soon got bored of the whole thing. Overall not bad for a while but nothing to rave over and not enough to hold the player's attention for very long.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Not immensely exciting to play but this is an attractive game and very challenging to master.","Page":"128","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":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"62%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Spectrum Issue 15, Jun 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-05-16","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":74,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nArt Editor: Hazel Bennington\r\nDeputy Editor: Peter Shaw\r\nProduction Editor: Louise Cook\r\nArt Assistant: Martin Dixon\r\nEditorial Consultant: Andrew Pennell\r\nSoftware Consultant: Gavin Monk\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Dave Nicholls, Roger Willis, Ross Holman, Mike Leaman, Chris Somerville, B Herival, M Rapps, M Rai, Malcolm Paknadel, Adam Leonard, Chris Wood, Craig Rawstron, Penny Page, Peter Green\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Baskerville\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Jill Harris\r\nGroup Art Director: Perry Neville\r\nArt Director: Jimmy Egerton\r\nManaging Editor: Roger Munford\r\nPublisher: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England. Telephone (all departments): [redacted]\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 Spectrum ©1985 Felden productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Spectrum is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"BUG EYES\r\nIcon\r\n£5.95\r\n\r\nRoss: Well, I'll be bug-eyed. Agent Starman's our hero in this game but haven't we been here before? Alien Space craft bent on the destruction of civilisation and eventual domination of the galaxy. You have to penetrate the ship and press on through its power generator. Sounds familiar? Like 99 per cent of all previous space-age shoot 'em ups!\r\n\r\nThe little space-suited chappy can move left or right and drop any distance without suffering noticeable brain damage. The ship's populated by a scruffy assortment of crushers, bug-eyed monsters and spiders, all of which prove harmful to prolonged existence if touched. You'll also have to negotiate bridges that appear and disappear and the old stand-by, moving platforms. At the top of the screen is an energy bar that gradually reduces until you top it up by completing a screen. You can wave goodbye to another life if this reaches zero.\r\n\r\nEach screen's a colourful concoction consisting of various blocks that form walkways and bouncing nasties that pose some tricky timing problems. No way is this original, but the screens take some thinking out if you're to get through.","ReviewerComments":["A pretty proficient, perambulating platform game with very smooth graphics. Why aren't there more screens though?\r\nDave Nicholls\r\n3/5 HIT","It takes more than ten screens of intergalactic body-swerving to et me bug-eyed.\r\nRoger Willis\r\n2/5 MISS"],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"52","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Dave Nicholls","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5 HIT"},{"Name":"Ross Holman","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"},{"Name":"Roger Willis","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 32, Jun 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-05-16","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nStaff Writer: Colette McDermott\r\nDesign/Illustration: Elaine Bishop\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Shahid Nizam\r\nProduction Co-ordinator: Serena Hadley\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Maria Keighley\r\nSubscription Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Neil Wood\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by EMAP Business and Computer Publications.\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like your original programs to be published in Sinclair Programs, please send your contributions, which must not have appeared elsewhere, to:\r\nSinclair Programs\r\nEEC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included. We pay £25 for the copyright of listings published and £10 for the copyright of listings published in the Beginners' section.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1985 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nAll subscription enquiries:\r\nMagazine Services,\r\nEMAP Business and Computer Publications\r\n[redcated]\r\n\r\nCover Design: Ivan Hissey"},"MainText":"PRICE: £6.95\r\nGAME TYPE: Arcade\r\n\r\nPrecise movements and timing are essential elements in Bug Eyes.\r\n\r\nThe storyline of Bug Eyes is simple. The aliens are committed to destruction of all intelligent life in the universe, starting with the earth. Your aim is to stop them by crossing all ten levels of their space ship and switching it off. This you do, not by shooting , zapping and jumping, but by walking left and right around obstacles.\r\n\r\nWith only two controls the challenge is to work out the correct timing on each screen. Moving platforms, lifts and bouncing aliens are the main problems to be faced, and it is often essential to pass several obstacles without pausing.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are clear and flicker free, but there is little variety to be found in the theme of aliens and spaceships, however liberally you interpret those subjects.\r\n\r\nBug Eyes is produced for the 48K Spectrum by Icon Software, [redacted].","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"17","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Colette McDermott","Score":"35","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Rating","Score":"35%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Computer Issue 5, May 1985","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1985-04-18","Editor":"Toby Wolpe","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nProduction Editor: Ian Vallely\r\nSoftware Editor: Simon Beesley\r\nCommercial Software Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lee Paddon\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Dawson\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nick Ratnieks\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Julian Bidlake\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Nigel Borrell, Kay Filbin\r\nNorthern Office: Geoff Parker\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Maxine Gill\r\nClassified: Susan Platts\r\nPublishing Director: Chris Hipwell\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Shobhan Gajjar\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\n©Business Press International Ltd 1985\r\n\r\nPrinted in Great Britain for the proprietors of Business Press International Ltd, [redacted].\r\nISSN 0263-0885\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted], and typeset by Instep Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £12.50 for 12 issues.\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n\r\nABC 154,334 January-June 1984."},"MainText":"Icon\r\nArcade Adventure\r\nSpectrum 48K\r\n£6.95\r\n\r\nAxabanean Rule OK. Well, of course it's not OK since they intend to wipe out all intelligent life and have the universe to themselves. The dummies have invaded earth in a giant starship disguised as a meteorite. Your job is to penetrate down through the 10 levels of the ship and destroy its power generator.\r\n\r\nWell-implemented graphics and a sense of humour make this game worthy of comparison with games in the style of Manic Miner. The big-nosed gliding ogre, the terrible twisting thingies, the wigglers and Big Jake all combine to despatch you with a despairing little squeak - all the more pathetic because of the Spectrum's not-wonderful sound capacity.\r\n\r\nOn the first screen you encounter the stamping stompers, a fiendish arrangement of ascending and descending plungers which make it a little like trying to walk through an internal combustion engine. Your little spaceman can only walk forwards or back, no jet-packing. Timing is of the essence. On most screens it is worth finding a place to ponder on how to scramble through the next set of obstacles.\r\n\r\nWhen you fall through into the second screen you face the blinking bouncers. You also have a problem with disappearing bridges. The combinations of problems seem to grow increasingly more complex as you approach the base of rach screen. You might miss the bouncers just to find yourself plummeting onto needle sharp rocks from a non-existent bridge.\r\n\r\nLazer phazer blazers, the third screen, is really two screens in one. There are three layers of ray guns then you have to work through a cavern of spiders casually reeling and unreeling from the roof on their grisly gossamer threads.\r\n\r\nIcon may not be a prominent name now, but with quality like this they soon will be.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"41","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Bond","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]