[{"titleName":"The Chess Player","publisher":"Quicksilva Ltd","author":"Martin Wren-Hilton, David John Rowe","yearOfRelease":"1982","zxdbId":"0000918","reviews":[{"issue":{"id":0,"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","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"Producer: Quicksilva, 48K\r\n£6.94\r\n\r\nThe Chess Player speaks, at least briefly when he announces himself, thereafter he contents himself with on-screen remarks like, 'that was a pathetic move'. A useful feature is the ability to alter the colours of board and pieces to suit yourself. Six skill levels with varying response times. A good starter's program, because the computer does lose on the lower skill levels, which is encouraging! Computer-recommended moves, but watch it closely - it cheats sometimes!","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"59","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[],"screenShotText":[],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":null,"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"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","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"Producer: Quicksilva, 48K\r\n£6.94\r\n\r\nThe Chess Player speaks, at least briefly when he announces himself, thereafter he contents himself with on-screen remarks like, 'that was a pathetic move'. A useful feature is the ability to alter the colours of board and pieces to suit yourself. Six skill levels with varying response times. A good starter's program, because the computer does lose on the lower skill levels, which is encouraging! Computer-recommended moves, but watch it closely - it cheats sometimes!","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"62","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[],"screenShotText":[],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":null,"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"Your Computer Issue 1 , Jan 1983","price":"£0.6","releaseDate":"1982-12-16","editor":"Toby Wolpe","totalPages":148,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nStaff Writer: Simon Beesley\r\nSub-Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Cowling\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Philip Kirby\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Bill Ardley, Peter Rice\r\nMidlands Office: Keith Salt\r\nNorthern Office: Ron Southall\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Jeanette Mackrell\r\nPublishing Director: Chris Hipwell\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\nTypesetting: In-Step Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £8 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\n©IPC Business Press Ltd 1983\r\n\r\nPublished by IPC Electrical-Electronic Press Ltd, [redacted]\r\nISSN 0263-0885","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"SPECTRUM SOFTWARE\r\r\n\r\r\nSimon Beesley brave attacks by trolls, bombardment by meteoroids, alien invasions and even English literature to bring you up to date with Spectrum software.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe quality of Spectrum software has improved since our last survey but originality remains in short supply. Most of the programs looked at are games programs and the bulk of these are modelled on the arcade classics, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Defender and Asteroids. Perhaps this is because the games-buying public is only interested in games that fall into a recognisable category.\r\r\n\r\r\nSome of the programs are written entirely in Basic. This need not count against them unless the program displays moving graphics.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe Spectrum's keyboard is not very suitable for fast-moving games although Quicksilva and Softek offer a joystick option on some games.\r\r\n\r\r\nSinclair has released a large range of programs written for them by ICL and Psion. By and large the ICL programs compare badly with those from Psion and have a rather amateurish look to them.\r\r\n\r\r\nEach of the tapes in the ICL games series, Games 1 to 4, contains four short Basic programs with titles such as Galactic Invasion, Skittles and Train Race. These are the sort of programs a reader might like to key in from a listing in a magazine. They are fairly simple and afford a limited entertainment for a short period. In view of their variety each package represents reasonable value although they are perhaps more suitable for young people.\r\r\n\r\r\nICL has also produced five titles in a Fun to Learn series covering Music, History, English Literature, Geography and Inventions. They present a variety of quizzes on their respective subjects. Players can compete against each other in a race in which correct answers send them further along the track.\r\r\n\r\r\nIt is difficult to know who these programs are aimed at. One soon runs through the stock of questions and the same names appear in different types of question. Some of the information presented is too obscure or eccentric to make the programs suitable for schools. In the English Literature quiz, for example, Ian Fleming rubs shoulders with Shakespeare and little-known seventeenth century playwrights.\r\r\n\r\r\nPsion's collection of programs is far more satisfactory. Hungry Horace is loosely related to Pac-Man but has a number of original features. Horace has to eat the flowers in a park while avoiding the park guards. Sinclair gives a fair description of Horace as a subtle and amusing cartoon-style game.\r\r\n\r\r\nPsion's 48K chess program was written in conjunction with Microgen. It plays a remarkably strong game even at the lower levels. As an averagely competent player I found it quite hard to beat at level two, although its play seemed to come adrift under pressure. The program's response time is quick and the pieces are quite easily distinguished.\r\r\n\r\r\nSpace Raiders and Planetoids are Psion's versions of the arcade games Invaders and Asteroids. Anyone who still has an appetite for these games will find the Psion products more than adequate. With Vu-Calc, Psion has scaled down a Visi Calc-type program to the dimensions of the home micro. These programs, which are commonly used on business micros, are usually described as providing a financial spreadsheet.\r\r\n\r\r\nThey enable the user to lay out financial data in rows and columns and enter formulae to run calculations on parts or all of the table. Vu-Calc supplies a range of commands for entering data, text or formulae and performing calculations.\r\r\n\r\r\nBasic programs which have been compiled by Softek's compiler, Super C, run - typically - 10 times faster. The compiler sits at the top of memory above RAMtop and is unaffected by a New command. It leaves room for a Basic program of up to 8K and a further 10K for data. The present version cannot cope with decimals, arrays or string variables. These limitations need not be too constricting. Strings, at least, can be stored in the data areas as ASCII codes and accessed through Peeks.\r\r\n\r\r\nAt £14.95 this is good value; particularly since it enables people to write commercially respectable programs without having to master machine code. However Softek insists that anyone planning to sell programs created with the compiler should negotiate for the rights. Softek claims that trace elements have been included to detect code written with Super C.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe arcade game Asteroids crops up on almost every micro. Softek's version Meteoroids is one of the fastest for the Spectrum with good colour and sound. Softime supplies the Spectrum with a digital clock and alarm at the top of the screen which remains there while other programs are loaded and running. The last program in Softek's list is Zolan Adventure, a standard text adventure game which has the merit of fitting into 16K.\r\r\n\r\r\nQuicksilva gave Time Gate considerable advance publicity claiming it would make as great an impact on the computer games' world as had Atari's Star Raiders. As it turns out the game closely resembles Star Raiders. Given that the Atari is a rather more sophisticated computer it is not surprising that the Spectrum version of the game does not match the original.\r\r\n\r\r\nTime Gate presents a view from the cockpit of a spaceship. An instrument panel below contains a long-range scanner and a variety of other indicators giving information on the ship's position and damage incurred. Your mission is to clear 18 galactic sectors of enemy craft.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe business of locating and firing on enemy ships is not as interesting as attending to all the other procedures. The controls are not as responsive as on the Atari. Nonetheless this is an elaborate game with excellent graphics - certainly one of the best so far for the Spectrum.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn an impressive piece of synthesised speech Quicksilva's chess program announces itself at the beginning with 'this is the Chess Player'. Rather startlingly the packaging relates how the Chess Player, an Evil Being, has called for a challenger from Earth. The planet's survival hangs on your game - and you thought you were just going to have a quiet game of chess.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn the event the program plays quite a strong game with the option of six levels of play. The board is clearly displayed and the pieces are well designed. Psion's chess program, however, is probably the better player.\r\r\n\r\r\nMeteor Storm, another version of Asteroids, also announces itself but rather indistinctly. There is not much to choose between this and Planetoids or Meteoroids. The major problem for software companies writing an Asteroids-type game must be in finding an alternative title.\r\r\n\r\r\nSpectres from Bug-Bvte gives a novel twist to the Pac-Man concept. Eddie the electrician has to rewire a haunted house. Instead of eating or picking up objects in his path he lays down light bulbs. Reaching one of the four power generators enables him to illuminate the house and drive off ghosts.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe game has a highly individual flavour. The characters which glide around at a fairly leisurely pace, are engagingly different from the standard Pac-Man figures. This is one of the more original games yet to appear for the Spectrum.\r\r\n\r\r\nGulpman from Campbell Systems is also based on Pac-Man but refreshingly breaks away from the standard format. It offers a choice of 15 different mazes and allows the speed of play to be set. At the highest levels your little man dashes around the maze at quite a pace.\r\r\n\r\r\nBy contrast Jega's Specman, written in Basic, is dismally slow. Sometimes the ghosts seem to be stricken with paralysis and unwilling to take up the chase.\r\r\n\r\r\nEscape from New Generation Software is a variation on the maze theme which involves escaping from dinosaurs. The dinosaurs - brontosauri, pterodactyls and such like - pursue the player's character with considerable animation through the maze which is shown in bird's-eye view.\r\r\n\r\r\nSilversoft's games Orbiter and Ground Attack are probably the best Spectrum versions of the arcade games Defender and Scramble. Ground Attack requires the player to fly a plane through a series of caverns and avoid or destroy missile attacks from the ground. Scramble from Work Force is similar but marginally slower. Likewise Avenger - Abacus' version of Defender - is competent but not quite as accomplished as Silversoft's.\r\r\n\r\r\nMYSTERY MEETING\r\r\n\r\r\nA gold sundial worth £6,000 is the prize for the first person to solve all the clues in the adventure game Pimania. As in Kit Williams' book Masquerade, deciphering all the clues will lead the winner to a meeting at a specific time and place with representatives from the authors of the game, Automata Ltd.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe other side of the program tape contains a disco single. Automata say that the clues are scattered in the music, the program and the graphics. Although we did not proceed very far with the quest the music and opening graphics seemed to bear out Automata's claim that the world of the Pi Man is totally bizarre.\r\r\n\r\r\nMelbourne House has based The Hobbit, on the novel by Tolkien. It helps to have read the book in finding your way about.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe Hobbit is claimed to be an advance on other adventure games because it introduces other characters from the book who react to the player in the role of Bilbo with an independent life of their own. It also allows you - in a limited fashion to enter sentences rather than single words as commands.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn practice these extra features do not amount to much and give the program greater scope for the sort of inconsistencies adventure programs are prone to. Thorin, for example, repeatedly enters the scene and tells you to hurry up. This is irritating because you were unaware that he had left and he seems to be totally devoid of constructive ideas. It is not a good idea, however, to kill him off since he sometimes proves too strong for your attack. Furthermore the manual suggests that you should stay on good terms with the other members of your party if you are to succeed in your quest.\r\r\n\r\r\nMany of the locations in the adventure are illustrated by some excellent graphics. We only managed to complete 7.5 percent of the game during which the text was accompanied by six different pictures. The graphics coupled with a more varied plot than usual make The Hobbit superior to any other adventure games available for the Spectrum.\r\r\n\r\r\nBoth the assemblers tested, from ACS and PI software, require Z-80 mnemonics to be entered in Rem statements and both allow addresses to be replaced by labels. The ACS assembler, Ultraviolet, costs twice as much at £7.50 but offers several extra features. It allows multiple statement lines and provides five pseudo-instructions such as DEFS, which inserts a string of ASCII characters at the current assembly position.\r\r\n\r\r\nACS also supplies a disassembler, infrared. Like the assembler this has two different versions for 16K or 48K machines. The program is easy to use and docs all you might expect from it.\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Games 1-4\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Hungry Horace\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Fun to Learn\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Chess\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £7.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Vu-Calc\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Space Raiders\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Planetoids\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: QS\r\r\nProgram Name: The Chess Player\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: QS\r\r\nProgram Name: Time Gate\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: QS\r\r\nProgram Name: Meteor Storm\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Super C\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £14.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Meteoroids\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Softime\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £3.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Zolan Adventure\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SS\r\r\nProgram Name: Orbiter\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SS\r\r\nProgram Name: Ground Attack\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: MH\r\r\nProgram Name: The Hobbit\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £14.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AU\r\r\nProgram Name: Pimania\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £10\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: WF\r\r\nProgram Name: Scramble\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AB\r\r\nProgram Name: Avenger\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: CS\r\r\nProgram Name: Gulpman\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: JS\r\r\nProgram Name: Specman\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AC\r\r\nProgram Name: Ultraviolet\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £7.50\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AC\r\r\nProgram Name: Infrared\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £6.75\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: PI\r\r\nProgram Name: Assembler\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £3.75\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: NG\r\r\nProgram Name: Escape\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: BB\r\r\nProgram Name: Spectres\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £8","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"50,51,52","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"Simon Beesley","score":"","scoreSuffix":""}],"screenShotText":[],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":null,"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 17 Book of Reviews, Mar 1983","price":"","releaseDate":"1970-01-01","editor":"","totalPages":0,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"The growling gravelly voice of Quicksilva's Chess program does not add much to the game.\r\n\r\nHowever, its sharp comments on the current state of play do give this program a slightly more human feel.\r\n\r\nThere's a surge of pride each time it finds itself in more difficulties than it expected and says so on screen. And after being roundly criticised for a queen sacrifice, \"That was a pathetic move!\" I enjoyed mating it five moves later all the more.\r\n\r\nThe program does respond quickly at the lower levels but does not play a particularly good opening and has a tendency to capitulate utterly when things start going wrong.\r\n\r\nStill, it will give beginners a hard game and will probably hand out more beatings than it takes.\r\n\r\nThe presentation on the Spectrum is a problem and the screen takes some getting used to. With several of the pieces barely recognisable from their board equivalents. While good chess players know (by colour and position) where the king and queen start a game, learners will not have such a clear idea.\r\n\r\nProbably a bit too gimmicky for the more serious chess enthusiast and perhaps not enough thought for the complete beginner to help him around the little things most of us take for granted. It costs £6.95 and runs on the 48K model.","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"2","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"Terry Pratt","score":"","scoreSuffix":""}],"screenShotText":[{"text":"TIME AND MOTION\r\n\r\nThe classic board games transfer well to computers who make better than average opponents on all the games dealt with here.\r\n\r\nBut there is more to choosing a chess, backgammon, draughts or reversi program, than picking one which will beat you every time.\r\n\r\nMost important in these programs are a display that is clear and easy on the eye, coupled with pieces which can be easily recognised. Programs which use disturbing colour clashes or badly shaped pieces will hardly help a player trying to give caretul study to a critical position.\r\n\r\nThe program should also draw a player's attention to its move. Both an audio and visual signal should be included to let the player know it's moving and which place it is changing.\r\n\r\nA good response time is crucial. If left to its own devices for long enough most computers can come up with a good move. But long study should be the human player's prerogative - computers are used for their speed.\r\n\r\nFinally an easy-to-understand, and implement, move input system will ensure that the program does not start gathering dust after the first few tries. In chess it is difficult to come up with anything better than E2-E4 but this can easily lead to a mistake which is still a valid move and completely ruin a player's chances.\r\n\r\nFew programs allow the player to take a move back, try and find one that does.\r\n\r\nOther key things to question with regard to chess: does the program always respond to P-Q4 openings the same way? If so you're in for a dull opening repertoire. Does it play forced moves quickly? Does it keep its head when things go wrong? Some programs just give up on bad positions.\r\n\r\nTerry Pratt"},{"text":"GAMES GLOSSARY\r\n\r\nIf you can tell a Pacman from a Defender and a Galaxian from a Space Invader you probably know your way around computer games.\r\n\r\nBut if some of the game terms we have used in this supplement, or in the issue itself, are new to you, then this page should supply the answers. In it we take some of the best known types of computer game and describe how they are played and what features these games normally incorporate.\r\n\r\nSo, if we claim that Penetrator is a \"Scramble-type game\" and that leaves you just as much in the dark about what to expect, then below there is a full description of Scramble to put you in the picture.\r\n\r\nASTEROIDS\r\n\r\nThe Asteroids came into the arcades courtesy of Atari. It features a small dart-shaped craft controlled by the player which can rotate left or right and thrust or fire in the direction it is facing.\r\n\r\nThere is one further control, the panic button (hyperspace) which lets you travel to another part of the screen chosen by the computer.\r\n\r\nThe enemy is mainly made up of large asteroids which sweep across the screen in large deadly groups of rock. When blown up these break into smaller fragments worth extra points.\r\n\r\nThere is extra danger supplied by two UFOs. The first larger creature you'll meet fairly early on. It tends to spray shots in all directions and often crashes into an asteroid.\r\n\r\nThe smaller variety is far more deadly in its own shooting and also more difficult to hit. Each cleared screen means you start again with extra asteroids.\r\n\r\nDEFENDER\r\n\r\nYou can't expect to keep a finger on every control button in Defender or you'd end up in knots.\r\n\r\nThe action, which takes place above an alien landscape, involves some seven control buttons and takes patience to gain proper mastery of your lone craft.\r\n\r\nThat patience can be rewarded though, as Defender is challenging from the word \"Go\". The Defender craft can go: up, down, thrust forward, reverse direction, fire, smart bomb and hyperspace.\r\n\r\nTen humanoids wander on the landscape and these may fall prey to raiding alien creatures known as Landers. Landers pick up the humanoids and take them to the top of the screen. If they succeed in getting there the Landers turn into fearsome mutants hellbent on your destruction.\r\n\r\nIn all there are six alien opponents. On top of Landers and Mutants, these are: Pods are quite harmless but contain the small and persistent Swarmers; Bombers seed space with white bombs and Baiters only appear if you take too long clearing a screen of the rest of the aliens.\r\n\r\nIf all 10 humanoids are captured, the planet explodes and all remaining alien life attacks your craft at once.\r\n\r\nDefender games usually feature a small radar screen which shows what is going on at all parts of the planet surface.\r\n\r\nFROGGER\r\n\r\nFrogger has spawned a whole host of computer games with a similar theme.\r\n\r\nThis game features a frog hero who must jump across a road and make his way across a river torrent to five frog-holes in the bank.\r\n\r\nThe busy road usually features live streams of traffic travelling in both directions at varying speeds, between which the player must hop his frog without wrapping it around any fenders.\r\n\r\nOnce across the road, the river can be crossed by leaping onto floating logs and onto the back of swimming turtles, until our frog can enter a vacant spot in the far bank. Turtles have a habit of diving though so don't let a frog dally too long on one. Being carried off the edge of the screen (by log or turtle) also results in a note in the funeral column of Amphibians' Weekly.\r\n\r\nWhen all five frog-holes have been filled, the game becomes more difficult with extra traffic being added to the road, snakes traversing the bank between road and river and alligators appearing instead of logs in the river.\r\n\r\nA timer running down on each frog also adds to the difficulties. The arcade original also featured a small lady frog who could be \"picked up\" on the logs and offered a lift home for a bonus. Other bonuses can be scored by entering a frog-hole in which a tasty fly meal has come to rest.\r\n\r\nDONKEY KONG\r\n\r\nDonkey Kong is the strange name for a climbing and jumping game which features a starlet-grabbing monster gorilla.\r\n\r\nOften referred to as Crazy Kong or Crazy Climber in the computer circles, it has only just found its way onto the home screen.\r\n\r\nThe game features a gorilla holding a girl captive at the top of the screen and an intrepid hero (Mario the carpenter), who starts at the bottom of the screen.\r\n\r\nBetween the two is a connecting network of platforms and ladders up which Mario must run to achieve his rescue. Kong hurls barrels down the screen and Mario makes use of his \"jump\" button to leap over them. He can also grab a hammer and smash the barrels as they approach him.\r\n\r\nOnce at the top of the screen a new complex is built with Mario, again starting from the bottom with a view to rescue. This time the screen features a series of conveyor belts and deadly fires which travel around on the ladders and belts.\r\n\r\nGALAXIANS\r\n\r\nThe Galaxians were the sons of Space Invaders. Instead of proceeding down the screen at a leisurely pace, they wavered at the top of the screen before swooping down in batches of two or three (or more often on a solo mission) firing bombs.\r\n\r\nThe player has the usual left, right and fire controls on his laser base and must take care not to get trapped in a corner. He scores double points for a galaxian hit in mid-swoop and there are bonus points for taking out the red fleet commanders, who usually descend flanked by their generals, dispersing bombs at such a rate that the first instinct is to flee for cover.\r\n\r\nThat is the essence of Galaxians but with each destroyed platoon, new waves appear at screen top and their attacks become more frequent, more accurate and, all too often, more deadly!\r\n\r\nPACMAN\r\n\r\nThe ghostly world of Pacman is made up of a dot-filled maze, a hungry dot-eater and four pursuing spectres.\r\n\r\nPacman variations can be found under a whole range of titles from Vic-men to Gobbleman, Snapper to Super Glooper and many others. Most dot-eating games are related to it.\r\n\r\nThe main character is the dot-eater, which travels around the maze, eating every dot he touches. His objective is to clear the screen of dots. He is hampered in this by the four chasing ghosts whose touch is lethal.\r\n\r\nThe Pacman's main defence against the ghosts, who usually number four, are energiser dots. These pulse in the four corners of the maze and, upon being eaten, reverse the roles for a short while.\r\n\r\nThis means that Pacman can turn the tables on the ghosts and eat them for bonus points. He is allowed only a few seconds of dominance before the usual hunter and hunted rules come back into operation.\r\n\r\nIt is also usual for fruits to appear on the screen occasionally and these too can be consumed by Pacman for bonus points. When Pacman has cleared the screen, it refills with dots and the game restarts except that this time the ghosts are a little livelier and a new fruit, worth extra points, appears at this level.\r\n\r\nSCRAMBLE\r\n\r\nScramble should have a big one-way sign on its cabinet. The screen rolls from right to left, taking the player's craft along it into ever-increasing danger.\r\n\r\nScramble variations often contain the word \"Mission\" or \"Attack\" but there are some weird and wonderful titles about.\r\n\r\nThe player controls a craft heading right across the screen over hilly terrain His craft can never turn around and opt out of its mission but he does have some control over his destiny.\r\n\r\nHis controls are up and down, fast and slow and he can both bomb and fire at his enemies.\r\n\r\nThe Scrambler is not usually equipped with enough fuel to complete his task, but it is normal to obtain more fuel by bombing fuel tanks on the ground and so (mysteriously) replenish his own stocks.\r\n\r\nThe enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Most common are missiles which fire up from the ground as your craft passes overhead and alien invader creatures which frequently inhabit caves and fly at the player's craft.\r\n\r\nThe original Scramble game sent the player through a series of different terrains with new challenges in each section. And most computer Scrambles attempt to duplicate this with a number of different stages.\r\n\r\nScramble requires a cool head which can find the right control in a crisis, but it makes an ideal computer game as success naturally leads to new and more difficult stages.\r\n\r\nINVADERS\r\n\r\nSpace Invaders started the whole computer game craze back in 1977 and most gamers know the format backwards. Still, just a brief resume...\r\n\r\nThe invaders come in waves above the ground and move in rows across the screen one step at a time, firing missiles earthwards.\r\n\r\nWhen one row of the aliens reach an edge of the screen, the whole platoon jump down a line and return back the way they came. When they achieve their slow progression to the bottom of the screen, the game ends.\r\n\r\nThe player controls a laser base which moves left to right and fires directly up from its position. His aim is to blow up the entire fleet before it reaches the bottom of the screen.\r\n\r\nFlying saucers move across the top of the screen in both directions and can be hit for a mystery bonus score. In the arcade original, top saucer scores of 300 were achieved by firing 22 shots before shooting at the first saucer, then firing 14 shots in between each subsequent saucer. Some computer versions have copied this technique."}],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":[{"header":"Getting Started","score":"6/10","text":"","overallScore":0},{"header":"Value","score":"8/10","text":"","overallScore":0},{"header":"Playability","score":"5/10","text":"","overallScore":0}],"compilationReviewScores":[]}],"reviewsCount":4}]