[{"TitleName":"Desperado","Publisher":"Topo Soft","Author":"Alfonso Azpiri, Gominolas, Gonzalo Martin Erro, Javier Cano Fuente, Jose Manuel Munoz Perez, Juan Carlos García, Julio A. Martin Erro, Miguel Blanco Viu, David Bracher","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0009331","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 52, May 1988","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1988-04-28","Editor":"Steve Jarratt","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Steven Jarratt\r\nSoftware Editor: Dominic Handy\r\nStaff Writers: Katharina Hamza, Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nTechnical Writers: Jon Bates, Simon N Goodwin\r\nEditorial Assistant: Frances Mable\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Paul Evans, Roger Kean, Julian Rignall\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nArt Director: Markie Kendrick\r\nAssistant Art Director: Wayne Allen\r\nDesign & Layout: Yvonne Priest, Melvyn Fisher\r\nPre-Print Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics/Film Planning: Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard, Ian Chubb, Robert Millichamp\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\n\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nSales Executive: Andrew Smales\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group. Distribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo 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. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\nTotal: 96,590\r\nUK/EIRE: 90,822\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1988\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Go!\r\nRetail Price: £8.99 cassette, £12.99 disk\r\nAuthor: Topo Soft\r\n\r\nBeing Sheriff of a Wild West town isn't easy. When trouble comes to town, it arrives with a bang. And trouble has just arrived in the shape of Angel Face and his notorious henchmen...\r\n\r\nThe first level of this vertically scrolling Commando variant sees the player strolling along the street of his beloved town, running the gauntlet of pistol packin' hoodlums who attempt to gun him down. The baddies run towards the sheriff, guns blazing, or charge along on horseback throwing bombs which bounce across the street before exploding.\r\n\r\nThe player starts the game with four lives, but shooting the stars which appear occasionally reveals an extra life, a points bonus or a stick of dynamite, contact with which proves fatal. Running over each symbol utilises these handy additions.\r\n\r\nOnce the end of the landscape is reached, a shoot-out occurs between the Sheriff and the end-of-level-baddie, whose face appears on a wanted poster at the start of the section.\r\n\r\nThe game continues in this fashion, through the railroad station, the canyon and across rapids on a raft, culminating in a meadow where a boomerangthrowing Angel Face is confronted in the final showdown.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: the characters are detailed but too small. Buildings are colourful and distinct\r\nSound: pop, pop from the guns\r\nOptions: definable keys","ReviewerComments":["If the arcade game, Gunsmoke, is anything like the computer game I pity the person that's put any money in the slot - the game concept is so boring! However, the presentation is at least up to their usual high standard: the individual people all have their own characteristics and the saloons and ranches are colourful and detailed. What the game lacks, though, is enough variation to get you back to it after finishing a game. I couldn't really be bothered to start again; I knew where I was going and what would result from it. If only you could walk around a larger play area, or even turn around and go back on yourself, the game would be much more of a quest and not so laborious. However, the few that do like the arcade game can't really fault the conversion.\r\nPaul Sumner","Another arcade conversion bites the dust. Admittedly a lot of attention has gone into peripheral details, particularly the action-packed loading screen and the gun-spinning joystick selection process, but the central graphics are unspectacular. In theory the game, a sort of Wild West Ikari Warriors, has plenty to recommend it. However, practice proves otherwise. The odds are stacked against the Sheriff: trigger-happy bandits constantly attempt to shoot him in the back although he can only blast diagonally and forwards. At close quarters the sheriff stands stiff and paralysed, while his opponents' ability to run is superhumanly improved. The challenge to beat the faultless computer 'next time' has a frustrating and obsessive edge, but considering the price, it's probably better not to take it up.\r\nKati Hamza","After enjoying Bedlam, I loaded Gunsmoke with a great deal of expectation. Although I give GO! merit for the presentation on the control option screen, in-game status display, and the wanted posters, the game itself is pretty dire. For a start play is very difficult, as I found to my cost with life after life being blown away by the hoards of small, black blobby sprites that fire two shots whilst my character thinks about firing one. Another annoying habit the enemy had was to appear from the bottom of the screen with guns biasing. The poor old Sheriff can't do a thing about it, because he can't turn round! I didn't even make it to the end of the first screen, but I'm sure that fact won't lose me any sleep at night.\r\nMark Caswell"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Due to the coin-op's restrictions Gunsmoke could never be better than a boring shoot 'em up.","Page":"24,25","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Sumner","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Kati Hamza","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"56%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"46%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"54%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 29, May 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-04-13","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nDesigner: Catherine Higgs\r\nContributors: Guy Bennington, Richard Blaine, Audrey & Owen Bishop, Ciaran Brennan, Lucy Broadbent, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, John Minson, David Powell, Peter Shaw, Tony Worrall\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nArt Director: Hazel Bennington\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\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: 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 ©1988 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":"US Gold\r\n£8.99\r\nReviewer: Duncan MacDonald\r\n\r\nThe Sheriff glanced at his pocket watch. He tried to gulp, but his mouth was too dry. The time was fast approaching high noon; the sky was blue, the air was dry and the sun was beating down relentlessly on his hat. Phew! Wotta scorcher.\r\n\r\nA shot rang out, a bullet whistled past his ear. Another shot, the bullet ricocheted off his little silver badge. The time had come, the 'pesky varmint' gang were in town - but this time they had bitten off more than they could chew, because this is where you join in. Playing (of course), the part of the Sheriff.\r\n\r\nYou view the action from above and behind, as the screen scrolls down towards you. You're in a wild-west town, treading the dusty street as the 'Hollywood facade'scenery flashes by on either side. Whoops - did I say 'flashes'? Then I must have been fibbing; even 'trickles by' would be an overstatement. Nope, it has to be said, this is a femtoscroller; glacial in stealth and going nowhere in a hurry. It's slow by cracky!\r\n\r\nAnyway, as the screen scrolls, numerous Cowboys 'leap' (saunter, actually) out of side alleys and also appear from the top of the screen. Shoot them before they shoot you time, but with the added problem that the graphics are so awful that half the time you can't see their bullets. This results as you might imagine in an awful lot of dying. Occasionally you will be charged at by a giant cockroach wearing a coy-boy hat. Yes it's true - that's what it looks like! it throws bombs at you.\r\n\r\nAll in all what we have here is one little birrova lame qame I'm afraid, chumkins. Wibbly animation, dodgy sprites, jerky scrolling, camouflaged bullets and a giant cockroach isn't (for my money anyway) worth nine quid, knowworrimean? Anyway, just enough room left for one of my incredibly brilliant jokes:\r\n\r\nQ: Why do cowboys ride horses?\r\nA. A coconut.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Capcom coin-op that hasn't made too easy a transition to the Speccy. Matt Dillon wouldn't be impressed.","Page":"48","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Duncan MacDonald","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 74, May 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-04-18","Editor":"Graham Taylor","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"aEditor: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nStaff Writer: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nDesigner: Andrea Walker\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nZapchat: Jon 'Mr Blagger' Riglar\r\nTechnical: Andrew Hewson, Rupert Goodwins\r\nContributors: Tony 'a fiver if my name goes first in the list' Dillon, Chris 'Can't you trust me for the dosh?' Jenkins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Katherine Lee\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Alison Morton\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nPublisher's Assistant: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\nMarketing: Clive 'If anybody asks I'm at lunch' 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: Brian 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: Go!\r\nAuthor: Toposoft\r\nPrice: £8.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Tamara Howard\r\n\r\nNow look, just because this is a cowboy sort of game, there's absolutely no excuse to start, or even continue, this review along the lines of, I Was Born Under a Wandering Star, Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, or such other Western-style film tunes. No, I'm not the sort of gal to hang around saloons and drink raw whisky and sing (That's a lie for a start - GT) so I'll just get along with this here review.\r\n\r\nGunsmoke, latest release from Go! is a conversion from a little known coin-op, which was, to say the least, not overly impressive in the first place. Yet again, the scenario is of lone good guy against hordes of screaming bad guys with simply enormous weapons.\r\n\r\nEach of Gunsmoke's levels involve ploughing your way through various outlaws of varying nastiness (the weight of the guy's beard is usually indicative of the degree of ghastliness of his character) in order to reach Mister Big, the Last Outlaw, the Final Bad Guy. And he takes an awful lot of killing.\r\n\r\nAlong the way to Public Enemy Number 1, there's the odd bouncing horse (don't axe me why) and some handy stars a-lyin' on the ground. Shoot the handy stars to reveal bonus points, and the odd stick of dynamite which alternately blows you up, and, er, doesn't. No sign, as far as I can see, of those barrels which appear in the coin-op revealing new boots, guns and other pieces of weaponry.\r\n\r\nApart from the lack of barrels, Gunsmoke on the Spectrum bears a good resemblance to Gunsmoke in the arcades. The graphics are good and clear (despite being that ghastly shade of yellow which seems to be all the rage in games these days) and your character moves with a good, manly swagger. But yet again, we've got the rotten invisible bullets syndrome. Or rather you can see the bullets, but owing to the enormous number of them present on the screen at any one time, the chances of avoiding 'em are pretty slim.\r\n\r\nIt's a tough game, with the baddies outnumbering you several to one, and things crack along at a fair pace. But it's not a game that's anything out of the ordinary. It's a relatively good conversion of a relatively good coin-op, and that's it. Period. There's nothing to lift it up to the standard of the Cybernoids and Fireflies of this world. If you want a perfectly competent cowboy blast, go for it. If you want innovative and astounding gameplay, p'raps not.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Competent coin-op conversion with lots of bad guys. Doesn't score highly on the originality front though.","Page":"39","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tamara Howard","Score":"9","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"9/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) Issue 10, Jul 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-06-03","Editor":"Peter Connor, Steve Cooke","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Future 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\nProduction Editor: Rod Lawton\r\nStaff Writer: Andy Smith\r\nArt Editor: Trevor Gilham\r\nArt Team: Angela Neale, Sally Meddings\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jonathan Beales\r\nAdvertising Sales Executive: Jennie Evans\r\nPublisher: Chris Anderson\r\n\r\nSUBSCRIPTIONS\r\nAvon Direct Mail [redacted]\r\n\r\nSPECIAL OFFERS\r\n(Christine Stacey) [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 1988 - No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without our permission."},"MainText":"Go! Get 'em Floyd.\r\n\r\nWyatt Earp you ain't, but some over-worked and underpaid sheriff you is. You've got five stages (four on some versions) to complete, and some mean gun-toting critters to avoid.\r\n\r\nThe first stage is a continually vertically scrolling shoot-em-up set in a western town. Baddies come from the top and bottom of the screen and the idea is simply to shoot them before they shoot you. Extra benefits are available in the game by shooting stars found lying on the floor - you don't get a helpful benefit every time though so you have to be careful when approaching the shot stars. At the end of each level there's a particularly vicious baddie to dispose of before you proceed to the next level. On Level Two you're trying to cause as much damage as possible to the railway station.\r\n\r\nSurvive this and next you're on your way down a canyon full of blood-thirsty injuns! The next stage has you shooting the rapids avoiding alligators, Indians and a host of other hazards, before you finally come face to face with a young scamp lobbing boomerangs at you in a very determined fashion. Complete all the levels and you can rest assured that the remainder of the citizens can sleep soundly in their beds.\r\n\r\nGunsmoke offers nothing more than the average shoot-em-up, except some poor animation and annoying gameplay. The inability to turn round and shoot baddies that are coming up behind you is particularly annoying. There's nothing here to get the adrenalin pumping for very long.\r\n\r\nReviewer: Andy Smith\r\n\r\nRELEASE BOX\r\nSpec, £8.99cs, £12.99dk, Out Now\r\nAmstrad, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent\r\nC64/128, Under development\r\n\r\nPredicted Interest Curve\r\n\r\n1 min: 50/100\r\n1 hour: 58/100\r\n1 day: 50/100\r\n1 week: 35/100\r\n1 month: 12/100\r\n1 year: 0/100","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Nothing much in here to shout about.","Page":"60","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Smith","Score":"428","ScoreSuffix":"/1000"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Beware that chap on horseback - he'll start lobbing bombs at you."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"SPECTRUM VERSION\r\n\r\nThe sprites are all black and rollerskate unconvincingly around the place. Sound effects are poor and don't do anything to add excitement. As shoot-em-ups go, this is not one of the best."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Audio","Score":"3/10","Text":""},{"Header":"IQ Factor","Score":"1/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Fun Factor","Score":"4/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Ace Rating","Score":"428/1000","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]