[{"TitleName":"City Slicker","Publisher":"Hewson Consultants Ltd","Author":"David Cooke, Steve Marsden","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0000978","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 35, Dec 1986","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-11-20","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":164,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nPublishing Executive/Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Sean Masterson\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, Rosetta McLeod, John Minson, Bill Scolding\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Dick Shiner\r\nIllustrators: Ian Craig, Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Seb Clare, Tim Croton, Gordon Druce, Mark Kendrick, Tony Lorton, Michael Parkinson, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\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.\r\n\r\n©1986 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey\r\n\r\nCRASH ABC FIGURE:\r\n101,483 Total\r\n97,992 UK and EIRE"},"MainText":"Producer: Hewson\r\nRetail Price: £8.95\r\nAuthor: Steve Marsden and David Cooke\r\n\r\nAuthors of Technician Ted, David Cooke and Steve Marsden have just finished working on their latest project, an arcade adventure about life in the capital of Britain. Abru Cadabbra decides to plant a bomb in the Houses of Parliament and emulate the action of Mr Fawkes all those years ago.\r\n\r\nThe game starts with the timeclock set at eight in the morning. The bomb is primed to go off at midnight so Slick only has a limited amount of time to get to the Houses of Parliament and defuse it. To do this he must find the parts of his Bomb Disposal Unit. When Slick finds a bit of the B.D.0 he must scamper back to his hide out underneath the houses of Parliament and deposit the part there. Apart from the pieces of B.D.0 there are also various other useful objects littered throughout the screens which Slick can collect and use to his advantage.\r\n\r\nLondon certainly has some odd characters in it these days. From marauding Beefeaters to bottle lobbing Skin Heads, they're all there to hamper Slick in his mission. Each character has a different pattern in the game. They can open doors, throw objects, steal objects, follow Slick and generally hassle him every inch of the way. Every time Slick makes contact with a character in the game he looses some of his energy resulting in an inability to jump as high or as far as he could before. Some characters will even send him back to the start of the screen which he's currently exploring. Slick can also loose energy if he falls from a great height.\r\n\r\nHis energy can be restored by collecting various pieces of edibles which appear at intervals throughout the game. At the start of the game there are three pep pills at the bottom of the screen. If Slick's energy gets too low and there's no food in sight then he can take one of these pills to keep him going a bit longer.\r\n\r\nAbru Cadabbra is a very crafty terrorist and obviously very keen that his plot should go ahead without any interruptions. He also roams around the City pursuing Slick and trying to catch him. If he succeeds in this then Slick dies and the bomb automatically detonates. An alarm sounds when Abru is about to enter the same screen as Slick.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: Left=Q, E, T, U, O Right=W, R, Y, I, P jump-CAPS SHIFT , Z, X, C, V, B, N, M, SPACE Pick up=H, J, K, L Drop=S, D, F, G Pause=A Pause off=A again Sound=ENTER (toggle on/off) Reset=BREAK\r\nJoystick: Kempston, Sinclair\r\nKeyboard play: pretty good\r\nUse of colour: pleasant\r\nGraphics: well defined and nicely drawn\r\nSound: Amusing spot effects\r\nSkill levels: one\r\nScreens: half flip screens","ReviewerComments":["I feel that Steve Marsden and company have really scraped out the barrel here. They haven't really changed their style since Technician Ted in early '85, which was slightly outdated then. Although there are some very nice touches in City Slicker the game as a whole is very similar to so many other games on the market that it is hard to appreciate this one. The graphics are very pretty, the characters are excellently detailed and animated and the backgrounds are colourful but there is a bit of colour clash.\r\r\nUnknown","Oh my goodness, now even HEWSON has gone back into the platform arcade adventure days. Surely the public must be getting sick of this type of game, I sure am! That said, there no doubt that City Slicker certainly is a good game. The graphics are very smart and original. The movement of all the characters is a bit simple but good enough. Colour is well used throughout all the screens with no clashes at all. More of the Uridium stuff would go down better here.\r\r\nUnknown","Oh dear. I'm not here. I'm busy. I'm anything except writing a City Slicker comment. Please, don't make me do it! Nooooo! I've played and written about innumerable arcade adventures today. I'm well and truly sick of them. City Slicker is another big, boring typification of this sort of game. And therefore I don't like it much. After Uridium & Firelord I expected more from HEWSON.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Not Hewson's best.","Page":"28","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Once again, Cameron sits back and lets the demo mode get on with it down in the bloody tower."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"66%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"72%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"66%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"65%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 13, Jan 1987","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1986-12-11","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":130,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nArt Editor: Caroline Clayton\r\nDeputy Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nProduction Editor: Sara Biggs\r\nDesigner: Darrell King\r\nStaff Writer: Phil South\r\nContributors: Mike Gerrard, Ian Hoare, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Steve Marsden, Tommy Nash, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Julian Harriott\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nPublishing Manager: Roger Munford\r\nPublishing Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press 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 ©1987 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":"Hewson\n£8.95\nReviewer: Max Phillips\n\nJust how far can you take a platform'n'ladders game? Steve Marsden and David Cooke of Technician Ted fame reckon they've got a long way to go. So put the Speccy on load, eat and inwardly digest the cassette card and start out on yet another one.\n\nCity Slicker casts you as Slick (the city blah, blah... though what one is isn't quite clear). You've got to wander round famous London landmarks portrayed in attribute-confusing fuzzy detail and stuffed with a motley collection of sprites.\n\nYour aim is to defuse a bomb planted in the HP sauce building by evil Arab Abru Cadabra and to do this, you've got to - you guessed it - first collect all the bits of a Bomb Disassembly Unit which some careless loon has scattered all around the screens.\n\nCuriously enough, it's got nothing whatsoever to do with Guy Fawkes. Maybe the licensing deal cost an arm and a leg... and your insides torn out and being hung from... ah, forget it.\n\nBut you've just got to accept that this one's a bit different. Firstly, you're hotly pursued by Cadabra himself (who looks remarkably like our ol' friend Harry the Hippie) and contact is instant death with a big bang. Next there are plenty of objects and other characters to play with, including food and pep pills to keep your energy topped up.\n\nEnergy is crucial; getting bumped by a nasty wastes it and so does falling long distances. Feeling energyless affects your performance - it reduces your jumping height and eventually kills you.\n\nThe other change from the norm is that rooms are much bigger than screens - the game 'half-flips' from one screen to the next but if you get properly pranged, you can get sent back miles. Getting through a room isn't the easy task it once was.\n\nAll in all, it's a jolly good romp - perhaps the only really nasty bit being the graphic you're treated to every time the Houses of Parliament goes up - it looks like the MasterMind studio. But then what do I know... maybe it really does? If you like arcade/adventure on platforms, check it out...","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"57","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Max Phillips","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 58, Jan 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-12-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Andy Moss, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Jacqui Pope\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Courtesy of 2000AD magazine\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by PRS Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Hewson\r\nAuthor: David Cooke and Steve Marsden\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\nJoystick: various\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: Graham Taylor\r\n\r\nIn City Slicker you combat the forces of urban terrorism (as represented by a very dodgy racial stereotype Sprite in the shape of an Arab ie, it's got one of those cloth things over its head) and try to prevent the houses of Parliament being destroyed by a bomb.\r\n\r\nNot an objective I found it very easy to identify with.\r\n\r\nEven more difficult to assimilate is the fact that City Slicker is, superficially, yet another Manic Miner game.\r\n\r\nIn fact, my first reaction on seeing it was of horror. I thought games like this had been relegated to the budget ranks long ago.\r\n\r\nIt isn't that simple, however. City Slicker is by the people who brought you Technician Ted which got mixed reviews but sold in zillions mainly because what the reviews hadn't realised was that whilst the game looked dull, it had a lot of clever puzzles, some of them fiendishly difficult.\r\n\r\nCity Slicker is pretty much the same. Its failings are similar and it might easily be dismissed but when you come to play it - well it's quite good fun. A sort of Jet Set Willy meets Spellbound in that your time is equally divided between working out how to jump over obstacles 'leap over the penguin when it nearly reaches the cherry then quickly drop down the whole screen whilst turning around...' and working out what object you can pick up does what 'having got the herring I should now be able to open the box and get the lathe to make the key to the door...'\r\n\r\nThe plot is all about assembling a bomb deactivator device. The various unlikely parts of the device are strewn around London as it would look if it comprised 50 caverns. Between some areas you can take the tube and thus rest your weary feet from all that intensive jumping.\r\n\r\nThen there is this terrorist whose arrival is indicated by weird noises from your Spectrum. In fact there are dozens of odd little things, that redeem this game no end.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are well - how can I put this - they look like almost every single one of the Jet Set gang. There are telephones, cute little guards (beefeaters actually), 100 ton weights, platforms, sudden gaps, indescribable blobby things in fact the complete 'how to make a Jet Set Willy game' kit of sprites. They don't flicker too much, though there is the occasional attribute clash.\r\n\r\nI quite liked the birds in Trafalgar Square whose air to ground bombings must be avoided on pain of death and was impressed by the poor herberts - people - you can pick up and treat as an 'object' dropping them from great heights on to nasty objects for example. The main virtue of the game is its puzzles, however.\r\n\r\nIn the cheat sheet handed out to reviewers, the solution to getting the first part of the deactivator ran to two pages.\r\n\r\nI can't say this sort of thing fills me with much joy but for some it'll be game of the year.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Jet Set Willy meets Spellbound well-worn game ideas that shouldn't be entertaining yet somehow are.","Page":"106","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Graham Taylor","Score":"4","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"4/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 63, Jan 1987","Price":"£98","ReleaseDate":"1986-12-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":164,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nDeputy Editor: Paul Boughton\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lesley Walker\r\nSub-Editor: Seamus St. John\r\nDesign: Craig Kennedy\r\nAdventure Writers: Keith Campbell, Paul Coppins, Steve Donoghue\r\nAmerican Correspondent: Marshall M. Rosenthal\r\nArcades: Clare Edgeley\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nPublicity: Marcus Rich\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Garry Williams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Katherine Lee\r\nAd Production: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\nCover: Steve Gibbs\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nJuly-December 98,258"},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum/Amstrad\r\nSUPPLIER: Hewson\r\nPRICE: £8.95 cassette/£14.95 Amstrad disk\r\nVERSION TESTED: Spectrum\r\n\r\nUrban terrorism is a dodgy subject for fun computer games. Bombs in the heart of London have in the recent past been all too real. People died - horribly. So to make the centrepiece of your game the blowing up of the Houses of Parliament could be seen as - at the very least - in very dubious taste.\r\n\r\nAnd that's exactly what the normally ever so tasteful Hewson has done with City Slicker.\r\n\r\nAnyway, enough of the moralising and down to the game.\r\n\r\nCity Slicker is the latest offering from the minds of Technician Ted authors Steve Marsden and David Cooke. It is set in London where an evil Arab Abru Cadabbra has planted a bomb in the Houses of Parliament set to explode at midnight.\r\n\r\nYou play the part of Slick, who's been called in by some mysterious department to defeat his fiendish plot.\r\n\r\nSo what you have is an arcade adventure set across more than 50 or so screens in which Slick has 16 hours in which to find and make a Bomb Disassembly Unit and dismantle the bomb.\r\n\r\nThe backdrops range from the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, British Museum, Buckingham Palace and, of course, Parliament.\r\n\r\nSlick moves around London by using the tube. All he has to do is find a station, get onto the tube and select his required destination. This is a very nice touch.\r\n\r\nThe game is packed with problem solving. You know the type - put the top weight over the trapdoor to open it or ring the telephone to distract the guard.\r\n\r\nThere are many characters who drain your energy, including pigeons who's personal habits when flying above your head leave much to be desired.\r\n\r\nAnd there's Abru who crops up all over the place bringing a somewhat lethal touch with him.\r\n\r\nGraphically it's very slick. There's also what Hewson term the \"half flip\" feature which moves the screen image a half width, extending the play area into the next room.\r\n\r\nIf you ignore the background to the game, City Slicker is excellent fun. As it is, it should be renamed City Sicker.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"38","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Boughton","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Exploding politicians..!"},{"Text":"Victory in Trafalgar Square?"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]