October 2015 Issue 8

DEFENDER
ARCADE CLONE
SHOOT OUT

MAKING OF FLASHBACK 86
BALDYZX GAME REVIEWS

CHEETAH HARDWARE
RAT SPECIAL FEATURES

Includes material The Sinclair Vega

not in the video New machine for a new era.

show! Full review inside.

EDITORIAL & CONTENTS

17 Krazy Kong
FEATURES C-Tech give us the worst game in the world.

08 Making of BaldyZX 28 Future Looter

How this new game came about. Puzzling shooter.

20 Defender Shoot Out 29 Invaders

Which Spectrum clone is best? Artic Computing’s version of the classic.

18 Cheetah RAT 30 Mailstrom

The first wireless joystick for the Spectrum. Apocalyptic mail delivery from Ocean Software.

36 Sinclair Vega 32 Schizoids

A new machine for a new era. Extended review. Imagine’s second game.

33 Stack Up
Colourful falling blocks from Zeppelin.

REVIEWS 34 Commando
Elite’s conversion of the classic arcade game.
06 The Oracle’s Cave
An engrossing graphic arcade adventure from Doric.
40 Canyon Warrior
A great shoot-em-up.
12 Sector
Arcade dodge-em-up.
41 Jock and the Time Rings
Ring collecting never was interesting!
13 Glug Glug
Underwater antics from CRL.
Want to help out?
14 Glass
Nice graphics shame about this game from Quicksilva. Send me your
reviews or features.
16 180
On the oche with Mastertronic.
Simples!

Page 2
Hello and welcome to issue 8 of The Spectrum Show
Magazine.

Last issue I had a bit of a rant about prices, particularly

on inline stores like eBay, where things seem to be spi-
ralling out of control. that important? Is it worth paying three times the
I don’t know whether retro collecting is increasing in price?
popularity or whether the unscrupulous minions have I waited a few months, paid the normal price and it
seen a money pot that they want to exploit. arrived at the back end of August. So it wasn’t one
Take the Spectrum 128. Sinclair’s final machine before of the first 1000, but it was one of the second 1000.
Amstrad took over the reigns. This wonderful machine It was straight out of the box and plugged in, with
was always at the top end of price bracket, but last year cameras ready so I could squeeze it into episode 43.
you could pick a decent one up for about £100. In June you can also find the extended review on page 36.
one sold for £599. Yes it was in great condition, but real-
ly? To celebrate the Vega’s arrival, I will be reviewing
some of the included games as a regular spot in this
magazine.
Soon after my Vega arrived I set up my Spectrum+
with interface one and a Microdrive to check out a
batch of carts that came with a large box of periph-
erals. To my surprise the unit was dead. Odd con-
sidering it worked when I last had it out for an earli-
er episode.

It’s not just old machines that are seeing this trend, the Having sent it to a recommended repairer, I was
newly released Vega has also seen it’s fair share of informed that the interface was working fine. This
wheeler dealers trying to make a fast buck. left the Spectrum (x 2 as I tested it on two ma-
chines) looking to be the culprit.
I found that rather sad, as like myself, I wanted to sup-
port the project on kickstarter and I wanted to own the So, off went my two main machines, along with two
device. I am a dedicated fan and would have kept it and other Spectrums in need of some TLC. It’s an odd
used it. feeling when your beloved hardware is handed over
to the courier.
I would not have bought it to sell on straight away at
stupidly raised prices. The problem is, the sellers have no Luckily they were only away for a few weeks, and I
way of knowing who buys their goods and probably still had my plus 2 and 3 to play with. Once back
don’t really care. though, I now have four fully serviced machines
with new capacitors and membranes.
I suppose if there are people willing to buy something
for three times the price instead of waiting a few months A quick plug for the person responsible for this
for the next batch to be made available, then fine. work, who I recommend for anyone looking to get
their machines services or repaired.
They will be proud owners of one of the first 1000, but is
www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk

Thanks for reading.

Page 3
NEWS FROM 1986
SCOOBY DON’T 128 FEVER
Elite’s much hyped cartoon like
game has been scrapped.
According to the software com-
pany, they just kept on running
out of memory.
The game had been heavily ad-
vertised as a major leap in Spec-
trum games, with superb cartoon
-like graphics and animation.
Elite say they will shelve what
they have and begin work on a
Anticipation of the new 128 machine from Sinclair is
complete re-write.
reaching fever pitch and news that software companies
are now gearing up for releases is adding fuel to the fire.

BT TAKE OVER Initially having just Spanish ROMS in their development

machines, many companies now have been supplied
UPTG? with English equivalents.
Rumour has it that the machine will be released to the
BT has denied that it is about to take over the public in late January, and already news of software titles
famous software house, Ultimate Play The game. are beginning to circulate.
Rumours in the trade press hinted at such a Tasman has said it already has a more powerful version
move, but these are strongly denied, with BT of its word processor ready, Melbourne House has men-
claiming that they would be very surprised if tioned an extended version of it’s music package Wham
they or anyone else bought the company. Music Box, Ocean claim to be working on 128k versions
A few weeks later though and US Gold an- of Yie Ar Kung Fu, and Mastertronic are plugging the
nounced they had taken over all marketing of sequel to Spellbound called Knight Tyme.
Ultimate’s games, and contracted them to write In typical Sinclair fashion, the launch was delayed.
6 new titles over a 12 month period.
The official launch date was put back to 13th February
This takes away the entire marketing from Ulti- with trade viewings already taking place. The machine
mate and leaves them as just programmers paid should hit the shelves later in the month for the public to
on a royalty basis. buy at £179.99 including a software bundle.
The first games to be released under this new The unit will not come with a numeric keypad as it did in
deal will be Pentagram and Cyberrun. Spain, but this will be available to buy for an additional
£19.95.
Software ready to load includes an enhanced version of
SOFT AID 2 Ocean’s Never Ending Story, Daley Thompson’s Su-
pertest 128, an international version of Match Day,
Following the success of the charity software Formax from Gargoyle – the follow up to Marsport and
compilation Soft-Aid, the same group of compa- many more, in fact there are over 30 companies produc-
ny directors and people responsible for the first ing titles already.
one have announced a followed up named Off
The Hook. In a surprise announcement too, Sir Clive stated that he
intends to work on a disk drive system for the 128 ma-
The proceeds of this compilation, which is said chine as soon as possible, saying that Spectrum technol-
to contain 9 games, will go to the Prince’s Trust. ogy will certainly be around in 198 and beyond.
Companies involves include Activision, US Gold, Sinclair also received some good news from two new
Ocean Gremlin, Elite and Ultimate Play The surveys. Both place Sinclair at the top of the list when it
Game. comes to home micros. One company, AGB, give Sinclair
37% share, while the second, Wood Mackenzie give them
35%.
This is a much larger share than their nearest rivals com-
modore and Amstrad, who both have around 16% to
23% depending on who you believe.

Page 4
MICRO SHOOTOUT
Comparing other micros to the ZX Spectrum

Dragon 32 ZX SPECTRUM 48K

Memory (RAM) 32kb Memory (RAM) 48kb

Screen Size 16 lines x 32 columns Screen Size 22 lines x 32 columns

Resolution 256 x 192 Resolution 256 x 192

CPU 6809e @ 0.89Mhz CPU Z80 @ 3.5Mhz

Colours 8 Colours 8 + 7 bright

Sound 4 voices. 7 octaves. Sound 1 bit beeper.

Joystick Options 2 ports built in. Joystick Options Via third party interface.

Connections Tape in/out. Connections Tape in/out.

Cartridge port. Expansion bus.
Disc drive port.
Parallel port.
Games Approx. 950 Games Approx. 20,000
Average Price £199.00 Average Price £175.00

Opinion
The Dragon 32 had some pretty good features and beats the humble Speccy hands down when it comes to
sound. The standard beeper just could not compete with 4 voices and 7 octaves.

Game resolution though caused the machine problems. There were several modes but you could only run high
resolutions modes in two colours. Here I think the Spectrum wins despite the infamous colour cash.

The processor seems on paper to be slower, but this wasn't a problem for the more powerful 6809, and games
ran at a fair speed.
The Dragon’s keyboard was better, as was expansion options, but games and cost meant it didn’t sell as well.

Page 5
GAME REVIEWS

The

Doric Computer Services 1984

As a hapless adventurer, you find yourself stuck at the

entrance to the fabled Oracle’s Cave. The only way to free-
dom is through the Oracle’s Cave itself on level four, but
there are many obstacles you must overcome first.
The game is a graphic, arcade adventure that depicts your
actions with large, animated graphics. The caves scroll as
you move but the input is based on traditional adventur-
ing methods.

The cave system is built each game, so there is always a

new layout and this keeps the game fresh.

Once loaded you are given the option of which enemy to

tackle first The Mummy, The Centaur, The Fiery Dragon or
The Black Knight.
To complete the game you have to collect 40 units of
treasure, defeat your chosen enemy, steal their trouser
and then beat the Oracle. All this has to be achieved in
just five game days, with energy that constantly needs
topping up, so this is certainly not an easy game.
The game screen is largely taken up by the action window
at the top. Other areas indicate your stats and there is also
a map showing the areas you have visited and the posi-
tions of the various beasts.

Commands are entered by single letter for example M to

move and E to explore. There are then sub commands, so
after pressing M you can press R to move right. As you
move the game window scrolls smoothly in all directions
and you characters is well animated as they walk and
climb around.

To be able to climb up or down there must be steps or if

you find some rope you can use that too.

It isn’t long before you meet something evil and are given
the choice to move or fight. Fighting is shown as a series
of lightning flashes sadly, no animation. The outcome will
be good or bad based on your stats and those of the
thing you are fighting.

Page 6
The monster’s combat value is shown next
to yours so you can decide to fight or run.
As you move and fight your energy is de-
creased and you can either eat food or rest
to replenish it. Resting uses up precious
time though and you only have five days.

There are other things to be found in the

caves like wine, that will increase your ener-
gy, magic rings that make you invisible and
potions that heal wounds.

Sound consists of beeps only, but the game

I find to be engrossing. It’s a pity it is hard,
and that you often find yourself dead in
less than ten moves unless you are lucky.
Give this one a try, even if it’s only once.

Recommended.

Page 7
FEATURE
The Making Of...

Amiga Version

Baldy, if you didn’t know, was an Amiga game I wrote in 1992

using AMOS, and was released on Public Domain. Since then I
have tried many times to port the game across the Spectrum,
using a variety of different methods. None of them, apart from
BASIC version a BASIC version, ever got very far.

The game is a simple platform game with a few twists. There

are four rows of six platforms and the jump is fixed so that the
player can only jump to these areas. There is no free move-
ment, so in essence there are fixed areas on screen that the
player can be in. It was written like that on purpose, as the style
of the game is more about timing, route planning and avoiding
the various projectiles.
To get from one row to another, there are teleports, and these
transport the player down, or up, one level. The player can also
duck to avoid certain projectiles, but not all of them.

The projectiles include horizontal and vertical moving enemies

and each level has a different set to avoid. Early levels are quite
easy, but as the player progresses, the game throws everything
Level planning at them including random falling rocks, which are a real pain if
you are on the top row.

Collecting a set number of items, in the case of the original,

Amiga discs, takes you to the next level. The Amiga version has
20 levels getting progressively harder.
Of the Spectrum versions I had tried to make, the only one that
got very far was a BASIC version written in 1998. This version
had a reduced number of platforms with just four rows of four
platform.

This obviously meant the game wold be different, and being in

BASIC also meant it would be painfully slow. Other changes to
this version included the removal of the crouch. This was done
because I didn’t have the knowledge to implement it! Apart
from that though, the game plays quite well.

Page 8
 Frogger-like game that gave me the
With my discovery of Johnathan Cauldwell’s Arcade Game basic movement.
Designer around 2009, a Spectrum version of the game
has always been at the back of my mind.
I have tried many times to make one, but each time I ei-
ther got distracted or hit problems that I could see no
way out of. The main issue was the jump mechanism. AGD
has jump routines built in that didn’t conform to my ra-
ther odd structure. I did make several attempts to get
round this, but had to give up. One game came very
close, but I had to change it so much to fit in with AGD
that it ended up being a totally different game.
My next attempt in 2012 failed and so we move to 2014.
A few things conspired to bring me to this point. First the Evolution of the bald man...
Anniversary edition of The Spectrum Show has just been
released and it included footage of my poor BASIC game.
In response some people in the World Of Spectrum fo-
rums asked if I would release it. That scared me, I mean
the game is sluggish, has bad collision detection and is
something I wouldn’t want made public.
Secondly I have been messing about with AGD trying to
make a kind of updated Frogger game. For this I had to
limit the movement of the frog to set distances, so the
jumps are 32 pixels at a time. The movement between the
positions is smooth and animated, but the sprite can only Review of the Amiga version.
ever be 32 pixels left, right, up or down from its current
position. This was more or less the same mechanics need-
ed for Baldy.

Mechanics of Movement
Armed with this new bit of Frogger mechanics infor-
mation, my first job was to build a few platforms and try
to make the player jump in fixed lengths.
The normal jump arc implemented by AGD was not suita-
ble so I had to come up with my own jump mechanism.
After a bit of thought I decided to hard code a few simple
rules that, when complete, worked really well.
Upon pressing the jump key the sprite is moved up 4 pix-
els and a variable is set to the horizontal sprite position,
plus or minus 30 depending on the direction of the jump.
I then move the sprite left or right until this variable is
reached at which point I call the FALL routine to allow our
hero to drop down onto the platforms.
With this simple piece of code in place, the main control
and basic game engine was coming together quickly. To
create new levels I just had to draw the graphics for each
level, paste them onto the screen and the engine took
over.

Page 9
FEATURE
The Making Of...

Crouching
Early crouching concepts.
For this the main sprite had to crouch down to avoid low fly-
ing projectiles, but because the sprite sizes are fixed in AGD, I
had to take another approach as just changing the image
would still detect a collision.
I decided the best method would be to have a flag or varia-
ble that indicated if the player was crouched. If this was set,
by pressing the down key, the sprite would drop down 8 pix-
els and the sprite image change to a crouched version of the
Baldy sprite.
This would be enough for the projectile to pass over his head
and at the same time leave enough room to actually draw
the sprite and make it look like he is crouching.

With the sprite drawn, even though I wasn’t completely hap-

py with it, I set about adding the code to make him crouch.

This was fairly easy, and much the same as the jump routine.
With the variable set, the sprite’s vertical position would be First crouch image. Changed in re-
lowered by 8 pixels allowing any overhead projectile not to
trigger the collision. Then I hit problems. lease version.
Crouching and jumping caused a whole world of pain be-
cause the jump routine simply moved the sprite up 4 pixels
as previously coded. This meant the sprite ended up in the
middle of the platform.

To get round this I had to detect the crouch flag in the jump
code and subtract the 8 pixels before jumping. With that bit
now working the next task was the teleports.

Teleporting
Getting the transporters to work involved using the two types
of blocks that AGD will allow you to check collisions for,
these are the Deadly block and the Custom block.
Creating temporary up and down arrows to help with the
layout, I place a down arrow (custom block) on one of the
platforms. I placed the up arrow (deadly) block on the plat-
form below it.
In code I could now check to see if the main sprite was in
contact with either of these blocks.
In the main sprite code, in the key press detection loop, I
simply checked these collisions. So, if the player pressed the
down key and the player was in contact with the custom
block then I added 48 pixels to the players X coordinates. In
AGD the variable X is used for vertical positioning, so you
have to remember that!

Page 10
Similarly, in the UP key loop, if the player was touching the Early main sprite - with a hat!
deadly block, I simply subtracted 48 pixels from the X coordi-
nates.

This seemed to work, but had the disadvantage of not allow-

ing the player to duck if they were on a downward trans-
porter. In the original Amiga version, the transporters were
triggered using the fire button which was un-connected with
up and down.

So back to the code. I removed all of the previous stuff and

added much the same code in the FIRE key loop. I obviously
had to check both block types, but once that was done, play
testing revealed the exact same issue I had with the original,
and that still can be found in it to some extent.

Pressing fire triggers the down transporter, but once the play-
er is moved down, the code is that fast that it automatically
triggers again and sends the player back. Sometimes this
bounces the player up and down a few times making the
whole thing unplayable.
The fix was to add a counter that triggered when the trans-
porter was activated. This counted down and stopped the
transporter from triggering again for about 1 second. This was
enough to stop the problem and all was well in Baldy land.

The player could now move across all platforms and transport
to all levels of the screen.
I added an image change to indicate he was jumping and that
was the transporter stuff complete.

Collecting Stuff
Next on my list was the collection routines. The original game
had Baldy collecting discs. For the Spectrum version it was
only right to change that to tapes.

I drew a sprite of a rotating tape and added it to the game

screen. The collision is all handled in AGD by a few lines of
code, but the next problem popped up - how to handle the
multi-collections.

Once collected the tape had to re-appear elsewhere on the

screen. This meant either using objects, which is a lot of ob-
jects, or sprites, which would use up one sprite type.

After a bit of testing and arguing with myself, I opted to use a

sprite type. This would involve a few lines of code for every
collection, but I hoped would use less memory than huge
amounts of objects.

A few tweaks to the code and Baldy could now collect the first Continued next issue
four tapes. On to the next level...

Page 11
GAME REVIEWS

Denis Grachev 2013

Sector was released by Denis Grachev in 2013 and is

by his own admission, an updated and highly im-
proved version of Transversion originally from Ocean
Software.
The idea is simple, as is all the best games, your goal
is to clear the grid of pods by flying over them.
The problem is, there are aliens out to stop you, who
fire whenever you are in their direct line.

The aliens are continually moving around the outside

of the grid, which means you have no time to stand
still.

This is a fast paced game from the onset. You have to

keep moving and dodging or you won’t last very
long.
Collecting the pods is made harder on later levels
when certain pods cannot be moved. These stop your
movement and can only be blasted by the aliens
themselves.
Your ship has no weapons, so again it’s down to agile
flying if you want to survive.

The graphics, although small, are nice and certainly

improve the original, with plenty of colour and ef-
fects.
Sound is used very well, and there is a nice tune that
plays when the game has loaded, but never again,
which is a pity.
This is a very addictive game that I found best if
played via the keyboard. I tried the joystick option,
but for some reason it wasn’t as easy for me.
Using the keyboard though gave me fairly long
games, and once over, I was straight back into the
action.

A great arcade game then that is

highly recommended.

Page 12
 GLUG GLUG
CRL 1984

Released in 1984, Glug Glug was probably one of

those games that slipped under the radar from a
then relatively mediocre games company.

It’s a kind of cross between JetPac and Scuba Dive.

You control a diver, tethered to a boat, that has to
dive to the bottom of the ocean and collect three
items of treasure.

Under the waves there are all kinds of sea life that
can cause instant death, so our money hungry div-
er has be careful.

Shoals of fish meandering about, jelly fish floating

aimlessly, crabs patrolling the seabed and even a
shark are all deadly.
Each type of creature has it’s own movement pat-
tern making the game interesting when there is a
mixture on screen. The hardest ones are the small
fish that track your movement causing you to con-
stantly move and dodge.
Luckily you are armed with a gun that has unlim-
ited ammo, and you can quickly see off a deadly
creature. They don’t stay dead long though, and
they soon come back for more.

Once the three items of treasure have been collect-

ed, and returned to the boat, you move on to the
next level, and a different mix of creatures.
Later levels also see mines, fixed to the seabed by a
chain that you cannot move through. This narrows
down the play area making things more difficult.
You have to be very careful not to get trapped, be-
cause although the chains stop the diver, they
don’t stop the sea creatures.

This is a nice little game that really deserves more

credit than it got on release. Its quick to pickup
and play, fun and challenging.

Recommended.

Page 13
GAME REVIEWS

Quicksilva 1985

Glass is a 3D arcade shoot-em-up, throwing you

straight into the action as a newly recruited pilot.
No messing about training, instead
your mission is to destroy three
enemy cities.
Before you can destroy them
though, you have to navigate and
blast your way past their many de-
fences.
These include various types of ro-
bots, tanks and huge motherships,
which glide across the screen
smoothly.

The game looks really impressive,

and after a nice launch sequence
you meet your first alien. Bouncing
towards you with a reflection on
the blue ground, you have to blast
it before it hits your ship. This sce-
nario is one of three that repeats
throughout the game, with differ-
ent, nicely drawn aliens. Bouncy bouncy...
Each section has a time limit to survive and this is
displayed on your control panel along with your
shield strength, which is depleted if anything hits
you.

The shield is replenished after a few levels, so

you just have to keep it clean for a short period
of time.
Between each level you get a nice 3D grid effect
as you zoom off into the next alien filled zone.

After a few rounds of these, you get thrown into

a level that is very reminiscent of 3D Death
Chase. Here different coloured towers fly towards
you and you just have to dodge them until the
timer runs down. Then its back to the aliens for a
few more rounds.
Again, clear a few of these and you get a chance
to blast one of the many motherships. This huge
vessel glides across the screen and you have to Deathchase sequence
manoeuvre your sites to shoot areas of the ship.

Page 14
Complete this and it’s back to the aliens again. Even-
tually you’ll reach the impressive base, and you can
destroy it by just watching as your nukes head off to
blow up the unsuspecting aliens.
Once you get used to the controls, the game itself
isn’t too difficult but after about ten minutes you
begin to lose interest, only carrying on to see what
the next set of graphics will look like.

There is a very impressive array of art work on offer,

all drawn very well but with little animation. Some
walking, some bouncing, some creeping up.
Taking on the mothership.
Sound is used well although there is only sounds for
shooting, explosion and level transposition.
Maintaining your shields is the only thing to worry
about, lose them and it’s gave over. You can howev-
er, take the option to continue. This lets you get
further in the game but your score is reset to zero.

After battling through the first 40 or so levels I was

graciously awarded the level of Commodore User –
nice !

I continued on just so I could destroy the city. Then I

ended the game and didn’t go back.

Despite some very nice graphics then, the game

soon becomes boring. A pity really, as there is plen-
ty of gameplay options but just nothing I would
class as exciting.

Nuke the city.

Try it once...

Page 15
GAME REVIEWS

Mastertronic 1986

I love a bit of darts, and it seems there has

been dart games for almost every comput-
er and console, even the Xbox or
Playstation.

The Spectrum was no different and there

were several to choose from, but his time I
will be checking out 180 by Mastertronic.

After configuring your keys or selecting a

joystick you are thrown straight into the
action against the poorest player, Del Boy
Desmond. There are two main views in the
game, a view of your opponent as they
throw, and a view of the dartboard as you
throw.
The dartboard is nicely drawn, and a large
disembodied hand floats around awaiting
your control

Using the keyboard or joystick, you ma-

noeuvre the hand to your selected score,
and hit the fire button. Depending on the
position and the animation frame of the
hand, the dart will fly into the board hope-
fully where you wanted it.

The movement of the hand is constant and

like most other dart games, and you have
to constantly correct the movement in or-
der to hit the target.

The hand rocks back and forth, and as

mentioned before, this is a key part of aim-
ing. If the hand is pulled back towards you,
the dart will go higher.
and throws. The pub background includes a barmaid and
It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you another drinker, and there are some entertaining anima-
master it, you’ll be throwing high scores all the tions if you watch long enough.
time.
The opponents are not that easy to beat without a lot of
The scoring is done in the side panel, in the style practice and the first one usually kicks off scoring over 100
of an old fashioned chalk board with your overall with each throw.
score and points scored. Sadly there is no hint of
Sound is limited to a thud as the darts hit the board, but
checkouts, so you have to be good with maths in
there is a jolly tune that plays on the menu screen and
the later stages of the game if you want to win.
when your opponent is throwing.
When you have thrown you get a view of the pub
Overall not a bad game then and it does offer a solid chal-
and your challenger, as he aims for the board
lenge.

Page 16
KRAZY KONG C-Tech 1982

Let me quote from a C-Tech advertisement;

“100% machine code program featuring 3 screens of hi-
res gorilla, barrels, fireballs, lifts and a running jumping
man…”
Now we have that image in our head, lets load the game
and compare. That is, if you can actually load it in the first
place. There are numerous unnecessary steps to go
through before you get to the point where the game be-
comes playable. At one point you are asked to turn on
CAPS before continuing!

If you do manage to get to the game, after sitting

through the terrible jerky intro, then you will very quickly
re-read the text above and wonder if you have loaded
the wrong game.

The main character is almost uncontrollable, and has two

methods of movement; walking and jumping. Not the
traditional way, oh no, you can either walk left or jump
left - using separate keys. This makes progress very diffi-
cult.

The fireballs and barrels move in 8 pixels leaps and often

move straight through your player without hurting him.
Other times your player will just randomly move and get
killed.

As for running, jumping man, well, lets just say its very
difficult to tell what he is supposed to be doing!
If you, by some ancient magic, get past the first level, the
second level awaits, and although much easier, there is
nothing remotely interesting here. Just a few fireballs
moving in set patterns and conveyor belts.
Now for the killer… if you complete this level, level three
never arrives. There is a bug in the game that sends you
back to level one again. There were complaints about this
in various magazines at the time, but to my knowledge it
never got resolved.

So, here is my challenge to any coder or hacker. Try to

get level three of this game working please.

Your staring hint is that it’s more than likely compiled

BASIC.

The worst game ever!

Page 17
FEATURE

C heetah

Back in the good old days of home gaming, if you didn’t like
using the keyboard, your only option was a joystick. A very
popular device, with many varieties, designs and features.

I covered the different options in episode 4, but the joysticks

themselves remained pretty much the same throughout their
life.
Some had pistol grips, some
trigger buttons, some had rapid
fire options, but at the end of
the day they all plugged into an
interface and they all moved the
player left, right, up and down,
and allowed them to fire or
jump.
Even up to more modern consoles like the original Xbox or
PS2, the joystick, or the joypad as it was renamed, still plugged
into the unit.

It was considered somewhat of a special feature if a console

came with wireless joypads, but now it is considered a bare
minimum.

This trend isn’t something new though, and for the spectrum it
all started in August 1984, when Cheetah Marketing announced
the RAT. Or to give it it’s full title, the Remote Action Transmit- These were not actual buttons though, they were
ter. similar to the old ZX81 keyboard, so there was
no mechanical parts here.
This was an infrared controller costing nearly £30. Not a joy-
stick, as there wasn’t really a stick. Not a joypad, as the term It had a battery compartment at the back for a
had yet to be mainstream – but a controller. normal PP3 battery, and once fitted, you were
ready to go.
The unit had two components, an interface that plugged into
the Spectrum, which was not much larger than a normal joy- The best thing Cheetah did with this was to
stick interface, but had a small infrared receiver in it. make it Kempston compatible, so any game that
worked with a normal Kempston joystick, would
And the RAT itself. A misty grey lump of plastic that looked like
work with this.
it had come from the set of a sci-fi movie.
To test this, I entered simple
It was about the same size as a normal television remote con-
basic program that printed the
trol and worked in the same way.
signal on port 31 – the
It had a four-way pad, despite having markings for eight, and a
large single, orange fire button.

Page 18
port used by the Kempston joystick, and made a beep if the layout, and needed two hands to make this work –
value was anything other than 0. which again was very tricky.

Running this and pressing the buttons indicated the four Overall though, it was a brave effort by Cheetah,
direction and fire were working, and also that the diagonal and the end result is an attempt to move away
directions were not detected, as mentioned earlier. from wired joysticks and give the player more free-
dom.
There was sometimes a slight delay in response which could
be down to the age of the unit, remember this is over 20 It is claimed that it will work 30 feet away. In my
years old, or it could be just the normal delays you some- tests this claim proved to be true. The interface
times get with infrared. picked up the signal as far back as I could
get, around 5 metres, but it was impos-
The best test for this device was obviously a game.. so I
sible to see the actual game at
loaded Galaxians and got ready to play.
that distance on my 19inch
Things worked well, apart from the odd delay, it didn’t feel television!
as responsive as using keys, or indeed a wired joystick. This
The unit is well
sometimes meant my ship failed to avoid a collision, not
designed
very good for gaming.
and
As I said before, this could be the age of the unit, so I can’t
really claim it’s a bad controller without a brand new one for
comparison, which is unlikely.
Next I loaded something that needed all direc-
tions of movement – Jetpac. sits
nicely in
This is where the RAT fell short. the hand, but
Moving is all directions does require two
meant you constant- hands to use it properly.
ly had to check The placement of the buttons
y o u r means it’s quite difficult to move and
fire at the same time, but the interface does
handle this.

A novel idea that actually worked, and something

finger that only became expected from more modern
positions, and consoles.
often you missed
Good fun to play with, but the re-
the buttons, leaving poor
old jetman floundering. sponse is just a bit slow for accurate
Firing AND moving, although it did gaming.
work, was even trickier due to the device

Page 19
FEATURE

WHICH OF THE SPECTRUM CLONES CAN

CLAIM THE CROWN?

Page 20
Defender - The Game
Defender is one of the all-time great arcade games. Released in 1980 by Williams, the hectic pace, unique gameplay,
iconic sounds and difficult gameplay placed this high in the list of favourites for game players worldwide.
The idea is simple, save the planet from invading aliens who are set on abducting humans. Defend the humans at all
costs, once there are no more, the game switches up a level and all hell breaks loose.

Graphics wise the game was pretty simple; Horizontal scrolling wireframe landscape that you could fly through and a
mixture of different aliens to shoot. There was also a radar screen at the top of the playing area and the addition of
smart bombs and hyperspace to get you out of tricky situations.
On looks and gameplay, home conversion should have been easy, but many tried and failed to recreate the arcade
feeling, mainly down to speed issues.

On the Spectrum there were quite a few versions., but which one was best?
Lets play...

DEFENDA - Interstella Software 1984

I remember this game coming out of the blue. The company

wasn’t well known, but when the game loaded it was a great
version of the classic.

Everything had been replicated and the scrolling and speed

were fast and smooth.
All of the arcade elements were present, from the landscape
to the alien types and even the sound was nice. Not the same
as the arcade, but still pretty impressive.

The radar was easy to read and accurate, and the compliment
of smart bombs were good.

The player ship explosion, one of the best features of the ar-
cade, is replicated very well too, although I did see this a bit too often!

The only bad thing to say about this game is the sound. If you have a 48K machine, you’ll be playing in silence, how-
ever 128K owners will get the better deal here, with some nice effects.
Control was via keyboard, Interface 2 joystick or Kempston joystick and was excellent. The inertia of the ship was spot
on, and really this is going to take some beating.
I am not the best defender player, but I enjoyed this game, my attention was on playing rather than dodgy graphics,
jerky movement or poor game mechanics.
This really was a joy to play…

Page 21
FEATURE
ASTROPLANER - Romik Software 1984

The first thing you notice is the colour, not black as

the arcade game, but green.

The next thing you notice if the ship, it looks terrible..

In fact most things about this game are poor. The

basics are there, with aliens that kidnap humans and a
smooth scrolling landscape, but there is no radar so it
makes things a little tricky.
There is also no smart bomb, so you have to rely on
your laser for protection.
There is a slight twist in that you have to pick up the
humans, or in this game they are mutants, and carry
them to the factory, which was tricky to find in the
mix of landscapes.

Different aliens attack you and after a few seconds you will be inevitably destroyed by a fast flying light blue projec-
tile that seems to just appear and home in on your ship.

Strangely you can fly through the aliens but not their lasers or bombs!

The sound is very irritating and in fact the whole thing soon annoys you to the extent you’ll want to throw it in the
bin. A terrible game…

DEFENDAR - Mikrogen 1984

Having played Interstellar version, this one seems

much worse than it actually is.

All of the arcade elements are there but the land-

scape scrolls in character squares, and the aliens
move jerkily too. This can be sometimes forgotten
with the hectic blasting, that is accompanied by some
nice sound effects.
The aliens are all present, but all of the alien types
appear from level 1, rather than introducing them in
later levels.

The firing isn’t as pretty as either the arcade or the

Interstellar version, and can often seem to pass
straight through aliens without killing them.
Control is by keyboard only and the keys are laid out
not as standard, but you soon get used to them. Re-
sponse is good but the reverse just flips the ship instantly, which can be a bit confusing mid battle and can place you
right over an alien, resulting in instant death.

The player ship explosion is a bit of a let down really, which seals an average attempt by Mikrogen, that although
plays well, is not arcade perfect.

Page 22
GUARDIAN II - Hi-Tech Software 1990

I was hoping that this, being released much later than

the others, would prove to be a worthy contender, and
I was right.

The keyboard layout takes a bit of getting used to, but

once you are comfortable, the game just begins to
flow. You can also play with a Kempston joystick, and
having played with both, I am not sure which I prefer
for this game.

The landscape scrolls really smoothly and the aliens all

move really well and are smaller than previous games,
meaning the game is slightly harder.

The inertia is just right and the reverse is probably the

best implementation so far. Nice and smooth and easy
to follow, making for a great gaming experience.
Sound is good, but is different between 48k and 128k machines. Oddly I prefer the 48k sounds but the firing does
get annoying after 30 minutes playing. I think Hi-Tech were trying to emulate the deep throbbing pulse of the arcade
by using low beeper notes, but it somehow didn’t quite work.

The player ship explosion is colourful and nice, as are the in-game explosions. The radar is easy to read and the
whole thing just oozes quality.

All of the aliens types are thrown in at the start, which is a bit of a shame, and the difficulty level is pretty tough, at
least it was for me.

Overall, another great conversion… and now I don’t know which is my favourite…

ORBITER - Silversoft 1982

Orbiter is the earliest of the releases in this test, and it

certainly shows..
There are different versions of this game, some with
sound during movement, other not, which you prefer
is down to your own preference. Having the sound
while moving does slow the game down slightly, but
does add to the game.
The scrolling is character based and all of the aliens
suffer the same problem. Graphics are a bit basic, as is
the sound. Gameplay is not too bad considering all of
the problems, and control, which is keyboard only, is
responsive.

The player explosion is very poor, your ship wobbles

about and a few blobs drift about.
The radar is a bit tricky to read too. If I had played this first, I would have said it was a good game, but I didn’t.. and
having seen what can be achieved lowers this games score.

Page 23
FEATURE
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS - Crystal 1983
Crystal made a brave move when they released this
game because it had no sound at all unless you owned
a Fuller sound box. The cost of that peripheral meant
the vast majority of users could not afford it, and there-
fore the game would be silent. It was said the decision
was taken to allow the game to run at full speed with-
out tying the processor up generating sound, but what-
ever the reason, it was a gamble. and the game is cer-
tainly very fast, sometimes too fast.
Because the processor doesn’t have to generate sound
the result is a fast, smoothly scrolling game that easily
matches the arcade machine. Playing in silence really
does depreciate from the overall experience though.
But, adding the sound, via emulation of the Fuller box
really does improve it. The sound is not, in my opinion,
as good as some of the other games we have seen that do use the processor , so draw your own conclusions.

Graphics wise the player ship looks more like a jet fighter than the arcade star fighter, but the rest of the game does
look quite close.

The colour scheme does make the game look bland at times and the radar, although longer than other games, taking
up the full width of the screen, is easy to use.

Control is by keyboard or Fuller joystick and is very crisp, making the game responsive, which it needs to be consid-
ering the speed. The controls and movement make gameplay very close to the arcade.

A good effort then from Crystal…

ROCKET COMMAND– Spectrum Games 1983

This is a very interesting game. It was advertised by
Spectrum Games who later went on to become Ocean
Software, but It didn’t make it into the Ocean catalogue
like the others.
And the reason? Well as you can tell straight away, it is
modified version of Orbiter. The only difference is the
graphics, and lack of radar. Apart from that, it all seems
very familiar, even down to the keys used to control it,
movement, sound and the player explosion.
I wonder if there is a story behind this?
I checked with the author of Orbiter and he says he
knows nothing of this game. It would seem Orbiter was
released by Silversoft first, around October 1982 and this
game was released by Spectrum Games around January
1983, so it came after the Silversoft one. This would indicate it was ripped off. It’s all a mystery!
Anyway, the game itself is not as good as orbiter, mainly because it doesn’t have the radar, which makes things pret-
ty difficult.

Even with one it wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the contender list.

Page 24
SCUBA ATTACK - Century Software 1984

Well… things just keep getting stranger….

This game uses the same key layout as both Orbiter and
Rocket Command, and the whole thing is so very familiar
– why? Well it was written by the same person that wrote
Orbiter, Andy Glaister.
So, this I assume is an updated game engine, and to
avoid any similarities, the scenario is moved underwater.
Despite this, the game play is very similar and you can
see it’s obviously Defender based.
Instead of defending humans, you have to defend divers,
that drop down from the ship randomly. The aliens of the
arcade are replaced by jellyfish that float around looking
to kill you at any opportunity.

The sound and graphics have both been improved from Orbiter, but I can’t help thinking I am playing an updated
version of it.

It certainly plays better but things still move in character jumps although the action is fast and furious.
Not a bad game… but not one of the best.

Starblitz - Softek 1984

Starblitz, released in 1984 by Softek must have

one of the coolest cassette inlays ever, but what
about the game?

Well first, the cassette has two versions, one for

normal Spectrum sound, the other for users of
the Fuller Sound box. Like several other games
on offer here the authors opted to support this
expensive peripheral, but unlike the others, you
do get sounds if you haven't got one. The stand-
ard ZX sounds are pretty good too, in my opin-
ion, better than those of the Fuller unit.
We get some nice smooth graphics and large
well drawn sprites that look like the arcade
game. The laser looks really nice, it’s just a pity it
doesn’t make any sound on the standard ma-
chine.

The inertia of the player ship is well done and the player explosion is really nice, despite the underwhelming sound.

Gameplay wise, it is a little easier than the arcade, which is a good thing for me, meaning I could enjoy some alien
blasting. The arcade elements are all there with different alien types and human abductions.
The scanner is easy to read and the action is fast enough to be challenging and there is very little wrong with this
game.

Page 25
FEATURE
STOP THAT THERE ALIEN - David Swan 1984

This is a bit of a strange game. It’s obviously written in

BASIC and suffers all the usual effects of that.
You can only move up or down and can’t switch direc-
tions. There’s no radar or smart bombs!

This is just a poor game in every aspect.

But a bit of fun to end the tests on.
You shouldn’t laugh….
Oh go on then… hahaha...

THE RESULTS
I have to say, of all the shoot outs I have done on the show, this one threw up the best collection of
clones. There are so many good ones, so many are really playable and so many are very close to the ar-
cade. Because of that, the goods ones are all close to each other in every aspect and it is almost impossi-
ble to pick one. At the end of the day it will be down to personal preference for each player, so my top
choices are;

DEFENDA Guardian II Starblitz

Insterstella Software Hi-Tech Software Softek

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers lost points for not having sound on machines without a fuller box, other-
wise there wold be four to chose from.
I can’t separate these games, but for my own personal choice, that would be Starblitz.

Page 26
ABOUT DEFENDER
Defender was Williams Electronics' first at-
tempt at developing a new video game; the
company's earlier game was a Pong clone.

The popularity of coin operated arcade

games in 1979 spurred the company to
shift its focus from pinball games to arcade
games. The company chose Eugene Jarvis,
who had a successful record of Williams
pinball games, to head development.

Space was a popular setting for video

games at the time, and Jarvis felt the ab-
stract setting would help obscure simple
graphics that lacked realism.
The developers held brain storming ses-
sions and during one session, they agreed
that one of Asteroids 's favourable elements
was its wrapping effect. They felt a game
that allowed the player to fly off the screen
would be exciting, and decided to create a
game world larger than the screen dis-
played. The game's environment was made
longer than the screen, with the visible area
scrolling horizontally. Expanding on the
idea, they envisioned a version of Space
Invaders rotated 90 degrees. By changing the orientation of Space Invaders ' design, the ship
moved up and down while flying horizontally. Large asteroids, an element from Asteroids, were
then added to the game world, but were later removed because the staff felt it lacked enjoyment.
Jarvis intended the screen to scroll only from left to right; fellow Williams employee Steve Ritchie,
however, convinced him the game should be able to scroll in either direction.
After six months of development, the team felt the game had not made enough progress. They
examined other games and concluded that survival was a necessary component to implement. To
achieve this, they devised enemies to present a threat, the first of which was the "Lander". Jarvis
enjoyed violent, action entertainment, and wanted the game to have those elements. However, he
felt the action should have a reasonable objective. Inspired by the 1960s television show The De-
fenders, Jarvis titled the game Defender, reasoning that the title helped justify the violence. He
added astronauts to expand on the space theme and give players something to defend while they
shot enemies. The element of flying over a planetscape was added after a brainstorming session
between Jarvis and Ritchie. The landscape is depicted as a line only a pixel wide, primarily be-
cause the hardware was not powerful enough to generate anything more detailed.

*Text taken from Wikipedia

Page 27
GAME REVIEWS

Timmy 2011

Released in 2011 by Timmy, Future Looter definitely

has its roots in the classic Spectrum game Cyber-
noid.

Controlling a large spaceship, you have to fly

through several levels, blasting the nasties and nav-
igating the rooms until you find one of the crystals.
Things are not as easy as that though and you will
have to contend with a variety of aliens out to stop
you.
Despite this initial description, and how the game
looks, it is not a fast paced shooter, instead more of
a puzzle game.

After the intro screen with some great music from

Mister Beep, the games begins and you soon dis-
cover that moving from room to room involves a bit
of brain power.

Some puzzles are simple enough in that you learn

the patterns of enemies and slot in behind them un-
til you can get to the exit.

Other rooms have blocks that have to be destroyed

to let the floating nasties continue on its path and
open up the exit. Shoot out the correct blocks and
the alien will eventually create a path for you to
move on.

There are still aliens to shoot, but don’t be too hasty,

you may need them to break through to the next
room because some of them destroy blocks that
block your exit.

The game is colourful with some well drawn and fine

looking graphics. Everything moves smoothly and
the player ship is easy to control.

The sound is good with shooting, explosion and col-

lection sounds and the difficulty is set about right.
Some rooms you can work out pretty quickly how to
navigate, others may take a few attempts and several
lives before you can progress.

It’s a shame it is so short though, with only 3 levels

that keep repeating, but it’s still a great game.

Definitely worth downloading.

Page 28
INVADERS
Artic Computing 1982

There were many Space Invader clones for

every home micro you could think of and the
Spectrum was no different. I covered most of
them in the very first issue of the magazine,
but wanted to review one of the better ones
on it’s own.
Artic Computing’s version was one of the
first too, being released in 1982 when the
Spectrum was new on the market..

Featuring large, well drawn and smooth

moving graphics, it blew all of the other
clones away and with the exception of
Psion’s Space Raiders, this is the best Invader
clone you can get.

The game also gives you different game

modes if you get bored of the standard for-
mat. One arms the aliens with diagonal
bombs, and this really adds spice to the for-
mat. The other causes the top level of in-
vaders to mutate when hit, meaning you
have to shoot them twice to get rid of them.
The sound is really well done, with the
stomping noise and explosions. The only let
down is the lack of a firing sound. It’s a real
pity this was missed off.

There are also 9 difficulty settings, so there is

plenty of scope for ramping up the game if
you are a seasoned player.
Control is by keyboard with a fixed layout
and no joystick option. That said, left, right
and fire isn’t going to prove tricky as long as
the keys are sensible, which they are.

It is really surprising that the game varia-

tions, especially the diagonal bombs, chang-
es the gameplay so much. Your tactics have
to change and you find yourself thinking
very differently than you do for the standard
game. It also makes for a more hectic game.

One of the best.

Page 29
GAME REVIEWS

Ocean Software 1986

Mailstrom offers you the chance of simulating another

vocation on your Speccy, that of a humble postie. But
times have changed. Brutal riots have gripped the
country, and a coup has taken place leaving major
criminal figures in charge. And that's about as much
of the nonsensical instructions as I can face recreating
here.

All you really need to know is two things. One - you numbered houses. Finally it's back at the depot to
are in charge of delivering the mail, and two - you will find out how you've done, and get ready for the next
be doing so in an armoured postal delivery vehicle day.
called S.K.I.T. Fans of 80’s Saturday afternoon TV may
To achieve these tasks, you drive your specially
have already picked up on the connection, and just to
equipped van along side-scrolling streets, stopping
ram it home the name of your postie is Michael Nasty.
occasionally to get out and visit post boxes and
Yes, this is the Postman Pat version of Knight Rider,
houses.
just without the black and white cat, and a red van
instead of a customised Pontiac Trans-Am. So what is special about S.K.I.T? Unfortunately, at first,
not a lot. It is pretty much a regular van with the
added ability of being able to “talk” to you (in reality,
this just boils down to simple status type messages).
However, from time to time you'll obtain new equip-
ment that has, for some reason, been placed inside a
briefcase and then stuffed inside a post box. These
bits of kit (or should that be bits of KITT?) are miracu-
lously fitted as soon as you put them in the back of
the van. The most essential, and one of the earliest
upgrades you get is the ability to go into “super pur-
suit” (turbo) mode, which I'll mention again in a bit.
Other upgrades include various weapons, and objects
that come in handy for opening future post boxes.

Hazards in the game mainly come from the brainless

residents of the streets on your delivery round. They
mill about aimlessly in the road, with no seeming
purpose other than to slow down your already pon-
To deliver the mail involves a few steps. Firstly you derous progress. Most of these are fairly harmless,
must open post boxes in order to collect mail sacks, but occasionally you will come across a thug who -
which are then stored in your van. You then deliver for reasons unknown other than they enjoy it - will
these to the sorting office IN section, to retrieve let- attempt to beat you up unless you are in the safety of
ters from the OUT section, for delivery to various your van. The good news is that you are allowed to

Page 30
 the game is far too easy
as long as you are a bit
careful - but I just could-
n't face going on.
The streets and business-
es that you trundle past
are represented well
enough, with a nice at-
tention to detail on the
buildings and scenery -
and the characters are
nicely animated - but
everything other than
your van is the same col-
our, presumably to avoid
colour clash. There is no
other traffic in the game
whatsoever, unless you
count the occasional air-
borne vehicle passing
overhead (including a
nod to another classic TV
series).
mercilessly run down the thugs, although you are in
trouble if you run over a regular citizen. Sound is very limited, which in an odd way creates a
certain kind of eerie atmosphere as you progress on
The only other hazard is that you can potentially run your lonely journey (aside from the occasional person
out of ways to open the locked post boxes, and there- trying to kill you). The controls seem sluggish, but I
fore not do your job - which in turn leads to game think that is more to do with the pace of your charac-
over. In fact, if you don't pick up an item that happens ter or vehicle - when you are navigating the control
to be lying on the road early on, then your career will panel from inside your van they respond swiftly
be over before it's started. enough.
Unfortunately, unlike other job related games such as Although Mailstrom offers some moments of fun early
Paperboy or Trashman, this one really is as boring as it on, as you discover new objects and see parts of the
sounds. First impressions aren't good, as your postie town for the first time, I can't really recommend it as
walks along as if wading through treacle, and initially anything other than a curiosity. As a full price release
your van drives in much the same way. This makes pro- this would surely have led to disappointment once the
gress very tedious, even when you get the turbo mode, shallow gameplay was exhausted. Strangely, it is one
as you still have to get out and crawl your way towards of the few Ocean Software titles that didn’t get a re-
a door or post box, and then getting the van going release on their budget Hit Squad label, where it would
again takes far too long. have represented much better value for money.
The main enjoyment I got from the game was discov-
ering the different upgrades for the van, and other ob-
jects. Once most of these are found, which is by the Review by Dion Guy
end of day 1, then it becomes a real chore to keep re-
peating the same tasks in slow motion. During my
playthrough for this review, I forced myself to get to
day 4, but I couldn't take anymore. I was in no danger
of game over - which in truth is another problem, as

Page 31
GAME REVIEWS

Imagine Software 1983

As a penniless space wanderer you are starving and

desperate to earn some money. Stranded on the outer
rim of the galaxy you take the only course left open to
you and apply for the job of interstellar refuse disposal
consultant.
So starts your journey into the second game released
by Imagine software. The first game, Arcadia was a
massive hit, and all eyes were on the next release, sad-
ly it turned out to be a real turkey despite having one
the best inlay images for a Spectrum game.

Taking ideas from the arcade game Asteroids and

throwing in some new elements, the aim is to pilot
your space dozer around the edges of black holes, and
push space junk into them.
Of course being a black hole, it will suck anything that
gets too close in, including your ship, so you have to
be careful.

What makes this game almost impossible to play, is

the asteroids-like control system of rotate and thrust.
Coupled with the inertia, you often find you ship hurt-
ling out of control.

Hitting space junk with anything other than the front

of your ship will destroy it. Having said that your ship
is destroyed sometimes randomly for just flying off the
screen!
This takes us onto another bad point, the screen wrap.
It worked in Asteroids, but it doesn’t really work here.
There are times when your ship vanishes from view for
about 5 seconds, and then re-appears where you don’t
expect it.

The graphics are line drawn and flicker badly, but it is

a brave early effort from Imagine. Sound is a bit
sparse, and all things considered, this is a bit of a let
down.
I found the best tactic was to just avoid the black hole
and wait for the junk to find their own way in. This
gave you points without risking destruction.

Very disappointing.

Page 32
 "Tetris" is one of the most popular computer
games in history. It’s high playability and the sim-
ple rules encouraged many people to create their
own versions of the game. Many of them were just
clones with changed graphics but there were also
more original titles. "Stack Up" is one of the latter.
Rules are simple. There are groups of 3 blocks fall-
ing from the top of the screen. You can move the
group left/right, drop it and change the position of
Zeppelin Games 1991 blocks in group. The player's aim is to form lines
consisting of at least 3 of the same blocks. Lines
can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal and when it's
made it disappears.
The game is divided into 22 levels. To complete
each level a certain number of lines must be
formed. There is no time limit but the longer you
play, the blocks fall faster. The first levels are quite
easy but later ones become harder - random
blocks appear on screen, controls are reversed, on-
ly diagonal lines count etc.
The game is over when the screen is full of blocks
and there is no place for another to fall. There is an
interesting feature in "Stack Up" - blocks can be
separated from each other. When one block lands,
the others keep falling and can be moved or
change their positions.
Graphics in "Stack Up" are good, they are colourful
and clear. There are 4 sets of blocks and you can
change them anytime by pressing Space (it pauses
the game) and then use keys 1 to 4. Sound effects
are simple but they suit this kind of game well.
There is also in-game music but it becomes annoy-
ing very quickly (fortunately it can be switched off).
"Stack Up" can be controlled by keyboard or joy-
stick. You can start from level 1, 3 or 5 and the best
scores are kept in the Hall of Fame.

I have never been a fan of games by Zeppelin but

this one is very playable.

Highly Recommended.

Review by Piotr "PopoCop" Szymanski

Page 33
GAME REVIEWS

Elite Systems 1985

Commando in the arcade was never going to be an easy

conversion for any home micro, especially the Spectrum
having no hardware scrolling. Elite Software took on the
challenge and produced a surprisingly good version.
For anyone not familiar with the game, you control a
commando who has to fight his way across various land-
scapes, destroying enemy installations and killing any-
thing that moves.

The game format is a vertically scrolling shooter utilising

push scrolling, in that the screen only moves when you
do, so you have the opportunity to stop in tight situa-
tions allowing you to dodge enemy fire and reposition
yourself for a better angle of attack.

At your disposal is a simple machine gun, but you can

pickup grenades along the way which come in useful for
soldiers hiding behind rocks.

As you move up the screen, there are various things to

keep you on your toes. Bunkers, motorcycles, trucks,
bridges and trenches, all teeming with soldiers. Not to
mention the masses of foot soldiers that continually
home in on your position.
The graphics as you would expect on the Spectrum
At the end of each level there is a large installation to are not as colourful as the arcade, but they are a
take out that is done by first killing all the attacking sol- very good representation of them.
diers. You then get a congratulatory message before
The enemy installations and scenery are well de-
moving on the next one.
fined and are sized just right to give the player
Given the limited resources available, Elite have done a enough room to manoeuvre.
fine job of including most of the arcade features, and if
You also have to take into account the different
you were not overly familiar with the game, then you
aspect ratios. The arcade game is portrait like
probably wouldn’t notice.
many other vertical shooters, and the Spectrum is
The main things missing are the helicopter that drops more landscape.
you off and picks you up after missions, texture on the
The player and other soldiers are drawn well but
landscape, a jet graphic on the runway and a large enemy
don’t have the arcade definition, not that you see
building at the end of level 4.
this in the frantic shooting.
Of these the most important for me is the land texture.
The animation is good, with soldiers flailing about
Without it, there is only a limited feeling of movement
as they hit and other effects from various moving
and the enemy bunkers and other objects just seem to
targets.
float down the screen.

Page 34
Sound is used well and for 128k users, they get the Gameplay wise, it is quite close to the arcade, but I
full music track. think a little harder based on my plays.
The music originated on the arcade machine and Considering how much is going at any given point,
played during battle, but changed slightly for the Elite have done a great job with this game and it
end of level sequences. proves very challenging.
Famously, the Commodore 64 game had a brilliant This game has been denied from distribution and I
Rob Hubbard version, and it is this one that 128k am not sure if that is down to Elite or Capcom. Ei-
users get. ther way it is a real shame that this great game is
not available to play officially.
It plays through the game, but does not change
for the end of level battle. Excellent conversion.

Arcade version on right.

Page 35
FEATURE

A NEW MACHINE FOR A

NEW ERA

The Sinclair Vega, for those of you had do not know, is a

modern, commercial take on the classic ZX Spectrum.
The idea was to produce a small handheld device that
you could connect up to your television and just play all
of those memorable games from your childhood. It
could also help introduce the Spectrum to a whole new
set of fans.
The project began on kickstarter and was very quickly
funded. Backers got the units from the first batch of
1000, and sadly I missed out on those.

The Vega
The Vega itself is quite small measuring 13.5cm x 8.5cm
and less than 2cm deep and sits in the hands quite well.
It is styled like the original 48k rubber keyed model, but
obviously has less buttons. The lack of a full keyboard
has implications that we shall cover later.
On the left is a joypad, in the middle a reset button and
on the right are 8 control buttons. Four large ones and
four smaller ones. Styled like the rubber keys of the orig-
inal, the four larger ones are used for selecting, firing
and options 1 and 2. The smaller buttons are used for in-
game options as well as SD card reading and mapped
buttons for various games. On the back there is a slot for
a Micro SD card so you can load games of your choosing.
A mass of cables exits the back of the unit ending in
composite video, left and right audio and a USB plug newer games from the last few years like Sunbucket,
used for power. Once plugged in, it starts up on its own El Stompo and Sgt Helmet zero.
and after a logo and the option to see the first 1000
The list initially shows just the arcade games, to
backers, we get to see the list of games.
switch to the adventure list, you press the B button.
The unit is shipped with what it claims to be 1000 classic
Pressing the select button will take you to the game
games but to be honest, some of them are a bit obscure.
where you can usually begin playing straight away.
You can move through the games using the up and The games have been pre-set to use the joypad and I
down joypad buttons, or to move through the alphabet, liked how some of them ‘felt’ using this control
using the left and right joypad buttons. mechanism. Some games were actually easier to
play, although the ones requiring four directions, for
The Games example Jetpac, took some practice to get right.
There are some older gems in there from Artic, DK Tron- One major complaint from other owners is the video
ics, Psion and Ultimate Play The Game as well as some signal. Opting for the cheaper composite output ra-
ther than going for the higher quality HDMI, the sig-

Page 36
 nal is OK but not
brilliant. On some
games, for example
Rex and Sabrewulf,
the dot crawl was a
bit bad. Maybe it was
my TV, but it usually
works fine with a real
composite modded Spec-
trum.
As I understand it, using a Adding more games with a
HDMI output would have in-
creased the price due to licens- micro SD card.
ing requirements. Being expen-
sive as it is, paying extra for a
high quality picture may have re-
duced sales.
Playing the games is as expected, just
like the real thing, and you certainly ers to make life easier, and insert the card into the slot
get that ”plug and play” experience. on the back of the unit.
Power on and press the B key. The manual says the A
Options key, but on my unit it was the B key. You are then asked
During game play pressing the M button which folder to scan, highlight the desired folder and
will bring up a menu allowing you to save press select to scan for any files the Vega recognises.
the game, load a previous game or exit back.
I copied up a Z80 and a TAP file for one of my games
Saving and loading require an SD card, more
and both were recognised. Strangely, I then copied
about that later.
more game files to the card, re-scanned and it still only
When viewing the menu, pressing the C button will showed the two previous files. I tried this several times
bring in the control options. This acts as a virtual with Z80 and TAP files. I even tried re-naming the fold-
keyboard but also a control option. Be careful here, er, and that didn’t work either. Maybe it needs a firm-
by mistake I changed this and the game stopped ware update.
responding to the joypad until I reset it.
When displaying your games, the Vega will automati-
This virtual keyboard is also used when playing ad- cally place them in alphabetical order, showing each
venture games. Yes there are quite a few adven- letter at a time as it does on the in-built games.
tures loaded into the Vega, and it isn’t particularly A word of warning though, you have to remember the
suited to them.
Vega has a limited number of keys to use for the
games, and they currently cannot be manually mapped.
This may be fine for shoot-em-ups or games that re-
quire joystick control or left, right and fire, but games
that need specific keys will be impossible to play.

To type a command, you have to navigate the con-

trol menu. On the right is displayed what each of
the 8 buttons represent, on the left are the options
to change those representations using the joypad.
A very long and time consuming process if you
want to type out long sentences. I doubt this will
get much use.

More Games
Once you get fed up of the 1000 games, you can
load your own using a MicroSD card. Simple copy
the games you want onto it, or place them in fold-

Page 37
FEATURE

Firmware
Retro Computers have promised future firmware up-
dates and a tool that will allow users to create map
files for their games. This will hopefully mean adding
and configuring your own games will become much
easier, with users being able to share their custom
mappings with other owners.
New firmware, when available, can be downloaded
from Retro Computers website, placed on a micro SD
card and used to upgrade the unit.

and be a pain to set up every time you wanted a quick

blast on Jetpac.
It still needs a bit more work in my opinion, especially
around game controls and key mapping. When released
there was no information about how to make your own
key mappings. You can now though, get the details from
Retro Computers website.
For straight plug and play gameplay, it’s actually not bad. I
quite enjoyed playing some of the old games using a
more modern, joypad setup. It actually improved some
games for me.
Conclusion
So what do I think of the Sinclair Vega?
It’s nice little device that gives quick easy access to
play Spectrum games without the hassle.
You can pick it up and take it to any room in the
house, plug it in and be playing games within sec-
onds. It was designed as a twitch game device, some-
thing to play games if you happen to have ten
minutes spare. For this, it is ideal.
The price has been called into question by many us-
ers, and the device is expensive coming in at just
over £100. Many point to other similar devices like
the Sega Megadrive plug and Play device that costs
around a third of the price. I agree that £100 is a bit
steep considering you only get a composite signal
and there are many arguments for and against it.
You are of course paying for convenience. A real
Spectrum, with joystick and a mass storage device
such as the divIDE would cost you more than £100,

Page 38
Picture quality can be a bit off, but then
again so was the original, and sound is
really good. What They Got Right
If you want a quick way to play Speccy  Look and feel.
games without faffing about with the real The unit looks like it belongs to the Sinclair family
hardware, or have no option to run emula- and is nice to hold.
tors on your television in the living room,
then this is ideal.  Twitch Gaming.
It’s ideal to pickup and have a quick blast without
Can I recommend one? having to setup real hardware or emulator.
Yes if you want quick access to games as
mentioned before.  Micro SD Card slot.
Being able to add you own games is important.
No if you are a hardcore fan who loves to
delve into emulators or real hardware, and  Ease of Use.
for whom anything new should be buried The menu system is easy to use and responds well.
in a deep hole and forgotten about.
 Packaging.
Also remember not all games can be
played with the limited number of but- The box and packaging are brilliant.
tons.
Your choice then.
The Vega can be purchased from the Ret-
ro Computers website.

www.retro-computers.co.uk.
What They Got Wrong
 Key Mappings.
Initial release without a key mapper was a mistake.
This has now been fixed and you can make your own
key map files.

 Menu Music.
It’s nice the first time but please give us an option to
turn it off or use our own.

 Cost.
At £100 it is expensive for a plug and play device.

 Composite Video.
Bad quality signal means some games look terrible.

 Virtual Keyboard.
It is cumbersome to use, and why were adventure
games even included?

 Limited Games Will Work.

Only game that use joystick controls or a small
amount of keys will work. The Vega just does not
have enough.

 Connectivity.
Not sure is this is a bad thing, but in general there is a
lack of connectivity options.

Page 39
VEGA GAME REVIEWS

Canyon Warrior Canyon Warrior was a surprise game for me, having
never seen or heard about it previously. From the title
Mastertronic 1989 you can pretty much guess what it will be, and it turns
out to be a fine vertical shoot em up.

There is a story, but who cares about text when you

can dive in and start blasting aliens.

The Vega control pad really suits this game, and you
quickly forget you are using it, and instead just enjoy
the experience.
Starting in open space, the aliens swarm about in the
usual way, but you soon find yourself into enemy in-
stallations. Here the colourful landscape scrolls
smooth down, presenting you with various things to
avoid and the obligatory wall mounted canons.
Like all good shooters there are power-ups to collect,
but not having the instructions I was unsure what was
safe to collect and how to implement anything I did
collect.

I worked out that the Coke tins can be collected or

shot, but watching the demo mode, that starts if you
leave the controls alone for a while, it seems you can
also collect missiles, smart bombs and other stuff.

The Coke tins provide more fuel to replenish your

limited supply. This is displayed by a yellow meter on
the right of the screen. Run out of fuel and it’s game
over.

The graphics are really nice and remind me of another

shoot em up Xecutor. They are well drawn and scroll
very smoothly.

The sound is well used with some impressive effects

for various elements including firing, collecting and
explosions. There is also some music that plays along,
but this does slow down and speed up depending on
how much there is on-screen.
Gameplay is great, and I’m glad I found this little gem.
After a few attempts I got through the level one boss,
which was tricky to destroy, maybe because I hade
not figured out how to use the power-ups properly
and just had lasers to beat it with.

As mentioned before, using the Vega was great for

this game, really easy to get into and well worth se-
lecting from the menu.

A Great Shooter.

Page 40
Jock And The Time Rings
Atlantis Software 1985

One problem with the Vega is that the games do

not come with any type of instructions, so if they
are complex collect-em-up like Sabrewulf, then any-
one new to the game will be totally lost. This is how
I felt when I selected Jock And The Time Rings.
You begin by controlling what looks like an old
jukebox, moving around a faintly Egyptian styled
maze.

There are various other inhabitants too, that will

knock over the jukebox, sorry, Jock on contact.
There are also rings to collect. These change colour
randomly, but again I had no idea why, or what the
effect would be if I collected a particular colour.

The game is a flip screen affair, with the next room

appearing as you move from one to the other. Sad-
ly, the placement of the enemy sprites does cause
instant death syndrome, so you have to be careful.

The graphics are very large, but are not particularly

well drawn, in fact I don’t know what most of the
them are supposed to be. I assume they are some
kind of Egyptian thing, but some are just boxes or
jellyfish type sprites.

Things move smoothly and Jock has two speeds,

normal and fast. This is needed to negotiate the
enemies around the often tight corridors.
Sound is minimal, with just effects for collecting and
dying.

There is a power reading that lowers as you move,

so again guessing, I suspect there is some kind of
limit imposed on completing what ever task you are
meant to do.

Gameplay is slow, and consist of moving, timing

things to miss enemy movement patterns, and col-
lecting rings. That’s it, nothing else and the pace of
the game really does not help things.
All in all, a bit dull and repetitive.

Skip this one!

Page 41
 Impressive Spectrum Graphics
Not bad for a micro with only 15 colours*.

These and more can be viewed

On the ZX Art website.
*8 standard + 7 bright

http://zxart.ee
The Spectrum Show Magazine © Paul Jenkinson 2015
www.randomkak.blogspot.co.uk