ALL TOGETHER NOW

Paul Sumner reviews the latest compilations - there's gold in them thar software shelves, if you know where to look.

Ever since the Spectrum stormed into the homes of young innocent children, compilations of previously released games have been lurking on the software shelves. From the outset compilations were purchased for quantity more than quality - the largest collections seemed to give more value for money, more games per pound. But as buyers became more prudent software houses found themselves having to be more selective in what they put on their cassettes.

No longer are compilations just collections of rejected old games. With the growing importance of budget software in the sales charts (see our feature on page 45), most compilations are now slickly-presented and well-advertised packages proclaiming value for money. Most software houses have even setup departments which scour the market for games to go on compilations.

With the supposed summer software slump now past, a whole plethora of compilations is about to be released to satisfy our appetite in the dull time between The PCW Show and Christmas.

This collection of compilations shows the dilemma facing the buyer on the high street. Should you go for a great big bundle of software that you've never heard of? Or is it better to play safe with compilations of well-established oldies?

My advice is to stick with well-known titles; at least that way you won't buy a package with any really rancid games. And whatever you do don't discard a compilation just because it contains a f ew golden oldies - they're often more playable than new games for which more time has been spent on presentation than on content.

If you're going out to buy a particular game, it's worth looking around on the compilations first. Most full-price games reach their peak sales within a few weeks, so within a few months they can be on compilations, where their sales will b e steadier. If you're really shrewd you could give up buying individual games altogether, and just get the hits all in one package - though this way you tend to be about six months behind the rest of the software scene. Have a good look around, there's bound to be a compilation for you somewhere.

Note: the information boxes on this page give each game's original CRASH Overall percentage and then the issue in which it was reviewed, N/A means the game was not reviewed in CRASH.

Ocean's big release for autumn looks set to start a completely new trend in theme compilations. Covering nearly every conceivable sport, Game Set And Match brings together ten of the most popuLar recreational simulations released in the Spectrum's lifetime (in fact, 23 if you count the subgames in Daley Thompson's Supertest and Hyper Sports. The only surprise is the inclusion of Super Soccer over the far superior Match Day (because so many of you have already got the latter, I'm told). The package includes three CRASH Smashes and two which were very near misses. So whatever you fancy (in the way of sport!) Ocean seems to have got it covered. This lavish package of four cassettes should be at your local sports centre... umm computer shop now at the reasonable price of £12.95. And if you've got a +3 you can get a two-disk package for £17.95 (much less than a season ticket to Leeds).

GAME SET AND MATCH
Ocean
GBA Basketball - 37% Issue 44
Konami's Tennis - 60% Issue 33
Super Soccer - 56% Issue 37
Daley Thomnpson's Supertest - 76% Issue 22
Barry McGuigan's Boxing - 88% Issue 25
CDS Pool - 77% Issue 6
Ping Pong - 90% Issue 28
World Series Baseball - 91% Issue 16
Jonah Barrington's Squash - 87% Issue 17
Hyper Sports - 92% Issue 19
box of four cassettes £12.95
two Spectrum +3 disks £17.95

Label: Ocean
Author: Various
Price: £12.95 cassette / £17.95 disc
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

Game Set and Match is the second of the compilations released by Ocean in oversize boxes that make them look for all the world like a jigsaw. On it are all the games you'd expect to find on a sport tape, such as Hyper Sports, conversion of the arcade ex-favourite. World Series Baseball makes an appearance which I find fun merely for the ads and messages that flash up on the giant video screen. Konami gets it feet well in the door with Tennis and Ping Pong, two great arcade games that are not so great in 48K. Ol' Jonah Barrington's Squash is there too, with its amazing reprosound. There's Pool, Gamester's Basketball is 'OK', but I don't find it follows the blurb very closely. And you can't have a sport compilation without Daley, so Supertest is dropped in. Barry McGuigans Boxing makes a giant leap for mankind. And there's... Super Soccer I'm sorry, but that has let down the entire rating by being just crud.

Amstrad, £12.95,cs, £17.95dk
C64/128, £12.95,cs, £17.95dk
Spectrum, £12.95cs

Twenty two sporting events in one package - enough material to form the basis of a pretty neat armchair Olympics that should keep joystick sports fans working out well into the New Year.

Eight games are common to all formats: Basketball, Barry McGuigan's World Championship Boxing which sets you on the quest to beat Barry himself and offers the opportunity to set up the personality of your contender and train him between each bout in the lead up to the challenge fight; Jonah Barrington's Squash; the classic coin-op joystick waggler Hypersports featuring six events; Ping Pong again from the arcades, Daley Thompson's Supertest - an octathlon rather than a decathlon; and Super Soccer.

Commodore owners round off their work out with Snooker and tennis in Matchpoint, while Spectrum and Amstrad athletes take a gentle bar-room break with Pool before going their separate ways onto the tennis courts, with Konami's Tennis and Matchpoint respectively.

Game Set and Match offers a positive orgy of muscle-wrenching athletic action and represents stupendous value to anyone who prefers to work up a sweat in front of the TV rather than out there on the field or in the court. This is the only specialist, theme compilation on offer this Christmas and forms an essential, good value purchase if sporting simulations are your mainstay. Just about all the games on offer are high quality and were very well received on their first outing, but some of them do go back rather a long way...