PRECISION LOGIC STRATEGY

Computer logic, strategy and encounters in space are some of the thrills awaiting owners of the 16K Spectrum with three games from Precision Software Engineering. The games are on one tape and are put together under the obvious title Games Tape Three.

The first is 3D Noughts and Crosses. There are four boards on which to put your nought and each is made up of four by four squares. That means you have three dimensions in which to lose to the computer.

Losing is very easy, as the computer is fast and seems to know what you will do, as well as keeping track of its moves.

The next game is Tower of Brahma. It is colourful, uses high-resolution graphics, is difficult to beat, and is very standard for a computer game.

Wipe Out is a board game for two players. The players have to out-manoeuvre each other and wipe a series of noughts and crosses from the board to gain points.

We regard the last game on the tape, Astro Wars, as the most important piece of software in this release. The game is played in three sections and takes its action from the films Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. The sequences are fighting the imperial fighters; destroying the Death Star; and battling the Imperial Walkers. All of those sections are in 3D and movement is smooth and fast.

All four games cost £6.95 and the tape is available from Precision Software Engineering, 20 Shelton Avenue, Newark, Notts, NG24 4NX.

PRICE: £4.95
MEMORY REQUIRED: 16K

On this tape are three games written by Steve McCarthy, some of which are upgrades of ZX81 games, whilst others are new. The game are as follows: 3D Noughts and Crosses, Towers of Brahm, Wipe-out and the flag ship of the pack, Astro-Wars.

3D OXO is an obvious game in which there is a four by four by four matrix in which it is necessary to get four in a row in any direction to coin. The only problem being that the layers are separated for display which takes away some of the effect. The computer itself is a pretty formidable opponent. Quite a well-presented thinking person's game.

Secondly, comes Towers of Brahm, the age old problem of getting five discs of ascending size from pin one to pin three. Though the principle is simple, the game is fast and colourful. This is an enjoyable game to play which is more addictive than you might at first expect. User-defined graphics could have been better used; this should not have slowed things down much if at all.

Wipe-Out is the final game on side A. The title seems to suggest that it may in some way be related to the hoards of space invader 'zap-zap' games, but far from it. This is a two player game, again putting an emphasis on thought. The computer draws a matrix board with its centre and corners made up of squares Xs and Os at the edges, and a grid reference system around it. The first symbol of each game to be "wiped out' must be a square.

Each successive grid reference thereafter specified must be immediately adjacent to the one previously 'wiped out' by either player. The object is to wipe out as many of either Xs or Os depending on which side you are on. This game is far from simple, though it would be greatly improved if it was possible to play the computer. Graphics are used very sparingly on this, but it is fun if you are into thinking games.

Finally, on side B we come to Astro-Wars which is a complete departure from side A in that it is a fast action, arcade game. It is an all machine code game in three stages based on the films 'Star Wars' and 'Empire Strikes Back'. The overall object being to score as many points as possible, but other objectives and hazards are generated on the way. In stage one you are looking out of your ship and into space and enemy aircraft are moving onto and around the screen. It is possible to destroy them via missiles and a sight which moves about the screen. A discrepancy which is noticeable pretty quickly is the fact that the rays of the missiles seem to go from the target to you, the ship, rather than vice versa. Whether or not you survive this, you are thrust into a long 3D tunnel in which missiles and other objects are projected at you in a 2D plane at the far end. Your task is to survive for six minutes until the Death Star comes into sight, at which time you must try to destroy it. Again, even if you fail on this stage you move onto the final stage, in which Imperial Walkers are coming at you in 3D and enemy aircraft are in the distance. They are both firing at you, which makes life very difficult indeed!

Overall, this game is easily the best on this package. The games are good but not excellent separately, though Astro-Wars is quite well-written. The documentation is very good and as a pack of four programs it is very good value indeed. I would recommend you to look out for any new stuff written by Steve McCarthy and Precision Engineering, as the quality is definitely improving at a fantastic rate. This tape can be recommended as good value for money.