Cliff Hanger
Release Date  1986
Original Publisher  New Generation Software (UK)
Min. Hardware  ZX-Spectrum 48K
Language  English
Genre  Arcade Game: Action
Max. Players  2 (Turn based)
Original Price  £7.95
Controls  Redefineable keys
Themes  Western
Other Platforms  Commodore 64
Average mag. score  63.00% (1 reviews)
Martijn's WoS score  77.8% (38 votes)

Authors/Contributors
     James P.H. Day (UK) - ?

Review Awards
     "ZX Computing Glob Minor"at ZX Computingissue #28 - 1986/Augpage 14

Known Errors
     Bugfix provided by Mr. Anonymous:
  • From "YS Complete Guide to 3D Games":
    "The one fly in the eye is the bug on the Apollo 13 screen, rendering the game unfinishable."
    and playing it through indeed results in an almighty crash on level 15.

    Taking off with the rocket carefully strapped to your back results in you falling repeatedly from the top to the bottom of the screen before finally crashing to earth. You don't see the crashing to earth bit but you can certainly hear it.

    Now depending on the next level selected by the game, it will now continue, either with the Kamikaze or Apollo 13 level, or... crash.

    The crash is the result of the game unable to locate one of two additional screens and hence you never get to play them.

    Here's the full list of the levels...

    Level 1  Screen 1 Boulder Dash
    Level 1 Screen 2 Three Chances
    Level 1 Screen 3 The Seesaw

    Level 2 Screen 1 Great Railway Journeys
    Level 2 Screen 2 The Bommerang
    Level 2 Screen 3 The Cannon

    Level 3 Screen 1 The Unloading Station
    Level 3 Screen 2 Chuckie Bomb
    Level 3 Screen 3 Two Chances

    Level 4 Screen 1 The Circus Act
    Level 4 Screen 2 Bombs Away
    Level 4 Screen 3 The Faraday Screen

    Level 5 Screen 1 The Powerball
    Level 5 Screen 2 The Time Bomb
    Level 5 Screen 3 The Delivery Wagon

    Level 6 Screen 1 Breakaway
    Level 6 Screen 2 Getting Your Own Back
    Level 6 Screen 3 The Seesaws Revenge

    Level 7 Screen 1 The Trajectory
    Level 7 Screen 2 Dead Weight
    Level 7 Screen 3 The Signal Box

    Level 8 Screen 1 The Rebound
    Level 8 Screen 2 The Red Herring
    Level 8 Screen 3 Shake Loose

    Level 9 Screen 1 First On The Left
    Level 9 Screen 2 The Space Invader
    Level 9 Screen 3 The Recoil

    Level 10 Screen 1 Which One
    Level 10 Screen 2 The Artillery Train
    Level 10 Screen 3 The Blitz
    Level 10 Screen 4 Bounce To Boulder Dash

    Level 11 Screen 1 Confused You Will Be
    Level 11 Screen 2 The Artillery Train
    Level 11 Screen 3 To Much Gauss
    Level 11 Screen 4 Hi Tech Boulder Dash

    Level 12 Screen 1 Where Did That Come From
    Level 12 Screen 2 Great Railway Journeys
    Level 12 Screen 3 Zap
    Level 12 Screen 4 Double Shot

    Level 13 Screen 1 No Where To Run
    Level 13 Screen 2 Just Survive
    Level 13 Screen 3 No Duck No Luck
    Level 13 Screen 4 Drop In On You

    Level 14 Screen 1 Sheer Heart Attack
    Level 14 screen 2 The Red Herring
    Level 14 Screen 3 The Bouncing Lemming
    Level 14 SCreen 4 The Fatal Act

    Level 15 Screen 1 Kamikaze
    Level 15 Screen 2 Apollo 13
    Level 15 Screen ? Mobile Gun Command
    Level 15 Screen ? One Small Step For A Man

    51 levels in total

    We'll slot the missing screens back in then and have another look. It doesn't crash anymore but there are major problems with these screens still.

    >Kamikaze
    This one is OK. No work required.

    >Apollo 13
    As stated previously, taking off with the rocket causes you to repeatedly fall down the screen. What should happen is that you fall through the hole, the screen should flip, and hopefully land on Mr. Bandit's head and squash 'im.

    We'll recode the level then to make sure this happens. Also, taking off with the rocket causes a graphical glitch (there are a number throughout the game) whereby the rocket sticks in mid air so we will also reposition the rocket slightly to the other(invisible) take off point to stop this happening.

    >Mobile Gun Command
    This looks like the 'Drop In On You' screen except you don't stop in the middle to 'Drop In' and continue to the right whereupon it crashes. The screen, for a level 15'er, looks decidedly unfinished? so we will sneakily redirect it to the Artillery level and save us a bit o'graft redesigning the level.

    >One Small Step For A Man
    You can take off with the rocket easily enough (rocket glitch here too) but when you land on the far side to push the boulder you will find that you just walk straight through it and thus the level is impossible.

    Another bit of recoding then to tell the game that there is indeed a ruddy great boulder right before our eyes and we would like to push it onto Bandit Man's head if we may please.

Modified "BUGFIX" file provided by Mr. Anonymous.

Main File Downloads
     FilenameReleaseMachineSchemeLanguageComments
CliffHanger.tap.zipOriginalZX-Spectrum 48K(???)English
 CliffHanger.tzx.zipOriginalZX-Spectrum 48K(Flash Loader)English
 CliffHanger(BUGFIX).z80.zipOriginalZX-Spectrum 48K(???)English

Additional File Downloads
     FilenameSizeReleaseTypeLanguageComments
     CliffHanger.scr6,912OriginalLoading screen
     CliffHanger.gif3,610OriginalRunning screen
     CliffHanger.jpg318,722OriginalInlay - Front
     CliffHanger_Back.jpg226,886OriginalInlay - Back
     CliffHanger_Tape.jpg56,158OriginalMedia scan
     CliffHanger.txt2,682OriginalInstructionsEnglish
     CliffHanger.png116,765OriginalGame map
     CliffHanger.jpg125,366OriginalAdvertisement
     cliff.rzx0OriginalRZX playback file - Recorded by Pavel Plíva (with rollback)
     Cliff Hanger (1986)(New Generation Software).pok66OriginalPOK pokes file

Magazine Reviews
     Crashissue v.1 #30-1986/Julpage 13- Review: 63%
     MicroHobbyissue #95-1986/Seppage 13- Review - Nuevo
     ZX Computingissue #28-1986/Augpage 14- Review: Grim

Magazine References
     Computer Gamerissue #7-1985/Octpage 5- News/Note
     Crashissue v.1 #37-1987/Febpage 70- Hack/Poke
     Home Computing Weeklyissue #129-1985/Sep/10 special "week#2"page 8- News/Note
     Personal Computer Gamesissue #11-1984/Octpage 35- Preview
     Sinclair Programsissue #26-1984/Decpage 11- News/Note
     TV Gamerissue 1984/Novpage 6- News/Note
     YS Smash Tipsissue 1988/Augpage 10- Hack/Poke
     Your Sinclairissue #90-1993/Junpage 32- Feature - The YS Complete Guide To ... 3D Games

Magazine Advertisements
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #38-1984/Decpage 118- Full-page ad - not a Spectrum advert
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #48-1985/Octpage 100- Advert
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #50-1985/Decpage 25- Advert
     Crashissue v.1 #21-1985/Octpage 41- Advert
     Crashissue v.1 #30-1986/Julpage 35- Full-page ad
     Popular Computing Weeklyissue v.5 #21-1986/May/22 special "week#4"page 7- Full-page ad
     Sinclair Userissue #52-1986/Julpage 6- Full-page ad
     Your Sinclairissue #7-1986/Julpage 88- Full-page ad
     ZX Computingissue #28-1986/Augpage 98- Full-page ad

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