What on earth is Ball Driver?!?

[zx4ever]

In Sinclair User's budget charts, there was a mysterious entry at #8 in issue 79 (Oct 1988); "Ball Driver" from Alternative Software. Described as a "reasonable arcade adventure with an odd theme", it apparently scored 78% in SU.

I can find no trace of such a game anywhere, so presumably the name was incorrect, but does anyone know what the game should be? My first thought was Ballblazer, but that was re-released by Ricochet, and was definitely NOT an arcade adventure!

[Vampyre]

The following all scored 78% Overall in SU. The number at the start is the ZXDB ID. I'm still none the wiser from that list.

Code: Select all

968	Cisco Heat	#119, January 1992 (pg 28)
11619	Count and Add	#128, October 1992 (pg 20)
1266	Darkman	#117, November 1991 (pg 26,27)
1387	Dick Tracy	#109, March 1991 (pg 24,25)
1000836	Euromax Professional Autofire Joystick	#56, November 1986 (pg 50,51,54)
12544	Fun School 4 for the Under-5s	#122, April 1992 (pg 34)
2159	Gryzor	#114, August 1991 (pg 41)
2204	Hades Nebula	#78, September 1988 (pg 46)
2233	Hard Drivin'	#94, January 1990 (pg 36)
9106	Henrietta's Book of Spells	#128, October 1992 (pg 20,21)
2375	Human Killing Machine	#84, March 1989 (pg 34,35)
9382	Murray Mouse Supercop	#123, May 1992 (pg 32)
3434	Ninja Commando	#90, September 1989 (pg 85)
4072	Red Heat	#87, June 1989 (pg 12,13)
4271	Run the Gauntlet	#105, November 1990 (pg 61)
4448	Shark	#94, January 1990 (pg 50, 51)
9419	Soccer Pinball	#123, May 1992 (pg 44)
4925	Stormlord II: Deliverance	#101, July 1990 (pg 74,75)
9429	Stryker - In the Crypts of Trogan	#124, June 1992 (pg 18)
4978	Subbuteo	#104, October 1990 (pg 75)
5132	Tank Attack	#86, May 1989 (pg 61)
5291	Tintin on the Moon	#95, February 1990 (pg 10)
3565	Turbo Out Run	#94, January 1990 (pg 8,9)

[Stefan]

Removing all entries released after October 1988 leaves:

The following all scored 78% Overall in SU. The number at the start is the ZXDB ID. I'm still none the wiser from that list.

Code: Select all

2204	Hades Nebula	#78, September 1988 (pg 46)

A.k.a. nothing useful

[MustardTiger]

Charts for the same month from Your Sinclair, lookslike it might be Rally Driver

[SteveSmith]

Charts for the same month from Your Sinclair, lookslike it might be Rally Driver

There's no game with that name after 1984 in the db, and certainly not for Alternative?

EDIT: There is, but I missed it since it's a rerelease: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... lly_Driver

[MustardTiger]

It's here on ebay, If it's not in the database might be worth buying.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175767531437 ... BMovPtj7pj

[Stefan]

Charts for the same month from Your Sinclair, lookslike it might be Rally Driver

That's stretching the limits on "Reasonable arcade adventure with an odd theme."

[zx4ever]

Thanks all! Rally Driver does fit into the right timescale, but it's odd (or perhaps not very odd) that SU made up a score when it wasn't reviewed in SU. Mind you, this is the magazine that one had a top five adventure chart consisting of Ghost Hunters, Vampire, Feud and Agent X, and just counted any game by the Codies ending in "simulator" in their Simulator chart (so ATV Simulator was included in the Simulator chart, but Kik Start, which is basically the same game idea, was in the Arcade chart).

[toot_toot]

I would agree that it’s likely to be Rally Driver… BUT here’s a spanner in the works..

The following month’s SU has this in the charts page, with Rally Driver not in the charts. Unless they’ve just got it wrong and it was knocked out of the top 10, instead of “zooming chartwards”.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 80&page=42

Zooming chartwards is Alternative’s Rally Driver which would at least make a
change from all the Codemasters sims. Firebird's Ninja Scooter Simulator, a contender for silliest title of the year, is also hovering, but will it
go up or skid off into oblivion?

(1)
EUROPEAN FIVE-A-SIDE FOOTBALL
Good, but not as good as it could have been
FIREBIRD £1.99 70%
2
(2)
AIRWOLF
Re-release of a fiendishly difficult arcade adventure
ENCORE £1.99 79%
3
(7)
BEACH BUGGY SIMULATOR
Not a simulation at all, more a left-right car game with dodgy graphics
FIREBIRD £1.99 60%
4
NEW!
STUNT BIKE SIMULATOR
Reasonable arcade action with unremarkable graphics
FIREBIRD £1.95 75%
5
NEW!
BATTLESHIPS!
Good fun, but more fun with pencil and paper
ENCORE £1.99 69%
6
(4)
A.b.E.
High quality combat flight simulation
CASCADE £2.99 78%
7
(6)
FRANK BRUNO'S BOXING
Unusual fight simulation, another re-release
ELITE £1.99 82%
8
(5)
GHOSTBUSTERS
Re-release of a not very hot title
RICHOCHET £1.99 70%
9
(3)
YOGI BEAR
Cutesy-wootsy Pirahna re-release
ALTERNATIVE £1.99 70%
10
RE
FRUIT MACHINE SIMULATOR
Surprisingly, the whole thing is idiotically addictive
CODEMASTERS £1.99 80%

By December’s issue there’s no mention of Rally Driver at all and it’s certainly not in the top 10.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 81&page=43

I remember owning the Alternative version “back in the day”, so I don’t think it was particularly rare. Maybe it just got swamped from the other major re-releases.

[Daveysloan]

Not to derail the thread but what on Earth is up with this review score for Skooldaze???

[Vampyre]

I think most of the mags went through a "if it's old it must be sh*t" phase.

There was an isometric Run It Again article in Crash where the reviewer absolutely mullered some classics. In fairness the reviewer, Will, came on here and admitted to butchering them to get noticed as it was very early in his journalistic career.

https://archive.org/details/crash-magaz ... ew=theater

[bluespikey]

I think most of the mags went through a "if it's old it must be sh*t" phase.

There was an isometric Run It Again article in Crash where the reviewer absolutely mullered some classics. In fairness the reviewer, Will, came on here and admitted to butchering them to get noticed as it was very early in his journalistic career.

https://archive.org/details/crash-magaz ... ew=theater

He revised Nightshade to be 27%. And the problem is.... ?

[toot_toot]

I think most of the mags went through a "if it's old it must be sh*t" phase.

There was an isometric Run It Again article in Crash where the reviewer absolutely mullered some classics. In fairness the reviewer, Will, came on here and admitted to butchering them to get noticed as it was very early in his journalistic career.

https://archive.org/details/crash-magaz ... ew=theater

Oh yeah, that was definitely the case with the initial budget re-releases. There seemed to be a time when any old games were derided for being too basic. It wasn’t really until the likes of Stu Campbell who championed gameplay over graphics right at the end of the Spectrum’s lifespan.

From this budget re-release review, ca you tell what game this is?

A classic blast from the past that perhaps has no place alongside today's shoot 'em ups

You will soon realise that there isn't actually much gameplay in this ancient shoot 'em up

It’s for Jet Pac , from the budget re-release review in Sinclair User here: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 69&page=48

It did get 6/10…

[Vampyre]

He revised Nightshade to be 27%. And the problem is.... ?

Thought someone might pick up on that one 27% puts it in the absolutely-bloody-awful territory.

I can't get over the 65% for HoH and 22% for Ant Attack.