Producer: Martech Games
Author: D.E. Martin

I'm not entirety sure if there's a lot of point in reviewing this, since it's over two years old now and almost certainty unobtainable. However, it's worth mentioning because, despite its age, its one of the only reasonable efforts that's been made to produce an integrated board/computer game. In Conflict you have to raise cash by trading in various commodities; with the money, you purchase and maintain armies which you use to further your megalomaniac ambitions. Basically, the trading is done on the screen and the battling on the board; having the board makes battle strategy probably more sophisticated than it otherwise would be, but it's very difficult to judge, as the game's age means that the programming looks as though it was done by an aardvark. There's another game by Martech, of similar vintage, called Galaxy Conflict, which looks to be slightly better; but again, the age of the game really precludes comparison with current software. I think, though, that if I were Mr. Martin, I would spend some time on updating these two games, because they both contain the germs of good ideas - but I don't think anyone will even look at them in their present, dated state.

ALL ABOARD FOR WAR GAMES

MICRO: ZX81, Spectrum 16K, CBM 64, Atari 800, BBC B, Dragon 32
PRICE: £11.95 on the Sinclair machines, £14.75 on the rest
FORMAT: Cassette plus board and counters
SUPPLIER: Martech Games, 9 Dillingburgh Rd, Eastbourne, Sussex

Both of these games are different from most adventures as a separate playing board is included with each, and consequently most of the action takes place off the computer screen itself.

The games come in fairly large boxes by computer game standards, and look like ordinary board games at the first glance. Indeed, once the box is opened the similarity continues, until you notice that among the board, counters and other paraphernalia there is a cassette tape.

On one side of the tape is recorded a program for the ZX81, and on the other a program for the ZX Spectrum. The appropriate program for the players' computer has to be loaded before the game can start. Both games are two-player only, so you will have to grab a sibling, spouse or gullible friend as well.

Conflict, the first game, is set in the present or near future, and is a war between two countries. Each player is in control of the resources of one country, and the winner is the first to march an army into his opponent's city. As an alternative, if time is limited, both players can agree on a number of moves after which the game will end.

Most of the game is spent trying to earn the money necessary to purchase and maintain army units (mercenaries?). This can be done by dealing on the stock market, surveying and drilling for oil, and pirating neutral ships carrying precious metals.

At each turn the players have to decide how much of their available revenue to spend on buying shares, armies, warships, oil prospecting, etc. In this sense the game is about resources management, not unlike the many other such games available on most microcomputers (eg Dictator, King, Hammurabi and Stock Market).

However, the game also has the feel of a more traditional board game, since armies, warships and the like are represented by counters which are moved around the board.

Galaxy Conflict, the second game, has a much more futuristic setting. This time each player is the leader of a fleet of battle eoncruisers, and the object is to defeat the enemy and become ruler of the galaxy.

The game is very similar to Conflict, except that this time the limited resource is energy, and at each turn the players must decide how much of the available energy is to be used to build new eoncruisers, refit damaged eoncruisers, attack enemy planet stations, and the rest.

However, the game is not as simple as it sounds, as there are also crew to think about, who will starve unless their supplies are replenished at fairly regular intervals, and of course there is the element of the game which involves moving counters round the board, as in Conflict. Also, there is the problem of defending each planet station's mineral moons, which provide the only source of regular energy input.

The programs vary little between the Spectrum and the ZX81 versions, since only very limited use of colour and sound is made on the Spectrum versions. However, although they are not very impressive from a programming point of view, they do the job that they have to do. However, I do have a criticism of the programs - they do not keep track of where everything on the board is. Instead this information has to be entered every time the computer requires it.

The boards themselves are very clear and well laid out. Both are divided into grids, with Conflict also being divided into regions which are identified by colour. The boards certainly have a much professional feel to them than the programs.

However, the instructions do not receive such high praise. There seemed to be essential details missing from both sets, such as how to move the neutral ships in Conflict, and when the game actually ends in Galaxy Conflict. Still, as long as both players can agree on a convention, this needn't actually spoil the fun.

In general, I found both these games enjoyable, and sometimes even quite intellectually taxing to play. However, rather than saying that they are computer games which also use a board, I think that it would be more accurate to say that they are board games in which a computer program replaces the dice and paper money.