REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Power Plays
by Tim White
The Power House
1987
Crash Issue 45, Oct 1987   page(s) 106

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.

The budget market has just got into compilations, with two distinct approaches. On the one hand you have The Power House throwing together most of their £1.99 releases, past and present. In a bundle of budget fun - Powerplays, eight games for £9.99. None of the games are very impressive, the point being quantity rather than quality. On the other hand you have Tynesoft looking at the budget problem from a completely different angle: in the Micro Value Pack you only get four (very old and not very good) games, but for the extremely cheap compilation price of £3.99.

POWERPLAYS
The Power House
Hercules - N/R
Slingshot - N/R
Time Fight - 29% Issue 40
Cyrox - 46% Issue 40
Squidge - N/R
Odd Ball - N/R
Sword & Shield - N/R
Tomb Of Syrinx - 26% Issue 40
£9.99


REVIEW BY: Paul Sumner

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Sinclair User Issue 70, Jan 1988   page(s) 97

Label: Power House
Author: Various
Price: £9.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

There's a good deal of variety in these eight back-catalogue Power House titles, but precious little in the way of quality. Worst of the lot is Cyrox, so full of bugs that at one stage all the backgrounds disappear completely. How's this for an intro: "A valueable (sic) shipment of crystals has been stolen... there (sic) whereabouts has (sic) been traced to Cyrox... headquarters for public enermy (sic) number one... " The game's as good as the grammar. Time Flight is a fair Time Pilot rip-off. Sword and Shield (the best thing on the tape) is a neat Kingdom-style strategy game. Tomb of Syrinx, an average arcade-adventure. Hercules decent platforms-and-ladders. Sqij, a shooting and collecting scenario. Slingshot, a Star Trek-type space zapper, and Oddball, a battle to push radioactive blocks into a disintegrator.

Only worth bothering with if you don't have any of these titles already.


REVIEW BY: Chris Jenkins

Overall4/10
Summary: Eight games for a tenner. Good value you might think - but then look at the quality of the games...

Transcript by Chris Bourne

All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB