Producer: Design Design
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £7.50
Language: Machine code
Author: Simon Brattel

It's taken quite a while between previewing Dark Star and reviewing it. Much of this has had to do with the fact that programmer Simon Bratell kept fiddling with the game, making it faster and faster until now it must surely win the accolade as the fastest Spectrum graphics ever. It would be a mistake to assume that this wire frame game is a copy of the popular arcade machine game 'Star Wars', because although it resembles it in some respects, it differs a lot in many important ways and, in any case, it was designed long before 'Star Wars' appeared in the arcades.

Anyway, onto the game. The Dark Star galaxy is divided into a 16 by 16 grid of sectors in the galactic plain. All the spurious blurb which gets you going is very detailed and well worth avoiding, best to dive in through the fabled front end which has been user defined out of existence! Selecting 'instructions' on screen is much better - it says, 'Fly around the universe. If it moves shoot it. If it doesn't shoot it anyway. If it's square fly through it!'

Keys for control are left, right, up, down, accelerate, decelerate and fire, any of which may be used on any key or all the same one if you like. Anyway, onto the game. There is a sort of adventurish and strategy overtone to Dark Star in as much as you are trying to clear the place of alien forces. The action takes place over three different areas, deepest space, hyperspace (accessed through Warp Gates, which are rotating yellow squares) and on the surface of numerous planets. When the planets in a sector of space have been cleared of aliens, using a Warp Gate will take you into another sector.

In space alien fighters will swoop on you, firing bolts of plasma and they do this by prediction, so it's best to avoid flying straight for too long. Your firing is done by directing the cross wire cursor at targets. Shield energy may be increased by flying through rotating blue squares (energy concentrations). The Warp Gates have four opening and shutting sections which allow you to hyperspace North South, East or West. Whilst in hyperspace you must travel along through a series of squares. The tunnel winds about in a lively fashion and breaking through its walls puts a heavy load on your shields.

Planetfall is achieved by flying straight at one. The surface has towers occupied by the enemy which fire at you. Shooting at the towers will cause them to collapse. A map display of the galaxy indicates your position and shows where the forces are concentrated as lightly, well and heavily defended, with a further designation of 'military centre'. A similar display can be used on the surface of a planet. This shows bases, fuel dumps, space ports and so on. Your craft cannot leave the surface of a planet until all the enemy bases have been destroyed.

Dark Star is far too complicated for a mere collator of reviews to explain, something which was fully intended by its designer, so it is best to try it out for yourself! Its much vaunted features include the universe, stopwatch mode, 2 million way movement, full screen playing area (with graphics in the border area), and its makers say it does not include Materialisations, Sprites (naturally), Unused RAM (who needs it) Stupid Scenario (there is a bit about the Evil Lord's tyrannical empire however), and no Magic Rings (wot no rings!). The other thing is this amazing front end which defines the meaning of 'user' and allows customisation of the game. For his endeavours in the field of advancing home computer games, programmer Simon Bratell has insisted that CRASH give Dark Star 100 for the Use of Computer rating...

COMMENTS

Control keys: user definable to the Nth degree
Joystick: Kempston, Fuller, Protek, AGF, Sinclair 2, Para-Systems
Keyboard play: exceptionally responsive, good positions through UDK
Use of colour: above average, good for wire frame and a welcome addition to this type of game
Graphics: breathtakingly fast though not very detailed
Sound: very good
Skill levels: definable through front end
Lives: only 1
Screens: 2
Special features: flexible front end, and second program included

When I first saw Dark Star I thought it was a boring old copy of 'Star Wars' because at first glance it looks like it, but how could I be so wrong? Your task, to go round the universe and blast everything into nothingness, is almost impossible as there can be up to 204 planets with 5 bases on each. All the games I have seen from Crystal (Design Design) have had quite useful front ends, but this takes the biscuit, and makes it into a playable game even when you're useless at it. I hope this works out as a CRASH smash, because it deserves it just for the front end alone and the amusing, ever changing hi-score tables. A word of warning, I found the hyper load made it difficult to load, but perseverance is worth it.

Dark Star has, to say the least, stunningly fast and smooth 3D vector graphics. They are not super detailed but the rest makes up for it. The game is fairly difficult to play at first, taking quite a bit of time to master. Dark Star will be the sort of game that grows on you as time goes by.

After numerous attempts, numerous tape decks, I managed to get Dark Star loaded, though the way I did it was unethical. Well, onto the game; it's certainly the best and certainly the fastest 3D shoot em up game I've ever played to date (note the 'to date'). This game is very user friendly (pity the same can't be said about the author - he will know who I am!) offering truly user definable keys - you can program one key to do everything, although not much will happen if you do this. You can define whether you want nasty and horrible aliens with deadly weapons, or nice ones that can't kill you off, and what type of format you want the screen to take. Dark Star has many amusing touches like the hall of fame - most times you load it, there are different 'names' (one time had bits of songs in it another had references from Monty Python films). All in all Dark Star is a very good game with some nice effects. Incidentally there is another game on the cassette, but you need a code word to get at it, and no one's saying what it is (yes - the first reviewer proof game). Signed, Yours, the 'orrible little reviewer (I hope you're satisfied with this review).

Dave: Design Design has taken vector graphics to a stage where the speed of the game is limited by players' ability rather than hardware restrictions.

The game itself is basically a derivative of the Star Wars arcade game, with the trench section missing. Your task is to rid the universe of nasties by flying your spacecraft, called the Liar, through the galaxy and down on to occupied planets where you have to destroy the enemy bases: these consist of defensive rings of towers that must be shot or dodged.

Planets can have more than one base; in fact, some planets also have spaceports and energy dumps on them. Spaceports don't have to be destroyed, but the energy dumps replenish your energy supplies and become vital after a while as there are 256 sectors to clear!

Dark Star has a very versatile menu system allowing the game to be customised; for example, the speed and accuracy of the alien weapons (as well as the keys used to control the Liar) can all be changed to suit your own requirements. Unfortunately, after the novelty of the blindingly fast graphics has worn off, the game becomes rather repetitive and loses most of its appeal. Hopefully Design Design's next offering will be a game instead of a programming exercise. 3/5 HIT

Ross: An incredibly fast Star Trek variant, with the emphasis on arcade action. Setting the game controls to 'devastating' and turning off all the alien's missiles makes the game much more fun! 3/5 MISS

Roger: Graphically clever stuff for the naturally trigger-happy. Apprentice gamesters will be able to hone their reaction times to perfection. 2/5 HIT

Label: Firebird
Author: Design Design
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Nowt to do with the ace science-fiction film of the same name, Dark Star is in fact a 1984 vintage Design Design zapper. A cross between the traditional Star Trek defend-the-universe-which-is-conveniently-divided-into-squares game and more modern efforts like Starglider, Dark Star features fast animated wire-frame graphics.

The aim is to speed through the a starscape soaking planets to land on, then knock out all the defences, using your scanner to locate powerplants, gun emplacements and refuelling towers and blasting them to fragments.

Dark Star is best played entirely with the keyboard. Fast, colourful and entertaining, well worth searching out.

MACHINE: Spectrum/keyboard or joystick
SUPPLIER: Design Design
PRICE: £7.50

The blurb for Dark Star claims that it is the longest program ever written for the Spectrum. I can well believe it - the game takes around five minutes to load. No super flash loaders here!

It's well worth the wait. Once you delve into the Dark Star galaxy, you'll be hooked.

The scenario is simple. You are in control of the Liar, a heavily armed space ship, on a mission to liberate the Dark Star galaxy from the Evil Lord's tyranny. To succeed, you must wipe out all the Evil Lord's bases on planets within the galaxy.

You fly around planet-hopping and zapping through hyper space gates to jump from sector to sector blasting the bases and fighting off attacks from enemy space ships.

You fight in space and across the surface of occupied planets - so you begin the game flying through space. A Tactical Sector Map displays the whereabouts of the enemy bases. You can call up the map at any time. It shows the position of your ship and the military installations - and is a really pretty bit of graphic programming!

The map also has an amusing information read-out about the planet you are flying over - with details of atmosphere a comments like "Even wetter than Manchester" or "Hate it!"
Great stuff.

Your job is simply to shoot up the enemy installations and then get off the planet to resume your quest for ultimate liberation.

The real joy of this game is the extensive user definable menu which allows you change virtually every aspect of the game to suit your moods.

You can change the screen display, sound effects, skill levels and keyboard controls. Talk about user friendly!

The graphics are simple but extremely effective. The 3D star field - with planets and stargates whizzing by - is very pretty. I sat and just watched it for ages!

If you get your hands on one, try switching to wide-angle mode and sitting in a dark room. You'll think you are on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Try pressing the accelerator button at the top. A real visual treat.

Dark Star is the first part of the "Forbidden Planet" trilogy. I'm waiting with interest for part two.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Curs, Kemp, Sinc
FROM: Design Design, £7.50

In the wake of Elite for the BBC comes another 3D game about space exploration and conquest. Dark Star is much more in the way of a good old mega-zap but it combines it with outstanding graphics.

In your Liar spacecraft you are faced with a 16 x 16 sector galaxy in which the Evil Lord's Empire controls a cluster of oppressed planets. These come in four types, the most heavily defended of which must all be wiped out in order to liberate the galaxy.

In each sector you have a forward view into space and can encounter four varieties of object: planets, on which you can land, hyperspace gates, energy squares and enemy fighters. You control both directions of travel and firing by an on-screen cursor which has to be centred on gates and squares to pass through them or on fighters to destroy them.

Centering the cursor on a planet will take you down to skim over the surface where enemy bases are located. These can be shown on a map which can guide you in on the target. The bases are protected by anti-aircraft fire from the tops of towers and force fields. The towers collapse when blasted and the fields have holes in them through which you can fly.

Destroying the main bases on a planet will liberate it and allow you to leave it. That sector is then free and you can take a hyperspace tunnel to any of four adjacent sectors.

Your craft has a fairly small energy supply which can be depleted by enemy fire, contact with force fields or straying outside a hyperspace tunnel. Energy supply boxes can be found both on planet surfaces and in deep space and are essential to a successful mission.

These boxes are blue and pulsate forward and back as you approach them. You have to close with them at speed or they recede which makes them exceptionally difficult to pass through.

A delightful, if somewhat weird, sense of humour runs throughout the game. The high score table contains either a poem or a conversation at the start and there are screen modes such as 'pretty', 'slimline' and 'wide angle which apparently only the programmer can play.

An excellent feature is the ability to change various aspects of the game including the sound, difficulty, display and ship characteristics. The program can be moulded to the player's skill and there's plenty of galaxy to keep you hooked.

Strangely I wasn't too impressed with Dark Star when I first played it. Yes, the graphics were great... There was a good feel to the game... There were one or two original touches... The menu screens hod a sense of humour... But...

But what? Well, I left the game feeling somehow that I'd seen it all before, and that - however good it was - it was still just another 3D shoot-out that didn't really offer much more than the original Star Raiders.

On the other hand, next morning found myself aching to have another crack at it. There must be a moral here somewhere, but rather than bother about what it is, I think I'll just sit down and have another game... and another...

STEVE COOKE

The game belongs to a genre that doesn't often appeal to me - the 3D deep-space tactical shoot-'em-up. But I found it exciting and compelling and kept wanting to have just one more go. Which I did, without much success.

Even though you can change the levels, it was still very difficult. It's heartbreaking swooping down to a planet's surface and blasting everything in sight only to find yourself running out of fuel without a gas station in sight.

Not that I'm complaining that I was struggling to know what to do. The controls are surprisingly easy to use considering the large number of options available. It's rather that the game really makes high demands on your shoot-'em-up skills.

The graphics gave a great sensation of the third dimension and Dark Star's size and complexity would certainty have me coming back for more.

PETER CONNOR

PRICE: £7.50
GAME TYPE: Arcade

Some software companies do not make it easy for you. Take the new program from Design Design, Dark Star, for instance. The on-screen instructions are brief to the point of absurdity, indicating little other than that you should shoot on sight, whatever happens. The four pages of tiny print on the inlay go to the other extreme. I takes so long to distinguish the instructions from the story line that it is tempting to just give up and play the game.

Despite all complications, the rudiments of the game are quite straightforward. You fly through the galaxy, encountering enemy ships, which you destroy. A plan of the entire galaxy can be obtained by pressing key one. The next sector can be entered by flying through one of the squares which approach in groups.

The object is to liberate all the planets in your galaxy. Reach a planet's surface by flying at the collections of yellow lines, check out the enemy by pressing one again, an then bomb all the bases before leaving the planet.

Dark Star is produced for the 48K Spectrum by Design Design, 125 Smedley Road, Manchester.