Producer: Reaktor
Retail Price: £4.99

High above Earth hangs the space equivalent of Wembley - a doughnut-shaped ring, home of the Death- Race. On this ring competitors meet in a game where to lose is to die.

Each racer rides an armoured skimmer which can move to any of the three surfaces of the ring. Visibility and therefore safety are best on the inner edge, but the largest prizes await the victor on the outside edge.

Using your ability to switch between surfaces, you can avoid obstacles and approaching craft. These are shown on a large central viewing scanner, with a smaller screen giving the receding rearward view. Three bars below the main screen show the skimmer's position in relation to other craft on each of the three surfaces.

Since victory is based on points awarded for the destruction of fellow competitors, each skimmer is equipped with a blaster and a protective shield. The blaster has a limited ammunition supply and the shield only finite strength.

Should the shield be breached by too many contacts with other racers, then one of the craft's three lives is lost. And the other two may go as easily in the fast, harsh Death-Race.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Use of colour: full colour but dull
Graphics: poor and jerky
Sound: aggravating title squeaks
Skill levels: one
Screens: continuous scrolling

Deadringer is one of the worst games I've seen this month. The idea isn't too bad - a sort of 3-D Shockway Rider in space - but the programmers have made a real mess of it. Graphics are jerky, badly defined and poorly coloured, and there's little playability, it doesn't come close to value for money.
MIKE

Deadringer is instantly playable - within a couple of games you'll be happily blasting the opposition away. But it's only an average game, lacking challenge and depth. The graphics are soon forgotten, and the sound on the title screen is annoying.
ROBIN

The concept is great - if only it had been successfully implemented. The graphics range from very mediocre backgrounds and track graphics to some superbly-drawn cars, but they're all badly animated. And shooting round the tracks would be great fun if only you had some feeling of movement. There's very little to do in Deadringer.
PAUL

Reaktor
£4.99

On with your racing helmet, tie up those Formula One trainers, grease down that joystick, cos you're about to embark on the ultimate racing thrill of a lifetime. (Well, okay - not quite.) Get ready to take your armoured skimmer into the futuresport of Death Race, 'cos you've become a Deadringer, a pilot dicing with death and destruction by racing along the outside edge of... a doughnut! (Yummy! Has it got jam? P Snout.)

Your object, if you're not to become a dead Deadringer, is to circle the track and stay alive, at least until the time limit runs out. Then it's onto the next level, a little meaner and more crowded.

All sides of the doughnut ring can be used to ride on, so that's four in all. The easiest route is the inside edge, where the track can be seen to bend up towards the top of the screen, giving a full view too of any objects speeding down towards you. On the outside edge the track slopes down into the screen, so that you'll only see anything hurtling in your direction at the very last moment! Hazards are scattered along the ring, and include nasties such as wails, bombs and the odd fellow skimmer also out to win the race.

To help you on your way there's the ammo dump that provides your craft with the firepower to blast away at things. The skimmer also carries a neat line in radar equipment, plus a handy rear-view mirror to keep an eye on whoever's behind you.

As a race game I don't think Deadringer quite makes the grade. It's basically just a shoot-'n'-dodge-against-the-clock game with an unusual setting. Things can get hectic as you bomb down the track at top whack dodging left and right to avoid the enemy, but I reckon the whole thing is let down by the basic feel of the graphics. Everything looks 'blocky', with all the objects seemingly constructed from big squares, constantly enlarged and updated in a very jerky fashion as they get nearer. The lack of variation in later levels also detracts from the overall playability a little.

But having said all that, I found Deadringer an addictive little devil in spite of disliking it on my first try-out.

Uncomplicated, easy to master, and, if you're into this sort of thing, a bargain at the price. Can't say fairer than that!

Label: Reaktor
Author: Lance Mason
Price: £4.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Welcome to Dead Ringer - a slam-bam space-age race game - tearing around a giant four lane, doughnut shaped track. It's a roller-coaster ride in space where the object is to avoid obstacles, destroy your opponents, and clock up the fastest lap time.

Your racer is an armoured skimmer, equipped with the most powerful lasers your sponsors could buy and a radar device which shows any obstructions on three of the four lanes either ahead or behind you.

Your skimmer is versatile - it has to be. It can hurtle fowards or backwards and switch racing lanes with a flick of the joystick. You can race on any of the four lanes but the outside edge, notches up the most points because on it you'll be racing blind - your radar can't reach that part of the track. It's best to spend only short periods out there!

Hazards include mines, which you can destroy or avoid with skill. Warp Gates which zap your speed so that your Skimmer becomes uncontrollable, and walls which'll flatten you unless you skip to the next lane to avoid them. There are also other craft on the track and with them it's kill or be killed. Shoot at them as soon as you turn that corner. If you wait too long your laser bolts may miss and then it's head-on collision time. One type of track object you mustn't shoot up is the ammo dump which'll blow up in your face. Instead you'll need it to stock up your ammunition supply.

Dead Ringer is a fast-reflex high-pulsed place to be and there's only one thing wrong with this pseudo-simulation. The instructions tell you how to combat course obstacles but don't show you what each look like. You've got to guess and. at the speed you make around those straights and bends, that's not easy.