Producer: Quicksilva
Retail Price: £7.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Binary Design Ltd

Deathwake is a sort of Beach Head I/II type game which throws you in an ongoing war situation. Following the true 'war hero' storybooks you're completely outnumbered and have to take on the entire enemy force single handed.

The story goes like this: the enemy hold vast areas of the homeland in the north and west and are one step away from completing research which will give them the atomic bomb. Needless to say, if they make The Bomb, the war will not continue for very much longer... Allied attempts to destroy the research plant have failed, owing to the fact that it is built into the side of a mountain, deep inland along a narrow inlet, Air attacks have proved useless and there have been no survivors from the three commando raids. There's one hope remaining you, the Captain of the battleship Undaunted.

Research has shown that it is possible to enter the narrow inlet and destroy the plant by firing upwards under the protective shield of the mountain. However, this is a task of epic proportions and the odds are stacked against you as you prepare for the voyage...

The game is broken up into several different arcade sequences like Beach Head, and in between each arcade screen is an air attack phase. Here a map is shown of both the allied and enemy territory along with all the airfields, radar stations, ports and so on. What the player has to do is try to take out as many enemy emplacements as possible by allocating targets to his own airfields. Once the targets have been selected the aircraft can be scrambled and sent on their missions. The computer decides the damage caused, shows the results and then puts the player into an arcade sequence.

The first of these sequences is an attack from enemy aircraft. On this screen the Undaunted and her two escort ships have to thwart wave after wave of torpedo-dropping aircraft by shooting them down. The ships and planes are viewed from above and a Missile Command type cursor is used to target the shells from the ships. When an aircraft gets near to the ships it drops its torpedo, which has to be avoided otherwise the ship sustains damage. The two escort ships are dispensable and are lost if one torpedo hits them. The Undaunted, on the other hand, is vital to your mission, and can only be hit three times before she sinks.

If the player manages to get past this screen then another air attack phase follows. The next arcade sequence is a 3D view from the boat and puts you under fire from patrol boats. These move along the horizon, turn and sweep towards you before releasing their torpedoes. The only way to survive this screen is to sink the patrol boats before they launch their torpedoes. This is done by using your guns which can be moved up, down, left and right.

The third screen is another view From above, only this time the player has to guide the Undaunted through a minefield - a collision with a mine and the game ends.

Finding the correct elevation is the key to the fourth screen, as you try to sink the three battleships blocking the entrance to the inlet. Whilst you're doing that they're busy pounding you with shells, so speed is again of the essence.

The final screen is very similar to that in Beach Head. Again getting the right elevation wins the day; this time the player has to get a shell through the doors of the research plant before they close - not an easy task by any means, but then winning a war single handed never is.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Keyboard play: not too bad
Use of colour: simple on most screens
Graphics: some nice 3D effects, overall pretty good
Sound: a couple of woo-woos, plips and plops
Skill levels: gets harder as you get into the game
Screens: five arcade and one air sequence screen

Although being very similar to Beach Head I think this is definitely the better of the two. For a start it is far more difficult, and it also has more depth to the game. The graphics are very good, avoiding attributes well and the rotating Quicksilva logo on the title screen is amazing. Deathwake is an excellent game, very addictive and gives a challenge which although not impossible will have players going for quite some time before completing their task.

Remember Beach Head, that sort of semi-strategy arcade game? Well, Death Wake is quite similar in format and content. This is all very well if you liked Beach Head, but by today's standards the game looks a bit dated. The graphics are neat but not very effective or impressive, neither is the sound. Death Wake is not very easy to pet into, the first strategic stage is alright but the second, where your destroyer is under attack, proves to be very difficult to overcome. If you're willing to persevere with the game it may prove rewarding but for me, the later stages still seemed as dull as the earlier ones.

When I first saw this game I thought it was another Beach Head, but after a few games I realised that this was better than Beach Head and had that certain addictive quality. The game starts off with a very nice attack sequence, all driven by the cursor, which I thought was very neat. When I got into the game (which took quite a time) it turned out to be quite easy to play, with some very close pixel shaves in the torpedo sequence. All the stages are pretty simple in concept but are fairly difficult to get through without a bit of practise. One very nice touch is the Design Design style highscore board which is good to read after you've smashed and bashed the enemies into the ocean.

Quicksilva
£7.99

The cassette inlay card sets the scene by telling you that 'the war is not going well': And guess who it's not going well for?

Death Wake is a pretty good wargame. It's based around the adventures of The Undaunted, a destroyer that can float just about tong enough to avoid patrol boats and dodge the enemy planes. Its mission, to destroy the research plant, busy in the development of the atomic bomb.

The screens don't look that spectacular at first sight - and nothing compared to the stunning portrait on the cassette cover - but they are certainly up to giving you a good idea of what's going on. In most wargames I've played, the instruction booklet accompanying the package is so daunting that play can be forstalled by half an hour while you keep looking up what you need to do to win. Death Wake is much more friendly as it mixes the traditional wargame format with arcade action, so that beginners can plough into the battle and sort out tactics.

As wargames go, it's not the best in the world... but, on the other hand, it does have enough addictive qualities to grow on you. And that's coming from someone who rarely recommends wargames. Check it out?

Publisher: Quicksilva
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Interface II, cursor

Did Alistair Maclean write this one? The war is not going well and the enemy hold vast areas of the homelands to the north and west. Meanwhile their research into their ultimate weapon continues. Soon they will have the Atomic Bomb!

That's the basic premise of Death Wake, told in breathless prose inside the cover. It's one of the great questions of history; what if the Nazis had got the bomb? I say the Nazis because I presume this is supposed to be World War II, though the planes which attack you seem to be swing-wing jets.

No time to discuss it anyhow, because once again they're looking for a hero and once again you fit the role. Nothing like saving the free world before breakfast, is there? You're not totally alone; High Command has provided your ship the Undaunted, with two escorts.

Stage one of your journey to the secret enemy research station, set in the side of a heavily guarded cliff, is the air support phase. That is a mildly strategic diversion where you allocate planes to attack enemy bases and neutralise them for one or two rounds, so making your journey easier. It's all done with a cursor on a map, and while it won't stretch the tactics of confirmed wargamers it could test their eyesight - the cursor is tiny.

You scramble your forces by moving the cursor to a handy little icon and all hell is let loose as you proceed to bomb each other. This all seems to rake up ridiculously high scores for rather a small effort but don't complain because the next section provides far less chance to make the Hall of Fame.

Now you're into the first arcade sequence and well on your way to the enemy beach head... Sorry, didn't mean to mention the opposition, but that perennial hit is the inspiration for this multi-part mission.

In this first variation you get attacked by planes armed with torpedoes. Using a missile command cursor to target fire from your ships, which you look down on, you may be lucky to wipe out some of their pilots but it's not easy because the guns are a trifle slow.

Prejudging the enemy flight paths is all important and eventually one of them will make a bee-line for your convoy. Now, finger off the fire button and you can swivel ships up or down to avoid incoming projectiles, though that, too, calls for some very fine tuning.

If you survive this stage with even one of your escorts still intact you'll be doing well and both are expendable, though it helps to have their supporting fire. You can only afford to take three hits. After that you have the choice of manning the boats or going down with your ship. It's a difficult first game with serviceable graphics and very fine lines for the tracer shells.

Next up it's more torpedoes, delivered by patrol boats, and all Beach Head fans will recognise the targeting skills required. Choose your artillery by moving the cursor along the base line, then aim for both direction and distance using left and right and elevation, has to be done pretty quickly.

After that it's another bird's eye view as you guide the Undaunted through a minefield and the feelings of deja vu are really growing. Then more target practice from the deck as you try to take out the final line of battle ships guarding the coast.

Finally, you reach the research station but the doors begin to shut. The answer is to lob a shell between those doors in best Boys Own fashion. How can you fail?

Actually, a more pertinent question is how can you succeed? The game is very difficult and the only solution is to play it again and again. Are you willing to do that? That's going to depend on whether you're a fan of Beach Head I and II. If you are then you'll probably go for this, but for me Death Wake didn't quite hold together and the extreme difficulty of the first section was off-putting.

Label: Bug-Byte
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Andy Moss

Hindsight is always a useful barometer of how a piece of software, once thought of as beyond the realms of possibility on a home computer, has traversed the test of time.

Does it still stand out as a technical achievement, or does it seem somewhat, well lacklustre.

I remember Deathwake being released around two years ago on the Quicksilva label, and having also reviewed it then I feel that this is a good opportunity to compare notes.

The actual game senario first. This entails you as protector and captain of the destroyer undaunted, to guide her to the enemy stronghold at the end of an inlet, whilst dodging torpedoes and flack from opposing planes and ships. There is also a strategy element in the game, that lets you plot an air strike on to some of the enemy bases, before each round of action to temporarily disable them (This not only increases your chances of survival but also brings a certain reality to the gameplay.)

As each round begins you are faced with a varied selection of hostile hardware, such as torpedo planes, bombers, gun boats and minefields, and as soon as your Undaunted takes 100% damage it's all over.

So, how does it compare two years on?

Well I wasn't very enamoured with the game the first time round. The sound was feeble, and the graphics pretty scarce. I suppose it was a so-so game then. Now it reminds me of what budget games used to be like you know, the you-paid-nearly-zilch-what-do-you-expect-type of game.

However Mastertronic has proved that cheap is not nasty and this can't compete. Sadly in this case Deathwake is cheap and nasty.

Spectrum 48K
Quicksilva
Shoot-'em-up
£7.95

This is probably the game that Beachhead should have been. Beneath the surface of Beachhead was a series of fairly crude arcade games, but this game has far more detail, and possibly more staying power.

The plot is similar. You have to penetrate a well defended enemy base, being attacked by a variety of threats. Torpedo bombers, torpedo boats, bombers, destroyers, mines and so on. There is also a strategic screen which shows your progress toward your objective, the enemy bunker. On this map you also direct your air support which attempts to suppress the enemy air and sea bases.

Your sole weapon is "The Undaunted", a battleship, plus its two escorting destroyers. Your ships come equipped with flak guns plus heavy armament for shore bombardment.

After successfully completing each arcade sequence, it's back to the strategic map and allocating the air units, in the arcade sequences, it pays to be defensive, as the targets are extremely elusive and deadly.

The graphics in the arcade sequences are very nicely done, with simple controls. Particularly nice is the way the torpedo bombers swing their wings back after finishing their attack run - if you haven't splashed them of course.

Needless to say, the fate of the nation is in your hands. Failure means that the enemy can build their atom bomb in peace and lay waste to your cities. Presumably this gives it some kind of historical context, with you attempting to force your way up a Norwegian fjord, but this is not clear. Or perhaps it is a bit of gun boat diplomacy being applied to some dastardly third world chieftain holding the civilised world to freedom. A good, competent game, with plenty of variety. So damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.