Producer: Design Design
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Simon Brattel

After a lot of trogging around, space baffling and generally flying through rectangles in Dark Star, the hero of that game (you) now needs to collect a message from the Forbidden Planet. It's not any old message though, oh no, this message is the Evil Lord's message. A message from a being still evil but no longer lord, this is the state of affairs he wants to change and by using his message he should be able to reinstate himself in power. The Evil Lord's message is a statement so devastating that it proves he's the only one fit to rule, so it's rather important he isn't in possession of it. Since it's such a really valuable commodity the Evil Lord has split, encrypted and distributed the code throughout a heavily garrisoned world the defences of which are near perfect.

Fortunate, then, that your fighting equipment is the very best to be found. The ship you fly is controlled similarly to the one in Dark Star but due to the increased graphic prettiness of its lasers is far superior. A decoding computer is also supplied for the decryption of any code pieces collected.

There are three types of enemy structure dedicated to your destruction. The first and most obvious are the tower structures firing laser pulses your way. A pulse can be dodged or destroyed with a modicum of talent. To put a tower out for the count a fair splashing of laser light is needed. Once well and truly trounced they retract into the surface. Guided missiles are most deadly, these are very hard to dodge and need a good zap to stop their hull-piercing activities. These are often launched from pole structures rising from planetary fortresses, that instantly retract into their housings once the missiles are on course. Third of the death dealing alien structures are the squat versions of towers that launch laser pulses your way. Hefty amounts of laser fire should neutralise these outposts.

These are the actively aggressive defences. Just as annoying, if not even more so, are the passive lines of defence. Within various areas of Forbidden Planet your ship's movements are strictly limited by the plasma ducts and force field networks. It is possible to totally ignore the field structures, but it's really the equivalent of flying through brick walls.

The player's interface with the real world of Forbidden Planet is achieved using a highly sophisticated scanner. This represents various objects with coloured vector graphics. The main action takes place over the planet's surface. Points of light on the planet surface convey the main feeling of 3D experienced. Very handy is the scanner's ability to show a representation of the various holes in the constraining force fields. Using the directional keys you move a gunsight around the main display, as the gunsight moves the attitude changes to follow the gunsight. Also for ship control a simple speed adjustment system is supplied. Two keys, one for an increase in velocity and the other to decelerate.

Each time your ship is hit there is a corresponding decrease in energy, and running out altogether ends the game. The health and condition of your power banks are constantly displayed via the krell meters along the lower part of the visual display. Another quick way to energy depreciation and death is flying into the invisible force walls. Every wall does have a hole in it, though, and this is highlighted by the ship's computer, a clever piece of machinery that also shows any scenery behind the holes. The enemy are aware of your computer's sophistication and set up dummy holes in the dislocation zones. Flying through here instead of taking the course through the correct force gap also gives your shields a fair battering.

A map screen is supplied to give details of your location and direction. The scope of the map is a little limited though it does contain a key. Your position is marked by an arrow that points the current direction you are taking. Any nearby code stores are displayed on the map screen and if you do get into a screen containing such an item, flying into the object releases its contents to your ship's computer.

Unluckily the original message was fragmented into quite a few parts. Retrieval of the whole is extremely difficult but if you do manage to end the game you need to return to the start position. Also worth mentioning is Spectacle II, another program contained on the tape along with Forbidden Planet that needs a password to access it. No doubt Design Design will eventually release the password. What you will find is as yet unknown but it's likely to be entertaining.

COMMENTS

Control keys: entirely definable as to key and function
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: excellent
Use of colour: greatly improved on Dark Star
Graphics: more of them too, fast vectors
Sound: un-Brattelian, which is to say there is some

What has Simon Brattel been doing for the past year? Anyway Forbidden Planet has been a long time coming and it is definitely worth the wait. The graphics are in the same vein as Dark Star but they have been improved upon and also in this game you get noises all the time you are playing. Forbidden Planet is fun to play but it does take a while to get into. I'm sure that after a few goes most people would be addicted. One of the better features of this game is the hi-score table which responds just like the one in Dark Star. Also the define keys option allows you to program as many keys as you want to do what you want, for instance, it's possible to program a key to fire, go up and go left at the same time. On the whole this is a very enjoyable game, though initially similar to Dark Star, it proves to be very addictive. Definitely one for any Dark Star freaks out there.

Okay, everyone, if you didn't like Dark Star there's no way you'll like this. All it is really is an updated version of it. But updated all the same, it's still very good. I liked Dark Star - in fact I still play it from time to time, so I think Forbidden Planet is great. I noticed the front end has been reduced a bit, but I still enjoy the moral pleasure of seeing the colourful explosions after having totally obliterated an alien.

This follows on from Dark Star, and if you didn't look at the inlay you might think it WAS Dark Star. There's a new storyline and a few extras thrown in. The map is good, and colour is used very well - really splashed about in places, and there's plenty of sound, with good explosions and firing noises. I found the game wasn't all that addictive, and a bit of a let down overall.

Design Design
£7.95

Hurtling across the menacing terrain of the Forbidden Planet in a frenzied attempt to suss out the Evil Lords final message from the snippets scattered around the planet, you're thwarted in your mission by the planets relentless defence systems.

Tourists to the Forbidden Planet get their kicks from blasting their way through a multifarious selection of flash hi-res A.A. towers, dodging giddy guided missiles and through being knocked off course by the Planet's system of formidable force field networks.

A natty accelerate option will speed up your journey - use it 'cos time's in short supply and, with persistant pelting from enemy missiles, your energy dwindles fast. But even the most seasoned adventurer is likely to come a cropper doing his business in a strange land.

So a handy map is provided to show you not only where the elusive bits of code are hidden or where you can top up your energy, but also to point out the whereabouts of the hazardous heavy defences.

Forbidden Planet's a pace racing, addictive game - shame it crashed when I was just beginning to clock up a reasonable score!

COLLECTABLE CONSUMABLES

One of the most popular complaints in LM's forum has always been the price of software, and it's often been used as justification for pirating software. People falling into this reprehensible habit should now make a New Year's resolution to stop because the excuse is utterly pathetic nowadays. Virtually all the big games, and many of the lesser ones, now seem to be automatically rereleased either on budget, or in a compilation. 'Wait and ye shall receive' seems to be the motto for anyone wary of splashing out £10 on a single piece of software.

While compilations are around most of the year, Christmas and the New Year naturally draws the biggest releases with software houses showing off their 'greatest hits' - often with other companies' games to pad out a package. This practise is clearly vital to Gremlin who have no less than five anthologies coming out.

GREEDY GREMLIN

Perhaps due to the number of releases, Gremlin's titles show a distinct lack of imagination. 10 Great Games 3 is obviously the third in a ten game compilation series, but if the title doesn't set the blood racing some of the games should. From Hewson there's two written by Steve Turner; the acclaimed 1985 graphic adventure Dragontorc and the more recent Gauntlet-clone, Ranarama. Also from Hewson is Steve Crow's Firelord, a slightly more conventional arcade adventure.

Somewhat more surprising inclusions than those from Hewson, for whom Gremlin are now distributors, are two Spanish games. These are the boxing simulation, Rocco by Dinamic, and a 1987 US Gold game, Survivors.

Making up the rest of the tape are the classic flight sim from Digital Integration - Fighter Pilot, Leader Board,Impossaball and the disappointing 10th Frame. While most of the big games here are rather old, if you haven't already got them this is pretty good value. Imaginative Gremlin title number two is Ten Mega Games which is a little more up to date with releases such as the flawed beat-'em-up Hercules and the well received Blood Brothers. The top two games are probably Northstar and Cybernoid, but Deflektor is an intriguing puzzle game well worth a look.

Strangely, both Cybernoid and Northstar are also featured on Gremlin's Space Ace collection. The five other five games include the excellent Exolon, Dominic Robinson's horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up Zynaps and the third MASK game - Venom Strikes Back. While fairly expensive, and with some rather mediocre games as padding, the good games more than make up for this.

Another theme-based collection is Gremlin's Flight Ace. Also around the £15 mark this has just six games, most of which are quite long in the tooth. The only fairly recent game is the outstanding ATF which, with the helicopter sim Tomahawk, make this fairly respectable. Somewhat more dubious in value is the third in the 'Ace' theme trilogy - Karate Ace. This has the classic, clone-inspiring Way Of The Exploding Fist, the excellent two-player Bruce Lee and the epic Way Of The Tiger, but these are all quite old. Much of the rest of the games are not much more recent, and generally of distinctly inferior quality. Uchi Mata is truly awful for example. Unless you're a die-hard beat-'em-up fan, it's probably not worth the £12.95 asking price.

THE MIDAS TOUCH

US Gold may have just two compilations out, but one of them is the massive History in The Making, which at £24.95 is probably one of the most expensive Spectrum releases for ages. With 15 games the price-per-game is fairly reasonable, though, and the packaging with four tapes and a booklet is impressive. Unfortunately the games as a whole are weak. CRASH Smashes like the ancient Beach Head, Raid Over Moscow and the more recent Gauntlet fail to compensate for the mediocrity of the rest. This is an admirably wide-ranging history, but £24.95 seems a lot for the eight or so fairly good games - especially when most are now on budget.

Also from US Gold is the boastfully named Giants collection. Although all of the games are fairly recent releases, you only get five for just under 13 quid (tape version), while +3 owners have to fork out an extortionate 20 quid! Moreover the five are, under closer examination, a little dwarfish with only 720° and Out Run of much interest.

A TOUCH OF CLASS

Fists 'N' Throttles is the tantalizing title for a potpourri Olive popular programs from Elite. You can bounce down the courses in Buggy Boy or perform dramatic motorbike leaps in Enduro Racer. Those feline cartoon stars, the Thundercats, also make an appearance. If you haven't got any of the games included then Fists 'N' Throttles represents good value for money. Unfortunately, if you live in Germany, you won't get Ikari Warriors, as it was banned by the West German government (yet German instructions for the game are included in the package!).

Not to be outdone by their competitors, Ocean and imagine have some sumptuous compilations of their own. The sequel Game Set And Match 2 includes nine games ranging from a relaxing game of cricket in Ian Botham's Test Match to the bone-breaking grid iron action of American Football in Superbowl. Jon Ritman's fantabulous footy sim, Match Day II is also included along with the conversion of Sega's Super Hang-On. Burdened with some old and rather weak titles to fill it out this is still well worth considering.

Two sets of coin-op hits are being issued by Imagine. The first, Konami Arcade Collection, has been available for a few months now, and encompasses ten hits of yesteryear, numbering no less than four CRASH Smashes among them. At £9.95 it offers attractive value for money.

Also from Imagine comes a slightly newer selection of games, all Taito coin-op conversions. Taito Coin-op Hits contains eight such games, of which two - Flying Shark and Bubble Bobble - are fairly recent, highly-acclaimed Firebird releases. Breakout fans will be tempted by the inclusion of Arkanoid and its sequel, Revenge Of Doh, while beat-'em-up fans should be excited by Renegade.

The final Ocean release, The in Crowd, contains a real collection of street credible games. Primarily there's the beat-'em-ups Target; Renegade and Barbarian, along with the militarish, but very different, Combat School and Platoon. With Karnov adding a touch of colour, and Gryzor and Predator more jungle action it's well worth the usual Ocean asking price.

Lastly we come to those consistent suppliers of annual anthologies, Beau Jolly, 10 Computer Hits - Volume Five brings together ten middle of the road offerings, with only ...Traz standing out due to it being reviewed in this very issue! But Beau Jolly's pride and joy must be Supreme Challenge, a superb collection of three true mega games (Starglider, Elite and The Sentinel) plus one puzzling (Tetris) and, of course, the obligatory flight sim (Ace 2). At around £2.50 a game it can't be bad - even if you were only getting those three biggies! I dread to see what the documentation will be like: both Starglider and Elite had novellas and very detailed instruction manuals, in an A5 box!

CRASH ISSUE FEATURED IN, AND REVIEW PERCENTAGE GIVEN. N/R DENOTES NOT REVIEWED.

SUPREME CHALLENGE
£12.95c, £16.95d
Beau Jolly
Elite 22/92%
The Sentinel 40/97%
Tetris 50/77%
Ace 2 48/60%
Starglider 35/96%

Publisher: Design Design
Programmer: Simon Bratell
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Fuller, cursor. IEEE (alleged!), Sinclair

Ever since I found the high-score table on Halls of the Things insulting me I've been confused by Design Design.

More recently we've seen Dark Star, a soft opera of galactic zapping, and the sequel, Forbidden Planet, is even harder. The cassette insert contains numerous obscure jokes but nothing about the game. The instructions on-screen helpfully advise you to collect all the bits of a code, and show you a picture of a hole, explaining that it's a hole.

I press the start button and find myself hurtling through space while tall thin towers and short wide platforms launch missiles at me. Score - 20. Time to get help.

Simon Bratell at Design Design wrote the game, so I talk to him. "It's best if you play it in the dark," he says.

After a long lunch I return to the fray and start again. The object of the game is to completely obliterate the galactic nasties whom you theoretically pulverised in Dark Star. Players of that game will find Forbidden Planet a lot easier to get used to. The bad guys have only one planet left, and you must explore the surface and find all the pieces of code. A map facility exists, but you only get to see a small part of the playing area at a time.

Because Bratell goes in for small targets and expansive black horizons, with little colour, everything moves around the screen at an extremely fast pace with no apparent loss of smoothness.

There are two playing techniques. Various squares on the planet map contain baddies in profusion, and those are static defences which fire missiles at you - depicted as a series of expanding squares or pieces of fractured tight. Yes I know, it sounds confusing, but so is the game.

This is all accompanied by weird sound effects, buzzes, trills, clackings and explosions. You can choose the level of weirdness yourself. Those areas of the game are wild shoot-'em-ups, where you must shoot down the missiles. Some of the towers will only fire once and then pop down into the ground - go for the missile, not the tower.

The short platforms, on the other hand, fire several bursts, so eliminating the platform itself might be a better tactic there. As you gain skill, you may find it profitable to fly at a high speed through these defences, but you'll still have to take out a high proportion of them as they flash past.

The second element involves force fields which, as in Dark Star, have holes in them through which you must accurately fly. Some holes are dummy holes and will destroy some of your shields if you try to go through them. If you can see anything in a hole then it'S safe to fly through.

There are also single hole tunnels - a series of holes one after another. You don't have to work out which is safe, but once you are committed to going through them, they may channel you in an unwelcome direction. The whole playing area is a gigantic three-dimensional maze, with yellow holes flipping you into completely new parts of the planet to add confusion.

Luckily, both defences and the tunnel system remain reasonably predictable from game to game. Each game is different, but only because the sections of the map have been shuffled a little. Once you have worked out the correct sequences for particular groups of holes and defenders you can predict what will come next, and position yourself so as to cope with it better. Cope? Better? I'm not even convincing myself...

Forbidden Planet is one of the most difficult space games I've ever played. Its massive, very complicated and utterly addictive. There is an extremely comprehensive set of key-define options, the usual manic high-score table, and even an IEEE joystick interface option.

But that's less than half the story. If you succeed with Forbidden Planet, there's a bonus program, Spectacle 2, as with Dark Star. There are also a few surprises - a complete updated version of the classic Halls of the Things thrown in free, and at least two other little games included. If, when loading the game, you press down key 0 and keep it down until the game has loaded, the computer decides that you want to play Space Invaders instead, and obligingly produces a perfectly respectable version of that old yawner. Get out of it by pressing F and you're in the main game.

Furthermore, a certain combination of number keys held down produces Whino Hunt. where you run around being chased by whinos while making for your goal. This trivial bit of nonsense is actually very useful when you're so shattered and tense from the difficulty of the main game that you need a break. A little whino wampaging loosens the fingers and takes the pwessuwe off.

Simon Bratell says there's oven more fun and frolics hidden away on the surface of the planet. Buy this game - it's marvellous value for money, with Halls included as well, and a tremendous piece of zap programming to boot.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Design Design
PRICE: £7.95

Here at C+VG we have to beg a borrow or steal Design Design games in order to bring you - the people DD expect to go out and buy them - reviews of their products. Why numerous phone calls requesting copies of their games have no effect is anyone's guess...

Still we went out and purchased a couple of copies of their new games - to bring you this look at the cult software team's latest cult games. Forbidden Planet is part three of the trilogy which began with Dark Star many moons ago. It features lots of DD's gimmicks like the hidden game - Space Invaders this time, plus the game that started it all, Halls of the Things, free on the back end of the tape. There's Spectacles 2 as well included in this bumper bundle.

Forbidden Planet itself is a pretty basic psychedelic shoot 'em up with a nice line in weird vector graphics and off sound effects. The usual completely definable game options - you can change just about everything from the sounds to the difficulty level to the screen display - are available.

If you hold down the zero key at the end of the load you'll get a game of Space Invaders. Try holding down the 1, 2, and 3 keys together in the middle of a game, for another free gimmick.

The best part of the game are the "lyrics" which appear on the hi-score table. Written by one K. Jordan they would grace any Marillion or Genesis tune - and they are different each time you load up the game.

If you liked Dark Star etc - then you'll enjoy Forbidden Planet. But you can always get too much of a good thing. 2122 AD is a completely different proposition. It's a really good 3D arcade adventure set in the year of the title when technology has advanced to a stage where society has become completely computer based.

London has become one vast computing complex taking over the job of running the country, providing Government, Law, Food Production and Finance Control.

However, due to the activities of some irresponsible hackers messing with the programming, the computer is quickly turning into a Dictator by oppressing the British public and handing all power over to machine servants it has designed itself.

Your job is to regain control over the computer by finding all the pieces of a Switching Code and inserting them into the computer in the right places, this will hopefully bring the computer round to a more sensible way of thinking. These Codes are stored in large Rom Cards, numbered 0 to 9, and scattered around the complex.

To help, you have a loyal Robo-hound called Poddy, whose numerous uses you will have to work out.

He is controlled by a remote control device you carry at all times.

The control will also perform other useful functions. The display from the remote control device is shown at the bottom of your screen. The left section is a message window, and the right displays various icons.

These are selected by pressing Fire and then placing the cursor over the icon you require and pressing Fire again.

All the icons are explained in the Help Menu, which is displayed by selecting the Question Mark icon. Moving around the complex will delete both your food reserves and Poddy's energy.

There are things in the computer complex that will be useful and some that will be essential, but you will find that most things mechanical are loyal to the computer and will do their best to stop you.

The graphics are all one-colour, prime colour changes from room to room. The sound is pretty basic but animation is good.

2112 AD has real atmosphere and is pretty addictive. The interaction between the main character and Poddy, a K-9 clone, adds an original aspect to the game. It's very playable, too.