Producer: P.S.S.
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code

The scene is set: you are at the gateway to the antimatter world of Migon. Do you dare enter, will you survive? Well of course you dare enter, but whether you will survive in this mega-lightspeed game is quite another matter, or anti-matter in this case.

The simple object of the game is to speed your ship in either direction around a square which is superimposed on a space background. A smaller square is offset within the bigger, and lines radiating out from it create segments. Your ship is a sort of picture hook shaped thing that runs on the outer square. From the central square four enemy ships fly outward in three successive waves. You can centre yourself on an occupied segment and shoot the enemy with your laser, zipping around to get the next, and so on. If an enemy reaches the outer square while you are stationary on that segment - you're dead. The second screen has no segments, but meteor showers radiate out at a high speed. The third screen returns to the radial grid and the enemy are back with another danger, a V shaped energy thingie that zaps around the edges trying to get you.

Your only other weapon is a Star Smasher that destroys everything in the square. But you only have two of them. The more screens you get through, the more enemy there are. As you can see, holiday package tours keep well clear of Migon.

COMMENTS

Control keys: an ample selection - Y/U/I/O/P = fire, A/S/D/F/G left, H/J/K/L/ENTER = right, B-SPACE = Star Smasher
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: lightning fast responses
Colour simple but well used
Graphics: very simple but very fast
Sound: good
Skill levels: gets tougher by the screen
Lives: 3

I liked this game, one of the best yet from P.S.S., but I can imagine that it has a specialist appeal. It is insanely fast! The ship zooms round the grid at astonishing speed, so avoiding an enemy can take you uncontrollably into another. Definitely a game which develops split-second timing skills.

The graphics are very simple, being mostly grid lines and small sprites, but them is a good use of colour even so and everything moves very smoothly. The graphics on the Star Smasher look quite exciting. I found playing the game was too fast for my taste, but it should appeal to those arcade addicts that like hand and eye coordination games.

A good, hard, fast game. I thought the asteroid sheets were a little of a let down, since you can get through by just sitting still, but everything else is madness. I wonder whether these space shoot em ups have had their day - there's something a bit 'quaint' about The Guardian - but it is an improvement on the earlier asteroid games. If you want something simple to play but exceptionally fast, then this will probably go down well.

Producer: PSS, 48K
£5.95 (2)

The gateway to the anti-matter world of Migon is actually an oblong grid line with radiating lines from an off-centred inner square. Your ship whizzes at amazing speed round the outer edge of the outer grid, firing inwards at (first) enemy ships which come outward, one to a segment and which will destroy you if you are still on that segment when it reaches the edge, (second) at meteors and (third) at more enemy ships plus an energy force which zips around the inner edge of the grid line getting closer and closer to you. It has a specialist appeal for those who like simple asteroidal games played at an almost insane speed and that require split second timing skills. Reasonable use of colour in the very small graphics, an ample selection of control keys, joystick: Kempston. Progressive difficulty, fast and medium addictive. Overall CRASH rating 68% m/c.

OLD FAVOURITE IS RIGHT ON TARGET

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Kempston

The Guardian, for the 48K Spectrum, is the first version of the classic arcade game Tempest for the machine. You are in a spaceship on the edge of a vortex into another universe. Through the doorway flit groups of aliens intent on destroying you. Each has its own attack patterns which you must study closely if you are to survive.

To destroy the aliens you must use your laser bolt gun. You will also have the opportunity to use two secret star smasher weapons which will fizz down the sides of the vortex and destroy everything trying to exit.

The Guardian, from PSS, is a spirited attempt at producing a version of Tempest, a game from which everyone else has shied away. It is a difficult game to run at a reasonable speed and, although the author has simplified the game, it is still worth playing.

It is not often that we would recommend a take-off of a game found in arcades as the market is becoming more sophisticated and demands greater originality. The Guardian provides nothing spectacular in innovation but it is easy and fun to play.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: Kempston, Optional
SUPPLIER: PSS
PRICE: £5.95

A bit of a strange game, this one. You control the movement of your craft (the Guardian of the title) around the outside of a square-shaped grid. This has a smaller square inset towards the bottom of the grid.

From this radiate lines that divide the grid into sectors of different sizes. You always stay on the outside edge of this area and any one of the sectors may produce enemy vessels which hurtle towards you kamikaze-style.

These are divided into Trackers (worth 50 points), anti-mines, Swirls and Snarks (10 points each), and just to make things more difficult the Swirls and Snarks are not shown.

Every so often you are faced with a meteor shower, the successful avoidance of which needs quick reflexes but will score you a bonus of 1,000 points.

As an ultimate weapon, any key on the bottom row of the keyboard between 'B' and 'Space' acts as a 'star smasher' and will obliterate any of your enemies that are on the grid at the time.

Use of this needs to be regulated carefully - you have only two star smashers, but these are recharged after each successful avoidance of a meteor shower.

The graphics are no more than adequate, and sound is limited to a fairly standard range of 'space laser' noises.

The action certainly gets fast enough, and avoiding the meteors is made all the harder by the relatively large size of your vessel in comparison to the meteors.

But, all in all, I found this a disappointment and I can't see The Guardian becoming a well-used tape.

WELL-WORN THEMES RE-APPEAR

The trend in software production appears to be to take stock, build on successful ideas and await new developments. New games tend to be new variations on well-worn themes rather than startlingly original concepts. The number of games based on the premise that all computer owners love shooting as many things as possible is decreasing and giving way to games which need thought and strategy as well as fast reactions.

Unfortunately for ZX-81 owners, although their computer has remained consistently among the top five bestselling computers, new software for the ZX-81 is almost non-existent and W H Smith is not intending to accept any new ZX-81 software for sale in its shops. Due to the shortage of new software, no ZX-81 programs have been received for review this month.

The Guardian - PSS, 48K Spectrum - is the first version of the arcade game The Tempest to appear for the Spectrum. The site is a spaceship on the edge of a vortex to another universe. Aliens appear through the doorway and must be destroyed by the use of laser bolt gun or star smasher weapons. The game has had to be simplified for micro-computer use but it is easy and fun to play.