Producer: Zeppelin
Space Credits: £1.99 cass
Author: Ian Beynon

A hundred years hence, the invasion of a neighbouring planet by a power-hungry alien race has gone wrong. Now you, a mercenary, are being paid to help the beaten and defenceless aliens evacuate.

The main part of the game takes place on a single screen. Aliens appear at the edges and gradually make their way towards the safety of the two escape craft in the middle. The simply-animated mercenary moves freely around the screen, shooting various enemies with a laser gun. Space snakes travel diagonally around the play area, 'bouncing' off the sides of the screen. They split in two when their tails are shot. Yet more danger is created by exploding pods, flying saucers and the two laser bases at the bottom and right-hand side of the screen. When a given number of aliens have been rescued, a bonus can be earned by successfully negotiating a vertically-scrolling asteroid field.

The simplistic graphics are reminiscent of much earlier games, but don't be put off by the primitive presentation; underneath lies a playable little shoot-'em-up with some really frantic action. My only reservation is that its appeal could eventually wane due to the repetitive nature of gameplay.

PHIL [64%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Sound: just simple bleeping effects

To be honest I just don't understand what Phil sees in this game. It can't be the graphics; they look like they've been dragged from some deep and dark corner of an ancient Spectrum sprite store I'd hoped closed long ago. Sound is admittedly far superior on 128K machines, but only because they can turn off the grating variety of bleep and bloop effects. I tried hard to glean any sort of enjoyment from 2088, but alas I fear that anyone who buys this game will have a turkey on their hands, and just in time for Christmas too.
MARK [22%]

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Cheaper than a speeding bullet. Leaps small molehills at a single bound! Is it a bird? Is it a Wankel rotary engine? No, it's 'budget king' Marcus Berkmann with the latest in budget software.

Zeppelin
£1.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Derek Brewster's new label has yet to make much of an impact in chart terms, and I'm afraid this release is unlikely to alter that state of of affairs. A space-based shoot 'em up, 2088 is efficient enough, but simply not addictive or different enough to get the pulse racing, jogging or even walking at a keen pace. Your job is to defend two alien ships which are evacuating their personnel from a planet whilst various meanies fire upon them, and plant exploding pods or whatever. About the only item of interest is a Centipede-like snake, travelling diagonally, which can be hard to avoid and difficult to destroy. Otherwise, forget it.