Producer: CRL
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £7.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Pete Cooke

CRL have produced what just has to be the world's first truck driving simulation. The aim of the game is to make a profit at the end of the working day. Money is earned by collecting a variety of goods and delivering them to the depot from where you start.

The lorry, as well as the game, is partly icon-driven.To start, five icons access the options Start game, Select lorry size, Practice, Highscore and Key-define. Clearly it is easier to drive a short lorry but the disadvantage is that delivering the allocated tonnage will take longer. Selecting the appropriate icon offers a selection of 4 different vehicle sizes. Practice lets the player get the 'feel' of the truck on the open road, at crossroads, roundabouts and in simple parking.

Selecting Drive starts the game for real. The first screen shows a map of a town the computer can choose from a variety. Apart from the street layout, the map only shows the depot's position. Alongside the map you are given a list of goods that must be collected. Each type will vary in total tonnage and, more often than not, involve several trips to different suppliers.

The next screen offers six more icons. Start, Phone, Load/fuel, Unload, Pause and Resign. At the beginning of the game the only icon you can use is Start.

The main display is a bird's eye view of a section of road with your truck on it. The upper third of the screen contains a list of freight to be collected alongside a list of the amount delivered. The rest of this area is taken up by the instruments, bar graphs for damage (registers the amount of damage due to poor driving), fuel indicator and a speedometer. Alongside the bar graphs a large circle with a line across it is the steering wheel. A gearstick offers three gears, reverse, first and second. When the truck is stationary 'fire' will toggle between reverse and first, on the move, between first and second. At the very top of the screen a clock lets you know how much of the day has gone.

After moving away from the depot your first task is to plan your trip so find a phone box, park and call up the working icons. A phone call allows you to ask different suppliers where they are, and the different goods, including Derv, are given in icon form. If you select the fuel icon a little cursor will scan over the street map on the left and mark the position of any garages. Once you have located your stops it's all up to you.

Apart from the danger of destroying your truck by going off the road too often, you can be fined for speeding. Any damage inflicted on your truck can be put right at a garage but for a price. When the day is over you are scored according to how much money you have made. Your pay includes a bonus for completing the job multiplied by the number of minutes left in the day and a bonus for the tons delivered. The cab and trailer repair costs are added to any speeding fines and that total deducted from your gross earnings, leaving a final score. Sounds complicated? Try driving the truck.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable, except S for working Icons
Joystick: Cursor type and programmable
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: not much used
Graphics: neat but a bit basic in design
Sound: not a lot
Skill levels: 4
Lives: 1
Screens: lots

This is certainly a very novel game and one which I enjoyed playing. The graphics are very neat if a little over simple, but when you are trying to drive that lorry the fewer distractions the better. Games which call on you to dash hither and thither along complicated streets, have a certain appeal and Juggernaut is no exception. I can't really claim that it's action-packed but the task is certainly very challenging and should keep you at it for some time. I would have preferred it if the screen could have scrolled smoothly rather than in blocks but I suppose that would have made it even harder to steer the truck. An addictive and novel game.

Juggernaut is a lorry driving simulation, big deal? Believe me if driving the real thing is anything like driving this thing I'll leave it to the experts. The game is fairly enjoyable but very difficult to complete. The lorry is simply but effectively drawn, as are the background graphics. The game is clever and well done but I don't think it has enough going on to maintain its initial appeal.

The idea behind this game is really rather neat - making phone calls to find the pick up points, getting there, and worst of all, reversing into the loading bay. Getting the hang of the lorry takes some time. I have to assume, from the way it saunters down the middle of the road, that it reacts something like a real artic. Keeping the truck on the road is quite absorbing but I can't help feeling there should be rather more to it. A lot of concentration is required to keep it straight and the work involved in getting the loads is all against the clock. It's a bit too much like hard work for me!

Dougie: It must be everyone's dream to drive a massive juggernaut around the streets... but if this game's anything to go by, there were extremely lucky pedestrians out there the day I made the decision not to get behind the wheel.

Once you've had a good drive around in practice mode (the easy bit), you're ready for the real thing. You're trucking for McNab & Sons, a company that deals in coal, oil, fruit and veg, and timber. Random targets are set up for how much of each commodity you've got to go and collect, and you're now ready to head off into the maze of streets; the street map is generated randomly and the pick-up points are different each time.

Handling the two forward and one reverse gears are tricky, and manoeuvring a juggernaut around the roundabout with the steering wheel can be a scream.

Re-fueling and undoing the truck's damage is done at the garages, and you can even 'phone up for help once per game if you can't find a particular commodity. One useful feature is being able to toggle between the street map and the road screens if you get lost... I mean, have you ever tried to read an A-Z whilst driving a juggernaut at 40mph round a tight corner?

Don't try and look over someone's shoulder to try and find out what the game's like - this is one that you'll have to sit down and play before you find out how absorbing it is. The vector graphics are clever, although sprites might have been nicer. But what the hey, it's a great game. 8/10

Rick: The GLC only let you play this during the day. Just as well as it takes a while to master this lorry and its load. Top gear if trucking's the name of your game, but I managed to melt several Yorkies before I got the truck rolling 10/4? 5/10

Ross: It's a bit tricky to master the controls, but once done this is a game to spend a good few hours with. Good smooth graphics and lots of options keep the interest alive. Well recommended. Keep on truckin'! 7/10

Publisher: CRL
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor

Some simulations are fun, others can be downright boring. Juggernaut fits snuggly into the second category with a trip around town in a container lorry, trying to pick up cargo.

The loads include fruit, veg, timber and coal of which you must take enough to meet targets set by your manager.

Your trip starts at a depot picked at random and shown on your map as a flashing square. Putting the truck into first gear and pressing down the accelerator will give forward movement. Moving too fast may take you into a wall, or through the trees.

The first move should be to find a telephone and make a call using the main icon-driven option. A map appears and you are told where your cargo may be picked up. To load cargo you must back into the docking bay and press the load icon.

Although the simulation bears some resemblance to real life - you may end up with a feeling of road fatigue - the graphics are minimal and the action slow. No wonder CRL did not put any other cars on the road. With their way of handling interrupts on the Spectrum the action would come to an abrupt halt.

As it is, the truck floats along the lonely road bearing a striking resemblance to a Gillette GII razor. If that is vector scan graphics you can keep them.

A lot more thought could have made it an original simulation. At present it is just a bad simulation of a simulation.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: CRL
PRICE: £7.95

Get into gear for Juggernaut, a driving simulation game with a difference.

At the outset of the game you are given a job for the day. For example, collect five tons of timber, 14 tons of coal, 12 tons of oil and nine tons of fruit and veg.

A map of your town is displayed showing your home base. You can switch to driving mode by using a series of icon-style graphics. The screen changes to close-up aerial views of the street and the juggernaut. Off you drive searching for the goods.

Controlling the juggernaut is no easy task. Steering, gears, speed and fuel must all be monitored. Damage to the vehicle is also measured. Crash once too often and the game is over.

The player can find out the location of the oil, timber, fruit and veg, etc by stopping at a phone box and calling your office. The locations of the items are displayed on a map. You have to remember where they are then it's back into the cab in search of the goods.

You score points for the number of jobs completed and the tons of goods delivered. Points are deducted if you damage the lorry and trailer.

The idea of the game is quite novel but the graphics aren't the greatest.

Spectrum
CRL
Truck Simulator
£7.95

Time to dig out them Farun Young records and settle down to a little silicon truckin' on the Spectrum. Believe it or not this is an articulated lorry simulator. Better yet, it's icon-driven.

The entry screen is divided into two sections - driving information at the top and five icons at the bottom. The driving display has dashboard data like fuel, speed, distance travelled and time elapsed, together with a stylised steering wheel and joystick. There are some traffic lights represented here, too - points are given against you for jumping traffic lights, speeding and damage done to the lorry.

The five icons enable you to redefine the keys, see hi-score, practice, change the size of your lorry or just drive.

A nice idea, could have been more smoothly implemented for this price, and a third and a fourth gear would have made it a useful driving simulator. But still, loads of fun, so keep on trucking, CRL.

CRL
£7.95

It seems that the computer software industry is using its ingenuity and inventiveness to break away from the flight simulator mould at the moment. CRL's program puts you in charge of collecting goods in a large lorry from various points around a town.

If you have ever owned and enjoyed playing with one of those remote or radio controlled cars or lorries then you'll love this program. Unlike the usual simulator the screen has the control and status indicators at the top and, even more unusually, the action screen is not the expected view from the cab, but a bird's eye view of the lorry and the immediate surroundings.

As in all good simulations there are many levels of difficulty, from practice of simple manoeuvres to the full blown exercise of a day's work load.

These options are well graded and the easiest can be mastered fairly quickly. The final level is as complex as any self respecting fan of these games could wish and I wouldn't forsee it being mastered too quickly! My first full game ended in three minutes when I jack-knifed the lorry trying to get it into the loading bay.

The instructions are well set out and the on screen options are chosen by the now almost compulsory icon selection system. The graphics are simple but well designed and pleasing, giving information effectively and not adding confusion to the proceedings.

An unusual simulation which is worth having in your games collection.

CHRIS BOURNE TAKES A NOSTALGIC TRIP THROUGH THE BATTLE-STREWN FIELDS OF LAST YEAR'S STRATEGY GAMES

Before programmers discovered sprites, 3D graphics and continuous fire buttons, strategy games were regarded as a sort of ideal computer entertainment. That was partly based on the idea that computers were essentially souped-up calculators and partly because mainframe computers were very good at games like chess.

If you were into computers when the Spectrum was launched, you'll remember titles like Football Manager, and Flight Simulation being held up as examples of the finest programs around. These days it's more likely to be Alien 8, Shadowfire or Dun Darach, and their reputation depends in great part on graphics programming.

One of the reasons for that is financial. In their wisdom, retailers and distributors tend to see strategy games as having a narrow appeal. They are the classic sleepers which sell steadily but slowly. The trade wants the money now and lots of it. That means quick-selling arcade games, preferably with some spin-off celebrity theme attached, which hits number one in the charts in a couple of weeks and stiffs out a month later.

Many of the fine strategy/simulation games, produced in 1985, saw little exposure in the shops - certainly not in the big high street chains. That does not mean they were no good. In fact, there has been something of an upsurge in the quality of strategy games recently, and most spectacularly in the field of wargames.

Wargames have as long a tradition as any sort of computer entertainment. If you've ever read the hefty instruction books for classic wargames of the past - Avalon Hill's Afrika Korps you'll understand why. Those rules tended to read like a computer program with complicated look-up tables for cross-referencing dice throws, gridded maps and strict sequences of actions within a given turn of play. They also took hours to play.

The computer is supposed to take all the argument of table-top gaming out of wargames. It quickly does all the adding up, it doesn't cheat, and it can handle secret moves easily.

Unfortunately, most wargames never turn out like that. Graphics tend to be based on unrealistic grids, the rules appear over-simple, and the computer generally takes a vast amount of time to think about the moves.

One such game, which in other respects might have deserved success, was ATRAM. The name stands for Advanced Tactical Reconnaissance and Attack Mission, which turns out to be a NATO exercise in which the RAF and USAF battle it out using Harrier jump jets. The idea neatly sidesteps the obvious problems involved in trying to flog a game based on bombing the daylights out of Port Stanley.

The game is a computer-moderated boardgame with a glossy magnetic board and stylized pieces that you slide about as if you were a real NATO general. Unfortunately, the computer part is less fun. The only excuse for the program is to handle the boring bits like keeping track of how much fuel each jet has consumed.

The author is clearly fixated on jargon, which makes the rules almost unreadable, and all moves are keyed-in in a jumble of letters and numbers. It is so easy to make a mistake that you'll never be entirely sure whether you're playing the game properly. Headbangers and retired Harrier pilots only.

A much better two-player wargame is Confrontation from Lothlorien. Confrontation is a wargame system which allows you to design your own maps and, within reason, choose the composition of your armies. That allows you to play at a tactical or strategic level. The flavour is essentially modern, with armour and mechanised infantry supported by footsloggers, artillery and air units.

To go with the system, Lothlorien has also released a set of four scenarios ranging from a fictional WWII invasion of Kent to guerilla warfare in Afghanistan and Angola. We found the Egypt-Israel scenario most interesting in that the open terrain left units extremely vulnerable without air support. The organisation of such support requires capturing and defending a chain of airstrips in order to reach Tel Aviv or Suez depending on which way you're going.

Nevertheless, Confrontation is still slow. The same cannot be said of Overlords, another two-player game from Lothlorien. Loosely based on an old boardgame favourite, Campaign, it is played across a large area of fairly basic terrain. The concept is abstract, involving footsoldiers, generals, and the Overlord. The objective is to capture strongpoints - ownership of which generates one piece per turn. The fighting is equally abstract, based on the number and strength of the pieces in contact with the enemy.

Both players play simultaneously, and the game is so fast that you'll almost certainly need joysticks - preferably one each. The pieces whizz about the screen and that leads to a magnificent confusion as both players simultaneously attempt to outflank their opponent.

By and large, it is the epic battles of WWII which command the keenest attention from programmers. Battle for Midway is a strange hybrid from PSS, and incorporates arcade sequences. The Battle of Midway was a crucial turning point in the war against Japan, when the US sent a force to smash the invasion fleet.

The PSS game falls into two parts. First, locate the course of the three arms of the Japanese forces. Having done that you must send out strike forces from your aircraft carriers to bomb them.

When battle is joined you get the chance to zap the Japs using a joystick, which rather spoils the point of a supposedly realistic wargame. The author claims it simulates the fog of war, or some such nonsense.

We found the game easy to beat - it's good to see the computer taking an active part in a solo game for once, but the graphics are primitive and not very clear. A year ago we might have had more praise, but there are better games around.

Much better, in fact, and the star of the bunch is undoubtedly Arnhem from CCS. CCS, like Lothlorien, specialises in strategy games. For years CCS games were worthy rather than exciting, and almost always written in super-slow Basic. With Arnhem the company has finally struck gold.

The game follows the thrust of the Allied armies across the Rhine against fierce German opposition. The main idea was simple enough. The British were supposed to hurtle down country roads to Arnhem while American paratroopers were dropped on the bridges ahead to hold them for the main advance.

Of course it wasn't as simple as that, and neither is the game. There are a number of levels at which you can play, until you get to the full battle. A time limit is set, and if you don't capture the bridges quickly enough you lose. The German task is therefore to hold up the advance.

The graphics are pleasant, and information about each unit's strength can be obtained by positioning the cursor. One of the best features is the movement system. You can choose to move in open or close order - open order means you are far less vulnerable to attack but cannot take proper advantage of the roads. The game can be played by up to three players - with three, one player gets the Germans and the other two play British and American forces.

The feel of the game is tremendously realistic, with the onus placed on keeping the British moving down the roads. Arnhem is absolutely recommended and will hopefully encourage other software houses to pull their socks up and match the standard.

Less attractive, but equally fast, is Lothlorien's The Bulge - the German counter-attack on Antwerp and Hitler's last great offensive in Western Europe. It was always doomed to failure, what with narrow country lanes and terrain choked in snow. The computer plays so quickly and viciously that you'll be hard put to survive.

Although The Bulge scores over Arnhem for speed, the graphics are less clear and the strategy less easy to fathom. Lothlorien has opted for simultaneous movement, and one is frequently reduced to hurling forces willy-nilly into the fray without much regard for tactics.

A pleasing feature of both Arnhem and The Bulge is that you can issue general orders to units which they will continue to obey until you change them. That is a sensible and much more realistic alternative and saves having to move fifty pieces every turn, slowing the whole flow of play.

Moving away from wargames, another category of great antiquity in computer circles is what is known as the land-management game. An early example of the genre was Hamurabi which puts you in charge of an ancient kingdom. You are head of a population, and there is corn in the treasury.

The idea is to manage the economy - based entirely on corn - so that everybody gets enough to eat. There is enough corn to sow for next year with some in reserve in case of natural disaster.

Of course, the way the game is set up at the beginning, there is never enough, so you get to make decisions about how many people to starve to death for the greater good of the rest, and so on.

Such games are very easy to construct on computers, and if you want to write your own strategy game we suggest you try something along those lines. The secret is to construct a set of formulae governing the relationship between various factors - for example, how much food do people need? How many people are needed to sow an acre of land? How much corn?

There are very few business-type activities that cannot be simulated in that sort of way. Two famous games of this type are Football Manager from Addictive Games and Mugsy from Melbourne House, in which you play a gangster trying to run rackets with the aid of a none too loyal gang.

Sadly, Kevin Toms - Mr Football Manager himself - has not managed to follow that enormous success.

Addictive has brought out a number of games along similar lines in 1985, but none of them match the old classic.

Software Superstar casts you as a producer of games. You have to allocate time and money each month to releasing games, programming, advertising and the like. Nice touches include the decision to hype games or be honest about them, but the overall impression is dull, and we found it easy to get a hit program and reach the targets set.

Grand Prix Manager from the same outfit was equally tedious, with poor graphics to boot. Luckily CRL brought out the infinitely more entertaining Formula One - a Sinclair User classic - which we found totally compulsive.

Formula One is a full simulation of a grand prix season. Start off by hiring drivers and building cars - you have a million quid or so but it goes very fast. When the race starts choose your tyres and then watch the cars whizz past in convincing graphics. Messages inform you of the state of the track and incidents involving other cars, while a leader board keeps you in touch with the race positions.

Best of all, you can call pit stops for tyre changes, and the correct choice of timing may win or lose a race. The pit stop sequence is arcade based, and you have to manoeuvre a mechanic around the four wheels to complete it. Purists may have their doubts, but the speed of movement is linked to the amount of money you invested in the crew, and does not therefore make a mockery of the strategic element.

Formula One is a good game against the computer, but becomes really exciting when played with friends.

Almost as enthralling, although less well presented and rather more anarchic in play is The Biz, a simulation of the record industry from Virgin Games. You begin by choosing your social class - from stinking rich to unemployed - and then form a band. Hire a manager, go on the pub or college circuit and send endless demo tapes to bored record companies. If you have the money, you can cut your own discs, but beware - without the clout of the big boys behind you it may all go to nothing. The ultimate goal is, of course, to get a number one, but the road is full of pitfalls.

The game is full of subtle humour - you may reckon a dry ice machine is just right for your tacky rock band, but watch your credibility plummet. You may even get a chance to sample drugs during the game. Try it and see where it gets you.

On then to simulation proper, by which is meant those worthy and sometimes addictive attempts to portray accurately a real-life experience. The original impetus comes from the flight simulators used by airlines to train pilots, and for some time software houses only seemed to be interested in mimicking those.

They all look more or less the same, with an array of instruments on the lower half of the screen and a view of the horizon with occasional crude landmarks. Some are better than others for speed and ease of use, and the best are still Psion's antique classic, Flight Simulation and Digital integration's Fighter Pilot, which is rather more difficult but does allow for aerial dogfights.

DACC specialises in those features, and recently brought out 747 Flight Simulator. We've taken a bit of stick at Sinclair User for giving it the thumbs down, but I still maintain it's an unexciting production, mainly because the Jumbo jet isn't a patch on a light aircraft for aerobatics.

Real enthusiasts will probably enjoy it, it is certainly a worthy and apparently highly accurate program. If you're looking for entertainment, though, try elsewhere.

You might try looking at Southern Belle from Hewson. The program simulates the old Pullman service from London to Brighton, and you have to handle the great steam engine all the way.

Initial levels involve handling only one or two controls while the computer does the rest, but you work up to a full schedule with stops, signals, hazards on the track, brakes and handling gradients, to name a few.

It is a surprisingly fulfilling program, and the wire-frame graphics of recognisable landmarks along the track are well executed. You are marked at the end according to your accuracy on the schedule and how economically you conserved fuel.

Another unusual simulation is Juggernaut from CRL, in which you have to drive a container truck around town picking up cargoes. The screen shows an overhead view of the lorry and road, with traffic lights, status, steering and gears. The movement is slow and there are no other vehicles around - presumably you're driving in the middle of the night, council bye-laws notwithstanding. The irrepressible John Gilbert reckons the lorry looks like a Gillette GII razor. He's quite right, and although Juggernaut isn't a bad idea, the end result is rather dull.

Finally, a look at a few odds and ends which don't really fit any categories. One such Minder, a much-hyped trading game based on the famous television series.

You play Arthur Daley, the dodgy entrepreneur, and the idea is to buy and sell an incredible range of weird goods such as gold acupuncture needles while steering clear of the law in the form of mean inspector Chisholm.

You do that by seeking out dealers and wide boys, either at their warehouses or in the Winchester Club. Terry, as ever, gets to do the fetching and carrying, and can also be hired to mind you - an important function when dealers discover goods are stolen.

In essence the game is simply trading, with a large text interpreter enabling you to bargain with characters in authentic Daley cockney - it understands words like bent, or pony. Once you get into it there's rather more strategy involved. You have to organise Terry's time so goods get collected and delivered on schedule, while you need sufficient cash to pay for the next lot.

Minder is a pleasant romp and deserved to do better in the charts than it did, but would have benefited from a greater variety of incidents. Memory taken up with slang during the bargaining is fun at first but since it is really only window dressing it leaves you with the feeling that the game lacks depth.

Alien on the other hand, from Argus, has plenty of depth but is difficult to get into. It follows the tense cult movie in which a devastating alien invades a spaceship and proceeds to exterminate the crew.

The game uses menus to pick characters, objects and locations in the spaceship Nostromo, while plans of the decks indicate your position. The idea is to destroy the alien either in a straight fight - fat chance - or by escaping from the ship and blowing it up by remote control.

You only see the alien when you are in control of a character in the same room. The rest of the time you can hear it as doors and ventilation grilles slide open, or your scanner picks up the presence of a living creature nearby. That makes for tremendous tension in the play, and the one drawback is the simplicity of the graphics which works against the otherwise strong illusion of involvement. Fans of the film will enjoy it. Others may find it tough going.

We have made no mention of some of the plethora of spin-off titles in the sports arena which might come under the umbrella of simulations. Those are generally disappointing, especially in comparison with the arcade based sports games. Two, which play quite well, are Steve Davis' Snooker and American Football from Argus - which has the added virtue of not involving a famous personality. Nick Faldo's Open is a lovingly programmed simulation of the course at Sandwhich which suffers from one horrible flaw. The closer your ball is to the flag on the green, the more difficult it is to judge the angle at which you should strike it. In fact, the reverse should happen.

It is heartening to see arcade games taking on more elements of strategy in their play. Arcade-adventures such as Knight Lore or Gyron - if you can categorise those masterpieces at all - have as much to do with logical thought and planning as they do with swift reactions. That argues a growing maturity, both among games publishers and also in public taste, as computer owners look for more than a quick joystick fix from their hobby.