REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Lojix
by Steve Webb
Virgin Games Ltd
1983
Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984   page(s) 64

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95
Author: Stephen Webb

This is a puzzle game where the object is to fit 22 irregularly shaped pieces into a square shaped grid. On the left is the blank grid, and to the right the 22 vari-coloured shapes, each identified by a letter of of the alphabet. To fit a piece you select the one you want by pressing the appropriate key, whereupon a black cursor dot appears an the grid which can be moved by using the cursors to the centre of where you want the shape fitted (this is the grid square which corresponds to the square in the shape where its identifying letter is situated). The shape may be rotated before fitting using key 9. It may also be removed from the grid by using key R. Looks simple but is likely to take a player a long time to sort out and if you like these puzzles, offers good value. Overall CRASH rating 53% M/C.


Overall53%
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Crash Issue 4, May 1984   page(s) 70

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95
Author: Stephen Webb

This is a puzzle game where the object is to fit 22 irregularly shaped pieces into a square shaped grid. On the left is the blank grid, and to the right the 22 vari-coloured shapes, each identified by a letter of of the alphabet. To fit a piece you select the one you want by pressing the appropriate key, whereupon a black cursor dot appears an the grid which can be moved by using the cursors to the centre of where you want the shape fitted (this is the grid square which corresponds to the square in the shape where its identifying letter is situated). The shape may be rotated before fitting using key 9. It may also be removed from the grid by using key R. Looks simple but is likely to take a player a long time to sort out and if you like these puzzles, offers good value. Overall CRASH rating 53% M/C.


Overall53%
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Sinclair User Issue 24, Mar 1984   page(s) 9

Memory: 16K
Price: £5.95

Billed as a game which will frustrate and intrigue, Lojix will certainly frustrate you. The idea is that you have 18 different shaped pieces you have to fit into a grid.

If you complete the puzzle, Virgin, which has put 50 pence into a prize fund for every game sold, will send you your prize. It should be noted that the only other condition for collecting the prize is that you should be sane - hardly a good condition for anyone buying this game.

There seems to be little point in paying for a computer game when the same thing could be done as easily and far more cheaply with a few pieces of plastic.

Lojix can be obtained from Virgin Games.


Gilbert Factor3/10
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Personal Computer Games Issue 3, Feb 1984   page(s) 46

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: No
CATEGORY: Puzzle
SUPPLIER: Virgin Games
PRICE: £5.95

Fleet Street isn't the only 'place giving big money away these days. Virgin are putting aside 50p per game sold for the first person to solve Lojix, a cerebral puzzle requiring nothing but logic.

On a grid of 10 x 10, you must place 18 different shapes so that the grid is full, with no overlaps or gaps left. The shapes are each marked with a letter, and can be rotated before being placed. They can also be removed from the grid again if necessary.

The concept is so simple, it's a wonder the program needs a 48K machine.

The instructions make it easy to understand and execute. Naturally, the solution soon seems impossible. It's probably easier to write another program to solve it, or else cut the shapes out of paper and do it on the floor.

Someone's going to solve Lojix sooner or later, and they'll probably wonder whether to claim the money straight away. or to risk holding out till more have been sold and the money goes up.

Even when the money's gone, the elegance and simplicity of Lojix will absorb puzzle fans, despite catering for a minority taste.


REVIEW BY: Wensley Dale

Graphics3/10
Sound3/10
Ease Of Use8/10
Originality8/10
Lasting Interest5/10
Overall6/10
Transcript by Chris Bourne

ZX Computing Issue 12, Apr 1984   page(s) 77

Written by Steve Webb for Virgin, Lojix is a very old game brought up to date for the computer. The game consists of a gridded square and various shapes that if put together correctly, will fit into the square. You first have to choose the shape you want to start with and then move a cursor across the grid - pressing a key will drop the shape into the grid. There is a facility to rotate your shape until it fits into the correct place in the square.

The screen display and key operation are fair enough and you get the usual biography of the programmer on the inlay. Virgin keep 50 pence for every tape sold in a special bank account and claim that if you can solve the puzzle and keep your sanity they will give you the entire contents of the account. If you do manage to crack the puzzle there is a section to fill in on the inlay beside the instructions of the game.

Basically though, Lojix is just a jigsaw puzzle and I would have thought that a company like Virgin would have come up with something a little more imaginative than this. If you are into puzzles like Mr Webb, you may find this enjoyable but if you prefer arcade-type games then I would not recommend it.

Lojix costs £5.95 and is available from Virgin Games, 61-63 Portobello Road, London W11.


REVIEW BY: Clive Smith

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Your Computer Issue 11, Nov 1983   page(s) 82,83,85

NO OTHER MICRO HAS THE SOFTWARE BACK-UP OF SINCLAIR'S SPECTRUM. PETE CONNORS PLOUGHS HIS WAY THROUGH SOME OF IT FROM GRAPPLING WITH EVIL MAZIACS TO HELPING CHARLIE THE CHEF.

48K
Virgin Games, 61-63 Portobello Road, London W11
£7.95

Every software house, from the giants to the leprechauns, seems to have programmers chained to terminals, frantically churning out products for the massive Spectrum market. For Spectrum owners the pot of gold under the rainbow is the now huge variety of software available: their only problem is distinguishing the genuine article from the fake.

One game you certainly will not need to bite into is Zzoom from Imagine. This is the Real McCoy, a quality arcade-style game of skill and destruction in the comfort of your own armchair. The game starts with the Dambusters theme tune, enough on its own to make you start twirling imaginary handlebar moustaches and warn Ginger about the bandits at 4 o'clock. You find yourself in command of an aeroplane whose gunsights appear on the screen; also displayed are a dibar to show your relation to the ground and a long-range scanner.

Before you have time to think, hostile aircraft are approaching from the east; they speed in and suddenly, unexpectedly, wheel 90' towards you, presenting the slightest of targets for your cannon. Those earthbound refuges you are trying to protect do not have much of a chance. Poor blighters, I wish I could have done more to help. After the waves of planes, the landscape changes. Now its the desert, complete with palm trees. Over the horizon come battalions of tanks. More skill is now required, as you have to dive low enough to shoot your earthbound adversaries without crashing to your doom.

After the desert - the sea, with enemy destroyers trying to blast the refugees' lifeboats. The standard of graphic display and excitement combine to make Zzoom a most exciting game, one that has deservedly become a micro-classic.

DK'tronics, though, has produced a game which could rival Zzoom's popularity. Maziacs may seem, initially, to be just another maze-game. In fact, it has subtle qualities which make it one of the best available in this genre. The scenario is familiar: you must get through the maze, collect the treasure and get out. You can ask the way from prisoners, and pick up swords to combat the maziacs.

What lifts Maniacs above the common land is its graphic sophistication. The monsters are the most grotesque I have ever seen on a micro; nightmarish squatting creatures, all legs and jaws who enjoy nothing more than gobbling you up. The prisoners are sad creatures, writhing in their shackles inside blue circles. One feels great pity for them but, sadly, one can do nothing to help. And you, the brave treasure-hunter, are a perky little fellow with a jaunty rhythmic step. You are never downhearted and your jubilation when you have destroyed a marine is quite heart- warming. These qualities give Maniacs that something extra, and make it a very compulsive game.

Best of the other offerings from DK is Hard Cheese, in which you have to eat your way round the board, creating your own maze, in order to get at the cheese in the middle. Naturally, you are pursued by monsters. Naturally you can shoot these monsters, but this is not so easy as they move very quickly and you must replenish your energy. Again the graphics are of a high standard, and Hard Cheese is almost, but not quite, as compulsive as Maziacs.

In comparison, DK's Road Toad and Jawz are rather dull.

The first needs no introduction and is as expected; though the graphics are, perhaps, a little clearer than usual, and the tankers are truly fearsome. Jawz is a disappointment; here you are underwater, firing at Sharks and Jellyfish. It is quite tricky to hit them as you have two cannons converging from either side of your control. Otherwise the game is low on interest.

Ultimate Play the Game has a reputation for quality software, and it does not besmirch it with Cookie and Tranzam. Cookie has one of the wackiest situations for a long time; Charlie Chef's ingredients have escaped from the pantry-yard and he must recapture them by dazing them with flour bombs and knocking them into his mixing bowl. As well as the runaways Crafty Cheese and Colonel Custard there are nasties such as Wally Washer and Terry Tack. Crazy, but true. The graphics are very good and Charlie is a sympathetic little figure in his white chef's hat.

It is very difficult to avoid the nasties; if they get you, you end up in a dustbin. Cookie is a witty and enjoyable game, but one which you might do well to use a joystick for. Tranzam is set in the year 3474; it is your Red Racer versus the Deadly Black Turbos in the search for the Eight Great Cups of Ultimate. The screen displays a barren landscape where the only land-marks are cacti and petrol stations. You guide your car around looking for the cups, while trying to avoid your enemies and the obstacles. This is a tricky business if you are doing 400 mph and steering on the keyboard; again, a joystick would be useful. Tranzam is an exciting game which gives a taste of the Mad Max experience.

GAME OR BLURB?

And so to Quicksilva. Do people buy their programs for the game or the blurb? Aquaplane's scenario begins "The contrasting blues of sea and sky provide a perfect backdrop as I relax with a Pernod and lemonade..." and goes on in the same vein for two sides of packaging. Indeed, Aquaplane's sea and sky are very blue, suggestive of hot Mediterranean summers. And, the game is very good. There you are, out for a bit of water-skiing, when the speedboat goes bananas. You are being pulled away to almost certain death.

Rocks, driftwood, tacking yachts, cruisers piloted by drunken play-boys, snapping sharks; get through all those and you have mastered the game. Aquaplane is made more intriguing because, as the boat accelerates, you are pulled to one side or another, thus increasing the risk of meeting a sticky end on a piece of driftwood. The graphics, too, are very colourful and realistic. Aquaplane is a highly entertaining game - almost as good as the blurb.

On the subject of watery graves, Bug-Byte has Aquarius "an underwater espionage game". As commander of a frogman team you must destroy the bombs planted by an enemy nation. Problems you will encounter are sharks and electrifying jellyfish. Your oxygen will run out and must be replenished by collecting fresh tanks from the sea-floor. While the undersea world is fairly convincing and the sound effects are genuinely squelchy, Aquarius is not a very exciting game, lacking the speed and variety top-class programmes.

ENCOUNTER WITH THE DARK ONE

In Styx, also from Bug-Byte, you are supposed to be battling your way across the mythological river to Hades "towards an encounter with the Dark One himself". In fact, it is a rather boring maze game, where the "deadly spiders" look like bits of dried grass and the Piranhas - did you know there were Piranhas in the Styx? - are most unconvincing. If they have micros in Hades as well they may well be playing Pool, another Bug-Byte game. The graphics are much better than Styx; a bright green for the baize and red for the bolls. Curiously, the object balls are all the same colour. Control is straightforward, using the cursor keys.

But perhaps these denizens of Hades might prefer CDS Micro Systems' Pool. I know I do, if only because the object balls are divided into blue and red. Otherwise, it is much the same as Bug-Byte's version, easy to control and pleasant to look at. Both programs are for one or two players.

Purer pleasures of the mind are entered for by Artic's Chess Tutor. The novelty of this program is that it not only plays chess - at three levels - but takes the beginner through three different opening variations; King's Indian, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Dragon. There is also a section which demonstrates the moves of each piece.

This is indeed very useful and would be suitable for the absolute beginner. Unfortunately the board is none too clear, as the white pieces do not show up well on the light squares.

As a game chess is not in much danger of being overtaken by any of three new programs consisting of logical board games: Hanoi King from Contrast Software, Lojix from Virgin and 3-D Strategy from Quicksilva.

In the first of them you have three pillars on which are a series of rings. You have to transfer them to the third so that they are in the same order, moving only one ring at a time ind without placing a larger on top of a smaller ring. It sounds easy, and with only three or four rings, it is. More than that and it can become fiendishly difficult.

Lojix is a game in which you have to fit 18 irregularly shaped pieces onto a board. A sort if fiendish jigsaw puzzle, it is difficult and interesting. Virgin is offering a cash prize for the first correct solution.

3-D Strategy is billed as "a multi-dimensional mind game". It is 3-D noughts and crosses on a 4 by 4 by 4 cube. After 3-D chess Mr Spock might not have much trouble with his, but ordinary earthlings will find it very hard to beat. Despite being essentially simple ideas, all three of these games are well produced and will provide hours of entertainment for the puzzle happy.

Perhaps the most interesting new program for the Spectrum is The Forest, from Phipps Associates. This is a complex simulation of orienteering, the sport in which you have to follow a course over difficult terrain using only map and compass. The program comes with a beautifully printed orienteering map ind a long, but clear, explanatory booklet. The screen displays various topographical features and, using the map, you have to negotiate the nurse.

Thus, The Forest is not merely a game, but an help introduce people to map-making and the relation between maps and the physical features they represent. As the program notes say, this program will be of particular interest to students and teachers of geography as well as armchair orienteerers.

Plunder is a strategy game from Cases Computer Simulations. Set in 1587, the year before the Spanish Armada set sail, the game gives you the opportunity to be an English privateer whose task is to prevent gold from the New World getting back to Spain. You must also be more successful than your deadly rival Sir Francis Drake. There is more to this than mere yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum; you must weigh up the chances of success in taking on merchant, troop and warships. Too much damage or too many lost crew and the game is up; it's Davy Jones' locker for you.

Camelot, an adventure-game from the same company, is not quite so good. As Arthur Pendragon you have been banished from Camelot by the Black Knight. Understandably you want to get back; who knows what Lancelot and Guinevere are up to round the Round Table? You have some warriors and money to help you find the necessary seven items. There are graphic displays of landscapes and obstacles, unfortunately rather crude. The "evil magician" looks rather like a conjurer at a children's party.

Those Spectrum owners keen to develop the machine's graphics potential should look at Melbourne House's 48K Melbourne Draw. This program will take you on a tour of the Spectrum's graphics, allowing you to choose colours, draw, and store graphic displays.

Once you have drawn your picture, you might want to make it say something, in which case you are referred to Abbex's Supertalk which, with no extra hardware, will enable your Spectrum to speak. The demo facility lets you hear Supertalk's Dalek-style voice exercising its small vocabulary. To enter your own vocabulary you record the words on tape and then feed them in, afterwards adjusting them to make sentences. First "Jolson Sings!" now "Spectrum Talks".


REVIEW BY: Pete Connors

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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