Producer: Hewson Consultants
Retail Price: £7.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Steve Turner

This is the fourth program in the Seiddab series and is in fact a cross between a shoot em up and Dragontorc, but then you should know about that from last month's preview... what do you mean you didn't see it? Get CRASH 21 NOW through the back issues form.

Just in case you didn't see the preview, Astroclone has three separate parts: a shoot em up sequence, a strategic element and an adventure section (where it's like Dragontorc).

The idea of the game is to knock out all the Seiddab bases (in the adventure section); to shoot down Seiddab cruisers en route to the bases (arcade section). The strategic element of the game lies in choosing the route you take to achieve the overall aim.

You begin the game in a nice safe location, the Astroclone Assault Craft, in control of a clone - you can get the 'feel' of clone control in comfort before you begin the game itself, since there are no threatening things in the immediate vicinity. Don't hang around too long however, as your oxygen supply is limited.

To operate the clone, you use an icon driven control system. Your clone can be in one of three modes: movement; arm and laser. Clone mode selection (good phrase, use it to impress friends) is achieved via an icon driven menu. In movement mode, you can scamper about; in arm mode it is possible to pick up, drop or use objects; laser mode puts a weapon in your clone's hand, and allows you to aim it with a cross-hair cursor and loose off shots.

The galaxy is represented onscreen as a series of 24 box-like 'sectors'. You can move from one sector to another by using a cursor to lock on to a space ship. You can then deploy it in another sector (perhaps one which is full of Seiddab). The strategic element comes into being here, as you try to decide where it is best to deploy your forces.

Once you're happy with your force dispersion you can then start fighting the Seiddab in the true old fashioned shoot em up style. Pick a sector where you want to fight and your ship enters it through a star gate. The shoot em up sequence is a Defender variant - the landscape scrolls from left to right and you can thrust, reverse and move up and down. The Seiddab cruisers are found zooming around somewhere. Just to make life that little bit harder there are other Seiddab artefacts zooming around in the sector. These include three types of smaller ship, homing missiles and Seiddab-controlled asteroids. These don't have to be destroyed to clear a sector, but it usually makes life easier if they are.

If you clear a sector of all the Seiddab cruisers and it has a Starbase in it you can enter the base by flying into an object that looks similar to an electricity pylon. When you do so you are put into the 3D arcade/adventure section of the game. Here you have to work out how to destroy the Starbase by using the objects littered around the place. Wandering around the Starbase are the actual Seiddab themselves. They look rather like mini Tripods and pose a threat if they get their claws into you. You can destroy them with your laser, though, so you're not too defenceless. Once you've destroyed the base you can go and try to find another Starbase which has to be destroyed in the same way.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Up A,S,D,F,G; Down Z, X, C, V; Left B, N; Right M, Symbol Shift; Fire H,J,K,L
Joystick: Cursor, Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: keyboard control reminds of Dragontorc/Avalon, takes some getting used
to, but works well
Use of Colour: varied, although tends to single colour per screen to avoid attribute clashes
Graphics: very good, with excellent console
Sound: not too bad, nice tune at the end of a game
Screens: 250 plus

It's nice to see several types of game all rolled into one and here the three separate parts have been combined successfully. The only trouble is that the game is rather repetitive and long drawn out. In the shoot em up part the gameplay is very sluggish and tedious - you just have to keep destroying the same old cruisers over the same old landscapes. By the time I'd destroyed about twenty cruisers an advanced stage of rigor mortis had set in. The graphics are fast but scrolling is quite jerky and the screen tends to slow down whenever any action takes place. The adventure bit is quite obscure, but if you like Dragontorc then you should be able to get on with it pretty well. The graphics aren't too bad on the adventure part, MIS apart from being only two coloured and therefore rather bland. Overall the game didn't appeal to me because the whole game is very long drawn out and too samey to be rated anything above very good.

I've played this one for ages now but I still can't see a lot in it. Graphically the 'Defender' scene isn't too bad although the colour is very garish and after a while of whizzing about the surface of Vega I was completely mesmerized. As for the other part of the game, I didn't think it was that compelling. Getting into the space station is hard enough, and once I got there I walked around for a bit, got lost and then died. After repeating this several times I stayed clear of the stations and just went around shooting up the Seiddab ships.

Astroclone is the next logical step on from Dragontorc and the Seiddab trilogy. The graphics are well up to Steve Turner's usual standard. The only niggle I've got with the game is that the defender variant part of the game is a little bit sluggish and can be a bit annoying if you want to rush headlong into the adventure part. If you liked Dragontorc then you will love this game because there are plenty of problems to solve. Some of the bases are easy to destroy but others have a huge playing area and could take months to complete. Overall it is a very good combination of three totally different game types that should appeal to most Spectrum owners especially fans of Steve Turners previous games.

Ross: Not only is this game a follow on from the arcade adventure Dragontorc but also from the Seiddab Trilogy. It's obvious innit 'cos it combines similar adventure sequences and arcade action.

In the adventure sequence you control a figure who is on a space station moving from room to room in a search for hidden objects. Control is much the same as in other games except that you can request your figure to perform different actions. Pressing the fire button displays a series of icons that allow you to move the figure around, move both his arms independently and control a laser. Objects can be picked up, carried and dropped with the arms.

The status area in the bottom centre of the screen displays your laser's energy level, the available oxygen and any objects you're carrying. This part of the game is very similar to other Hewson productions but it docs have a few twists.

Well, what about the arcade action I hear you cry. In this section of the game you must gain control of your 24 fighter craft so you can destroy the Seiddab fleet encroaching into various local star systems in a last ditch attempt (we hope) to destroy civilisation as we know it. It plays very like Defender which is pretty good considering the memory that it must have been squeezed into.

Hewson has made an excellent attempt at mixing two completely different styles of game in Astroclone but I can't help wondering whether this will appeal to the buying public. The question is, do adventurers want to play the zappy bits and do arcade freaks want to solve the puzzles? 7/10

Rick: Oh no! Not another Avalon clone!There's no peace for the wicked. 4/10

Dougie: Avalon was never in itself state of the art but it has a big following so I've no doubt it will sell by default alone. 7/10

Publisher: Hewson
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, cursor

The Seiddabs have returned - yet again - in a game which is a cross between Hewson's Dragontorc and that immortal classic Defender.

The experience of a team of crack pilots, soldiers and technicians has been distilled into a master image from which a series of clones is run off. Each warrior is a clone of its fellows, sharing the same thoughts, the same reactions and the same desire to defeat the Seiddab menace.

In order to defeat the aliens, who intend to take over the whole of the galaxy, the clones must gain control of all the Stargate sectors of space, dock at the Seiddab supply bases and destroy their main launch computers so that the base will be unable to launch new attack craft. The clones must then de-active the Stargates, through which ships are able to travel to other sectors of the galaxy, and trap all the Seiddabs.

The first phase of the game involves strategically placing your ships throughout the star sectors and purging them of aliens. A map of the sectors comes onto the screen and each sector is represented as a rectangle. Move as many of your ships as you require from the home sector - top left on the screen - across the grid.

Each rectangle displays the number of Seiddabs in that area. Some of those sectors also contain Star bases, but you must find them first.

When you have finished your deployment of forces you must choose a sector and do battle with the aliens in a Defender-style game, one of the best we have seen. Not only do you have to destroy the Seiddab battle cruisers but also dodge or destroy waves of asteroids. If a Starbase exists in the sector you must destroy all Seiddabs in the vicinity before docking with it.

After docking, a 3D representation of the interior of you ship - reminiscent of Dragontorc - appears and, when you have made sure that your oxygen level is at maximum, you can teleport to the Seiddab base. Once there you should locate more oxygen.

While exploring the labyrinths and rooms you will find objects. To pick those up, press the fire key and the direction icon at the bottom of the screen will display four options - pick up an object, throw it down, put it in your pocket and activate laser weapon.

All objects have a purpose and some of them can be found in strange places. For instance, if you pick up one of the magnetic devices scattered around the base you can collect items which have dropped down shafts protected by grills.

If that was not enough you must also be wary of roving aliens of various shapes and sizes. The most common look like the Zeroids from Terrahawks. Many of them are created by the strange mechanical eyes which are placed on the walls of the stations. You must destroy those with your laser gun. After the main computers are destroyed in one station, the game continues with assaults on others.

Astro-Clone is a progression from Dragontorc and, naturally, Hewson has been keen to revive the legendary Seiddabs. The 3D graphics are handled well and the icon-driven control panel reacts in a similar way to the spells of Dragontorc.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Hewson Consultants
PRICE: £7.95

Steve Turner's fascination with his Seiddab creations continues in his latest blockbuster for the Spectrum.

It's a combination of arcade action and arcade adventure with a big element of strategy thrown in.

A team of crack warriors, known as the Clone Warriors, have been assembled for a secret mission to gain control of the mysterious Stargate sectors which the Sieddab are threatening to use to invade earth.

There are three phases to the game. The strategy phase in which you move your 15 spacecraft around a map of the universe - Star Raiders-style. Then there is a space combat phase in which you zap around Defender-style over the surface of the various planets wiping out Sieddab forces.

Locate a Seiddab satellite above the planet and you'll be able to beam down to the ground installation where the third phase of the game begins.

Like all Steve's previous games, Astro Clone is packed with puzzles and problems. It'll take quite some time to crack - even if you're an expert gamester.

The graphics are terrific - especially the explosions!

Astro clone is great fun, great value and a great challenge.

Spectrum
Hewson Consultants
Arcade Adventure
£7.95

Another gem from Hewson matches variety of gameplay with excellent animated graphics. Supposedly the third part of Steve Turner's Dragontorc trilogy, it is obviously something quite different, but is none the worse for that. The game is split into strategic, space combat and ground combat phases. The ground combat phase is where you are on the opening screen, with your Astro-Clone in his two-room spaceship.

On the lower part of the screen lies the control panel. To the left is an icon panel; this tells you what effect the joystick has at any point in the game. There is a message screen next to this, and to the right of this two square alert lights. The top one goes red to draw your attention to the message screen. The lower one goes yellow if those old Hewson bugbears the Seiddab are in the next room, red if they join you.

Your mission is to destroy the main launch computers in all the Seiddab bases to gain control of the stargate sectors shown on the strategic map. But before you access the strategic phase you must take off, enter the space phase - a Defender-style sequence and either dock with a Seiddab starbase or slip through the pulsing diamond stargate to another sector. Either way you have to destroy all the Seiddab cruisers first.

If you fly through the stargate, you enter the strategic phase. If you dock with a starbase, you enter the ground combat phase again. In ground phase you have four modes, selection, movement, arm and laser. The arm mode is quite a nifty bit of programming which allows you to control and throw objects in a way unique to this game.

The game requires tortuous problem-solving capabilities - you need to be able to figure out that if you pass the Gravimag over the grating in room 8 a sonic key appears, for starters. And since the location of seven of the starbases change every time the game is played, the game is always slightly different. Publishing a solution for this game is going to be a bit more complicated than it is for something like Nodes of Yesod.

Hewson have excelled themselves once again - full credit to Steve Turner for producing a game that is destined to become one of the cult non-Ultimate adventure games at Christmas. If only because they've actually brought the game out, unlike some of their more flashy big brothers who are good on hype but slow on delivery.

Hewson Consultants
£7.95

The Seidabb are back! Hewson Consultants have resurrected their old arch nasties for their latest game, but this time around the author, Steve Turner has used the same sort of programming techniques that worked so well in his two Avalon games.

Astroclone has a number of similarities to Marsport, in that Hewson have taken a formula that worked well in mythological settings and turned it to a science fiction setting. Taking the part of a crack Astroclone warrior, you must gain control of the Seidabb bases in order to deactivate the Stargates that they used to reach Earth.

The graphic layout of the game is of course similar to that of the Avalon games, but this time you have more than one stage to the game. You can either move around the bases (or Technibo as they are called) in search of the Graviton devices you will need, or you can takeoff in your fighter and head off to combat the Seidabb cruisers. These two parts of the game provide a nice balance; the action in the bases is of the problem solving arcade-adventure style, whilst the space combat is a fun piece of shoot-'em-up action.

Astroclone is quite complex (the reviewers' notes that Hewsons sent out with the game make quite a fat folder), and though I enjoyed it I'm not sure if it will appeal to everyone. Like Avalon and Dragontorc the problem solving can slow the game down quite a lot in places, and despite the combat sequences the game may not appeal to the shoot-'em-up brigades.