Producer: Ocean
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.90
Language: Machine code
Author: Ken Farmer and Jon Myers

Ocean's packaging and title screens have been delightful recently, and Moon Alert is no exception with the screen (designer D. Thorpe) being based on the cassette cover. The scenario for Moon Alert is a familiar one by now. What makes Ocean's version interesting is that they have definitely based this on the moon, with the activity of the Moon Rova taking into account the effects of a reduced gravity field.

Space Fighter 7 has been blasted by the aliens and crash landed on the Moon's surface. Fortunately the Moon Rova, stored on board seems undamaged. It is equipped with bilateral photon canon and perpendicular jet boosters, both of which you will need to survive the long journey back to base. The aliens have located your crash site and are even now scouring the terrain for you.

As usual, your Rova travels from left to right against a scrolling background of mountains and a scrolling foreground of craters, whilst overhead, the alien craft drop bombs on you. The ground is divided into 26 sectors, lettered A to Z with Ocean claiming that over 300 screens are included in the game.

COMMENTS

Control keys: alternate keys bottom row for left/right, keys on the third row for jump, keys on the second row for fire
Joystick: Kempston, Protek, Sinclair 2
Keyboard play: good positions, with plenty of options, very responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: smooth, well detailed
Sound: good tunes, plenty of incidental effects
Skill levels: 1 but progressive difficulty
Lives: 4
Screens: continuously scrolling
Features: 1 or 2 player games, Currah microspeech facility
Originality: hardly an original idea, but a good version of the arcade original, and particularly well implemented with imaginative features

In my opinion, Moon Alert is the best 'Moon Buggy' game I have seen. The graphics are smooth and the jumping over obstacles is excellent. There are many stages and the game is very playable. I liked this one, it has plenty of 'feel', so that jumping over canyons is not just a hit and miss affair. The keyboard positions are good and the graphics and sound are good.

There have been several Spectrum versions of the "Moon Buggy" game now, and I think Ocean's has been rather long awaited. But the wait is worth it. This is the best yet. Oddly enough, it doesn't look very exciting at first. It isn't violently coloured, just black, dark blue and purple with a pale blue line drawing of the buggy. The rocks are red and the explosions white. There aren't all that many ground-based obstacles - at first, and the hovering aliens don't cause craters with their bombs or lay mines in your path. So at first it looks pretty simple. But it's not. This is a deceptive game, because it trundles along at what seems like a leisurely pace. But it has been designed just right, slowly leading you into impossible situations. I particularly liked the fact that terrain isn't flat with craters. Here you have hills, humps, valleys, many of them awkwardly shaped so you have to time the jumps just right. Firing is nicely paced as well. The graphics are super smooth, leading you on into the growing horror. Suddenly there are triangular things in the air and they do make craters and double sized rocks in your path. I must get back and see what comes next. Highly addictive!

Smooth graphics, good tunes and reasonable sound effects boosted with Currah combined with marvellous playability, make this the best "Moon Buggy" type of game yet for the Spectrum. If it isn't entirely original, Ocean should get a good rating because of the original way in which the game has been implemented. I particularly liked the way each zone is sectioned off by letters of the alphabet which come scrolling into the screen as you drive over them. Loss of life means you go back to the start of the sector you are in, not the beginning - until you lose all your lives of course. Highly addictive and maddening to play.

Use of Computer: 86%
Graphics: 89%
Playability: 95%
Getting Started: 88%
Addictive Qualities: 94%
Originality: 83%
Value for Money: 90%
Overall: 89%

At the time when Moon Alert was released there were few good 'Moon Buggy' games. Moon Alert was by far the best and oddly enough few 'Moon Buggy' games have been released since - certainly nothing to rival Moon Alert. Almost everyone knows how to play 'Moon Buggy' games (if you don't - where have you been for the past couple of years?) so there is no point in going over that all over again.

Several 'Moon Buggy' games were released at about the same time. Ocean's version was undoubtedly the best and it's still a very good game by today's standards. It's just as addictive and playable as it was then and no one has bettered it since.
BS

I've never been particularly fond of 'Moon Buggy' games but Moon Alert caught my attention because it's a really good game. It's a lot more addictive than any other game of its sort. The graphics are fine though your actual buggy is a bit flickery. If you want a 'Moon Buggy' game Moon Alert is still the best one available and worth buying.

(Ben) I wouldn't change any of the ratings. If anything I would put the 'Addictive qualities' up a few points. Moon Alert is another game that has stood the test of time well and I highly recommend it.

(Rob) The ratings on the whole are basically sound I would only fiddle with them slightly by pushing the 'Use of computer' up by 3 points and maybe lowering the 'Addictive qualities' by a couple of points. Otherwise the review still stands.

MOONIES

MAKER: Ocean Software
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.90

Peachy implementation of that much under-rated arcade vehicle Moon Patrol; the hairiest ride outside of Disneyworld's Space Mountain.

Starfighter 7 has been grounded by alien laser-fire. Having survived the crash-landing (well them's the breaks), you must try and reach the safety of Moon Base Alpha in your trusty Model T Moon Rova. However not only must you negotiate some ludicrously pock-marked terrain en route but you must also slug it out with those pesky aliens, who not content with wasting your starship, wanna waste you too!

Although intrinsically simple in concept, the combined challenge of rocks, canyons and irrepressible attackers works on practically every level. high scores demand both strategic driving and defensive shooting! However it must be said that the prog's visual FX are rather dull. When I bust a buggy I want to see it bust! At least a couple of wheels should come bouncing out of the debris!

Dragon Data managed this to great effect on their splendid Lunar Patrol a while ago. The Spectrum buggy just sort of implodes. The Currah Microspeech routines are also rather uninteresting. Unless more notable chat is buried deep within the prog, it seems hard pressed to do more than county you in and out. Still I'm nitpicking. Playwise this is neat stuff and if I was you I'd book a lunar lesson right away.