Producer: C.R.L.
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Richard Brisbourne

We're at war again and fanatical elements have seized control of a heavily defended complex containing the ultimate nuclear deterrent, a Doomsday device constructed to cause worldwide devastation. The timer on this bomb has already started and is set to explode in twenty-five minutes. You must pilot your fighter bomber to the building and destroy it.

Omega Run hovers between being a flight simulation and a straightforward game, but in the end, due to the fantasy nature of the scenario and the fact that the instrumentation is not based on anything actual, we decided to slot this under a game heading.

The screen displays a wide cockpit view with instruments below. The enemy's defences are prodigious and consist of laser fields, which shoot beams up into the sky, and which must be avoided by dodging around them; fighter aircraft, which may be dodged but should be shot down otherwise they just keep on your tail; anti-aircraft fire which homes in on you if you fly above 350 feet; and ground-to-air missiles, which are more frequent lower down. Another problem is that your aircraft carries insufficient fuel for the run, so you must rendezvous with a tanker for in-flight refueling.

Your instrumentation provides a clock with minutes and seconds left before the Doomsday bomb explodes, a compass with your heading indicated, an altitude meter, a tanker/target locator, which is kept centred for an accurate heading, a miles-to-tanker/ target indicator, and three bar codes for fuel level, ammunition level and damages status. There is also a rear view screen warning of enemy fighters with message display.

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursors and zero to fire
Joystick: Kempston, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: very responsive
Colour very good
Graphics: very good, with effective 3D
Sound: good effects
Skill levels: 5 selectable, with additional customisation
Lives: percentage of damage allowed

'Omega Run' has an excellent on-screen introduction, which not only describes the object of the game fully, but demonstrates the instruments, how they work, and what the cockpit view looks like when you are flying in various aspects. All the instruction screens dissolve one from another like in a film, and when it's all through you can then alter the conditions, like distance to target, numbers of enemy fighters and laser fields, and target run up.

It keeps you on your toes okay, fighters, lasers, ack-ack, missiles, all coming thick and faster as you near the target, which is a red block. The instruments simplify your task and are very well designed. I liked the view, a dark blue, flecked with white, as though you were flying over the sea at night. The sky seems to light up when the AA guns are firing at you. Perhaps it's asking too much, but it would have been nice to see enemy aircraft firing back at you! As it is, the screen flashes when they are. I found it highly addictive to play with plenty of scope for improving skill. What would be good in one of these flight games, is if they used a perspective grid to indicate the ground in lieu of any realistic landscape, that would really increase the feeling of speed.

Producer: CRL, 48K
£5.95 (2)
Author: Richard Brisbourne

Fanatical elements have seized control of a doomsday bomb and it is timed to go off in 25 minutes. You must fly your fighter-bomber through heavy defences and destroy the building housing the bomb before it goes off and destroys the world. Your cockpit view shows the horizon, enemy fighters, laser beams and anti-aircraft explosions. Fighters get on your tail and you must alter course to bring them ahead and destroy them with your guns. This takes you off target line and the fuel tanker flying ahead of you with which you must rendezvous before completing the mission. Excellent on-screen instructions which demonstrate controls and instruments. This is a very busy game with 5 selectable skill levels and some customisation possible via a menu. Effective and colourful 3D graphics. Playable, addictive and recommended. Overall CRASH rating 87% m/c.

Use of Computer: 78%
Graphics: 90%
Playability: 83%
Getting Started: 96%
Addictive Qualities: 82%
Value for Money: 90%
Overall: 87%

We said of Omega Run (issue 2, 87% overall) that it hovered between being a flight simulation and a straightforward game. Since then a number of flight simulations have appeared and Omega Run tends to look more like a game than a simulation, with, oddly, more similarity to Zzoom than anything.

The instructions are of a high standard, each item being very carefully explained. The idea behind it is still quite good although, looking back, it seems to lack a fair amount of content and variation, meaning its addictive qualities have dropped in comparison to later games. It's a shame the 3D effects couldn't have been improved, like a moving landscape. The graphics stand up as fairly detailed, but there aren't all that many of them, its still playable when you get it out again, but doesn't have much of an addictive quality.
MU

I thought Omega Run was a lot of fun when I first played it, although not so addictive as to keep me trying. I saw the Commodore version not long ago, expecting a vast graphic improvment, but it looked very similar, no attribute problems of course. Getting the Spectrum version out for a re-run, I left it feeling somewhat unimpressed because it does lack content, there's too much twisting and turning to shoot enemy planes down, and little else.
LM

(Matthew) It got 90% for graphics - no way! There aren't many graphics, and there really isn't any proper attempt at 3D as in later games. No, that would have to go down to about 59% now. I'd also drop the playability rating (it got 83%) to about 63%. It's addictive qualities were overrated too, not 82% anyway, more like 60%.

(Lloyd) Well I'd go along with most of that. I don't think Omega Run has exactly stood the test of time as well as other similar flying games.