Producer: Activision/Sega
Retail Price: £9.99

Cosily tucked away within International Planets HQ, an innocent missions controller hears a faint message over the intergalactic intercom. Out in the deepness of space, terrorists have overrun one of the space colonies. There's no choice, no one else can help them - you must send in The Quartet.

This deadly foursome of Edgar, Lee, Mary and Joe are the only hope for the isolated inhabitants. Each of the fab four has their own special abilities. But you can only control a maximum of two on each of your conquests.

Edgar has an astounding leap, useful in jumping from platforms; Lee is the quickest on the trigger of his specially adapted wide-beam gun. Young Mary is the only one who can handle a powerful bazooka and Joe is the fastest mover of the four. To progress through each level of the planet one of the quartet must seek out the mechanical monster who holds the key to the next level.

On each level pirates jump out of portals, attempting to reduce your power. Blast them out of sight or their attack results in temporary paralysis and a lowering of the hero's unique power. Littered throughout the each part of the planet are springs, shields, jet packs and other bonus goodies - all of which help The Quartet on their quest for the ultimate one hundredth level and freedom for the planet.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Interface 2
Use of colour: monochromatic sprites, but varied surrounds
Graphics: poor
Sound: poor
Skill levels: one, two-player option

Having played just one game of Quartet I felt I'd seen enough. The screens are of three basic designs - containing a good mixture of colour and detail but nothing Inspiring. Control of the characters is very slack and tiring to use. The baddies are a boring bunch, neither originally drawn or well animated. Because of Quartet's lack of variation and its simplistic game concept, addictivity is very low. I couldn't stand going through 99 levels of this just to defeat some gormless collection of terrorists.
PAUL

Quartet is one of those types of games you either love or hate at first sight. Although the idea of hacking around trying to save hostages and/or destroying the terrorists' HQ by shooting all and sundry is not new, Quartet is good fun for a short while, but it tires quickly. Which is a shame, because the graphics are reasonable on the whole, and some backdrops are nicely drawn. An average blast 'n' hack game.
MARK

Oh dear, this really is a poor game. The graphics are very bad, and there's absolutely no challenge to any part of the game whatsoever. My first play, during which I expected only to find out how the game played, eventually lasted something in the region of twenty minutes, getting me to level 13. As I said, no challenge. In my view, whatever it costs, it's a complete waste of money.
MIKE

Activision
£9.99

You may remember this baby from the arcades. A four-player platforms-in-space game, with lots of baddies to shoot and 99 different levels. Three men and a woman battle through wave after wave of alien henchdroids to rescue a space colony from destruction. These wacky space stompers, Lee, Joe, Mary and Edgar, must plough through each level's aliens until they reach the huge mechanical monsters. Before they can leave each level, they must destroy the monster, and take its key, then quickly hop into the exit teleport which takes them to the next level.

All around each level are things which can help you, items left by the inhabitants of the colony before they fled the alien menace - extra high jumping boots, different and more powerful ammo, jetpacks, extra energy... the list is almost endless. On each level you must be careful how you go around because on some you have to kill the monster on one end of the level, and escape through an exit which might be at the opposite end.

By far the most helpful thing on each level is the bonus ball. This bounces out of an alien door, and if you get it when it holds your initial (E, L, M or J) it will change your weapon to a stronger one. (Oo-er). If you hit it when it shows someone elses initial, it'll just give you bonus points.

One of the nicest things about this game is the teamwork aspect. (Mind you, although the original was a four-player game, this version is a two-player game, choosing your team from four choices!) You select your two players and both you and an accomplice must work together to get a higher score and destroy the mechanical monsters. The action is fast and furious, and is definitely at its best when you've got a jetpack (peeoow! zzzoomm!) and are playing the two player option. On the graphics side, the sprites are okay but not startling, but the backgrounds are stunning! Over ninety smooth-scrolling arenas, so slickly modelled you'd think you were actually there. (Eek! Sorry, I really did think I was there, for a minute!)

I found Quartet to be an adequate conversion of the arcade machine, but perhaps a teeny bit too easy. Ploughing your way through endless amounts of levels in search of number 99 can be a little trying, and I think p'raps the explosions could have been a little more satisfying (parp). But, in spite of all that I still thought it was a good old blast 'em up. If you can afford it, give it a rip!

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Fixing a leaky tap in the basement, RICH PELLEY stumbled across a few spooky cheapies clogging up the U-bend. So here they are (damp and slightly mouldy)...

Hit Squad
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Here's one that maybe should have stayed in bed this morning as well. It's got 99 levels (but don't hold your breath), twoplayer action, things to shoot, things to collect and really crap graphics. And that just about sums it up.

What you've got to do is choose a character from the four available, allow your chum to do the same and then go through each level finding and killing the jumbo-baddy and picking up the key that will enable you to move onto the next level. Meanwhile, loads of monsters come pouring out at you just asking to be shot. To help you there's an add-on backpack which lets you fly around a bit (normally it's just Left, Right and Jump) and various weapons and things if you can find them.

Co-operation's the name of the game here. For example, when you get to the end of each level it's a good idea to take on the big guardian guy while your mate fends off any marauding assailants that try to stop him (or vice versa). A good idea that is if you actually choose to buy and play thus game And here's why you shouldn't...

The graphics really are eye-wateringly grim. There are huge tidal waves of colour which tend to engulf everything, with wan sprites making it really hard to see what's going on. Luckily though not much does happen. After ten or so levels you realise that things obviously aren't going to improve. It's just level after level of exactly the same migrane-inducing horribleness.

Oh look - there's a dust-lorry driving past under the window. (Clunk.) Bullseye!

Label: Activision
Price: £9.99
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

When it was first released as a coin-op, Quartet was judged to be pretty revolutionary. It was a four-player game for a kick-off and it was one of the first non-sexist, non-racist, non-everything that you could possibly think of, games to come on to the market. And that made it rather interesting, and thus rather a good licence for some bright-eyed, bushy tailed software house to snap up. And that software house was Activision. (Cue fanfare.)

On the Spectrum it's a one or two-player game, but each can control two characters.

To set the scene. Owing to the general ineptitude and lack of brain power of those people living on the space colony, it's been over-run by alien pirate terrorists, - not the sort of aliens that you'd take home to meet your mother. So, it's up to the Quartet to save the colony from a lot of aggravation.

And this is where the 'non' bits come in. In the interests of liberation and free thinking, one member of the Quartet is a woman, and one of the men is black. (Not that you can actually tell the difference between them when they're up and running, one member of the Quartet in a spacesuit looks pretty much like another. And all four are pretty trendy.

Each one of the heroes (and heroine, let's be precise about this) had different skills, so it's up to you to decide whether you want to play the character who runs, shoots or bounces well. In two-player mode each of you can control one or two characters, so it's possible to play all four at once. Although this increases the number of points you can score, it also increases the likelihood you of bumping into each other and dying.

Amassing points is really what it's all about. And not losing them. One of the nice things about Quartet is that you can die lots of times without being eliminated. This is all due to the wonderful 9,000 points with which you start every game. Yes, they give you points before you've even done anything! But they take them away from you every time you die, and once you've lost the lot, it's Game Over for you chummy. You have a completely different counter for points scored, and it's possible to add more to your 9,000 by picking up things along the way.

And what a lot of things there are. Springs to make you jump higher, jet-packs to make you fly and funny things which defy description but which are pretty nifty anyway.

There are 15 separate levels, which can be randomly arranged to give a maximum of 99 levels. So there's lots to do. Each of the levels are quite distinctive, but the idea is the same, avoiding the aliens, scoring points and not dying to often. (Well, don't go into a coma really, you can't die until you've lost those 9,000 points). Then there's this extra-large and really mean alien terrorist, and if you don't kill any aliens at all on the level, you just have to kill him. Because he's got the key, and without the key you can't open the door to the next level. And he's a pretty tough cookie.

Quartet's graphics are a bit on the flickery side of things and the soundtrack consists mainly of blips and bings. But this, I think, considering the rest of the game high points, is a relatively minor flaw.

Quartet should do well. It's easy to play, but there are enough things happening all the time to keep the player on his (or even her, seeing as this is a non-sexist game) toes. It also places quite a big emphasis on team spirit, the idea being that the more characters you can coerce into helping, the more points you're likely to score. And that's an idea that is at least slightly original, which in turn makes Quartet slightly superior to most of the other blasts around these days.

Label: Hit Squad
Price: £2.99
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

The Hit Squad's selection team are usually pretty good at selecting the vintage games of yesteryear for their label. Personally, I fear their reckoning must have been seriously impaired by alchohol when they scraped Quartet off the bottom of the licencing barrel.

There have been a number of high-profile releases over the years that have, to be frank, stank to high heaven. Either through rush programming jobs, no budget, acts of "God" or, in Quartet's case being a crappy arcade game in the first place.

Quartet was a - how shall we say"hastily" put together coin-op back in '87; a misguided endeavour by Sega to ride on the multi-player coattails of Atari's superb Gauntlet.

Still, at least is had four player novelty value and reasonable graphics. Since the Spectrum version only offers two player control and the graphics are worse than a test card in a thunderstorm - flickering and jumping all over the shop - Quartet is batting on a seriously sticky wicket.

Aim of the game is simple. Destroy everything that comes into sight, including a large exit-unlocking-key-dropping mechanical monster, and move onto the next level before... Er, well before I don't know what actually. It seems that you've got an infinite number of lives and should you get killed at any point, well, you just get up and carry on.

In fact, I managed to complete ten levels without the slightest bit of difficulty; not through any skill on my part, just carrying on from where I was last killed.

I could go on. but charity (and the lawyers) prevent me. Slapped wrists for Hit Squad.

MACHINES: Spectrum/C64/Amstrad
SUPPLIER: Activision
PRICE: £9.99 (tapes), £14.99 (disc)
VERSION REVIEWED: Spectrum

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. That's about all I feel like saying about this offering from Activision. How to take a good coin-op and ruin it would be a good summing up of this conversion of Sega's multi-player arcade game.

C+VG had one of these machines on our stand at the PCW Show last year and it was tough to keep the readers who came to say hello to the team away from the machine. In fact it was tough enough to get the C+VG team away from the machine.

No-one will be rushing to play the Spectrum version of the game. The best thing I can say is that I hope the 64 and Amstrad versions are better.

Quartet was Sega's bid to catch up with Atari in the multi-player game stakes which began with Gauntlet.

Of course, you can't hope to get four players gathered round a Spectrum - but you can get two. Even with a friend playing along with you it's hard to capture any of the excitement generated by the arcade machine.

Your Quartet team member is tiny, just one colour character, but fairly well animated to give it its due. The backgrounds are multi-coloured but boring, and the nasties are often hard to pick out against them.

It's also pretty easy to defeat the enemies and collect the keys which take you through the exit doors and on to further levels in the game. I got up to level eight in the first sitting.

The only reason I got no further was that I found myself stuck behind a series of awkward barriers after picking up a jet-pack.

The jet-pack stops you being able to crawl - so there I stayed until time run-out. I almost didn't go back for another crack at the game.

It's also difficult to tell just what the objects which you collect actually do for you - apart from the "shield" which makes you flash a bit to indicate that you are invulnerable for a while.

It doesn't seem to make much difference which character you chose to play. Edgar, Mary, Lee and Joe seem to have identical powers and look the same on screen as well.

Quartet on the Spectrum could just win the prize for the worst coin-op conversion so far this year. It definitely wins the prize for the naffest cassette artwork.

And the price! £10? No way Jose. These days I reckon Mastertronic would think twice about putting a game of this quality out at budget prices.

To be fair, we haven't seen the 64 or Amstrad versions. If they are any better we'll let you know.

Such a shame, after the excellent Enduro Racer we were expecting great things.

Hit Squad
Spectrum, C64, Amstrad £2.99

Sega's dull four-player coin-op becomes a dismal two-player game in all three of these conversions. Choose your favourite space commando (each has different capabilities and weapons - supposedly), then leap your way to fame and fortune through level after level of platforms. Collect superjump boots and numerous other anonytous icons, then use them to blow up the angry robots which are popping out of the holes in the wall. The levels are over in a matter of seconds and don't worry if you lose a life, because the credits system lets you go on and on for as long as you can stand... which won't be very long.