Now we're going back in time a bit. Red Shift were known for their science fiction strategy series. One of the best of these was Rebel Star Raiders. As is typical of games of the time, the program takes ages to load. The player is presented with a choice of four scenarios on loading: Moonbase, Starlingale, The Final Assault and Expansion. These need to be loaded from tape individually and the scenarios themselves take as long to get into the computer as most modern games do. Ah, but these were the days when such things mattered not.

The player is presented with a screen depicting a deck plan of an area of a ship or installation which has to be protected from attack by raiders. A few human operatives and a selection of droids is available to assist. Each deck is different, depending on the scenario, and some were designed to present a greater level of difficulty to the players than others.

During play the defender deploys the crew one by one. Each crew member has a name and weapon, and weapons can include anything from pistols and sub-machine guns to lasers and grenades. Not unreasonably, each weapon has a different effect on the enemy - but these of course, are no more than variations on a theme!. They are all deadly if used properly! Once Raiders have been deployed, the game begins.

Movement and combat are handled by a points system which dictates how far a character may move and what courses of action are available to him. Damage is dealt with in a similar manner. The Raider's forces outnumber the Defender's but the Defender's robots are armoured and consequently difficult to eliminate. The concept of the game is strikingly similar to that of a conventional board wargame called Azhanti High Lightning by Game Designers Workshop, which had deck plans for an 84 deck space cruiser and scenarios for shipboard combat. Both games are highly addictive, being well-devised tactical simulations with real variety in play. They provide a lasting challenge to the most persevering of tacticians.

Red Shift no longer exists, which means it's unlikely that you'll catch one of their titles on your regular stockist's shelves. Rebel Star Raiders was another title which suffered from a lack of adequate exposure when it was released. Anybody with a copy of the game should treasure it - the game has its faults, but it was (and still is) way ahead of its time.

FRONTLINES

From our correspondent at the front Angus Ryall.

We have been conscious for some time that CRASH has had two weaknesses and these have been in the areas of adventure games and war/strategy games. The former problem was solved when Derek Brewster kindly agreed to write an adventure column and review the games. We are now able to overcome the second weakness - and this issue sees the start of our wargamers column put together for us by ANGUS RYALL. Angus is the Software Marketing Manager for Games Workshop Ltd. As such he brings with him his experience not only of software but also the over view of strategy games in general.

OVERVIEW OF STRATEGY GAMES

Everyone knows that wargamers thrive on 'complexity', and this is what has kept the hobby so elitist for so long. Traditional wargames/strategy games have been virtually impossible for mere mortals such as you or I to crack, and the small number of people playing them has also kept their prices ridiculously high. The arrival of home computers should have changed all that, by getting rid of the number-crunching and all those fiddly little card counters that always end up down the back of the settee. There should by now be as many decent strategy games available as adventures - but there aren't. Having just gone through a pile of strategy games I think I'm beginning to understand why. The people writing them for the Spectrum are giving the sector a bad name - it's the same old idea, of making the players bust a gut to play the game, that has kept traditional wargaming such a minority pastime. Most of these games have abominable graphics, laughable points systems, and unintelligible instructions. They tend to be long winded and very slow, and one or two are just plain idiotic. Only a couple here were actually enjoyable to play.

DIAMONDS

Well, having trashed everyone so far, I feel honour-bound to give a bit of praise to someone, and the only people I can think of that really deserve it are Red Shift whose two games Apocalypse and Rebelstar Raiders are still far and away the best strategy games for the Spectrum, even though Apocalypse is now over a year old. Unfortunately, a series of problems at Red Shift earlier this year led to the departure of most of the programmers to form the SLUG co-op; this means that there is an improved version of Apocalypse which will probably never see the light of day. But even the old Apocalypse is great if you can get hold of it. Before I say anything about it, I'd better make it clear that it is an anti-war game (in view of what I said earlier!) but its subtle in its methods - it really works by forcing the players to think about the consequences of aggression. The game comes with four maps, and the distribution of cities can be done either manually or automatically. In addition to the main map to the chosen area, say Europe, there is a close-up of the cursor position giving unit strengths in each square. As the game plays through, the players (up to four) make decisions as to whether they are going to use aggression, whether to use conventional forces to expand their empires, or whether to use the ultimate sanction of nuclear weapons. There's a lot more to this game than simply blasting away at your opponents, yet you don't have to sit up all night with a calculator in order to know what's going on.

REBELSTAR RAIDERS (RED SHIFT)

Even better than Apocalypse is REBELSTAR RAIDERS, where one player commands a team of space
pirates in an attempt to destroy the control centres of three different installations (each loaded
separately). The other player, naturally, has to defend the installations. The graphics are quite
superb, and the installations, which appear as plans or cross sections are designed for maximum
game flexibility. Cursor movement is fast and smooth, althoughi the keyboard layout takes a bit of
getting used to. The wide variety of weapons available and the manual deployment of the characters
create a great mix of strategic thinking and general blasting power. The only things I really
dislike about RAIDERS are the irritating sound effects (which seem to be something of a Red Shift
trademark) and the packaging - which is so amateurish it could have come from Merry and Wallis.

REBELSTAR RAIDERS and APOCALYPSE prove that it is possible to write good strategy games for the
Spectrum: but they also highlight the great gulf that there is between strategy games, and arcade
and adventure games. Whey you consider that state-of-the-art in arcade and adventure changes
almost month by month (look at the GREAT SPACE RACE) it is incredible that one of the two best
strategy games is over a year old. This is one of the few areas where American software, for
Ataris and Commodores, wipes the floor with us. Perhaps it's about time that some of the software
houses renowned for their arcade and adventure work took a long hard look at the strategy games
desert - the demand is there, when the right game arrives.

25TH CENTURY RAIDERS

Rebelstar Raiders comes from the same stable as Apocalypse. This game takes place in the 25th century. You are given three different scenarios: Moonbase, Starligdale and the Final Assault. Two players are needed to play, each having control of between 20 to 30 characters. Every character in this game has his/its own name and weapon and characteristics.

All inputs to the computer are very easy. To get information on a particular character all you need to do is place the cursor over the player in question and press the I key. If you wish to find out about the character's weapon you press the P key.

Because each of the maps is different, the victory conditions differ although a specific object has to be destroyed or protected in each of them.

This is a game that you need at least an hour to play, but it is worth it when you guide one of your men around a corner and blast three of your opponent's men into little pieces. Rebelstar Raiders is a challenging and very enjoyable game.

Red Shift
48K Spectrum
Price: £9.95

Yet another excellent strategy program from the Red Shift guys. This one takes the Apocalypse war-game idea to new heights. The theme is a two-player tactical combat game, with three different scenarios to try out.

The setting is the 25th century, where the good guys (Joe Capricorn and his rebels) must battle against the tyranny of the Main-Comp and the operatives.

Each player controls many individual characters. Those have varying weapons, armour, movement capabilities and unique names. The weapon carried by the character determines his usefulness during the game, varying weapons carried by the character determines his usefulness during the game.

A game may take many hours to play, but is great fun and you don't seem to notice the passing of time! instructions for the program come in the form of a fully comprehensive manual.

Play consists of a number of phases:

A) Deployment of troops: This is critical to the overall strategy of the game and is where experience really counts. Some troops are already deployed and one scenario even allows for reinforcements.

B) Game turns: These are limited which is in effect a time limit to be considered during play. Each turn consists of a number of different modes.

(i) Cursor mode which is used to gain information about a character or a weapon.

(ii) Movement mode which uses the non-standard Apocalypse system. This is limited by the points system and varies with terrain being crossed.

(iii) Combat mode which uses up movement points and sometimes the weapon tool Close-in fighting isn't too interesting. However, ranged combat is visually superb. You can hide being a wall and in one turn move out, attack an opponent and retreat again. The laser and graphical blast effects are well done.

The skill of the game comes in knowing which weapons to use and where to place (and move) specific characters.

Victory is achieved by another points system; you may have to wipe out all of your opponent's men, or complete the object of the scenario successfully.

Although the program is in BASIC it does have Machine Code sections and so is quite quick, and highly addictive too. Weapons vary in the three scenarios available and each game is totally different from the last. This makes it very hard to get bored with the screens. Like Apocalypse, further expansion tapes are planned.

The only minor quibbles I can think of are the tendency to continue to fire for too long, and sometimes you can miss an opponent and kill one of your own men!

Otherwise a marvelous game that will get you thinking, but at the same time is highly enjoyable. A compulsory addition to any strategy fan's tape library.