Producer: Mikrogen, 16K
£5.50

This is an enjoyable copy of the arcade original and a flexible program as you're given a 4-option menu (1 = missiles, 2 = UFOs, 3 = Meteors, 4= Fortress) which means you can leap from part to part as you choose, or fight your way through the correct sequence if you're a showoff. Three speeds with the graphics a bit shaky on fast. Usual lasers, bombs, fuel dumps, missiles with a nest 2-option on returning to the next life where you left off, or changing landscape each time. The meteors are too difficult to be enjoyable, and the sound isn't amazing. No joystick option and the keys are a bit of a handful (2 = down, 4 = up, 6 = brake, 7 = thrust, 0 = laser) and all lower row are bombs. All in all fun to play and good value.

Producer: Mikrogen, 16K
£5.50

This is an enjoyable copy of the arcade original and a flexible program as you're given a 4-option menu (1 = missiles, 2 = UFOs, 3 = Meteors, 4= Fortress) which means you can leap from part to part as you choose, or fight your way through the correct sequence if you're a showoff. Three speeds with the graphics a bit shaky on fast. Usual lasers, bombs, fuel dumps, missiles with a nest 2-option on returning to the next life where you left off, or changing landscape each time. The meteors are too difficult to be enjoyable, and the sound isn't amazing. No joystick option and the keys are a bit of a handful (2 = down, 4 = up, 6 = brake, 7 = thrust, 0 = laser) and all lower row are bombs. All in all fun to play and good value.

Producer: Mikrogen, 16K
£5.50

This is an enjoyable copy of the arcade original and a flexible program as you're given a 4-option menu (1 = missiles, 2 = UFOs, 3 = Meteors, 4= Fortress) which means you can leap from part to part as you choose, or fight your way through the correct sequence if you're a showoff. Three speeds with the graphics a bit shaky on fast. Usual lasers, bombs, fuel dumps, missiles with a neat 2-option on returning to the next life where you left off, or changing landscape each time. The meteors are too difficult to be enjoyable, and the sound isn't amazing. No joystick option and the keys are a bit of a handful (2 = down, 4 = up, 6 = brake, 7 = thrust, 0 = laser) and all lower row are bombs. All in all fun to play and good value.

SCRAMBLING FOR POINTS

A fast and furious fight through the air is promised with the Mikro Gen Scramble, a better-than-average version of the popular arcade game. The game can be played in fast, normal or slow modes but it is better to play it in slow mode if you are a beginner with this kind of game.

The game goes through four sectors in which missiles, UFOs, meteors and fortresses provide obstacles for your fighter aircraft as it shoots across the sky.

The player is provided with weaponry of laser and smart bombs. Even they are not sufficient to deal with the missiles and UFOs.

Scramble is available from Mikro Gen, 24 Agar Crescent, Bracknell, Berkshire and costs £5.50 plus 50 pence p&p.

MACHINE: Spectrum 16/48K
Joystick: No
Supplier: Mikro-Gen

GAS-GUZZLER

In contrast to Penetrator's lines Mikro-Gen's Scramble has solid graphics. In the first stages you fly over a pink landscape trying to avoid the missiles and Defender-style aliens while bombing the fuel dumps. You must be accurate since your ship is a real gas-guzzler and you could find yourself dropping very quickly from fuel loss.

In the cavern you encounter the UFOs - green ovoids with, for some strange reason, black eyes. These are by no means the most fearsome obstacles to be found in Scrambles, and should not hold up your progress very long.

The meteors in stage three, though, are more of a problem. These big yellow blobs with long tails come thick and fast, forcing you to do some fancy flying.

The last stage is the fortress, a large purple block riddled with missile silos. Get through this and the mission is over.

Although this version has hardly any sound its graphics are good and it presents the player with a real challenge. Here again, though, there is the temptation to take the easy way out as you can enter the game at any stage.

ARCADES BROUGHT INTO THE HOME

John Gilbert reviews more complex games.

Almost every major type of arcade game has been simulated on Sinclair computers. There are also new games which have an arcade format but have evolved on a microcomputer. The Spectrum is an ideal machine on which to play arcade games. The quality of them has improved substantially since the launch of the machine. Some of the first arcade games to be produced for the Spectrum were versions of Space Invaders, the game which started the arcade craze.

Spectral Invaders was the first to be announced by Bug-Byte, which was already renowned for its arcade and adventure games on the ZX-81. So far it is the game which most closely resembles the original arcade version. Although it is slow it is difficult to score points, as you can fire only one laser blast at a time.

Another invaders game, Space Intruders, was launched at about the same time as Spectral Invaders. The game is much faster and is recommended for those who like to keep their fingers on the fire button and amass a big score. The only criticism is that the aliens and mothercraft are very small and the mothership is blue on a black background and so is very difficult to hit. Apart from that Space Intruders from Quicksilva is good value at £5.95.

Namtir Raiders, for the ZX-81, is a space invaders game with a difference from Artic Computing. The player still has to face the hordes of aliens which come down the screen but the laser base can be moved up and down as well as left and right.

The player has five laser bases during the game and they can take only five hits from alien bombs. There are three levels of difficulty-easy to impossible. The game, costing £3.95, is addictive and the graphics are neither awkward in design nor jerky in movement.

The game which is gaining popularity with 48K Spectrum owners is Time Gate, from Quicksilva. The authors claim that it is the ultimate in 3D arcade space action. The game is loaded in two parts, the first being a lengthy instruction manual. After the manual has finished you can load the game. The object is to destroy a race of aliens called the Squarm who are trying to colonise Earth. The enemy fighters are also seen in 3D and so are the planets on which the player can land to refuel and repair the ship. It is by far the best arcade action game so far for the Spectrum and costs only £6.95.

Asteroids is also becoming popular on Sinclair machines. One of the first companies to launch a version for the ZX-81 was Quicksilva. It was a good version on such a small machine and is still proving popular.

Quicksilva has also introduced a Spectrum version called Meteor Storm. It has the added attraction of speech before play. It is difficult to hear the words but we are informed by the authors that it says "Meteor Alert... Meteor Alert...". Meteor Storm is a novel version of Asteroids and costs £5.95.

Sinclair Research has a good game of asteroids, called Planetoids, in its new Spectrum Software library. The asteroids are in 3D and much careful design work on both the asteroids and the player's ship seems to have gone into the game. Planetoids costs £5.95.

Artic Computing seems to be the only company to have produced a version of Galaxians for the ZX-81. ZX-Galaxians looks like Space Invaders but the invaders are 'V'-shaped and are supposed to be inter-galactic birds. The birds swoop from formation and bomb the player's laser base. ZX-Galaxian is slow in action but can still be a very addictive game. It costs £4.95.

Defender is still a much-sought-after game in the arcades and Artic Computing took advantage of that early by producing a version for the ZX-81. The graphics are not particularly interesting and the spaceship which the player flies across the landscape is made up of a series of blocks which look only slightly like a ship.

Despite those criticisms, the original idea behind the game is still there and the Artic version can be exciting, as you see the enemy ships rushing at you from the other side of the screen.

With the arrival of the Spectrum, many manufacturers found an interest in the arcade game Scramble. The best and fastest version so far is from Mikro-Gen. In the game you have to go through caves which become smaller and smaller as it progresses.

The game becomes progressively more difficult and can be run in slow, normal and fast modes. It costs £3.95.

Silversoft has a Scramble-type game called Ground Attack. It works on the same principles as the Mikro-Gen game but is much slower. There is a good deal of blank screen between game rounds and the average waiting time between rounds is 15 seconds. Ground Attack costs £5.95.

The range of arcade-type games on Sinclair machines is always increasing. Manufacturers seem to feel safe in producing standard arcade games such as Space Invaders and Scramble. Those games, especially for the Spectrum, are becoming more imaginative and the graphics and sound more impressive.

Manufacturers have to be careful about copying ideas from other games but with the imagination of some of the firms in the Sinclair market, children and many adults will be kept happy with arcade-type games on the ZX-81 and Spectrum for a long time.

Space Invaders games have now been overtaken by Pacman in popularity.

Bug-Byte, 98-100 The Albany, Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9EP.

Quicksilva, 92 Northam Road, Southampton SO2 0PB.

Artic Computing, 396 James Reckitt Avenue, Hull, North Humberside.

Sinclair Research, Stanhope Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 3PS.

Mikro-Gen, 24 Agar Crescent, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 2BK.

Silversoft, 20 Orange Street, London WC2H 7ED.