Producer: FTL
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Gargoyle Games

Shockway Rider is the second release from FASTER THAN LIGHT, the offspring of GARGOYLE GAMES.

Its plot is centred in a futuristic city where walking is a thing of the past. Instead of using pavements, the inhabitants move around on vast, scrolling walkways. Crime, however, is not an unhappy memory. Muggers find in the moving pathways a cornucopia, rich with pickings. Things are bad. Inevitably an individual who's seen too many Death Wish films decides to take the law into his own hands, and Shockway Rider is about this vigilante out to clean up the mean streets. Not unlike Bronson's Death Wish character he isn't particular in his own morals, and sees little harm in taking out innocent by-standers at the same time.

The pedestrian pathway is the place where it's at, and on-screen it's divided up into three sections running parallel to each other. Each section moves at a different speed, and the walkways loop round in a circle. The idea is to get right round the circle killing as many characters as possible (after all, one of them must be a mugger, surely?). Movement happens by standing still, while the screen scrolls from left to right.

Completing a circuit, the player automatically progresses to the next level, of which there are eight, and each provides more disposable persons and even some nasty obstacles to avoid.

Future City's thugs are slick, and down on Moving Mean Street they're identifiable by their black gloves and natty shades. But don't be fooled by apparently innocent commuters and passers-by; that frail-looking granny may suddenly turn into a mugger. The best bet is to kill everyone!

When a mugger spots you, he jumps onto the same pathway and literally knocks your block off. Vigilanticide is as easily accomplished by jumping on top of you when off-guard.

Like the muggers, the vigilante can also jump from walkway to walkway in pursuit of prey. The three walkways are seen in perspective, so effectively the characters change size as they go further 'into' or 'out of' the screen. Fists are the main weapon, but the stationary pathways alongside are littered with usable items which come in handy as ammo. Jumping off a moving pathway onto the sidewalk and running over the item results in its being displayed at the screen base. The weaponry collected may be hurled forwards and backwards and in some cases up and down as well.

Vigilantism just ain't nice, and so bonus points are awarded for biffing innocent by-standers. For every ten inoffensive pedestrians killed, an extra life is awarded and added to the initial five.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable: up, down, left, right, fire
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Use of colour: good with a minimal amount of colour clash
Graphics: simple and nicely animated
Sound: the odd splatty sound effect
Skill levels: one
Screens: 8 scrolling play areas

This is a bit of step backwards for FTL. I was expecting a game with the same sort of graphical quality as Lightforce - but alas there are no multi-coloured space ships in Shockway Rider. There are some pretty characters though. Not to worry, they seem to have worked on the gameplay - or perhaps it only appeals to me because you can hurl bricks at innocent by-standers (and get points for it!). Unfortunately there are only eight levels so this won't keep anyone playing for longer than a few days.
BEN

I wondered how FTL could follow up a smash hit like Lightforce - not very well it seems. The game is, like Lightforce, very simple in construction. But Shockway Rider loses out on playability. The graphics are well drawn and backgrounds have a good feeling of perspective with the screen containing a decent amount of colour, even though the play area is monochromatic. The meanies contain lots of frames of animation, and there are good explosions when someone gets chopped. I love the way that the baddies wave their hands in the air when they chop your head off. Shockway Rider isn't really as good as Lightforce, but it certainly needs to be looked at as the game is original and quite addictive.
PAUL

Despite the essentially simple idea behind it, Shockway Rider has turned out to be a reasonable game. Like Lightforce, it has excellent graphics, with colour used well, and superb scrolling: some of the character animation is brilliant. It's highly playable, but I felt that it lacked depth. The loading screen is particularly neat, and the packaging is very professional. Though by no means a poor game. Shockway Rider is something of a disappointment after Lightforce; but then most games would be! Look before buying.
MIKE

OLDIES UNLIMITED

This month see the inimitable PHIL KING scouring through the CRASH back issues for that crucial information on all the rereleases between now and mid-November. Take it away Phil...

Shockway Rider
Producer: Rack-It
Price: £2.99
Original Rating: 67%

FTL's second release (in March 1987) failed to arouse the enthusiasm of the earlier Lightforce, but it still boasts some impressive graphics, and rather more original gameplay.

You control a dedicated vigilante who aims to clean up the Shockway - a futuristic subway with moving pavements. Three sections of the walkway move at different speeds and characters can jump sideways from one to another. The well-animated figures get larger or smaller as they move between sections, creating a clever sense of perspective.

Danger is never entirely obvious as even normal-looking people may suddenly transform into muggers. So perhaps it's not too surprising that bonus points can be earned by hitting or throwing bricks at innocent bystanders as well those nasty villains. The main character must leap from pavement to pavement to avoid other travellers, as well as the barriers on later levels. If the hero should collide with anyone, he has a tendency to lose his head, literally!

Perhaps, because it was (unfairly) compared to the brilliant Lightforce, this was probably underrated at the time. Shockway Rider is an original and well executed game with plenty of playability. Definitely worth a look.

FTL
£7.95

Far in the future, on the massive circle of pedestrian walkways (Shockways) surrounding the big city, the yobbos, finks, rats and scum play Shockway Rider.

The aim of this dangerous game is to ride the Shockways in a full circle around the city, without getting your head lopped off, your knees blammed out from under you, or your nose billed out of the back of your head. Grizzly stuff! There are three Shockways around the town, one moving slowly enough for you to step on from a standing start, the next one moving slightly faster, with the final outside lane going so quickly your hat blows off.

Along the side of the shockways are piles of ammo for you to fling at your punkish opponents, but in the absence of a handy missile your fists may have to do. Still, you've got to be good if you want to survive in this game. You'll have to jump, punch, fling stuff, duck, weave, weft, think, plot, draw and circle... phew!

A marvellous way to end your life on the shockway is the sub-sport of "not paying attention", especially when you reach a district with lethal hurdles to deal with. Many a rider has picked up his hat along that stretch of pathway, only to find his head in it!

It's all utterly addictive and completely unlike anything you've ever played before. It's unusual to find both originality and slick execution in a single game, but Shockway Rider has 'em. The graphics, in particular, are superb, from the three-speed scrolling to the great perspective effect when you throw a missile into or out of the screen. And the little figures are particularly natty! They run, they cheer when they get you, they splatter all over the track when they hit a hurdle. Enormous fun!

The most interesting thing about the game is the shockways themselves. They move along at different speeds, yeah? So what happens when you jump onto the next one along? The previous one goes slower, right? Yes it does. And so do the fiends who're riding it! So standing in the middle shockway, you have thugs bearing down from behind you on the fast lane, and weirdos hanging back in the slow lane, both of whom could jump onto your lane at any moment! You've got to choose where you jump very wisely, and blimmin' quickly too!

Another fine game from the FTL studio, and more than likely a future classic!

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Skinto deluxe? Then rifle thought this month's cheapies with Marcus berkmann - you might find a bargain!

Rack It
£1.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

The third of the Gargoyle releases this month is one of the most original and playable games that wacky company ever released. I don't remember how well this did in its original incarnation, but at £1.99 this is perhaps the only vital purchase of this month. Not buying this will deprive you of weeks of violent fun.

You're in the future, natch, and you reside in one of those desolate urban wastelands, full of people with wacky hairstyles, that crop up so often in SF films these days. Being a daredevil, you ride the Shockway, a sort of motorised pedestrian walkway high above the city streets. The walkway has three lanes, all going different speeds, and you jump from one to another avoiding stationary hazards, like hurdles, and moving hazards, like muggers. You grab ammo, which you fling at your punkish assailants, and they biff you about a bit as well. And, well, you stay alive.

"It's all utterly addictive and completely unlike anything you've played before," said Phil in April 1987 when he reviewed it. You could add"... or since" because it's still entirely unique. It's simple yet utterly enthralling - and I must say I'm pleased I now have a copy (Oi! Give it back! Ed) - curses. The clear and colourful graphics are quite impeccable, and it's all as fast as anything you'll see today. Still worth a megagame.

Label: Faster Than Light
Author: In-house
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joysticks: various
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Shockway Rider is the latest release from Faster Than Light, who brought us Lightforce. It looks like a brilliant conversion from some coin-op game, so ingenious is the gameplay, but I can find no precedent, it seems Faster Than Light has done the impossible and invented a really new game idea.

Shockway Rider is cheerfully violent, very gory, and utterly maddening. It's all about racing against time through city streets of the future. It features brutality towards innocent bystanders and roving gangs of thugs, there is decapitation, and the throwing of bricks and other offensive material. As you can imagine the game is a winner. The way your central character (a sort of futuristic teddy boy) calmly barges helpless pedestrians remains amusing even after the umpteenth time.

The layout is this: across the screen run three walking tracks, like the different lanes in a motorway they travel at different speeds. Each is filled with assorted pedestrians and other obstacles, chiefly police road barriers which decapitate the unwary. Ruthless but effective.

You get three minutes to complete a game area, in order to do it in that time you will have to travel in the fastest track as often as possible, in fact, you will have to continuously dodge between tracks leaping from on to the other to avoid barriers and barging everybody else out of the way. This is what makes the game, time and time again you crash into barriers because you didn't quite remember in time to change tracks...

If all this wasn't enough to worry about every so often a gang - they have charming names like the Blockboys and the Krazies - leaps out to attack you or a polkice riot scoop appears to punish wrong doers.

It isn't just highly original and utterly infectious, its also funny. Faster Than Light, in its previous guise as Gargoyle was noted for never taking itself entirely seriously. Same here, you are a somewhat incongruous looking greaser, slicked back hair an' all. The other bystanders are all similarly characterful, large sprites with plenty of detail. Very dodgy old ladies...

As you would expect, the programming generally is excellent; movement, despite the large sprites, is smooth and the animation equally excellent, check out the sequence when you knuckle someone - just like Southend seafront on a bank holiday.

The background is fairly plain but there are occasional passing billboards with the odd good joke on them and signposts that tell you how far around the current city block you have got.

Shockway Rider is simply marvellous, combining original idea, with excellent programming and a touch of good humour. What else could it be? A Classic.

MACHINES: Spectrum/Amstrad/C64
SUPPLIER: F.T.L.
PRICE: £8/95 Amstrad/C64, £7.95 Spectrum, (£13.95 all discs)
VERSION TESTED: Spectrum

If this is what the future holds for pedestrians then I'm rushing out to buy an armoured car! F.T.L., alias Gargoyle Games, has come up with yet another original and amusing offering.

Shockway Rider is set in a futuristic city where people get around on moving walkways. These walkways are dangerous places. There are muggers, street gangs, barriers and bouncing police balls!?

The objective is to guide the Shockway Rider, a rockabilly, punk type character, through eight different districts of the city. To complete a district the rider has to travel full circle on one of the hazard packed moving pavements. NOT an easy task.

The Rider is armed with bricks - which have to be replenished from time to time from "ammo-dumps". He can use these to beat off the street gangs and lob a few at innocent passers-by if you are so inclined.

But the key to the game is the speed at which you can switch "lanes" on the shockway. It's fatal to stay still for too long. There's always someone - or something - waiting to knock your block off. Literally.

Hit a barrier or tangle with a tough-guy and you could just lose your head which trundles along on the walkway minus the rest of our hero.

The sprites are big and well animated with lots of funny graphic gimmicks to keep your interest alive and kicking. Which is a whole lot easier than keeping your Rider alive and kicking, punching, brick-chucking...

Shockway isn't an easy game by any means. But it is challenging and a whole lot of fun to play. Don't expect to find it easy to start with - but persevere. It's well worth it.

It's nice to see in these days of arcade copies, shoot-'em-up clones by the score that someone can come up with a well thought out, original and playable game. It just oozes quality. Watch out for the jokes on the billboards and get your maps in to ideas Central pronto! Otherwise I'll never be able to walk alone again!

Gory in places, Shockway Rider could just be the computer game equivalent of a 2000AD comic strip. But it also has the humour of those strips which makes it even more playable. Check it out today.

THERE'S NOTHING PEDESTRIAN ABOUT GANG WARFARE ON THE 21ST CENTURY WALKWAYS.

FTL
£7.95

It's pleasing to know that nothing ever changes. Here we are, well into the 21st Century and the city's public transport system is still being terrorised by latter day Chelsea and Milwall fans! Of course, the mega-cities don't have tube trains any more, but rather a system of three walkways, moving at different speeds and split up into 12 sections as it circumnavigates the city.

You are a member of the notorious Shockway Riders - the most feared gang in the city. Athletic, aggressive and arrogant as your public relation officer lets everyone know with more than a touch of alliteration. Only one challenge remains. The ultimate one. To go 'Full Circle'. This involves travelling through all 12 zones, battling against rival gang members, the cops, the vigilantes and the much maligned but possibly most dangerous opponent of them all - the general public!

Naturally, you need some form of assistance en route, so it seems wise to help yourself from one of the many piles of bricks casually lying around. These appear to be magic bricks as your supply is unlimited within that district. The advantages of being armed with missiles are two-fold. First, you can take the opportunity to take a pot shot at the various targets that surround your route. Secondly, you can eliminate a fellow traveller/thug from a distance without having to resort to an ungentlemanly display of fisticuffs.

There are other hazards too. As you progress through the levels, barriers block one or more of the walkways. These must be dodged as they are inconveniently placed at head height and the ensuing decapitation is not a pretty sight. Fortunately, this is the 21st Century and your head will regenerate but only five times!

You can leap about at will on the walkways but hanging back is not a particularly bright idea as you leave yourself open to all sorts of sneak attacks from off screen where you can't see your adversary approaching. Any one who is any one will of course want to shun the slow moving lanes and this is reflected in the points awarded. There is also a bonus for completing a section quickly.

In order to get the feel of what's going on, there is the chance to practise any of the 12 sections before you start your journey. The game is ridiculously simple in concept but highly addictive to play. The black and white cartoon style graphics work well and the gameplay is spot on. This is FTL's second major release after Lightforce (an old office favourite) and they are showing that they are rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with.