Producer: Visions
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Simon Ffinch

S.O.S. stands for Save Our Souls, the international distress signal. You may already know this, but if you don't the learned intro on the cassette blurb will tell you. In this case the S.O.S. is coming from stranded astronauts on a planet surface and it's your job to fly a shuttle down to the ground and rescue them.

From this you will already have gathered that what we have here is another 'Rescue' or 'Lunar Lander' type of game. In this version the animated mothership is quite large. Your shuttle is equipped with a thruster and laser fire which shoots a beam out in the direction of vertical movement. It's needed because there are asteroids in plenty on the way down and firing aliens on the way back up. Each astronaut, there are six, must be rescued one at a time by landing on one of three platforms on the planet's surface. With each landing the platforms are reduced in usefulness, thus reducing your choice of landing sites as each rescue is carried out.

Progressing to harder screens, there are more aliens to dodge and pulsing stars appear at the edges of the landing sites, making the final approach more difficult. Points are scored for space debris shot to pieces and for the rescue of the stranded astronauts.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z/X left/right, N to fire. M to thrust
Joystick: Kempston, ZX 2
Keyboard play: reasonable layout and responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: good
Sound: in space no one can hear you scream, but these aliens are fairly noisy
Skill levels: 1 but with progressive difficulty
Lives: 3
Originality: there have already been at least four versions before this one

It does get a bit hard to determine the value and worth of a game like this because one has seen so many versions of it. I remember Silversoft's one being quite good. This version does have some nice animated aliens with plenty of variation and colour. The shuttle moves rather well and can put on quite a turn of speed when necessary. I would say this is the hardest to play I've come across. I thought, perhaps, it was a bit unplayable in fact, but once you get used to the alien movement it improves. I find 'Lander' games of medium addictivity, and I suppose it's a matter for personal taste really, but I think this is a pretty good version for the Spectrum.

At first this looks like a normal 'Lunar Lander' that has been jazzed up a bit with animated graphics, but as it turns out, it is an exceptionally aggressive version. This game isn't fun at first because it is too difficult, but as your skill improves, so does the fun. I think they've made the first screen too hard to be enticing. The graphics are unusual and varied and colour has been well used. But essentially this is a 'Lunar Lander ', and if you like the game type, you'll probably enjoy this tough version, but generally I would say it isn't worth bothering with otherwise, because the game isn't original enough.

The best version I've seen on the Spectrum, with colourful aliens and meteors that move smoothly in all directions. I particularly like the way your rescued colonist falls out of the shuttle if you fail to dock accurately with the mother ship! Very painful. S.O.S. is quite tricky to play because of the proliferation of aliens, and therefore manages to hold the attention well. Quite addictive.

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS

MAKER: Visions
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.95

Hey, man! What's this! None other than my old pub pal, Lunar Lander long time no play, eh? Just when I'd thought all the old faithfuls had tottered off to that great arcade avenue in the sky, up crops this ol' dog decked out new technicolour threads. Never fear though, the game plan remains pretty much unchanged.

Those dang humanoids are STILL stranded on that alien moon and it's STILL your job - no promotion - to pilot a lander down through rolling clouds of monsters and meteors in order to pick 'em up. Unfortunately, not only is this rescue job STILL intrinsically boring but, in this guise, it's also hampered by poor design. The first screen is so difficult it promptly kills off whatever vague historical interest the game might still hold; we're talking archeology here! Avoid.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Sinc
FROM: Visions, £5.95

Such is the foolishness of space travellers.

I mean, there I was peacefully enjoying myself after a mining expedition in deep space when suddenly a distress call sounded on the main computer. The scanners read that it was coming from what was thought to be a lifeless lump of rock.

Being an inquisitive sort of human I decided to investigate. I put the ship into geostationary (I don't know what it means, but it sounds good) orbit. I hopped into the landing craft and thrust out into the planet's atmosphere.

Oh no, there's alien ships. Move left, right, fire, fire, Help! - I'm going to be hit... AAAAAHHHH!!!... And so continues the story in this Lunar Lander-style game.

The idea is to fly down from your spacecraft to the numerous landing pads on the planet's surface. Sounds easy? Well, there's one small problem and that's the numerous inhabitants of the planet who are not too keen on you invading their territory. They throw themselves at you in wave after wave,

These aliens have been painstakingly drawn in tremendous detail with superb movement. Not only do the various rocks and other weird 'things' move across the screen but they also spin internally. Don't get distracted though - you've got to do some fast blasting!

Sound is poor being almost non-existent, with a faint hum when using the 'thrust' button. The explosion effects are marvellous, however.

An average game with good graphics, although I feel the depiction of the rescued man could have been improved greatly. Surely he should run up and shake your hand after all you've done for him?

A mysterious title and excellent loading screen belie the fact that this is really nothing more than a lacklustre version of Lunar Lander.

Graphically it is quite pretty and the movement is fairly smooth, but why on earth is your lander launched from what appears to be a cats head? Soundwise it is the same - adequate but uninspired.

However my biggest gripe with this game is the way each wave of obstacles is identical, right down to the way they move.

Still, Lunar Lander fanatics might enjoy it. As for me, I could find much better things to do with a fiver. Like Origami.

PETER WALKER

A combination of fast shoot-'em-up and smooth, colourful graphics makes SOS a rapidly addictive game.

All levels are fairly similar and this detracts somewhat from the overall playability. It's extremely difficult (try getting back to the mothership from the middle plateau) but at the same time great fun.

Will this sell in huge quantities? I doubt it, but if you enjoy a game that mixes skill with fast action this should interest you.

MARTYN SMITH