Producer: Quicksilva
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Bill Witts

The Official Atari approved version of the popular arcade game. 'Insist on the original version, accept no substitutes', shouts the inlay of Battlezone. Very little other detail is given on the inlay (although the loading screen helpfully informs you that instructions and keyboard controls will be given immediately after the auto-run demo). What has happened to the justly famed Quicksilva absurd scenario? Is this lack an indication that Atari didn't approve or a case that under their new masters (ASP) Quicksilva have taken a turn for the serious? In any event it seems a shame, and an indication of Atarian sluggishness, that one of their most popular arcade games should be converted to a home micro in time to be at the tail end of a whole series of similar games.

Battlezone surely requires no introduction (serious one that is). The Spectrum version comes complete with tanks, flying saucers and missiles and uses the keyboard to simulate caterpillar track movement, which is to say that the two top quarters control forward movement on left and right tracks, while the two bottom quarters control reverse movement on left and right tracks. This means that you can move forward or backward in a straight line, turn slowly or spin faster on the spot by using opposed quarters diagonally. The screen display shows a mountainous backdrop (including an unanimated volcano) with a few objects here and there which may be used as shields. Above the viewscreen is the radar, an indication of enemy to the left or right, whether the enemy is in range, and the score lines.

COMMENTS

Control keys: left track: 1-5 & Q-T forward - A-G & CAPS-V reverse. Right track: 6-9 & Y-P forward - J-ENTER & B-SPACE reverse, with zero to fire
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: layout works well, positive
Use of Colour: just green and purple
Graphics: quite good line graphics, reasonably smooth
Sound: continuous, above average
Skill levels: 1 with some progressive difficulty
Lives: 3
Screens:
Special features:

Atari have let QS do this official version. It's a good version, but there are already good versions available. I feel all Battlezone fans will have already got a good version of this; and as this is no better, there is hardly any need to get it. On the other hand, if you haven't got one yet, then you couldn't go far wrong here. I found this version to be rather playable.

Finally an Atari game for the Spectrum, but it's only Atari approved, not Atari made. The graphics are up to the arcade original standard, and the colours are the same - so making it a little dull to look at. The game features some nice touches like when the credits appear at the beginning of the game. This is a good 'Battlezone' game but I still feel Realtime's Tank Duel is better, containing better colour and detailed backgrounds which this game lacks - and this one's more expensive too. Overall - good, and the real McCoy.

Wire frame graphic games either turn you on, or they don't. There aren't all too many variations on the theme and there have been quite a few already on the Spectrum, so it seems odd to me that Quicksilva should have chosen to release this, the officially approved version of Battlezone, right now. As a game on its own merits it is a good one. I like the fact that the tanks etc. appear as soon as you have destroyed the previous one - there's none of that hanging around waiting for another target. The game also builds up nicely with the first few tanks being easy to hit, but they get cleverer and nastier as time goes by. The graphics are neat, if uninteresting looking, and they move smoothly enough, though not always fast enough for my taste. Yes, it's a good version but its Official stamp from Atari doesn't do anything special for it.

Ross: This is the Atari approved version and as such, is a very competent copy of the original. Quicksilva must be on its knees praying there's still someone left who's waited for the 'official' Battlezone, but after all the copies there've been, there can't be many!

The game itself contains all the features you'd expect, including some very clever missiles. You get to control a tank, trundling across a flat plain that's occasionally littered with large cubes and pyramids. A radar at the top of the screen shows the position of approaching enemy vehicles, and messages pop up on the left to let you know when an enemy is in range (although they'll probably send you an explosive reminder!).

The controls take a little getting used to; they stimulate the two-level controls as used by the arcade game, rather than the standard joystick layout. The line drawing of the graphics is, as Quicksilva claims, fast - and this is probably the best version I've played on the Spectrum. Honest! 3/5 MISS

Dave: Well, if you haven't already got a copy of this game, this is the one to get. Not only is it the 'official' Atari version... but it's as good as any I've seen! 2.5/5 MISS

Roger: Quite a reasonable training aid for both Panzer crews and London's taxi drivers. Definitely a hit. 3/5 HIT

BATTLE OF THE TANKS

BATTLEZONE
Memory: 48K
Price: £6.95
Joystick: Kempston

3D TANK DUEL
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor

It would have been better if Atari had not given its permission to Quicksilva to produce Battle Zone as the game is no better than the original arcade version. Many companies at least try to add a new element to such games or put something extra into the graphics.

If by now you have not heard of the game the object is to move your tank around a landscape in which other tanks, space craft and flying saucers are on the prowl.

The bare instructions, found in the game and not on the cassette insert, tell you to hide behind objects which are littered around so that the enemy cannot see you before you make your move. The movement of your tank is difficult to master as the tank is on tracks. If you press the lefthand side of the keyboard the left track moves forward, shifting the tank right, and if you push the righthand keys the tank moves left. Time to reach for the Kempston joys- tick.

Forward movement shows the clumsiness of the 3D graphics which are inferior to the original. Outlines crack up, objects jerk when they move and missiles on target do not always score a hit.

While no better than Battlezone the Real Time Software 3D Tank Duel does have a coloured landscape, the former being only green and black. The standard of graphics is slightly better than the Quicksilva version and the action is smoother but the tanks, spaceships and flying saucers move faster than your gun sights which will cause a problem if you are lucky enough not to have played the game before.

The instructions and key layout are better than the Quicksilva version so at least you can use the cassette insert if you need reminding about controls during play.

Neither of these games have much to recommend them except that you do not have to pay 50 pence a time to play in an arcade. If you are after classic original arcade simulations then both games are good buys. If you want excitement from your computer then just pass them by.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Quicksilva
PRICE: £6.95

Battlezone was originally an Atari arcade game.

You are in charge of a tank and your mission is to destroy the enemy tanks.

Like the original, the graphics on the Spectrum version are made up of straight lines which are used to draw all the banks and missiles.

Some clever programming means that the objects come towards you in 3D, with the computer performing what's known as hidden line removal. This means making sure that if one side of a tank is obscured by something, the invisible part is not drawn on screen.

With Ouicksilva's game, the graphics are all drawn in green on a black screen with the background the same colour. At the top, the score panel is in purple but still on black.

Realtime's version is called 3D Tank Duel and has different background colours for the land and the sky.

The 3D movement is the key a good version Battlezone and I found Realtime's the smoother. Both games have blocks which you can use as shields and moving in and out of them produced some good effects.

Realtime's also has some special features. Pressing the 4 key will copy the screen to a printer which will give you a print of the high score table if you want one.

Control for both games is via keyboard or joysticks. You look at the radar at the top of the screen and manoeuvre your tank accordingly. There are four keys used to move the tank - two for each track. Each can be moved forwards or backwards so to turn round at double speed you move one track in each direction.

So which one to buy? Frankly, I think that Realtimes 3D Tank Duel just comes Out top and, at £1.45 less than the official Quicksilva offering, it's better value.

MAKER: Quicksilva Software
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.95

One of the arcade greats this, and in an Atari-approved version. Battlezone is probably the earliest attempt at a game with a true 3-D feel, and in the arcade it succeeded rather well.

We find ourselves in charge of a tank trundling around a barren desert. In the far distance are a range of mountains which sadly can never be reached. Enigmatic solids: cubes; pyramids, and oblong boxes are strewn around. This unprepossessing ground is contested by enemy tanks, flying saucers, missiles and other machines. It being essential to zap them before they make scrap metal out of you, you are equipped with a radar scope to warn you of enemies behind and to the side, and a forward gun sight which changes shape when the enemy is bracketed.

Enemy machines are drawn in wire graphics, so everything has a ghostly transparency, which adds to the eerie atmosphere. This version is much jerkier than the arcade model, but it's a tricky bit of programming. The big let down is the total lack of documentation. It didn't take me long to figure out how to turn the tank, but forward and backward motion took a little longer. In fact the controls are rather like those on a real tank. Q and P make the left and right tracks run forward and Z and space backward, so you turn by running one track forwards while the other is stopped or running backwards. The zero key fires the gun.

Very playable once you know how, but really, Quicksilva, we're not all telepathic you know.