Producer: Elite
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Keith Burkhill

Anyone who is remotely familiar with amusement arcades will have heard of Space Harrier. In fact so imposing is this arcade machine that it would be very difficult to miss. The arcade version incorporates a huge hydraulic arm on which is mounted a seat and a video screen. Apparently it's quite an experience to play. Unfortunately the Spectrum version doesn't include such fancy sundries.

You control a futuristic soldier, a Space Harrier, who is pitting his witts against all manner of nasty aliens who are threatening to take over. One man against so many seems a fairly tall order. Your soldier is equipped with a jet pack and a powerful gun. This enables him to rocket about at great speeds while blasting away at the opposition.

The basic idea is to blast anything that hurtles towards your character from the back of the screen, whether it's a mean and ugly nasty or the odd bit of countryside. The person perspective action scrolls towards the player at a fair old rate. All the aliens zoom in from the far distant horizon and your soldier has to swoop and duck around blasting them out of the skies. Apart from the many monsters there are also landscape features that have to be avoided. Trees, rocks and large stone obelisks shoot out to meet you and then must be maneuvered around if success is to be yours.

There are sixteen levels to the game. Each one is identified by its distinctive colouring and different graphics. In the later levels the action gets quite furious with inanimate objects hurling at you. The Space Harrier must blast his/her way through all the nasties on a particular level, amassing the biggest score possible. At the end of each level there is a super baddie or baddies who must be conquered before your little soldier sets his feet down on the ground again and awaits the perils of the next level.

Although the majority of the demons in this game are nasty there is an exception. If you get up to level ten, a cute cuddly dragon appears who is obviously very friendly. When he appears in the later levels your Space Harrier gets to ride on his back and together they wreak havock on the attacking monsters. Gone is his powerful laser and the Harrier and his dragonesque mate simply drive into the approaching monsters and destroy them that way. In fact, huge bonus scores can be achieved on this level Your Space Harrier has nine lives in the game. One of these is lost every time he gets shot by one of the monsters. For those that know the Arcade version intimately, the ending is along the same lines.

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable, up, down, left, right, fire
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: pretty damn fast
Use of colour: vivid
Graphics: amazing perspective effect
Sound: the occasional spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: sixteen scrolling arenas

Wow! This game moves at a pace! The first level is fairly easy, but even that's hectic first time through, but as you start to clock levels, things really do start getting fast. The score table gave me a massive shock the first time I saw it, but I was fairly pleasantly surprised when my scores went into seven figures after ten minutes playing. Although It's quite easy, Space Harrier isn't the worst ELITE conversion, and though being far from the best, might be worth considering if you're a big fan of the arcade version.

The graphics on the arcade version were always what people talked about - but the Spectrum version has tried to make them too detailed, and the result looks very messy indeed. I found that it was very hard to see what was coming up the screen at you - and the difference between the missiles and obstacles was very little when moving at such a speed as it does. To me the Spectrum version shows how little actual game is in Space Harrier. I got very bored with it after only a few games. As far as I'm concerned, ELITE can give the seat away with it, and I still wouldn't buy the game.

I really liked Space Harrier in the arcades but only because the machine itself jerked around on hydraulics so you got a really good sense of motion when you moved about on screen (experience not to be no. 346). This is not at all a bad version of the original, it plays at high speed and it is quite compelling. The graphics are well above average but they do tend to get a little messy at times. Your character is well drawn but I feel that he could have a few more poses to complete the flying effect. The sound is average-ish, there are no tunes and the effects are mediocre only. This is yet another good shoot 'em up this issue seem to be full of them (horay!).

Ensore
£2.99 (rerelease)

You're the hero chosen to save the Dragon Land, which has been occupied by the barbaric and evil creatures controlled by some weird supernatural phenomenon. Battle your way through hordes of aliens and fight the evil end-of-level monsters - all in glorious 3-D!

As a conversion of the Sega arcade machine, Space Harrier is really good. The 3-D scrolling play area of the coin-op has been converted as well as it could be. But when you think about it, it's all just a glorified space invaders game! The shading the programmer has used on the play area gets a bit hard on the eyes after a while, but this isn't much of a problem. It could have been put right by only using colours that look good together but green and purple, please!

One thing that lots of these re-released games don't have is sound! Space Harrier has one blip when the player fires at an alien. The rest of the time you have to put up with complete silence. Perhaps you could sing the latest Kylie Minogue single to make the game a bit more exciting!

Space Harrier was a fantastic game back in 1986, but I'm afraid it hasn't stood the test of time too well. The continual blasting soon gets a bit boring.

Elite
£7.95

Space Hurrier would've been a better name for this one, because Elite's conversion of one of my fave blast-everything-that-moves games is F-A-S-T!

Then again, I'd also go for Space Worrier, because a mission like this is sure to give even the spaciest warrior a few sleepless nights. But let the instructions tell it like it is!

'Our hero, a seasoned veteran of many spacewars, is on the scene again. This time to save the Dragon land that's occupied by evil barbaric creatures and controlled by supernatural phenomena.'

Better get your drag on then, if you're to beat such evil creatures as fire-spitting flowers and giant stone heads. And as for those supernatural phenomena... well, Gwyn reckons they're just a dotty bit of translation from the Japanese, but they sure gave me the willies. It's yet another case of they-said-it-couldn't-be-done-ism, but take it from me., Space Hairier would've been a fitting name because you won't get much hairier action than flying across the chequerboard Dragon land. See those squares just scroll from under you as you skim across the plain to an ever distant horizon.

Those wretched phenomena are hurling everything they've got at you, and it won't do any good calling Ghostbusters! You'll just have to slide and keep your finger on the trigger as they blast you with blocks and fireballs. Our hero moves as smoothly as you could wish - but so do the deadly forces. Surely it can't be quite so perfect? After all, this is a conversion of a state of the art game with a megabyte of memory into a cramped 48K, beset by attribute problems. Well, obviously the graphics lose out. Clever though they are, at times your mono hero can get lost against the range of hills on the horizon and the rush hour surge of attackers.

This reduces the playability a bit, and maybe adds an element of pure chance that wasn't there in the original. A pity, too, that the arcade game's facility to drop in another coin and take over where you left off hasn't been included.

The sounds good though, lacking only sufficient amplification. The only other thing that I can think of that's missing is the famous moving seat. However, here's a playing tip that even Hex Loader hasn't considered. Take one YS office chair and one screwdriver. At the base of the chair you'll find four screws. Remove three of them. There you are - all the movement you could ask for. Just remember to replace them before T'zer sits... CRASHH'!!

(Where's that gormless oaf Smith? I'll show her a supernatural phenomenon she'll never forget. Ed).

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Cheaper than a speeding bullet. Leaps small molehills in a single bound. Is it a bird? Is it a small piece of putty? No, it's budget hero Marcus Berkmann with the latest in low-price Spec-fun.

Encore
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Cor, is it that long ago? In fact, it's the best part of three years since we were all drooling and dribbling over this coin-op conversion, mainly because we'd spent the previous six months getting even dribblier over the actual coin-op. Those streams of weird and wonderful spaceships flying at you in almost balletic formations, the speed of at all, the sheer originality - well, I spend a few quid down the arcades on this one, I can tell you. And three years later, it's still a good blast, even though the legendary limitations of the 48K beermat makes it rather less spectacular than purists might hope. The glorious rushing colours of the coin-op are replaced by the Speccy's usual monochrome, although the chequered ground pattern, so effective in giving the illusion of speed, remains intact. Still, original it remains, which means a good blast for anyone so inclined (eg me).

Label: Elite
Author: In-house
Price: £8.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Space Harrier exceeds even Gauntlet in terms of ultimate arcade credibility. It presents state of the art - even psychedelic - graphics in a landscape utterly strange. Abstract and yet tremendously believeable. The coin-op machine features incredible hydraulic rams which twist and turn the cockpit in which you sit according to the movements of your joystick. The result is an incredible sensation of movement and a big adrenalin high.

What happens when you try to do that on a Spectrum? Surely it must be the most difficult conversion imaginable.

Elite has the licence for the game and the Spectrum version is a remarkable technical achievement.

It manages to do a fair impression of the strange grid - like landscape of the original which scrolls towards your figure, seemingly animate objects in three dimensions - the Chinese dragon is excellent - and most significantly, do the whole thing at speed and without an abundance of attribute clash.

The original game has seventeen levels, the Spectrum version has 'more than ten' Most of the elements of the original are retained: frogs, rocks, the peculiar looking mushrooms, and of course the swirling, tail-twisting oriental carnival dragon.

The remarkable dragon, first seen in the second screen is constructed from a dozen or more segments, each drawn in a kind of outline form and carefully positioned and animated to give the impression of movement firstly out of the distance and also along its length.

The best aspects of Elite's conversion are the central figure and the weird tilting landscape. Your man is large and fully detailed and does a particularly effective tumble when toppled by a roving mushroom, brick or similar object. The floor tilt - when the whole landscape seems to change in perspective - is recreated lovingly.

So is this a rave review? I have some doubts. For five minutes I thought this game was definitely classic material. After ten I wasn't so sure After fifteen I had real problems. The hitch is the gameplay.

It is quite possible to score vast amounts and get through a lot of screens (I did four, no trouble) very early on just by positioning yourself just off centre and stabbing the fire button as fast as you can I felt, not being once of those arcade wizzes who always get the high score on anything on the first attempt, that I did too well. The sense of challenge was already beginning to wane and I felt that there really wasn't really very much strategy to be developed.

For a while, it is astonishingly thrilling and I dare say other magazines will give it all sorts of mega awards.

I think that it may not have much staying power.

Label: Encore
Author: Burkhill
Price: £2.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Originally written by the team behind Ghost'n'Goblins and Commando, Space Harrier was regarded as a very ambitious conversion of the Sega coin-op when it first appeared, and was largely well-received despite some criticism that the graphics were difficult to make out.

Things haven't improved with age (these things don't, you know), but the game still stands up pretty well, especially since Space Harrier II has just appeared, and doesn't really fare much better.

As your valiant space knight flies through the interstellar void zapping endless hordes of boogers flying towards him, the perspective graphics struggle to retain the wonderfulness of the original coin-op; of course, they don't manage, but they have a jolly good try. The flickering chessboard ground pattern is hypnotic, and the backgrounds scroll smoothly in all directions, while the giant flying heads, serpents and whirling bladey things, inevitably depicted in mono, move so fast that it's really just a matter of hammering the fire button and hoping you hit something.

There isn't much time to aim and fire; and if you're hit by a flying meteor and drop senseless to the ground, your usual reaction will be 'Where the $!&$!did that come from!' in effect the game's very fast and frantic, but there doesn't seem to be much skill involved.

The end-of-level baddies are rather wonderful, and at this price it's worth getting Space Harrier if only because it might save you having to fork out a lot more on Space Harrier II. But don't tell Grandslam!

MACHINE: Spectrum, Amstrad, C64/128
SUPPLIER: Elite
PRICE: £7.95 (Spectrum), £8.95 Amstrad, £9.95/£14.95 (C64/128)
VERSIONS TESTED: Spectrum/Amstrad

There's only one way to play Space Harrier. That's with the lights turned down low and some really LOUD music blasting your eardrums to pulp. That way you can experience the weirdness of this game to the full.

It's fast, it's slick and it's the most fun you'll have with your Spectrum this year.

Keith Burkhill has done an astounding job on the Spectrum version - and the Amstrad and C64 versions are equally as awesome.

Space Harrier took the arcades by storm thanks to spectacular graphics and the incredible hydraulic action on the coin-op specials.

OK, so the computers around at the moment can't capture the graphic quality of the original or sit you on a moving seat to reproduce the movements of a jet-pack trooper.

But they can capture the spirit and all the fast action of this abstract shoot 'em-up.

The basic idea of the computer game and the coin-op is to fly your jet-powered trooper through fast scrolling landscapes packed with creatures which could well have jumped out of a Salvidor Dali painting.

You have to zap the creatures to survive. There are rock heads, space ships, swirling elephant like things and of course the huge double headed dragons.

You get a dragon at the end of each level which must be destroyed if you are to progress to the next level. And you get a real kick out of blasting the thing - especially as it's probably knocked YOU down a few times already. You'll need several well aimed shots on target to get rid of these beasties.

The fast scrolling is smooth, and the impression of moving across the chequered landscape is near perfect. Keith has managed to get the tilting feeling as you move your trooper across the screen just about right.

Despite the speed of the game the graphics are almost flicker free.

Because of the graphic limitations of the Spectrum it's sometimes hard to tell just what is coming at you. But the C64 and Amstrad versions will have solid graphics.

You score by staying alive. The numbers roll around at the bottom of the screen. And there's a nice scrolling hi-score chart which appears at the end of each session.

You get eight lives to begin with - and an extra one at the end of each zone. Especially when you first load up the game.

Animation of the space trooper is nice. He runs and zaps around the alien skies smoothly.

The only thing really lacking from Spectrum Harrier is sound. That's why you need that loud driving rock music to keep things truckin' right along.

Some other magazine, which should remain nameless but we'll call Sinclair Us*r, reckoned that it was easy to get through the first few levels. That's cos they were playing a preview version The real thing 'aint easy at all.

Here at C+VG we can't wait to get our hands on a finished C64 version from Elite's Chris Butler.

Space Harrier is a sure fire smash, it's a must for made addicts.

Encore
Spectrum, C64, Amstrad £1.99

Enter the Fantasy Zone, be the doer of derring and generally get up to all sorts of jet-packin' fun in the first of this month's two re-releases from Elite's budget label. The world of the Space Harrier is a first-person perspective 3D landscape, where weird and wonderful fauna and flora patrol the checkerboard pastures - and they've gone berserk. So power up your jet pack, load your photon cannon and defeat the beasties before they take over the Fantasy Zone.

What made this game a hit in the arcades was the hydraulic chair and, as it's notable by its absence in these conversions, the game doesn't have the same appeal. Especially when you consider the fact that all gameplay consists of is shooting assorted baddies.