Producer: DK'Tronics
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: K. Larter

Speed Duel is DK Tronics contribution to the elusive Spectrum version of the famous 'Pole Position' type game, where you roar around a race track in pursuit of, or pursued by, other racing cars in an attempt to reach the finish line first.

This version features solid 3D graphics, complete with bends, moving horizon and the road seen in perspective. There is a choice of five circuits to choose from and you can race against a choice of computer cars ranging from one to five.

COMMENTS

Control keys: CAPS/Z left/right, SYM SHIFT/SPACE brake/accelerate
Joystick: unstated
Keyboard play: difficult
Colour good
Graphics: reasonable 3D
Sound: average, continuous
Lives: 5
Screens: 4 with scrolling

Overall, the graphics aren't bad, with quite a large car, though smaller than the ones, in Grand Prix Driver or Road Racer, a bright blue road with centre lines, clouds in the sky and black mountains in the distance. The road is in perspective, but it doesn't narrow down all that much before hitting the horizon. There are no gears to change, which should make the game easier to play, but in fact the car tends to be very uncontrollable, wobbling from left to right much too quickly.

The graphics are fairly smooth and there's a good use of colour too. You must complete 3 circuits of the track before the computer's cars. This is more difficult than I first thought because bends come upon you and allow no time to think. This makes the game rather unrealistic. On top that of you travel at not more than 50 m.p.h. or you end up in a mangled heap of steel and rubber! An important point to make is that the cassette inlay says this is a 16K and 48K game, but on the cassette itself it clearly says 48K only. Which is it?

There's quite a lot of good detail in this version, although I still think Road Racer is better. The choice of circuits and opponents is a good touch. The graphics are reasonable and the 3D works about as well as any other spectrum version, but it was irritating that you kept crashing when your car hadn't even touched the edge of the road sometimes. This seems to depend on your angle to the verge, and I presume the program is reading character blocks, so that sometimes you actually have collided when it looks as if you haven't. A reasonable racing game, but only an average game.

Producer: D K Tronics, 48K
£5.95 (2)
Author: K Larter

Another 'Pole Position' version for the Spectrum. This features solid 3D graphics complete with bends, moving horizon and the road seen in a reasonable sort of perspective. There are five circuits to race on and a choice of racing against one to five cars. Your car has savage acceleration, and becomes almost instantly uncontrollable on the tight bends. Crashes seem to happen when you haven't even touched the edge of the road. The graphics (character blocks) are fairly smooth and the colour and detail are good. Sensible keys, no joystick option, generally average value, overall CRASH rating 56% m/c.