Rainbird/Argonaut Software
£14.99/£17.99

Commander Herman Kruud is at it again. He never knows when to give up does he? After his Ergon flagship was destroyed in the original Starglider, he got a bit miffed and is now back to get revenge. This time he's taking no chances and has brought along a big space and land fleet to help him, plus he has a beam projector which is aimed at your home planet of Novenia.

Your mission is to sneak into the Ergon's planet of Apogee unarmed and destroy the beam projector before it is fully constructed. If you succeed the evil forces of Ergon in the galaxy will be set back by many years, but if you fall your home will be destroyed and the Ergons will march on and destroy every other planet and solar system to create universal domination.

You have been issued with a brand new patrol craft for this mission, the ICAFUS (Interplanetary Combat and Reconnaissance Universal Scout).

Starglider 2, as with most other Rainbird releases, comes with a novella that will probably take you a week to read before you start the game (and this only contains the story Tine!). The packaging also contains a play guide and key list: all necessary reading before you start.

The graphics, of course, are vector style, similar to Empire Strikes Back and Starstrike, but Starglider 2 has something that the other games didn't have.... You can zoom around on a planet to your heart's content, but if you get fed up just point your self up and accelerate. You soon break out of the planet's gravitational pull and zoom into space and off to another world. A word of warning though, go to near the sun and Icarus melts, and that's not a very pretty sight!

There is an excellent tune and plenty of effects to add to the atmosphere the 3-D creates, Starglider 2 is an essential purchase if you are a fan of this type of flight simulation.

NICK [90%]

Starglider2 is big, like really Big. But then, so is space. Yes, with a bit of the known universe at your disposal, It's Stargliding time again. It surprised me how different Starglider 2 is from the original - which was, essentially, a decent blaster. This sequel requires both some nifty trigger work and lateral thinking to solve the puzzles. Presentation is high, and the graphics are effective on planets and in space. Not a game to just pick up and play, but definitely one to tackle, persevere and enjoy.
RICHARD [85%]

Rainbird
£14.99 cass/£17.99 disk
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Two years have passed since the Egrons' unsuccessful invasion of the planet Novenia (or since you last loaded up Starglider). The wreckage of the fearsome Starglider fleet lies rusting in a corner somewhere, while the various freedom fighters who sorted out the Egrons sit in bars and tell long boring stories about how brave there were and yes, they'd love another drink. Could you make it a large one? (Oo-er.)

The Egrons, though, are unimpressed. Novenia for some reason that escapes me right now, gets up the Egron nose right and proper. So much so, in fact, that the decide to build a giant projector beam around the planet Millway, point it at Novenia and, well, turn it on. The idea? One less planet on the skyline and lots of happy Egrons.

Now this all seems a little unsporting to everyone on Novenia, and indeed to everyone who's not an Egron. It's time, everyone says, for a bit more freedom fighting. It's time (stirring music) for Starglider 2.

It certainly is time, as it's more than two and a half years since Starglider 1 first came out. In the meantime, though, that spanky old blaster has seen its way onto the ST and Amiga, sold a stack, and prompted a swift sequel on the 16-bitties. Now it come home to roost on the dear old Spec.

But SG2 is a different kettle of turbot to its illustrious predecessor. While SG1 was a riproaring vector graphics shoot 'em up in the great tradition of the Star Wars games, the new one is a touch more complex. There are still loads of things to zap, but there's method behind your madness now - or at least there should be, if you're planning to finish the game.

Your mission is to stop the space station (Starglider 2, as it's called) being built, and the best way to do that is to blow it up with a neutron bomb. Much of the game involves trotting around the star system, picking up useful pieces of equipment that'll help you get the neutron bomb built - if, that is, you've found the people to do the job. Some objects are just lying around, while others will need to be traded. There are six planets and God knows how many moons in the system - prepare to visit the lot.

The graphics are still in that distinctive wireframe mould, and different planets tend to be in different colours, which perks things up a bit. Inevitably some of the zappier effects on the ST version have not made it to the Spec - no solid graphics here, I'm afraid - but it's nevertheless fast and extremely playable. Between planets you can use the Stardrive, which conveniently brings journey times down to a few seconds and also helps if, for some reason, you want to run away from something. Most of the time, though, it's you who does the chasing. Many of the goodies you need can be found by blasting passing pirate ships, for when they explode they conveniently leave their cargo floating in space for you to pick up with a tractor beam. You'll also have use for any asteroids you may spy, as they can be used for refuelling purposes - pretty useful when the nearest Texaco is shut.

As for weapons, you begin with some highly efficient plasma bolts, but can pick up other things on the way. Bouncing bombs, for instance, can be very useful when you're trying to knock out projector stations on Millway's moons. But my fave is the time warp cube, which a noted scientific gentleman will give you (clue). Unlike most of the other weapons, this one doesn't run out - and it's pretty powerful too. Watch those pirates fry!

Doesn't sound too much like Starglider, though, does it? Well, no, I'd say Mercenary with nobs on is a bit nearer. As with that corky old classic, tunnels usually prove worth exploring (in the 128 version, the mazes are rather larger than in the dear ol' 48er), and it's far less violent than SF1. You can play it as a shoot 'em up, but as Rainbird says, "That's not really the idea". Still, as it's been converted by the same geezer who diid Virus for the Spec, it's no less playable than its big daddy, and possibly a little faster. You can play in one hand mode, which to be honest is a good deal less fiddly than playing with the keyboard (as I generally prefer) providing you have a decent stick. Control can be tricky at times, especially if you get out of it (control, I mean). But it's an entertaining game nevertheless - not perhaps as strikingly original as the first one was at the time (after all, we've seen Freescape since, haven't we?), but no less of a challenge.

In all, then, a good solid think-'em-up with lots of splendidly zappy bits. Those Ergons, though. Has anyone told them what a bunch of plonkers they are (ZZZZZAAPPPP!).

Label: Microprose
Author: Argonaut
Price: £14.99, £17.99 disk
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various

Not one to lie down, the Egron's have returned, and this time they're badder than ever. With a larger pirate fleet and more advanced interspace weaponry, they're just a bit more fearsome this time. The only problem is, Novenia haven't actually managed to get their space fleet into any sort of battle worthy state. After all, they did take a bit of a beating after the original Starglider.

This is where you come in. The powers that be have decided there is only one way to beat the bad guys for good, and that's to hit them with a super-powered neutron bomb. All they need now is someone to build it.

Funnily enough, there are people who are more than happy to build a bomb for you. At a price. And what a price. A huge list of items comprising flat diamonds, cans of fuel and mechanical whales are required in return for the blasty gear. And there's your game.

First of all, locate the bomb-builders. These are found in one of the tunnel networks dotted about the planet you've been plonked on at the beginning of the game. When found, these people will give you a list of items they need. Make a note, and then it's out into the wide black yonder.

So off you pop into space, to reach all the other planets and moons that litter the solar system of Novenia, and what an impressive place it is. The huge gas planet of Midway, with its moons and asteroid belt ring playing a major role in the production that is the Novenia system, second fiddle to the sun (oh, good grief - Al).

And now we move to what I consider to be the game's strongest point - the graphics. How do you convert superfast sixteen-bit colour filled vectors to a Spectrum? Simple. Use hidden line vectors rather than filled or shaded, and make the whole thing monochrome. Could it possibly work?

Indeed it does. Call me mad (well, don't) but I think the game works a lot better on the Spectrum than it did on the Amiga or ST. Now. I don't want lots of people writing in and saying "The Amiga graphics were a lot better". Yes, I know, but. the point I am trying to make, is that the game itself comes out a lot better in its eight bit incarnation.

The graphics are surprisingly fast considering there is so much going on at the same time. Other craft are 'there'. Walkers are real. Small potholes in the chequered landscapes are almost real enough to make your steering wheel shake.

And how does it play? Brilliantly. There is just so much going on, you could quite easily sit and play for hours. I love it. Mind you, I didn't like it at first. I thought it was crap. Then after I managed to get somewhere, I started to really get into it.

Although Starglider is in no way brilliant, and is far from perfect. I think it's bloody good. Worth checking out if vectors are your thing.

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO SHOOT-'EM-UPS PART 1

Where'd we all be without shoot-'em-ups, eh, Spec-chums? Well, we'd all have much smaller games collections, that's for sure! Join MATT BIELBY for an epic blast through nearly a decade of firepowered Spec-fun...

Blimey! The complete guide to shoot-'em-ups, eh? A bit of a mammoth task you might be thinking (and you'd be blooming right! It's taken me absolutely ages!). It's so blinking gigantic in fact that we've had to split it in two to save the whole ish from being packed to the gills with ancient shooty-shooty games and very little else!

So how's it all going to work? Well, this issue we spotlight those hundreds of games where you control a little spaceship, aeroplane or what have you, while next time round we'll be wibbling on for ages about those blasters where you command a man, creature or robot - things like Operation Wolf, Gryzor, Robocop (the list is endless, I'm sorry to say). Yes, I know it's a bit of an arbitrary way to divide the whole subject up in two, but it's the best I could come up.

Anyway, if you 're all ready, let's arm the missiles, oil the cannons, buckle our seatbelts and go kick some alien ass! (Or something.)

SO WHAT EXACTLY MAKES A SHOOT-'EM-UP A SHOOT-'EM-UP?

Well, at the risk of stating the obvious, it's a game where simple reaction times count for (almost) everything, and the actual shooting of various baddies constitutes the major part of the gameplay. It's just about the oldest form of computer game going (Space Invaders was pure shoot-'em-up, for instance), short of mad Victorian chappies crouching down inside big wooden cabinets and pretending to be chess machines. It's one of the most enduring forms too - hardly an issue of YS goes by when we don't review at least a couple of newies, and it's the rare arcade-style game (sports sims and puzzlers excepted) that doesn't include at least a small shoot-'em-up element in there somewhere as part of the gameplay.

But back to the case in hand. What we're talking about here are the pure shoot-'em-ups - games where the wiping out of waves of aliens or other baddies is everything (though let's be fair, the violence in most of these is very abstract and minimal). They easily divide into four major types, depending on how you view the action. And you can read all about them over the page.

THE FIRST EVER SHOOT-'EM-UP

Goodness knows - Space Invaders is the obvious answer, but most of the other early arcade games were shoot-'em-ups too - Defender, Asteroids, Galaxian and the rest. To find out what made it onto the Speccy first, well, we'll have to look back in the vaults and see what we come up with, shan't we?

Right, here we are with the very first issue of Your Spectrum (later to evolve into Your Sinclair), cover date January 1984. Flick to the review section and we have two Space invaders-type games, both from long-forgotten Anirog Software - Galactic Abductor and Missile Defence. The second issue (Feb 84. believe it or not) brings us such delights as Xark (Contrast Software), a Defender-type game and Alien Swoop (a Galaxians rip-off), while in issue three had Bug Byte's Cavern Fighter (a tunnel-based jobbie, like an early version of R-Type).

Hmm. Let's go back a bit further, shall we? All the early computer games mags were listings based (ie had lots of crap Basic games printed out line by line over oodles of pages, as if Program Pitstop had run rampant over the whole mag!) so we might find something in there. Believe it or not find something in there. Believe it or not, I have the very first issue of the very first computer games mag in the country sitting right here on my desk, cover-dated November 1981. There's only one Sinclair game in here (for a ZX80 or 81 - a Speccy forerunner - and taking up a whole 2K!). It's called City Bomb, and it's a sort of shoot-'em-up. Apparently you're in a plane at the top of the screen and have to bomb the city beneath you, flattening out a landing strip so you can put down safely. Thrilling stuff, eh? As for commercially available stuff, it's all lost a bit too far back in the mists of time to be sure. Still, shoot-'em-ups started emerging for the Speccy pretty soon after the machine came out, certainly by the end of '82. Throughout 83 people like Quicksilva and Bug Byte were churning out Space Invaders, Asteroids and Scramble clones advertised as 'being in 100% machine code and in colour' too, so perhaps it was one of those. Exciting stuff, eh?

RATINGS

In the great YS Guide To... tradition, for a one-off-only special occasion we've adapted our normal rating system to accommodate the shoot-'em-up theme. Here's how they work...

Alien-Death-Scum-From-Hell Factor
Are there oodles of inventive, nasty and extremely difficult-to-kill baddies all over the place (including the biggest, meanest muthas ever at the end of each level) or do you end up fighting a fleet of Trebor Mints?

Shopability
Are there oodles and oodles of well-thought-out and spectacular weapons available to pick up and use, or do you have to make do with the same crap little peashooter throughout the game?

Copycat Factor
Unusually, the lower the score the better here. Basically, is this exactly the same as every other shoot-'em-up ever (in which case it'll get a high score for being chronically unoriginal) or does it have something innovative and special about it to set it apart from the crowd?

Visibility Factor
Does everything make a degree of sense in Speccyvision, or is it all a jumbled mass of pixels, with bullets, missiles and even little spaceships winking in and out of view willy-nilly?

Starglider II
Rainbird

One of those gigantic strategy things that Rainbird were so fond of (and good at) doing, this boasts a massive and sophisticated shoot-'em-up element. Vector graphics traditionally just look like a bunch of squiggly lines in static screen shots like you see here, but just wait until you see this baby move! Domark's Star Wars games did something similar, but without the strategic element.