Producer: CRL
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: Pete Cooke

The immediate threat is over. Tau Ceti III is safe once more thanks to the efforts of a single brave pilot in a skimmer. Now Galcorp have different needs. Skimmer pilots are evidently useful and they may be needed for similar missions in the future. New pilots will enter the Academy and train in highly developed simulators to learn the skills of a skimmer pilot. To graduate, they will need to successfully complete twenty different missions in five groups of four.

The game is fairly massive so a multi-load format is used (though 128K users have a single load option). On loading, the player is presented with an options menu: play the mission currently selected, choose a different mission, select the type of skimmer to be used, receive a progress report, see the tape menu, enter a new cadet or re-define the keys.

Most of these options themselves lead to sub-menus. Selection of the various on-screen options is achieved by moving a pointer over the required feature and then confirming the choice with a keypress. The pointer is used throughout the game.

The player can input personal details for the progress reports, and get outlines of each of the missions from the Galcorp computer. Details of the star system along with a graphic of the main planet, are provided. In the mission analysis, the computer recommends a particular skimmer for the operation. The reason for this is that the three different skimmers in the game are each fitted out slightly differently, and specialised equipment is needed under different circumstances.

Apart from the three predesigned skimmers, the player may design new skimmers by selection of the relevant option from the main menu. All the devices available have cost and weight factors. The skimmer may use any combination of devices so long as the finished vehicle weighs no more than 100 tonnes and costs 100 Mega-credits or less. The freedom of choice is substantial. Players may select various missiles or bombs, the relative strengths of lasers, shields and power units and various other options. When a 'legal' design has been selected, that skimmer's control screen layout can be customised. All designs may be saved to tape for later use.

Once a mission is entered, play then proceeds in a fashion similar to Tau Ceti with shaded images of vehicles and buildings appearing on the viewscreen surrounded by instrumentation. Some changes are evident. Occasional lightning flashes strike the landscape and some of the planetary settings are 'tidally locked' worlds where the lighting is strangely altered.

Each mission requires different tactics. Some involve the obliteration of everything in sight. Others require the use of special weaponry after a long search. One such scenario highlights a new weapon, the delay bomb. Designed to penetrate armour too strong for missiles, the bomb is dropped on a target and gives about ten seconds for the skimmer pilot to fly clear, before blowing up everything in the vicinity.

Another addition are mines. These come in two varieties, very nasty and lethal. The only way to deal with these is to either give them a wide berth, or use a mine supressor. These things are often dotted around the landscape, and can be propelled by firing at them with lasers. These as their name suggests stop mines going off.

Only experience will show which ships and buildings are susceptible to lasers or missiles. All in all there are 36 different types of objects you may see flying around the screen. Some missions are devised to require manoeuvrability, so good ship designs are needed.

If your skimmer is lost or the mission seems doomed, it can simply be entered again from the main menu. Once over 90% is scored, it has been successfully completed. With twenty missions, that's a lot of training...

And just as a little freebie, Pete has stuck a little program on the end which gives a starmap. It's well worth a look, and allows you to scroll around the night sky highlighting different constellations and finding the position of named stars.

COMMENTS

Control keys:
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: slick
Use of colour: limited
Graphics: fast
Sound: a few effects
Skill levels: four
Screens: one

Academy has taken some of the best points of Tau Ceti and improved on them. The variety of play and challenge is fantastic. The presentation is amongst the slickest I've seen and attention to detail is most impressive. The only thing that might put people off is the fact that when you're carrying out a mission, there's not that much to tell it apart from its predecessor. I think that most people will be happy with the more subtle intricacies of play. Pete Cooke has taken a good program the best way he could - upwards. And that must have been difficult.

I really disliked Tau Ceti as the task that you had to complete was awesomely huge, Academy seems to have solved this problem by having lots of little(ish) problems which get progressively harder. So it all becomes a lot less hopeless to try and complete and you are introduced to the various aspects of the game gently. Graphically this game equals Tau Ceti but does no more to enhance the already splendiferous worlds created by Peter Cooke. The sound is no real improvement on the original, but the effects used are nice all the same. All in all I found this a much more pleasing game to play that its parent as I'm sure you will.

Wow! This game is really amazingly good. The menu system is superb, and the ability to redefine the characteristics of a skimmer is excellently done. The game graphics, while being similar to those of Tau Ceti, are still brilliantly rendered, and the whole thing is just extremely playable. I like it a lot. Loads of colour is plastered around the screen; even though the playing area is monochrome, the overall impression is one of far more colour than there is. It is playable and addictive with stacks of missions, and a wide range of possibilities for skimmer alteration. Well worth buying, Academy is one of my favourite games of the moment.

CRL
£9.95

So you completed your training, eh? You thought that was tough, wait till you see what Galcorp have got lined up for you this semester, wiseguy! Four tough scenarios to be going on with, plus another 16 or so to come in a multi load format, CRL's leading game is going from strength to strength.

You play the part of an ace skimmer pilot, who's legendary skill as a fighter has landed him in the unenviable position of being a sort of intergalactic troubleshooter. Since he was so successful in clearing up the Tau Ceti problem, he's now been sent to trouble spots all over the universe, to zap the offending aliens on whatever planet he happens to be despatched to. To assist him, he has a choice of the best skimmers available to Galcorp, plus the opportunity to design his own if he feels they're not up to scratch.

Just when you thought it was safe to hop back into your inner skimmer, summink like this comes along. As if the Tau Ceti universe wasn't large enough already, they have to go and add 20 new planets (with all their attendant problems) to it. Redesigning and naming your own ships is a lot of fun. I've just made two new ships, subtly blended to my own taste, the so-so GCS SINCLAIR and the mighty GCS FRANTIK. You can select the equipment on the ship and (the best bit) design the control panel, arranging the sexy little dials and displays so you've got room to hang your furry dice up.

Supplied with the master program are missions that are very tough indeed and considering there's four of them, it's gonna take you a real long time to master them all. Enough of a challenge to keep you in sleepless nights (if that's what you crave, pervy) until the data for the remaining 16 mega tough assignments becomes available. Although this was a pre-release copy, I've seen enough to make me think that Tau Ceti II, as well as being an honest to god hit, is going to make Tau Ceti I look like a pleasure cruise.

Label: CRL
Author: Pete Cooke
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Tau Ceti is - even today - CRLs finest hour. It not only sold a lot of copies but changed the image of the company considerably. It was instant credibility. Now we have Academy which is, effectively, Tau Ceti II.

Tau Ceti was all 3D Elite style line graphics, skimming across an alien planet's surface blasting things.

Academy is Tau Ceti massively expanded and improved. Instead of one single plot, the game has dozens of separate missions loaded in groups of four. You not only select a mission but also the equipment with which to tackle it - deciding according to what features will be necessary to cope with the planetary conditions and whatever obstacles could be involved.

This time you can build your own skimmer. How you construct it changes the gameplay. It affects the entire screen layout - information displays, position of cockpit 'window' on the outside world etc. It also effects in a noticeable way the handling characteristics of the ship.

Selection of missions and skimmer design are all accomplished by menu. Mission information includes a nifty picture of the planet involved and technical read- outs indicating the task ahead of you and giving practical advice.

Some missions are very specific - one in the first section requires you to shut down a reactor. Other missions are obvious. The one called 'If it Moves' requires nothing more than the complete destruction of everything that isn't you (more or less). You win when you amass an over 90 per cent score - that's a lot of killing. It provides a nice brutally violent first mission to get you going.

Different planets actually look different. 'If it Moves' features a planet with continuous lightening storms flashing across the sky. Other planets have giant suns filling the horizon or other unique touches.

The basic look of the game is similar to Tau Ceti. The same ultra-smooth movement, the same shaded geometric shapes representing buildings and enemy craft presented with one of the most convincing 3D routines I've seen on the Spectrum.

It isn't all shooting - there are places to dock to restore energy levels, make repairs and get new equipment. As with Tau Ceti, you dock just by flying towards a suitable building and lining up with a rectangular hatch. In some missions there are buildings which have to be entered without permission - this involved code breaking.

Flight controls are joystick plus keyboard for height and the launching of missiles, AMMS (anti missile missiles for when somebody else launches something at you) and flares to light the sky. On some planets a jump command is also available. If you find a jump pad it works as an 'instant transport over large distances - which is really useful.

Academy is utterly astonishing. Not the least astonishing thing is how Pete Cooke has crammed so much into 48K it's Tau Ceti writ large, as though someone had hacked into that game, stolen the movement and graphics routines and some of the plot and added around 200K's worth of extra material, except that somehow it still runs on a normal Spectrum.

It passed the 'everybody in the office stops work to look' test which is always a good sign.

I don't see how, with a whole tapeful of extra missions (20 in all) you could exhaust even half the game by Christmas.

Buy it, buy it, buy it.

Spectrum, £9.95cs
C64 128, £9.95cs, £14.95dk
Amstrad, £9.95cs, £14.95dk
Atari ST, £19.95dk
Amiga, £19.95dk

As much a way of life as a game. Robot craft and installations have run riot on a series of planets, and it's your job as a trainee, skimmer pilot to wipe them out. Graphics are basic but effective while sound effects are minimal, but this doesn't really detract from the game. Twenty missions are grouped into five sets of four, with each set being progressively more difficult, and only accessed by successfully completing the stage before. Not an easy game, but horribly addictive once you get into it. The action takes place over a 2D landscape which you can map if you want to. Success is more a matter of puzzle-solving; patience and caution rather than lightning reflexes - bite off more than your craft can chew and you're done for, however good you are. A game you sit down to for an hour at a time, and one that'll keep you going for a long, long time.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: CRL
PRICE: £7.95

Pete Cooke's Tau Ceti, released last year, was a classic. And this sequel is simply brilliant. No Spectrum owner should be without it. Simple as that.

Academy puts you back at the controls of your Gal-Corp Skimmer. But this time there are 20 - yes 20! - missions to complete. You can design your own Skimmer panel using the built in "constructon-set" option. And there's even a freebie Star Map program thrown in.

All the addictive excitement of Tau Ceti plus a whole lot more. You'd be mad to miss it! Let's take a look at the game that will knock your socks off...

After an incident on Cygnus in 2197 when a rookie pilot selected the wrong gear when docking with the main central reactor and reduced half the planet to molten lava, Gal-Corp decided that a special training centre was needed to provide an elite corps of pilots for the advanced military Skimmers used in colonisation and reconnaisance work.

The Gal-Corp Academy for Advanced Skimmer Pilots (GASP) was founded to meet this requirement. Only a few meet the exacting requirement of flying and combat skills. In order to graduate from the Academy, cadets must complete 20 missions, grouped in five levels of four, successfully.

On loading you'll see the main menu which offers you seven different options, all of which lead you on to different sub-menus.

The first thing to do is to enter your name. Move the pointer to "Enter a New Cadet" and press fire. The screen will clear to the New Cadet sub-menu. Type in your name and your date of birth. Having entered your name the next task is to choose one of the four level missions. Move the pointer to "Select a Mission" and press fire. The screen will clear to the mission sub-menu. A list of four missions will be shown. To select a mission simply move the pointer to it and press fire. Below the mission list is a set of options:

Info on this mission will explain the task required and ships and buildings that you are likely to meet on a mission. You can also call up information on the planetary system where the mission is set to find out about conditions on the surface. The program will also recommend a suitable Skimmer.

Having chosen a mission you will need to choose a Skimmer. Move the pointer to "Select a Skimmer" and press fire. The screen will clear to the "Skimmer" sub-menu where a list of six Skimmers are shown.

Three are already constructed and named. Three more are blank and waiting for you to build and equip them.

Below the list of Skimmers are more options. "Info on this Skimmer" gives a list of the equipment carried on the Skimmer. "View Panel" allows you to see the panel layout. "Design Skimmer" allows you to put together a customised craft for a particular mission.

The recommended Skimmer for the first mission - "If it Moves..." is GCS Lenin. Select this Skimmer and return to the main menu. You are now ready to try a mission! Move the pointer to "Accept Mission".

The screen will clear to show the Skimmer's instrument panel. On the top line is a "Status bar" which will show the ship's state (docked), the mission score and the mission time. Below this is the viewscreen, various gauges and dials and a small blue rectangle - the computer window.

You are now in one of the game's two modes. This is ground mode where you can communicate with the Skimmer's computer by using the commands you'll remember from Tau Ceti - plus a couple of new ones.

Type HELP, if you are unsure, and all the correct words scroll up in your Skimmer's message window. Type LAUNCH when you're ready and you're off! And just hope you've selected the right Skimmer for the right mission...

The missions range from complicated Tau Ceti style puzzles, to out and out shoot-'em-ups which test your fire-fighting and flying skills.

Just to give you a taste, here are a few mission titles: At the OK Corral, Laserium, Mission Improbable, If It Moves, Needle in a Haystack, Where to Guv?

All Skimmers are equipped with different gear - detailed in the info section. The equipment includes missiles and lasers of course this time you also get delay bombs which are VERY useful in tight corners.

Each of the built-in Skimmers has different capabilities - but you can construct your own. Access your rating on each of the missions by selecting the Progress Report option. This will display the four missions available on the level along with a score for each mission and an average score overall.

As I've already mentioned it is possible to design and equip your own ship for ANY mission.

There is a list of possible equipment. In the centre are two or three boxes showing whether the Skimmer has the equipment/how many items the Skimmer has/what strength the unit has.

The two main limitations in equipping a ship are the weight of equipment and the total cost, both shown at the bottom of the screen. The basic Skimmer hull will not carry a weight of over 100 Galactic Megatons and Gal-Corp's budget will not stretch to designs costing over 100m credits. If either of the two figures are over the limit they will show red and you will need to remove some items of equipment selected.

When you are happy with the equipment selected move the pointer to the "Design Complete" option. This will take you into the Design Panel section, where you can design the Skimmer's Panel layout.

If you have chosen a large complement of equipment for a Skimmer design you may find it a little tricky to fit all the items in the available screen space, a useful hint here is to tuck the viewscreen away in a corner of the display to allow you to place dials or gauges off to one side.

You can save your game position at any time, and you relying on into about the different missions supplied by the Gal-Corp briefing team.

From the main menu you can can save your designs.

To move on to the next level and the next block of four missions you must have an average score of 91 per cent.

All this and I haven't even mentioned the D.E.A.F. sub-game or the CODES puzzle you'll need to solve on some missions. But every game has got to have its secrets.

Academy is immensely playable and totally addictive. You'll be thanking Mr Cooke for putting the SAVE option in. It'll mean you can actually get some sleep...

Spectrum
CRL
Simulation
£8.95

Tau Ceti, the game pronounced in more ways than any other, came as a complete surprise. Pete Cooke, the author of the game, was not well known, but the game has been acclaimed by many, including me, as one of the games which makes it worth owning a Spectrum. When, therefore, Room Ten, Cooke's second game arrived I was slightly disappointed to find that it was completely different and was not what I had hoped for - Tau Ceti II.

Now, however, all is forgiven. Academy, the official follow-up to Tau Ceti is here and it was worth the wait. It is definitely as good as the original, although understandably the author has created a new and exciting environment. Anyone who has played Tau Ceti, and judging by its sales there are many, will instantly feel at home.

Beginners, or rookies as they are known by the superiors in the Gal-Corp organisation, have not been particularly popular since one of them selected the wrong gear when docking into the main central reactor and reduced half the planet to molten lava. That horrific crash caused the organisation to decide that mandatory training was extremely necessary, prior to anyone becoming a recognised pilot.

The Galcorp Academy for Advanced Skimmer Pilots (GASP) was founded in 2213 to meet the new strict training requirements. To graduate, you must undertake on and complete 20 missions, grouped in five levels of four.

As with the original, the graphics and animation in Academy are stunning and if anything the game appears a little simpler to get into. It represents exceptional value, especially when you consider the many hours which must have gone into the creation of this masterpiece. If you miss this game you will be missing the chance to experience Spectrum games at their best.

IT's TIME TO TEST YOUR SPACE PILOT PROWESS AT THE ACADEMY.

CRL
£8.95

After an unfortunate incident on 61 Cygnus when a rookie pilot messed up his approach and half the planet when he tried to dock with its central reactor the Gal-corp set up the Academy. Its aim was to train rookie pilots to produce an elite corps of pilots and prevent such disasters while providing a new challenge and sequel to CRL's excellent Tau Ceti.

To graduate from the Academy a cadet must complete 20 missions and achieve an average rating of over 90%! The missions are grouped into five levels of four missions that are stored on a separate data tape. Most players won't need this tape as they'll still be struggling with the first four that are loaded in with the master program.

A main menu allows you to register as an Academy cadet, view and select the missions and the skimmers to complete them.

The first four missions range from the less than subtle "If It Moves..." annihilation run to the search through a minefield for base mission called "Softly, Softly". "Meltdown" is a race against time to close down a critical reactor on a polar world, finally "Red Dawn" a Tau Ceti style mission in which you must destroy robot factories in all quadrants connected by jump pads.

Whichever mission you choose (and you have to tackle them all sooner or later) you'll be attacked by robot droids of both familiar and new designs. Four types of laser firing hunters lead the assault supported by mines, super mines, droids, hoppers, guardians, trackers and aptly named kamikazes. Therefore it's important that your Gal-corp skimmer is armed and shielded for the mission. Three skimmers are ready for take off, each offering a different range of equipment from the GCS Wilson complete with jump unit to the weapons and shields tank known as the GCS Lenin.

If neither of these or the balanced GCS Lincoln suit your needs or tactics then you can design your own as long as it remains within the weight and cost limits set down by the Academy.

Your basic skimmer consists of low, medium or high powered laser, main drive, shield and steering units which you can then arm with missiles, anti-missiles and delay bombs then add whatever anti-missiles, jump units, scanners, compasses and trackers that you need and trackers that you need and can afford. Finally you can customise the skimmer view screen and save your amazing design to tape for further missions.

Once the newly constructed GCS Rambo had wiped out the robot factories and mines that stood in it's way I was ready for the next set of missions but still a long a long way to go before graduation. Ahead lay the dubious delights of such encounters as "...at the OK CorraLl", "Don't Panic", "Hide and Seek", and "Mission Improbable".

Finally as a bonus the gamepack also includes a star map program so you can find your favourite stars and constellations. A game featuring 20 missions each as challenging as the original game doesn't need a bonus program.