Producer: Ocean
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Mike Lamb

Now's your chance to emulate the exploits of hunky superstar Tom Cruise and the rest of the pilots at America's top school for combat flyers. Seated firmly in the cockpit of an F14 combat you can engage the computer in high-tech dogfight, or battle it out with a friend in a head-to-head session.

The action is viewed on a split screen which shows the instrument panel and cockpit views of the two opposing aircraft. The main display uses simulated 3D and vector graphics to show the aerial antics, with a dotted line marking the artificial horizon.

A joystick can be used to control the fighter in the air in the time-honoured flight simulator tradition, with the throttle and weapon selection effected on the keyboard, or the keyboard can be used on its own. The controls are self-centering - left to its own devices a plane flies straight and level.

The Tomcat's armoury includes cannon, missiles and flares. The appropriate icon is called into a window on the cockpit display before using the cannon or pressing fire to launch a flare or heat-seeking missile. The cannon, which overheat with continual use, are sighted with a cross-hair and the border flashes red when shells hit home. It takes twenty-five hits with cannon shell to destroy the opposing plane.

Selecting a missile brings a large, square sight onto your viewscreen. The target must be kept within this area for a countdown of three seconds to allow the Sidewinder missile to lock on to the enemy plane before fire is pressed. One hit from a missile is fatal, and the only way to avoid being blown to smithereens if a missile is on your tail is to drop flares to confuse its guidance systems and keep away from it for twenty seconds - ths missile then runs out of fuel and dives to the ground.

Speed and altitude read-outs are superimposed on the cockpit view, and the altitude reading flashes if the plane is dangerously low (below a thousand feet). The instrument panel includes displays that show the throttle setting, cannon temperature, thrust, and damage sustained. A radar scanner gives the relative horizontal position of your opponent and this display turns red when a missile is locked onto your tail. An arros indicates whether the enemy plane is above or below you and is used in conjunction with the radar to locate the enemy. Windows are used to display the weapon icon currently selected and the attitude of your fighter.

In the one-player version, missions consist of shooting down three enemy planes, and become progressively more difficult - on the first two levels, the computer opponent does not use missiles. In two player mode, each player gets three aircraft, and the winner is the pilot who stays airborne the longest...

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable - climb, dive, bank left, bank right and fire; player 1/player 2 - A/L increase thrust, Z/SYM SHIFT decrease thrust, CAPS/SPACE select weapon
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Use of colour: monochromatic play area
Graphics: rapid vector display that gets a bit indistinct when the enemy is far away
Sound: three great tunes and excellent effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: one

I was very dubious about this one at first: yet another crummy licenced game I thought. But happily I was wrong, Top Gun really is a good game. I can perhaps see myself getting bored with the one-player mode after a relatively short time as there is only one opponent to go for, but luckily there is a two-player mode which is brilliant. You can shoot the hell out of your best mate, and the computer ceases to be a problem. I really do like this but I couldn't see it being addictive for longer than a month or so.
BEN

I stand corrected. Before Top Gun, flight simulators were out as far as I was concerned - now all that has changed. It just goes to prove: a) what Ocean can do when they're not doing It's A Knockout; and b) that flight simulators are not necessarily boring. The graphics are fast and neat, even though the launch section looks a bit primitive. There's a lot to Top Gun, and it has all the addictivity that it needs. Neat graphics, lots of playability and a jolly fun game. Worth getting.
MIKE

Top Gun surprised me. I was expecting some old licensing trash, but this is a really good film tie-in. The graphics are extremely well animated and the split screen idea works excellently. It seems pointless having the one-player mode, as the enemy planes are so easy to blow out of the air. I would have liked a skill level option, but the two-player mode more than compensates as you can really show your flying prowess. Ocean seem to be one of the few companies who know that the Spectrum can play a decent tune, and they've certainly proved it here. Top Gun is a brilliant game and well worth getting.
PAUL

The Hit Squad
£2.99 (rerelease)

Take my breath away...! Yes, Top Gun is back for a second stab at the software charts. When it was first released it got itself a cover on Issue 37 plus a 90% CRASH smash, but that was a long time ago. The game is basically a vector graphics style flight simulation with a colourful start sequence and logo on the title screen. All the in-game graphics are monochrome (boring white on black), and sound is just a blip when you fire at another plane.

I don't recommend playing Top Gun in one player mode: the game just gets so boring. Get a friend round and play against each other for much more fun - well, shooting your best friend always is, isn't it? The control panel in the game's very basic as is the title sequence, but there's some fun to be had.

There's three weapons to choose from. A cross-hair on screen represents a machine gun, a square sight a sidewinder missile and no sight the flare mode. Mares are used as a decoy and are the only defence you have against sidewinder missiles! Use them skilfully or they won't have any effect, and you'll be blown out of the sky. Some practice before you take on the other player for real is a good idea.

Top Gun is definitely not for fans of the film, only flight simulator fanatics may find some fun roaming around an empty sky. This one never took my breath away!

Ocean
£7.95

Take my breath awayyyyyy-yah'” Ah yes, the thrill of the wind whipping through my cockpit... brrr! Chilly, innit? Ever wished you could be like Tommy Cruise, whistling through the air with the greatest of ease, no safety net, a clean Peaudouce Baby Slip on, and a fresh girlie by your side? You do? Good, 'cos now you too can be a Top Gun, and fly combat missions in superfast aircraft, jus' like the real thing.

You have, at your disposal, two triffic varieties of death to hand out to the baddies - rapid-fire cannons and heat seeking missiles. To defend yourself against the baddies' missiles, you also have a starburst - a kind of flare that distracts the missile's attention.

The flight is fast and furious, incorporating some of the features of a flight simulator, and includes split-screen action. Your opponent's point of view is shown on the right hand screen, and your own cockpit view is displayed on the left.

The graphics are vector plotted line drawings, and represent the aircraft from the film. F- 15 Eagles? I dunno, I can't tell an airplane from a cheese sandwich, which is why I've never been abroad. Anyway, they're nicely drawn, and they fly like the real thing mostly because the position of the ship is redrawn in 3D each time, rather than being a more crude sprite. It's a bit like a rougher version of the ships in Elite or Tau Ceti.

Lots of fun. And it's your one chance to pretend you're Tom Cruise.

Label: Ocean
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

Fabulous real-time graphics, a funky three- channel soundtrack and seat-of-the-pants action. Yes, Ocean has brought out yet another licensed game with none of these features.

The film from which the game of Top Gun was spawned relied on stunningly photographed dog fights between two F14 Tomcat jet fighters but Ocean hasn't even tried to recapture the excitement in its game graphics, which are almost non-existent.

Combat conveniently takes place at night, giving Ocean an excuse for black background on both cockpit views, a dotted line for the horizon and an occasional 3D vector graphics glance of your opponent.

What you get is a split screen showing two cockpit windows. The left window is yours and the right is used either by the computer's pilot - fairly unintelligent - or by a second human player using a dual joystick port. Read-outs show the position of the enemy, altitude, air speed and cannon temperature.

The result isn't exactly awe-inspiring. No doubt the programmers would argue that the lack of graphics speed is a result of animating windows. Sorry lads, that won't wash, not when we've seen the likes of Scalectric (also this SU) which uses a split-screen and full-colour graphics.

The gun sight in the middle of each cockpit window shows what type of weapons system is in operation. The cross hairs show that the machine gun - an ineffective weapon - is in operation. Side winder missiles are targeted through a large block cursor. Get you opponent in the sights for longer than three secs and a missile is launched.

Ocean's Side-winders are strange objects. I hadn't realised that air turbulence, even at 10,000 feet, could make a rocket wriggle like a worm. The Side-winders flex in the middle as they jerk towards a target. They're heat seeking so an explosion is guaranteed. Unfortunately, it's not much cop when it happens, just a Batman style prickly bubble which wobbles across the screen.

The score screen, at the back-end of the game, continues Top Gun's far from racey pace. It's marked like a WWII score 'downs' card with the number of lives remaining pictured in 'plane outlines and a similar display for the number of aircraft you've potted.

Top Gun is a difficult game to get into but, once you find that your jet's got missiles, there's no looking back. Just select the Side-winder sights, bring the enemy into range - a simple matter with the radar - fire, and keep the enemy in the sights for three seconds. Then destruction is assured.

It's difficult to classify Top Gun. It doesn't make it as a jet simulation. On the other hand it's not an arcade game either - there's not enough action.

In fact it's pretty dull all round.

TONY HETHERINGTON TAKES A SPIN IN FOUR OF THE LATEST SPECTRUM FLIGHT SIMULATORS.

Ocean
£7.95

Games based on top films have often been top flops but this high flyer is set to reverse the trend and is soaring up the chart as a game in its own right.

You star in the game that pits you in a high speed aerial duel against either a human opponent or a series of computer opponents. The action takes place on a vertical split screen display with vector graphics representing the F14 tomcat fighters. I found the vertical split screen displays worked exceptionally well and made the game a lot easier than the normal horizontal display (one player's screen on top of the other's), particularly for players hunched either side of the keyboard. You can of course use joysticks if you have them but single stick owners may opt for the keyboard to make the battles fair. If you're up against the computer you'll need all the help you can get.

Control of the F14s is a mixture of the standard climb, bank and dive controls with additional keys to control the throttle and change weapons while reading the instruments that report your speed, altitude, attitude (climbing or descending) and plot your opponents position on your radar. Luckily, these displays are easy to read even when travelling at speed as that's the way this game's played.

The contest begins as both fighters take-off from their respective carriers and head straight for each other. Thanks to the simple flight controls you can concentrate on the combat and decisions on whether to attack with your machine guns or fire a sidewinder homing missile. A missile will wipe out your opponent in a single shot but you will have to keep him in your sights while your missile systems lock on. To add to your problems and also your chances of survival you can also fire a flare to distract enemy fire but since you can only select one system at a time you have to anticipate your opponent's actions almost before he knows them himself. Even the simple machine guns can cause you problems as they can overheat and jam before you can score enough hits to destroy him.

The two player game is a simple head to head contest where both players have a stock of three planes. The last plane flying wins the contest.

Against the computer your three planes (or lives) must tackle a series of computer pilots that increase in skill. You don't score any points, just survive to fight the next level or group of three fighters. The first two levels are relatively easy as the enemy mainly attacks with it's machine guns and fall easy prey to your sidewinders but from then on it gets a lot harder as you face a succession of missile firing goes. To win you will really have to be Top Gun.