Producer: Sinclair
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: R.E.D./Sunshine

'It's late at night - the cafe's crowded - and the music's playing loud. The hunt is on for a pinball wizard - the one who can master the rolling ball. It takes lightning reflexes to master the Zipper Flipper and it's your turn to play…'

So says the insert. So, as you may imagine, Zipper Flipper is a pinball game, and you may have already discovered the Pinball Wizard - that was by CP Software. The principle difference between this and the CP Software game (apart from the graphics) is that Zipper Flipper also includes a fruit machine - not as a separate game, but as a part of the table.

The actual playing table looks a little like a surprised walrus with a telephone to its ear (or perhaps a steam radio, whichever you prefer). It eyes are the two main central bumpers with channels above for eyebrows and vertical channels for worry lines. Below, there are three smaller bumpers for a nose and the two flippers for projecting teeth. The telephone bit is the area containing the fruit machine. This is protected from the main table by three rows of multicoloured bricks. Each time a ball hits a brick it is knocked out. Should you breach the wall entirely, your ball may land in the fruit machine, which can then be nudged for a bonus score.

Between one and five players can enjoy the game, and a menu option provides for the setting up of a competition.

COMMENTS

Control keys: left hand keys flip left, right hand keys flip right, 1-5 lowers plunger, 6-0 raises plunger, ENTER to fire and nudge
Joystick: ZX 2
Keyboard play: responsive, although flippers a bit sluggish
Use of colour: well used, but rather drab looking
Graphics: neat and excellent spinning ball
Sound: realistic ball pings, but nothing else much
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5 balls
Features: 1 to 5 player games
Originality: as it's a copy of a real game, obviously not very high

The graphics in Zipper Flipper are good but rather unexciting. The movement of the ball is very good, smooth and convincing - it even appears to spin as it rolls. But the main drawback is the fact that layout and content are unexciting. Anyone who has played real pinball will remember all sorts of features that aren't here. On the other hand it does include the novel feature of a fruit machine. I didn't like the somewhat unconventional flippers though. Generally good, but could have been more exciting with a few more features.

Whether you will like this game or not probably depends on how much you like table game simulations. Pinball is one of those things which the computer can do rather well. I didn't think this version was anything like as good as the CP Software Pinball Wizard because it lacks the lively colour of that one, as well as many of the traditional bumper features. Also, the linked flippers were a bit sluggish I thought. The addition of the fruit machine is interesting, but I don't know whether it actually adds much to the fun of playing. The balls do roll about very realistically, and the addition of a small black cross on them allows for a good spinning feel to it. It it's addictive that's because of the pinball idea rather than the game. Not a bad version, but I preferred Pinball Wizard.

The main attraction of pinball is all the colour, noise and numerous bumpers. This lacks in all respects as the colour is a bit drab and the table layout isn't particularly exciting. Nevertheless, the graphics are very good and I enjoyed playing it.

FEEBLE FOUR FROM SINCLAIR

ERIC AND THE FLOATERS
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Interface 2

ZIPPER FLIPPER
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Interface 2

DRILLER TANKS
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Interface 2

BUBBLE BUSTER
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Interface 2

Sinclair Research is continuing its policy of marketing games under licence with four new releases. Zipper Flipper by R.E-D Sunshine is a pinball program with a fruit machine feature included. You have to break down a wall of bricks with the ball to bring the fruit machine into play.

The other three games are all by Hudsonsoft. Driller Tanks, which sounds like a video nasty, is a simple game of underground warfare, as you use your tank to prevent marauding monsters tunneling to the surface.

Bubble Blaster is a slightly more interesting program in which you must burst bubbles with a ray gun before they land on you.

Those three games all suffer from a very simple concept which has not been developed to provide any real variety during the play. The graphics on Bubble Blaster, though they could be better yet, are of higher quality than in the other two programs but are also the least complex when seen on the screen, even though they may be well-programmed.

The fourth in the series, Eric and the Floaters, is clearly superior to the other three. Eric is attempting to explore a lost underground civilisation by planting bombs in a network of tunnels to clear blockages and reveal treasures.

He is pursued by balloon-like Floaters, which also have to be killed with the bombs. The concept is again simple but in this case there are a number of hidden surprises which increase the enjoyment for the player out of all proportion to the extra trouble taken to program the refinements.

To play the games with a joystick you will have to use Interface Two, or one of the programmable interfaces, as Sinclair is clearly not interested in supporting peripherals manufactured by other companies.

We look at the best and the worst releases in a month which offers new games from top software houses Fantasy and Ultimate.

In your local toyshop, in the novelty section, is a pile of little plastic gadgets which simulate the working of a fruit machine. Zipper Flipper does the same thing on a 48K Spectrum. The bouncing pinball is very well represented and is obviously the work of skillful programming. When all is said and done, though, the plastic gadget in the toyshop docs the same job more cheaply.

Published by Sinclair Research Ltd, 25 Willis Road, Cambridge Price, £5.95.