Producer: Imagine, 48K
£5.50

We waited long enough-probably the most famous and wanted non-available game, probably a clever ploy on Imagine's part. But it was worth the wait. Viewscreen shows you a road over which you are flying with little humans on the horizon whom you must save from the enemy bombers. These come in wavees from the left, some just content to wipe out humanity, others which turn and fire at you, wearing down your shield. If you survive two waves without getting destroyed or crashing into the ground, there's a desert infested with tanks, and the sea with submarines and... Scrolling graphics for the titles all help to make this a very memorable game and excellent value for money. Joystick: Fuller & Kempston.

Producer: Imagine, 48K
£5.50

We waited long enough-probably the most famous and wanted non-available game, probably a clever ploy on Imagine's part. But it was worth the wait. Viewscreen shows you a road over which you are flying with little humans on the horizon whom you must save from the enemy bombers. These come in waves from the left, some just content to wipe out humanity, others which turn and fire at you, wearing down your shield. If you survive two waves without getting destroyed or crashing into the ground, there's a desert infested with tanks, and the sea with submarines and... Scrolling graphics for the titles all help to make this a very memorable game and excellent value for money. Joystick: Fuller & Kempston.

Producer: Imagine, 48K
£5.50

We waited long enough-probably the most famous and wanted non-available game, probably a clever ploy on Imagine's part. But it was worth the wait. Viewscreen shows you a road over which you are flying with little humans on the horizon whom you must save from the enemy bombers. These come in wavees from the left, some just content to wipe out humanity, others which turn and fire at you, wearing down your shield. If you survive two waves without getting destroyed or crashing into the ground, there's a desert infested with tanks, and the sea with submarines and... Scrolling graphics for the titles all help to make this a very memorable game and excellent value for money. Joystick: Fuller & Kempston.

Zzoom is one of the games that was B.C. (Before CRASH). It is exactly one year old now, and was the most wanted game of the August ZX Microfair last year.

Zzoom, being a fairly old game, has held its own in the market well, probably due to its good 3D graphics. They're pleasing and realistic, especially the way that the clouds move at different speeds depending on how close or far away they are from the players view. Action is compelling and continuous, if not even tiring (it's hard work flying). The enemy aircraft 'zzoom' very realistically towards you. Overall, it's stood the test of time very well and can still be recommended as a great air to air/land and sea conflict.
MU

I remember Zzoom being reviewed well because of the graphics, which were some of the best looking 3D at the time. I particularly liked the screen layout and fresh use of colour. As it's a pretty fast game, the periodic 'breathers' between bouts of action are quite welcome. Has it stood up well? Yes, I think so, because it is very playable and yet hard enough to be interesting and a challenge. It's one of those games that's certainly worth dusting off and putting on the computer again. With Imagine going down the pan, some of their games may enjoy a curiosity revival.
LM

(Matthew) It never had CRASH ratings of course, but graphically its realism would still give it a fairly high rating from me, say 72%. When you're playing it you want to keep on, so it's fairly addictive, but to want to come back to it another day - that might be a bit different. I think id give its addictive qualities about 69/70%.

(Lloyd) I've enjoyed playing it again and against current competition I think I'd give it 75% for addictivity, and about the same for graphics.

An arcade game in which you must defend a chain of refugees from enemy craft, tanks and submarines. The graphics put Zzoom into very select company when it was first released in the autumn of 1983. All the features move smoothly across the screen, apparently quite independently of each other, and there are no problems when colours overlap.

It is also highly addictive. The setting, which rejects science fiction for a more contemporary scenario , seems to create a greater player involvement then the average game. As you progress through the various levels, the violence intensifies into an orgy of destruction.

Position 43/50

NO OTHER MICRO HAS THE SOFTWARE BACK-UP OF SINCLAIR'S SPECTRUM. PETE CONNORS PLOUGHS HIS WAY THROUGH SOME OF IT FROM GRAPPLING WITH EVIL MAZIACS TO HELPING CHARLIE THE CHEF.

48K
Imagine Software, Masons Buildings, Exchange Street East, Liverpool
£5.50

Every software house, from the giants to the leprechauns, seems to have programmers chained to terminals, frantically churning out products for the massive Spectrum market. For Spectrum owners the pot of gold under the rainbow is the now huge variety of software available: their only problem is distinguishing the genuine article from the fake.

One game you certainly will not need to bite into is Zzoom from Imagine. This is the Real McCoy, a quality arcade-style game of skill and destruction in the comfort of your own armchair. The game starts with the Dambusters theme tune, enough on its own to make you start twirling imaginary handlebar moustaches and warn Ginger about the bandits at 4 o'clock. You find yourself in command of an aeroplane whose gunsights appear on the screen; also displayed are a dibar to show your relation to the ground and a long-range scanner.

Before you have time to think, hostile aircraft are approaching from the east; they speed in and suddenly, unexpectedly, wheel 90° towards you, presenting the slightest of targets for your cannon. Those earthbound refuges you are trying to protect do not have much of a chance. Poor blighters, I wish I could have done more to help. After the waves of planes, the landscape changes. Now its the desert, complete with palm trees. Over the horizon come battalions of tanks. More skill is now required, as you have to dive low enough to shoot your earthbound adversaries without crashing to your doom.

After the desert - the sea, with enemy destroyers trying to blast the refugees' lifeboats. The standard of graphic display and excitement combine to make Zzoom a most exciting game, one that has deservedly become a micro-classic.

DK'tronics, though, has produced a game which could rival Zzoom's popularity. Maziacs may seem, initially, to be just another maze-game. In fact, it has subtle qualities which make it one of the best available in this genre. The scenario is familiar: you must get through the maze, collect the treasure and get out. You can ask the way from prisoners, and pick up swords to combat the maziacs.

What lifts Maniacs above the common land is its graphic sophistication. The monsters are the most grotesque I have ever seen on a micro; nightmarish squatting creatures, all legs and jaws who enjoy nothing more than gobbling you up. The prisoners are sad creatures, writhing in their shackles inside blue circles. One feels great pity for them but, sadly, one can do nothing to help. And you, the brave treasure-hunter, are a perky little fellow with a jaunty rhythmic step. You are never downhearted and your jubilation when you have destroyed a marine is quite heart- warming. These qualities give Maniacs that something extra, and make it a very compulsive game.

Best of the other offerings from DK is Hard Cheese, in which you have to eat your way round the board, creating your own maze, in order to get at the cheese in the middle. Naturally, you are pursued by monsters. Naturally you can shoot these monsters, but this is not so easy as they move very quickly and you must replenish your energy. Again the graphics are of a high standard, and Hard Cheese is almost, but not quite, as compulsive as Maziacs.

In comparison, DK's Road Toad and Jawz are rather dull.

The first needs no introduction and is as expected; though the graphics are, perhaps, a little clearer than usual, and the tankers are truly fearsome. Jawz is a disappointment; here you are underwater, firing at Sharks and Jellyfish. It is quite tricky to hit them as you have two cannons converging from either side of your control. Otherwise the game is low on interest.

Ultimate Play the Game has a reputation for quality software, and it does not besmirch it with Cookie and Tranzam. Cookie has one of the wackiest situations for a long time; Charlie Chef's ingredients have escaped from the pantry-yard and he must recapture them by dazing them with flour bombs and knocking them into his mixing bowl. As well as the runaways Crafty Cheese and Colonel Custard there are nasties such as Wally Washer and Terry Tack. Crazy, but true. The graphics are very good and Charlie is a sympathetic little figure in his white chef's hat.

It is very difficult to avoid the nasties; if they get you, you end up in a dustbin. Cookie is a witty and enjoyable game, but one which you might do well to use a joystick for. Tranzam is set in the year 3474; it is your Red Racer versus the Deadly Black Turbos in the search for the Eight Great Cups of Ultimate. The screen displays a barren landscape where the only land-marks are cacti and petrol stations. You guide your car around looking for the cups, while trying to avoid your enemies and the obstacles. This is a tricky business if you are doing 400 mph and steering on the keyboard; again, a joystick would be useful. Tranzam is an exciting game which gives a taste of the Mad Max experience.

GAME OR BLURB?

And so to Quicksilva. Do people buy their programs for the game or the blurb? Aquaplane's scenario begins "The contrasting blues of sea and sky provide a perfect backdrop as I relax with a Pernod and lemonade..." and goes on in the same vein for two sides of packaging. Indeed, Aquaplane's sea and sky are very blue, suggestive of hot Mediterranean summers. And, the game is very good. There you are, out for a bit of water-skiing, when the speedboat goes bananas. You are being pulled away to almost certain death.

Rocks, driftwood, tacking yachts, cruisers piloted by drunken play-boys, snapping sharks; get through all those and you have mastered the game. Aquaplane is made more intriguing because, as the boat accelerates, you are pulled to one side or another, thus increasing the risk of meeting a sticky end on a piece of driftwood. The graphics, too, are very colourful and realistic. Aquaplane is a highly entertaining game - almost as good as the blurb.

On the subject of watery graves, Bug-Byte has Aquarius "an underwater espionage game". As commander of a frogman team you must destroy the bombs planted by an enemy nation. Problems you will encounter are sharks and electrifying jellyfish. Your oxygen will run out and must be replenished by collecting fresh tanks from the sea-floor. While the undersea world is fairly convincing and the sound effects are genuinely squelchy, Aquarius is not a very exciting game, lacking the speed and variety top-class programmes.

ENCOUNTER WITH THE DARK ONE

In Styx, also from Bug-Byte, you are supposed to be battling your way across the mythological river to Hades "towards an encounter with the Dark One himself". In fact, it is a rather boring maze game, where the "deadly spiders" look like bits of dried grass and the Piranhas - did you know there were Piranhas in the Styx? - are most unconvincing. If they have micros in Hades as well they may well be playing Pool, another Bug-Byte game. The graphics are much better than Styx; a bright green for the baize and red for the bolls. Curiously, the object balls are all the same colour. Control is straightforward, using the cursor keys.

But perhaps these denizens of Hades might prefer CDS Micro Systems' Pool. I know I do, if only because the object balls are divided into blue and red. Otherwise, it is much the same as Bug-Byte's version, easy to control and pleasant to look at. Both programs are for one or two players.

Purer pleasures of the mind are entered for by Artic's Chess Tutor. The novelty of this program is that it not only plays chess - at three levels - but takes the beginner through three different opening variations; King's Indian, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Dragon. There is also a section which demonstrates the moves of each piece.

This is indeed very useful and would be suitable for the absolute beginner. Unfortunately the board is none too clear, as the white pieces do not show up well on the light squares.

As a game chess is not in much danger of being overtaken by any of three new programs consisting of logical board games: Hanoi King from Contrast Software, Lojix from Virgin and 3-D Strategy from Quicksilva.

In the first of them you have three pillars on which are a series of rings. You have to transfer them to the third so that they are in the same order, moving only one ring at a time ind without placing a larger on top of a smaller ring. It sounds easy, and with only three or four rings, it is. More than that and it can become fiendishly difficult.

Lojix is a game in which you have to fit 18 irregularly shaped pieces onto a board. A sort if fiendish jigsaw puzzle, it is difficult and interesting. Virgin is offering a cash prize for the first correct solution.

3-D Strategy is billed as "a multi-dimensional mind game". It is 3-D noughts and crosses on a 4 by 4 by 4 cube. After 3-D chess Mr Spock might not have much trouble with his, but ordinary earthlings will find it very hard to beat. Despite being essentially simple ideas, all three of these games are well produced and will provide hours of entertainment for the puzzle happy.

Perhaps the most interesting new program for the Spectrum is The Forest, from Phipps Associates. This is a complex simulation of orienteering, the sport in which you have to follow a course over difficult terrain using only map and compass. The program comes with a beautifully printed orienteering map ind a long, but clear, explanatory booklet. The screen displays various topographical features and, using the map, you have to negotiate the nurse.

Thus, The Forest is not merely a game, but an help introduce people to map-making and the relation between maps and the physical features they represent. As the program notes say, this program will be of particular interest to students and teachers of geography as well as armchair orienteerers.

Plunder is a strategy game from Cases Computer Simulations. Set in 1587, the year before the Spanish Armada set sail, the game gives you the opportunity to be an English privateer whose task is to prevent gold from the New World getting back to Spain. You must also be more successful than your deadly rival Sir Francis Drake. There is more to this than mere yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum; you must weigh up the chances of success in taking on merchant, troop and warships. Too much damage or too many lost crew and the game is up; it's Davy Jones' locker for you.

Camelot, an adventure-game from the same company, is not quite so good. As Arthur Pendragon you have been banished from Camelot by the Black Knight. Understandably you want to get back; who knows what Lancelot and Guinevere are up to round the Round Table? You have some warriors and money to help you find the necessary seven items. There are graphic displays of landscapes and obstacles, unfortunately rather crude. The "evil magician" looks rather like a conjurer at a children's party.

Those Spectrum owners keen to develop the machine's graphics potential should look at Melbourne House's 48K Melbourne Draw. This program will take you on a tour of the Spectrum's graphics, allowing you to choose colours, draw, and store graphic displays.

Once you have drawn your picture, you might want to make it say something, in which case you are referred to Abbex's Supertalk which, with no extra hardware, will enable your Spectrum to speak. The demo facility lets you hear Supertalk's Dalek-style voice exercising its small vocabulary. To enter your own vocabulary you record the words on tape and then feed them in, afterwards adjusting them to make sentences. First "Jolson Sings!" now "Spectrum Talks".

In the midst of some 'international incident' you are dropped into the cockpit of a powerful and well-armed fighter plane, with instructions to save the lives of refugees who are being bombed mercilessly by waves of enemy planes. If you are successful in surviving two waves of attackers, you are moved to a desert location where more refugees are being decimated by tanks, then to an area over water with submarines surfacing without warning.

The inlay card gives very full instructions for keyboard play (the joystick options being given on screen) and lists six functions with a good variety of keys for each one, enabling the player to choose the layout which suits him best. A useful feature is the use of any top row key to freeze the action, enabling you to stop for a breather, if the frantic pace will allow you to get at the top row! In practise, once the missiles are armed for the first flight over the desert it becomes almost unnecessary to use the machine guns and the operation of five keys is then quite easy. Use of the machine guns when trying to hit the tanks has a tendency to thin out the numbers of the very refugees whom you are there to save.

The first screen is of a flat landscape, the straight line of the horizon being broken only by the straggling lines of the refugees who are attempting to cross the road along which you are flying. Lifting the nose of your plane reveals a clear blue sky with drifting patches of fleecy white clouds devoid of all menace, except for the cross wires of your gun-sight, where the twin streams of machine gun fire will converge. At the top right of the screen a message indicates 'condition green' but this quickly changes to 'condition yellow' and a glance at the small screen at bottom right shows why. This screen shows the area bounded by your main view and a large area outside this, on which the radar blips of approaching aircraft can be seen. 'Condition red', and the aircraft comes into view, some close and within range of your guns, some farther away and out of range until they break formation to wheel at you. Bombs hurtle down amongst the refugees, who sometimes stand and wave their fists at the aircraft in impotent fury, and Exotron missiles whirl towards you at terrifying speed. Too many missile strikes against your shields results in them gradually disintegrating, and you only have three spares. A missile hitting your plane when it is unshielded results in instant grounding at speed, although the only visible damage is a large crack across the windscreen.

After each wave of attackers and a return to 'condition green', the auto pilot comes into operation and you can relax for a moment or two whilst the score and bonus is calculated. Then back into battle, which after two waves moves to a desert scene with tanks crawling menacingly over the horizon. As the palm trees flick by beneath, you go into action against the tanks, aided by the addition of missiles to your armoury. Now however the temptation is to 'nose down' to get the tanks which you missed on the horizon, with the almost inevitable result of an attempt to build sand castles with your plane, which promptly mends its windscreen and takes off unaided.

Persevere with the tanks and you find yourself dealing with submarines, which surface, attack the boatloads of refugees and hurl Exotrons at you before submerging again. Once more it is necessary fly very low, and this is where the 'di-bar' comes in very handy. It indicates height and direction of flight and flashes when you are flying at minimum height. The use of a joystick would probably increase the risk of a pile-up, whereas with the keyboard it is possible to get down to the minimum height and then leave the 'down' key alone.

The graphics are superb, extremely well animated and with a use of colour which is bright without being distracting. Sound, within the limitations of the Spectrum, is well used; in fact the only complaint is that response keys really need to be a little faster, especially left and right when after those tanks.

A reasonably easy game on which to make moderate progress but a difficult game to complete (assuming that it has a finite length). Addictive and very good value for money, but be prepared to take a few flying lessons to achieve success.