Producer: Quicksilva
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: Icon Design

Captain Kelly was a 'space hopper' - a pilot who treks from the Moon to the Earth and back, day in, day out. A new job was what he desperately needed, one with prospects and plenty of travelling. Oh, and lots of money.

Whilst browsing through the Space Gazette one day, he saw an advert: 'See the universe and make Mega Credits'. How could he resist? He didn't. He applied, and much to his surprise, Kelly was taken on immediately.

At first the job seemed ideal, simply picking up newly finished spaceships and delivering them to clients - rather shady clients at that. Unfortunately, the job began to go drastically wrong when Kelly tried to get into one of the robot controlled mining traders...

Usually, when a pilot inserts a credit disc it disables all security systems inside the ship. Not so this time. Unwittingly, Captain Kelly stumped inside, And it was only then did he realise to his horror that although the security system lets people inside the complex with no trouble, it just won't let them out again. At least not in one piece, anyway.

And so, Captain Kelly came to face the hardest mission of his life. Somehow, he had to reclaim control of the ship from the robots and make his delivery on time.

These robots are not stupid by any means. The entire ship is a robot's playground. As well as the numerous robots on each level of the ship, there are robot repair bays which re-activate droids that have been knocked out of action.

There are seven levels of the ship and five robots per level. Robots can be disabled by using a laser gun. However, Kelly has a limited amount of ammunition and each droid requires several blasts to kill. Extra ammunition can be found around the ship, but it is heavily guarded.

To make matters worse, Kelly has a limited amount of oxygen and energy. When either of these vital commodities runs out, his life support systems cease to function and he dies. Fortunately, energy can be replenished by entering one of the many infirmaries around the ship.

Status reports can be accessed from various points wound the ship. These detail how many robots have been destroyed and how many are still intact.

Kelly moves around the ship on foot but he can use the teleports scattered around the ship to transfer him to different levels. Kelly's got a real problem on his hands ...maybe driving to the Moon and back was a nice job after all!

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: adequate
Use of colour: pale effect overall
Graphics: two dimensional flat view
Sound: funky little tune at the beginning and spot effects throughout
Skill levels: seven
Screens: scrolling play area

What's this, get rid of the nasty robots wandering over the several levels of your space ship. I think I've heard that one before somewhere. I honestly wonder if this game was written on QUICKSLIVA's new games designer as it isn't at all professional. The graphics are on the whole quite colourful, but the playing area tacks a lot of detail and the characters are badly animated. The best thing about Captain Kelly is the sound track; there's a lovely tune on the title screen and the odd spot effect during play. The game is very easy to get into as it doesn't really involve any thinking, but because it is so easy it gets monotonous very quickly. On the whole Captain Kelly is not playable or compelling, so I wouldn't splash out any of your hard earned cash on it.

Captain Kelly immediately reminded me of Quazatron, on viewed from above. Although I found the basic look of the game very pleasant and appealing, I found it very boring and hard to get into. The sound effects are extremely good and the title screen features a very good two channel tune. The game features some reasonably fast scrolling, but the movement of the characters is very slow. The scenario on the inlay is very well written and the way the instructions are laid out is very good, giving you a quick idea of what the game is all about. Captain Kelly has excellent presentation - it's just boring to play.

This is a rather dull little shoot 'em up. Nothing much to recommend: it's much the same as any other blast away game. There are a few nice bits of tactics, like getting the robots to shoot each other, but essentially it's just a matter of blazing away. The infirmary is rather silly, pounding away on the keyboard decathlon-style to get the guy to rotate in order to restore energy. But don't get too good - if your energy goes over 100 per cent, the game crashes!

Quicksilva
£8.95

Has anybody here seen Kelly? K,E,LL,Y... well never mind, I remember the song anyway. And on the subject of Quicksilva's new release Captain Kelly - I wish I hadn't seen it!

You play the part of an interstellar delivery driver who's got to pick up spaceships from one part of the galaxy and drop them off somewhere else, presumably hitching a ride back to cash in on expenses.

On the particular job, though, the chip you have to deliver has a few things wrong with it such as marauding homicidal robots and the like. It's up to you to rid each of the seven levels on the ship of rampaging robots and regain control.

All the action is seen in plan view and pretty uninspiring it is too. As far as I could see it looked rather similar to the tanks game on the original Atari VCS, except that it doesn't have bendy bullets. The basic shoot 'em up theme is jazzed up a bit by the fact that you have to keep rushing around the ship in a wild frenzy to try and recharge your laser and your energy. But even this does nothing to add to the excitement any.

Unfortunately Captain Kelly isn't even saved by the graphics or sound. All I can say is take it away Capt'n 'cos I certainly don't want it!

Label: Quicksilva
Price: £8.95
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

I may be a men old goat, but there's still a tale or two left in these old bones. Captain Kelly's my name.

I'm not one for prattling but the most dangerous mission I ever undertook for the IGTD was aboard a rogue mining trader with nothing but a bunch of maniac robots for company.

My commander told me I had to destroy all robots - five on each level - before I could get into the control room and throw my sonic screwdriver into the works. I had only one life - I didn't want to lose that - a limited supply of oxygen and laser slugs.

The ship had no atmosphere and my oxygen supply was soon depleted. I found top-up tanks around the ship but they held only a limited amount of oxygen so I had to plug in sparingly. I also needed to keep a constant check on my energy level. Robot bashing is exhausting work and I could only pep myself up with a visit to the ship's infirmaries.

Unfortunately, the ship's security system only allows a limited number of visits to the infirmaries, armouries and radio room. The radio room, however, provided a key. I could contact a laser satellite and command it to beam extra energy to the ship. It gave me a little more time, but not much.

Three types of robot were in evidence, although they all acted the same According to my design manual their strength and firepower were not fixed. A robot which proved harmless in one position was deadly in another. They fought until their energy dropped dangerously low and then retreated to a repair bay.

I got to each of the seven levels through one of the many teleport links throughout the ship. Once I'd killed off all 35 robots in the ship the doors of the control room opened and I quickly went into the complex.

I have to admit Captain Kelly was a tacky arcade game full of flat-looking robots, simple mazes and very basic special effects.

The robots weren't particularly well animated but they were persistent devils, firing at everything and blocking my way through the mazes.

My mission was tame and, after a few levels of blast, blast, blast, became tiring.

I had no choice but to continue to the end.

You do. Don't bother.

And from the company which brought you the terrific Glider Rider I'd hoped for something a whole lot better.

Label: Bug Byte
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Andy Moss

No, not our esteemed Editor becoming a computer game tie-in, but a re-release of an old Quicksilva number that's actually still quite good. The aim of the game is to take over control of a space ship, that's run by robots. A bit like an early version of Paradroid but without the frills.

Captain Kelly is not just a "do it to them before they do it to you," game, it does have some complex scenarios to work out in order to complete it. For example, getting into the radio room and locking on to orbiting satellites to beam extra energy into your power pack. It's because of all these extra bits that I really enjoyed the game, and with seven levels to work through you're going to get your £1.99's worth, that's for sure.