¢SOFTWARE SCENE - FUTURA ISSUE 12¢¢¢ALIEN BLAST¢Supplier: DGS¢Price : 4.95 (Disk)¢ 5.25 (Turbo Cassette)¢¢Reviewed by Stuart Murray¢¢ Talented programmer Richard Gore and DGS have teamed up to bring us a new game for the light-gun. ALIEN BLAST is heavily influenced by that grand-daddy of modern arcade games, Space Invaders.¢¢ I am a big fan of Space Invaders and still regularly play Deluxe Invaders by Roklan. Therefore, the concept of playing Space Invaders with a light-gun was most intriguing.¢¢ After a short loading period, the title screen appears and some music begins to play. Obviously, individual tastes in music vary substantially but I thought this title tune was really awful. It is a very annoying tune which sounds like something out of a German beer festival! Luckily, it only plays on the title screen.¢¢ The title screen itself is a simple affair with some colourful text and a jerky scrolling message.¢¢ Alien Blast offers three play modes. Sights Mode is for use with the original Atari light-gun. By lining up the sights on the gun you can gain a very accurate shot (although by concentrating on the sights you don't see much of the television screen). I was impressed by the accuracy of this mode but the gameplay suffers because of it.¢¢ Blast Mode is more flexible. It is designed for use with any light-gun and lines up the barrel with an on-screen target. Although a degree of accuracy is lost, I found this mode both easier and more enjoyable. It allows you to enjoy other aspects of the game aside from aiming the sights.¢¢ The final play mode is Stack. This is designed for use with the Stack light pen.¢¢ Press the light-gun trigger or hit Start and the game begins. The invaders are colourful and reasonably well drawn. Animation is jerky. You must blast them with your light-gun before they reach the bottom of the screen. You must also deal with the Mothership which randomly drops missiles from the top of the screen. The invaders themselves don't shoot at you. With a limited number of shots you must use each one wisely.¢¢ By pressing the Z and X keys you can move your ship left and right along the bottom of the screen. This is necessary to avoid the missiles from the Mothership. The format of moving your ship with the keyboard and shooting the aliens with the light-gun works to good effect.¢¢ The number of aliens and the speed with which they descend increases gradually as each level is completed (40 in total). After every tenth level there is a bonus screen where you shoot for points and shots.¢¢ If you own a 130XE or expanded 800XL you have the advantage of digitized speech. For example, at the title screen you'll hear "Alien Blast" and after you've been invaded there is a "Game Over". The sound quality is good.¢¢ Alien Blast is programmed in Turbo BASIC. On the plus side, the gameplay is fast, the graphics are colourful and the user manual is well written. I also liked the use of light-gun modes, digitized speech and a Top 5 high-score table which saves to disk.¢¢ However, animation is jerky and lasting appeal is very questionable. Alien Blast would have been a good PD or shareware release. As a commercial release it looks quite average when compared to many of the new games from Europe.¢¢ Richard Gore and DGS must be congratulated for their continued support of the Atari 8-bit! However, as much as I'd like to, I can't really recommend Alien Blast as a commercial release. From the current DGS catalogue you should check out the excellent Glaggs It and Rubber Ball.¢¢ Now I think it's time to swap my light-gun for a joystick and insert that yellow Deluxe Invaders cartidge again.¢¢¢¢SOFTWARE SCENE RATING:¢¢¢GRAPHICS : 40%¢SOUND : 45%¢PLAYABILITY : 55%¢LASTING APPEAL : 15%¢VALUE FOR MONEY : 20%¢
