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PIC=TRUE Data/Classic ÿ ü Classic Reviews --------------- ý Welcome to this month's selection of Classic reviews. Once again, we are looking at classic reviews from both the Spectrum and Commodore 64. We have some real delights for you this time, with reviews of little diamonds such as Blood N Guts on the Speccy, and Robocop, Commando, and a few others on the 'ol 64. Here is a more detailed list : û Blood 'N Guts (Speccy) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 7 Bubble Bobble (C64) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 8 Commando (C64) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 18 Kane (Speccy) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 11 Robocop (C64) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 20 Stunt Car Racer (C64/Amiga) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 13 Target Renegade (Speccy) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 22 Trapdoor (C64) - Reviewed by Mushroom - Page 4 ÿ þ If you have an all-time favourite game, and would like to review it for this section, then why not send it in to me at the Mushroom PD address. Go on, live the olden days once more !! The address to send all of your classic reviews, along with any modern reviews or any other articles you wish to contribute is : ú Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett Mushroom PD 32 Castleton Crescent Gamesley Glossop Derbyshire SK13 9TH ENGLAND ù Remember, everyone who's work I use will receive a FREE copy of the first issue it appears in. ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Trapdoor Format - Spectrum 128K Reviewer - Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett ý Eeee by 'eck. Remember when this pointless animation series was on the TV? It's going back a few years now. Suddenly, all this Trapdoor stuff appeared everywhere, including the game, released by AUI (Alternative Software). You played Berk, the stupid blue blob with eyes, and all you had to do was keep up with the demands of "'im upstairs". He would request thigs like a can of worms, or boiled slimies, and you would have to work out the puzzles in the game to try and give him what he wants. To get the can of worms, for example, you would have to open the Trapdoor that all the horrific and comical monsters come out from in the series, and let a few worms crawl out, and shut it before some ÿ ý hideous or pointlessly insane monster comes out. You would then have to scatter round and pick up all the worms and put them in a can, before that stupid little grub-friend of yours eats them all. I cannot for the life of me remember it's name. It may come to me. Once you had filled up the can, you put it on the lift and send it up to "'im upstairs" and await your next order. I have just remembered, that thing is called Drut. What a stupid name? Sometimes, you would have to open the trapdoor and allow certain monsters to come out of it in order for you to complete your mission. For example, if he want's fried eggs, you have to let this stupid bird out, and run around with a frying pan to try and collect the eggs that it keeps dropping. Once you had caught enough, you had to fry them and send them up in the lift. There was one level, where you had to let this bouncing thing out, and make it land in a vat to juice some creature into a beaker. Wierd. As well as the good monsters, there were a few which came out which really got on your nerves, the main one being this stupid thing ÿ ý which shoots you with a ray-gun type thing, and transports you to a totally random location, messing up your game completely. The game can be really difficult to get the hang of, especially when it comes to getting him a can of boiled slimies, as you had to wade into this pool in the cellar, and try and catch these eye things that kept popping up in places. Really difficult when you first try and do it. Good points of the game, were the fact that you could launch Boni down the trapdoor, as well as Drut. Plus, the added bonus of when you get bored solid of the game (takes a very short time) you can kill yourself by falling into the trapdoor. Overall, I think I would rate the game as good for the first couple of times that you play it. After that, it get's just a little bit boring. û Overall rating - 6 out of 10 ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Blood 'N Guts Format - Spectrum 48K Reviewer - Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett þ Blood 'N Guts had to be one of the simplist games that there could ever be on the trusty ol' Speccy. You played the sprite of a kind of "Bionic Commando", and have been shrunken down and injected into some guy's body to try and rid all the virus' which were making him ill. The game was very simply put together, using the traditional Spectrum methods of creating huge maps - simply by sticking lot's of cloured spaces together to form the "Outline" of the part of the body you were in, with more detail paid to parts of the body such as the brain and heart. Every now and then, a part of the body would flash, meaning that it was being attacked by a virus. In order to kill this virus, you first had to find a "Vaccine" ÿ þ cell, which pops up every now and then for you to collect, and help you to kill this virus, rendering the part of the body well again for now. It had the classic Speccy 48K tune, consisting of what can only be described as pointless, random beeps of a varyied pitch and frequency, and only after a while of listening, could you determine that it was actually a tune. Although rather repetitive, the game was actually quite addictive, although a modern version would be a sensible idea, and could be done using AMOS. The graphics were simple and sweet, with easy detection between a virus and the so-called vacine pills. The diver-type bloke in which you played the part of was rather well detailed for a Spectrum, and all the different sprites had animation to them, which could be a rareity on the Speccy sometimes. û Overall rating - 8 out of 10 ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Bubble Bobble Format - Arcade Reviewed by Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett ù Every time this game comes to my town with the fair, you have to cue for about 10-15 minutes before you can even see the machine, and that is no lie!! Move over Mortal Kombat, stand aside Outrun - Bubble Bobble is here! This has to be one of the oldest arcade games around, and even today, is still extremely popular with a hell of a lot of people. Basically, all you do is wnder around the screen, both Bub and Bob, shooting bubbles at baddies, and collecting all the goodies. Then why is it so addictive? There are endless levels to complete, and even on the arcades, you can be playing a game with one credit for quite a while. The tune that ÿ ù accompanys it is extremely familiar with most gamers, as it has been remixed and re-vamped so many times, everyone has bound to have heard it at some point in their lives. If you manage to get to this machine in the arcades, then check it out by having a good ol' play of it, and trust me, you will be hooked for hours. û Bubble Bobble - Addictiveness 95% ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Kane Format - Speccy 128K Reviewed by Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett ý Kane had to be one of the best Spectrum games of all time. It was certainly one of the first "Split-Level" type games, in which there was a completely different kind of task to do on each level, which was what I think made it stand out from the rest of the crowd. The game consisted of 4 levels. The first was an excellent "Birdie Shoot" in which you had to shoot lot's of pigeons out of the sky, which would fly around at various different speeds. For every 3 or 4 birds that you managed to shoot down, you would get a "Lif" to use on the other levels of the game. You had a limited number of arrows, and each time you shot a bird you got the arrow back, so you could literally go on shooting until all the birds were either dead, or had got to the "Home" marker. ÿ ý The second level was perhaps the most arkward level to play. The great train ride. You had to race your horse against a moving train, jumping over Cacti and other things such as hedges, until you managed to get to the front carriage and stop the train from moving. The third level was perhaps my favourite. The traditional "Shoot-Out" like in a western movie. You had to shoot loads of little bad guys, who would pop their little heads up from round the back of a door, a barrel, or maybe even a stagecoach. If you did not shoot them first, they would take potshots at you. The game also had an ammunition limit to your gun, and you would keep having to run to the side of the screen in order to fill your ammo clip with bulletts. The backdrop was very detailed, even for a Spectrum's graphic capabilities. The final level, riding back to Kane, was literally the same as the second level, except there was a whole load more obstickles thrown into it to try and stop you. The best thing about these 2 levels, was the fact that when you died, your man would fly off his horse, and eat the dirt. Much more entertaining than completing the level. û Overall Score - 8 out of a possible 10 ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Stunt Car Racer Format - C64/Amiga Reviewed by Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett ú This game has to be the best car-racing game of all time. Featuring 8 different tracks, with 15 other drivers, and the ability to promote to a super-league, is an amazing setup for a game of this age. The actual game is made up of Vector graphics (solid lines and blocks), which make the game really stand out. The gameplay is very fast, with your car being fixed still on the bottom of the screen, if you turn or jump, the view of the track alters accordingly instead of the gar, giving it that extra feeling of realism to it. There is a real feel for speed here as well, especially when you start ripping those boosters along the straights. It may seem dead easy by sound, but trust me, it isn't. You are ÿ ú placed onto a track in the air by a crane, and you must race on straights, corners, holes, and huge mounds, at sppeds of over 200 MPH without barriers on the edges to stop you from falling off. What's more, you have a damage meter at the top of the screen, which increases every time your car is damaged in any way, wether it be from falling off the track, or taking corners too fast, or going over bumps and ramps at too great a speed. There is also a chassis damage meter, which creates big holes in the damage meter, and every time the line comes in contact with it, it skips past, making you absord less damage before you become a wreck. Each of the computer players have their own tactics for racing, wether it be to stop you from overtaking, which is a skill of it's own, to shooting ahead of you by miles on the track. Each skill has to be learned the hard way. Each track also has it's pitfalls, the most hardest to learn being the Stepping Stones, which consists of a high-off-the-ground square track, with 4 huge holes dug in one side, with just a few metres of track on each. If you encounter this at either 5 miles too fast or slow, your car is immediately written off, and smashed into a million pieces. Other great pitfalls, include ÿ ú slanted straights, in which you have to slow right down for, Huge drops, which you must ramp off at certain speeds in order to land safetly either further down to the ground, or across a small pitfall. Some of the most trickiest obstickles to master, are all the different ramps. The Big Ramp for instance, is a rather large jump, with a smaller jump in the middle. You must hit the first jump at exactly the right speed, so that the slowdown on the smaller ramp consists with the second smaller jump, and making you land to take the left-hand corner straight away. Major problems with this, are that you go too fast, miss the middle altogether, and land right into a wall, or you land over the corner, and fall off. The crane then has to lift you back on, allowing the computer to gain valuable distance in front of you. Cornering is the most difficult of all the obstickles to overcome. You have to learn where and when to either turn, or let go of the joystick. The best course for this, is the Roller-Coaster, which is also the fastest track in the game, and in division 2. This will teach you to take all the different corners available, with some of the fastest possible speeds. Other factors which you learn through this ÿ ú track, is the familiar bounce-around technique, which jumps you around the straights, and around the corners, which also takes a lot to master re-gaining control. The computer automatically centres the steering wheel whenever you let go anyway, but it is no use when you are going flat-out. The good thing about this game, is that you can practise on any of the tracks, in any of the divisions. In order to practise the super-league tracks, you must get into the super-league, which means coming first in Division 1 - a MAMMOTH of a task. It took me 2 years, a C64 and an Amiga! You can also save your division ratings, along with the best race+lap records, so you can load in a new division at any time. This is especially helpfull on the super-league. The super-league is entered when you reach the number one spot. The tracks and the drivers are the same, but a lot changes about the cars. Your car becomes twice as powerfull, with the damage factor being more mean, as well as the computer cars speeding up as well. You accelarate twice as fast, and you can reach an easy 350MPH without having to boost all that much. The counter can reset twice on these levels. Plus, you have to re-think your whole playing strategy's for each of the circuits ÿ ú again, for instance, on the big ramp, you can clear the middle bit, and land cleanly on the other side without going anywhere-near flat out. If you go round using your old speeds, then the computer is sure to shoot right past you. This is one car game that I definately reccomend to ANY car-game enthusiast, as it will keep you going for absolutely ages. It took me 2 years on and off to master to the top of division one, and now I can't get any higher than the super-division 2. û Overall Rating - 10 out of 10 ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Commando Format - Commodore 64 Reviewed by Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett þ Commando has to be my all-time favourite Commodore 64 game. It is now a good few years old, but I can still remember running round to my mates house to play it for hours and hours on end. It even got to the point where I bought the computer off him, just to play this game. It definately ranks alongside Aztec Challenge in my all-time favourite list. Basically, Commando is a shoot-em-up, with some amazing gameplay and action. You had to work your way up to the main outpost, where you had to kill loads of different guys who would come running out. Many games after this tried to copy this kind of level play, but they were all abismal compared to this original. Armed with a machine gun and 5 hand-grenades, you had to do battle in this hell-hole to the death. ÿ þ Another thing which really got me into the game happened to be the music, as it was so addictive. The in-game tune was so hip and happening, you could really groove to it. It sure made the best of the SID capabilities of the C64. Written by Rob Hubbard, who is renowned for making amazing music for many formats, with excellent samples of his work on the Spectrum on games like Escape from Singe`s Castle. The hiscore table music was also a nice and mellow module to keep you ticking over that little bit longer, to begin playing the next game. If I had kept my 64, I would probably be still playing this game today as I found it so addictive. I hope it is long remembered by many people all over the world !! û Overall rating - 9 out of 10 ÿ ü Classic Review -------------- û Game - Robocop (Budget) Format - Commodore 64 Reviewed by Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett ú Robocop was one of the many "Manufactured" platform games to come out on the C64. By manufactured, I mean have exactly the same gameplay as maybe 20 or 30 other Ocean platform games, but change the main sprite and some of the background graphics, and you have a new platform game to sell. Despite the above, the game did have the odd little feature added to it to seperate it slightly from the others, including some of the major bugs that were in the game. One of the biggest, was if you walked over to a wall, kept pushing in that direction and waggle the joystick up and down, you would walk straight through a brick wall. Bit of an X-File there methinks. ÿ ú The game had an amazing loading picture of Robocop's head, and looked as though it was scanned. One thing I like about all the traditional Ocean games, including this, Target Renegade, Wec Le Mans, and many many others, is the traditional loading format. It would kick in with the ever-popular Cyber-Load format, which consisted of the border lines changing clours as the information was being loaded in. Then, came what can only be described as the greatest EVER Commodore 64 loading tune, which was so cool. I used to stop the tape recorder on purpose just to listen to the loading music. Then, the picture would appear bit by bit in the traditional C64 way, at quarter of a character per time. Gameplay was not too bad. The sprites moved cleanly, and were very neat, and there were quite a few baddies to kill. Every time the computer loaded in a new level, then you would re-start from there when you died. You had to work your way through the streets, to the office of Dick Jones, where he had the old man by gunpoint. You had to shoot Dick several times to kill him, and complete the game. û Overall Rating - 6 out of 10 ÿ û Game - Target; Renegade Format - Speccy + C64 Reviewed by Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett ý Remeber the old beat-'em-ups, before all the Super Nintendo and Sega stuff came along? Target Renegade is a class of it's own, both on the speccy, and the 64. You must guide your bod through several different levels, consisting of a multi-storey carpark, a street, a mall-thing, the park, and a barfight to kill the big boss at the end. You can go at this alone, or have 2 players on the screen at the same time. Different functions of the game vary on the 2 formats. For example, at the bottom of the screen on the 64 version, there is a face, which changes expression every time you get hit. This is not there on the spectrum. The spectrum version is also not as colourfull, as you can only have 2 colours in any 8x8 square, or else it crashes the colour scheme. ÿ ý The game plays very well on both machines, without it slowing down at all, even on the spectrum. Some large sprites, mainly different types of men, as well as dogs and motorcycles. One way the speccy cut down on sprite buffers was to give all the men the same legs. You can pick up the usual weapons, mainly baseball bats and pool-cues in the bar, and the game is different every time you play it. There are both sound FX and music on the 2 versions, the 64 having an ultimate soundtrack, whereas the speccy has an almost-as-good tune, but at a very low volume, familiar with the 128K music scene. No sound crashes crop up anywhere, so all is well here. If you are a beat-'m-up fan, and have not seen this game before, then I suggest that you get a copy of it. It is priced at around 3 quid now, and follows very closely to the double-dragon games. û Beat-'em-up rating - 8 out of 10 (both versions) ÷ EOF