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This (er, last) month in... Zzap!64 '88

Mike Keith

I managed to miss May by one day - mea culpa.

News

Julian Rignall defended the status of the C64 in light of the recently arrived 16bit machines, citing the strength of recent release compared to rather disappointing 16bit titles: "To me, the Commodore 64 is leading the way when it comes to new ideas - Driller, the up-and-coming Echelon, Apollo 18, Nebulus, Soko Ban and Deflektor are recent examples that inject new life and innovation into the computer game format."

Databyte were to release a compilation of the three "Spy Vs Spy" games.

Zzap owned up to the fact that the "Amulator" (add on for the C64 to allow it to emulate an Amiga) was indeed an April Fools.

Epyx was working on a third instalment in its "Summer Games" series (doesn't appear to have been released).

The "Operation Wolf" home computer rights had been snapped up by Ocean.

Features

Mel Croucher begun a new series where he laid out his (tongue in cheek) predictions for the coming 12 years. This issue saw 1989 & 1990 covered.

The second instalment of Martin Walker's dev diary as he started on his next game ("Citadel" ?) and continued work on the sound for "Armalite" [sic].

Notable Previews

Notable Reviews

  • "Stealth Mission" Sublogic - 89% "Technically brilliant, but Stealth Mission's merits are going to be more appreciable to flight-sim aficionados."
  • "Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo" Firebird - 91% Sizzler "An excellent adaptation of the oriental beat 'em up theme, and a good conversion from the comic."
  • "Card Sharks" Accolade/EA - 87% "A very well presented package which has just about everything a card player could ask for."
  • "The Revenge of DOH (Arkanoid II)" Imagine - 89% "Larger and more attractive than Arkanoid, and the most accomplished and playable Breakout variant so far."
  • "Cybernoid" Hewson - 93% Sizzler "An admirably polished and challenging shoot 'em up which maintains the high Hewson standard."
  • "Sherlock - The Riddle of the Crown Jewels" Infocom - 81% "Infocom have once again produced an above average adventure... even if it's not as high as some of their previous offerings."
  • "Pac-Land" Quicksilva - 92% Sizzler "All the best features of the arcade game make this a superb conversion."
  • "Herobotix" Rack-It - 87% "An appealing mixture of puzzle plus shoot 'em up action, and another first-class release from Rack-It."

Charts

Games

  1. "California Games" Epyx
  2. "The Last Ninja" System 3
  3. "Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit" Outlaw

Music

  1. "Delta" Thalamus - Main Theme - Rob Hubbard
  2. "Arcade Classics" Firebird - Main Theme - Rob Hubbard
  3. "Sanxion" Thalamus - Loading Music - Rob Hubbard