News

"Dungeons, Amethysts, Alchemists 'n' Everythin'" from Atlantis Software promised "the occasional rude word and sexual innuendo, novice nuns, entangled lovers and busty barmaids". The cover of the game came with a "Not suitable for persons under the age of 16" label.

Paul Hardcastle had a big hit with his Vietnam war song "19" and Cascade were turning it into a game. Rather interestingly, the player would be faced with a choice at the start: fight the war or the draft. Choosing the former would take the player on an arcade action game, whereas the latter path was a text/graphic adventure with the player joining the Peace Corps.

Microdeal's ST-Replay was a new cartridge for the ST that enabled audio sampling.

Pirahna's next licensed game would be "Yogi Bear".

Mastertronic's "Flash Gordon" was finally making its way to the Spectrum, Amstrad, Atari and MSX.

The 45th Science Fiction Convention (known as "Conspiracy 87") was to take place at the Brighton Centre and Metropole Hotel in Brighton.

"Election" from Virgin was a satirical political election game.

Software house Starlight had two games on the way in autumn: "Starfire" and "Red L.E.D.".

Konami hoped to get a slice of the gruelling sport genre in the arcades carved out by Taito's "Track & Field" with "Combat School".

Tony Takoushi got to check out "Space Harrier" running on the Sega Master System.

Simon Nichol was almost done with "Mega Apocalypse", which he had been working on since 1985's "Crazy Comets".

Konix boasted that their Speed King joystick could last for at least three weeks at a constant 450 waggles per minute.

Design Design were publishing a compilation for the Amstrad 8256/8512 range (machines geared more towards word processing etc) featuring three games called "Distractions".

Another month, another cock up with the C&VG layout. Last month's "Auf Wiedersehen Monty" coupon from Gremlin accidentally included the word "free", which it wasn't.

The 10th Official Commodore Show would be held at the Novotel in Hammersmith.

The National Software Register was setup to provide a way for programmers/publishers to defend their software copyrights.

David Jones dressed up in chain mail and a horned helmet to promote his new Magic Knight game, "Stormbringer".

Another apology from C&VG... in April they got Tartan Software's address wrong, and in May they managed to completely omit the company's address in a review (Tartan was a mail order company, so the address was kinda important).

Pete Cooke's next game "Micronaut" was due to hit next month.

Features

An interview with Douglas Adams about his career and his new adventure game, "Bureaucracy".

A piece looking at the work of Stephen King.

The music reviews this month included "Licence to Ill" by the Beastie Boys ("If you can only afford to buy one album this year, make it this one"), Anthrax, Agent Steel, Hellion and Gary Moore.

Part two of the special on the Bond movie and game, "The Living Daylights".

A guide to recent comics worth checking out, including "The Watchmen".

A round up of all the latest Amiga news.

A big preview of the "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" game from US Gold.

Tony Takoushi ranted about magazines abusing "exclusives" claiming that every month he provided exclusives without banging on about it. He also raved about Tony Crowther's new game, "Killer Rings".

Notable Previews

• "High Frontier" Activision
• "Ninja Hamster" CRL
• "Re-Bounder" Gremlin
• "International Events" Anco
• "Great Guryanos" Elite
• "Airwolf II" Elite
• "3DC" Elite
• "Cataball" Elite
• "Alien Evolution" Gremlin

Notable Reviews

• "Oink!" CRL - C64 10/10 Game of the Month "Oink! is brilliant value for money and the games are all very playable." (I bought this game based on this review... no way it was anywhere near 10/10!)
• "The Last Ninja" System 3 - C64 10/10 Game of the Month "So is The Last Ninja worth the wait? You bet it is. Just when you thought nobody would come up with a new and interesting twist on the martial arts formula, System 3 manages it."
• "Wizball" Sensible Software/Ocean - C64 8/10 C&VG Hit "Every so often a game arrives in the office with out fuss or fanfare which exudes quality, cleverness, ace graphics, brilliant sound and that elusive of all properties, originality."
• "Hydrofool" Gargoyle Games - Spectrum/Amstrad 10/10 C&VG Hit "Overall, Hydrofool is the most fun you'll have with your Spectrum this summer - probably year."
• "Stifflip" Palace Software - C64 9/10 "Stifflip might not get the audience it deserves because its a sort of in-between game, in between an adventure, an arcade adventure, a bit like Redhawk in fact."
• "Army Moves" Imagine - C64/Spectrum 10/10 C&VG Hit "Army Moves is nothing if not annoyingly addictive. I kept saying 'I'll give it one more go.' You know how it is? Thirty goes later you're still willing to give it a go.'
• "Stormbringer" David Jones/Mastertronic - Spectrum 10/10 C&VG Hit "It's got great graphics, sound, fiendish problems and great game play. And at £2.99 you can afford not to miss out. This is how all budget games should be."
• "The Big Sleaze" Delta4/Pirahna - Spectrum/C64/Amstrad 8/10 "Here is a game that is not too difficult, the vocabulary is less fussy than any other Delta 4 adventure, and I rate it as Fergus' best to date. If you enjoy a bit of sleuthing American style, then do it with a smile on your face, with The Big Sleaze."
• "Bureaucracy" Infocom - ST/Amiga/C128/Apple II/Mac/Amstrad PCW, IBM/MS DOS 9/10 "On the whole, though that [childish overly long text] is worth putting up with for the good bits, which account for most of the game."
• "Starglider" Argonaut/Rainbird - Amiga 10/10 C&VG Hit "I also think they [Rainbird] were lucky to find Jez, who has to be one of the best Amiga programmers around. He has taken the machine further than anyone else to produce what I call a true Amiga game."
• "Silent Service" Microprose - Amiga 9/10 C&VG Hit "Silent Service is extremely playable and fun, whilst giving an accurate account of submarine warfare, a must for every simulation addict."