News

Mastertronic was to release a followup to "Kane", unsurprisingly called "Kane II".

Up until this point Microprose's games had been distributed in the UK by US Gold, but now they were going to handle it all themselves. This would allow them to use much fancier packaging, for starters.

Tynesoft and Virgin were both readying new compilations.

Elite started a new budget label, Encore, which would see their back catalogue classics re-released.

The Big Apple Entertainment Company was a new software house with ambitious plans - four full price and 20 budget games over the coming year.

"Knight Tyme" was finally making its way from the Speccy to the C64.

Compunet announced a new special rate of £26.90 for a modem and quarterly subscription of unlimited off peak connection time.

Features

Mel Croucher continued his monthly predictions for every month leading up to the year 2000. This time 1993 and 1994 were covered.

ZZap! Back re-examined 6 games awarded Sizzlers and Gold Medals in issue 14.

Zzap! visited the UK offices of Microprose to get a look behind the scenes at the acclaimed software house. Apparently "Gunship" cost four million dollars and took over 17 man years to develop.

Instalment four of Martin Walker's dev diary saw him take a break from the game to focus on writing a music player.

A roundup of the latest Amiga games, including the "Wizball" port which Zzap! - like myself - found sadly underwhelming.

Notable Previews

• "Street Fighter" GO!
• "Dream Warrior" US Gold
• "Nineteen Part 1 - Boot Camp" Cascade
• "Ring Wars" Cascade
• "Hercules - Slayer of the Damned" Gremlin

Notable Reviews

• "Bionic Commandos" GO! - 90% Sizzler "By far the best GO! conversion so far, and another great arcade conversion by Software Creations."
• "The Great Giana Sisters" Rainbow Arts/GO! - 96% Gold Medal "A fabulous, compelling and constantly rewarding arcade adventure."
• "Skate Crazy" Gremlin - 86% "A smart skate-about which is well worth a look."
• "Brainstorm" Firebird - 94% "An immediately compelling and fiendishly addictive addition to the puzzle genre."
• "International Soccer" CRL - 86% "Despite a few minor faults, it's still the quickest and most playable football game on the 64."

Charts

Games

1. "Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit" Sensible Software/Outlaw
2. "California Games" Epyx
3. "Platoon" Ocean

Music

1. "Delta" Thalamus - Main Theme - Rob Hubbard
2. "BMX Kidz" Firebird - Title Tune - Rob Hubbard
3. "Arcade Classics" Firebird - Main Theme - Rob Hubbard

Video

1. "Roxanne"
2. "Aliens"
3. "Platoon"

Coin-Op

1. "Bubble Bobble"
2. "Blasteroids"
3. "R-Type"