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This month in... C&VG '87

Mike Keith

News

"Catch 23" was a new 3D vector arcade adventure from Martech.

Epyx were continuing their "Games" series, this time focussing on events such as BMXing, skateboarding, surfing and flying disks (frisbees) in "California Games".

Microprose were to release a new flight sim, "Project: Stealth Fighter" based on the top secret American stealth plane, and a more arcade-y combat game, "Airborne Ranger".

Activision & System 3 got the game rights for Arnie's "Predator".

The rather impressive "Ferrari Formula One" from Electronic Arts showed off the potential of the Amiga.

Pete Cooke's awesome "Academy" was ported to the ST (and, later, the Amiga)

Nolan Bushnell's latest venture was the "Tech Force" line of remote controlled vehicles armed with frickin' lasers. The company (Axlon) had previously created the "Petsters" line of robotic cats and dogs.

"Armageddon Man" from Martech was a strategy game set in a world on the brink of thermo-nuclear war.

To coincide with Richard Branson's attempt to be the first person to fly a hot air balloon across the Atlantic, Virgin were producing the "Trans-Atlantic Balloon Challenge" game.

Electronic Arts were working on a flight sim centred around Chuck Yeager. Interestingly enough, "Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Simulator" would not feature any shooting missions at Yeager's request (despite Yeager having flown in the Korean & Vietnam wars).

Nineteen year old Colin McClinton from Belfast became the World Elite Champion. He managed to defeat American Fred Bayer. According to the blurb, "Elite" was still the biggest selling game in the world three years on from release.

Reaktor were set to release three new budget games: "Deadringer", "Mountie Mick's Death Ride" and "Killer Ring".

An enhanced "Auf Wiedersehen Monty" was out of the Spectrum 128K.

Cascade announced "Ace 2", a sequel to it's well received combat flight sim.

The 10th Personal Computer World Show was to take place at London's Olympia from September 23rd to September 27th.

There was a baffling bit full of grammatical errors about a new game from Paul Smith on the 39 Steps label, "Bride of Frankenstein".

Bally Sente were bringing Micrprose's "Silent Service" to the arcades.

The Power House released some new compilations.

The winner of the "Football Manager" competition, Andrew Begg, got to go to the FA Cup final with his father and Kevin Toms. The Beggs were Spurs fans but sadly the result would not be the one they wanted, with Tottenham losing 2-3 to Coventry. Typical.

Tony Takoushi appeared on Channel 4's "trendy" lunchtime show, "Network 7", to talk game playing addiction and recent game controversies.

Five retail chains were now selling the Sega Master System pack distributed by Mastertronic. The basic kit was £99.95, with games priced at either £14.95, £19.95, or £24.95.

Features

This month saw the start of a new regular section focussed on everything "Fantasy". A sculptor, the new Morcock book and a new D&D style TV show ("Knightmare") were covered.

RT Smith, who was considered the best British computer wargames programmer around, was profiled. There was also a review roundup covering the main recent wargame releases.

Keith Campbell chatted to The Adventurer's Club, a fan club for - unsurprisingly - adventure games.

Gremlin's game based on the hugely successful toy, "MASK", was previewed in depth.

The movies reviewed this month were "Raising Arizona", "The Boy Who Could Fly", "Tin Men", "Evil Dead II", "White of the Eye", and "A Great Wall". The Coen brother's classic was declared pick of the month.

Graham Lilley and Teoman Irmak - the blokes behind the new very faithful ST conversion of "Gauntlet" - were interviewed.

A player's guide for "Wizball".

Tony Takoushi ranted about the dire state of TV shows dedicated to covering home computers, and raved about Jeff Minter's "Revenge of the Mutant Camels Two".

Notable Previews

Notable Reviews

  • "The Living Daylights" Domark - Amstrad 8/10 C&VG Hit "After the rather sorry effort which Domark released as 'A View to a Kill', they vowed that 'The Living Daylights' must be good. Well it must be said that their latest Bond outing is considerably better. But that wouldn't be too hard."
  • "Slap Fight" Imagine - C64 10/10 C&VG Hit "Simple. Smooth. Very addictive. A winner."
  • "Exolon" Hewson - Spectrum 9/10 C&VG Hit "It looks good, it plays good and by golly it is good. Exolon is the best of the current crop of Hewson games."
  • "Micronaut One' Pete Cooke/Nexus - Spectrum 9/10 Game of the Month "Tell you what though, it is a cracking mixture of action and strategy and features some of the most stunning 3D I've ever seen on the Spectrum."
  • "Max Torque" Bubble Bus - C64 9/10 C&VG Hit "Programmer Martin Webb has put together an excellently presented and fun to play race game. Great graphics, good sound, good game."
  • "Plasmatron" CRL - C64 8/10 C&VG Hit "Plasmatron is a good looking, fairly addictive blaster. It won't knock you back on your heels when you first load it up - but if you're a zap addict you'll enjoy the challenge."
  • "Mag Max" Imagine - C64 9/10 C&VG Hit "By no means a classic - but well presented, with good graphics, nice sound. It's also very challenging and very playable."
  • "Hades Nebula" Nexus - C64 9/10 C&VG Hit "It's fast, it's furious and it's fun. Probably the most addictive shoot-'em-up of '87 so far."
  • "Vulcan" RT Smith/CCS - Spectrum 9/10 "This is the best of the three wargame programs written by R.T. Smith, and probably the last for a while." (he had been kicking 'round an idea for an arcade style game)
  • "Crystal Castles" Atari - ST 10/10 "ST Crystal Castles is addictive as ever and shouldn't be missed by any self-respecting ST arcade freak."
  • "Airball" Microdeal - ST 10/10 "Airball is the first isometric arcade adventure, written specially of the ST, and has hit written all over it! If this is the standard we can expect of such games in the future, then form a queue... behind me!"