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This month in... Zzap!64 '88

Mike Keith

News

Perhaps the biggest news for Zzap! readers this month was that Julian Rignall had left Newsfield to take up freelancing (including for rival publisher EMAP). Gordon Houghton took over as editor, and there were quite a few changes (mainly cosmetic, but also an expanded news section for a start).

Mastertronic had a bunch of upcoming releases planned: "Rogue", "World Darts" (may have become "180"), "Night Racer" and a re-release of Activision's "Transformers".

More re-releases were about to hit from Elite's Encore label, Cascade's Gamebusters label and Code Masters. Some of the games would be released on disk as well as tape, which had previously been rare for budget releases.

Trilogic released the Print Link which allowed users to connect their C64 to their shiny new Amiga in order to transfer files over.

Commodore slashed the price of the Amiga down to £399 which put it on par with the ST.

More "Leaderboard" expansion courses were on the way.

SubLogic released a scenery disk for their "Flight Simulator" and "Stealth Mission" games which would allow player's to fly over famous European cities and landmarks.

London based Pirate Software released five new budget games: "Panzer", "Pirate Base", "Operation Anoria", "KGB Agent" and "Rollerboard".

Martin Galway joined the Sensible Software team full time. Sensible had a couple of games in the works, "SensiSoccer" and "Touchstone". The latter was apparently named after Jon and Chris' band and was to be published by Origin - I'm unsure what, if anything, became of it. The team were also planning to branch out into board games and Yuppie toys (?).

Features

A new "irregular" series began this month with the Zzap!64 Def Guide To... in which each instalment would examine a genre in depth. First up were puzzle games, with the following representatives:

Martin Walker's dev diary saw him finishing off his music demo disk, his sound fx for "Armalyte", and getting back to focussing on his next game which finally had a name, "Citadel".

A look at Compunet, what it offered (file sharing, forums, chat, email) and how it worked. It was popular with demo sceners.

Another new regular feature debuted: "Logon" would highlight the latest and greatest demos posted to Compunet.

This month's "Hack to the Future" - Mel Croucher's monthly predictions leading up to the year 2000 - covered 1995 and 1996.

ZZap! Back re-examined the big games from issue 15 (July 1986):

Zzap was not very impressed with this month's Amiga games, with "Sidewinder" being the pick of the bunch.

Notable Previews

Notable Reviews

  • "Barbarian II - The Dungeon of Drax" Palace Software - 96% Gold Medal "By far the best (and goriest) beat 'em up and an excellent sequel to Barbarian."
  • "Hawkeye" Thalamus - 96% Gold Medal "An addictive and beautifully presented shoot 'em up of the highest calibre."
  • "Mordon's Quest" Melbourne House - 83% "A good atmosphere, intelligent interaction and a creative plot make Mordon's Quest a must."
  • "Starcross" Infocom - 88% "Starcross will nicely fill that space on your shelf - intercept it at all costs."
  • "Legend of the Sword" Rainbird - Amiga 87% "Legend of the Sword is going to be tough to complete whilst being fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable to play."
  • "Darkside" Incentive - 90% "A brilliant and more involved sequel which should appeal to most."

Charts

Games

  1. "California Games" Epyx
  2. "Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit" Sensible Software/Outlaw
  3. "Bubble Bobble" Firebird

Music

  1. "Delta" Thalamus - Main Theme - Rob Hubbard
  2. "Skate Or Die" Electronic Arts - Title Tune - Rob Hubbard
  3. "BMX Kidz" Firebird - Title Tune - Rob Hubbard

Video

  1. "Aliens"
  2. "Blade Runner"
  3. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

Coin-Op

  1. "Afterburner"
  2. "Bubble Bobble"
  3. "Blasteroids"