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This month in... C&VG '88

Mike Keith

News

May 28th would see Video Charity Day take place as part of the "massive" '88 Telethon charity drive. Video rental customers would be "encouraged" to donate while in video stores and there would be competitions and raffles.

C&VG found the fact that the player character in Martech's "Vixen" was female "doubly refreshing". The double part may have been a reference to the game's cover/advertisements which featured a photo of a Page 3 girl Corinne Russell.

New from toy company Tomy was Mr DJ which was basically an AM/FM radio which waved his arms in time with the music.

Anglia TV's innovative adventure game show "Knightmare" won the Jean d'Arcy International Award for Video Production.

Rainbird's "Verminator" would see the player take on the role of a pest exterminator called into to clear out an infestation from ancient oak. (Unclear if this was ever published)

"Sorcerer Lord" from PSS was making its way to the C64.

Ocean were following up "Renegade" with "Target Renegade".

It seemed that the general feeling from the recent British Play-By-Mail Convention was that PBM was going "from strength to strength".

The three Spy vs Spy games were to appear on a compilation called "The Spy Trilogy".

This year's Atari User Show would take place at London's Alexandra Palace on April 22nd through to the 24th.

Cascade had teamed up with the Royal Air Force on what promised to be "the ultimate flight simulation" with proceeds going to the RAF Benevolent Fund.

Super Soft's adventure game based on the "Lone Wolf" series of role playing books had been delayed until autumn.

"Blissbreak" from Outlaw would be like pool and snooker, but "weird". (Unclear if this was released)

Pirahna's "Roy of the Rovers" was due out at Easter.

Mirrorsoft were publishing Spectrum Holobyte's highly acclaimed flight sim "Falcon" in the UK.

Poole based Super X had developed a new hydraulic simulator that could hold 14 people. Costing a mere £70,000 it was aimed squarely at amusement parks, shopping malls and museums.

Mattel had stirred up some controversy with a line of high tech toys accompanying its "Captain Power" TV show. The show was "interactive" in that a special light gun could be used to rack up points by shooting targets. These targets, however, were people which lead to allegations of training kids to kill humans...

Features

Channel 4 had started a new series on the sport of Sumo wrestling and C&VG investigated "the bizarre spectacle".

The moves reviewed this month were: "Empire of the Sun", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "The Princess Bride", "Asterix in Britain", and "Orphans".

Tony Takoushi interviewed Bruce Lowry, the head of Nintendo UK.

Tony Takoushi raved about "Garrison Two" for the Amiga and (correctly) speculated that with the arrival of powerful computers and consoles, arcade companies would move away from producing arcade machines and instead focus of home computer/console games.

Notable Previews

Notable Reviews

  • "Cybernoid" Hewson - Spectrum/Amstrad 9/10 "Cybernoid is one of the best Spectrum releases for ages and probably the best Amstrad game around at the moment."
  • "Predator" Activision - Spectrum 9/10 "All in all, Predator is an excellent game where the hunter becomes the hunted. Buy it and experience fear."
  • "Xarax" Firebird - Spectrum 8/10 "It's possible Firebird could have put this out a higher [sic] price. But that's their blunder and your good fortune. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say." (The review also spelled "Xarax" as "Zarax")
  • "io" Firebird - C64 8/10 "io is the work of two well known Compunet art page supremo's - Bob Stevenson and Douglas Hare. If you like shoot 'em ups, you will not want to be without io - it is one of the best."
  • "Frightmare" Cascade - C64 8/10 C&VG Hit "Frightmare is definitely a step in the right direction for Cascade. But remember, sweet dreams are not made out of this..." (I honestly have no idea what they meant)
  • "Arkanoid" Discovery - Amiga 8/10 "If you're lucky enough to have an Amiga, this should be near the top of your list."
  • "Oids" FTL/Mirrorsoft - ST 8/10 C&VG Hit "Any ST owner who has played Thrust will not want to be without Oids. My only criticism is the price." ("Thrust" was a £1.99 budget game which made the £39.99 price tag for Oids a little hard to swallow.)
  • "Shades" - MUD available for Prestel and Micronet subscribers 9/10 "It is all great fun - more a way of life, perhaps, than an adventure game. Provided you can afford the phone bill, plus nearly £1 per hour, (there are connect-time charges during the daytime on weekdays, as well) then it's worth taking the risk that you won't become totally addicted to it."
  • "Dungeon Master" FTL/Mirrorsoft - ST 9/10 "I got over my initial doubts VERY quickly and have spent over 40 hours playing this game without a hint of boredom. A must for all roleplayers!"