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This month in... Zzap!64 '86

Mike Keith

News

Antony Jacobson wrote a withering attack on Zzap! and Crash in Computer Trade Weekly. It really was oddly vitriolic and included such gems as: "... a certain kind of magazine should only be handled with rubber gloves and antiseptic fire tongs. No-one forces them to publish contagious rubbish but magazines that do so are not simply to be described as boring, but debasing the values of their readership... and polluting the social and commercial environment in which we live and work." Yikes.

Zzap! apologised to reader Ivan Latter, who had had a listing appear in the adventure problem help section. Ivan's mum had written in to complain because Ivan did not possess those games and the ordeal had caused the family considerable embarrassment.

Martech teased "Samantha Fox Strip Poker".

RIno's next game would be "Bombo".

"Slamball" from US Gold/Americana looked like an interesting take on Pinball.

After many delays, "Nexus" was apparently almost ready to be released...

Hewson announced that Andrew Braybrook's followup to "Uridium" would be the insanely fast "Alleykat". Mike Male was also bringing his 3D steam train sim, "Southern Belle", to the C64.

Features

Part 2 of the Infocom interviews. This month Stu Galley (Senior Game Designer) and Carl Genatossio (Art) were up.

Interview with programmer Steve Evans, who had written "Guardian" and "Who Dares Wins II" amongst others.

This month's The Shadow section went full on with the industry gossip - great stuff.

The games covered in ZzapBack! were:

Notable Previews

Notable Reviews

  • "Cauldron II" Palace Software - 94% Sizzler "Bouncing and boinging all over the place is great fun, and though it's a little awkward at first quite a large amount of fine control is possible after a bit of practise."
  • "Starquake" Bubble Bus - 93% Sizzler "Starquake is very neat indeed, it's cleverly thought out, fun to play and pretty to look at."
  • "International Karate" Archer Maclean/System 3 - 91% Sizzler "The best thump em up we've seen and played yet."
  • "Raise the Titanic" Electric Dreams - 88% "Very clever and original, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea."
  • "Spellbound" David Jones/MAD - 94% Sizzler "Spellbound is the best Mastertronic release to date, and puts a majority of other, more expensive arcade adventures to shame."
  • "Doomdark’s Revenge" Beyond - 95% Sizzler "An addictive and compelling episode to a great saga."
  • "Kentilla" Derek Brewster/Mastertronic - 90% Sizzler "The plot is quite straightforward - go forth into the world, the noble sword Kentilla by your side, and defeat the nasty Grako. The game, however, is about as straightforward as tape-worm tied in knots."
  • "Bored of the Rings" Delta4/CRL - 78% "Those who fancy mucho silliness will find this game very much to their liking. I certainly found it extremely funny, but I'm not sure how much time I'll actually spend playing it once I've got over the humour."
  • "Ballyhoo" Infocom - 88% "By any normal standards the game is excellent - but is it truly excellent by the standards that Infocom have set themselves? Of that I'm not convinced, but I'd be very interested to hear what other Ballyhooers have to say."
  • "Spindizzy" Paul Shirley/Electric Dreams - 98% Gold Medal "Another fabulous arcade game hits the 64, but this one is the best of the lot."
  • "Bounces" Denton Designs/Beyond - 86% "At first Bounces looks pretty crummy, but once you get into it you soon realise that although it's a simple game, it's great fun to play."
  • "Fairlight" Bo Jangeborg/The Edge - 90% Sizzler "A jolly good arcade adventure which gets the grey matter clanking into action."

Charts

Games

  1. "Paradroid" Andrew Braybrook/Hewson
  2. "Uridium" Andrew Braybrook/Hewson
  3. "Mercenary" Novagen