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This month in... C&VG '89

Mike Keith

News

A new computer was about to be unleashed on Europe which boasted specs that certainly beat the 8bits, but also - apparently - rivaled the Amiga and ST. While that didn't seem terribly exciting, it did have one interesting feature: the ability to run most Speccy games. The SAM Coupe was due to launch in the UK on November 20th.

With Christmas around the corner, Hewson were to release a couple of compilations. Both would include"Uridium" and "Cybernoid II" with "Sanxion" being exclusive to the C64 and "Hydrofool" to the Spectrum.

Mastertronic made a bold move with the first 16bit budget range with titles costing a mere £4.99.

A controller that would "enable the player to almost forget it is there and appear to play his favourite arcade games by thought alone" was promised by Spectravideo with The Flight Controller. Judging by the small, cropped photo I think they had a way to go...

Word reached C&VG via a Japanese fax that the PC Engine II had been announced. They were unable to make out any details other than it would sport an impressive 16Mhz CPU.

The Sega Genesis was about to get a bunch of add-ons: a disk drive, computer keyboard and graphics tablet. UK gamers were still anxiously awaiting the Megadrive launch in Easter. A random bit of additional news: Spectrum Holobyte were porting their "Falcon" flight sim to the console.

Features

This month's Bug Report saw three people report the following bug with "Operation Wolf" on the Spectrum: "On level 4, an enemy soldier comes on without a head shoots, then the machine crashes."

The "INCREDIBLE" hologram preview this month featured "Power Drift".

Notable Previews

Notable Reviews

  • "Power Drift" Activision - Amiga 83% "Hours of racing thrills in what is surely the best Power Drift conversion the Amiga is capable of."
  • "Pro Tennis Tour" Ubisoft - Amiga 80% "Definitely one of the more enjoyable tennis simulations on the Amiga, with a high standard of polish and a wealth of options to please both fans of the genre and casual players."
  • "Batman" Ocean - Amiga 93% C&VG Hit "Superb graphics and sound and great five part gameplay carry off Ocean's best game of the film yet."
  • "The Untouchables" Ocean - Spectrum 85% C64 83% C&VG Hit "While the gameplay is virtually identical to the C64 version, monochrome graphics ensure that the on-screen action is easier on the eye, as well as giving the player the feeling of watching a 50s black and white film. Brilliant."
  • "Contact" Rainbird - ST 81% "Tangible atmosphere and lots of playability make Contact much more than just another maze game."
  • "M1 Tank" Microprose - PC 87% "Technically Microprose's best yet, but the slower and more complicated tactical gameplay makes Tank Platoon less attractive to the casual gamer than the blam-zoom action of the flight sim."
  • "Tetris" Nintendo - Gameboy 95% "Tetris has come a long way since its conception in Russia, and even now retains its hellishly addictive qualities. Buy it or feel very silly."
  • "Marioland" Nintendo - Gameboy 93% "A small yet perfectly formed Mario whizzes past equally impressive sprites and backdrops. An arcade machine in your pocket."
  • "Soko Ban" Nintendo - Gameboy 88% "Simple but effective puzzle games are in their element on the Game Boy and this is no exception."

Charts

Amiga

  1. "New Zealand Story" Ocean
  2. "Robocop" Ocean
  3. "Populous" Electronic Arts

All Formats

  1. "Crazy Cars" Hit Squad
  2. "Indiana Jones" US Gold
  3. "Green Beret" Hit Squad