News

Gary Penn wrote a long editorial on a matter that had been on a lot of people’s minds: had quality and innovation taken a dive as software houses relied more and more on coin-op, TV and film licenses? The market seemed to be full of these unimaginative and often shoddy tie ins which, aside from the attached IP, only had good presentation going for them. Developers were feeling the pinch as well: publishers would “guarantee 100,000” copies sold, giving them an excuse to lower royalties. Lump sums also went out the window as all the money had been blown on the license. The piece ended with: “Unfortunately, software houses will continue to release repackaged versions of the same old thing if that is what the customers want. Is this really what YOU want - or is it all you can get?”

Andy Wilson, the programmer behind "Dan Dare”, was working on a ”Laurel and Hardy”game for Advance.

Ocean had a "Short Circuit" game just in time for the UK release of the movie.

A couple more screenshots of Stavros Fasoulas’s next shooter, "Delta" surfaced. There was also mention of a tape loader that would allow a the player to muck about with a Rob Hubbard track while they waited.

Upcoming "Stifflip and Co" from Palace was described as an icon driven “spoof English game in the tradition of Ripping Yarns, set in the closing days of the British Empire.”

Gremlin Graphics were launching a new £4.99 range of games, the first of which was "West Bank”.

Load-It were offering a DIY kit to enable precision adjustment of the C64’s datacorder (i.e. casette player).

Ocean had three new arcade ports on the way: "Taipan”,”Arkanoid" and "Renegade”. The latter two would appear on their Imagine label.

Apologies from ZZap! to Peaksoft, mail order sellers of heavy duty power supplies. Seems the mag got the price and phone number wrong.

And another apology: the review of "Sigma Seven" stated a RRP of £14.95, when it was actually £9.95.

Features

A “lengthy and somewhat harrowing interview” with John Hare and Chris Yates, i.e. Sensible Software.

A look at the current state of dialup MUGs (Multi-User Games).

The 1986 Readers’ Awards results were in:

• Best Game Overall: "World Games" Epyx/US Gold
• Best Platform Game: "Ghosts’n'Goblins" Elite
• Best Shoot ‘Em Up: ”Uridium" Hewson
• Best Arcade Adventure: ”Dan Dare" Virgin
• Best Adventure: ”The Pawn" Magnetic Scrolls/Rainbird
• Best Strategy Game: "Vietnam" SSI/US Gold
• Best Simulation: "Leader Board" Access/US Gold
• Best Graphics: "World Games" Epyx/US Gold
• Best Music: "Sanxion" Rob Hubbard/Thalamus
• Best Sound FX: "World Games" Epyx/US Gold
• Best Programmer: Andrew Braybrook
• Best Software House: US Gold
• Best Advertisement: "World Games" US Gold
• Least Pleasing Game: "Knight Rider" Ocean
• State of the Art Aware: "The Sentinel" Geoff Crammond/Firebird

The first instalment of a new developer diary from Andrew Braybrook, this time for what would become "Morpheus”.

Notable Reviews

• "Chameleon" Electric Dreams - 84% “An unusual, imaginative and surprisingly compulsive shoot’em up.“
• "Nosferatu The Vampyre" Piranha - 88% “A superlative forced perspective adventure - try it if you dare.“
• "Mutants" Ocean - 90% Sizzler “A new and exciting concept which should interest shoot’em up fans.“
• "Brian Clough’s Football Fortunes" CDS Software - 93% “This is a very socially interactive game - such delights as screaming, shouting, persecution complexes, losing friends, and falling to the floor and frothing at the mouth because your two star players have been killed in a car crash are all part and parcel of this excellent board game.“
• "Escape From Singe’s Castle: Dragon’s Lair Part II" Software Projects - 90% Sizzler “An excellent arcade conversion consisting of eight varied and addictive mini-games.”

Charts

Games

1. "World Games" Epyx/US Gold
2. "Leader Board" Access/US Gold
3. "Super Cycle" Epyx/US Gold

Music

1. "Sanxion" Rob Hubbard/Thalamus - Loading Music
2. "Knucklebusters" Rob Hubbard/Melbourne House - Main Theme
3. "Parallax" Martin Galway/Ocean - Title Screen Music