Confidential Magazine #2 Dec 1988/Jan 1989

Postal strikes had caused delays to the first issue, and - whether it was due to this or some other reason - November came and went without the second issue. Going forward they would be sticking to the every-other-month schedule.

Contents:

• Interview with Philippe Ulrich, head of the EXXOS group at French software house ERE Informatique which had recently released the rather original and intriguing "Captain Blood".
• A somewhat tongue in cheek guide to playing adventure games.
• A gathering of five of the top adventure gaming columnists at the PC Show. The five were: Nick Walkind, Keith Campbell (C&VG, Commodore User), Mike Gerrard (Your Sinclair), Steve Cooke (ACE), Nik Wilde (Newsfield) and Kati Hamza (Zzap and Crash).
• A look at MUD, including an exerpts from an interview with creator Richard Bartle.
• Keith Campbell examined the evolution of puzzles in adventure games.
• Interview with Silicon Software, developers of "Legend of the Sword".
• An "interview" with Level 9 chatacter Ingrid.
• An in depth piece on the new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, "Pool of Radiance".
• A visit to play-by-mail specialists, KJC Games.
• The reveal of the new Magnetic Scrolls game, "Myth",that would be exclusively for club members.
• A short story by Jane Rowe.
• A visit to The Crazy Dwarf in the Sussex Downs, one of the latest LARP groups to spring up.
• Michael Baywater pondered puzzles in games and life.

December Games Revisited

One of these days I’ll get my act together and not wait until the dying hours of the month (and even year in this case) to write these things… With that said, I did manage to have a decent play on a bunch of the biggest December games from 1986 and 1988.

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”The Sentinel”, Geoff Crammond/Firebird, 1986

Reviewed Zzap!64 December 1986.

I recall playing this quite a bit on the C64. I figured I’d revisit the Amiga version as the screen redraw is unsurprisingly somewhat snappier. My first attempts were complete failures, and I had to resort to reading the instructions (shock horror).

The game is still an interesting and enjoyable challenge. The way the procedurally generated levels and progression works means that you never quite know how difficult a level will be (aside from the initial one). There are 10000 landscapes in total with the player starting on “0000”, and when a level is completed the player jumps forward by a number determined by how many resources were left. The difficulty varies tremendously, though each level is - in theory - completable. I say in theory as on one session I hit landscape 0023 pretty quickly, and I’m convinced that one is impossible (I couldn’t find a way to even make the first teleport!).

The sense of dread as the Sentinel rotates is still palpable.

Zzap!64 took the rather unusual stance of not rating it, instead just awarding it a Gold Medal. I think that was fair enough. It’d be nice to see this re-done on a modern machine with a solid framerate.

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”The Trapdoor”, Don Priestly/Pirahna, 1986

Reviewed in Zzap!64 December 1986.

Before I had my C64 I played this on my Spectrum. The graphics were very impressive - big, bold characters, and it did a great job of hiding the Speccy’s colour clash.

The C64 version is good. I didn’t expect to spend much time on it, but an hour quickly passed. It’s has a lot of character and humour. The one thing that really lets it down is the plummeting framerate whenever there’s a few things going on on screen… which results in slow response times and frustration. Makes me wonder if the Spectrum version suffered from that too.

I may have to give this a proper play under emulation where I can crank up the CPU.

Zzap!64 awarded it 89%.

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”The Sacred Armour of Antiriad”, Palace Software, 1986

Reviewed Zzap!64 December 1986.

This was one of the most impressive looking games on the C64 at the time. Coming from the Speccy, it blew me away.

As with many games, I never got very far back then. I decided I would rectify that with the use of trainers (naturally). The controls are frustrating.. stand and push fire to throw a rock, stand and push up to jump, but move left and right and hit fire to run and jump etc… what?! When you get the armour and are flying around, the pinball-esque collisions are infuriating.

For a game that was a direct result of Dan Malone’s fantastic art, I had naively expected some kind of cinematic ending when the game is completed. Hah! A simple “you win” kind of message and then back to the title screen. Ugh.

Not sure it deserved the 93% Sizzler.

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”BMX Simulator”, Codemasters, 1986

Reviewed Zzap!64 December 1986.

I think I may have moved onto the Amiga by the time this came around, and so I had never tried the C64 version.

I found it completely frustrating. The game is utterly punishing of pixel mistakes and it’s all too easy to end up in situations where you instantly fall off your bike as soon as you respawn. I fired up the Amiga version as that’s the one I remember playing, and that seemed to control better… but it still wasn’t great.

Zzap!64 rated it 83% and declared it worth a look if “you’re too old for the real thing”… I think I’m too old for this unforgiving gameplay.

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”Trailblazer”, Shaun Southern/Gremlin Graphics, 1986

Reviewed ZZzap!64 December 1986.

This is a game that I often loaded up on my 64 back in the day, but I don’t think I was ever really any good at it - something that hasn’t changed in the intervening years. A fiendishly difficult game requiring super quick reactions, but somewhat enjoyable.

I’m sure the music was better… and the scrolling message on the main title screen was a lot longer. I’m obviously confusing it with another game, but what one??

It received a 93% Sizzler.

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”Boulderdash Construction Kit”, Databyte/First Star, 1986

I was sure I would end up spending most of my “revisiting” time playing this one. Boulderdash is such a classic, and this was considered the ultimate version.

But… to my shame I never actually managed to play a single level. The main menu (on the game program, not the construction kit) was impenetrable. I’m still baffled as to how one actually starts a game. Seriously.

A common theme I’m discovering is how little patience I have for this stuff, so I’ll just take Zzap!’s word for it and maybe I’ll try again sometime.

The 97% Gold Medal ranks it as one of the most highly rated C64 games ever .

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”Operation Wolf”, Ocean, 1988

Reviewed in C&VG December 1988

Note: The ST and Spectrum versions were reviewed, but I played it on the Amiga. I’m pretty sure it was a straight ST port (ugh).

I had somewhat fond memories of playing this on the Amiga - I seem to recall thinking it was an impressive arcade conversion… I’m not quite sure why as the scrolling is not smooth, neither are the animations. The sound is pretty average. The mouse should work well for aiming, but the cross hair seemed weirdly offset from where I was firing - not by a large amount, but enough to cause many frustrating moments, like when daggers are flying towards you. I’m doubtful I successfully shot a single one. Worst of all is that it is ridiculously hard. During a dozen or so attempts I completely failed to get past the first level. I suspect that is largely due to me losing skill and patience over the years, but still…

91% C&VG? no… a decidedly average ST port. Disappointing.

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”Emilyn Hughes International Soccer”, Audiogenic, 1988

Reviewed in C&VG December 1988, C64.

I’ve played many footie games over the years, but the UI of this game totally stumped me. I completely failed to even start a game which wasn’t computer vs computer. I have no idea how that is done. It looked like a relatively deep game, with management being a huge part of it.

C&VG scored it 94%, saying it was “an amazing product”. Who knows.

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”International Karate+" Archer Maclean/System 3, 1988

Reviewed C&VG December 1988.

Note: The review was of the ST version, but the Amiga one is similar enough.

I actually bought this back in the day (still have it!) and played the hell out of it. IK on the C64 was one of my fave games of that period, and IK+ improved on it considerably. It still holds up well. Unsurprisingly, the game now feels rather simplistic as far as fighting games go, but I love that. I love the fact that it is all controlled with a standard 8 direction, 1 button joystick. My only minor niggle is that it could do with some faster/smoother character animation.

C&VG awarded it 93%, and for once I would agree with that.

This month in... C&VG '88

News

There were big changes at the mag, with Tony Takoushi "getting the boot" and replaced by Julian Rignall. This issue hit 114 pages.

Mandarin Software were developing "Grand Prix Circuit", an F1 racing sim to be published by Accolade.

Elite's lineup for Christmas included "Space Harrier 2" for the 16bits (seems that Grandslam actually had the rights for that, weird) , "Mike Read’s Pop Quiz" and "Storm Warrior". Their arcade truck racer "Supertrux" was narrowly going to miss the holiday season and was due early January.

A new arcade attraction in Tokyo saw sit down Outrun cabinets repurposed in a game in which drivers would steer real remote controlled cars around a complicated track. Video from cameras mounted on the bonnet was streamed to the screens.

"BAAL" was the next 16bit game due out from Psygnosis. Screenshots certainly looked nice, but would it play any better than their previous offerings?

Gremlin's foray into the recently crowded post-apocalyptic-vehicle-combat genre was "Motorway Madness" (maybe it was released as "Motor Massacre" ?).

Alternative Software got the game rights to "Postman Pat" and hoped to have it on the shelves by Christmas.

A screenshot appeared of "Let Sleeping Gods Lie" from Elektra appeared, with C&VG declaring "the whole thing looks most bizarre." (it wasn't that bizarre!)

German software house Axxion was hoping to break into the UK market with a series of games for the Amiga and ST. The first title, "Way of the Little Dragon", was due in time for Christmas with "Crystal Hammer" (Arkanoid clone - released as "Growth" ?) and "Powerstyx" (Qix clone) following soon after. Three further titles were in development: "Gunshoot", "Skyblaster" and "Spaceport". Not the most creative company (or capable of actually releasing titles, for that matter)...

"Butcher’s Hill" was Gremlin's take on "Operation Wolf".

In what was an apparent first for the UK, a shop called "Software Circus" opened on Oxford St and claimed to be the first computer software only store in the country.

Go! managed to get their home computer conversion of Capcom's "LED Storm" on the shelves right on the heels of the European release of the coin-ops.

Publisher Softgold, who handled the international marketing and distribution for a bunch of German developers, were touting their upcoming wares. These included takes a deep breath: "Graffiti Man", "Down at the Trolls", "Oxxonian", "Danger Freak", "Starball", "Grand Monster Slam", "Circus, Circus", "The Paranoia Complex", "Mini Golf", "Wall Street", "USS John Young" and "Persian Gulf Inferno".

After their legal run ins with Nintendo and Megiagenic, Rainbow Arts were hoping a renaming and repackaging of "The Great Giana Sisters" and "Katakis" would placate the Japanese companies. The latter would re-appear as "Denaris", but there would be no return for the sisters...

Sony's Video Walkman was due out in the UK in the new year. It would take 8mm video cassettes, sport a 3" LCD screen and last up to three hours on one charge. There was no official price mentioned, but it would likely set you back about the same as a regular VCR.

No big name blockbuster movie licenses for Coktel Vision this summer as they were releasing a game based on softcore adult flick "Emmanuelle". Details were vague...

Novagen were about to release their third 16bit game, a scrolling shooter called "Hellbent". This time the programming was being handled by newcomer Donovan Prince (an "unlikely name" according to C&VG), rather than Paul Woakes.

"Sticky Decision" was a new shoot 'em up from Gremlin. Meanwhile, they were getting in on the footie market with a game based on "Roy of the Rovers".

Magnetic Scrolls were signed up to produce a series of mini-adventure games for Tony Rainbird's "Official Secrets" discount mail order and adventure club. As far as I know, only one materialised: "Myth". I think I may have all of the issues of the club magazine, "Confidential".

There was a much larger than usual Arcade Action section.

John Minson took a break from ranting to go interview Gerry Anderson about Thunderbirds, Supermarionation and how depressing Hollywood could be. A pilot for "Space Police" was about to be released and Anderson revealed he was in talks for a new Thunderbirds movie.

Features

C&VG attended the 3rd annual Festival de la Micro in Paris, which didn't sound terribly interesting.

The movies reviewed this month were: "Colors", "Stand and Deliver", "Nico", "The Seventh Sign", "The Hidden", "Taffin", "Bird", "Imagine: John Lennon", "Switching Channels" and "Kansas".

A round up of the current offering of footie games. Topping the strategy rankings was "Tracksuit Manager" from Goliath Games, while Sega's "Sega Soccer" narrowly pipped Sensible's "Microprose Soccer" for best arcade. While "Emilyn Huges International Soccer" was reviewed very favourably in this issue, it missed the deadline for the article.

Keith Campbell pondered: are adventure games dead? Level 9 was going to start producing fantasy role playing games with graphics along the lines of Sierra games, Magnetic Scrolls were elusive about their plans, while Infocom announced all new adventures would feature graphics.

Notable Reviews

• "Operation Wolf" Ocean - ST 91% Spectrum 91% C64 92% C&VG Hit "So what is our advice should you only be buying one coin-op conversion this Christmas? Buy Op-Wolf - it's a brilliant conversion and you will get a lot of fun out of it."
• "Afterburner" Activision - Spectrum 90% C&VG Hit "Afterburner, is an excellent conversion, and while Keith Berkhill goes for a stroll on water, Spectrum owners at least can revel in one of the fastest and most impressive arcade games to appear in the six-year history of the machine!"
• "SDI" Activision - ST 81% "SDI is a very simplistic game, but that's where its appeal lies - you can load it any time, put your brain in neutral and blast away until your heart's content."
• "Savage" Firebird - Spectrum 87% C64 78% C&VG Hit "Savage is definitely one of the best arcade games yet seen on the Spectrum. If you don't buy it, it's not worth your while having a Spectrum. Savage could be the game that puts development house Probe well and truly on the map. Congratulations are due all round."
• "Emilyn Hughes International Soccer" Audiogenic - C64 94% C&VG Hit "The best way I can describe EHIS is to say that Audiogenic has taken the style of graphics from International Soccer, made them much better, added myriads of extra frames of animation and new moves, blended in the league and cup bits from Matchday 2, put in a spot of Tracksuit Manager options here and there, and come up with quite an amazing product."
• "International Karate+" Archer Maclean/System 3 - ST/Amiga 93% C&VG Hit "Some may say that beat 'em ups are past their prime, but I defy anyone to pick this up and not get totally hooked. It's got all the elements of a classic, and has the timeless gameplay that'll keep you coming back long after 'big' games like R-type and Starglider II have been relegated to the software shelf."
• "Turbo Cup" Loricels - ST/Amiga 81% "The Porsche is amazingly well defined, complete with recognisable interior and Loricels logo on the door." (weird review - he basically spent two pages describing what a racing game is, noting annoyances, while completely failing to say what was fun about it)
• "Red Storm Rising" Microprose - C64 93% "Red Storm Rising is ace, fab, brill, wicked and totally awesome. Well up to the Microprose standard of quality sims. I can't wait for the next one."
• "Laser Squad" Julian Gollop/Target Games - Spectrum 97% C&VG Hit "Laser Squad is one of the hottest games I've ever played. If that isn't enough, Target is releasing expansion packs for the game, with more scenarios and ideas. Me, I want to see a construction set."

Charts

Amiga

1. "Star Glider" Rainbird
2. "Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge" Ocean
3. "Interceptor" Electronic Arts
4. "Carrier Command" Realtime/Rainbird
5. "Garfield" The Edge

November Games Revisited

I had hoped to have a number of opportunities to spend some quality time playing these games (and more) this month, but one of the downsides of travelling so much for business is that such occasions are rare. Very rare in the case of this month: I managed a pathetic few hours last Sunday.

At any rate... Here's a brief look back at a few games that hit the shelves in November many years ago to rave reviews.

I wanted to include "Speedball" (reviewed in C&VG '88, 84%) as I played that a lot when it came out, but sadly I'd forgotten about the compatibility issues with the Amiga 1200 and older titles - nothing I tried got it to boot. Ah well.

World Games, Epyx, 1986

Reviewed in Zzap!64 November 1986.

Out of all the games this month, I played this one the most back in the day. I didn't have a disk drive for my C64 which meant multi-load games like this were rather painful. On the plus side, it did mean that once I'd loaded an event I sure as hell stuck with it. The funny thing is that upon booting this up on Sunday I found all that muscle memory kicking in and was able to get playing without consulting any instructions. Well, that's not entirely true. Slalom Skiing had me baffled, then my confusion grew for Log Rolling, and I got no where with the Caber Toss. Thankfully looking up instructions helped with the latter, but screw the skiing and log rolling. Five out of eight isn't bad.

Zzap!64 scored it an incredible 98%, the highest score I recall seeing them dish out. Looking back I'm not entirely sure I agree with that, though I do have fond memories of playing the Cliff Diving for many hours. Most of the events are still enjoyable and the presentation with all it's nice - often humourous - little touches is still great.

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Tass Times in Tone Town, Activision, 1986

Reviewed in Zzap!64 November 1986.

I'd never actually played this one before (I imagine it was disk only), but I remember seeing glowing reviews of it.

I don't know quite what I was thinking when I decided I'd try to cram it into those precious few hours on Sunday. Things started off okay and it seemed like a quirky fun adventure... and then I died and had to restart... that happened a number of times. My frustration was rising as I felt the time slipping away, and I was getting no where. I caved and looked up a walkthrough. "Aha! now I can get past that bit and really get into it", I thought. And a few minutes later I was dead again.

This is not a game to pick up and play for an hour or two, which is a shame as Zzap!64 game it an impressive 95%. In fact the White Wizard opened his review by saying:

"Every once in a while, there is an adventure so inspired, so beautifully crafted and so ingeniously devised that it leaves its mark on everything that follows."

Blimey.

I really should go back to it again sometime...

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Microprose Soccer, Sensible Software/Microprose, 1988

Reviewed in C&VG November 1988.

Somehow this passed me by when it first came out on the C64. I guess by then I had already moved on to the Amiga, and my poor C64 was left to gather dust. I do remember playing the Amiga version at some point, but it never really stuck... which is interesting because "Sensible World of Soccer" is my fave game of all time.

The first thing that struck me upon loading it up was how un-Sensible it all looked... as in, it all looked way too sensible (small 's'). And was that music really by Martin Galway?!

Putting my initial impressions behind me I started to play. My first couple of games were a confusing mess. It's really hard to go backwards from Sensi Soccer. I was ready to put it down and move on, but figured I'd play a couple more times as I was waiting for a game to boot on my Amiga. I'm glad I did, because I finally started to get the hang of it. It's still a pale shadow of SWOS, but there's a good game in there.

C&VG awarded it 95% and Game of the Month, saying that it was "undoubtedly the best football game ever produced". Which, I can imagine at that point, was an accurate statement, but I'll stick with SWOS thankyouverymuch.