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CRASH Issue #4
As it’s Issue #4 of CRASH Micro Action it means Paul Davies looks back at the original Issue #4 of CRASH magazine.. “What Now?”, you may ask.
Another month, another issue of CRASH — woo hoo! Been looking forward to this for... weeks — four of them, in fact. When I first got this one into my hands, I was taken aback by the slightly creepy cover. A green-faced monster shooting electricity out of its hands with a look upon its face as if you’re the intended target? *shudder* The one comforting thing that got me through was that not only did I just remind myself that it was ‘just a magazine cover, Paul — not real!’, was the fact that this snarling monster also had the words ‘WHAT NOW? L’ across its eyes. This, of course, meant I could just type in ‘Don’t eat me’ and he would leave me alone. Phew. Right. Adventure seems to be the theme this month with the monster’s questioning eyes just one of the adventure elements in this month’s issue. Adventure writing utility The Quill got a mention in issue two’s news segment (if you can remember) as Gilsoft — producers of The Quill — were due to release their compilation of titles produced with the software, called The Gold Collection. The nod to this release is here on the cover, so hopefully we’ll see more of this as we go through the issue. We also look to be setting off on an adventure trail and possibly a little something on software piracy. Not your usual combination of topics though, they sound interesting nonetheless! A browse of the contents page and yes — I was right! (for once!)
The Quill, indeed, is featured along with a selection of titles from The Gold Collection.
Not only that but, you won’t believe it, the ZX Microdrive is real! There was talk about whether it would or wouldn’t be released over the next few months (or even ever), as per CRASH’s interview with Sinclair software manager, Alison Maguire in issue two. Though still not out for general release, CRASH have managed to get their hands on one and we’ll see what they think about it later.
The regulars are here again, well I guess they would be, given that they’re regulars, along with an article on combining Cheetah’s Sweet Talker to a Micro Command, with which you can talk to and control your Spectrum.
This, along with a competition to win over £1000’s of prizes from Incentive Software, and the winners of CRASH’s recent reviewer competition, leaves us with a lot to get stuck into.
Oh before I forget, remember the
Bandersnatch ad from issue three that we looked at last time? I said I’d do some digging and so, not one to disappoint, I did. I can now confirm that... I know nothing.
Sorry. Nothing out there to be found, unfortunately. Maybe there’ll be a new ad this month that may shed some light, but other than that my trail went colder than a penguin’s back pocket. In January.
Ido love a good read of the editorial and this month sees CRASH report on the shady and unfortunate world of piracy. It’s a big problem in the UK with CRASH reporting that many software houses are losing actual millions of prospective revenue due to the copying of games by, not only kids in school, but people who are setting up ‘copy clubs’ under the guise of ‘computer clubs’. These groups, we’re told, can steal as many as 2000 copies of games’ titles in one evening. Yikes. We also find out that a computer magazine has actually condoned the act of piracy in its pages. Computer Choice’s editor,
Bill Bennet, claims there is ‘no better advertisement for a company’s next game than a wellloved, constantly played copy of the previous game — even if it was pirated.’ Well Bill, you seem to forget that the act of piracy is illegal and should never be encouraged, especially by someone or something that has a large following. Though that said, I’m not 100% sure how many readers there are of Computer
Choice, so maybe there’s not much to worry about? We asked them for their opinion but unfortunately, they were both busy.
Let’s move on to something a little lighter — reviews! The first we come across is the game we’ve all been waiting for. It’s been talked about for months, delayed even longer but, he’s here, he’s back, he’s Willy! Yes, it’s Jet Set Willy! And wouldn’t you know it, it’s a CRASH Smash achieving a whopping 95% overall. Wow. The review is full of praise and although they say it’s not an easy game, it’s one you’ll find yourself playing for many hours, and days most probably.
That shall go on my shopping list, then! Other notable highlights in this months’ reviews are Codename Mat, incidentally also a CRASH Smash, a space based shooter which is likened to Star Trek, gamewise, destroying alien ships and exploring planets as you go. There’s another interesting
maze game named Chuckman which looks quite fun and, yes another, CRASH Smash in the guise of a game called Orc Attack. Defending hordes of Orcs atop your castle’s battlements with a sword and other weapons, seems like just the game for me! Will grab that along with my (Jet Set) Willy later this week!
Letters time and one that has caught my eye is one criticising CRASH’s reviews (again) though this time, stating that CRASH seems to show a bias towards arcade games. In fact, there are a few letters aimed at reviews but coming from different angles, some positive and some negative. From critiquing CRASH’s scoring system to CRASH’s opinions on how a certain player may get on with a certain game. To be specific,
Jason Savage from Acocks Green (a real place apparently, and not a medical condition) not being very happy with the ‘prejudice’ being shown by CRASH by using expressions like ‘a game not for the amateur arcade game player’. He also goes on to let us know that he’s not happy that CRASH uses a percentage system also and that it seems like the ‘percentage marks make up for lost words.’ Jason is only 13 I guess, as he points out in his letter (probably with a naive assumption that we won’t pick on him because of this), but hey — give the CRASH reviewers a break! Not just Jason, but everyone else who sees fit to have a moan about reviews.
These guys do their best and I shall leave it at that.
News, and the hottest news is that Ocean Software has a new recruit in the form of 17-year old Christian Urquhart who gave us the games Transversion and Hunchback.
A promising future is ahead for this talented teen and I for one shall look forward to what he can bring to the Ocean library in years to come. Here’s another hot news story — the Speccy is getting futuristic. You heard me right. Cable Interactive Services (which is part of BT) has won a contract with Rediffusion to supply TV video games via a system called Gamestar. Gamestar is a service that you can subscribe to and download up to 20 games per month, with five of those games being replaced with a new one each month.
For a price of £9.95 per month, you get supplied with a ZX Spectrum, joystick and a Gamestar black box (which sits underneath the Speccy) in which the games are stored. A bit of a bargain if you ask me, though how fashionable downloading games will be remains to be seen.
So here it is, the ZX Microdrive which CRASH have their mitts on (albeit on a two week lease it turns out) and from what they’ve discovered, Sinclair could well be onto a winner here. Almost instant loading times would be a game changer for the machine though, will there be enough software houses on board to take on this new media?
The Microdrive
boasts loading times of between one and eight seconds, which totally trumps the current average loading time of four minutes. The Microdrive will also put an end to rewinding and trying to find the start of a program, as the cartridge contains an endless loop of tape; its operating system, which is an extension of Sinclair BASIC, will look for the file selected and run automatically. This coupled with some more of its features, seems like a dream. Now all we have to do is wait, yes even longer, for Sinclair to announce an official release date. And then actually release it. We’re still waiting, Sinclair!
There were a lot of entries in the reviewer’s competition and if I went through them all, well it would take a very long time indeed, so instead, let’s just take a look at the winner. The winner is Jaswant Singh who is 19 and lives in Telford. His reviewing efforts were judged on the games Football Manager, The Hobbit and Jetpac — three fine examples from the Spectrum library. Turns out Mr Singh is a very clever chap, leaving school with 10 O levels and four A levels. No doubt his most proud achievement was winning this competition though, surely?
Ooh, what’s this? CRASH merchandise? £4.50 including P&P for a t-shirt? I’m in. Think I’ll treat myself to a CRASH binder too for the same price, whilst I’m at it. Nice!
Ah yes, the CRASH hotline Top 50 games is here. Manic Miner is still holding strong at number 1 with Atic Atac giving it a pretty good fight at number 2. Jet Set Willy, the sequel to Manic Miner is a new entry at number 41 though, as it’s not been released for very long, maybe we’ll see its popularity increase by the time the next issue comes around — with a CRASH score of 95%, I think maybe it will climb a few places by then. The top 20 here contains so many class games, The Pyramid, ZZoom, Wheelie, Jetpac
— all these games you need in your collection! Unless you have them all already, in which case — buy some others instead. ...oh my good gods. I was just off the meds as well. Magra.
She’s back. AGAIN. If you’re of a nervous disposition, avoid page 98. *Deep breath, Paul*
I don’t think I can carry on much more. You’ll have to read through the adventure features yourself and the micro speech thingy… I can’t remember what it’s called now, my head’s gone all weird.
Right, erm, that’s enough from me this month. Join me next time as I go through the next edition of CRASH and possibly also the next session with my therapist. Time to take my mind off things — I’m off to Smiths to grab a copy of Jet Set Willy and hope there’s nothing so terrifying in there to give me recurring nightmares like a certain woman does…I can’t even say her name. (Magra!)
Who said that?? ARGH!