CRASH BACK
CRASH Issue #5
Issue 5 of CRASH — Paul Davies looks back at the contents of Issue 5 of CRASH magazine, June 1984.
As it’s Issue #5 of CRASH Micro Action it means Paul Davies looks back at the original Issue #5 of CRASH magazine.. That’s if he can stay awake!
YAWNS — My apologies, readers. I’ve been up for weeks playing with my Willy. Erm, I’ll try that again.
I’ve been up for weeks playing with my COPY of Jet
Set Willy, which I picked up since the last issue after it got such a rave review in these hallowed pages. That’s better. All I can say about the game is that I can’t put it down. I think it’s brilliant; this is even despite the nightmares it’s giving me though ironically, these are also keeping me awake.
That one room in the game Entrance to Hades? My goodness, I’ve not seen such a creepy monstrosity in all my life! Clowns? Death loops? A ghastly message telling you to die filling the screen? Hideous. Just thinking about it now gives me the shivers. *shivers* See? On the plus side, I guess it takes my mind off Magra, who used to haunt my dreams though it still means I’m having nightmares of some sort. Will I ever sleep again? If the clowns and the witches have their way, I guess I will not. Time to move on!
Issue 5! Now, it may sound like I keep repeating myself but, what a cover we have again! What at first looks like a ship flying through sandy hills and mountains blasting oncoming enemies to pieces turns out to be something a little different when you take a closer look. You’ll discover that those rocky mountains are stacks of Spectrum games’ cases, inlays and all! So, now it’s a case of looking even more closely to see which games you can identify. There’s Orc Attack in there, and I spied The Hobbit buried in the ground too. This is a fun game to get involved in before you even turn the page. Have a look and see how many you can find! What else you’ll find on the cover are a selection of this issue’s contents, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a chance to win a copy of Jet Set
Willy. What are the chances? Well, that would depend on the number of entrants, I guess… *tumbleweed*. We also have the CRASH Quiz, a CRASH course on the learning software available for the Spectrum and ‘Brill Prizes Galore!!’...more brill than winning a copy of Jet Set Willy? I guess we’d better open up and find out.
Features this month, erm ‘feature’ a profile on New Generation Software, them of Trashman fame where Michael Broomfield went off to the town of Bath to speak to its founder and head programmer Malcolm Evans incidentally about
all things Trashman. It’s not all Trashman related, of course; along the way, we discover information about the rest of the team, including one Paul Bunn who, at 16, must be one of the youngest programmers out there, who already has a most impressive CV. At 15, he’d written and published his first book, Making the Most of Your Atari and has published two more since. Wow. Elsewhere there’s a review of a new printer for your Spectrum — the
Alphacom 32, which we’re assured is more reliable than the ZX Sinclair toilet roll printer (I’m sure that’s the official name). It may be a few extra pounds, but it could be worth it should you not want your printer to become a doorstop. Or a projectile. There’s also a new section for us to look at — Playing Tips. We’ll have a quick look at that in a little bit and see if there’s anything in there to help me in the many games that keep me awake at night. Of course, as the front cover was keen to let us know, there are prizes galore to be had which take up a far old section of the mag. With a copy of Melbourne House’s book The Hobbit to be won, along with 100 copies of Blade Alley up for grabs and also 100 copies of the new game (not sure which yet) from
Micromania needing a new home. Phew. There are also even more prizes to be won than those just mentioned, so make sure you turn to the relevant pages and get entering.
This month’s editorial features a few results from the CRASHtionnaire that readers have taken the time to complete and send in. A summary of comments and scores from the first 500 forms has been collated to get an idea of how readers feel about the mag in a variety of areas. Here are some of those stats. 95.5% of readers said they like to have a rating system, whereas only 19% of readers said they agreed with the games reviews themselves. A staggering 96.5% stated that program listings would not be a welcome addition to CRASH should they think of doing such a thing, citing that the listings would take up valuable space. Don’t expect to see any of those anytime soon, then. Or ever
Now, Amstrad may well be more known for Hi-Fi systems, but April saw them launch their home computer, the CPC 464. The machine will be available later this month and, depending on what options you go for, will determine the price you pay for it. A built-in datacorder and monitor is standard, though the ‘standard monitor has a green screen which will set you back £200. Should you want to play your games in colour, you’ll be forking out £300. We’re told quite a bit of software for the CPC 464 is going to be Spectrum software, though slightly re-written for the machine.
Will there be a slew of lazy Spectrum conversions released for it in the coming months and years? I guess we’ll
have to wait and find out.
Page 17 and we’re again presented with a tease from Imagine Software, with logos for the games Psyclapse and Bandersnatch, which will be released for the Commodore 64 and Spectrum, respectively. Quite what we’ll eventually see is anyone’s guess. A screenshot or two wouldn’t go amiss. Imagine! If you’re listening, that is.
The letters page this month seems a little full, namely down to the £12 of software winning letter, taking up
90% of the page, it seems. Ian Foster from Uttoxeter certainly has a lot to say, including high praise for Mr Mangram and touting a ‘Give Lloyd Mangram a pay rise campaign’ should he be ‘lucky’ enough to win the prize this month. Well, given he did indeed win the £12 worth of software this month, it seems it worked. I think I may give that a go next month. Mr Foster’s letter — aside from praising Lloyd — mentions an issue that a few other readers are having at the moment: trying to buy new CRASH issues, which are now seemingly taking longer to arrive on the newsagent’s shelves than usual. Why is this? As Lloyd explains, it’s down to CRASH’s new distributor and also down to which wholesaler your local newsagent chooses to use. So if you’re getting a bit impatient or worried your favourite mag hasn’t appeared yet, fear not. And be more patient, will you? Tut.
One thing I don’t like are show-offs and what is worse than a show-off is a show-off who has no proof of any of his or her achievements that would allow them to be in a position to show-off (I think I’ve said show-off quite enough times now so I’ll stop). This one, in particular, is Vincent ‘I’m a show-off’ Wooll (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) from Merrion in Dyfed, who claims
that he has just achieved a score of 257,260 points on level 19 of Lunar Jetman.
He doesn’t have proof, but he claims his mother can vouch for him. Two things here — one, mother’s vouch for anything for their precious little kids (my mum once vouched for me when I told my teacher my pet worm ate my homework) and two, no one has ever got past level one of Lunar Jetman, surely? I mean, have you played it? Impossible, I tell you! I’m more than happy to say that Vincent may way be trying to pull the Wooll over our eyes here.
Avery brief look at the news this month (as
I’m running out of space!), and it seems that Melbourne House’s Sherlock release will be a little delayed, as they’re having a little difficulty fitting it into the Speccy’s 48K memory, Elsewhere, Real
Time are working on a game called Tank Duel which will feature 3D graphics in a similar style to Artic’s 3D Combat Zone, so that it one to definitely look out for. Finally, Vortex are working
on their next game with the title of
T.L.L. (Tornado Low Level), which funnily enough involves you flying a Tornado, and no doubt utilising said craft into blowing the crap out of everything in sight. Well, one can hope.
The new Playing Tips section has a wide range of games covered in its maiden edition. If you’re stuck on games such as
Jet Set Willy *puts hand up*, Wheelie, Chuckie Egg or indeed a whole host of Ultimate games, then this is the section to head to. We’re even treated to the whole map of Willy’s mansion for the aforementioned
Jet Set Willy — what a brilliant addition to the mag this is! Though I bet Mr Wooll has already completed every game that will feature here in the coming months. I’m sure his mum will vouch for that, too.
Let’s try and squeeze a bit of chart action, shall we? New entries include Bear Bovver (which my dad can’t stop playing at the mo, incidentally) at number 41. Code Name Mat is in at number 36, with Blue Thunder being the highest new entry at number
25. Ultimate are taking up quite a bit of the chart again, with games such as JetPac, Atic
Atac and Tranz Am holding firm over the last few months with no signs of them disappearing any time soon. The most extraordinary climber of the month, though, also incidentally the new number one, is Jet Set Willy! Jumping from number 41 since last month is quite an achievement and, in doing so, has knocked its predecessor Manic Miner into second place — a very happy month for Software Projects indeed.
I’ve done it again, haven’t I? Waffling on so much (and saying the word ‘Willy’ so many times, I’ll no doubt have nightmares about them now, too), I’ve run out of space for other things. Things such as what games have been reviewed this month and details of the other great features in this issue...erm, I guess I can just some up by saying ‘Lots of games have been reviewed and the features are very helpful, interesting and insightful’. I know all of this because I managed to read the WHOLE mag in a world record time of five minutes and fifty-three seconds just before I started writing this piece. Honestly, I did. Don’t believe me? Ask my mum.