Producer: Bug-Byte
Retail Price: £2.95
Author: C Teufert & G Carbonaro

As a specially trained, crack fighter pilot, your mission is to escort a Jumbo jet through hostile airspace. Flying right behind the Jumbo, you can see the sky ahead and an instrument panel before you. The panel consists of a compass, a radar showing the relative height of any other aircraft within the vicinity, an artificial horizon which indicates the extent of banking manoeuvres and fuel and score panels.

A crackling radio informs you of an impending attack (which seems to use sampled speech) just before several other fighters appear on the screen. Missiles are the only weapons available to fight the enemy but you are fortunately equipped with an infinite number of them.

As the Jumbo receives damage, messages appear on the fighter's console. If the damage reaches a certain level, the Jumbo plunges into the ground below and the game is at an end. If all the fighters are shot down before this happens, fuel is automatically replenished and the game proceeds to the next level. These are identical to look at but the enemy jets are far more deadly. They engage particular strategies intended to lead you away from the airliner so other aircraft can attack it without opposition.

When the fighters approach there isn't much time to react so the best thing is to keep an eye on the sights. They flash when an aircraft passes through. If a missile is fired soon enough after this, it will lock on to the target and hit it regardless of how fast it manoeuvres away from you.

The airliner appears as a silhouetted cross-section in the sky. The problem with this is that all the other jets appear in the same fashion. What's more, they usually appear in the same area of the sky and so lead to confusion as to which jet you are actually aiming for.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/Z up/down; I/P left/right; V-M to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Protek
Keyboard play: generally a bit soggy
Use of colour: average
Graphics: below average
Sound: poor effects but reasonable speech synthesis
Skill levels: progressive

This is an old game which would probably never have been re-released if it were not for a new Bug-Byte licensing deal. Unfortunately, its age shows. Graphics are neat but unremarkable and the sampled speech effects may have caused a stir in their day but have since been surpassed in terms of quality. Play is both repetitive and frustrating. The lack of variety in play soon results in boredom setting in. Hitting the enemy aircraft is also extremely difficult due to their incredible attacking speed. It really would have been more reasonable to have them moving more slowly on the first couple of screens. Finally, the fighter itself is far from easy to control and fails to respond well. This game would have been better forgotten.

Flyer Fox is quite an enjoyable game, for a while anyway. At the price, it's even better. The graphics aren't so brilliant that they make your eyes pop out, but they perform their purpose. Shooting the airliner is a bit like annihilating the refugees in Zzoom - it's fun, but doesn't do you much good! I found the speech a little hard to understandat first, but once amplified through my mega-fab sound-booster, it's quite realistic. For the money, despite its easiness, it is good fun for a while.

Flyer Fox is the type of game that could be very addictive and playable if only the controls didn't mess it up completely - they are slow and unresponsive. The idea of the game isn't very original but there are some very nice touches such as the very good speech. The graphics are fairly run-of-the-mill, undetailed and shabby. Apart from the speech, the effects are poor. The slowness of the missiles means that careful aim has to be taken which is a hard task because of the strange controls, so it's very difficult to get anywhere in this game. However, I do think Flyer Fox is well worth the two and a half quid that Bug-Byte is asking for it.

BugBytes
£2.95

Okay, Algie, more cabbage crates over the briney ...ack ...ack ...ack ... Boggled by Biggles? Then Bug-Byte's Flyer-Fox (any similarity Firefox is purely on purpose) might not be your cup of rosy lea. Admittedly the technology might be updated but whichever way you look at it, this is a fighter simulation that pre-dates the Red Baron in concept.

But they do say the old 'uns are the best 'uns, and at the price it provides a competent compo between you and your jet-set enemy as you try to protect a jumbo. It gives you the thrills, but don't expect the thrills.

You're given a pilot's eye view, with instrumentation giving fuel, compass, score, altitude, flight attitude and damage reports. You can't fly above 19,153 feet or, curiously below 11,024 feet. At that height you're given a simple graphic of the terrain below. Much above and it's just blue-sky - occasionally full of bandits who want to erase yer from the azure. And listen out for the passable speech effects warning of imminent attack and your damage status. They're somewhat arbitary, but that makes it more fun, eh, what, Tufty?

Though simplicity itself in its one screen format things get increasingly hectic through its six levels. So, if you figure a trigger's what fingers are for then go for it, Ginger.

Publisher: Bug Byte
Programmers: Tymore
Price: £2.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Interface II

"Fighters attacking!" yelps the Spectrum sound chip - a sound to curdle the blood and freeze the marrow.

When you've got the message, and it's not easy to ignore, you must stand - well, sit - ready to repulse airborne attacks on the airliner which you are protecting. As the enemy aircraft swarm in, line them up in your sights and fire a batch of twin missiles.

Your targets are not dumb, however, and will veer away as soon as you let loose. Not to worry, remain calm and keep firing. You have a never-ending supply of missiles, which is fortunate because your controls are on a hair-trigger. The fighter will swerve violently off course if you give the controls the lightest of tweaks.

If you're serious about protecting the VIP passengers you should keep the airliner in view through the large window on the display. It always travels north, so if you get lost during a dog fight, you can use your compass to put you back on course.

The compass is supplemented by an artificial horizon which shows whether you are ascending or descending, and the angle at which you tip your wings when you turn the fighter. A radar display, bottom left, shows the position of the raiders as they advance on the airliner.

Despite the array of navigational instruments Flyer Fox is far from my idea of a simulation. You are automatically taken into the sky where the airliner is awaiting your protection, and you have no control over the speed of your fighter. Your flight ceiling is also pre-set at an altitude of 19553 feet - the height at which the airliner flies - and can go no higher.

Your job is more difficult than that of the enemy fighters. You must protect the airliner, protect your own nose and tail and chase away any bandits. A display at the bottom of the screen gives your status and informs you when you are low on fuel or damaged.

There are six levels of play, all of which look the same, with no great increase in difficulty. You cannot select the level at which you enter the game, but must progress steadily through each reaching a set score before moving on. Your fuel will be replenished at each new level, though any damage sustained will not be repaired. The bandits don't get any nastier, so your main lookout is keeping the damage status healthy. I reached level four in very short time.

At £2.95 Flyer Fox has a lot going for it - well some things, at least. It does have a limited variety of 3D graphics and the speech is fascinating for at least half an hour - although after that it does want to make you rip your Spectrum out by the roots and find the nearest bucket of water.

It's a reasonable shoot 'em up, but if you're looking for something more than I suggest you fly Psion's Flight Simulator, Fighter Pilot from Digital Integration or perhaps even Skyfox from Ariolasoft. After all, if you're looking for something like a flight simulator it's quality you'll want.

In some ways Flyer Fox is an aerial version of US Gold's Beach Head. The emphasis is on watching the pretty rockets fly rather than staying in the air or avoiding the bandits. If Flyer Fox was involved in giving real aerial support during a time of war, with the restraints on manoeuvrability, it wouldn't stand a chance.

Spectrum
Bug Byte
Shoot-'em-up
£2.95

Sufficient time has passed since the shooting-down of the Korean Jumbo jet for this game to seem in reasonable taste. Your task is to protect your large, lumbering Jumbo from the onslaught of swarms of marauding enemy fighters. Controls are simple four directions and fire. Just get the fighters in the sights and fire when the computer tells you.

When you succeed in polishing-off one raid, another follows until eventually they manage to inflict sufficient damage on old Jumbo to shoot it down. Good, simple straight-forward shoot-'em-up, of which some people never seem to tire, and good value.

FLYING HIGH

All of a sudden there's been a burst of aerial activity on the Spectrum, so let's go for a spin in some new simulators.

Bug Byte
£2.95

In this budget sortie you are enlisted to do a bit of Jumbo minding. The aim is to protect a commercial flight flying through "dangerous skies". Sporadically a voice announces "fighters approaching" and a swarm of planes attempts to inflict damage on the lumbering 747. Quite why the passengers are being subjected to this unfriendly treatment is never explained and lends a certain aimlessness to a game that lacks variation and purpose.

Successful protection of the Jumbo is rewarded with an exact re-run with only a few more bandits and extra fuel to add to the game elements.

The combat action is adequate but the need to protect the airliner restricts any interesting clashes. The graphics are basic and the instrument panel merely a token to give the impression of sophistication. Even the Jumbo falls to earth with a measly 'phut' rather than an explosion to be replaced on the next run with another load of doomed passengers.

For those willing to pay £2.95 to escort a Kamikaze airlines jet this game could be mildly diverting but players with flying hours under their belts from other aerial combat games may find it lacking.