Producer: Melbourne House
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: Beam Software

Dredd has been a long time coming, unusual in one of such tempestuous certitude. It must be over two years ago that GAMES WORKSHOP confided they were developing a computer game based on the cult 2000 AD comic-strip hero - but the Workshop stopped producing software. Dredd then moved surreptitiously over to MELBOURNE House some months later, and their game has been many moons in the making.

The time is the future; a postpunk, post-industrial world, where the minority managers run automated factories and write the laws, while the teeming masses celebrate their terminal boredom in crimes ranging from petty to megalomaniac. The law is unforgiving - in Mega-City 1 the equivalent of being hung for stealing a loaf is to be shot for jay-walking, presumably because you shouldn't get in the way of a busy, car-bound manager.

Meanest of all the Judges is Dredd, a man-myth who wears his beliefs in a holster.

MELBOURNE HOUSE now offers you the chance of a few hours inside Dredd's death-black armour, astride his Lawmaster motorcycle, and with his faithful Lawgivet strapped to your side, in the eternal hunting down of perpetrators (or 'perps') who threaten Mega-City 1 with anarchy and destruction. Moving through city streets on foot is considered an A 7 risk, so Dredd, following basic procedures as laid down in the Justice Department Regulations, prowls his sector on his Lawmaster. From this mobile position, monitoring crimes as they're reported on the crime display screen is simplicity itself. By moving an icon (representing himself) over a reported incident on the display and pressing fire. Dredd is whisked to the incident - and dismounts.

The game now switches to a side-on-view platform game. A status panel below the playing area offers three selectable readouts. The first shows remaining levels of stamina and ammunition, and also states the Judge's response; three may be selected. Halt is a shouted warning, Warn fires a shot across the perp's bows, while Kill speaks violently for itself.

Dredd moves from screen to screen by running along platforms and jumpping up or down. Alternatively, lifts and doorways may be used to reach the last known position of the peril and bring him to book. In responding to Halt or Warn, the perp sticks his hands in the air and 'comes quietly'. But should Johnny chance his arm, it's out with Lawgiver-and BADAAM! When the crime is first selected on the crime display, its 'normal'level of threat is set for Dredd, but some perps are more desperate for foolish) than others and the Lawgiver is designed accordingly.

The ammo comes in six grades: Normal, Armour-Piercing, Heat- Seeking Bullets, Ricochet, Incendiary and Hi Explosive. Armour- Piercing Bullets can be fired right through platforms. Heat-Seeking Bullets track down the perp. Ricochet Bullets can be bounced off walls and floors, while High Explosive and Incendiary Bullets are extremely prejudicial to a perp's well-being.

As Dredd deals with one crime, others are continually being perpetrated, so having dealt successfully with one, it's back to the crime display to check on progress throughout the sector. Should there ever be more than eight crimes on screen at once, the game is over and the criminals have overrun the city.

COMMENTS

Control keys: T-P choose bullet type; J-L choose response level; ENTER select report; movement keys definable
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Use of colour: garish, with attribute problems
Graphics: reasonable backdrops, but awesome Dredd is reduced to an ill-defined cypher
Sound: no music, poor spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: over 50

If you are a regular CRASH reader you may have noticed that we have a great liking for 2000 AD and its characters. I am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED with this awful effort. Judge Dredd had potential to be one of the strongest characters ever to appear in a computer game; unfortunately the situation here cramps his style. The game has been badly planned and abysmally programmed, It's hard to play and eventually repellant I'm afraid that this does no justice to the original cult cartoon strip whatsoever - stay well clear of it.
BEN

Judge Dredd seems to be in the same vein as V, both look pretty but are boring to play. Some of the characters are well drawn, but none are solid enough to resemble humans. The game has no music, the sound effects are poor variations on simple white noise. The key-define section is badly thought out - defining separate keys for moving diagonal is outdated. I can't see Judge Dredd appealing to 2000 AD readers because it isn't half as much fun as the comic strip.
PAUL

Judge Dredd isn't all that bad - though I didn't like it much at first playing. Later on I started to get into it, and it became more playable. Unfortunately, by that time, it wasn't long before it became boring. The graphics aren't up to much, but they serve their purpose. Dealing with the different crimes in different ways is initially quite enjoyable, but the game's staying power is limited. Sorry MELBOURNE HOUSE, but I reckon that I would find 20 copies of 2000 AD much better value for money.
MIKE

Melbourne House
£8.95

In the dark and grimy streets of Mega City One, crime lurks around every corner There's a perp in every doorway, just waiting for an opening to do you over, rip you off, sell you some tobacco, or shine your shoes. There are a million scullion sob stories in the naked mega city, and it's your job to see that you, or anyone else, doesn't become yet another one.

You are Judge Dredd, the most feared, respected, efficient, sharp shooting, square jawed, and just plain rugged, stubbly Judge in the whole darn city. It's just as well 'cos all hell is about to break loose. You've got to drive to a handful of crime scenes, seek out (and dispense a bit of rough justice to) the gun toting perps, without accidentally icing any innocent citizens, and get on to the next job. Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Phew! It's hard work, 'cos the perps are spreading through the city faster than you can say 'I Am The Law!"

The game takes place in the great Ghostbusters tradition on a map of the city. You race your little Dredd cursor around the streets of the map, clicking your fire button on the flashing crime scene. Once you've selected a city block the scene changes suddenly you're leaping (and what leaps!) around the platforms of the city, where you must hunt out and kill the perp before he literally gets away with murder.

Judge Dredd plays very well, and is similar to Virgin's Dan Dare in style with lots of gritty action, and a horde of animated baddies. You have to shoot, but avoid being shot, which involves a sort of Space Invaders tactic. You remember the old shoot, move, shoot, move... etc. When you push up on the joystick. you jump high up to the next street level out of harms way. There are about ten levels in each cityblock, and lots of ways to nip around them.

The graphics are particularly zarjaz, especially the little figure of Dredd who has a range of macho poses to suit even the most demanding 2000AD snobster.

I love it! Enjoyable to the very last drok!

Label: Melbourne House
Price: £8.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Judge Dredd is probably the best game I've seen this month. Based (as if you didn't know) on the absurdly successful character in 2000AD comic.

Dredd is part of an elite squad of law-enforcement officers, authorised to try any criminal on the spot and deliver sentence accordingly. Often it's necessary for Dredd to put a heat-seeking bullet through the kidneys of a fleeing 'perp'. Still, I guess that's the price you have to pay if you insist on dropping litter on a 21st century sidewalk.

Melbourne House has managed to pull off a game that has nearly all of the atmosphere of the cartoon. You can run along the walkways, blasting anything that moves. It's great. After running for a while, something - criminal/robot/rat/innocent bystander etc - will make the mistake of stepping out in front of you. With a flick of a button, you switch to high-explosive shells and waste the offending creature.

That's crime-prevention, folks! MegaCity One is a vast sprawling city of high-rise buildings, freeways and cityblocks. these latter monstrous constructions a single one of which houses more people than a whole town of today.

Under such pressurised living conditions, we are told, tempers are frayed more easily. Crimes such as murder are rife, and are induced by the slightest things. Smoking and littering reach such remarkable proportions, they are filed as Serious Crimes.

Judge Dredd begins by displaying an overview of Mega City One. Instantly, small icon-style windows pop up over certain cityblocks. Each window indicates that a crime is in progress. The illustration contained within will give you an insight into the severity of the incident. As new Judge you may not wish to handle an armed robbery on your first assignment, whereas an old hand will quite happily wander into dangerous zones with a view to reducing the population significantly.

Once you've decided which area of the city you want to visit, highlight the appropriate block with your Dredd-selector-logo and hit Fire. Next the screen will change to show a street scene with you, as Dredd, standing on one of the platforms.

Running around below you are numerous innocent citizens. These are easy fodder and crumple up and die after a single shot.

Criminals, though, are much such years of deprivation and social pressure they have become almost bullet-proof and take a good many shots before they'll go down. The manner in which the bad guys 'buy it' is extremely pleasing. Everything is executed in comic-book style, from the Blam! of your gun to the Aarg! of the perp and his wonderfully exaggerated buckling, sprawling stance. After a few shots, they collapse in an untidy heap on the floor.

Once you've dealt with the creep at hand, you can go back to the menu and decide where to go next.

Most parts of the city found in the comic are represented, in some form or other. Even the underground bits, probably the most dangerous, as they're wholly un-policed. In such areas, you'll encounter all kinds of strange things. Robot dogs are the biggest problems. They'll bound up and clank you to death if you're not careful. These suckers take bullets in the rump without flinching. I frequently found myself crouching on the sidewalk, blasting away at an enormous on-coming monster that appeared to eat the bullets like Scooby snacks.

Dredd is great fun to play, and there's also a fair bit of snap decision making - it hardly qualifies as real thought - involved between the killing sprees. It feels like a comic strip, and scores major points in the entertainment-while-blasting chart.

Melbourne House
£8.95

You are the one and only Judge Dredd and Mega City Ones last chance to stop crime sweeping through the streets. Now at last you can be the 2000 AD comic book hero as you patrol the streets on your lawmaster bike.

You are armed with your "lawgiver" gun that can fire six different projectiles which you use to "arrest" the perps of such evil crimes as murder, tapping (mugging), stookie glanding and tobacco smoking.

A sector of your patrol area of Mega City One warns of any crimes in progress. Move the bike over a crime to rush to the scene. The scene now changes to the ramps, lifts and swamps that form the city which is populated by all sorts of low life. You are here to arrest a murderer, and since gunning down innocent people is frowned on, you'd better get on with the job. Since murder is a minor crime you decide to give the perp a chance and select the Halt response level. This shouts "halt" at the perp when you press the fire button. Warn, the next level up, fires a warning shot but the most common mode used is Kill.

Pressing the enter key swaps between three different displays that appear at the bottom of the screen which are the crime report, informing you of the perps last reported whereabouts, your current location and display showing your response level, bullet type, score and energy gauge.

Finally, you track him down in the rat infested swamp and yell halt! He not only ignores your command he shoots at you. This is no problem to a representative of the Justice Department as you swap to KILL level, select normal bullets and gun him down. They all go quietly, eventually!

For more persistent perps you can make use of the specialist bullets such as armour piercing, that can fire through the games platforms, incendiary and high explosive that pack an extra punch, ricochet for bouncing around comers (make sure you don't hit yourself) and the heat seekers that always get their man.

Unfortunately, you haven't got time to shoot it out with every perp as you have to get back to the sector map and onto another crime if you don't you'll lose the game as soon as eight crimes appear in your sector.

You'll soon find out that even Judges can be killed, but luckily this isn't fatal as a replacement is rushed to the sector.

At times it's hard to remember that you're supposed to be the good guy as you can arrest perps by gunning them down. You can also gain bonus points by ridding the city of other vermin such as rats and droids that roam free in the seedy side of the city such as the swamp and the Norman Tebbit block. However, you'll soon know when you've shot something you shouldn't have as your score will plummet.

The game captures the atmosphere of crime fighting in the future although it has strayed from the comic character which will no doubt annoy the connoisseurs. The rest of us will love it. "Go on perp make my day!".