Producer: Timescape
Memory Required: 48K
Recommended Retail Price: £5.90
Language: machine code
Author: Silicon Kid with help from M Stockwell & P Holms

Step out into the cacti strewn desert and shoot it out with rampaging bandits. In most respects this game resembles the robotic Frenzy type, where you find yourself surrounded and heavily outnumbered by the enemy. Instead of maze walls there are clumps of cacti, treacherous trees and other obstacles which mean instant death when touched. The hero himself is assembled in the centre of the screen rather as he is in Virgin's Spectron, out of little bits which whizz on from the top, bottom and sides.

COMMENTS

Keyboard positions: sensible, Q/A up/down, SYMBOL SHIFT/SPACE left/right
Joystick option: Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive, smooth, 8-directional
Use of colour: good
Graphics: very good
Sound: good
Skill levels: increasing difficulty by screen
Lives: 3

Our hero (Chris 'Clint' Passey) stepped out onto the plain with his automatic fire and repeat Colt 45 (based on the Fistful of Dollars guns no doubt) and had a go. The firing is continuous; all you have to do is move around and let the Colt do the rest. The bandits don't shoot back but they outnumber you heavily. The trick is to manoeuvre across to the side and shoot back across as the bandits home in your position. It's fairly easy at first, but with subsequent screens things really hot up as the numbers of bandits increase.

A nice inlay and witty instructions back up the jolliest title screen yet, with nicely scrolling logo round the edges. It's really a Frenzy or Berserk type of game, but the smoother graphics, which are quite big too, and the sheer speed make it exciting to play. The dangerous objects littered about which restrict your movement are also an added improvement.

This is the best Berserk game I've seen yet, with big graphics and responsive controls. You get bonus lives after 20.000 points - that takes some going!

The last game doesn't fit in this section at all - but never mind. It comes from Timescape and is entitled Wild West Hero. Predictably, the hero's job is to rid the West of the gun-totin' bandits and this, with your help, he tries to do by hurtling around the screen blasting out in all directions as the gruesome gang closes in. Control, on the pre-production version, is via the keyboard, and uses four keys (two fingers per hand being the maximum for a reasonable response for most of us) - theoretically making for an casy-to-play game. However, the combatants are nothing if not fast moving - even though Timescape has already slowed down this (version 3) over the previous (version 2). Consequently, with bullets flying thicker than a hail storm and goodie and baddies moving at lunatic pace, this little number is certainly not one for those of slow or nervous disposition; even a rapidly pluggcd-in joystick did little to help me catch up with the action. For the record, by the way, the first two games mentioned were also joystick compatible.

Producer: Timescape, 48K
£5.90 (1)
Author: Silicon Kid(?)

Step out into the cacti-strewn desert and fight it out with rampaging gangs of banditos in this good 'Berserk' type game. Instead of maze walls there are cacti and treacherous trees, which kill on contact. You're armed with a continuous repeat firing Colt 45 - and just as well, the bandits are numerous. One of the best 'Berserk' games yet with large graphics, smooth movement, sensible control keys, joystick: Kempston. Good sound, increasingly difficult screens. Overall CRASH rating 83% M/C. Recommended.

Producer: Timescape, 38K
£5.90 (1)
Author: Silicon Kid(?)

Step out into the cacti-strewn desert and fight it out with rampaging gangs of banditos in this good 'Berserk' type game. Instead of maze walls there are cacti and treacherous trees, which kill on contact. You're armed with a continuous repeat firing Colt 45 - and just as well, the bandits are numerous. One of the best 'Berserk' games yet with large graphics, smooth movement, sensible control keys, joystick: Kempston. Good sound, increasingly difficult screens. Overall CRASH rating 83% M/C. Recommended.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: Kempston, Optional
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: Timescape Software
PRICE: £5.90

Wild West Hero has one of the best cover illustrations on any current game. It shows a freshly-laundered cowboy blasting away with two six-shooters while a bandit lurks behind a cactus in the sun-drenched desert.

It's a smooth picture, and it's a smooth game inside.

Machine code graphics techniques beam you into the centre of the screen, where you find yourself amidst randomly placed killer cacti and bandits.

A killer cactus is pricklier than a normal cactus, killing you on contact, and bandits do the same.

The difference is that the cacti stay still while the bandits home in on you. Luckily the bandits don't shoot, while you can shoot in the direction of motion, including diagonally, and you carry on shooting even when you stop.

Movement is by keyboard or Kempston joystick. You have three lives and an extra one every 10,000 points after 20,000 which is moderately difficult to reach.

The game is similar to Spectron, reviewed in this issue, both being variations on the arcade game Robotron.

Wild West Hero offers no variation in the waves of bandits it pits against you, unlike Spectron's mixed waves of robots, and the scoring system is less exotic.

However, the graphics are good, the game plays fast, and it's easy to play. It probably boils down to a matter of taste - is it robots or bandits that you want to cut down?

48K Spectrum
Shoot-'em-up
Timescape Software
£5.90

Like all good Westerns this has a good opening visual and the controls are clearly explained beneath the Wild West saloon bar-type writing. A brief kaleidoscopic display transports you to the Arizona desert where you are suddenly surrounded by tough gun-toting hombres and rather volatile cacti which blow up and kill you when you bump into them. You automatically shoot in the direction you are moving. Once you have made a name as a fast draw, more tenderfeet appear on screen.

A wild west hero (you, of course) must destroy gang after gang of extremely nasty bandits, whilst avoiding the glowing cacti or any other objects, and most importantly, stay alive!

At the start of the game, the hero is given three lives with which to carry out his task. Armed with an automatic, he must accumulate the highest score possible (surprise, surprise). For the first 20,000 points scored, a bonus life is awarded and for every 10,000 points after that. It is playable with one or two people (or aliens I suppose!) and is compatible with the Kempston joystick interface. There are only four controls - up, down, left, and right. Firing is done by moving in the desired direction.

Verdict: Wild West Hero is definitely fast and furious, at times rather too fast and not a game for the faint hearted! The graphics are fast and reasonably smooth. The only main criticism of the game itself is the lack of further screens or alterations. Apart from that, it is thoroughly enjoyable if not 100% original and very good value indeed. An excellent pub/party-type game.