Producer: Electric Dreams
Retail Price: £9.99
Author: Simon Dunstan and Nick Cooke

The planet Xarqon consists entirely of seas and oceans with no natural land masses at all. Many years ago the United Planets Co-operative set up a project known as the Sell Build Base. The object of this project was to build artificial land masses in the oceans of Xarqon in order to make the planet a profitable acquisition.

However, after thirty years of successful operation the land mass called Xarq has developed a serious fault. Why this has happened, no-one knows, but it has switched itself into automatic Cleansing Mode. Power in the Central Reactor is gradually being built up. As the levels get ominously high, the authorities realise the energy is being stored up in preparation for Planet Cleansing during which the whole of the surface of Xarqon will be burnt to a crisp and generally scoured to the core.

Naturally, the United Planets Co-operative is getting a bit panicky about this impending disaster, as over thirty years of construction and research hangs in the balance. If Xarq is successful in its spring cleaning campaign, the whole project will have to be started from scratch - if there is any planet left to play with. You have been selected to stop Xarq destroying itself. Armed with an impressive array of weapons you begin to journey towards Xarq on a Nik Nik Hi-Speed Hydraboat...

The object of your mission is not an easy one. You must penetrate the Xarq complex so that you can actually drive your Hydraboat inside. This is possible only by accurate blasting of the lock gates, which results in the flooding of the Zimmerman Trenches located around the Central Reactor and allows you to use your Hydraboat. Once the trenches have been flooded you can begin to plan how you are going to destroy the reactor and stop the destruction of the planet.

Xarq is fully committed to the Cleansing Mode and is a bit miffed that someone is trying to thwart its efforts. All Security Defence systems have been fully operated, and Xarq itself does all it can to thwart your mission., Your Hydraboat has been equipped with a simple but effective laser which is ideal for blasting some of the smaller problems in the game, but for some of the more persistent nastier you may need to use your guided missiles or the mortars. Depth charges have been supplied to help fend off marauding submarines which lurk in the murky depths waiting to attack from below. Submarines can be located by their distinctive bleeps on the sonar scanner.

A chart at the bottom of the screen keeps track of your status: damage to the hull, engines and protective shields is recorded on bar readouts, and the stock of weapons and fuel in the Hydraboat is also shown. The water depth bar is also handy. Naturally, your mission fails if status levels get too low.

The Hydraboat is capable of reaching great speeds and has been designed to be highly manoeuvrable. With one key you can select the direction in which you want to travel; then, by using the acceleration or deceleration key the desired speed can be achieved. Beacons are dotted around Xarq and can be recognised by their colour: blue and white beacons are pumping stations; green and black beacons are laser field generators while purple and black beacons reveal power fields, capable of generating currents of a million Tesla.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q accelerate, A decelerate, Z rotate left, X rotate right, C fire, P pause
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: too responsive!
Use of colour, adequate
Graphics: small and detailed
Sound: simplistic
Skill levels: one
Screens: lots, according to ELECTRIC DREAMS!

What a daft name for a game! The game itself isn't any more sensible. The first thing that entered my head when I saw it was Panzadrome. Playing doesn't disperse the idea, either. I reckon this game is an aquatic, overpriced rip off of another enjoyable game. I can't say I like this much at all. The graphics are pretty awful (if I remember rightly, that was Panzadrome's main drawback), but the game isn't playable, and therefore, unaddictive. Not one I'd recommend, not even to big fans of the game that it is an expensive and poor copy of.

After reading the inlay for this game I was enthralled by the plot seemed - on loading, however, my hopes were shattered. Xarq looks a little like RAMJAM's Panzadrome but it plays much faster and is a lot more difficult to get into. The graphics are small but well detailed and the characters race around the screen very fast without jerking or flickering. The sound is fair: there is no tune but there are some reasonable spot effects during the game. The thing that I really don't like about XARQ is that you have to play it very fast in order to dodge any missiles that maybe on your tail. This makes the game very unplayable and hard to follow.

I immediately thought of Panzadrome when I saw Xarq, but such thoughts disappeared once I started playing. The graphics are very detailed and colour is used to its full effect in a mainly monochromatic play area. The explosions that take place when you're hit are very life-like and extremely well animated with accompanying sound effects. I found Xarq had a nice exterior but was far too hard to play - which made me think I was missing out on a good game. Only graphically a Panzadrome rip-off, but the rest of it is very simple.

Electric Dreams
£9.99

Do you know what makes me sick? Sticking my fingers down my throat. Well, that and games in which I get blasted into millions of tiny pieces within seconds of starting them. XARQ, the new release from Electric Dreams, falls rather heavily into the second category.

Anyhow, despite this somewhat abrupt introduction to the game (not helped, I might add, by the rather cryptic instructions), XARQ isn't that bad.

Basically, the game follows the traditional lines of blasting everything that moves, as well as a number of things that don't. Graphically it looks a lot like Panzadrome. XARQ is actually a huge steel and silicon base situated on the watery world of Xarquon. The original purpose of the base is unclear but it has now gone renegade and switched itself into Planetary Cleansing Mode. Now this might not sound like a bad idea, but unfortunately it does involve XARQ burning off the entire surface. So into this scenario enters our hero in a hitech 'nik nik' powerboat. His mission is to flood XARQ before this super spring-clean can be put into effect. The speedboat is armed with four different offence/defence systems to make the job a little easier. A forward firing laser, guided missiles, mortar and depth charges. Steering is achieved by the rather cumbersome rotate left/right and accelerate/ decelerate off the four joystick positions. In order to destroy the power stations it's necessary to manoeuvre the boat into position and then select either the guided missile or mortar.

Whilst you're trying to coordinate all of this, the enemies' defences do not stand idle. On XARQ itself there are gun emplacements which track you and it's quite easy to get yourself stuck in a corner and be shelled to oblivion.

In all XARQ is quite an interesting game that's hindered by insensitive controls and the over-exuberance of the defences early on in the game. I definitely prefer it to sticking my fingers down my throat though!

Label: Electric Dreams
Author: RamJam
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: Sinclair or Kempston
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

One by the RamJam corporation, whose arcade games are usually inventive, if not technically astounding.

Both comments are true of Xarq which is visually a rather simple arcade game - dated even - but has a clever plot and plays well. I'd tend to describe it as infuriating, but one person's infuriating is another's addictive.

The usual nonsense but pretty good nonsense. A giant floating base called Xarq has been built on Xargon - a world with no natural land masses. The enormous base is self regulating and self reproducing, it grows. Now we all know what happens to vast computerised land masses when our collective human back is turned - you've got it - they go wobbly and start threatening all life as we know it.

With only your Nik Nik/Hi-Speed Hydraboat (complete with lasers, depth charges, guided missiles and mortars) to help you, your mission is to penetrate the Xarq defences and pilot your way towards the inner central power reactor.

The ship is controlled in the same manner as the spaceships in asteroids - accelerate, decelerate, turn clockwise/anticlockwise. Lasers fire in front of you, guided missiles have to be set a range by holding down a key but can be steered in the right direction, mortars work like guided missiles in ranging but can't be controlled once released.

Xarq is built in concentric tiers around the Zimmermand Trenches. To move into each level of Xarq you must first destroy the lock gates which hold back the sea, this causes the trenches to flood and so allows your boat to travel deeper into the land mass Things that can usefully be blasted are revealed by coloured beacons. Aside from the lock gates, there are power field generators which can be disabled, laser field generators and gun emplacements.

Xarq defences aside from gun turrets include torpedoes, sea mines, and air attacks. These defences are so good you may well become completely irritated with the game, as I did, but I guess if you stick at it...

Graphics and sounds are effective but very simple. Xarq is constructed from a vast number of large squares using a set number of designs. It looks a little like the maps associated with wargames. Sound is blips and whizzes with a sonar 'boing' when a sub is in the area.

Seekers of the state of the art won't be impressed.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Electric Dreams
PRICE: £9.99

Oh Xarq! I was beginning to wonder whether the title of the game was some obscure Rumanian swearword when my Nik Nik Hi-Speed Hydraboat was zapped by a torpedo/gun turret/jet fighter for the trillionth time in a couple of hours.

Xarq isn't the easiest of games to get into. Then, coming from the Ram Jam Corporation you wouldn't really expect it to be, would you?

You'll probably recognise the similarities between this game and Ram Jam's other arcade excursion, Panzadrome. There's the same totally wreckable scenery - but in this case roads and tanks have been replaced by canals and boats.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to enter Xarq - a self regenerating computer controlled base on a planet covered by oceans - and destroy the central power reactor. Why? Because Xarq has thrown a wobbler and is threatening to burn off the surface of the planet.

To reach the central reactor you must find your way through the maze of steel and silicon which is Xarq. Destroying locks and flooding trenches in order to float your heavily armed Nik Nik - does Jim Davidson know about this? - Hydraboat into a strategic zapping position.

Your boat is armed with a laser, guided missiles, a mortar and depth charges. All have limited life-spans and their energy levels can be checked on status meters at the bottom of the main play screen.

Missiles and mortars are controlled via a keyboard/joystick combination.

As in Panzadrome you have to give them a range to the target which is indicated by a bar in bottom centre of the screen. Press the appropriate key to access which weapon you want then press the fire button to get the range you want.

It's fairly easy to judge distances if you reckon that one square of the structure is equal to one section of the bar - that's one press of the fire button. The missiles can be guided by the joystick or keyboard.

You have to listen out for submarines - they make sonar type blipping noises. You can knock them out by firing depth charges from the keyboard. But it's difficult to outrun torpedoes once they've been fire at you.

Graphics are attractive - although your Nik Nik boat is small and unimpressive. Sound is average - and game play frustrating.

If you liked Panzadrome - and are prepared to stick with the game for a prolonged period of learning - then Xarq could be for you. Otherwise give it a miss.

Spectrum
Electric Dreams
Arcade
£9.99

Computers running wild seems to be an excellent topic for games, even if it is now a little over-used. In Xarq, the latest release from Electric Dreams, a computer-created island is about to be destroyed by the computer which created it.

There is one chance. If you can get into the main area and destroy the central power reactor, the world on which you live will be saved. To help you in that arduous task is an impressive Nik-Nik Hi-Speed Hydraboat which in fact, looks like a small white splodge.

On loading, and having spent a time poring over the instructions, a problem is encountered. Although a pleasant scenario has been written, the game has been ignored, thus Xarq playing very difficult.

That criticism apart, Xarq has some excellent features which should make it appeal to a wide variety of Spectrum game-players. Control of your Nik-Nik is via keyboard or joystick, although even the most dextrous gamers will find using the keyboard almost impossible. To destroy the variety of enemies you encounter requires use not only of lasers but guided missiles, mortars, and in special cases, depth charges.

The graphics and sound are good, with obvious attention to detail, and help to make Xarq an above-average game which, although by no means perfect, will certainly provide a challenge.

SKIM ACROSS THE LAKES OF XARGON IN YOUR HYDROBOAT, TURN THE HIGHWAYS TO WATERWAYS AND DESTROY THE CENTRAL COMPUTER.

Electric Dreams
£9.95

Reputations are funny things. Some software houses establish themselves with their first game, and then build on this with a constant flow of excellent games. Some houses produce a whole heap of junk, and Electric Dreams are somewhere in the middle. Being one of the top ten software houses in the U.K., they have produced such classics as Spin Dizzy, but they have also produced some less than brilliant games.

Many people will, at first glance, write Xarq off as nothing but an over complicated shoot-'em-up, but with perseverance, and not a little manual dexterity, you can find a good game in there.

In a world where there is no land, a computer was programmed to create a mass on which the inhabitants could live, this world was called Xargon. Everything went well until one day the computer developed a fault, and started to destroy the land it had taken so long to create.

As an average run of the mill superhero, it is your task to enter Xargon and flood the Zimmerman trenches, destroy the Central power reactor, and thereby disable the computer. Pretty simple, huh? Nope! Unfortunately, all of Xargon's defences are fully operational, and the computer is determined not to let you get in!

To help you on your mission you have been equipped with a Nik-Nik Hi-speed Hydroboat, and a great deal of firepower. For some surprising reason, the United Planets' Co-operative has every faith in you.

Using either a joystick (Kempston or Interface 2), or keyboard (especially defined for those with nineteen fingers), you must struggle against lighters, gun turrets, and a variety of other annoyingly mean weapon bases.

To help you in your task, you have a variety of different weapons. As well as a standard laser, there are guided missiles, mortars, and depth charges. Guided missiles are especially useful if you want to fire inland, as they are the only weapons capable of knocking out the large and deadly missile turrets. Mortars are the same as guided missiles, only not guidable - surprising eh!

Depth charges are essential if you are to gain more than 5%, as submarines have a tendency of sneaking up unnoticed. On screen there are also a series of displays and scanners that give a continually moving report on how much damage your vehicle has sustained.

In Xarq, the trenches are arranged concentrically, around the reactor, and it is therefore essential to get as far in as possible. Graphically, Xarq is similar to many mettalix graphics games for the Commodore 64. The backgrounds are all very well defined, with excellent attention to detail. Your Hydraboat leaves a little more to the imagination, as it appears to be little more than an elongated white splodge!

Xarq may not be the best game to come from Electric Dreams, and it certainly isn't the easiest, however, if you are willing to spend a few hours getting used to the control, and working out what to do, you will be well rewarded.