Game
Sphera
Submitted by solaris104 on Fri, 2005-12-30 12:09. Game
1990
One of the few (maybe only?) games to use Mode 2. A classic Space-Invaders inspired game which, at times, offered a significant challenge with the large colourful structures that your white, monochrome ship could get lost under while fighting the attacking foe.
In true arcade style, there was also a selection of giant guardians to fight at the end of the level.
Crash review, courtesy of worldofspectrum.org
Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Sphera was one of the first games to come out on the SAM. Long before it’s release we were treated to beautiful mode 4 graphics depicting the Mega-Enemies and some technical stuff all about how it had lots of layers of parallax and lovely sound. So we all had bated breath (from reading YS instead of cleaning our teeth - tsk!) by the time the game arrived. And it turned out to be an utter turkey.
The game was a basic vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up. With pretty good mode 2 graphics during the normal levels, and great mode 4 graphics upon meeting the Boss Creatures. Now, the problem with mode 2 is that you’re only allowed 2 colours per 8 pixel long line (horizontally) so the enemies and your craft were all white and boring, making them stand out from the nice background like a sore thumb.
Another feature making it difficult was that virtually (if not completely) all the ‘background’ passed OVER you and the enemies, making it impossible to see them and their bullets (which were disproportionatley massive) as they streaked towards you intent on draining your shields, or killing you.
And since both you and the enemies go pretty fast you spend most of your time dying and re-starting the level, ack!
But if you are after a shoot ‘em up with PLENTY of challenge, then you could do worse, seeing as it’s ever so cheap now. But you could do better (not sure how, but at a guess it’d probably involve writing something in BASIC).
Astroball
Submitted by davidl on Fri, 2005-12-30 11:57. Game
(Cover art: Darrren Blackburn)
1992
A fiendishly addictive, yet simple concept.
You control a bouncing ball, set in space. The object is to collect the coins and power-ups by bouncing from platform to platform. If you fall to the bottom of the map you die, if you hit a spike or other nasty, you also lose.
Once all the coins have been collected, the exit will be enabled which was generally at the top of the map. By adjusting your bounce and direction, you carefully work your way to the exit.
Originally written for the Spectrum, but was never released.
Temporarily, the freeware demo of Astroball is attached
Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.
Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Balor Knight seems very good at writing simple but immensely playable games. You only have to look at Dyzonium (formerly the artist known as Plasmoid) to see this.
In Astroball you have the simple task of bouncing around a scrolling world from platform to platform, collecting the required number of coins, and then getting to the exit (normally near the top of the level). The bottom of the map is deadly to the touch (unless you have the invincible bonus) and so are the spikes that litter some levels.
Also, some platforms have the unhealthy habit of flicking in and out of existance, quite often leaving you to plummet to a messy death below. So timing is of the essence in this game, especially since the bonuses flick between 4 states quite rapidly, and some levels may become impossible (impassible) if you collect the bonus in the wrong state.
So, the game is simple, but it is also deceptively hard, and some levels will require tens of tries before you can pass them, and it’s here that Balor has made his fatal mistake. Instead of giving you, say, 3 continues, he opted for infinite. This means that with a bit of patience you will complete the game first time you load it up (I did), and this means you probably won’t come back to it.
Prince of Persia
Submitted by solaris104 on Fri, 2005-12-30 11:26. Game
1990
A port of the ground-breaking game of the same name. The original on other platforms was released by Brøderbund and designed by Jordan Mechner. Prince of Persia was released on a wide range of platforms, including the Amiga, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, DOS, NES, Game Boy, SNES and Sega Genesis.
The game was played in real time. You played the intrepid adventurer and had an hour to save the Princess from the evil Sultan before she was forced to marry him or die.
The animation was one of the first of it’s kind as Jordan had animated the movement of the characters as close to real life as was possible at that time.
Included temporarily, is the freeware demo that was released to promote the game.
Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.
Crash review, courtesy of worldofspectrum.org
Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Well, Prince Of Persia was the surprise all formats hit of 1990 or so. So, unsurprisingly it only arrived on the SAM in about 1992. But this is typical and we SAM owners have come to expect things to be late.
It revolves round the plot of an evil Arabian bloke called Jaffar kidnapping a princess, and saying that he’ll kill her in an hours time or something, this, as with the plots of many games, is completely irrelevent and the game boils down to jumping over pits, dodging visciously sharp blades and stabbing various people to death. And as platformers go, it’s pretty playable. The thing that made it popular in the first place though was the animation.
It is SUPERB, the graphics for all versions where drawn from Arabian type films to give a really human fluidity to all the movements of the main character.
He skids, runs, jumps, and is impaled on spikes in a really humanoid manner. The game must have loads on animation, in fact it has twice as many frames as the Atari ST version.
In fact, rumour is, the graphics where converted from the PC version by copying them down, pixel by pixel, onto graph paper, then reassembling them on the SAM.
Pipe Mania
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Wed, 2005-12-21 02:47. Game
Enigma Variations, licensed by Empire, produced by New Aspects
1990
PIPE MANIA - ADDICTION BEYOND BELIEF!
Pipe Mania is “a classic puzzle arcade game that is so addictive, it should come with a Government Health Warning!” — C & VG Feb 1990
Pipe Mania is a game of great ingenuity, simple in concept and fiendishly challenging to play.
You’ll need to act instinctively, but think strategically!
One wrong move, one brief hesitation or mis-placed pipe section, and you’ll drown in a sea of slime!
Forget Shoot-em-ups and Beat-em-ups, once you play this you’ll know why. Buy it NOW! — ZZAPP SIZZLER 94%
Crash review courtesy of worldofspectrum.org
Multipack 1
Submitted by solaris104 on Sat, 2005-12-17 16:33. Game
Enigma Variations, (Sam Strikes Out) A Softcorn Production
(Sam Strikes Out) David Box, (Future Ball) Rob Holman
(Sam Strikes Out) David Box, (Future Ball) Ultra Graphics
1990
This is the first of many multipacks from Enigma. Inside this box are two high quality arcade games that use all of the special features of the Sam Coupe. Full sixteen colour graphics, 6 channel stereo sound and arcade action are all to be found here.
The first is FUTUREBALL, a future sport simulation. Football in the year 2090 is a little different to today’s tame game. Lasers, killer robots and deadly traps all feature as normal parts of the game. You are a new recruit to the team and have to go through the rigourous training schedule before being accepted as a member of the team. This program simulates that training. Can you survive to join the team?
The second game is SAM STRIKES OUT! and is an arcade adventure featuring loads of screens of some kind of weirdest creatures yet found on a computer. You control SAM, the little robot from the computer manual as he seeks his way back home. Help him survive, it will not be easy!
WATCH OUT FOR FURTHER MULTIPACKS FROM ENIGMA!
Crash Review courtesy of worldofspectrum.org.
Defenders Of The Earth
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Tue, 2005-12-13 02:40. Game
1990
“THE HEROES OF THE PAST ARE HERE TO SAVE THE FUTURE”
Direct from the hit T.V. series, the Defenders are here in an all action ARCADE blast that will have your fire button melting!
Featuring FLASH GORDON and his friends MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN, LOTHAR and THE PHANTOM against the evil MING THE MERCILESS and his attempt to rule the world. Kidnapping the Defender’s children, he issues a dire warning - interfere and your children die!
Control FLASH as he searches for the children in the mysterious FORTRESS OF EVIL. The action is fast and furious. The danger unending. You will often need to call on your team members for help. Negotiate the Intruder Detection System, avoid Ming’s killers, meet the gigantic robot OCTON and Ming’s pet serpent MONGOR. Survive them and enter the final confrontation with the evil MING himself!
Featuring the music from the original T.V. series.
THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOU!!
Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.
Crash review, courtesy of worldofspectrum.org
Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Defenders Of The Earth is a platformer based upon the succesful cartoon adventures of about 4 superhero’s not good enough to get their own series’.
The plot is completely dispensable, being something about something going missing or somebody being kidnapped, I couldn’t really care less as it adds nothing to the game. Unfortunatley. (It was the brats - Tim)
It’s a real pity, that aside from great sound FX, a lovely tune, superb graphics and a pretty good difficulty curve, this game is so standard. It has nothing that grabs you and makes you want to play it more and more. It has been slickly programmed enough, everything moves at a good rate of speed, and the collision detected isn’t dodgy at all. It’s just I supposed that there is no variation in gameplay.
All that is involved is jumping along platforms, collecting the occasional bonus, and pressing the ‘help’ key when a situation looks impassable (ie. a wide gap, a force-field or a strong door). It’s all very linear too, there is no sense of exploration, you gradually work your way to the guardian for that level (there are only 3, but they are tough). A little variation in the way the guardians fight would have been nice, but no. They all just spew dangerous spheres at you whilst you pump endless bullets into them.
