'Back
in Time' is a monthly feature
where we look back at the classic video gaming magazines twenty years
ago this month. This month it's October 1991 when one of the 1980s most
iconic and influential publishers shuts shop, The Bitmap
Bros’ Magic Pockets appeared to mixed reviews, Speedball 2
arrived onto the humble C64, Future Publishing along with Amstrad
Action celebrated their sixth birthday, Alien Breed entered the gaming
arena and a new magazine dedicated to the PC entered the fray...
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With
Newsfield Publications falling victim to liquidation, Raze was
one of
the big casualties and it turned out that issue 12 would be the last of
the underrated multi-format magazine. In the meantime, the magazine
carried on oblivious. News wise, , Nintendo, in partnership with
Philips, were set to launch the Super Famicom CD-ROM unit in August
1992. Having been left out of the deal, Sony were rumoured to be
releasing their own unofficial CD-ROM unit.
Electronic Arts’ bone crunching EA
Hockey arrived on the Mega
Drive with a slap shot score of 90. Julian Boardman praised the game
aplenty, stating that “Electronic Arts are onto a definite
winner here. EA Hockey plays
like a dream, is highly addictive and
looks great. The action theme should make it even more successful than John Madden’s
Football…”
Marvel Land took
the honour of receiving the highest rating in Raze’s short
history with an overall rating of 96. Les Ellis
rounded off the ‘Rave’ review by stating that
“if you like games that look good and play for ever
– and, let’s face it, who doesn’t?
– then Marvel Land is
the answer to your prayers. Move over
Sonic, Marvel Man has arrived.” |
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The 119th issue of Computer +
Video
Games went straight into the games reviews with the 93%
‘CVG
Hit’ Geoman Warrior on
the Super Famicom.
“There’s something deeply brilliant about this
game,” stated Tim Boone. “With so much to choose
from you’ll be bowled over first time you play…
Totally original, utterly vast and darned funny to boot, Geoman Land is
a bit of a must buy…” Paul Rand concurred with
consensus “that Geoman Land is a fantastic arcade adventure,
incorporating so many extras it makes a dodgy, 100-game Nintendo cart
look barren in comparison.”
Magic Pockets on
the Amiga followed up with its own ‘CVG
Hit’ rating of 93%. “Considering the time
it’s taken, Magic Pockets
had to be something a bit
good,” stated Paul, “and as usual, the Bitmap Bros
have delivered the goods spectacularly… the best thing from
the Bitmaps yet.” Tim also voice his approval:
“Lucky enough to be treated to an early preview of Pockets, I
knew we were all in for a bit of Bitmap brilliance once again
– and here it is at last! Magic
Pockets is just that:
Magic.”
The Super Famicom racked up its second ‘CVG Hit’
this issue with the 94% rated UN
Squadron. “Surprisingly
enough, I’ve never had the opportunity to play the UN
Squadron coin-op, so I can’t compare this Super Famicom
conversion to its arcade parent,” admitted Paul.
“What I can tell you is that to my mind this is probably the
best shoot ‘em up available on the Fammy at the moment
– even better than Super R-Type!”
Not to be left out of the ‘CVG Hit’ accolades, the
Mega Drive got in on the action with the classic side scrolling
beat-‘em-up Streets of Rage
getting 93%. “I almost
wet myself and called the police when we first plugged in the Streets
of Rage cart,” admitted Frank O’Connor.
“The game starts up with a stupendous opening sequence and a
great house remix of some fabulous oriental music. From here on, things
just get better and better… If fast, mindless, pointless
violence is your cup of tea, then get hold of Streets of Rage and have
those Famicom owners wishing they’d never up-graded.
Here’s the game that actually makes the Famicom look a bit
feeble – and that’s saying something!”
The massive 50 meg Neo Geo game, King
of the Monsters, managed to
achieve a 91% ‘CVG Hit’ status despite retailing at
a wallet busting £120. Starflight
launched into the Mega
Drive stratosphere in search of a ‘CVG Hit’ and
came back with 91%. More ‘CVG Hit’ praise reigned
down on Amiga God sim, Mega lo Mania,
while F117-A flew on to the
PC with a
93%.
Topping the all formats chart was Manchester
United Europe, followed by Hero
Quest and
Rainbow Collection. Manchester
United Europe also
dominated the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, and C64 charts, while Flames of
Freedom topped the Atari ST list and the Dizzy Collection moved
up to
the Spectrum top spot. Super Mario
Bros 2 moved up to number one on the
NES and Super Mario Land hung
onto number one on the Game Boy. |
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Issue 37 of The One For Amiga
Games
featured its third “Sneak Preview Disk” with
playable demos of Pitfighter
and Knights of the Sky. Amiga
chart
happenings included Manchester
United Europe at the top, natch, with The Secret of Monkey
Island and Thunderhawk
close behind. Charting the
same positions two years previously were Falcon: The Mission Disks Vol.
One, Powerdrome and RoboCop. In ‘That Was
Then’, The One team looked back two years to October 1989,
including news of
the non-starters of the ST laptop and the Konix Multisystem.
Within The One profiles this
month were programmer Shaun Southern,
publisher Henri Coron and programmer Steve Screech. Having been the
design brains behind the popular Kick
Off series of soccer games, Steve
was now developing the upcoming Basketball game, Tip Off. The One asked
Steve if the Kick Off success
worried him… “In
some respects…” began Steve, “other
companies will have to go to extreme limits to produce something which
matches Kick Off 2,
especially with Kick Off 3 on
the way.
It’s going to be at least three years before another decent
footie game comes out.” - Really, Steve?
Kelly Beswick looked at the problem of software piracy with input from
a few people in the industry itself. Some true words from Bob Hay (CEO
of FAST, aka Federation Against Sofware Theft): “Pirates say
that they rip off the software because of the high price and that
otherwise they couldn’t afford it. I can’t afford a
Rolls Royce, but that doesn’t give me the right to go out and
pinch one.” Roger Bennett (Chairman of ELSPA –
European Software Publishers Association) also had some stark
statistics on the subject: “A software publisher can only
expect to reach 10 per cent of a particular machine’s users
with a new product – and that’s even on the best
full-price arcade game.”
In ‘My Ideal Compilation’, Gary Bracey from Ocean
Software chose his, erm, ideal compilation, which included SimEarth, Manic Miner, F-29 Retaliator, Valhalla, The Zork Trilogy and PGA Tour
Golf.
First up in the reviews was Rise of
the Dragon which was awarded 92%,
but there were doubts of the game’s value for money, which
Paul Pressley posed and countered.
“…there’s a lot in Rise
Of The Dragon,
but thirty-five quid’s worth? I’d say yes, mainly
because it offers a kind of quality that’s missing from most
home-grown products. It’s not quite as big as The Secret Of
Monkey Island, but neither is it as easy – which makes a
rather nice balance really.”
The latest entry into Sierra’s famous adventure series, King’s Quest V,
made its appearance with a solid 90%. More
questions raised by Paul about the game’s worth.
“Well, it certainly doesn’t look like anything
that’s come before – the graphics and sound are
nothing short of incredible. Of course, that usually means the game
itself suffers, but not so here… the best adventure to be
seen on the Amiga since The Secret
Of Monkey Island.”
Fans of Gauntlet and Aliens (the movie) were in for a
real treat as Alien Breed
took
inspiration from both titles to create a 90% rated
shoot-‘em-up. “It plays like a cross between
futuristic versions of Crackdown
and Gauntlet,”
explained
Paul, “and is great fun, especially with two players. The
myriad of little touches (such as the way the computer system flickers
on and off while accessing and then offers you a game of Pong) give it
a sense of humour as well as tension… a classy product, very
professional and very enjoyable.”
Other games that scored highly were the submarine sim, Silent Service
III, with 90%, Lotus Turbo
Challenge 2 with 91% and the hugely playable
run ‘n’ gunner, Zone
Warrior, with 92%.
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The 78th issue would seem to
be the last
of “The original and best Commodore 64 action mag”
as the Newsfield Publications magazine, Zzap!64,
closed its doors for what seemed
the last time. But what a fantastic covertape to go out with: two
complete Sizzlers (Spy vs Spy
& Doomdark’s Revenge),
a playable demo of Terminator 2
and a reader’s game from R
Hezseltine (Game Master).
The multi-format (cassette, disk and cartridge) movie tie in of Terminator 2 just
fell short of gaining a ‘Sizzler’
with 89%. “Most people will find completing T2 difficult, but
is it worthwhile?” quizzed Stuart Wynne. “Well,
there certainly isn’t much in the way of
originality… However, the levels are all well programmed,
the graphics are good and gameplay enjoyable.”
The Fuzzy Factory, a development diary on the upcoming Creatures 2,
continued. So what did the Apex lads do this month? Friday 12th:
prepare for holiday to Majorca, Tuesday 16th: enjoy the sand, sea water
and topless entertainment, Monday 22nd: attend beach party, Thursday
25th: lose track of day as every day is Saturday in Majorca, Sunday
28th: fly back home, Monday 29th: sleep all day, Thursday 1st August:
back to business with CRIT (Clyde Radcliffe In Torture Trouble).
“We’ve been given the idea that if we add
‘ERS’ to the end
of the abbreviation we end up with CRITTERS…
swear words aren’t allowed!”
Amazingly, the 16-bit futuristic sports game, Speedball 2, made it
to the humble 8-bit Commodore 64. Not only that, but it is on par with
the Amiga classic, coming away with a ‘Sizzling’
90%. “What a brilliant conversion this is,”
enthused Phil King. “Not only have the Amiga’s
features been included, but incredibly they’ve been crammed
into a single load.” Stuart added that “although we
now see the odd flaw in 2,
this is an astounding conversion, a great
game in its own right and one of the best sports sims around.
Rapid-fire action and a good management element make this highly
recommended.”
The Action Pack covertape adorning the front cover of Amstrad Action
issue 73 featured playable demos of Turrican
2 and Thunderjaws,
along
with the complete game of Marsport.
Moving up to the top of the
Full-price charts was Manchester
United Europe, followed by Teenage
Mutant Hero Turtles and the Dizzy Collection. Meanwhile, the
ever
popular budget charts featured revivals of old classics such as New
Zealand Story, Shinobi
and Bubble Bobble. Domark
released its Freescape
compilation which featured classic titles such as Driller, Total
Eclipse, Castle Master
and Castle Master II: The Crypt.
With a verdict
of 87%, the compilation gained an ‘AA Rave’.
Adam Peters, the new Staff Writer, following the departure of Frank
O’Connor, made his debut review with the impressive looking Robozone. The Game
of the month was given a rating of 86% and an
‘AA Rave’. “Graphics throughout are
superb,” commented Adam “The big, colourful sprites
and complex animation in level one set this game apart right from the
start… More addictive than methadone, cooler than a
well-chilled Sol. And hotter than a chilli bean tostada,”
explained Adam. “Not bad at all.”
There was birthday celebrations as Amstrad
Action looked back on six
years covering the Amstrad CPC range. Former staff members dropped in
to give their fondest memories of working on the magazine. Bob Wade
commented on how bad issue one was. “Thank heavens we got
better fairly fast.” Trenton Webb looked back at the
catastrophic Emlyn Hughes
International Soccer competition.
“…nobody entered. To enter the compo you had to
have played the game. The game finally came out (late) three days
before the competition’s closing date…”
As with Newsfield’s sister publication, Zzap!64, the
“Crucial Sinclair Spectrum action” magazine, Crash,
featured complete games of Doomdark’s
Revenge and Spy vs Spy.
Barely a week into her new Assistant Editor job, Lucy Hickman was faced
with the prospect of the long running magazine being no more. Newsfield
were going into liquidation and every magazine ceased production and
all staff were laid off. A tough blow for the staff and readers of the
innovative and influential titles.
The Simpsons: Bart vs the
Space Mutants came in for what looked like the last ever
‘Crash Smash’ awards with an
overall rating of 91%. “If you’re a Simpsons fan
the game’s incredibly appealing,” stated Richard
Eddy. “Non-fans can still get loads of entertainment, but
some parts may be frustrating if you’re not into the
characters…”
Capcom’s seminal side scrolling brawler, Final Fight, made
its way onto the Speccy with a ‘Crash Smash’ and
90%. “I’m usually not very impressed with
beat-‘em-ups,” admitted Nick Roberts, “as
programmers usually fall into the trap of producing mediocre games with
nothing new to offer. Final Fight
is different. With its detailed,
gigantic graphics and loadsa whacky enemies it’s bound to be
a real winner with all beat-‘em-up
fans…” |
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Joining the ‘Jack of all
Trades’ Format magazines of Amiga and ST at Future Publishing
was PC Format.
Like its siblings, PC Format
started out with coverage
of both serious and gaming. This coverage was quickly noticeable with
the coverdisk, which included two playable demos (MiG-29 Super Fulcrum
and Speedball 2), a
screensaver, utility and an archiver package.
Interesting news included a new portable PC released by Amstrad: the
ACL-386SX with 20 Mhz speed and a price tag of £4,000 and
that Channel 4 had commissioned a computer and video games show called Games Master.
Reports also showed that PC game sales were up 400% in
the past year.
There was some pretty harsh reviewing going on in the games section
with the shock of the month being the paltry 73% given to Speedball 2
(for shame, Jason Saunders). Other games that fared better were Secret
Weapons of the Luftwaffe (88%), Gunship 2000 (88%), and F-117A Stealth Fighter
(87%).
Rather confusingly, iD Software’s influential shareware
version of Commander Keen
made its appearance in the Public Domain
section, scoring a rather disappointing 5/10. Other, more fortunate,
PD titles were Ground War
(7/10), Word Fugue (a word
processor, 8/10), Hugo's House of
Horror
(7/10) and Picture Puzzle
(8/10).
For the inaugural PC Format
issue, the team listed The 50 Best Games
Ever. Grouped into categories rather than a top 50 list, there was non
the less some impressive pre-PC Format
titles named. In the
‘In Flight’ category,
F-19 Stealth Fighter, F-15
Strike Eagle II, Knights of
the Sky and Their Finest Hour
all flew in
for a mention. ‘In Space’ listed Elite Plus and Wing Commander.
‘Shoot-‘em-ups’ included Xenon I & II. The ‘Role Playing’
group had
some classics in its midst, including Eye
of the Beholder, The Ultima
series and Captive.
‘Driving’ games were Indianapolis
500, Test Drive, Stunt Car Racer and 4D Sports Driving.
Jostling for a mention in the popular ‘Adventures’
section were The Infocom range, Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade, The
Secret of Monkey Island, Wonderland,
It Came From the Desert
and Rise
of the Dragon. ‘Sport’ was surprisingly well
catered for with 3D Pool, PGA Tour Golf, Links, Chessmaster 2100. The
other staple PC genre, the ‘Strategy’, was also
well catered for with Populous,
Railroad Tycoon, Supremacy and Sim
City. ‘Puzzles’ included the well known E-Motion, Lemmings and Tetris. The often-overlooked PC
‘Arcade’ genre was represented by the likes of Golden Axe, Prince of Persia and Rick Dangerous 2.
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