'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 June 1991
when Roger Wilco went on his fourth Space Quest, Street Figther II hit
the arcades, Cruise For A Corpse appeared on many gamers’
wanted
lists, Prince of Persia amazed gamers everywhere with its superb
Amstrad CPC version and the Spectrum covertape wars continued with even
more gaming giveaways...
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ACE
was always a magazine that had plenty of articles amongst the
usual reviews and previews and issue 45 was no exception. In
‘Laser
Visions’, Rik Haynes spoke to the President of the newly
formed
Sony
Electronic Publishing about the media giant entering the videogaming
market – an inconceivable notion back then – and
producing a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Famicom. Mmm, I wonder how that
went?
The ‘King Mario’ article examined how Super Mario World
is arguably the
most playable
game ever written. ACE
dissected the game and explained where Nintendo
are going right and where the others are going wrong by looking at
graphics, sound, control, variety, fairness and much more.
The Space
Quest science
fiction adventure series from Sierra had reach
number four with Roger Wilco and the
Time Rippers. Taking centre
stage
on the front cover and with a full three page spread review, Space
Quest IV impressed
sufficiently to gain an ACE rating of 880.
“An excellent sci-fi romp,” Jim Douglas wrote.
“Quick-paced and quick witted, the action seldom grinds to a
halt, and for an intentionally funny game it manages to maintain a
decent level of tension too. Even when you’re stuck in a
dead-end, there are enough jokes to keep you amused.”
The Amiga and Atari ST versions of Gods
were both playtested with final
ACE ratings of 908 and 901 respectively. “The Amiga
version’s ST roots are slightly visible: the scrolling is a
tad ‘chunky’, but the Amiga’s superior
hardware has been used to smooth out the ride,” explained
Richard Evans. “The graphics and full-screen scrolling are
amazing, and just show what the all too-frequently belittled ST can do
in the hands of a good programmer... Only after you’ve been
playing for a while will you discover that Gods packs considerable
depth beneath its hack-‘em-up
façade…” |
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Zero, “Britain’s
Best Selling 16-bit mult-format mag”, featured an
“exclusive first review”
of Cruise
For A Corpse, both
statements of which adorned the front cover.
The Amiga adventure game from Delphine Software/US Gold is a classic
take on the murder mystery theme. “Quite a few publishers
could learn a thing or two from Delphine,” stated David
Wilson. [They] would prefer to delay a game’s release for
yonks rather than release a duffer. The quality of previous titles has
more than made up for the delay in their scheduled releases. Cruise For
A Corpse is no
exception… A well impressive and very
‘friendly’ package, beautifully
presented.”
Elsewhere, Joe
Montana Football
impressed on the PC with a 90% rating, Eye of the Beholder,
also on the PC, was given 91%, F-29
Retaliator flew
by for a 94% on the PC, F-15 Strike
Eagle 2 on the Amiga landed
in for
a 92%, while PGA Tour Golf
on
the Amiga holed in for a 92%.
In the ‘Console Action’ section, Rad Gravity
on the NES took centre
stage
with an impressive 91% rating and a ‘Console
Classic’
accolade to boot.
Essentially a space exploration platform game, Rad Gravity
tasks the
player with a series of missions throughout the solar system.
“A fabulously original platform game,” wrote Jane
Goldman, “with first-rate gameplay and depth of playability
you’d be more likely to in a good computer game, than on an
8-bit console.” Other impressive games
in ‘Console
Action’
this month included Contra
on
the Gameboy with 91% and Pacmania
on the
Master System with 90%.
In ‘Dosh Eaters’, the arcade game that scored a
perfect
five invaders
icon (or a five out of five in laymen’s terms) was puzzle
game Ataxx
Master. David
Wilson described the game as “a
rather addictive little number and yet, like all the best puzzlers,
it’s such an incredibly simple idea.” Other games
that fared well included Big Karnak
(4.5/5), Euro
Football Champ
(4/5)
and Rad
Mobile (4/5). |
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It was the 66th issue of Your
Sinclair and the
Spectrum cover tape wars was showing no signs of slowing down. But wait
a minute, there was actually another fantastic complete game on the YS
cover tape in
the form of Activision’s arcade conversion of Rampage.
Other,
not quite as great, complete games included The Ice
Temple, Syntax
and Top
Fruit Machine. Playable demos
of new games
included Mystical
and Dominion.
The ‘Complete YS Guide to Fanzines’ feature really
says it
all in the
title, as Rich Pelley took the reader through the ins and outs of the
homemade magazine publishing empire. Spectrum fanzines picked out for
mention included Adventure Probe,
Specreview,
From
Beyond, Turbo,
Re-Run,
Pokes
and Prods and Enigman.
It was sadly a sign of the times when a Code Masters budget range game
stole the highest rating of the issue with 94. Slightly Magic
took the
template of the successful Dizzy
series and added improvements galore.
“I’m even going to say that Slightly Magic
is
better than the Dizzy
games,” stated Riche Pelley,
“because with the addition of spells you’ve got to
think quite a lot more about what to do rather than simply using the
correct thing in the correct place.” Just missing out on the YS
accolade were Gauntlet III
with 89, Five
On A Treasure Island with
83 and Shadow
Dancer with 85. |
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Long time fans will no doubt
have been
dismayed when they set their eyes on issue 74 of Zzap!64,
for there had
been a rather drastic re-design of the magazine. By dropping the Amiga
coverage, Zzap!64
was back to
being a dedicated C64 magazine that could
take on the new C64 mag on the block: Commodore
Format. While this news,
along with a shiny covertape box, will have been welcomed by readers,
the re-design will not have. Gone was the distinctive design of the
mag, which had more or less remained for 70+ issues and in came
a rather
bland look, but worst of all was the removal of the famous
caricatures
of the reviewers in the pages, to be replaced with almost childish
cartoon versions.
In this issue, the saga of Creatures
II’s development
continued in ‘The Fuzzy
Factory’. Held up momentarily, Steve Rowland had to deal with
a
package
from Thalamus’ Dave Birch. Eleven copies of Creatures
were
not complementary copies, as thought, but returns.
“Apparently
these games were RETURNS, and didn’t work,” Steve
explained, “but every single one that we tried to load,
loaded perfectly – apart from the one that actually had Midnight Resistance
recorded on it (I spent a few hours playing this
– not bad).”
The classic Zzap!
Challenge
was back as the staff of Zzap!
(Robin Hogg
and Phil King) and Crash
(Nick Roberts and Mark Caswell) squared off
against each other in ‘Shoot-out At The Mill’.
Taking on
each other at World Games
on the
C64, Narc
on the Spectrum, Turrican II
on the C64
and Super
Scramble Simulator
on the Spectrum. After a gruelling four
events, Phil King topped the inter-magazine league table with 13 points
followed by Nick and Robert (10 points) with Robin trailing behind with
seven points.
The results of the 1991 readers’ C64 awards were in. Best
Game of
the Year went to Creatures,
Coin-Op Conversion went to Golden Axe
and
Best Strategy/RPG Game went to Lords
of Chaos. Other awards
included
Best Licence (RoboCop 2),
Original Game (Creatures),
Adventure
(Bloodwych),
Graphics (Turrican),
Software House (Ocean),
Programmer
(Apex),
Sound (Creatures),
Advertisement (Creatures),
Budget Game (Head
Over Heels) and Worst Game (Hard
Drivin’).
Although gaining the highest rating of 93%, the Sizzler awarded Atomino
was shoehorned into a one page review. “Atomino
is one of
those game you simply can’t leave alone,” admitted
Phil King. “Like all the best puzzle games the control system
and basic concept are simple – the only difficulty is
winning! In short Atomino
is
brill and blows Tetris
into
tiny
atoms!”
Also sizzling in the Zzap!
Testing were North & South
with 91%
(“another conversion miracle from Probe.”), Gauntlet III
with
92% (“State-of-the-art 3-D, masterpiece
backdrops and good gameplay make this a true classic”) and Supremacy
with 91%
(“the ease of play and sheer tyrannical
power makes Supermacy one of the best strategy games
around.”). |
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With issue 69 of Amstrad
Action, the marvellous
isometric puzzle game Spindizzy
was given away absolutely
free with the ‘Action Pack’ covertape. It was also
an
action packed ‘Action Test’ section in the magazine
this
month, which proved that the Amstrad gaming scene was showing no signs
of dying off just yet.
Broderbund/Domark’s classic platforming hijinks Prince of Persia
made it to the
humble Amstrad CPC and was the highlight of the lot with a massive 95%
rating and taking away a ‘Master Game’ accolade for
its
efforts. “First impressions could lead you to believe you
were
playing the ST version,” enthused Frank O’Connor,
“things look so smooth and detailed. The difficulty level has
been pitched exactly right… In short, this is one of the
best
Amstrad games ever…”
Night
Shift from
US Gold/Lucasfilm Games managed an ‘AA Rave’ rating
of 85%. Navy
Seals was a
cartridge release for the new range of Plus machines and the GX4000
consoles and achieved its mission with a ‘Console
Stunner’
accolade and a rating of 88%. Exterminator
racked up a rating of 83% and an ‘AA Rave’
accolade. |
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Amiga
Power returned with its
second issue and another complete Amiga
game to give away on the coverdisk. Kid
Gloves had never been
released on budget before and was another
scoop for the magazine, but this kind of giveaway was not to last. The
industry were getting panicky about lost revenues if gamers were able
to get free games from magazines every month.
Amiga
Power were
displaying their infamous no holds barred stance when it came to games
reviewing early on with only The
Secret of Monkey Island
breaking the 90% barrier, nearly, with,
erm, 90%. “It’s taken ten years,” wrote
Mark Ramshaw,
“but the first truly accessible adventure is finally with us.
Keep this game in a plastic bag, because the atmosphere really does
drip from it. Graphics, sound, and plot – everything gels
perfectly.” Other worth games that were covered this month
included Wonderland
(81%), Switchblade
2 (87%), 3D Construction Kit
(80%), Hero
Quest (80%) and MegaTraveller
1: The
Zhodani Conspiracy
(88%).
In ‘Pond Life’, Matt Bielby spoke to
Bullfrog’s Peter
Moleneux about the development company’s past and its
forthcoming
games such as Powermonger
data disks, Populous II,
Bob/Higher
Functions and Creation.
And if that in-depth look
at Bullfrog wasn’t enough Eric Matthews known as one of the
Bitmap Brothers was the star of ‘If I’d Known
Then…’ – the feature where developers
lookback at
their games in hindsight. |
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Having successfully split
off into The
One for ST Games, issue 33
had some fantastic content to fill the, now dedicated, Atari ST
magazine. First up was the coverdidsk which contained a complete
‘trainer’ level of Team
Suzuki,
five levels of Logical
and the month’s Goal-den Goal winner.
The
Secret of Monkey Island
kicked off an action packed reviews section. The Lucasfilm
Games’ graphic adventure had made it to the ST with style,
coming away with an overall rating of 92%. “A hilarious
storyline, strong characters and an intriguing setting make it
impossible to fault the gameplay,” wrote Paul Pressley,
“while even the perfect SCUMM control method has been
improved.”
Elf
from Ocean Software was a rarity as it wasn’t a licensed
based title from a movie or arcade. The arcade adventure impressed
Ciaran Brennan who gave it an overall 90%. Hero Quest
was given 91%, Pro Tennis Tour 2
rated 90%, while the 3D Construction
Kit
was rated 93%.
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