#004 07 января 1987

Lookout

1. Outlines

CHRISTMAS CHARITY COMPILATION. 
Proceeds from 'BACK PACK' (`9.9) to the NSPCC. The tape has:XENO, NIGHT GUNNER,MARSPORT,METABOLIS, MONTY ON THE RUN, STARION, LUNAR JETMAN, MAELSTROM,STARSTRIKE and BOUNTY BOB STRIKES BACK.

COPYRIGHT BILL- NO CASSETTE LEVY 
This is welcomed by: FEDERATION AGAINST SOFTWARE THEFT(FAST) but the Bill is heavily criticised for its apparent failure to tackle copyright problems posed by Information Technology.

VIRGIN BUY 45% OF MASTERTRONIC 
- that's the subsidiary: Virgin Vision Ltd.

MASTERTRONIC THREATENS GALLUP 
with court action. They claim GALLUP's charts misrepresent their proportion of market sales.

CODE MASTERS DEAL WITH MICRONET 
to produce budget telesoftware. This may be a very significant pointer to the whole future of buying software. Perhaps one day all  software will be bought "down the 'phone line"


2. Outstanders

1.Joe Blade    BMX Simulator.6
2.Renegade          Paperboy.7
3.Exolon       ATV Simulator.8
4.Indiana Jones    Barbarian.9
5.Dizzy      Back to future.10

JOE BLADE   `1.99   PLAYERS 
Addictive. effective, humourous graphics. excellent value. Good fun rescuing 6 hostages thru' dozens of rooms evading guards and bombs.

RENEGADE   `7.95   IMAGINE 
Atmospheric, detailed graphics in a game that is pure street violence. Nicely animated thugs hurt you a lot.

EXOLON   `7.95   HEWSON 
Space-suited hero has to penetrate 100+ levels. Excellent, colourful graphics with addictive gameplay. Lots to hold your interest.

INDIANA JONES   `7.95   US GOLD 
Moderate platform game loosely based on the movie theme of rescuing the children and recovering the Sankara stone.

DIZZY   `1.99   CODEMASTERS 
Cuddly egg seeks magic potion ingredients. Willing to run, jump and generally fall about like a good egg. Nice one. Nice price. Nice egg.

BMX SIMULATOR   `1.99   CODEMASTERS 
POPULAR RACE-TRACK GAME FOR 1 OR 2 PLAYERS. ACTION REPLAY FEATURE. NICELY PRESENTED. MORE SKILL NEEDED THAN AT FIRST APPEARS. GOOD VALUE. (NOT MY CUP OF TEA! - B.C.)

PAPERBOY   `7.95   ELITE 
NICELY-PROGRAMMED COIN-OP CONVERSION INVOLVING BIKING ALONG THE PAVEMENT AVOIDING VARIOUS OBSTACLES WHILE SLINGING NEWSPAPERS AT FRONT DOORS. IT'S ACTUALLY BETTER THAN IT SOUNDS.

ATV SIMULATOR   `1.99   CODEMASTERS 
Moderate dune buggy simulation. Not great but some enjoyment to be had.

BARBARIAN   `9.99   PALACE SOFTWARE   
1st Class combat game fought with swords on quality 2-colour background with multi-colour surround. Rated the best "fist" -type game, it takes time to master the many blows, chops, punches and kicks but has satisfying game-play when you do.

BACK TO FUTURE   `1.99   FIREBIRD 
Budget re-release loosely based on the film. No lasting interest.


3. Outview

YOUR SINCLAIR , DEC. ISSUE STREET DATE:11.11.87
P.72 has a special offer of ten 3" discs for `18. P.93 has some compact sprite moving code for you would-be games writers.

CRASH, DEC. ISSUE STREET DATE: 25.11.87
DRILLER gets an extraordinary accolade - "...one of the best games CRASH has EVER seen" - an ecstatic review! There's also aninteresting item on professionaltape duplication. Tech Tips has info on sending printer control codes from a 128K+2.

SINCLAIR USER, DEC. ISSUE STREET DATE:25.11.87
Report of sound bug on the Plus 3 (P.21) & a brief look at      available software (P.60) -     predictably, Tasword, Scrabble &Gauntlet, together with a coupleof 48K game compilations.       Hewson's Helpline explains the  way some screen scrungers work  and how to set the interrupt    vector - giving details of the  various interrupt Modes. (P.108)

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD, DEC. ISSUE STREET DATE: 18.11.87
Could find absolutely nothing for the Spectrum owner this month!

YOUR COMPUTER, DEC. ISSUE STREET DATE: 18.11.87
The comms section: LINE NOISE has an interesting item on a proposed 'Keyline' computer - possibly free like the French Minitel system - to form a vast network directory and retail database. Good advice from p.88 on marketing your adventure games.