Games — Deus Ex Machina, Grumpy, Monty Mole, Tapper, Skool Daze and Back to Skool

DAYS GONE! — FEATURE

This is the second part of our feature on the Speccy. This month we look at some of the best ever Speccy games.

It wouldn't be fair to rate the games in order of merit (1–100 for example), but, in true 'SN' style, we will do it anyway. Ha!

One of my favourite games has to be the amazing DEUS EX MACHINA, about 10 years old now but still brilliant. For those who havn't played it, it had an audio tape which you played along side of the game and the tape interacted with the screen. Great stuff, it even featured the late Frankie Howerd. A comic genius.

Other fine examples were the games from GREMLIN, such as Grumpy, Monty Mole, Sam Stoat to name a few. All these games featured brilliant colour graphics and hardly if no colour clash.

Another classic was U.S GOLD'S Tapper. Although it featured possibly the most annoying sound track ever, it still managed to capture our hearts.

Not to mention those timeless classics like Skool Daze and Back to Skool. Never seen on the Amiga, and still as good as any 16bit effort for playability.

As many years passed, more and more film licenses were released and sadly quite a large number of them were crap! Take the Running Man for example. However, there were still some good ones. Oceans ROBOCOP stayed at the top of the charts of months! And who couldn't resist CHASE H.Q, possibly the best version released was on the humble Spectrum.

Do you remember some of the turkeys released? U.S GOLD's 'THE DEEP' was a clasic... Other wasted efforts included Virgins comic license 'VIZ', nice graphics and sound, shame about the swearing and where was the game? Who knows....

Another good game was Jason's Jem. Released by Mastertronic way back in 1986. VERY simple graphics and sound, but VERY playable and enjoyable. Mind you, I found one of the caves to be a little frustrating at times.

This month's top 5

(In no order....)

1. Dark Star. (HOW FAST ?!)
2. Deus Ex Machina. (CLASSIC!)
3. Chase Hq. (VROOM VROOM!)
4. Eric & the Floaters. (CUTE.)
5. Deathchase. (CRUNCH!)

Next month we will be going into more depth, but only if you send us your opinions. See you then.

Artists, do you want to see you SCREEN$ in 'Sinclair News'? Each month, we will publish the very best picture we recieve. Each winner will recieve a special pack of PD software. Send all art work on tape or disc to the usual address.

A point of interest...

You may notice the 'odd' number laying about the place. This is not my fault, but my +3's. It has this nasty habit of leaving numbers laying around when I use my cursors. SORRY!

A LITTLE POINT

If we rate anything over 40% then its worth having. Anything below 40 and above 30 is a bit dodgy, but anything below 30 is a total washout! If you want any of these fine programs, drop me a line at the usual address.

NEWS: A new 'TMG' demo is to be released soon. As yet, we havn't received our copy but as soon as we get it, we'll tell you all about it. PD software creator 'Neon Grafix' have created a REDDWARF demo. It costs only 20p, ask for it when ordering if you want it. It cannot not be found in any of the PD packs.

Well, basically that's it for this month. Next month more reviews etc. See you then.....