thout destroying the
cities already there is to send a single pilot in an armoured Gal-Corp
skimmer to the planet's surface to shut-down the central reactor

This was indeed an ambitious piece of software for the time.

You move your skimmer (that can dock with some of these buildings) looking
for parts to shut down the reactor. Cities can be travelled to by a "jump pad", making trips shorter. The game is displayed in a 3D view looking out
as if you were sitting in the skimmer. The 3D landscape features simple shadows to show the day and night cycle of Tau Ceti III.

Cities with robot defences consist of laser towers, Hunter ships, and slowly-moving mines. Your skimmer is armed with lasers, missiles, and the customary shield. Once gone the skimmer will then take damage and on-board systems will start to fail. The buildings destroyed in the game are permanently destroyed, but mobile defences are renewed as the player leaves
the city.

Your skimmer also has a scanner in order to detect buildings and of course, what skimmer could be seen without a compass to aid navigation. To cope
with Tau Ceti III's frequent hours of darkness, the skimmer has a rather
natty infra-red display system.

The game is mostly action-based but also futures text-input parts such as,
for example, when the skimmer docks, or it lands on planet's surface. You
just use simple words: the best of these is probably "HELP", which tells
you all the commands you can use!

Your mission, as stated, is to shut down the central reactor by locating
the forty pieces of the reactor cooling rods and assemble them into twenty complete rods. These are inserted into the reactor and will shut it down.

It even managed a ZAP64 score of 93%

SCORES

Graphics: 7/10
wireframe but with shadows
Sounds: 5/10
Gameplay: 7/10
can get very involved
Overall: 7/10
sadly, it's aged a little over the
years (the C64 version seems slow
and jerky)

COMMENTS

Sadly, it looks a little dated nowadays. The Amiga version is still silky-smooth, with things scrolling around like they are pulled about on
roller skates. The c64 version is a little clunky and jittery, and
although still a good game, time hasn't been good to the game - but it
still manages a respectable score. If you like games like Elite you will
love this. I remember reading that in the C64 version there was a bug
making the game impossible to finish as some of the rods couldn't be
collected! I think the Amstrad and Spectrum versions had better graphics
but hey! I cant really say that in a C64 magazine, can I?


*************************************
REVIEW: TUBULAR BELLS
By Commodore Free
*************************************

This is, as the cassette says, "a combination of music and kinetic
interactive chromo-visual designs."

Set to the SID renditions of Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells, this
visual and audio experience (as we can't really call it a game) is an interactive experience into light and sound. If you have ever played with
Jeff Minter's Psychedelia, you get the idea of what is about to happen
during the main part of this application.

Once loaded, pressing the space starts the erm... experience, with the
first track on the Tubular Bells album blasting out of the SID chip, and a
set of what looks like parallel lines flying around the screen at high
speed. If you press the space bar again the music changes and is another
part of the Tubular Bells rendition from the album.

The lines bounce around the screen and back onto themselves. You can't
control direction, but can alter symmetry of the lines and the length of
the line's tail and colours. There is an option to toggle between Line and Laser mode; this is fast-moving dots that leave trails...

You have four types of symmetry at your command -- they range from none at
all, to...

horizontal mirror image...

vertical mirror image...

or a combination of both mirror images,

SCORES

Sounds: 6.5
SID can do better but it's a nice
version
Graphics: 5.0
Psychedelia is definitely better
Gameplay: 5.0
Well it's more "lastability" or
enjoyment
Overall: 6.0
It's a wonderful idea

SUMMARY

An interesting idea... a sort of interactive album, very advanced for its time, but for sheer colour-twiddling fun, Jeff Minter's Psychedelia wins
it.


*************************************
REVIEW: INNER SPACE
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Released back in 1989 by the CRL group under the title of "interactive"
this game is set in deep space, and for some reason I have the disk, but no sleeve cover or instructions. Maybe I bought it at a swap meeting or something. Anyway, this is a multi-load, horizontal-scrolling, shoot'em-up featuring 9 waves of action with 130 different alien types. Although it
can't in any way be classed as an original game, its origins seem to lie
with Delta and Sanxion. It does feature some really nice graphics,
animation, and amazing parallax scrolling. These features lift the game
from what the Zap 64 review of the time rated the game (with an overall of
44% this is surely a mistake). You clear a wave to get an energy item; however, failing to clear a wave sees you lose the item. You can gain
things like smart bomb, lose a life?, shields, speed-ups, etc.

The game seems to feature some demo-style effects, like when you loose all
your lives, and wavey texts and bouncing sprites, however these look a
little dated by today's standards.

You lose energy if you miss an alien, and at the end of each level the
guard indicator informs you how many aliens will try to kill you. Toward
the base of the screen there are 8 icons showing all the available weapons.
If any weapon is flashing, it means you will soon collect it. To select
the weapon you must press the space bar.

Finally, after nine levels you battle (what I think is) a giant squid. It takes some time to kill the beast, then the level (and game) ends, and you
are shown a congratulations screen. The text on the screen explains how
Harry has at last found peace away from his war-stricken world and now
lives north of Reading. You're also given the option to restart the game.
It's a bit of a rubbish finish really, and I scored the game down for this.

To control the ship you use a joystick in port 2. You can move the
spaceship up, down, left, and right - and as suspected, pressing the fire button will shoot. Hitting the space bar lets you select the weapon.

SCORES

Graphics: 7/10
nice animations and scrolling
Music: 6.5/10
nice music and in-game effects
Gameplay: 6/10
it's OK but repetitive
Overall: 6.5/10
not original, and the ending sort
of kills the last ability

SUMMARY

Way better than the Zap score suggests. Some of the in-game graphics
scrolling and effects are great, it doesn't look too dated, and has been
coded to a high standard. It's enjoyable to play; however, the aliens'
attack formations become predictable and the ending sort of kills how long
you would stick with the game. I would prefer it just looping.


*************************************
REVIEW: DRACULA
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Dracula is a rather scary 95% text adventure released for the Commodore 64
by CRL in 1986. It was the very first of a series of themed horror
adventures from CRL, including the likes of Frankenstein and The Wolfman (Dracula follows Bram Stoker's novel). The text adventure has been interspersed with blood-curdling digitised images displayed when the player meets a gruesome end. The player is further treated to a SID chip
rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. At the time the game was sent to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) for review, and it was the first game in the UK to ever receive a 15 certificate. The censorship certificate on the sale of the game was supposed to be enforced by law.
Not only that, but it was also very expensive for CRL to

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