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| April
1990
and Sinclair
User —
the longest runnning Sinclair
magazine — showed their love for Rainbow Islands in issue 98
along with Activision's Hammerfist, which both received a
'Sinclair User Classic' award with overall ratings of 94 and 92
respectively. Editor Jim Douglas described Rainbow Islands as
a "truly excellent conversion of an "unconvertible coin-op." Deputy
Editor Garth Sumpter summed up Hammerfist by saying that "all
the magical ingredients of a great game cooked to perfection. A feast
for arcade fans." Other games that just missed out on the award were E-Motion
and Zombi, with ratings of 89 and 87. 'The MegaTape' on the
cover included a playable demo of Hammerfist, along with Room
Ten, Amaurote and Brat Attack. The Coin-op
show looked at Sega's Rough Racer, Tsatsumi's Round Up 5,
SNK's
Beast Busters, Namco's Marvel Land,
Konami's
Aliens,
Taito's Cadash and Sega's Super Masters. |
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Your
Sinclair
moved from London to Bath as Future Publishing had successfully
purchased the magazine from Dennis Publishing, and, according to issue
52's news section of YS, it was all just a misunderstanding.
Apparently, Future had phoned up asking about purchasing a Sinclair C5
and came away with YS and the editor for the bargain price of
£180.00. On the covertape was the
complete Dizzy game and a demo of Lords
of
Chaos. Inside the issue was a feature on
the SAM Coupe disk drive launch with a review of the add-on, while the
Spectrum chart was topped by Gazza's Super Soccer from
Empire. 'Your Sinclair Megagame' awards were given to Rainbow
Islands (Ocean Software) and Fighter Bomber (Activision)
with overall scores of 94 and 92 respectively. Editor Matt Bielby
proclaimed that Rainbow Islands is "bloomin' brill!" and you
should "go and buy it, you won't regret it!" |
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Crash
issue 75 also
had a jam packed covertape to compete in the Covertape Wars, including Master
Blaster from Cybadyne, Karyssia - Part II from
Incentive, Breakpoint from Airline and Rockfall
from Powertape. The SAM Coup got a look at as Franco Frey test-drives
the Coup's new disk drive. 'Crash Smash' games reviews included Hammerfist
from Activision with 95% and Rainbow Islands from Ocean
Software with 94%.
Robin Candy hosted the 1989 Crash Readers' Awards Ceremony. 'Best
Overall Game' went to Ocean Software's Batman - The Movie.
'Best Coin-op Conversion' was won by The New Zealand Story,
again courtesy of Ocean Software. 'Best Non-coin-op Licence' was won by
The Untouchables by Ocean
Software.
'Best Original Game' |
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| went
to
Carrier Command by
Rainbird. 'Best Adventure' went to Myth by Magnetic Scrolls.
'Best Strategy' went to Times of Lore from Origin. 'Best
Graphics' went to Operation Thunderbolt by Ocean Software.
'Best Sound' went to Ghouls 'n Ghosts by US Gold. 'Best
Software House' was, unsurprisingly, won by Ocean Software. 'Best
Advertisement' went to Ocean Software for Cabal. 'Best Budget
Game' was won by Treasure Island Dizzy 3 from Code Masters.
'Best Newcomer' went to the Sam Coupe. And finally, 'Most Disappointing
Product' went to the Sinclair Magnum Light Gun. |
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YC,
formerly Your
Commodore before turning into a dedicated C64/128 magazine,
featured some random content at the best of times. Issue 67 was no
exception. On the covertape were complete software Cellrator, Blastball
and 3into1 Plus. 'Featuroonies' included 'Could You Be A PR
Girlie/Geezer?', 'VDUs - The Truth', 'Cabbages and Kings' (a profile of
Audiogenic) and 'Central 64'. The games reviews section was pretty
sparse of high rated efforts this month, with only CRL's Search
For The Titanic achieving 'YC Fun *1' status with 86%. The Neon
Zone section reported on the latest arcade games, including the likes
of R-Type II, Gradius III, Klax, Badlands,
Truxion, Fire Shark, World
Grand
Prix, Line of Fire and Beast Busters. |
Issue 60
of Zzap!64 Amiga
announced the (attempted?) "murder" of the editor by the Scorelord (the
mysterious overlord of the High Score and Challenges pages), resulting
in the hospitalization of Stuart Wynne for several months. In reality,
this meant that Stuart would offer review comments under the Scorelord
pen name for the next few issues, before his return as editor.
Elsewhere, the Zzap! Challenge made a return as reader Andrew
Roberts narrowly lost out to resident Zzap! staffer Robin
Hogg on the game Snare. To catch up on the progress with the
arcade conversion of Shadow Warriors, Robin Hogg visited the
development team of Teque.
It was a busy month at for games reviews at Zzap! Towers with one 'Gold
Medal' and six 'Sizzler's awarded. Midwinter on the Amiga
received an
overall 97% rating from |
|
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| Robin
Hogg
and
Phil
King,
receiving
the
'Gold
Medal'.
Ferrari Formula One
by Electronic Arts for the C64 picked up a 'Sizzler' award with 95%. Pipe
Mania by Empire was reviewed on both C64 and Amiga with both
versions getting a 94%. Crackdown (from US Gold) and Warhead
(from Activision), both for the Amiga, received 90% each. |
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Amstrad Computer User
was the Amstrad CPC's official magazine. The April 1990 issue included
the usual mix of technical and games content. Audiogenic were profiled
as ACU's Deputy Editor, Chris Knight, visited the development
team. X-Out received the cover review treatment as Adrian
Pumphrey gave the game a glowing write up: "For sheer blastability you
will have to look hard and long to beat this game." Laser Squad
also got a belated review with a smilie grin as an overall rating. The
Amstrad CPC game topping the charts in April 1990: Batman - the
Movie. |
Amstrad
Action
issue 52's news section revealed plans for an Amstrad console plus
enhanced CPC computers. The Action Test section contained a review of Myth:
History
in
the
Making, which got a coveted 'AA Mastergame'
accolade (games rated 90%+) with a great 94% rating from Trenton Webb
with enthusiastic appraisal: "as an arcade adventure, Myth is
unsurpassed. It has depth and cunning gameplay, subtly blending
joystick speed with grey matter power to a near perfect degree." 'AA
Raves' (games rated 80-89%) were handed out to Fiendish Freddy's
Big Top O'Fun and Rainbow Islands, both scoring overall
ratings of 88%.
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There
weren't many high rated games in issue 7 of Amiga Action,
with
the
only
game
coming
close
to
an
award
was F-29 Retaliator
from Ocean which got an 84% rating. Dinamic's After the War's
final rating was blank — it appeared that there had been a mistake in
the design of the page. Other games that fell just short of
recommendation were Bloodwych Data Disk (77%), Conqueror
(76%), Cabal (74%) and Super Cars (74%). Elsewhere
in the issue was a feature which looked at the future of graphics. |
CU
Amiga featured a
healthy dose of technical and gaming content. The April 1990 issue
handed out three 'CU Super Star' awards for ratings of 93% or over. Infestation
from Psygnosis got a 94% rating from reviewer Tony Dillon who said that
"Infestation is an incredible game. I'd even go far as to say
it's a game that every Amiga owner should have. And every ST owner too.
Truly a top-notch release." Player Manager from Anco — which
was based on the successful Kick Off engine — got 94% and Tower
of
Babel from Rainbird got 93%. Five games picked up the 'CU
Screen Star' award for ratings of 85%-92%: Hammerfist from
Activision with 88%, Ninja Spirit from Activision with 87%, 688
Atttack
Sub from Electronic Arts with 86%, Sherman M4
from US Gold with 86% and Crackdown from US Gold with 85%.
The Arcades section looked at T&J from Jaleco — an early
version of Rod-Land — and a Robocop pinball
table.
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While Amiga Format covered all aspects of Commodore's 16-bit
computer with features on multimedia and programming, but it also had
good coverage of gaming. On issue 9's coverdisk was a demo of Empire's
Pipe Mania along with various utilities and programs. 'Amiga Format
Gold' awards (for games rated 90%+) were handed out to Dragons Breath
(Palace Software) with 94%, Conqueror (Rainbow Arts) with 93% and
Knights of the Crystallion (US Gold) with 91%.
|
Just like Future Publishing
stable mate Amiga Format, ST Format covered both
the serious and games side of their respective machine; in this case,
the Atari ST. The main feature looked at scanners on the ST, while on
the coverdisk were demos of Conqueror, Pipe Mania
and Canvas. 'ST Format Gold' awards (90%+) were given out to
Rainbow Arts' Conqueror, with a 91% overall rating,
Microprose's Midwinter, which got a massive 96% overall
rating, and Ocean's Rainbow Islands, which got 93%.
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ST Action was the world's only
dedicated games magazine for the Atari ST, often having many game
reviews and features, and issue 24 was no exception — there was a
mammoth list of ST games up for review. The best of the bunch included E-Motion,
which
got
an
overall
rating
of
82%,
and
Pipe Mania, which got
85%. The coverdisk was a Special Feature version with playable demos of
Psygnosis' It Can't Be Done, Logotron's Kid Gloves
and Ocean Software's The Lost Patrol. |
| S
-
The
Sega
magazine (later renamed Sega Power) hit the
newsstands for the first time with issue 5, having been previously
available to subscribers only. S was the UK's first magazine
to be dedicated to console gaming - up to a year before Mean
Machines came along - and was even a Master System only magazine
until the Mega Drive and Game Gear came along later on that year. With
only 36 pages, the editorial team of Steve Jarratt, Tony Takoushi and
Tim Smith crammed as much as they could in there. In the news pages was
an announcement that Sega of America were working on a Sega handheld
codenamed the Micro Drive. There were a handful of reviews in this
issue with three news games rated and three older games given the "Past
Master" treatment. out of the latest games released the light gun game Assault
City was rated 69%, |
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| RC
Grand Prix rated 55%
and Slap
Shot, "One of the better team sport simulations, with loads of
hotly-paced action and some joystick-busting gameplay" was rated 80%.
The Reader's Top 10 was published in the letters pages, with R-Type
coming top, followed by Wonder Boy III and Shinobi...
The
Made
in
England
feature
looked
at
Gauntlet and Impossible
Mission with an interview with US Gold. The arcades pages looked
at Line of Fire. |
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Computer
& Video Games got their April 1990
games reviews off to a flyer as Paul Rand awarded a 96% rating and a
'C+VG HIT!' to Origin's Space Rogue. "For depth of gameplay,"
concludes Paul, "I think Space Rogue knocks spots of Braben's
all time great [Elite]." Other 'C+VG HITS!' included E-Motion
from US Gold on the Amiga, PC, Atari ST and Amstrad CPC, with ratings
of 95% for the 16-bit versions, 92% for the Amstrad and 89% for the
Spectrum. Usually reserved for 85% and above rated games, Cyberball
got one of the awards despite only getting 80% and 84% for the Amiga
and Spectrum. Ubi Soft's horrorfest Zombi garnered 93% and
92% ratings for the Spectrum and PC versions. Other 'HIT!' rated games
included Manchester United from Krisalis on the Amiga (95%), Vendetta
from System 3 for the C64 (93%), TV Sports Basketball from
Mirrorsoft on the Amiga (91%), Knights of the Crystallion |
on
the
Amiga
by
US
Gold
(85%)
and
Warhead on the Amiga by Motion
Picture House (85%).
Elsewhere in the issue, the Arcade Action section featured reviews of World
Grand
Prix from Taito, which got a 90% rating, Gradius III
from Konami with an 80% rating and Round Up Five with 83%.
The Mean Machines section took a look at Golden Axe from Sega
on the Mega Drive, which got 95%, and Slap Shot from Sega on
the Master System picked up 85%. The monthly Gallup all formats top 20
was published with Paperboy knocking Chase H.Q.
from the top spot. Code Masters' Fantasy World Dizzy entered
at number 3. |
| For
issue
31
of
ACE, they travelled to Austin, Texas
to get an
exclusive update on the upcoming Ultima VI. The Skywalker
Ranch was also invaded by the ACE team as Lucasfilm Games
were interviewed. If you have ever read an issue of ACE then
you will know that they had quite a unique rating system where they
awarded games out of 1000, rather than the popularized percentage
standard. Reviews this month included Knights of Legend on
the PC from Origin/Mindscape which scored a 945 rating, Gravity
on the Atari ST from Image Works which was rated 930, Player
Manager on the Atari ST from Anco got 920, Vendetta on
the C64 courtesy of System 3 got 912 and Pipe Mania on the
Amiga and Atari ST from Entertainment International both got 910. |
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The
Games
Machine's issue 29
featured the duo popstar pairing of Bros. TGM asked "So, you
want to be a popstar?" as they had the quick hit guide to topping the
charts. Other Entertainment features included Super Grafx (NEC's follow
up the the PC Engine), Digitising, CD creations and more.
Activision's Hammerfist lead the way for the 'Star Player'
awards as the C64 version pips the other versions (Amiga 93% and
Spectrum 92%) in the ratings, with Mark Caswell giving the game 94%
stating that "if this is what happens when a bunch of programmers get
together, think up ideas and program away to perfection without any
deadlines, then I hope this is the thinking of the nineties." The
review also included a brief summary of the unfinished Konix Multi
System version. E-Motion, from US Gold, was given 90% on both
the Amiga and Atari ST versions. The month's |
favourite
game
across
the
magazines,
Rainbow Islands was rated 92% on the Atari
ST. Crackdown
on the Atari ST, courtesy of US Gold, was given 90%, and Warhead,
from
Activision,
on
the
Amiga
was
also
awarded
90%.
|
The One For 16-Bit Games
issue 19 featured an Arcades section with Eugen Lacey reporting on Aliens
and T&J. Kati Hamza presented a complete history of
pinball tables, including those computer versions and Gary Whitta
talked to Atari Games. The highest rated games of the month included Castle
Master for the Atari ST from Incentive with 90% and Klax
on the Amiga from Domark which got an overall rating of 93%. |
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Issue 6 of Zero
kicked off with in style with a feature on Artistic Licensing as John
Minson went on location with the making of the Back to the Future
part II game detailing the process of developing a movie licence,
from inception to release, with hilarious consequences. David Wilson
handed out a 'Zero Hero' award (rated 90+) to US Gold's Knights of
the Crystallion with a 91%, while describing the game as "a huge
involved fantasy adventure offering atmospheric graphics and sound with
gameplay intricately crafted with enthusiasm." A 'Zero Console Classic'
award was given to Sega's Mega Drive conversion of their own Golden
Axe arcade hit with an overall 94% rating. Blood Money
from Psygnosis also got a 'Zero Hero' award with 90%, and Dracula
on the Game Boy got a 'Zero Console Classic' with 90%. |
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