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Sinclair Research raids the archives. John Gilbert watches with interest ...
THOSE SQUEAKY clean marketing types at Sinclair Research still stick to the idea that the company's range of Spectrum software is top quality. I wouldn't agree, but the company is scoring points with its QL software.
The company started by badging QL utilities such as the Macro Assembler from GST, and QL Paint from Talent. Now, in line with the drop in price of the QL, Sinclair has decided that arcade style games will be popular with QL users.
Two of its latest releases rely on old arcade games themes - Centipede and levels and ladders. They are, however, more complex than your average golden oldie.
Hunt the bugs in that great symbiotic system called outer space. You are an antibiotic armed with bug-busting missiles.
The first frames of the game bare a striking resemblance to that old arcade classic Centipede. The only difference is that you're stuck in the middle of the screen and you can only move across - not up or down. Those initial screens are a bad advertisement for the game which, if you don't persevere, will probably end up in the bin.
Once past the first four screens your spaceship is freed and you have to defend yourself against a cascading host of multi-coloured aliens. I notched up a respectable score of 15010 when the game plot changed, and once again I was in trouble.
The screen resembles a penny waterfall at a fairground with a stack of slanted runs down which the aliens roll. Their mission is to reach the rockets at the bottom of the screen and set them off to destroy one of your four lives.
Once past this phase things become easier. You still have to fight on the falls but this time the aliens are easier to kill as they are not confined to the shutes. I managed to get to level nine of 26 and, according to Sinclair, there are several other scenarios within this game of intergalactic pest control.
QL Jabber is a colourful and innovative game with a boring start. However, you can play it in two ways - for points or for levels of advancement. An option on the program's initial menu allows you to continue a game from where you left off after dying. You can use your four lives just to gain one level and then try a new level the next time around.
Alternatively, you can play for points and that means staying alive and hitting as many bugs as you can. Each type of bug has a score assigned to it. The highest scoring bug is Rabies and the lowest an Antibody, which you should not shoot. In between we have Straphylococcus weighing in at 100 points, Streptococcus at 50 points and E. Coli at a mere 150 points.
All bugs are dangerous, but in later screens one bug will be transformed into something else when you hit it with a missile. Some transmute into falling stars while others turn red and yellow and follow you until they get you or are destroyed.
Arrakis, the company which wrote the game for Sinclair Research, is a name to look out for when deciding which future releases to buy. Hopefully it will continue to produce arcade games of such a high calibre.
Many of you may find QL Jabber easy to play. You have substantial freedom of movement and your laser weapons are devastating even on the higher levels of the game.
If you're not interested in arcade games with space as their backdrop, then underground capers in levels and ladders land could be for you. The second of Sinclair's latest releases takes the levels and ladders concept way beyond any plot that arcade game planners could have dreamed up in the early 1980s.
Levels and ladders games seem to be popular with the software division at Sinclair Research; let's hope you will be equally enamoured.
The game is addictive, if repetitive. Your levels have been infested with beings from another universe. There are four types of alien - Nebulons, Gastroids, Bipods, Quboids - and you must kill off each type in order to reach the next screen.
You can kill Nebulons easily by digging holes to trap them - when they fall in, hit them on the head with your pneumatic hammer and they'll die. If you fail to kill a Nebulon it will crawl out of the hole and turn into a Gastroid. Those creatures - which have to be faced when you've finished off the Nebulons - only die if they fall through two platforms; you will need to dig two holes, one under the other.
If you don't manage to kill a Gastroid it turns into a Bipod and has to tumble through three platforms before it dies. They change into Quboids - the most deadly creatures in the game - and can only be killed if they fall down four holes. Got it?
To keep the levels clean you will need to sustain your energy by eating fried chicken, and air which you collect from air bottles. Air and food balances are shown on the screen together with the number of lives left. If any of those readouts reach zero you'll have to start again.
The first two screens are easy and straightforward. One technique is to dig holes by the most important ladders in the bottom half of the screen and the monsters will fall into your lap. Once you get to the third level, however, the creatures become more intelligent and the speed at which they move makes them difficult to pin down or avoid, especially if you're on a ladder.
QL Quboids is certainly one of the better levels and ladders games but is restricting in the skills you need to develop. Once you know where to put the holes the creatures will fall quite happily into the traps you've laid.
Despite that minor criticism QL Quboids is an addictive romp which sports some classic arcade style graphics. Sinclair has also managed to keep the price down, so you should be able to play it without breaking the bank.
If Sinclair Research thinks it can lose its old reputation for second rate Spectrum software it would be wrong. However, the company is building a new reputation for good quality QL software as well as a lively marketing attitude for both the QL and Spectrum machines.
The company has shown that it can pick and market the best in utilities and business packages. Now it is showing that it knows the games business.
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