April 2018 Issue 21 PLUS CLONE WARS Get a Brazilian.. Includes material MIND YOUR LANGUAGE not in the video Continued programming show! feature CONTENTS 16. CLONE WARS The Brazilian clones explored. 22. MIND YOUR LANGUAGE 12. OMNI 128HQ Spectrum languages. A new Speccy arrives. FEATURES GAME REVIEWS 4 News from 1987 Knight Lore 6 Find out what was happening back in 1987. Elixir Vitae 8 12 Isometric Games Grand Prix Championship 9 Knightlore and more. Viagem ao Centro da terra 14 16 Clone Wars Exploration of the Brazilian clones. Kung Fu Knights 20 24 Mind Your Language Sewer Rage 21 More languages from George. Dominator 22 32 Play Blackpool Report from the recent event. Spectres 23 36 Vega Games Wanted: Monty Mole 30 Games without instructions on the Vega. 3D Tunnel 31 38 Grumpy Ogre Retro adventuring and championship moaning. Gauntlet 34 42 Omni 128HQ Laptop A new Spectrum arrives. And more…. Page 2 www.thespectrumshow.co.uk EDITORIAL elcome to issue 21 and thank you W I was working on several things at the for taking the time to download and same time on two different comput- read it. ers. I was doing some video editing on As series seven of The Spectrum Show my main PC and at the same time checking emails and researching fu- comes to an end with a mammoth end say, I am impressed with it. It’s a Har- ture features on my little Macbook Air. of series special, the next series is al- lequin (Spectrum modern clone) main ready well underway in the planning Strangely, both required an update, so board fitted inside a new 48K style stages. The first episode will have gone I dutifully clicked OK and both ma- case and includes twin card slots, live by the time you read this. chines began to download the files. HDMI out option, twin joystick ports, NMI button, reset button and RGB out. Yes, it’s a never-ending planning, The Macbook, once started, took Certainly a lot of features, and it even writing, reviewing, filming and editing about 15 minutes to update, the PC has a standard expansion slot. fest that keeps me off the streets. Not slightly less. As both machines were enough that it stops me going to now tied up, and after making a cup of I was sent the laptop version, but will events, and the recent Play Blackpool tea, I was left with only one option— be looking to buy the desktop version was a great day out. the Spectrum. (without the screen) as soon as it be- comes available. Sadly I couldn’t stay for both days, I quickly turned it on, press the file which meant I missed a few talks that I browse button on the Smart Card, and A full review of this wonderful device really wanted to see, mainly the I was playing Deathchase in seconds. can be found on page 42. YouTubers panel talk. My Spectrum never nags me to up- I am already looking forward to the date, never needs new drivers, never next event in the year’s calendar, Ret- needs security updates, it just plays Play Manchester Off ro Revival in Birmingham. I will, as usu- games. al, be reporting on it in the show and Yes I know things are much more com- in the pages f this magazine. plex now, but even the latest consoles Something I feel passionate about is often have over 1gb updates to install! the 16K games section, and I really want to show people just what a hum- New Spectrum ble 16k Spectrum can do. Recent pur- chases (thanks to Patreon) mean I In case you missed it, the Play Man- have enough 16lk games to use for the chester event for this year is cancelled. whole of Series eight. Strangely, my all They are instead, adding an extra time favourite game Jetpac, which is a event at Blackpool in October. 16K game, has yet to feature in that section - maybe this series! A quick, big, huge and massive THANK YOU must go to my Patreon support- Fancy writing a game ers here. You guys rock. Thank you so Recently I was contacted by ZXrenew much for helping the show. and offered a new Spectrum to try review or out; the Omni128HQ. I was looking to Recently I was reminded of why I love special feature? purchase one of these anyway, but the Spectrum so much, and it was for a I am always looking for new content took up the offer to try it out. very obvious, yet often forgotten rea- and all contributions are welcome. son. It arrived soon afterwards, and I must Page 3 www.thespectrumshow.co.uk NEWS - March 1987 PLUS 3 CHAOS The announcement in February from Amstrad that they intend to release a version of the Plus 2 with a disc drive, has caused a few rip- ples. Older stocks of the 128k Spectrum are being sold off at ever cheaper prices with Dixons dropping their price to an astonishing £89.95. This is for the machine only, without any software packs or joystick, but it’s still a great deal. The Spectrum is still outselling its nearest rival the Commodore 64 by two-to-one according to the newly released Christmas sales figures, and the new +3 machine will hopefully see this continuing. Many magazines have started to speculate just what this new promised machine will look like with Sinclair User printing a really odd looking artists impression. For the real thing though, we shall have to wait a bit longer. GRANGE HILL MICRO LIVE CUT The poplar television show Grange Hill will soon be available The BBC on your Spectrum. The game allows you to control Hollo as commuter he tries to break into school to retrieve his confiscated Walk- show Micro man. Live may be dropped The game will use a menu driven system similar to Knight from the Tyme and there are plenty of other characters to interact schedules. with – at least according to the publisher, Argus. The show This could also be the first game to have a moral message to that covers both home and business computers is currently the player. If you encounter a drug pusher and interact with being discussed by the BBC’s planning team, with no future him in any way the game ends and you have to start all over date for a new series yet announced. again. USG GET INDY LICENCE WRONG UCHI Martech have discovered a problem with their game duplica- US gold have finally tion plant, and as a result, the wrong version of their Judo sealed the deal to game, Uchi Mata has made its way out to the public. This ver- produce a game sion is not the full release, and is in fact an early preview of based on the Indian- the game. an Jones movies. They announced their Martech are asking anyone who purchased this game to intent last summer, without even having the licences, so it’s check that the score returns to zero when you begin a new relief all round that they actually got it. The game should be game. If not, then you can return it and get the full version ready to play in about another year. free of charge. Page 4 www.thespectrumshow.co.uk Page 5 www.thespectrumshow.co.uk GAME REVIEWS Ultimate Play The Game started a You head for Knight Lore castle and This will cause the character to jump trend on the Spectrum in 1983 that is upon finding the wizard, you discover and collect the item at the same time. still used today. That trend is Isomet- you have to collect items to be placed You can hold three items at any given ric games. in a cauldron to cure you, and you time and these are collected and have forty days in which to complete You play Sabreman seeking a cure to dropped in rotation. this. the curse, the curse of being a were- You start the game in one of several wolf. Sabreman can walk, jump and rotate, locations and using a map, or as well as push objects and collect memory, you will know where the them. You have to master cauldron is. Entering this room and these controls to have any watching the bubbles in the cauldron hope of making progress will indicate which item to add next past the first few rooms. and off you go. You need to collect 14 One special move that is key items to compete the game and this is to this game, is the jump / a tough challenge. collect trick. This allows the Many rooms are difficult to navigate player to jump over things and it takes a lot of practice to get they normally cannot jump them right. Many rooms are puzzles in over, or reach ledges usually themselves with movable blocks, col- un-reachable. lapsing blocks and chasing enemies. The trick is to drop an item, Some rooms require objects such as Jump on top of it, arrange tables to be moved into the right your inventory to leave an place, but if you get it wrong, you can empty space and press the exit and re-enter the room to reset jump and collect keys simul- the layout. taneously. Page 6 www.thespectrumshow.co.uk Sound is used well throughout, and control is responsive with different control options. As mentioned before, gameplay is tough, even when you master the controls, but this genre defining title must be tried at least once, or maybe a few times if you get on with this style of gameplay.