| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ THUNDER ZONE (c) FIREBIRD ★ |
Amstrad Computer User |
Firebird treads dangerous ground with its latest cheapie, Thunderzone. This spaceborne give-'em-hell has the standard enemy saucers to laser, but the evil aliens are called (lets whisper it) Zircons. Earthlings of the Guardian-reading persuasion will remember the case where the Duncan Campbell Being came under no little flak for mentioning a satellite of the same name in a (subsequently impounded) TV programme. Since then, the merest whisper of Z**c*n is rumoured to bring burly uniforms down from great heights to protect National Security. But Firebird is made of stern stuff, and now you the player can aim lasers at aptly named chunks of space hardware. Chuckle. The story goes that a vital mining settlement on Flavius V (hmmmm...) is under attack, and you the hero are sent up in your space fighter to marmalise the Zirconians. From your pilot's seat in your craft the view is a bit too clear for comfort. In the big screen, those Zircon satellites swirl and shoot. Below that, there are various icons showing the state of the shipborne weapon systems. These show the sector status (how many nasties infest your area), damage level (guess...), compass settings, power level, speed, what sort of weapon is currently ranged against the forces of Zed, and the repair droid. All important things to bear in mind as you veer from vector to vector in battle against them the aliens. As is common in spacefighters, the entire shooting match is controlled from a late-twentieth century invention, the computer joystick. First noted in the mid-seventies attached to a Space Invader machine, this control mechanism has evolved until it can handle a complete craft. In this case, pushing the stick forwards accelerates the ship, movement to either side changes the compass setting (and thus the direction of thrust), and pulling back switches the control icon. The control icon shows which aspect of ship functionality is activated by the final control on the joystick, the fire butt-on. If the laser is selected, the fire button causes megawatts of photonic death to leap towards anything that has the misfortune to be flying directly in front of the ship. A couple of backward tugs on the stick engages the scoop. This interesting machine reaches out from the craft to pick up any energy packs that might be floating around at the appropriate locus in space. These help repair and refuel all the ship systems. The scoop can also make a mess of aliens, which is all to the good. If things get too sticky, the control icon changes colour as it passes under the systems in trouble. This is usually an indication that it might be a good time to employ that repair droid. There are lots of sectors to clear of the Zircon menace. Each must be completely free of the invaders before you go on to the next, or they'll take advantage of your absence to replicate themselves and you'll be no better off than before. It's no good wiping out 99 per cent of household evildoers, it has to be 100 per cent or nothing. So go for it! ACU #8707
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Page créée en 473 millisecondes et consultée 2061 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
