ZX Joystick - ACE: Flight Simulator Review and Controls

ZX Joystick: Game Reviews (1)

ACE <10/10>

According to SINCLAIR USER magazine, as of 1986 this flight simulator was the best program released by CASCADE GAMES LTD.

The original cassette version of the program is protected. The program starts only after you enter a certain code. You can bypass this by omitting the BASIC and the first machine-code part. To load and start the main part, enter:

CLEAR 26999:LOAD CODE:
RANDOMIZE USR 30000

The controls are as follows:

1 or E — left
2 or R — right
3 or W — up
4 or S — down
5 or X — fire
ENTER  — select weapon
Q      — exit the program
U      — raise and lower the landing gear
Y      — pause
M      — map
CAPS   — decrease engine power
Z      — increase engine power

Press any key to bring up the main menu:

1) START GAME
2) GAME LEVEL (1–9), 1 = practice
3) a) SINGLE-SEATER (one player pilots and fires)
   b) TWO-SEATER (one player pilots, the other fires)
4) FLIGHT CONDITIONS (summer, winter, night, day)
5) LOAD HIGH-SCORE TABLE
6) DISPLAY HIGH-SCORE TABLE

Once you have made your selection, start the game with 1 or 2. You will now see a new menu:

1. Basic armament
2. Anti-aircraft armament
3. More weapons for fighting ground targets
4. More weapons for fighting airborne targets

SCHEMATIC OF THE INSTRUMENT PANEL:

1. AIRCRAFT COMPUTER SCREEN (messages about dangers and the position
   of the aircraft supplying fuel appear here)

2. Weapon indicator
3. Indicator showing the front and rear of our aircraft
4. Radar
5. Direction indicator
6. Landing-gear indicator
7. Score
8. Speedometer
9. Altimeter
10. Fuel gauge
11. Engine thrust (power)

TAKEOFF:

• Increase the engine power (thrust) with [key omitted in source].
• When you reach a speed of about 200 miles, start climbing with [key omitted in source] or [key omitted in source].
• Before your speed exceeds 300 miles, retract the landing gear with [key omitted in source].
• Wait a little until you have left the area around the airport, after which you can fly freely.

You can display a picture of the surroundings (the map) by pressing [key omitted in source]. It also shows the enemy’s position. Your task is to stop its advance and score as many points as possible by destroying it.

Be careful, because the enemy also has aircraft, and if you are not careful you can easily lose your plane.

Your fuel supply will steadily decrease during the flight. You will have to top it up from time to time.

You can do this in two ways: either land at an airport or take fuel from a refuelling aircraft. If your plane is damaged during combat, you must land for repairs. When landing, watch out for the following:

• Descend to about 30 m (100 FEET).
• Lower the landing gear with [key omitted in source].
• Reduce engine power (thrust) almost to the minimum.
• When you reach the airport, press [key omitted in source] or [key omitted in source].
• If your altitude is 0, reduce engine power to minimum.

When the aircraft stops, it will automatically be refuelled and rearmed.

After that, you must choose your weapons again, and you can continue the fight.

Since most programs on the local market are already circulating with their protection cracked, or are protected by the reseller, the suggestion given at the beginning of this review will probably not be useful to you. But if you happen to find an original version of this interesting game and do not have its code, it may come in handy.

B.J.

BENNY <8/8> <DK'TRONICS>

After the game starts, a timer appears in the bottom-left corner of the screen, showing how long you have to complete the task. The score is in the top-right corner. At the first level, the computer counts down from 100.

ZX Joystick: Game Reviews (1)

Fragment 2/2

On the first level, your task is to pick up the laundry, one item at a time, and take it to the room marked CLOTHES. The housewife guarding the laundry and the objects in the street get in your way, so you must be careful not to collide with them. Watch out, because the objects change position in the street.

If you collect the laundry before time runs out, the remaining time is converted into points. On the second level, you must steal apples from a tree and put them in a crate on the other side of the screen. You also have to watch out for an old man with a stick, and while escaping, avoid colliding with the tractor driving through the garden. You must also pay attention to the order in which you pick the apples, because it matters which order you pick them in. Here, the computer counts down from 150.

On the third level, you must steal toys from a toy shop. The timer counts down from 200, and now two guards are in your way. As you progress through the game, it gets harder and harder. Good reflexes and a lot of luck are needed to finish it.

B.J.

BOMB JACK <9/9>

Your task is to collect the bombs on the platforms.

Birds, dragons, and people get in your way. Touching them costs you one life. During the game, if you collect a disk with a letter on it, you can play without the obstacles listed above. A disk with a letter gives you one life. Disks with letters are bonus disks. You also earn bonus points if you destroy activated bombs before they explode. These points are calculated as the bonus points multiplied by 200.

You can also go after bombs while jumping, if walking isn’t enough. You do this by pressing the keys . The POKE for easier gameplay is:

POKE 49984,0 - immortality
POKE 49530,x - where x is the number of lives

B.J.

HELICHOPPER <9/8>

Your task is to land beside the landing pad in the bottom-right corner. Once you have landed, push the helicopter towards the pad. If you succeed, the pad will disappear and a passenger will board the helicopter. You must take them to any floor on the left-hand side. When you reach your destination, your passenger will not leave the aircraft unless the floor you have landed above is white. If it isn’t, wait a little until it turns white, and the passenger will get out of your helicopter.

A second passenger appears where the pad was. Go and pick them up, and the game starts again from the beginning. The number of enemies increases after each passenger you deliver.

You have a limited time to complete the task. The time remaining is shown at the bottom right. The number of people you need to transport is shown in the bottom-left corner of the screen. You destroy enemies with bombs.

The number of points awarded for each object you destroy depends on its colour: 10 points for a blue one, 70 for a white one, and 200 for a flashing one.

You have four lives, and you get an extra life for every four passengers you deliver successfully.

There are 23 levels in total. The graphics are decent. To exit the game, press CAPS SH. and SPACE simultaneously.

Pause the game with CAPS SH. + 1, and resume it with CAPS SHIFT.

B.J.