I eventually finished Starion back in 1985 when Melbourne House sent me the final patch. Unfortunately, although I have a list of all the passwords for all 9 zones in each of the 9 grids in each of the 3 blocks in the game (a total of 9*9*3 = 243 anagrams and 9*3 + 3 + 1 = 31 passwords - there's a copy on WoS) which I sent in to Your Spectrum (who mis-spelled my name in Hack-Free Zone) at the time, I don't have a note of what happened after entering the final game password (STEAMY), and I have no recollection of what happened at the finish either. I may have mentioned it in one of my letters to Melbourne House, copies of which I think I still have somewhere.
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Nope, I've got copies of my Hobbit letters, but I've only got the Melbourne House replies for Starion.
I eventually finished Starion back in 1985 when Melbourne House sent me the final patch. Unfortunately, although I have a list of all the passwords for all 9 zones in each of the 9 grids in each of the 3 blocks in the game (a total of 9*9*3 = 243 anagrams and 9*3 + 3 + 1 = 31 passwords - there's a copy on WoS) which I sent in to Your Spectrum (who mis-spelled my name in Hack-Free Zone) at the time, I don't have a note of what happened after entering the final game password (STEAMY), and I have no recollection of what happened at the finish either. I may have mentioned it in one of my letters to Melbourne House, copies of which I think I still have somewhere.
I can't believe you actually did that. I didn't think you could save your game? Did you actually sleep at any point? :lol:
Quartet. The arcade game was an OK multi-player run-and-gun game. The Speccy version was dreadful.
And Solid Gold - for ?1 less I could have had Gauntlet on its own. Instead I got Gauntlet in a stupidly big box with Leaderboard, Infiltrator, Winter Games and Ace of Aces. What a waste of a quid.
Quartet. The arcade game was an OK multi-player run-and-gun game. The Speccy version was dreadful.
And Solid Gold - for ?1 less I could have had Gauntlet on its own. Instead I got Gauntlet in a stupidly big box with Leaderboard, Infiltrator, Winter Games and Ace of Aces. What a waste of a quid.
I actually likes Quartet... was one of the few games I played with my sister
Quartet. The arcade game was an OK multi-player run-and-gun game. The Speccy version was dreadful.
And Solid Gold - for ?1 less I could have had Gauntlet on its own. Instead I got Gauntlet in a stupidly big box with Leaderboard, Infiltrator, Winter Games and Ace of Aces. What a waste of a quid.
*very quietly*
Did he just... bad mouth Leaderboard? Did he just do that? He didn't do that, did he? DID HE!? WHY I OUGHTA!!!
I can't believe you actually did that. I didn't think you could save your game? Did you actually sleep at any point? :lol:
Starion has no save option, and the Multiface hadn't been invented in 1985, so I had to start again every day. Once a grid has been solved then it can be re-solved much more quickly, as once the first word has been collected the position in the zone sequence for that grid is then known so it can be completed without any wrong choices. I became quite adept at completing a zone quickly with minimum damage. As long as each zone could be completed in a few minutes then all the zones could be completed in a day (24*60 = 1440, and 1440/243 = roughly 6 minutes per zone).
Having got what I thought was a fully working version from Melbourne House I was rather annoyed to find near the end, on entering the only 12-letter anagram in the game, that it crashed. So I had to write to MH again to get the final fix, which was only issued as a type-in patch (earlier bugged versions could be swapped for a new tape if it was returned to MH).
I still can't recall how it finished, but in the instructions it says: "If and when you finally reach 'Event Zero' before the beginning of time (event one), then you become the earliest thing to exist and must by default assume the ultimate title of CREATOR of all that follows.", although I don't actually recall becoming any more God-like than usual at the end. In fact my tenuous recollection is that it just went back to the start, engendering a degree of further annoyance & disappointment which I was destined to experience again two years later upon "finishing" (as far as is possible) Firebird's Sentinel.
I actually likes Quartet... was one of the few games I played with my sister
The sprites were ropey and they tried too hard to put in coloured backgrounds that made your character turn funny colours, or go practically invisible. It would maybe benefit from a ULA+ makeover to separate out some of the visibility problems. Although the character scrolling would still be quite choppy.
I quite liked Starion too. Though the roll controls in Elite feel more 'right' than yawing. But really, in space, you need three axes of rotation, not just the two you get on a standard joystick. You'd need pedals, and then a throttle too (or two joysticks) to really be in control.
I remember being quite disappointed with Double Dragon.
I had played Target Renegade *a lot* in a CPC 6128 and it was a lot of fun. Being quite fond of the arcade version of DD, well... I don't know what I was expecting, but the game didn't deliver :)
Also I had a +2A and I suspect there was something not quite right because I've seen videos of DD gampleay and I remember it being relentlessly slow!
Out Run. :( Big fan of the arcade machine, looked good in the screenshots (even if monochromatic), got it home and takes ages to load, then you have to load each level, and then the game itself is slower than the loading. :/
I actually quite enjoyed that game, i was surprised when i seen the walkthrougn that so many of the rooms are not required.
Still, its a very interesting and quite strange title.
For me it may have been Glass (repetitive and ultimately tedious) or The Planets - I like astronomy and the idea of exploring the solar system seemed intriguing. I don't think I ever managed to do even one of the probe landings. Dull. I hope No Man's Sky is better.
Anirog Flight Path 737. I knew I shouldn't have bought it when the tape cover showed a 3 engined jet that was definitely NOT a Boeing 737 (which is a 2 engine jet, with the engines under the wings - the tape cover art showed something resembling a Trident or B727). Turned out to be a full price game written in BASIC whose only redeeming feature was a piece of 2 channel beeper music in the game menu.
Comments
Zaxxon was sh*te.
Starion on the other hand was a very good game.
On the plus side for Starion, I suppose it has a finish.
Then, when my mates were gone, I went back into the shop and paid for it.
Looking back, it probably wasn't my cleverest day.
Bloody hell, nabbing something of the shelf quickly is one thing but rifling through drawers first must have taken balls of steel!
Oh and, FOR SHAME!
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Nope, I've got copies of my Hobbit letters, but I've only got the Melbourne House replies for Starion.
I can't believe you actually did that. I didn't think you could save your game? Did you actually sleep at any point? :lol:
Specially the Masters of The Universe Game.
And Solid Gold - for ?1 less I could have had Gauntlet on its own. Instead I got Gauntlet in a stupidly big box with Leaderboard, Infiltrator, Winter Games and Ace of Aces. What a waste of a quid.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
I actually likes Quartet... was one of the few games I played with my sister
The level editor was great fun, tho!
*very quietly*
Did he just... bad mouth Leaderboard? Did he just do that? He didn't do that, did he? DID HE!? WHY I OUGHTA!!!
Starion has no save option, and the Multiface hadn't been invented in 1985, so I had to start again every day. Once a grid has been solved then it can be re-solved much more quickly, as once the first word has been collected the position in the zone sequence for that grid is then known so it can be completed without any wrong choices. I became quite adept at completing a zone quickly with minimum damage. As long as each zone could be completed in a few minutes then all the zones could be completed in a day (24*60 = 1440, and 1440/243 = roughly 6 minutes per zone).
Having got what I thought was a fully working version from Melbourne House I was rather annoyed to find near the end, on entering the only 12-letter anagram in the game, that it crashed. So I had to write to MH again to get the final fix, which was only issued as a type-in patch (earlier bugged versions could be swapped for a new tape if it was returned to MH).
I still can't recall how it finished, but in the instructions it says: "If and when you finally reach 'Event Zero' before the beginning of time (event one), then you become the earliest thing to exist and must by default assume the ultimate title of CREATOR of all that follows.", although I don't actually recall becoming any more God-like than usual at the end. In fact my tenuous recollection is that it just went back to the start, engendering a degree of further annoyance & disappointment which I was destined to experience again two years later upon "finishing" (as far as is possible) Firebird's Sentinel.
http://tinypic.com/r/2rw6gwz/8
Thanks. Slightly better than Sentinel, then. It also explains why I'd forgotten the ending after 30 years.
so says a urinating slack.
After all, it's just as boring as a real game of golf... :lol:
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
I quite liked Starion too. Though the roll controls in Elite feel more 'right' than yawing. But really, in space, you need three axes of rotation, not just the two you get on a standard joystick. You'd need pedals, and then a throttle too (or two joysticks) to really be in control.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Golf - A good walk spoiled! :lol:
Shout "aft!" and whack the ball at the people behind you.. ;)
I had played Target Renegade *a lot* in a CPC 6128 and it was a lot of fun. Being quite fond of the arcade version of DD, well... I don't know what I was expecting, but the game didn't deliver :)
Also I had a +2A and I suspect there was something not quite right because I've seen videos of DD gampleay and I remember it being relentlessly slow!
Still, its a very interesting and quite strange title.
Couldn't get past the second screen.
Oh yes. Just saw that. Bought that one too, with the same level of success. Awful.