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Hawk swoops in for the kill
BLACK HAWK is one of the world's most sophisticated aircraft, jam-packed with missiles, cannons and similar deadly weapons. Jump in the cockpit, take off and head towards the enemy coast. Your mission - yes, you have guessed it - is to blow up everything you can as effectively as possible. After you have done that you also have to get away in one piece.

There are two playing screens. The first is a long range missile-firing screen. As the ground moves below, various enemy installations and war-machines appear. Those are two-dimensional and scroll down the screen in a map-like fashion. The ultimate aim is to find and destroy the enemy airbase. Once fired, missiles can be guided to the target with your joystick or control keys. Getting the hang of that will take some practice.

The second screen is for defending the plane against hostiles who manage to get through your missile screen undamaged.

Most dangerous of all are the SAM missiles which seem to get faster and faster as you progress up the score table. Extra weapon-systems are fitted to the Hawk if you score certain percentages of target hits. More and more targets and threats will also appear. There are two playing modes - tough and tougher.

Creative Sparks has produced a shoot-em-up of some complexity and the action is furious. The missile firing sight can get confusing at times and is barely visible over water. Controls are as fast as your reactions.

It is not a simulation, it will not stretch your intellect but it is difficult and demanding.



Richard Price


BLACK HAWK Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Fuller, AGF/Protek Gilbert Factor: 7

I remember this one - truly playable. Different mini-games too which kept interest up long after a standard single-game would be shelved.

another diamond from CS.

Black Hawk
Producer: Creative Sparks
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £6.95
Language: machine code
Author: Phil Snell & Dean Lock




A detail from the attack screen with tank and three factories

Black Hawk is an arcade shoot em up of positively violent proportion. It is also a fairly complex game to get into at first and requires some concentration on the detailed inlay instructions. It is also the first translation to the Spectrum of the popular arcade game ‘Xevious’. We would have to say at the outset however, that the Spectrum’s display isn’t up to the quality of a dedicated arcade machine, so no one must expect those extraordinary graphics. On the other hand, Creative Sparks have added some other interesting features and this is a game which uses ‘Xevious’ as a departure point rather than trying to be a copy.

The time is the near future and the place is a group of heavily defended islands. You are flying your Black Hawk. Your mission is to seek out and destroy enemy airfields and missile launching sites. There are, however, many other installations to destroy. Up against you are enemy anti-aircraft guns, helicopter gunships, SAM missiles and missile launchers. The success of your mission is gauged by your SLF figure (Strategic Loss Factor) — in other words you get points for targets destroyed, i.e. tanks, rockets, SAMs, aircraft ships, gunships, jets, helicopters and others. ‘Others’ are ground installations like factories.

Your aircraft has a computer attack system which features a two-screen display — the defence screen and the attack screen. In the attack screen a small yellow U at the bottom indicates your vertical position and a white cross-sight may be moved over targets. When it turns red, a missile is automatically fired to detonate the target. It can be used to destroy flying targets as well as ground targets, but any flying target which reaches the base of the screen will cause your computer to flip automatically to the defence screen. This shows the Black Hawk at the base of the screen and the approaching objects will soon appear at the top, flying rapidly down towards you. In this screen you may use your cannon to destroy the enemy. Successfully destroying them will return you to the attack screen again.

Your object is to gain a high OTPF (Optimum Target Percentage Figure). At the end of a mission this figure is calculated and, if high enough, additional weaponry may be added to your craft for further missions. Weaponry may also be removed if you fall below the appropriate figure. The weapons are ECM Pod which detects radar, radios and listening posts; X Cannon which increases fire power in the defence system; Blitvig which destroys all visible enemy units and is limited in use by your OTPF; and finally, the Wild Weasel which makes you invulnerable for a short time and may only be used once per mission.

This gives a brief (!) run down of what to expect from Black Hawk — there is more to it. Two skill levels, Rookie and Honcho, plus increasing difficulty.

CRITICISM
‘I haven’t had as much fun since the last May fair brought the arcade machines to town for three days. I also have a very sore first finger from firing! The general trend recently has been away from shoot em ups to more complex adventurish games, but there’s always room for a really good shoot em up and this is one of those. An awful lot is going on even at the start and on the lower level of skill, and by later missions the shrapnel is flying like snow in a blizzard. The graphics are all fairly small, although nicely detailed but they move very fast and smoothly and the down scrolling landscape is very smooth as well. Perhaps the only difficulty which is a bit aggravating is that the cross-sight when white is a bit hard to see on the blue of the sea. Black Hawk is a shoot em up that requires a great deal of concentration as well as very good hand and eye co-ordination. Extremely addictive!’

‘Just what the doctor ordered! A fast, aggressive, brilliant shoot em up! First loading the game and reading through s