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Having changed their name from Crystal, Design Design's first title was this impossibly slick space shoot 'em up. It may not possess the strategy elements of many other games of the same genre, but it does have gloriously smooth graphics, an vast playing area and a huge array of options (such as the most redefinable keys ever and a choice of cockpit styles). As commander of the Liar, you must travel space, visiting enemy planets and destroying their defence systems. This involves approaching each planet's central complex and wiping out their control towers while keeping your ship inside the floating rectangles of the protective shield, otherwise your ship's energy plummets. Many people considered the game a little empty because it does not concern itself with a ludicrous storyline, and the graphics, while blisteringly fast, perhaps lack a little detail. I say nonsense. This is a back-to-basics shoot 'em up in glorious wire frame 3D. Furthermore, there is a hidden game inside it. Try typing 'everyone's a nervous wreck' into the high score table. If you enjoy Dark Star you might like to tackle the sequel, Forbidden Planet.

DARK STAR
Design Design / £7.50

Dave: Design Design has taken vector graphics to a stage where the speed of the game is limited by players' ability rather than hardware restrictions.
The game itself is basically a derivative of the Star Wars arcade game, with the trench section missing. Your task is to rid the universe of nasties by flying your spacecraft, called the Liar, through the galaxy and down on to occupied planets where you have to destroy the enemy bases; these consist of defensive rings of towers that must be shot or dodged.
Planets can have more than one base; in fact, some planets also have spaceports and energy dumps on them. Spaceports don't have to be destroyed, but the energy dumps replenish your energy supplies and become vital after a while as there are 256 sectors to clear!
Dark Star has a very versatile menu system allowing the game to be customised; for example, the speed and accuracy of the alien weapons (as well as the keys used to control the Liar) can all be changed to suit your own requirements. Unfortunately, after the novelty of the blindingly fast graphics has worn off, the game becomes rather repetitive and loses most of its appeal. Hopefully Design Design's next offering will be a game instead of a programming exercise. 3/5

Ross: An incredibly fast Star Trek variant, with the emphasis on arcade action. Setting the game controls to 'devastating' and turning off all the alien's missiles makes the game much more fun! 3/5

Roger: Graphically clever stuff for the naturally trigger-happy. Apprentice gamesters will be able to hone their reaction times to perfection. 2/5

Dave 3/5
Ross 3/5
Roger 2/5

Dave Nicholls, Ross Holman, Roger Willis

DARK STAR

Producer: Design Design
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £7.50
Language: machine code
Author: Simon Bratell



It's taken quite a while between previewing Dark Star and reviewing it. Much of this has had to do with the fact that programmer Simon Bratell kept fiddling with the game, making it faster and faster until now it must surely win the accolade as the fastest Spectrum graphics ever. It would be a mistake to assume that this wire frame game is a copy of the popular arcade machine game "Star Wars", because although it resembles it in some respects, it differs a lot in many important ways and, in any case, it was designed long before "Star Wars" appeared in the arcades.

Anyway, onto the game. The Dark Star galaxy is divided into a 16 by 16 grid of sectors in the galactic plain. All the spurious blurb which gets you going is very detailed and well worth avoiding, best to dive in through the fabled front end which has been user defined out of existence! Selecting "instructions" on screen is much better - it says, "Fly around the universe. If it moves shoot it. If it doesn't shoot it anyway. If it's square fly through it!"

Keys for control are left, right, up, down, accelerate, decelerate and fire, any of which may be used on any key or all the same one if you like. Anyway, onto the game. There is a sort of adventurish and strategy overtone to Dark Star in as much as you are trying to clear the place of alien forces. The action takes place over three different areas, deepest space, hyperspace (accessed through Warp Gates, which are rotating yellow squares) and on the surface of numerous planets. When the planets in a sector of space have been cleared of aliens, using a Warp Gate will take you into another sector.

In space alien fighters will swoop on you, firing bolts of plasma and they do this by prediction, so it's best to avoid flying straight for too long. Your firing is done by directing the cross wire cursor at targets. Shield energy may be increased by flying through rotating blue squares (energy concentrations). The Warp Gates have four opening and shutting sections which allow you to hyperspace North South, East or West. Whilst in hyperspace you must travel along through a series of squares. The tunnel winds about in a lively fashion and breaking through its walls puts a heavy load on your shields.

Planetfall is achieved by flying straight at one. The surface has towers occupied by the enemy which fire at you. Shooting at the towers will cause them to collapse. A map display of the galaxy indicates your position and shows where the forces are concentrated as lightly, well and heavily defended, with a further designation of "military centre". A similar display can be used on the surface of a planet. This shows bases, fuel dumps, space ports and so on. Your craft cannot leave the surface of a planet until all the enemy bases have been destroyed.

Dark Star is far too complicated for a mere collator of reviews to explain, something which was fully intended by its designer, so it is best to try it out for yourself! Its much vaunted features include the universe, stopwatch mode, 2 million way movement, full screen playing area (with graphics in the border area), and its makers say it does not include Materialisations, Sprites (naturally), Unused RAM (who needs it) Stupid Scenario (there is a bit about the Evil Lord's tyrannical empire however), and no Magic Rings (wot no rings!). The other thing is this amazing front end which defines the meaning of "user" and allows customisation of the game. For his endeavours in the field of advancing home computer games, programmer Simon Bratell has insisted that CRASH give Dark Star 100 for the Use of Computer rating...

CRITICISM
When I first saw Dark Star I thought it was a boring old copy of "Star Wars" because at first glance it looks like it, but how could I be so wrong? Your task, to go round the universe and blast everything into nothingness, is almost impossible as there can be up to 204 planets with 5 bases on each. All the games I have seen from Crystal (Design Design) have had quite useful front ends, but this takes the biscuit, and makes it into a playable game even when you’re useless at it. I hope this works out as a CRASH smash, because it deserves it just for the front end alone and the amusing, ever changing hi-score tables. A word of warning, I found the hyper load made it difficult to load, but perseverance is worth it.’

‘Dark Star has, to say the least, stunningly fast and smooth 3D vector graphics. They are not super detailed but the rest makes up for it. The game is fairly difficult to play at first, taking quite a bit of time to master. Dark Star will be the sort of game that grows on you as time goes by.’

‘After numerous attempts, numerous tape decks, I managed to get Dark Star loaded, though the way I did it was unethical. Well, onto the game; it’s certainly the best and certainly the fastest 3D shoot em up game I’ve ever played to date (note the ‘to date’). This game is very user friendly (pity the same can’t be said about the author — he will know who I am!) offering truly user definable keys — you can program one key to do everything, although not much will happen if you do this. You can define whether you want nasty and horrible aliens with deadly weapons, or nice ones that can’t kill you off, and what type of format you want the screen to take. Dark Star has many amusing touches like the hall of fame — most times you load it, there are different ‘names’ (one time had bits of songs in it, another had references from Monty Python films). All in all Dark Star is a very good game with some nice effects. Incidentally there is another game on the cassette, but you need a code word to get at it, and no one’s saying what it is (yes — the first reviewer proof game). Signed, Yours, the ’orrible little reviewer (I hope you’re satisfied with this review).’

COMMENTS

Control keys: user definable to the Nth degree
Joystick: Kempston, Fuller, Protek, AGF, Sinclair 2, Para-Systems
Keyboard play: exceptionally responsive, good positions through UDK
Use of colour: above average, good for wire frame and a welcome addition to this type of game
Graphics: breathtakingly fast though not very detailed
Sound: very good
Skill levels: definable through front end
Lives: only 1
Screens: 2
Special features: flexible front end, and second program included
General rating: excellent shoot em up, certainly the fastest.
Use of computer 100%
Graphics 88%
Playability 86%
Getting started 89%
Addictive qualities 85%
Value for money 87%
Overall 89%