Fly an AH-1W Super Cobra through four levels of shoot-'em-up action. Your helicopter is equipped with a machine gun and a limited supply of missiles which you'll need to use to destroy the guns that are scattered across each level. You can obtain more missiles or some extra firepower by shooting certain aliens and collecting the bonus icon that appears. You also have a small number of 'enemy blockers' which freeze the aliens and guns for a short time. The aim in each level is to destroy all the guns and collect all the pods, and you'll then face two giant helicopters which must be shot in order to progress to the next level. The graphics are nice and colourful and the difficulty level is set just right to make this a fine, action-packed game.

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Colossus 4 Chess
(CDS, 1986)

Chess has never been my forte, and it shows when I'm playing against the computer in this game. Be warned - it plays a pretty mean game! However, it is very customisable, although there aren't any menus; you'll just have to remember which keys to press. You can also see your previous moves, and a nice touch is that you can see the computer thinking ahead, and what move it thinks you're going to make. The perspective view of the board is great as well, although you can change it to the 2D view. A lot of people reckon this is the best chess program on the CPC, and it's not hard to see why.

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The three planets belonging to the XATOR Confederation - Zorak, Alfard and Grisum - have been taken over by intelligent androids, and the only way to remove them is to destroy the planets. It seems a rather drastic solution! Explosive devices have been placed on each of the planets, and you have to arm them by flying around the planets and collecting batteries to insert into them; each device requires three colours of battery. This game was re-released in the UK as The Last Commando, and it's a very good space shoot-'em-up indeed. The graphics and music are both up to Dinamic's high standards, although completing the game requires a lot of luck as well as skill.

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Combat School
(Ocean, 1987)

The Elite Marine Corps are the toughest army in the USA, and you're aiming to be recruited and join their ranks. You'll have to complete some gruelling events first to show your strength, including an assault course, three firing ranges, an iron man race, arm wrestling, and lastly, a fight with your combat instructor. If you beat him, you're in, and you'll be sent on a mission to rescue a hostage in a US embassy. This is one of those joystick-waggling games, and in all the times I've tried it, I've completed the assault course once. Nice graphics, nice tunes; shame that it's far too tough. If you're strong enough to tackle the assault course, you're probably good enough for the real thing!

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The return of Halley's Comet was big news in 1986, and this game sees you attempting to become the first spacecraft to land on the comet itself - but you've got to fly through a long obstacle course before you reach the comet. Starting at the top of the screen, you must guide the spacecraft through the scenery and dodge the moving aliens. However, on many screens, there's very little room to manoeuvre, as you will discover when (if?) you reach the fourth screen, which I found impossible to complete. The graphics, while lacking in colour, actually aren't all that bad, although there are only two or three sound effects. Anyway, the game is much too difficult.

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The Comet Game
(Firebird, 1986)

This game was supposed to have been released in time for the appearance of Halley's Comet, but the deadline was missed. Anyway, a manned probe has been sent to explore the surface of the comet, and while it's on its way there, you have to complete twenty tasks, picked at random from five sub-games ranging from playing with electrical circuits to making the tea! Complete a task and you're OK; fail and the game is over. Most of the games are enjoyable, but it's such a chore having to play them over and over again. It would be nice if you could actually pilot the probe.

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It's one man against an army as you go it alone and advance into enemy lines and try to reach the fortress, as bullets, grenades and rockets explode all around you - there's no way you're going to retreat. You have to try and replenish your own supply of grenades as you're doing this, too. From the first moment you start the game, you'll be shocked at the amount of action going on - there's no time to take a breather here. The graphics are OK but are a bit blocky, whilst the music, again reasonable, becomes irritating - and where's the rat-tat-tat of gunfire? It's a good game, but a bit too difficult for my liking.

See also: Duet.

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In the old days, families would gather around at Christmas time to play some traditional board games. This is a compilation of four games - Snakes and Hazards, Xmas Ludo, Shove a Sledge and Tiddly Drinks. The first two are variations of well known board games, while the other two are very different, and so awful that they're not worth looking at. Up to four people can play a game, but unfortunately you can't play against the computer, and playing a board game on your own is not exactly fun. The graphics are reasonable, and there are some excellent renditions of Christmas carols, but there's nothing else to get excited about.

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The famous word game comes to the CPC, as you play against a friend or the computer and try to score points by thinking of the most obscure words imaginable. The computer's dictionary isn't all that big, so there's lots of room for cheating. However, the game is far too slow. OK, so is the real thing; but what I mean is that the computer waits for an eternity after you make your choices, and it's the same with the other games in the Leisure Genius range. The one sound effect that is used is horrible, too.

See also: Computer Scrabble Deluxe.

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Computer Scrabble Deluxe
(Leisure Genius, 1987)

This is much the same as the previous edition of Computer Scrabble, but of course there are a few improvements. For a start, it's a bit faster in that messages appear on the screen more quickly. In addition, the computer's vocabulary has been expanded to some 20,000 words, although this also means that the game requires 128K of memory. There is also the option to save your game if you want to resume it at a later date, and you can also play against the clock. The one disadvantage is that this is the only CPC game I know of that emulates a PCW; the graphics are in the high resolution, two-colour mode! However, this is not as much of a problem as it sounds, and many good games of Scrabble can be played against the computer. The urge to cheat is still strong, though...

See also: Computer Scrabble.

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