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| Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Neutral
Zone
1983 Access
Software
Programmed
by Bruce Carver
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text of the present article comes from the review published
in the fifteenth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(street date: June 12th, 1986). |
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NEUTRAL ZONE
Americana,
£2.99 cass, joystick
only
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Dating back three years, this title has been given a
new lease of life as part of the new Americana range.
You are taken to the outer edges of the galaxy on a
mission to protect Alpha IV, which is under attack from
some xenophobic aliens who would appear to owe something
of their philosophy to the Japanese Kamikaze pilots
of the last war.
The
game can be set on any of five levels (from easy to
crazy) with a two-player option available. On the first
level, ten ships attack the outpost, going up to fifty
ships on the hardest level. Those vary in their size,
speed and destructive capability. They not only attempt
to damage the outpost but also fire shots at your weapons
pod and the idea is to prevent them from achieving their
goal by simply blasting them out of the sky. Play is
also set against the clock, so you really have your
work cut out.
Your
missiles are fired at the enemy from the weapons pod
which rotates through 360 degrees. A control panel at
the base of the screen shows where the next alien attack
is coming from, leaving it up to you to find the ship
and destroy it. Only one ship attacks at any time and
it continues on its attack run until it is either destroyed
or the time limit expires. As damage is inflicted on
the weapons pod, it becomes less efficient. Normally,
when the 'Turret Damaged' message appears on the screen,
it means that traversing is going to be slower until
the self repair systems fix the damage, giving the aliens
more chance to wreak havoc on Alpha IV.
If
the mission is successfully completed you are returned
to the title screen to select a new game. On harder
levels or play, missiles spew forth from the enemy ships
with disturbing frequency and precision.
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.
Well
Bruce and Roger Carver may well have gone on to
write Beach Head, Beach Head II
and Leader Board but this is where they
started and they certainly started at the bottom.
Neutral Zone is pish, and a large part
of it is basic, so it's slow pish at that. Though
some of the Americana range is good, it has its
black spots and one of the blackest is Neutral
Zone. The main cripple factor is its age, though
even in its heyday I'm sure Neutral Zone
would be regarded as far from inspiring. Avoid
this offering at all costs even with the £2.99
price tag.
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Presentation
31%
5 skill levels for up to two players -- wow.
Graphics
12%
Basic BASIC graphics.
Sound
13%
Better sounds from a cat being
doctored.
Hookability
7%
There sort of isn't any really.
Lastability
5%
Even less.
Value
For Money 15%
Well, it is cheap . . .
Overall
9%
No comment.
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Htmlized
by Dimitris
Kiminas (2 Mar 2006)
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