The Games Machine Issue 4

Features:

• Child Abuse
  Ripped-off programmers reveal all to Uncle MEL
• Home Video
  Mel Croucher explains how to make your own video promos
• Computer Graphics
  Digital Pictures - the leading edge?
• Simulations 16-Bit
  John Gilbert reports on the field of simulations on the 16-bit machines
• Coin-Op Confrontation
  Robin Hogg goes to the ATEI and checks out the latest arcade machines
  

Regulars:

• Readerpage
  Mel Croucher replies, plus more of your written communications
• News
  What's been happening lately
• Previews
  A certain French flavour - courtesy of Ere Informatique and Infogrammes - adds spice to the games of the future
• Reviews
  Pages upon pages packed with reviews of the latest multi-format games
• Getting Adventurous
  Amongst other things, Rob Steel impersonates a police officer in the course of his adventuring
• Fantasy Games
  John Woods uses the Force, becomes a Judge's companion and slices up a dragon in this month's fantasy round-up
• Board Games
  All the news on the board game scene and a look at Chainstore
• Mercy Dash
  She's made, she's bad, she's . . . Athena??
• Music Matters
  Sequencing and MIDI, Jon Bates explains
• Endpiece
  Ever more distractive triva from Mel
  

Win!

• An Amiga A500 and Colour Monitor
  The first of THREE chances for you to become the proud owner of the computer of the nineties
• Roadwars
  Twenty copies of Melbourne House's latest release to be won, all for the price of a stamp
• A Five Day Gliding Course
  Take to the skies with a five day gliding course, plus ten runners-up prizes of rare, multi-lingual copies of Arcana's Powerplay
• Sega Light Phasers
  10 Phaser guns plus cartridges are up for grabs, courtesy of Sega
  

Reviews:
Lead Reviews:

• Space Quest II
  The best game this month comes from US software house Sierra On Line, distributed over here by Activision. Police Quest II is highly adventure-oriented, but the action is ullustrated by animated graphics. Often humourous, Space Quest II is something that the thinking ST owner shouldn't be without.
• Project Stealth Fighter
  From Microprose comes an excellent offering for those into simulations. Combine Space-age technology with futuristic engineering and you have Stealth Fighter - a plane virtually invisible to radar.
• Police Quest
  Sierra On Line get another game in the top five. Police Quest places the palyer in the role of an American Police Officer out to clear up the windy streets of the US. Check out Rob Steel's assessment . . .
• Black Lamp
  From Firebird comes a cartoon romp through the Dark Ages starring Jovial Jack the Jolly Jester in his quest to recover nine magic lamps. This advanced platform-and-ladders game proves to be one of the most amusing games this issue.
  

Reviews Summary:
Commodore 64/128:

• Apollo 18
• Dan Dare II
• Knight Games II
• Project Stealth Fighter
• Side Arms
• Skyfox II
• Test Drive
• The Train
• Traz
  

Spectrum 48/128:

• Budget Adventures
• Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix
• North Star Platoon
• Rolling Thunder
  

Amstrad:

• Bobsleigh
• Budget Adventures
• Flying Shark
• North Star
• Rolling Thunder
  

Atari ST:

• Black Lamp
• Enduro Racer
• F-15 Strike Eagle
• Joe Blade
• Mach III
• Police Quest
• Power Play
• Test Drive
• Trauma
• Space Quest II
• Warlock
  

Amiga:

• Karting Grand Prix
• Power Play
• Shadowgate
• Tetris
• Dark Castle
  

PC:

• Gunship
• Tomahawk
  

Sega:

• After Burner
• Alien Syndrome
• Rocky
• Zillion
  

[Julian Rignall is credited as Acting Editor for this issue.]