Previous Next

Suddenly a million voices cried out for help at once. Then silence as the holocaust swept across the helpless city! Can you save the day?

You are the supreme commander of a laser ship. Your task is to intercept and destroy all alien suicide craft. Your rank will be raised depending on how many aliens you destroy in relation to the amount of destruction being caused in the besieged city.

The city consists of four layers of buildings which all move independently to each other at differing speeds in relation to the viewing angle, creating a 3D effect.

The eight way direction is controlled by keyboard which I found took a long time to master. The all character graphics scroll in four directions producing a realistic flicker-free flying simulation.

Alien space ships appear near the top of the screen and keep a constant direction thereafter. When an alien stops, it automatically goes into its search and destroy mode! You will be destroyed if it hits you five times.

Two quite frightening features are the hidden aliens located elsewhere in the city - off screen. These may fire their laser demolishing a building. All you will see is a brief flash in the sky.

Also if - by unfortunate means - an alien completes its mission and reaches Ground Zero the game freezes for a second followed by a series of large explosions that blow a large chunk of your city to smithereens!

You also have the useful option of flying at maximum speed by holding two keys down simultaneously, this results in the buildings whizzing past you at tremendous speed!

By touching any key except the direction keys or A for surrender, you will activate the ship's lasers.

Trapping an alien in your sights is not at all easy. First you must wait until it isn't behind a first row building, then when you are level with it, advance over it keeping equal speeds and quickly fire! A steady hand and accurate eye is needed, not as easy as it sounds.

The city is made up of several types of buildings, all differing in shape, size and design. If you accidentally fire on a building, it will be destroyed.

Every layer one building you hit loses you ten points, and up to 40 points for a layer four building. This stops you demolishing the city to find aliens.

There are three levels - average, difficult and impossible. I did try the impossible level and found that about twice as many buildings have been added, all much taller which cuts down your view of advancing aliens! Yes... it was impossible.

Despite some very nice graphics and realistic simulation, I thought that the game could have been incorporated more interesting characteristics though it did possess a surprisingly addictive quality.

It's a good addition to games software for the ZX81 - a micro that's rapidly being left behind in the rush to bigger and brighter machines.

For those with a bit of warrior in you, City Patrol, by Macronics, is available at WHSmith for the Sinclair ZX81 at £4.95.