A&B Computing
1st July 1984This is a fairly accurate version of the popular arcade game, "Phoenix". There are five different attack waves, and to deal with them your laser base is equipped with a shield mechanism and an unlimited supply of laser shots.
In the first two waves, birds swoop at you, dropping an alarming number of bombs. When these two waves have been dealt with, the eagles of the title appear; first as eggs which soon hatch into massive birds, gently swooping down the screen from side to side, flapping their wings as they go. The eagles can only be destroyed by a direct body hit; if the wings are hit, no damage is done.
After two sheets of these monsters, the dreaded 'flagship' is encountered. A large space ship is displayed with the 'master alien' in the middle; he must be shot to finish the sheet. To reach him a large amount of the ship's hull and a revolving centre ring must be shot through; bearing in mind that the spaceship is advancing down the screen towards you, dropping bombs all the time. When he is eventually destroyed, a bonus is awarded, ranging from 800 to 9,000, depending on how much of the ship you have shot away. The more you have shot away, the bigger the bonus. Then the wave sequence is repeated, until you lose all of your lives. An extra life is awarded at 10,000 points.
The game is very fast, being written in machine code. The graphics are smooth and the sound effects are not bad either. Although the flagship sheet is not as complex as the arcade game, this can hardly be expected from a tape-based game on a small microcomputer.
I found a bug which fouls up the game occasionally. On the fourth flagship sheet, I destroyed the alien, was awarded a bonus and then my lives were both blown up for no apparent reason!
Apart from this, a very good game.