Previous Next

'Play it like there was no Tomorrow!' exclaims the cover of this rather grim scenario. Raid Over Moscow contains seven sections which take you, as a Squadron Leader of an attack flight based on a US space station on a virtual suicide mission to knock out the Soviet missile launch sites and then proceed to Moscow armed only with the weapons you can carry to destroy the Soviet defence centre.

Much of the game is linked by the Sequence 1 screen, a view of the northern hemisphere showing the States and the USSR. Here you can see missiles being launched. Pressing fire takes you into Sequence 2 - inside the space station. In this sequence you must launch your fighter craft under almost zero gravity, using reverse thrust to slow down, and guide them out of the hangar doors into space (Sequence 1 screen). If you decide to attack the Soviet launch silo, you can guide your fighter down into Soviet airspace - Sequence 3.

The attack run resembles Zaxxon, except that it Is horizontal scrolling instead of three-quarters. You must fly low, using your shadow to assess height and angle, avoid trees. If you fly too high then radar will pick you up and Soviet heat-seeking missiles will attack from behind. But in being low you risk being hit by the ground defences. You can fire forwards to destroy ground targets and missiles. If you get through to the silos the scene cuts to....

Sequence 4. Here you are the bottom of the screen firing forwards at the the five silos. The idea is to fire through the small windows, while avoiding the Soviet fighters firing back. Destroying the central command silo will prevent the launched missiles reaching their target and let you continue on to Moscow.

Sequence 5 sees one of your men in a trench outside the Soviet defence centre (looks like the Kremlin). Targets include soldiers, tanks, towers and doors, one of which is the entrance to the reactor to be blown up in the last main sequence. Your man can fire his rocket launcher at targets while you guide fire by watching the trajectory. The reactor door is randomly selected, and once it and all the other targets have been destroyed you proceed to....

Sequence 6. Inside the reactor room there is a maintenance robot keeping the fuel cells cool - put him off his stroke and the reactor may overheat and detonate. As you cannot enter the maintenance area you must bounce disc grenades off the walls aided by a laser scope. A robot will require four hits to destroy it.

The final scene is a congratulationary one which lets you know if you have accomplished your mission.

The screen displays are varied, but below the playing area are all the necessary telltales, lives and, most importantly, time to impact of a Soviet missile fired at the States. Should this get through before you destroy the central command silo, the game will end.

Control keys: I/P left/right, Q/Z up/down, N to fire - these are preset but they are also user-definable
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2, Cursor type
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: excellent, large, smooth, detailed and varied
Sound: continuous with spot effects
Skill levels: 3, easy to hard
Lives: 9 fighters, but depends on stopping missiles
Screens: 7