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By Lloyd Mangram
July
1986
Issue 30
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It's
not a reflection on the game it portrays, Gremlin Graphics's
Jack The Nipper - but of all the covers he has
painted, this remains the one Oliver hates the most.
Its subject matter runs counter to everything he enjoys
illustrating. His strength lies in action, strong composition
and powerful figure work. For days he was despondent
at the thought of a benappied infant on a CRASH cover,
and how he was going to do it. Under protest, at the
last hour, he penned and coloured it, and it was a creditable
effort.
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It was an indication of how 'professional' the organisation
was becoming when, in the middle of June, the management sat
down to design the Newsfield stand for the forthcoming PCW
Show. Previously, the magazines' attendance had been a case
either of wandering round or of restriction to something resembling
a long table with hand-lettered signs. This year, we were
told, there would be a proper stand built by a contractor.
Gosh, were we excited. But that was ages away, so who cared?
Rather more to the point was the argument about the spelling
of 'magic'. Gargoyle Games had insisted on Heavy On The
Magick, now Level 9 gave us The Price of Magik.
Derek Brewster did not enter into the discussion, preferring
instead to award Level 9 a Smash. He must have been pleased,
not so much because good adventures had been a little thin
on the ground, but because there were fewer and fewer full-price
adventures appearing. The trend would continue, and today
the majority of 8-bit adventures are provided through mall
order from committed individual programmers.
 Besides
The Price Of Magik we had Jack The Nipper, which
created yet another cute character for Gremlin Graphics's
repertory company of cute characters and got its Smash for
being highly playable, entertaining and having 'masterful
graphics'. Then there was Ghosts 'N' Goblins, awaited
with bated breath - would the popular Capcom coin-op be a
success or a flop for Elite? They pulled it off, and Ghosts
'N' Goblins was one of the best conversions from an arcade
original yet seen. And finally, just to prove they could do
it, Domark came up with Splitting Images, not a TV
tie-in, but a block puzzle based on caricatures of the famous.
It was irresistible and gave Domark their first ever Smash.
Licences were in the doldrums again, apart from Ghosts
'N Goblins, for Mirrorsoft's game version of the film
of Biggles was very disappointing, not very innovative
and consisted of three poorly-implemented subgames - it was
rather like the film, in fact. And US Gold got themselves
into terrible trouble with mistimed World Cup fever. It was
almost instantly clear to us that the much-hyped World
Cup Carnival was a minutely modified version of Artic's
two-year-old and forgettable World Cup Soccer. It cost
£9.95, though remaindered versions of Artic's original
were to be had for £1.99. Retailers, distributors and
buyers reacted as one in an outcry. Later, US Gold was forced
to admit that they had planned a far better game, but programming
delays and marketing problems had overtaken them. Timing was
of the essence and in the end a decision was taken to buy
and repackage the Artic game instead. In a way it provided
a perfect example of what, at the worst, was so wrong with
licensed and endorsed games. At best it was misguided, at
worst it was seen by the public as a cynical attempt to pretend
an old game was something new and get everyone to buy it all
over again for the sake of a few bits of added packaging.
Quietly, in the midst of this, veteran software house New
Generation pushed out the Spectrum version of Cliff Hanger,
a sort of cowboy forerunner of Road Runner. It was
a moderately enjoyable game, notable most of all for the fact
that the advert told a story; cheques and postal orders were
to be made payable to Virgin Games. It was to be New Generation's
last fling before quietly disappearing.
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