Eek, what an awful month for delays! Barbarian, Saigon, Cyboto and Breakthrough have all been delayed. At the time of going to press, Saigon discs have been sent, Barbarian is due on the 25th May 1988 and Saigon cassettes around the same time. We have no firm dates for the others but I expect you will have received them before you receive this issue.
We supplied part orders to all where possible. Sorry about the delays but we cannot do anything about it. Superior gave us two days notice before the launch.
Not that we are perfect. The PLAN B2 solution hit problems and sorry again if you ended up waiting for that one. Further delays were also caused by the Micro User Show as were were down in London for three days. It was nice to meet those members who attended but a few orders did have to wait a couple of extra days.
We also took more office space to cope with the increasing membership which caused a little disruption but did not hold anything up. Anyway, all is back to normal now - no more shows until November, so back to the usual return of post service that you rightly expect from us.
Apart from this, it's been a terrific month. Lots of new members joined at the show, we've added lots of new games, new helpsheets and more half price special offers. More reviews than last month and screenshots are also featured in response to requests from members.
A fine performance by Alisdair Millard of Stevenage who sent the full solution of Spycat to us on 18th April 1988. Two further entries arrived the next day having been pipped to the post. Alisdair took his prize in cash.
Helpsheets are arriving at our offices every few days. This is greatly appreciated. The competition this month revolves round helpsheets/solutions which are proving extremely popular. Keep them coming, the more the merrier, and of course the better they are, the happier everyone is.
This is a very common query that we receive. The best advice we give is to get a Replay System from Vine Micros. They have a good range of add-ons etc and it is worth checking out their range. They can be contacted on (0304) 812276. Ask for the sales department.
Over 200 requests and one order for a Barbarian poster (Thanks for the £1.50 - hopefully you have received your poster by now!) has inspired us to contact Palace to get permission to produce one. There will be available next month and will be featured in our next catalogue. We have also had requests for an EXILE poster but the artwork has yet to be started!
We've had a lot of members suggesting that we produce pokes for more games that I can mention. We are currently developing two sets of pokes each for twenty games. These will be put on cassette and disc and will be very easy to use. All you have to do is load in the relevant poke from the cassette or disc and you will then have such options are infinite lives, infinite bullets, immediate access to maps, passwords, etc, etc. Some of the games included will be Elite, all the Repton games, Quest, Spycat, Star Wars, Citadel, Ravenskull, Saigon and many more bestsellers.
These two sets of pokes will be aptly named Cheat It Again Joe 1 and Cheat It Again Joe 2. These will be available in August or September 1998 and will cost only £2.99 on cassette and £3.99 on 5.25" disc. Further details next month.
To come straight to the point, there are a lot of very, very good releases planned for later this year.
Firstly, the Superior round-up. Next month they're hoping to bring out the much sought after Pipeline - Ravenskull 2. Their planned August release is Exile - a superbly animated arcade adventure set in the future. Later in the year Superior have an excellent 3D space adventure with super fast vector graphics (even faster than Elite). The game features helicopters for the first type in a game of this type. Many other craft and characters are included to create the most testing 3D game ever. You can even design your own 3D worlds. This is definitely one worth waiting for. More details of their other future releases next month.
Mandarin Software (the creators of Icarus) have Time & Magik, a BBC disc-based game containing three of their best adventures to date. This should be out in July 1988.
Following the colossal success of Star Wars, Domark intend to produce the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, possibly for release in August or September 1988.
ASL have told us their next release will be Shark, a game not unsimilar to Ghosts 'N Goblins, and should be out in July/August 1988.
Bug Byte have been working flat-out to produce two stunning games for the Archimedes - Terramax and The Hunt For Red October. These will hopefully be ready for July. They've also got some programmers working on some pretty classy BBC/Electron conversions - most notably the phenomenally successful racing game Outrun!
Mark Botterill
Next Issue Release Date: 6th July 1998