158: Zzoom

Number 158
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It didn't take long for programmers to do things with the Spectrum that made it look stronger than in reality, as this 1983 first-person blaster shows.

Flying your Ground Skimmer to defend against the enemy, you have a crosshairs with which to target vehicles and rockets heading towards you. Not only that, but there are refugees trying to make their way to safety, and you must ensure that they are not hit by the enemy - or yourself. You encounter a range of enemy vehicles such as aeroplanes, tanks and submarines, but you must take care not to plough your low-flying aircraft into the ground.

Stu Campbell's first choice of game is a really impressive one for its time, giving you a very fast first-person experience. It's amazing to see what programmers were able to achieve after just a year of the Speccy's life, and even now this is a fun game to load up and play. It's an endless old arcade-style game, though, so you're just playing for points rather than an ending, but that's fine as the action is well worth it. Speccy games were never known for having good endings anyway.

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