SPECTRUM 48K (U.S. GOLD/PROBE VERSION)

Unfortunately, the Spectrum version was really terrible! It wasn't even a good game for it's time (compare it to the excellent Speccy versions of R-Type and Solomons Key which also came out around '87-'88). Most of the Spectrum magazines at the time trashed it. Crash gave it 58% which I thought was about right. Your Sinclair was the only exception and seemed to like it.

The problem wasn't so much the graphics which were okay by 48k standards, but that it was ridiculously easy. You could finish levels simply by running and jumping over the enemies, that is to say when there even was any! Jumping was more like floating in space and you had to jump to do the vertical shot. The ? objects that are very rare on the arcade version often appear more than twice per round! You could also be guaranteed an extra life every other round. It vaguely resembled the original in terms of level set-up and graphics, the sound was the odd beeb every now and then. All this combined with the fact it took 20 minutes to load, was potentally a one-game walkover and cost £10 to buy just killed it dead!!!

Reviews:
You can see the a picture of the inlay sleeve here.
Crash Issue #48 - 58%.
Your Sinclair Issue #25 - 8/10. Read the review here (from the YS Rock'n'Roll Years page).

Tips & Cheats (US Gold version):

1) There's only one really tricky bit in the whole game and that's on round 8 and repeats again on round 21. This is where there's two hugh rocks on either side of a lava pit. You can't jump across or you'll hit the top of the screen and fall down it! What you need to do is wait until a Rhino or Drone appears on the screen. One of these will eventually run straight through the rock and into the pit! You have to fall off the edge so you bounce on it and over onto the other side.
2) Bonuses. There's only two of the arcade bonuses in the Spectrum game. These are the 70k stars bonus and the 160k powers bonus.
3) Griffin Riding. This trick sort of works on the Spectrum version but is harder to master.
4) Here's two pokes (but I doubt you'd need them!) I can't say how they work on an emu, but if I remember correctly to use them on a speccy you typed MERGE "" instead of LOAD "" and this lets you edit the loader. You then added them after the RANDOMISE USR command or in place of the original POKE command.

Infinite Lives - POKE 61577,0
Infinite Time - POKE 51216,0
Varied Time - POKE 56798,X
Extra Lives - POKE 56743,X

Replace X in the POKE's with 1 to 255.

SPECTRUM 48K (YOX SOFTWARE VERSION)

I've found out about a second Spectrum version! I don't know if this one was an offical release - it's by a company called Yox Software and the text is in Spanish. The graphics and level design are totally different from the US Gold version, but nope it's not much better :( The level designs are more imaginative than US Gold's, but the graphics are even worse! For some reason the programmer has put telephones and cars in the game which looks a bit stupid.