Producer: Rack-It
Retail Price: £2.99
Author: Lajos Palanki, Peter Vitray
Doing the Captain Birdseye bit with a lot of hairy sailors while travelling beneath the ocean waves may not be everyone's idea of fun - but if you're a submariner then it's all in a wet day's work.
As Captain, Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral, or Admiral - the choice is yours - you're at periscope depth and intent upon destroying four convoys, each consisting of a freighter and two destroyers. These are supplying enemy troops based on islands in the region, and should the supplies get through, you've lost the war. Destroy your enemies and return to dock within 18 hours and you're the victor.
A variable magnification periscope occupies the top of the screen through which view approaching freighters, destroyers, drilling rigs, lighthouses, and islands are seen. As an added difficulty, fog may blunt the periscope, but the radar and sonar displays provide essential information on nearby targets, and further aid may be called upon - a map shows convoy coordinates and those of docks.
At the screen's centre, indicators further enhance your navigational capabilities by showing the level of water beneath the keel, the directional bearing of the craft, its rudder angle, speed of climb through the water and velocity. Seeing as how the tatter's maximum is a nip over 20 mph, it's thoughtful of the programmers to have avoided tedium in long stretches of empty water by allowing travel in accelerated time.
Diving and surfacing is regulated by ballast tanks which contain either compressed air or water, so that the sub rises or sinks. Compressed air is produced by an on-board diesel motor, (which also recharges the sub's batteries). If there's insufficient air for the ballast tanks then the sub cannot elevate to the surface.
The sub's arsenal comprises a stock of forward firing torpedoes and anti-ship missiles which can be launched and guided to targets in any direction. Any destroyed enemy freighters or destroyers are added to your tally of victims, but your own vessel is also vulnerable to collisions and missile hits from enemy destroyers. The extent of damage is indicated on a status panel. Two of the islands contain docks where the submarine can be repaired, refuelled and rearmed; a guidance display shows the distance from the nearest dock once you're within a mile of it.
COMMENTS
Joysticks: Sinclair
Graphics: 3-D, not stunning but functional
Sound: atmospheric beeps
Options: fog on/off, four skill levels
Ocean Conqueror is in a similar vein to Hewson's simulation release Evening Star (reviewed on page 28) in that it takes a while before you can actually get anywhere. The instructions explain all the controls in detail but this doesn't seem to help that much. I spent ages just figuring how to get out of the dock. Once that initial frustration is overcome the game improves tremendously. Graphically it's nothing amazing, but the 3-D graphics are effectively used for islands and other objects. It's tricky to get into and potential buyers may be put off, but perseverance is its own reward, and Ocean Conqueror is the best submarine simulation to date.
ROBIN [80%]
As a simulation, Ocean Conqueror appears quite accurate. The graphics are far from visually stunning, but they're effective and attractive. Strategy is an integral part of doing well, and though the instrumentation appears daunting at first, once understood the game is pretty easy to play - not so easy to succeed in, though! A likable game, worth considering for your collection.
MIKE [79%]
Periscope up, full speed ahead. Ocean Conqueror is a really good submarine simulation. Once you've managed to get out of port the whole game explodes with addictiveness. Lighthouses, Islands and even the odd convoy come into your periscopes view. A bit of lining up and away goes a torpedo and KABOOM (got that from Batman...) the ship is sunk, but keep your eye on the radar because you're about to travel over a coral reef! There are a few well-drawn islands out there too. Ocean Conqueror will appeal to most people, even if your burning ambition isn't owning your own submarine.
NICK [72%]
Label: Rack-It
Author: Peter Vitray, Lajos Palanki
Price: £2.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins
There seems to be an assumption among software house that if you want a simulation-type game rather than a plain ordinary shoot-'em-up, you're prepared to pay a fortune for it.
Hewson - with its new budget label Rack-It - thinks otherwise, and with Ocean Conqueror proves that detailed simulations can be inexpensive, and can also retain enough arcade elements to enthral the dedicated blasters.
Ocean Conqueror puts you in control of a submarine whose mission it is to disrupt enemy supply lines by sinking freighters. To make things move a little faster than they do with more stodgy sub-simulators like Microprose's Silent Service, there's a time limit of eighteen game hours in which you have to clear an entire sector and then return to home base.
The view through the periscope is presented in animated wire frame graphics. The game starts at home base (so don't launch a torpedo or rush full steam ahead - back out slowly or you'll do more than chip your paintwork).
The admirably detailed control panel includes status indicators for throttle, ballast tanks, battery charge, motor in use, rudder angle, hydroplane angle, and ammunition among others. Although this gives you a lot of control keys to remember, things are easier if you use a joystick for direction control and missile firing.
You have two forms of armament. Torpedos, which are not steerable, and guided missiles which of course are (but which are in shorter supply). There's a nice fly-by-wire display showing fuel and altitude when you launch a missile, which is pretty reminiscent of Starglider.
Tracking down the targets is done with the aid of a realistic cathode-ray type radar display, which can operate in two ranges, and a map, which of course shows the positions of fixed points such as drilling rigs and lighthouses, but not of ships. A co-ordinate table locates these, as well as your home docks.
A time compression mode is used to speed what would otherwise be hours spent steaming across the huge playing area to the next target. You can't use it to outrun enemy missiles or torpedos, though!
Ocean Conqueror is perhaps too inaccurate to satisfy total simulator buffs, and too complex for those seeking a straightforward shoot-'em-up. However, if you're after something which neatly combines elements of expensive simulations and the excitement of Starglider at a bargain price, this could be exactly what you're looking for.
Aquatic antics from Hewson.
Set onboard a submarine and armed with anti-ship missiles and torpedoes you must destroy a number of enemy freighters and destroyers within a time limit.
Your screen is divided horizontally with the bottom hall containing all your necessary instruments and the top half taken up with your periscope view of the surrounding ocean. This top view can be switched to a map of the game area at any time. Should you submerge - even just to a depth of one loot - then your periscope view disappears and is replaced by the map until you re-surface. This is probably the most annoying part of the whole game because in order to make an effective strike against an enemy vessel you need to be on the surface - which takes away the whole advantage of being in a submarine. i.e the ability to strike unobserved.
The screen is well designed and colourful and the majority of the wire frame graphics are fine. All the simulation elements are there, but it's a pity about the periscope problem.
Reviewer: Andy Smith
RELEASE BOX
Spectrum, £2.99cs, Reviewed
No other versions planned.
Predicted Interest Curve
1 min: 30/100
1 hour: 40/100
1 day: 40/100
1 week: 30/100
1 month: 20/100
1 year: 0/100
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