Commodore Format Archive

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It was in March of 1991 that Los Angeles police officers were caught on camera attacking Rodney King. In the Gulf, war was at an end and the US began pulling thousands of troops out of Iraq. The Comedy Central TV channel launched across Europe, and the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (The Secret Of The Ooze) was in the cinema. With the C64 conversions months away, there were no Turtles in this month’s CF (issue 6). But there wasn’t a shortage of ninja action, with March 1991’s lively Last Ninja/Shadow Dancer mashup cover one of its best ever. It was a storming month for the Commodore 64, as the first Creatures game and Turrican 2 also put in an appearance.

The half-year-old Commodore Format had found its feet. It was now 99% games, with editor Steve Jarratt knocking out all of the unnecessary bits of the reviews in ruthless fashion (“Games explained, not described”). Steve toured readers around the 97% corker Last Ninja 3 with enormous screengrabs and useful captions you could come back to once you had bought the game. Sections of LN3 were stuck together – a new thing in 1991 – so that it was easy to see just how big the levels were. Steve was trying to make CF a useful companion you would come back to over and over. It was making other magazines look old-fashioned. Gordon Houghton’s Creatures review went further, treating us to level one in its entirety across two pages. And the Clyde Radcliffe’s Amazing Gadgets box out explained just how many different power ups could help you get through the game. “Creatures is beautiful”, said Gordon – only bemoaning a lack of passwords for each level.

The Commodore 64 was still seeing some major names in 1991. Total Recall (based on the original Arnie movie) and comic book conversion Judge Dredd fared OK this month, but special mention has to go to the utterly abysmal Dick Tracy. After getting the previous month’s cover and a two-page preview spread, the 11% review was hidden away on page 41. It was utterly demolished by a magazine sometimes accused of overt generosity. “Awful backgrounds…jerky, blocky sprites…you’ll be so fast asleep that eight million volts won’t wake you” said Gordon, awarding it the lowest mark CF would ever give a game. Something of the spirit of ZZAP! there, perhaps. (EDIT: you can now read our special feature on the game and find out why it’s so bad here – Ed)

Elsewhere, the Gamesbusters section had been revamped (“but Andy Dyer‘s still crap as ever!”, chirped Steve). Andy Roberts had stayed up all night to map out Rick Dangerous 2 by hand, and the first ever game to be reviewed in CF – the quirky Time Machine – had also been cracked. Roger Frames was in hospital after yet another accident (although his Mum sneaked him in a C64 so he could road test Top Cat and Gemini Wing), and Gordon Houghton talked us through the best guns and bombs in games ever. On the Power Pack, nifty US Gold puzzler Chip’s Challenge and cover game Shadow Dancer were the try-before-you-buy demos (remember the weird dancing dog when you used a power up?). There was also a pretty neat bowling game called Tenth Frame and Martin Walker’s Chameleon. READ THE FULL POWER PACK 6 FEATURE, AND MARTIN WALKER INTERVIEW, HERE.

It was such little touches – and those like the promise of a tips booklet in the next month’s magazine – that already had CF on top of the market just half a year after launch. “We’re not designed to be different [from ZZAP!]”, The Mighty Brain told readers in this month’s letters column. “We’re designed to be better”. CF

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• Commodore Format 6 is dated March 1991. It first appeared on Thursday February 21st. The page count was down to 90 this month (from issue 1’s 100).