C&VG


Dogfight
By Starlight Software
Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #69

Dogfight 2187

Now this is the mission. It is 2187 and your name is Rhett Dexter (sorry about that). An anomaly has appeared in the Alpha Centauri sector, a hole through which come invasion craft from another dimension. The only way to close the hole is with nine of the one hundred pieces of the warp field generator hidden by the old ones throughout the universe. You steal a new interstellar fighter and take off for the stars...

Basically, Dogfight 2187 is another space shoot-'em-up. At each screen the player has to shoot down all the 'invasion craft' in the sector, which gains him one piece of generator. In some sectors he also gets the chance to refuel in the 'rotating vector graphic squares' of a nearby planet. He can then warp into the next sector to take on the next set of invaders, eventually coming to the sector containing the hole, which he plugs with his piece of generator and goes back for more. All this is run by a thirty minute real-time clock, which is the time he has to complete the mission.

The graphics are disappointing, the enemy fighters being only shown in wire-frame, and the planets as a series of concentric squares. Anyone who is not a very fast shot will also find themselves running out of fuel and ammunition long before they can find a planet. The instruction booklet (in four languages) is no help at all in discovering how to prevent this.

The big appeal of the game is that it offers two side-by-side cockpit displays, and can be played three-handed: by one player against the computer, two players against each other, or two players against the computer.