Encore
£2.99

Upper class accents, flying jackets and silly goggles at the ready, because it's time to jump into the cockpit of one of the most advanced planes ever made, the Spitfire. You guessed it, you've got to fly round in one of them World War II bomber thingies and drop bombs on everyone you see.

The game is written by Durell, well known for games like Harrier Attack and the more recent Operation Hormuz. To tell you the truth (well would I do anything else?) Spitfire is the spitting image of Operation Hormuz graphically. Bit of a coincidence, I don't think.

Durell are excellent at this type of game and Spitfire is packed full of fast action and detailed graphics. As well as the usual up, down, left, right, fire controls there are extras to give the game more realism. There's a map that can be called up if you haven't the foggiest where you are going. If things get really hairy (and I don't mean you have a head-on collision with a gorilla), you can press the eject button and watch the little man bale out of the plane and crash into the nearest tree! There's also an A.G.A. key, but I haven't a clue what that does (answers on a postcard...).

Spitfire isn't the least bit original, but there is some playability in zooming about shooting lots of big ships, try it out.

Encore
£1.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

I'm alway a bit suspicious when a major company puts out a 'previously unreleased game' on its cheapie label, especially when, as in Spitfire's case, it turns out to be a game bought from Durell some time ago. So even Durell didn't consider it releasable? Let's see if my suspicions are confirmed...

Spitfire is set in the Second World War (take ten points if you guessed that, and six of the best with a broom handle if you didn't), and is a viewed-from-the-side dogfight game. It has a lot in common with those other Durell flying games like Deep Strike and Strike Force Harrier, but is most similar in gameplay to Again Again's Operation Hormuz, only with Spitfires instead of Harriers. (It's also a lot cheaper!) Lie that game it has air to air combat, this time against Messerschmitts and V-1's, and ground attack against lots of blow-uppy things, including something in the English Channel that looks like an aircraft carrier (but is probably a U-boat), airfields and a V-1 launch site in occupied France.

If you liked Operation Hormuz, and Snouty did when he reviewed it in March, then you'll probably enjoy this game too. I didn't.

Label: Encore
Author: In-house
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48/+2/A
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

Contact! And it's chocks away as you fire up the engine and it bursts into life, lifting you high above the clouds to Angels twelve-O. England expects every man to do his duty and now it's your turn.

Spitfire is a previously unreleased game on the Encore label in which you don helmet, goggles and leather flying jacket and fly off into the wild blue yonder. And believe me, it IS wild. The skies are densely populated with Messerschmitt 109's, with one ambition in life - to send your Spitfire spiralling down to splash into the old briney or to make a large hole in a field somewhere that will be forever England - well, it will be forever dented Wilfred Owen me old china.

You are in control of Britain's great asset during the second world war. Yes, you are in the driving seat of Vera Lynn and you must fly her to her limits, take her across enemy territory and drop her on the hun. Ha! That should lead to an unconditional surrender within minutes (Garth..GARTH! You can drop Vera Lynn on the enemy it's just far too cruel. Get back to the plot! JIM)

Oh right. Well, in that case you can take a Spitfire instead. You begin the game with a squadron of eight and you must fly, for King George, across the channel avoiding enemy fire from ME 109's and shipping. This may seem like a tall order for a lone Spitty, but with it's superb handling you should be able to gob all over the opposition. The graphics in this game are good but the best part has to be the animation of the Spitfire. It is pretty good, with you being able to whack it into steep turns and play at daring doos with low level attacks.

Your instruments are simple enough - there's an altimeter to show height, a fuel gauge and damage is shown by bullet holes along the bottom of the screen. Fill the bottom of the screen and Ka-Boom. Bits of heroic flyer are scattered to the four winds.

Armament is of course a dakka dakka, which, as you probably know, is a nose mounted cannon, synchronised so as not to shoot your propeller off. This must be used sparingly as you don't want to use all your bullets before you reach your objective. Oh yes. there's more. You must fight your way across the channel, through flak and ME109's to destroy the V1 rocket launching sites that are harassing old Blighty and making mincemeat out of the airfields.

These are by no means easy to take out as the launching ramps project up so you must fly over them and then turn and attack from the other side or, if you want to do a Biggles try diving at them but be warned - it calls for split second timing to avoid crashing into them and going up in a ball of flame.

This is not an original idea but it is an original game and should give several hours of senseless shooting.