Spectrum 'Gryzor': AWFUL review.

[Mark Jones Junior]

'Micro Hobby' gave it 5 out of 5 stars.
'Sinclair User' 9 out 10.
'Your Sinclair; 9 out of 10 and classed it as a 'YS Megagame.

'Crash' 49% ?!!

You wanna know why I think WHY 'Crash' gave it such a bad review and was completely the opposite to what everyone else thought at the time?

Me and Paul Ownes Owens were asked by Gary to get the first level ready as 'Crash' wanted it for a sampler to put on the front of issue 45. I got the graphics done but Paul didn't get the level ready enough for it to go on the tape. So we missed the deadline for inclusion on the tape. In that issue, in the preview section, they wrote:

"Ocean has one or two licences kicking their heels on it's super portable games machines, and one of them ought to have been featured on our sampler this issue -Gryzor. Unfortunately Ocean's Gary Bracey couldn't persuade their programmers to get anything suitable ready in time."

I think they just got annoyed that the demo didn't turn up, hence the big difference in their review a few months later in issue 49. Which goes to prove you couldn't believe everything that was written in the magazines (see the 'Micro Hobby review of 'Total Recall', reviewed off a crappy unplayable demo, to add weight to my argument!)

'Crash' said that 'Gryzor' was very poor graphically. 'Sinclair User' said that 'Gryzor' was better graphically than most games around at the moment. 'Crash' had 'Rubbish graphics?' underneath one of the screen shots and also said 'the addictive nature of the game is outweighed by the poor graphics...The graphics are poor with appalling animation'. 'Your Sinclair' said 'Graphics are well up to scratch'. Graphics got '45%' in 'Crash', in 'Your Sinclair' they got given 8 out 10.

What do you reckon? You reckon that they gave the game a sh*te review cos we didn't (well, Paul didn't) get the demo to them? Seems odd to me that the same game can get great reviews everywhere else but the one mag who wanted a demo and didn't get one should slag it off so much.

Or am I just letting something bother me now that didn't bother me that much then? I'm tending to look at my old games a bit more fondly now than I did up back then!

[Gary]

Mark said:

..............................................................
Or am I just letting something bother me now that didn't bother me that much then?
...................................

'Nuff said.

[Mark Jones Junior]

Gary said:

'Nuff said.

Ha ha! Thanks Gary!

[Swainy]

I've got to admit that I wasn't a fan of Paul Ownes Owens programming. Saying that I only ever played 3 of his games, the first being Gryzor which I didn't think was too bad but it was a pain in the arse having to use the space bar to jump. Also the AY music slowed down too much at times. I was surprised it got anything over 60% to be honest.

The other 2 games were Vindicator & Dragon Ninja. With Vindicator being sub titled Greet Beret II, I was expecting something a lot more special. I think it was the first level that ruined it for me.

As for Dragon Ninja, I was fond of the arcade game & the Speccy version just didn't do it any justice.

[judasEZT]

I bought Gryzor for the screenshots of magazines. Graphics looked very nice and clean,.. when I played it was nice.. not a megagame I would gave a 74%.

I remember I copyied the hero sprite many times when I started to draw on DeluxePaint.

In the same magazine of Gryzor came a review of FlyingShark, and that is a megagame.

[Mark Jones Junior]

Remember too that frames of animation that were drawn were left out due to the old excuse 'memory constraints'!

Piles of 'Gryzor' graphics have been unearthed from my microdrives too.

[Swainy]

It must have been frustrating at times after drawing so much stuff that didn't actually make it into the final product. I take it that this was common then Mark?

It's a shame that we didn't see proper 128k only games until the end of the Speccys life really. Not that it would have helped a great deal.

[Mark Jones Junior]

Swainy said:

It must have been frustrating at times after drawing so much stuff that didn't actually make it into the final product. I take it that this was common then Mark?

It was. You'd been asked to do something. You did your utmost to make sure it was done properly. Then the person who asked you to do it, left it out!

Ask any one who did graphics. I think you'll find it happened to us all a lot.

[roberthazelby]

I loved Gryzor on the Spectrum and still do. It's a fantastic conversion of the arcade game, and a darn sight more reliable too. I've bought two Gryzor PCBs in the past, and both have had sound problems.

A cracking conversion!

As for DragonNinja and Vindicator. Well, lets not talk about those. Nice graphics, but really terrible games.

[Paulie]

IIRC didn't Mike Lamb end up debugging Gryzor right at the end 'cos Mr Ownes had buggered off on Holiday before he finished?

[Mark Jones Junior]

Paulie said:

IIRC didn't Mike Lamb end up debugging Gryzor right at the end 'cos Mr Ownes had buggered off on Holiday before he finished?

No I don't remember that. Paul had to finish off 'Wizball' cos Watson did a runner. Maybe you're getting them confused.

[Paulie]

Maybe it was someone else... I do remember Ownes going on holiday before a product was finished and Jon Woods trying to track him down in Spain. Could've sworn it was Gryzor.

Maybe my memory is going (more than likely!)

- P.

[roberthazelby]

What is it with the Owens/Ownes `thing`?

What's the story behind it?

[Mark Jones Junior]

Paul spelt his own surname wrong in one of his own games. Can't remember which one though!

[Bill Harbison]

He definately did that on Dragonninja.

Paulie said:

Maybe it was someone else... I do remember Ownes going on holiday before a product was finished and Jon Woods trying to track him down in Spain. Could've sworn it was Gryzor.

Maybe my memory is going (more than likely!)

- P.