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OK, it was a fairly obvious Gradius/Nemesis rip-off; and alright, the collision detection may have been a little harsh at times - but there's no doubting Zynaps is a beautiful and classy shoot 'em up. I wasted hours on this game, although time has not been kind to it: there's an obvious lack of variety to its levels as you proceed.

Yet another quality ZX Spectrum title from Dominic Robinson and Hewson. Zynaps was released in the summer of 1987 and proved that those bods over at Hewson still had what it took when creating quality arcade games or shoot em ups.

First of all Hewson were always well known for polished technical programming (just look at Technician Ted and Uridium) and Zynaps featured animation at 25 frames per second, high resolution multicoloured scrolling graphics (not easy to accomplish on the Spectrum), a 3 dimensional parallax scrolling starfield and of course a 'myriad' of sprites.

There was not a huge back story to Zynaps - it was a good old fashioned arcade game (shoot em up), right to left scrolling and borrowing heavily from the classic arcade game Nemesis. For fans of this type of game, Zynaps was a must have title.

Anyway, Zynaps was set in an alien infested planetary system.The game began with our hero escaping in Scorpion fighter from an alien station far out in deep, deep space. After lengthy fighting our hero had discovered the location of the alien base and the final conflict was about to begin...

And so began Zynaps.

Old School arcade action in Zynaps ZX Spectrum Your fighter (The MK1 Scorpion) was supplied with a wide range of sophisticated equipment and weaponry all of which was powered by an internally mounted fuel scoop.

Armed with wing mounted pulse lasers as standard, further weapon powerups could also be added such as homing missiles, seeker missiles and plasma bombs to take out ground based targets.

In the usual style, shooting down a wave of enemy fighters would leave behind a blob of fuel which could be scooped up. The first powerup to you was 'speed up' which increased your ships speed - but if you did not want this then you would wait and collect another fuel blob which then moved the powerup selection to 'increase firepower' and so on. This way you could pick and choose which powerups you wanted.

Once you had powered your ship up (you needed to as the game progressed too) you could dole out plenty of destruction to the alien craft and eventually alien motherships.

There was plenty of fancy flying required to manouver around hazards and avoid asteriods - all whilst trying to not be hit by enemy fire. All in all Zynaps was straightforward arcade blasting action in the traditional style which managed to get the balance of playability and difficulty just right. Hewson also managed to create nice and colourful graphics with barely any of the dreaded Spectrum attribute clash - more slick programming.

Zynaps proved that there was still plenty of life left in the shoot em up genre by 1987 if it was executed properly.

On Release:
Fans of shoot em ups and the Nemesis arcade game loved this effor from Hewson. It was slick, playable, hard (but fair) and highly addictive. ZX Spectrum gamers bible Crash magazine awared the game an overall score of 91% praising it for it's polished presentation and overall addictive qualities. It was well worth the asking price of £7.95 too. Zynaps was yet another big hit for Hewson, who barely put a foot wrong during the Speccy years.

The test of time:
Well here in Spectrum Games we still dig out Zynaps every now and again for a quick blast. The game is still playable and for pure old-school arcade action you can't really go wrong. Still playable, still fun, Zynaps is a true classic game.

Hone those reflexes and load it up - it's still good.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair Hardware but if not them download zynaps for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Scrolling arcade game
RELEASE DATE: Summer of 1987
RELEASED BY: Hewson
DEVELOPER(S): Dominic Robinson, Stephen Crow, Steve Turner
PRICE: £7.95 - UK

Flying a manoeuvrable fighter through 16 levels of horizontally-scrolling space environments, you encounter four types of enemy craft.

The small flying ships are easily destroyed, but ground installations are tougher and command ships are heavily armed. Giant mother ships appear at later levels; asteroids and flying debris also threatening your fighter.

But for protection you have a speed-up facility, pulse lasers, plasma bombs to destroy ground bases, homing missiles and seeker missiles.

Apart from a basic laser system, all weaponry is activated - or its power increased - by scooping floating fuel units into the craft.

An indicator shows what equipment will be activated when another unit of pink fuel, made available when alien ships are destroyed, is taken onboard. But each weapons system is only activated for a limited time...

The seeker missiles are the most powerful: when they're activated, you earn a thousand-point bonus and the cycle of weapon-acquisition begins again.

Destroying alien ships and bases earns you points, of course; bonus lives are given when you reach 10,000 points and with every further 20,000 points.

Producer: Hewson
Price: £7.99
Author: Dominic Robinson



Your yellow fighter attacks the aliens, but near the ground is a red floating power unit which could be scooped up.

CRITICISM
"It seemed like ages since I had a really enjoyable alien-blasting session; Hewson came to the rescue with Zynaps. The graphics are great, the sound's fine, and the use of colour is excellent, though the concept - collecting add-ons for your ship - is hardly original. Zynaps is really enjoyable; it has reams of playability and stacks of addictivity, and I like it, okay?"

MIKE

"If you resisted buying Nemesis, you'll be happy to hear Hewson have come up with the ultimate in Nemesis clones: Zynaps is one of the most attractive shoot-'em-ups. Colour is used to its full potential - but fortunately every character holds onto its own colour blocks. The action is fast and furious, with collision-detection very precise, and the baddies are very well animated in the greatest detail. Zynaps is total blast-'em-up fun - I wouldn't mind paying full price for a game as slick as this."

PAUL

"What starts out looking like a glorified shoot-'em-up almost instantly mutates into a satisfyingly frustrating and highly addictive action-packed game, with that 'just one more go' feeling that the old arcade Scramble generated. Add to that Dominic Robinson and Steve Crow's unique touch with graphics and a suitably blasting soundtrack, and you have some fun-filled hours. If you're bored with mindless blasting stay well clear; but healthy hands, clear eyes and steady minds will find with Zynaps that a classy shoot-'em-up can still be fresh and exciting."

RICKY



Whoops! You run into a floating blue bomb and explode...

COMMENTS
Control keys: definable; left, right, up, down and fire required
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: good size and detail, lovely explosions, smooth scrolling
Sound: great upbeat title tune by Steve Turner (even on 48K) and plenty of arcade spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolls through 450
General rating: a first rate shoot-'em-up with the magical ingredients for high addictivity


Presentation 90%
Graphics 93%
Playability 92%
Addictive qualities 91%
Overall 91%