The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 194

8 Sunday, January 16, 1983 Philadelphia Inquirer LEISURE Tron seems too complex, dSE but Zaxxon game is a winner 1 I W3 WK" iiH2, '-'4 By Steve Stecklow Inquirer Stall WriKr The recent Christmas shopping season brought forth a host of new video game cartridges. Here's a sampling: (Please note that all game cartridges in this and future columns will be assigned a star-rating, based on their graphics, sound effects, originality, challenge and how long they sustain a player's interest: five stars will mean excellent, four stars will be very good, three will be good, two fair and one poor. Tron MazeaTron (Mattel, for Intel-livision, list price $29.95) An extremely complex, one-player maze game, based on the Walt Disney movie Tron, in which the player attempts to disable a computer. On his way through the machine's innards, a little man controlled by the disc encounters a vast array of computer parts, including ram chips, transformers, resistors, bus lines and bi pairs. Great stuff for a real computer programmer, maybe, but for a layman, the technology fails to do much more tbin cause frustration.

The maze seems almost endless (just as in Mattel's football cartridge, the television screen slowly scrolls the playfield) and the movement, in contrast to other maze games like Pac-Man, is plodding. I played the game for more than an hour without scoring a single point or moving on to the cartridge's second phase. That phase, which can more easily be reached through the game's practice mode, features the "Master Control Program." a monstrous figure that fires laser blasts from its eyes while the player rushes to shoot at columns of numbers that slowly move up its sides. If this all sounds confusing, it is, and the accompanying 24-pagc instruction manual offers little help. In fact, if you're the type of person who tends to grow uncomfortable around computers, I suggest you avoid this game entirely.

A few minutes with it and you may never be able to look at a computer again. Zaxxon (Coleco, for Colecovision, list price $49.95) A steep price, yes. but in terms of graphics and faithfulness to an arcade game, this is probable the finest home-video game on the market. For those who've never seen it, Zaxxon is a space game in which the player must maneuver a plane-like spacecraft over a simulated three-dimensional asteroid fortress. The brilliantly colored, futuristic asteroid is lined with walls, radar fields, fuel tanks, gun turrets and missile bases, and the player must do battle with an onslaught of enemy planes, missiles and a series of robots.

The graphics here are remarkably close to the arcade version, and in some ways the play is even better. The home game offers four degrees of difficulty, enabling the player to advance from a beginner speed with extra spacecraft to a level that is even more challenging than the arcade machine. Also two players can play, each taking turns. Fifty dollars may seem like a lot to spend on a video cartridge, but if you're intrigued by space games, this one makes Space Invaders look like an antique. Frogger (Parker Brothers, for Atari 2600, $29.95) Another copy of a popular arcade game, this one challenges a player to maneuver a frog across busy road and water traffic.

Much can be said about how poor the simulation is on most Atari 2600-compatible games. But Frogger is an exception. The graphics and sound effects are impressive, and the play (for one or two players with varying degrees of difficulty) is virtually arcade-comparable. Frogger falls into the "cute" category of video games. While it can't be said that it is nonviolent the player's frogs inevitable get crushed it is infinitely more innocent than the scores of shoot-andkill games that inundate the market.

It's a great game for children and, it must be added, quite addictive for adults, too. Spider-Man (Parker Brothers, for Atari 2600, $29.95) Another impressive game from the makers of Monopoly, this one featuring the famous comic book character. This is a one- or two-player climbing game, with the goal to bring Spider-Man up a tall building and defuse a bomb at the top. The webbed creature has a limited supply of "web fluid," which allows him to climb, and he must combat small time bombs, "criminals" who appear in open windows, and his arch-enemy, the evil Green Goblin. The graphics are quite nice, with Spider-Man able, with practice, to swing across windows and shoot up the various stories.

Make it to the top and the game begins again with a more dilficult skyscraper of a different color. Make a mistake and Spider-Man becomes Spider-Mush. A challenging, fun game for children of all ages. 4. .67.

4 m. "tu at in terms of graphics and faithfulness pains in the video Zaxxon lists for $49.95, but industry Citing the "uncertain economic and market environment," Victor Co. of Japan recently suspended plans to produce a new type of video disc player as part of a joint venture with General Electric Co. and Britain's Thorn-EMI PLC. There has been a slowing of the growth rate of cable and pay cable (premium services in addition to a basic cable subscriber package) in the United States.

A Knowledge Industry newsletter, Home Video Cable Report, recently estimated that basic cable subscriptions were up 12 percent and pay cable subscription were up 21 percent through the first nine months of 1982, well behind their respective growth rates in 1981. A shakeout In video retailing is taking place in the United States and Europe, resulting from too many retail outlets, the high cost of carrying inventory and confusion over rental and sales policies on prerecorded Growing By Charles Storch Oiktifo THtaint Strvlct The worldwide market for video program products wilt expand rapidly in the next few years, with the fastest growth expected outside the United Stales, according to a study by a communications research firm. Worldwide consumer spending on such entertainment products as vi-deocasscttcs, video discs, cable television and pay cable TV should grow at a compound annual rate of 21 percent the next three years, rising from $7 billion in 1982 to $12.7 billion in 1985. That forecast, released recently by Knowledge Industry Publications Inc. of White Plains, N.Y., indicates that the U.S.

market will remain the world's largest for video programming for some time. But the U.S. share of worldwide consumer spending on video programs should fall from 67 percent in 1982 to 59 percent New releases in videotapes A selective check ol FMadeiphia tfes eo stores discloses that ttiese releases tune been received recently and ate tor s.r? or rent at most video outlets. THE SPY WHO LOVEO ME (1977) lavish James Bond adventuie teams 0C7 (Roger Moore) with a sexy Soviet aof-nt (Barbara Bach). Together they try to toil the plans of arch-villain Stromberg (Cu't Jur-gens) tor world destruction.

(CBS Fox v.ooo) THE END (1978) Director and Wni Burt Reynolds has an all-star cast help him in this black comedy about a man who le.vs he is dying and decides to kill himself DeLuise Is tunny as Reynolds' sanitarium pal. and Burt's final speed is great (in the uncensored version). Also s'a-s Sally Field. Joanne Woodward. Knsty McN-chol.

Robby Benson. David Steinberg Norman Fell. Carl Reiner, Pat O'Brien. M)wa Loy. (20th Century-Fox Video) THE EUROPEANS (1979) Drector James Ivory's meticulous film captures anJ re-creates this novel by the meticulous writer Henry James.

Set New England the I9in century, this classic is about two lortune-seeking foreigners and the disruption that they create when they visit their sober American relatives-. Slow paced, but le all Q(3 things, well worth the wait. Stars lee Rem. Robin Ellis, Wesley Addy. Tim Chonte.

I Eichorn. (Veitron Video) in 1985 as consumers abroad, particu larly in Europe, Japan and Canada, outpace the spending rate of video-philcs in this country. U.S. spending on video programs is estimated to increase from $4.68 billion in 1982 to $7.45 billion in 1985. while spending in the rest of the world more than doubles from $2.34 billion in 1982 to $5.26 billion in 1985.

The study doesn't cover video games or information or transaction al services (shopping and banking, for example) on cable TV, and thus may understate spending. Although it forecasts robust, long-term growth for entertainment programs, which are now predominantly motion pictures, the study acknowledges several areas of near-term concern. Among them: An oversupply of vidcocassettc recorders (VCRs), primarily from Japanese manufacturers, has resulted in a buildup of Inventories equivalent to half a year's sales in the United States and two-thirds of a year's sales in Europe. The oversupply has led to deep price-cutting around the world. In Europe, the world's largest market for VCRs.

France, is leading a move to stem the invasion of the Japanese machines. The government insists imported VCRs move through tiny island customs houses accompanied by forms written in French, and it is levying a tax on VCR owners. The French government-owned Thomson-Brandt Group has created an alliance of European firms to develop a new VCR. There is widespread discounting in blank videotapes because of an increase in production and a slow-down in demand. Videodisc player sales are selling below expectations in the United States and are a disaster In Japan.

Sales of prerecorded discs for the machines, which can play back but not record, have especially in the United States exceeded expectations. th cr in pl pi sc pt as a at al cc li al pi is It.