** 1 page review / 660 words **

Power Up

It's pedal to the metal time with Shiuming Lai as your demon driver...

If you're in search of some armchair racing action between Grand Prix and Indy weekends check out this new release from MC Soft. Power Up is essentially a Super Sprint clone, in the modern style, with a big scrolling playfield like Gremlin's Super Cars series.

There are two distinct modes of play:
** bulleted list **
* Straightforward race against other cars to finish within a qualifying position - this can also be played by two people on a split-screen display.
* Duel mode, where two players share a screen. If one player lags so far behind they would be disappear off screen a penalty point is incurred and the computer re-positions the two cars to an equal position and the race continues.
** end list **

After choosing the game mode it's straight down to the tracks which are well depicted using 32 colours. Controlling the nicely animated cars is a matter of steering and changing gears (high, low and reverse) - acceleration is automatic. This is a departure from the method employed in other similar racers, which involves pushing the stick to accelerate forwards/backwards. After a bit of perseverance it's much more satisfying then the traditional method and strikes a better balance between realism and fun.

Scrolling is a bit jerky, even on an STe. However, the main problem is the players' cars zoom right to the edge of the screen when driving at top speed, instead of remaining centred. This is a necessity when playing in duel mode but is otherwise inappropriate, because there's no chance to anticipate any hazards that may lie ahead.

Each of the tracks has a password reflecting the various themes, such as desert and snow. The passwords play an important role because car handling varies accordingly. If the supplied tracks aren't challenging enough, or you've mastered them all, you can design your own! Using the track editor you can construct some really fiendish circuits to torture your friends!

Sensibly Power Up supports all Atari machines, including the TT, with options to use whatever hardware extras are available, including DMA stereo sound and Blitter chips. There's even support for up to five different sound cartridges for replay music. All these options are controlled from simple menus accessed directly from the title screen.

Power Up gets a thumbs up for being hard disk installable - sadly still a rarity amongst commercial Atari games software. NVDI must be disabled because, according to the authors, a bug in NVDI causes a conflict. Power Up also runs happily from ST medium resolution - although the track editor insists on ST low. In-between races a tournament style scoreboard encourages the just one more go syndrome and nicely rounds off a good value for money package. Power Up doesn't thrash the hardware, which is probably only apparent to Falcon owners, but in this instance the actual speed isn't as important as the gameplay.

** Product box **
Product name: Power Up
Publisher: MC Soft/Karel Rous
Email: Karel_Rous@p11.f16.n421.z2.fido.cz
Tel: +042-05/571 682

Distribution:
UK: Floppyshop, PO Box 273, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. AB15 8GJ
Tel: +44 (0)1224 312756
Email: sdelaney@steil.wintermute.co.uk
Cost: £12 + P&P (1.00 UK, 2.00 EU)

Australia, NZ and Oceania: Anthony Green
Email: ac_green@tassie.net.au
BBS: +(03) 6225 3491

USA: Systems For Tomorrow
Email: sales@SystemsForTomorrow.com

Requires: Any Atari, 1Mb memory, 320x200 resolution (ST low), Powerpad optional
Pros: Plenty of depth and variety, sampled sound
Cons: Can't see much beyond the front bumper when driving fast!
Scores:
Graphics: 83%
Sound: 85%
Gameplay: 88%
Overall: 85%

** End of boxout **

** Captions **
** HIGHTECH.GIF **
Looks like I've taken a wrong turning into the local industrial estate!
** DUEL.GIF **
Sunday drivers need not apply
** NEXTTRAK.GIF **
Another gruelling race to prepare for
** SNOW.GIF **
No time to stop for tea and cakes or snowball fights
** MAP_EDIT.GIF **
Put away your clunky old bits of car track - we're talking virtual Scalextric!
** DESERT.GIF **
It's too hot in here, where's the sunroof?
** end captions **