** 1 page review / 600 words **

Power Up

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

Relax, I can drive, just not legally! Anybody in search of some armchair 
racing action could do well to 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 off the 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, it's straight down to the tracks which are well 
epicted 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 in a particular 
direction. It may not be to everyone's taste at first, but it does strike 
a balance between realism and fun. Once mastered it's a lot more satisfying 
than the other method - so persevere!

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, rather than being centred. This is actually a necessity of the duel 
mode but is otherwise inappropriate, because it's impossible to see what 
hazards 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 then design your own! Using the track editor you 
can design some really fiendish circuits to torture your friends!

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

Power Up gets a thumbs up for being hard disk installable - sadly a rarity 
amongst commercial Atari games software. It also runs happily from ST 
medium resolution - although the track editor insists on ST low. NVDI must 
be disabled in order to play Power Up - according to the authors a bug in 
NVDI causes a conflict. A tournament style scoreboard in-between races 
promotes healthy competition and rounds off a pretty good value package. 
It doesn't thrash the hardware to any great extent so maybe Falcon owners 
will notice this more than ST owners but in this instance the gameplay is 
more important than the speed it runs at.

** 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: œ12 + 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 **