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Zub was a platform / shoot em up game developed for the budget label Mastertronic, and was the first game developed by John Pickford and Ste Pickford working together as a team.

This was another game with a 12 or 16 week deadline. By this time we'd given up telling the management that we couldn't make decent games in this amount of time, and started more or less ignoring the deadlines completely and just making the game the way we thought it should be made.

However, Zub was still released in what we felt was an unfinished state, even though it included a free, hidden game called Lightfarce.

Ste Pickford writes: "I remember that Binary Design had expanded and reorganised a little by this point, and had split development up into multiple teams. Each team consisted of a Spectrum programmer, an Amstrad programmer, and a C64 Programmer, one of whom was designated as Team Leader, all of whom sat together working on the same game.

We couldn't justify a dedicated artist per team at that point, so the 3 or 4 artists and one musician sat at one end of the room we all shared, and served the 5 or 6 development teams taking up the rest of the space.

Zob (as it was originally called) was a great project to work on, as it was the first time we (well, John mainly) had been given free reign to create our own game. We didn't start with a title or license or 'high concept' from the publisher. John came up with the concept for the game from scratch, and pushed it forward within the studio to get it made. In that respect this game marks the true beginning of our development career, as this method of originating game concepts and getting them made (often through force of sheer will) in environments not always friendly to original ideas has been the pattern we've followed together ever since.

Consequently I've got a real affection for my Zob character. Its just a shame we didn't get to finish the game off properly. The game is a bit lightweight, even by the standards of the day, as we weren't allowed the time we wanted to add a few more planned features, like bonus items and pickups, which would have fleshed the game out a bit.

In those days we had no formal testing process, and a game was only any good if the people working on it actually played it and tweaked the gameplay, rather than just programming features until it was considered complete. I remember John would spend a lot of time just running and jumping around with Zob, making small adjustments to gravity values, jump height, movement speed etc., to get the feel he wanted. Not only was this relatively unusual within the studio, it also used to get him into trouble as he was spending the days working on parts of the code already marked as 'complete' on the development schedule, and thus he was considered responsible for making the game late.

This was a time of working constant late nights and weekends, all unpaid, and although there was a fair amount of pressure we were working those hours because we wanted our game to be as good as it could be, not because the boss made us. Plus we were both such geeks that we didn't drink or have girlfriends at this time, so we also had nothing better to do, hehe."

What noise do bees make when they fly backwards? Zub, zub. And coincidently, Zub just happens to be the name of MASTERTRONIC's latest release on their MAD label, which, strangely enough, is nothing to do with bees. Originally titled Zob, the name was changed after someone pointed out that Zob is in fact a rather rude word in French.

Zub is a small planet in the Zub galaxy. It is populated by Zubs who fight wars with Zubs from other planets. Right now Zub is in a bit of a pickle. Some nasty thieving Zub has walked off with the valuable Green Eyeball of Zub. It is your job as Zub Private, Third Class, in the glorious army of Zub1 to go and get it back.

In the game the player controls the hero, called originally enough, Zub. Zubs are genetically created creatures who's sole task in life is to fight. This particular Zub happens to be a coward and will need your coaxing to get him through his mission.

You must guide Zub around the planets in search for the Green Eyeball. There is a teleport station located in orbit above each of the planets in the system. Zub has to use small floating platforms in order to get up into the planet's atmosphere. These must be jumped on by Zub and then moved so that he can jump to the next platform and so on until he reaches the teleport station. From the station he can travel to other planets in the system. A chart to the right of the main screen shows Zub's progress towards each teleport station.

Each planet has its own security droids who are fairly keen to stop Zub making any progress. Some of these Droids are relatively harmless and will only push Zub off his platform if they touch him. However, on some of the planets there are armed droids and these will do far more damage to Zub. Zub must shoot each alien as it progresses down for the top of the screen towards him. If shot the droid will flee back to the top of the screen and start its progress downwards again. The position of each nasty is shown on the same map showing Zub's progress.

A picture of zub in his space suit shows how much energy he has left. As his energy depletes his internal skeleton is gradually revealed until he collapses in a heap of dried bones when all his life force has been sapped away.

There are five skill levels in the game and the player gets to choose which level to play at the beginning of the game. These levels range from Easy, Peasy to Aaaargh (probably quite hard!)



CRITICISM
'I was expecting yet another boring old arcade adventure while this loaded up, so my eyes bulged a little when I first saw the two title screens. After my Initial shock had passed I went on to play the game, unfortunately it didn't really live up to the great attract mode but it is a good bit of mindless arcade action all the same. Graphically, there is little variation from level to level. The sound is dull although the 128K version is admittedly a lot better. On the whole I really like this, OK perhaps it isn't the best presented of games but it plays very well.'

'There's very little in the way of originality these days so it's pleasing to see something like Zub which doesn't bring back memories of other tried and tested formats. Zub, the game, is just about as much fun as the title screen which has to be one of the best I've seen in ages - especially the parody on the Bond films. On the 128 the music is excellent with a really boppy tune that plays throughout. T he game itself is great stuff and if you don't know what to do with your next three quid then Zub is a must!'

'The presentation in Zub is spectacular to say the least. The 007 bit at the beginning of the game is very well done, and the menu screen and the 128 versions's sound are extremely well designed. But the game I found quite boring to play, although graphically it is very pleasing and smoothly animated. The game is a very basic platform game, that gets very laborious after your first game. I found the game very easy to play, but too simple for any serious game. Zub is a decent enough game for a 'budget price, but wouldn't be in my tape recorder very long.'

COMMENTS
Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: hard to get the hang of at first
Use of colour: restrained
Graphics: brilliant title screen, simple in the game
Sound: the odd beep on the 48K. Played on the Spectrum Plus 2 is far more interesting aurally
Skill levels: five
Screens: ten three by three arenas
General Rating: Polished presentation, simple but catchy little game.

Use of Computer 84%
Graphics 79%
Playability 81%
Getting Started 76%
Addictive Qualities 73%
Value for Money 82%
Overall 79%