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Review

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Huge playlist archive with AY / GFX improved games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3t74YnYAJA9p4vMQYZYCJWX
INTRODUCTION (From the manual):
PHANTOM F4 l is an action-packed game in American action adventure movie style. A group of armed terrorists broke into the apartment of a Slovakian millionaire and kidnapped his only daughter. The terrorists escaped and flied to one of the Pacific islands where they have their base. The base is heavily guarded and the terrorists wants a big ransom for setting her free. The millionaire offers a big reward for saving his daughter, and you are playing as the PHANTOM F4 pilot who accidently heard about this. Will you be able to save his daughter?

REVIEW:
This is a flip screen horizontal shooter where you have to make your way to the right all the time. Your health and ammo is not unlimited, but it is possible to find first aid kits and ammo as you proceed. You have to carefully choose your priority of how to use and how to collect those two thing to succeed in the mission, which adds tactical elements to the game. There is also a time limit, you have to complete the mission in less than 10 minutes.

You can go left and right and certain places you can chose if you want to go up on a higher ground (by pressing right + up) or stay on the lower ground (pressing right). If you are on the low ground you can press up when firing for shooting the terrorists on the high ground, and if you are on the high ground you can press down for shooting the terrorists on the low ground.

A quite entertaining game that plays well and has some nice graphics. Some places it even features water reflections. Originally it was a 48k game, this version has got AY menu music and AY in game music added by MKHG, but it is a shame the 48k beeper fx has been removed.

There is a sequel to this game, and both games are in this disc version, this is why the “Press SPACE for second part” message is showed when completing the game. Originally they were released as two separate games.

The game was published by Ultrasoft in 1992.

Rating:
Original 48k version: 85%
Unofficial 128k version: 88%

If you do not have a Spectrum with Beta Disk / TR-dos disc drive this version can also run on ZX Spectrum Next and emulators. The game can run on a standard ZX Spectrum 128k with tape recorder if someone changes the loading routine to tape format.

48k tape: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games/p/PhantomF4I.tap.zip
128k Beta Disk / TR-dos: https://vtrd.in/gamez/p/PHANTOM_.ZIP