Jackal (1987)

Jackal is an arcade shoot-em-up released in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum 48K. Published by Konami Ltd, the game was developed by David Whitehouse, Stephen Lockley, and Adrian Carless, based on the original Konami arcade coin-op.

The title supports up to two players and offers flexible control options, including Kempston Joystick, Interface 2, and redefineable keys. It features a custom screen loader to enhance the presentation of the arcade-style action.

The cassette version retailed for £7.95. The game was also released on other platforms, including Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and the NES.

The game holds an average magazine score of 58.92%. Reviews varied, with Sinclair User and Your Sinclair both awarding it 7/10, while Crash rated it at 47% and ACE gave it a score of 487/1000.

In Russia, the game gained significant traction, resulting in numerous TR-DOS versions released by groups such as M.M.A, Power of Sound, and BrokImSoft. A Russian translation was also produced by Chip and SVS'94. Its popularity is further evidenced by a wide variety of cracked cassette versions from crackers like CSL and Chris.