Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Game Bytes Issue 09
BATTLES OF DESTINY by QQP
Reviewed by James D. Pipes
QQP is at it again, putting out yet another way to take over this world
and many others. Battles of Destiny (BOD) is a solid entry into the genre
of Empire-like games that has arisen over the last few years.
BOD is a strategic game with overtones of tactical considerations. The
maps are built out of the now-traditional squares, and they wrap around
into donut-like toroids. The units are little drawings of infantry,
tanks, planes and the like, although they are neatly executed (heh heh
heh) and erupt into little puffs of battle whenever they meet the enemy.
The grapics require EGA or VGA, and are quite crisp and pleasing in VGA.
The game allows the player to proceed through a number of fixed scenarios
as a campaign, or to call up any of the stored maps for a stand-alone
game, or even to design a new map. As in their earlier games, statistics
are kept on each player; this area has been cleaned up a bit to make it a
little less confusing. There is now one chart which tracks each players'
progress, so that they can easily be compared to each other.
The natural start to the game is to begin a campaign. This brings up a
chart which is a bit like a flow chart. After the first game is won -
each game is replayed until won, at which point the player advances - the
next higher level of the chart becomes active. This usually means two
different games will be offered. Completing either one allows access to
the next level, and so forth through several screens worth of "Easy" and
then "Hard" games. At any level, any earlier game may be replayed.
There are two campaigns.
Games are played until a certain number of turns has passed, or until a
fixed number of victory points are reached by one player. At this point,
the game is over, but the player can opt to continue indefinitely, should
the desire to completely eradicate the enemy leap out and strangle the
desire to move on to the next slugfest.
There are up to 3 computer opponents for each game, and humans can play
against each other in the single-game mode. There is also a modem-play
option, which I have not been able to test. However, the manual devotes
a chapter to it which answers the usual questions and attempts to
anticipate the most common problems players will encounter in setup.
This is a good sign, and one that more companies with modem options
should consider.
The opponents range across nine levels of ability, and the levels are
mixed in the campaign games I have played so far. They do not get any
advantages over the human player, and are disturbingly able at responding
to the use of specific tactics. This means that the human players have to
hit the ground running. If the computer players are allowed to build up
undisturbed, they will simply out-compete the human in terms of points and
capabilities, and it is hard to come back from behind against them. What
this boils down to is that the human needs to spend some time figuring out
what the particular map in use allows in the way of strategic growth. An
island map will require airmobile units with eventual naval support; a
large plain will be a fast-movers' battle; mountains become combined arms
areas. All scenarios require a good mix of airpower. Add to the turn-
limit or point thresholds the consideration that the size of the map can
vary from tiny to huge, and the strategic concerns can easily trip the
player up the first time through. Both I and my roommate, who have a
truly time-wasting history of wargaming between us, found ourselves losing
a few games as we progressed through the campaign. This is of course a
good sign!
As in all games of this type, cities serve as production areas. In this
game, there are stacking limits, although I have rarely seen them
reached. Units are rated for attack, defense, movement, damage capacity,
fuel, vulnerability to missles, range and sighting range. Cities build
units, taking a larger number of turns to produce the first of a type for
that city, then churning out more fast as their industrial level (1-6)
permits. They can also improve their industrial level and repair and
refuel units. All of these features allow the full range of strategic
warfare, from distant shelling of cities and strongpoints from artillery
or naval units, to the execution of full-scale anti-production bombing
campaigns. There are 20 different unit types overall - 4 land-based, 3
air, 12 naval and an early-warning/missile base unit for the
discriminating cold warrior. The range of unit types is satisfyingly
complete.
As for strategy and tactics, I found that there were a number of ways to
expand quickly. Fast-moving ground units can scurry about the map taking
cities, which can then produce more of these same units to allow a
geometric rate of growth, or build infantry defenders to settle in for
the long haul. Air transports can carry infantry or artillery long
distances over impassable terrain for heliborne assaults - provided that
they don't run into the odd enemy fighter, which seem to live for the
treat of devouring hard-won production as airborne canapes. Of course,
using any of these tactics will produce a response from the computer.
Sometimes it will mirror your efforts - a rapidly expanding empire will
run into another being built the same way, and both sides will scramble to
put in their neglected defenses before being overrun. At other times,
the computer will put together a massive ground force to respond to
airborne assaults, and sweep across the map with a dozen or so artillery
units pounding all resistance into bouncing dust to reclaim what the
player took, and then some. All of this is complicated by the annoying
tendency of combat to reduce cities, making it harder to build new units
until the industry is repaired.
The one small gripe I have with the game is that it is based heavily on
the results of the players initial expansion. The use of production
means that expansion is the overall goal, and so some nifty strategic
elements tend to become submerged in the rush to get cities by any means
possible. I have an idea that this can be fixed with clever scenario
designs, but I still wish that brute force was just a little less likely
to win out in the end. This has not taken away from my enjoyment of this
game, it is just an observation on the flavor of the strategies which
work.
As for the physical components of the game, it does not take up much disk
space - about 2.5 meg and you're set. The manual is the usual QQP fare,
around 80 pages. It contains a lot of useful tables and information, and
some of the more complicated maps are reproduced in black and white in
the back. There is a very colorful, well-designed reference sheet which
is paradoxically printed on fairly flimsy high-gloss paper. It is good to
see a company keep component costs down while still providing lots of
information for the player, but a heavy stock reference sheet would be a
welcome addition.
QQP has done well with Battles of Destiny. It is a good balance of
detail and playability, and addresses a fairly well-known topic with the
right degree of favorite features and new angles. New players will find
it an easy to learn game with a lot of replay potential; grognards will
respond to the "familiar but improved" nature of the game. If you are
looking for a good strategic game with map design, modem play and face-
to-face capabilities, this is an excellent choice. Fans of this
relatively new company can add another solid achievement to their
libraries.
Battles of Destiny runs in EGA and VGA, requires about 2.5 meg of disk
and has document based copy protection. A mouse is strongly recommended.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by James D. Pipes. All rights reserved.
ED. Enjoy these two reviews of Castles II.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CASTLES II: SIEGE AND CONQUEST by Interplay
Reviewed by Michael Wang
Min System: IBM PC 286 or 100% compatible, 640K, DOS 3.1, hard drive
Graphics: EGA, VGA (MCGA not supported)
Sound: Adlib, Adlib Gold, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro,
Pro-Audio Spectrum, Roland MT-32/LAPC-1/SCC-1
Input: Microsoft Mouse
Copy Prot: Manual lookup
Other: Mouse recommended
CASTLES II: SIEGE AND CONQUEST, published by Interplay, is the follow-up to
their CASTLES game. CASTLES II combines elements from CASTLES and Koei's
strategy games like ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, with a bit of
Cinemaware's DEFENDER OF THE CROWN thrown in for good measure.
The object of the game is to accumulate enough victory points to be
declared king of the fictional land of Bretagne (which is based on 14th
century France) by the Pope. The main ways this is accomplished is by
conquering territory, accumulating resources like gold, and building
castles. The castle building part has been toned-down quite a bit from the
original, both in its detail and its importance during the game, which
makes the game title slightly misleading. You can still design your own
castles, but the building part is handled automatically -- you no longer
have to recruit builders, figure out the optimum balance among your
workforce, etc.
To achieve this goal of being crowned king, you need to skillfully managed
your (hopefully) growing empire by allocating the resources you have
available to you towards performing certain tasks. The tasks themselves are
divided into three main categories: Administrative, Military, and
Political. Each category allows you to perform certain actions. For
example, the Administrative tasks includes actions like refining gold or
building a castle, the Military task includes actions like recruiting some
infantry or invading another territory, and the Political task includes
actions like spying on another territory or sending a diplomat to make an
alliance with another lord.
You have a certain amount of points available for each task category. When
you want to perform a certain task (like refine some gold) you need to
allocate a minimum number of points to that task. You can also allocate
more than the minimum number of points if you wish to improve the
efficiency of that task. Once a task is assigned it will continue until it
is finished or you interrupt it. At the beginning of the game, you can
only perform one task from each of the three categories at one time. As you
continue to perform tasks, the number of points in each category will
slowly increase and at a certain point you will gain the ability to do two
tasks at the same time from a particular category (but two is the limit).
Many of the tasks require you to expend some resources. For example,
recruiting infantry will use up some of your iron and gold. Building a
castle will require some food, iron, gold, and quite a bit of timber and
stone. Each territory that you conquer contains a particular resource that
you can gather, so it becomes important to conquer enough territories to
support the tasks that you wish to perform.
Meanwhile, as you are trying to build up your empire, there are four other
computer-controlled lords trying to the same thing as you, so it is
inevitable that you will bump into one or more of them as you expand. At
this point, you have the option of trying to conquer them militarily, or,
if you have lots of gold, you can send over diplomats to try to bribe them
to be your friend. Managing relations with these other players is tricky
since at some point you may need to attack one of your neighbors, but you
don't want the other players pissed at you since they will start trying to
sabotage your empire or even attack you directly.
Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the game. The way armies are
handled in this game is really poor. Instead of having individual armies
stationed in territories and moving them around to defend or attack, you
sort of have this abstract pool of men that aren't located anywhere. When
you attack a territory, you have to wait the same amount of time (which is
quite lengthy) to move your troops to that territory no matter where your
previous attack was. In other words, if I attack one territory and then
decide to attack a territory next to it, the setup time for the second
attack is the same as an attack on a territory one the opposite side of the
board as the first. However, when it comes to defending, suddenly your army
has rocket boosters and will show up in whichever territory of yours is
attacked. Now obviously this game doesn't strive for realism, but it really
awkward the way they handled this. I would have much rather preferred
having armies that I could position where I needed them for attack or
defense like the Koei games.
Another gripe is that there seems to be an undocumented limit on how big an
army you can have at one time. It seems to be dependent on how many
territories you control, but I can't quite figure it out. The limitation is
a problem, because if another player gets ahead of you in territory size
later in the game, it becomes almost impossible to defeat him militarily
because his army will usually be bigger than yours, and with the teleport
feature, he will always outnumber you if you attack him.
The game mechanics and presentation in CASTLES II are decent. Everything
can be controlled with a mouse, though I would have preferred having a few
more keyboard shortcuts. The graphics are good, but nothing spectacular.
The music is nice but repetitive (which you can turn off) and the other
sound effects are functional. The manual does a good job of explaining how
the game works, and the manual lookup copy protection scheme is better than
most since you only have to do a lookup once at the beginning of each new
game, instead of everytime you start the program.
Some of the other features of the game include a semi-random plotline and
digitized movie clips that play during certain parts of the game. The plots
feature will be familiar to CASTLES players. Plots are events that come up
randomly during the game that require your attention. For example, some of
your troops may get poisoned requiring you to deal the poisoner. You may
have to mediate disputes between towns, some noble may offer their daughter
to you for marriage, and so on. Each of these events can have a small
effect on your kingdom. How you handle it determines if the effect will be
positive or negative. The reason why the plots are "semi-random" is that
there is only a fixed number of events that can happen. After you have
played a number of games, the events, and their proper solutions, will
become known to you and lose some of their appeal. Fortunately, you can
turn off this feature if you don't want to be bothered by them.
Digitized movie clips is another feature that can be turned on and off. If
it is on, then during certain parts of the game a small B&W movie will
briefly play on the screen. For example, if you invade a territory, you get
to see your men rushing to battle, or if you lose a territory you can watch
yourself agonize over the defeat. It is fun to watch the movies the first
few times you play, but they too lose their appeal.
Winning is actually a challenge, at least initially. There are three
difficulty settings, but even on the easiest setting, it will take quite a
few games before you become proficient enough to win consistently. The
strategy that worked best for me was to grab as much territory as I could
without attacking another player, consolidating that territory by building
castles at strategic locations, and then accumulating as much gold as
possible and building my army to maximum size. To facilitate the
consolidation of territory I would try to make friends with all of my
neighbors, greatly reducing the threat of attack. By cultivating friendly
relationships, you usually don't have to worry about fighting until the
very end, at which time your army can usually hold off attacks long enough
for you to be declared king.
CASTLES II, through its task interface, presents an interesting blend of
administrative, military, and political challenges for would be kings.
Unfortunately, the game has a number of problems with it that prevents me
from giving it an unqualified recommendation. However, those looking for
something simpler than the Koei games may find CASTLES II appealing.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Michael Wang. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CASTLES II: SIEGE AND CONQUEST by Interplay
Reviewed by Daniel J. Starr
Technical Specifications:
CPU: 12 Mhz 286 or faster
DOS: 3.1 or higher
Hard Disk: 11 MB with digitized movies, 6 MB without
Interface: Mouse [strongly recommended] or keyboard.
Graphics: EGA, 256-color VGA (MCGA not supported).
Sound: Adlib, Adlib Gold, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro,
Pro Audio Spectrum, Roland LAPC-1/MT-32/SCC-1.
CASTLES II: SIEGE AND CONQUEST (C2) is a high-level strategy wargame, in
which the player acts as one of five powers attempting to conquer
Bretagne, a twin of medieval France. Success is achieved by forming an
empire that is territorially, militarily and politically strong enough to
convince the Pope to recognize your claim to the throne. As in the
original Castles, gameplay in C2 is spiced up by 'plots', evolving and
entertaining storylines in which you must make decisions that can affect
the game. C2 also boasts digitized movie footage to accompany game
events. It's a playable and enjoyable game, with a slick design and
interface; the downside is that it doesn't allow for too much subtlety in
the player's actions.
At the start of the game, each of the five powers vying for Bretagne --
Aragon, Anjou, Burgundy, Valois, and Albion -- controls a single province
out of 36. The player recruits an army, takes over nearby neutral
provinces, builds castles to increase production and forestall revolts,
buys off some of his political rivals and takes out the others, all while
maintaining sufficiently good relations with the Pope to avoid
excommunication. When one's score -- determined not only by territories
held but also by army strength and the quality of one's political
relations, among other factors -- is sufficiently high, one petitions the
Pope for his endorsement as the new king of France.
C2 lets you perform these various activities as three kinds of tasks --
administrative (e.g. harvesting resources, building castles), military
(attacking, recruiting), and political (negotiating,spying). Each task
requires both 'task points' and resources. You start out with task points
of each type and gain more by successful completion of tasks using those
points. Resources include food, timber, iron and gold. You can have up
to two tasks of each kind running at any given time. Success depends on
coordinating your tasks to achieve your strategic goals. If you're
planning a war with one neighbor, you should negotiate peace with the
others; if you plan to build a castle, you need to stockpile sufficient
resources to support your other efforts while your workmen are busy
building it; and so forth.
Along the way, various plots will be brought to your attention, adding
spice to an occasionally routine game. These interactive storylines range
from comic to serious to fantastic: you may find yourself fending off a
dung-seller, raising a navy to fight pirates, or commissioning an
expedition to the golden kingdom of Prester John. Your decisions can have
concrete effects -- an expedient marriage might increase your political
rating, while a defeat at sea could cost you troops from your army.
The interface is very smooth. The game is 'real-time', advancing about
one day every 1.5 seconds on my 386/33 -- fast enough to give a sense of
dynamism, but slow enough that I never felt rushed. Clicking on a
province shows its status and gives you options to attack it, scout it,
etc. Clicking on the administrative, military or diplomatic rectangles
opens a general menu of that type. When an event takes place, you may be
treated to a clip of appropriate black & white digitized movie footage.
Taken from "Alexander Nevsky and the Private Lives of Henry VIII", some of
the scenes are hilarious -- my favorite is the one where the king
strangles his messenger. If a battle occurs, one can either let the
computer resolve it or control it manually from a 3/4 display of the
province. Designing castles occurs from the same display, and has been
greatly streamlined since Castles I. Copy protection is document look-up
-- "Sire, the man in the mask has escaped from the dungeon! I must ask
you a question to make sure of your identity..."
The game's only problem is a lack of subtlety in player options. In
theory, one can give orders to each individual unit in battle; in
practice, it's hard to do more than order a particular unit type (knights,
infantry, or archers) to stand or advance. Negotiations with other powers
are confined to buying them off; one can't make a defense treaty, offer to
join with them against another power, or demand they withdraw from some
border province. The layout of one's empire has no effect on attack or
defense: a nation with 10 border provinces to defend is at no
disadvantage over one with only 3, nor is there a way to garrison
provinces in expectation of an attack.
CASTLES II feels a bit like Risk -- it doesn't fully reflect real warfare
and empire building, but is still great fun to play. Wargaming purists
may want to pass on this title, but for those who are just looking for a
well-presented and entertaining game with that nifty medieval flavor,
CASTLES II fits the bill.
This review (C) Copyright 1993 by Daniel J. Starr. All rights reserved.
CYBER EMPIRES by SSI
Reviewed by Rob Fermier
I bought Cyber Empires, expecting it to be a moderate diversion for a few
hours. I figured that me and my friends would have some fun fighting each
other, Star Control style. As it turns out, the game completely devoured
my entire 4-day weekend! I really enjoyed this game a lot.
There are two basic modes to the game, unsurprisingly. The strategic mode
and the tactical mode. The strategic mode is nothing amazing, but is
pretty well done. The world of Orion is split up into 70-odd countries.
Each country is one of 5 terrain types -- coniferous(forest), arctic,
volcanic, desert, city. Each of the different terrain types influences how
effective the various kinds of 'mechs will be (well, they call them
cyborgs, but we all know that they're really 'mechs). You build factories
to build mechs to go out and conquer more countries so that you have more
money to build more factories to build more mechs. Sound familiar? The
strategic mode is made more interesting by the fact that the City
countries are worth much more than all the other types of countries but
are also the hardest to defend (you can't build fortifications on them and
you can't effectively use long-range weapons). The economics of the
system works pretty well -- you gradually shift from having far too little
production capacity to reaching a stable cash-influx vs. production-
capacity balance. The relative costs of the different kinds of 'mechs
versus the time to create them, the cost of more infrastructure, and the
industrial capacity that creating one will tie up is fairly well done.
The graphics for the map of Orion are quite nice also, although it is
unfortunately the same map every time you play. In general, the graphics
are nice although they never really completely blow you away. I haven't
gotten the chance to investigate the sound yet, although it supports
Adlib, Roland, and Soundblaster. Up to 5 players, any of whom can be
humans, can play the game, although you have to restart the game a couple
of times in 2-player mode before you get a fair starting position. You
have the option of fighting combats in a pure number-crunching mode -- the
computer determines who wins, who loses, and how much damage was
inflicted. But normally, one uses the tactical combat mode, which is what
makes the game shine.
In the tactical mode, the two 'mech armies slug it out with each other.
It's all from a birds-eye view of the battlefield. You control one of the
mechs, although there can be as many as 10 mechs on either side. The
computer controls all the mechs that you aren't using. You can cycle
through which mech you are controlling. The computer does a fairly good
job of controlling the other mechs. They don't (usually) shoot each other
in the back, and they are very good at going in for the kill. As one
might expect, they are technically very good (they don't make mistakes,
and they have good reaction times :-) but they aren't very creative. All
of the combat is in real time, and you see the missiles, lasers,
autocannons, and neutrino cannons firing away. The middle of a large
melee gets to be quite a hellstorm of fire flying back and forth.
The tactical mode really does a good job of transporting into the realm of
the game. While it isn't as powerful as the first person viewpoint of
Mechwarrior, you really do get the feel of being in an intense, live
combat. It is really cool to move around in formation with the other
mechs on your side and then open fire, or catch the enemy in a withering
crossfire. Some of the missions I have taken a mech away from the group
to go on a "solo" mission while the computer controlled mechs on my side
do the main diversion. It has really gotten my adrenaline pumping, let me
tell you! And while it is fun even against the computer, it is a LOT of
fun to go bashing on your friends. One should note that while arcade-like
ability is something of a factor here, the tactics of the situation are
generally MUCH more important (unlike Star Control).
The five different kinds of terrain affect the tactics of the situation
too. In arctic you can use your high-heat-generating weapons with some
freedom because everyone cools off faster. It also makes the heat-causing
weapons less effective. In desert and coniferous territories, you can
find water to stand in to make your heat-assaults from. In desert and
volcanic, you dissipate heat very slowly. And of course, in the lava-
lakes of the volcanic region, you build up heat very quickly!! The city
and coniferous countries (the two most common types to fight in) have a
lot of cover in the form of trees or buildings that have to be blasted
through or navigated around. This alone complicates the tactical
situation considerably.
The strategic mode interacts with the tactical mode nicely, in that it
determines the type of terrain that you fight in, as well as the quality
and quantity of 'mechs that you have to fight with. Moreover, in the
strategic mode you can build fortifications which are banks of automatic
weapons that fire at any oncoming invaders. Watching those things
decimate an enemy army is a very gratifying experience, let me tell you.
The 9 types of mechs differ in enough ways that you can spend a while
trying to optimize for a combat and discovering strategies for fighting
with and against each type of mech.
There are also two tactical-mode-only options for those who want to get
right into the action without doing the strategy (vaguely analogous to the
Melee setting in Star Control). The first is called "Showdown", and can
be played against another human or the computer. Both sides choose a
terrain type to fight on, then get a certain amount of money to buy 'mechs
with. Then they just slug it out.
The other mode is called "Survival" and is for learning how to fight with
each individual type of mech. You are in a mech by yourself, and you
fight again progressively harder waves of combats. High-scores for this
are kept, which is a nice touch. However, since the tactical superiority
of one side or another tends to heavily outweight the arcade-ability
beyond a certain point, the combats get nigh-impossible to win shortly.
It is still a fun option when you just want to blow some stuff up, though.
There are some down-sides to the game, however. One is that the strategy
mode is slow in some annoying places. For instance, when you switch
players, these large blast doors close over the map to hide it from being
seen until the next player takes the controls. While it is a cool
special-effect, the doors close WAY too slow and there is no way to speed
them up. When you access certain strategic mode options like the
statistics and purchasing screens, the screen blanks out for a second
while it loads things in, which is disturbing. It also seems like it
takes much longer for these screens to load up than it ought. Lastly, you
have to click in the center of a country to give commands to it, rather
than anywhere in the country. All of these things can start to grate on
the nerves, but they are annoyances, not actual problems.
Perhaps the biggest problem is the stupidity/singlemindedness of the
computer in actual combat. When storming computer fortifications, even
the smallest cyborg on a commando mission can breach the toughest defenses
and destroy all the structures on the space, independant of the enemy
forces there because the computer is STUPID about how it defends.
Similarly, whenever you attack with more than one cyborg against
fortifications, they blindly charge into the enemy fire and get mowed
down. The worst of all is the algorithm for city-fighting is to plow
directly towards the enemy, annihilating all buildings in the way. While
this wouldn't be too bad in and of itself, they do this by firing all
their non-ammunition burning weapons to the threshold of heat overload.
So any cyborg can fire a laser at the attacker and cause him to overheat.
Using this method, very small mechs can defeat 2 or 3 large mechs easily
in cities.
On the upside, Cyber Empires also is breaking with recent tradition in
computer gaming in a number of ways.
A. There don't seem to be any bugs, either major or minor. B. It only
takes up 1.8 Megs of hard drive space C. It was only $35 at Computer
City, as opposed to $45-$60 for most games these
days.
All in all, I would heartily recommend Cyber Empires, especially if you
like the BattleTech sort of genre and games like Empire and Star Control.
However, mastering combat versus the computer is not difficult, so you
really need human opponents to keep this game interesting.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Rob Fermier. All rights reserved.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ The Humans ³
³ ³ by Imagitec Design, Presented by Gametek, Published by Atari ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Machine ³ ù 8088/8086 (XT) û 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA ù EGA û VGA ù SVGA ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib û Soundblaster ù Soundblaster Pro³
³ ³ ù Disney Sound Source û Roland ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard ù Mouse û Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ ù EMS ù XMS ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 2.5 megabytes ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron "Darwin" Dippold
The advertising campaign on this thing has been fairly impressive - I've
seen ads in places I've never seen computer game ads (other than for
Links/386), such as Discover Magazine. They got Elwood Smith to draw the
ad - he's one of the trendy new artists you catch in major magazines who
can actually draw. You've probably seen his work - rather cartoonish,
speckled with dots at large intervals. Anyhow, it worked. It intrigued
me. So I checked it out.
"You've never seen anything like them before" it said. "Hah!" thought I,
thinkingly. "I bet it's a Lemmings takeoff." Damn, I'm good - It is. The
people who read their advertising may never heard of Lemmings, but Lemmings
fans will be on familiar ground here.
The first thing I have to say is about the manual - jokes that bad should
be a capital offense. If you love the "I'm a frayed knot" type jokes
you'll dig these.
The concept here is that you are in charge of a tribe of primitive humans
(12 to begin with) and have to guide them through a series of pitfalls and
help them find crucial discoveries on the way to civilization. The spear,
the wheel, fire, rope, and the witch doctor. The last representing, of
course, the arrival smart enough to get gullible types to do their work for
them.
I can't complain about the graphics, which are very professionally done.
The starting animation and the animation whenever a major new discovery is
made are certainly amusing. The sound is good, but the music is sort of
annoying. For some reason, putting it into Soundblaster mode made it
rather flaky until I placed it into Adlib mode. I don't have a standard
Soundblaster interrupt setup, which could be the problem.
There are 80 timed scrolling levels of pitfalls and obstacles to take your
humans through. For Lemmings fans, imagine everything blown up about five
times. These guys aren't tiny like lemmings, they're big and fully
animated. However, the relative size of the level is tiny compared to
Lemmings. Nor do you have the flood of new lemmings appearing - rather you
start out with all your humans and they stay still until you tell them to
do something. You can switch back and forth between them to get them to do
whatever they have to do.
To begin with, all they can do is walk around, climb, pick things up, and
form human stacks by standing on each others shoulders. This is necessary
in many places in the game, because the dummies can't climb up on a rock,
even if it's only half their height. You need to use one guy to boost
another over. The actions you can perform with the human are down at the
bottom. You switch actions with the space bar (even if you're using the
joystick) - as you get new items new options appear.
The first thing they'll do is find a spear (that's your goal on the first
level). Once you have the technology, any human with a spear has several
other options: throw it, use it as a pole vault, brandish it to scare off
animals (dinosaurs), and drop it. This is all you will get for quite a few
levels, and the main challenge here is jumping holes with the spear. If
you fall too far the human dies, so you need to make the jump, and some of
them appear impossible. Until you find that you can plant the spear in the
air next to the edge for a few pixels to give you that little extra bit of
distance. This is fairly lame... you find the "real" edge by inching out
until your guy falls and dies.
It can be a real pain to cross a hole with your tribe - you've got to have
one guy grab the spear, vault across, throw the spear back, and repeat.
This involves quite a bit of space bar action. In addition, you can skewer
your own guys with the spear, so you have to be careful.
I mentioned that you start out with 12 people in the tribe. Well, you get
a certain number of them per level, usually about four or five. If one of
them dies, one of your reserve tribesmen replaces him where he died. Once
you're out of tribesmen, they disappear from the level for good and you're
usually dead meet. You may also be short for the next level. You can
occasionally find new cavemen on a level and free them from their cages,
adding to your tribe.
The levels change their character - you start out in the caves with running
lava, fairly dark, etc. You then move outside for the seasons, you'll move
into a city, etc. They don't keep you bored with the scenery.
The next item is the torch - you discover fire. The human with the torch
can brandish it an an animal to keep it back; he can light some vegetation
on fire to clear a path; he can throw the torch; or he can drop it. Just
keep the humans away from anything you ignite or it'll be a human roast.
The rope is useful for reclaiming your guys. Up till now, anyone who
helped other cavemen over an object had to be left behind. Now you can
lower the rope down from a cliff, or even throw it up, and the humans can
climb it. You can also throw the rope to other humans.
The wheel is an interesting discovery - you can actually hop up on it and
ride it with limited control. But if you start going down a hill, watch
out. You'll pick up speed. You may have to do a jump with the wheel at
the end of a ramp, so be ready to press the button at exactly the right
time. Oh yeah, do _not_ run over the Witch Doctor's toe with the wheel...
trust me.
Finally there's the Witch Doctor. He only shows up on certain levels after
you've found him. He casts spells and refuses to do menial work - he won't
use any item. He will, however, participate in stacks. Using spells
requires a sacrifice, however. And that's literally. When the Witch
Doctor casts a spell, a human standing nearby will be "terminated." What
if there's no human nearby? Well, the gods are going to very very angry.
The rest is up to your imagination.
So what's the game play like? Well, like a rather slow Lemmings. You
spend a lot of your time just moving guys around. You know where you have
to go, but to get there you have to cross a couple pits, so you spend your
time moving your guys one at a time across the pits. Jump, throw the
spear, next guy jumps, etc. etc. etc. This gets old real fast. Then you
screw up later and have to do it all over again.
It's great when you do solve a level - some of them are very hard, and the
graphics certainly aren't boring. The interesting things you run into,
such as a bird you have to jump on to to ferry you across, work to keep the
interest level up, but there's still an awful lot of drudgery involved,
especially with the user interface. I just couldn't get very excited about
this game, even after a good number of levels. The humans are bigger than
lemmings, so they're better animated and look better, but for some reason
the lemmings seem to have more personality. Someone who's into Lemmings
will probably get a kick out of the puzzles, as long as the mechanics of it
don't wear him down. The dedicated puzzle hound should be challenged by
some of the rather fiendish puzzles.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ron Dippold. All rights reserved.
KING'S QUEST VI: (HEIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW) by Sierra On-Line
Reviewed by Richard Hsia
I got my first glimpse of a King's Quest (KQ) game more than 7 years ago
on a friend's Apple ][e. I was immediately taken in with the game which
seemed at the time to be the ultimate in innovations, having been used to
the static-type graphic adventures that were available. My own computer,
lacking the amount of necessary memory, was unable to run the program and
so I was obviously very disappointed. I can still, however, remember the
feeling of being extremely impressed with the ability to move the
character around the screen, have him interact with the surroundings and
solve puzzles.
A couple of years later, I got a new computer and played my first KQ game,
which happened to be KQ3 (To Heir is Human). This was the story of
Gwydion/Prince Alexander's escape from an evil wizard, and rescue of his
sister from a dragon. I truly enjoyed the game, from its enchanting
graphics (EGA was the standard at the time) and pleasant music to the
classic, funny yet compelling plot and multitude of puzzles to solve. I
really liked the character a lot and the advancements in the game from
what I had seen in KQ1 were incredible. I played most of KQ4, though
never finishing it, and started part 5, both of which had superior
graphics and sounds, but still somehow for me lacked the 'star' character
that drew me in with KQ3. Thankfully, part 6 renewed my fading interest in
the series by bringing back Alexander for another adventure, the quest for
'true love.' I had my doubts about the game, but found myself drawn into
it immediately.
The story follows Alexander on a quest to the Land of the Green Isles, a
previously unexplored area in the KQ world. He is in search of Cassima,
who he briefly met at the end of KQ5, and has called him in the kingdom's
magic mirror. Again, the writers have taken a classic fairy tale story
and made it their own: at the most basic level, it's the classic story of
the prince saving the princess trapped in the tower. Of course, there is
a bevy of other things going on as well. Cassima is supposed to marry the
court vizier, since her parents have died. The Green Isles are no longer
the happy place they used to be. Without giving anything else away, it
is sufficient to say that there are a variety of subplots going on in the
world that the game has created, all or some of which you as Alexander
will be involved in.
An interesting difference in this game from the previous ones is that
supposedly, a good percentage of the game is 'optional,' meaning you don't
have to solve all of the puzzles and subplots to reach an ending to the
game. This was done so that beginners can make it though the story with a
minimum of frustration, and could conceivably go back through the game to
discover large portions of storyline that they had missed.
The technical aspects of KQ6 are impressive. Each game in the series has
upped the ante so to speak in terms of pushing the current technology to
its limit. The graphics are gorgeous, as they were in the previous game,
but this time, the addition of digitized video actors has been added in
some sequences to further enhance the game's visuals. The animation
sequences are really nicely done. Two technical innovations included in
the game are scaling of the character size as he walks to and from the
screen perspective and an enhanced walking routine that allows the
character to avoid objects in the scene and cross to a designated location
with minimal obstruction.
Where KQ has excelled the most, though, in my opinion, is in the sound.
Digitized voice and effects are included thoroughout, and add to the
flavor of the game, but most enchanting is the music soundtrack. Many of
today's games boast an impressive soundtrack, but KQ6 is on of the few
that really delivers consistently. Supposedly, over 2 hours worth of
music was recorded for the game. This is easy to believe, since
virtually every scene has its own music track. Further, certain actions
allow the game characters to come alive in music accompaniment, and the
effect is truly dazzling. I have never been so impressed with the music
in a computer game; there are so many moods and feelings conveyed through
the music in this game that great graphics could not generate alone. It
seems they even went to the trouble of recording a pop single, "Girl in
the Tower," which sounds pretty good to me as well (a digitized sample of
it is included in the game).
The gameplay is consistent with the previous games, though the interface
seems even nicer than before. Completely icon-driven, a walking icon
allows you to move across the screen, an eye icon to look at objects and a
hand icon to operate and pick up objects. It is extremely simple yet
effective, and the only thing that gave me a little trouble was that to
open doors, you must use the hand icon (which makes sense, I guess) when I
was used to just walking into a doorway. A pouch carries all of the items
you picked up, and manipulating these items at the correct times allows
you to solve the various puzzles the game throws at you.
I do have a few complaints about the game, though. The first one is
relatively minor, more a complaint about the genre rather than this game
specifically. Some of the puzzle solutions, without outside help, I don't
think I would ever have come up with. Most of the solutions make some
kind of logical sense, but every once in a while, I came across something
that totally stumped me, and without help, I may have been so frustrated
that I would quit playing the game. I guess that's why they say you
should play the game with friends, so that you can have fresh ideas at
solutions.
Also, having a copy of the walkthrough to the game, I realized that on my
own, I would have missed a very large portion of the game, and probably
would never have solved it. (As you can tell, I am of limited patience.)
I am content, though, to just play through the game and see and hear all
that it has to offer, without the arduous brain stumping some of the
puzzles offer. The KQ games also like to include a maze section for some
reason. Again, without help, I would never have had the patience to work
my way through it. Maybe most gamers out there like this kind of torture,
but personally I can do without it.
Finally, the only complaint I have about this game specifically is the
lack of Alexander's magic. In KQ3, having Alex cast spells was an
integral part of the game's plotline. He had to learn many spells and
cast them at the correct time to work his way through the story. In KQ6,
it seems like he has lost all his previous abilities, since the only
spells he can cast must be learned throughout the course of the game.
This was something of a disappointment to me, since I really liked the
spellcasting aspect introduced in part 3, and since Alex should be
something of an expert spellcaster by now, some of his spells should have
been ported over to the new game to add consistency in the sequel. Maybe
I missed something in part 5, like his powers were taken from him, though
I doubt it.
Anyway, these faults I have discussed are trivial at best, since in the
end, the good aspects of the game far outweigh the bad. For newcomers to
the series, this game should provide an incredible experience, much more
rich in detail and thought than some of the other similar offerings. For
fans of the series, it is truly worthy of the KQ name, and takes the
romantic quest to new heights in the computer world. All of the humor,
texture and depth we've come to expect from a KQ game is provided, and
then some.
KQ6 takes up a good 15-16 meg of hard drive space and has typical RAM
requirements. The only protection is that some of the puzzles can only be
solved if you possess the key piece of documentation included in the game.
VGA and EGA is supported, though I'd only recommend playing it in VGA, and
a multitude of sound boards are supported.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Richard Hsia. All rights reserved.
ED. We're pleased to present two reviews of this most classic of all
boardgames - Monopoly from Virgin Games.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ Monopoly Deluxe ³
³ ³ by Virgin Games ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Machine ³ û 8088/8086 (XT) û 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA ù EGA û VGA (640x480x16) ù SVGA ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib û Soundblaster û Covox û Big Mouth ³
³ ³ û DS201 û Tandy û PAS û Echo II û Sound Source û Roland ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard û Mouse ù Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ ù EMS ù XMS ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 2.5 Megabytes on Disk ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Other ³ Mouse HIGHLY recommended ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron "Greedy Capitalist" Dippold
Ah, Monopoly (*), the most successful board game ever! I doubt that there
are many people who don't have some memories of playing this game, or that
many households with board games that don't own it.
I remember playing it as a child (as opposed to now, when I'm just
immature), and that I learned a lot about math and making change from it.
At that time my addition and subtraction skills weren't top notch, and
there's nothing like a game of Monopoly to exercise them.
For all its great points, however, there are a couple disadvantages to
monopoly that even the most dedicated Monopolophile will admit:
* It takes a long time to play - a full game of Monopoly is a major
undertaking requiring a couple uninterrupted hours.
* The setup takes a while - sorting out all the properties and disbursing
the initial cash. It'd be easier if you stored them in order, but you
never do that.
* Banking is intense - you spend a lot of game time making change.
* It's hard to find people to play, especially when you consider, as I do,
a multiplayer game to be superior to a two player game. That several
hours thing again.
Enter the computer. It can do setup in less than a second, handle all
banking chores fast and easy, and can provide as many players as you want.
This convenience comes at a price, however, as the large number of Monopoly
computer clones I've played (over a dozen, most unlicensed) proves. So
far, they've all suffered from lame graphics, a lame interface, lame
players and just general lameness (see a trend?). Which finally brings me
to Monopoly Deluxe.
This is the first computer Monopoly I've ever played which re-creates the
feel of Monopoly.
First are the graphics - as you can see from the screen shots, the board
shown on screen looks exactly like the Monopoly board. It's a little small
on most screens, but that's a function of the screen size rather than a
graphics limitation. All the icons are detailed enough that they're easy
to identify. In addition, the programmers here have spared no effort, and
there are lots of graphical touches that actually improve the game.
Improvements include a red "MORTGAGED" stamped across mortgaged property
cards, animated and improved Community Chest / Chance cards, and automatic
coloring of owned properties so you can tell at a glance who owns what.
There are animations for the following events: Closing an auction, going
bankrupt, landing on Free Parking, passing Go, buying a hotel, breaking out
of jail, getting sent to jail, paying taxes, and winning. In addition the
icons themselves animate as they move - the dog and horse run, the cannon
rolls, the car patters, etc. Whenever you roll the dice, the Monopoly guy
pops out of the "O" in "MonOpoly," shakes the dice, and rolls. Finally,
the Community Chest and Chance cards are sometimes animated. You can turn
adjust the speed of these animations, and turn off any or all of these
animations if they annoy you. Generally they're short and amusing enough
that you'll want to leave them on.
Next comes the sound. Your enjoyment of the game will be incredibly
enhanced if you have some sort of sound device that supports digitized
speech and sound effects. Each of the icons has it's own sound as it moves
- the dog barks and pants as it runs, the cannon rumbles, etc. The dice
clatter as they roll and bounce. The railroads have a train whistle if you
land on them, the Electric Company sizzles, and the Water Works gurgles.
There's a satisfying "KA-CHING!" when someone pays rent. And the cards are
very noisy - many cards have their individual sounds, such as a fat lady
singing for the opera card. For general use, each card has a standard
"Okay" button to indicate acceptance of your fate, and also a "Darn!" or
"Yeah!" button if you want a vocal comment along with that. For the really
bad cards there's a very Homer Simpson-like "Doh!" The sucking sound made
on the tax squares is hilarious. Again, you can turn these on and off as
desired.
User interface is a big plus - there's nothing that's a pain in the butt to
do, someone spent a lot of time getting things right. It's all point and
click. Provided, that is, you have a mouse. The keyboard interface isn't
bad, considering, but this was designed for the mouse - keyboarding is a
hassle. Menus provide all the options you need for things that aren't
easily done by clicking on parts of the board, such as choosing animation
options. You can even modify the menus by changing the included MP.INI
file. A game history window in the lower right keeps track of everything
that has happened, in a large or small font, so you don't miss anything.
Most action is easily covered by moving the mouse with your right hand and
occasionally slapping the Enter key on the keypad for extra speed. Sorry
southpaws: just another in a long line of frustrations.
Let's not forget the rules - this game adheres strictly to the rules of
Monopoly. And if you don't like them you can change them! It supports all
common variations with a Rules dialog box.
Property rules variations: Jail rules variations:
No auctions No renting
One lap before buying No unmortgaging
Unmortgage only on turn No building
Automatic rent No trading
No trading Jailed on 3 doubles
No computer offers
Building rules variations: Free Parking rules variations:
No auctions Collects fines and taxes
Unlimited supply Ante (default $500)
Build only on turn Windfall (default $10 times roll)
Miscellaneous rules variations:
Short game (3 houses then hotel)
Time limited game
Go bonus amount (default $200)
Doubles reroll limit
So who do you play against? Well there are ten different icons, but "only"
up to eight players can play at once. Each of the players can be a human,
or one of three different computer players: Calculator, XT Clone, and
386/33 MHz, indicating their respective processing power. Calculator is
really lacking in the smarts department - he pretty much just survives. An
excellent simulation of playing a game with your younger brother when you
can't find anyone else. More on 386/33 MHz later.
Trading is one of the hardest things for a computer Monopoly to get right -
you've got to be able to simulate any possible combination of property and
cash trading between any number of players. I think they did a good job on
this. Double clicking on any of the icons in the player window pops up a
list of everything the player owns. You can have multiple player windows
open at once, and you can indicate what each player will give to each
other. Players can accept, reject, or modify a trade.
That's the details - how does it do overall? As I said, I think this
really captures the Monopoly feel. I've already burned too many hours on
it, in solo games against the computer and with other human (or so they
claim) players. All the attention to detail really pays off. There's
nothing that's a pain in the butt to do. And you'll be amazed at how fast
things go when the computer takes care of all the details - a full game
against three players will take a little less than an hour. You can also
save the game for later play.
Again, this all assumes a mouse and a good sound board. The interface
isn't really designed for a keyboard, even though it will work without a
mouse, and you lose a lot of the effect without the digitized sounds. Lack
of mouse I'd call fatal.
There are a few things I want to gripe about in hopes of seeing them
addressed in a future release:
Gripe 1: Some of the colors used to indicate which property belongs to
which player are pretty nasty and blotchy. Who needs a property that looks
like someone with measles? Okay, minor gripe
Gripe 2: Not all of the quirks have been worked out. You can occasionally
get into a strange state, such as a computer player with less than $50
trapped in jail. It goes into an infinite cancel loop that you'll have to
break yourself by giving the player some money if you're quick enough with
the mouse. Again, minor.
Gripe 3: The only major gripe. The computer is FAR too easy to trick when
trading, even at 386/33 MHz level, which can give you an insurmountable
advantage that you'll have to compensate for yourself if you want a
balanced game. The computer player will fall for things that no human
player would, such as giving you the final property of a monopoly for just
a few bucks above list price, even when he already has plenty of money.
You'll have to restrain yourself and only offer deals which you would
consider fair in order to balance out the game.
Other than that, however, this game gets an enthusiastic three digits up.
You couldn't see it, of course, but I got sucked into two more games of
Monopoly Deluxe just while writing this review. It's addictive, it's fun,
and it's fast and convenient - Monopoly moves into the computer age!
(*) Monopoly is a trademark of Parker Brothers
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ron Dippold. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MONOPOLY DELUXE by Virgin Games
Reviewed by Joshua E. Randall
Requirements:
80286 or better processor
Hard drive with 2.6 megs free
640 KB RAM
VGA graphics card and monitor
Microsoft compatible mouse (recommended)
Supports all major sound boards or internal speaker.
No copy protection
DOS version, reviewed on:
386 SX-16, 2 megs RAM, Logitech mouse, standard VGA monitor, no sound
board.
Virgin has produced a real winner in MONOPOLY DELUXE (MONOPOLY hereafter).
As a childhood Monopoly addict, I had high expectations for this product.
I'm happy to say that MONOPOLY met almost all of them.
Monopoly is a board game in which each player tries to amass as much money
as possible by buying, trading, and developing properties. The game ends
when one player has driven all the others into bankruptcy.
MONOPOLY remains very true to the original board game. The board,
displayed with "Go" in the lower right-hand corner, takes up most of the
display. On the right fourth of the screen is information about the game,
which varies depending upon what you are doing. During normal play it
includes an area showing whose turn it is and some stats about that
player, the "dice", and, in the lower part of the screen, a scrollable
"game history".
Player stats appear on an index-card shaped display which shows the
player's name, piece, and amount of money available in several different
categories (such as "cash on hand", "liquid assets", and "available
assets"). In a multi-player game, you can conceal your own monetary
information by clicking on the "lock" icon. You assets are also concealed
when paying "Income Tax", so you'd better know if that 10% is less than
$200 _before_ you have to pay. Clicking on the piece shows what properties
a player owns by highlighting them on the board.
Below this is an area showing the pieces of all players in the game.
Double clicking on a piece brings up that player's window which displays
his prop-erties and money. Double clicking on the Bank shows which
properties remain unowned, as well as how many houses and hotels are
available for purchase.
In the bottom half of the display is the "game history". While a nice
touch, it is really pretty useless. The only time I needed it was when an
involved trade had been completed and I wanted to make sure I remembered
who owned what. Of course, I could have used player "inventories" to the
same effect.
Graphics quality is very good. The board, pieces, title deeds, and cards
are exactly like the ones from the board game. Not much to say here --
nothing fancy, just quality pictures.
A minimum of two and a maximum of eight players can participate, choosing
from the ten playing pieces available. As few as one player can be human.
If you opt to play against the computer, you can select one of three skill
levels -- "Calculator", "XT Clone", and "386/33 Mhz" (which, as the
documentation reminds you, can be selected even on a system slower than
that or with a weaker pro-cessor).
I found the computer to be an able but not especially adept opponent.
Even on the highest setting he failed to truly challenge me. Of course,
MONOPOLY is heavily based on luck, so perhaps I was just very fortunate.
Actually, there seemed to be little difference in the various levels. The
only noticeable one was in how hard a bargain the computer drove in
trading prop-erties. Also, while the computer could be quite
demanding
in trade with a player, it had an annoying tendency to have its players
make foolish trades, such as Water Works for Board Walk. It is possible
to disable trading, but this takes away a fundamental part of the game.
However, this is my only real quibble with MONOPOLY as a whole.
Game play is relatively simple. After selecting players, you click on the
"dice" icon to start the game. The first player clicks on the dice to
roll them. If animation is enabled, the Monopoly Man (you know, the guy
in the black suit and hat who's pictured on all the Chance and Community
Chest cards) emerges from the "O" in "MONOPOLY", shakes the dice, and then
rolls them. While this is amusing, I found it repetitive after a while.
Luckily, you can disable it. After that, the player's token advances to
the appropriate space on the board. Each token has its own way of moving
-- the dog runs, the hat rolls, and the thimble bounces, for example.
If the space is a property, the player is given an option of buying it
from the bank, or letting it go up for auction. (I found that the
computer will _always_ buy properties, even if he has to mortgage other
ones to do so.)
The auction is very well done. A graph is displayed, with a number for
each player. The bidding starts at the listed price, and decreases until
someone bids by pressing the number which corresponds to his piece. (You
must use the keyboard during auctions.) The price then jumps up to a new
level and gradually decreases until someone else bids. Eventually, the
property is sold to the highest bidder. I liked the auction system; it's
too bad it has to use the keyboard in an otherwise all mouse game, but I
can't really think of anyway around this, especially if you're playing
with more than one human player.
If the space is something else, the game reacts appropriately. For
example, on Income Tax, the player puts his money in Uncle Sam's bulging
hat, while on Go To Jail, he gets thrown in a paddy wagon and hauled off
to the slammer.
On a Chance or Community Chest space, the card is displayed on the screen,
along with appropriate animation. For example, on "Life Insurance
Matures", the couple hugs, while on "Get Out of Jail Free", the player
flies out of a cage. I found the animation, while simple, to be enough to
give some spark to the game. If you get tired of it, you can toggle it
off. Make no mis-take, though; the animation is very well done, and was
smooth even on my slow system. You can also adjust the animation speed
and "skipping", which seems roughly equivalent to "frame rate", to
compensate for processor variances.
There is one minor annoying thing about cards -- in some cases, the player
is given a choice of buttons to click on, like "Darn!" and "OK". However,
both do the same thing. I initially suspected that one choice would let
you avoid the effects of certain cards -- in other words, cheat. But that
is not the case, so I really don't see the purpose of giving the player a
false "choice". Far better to let him simply click on "OK", as in a
Macintosh or Windows dialogue box.
When a player is through with his turn, he passes the dice to the next
player, who then clicks on them to take his turn, and so on.
I found it helpful to enable "automatic dice passing", which saves you
from having to actually "pass" the dice at the end of your turn -- the
next player can simply click on the dice to start, without you ever
"officially" ending your turn. If playing with computer opponents, I also
liked to let them roll the dice themselves, so I didn't have to click in
between computer turns.
Eventually, the players are going to want to trade properties. To do
this, you double click on the icons of the players you want to trade.
This brings up a window displaying that player and all the things he owns.
You then highlight an item in your "inventory" (have I been playing too
many adventure games?) and click on the player you want to give that item
to. If the item is money, you enter the amount. Finally, each player in
the trade has the opportunity to accept, modify, or reject the trade.
Trades can be a simple gift, or a multi-player swap of numerous
properties. The trading mechanism is not perfect -- you have to do a lot
of clicking -- but it gets the job done.
A note on computer trading: as I said before, the computer is a reckless
trader. He also has a tendency to propose the same trade over and over,
even if you reject it repeatedly.
Building is simple. You double click on the space on the board, which
brings up a picture of that Title Deed card. Then just click on the house
icon to build. You can change your mind and "un-build" the house before
selecting OK. You can also mortgage a property if you need cash by
selecting "mortgage".
The game proceeds, with players striking deals, creating monopolies, and
building houses and hotels. After MONOPOLY progresses far enough, one
player is not going to be able to pay his debts. He can try to raise
money by selling off houses, mortgaging properties, and trading, but if he
still can't pay, he goes bankrupt. The player to whom he owed the debt
now assumes control of his properties. The games ends when only one
player remains -- he takes a "victory lap", and the board clears, ready
for a new game.
It's in this area that I found the only bug I noticed in MONOPOLY. What
happened was this: a computer player was in jail, and didn't have a Get
Out of Jail Free card, or $50 dollars to pay his fine. After rolling
three times and failing to get the needed doubles, a screen came up
informing the player that he had to pay $50 to get out of jail. But the
computer didn't have the money, so he selected "Cancel". The window
popped up again. And again the computer selected "Cancel". The cycle
kept repeating, and there was nothing to do but quit that game and start a
new one (I could still get to control bar).
This happened three times while I was reviewing the game. It leads me to
believe that if you go bankrupt to the _bank_ and not to another _player_,
the game might crash. For example, I suspect that if you land on Luxury
Tax with less than $75, you're going to get a crash. However, I was
unable to test this theory because of the difficulty of controlling where
you land.
MONOPOLY also supplies you with a dizzying array of options. As I
mentioned, you can toggle any of the animations on or off, as well as the
accompanying music and sound effects. You can select "fast computers" to
speed up play, "automatic rent" to keep you from having to request rent if
someone lands on your property, and "no trading" if you get sick of seeing
the computer trade away two reds for one purple. You can also modify the
rules in many popular variants, such as "jailed for 3 doubles", "fines go
to Free Parking", and "only build on turn". All in all, there are enough
check-boxes to keep even the pickiest Monopoly fan happy.
MONOPOLY DELUXE is an well done adaptation of the classic Parker Brothers
board game. It features excellent graphics, amusing animation, an easy
interface, and adequate computer opponents. My only complaints are the
insufficient computer AI and the one bug. A few other things could use
some work -- such as the somewhat clumsy trading system, and the keyboard
based auction system -- but the game as a whole is very solid.
Note: For owners of the original Monopoly computer game, Virgin offers a
trade-up to MONOPOLY DELUXE at $10 off the store price.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Joshua E. Randall. All rights
reserved.
ED. - Enjoy two thorough reviews of Shadow President.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ Shadow President ³
³ ³ by D.C. True, Ltd. ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Machine ³ û 8088/8086 (XT) û 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA û EGA ù VGA ù SVGA ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib û Soundblaster û Soundblaster Pro³
³ ³ û Disney Sound Source û PAS û Covox ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard û Mouse ù Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ ù EMS ù XMS ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 7.5 Megabytes ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Other ³ Mouse required ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron "Plausible Deniability" Dippold
Balance of Power fans rejoice! This is your type of game, in spades.
Here's the scenario: you're the president of the United States of America,
it's June 1st, 1990, your popularity at home is 50%, and you have 886 days
left till the election. That's the least of your problems, however -
Iraq is considering invading neighboring Kuwait, and all the usual
suspects are doing that invasion, espionage, and guerrilla warfare thing
around the globe. Do something rash, like invade Cuba, and you could get
nuked. If your popularity gets too low, or if you upset a country
enough, you could be assassinated. Less spectacularly, Congress could
impeach you. To help you make all these decisions, you are tied into the
Shadow Network, a computer which lets you track what's going on and make
decisions.
The interface consists of a map of the countries of the Earth which can be
zoomed in to view specific regions. You can then view different
information about the country, as well as specify actions to be taken
against or for a country. Periodic news dispatches come in, and time
passes fairly quickly.
The standard for this kind of game is Balance of Power (BOP), and the
updated Balance of Power 1990. As fans of BOP are likely to be interested
in Shadow President, the comparison is certainly apropos. Basically,
Balance of Power concentrates more on the United States vs. the USSR (the
balance of power). Shadow President concentrates more on the U.S. vs.
everybody else with regards to the Iraq/Kuwait situation, or more
accurately, the President vs. everybody else. The Soviet Union is still
involved, but it's just the most powerful of many players. The mechanics
of decision making are more involved in Shadow President, and the overall
game is far more complex and detailed.
The standard screen is a line map of the countries of the world. You can
select any country with a crosshair. The currently selected country is
bright red, and the country your crosshair is currently on is dark red.
Countries taking an action flash green, and countries being acted against
flash purple. For example, if Uganda issues a statement condemning Kenya,
Uganda will turn green, Kenya will turn purple, and an informational
bulletin will appear.
On top of the screen you have the current day and time, your popularity
rating, and the number of days till the election. To the right of the
screen are a graph of four informational variables about the country, an
Earth icon, and a city icon. To the lower left are your advisors, and to
the lower right are some option buttons. When necessary, the main screen
will be replaced by specific detail screens, such as a War Room to view
military actions in detail.
The graph on the right shows the current levels of four variables for both
the U.S. and a selected country. The first graph, T, is the total
influence in the world. The second graph, E, is the ethical level of the
country. The third, A, is the ambition level. The last, Q, is the
quality of life. The Earth icon on the right gives you an overview of the
global situation - quality of life, military tension level, you leadership
effectiveness, U.S. quality of life, etc. The City icon shows you a
stylized representation of an average city in the selected country. The
height of the big buildings in the rear represents the GNP. The
residential section on the left represents per capita income. The front
part is a park which represents quality of life. And the right section
gives the military strength. Along with the graph on the right, this lets
you get a quick feel for the country.
On the bottom left are your advisors. The White House Chief of Staff
gives you a situation overview and points you to critical events. The
National Security advisor lets you know who the U.S. is friendly with,
who's on our top ten bad guys list, and the strengths of the various
alliances. The Secretary of State reports on general political
relationships with other countries, such as how much Foreign Aid other
countries are begging for. The Secretary of Defense has all the
information about military strengths we need, as well as the nuclear
situation and any global hot spots. The Press Secretary condenses all the
world events information into news updates for you. The CIA director
reports on all intelligence activities. The Economic Advisor concentrates
on the quality of life for the United States.
These seven will give you incredibly detailed information about the global
situation, the U.S. situation, and any information about the currently
selected country. You may find yourself overwhelmed by the statistics.
They'll also give you information about certain actions you propose to
take, described below.
On the bottom right are seven buttons that change your view. The first
button changes the map to show you the entire world - some countries may
be too small to locate effectively in this view. The next button will let
you zoom in on any region of the world. The third button lets you zoom
in further on one particular country.
The fourth button invokes the filter view, which allows you to color all
the countries of the world based on the current values of 29 variables
such as quality of life, human rights, economic growth, trading partners,
ambition, ideology, etc.
The fifth button brings up the 1990 CIA world factbook information for the
selected country, which is quite comprehensive. The sixth button brings
up the budget view, which lets you adjust your taxation and spending
levels. The last button is the system options, which lets you turn
animations on and off, load and save a game, etc.
Bring the mouse up against the left of the screen and a set of aid/action
buttons pops up. Under Social, you can set humanitarian aid levels,
encourage social reform, promote human rights reform, dispatch a peace
envoy, initiate cultural exchange, improve diplomatic relations,
strengthen economic ties, or issue a statement of condemnation. This
gives you an idea of the actions available in each category, I won't list
them all. After you choose each action, you can get advice from your
advisors, cancel it, or initiate that action.
The next option is Economic aid and actions, such as blocking trade or
encouraging investment. The Intelligence option lets you give espionage
aid to allies, or spy against a country, assassinate the leader, supply
arms to rebels, etc. The Military option lets you give military aid,
encourage or discourage military spending in a country, perform a surgical
strike, attack the country, etc. The Nuclear option lets you give nuclear
aid, and even perform a nuclear strike.
You have further options in special screens, such as the War Room, where
you can set troop levels, attack countries, demand surrender, install new
leadership, and more. All in all, a lot of options arranged very well.
It's a lot less cluttered than it sounds due to a very nice arrangement of
options and data.
Everything you do has repercussions which can affect several variables
such as military threat concern, leadership effectiveness, concern about
government, population, world influence, etc. Certain actions have their
own animated sequences, small but sufficient. A burning flag for a coup
d'etat, an animated jet cockpit sequence for a surgical strike, etc.
That's all the details. Now, in the "a consultant is a person who knows
101 ways to make love but can't get a date" category, how does it all work
out? For people who like this kind of game, this is the kind of game
they will like. Those who only like arcade games are going to be
frustrated. Although there's a lot going on, the "action" level is very
low. They're going to get frustrated, nuke Canada, and lose. Those with
a bit more patience who love things such as war games or other strategy
games are probably going to like it.
Besides the Iraq / Kuwait scenario (could you have done it better?)
there's plenty of other things to do. You can concentrate on other parts
of the globe, although the Middle East is still the most interesting place
to play. You can play around with your budget at home and see what
happens. What happens if you, say, annex Mexico? Play around! There are
all sorts of unexpected consequences. In this game, at least, China has
an itchy nuclear trigger finger. If you want to invade somewhere you need
to have a base of operations in the area. Depending on your relations,
you may find that no country wants to host your invasion force. Or you
may find that you're very popular - when I had the U.S. invade Syria after
escalating tensions, Turkey, the U.K, and Israel all contributed troops to
the effort.
Simulation freaks are going to love the level of detail - this takes up a
lot of disk space, and it's not taken up with a lot of graphics or sound,
which are just adequate.
In fact, in the Style Over Substance Dept. let me address my chief beef
with this game - the user interface. As I said before, everything is well
laid out and designed, but the implementation could use a bit of work.
It's all done in EGA, presumably because standard VGA MCGA mode doesn't
offer the resolution necessary for good text. This program is a perfect
example of where SVGA using a VESA driver would be useful. They could get
better resolution and improve their pictures, which while good for EGA
mode are still weak compared to VGA graphics. It doesn't feel like you're
playing a new game.
They may not have gone for that because the graphics are already slow
enough - there's absolutely no excuse for how long this program takes to
fill a country, given how often it occurs. I've got a 33 MHz 386 with an
extremely fast VGA card, and I've written programs which can fill such
irregularly shaped areas quickly. I'm not sure why they settled on what
appears to be a simple series of generic flood fills. Due to this
slowness, I expect, it takes a while from the time you place your cursor
over a country till the time it is highlighted, probably to keep the slow
flood fill from causing cursor movement from dragging.
And that's my big beef. If it's the substance of the game you care about,
the annoyance of the interface soon disappears as you get used to it and
get into the game. The game itself is fascinating and endlessly detailed
(you can get some kicks from reading all the text files in the game's
directory). Strategy fans are going to waste a lot of time on this one.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ron Dippold. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHADOW PRESIDENT by D.C. True
Reviewed by Chris Franczyk
Think that George Bush has an easy job? Ever look at Bill Clinton and
think that could have been you? Well, D.C. True has come up with a unique
way for you to see just how good of a job you could do as president.
SHADOW PRESIDENT plays somewhat off the old "Balance of Power" series that
Mindscape Software put out a few years ago. The central idea is the same,
you are leader of the United States in the early 1980's with the Cold War
going strong, and you must keep the U.S. out of nuclear war. Simple,
right? But D.C. True has added many new twists.
The concept behind SHADOW PRESIDENT is to ride out your term and get re-
elected. This is not as easy as it seems. Staring out with a 50%
approval rating, you must juggle world events along with keeping people
satisifed on the home front and also keep your economy going. You are
able to influence different countries, sign treaties with them, establish
cultural exchanges with them, improve diplomatic relations and even send
military, spy, nuclear, humanitarian, or economic aid packages. All of
this is done on a country-by-country basis with the possibility of your
help being rejected at any time. Invariably, every country will ask for
more aid than you may wish to give. Other countries can issue statements
of condemnation for your actions or praise them. All of this will
ultimately effect your status in the rest of the world.
On the home front, SHADOW PRESIDENT divides the budget into several large
groups. For expenditures, you have defense, investment, foreign aid and
social programs. All of which reflect the budgets of the 80's. As for
income, you obviously have several different kinds of taxes. There are
personal, corporate, and sales taxes along with tariffs. All of this
needs to be juggled in such a manner as to keep the populace happy and
promote economic growth. A favorite ploy of mine was to cut foreign aid
to $0, raise tariffs as high as they could go, cut personal taxes and
raise sales taxes. This left me with a strong economy and a 79% approval
rating. If, however, you cannot effectively do your job and your
approval rating begins to plummet, the electorate will let you know their
ire by pasting a bulls-eye on your back and shooting you.
You are given a group of advisors including a press secretary who keeps
you informed as to the events in the rest of the world, a chief of staff,
defense secretary, budget director and a national security advisor, among
others. They do manage to provide useful information and insight, but
they might resign if you are erratic in your dealings or if you show
inconsistencies with their beliefs. Here the game falls short because you
are given few notices of their disagreement and, if they do resign, you
cannot appoint another person to fill their role.
The game itself comes with several pre-set scenarios included in its basic
programming. You have the earth as it was on June 1, 1990, a super-Iraq
scenario where this is what might have happened if the U.S. did not
intervene in Kuwait, U.S. economic decline, and a scenario where the third
world countries develop strongly and quickly. The most intriguing of
these are the first two with the super-Iraq scenario being what I thought
was the most difficult.
Sending troops into a country proves to be the most interesting part of
the game. You need to find countries that are friendly to you so you can
deploy and ready your troops for invasion. The game takes you into the
war room with a sound-card fan-fare unmatched in any game I have played.
After setting the amount of troops you wish to deploy, you must wait for
them all to be sent to their destination. This time frame obviously
varies on how many troops you are sending and to where. If you decide a
nuclear attack is necessary, you are allowed to decide how many warheads
to launch and where you want them to strike (civilian targets, industry,
etc.) Once the nukes hit, you get an instant tally as to how many were
killed. But, unlike "Balance of Power", the game does not end there. You
then have to deal with the possibility of a counter-strike (if the country
has nuclear weapons) or the political fall-out could end up killing you...
.LITERALLY!
The game itself is mouse-driven. VGA graphics and a minimum of a 12MHz
286 IBM-PC compatible computer are needed. A sound card is strongly
recommended (especially to hear George Bush at the end of the game). The
game can use your PC speaker, but you must have a 16MHz machine. The game
takes up roughly 7.5 megs of hard disk space.
D.C. True has loaded this game with all kinds of variables and statistics.
Because there are so many different calculations and things to consider,
there is a considerable lag time for hard drive access. The game has
several different speed settings ranging from 1 day per second on the
game clock to 1 hour per second on the clock. I strongly recommend
playing at the slowest, or 1 hour/second, speed. I ran the game on a
486/33 and, when I set the game speed up to 1 day/second, I had a hard
time getting back into the game to fix my budget or do anything else
because my hard disk would not stop accessing. Installation of the game
is bothersome as well. For a three-disk game you would expect a short
install. But again, because of the amount of information that has to be
unzipped, the whole installation process takes some 30 minutes.
If you are the arcade, shoot-em up type person, stay far away from this
game. This game caters to the sim-lover and to the stat lover. I
strongly recommend this game to the fans of the old "Balance of Power" and
to all other sim-lovers. You will not be disappointed as this brilliantly
written game takes into account virtually every factor that can be
concieved when it comes to being president. D.C. True should market this
to all prospective presidential candidates before they decide to run.
SHADOW PRESIDENT is published and distributed by D.C. True.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Chris Franczyk. All rights reserved.
ED. - It is important to note that the new version of Shadow President
now available corrects the installation time problem. It now takes
approximately 5-10 minutes to install, not 30.
SPELLCRAFT ASPECTS OF VALOR by Asciiware, distributed by Broderbund
IBM version
Reviewed by Wyvern
"He who crafts the most potent spells wins" so says the quip on the back
of the SPELLCRAFT box. If the title hadn't already given you the clue,
this quotation certainly would. SPELLCRAFT is about learning to make
spells. There have been many crpgs on the market that have included the
learning of spells. Some have included the necessity of proper
ingredients and/or a magic word to activate the spell, but SPELLCRAFT
takes this alchemy to new heights.
There is a rift between the world of magic and Terra. You, Robert Garwin,
have been summoned by a powerful wizard, Garwayen, to become his
apprentice and help to close this rift which otherwise would mean the
destruction of Terra. You meet your mentor in Stonehenge, the portal
between the world of magic and that of Terra. You are told your task and
your instruction begins.
First you must align yourself to one of the four elemental colleges,
Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Whichever of these colleges you choose shall
be the primary basis of the spells you will learn. There are two other
colleges of magic, Ethereal and Mind, which are available to all
pratitioners of alchemy. Garwayen explains that spells are made of five
types of ingredients: Aspects, Jewels, Powders, Candles and Stones which
are activated by a Magic Word. These five ingredients will be found or
can be purchased during the course of your training. To start you off,
Garwayen teaches you a couple of the easiest spells, one of which is the
Return Home spell. Garwayen also provides you with a Robe of Enablement
and a Sword of Striking.
Spells are not all that will be needed to defeat the Lords of Magic who
wish to widen the rift between their world and Terra. Physical fighting
ability will also be needed. Your training consists of visiting the the
elemental planes of Earth, Air, Fire and Water as well as Dead World while
you learn to make spells. In your earliest ventures into these worlds,
Garwayen provides a magical map and vision which allow you to see the
realm, the monsters and treasures therein. Within each world is a circle
of stones, not unlike Stonehenge, which will provide you with safety
should the enemy prove difficult. Seeking sanctuary within does have its
price. Damage can be done to the stone structure which can only be
repaired by visiting Dead World. Your training will take you to Dead
World anyways, so this never seemed a critical consideration. When you
die, you enter Dead World, if you manage to make it to your protective
circle of stones you will be resurrected and continue playing. Garwayen
will, early in the game, see to it that dying in Dead World is not your
end, but later on, death in Dead World is final.
So your apprenticeship begins, alternating between exploration and battle
in the elemental worlds, instruction from Garwayen on the ways of spells
and visits to Terra where you visit various locations and people who will
have clues and quests and will sell and buy ingredients. As you gain
proficiency the difficulty increases. Garwayen creates simulated wizards
in the elemental worlds for you to fight and leaves you clues to spells in
chests hidden in their realms. Eventually the Lords of the Elemental
Worlds learn of your apprenticeship and challenge you to defeat obelisks
of monster creation within their worlds. The clues on the correct formula
for a spell become increasingly criptic and difficult to piece together.
So goes your tutelage until you are ready to face the Lords themselves.
An interesting premise for a game, certainly a new approach to bringing
fantasy to the player. SPELLCRAFT is a well crafted game. Having choosen
their orientation Asciiware follows through thematically. The
documentation provides useful information on how to use the game while
also contributing clues to the making of spells and the rules which govern
their creation. In this manner the documentation becomes more than just a
guide to play the game, it becomes part of the game itself. Other games
have attempted to present their documentation with this sort of thematic
orientation with terrible results. Instead of adding to the game and
being clear in the information they provided, they became a mishmash of
creative writing. SPELLCRAFT's documentation manages to maintain their
theme while being clearly informative.
The graphics vary in quality greatly. On your Terra visits to sites such
as Pompeii and Giza you are treated to digitized pictures of photographic
quality. Your journeys into the worlds of magic are of rather standard
graphic quality and nothing about which to rave. When you mix a spell
incorrectly, you are confronted with an image of the effects of this
mistake upon yourself. You may appear turned to stone or with gapping
wounds out of which worms crawl. Lovely. These gruesome portraits become
increasingly less entertaining as the game progresses. Certainly there is
a wide variety of graphic entertainment within the game, but I found it
weakest, in the elemental worlds, where I would have wished it to be more
interesting.
The music while better than many games I have played was not so enjoyable
that I kept it on for long. I fear this is a bias on my own part there
having been only one game I have played in which I kept the music on
throughout the entire game.
The game interface is easy to learn and use. Players may use either a
keyboard or a mouse or a combination of both. I found the latter to be
the most convenient. Instructions on the use of the interface are clear
and concise avoiding any confusion for the player. Saving and loading
games is simple and fast offering the player the option of multiple saved
games.
High marks on the basics, but this game is not without its problems. This
is a sizable game given the length of apprenticeship necessary to earn the
power to take on the Elemental Lords of Magic. To really enjoy
SPELLCRAFT, you must _love_ solving puzzles as well as be extremely
patient as you learn to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds on the
field of battle.
Though Garwayen gives you the complete instructions for your first few
spells, he will never do so again and learning the correct mixture for a
spell can be a frustrating puzzle to unravel. Clues to spell construction
come not only from Garwayen, but also from chests found in the Elemental
Worlds and from your friends in Terra. Often these clues are incomplete,
sometimes they are misleading. For example I received several clues that
the magic word used in the creation of the Magic Map spell was the second
power word from the Earth school of magic only eventually to learn that it
was really the second power word from the Ethereal college. At other
times in the game you will fail to mix a spell correctly not because you
have any of the ingredients incorrectly mixed but because there is some
task you must complete before the program will allow your success. This
type of failure is particularly frustrating since you are given no
indication of what you have done wrong. At times like this, the only
option you have is to continue playing the game and hope to learn more.
Garwayen will tell you early in the game when you should visit Terra but
after that you must decide for yourself how often you will visit. A trip
to Terra is not free. You have traveling expenses to manage and while you
can raise some money by selling ingredients or items that you occasionally
find in chests, your funds are limited. These trips are necessary, not
only for the clues and quests but also to restock your inventory with the
vital ingredients necessary for making spells. These trips also affect
your progress.
During a section of the game wherein I was combating simulated wizards
Garwayen created, I defeated the last of the available wizards only to
have Garwayen continue to tell me that I had not completed this task. I
replayed the last battle twice over with the same results and was not able
to alter Garwayen's admonishment of my failure until I visited all the
sites in Terra. Why the program should be so stubbornly errant in its
message over something so completely unrelated to the defeat of that last
simulated wizard is a puzzle to me.
As you progress in knowledge, completing various levels of training, you
gain life force. You gain precisely 50 points of life force and believe
me, that is a measily amount considering the increase of the numbers of
monsters and strength of magic you will encounter at the next level. You
will die and die often until you figure out the correct strategy to
survive. It is bad enough that you die in one of these Elemental Worlds
and have to try again from the "top", but after dying there you have to
get through Dead World before you can retry. Sometimes these multiple
trips to Dead World are not without reward. You can find some useful
ingredients and have certain clues repeated. Other times it just seems
like a lot to go through just to have another go at one of the Elemental
Worlds.
There is no doubt in my mind that SPELLCRAFT is a fine game, but its
appeal is perhaps limited. I found the game too repetitious graphically
to appeal to me on that level. While the puzzles, specifically on making
spells, were often interesting, they were just as often frustrating.
Failures in mixing spells or completing particular tasks were often caused
by seemingly unrelated details. To clearly defeat a simulated wizard and
to not have this acknowledged by Gawayen simply because I had not taken a
trip to Terra recently seems a very poor programming choice.
I presume that Asciiware decided not to offer a choice of characters to
the player in an effort to keep the needed disk space as low as possible.
Given that there are multiple graphic screens presented when your
character mixes a spell incorrectly, this demand on space could be quite
high. It does perhaps lessen the appeal of this game to female and ethnic
players.
SPELLCRAFT is a game for players who love taking notes, solving cryptic
puzzles and a great deal of patience while learning to overcome the
increasingly difficult odds. For players with such qualities, SPELLCRAFT
will be a challenging game well worth the asking price of $39.99 <at
Egghead>. Many hours of enjoyment await them. For players who do not
possess these qualities, I recommend that you steer clear.
SPELLCRAFT, the IBM version, will play on a PC, XT, AT and a PS/2 with a
requirement of 640K of RAM, 256-color VGA/MCGA and DOS version 3.3 or
higher. Hard disk space of 10MB is necessary to load the game. AdLib,
Roland, MT32/LA PC-1, Sound Blaster or internal speaker supply the sounds
and music. Mouse and EMS memory are supported but optional.
This review is Copyright (C) by Wyvern, 1993. All rights reserved.
SPELLJAMMER: PIRATES OF REALMSPACE by SSI
Reviewed by Chuck McMath
"Captain, we've spotted a ship off the starboard bow."
"Any identification?"
"It's too far away, sir."
"Come about, attempt to hail them, but just in case they're not friendly,
set a course to ram."
"Aye aye, sir. Coming about, and hailing. Closing fast."
"Sir, they're within hailing range, but they won't respond."
"No response, eh? We all know what that means. Battle stations! Man the
catapults."
"Sir, it's a Neogi Deathspider, and... shots off, sir! We took one hit in
the stern."
"Fire at will! Aim the heavy catapults for the rigging, and the other
weapons at the hull. We don't want a direct assault unless we can weaken
her. And ram her, by golly! Our Squid ship has a sharp ram, but we're no
match for a Deathspider, especially with those slimy Neogi slavers at the
helm."
"Shots away sir; we've hit the rigging, and she's starting to limp; the
hull has also been hit. Sir, she's turning to ram us."
"Hold on, boys, this should be a rough one."
"Rammed! Sir, both ships took damage, but we came out ahead on that one.
Shots away again; she took another hit on the hull."
"Let's try to board her. Swing about and grapple."
"We're hit again sir... but we grappled. Sir! Our air has mixed with the
Deathspider's. It's fouled!"
"Well, then we have no choice but to take over that Deathspider. Fighters
at the front, Brightshield, you command the forces. Mages and priests,
stay protected! Archers at the rear. Grab your weapons men, we're
boarding! For glory! For gold!"
That's life in the SpellJammer universe. It's a tough life, full of
exotic worlds, excitement, and danger. This life isn't for everyone, but
those of us who inhabit its worlds know we are the fortunate ones, for we
have lived life fully. Come join us!
SpellJammer (SJ) is a unique blend of the traditional AD&D role playing
and space flight. This universe consists of solar systems which are
encased in crystal spheres. Inside the spheres are the planets, which
orbit suns, and the empty matter between the planets (called wildspace).
Outside of the spheres is the great unknown. Traveling through space is
accomplished in boats powered by magical means. In SJ you take the role
of a novice captain, a mage or priest, who has just been given a boat by a
retiring seafarer. Your goal (at least initially) is to survive long
enough to find out what's going on in the universe. This is sometimes not
as easy as it sounds!
Ahoy Mates (Your Ship and Crew)
There are many different ships in SJ. Each ship has its own rating for
maneuverability, hull strength and cargo space. These ratings can be
changed by modifying the ship (more on this later). Of course, when you
start out, you are given a Galleon, one of the slowest (but strongest)
ships around. You'd do well to reinforce the hull as soon as possible,
and buy some more weapons, because you certainly aren't going to out-run
or maneuver anybody!
Each ship must have officers manning the different posts. For instance,
you have to place a magic-user at the helm, because the nature of the
power source is that it draws power from the helmsman. In addition, you
choose a navigator, lookout, and others. Another allocation screen allows
you to distribute your crew between weapons, rigging, and spare. Normally
this is not much of a choice, as you will want to have enough crew to
fully staff your ship, but sometimes after a heated battle you will have
to adjust your crew allocation.
You command an able and varied crew. This crew consists of the officers
and the seamen. The officers range from Captain down to Navigator, and
there are a few officers who don't have specific jobs. These eight or
nine characters are the creme de la creme of the ship - 5th or 6th level
Mages and Priests, a Paladin or two, Fighters, and even a Thief! These
characters start out pretty well equipped, though you can upgrade armor
and weapons pretty readily. The seamen are your basic fighter grunts.
These men are all pretty interchangable, and can be recruited from here or
there around different planets.
Your officers advance in typical AD&D manner - successful battles gain
experience points, and with the proper number of points, you advance in
level. However, the captain garners most of the experience, so he
progresses pretty steadily, whereas the other characters lag way behind.
Ports 'O Call (The Spelljammer Universe)
Although your ship is powered by a (seemingly) inexhaustable supply of
magic power (just make sure a magic user is at the helm!), you require one
supply which is not everlasting - air. Your ship holds a variable amount
of air, depending on the ship size and the size of your crew.
Periodically, then, you need to dock to replentish your air supply.
Docking can be accomplished at any of the planets in the solar system. In
addition, most of the planets allow sailors to disembark and fraternize
with the natives. The inhabitants of these planets range from birdlike to
lizard to plain rogues. Each port has a variety of places to visit -
temple, tavern, warehouse, shipyard, government center, shop, etc. The
exact names vary, but most planets have one of each. Visiting the temple
allows you to heal your character or to raise the dead, visiting the
tavern allows you to recruit crew, to hear rumors, and to buy a drink, and
so forth. Each planet and place you visit has a corresponding graphic
display, most of which have a small animation - water flowing, or tongues
lapping, or fire cackling. Although the planet interaction is through
menus, it's well done and doesn't detract from the gameplay.
You can earn a meager living by ferrying cargo back and forth between
planets. If you visit the warehouse on any given planet, you will be
given the opportunity to pick up a shipment. If you carry the shipment to
its destination, you will be paid a sum of gold. This is not the way to
get rich, as the payment usually just covers your crew's wages, taxes, and
provides a small extra amount. The way to make real money is by taking
jobs. These jobs are available in the tavern, and will consist of taking
passengers from one planet to another, or in catching the local pirate, or
the like. These jobs are frequently more dangerous than merely carrying
cargo about, but they help you much more. You see, one of the goals of
the game is not to just amass money, but to become well known (ala
Darklands). Your captain starts with a reputation of 'Unknown' and you
must do what you can to advance. After a short period of ferrying cargo
and taking jobs, you get a reputation of 'Reliable.' After a few winning
battles you become 'Infamous.' At that point, the game really gets
interesting. It's when you get a reputation that doors start opening up
for you, and you begin to learn your _real_ mission in this universe!
The Wild Frontier (Spaceflight)
When traveling through space, you are presented with a view out the bow of
the ship. Travel can proceed at two speeds: slow (can you say 'impulse
power'?) and spelljam (can you say 'warp drive'?). You spelljam from one
destination to another, but whenever you encounter another vessel or
planet, your ship automatically slows down. Navigation is performed by
going to a sub-screen which shows the known planets. You can click on a
location to travel there, or you can step through the different planets by
using a button. You get graphic and textual feedback as to where you're
selecting. You can focus on the inner planets, the outer planets, or you
can show the entire system at once. You can also toggle to show points of
interest, which are locations in space that aren't planets (initially you
don't know of any points of interest, but you find some pretty quickly).
Once you 've chosen a destination, you return to the navigation sub-screen
and click 'Spelljam to Destination.' If all goes well, you end up at your
selected destination. However, it's a rare trip that isn't interrupted by
a visit from another ship.
Pirate off the Starboard Bow! (Encounters)
When you happen across somebody, the ship comes out of spelljamming, and
you see a tactical display in addition to the visual display. The
tactical display shows the relation of the other ship to yours (all
encounters are one-on-one). You have many options in this mode. You can
attempt to hail the other vessel. If you're within hailing range, you
will get a panel which presents what you can say to the other ship. These
transmissions range from "Let's trade" to "Surrender Now" to "Let's both
withdraw." In any case, you choose a transmission, and you then receive a
response from the other ship. You can frequently glean useful information
by asking nicely for it from other voyagers, and once someone offers a
juicy tidbit, it's wise to keep pumping them until they're dry.
On the other hand, you can hail a vessel and learn that they won't
respond. In that case, you'd better break out the weapons, because a
fight is on the way. Your ship is equipped with a number of projectile
weapons - catapults, jettison, and ballista. Each weapon can be heavy,
medium, or light. And each, of course, has different damage
characteristics and loading times. Your weapon status is visible on the
main screen, and when you click the fire button, all ready weapons fire.
You can't aim the weapons, per se, but you just lob stuff toward the
enemy, and hope it hits.
If you want to create specialized damage, you can target your weapons.
Targeting allows you to concentrate a weapon on different portions of the
other ship - the hull (which is the default), the crew, the weapons, or
the rigging. Each target destination produces different damage. For
instance, targeting the rigging slows the other ship down. Targeting the
hull is an attempt to destroy the ship completely. Targeting the crew or
weapons tries to damage just that element of the other ship.
Results from the battle are displayed in a scrolling text window, and also
by a bar graph which shows the relative strengths of the two vessels. And
of course, you see a visual display from the bow window. And there's a
very satisfying feeling when you see a boulder strike an enemy ship and a
small explosion appears. When the bar for a ship goes to zero, the ship
is destroyed. When you destroy an enemy ship, you are rewarded with a
pleasing explosion seen through the bow viewport. When your ship blows
up... well, how would I know what happens? Actually, the game just ends.
You can attempt to ram the other ship (if your ship is equipped with a
ram), or to snag the other ship's rigging (thus slowing it down). You can
also grapple the other ship, which is a prelude to boarding the other
ship.
Grappling is the method used when you think you may want to take over
another ship, because it doesn't damage the ship very much. And once you
grapple, you board.
Take 'er Boys! (Boarding)
When you board a ship, the view changes from a first-person type
perspective to the familiar AD&D overhead view. If spaceflight is half of
the game, boarding and fighting are the other half. You are presented
with a view of the ship being boarded, with your crew and the enemy on-
screen as the recognizable AD&D icons. This hand-to-hand combat works
just as you would expect, coming from SSI. The officers are displayed
individually, and they are controlled by you. The crewmen are displayed
in groups (typically five in a group) and are controlled by the computer.
Everybody takes their best shot, one at a time, and you slug it out until
there's a victor. Of course mages and priests can cast spells, fighters
can wield their best weapons, and archers can fire arrows through the air.
The game's AI is pretty good, but suffers a little in battles. All too
often computer controlled characters will occupy strategic areas, blocking
your officers from moving to/from the battle. You _can_ take control of
the computer controlled troops, but the procedure is somewhat awkward (you
have to hit the Q key when it's that troop's turn, then cancel a movement
grid. The computer will then ask if you want to take control of that
troop of men. If you click 'Yes' you will then be in control of that
troop for the remainder of the battle. Unfortunately, when you're
controlling a group of men, you can't change weapons, for example, if your
group runs out of arrows). You can flee a battle, but most battles are to
the death. The battle sequences take a long time to resolve. There's one
big battle for control of a Dwarven Citadel which took about 2 or 3 hours
to play out (I took control of all my men because they insisted on going
down the wrong corridors!). You also have a very limited viewing area
when you're boarding a ship. You will need to explore carefully, as you
can easily run around a corner and run into a cadre of enemies.
Battles can be tough. Be sure to save this game often, because once you
begin an encounter you can't save. Fortunately, you can have any number
of saved games, and the interface for saving and restoring games is well-
-done.
Once a battle has ended (with you the victor, of course!) you have a
number of choices. You can swap ships, and take the loser's ship to be
your own. You can loot the ship, and get their money and cargo, and you
can take a weapon (one only). After that, you set off for further
adventures, or more likely, to a friendly port to repair your ship's hull.
A Spelljammer's Life is the Life For Me (Overall Impressions)
I like this game. The overall game play is well thought out, and
progresses in an orderly manner. You begin as a nobody, and through
tried-and-true AD&D conflict, build your reputation up to reputation up to
being a 'somebody.' After an initial difficult start-up period (common to
many RPGs) the storyline advances pretty steadily, as bit by bit more and
more information is revealed to you. There's no fancy animations (well,
just a little), but the game doesn't require it. The music is mood-
enhancing without being overwhelming, and I don't recall getting tired of
it. The manual is the typical excellent AD&D manual, complete with page
after page of chart in the back, detailing what item does what damage to
what, and how many experiene points you need to advance from one level to
the next. The front part of the manual gives a detailed description of
the software, intersperced with writings from the SpellJammer universe.
Speaking of which, SJ has the feel of a real universe, with real peoples,
places, and troubles. I believe this is an adaptation from an existing
AD&D series, which explains the depth of the universe. Contrast this to
something like Clouds of Xeen, where the world exists pretty much for the
adventurers to go tromping through. In SJ people cross your path, and you
sometimes help them, and other times don't. In addition, for those who
wish to fly their vessels, but who are novices, SJ contains a difficulty
setting, which may be adjusted while the game is underway. There are
three difficulty levels.
Even though SJ is an enjoyable game, there are a few rough spots. The
initial release was buggy, or slow, or both. I encountered problems with
the game on my original machine, a 386SX/20. I talked to SSI customer
support and was informed they had heard of the problem, but weren't able
to duplicate it. A week later I received a call back from SSI, telling me
that they had found the problem, fixed it, and would be sending me out a
fix - the update was sent Priority Mail, so service was definitely first
class (pun intended!). The fix solved my problems. Installing a disk
cache also sped the game up tremendously (the initial load time went from
1:40 to 0:25!). You can initially create your captain persona, but you
have no control over the rest of the crew - they're just on your ship when
you start (although given the storyline, perhaps this is more
'realistic').
There are a few screen glitches, but nothing permanent. Perhaps the
biggest problem with SJ is in the fighting/boarding mode, and it's not
really a bug, it's more of a design flaw. It simply takes too long to
resolve fights. I wasn't comfortable enough with the AI to let the
computer control most of my characters, and controlling them myself means
battles take forever. Oh, and after the long battle at the Dwarven
Citadel, both my priests' first level spells got glitched - they both had
'Bless x 255' instead of 'Bless.' What that means is that somehow SJ
thinks my Priests have upwards of 200 Bless spells. I have to admit that
I'm taking advantage of this particular glitch...
Copy protection is of the dreaded look up word x on line y of page z. Not
even a 10th level mage can slay that beast!
Sailing Away (Conclusions)
If you like the gold box games, but perhaps got turned off by the
repetitive nature of the stories, then you'll like SJ. It mixes a fun
trading/spaceflight mode with the familiar hand-to-hand battle mode found
in the gold box games. The SJ universe is well fleshed out, and has the
feel of a real universe. There is enough variety in the game to keep you
coming back, and the storyline develops in an engaging manner, once you
overcome the initial character development inherent in most CRPGs. While
not perfect, SJ is an enjoyable gaming experience. It appears that SJ
could be the start of another SSI series. If so, then I'll be in line for
the next installment, my spellbook in one hand, and a sword in the other.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Chuck McMath. All rights reserved.
ED. - Enjoy these two very polar reviews of Terminator 2029 from
Bethesda Softworks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TERMINATOR 2029 by Bethesda Softworks
Reviewed by: Bill Foust
Terminator 2029 (T2029) isn't your average game-based-on-a-movie game, in
fact, I wouldn't even consider it your average game. The plot of the
game is set in the year 2029. You are in The Resistance under Colonel
Conner, and have been given the A.C.E. combat suit. Designed and
manufactured by Skynet, the suit was captured by the Resistance on a raid
into a Skynet facility, and you are the lucky bearer. The suit enables
you to use and carry much more than the average resistance fighter. Add
to that it's armor protection and you are suddenly a one-man-army against
Skynet.
Terminator 2029 has many features and aspects of it's operation that makes
it so good. The most important one is that it's not just a shoot-em-up.
There are a number of missions, with well defined objectives and goals.
The next mission assignment depends somewhat on the success of your last
mission, but only in the beginning will you actually get a different
mission if you fail. They also alter the words in each mission briefing
and de-briefing so that no matter how good or bad you do, it follows a
consistent, continuous plot, like a movie.
The interface of T2029 is so good, that if you could hook up a virtual
reality (VR) helmet, it would rank with some of the best. All of the
vital information is on the screen in a glance - a radar screen,
map/information screen, a suit status report screen, the heads-up display
with target acquisition system, and weapon selectors. There is some
screen clutter near the borders, but for the most part, Bethesda made the
display simple and concise. This aspect of the game, along with it's
intuitive and natural controls, make it very easy to play.
Unlike many games on the market that use a lot of keys on the keyboard,
Bethesda basically only used two things, the mouse and the arrow keys.
Like almost every computer game on the market, the cursor keys control
movement - backward, forward, turn right and turn left. The mouse is
then used for aiming and the mouse buttons are each used for firing the
selected active weapon. This style of interface is a big plus for lefty's
since the mouse can be moved to the 'handed' side of the keyboard making
it equally easy to use for both right and left handed people.
The graphics are less then stunning, but I don't consider this to be a
fault of the game. I'm sure the resolution could have been enhanced,
however the trade-off would have been response time. I tested this game
on a 386-40 with 8 Mb of RAM, on an SVGA monitor with 1Mb Ram on the
controller and I was very pleased with the speed of the game - another
aspect that makes it very good. I don't know what it would be like on a
slower system, but I would guess that it would not be much slower. The
system requirements for T2029 are a lot more than normal games as well, I
guess they try to insure that T2029 will look good for those who play it.
It requires a not-so-unusual 14 Mb of hard disk space, 585k for lower RAM
and an additional 1Mb of Expanded memory (EMS). I found this somewhat
unusual, most games require extended memory, but if you have MS-DOS 5.0,
it'll be no problem.
No game can be perfect though, and T2029 has it's share of flaws. Actually
they are things that irritated me while playing it than real flaws, but I
feel they are valid. The first gripe I have is with the movement system.
You are confined to a grid based movement - moving and facing only in 90
degree angles. This wouldn't be bad by itself, a lot of companies use
this style of movement, but there are blind spots that the enemy
terminators always seem to find. In a typical scenario I would be
walking along, and the screen would suddenly start flashing red,
indicating that I'm being fired on. I quickly turn around all directions
and see no one, so thinking I missed them, I turn around again. I then
realize that he is in my blind spot and move back a few squares and turn
around again. This time I find out I've nearly backed into the %$#@ and
proceed to waste him, but in the whole process he's gotten off a half a
dozen shots on me, and the armor on my arm is damaged.
My second gripe is with the way new enemy's appear on the map. In the
mission briefing someplace Merlin (a superior of yours) mentions trigger
squares, so for lack of better terms that's what I will call them.
Trigger squares are squares in the movement grid that have detectors in
them to detect your movement and call in terminators to take care of you.
The idea itself isn't bad, but it would seem that the terminators should
move in slowly from the outskirts of the radar screen, and come toward
you from there, but that is not how it works. When you step on a trigger
square you are immediately surrounded by terminators, usually on the
order of 6 to 8 of them in later missions. The only options are to fight
surrounded, or run to a better fighting spot. Neither of the options are
very good, and both can result in heavy damage in the right
circumstances. In one mission the goal was to blow up this thing (don't
want to get too specific and ruin the plot) with a proximity mine that you
were given. The designers of the game felt it was necessary to surround
the target (which you had to get right next to to use the mine) with
trigger squares. So the instant you got to the target you are completely
surrounded with terminators. Twice I died right there, which was very
annoying.
The third thing that irritated me didn't actually appear until the final
mission. In it there are a number of cross shaped hall ways with the
unused space simply unused and no way to get there - or get out. I
swear though, Bethesda must have had David Copperfield on their pro-
gramming staff by the way the terminators were walking through the walls!
The scenario here is that I'm walking down this hall way and step on a
trigger square. No problem, I've been dealing with this all game long,
and I turn around and waste four terminators. My radar shows that there
are still 6, but I can't see them - they are behind the walls, trapped,
or so I think. Next thing I know, I'm getting wasted on by a terminator
that's half out of the wall!
All of these things aside though, T2029 is one of the best games I have
played in a long time. Make no mistakes about it, this game is _hard_, it
was definitely designed for the experienced gamer, and not for the kids.
Unlike most games where you work up to the hard levels, in T2029 the
first mission is one of the hardest- it requires a quick grasp of the
controls and a lot of perseverance to succeed.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Bill Foust. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TERMINATOR 2029 by Bethesda Softworks Reviewed by Richard Wyckoff
Review configuration:
486/33 AMI BIOS
Trident 8900C SuperVGA card
Soundblaster Card
Mouse
Ratings:
Graphics: 8
Sound: 3
Playability: 6
Originality: 5
Overview: TERMINATOR 2029 is another example of good idea, bad execution.
Nice graphics and an interesting arcade concept are spoiled by a weak
gaming engine, poor writing, and overly complicated controls.
One of my favorite arcade games
ever is Terminator 2. While it may have
just been a fancy shooting gallery, the graphics and sounds were top-
notch, and the pace was frenetic. Unfortunately, the Terminator 2 that
came out for home computers bore no relation to the arcade version. When
I heard about TERMINATOR 2029, I was hoping that it might fulfill some of
my wishes. Looks like I'll have to keep wishing.
Like most action games, the plot of TERMINATOR 2029 is relatively simple.
John Connor's human Resistance forces wage war against the robotic armada
of the defense-computer-gone-mad, Skynet. On one of their daring raids,
they discover a suit of cybernetic armor (The ACE, or Advanced Cybernetic
Exoskeleton, yet another in a long tradition of clever acronyms.) capable
of mounting massively powerful weapons systems. Naturally, you are the
only one qualified to operate it, and save what's left of the world.
TERMINATOR 2029 came on 7 3.5" high density disks. The biggest problem
with the game occurs at installation: The 3.5" versions of Bethesda's
recent releases (TERMINATOR and Wayne Gretzky Hockey III) were shipped
with bad copies of the install program. Luckily, I was forewarned by some
astute Internetters, and got a working copy of the installation from
GEnie, where it had been uploaded by Bethesda. If you do not have access
to a major information service like GEnie or Compuserve, and your version
has a corrupted installation file, you will have to contact Bethesda. As
far as I know, the fix is not available for FTP on the Internet. Bethesda
has a BBS, but since you have to have a completed registration card _on_
file_ with them before you can get an account on it, it is not a very
useful resource.
Once you get over the first hurdle, installation is still a bit of a
problem. Even the fixed installation seemed to have a bug on some systems
on which I tested the game (it would print garbage when you pressed Y to
confirm the installation, but you could press keys at random until you
actually got a Y on the screen). The program automatically picks a
directory for you, although you can specify a drive. If you like to keep
all your games off a \GAMES directory, you are out of luck. You are given
a choice of two methods of installation: copy the contents of the disks to
your hard disks, then uncompress them, or uncompress them 'on the fly'
(which is _much_ slower, even on a 486. Nearly as slow as the
installation for Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary). The game takes up
about 14 megabytes, so you need 22 total if you want to use the faster
installation.
Based on what I had already seen, I was not surprised to find that the
installation had merely copied the files to the root directory of the hard
drive, and then left them behind. If you want your 7 megabytes back, you
will have to delete these files yourself.
The problems are not over once you finally get it installed. When you run
the setup program to pick your soundcard, you may pick Soundblaster, but
there are no choices for IRQ or Address setting. Soundblasters that are
not set at the default setting _for_the_Soundblaster_2.0_ will not work
correctly. Bethesda has no official patch for this that I have seen, but
you can avoid problems by setting the IRQ on your Soundblaster to 7.
Once I actually got the game to run, I was pleasantly surprised. The
introduction was very well animated, including a three-dimensional
animation of a Dragon Hunter/Killer (the flying craft from the movies and
the arcade game) getting destroyed by a missile). Digitized sound is used
in the introduction, along with an incredibly weak rendition of the
Terminator theme (at least on a Soundblaster), the only music you will
hear in the game. (It's used again for the ending). After the
introduction, a picture of your barracks appears, a la Wing Commander.
'Influence' might not be a strong enough term for the similarities between
this game and the Wing Commander series. Move the mouse pointer over the
computer, and it says 'Generate a Character'. Move it to the door, and
sure enough, the words 'Mission Briefing' appear. There's even a bucket
with water dripping into it, just like back home on the Tiger's Claw,
although this bucket lets you 'Drop' to Dos. The pun is not appreciated.
The copy protection for the game appears when you click on the computer to
make a character. You are asked for the code from a specific line on a
specific page of the manual. There are 50 lines at the edge of each page
(numbered for you), and each code is printed in a yellow that is probably
un-reproducible and definitely unreadable. It's schemes like this that
make me advocate the use of patches by legitimate owners of the software.
Copy protection is bad enough, in any form, but when it is neither
integrated into the game story nor easy to use, it is enough of a reason
to save your money. You only have to enter the code once per play
session, but once is one time too many. The manual is well-written, but
not complete, nor one-hundred percent accurate, and since nearly
everything in the game is self-explanatory, it serves as little more than
a repository for the codes.
Besides creating a character, the computer also lets you save and load
your game, view a map of the status of the war, and learn about your
enemies. The war map is marginally useful. It displays the six sectors
of post-nuclear Los Angeles with a green tint sweeping across them as you
complete missions succesfully. The enemy information screens are
graphically impressive, showing a nearly full screen image of each of your
adversaries rotating in 3-D. Studying these pictures and the text read
outs on the top of the screen will not do much to help you succeed,
however.
Once you have created a character, you can go back to the barracks to
check out your characters stats, use the Wing Commander-esque trainer, or
go on a mission. The trainer is the only part of this imitation that
surpasses the original. Like any regular mission, you may choose what
weapons to use. The training field (actually a virtual reality created by
your suit's neural links) is divided up into sections of varying
difficulty, and you will find at least one of every enemy in the game.
Since you are given new weapons throughout the game, the trainer is
incredibly helpful in practicing with and evaluating each system.
Having messed around in the trainer enough, you are now ready to go on a
mission. Your briefing is presented in pseudo-Origin style, with close
ups of the various Resistance characters as they tell you your objectives.
Unlike Origin games, however, the cinematic nature of the briefing is not
explored. Instead, you get a more-or-less random assortment of the
various views of each of the three Resistance personnel you come in
contact with through the game. These are Colonel John Connor, your
battle- weary commander, Merlin, the weapons specialist, and Technician
Rachel Sterner, an attractive blonde in a halter-top, the only one without
any scars. If you check the \T2029 directory, you will find several files
called with the letters BABE in the filename...hmm, can you say 'sexism',
boys and girls? I knew you could.
The actual mission dialogue, while _usually_ not mis-spelled or
gramatically incorrect, is just not very inspiring. It certainly lacks a
feeling of professionalism. The first thing Colonel Connor tells you is
that you don't have to write down anything that you are told. This is not
very good advice. Although your orders usually aren't that complicated,
the condensed version available in combat usually leaves out an important
bit of information or two, such as where exactly to find the keycards you
need, or the order in which you must tackle the objectives. At any rate,
as long as you pay attention to what you are told, you should be able to
succeed.
After everyone has had their say, you suit up (without anything in the way
of cinematic running-down-halls or climbing-into-spaceships), and pick
your weapons. At the beginning of the game, you options are very limited.
There are six hardpoints on your ACE, and three initial weapons systems: a
40-watt phased plasma cannon, a fusion grenade launcher, and an autodoc,
for emergency medical treatments. You can have only two of your
hardpoints active at the same time, and for any of your systems to be
used, their hardpoints must be active (a point not made clear in the
manual). Once you decide what you are taking along with you, you step out
into the field of battle.
Here is the big let-down of the game: you get a first-person view of the
action, but the movement is square-by-square (like Eye of the Beholder or
Might and Magic, for example). This is about the biggest limitation you
can put on an action game, and even worse, your enemies are not limited to
jumping from square to square. It isn't just annoying when an enemy is
sitting at a 45 degree angle to you, in your blind spot, and you can only
turn 90 degrees at a time, it's a major problem. The graphics are
relatively nice, but limited. There are only three types of scenery in
the whole game: the ruined city, underground complexes, and the Skynet
space station, which you only see on the last mission. The enemies are
smoothly animated, but there are only a few types, all of which you will
see many times. They also become extremely blocky when they get close
(like the ships in Wing Commander I). This is particularly unpleasant
with the Terminators, who turn into a mass of silver and gray pointing a
black tube at you. On the other hand, the explosions and laser blasts are
very nicely done, as are the damage effects on your info screens when your
helmet gets shot (the screens roll, blink, and get bursts of static).
The controls for the game are another impediment. You need to use both
hands to play: one for the movement keys, and one for the mouse (for
aiming. If you don't have a mouse, you must use even more keys, and will
become very frustrated very quickly). But wait, there's more: you need to
hold another key down at the same time as the movement keys to step
sideways without turning, and there are a bunch of other keys, spread all
around the keyboard, that you will have to use to do everything from
accessing your map to manipulating your inventory. All functions besides
movement may be accessed with the mouse, but you will usually be too busy
blasting the bad guys to point and click anywhere else. It's hard enough
just trying to move the cursor up to the top of the screen, where you
select your weapons, and back down to the action window. Changing weapons
can be done with the keyboard, but you have to use the function keys,
which are far away from the movement keys.
Luckily, you can personalize the settings for the movement keys. Be
careful, though, because several missions require you to type in passwords
to enter certain doors, and if you've mapped one of the letters of the
code to your movement keys, you'll have to abandon the mission and start
again. I found using X for left, F for up, V for right, C for down, and
SPACE for the side-step key to be an acceptable combination. Once you
find keys that you are comfortable with, your life will become much
easier. Like any arcade game, if you do not keep moving, you will die
very quickly.
Once you get used to the control scheme (which is difficult, but not
totally impossible), you can concentrate on the missions. The box
advertises "19 missions", but since the designers followed the branching
mission path nature of Wing Commander, as well, you will not play all of
them. In fact, I was able to finish the entire game in just eight
missions. Each mission can take a significant amount of time, but it is
still a short game. The first mission is unique. You must protect a
satellite dish from enemies for a certain amount of time, then track down
a slaughtered Resistance squad and retrieve the data they were carrying.
Unfortunately, after this your assignments degenrate to things like "Find
the keycards to enter the underground complex, then find the time
distorter and blow it up." There are some "rescue" missions, where you
find injured Resistance personnel, but the reality factor is missing, as
you are asked if you want to 'pick up' the person, at which point they
will be added to your inventory. I have trouble picturing the huge,
person-sized pockets this armor must have, but apparently they are there!
To win each mission, you must make sure you have the proper assortment of
weapons. Although there's a large variety of grenade launchers, missiles,
and PPCs (a laser-like weapon) to use, not to mention all the defensive
systems, you are limited by your number of hard points, and also by the
fact that there are several systems that you will not be able to do
without. You start out with only three weapons, but if you destroy
sufficiently large numbers of Skynet troops, you will be promoted, and new
weapons will become available. This part of the game could have been
considerably more strategic, but based on my own experience, and comments
from other players, most of the weapons besides the PPCs are utterly
useless. I usually took two PPCs, and filled the other slots with
enhancements. Your PPCs can destroy anything except for transmitter
towers and certain other of your primary objectives, and in these cases,
you are usually given proximity mines which do the job quite nicely. If
you aren't given any mines, you can usually find room for a grenade
launcher. Experimentation in the training simulator will show you which
systems are useful and which are not.
After resolving the issue of weapons, the actual gameplay is repetitive.
As you walk (square by square) around the map, looking for the your
primary targets, you will be mobbed by enemies. I found out, on the first
mission, that the enemies are triggered by stepping on certain squares. I
was trying to cross a particularly dangerous-seeming piece of ground, and
kept stepping back to finish off the Terminators from a more advantageous
position. Every time I cleared the enemies away, then stepped forward
again, they re-appeared! After doing this a dozen times, I wised up and
ran forward, right through all the enemies. This is about the only way to
make any progress, unless you can manage to finish off all the enemies you
have triggered without moving from the square. The worst aspect of these
trigger-squares is that the enemies appear _all_around_you_. I don't know
how many times I've been backing away from a group of Terminators only to
trigger another bunch that shoot me in the back, sides, and front.
While you are doing all this running and shooting, you will be taking
damage. Take enough damage, and you weapons will start to go off-line,
and eventually you will die. Therefore, you must always be ready to
retreat to a safe place and repair your armor, and use your autodoc to
restore your health. There are some safe squares on the map, referred to
as safe-houses in the documentation, but you can only discover them
through experimentation. These safe-houses aren't so safe, anyway, since
they only work if there are no enemies on your radar. You can repair
anywhere, but when you repair, your waepons systems go off-line. Pressing
fire brings them back up, though (but you stop repairing). The whole game
boils down to shooting enemies, then running away to repair, while you
look for your targets to protect/destroy/rescue. Of course, you can
simplify just about any game to tasks like these, but in most you aren't
painfully aware of the fact that that is all you are doing. Since many
missions will take 30 minutes to an hour, you will probably find yourself
getting bored of the continual shoot-a-bunch-of-robots-then-repair
routine. Some missions have ten to fifteen minute time limits, and are
perhaps the most exciting in the game, providing that you don't mind time
constraints.
To sum up, TERMINATOR 2029 comes across as a rather poor imitation of the
Wing Commander series. It does some justice to the Terminator movies, but
it almost completely lacks originality. It also seems to fall into the
old rut of graphics over gameplay, and even though the cinematic sequences
that you occasionally get between missions are very well done, they add
little more to the game than hard drive space. Perhaps someone will enjoy
this game, but I certainly did not, and most of the comments I've heard
about it from game players (not reviewers at certain other magzines which
are well known for their low standards) were lukewarm at best. If you buy
this game, do so at your own risk.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Richard Wyckoff. All rights
reserved.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ Tristan Pinball ³
³ ³ by Amtex/Littlewing ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Machine ³ ú 8088/8086 (XT) ú 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA ù EGA û VGA û SVGA ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib û Soundblaster ù Soundblaster Pro³
³ ³ ù Disney Sound Source ù Roland ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard û Mouse ù Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ û EMS û XMS Two megs total RAM ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 1.5 megabytes ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron "Blind Deaf and Dumb" Dippold
Love pinball, but can't go down to your local arcade? Maybe it costs too
much, it's too far away, it's too full of smoke, or it's too full of punks
who would cut up anyone over 24 who wandered in. Well, how about video
pinball?
This is another game category with a long history - one of the first
programs provided with the Apple ][ was an extremely primitive lo-res
pinball. Didn't quite re-create the true pinball feel, if you catch my
drift. Better pinball games followed, for that and other machines. But
the PC has always been sort of lacking in decent pinball games. Tristan
Pinball changes things.
First of all, it's the first IBM pinball game I'm aware of that isn't
limited by the colors and resolution of EGA and (gack) CGA. It uses VGA,
and SVGA if you have one of the most common cards or chipsets, as almost
all of you do. In fact, all you need is a VESA driver for your card and
Tristan will support it. It play in 640x480 mode, 16 colors for standard
VGA, 256 colors for SVGA. And believe me, it makes a big difference in
how it looks.
Second, it supports the major sound boards - Adlib and Soundblaster.
Previous games have been limited to the frankly pathetic PC speaker sound.
The Adlib sound here is certainly passable, and the digitized Soundblaster
sounds are great.
And finally, it's got some power to throw things around - it requires an
80386 machine, although it will run on the least of them, a 386sx-16.
Given the PC's lack of graphics coprocessors, every bit helps for smooth
action.
So given all that, let's look at the game itself. It mimics a standard
pinball machine with up to four players. The playing field itself takes
up a little over half of the screen, on the left side. The right side has
the graphic / scoreboard that you find on a pinball game, including three
rows of 11 alphanumeric LEDs and a final row of 6 for small messages.
The field is familiar pinball. A single set of flippers at the bottom
with two exit lanes and two lanes to the paddles, and two bumpers in the
standard positions. There's a "chute" on the left side, three alleys at
the top, three bumpers, quite a few sets of knockdown targets, a few
rollover stars, and three ball grabbers.
The actual field background is a simple wing device (as in Littlewing
Software) - otherwise it's all white, or rather light grey. The designs
on the elevated parts are very intricate and detailed.
If you knock down one set of four targets five times you light up MAGIC
and get a whole slew of bonuses and multipliers. Another set of targets
lights up the "extra ball" bonus, and another lights up the ball lock so
you can get the multiball bonus. A final set up knockdowns lets you
increase your bonus multipliers.
One of the ball grabbing holes gives a "Tristan Bonus" - the LEDs spin
through a random set of possible bonuses and finally selects one. So this
is a great way to get bonuses and special goodies, but it's darned hard to
hit. It also unlights itself after a while.
The exit lanes are interesting in that they can be lit and unlit. If it's
lit and a ball goes down the lane it'll be kicked back out into play.
Otherwise it's adios ball. You can relight the lanes by hitting targets.
One thing I found interesting is that, contrary to pinball tradition, the
flippers don't move the lights on the upper alleys around.
A "nudge" key will bump the whole machine and hopefully keep the ball from
going where you don't want it to go. It simulates a sharp push forward on
the machine, rather than the possibly more useful right or left nudge -
you can't direct it. Don't do it too many times, or you're tilted toast.
The whole thing is very slick - the balls look very nice and bounce around
very convincingly. If you have a sound card, the sounds add a good touch
of realism. This game had me playing late into the night. It's a very
solid recreation of your average game of pinball.
Surprisingly enough, its strength is also its weakness. It's a great copy
of a standup pinball game. But that's all it is. It's an extremely simple
game, to begin with. One set of flippers, one level, nothing fancy at
all. Williams has been offering more complex games for a decade. It also
totally ignores all the possibilities a computer version offers. As far
back as Night Mission Pinball and Raster Blaster, the computer pinball
games have offered abilities that its ability to defy physics allows. I
must admit I've been playing Devil's Crush for the Megadrive / Genesis,
and am far more impressed by it's use of a computer's capabilities, such
as switching playing fields, animated nuisances wandering around the
field, and more. Tristan suffers in comparison. Seen Pinball Dreams on
the Amiga?
But maybe that's just my techie side going "More beeps, more graphics,
more more more!" You won't find a better pinball game for your PC, and
it's a great game in it's own right. If you're into pinball this is going
to burn up quite a few hours. A SVGA card and sound card will really add
to the atmosphere. The keyboard is all it takes to play.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ron Dippold. All rights reserved.
UTOPIA by Konami
Reviewed by Michael Wang
Min System: IBM PC or 100% compatible, 640K, DOS 2.1, mouse
Graphics: EGA, VGA
Sound: Adlib, Sound Blaster, Roland
Input: Mouse (required)
Copy Prot: Manual lookup
Other: 286 16MHz, hard drive recommended
UTOPIA, published by Konami, is the latest in the line of "world-building"
games like SIMCITY and POPULOUS and it combines elements from those games
with games like MOONBASE. The basic idea is to colonize a planet and to
achieve a 80% or greater "quality of life" rating for your colony. Once you
have achieved this rating you are informed that you have finished this
planet (scenario), though you can keep playing if you like. There are ten
total scenarios that you can choose from. You can play them in any other
that you like, but there is a definite order in terms of the easiest to
hardest scenario.
Complicating matters is the fact that another alien race is also trying to
colonize the planet and will try to attack your colony whenever they get
the chance. Of course, you can do the same to them by building tanks and
spaceships to attack their colony.
The game mechanics in general are good, though the user interface could use
some work. For example, some actions are performed with the right mouse
button and some others with the left, and it gets confusing to remember
which one to use. The graphics are decent, but the sound effects are
mediocre at best. The game could have used sound to give more feedback on
what was going on. Instead, all you get are some simple chimes and
explosions, even if you have a nice sound board.
The game does have a few minor bugs, but nothing that seriously affects
gameplay. The manual is reasonably complete, though the manual lookup copy
protection scheme is more obnoxious than usual since the pictures you have
to match are hard to differentiate. At least you get more than one try
which is better than some other games.
The playing field uses the same isometric perspective as Populous. You
build structures by picking the type of building you want to build and then
clicking somewhere on the map. Some scaffolding goes up and after a period
of time the building will be completed. There are a variety of building
types that you can construct including: housing, stores (to store surplus
food, etc.), hydroponics, life support generators (for air), power plants,
hospitals, laboratories (for doing research), mining and chemical plants
(for ore and fuel), ship yards, sport stadiums, radar stations, and so on.
You start out with a certain amount of money to build these various things
and your money will increase depending on the tax rate that you set and
whether or not you are getting some support funds from Earth. The revenue
you generate from taxes depends on your population, so the faster you can
grow your colony, the more money you will get.
In addition to the basic things like having enough housing, food, and air
for the colonists, there are other things a busy colony manager must keep
track off.
Laboratories are needed for doing research. When you have scientists
working in a lab and are funding them, they will periodically make
scientific discoveries and breakthroughs expanding the types of buildings
and weapons you can build and also improving the quality of the colony in
general. For example, your scientists may discover a better method for
growing food increasing the food production of future hydroponic plants. Or
they may design a better tank for combat.
Hospitals are needed to keep deaths down and they are also needed to
control the population growth rate of the colony. Without at least one
hospital your colony will grow at a constant rate, possible outstripping
your capacity to support them.
Once the colony gets to a certain size, you have to start worrying about
crime. To keep the crime rate down you can build security HQs and staff
them with security personal.
Mines are needed to extract ore from the ground which is then used to build
tanks and/or ships. The ore deposits are scattered around the planet so you
need to first scout around to find a place to build a mine. Similarly,
chemical plants are needed to extract fuel from fuel deposits to power your
ships. Without chemical plants and fuel tanks to store the fuel, your ships
will never get off the ground. Also, to build tanks and ships you need to
construct weapons labs to manufacture armaments. Tank plants will build
tanks, provided all the necessary raw materials are available, and ship
yards will do the same for ships. In addition to the tanks and ships which
you can send to attack the enemy colony you can also build laser turrets,
missile launchers, and land mines to help defend your colony.
Now we come to the biggest gripe I have about the game -- you cannot see
what the enemy is doing! The enemy colony that you are supposed to be
competing against is not even on the map. You can send spies to first
discover where the enemy is (which edge of the map they are off of),and
then later keep track of what they are doing to a minimal extent(the spies
will tell you what they are researching, how belligerent they are, etc.).
But you can never see what they are building, how big their colony is, etc.
Combat against the enemy is completely static -- you send your forces off
the appropriate edge of the map, and sometime later you get a report back
on how you did. However, when the enemy attacks your colony, you do have
full control over defending your colony.
I feel that not been able to see what the enemy is doing takes a lot away
from the game. You lose the sense of competition since you cannot see what
he/she/it is doing (i.e, "Damn! He built another shipyard, I better get
cracking on my air force!"). Attacking the enemy colony also becomes a crap
shoot because you don't know what his defenses are like, so basically you
are attacking blind. Also, since the enemy is not on the map you never have
to compete for resources like ore or fuel.
My next major complaint is how you control your tanks and ships. The way
you move them around is by first placing a numbered marker somewhere on the
map and then selecting a tank or ship and telling it to go to a marker.
This method works well for sending a lot of stuff to one location, but when
you have to control an individual unit when the enemy attacks your colony,
it completely breaks down. It is extremely difficult to intercept enemy
forces because by the time you place a marker, the enemy has moved
somewhere else. Even if you try to anticipate where the enemy unit is
going, it usually decides to head somewhere else. You end up futilely
chasing the enemy around while he attacks your colony. I gave up using
tanks and ships to defend my colony and instead built lots of missiles,
because once they are launched they will automatically head toward the
nearest enemy.
Once you get the hang of building stuff to keep up with population growth,
managing your colony becomes almost automatic mostly because you don't have
to worry about where you place structures like you do in SIMCITY since
colony growth does not depend on that. The only tricky thing is deciding
how quickly to build up your military forces. Since you can't see your
enemy, this becomes guesswork, and usually the most prudent thing is to try
to wipe them out as quickly as possible. So each scenario becomes, in
effect, a race to destroy the enemy colony and once they are gone,
mindlessly building up the colony until you achieve the 80% rating.
I'm not sure who this game would be most appealing to. The hard-core
simulation fans will probably find colony building in Utopia too
simplistic. The military conquest types will find combat too frustrating
because of the complete lack of information about the opponent and the
difficult in controlling your own forces. I don't feel that game has the
same staying power as games like SIMCITY or CIVILIZATION, but those looking
for some "lighter" entertainment may find Utopia appealing.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Michael Wang. All rights reserved.
ED. - For such a hit as Underworld II, we expected more than one review
for this game, and we weren't disappointed. We're pleased to be present
three reviews for our Game Bytes readers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD II: LABYRINTH OF WORLDS by ORIGIN
Reviewed by Sam Bauer
Requirements:
- 386SX, 386, 486 PC or 100% compatible PC
- 2 Megs RAM
- 14 megs hard drive
- DOS Version 3.3 or higher
- Expanded memory manager
- 256 color VGA graphics
Recommended:
- Microsoft (R) 100% compatible mouse
- 386/20Mhz or better processor
- Sound board
Music Support:
- Ad Lib (R), Sound Blaster (R), Roland (R) MT-32/LAPC-1 or
100% compatible sound board
Digitized Speech Support:
- Sound Blaster (R) or 100% compatible sound board
Media in Package Reviewed:
- Four 3.5" 1.44M & one 3.5" 720K diskettes
System Configuration I Used:
486/33 Gateway 2000, ATI Ultra S-VGA, Pro Audio Spectrum 16
Almost a year ago, I had just finished playing EYE OF THE BEHOLDER II
and picked up the February issue of Computer Game Review. Inside I found
a review of ULTIMA UNDERWORLD: THE STYGIAN ABYSS - a first person dungeon
exploration real-time hack and slash computer role playing game (CRPG).
Most notable, of course, was the fact that movement was smooth and could
be made in any angle through the varying sized and shaped rooms, halls,
and caverns, while other games of this genre (like EYE OF THE BEHOLDER I
& II and the WIZARDRY series) used ninety degree angles and steps of
movement that jump the player five feet or so at each key press. Two of
the reviewers were quite excited about UNDERWORLD I while one claimed
that the interface was just too difficult to use. Of course the game
went on to be one of the most acclaimed first person dungeon CRPG to
date. Players loved the ability to swim, fly, run and jump, as well as
its depth of characters, story, puzzles, magic and combat. I personally
dubbed it the best game I had ever played. Since then I went back and
played ULTIMA I through VII as well as several other CRPGs, but nothing
has quite measured up to my experience with UNDERWORLD... Until now.
The story of UNDERWORLD II, LABYRINTH OF WORLDS (UW2), picks up after
ULTIMA VII, which followed UNDERWORLD I. In ULTIMA VII, the Avatar was
summoned back to Britannia to help fight the Guardian, who is an
extremely bad dude, bent on creating havoc in Britannia. In the end, the
Avatar prevails of course, but only in foiling the Guardian's plan. UW2
opens with a celebration in Lord British's castle with many faces
familiar to the Avatar including his friends Iolo, Geoffrey, Dupre and
Julia, as well the likes of Mayor Patterson and Ferdiwyn. During this
celebration, the guardian strikes again and encases the castle inside a
giant black rock gem, sealing all exits. As the Avatar, you must save
Britannia. Isn't it always the case? You must explore the levels
beneath the castle as well as eight new worlds - assuming you can find
the entrance to them.
INSTALLATION
The installation went without a hitch. It required 14 megabytes of disk
space. I had to run an included utility to get the game configured for
my Sound Blaster IRQ - just like in UW1.
USER INTERFACE
Firing up UW2 finds the interface almost wholly unchanged from UW1.
Grabbing the mouse and starting to steer myself through the rooms of the
castle, I found myself running into walls and oversteering turns for a
while, but I was quickly re-acclimated and soon felt as though I had
found that pair of long-lost most-comfortable slippers. The UI is
entirely mouse driven. Holding down on the right mouse button while
moving the cursor allows you to move freely through rooms and corridors
at any angle. Moving the mouse gradually higher in this manner increases
walking speed until you are running. Pressing the left mouse button
causes you to jump, unless you have your weapon drawn, in which case the
left mouse button controls your weapon swing. Every thing is organized
well and is easy to use.
It is amazing the amount of control you have over your weapon and body
movement during battle - and its a good thing since your enemies rarely
stand still. Be prepared to chase them down for the final kill since
many monsters will run when hurt badly. You'll also have to look up and
sometimes even jump to hit those flying creatures while other times it is
necessary to look down to slash those creatures at shoe level. More acid
slugs...Yuk!
This UI really adds tremendously to the realism. I only have a few
minor gripes here. I would like to see the number of save file positions
expanded beyond four. Perhaps they kept it limited since the save space
required grew to about 500K per save in UW2. Also, looking into your
rune bag or checking your character's stats always makes you wait though
a minor bit of animation. It's cute, but you soon get to where you are
hitting keys in hopes of cutting the 3 second sequence short. Lastly,
the only thing really keeping this UI from being perfect is the lack of a
note taking feature. Now that I am freed from the drudgery of map-making,
I am so close to being able to play without my pencil and note pad that I
can almost taste it. I get so tired of writing down all of the
conversation. Games like THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and CLOUDS OF
XEEN have taken this step and so should others.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are very impressive. Many games easily top UW2 for
beautiful still images, like those found in THE LEGEND OF KYRANDIA (just
to mention one), but not many come close to being as completely
mesmerizing as UW2 is when you are travelling through it. The walls,
floor and ceiling smoothly scroll past you, while a slight bobbing up and
down motion adds to the illusion of rhythmic steps. Swimming and flying
are two of my very favorite modes of travel. I love to cast a walk on
water spell and stroll over to a lurker and fight him on my terms for
once (was that a look of confusion in his eyes?). Running on top of the
water and to jump up a low waterfall is truly a magical experience.
The viewing window is bigger than that of UW1 without any noticeable
slowdown. Monsters and non-player characters are more detailed and have
more frames of animation during combat. The new worlds showcase new
surface textures like ice, snow and strange alien substances. I really
can't find any gripes with the graphics or animation other than to say
that objects are still a little blocky when seen up close, though this is
much improved from UW1 and did not bother me while playing at all.
SOUND AND MUSIC
The sound is improved in many ways over UW1. Many new sound effects
have been added for monsters, combat and movement. Stepping on snow
really makes that snow compressing skrunch sound. Killing some monsters
gets you a creepy screech. And while there is no digitized voice in the
introduction, like there was in UW1, voice is used from time to time when
the Guardian makes a surprise appearance to taunt and laugh at you. The
effect is a little unnerving - a couple of times I almost jumped out of
my chair.
The music soundtrack is pretty well done. It succeeds in adding mood
to the game without becoming annoying. I never felt like turning it off
and I often found myself thinking that it was a little eerie - just as I
was beginning to have second thoughts about what might be around the next
corner.
MANUAL AND DOCUMENTATION
The players guide, containing instructions on how to play the game
seems complete yet brief and well organized. Another larger manual
containing a history of Britannia, while not required reading, is
enjoyable to read and I recommend it. The installation guide also looked
quite complete, though I had no problems and did not make much use of its
trouble-shooting sections. The only shortcoming was perhaps in the area
of character generation. It is not completely clear how your choices
here will help or hinder you through the duration of the game. This may
very well been a purposeful omission, left to the player to discover.
CHARACTER GENERATION
Your character must be generated before game play may begin.
Unfortunately, there is no provision for importing your character from
Underworld I. Character generation is easy with only a few choices to be
made. The documentation does fail to tell you a couple of important
things that could help make wiser choices here. Your character's
strength attribute is important since it determines how much weight you
can bear throughout the game. This strength stat never increases, so it
is important to get one that you can live with throughout the game. Also
it is not clear from the documentation that any profession can practice
any skill during the game (e.g. you need not be a Mage to use magic).
PLOT
UW2 enhances game play with an interesting story. They have taken the
"You must save our world" plot and made it quite interesting through the
addition of the mysterious Guardian who makes several appearances
throughout the game. Also breaking the game world up into eight
different worlds serves to break the story into chapters, each having
subplots to play out inside new, unique, and sometimes alien settings.
Many of these subplots produce quests which you must carry out within a
single world or across several worlds. While some quests are optional
to the game, most are critical. There is also a story playing back at
the castle while you are exploring these worlds, so you must come back
often to exchange information.
The story of the game slowly rolls out through your players interaction
with many, many non-player characters (NPC). These non-player characters
are quite well done, as is the interaction interface. Some of the
characters and their deeds are quite interesting and at times, down right
clever.
MAGIC
Magic is always an important part of a CRPG as it is in UW2. The magic
system is basically unchanged from UW1, except for the addition of new
spells. Rune stones must be found throughout the worlds in order to cast
spells. As your character is awarded skill points for advancing levels,
you must use some of them to train in the magic arts of casting and manna
if you ever hope to cast those higher level spells. You should plan to
use magic as much as possible since it makes winning easier and opens up
one of the more interesting aspects of the game. There are also many
magical potions and scrolls and spells to be found throughout the
labyrinth. The lore skill is also important in identifying many magical
weapons and armor items that you will find.
FIGHTING
Fighting, whether weaponed or magical is real-time and depends greatly
on both your characters skills and your mastery of the UI. The
importance of you skill at wielding the mouse is perhaps the factor that
most involves you in the game. You don't just issue commands to your
character and then watch him/her carry out the orders - you instead slip
into the character like a pair of gloves and guide all actions and
movements through the battle. You may move in close and strike, then run
over to a short platform and jump up for a better vantage, or just stand
toe to toe and hack it out. The beauty here is that you can use your
surroundings as well as your weapons and quite often, many strategies are
available for use against a foe. Just remember that not all creatures
are hostile and some possess very important information - so always try to
talk before you draw blood.
PUZZLES
Like any good CRPG worth its magnetic bits, UW2 has many puzzles to
solve. While none of these puzzles are overly hard, they are all fun and
some are set in surroundings that will visually awe and dazzle you.
GAME DIFFICULTY
This game has two difficulty settings to choose from, STANDARD and
EASY. To the best of my knowledge this selection controls only the
difficulty of battles. The game is just a little larger than UW1, but is
spread out over eight different worlds instead of eight, tightly packed
levels. You should expect from forty to seventy hours of play depending
on how many roses you stop to smell along the way.
GAME PLAY
Game play is the most important factor of any game - how good is the
overall game play experience? UW2 is a package that is even greater than
the mere sum of all of its strong components. For me, UW2 is one of the
best CRPGs to come out in a long long time. While UW2 does not use any
"virtual reality" hardware, it successfully created a virtual reality for
me to get lost in for several hours each day. The only problem is that
it stayed on my mind during the day and invaded my dreams at night.
Perhaps the obsession I felt with the synthetic reality created by UW2
and the way it kept drawing me back is the best testament to its play
value.
RECOMMENDATION
I heartily recommend this game for all players except perhaps those who
hate this genre of game. Even if you don't rate it a highly as I do, it
is certain to be one of the years best CRPGs and you are bound to get
your moneys worth.
This review is Copyright (c) 1993 by Sam Bauer. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD II: LABYRINTH OF WORLDS
from Origin and Looking Glass Technologies
Reviewed by Daniel J. Starr
Technical Specifications--
CPU: 386sx or better
DOS: MS-DOS 3.3 or higher
Memory: 2 MB RAM, expanded memory manager [e.g. EMM386.EXE]
Hard Disk: 14 MB
Interface: Mouse [strongly recommended], Keyboard or Joystick
Graphics: 256-color 320x200 VGA
Sound: Adlib, Soundblaster, Roland LAPC-1/MT-32 or compatibles
[supports simultaneous use of separate cards for music
and digitized speech & sound]
For people who played the first Ultima Underworld and want a quick summary:
bigger and better graphics, better sound and music, much better plot and
atmosphere, same old interface. For everyone else, read on!
When the original Ultima Underworld was released last April, it was
revolutionary -- a true 3-D role-playing game, in which you could smoothly
turn, walk, jump, swim and fly -- not to mention swing swords, cast spells
and hold conversations with all manner of creatures. Its plot was a bit
superficial, but its dramatic interface won it a bevy of awards.
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD II: LABYRINTH OF WORLDS substantially repairs most of
its predecessor's weak points while improving on its strengths. It's not
perfect, but it is very, very good. UW2 adds to the best first-person
interface in current computer role-playing games one of the best-executed
storylines as well.
UW2 begins with a feast at Castle Britannia, where the player, as the
Avatar (Britannia's destined savior in times of danger), and the other
notables of the kingdom are celebrating the defeat of the Guardian a year
ago, as chronicled in Ultima VII. Suddenly, a huge gem of impregnable
blackrock springs up around the castle -- the Guardian has unleashed a new
attack on the kingdom, trapping its leadership within the castle while his
invading forces conquer the realm outside. The Avatar is called upon to
investigate the castle, and the ancient tunnels below, for a way to break
free of the mystic prison -- a quest that will in turn lead to other,
stranger worlds with the secrets to the Guardian's undoing.
UW2's display and interface will be familiar to veterans of the original
game. The game screen has an inventory display on the right, with command
icons and an information window on the bottom, but the majority of the
screen holds the view window, with the 3-D display of the player's current
view. The view window is about 30% larger than in the original game, and
the particular graphics in it are much more detailed. Walls and beings
still 'pixelize' when one gets too close, and faces in particular tend to
look strange, but the animations and the backgrounds look very nice.
People walk around, move their heads and arms, etc.; broad views of a
throne room or an ice cave as one turns around can be quite dramatic.
Motion was acceptably smooth on a 386DX/33, but users may find slower
machines annoyingly jerky.
The interface, inherited from UW1, uses the left mouse button to move and
turn, while the right button is clicked to look at, get, use or talk to
things, and various mouse or keyboard controls allow one to jump, look up
or down, etc. Spells are cast by invoking combinations of runes which you
collect over the course of the game. Most things work smoothly, although
there is a persistent problem with the game not permitting you to drop
things even when there's obvious empty space, and an occasional moment
when the player appears to become stuck against a wall, requiring some
fiddling before one can start moving again. The biggest interface problem
is combat, which I find impossible without using the keyboard, and even
then a frantic matter of wheeling, retreating and hacking -- it certainly
gets the adrenalin pumping, but elegant it's not.
On the other hand, the plot design and execution have been completely
overhauled, and dramatically improved, in Underworld 2. From the
beginning, there is a serious and well-defined problem; but at the same
time, the complete plot is slowly ferreted out by the player instead of
being prophetically unveiled by the computer. The game does an excellent
job of having characters and events develop and respond to the player's
actions. There are a number of subplots that are revealed (although the
game does a poor job of sustaining them), and there are genuinely
surprising twists in the situation in the castle. The endgame is
tolerable, although leaving some gaping plot holes. Aside from occasional
weak points, the plot presentation is much more sophisticated than the
average for computer role-playing games.
The atmosphere of the game is another strong point. Digitized sound
effects let the player hear his or her footsteps -- and others'. Water
splashes, swords clank on armor, and dying monsters moan. The music lends
appropriate moods to the situation (and is more varied and less grating
than in UW1). At appropriate moments, the Guardian jumps in to taunt the
player, as sudden and nasty as ever. (Unfortunately, digitized speech is
only provided for about half his lines, an annoying inconsistency.) The
designers have made good use of the alternate worlds to provide distinctly
different settings -- ice caverns, a floating keep, a prison tower, a
psychedelic place from somewhere out of Star Trek, and others.
There is no explicit copy protection; I encountered only one bug, an
occasional tendency to start pausing every few seconds -- this only
occurred during games when sound was enabled, and could be fixed by
restarting the game. One hopes a patch is forthcoming, but it's hardly
fatal.
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD II: LABYRINTH OF WORLDS still has some rough spots, but
is by and large an excellent game. The scrolling 3-D display that was the
centerpiece of its predecessor has been improved, while the storyline
execution is far more sophisticated than that earlier game's -- indeed,
better than most on the market today. Those who liked the original should
certainly get this game; those who haven't tried either will probably also
really enjoy this game, assuming they can put up with the occasional
interface nuisance. Ultima Underworld II may not be quite as
revolutionary a game now as the original Underworld was a year ago, but
it's certainly hard to beat.
This review Copyright (C) 1993 by Daniel J. Starr. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD 2 : Labyrinth of Worlds by Looking Glass Technologies
Published by Origin Systems
Reviewed by Mitch Aigner
System requirements: 386DX/20, 2 Meg RAM, 13 Meg Disk space (from box)
(Minimum) 386DX/33 (in my opinion)
486DX/33 (for full benefit of the 3D scrolling
effect)
Overall rating: (on a scale from 1 - 10) 9!!! (-1 point for bugs)
The game takes place in Britannia, after the events of Ultima7. You are
trapped in the castle of Lord British by the evil Guardian,.. along with
several other folks. Diehard Ultima fans will know exactly who these
folks all are,... who can be trusted, and who can't. The rest of us will
just have to guess.
Your mission: Free yourself, and everyone else, from the Guardians' grasp.
This is accomplished by visiting 8 other worlds (other than yours). Each
of these worlds is very different, and very unique.
Contrast with Underworld 1: This new game has much improved graphics, more
objects/items, and a bigger 3D viewing window. The amount of territory to
explore is much larger than in the original. Several other enhancements
have been made. The user interface is identical (which I consider to be a
positive attribute), so that Underworld 1 players will immediately feel
right at home.
GAME PLAY: Fabulous 3D scrolling effect. Just like being there! You can
turn any direction, any angle, look up, look down, and fully interact with
the environment. The environment itself is also 3D. There are pits,
pedastals, elevated walkways, and other 3D landscapes to explore.
The user interface is very easy to use, once you get used to it. There are
icons for talking, weapons, using items, etc,... but these are unnecessary
once you get the hang of the interface. If you are just starting out, the
icons make life easy. Once you have some experience, you can use all of
the short-cut methods, and forget about the icons. This is a nice feature
to have, as it makes life easy for the beginner, yet allows the more
experienced users to really get the most out of the game.
Play consists of exploring new worlds, talking to folks, killing monsters,
collecting neat stuff, and solving puzzles. The role you play is that of
The Avatar from the Ultima series. You are a hero, as well as a pillar of
virtue,... and this is important to understand while playing the game.
Lying, cheating, and stealing are frowned upon (except when absolutly
necessary). Also, attacking anything that is not trying to kill you is
not always a good idea (you can actually talk to some of the monsters, and
need to do so in some cases, to complete the game). So be polite !
SOUND/SPEECH: Support for Adlib, SoundBlaster, and SoundBlaster Pro. While
speech is limited (takes lots of disk space), sound is abundant. The
sounds really add a lot to the game, and can literally save your life! If
there are any nasty critters about, you will probably hear them before you
see them. You may also be ambushed from behind. With a sound card, you can
save yourself from some nasty surprises (rest assured that there are more
than enough _other_ nasty surprises in store).
With the lights turned off, and the sound turned up, the illusion of
alternate reality can be really intense.
OVERALL: This is the best game that I have ever played (as of 1/1/93) If
you are a fan of Might & Magic, Eye of the Beholder, and other such games,
... you have got to try this!
BUGS: Considering that this is an Origin product, there are surprisingly
few bugs. The main problem seems to be in allocating the available memory
for both graphics and sound, at the same time. After a while, the action
halts for a moment (screen freezes), while the memory gets juggled around
for the next event. This seems to be a memory frag-mentation problem,
and only gets worse. The frequency of this occurence increases as time
goes by. This results in mangled sound, and a loss of fluid motion,...
which goes from bad to worse. There are a couple of ways around this:
1) Quit, and then restart the game (annoying)
2) Turn off the sound (really annoying)
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Mitch Aigner. All rights reserved.
SUPER SONIC BLAST MAN by Taito
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Jer Horwitz
Another welcome surprise this month comes in the form of a side-scrolling
fighting game by Taito. Super Sonic Blast Man is a comedic hero taken from
the unusual Japan-only Taito arcade game, "Sonic Blast Man".
The opening cinema intermission introduces our hero, a suave businessman,
who happens to see a beautiful damsel tied to train tracks. In a flash,
his combat suit (complete with television screen and clock radio mounted
on the breastplate) appears and he saves the girl, stopping an incoming
train with a 100 Megaton punch. Of course, who cares about the conductor?
It's the girl he's after.
The arcade game of Sonic Blast Man began right after the cinema screen.
You actually took a blue boxing glove from the side of the machine, put it
on your hand, and watched your choice of 5 cinema intermissions depicting
something which Sonic Blast Man was fighting. When the movie ended, a
large red target popped out of the machine, and you had three chances to
deck the (enemy) target as hard as possible. Average scores ranged from
30-50 Megatons.
The home version deviates. Taito's home unit has crafted their finest no
-arcade translation title yet, complete with really well-drawn enemies and
diverse fighting. The character's comedic aspects have been enhanced and
the gameplay actually gets better than Capcom's Final Fight at some
points. That says a lot for the company whose only (arguably) good recent
arcade game was Galactic Storm, and I don't even know if it's been
released in the U.S. yet.
The premise is the same type of punch, jump and "special move" thing that
we see repeated endlessly in fighting titles. Taito, for once, took the
time to balance the moves and make them "cool" to watch. Some examples of
each of SBM's neat stuff: Sonic Blast Man has three primary attack
buttons. One of them punches normally. Another does a spinning Haggar-
esque Final Fight move, and the last is the "D-Punch". Why are they
speciai? Well, if you hold towards a character with the punch button, you
grab them and can do two different moves from there. If you don't hold
them, you can do four different moves, one of which is a Ryu-ish leg toss
and another is an uppercut with a fireball. If you hit the "all-powerful"
spinning "knock-everyone-down" move, everyone falls around you, but you
become dizzy for a few seconds. If you want to D-Punch, a 100-Megaton
ground-shaker, you can only use three. It's a nice balance.
The other neat catch is the enemies' programming. On the first of five
(long) levels, the enemies dodge well but don't attack too much. The
challenge is to catch them, then punish them. Every other level builds up
with better challenges for the play mechanics - certain attacks won't
damage certain enemies, and luckily Taito decided not to use the same
enemies on every level. A lot of diversity there, also. Not all of them
are human, especially past level two. That's when the game makes Final
Fight look like the somewhat old game it is.
Graphics are quite above Taito's standard, and the standard set by most
game publishers. I liked all the animation a lot, and didn't see any lack
thereof. The backgrounds are interesting and get really good during the
later levels and boss scenes especially, but are well done throughout. The
characters range from mohawked punks to prostitutes (in the Japanese
version) to aliens. I love the aliens. Music is interesting but repeats
itself, although it was never annoying. Sound effects are good, as well.
It's without a doubt better than Rival Turf, even minus the two-player
option.
The gameplay is quite at par with Final Fight. The same premise is
executed without some of the Capcom frills, like throwable weapons, but
some new concepts which make it... better. I especially liked the well-
programmed enemies. What really did it for me was the inclusion of the
arcade game's cinematic boss scenes - minus the glove, of course - as a
way to chalk up points and see some more well-done graphics, in-between
levels. What you wind up with is a 5-level game with cool bosses, followed
by bonus level additional boss scenes, and a well-done package to watch it
in.
The challenge level is reasonable. On easy, it took me a few games to beat
it (it gives you three continues), and on normal and hard it's quite
difficult for a while. The repetition factor is certainly there, since you
don't have a 6-button arsenal like Street Fighter II. That factor is
compensated for by a nice learning curve of which moves work against the
later, tougher enemies, and the humorous Sugar Ray Leonard-like showboat
punch SBM can do, as well as other funny moves.
Overall, the game puts on a good show. The characters are as large or
larger than Final Fight's, and there is hardly any flicker in the game
(and very minimal when I did see it a couple times on the first level).
Whether you want this game in your collection depends on whether or not
you have Final Fight. They're similar, but not different enough in play
mechanics to have both. If I had to pick one, Super Sonic Blast Man would
be my choice. If I already had Final Fight, I'd rent SSBM for the thrills
and return it when I beat it a few hours or days later.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Jer Horwitz. All rights reserved.
Fighting Game Battle Royale
Reviewed by Jer Horwitz
Data East's Captain America and the Avengers (8 Megs) [Sega Genesis]
vs Jaleco's Rival Turf II [Brawl Brothers] (12 Megs) [Super NES]
vs Sega's Streets of Rage 2 (16 Megs) [Sega Genesis]
vs Technos/Tradewest's The Combatribes (12 Megs) [Super NES]
Fighting games are all the rage, if you'll excuse the pun; an examination
of software release charts for video game systems reveals an interesting
trend. The games with the highest megabit numbers are those in the
fighting and RPG genres, RPGs demanding memory for extended storylines and
fighting games for better animation and more levels. Many of the fighting
games are translations of multi-megabyte arcade games, and programmers
have to decide how to shrink their huge thousand-dollar dedicated machines
into a package which sells for less than $80. Two of the four games in
this comparison fit that description, while the other two are sequels to
earlier game system fighting games.
* Rival Turf II may now go under the name Brawl Brothers in the United
States. In Japan, it's sold as Rushing Beat Run.
ARCADE TRANSLATIONS
The Combatribes and Captain America and the Avengers share a common
malady: Both were depicted in various import company advertisements and
gaming magazines as being identical to the arcade versions, when neither
of
them is. The "arcade translation" pictures came from arcade screenshots
until only recently, when the games hit store shelves. The questions to
ask in each of these games are: "How close did the translation come?",
"What corners were cut in translating the game?" and "Were any new
features added?"
In the case of The Combatribes, the translation comes reasonably close. A
Technos ad for the arcade game bragged about how "players won't believe
all they can do"; you were able to pick up large items like motorcycles
and heft them at enemies. The translation violates the spirit of that
boast by reducing the play mechanics from interacting with the scenery to
simple punching and kicking. The items have disappeared entirely, most
likely due to sprite flicker which might have resulted - there is none in
the SNES version as it is programmed. Luckily, the programmers added
something new: A one-on-one fighting mode with three arenas specifically
designed for the battles.
The one-on-one mode was obviously thought out. After you complete each
level of the normal arcade game, you get a password for the one-on-one
mode which lets you play either as or against whichever enemies appeared
on the arcade level. The arenas offer three types of games in themselves,
as one lets you push your enemy off a mountain, another forces you to move
only left and right, while the other makes you keep away from walls which
catch on fire. Also, new moves for some of the characters were added into
this mode - a great idea. Playing against a good computer opponent in this
mode makes the game all the more worth its price.
As for Data East's Captain America and the Avengers, there is a much
different problem. Whereas The Combatribes was a reasonably unambitious
arcade game which did very little to innovate, Data East's game screamed
out at the players in the arcade with tons of digitized voice, animation
and huge attackers which did more than just charge aimlessly at you.
The problem is how Data East approached the translating task. As if they
had planned on cutting X percent of the graphics and sounds, Data East cut
enough of each to make the result unenjoyable for any critical gamer. The
same game, done either on CD or with four to eight additional megabits,
could have been perfect or near-perfect, Data East instead opted for the
traditional 8 megabits and produced a failed translation. The animation is
sub-par all the way through, made even sadder by the scratchy digitized
voices throughout which obviously sapped the memory needed to animate the
game better. Even the play has suffered from a lack of fine-tuning the
animations. As with The Combatribes, this translation also includes a one-
on-one mode (only Avenger vs. Avenger) which doesn't compare to the well-
programmed Technos option.
The Combatribes suffers from a lack of things to do - you can punch and
kick, but you can't jump. There aren't any items to use against the street
gangs you encounter. On the brighter side, the graphics are very nice and
the characters are all animated quite well, with good sound effects and
music which suffers from a lack of allocated memory more than anything
else. The levels are short but colorful and well drawn. The Avengers lets
you jump, but only gives you one type of attack. There are things to
throw, but they're poorly animated and do almost no damage. The colors
are washed out all throughout the game, with backgrounds which seem to
have been made for a system more powerful and unsuccessfully scaled down.
The programmers kept a lot of digitized speech, which is reasonable in
quality and quite long in length, but seems unnecessary considering the
things compromised to implement the voices. The animation is poor and the
music is similarly bad. Data East spread their megabits much too thin.
The games have their similarities, though. You can select from several
characters in each game; Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man and Vision are
in the Avengers game, Berserker, Blitz and Bullova are in The Combatribes.
Both games use three dimensional movement with the joystick and only two
buttons are used in each. They're both too short, but feature two-player
simultaneous play. Neither of them does as much as they should have done
to retain the arcade games' feel, but The Combatribes is a much better
package than almost any other fighting game when it comes to options and
two-player simultaneous play.
THE ORIGINAL EFFORTS
Jaleco's Rival Turf II and Sega's Streets of Rage 2 are very similar in
their appeal. As the sequels to 8 meg games for the SNES and Genesis,
respectively, both feature two-player simultaneous play and the choice
between multiple characters (five in Rival Turf II, four in Streets of
Rage 2). They're far more dynamic than the arcade translations, employing
some really interesting grabs and throw/slam moves. They're also among the
best animated fighting games released to date. Each game also allows you
to battle against your friends either during the game (which can be turned
off, as well) or in an arena setting.
Streets of Rage 2 was designed with the premise that the sounds and
animations would be made far better than its predecessor. The programmers
succeeded to the Nth degree. The characters are noticably larger than
before, also, and now scream out Japanese and English phrases so beloved
to Street Fighter II devotees. The boss and mini-boss characters are among
the best human (and semi-human) designed in video games today. The music
is completely terrific, designed by [Jer's favorite musician] Yuzo Koshiro
in a house/techno style which grows on you each time you hear it.
Rival Turf II keeps the same character size intact, but animates the
players and enemies much better than before. Backgrounds use the SNES much
better than before, with a notable level where a helicopter attacks you as
you walk on a bridge. The music is repetitive and unimaginative, but the
sound effects are reasonable. One slight flaw is the lack of various boss
characters - your player characters ARE the bosses, and whichever
characters remain unchosen become your enemies. The game is also pretty
short.
SoR2 and RT2 differ the most in play mechanics. SoR2 has an enormous
number of moves for each character accessible by combinations of joystick
and button moves, and each character is different from the other three.
RT2 characters all have similar moves (but are at least very different
looking). Rival Turf II characters can get "angry" after they're hurt,
whereby their bodies flash with fury and their moves become more powerful
temporarily. SoR2 characters have a "special moves" button which lets
them do special attacks at a cost to their lifebars. Both games feature
"pick-up" items, although Streets of Rage 2 weapons are more useful and
powerful while Rival Turf II's are more diverse. For example, SoR2 has two
sets of weapons which are nearly the same, a knife/ninja blade and a
sword/pipe. Rival Turf II has fewer weapons (and they are hard to use,
too) but you can get a gun which sets people on fire and a mallet, amongst
other things.
What sets Streets of Rage 2 apart from Rival Turf II are the far longer
levels of SoR2, much better music, much better character design and
interactivity with backgrounds, and the "cool factor" which becomes
obvious as Axel shoulder slams his opponents to the ground or Skate gets
on a guy's shoulders and punches him in the head. Streets of Rage 2, in my
opinion, is Sega's premier piece of software - out of the leagues of
anything save arcade fighting games.
FOUR-WAY COMPARISON
If you have to pick the best of the bunch in the "side scrolling fighting"
genre, it's obviously Streets of Rage 2. This is Sega's best piece of
software to date, and most visually and sonically impressive. If you're
interested in the one-on-one feature, Combatribes offers the most
characters (16), automatically giving it the win in diversity. Streets of
Rage 2's limited number of characters (4) have far more moves than the
rest of these games, but there are only those characters to choose from.
But, overall, Streets of Rage 2 comes out on top. It has the best side-
scrolling action game and a very good one-on-one mode - it's one of the
few games these days actually worth buying.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Jer Horwitz. All rights reserved.
BATMAN RETURNS by Sega
for the Sega Genesis
Reviewed by Hank Driskill
To start off, I have to mention that I'm an avid comic book collector, and
I have some small prejudice with games that have comic book themes. Soon
after I bought my Genesis, I bought BATMAN by Sunsoft, and (although the
game was far from perfect) I enjoyed it quite a bit.
This week, while perusing the new video games, I saw the BATMAN RETURNS
cartridge for the Genesis (note that it's coming out for Sega CD as well).
Although I planned to rent it at some point, I hadn't planned on buying
it; seeing it however, I decided to give it a chance. Since I have
BATMAN, and most people considering BATMAN RETURNS probably do also, I
thought I'd compare the two (which is what I did the first time I plugged
it in).
Much like BATMAN, BATMAN RETURNS (hereafter BR) is a hard game starting
out. The first hour of BR reminded me how much I hated BATMAN when I
first played it: the bad guys kept winning, I kept getting beat up, and
things just didn't seem very fun. Also like BATMAN, however, once I got
used to BR I found it to be an incredibly fun game.
The premise: once again, in scrolling mayhem fashion, you take control of
Batman and wander through various Acts. The Penguin has framed you for
the death of the Ice Princess, and you must clear your name and stop him
and Catwoman from taking over the city. From the city streets to a burned
out department store to the circus to the sewers, you battle fire
breathing clowns and acrobats and motorcycle riders with giant heads, all
in a quest to make Gotham safe again.
This game is more of everything than the original was; more bosses (2-3
per Act), more variety in the villains, more variety in the gadgets, and
larger character pictures. The villains are much smarter, too; in BATMAN,
I do much better with the Genestick because all it takes to beat each thug
is a lot of punches. You walk up, hit the thug with "autofire" set to
high on your joystick, and he dies. BR excels here, with villains who
duck when you shoot things, dodge your punches and kicks, and in general
take a little thought to beat. There are a lot more options in your
movements: the walk/punch/kick/jump has been complimented with swinging
and gliding, both useful and a lot of fun.
The controls for BR are simple: button A fires off special attacks, and
lets you "glide" while falling, button B punches or kicks (you kick when
you push the joystick toward the enemy), and button C jumps and fires off
the cable for climbing and swinging. The Start button pauses the game and
Batman's famous "utility belt" appears; this has the various weapons
available to our hero. Batarangs are plentiful and simple (you throw them
and they hurt someone), but you also have smoke bombs (which stun the
villain and let you close in), seeking batarangs (like in the movie, they
hit multiple targets), the cable gun (you can use it as a weapon), and the
"cloud o' bats" from the movie. Punches and kicks look like the fight
scenes from the movie, and a lot of attention was paid to making all the
thugs and such look good as well.
So far, I've gotten to the first boss of Act 4 (there are 5 Acts). Here's
the blow-by-blow on the game so far:
Act I, scene I: Fighting acrobats and exploding penguins on the rooftops.
Boss: Catwoman
Act I, scene II: Clowns with uzis on unicycles, in a tilted house.
Boss: The two kneeling statues from the movie
Act I, scene III: Abandoned church, more clowns and gargoyles to boot.
Boss: Penguin
Act II, scene I: City streets, motorcycle goons.
Boss: Big musclebound guy on a sign, throws rubble at you
Act II, scene II: Schreck's department store, all burned out.
Boss: Catwoman
Act II, scene III: Running from a giant metal ball Penguin drops on you.
Boss: Penguin (once the ball goes away)
Act III, scene I: The zoo, with nastier clowns and fire breathers.
Boss: none
Act III, scene II: Red Triangle circus, trapeze and ferris wheel and all.
Boss: Nastier uzi-toting unicyclists
Act III, scene III: Circus train, sword swallowers and fire -- again.
Boss: Firebombing goon (Penguin in disguise)
Act IV, scene I: In the sewers, machine guns and bombers everywhere.
Boss: Giant clown with blowtorch... haven't gotten past him yet
The graphics are among the nicest I've seen, the characters are plentiful
and diverse, and the game play (while taking some getting used to) is
varied and exciting. There is no hard/easy option (like in BATMAN), but I
always player BATMAN on "hard mode" anyway. I'm a fan of the scrolling
mayhem genre, and BR definitely beats out BATMAN, STREETS OF RAGE,
SPIDERMAN, and the others I have. I haven't decided whether or not it's
better than my other new purchase, SONIC II, but that's another story.
The negatives for this game: like BATMAN, BR is one player only, which is
mildly depressing. I'm hoping for a Batman and Robin game sometime, just
because I play with friends a lot. There's also no level select, although
there is an infinite number of continues, and the traditional 3/5/7 lives
option. When you continue, however, you go back to the beginning of the
Act, not the scene, so it's frustrating at times.
If you liked the BATMAN cartridge, liked the movies, and like scrolling
mayhem games, you can do a lot worse than BATMAN RETURNS. It's fun, it's
nice to look at, and after a week it hasn't gotten boring yet. It
challenges your mind and your reflexes at the same time, and that's all
you can really hope for.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Hank Driskill. All rights reserved.
LIGHTNING FORCE by Technosoft
For the Sega Genesis
Reviewed by Christopher Fleming
Lightning Force is another Thunder Force shooter from Technosoft. (If you
haven't played Thunderforce II or III, stop reading right now, and go out
and buy them.) There are 10 levels of horizontally scrolling action, with
most levels being larger than one screen in height. You get your standard
front and rear lasers to start with, and there are five additional weapons
you can collect via the usual shoot the powerup pods. There are also
powerups for a shield to protect you for a certain number of hits, extra
lives, and the infamous 'claw' (two thingies which rotate around your ship
providing protection and extra firepower). A new item of mass destruction
not found in the previous Thunderforce games, is after level five, the
claw alows you to fire a 'thunder sword' by letting the selected weapon
power up, then pressing the fire button (similar to the r-type fire
mechanism). Other than that, it's nothing new, just blast through the
level, and destroy a boss critter (though that's all a good shooter needs
to do :) ). There are lots of options in the option screen, including a 4-
level difficulty select, number of starting lives, music playing, etc.
This game is very well done, and certainly has given me a lot of quality
play-time. There are some points to note about the game, however.
For experienced shooter fans, do yourself a favor and turn the difficulty
up a notch from normal to hard. The first seven levels are really easy
(though the last three are worthy of the best levels I have ever played!).
Most of the lack of difficulty is due to a lot fewer bad guys, and very
short levels. The number of levels though, and the more heinous boss
characters, make the game last a very reasonable length of time.
Speaking of boss characters, these are particularly well done, and require
a fair amount of blasting to destroy. All have multiple parts which you
must destroy before you can get to the core of the boss. Again, these are
well done. The 10th level bad guy is really fun, and rather different
than usual. Something well worth looking forward to!
The graphics are really, really beefed up. If you like large enemies and
**lots** of parallax scrolling, this is your game. Quite frankly, I was
suprised at what the Technosoft guys were able to make the genesis do.
You all probably knew this was comming, but the game suffers from some
serious slowdown at times, often depending on what weapon you are firing.
This can be used to your advantage, but most of the time, it's just an
extreme nuisance.
Most of the music is really, really good. Some of it is as adrenalin
pumping as in MUSHA (high praise indeed!). Check out the opening theme
music. Definitely one to pipe through a good amp.
Overall, a fun game, and one all shooter fans should get, but sometimes
you'll think you're playing on a SNES with the pretty graphics and awful
slowdown. Technosoft has gone backwards a bit in their balance between
good graphics and good gameplay. Here's hoping their next release can
achieve the best of both.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Christopher Fleming. All rights
reserved.
SUPER MARIO KART by Nintendo
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Chris Petit
Type: Fantasty Racing
Players: 1 or 2
Game Basics:
You are one of eight very familiar characters (Mario/Luigi, Princess/Yoshi,
Bowser/Donkey Kong Jr., or Koopa Troopa/Toad), and are taking to the Mario
Go-Kart Park, where you race one of your karts in one of several trials
(Time Trial/Mariokart GP for 1 player, or Mariokart GP/Match Race/Battle
Mode for 2 players). There are 4 different karts (Mario and Luigi, the
Princess and Yoshi, Bowser and Donkey Kong Jr., and Koopa Troopa and Toad
each have karts with similar abilities). They differ on handling, top
speed, and acceleration.
In the Mariokart GP race, you start in 7th or 8th place and race against
all of the other karts. You progress through a 'cup' (from easiest to
hardest, they are Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special cups) and must be
fourth or higher place to advance to the next track (there are 5 tracks to
a cup). You get 6 points for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd and 0 for 4th.
Rankings for the Cups come from that total (added for each race).
In the Match race, you and an opponent race against each other (the other
karts aren't on the track), on any of the tracks available.
In the Time Trials, you pick one of the tracks and try to race through it
as fast as possible (you're alone on the barren track---all tracks are
based on worlds from Super Mario World---the Bowser's Castle/Chocolate
Island/ Doughnut Plains/Vanilla Lake).
In the Battle Mode, you go against an opponent, and try to pop his three
balloons which protect his kart. Four maze-like tracks are used, which
you must race through to find Question Blocks which give items to stop
your opponent.
In each contest, except for the Time Trials, you must collect Coins (they
make you go faster up to 10 coins, and you surrender a coin from hitting
an enemy kart, as well as losing 2 for 'towing' charges (e.g. you fall off
a cliff or into lava) and 4 for a spinout), as well as try to drive over
Question Mark blocks (which give useful abilities to hurt the other karts,
like a Star which lets you run through karts and spin them out, Turtle
Shells which can be shot at opponents, a Banana Peel to slip them up, a
Mushroom for a burst of speed, a Feather to jump over their heads, a Ghost
(only in Battle Mode---you are invisible and can steal opponent's item),
and Lightning (not in Battle Mode)---causes every kart except you to
become tiny and vunerable---squish them by running them over).
Finally, when computer controlled, Karts gain deadly abilities to slow you
down.
Important Point:
If you adore IROC or Indy 500 racing, you'll probably HATE this game.
It's not as quick, but you have much more to do than just pass the other
cars.
Review Comments: (all ratings are 1.0 to 10.0, with 10.0 being high)
Graphics: 10.0
You really feel you ARE in Super Mario World's Go Kart Park. Not awe-
inspiring, but quite appropiate to SMW, not to mention quite cute. Split
screen is well done.
Music: 7.0
Kind of catchy tunes, but I don't think anyone tapes them and dances to
them.
Sound Effects: 9.0
Great skidding effects, as well as jumping, and even tires rolling over
boards sound accurate.
Play Mechanics: 9.0
A bit confusing at first, but very clear with practice. You have an
excellent feeling of control over your car and can do many different
things with your little kart.
Skill Range: 9.0
Many different people can enjoy this game and get a thrill out of it, via
the 50cc or 100cc races.
Skill Progression: 5.0
Progress is smooth within a cup, but has a huge jump in skill required
from 50cc to 100cc races. Would have prefered at least 8 levels of
difficulty.
Replay Value: 10.0
Having many different ways to play, in addition to a Secret Cup (with 5
new tracks), and many 2 player options, means this game is always a thrill
to play just one more time.
Gameplay: 10.0
Again, quite impressive display. The game plays very intensely, without
ever really overwhelming the player.
Overall: 8.63
Very solid game that will appeal to people who look for a different kind
of racing.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Chris Petit. All rights reserved.
STREETS OF RAGE II by Sega
For the Sega Genesis
Reviewed by: Charles Daniel Carleton
This game is a worthy successor to the original. It takes full advantage
of its 16Megabits to add length and variety to the already excellent
legacy of SoR. All of the levels are longer, more interesting, and better
drawn. One of my main complaints about the original was that the
background just repeated over and over. In this games, the backgrounds
have much more variety.
In the original, the repetitive backgrounds weren't much of a problem, I
was too busy with the fighting action! SoR 2 takes the good, solid action
of SoR 1, and adds to it. In the original, a police car could be summoned
to destroy your enemies with napalm or grenades, but is SoR 2, you can't
do this. Instead, there are special moves added that damage the player,
but hopefully do more damage to the enemies. Also, new attacks are added
by making it so a player can tap the control twice in one direction, like
running in Golden Axe, and hit the attack button. Jumping attacks are
also more versatile. Jumping up does one move, jumping forward does
another, and pressing down on the control as you hit the attack button
does another. Weapons are available, and are used by hitting the attack
button. Any weapon may be thrown by pushing B and C simultaneously. This
can be a problem, because hitting B and C is also the rear attack, which
means that you can't do rear attack while holding the weapon. If you
throw a weapon and hit an enemy, its gone for good.
One reason I didn't tell exactly what each control combo did is because it
varies from character to character. For instance, hitting 'A' with Axel
causes him to do a devastating flurry of punches similar to the SFII
'Hundred Hand Slap' followed by a Dragon Punch. Pushing 'A' while
controlling Skate causes him to Break dance, with his spinning feet mowing
down enemies that are close enough. The four characters are Axel, Blaze,
Max the Wrestler, and Skate, who is Adam's little brother. Adam was in
the original SoR. Each character is distinctive. If you have played
Streets of Rage, you will find that Axel and Blaze have the same basic
moves as before, with new moves added. Max and Skate are very different
in play style from each other and from the two originals. This range of
abilities makes it so that changing characters changes strategy, but
allows you to rely on your SoR 1 skills if you choose Axel or Blaze.
The enemies are also more interesting. Each enemy type has a name, and
some are unique. The denim jacketed punks in the original are called
'Galsia' with the higher powered ones of the same type having different
names. When you hit one, it shows his name, and a hit-point bar so you
can see how badly you pounded him. Most enemies have several different
attacks. Punks are much smarter about weapons than in SoR 1, they won't
hesitate to pick up a weapon if one is lying about. Many of the enemies
are similar to SoR1, but have more moves. One example is the 'Signal'
type punk, who in the original could only slide into you or get close and
throw you. In SoR 2, he can also punch you or do combinations of punches.
Another example is that huge Wrestlemainia boss from the beach in SoR 1.
In the original he would charge on to the screen and clobber anyone in the
way. If he missed you could just grab him a throw him before he retreats
for another charge. His only other move was to throw you if you got too
close. In SoR 2 he comes back as 'Abadede'. Not only does he have his
devastating charge-punch, he can also punch you, bellyflop onto you, throw
you, and several other nasty things. If you are trying to hold him or do
a combination move on him, he can break loose, hurting you severely in the
process. The situation is the same for the other bosses that carried over
from SoR 1, they have their basic move and-much more. In addition to the
'enhanced' SoR 1 characters, there are plenty of new punks to cause you
trouble. One of the new bosses looks like a combo of Vega and Blanka of
SFII fame, and can do some of the moves of both of them. In general the
enemies are smarter and have more moves, making it more interesting to
learn to defeat them.
There is now a player duel mode. Because of the variety of moves and
distinctiveness of the players this can be quite fun. It's kind of like
playing Pit Fighter. Both players can select the same character, in which
case the color scheme will be changed for player 2. You can duel in any
of the level scenes, and there are weapons lying about to enhance the
mayhem. The bouts tend to be very brief, because it doesn't take many
hits to finish a character. Also, the SoR automatic combos lead to lots
of damage even though you can break free of a hold or combo using the
special 'A' button move.
I do have some complaints about the game. A player's character will
always grab someone who gets too close, even another character. I SoR I
there were team tactics where one character can throw another one at the
enemies and the thrown character does a more damaging move.
I didn't see any mention of these in the SoRII manual, so the player
grabbing player feature is just an annoyance. I would also have preferred
that weapons could be carried between levels and that they wouldn't
disappear if they were dropped too much.
In general It would seem I am implying that Streets of Rage 1 was an
inferior game. This is not the case; Streets of Rage 2 is a big
improvement over an already impressive game. It's worth having even if
you already have Streets of Rage.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Charles Daniel Carleton. All rights
reserved.
DEATH VALLEY RALLY by Sunsoft
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Chad Dawson
Road Runner's Death Valley Rally last night and here are some comments..
Music/sound
===========
Good. The sounds and BGM come from the LoonyToons cartoons, and if you
close your eyes you would think you were listening to the soundtrack of
a cartoon. Even has the "that's all folks" ending (although no voice
sample). Personally I'm not a big LoonyToon fan, but I did not find the
BGM too distracting.
Graphics
========
I only played two levels of the game, both of these were in the desert (As
I assume most of the levels are). The levels are pretty big (screensize
wise), but the detail is not that great. Pretty much repetitive red-rock
textured cliffs and platforms. The characters and other objects are fairly
detailed though, although since the game is trying to simulate a cartoon
look, none of the graphics are any better than what you would expect
watching the cartoon on TV. Most however, are comparable.
Game/Play
=========
Your player (the road runner) is a bit gangly. When he runs around it is a
bit like sonic the hedgehog [SEGA] in that the screen scrolls by fast and
the character follows the terrain until you jump or something and go
flying into the air. You can also "walk" slowly and skid to a stop
(anyone remember Joust? well its kind of like that...).
At the end of each level you get an added score for each "flag" that the
roadrunner finds. Somewhat like SuperMarioWorld most of the flags are
hidden in "secret" parts of the level or in particularly difficult areas
to jump to. It seems that a good part of the "fun" of the game would be to
run around trying weird jumps to see if you can find the secret stuff.
Sometimes you find things by accident if you take a bad fall.
I found the jumping (especially from moving platform to moving platform)
to be difficult as the roadrunner has difficulty in jumping without
skidding, and if you skid on a moving platform, you often fall off, or
"through" the platform. Maybe this "technique" gets better with practice,
but I found it to be frustrating. I prefer more controlled precision
jumping and timing like in SF2 as opposed to this roadrunner who seems
like he is going to run into everything.
Also, you cannot jump down, which seems like an oversight. Certain
buttons on the joypad make the roadrunner jump up or turn to face you and
go "meep meep", which might of been fun if these functions actually were
good for anything.
Overall I found the game to be entertaining. I would buy it only if you
are a big fan of roadrunner and like games where you spend a lot of time
on a level trying to find secret jumps ect... I was disappointed with this
game as a rental, since I felt I could either try to finish the game (get
through all the levels to see the ending without trying to get all the
flags on each level), or explore the first few levels and try to get all
the flags and not get to the end. I like rentals to be ones which I can
finish in one rental (or at least get a code so I can start back where I
left off the next time I rent the game). Hopefully I've given you enough
info so you won't have to rent the game to see if you'd like to buy it.
Enjoy.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Chad Dawson. All rights reserved.
SUPER SMASH TV by Acclaim
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Chris Petit
Type: Shooter Players: 1 or 2
Game Basics:
It is the year 1999, and you are on the most violent game show in TV
history-- Smash TV. With a friend (if you wish), you venture into the
arena, collecting glamorous prizes (and possibly glamorous showgirls---but
that's in the PleasureDome), while trying to survive by blasting all of
the hundreds of guys that storm towards you. These guys can be human, but
are also just as likely to be mindless machines (robots, Orbs), or even
animals (Buffalo). And, if you should happen to clear an arena of
attackers, you may reach a point where you must defeat a Mega Monster---
the Mutoid Man, ScarFace, the DieCobras, or even the Game Show Host
himself!
Each type of critter has its own attack pattern and speed. Orbs move
slowly, but emit deadly laser beams which can fry you, while metal robots
lunge for you mindlessly, and people come in with clubs trying to kill
you. You can have around 2 dozen enemies on the screen at once, yet the
action isn't as unfair as it may seem. The enemies enter from one of four
stage entrances, and none is particularly bright.
Also to help you succeed are powerful power-up weapons (the Spread Shot,
Grenades, an extra gun to shoot alongside you, a Rocket Launcher, and a
Distance Launcher). Not to mention the useful Socks (to make you run
faster), and Keys (get enough and you reach the PleasureDome), and ever-
-wanted Force Fields, Flying Stars, and Nuke (clear the screen of guys
REAL fast).
But, mindless slaughter isn't the only thing that draws you into the
arena. We musn't forget the PRIZES---2600' screen TV's, 1999 Roadsters,
Vacation Trips, Toasters, Good Meat, Super VCR's, and, of course, BIG
MONEY.
Important Point:
You do not automatically progress to the next screen when all enemies are
present---a new cluster may appear within seconds. Be on guard.
Review Comments: (all ratings are 1.0 to 10.0, with 10.0 being high)
Graphics: 9.5
A truly impressive conversion of the arcade game. Everything is brought
home, with only one flicker (which may be intentional---the Force Field).
Only minor details are missing---the announcer's eyebrows and eye
movements, the fact that you must pick up money in groups of 3 rather than
individually, and some guys are a bit smaller in the home version (notably
the Buffalo Herds).
Music: 8.0
Quite good. Kind of catchy, and appropiate for the game (although I don't
think the arcade version had any background themes in the stages).
Sound Effects: 9.5
Again, superb but not flawless. The game show is still as obnoxious as
ever, spouting the wisdom "Big Money, Big Prizes...I Love It!" "I'll buy
THAT for a dollar." But, again, a handful of sounds are missing---most
notably the` pitiful wail that occurs when you really pound on a big boss.
Play Mechanics: 10.0
Incredible translation of the Arcade controls (which use 2 joysticks)---
the joypad moves you, while the four visible buttons form the second
'joypad' for firing control. Keeps all the feel of the arcade, and is
very easy to use and intuitive after a minimum of practice.
Skill Range: 8.0
Good range for a shooter, but not really astounding. Some earlier boards
are good for beginners, and Turbo mode is available (check SNES Cheat
Sheet) to make gameplay more intense for masters. But, real novices may
find the game a bit too hard.
Skill Progression: 8.0
Most of the game progresses easily and smoothly from easy to difficult,
but I feel the bosses really break the smooth progression---they require
much more attention and often wolf down about 6 lives.
Replay Value: 10.0
A well-done shooter, and remains intense without becoming overwhelming, it
offers challenge even after it's beaten, and is a romp for 2 players.
Gameplay: 10.0
Again, it keeps everything the arcade has intact, and is truly a shooter
every SNES user should have in his library.
Overall: 9.13
Quite a shooter.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Chris Petit. All rights reserved.
SUPER PLAY ACTION FOOTBALL by Nintendo
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Sen-Pin Lin
I have played SPAF for a few months, used to have the original JMF, and
rent the JMF '93 the other day. Each of them has been played for a
certain period of time. Basically JMF '93 is an update of JMF with better
animation, a few more plays. Besides, JMF '93 provides players' stats and
a few more teams (the all time greats) and several nice touchs such as
game stats at half time and final, more vivid animation after a good play
(TD, sack, etc), crowd's cheering or booing, firework and celebration in
the locker room once you win the champ.
TEAMS AND PLAYERS: JMF '93 supposely provides all NFL teams plus 8 all
time great teams and some all star teams. Unfortunately, it seams like EA
doesn't want to spend the money on licensing from NFL, so no team names
nor logos are provided. This results in one L.A. team, the other being
moved to Oakland. Similarly, there is only one N.Y. team, the other one
becomes N.J. SPAF provides 3 levels of teams: high school, college, and
NFL teams. Not much to say about high school. In college there are nearly
100 teams, with some fake ones(like Pale (Yale?), Standard (Stanford?),
Pursue (Purdue?), I think they are humorous but someone on the net said
no.) And all 28 "real" NFL teams. These three levels differ in many
aspects such as variety of plays, difficulty, variety of player moves,
subsitution and injuries. Neither of these two games have the players'
names.
FOOTBALL FIELD VIEW: JMF is from the back of offensive side, vertivally,
showing about 40 yards. SPAF is 45 degree diagonal from the offensive
side, only about 15 yards is shown, with a radar view covering the whole
field.
PASSING: Each of them has their strength and weakness. JMF '93 uses 3
windows showing the intended receivers. The trick is to pass the ball to
the open receiver, and use X button to reach for the ball. The weak point
is that, you can't see the running route of your receivers, and due to the
limited size of the windows, you can't see the defenders who are close
(but not too close) to the receivers. SPAF uses radar view to indicate
which receiver is open. The trick is to switch (your focus) between radar
view and field view, use radar view to find the open receivers and the
field view to actually catch the ball. The weakness is that you have to
look at both views at the same time, and you can't see your reciver until
the ball is about 10 yards next to him, making the passing too difficult
for a beginner. On the other hand, I thought the passing is too easy in
the original JMF, now in JMF '93 a circle is used to indicate the spot
where the ball will go, making passing even easier. The computer seems to
be unable to counter my passing game in JMF '93 because I always use fast
and shotgun formation, and complete the passes most of the time. In SPAF,
if I use the same passing play consecutively, I will mostly end up being
intercepted. BTW, I think there are too many interceptions in SPAF.
RUNNING: Without a doubt, SPAF is much better. The primary reason is that
in a running game, you don't usually have an open field. With 40 yards
shown as in JMF '93, the players are way too small and too close to each
other. It can be very confusing as whether your RB has been tackled or
not. In addition, the handoffs or laterals are done automatically, which
is bad since you want to control your QB to handoff at the right moment.
SPAF provides a much clearer view of the individual players. The only weak
point is the speed, looks like the players are running in slow motion.
DEFENSE: Both are fine, but I still like SPAF better since I have a
clearer view of each player, and I have the ability to jump.
AUDIBLE: I never used audibles in JMF or JMF '93 since I can't choose a
specific play to use. All I have are three pre-defined plays. In SPAF, you
choose your audibles just like the usual plays (in the beginning of each
quarter). And they are indeed very useful if you can read your opponent's
defense.
CONTROL: Both are very good. It might take sometime to get used to SPAF
though because of the 45 degree view.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND: Without a doubt, JMF '93 wins. I can't describe here,
try it yourself.
DOCUMENTATION: JMF '93 provides a complete list of stats for each player
in all teams. But the information on the defensive and offensive plays is
minimal. Whereas SPAF packs in a play book (in addition to the instruction
manual) of every offensive and defensive play, with explanation of how
each play works. This is a big plus considering there are 60+ offensive
plays and 20+ defensive plays in SPAF. Only the best players are
highlighted in the manual, you have to check out the rest of them during
the game play.
MISC.: JMF '93, like JMF, lets you play playoff for free. Thus a regular
season game is nothing but an exhibition game. On the other hand, in SPAF
if you choose to play a season, you start from the beginning and play 16
regular season games. If you rank among the top 3 in you division, you
can play playoff games. It also keeps tracks of your team's and players'
stats throughout a season. JMF '93 still use the password system to keep
track of your playoff's standing whereas SPAF has battery backup for your
standing and stats in a season. Another PLUS for SPAF in the NFL game is
that, your players get tired or injured if allowed to play for too long.
Hence it's your responsibility to check the players' status and make
subtitutions. There is more strategy involved since you have to decide
when to let your best player rest so when a big play is needed, he will be
ready.
BUGS: The type of football field seems to be chosen randomly in JMF '93. I
played S.F. in my first playoff round. The first and third are home games,
but one is in a domed stadium yet the other is an open stadium. The second
game was played in a dome also, but surprisingly, there was strong WIND!
In SPAF there are also some silly bugs. One being the erraneous replay of
a TD. But, none of the bugs in both games affect the gameplay itself. BTW,
there is an obvious slowdown in JMF '93 when you punt the ball.
Final comments: For those who hate SPAF (there seem to be quite a few)
because of of the mediocre graphics and sound, plus the silly bugs in
replays, JMF '93 is a very good bet for you. With pretty good graphics,
smooth animation, plenty of plays, and the many teams to play (especially
those all time great teams, too bad you can't use them in playoffs), it
should bring you a long time of enjoyment. For those who (like me) prefer
to have a total control of the game, a clear view of the players, a very
rich set of offensive/defensive plays and very solid gameplay, enjoy to
play a long season, and can tolerate the mediocre graphics and sound,
SPAF is the BEST.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Sen-Pin Lin. All rights reserved.
ULTIMATE FIGHTER by Culture Brain
For SNES, 12 Megs, $65.99 retail
Reviewed by Jer Horowitz
I had somewhat high expectations for this game. Culture Brain presents
Ultimate Fighter as a 2-in-1 game with 4 modes of play. As you may have
seen from screenshots, the characters are large and have been displayed in
ads and pictorial layouts as well-animated. The great ideas were a Street
Fighter II style "Tournament Mode" with martial artists who use everything
from Shaolin Karate to Thai Kickboxing, in addition to a "Fighting Mode"
which lets you walk the streets of a few countries, attacking grunts and
boss characters, as well as a reflex-testing "Expert Mode" where you aim
to exploit an enemy's weakness in a real-time statistical battle, and a
"Animation Story Mode", an RPG variant of the "Fighting Mode".
To their credit, Culture Brain delivers on their promises. They actually
(contrary to what you may read elsewhere) did a good job of taking the
fighting genre into new grounds, especially in the "Expert Mode". The
characters are large and in some cases are well animated. There is a
unique combat system employing a new "Hiryu no Ken" attack, and the
control mechanism is unique and presents a new challenge to SF2 players.
The game fails in several important ways, but also manages to give Capcom
a few ideas for what could be put into a Street Fighter 3 release of the
future.
The major flaw is best stated this way: "Don't mess with a good thing."
Culture Brain foolishly tampered with the near-perfect control mechanism
of Street Fighter II, taking what could have been totally phenomenal one-
on-one tournaments and creating repetition and confusion for both
players. It isn't so much that each character needs six attack buttons,
but that the joystick must be totally responsive. Culture Brain allows
the player to do a hopping jump by pressing up, but forces him/her to
press another button to do a high jump. The blocking is also
unresponsive, and the throwing mechanism requires both a successful block
(see above) and a button press, then another joystick movement. Too hard
to do.
The Tournament Mode, where the above flaws most apply, does have a
selection of some interesting fighters to choose from - two boxers, two
strong wrestlers, two "power" wrestlers, two Thai Kickboxers, two karate
masters, a male Shaolin Karate fighter and a female Shaolin fighter. One
would think, "12 megs? Street Fighter II had 16 megs and it had 12
characters and they couldn't put 3 other modes in! Ultimate Fighter must
be better." Let's examine the characters. Wherever you see "two" listed
above, the characters are the same except for different skin color or
heads. That's really it. The only two really good characters are the
Shaolin fighters, the male, not coincedentally, is also the hero of the
various Fighting modes, so he has the best animation and most moves; the
female is also really a great character but isn't part of the Fighting
mode. She even has a Guile-style flash kick, which looks real neat. The
background in Tournament Mode is constant - it becomes later in the day as
the fights take place, but the background doesn't change except for color.
The Fighting Mode, Expert Mode and Animation Mode share everything except
gameplay, which varies between them. Fighting Mode is almost exactly like
China Warrior, in that you continuously move right without three
dimensional movement, punching enemies out. Occasionally enemies will
come from behind, you turn and hit them. The bosses are actually quite
interesting, although they're all easy to defeat. During boss
confronations, you have all of the "Tournament Mode" moves at your
disposal, which is a great idea. The scrolling is choppy throughout, the
backgrounds are pretty poor, and the enemies are as repetitive and boring
as any I've seen, basically taking the twelve characters from Tournament
Mode and recolorizing them, level after level.
Expert Mode deviates in that you begin the game with a sparring session
where you learn to aim for weak points on your enemy, which are
represented by "O"s and "*"s appearing on the body. Then, you begin the
fighting mode, fight the grunts normally, and use the Expert reflex skills
to fight the bosses. Animation mode lets you fight the grunts and then
attack the bosses in RPG style "hit point" battles. Each mode
encorporates a storyline with still-photo intermissions showing a
conversation between the hero and his friends.
A very interesting twist which deserves commendation is the idea of mixing
a spirit world with the "real world" street fights. Some bosses upon
defeat transform into demons, and as a response, your character dons
magical armor and unsheaths two swords, which he uses in combat against
the boss. The background shifts to a spirit realm with a twisting
background and the adversaries get magical spells to use. When you
complete various levels, a new member joins your party, and you'll be able
to switch between bo-stick fighters and swordsmen. A great idea, again
executed poorly due especially to bad control.
The sounds are quite bad throughout and are at best nothing special. The
music is similarly mediocre. The difficulty level is reasonable
generally, but there's a password feature to make it easier and an Expert
Mode to make it harder. Animation is good, not great, and scrolling is
generally choppy. Use of special effects is typically Culture Brain
cheesy stuff, nothing showing they know how to use the advanced SNES
features. I would have to say that my biggest complaint is that it feels
just like every Culture Brain title -- Baseball Simulator 1.000 and the
"Ninja Kids" games.
The game reeks of superior planning but inferior execution, the worst type
of game around. If Culture Brain had left the programming to Sculptured
Software, they'd have more to brag about than a game with big characters
and a lot of moves and characters - they could say they had an infinitely
playable fighting title which both "brainless" Final Fight-type game
lovers could enjoy and "thinking" Street Fighter II lovers could play.
What Ultimate Fighter gives the player is a step down in most ways from
other SNES fighting games, but a combination of various genres. Not
highly recommended, but quite interesting nevertheless.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Jer Horowitz. All rights reserved.
JIMMY CONNORS TENNIS by UBI Soft
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Tom N.
GENERAL:
--------
Jimmy Connors' is made by UBI Soft. When I had my Amiga a couple years
ago, I had Pro Tennis Tour and Pro Tennis Tour 2 for it. Both games were
made by UBI Soft and were excellent tennis simulations. Pro Tennis Tour 2
was the most real computer tennis game I had ever played. The speed of
the game was real, the shot possibilities were more-or-less endless, and
the various surfaces were well represented.
JIMMY CONNERS' for the SNES is no different, but it has some added twists
that were not in Pro Tennis Tour 2 for the Amiga:
1) You can lob 2) Drop shots 3) Net courts (Ball hits top of net and drops
over) 4) Service speedometer (Not a big thing, but sort of neat) 5)
Running match stats checked after each odd game
CONTROLS:
---------
The controls are fairly easy. Each button represents a certain shot.
From the baseline: Topspin, Slice, Dropshot, Right spin, Left Spin, Lob.
The same for the serve: Hard serve, Easy serve, Right spin, Left spin,
Fake topspin serve, Kick serve.
Net play: Drop volley, Easy volley, Hard volley, Smash, Lob, Angle volley.
Angle is created by pushing the control pad Left or Right. The longer it
is pressed the more angle the ball has, as well as the more power. Gotta
love those cross-court screamers!
THE GAME:
---------
There are 16 players you can choose from, including Connors. Each player
has certain strengths and weaknesses, listed in the back of the manual.
You start the tour in January and can pick 1 tournament per month to play
in. Each tournament is worth points, with the Grand Slams being worth 100
points. The lowest point value I've seen so far is 20.
You play 1 year from January to December. The "object" of the game, of
course, is to become #1. The #1 player is very tough to beat, even on the
Amateur level! You start ranked #7, at least on the Amateur level.
There are 3 levels of difficulty: Amateur, Professional, Expert.
You can also select a coach before going out on the tour. There are 5
coaches, each with a different specialty: Basic shots, Advanced shots, Net
play, Serving,
There are really only 2 bad things I will say. Neither is too major:
1) I have made it to the final in 4 tournaments so far, each time
encountering the #1 player. I don't think the game has heard of "Early
round upsets". It gets a little repetitious to keep playing the same
people.
2) The password is a little tedious to enter, as in Legend of the Mystical
Ninja.
All in all, this is an excellent tennis game. I have never played Super
Tennis so I can't compare the two. I'm a big tennis fan and player in
real life, and since we get maybe 4 months a year of "warm" weather up
here, this game is a wonderful substitute.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Tom N. All rights reserved.
A Basic Brief on Hardware
by Daniel J. Starr
This is an attempt to very briefly summarize the main differences among
the various kinds and brands of hardware you can purchase, and describe at
a simple level what they do and how.
Arranged in decreasing likelihood that you'll buy one of these just for
games:
I. Sound cards
II. Graphics cards and the local bus
III. CPU types
I. Sound cards
Sound can add a great deal to your games. Music sets the proper
atmosphere for the scene and can make the difference between a jolly romp
and a spooky delve. Digitized effects and speech add tremendously to game
realism and provide information without distracting from the visuals.
There are two elements to game sound: synthesized sound, used primarily
for music, and digitized sound, used primarily for effects and speech.
Many but not all cards have both.
Digitized sound is the simpler of the two -- a digital recording is made
of the speech or sound effect, the recording is added to the software, and
the card plays it back just as it's recorded. In theory, how good the
reproduction is depends upon the sampling rate and the number of bits used
per sample; in practice, speech and effects sound just fine at 8 bits and
22kHz.
The further good news is that nearly all cards that do digitized sound are
compatible with the de facto standard, the Sound Blaster. If digitized
sound is the only consideration, it doesn't matter too much which card you
choose, as long as it can do digitized sounds and is Sound Blaster-
compatible. The bad news is not everything out there that says it's
compatible is perfectly compatible in practice; the good news is that
these problems are gradually getting worked out as programmers learn to
deal with the various flavors of sound cards.
The one problem with digitized sound is that it takes a LOT of space. One
minute of digitized speech or effects takes 10 MB on the hard disk.
Considering that even a game like Ultima VII only takes 21 MB, and that
plenty of hard drives out there hold only 80 MB or less, and that
manufacturers have to pay for all the disks they ship the software on,
there's a strong motivation for software makers to use a minimum of
digitized sound. (Or to produce software on CD-ROM, with 660 MB of space
per CD.)
That's where synthesized sound comes in. Instead of being a direct
recording of the original sounds, a synthesized-sound data set is just a
list of instruments and notes to play on them -- the electronic equivalent
of sheet music instead of a tape recorder. As a result, the size of a
piece of music in software is substantially reduced from what it would
have to be as a digital recording.
The downside is that the quality of the music you hear with synthesized
sound depends strongly on the sound card. Most low-end sound cards make
their music by what's called FM synthesis: they add a lot of sine waves
together until they get something whose waveform resembles the right note
on the right instrument. As you might guess, this general-purpose
procedure has a hard time differentiating instruments from one another;
it's the electronic equivalent of humming. Everything on these cards can
come out sounding more or less like an electric piano, except for drums --
they sound like rubber bands snapping.
The ranks of these cards include the Adlib and its variants, the Sound
Blaster and its variants, the Thunderboard, the Pro Audio Spectrum and
others. There are differences in quality among them -- you can do a
better or worse job of adding waves together. All of these cards are more
or less compatible, with Adlib as the de facto standard to emulate. And
don't get me wrong: any of these is much better than silence, some games
(e.g. Wing Commander) do a really nice job with them, and you can get one
for less than $100, so the price is right. With speech and even mediocre
music, games really do take on a new dimension.
On the other hand, if you're willing to spend more, it's possible to do a
much better job. Just as with professional music keyboards, high-end
sound cards store small digitized samples of various instruments, so that
they can play something that actually sounds like a trumpet or a kettle
drum -- because it IS a trumpet or a kettle drum, just adjusted in pitch
and duration. These cards are as good as most cassette recordings, and
the difference between one of these and an FM synthesis card is like night
and day. (My favorite sounds: church bells in Darklands and birds
chirping in Ultima VII -- stunningly realistic.)
The first piece of bad news about these cards, which use what is called
wavetable synthesis (because they hold tables of various waveforms) is
that they're more expensive. The second piece of bad news is that they're
not all compatible with each other, nor are they all supported.
Fortunately both of those are changing, and prices on these cards are
dropping. The Roland LAPC-1 had the biggest installed base of software,
but it's been recently replaced by the not-completely-compatible SCC-1.
Gravis, Roland and Ensoniq have been and are introducing new cards at
lower prices in recent months. If you play a lot of games and have $300
or so to spend, these are definitely worth a look... but wait six months
or so for the market to figure itself out.
II. Graphics cards and the local bus
If your hot new computer game seems to be playing too slow, odds are that
what's choking it up more than anything are graphics -- lots of them.
Calculating and displaying all the changing pixels on your screen takes a
heck of a lot of CPU time.
Now, the most logical way to speed up graphics performance in a computer
is to simply add special chips to take over the basic graphics functions
from the CPU -- draw a line here, fill a block there, etc. This is
precisely what console machines such as the Sega Genesis do, not to
mention arcade games and graphics workstations. The problem with doing
this on the PC is that in the absence of a standard "graphics accelerator
goes here" program interface, only those programs that are popular and
hardware-flexible enough to have drivers written for them can support
these graphic accelerators and coprocessors. As a result, if you're
running Windows or CAD, you can probably increase your speed dramatically
with a graphics accelerator -- but if it's Wing Commander or Wolfenstein
3D or any other standard DOS game, you're out of luck. Simply put: don't
buy a graphics accelerator card to speed up your games, it won't make a
difference. For simple DOS VGA graphics, good cards include those based
on the Cirrus Logic or Tseng ET-4000 chipsets.
Fortunately, there's another way to ramp up graphics performance, one that
works independently of the particular graphics-intensive program you're
using. There's a bottleneck in the standard PC between the CPU and the
graphics card: the system bus. The ISA bus, over which all information
from the CPU travels to peripherals in a standard PC, is 16 bits wide and
operates at 8Mhz. A typical CPU these days thinks in groups of 32 bits
and does so at a rate of 33Mhz. So simple math indicates that when the
CPU is trying to send graphics to the screen at top speed, it is slowed
down potentially by a factor of eight.
The solution is to create a special bus -- a local bus -- that has the
same speed and width as the CPU and lets it communicate directly with the
graphics card (and/or other high-speed peripherals). Tests typically show
local-bus machines getting double the benchmark performance of standard
machines; the difference in actual application performance isn't as great,
but it's still significant if the graphics use is intensive enough.
If you're shopping for a local-bus machine, look for a VESA local bus --
that's the new standard. Going with the standard means that you know what
kind of bus speed you're actually getting, and that you can easily change
or upgrade your card later.
III. CPU Types
Let's face it, it's a mess out there. Lots of types of CPUs with lots of
bizarre combinations of numbers and letters describing them. But here's a
quick rundown:
286: Has a 16-bit brain, won't run a lot of software coming out these
days. Don't bother with it.
386SX: Has the 32-bit common to everything up to and including the 486DX,
and so can in theory run anything they can, but it has a 16-bit bus so it
runs the stuff slowly. Many current games do not run well on this.
386DX: Has both a 32-bit brain and a 32-bit bus. If you're feeling
cheap, this is the place to go (the performance cost with anything less is
usually not worth the savings). Games are just beginning to come out that
push its limits -- Strike Commander, for example, will run on a 386DX-33
but be much happier on a 486.
486SX: The 486 CPU is an optimized 386 with a cache that lets it store
and reuse data on the chip for extremely fast access. In benchmarks it
goes about twice as fast as a 386 with the same clock speed; in
applications a good rule of thumb is a 50% improvement. The 486SX is the
real entry level now unless you're pressed for cash.
486DX: The 486DX is the same as the 486SX save that it includes a math
coprocessor (which you can get separately for other CPU's). This is
useful for math-intensive applications such as CAD, but not most games --
they don't support it, with a few notable exceptions such as Falcon 3.0.
486DX2: Because of the on-chip cache, a 486 doesn't need to access main
memory most of the time. The DX2 takes advantage of this by running the
CPU at twice the rate of the main system, so that a slower motherboard
design can support a computer that's effectively almost twice as fast.
This is the current high end.
The 486 chips in their various flavors are currently the best
price/performance deal from mail-order vendors. Is it the right time to
buy? If you can use the performance, yes. Otherwise, there is no right
time to buy, because prices ALWAYS drop. It's nearly impossible to buy a
computer these days without seeing its price go down 10% in 3 months.
Other chips:
"486DLC" and "486SLC": these are Cyrix chips, designed for 386
motherboards, that perform somewhat worse than 'true' 486's at the same
clock speed.
486DX3: A number of vendors are working on 486 chips that run at triple
the speed internally; these should be available sometime this year.
Pentium: The upcoming '586' from Intel, expected to be faster yet, have a
64-bit brain, be really really fast at the heavy math computations, and be
inordinately expensive and unavailable. First systems somewhere between
March and June, probably.
Other '586's: Both Cyrix and NexGen have announced plans to come out with
very fast compatible chips this year. No data on performance or genuine
existence yet.
P6: The '686' as it were -- Intel's next major chip advance is due in the
first half of 1994, which should indicate that there's just no way to stay
at the top of the technology heap for very long.
This article Copyright (C) 1993 by Daniel J. Starr. All rights reserved.
The SUPER ADVANTAGE JOYSTICK
by Ascii Entertainment
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
For quite some time after the release of the Super Nintendo console, there
were no alternatives to the standard SNES controllers that came with each
unit. There were certainly no good joystick alternatives that could be
found easily in the retail channel. Close to Christmas of last year,
ASCII Entertainment changed all of that. The Super Advantage joystick is
now the standard by which all other joysticks are and should be compared.
In a word, it's excellent!
The unit comes in fairly large box with very clear and easy to read
instructions on installation (plug it in!!) and the operation of its
different features. The joystick is mounted on a generous metal platform
(about 6"x9") that provides a lot of stability. The joystick itself is a
high-quality
unit that provides smooth motion in any axis. While controls
on the screen are limited to 8 directions, the joystick seemingly will
travel with easy in any of 360 degrees. This translates into much finer
control over the movement of action on the screen.
The buttons have a somewhat irregular layout; at least for the R and L
buttons. They are mounted to the left and right of the A,B,X,Y diamond and
don't provide a great deal of funtionality there. Playing Street Fighter
2, for example, was somewhat difficult initially. My fingers just
wouldn't travel to those L and R positions. As with any new layout, it
will take some getting used to. The A,B,X,Y buttons are brightly colored
with different colors, while the L and R buttons are both grey. All of
the buttons are at least twice the size of the regular controller buttons
and have a very good travel and 'stroke' feel to them.
The joystick also has some very useful extra controls. Each button can be
set up for rapid-fire, as well as auto-fire. The auto-fire function was
particularly useful in playing Space Megaforce. All I had to concentrate
on was the timing of the bombs. There is also a semi-useful slo-mo button
with the ability to control how slow you want to go. It was moderately
useful playing against the top seed in David Crane's Amazing Tennis.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
ASCIIpad SG by ASCII Entertainment
For the Sega Genesis
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
As a pretty active gamer, I was never really very impressed with the
original Sega Genesis control pads. The buttons always seemed to stick
and never give me the kind of feedback I was looking for. Plus, the
direction pad seemed to have too much 'play' (pardon the pun) in, again,
giving me unpredicatable results when playing. So it was with great
pleasure that I tried out the ASCIIpad SG for the Genesis when ASCII
Entertainment sent one to us. The pad is very ergonomic in nature. It
fits nicely in the hand and is considerably thinner than the original
Genesis controller.
The buttons on the ASCIIpad are also the result of better engineering.
They have a much firmer tactile feel to them and offer a much better
'stroke' when the button is pushed. The direction pad itself is also very
'tight'. What I mean by tight is that the controls always feel like they
are returning to center after each movement. Most of all, this new
controller offers something the original didn't - Turbo buttons and a Slow
button. With these, you can set your fire buttons to a very fast rate,
or have them set on automatic, firing all the time, thus saving your thumb
from some agony during long plays. The slow-mo button doesn't offer that
much value to me. It's just simply hitting pause repeatedly and makes
the action quite jerky as well as slow.
Overall, I'd give a strong thumbs up to the ASCII pad. It is a quality
product that offers more funtionality and better feel than the original.
Like they say, build a better mousetrap...
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
ASCIIpad by ASCII Entertainment
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
This controller is a very nicely engineered, no-nonsense device that
offers virtually the same direction pad as the original SNES controller.
It adds turbo and autofire controls for each individual button, plus a
slo-mo feature that affects all the action. The feel is identical to the
original controller with possibly a little better tactile feedback on the
buttons. The direction pad feels no different than the original.
There's not much more to say about this unit. The turbo fire function
works very well for shooters like Space Megaforce or Axelay, and I've used
the slo-mo function a few times when playing a game of tennis with Jimmy
Connor's Tennis. The buttons can also be set to auto-fire so that you're
not wearing out your thumb, even for autofire functions. Basically, this
is the same functionality as the Advantage Joystick minus the variable
rate fire controls.
When your original controllers wear out, or if you immediately want to
jack up your shooter scores with some turbo fire, this is a no-brainer.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
FIGHTER POWER STICK by Capcom
For the Super Nintendo
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
With the advent of Street Fighter 2 for the SNES, players/fighters
everywhere anxiously awaited some kind of joystick that approximated the
same joystick controls as found on the stand-up coin-up machine. Several
companies have come along, but only Capcom, the game's author, deliberately
targets Fighter Power Stick directly to Street Fighter 2 players. The
news of its coming was reported on very early and the wait for many
players was agonizing. Now it's here and what's the verdict? I'm afraid,
at least for this editor, that I was somewhat underwhelmed.
The unit comes on a large stable base that sits well on a lap while
slugging it out with the likes of Ryu or Zangief. There are special mode
controls that allow for rapid fire or slo-mo fire. I must say here,
though, that the use of these controls is entirely NON-intuitive. I also
have to give honest criticism to the manual writers. The photo-copy of
the manual I received with the unit was very poorly laid out and the
intructions on how to use all the features of the unit just didn't clearly
communicate. In defense of the manual writers, the controls themselves
are the problem. Confusing is the word.
However, we have to discuss the overall feel of the joystick, as that is
the most important feature for gamers. Plus, the feel, not only for
Street Fighter 2, but for a wide variety of today's hottest carts. I
started with Street Fighter 2 and followed it up with a selection of other
SNES carts. The SF2 moves and controls were only marginally better for me
than my control with a standard controller. The stick has 8 very
distinctive axis' of motion and for me, the tension is way too loose.
It's just too easy to move the stick in any direction. My other gripe
with the unit was that there truly is only 8 places you can move the
stick. Perhaps this will force more precise dragon punches, but for me,
it became quickly frustrating. By comparison to the ASCII Super Advantage
joystick, it was no contest. The other games I tried with it were no
better. In some cases, I simply couldn't get the controller to react the
way the action required.
In conclusion, for some dedicated SF2 players, this controller may well be
their product of choice. The buttons are laid out in the typical arcade
coin-op layout and are easy to access. But for me, the control and the
non-intuitive controls were enough to turn me off of it quite quickly.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
TURBO TOUCH Controllers by Triax
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
After receiving my Street Fighter 2 cartridge and spending several
sleepless nights for a few weeks, I found my left thumb to be in pure
agony. I was 'pressing', as they say, and my desire to crush Dhalsim
was causing my controller "thumb" to simply wear out. So, along comes
the Triax Turbo Touch (TT) controller. It's claim to fame is that it
requires far less effort to 'move' your character or the action on the
screen. Using very sensitive devices in the direction pad, all it takes
is a slight (very slight) movement of the thumb in the direction you want
to go. There are no 'rocker' devices in the unit at all. The movement
seems more 'solid-state'-like. This immediately saved my thumb from
much further agony. The real question is - what's the control like?
After spending some time with SF2, I found my thumb to be thanking me, but
my scores were not. Of course, I can chalk some of this up to practice,
but overall, I lost a great deal of feedback in my play to gain relief
from pain. For example, it was much more difficult to properly time my
jumps in SF2 with the TT because there is very little, if any sensation,
that you are preparing to jump. It was quite hard. Other games like
F-Zero were mildly similar, though not as bad. It's very easy to over-
steer the race vehicle, but again, we'll chalk most of this up to
practice. What was telling was my 7 year-old son. I had him try it, and
while he said it was nice to not push so hard on the thumb. He had a
hard time with the control. The feedback mechanism from the thumb-to-
brain and back is quite remarkable.
For specific gaming moves, like Dragon Punches and Fireballs, the TT is
an excellent device. It makes performing these moves quite effortless.
Where it falls down is the rest of the games where particular feedback
control is necessary. I can only marginally recommend the unit.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
ED. - Here are several very informative, slightly polar reviews of the
Gravis Ultrasound board for your information. More information will be
published later with the advent of the 3-D sound technology that Gravis
has just recently announced. Because of the length of these articles,
we will split these into two parts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVANCED GRAVIS ULTRASOUND by Advanced Gravis
Reviewed by Phat H. Tran
Ever since I first heard about the Ultrasound last year, it had my mouth
watering. Thirty-two digital voices, stereo, wavetable synthesis, on-
board RAM. These are the things that wet dreams are made of. All for
less than $200. So I eagerly waited for this wonder-card instead of
upgrading from my tired SoundBlaster to one of the other soundboards
available at the time.
After a long string of delays, the Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) was finally
released during the fall of 1992. It can be had for about $169CDN at
better stores in Canada, and about $129-139US in the States.
Well, was it worth the wait? Most definitely!
Here is an overview of the card that shipped:
- Wavetable synthesis
- 32 digital voices
- 16 stereo digital voices
(Note: There was some controversy on Usenet whether or not the GUS is
actually 32-voice stereo instead of 16. Several programmers working
with the card, most notably Dan Nicholson, the music writer for Star
Control 2, Joshua Jensen, author of Super Pro Play, and Tom Tran of
the demo group Renaissance, have claimed that it has 32 independently
pannable voices. Whether this constitutes 32-voice stereo is
debatable, since playing back stereo samples would still require two
voices, one panned completely to the right, and the other completely
to the left. This means that only a maximum of 16 stereo samples can
be played at once. However, when generating music with patches,
having 32 independently pannable voices means that we can have 32
voices individually positioned to varying degrees between right and
left, so isn't that 32-voice stereo? It's an academic debate, really.)
- 16-bit playback up to 44.1 kHz
- 8-bit recording (16-bit recording daughtercard optional)
- 256k of RAM (expandable to 1 Meg with 6standard 44256 DRAM chips)
- UART MIDI
- speed-compensating joystick port
- SB and Adlib compatibility through software emulation
- Win 3.1 MIDI and WAVE drivers
- optional SCSI daughtercard
Wavetable Synthesis
-------------------
The GUS, first of all, is certainly not your typical SoundBlaster clone.
In fact, SB compatibility is its weakest feature. What makes the GUS
stand out from the other soundcards already available in the sub MT-32
range, and in some ways, inclusive of the MT-32, is that it uses wavetable
synthesis (WTS) as opposed to FM. In FM synthesis, pure waveforms (such
as sine waves) called operators are used to modulate and combine with each
other to generate more complex waveforms. Wavetable synthesis, on the
other hand, uses samples of real sounds and instruments as the basis for
sound generation, and thus, can produce results that are much more
realistic than FM synthesis can.
The samples used in wavetable synthesis have a certain structure and are
called patches. On the GUS, patches, which are uploaded onto its on-board
RAM, have the following format:
Start------------------------LoopS-----------------------------End
The segment of the patch between Start and LoopS is played once, and is
called the attack transient. It is usually the most harmonically complex
part of the sample. The segment that lies between LoopS and End is played
after the attack transient and then looped (i.e. repeated over and over)
for the sustain of the note. As a note decays, the volume is faded while
the LoopS-End segment is looped. The looped segment is often much simpler
than the attack transient. In fact, in the MT-32, a middle-end semi-
professional soundcard from Roland, the attack transient, because of its
complexity, is reproduced using WTS while the sustain is done with just FM
synthesis.
If you've ever listened to a MOD, then you've heard a crude 8-bit, 4-voice
implementation of wavetable synthesis. Imagine how much better a 32-
voice, 16-bit implementation of WTS would sound, in panning stereo. Also,
playing MODs on cards such as the SoundBlaster, which have only a "dumb"
DAC, requires that the CPU do the processing of the samples and mixing of
the 4 channels into one to feed out through the single DAC. The GUS, on
the other hand, handles the sample processing and mixing all on its own,
thus freeing up the CPU for other tasks.
Installation
------------
My first impression about the GUS after taking it out of the box and
marvelling at its shiny red circuit board was that it was going to be one
heck of a beast to install. After all, I had to choose a base port
address, a DMA channel, and two IRQs for the card. But as it turned out,
the installation was a breeze. The only two jumpers I had to set was one
for the base address, and another to disable the joystick port (since I
already had one that I liked). I then plugged the card into an empty
slot, installed the software, and then used the talking(!) setup program
to set the DMA channel and the two IRQs (one is for the Ultrasound's GF1
chip and the other is for SB emulation and MIDI). The defaults work fine
for most people. The only catch I had so far was running out of hard disk
space for the software. If I had not been watching the screen for the
entire installation process, I would have never known that I didn't have
room for all the patches since the installation program finished without
reporting any errors. I freed up about 10 Megs and the reinstallation
proceeded without a hitch.
Next came Windows. I called up the Control Panel, double clicked on
Drivers, removed my SB stuff, and added my GUS drivers. I then rebooted
Windows. Much to my horror, the startup .wav, which sounded fined, was
followed by a deafening screech. I had to reset the computer for it to
stop. Upon the next invocation of Windows, though, there was not the
slightest sound after the startup .wav. Later, I found out that the
Windows screech problem is a result of mixing SBOS and Windows. So, now,
I always uninstall SBOS and run ultrinit to reset the GUS before starting
a Windows session. Another thing that I had to remember to do with regard
to Windows was copy midimap.cfg from my \ultrasnd\windows directory to
\windows\system. Otherwise, .mids won't play properly with Media Player.
Sound Quality
-------------
When I first played the demos that came with the card (mostly .mid files),
I was just bowled over. Then, I downloaded some more .mids and, to my
further delight, they easily surpassed the demos that had my virgin ears
in awe. The card sounded incredible, putting every other soundcard in its
price range to shame. The SB, SBPro, and PAS-16 can't even begin to match
the richness and realism of the GUS. I knew a thing or two about
wavetables, but I didn't expect my GUS to sound this good, especially at
its price. The instrument patches, though incomplete and imperfect as of
this writing, sounded extremely real nonetheless. Even with the current
patches, people have compared the GUS favourably to the MT-32/LAPC-1. I
wonder how much better it'll sound when Gravis ships the complete and
polished set of General MIDI patches to registered owners.
In comparisons between the MT-32 and the Ultrasound, people have said that
though the some of the GUS's current patches can sound quite a bit better
than those of the MT-32 since the GUS uses full wavetable synthesis while
the MT-32 still used FM for the sustain, the GUS tended to sound drier.
Apparently, it lacks the on-board reverb and chorus effects that added
"warmth" to the MT-32's output. Wanting reverb and chorus on a $139US
card is probably asking for a little too much.
One thing I found out early on about the GUS is that the 256k that it
ships with, though probably adequate for games, was not enough to hold the
patches for many MIDI files. As a result, many of the .mids I downloaded
from various ftp sites would cause playmidi, a utility that came with the
GUS, to choke with "load patch failed -7" errors. I quickly shelled out
$30 for the 6 DRAM chips that upped the memory on the card to 1 Meg, which
is enough to hold about 40 different instruments. Ever since the upgrade,
I've yet to encounter a MIDI file that used more patches than would fit on
the card.
Another thing I learned quickly was that the software that shipped with
the card did not use it to its fullest potential. For example, playmidi
would only use up to a maximum of 20 of the GUS's 32 voices when playing
songs. Even worse were the Windows drivers. The MIDI driver wasn't even
in stereo, and it purportedly uses only up to 12 of the GUS's voices. The
WAVE driver would only support 8-bit playback up to 22 kHz, in mono,
instead of 16-bit and 44.1 kHz, in stereo. Gravis are working on updated
drivers and utilities, though, and hopefully they'll be released soon.
The GUS, though it appears to be unshielded, is very noise-free. Feeding
its line out into my home stereo receiver and cranking up the volume to
max revealed extremely low hiss and no RF pickup from the motherboard and
other cards. The GUS also has a 2-watt amplified output that is somewhat
noisier than the line out, but is still quite clean.
Compatibility
-------------
As there currently aren't a lot of games out there that support the GUS in
its native WTS mode (there are only two that I know of, Star Control 2 and
a new version of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat or Advanced Flight Simulator),
we still have to consider its compatibility with existing software. The
GUS emulates the SoundBlaster through an 18k TSR called SBOS (for Sound
Board Operating System), which can be loaded high. As the GUS uses a
sound generation technology entirely different from the FM synthesis on
the SB, the emulation isn't perfect. FM sounds are approximated using
patches. The approximations are close, and often quite good, but not
exact. However, what gives SBOS the most problems is emulation of the
SB's DAC. Most of the time, DAC output is crisp and clear, but there will
be occasions when the emulated DAC sounds raspier than the real SB DAC
would. SBOS seems to work best when digital samples are played using DMA
instead of direct DAC feeding.
How well does SBOS work overall? Much better than most people would
expect for a software emulator. SBOS works very well with virtually all
Adlib and SB games that do not use the DAC. The success rate drops
slightly with games that use the SB's DAC. There's also the question of
slowdown with software emulation, but I've found very few games that had
noticeable speed degradation under SBOS. I have a 386-33, so people with
slower machines may notice more slowdowns. Most of the games that do slow
down only do so at certain parts, such as during an explosion, and not
throughout their entirety. From my own tests and the experiences of other
GUS owners, I'd say that about 90% of SB/Adlib games work well with SBOS.
That still leaves 10% of SB games that will not work or will not work well
with the GUS, so if you buy the Ultrasound, hope that your favourite SB
game isn't in that 10%.
SB emulation is clearly the GUS's achilles heel. SBOS is very good, but I
wouldn't want to use it forever over a real SoundBlaster if all I'll be
doing is playing SB games. However, as more games come out that support
the GUS, SB emulation will become less of an issue. Native GUS support
looks to be spearheaded by Electronic Arts, who were promoting the GUS
during the summer, and by Accolade. If you don't plan on using the GUS
for games, then SBOS shouldn't even be a concern.
Outlook
-------
The GUS will be facing some stiff competition from a new series of
wavetable cards based on the Aria chipset from Sierra Semiconductors. The
major plus that the Aria cards have over the GUS is hardware SB emulation
that is purported to work better than SBOS. However, though the emulation
is now in hardware, it's still using wavetables to emulate FM, and so will
share some of the GUS's FM emulation problems. The Aria cards also use a
DSP to handle the SB DAC emulation, which will probably offer greater
compatibility with SB DAC-driving software than does SBOS.
The Aria cards use 512k or 1 Meg of ROM to store preset instruments,
depending on the model. The advantage of this approach is that the
instruments are all readily accessible, making life easier for developers,
while with RAM, programs have to cache the ones they intend on using.
However, there is a tradeoff. To fit 128+ of the General MIDI instruments
into 512k or 1 Meg means that the patches have to be pretty small. With
the GUS, you only load the few instruments you need at any one time. If a
song only requires ten different patches, then you only load the ten
patches into the GUS's RAM. With 256k, and more often a full 1 Meg since
most GUS owners I know upgrade, these ten patches can each be much larger
than each of the 128+ patches packed onto 512k or 1 Meg of ROM. For
technical and obvious reasons, the larger the patch, the more realistic
the instrument will sound. That's why a professional card such as the
Sound Canvas has over 4 Megs of ROM to store its patches. The GUS's
current and incomplete set of 130 patches already takes up close to 3 Megs
of space, so the complete set of about 190 (128 + percussions) GM patches
will probably be 4 Megs in size. A complete GM patch set on the Aria
cards can only take up 512k or 1 Meg and, thus, will be of much poorer
quality than one that takes up 4 Megs.
There are two other advantages of RAM over ROM. With RAM, the instrument
set can constantly be improving as better and better patches are released.
Gravis has revised the patches for the GUS at least once in the past, and
will do so at least once more in the future when they release the
completed GM set. In addition, with RAM, the enduser can create or add
instruments that are not included in the GM patch map. It would be quite
hard to compose certain types of music such as techno without the ability
to create your own instruments.
The Aria cards look to be quite good, certainly better than FM synthesis,
but because they are largely ROM-based (with the ROM limited to a maximum
of 1 Meg) it remains to be seen whether they'll match the versatility and
sound quality of the GUS.
Summary
-------
Likes:
- Superb sound quality.
- RAM based.
- Advanced technology. What IS inside that ICS chip!?
- Affordability.
- Expandability.
Dislikes:
- Imperfect SB emulation. This may be a strong deterrent for many
people.
- Poor packaged software and documentation.
- Incomplete Windows drivers which only work in 386 Enhanced mode,
leaving 286 Windows and OS/2 users GUS-less. Let's hope the final
drivers will address these problems.
Despite all the rough edges in its software and documentation, the GUS
still offers the best sound for the money at present and most likely into
the near future as well, even when its closest and more expensive rivals,
the Aria cards, are released. Gravis are polishing off the GUS package
with better drivers, thicker manuals, and newly licensed software, so
before long, the rough edges may all but disappear. The new drivers will
be available to all GUS owners free of charge, but I am not sure if the
new third-party software will be free to current owners as well. The
Ultrasound's biggest weakness, and one that can't be totally eliminated
with revised software, is its imperfect SB emulation. But heck, people
don't gripe about the MT-32/LAPC-1 being completely SB-incompatible, and
the GUS can sound almost as, and sometimes just as good as they do. If
you want the best sounding card for under $349US (the price of the LAPC-
1), and can live with 90% SB compatibility, then the $139US Gravis
Ultrasound is well worth your consideration.
Tips for the potential GUS buyer:
---------------------------------
- Some OPTi chipsets do not like soundcards, including the GUS. So, if
your have OPTi chips on your motherboard, make sure that you can
return the GUS if it does not work in you machine.
- The Ultrasound archive can be found on two ftp sites:
- archive.epas.utoronto.ca (128.100.160.36) /pub/pc/ultrasound
- wuarchive.wustl.edu /systems/msdos/ultrasound(?)
The archive has the latest versions of patches, SBOS, utilities, and
various other support files for the Ultrasound. You can probably get
revisions from the archive faster than Gravis can mail them to you.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Phat H. Tran. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAVIS ULTRASOUND by Advanced Gravis
Reviewed by Ian Mercado
UltraSound sounds great! Here's why I'm returning it...
--------------------------------------------------------
Well, folks, here it is...the complete and unabridged version of why I am
forced to return my great-sounding Gravis UltraSound for a full refund.
(Make sure you buy yours at such a place that will accept returns as
well.)
After many months of hype and GUS digest reading, I couldn't wait until
the Gravis started appearing in retail outlets (I didn't want to deal with
all the many mail-order headaches that many of you had been describing).
Well, last Monday, that day had finally arrived. Several UltraSounds had
been spotted by a friend at the local Micro Center over the weekend, and
after rushing out there after work, I was able to pick up one of the two
remaining cards (they originally had four) for $159 plus tax. (Not the
greatest of deals, but I knew I could return it if I had problems with it.
..and, oh, did I have problems; read on...)
I rushed home to install my new Gravis, but only had an hour to get it
installed before heading to the Springsteen concert that evening (shame on
The Boss for interrupting my UltraSound fun!). But that was plenty for
me... in 45 minutes I had that card installed, setup for the default port
(220), DMA channel (1), and interrupts (GUS 11, MIDI 5). My computer
booted just great (a homebuilt 486/33 with a MusicQuest MIDI card, 16550
serial card, bus mouse card, original Diamond Speedstar card, and Aska
multi I/O card), and I was delighted (and relieved) when I was finally
greeted with my familiar "D:\>" prompt. (By the way, software items in my
configuration included QEMM, ANSI.SYS, Microsoft Mouse Driver 8.xx,
Stacker, Hyperdisk, Doskey, and Vmode). I quickly switched to the
D:\ULTRASND directory to begin the fun.
I loaded the FLIDEMO (with fingers crossed). It sounded great. I played
all the MIDIDEMO songs, they sounded even better. (Especially HIDNSEEK.
MID, that one truly shows off the GUS's potential, and I think it could
easily have been better, too!) Well, I'd used up my remaining 15 minutes,
so it was off to see how Bruce could perform without his familiar E-Street
band backing him up (he did quite well, BTW). Well, as we all know, "The
Boss" is famous for his concerts of extended length, so it was straight
to bed when I doggedly trudged home at about 1:00 am (I still have to
work 40 hours a week, you know!). But Tuesday would be the true test...
SBOS. (Insert menacing music here).
I rushed home from work Tuesday to again return to my GUSsing. (And
you'd better believe my wife was starting to wonder what all the fuss was
over this little computer product.) I started up my computer fine, and
began the testing. "SBOS installed," the irritatingly nasal voice
informed me. I considered using the "-p" option to shut him up
permanently, but since so many people had posted about strange problems
occurring when using this option, I decided to bear with the sound of the
anonymous Canadian as long as I could. First test...WOWII (the .MOD
player which reportedly worked with the GUS). WOWII came up just fine,
the oscilloscopes started oscillating, but what was this? NO SOUND AT
ALL!!! WOWII apparently noticed this, because fived seconds later, it
locked the machine up hard. "Uh, oh," I thought as I realized I was in
that unlucky group of people who currently face problems getting their
UltraSound to run correctly. A few other tests revealed that indeed other
games that reportedly have and should work did not work at all on my
computer. After stripping all suspect items out of my configuration (MIDI
card, 16550 card, bus mouse card, QEMM, and Hyperdisk), I still could not
get the thing to produce any digitalized sound, I COULD however get it to
do Adlib sound, which did indeed sound quite better than the original
Adlib most of the time. Well, this day had produced nothing but
frustration, and unfortunately, it was once again bedtime. Further
GUSsing would have to wait until Wednesday.
I got a call from my wife Wednesday afternoon. "Honey, the computer won't
boot." "Oh, great," I thought as I reverted to my days of working on the
computer help-line for a former employer. Apparently, the computer would
power-on, the hard disk light would light...stay lit...stay lit...and
nothing would execute. After putting my poor wife through many
meaningless (to her) boot-floppy, Norton utilities gyrations (none of
which would get the computer booted), I had her remove the UltraSound. It
booted like a champ. Well, I knew I would be in store for more GUS fun
that evening, so I enlisted the aid of a fellow computer-knowledgeable
programming geek to help me out with the UltraSound tuning that was to
ensue.
We arrived at my house that evening, armed to the teeth with our favorite
game software (including the much renowned Star Control II) and our
collectively vast pool of knowledge of IBM computer circuitry. Two and a
half hours later, we determined that absolutely no matter what sort of
software configuration we used, no matter what DMA channel we selected,
and no matter what interrupts we used for the GUS, DIGITAL SOUNDS WOULD
NOT WORK ON THE DAMN THING USING SBOS!!! (Yes, I was getting peeved by
this point... especially because the problem my wife was having during the
day had carried over into the evening...most of the time the computer
would NOT boot off the hard drive with the GUS installed...it would boot
fine from a floppy however, and then allow hard drive access.) Well,
nearing the point of total despair, we loaded up Star Control II. It
sounded AWESOME!! Damn, WHY WOULDN'T SBOS WORK RIGHT ON THIS THING?????
As we again pondered possible solutions to the problem with renewed vigor,
I suddenly remembered that extra 386/40 I had lying in the corner I had
purchased as a Christmas present for my little sister (don't worry, my
wife has already given me thorough mental pummeling for my overly extended
generosity).
Well, you'd better believe we had the GUS installed in a flash...this
system contained the 386/40 with a Boca SVGA card, a no-name multi I/O
card, the GUS, and the hard drive from my 486/33 (I couldn't afford to
get my sis a hard drive, I was being bashed by my wife enough as it was).
We powered up both systems (the hard drive was still in my 486/33's case),
and BINGO...it booted right up off the hard drive! FLIDEMO? Check!
MIDIDEMO? Check! SBOS? CHECK!! WOWII played mods like a champ! Tristan
played digitized pinball sounds just great! Even Castle Wolfenstein
sounded superb!! (I had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing that game,
too!) My excitement quickly turned sour, however, when I realized that
the computer I was enjoying my wonderful UltraSound on was slated to be
delivered to my little sister in just a few weeks. But my friend and I
did figure out a few things as he was packaging up the UltraSound to take
home and try out on his 486/50:
Apparently the UltraSound has some problem with certain hardware
configurations that can easily prevent SBOS from working correctly, and
(in my case), even prevent the computer from booting up successfully.
Obviously, the software was not a factor as I was successfully running
SBOS on the 386/40 with QEMM, Stacker, and Hyperdisk loaded. Oh, and the
UltraSound was back to the default ports and interrupts when we used the
386/40 also. We took pity on poor Joe-Average user who doesn't know his
DMA channel from his RAM disk. Obviously, there are some hardware problems
that Gravis needs to address before releasing the final revision of this
card (see included message below).
As for me? Well, after my friend gets through his testing, I'll re-
install it on my 486/33 to give it one last shot. There's still a few
things I could try changing in the CMOS, that could possibly (but
doubtfully) produce better results with SBOS. If I fail to have any luck
there, I'll be returning my GUS (woefully) for a full refund. Thank
goodness I had planned for these abnormalities ahead of time by purchasing
the GUS from a place with such a customer-oriented return policy.
For all you people who have GUSses installed and working great, I am very
happy for you. I laud Gravis's attempt to make such a bold first entry
into the sound card market. I firmly believe that Wave Table Synthesis
is the sound card technology of the future, and I can't wait until a
stable card emerges as the industry standard, so I can purchase it and
enjoy a whole new realm of PC gaming enjoyment. I only hope that the
"card of the future" is as reasonably priced as the Gravis, and possibly
even hope that it would indeed be made by Gravis (I still think that
their PC Gamepad is the greatest PC video gaming accessory ever made!).
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ian Mercado. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ED. In defense of Gravis, it should be fairly noted that several
revisions of the SBOS driver have been completed, with the most recent
version of 2.0 that reportedly fixes many, if not all, of the
Soundblaster emulations problems reported earlier. Gravis is to be
commended for 'sticking with it' for their emulation strategy, though
their primary thrust is for native support from many vendors. We will
continue to publish and report on the status of Gravis development from
many different vendor's perspectives.
ULTRASOUND by Advanced GRAVIS
Reviewed by Daniel G. Kennett
Early Xmas morning I tore off the wrapping of my Gravis UltraSound (GUS
herein), my eyes alight with joy and longing. As soon as the morning
festivities had ceased I rushed up to my room, popped the "hood" off my
computer and carefully opened the box containing my GUS. Inside the box
one will find a large box and a small one. The small box contains the
GUS, while the larger box contains the manuals and software. After
quickly perusing the sparse GUS manual I upgraded my GUS from 256K to 1
meg, by plugging 6 DRAM chips (100ns or less) into the expansion slots at
the end of the card. I then eased the GUS card into my computer. I had no
problems installing the card. After replacing the case, I turned my
computer on and installed the software. No problem there either. The
problem came with running setup! Setup itself was fine, I heard the
voice and sound effects that are part of setup but when I left setup, my
hard drive crashed with a message saying something along the lines of
"Your hard drive cannot be read, hard disk failure". It appears that the
setup program has problems with certain motherboards concerning IRQ's and
DMA channels, a new setup program can be downloaded from the Gravis BBS
(1-604-431-5927) or from the GUS ftp site (archive.epas.utoronto.ca).
With the new setup program from the Gravis BBS, I installed it and reran
setup. After a flawless install and setup, I encountered no more problems.
The following chart compares the GUS to the other sound cards on the
market:
GUS = Gravis UltraSound
AL = Ad Lib
SB = Sound Blaster
ALG = Ad Lib Gold 1000
SBP = Sound Blaster Pro
* = Yes
@ = Optional
+==========================+=======+=======+=======+======+=======+
| OPTIONS: | GUS | AL | SB | ALG | SBP |
+==========================+=======+=======+=======+======+=======+
| Synthesized Voices | 32 | 11 | 11 | 20 | 22 |
| CD Quality Sound | * | | | | |
| Digital Audio Voices | 32 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Stereo Digital Voices | 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Stereo Synthesis | * | | | * | * |
| On-card Memory (K) | 256 | None | None | None | None |
| Speed Adjusted Game Port | * | | | | |
| MIDI Interface | * | | | * | * |
| Stereo Sample Rate (kHz) |2-44.1 | None | Mono |1-44.1| 4-22 |
| MPC/Win3.1 Compatibility | * | | | * | * |
| Recording Res. (bits) | 8/16@| | 8 | 12 | 8 |
| CD ROM Interface | @ | | | @ | * |
| On-board Mixer | * | | | * | * |
+==========================+=======+=======+=======+======+=======+
NOTE: This data is from the rear panel of the GUS Box.
The sound quality of the GUS in native mode is excellent. The MIDI files
included with the GUS really demonstrates the cards abilities. My
personal favorite of the MIDI files included with the GUS is "bagpipes.
mid ". Under Windows 3.1 Enhanced mode you can use the media player to
play MIDI files while you work (in fact, at the time of my writing this,
I have a MIDI file playing in the background).
Utilizing a TSR, the GUS offers Sound Blaster emulation. While not 100%
emulation, it is close to 90%-95% compatible. I have yet to find a game
that does not work with the Sound Blaster emulation. A downside of the
emulation, besides one or two programs refusing to work, is how it
sounds. Most games sound very close to Sound Blaster quality (as a
previous owner of a Sound Blaster I can vouch for this). The games don't
sound worse, just different. Advanced Gravis is continually upgrading
and fixing the TSR so the emulation is becoming better and better.
Software support of the GUS at the moment is limited to Star Control II
(which sounds incredible in GUS native mode) and a special version of
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Future releases will support the GUS.
According to Advanced Gravis over 25 developers are working on projects
that will support the GUS. In fact, Jay Wilbur (1) of Id Software has
said that their present project, DOOM will support the GUS.
The technical support from Advanced Gravis, through email left on their
BBS, was excellent. If I had a question or problem I left a message and
promptly received a reply the next day.
Aside from the sparse manuals and the Setup problem I love this card. I
have no hesitation recommending this card to anyone! It is, in my humble
opinion, _THE_ best sound card on the market for its price ($170 Cdn).
--
1: Special Thanks to Jay Wilbur.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Daniel G. Kennett. All rights
reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAVIS ULTRASOUND made by Advanced Gravis (a LogiTech Affiliate)
Review by David D'Antonio
Features (from the box):
o True 16-bit, 44.1KHz CD quality (96 Db dynamic range)
o "Compatibility Plus" - Ad Lib and Sound Blaster compatible
o Digital stereo recording at variable sampling rates
o Advanced Wave Table synthesis
o Industry standard MIDI support
o 32 digital and/or synthesized voices
o Speed compensating joystick port
o 2 watt amplifier on board
Features (not from the box):
o Has Line in, Mic in, Line out and Amped out
o Has internal 4-pin CD-ROM connector
o Software selectable DMA and IRQs (requires 2 separate IRQs)
Base addres is via jumpers
o List Price, $199, street price $130
Some Simplified Definitions:
Wave table synthesis: Otherwise known as sample-based synthesis. Real
instruments are sampled at various frequencies.
When a note is played, the sample is interoplated
(if necessary) and played back. Effects can be added
and the sample can be looped to give a "sustain".
FM synthesis: A method of simulating an instrument by frequency
modulation (varying the frequency of a base wave)
and adding effects.
MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A means of connecting synthe-
sizers (and computers) together to send messages between them. Also
refers to those messages. These include such things as "note on",
"note off", "change patch", etc. MIDI supports 16 different channels
of data.
Standard MIDI: Also known as UART MIDI as opposed to MPU-401 MIDI. A
means of sending MIDI messages from a serial port.
General MIDI: A "standard" mapping of patch number to instrument so that
patch 1 is always a piano, patch 9 is always a glocken-
spiel, etc.
Patch: An instrument or voice that a synthesizer can produce.
The test system:
Standard Computer Corp 486/33 MHz
OPTi chipset (see below)
8MB RAM
Adaptec SCSI card, Chinon CDS-431 and SCSI disk
Diamond SpeedStar Plus/Mag Colorview 14e monitor
DR DOS 6.0 or OS/2 2.0 with Service Pack
SoundBlaster 1.5
Gravis UltraSound
Both of the above hooked in an amp driving some bookshelf speakers.
A Bit Of History:
Back in the dim mists of time (winter of 91), a new sound board was
rumoured to be under development by Advanced Gravis of joystick fame. Not
much of known, other than that it would be a wavetable board, it would
allow 16-bit playback of digital data and do MIDI and have a joystick
port. It was also suppose to ship around May/June of 92. At the time, the
sound board offerings for the PC were divided into 2 categories, FM-based
boards (the SoundBlaster from Creative Labs) and synth boards (mostly all
from Roland, the MT-32 and LAPC). The FM boards were mostly used for games
whereas the synth boards used wavetable synthesis and were mostly used for
composing music (although some games supported them as well). The Gravis
board was also supposed to be "cheap" (under $200, for example).
The SoundBlaster (SB) was the standard of PC gaming sound, having
inherited that title from Ad Lib, the original music board. It is a 8-bit
mono board that is basically an Ad Lib board with a DAC chip to play
digital data. Creative Labs had released a couple different versions of
the SB and was working on the SB Pro, which is stereo, although still 8-
bits, but now is stereo. It also uses a better version of the FM synthesis
chip as well as a non-standard SCSI port.
In April of '92, MediaVision released the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (PAS16),
their 16-bit recording and playback sound board. It was hardware
compatible with the SB, was stereo and had a Trantor SCSI port. It was
also an FM based board, though.
Around June of '92, rumours of the Gravis board picked up, along with an
offer from Electronic Arts, wherein you bought one of a list of titles and
you could get the Gravis UltraSound, as it was now known, for $99. The
specs were pretty impressive, in that it would be a 16-bit, stereo board,
although it would only record in 8-bits. A 16-bit recording daughterboard
as well as a SCSI/CD daughterboard were also to be available. They said it
would have on-board memory in which to hold the samples and be able to mix
32 voices! It was also supposed to be compatible with the SB via a TSR,
which you could load high. It would come with drivers for Windows. The
ship date was August 27th. With all this in mind, I bought one, along wth
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat which was being redone to support the Gravis
UltraSound (GUS) in it's native mode.
I ordered mine on August 24th but it looked like Gravis would miss the
ship date. Which they did. And the date after that. Numerous calls to both
EA and Gravis brought discouraging information, with EA saying they were
waiting for Gravis and Gravis saying they were waiting for the SB
emulation software. And then that they were waiting for FCC certification.
And then that they would release the board in Canada (Gravis hails from
Burnaby, British Columbia). Meanwhile, EA is getting many irate calls from
folks wondering where their sound boards are. The relationship between EA
and Gravis got strained to say the least. But finally, wonder of wonders
the board is released in Canada in October and the first real reports show
up on the Internet. It sounds fabulous! It just trashes the SB and the
PAS16! Needless to say, this prompted more phone calls to EA and Gravis.
Now Gravis says they've shipped to EA! But EA hasn't gotten them. But
wait, Gravis says they didn't really ship. Oh, but wait, EA gets some!
They got about 1/3 of their order which they sent out, but mine wasn't
amongst them. Gravis is also flip-flopping on whether or not they will
release an OS/2 2.0 driver. And then the matter of a development toolkit
comes up and it seems they require a non-discolosure agreement to be
signed and money to be paid. This is not good since MediaVision had just
release their toolkit free on FTP sites.
At about this time, one of the sale people at Gravis gets an account on
the Internet and starts to read news. Also a mailing list for the GUS
starts up (info at the end of this review) so there is alot of talk about
the GUS. Sometime in November, EA gets another shipment from Gravis and
they say mine will actually arrive in 2 days!
On The Installation And Setup Of A GUS
Sure enough, a package arrives via UPS and I unpack it to reveal, at long
last, the GUS box. And it's a BIG box, which turns out to be mostly air
and packaging materials. But I finally hold in my hands the big red board
from Gravis, which doesn't look much like the picture on the box. It's a
3/4 length 16-bit ISA board, with 256KB of on-board memory, easily
upgraded to 1 MB with 44C256 chips (100ns or faster). I upgraded mine for
about $30. I have rev 2.2, although 2.4 is currently being shipped. It
also comes with 6 disks, which includes the patches, programs to play MIDI
files and play/record digital sounds, Windows Enhanced mode drivers and a
mixer applet to control volume. Also included in a FLI demo, the SB TSR
(called Sound Board Operating System or SBOS) and a SETUP utility to help
with the installation and configuration. They also include a program
called UltraSound Studio 8 to handle 8-bit recording. As an incentive to
return the registration card, they will send the full General MIDI patches
upon receipt (when the patches are done, I haven't recieved anything yet).
I read through the little booklet on how to install the GUS and came
across a warning that the board will NOT co-exist with a SB. So I opened
up my machine, removed the SB and slotted the GUS, right next to my video
card, completely ignoring the booklet's suggestion that I not do so. I
booted up the machine, ran through the software installation program and
then ran SETUP. I was greeted with a voice saying, "Let's configure your
Ultrasound card, Select port." The program talked me through selecting
base address (selectable through jumpers on the board from Hex 220 to
2F0), DMA channel (8 or 16-bit), MIDI IRQ and UltraSound IRQ. It would
make a sound when I hit return. The only trouble was that if I tried to
change any of the defaults, it hung my system. This was traced to QEMM so
I tried again with it loaded. SETUP wrote some lines to my AUTOEXEC.BAT to
set up some environment variables (ULTRASND and ULTRADIR) and run a
program to initialise the card. Everything except the base address is
software selectable. The SETUP program tried to "sense" which IRQ and DMA
channels are free, but this hangs alot of machines so the current version
no longer does this.
Then it was time to hear this puppy in all it's glory! The software
supplied includes some MIDI files and a player so I fired it up. Nothing.
I tried several files with the same result. Then I tried starting Windows
and it reported it couldn't see drive D (the SCSI drive) and then hung.
Yikes! A call to Gravid confirmed my suspictions; The UltraSound IRQ
defaults to 11 which conflicted with the Adaptec card. Upon fixing that by
editing the ULTRASND environment variable, I was treated to a big hand
(ABIGHAND.MID) followed by some Bach (TOCATTA.MID and JESUJOY.MID). It
sounded wonderful! Compared to the SB, there was no question, this was an
awesome sound board. I went into Windows and installed the driver but
didn't seem to notice any better sound. WAV files are 22KHz mono, but
WinMOD PRO claims it can do stereo however, it didn't work. It turns out
that the Windows driver could only handle 22KHz mono. Gravis has since
released a driver that can do 44KHz, stereo.
"Compatibility Plus"
Then came the big test; how well can it emulate a SB? SBOS has several
options that are described in the booklet, and there is a small list of
various games and the SBOS settings to make them work. A much larger list
has been compiled by Ron Dippold and is available. SBOS 1.2 takes 14K and
can be loaded high. It also can be unloaded easily and has a small
configuration file that lets you define keys to raise and lower the
volume. I fired it up and it said, "S B O S installed". I tested it with
Wing Commander and the sound was interesting. It wasn't like the SB, but
it was close. Since I was used to the SB, it sounded odd. I tried the
AMAZON demo and it took some fiddling with SBOS options, but it worked as
well. Again, the sound was close. Ultima Underworld was spot on for most
sounds. Then came Wing Commander II. Locked up the machine, requiring a
reset. I fiddled with options, but if it didn't lock up, there was no
sound! I have several MOD players and I tried those next. All except WOWII
1.3 hung the machine. WOWII froze without playing any sounds, but I could
get out of the program.
At this point, someone on the net posted how they had actually installed
both a SB and the GUS. A call to Gravis confirmed that this can be done
and so, reluctantly, I put my SB back into the machine.
OPTi Chipsets, DMA And You
A problem has appeared that has affected many Gravis owners, but is
actually related to 16-bit DMA hardware. It seems that some batches of the
"chipsets" that support the processor don't work properly doing 16-bit
DMA. The problem was first noticed with the OPTi chipset, but others are
affected as well. Gravis encounterd the problem with the UMC chipset.
Apparently, the DMA timing is incorrect for 16-bit DMA and since the GUS
defaulted to a 16-bit DMA channel, memory parity errors would result. 8-
bit DMA should work fine and the new SETUP program defaults to 8-bit DMA.
MIDI Mania
Turning to Windows and MIDI files, I tried a couple programs to see if I
could get any MIDI data to or from my PC. I have a keyboard and some synth
gear as well as the MIDI breakout box for the SB. Gravis has yet to
release their breakout box, which plugs into the joystick port and "breaks
out" the MIDI data and provides sockets to plug in a MIDI DIN cable.
Unfortunately, I was totally unable to get any data in or out via the SB
breakout box. Another call to Gravis revealed that, depending on which
chips where used in the breakout box, it might be necessary to cut some
capacitors on the GUS! I've opted not to do this, waiting instead for the
Gravis box, now due out in April, '93. The card only support "industry
standard MIDI" so anything that expects MPU-401 is out of luck. There is
currently no VAPI driver so it's not clear if any DOS-based sequences will
work.
Another problem encountered by many folks was that many Windows programs
couldn't seem to play any of the MIDI files! Programs like Media Player
had no problem, but WinJammer or CakeWalk for Windows would be completely
silent. It turns out that the UltraSound driver is doing "patch caching"
(loading the patches into the GUS's memory) and thus only programs that
support this will work. This has been addressed with a program from Gravis
called Patch Manager that allows you to load all the patches needed by a
song in advance. It's not really the fault of the UltraSound as programs
really should support this feature. The version of the driver than shipped
with my GUS didn't support the MIDI in feature. The new beta version does.
For you synth types out there, the board should be capable of at least 32
pannable mono voices simultaneously as well a pitch wheel information.
Gravis has said they will release a program so you can "play" the
UltraSound from your keyboard. Patch Manager lets you "audition" each
patch, as well as the drum kit using a simulated keyboard.
OS/2 2.0
I've been able to play MIDI files using the supplied software in a DOS box
under OS/2 2.0 (and with the Service Pack). However, SBOS has either
failed miserably or crashed OS/2 (in one case trashing my video drivers so
I couldn't reboot).
The Times, They Are A Changin'
Advanced Gravis has since released several updates to the software as well
as a new revision of the board. The board changes have been minimal,
involving consolidating some socketed chips into a custom chip, removing
the capacitors mentioned above and (optionally) including 512KB of memory.
The software updates, on the other hand, have been extensive. As mentioned
above, a new stereo, 44KHz Windows driver has been released, as well as a
new mixer applet for controlling both MIDI and WAV volume separately. Two
new beta versions of SBOS, including a new SBOS patch set have also been
released. I've tested version 1.22B and it worked better than 1.2 (which
shipped with my GUS). Others on the net have tested 1.23B and report mixed
results. Gravis has also released a new SETUP program and the entire 1.2
installation disks are available.
Gravis maintains a BBS and there is an FTP site (archive.epas.utoronto.
ca:/pub/pc/ultrasound) that is mirrored on wuarchive.wustl.
edu:/systems/msdos/ultrasound. In addition to discussions in comp.sys.ibm.
pc.soundcard, there is an UltraSound mailing list (many, many thanks to
David Debry). To subscribe, send mail to ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com. A
mail server is also available for those without FTP access.
The Verdict Is...
This is an excellent soundboard. I hear no hiss, nor any noise from the
video card or power supply. The supplied instruments are mostly clean,
although there have been some reports of noisy patches. >From early
reports of the General MIDI set, they are excellent. The hardware is
capable of dealing with 32 digital samples and/or MIDI patches, all
without bothering the CPU. So once the card memory is loaded, it's impact
on processor speed should be minimal.
The software isn't at the same level, though. To be fair, Gravis has
released beta updates and responded to feedback so the software is
improving. The problems with QEMM are being investigated by QuarterDeck.
The compatibility with the Sound Blaster (and hence with most games
available today) is good for most people and the latest version of SBOS
appears quite good. With some games, the sound using SBOS is better than
the same game using a SoundBlaster, since SBOS always delivers stereo
sound. But Gravis admits they never tested it with DR DOS and I am still
encountering problems. On the other hand, programs are starting to appear
that fully support the GUS (Star Control II and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat)
and Gravis will be offering a MOD player and some Windows composition
utilites for a minimal charge. They also just announced something called
UltraSound 3D that is a GUS with some special software that allows sounds
to be placed anywhere in a 3D sphere centered on the user (if they are
wearing headphones). However, game designers will have to rewrite their
music/fx tracks to include the new placement information.
As for game support, several game designers have said they will support
the GUS, including Accolade, Electronic Arts (not sure about their new
"partner", Origin), Sierra, LucusArts and perhaps Microprose.
I believe that Gravis entered the soundcard market unprepared for both the
competition and the demands of the users. But they are learning quickly.
They have committed to releasing a "hobbyist" toolkit that won't require a
non-disclosure, native OS/2 drivers as well as a Standard mode Windows
driver. When these appear, as well as the 16-bit recording and SCSI
daughterboards, I think this will be a very tough board to beat. Even
given the delays and hassles, I'm quite pleased with this soundboard.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by David D'Antonio. All rights reserved.
ED. Though this information is now somewhat dated (and now made obsolete
by Roland's recent introduction of the Sound Canvas, the information here
is still useful for someone considering a purchase of a used MT-32 or LAPC
sound device. Use it as you see fit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAPC1/MT32 Sound System by Roland Corporation
Reviewed by "Scarman"
Most of you have probably heard of the Roland LAPC1 and/or MT32,
especially if you've bought a game by one of the 'bigger' producers. But
what is it and how is it different from the rest of the sound cards?
The MT-32 came out before the Soundblaster and the rest of the follow-on
compatible boards. It is a true synthesizer of the type that professional
musicians use, minus a keyboard. It is controlled through industry
standard MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) signals. These MIDI
signals are sent from either a MIDI keyboard, eg. another synthesizer, or
a computer, and that's where it gets interesting for us.
Since MIDI signals are standard, any computer can use the MT32 as long as
the computer has either a built in interface, such as the Atari 520, or a
plug in interface card for computers such as IBM-PCs. For the sake of
those wishing to use the MT32 with their IBM's only, Roland brought out an
all-in-one card and called it the LAPC1. The LAPC1 plugs into an
expansion slot, just the same as an Adlib, etc. So an LAPC1 and an MT32
are the same thing when we talk about sound for games on the IBM-PC.
Forget about the hardware, how does it sound? As said above, it is a true
synth. I know a couple of musicians who are using it professionally. Sure
there are better quality synths around, but they cost a lot more. The
first time I heard the MT32/LAPC1, I thought my friend was playing a CD,
so we are talking about THE best sounding _music_ card for the IBM ( not
to mention Amigas, Ataris, etc). It is stereo with full panning and
'surround' effects, has 128 preset sounds such as piano, trumpets,
guitar, flute, etc as well as a full drum section. The soundtracks of
games are truly HI-FI quality. It is recommended to connect the Roland
devices to a good quality stereo amplifier and good quality speakers.
The sounds are absolutely excellent.
So what about these games then? Sierra games, such as Space Quest IV,
sound great because being a true synth, new sounds may be created and
programmed into it. The Sierra guys have a good imagination and that's
about all that limits the sounds that can be produced. For example,
Dynamix' Red Baron has very realistic plane engine noise, gunfire, and
explosions, as well as the music. In fact the only sounds that can't be
done on the MT32/LAPC1 are the digitized speech of the type the
Soundblaster can produce.
Inevitably, we now come to the the comparison with the Soundblaster(/PRO).
In terms of just orchestral music, there is no contest. The MT32/LAPC1 is
far better sounding than FM-based boards like the Soundblaster and
Soundblaster Pro. Sound effects? This depends on the efforts the game
producers make. For certain publishers, then the MT32/LAPC1 wins easily
because of it's better sound quality, but for other games that require
sampled sounds and speech, then the SB wins because it's DAC-based
(Digital to Analog Circuitry) that produces digital sound effects.
The MT32/LAPC1 is ideally suited to those who want the best quality music
and want a sound card for more than just the games. It is a great tool
for learning music and music synthesis, as well as the world of MIDI.
When it's supported well by a game, then the Roland devices are the best,
but it's not supported by them all, and only 'well' by a smaller number.
The best news is the MT32/LAPC1 and the Soundblaster(/PRO) can co-exist
and be used to stunning effect when combined. The Soundblaster produces
the speech and the digital sound effects, while the MT32/LAPC1 produces
beautiful, orchestral music.
The MT32 is no longer manufactured and is now replaced by an even better
sounding Roland device called the Sound Canvas. Used MT-32/LAPC
systems/cards are available on the market for very reasonable prices.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by "Scarman". All rights reserved.
PRO AUDIOSPECTRUM 16 Soundcard by Media Vision
Reviewed by Eric Hsiao
Hardware description:
True 16-bit stereo sound
--16 bit stereo playback and recording (16 bit linear DAC & ADC)
--Sampling/playback at 8, 12, and 16 bit PCM 4kHz-44kHz in stereo
--Dynamic filtering 2Hz-22kHz programmable
--ADPCM compression (2:1) and decompression (2:1, 3:1, 4:1) mono mode
--Microphone, external line-in, and CD-audio inputs (enables you to
make CD-quality 16-bit recordings from a variety of sources)
--Shielded
circuitry and dynamic filtering for low noise and clear
sound
Advanced 20 Voice Stereo Synthesizer
--Yamaha YM262 (OPL-3) synthesizer
--4 operator FM synthesized sound for true stereo
--16 bit FM DAC
--General MIDI compatible
Audio Mixing
--Internal synthesizer (stereo)
--Digital audio (stereo)
--CD audio (stereo)
--External line-in (stereo)
--Microphone
--PC speaker
--10 channels with stereo enhance
Volume Control
--Master volume: 0 to -62dB (1 dB/step)
--Input mixer +1 to -60dB (2dB/step)
Signal quality (1 V p-p reference)
Dynamic range and signal to noise
--Synthesized and mixed audio: 85 dB
--Sampled audio PCM: 90 dB
--Total harmonic distortion: 0.05%
Frequency Response
--30 Hz - 20 kHz (+- 3 dB)
Audio Outputs
--Drive level: 11.5 V (p-p)
--Power: 4 watts per channel (software controllable volume, bass, and
treble)
--Load impedance: will drive 4 or 8 ohm speakers
--Output connections: stereo mini jacks
16 bit PC Interface
--16 bit DMA
--Selectable IRQ (2-7, 10-15)
--Selectable DMA (0-3, 5-7)
--Software selectable DMA and IRQ settings with auto configuration
MIDI Interface (Requires Optional MIDI Mate)
--Full duplex MIDI port (can record and playback at the same time)
IBM Standard Joystick Port
High Performance SCSI Interface (Requires Optional SCSI Cable Kit)
--Supports CD-ROM drives, SCSI hard drives, removable/erasable optical
drives or removable cartridge drives
--690 kB per second
System Requirements
--IBM PC, AT, 80286, 80386, 80486, or 100% compatible
--640k RAM memory
--DOS 3.1 or higher
--Hard disk with 6 MB free space
--External speakers (4 to 8 ohm)
Optional
--Headphones: 1/8 inch stereo phone plug
--Microphone: 600 to 10K ohm dynamic
--External amplified speakers
3 Year Limited Warranty
I bought my Pro AudioSpectrum 16 card, back in early June. At the time,
it was the only card out there to use the new stereo FM synthesizer chip
called OPL3. This chip offers what is called 4-Operator FM, providing
better sounding instruments, compared to its older brother, the YM3812
chip, which was only a 2-Operator mono FM chip. Cards that used the older
YM3812 chips include: Soundblaster, Soundblaster Pro Version 1, original
AdLib, and Thunderboard.
To begin, installation did not give me any problems. Before installing, I
was already familiar with my system's IRQ and DMA configuration. A
program such as Checkit 3.0 or Microsoft's MSD (comes with Windows 3.1)
will tell you what IRQ's and DMA's are used by your system. Mediavision
is working on the next version of the DOS installation software, which
will automatically scan the system and suggest the settings for you to
use. Right now, it's advisable to be somewhat familiar with your
peripherals, in order to avoid conflicts. In a typical configuration
running DOS, IRQ 5 would be free and IRQ 7, which is used by the printer
port, can also be shared with the soundcard. The Pro AudioSpectrum-16
(PAS-16 for short) needs two usable IRQs and two DMA channels. The reason
for this is that the Soundblaster part of the card needs its set, and the
PAS-16 part needs its set. In essense, there are two separate Digital--
-Analog-Converters (DAC) on board, and each needs its own setting. This
allows the PAS-16 to simultaneously output two different DAC sounds at the
same time, without resorting to mathematical waveform superposition.
Playing two .WAV files at the same time in Windows is possible with the
PAS-16. However, if you do not wish to have Soundblaster compatibility,
you can easily disable the Soundblaster DAC, thus requiring only one free
IRQ and one free DMA channel. However, most systems do have enough free
IRQs and DMA channels, so there shouldn't be too much problems finding the
setting that works for you.
After getting the card up and running, I proceeded to test some of the
software that came bundled with it. First thing that gets loaded is a 7K
config.sys driver that tells the PAS-16 what IRQ and DMA settings to use.
It also enables volume control using the Control-Alt-U (for Up) and
Control-Alt-D (for Down) keys. The DOS software comes with some really
nice programs and some really not-so-nice programs. One program that's a
favorite is Trakblaster Pro, an excellent Soundtracker .MOD file player.
It plays .MOD files in stereo at either 44.1 KHz or 32 KHz. While doing
this, it sports an impressive display of VGA graphics, complete with a
spectrum analyzer and real-time oscilliscopes. However, a 386-33 MHz
machine or better is needed if you want to see all the graphics at once.
If you have a slower machine, you can get away with just playing .MOD
files by turning off the graphics options. Also, if you chose an IRQ
higher than 10 or DMA higher than 5 during installation, Trakblaster Pro
will lockup. This is because most DOS software does not support settings
that high.
Next, the software comes with Monologue text-to-speech software, which is
licensed, speech-synthesis software from First Byte. The program speaks
with an understandable male voice, and it has the capability of reading
standard text back to you. It also includes a TSR that allows you to
highlight something on the screen in any application and it will try and
read that back. When installing Monologue, it is important to select the
IRQ & DMA settings to what the Soundblaster part of the card is set to.
Next, I tried sampling some of my CDs with the card. I used the DOS
program provided, called RECFILE. Sampling to my harddrive on a 386-33
MHz machine at 44.1KHz 16-bit stereo proved to be a problem, as I kept
getting an error about my drive being full, even though I had plenty of
room. It turns out my drive could not keep up with the huge amounts of
data transfer, and that is why the error was ocurring. It seems that 486
machines do not have this problem. However, it is still possible to
sample on 386 machines. To do so, I sample to a large RAM drive, setup
Norton NCACHE and enable Intelliwrite, or try a harddrive defragmentation
program.
Other DOS programs I really didn't get into was the waveform editor and
the Voyetra sequencer program. The waveform editor does not support 16-bit
samples yet, and I'm not really into MIDI.
Next, I took a look at the Windows software. The Windows installation was
not hard, and again, it requested IRQ and DMA settings. However unlike
DOS, using higher IRQ and DMA settings are not problems for Windows
programs. Windows software includes a control panel where you can change
volume, treble, bass, and other aspects of the mixer.
Also included is a recorder program, which lets you sample and perform a
variety of waveform effects like adding echo, increasing amplitude, and so
on. The Windows disk also includes some .MID files that can be played
using the Media Player program that comes with Windows 3.1 -- which plays
using the new OPL3 FM instruments. There also exists a shareware MOD
player, called Win Mod Pro, that does stereo playback. Overall, software
that comes with the card is a mixed bag, but Version 1.4 Windows Drivers
is due out November. It promises to make installation easier and fix bugs.
Also, OS/2 driver support for the PAS-16 is due out for MMPM in November.
How is third party software support for the card? Right now, the card has
only some support for its full potential. Most games now use the card in
its Soundblaster mode. However, this will be changing as you read this
review. Microprose's Rex Nebular, Ancient Art of War in the Skies, and
Sierra's King's Quest VI all support the Pro AudioSpectrum Plus and 16
boards in its native stereo mode, providing rich sounding music. Also,
currently in the works is Protracker Playing Source, a .MOD file player
that will utilize the 16-bit DAC on the PAS-16. Also, MediaVision has been
kind enough to release programming information into the public domain,
which means good news for future support. If you would like even more
technical information about the card, you can call up the MediaVision ISV
developer's support program.
How is the Soundblaster compatibility? I say it's very good, working
about 99% of my software. However, some people may have problems with
Wolfenstein 3-D and other programs. In this case, just add the following
to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
SETBLASTER = A220 I5 D1 T3
The I5 in the above statement signifies the IRQ 5 setting for the
Soundblaster part of the card. If you set your IRQ to a different
setting, change the number after the I. Overall, these programs worked on
my machine: Ultima 7, Wing Commander, Jill of the Jungle, Kiloblaster,
Links 386 Pro, all older Sierra games using the Soundblaster option,
Modplay v2.19b, Super Pro Play, Wow II, and many others. If a program
still gives problems, contact the author. Most likely, the programmers
assumed the Soundblaster to be set at IRQ 7.
So, how does this card compare to the Soundblaster Pro? Well, different
people will tell you different things, but technically speaking, the PAS-
16 is a much superior product. The hardware design is so much better --
it includes shielding against noise-pickup from the motherboard and power
supply, an on-board clock crystal so playing .MOD files in protected mode
environments sound normal (QEMM, EMM386, OS/2, etc.), a standard 50-pin
SCSI port with a transfer rate of 690 kb/sec for CD-ROM hookup (instead of
the SB Pro 40-pin proprietary port), 16-bit 44.1KHz stereo DAC and ADC for
CD quality sound (SB Pro is 8-bit 22KHz stereo), a mixer that allows you
to sample from more than one source at once, and 62-step volume settings
(SB Pro is only 8-step). However, the SB Pro has been out longer so
there's more software support for it, but with the popularity of the PAS-
16 and the free developer's kit, support for it will not be too far
behind.
With all these technical specifications, how's the card sound? Basically,
the card is great. The .MOD file player sounds excellent, games like Rex
Nebular and King's Quest VI use stereo to add a new depth of
dimensionality. The OPL3 FM provides a good improvement over the older FM
chips, and 16-bit sampling is quite extraordinary. Using 16-bit stereo
clips gives Windows 3.1 sounds a new life.
Overall, if you're in the market for a great stereo soundcard, the PAS-16
is the way to go. You will not be disappointed with its capabilities.
For some people, installation is easy, for others it is difficult. If you
have a standard PC configuration, the default choices provided by
MediaVision should work fine. Only when a system contains many other
peripherals that also use IRQ settings like network cards and scanners, do
conflicts occur. Being familiar with your system's IRQ and DMA settings
will be helpful in installation. Once installation is complete, the card
will serve you very well.
The current retail price for the card is $299 for the 16 version and $199
for the Plus version. The big difference between the 16 and Plus is the 16
has the 16-bit DAC/ADC capability, and the Plus has an 8-bit DAC/ADC. I
would definitely recommend getting the 16 over the Plus. If you only want
to spend money in the low one hundreds, then you might be better off
getting the Gravis Ultrasound. Else, mail order prices for the PAS-16 is
around $180-$200, about the same price as the SB Pro.
How to contact Mediavision:
Media Vision, Inc. Main: (800) 348-7116 or (510) 770-8600
3185 Laurelview Ct. Sales: (800) 845-5870
Fremont, CA 94538 Tech Support: (800) 638-2807 or (510) 770-9905
FAX: (510) 770-8648 or (510) 770-9592
BBS: (510) 770-0968 2400 (8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit)
(510) 770-1661 2400 (8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit)
(510) 770-0527 9600 (8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit)
Tech Support can be reached at 75300.2772@Compuserve.Com
A special note to multi-media enthusiasts: MediaVision has just released
the "Fusion" CD-ROM bundle. There are two models: Fusion and Fusion-16.
The regular Fusion model has a PAS Plus and a CD ROM drive. The Fusion-16
model has a PAS-16 and a SONY CD-ROM drive, and comes with several CD's,
including Wing Commander II. Also included is "Quick Start", an
installation program that will configure every-thing for you. You insert
the disk and just type install and it will take care of the rest. Street
prices for Fusion-16 range between $500-$600.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Eric Hsiao. All rights reserved.
SOUND BLASTER 16 ASP
Developers - Creative Labs Technology Ltd.
Reviewed by Sir Launcelot Du Lake
This hardware was reviewed on a 486DX-33 with Chips & Technology
chipset, 4 MB RAM, and a NEC CDR-84 CD-ROM drive. The SB16 was
also attached to a AIWA NSX-330 MIDI hi-fi system and a pair of
generic 4-ohm speakers.
I would also like to point out that I'm only a gaming enthusiast
and have limited knowledge of MIDI, recording etc. I purchased
the SB16 ASP primarily for my entertainment software needs; MIDI,
application software, and music are all secondary. This review
will thus reflect this.
The Sound Blaster 16 ASP is Creative Technology's latest addition to its
Sound Blaster family of soundcards. This is now a true 16-bit card as
opposed to the Sound Blaster Pro which is only 8-bit. All features of the
SB Pro is found in the SB16 and the latter is supposedly fully downward
compatible with all versions of Sound Blaster released previously,
although some users have problems with 8-bit sampling (I will elaborate
further later on). Naturally, the price is also higher; it is selling for
about S$500 (about US$350) here in its home country, (Singapore) but is
going for as low as US$200 in North America, probably due to the
competition from the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (limited representation in
Singapore) and the Gravis UltraSound (totally absent).
The documentation is informative and generally well written. It comes in
two books: one for hardware settings, and one for software. The software
manual, however, does have a glaring error - the Multimedia Jukebox was
completely left out in the Windows applications section! Three other
books are also included, and these cover the bundled software - HSC
Interactive, PC Animate Plus, Monologue for Windows, and SBTalker.
New Features
The SB16 offers 16-bit stereo sampling from 5 kHz - 44.1 kHz. Its ASP
(Advanced Signal Processing) processor is touted to be able to perform
high speed mathematical algorithms on 16-bit wave signals, which allows
real-time 16-bit hardware compression and decompression, without loss of
quality. This supposedly achieves CD-quality recordings and playbacks. I
tested this by using the bundled Creative WaveStudio to record a portion
of Madonna's Holiday played off my NEC CDR-84. I selected the highest
possible options - 16-bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz. On playback of the recorded
sample, it was extremely difficult to tell the difference between the
recorded sample and the track on the master CD, even on the generic 4-ohm
speakers alone!! The quality of the recording was superb. However, even
with the compression abilities, recording at this quality eats up a lot of
HDD space. For a 26-second sample, the resulting wave file was nearly 4.5
MB. This was the maximum I could go given my 4 MB RAM plus 4 MB virtual
memory in Windows 3.1. For those who want to do serious recording, I
would suggest getting as much RAM as possible, since there will be
noticeable breaks in the recording when it switches from RAM to the
virtual memory on your hard disk.
Other new features include MPU-401 UART mode compatibility in the MIDI
interface, as well as controls for bass and treble. The DMA and IRQ
settings are now software selectable and there are more options - 2,5,7,
or 10 for IRQ; 0,1, or 3 for 8-bit DMA; 5,6, or 7 for 16-bit DMA. The
default for the IRQ is now 5 (yippee!!), and the defaults for the 8 and 16
bit DMAs are 1 and 5 respectively. The Base I/O address is still jumper
selectable, but with more options at 220H (default), 240H, 260H, or 280H.
Another new setting is the MIDI port base I/O address, also jumper
selectable, at 300H or 330H (default). You will also need to load an ASP
driver in your config.sys, which will take about 2.45 KB of RAM. I have
tested loading it high with QEMM 6.02 alone and in combination with
PCTools RAMBoost. No problems at all encountered.
Improvements
By far the greatest improvement is the elimination of noise upon power-on
and when your mouse is working. One of the most annoying features of SB
Pro was that continuous tone one gets upon power-on, and when this was
eliminated by pressing the reset key, you can sometimes hear noises coming
from the speakers when using the mouse to click around, particularly in
PCTools 7.1. My mouse experience is probably unique, but I know a few
people have the same noise problems upon power-on with SB Pro. I am glad
to say that when I now power-on my system with the SB16, there is complete
silence! The architecture was completely revamped for this. No noisy
mice now too :-)!
Possible Problems
I qualify this section with "possible" as I have recently had some system
problems with a second IDE hard disk, so the problems could be due to
extraneous factors, although it is unlikely. I noticed some static during
microphone recording. But upon setting the levers in the SB16 Mixer for
everything except Mic to 0, the static disappears. However, this static
could also be due to the quality of the microphone. The one that came
with the package looks like one of those big, dubious-looking ones used
for karoake.
Some people on Internet have reported hearing intense "hissing" when
playing 8-bit sample sound effects. I have also experienced this at
times. However, this situation has been very inconsistent, i.e., only
some 8-bit samples have the "hiss" upon playback, not all. I have
detailed some of the software that have this problem in the list after the
next paragraph. Note that others on Internet have also reported no
"hissing" at all.
There seems to be some very odd situations with games and SB downward
compatibility. The soundtracks and sound effects for some of the games
are rather soft, no matter how high I turn the volume knob on the SB16. I
could only rectify these through my MIDI hi-fi. It is as though the
master volume for these games are not set high enough. Below, I provide a
listing of my experiences, though I am perplexed as to this situation and
can offer no reason as to why this should be so. Again, this may be a
unique situation as I am not aware of anyone else with similar
experiences. In all fairness, these reflect the situation during playback
on the generic 4-ohm speakers only.
Ultima VII soft Ultima Underworld soft
Wing Commander II normal Might & Magic III very soft
Powermonger loud Populous very loud
Pirates of Realmspace normal Countdown to Doomsday normal
Matrix Cubed normal Carriers at War normal
Carrier Strike soft Pacific War soft
Ultima VI loud Italy 1990 loud
King's Quest V MPC normal KiloBlaster * loud
Magic Candle II * normal Wolfenstein 3D * loud
X-Wing (demo) * normal Veil of Darkness demo normal
Lemmings 2 (demo) normal Legend/Kyrandia demo very loud
Origin FX soft
* these titles have the "hiss"
CD-ROM Interface
Unfortunately, it still uses the proprietary Panasonic interface. However,
this is actually negligible, since a CD-ROM drive is independent of your
soundcard. It simply means that you will have to get a controller card
for the drive, i.e., your soundcard won't control the drive and one more
slot is used on your motherboard. I have successfully matched the NEC
CDR-84 to the SB16. NEC provided a Trantor SCSI controller card for the
drive. The troublesome thing is more of finding a wire to connect the
internal audio out from the drive to the CD-in on the soundcard. It
happens that the latter on the SB16 is smaller than the former on the CDR-
84, so it is well nigh impossible to find a ready made wire with such
connectors at both ends. Finding that out after an island-hopping hunt, I
finally got two separate wires with the appropriate connectors and joined
them (after some filing and shaving of the connectors to make sure they
fit into the appropriate sockets [they didn't initially]). The whole
setup now works like a charm :-) If you can't make this wire, don't
worry, it's not fatal. It simply means you have two sound sources, one
from the soundcard, and one from the drive. A mixer will solve all these
equally well, albeit a lot more expensive.
Software
The SB16 software requires 5 MB of HDD space for installation. Included
are 6 Windows programs. WaveStudio is fully featured wave file editor;
Soundo'Le is an object-linking software that allows you to record sounds
and attach them to your application documents using OLE; Talking Scheduler
is obvious; Multimedia Jukebox allows playback of MIDI files; SB16 Mixer
now features bass and treble control; and Mosaic is a game along the lines
of Klotski.
The bundled software included are: HSC Interactive, an object-oriented
authoring multimedia program; PC Animate Plus, a DOS-based animation
program; and Monologue for Windows, a text-to-speech software whose
pronunciation and diction leaves a lot to be desired. One will also be
able to send for a Voice Recognition software that is similar to what the
chaps at Microsoft are trying to do. This is not available yet, though I
have seen the demonstration of it. Using this and a good microphone or
headset, one can talk through a Windows session, although at the moment,
it just appears to save you from moving the mouse around (sometimes that
may well be faster!). I seriously doubt that you can dictate to your
word-processor as yet.
The following section highlights some of the new products that
Creative has on the wings. I can only give you information that
has been gleaned from product info sheets and talking to chaps
from Creative, as I obviously will not have first hand experience
on these:
Wave Blaster - this is an expansion daughterboard for the SB16. It uses
E-mu Systems' Proteus chip with its patented wave sampled playback
technology to achieve virtually perfect reproduction of instrument sounds.
With this and the SB16, you will have the power of a 32-voice, multi-
-timbre, General MIDI compatible music card, plus the speech capability of
the Sound Blaster. This has been released.
MIDI Blaster - for those who do not have the SB16 to put a Wave Blaster
on, this is a General MIDI module that has the following specifications:
20 (sound + drums) polyphony, 16 channels, 128 preset sounds, 33 effects,
and 55 drums. This connects to any General MIDI port, a SB card is not
required. One chap from Creative also told me at a recent show that this
has more drums than the Wave Blaster. It is unclear whether this has been
released, though I have seen boxes (empty?) of it on display at Creative's
showrooms here.
Port Blaster - Creative goes portable here, essentially a SB Pro emulation
module that plugs into your laptop or notebook.
The next section is an opinionated and speculative analysis of
Creative Technology's purchase of E-mu Systems, the creators of
the Proteus chip that is a leading component of many MIDI
products. For this, I have to acknowledge Flash, a MIDI
enthusiast as well as a gamer for a substantial portion of the
analysis. Note that this is solely our opinions; we are not in
the pay of Creative Technology, or its American subsidiaries,
Creative Labs and E-mu Systems. As background, I was an ardent
supporter of AdLib and resisted all temptations to get an SB
whilst enduring the delays of the AdLib Gold. However, when
AdLib destroyed themselves, I had no choice but to turn to SB as
a viable alternative. Flash has a Roland SCC-1 and a SB 1.5. A
relative working for Gravis recently gave him a GUS, but Flash is
still of the opinion that the SCC-1 is supreme. In all fairness
though, he hasn't finished testing the GUS.
Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and founder of Creative Technology, recently
announced the purchase of California-based E-mu Systems. Given his public
desire for Creative to become the Number 1 multimedia company in the
world, this came as little surprise. Word before this was that E-mu
wanted to control the price of the Proteus chip by restricting the sale of
the Wave Blaster, which uses the chip, to only direct-sales from
Creative. This apparently prompted the buyout. We cannot confirm all
these, of course, but this is largely irrelevant now. Whatever the
original motives, Creative can now send out the Wave Blaster to dealers
and let market forces decide the street price.
The implications of this acquisition are many. It effectively puts
Creative into the digital music industry, meaning that Roland can no
longer afford to ignore them, as they have in the past. If Sim wants to
corner the high-end market, he is in a very good position to do so. With
E-mu's research and technology, it is likely that Creative may be able to
come up with a card that is equal to the Roland, plus having SB downward
compatibility. If such a hypothetical card can be sold at a very
competitive price, Flash surmises that Roland, not one to cut prices
overnight, may very well de-emphasize the soundcard market and concentrate
on their keyboards and others.
It has also been said that the Proteus chip being used in the Wave Blaster
is not the top-of-the-line model, as the one used in Turtle Beach's
MultiSound. Given the acquisition, there are several possible scenarios.
One, the Wave Blaster may be left as it is, released into the market,
while Creative completely redesigns new products around the Proteus chips.
Two, Creative releases Wave Blaster, but six months later puts out a new
version that uses the top-of-the-line Proteus chip. The precedence here
is the SB Pro, the first version had two mono OPL2 chips masquerading as
stereo, and the later version with the true stereo single OPL3 chip.
Three, Creative withdraws the current Wave Blaster and works on a new
one. Since it has already been released, this is unlikely.
This uncertainty is likely to remain at least until budget time, which in
Singapore is around March/April, during which time strategies may be set.
Even then, it is unlikely that it will be made public. But given the lack
of games using PCM wave synthesis at the moment, it is well advisable for
potential buyers to wait until things are clearer (I can't believe I'm
saying this, in our hobby, if one waits, one waits forever!). With the
heavily guarded secrets of the Proteus chip in the bag, one can be certain
that Creative will exploit it.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Sir Launcelot Du Lake. All rights
reserved.
SOUNDCARDS: A Summary
by Jerry van Waardenberg
**** SOUNDCARDS - Which is the best? - January 1993 ****
Introduction
Generally PC's can produce music in four different ways, dependent on the
type of soundcard used:
1. By Digital to Analogue (D/A) conversion. Samples stored in the
computer's memory are digitally processed and transformed to analogue
signals, that can be played over a stereo set or headphones.
2. By synthesis. The computer sends note-information to the soundcard,
which produces analogue signals. There are two basic forms of synthesis:
FM and wavetable synthesis.
3. By MIDI. Note-information is send through a MIDI-interface to a MIDI-
device, which produces the music.
4. By controlling a CD-ROM drive. The music is stored on CD-ROM which is
controlled by the computer.
** FM synthesis
With FM synthesis the tones are produced by waveform-generators, called
operators. The more operators are used, the better the sound quality will
be. A disadvantage of FM synthesis is that it is very hard to produce
realistic sounding instruments, especially when playing high pitched notes
(reeds, guitar, etc.). The Adlib was the first soundcard that used this
technique, using a Yamaha YM3812 FM chip with two operators. Most Adlib
compatible cards (SoundBlaster, Pro Audio Spectrum) are also using this
techn ique. The newer cards are mostly using the new Yamaha YMF262 (OPL-3)
FM chip, which has four operators.
** Wavetable synthesis (WS)
With WS (mostly 16-bit PCM) samples are used to produce sound. The samples
are stored in ROM or RAM on the soundcard. A WS-processor performs
operations on the samples, such as altering their pitch and length. Since
the samples are taken from real instruments, they generally sound very
realistic. Until recently this technique was only used by high-end
soundcards, but it is becoming more and more popular now. Examples of
cards that use WS are the Gravis UltraSound and the Roland SCC-1.
** MIDI
[The following explaination is from Teemu Mottonen] (General) MIDI is a
standard that many synth- and soundcards manufacturers are starting to
use. It assigns particular sounds to certain sound (or patch) numbers.
There are 128 of them. This way, say, a MIDI file that uses sound number 1
will always play an 'acoustic piano' on different synths. In PCs, mainly
two kinds of MIDI interfaces are used: UART MIDI and MPU-401. The first
can be found in soundblasters, Pro Audio Spectrums, etc. With these the
computer (or the program using MIDI) handles everything. MPU-401 is the
model of an early PC MIDI interface by Roland. These cards have two modes:
dumb and intelligent. Many DOS programs use the MPU in the intelligent
mode, so compatibility is a must. In Windows things are different; as long
as you have a driver for the MIDI card, things should work o.k.
Some cards use a mixture of these techniques, such as the Roland LAPC-1.
** Sampling
Most cards nowadays support sampling. Usually this is done in 8-bit or 16-
bit resolution, but there are cards that use other resolutions (Adlib Gold
1000 uses 12-bit sampling). Sampling is done by a Analogue to Digital
Converter (ADC). Samples can be compressed by using PCM (Puls Code
Modulation) or AD-PCM, which is an variant of PCM that yields higher
compression. With AD-PCM the sound quality usually is less than with PCM.
** MPC (Multimedia PC) specifications.
A PC may be called a "Multimedia PC" (MPC) if it conforms to a number of
specifications. For the soundcards these specs are:
* 8-bit DAC (16-bit recommended) with PCM and 11 and 22 KHz
sampling. Processor load may not be more than 10%.
* 8-bit ADC (16-bit recommended) with PCM and 11 and 22 KHz
sampling.
* Microphone input.
* MIDI synthesizer, 6-tone polyphonic (6 tones at the same time), FM-based
and/or sample-based (WS). If sample-based, the samples must at least be
8-bit.
* Audio mixer.
Since a MPC must be equipped with a CD-ROM, most soundcards provide a CD-
ROM interface, with a minimum throughput of 150 kB/sec.
** Channels, instruments and voices.
These words are common in the soundcard-business, but what do they mean?
It took a while before I understood what they were and I am not sure if I
do now, so correct me if I'm wrong. I will try to explain. Instruments,
patches and notes are synonyms. Each instrument can be played "through" a
single channel. So if a card has 8 channels, it means that it can play 8
instruments at the same time. And the number of voices is the number of
instruments per channel. Let me try to illustrate that with an example:
Consider an orchestra divided into 8 sections (channels). Each section
plays one type of instrument (patch, note). Every section can contain 16
musicians (voices). Then we've got 8-channel, 16-voice sound. Now you see?
**** REVIEWED CARDS
I will give an overview of some cards that looked interesting to me. Most
of them were released only recently. The reviewed cards are: The
SoundBlaster Pro, the SoundBlaster 16, the Pro Audio Plus/16, the Gravis
UltraSound, the Roland LAPC-1 and the Roland SCC-1. After that I'll give
an short description of some other cards. All these cards, except for the
Rolands, are MPC-compatible.
** The SoundBlaster Pro (SB-pro)
The SoundBlaster (SB) from Creative Labs was the first Adlib compatible
card that, besides FM music, was capable of recording and playing (8-bit)
samples. The original SB contained 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo) Yamaha YM3812
chips. The first SB-pro was also equipped with 2 YM3812 chips, but the
newer version (SB-pro 2.0) contained the new OPL-3 chip.
The SB-pro is capable of 8-bit sampling at 44.100 Hz in stereo and
supports AD-PCM compression. It has a CD-ROM interface which is only
compatible with Matsushita drives. A General MIDI interface is present.
The SB-pro has a 2 x 4 Watts amplifier. Volume can be altered manually on
the back of the card or by software.
Inputs:
* Microphone,
* external line in.
Outputs:
* Audio,
* line out,
* SB compatible MIDI,
* SB CD-ROM interface.
The SB-pro is fully Adlib and SB compatible. It is supported by a lot of
games, but many of these games do not use the extra possibilities of the
Pro version.
Sampling quality of the SB-pro is good. Since it uses FM-synthesis to
generate sound, the SB-pro is not a good card to produce high quality
music. However, FM-synthesis in combination with sampling produces good
results for games.
The SB-pro comes with seven 5.25" DD disks or four 3.5" DD disks, which
contain drivers for Windows, demos and applications. Interesting are Voice
Edit 2, for recording and editing samples. Unfortunately SB uses its own
"voice" format for storing these samples (.VOC files), instead of the more
general Windows-compatible "wave" format (.WAV files). The Windows
software consists of a simple but good Mixer program and JukeBox, for
playing MIDI files. The rest of the software isn't much good, except for
Voyetra (a MIDI sequencer).
PERSONAL OPINION: The big advantage of the SB is its support by a lot of
games. Too bad these games usually do not support the extra capabilities
of the SB-pro. Therefore, if you're looking for a CD-ROM, I think you can
better buy a normal SB than a SB-pro. If you do want to have CD-ROM, you
can better take another card (read on!), since the SB-pro supports only
Matsushita CD-ROM drives.
** SoundBlaster 16
The SoundBlaster 16 (SB 16) is an improved version of the SB-pro, that
offers real 16 bit stereo sound. Of course the SB16 is SB, SB-pro and
Adlib compatible.
The SB-16 supports 8 and 16 bit stereo sampling and playing up to 44.1
KHz, has dynamic filtering and ADPCM compression. It also contains a 16
bit ASP (Advanced (Digital) Signal Processor), which enables you to
download a compression and/or voice recognition algorithm. On-board real-
time (de)compression takes much load off the processor (up to 75%).
Compression also minimizes the amount of data that must be transferred
from memory to the card (16 bit stereo sampling at 44.1 KHz requires
2x2x44 = 176 kB/sec uncompressed... *glug* that really keeps your PC busy!
No more smooth scrolling!).
Like the SB-pro the SB-16 has a Yamaha YMF262 (OPL-3) synthesizer chip,
with 4 voice operator FM synthesis. A WaveBlaster daughterboard is
optional. The WaveBlaster works according to the General MIDI system and
has 128 PCM sampled sounds.
Inputs:
* Microphone,
* external line in.
Outputs:
* Audio line out,
* MPU-401 UART and SB compatible MIDI,
* SB CD-ROM interface.
The MPU-interface is only supported in dumb mode.
The SB16 comes with quite a lot of software. I haven't seen it, so I don't
know if it is good stuff. Included are: Creative Wave Studio, HCS
Interactive, DB Talker, SB Sim, Creative Mosaic, PC-Animate Plus,
Intelligent Organ, MMPlay, Creative Talking Scheduler, Monologue for
Windows, SB MIDI and DOS and Windows 3.1 drivers.
The sampling quality of the SB-16 is good, but there is quite a lot of
noise (I've heard this from someone who's reviewing a test version, which
may not be entirely correct. Maybe the circuitry isn't shielded very
good?). Since there is no software for the SB-16 yet, the special
capabilities cannot be tested.
PERSONAL OPINION: Since it is a SoundBlaster, it is supported by a lot of
games. Together with the optional WaveBlaster it forms a great, but quite
expensive, combo. It's advantages are its MPU-compatible MIDI interface,
16 bit sampling and ASP. But it still has a SB-compatible CD-ROM interface
instead of a SCSI interface. I think it is best to wait until this card is
more supported.
** Pro Audio Spectrum Plus and Pro Audio Spectrum 16
The Pro Audio Spectrum Plus and -16 (PAS+ and PAS-16) from Media Vision
are probably the SB's main competitors when it comes to Adlib compatible
cards. Both cards are almost identical, except that the PAS-16 has 16 bit
sampling and the PAS+ 8-bit.
The PAS-16 features 8, 12 and 16 bit stereo sampling and playback (up to
44.1 KHz), dynamic filtering and ADPCM compression and decompression. The
PAS+ does not have 12 and 16 bit sampling.
Like the SB-pro and SB-16, the PAS has a Yamaha YMF262 (OPL-3) synthesizer
chip with 4 operator FM sounds. The PAS has shielded circuitry and dynamic
filtering.
Inputs:
* Microphone,
* External line in (stereo),
* PC speaker.
Outputs:
* Audio line out (headphones, amplifier),
* SCSI (not just for CD-ROM, but also for tape-streamers, optical drives,
etc),
* general MIDI (requires optional MIDI Mate),
* joystick.
S/N: 90 db. Dynamic range: 90 db. Harmonic distortion: 0.05%
The PAS-16 is one of the two cards I've tried myself (the other is the
GUS). The 16-bit samples sounds incredibly good. The example MOD-files
that come with the PAS-16 sound really awesome (great stereo, no noise)!
The PAS16 comes with quite a lot of software (compared to the other
cards): Stereo Studio F/X is a waveform editor. It looks very neat but is
incredibly slow. SP Spectrum is a MIDI sequencer. TrakBlaster Pro is a
very nice MOD-player. Furthermore, there is a mixer (supports "loudness",
which makes low pitched sounds come out better), a multimedia application
(Audio Mate) and a speech synthesizer (Pro Speech). For Windows there are
three (!!) mixers and a number of drivers.
Although Media Vision claims the PAS is fully SB(-pro) compatible, some
people have problems when using the PAS as a SB. It seems that the PAS is
not 100% SB compatible.
PERSONAL OPINION: The PAS16 is a good soundcard and offers a lot of value
for your money. The 16-bit MOD files sound very good. But playing MIDI
songs through the internal FM chip is quite a disappointment. I like the
amount and quality of the software that comes with the PAS16 and the
standard SCSI interface for CD-ROM. This, and the overall mechanical
quality of the card, IMHO makes the PAS a better card than the SB. Too bad
the PAS16 is not 100% compatible with the SB(-pro).
** The Gravis UltraSound
The Gravis UltraSound (GUS) from Advanced Gravis is a brand new 16 bit
soundcard that uses wavetable synthese (WS) to generate sound. With WS 16-
bit samples (called patches) are used to generate sound effects and music.
On the GUS, these samples are stored in RAM.
Standard the GUS supports 8 bit stereo sampling and 16-bit playback, up to
44.1 KHz. 16 bit recording is optional (requires a daughter board). It has
16 stereo channels and 32 voice Wavetable Synthese, which enables you to
create very realistic instruments. Unlike the Roland SCC-1, the GUS stores
the samples for WS in RAM, so you have unlimited possibilities. The
instruments can be stored on disk and downloaded to the card when needed.
The GUS comes with 256 kB RAM, but this seems a little too short. However,
it can be expanded to 1 MB. According to the importer (for the Benelux
this is Logitech), 1 MB will soon become the standard amount of RAM for
the GUS.
Inputs:
* Microphone,
* Audio Line In.
Outputs:
* Audio Line Out,
* Amplified Audio Out,
* speed compensating joystick (up to 50 Mhz),
* general MIDI (requires optional MIDI adapter),
* SCSI CD-ROM (requires optional SCSI interface card).
S/N: 80 db. Dynamic range: 96 db. Harmonic distortion: <0.014%
Gravis claims 100% compatibility with SB and Adlib. This compatibility is
achieved through software emulation by SBOS (Sound Board Operating
System). Unfortunately, in practice SBOS is not 100% SB compatible. Newer
releases are becoming more compatible. Another big disadvantage of SBOS is
that it degrades performance considerable in some cases. In general SBOS
doesn't work good with demos and high speed animation. It works o.k. with
(for example) King's Quest VI, Dune and Links 386 Pro. Since the GUS has
no FM-chip, the FM-sounds are emulated through samples/patches. This
results in slightly different (but not worse) sounds than the SB.
All of this is not really a big problem, since the GUS is not intended to
be a SB clone. MIDI files, for example, sound very good. If you play a
piano-song, then you _hear_ a piano and a guitar sounds like a guitar. As
soon as software companies are going to support the GUS directly, the
sound quality will be far better than a SB. Sierra already announced
support for the GUS.
The GUS has no special effects, like chorus and reverb. I am not sure if
the GUS has (dynamic) filtering, since documentation is brief. The sound
quality is very good, in most cases even better than a Roland LAPC-1.
However, the sound quality of the GUS is dependent on the quality of the
patches. Some patches are not so good, so those instruments sound worse.
The GUS is definitively not complete at this moment. The software is flaky
and is still being improved. Currently the GUS comes with DOS and Windows
drivers, Studio 8 (a 8 bit waveform editor), UltraFli (Multimedia
application for .fli files) and PlayMidi (MIDI player and composer). The
Windows mixer is *very* (i.e. too) simple. At the moment, not even all 192
MIDI-patches are available.
Since the GUS is mainly software controlled, it is very flexible. Gravis
is still working on better software support for the GUS. Rumours say
they're working on a MOD-player and MT-32/LAPC-1 emulation. With better
software (and no doubt it will be released soon) the GUS is going to be a
very good alternative for the FM-based cards.
PERSONAL OPINION: The GUS seems to be a good soundcard. It offers high
(sound) quality for a low price. Unfortunately it is not 100% SB
compatible, but this may be solved by new software patches. Since the card
is becoming quite popular, software developers will probably start to
support it very soon. The GUS is, at this moment, my favourite.
** The Roland LAPC-1 and SCC-1
The Roland LAPC-1 is a semi-professional soundcard based on the Roland MT-
-32 module. In fact, the LAPC-1 is a MT-32 and MPU MIDI-interface on a PC-
card. The LAPC-1 contains 128 LA (Linear Arithmetic) synthesized
instruments. The LAPC-1 uses a combination of samples and waveform
synthesis to build a patch (note): A patch consists of 4 "partials" that
can be either a sample or a linear part. The total number of partials is
limited to 32, up to 8 instruments can be played simultaneously and each
channel can pl ay up to 16 voices at the same time. There is a 9th channel
for percussion sounds (MIDI channel 10). Besides 128 instruments, the
LAPC-1 has 30 pre-sampled drum- and percussionsounds and 33 sound-effects.
The SCC-1 is the follow-up of the LAPC-1 and is compatible with the SC-55.
Like the LAPC-1, it is a module (in this case a CM-300) and a MPU-MIDI
interface on one card. The SCC-1 does not use waveform-synthesis, but is
fully WS-based. It contains 317 PCM samples in ROM. A patch can consist of
24 partials, but most patches use only one partial. Like the LAPC-1 it can
use 32 partials simultaneously, but it has 15 channels for instruments (+
1 for percussion). The sounds can be fully programmed, except for the
samples.
The LAPC-1 has two special effects: hall and echo; the SCC-1 has chorus as
well. The Roland cards do not have a DAC/ADC, so it is not possible to
record or play samples. They also don't have a CD-ROM interface. This
means that the Roland cards do not conform to the MPC specifications.
The sound quality of the LAPC-1 is good. High pitched instruments like
piano or reeds do not sound as good as with the GUS. The quality of the
sound-effects in general is quite good. The sound quality of the SCC-1 is
outstanding. The PCM samples are of high quality. The SCC-1 is not fully
compatible with the LAPC-1.
The LAPC-1 comes with no software at all. The SCC-1 only has a program for
enabling the MT-32 emulation mode.
PERSONAL OPINION: The Roland cards are good cards for making music,
especially since they contain a MPU-MIDI interface. However, the cards are
quite expensive and offer less functionality than other cards. In
combination with a cheap SB the Roland cards are very nice (just listen to
Space Quest IV :^))! But I think the GUS comes close to this combo and it
is far less expensive. It's a pity that the SCC-1 does not have RAM to
store samples in.
** Other cards
Here follows a list of other popular cards, with a short description of
each card:
* Covox/Disney Sound Source. Simple DAC plugged into your computers
printer port.
* Adlib Gold 1000. Adlib and SB compatible card with SCSI and General MIDI
interface. Yahama OPL-3 FM chip. 20 channels, 1-voice polyphonic. Surround
processor to improve sound quality. 12 bit sampling and playing up to 44.1
KHz.
Inputs: Mic and Line.
Outputs: Line.
* Adlib Gold 2000. Like the Adlib Gold 1000, but with 16 bit sampling.
* Thunderboard. Predecessor of the PAS+/16. Adlib and SB compatible.
Yamaha YMF3812 FM-chip. 11 channels, 1-voice polyphonic. 8 bit mono
sampling up to 22 KHz. SB-compatible MIDI interface.
Inputs: Mic.
Outputs: Headphones.
* ATI-Stereo F/X. Adlib and SB-compatible. Yamaha YM3812 FM-chips. 11
channels, 1-voice polyphonic. 8 bit stereo sampling up to 44.1 KHz. SB-
compatible MIDI-interface.
Inputs: Mic, Line.
Outputs: Line.
* Turtle Beach MultiSound (TBM). GM/GS compatible. Proteus-1/XR soundchip.
Motorola 56001 DSP. 384 pre-sampled 16-bit PCM instruments. 15 channels +
Drums, 32 voices. Special effects: Hall, Chorus and Echo. 16 bit stereo
sampling up to 44.1 KHz. Turtle Beach compatible MIDI interface.
Inputs: Aux, Line.
Outputs: Line.
The specs of this card are impressive, but it costs about $1000 !!! (You
can buy 8 GUSses for that money :-)).
[from Stefan Hartmann]
* AudioBahn 16 from Genoa Systems. Aria chip from Sierra semiconductor.
Adlib and SB compatible with MPU-401 MIDI interface and Adaptec SCSI
interface. 1 MB PCM samples in ROM. 32 voices simultaneously. 16 bit
stereo sampling at 44.1 KHz. MPC compatible. GREAT SPECS, BUT WHAT ABOUT
THE PRICE????
**** OVERVIEW SPECIFICATIONS
===========================================================
SBpro SB16 PAS16 GUS
HARDWARE
ISA slot (bits) 16 16 16 16
Compatibility Adlib Adlib Adlib Adlib###
SB SBpro SB SB###
CONNECTIONS:
Mic in mono? mono? mono? mono?
Line in stereo stereo stereo stereo
PC speaker in yes ? yes no
Line out stereo stereo stereo stereo
Amplified out 2x4 W 2x4 W 2x4 W 2x2 W
Joystick yes yes yes yes
MIDI UART UART & UART# UART#
MPU
CD-ROM SB SB SCSI SCSI#?
SYNTHESIZER
Type FM FM FM WS
Chipset OPL-3 OPL-3 OPL-3 ?
Voices* 1 1 1 32
Channels 20 20 20 16
Instruments 128 128 128 RAM
Effects - by ASP - -
Miscellaneous - ASP - -
SAMPLING
AD (bits) 8 16 16 8 (16#)
DA (bits) 8 16 16 16
Freq. stereo (Khz) 11-22 5-44 4-44 ?-44
Freq. mono (Khz) 4-44 5-44 4-44 ?-44
Compression ADPCM ADPCM ADPCM ?
___:1 2 3 4 2 3 4 2 ?
Decompression ADPCM ADPCM ADPCM ?
___:1 2 3 4 2 3 4 2 3 4 ?
SNR (dB) 90 80
Dyn. range (dB) 90 96
Harmonic dis. (%) 0.05 0.014
MIXER**
Master 16 32 63 ?
Synthesizer 16 32 31 ?
DAC 16 32 31 ?
Mic 8 32 31 ?
Line in 16 32 31 ?
Tone*** (dB) - 12 12 -
PRICE (est.) $200 $250 $200 $150
===========================================================
LAPC-1 SCC-1 TBM
HARDWARE
ISA slot (bits) 8 8 16
Compatibility MT-32 GM/GS GM/GS
MPU MT-32###
MPU
CONNECTIONS:
Mic in - - mono?
Line in - - stereo
PC speaker in - - ?
Line out stereo stereo stereo
Amplified out 2x? W 2x? W 2x? W
Joystick - - yes
MIDI MPU MPU TB#
CD-ROM - - -
SYNTHESIZER
Type LA WS WS
Chipset Roland Roland Proteus
Voices* 32 24 32
Channels 7+drum 15+drum 15+drum
Instruments 128 317 384
Effects Hall Hall Hall
Echo Echo Echo
Chorus Chorus
Miscellaneous DSP
SAMPLING
ADC (bits) - - 16
DAC (bits) 12##? 12## 16
Freq. stereo (Khz) - - ?-44
Freq. mono (Khz) - - ?-44
Compression - - by DSP
___:1 - - by DSP
Decompression - - by DSP
___:1 - - by DSP
SNR (dB)
Dyn. range (dB)
Harmonic dis. (%)
MIXER**
Master - - ?
Synthesizer - - ?
DAC - - ?
Mic - - ?
Line in - - ?
Tone*** (dB) - - ?
PRICE (est.) $495 $495 $499
REMARKS
* Number of voices per channel.
** Volume control in steps.
*** Bass and treble.
# Optional.
## Only for playing on-board samples.
### By emulation.
- Not present.
? I am not sure :-). PLEASE FILL IN!
**** CONCLUSION
Many manufacturers are now rapidly releasing new soundcards. Game
companies are already working on support of a new generation of sound
cards, that will offer significantly better quality over the present
cards. The GUS is an example of a card with great potential. It's not the
Ultimate Sound Card, but it is probably the first of a whole series of
high quality cards.
Secondly I think the FM-based cards are rapidly going to be replaced by
WS-based cards, since WS gives much better sound quality than FM.
Watch which cards the software companies are going to support. If you want
to buy a card now, go for a cheap sound card. Maybe you can get an old SB
for just a few bucks. If you want a card with better sound quality, the
GUS is a good choice.
**** NOTE
The information in this article may not be entirely correct or up-to-date!
Some info is from my own experience, other is from different sources. If
anyone finds any mistake, please let me know. If you want to contribute to
this article, please send your info. I'll put it in a next release (if
it's interesting enough and if you want me to ;-))!
** Thanx to:
Josha Munnik (for lending me his lended GUS :-)), Bjorn Haavard Kleven,
Phat Tran and Stefan Hartmann (for their useful tips and info on the
newsnet), Timo Veijola (for his info about the Roland cards), Teemu
Mottonen (for his info about MIDI) and a lot of other csips-readers.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Jerry van Waardenberg. All rights
reserved.
ED. - Because we are dedicating so much of this issue to gaming hardware
and peripherals, we felt it would be useful to reprint this review
completed several months ago for the Thrustmaster products.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weapons Control System by Thrustmaster
Reviewed by David Masten
The Thrustmaster (no jokes please!) WCS is a replica of the multi-purpose
throttle controls found on advanced fighters. When combined with a
joystick, it mimics the HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) of jets such
as the F15 and F16. So it is clearly a specialty item, only those who
are addicted to flight sims need consider spending the $100 ($80
discount) for this device.
Befitting the HOTAS concept, the WCS is not just a throttle control.
Depending on the game, the 6 buttons and one 3-position rocker switch
control functions such as flare/chaff release, target select, speed
brakes, etc. The above are supported on most flight sims, usually with
the same buttons. So if you have a number of sims and are tired of
memorizing the different keystrokes, the WCS may be for you.
The WCS works as a keyboard substitute with a built in PROM and dip-
switches which control the button-keyboard mapping. It plugs into the
keyboard input of your computer, with the keyboard plugging into the WCS.
Virtually all current sims are supported. Included are Falcon 3.0, SWotL
(and its forerunners), F117A/F19/F15II, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, the
Jetfighters, MS FS4, plus other sims such as Gunship2000, LHX, Wing
Commander and a few others. Yes, now you finally don't have to search
for that missile release key when a Kilrathi is breathing down your neck!
Curiously, nothing is said about Knights of the Sky. True, those WWI
planes didn't have many controls, but Red Baron is supported. You can
probably find a setting that at least gives you throttle control if KOTS
uses a typical setup. I found a setting for throttle and chaff/flares
for F16 Combat Pilot, a game not officially supported. Updated proms
reportedly are available twice a year (cost?).
As to how well it works, the throttle is better than the CH Flightstick's
throttle wheel I used previously. I would prefer slightly greater
resistance, as you might find your hand moving it slightly when hitting
another button. End result may be that the button depress will be
missed. Having the flare/chaff and target/weapons selects available
right at hand does indeed help when in a furball. I've noted that it is
much easier to close on an adversary without overshooting as the throttle
and speed brakes are right there. Landing ease is also improved. I
tried going back to keyboard control of Falcon 3, yuck! I suspect it
will markedly improve your combat performance.
Is it worth it? It cost about as much as two new games which may provide
more entertainment. But if you're a sim nut, it will enhance many games.
I'm happy with it. Comparing peripherals, I'd say first priority is a
good joystick (like the CH Flightstick, or maybe the FCS), then a
Soundblaster. Only then consider the WCS. But be honest, how many of
you really did buy that $2000 computer for games? If that's the case,
what's an extra $80?
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Dave Masten. All rights reserved.
VIRTUAL PILOT by CH Products
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
Since 1988, a CH Products Flightstick has been sitting proudly on my
desktop next to my PC, chugging away at virtually everything I've thrown
at it. Mind you, it's not the greatest for arcade-type games, but it
can't be beat for flight sims. Or so I thought.
Recently, CH Products brought out a new, exciting peripheral called the
Virtual Pilot (VP), focused specifically for flight sim usage. We should
be specific - it's not going to make any Falcon 3.0 or F-15 III pilots
really excited. It is mainly focused on the commercial flight sims like
SubLOGIC's ATP or the omnipresent Flight Simulator 4.0 from Microsoft.
And to that end, the Flightstick is still 'safe'. It won't be replaced
by the VP (though Thrustmaster is making a strong case for doing so with
some it their products!) as long as sidewinders and AMRAAMs are concerned.
The VP is a genuine, grade-A yolk for flying flight sims that approaches
the true hands-on feel of flying a Cessna aircraft. Some local pilots
nearby have said that for the price point, you simply can't get any closer
to the real feel of controlling a small aircraft.
The feel of the VP is great. The unit has a pair of clamps that allows
the unit to be firmly attached to a desk. Make sure, however, that your
desk surface (top to bottom) isn't more than an inch thick or so, or it
won't have room to clamp. This is my first criticism. Though perhaps
more awkward, CH could have made the unit to have at least 3 inches
clearance to attach to more types of work surfaces. I had no problem
attaching to my desk with a roll-out keyboard surface. The material is
very rugged in nature and instantly gives a good impression of quality
construction. The yolk itself (looks like a miniature steering wheel
found on a drag racer...more on driving later!) is mounted onto a smooth
flowing post that is automatically centered. Pushing in approximates
moving the joystick forward and the opposite is, of course, true. For a
bank left or right, it's a simple turn of the wheel. Buttons A and B are
mounted on the left and right top corners of the wheel, respectively.
What is exceptionally attractive to ATP and FS4.0 pilots is there are
separate controls for aileron and elevator trim controls, and also a
separate T-shaped throttle control. The throttle has very smooth travel
and will give the pilot a lot of fine-tuned control.
To get the most out of the unit, the VP should be plugged into a joystick
port that has support for dual joystick control through a single port. In
this way can the throttle and the other controls be managed properly with
the controls on the unit. No other special software is required. The
Gamecard III card from CH Products or the joystick card from Thrustmaster
are ideal choices for use with the VP.
What I also found exciting with the VP was its application with driving
sims like World Circuit. The difference in control between driving with
a standard joy'stick' vs. the VP was remarkable. It was MUCH easier to
approximate the real feel of steering a car with a steering yolk like the
VP than a joystick. No contest. Any driving simulation should
immediately benefit from this type of control. Even the old classic
stand-by, Indy 500, was greatly improved by using this type of controller.
My only other problem with the unit was simply the size it takes on the
desk. I have limited desk space as it is, and with the VP on the keyboard
shelf, I had to do some major 'furniture moving' to make my keyboard,
mouse, and monitor still useful. Give yourself some real estate if you
plan on picking one of these up.
Which brings me to my final point - should you get it? If you are an avid
FS4.0 or ATP pilot, then the answer is an enthusastic and unrestrained
'YES'. If you are a casual commercial 'virtual pilot' and also hit the
driving circuit now and then, the answer is still a resounding 'YES'. If
you are primarily a combat pilot, and only dabble with FS4.0 now and then,
I would probably direct you to a good joystick like the Flightstick or the
Thrustmaster Flight Control System. For what it's focused for, the VP is
an excellent peripheral any 'electronic pilot' shouldn't be without.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
ALONE IN THE DARK by Infogrames
Previewed by Kish Shen
First off, I should say that I am reviewing the UK version of the game.
This may be somewhat different from other versions, especially the version
that will eventually appear in the US.
Summary
Alone in the Dark (Alone) is a graphic adventure/action game, with a
horror theme. You are trapped in this haunted house full of danger and
monster, and you need to survive and find your way out by solving the
mystery of the house. A novel feature of the game is that it takes place
in a "real-time 3D" environment (as described in the documentation). I
highly recommend this game, but with some reservations concerning the
stability and length of the game.
The Game
In terms of game play Alone most resembles Another World (Out of this
World), and to a lesser extent, Prince of Persia. However, there is a
much greater element of adventuring in this game, in that in many cases,
you have to find the right item and use it in the right way to solve a
particular problem.
A major difference in presentation is that unlike the other two games,
which basically takes place in a flat 2D environment, Alone takes place in
a "3D" environment, i.e. you can move freely around rooms depicted in
perspective. The background itself is static, and it is your character
that moves around. As your character moves, it is also depicted in
perspective projection (so he/she gets smaller when further from the
"viewpoint"). The background may change as you move into certain
positions. Usually there are several views of a particular location
(room). Some of these views are seen from quite unusual angles, and
really gives a very interesting cinematic feel to the whole game.
The backgrounds are generally quite nicely done. Your character, along
with other creatures, and some of the objects (generally those which you
can move in some way), are done using polygons, so the detail is less than
the background, but the effect is still quite effective. Personally I
liked the graphics a lot more than in Another World. The animation is not
as fluid as Prince of Persia, but a nice touch is that your character
still have body movements while standing still (when you are not
moving).
This is more realistic than standing perfectly still as in Prince of
Persia or Another World! The change to 3D also makes the game more
interesting, in my opinion.
The game uses sound very effectively. Both the sound effect and the music
are very well done (on a Soundblaster). There are a variety of digitised
(?) sound effects, most of them very good. For example. your character's
footsteps sound different when you are stepping on stone or wood. There
are also many different sounds made by the monster and moving various
things around. The music really adds to the atmosphere, although it
repeats quite often, I was never really annoyed by it. It also helps to
give warning of danger, though it often also play this tune suddenly when
nothing is happening, which, especially at the beginning, was quite
unnerving (I think that was the desired effect).
There are many ways you can get killed or hurt, many of them with quite
interesting animations. This also adds to the horror effect, along with
the sound, music and graphics. The atmosphere of the game is very well
done, though personally I don't particular like horror, I was nevertheless
drawn into the game. Personally, I think the relative crudeness of the 3D
objects is an advantage, as you don't get to see all the horrific details
being lovingly depicted. I guess this would be a disadvantage for others
who like this sort of thing, though.
You can choose to play this game as a male or female character. However,
you do not get to choose how your character look like. As far as I can
tell, the game play is the same for both characters, though I have not
tried out the female character extensively. Curiously, the static pictures
displayed by the game during the opening (or "attract") sequence shows a
male character that is different from the one that you can use.
You can save and restore game at any time, and you can save more than one
game. I had about 5 saved games, but I think you can have more. The save
game mechanism is quite nice, as it allows you to give a title to the
saved game, and it shows a mini-picture of the action when you saved the
game.
Finally, the game has quite a nice introduction sequence, which shows your
arrival at the house. This is done using the same engine as the one that
you play with. There is also an end sequence, which I think is somewhat
less impressive.
Problems
The game is not without problems, however. It crashed twice when I was
playing it. In one case, when I rebooted the computer, I discovered that
my computer's setup in CMOS was changed. If this is caused by the
program, then it is indeed a very serious problem. I contacted
Infogrames, and they don't seem to know about the problem. The problem was
caused by an unusual set of circumstances (reading a particular book in
the library in the dark). The crashes were relatively rare, but it seems
to be potentially dangerous, as the setup information contains rather
vital information, such as detailed information about your hard disc type.
I was able to recover without lost from the crash, but only because the
documentation for my computer came with details about my hard disc. A more
naive user also would probably not know what to do when the computer
simply fails to boot up, so this problem can be very serious.
Other than these crashes, the game appeared to be quite stable, but there
were some relatively minor problems that may affect game play: the most
serious of these is that I found it quite hard to make the character run.
Walking is done by holding down the up and down arrow keys, and running is
done by releasing and then holding down the arrow key while walking.
Unfortunately the program seems very sensitive to the duration of how long
the key was released, thus making it very difficult to get the character
running.
When the player's character moves around the background, parts of the
character or background are clipped as he/she moves in front of or behind
objects. This works most of the time, but not all the time, giving some
strange clippings such as parts of the body disappearing behind a wall
that the character is supposed to be in front of. Another problem is that
the background is static, which is fine most of the time, except for when
the background is supposed to be moving, e.g. a body of water. In such
cases, the picture contains "ripples" to indicate that the water is
moving, but as this is static and not animated. As your character can move
all around this, it seems very strange to have completely still water that
should be moving. Also, the interaction between 3D objects and the
background is also not perfect: e.g. when stones drop into water, you hear
the splash, but don't see the splash, and when the player puts down an
object on the floor, you see the player bend down with empty hands, and
then the object suddenly appears on the floor. These are, however,
relatively minor distractions, though they do tend to affect the
atmosphere.
Another slight problem is the way the writings are displayed. When a book
or other written material is read, the contents are graphically displayed,
with the pages depicted as quite creased. This is very nice, and adds to
the atmosphere (though it seems strange that some of these written
materials, which are supposed to be written quite recently, should be in
this state), but the writing itself are displayed as if there are no
crease on the page, so the effect is that the writing seems to be floating
on some flat surface just above the paper, which is somewhat strange.
Another problem with the game is that it is not very long. I managed to
finish it (though I did have a solution posted to the net) quite quickly.
There are not many locations. I estimate that it is about the same in
terms of playing length (assuming you know all the solutions) as Space
Quest IV. It would be nice if the game was longer than this.
Requirements, etc.
The documentation states that you can run the game on a 16MHz AT-clone. I
cannot test this as my machine is a 33MHz 486DX. However, I didn't notice
any difference in speed when my computer is ran at 8MHz. You can change
the detail level to get faster game speed, but I have not noticed much
differences between the two different detail levels except for the way
objects are shaded (certainly it does not seem to make any difference to
your character). I have not ran the game much at the low detail level,
though.
The documents states that a hard disc and VGA (MCGA) are needed, and that
the program takes up 5Mb of space. In practice, I found that you needed
slightly over 5Mb of space, but I had a few saved games.
The player character is controlled entirely from the keyboard. Mouse and
joystick are not used. The control is quite simple, and I rapidly got used
to it (except for the running problem).
The game is copy protected by a document look-up. A special small but
thick (255 pages) book which contains pictures of objects is used: each
time the game is started, the user is asked to give the objects from a
particular page. The objects are selected by cycling through a list of
objects. As there are many objects to select from, this can get a bit
tiring if you have to cycle through many objects to get to the one you
want. You are given 3 chances, after which you are returned to DOS.
The version of the game I have is the UK version. The packaging could be
made better, I think. My discs arrived with the labels partially stuck to
each other, and I had to physically separate them. You also start the game
with the command "tatou", which is rather meaningless in English, and I
had to look in the manual to find out how to start the game. The manual
itself is reasonable for the game mechanism, but does little to add to the
atmosphere.
So the bottom line is: this is a great game. I would recommend it without
reservations if it was not for the crash I suffered. Even with the crash,
I still highly recommend the game. It is a bit short, but for the price I
paid (less than 25 pounds through mail order), I thought it was well worth
it. I do hope they fix the problem with the crash, though.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Kish Shen. All rights reserved.
CAESAR by Impressions
Previewed by David Pipes
Impressions' new game "Caesar" has hit the streets. Hopefully this
preview will provide some general information of interest, to tide you
over until the review gnomes at the highly-secretive GameBytes Labs can
fully dissect this newest offering.
In Caesar, the player has just been assigned to a province of the Roman
Empire in the Augustinian period (around 13 BC). The job? Design and
protect the new provincial capital, while encouraging trade and building a
stable economy tied to the rest of the province and the Empire itself.
The game operates at several different levels.
The province level is where decisions are made about army patrols (to
fight off barbarians, either with a simple included combat resolution
system, or as a scenario designer for Cohort II), roads and hiways to
other towns and the like. Each province is large and is represented by
some incipient cities, with different surface terrain for each playing.
As an idea of size, the province of Narbonnensis covers Southwestern
Britain, centered of course on Bath.
At the city level, houses can be built, bathhouses constructed and the
important submenus can be accessed. These allow the building of
infrastucture areas (roads, wells, fountains, water pipes and more) and of
general construction items (schools, manufacturing areas, markets, walls,
etc.). The city is centered on various fora, and the need for many
bathhouses, temples and the like quickly produces neighborhoods. A useful
overview map provides information on water distribution, land values,
administrative coverage and more.
The economy is fairly complicated, and requires some tweaking through the
balance of population and available structures. This is a definite
challenge, and the inertia of the simulation is easily felt. In addition,
the buildings change, even take over more land as time passes. Citizens
walk the streets, riots break the peace, barbarians assault and are
repulsed by the guards. Roads crumble, buildings collapse, overtaxed
water systems dry up - all of this and more is found in quantity.
Finally, once the player has a stable city and province, with the respect
of his citizens and even the Empire, a fat purse in his pocket and legions
at his back - after all this, he is promoted, and handed another province
to handle. One that is more of a problem. With less money to start with.
And so the game proceeds, until the player becomes Emperor himself.
As noted above, GameBytes technicians are currently working day and night
to bring you the full review fresh from the Reviewtron (tm). Until then,
Ave!
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by David Pipes. All rights reserved.
DOOM by ID Software
Previewed by Ross Erickson
There's hardly a gamer in the world today that hasn't played the mega-hit
Wolfenstein 3D or the commercial equivalent, Spear of Destiny. It set new
standards for arcade action games and, in fact, just recently won Game
Bytes' Action Game of the Year for 1992. The game is so enthralling that
many players report motion sickness when sailing through the corridors of
the castle in search of the elevator exits.
Many players immediately asked ID what do they plan for an encore. The
expectations are set VERY high after such a huge hit as Wolf 3D and we're
pleased to report that ID has VERY high standards. The author of the
engine of Wolf 3D, John Carmack has said that he was 'embarrassed by Wolf
3D and didn't even want to release a game like this'. He immediately went
to work on refining the engine tremendously and making a new game that
would provide as much visual impact on veteran Wolf 3D players as
Wolf/Spear did on the uninitiated.
After several hours now with a pre-Alpha, I'm quite confident in saying
that the wizards of ID are definitely on the right track. Doom will be
another mega-hit for this incredible bunch of talented designers. The
game is in the same genre as Wolf/Spear (ie. action/arcade), but uses a
highly refined engine to really draw the player into the fray. As an of
-duty soldier in a scientific research facility, you (and up to 3 other
players) must take on creatures from another dimension that have invaded
the facility. Lock and load! What is new and exciting about Doom is not
only have the graphics been highly improved; not only has modem and
network play been added for multi-player support; not only will the game
support virtually all the sound cards under the sun, but this game has a
visceral appeal unlike any other I've seen in recent months, including all
those at CES.
The game has a similar first-person perspective like Wolf, but utilizes a
new viewing window that takes the entire screen if you choose. Another
enhancement is a viewing port that includes status items and an automap
function that updates your position as you travel. The screens are
further enhanced by the addition of texture mapped ceilings and floors
along with the ability to fine tune the quality of the texture map to
adjust to the speed of your machine. For a final coup d'grace, ID has
also stated they plan to support Hi-color DAC-based boards for 32K color
support. I don't have such a board yet and can't comment on it, but the
effect should be stunning.
The pre-alpha has 4 of the many levels partially complete and I was
immediately stunned at their breadth and depth. The ceilings are no
longer simply 8 feet tall. There are staircases, cathedral-like rooms,
and much more confining quarters. The game also doesn't take place at
right angles. There is a real sensation, in fact, that there are rooms
that are rounded in nature. The animation is also extremely well-done
(so far). One particularly nice effect is the view of the shotgun blast;
the shot goes off and the (your) hand comes up and cocks the next shell
into the chamber ready for another blast. The pre-alpha doesn't have the
"violence factor" built in yet, nor are the present aliens very
intelligent. In fact, they aren't even really there. I can run right
through them.
The environment of Doom is also a major change from the Wolf/Spear games.
Walls can be of any thickness and of any lucency. They can be damaged (to
mark paths), animate, and change shape. They can also be used to provide
messages to the gamer as he travels throughout the mazes. I was
particularly impressed with the use of light-shading and diminishing in
the game. At one point, you can travel through a completely darkened room
into a tunnel and finally into the light again. The game gradually showed
clearer and clearer features of the room as the lighted room at the end
of the tunnel was reached. What is also very cool is the blasts from your
various weapons will also light up the room for a split-second to see if
any dangers lurk nearby.
Communications has been added to Doom as well. For modem or serial-link
support, two players can enter the game, cooperatively or competitively.
If you are on a network, then up to four players can join in. ID has also
stated that they are opening up the game itself and will actively supply
support to 'entrepreneurs' who wish to write editors, communication
drivers, mappers, etc.
On my 386/20, the game ran suprisingly fast on full detail with a full
screen window. Scaling down to a smaller window still gave me 19 frames
per second. If you have a 386/33 or above, you will likely not remember
that you're NOT watching T.V. The animation is that good.
There are a lot of things still not in the game yet; all the weapons
(concussion explosives, grenades, etc.), music and sound, "disgusting
displays of gibletty horror and mayhem..." (Jay Wilbur's words, not
mine!), intelligent aliens, and finished levels.
Doom will be released in the third quarter of this year for DOS machines,
with plans to support Windows, Windows NT, and even the orphan NeXT
machine. This will truly be a landmark game for 1993.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR by Dynamix
Previewed by Ross Erickson
Dynamix has long been known for their technological breaththroughs in
their flight simulations and have put out a few of the industry's top
adventures too. They have just released probably the best football
simulation to date and puzzle fans everywhere delight in The Incredible
Machine. So. What do you do when you're ready for new challenges? Sure!
Take on the likes of the Ultima's and Wizardry's of the world and do a
ground-breaking RPG! Why not?! Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga is the
background for this foray into new territory for Dynamix. While Betrayal
at Krondor (BAK) may not follow any one novel or story, it does put the
player in the setting of the Riftwar universe. And it is unlike anything
any RPG'er has seen before.
The beta has arrived only days before this issue went final so we haven't
had much time to get into detail with the game yet, but after a few hours
of play with it, Dynamix is headed into some exciting directions. The
game is set in the fantasy world of Midkemia and sports an environment
filled with a variety of races. What is truly unique about BAK is the
perspective when travelling from place to place. Done from the first
person, you get a real sensation of movement through a world that appears
to be made up of typical polygons that one would expect to see in Chuck
Yeager's Air Combat, but is texture-mapped and spotted with trees, bushes,
etc., that you get the feel that you are truly travelling down a road,
much like a plane would fly over terrain. On my 386/20, the "frame rate"
(do I dare bring up FRAME RATE in an RPG!!??) was a bit choppy with full
detail on. There are some nice features in BAK. When a player reaches a
road, you can toggle the "follow the road" icon on, and any forward motion
(mouse or keyboard) will cause the character and/or party to follow the
road, wherever it may lead. The scaling of the objects as you move closer
or farther away from them is done very effectively. The mouse interface is
used with great skill here. The left button examines objects and the
right button identifies them.
The game starts with a 'chapter'-like interface that puts the player as
young Owyn joining a party on their quests throughout Midkemia. There is
a nice fluid flow of interaction when the party meets up with characters
who have information or who otherwise don't want to fight. The portraits
of said NPC's pop up and a dialog is exchanged. As topics of interest are
exchanged, buttons are added to the menu to ask more detailed questions.
Combat is also well-done in BAK. When combatants appear on screen, the
combat will begin automatically, and the screen shifts to a 3rd person
perspective. The player will then have to control to move characters to
position them for tactical advantage to fight or use magic. The mouse is
used to perfection here. You utilize your resources by controlling
different colored rectangles at the base of the characters, allowing them
to strike, parry, retreat, or cast a spell. Once the combat is completed,
the characters will be given the option to rest or camp and recover from
wounds. The magic system in BAK is a bit hard to explain. You click on
an icon on the main screen and another menu is presented with a selection
of geometrical patterns that represent a certain spell. You are also
given the flexibility for certain spells to control how much energy is
expended using the spell and what the effects on the spellcaster would be.
The visual results of the spells on the combatants is quite stunning. A
'turn to stone' spell shows exactly that. No 'disappearing character'
here. The spell results are obvious.
In conclusion, while BAK will likely require a new perspective in RPGs,
its presentation is so unique that it is likely to attract many new gamers
to the genre that previously wouldn't touch an Ultima or a Wizardry. It's
nice to see from fresh air in this category of games that in recent years
has become dominated by the "kill the ultimate bad guy" type of plot. BAK
is an interesting blend of many technologies coming together in a whole
that appears greater than the sum of its parts.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
LEMMINGS 2: THE TRIBES by Psygnosis
Previewed by Ross Erickson
Yes, the little green-haired creatures are back. It was inevitable,
wasn't it? I mean, after the runaway success of the original, you just
HAD to know there was going to be a Lemmings II (L2).
The game premise hasn't really changed that much at all. Get the little
guys from point A (opening overhead trap door) to point B (Lemmings
Heaven) through a variety of ever increasingly difficult environments.
The method? Use the little critter skills in logical patterns to ensure
safety over the dangerous landscape. What's new and exciting about L2 is
the vastly increased number of 'personalities' and traits that the
Lemmings will be able to use. The game has the Lemmings into 12 very
different tribes, each with their own unique abilities. For example, the
Polar Lemmings will be able to ski past certain obstacles, the Circus
Lemmings can float across the screen when they inflate their balloons,
and the Beach Lemmings can surf past obstacles on their way home.
The game looks like a riot and should provide many many hours of puzzle-
solving fun. Sound support is full and rich, and the graphics sport a
very clear, cartoon look to them. What is particularly fun is watching
each of the different tribes do their own version of 'Armageddon' when you
decide you've botched it for good. Great fun. Watch for Lemmings II in a
month or less.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
RISKY WOODS by Electronic Arts
Previewed by Gavin Scarman
Requirements: 16+MHz 286 (at bare minimum,IMHO)
VGA, 512k RAM, 1.3MB disk space.
Supports: Soundblaster, Adlib, MT32/LAPC1.
Risky Woods is a pure arcade game, and you would not be surprised to see
it on a coin-op machine. This is not surprising when you look at the
publisher, Dinamic Software. Dinamic have been around since 1984 and are
based in Spain. In that time they have produced 57 programs for both home
computers and coin-op machines. Risky Woods is distributed by Electronic
Arts.
The game itself is pretty straightforward with run and shoot type action,
but what makes it nice to play is the excellent graphics and musical
score. The basic storyline is you are trying to rescue some old monks
trapped in stone. The monks' captors obviously aren't happy about this and
tend to want to kill you.
Game controls are the keyboard, which is configurable, or joystick, with
either giving good response. There are a variety of weapons, but you start
with an endless supply of knives, which is just as well since there are an
endless supply of baddies to kill. When you kill a monster he will often
drop his "milk money" on the ground which you can collect. This money can
be used to buy more powerful weapons or replenish your lost energy at the
"Olde Shoppe" at the end of a level.
There are many other objects to collect along the way, with a number of
treasure chests holding many goodies, such as magic potions and powerful
but short term weapons. There are also a number of objects trying to
collect you, such as pits and falling rocks.
To stop you just standing there and destroying the monsters till the cows
come home, there is a clock. If you don't reach the end of a level before
the clock runs out then the game ends. Reaching the end of a level is also
important so that you can spend all that money you've collected. There are
axes, fireballs, maces, and boomerangs, as well as healing energy for
sale.
To quote the box there are 12 levels, 8 landscapes, and 150 screens. There
are also 11 musical scores, 20 types of monsters and 5 different weapons.
This game should please almost everyone who likes an action game, with
enough variety and challenge for even the more skilled arcade game player.
I only had a few gripes with Risky Woods, and the main one is the
inability to start from where you last died, although it is possible to
achieve this by finding an object sometimes placed in the game. However I
have found a patch that allows you to start from any level and this has
improved my enjoyment of the game a lot. The other problem is the copy
protection, which is of the answer a question from the manual type. The
thing is you have to answer two questions which is a real pain when you
just want a quick game. And (to stop you photocopying it?) the manual text
is printed over the top of pictures of trees making it very hard to read.
Neither of these problems should stop you buying the game though.
Summary: I'd score it a 8 out of 10, worth buying if you like games like
Gods, Xenon2 and the like. And to give you an idea of my taste in games,
my favourites are Ultima Underworld, Wolf3D, Sorcerian, Red Baron, and
Sierra adventure games.
Review Machines: 386DX-40, Trident VGA, Star Cursor Joystick.
486DX-25, Paradise VGA, Keyboard. (also tested on 286-10
but totally unplayable on this speed machine).
This preview is copyright (c) 1993 by Gavin Scarman. All rights reserved.
SHADOWRUN by Data East
For the Super Nintendo
Previewed by Ross Erickson
Recently, the good folks at Data East were kind of enough to send me a
PROM of their latest SNES game, Shadowrun. This is a new adventure/RPG
game for the Super Nintendo that is based on a very popular FASA
publication and pen and paper role-playing game of the same name.
You play Jake Armitage in the futuristic world of 2050. You awake to find
yourself in a body drawer in the city morgue. Except,..you aren't dead!
You extract yourself from your immediate surroundings and head off into
the world to find out why you were in the morgue in the first place.
Officially, you don't exist anymore. You must survive in this world
with what is determined to be very valuable data in your head that the
ruthless members of this world want from you.
There are six 'chapters' in Shadowrun, each with a new phase of your
quest to survive and solve the mystery. You will have to find plenty
of weapons and will rely and many new companions along the way. The
graphics are presented from a 3rd person perspective and you 'walk' Jake
around the environment. The buttons are used intelligently to open and
shut doors, pick up and examine items, and even manipulate and use magic.
The game is also battery backed-up so you can play for any length of time
you like without worry that you have to finish or start over later.
Data East is also planning a Shadowrun Sweepstakes with plenty of prizes
for players, including posters, T-shirts, and flight jackets. The grand
prize is 300 bills for video game shopping a plethora of Shadowrun items.
Four questions will be asked about Shadowrun that will determine who is
put into the final drawing.
The sound of the game wasn't much to write home about. They are adequate,
but I felt there was plenty of room for improvement in this area. There
is a real opportunity to play a hardcore, driving theme music throughout
the game. Sound effects were fair, but again, nothing tremendous. The
real strength of Shadowrun will be the story.
I was quite impressed with the game. I don't really consider myself an
RPG'er, but Shadowrun made it so easy to play the game without worry
a bunch about hit points and experience points, etc. It's the closest
thing to a Sierra game on the console that I've seen. I believe there
is a LOT of game here that I haven't explored. Like with any RPG or
adventure game, replay value is about nil, but the adventure is still
worth the price. The game should be shipping by April.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
STARFOX by Nintendo of America
For the Super Nintendo
8 Megabits and Super FX Coprocessor
Reviewed by Jer Horwitz
Unusually enough, Nintendo didn't decide to hype this one as much as they
normally do with big games. Despite a CES demo which left many observers
of StarFox awed, the gaming press in general has shown remarkably few
pictures and said very little about the first in the Super FX chip line
of games. For those of you unfamiliar with the Super FX chip, it has been
described as an innovative and inexpensive RISC processor which performs
mathematical functions and boosts the system's clock speed substantially.
A quick peek at the circuit board of StarFox reveals an interesting fact.
There are no chips on the board of normal stock; simply black plastic
globs and labels reading things like Mario Chip 1, RAM and ROM. Peer down
into your SNES and you'll notice three potential holes for the cartridge
to go into; then examine your normal cartridges and notice that they only
use the large central part. StarFox uses all three parts, the outer two
for input/output functions between the new co-processor and the Super NES
CPU.
But this is all inconsequential to the game itself. A cross between Sega's
Afterburner and Atari's Stun Runner, StarFox places you in the role of Fox
McCloud, pilot of an Arvin starship, and comrade of three other animals
who just happen to fly starships (an Eagle, a Rabbit and a Toad for those
who care). In a universe rendered generally with filled polygons, you and
your wingmen set off to destroy Dr. Androv (a Chimpanzee) and his armada
of deadly spaceships. You fly on the surfaces of planets, through asteroid
belts and inside of enemy bases.
You take one of two perspectives during the game: Behind your spacecraft
(at various distances) or inside of it. During flight, you'll receive
voice communications from your companions (in their native languages, of
course), translated into something comprehensible at the bottom of your
screen. It is your duty to protect them during the missions you fly, as it
is their duty to protect you; you lose bonus points if their ship's
shields are knocked down. Your weapons include normal laser blasters,
smart bombs and several power-ups to change the nature of your lasers. You
also have a quick thrust to get you quickly through a tight spot, usage of
which is limited to one burst until the meter recharges in several
seconds.
The objective of each mission is to fly from point A to point B, dodging
buildings, blowing up targets and destroying enemy offensive and defensive
weapons inbetween. Point B is a large boss character complete with
multiple targets to destroy and several weapons to unleash upon the
quartet of creatures. Along the way, power-ups float around to recharge
your shields, double your lasers and rebuild your damaged wings. The
challenge level is above average.
The Super FX chip is employed to calculate the 3-D movement of the polygon
universe in real-time, without any flicker or slowdown problems. Enemies
scale with polygon fluidity, as do towers, buildings and satellite dishes,
your wingmen flying on your sides and laser blasts traveling in every
direction. The movement of the objects is smooth and truly three
dimensional, although they are, for the most part, undetailed and rendered
with a low palette. Impressive signs of things to come are located in the
asteroid belt, where an entire screen full of true variable distance
scaling sprite asteroids fly towards you. Other neat effects are in a
level where the polygons are generated while you watch, forming a
crosshatched wall with holes to fly through among other traps. The power
of this chip has yet to be truly realized, but these efforts are excellent
enough to warrant a long look.
The music and sound effects are among Nintendo's best efforts to date. The
music in particular rivals any arcade game of the 3-D shooter genre, and
sounds a lot like a futuristic Afterburner, which is, in effect, what the
game actually is, albeit more targeting-oriented. Sound effects never get
annoying, and in fact sound the best when they're loud. There are quite a
few English language voices, as well as a few in the tongues of your
animal friends, all of which add another dimension to the gaming
experience.
StarFox provides a cinematic experience whereby the player sees his/her
ship prepare for takeoff, jet out onto the planet and then merge with the
screen, all in real time. After sustaining critical damage, your view
leaves the cockpit of your craft and watches from a distance as your ship
explodes. Unlike bitmapped graphics, the polygons enable the camera to
move through three dimensions without changing screens, providing the
viewer with a real-time view of what's happening from the best
perspective. (And, there's a game, too!) The fun of blowing apart enemies,
squeezing through tight spaces and dodging asteroids has never been
better. The later missions are incredibly intense, yet fair, something I
admire in a game.
There are six levels per mission (mission three actually has a total of
seven levels; map scene shows 5 per), three missions of varying
difficulty, and three men per game total. Continues are hard to earn. The
levels are long enough and full enough not to leave the screen or player
wanting for more. Will the game have long-lasting appeal? A very good
question; my first answer would be "not as much as F-Zero; probably more
than Pilotwings," but I'm not totally sure as of yet. I haven't finished
it yet, but you can trust that I'll be trying throughout the night.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Jer Horwitz. All rights reserved.
V FOR VICTORY: MARKET GARDEN by Three-Sixty Pacific and Atomic Games
Previewed by Ross Erickson
The V for Victory (V4V) series has garnered many fans in its still young
stages. Utah Beach and Velikiye Luki have raised the bar considerably
for computer wargame designers everywhere. Wargamers everywhere have been
throughly impressed with the beautiful graphics to go along with very
easy-to-use interface, both on the Macintosh and the PC platforms. V for
Victory: Market Garden (V4V:MG) continues this newly established tradition
of excellence. The scenarios in this continually evolving and improving
series are increasingly more sophisticated than the previous. V4V:MG
should continue this tradition with easy. Already out on the Mac, it
should be arriving for PC gamers within a month or so.
I won't go into the historial aspects of the battle or the decisions to
engage the Nazi war machine. These historical facts and their subsequent
copious analyses can be read at any library around the world with great
detail. Suffice it to say that the game will, as accurately as possible,
present the challenges the Allies faced with seizing such important
territory and capturing and holding strategic bridges with such tenous
command and control. Key to the game will be the use of the important
bridges over the Rhine. Many bridges are featured in V4V:MG and their
control and capture is key to the final result of the game. There is
some random liklihood that certain bridges will be blown up before the
Allies arrive the first time. There are other new features in the game
such as multinational forces, different types of terrain that greatly
affects the ability to move units quickly, and also the choice to change
the use of paratroopers from what happened historically. Atomic Games are
still determining if this version will support modem play, though if not
in the initial version, a follow-on product will like do so.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
ASSAULT SUITS VALKEN by Masiya
U.S. Release by Konami as CYBERNATOR
for the Super NES / Super Famicom
Reviewed by Jer Horwitz
I never thought I'd see the day. When the Genesis was first released, I
remember taking a risk on a completely unknown game by an unknown company
- Target: Earth, by Dreamworks. The game made a great first impression by
opening with a full two- or three- minute cinema display of a cosmic war
between two armies; this was amazing in that there were no games with
cinema displays on cartridge, nor were any of them as beautifully
orchestrated. Target: Earth continued to impress me with amazing music
(especially for the time) and great graphic effects, even though the first
levels were set in space and somewhat dark. The best part was the gameplay
-- ferociously intense and challenging.
So when Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewed it and gave it a 6, 7, 6, 5, I
felt personally slighted. The "Review Crew" attitude was summed up in Ed
Semrad's comment, "This game would have received a much higher rating, but
the difficulty is too high for any normal human." Steve Harris said that
"the attackers fill the screen and eventually become too much to fight
off."
The unique thing about Target: Earth was that the programmers attempted to
make the game semi-realistic. You were given a robotic suit with an energy
meter - one suit per game. If you were stupid, and spent the first level
wading into a group of ten enemies, you were bound to lose all of your
power when they shot you to death. This was no ordinary shooter. You
needed a little strategy and several tries to complete any level. You were
rewarded by getting better weapons based on your performance in the level.
It added a great, complex Japanese movie-style plotline which actually
meant something to the gameplay. Especially in an age when every new game
is easy, the challenge was welcome, despite the perspective of EGM's
reviewers, who viewed it as "just one of the 11 games to review that
month". In other words, it was actually worth buying.
A few months later, I would discover that the game had been written in
Japan by Masiya, and that it was originally named Assault Suits Leynos. I
figured that I'd never see a sequel, given the beating it took. Yet,
Masiya decided, intelligently, that there was more that could be done with
the concept.
The result is Assault Suits Valken, being released stateside as
Cybernator; this time, for the Super Famicom and Super NES. Since Konami
is releasing it, perhaps it will get the attention it deserves.
Masiya responded to the critics by changing several things. First, the
game packs a much more obvious graphic punch throughout. Second, the
levels are arranged in a manner that still presents a challenge but eases
the player into the strategic aspect of the game more gently. Third, they
changed the complex reward based power-up system into a more standard one
which retains most of the good aspects of the old system. They also
ignored the critics in several ways, making the game challenging and
retaining the control mechanism of your Assault Suit. Valken also is more
"Assault" oriented than the original game, sending you on missions to
destroy the enemy instead of defending against his attacks.
The game begins dramatically as your army stages an attack on the enemy's
colony, breaching the colony's shields by crashing your main battleship
straight through them. At that point, you and your Assault Suit are
deployed, and you take command inside of the enemy's fortress. Your suit
is equipped with a battery pack which loses power only from enemy attacks,
a shield which can defend against most types of projectiles coming from
either the left or right of you, a machine gun with unlimited bullets,
reinforced metal hands that can punch through enemy armor, a jet pack for
limited flight abilities, and rocket boots which can speed you up. Your
main weapon, the machine gun, points in whatever direction you are moving
unless you press a button to hold it in one place. This element of the
control takes only a short while to get used to. The suit itself is
extremely well animated and given sound effects which evoke the correct
feeling of metallic dead weight moving.
Later levels involve new play mechanics, some taking place in zero
gravity, others in the process of entering the atmosphere of a planet
(complete with fiery burn-ups). Masiya added one major new play mechanic,
very short horizontal shooting parts of levels which intermingle with the
normal mechanics.
The levels are generally quite long, but can be moved through quickly if
the player doesn't mind losing all of the power-up items that can be had.
The background art is first class science fiction quality, with very
appropriate music. A notable feature of these backgrounds is your ability
to blow them to shreds with your rifle, leaving patches of ripped up steel
wherever you walk.
The weapons are all interesting, also. Your machine gun has unlimited
bullets but takes a second to reload itself after emptying out a clip, so
you need to be careful not to stumble into a trouble spot with three shots
left. Your punches are roughly twice as powerful as your gun's shots, but
are extremely short range. The laser weapon shoots until it runs out of
energy, then takes a few seconds to recharge itself with accompanying
visual effects. You also can find a limited stock of missiles, which can
be powered up to home in on targets. Each weapon, in fact, can be powered
up two extra times, and with the exception of the missiles, the
improvement is always in the power of the weapon.
Each level has new enemies, some ground based and some hovering in the
air. The animation of everything is superb, and the only flicker (no
slowdown) comes from the multiple explosions of a dying "boss" enemy. Best
yet, the style of plotline has been retained from Target Earth, with a
continuing rivalry between your hero and the enemy commander. Large
sprites and great visual effects round the game out.
The challenge is formidable - I highly doubt that anyone can beat the game
in their first day of play like the majority of other titles out there.
There are three credits given to you (with an impressive continue screen,
no less) and you have to learn how to make them count. There are multiple
ways to reach the target points of each area, some more hazardous than
others, although the dangerous ones always give you extra power-up
incentives to take the risk. Depending on your level of skill, expect this
game to take one and a half times (if not two times) as long as the
average action game to beat.
I can't say the game has left me extremely satisfied - it hasn't left me,
yet. I'm still playing it, trying to get further, and enjoying every
minute of it. Masiya included everything I hoped for, and satisfied even
the "critics" at EGM (the game received all 8's this time). This is among
the most solid purchases a sci-fi game lover could ever made; you'll agree
when it's still being played a month after you buy it.
Thanks to Konami for letting the rest of the world play this excellent
game.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Jer Horwitz. All rights reserved.
WILSON PRO STAFF GOLF by Konami
Previewed by Ross Erickson
With the likes of Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf, Links 386 Pro,
Leadbetter's Greens, et al, it would seem the last thing the gaming
industry needs is another golf game. Yet, another one is what we're
getting. Konami has just released Wilson Pro Staff Golf (WPSG) for PCs
and is making its claim to fame to be the fast screen redraws the game
has whilst moving from shot to shot. This golfer/editor isn't sure this
is what makes a good campaign for strong sales, but when the competition
has the graphical capabilities of Links, the design capabilities of
Nicklaus, and the modem capabilities of Greens, there's not much left to
tout.
The demo arrived only a week or so prior to the real game, so observations
are based on both. Unfortunately, we were ENTIRELY unsuccessful getting
screen shots to capture for this game, so you're going to have to rely on
the old 'back of the box' for some looks at what the game is about.
Suffice it to say that you shouldn't be buying this game on account of
the graphics anyway.
The game installed and loads fine and will use XMS memory if found
available in the machine. EMS memory can be utilized as well. Another
nice feature of the game is the variety of side games that can be played
(read: betting) while playing through the game. Everything from a normal
'skins game' to the world famous Bingo Bango Bongo (??) are available for
the player.
Once the first tee appears, one screen pretty much presents everything you
need to do or utilize to get down the fairway. You have controls over
club selection and also stance (for fades and draws), though no control is
given over ball placement and swing trajectory. In WPSG, the ball is
always struck on the sweet spot, it would seem. In similar fashion to
Links, there is a clock/dial screen device that sets the power from
anything to a 2 inch putt to a ripped drive. Once the power has been set,
a new tool pops up that has a red dot cycling through the ball position in
a figure 8 pattern. Your job, for straight hits, is to click on the point
where the red dot is at the center of the ball. The ball is struck
accordingly. Konami's claim that this has very fast screen redraw is most
definitely true. Played on a fictional course with a hilly-to-mountainous
background, the screens indeed paint themselves almost instantly.
Once the ball is on the green, things really started to break down. In a
word, the putting engine seems abysmal. There are two 'ranges' for
maximum putting distance - 60 feet and 99 feet. Trying to hit a 5 inch
putt based on a 60 foot scale is difficult. The same counter-clockwise
dial approach is used, but the red dot just cycles horizontally across the
center of the ball instead of in an up and down figure 8 pattern. Putting
will take a LONG time to master, in my opinion.
The game continues relentlessly in this vein with no variation at all.
Thought more time needs to be spent with the game, the novelty of having
screens redraw very quickly was soon forgotten by the 3rd hole. What
remains is a very non-descript golf game with very difficult putting
controls. This reviewer previewed this game and quickly got bored.
While it was a valiant try at an already crowded market, WPSG probably
won't get many golfers excited except those who are still on a 286 with a
VGA monitor.
This preview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
A VIEW FROM THE EDGE
By Ross Erickson, Editor
I bet you never thought you would ever see this again, did you!? Game
Bytes lives on! The past two months have been some of the most hectic,
unpredictable times of my life and the gaming industry nor our readers
will wait. The reasons for the delays are several fold and I don't think
that it would be very useful to go into all the reasons, but suffice it
to say that when your spouse's health is at issue, then all other
priorities shift accordingly.
One of the other major reasons Game Bytes got set back was our recent
'overhaul' of the graphics code within this reader. As some may have
experienced first-hand, our previous iterations of code caused havoc on
some high-res graphics cards when trying to display high-res (640x480)
pictures of any color density. We determined where our problems were and
completely rewrote this section of our code. This new code was tested
recently a wide variety of graphic boards with great success. What our
programmer discovered, however, that the integration of this test code
back into the overall reader proved very daunting indeed. After some very
serious struggles and delays, the new code (obviously) is in place and we
are very confident in it. This is not to say that we think there will
never be any further bugs, but we're confident we can make this magazine a
very clean production.
With all that said, let us move forward.
This issue of Game Bytes focuses some more than usual attention on the
gaming hardware peripherals that are available both to the PC gamer as
well as the high-end 16-bit console systems. By no means does this level
of coverage include all the products on the market, but we feel it is a
good introduction. We will continue to publish more hardware-oriented
reviews in future issues. Game Bytes issue #10 (no, you won't have to wait
as long for #10!!) will focus on the question I get a great deal. "Is now
a good time to buy a CD-ROM drive for my system?? It seems that there
isn't anything good to run on it. What games are available and what else
is good to run on it?" We're going to dispel the myth that "there isn't
anything good to run on a CD-ROM drive" with gusto. There are some
amazing CD products for PCs now, some emerging technologies for consoles,
and the floodgates are just now opening. We'll be producing some coverage
for some CD titles that aren't even purely entertainment related just to
show the breadth of products available.
'Nuf said. Let's get on (back!) to the show. With some major hurdles
behind us now, I feel safe to say that Game Bytes will be back on a roll
and raising a LOT of eyebrows in the future. Please, dear readers, spread
the good word around about Game Bytes. We want more and more readers.
Our apologies again for these painful delays and thanks for being patient
with us.
Let the games begin!!! (again..)
Ross Erickson, Editor/Publisher
Game Bytes Magazine
============== GAME BYTES ================
Editor and Publisher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ross Erickson
Assistant Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glen E. Cox
Programmer
~~~~~~~~~~
Ed Rafalko
Contributors
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jean-Yuan Chen James Ollinger
Lisa Erickson Mac Su-Cheong
John Metzner Nigel Tan
Oleg Gasanov A. Salmela
Dave Haertig Sir Launcelot Du Lake
Rafael the Ravager Dave Taylor
Warren Spector Ron Gilbert
Lee Beng Hai Daniel Starr
Jer Horwitz Kish Shen
Robin G. Kim Hank Driskill
David Pipes Michael Wang
Michael Lounsbery Mark Hesidence
Rob Fermier Jay Wilbur
Dave Masten Chris Petit
Phil Rice Mitch Aigner
Ian Mercado Daniel G. Kennett
David D'Antonio Brad Craig
Ron Dippold Richard Hsia
Jerry Luttrell Christopher Fleming
Joshua E. Randall Scarman
Eric Hsiao Martin Meier
Gavin Scarman Chad Dawson
Chris Franczyk Charles Daniel Carleton
Jerry van Waardenberg Sen-Pin Lin
Wyvern Chuck McMath
Bill Foust Tom N.
C.J. Appelo Sam Bauer
Phat Tran
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Game Bytes is published monthly by Ross Erickson,
108 Castleton Drive
Harvest, AL 35749
ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com
Contents are copyright 1992 by Game Bytes, unless otherwise indicated.
THE WINTER CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW - 1993
By Ross Erickson
To a gamer, the CES show in Las Vegas always seems like a great way to
start off the new year. This year was no exception. Some have said that
the computer game titles would eventually give way to the onslaught of the
Nintendo and Sega cartridges and that this abandonment would be hasty. I
can safely stand up and say that this 'retreat' simply won't happen in
'93. More and more companies are adding cartridge titles to their plate
of offerings, it is true, but with a very few exceptions, this is not at
the expense of the computer titles. Many companies continue to resist the
urge to chase the $$$ in cartridge market and produce increasingly
fascinating and sophisticated computer games. No, '93 won't see the end
of the computer game in any way, shape, or form. W.C.E.S. had many
treats in store for the player who has just purchased his/her first 386
or 486. Given some of the incredible things being done on the computer by
many of today's popular developers and publishers, the 486 is the easy
choice for new gamers when considering what platform to buy, especially
considering the rampant price war with 486 technology. Yes, unfortunately
it's time to upgrade again. This is not to say that all the new games on
display at C.E.S. require a 486, but the trend is obvious. There are
still many games that are still very playable on the 386sx/dx technology,
but I sense a true movement up the power curve by nearly all vendors. To
truly draw the player into the 'alternate reality', better graphics,
orchestral sound and effects, and highly sophisticated A.I. routines will
simply require more oomph - read 486/33 and up. Fortunately, the price
war has made this available to many active gamers. Several relatively
new technologies made their debut in consumer level products at C.E.S.
Much to the dismay of the developer community, it seemed as though
everyone and their brother was now in the soundcard business. There were
a plethora of new cards introduced to the market, all with varying levels
of sophistication. The venerable Soundblaster has been given an
overhaul, the result being the Soundblaster Pro 16 ASP. Combining this
with the 'Wave Blaster' add-on daughtercard provides about as high a
quality sound system as one can expect for under $500.00 with street
prices being even lower. The Maestro 16/VR provides the same digital and
MIDI support as many other cards but also adds very functional and useful
voice recognition capabilities. This can allow the flight sim. pilots to
speak their commands to the controls rather than search frantically for
the keyboard command. Nice stuff.
CD-ROM technology, though still not making huge inroads into the PC game
market, is starting to show promise with some interesting new titles that
specifically are designed to tap into the capabilities of this huge
storage medium. LucasArts, Virgin Games, Psygnosis, and others were
showing early versions of their new games that are graphically a huge
step up the sophistication ladder. SVGA (specifically 640x480x256) is
starting to make its presence felt in the gaming market. Particularly,
those games that don't require a large amount of animation are good
candidates to use this higher resolution. Well, enough is enough. Let's
get to the games! We'll do this company by company.
Access Software
Access wasn't showing or announcing any particularly new products at
C.E.S., but were showcasing their flagship product Links 386 Pro with the
new MAUNA KEA SVGA COURSE. If Linksters out there haven't picked up this
latest creation, be sure to get it soon. It's the most detailed
rendering of a golf course yet. Access was also showing their latest
adventure, Amazon. This product may have an extended life due to Access'
plan to produce AMAZON CHAPTER DISKS that keep this cliffhanger going on
longer and longer. The MPC CD-ROM version of Links continues in
development. It won't be based on Links 386 Pro technology, but rather
the Links for Windows product from Microsoft. Aerial fly-bys of the holes
being played, more sounds, and a host of other new features makes this a
desireable product. Tex Murphy, the venerable hero of Mean Streets and
Martian Memorandum is back again in '93. Though no title is known yet,
(we'll simply call it TEX MURPHY '93) this Access sleuth will be solving
more mysteries for adventurers by late summer. Finally, several new
courses have been announced for Links 386 Pro this year. In addition to
the SVGA course remakes, there will also be new courses to play from the
likes of BANFF SPRINGS, INNISBROOK (FLORIDA), and the BELFREY (home of
this year's Ryder Cup).
Accolade
Accolade is one of those companies branching out into the cartridge game
market, though they remain committed to supporting computer game
platforms, specifically the PC, as well. Though no new product titles
were announced, several sports celebrities have been signed to put their
name to new titles from Accolade. JACK NICKLAUS SIGNATURE GOLF will go
through yet another upgrade later this year and is supposed to offer much
improved graphics, including possibly texture-mapped fairways and greens,
etc. The feature war continues with Links 386 Pro and Access. "BRETT
HULL HOCKEY" is another of the sports products for this fall. No
features were discussed or presented so the suspense will build for
several more months. Having a hockey game on the PC like the NHLPA '93
product from Electronic Arts for the Sega Genesis would be a dream come
true. "PELE SOCCER" is also planned for this fall, though again, no
features or screens were available at the show. Though he's a coach
without a team now, MIKE DITKA'S ULTIMATE FOOTBALL 2 is still a planned
product for this fall as well. Of course by that time, Ditka will likely
either be with another team or in the press box anyway, especially given
his quality analysis during this year's Super Bowl. For Hardball III
players, be sure to check out the HARDBALL III BIG LEAGUE BALLPARKS DISK.
It adds the remainder of all 26 major leagues park.
Activision
Most gamers who have been around the block a few times have probably
played some iteration of Zork at some point or another. The GUE is
back!! And this time, you don't have to use your imagination (too bad,
really). RETURN TO ZORK is well underway and looks to be a worthy entry
into the now crowded adventure game market. Disk and CD-ROM versions are
planned for an almost simultaneous release. Watch for a preview in these
"pages" shortly. For the younger crowd, CD-ROM, 256 color versions of
THE MANHOLE and RODNEY'S FUNSCREEN are now shipping. Both products are
really designed well to draw youngsters to the keyboard and have them
explore to their heart's content. In the action/strategy genre, look for
an interesting use of skills in the ALIENS VS. PREDATOR game, coming this
summer.
Amtex Software
If there was any a company that was focused, you could say Amtex is
focusing on the computer pinball market "like a laser beam" (to borrow a
phrase....yawn). This Canadian company does virtually all their
development on the Macintosh, but eventually move all titles to the PC as
well. Following the very successful TRISTAN PINBALL will first be 8-BALL
DELUXE. It showed a much more complex table layout than their debut
product and rivaled many real pinball tables that have swallowed many a
quarter of mine. Later in the year will bring FUN HOUSE to be followed by
ROYAL FLUSH by fall. If we're all lucky, we might see by Christmas '93
the AMTEX PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET that will allow us to create our own
pinball masterpieces.
ASCII Entertainment
From the company that brought us Spellcraft, comes a new title called
DOMINUS. It's an excellent looking strategy and domination game that
includes fascinating arcade-like graphics as strategies unfold. ASCII has
been known for their excellent gaming peripherals like joysticks and
controller pads, but with Dominus and SPELLCRAFT, they are becoming known
as a quality role-playing company as well.
Bethesda Softworks
While in no booth of their own, Bethesda was available for visits at the
show. Termintor 2029 has been a successful product for the company, but
they aren't standing still. T2029 MISSION DISKS are now well into
development and should extend the life of this strategy/arcade game even
further. The HOCKEY LEAGUE SIMULATOR II product is now out and
available. It's especially useful for Gretzky III players. Bethesda's
first try at basketball (NCAA: Road to the Final Four) could not be
called a success, so back to the drawing board. NCAA II is getting close
to completion and from the demo available at the show, this is a marked
improvement. I still maintain that basketball is the most difficult sport
of all to simulate well on a computer. Finally, look for 2300 A.D.:
MAN'S BATTLE FOR THE STARS to be released this fall. Using elements and
pieces of the T2029 engine, Bethesda will take the battles of the ruined
Los Angeles to the stars in this new action/strategy game.
Broderbund
It was with great excitement that I was able to visit Broderbund and see
their two new games; particularly because it was a great thrill to meet
Jordan Mechner, the man who designed the original Prince of Persia and
brought me so much gaming fun and agony all at the same time! It was
also a thrill to have him give a tour through PRINCE OF PERSIA II. This
sequel is long-overdue and will still offer the same amazing human motion
animation made famous in the first. Watch for it in the summer. Also
coming in the summer is WHERE IN SPACE IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? Yes, the most
famous female thief of all time is now headed to outer space and the
player must foil her attempts to steal the famous features of our galaxy.
Broderbund is also firmly committed to the Living Books series and will
shortly be releasing ARTHUR'S TEACHER TROUBLE to be followed by The
Tortoise and the Hare.
CH Products
CH Products CH was demonstrating the long-awaited VIRTUAL PILOT and
talking about their Flightstick Pro joystick controllers. The Virtual
Pilot is an excellent controller designed exactly like the yolk of a small
commercial aircraft. The movement is smooth on all axis and the control
given to Flight Simulator through this product is amazing. Truly a 'must-
have' product for any commercial sim-pilot. It also can function very
nicely as a steering wheel for driving simulations like World Circuit.
The FLIGHTSTICK PRO is following the lead of Thrustmaster and adding more
buttons to their classic joystick design and also adding the now-popular
"coolie hat" for viewing control.
Creative Labs
CL was showing the new SOUNDBLASTER PRO 16 ASP card along with the WAVE
BLASTER daughter card. For those looking for very high-quality sound and
remaining within the standards that the industry has adopted, this may be
the card to beat. The sound quality is very good and the included
software offers a great deal of functionality for manipulating sound
resource files. Creative Labs is also making a big push into the video
production market. The VIDEO BLASTER board hooks up to your standard VGA
port through the special features connector and allows you to play
standard NTSC video input on your monitor for image capture,
manipulation, or video storage back to a VCR. Also on display was the
VIDEO SPIGOT that allows you to directly capture video clips from a video
source
directly to your disk for manipulation. Anyone wanting to make
home movies to be played back on your monitor need look no further.
Cyberdreams
Off the beaten path of the show floor was Cyberdreams showing the status
of their latest post-Darkseed creation - CYBERRACE. This game has
remarkably similar screen presentation to Commanche: Maximum Overkill.
The focus, however, of Cyberrace is not in the air. It's on the ground,
as you race against others futuristic vehicles in very realistic rendered
and computed terrain. It's due out by early summer.
D.C. True
This relative newcomer was in a different part of the exhibit floor and
were showing their very unique SHADOW PRESIDENT game. D.C. True is now
exploring new ways to teach kids elementary education topics on the PC and
are focusing much of their efforts on the 10 and under age group.
Disney Software
Actually, I'm cheating a bit here. Disney Software/Buena Vista Software
were not actually at C.E.S, though we were able to learn more about their
'93 products that are in development. COASTER is well underway and should
be shipping by early spring. This roller coaster simluation should have
people running for their Drammamine. DOG EAT DOG is a humerous look at
office politics and will enable players to choose a vast array of choices
for dealing with decisions in the office. Sim-Anita Hill perhaps? Also,
UNNATURAL SELECTION looks to be one of the hot titles of '93. This is a
genetic warfare game where players must design their own organisms to go
up into combat against other genetically enhanced creatures.
Domark
Domark is making a bold statement in the flight simulator market. Their
AV8B HARRIER flight simulator was very impressive. It's close to
shipping now. Domark is also planning on releasing a specific version in
SVGA fine-tuned to support graphics boards that have the S3 graphics
accelerator chip on board. Their demonstration in 640x480 in 256 colors
showed no frame rate degradation at all. Very impressive. Another
simulation of an unknown aircraft is also slated for late this year.
Domark will also be dabbling further into Virtual Reality with their
VIRTUAL REALITY STUDIO 2.0. It has a number of new features over the
original and has wide-reaching applications and capabilities.
Dynamix
While it's parent, Sierra On-Line was not present, I was fortunate to get
a private tour of the Dynamix products in a hotel suite one evening.
There are a LOT of new products coming from Dynamix this year. First of
all, BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR was in a firm and stable state and was an
impressive debut entry into the RPG category for Dynamix. ACES OVER
EUROPE has gotten underway and the intial look at the code shows once
again that Dynamix is doing its historical homework. The 3-Space
technology continues to be enhanced. There's also a planned ACES OVER
EUROPE MISSION DISK. RAF IN THE PACIFIC hasn't been cancelled, but it's
on indefinite hold. Many modem players are now sobbing uncontrollably.
By the time you read this, many of you will be playing SPACE QUEST 5.
Hilarious, just hilarious. TAKE A BREAK: PINBALL continues to be
delayed. Something about ball and flipper physics in Windows. Somehow
this is ironic. The MPC WILLY BEAMISH has now been released and with
full speech throughout, this one is a lot of fun. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES
OF WILLY BEAMISH is underway for a late summer release too. Puzzle
solvers will enjoy the INCREDIBLE MACHINE EXPANSION DISK and delight in
knowing that THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE II is also being developed for a late
summer/early fall release. The much-rumored Dynamix submarine game is no
longer a rumor. SEAWOLF is for real and it looks great. Very preliminary
work has been done, but Dynamix is using their flight simulator skills and
translating them to the seas. This WWII sim takes the player into very
realistic environments. Seawolf isn't expected until late this year. In
the sports category, Dynamix has just recently released a fairly major
bug fix to the FRONT PAGE SPORTS: FOOTBALL game and is already planning
the sequel that adds even more realism to this already terrific football
simulation. The next sport to be simulated by the Dynamix wizards is
FRONT PAGE SPORTS: BASEBALL, but isn't expected until spring training or
opening day, '94. Other sports being considered strongly are basketball,
golf, and possibly soccer. Parents who enjoyed Turbo Science can look
forward to TURBO MATH from Jeff Tunnell Productions this fall. This
product will be an excellent way to teach youngsters basic math skills.
And if that isn't enough, there are still a couple of other secret
projects underway that will knock your socks off. Sorry. Our lips are
sealed for several more months still.
Electronic Arts
EA, as expected had a LOT of titles to show in their booth. Along with
their affiliates, plus their increasing level of success in the cartridge
market, EA is still strongly devoted to the computer game market.
ULTRABOTS is nearing completion and is a very interesting looking robot
combat sim. Done by the same crew who did Commanche. Expected later this
summer, CYBERFIGHT should be a strong contender in the "Mech" fighting
games. Both CAR AND DRIVER and POPULOUS II have now started shipping. A
new platform arcade game, RISKY WOODS, is also just about complete.
MICHAEL JORDAN FLIGHT still looks great, though the delays are getting
annoying. It looked reasonably complete at the show and is expected to
ship in March. From the makers of 4-D Boxing comes WORLD TOUR TENNIS
using the same polygonal approach to human anatomy, but allowing them to
smoothly simulate the motion and physics of tennis players as well as the
game of tennis itself. A surprising new title is coming through EA via
Bullfront (Populous/Powermonger) called SYNDICATE. Set 103 years from
now, this is primarily a strategy game where you must gain control 50
cities in a post-war era via mind control chips. Network support is
included. SEAL TEAM is another new game from EA. Using 3-D graphics, you
must replay some of Vietnam's most famous SEAL missions. It has a very
unique perspective to the game where you can switch from character to
character in a first-person perspective. SPACE HULK is also coming later
this spring. You join the Space Marines as you battle the Genestealers
in close quarters action. The game of chess continues to be explored to
the fullest. KASPAROV'S GAMBIT is a unique CD-ROM game that offers the
best approach to teaching chess strategy I've ever seen. Gary Kasparov
himself is available for advice using speech in this game. He can also be
your toughest opponent. Done in SVGA and utilizing very crisp digitized
sound, this chess game could (should) end the chess wars right on the
spot. DAUGHTER OF SERPENTS comes to the market from Millenium and is
their first RPG game set in the roaring twenties. Set in Alexandria,
Egypt, the player must solve a host of mysteries to get to the real world
threat that keeps world power off balance. THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES CD-ROM is being prepared for a mid-to-late summer release. This
game will greatly enhance the period and atmosphere of Sherlock Holmes
time by using full speech throughout.
Empire Software
From this U.K. developer comes an interesting look at the world of cyber-
space. The game is called CYBERSPACE and the player is thrown into a
first-person perspective mystery that takes place both in this world as
well as the wire-frame world of cyberspace as presented on screen. It
has some interesting potential. Due in May. For the military strategist
who loves action comes PACIFIC ISLANDS II. Based upon the original, this
tactical tank game puts the player in control of four tanks and different
crew seats.
Epyx
Though a far cry from their earlier status as a software developer in the
mid-80s, Epyx has rebounded with a good collection of quick and easy
games for Windows users. GETAWAY FOR WINDOWS provides 6 different games,
all with digitial sound effects through the Windows drivers. A nice
addition for laptop Windows users.
Formgen/ID
Perhaps the game I looked for a sneak peek at more than any other (and I
got it!), DOOM is definitely hot and on the way. It is a follow-on
product to the Wolfenstein/Spear of Destiny family and the engine is
completely revamped. Expect high energy action in this one with very
smooth scrolling, texture-mapped walls and loads of weapons and sound
effects. This one will take the player into new dimensions battling all
kinds of new monsters with a variety of weapons. One definitely to watch
for. As a side note, it was interesting to note that ID will no longer be
distributing their products through the Apogee shareware channel. They
are going it alone and will also be distributing their commercial products
through Formgen. Other games are planned for late this year (new Keen
perhaps...), but Doom was the definite hit of what's to come.
Gametek
This Florida-based company is making a bold statement into the cartridge
market, yet are still committed to putting a few interesting new disk
games out too. Their latest entry, HUMANS, is an interesting "Lemmings -
How do we get out of here?" type of product. Coming soon is what Gametek
claims is the 'mother of all RPGs'. DAEMONSGATE has been delayed several
times and is now expected to show in this first quarter of '93. I'm not
holding my breath yet. Gametek has also been known for their conversion
of entertaining (speak for yourselves..) T.V. game shows into computer
entertainment. This year we'll see VGA with digital sound versions of
JEOPARDY: FEATURING ALEX TREBEK, WHEEL OF FORTUNE, JEOPARDY II, and
FAMILY FEUD. Most of these games come from their cartridge counterpart,
yet Gametek states that many of them will also be produced in disk format
for the PC as well.
Humungous Entertainment
This relative newcomer to the games business is ironically full of "old-
timers" in the games business. Humungous was founded by Ron (Monkey
Island) Gilbert and Shelley Day, both veterans of LucasArts Games. The
company's focus is primarily on producing very high quality adventure
games for kids. Their debut product, PUTT PUTT JOINS THE PARADE is an
excellent example of their production values. It's available now on
diskette and CD-ROM. A PUTT PUTT FUN PACK will be coming soon as well
which adds more fun screen toys for youngsters to play with. Their next
product, FATTY BEAR'S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE is another children's product
with very high quality graphics and sound support. Plus kids just eat
these easy to use adventures up. Later this year or early into '94,
Humungous will be doing adventures for the older crowd as well.
ICOM Simulations
Known primarily for their SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE CD-ROM
games (Volume 3 is on the way), ICOM is branching out into other areas
this year. SHADOWGATE FOR WINDOWS has shipped recently and more Windows
products, like DEJA VU I AND II FOR WINDOWS and perhaps UNINVITED FOR
WINDOWS are coming. ICOM is also leveraging their talent in CD-ROM
productions by producing at least 2 more 'designed-for-CD' titles this
year. GGA TOUR: EARTH INVITATIONAL is a wacky look at golf with a twist.
The player will be banging drives off of places like the edge of Mount
Everest accompanied by some very bizarre video commentators. Another CD
product expected by this summer will be BEYOND SHADOWGATE. This sequel
adds tons of video footage and special effects to this new adventure in
the dungeons and looks to be an interesting member of the adventure
genre.
Impressions
This hard-charging strategy games company is making a big push for new
titles in '93. By the time you read this, CAESAR should be shipping.
Thought of (unfairly) as Sim-Rome, this title will allow you to establish
your small Roman settlement and build and grow it into a seat of power.
The companion product, COHORT II will add the miniatures and the tactical
battle engine to the game's combat mode. Together, the two products make
a formidable game. Caesar will shortly be followed by WHEN TWO WORLDS
WAR, a planetary strategic battle/conquest game with an emphasis on
controlling and utilizing planetary resources to thwart your foe, who can
be another human on the other end of the modem link. Combat not only
takes place on two planets, but also in space. Looks to be a strong early
product in '93. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT 2 is due to ship in April. This
real-time strategic space combat game adds 256 color support to the
original, and builds on the concept of interplanetary travel and starship
command. Plenty of digitized speech and sound effects have been added to
the game for a much richer feel. The ships computers spend a lot of time
'talking' to you. The game even provides support for a math coprocessor
though it it not known yet what floating point calculations occur in the
game. This looks to be a VERY rich sequel. Ed (Air Bucks) Grabowski is
well into his American Civil War game (who isn't these days???) and THE
BLUE AND THE GRAY looks to be a very ambitious wargames/miniatures
effort. The graphics support 256 color and the animations of the various
soldiers are very true-to-life and look great on the computerized
battlefield. Historic campaign games are included of course allowing the
player to immerse him/herself into the battles of the day in the 1800's.
Large, zoomable maps are provided for strategic control with zoom
controls available allowing the player to get right down to micro-
miniatures to watch tactical battles take place. A commissioned book on
the Civil War will be included with the game as well. Impressions are
also working on several version updates of some of their current titles.
AIR BUCKS 1.2 will be a fairly major upgrade that provides 256 color
support, adds new animations and sounds, and otherwise spruces up what
was originally a novel idea with mediocre 'to-market execution'. Air
Force Commander is getting a WWII UPGRADE DISK to recreate several
historic air campaigns that occurred during the Second World War. There
is also confirmation of a BREACH 3 coming later this year from Omnitrend
via Impressions. The company assures us this isn't all either. Many more
new products are slated for '93.
Interplay Productions
Interplay is making a big play for the multimedia market (meaning adding
video and cinematics combined with sound) to many new products this year.
1993 will see the introduction of CD-ROM enhanced versions of SIMCITY,
STAR TREK: 25TH ANNIVERSARY (with Shatner and Nimoy as voice talent) LORD
OF THE RINGS, and OMAR SHARIF ON BRIDGE. These new CD versions will
incorporate video from a variety of sources; from Interplay-generated
source video and from film footage from the movies themselves. Get that
CD player! The European players have been enjoying ALONE IN THE DARK for
a few weeks now and it is due to hit American shelves very soon (with a
few bug fixes). This extraordinary animated adventure will really turn a
few heads. There's already talk of an ALONE IN THE DARK II! Interplay is
producing several innovative titles for the cartridge market as well and
PC players will be fortunate to see at least one of them, THE LOST
VIKINGS, soon. This game is a cooperation, "How the heck do we get out
of here??" type of game with 3 Vikings at your control, all with very
different talents and skills. Very entertaining. For card and board game
player, The CLASSIC FIVE presents a well-rendered set of games like
Chess, Backgammon, and Go among others. Another interesting title coming
this year is RAGS TO RICHES, a financial stock market simulation game
that puts the player into realistic economic circumstances and historical
events. See how well you do during the '29 stock market collapse. As
you achieve success, you can buy more luxury items and improve your
standard of living. BUZZ ALDRIN'S RACE INTO SPACE is a title that should
be shipping soon. The game puts the player in charge of the space
program and forces critical decisions upon the player if the race into
space is to be won. Finally, in a private invitation-only press party,
Interplay debuted what they believe is their flagship product - STONEKEEP.
This is a smooth motion, first-person perspective 'explore the dungeons
and kill the foozle' type of game. The production standards are very
high on this and Stonekeep looks to be a very impressive title, though
honestly, not much was seen other than maneuvering around dungeon
corridors. The motion effects were stunningly well-done. For chess fans,
BATTLECHESS 4000 is shipping now and is utterly hilarious. Pick it up
soon.
Intracorp/Capcom Software
This Florida-based company put out several products in '92 that can't be
characterized in anyway as hits, but they are back this year with highly
improved production values and several new products that demonstrate that
commitment. The hit of the '92 Christmas season is back in a recently
released game. TROLLS is a very colorful platform arcade game that has
more in common with Nintendo games than PC. It's a category of game that
isn't often attempted on the PC. In line with their strategy of going
after hot license titles, Intracorp has also recently released L.A. LAW:
THE COMPUTER GAME that recreates the courtroom moments from the T.V. show
on the computer screen. Win enough cases and the firm is in your hands.
Coming later this year will be a license of the hit movie, WAYNE'S WORLD.
You'll hop in your Mirthmobile and join the adventure to save your T.V.
show from cancellation. Hmmm. As they would say in L.A. Law, "the jury
is still out" on this one. Intracorp is also continuing to enhance their
casino titles by releasing TRUMP CASTLE III. This SVGA game is an
excellent recreation of many of the casino games found in Vegas and
Atlantic City. It even supports modem and network play. But the hit of
the year (so far) for Intracorp will definitely be the upcoming release of
TERMINATOR 2 CYBER CHESS. Building on the superb Grandmaster Chess
engine, this latest entry into the chess wars brings Battlechess-like
effects to the chess board as robotic pieces destroy and blow away other
pices. Available in diskette and CD-ROM formats. Hasta la vista, baby!
to be cont'd....
Koei Corporation
Koei is continuing to improve their strategic and historical battle and
conquest games. In '93, however, we'll see new games that take them out
of the far east and into other time periods and historical situations.
Soon to be released is LIBERTY OR DEATH, a recreation of the American
Revolutionary War. Another historical war game coming is PACIFIC THEATER
OF OPERATIONS (PTO). You'll command either the Japanese or American
naval forces in World War II following Pearl Harbor. Famous battles such
as Midway, Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, and the Philippines are all available.
Two other games headed for the cartridge format remain a distinct
possibility of being ported to the PC. ININDO, a Ninja role-playing game,
and AEROBIZ, where you must establish and build your fledgling airline
into a worldwide (Air Bucks competition?) transportation powerhouse, are
good possibilities for PC products later in '93.
Konami
Konami has traditionally announced most of their new PC titles at Summer
C.E.S. and this show was no exception. There were a couple of new titles
introduced however. WILSON PRO STAFF GOLF is another entry into the
already crowded computer golf market. ELITE 2 (working title) is
underway and is the long-awaited sequel to the original space trading and
combat hit product. CHAMPIONS, the undisputed champion of vaporware was
on display and looked reasonably close to completion, but the clock keeps
ticking. This should be the "mother of all RPGs". Konami and their
partners are working on CD-ROM products as well, such as a full CD
version of NFL VIDEO PRO and BEAT THE HOUSE.
Legend Entertainment
Just barely beating the opening of the show, Legend's ERIC THE UNREADY was
debuted and receive glowing reviews. Legend, however, isn't discussing
any more new products at this time. Stay tuned for summer C.E.S.
LucasArts Games
I did it! I saw it! I played it! Of course, I'm referring to X-WING.
This marvelous production, though delayed slightly, is very close to
completion and will be a strong candidate for '93 Game of the Year. In
the successful Wing Commander genre, X-Wing will no doubt draw many
thousands back to their joysticks and reruns of the movie. There is more
great news because several CAMPAIGN DISKS and 'spaceship' disks will be
produced as well. Ultimately, you may find yourself even flying for the
Imperial Forces in a Tie Fighter. But the hits don't stop there! Staying
with the Star Wars theme, we also can look forward to REBEL ASSAULT, a
CD-ROM-only game that is a highly advanced cinematic shoot'em-up arcade
game. As a pilot for the Rebellion, you'll fly 15 different combat
missions in a variety of situations ranging from defending Tatooine from
Imperial attacks to the famous Death Star trench run. The animation in
this title is truly stunning and movielike. Actual movie clips from the
movies will be included as well. Switching gears slightly, but staying in
the CD-ROM format, adventure fans will rejoice in playing (or replaying)
Indiana Jones in the CD-ROM version of INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF
ATLANTIS. This CD "talkie" adventure will have full speech throughout the
game - no more text/dialogue bubbles. And get this, Harrison's Ford's
brother, Harvey (I'm not making this up!) has been recruited to do the
voice of Indiana Jones (though LucasArts is....)! Also in the adventure
category, DAY OF THE TENTACLE: MANIAC MANSION 2 looks great. There are
very critical time-travel elements here which must be manipulated in order
to finish the game. This makes the challenge loads of fun. The writing
and animation are hilarious and everyone who even moderately enjoys an
adventure should enjoy this one. Full "talkie" CD-ROM versions and disk
versions are planned.
Maxis
This SIM company continues to sim-ulate everything under the sun
(literally) this year. The next major sim product will be SIM-FARM. Yes
folks, you got it. You've got to become Old McDonald and build your small
family farm into a profitable and growing (pardon the pun) business.
You'll buy equipment, land, livestock, and other farming items and have to
deal with factors like debt, good crop selection, and long term soil
fertility. Crops must be harvested and sold if you're going to continue
to be a farmer next year. Another sim coming this year will actually be
done by a different group and published by Maxis. EL-FISH, the
Electronic Aquarium will allow you to toy with the evolution of your fish
and watch their interaction in the aquarium. The animation and beauty of
the swimming fish was really quite stunning, rendered in SVGA graphics.
There's plenty of little extras you can add too; like showing the "cat's
paw" trying to snag some lunch from the fish bowl. You can place
miniature castles, plants, coral and other items for a very personal look.
Though not really a game, there is still plenty of enjoyment from El-
Fish. The final product Maxis was demo'ing at the show was another
"import" called ROME: PATHWAY TO POWER. You begin as a lowly Roman slave
and have to learn to adapt and make correct decisions which will
eventually lead you to becoming 'Caesar' and ruler of the known world.
This game is basically an adventure game, not a classic 'Sim' from Maxis.
There's a beginning, a plot, and an end to this game. The screen had some
similarities to the Populous/Powermonger style of presentation. Coming
later in '93, we can hopefully expect to see a very major rewrite of
SimCity, tentatively entitled SimCity 2000. No further details are known
at this time.
Megatech Software
The company that brought the first true 'R' rated game (Cobra Mission) is
preparing two new games for '93, though no details were known or
forthcoming about them. ROBOT FIGHTER and DRAGON KNIGHT III are the
titles of the new games. The company confirms that they will be
continuing in the Japanese-style graphics and the 'R' rated graphical
nudity.
Merit Software
Merit is bringing two new games to market so far this year. One has just
been released. MAELSTROM is a planetary strategy game that involves
espionage, sabotage, and plenty of shady characters to keep your interest
up. Your role is to lead a new planet's forces against a foe that you
recently defected from, while maintaining balance and order on your new
home. In KRONOLOG, history didn't exactly "work out". The year is 2020
and the U.S. is under the control of the victors of WW II - the Nazis.
You are investigating your son's mysterious death and learn about the
secrets of the Nazi war machine. You must travel through time to change
the course of history and save the world from ecological disaster. Looks
like fun.
Micro League
This company has been known primarily for their sports simulations, but
are now branching out into new types of entertainment for computer
players. Sports titles will continue to come from Micro League, but a
host of other titles will be too. MICROLEAGUE BASEBALL 4 DIAMOND EDITION
in disk and CD-ROM versions will be coming soon. This new version adds
more stadiums, teams, and managing capabilities than the original. The CD
version will contain many more cinematic cut scenes of baseball plays.
QUARTER POLE is Micro League's entry into the horse racing sport. Here
you must not only bet and race the ponies, but also manage and train an
entire stable of horses. Other sports titles being considered for this
year include MICROLEAGUE HOCKEY, MICROLEAGUE BASKETBALL and MICROLEAGUE
RACKETBALL. A 'no-rules' combat football game called BLOOD BOWL is also
expected later this year. In the action/strategy and adventure
categories, Micro League is hard at work on DATELINE 2021, a futuristic
first-person perspective adventure game. SHADOWORLDS puts the player in
the role of a commando team leader commissioned to find out what happened
to a space station weapons facility that has not been heard from in
weeks. Finally, SABRE TEAM pits you as commander of a tough group of
anti-terrorist soldiers instructed to go deal with a group of
international terrorists. You'll even have to listen for the enemy, not
just respond to visual clues.
Microprose
Boy, oh boy. This is going to take a while. Microprose has a TON of new
games coming this year. And I DO mean a TON. Over 20 new PC titles are
intended to ship this year. Let's get to them. HARRIER JUMP JET should
be making its appearance soon. This U.K. flight sim puts you in the
famous hovering jet flying over fractally generated terrain. It's
available in the U.K. and Europe now, but is getting some cleanup for a U.
S. release very soon. PIRATES GOLD is coming in the summer and adds SVGA
graphics and realistic digitized sound along with plenty of new adventures
and more cities to explore and swordplay to engage in. Legacy: Realm of
Terror is coming in May. It's a first-person perspective haunted
house exploration and adventure game that uses 3-D graphics and bitmapped
technology to its fullest with plenty of levels and rooms to explore.
DOGFIGHT is nothing but hard-core, head-to-head aerial combat. Modem and
direct connect support are, of course, included. Six different
historical time periods are included with any of 12 different aircraft
available for combat, each with their own flight characteristics and
weapons choices. Strategic allocation of resources much be considered
when making decisions as well. RETURN OF THE PHANTOM is the next major
game using Microprose' Adventure Development System (MADS), debuted in
Rex Nebular. In this mystery adventure, you play a present day Parisian
detective flung back in time 100 years to solve the mysterious
disappearance of your girlfriend into the lair of the Phantom of the
Opera. Looks quite intriguing. Microprose Greensburg (formerly Paragon)
will soon be releasing CHALLENGE OF THE FIVE REALMS, their epic fantasy
RPG game. In it, you must solve and thwart the spells of darkness cast
over your lands by the evil lord Grimnoth. 100 days, and counting. The
flight sim. crew at Microprose have shifted gears slightly. Previously,
the next major flight sim. from the group was to be F-22: ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY FIGHTER, but it has now been moved out into '94 in deference
to F-14 TOMCAT. This new sim. will of course introduce the computer
pilots of the world to real Navy air combat sorties, including realistic
carrier takeoffs and landings. A sequel to M1A1 TANK PLATOON is also
in the works, though it's not likely to appear before '94. Staying on the
battlefield, watch for FIELDS OF GLORY, Microprose' entry into the
classic wargame market featuring the Napoleonic era. SID MEIER'S CIVIL
WAR game is well into development and should be a major contender in what
is gearing up to be a real battle (pardon the pun again) in 1993 for
simulated Civil War games. Though Sid isn't directly involved in it,
there's also serious talk about making a CIVILIZATION CD-ROM version of
this now famous game. It would add more and better graphics to the game
and a host of new sounds and music, though the engine itself wouldn't be
changed. Sorry, no multi-player Civ coming. Microprose is also investing
in the Microsoft Windows environment in '93. DR. FLOYD'S WINDOWS
ENTERTAINMENT VOL. 1 AND 2 are underway, with volume I being almost ready
to hit the shelves now. There's plenty more from Microprose coming, but
hey, I can't tell you ALL about it now, or we'd have nothing left for the
next next issue!!
Microsports
Though these products are distributed through Interplay, it's important to
note what direction is being taken. Just recently this Tennessee company
released its '92/'93 version of NFL PRO LEAGUE FOOTBALL. A COLLEGE
EDITION is being prepared for sale as well. Microsports intends to
statistically simulate the game of basketball so look for NBA and college
versions of PRO AND COLLEGE LEAGUE BASKETBALL. For gamers looking for
the ultimate in statistically reality, this has been a safe stop along
the way.
Mindcraft Software
The guys from Torrance, CA will be busy again this year with quite a few
new games coming. In the strategy "Siege" vein, watch for ABUSCADE in a
couple of months. Staying with strategy, Mindcraft will also be releasing
STAR LEGIONS II (play the good guys!), TEGEL'S MERCENARIES II, and
DOMINION. For the Mindcraft RPG fans, the company will be releasing
several new exciting products. GRYPHAN (sp) MASTERS OF HAVLAR and LEGENDS
OF DRAKKA will both be new fantasy RPG games this year. There's also plans
for a totally revamped MAGIC CANDLE IV game as well. Finally, a strategic
battle game entitled MECHAMANDER featuring, you guessed it, Mechs, is
underway for a late fall release. It's gearing up to be a great year for
strategy gamers.
New World Computing
New World wasn't introducing a lot of new products at C.E.S. They were
demo'ing their upcoming DARK SIDE OF XEEN which combines with Clouds of
Xeen to make one huge gaming world. By the time this is read, EMPIRE
DELUXE should be finished and on shelves near you. Pick up this strong
candidate for Strategy Game of the Year (so far...). SPACEWARD HO FOR
DOS is also wrapping up now for those who just don't want to play games
under the GUI.
Novalogic
The creators of COMMANCHE: MAXIMUM OVERKILL are developing MISSION DISKS 1
& 2 for this highly acclaimed helicopter simulation. The first mission
disks adds some absolutely beautiful snow-covered terrain to fly over and
the second should impress as well. Novalogic is also working for a early
spring release of ARMORED FIST. This is a tactical state-of-the-art tank
warfare game that breaks new ground for terrain detail and combat command.
21st century, next generation tanks and vehicles are present in this
title. For CD-ROM owners, another justification for that hardware
purchase is also coming. WOLFPACK: CD MULTIMEDIA is coming that adds
many new animation sequences and new musical score. You can command
either a U.S. Naval forces surface fleet in search of German U-boats, or
you can choose to be beneath the waves commanding the submarines to take
out the surface fleet.
Ocean
This U.K.-based company is working furiously to release many of their
cartridge titles on the PC as well. Products we can expect to see in a
PC format are COOL WORLD, LETHAL WEAPON, JURASSIC PARK, and HOT HATCHES.
Other titles already released recently in PC format are PUSHOVER, EPIC,
HOOK, and ROBOCOP 3D. The company seems to be emphasizing heavily,
however, the cartridge products, specifically the Super Nintendo.
Origin Systems
Origin was showing the perennial show favorite, STRIKE COMMANDER, at the
show. Fortunately, the wait, while painful, will be well worth it. The
game is basically complete and will likely ship by mid-to-late March.
Also on display was the sequel to Ultima 7: The Black Gate. In ULTIMA 7
PART 2: SERPENT ISLE you, the Avatar, realize you didn't fully thwart the
plans of the Guardian. You go after him once more after clues arise that
the secret to the problems in Brittania are in a strange dimension far
across the sea. Origin is hard at work on PRIVATEER. This game takes
place in the Wing Commander universe, but adds elements of trading, role-
playing, and adventure into the Kilrathi/Confederate storyline.
"Ultimately", ULTIMA 8: PAGAN and ULTIMA 9: ASCENSION will see daylight,
but don't expect even U8 until well into 1994. In episode 8, you head to
the Guardian's world and take him on there.
Pop Rocket
Pop Rocket is a new company with a brand new CD-ROM-based game called
TOTAL DISTORTION. It breaks all categories as you, the player must
interact in a rock music-media "theme park" and create music videos. You
take on the roll of an "adventurous music video producer" who travels to
another plane of existence to gather new bizarre material for new fresh
music videos. Once created, you "beam" the material back home and if the
T.V. producers like the work, your bank account grows. Kind of bizarre,
but certainly unique. The media effects in the game (sound and video) are
astounding and should draw a lot of players into the game.
Psygnosis
Going after the big license, Psygnosis is trying to capture the horror of
the movie DRACULA in a CD-ROM product. Basically a horizontal action
game, Dracula shows promise as it uses many of the video clips from the
movie to preserve the atmosphere of the game. Another CD-title coming is
MICROCOSM which takes us on an incredible journey into the human body and
ultimately into the brain to remove a foreign device that is manipulating
the actions and thoughts of the president of the world's largest
corporation. Perhaps we could extract it and send it to Washington. It
could be used properly there. LEMMINGS 2: THE TRIBES is close to
finishing. This sequel product will group different Lemmings into tribes,
each with their own category of skills. It looks like loads of fun, just
like the original. Also in the puzzler category is CREEPERS, just
released. In this game, you must manipulate the creeping caterpillars to
their safety where they can become butterflys. The PC version of
ARMORGEDDON is nearly complete. It enhances the Amiga version, out for a
long time now, with better graphics and sound support, though staying
faithful to the multi-vehicle game premise.
Quantum Quality Products
QQP is poised to become the de facto standard for high-quality strategy
games. In 1993, they are making a bold push to enhance that reputation
further. CONQUERED KINGDOMS and BATTLES OF DESTINY are two very well
received games. QQP has stated that full 256 graphics, better sound,
etc. are design goals for both THE PERFECT GENERAL DELUXE as well as THE
LOST ADMIRAL DELUXE, both due late this year. Other new games being
developed are a new Pacific wargame entitled WWII: BATTLES IN THE
PACIFIC. Continuing in the fantasy vein is THE RED CRYSTALS: THE 7
SECRETS OF LIFE. Plus, there's an additional scenario disk for Conquered
Kingdoms and the recently released FAMOUS BATTLES OF THE 20TH CENTURY add-
on disk for The Perfect General.
RAW Entertainment
RAW was not actually present at the show, but we learned about two new
products slated for late this year. FLEET COMMANDER is the long-awaited
graphical update to the highly intelligent ACTION STATIONS! product. Also
slated for a late '93 release is SPACE, INC., and outer space exploration
and resource management game.
Readysoft
This Canadian company wasn't showing any new products for '93 at the show,
but did announce the soon-to-be-released KING'S RANSOM game. They also
were showing their recently shipped, DRAGON'S LAIR III: THE CURSE OF
MORDREAD. Readysoft is also the North American distribution arm of
Empire (Cyberspace) Software from the U.K.
Sierra On-Line
Sierra wasn't at C.E.S. this go-round, but they do have several new
products announced and gearing up for a spring release. ECOQUEST II
should be on shelves by the time this goes to press as will PEPPER'S
ADVENTURES IN TIME (previously known as Twisty History). INCA and
PROPHECY from Coktel Vision in France are also soon to be released in the
U.S. via Sierra. Al Lowe's FREDDY PHARKAS FRONTIER PHARMACIST is
imminent. It's in the same genre as Blazing Saddles was to cinema.
There are plenty of CD products coming as well. KING'S QUEST VI CD, LAURA
BOW II CD, ECOQUEST CD, and perhaps even more later in the year. Roberta
Williams is hard at work on her horror game, SCARY TALES, which could be
Sierra's first CD-only game.
Sir-Tech Software
Sir-Tech was showing, CRUSADERS OF THE DARK SAVANT, of course, but they
also had two new RPGs on display. AMBUSH, previously known as Breakfast
of Champions, is a fascinating strategy roleplaying game where you much
preserve some ecology on a desert isle from pillage. Sir-Tech is also
bringing out REALMS OF ARKANIA, a german import that is getting all the
raves in Germany.
Software Toolworks
The Software Toolworks are making a very big push into the CD-ROM market,
and their diminishing number of pure entertainment PC titles is the
result. They are also making more cartridge games for the Genesis and the
Super Nintendo. There is a conversion of the hit game, BATTLETOADS,
coming for the PC. Chess players will once again love CHESSMASTER 3000
PRO, which includes plenty of video footage to teach chess to newcomers.
Spectrum Holobyte
From the makers of Falcon 3.0 comes perhaps one of the best contenders for
a long time to F3's crown. Remarkably, it isn't even from the big U.S.
publishers. TORNADO is being developed by Digital Integration and looks
to be one of the most complete packages made to date, certainly from the
U.K. It's mission builder capabilities have no rival, not even in F3. No
sights or sounds on WARTHOG A-10 yet. Nor from STAR TREK: THE NEXT
GENERATION. Both of these products are not due until fall of this year.
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Spectrum Holobyte is bringing out
CHESSMEISTER 5 BILLION AND ONE. This very irreverant chess game is
brought to us by National Lampoon. The 'Battlechess-like' spoof chess
game still plays a mean game of chess. Perhaps the CD-ROM game of the
show was IRON HELIX. This is a very smooth motion action game that
requires that you control your robot as it pilots through a derelict space
ship with combat terminator droids hot on its trail. Your job is to keep
the robot alive to disarm the spaceship. Very classy looking. DAVID
ROBINSON BASKETBALL was the final game of the show. Basketball is a
tough game to design and implement, but we'll give the developers the
benefit of the doubt and wait until we see a bit more to judge.
SSI
On sheer quantity alone, SSI was really up near the top as far as
publishers at CES go. TONY LA RUSSA BASEBALL II was probably their best
new product. Mr. La Russa was there for one day as well and it was an
honor to meet him. Several expansion disks for Tony II are planned too.
DARK SUN continues to show only the several month old demo still, but
shows great promise for being a tremendous RPG/adventure. EYE OF THE
BEHOLDER 3 will be SSI's first (and last) go-round for the game in this
series without the help of Westwood Studios. The gothic horror VEIL OF
DARKNESS should be shipping now. It has the same quality 3/4 overhead
view as seen in The Summoning. In other news, we're sad to report that
there won't be a Summoning II anytime soon. The UNLIMITED ADVENTURES
dungeon adventure construction set will be out in a few months and will
allow you to create your own 'gold box' fantasy adventure. FLASHBACK, on
both the Sega Genesis and the PC, look just tremendous. The quality of
animation is very good and reminds me of Prince of Persia. This is the
follow-up product from Delphine (Out of this World) Software. Though the
action elements of Flashback are similar to OOTW, the games are entirely
different in plot. Finally, several new add-ons for GREAT NAVAL BATTLES,
including a SCENARIO BUILDER shows SSI's confidence in this title.
Strategic Studies Group
SSG was not visibly present at the show, but we hear that they will be
shipping their CARRIERS AT WAR SCENARIO EDITOR very shortly. This will
add a lot of life to this WWII marine classic.
Sublogic
The flight people from Champaign, IL were present at CES proudly showing
of the new version of ATP WITH SOUNDBLASTER SUPPORT. Also in the works
(still) are Flight Assignment: AIR FORCE PILOT TRAINER (?) that will be
focused specifically around teaching air combat maneuvers to armchair
pilots. Also, in the never ending quest for denser scenery, SubLOGIC is
hard at work on major revisions to their entire U.S. scenery. Entitled
USA: EAST and USA: WEST, they will incorporate up to 6 times as much
scenery as previous scenery disks on the market. They are not abandoing
the COWBOY COLLECTION of scenery of the south and southwest. Just
recently, they announced their plans to do a specific scenery disk
collection for the BAHAMAS.
Three-Sixty Pacific
Many of us show-goers were excited to see BATTLECRUISER 3000 A.D., and
just as quick, disappointed that it isn't further along that it is.
Three-Sixty and Dr. Derek Smart have backed out of their arrangement for
publication at this point. The wildly successful V FOR VICTORY series
will soon have another newcomer. The famous battle, MARKET GARDEN, will
soon be appearing in the V4V engine soon. Modem play is being added soon
for the ultimate in opponent A.I. PATRIOT was also released, but
unfortunately, a few weeks or maybe a month or so, too soon. Three-Sixty,
by their own admission, say that the game will continue to be enhanced
and improved. The air support needs to be added, for example. Ooops!
Three-Sixty also announced their plans to do a CIVIL WAR game using the V
for Victory engine, plus they plan to work with Colorado Computer
Creations to do a VGA/SVGA version of their highly respected HIGH COMMAND
WWII war game.
Tsunami
This relative newcomer is being distributed through Accolade. Many of the
companies principles, including Jim Walls of Police Quest fame, are ex-
Sierra people. Out just now are RINGWORLD, of Larry Niven fame.
Ringworld is an adventure game with very similar approaches to the Sierra
style (naturally). WACKY FUNSTERS is an irreverent collection of very
non-politically correct games like Roadkill, Blambi, and Steroids. Buy
it, and you'll know what I mean. Coming later this year are Jim Wall's
newest police adventure, BLUE FORCE: NEXT OF KIN, and also watch for an
outer space adventure called PROTOSTAR: WAR ON THE FRONTIER. Tsunami
intends to be a major player in the games market in short order. They're
off to a good start.
UBI Soft
This French company is bringing two games to market and should be out by
now. B.A.T. IIL: THE KOSHAN CONSPIRACY has been previewed before and
presents a very interesting collection of various game genre's into one
game. MEGALOMANIA is one more in the 'god' series of games.
Virgin Games
We come to the end (finally!!) of the C.E.S. report with several exciting
new titles from Virgin. Of course, the centerpiece of their products has
been and continues to be THE 7TH GUEST. It's still in development but the
beta CDs we've seen show an incredible production. We're still very
hopeful that the game elements haven't been compromised in deference to
amazing graphics and CD sound. Speaking of CDs, there are several new
ones coming from Virgin. Watch for CD VERSIONS OF DUNE, THE LEGEND OF
KYRANDIA, SHUTTLE, and MONOPOLY. DUNE II may also receive a CD conversion
later this year too. New disk products in the works are POOL SHARK,
finally a great billiards game for the PC; KYRANDIA: BOOK 2, continuing
the story saga; LANDS OF LORE, a new adventure from the Westwood crew; and
finally, CAESAR'S PALACE FOR WINDOWS, a collection of casino games
(natch) for the Windows environment.
With that, I must rest my fingers. What a lot of games!! A final
observation might be that 1993 will bring a lot of games with a high
quality graphical content with amazing and beautiful sound tracks and
effects, but once again, with some exceptions, the gaming industry
continues to be bitten by sequelitis. We welcome and will pay particular
attention to those games that break new ground and provide entertainment
and gaming value in ways that no other publisher has yet attempted.
Bring'em on!!
This article is Copyright (C) 1993 by Ross Erickson. All rights reserved.
WINTER CES 1993 GAME CONSOLES REPORT
by Joseph Cataudella
In The Beginning
----------------
It seems like ages ago when the video and computer game sections at CES
used to dominate almost two huge floors. I mean, we're talking the size of
an airplane hanger. Those were the days of Coleco-Vision, Intellivision,
Atari 800, Atari 7800, Atari VCS, and Commodore 64.
As everyone knows, after a few years of video game madness, the great
crash took place. Many companies were trying to jump on the bandwagon,
releasing anything for every machine. The result: a flood of poor quality
video games from third-party contenders and even from Atari itself.
Remember Atari's PACMAN? Or how about their ET game for the Atari 800?
Somewhere in California, there are thousands of these over-produced titles
literally buried underground. (Gee, Atari should have just given them to
retailers for free. But then again, who would actually want them?) The
next few years would be quiet; most companies went belly-up. This was
especially obvious at CES. The console sections were dominated by computer
games, and the entire hall was down to one floor, which was shared with
telephones and other accessories.
Not long after, Nintendo introduced their 8-bit machine. It was a slow
start, but caught on like a brush fire after the birth of Mario. Shortly
thereafter, Sega released their 8-bit console. Video games were coming
back stronger than ever. With Nintendo's excellent marketing strategy, and
a host of third-party support, Nintendo became a household name. Sega's
machine had a pretty large following, but Nintendo was the video game
console of choice, far outdoing Sega.
It was only three years ago that Sega decided to shake up the market by
releasing the Genesis. Many 8-bit Nintendo owners, as well as first-time
video game recruits jumped on the Genesis, the first 16-bit console.
Meanwhile, Japan's next generation machine was the PC-Engine, a machine to
go up against the successful Genesis (introduced in the U.S. as the Turb
-Grafx). Slowly but surely, the 16-bit world grew larger, and before long,
SNK released a home version of their coin-op machine, the Neo*Geo. This
marked the first time that a consumer could play the actual arcade game at
home, not a translation of one. The Neo*Geo turned a lot of heads with its
amazing arcade graphics and sound, but for its heavy duty price tag it did
the opposite. Portables were also popping into the picture from every
company. Nintendo's Gameboy was the first, and although it was monochrome,
it amazed consumers everywhere. Atari was the first to incorporate full
color on a portable, followed by Nec with their Turbo-Express, and Sega's
Game Gear.
The Turbo-Grafx was the elite of portables, but the asking price was too
high. Atari Lynx owners grew impatient with long periods of no software
releases, and Sega's Game Gear was just too new, and didn't have much
software yet (which of course has changed today).
With the continued success of the Genesis, Sega had the number one spot in
the 16-bit arena. Many third-party companies were releasing game after
game; unfortunately, these were mostly shoot-'em-ups. Sega decided to put
a stop to that, as many dealers were getting stuck with too much
inventory, and consumers were getting burnt out. With the release of SONIC
THE HEDGEHOG, and EA's sports titles, the Genesis sales soared like a
rocket, over powering Nintendo's newly released 16-bit console, the Super
Nintendo.
The Super Nintendo was the new kid on the block, featuring a stunning
color palette, amazing sound, and 3-D scaling and rotation. The first
releases were good, but not enough to steal the Sega Genesis audience.
Rapid release of software titles, especially that of Capcom's STREET
FIGHTER II (during Sega's slow summer '92 period), had Super Nintendo
catching up to Genesis in no time.
Even though Nec was the first to introduce the CD player for their Turbo-
Grafx, they were still in third place. The CD player was expensive, and
the titles were few and far between. Undergoing some distribution changes,
the new force behind the Turbo-Grafx/Duo line became TTI. Back in November
'92, Sega unveiled the long awaited Sega CD. The Japanese already had the
Sega CD (Mega CD) for a year, but the initial CD titles were poor, and the
Mega drive (Genesis) along with the Mega CD, slacked in sales.
It was the reverse for the Turbo-Grafx (PC-Engine). The PC-Engine, CD ad
-on, and Turbo-Duo were doing well in Japan with a huge number of great CD
titles. Most of these titles are just now showing up in America, but Sega
decided to do it differently than their Japanese counterparts: a great
marketing campaign, and some all-new CD titles for the American market.
The Sega CD was flying off shelves during the holidays. Consumers were
hunting down Sega CDs left and right, and stores were sold out usually the
same day they received restock. The release of the Sega CD, SONIC II, and
a slew of newer high-quality cartridge games, gave the Genesis a second
wind and another successful season. Games like SUPER STAR WARS, OUT OF
THIS WORLD, and SUPER MARIO KART, gave the Super Nintendo an incredible
sell-out season as well.
Here at Last!
-------------
Entering the 1993 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I noticed
something interesting: The huge South Hall was filled with video games,
almost three-quarters of it Sega products. Nintendo had their own area, a
huge circus-like tent that seemed even bigger the South Hall itself. Video
games were alive and better than ever, and with the CD-ROM era just
beginning to build, things should get even more exciting.
Let's Start At TTI! (a new beginning)
-------------------------------------
If anyone asks whether CD-based games are going to eventually dominate
game cartridges, checking out the TTI section would surely answer their
question. There were a multitude of great Super CD games for the sleek
Turbo-Duo, and older Turbo-Grafx w/ CD players. I finally had the pleasure
of meeting Vic Ireland of Working Designs (who's also one of our Carts
Section members in The Gamers' Forum). Vic took time out to give me a
rundown on some of their newer releases. Two huge Neo*GEO hits will make
their way to the Turbo-Duo in '93: KING OF THE MONSTERS II and WORLD
HEROES on CD. Both games were recently signed on, so there was nothing but
a title page on each of the games. COSMIC FANTASY II was one of the best
CD RPGs this year, and to follow that up, Vic gave me a taste of COSMIC
FANTASY III, which looked even better! Another sequel from Working Designs
will be EXILE II, a fast-paced arcade-style RPG like the first, as well as
a new strategy game called RECORDS OF LOODOS WAR.
TTI had a healthy array of new CD titles. DUNGEON EXPLORER II was finally
showing on CD and it looked more engrossing than the first game. The mega
hit DUNGEON MASTER will also be available this year, and it looked as good
as the original computer versions; however, the scenario seemed a bit
different. Other CD RPGs coming in '93 are BEYOND SHADOWGATE (a fully-
animated horror romp), DRAGON SLAYER PART II, DANGEROUS JOURNEY, and also
in the works but not shown, MIGHT AND MAGIC II.
BONK and ZONK were there in full force and staring on some new CD titles.
BONK III: BONK'S BIG ADVENTURE and CD ZONK were looking incredible. BONK
III sticks with the usual BONK scenario, only this time he can grow very
large, were ZONK continues to soar across skies in another shoot-'em-up.
Speaking of shooters, there were plenty of shoot-'em-ups everywhere I
looked; however, these were in their next generation. MACROSS 2039,
METAMOR JUPITER, TERRAFORMING, COTTON, IMAGEFIGHT II, and Konami's GRADIUS
II and SNATCHER were just some of the newer, amazing shooters you can
expect this year. But the one that really attracted the crowds was LORDS
OF THUNDER.
Personally, I thought GATES OF THUNDER was one of the best shooters of
'92, but when you see LORDS, your eyes and ears will thank you. The music
is absolutely "knock out," and the graphics rival almost anything on the
Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo. This is the way all shoot-'em-ups should
be done. LORDS OF THUNDER was one of the top five games I saw at the show.
Not everyone likes (or has the coordination) for shooters, so for the
mellow player, you can expect to see GAIN GROUND, MACROSS STRATEGY
(tentative title), and the computer hit SIM EARTH on CD (a strategy game
where you build your own planet and watch how evolution changes the course
of your game). The current trend of beat-'em-ups continues with RAMNA 1/2
and RIOT ZONE. These are both excellent fighting games. RAMNA 1/2 is
similar to STREET FIGHTER II, and it looked and sounded incredible! RIOT
ZONE seemed to be more like a STREETS OF RAGE or FINAL FIGHT style game.
SHOCKMAN II (CD) looked like a new super-hero style platform game, and
Irem's GEKISYA BOY (CD) looked very unique.
TTI was also showing BUSTER BROTHERS (CD), and unlike the SNES version, it
will have an option for two-player cooperative mode. In the area of CD
sports games, there will be POWER GOLF, WORLD SPORTS COMPETITION, and
TECMO WORLD CUP SUPER SOCCER. Some of the new Turbo-Chips at the show
were: LIQUID KID (a great-looking platform game), BATTLE LODE RUNNER,
BOMBERMAN '93 and MAGICAL CHASE (which is a gorgeous shooter even though
it's not on CD).
TTI will introduce two new peripherals for the Turbo Grafx and the Duo
this year. One will be a Karaoke attachment called the KARAOKE NINJA, and
the other will be an interface to allow computers to use the Turbo-Duo as
their PC CD ROM.
Welcome to the Next Level (well, almost)
----------------------------------------
Heading towards the Sega area, I noticed that it was larger than last
year. On a multimedia stage, were two Sega employees dressed in their
"Welcome to the Next Level" T-shirts. They were on opposite sides of the
stage, both jumping and kicking into the air. I had no idea what they were
doing, but something seemed weird. When I finally inched past the crowd, I
noticed they were both controlling their own character in STREETS OF RAGE
II, using full body movements...with no joystick. Then I looked down at
their feet and realized they both had these hula-hoop-sized rings
surrounding them on the floor. Each, section of the ring was divided into
segments that contained sensors to pick up hand and foot movement. This
new idea has been named THE ACTIVATOR. This device senses height, and
picks up both lower and upper movements of the body. So theoretically, it
puts the player into the game.
Both employees seemed to be working up a sweat as they went through their
fighting movements (who needs Jane Fonda's workout video?). Another
possible use for the ACTIVATOR was that of a "musical instrument." A third
and equally agile Sega employee came on stage and played a classical piece
with graceful hand and foot movements. I did notice another Sega employee
controlling an actual synthesizer. Personally, I thought the man
controlling the synth was also cueing in the sounds for the dancers'
movements, thereby giving me the idea that the person in the ACTIVATOR was
not "activating" anything. I guess they were just presenting future
possibilities. The ACTIVATOR is a unique idea, but what if you're not
playing a fighting game? Do you really want to go through all the body
movements just for a quick game of SONIC II? And remember how big a hit
the Nintendo Power Pad was? <grin>
As I turned around, I noticed BATMAN RETURNS on a large monitor. It was
the CD version and it actually had a joystick attached to the Sega. The 3-
D Batmoblile driving scenes were unreal. The scaling chip was finally
being put to use, and the 3-D was flawless. The driving course features
hairpin turns and stomach-turning hills, as the Batmobile chases down
enemy clowns on cycles, and other bad guys from the movie. The sensation
is great as you pass huge-scaled buildings and travel under dark bridges.
The Gothic atmosphere from the movie is captured to a T. The other stages
include a flying Batwing area and of course the side-fighting platform
area from the cartridge version. The entire game's CD music is all
original material made just for this game.
Another game that had heads turning was a new CD shoot-'em-up called
SILPHEED VR. The opening introduction used 3-D polygon graphics that
rotated and zoomed with ease. The effect looked quite beyond what we
customarily see on the Sega. RISE OF THE DRAGON, a murder mystery,
reminded me of the movie "Blade Runner." This CD featured actors' and
actresses' voices, and uses a real intuitive interface. JOE MONTANA on CD
was there, but it looked far from finished. Where Sega came up with some
of these release dates is beyond me. The little I saw looked amazing. The
football field rotated and you felt like you were on the field as the
players scaled in and out giving a realistic 3-D perspective. There were
also short segments of video showing the audience cheering, cheerleaders,
and even Joe Montana himself.
CITIZEN X was another CD title that used motion video like NIGHT TRAP and
SEWER SHARK; however, the graphics were even better, and the game looked
much more interactive. DARK WIZARD was the first RPG I saw on the Sega CD,
but the game was still in its Japanese form. FINAL FIGHT on Sega CD looked
great. Although less colorful than the Super Nintendo version, all three
characters were present, and now two players can play simultaneously.
Other CD titles that were showing from Sega were: SPIDERMAN VS. THE
KINGPIN, YOUNG INDIANA JONES, AFTERBURNER, and a new idea called VIRTUAL
VCR. VIRTUAL VCR are videos featuring music artists or even cartoons. The
sample they had at the show was for Prince. The CD has music with actual
videos from Prince's hits that you can play back, fast forward, rewind,
and freeze frame. Later on there will be VIRTUAL VCR classic cartoons that
you can watch on your Sega CD.
Many third-party companies were showing at least one CD player in their
booth. Sony Imagesoft had their MAKE YOUR OWN MUSIC VIDEO with C&C Music
Factory playing, and it looked a lot better than the Kriss Kross one. The
graphics in the video windows were a lot cleaner. One of the most striking
CDs at the show was BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, which is also from Sony
Imagesoft. DRACULA has unique graphics. You actually control a super-
imposed actor through rotating and scaling 3-D rooms that look like actual
film backdrops. The animation is absolutely incredible. Pendulums swing as
though they're leaping out towards you face, and bats fly toward your
character as though they're ripped right from a horror movie. It would
take a separate article to describe the features in this game, but I can
tell you that this will be one to watch for. Other titles from Sony
Imagesoft that were not shown, but on the list for the Sega CD include:
SON OF CHUCK, CLIFFHANGER, ESPN BASEBALL, ESPN FOOTBALL, JEOPARDY, LAST
ACTION HERO, WHEEL OF FORTUNE, and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.
Renovation had one new SEGA CD title, it was the one at the show I
probably played the most. In Japan its known as ROAD BLASTER F/X, but here
in America, it will be titled ROAD AVENGER. This full-motion cartoon has
you zooming down streets, into shopping malls, over bridges, and down
enemy filled highways in a wild sports car. You control left and right
movements, as well as turbo and break buttons. Cars try to run you off the
road as you turbo boost your engine and literally bump enemy cars off
cliffs, send motorcyclists flying off bridges, squeeze between trucks with
fender-scraping sounds, and even have near misses with panic stricken
pedestrians who throw all their shopping bags full of groceries in the
air. This has got to be the most adrenalin pumping game I've ever played,
and easily falls into the "Top 5 Best Games of the Show" category.
Other third-party Sega CDs were: JVC's JAGUAR XJ200 (which is a one or
two-player split-screen racing game using full 3-D scaling), Sierra On-
lines's WILLIE BEAMISH (with full voice soundtrack), JVC'S MONKEY ISLAND
(enhanced reggae musical score), and Virgin's TERMINATOR.
Other third-party CD titles that are planned but weren't shown: HIEMDALL
(RPG), DUNGEON MASTER II (RPG), ULTIMA UNDERWORLD, WING COMMANDER, WWF
WRESTLEMANIA, ALIENS, THUNDERHAWK, KING'S QUEST V, STELLAR 7, SPACE QUEST
V, RBI-V, PITFIGHTER II, and MORTAL KOMBAT. One interesting note: The Sega
version of MORTAL KOMBAT will be a direct translation of the arcade
version and will feature all the blood and guts of the original including
the fatality moves. An Acclaim employee at the show stated that the Super
Nintendo version will be tapered down a bit, although she said, "Acclaim
will be allowed more leeway with Nintendo, than Capcom had with STREET
FIGHTER II."
New Carts From Sega
-------------------
Not as many new Sega cartridges
were being shown as in the previous year,
but the quality sure is getting better. Sega's new cartridges include:
CHAKAN THE FOREVER MAN (a very weird platform game), X-MEN (hmm...it
looked like it might be only a one-player game), CYBORG JUSTICE (a robot
fighting game), DINOSAURS FOR HIRE (a really colorful, Ninja turtle-type
game whose heroes are machine-gunning dinosaurs), and OUTRUN 2029 (a
futuristic Outrun sequel that features dual upper and lower highway
layouts).
Third-Party Cartridges for the Genesis (keep 'em coming)
--------------------------------------------------------
Sony Imagesoft had the cartridge version of BRAM STOKERS DRACULA (a
scaled-down platform game, which was different from the CD version).
Other Sony carts you can expect to see this year will be: ESPN BASEBALL,
ESPN FOOTBALL, CLIFF HANGER, and LAST ACTION HERO.
Sunsoft had BLASTER MASTER 2 (a super version of the 8-bit Nintendo
classic), AERO THE ACROBAT (another cutesy Sonic-type game featuring a
masked bat in a circus of obstacles), and BATMAN REVENGE OF THE JOKER
(which looked much better than Sega's own BATMAN RETURNS cartridge).
Takara was showing FATAL FURY and KING OF THE MONSTERS. FATAL FURY looked
absolutely incredible, and the characters seemed even bigger than the ones
in STREET FIGHTER II.
Namco had two surprises at the show: SPLATTERHOUSE III (a 16 meg haunted
house that contains even more gore than the last) and ROLLING THUNDER III
(which also tops the first).
American Sammy will be releasing BREACH (a strategy board-like game) and
SORCERER'S KINGDOM (why don't they release this excellent RPG already?!).
Absolute was showing TOYS for the Genesis (hopefully it will turn out
better than the movie).
Domark, a leading European game company, had demos of JAMES BOND 007: THE
DUEL and MIG-29 (a sophisticated jet simulator),
Konami was in the Sega area with a few new products: TINY TOONS (excellent
cartoon platform game that's different than the SNES version) and ROCKET
KNIGHT ADVENTURES (another new platform star that has potential).
Gametek was showing off THE HUMANS, a hot new LEMMINGS-type game.
Camerica had the 8-bit Nintendo hit MICRO MACHINES for the Genesis, and it
was incredibly playable.
Mentrix had the first bowling game for the Genesis called CHAMPIONSHIP
BOWLING (which looks exactly like SNES SUPER BOWLING).
Rennovation showed one new cartridge game (which is old in Japan) titled
ELEMENTAL MASTER, an excellent vertical shooter with a spell casting
wizard (this game was created by the same team behind the THUNDERFORCE
series).
Sims, a newer company, will be releasing TECHMO WORLD CUP, a great playing
soccer game.
THQ has WAYNE'S WORLD for the Genesis (another movie license turned into a
run-of-the-mill platform game).
Taito was showing a few new titles: THE FLINSTONES, CHASE HQ II (blah!),
and HIT THE ICE (an arcade-like hockey game).
Although it wasn't showing, TECHMO'S SUPER BOWL should make its way to the
Genesis this summer (I can't wait).
Tengen was up to their usual strange ideas with a Sega version of RACE
DRIVIN'. The polygon frame rate was faster than the SNES version so now it
was slow, instead of very slow.
Tradewest had BATTLETOADS, and it looks like it's going to be a winner.
Virgin has an excellent lineup, including the mega-hit OUT OF THIS WORLD
(excellent). Virgin's new SONIC-like game will be COOL SPOT, a superb
fast-moving platform game starring one of the 7*up Spot characters (don't
miss this one). Another great release from Virgin will be TYRANTS, a
control-the-world-type game in the style of POPULOUS. MUHAMMED ALI
HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING will be a knockout with its 360-degree rotating boxing
ring and full body displays.
US Gold had to have one of the best cartridges at the show. The game is
called FLASHBACK, and it was programmed by the same Euro company
responsible for OUT OF THIS WORLD. In fact, many people (including myself)
thought FLASHBACK was actually OUT OF THIS WORLD Part II. FLASHBACK uses
the same polygon techniques as OOTW, but takes the concept, animation,
sound, and interaction to the next level. If you only buy one Genesis
cartridge this year, this 12 meg game is the one!! STRIDER II will also be
available from US Gold later this year.
Game Gear's Great Year!
-----------------------
Sega's portable Game Gear was one of the hottest selling items for the
holidays. Unfortunately, three days was not enough to see everything, but
here is a list of what's expected:
LAND OF ILLUSION (Mickey's sequel) TENNIS EVANDER HOLYFIELD BOXING HOME
ALONE CHAKAN the FOREVER MAN LITTLE MERMAID GREENDOG MORTAL KOMBAT (what!)
T2: THE ARCADE GAME JAMES POND TEAM WILLIAMS GRAND PRIX DESERT STRIKE ARCH
RIVALS KRUSTY'S FUN HOUSE WHEEL OF FORTUNE JEOPARDY DRACULA HOOK
BATTLETOADS STRIDER II DOUBLE DRAGON ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES GLOBAL
GLADIATORS
to be cont'd...
Nintendo's Big Top
------------------
Separate from the South Hall, Nintendo was showcasing their new products
in the usual massive circus tent-like structure. Since Nintendo's section
housed all of their products (Gameboy, Nes, and SNES) under one roof, it
certainly felt more cramped inside. Nintendo usually releases very few
SNES games each year, but when they do, they're usually blockbusters. That
was once again evident at this showing.
With the introduction of the new F/X chip, Nintendo's first game to
utilize this new technology was one of the big starts of the show. This
new chip, (which enhances the speed of polygon objects), was in full swing
in Nintendo's new STAR FOX game. Nintendo had a specially-made planetarium
style dome that housed an entire circle of giant screen monitors, each one
rigged up to a Super Nintendo with STAR FOX playing on each monitor. On
the dark ceiling of the dome were black lights, laser projections, and all
kinds of piped-in voices of co-pilots sending out coordinates (I'm sure a
lot of game neophyte businessmen thought those voices were actually coming
from the game).
With or without the extra fluff that Nintendo likes to enhance their
premiere titles with, STAR FOX stands on its own. This 3-D space shooter
is like nothing you've ever seen. As you take control of your space
fighter, you choose which planet to tackle on your fancy on-board map.
There are high-speed chases through trenches, asteroid fields, collapsing
space ships that rotate, huge enemy ships that have many moving parts, and
all kinds of space junk. The view of your ship changes from in the cockpit
to outside the ship. All in all, STAR FOX will blow your mind. As you can
probably guess, this was also one of the top five games at the show.
The other title Nintendo had on display was VEGAS STAKES, a very sleek
gambling casino game that takes advantage of the Super Nes hardware (get a
load of the mode 7 roulette wheel).
Partying With SNES Third-Party Cartridges
-----------------------------------------
Starting down the endless aisles, I stopped at one of my favorite third-
party companies. Konami was showing four new titles for the SNES: BATMAN
RETURNS, TINY TOONS, CYBERNATOR, and some very early stages of NFL
FOOTBALL. BATMAN RETURNS looked incredible. The characters are large and
detailed, and the backgrounds are a knockout. NFL FOOTBALL looks
promising, as it takes full advantage of mode 7 (look out John).
CYBERNATOR and TINY TOONS should both be huge hits. TINY TOONS leaves even
ROAD RUNNER in the dust.
Capcom was showing off their sequel to FINAL FIGHT, titled FINAL FIGHT II.
This new version featured Hagar (from the original) joined by two new
characters. Capcom did it right this time, allowing two-player
simultaneous play. Hot stuff!
Activision had demos of MECH WARRIOR, SHANGHAI 2, and ALIEN VS. PREDATOR.
MECH WARRIOR uses a first-person perspective, and features mode 7 terrain.
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR was one of the worst games I saw at the show. Remember
this title when it's released, and avoid it at all costs.
American Technos had the arcade translation of COMBATRIBES; another
fighting game that looked okay, but nothing to scream about.
Asciiware's SPELLCRAFT is a very different RPG game. There are wizards,
warriors, and a ton of spells that you can mix together and bring onto the
battlefield.
New games coming from Atlus are SUPER VALIS IV and METAL JACK. Both games
seemed to be pretty drab, despite the fact that SUPER VALIS IV received
pretty good reviews in the game mags (these reviewers were being too
nice).
TOXIC CRUSADERS from Bandai actually looked pretty good. The B-movie's
theme is turned into a side-scrolling platform game.
Clinging onto the TETRIS formula, Bullet Proof Software's new title
YOSHI'S COOKIES (a huge hit on the Gameboy) will now be dropping in on the
SNES. I played it, and yes it is addicting!
A new company, DTMC INC., had CALIFORNIA GAMES II ready to ship. Most of
the events had lots of cool mode 7 tricks.
Data East was showing SHADOWRUN and DRAGON'S LAIR (which should be out
now). SHADOWRUN looked like an interesting three-quarter perspective RPG,
and DRAGON'S LAIR is basically a pretty platform game that's "pretty"
uncontrollable.
ENIX (one of my personal favorite SNES companies), had demos of EVO and
THE SEVENTH SAGA. EVO is an interesting arcade-style RPG in which your
character evolves into different stages of evolution. EVO will support the
SNES mouse.
THE SEVENTH SAGA looks like another RPG hit from the guys that gave us
SOUL BLAZER.
FCI was once again showing ULTIMA: THE FALSE PROPHET along with the
intricate computer "toy" SIM EARTH (mouse compatible).
Gametek was previewing THE HUMANS and KAWASAKI CHALLENGE. Those who
enjoyed LEMMINGS will probably have a ball with THE HUMANS since the idea
is somewhat similar.
Hi Tech Expressions licensed TOM AND JERRY for the SNES, and will also be
distributing HARLEY'S HUMONGOUS ADVENTURE. The latter uses clay-mation
type effects and looks quite similar to the classic Sega Mickey Mouse game
(CASTLE OF ILLUSION).
Hudsonsoft will be bringing us SUPER BOMBERMAN, which will have the option
of playing with up to five players (when the adapter becomes available).
Other titles from HUDSONSOFT will include: BATTLE GRAND PRIX, POWER LEAGUE
BASEBALL, and POWER LEAGUE FOOTBALL.
Interplay had some strong showings with CLAYMATES, LORD OF THE RINGS, AND
ROCK 'N' ROLL RACING. CLAYMATES is really shaping up to be a winning
platform game. ROCK 'N' ROLL RACING features wild trucks on crazy, smooth-
scrolling courses with lots of varied terrain. Based on J.R.R. Tolkein's
"Middle Earth" novel, LORD OF THE RINGS is a huge RPG epic that will also
support the SNES mouse.
Irem has a new fighting game called STREET COMBAT (enough already!).
JVC had one of the biggest selling games of '92 with SUPER STAR WARS, and
although it was not shown, they will be releasing SUPER EMPIRE STRIKES
BACK some time in '93. JAGUAR XJ220, a great split-screen racing game will
also be pulling up to the SNES this year. Meanwhile, as of this writing,
DUNGEON MASTER is still not available??
Jaleco's newest offerings will be KING ARTHUR'S WORLD and UTOPIA. KING
ARTHUR'S WORLD is a strategy game that will be the first to use a special
Dolby soundtrack, and UTOPIA is another sure-fire hit similar to the now
classic POPULOUS. Both games will support the SNES mouse.
Kemco's got a unique platform game on the horizon called THE FIRST
SAMURAI, as well as TOP GEAR 2 sometime in '93.
Ocean of America had a slew of great movie-licensed-based games including
COOL WORLD, ADDAMS FAMILY: PUGSLEY'S SCAVENGER HUNT, and LETHAL WEAPON.
Ocean's newest ADDAMS FAMILY game is far superior to their previous one.
Seika's newest games will be much better than the last batch with SUPER
TURRICAN II, TRODDLERS, and AQUATIC GAMES. TRODDLERS is yet another
delightful LEMMINGS clone, and SUPER TURRICAN is one of the better
running, jumping shooters I've seen.
Seta will be doing an adventure based on THE WIZARD OF OZ. F1-ROC RACE OF
CHAMPIONS, another release from Seta, will be their first game to use a
special chip similar to the one that was used for MARIO KART. It's another
F*ZERO-like game with amazing 3-D scaling. Although it has been available
in Japan for quite a while, MUSHYA will make its way to the US as well. If
it's anything like the game I saw last summer, one word will come to mind.
..WHY?
Sony Imagesoft has one of the hottest RPGs on their hands with EQUINOX, a
very unique grand-scale adventure with some awesome mode 7 above-ground
effects. Also coming from Sony Imagesoft will be BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA,
which should be sinking its teeth into the SNES later this year.
Squaresoft was showing the Japanese version of FINAL FANTASTY III, which
already looked incredible. When it hits the US, look for it to be a 16 meg
monster.
Sunsoft's got a pretty wacky lineup with TAZMANIA, AERO THE ACROBAT, and
DUCK DODGERS. The SNES version of TAZMANIA lets you control the TAZ down
3D-mode 7 roads laced with humor. SUPERMAN was finally finished and it
was far superior to the Sega Genesis version.
THQ will be releasing WAYNE'S WORLD and REM & STIMPY. Both games looked
pretty decent for THQ, but then again, that's not saying much.
Taito's two new titles were HIT THE ICE, and SONIC BLASTMAN. HIT THE ICE
is a fast-paced arcade hockey game, and SONIC BLASTMAN is a new super-hero
type game that's pretty hysterical.
FATAL FURY from Takara should be hitting the stores real soon. This
original NEO*GEO fighting game should appeal to all the STREET FIGHTER
followers.
TECMO SUPER NBA BASKETBALL is one of the best-looking, best-playing
basketball games on the SNES (it will be worth the wait).
Titus should be shipping THE BLUE BROTHERS by the time you read this, as
well as a new racing game called LAMBORGHINI'S AMERICAN CHALLENGE.
Takara was showing off the SNES version of FATAL FURY. While the sound was
not quite as good as that on the original NEO*GEO version, the graphics
were definitely comparable.
Tradewest had BATTLETOADS IN BATTLEMANIACS, which looked close to being
finished. BATTLETOADS will be the next Ninja Turtles-type game for the
SNES (and not as easy).
Virgin was showing some of their new SNES titles for '93. Included were
WOLF CHILD (exactly like the Sega CD version) and GLOBAL GLADIATORS (good
choice Virgin, we loved the Genesis version).
Companies That Swing Both Ways
------------------------------
Accolade had their own massive booth with games for both Super Nintendo
and Genesis. BUBSY was the most talked about cartridge at CES. If anyone
is going to give SONIC a run for its money (or rings), it will be this new
cartoon-like character. BUBSY is capable of all kinds of incredible
maneuvers in this incredibly huge world of clever animation. There are
over 40 different types of animation for the BUBSY character alone. The
sampled sounds are hilarious, and the special effects are top notch. The
version I played was on the Super Nintendo, and a Genesis version is also
in production at this time. This will be the new video game star of '93,
and was one of the five best games at the show. HOT! Accolade has a great
lineup of sports games for the Genesis, including HARDBALL III (which is
exactly like the PC version, including Al Michael's commentary), SUMMER
CHALLENGE, and POWER CHALLENGE GOLF.
Located next door to Sega, Electronic Arts had its own booth featuring
both Genesis and Super Nintendo carts. This could be a good year for
baseball games, as EA will put the finishing touches on TONY LARUSSA
BASEBALL for the Genesis. I was surprised to see a Genesis version of
BULLS VS. BLAZERS. I remember EA saying it would be available only for the
Super Nintendo. MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL is a sicko football game featuring
all kinds of bizarre creatures who play to kill. It may be the violence
that will sell this piece, but on its own it's an excellent game. B.O.B.
is a new platform game for the SNES that looks like a good one. The sequel
to DESERT STRIKE titled JUNGLE STRIKE will be a 16 meg powerhouse. JUNGLE
STRIKE will available on the Genesis later this year (wait until you see
the night missions). ROLO THE RESCUE is a cutesy kids game for the Genesis
featuring an elephant and his animal friends in a world of mystery and
danger. Also coming for the Genesis is an isometric style adventure/arcade
game titled HAUNTING starring POLTERGUY (hey, I didn't make up the name).
Not getting too much attention (probably because it was just a crude demo)
was a new JAMES POND sequel. I stood around for a while and watched as the
little fish hero went zooming down giant slopes of Swiss cheese at speeds
that would make even Sonic cringe.
What the heck is 3DO?
---------------------
As I left the South Hall, I began to make my way to the North Hall. The
North Hall contains most of the big name companies like Philips, Sanyo,
and Sony. But it was Panasonic I was looking for. They were the first to
have a 3DO system in their booth. 3DO also had their own setup in the
multimedia area much further away.
What's all the hype about? This baby houses a 32-bit RISC-based processor
that can spin, rotate, and zoom graphics at a frightening speed. You can
have hundreds of full-screen animated objects without a trace of slowdown.
The color palette has a whopping display of 16 million colors with almost
no limit to how many can be displayed at the same time.
There were only short demos running on each display, but it was enough to
show some of the remarkable capabilities of the 3DO. One of the demos was
of a game based on the up-and-coming Spielburg movie, "Jurassic Park." The
display used four different layers of digitized scrolling trees and
flowers. This forest-type setting looked REAL. Strolling down this forest
scene was a digitized character who also looked REAL. Now, while
everything was scrolling, there were pieces of animated video footage with
giant parrots (making the bottom layer look closer in perspective) and
other creatures animated right on the scenery. The effect blew me through
both the North and South Halls. The people behind 3DO will push this unit
to become the next home family entertainment system, much in the way the
VCR found its way into every home (can you say Panasonic/Matsushita?).
Down the road, when fiber optics come into play, 3DO will be able to
attach itself into your local cable network for Pay-TV games! The machines
shown on the floor were actually prototypes, so the final unit may look
different by the time it's released (some time in late fall).
Laser Wars!
-----------
Pioneer has a great new idea that they claim will be here as soon as
September. It a new interactive laser disc based unit called L.I.F.E
(LASER INTERACTIVE FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT). Pioneer is signing up companies
to produce laser disc applications which will take advantage of full-
motion video (as opposed to small video windows) in both entertainment,
instructional, and educational software. Now for the bigger news: The
Laser disc has an optional slot that will accept a special module that's
licencesd by Sega and TTI (one or the other). Whichever one you choose to
buy (or you can buy both), you will be able to plug both cartridge and CD
based games from Sega or TTI into the Pioneer unit. For example: Let's say
you buy the Sega expansion module. You will plug your Genesis controls
into the expansion module and either pop a Genesis cartridge in the slot,
or a Sega CD in the Laser player. So all together, this Laser disc player
can play regular audio CDs, laser-disc-based movies, CD&G discs, Sega CDs
and cartridge games (with Sega Module), and Turbo-Grafx CDs and cartridges
(with TTI module).
Overall Impressions
-------------------
The game outlook is getting more and more exciting. Companies are really
starting to increase the number of megs in their newer games. TTI's new
line is excellent, while both Nintendo and Sega are sharing an equal
success. The result will be even more innovative games and add-ons
throughout the year. CD mania is starting to catching on quite nicely, and
newer machines like the 3DO will further heighten this new generation of
entertainment. Although SNK and Atari were not on the show floor, both
companies will mostly likely appear at the Summer CES with some new
surprises of their own. Until then, enjoy!
This report is copyright (c) 1993 by Joseph Cataudella. All rights
reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Used with permission (with great gratitude) from CIS/Gamers Forum and
full credit to Joe Cataudella and 'The Electronic Gamer' (TEG) for
allowing us to publish this article in Game Bytes. We actively encourage
all gamers who read this to take some time and check out the gaming
forums on Compuserve. They are staffed by VERY intelligent and
responsive people with an incredible insight into today's hottest games.
Game Bytes Magazine is proud to be available in the GAMERS forum.
GAME BYTES EXCLUSIVE - Front Page Sports: Football Contest
Game Bytes is pleased to (pre)announce an upcoming first for the maga-
zine. Watch these pages in issue #10 for details concerning a contest
sponsored by Dynamix and Game Bytes for big, BIG prizes! Dynamix'
wildly successful Front Page Sports: Football will be the arena where
the competition will take place. First prize will be a high-quality
Dynamix letterman's jacket. Full details will be presented in the 10th
issue, so you gridiron coaches, get ready for some serious competition.
See you in the next issue.
Reviewer Bio: Sir Launcelot Du Lake
The following is an account in his own words of the life, times, battle
plans and armory manifest of Sir Launcelot Du Lake. Rumor has it that
the current incarnation of our gallant and intrepid reviewer is none
other than Winston Goh. -ed.
I doth impart jewels of wisdom in Psychology at the Dept. of Social Work
& Psychology here at the National University of Singapore. Verily, didst
I journey into the world of the silicon warriors only in 1989. My
previous partaking of such a world wert only with quests like Space
Invaders, Alley Cat etc. which I doth find mindless and boring. Then a
fair maiden doth took mine hand into the world of Ultima V, and to this
day, I doth both curse and bless the day she showed me this world (
**grin**). My journeys hence lie in CRPGs (thus my callsign :)) and
Wargames; I doth journey to other worlds too, but I only limit myself to
CGW Award winners (maybe GameBytes winners now too!); time, 'tis such a
rare commodity. This self-imposed limitation dost not seem to quell the
exponentially-growing backlog of games!!! - seem to be buying quicker
than I can finish them! The most glorious quests? 'twould be the
Ultima, AD&D, and Wing Commander series, Wasteland (played 3 times!),
Second Front, Red Lightning, Conflict: Middle East, Conflict: Korea, and
Warlords.
Mine most sacred and trusty arms:
Xsys 486DX-33 Starserver full tower (in matt and semi-gloss black finish,
eat your heart out, Steve Jobs!! :))
4 MB Panasonic RAM, 200 MB Connor HDD, 1.2 MB & 1.44 MB Teac FDD 14"
1024 x 768 SVGA Monitor, 1 MB Trident 8900cs SVGA Card
SoundBlaster Pro card wired to Aiwa NSX-330 midi hi-fi
CH Flightstick and CH Gamecard III automatic,
Microsoft serial mouse
Software Environment: MS DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, QEMM 6.02
Planning to get: NEC CDR-84 CD-ROM drive; SB-16/PAS-16 (real soon!)
4 MB RAM, Roland LAPC-1/SCC-1 (soon)
200/330 MB HDD; 17/19/21" non-interlaced monitor (later)
1 GB HDD (far future **grin**)
If thou dost wish to spin tales of valour, thou canst mindmeald with me
at:
Internet: swkgohw@nuscc.nus.sg
Bitnet: swkgohw@nusvm.bitnet
Till then, fare thee well fellow silicon warriors!
Sir Launcelot Du Lake
Name: Lonnie Barnett
City: Cincinnati, OH
Phone: 513-777-4419
Email address: INTERNET - lonnie@meaddata.com
Opponent wanted for: Perfect General, Conquered Kingdoms.
Name: Andy Van Fossen
City: Columbus, Ohio
Phone: 614-771-7233
Email address: INTERNET - andy.vanfossen@osu.edu
Opponent wanted for: Command HQ
Name: Scot Kight
City: Ames, Iowa
Phone: 515-292-8097
Modem speed: 14.4K
Email address: INTERNET - tarjan@iastate.edu
Opponent wanted for: Falcon; Battle Chess; F1GP(when available);
Perfect General
Name: Marc Paulin
City: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Phone: 506-855-4974
Modem speed: 2400
Email address: INTERNET - markus@info.umoncton.ca
Opponent wanted for: Battle Chess 1 & 2, Fire Power, 688 Attack Sub,
Populous I
Name: Steve Crawford
City: , Colorado
Phone: 303-440-5917
Modem speed: 14.4K-baud
Email address: INTERNET - smithme@spot.Colorado.EDU
Opponent wanted for: Conquered Kingdoms, Siege: Dogs of War
Name: John Gantert
City:
Phone: 410-569-0416
Modem speed: 2400
Email address: INTERNET - jgantert@nyx.cs.du.edu
Opponent wanted for: Wordtris, Super Tetris
Name: Brett Lawler
City: Hunstville, Alabama
Phone: 205-464-0651
Modem speed: 14.4K-baud
Email address: INTERNET - brett@b8.b8.ingr.com
Opponent wanted for: Falcon 3.0
Name: Andrew Argyle
City:
Phone: 514-985-2998
Modem speed: 2400
Email address: INTERNET - uunet!sobeco!paxmtl!andrew
Opponent wanted for: Command HQ
Name: Jim Knutson
City: Austin, Texas
Phone: 512-892-1386
Modem Speed/Type: V.32bis/2400/1200/...
Email path/Internet number: knutson@mcc.com
Modem opponent wanted for: Falcon 3
Name: David Ondzes
City: , MA
Phone: 617-661-2597
Modem Speed/Type: 2400
Email path/Internet number: picasso@acs.bu.edu
Modem opponent wanted for: Anything, I do not know what is possible
Name: David desJardins
City: Princeton NJ
Phone: 609-683-0312
Modem Speed/Type: Nuvotel 14400I (V.32 bis, V.42, MNP-5)
Email path/Internet number: desj@ccr-p.ida.org
Modem opponent wanted for: Conquered Kingdoms, Battles of Destiny,
will buy other strategy games
Name: Kevin Williams
City: Cleveland, Ohio
Phone: 216-754-2313
Modem Speed/Type: 2400/Infotel
Email path/Internet number: kbw@po.CWRU.Edu
Modem opponent wanted for: Falcon3, TPG, Powermonger, CHQ
Name: Chris Fodor
City: San Diego, California
Phone: 619-220-0115
Modem Speed/Type: 2400 Hayes Compat
Email path/Internet number: cfodor@UCSD.edu (most reliable)
Modem opponent Wanted for: Modem Wars, Global Conquest, F29 Retaliator,
Falcon 3.0?
Name: Jim Green
City: Madison, Alabama
Phone: 205-464-0691 (home) or 205-730-8850 (work)
Modem Speed/Type: 2400 Hayes compatible
Internet/email: 129.135.142.103/jim@pdsjg.b24a.ingr.com
Modem apponent for: Siege (Dogs of War), Mail or call me for other game.
I can't remember ones that have modem support.
Name: Ray Eifler
City: Southfield, Michigan
Phone:
Modem Speed/Type: USR HST 14.4
Email path/Internet Number: goldberg@iastate.edu (until spring)
Modem opponent wanted for: Perfect General, others
Name: Robert Keng
City: Fremont, California
Phone: 510-794-8421
Modem Speed/Type: US Robotics Courier HST DS w/ v.32bis and ASL
14,400 max connection speed, 38,400 DTE
Email path/Internet Number: primus@netcom.com
Modem opponent wanted for: Falcon 3.0/OFT, F-15 III......
Name: Brian Weaver
City: Boulder, Colorado
Phone: 303-786-0021
Modem Speed/Type: 9600 v.32/v.42bis
Email path/Internet Number: weaverb@rintintin.colorado.edu
Modem opponent wanted for: Falcon 3.0, Armor Alley, I'll buy just about
any good game.
Name: Joel Schaubert
City: Round Rock, Texas
Phone: 512-388-4298
Modem Speed/Type: 2400 baud connections
Email path/Internet Number: schaubert@fisher.com
Modem opponent wanted for: Command HQ
Name: Dave Killion
City: Concord, California
Phone: 510-674-9143
Modem Speed/Type: Generic 2400B, getting a Generic 9600B
Internet/Email path: Killion@eis.calstate.edu
Modem Opponent Wanted For: Perfect General, 688 Attack Sub, Falcon 3.0,
others
I'm pleased to announce the winners of the GAME BYTES GAME OF THE YEAR
awards. The response was tremendous, and I hope even more will
"turn out" next year as our nominations roll around again.
Many of the races were very close, and still, some were complete runaways.
May I have a drum roll please...... {thank you}
In the Role-Playing category, the top four nominees were:
ULTIMA 7 - ORIGIN
DARKLANDS - MICROPROSE
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD - ORIGIN
CRUSADERS OF THE DARK SAVANT - SIR-TECH SOFTWARE
and the winner is....
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD - ORIGIN / LOOKING GLASS TECHNOLOGIES
In the Sports category, the top three nominees were:
HARDBALL 3 - ACCOLADE
LINKS 386 PRO - ACCESS SOFTWARE
SUMMER CHALLENGE - ACCOLADE
and the winner is....
LINKS 386 PRO - ACCESS SOFTWARE
In the Action/Arcade category, the top four nominees were:
WING COMMANDER 2: SPECIAL OPS MISSIONS 2 - ORIGIN
GODS - KONAMI
WOLFENSTEIN 3D- ID/APOGEE SOFTWARE
OUT OF THIS WORLD - INTERPLAY
and the winner is....
WOLFENSTEIN 3D - ID SOFTWARE / APOGEE SOFTWARE
In the Adventure category, the top four nominees were:
INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF ATLANTIS - LUCASARTS
STAR TREK: 25TH ANNIVERSARY - INTERPLAY
THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND II - LUCASARTS
KING'S QUEST VI: HEIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW - SIERRA ON-LINE
and the winner is....
INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF ATLANTIS - LUCASARTS
In the Strategy/Wargame category, the top three nominees were:
V FOR VICTORY: UTAH BEACH - THREE-SIXTY
CIVILIZATION - MICROPROSE
THEATRE OF WAR - THREE-SIXTY
and the winner is....
CIVILIZATION - MICROPROSE
In the Simulation category, the top three nominees were:
ACES OF THE PACIFIC 1.2 - DYNAMIX
FALCON 3.0D - SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE
A-TRAIN - MAXIS
and the winner is....
FALCON 3.0 - SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE
In the Edutainment category, the top three nominees were:
WORD RESCUE - APOGEE SOFTWARE
ECOQUEST: IN SEARCH OF CETUS - SIERRA ON-LINE
WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO DELUXE - BRODERBUND SOFTWARE
and the winner is....
WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO DELUXE - BRODERBUND SOFTWARE
and finally, for Overall Best Game of 1992, the top four nominees were:
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD - ORIGIN
CIVILIZATION - MICROPROSE
FALCON 3.0 - SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE
ULTIMA 7 - ORIGIN
and the winner is....
CIVILIZATION - MICROPROSE SOFTWARE
Thanks to the hundreds who voted on all the different services. These
winners are YOUR winners and we congratulate these fine developers and
publishers who make these great games available. Individual awards are
being prepared and sent to each publishing company.
We hope to hear from all of you next year and we'll do it all over again.
And as always, thanks for reading Game Bytes!
We are pleased to be able to be partners with the Software Creations BBS
system, home of the Apogee software distribution network. Through this
BBS network, we are able to have Game Bytes distributed on over 2000
BBS systems throughout North America. Dan Linton, the chief sysop of
Software Creations, welcomes new users and we would like to encourage all
who would like to be participating members in one of the best BBS systems
in the country to call and check it out. The numbers for Software
Creations are:
508-365-2359 - 2400 baud
508-368-4137 - 2400 - 16.8K-baud - US Robotics Courier HST Dual Standard
508-368-7036 - 2400 - 14.4 Kbaud - V.32bis
All new Apogee shareware releases START with Software Creations, so by
being a member of this board you'll be guaranteed to be the first to have
new releases from Apogee/ID such as the Keen series, and next year, the
incredible Doom series. Plus, you'll always find each and every issue
of Game Bytes on Software Creations first.
Call today!
This week the votes from 123 people have been used to compile this chart.
Send your votes to appelo@dutiag.twi.tudelft.nl and you'll get the next
chart sent to you personally. Ask for the document that tells how to vote.
The format for every line with a vote is: points title publisher [ ID ]
==========================================================================
The Net PC Games Top 100 Edition 9 - Week 9 - March 1, 1993
==========================================================================
TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) ID Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 ( 1) 9 Civilization MicroProse [1002] 820
2 ( 2) 6 Ultima Underworld 2 Origin/Electronic Arts [1127] 421
3 ( 3) 9 Ultima Underworld Origin/Mindscape [1009] 327
4 ( 7)^ 8 Dune 2 Westwood/Virgin [1110] 299
5 ( 4) 9 Wolfenstein 3D Id/Apogee [1013] 297
6 ( 5) 8 Crusaders o.t. Dark Savant Sir-tech/US Gold [1104] 197
7 ( 6) 8 Star Control 2 Accolade [1116] 223
8 ( 12)^ 7 World Circuit/F1 Grand Prix MicroProse [1123] 300
9 ( 8) 9 Wing Commander 2 (+ Sp. Oper.) Origin/Mindscape [1007] 233
10 ( 9) 7 Railroad Tycoon MicroProse [1121] 228
11 ( 10) 9 Ultima 7 (+ Forge of Virtue) Origin/Mindscape [1001] 154
12 ( 11) 9 Links 386 Pro (+ courses) Access/US Gold [1006] 185
13 ( 14)^ 9 Ind. Jones: Fate of Atlantis LucasArts/US Gold [1003] 158
14 ( 13) 9 King's Quest 6 Sierra [1015] 105
15 ( 18)^ 8 Comanche: Maximum Overkill NovaLogic/US Gold [1101] 155
16 ( 17)^ 6 The Incredible Machine Dynamix/Sierra [1128] 158
17 ( 16) 9 Falcon 3.0 (+ operations) Speum Holob./MicroProse [1005] 106
18 ( 20)^ 8 Alone in the Dark Infogrames [1105] 173
19 ( 15) 9 Wing Commander 1 (+ Secret M.) Origin/Mindscape [1026] 122
20 ( 27)^ 6 VGA Planets Tim Wisseman [1131] 162
21 ( 19) 9 Monkey Island 2 LucasArts/US Gold [1014] 97
22 ( 25)^ 9 SimCity Maxis/Ocean [1079] 152
23 ( 28)^ 6 Commander Keen 4, 5, 6 Id/Apogee [1129] 152
24 ( 24) 9 Eye of the Beholder 2 SSI/US Gold [1067] 113
25 ( 21) 9 A-train (+ constr. set) Maxis [1004] 88
26 ( 37)* 8 F-15 Strike Eagle 3 MicroProse [1103] 135
27 ( 22) 9 Out of this World Delph./Interpl./US Gold [1012] 65
28 ( 23) 9 Harpoon (+ disks) Three-Sixty/Electronic Arts [1058] 64
29 ( 36)^ 9 Lemmings (+ More Lemmings) Psygnosis [1095] 148
30 ( 30) 9 Darklands MicroProse [1008] 70
31 ( 42)* 5 Spear of Destiny Id [1124] 122
32 ( 35)^ 7 Conquered Kingdoms QQP [1122] 96
33 ( 26) 9 Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Interplay [1017] 29
34 ( 33) 9 Monkey Island 1 (+ vga v.) LucasArts [1027] 75
35 ( 29) 9 Aces of the Pacific (+ miss.) Dynamix/Sierra [1010] 42
36 ( 34) 9 Red Baron (+ missions) Dynamix/Sierra [1070] 68
37 ( 32) 9 Gods Renegade/Konami [1023] 52
38 ( 31) 9 Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes Electronic Arts [1016] 40
39 ( 44)^ 9 Eye of the Beholder 1 SSI/US Gold [1093] 85
40 ( 49)^ 4 Warlords SSG [1135] 93
41 ( 46)^ 9 Dune Cryo/Virgin [1075] 92
42 ( 40) 9 Quest for Glory 3 Sierra [1018] 24
43 ( 38) 9 Laura Bow 2 Sierra [1019] 25
44 ( 39) 9 Dungeon Master Psygnosis [1024] 36
45 ( 47)^ 6 The Humans US Gold [1112] 53
46 ( 58)^ 4 Empire: Wargame of the Century Interstel [1142] 92
47 ( 43) 9 Hardball 3 Accolade [1011] 30
48 ( 54)^ 7 Gobliins 2 Coktel V./Digital I./Sierra [1107] 61
49 ( 45) 9 Legend of Kyrandia Westwood/Virgin [1025] 48
50 ( 55)^ 7 V for Victory (+ scenario's) Three-sixty/El. Arts [1114] 60
51 ( 41) 9 Gateway Legend/Accolade [1022] 12
52 ( 52) 9 Push-over Ocean [1030] 64
53 ( 50) 9 Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 Infocom/Activision [1045] 40
54 ( 51) 5 Car and Driver Electronic Arts [1137] 32
55 ( 61)^ 7 Might & Magic: Clouds of Xeen New World/US Gold [1102] 21
56 ( 48) 9 Chessmaster 3000 (+ windows) Software Toolworks [1029] 24
57 ( 57) 9 Police Quest 3 Sierra [1039] 45
58 ( 62)^ 6 The Lost Admiral QQP [1126] 48
59 ( 56) 9 Leisure Suit Larry 5 Sierra [1042] 40
60 ( 53) 9 Powermonger Bullfrog/Electronic Arts [1036] 20
61 ( 60) 9 Secret Weapons o.t. Luftwaffe LucasArts [1035] 22
62 ( 69)^ 9 Perfect General (+ scenario's) QQP/Ubi [1098] 64
63 ( 63) 9 Global Conquest MicroProse [1068] 33
64 ( 72)^ 3 Amazon Access/US Gold [1120] 68
65 ( 76)^ 5 Front Page Sports: Football Dynamix/Sierra [1133] 12
66 ( 77)^ 5 Battles of Destiny QQP [1132] 33
67 ( 65) 9 Gunship 2000 (+ missions) MicroProse [1047] 40
68 ( 59) 9 Crisis in the Kremlin Spectrum Holobyte [1021] 40
69 ( 75)^ 9 Dark Queen of Krynn SSI/US Gold [1050] 27
70 ( 64) 9 PGA Tour Golf Electronic Arts [1038] 28
71 ( 71) 6 The Summoning SSI/US Gold [1117] 24
72 ( 68) 9 Conquest of the Longbow Sierra [1055] 13
73 ( 70) 5 Stunt Island Infogrames/Disney [1130] 20
74 ( 80)^ 3 SimLife Maxis/Mindscape [1138] 25
75 ( 67) 9 Gobliiins oktel V./Digital I./Sierra [1034] 17
76 ( 78)^ 9 SimEarth (+ windows version) Maxis/Ocean [1091] 36
77 ( 73) 9 Siege Mindcraft/Electronic Arts [1063] 28
78 ( 74) 4 Pirates MicroProse [1140] 4
79 ( -)* 1 MechWarrior Activision [1159] 41
80 ( 99)^ 2 Populous 2 (+ disk) Bullfrog/Electronic Arts [1149] 15
81 ( 82)^ 9 Air Bucks Impressions [1082] 20
82 ( 86)^ 6 Curse of Enchantia Core Design [1111] 20
83 ( 79) 7 Spellcasting 301 Legend/Accolade [1108] 4
84 ( -)^ 1 Populous 1 (+ disk) Bullfrog/Electronic Arts [1155] 36
85 ( -)^ 1 Eric the Unready Legend/Accolade [1151] 7
86 ( 91)^ 2 Ultima 6 (The False Prophet) Origin/Mindscape [1153] 20
87 ( -)^ 1 Major Stryker Apogee [1161] 41
88 ( 84) 9 King's Quest 5 Sierra [1061] 20
89 ( 92)^ 5 Terminator 2029 Bethesda [1113] 9
90 ( -)^ 1 Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Id/Apogee [1162] 52
91 ( 95)^ 2 Catacombs Abyss Softdisk [1141] 20
92 ( 98)^ 2 Spaceward Ho! New World/US Gold [1154] 20
93 ( 85) 9 Willy Beamish Dynamix/Sierra [1064] 8
94 ( 97)^ 2 Covert Action MicroProse [1143] 12
95 ( 89) 9 Grand Prix Unlimited Accolade [1056] 16
96 ( 83) 9 Lure of the Temptress Revolution/Virgin/Konami [1046] 16
97 ( -)^ 1 Champions of Krynn SSI/US Gold [1156] 20
98 ( 96) 3 Carrier Strike SSI [1144] 8
99 ( 87) 9 Lord of the Rings 2 Interplay/Electr. Arts [1044] 4
100 ( 81) 9 Sherlock Holmes Cons. Detect. ICOM/Mindscape [1037] 4
Dropped out:
( 66) 8 Darkseed Cyberdreams/Mirage/Merit [1032]
( 88) 8 B-17 Flying Fortress MicroProse [1020]
( 90) 8 Nova 9 Dynamix/Sierra [1051]
( 93) 8 SimAnt Maxis/Ocean [1080]
( 94) 3 D/Generation Mindscape [1099]
(100) 1 Task Force 1942 MicroProse [1145]
=========================================================================
The Net PC Games Tip 20 Edition 9 - Week 9 - March 1, 1993
=========================================================================
TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) ID
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 ( 15) 2 Space Quest 1 (+ vga version) Sierra [1163]
2 ( 16) 2 Bane of the Cosmic Forge Sir-Tech/US Gold [1164]
3 ( 6) 5 Waxworks Horrorsoft/Accolade [1150]
4 ( 7) 5 Caesar Impressions [1147]
5 ( 8) 5 The Ancient Art of War at Sea MicroProse [1148]
6 ( 11) 3 Conan the Cimmerian Virgin [1160]
7 ( 10) 4 Police Quest 1 (+ vga version Sierra [1152]
8 ( 20) 2 Overkill TechNoir/PSP/Epic [1168]
9 ( 18) 2 Command HQ MicroProse [1166]
10 ( 13) 4 Magic Candle 3 Mindcraft [1157]
11 ( 14) 4 Inca Coktel V./Digital I./Sierra [1158]
12 ( -) 1 X-Wing LucasArts/US Gold [1169]
13 ( -) 1 Might & Magic 3 New World/US Gold [1170]
14 ( 17) 2 Kiloblaster Epic [1165]
15 ( -) 1 Wayne Gretsky Hockey 3 Bethesda [1171]
16 ( -) 1 Prince of Persia Broderbund [1172]
17 ( -) 1 Space Quest 5 Dynamix/Sierra [1173]
18 ( -) 1 Chuck Yeager Air Combat Electronic Arts [1174]
19 ( 19) 2 Seven Cities of Gold Ozark/Electronic Arts [1167]
20 ( -) 1 Veil of Darkness SSI/US Gold [1175]
Sorry, no time for any comments this week. I've got some games to play.
The Net PC Games Top 100 is compiled using votes sent by many people from
all over the world. The latest chart is published every Monday on Usenet
in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games newsgroup. A collection of all editions can
be found on the risc.ua.edu ftp-site. More detailed information on how the
chart is compiled, can be found in the Top 100 document. Just ask for it.
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| TW : This Week | (c) 1992, 1993 all rights reserved Jojo Productions |
| LW : Last Week | P.O. Box 3077 |
| NW : No. Weeks | With many thanks to the 2601 DB Delft |
| - : New Entry | Delft University of Technology The Netherlands |
| ^ : Climbing | for providing us with the Tel: +31 15 613510 |
| * : Bullet | necessary facilities. appelo@dutiag.twi.tudelft.nl |
==========================================================================
HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT GAME BYTES?
The positive response we've received from so many around the world has
given us great hope for continuing to publish Game Bytes. As you may
know, there is no income generated through any means for this publication
to continue, yet there are significant expenses, both monetarily and
time. We would like to resist changing our strategy indefinitely, but
expenses are getting tight. As you will see in these 'pages', we are
considering adding advertising to Game Bytes to offset these expenses.
If you enjoy Game Bytes and feel it is of some value to you, please
consider making a donation or contribution of some kind to our cause to
help keep Game Bytes alive. We need your assistance. Your welcome
contributions can be sent to:
Game Bytes
108 Castleton Drive
Harvest, AL 35749
In return for your donation of $15.00 or more, we'll make sure we mail you
directly the next issue of Game Bytes.
Thanks for helping us keep Game Bytes alive.
Ross Erickson
Editor and Publisher, Game Bytes
An Interview with Warren Spector of Origin Systems
by David Taylor
Warren Spector produced the games Underworld I & II and is now finishing
up Ultima VII, Part II: Serpent Isle. It is this last project that we
concentrated on for the interview. The interview was great, and Serpent
Isle proves to be *much* more than just a rehash of a published game
engine.
A quick note on the questions:
We received so many great questions for Warren Spector, I simply
printed them all out in the order I received them and underlined the
ones we had time for. I've numbered the questions according to who
submitted or inspired them. Although I mentioned to Warren where
each question came from, it draws the written interview out a bit, so
at the end there will be a list contributors corresponding to the
numbered questions.
I showed up at Origin at 1:30, got a visitor badge and signed in at the
desk then went to the lounge to wait for Warren. He had a winningly
cheery voice on the phone, so I was at first expecting a 6'2" blond
salesman-type with too big a smile. What walked in was a brown-haired,
bearded friendly guy of medium build. I was still underlining questions,
so he played a game of Spy Hunter to kill a few minutes.
The first thing he showed me was the introductory movie and endgame for
Serpent Isle. The intro movie was spectacular. Completely 3D rendered
and smooth- oh, so smooth. It was very sweet. Denis Loubet modelled even
the human characters for this intro. And a wonderful ship- and wonderful
water. You'll flip over this thing. I know it's not part of the game,
but it very fun to watch. The voices are very good. The music (from a
Roland sound card) is totally engrossing. This intro made the U7 endgame
seem quite brief.
Warren then took me to his office (he didn't have a Roland card, and it
was a slightly slower machine) to show me the rest of the game. It was
quite impressive and absolutely huge. There have been many artistic
changes, are lots of new monsters, a complete overhaul of the inventory
system, larger and more photorealistic portraits, and a new combat gump
(those little windows that pop up) to make getting certain bits of
information faster. They made several improvements to the game engine to
enhance the speed up to 30% in some areas.
Unfortunately, from the little I saw, some serious drawbacks from the
Ultima VII engine still remained, including the slow scrolling speed when
walking, the constant disk access, the less-than-ideal combat system, and
the less-than-popular Voodoo Memory Manager. However, as Warren showed me
all that this new world had to offer, it was clear that the point of
Serpent Isle was to tell a neat, new story and this is likely going to be
received well by those who are looking for content over glitz.
Some interesting new additions included a Player Education Cave at the
beginning, sort of a playroom where you can learn how to interact with the
world. Another change was clear goals given immediately upon entrance to
this new land. The pictures of the 12 winners of the Ultima VII contest
are actually used in the game (obviously doctored a bit to put them in
proper costume). The portraits are now oval and easily twice the height
of the U7 ones, and they're nearly all digitized. And portraits can
change! You can collect tattoos in portraits are game which help you
speak to like-tattoo'd people. Also, much of the plot and setting of
Serpent Isle ties up loose ends that have been dangling as far back as
Ultima I. Also, you can pick any sex Avatar and choose from caucasian,
hispanic, or black races. This will be reflected in your actual character
on screen, as well as the portrait, inventory, and .. er .. sex scenes.
We'll get to that later.
After a healthy demo, we got to the questions. Here they are:
GB: (1) Will there be a 'female only' plot in Serpent Isle?
WS: Certainly not in Serpent Isle, although you'll notice that we're not
very particular what sex your Avatar is, now. In the love scenes in this
game (and it is an adult game), your partners are not particularly
interested in your sexual orientation.
GB: (1) Are there any motivations for guys to play female characters?
WS: Only personal ones. For variety's sake. There are some different
things that happen depending on if you're male or female.
GB: You say it's an adult game, would you say explicit?
WS: I wouldn't go so far as to say explicit with characters 16 pixels
tall, but there is some nudity in the game. There is a scene of a trist
between you and a female character, and you're discovered in flagrante
delicto and go on trial for various transgressions, and all sorts of
things happen for your .. uh .. activity.
GB: (2) How many people have worked on this game?
WS: It's varied over time, but it started out with 8 or 10 who did some of
the intial conceptualizing and basic work on the new technology that is in
the game. We have a team now of about 15 or so, and at its peak about 35.
My staff list is 53 total, so 53 people on and off. It was steady at 35
for a while. Scary. By far biggest project i've worked on.
GB: (2) Who does most of the plot details?
WS: I take a different approach from Richard. Rich has a strong
conception of what he wants in his story. I have basic ideas, but i like
to work on several projects. I was also doing Underworld II and Arthurian
Legends at the time. I gave guidelines to my project leader. One was,
"Get me off Britania." I didn't want Rich to ever say "that wouldn't
happen in Britania." I had several plot elements addressed concerning the
Great Earth Serpent and finding out what happened to Shamino's Land of
Danger and Despair. I said, "Give me a philosophical underpinning which
is equally valid but different." He went off with the writers and came
back with a proposal, and i bled all over that, they came back again, and
i bled some more. I can show you it in a sec, there's red ink everywhere.
It's great. Then that particular project leader left. It was funny- the
first pass at a plot was something called Pirates of Britania. It could
have been cool, but it wasn't quite a Britania adventure. It had a
Caribbean flavor involving witch doctors, and all kinds of neat stuff, but
he left. And another guy, a refugee of the paper game business like me,
Bill Armantrout, took his place.
GB: What is the "paper game business"?
WS: It's D&D, Gurps, Runequest, etc. Pen & paper roll-playing stuff.
Turns out Bill was a wonderful writer, a programmer, and pretty much a
natural leader, too. I wanted a much more traditional fantasy game, so
when I got Underworld I out of my hair, I said, "Lets go back to square
one." So we finally got a plot outline we really liked. By the time we
got done with that, we had a team of about 10 or 15 that were ready to
start work on it. So we started doing what I call "round robin design"
where a small portion of the plot is written up in some detail, and we
pass it around and everybody got to comment on it. Then Bill and I went
over all the comments and decided how we wanted it to work out. It worked,
and it didn't. It was very time consuming and I'm not sure if I'd do it
the same way again, but with a team as big as this one was, I needed to
make sure that everyone knew what we were doing and that everyone bought
into it, or I was afraid that it was going to splinter and break up. We
ended up with a very very detailed plot document. There's a shelf over
there which is all documentation for this game. Some of it is technical,
but there's a 3-inch binder which is just plot documentation. It was
necessary. The game was huge. Even with all the documentation, when we
got to implementation, people were making stuff up right and left all the
time.
GB: Tell me about your previous experience in the "paper business."
WS: I started in 1987 with Steve Jackson Games and I was the developer of
Toon. I love that game. It's still available 10 years later! Went to TSR
and eventually ended up being the supervisor of their game division.
GB: What was your major in college?
WS: Radio-Television-Film. I almost finished my PhD.
GB: Why didn't you?
WS: I always thought the actual process of making movies was kinda dull. I
saw all my friends going off for non-tenure-track positions at Podunk U.
What was the point? Especially when people were paying me to make games.
I've always loved games- always been a gamer. I could either teach and
make no money and worry about tenure, or I could make games. Didn't seem
like much of a choice. And the neat thing is that we are making movies
here. I wish I could show you the original intro to Serpent Isle- I mean
it was stunning! (He later did) There's stuff in there no one has ever
done in a computer game- ever. And when we get CD's, man, we're there! I
thought I wasted those 7 years in college, but I didn't- it's all coming
back.
GB: Do you wish you'd finished?
WS: In retrospect, I kinda wish I had. But circumstances were such that
the timing wasn't right.
GB: (2) Does Serpent's Isle feature more choices and/or less guidance in
the main plot than did Ultima 7?
WS: Well, we gave more guidance without forcing them in any direction. I
want people to have clear goals. I think the key to a good game is to not
let the player ever sit there and say, "Well ... wha .. what do I do now?"
GB: (2) Should we look for any New World's of Ultima games?
WS: Not under that title. For whatever reason, the Worlds didn't perform
up to expectations. That sort of bothered me because I came up with the
idea for Savage Empire then passed it onto another producer. I had
nothing to do with the game beyond the first 20-page design papers. That
was kind of my baby. Martian Dreams is still the best Ultima game ever. I
can say that because Serpent Isle isn't out yet. I'm really prejudiced,
but that game, with the one problem of too much damn walking around, did
everything I wanted it to do.
GB: What sets Martian Dreams apart from the others in your mind?
WS: I think what sets it apart is its grounding in reality. I wanted
historical characters in positions that they could find themselves. I
don't like terms like "edutainment," but you really could learn something.
It was an opportunity to bring Bly and Tesla and others that no one ever
seemed to hear of back into the limelight. Also there was a good balance
between combat and puzzle-solving. Once you got ability to teleport, the
pacing of the game was really good. Pacing is something i'm worried about
in SI. Is there too much walking around? Enough monsters? Too many?
It's kind of a crap shoot until you go into testing. I loved the
characters in MD and thought the pacing was good, too.
GB: Why was this called Part 2 instead of Part 3?
WS: Forge of Virtue was a benny. Someone realized that we could do it,
and so they did it. I was already well into SI. SI was conceived as a
direct continuation.
GB: Do you plan to go on with Ultima 8?
WS: No, Rich is still the Ultima Number guy. I understand he's giving
John Watson, the guy who did Forge of Virtue, more responsibility there.
GB: (2) Richard mentioned in a CompuServe conference that SI was intended
as the future setting of Ultima and that Britania was going to be retired.
WS: That's news to me. Actually, I've always seen SI as a kind of weigh
station. It was a place that would be cool to explore with a great story,
but I want to use it as a springboard to new worlds. Whether that's Earth
or Pagan doesn't matter to me. Of course it will always be there if we
want to come back to it, and I hope people will want to. Lemme get back
to Worlds of Ultima for a second. Because Martian Dreams and Savage
Empire didn't do as well as we wanted, we're still trying new approaches
to using Ultima technology to tell new stories. That's where the idea for
Arthurian Legends was conceived. Instead of going to weird places that
Warren wants to do games about, we're going to try one more experiment
which is to take recognizable traditional fantasy elements but having
nothing to do with the Ultima mythos.
GB: (3) A lot of people asked this- There was an "upset spectre named
Warren" in Ultima Underworld I. Was this something you knew about?
WS: No, the guys up at Blue Sky (now Looking Glass) did this. Either the
guys there really hated me or really liked me, but either way, there's
easter eggs like that in any game. I think they thought that would be
cute. In SI, there's one that involves Dallas Cheerleaders. In Martian
Dreams, there were ruby slippers you could use to go to Kansas. I was
quite amused by the spectre one.
GB: (4) What kind of graphics will be used in SI?
WS: 320x200x256 colors. Same perspective. Rich is changing the
perspective for Ultima 8. He's skewing it so that up is up instead of
being at an angle. It looks really good. (We later met Denis Loubet to
see this, and it does look quite gorgeous. It appears that the characters
will be totally rendered and much larger in Ultima 8. The camera angle is
trey cool.) It has some problems. You're going to miss the back half of
every house. One change we're making in SI is that we're going to be a
little more realistic than Ultima 7. The grass isn't flourescent green.
More detail.
GB: (4) Still uses the Voodoo Memory Manager?
WS: Yes it does. That is something I personally dearly would love to
change, but it's not in the cards right now.
GB: (4) Will you ever write Windows versions of these games?
WS: Almost certainly not. The problem is speed. Doing a Windows version
of an Ultima or Wing Commander game would just be bog-slow. So what we're
talking about now is doing games that are designed to run under windows
from the start, the stuff that doesn't need high-speed animation.
GB: (5) When did you first start working at Origin?
WS: April 12, 1989. I'm an old-timer. I think I was the 26th employee
down here in Austin. We were on half of one floor here. Now, we take up
all of one floor, all of another floor, and three separate suites in
another building. We're moving into a new building with 55,000 sq. feet,
slanty walls, primary colors, I mean it's going to be a great place to
play green guns (sorta like Laser Tag except it's still available).
GB: Did Richard have any influence in the building design?
WS: Let's just say Rich had a lot to do with it. It's definitely going to
be a showplace.
GB: (5) Is the character Dr. Spectre in Savage Empire/Martian Dreams meant
to be you?
WS: Well, yeah. And I'm in SI, too. I am the no-longer-evil-Dr.-Spectre-
-the- Avatar's-friend (tm). There are so many characters who are either
based on real people or look like real people. When you look at the
characters Shamino or Lord British, you're going to see Richard Garriott.
(That's true- the portraits look just like the real people now). When you
look at Spectre, you'll see me.
GB: Where'd your last name Spector come from?
WS: There's a story in my family that may or may not be true. My family
came from Estonia when it was under Soviet rule. There was some deal
where if you had more than one son, he was conscripted into the army. So
my great great grandfather changed one of his kid's last names. I have no
idea whether that story is true.
GB: (5) Well, we know what game engine SI will use- the Ultima VII one
with improvements, right?
WS: With improvements! Don't forget- paper dolling, the bigger
photographic portraits, more speed.
GB: (6) I quote the next question, because although I too was curious, it
was a little forward. "I'm interested to know what the pay scale for
producers is. I have heard that Warren gets paid a lot less than some
producers at Origin because he hired on early when Origin was in its
infancy."
WS: That must be my wife who asked that! Thank you, dear! To be honest,
one of the things I like about Origin is that no one talks about money. I
don't want to get into it, and no one at Origin gets into it. Let's just
leave that one alone and not talk about money. Origin producers in
general get paid less than producers on the West Coast.
GB: Is that going to change with EA having bought Origin?
WS: We've been told that will not change. It's just cheaper to live in
Austin than it is in S.F. or San Mateo. Origin is not a place to get
rich. It's a place to change the world and see stuff everyday that no one
has ever seen before, but it's not a place to get rich.
GB: (7) Will they create add-ons for SI or older Ultimas?
WS: There won't be add-ons for old Ultimas. You can probably count on
add-in disks (like Forge) for every future Ultima. Ultima 7 wasn't
designed to allow that. Ultima 8 is being designed from the start with
add-in disks in mind.
GB: (7) How does everyone at Origin feel about the EA buyout?
WS: Hey, so far so good. It's natural to be a little nervous when you are
"acquired", but they've really left us remarkably alone. I haven't
noticed any significant difference, except that we're getting lots of cool
t-shirts and there isn't as much arguing over small purchase requisitions.
It may reflect the deep pockets of EA or just the Christmas season. I
think everyone is real excited about it. They're cool people. When I
went out there, I found out they're basically just like us. And before I
perceived them from afar as towering monster things. It's like when I
left Steve Jackson Games and I found out everyone at TSR was just like me.
Same thing; when you're a little tiny company, you tend to think a big
company is made up of these big evil ogres. But no, it's been great.
GB: (8) Here's a "flame" as well call it on the net. It starts by
saying,
"This isn't a flame, but... I really enjoyed Ultima 7, but I was really
disappointed that Origin seemed to do its beta-testing with the consumers.
What are you doing to make sure that SI will be bug-free."
WS: First of all, it's never our intention to play-test with the
consumers. That's just not in anybody's best interests. The problem is
that our games are HUGE. There's no one who does games that are as large
and complex as what we do. That's not me talking as an Origin employee,
it's just that no one pushes the technology the way we do. There are a lot
of games out there, and I will not name names, but where people say, "Wow,
look at that!" And two days later, we'll have working prototypes that do
the same thing. I mean, we push the technology further than anyone else
around. When you do that, you're going to have bugs. We always try to do
the best we can. We don't rush products, but you never have as much
testing as you want. We have had some problems in the past, there's no
denying it. Will SI be bug free? No. I mean, you just sort of resign
yourself to that. We have a QA staff of 17 people. We have 12 people
playing 8-12 hours a day of SI. All we can do is all we can do. I think
one example of Origin's commitment to shipping clean games is Underworld
II. There was a version which would have made Christmas. When it got to
the final stage of sign-off, everybody said, we think we could ship this
one, but let's take some more time to be sure. Just to be sure! We
missed Christmas- capital letters- WE MISSED CHRISTMAS. That's a BIG
deal. Is Underworld II bug-free? No, of course not. I genuinely think
that it's impossible to ship a game that's bug-free. One thing we did do
on UW II is that we started using out-of-house testing firms. Before
people start screaming, "Oh- me me me me!", this is a professional testing
firm, not individuals who want to play the game. We're not quite ready to
take that step yet. I hope we use them more than we have in the past.
They have a really good adversarial relationship with the producers. They
make their money by making us look bad, and that's exactly the sort of
thing we need. The guys in the QA department have to get bored and are
going to start to cut corners after playing it for weeks. That's human
nature. The guys out-of-house are fresh, still hate us, have nothing to
loose by pissing us off.
GB: (9) Where does the Ultima get their storyline?
WS: I don't have a clue. We watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books.
We're wacky creative guys. You sit in a room with enough weird people,
and ideas start coming. This is the highest stress place I've ever
worked, and yet it's the best place I've ever worked. There aren't many
places where you can but your feet up on a desk and say, "Hmmm. Shoud
that dragon be red or green?" Sometimes we'll go out and see a movie, and
say, "Gosh, we've gotta do a game like that." There's a movie I want to
do so bad I can taste it. The inspiration for it is a movie named "Hard-
boiled" by John Wu. I had a vague tickling of an idea for a game, and
when I saw that movie, it all crystalized. We suck stuff in from the
culture around us.
GB: (10) Will SI be as dark or darker and more forboding than Ultima 7?
WS: It is certainly not a Happy,Happy-Joy,Joy kind of game. I don't think
it is quite as dark as U7. That was Rich's phase he was going through or
something. SI is still an adult game.
GB: (11) Here someone asks about the paper-doll inventory. Will it look
like the screenshots?
WS: No. I'm ashamed of those screen shots now. It's much nicer. The
other thing is that the inventory gump now has a button which you can
press to pop up a combat gump.
GB: Why do you call them "gumps"?
WS: I dunno. They're little window-like things. Most of the game was
written in AGIL, an in-house language for conversations and usecode. AGIL
stands for Another Goofy Interpretive Language. Funny-Little-Acronyms-R-
Us.
GB: (12) When is an enhanced CD version of this game going to come out?
WS: Ultima 7 does not lend itself to CD's as they exist right now. That's
because we hit the hard drive ALL the time. The engine hits the hard
drive constantly. It would just be painfully slow playing off a CD. We
may use it as a delivery medium. That's more of a marketing decision. We
prefer doing Wing Commander games, for example, because you can play them
from the CD. When are we going to go CD-happy? It can't happen too soon.
I would kill to be able to ship the 21 Mb intro to SI that some people saw
at the trade shows. I would love to a whole game that does that. We were
doing stuff like match cuts with overlapping action. They've been doing
that in Hollywood since 1910. We can't do it on computers because we
don't have the storage capacity. We had stuff like that in the original
intro all over the place. CD's bring 'em- we want 'em. Buy 'em!
GB: (13) Has the problem of almost continual disk access been solved?
WS: No. It has not been solved.
GB: (13) Has the jerky motion of the screen when you're moving fast been
solved?
WS: We've gotten some speedup of the engine. Our benchmarks say that
you'll get up to a 30% speed increase. Is it a speed demon? No, but it
is somewhat faster than the original engine. Believe me, we all feel that
painfully, but we've done the best we could. You're still going to be
hitting that disk a lot.
GB: (13) Did the combat intelligence of your partners increased? Was the
light sourcing algorithm changed?
WS: Answer to both is no. We would have had to go really deep into the
engine to mess with the combat code. Our mission was not to mess with the
engine but to tell a neat new story. The lightsourcing I thought was
pretty good. There are certainly problems. When going into a dungeon,
finding a torch if you don't already have one can be a real pain. We came
up with ways to deal with that which were appropriate in each context.
GB: (13) The screenshots of the intro reminded me of the KQ6 intro. Is
the 3D modelled animation done at Origin?
WS: That's in house. Our entire art department is the best in the
business. I'm absolutely convinced of that, and no one is going to sway
me. Our senior artist, Denis Loubet, is brilliant. He can do things on a
PC that the guys at SIGGRAPH with their Suns and SGI's say can't be done.
He does it routinely. He's immensely talented. We do storyboards. He
routinely trashes them and makes them better. In Wing Commander, I did
the original shot breakdowns. Chris Roberts, Jeff George, Denis Loubet,
and I sat on that balcony right there and went over the storyboard stuff,
and I might as well have just thrown mine away. Denis just started
sketching and I'm going, "Oh yeah. Oh yeah." I mean, I've taught people
how to make movies- I did that in grad school, and he's just got a real
flare for that stuff. We did pretty much the same thing with Serpent
Isle. He built this amazing boat model. Then we said, we also need
water. And he said, "Well, you can't really model water." So we said, "Oh
sure you can, Denis." So he did it and came back with water.
Unfortunately, animating modelled water takes up immense amounts of
diskspace. Then we asked for a modelled guy. I didn't want to rotoscope
him. So two days later, he came back and there he was. The guys in the
SI intro *never existed*. They were all in Denis' mind. Richard saw
those, and now he's going to use little modelled guys throughout Ultima 8.
I think that's so cool. Denis is a genius.
GB: (13) Does Serpent's Isle take place before or after Underworld II?
WS: Here's the the sequence: it's Ultima 7: The Black Gate. Then
Underworld II takes place a year later on the aniversery of the defeat of
the Guardian. Serpent Isle takes place 6 months after that. 18 months
after Ultima 7, you're ready for Serpent Isle.
GB: (13) Where exactly does Serpent Isle exist?
WS: Frankly, we didn't want to answer that. At various times when the
moons of Britania and the sun are in the right position, these huge
pillars rise out of the sea. The original intro animation for this was
great. The pillars would come up, and the water would roil and boil, and
water would be dripping off of them and everything. (It was awe-
inspiring). If you sail through them at that time, you like go to another
dimension. Where is Britania in realtion to Earth? Well, who knows?
GB: (14) What sort of technical breakthroughs are here?
WS: The paper-dolling. Our mission wasn't really technical breakthroughs
here. It was to tell a neat story. We compensated for that by making a
MUCH bigger world than Ultima 7. I think Ultima fans appreciate that epic
scope.
GB: (14) How much space on the disk drive does it take?
WS: Probably a meg or two more than Ultima 7. Probably about 22/23 Mb.
GB: (14) What new peripherals are supported?
WS: Same as Ultima 7.
GB: (14) When will it ship?
WS: Now there's a question. I'll give you the same answer that I give
upper management, which believe me, asks on a daily basis. How many bugs
are there in the game? You tell me. There's one legitimate task to do-
to get the endgame music into the endgame. And that should be today or
tomorrow. After that, we're doing nothing but debugging. My guess is
late February.
GB: (14) What kind of memory requirements are there?
WS: About 575k of lower RAM. And it's Voodoo, so 2 Megs of memory total.
It's a big game. Buy lots of 486's!
GB: (14) When will there be an Ultima where the conversations are totally
speech and not text?
WS: *sigh* The sooner the better. My guess is probably a couple of years
away. It will probably involve CD's. It could happen this year. But
it'll probably be '94.
GB: (14) When will we see SVGA games?
WS: There are proposals on the table now for 640x480x256 colors. Frankly,
games that don't use SVGA in the years to come aren't going to make it.
GB: (14) What about multiplayer games?
WS: Doubt it for the near future, but some proposals on the desk have to
have it. I'd say next year at the earliest.
GB: (14) What are the premises for the next to Ultima games, 8 and 9?
WS: Talk to Richard. He's the Ultima Number guy.
GB: (14) Has EA had any involvement in the planning, development, or
approval of Origin games?
WS: Not so far. They've left us pretty much to our own devices.
GB: (14) Forge of Virtue was kind of a strange product. Is there anything
similar going to come out for Serpent Isle?
WS: It's certainly been thought of. It's a sales thing. If SI does well,
we'll be able to do it. We've got two good proposals for one already.
The setting for one is Earth, the other isn't.
GB: (14) And a last loaded question from our beloved Editor: What do you
think about Game Bytes?
WS: I think GB is swell. I have the first seven issues. I love the
screenshots and am very impressed with it. I think it has much better
perspectives on games than the glossy magazines.
Well, that was the interview. Warren was very friendly and talkative and
seemed really excited about the work they're doing. Expect some creative
games from this guy.
With that, we wrapped up the interview. Warren took me to the room where
they edit the world of Serpent Isle. It had a master computer which
stored the world and acted as a sort of world control system, where slave
machines could check out little pieces to edit and then check back in.
The editor was at least as elaborate as the game itself and took almost as
long to write.
We then went to visit Denis Loubet to see this wonderful 21 Mb intro which
couldn't be shipped with the game because of its size. Suffice it to say
that it knocked my socks off. When you see the intro which ships with the
game, try to imagine yourself much closer to the action, with hundreds
more details flooding your vision and animation so smooth the 320x200
resolution seems like something more. And the pillars rizing from the sea
are just plain flattening.
We also took a look at the perspective that Ultima 8 will be played from.
Place the camera about 10 feet south and 45 degrees up from the main
character, facing north, and you'll get an idea of what we were looking
at. The character is 3d rendered and can walk in 8 directions. If I get
the chance, expect Loubet to be the next target of my tape recorder!
Here is the list of kind people who submitted questions for the interview
(thanks!):
(1) Liz Stokes, New York, New York (USA)
(2) Daniel Starr, New Haven, Connecticutt (USA)
(3) Sean O'Rourke, San Antonio, Texas (USA)
(4) Michael McCarthy, Dublin (Ireland)
(5) Hades Kong, Melbourne (Australia)
(6) Nadine Miller, College Station, Texas (USA)
(7) Alan Stewart, Burnaby, British Columbia (Canada)
(8) Kevin Kramer, Eagen, Minnesota (USA)
(9) T. H. Brian Chung, Ithaca, Ney York (USA)
(10) Trent Richards, British Columbia (Canada)
(11) "Alexx," Dorchester, Massachusetts (USA)
(12) Unknown
(13) Richard Wyckoff, Portland, Maine (USA)
(14) Ross Erickson, Alabama (USA)
This interview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Game Bytes Magazine. All rights
reserved.
GAME BYTES INTERVIEW WITH RON GILBERT OF HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT
GB: First off, Ron, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule
there at Humongous to "talk" with us at Game Bytes. Since your departure
at LucasArts and the genesis of Humongous, many of our readers would like
to know what you've been up to and what's going on in your gaming life
now. We appreciate your willingness to share your insights with us.
I think many of us would like to know some about your background Ron.
Tell us how you got into gaming.
RG: I started in computers back before there were personal computers.
When I was in junior high school, my father brought home a HP-64
programmable calculator. From that point on, I was hooked on programming.
I spent hours getting that little machine to scroll number across its LED
display.
Soon after that we got what was one of the first personal computers, a
S-100 bus North Star CP/M machine. I bought a very simple graphics card
and proceeded to program my own versions of the then very popular Atari
VCS games. From there I moved to the Commodore PET computer and then
onto the Commodore C64. It was on the C64 that I got my first break into
the world of "professional" programming. I started to hack the C64 ROMs
and figured out how the BASIC interpreter worked. From there I wrote an
extension to the C64's BASIC that added graphics commands (sorely missing
from C64 BASIC). I sent my version of GRAPHICS BASIC to one of the
largest software publishers at the time; Human Engineered Software (HES).
They bought GRAPHICS BASIC and offered me a job. I took the job and
moved from my home town in Oregon to California. Six months later, Human
Engineered Software went bankrupt. I was left without a job and never
made a dime from the (quite large) sales of GRAPHICS BASIC. I moved back
to Oregon and began pondering my next move. Just as I had given up on a
career in the computer industry, I got a call from the General Manager of
Lucasfilm Games. They were looking for someone to convert one of their
Atari 800 games to the C64. I set up an interview, packed everything I
had into my car and moved back to California. I began work at Lucasfilm
in March of 1985 and was there for 7 years.
GB: You were with LucasArts for quite a while producing exceptional
adventures? Why the move 'out'?
RG: I read in a computer game magazine that I got into a big fight with
George Lucas, stormed out of his office and quit to start my own company.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. My decision to leave
Lucasfilm (now called LucasArts) was a very hard one to make. I had
invested a great deal of myself into the company (in the form of the SCUMM
system and my games) and was not looking forward to leaving everything,
including my friends, behind. I always wanted to start my own company and
was beginning to feel that it was the time to do. I had created enough of
a name for myself in the games' business that I could raise money and find
distribution. I talked this over with the General Manager of Lucasfilm
Games and was very pleased to find that he supported what I wanted to do.
We worked out a deal where I could use the SCUMM system for my own games
and I would continue to support and upgrade the system. I was very
excited that I would be able to continue to work with Lucasfilm.
GB: Will we ever see a Monkey Island 3 from you? Does LucasArts now
retain the rights to a potential third installment? We want more!
RG: I am afraid that I don't own the rights to Monkey Island. I don't
know if LucasArts plans on doing a Monkey 3 in the future or not. Sorry.
GB: Tell us about Humongous. What is the philosophy of the company and
how did it come to be?
RG: Humongous Entertainment was founded by Shelley Day (a producer at
Lucasfilm) and myself in March 1992. Our goal? To create a small company
that is very dedicated to producing high-quality games. To start with, we
will be concentrating on (big surprise here) adventure games. The
advantage small companies have over larger ones is the ability to move in
new directions quickly. Hardware standards change rapidly and being able
to adapt to new platforms and trends is important. Another trend that
you'll notice is most of the successful companies were started by people
who love to make games, and Humongous' main goal is to make great games.
If we do that, the money will follow.
GB: Your first product, Putt Putt, is obviously aimed at young children.
Will future products strictly be focused on this same audience?
RG: This question brings up an interesting point. Although I agree with
you that Putt-Putt is aimed at young children, I don't think its appeal
ends there. My goal in doing Putt-Putt was to create a really great
adventure game, never mind that the theme is geared towards children. I
would put Putt-Putt (as a game and a piece of entertainment) up against
any other adventure game on the market today. There are going to be many
people who will never see Putt-Putt because they'll assume it's a kid's
game and therefore of no interest to them. It was a real struggle, when
we uploaded the Putt-Putt demo to CompuServe, to get people to try it.
Finally, someone downloaded the demo and was so impressed that he wrote a
long raving review and urged people to take a look. I think that, along
with my reputation for Monkey Island, piqued people's curiosity. Putt-
Putt is one of those games that once you get it into someone's hands (kids
and adults) they become mesmerized by it. Its only downfall for
experienced game players is the short play time. Also notice that I said
"experienced game players," not "adults." Putt-Putt has gotten an
incredible response from adults who haven't played computer games. For
them, it's enough of a challenge as is.
But I guess to answer your real questions, Humongous will be producing
several games aimed at grown-ups.
GB: What products will be produced from Humongous for the 12 - 120 age
group?
RG: Right now, we have one game in development (or should I say design).
I can't say too much about it except that it is a fantasy adventure and
it's going to blow you away.
GB: What's your advice to someone wanting to break into the gaming
industry? From your perspective, what are the skills that are in high
demand for a job in this industry?
RG: There are two kinds of people I look for (please don't send me
resumes). One kind is people who are very good programmers - they know
PCs inside and out. I look for programmers that eat, sleep, and drink
computers. Games tend to push computers further than most other types of
software and we need people who really know how to pull off the "tricks".
If you're interested in breaking into this industry, you better know low-
level programming. The second kind of people that are needed (very badly)
are those who have a good sense of game design, writing and the dramatic.
As this industry moves away from techno-feats and more into the mass-
market, pushing pixels around the screen faster then the next guy isn't
going to guarantee success. People are going to want to be entertainment
and it takes a very special type of person to pull that off.
GB: Tell us about your vision for the future of gaming? What do you see
becoming new and important in the industry?
RG: I see the future of gaming to be more "mass-market". People are
constantly becoming more accepting of computers in their homes, and more
intrigued about what they can do. What I think we'll find is that this
larger, mass audience wants a different type of game. If we're going to
capture, rather than turn off, this audience we need to re-think what a
game is. More on this in the next answer.
GB: What are the limitations you see in the gaming market that prevent
much more widespread acceptance in homes? Are we destined to all play our
games on a Sega or a Nintendo in the future?
RG: The biggest problem with games today is that they are being designed
by geeks for geeks. I hate to be blunt about it, and I also don't mean
it as an insult, it's just the market of today. The games industry is
considered a "hobbyist market", made up of a small group of people that
are very well-informed and very technically inclined. Technology drives
most of the successful games today; the average "mass-market" consumer
isn't as interested in technology, they want an experience and today's
games don't deliver. Today's games have reached such a high level of
complexity that they have out-run any entry-level person. That was one of
the reasons that I put an easy mode into Monkey Island 2, and it was still
way beyond the mass-consumer. If the games industry of going to reach the
mass-market, they need to completely re-evaluate the experience they are
selling.
GB: Many keep proclaiming "this year" as the year for multimedia and CD-
ROM. What is your take on this technology? Is it here yet? Will you be
delivering CD-ROM products in the future? What will be unique about them?
RG: CD-ROM is a joke. I'll say it. No one else will, even though I know
a lot of other people agree with me. What is CD-ROM? It's a very large,
very slow floppy drive, and nothing more. I was making my rounds of the
local computer stores when I happened upon a man looking at a demo of a
recently released adventure game. The company that makes this game put
the demo, and several other demos, on a CD-ROM and sent it to stores for
display. This man watched (very ordinary 256 color VGA graphics) and
proclaimed that the CD-ROM was "amazing...just look at those graphics."
CD-ROM has nothing to do with graphics, except that you can store a lot of
them. People have been fed a line about CD-ROM and multimedia, so they
think it is something special. If it's so special, why hasn't anyone done
anything special with it?
CD-ROM's biggest drawback, and in my opinion, its death, is the speed at
which you can get at information. The CD-ROM is twice as fast as a floppy
disk and 5 times slower than a cheap hard-drive. The other drawback is
the amount of storage it has. Right now everyone is excited that you can
store thousands of still pictures and hours of digital dialogue, but 500
Megabytes is nothing if you want to store full motion video. If the CD-
ROM is going to ever fulfill its promises, it will need to store 5 times
as much information and run 10 times faster. The problem is that as our
technology increases, so do our expectations. Just about the time we got
1.4meg floppies, we also got VGA and digital audio, so we're right back
were we started. This isn't to say that we aren't any better off than we
were with 360K floppies and CGA, but don't expect miracles from CD-ROM.
GB: What about SVGA (640x480x256 or higher) resolution support? Are you
going to do it?
RG: I doubt very many people will be supporting 640x480x256 in the
adventure game market. There is just too much memory to move around, even
for today's 486's. I know there are a lot of game players that are dying
to see it, and there will be a few companies that will do it, but don't
expect it to be the norm. I would much rather concentrate on getting full
screen, full motion animation and high quality sound and speech. You have
to realize that TV is only 511 pixels across.
GB: You chose to have your products distributed by Electronic Arts. Why
EA and not distribute them yourselves or through a different publisher?
RG: One of the goals for Humongous Entertainment is to have complete
freedom to do what we want, and the only way to do that is to be a
publisher of our own games. As the publisher, we are responsible for
every aspect of the game, from the design, to the marketing. As for
distributing the games ourselves, that is something we will eventually do,
but it takes a large body of products before you can do that. It would be
very difficult to get buyers and large store chains to take you seriously
with only one game from a completely new company. The risk would be too
high for them. They want to know you're going to be in business long
enough for them to return all your games that didn't sell.
GB: There are a number of new and very innovative sound cards out on the
market today, like the Gravis Ultrasound. Will you be directly supporting
these cards in your products?
RG: I currently license my sound drivers from another company that seems
dedicated to supporting every sound card on the market, so I'm sure I will
be supporting most of the new sound cards.
GB: As a developer, what resolution to the operating system wars that are
going on would you like to see? Beyond the obvious memory constraints of
DOS, what other issues affect you as a producer of game software?
RG: What I would like to see is a very nice interactive game machine that
hooks to your TV and doesn't run DOS, Windows or System 7. As any game
developer will tell you, the first thing their program does is shut down
as much of the operation system as it can and starts accessing the
hardware. The only real problem with DOS is the 640K limit, but EMS and
going to 386 protected mode solves most of these, so I've got say that
considering how bad it could be, I'm really pretty happy.
GB: Wow, sounds like you've almost described the new 3DO system! Our
time is short, Ron, and we must cut this off for now. Once again, thanks
for taking the time to let us in on this important part of your life. We
anxiously look forward to your new 'creations'.
RG: My pleasure.
This interview is Copyright (C) 1993 by Game Bytes Magazine. All rights
reserved.
ED. - Notes on finishing the final mission for Terminator 2029.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Will sombody post here or me a semi-walk through (locations of cards etc)
for the final mission (the one in Skynet)
The final mission for destroying Skynet is obviously very difficult.
Difficult enough that I personally can not give you the exact locations
of the keys to access the security sections. But here are some hints to
look for:
1. Go slowly down the the corridors so that you won't get seriously
injured as well as destroy a reasonable amount of opponents.
2. Go to the security levels where the locked corridors are.
3. When you go there, you have to go to the back end of the halls.
These halls lead to other sections with various rooms to enter
and exit.
4. What you have to look for are the security emplacements that
hang from the ceiling. These indicate that the key that leads
to the reactor relays is near by. The one I remember best is
the Alpha relay. It lies dies north of the gun emplacement.
It is heavily defended and is the most difficult to obtain.
5. You have to go play a lot of hide-and-seek with the machines.
6. You may at times have to hide in a nearby room to repair your-
self, before going on.
7. When you get into each security corridor, use your automap to
find the relay. It is like a maze in there, so procede care-
fully.
8. When you reach the relay, lay down a proximity mine and back
off. When you do that, there will be another key laying
in the relay's place. This key enables you to leave the
corridor. Check your inventory to see what I mean.
9. Remember to play hide-and-seek with the enemy. Repair damage
when you can. You have the time.
10. When all relays are destroyed, return to level with the reactor
11. Lay down the fuse and RUN.
12. Don't bother to destroy enemies, just head for the elevator.
13. On the first level, just run straight through no matter if you
are being fired upon. Remember you have thirty seconds.
14. If you did all of what I said then you should by fine. And
CONGRADULATIONS on destroying SKYNET.
>Also what does everybody think is the ultimate combination of weapons?
When I completed the game I used the following configuration:
LArm : Armour
RA : Armour
RShoulder : 100-WATT PPC
LS : COM-TECH repair unit
RWaist : AUTODOC
LW : Thermolite
Using this configuration, I used the PPC and the Thermolite together when
I wasn't damaged. If I were seriously damaged, I took a defensive position
in a nearby room or place I have open field of fire on approaching enemies
and switched the thermolite with the COM-TECH for repairs (or used AUTODOC
if I was dying).
This is a very hard and long mission. The time it took me to finish it
was 2 hours.
Don't be discouraged when playing it. If you are careful, use the
automap feature, and are quick with your reflexes, you will be fine.
HAVE FUN and enjoy the END GRAPHICS.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Rafael the Ravager. All rights
reserved.
Solution to the Secret of Monkey Island by LucasArts Games.
Solution by Lee Beng Hai
This solution only touches on the essentials in the game. You may want
to try out other possibilities not written here.
Part One - The Three Trials
You must complete three trials in order to prove that you are fit to be a
pirate. The three trials are:
Mastering the sword
You will need to get a sword. Find someone to train you. Then challenge
the swordmaster. Mastering the art of thievery
You need to steal the idol of many hands from the governor's mansion.
Treasure hunting
You need to get the map to the treasure and get a shovel. Then go and dig
for the treasure.
Walk to the Scumm Bar. Open the door and get inside Talk to the pirates
inside to find out about the situation on the island. Talk to the
important looking pirates and they will tell you about the three trials.
When the cook is serving the pirates. Get inside the kitchen. Get the
meat, and the pot. Chase the bird away by rocking the plank. When it fly
away, get the fish.
Now, walk to the cliffside to the outpost. Walk to theth outside the
village. You will see map with a figure representing Threepwood. Go to
the clearing. You will find a circus there. Go inside and you will find
two brothers quarreling. Talk to the Fettucini Brothers. They will ask
you to perform a dangerous feat. When ask whether you have brought a
helmet, show them the pot you found in the kitchen. Go ahead and do the
feat, you will beid 478 pieces of eight.
Now that you have enough money, go back to the village. Walk along the
street until you found a man with arrot. Buy the map from him. Talk to
the three men standing in front of a rat. Take the minute if theyy you 2
pieces of eight.
Walk to the voodoo house. It is in one of the house between the man with
therrot and the three men with a rat. Walk inside and get the rubber
chicken. Walk to the right and talk to the voodoo man inside. Ask him
about you fortune.
Go to the old man shop. It is the first house you will find after you
walkss the archway under the clock. Press the bell if he is not around.
Get the sword and shovel. Pay the required amount to the old man before
you leave. The shopkeeper only sell certain items when do certain things.
So, after some encounter, you might want to return here again.
Go outside the village. Walk to the bridge. Give the fish to the troll
so that you may ss. You might want to talk to the troll before you give
him the fish.
Go to the house. Open the door and talk to the one eye jack. Pay him the
fee required to learn sword fighting. Show him the sword you have bought.
After many hours of training, you will learn how to fight.
In this game, sword fighting skill is dependent on how well you can insult
your opponent as well as responding correctly to an insult. You will
begin with a few insults and responds. As you come across other insults
and responds, they will be added to your own list. So what you should do
now is to fight with all those pirates that are moving around on the map.
Just put yourself near the fork and they will automatically look for you.
There is no need for you to go after them. Make sure you remember the
correct responds. If you find a new insult, you should use as soon as
possible so that you will know its correct responds. The better insults
are listed at the top of your list. After you have won enough battle.
You can then seek the swordmaster.
Go to the fork. Take the following th to reach the swordmaster.
North. You should see a plant with yellow flowers. Pick up the flowers.
North. East. East. West. North. You should see a sign post. Push it
to lower the bridge. Cross the bridge and you will find the swordmaster.
Once the swordmaster is found, you can go there directly from the map.
You will need to respond to her insult correctly for five times before you
can defeat her. Choose the correct responds from those you have gathered.
Try until you have defeated her. Once defeated, her will give you
something to prove her defeat.
Go back to the village and go to the governor's house. The mansion is
guarded by deadly piranha poodles. Use the yellow petal on the meat. The
meat will become drugged. Give the meat with condiment to the dogs.
After they fell asleep, get inside the mansion. Open the door inside the
mansion and you will get into the fight. This sequence is automatic, so
sit back watch the cut screen. Check your inventory after the fight, a
few items will be added to it. You will need a file in order to get the
idol.
Go to the prison and talk to prisoner. You will find that he will need
some breadth refreshers. Go back to the shopkeeper and this time you can
buy the breadth mints from him. Get the breadth mints and give it to the
prisoner. Ask him for the file, he will then ask you for some rat
repellent. Give the gopher repellent you found in the mansion to the
prisoner and he will give you a carrot cake in return. Use (eat) the
cake. There is a file inside.
Now, go back to the mansion to get the idol. Jump into the gaping hole
and you will get into another fight. After getting the idol. Talk to the
sheriff. The governor will appears and chase the sheriff away. Talk to
her (if you could). After she left, open the door to get outside the
mansion. The sheriff will be waiting for you. You will be then be thrown
into the sea by the sheriff. Inside the water, get idol and then walk up.
Talk to the governor on the docks.
Go to the Scumm Bar and talk to important pirates. Tell them your
progress.
Now go the the fork again. This time you will need to find the lost
treasure. Take the following path. North. You should see yellow
flowers. West. You will find a campsite here. Take the left th to the
north. West. North. West. You should see a skeleton here. North.
North. East. West. North. You should find a place full of red flowers.
East. You will find an 'X' on the ground. Use the shovel on the 'X' to
get the treasure.
Return to the village. You see the ghost ship sailing away. Talk to the
cook. He will tell you that the governor was kidnaped by the ghost
pirate, LeChuck. Now, you must find a ship and get a crew of three to go
after the ghost ship.
Go to the Scumm Bar. Pick up all the five mugs that are on the tables.
Go to the kitchen. Use the mug with the barrel which contains grog. The
grog inside is very corrosive and thus a mug will not hold the grog for
long. When the mug is near dead, use it with another mug. You got no time
to loose now, so better hurry up. Find the shortestth to the prison.
Change the mugs on the way. When you reach the prison. Use the melting
mug on the lock to melt it. Ask the prisoner to join your crew. If the
mug is dead before you switch, go back to the bar and try again. Don't
worry, you can always get new mugs in the bar.
Go to the swordmaster place. Ask her to join you. She will agree and ask
you to meet her at the docks.
Walk outside the village and go to the shore. Use the rubber chicken on
the cable to reach the island. The man, Meathook will ask you to take a
test. The test is quite simple. Touch the beast and he will join you.
Go to the place where you find lights. You can find Stan's Used Ship
Emporium there. Talk to Stan. Make sure you mention about buying the
ships on credit. Well, you might want to look through all the ships but
you will not be able to any single one of them. Before you leave, he will
give you a business card.
Now go the the shopkeeper house. You might want to save the game at this
moment. Ask him to get a note of credit for you. He will open the safe
and get the note. Watch how he open the safe. When you are sure of the
correct combination (Note that the combination is different when you start
another game. So, it is not possible to write it down in this solution)
If you miss the combination, go outside and come back again. The
shopkeeper will repeat the sequence again. When you are sure of the
combination, Ask him to look for the swordmaster. Open the safe while he
is away. Get the note of credit from the safe.
Walk outside the village. Go the the Used Ship Emporium. Talk to the
man. Buy the Sea Monkey from him with the note of credit. Make sure you
do your bargaining with him. You can do away with all the extra in order
to cut price. Start your offer with the minimum amount and gradually
increases. When you bought the ship, he will give you a magnetic coss.
Go back to the village. Your crews and ship will be waiting for you to
set sail.
Part Two - The Journey
After your conversation with the crew. You will find yourself in the
captain's room. Get feather pen, ink. Open drawer and get the dusty
book. Read the book carefully, it gives hints as to how to reach the
Monkey Island.
Walk to deck. Talk to crew. Walk to rope ladder. Get the Jolly Roger
(pirate flag) on top.
Go down to the deck. Walk to the hatch behind the crew. You will find
another hatch that led to the store and a door that led to the kitchen.
Walk to kitchen. Get pot. Open cupboard, get cereal. Open cereal to get
the prize. Look at the prize, it's a small key! Go down the second hatch
to the store room. Open the chest to get the fine wine. Get the giant
coil of rope. Open the kegs to get gunpowder.
Go the captain's room. Open the cabinet with the small key. Open the
chest inside the cabinet to get a recipe and some cinnamon sticks. Read
the recipe.
Go to the kitchen. It's time to get rid of all the redundant stuff in
your inventory. Use the pot with the followings:
minutes note business card feather pen cereal piece ofper Jolly Roger ink
breath mints fine wine 100% cotton T-shirt T-shirt rubber chicken staple
remover small key dusty book cinnamon sticks gunpowder
The pot will explode and release a voodoo spell that will bring the ship
to the Monkey Island. Note that not all items are necessary to be thrown
into the pot. You do it just to reduce your inventory list. So throw in
the gunpowder only when you have got rid of all the redundant items.
Don't worry, any items that could be thrown into the pot is not important.
Use the map on the red hot fire to get a flaming mass. Go to the store
room to get more gunpowder. Go to the deck. Use the gunpowder in the
cannon nozzle. Use the rope on the cannon to serve as a fuse. Now, use
the pot as a helmet. Light the cannon and sent yourself to Monkey Island.
Part Three - Under Monkey Island Some explanations
The island can be assess by clicking at the crosshair to move your
character. When move to a place of interest, its name will be shown. The
names of location used here are exactly those used in the game. When in
doubt, move around until the appropriate place is found.
The cannon will sent you to the beach. Pick up banana.
Go to the fort to the western side of the island. Push cannon. Get
cannon ball. Get gunpowder. Get rope. Get spyglass. Talk to Herman
Toothrot.
Go to river fork. Pick up stone under note. Look at the stone, it's a
piece of flint. Climb up the hill with the footholds. At the middle of
the hill, you will find a catapult. You can push/pull it to adjust its
aim. Go to the hill top. Use the spyglass. If you don't see the banana
tree, go down and adjust the catapult again. Do it until you have the
banana tree on target. Push the rock to activate the catapult. A message
will be shown if you hit the banana tree. If your hit is not successful.
Pick up another rock from the heap of rock and try again. Hitting the
tree will cause the bananas to drop. You can collect it later on when you
go to the beach. Go down the hill.
Go to the pond at the end of the dry river bed. You will find a man
hanging on the tree. There is a coil of rope on his hand. So, in order
to get the rope. Go back to the river fork. Walk to dam. Use gunpowder
on dam. Use the flint on the cannon ball to produce a rk. This will blow
up the dam and release the water. Go back to the pond, the log will be
floating and the dead body is on the ground. Get the rope from the dead
body.
Go to the crack. There is air of oars at the bottom. Tie the rope on the
strong branch. Go down the rope. Tie the other rope on the sturdy stump.
Climb down to get the oars.
Go the beach with the banana tree. Pick up the bananas. Use the oars on
the boat. Now, you can travel by sea to the northernrt of the island.
Note that you must land your boat on a beach before you can travel on
foot.
Go to the village to the north. Walk to the giant head to the left. Pick
up the bananas on the fruit bowl. Walk out of the village. You will be
stopped by three cannibals. Talk to them. They will then lock you inside
their guest room. Inside hut, get skull. Open the loose board underneath
the skull. The hole will let you get out of the village.
Go to the forest north of the beach with the banana tree to find the
monkey. Look at the monkey. Give all the five bananas to the monkey.
This will make him happy and follows you. When successful you will find a
gray dot following you wherever you go. If you happen to lose sight of
him, go back to look for him. (This only happened when you travel by
boat)
Go to the clearing at the eastern end of the island. Make sure the monkey
is following you. Walk to totem pole. Move the cursor around until you
find the nose on the totem pole. Pull the nose to open the gate. The
monkey will then pull the nose for you so that you can go near the
Gigantic Monkey's Head. Pick up the wimpy little idol. Look at idol.
Go back to the village. Give the idol to the cannibals. They will then
be friendly to you. Walk to the hut where you were taken to the other
time. This time the door is opened. Get the banana picker. Walk to the
right. The hermit Toothrot will be waiting for you. Give him the banana
picker and he will give you the monkey head key. Exit the village and
come back again. The cannibals will talk to you. Give them the leaflet.
They will give you the navigator's head and necklace.
Go to the Gigantic Monkey Head. Use the key the dig the Gigantic Monkey
Ear to open the Monkey Head. This will open the Gigantic Monkey Head.
Walk inside the Monkey Head. Use the navigator's head. It's nose will be
pointing to the correct direction. Follow it until you have found the
ghost ship.
Don't go inside the ship yet. Talk to the navigator's head. Ask him
until he agreed to give you the necklace. Wear the necklace before you
enter the ghost ship. It will make you invisible to the ghosts.
Go to the captain's room. Use the magnetic coss on the key. Walk to the
deck. Climb down the hatch. You will be in the bedroom. Walk to the
passage to the right. You will find some ghost chickens there. Get the
ghost feather. Unlock the hatch with the key. Go down and you will find
yourself surrounded by rats. You will need to get something in order to
getss the rats. Go back to the bedroom. Use the ghost feather on the
sleeping ghost. When tickled, he will drop the wine bottle. Get the jug
o'grog and go back to the rats room. Pour the jug o'grog on the dish.
The rats will get drunk after drinking it. Get the glob of grease.
Go back to the deck. Use the glob of grease on the squeaky door. Open
the door. Get the ghost tools beside the ghost guard. Go back to the
ghost chickens. Use the ghost tools on the glowing crate to open it. Get
the voodoo root. Go back to the cave.
Cut screen : You will travel back to the village and give the root to the
cannibals. They will then prre the root for you. Then you will travel
all the way back to the ghost ship. You will find that the ship is gone.
The ghost pirate, LeChuck, is going to marry the governor. So, you will
need to go back to Melee Island to stop the wedding. Talk to funny ghost.
Don't kill him. When your crew is back, listen to their conversation.
Last
Part 4 - GuyBrush Kicks Butt
After another journey, you will be at the docks in the village. Use the
potion on any ghost you encounter.
Find you way to the church. Talk to LeChuck. Your potion will becomes
jammed and you will be whack by the ghost pirate continually. You will be
flying all over the place.
When you find yourself in the emporium. Try to get the root beer before
the ghost hit you. After you get the root beer, try to use it on the
ghost. If you did it successfully, you will destroy the ghost. Talk to
governor and watch the fireworks.
This walkthru is Copyright (C) 1993 by Lee Beng Hai. All rights reserved.
Tips for CASTLES II: SIEGE AND CONQUEST from Interplay
by Daniel J. Starr,
General Information & Tips
---------------------------------------
1. You can "fast-forward" at any point, both on the main map and during
a battle, by holding down the right mouse button. This is tremendously
useful for people who are, like me, patience-impaired.
2. Your maximum number of military units is:
9 + military rating + # of territories + # of castles.
Both you and the computer players always get a free unit each of infantry
and archers for defense only. The number of troops defending unaligned
territories goes up with difficulty rating --at Impossible, it's often
easier to attack an enemy nation than a neutral territory.
3. You can and should apply unused task points in one area to another
area. Points are effective no matter where they come from. Particularly
if you have something you need done in an extreme hurry, you should pull
in points from everywhere.
4. A nation only defends any province with half of its total forces.
Offense is thus much easier than defense -- under most conditions it's
easier by far just to run away when attacked and strike back later.
5. When you conquer a province, you have a certain "grace period" during
which there are no revolts. Thereafter, a revolt is certain to occur at
some random point unless there you have a large castle (100+ points) in an
adjacent territory. Happiness does not affect the likelihood of revolts.
6. Happiness has a strong effect on the performance of your troops. Get
happiness up to 9 as soon as you can afford to.
7. Countries with which you have relationship 8 or 9 will not attack you.
Cultivate a good relationship with anyone you're not busy attacking. The
computer players don't cancel attacks, so a previously ordered attack may
still take place even though current relations are good. Note that an
attack from either side lowers relations by four points.
8. Useful bug: merchants can trade away resources you don't actually
have -- you can give away an infinite amount of imaginary timber for real
gold or iron, for example. On the other hand, the computer players
automatically get free resources if they lack them for a task, so don't
bother trying to starve a nation into submission -- it can't be done.
9. When powers send diplomats to you, you lose no relationship points if
you refuse them. Only give them money if you want to improve relations.
10. Councils are very useful for finding out who's at war already (and is
therefore weaker) and who's blessed by the Pope.
11. If you plan on attacking someone who's blessed, be sure to send lots
of diplomats to the Pope to avoid excommunication (which occurs at Papal
relations 2 -- you gain one point with every diplomatic success or
donation, and lose one point for every attack on a blessed nation).
12. As far as I can tell, troops do much better with Battles = On, even if
one just hits 'begin' and lets them go.
13. If your forces are barely superior to the opposition during a
campaign, you'll find yourself continually replacing and losing troops.
It is much more efficient to add several before going on the attack, so
that you don't lose any at all.
14. Make sure you have an adequate stockpile of Food and Gold for your
troops. The last thing you want is desertions in the middle of a
campaign. The troops demand gold every April, and food every October.
15. If you have a Ballista or Catapult, set it close to the walls and have
your other troops 'stand' until it has demolished a path for you. Then
you can have your forces rush in directly with much less time for fire
from enemy archers.
16. The name of the game notwithstanding, castles are hard to build but
easy to capture. The worthwhile uses of castles are doubling production,
particularly of gold, and preventing revolt -- not aiding defense. Given
the time involved to build one, wait until you're not under attack or have
task points to spare. Often it's easiest just to capture them from
enemies.
17. Once you've claimed the throne, no one will receive your diplomats
(although they may send their own), and everyone who had relations with
you of less than 9 will attack in full force. Buy rivals off _before_
claiming the throne.
18. Rating at the end of the game is determined first and foremost by
level of difficulty. The next consideration is time to completion, and
then score.
Game Strategy
---------------------------------------
In general: The essential idea throughout a successful Castles II game is
to alternate between several conquests in a row and several tasks' worth
of regrouping. This is _much_ more effective than continual skirmishing.
This is a blueprint that's worked for me from Easy to Impossible:
1. Secure your border. Pick two to five adjacent provinces that insulate
several more from other nations. If you are on a high difficulty level
you may wish to recruit an extra unit or two; then immediately devote
every possible point to attacking these provinces as fast as possible.
This will give you room to expand without taking on the other nations
before you're ready.
2. Regroup. Add troops, restock your resources, and buy off at least one
neighbor thoroughly. Retake provinces as they revolt -- quickly, if
they're on the border. Retreat from attacks and then retake the provinces
with an attack of your own -- don't waste troops on a hopeless defense.
If you can't acquire a necessary resource, use merchants.
3. Slow expansion. Take the remaining available neutral provinces.
Build a large castle (100+ points) in a central area to stem the tide of
revolts. Increase your happiness to 9.
4. Take out a target nation. Call a council and/or send out spies to
find out who the good targets are. (The ideal target (a) is not blessed,
(b) is at war with someone else, and (c) has a weak army.) Assemble an
army whose size is equal to or greater than your target's. Then hit as
many provinces as you can, as rapidly as you can. Try to cripple him
before you give him a chance to regroup. If the target's blessed, send
out as many diplomats to the Pope as needed. Work hard at keeping your
other neighbor(s) bought while you're busy with this one. As soon as
you've regrouped your forces from your first several attacks, wipe him off
the map. (You'll get a specific message when you take out his last
province. Don't leave him around to return in force later!)
5. Pick a second victim and repeat #4.
6. At this point you almost surely have over 7000 points. Make sure you
have relationship 9 with the remaining nations. Claim the throne -- your
rivals will have relationship 8 with you and won't attack.
7. Bask in your victory.
This article is Copyright (C) 1993 by Daniel Starr. All rights reserved.
TACTICS AND TIPS FOR DYNAMIX' ACES OF THE PACIFIC - Ground Attack
by Robin G. Kim
ACES OF THE PACIFIC is a rich simulation, with lots of variety and many
subtleties built into it. This article outlines many of the tactics I've
developed over countless hours spent playing the game. It is by no means
exhaustive, but hopefully the reader will be able to pick up a few tips
that will enhance his or her enjoyment of one of the finest air combat
simulations on the market. My comments apply specifically to the latest
version of the game (patch B), with all the difficulty settings at their
hardest.
This is the second of a two part series. This part deals with air-to-
ground combat. Part one talked about air-to-air combat.
AIR-TO-GROUND ORDNANCE
Any weapon except tail guns can be used for attacking ground targets, but
obviously some are more effective than others. The following is a list of
all available weapon types, in increasing order of effectiveness:
Machine Guns (larger caliber is better)
Cannons (larger caliber is better)
Rockets
132 lb. Bombs (small bombs)
500+ lb. Bombs (large bombs)
Damage Potentials:
Large bombs - Can destroy anything, though warships may require more
than one hit.
Small bombs - Can destroy anything except the largest warships. Even a
destroyer takes many hits to sink.
Rockets - Can destroy anything but a warship or very large building.
May require two salvoes to destroy a freighter.
Cannons - Can destroy anything but warships, large buildings,
bunkers, and cranes. Large amounts of cannon fire can be
used to finish off an already damaged freighter. Large
buildings include anything larger than a green HQ
building.
Machine Guns - Can destroy anything cannons can except freighters, but
many more hits are required.
Scoring hits with cannons and machine guns is easy. Just put the cross-
hairs on the target and fire. Most targets become visible before they are
within range, however, so you must judge how long to wait before opening
up so you don't waste ammunition.
Rockets are almost as easy to use, but you must be relatively close to the
target and under 1000 feet when you launch them. Hits are much easier if
you have at least a 20 degree dive angle when you fire. Rockets fly in a
straight line, and are uneffected by gravity.
Bomb trajectories are modeled very simply in ACES OF THE PACIFIC.
Basically, they drop diagonally downward at a very high constant speed. If
the bombing plane flies straight and level at a constant speed after
releasing the bombs, the bombs will appear to have to relative motion
forward or backward. I've found two reliable methods for scoring hits
with bombs, dive bombing and low altitude level bombing.
Dive bombing can be performed by any plane. The steeper the dive, the
better, as long as your plane will be able to pull out at the bottom
without crashing into the sea or ground. Just aim your plane a little
beyond the far edge of your target, and release just before pulling out at
the lowest safe altitude you can manage. Larger bombs have a significant
blast radius, so you should not release them below 1000-1500 feet or your
plane will be damaged or destroyed. If your dive angle is shallow, you
will have to point the nose of your plane further past your target, making
a miss more likely. Ships are narrow targets, so you'll definitely want
to dive along the ship's main axis to give you the largest margin for
error when dive bombing.
Level bombing can actually be performed from any altitude, but is much
more accurate from lower altitudes for obvious reasons. Point your plane
directly at the target at around 1500 feet if you're using large bombs, or
around 500-1000 feet if you've only got small bombs. Level out, and
switch to the F6 view (internal, looking straight down). Release just
before the target reaches the middle of the screen. A tiny amount of lead
is required at low altitudes and moderate speeds. If you would like to
try level bombing from higher up, I suggest you do the following first.
Fly level, switch to the F6 view, then drop a bomb, putting some kind of
mark on your monitor screen at the exact place where the bomb fell. This
will be your aiming point. All that's left to mastering high and medium
altitude level bombing is to practice judging the lead necessary at
various speeds.
Level bombing from low altitudes is deadly accurate. You can take
advantage of this when bombing small hangers or AA gun emplacements by
dropping your bombs right between two targets. Even small bombs will
destroy both of them, if aimed precisely.
For rockets and bombs, it is not clear whether hit location plays a role
in determining the amount of damage done, or whether it is completely
random. I always try to hit the center of the target, as this _seems_ to
work better some of the time.
GROUND-BASED AIR DEFENSES
There are two types of ground or ship-based threats you may have to deal
with whenever you fly in the general vicinity of enemy ships or ground
installations. AA gun emplacements will put up a barrage of flak, and
green HQ buildings will fire small caliber machine gun rounds at you at
short range. Ships are even worse since they can fire one or the other,
depending on how close you are.
Anti-aircraft machine gun fire does the same damage as a similar aircraft-
mounted gun would do, but it is often very accurate, and difficult to
avoid without moving completely out of range. It probably won't destroy
your aircraft unless its already very damaged or you hang around it for
much too long, but it will do cumulative damage to your engines, making
you vulnerable to flak or enemy fighters. Lucky hits are also possible,
so this is not a threat that can be safely ignored.
A flak burst is essentially a cloud of shrapnel produced when a shell
fired from an AA gun or ship that explodes at a preset altitude. It is
extremely dangerous. A direct hit will destroy your plane, but
fortunately these rarely occur. More likely your plane will fly through a
shrapnel cloud and take some amount of damage. The closer you fly to the
burst, and the sooner after the explosion you fly through it, the more
damage you will take.
Since the damaging effects of flak only occur over a limited area, it is
possible dodge the most of the bursts. Maneuverability is an asset here.
Jinking around trying to throw off the aim of the flak gunners does not
appear to be effective, nor does flying at extremely high speeds. Flying
at higher altitudes is much safer than low altitudes, however, since the
guns are less accurate, so the flak tends to explode further away from
you. Even if you have excellent reflexes and a maneuverable plane, you
will not be immune from flak since it may occasionally explode very near
you, causing immediate damage, or so close in front of you that you can't
turn away in time to avoid flying through it.
The two best ways to deal with flak are to stay out of range or destroy
its source by taking out the ships or AA gun emplacements that are firing
at you. Unfortunately, this is not always possible. One rather cowardly
technique is to let your wingmen go in first, since flak usually targets
the closest or more threatening target. The latter point is important,
because if you start your bombing run after your wingmen have already
finished theirs, the flak guns will probably begin targeting you. You can
turn this around and use it to your advantage by timing your run to be
just _before_ your wingmen's, so that you dodge flak on the way in, but
have some time to get out of range after you pull out.
Usually, the best you can do is try to minimize your risk, while still
accomplishing your mission objectives. You can either dive in at maximum
speed to minimize your exposure time, or go in slower, so you have more
time to dodge the flak bursts. The best choice depends on how
maneuverable your plane is, especially at high speeds.
When attacking ground installations with anti-aircraft capabilities, the
first thing I usually go for is the green HQ building. I do this because
it is easy to take it out on the initial approach, since I can throw out a
burst of fire that will destroy the building before it can begin firing at
me. If you attack from close range, even if you destroy it, you will
still be hit by a stream of bullets that were already fired in your
direction before the building blew up. My next priority is to take out
all of the AA gun emplacements. I do this regardless of if I'm being
chased by enemy planes. It's very risky to dogfight amid a barrage of
flak. Machine guns can destroy AA gun emplacements, but it takes quite a
few shots, even for a P-47, which has more machine guns than any other
plane. A better alternative, if available, is to use cannon(s). Two
short bursts will take out an AA gun. Strangely enough, if you just hold
down the fire button for one long burst, it will take more ammunition. It
is best to fire a minimal length burst, watch the tracer hit, then fire
another. Cannon ammunition is always precious, and you do not want to
