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Game Bytes Issue 03
NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four
by Bethesda Softworks
Reviewed on 386/33 with Souundblaster
by David Masten
Ever in search of good sports games, I took a chance on Bethesda
Softworks' NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four. The premise of the
game is that you control the fortunes of any or all of the 64 teams in
last years NCAA men's tourney.
I should have heeded the box blurb proclaiming: "from the creators of
Wayne Gretzky Hockey and Earl Weaver Baseball [EWBB]". For those who read
my review of EWBB II, you are probably surprised that I would buy a
sibling. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Like EWBB, you can control the players, choose to just coach, or let the
computer coach one or both teams. Again you have the choice of an overall
view of the action, or a "director" which switches camera angles. Play
speed is selectable, with the option of a fast play mode where the
computer plays games in a few minutes. You can switch between these modes
whenever you like. A final option has the computer quickly complete the
current tournament round at about a game a second.
Most rules are adjustable. You can have from one to five players per
team, two or four periods of up to 20 minutes each per game, variable 3
pointer distance (or none), and variable shot clock. You can play the
tournament as historically seeded, set your own seeds, or just play
individual games of your liking.
Graphics
========
Similar to EWBB II, the director controlled camera switches quickly,
making action somewhat difficult to follow. I prefer the fixed viewpoint
option. Players are then fairly small with the 320x200 "VGA" graphics,
but better detailed than in EWBB, although a little hard to differentiate.
They are either white or black, with differences in height, but no numbers
or other distinguishing characteristics. On a 386/33, movement is
slightly jerky, but not too bad. A brief text play-by-play aids in
following the action. Compared to EWBB the supporting graphics/text are
better done, with more tasteful colors and less distracting backdrops.
Sound
=====
Adequate. The sound of the dribble, crowd, ball hitting the rim are
reasonably conveyed with a Soundblaster. Digitized voices for the refs
calls and the occasional grunt or "come on" from the players add a little
ambiance. Overall, much better sound support than EWBB.
Play mode
=========
I'm much more interested in just coaching and season play, but I figured
it might be fun to control the action occasionally. You choose from menus
of both nine offensive and defensive maneuvers. Plus you can control the
motion of the player. All I can say so far is I find it tough going even
with one on one. One example: you have to keep tapping the keys to 'play
close, play close...', otherwise you are left behind.
Coaching
========
You make a playbook of 8 offensive plays (from a list of 12) and 8
defensive plays, with four of each active at any time. You can only call
the inactive four by using a timeout to re-arrange the playbook. The
choice of offensive plays is comprehensive: back door, alley-oop, fast
break, four corners, quick three-pointer, run & gun etc. Defensive
choices include man-to-man, various zones, press, intentional foul. So
far so good. The manual says that unlike real life, your team will always
listen to you. I found otherwise, but I might just not have the timing
down. You also call timeouts, and make substitutions from amongst 10
players. A fatigue scale helps you decide when a change is advisable.
Realism
=======
This is make or break in my opinion. Each player comes with a reasonable
stat base and wealth of subjective ratings. Included are stats for
attempted and made FG, 3pt FG, FT, plus rebounds, assists, turnovers and
pts per game, for both historical and game accumulated. Too bad
percentages are omitted. Among the 14 ratings are: durability, shooting
from close, mid, and long, speed, jumping, hands, passing, defense, shot-
blocking plus others. So far very promising.
Unfortunately, the game fails in execution. In both played and computer
controlled games, teams shoot 70% plus from the floor. As far as I'm
concerned, I could stop right there, for me the game is a bust. The stat
reproduction is inexplicably far better in the computer round completion
mode. I'll list a few lesser nits: Unrealistic action. Centers very
often bring the ball upcourt, then bury outside shots, even when
historical stats and outside ratings suggest otherwise. Teams seem to get
too many offensive boards. Occasionally top players may be virtually
invisible in a game. Many ratings are totally botched, even with the
fixed version I mailed away for, a few teams have all players with a
hands=1 rating. Some other player ratings are just plain wrong, ex:
Gugliotta on NC State is given an outside=1. The computer coaching seems
questionable. It didn't call for intentional fouls down the stretch when
trailing. Sometimes stars are benched for reasons unknown (fatigue?).
There are some bugs. Assists are mangled and blocks and strength ratings
are excluded in downloaded to disk files. Key entry is often a pain (like
in EWBBII), and the game occasionally hangs or gets in a strange constant
turnover mode.
Manual
======
The game uses the unwieldy "page x, line y, word z" copy protection.
Further, if you get it wrong, boom you are kicked out to DOS! The manual,
although over 100 pages (huge type) is only fair. About 10 pages are
wasted on the history and charter of the NCAA (presumably to get the NCAA
license). Descriptions of the 4 non-default offensive plays are missing.
Nowhere do they tell you what the college and pro three-pointer distances
are. A nice inclusion is a fold-out of the actual 1991 tourney with
scores.
Summary
=======
The game gives you a multitude of user options and ratings. You can edit
teams and players, play one on one, play single games, full tourneys, or
seasons. All very nice. But it fails as a simulation. Graphics are also
mediocre, very similar to EWBBII, and not nearly as good as, say, Hardball
III. Whether it succeeds on the arcade level, I am not one judge. The
game may have some appeal if realism is improved. But in its current
form, I cannot recommend it.
Graphics: 5
Sound: 7
Playability: 4
Realism: 2
Manual: 4
================
Overall: 4
Aces of the Pacific by Dynamix
Reviewed by Ron Dippold
I'm reviewing this with the version 1.01 patch applied, which fixes some
problems. If you buy version 1.00, make sure you find the ACEPTC.ZIP
patch on a BBS near you.
The first formality to get out of the way is to realize that this is not
Falcon 3.0 in terms of detailed simulation. Nothing is, and Falcon will
probably retain that position for a long time to come. Then again, I
can play Aces of the Pacific (AOTP) quite well without opening the
manual.
Remember that wonderful flight simulator, Red Baron? Well AOTP is Red
Baron upgraded, and with a kick in the pants. It takes the look and
feel of the World War I Red Baron era to the War in the Pacific portion
of World War II. Red Baron fans will feel right at home with the look
and feel of this one. In fact, you may wonder on your first flight or
so, just where the improvements are. They're in the details.
First, there is the rather overwhelming number of options available to
you. If there's some scenario you can come up with that's not in here,
it'd be hard to imagine, except for actually dropping the atomic bomb.
The ships and planes are lovingly re-created. There are 17 different
types of Japanese ships, from carriers to patrol boats, and another 17
different types of American ships. There are a huge number of planes
for you to fly (and for the computer to attempt to kick your butt with,
incidentally, whereupon you may not appreciate the variety). To be
specific:
US NAVY US AIR FORCE
---------------------------- -----------------------------
F4F-3 Wildcat P-38F Lightning
F4F-4 Wildcat P-38J Lightning
F6F-5 Hellcat P-39D Airacobra
F4U-1 Corsair P-40E Warhawk
SBD Dauntless P-47D Thunderbolt
SB2C Helldiver P-51D Mustang
TBD Devestator B-17D Flying Fortress
TBF Avenger B-17E Flying Fortress
B-24J Liberator
B-25D Mitchell
B-25J Mitchell
B-29A Superfortress
JAPANESE NAVY JAPANESE AIR FORCE
---------------------------- ----------------------
A6M2 Zero KI-27 Kate
A6M3 Zero KI-43 Oscal
A6M5 Zero KI-61 Tony (Hien)
D3A Val KI-45 Nick (Toryu)
D4Y Judy (Suisei) KI-48 Frank (Hayate)
B5N Kate KI-100
B6N Jill KI-21 Sally
Unfortunately, you can't fly the bombers (B-xxx), just the fighters, but
some of them will allow you bombs and rockets. There's also the US
Marines, but as would be expected, they use the same planes as the Navy.
Each of these planes is put together with great attention to detail.
When you fly close enough to one, or just look at one with the built in
viewer, if you want to take the LAZY way out, you'll even see the
markings on the wings and fuselage. The interior shots are nicely done
as well - if you take a look backwards and you've got a gunner, you'll
be treated to a nice shot of his (hooded) head.
Each plane has the appropriate armaments, and its own characteristics.
Some turn better at lower altitudes, some have better shielding, some
dive better. It'll really be an asset to you later if you take the time
to view all the different aircraft, and find out why you want to be
piloting a B-17E instead of B-17D, _before_ you have four A6M5s on your
tail.
The planes are limited by the technology of the time - i.e., no radar,
so everything is visual. No zooming in and out - you gotta get close to
see what you're hitting. No target acquisition or heat-seeking missiles
- you have to line up the guns yourself! Yes, all you F-29 / F-117 /
Falcon jocks, imagine a time before microwaves, a time before...
before... color TV! Your guns can jam, your engine can catch fire if you
overstress it. You don't get any warning if you get too close to the
ground.
You've got two basic views - internal (from the cockpit) and external (a
couple feet outside the plane), and variations of that (look up, look
left, etc). Aces of the Pacific uses a slick method involving the
second joystick button to select the different views. Internal view is
your best bet for dogfights, external is occasionally good for bombing.
Even the damage is well done. Engine fire produces very real-looking
smoke, you get bullet holes in the canopy and blood when you get
wounded, even blackouts and redouts if you pull too many Gs or get
hurt too bad. I was so impressed when I first got hit that I got torn
to shreds as I was admiring the graphics. I would imagine this is
something that would only happen in a computer game...
I can't count them the way I individually looked at the other pieces,
but there are other items, such as hangars, oil drums, houses, palm
trees, etc. You won't see the detail on this (or anything else) until
you get up close.
You've got plenty of options on flying. First, you choose who you're
going to fly for: US Navy, US Marines, US Air Force, Japanese Navy, or
Japanese Air Force. Then choose to fly a single mission, or take a
pilot through a career. There are no less than ten different single
mission options.
You can fly a historic flight - choose a campaign, first, from the
following:
US Navy: US Marines:
Coral Sea to Midway Pearl Harbor
Guadalcanal Cleanup at Guadalcanal
Bougainville to Rabaul
The Carrier Offensive
Formosa to Leyte Gulf
Japanese Navy:
Pearl Harbor and Wake
Operation MO. Coral Sea
Operation MI. Midway
Guadalcanal Offensive
The Reduction of Rabaul
Battle of Philippine Sea
The Battle of Leyte Gulf
Once you've got the campaign, choose one of many missions. Some
campaigns, such as Coral Sea to Midway, have over a dozen missions, and
others, such as Pearl Harbor, have only one or two. You too can
participate in the raid which sank the Soryu! Or, you can change the
very course of history by preventing it (at least for this time) from
the Japanese side, or by completely bungling it from the US side. Just
think, if YOU had been one of the protectors of Midway, you might be
drinking sake while you read this, instead of swilling Coke. Never mind
that, though, take out your frustrations by blowing up a few buildings
in a training run, where they won't fight back, tough guy.
You can also dogfight a famous ace, from any of the five US and Japanese
military branches. This is one place where the attention to detail
really shows - there's a picture of each one of them, as well as a short
description of their career. Cheat by making yourself invincible! Or
instead of dogfighting one really good pilot, dogfight a squadron of
pilots. You're a stud, you can do it...
Other options are fighter sweep and combat air patrol, scrambling to
answer an attack, escorting bombers, intercepting bombers, a shipping
strike, or a ground attack. Or, if you want to try a few without the
nuisances of subtlety, try a training mission in one of the above.
In all cases, you can adjust appropriate parameters. A description of
the "Dogfight a Squad" option goes something like this: "Your 'flight'
will fly 'F4F-4 Wildcats' against the enemy 'flight' flying 'A6M2
Zeroes'. You'll face off 'at very high altitude'. 'Your flight' will
start with the advantage of surprise. The sky is 'partly cloud'." You
can change any of the options in 'single quotes.' For instance, you can
set up your flight to include one to four pilots and choose their skills
(even include aces), choose different planes, set the weather, who gets
the advantage, etc. Similar options are given for the other scenarios.
You've also got the realism panel. After a couple encounters where your
engine catches on fire because you pushed it too hard you'll be heading
for this, available at any time. You can turn on or off any of the
following: Sun blind spot; Realistic weather; Gun jams allowed;
Engine burnout; Blackouts allowed; Limited ammunition; Limited fuel;
Aircraft may be damaged; Midair collisions; No inflight info. Most of
these are self- explanatory - for instance, if you're flying into the
sun you won't be able to see very well if you have Sun blind spot on.
No inflight info will turn off the handy messages that appear at the top
of your screen every now and then, such as the dreaded "You just shot
down a friendly airplane!" You can also choose your combat level and
flight model (Easy, Standard, Intermediate, Hard, Expert). Your score
is adjusted based on the options you chose - the harder the settings,
the larger the score.
Finally, there are the pre-flight options. You can change the
configuration of your flight, or change your weaponry or ordnance,
choosing rockets instead of bombs, for instance.
If you choose campaign mode, you choose a service and rank for your
aviator, as well as a name. The higher the rank, the harder the
missions. You then choose a campaign, such as those available in the
Fly Historic Mission option, with a few extras thrown in. Pick who
you're going to be stationed with - a fighter wing, SBDs, etc., also
taking into account the skill of the different squadrons. Fly all the
missions in the campaign, and if you don't get shot down you can move on
to another campaign. Best campaign scores go in a high-score list.
The graphics, as noted, are incredible, with good attention to detail.
You get small movies for being awarded a medal or promotion, shots of a
hospital if you get wounded, appropriate backgrounds for menus depending
on whether you're ground-based or carrier-based, etc. So with all of
this, how does it play?
I've got an 80386 running at 33 MHz, with a fast VGA card (ProDesigner
IIs). All the details are very nice, but slowed it down to an
unacceptable frame rate when I was in heavy combat or too close to the
ground - I jerked around all over the place and had a hard time keeping
a lock on my target. Luckily, it gives you the option of turning off
details for the scenery and planes, and even turning off ground detail
when you're in combat, but then you're back to Red Baron with expanded
scenarios! Every flight can be recorded and then played back using the
quite comprehensive Mission Review mode (think of it as a big VCR which
lets you change point of view at any time), and you will get full
detail, but darn it, I'd like to have it while I'm blowing things away!
The game is still fun, and I still enjoyed it, but all that graphics
takes its toll. I found myself cranking the detail up to full, then
stopping to nudge it back as things got too jerky, which sort of broke
up the action. I would have liked to see an option to have it figure
out for itself what an acceptable level of detail was based on a smooth
frame rate.
The sounds are good... IF you have a good sound generating device. A PC
speaker really doesn't cut it. A Soundblaster is optimum. You may have
to turn up the gain on your sound card, as the game doesn't seem to
drive it at full volume. The gun sounds are incredible, and the engine
sounds are nice and responsive. If you get closer to other planes you
hear them as well. On the other hand, the gear and flap sounds are
rather low, and the sound of a bullet impacting you is rather
unimpressive. Once you hear it, you'll recognize it again, but it'll
catch you by surprise to begin with it. For some reason, there's no
sound for a midair collision! Overall very nice, however, even a bomb
whistle.
Your missions are laid out via the map. This is actually fairly
worthless except to satisfy your curiosity as to where you're going.
You can't zoom in on the map or anything like that. And to get from one
place to another, you don't have a time compression mode, you hit the
autopilot, and you fly to the next waypoint in a second or two, much
like the autopilot in Wing Commander. This lets you move fast, but the
autopilot doesn't have much of a brain. When you autopilot to a bombing
target, you come out of autopilot directly overhead! I'd like to come
in from a few miles, myself... It does keep down the tedium, however.
When there's no action, there's autopilot.
The other complaints I have are fairly minor. When I'm in a plane which
has engines on the wings, I still get smoke from the nose when the
engine catches on fire! There's no flak on ground attacks, although you
do get it on shipping attacks. You can't set up your own waypoints for
the flight plan. You can't hang around after you eject to watch the
action. And all of the flight model doesn't seem to be completely
accurate. With the rudders, I can out-turn a Zero on certain planes
where I shouldn't be able to - the Zero was one of the most maneuverable
planes in the campaign, and certainly had one of the tightest turn
radiuses. I'm unsure if I should be able to out-turn it with a P-51D,
but the F4F-4 should not be able to!
Okay, I've thoroughly picked it to death - the verdict? I like it.
I've long since played it enough to have reviewed it, and it still sits
on my hard disk, where I come back to it while I'm downloading. The
wealth of options ensures that I won't get bored for some time to come.
Learning the personality of each plane takes a while as well. I finally
figured out that you _can't_ try to climb at more than a marginal angle
with a TBD Devestator, and that the best way to take out a plane with a
P-38 is to lure it up to about 25000 feet or so, where it has the
advantage because of the superchargers.
The dogfighting and bombing are great fun, and the graphics are great.
I can handle the jerkiness or turn down the detail. The pilots seem to
be fairly intelligent. I love being able to play the Japanese and
choose all the different planes. I like that I don't spend 15 minutes
in transit from one place to another. The replay mode, where you can
choose your camera angles and replay the entire battle, is great. The
sight of smoke pouring out of a bomber as you pound it with your bullets
(which you finally see as tracers), or the impact of your rockets on
ships and the towering inferno that follows are infectious.
It helps if you know some history as well, for instance when you're
finishing off Japan with a bombing run near the end of the war. There's
an old Air Force story about the bombing run that was to knock out
Mistubishi factories. One of the bombs on a bomber didn't release
properly, and was finally dislodged far from the target. Unknown to the
crew it scored a direct hit on Mitsubishi's corporate headquarters. The
next morning the Japanese were quite impressed with the precision
bombing skills of the Americans. The factories and the headquarters!
I've never seen any evidence that this actually happened, but it makes a
nice urban legend to consider while on a bombing run of your own.
Looking into the historical missions can be fun as well, as you attempt
to recreate them as closely as you can.
This game doesn't really compete with Falcon 3.0, which is for the fully
simulated reality fanatic, or with Jetfighter II and F-117A, which are
far easier. Its competition is the likes of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat,
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, and Battle of Britain. Chuck Yeager's
beats it hands down in the "smooth animation" category, but I'll take
Aces of the Pacific over any of these three. Dynamix is aware of some
of the problems, and is working on them as I write. I hope to see more
patches and more addition disks (new scenarios and planes). If you've
got a 386/25 or better with 2 Megs of memory, a sound card, a joystick,
a fast VGA card, and 8 MB of hard disk space left, this is a great one
for armchair piloting.
Preview of Dune by Virgin Games
By Brian Chung
You've read the book. You've seen the movie. Now you get to play the
game. Dune based on the novel by Frank Herbert and the movie by David
Lynch is a game reminiscent of Civilization. You play the role of Paul
"Muad'dib" Atreides, and your objective is to defeat the Harkonnens led
by the evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his nephew, Feyd-Rautha. The
conquest of the Planet Arrakis, however, is only one element of this game.
While you are fighting the Harkonnens, you must mine spice because the
Emperor Shaddam IV will ask for a shipment of spice every so often. You must
also explore the desert planet to find the Fremen tribes who will help you
win the battle against the Harkonnens. There are other sub-plots taken
from both the novel and the movie. However, you do not have to have any
previous knowledge of either to play the game.
The most stunning thing about Dune is its graphics. The artists must
have spent countless hours reading the novel and watching the movie to get
all the little details. For example, a 'thopter really does look like an
insect as described in the novel, and Gurney Halleck proudly sports an
inkvine whip scar on his cheek. The pictures of many of the characters are
taken from the movie. But Kyle McLaughlin is the only one appearing as
he is. (He is even in the credits!) The pictures of other characters are
somewhat changed to avoid high loyalty payments, but they do resemble the
real actors in the movie; Sting and Feyd-Rautha, and Patrick Stewart and
Gurney Halleck, for example. The background scenes are as well-painted as
the characters themselves. The sky changes color to show the change in time,
and the ground-to-air battle scenes seem to be taken straight from the CNN
coverage of the Gulf War. (Ironically, the files containing the battle scenes
are called IRAQ.*.)
The game itself is a simplified version of Civilization. You must
explore the desert to find the Fremen tribes who will help you. Then you
assign them to one of three tasks. The trick here is balancing the number
of military units with the spice-mining units because on Arrakis, spice is
money. You need spice to pay for your equipments and to appease the Emperor.
The game ends when you conquer the entire planet.
Overall, Dune is a graphical delight that both Dune fans and non-fans
can enjoy. Coming soon, Dune 2!
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ Night Hawk F117-A Stealth Fighter 2.0 ³
³ ³ by MicroProse ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Machine ³ û 8088/8086 (XT) û 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA ù EGA û VGA ù SVGA ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib ù Soundblaster ù Soundblaster Pro ³
³ ³ ù Disney Sound Source û Roland ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard ù Mouse û Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ ù EMS ù XMS ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 2 MB - Can be played from a 1.2 or 1.4 MB floppy disks ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron Dippold
I bank! I turn! I release chaff and avoid the missile coming up my
backside. The SAM site, my primary target is coming up. As I head
towards it I pass over a tank farm, so I select the MK 82-0 Slick
free-fall bomb and try to take out the oil tanks. But, as I've never
gotten the hang of aiming them, I take out some unidentified
countryside. Oh well. Switch to a HARM (radar homing) missile, get the
SAM site in my sights, and before it can launch a missile at me I nail
the sucker, and it gets blown to kingdom come.
Spin! Parry! Dodge! Ha Ha! Boing! I take out a MIG-19 with my
sidewinders, but not before it nails me with a missile. No major
damage. Autopilot to the secondary target, a missile boat off Tripoli,
nail it with a Harpoon air-to-ship missile, and head off to Sigonella
and safety. Whereupon I crash land because I haven't gotten the hang of
that yet either.
The F-117A Stealth Fighter has been an object of interest since the
secrecy around its construction, it's unveiling, and it's extremely
effective use in Desert Storm. Now you can take one of these babies out
for a test spin, and if you crash it costs the taxpayer nothing. If
you've played MicroProse's other combat simulator offerings, such as
Strike Eagle, you have the basic design concept, but it's been greatly
expanded. First, your mission options are greatly enhanced.
Take your choice of a number of scenarios: Cuba 1995, Europe 1986,
North Cape 1985, Libya 1986, Middle East 1989, Persian Gulf 1984,
Vietnam 1994, Korea 1997, and of course, Desert Storm 1991. Okay, some
of them are out of date with recent events, and Cuba might have a hard
time launching a paper airplane, much less a MIG, but that doesn't
detract from the fun.
Choose three levels of tension: Cold War, Limited War, and Conventional
War. The difference here is how much you can get away with. Those of
you with destructive impulses should choose Conventional War, because
then you can blow away any enemy plane or installation without worrying
about the diplomatic repercussions. Otherwise you might have to
restrain yourself.
You've can set a couple of difficulty levels, by choosing the ability of
the enemy pilots, by disallowing crashes (just bounce), and choosing a
fully realistic Lockheed F-117A or the more cooperative MicroProse
F-117A.
Fire your guns with the bottom button, fire missiles or the camera with
the top button, and cycle between them with the space bar, making it
fairly convenient to quickly switch to a Sidewinder and nail that plane.
The main functions are accessed with the function keys and the top row
of the keyboard ("1" through "="). You switch the views on the target
finder with the keys "M" through "/" on the bottom row. Add a few other
keys scattered around. The key layout is initially confusing, given
that the function keys have nothing to do with each other. For example,
F3 switches between a target grid map and a display map, and F4 changes
the color of the heads-up display. It's quite frustrating to be
reaching for the flares and accidentally releasing a decoy instead.
However, given the number of functions of the F-117 and the limited
number of keys, this method works fairly well. Using capital letters,
like "M" for map switch, would run into too many conflicts. After an
hour or so playing the game I had all the keys down cold and was
suffering no difficulty. You trade some initial hesitation for ease
later on.
The instrumentation is done very well. There are a large number of
lights and other "doohickeys" such as the radar detector gauges which
show you how close the enemy radar is to detecting you. Once again,
though, after some initial confusion ("What the heck is IRJ? Quick,
check the manual.") I was fully up to speed within two missions. Most
of the lights aren't that cryptic. For example, "FIRE" and "FUEL" are
fairly obvious...
The instrumentation is dominated by two displays. The one on the left
is the map display, which can show you either a true map- type display
or a map that just shows targets with a grid overlaid. You can zoom in
and out, as usual.
The screen on the right is more interesting. It serves as a display for
your onboard computer which will display your mission goals, your
current flight plan status, your weaponry, or anything else interesting.
It also shows what you are currently targeting. It's fully animated
with complete background and terrain, for instance the SAM radar sites
rotate, the planes bank and turn to follow their actual actions, and the
tank farms just... uh... sit there. You can zoom in and out, and when
you fire a missile this window can show you the point of view from its
nose. For night attacks, there is an infrared mode.
The F-117 has three targeting modes: navigational, ground, and air.
Navigational selects landmark-type objects for your piloting pleasure,
ground selects ground targets, and air selects planes, of course. You
use the keys "M" through "/" to select left, right, ahead, and rear.
This is a bit strange, as if you are on ground targeting mode, you won't
pick up that airplane coming up behind you unless you look at the map
and see it approaching, but it works. At least when you have something
targeted it tracks to the other views, so you don't lose the target.
When you're locked on with a missile, this window animates a little
targeting square, just in case you didn't notice the big red LOCK light.
So much for the details. The real question is how does it play? If
you've played other MicroProse flight simulators, you have the general
idea. It can be a bit monotonous when your flight plan calls for long
flights over extended areas of water, such as with the Cuba scenarios,
but at least you have an autopilot, and there's always the occasional
missile boat or tanker to destroy. Once you get to land, however, the
action is intense, especially on higher difficulty levels. A constant
stream of missiles from SAM sites and enemy jets launched from airbases
guarantees this, as does the sheer thrill of blowing up targets (and
nontargets).
It's fairly easy to use, as well. It's not quite the sheer abandon of
JetFighter II, but it's not the massive manuals and detail of Falcon 3,
either. It's a good in between, although as long as we're comparing I
do wish it had a linked set of scenarios like JetFighter II does.
F-117A has the edge in the reality department, however.
Bottom line: I like it. If flight simulators are your bag, F-117A
Stealth Fighter 2.0 is one for your bag. I played it for far longer
than necessary for just a simple review, and I'm still playing it. As
with any other flight simulator, just make sure to practice your landing
skills first, especially on those #$%!! carriers.
A Preview of A-Train from Maxis
By Brian Chung
A-Train is a game that combines SimCity and Railroad Tycoon. You
are the owner of a railway company. You pick among six scenarios from an
agricultural small town to a bustling metropolis. Your objective is to build
your company *and* help your town grow. Unfortunately, the six scenarios are
unchangeable, that is, your hometown looks the same in the beginning. There
are no customized or random world. (Shame, if you ask me.)
You go around building up your company and your hometown in a manner
similar to SimCity. Basically, your company owns subsidiary companies that
specialize in things like apartments, shopping centers, stadiums, golf courses,
etc. You place them carefully around your railroad and watch your city grow,
or become stagnant. You start out from your basic city configuration (houses,
apartments and a few factories), and watch your city grow to a bustling
metropolis with skyscrapers, golf courses, amusement parks and ski resorts,
all *owned* by you.
The graphics are delightful. A-Train uses only 16 colors, but 640x480 VGA
resolution is absolutely stunning. The color of the sky changes to signify
the flow of time in a day, and the landscape changes from a verdant land with
green trees of spring and summer to golden leaves of fall and white, snow-
covered landscape of winter. Also, the managers of your subsidiary companies
(and there are tons of managers, engineers, bank clerks, etc.) change their
facial expression to let you know how they feel about your decisions. Oh,
and if you look carefully enough, you can see swallows flying north and
south depending on the season.
This game was designed in Japan, so when you are playing you may want
to read the manual and get into a 'Japanese' frame of mind. No, you don't
have to kill yourself for making a wrong decision, but remember, golf is
*very* popular in Japan, and ergo, your city. But no, there are no Godzillas
to wreak havoc on your city. In fact, the city is quite ideal, unlike
SimCity. You do not have to worry about crime, fire or any kind of natural/
non-natural disasters. In fact, even if your trains crash, you don't have to
worry about a thing. Just move them to different schedule, and let them go
again. All you have to worry about is your company, your city, and maybe the
stock market.
A-Train is hard and different. The typical Maxis manual is a must
if you want to get far in this game. All in all, if you enjoyed SimCity,
and Railroad Tycoon, you will love A-Train. Kudos to Maxis for making
another great game/simulation.
Global Conquest
Those of you who have played Empire, either on a PC or on a
mainframe, have some idea of what Dan Bunten's newest game,
Global Conquest, is all about. For those who haven't, let me
explain. Empire was (and Global Conquest is) a game whereby each
player starts with a few traditional wargame pieces, such as
infantry, armor and planes, and a limited view of the world. As
the game progresses, the players maneuver their units out into
unknown territory, trying to gain cities and search out the
enemy. As cities are gained, they can be put into production,
creating additional units with which to wage war. Alternatively,
they can sit idle, gaining money for the player's Treasury.
Global Conquest is not a military simulation, nor does it attempt
to be. The enjoyment of this game comes from the simple rules of
play and the degree of customization.
The setting is a world being invaded by four alien forces. The
natives (always played by the computer) will attempt to defend
their cities and Capital, while the four opponents attack each
other and the natives for control of the world. Each opponent can
be played by a human or the computer, so the number of sides in
each game is always five. If more than one human wants to play,
options exist for playing at the same machine, or on remote
machines through the use of a modem. See the section on Modem Play
for details.
Each player begins with a Metroplex (a big city) in his or her
corner of the world. There are only four Metroplexes in the game,
and conquering all four, plus the native Capital, is a victory
condition. Additionally, each player has a Comcen. The Comcen (or
Command Center) is a powerful, quick unit, which controls that
player's operations. Loss of the Comcen puts the player out of the
game. Additionally, each player starts with a certain number of
cities and units depending on the startup options. The player
usually sees only the territory immediately surrounding his or her
units, although the game can be played with full visibility as
well.
The goal of the game is to either destroy all enemy Comcens, or
to occupy all the enemy Metroplexes (and your own) along with the
native Capital city. In games with time limits, there are
additional ways to win. If no player has succeeded in meeting
one of the above two criteria for winning, players will be ranked
on score, as determined by the Scoring Method. The Scoring
method can be based on income, property (through the number of
cities you own) or destruction (based on the number of enemy
units attacked during the game.)
Orders are given in a two-level format; each player enters their
orders during an "Order Phase." If you are playing with multiple
people on one machine, the program prompts each player in turn to
enter his or her moves. After the "Orders Phase" the players can
watch the implementation phase, when units execute their orders
simultaneously. There is nothing more frustrating than watching
your submarine busily pursue an enemy infantry, only to see his
Comcen slip behind your sub and into your home center.
The game is mouse-driven, and has very attractive graphics. The
designers chose an extremely easy-to-read font for the text, and
made good use of the colors available. The interface is
sensible, and all the information you need is easily accessible.
This interface should be a model for future strategy-game
designers. 256-color graphics and three-dimension animation are
not necessary; a clear, lucid display makes all the difference,
and the text font is crucial. In this respect, Global Conquest
is a pleasure to play.
Rules of Play
To play Global Conquest, you must first pick the game options you
want. This can be one of the predefined games, included with
the program, or one which you have defined yourself. To see what
options are available for designing your own game, see the
section on Customization. Once you have chosen a game, you are
presented with a player screen. Here you can choose which player
you want to be, and who the other three opponents will be.
Additionally, each player can choose his or her rank for the
game. The rank affects several starting paraoeters, such as how
many cities and how much money you start out with, as well as
modifying the price of units to be purchased as the game goes on.
Depending on the game you pick, your turns will end in one of
several ways. Games can end a certain time after the first player
hits the 'Execute' button (the Immediate game), or they can end
after a fixed period of time, like two or four minutes (the Fixed
game), or they can end only when every player has finished his or
her turn by hitting 'Execute' (the Unlimited game.) If you play
with the Immediate game and can plan your turns appropriately, you
can drive the rest of the players crazy by immediately 'Executing'
your plans.
Games can also last a fixed number of turns, or can be unlimited
in scope. If the game is unlimited, it lasts until one of the
victory conditions is met. If it is a timed game, it lasts until
either the victory conditions are met or the time runs out, and
players are ranked by their score.
Each player is given the opportunity to pick approximately where
their initial cities should be. In this manner, a player can
choose to spread his or her forces out, or choose areas close to
one another for mutual support. The best strategy depends on the
characteristics of the game being played. After that, players
begin assigning production to their cities.
The units available to the player are: the Comcen, planes, spies,
infantry, armor, submarines, battleships and carriers. Each unit
has a particular cost and construction time, and each is better
at fighting some units than others. Spies are used to locate
enemy forces without being seen, submarines are used to sink
other ships, carriers can carry one plane, etc. Planes are the
only units to act immediately rather than as part of the standard
orders/execution mode of play. This leads to surprises on the
part of a player who, for example, attempts to sneak her Comcen
into a metroplex only to return to the machine to see the words
'Air Strike' flash above her screen as enemy planes decimate her
Comcen.
To control your units, you use the mouse. A keyboard and/or
joystick interface is supported, but the game was designed for use
with a mouse. To move a unit, you click on it, and then set a
destination. If desired, you can set several intermediate
destinations. This allows sea units to round corners without fear
of crashing into the land, and land units to traverse the country
without running into mountains or swamps. Additionally, you can
bring up a Unit Menu appropriate for the type of unit you are
controlling. With this, you can choose to repeat the previous
action, which is especially useful when you finally decide to take
a fortified city. You can send one infantry to the center, and
then choose Repeat for all of the nearby units, to send a virtual
invasion force to the spot.
You can also choose to pursue a unit. This means that, for as
long as the enemy unit is visible to the pursuer, your unit will
follow and attack. Additionally, you may specify blitzing
(which is quicker but causes some damage) or sneaking (which is
slower but reduces chances of being seen and, therefore,
attacked.) For air units you can paradrop infantry units, bomb
cities, and engage enemy planes. All in all, the unit control
options are well thought out. My biggest complaint is the lack of
an option to send units from a city to a particular destination.
As you play a long game, one of the difficulties is using your rear
forces effectively. In the old Empire, this was solved by a Send
command which sent units produced in a city to some other
location. In this way, your rear cities could produce infantry
or planes and send them to the front automatically. If you play
with limited turn lengths, it's hard to get enough time to do
this manually.
While your units explore, they may find resources such as fuel
(in a swamp) and minerals (in mountains.) Depending on your
game, these may give money to the nearest city, or may be
required to create certain units. For example, in some games,
oil is needed for tanks and planes, and minerals for ships.
Playing with the resource requirements means that you will have a
lot more infantry in your game than without. It makes for a
slower-paced game, but is still quite enjoyable.
To test the computer opponents, I played several games of
unlimited length with the computer as all opponents. I was able
to win every time, but the exercise was interesting enough to
keep me playing. The key to winning in such a situation, it
seems, is in knowing when to let the computer opponents fight
each other and the natives, while you position your forces to
kill off the weakened victor. It is possible to increase the
difficulty of the game (though not the intelligence of the
playing) by changing your startup rank to offer more advantages
to the computer.
An interesting feature of the game is the public alliances you
can make. If you choose to offer an alliance, the player you
offer to can accept or decline. There are three levels of
alliance, from cease-fire to teammate. Once you've made an
alliance, however, you can't attack your ally until you've broken
the alliance, which takes a turn. The computer opponents make
and break alliances with seeming randomness, but they are
particularly adept at allying, moving their forces in to your
central territory, and then breaking their alliance. Watch out
for them!
Special Features
There are two 'special features' of this game that make it
unusual above and beyond the degree of customization available.
(See Customization for details of that.) They are the "Wild
Cards" and the availability of modem play.
Wild Cards are somewhat beyond the realm of traditional wargames.
These cards represent the vagaries of chance, and include such
possibilities as monsoons, earthquakes, labor strikes (no
production for five turns!) and time warps (bringing the game to
a point five turns previous!) These events are categorized as
Tame or Wild, and games can be played with the cards turned off
entirely, with Tame cards only or with Tame and Wild Cards. Tame
Cards are (potentially) realistic, while Wild Cards are silly.
All of them are aggravating. However, they do represent an
element of chance which serves to separate the excellent players
from the merely good.
If, like this reviewer, you are disheartened by spending five
turns to take an enemy city only to have it taken away from you
due to teleportation or an earthquake, you might want to consider
playing with this option either off or set to the Tame setting.
After you've played the game for a while, and you have some
strategy ideas, try turning them back on. It worked for me.
Modem Play
Although I was unable to test this game's modem play (due to a
lack of modem opponents) it is supposed to support such play,
either over a modem or through a null-modem serial cable. The
manual recommends deciding ahead of time on a map and game
components, and ensuring that all players have an appropriately
named file to eliminate transfer of the map across the phone
lines. If I can find some modem opponents, I will write a
summary of my findings for this forum. Additionally, the manual
states that there may be LAN/BBS/network play available in the
future. If you're interested, write to the company to tell them
so.
Customization
Part of the enjoyment of this game comes from the variety of
choices available for the scenario. You can change the scoring
option, the turn limits and lengths, the visibility, the kinds of
units allowed (infantry only, or with some combination of
seacraft, or with all units), economic options which dictate
whether a game will have many or few units, and whether it will
be a war of attrition or one of aggression. You can also tailor
the world to be large or small, land-rich or ocean-rich, rich or
poor in resources, and so on. It also looks like Microplay will
be selling a Terrain Editor, as there is an option to play with
previously created maps.
Additionally, you have the option of custom-creating the icon
used to represent your forces to the other players. This could
be a big feature among players who battle over the modem; the use
of such a "call-sign" is an additional way of personalizing the
game.
Summary
Global Conquest is entertaining and pleasant to view as a solo
game. The computer opponents are good enough to give you a
workout, and to give you practice for human opponents, either
through the modem connection or through the "swivel-chair"
approach of using the same machine. I'm looking forward to the
network implementation of this game, and to finding some good
modem opponents. If you're interested in strategy games with
some unusual twists, give Global Conquest a try.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ The Adventures of Robin Hood : Conquests of the Longbow ³
³ ³ by Sierra ³
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³ Machine ³ û 8088/8086 (XT) û 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA ù EGA û VGA ù SVGA ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib ù Soundblaster û PS/1 Audio ³
³ ³ ù Sound Source û Roland û Pro Audio û Game Blaster ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard û Mouse û Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ û EMS û XMS (Will use, not required) ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 7.8 Megabytes ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron Dippold
Sierra On-Line (Now just Sierra) was a leader in the Apple II adventure
world with their "screen draw" adventures, which stored each picture as
a series of instructions. The picture would be drawn on-screen, with
appropriate flood fills, etc. as you moved. It wasn't as fast as storing
the picture on disk, but it used up a lot less room, back when the Apple
was using 140K disks. "Wizard and the Princess" was one of the first
adventures I solved. Then came "Time Zone," a little ahead of its time,
on 12 disks (at a time when hard drives were almost unheard of). They
also published Ultima II, even though they didn't program it.
Then they came out of nowhere with King's Quest, their new semi-3D
interactive adventure game, and everyone went gaga. They made tons of
great games with the engine, including Space Quest, Gold Rush, and
Manhunter. However, it was rather blocky, and it's age started to show.
Not to rest on its laurels, Sierra revamped the whole thing. It now
allows full use of VGA graphics, and replaces the text parser with a
completely mouse- driven interface. Now they're turning out good games
on it such as Space Quest IV and now Conquests of the Longbow.
The game itself aside, this might be worth it just for the beautiful
graphics, which are the best I've ever seen on the PC for this type of
game. The credits list dozens of artists and animators, and I can
believe it. I even noticed an "Ernie Chan" among the artists, who, if it is
the Ernie Chan from Marvel Comics, is a great artist. Make sure to look
at the screen shots included with this review, and then imagine them
animated. I can't even imagine how long the graphics took to draw.
No detail seems to have been spared. When you enter the sacred grove
you take off your weapons. In most adventure games, this would involve
your bow and quiver suddenly appearing on the ground and your character
looking exactly the same. In Conquests, Robin fluidly removes his bow,
bends over and lays it on the ground, straightens up, takes off his
quiver, and places it on the ground. Then he walks around without bow
and quiver. This is about two dozen character drawings just for this
sequence.
Of course, all these beautful graphics take up plenty of room on your
hard drive, namely 8 megs worth. In my opinion, however, it uses it
much better than a game like Leather Goddesses of Phobos II, which
doesn't give you much for its 15 megabytes worth.
On to the game itself! King Richard the Lionhearted has fared badly in
the 3rd crusade and is returning home when King Leopold of Austria has
him ambushed and lays a ransom on his head. He apparently hadn't
considered that to Prince John, this might be a good thing. Prince John
swears that he Richard will never go free, so John can continue to rule.
Meanwhile, Robin Hood, falsely accused of crimes he didn't commit, lives
in Sherwood Forest with his sidekicks, including Little John,
Alan-a-dale, and Friar Tuck. You are Robin Hood and control his
exploits. You start out in his camp, pretty much with nothing to do.
Not to worry, events will lead you along. Your first task is to stop one
of the Sheriff's men from assaulting a woman who's being taken in for
not being able to pay taxes. She's already paid them three times this
week, but "I don't count 'em, I just collect them." At last, a game
with modern social relevance!
The copy protection is fairly unintrusive. It'll get you just when
you're getting into the game, which is a good way to discourage piracy
and advertise the game. You'll be asked a series of questions in the
context of the game, and all the answers are right there in your
documentation. Not a big deal, and you can make backup copies of the
game.
If you've got a sound card you'll get a better "atmosphere" out of the
game due to the music and the sound effects. Such as the "Argh!" when
you nail a bad guy with an arrow. You can adjust the detail level of
the game and other factors so it will work at a reasonable speed if you
don't have a very fast computer.
I've always felt that Sierra adventure games didn't always live up to
their potential. Some of them are fairly linear and just too easy,
especially to those of us who cut our teeth on Infocom games. This one
has a bit more meat to it. You don't just wander around and do things.
You also have to keep in mind the concept of days. Things happen. For
instance, if you try to get into the monks' castle on the first day, you
won't be able to. Things will happen later on that will help you. This
means that just visiting a place is not enough. You need to come back
later and see if anything new is up. When you're done for the day,
choose the map and choose where you're going to start tomorrow, then see
if things are different.
You'll also need to do some exploring in the forest for things that
aren't quite so obvious. Make a map! And be sure to visit the
important places every day.
The correct move isn't always completely obvious (a good point) and the
game isn't fully linear, either, you don't have to follow their plot
exactly to win. To a certain extent of course, but not completely. For
instance, there is one character who lives or dies depending on your
actions. You'll need some information from this character, and if you
don't save them on your first chance, you need to make an extra effort
and ressurect their spirit to get it from them.
There are some semi-arcade scenes, where you test your skill with the
bow and arrow, etc. You can turn these off if you want a full
adventure, or make it a little harder if you want the arcade experience
as well.
The one beef I have with the game is that it can get somewhat tedious
walking through the forests, no matter how beautiful they are, to get
from one place to another. There's really no way around this, so you'll
have some contemplation time. A map can help you to get somewhere as
fast as possible.
All in all, a good game with excellent graphics and sound. The quality
and time spent on it just oozes from screen. Not as hard as some of
your adventure games, not as easy as others. Worth the time and money.
The Miracle by Software Toolworks
Reviewed by Ross Erickson
One might contend that a review of a music keyboard/music tutor program
doesn't belong in a gaming magazine, but I'm going to pull some editorial
authority and tell you about this anyway. I feel compelled to because of the
experience I'm having with such a unique product as The Miracle.
To provide some history for this review, I must tell you that my only
experience with pianos and keyboards comes at the ripe old age of 7 with a
music teacher who shall remain nameless (may she rest in peace??.....naahh!).
This old biddy fits the perfect description of the music teacher who teaches
piano by whacking your knuckles when your "posture" wasn't right or you made a
simple mistake. Needless to say, my natural interests in baseball soon
overwhelmed my parents desire to have me continue taking piano lessons. Upon
my 8th birthday, I never came close to a piano again.
During later years, I recognized what a gift and talent it is to be able to
play the piano, and what fun it appeared to be for those who did so. I grew
envious, but I remembered the miserable experience I had as a young boy, so I
discarded my attempt at regaining musical skill. That is, until I heard about
The Miracle from the Software Toolworks. Here's a product that claims to
teach you how to play the piano through your computer (PC or Amiga) or through
your Nintendo console, and has the audacity to claim that you'll have fun
learning and amaze yourself. I was skeptical, but I decided to give it a
whirl.
The Miracle arrived in a very large box one afternoon and upon unpacking it, I
discover a simple no-frills keyboard with full-size keys, some connectors,
manuals, and a few disks. On the PC it was a simple matter of plugging one
end of a cable into my serial port, and the other end into the keyboard. An
electronic foot "pedal" is also included for sustains, but to be honest, it
isn't very useful on a carpeted floor. It needs a firm surface. The software
(non-copy protected..why would it need to be??) installed in a snap and I was
away to the races. The software is very graphical in nature and certainly
would appeal to younger audience as well. The Miracle is intended for ages 8
and up, but I found my six year-old could even horse around on it and enjoy
himself. I'm not going to go into details about the keyboard capabilities,
but suffice it to say that over 100 different "instruments" are available,
from classical pianos to dogs barking, from tubular bells to rap percussion
sounds.
When the software is started, you're presented with a very graphical top-down
view of a music studio divided into 6 different "rooms". To enter a room, you
simply point with your mouse (highly recommended) to the room you wish to
enter and away you go. After some initial sign-in and startup information was
presented, I was away to the races. The lessons are presented in a very
interactive fashion; that is, to proceed from screen to screen, I had to press
the space bar and in many cases, perform actions on screen or on the keyboard
in order to advance. Music basics such as what the treble and bass clef are,
the staff, and how to distinguish musical notes are introduced carefully and
gradually. What truly amazed me was how captivating this whole process was.
After a few minutes, I was ready to take on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
Sounds silly, but I was excited about the prospect. The classroom part of the
studio is where most of the learning is conducted. As you learn each new
piece, the lessons are gradually increased in difficulty, but at a very
reasonable pace. The lessons are played out for you on screen and on the
keyboard. Then the piece is broken up into the respective left and right hand
parts, and you must reproduce them slowly until you have mastered both
separately and together. A metronome is used to keep you rhythm correct.
After you have played a section (or the whole piece), The Miracle will judge
your performance and tell you what needs improvement.
Finally, after having mastered the song for any particular lesson, you are
offered an invitation to perform in the "concert hall" room with full
accompaniment from the "orchestra". I must say, honestly, I have never
cackled with delight at the ceiling in my computer room quite like I did when
I was the "featured pianist" for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Using only the
right hand, I performed flawlessly, much to the delight of my electronic
audience. It was wonderful.
The Miracle for the PC includes 40 different chapters with over 1100 different
screen "lessons" to master. There are very sophisticated pieces to master in
the advanced lessons, so I don't expect to eclipse the teaching capability of
this wonderful tool anytime soon. Plus, there are expansion disks with many
more songs, both easy and difficult, available for purchase separately. The
expansion disk number 1 has a wide variety of music, from Michael Jackson to
Paginini.
There are many more things that could be said about the Miracle, and it may
seem out of place to mention this product in a gaming magazine, but for anyone
with even a remote interest in learning to play a piano, my highest
recommendations go out to this product. Even as I play now, joined by the
"orchestra-in-a-box", I'm smiling from ear-to-ear, thinking to myself, "This
truly is a Miracle!"
If you can scare up the $400 or so for one, it is one of the best purchases
you'll ever make for your home computer. The Software Toolworks is to be
congratulated for such a landmark product.
A review of PLANET'S EDGE by New World Computing
Reviewed by David Pottinger
What do you get when you mix two of the most popular genres in computer gaming,
those of role-playing and space adventures? New World Computing (of MIGHT &
MAGIC fame) gave us their answer with PLANET'S EDGE. It's a pretty good
answer, too, as PLANET'S EDGE happens to be a terrific mix of the best of both
types of game.
To set the story, we need to jump ahead to the future just before a unified
Earth sends a mission to Mars. In preparation for the event, a moonbase has
been established and work is going along at a feverish pace. Everything is
fine until all contact with the Earth is suddenly lost when the Earth
vanishes. A strange object, definitely of alien origin, is established as
the culprit when its remains are found floating around the area in space
where the Earth used to be. Since the gravitational effect of the Earth is
still being felt by the moonbase, the scientists deduce that the Earth has
been catapulted into some sort of timewarp by the accident. From the
wreckage of the alien vessel, the moonbase scientists determine that the
alien vessel was actually a research ship testing out a new stardrive.
Unfortunately for the human race, they decided to test it in the Sol System.
The scientists are also able to deduce that if someone can collect eight
items for what becomes known as the Centauri Drive, the Earth might be able
to be saved. However, it must be done with the limited resources of the
moonbase plus whatever else can be obtained during the mission. All human
life hangs in the balance, dependent on the successful retrieval of the
Centauri Drive components.
Clean and simple, that's the mission objective of PLANET'S EDGE. You,
as captain and leader of the mission, must journey through eight distinctly
different alien sectors (as shown on a map included with the game) and
collect a different component of the Centauri Drive in each. As one might
expect of the captain, you decide on each and every action of your crew.
You have four crew members: an astrogator/pilot, a weapons officer, an
engineer, and, of course, a doctor. And, if you're worried about political
correctness, there are two men, two women, and each crew member is of a
different cultural background. Bringing in the role-playing element, the
crew is given different skills and rated in each when the respective crew
member is cloned at the beginning of the game (and each time you get them
killed). The dice are automatically rolled for you and the cloning machine
spits out a duplicate with as few as three different skills and as many as
six. The fewer the skills, however, the better at each of the m the person
is. If you don't happen to like the characteristics of your weapons officer,
for example, you can reclone her until she gets qualities to your liking.
This is an important feature since your crew will need different skills at
different times during the game.
The game itself consists (like the STAR TREK 25 game) of two parts: exploring
planets and flying through space. The majority of time is spent on the
planets gathering information, getting items for your quest, and getting
killed. When you begin the game, the technical level the human race is
pathetic compared to the aliens that you will meet. From exploration of the
planets, you can find technical documents that will allow your moonbase
engineers to replicate the things of interest you find in that sector. You
will also need to find ship plans in order to be able to build bigger ships
during the game. Of course, you will find a plethora of items that you can
pick up, use, or carry with you while of the planet surface. The planetary
part of the game looks very much like the recently released ULTIMA 7 game
from Origin (PLANET'S EDGE came out first). The interface is rather strange
at first, but soon it becomes your best friend. All commands can be done
with a two-button mouse and, except for typing in save game names, no typing
is needed. While on a planet, a leader of the group is designated (to be
changed whenever you like) and he/she carries out any action you request
while the others play lemming and follow along. If, for example, you wanted
to talk to an alien, you would need to maneuver your leader next to the
alien, select the talk icon on the screen, and then click on the alien. The
beauty of the interface is that most commands are that simple.
Of course, one must fly through space to get to each planet. There are three
facets to space travel. First and foremost, you must collects elements to
build things with. Second, you can trade cargo for information or to save
your life if a bigger ship threatens you. Finally, there is combat. You can
fight single ships in the name of self-defense or take on an entire planetary
force to gain access to a restricted planet (a necessity for game completion).
The space interface is much like a view from James T. Kirk's chair on "Star
Trek." Each of your crew is seated and turns toward you if you ask them to
perform an action. The graphics here are just as good as the rest of the
game.
PLANET'S EDGE plays very well is my opinion. The storyline, although rather
non-interactive, was interesting enough to keep me playing for numerous all-
night sessions. The length and vastness of the game (while not quite
ULTIMA 7) was more than enough to justify the cost. This is not a game that
you will finish two days after getting it; there are over 100 star systems,
at least half of which contain planets that you must beam down to and
explore, while the other half contain planets that have an element that you
need to mine. The graphics were great (particularly the beginning and end-
game scenes), although I wish the programmers hadn't taken the shortcut of
using some icons to represent multiple things as that got annoying/confusing
as the game progressed. The mouse tailored interfaces made this game a
pleasure to play. I did encounter two problems when using the mouse,
though: you must use the "O" key when going into orbit around the primary
planet in a star system as the mouse simply won't work (a known bug) and the
mouse sometimes sent multiple "returns" to the game that made text-reading
hard as some of it skipped by at light speed. Major sound board support is
included. There are plenty of sound effects, but no digitized voices. The
game took up less than 5 MB with a full installation, however each save game
takes up around 200 KB! I do hope something can be done about that in the
future; by the time I finished the game, my save games were bigger than the
original game itself. Not being an extreme fan of heavy duty role-playing
games, I found PLANET'S EDGE to be just what I was looking for. It's puzzles
aren't unsolvable, yet it's not a mindless arcade game either. I give it a
hearty thumbs up!
For those of you who like the number system (on a 10 point scale):
Overall: 8.5
Graphics: 9
Sound: 7
Action: 7
Role-Playing aspect: 7
Interface: 9
For reference, I played the game on 386-25, with VGA, and a Soundblaster and
experienced no speed problems or major game bugs.
Super Tetris by Spectrum Holobyte
reviewed by young
In an attempt to make big bucks, Spectrum Holobyte has released
yet another mutation of that Russian classic by Alexey Pajitnov
and dubbed it "Super Tetris". With such a portentous name, I
expected a lot and amazingly, it obliged. The new objective,
the use of bombs, the addition of several "treasures", and
other caveats have created a more complex and richer game. And
yet, they were still able to maintain the simplicity, the
fascination factor and the addictiveness of the original Tetris.
I play Super Tetris as a quick game in between more serious
endeavors (e.g. Civilization) and I am very pleased with it.
(Of course, it isn't perfect.)
The objective of the game is to remove the rubble at the bottom
of the well. At higher levels, you are challenged with more
difficult and deeper layers of rubble. The seven basic falling
pieces are still there but there is more control. As in the
arcade version, the pieces can be partially dropped for better
maneuvering and now you can move diagonally! There is a limited
number of pieces available to finish each level, but you can
pretty much ignore this as you very rarely run out. More pieces
are awarded for each line removed and for bombing some
treasures. Which brings us to the most important new item in
Super Tetris: the "bomb". Every time a line is removed, you
are awarded a set of bombs that can be used to remove rubble.
Random bombing is not recommended. Strategic bombing allows for
the carving out of spaces to fit the next dropping piece. In
addition, bombing the different treasures can be beneficial.
The treasures include:
1-3) 5, 10, 15 additional pieces
4) bubble that moves upward, filling all empty spaces
until the "water line", the topmost layer of the
original rubble, is reached
5) bubble that moves upward, removing all rubble until
the "water line" is reached
6) remove the line it is in
7) destroy all in a 3x3 area around itself
8) turn the next piece into bombs
9) turn the next piece into a stick piece.
Each treasure adds a level of strategy so at first,
it may be easier to ignore them until you get the hang of it.
I found that the "remove line" and "turn into bombs" treasures
are the most useful.
Super Tetris allows for several different types of play. You
can play Single, Cooperative, Competitive, and Head to Head via
modem or Novell LAN (not available in the Windows version).
When playing single games, you can also play with the timer
turned on to 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Two player games use a wider
well and more pieces. Cooperative games let the players share
the same score and the same pool of pieces to use. Trying to
"help" each other can often be funny and sometimes frustrating.
Competitive games allow the two players to use different pools
of pieces and get different scores. I often use the diagonal
movement to sneak into a space that the other player was aiming
for. I was unable to test the Head to Head mode.
The graphics of Super Tetris are outstanding. The pieces and
the rubble are crisp and brightly colored. Beautiful VGA scenes
of the Moscow Circus are used as the background (an animal
theme is used throughout). PC sound is good but loud. The
addition of a soundcard allows for short durations of dull
music and some excellent sound FX. Both the graphics and the
sound greatly enhance interest of the game.
There are two minor problems with this game. The first is that
it is copy protected by the use of trivia questions concerning
the Moscow circus. This is bothersome because I play for only
short periods of time and with high frequency so it is a pain to
look up the answers (note that after a while, I began to
memorize the answers as I did for Civilization). The other
problem is that there are bugs in the Cooperative and
Competitive modes. Sometimes the screen does not refresh and
the explosions are not removed. Sometimes, the falling pieces
fuse and cannot be separated. Sometimes the stick piece grows
an arm. None of these bugs make the game unplayable, but they
can be annoying. I wrote Spectrum Holobyte detailing the
problems and they kindly replied that they will not be doing
anything about them. I recommend sending email to Spectrum
Holobyte if you have these bugs also.
Overall, Super Tetris is worth your time (and bucks) and it will
provide many moments of entertainment. Try some finger
stretches before performing any strenuous game play.
Super Tetris is currently available for DOS and Windows (OS/2 is
not yet supported).
üüüThe Perfect General and Scenario Disk - World War II Battle Set
by Quantum Quality Products
Reviewed by Thom Vaught
It always nice to see another computer wargame on the market. Particularly
one developed by Mark Baldwin, author of Empire. Now he is working with
Quantum Quality Productions Inc. (QQP). The quality of their products thus
far is obvious. Mr. Baldwin's latest effort is The Perfect General (TPG)
which deals with relatively small scale armored conflicts. Lately new
wargames on the computer have become almost an endangered species. This
reviewer like many others has become disgusted with the lack of
connectivity, sloppy presentation, and poor computer opponents exhibited in
most computer wargames. The Perfect General (TPG), which is not perfect,
rectifies this situation in two important areas, presentation and
connectivity.
The presentation of TPG is not stunning, but it is very functional and
surpasses many of its contemporaries. The graphics in TPG are above
average for a computer wargame and it does include sound effects. Most
computer wargame players are not looking for stunning visuals and sounds as
seen in most graphic adventures. However most wargamers expect a solid
game design with decent graphics and a good user interface. In terms of
the user interface, TPG deserves a pat on the back. The interface is very
intuitive. Commands may be given through the use of hotkeys or choosing
options from popup menus.
Another area in which TPG shines is connectivity. TPG allows two human
generals to compete with one another by using the same computer or through
modem connection. It must be noted that this reviewer has not been able to
test the modem portion of the product because his modem has been fried for
some time now. Bug reports for the modem connection within the first
version have been made, and a fix is available to registered users of TPG
from QQP. Mr. Baldwin deserves many thanks for providing gamers with the
option for human competition. A lingering question is why more computer
wargames do not provide the option of connectivity.
One failing of TPG, and most other computer wargames, is the computer
opponent. While the computer opponent may challenge a novice player, most
experienced players will find themselves handing the computer opponent an
humiliating defeat in most scenarios. This reviewer must admit that there
are a few scenarios which still present a challenge because of the time
constraints or the number of opponents. There are handicaps which allow
the gamer to make a scenario more difficult, but using this just has the
effect of reducing the gamers number of starting units. The computer
intelligence could really use some work.
The game itself is a generic armored conflict wargame divided into
scenarios. To play a scenario, the player must give his name. TPG keeps
an overall combat history and scenario combat history for each scenario the
gamer who has played. This is a nice touch because the gamer can see a
record of their performance over a long periods of time. Each scenario has
a number of optional rules which may be adjusted. These options include:
play attacker/defender or once as each, hits may cause full kill or partial
kill, shots may be always hit or random hit, sight may be full view or
limited to line of sight, game length may be standard game or long game,
and handicap. With these optional rules, the gamer has the ability to
greatly affect the way the game behaves.
A scenario is won or lost based on victory points. Objectives for a
scenario have victory points assigned to them. If a player occupies the
objective at the end of a turn without an enemy also occupying a portion of
the objective, the player gains the number of victory points assigned to
that objective. The victory points are cumulative and a unit must occupy
the objective at the end of each turn for to gain victory points for the
objective for that turn.
Units available for the player depend upon the scenario and whether the
player is the attacker or defender. Following is complete list of the
units available: infantry, engineer, armored car, light tank, medium tank,
heavy tank, mobile artillery, light artillery, heavy artillery, and mines.
The player is given a predetermined amount of Buy Points with which to buy
units. Once units are purchased, the player places the units in areas
which are available for initial placement in the scenario. In some
scenarios, reinforcement points are available if certain circumstances are
met such as occupying a specified objective during a given turn.
Each turn in TPG is divided into eight phases. The first phase is the unit
purchase and placement phase. Second is the mobile artillery plot phase
where mobile artillery units plot their fire. Third is the indirect fire
in which both stationary and mobile artillery units execute their firing
orders. Stationary artillery may plot their fire in the fourth phase. The
fifth phase is a direct fire phase in which units may execute direct fire
at opposing units. Sixth is the movement phase where mobile units may plot
their movement. If the unit moves within the line of sight of an opposing
unit, it may come under passing fire. Passing fire is nice, but could use
some improvement. In order to give orders for passing fire, the defender
must be present to give the order while the attacker is moving. Also, the
only indication that passing fire orders may be given is the letter 'F' in
one portion of the screen turns green. How about a tonal signal or
something. Passing fire orders must be given in real time. A delay value
may be set to indicate the amount of time the player has to respond with
passing fire, but an optional pop-up menu instead of the time delay would
be a nice enhancement. The seventh phase is another direct fire phase.
Finally there is the scoring phase in which victory points are tallied.
The scenarios that come with the game are well designed. They cover a wide
range of difficulty levels. Most of them present the gamer with a variety
of different strategic, tactical, and logistical problems for. Some
scenarios demand careful initial placement of units. Others require taking
advantage of chances for ambush. Still others require the gamer to deal
with the problem of moving units effectively to a destination which is just
within reach given the allotted time. Of course, whether the player is
playing attacker or defender will have great bearing upon the decisions
made. Some factors affecting the decisions of generals are the terrain,
time, weather, and neutral countries. Terrain, including water, bridges,
desert, forests, hills, roads, etc., presents presents both opportunities
and challenges. For example, hills and forests limit the sight of units
and offer the player the chance to set up an ambush. Bridges, if
destroyed, must be rebuilt by engineers for units to be able to cross. In
all of the scenarios, the attacker is not only fighting the defender but
also time. Several scenarios have varying weather which may affect both
the movement of units and the ability of units to see other units. Neutral
countries sometimes border the attacker and defender and often present a
temptation to cross for a flanking maneuver. Be warned, neutral countries
will immediately join the other country and all their buy points will go to
him.
The two larger scenarios, Patton Kicks Butt and Alamein, packaged with the
game present a wide range of opportunities to the attacker and defender.
Most gamers asked why more scenarios of that magnitude had not been
included. Enter the World War II Scenario Disk. It is a must buy for
anyone who enjoys TPG. The scenario disk consists of 15 new scenarios from
the WWII period. Not all of the battles occurred, most are based on real
battles. The scenarios are Pegasus Bridge, Sicily, Guadalcanal, Kasserine
Pass, Gafsa, Anzio, Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Okinawa, Saipan, Gazala-Bir
Hacheim, Iwo Jima, Arnheim, Oahu, and Kharkov. All of the scenarios are
very good and it is very nice to see QQP support TPG with the additional
scenarios. It shows they have a genuine commitment to their products and
customers.
Copy protection for TPG is in the form of documentation look-up. The usual
enter the word on page x line y word z. They make it a little easier by
prompting with the first letter of the word, but many still find
documentation look-ups very annoying.
All things considered, TPG would be a great addition to any strategist's
computer wargame library if a challenging computer opponent is not a
requirement. However, if there are wargaming friends handy try putting
away the counters and dice for an evening and giving this game a try. It
should prove to be a enjoyable gaming experience.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Game ³ Oh No More Lemmings! ³
³ ³ by Psygnosis ³
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³ Machine ³ û 8088/8086 (XT) û 80286 (AT) û 80386/80486 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Graphics³ ù CGA û EGA û VGA ù SVGA û Tandy ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Sound ³ û PC Speaker û AdLib û Soundblaster ù Soundblaster Pro ³
³ ³ ù Disney Sound Source ù Roland ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Control ³ û Keyboard û Mouse û Joystick ù Gravis GamePad ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Memory ³ ù EMS ù XMS ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Size ³ 315K ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍØÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Other ³ You really want a mouse... ³
ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;
Reviewed by Ron Dippold
There's not quite as much for me to do on this one, because those of you
who are likely to get Oh No, More Lemmings! are the ones who have the
original Lemmings, which means that you know what it's like. However,
for the uninitiated...
I've always noticed that graphics are incidental to the really good
games. I used to play for hours a dinky little lo-res game called
Intercept and a wireframe game called Depth Charge on my Apple II. The
graphics really lacked, but the game was good. Later, Castle
Wolfenstein and Robot Wars and other games had mediocre graphics at best
but were wildly entertaining. The simplest concepts and games can give
you the most fun, and good graphics and sound don't mean a good game. I
recently deleted a game off my hard disk after only a half hour that was
over ten megabytes. Good graphics, lots of digitized sound, but the
game sucked.
Lemmings is one of those games that is so simple that you say, "Yeah,
well I could have thought of that!" But you didn't, did you? You could
say that about the disposable razor as well. The object of Lemmings and
Oh No, More Lemmings is to get the Lemmings from point A to point B
through obstacle courses of death. The trouble is that lemmings,
although they are cute creatures with blue uniforms and green hair, are
really really stupid. They'll just walk wherever they can, and if that
involves stepping off a cliff or into a meat grinder, they'll do it
happily. So you have to provide the brains.
The lemmings drop out of a door into the obstacle course. You need to
get them to the safe house. Sometimes you can't possibly save them all,
and you may even have to sacrifice some, but you have to save the
specified percentage (given at the start of every level). It's not an
easy job, however. You need to guide them through obstacles, over
chasms, and away from danger. You do this by turning any lemming into a
special kind of lemming. You have the climbers, floaters, exploders,
blockers, builders, bashers, miners, and diggers. You click on the
appropriate box and then click on the lemming to turn him into
something. You can also select what you're going to turn your lemmings
into with the function keys, and I'd really recommend keeping one hand
on the keyboard to do that, and one hand on the mouse to select
lemmings: when the action is fast and furious you literally won't have
time to move the mouse down, select something, then move it back.
A lemming can combine these, i.e. a climber and floater, and be an
athlete. In addition to knowing what skills to use where, you may run
into a particularly devilish factor: you have a limited number of
skills to bestow per level. For example, on a given level you may only
have the ability to make one exploder and three bashers. You could blow
through the level easily with just one digger, but you don't have that.
And you could swear that one exploder and three bashers isn't enough...
The climbers can climb up a vertical surface. And they will climb up
any they encounter, so you better not make sure it's going to take them
to a long drop. Useful for getting up high so you can tunnel down to
the others.
Normally a lemming that drops more than an inch or so on the screen
splatters (with a satisfying squish and animation). The floaters sprout
little parachutes and float down to safety. Useful in combination with
climbing.
It may be cruel, but sometimes the only time you can get to where you
need to is to blow up a lemming. Lemmings would make good revolutionary
terrorists, although they might be a bit too intelligent. The victim
gets a counter over his head that steps down to zero. At that time, he
holds his head in his hand, cries "Oh no!" and spontaneously combusts
with a satisfying explosion which will blow through the floor or wall,
letting other lemmings through. You need to time it carefully so he
doesn't blow up in the wrong place.
Blockers are the most important. They just stand there and refuse to
let any lemmings pass. Usually this saves all the lemmings from
stepping over a cliff while you're busy building a ramp for them. To
get rid of a blocker you need to explode it.
Builders build ramps over chasms, or up to another level. They build
for a predetermined time (ten steps), at which time they turn into
walkers again unless you tell them to build some more. He builds much
slower than the lemmings walk, so usually you need a blocker to keep the
lemmings from walking off the uncompleted ramp.
Bashers bash through obstacles, such as an icicle blocking the lemmings
way. After he bashes though the current obstacle he turns into a walker
again. He bashes slower than lemmings can walk, so you may have to use
him with a blocker. Not all materials can be tunneled through.
Miners dig down diagonally (if the material allows it) until they reach
the end of the material. Makes a good tunnel down and sideways for
lemmings to walk through. For instance, if a drop off a ledge will kill
the lemmings, a tunnel down to halfway down the cliff might not kill
them.
Finally, diggers dig straight down till they hit air (if the material
allows it). Useful for getting down to the next floor.
Each level can be much wider than the screen, and you'll need to scroll
back and forth to see what's going on. It sounds easy, but you
wouldn't believe how complicated it can get. To get some idea, look at
the pictures that come with this review - these are easy levels. I have
seen smart people almost break down and cry as they figure out how to
get their lemmings through a particularly nasty level with one less
digger than seems possible. They could always quit, but lemmings is too
addictive for that.
And it really is addictive. Almost anyone who plays it will get hooked.
It's not the graphics (although they're very good), it's the game. It's
so simple that you become outraged when you can't figure out how a level
is done. And then you get quite a rush when you do finally figure it
out.
Lemmings owners will be pleased to know that some new death traps have
been added, such as the meat grinder. Sucks in a lemming, whirs, and
spits the remains out the other side. The bubbling lava is very
impressive as well.
The original Lemmings came with differing difficulty levels. Oh No,
More Lemmings increases that with five difficulty settings: Tame,
Crazy, Wild, Wicked, and Havoc. Each setting is actually a set of a
bunch of levels, so Havoc isn't just a harder version of the Tame
levels. Lemmings aficionados will be pleased to note that when they say
Wicked and Havoc, they really mean it. The original levels were a
stroll in the park (and a sunny one at that) compared to these levels.
I beat Lemmings, but some of these still have me stumped. In fact, I'd
go as far as to recommend that those who are interested but haven't
played Lemmings to play the original game levels first and then these
levels. The learning curve won't be quite as steep.
And oh, yes. You can play this game with keyboard and joystick, but
you're making it much harder for yourself if you don't use a mouse.
Once you've got that, you're set. This will addict almost everyone,
from 10 to 110. In fact, young kids seem to have an easier time of it
than middle-aged folks, or the very old (you know, 40). Highly
recommended, unless you've got something coming up that you'll need to
get done.
As with the Ultima 7 review, we're please to offer three, count'em, three
very thorough reviews on Origin's hit, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss.
Enjoy all three reviews.
Editor
ULTIMA UNDERWORLD - post-game review
------------------------------------
by Mitch Aigner
SUMMARY: WOW!
PROS: Great user interface, great graphics/animation during play, weeks of
cheap entertainment.
CONS: Seems to have problems running on some machines. Several people have
reported bugs in the first release.
MIXED: Requires 13 MBytes of hard-disk space for full installation (sound, anim-
ated cut sequences, etc.), 8 MBytes for minimum configuration.
Requires at least 1 Meg of expanded memory (not extended), which means
that you must already have an expanded memory manager (EMM).
Requires at least a 25-MHz 386 machine to get smooth action/graphics.
Requires VGA display card.
All of the above requirements are neccesary evils. If you want great
graphics, real-time animation, and giant play areas, you shouldn't have
bought that old PC XT. To get the most out of a super game, you have
to have a super computer (I have a 40-MHz 386).
OVERALL: This game provides the best "Alternate Reality" that I have seen
since my drug-crazed youth. With the lights off, and SoundBlaster
cranked up, the illusion is complete.
You are the Avatar, unjustly imprisoned in the Great Stygian
Abyss. Your primary mission is to survive, which is not easy. There
are a myriad of wonderfully animated, but extremely hostile nasties
to deal with. The battles are intense, and best of all, under your
complete control. You parry, thrust, dazzle 'em with fancy footwork,
and occasionaly run away like crazy if the above fail. Very realistic,
and fully animated.
There are also a number of fairly civilized bands of critters
who make the Abyss their home. These are informative and entertaining
to talk to, as well as to trade with. Just don't make them angry
(always be polite, and respectful,.. like any great hero).
Your secondary mission is to clear your good name of the crime
you didn't commit by locating, and dealing harshly with, the actual
perpetrators. This is also not easy, as they are located on the lower
levels of the dungeon, which you must fight your way down to.
The game provides 8 very large play-levels. Loaded with secret
doors, hostile nasties, and wonderful treasures. You can count on
spending many hours exploring and mapping each one. By the way, the
automatic mapping feature is great. You never have to write down any-
thing with pencil and paper,... it is already there. Everytime you
venture into a new area, your map of each level is automatically
updated to show where you are, and where you have been. Unexplored
areas remain blank until you check them out. In addition, there is a
"pen" and an "eraser" to allow you to make extensive notes on your
maps, as well as a few extra blank pages on which to record additional
information that you come across in your travels (which you had better
take full advantage of). Keeping track of all of the characters you
meet, the hints they give you, the mini-quests that they send you on,
bonus magic spells that aren't in the book, and where you left that
darn recipe for worm stew,... gets hard to keep track of if you don't
write it all down.
All in all, I was very impressed.
TIPS FOR BEGINNERS:
1. When the game begins, you create your character. Some of the skills you may
choose yourself, some the computer chooses for you (more or less at random).
Of the computer-chosen skills, Strength is one of the most important. If
the character you create does not get a Strength factor of at least 25,
throw that character away and try again. Strength determines how much
wonderful stuff that you can carry at once. During the course of the game
you will have many opportunities to improve your skills in most of the
categories,.. but Strength isn't one of them.
2. Talk to everyone who isn't actively trying to kill you.
3. Save your game often,.. you never know what horrors may lie behind that
door that you are about to open.
4. Write down everything that seems even remotely useful on your maps with
the simulated "pen". If you forget where something (or someone) is, or
what they told you, it could put a real crimp in your day.
5. If someone asks you to go off on some senseless quest for them, do it. The
rewards are almost always worth the trouble. The good guys (who are easily
identified by the banner outside their door) may be rude, and occasionaly
disgusting, but they will never steer you wrong.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss by Origin Systems
by Andrew Stevens, Oxford, UK
First of all I would like to emphasies that overall Ultima Underworld is
a superb computer game. It is definitively a great step forward in the
state of the art for the FRP game genre, I don't know of anything better
overall. O.k. it needs serious machine to run it on, but there are no
free lunches. Big GFX, big dungeons, and fancy gameplay need megabytes
and CPU cycles. The minimum level machine for the hardware to be
``invisible'' (no slowings of frame-rate etc) would, I suspect, be a
cached 33 Mhz 386DX with a respectable VGA card. Slower machines would
probably have to start having to trade-off texture mapping on floor and
or ceiling for improvements in frame rate.
The ability to move and look around freely 360 degrees horizontally +/-
45 degree vertically adds incredibly to the feeling of ``being there''.
The Dungeon becomes almost tangible. My wife, not easily impressed and
*not* by no means a regular gamer, was immediately hooked and now keeps
*me* up late playing ``just a few rooms more''. The lack of implausible
restrictions in movement - you can jump/swim/fly as well as walk -
adds an amazing feeling of ``depth'' to gameplay. E.g. why not
play dirty and beat up that monster from on top of that platform where
(oh how sad!) it can't reach you. Even more impressive is the
fact that the games programmers have actually built a gameplay engine
smart enough to cope with all variations this kind of freedom introduces.
A very positive mention must also be given to the design of the combat
system. The fluent mouse-driven interface combined with fluent movement
that actually influences the outcome is a real strength. No tedious
grinding away of hit points at point blank. You rush about, maneuvre,
strike, maneuvre, get flustered and lose track of your enemy and so on.
Wonderful stuff. I was especially amused by the (in my opinion
``realistic'') frantic fumbling that occurs when you want to cast a
spell in the heat of combat. Finally, given the size of the dungeon (8
large levels), I cannot thank the programmers enough for the inclusion
(why doesn't everyone do this?) of an automapping facility. As you
wander around the dungeon the initially blank map is automatically
extended to include the areas you have explored. No more tedious
fumbling with pencil and paper when you have a fancy computer sitting in
front of you. This facility also plays a key role in playability in
that acts as kind of prosthesis for the ``sense of direction'' available
to a real explorer of a real dungeon in real (slow) time.
However, Origin's competitors needn't close up shop quite yet. There
are plenty of areas where improvements could be made.
The ``strategic'' game structure is perhaps not *quite* as good
as the superb tactical level. I, personally, would have appreciated a
the need for little more lateral thinking in the puzzles. So far (I
haven't yet reached the end-game), all the crucial information is simply
told you straight out once you find the right characters / objects / bit
of the dungeon. A option for more cryptic clues to the main quests
might have been nice.
My (addmitedly cheapo) AdLib clone sound-card emmitedly decidedly
unimpressive noises during the game. O.k. with an AdLib you don't
expect individual effects to be staggeringly good. Yet, that shouldn't
impinge on the overall use of sound and its sync-ing with game. I was
particularly disappointed with the small number of different sound
effects used and the rather erratic foot-step effect. Your footfalls
tend to run on after you have stopped moving, and don't adjust properly
to the speed at which you walk/run. A flat-out sprint ticks along
barely faster than a brisk walk. With multiple characters about
``footsteps'' just degenerated into a kind of random clicking.
Even an AdLib can do a rather better when its told to. Furthermore,
there are a lot of AdLib's / AdLib clones out there, so it is not
entirely unreasonable for a game to drive them reasonably well.
Another mild infelicity was hearing supposedly intangible ghosts (etc)
banging around in rooms supposedly seperated by many feet of solid rock.
The game suffers from the well-known ``hard-drive active =
monster around the next corner syndrome''. Given the availability
of plenty RAM on my machine this seemed a bit silly.
The code handling mouse selection of objects in the dungeons was
sometimes a little erratic. Similarly the checking for ``no room
to drop item'' tends to be rather conservative. Often you can't
drop something you've just picked up without moving about a bit.
The original batch of games were released with buggy inventory handling
code. A patched version of the main .exe is available to fix this.
However, all complaints really are quite peripheral. Ultima Underworld's
depth of gameplay grabs you by the throat, drags you into its game-world,
and then keeps you there. That for me is what a FRP game is
all about and ``Underworld'' it does it in spectular style. I certainly
got value for money for my 40 pounds sterling ($60-ish) and I keenly
await a leap-frogging response from Origin's competitors.
They will have to work very hard indeed to do much better.
Ultima Underworld : The Stygian Abyss
Graphics : VGA
Sound Cards : Roland / Soundblaster / Adlib Supported.
Recommended : 386 16 megahertz or better 2 MB RAM required
By : Origin (Blue Sky Productions)
List Price : $79.95
Review by : Jason Kuo
Reviewed on : 486 / 386-25, Sound Blaster
Once again, Origin has taken the IBM hardware to its limit with one of its
newest games, Ultima Underworld. Ultima Underworld is a "Dungeon" game in the
first person perspective. It is special in that it is one of the first games
that actually puts you in a "virtual reality". However Ultima Underworld
requires that you have at least a 386 with at least 2 megabytes of memory, and
about 13 megabytes free on your hard drive.
The Plot:
In this game, you are once again the Avatar, a person of the 8 virtues. You
have been having a recurring nightmare where a ghost warns you of emminent
danger. You draw yourself to the ghost and find yourself in a castle where
you see a wizard who has just kidnapped a princess. The wizard disappears,
leaving you as an obvious suspect. You are taken before the baron, who
declares that to prove your innocence, you must find his daughter the
princess in the Stygian Abyss where the wizard has taken her. And
thus begins your quest.
The Documentation:
Included in the game is a map of the first level, and background information
about the Stygian Abyss. Reading the documentation is highly recommended, not
just to find out about spellcasting, but to also learn how to control your
character in the game. It gives you a background of the characters you can
choose from such as Paladin, Magic-User, Ranger, Druid, Shepherd and Fighter
to name a few. It also gives you a background of some of the races that
you will encounter as well.
Virtual Reality:
In Ultima Underworld, you are in a "virtual reality dungeon". So for every
step you take by "moving" forward, the screen reacts by going forward
and simulating the movement to portray real movement. So if you "run", the
screen will simulate it by increased speed in getting to the other side,
of say a corridor, right down to the detail of the screen bobbing up and down,
as you take each step. Objects such as swords, shields, and monsters such as
spiders, and ghosts can be viewed from any direction and are portrayed with
the exact angle in which you see them. So if you run behind a spider,
and if the spider has not turned around, you will see it's back. Throwing an
object against the wall will cause the object to bounce before it lands, and
depending on what you throw, say a ball, it may take a while before the object
settles down. Lighting is portrayed realistically as well, using a candle,
you cannot see as far as you would with a well-lit latern.
Graphics:
There's a cost for creating a "virtual reality" on an IBM or for any machine
for that matter. In this case, the cost is in the graphics. The graphics
while impressive for a "virtual reality" are at times blocky, especially as
you get near any object. The window (first person perspective) to "virtual
reality" is about a third of your screen on your monitor. One reason is the
need to keep the virtual reality in "real time". I'm sure no one would
appreciate doing a jump, and having the game pause to calculate and update the
graphics on the entire screen, then have a third of the screen updated exactly
as you jump. And though at times blocky, each object is distinguishable.
Game Play:
Although you are in a "virtual reality", the game play is not unlike many
other role playing games like Eye of the Beholder 2. There are puzzles such
as pulling levers in the correct sequence, and combat against monsters. The
puzzles consist of visual clues, and interacting with NPC's (Non Player
Character) to complete quests and gain various items. Combat is interesting,
as it happens in real time, you need to take the time to swing your blade, and
distance to fire your arrows. In hand-to-hand combat, there are different
types of attacks that you can do, such as slashing, and thrusting which have
different effectiveness against certain monsters. As you go deeper into the 8
level underground volcano, the plot will reveal itself to be more than a
simple kipnapping. And even after the "end" of your goal, you will still need
to accomplish further goals as well.
One nice feature is the mapping function. Ultima Underworld will automap each
location which you wander off to. And you can write any comment on the map
itself.
Music & Sound:
The Music for Ultima Underworld isn't spectacular, and can get right down
irritating at times. The sound effects are average, although there is stereo
for those with a Sound Blaster Pro.
Criticism:
One problem with Ultima Underworld is inventory. It's not to say this "bug"
will happen on your computer, but in this reviewer's experience, items in his
inventory disappeared that were critical to finish the game. Supposedly this
has been fixed with newer versions of Ultima Underworld, but I've still heard
of missing inventory problems in the newer versions. To help anyone out there
who may have encountered these problems here is a guide to get back some of
your missing items.
1) Go into the directory of the savegame with the problem and make a backup.
It's best that you move your character to the level where the item is
supposed to be in the first place before going to Step 2.
2) Create a new character and save in position of the savegame with the
problem.
3) Copy from the backup "player.dat" to the new character save.
4) Now when you play the new character, he/she will have the old items of your
old character, and you can retrieve your missing inventory. You will also
find yourself in the location of your "backup" game. A warning however;
when you do this you are reseting the entire dungeon, so monsters
which you may have killed before are now reincarnated.
5) When you have finished retrieving the item(s), copy back the backup into
the new game save, but DON'T overwrite the player.dat file.
Of course the best way to conquer this bug, is to always check your inventory,
and save, even if it means expanding your 4 save positions by backing up the
old saves and using the 4 save positions as new save positions.
Overall:
Ultima Underworld is a landmark game in that one gets to experience a "virtual
reality". It really needs to be experienced. One way you can do this is by
going to your local software dealer and trying the demo, find a friend who has
Ultima VII and ask for the Ultima Underworld Demo, which is included with
Ultima VII, or try ftping it if you have access to the network.
Unfortunately, although one does experience a "virtual reality", the plot,
puzzles, and the NPC interaction isn't really different from any other
"Dungeon" game. I would recommend trying it out before buying it. It's not
because it's a game that wouldn't appeal to the public, in fact, if it
weren't for the inventory "bug", I would wholeheartedly recommend this game to
any RPG gamer, who have enjoyed games such as Eye of the Beholder, Wizardry
VI or to anyone in general. But an inventory "bug" such as this one can ruin
all the work you've done. On the plus side, if you've ever wanted to really
experience what it would be like to be stuck in a dungeon, you can either buy
Ultima Underworld or be locked in my room. I would say its worth a risk of
buying Ultima Underworld if you can't get your hands on the demo. You just
cross your fingers, and hope the inventory problem doesn't happen on your
computer, try it and follow the above instructions if you have problems,
and/or complain to Origin. Right now, you should be able to buy Ultima
Underworlds for about $54.00 at CompUSA.
Hints:
For those who would like some tips on Ultima Underworld, here they are:
Choose a character with high strength. Character classes with high strength
include Druids, Fighters, and Shepherds. It's not really necessary though,
Rangers, Paladins, etc. are fine, you just have to be more critical about what
you carry with you. Skills I would recommend investing in are : Mana,
Casting, Search, One Weapon skill, Attack, Defense. The other skills have
their uses but are not that important. If you ever get stuck in one
situation, skip it, a solution may come along later. In fact some puzzles can
be solved very easily when you gain other items on lower levels.
For those of you who must see a rating system:
Ultima Underworld : The Stygian Abyss
Graphics : 8
Sound : 6
Playability : 9
Plot : 7
Overall : 8.5
We're going to try something new with this issue. This review of Ultima 7
actually contains two perspectives on this landmark game. Both are
presented here in their entirety. The screen shots apply, of course, to
both reviews. - Editor
A review of "Ultima VII: The Black Gate"
by David Taylor
Rating: **** (out of five)
Summary:
Origin's latest fantasy-adventure PC-compatible game. At 70-odd US
dollars, an expensive game, but worth it. Expect to spend one to two
weeks of heavy playing to solve this one. It's up to typical Origin
"blow-your-mind" standards. The sub-plots are many and colorful.
Conversations are more animated than ever before. The graphics are
gorgeous, and the animation is excellent. The modelling of sounds (you
can perceive distance) is a nice touch. Keeping it from being a 5-star
game: the inventory system is clumsy, the need to reboot before playing
is inconvenient, you can't control your party members individually
anymore, and a bug involving disappearing keys. Don't bother playing
it on most 386SX's as it isn't too fast on a 486/33, but this depends
more on your video card interface and hard disk speed than anything
else.
Overall, the game is definitely worth it. I can't give it the 5 stars,
as the most important question is, are you going to play it alot? The
probable answer for this one is "yes." After you've won, if you're
still the sicko "maim-and-destroy" type encouraged way back in Ultimas
I-III, you can see what it's like to slaughter the general population
after winning. Besides, the excellent plot and effects just make the
game incredibly addicting.
Requirements according to the box:
IBM or 100% compatible 386SX, 386, 486 PC System
REQUIRED: 2 megs RAM, 21+ MB hard disk;
256-color VGA graphics; MS-DOS V3.3 or higher
RECOMMENDED: Microsoft or 100% compatible mouse; 20+ MHz; sound board
MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS (optional): Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster, Ad Lib,
Sound Blaster Pro or 100% compatible sound board.
DIGITIZED SPEECH (optional): Sound Blaster or 100% compatible
digitzed sound
board (Hear THE Guardian Speak!)
$9.95 exchange form for 5.25" HD disks.
Requirements according to Dave:
100% IBM-compatible 386, 486 System
REQUIRED: 4 megs RAM (use 2 for a disk cache), 30 Mb FAST hard disk;
256-color local-bus or 32-bit EISA bus graphics card (don't bother
with co-processors: aren't used); MS-DOS 3.3 or higher, RELIABLE
mouse or track ball (you won't be using the keyboard), 25+ MHz or
faster, sound board- if it doesn't talk, you're missing out.
In detail:
Origin's long-awaited release of "Ultima VII," the latest in their
famous fantasy adventure series, is very ambitious and very large.
As a friend of mine is fond of saying, "Size isn't everything," but
it sure can impress. This game will chew up almost anything your
hardware can throw at it, whether it's CPU, memory, graphics or hard
disk performance.
Origin has a history for ambitious, leading-edge games, so when they're
released, our standards are artificially high. They're the Cray
Research of the computer game industry. Origin sells expensive games
for which you simply can't find substitutes.
This game has done exceptionally well. They recouped their development
expenditures on day one with 60,000 orders (they needed 50,000 to break
even). An impressive feat if you consider the amount of time and money
that went into this product. Check out the "Credits" when you start up
the game to see why they're fond of calling their products "interactive
movies."
So is U7 worth the $70-odd they charge? If you like role-playing, then
the answer is a definite "yes."
Installing the game was uneventful for me. It was easy, and
considering the size of this monster, was fairly quick. Time to play!
Not! You have to reboot your computer with a different setup if you
use an expanded memory manager. However, if you have 4 Mb of extended
memory free and use the EMM386 that comes with DOS 5.0, you can get a
utility called EMMHACK designed specifically to let you suspend EMM386,
run Ultima 7, then resume EMM386 upon exit.
Also, in your Ultima 7 boot configuration, give yourself a 2Mb disk cache
if possible. You'll be hating life without it.
The game starts out with a happy, woodsy scene with a butterfly flitting
about the screen and happy, woodsy music to accompany. Suddenly static,
and the screen is taken over by a pulsating background featuring the evil
red face of "The Guardian" who explains to you that he's moving in on
Brittania as the new ... well ... "Guardian" of the people. He then goes
on to explain how you, of course, will help to serve his ends, in classic
ultimate evil-dude style. This is definitely a cool part of the game.
The face is pre-rendered and animated at a fairly good clip. His lips
match what he's saying pretty closely and Bill Johnson (voice of The
Guardian) has a most excellent evil red dude voice.
Onward. No creating characters in this one. You pick a name and a
portrait (male or female- big choice) and "Journey Onward." You start
out watching a conversation between your old archer friend Iolo and a
townsperson. They're talking about a murder just committed in the
horse stables. That's when you magically pop in (you're normally an
earth-bound dude, but tend to get popped into the fantasy land of
Britania when things aren't kosher). So the mayor of the town quickly
approaches you and charges you with finding the murderer, "but oh by
the way, check the stables first." So you go to the stables. (Wait a
second. Forgot to mention. Origin labelled this game "MP-13", mature
players only.) In the stables, you find a man tied to the floor with
stakes. All of his appendages have been severed, and 'bloody' is a dry
way of describing the scene. His assistant, a gargoyle, is pinned up to
the back wall with a pitchfork through the abdomen.
Wow. Neat start to a neat game. I'm not too used to this kind of
gore, but Origin's getting brave. (See "Wolfenstein 3D" from Apogee
for truly tasteless). The plots are further complicated by two rather
insidious elements recently introduced to Brittania. "The Fellowship"
is a new religious organization which promotes questionable values and
has grim cult-like overtones. On top of this, you have the Brittania
Purity League (equivalent to the Klu Klux Klan) wanting to rid the land
of those "nasty gargoyles" trying to become integrated into Brittanian
society.
The first thing you're struck by when entering the game is the complete
lack of a grid-like feel to the world. Trees go up two stories and are
modelled that way. You hear birds. A lady walks up to a street lamp,
gets up on her tip-toes and turns it on. She later opens the shutters
to the house and says, "It's too nice a day for these". Every
character in the game has his/her own daily routine, and they're
incredibly detailed.
The whole game is mouse-driven. I've never been a big fan of mouse-
driven anything, primarily because I hate the way mice tend to skip.
Doing this game with a keyboard, though, would've proven very difficult.
You click the right button and hold it down to walk towards the pointer.
You clik the left button once to identify something. You click it twice
to use it. You click and hold the left button to move something. These
few commands more or less take care of you throughout the game, but
keeping a finger near the "c" key isn't a bad idea (it's a hot key
for getting into combat mode).
The screen is centered about your character which means that it scrolls
by to keep you in the middle. Unlike most games, there are no "status
bars". Every square inch of your screen is scrolling by. This is
definitely one of the most obstinant bottlenecks of the game. It uses
the 256-color 320x200 resolution so common in games today, but it's
changing every pixel on that screen with every step. That means having
a local bus video card or EISA bus video card will improve the
performance of your game considerably.
The other thing you notice is these big red check marks you have to click
to make pop-up windows go away. Eeww. That's not too hip at all and makes
the inventory system in particular a little clumsy to use as it takes up
a lot of screen real-estate in the first place. Another slightly irritating
feature is the need to click on the inventory of your character before you
can do so for any other character. Readying and moving items to and from
your backpack is simple, but one wonders why it's left to the player to
juggle items around instead of being given a complete inventory for your
whole party in one pop-up window.
The conversations with the townsfolk are very easy. Double click your
talking target and choose from a list of topics to talk about. The
topics change as the conversation progresses, and sometimes, you'll be
given new topics to chat about after doing something, seeing something,
or more often than not, talking to someone else. This is pretty fun at
first, when you're eager to learn new faces. But when you get to big
towns like Britain, the novelty wears off. Wow, you could spend a
while networking in this city. Fortunately, that's not really
required.
You're discouraged from attacking town members unless they provoke you
(which does happen later on), but in the countryside and dungeons, don't
expect any niceties. However, you should always keep watch to see if the
monster is approaching you menacingly. A very few of those things are
actually characters, and you don't want to kill them. Combat isn't quite
as exciting as it was in previous games because you aren't allowed to
control the individual actions of your party members anymore. You give
them overall strategies from a list of about 10, and they try to interpret
those best they can. Problem is, I've yet to find one which says, "stay
just barely within range of the bad guys, and rain arrows on their heads."
Sometimes your characters will go off fighting the wrong bunch of monsters,
so the "proximity" strategy is the one you'll probably use mostly.
A neat feature I found which I didn't really realize until I was well into
the game is that I no longer need to keep track of what's going on with
a pencil and paper. Maybe my memory's starting to improve, but this was
really nice. The conversations will prompt you with "hot" topics based
on conversations you've already had. Your job is to lead the guy around be
the nose. He can more or less take care of the conversation himself as long
as you can network him.
Bad Bug #1: if you have keys and go to sleep, in the morning they'll be gone.
Solution: stick all your keys in a bag, put it on the ground, then go to
sleep. Pick it up in the morning.
Bad Bug #2: I personally experienced the total discombobulation of the game.
A dragon with a yellow outline appeared in a tavern kitchen. Walls started
to occasionally disappear until all the buildings everywhere were wall-less
(yet plaques and tapestries were still hanging in midair). Not sure why this
happened and haven't heard other cases of it, but if you experience the same,
let me know how it happened.
Solution: only affected one game thread. any other saved game was fine.
Not-so-bad Bug: Enjoy reading the credits and quotes, but don't start the
game after doing this. Some have experienced screens being stuck with a
red colormap, others just a hang. If you can start the game successfully,
you're probably going to be alright from then on.
Well, this is getting long-winded. The upshot is that you'll find plenty of
neato objects, monsters, weapons and armor in this game on par with any
exciting fantasy adventure, but as a bonus, you'll get just a REAL complex
real-time world. The couple of bugs aren't bad considering the complexity of
the game. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.
----
As usual, a reminder that software piracy sucks big @#$*. Please help
make games higher quality and BUY your software. Piracy encourages
game writers to change careers to higher-paying jobs. We've lost many a
good game author from that.
-----
Ultima VII: The Black Gate by Origin Systems
Reviewed by Mark Bylander
Once again, you, the Avatar, find a moongate in your backyard. Again
you enter, knowing it will take you to the lands of Brittania. Upon arrival,
however, you find that much has changed. There is much to explore in order to
unravel the mysteries awaiting you. Ultima VII is VGA only, requires a 386SX
or higher machine, 2M RAM, and fills a whopping 21 MB of hard disk space. The
interface is all new.
First off, we should discuss bugs. Ultima VII has several problems in
this respect, which may have more or less effect depending on your hardware
configuration. Ultima VII will not run in the presence of EMS. You must
either change your configuration or boot from floppies to use it. If you
have the minimum memory, you may have problems running Ultima in the
presence of HIMEM.SYS; I had to disable HIMEM to run on my
machine.
Several users of disk caching software have reported lock-up problems, so
be wary of this.
Another bug/feature is the implementation of keys. Most keys are found
near where they are used, so Origin figures it can get rid of old keys while
you sleep. The moral is, "Do not sleep while carrying an unused key."
You can sometimes put the key in a bag which is not on your person to avoid
this problem, but save before you try it.
That said, Ultima VII is a very interesting game. The window on Brittania
takes up the whole screen, and the images on the screen are much larger than
on previous Ultimas. The graphics look very nice. There is an occasional
problem with save games and invisibility, in that they sometimes mess up the
pallettes on the screen. You can usually restore the pallette by quitting
and then saying, "No, I don't really want to quit."
The plot is fairly intriguing. There is a new group, called the
Fellowship, which is doing good works in Brittania. A huge head of some
sort of demonic creature keeps appearing to you and offering sometimes
helpful advice. Several towns have crime sprees, which you can solve.
Since it has been many years since the avatar's last visit, you will find
that many things have changed. Britain is a huge, sprawling city. The
gargoyles have moved into two cities on the surface. (Continuity bug: the
world is again toroidal instead of flat.) Magic is failing and wizards are
going insane. Lord British remains in his castle, uninformed about his realm.
You begin in the city of Trinsic, where a grisly murder has just been
discovered. (Warning: the graphics here are, well, graphic.) You must
get sufficient information about the murder before the mayor will give you
the password to leave the city.
The interface is new. You can play entirely from the mouse. (I use the
mouse and the escape key, personally.) As a result, many things are simplified.
For instance, attacking, talking, and using are all accomplished by double-
clicking a creature (while in combat mode), a creature (in peace mode), and
an object, respectively. I was disappointed in the new talk interface.
Since it is fully mouse-driven, you must select your responses from a set
of canned replies. If you have figured out who the vandal is, but have not
had a confession or accusation by an NPC, you cannot report your findings.
Furthermore, the new talk routine all but obviates the need for notes. When
you meet someone you were sent to talk to, Ultima includes the topic you
were supposed to mention, sometimes before you even know who you're talking
to. In fact, one character tells you a secret to keep from her husband. When
you meet him, the subject of the secret appears on the list. If you select
it, the game asks you if you really want to reveal the secret. I find it
annoying to get this much help in the game.
The new combat sequence is very hard to play manually. I recommend that
you put all the characters (including the Avatar) under computer control.
You can put your spellbook in the space directly above your weapon. This
makes it easy for you to cast spells, but prevents the computer from using
up spells in combat.
The moral aspect of earlier Ultimas is still present, although sometimes
poorly implemented. Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre may leave the group if you
steal within sight of an NPC, but won't say a word if you sneak into a
house at night, close the doors, and start rifling through the drawers.
Twice in the game, I have had NPC's attack when I revealed their role in
foul deeds. Based on previous Ultimas, I am reluctant to kill them, but
this game seems to leave little choice.
The 3D perspective is very similar to Ultima VI and the first two
Worlds of Ultima games. As in Ultima VI, the perspective seems to make
cities seem huge and wilderness seem small. There are some vertical scaling
problems as well, for instance, Lord British's castle is taller than the
highest mountains of Brittania. Ultima VII lacks the mesas of Worlds
of Ultima. It merely has mountains.
All in all, although Ultima VII has several problems (which hopefully
will be cleared up in later releases), I have found the game to be quite
entertaining. Because of the new talk interface, it can be very frustrating
to have to repeat sections of the game, so be sure to save often. Also,
the game appears to support only one player, so if you have multiple game
players in the household, you may need much more than the 23MB of disk space
normally required by the game. I recommend Ultima VII to all fans of the
Ultima series, and fans of fantasy games in general (Although the game is
playable without it, it would probably be immensely beneficial to play
Ultima IV-VI before playing this game, as many characters and places have
changed, and only a veteran of the previous games will notice these
differences.) I suspect that this game will take even the most expert player
a great many hours to complete--I've played for many hours and I don't think
that I am even close to the end!
A Preview of Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra
Previewed by Alexandria North
I'm playing Dagger of Amon Ra, and I love it! (Of course, I love mystery
games, especially when you get to question people and search rooms. Oooh!
makes me shudder with delight...)
The Dagger of Amon Ra uses the newer Sierra icon interface. The graphics
are beautiful, and some of the animation is better than anything I've
seen yet...for example, at one point you look at engravings on a stone
with a magnifying glass, and it looks *just like* you are moving a
magnifying glass over it...and you control the movement.
The game is adult-oriented (to my pleasure). Music is terrific, atmosphere
is entertaining-to-spooky. You discovered corpses during the game, and
some deaths are gory, in 256-color with luxurious tones of dripping blood.
This game has a lot of depth to it if you look for it, so you need to be
investigative to discover the full potential. For example, when you encounter
a corpse, you could just look at it, or you could examine every part of the
body, searching and peeking, to get more clues. You won't know what you
missed if you don't. Also, there are secret passage that aren't critical
to game play, but do help you -- if you never find them, you don't know
you missed them (with one exception). You eavesdrop on a lot of conver-
sations, some of which will go one without you, so if you're not poking
around, you lose another dimension.
All in all, I'm thrilled with the game. I may have found one bug in it
(which I'm working out with Sierra right now) and if it is indeed a bug,
I'll post information on it.
Oh, this game has acts similar to the first Laura Bow mystery, though they
are implemented somewhat differently. I'm not sure how many acts there are,
but I decided just as I started Act 5 that I wanted to replay the entire
game before continuing, to make sure I do everything I now know I can
do. I was moving at lightning speed (questioning people but clicking past
all their answers) and it took me three hours to get to the beginning of
act 4. That's pretty good for a full game, since I didn't even catch up
with myself yet, and who knows what else I missed?
Hong Kong Mahjong by Electronic Arts
First Looks!
This is a newly released title that faithfully reproduces the ancient tile
game of Mahjong. The ancient game is a tile game that is played between
4 players. Each player is dealt 13 colorful tiles and proceeds to take and
discard tiles until they have a four matching or sequential sets.
The game allows the player to choose from 12 different opponents, each with
individual personalities and skill levels. Each player is presented
"digitized" and animated with a description of their tactics and how well
they play. There are very nice digitized voices and sound effects throughout
the game as well, increasing the level of realism of the opponents and the
feeling behind the game.
There is a full-length tutorial (on-line) that teaches first time Mahjong
players how to play the game. The computer provides all of the scoring and
analysis of the game play. Graphics are presented all the way up to 640x480
x256 color (SVGA) and the screens are beautiful.
All in all, for those looking for a "leisurely" paced game, Hong Kong Mahjong
deserves a look.
Spellcraft by ASCII Entertainment
First Looks!
In this new RPG title, you're "summoned" to Stonehenge where you mysteriously
are whisked into the next dimension to await your destiny as a Spellcrafter
to mend the fabric "which binds all realities". The fantasy world of Valoria
and our world has a rift that continues to grow, and you, as the apprentice
spellcrafter much defeat the evil influence of the six warring Lord wizards.
Only through the practice of "Spellcraft" can they be defeated.
The player must restore balance between the mundane world (ours) and the
elemental domains (earth, water, fire, air), where the power of the word
rivals that of the mightiest sword. The graphics are quite well done, and
the focus of the game is on creating spells. Overall, it looks like a solid
entry into the RPG genre. ASCII estimates that it will take players more than
100 hours to complete the game.
Strike Commander by Origin Systems
First Looks!
Strike Commander may well be the most anticipated new simulator since Falcon
3.0 left us hanging for so long. It's been delayed for many months now, but
it appears the wait will be worth it.
The scenario of Strike Commander is simple: In the future the country (USA)
goes to hell-in-a-handbasket and the IRS (finally!) becomes the real bad guy.
State after state secedes from the union and the US of A is left a fragment
of its former self. Multinational corporations become the real power
holders in the world. You command Stern's Wildcats, an elite squadron of
mercenaries trying to fly straight into this world-gone-bad. You'll pilot
F-16s, F-22s, and other aircraft into battle against rival squadrons,
renegade third-world dictators, and the armies of the hated IRS.
The graphics in this new simulator are beyond words. Nothing of this
complexity has been attempted on a PC yet, and the time to get this product
out the door shows it. It will also put a BIG strain on your hardware, so
be prepared to enjoy Strike Commander ONLY if you have a reasonable 386
machine, preferably a 486. It will NOT run on a 286 or below.
Space Quest 5 by Dynamix/Sierra On-Line
First Looks!
Yes, Roger is back, and this time...(god forbid) HE'S IN COMMAND! Oh joy,
Roger gets to captain his own spaceship. Our highly decorated janitor heads
to starship captain school and ends up as our newly graduated captain. The
journey this time is to zip throughout the galaxy with his odd-ball crew in
pursuit of the space villain who is dumping bio-hazzard waste on unsuspect-
ing planets.
In perfect Sierra/Dynamix tradition, the graphics are tremendous and the
sound support should be nothing less than spectacular as well. This new
title seems to fit into the environmentally-conscious mold that Sierra
is starting to be known for now. This should be good "clean" fun...(sorry,
I just couldn't resist!).
Darklands by Micrprose
First Looks!
Microprose, well known for their enjoyable simulators, is now prepared to
take on the role-playing market now. Darklands is the much anticipated
first foray in this market by MPS. It's due to ship "REAL SOON NOW".
Taking place in medieval Germany, your quest is achieve immortality and
fortune by embarking on a variety of quests and adventures. The interesting
thing about this title is its endless replayability. The adventure generator
ensure that you can continue playing Darklands indefinitely. This product
is like a third person-viewd virtual-reality RPG. Perhaps SimAdventure??
The graphics are top notch, but the real key to the value of this game is that
the player makes up his/her overall adventure as he interacts with the German
universe presented to him/her. There's no real "end game" sequence here.
The role playing element is very predominant in this title and the magic/
alchemical system is put to good use too. I believe you'll spend hundreds
of hours with Darklands.
Dynamix Football by Dynamix/Sierra On-Line
First Looks!
It had to happen. It just HAD to happen! The masters of 3D at Dynamix are
finally jumping into the sports simulation world. Front Page Sports: Football
is the first entry in a series of sports games from Dynamix. It will be
loaded with features and capabilities that should propel them right to the
top of the sports simulation marketplace.
Here are some great features, right from Sierra's INTERACTION magazine:
1) Full league play with support for 28 human players to enroll as team
owners, running their teams in a single season or continuing seasons against
one another. If you're running solo, you pick your team, and the computer
manages the rest.
- full 47 man roster with injured reserve
- 28 team league play with full 16 game schedule
- 12 team playoffs
- full player career management with injuries
- player management like trades, injuries, drafts, training camp
- selling of teams back to the computer to manage different teams
2) Full statistical support at the team and individual level for current
season and over player careers. Statistical database is available on all
teams so you can scout out your opponents. Over 100 categories of statistics.
3) As in real football, different teams will play differently based on their
coaching, personnel, playbook, etc. However, as players get older, great
teams will get weaker due to retirement and injuries, while weaker teams will
gain strength through the draft and trades.
4) The programming model is sophisticated enough to allow the computer to
"learn" as it plays and make intelligent choices. This plus the random
element of football makes it very difficult to predict what the computer
will do.
5) The environment will affect outcome. The boisterous fans of Seattle will
cause a definite home-field advantage for the Seahawks. A game played in
Green Bay might get some snow, much to the disadvantage of visiting teams
from Phoenix or Miami. Long passes or punts will be affected by the wind
in San Francisco, and there are distinct differences between artificial
turf and natural grass stadiums as well.
Enough for now. This will be a very sophisticated football simulation that
many players wanting great graphics without sacrificing the statistical and
strategic elements have been looking for.
Lord of the Rings II: The Two Towers by Interplay
First Looks!
This, of course, is the second in the Tolkien trilogy of The Lord of the
Rings, and from the look of things, things haven't changed a GREAT deal, at
least on the screen. The storyline continues where the first story, The
Lord of the Rings, left off. The wicked Lord Sauron persists in his quest to
capture the one true ring of power. But now the evil wizard Saruman, with
his lust for power, is after it as well. You'll control a party of
benevolent characters in this RPG as they battle orcs, trolls, wargs, etc.,
and utlimately come face to face with the mysterious two towers. It's
available now.
Welcome to Issue number 3 of Game Bytes! For those who have been with us for
a couple of issues, welcome back and thanks for making Game Bytes a big hit.
We've been thrilled to hear from many of you about what you think of our
magazine, and it's nice to hear that everybody thinks that Game Bytes is
providing a useful function for gamers everywhere. For those of you that
are new to Game Bytes, we welcome you too, and encourage you to write to us
and let us know what you think about gaming today and what your experiences
are. By sharing, we all can enjoy this great hobby even more.
Those that have seen one of the other issues will recognize that there are
some changes to Game Bytes beginning with this issue. We've decided to re-
organize a bit and move some menus around. What we're going to work with now
is combining the reviews and previews together in one column. Typically,
previews were just shorter looks at new games and we'll still try to provide
this type of coverage in addition to our full-length reviews. By combining
the two together, we've opened up a slot for a new column we're proud of --
First Looks. This column will be devoted to giving you a first sneak-peek
at new games about to hit the shelves or just appearing. There won't be much
in the way of text to accompany each entry, as our main focus is to provide
you with a few screen shots of each game. This will give you an opportunity
to see what type of graphics and the general screen organization each new
title will bring to the market. In some cases, we'll also include some
screen shots of some games that have been out on the market for some time, but
perhaps just didn't get the gamers attention for one reason or another.
We're not acting as any company's P.R. agency with this; we just want to show
gamers what they might be missing. The text surrounding the screen shots
will not be of a review nature. It will only describe briefly the type of
game and other general information about the title. We hope you will
enjoy this. We're very excited about showing you some tremendous screen
shots of Strike Commander, Dynamix Football, A.T.A.C., and many others.
We still plan on producing full-length reviews of each title featured
in First Looks. It's still important to aim the critical eye at each
product to aid in purchase decision making.
The last item I'd like to talk about in this issue is the advent of CD-ROM-
based entertainment. There has been much talk and little action with regard
to the longstanding buzzword, multimedia. With regard to entertainment, what
does it mean and what does this technology provide? What should the active
gamer do today? Is a CD-ROM drive purchase still a risky one? Is there
anything good to play on a CD-ROM system? What about standards? What about
futures? All these questions make it very confusing for the customer to make
an intelligent decision.
Let's look at a few of these questions and try to provide at least _some_
answers.
1) What does it mean? Compact Disk-Read Only Memory is a technology not
unlike those used in the music business, with some minor differences.
A 5.25" CD-ROM disk can store masssive amounts of data (around 650MB per
disk) and this data can be of many different types. Digital audio (voice,
screeching tires, gunshots, explosions) when digitized at a high frequency
can take enormous amounts of disk space. Even with the advent of the Sound-
blaster technology that introduced digital audio to the gaming market, many
games do not have a full voice soundtrack. Why? Because it would have to
ship on 500+ diskettes! Having CD-ROMs available allows developers to
_greatly_ enhance their titles by providing much more space to store this
type of data. This data can be handled in different ways. It can be stored
in data patterns that can be played back through the Soundblaster or compat-
ibles, or it can be stored on the disk as native audio (sometimes referred
to as Redbook audio) and played back from the CD-ROM drive itself, provided
that the drive has audio-out capabilities (most do). Also, the size of
today's great games are also increasing in size at a rate beyond belief.
A fully uncompressed Wing Commander 2 or Ultima 7 might take over 20 megabytes
of space! Hard drive space is becoming a premium. CD-ROM solves much of
this.
2) Can I use my audio CD-player on my computer? No, you can't because the
audio CD plays so prolific in the marketplace today are only designed to
handle one type of data - digital audio. CD-ROM drives on computers also
know how to deal with video images as well. It might be worthwhile to note,
however, that your computer CD-ROM drive, with the correct software, _can_
play audio CDs just fine.
3) Should you buy a CD-ROM drive today? I think it's now a much less risky
purchase today to jump into the CD-ROM environment than it was 6 months ago,
primarily because the software vendor community has made a committment to
this market and titles are starting to show up. To begin with, the CD-ROM
bundles of today offer very attractive reference titles such as Microsoft
Bookshelf, Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia, and full World Atlas' from
Software Toolworks. The hardware will continue to advance (doesn't it
always?). NEC has recently announced a new CD-ROM drive that doubles the
data transfer rate of existing drives while retaining compatibility with
existing CD-ROM titles. As with computers, sound boards, graphics, et al,
if you keep waiting for the best, you'll never EVER get involved. I
purchased a nice bundle from Sony called the Laser Library and am very
pleased with it.
3) Are there any good entertainment titles available for CD-ROM and what's
coming? Let's cut to the chase, right folks? What's available? First off,
I should define something to be fair to all readers. There's something
referred to as "shovelware" in the CD-ROM world now that might get a bad
rap. I want to defend it.....slightly. Shovelware is when a vendor takes
his existing title and simply places the entire product on 1 CD and offers
a CD product to the market. Some simply expect that if it's CD-ROM, it's
gotta be just 'golly-gee, whiz bang' new, and when they get a shovelware
product they are somewhat disappointed. While agreeing in part to this, I'll
defend some publishers who do this by simply because in todays market, the
reality is they are saving my precious hard disk space. A good example of
this is Wing Commander. The Software Toolworks has taken over the role of
marketing the CD-ROM (shovelware) version of Wing Commander with the two
Secret Missions disks for Origin, and with some longer pauses while certain
parts of the game loads, its EXACTLY the same as the disk version. Is this
unscrupulous of Software Toolworks and Origin? I don't think so, as long
as the customer does a little careful reading. The two companies probably
should make this a little clearer to potential customers though.
So, what are the good new games that AREN'T shovelware? There aren't a lot,
but there are some and they are quite an experience. BATTLECHESS MPC (more on
MPC later) is an excellent title that utilizes 640x480 resolution at 256
colors. It's soundtrack supports full digital audio with great music and
tremendous sound effects. This title is a full-fledged chess product with
the great battle scenes when piece takes piece. For more traditional chess
players, the Multimedia version of CHESSMASTER 3000 is also a great product.
This CD version has a full chess tutorial and mentor on line that speaks in
clear english to you to describe how to play chess and what are your best
moves in any situation. Highly recommended. Another great multimedia title
is the LOOM CD-ROM from Lucasfilms, distributed by Software Toolworks. The
original game was great, but this new version has got to be experienced.
Lucasfilms has done a terrific job incorporating a full audio soundtrack
with professional voice actors taking the place of the traditional text
balloon box. You won't read a thing in this version. All of the different
characters speak completely in character to you. As Bobbin, you control
your destiny, but by adding the audio element to this game, the experience is
completely captivating. Lucasfilms and Software Toolworks are very close to
shipping the CD-ROM version of THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND (1) with the same
audio capabilities. Finally, Sierra On-Line's own Ken Williams has made it
perfectly clear that his company's long term future resides in the CD-ROM
format. The shorter term plan is to continue to provide disk versions first
and then to follow them up with a full CD-ROM version as soon as possible.
KING'S QUEST V is one of the first major titles from Sierra to be produced
in this exciting new format. Listening to King Graham, Mordack, and the
other characters in this amazing Roberta Williams world adds so much to the
adventure experience. Yes, I'm gushing. Other Sierra titles shipping or in
the works are JONES IN THE FAST LANE, MIXED UP MOTHER GOOSE (both shipping
now), LEISURE SUIT LARRY 1, SPACE QUEST 4, QUEST FOR GLORY 1, and THE
ADVENTURES OF WILLIE BEAMISH. Eventually, the plan is to have virtually all
new and selective old adventures available on CD-ROM. No shovelware here.
Other companies? Origin Systems is urging all players to jump into the
CD-ROM world. It's rumored that STRIKE COMMANDER will be enhanced with many
more voices and soundtracks on CD in addition to the disk version, and WING
COMMANDER 3 will likely be a CD-only product. Likely to be the product of
the year, Virgin's THE 7TH GUEST will set a new high-water mark for
excellence in computer gaming this year. The demo I saw at CES was nothing
short of stunning. This product alone should sell CD-ROM drives. Access
Software is working on a LINKS CD-ROM version that will include full-motion
overhead flybys of each hole on a given course. The CD-ROM version of
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO from Broderbund is another excellent
example of taking advantage of the media. The capacity and audio features of
the format are widely used to their advantage with this title. Interplay has
announced that they are purchasing the marketing rights to the CD-ROM versions
of all the Maxis (SimCity, SimEarth, SimLife, SimAnt, etc.) titles. These
versions will likely have full motion video capabilities and greatly
increased sound support. Paragon will also be following up their soon-to-
be-released MANTIS and CHALLENGE OF THE FIVE REALMS with a full voice audio
track. The U.K. developer, Psygnosis, has major plans for taking advantage
of CD-ROM. They are working on developing a flight simulator that is beyond
words. The demo I've seen shows a high-performance jet flying over grand-
canyon-like terrain chasing down a cruise missile to shoot it down. At
first glance, I thought I was watching actual movie footage from a TopGun
type of movie. AIR SUPPORT will absolutley scare flight simulator
developers to death! I'm sure I've skipped many other developers and titles,
but rest assured that the PC with a CD-ROM drive will provide loads of fun
for gamers.
4) What about standards? Here's where it gets messy. For the ubiquitous
PC without sound or standard CD-ROM drives, a baseline needs to be set.
Microsoft and other companies formed the Multimedia committee and determined
that a hardware baseline should consist of at least a 16 MHz 80386sx-based
system with 2 MB of RAM, a digital sound board with on-board mixing
capabilities, VGA, and a CD-ROM drive with at least a 150KB/sec transfer rate
and a 64KB buffer. A machine fitting this description would be deemed a
Multimedia Personal Computer (MPC) and be ready (technically) for use with
multimedia software. There are many CD-ROM drives available today that
officially do not conform to this specification because of one reason or
another. The Sony 7205 CD-ROM drive that came with the Laser Library is
a very fast performer, relatively speaking, but does not include a 64KB,
so technically my machine isn't MPC compliant. YET....it runs all these
multimedia titles just fine. Go figure. Is the standard worth supporting?
Yes, I guess it is, and many avid gamers are almost there already. The
sound boards have made their rounds to many computers, and all that remains
is the CD-ROM drive. If you are ready to take the leap, just make sure of a
few specs: a good CD-ROM drive will have an average access time of around
350-400ms, a data transfer rate of 150KB/sec., and have the required 64KB
buffer. There are more and more drives out there that conform to this
spec.
What other standards are there? The Macintosh has their own standard, SEGA
and Nintendo are preparing to duel it out in the console market. Big BIG
bucks are at stake here. Plus there is CD-I from Phillips that is an
entirely new OTHER world. For PC gamers, the MPC flag is what you should
be looking towards.
5) And last, what about futures? Where is all this going? No one can
speak unequivocably, but good money says that CD-ROM drives will continue
their downward spiral in price (you don't need to be a rocket scientist to
figure that out!), they will drastically increase in performance (there's a
lot of room to), and eventually we'll see consumer level writable CD-ROM
drives without compromise in performance. The games to take advantage of
this evolution will likely approach virtual reality capabilities and intro-
duce things like virtual reality goggles and gloves to the gaming world.
Expect full-motion video (T.V.like animation) and audio to be standard in
future MPC games that will make today's adventure game look archaic by
comparison. These will be full interactive movies where you're the lead
role and you control the outcome of the movie. Lot's o' fun on the horizon.
That's it for this issue. I hope you'll find Game Bytes a continued
source of useful information for your gaming experience. We enjoy putting
it together.
The rumors column this issue will be a look at some of the products shown at
the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago this year. We'll continue this
column in the next few issues to talk about more new products.
Access was proudly displaying Links 386 Pro, and proud they should be. For
anyone remotely interested in golf and who has the hardware, this is just a
classic title. The graphics and feel for the game have got to be
experienced. There is simply nothing close to the look of this title.
Still missing the course editor though, so the masses of Nicklaus designers
won't be swayed. A very nice rendition of Harbor Town is included with the
game. This should be hitting the shelves almost the same time as your
reading of this issue. Access is also working on their next adventure game,
set in the 1920s(?) in the jungle world of the Amazon. I didn't get any
storyline on this yet, so stay tuned.
Accolade was displaying their now-shipping Grand Prix Unlimited. While kind
of sexy from a looks standpoint, I left this display still feeling like
nobody yet has challenged the feel of true driving that can be experienced
with Indy 500. Probably my favorite title from Accolade this year was Star
Control 2. You're on a star voyage from your research colony to see if
Earth survived the great war. On the way, you meet plenty of alien races,
battle it out with several and try to negotiate with others. The look of
this game was very distinctive and I think it's going to be a hit. I would
kind of classify it as a "Planet's Edge" type of game with a little better
look to it. For the kids, Accolade is introducing Snoopy's Game Club which
has some nice easy memory puzzles to get kids interested in the computer.
Finally, I was glad to see the summer sequel to the very well-done Winter
Games in the works. Summer Games will offer the same quality graphics,
combining bitmaps with smooth polygon animation. The sports offered will be
Pole Vault, High Jump, Javelin, 400m Hurdles, Cycling, Kayaking, Equestrian,
and Archery.
Activision was also present at CES. They were showing their plans for a
second Lost Treasures of Infocom. Basically, anything left out of the first
will be in the second. Activision was also showing some new compilations
that they will be introducing soon. We'll get to see Mech Warrior
introduced (with no changes) to the market again. More longer term, the
company is working on an arcade title called Aliens vs. Predator. Is this
like betting on who would win the battle between Superman and Captain
America? Who cares? But, I digress. The last Activision title sounds very
appealing. A graphical Infocom adventure (sounds like heresy to say
"graphical" and "Infocom" in the same sentence) called Return to Zork is in
the works as well. It's not planned to be here until 1993 though.
Ascii Entertainment is a relatively newcomer to the PC games market. They
are close to releasing a very interesting title called Spellcraft. Kind of
an RPG/Adventure game with a very sophisticated magic system, Spellcraft
looked quite stunning. Check out the previews section for more info. Also
on tap from Ascii is another interesting title called Dominus. Ascii is
agressively touting this as a hybrid adventure game that merges aspects of
life simulation, FRP, action, and war games. Whew! As a reigning Overlord
against a multitude of marauders, you have to create defensive positions
throughout your kingdom as well as understand who your opponents are, what
they want, and how they think. You get to create your special breed of
soliders which can be monsters of various types with their own special
skills, and ...well, this one is hard to describe. Stay tuned for more on
Dominus.
Bruce Artwick Organization/Microsoft were not visibly present at CES, so we
can't report on any goings on in the flight simulator world. If history is
any precedent, however, watch your local retailer around the end of
September/early October for a major new release of the Flight Simulator.
Likely to be involving Windows. It's been referred to as FS 5.0.
Off the show floor in a private suite, I was pleased to be able to preview
Wayne Gretzky Hockey 3 and Hockey League Simulator 2 from Bethesda
Softworks. True hockey fans have always appreciated the realism of the
"engine" of Gretzky 2, but it has drawn criticism for it's small, overhead
view of the action. No longer. This new version just blows away the old
version with better sound, much better overhead graphics, plus an arcade
view that is more 3/4 view like that found in Electronic Arts' NHL Hockey
game for the SEGA Genesis. It's that good. Plus, the real statisical and
intelligence engine is still in place for very realistic play. The Hockey
League simulator has been significantly enhanced as well, so overall this is
a major new release. Any hockey fans will gobble this one up. Bethesda was
also showing Terminator 2029: Cybergen. The original Terminator, as some
may remember, was a real disappointment. The introductory graphics were a
far cry from the game itself. Not so with 2029. This is a MAJOR revamp
with highly animated, full 256 color graphics. The setting is the year
2029, L.A. and as John Connor, you've found a Cybergen armor suit that is
heavily armored and armed. Wearing this, you go out on various missions and
take on the Terminators on their own turf. The different weapons you can
muster were very impressive, right down to the heat-seeking missiles. Lot's
'o fun to blow the Terms into a million pieces. Both of these titles should
be out in late September.
Broderbund appears to have cashed in their interests in the entertainment
market. Other than a very well done Carmen Sandiego on CD-ROM, there
doesn't seem to be any action at all for entertainment titles. There's a
rumored Prince of Persia sequel planned for 1993, but nobody's saying
anything at all about it. I just can't get excited about Living Books, but
I guess I'm not supposed to.
Disney Software had some VERY impressive titles at the show. All are "work
in progress", but some are coming along nicely. Dog Eat Dog is a humorous
look at office politics where you can choose to "whine, complain, kiss butt,
brown nose, threaten, and even flirt (read: harass - is this the Anita Hill
mode?). Based on your responses, the decision tree could be virtually
endless without repeat. Another interesting title was Coaster. I'm
surprised that this hasn't been done before. Basically, this is a roller
coaster construction set. You can go hog wild here with loops, corkscrews,
and gigantic hills that are sure to make you queasy. After your
construction is complete, you can strap yourself into the first car and ride
it out. This is sure to spawn a lot of "coaster trading" online. Heaven
and Earth is another interesting title from Disney. This is a series of 3
games. There is a card game played with an animated deck, a "pendulum"
series of 24 animated simulations (??), and Illusions which are 12 types of
brain teasers and puzzles on four different levels. I think we'll have to
wait to see this one to be clear. The fourth title from Disney was Stunt
Island, and I was VERY impressed with this. This is combining stunt flight
simulation with movie making. You have full control over where you want to
place your cameras, what you want your planes to perform, and the overall
feel of your own movie making production. The last title from Disney was
Unnatural Selection. This was one of the most impressive titles I saw at
the show. Its subtitle is: An Experiment in Genetic Warfare. This will
take you beyond reading about artifical life in magazines and put you right
in the middle of a genetic battle. You have to create, breen, and mutate
lethal genetic creatures and them march them off to this island for a do-or-
die battle. Very cool looking and quite impressive.
Domark, a U.K. company, was showing their new titles off in the Accolade
booth. A few interesting things to look for; in Nam, you must make military
and political maneuvers to change history and the outcome of the Vietnam
conflict. Nam is written by Matthew Stibbe of Imperium fame. Shadowlands
is a new RPG that has some unique environmental characteristics. Light
plays a key role in the look and feel of this game. Finally, Harrier
Assault gives us one more attempt at flying this VSTOL aircraft, and
Columbus takes us back through the roles of Christopher Columbus and his
adventures.
Dynamix, the sub. of Sierra On-Line has plenty to talk about this go-round.
I'll not try to cover it all this time. Aces, of course, is out now, and
being tweeked slightly for optimum performance. Dynamix is also well
underway to producing their first in a line of sports simulations. The
gridiron will be the first stop. Front Page Sports: Football should be
shipping by this fall and with the use of 3-Space from the simulators in use
on the football field, this should really be something to see. More later.
More add-ons for Red Baron and Aces of the Pacific are in the works too.
We'll even get to see what the war would have been like if we hadn't dropped
the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWI:1946.
To be continued...
An interview with Chris Roberts (6/16/92),
Author of the Wing Commander series of PC games
Conducted by David Taylor
For those of you expecting a real interview- you lose. Chris Roberts
talks faster than a Kilrathi having a catfit, and I asked the questions
in the order that I received them from fans on the Internet so disjointed
is a mild way of putting it..
First off, the guy is obscenely successful for his age- 24. His office
isn't very large, but it's got what he needs in it- a sofa, miniatures
which he collects, and his desk with a 486 on it. Oh, and some serious
stereo speakers.
(The following question was enough to keep him going for a healthy 30
minutes. ;)
GB: Where are you from? How'd you learn to program? What was your first
game?
CR: I'm from Manchester, England. My father taught sociology at the
University of Manchester. I lived there until I was 19. I was always
fascinated by the ability to move images on a screen and learned how to
program a Pet computer when I was 13. I was writing games to land
helicopters on pads at about the age of 13, I think.
Then I got a BBC Microcomputer with 32k RAM, a screen resolution of
320x200 at four colours or 160x200 at 16 colors. It was pretty cool
back then! I started to program in BASIC on that. Then one of my old
teachers became the editor of "BBC Microuser," a magazine that
supported the users of BBC Microcomputers. Back in those days, all the
magazines had a game you could type in in BASIC, so he phoned me up and
asked me to write a game. I had been writing text adventures, stuff
like that, so I wrote my first game for them called "Kong". You had to
throw rocks at helicopters and could climb around on buildings, etc.
That was my first program, and I sold it to BBC Microuser for about 100
pounds, so I said, "Oooo- this is cool!" (Will have to digitize that if
GB goes multi-media in the future... it's a neat accent but starting to
become Americanized).
Well, about this time, I was getting dissatisfied with BASIC because
I only had 12k of program space to work with, and BASIC was slow. So
a friend gave me a game which didn't work, and I fiddled around with
it, learned how it worked, and fixed it. I finished this one game,
"Wizardor", a side-scrolling game. You're a junior wizard, and your
father was killed by an evil dragon in the castle. You jump around
platforms gathering spells, magical items, trying to collect three
pieces of this sword to kill the dragon with. I sold that to Ocean in
1984. So they gave me money for that, and it was like- "Wow, this is
lots of money!" It was like the #1 bestselling game for BBC
Microcomputers for about 6 or 7 weeks. Over there, because it's a
small country, popular games last about as long on the charts as pop
music.
After that, I wrote a soccer simulation called "Match Day", and after
that "Striker's Run." "Striker's Run" was a side-scrolling game
where you have to relay a message from HQ that's too important to
transmit, and you were like jumping in helicopters, planes, and
grabbing weapons. It was the first game to take advantage of the BBC
Microcomputer "Master Series" (which had 128k of bank-switched RAM
like the Apple). 12k kinda limited the graphics you could use, but
with all this extra memory, I could add bases and landscape.
GB: "So was all this interfering with school at the time?"
CR: I had finished school (our equivalent of high school) after
"Striker's Run" and was working on my A-levels to get in college. Over
there, you go to college for exactly three years. Over here, you just
go until you've taken enough hours. Anyway, I decided to take a year
off before going to Manchester University to study Physics to program
computer games 'cause I was having fun and making money doing it.
Started getting depressed writing for the BBC Micro because only about
500,000 people were using it. Started work on a Commodore 64 game
called "Ultra Realm" because there were more of these machines. It was
the precursor to "Times of Lore". Wanted it to be like "Gauntlet" but
wanted to be able to travel around, talk to people and all that. My
father moved to Austin, Texas in 1985 to work at the University of
Texas as a professor in sociology. I came across mainly to visit him.
And it was like- "Wow, it's nice and sunny and doesn't rain all the
time!"
So I stayed with my father and started writing games here. So I went
to this thing called "Hex World", sort of like a role-playing games
convention, and I saw this computer picture of a gladiator on the
wall. I said, "Who scanned this in? It looks really cool." The man
said, "No one. It was drawn." He gave me Dennis Lubet's name. At
the time, he was a freelance artist. I asked him to do the graphics
for "Ultra Realm," and he was later hired by Origin Systems (also in
Austin) because he'd been doing their box covers for a long time and
Richard Garriott wanted to bring him in house. That's where the
connection was for Origin. I came in, showed them "Ultra Realm," and
I also showed it to Electronic Arts and Broderbund and there was a
sort of a bidding war over it. It was a pretty neat game for the
C64. I eventually chose Origin because they were in town, I thought
everyone that works here was really neat, and they're the nicest most
honest people I've met in the industry. About this time, "F19" came
out- and it was very cool- but it only ran well on 386's which costed
about $15k back then and almost no one had them, but it was the best
game out, so no one complained. People don't ask, "What's the best CGA
game- they ask what's the *best* game?" That sort of taught me a
lesson. The way to do it was to look at a particular hardware base,
preferably high-end, and write the best game for it, no holds barred.
"Wing Commander" was written on that principal. It used as much VGA,
music, and processor power as it could.
GB: "Was 'Wing Commander' the first game to use 3D bitmapped graphics?"
CR: I think "Battlehawks 1942" was the first game to use them back in
1988, I think. We used a similar technique. We were playing with
"Sculpt 3D" on an Amiga ray-tracing these space ships, and said, "Woah-
looks cool! Wish we could get this in the game!" So we pre-rendered
everything.
GB: "How do you scale the bitmaps so fast?"
CR: The scaling was two months of 16-hour days of hell to code. Came
up with an algorithm to do rotation approximately without the need for
the full mathematical rotation. It came to about 600k of assembly
source.
GB: (prepare to totally change gears) "What are your hobbies?"
CR: I like war game miniatures. I'm having a new house built, and I'm
going to have a table just for my miniatures, and no one will ever have
to clean them up or anything. I painted some of them very carefully,
but I don't have time for that anymore, so I have them painted. I need
a high level of aesthetics to pull me into a game. My tolerance level
for games is very very low unless I can be pulled into it.
GB: "What do you spend your workday doing?"
CR: Well, during the daylight hours, I'm managing. In the evening, I'm
coding. I usually show up at about 10:30 or 11 and go home at about 3
or 4 in the morning. It's like working two jobs. When the game's
finished, I take it easy. Right now for "Strike Commander", there's 6
other programmers, 3 artists, one technical design assistant (TDA), and
one musician. We all talk alot. Spend a lot of time being involved
with the creation of new technology and learning everyone's code. My
advantage is that I've done everything before, graphics, programming,
art, and sound. It's nice to understand how every part slots
together. I see way to many people becoming specialists in their own
area. That needs to change.
GB: "What programming languages to you use?"
CR: C++ and assembly. "Wing Commander" used C. "Strike Commander"
uses C++. Only programming course I'd taken was BASIC way back whenI
was 13. So I had to learn C++. Never read any textbooks.
GB: "What do your peers think of your code?"
CR: I think it's alright. I've gotten a lot better since I started
learning about, I'd say, a year and a half ago. Nobody in our group
documents very well because we're trying to get the code done. We use
long variable names and good spacing. Like for example, one variable
name is AccelerationG2Gravity. So the code reads like English. I like
C++. It's a much more structured language.
GB: "What kind of source code control do you use?"
CR: We use PVCS on a Novell network. We'd be dead without the network
right now. We use Borland C++.
GB: "What's the most frustrating part of your job?"
CR: Working in a large group. Smaler groups taking longer would be
nice. Nice environment, though. It's nice to be closer to the code,
music, and every pixel in the game. LI laid the foundation for "Wing
Commander" for 12 months before anyone else got their hands on it. I
knew everything that had to be done at that point so it was a lot
easier to manage. In "Strike Commander", we had to scrap at least
50-60% of the graphics code because it was done on assumptions that
aren't true today.
GB: "What's the most rewarding part of your job?"
CR: By far the coolest part is when you put stuff together and it works
and someone comes in and says, "Wow!" I like doing demos, especially
if I'm doing something which blows everyone away. Nothing like busting
your ass for months and months, you turn up on the show floor after
working for 48 hours straight, turn on the computer, and everyone is
crowded around looking at something which looks great.
GB: "How did you get the idea for 'Wing Commander'? One person asked
if you got the idea from Man Kzin."
CR: No, didn't get it from that, although I can see where he got that
idea. I had fun reading about star fighter combat. Instead of big
ships, though, I liked the smaller dogfights. I'm a big fan of
"Battlestar Gallactica" and "Star Wars". I wanted it to become the
equivalent of an F16 fighter but in space- wanted a very military feel
to it. And I wanted a more cinematic package, like music which changed
with the scene. "Wing Commander" was great because we used all these
ideas I'd been kicking around in my head for the past five years. It
was one big experiment- that worked. Wanted clearly good guys against
bad guys, so I wanted an alien race, but not reptiles or insects. It
seemed like everyone was using reptiles and insects. I wanted a
warrior-type race similar to the Japanese in World War II, with an
honorable bushido-like code. So I tried to link this idea with mammals
on earth, mainly dogs and large cats. I liked the idea of big cats.
GB: "Where did you get all the names for the things in 'Wing
Commander'?"
CR: Well, I couldn't think of good ones, so I used stupid ones until I
could think of something better. Like I knew they were cats so they'd
be killing a lot of rats, so Kilrathi. And you know the "Dorkir" class
ship? I just used "Dork Here" and these dumb names- you start using
them and they tend to stick.
GB: "How do you blit to the screen so fast with the differently shaped
canopies?"
CR: We copy a list of line-segments to the transparent parts of the
cockpit. We can't double buffer in true MCGA, but you can on SVGA.
We're going to take a look at that later.
GB: "Does the PC architecture bug the hell out of you?"
CR: Yes. If we could work in 32bit full addressing in 386 protected
mode, would not bitch at all about that. They were planning to put
Ultima VIII in protected mode using a DOS extender, but the disk access
was to slow. "Strike Commander" will do 32bit computation but not
addressing. "Strike" won't be as frantic as "Wing Commander". If
you've played "Aces of the Pacific" or "Chuck Yeager's", they're the
best flight simulators - most fun to play. There's heavy dog-fighting.
So in "Strike" we're going to have fewer missiles which allows neat
situations like 2 F16's against 10 Mig 29's. If you're a good
dogfighter, you should be able to shoot them down. And the cinematic
wraparound will be much nicer. The storyline is interactive so you can
control your own destiny.
GB: "Does Origin have an R&D department?"
CR: No. Me, Richard [Garriott], and the programming teams are about
it. It'd be nice to have that luxury, but I find you tend to learn new
technology by working with it.
GB: "Do you have any programming nightmares to share?"
CR: Well, when we're trying to reach a certain milestone, the whole
crew gets infected with a bit of craziness. When people pull 48-hour
stints. One time, we were all working a 48-hour stint on "Strike" and
"Ultima VII" before Christmas, and there were 30 people working here at
4:30am on a Monday morning. So we took a picture of all of us holding
a clock so you could see what time it was. My brother has a big ol'
Cadillac, so about 10 of us would pile in and head for Magnolia Cafe
sometimes. Also, some of the musicians made a rap song about life at
Origin once.
GB: "To what extent is AI used?"
CR: "We're using more and more AI. It's all moving towards neural
nets, but that won't be until much much later. One thing in "Strike"
is we want to have it learn from you. AI will become more and more
important later one. We can't take the technology of drawing the graphics
much further. We need to work harder on different stories. The "Strike"
engine will be used for "Wing Commander III" which will be the end of
the Kilrathi War, by the way. And there will be more interaction
outside of the dogfights. "Wing Commander II" was more like 'you're
the stunt double which watches the actor play your role when you get
back to the ship from dogfighting.' This time, you'll be in command of
a squadron and can make tactical decisions. You can define your own
character. For instance, if a rookie screws up, you can bitch him out,
give him a pep talk, or tell him about when you screwed up as a
rookie. There won't be any a., b., and c. selections, though. You'll
be able to control the facial expressions of your character.
GB: "Do you get a lot of fan mail?"
CR: Yeah, but I don't have time to write back, but we're using a lot of
things people have suggested this time.
GB: "How does one get into a career like yours?"
CR: Start on an IBM. Get Borland or Turbo C, something with an easy
IDE (Interactive Development Environment). Get a book on C and write a
simple game like Pacman or something. Get fancier later- add your own
graphics primatives, get Dpaint and create your own graphics. Nothing
impresses us more than submitting a game that you've written with your
along with your resume. It's something you can't get at school. Definitely
teach yourself C, C++. Maybe take some courses. I'd bet that most
architects would make good programmers because you do all the small
pieces and still keep the big picture in mind.
GB: "How do artists get in the game industry?"
CR: Lots of artists we hire have had no computer experience. But you
might want to get familiar with it using something like "Animator Pro"
for example. And send the computer art as well as the normal art
you've done.
GB: "What are the worst bottlenecks for your games?"
CR: Definitely the video card because of the slow bus.I can only get 40
full frames per second ona 486/33 using an Orchid II Pro card on an
EISA bus. Blitting is 40% of the game, drawing triangles is the next
biggest part.
GB: "Will your game(s) be able to take advantage of a local video bus?"
CR: We don't use them in development, but yeah.
GB: "Are you abandoning the 286?"
CR: Yeah, our games will be for 386's or higher from now on. We need
the speed.
GB: "Are you looking forward to the 586?"
CR: It'll be a faster 486. I just like it when Intel rolls back the
prices on their 386's.
GB: "Will CD ROM's be used in future games?"
CR: The full speech and score for "Strike Commander" will be on CD
shortly after the initial release.
GB: "Are you ever going to port your games to Macs?"
CR: No way. They cost a lot to port. No one around here will tell you
they're a stupid architecture or anything. If there were 10 million
Macs out there, we would be more than happy to write games for it. The
Mac market is not very game oriented at all. And people do a lot of
pirating on them, too. Every time we've sold a game on the Mac, we've
lost money.
GB: "Will there by a way to network machines so that someone else can
manually control the wingman?"
CR: We will do that in house for testing the AI, but that would need a lot
of testing, and we won't put it in the released version. We may have an
expansion disk later to do that. The system is very object oriented,
so it's easy to do that.
GB: "How do you debug a game like this?"
CR: The only way is to break it into smaller modules. Our biggest problem
is that Turbo Debugger 386 doesn't work with EMS. TD 286 uses DOS
memory (which we desparately need). Turbo Debugger is a real
life-saver so we'll be working on that.
GB: "What would you say are the most innovative games outside of
Origin?"
CR: I'd say Dynamix is really good. "Aces of the Pacific" and "Red
Baron" are really good simulators. I also have a lot of respect for
Lucasfilm. Virtual reality will be fun. We're waiting for a VR
headset.
GB: "What do you see in the next 10 years?"
CR: 3D games are coming around. Virtual reality. CD ROM's will be
useful for somethings but their slowness makes them good for mainly
just mass storage.
GB: "What does a 'Creative Director' do?"
CR: I maintain the story integrity for the "Wing Commander" series, the
technology integrity. I do that for projects based on intellectual
property of mine.
GB: "Have you considered having a female player?"
CR: I have wanted that, but the problem is that there's a lot of artwork
associated with the main character. To have two characters doubles the
amount of artwork for the game. When 92-96% of your players are male
and you have to do twice as much work, that's just not a reasonable
thing to support. It's a male character for economic reasons.
Unfortunately...
With that, we ended this high-speed interview. I left, and he moved
right onto the next order of business. For all the games they play,
those people seem pretty busy. Sufferin' hairbals- I forgot to ask how
much he pulls down a year. Oh well...
Big thanks to the many questions submitted by the following Internetters
(arranged in the order that I received questions):
Mark LoSacco
Adam Pletcher
Ross Erickson
Rob Johnson
Kevin Lucas Lord
Amit Patel
Adrian Esdaile
Jason O'Rourke
David Yip
Richard Park
Ryan Bayne
Ted Ward
Jim Luchford
Matthew Wigdahl
These interviews wouldn't be half as fun without your questions, guys!
Thanks!
Game Bytes wouldn't have a prayer of continuing were in not for the support
of many. I'd like to take a minute to offer my sincerest thanks to the
following individuals who, through their contributions and efforts, made
this issue possible:
(In no particular order..)
Brian Chung Ron Dippold
Ed Rafalko Lisa Erickson
Jerry Luttrell Alexandria North
Bernie Roehl Russell Sparkes
Sam "the Man" Christopher Christensen
"Our Guy in Singapore" Dennis Basiaga
John Nash Kevin Westendorf
Jon Lundy Marc Paulin
Rodney Olson David Masten
David Pottinger David Taylor
Parker Davis Shin Young
Galen Svannas Chris Roberts
Thom Vaught Mark Bylander
Mitch Aigner Andrew Stevens
Jason Kuo
Thanks to all!
Ross Erickson
Editor and Publisher
ACCOLADE'S NEW SPORTS SIMULATION INVITES COMPUTER OWNERS TO TAKE THE
SUMMER CHALLENGE
Category: Sports Simulation
Availability and Price: IBM PC and compatible computers - $54.95, 3rd
Quarter 1992
CHICAGO,IL-MAY 28,1992-Following the success of last year's hit Winter
Challenge, Accolade today announced a third quarter release of its
sequel, Summer Challenge for IBM PC compatible computers. Summer
Challenge is a simulation that pits the world's best athletes against
each other and the stopwatch in an international contest for the gold
medal. Lace up your shoes, strap on your helmet and get ready to
compete in eight of the most grueling summer sport events including the
Pole Vault, High Jump, Javelin, 400 Meter Hurdles, Cycling, Kayaking,
Equestrian and Archery.
In Summer Challenge, up to 10 human players can compete one at a time,
each in control of his/her own world-class athlete. Athletes are
selected from a roster containing the athlete's name and country of
origin and can compete in one of two modes of play-training (practice
each event) or tournament (compete against computer or human
opponents). In the eight-event tournament mode, you can compete
against three different skill levels of computer competitors. This
high caliber athletic event is complete with the pomp and circumstance
of opening and closing ceremonies.
Designed for Accolade by MindSpan, the developers of Winter Challenge,
Summer Challenge has been created using the same technique of blending
3-D polygon-fill graphics and digitized bit-mapped images rendered in
256-color VGA graphics. Accompanied by digitized sound effects,
together they create a super realistic environment.
As with Winter Challenge, Summer Challenge players are treated to a
realistic "behind the athlete" perspective of many events using
contestants who have been digitally captured from live video footage of
actual athletes performing in the same events. The Instant Replay
feature allows players to re-live the glory of their best performances.
Summer Challenge brings together a variety of summer sports events and
provides players more than a glimpse of what it is like to compete in
them. Played individually or as the main attraction at a party, the
challenge comes in beating your own record and that of your
competitors' time and time again.
DISNEY ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE
STUNT ISLAND
The world of simulations will add a whole new category with the film
studio world of Stunt Island: The Flying and Filming Simulation from
Disney Software. This combination of flight simulator and movie-making
program will break new ground with the decidedly different Stunt
Island.
Developed with input from Hollywood stunt directors, Stunt Island
allows players to design, fly and film their own stunt films in a world
of their choice. Flying between buildings, through explosions under
bridges and more can be done in this unique simulation that places the
player at the controls of the aircraft.
Using the tools of Stunt Island the player can fly, film, edit and then
show stunt flying films of his own creation. There are 40 different
aircraft, from WWI models to modern jets from commercial planes to
stunt aircraft that players can utilize in their films. The set editor
allows the player to modify any of the 20 existing sets or create new
ones from scratch. There are over 600 different, complex objects such
as landscape, vehicles, buildings and famous landmarks which can be
combined into sets, around which stunts can be created. Players can
even set objects in motion in conjunction with stunts and crashes.
After the stunt has been filmed, in full 256-color VGA graphics,
players can edit the film. by adding sound effects, music or voice-
over and dialogue (using a Sound Blaster and microphone) in the edit
room, the stunt film is complete and it is time to show the film in the
Stunt Island theater.
Scheduled for release in the fall of 1992, Stunt Island creates a whole
new category in the simulator genre with the blending of flying and
filming. Stunt Island will be available for MS-DOS- compatible
computers and support a variety
of sound standards including The Sound
Source and Sound Blaster.
COASTER
Have you ever wanted to design your own roller coaster? Then get in,
sit down, hold on, and remember to keep all arms and legs inside the
vehicle while it is in motion, because Coaster from Disney Software is
the closest you'll ever come to simulating a roller coaster inside your
home or office!
Coaster was developed with input from the people who design the
attractions for Walt Disney World and Disneyland. It allows players to
experience first hand how to design, build and test roller coasters.
Players can also ride and study any of the 10 coasters included in
Coaster.
This new style of simulation from Disney Software puts players in
charge of designing, building and riding in the roller coaster of their
wildest dreams--or nightmares. In fact, it would be a good idea to
make sure your computer is securely bolted to the table.
In the Design & Build mode, players build towers, lay tracks, erect
loops and fine-tune the angles on curves using a computer aided design
(CAD) interface. Then move to the ride mode and experience the Coaster
from a special test car. Roller coaster rides are measured in speed
and G-forces and with special features, like rocket thrusters, brakes
and gravity. The player decides how the ride will turn out. When you
have finished and tested your roller coaster, a panel of experts will
then judge your Coaster.
Available in the fall 1992, Coaster will offer a new type of simulation
for those strong enough in constitution to survive. Coaster will be
available for MS-DOS compatibles and will feature 256-color VGA
graphics and sound support for several sound standards including The
Sound Source and Sound Blaster.
DOMARK
A HISTORICAL SIMULATION OF THE VIETMAN WAR
'NAM 1965 - 1975
Chicago, IL--May 28, 1992 - Domark, LTD, publisher and manufacturer of
entertainment software products has announced the availablity of a new
product coming 3rd Quarter 1992 - Written by Matthew Stibbe, author of
the highly acclaimed Imperium, comes 'NAM 1965 - 1975. The years of
struggle, the political manoeuvres which kept the war machine rolling,
and the desperation of this costly war are explored in this political
and military strategic masterpiece.
There are two aspects to 'NAM - political and military, both of which
have to be finely balanced if you are to stand a chance of 'winning'
the game. As Commander-in-Chief, you must prevent South Vietnam from
falling to the Communist powers. Invading Viet Cong guerrillas attempt
to 'win over' the population and topple the South Vietnamese
Government. You have full control over units from the marines,
airforce and army.
As President, you oppose the challenge to the South Vietnamese
Government, and through military power and economic support you control
the level of commitment to Saigon. Added complications arise when your
popularity ratings decline if the war is viewed by the popluous as
going well. To counter this your level of commitment in financial and
military terms may have to increase.
"NAM has several scenarios which can be played independently", say
Caryn Mical, Director of Operations for Domark, US. The Tet Offensive
which is a one year game, set in 1968. You have fixed military
commitments and must fight off the surprise Communist attack on Saigon
and the cities of South Vietmen. 1975 - South Vietnam faces a North
Vietnamese invasion with no external military support from the US. Khe
Sanh - The siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, set in the highlands of Vietnam
and involves only 1 corps. Finally, Presidents Nixon and Johnson
campaign scenarios with all political options avaiable will be decided,
as you are in charge.
The depth and the accuracy, both historically and geographically, are
unprecedented in war game simulations. You will understand when, on
your first day at work, you step into the Oval Office and accept the
responsibility of creating history.
RAMPART
POPULAR ARCADE STRATEGY NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE PC
SAN MATEO, CA, July 18, 1992-Electronics Arts has announced the release
of the RAMPART, an arcade style strategy game masterfully reproduced
and enhanced for the IBM PC and compatibles.
RAMPART is a fast-paced game for one to three players who must create
and defend a fortress while attacking opposing castles and invading war
ships. In one-player mode, the player must eliminate an invading fleet
of battleships before their cannons can destroy the player's defenses.
In two-player head-to-head, the players are pitted against each other
in a battle to the death. In two- and three-player games, you battle
your opponents' castles to defeat them. Players must destroy enemy
walls and cannons before the enemy cannonfire can penetrate their own
defenses. Enemy fleets besiege the player's castle as well - he must
destroy them or face the full burden of their offensive firepower!
Rampart also features the Enhanced Game mode where players can make
stronger battle weapons. For three cannons, you can create a
Propaganda Balloon. Propaganda Balloons will fly out before the battle
and drop leaflets on the most dangerous ship or cannon of your
opponent. Then, during battle, it will act as though it were one of
yours, shooting where your cross hair is aimed. Four cannons gets you
a Super Gun. Super Guns fire incendiary cannonballs that leave burning
pits when they strike walls, and extra damage when they strike ships at
sea.
Combat is handled in 30 second battle rounds during which players must
strategically select targets for cannons--either land or sea.
Following combat, the player is given time to re-build and fortify his
castle from a random selection of geometric wall pieces. Mastery of
wall placement is crucial for success in RAMPART.
GAMETEK READY TO SHIP DAEMONSGATE I - DOROVAN'S KEY
-- Introductory Video To Launch Intense Role Playing Game --
CHICAGO (May 28) -- GAMETEK, Inc. has developed an original video to be
included in the fantasy role-playing computer game DAEMONSGATE I -
DOROVAN'S KEY. Shot exclusively for GAMETEK in Sydney, Australia, the
video titled, "Travis Sewerbreath" will introduce the adventures of
Captain Gustavus and the mythical continent of Elsopea to RPG
enthusiasts. Already a best-seller in Europe, DAEMONSGATE I -
DOROVAN'S KEY, the first in the Daemonsgate trilogy, is scheduled to be
released in the U.S. in June.
Developed by Imagitec, Inc. a Yorkshire, England-based software
development company, DAEMONSGATE I - DORVAN'S KEY took three years to
make and used over 40 game artists and programmers. With over 3,000
screen shots, the in-depth game features a realistic game world, and
innovative conversation system and players that are not there just to
be killed but instead are rational, intelligent inhabitants of their
world. They continue to function off-screen, where they are affected
by the players' actions.
The game is based on the adventures of Captain Gustavus and the
mythical continent of Elsopea. Gustavus and his compatriots must
travel through Elsopea in search of the mystic who holds the knowledge
that will one day save Gustavus' homeland from an army of powerful
Daemons. This knowledge leads Gustavus and his companions into a deep
and twisted plot that threatens the safety of the entire world. During
his travels, Gustavus has many adventures and encounters with all sorts
of friends and foe, culminating in a climatic battle with the
mysterious leader of the Daemonic hordes.
"We are pleased to be breaking new ground in the role-playing software
arena. From the introductory video to the hours of intense, complex
and exciting game play, GAMETEK'S DAEMONSGATE is truly a top-of-the-
line computer role-playing game, "says Bruce Lowry, GAMETEK executive
vice president.
DAEMONSGATE I - DOROVAN'S KEY will be available for both the IBM and
Amiga personal computer formats with suggested retail prices of $64.95
(IBM) and $69.95 (Amiga).
GAMETEK, based in North Miami Beach, Florida, is a leading producer of
games for Nintendo and Sega video entertainment systems and personal
computers. In addition to its best-selling "Wheel of Fortune" and
"Jeopardy!" games, the company markets and distributes games licensed
by Samuel Goldwyn Co., Kawasaki, Fisher-Price, Parker Brothers and
others.
The company also produces InfoGenius, the first-ever productivity
software paks such as French and English Language Translators, Travel
Guide, Spell Checker and a Personal Organizer for Nintendo's Game Boy.
Interplay's New Fall Line-Up is Mesmerizing
Santa Ana, CA - May 15, 1992 - Interplay Productions introduces four
explosive blockbusters for Fall '92 - Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space
(MS-DOS), Castles II: Siege and Conquest (MS-DOS), Battle Chess 4000
(MS-DOS), and Dvorak On Typing for Windows.
In a joint effort with Buzz Aldrin, Interplay Productions brings the
right stuff together in Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space using hundreds of
historical photos and digitized animations of actual footage from lift-
offs, space walks, lunar landings and splashdowns. "Likely to set a
standard for multi-media entertainment products" states Computer Gaming
World when talking about Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space.
A completely new military, diplomatic and administrative strategy game,
Castles II: Siege & Conquest combines the strongest and most appealing
components of last years major hit, Castles with power strategic'role
playing elements making Castles II: Siege & Conquest a potent addition
to the best-selling Castles library.
With more than 25 megabytes of humorous animation, Battle Chess 4000
offers stimulating graphics of digitized clay models, as well as the
strongest and most versatile chess program on the market. Battle Chess
4000 has infinite levels of play from beginner to grand master and
state-of-the-art clay animation, further extending and enhancing
Interplay's current Battle Chess, past Software Publishers Association
award winner.
Dvorak On Typing, the first major typing program to feature a human
voice, will soon be available for Windows. Developed in conjunction
with world-renowned computer columnist, John C. Dvorak, the program's
voice sounds out the letters as they are typed and in later lessons,
gives dictation. This talking feature makes Dvorak On Typing a "user
friendly" typing tutor and expands the need for sound board enhancement
beyond entertainment software.
KONAMI JOINS WITH THE CAPED CRUSADER; BATMAN RETURNS ANNOUNCED FOR MS-
DOS COMPUTERS
CHICAGO, IL - (May 28, 1992) - Konami, Inc., a leading U.S. publisher
of personal-computer entertainment software, today announced that
Batman Returns-based on the soon-to-be released movie-will ship in the
fourth quarter to software retailers nationwide.
One of the most coveted and exciting licensed properties in software
entertainment industry history, the movie Batman Returns-the highly
anticipated follow-up to the 1989 blockbuster movie Batman-follows The
Caped Crusader (played by Michael Keaton) on an exhilarating quest to
recapture his good reputation. The Penguin (played by Danny De Vito)
cons the citizens of Gotham City into thinking that he represents
"good" and Batman symbolizes "evil." Batman must also confront the
cantankerous Catwoman (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) whose attempts to
snare him will become legendary.
Konami's Batman Returns game-developed by Park Place Productions-is
inspired by the movie with a unique twist-the gamer becomes the
director of the movie. The gamer guides Batman through the dark
streets of Gotham City, battling notorious foes and the evil members of
the Red Triangle Circus Gang, all while searching for clues and
collecting the evidence necessary to save Gotham City.
Game players control Batman's Master Computer as it analyzes evidence,
views news broadcasts and investigates the biographical database of
criminals. With the option of controlling Batman's fighting power,
players can choose whether or not to eliminate a foe or just
temporarily disable him for interrogation. When the players
interrogate defeated enemies, they may learn important information as
to The Penguin's whereabouts and gather clues about his next evil plan.
The Batman Returns game's spectacular graphics are supported by VGA
graphics cards. The game supports Ad-Lib and Sound Blaster, as well as
the computer's internal speaker. Player interface is directed via
keyboard or mouse, and the Batman Returns game runs on all MD-Dos
personal computers with memory of at least 640K.
LEGEND ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY
ERIC THE UNREADY -- THE READILY AVAILABLE KNIGHT WITH THE DAY'S
TOUGHTEST ASSIGNMENTS
CHICAGO, IL - May 28, 1992 - Legend Entertainment Company today
announced a late fall release date for Eric the Unready, the new IBM PC
comic graphic adventure game from Bob Bates, author of the popular
computer game Timequest. Legend Entertainment Company's products are
exclusively distributed worldwide by Accolade.
Eric, the knight in-not-so-shining armor, is on a hilarious quest to
rescue the beautiful Princess Lorealle from the clutches of the evil
Queen Morgana and her lover, Sir Pectoral. Eric searches the donut-
shaped world of Torus, meeting dragons, dwarves, unicorns and gods, in
this zany adventure that lampoons everything in its path from
television and movies to other adventure games.
Visit the Not So Great Underground Empire where you'll meet Fran the
Used Rock Salesman (can he interest you in today's sale item, the
heardrest special?), or perhaps go bungee cord diving from the top of
the iron-spoked Ferrous Wheel in the dwarves' amusement park. Then,
look out for the dragon with the vulnerable spot -- you have to be
quick to slay this fire breather because the spot keeps moving around.
Move on to the Mountain of the Gods where the inhabitants may resemble
some of the all-time favorite characters on the long running late-night
Saturday television program (is that, "cheeseburger, cheeseburger" you
hear in the distance?). Successfully pilot a swamp ship and you may
even get to keep your own captain's "log".
Packed with cinematic animation, original music and stunning 256-color
VGA art, Eric the Unready is destined to become a comedy classic.
Eric The Unready will be available at local software retailers or can
be purchased directly from Accolade by calling 1-800-245-7744.
MICROPROSE VENTURES INTO THE PAST WITH DARKLANDS
HUNT VALLEY, MD-MicroProse Software, Inc., famous worldwide for its
high-quality entertaining simulations of combat and adventure, will
release DARKLANDS, its first true fantasy role-playing game, in June,
1992.
Set in 15th Century Medieval Germany, DARKLANDS will be as realistic
and challenging a simulation as previous MicroProse releases. "The
common thread of all of our titles, from GUNSHIP to RAILROAD TYCOON, is
that they have an intellectual core," said Arnold Hendrick, DARKLANDS'
game designer. "DARKLANDS will be no different - the problems and
tasks the gamer will face are straight from the events and attitudes of
Medieval Germany."
15th Century Germany was a time of violence and corruption and was an
era with three Popes simultaneously in charge, powerless emperors,
gangster nobles and venal clergymen. DARKLANDS recreates this period
and emphasizes the beliefs of the time: witches worshipping the devil,
people praying to saints to produce real miracles, alchemists turning
lead into gold and dragons inhabiting caves.
Players will explore a vast map of Germany with a party of four
adventurers created from the likes of nobles, swordsmen, mercenaries,
thieves, alchemists, monks and several more. Millions of different
character types will be possible by choosing from 26 attributes and
skills. The ultimate goal of the game will be to achieve fame and
immortality on multiple quests, many of them simultaneous. Quests will
be created by an "adventure generator" for endless replayability.
DARKLANDS will be released for IBM compatibles and will require 640K of
RAM. The game will support AdLib, Roland, Tandy and IBM sounds, and
EGA, MCGA\VGA and Tandy 16-color graphics. A hard disk will be
required and a mouse recommended.
MicroProse Software, Inc. designs and markets a full line of
entertainment software for personal computers and video game systems.
Its products are available nationally and internationally through major
distributors, retailers and mass merchants. MicroProse also markets
products developed by Paragon Software.
PSYGNOSIS
ARMOUR-GEDDON "...Blasting through to virtual reality..."
Coming soon for PC & CD ROM
The Game:
Post-Holocaust. A sinister alien power desires control of Earth and
has developed an energy beam weapon capable of destroying all
unprotected life. You've been assigned command of a fleet of high-tech
weapons systems to destroy that beam.
You control six vehicles: Light Tank, Heavy Tank, Hover craft, Stealth
Fighter, Stealth Bomber and Helicopter. Each can be controlled by
mouse, joystick and/or keyboard, and each has distinct and realistic
handling characteristics. Arm your vehicle with Missiles, Rockets,
Shells and/or Lasers, and later use your team of engineers and
scientists to develop more exotic devices such as Night-Sight, extra
Fuel Tanks, Cloaker, Teleports, and even your own exotic high-tech
creations made from parts you salvage from the enemies you defeat!
During your command, you will have to conduct reconnaissance, choose
equipment, and engineer new technoloty, all while tactically engaged
through the use of heads up displays! You'll get a super-smooth
scrolling 1st person perspective view from inside each vehicle or
you'll be able to view it, and its surroundings, from a number of
exterior angles, including Satellite View! A huge virtual playing
environment of complex real-time solid 3D forms is your battlefield.
For even more variety, a serial-link option allows two players to
directly connect their computers to compete or cooperate in an
outraeous campaign! Try flying your fighters in formation, or harrying
your friend's last remaining tank with a swarm of helicopters!
Armour-Geddon puts YOU in control... Can YOU meet the challenge?
SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FIRST FALCON 3.0 CAMPAIGN DISK NEARS RELEASE
Operation: Fighting Tiger Will Challenge PC Pilots With New Missions
In Three Exciting New Theaters
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, CHICAGO, May 28, 1992-Spectrum HoloByte
announces the upcoming release of Operation: Fighter Tiger, the first
of two campaign disks for the wildly successful Falcon 3.0. This disk
will feature three new action-packed theaters: India/Pakistan, Japan
and Korea.
Operation: Fighting Tiger's campaign system will be identical to Falcon
3.0's; however, it also will challenge players with new aircraft, new
weapons, naval task forces and new mission types, such as downed-pilot
rescue, amphibious-assault interdiction, train interdiction and
airborne-assault support.
Players must also contend with several new enemies including the Mirage
2000, the MiG-31 and the UMF, a top-secret experimental Russian
fighter.
Operation: Fighting Tiger requires Falcon 3.0 and an IBM PC/Compatible
or Tandy 1000 model. Players who have technical questions can call
Spectrum HoloByte customer support representatives at 510-522-1164
(Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00 P.S.T). Operation: Fighting
Tiger will be available in July 1992 through normal retail channels for
a suggested retail price $39.95. Customers can also order games via
our toll-free number: 1-800-695-GAME.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to all readers
of Game Bytes to express your views back to us. Let us know if you like the
concept we have developed with this type of publication. Our reviewers love
a little controversy and would welcome alternative opinions to their own.
Be prepared, however, to back up your stand if you disagree with what was
written. These are, after all, opinions. Game Bytes truly wants to become
the people's sounding board for the gaming industry as a whole. Through your
comments and feedback, we can not only make our publication a better vehicle
for communicating gaming information, but we can also effectively communicate
our desires for better and/or different gaming experiences to the software
publishers themselves.
We also want to extend and invitation to all to become regular reviewers them-
selves. We have no permanent "locked-in" reviewer staff. Those that write
for us now and excited to do so, but we welcome other reviewers who wish to
have their opinions made known as well. Game Bytes is a magazine for the
gamer from the gamer, and we hope our reviewer ranks will grow. Don't be
bashful - let us hear your views on your favorite games.
In future editions of Game Bytes, we will use this column to publish your
letters, comments, raves, and complaints for all to share. We hope you will
take the time to use it. Editorially speaking, we'll only be concerned about
certain types of four-letter words, so keep those to a minimum, and we'll not
be concerned about censorship. This is a free forum, but a certain sense of
decorum should prevail. Nothing more needs to be said.
There are several ways to send your letters and comments to Game Bytes if you
wish to be heard. We'll start with the U.S. postal system. Letters can be
mailed to:
Game Bytes
108 Castleton Drive
Harvest, AL 36749
Using Compuserve, your letters can be sent to the address:
71441,1537
And finally, using Internet mail, feel free to mail your letters to:
ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com
Any of these three mailing methods are perfectly acceptable. If you happen to
have an account on EXEC-PC, one of the largest subscription-service bulletin
board systems in the world, you can also leave a mail message for me there.
My full account name on EXEC-PC is Ross Erickson.
We look forward to reading your comments about Game Bytes and how to make it
better with each issue. There are a lot of active gamers out there, and if
we can reach just some of you, we will know this effort is worthwhile.
Hope to hear from many of you soon!
Ross Erickson
Editor and Publisher
We'll be repeating this message in a few more issues of Game Bytes to
encourage readers to respond.
Bernie Roehl write:
First off, let me say 'thanks' for Game Bytes. Well done!
I'm an Underworld fan, and am curious if Blue Sky Productions is planning
to do anything similar (player POV, textured-poly rendering) in the near
future. If so, will it be released through Origin?
GB: Great news! At CES, Origin reported that Blue Sky is indeed hard at
work right now on their second game for Origin. While we're not sure it
be called Underworld II, it will still use the mind-blowing animation and
graphics we've come to love in the first Underworld. We'll have to wait
at least until the fall, though.
Christopher Christensen writes:
Having seen your premier issue, I just wanted to say that
I enjoyed it and I think what you're doing is great.. your
magazine isn't afraid to print a negative review for fear of
offending advertisers, and that's a big plus. I also like
to know stuff like how much disk space a game occupies, what
the sound support is like (example: Times of Lore claims to
support the AdLib yet it only uses the AdLib for the title
screen music and for the introduction screens music--during
the actual game play, all sounds are done on the PC speaker),
and I like to know how fast the game runs on a specific platform.
The reviews I've read in other game magazines seem to mostly
ignore stuff like that. Sometimes I wonder if the reviewers
for those rags actually play the games or if they just
paraphrase from the back of the game box...
Your mag is giving useful reviews and it's free even! Keep up
the good work.
GB: Thanks for the words of encouragement. Keep reading! While we don't
want to harp on a bad game, we think it's fair to point out where the
developer really didn't meet their goals, or their goals were really not
realistic for a successful product. But keep in mind, there are many
different kinds of gamers out there, and what one reviewer may like, another
player may think he or she is crazy. Try to stay objective.
The only thing I would like to see changed is the format it is
distributed in, I would like to see it with the text and graphics
in machine-independent files.. that is, I would like to at least
be able to read the text on my sun workstation without having to
skip through the image data in the .dat file. Perhaps you could
include just the text of the reviews in a separate file in addition
to the .dat file. Downloading stuff to my PC is really too slow
and expensive. I would guess that there are others who can't d/l
to their PCs.
GB: Hmm. I think we could become a bit _too_ flexible if we stray from what
our intended course is. At this time, we're pretty much going to stay put
with the format we have, but potentially could be adding a Windows version
later this summer or fall, and possibly a Macintosh version later.
An anonymous reader in Singapore writes:
Hi there!
I'm Singaporean and my hols are starting in a week. I actually did
consider flying all the way up to Chicago for the CES... do you really
think it's worth it, and do you think I can still get tickets?
GB: It was definitely worth it for us, but I'm not sure I'd drop the kind
of cash needed to get to Chicago from Singapore. You're dedicated if you
did! Tickets were available at the door.
Well, I'm not *exactly* looking to see the cutting edge of technology
in spreadsheets. I guess all I really want to do is look at games...
*grin*. Have you been to a CES? Is it really worth the effort?
GB: As far as we're concerned, CES is the MECCA of games of all types.
Nintendo and SEGA have booths the size of football fields and many many
software vendors are also present. All in all, it is a very useful and
fun show to attend. Don't worry, you won't see a spreadsheet within miles
of CES!
And if you can't answer any of my questions, well, great job on
GameBytes anyway... I took the liberty of putting it on the BBS which
I help to run. I'll tell you how the response is...
GB: Great! We're glad we're gaining many new readers in Singapore. Feel
free to spread it all around the far east.
Dennis Basiaga writes:
Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how much I enjoy your
new magazine. I have a suggestion or two: how about a Hints and Q&A
section concerning various games ? Knowledgable games users could be
recruited to answer questions and provide hints/tips about various games.
Anyway, great magazine and keep up the good work.
GB: Thanks Dennis, we're already taking steps to try to improve the magazine
in ways like this. We plan on publishing several walkthrus for adventures
and RPGs or hints for other types of games. Watch issue #4 for the beginning
of this.
John Nash (?) from California writes:
G'day...
Though I'd send kudos and encouragement on GameBytes, and say keep up the
good work. I'm new to computer RPGs and your mag is a cool way of keeping
up. One thing I'd like to recommend.... for the new and those with
nostalgia- an oldies but goldies section where older games can be revisited.
Thanks again
GB: You're welcome, John. Good money says you're from down under
originally, eh mate?
We're all for suggestions on which "oldies" you'd like to see revisited
in some summaries of some kind. Send us a note and we'll try to get some-
thing down for your old favorites. Lode Runner (circa 1984-85) still
resides on this old hard disk.
Kevin Westendorf writes:
I want to tell you what a great idea you have got there and just how
jealous I am that I did not think of it sooner! I have seen electronic
magazines in the past, but they all seemed a little dry, like there was
something missing. Maybe it was because they were just stories transferred
from paper to computer. Game Bytes looks and feels like it was made for
the computer from the ground up. What better way to review games than by
SHOWING what they look like! Color photographs can't compare with how the
game will really look on your system. Keep up the good work you have started.
GB: Thanks Kevin, we think the screen shots are a vital part of the magazine
too....though I'm still not giving up my ideas to you :-)!
I just have a few suggetions as to how you might be able to bring the
magazine to an even higher level of usability. The way the menu structure is
set up ought to resemble the order that things come in a paper magazine.
I think the Editor's Notes should come first, then the Letters or Rumors, then
Reviews, Previews, and Vendors Notes. It seems to flow better that way. I
think most readers want to use the menus from left to right.
GB: Hmm. Kevin, I can't honestly say I think many readers think a whole lot
about this, to be honest. I guess the reason REVIEWS are first is because
that's what nearly all readers are interested in the most. I'm not sure
we'll be changing this, but we might be combining the reviews and previews
together to provide space for a new column called "First Looks". Basically,
this is nothing more than a couple of screen shots of a new game (or an
overlooked game) with a few sentences to describe basically what the game is
about. It might stimulate someone into taking a serious look at a game they
might otherwise pass by because of shelf-space or other distribution issues.
There are a few things about Game Bytes that are not seen by me that I
think others and I might like to know and/or keep track of. I don't know, and
I don't think it is stated where the originals of each issue are distributed
from. I personally downloaded the first 2 issues from a BBS. I have access
to ftp, and it would be helpful to me and maybe others who might be in my
position, as well as for the benefits and possibilities of increased
circulation, to know where they can get Game Bytes "without fail" or having to
depend on someone else to upload it. Also, I would like to keep track of what
issues I have and do not. I know I have the first two, but like paper mags,
you may want to incorporate the date into the main menu along with a volume
and issue count. I know I personally don't want to miss any issues, and I
think your other readers feel the same way.
GB: Good points, Kevin. First of all, Game Bytes will ALWAYS be sent to
the following locations:
FTP Sites - WUARCHIVE and ULOWELL
Compuserve (in the GAMERS forum, library 16 - Other Magazines)
America On-Line
GEnie (soon!)
EXEC-PC BBS (Wisconsin)
and we're working on getting it UUENCODED for distribution on USENET, either
in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games or in the .binaries sections.
Now, in addition to these sites, there are MANY other FTP sites that will be
distribution points for Game Bytes, as well as many other BBS sites around
the country and around the world. We encourage all readers to post the .zip
file of each issue to their local BBS. If you have trouble locating a copy
near you, please send us some email and we'll try to help you out.
Jon Lundy from Madison, AL writes:
I'm writing to say that I've enjoyed reading gamebytes and that I liked
the magazine. The main thing I would like to comment on is Ultima 7.
I enjoyed the game a lot, but it had several features that I disliked. I
figure that since you are getting info directly from Origin they might
actually see this letter :-)
While the interface was more 'realistic' than previous Ultima's, I did not
find it as easy to use. In particular I did not like the fact that your
backpack became so cluttered, I know that it is they way a backpack would
really look, but it was annoying to have to search for items. In addition I
hated having to feed each of my party members individually.
My main objection to the game was the real time combat system, it is very
difficult to control your characters in this style of combat, I much prefer
the old tactical style combat systems. Or if there is going to be real time
combat, make it arcade (like Ultima Underworld). Fortuntely the game reduced
the importance of combat, but it was still annoying that the challenge from
the combat system was in equipping your characters properly and hoping they
survive. I prefer much more control. Eventually it got to the point where
I took missile weapons away from everyone (since I was doing more damage to
my own party with them) and when combat arose I would just hit the 'c' key
and wait for the combat to end. For example, in the final combat I did
nothing except hit the 'c' key and wait for about 1 minute.
On a related note it was also annoying you could not pull up some kind of
general status for your party, so that you could tell at a glance who was
wounded, and who was not wounded. This would have made life much simpler.
I had mixed feelings about the new conversation scheme. It was nice that
important keywords were remembered for you, but it was annoying to have to
go through many sequences, several times. I would have preferred a typing
system, or if you are going to use conversation trees perhaps use a style
similar to Lucasfilm games, or Ultima Underworld. (I suppose a natural
language parser is out of the question :-) Of course one nice side effect
of this is that I did not have to take many notes.
One change that was in effect for Ultima 6 is that the world is all on
one scale. I did not really like that change since it made the world seem
a lot smaller, the cities expanded and the wilderness didn't expand far
enough. This problem is exemplified by Martian Dreams, where I was able to
climb up and down Olympus Mons in less than a day.
In the live RPGs that I've played in, we don't pay equal attention to every
area that we pass through. Instead we pay very close and detailed attention
to some areas, and just skim over other segments. The main problem I had
with Britainia is that it was a VERY small world, Britain the largest city
was the size of a small village.
These are the main complaints I had on an otherwise excellent game. I liked
the more advanced plot, and darker tone to the game, and of course the
graphics were superb. I took about 40 hours playing time to solve the game,
and enjoyed it a lot. These are just the problems that made the game less
enjoyable. (Aside from the fact that it was fairly sluggish on my 25 mhz
386DX :-(
GB: Jon, your observations are very astute and we're forwarding them on to
Origin for their comments.
Marc Paulin writes:
I'd like to say that your magazine is outstanding. Even better than the
real magazines found in stores. Having screen snap-shots with your reviews
is a brilliant idea.
GB: Wow! What praise. We're blushing! Thanks for the compliments.
Don't bother about those who complains that your articles are too long. The
more you write, the more you inform us and I guess that's what you want.
GB: Absolutely. The type of game reviewed will always dictate the length
of the review. A good solid arcade game just doesn't demand the length of
a comprehensive review that a deep RPG or Flight Simulator requires. We
hope we can continue to be thorough.
Then, continue your excellent job. I'd like to see a preview of Quest For
Glory III from Sierra On-Line. If it's aleady out, I'd like to see a review
of it. QG3's supposed to be released in June.
GB: QFG3 is a bit late, I'm afraid, though not too bad. It should be out by
the middle of the summer. Here's a screen shot for you to tide you over.
While you're waiting, you've just GOT to check out the new Quest for Glory 1
- VGA edition. You'll be shocked at how nice it looks. Sierra has used some
tremendous claymation techniques to really enhance the animation. You won't
be disappointed. QFG3 will use similar claymation routines as well, so we're
told.
Also, is there a specific FTP site where I can find you magazine every month?
Thanks for reading this and I'll be a faithful reader. Do I have to pay a
subscription fee?
GB: There will usually be many sites where you can pick up Game Bytes, but
two that will always have it are ULOWELL and WUARCHIVE. Drop us a note if
you can't find it there. Regarding subscription fees, we're going to go as
long as we can free of charge. It's getting harder to do this without any
income being generated, but we're giving it our best shot. We'll be glad to
accept donations, but we're not soliciting any either at this point.
Rodney Olson from Australia writes:
Hi, my name is Rodney Olson and I run a bulletin board here in
Australia. What I wanted to do is place your gamebytes magazine on
the bulletin board for those whom can not connect to our ARRNET.
GB: Absolutely Rodney, and welcome to the Game Bytes family!
I am running a 33Mhz 386 with a mono monitor. When I tested the
program accros the telephone line it seemed to hang because it wanted
the system terminal to hit the enter key because I didn't have a vga
monitor. Is there any way of fixing this so that people can ring up
the bulletin board and review the product as remote terminal.
GB: Unfortunately, Game Bytes can't be run effectively across telephone
lines because there is quite a bit of embedded VGA graphic data that won't
display properly by remote. There's always a possibility of making this
work, but to be honest, it's just not a priority of ours right now. Game
Bytes will likely always be a stand-alone magazine.
Russell Sparkes of Newcastle, Australia writes:
Wow! My last letter actually got published!!!! I'm impressed!
GB: Did you have any doubts, Russell? OHMIGOSH, here you are again!
Do you need a reviewer for Startrek 25th Anniversary?
GB: Check out issue #1. You'll find ST:25 reviewed fully there.
Have you any idea where I can get a vga screen grabber?
GB: We've got several that we use, and one very effective tool written
from scratch for our purposes. Deluxe Paint II from Electronic Arts has a
very nice capture program called CAMERA that works well,....sometimes.
What format do you like your reviews?
GB: We're pretty loose with our format, as long as the review is compre-
hensive and thorough. Generally, we like to let our reviewers determine
their own format, as long as it's sensible. We're not going to dictate to
them how to write their reviews.
One other suggestion for the format of the magazine, When I finish reading
one article, I have to go back to the menu for the next one, Is there some
way to just skip straight to the next article?
GB: Not a bad idea, but let me reserve my answer until we check with the
programming staff.
An anonymous "Sam" writes:
In you 1st issue of Game Bytes, you said that you *needed* a 386 or better
to run Ultima 7. Why is it *necessary*? Will it just be really slow, will
it not run at all, or what?
GB: Good question, Sam. The answer is because Origin has written Ultima 7
utilizing true 32-bit code that only runs on a 32-bit machine such as a 386,
386sx, or a 486. It truly is necessary. The program will simply not run
on a 286 or lower as these are 16-bit machines. Origin has also written
their own 386 memory manager they call "Voodoo" that really takes over the
machine's memory mapping functions. For this reason, Ultima 7 will not run
under OS/2 2.0 either.
