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PORTABLE ADDICTION Issue 04
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
PORTABLE ADDICTION #04 15 AUGUST 1991
Newsletter for the Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and Atari Portfolio
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Tjerk "MegaJerk" Heymens Visser....(Editor)
Yiri "Neuromancer" Kohl............(Editorial Assistant)
Mr. Portfolio......................(Portfolio Staff Writer)
Thanks to... Andre "ALU" Luyer (for f***ing up my Internet account),
Mr.Doom, Decoder, Robert Jung, Funtronics shop, Bart
Smit shop, Portfolio vereniging, Commodore User and
Darius Vaskelis.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Editorial:
. + . +
Hiya! Since our editor MegaJerk went on . ## ### ## .
holiday to Hungary, most of this issue was + ## ### ## . .
written and edited by me. Since getting . ## ### ## +
software for the GameGear is quite hard in ## ### ## .
Holland, there will not be very much re- . + ### ### ### . +
views for it in the following two issues. ### ### ### .
We still haven't got that second Internet ###### ### ######
account. Something must have went wrong at + #### ### . ####
either Internet itself or at Faxon Europe . . + . .
where I'd get my account. We hope to have + . .
it in order in two months.
Read and enjoy,
Yiri "Neuromancer" Kohl
Editorial assistant
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
A Reader Writes...
Although we dropped the idea of a letters page issues ago, this month
we got such an amusing letter we just couldn't resist printing it.
> PA *seriously* needs to get some sort of third party to edit each
> issue--the myriad of typos & grammatical errors don't make for a
> respectable looking newsletter.
Re: Well, mr. Hague, I hope this issue looks better. If you had read
issue 02, you would have known that we wanted our readers to decide
which one of us should write the newsletter. (From now on I will
write the newsletter. Hope that makes ye feel happy.)
> Why are you even mentioning the Atari "Jaguar?" It is not a portable
> system.
Re: Good point, here. Although our newsletter is primarily portable, we
also want our readers to know about new technologies. Our point of
view is, that people can't choose to upgrade/downgrade from their
current system if they don't even know about the existence/progress
of other systems.
> Are you covering the Game Boy, or did you just include it in the spec
> comparison to show how pitiful it is? If you *are* covering it, you
> need to devote a much larger percentage of space to it because it is
> BY FAR the most popular system.
Re: 1) No, we are not covering it! 2) Yes, we just wanted the world
to open it's eyes to see how WEAK the GameBoy is! 3) OK, it still
is the most popular system, but definitely not *BY FAR*! In Europe,
the GameBoy is slowly but surely losing it's user base. And now that
the GameGear has arrived, the GameBoy can shake it! Only England is
still standing in the way of the console-evolution by holding on to
their rotten GameBoys.
Please, readers, send us more letters like these! We just LOVE to read
critical letters! And remember, we can only make PA the way you would
like it if you tell us what's wrong with it!
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-------------------+
HOT NEWS AND GOSSIP
+-------------------+
GameGear: The Lynx will REALLY have a hard time! GG games to be released
are Columns, Dragon Crystal, G-Loc, Mickey Mouse, Super Monaco
GP, Psychic World, WonderBoy, Pengo, Chase HQ, Baseball 91,
Pacman, Pop Breaker, Putter Golf, Magical Guy, Golden Axe,
Devilish, Woody Pop, Mappy, Squeek, Kinetic Connection, LEA
Stadium, Head Buster, Berlin Wall, Fantasy Zone, Shanghai,
Batter up, Slider, Solitaire Poker, Space Harrier, Sonic the
Hedgehog, Forbidden Planet, RyuKyu, Sokoban as rumours have it
there will also be a Gear version of Alien Syndrome!
Famicom: Although up untill now Nintendo refused to import the Famicom
into Europe before 1993, plans have changed and Nintedo's SNES
will be released next year! Hurray! (BTW: For those of you who
didn't know yet, SNES stands for Super-NES).
Lynx: Blockout has been released (Along with Kit Case) in Holland
within 2 weeks of it's release in the US. Fedility Ultimate
Chess Challenge has not yet been released in Holland.
GameGear: US Gold is going to produce World Class Leaderboard, Indianna
Jones And The Last Crusade and Super Kick Off for the Gear.
Electronic Arts are also thinking of producing games for THE
Gear.
Lynx: About 800.000 Lynxes have been sold till now, but with the new
Lynx out in the US and the possible TV tuner for the Lynx it
will get nearer to the Game Boy (3.2 million sold !!!!).
Lynx: In our cheats list last month we missed a few things;
Chip's Challenge: level : 146: JHEN
147: COZA
148: RGSK
149: DIGW
Road Blasters: When at the designers pictures, press OPT.1
for level select.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----LYNX Review----+
VIKING CHILD
+-------------------+
Viking Child is a conversion of the home-computer game with the same
name. For those of you who don't know the game yet (most probably 'cos
it's a European game) I will give a short description of it.
When Brian the Viking (what kind of a viking name is that!?) comes
home from a day in the forest, he finds his home village destroyed and
his family missing. Brian then sets out to find his mother and sister.
Gameplay consists of eight-way scrolling platform action. On his way
Brian can collect coins to buy extra weapons in shops a la Wonder Boy.
In fact, the game is VERY reminiscent of Wonderboy! Brain can stab his
sword, jump and walk, and all this in true Wonderboy style! Not very
original, since there is nothing really new or exciting added to the
basic gameplay.
The game is quite hard to get into due to the high difficulty level
and the sluggish controls. Timing is often vital. These factors pump
up the frustration level to the max, and even good players will have
a hard time.
A password system prevents you from having to play all levels over
and over again. There also is a high-score table that can hold up to
ten scores.
The graphics look quite good (almost identical to the VGA-mode),
and the various jolly tunes are quite enjoyable. The intermission
screens, like the shops, are very well done too. But all this does
not save the game from being average. If only the controls were a
little bit better and the speed was way higher, this could've been
a tremendous game. Pity, really.
+--RATINGS--------------------------------------------+
Graphics - 7.0 : Sharp, cartoony style.
Sound - 8.0 : Jolly tunes throughout the game.
Playability - 5.5 : Hard to get into due to controls.
Lastability - 6.5 : It'll last quite a while.
Overall - 6.0 : Graphics and sound don't make a
good game, as we use to say!
+--------------------NEUROMANCER----------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--GAMEGEAR Review--+
G.G.Shinobi
+-------------------+
Shinobi is one of the first games to be released on the GameGear, and
it's a darned good game as well! Although Mickey Mouse was a good game
in it's own right, it was identical to the Master System version. With
Shinobi the programmers have improved tremendously on the 8-Bit Master
System version. The graphics tend to look like Revenge of Shinobi, on
the 16-Bit Genesis/MegaDrive. The backgrounds look terrific, and the
main sprite looks identical to the Genesis version! Yay!
The story is the usual "Revenge of the return of the sequel to Ninja
part twelve". Our shinobi-chum is feeling very depressed 'cos all his
fellow shinobi-chums have been kidnapped, brainwashed and turned
against him. He must travel five scrolling levels filled with ninja-
nasties to find his friend and defeat them. They will then be on your
side and you can use their special abilities.
As I said, the game plays terrific. For one of the first GameGear
releases it's great, and I can only hope that the quality of forth-
coming games will be up to these high standards. The Gear almost
looks 16-Bit, and that's quite an achievement. Rush out and buy
this game NOW!
+--RATINGS--------------------------------------------+
Graphics - 9.5 : Unbelievable!!..
Sound - 7.0 : Great, but could be better.
Playability - 9.5 : Instant appeal!
Lastability - 9.0 : You can play it again and again!
Overall - 9.0 : Megagreat! Buy it today!
+--------------------NEUROMANCER----------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+---LYNX Preview---+
Pit Fighter
+-------------------+
Atari's Pit-Fighter created quite a stir when it was unleashed into
the UK arcades in the summer of 1990. The arcade beat 'em up scene
had been pretty quiet since Capcom had released Street Fighter, but
Pit-Fighter revived the public's interest with it's three-player
action, spectacular digitised graphics and unusual scenario.
Pit-Fighter will appear on the Genesis, Famicom, GameBoy (!), Lynx
and all major home-computer formats. Although the VGA-PC version is
said to be identical to the coin-op in the graphics department, you
will probably need a pretty fast PC to play at a reasonable speed!
That's why I expect the Lynx version to be the best. It's the only
machine that can manage more that two players simultiously, and uses
hardware scaling and scrolling! The fighting action probably won't
improve, and that's quite a pity, since the arcade version wasn't
wasn't really a joy to play. Let's just wait and see.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----LYNX Review----+
PacLand
+-------------------+
Pac's back! Again. And this time he's brought his hat. (and boots,
that is). No, this is not yet another guzzle 'em up, but a horizontal
scrolling platform game in the Mario-Style.
PacMan has found a fairy and he must take her back to Fairyland. To
do this he must travel the ghost-ridden horizontal scrolling levels.
This time the ghosts have learned how to drive cars and fly planes,
so that means that they're everywhere.
PacLand looks, though the graphics are simpler than those of the
Viking Child, very good and cartoony. Sound is below average. But
after all, it's playability that counts. Well, I'm not gonna say
that there's plenty of it, but I sure can say that what there is
is quite good. Once again the only glitch being the speed. When do
programmers start realising that Mario's succes was in the speed!?
PacLand looks identical to the original game that was released a
few years ago. It has improved, however, since it's on a cartridge
and doesn't have to load!
Anyway, if you're after a platform game for the Lynx, go for this
one and leave Viking Child on the shelves at the software store!
+--RATINGS--------------------------------------------+
Graphics - 8.0 : Cute'n'cartoony. Just great.
Sound - 6.5 : Verrry average.
Playability - 7.5 : Quite playable, though slow.
Lastability - 7.0 : Complete it and it's gone.
Overall - 7.5 : Quite a good platformer!
+--------------------NEUROMANCER----------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
PORTFOLIO REVIEWS.....
Here are some short previews written by me, Neuromancer, instead of
Mr.Portfolio. These programs are all from German origin, so I could
only get hold of the price in DM (Deutchmark).
DB-Folio - For those people who use dBase quite often, DB-Folio
is ideal. With it, you can use and edit DBF-Files on
the Portfolio.
Price: 348,- DM
Information: BUS Computer Technik
Phone: 772038071 (in Germany, that is. But I don't
know by what number it has to be preceeded when you
are calling from the US, so you'll have to check it
out yourself. Sorry!)
PlanMaster - PlanMaster is used to view and alter diary-files on
a normal desktop PC. This way, the Portfolio's diary
suddenly becomes compatible with your PC! PlanMaster
has, however, far more functions and options than
the folio's diary.
Price: 350,- DM
Information: NetConsult Software GmbH
Phone: 61726042 (in Germany)
BTX Manager - This is a comms program for the folio. This program
isn't very interesting, though, since it only has an
option for the BTX-protocol, which is only used very
often in Germany.
DFU Manager - From the same company, this thingy is far more handy
for most users. It supports ASCII, but also has ANSI
emulation! 300-9600 baud, 7/8 data, 1/2 stop, parity
Xon/Xoff, Rts/Cts etc..etc...
Price: 168,- DM
Information: Drews EDV+BTX GmbH
Phone: 6221-29900 (in Germany)
ARC Expansion- This expansion set transforms the folio into a full
desktop PC! It includes a parallel port, serial port
3 1/2" drive 720 Kb (1.44 optional), power source,
rechargable battery. The 384 Kb memory expansion is
is optional.
Price: About 500,- DM
Informatino: ARC Comp. Vertriebs GmbH
Phone: 715167708 (in Germany)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+---LYNX PREVIEW---+
Bill & Ted's Excel-
lent adventure
+-------------------+
Bill S. Preston and Ted (Theodore) Logan, high school party animals
and self-confessed cool dudes are destined for great things. Namely,
founding a religion and being idolised by future generations because
of their most 'bodacious' Californian interpretation of both the
English language and Heavy Metal music.
However, this will never happen if they flunk high school. This all
looks very likely until Rufus, a messenger from the future, sent to
save mankind appears giving them the chance to get an A+ grade by
doing a 'most excellent' history presentation. This involves bring-
ing dead dudes like Socrates and Freud back from the past to present
day San Dimas, to relate their own real life histories!
Equipped with a totally out of this world telephone booth, Bill and
Ted have to dial historic dates and travel back to twelve different
points in time to pick up the requisite number of dead dudes. This
is either six or twelve, depending on the difficulty level. Only two
'historical heavies' can be carried in the phone booth at any one
time so you must return to San Dimas regularly to deposit them in
the local shopping mall for safe keeping.
Bill and Ted's excellent adventure is fatally let down by a lack of
depth both in the overall game design and on each level. The game is
far too easy to complete, so my advice is to spend a buck on renting
the video first, then if you think it's the 'most excellent' comedy
you've ever seen recently, and don't mind spending your hard earned
cash on a game that lasts only an hour or two to finish, I can re-
commend this most 'bodacious' piece of software.
THANKS TO ALAN DYKES (CU) FOR THIS PREVIEW...
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----LYNX REVIEW----+
Shanghai
+------Comlynx------+
Comlynx alone was already a nice feature, though Shanghai has only
a 2 player link, now you have 3 (!!) different ways to Comlynx. So
you'll keep playing this game.
1. Two-Player Alternating Competitive.
Each player has ten seconds to remove a pair of tiles. After a
player has removed a pair, or when the ten seconds are over, the
other player takes his turn. So you have a total of 20 seconds to
think. It is easy at first, but it gets harder when there are not
many tiles. The scores of both players are displayed on screen,
along with the remaining time of course, so you can see how well
(or not) your partner is doing. Don't expect to finish a puzzle in
this mode as you won't be thinking of the next step(s) but only the
ten seconds.
2. Simultaneous Competitive.
This is much like the Alternating option, but now both players are
playing at the same time. If player one selects a tile, player two
can match it, and he'll get the credits. It is fun to play it, but
as you won't often solve the puzzle, there is no real challenge. You
can beat your friend with normal high-scores too (low-times in this
case).
3. Cooperative.
Now you must work together to solve the puzzle. You can match and
deselect the other players tile. The times are not likely to be
faster than in the single player mode.
It was fun just to have tried all the options, but don't buy Shanghai
for the Comlynx mode. The Comlynx mode is not as addictive as the
solitaire game, because it is not really new to what you have already
done in solitaire mode. Only the Alternating option offers something
a bit different.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------+
Gates Of Zendocon
+-----Atari/Epyx-----+
This is the last game of the first batch that we haven't reviewd
yet. The title screen looks a bit primitive, but the brain monster
looks nice. I found the controlls a bit odd, but you'll get used to
that. The game is almost too easy, you get very far on your first go
and only the last monster is hard to beat. It's fun to watch your
pilot walking to another ship when you've crashed your ship at the
base, but it's a pitty that you cannot skip it, it gets boring. I
like the different backgrounds (like the mandelbrots etc.) and the
faces of the programmers in the TRYX-level, but there is just nothing
special. All in all this game is not a real rip-off, but there are
better games on the Lynx(Zarlor Mercenary is better as a shoot'em-up).
+--RATINGS----------------------------------------------------+
Graphics - 6.0 : Primitive/Childish like
Sound - 8.5 : The only thing outstanding in the game.
Playability - 7.0 : As it should be. It is not extremely
bad/good.
Lastability - 4.0 : Not too long, it becomes a drag once
you've finished it (and that's fast !!)
Overall - 5.9 : A bit average for the Lynx's first
shoot em up! Could have been addictive!
+---------------------MEGAJERK--------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------------------------------+
HOT News'n'Gossip 4 Lynx II only! Yeh!
+----------------------------------------+
The Lynx II has been released in the US. It has been reported that
there are some problems with the screen, blinking pixels during
play, but only with first or second batch games. As the Lynx 2
(still called Lynx) has not been released in Europe, we can't give
you full details about it. We think that it is temporarily, we
think that it will be solved when the second batch will be
released.
Just to get you guys going crazy, the new Lynx is in stereo....
if you thought KLAX was good before, wait until you hear it in two
channels. You need to use the headphone jack to get stereo, as
there's still only one internal speaker. I've been told Road Blas-
ters is also in stereo. Chip's Challenge, Blue Lightning and Gates
of Zendocon appear not to be.
The new Lynx is selling for $99.95 almost everywhere, although
quantities seem to be limited in the Chicago area. Most merchants
want to wait until they sell out of the original Lynx before sel-
ling the new one, but they are unwilling to discount the old Lynx.
Other changes in the Lynx include easy access to the cartridge
slot, it is just in back now without a door, longer battery life
(the manual says six alkaline AA batteries will last five hours) ,
a nice cover over the screen to prevent scratches... but it looks
pretty scratchable itself, and a backlight switch to turn the dis-
play off. (The five-minute auto-shutoff is gone, so you can just
pause, turn the display off to save battery power, and walk away
until you want to come back.) It also has a power LED so you can
tell if it's on, since the display can be dark but the unit
powered up.
And best of all, it's smaller, and easier to hold for long periods
of time. It's far more comfortable than the old Lynx.
(Note: all old Lynx games and peripherals work except the sun
visor, it cannot fit the new Lynx, the Electronics Boutique nearby
told me that there's a new visor coming.)
>Darius Vaskelis<
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------+
How will the Game Gear do in Holland ??
+------------------------------------------+
It will take a while till the Game Gear will be as widely sold as the
Lynx or the Game Boy. At first the Game Boy was very popular, but now
the price of the Lynx is 50% of it's original price, the future for
the Game Boy doesn't look very bright. When I was at the local Bart
Smit Toy Store (They sell the Nintendo Game Boy and Entertainment
System, The Sega MegaDrive (and later the Game Gear) and The Atari
Lynx) 3 Lynxes were sold in 15 minutes. Course that is not the normal
selling rate, but the manager said that the Lynx is finally out-
selling the Game Boy. While I was there a woman wanted to buy a Game
Boy for her sons birthday (who was/is a Nintendo fan). When she
tested it she discovered that the screen was black and white. So she
decided to buy a Lynx. Till now the Lynx has been the only portable
gaming system in Holland, but now the Game Gear is on it's way Atari
is going to have a hard time. As Sega is already known for a while in
Holland for the MegaDrive (Genesis) and from it's arcade games,
people are going to wait for the Game Gear. The manager said that he
was impressed with the Game Gear, he expects to sell a lot of them.
His personal thoughts were that the main battle would be between the
Lynx and the Game Gear, he didn't say that they would drop the Game
Boy but he expects a dramatic drop of Game Boy sales within a year.
The Game Boy has a huge amount of games out, so till now the choice
was between lots of games and no color (Game Boy) and few games and
color (Lynx). But now the Game Gear is comming (With lots of games
and color) there is a good alternative.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------+
TRIP
+--------------+
Again this issue is late due to a vacation (mine). Next month issue
will probably a bit late too, because i'll be on a sailing trip then
(gosh I hate vacations !! :-) ). I went to Czechoslovakia and Hungary
for 3 weeks this time, and as allways I went to see the sights in
Prague I couldn't find a Lynx or GameGear anywhere. In one mall they
sold some electonics stuff (Only Sharp). The thing that looked most
like a computer was the Sharp Organizer. The salesman was kind enough
to give me the address of a computerstore in Prague (The only one he
knew, but there were more). But this was a PC-only store (No Atari's,
Amiga's etc.). I saw 3 other computerstores, but they didn't sell
anything else but PC's. So the Portfolio wouldn't make it in
Chechoslovakia even if it would be imported because it would be too
expensive.
In Budapest things were different however. When I got out of the car
the first thing I saw was the Novotrade Atari shop, they sold every-
thing from the Lynx to the TT. Their newest Lynx-games were Klax and
Slime World, the only other games they had were the first batch games.
Klax and Slime World cost around $ 46,- and the other games around
$ 40,-. there was not much news on the Portfolio either, though
there was a carrying case like the Lynx Pouch ($34,-). And there was
also a Filemanager for the PF which costs around $41,-. When I talked
to the manager he said that he didn't know the HP-95LX, but he said
that the Poquet was available. He also didn't know anything about the
modem or printer for the Portfolio, but he was pleased that he was
getting Basic for the Portfolio. 32K cards cost $95,- 64K cards $162,-
and a 128K costs $ 230,-. I didn't see any Sega's or Nintendo's, not
even a MegaDrive or NES.
When I was on my way home I stopped in Vienna and looked around for a
few hours. I was surprised to see lots of shops carrying the Portfolio
with reductions on cartridges when you bought a PF, with prices coming
so low that you got a 32K card free, for Dutch prices ($ 250,-). I
didn't see a Lynx or GameGear but I did see a store that sold the Game
Boy. There was nothing very special (Not many games, no record
breaking prices) but there were 3 different carrying cases (Now I've
seen a total of 5 different cases for the Game Boy !!) with one saying
"Game Boy Tote", whereas "Tote" means dead in German (and the case did
look much like a coffin) so I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't.
But it is too much of a coincidence.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------+
Mr. Portfolio
+-----------------+
Fellow Atari Portfolio Owners:
This month my article is rather short. Due to summer vacations, and
Atari Canada's BBS being down for a while, there is nothing new to
report for the Portfolio. However, next month that will change.
Because of this, there is no need to update the huge list that I
sent last month, I will add an update when it becomes available.
See ya all next month.
Russ Campbell (Mr. Portfolio) .... russ@wecbcs.uucp
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------+
LYNX GAME RATINGS
+--------------------------+
We are using the results from the VIDEO GAME RATINGS REPORT.
RANK TITLE VOTES CAST
1) 9.2 Warbirds 4 N S
2) 9.0 Klax 44 B C
3) 8.7 Zarlor Mercenary 18
4) 8.5 Fidelity UCC 2 N B
5) 8.4 Shanghai 8 B
6) 8.0 Chip's Challenge 62 B
7) 8.0 Road Blasters 27 C
8) 8.0 Xenephobe 29 C
9) 7.5 Slime World 44
10) 7.3 Rampage 11 C
11) 7.2 Blue Lightning 60 S
12) 6.7 Rygar 9
13) 6.5 Gates of Zendocon 52
14) 6.5 RoboSquash 15
15) 6.4 California Games 75
16) 6.4 Ms. Pacman 14 C
17) 6.0 Electrocop 54
18) 6.0 Block Out 1 *
19) 5.7 Gauntlet III 50
20) 5.7 Paperboy 15 C
NOTES :
If rate is equal, rank is based on the number of votes cast.
If more votes are cast, the number is more reliable.
N= New
B= Brains needed
S= Simulator
C= Coin-op
* The original report said "Blood Money" but we think it is "Block Out".
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The last bit... (not byte, that is!)
Well, that's it for this month! Next month we'll have more Portfolio,
more GameGear, and hopefully: More LYNX! Which just means that we
hope to have an extra large issue! Yeh! C-you all next month!
Sayonara!
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
