doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (02/09/85)
I'm weary of talk about modems & termcaps, peripherals and utility
programs. Seems like everyone either uses their computers as ASCII
terminals or as little pets that every month they buy new hardware for.
There must be someone else out there in net-land who bought the
dang thing to DO something with, like play games or something.
So here's some carrying on about playing games...
Game review:
Fort Apocalypse (Synapse Software) C64-disk list:$35 discount:$20
One player -- one joystick required
Overall grade: A
You pilot an armed helicopter through the defenses of the enemy, into
his below-ground fortress. You must rescue 16 people, destroy the
heart of the fortress, and then return to your home base above ground.
The most appealing aspect of this game is the "play". It isn't your
ordinary "shoot everything in sight before they get you" sort of game.
You certainly do shoot up a lot of stuff, but if you're smart you'll
try to time your attacks to maximize your chance of hitting the target
and to minimize your chance of being destroyed. There's almost always
someplace to retreat to where you can plan your next strike in relative
safety. Played reasonably, the pace is neither leisurely nor frantic.
You also have to be able to think. You do not have specific
instructions on where to go nor what to do, just the general goal
of rescue, destroy, and return. No map is provided of the enemy's
fortress. You have to first figure out where to go, then how to
penetrate any defense that is in the way. After getting through, you're
back to figuring out where to go next. Sort of like an adventure game.
There are 3 difficulty options: a) number of choppers ("lives") you
get; b) amount of pull from gravity; c) overall "difficulty" which
determines how numerous and effective the enemy's weapons are.
The graphics are good, even on a TV set. The sound effects are average.
The documentation is not too great, being a copy of the Atari 800
documentation (sketchy in itself) with an extra sheet describing the
C-64 loading procedure. Synapse does something I wish all C-64 vendors
would do: they record the program on both sides of the diskette, with
different alignments. If your 1541 won't read the front side (mine
won't), flip it over and try the back side.
--
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!dougravi@eneevax.UUCP (Ravi Kulkarni) (02/10/85)
I generally agree with the review of Fort Apocalypse. I want to add however that there are a few bugs in the program that can make it crash, although I cannot consistently repeat them. They occur infrequently enough that the game is interesting to play. Also even at the highest level it is still possible although hard to destroy the fort and make it back. I have generally found the games by synapse to be of very high quality and they maintain an attention span of more than just a few games. -- ARPA: eneevax!ravi@maryland UUCP: [seismo,allegra]!umcp-cs!eneevax!ravi