disd@hubcap.clemson.edu (Gary Heffelfinger) (06/27/89)
I've got to say that this one surprised me. It is not likely to be for
everyone, but those of you who are enthralled by games like Boulder Dash
and Wanderer, will enjoy this one. In case you don't know what I mean,
this is less of an arcade game and more of a puzzle. The action is more
slow paced and thoughtful than your average joystick-jerker. The idea
is not new. You must run around a maze, avoiding traps such as bombs,
rocks and zeppelins, while you attempt to collect all the hot air
balloons. The thing that sets this one apart for me, is its execution.
First, the game is not physically protected, though you must type in a
word from the manual at startup. (The manual BTW, is in English, German
and French, and it asks you which one you're using before it asks you to
look up the word.) They even mention in the manual what you need to
copy from the original disk onto your hard disk, before you begin. No
ASSIGN's are needed.
This baby cooperates with DOS. I'm sorry for this prejudice, but when I
saw that it was written by a group of German developers, I was afraid
that they'd tossed it all out and headed straight for the hardware
registers. No. I haven't done extensive multitask testing, but it
appears to be pretty friendly. And it appears to give everything back
when you're through.
Okay. To the meat. It is beautifully rendered. The game screen
consists of a window (not an Intuition window, but rather a scroll
region) which is your view of the world, which appears to be part of a
machine. It's difficult to describe, but the "machine" has several
smooth-rolling gauges on it (much like the odometer on your car)
that count up the number of moves you've made and count down the number
of balloons remaining. It has the appearance of being some sort of
antique device. Very nice. The maze scrolls by very nicely in the
"window". There's another small window which displays the pieces of the
maze map as you find them. This map highlights the location of each balloon.
Sounds are impressive. This game loads very quickly and one thing that
amazed me was that one second after clicking the icon, music started
playing while the rest of it loaded. (This of course, was with a Fast
File System hard disk.) After having owned Amigas for 3 years, you'd
think I wouldn't be amazed by such a thing, but it wasn't the fact that
it played music, while loading, but the fact that it does it so quickly,
that amazed me. It treats sounds and music separately. You can turn
them on and off independantly. What's more, you can remove them
entirely from the system, if you so desire, thus freeing up precious
memory. The music is the typically well done Euro-pop we've gotten used
to hearing on European demos. The sounds are appropriate, and nicely
done.
The game comes with 30 mazes. (My wife and I have spent a good number
of hours thinking these things through and have only completed 4 or 5 of
them, so you'll be kept busy for a little while.) It also includes a
construction set. Now my experiences with const sets consist of an
initial excitement: "Gee! It's neat that it has a construction set!"
and then a period of "Well it's a nice const set, I hope someone does
something with it. I promise, I'll sit down and create a few screens.
Tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow, I'll do it."
I hope that someone *does* use this one, but I'm afraid that this game
will see limited sales in the States. This is a shame. I consider this
to be a fine example of how it should be done. Here is a game that is
not a speed demon. By that I mean, no fast reflexes are required, yet it
is plenty responsive. (In fact, the joystick response is excellent. I
almost never over-shoot when I move.) Since it is not a
cycle hog, there's no reason for it to be a machine hog. And indeed it
is not. It plays by the rules, it's smooth and responsive, it's aurally
and visually pleasing, it's challenging, and for my spouse and me, at
least, it's fun to play.
Would that they were all so nice.
If you'd like to see your Wanderer have a bit more flash, try this one.
Gary
--
Father of Kathryn Leigh Heffelfinger ------ disd@hubcap.clemson.edu
^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^
10 lbs, 3 ozs, 22 3/8" and 6 weeks of love.