berry@stsci.EDU (Jim Berry) (02/28/88)
Ok, since I haven't seen anyone else comment on it, I'll start. No, this
is not a review, just some random comments.
I've had Jet for almost a week now and am pretty impressed. Is fast enough
for you to be able to dogfight and actually know what's going on ( In other
words a LOT faster than FSII). The manual actually mentions that a lot of
the code came from Radar Raiders, and the program looks like it.
Lets start with the bad points:
a) It doesn't _quite_ work with expansion memory (I have a 1000 with a 2meg
Starboard II). Everything seems to be ok except the 'brackets' that
mark SAM sites. They are trash unless I run a NoFastMem-style program
before starting Jet.
b) At 50000 feet, your plane stops going up. It doesn't 'lose air' and nose
over like FSII, it just stops and sits there, nose up. I can imagine this
being a problem if you were trying to avoid a missile by going up, and
weren't looking at the altimeter (there's no other clue that you're not
still climbing).
Minor gripes:
c) It requires too much 'mousing around' to send a message to another player
in 2-player mode.
d) It would be nice if the docs described a little dogfighting strategy.
e) I don't think the bomb sights are like real F16 HUD sights (I'll let
someone else decide whether I'm right or not).
f) You should be able to save your window configurations between games.
Good points:
a) The game. This covers all the little things that a review might describe.
b) Jet does not appear to be copy protected. I put my original on a shelf
and have been using a backup, with no ill effects. Since I put
NoFastMem on the backup disk, problem 'a' becomes just an annoyance (though
it still should be fixed).
c) 2 player mode works very well. Actually, I don't really notice the
difference between using 57K Baud in a direct link and 1200 over the
phone. It doesn't seem to need to pass that much data.
Anyway, I like it a lot.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Berry | UUCP:{arizona,decvax,hao}!noao!stsci!berry
Space Telescope Science Institute | ARPA: berry@stsci.edu
Baltimore, Md. 21218 | SPAM: SCIVAX::BERRY, KEPLER::BERRYsean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) (02/28/88)
I too love the game, and I also found some bugs in addition to the ones
just previously posted.
a. The safety zone around the carrier doesn't exist.
b. In target strike, the bombs and missiles can be targeted, but not
arbitrarily. If what you're shooting at isn't considered a target,
the missile will fly for the nearest target. I can't shoot ships
at all. The missile veers off to the east and is never seen again.
MK82s seem to be powered when the manual says they have no propulsion.
CALL SUBLOGIC AND TELL THEM OF ANY BUGS YOU FIND!
They are very nice, and will record your bug for a later fix.
I really like the way it plays. The enemy jets are just smart enough
on level 1 to make it worth your while, and really devastating on level
9. They can occasionally avoid your missiles!
Overall, I'd say they did a great job. I wish I didn't have to wait A
YEAR AND A HALF for it, but I'm really glad I have it now.
Sean
--
*** Sean Casey sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet
*** The Empire Maniac {rutgers,uunet,cbosgd}!ukma!sean
*** University of Kentucky / Lexington Kentucky / USA
*** "Ludo... FRIEND!"thad@cup.portal.com (02/29/88)
Though it works fine with 6.5MB expansion RAM, the JET does *NOT* function on a 68020-based Amiga ... unless the cache is disabled. Boo! Hiss! FS-II operates fine on a 68020-Amiga, so why did they downgrade their product compatibility for the JET program? Or is there some hidden meaning re: `SUB' ? :-)