carlos@io.UUCP (Carlos Smith) (12/31/87)
I apologize for posting this to the net, but I could not email a reply, and I feel the need to defend myself from this unprovoked attack =8^). For penance, I report on some new games at the end of this message. In article <2003@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >(I tried to email this, I really did. Outta E-Stamps I guess) >Carlos; > I am very sorry you failed to see the humor in my "vi - somebody >shoot it before it gets HERE" posting. Uhhhh - I beg your pardon, but you've got the wrong person here. Everyone who works at Interleaf is not the same person, and in fact there are several Amiga owners here who appear on the net, each of whom has his own opinion. Opinions of others are not necessarily mine, and vice versa. Anyway, try to keep track of the NAMES of people who post things, as well as where they work. >And I *know* you tried to mail me before you distracted the good >readers of comp.sys.arati and .amiga from the vital information >being discussed presently. >"Have a nice winter" > richard@gryphon TO EVERYONE - This is a point I have long wanted to make. There are many sites who do not have the fancy mailers that can reply to things through the path provided by rn. PLEASE try to include uucp: return addresses in your signature (and believe me - I know they can be hard to figure out) so that we unfortunate ones may privately reply to requests for help or information, as well as flames. Anyway, I apologize for answering a flame publicly. So, I will give a brief report on some NEW GAMES I've gotten. Plutos - Plutos is a 2D scrolling playfield with moving ship shoot-em-up. It is in the same genre as Goldrunner (one of my favorites), but is very different. I like them both. Your ship moves freely in the playfield, but you cannot reverse direction. The playfield scrolls down the screen, and there is lots of stuff to shoot at on the ground. In addition, there are a good variety of flying enemies to fight through, who attack you in set patterns. All enemy attacks are always in the same pattern at the same place. The enemies are often very interesting, and I find some of them quite different from the ordinary enemies so often encountered while navigating through space. It is a fun, fast colorful game with good sounds (but not up to Goldrunner in that respect). It plays much slower than Goldrunner, but is still nearly impossible without an auto-fire joystick. A neat bonus is that two players can play simultaneously! Very well done. A solid 3 stars (out of 4). I think it's copy protected, but I haven't tried, since it doesn't ever write to disk. Breach - This is a game I am already deeply in love with. It is either a timely port or simultaneous release with the Mac and Atari ST. It bears no signs of a port from those machines other than that the right mouse button is not used - it would be nice if it was in some cases. It is in some ways similar to Adventure Construction Set, but much, much neater. The idea is that you are a squad leader of a bunch of futuristic Marines. You are landed near an objective, and are given goals to achieve (such as free prisoners, capture datapacks, kill personnel, destroy installation, survive). You then proceed to orchestrate an attack on the target with the resources at you disposal. The Squad Leader is a character who is built up over multiple scenarios (if he survives). The marines available are built into the scenario (up to 20 marines in a scenario). There are about 8-10 scenarios with the game, and the game comes with a very nice SCENARIO BUILDER. The scenarios are based on square grids, and all moves are orthogonal on the grid. It is a top view, with oblique graphics (walls are slices, objects and creatures are side views). The graphics are very nice, with good color selection and tasteful color cycling. It is very easy to identify all objects and creatures once you are familiar with them (a hint is to use the scenario builder to figure out what the various things are until you are used to them). The sounds are good, but simple (no music). Wait till you kill someone! I've never felt so guilty for killing (or letting one of my people get killed) in a video game. The game is played by turns. You move all your personnel, until their movement points are used up, or you decide to terminate the turn. Then the enemy moves. Personally, I usually hate this kind of thing, but I find the game is so strong and interesting that I accept it. Things marines can carry and use on their turns are guns, grenades, demolition charges, rocket launchers, stimulants, detectors (detects enemy positions), crack units (break into enemy computer systems and dump floor plans)... There are things like power doors, lift shafts, computers, fuel tanks and stun fields etc in the installations. Enemies include soldiers (have guns, grenades, rockets), Aliens (grenades and rockets, as well as Psionic stun), Beasts (they bite), and Overlords (Darth Vaders). The toughest are robots. They are fast and pack heavy fire power. Once in an installation, you can move up and down levels (up to 5 levels) and blow the sh*t out of everything in sight. Well, not really. Depending on the scenario, there may be stuff that you don't want to destroy because you need to capture it to complete the scenario. Other times, indiscriminate blasting may cause chain reactions in fuel tanks (killing any personnel near them) or open a can of worms (for instance, blasting down a wall that is containing a room full of robots). Anyway, this is a tough, but really neat game if you are interested in strategy and tactics, and are interested in the concept. It is very well done, very easy to learn and to play (but not necessarily to win). I am still struggling with what I have finally realized is NOT a beginner-level scenario (ROBOTS). ...maybe if I get my squad behind the building, blow down the back wall with a demolition charge instead of trying to get through the door - but then the robots will be able to get at me en masse. Maybe the right side, if I can hold the room there once I blast down the wall. The robots will have to get through the door and I can pick them off..... Four stars! Not copy protected, but uses look-up-the-word "Security Check". By the way, does anyone out there have Karate Kid II? Is the game play good? What do you think of it? Please let me know. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this! Happy, ah say Happy New Year!! -- Carlos Smith uucp:...!harvard!umb!ileaf!carlos Bix: carlosmith