berman@stsci.EDU (Mike Berman) (12/08/87)
This game just became available in the stores. Since it is my absolute
favourite arcade game I picked it up immediately.
Arkanoid is the latest and greatest variant of 2D breakout games.
It modifies the basic game by adding different brick patterns,
falling "capsules" which have varying effects (extra man, laser,
bigger paddle, etc.), bricks which take more than one hit, and
bricks which are indestructable.
The Amiga version has its good and bad points. I'll try to be as
objective as possible.
Good points:
The graphics and sounds are as close to the arcade version as
possible. I might notice differences if the two were side by side, but
it seemed true to my memories.
There is a pause feature. Essential when the phone rings.
Initial ball speed is settable. 1 is slowest, 5 fastest.
Bad points:
The high scores aren't written to disk (!).
The ball speed increases during play. The rate of increase is much
faster than the arcade version, i.e. you reach breakneck ball speeds REAL
fast. The speed should increase, but not that fast. Even the simplest screens
at the slowest initial setting get real hard to play.
One of the capsules will slow your ball down. The next time you hit
the back (top?) wall the ball regains its original speed. I don't know if
this is in the arcade version or a bug.
Some screens are MUCH less forgiving than the arcade version. Screen
3, in particular, is harder to get through.
Initial game selection is tricky. You move the mouse to pick what
screen (1-20) you'd like to start on. (You start out at zero score wherever
you begin the game). You click the left mouse button to start the game. If
your hand shakes, you may unintentionally start on screen 20! This is
further complicated by
No way to quit. You have to let three balls go by.
Initial ball speed is the only tunable play parameter.
Heavily copy protected. You can't put it on hard disk or a
backup. Since it was done by the same folks who did Marauder, I wouldn't
expect to see it in a future update. They do offer to send you a backup
disk if you send them $3.00.
Overall, I think this is a good game. It will be better when some of these
failings are corrected. Discovery Software has a BBS for registered owners
and they have been pretty responsive in the past.
--
Mike Berman Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218
UUCP: {arizona,decvax,hao,ihnp4}!noao!stsci!berman
ARPA: berman@stsci.edu
SPAN: {SCIVAX,KEPLER}::BERMANlachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) (12/09/87)
Recently (yesterday for that matter), a friend of mine loaned me a
game he got called AMEGAS. Wow, talk about a killer version of
Arkanoid.
Sound:
Awesome. The opening screen has this killer music that my
roomate (a keyboard player) flipped over. It sounds like its from an
album. Game sounds are very nice, a popping noise when you pop
these annoying balloons is my personal favorite.
Graphics:
Very nice psuedo-3d effect. Balls and bricks are "raised" above
a very nice swirling pattern background. Very nice choices for colors
also.
Play:
What can I say, I love it! Very similar to Arkanoid, it has
a capsule for slow down, enlarging paddle, sticky paddle, weapon, etc.
It also has something I like to call a capsule "stack". You can catch
a capsule, and hold its function back until you hit the right mouse button.
This is very useful when you go to screens without capsules. It does save
high scores.
Bugs:
One very annoying bug. The score is at the top of the screen,
the very top. You have to put your nose on the screen (literally) and
arc your eyes up to read it. Sortof like it should be on a vertical
screen and not a horizontal one. Really annoying now that I know its
there. At first I didn't even think it was keeping score!
Oh well, I have to give it back on Friday, but I think I am going to run
out and buy this one. Very nice...
--
"Truth is false and logic lost..."
- Neil Peart
(who at the time didn't realize he was talking about RU)
lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu <--------OR--------> {seismo|ames}!rutgers!topaz!lachac