michael@stb.UUCP (09/05/87)
HEX: The Mind-boggling graphic strategy game. Distributer: Mark of the Unicorn Hex is played on a 5 hex wide hex grid (sides are length three). Each hex can be one of four colors, colors 1 and 3 are neutral, you want color 4, your opponent wants color 2. Normally, landing on a hex will advance it one color; if several adjacent hexes are the same color, all must be landed on to cause a flip. What makes the game interesting are your opponents (all 12 of them). You never fight more than 2, and only fight one for the first half of the game. Both you and your opponents have spells. They have a fixed set of 5 spells each (each one has different spells), you start with none but can get spells when you win levels (when you lose, you are given hints). You start with only 500 points of spell capacity, and no spell energy; when spell capacity reaches 0, the game is over. You gain energy each round based on the number of hexes that are your color, and a bonus for finishing the level; you lose capacity every turn, and a huge minus (400) for losing a level. The end of level bonus, and the per turn loss to capacity are multiplied by level/6; higher levels are deadly. The spells are composed of parts, ranging from simple multiple flips to illusions (what color is that hex really) to lock breakers to fast movment; the area can be anything from one hex to the entire arena. There are 120 different levels in the game; you are not expected to do them all in one sitting. The game is saved automatically after each level, and there is no penalty for taking a long time for a move. Hex is fun, but the intelligence of your opponents tends to be low; they don't use their spells often enough for them to win. (Of course, if they were that intelligent and did use their spells a lot, you wouldnt stand a chance.) Now for the environment: Hex does not take over the machine. It works fine on 1.2, expanded memory. It is mouse controlled, and the intuition keys (amiga+arrow) work fine. No pull down menus, just "gadgets" that highlight when you move over them. It plays on its own screen, with a one pixel high drag bar and depth gadgets (GOOD!). Hex is a CPU hog (Bad). Set it to priority negative one. Hex is also key disk protected, and a very subtle one too. I even put it through the paces before I bought it; boot up on another workbench disk, put Hex in drive one, and start it up. Worked fine; it turns out that it checks both DF0: and DF1: for the original disk, and if it doesn't find it, the code just sits there taking up valuable memory space and CPU time (VERY BAD!!!). Well, I guess I'll just have to follow good computer practice and keep an off-site backup. Michael -- : Michael Gersten seismo!scgvaxd!stb!michael : Copy protection? Just say "Off site backup"