trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (08/09/88)
This is just a summary of my first impressions of Jet by Sublogic (for the ST). I finally got a chance to play it a bit this last weekend. After doing a little practice using the computer as an opponent, I called up a friend who also had Jet and we spent about 4 hours playing head-on-head dogfight over the modem. Great game. Very smooth motion, and a very realistic feel to the combat (i.e. you swing by your opponent, pull a tight loop, get on his tail and start trying for a heat-seeking missle lock while taking some potshots with the machine guns, just as your opponent hits the airbrakes, disappears behind you, and seconds later your missile lockon alarm starts going off, so you dive and switch the radar off, hoping it was just a radar lock type missile as opposed to a heat-seeking one...) Very nicely done, right down to the parachute descent (in case you have to eject), which you can watch from the tower or spotter plane. Also, as in Flight Simulator, you can supposedly play against either the Atari version or the Amiga one over the modem. So, what is wrong with it? We noticed two things. First, every once in a while, the keyboard control will just go away...so you crash and have to reboot. Luckily, this doesn't drop the modem line, or seem to affect the other player. This happened about once an hour or so, so was only a minor nuisance. A more serious problem only manifests itself if you have a MEGA-2 (and possibly a MEGA-4). The game appears to run 1/3 of the speed on the MEGA systems. I tried it without the Blitter activated, with no effect. I tried it on 4 different MEGA-2 systems (both color and mono) and got the same slow-down. It was NOT playable at that speed and could really give people a very poor impression of the MEGA (and JET) if they bought it and compared the program to JET on the IBM PC. I called Sub-Logic about these two problems (they didn't act surprised), but it sounded like they hadn't had a chance to look into the problems much yet... i.e. they wrote down my description of the problem and said that they would call if they needed more info. I would guess that the slow-down problem is related to the MEGA-Rom's, in which case the new 1040 ST's will also have this same problem, since they come with the MEGA-Roms now (according to our local dealer). Has anyone at Atari checked with Sub-logic on this? Simple oversights like this can DRASTICALLY affect peoples decisions to not only buy the program, but also the system it runs on...I know of a lot of people that were convinced of buying the ST by simply seeing a demo of Star-Glider several years ago. -Todd Burkey trb@stag.UUCP
merlyn@intelob.intel.com (Randal L. Schwartz @ Stonehenge) (08/11/88)
In article <553@stag.UUCP>, trb@stag ( Todd Burkey ) writes: | This is just a summary of my first impressions of Jet by Sublogic (for the ST). | I finally got a chance to play it a bit this last weekend. | A more | serious problem only manifests itself if you have a MEGA-2 (and possibly a | MEGA-4). The game appears to run 1/3 of the speed on the MEGA systems. I tried | it without the Blitter activated, with no effect. I tried it on 4 different | MEGA-2 systems (both color and mono) and got the same slow-down. It was NOT | playable at that speed and could really give people a very poor impression of | the MEGA (and JET) if they bought it and compared the program to JET on the | IBM PC. Arrgh. That seems to be my problem. I have not only 1MB of memory (upgraded from an *original* 520ST shipped to clubs, remember those?), but I have the blitter ROMs. I'll dredge up my old TOS-in-RAM disk (it's around somewhere) and see if it helps. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 on contract to BiiN Technical Publications (for now :-), Hillsboro, Oregon <merlyn@intelob.intel.com> or ...!tektronix!ogcvax!omepd!intelob!merlyn Standard disclaimer: I *am* my employer!
rogers@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Bob Rogers) (08/11/88)
In article <553@stag.UUCP> trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) writes: >This is just a summary of my first impressions of Jet by Sublogic (for the ST). ... >seconds later your missile lockon alarm starts going off, so you dive and switch >the radar off, hoping it was just a radar lock type missile as opposed to a >heat-seeking one...) I didn't know that trick! ... >The game appears to run 1/3 of the speed on the MEGA systems. I tried >it without the Blitter activated, with no effect. I tried it on 4 different >MEGA-2 systems (both color and mono) and got the same slow-down. According to user's comments on GEnie, Jet slows down if more than 1/2 meg of memory is present. Most noticable on the Megas, it supposedly also occurs on the 1040. Work-around is to run "make512.tos" or an appropriate sized RAM disk before starting Jet. I have noticed a slight slowdown (could be my imagination) when I _don't_ use a 1/2 meg RAM disk on my 1040; the affect is supposed to be much more pronounced with the Megas. -- Bob Rogers rogers@StPaul.NCR.COM NCR Comten, St. Paul, MN {backbone}!ncrlnk!ncrcce!rogers