wjb@rayssd.RAY.COM (Bill Brogan) (01/01/88)
REVIEW
Raid on Bungling Bay
by Broderbund Software
Overall Rating: A-
If you're a fan of arcade action games, include this one in your list of
'must haves'. You control an attack helicopter armed with a multipurpose
(air-to-air, air-to-ground) cannon, and high explosive bombs. Your base
is an aircraft carrier which constantly sails around the toroid which makes
up (I assume) Bungling Bay. Your mission is to knock out the six war factories
located on the islands scattered in Bungling Bay.
Sounds like the same old shoot-em-up kill-everything-in-sight garden variety
arcade game, right? Wrong. This game takes considerable skill, experience,
and strategy to win. The enemy defences consist of mobile flak tanks, (wimpy)
fixed flak guns, (wimpy at first, becoming very nasty) gunboats, (I call them
Iranian gunboats) jet fighters, (they look like A-4 Skyhawks, not too tough
but they travel in flights of three) jet bombers, (harmless to the chopper, but
they tend to sink your carrier if left unmolested) and a battleship (which
is practically unstoppable once completed, and will sink your carrier).
You start off on your carrier with a fully operational chopper loaded with
bombs. The only way to destroy an enemy factory is to drop bombs on it, the
cannon doesn't affect factories. It takes anywhere from 7 to 18 bombs to
destroy a factory. Unfortunately, your copter can only carry 9 at a time.
The civilians in this game play quite a prominent role. They are constantly
repairing things that you damage. You can hurt a factory bad with 9 bombs,
and while you fly back to your carrier to rearm, the factory (as well as the
gunsites around it) are being repaired. If you take too long in returning,
it's like you never made the previous strike at all. The civilians are also
busy constructing that monster battleship. If they complete it, your
carrier will be history before too long. You have to delay completion
by bombing the dock, but don't forget that the object is to knock out the
factories.
As your copter takes hits, your percentage damage is displayed at the bottom
of the screen. As the percentage goes up, you lose speed and control
sensitivity. At 100 percent damage, you buy the farm (Hopefully crashing into
a factory, or the battleship, and taking it with you). You get five copters
per game. Landing on the carrier repairs your damage as well as reloading
your bombs. Once your carrier is sunk, no more repairs, and no more additional
copters (if you have any of the five remaining). You can steal more bombs
by landing at one of the enemy airbases.
Still sound too easy? There's more. Enemy technology somehow leaps forward
as soon as you destroy three of the six factories. Instead of gun emplacements
just firing shells which do about 10 percent damage if they hit you, they
start launching heat seeking missiles which follow your every move until they
hit you or run out of fuel. A heat seeker will cause 30 to 40 percent damage.
With 0 percent damage you can barely outrun one, anything more than that and
you have to outmanuever it. It is very difficult to outwit a heat seeker,
avoid enemy jet fighters, and accurately bomb a factory.
The graphics in this game are fantastic. The screen scrolls in all directions
in response to the choppers speed and direction. The view is 'satellite'
top down with objects shown in only two dimensions, but like I said, the
islands, carrier, and water graphics are all very detailed. The bottom of the
screen shows your percent damage, bombs remaining on board, factories remaining
to destroy, lives remaining, score, and an arrow which constantly points at the
carrier so you can find your way back to rearm/repair. You also get teletype
messages at the bottom of the screen telling you important things, such as
when the enemy battleship is nearing completion, and when your carrier is being
bombed. You need a joystick to play this game.
The manual is small and not very detailed, but there isn't much to actually
learn in order to fly and shoot. Experience shows you how much it takes to
kill a certain factory, or how to beat a flight of jet fighters, or which
targets are worth blasting, and which are a waste of time. The game is
copy protected using a 'bang the drive head against the stop' technique.
Also, it takes a long time (more than 3 minutes) to load.
But, as I said at the beginning, if you like fast action games, which requires
some amount of planning and strategy to achieve an object (as opposed to just
racking up points) buy this game. I got mine about a year and a half ago,
and I think I paid about 28 bucks for it.
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(Bill Brogan--wjb@rayssd.RAY.COM){gatech,ihnp4,linus,mirror,uiucdcs}!rayssd!wjb
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"That's where you're wrong, wraith." - Captain Americaronb@tekig4.TEK.COM (Ronald Bannick) (01/14/89)
I am in Syria doing 60 MPH cross country heading for an enemy ammo
dump. Sitting in the Commanders mini turret of my M1A1 Abrams Main
Battle Tank I scan the horizon for anything out of place. Below, the
gunner is at the ready. The 120mm main gun is loaded with an APFSDS
(Armor-Piercing fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot) round. The most
effective anti-tank round make. This round was selected because a
Russian T80 Front Line Tank might be in the area.
Suddendly I spot something in the periscope. Bring the tank to a
stop, it rocks back and forth as I try to get a fix on the object. As
the gunner identifies the target I use the laser rangefinder to get
target range. A Soviet BMP-2 at 2755 yards. The BMP-2 is a fast
lightly-armored APC with 30mm autocannon and an AT-5 Spandrel Anti-Tank
Guided Weapon. I instruct the loader to change to a HEAT
(High-Explosive Anti-Tank) round, and decide to take the shot myself and
move to the gunners position. In a short time the loader signals the
main gun is loaded and ready. I wait for the right moment. They
haven't seen us yet, suddenly the BMP-2 turns toward us. We might have
been spottted but he is well within range and my finger is on the fire
button. Fire, the big gun recoils belching fire and smoke. Watching
through the periscope at 10x magnification I see a direct hit. An
explosion, fire, smoke and when it clears there is nothing left but
rubble.
STEEL THUNDER American Battle Tank Simulation By ACCOLADE
I found a dandy in this program. This has to be one of the best and it
is less than $20. The documentation is a very well done 43 page booklet
that also gives equipment reference strategy and tactics and a know your
enemy section. A keyboard overlay is also included. The intro is also
very well done with a full screen picture of each tank and a brief
description below. After getting past the Sentry you are standing in
front of the CO in his office. The CO will usually give you a number of
missions to choose from. You can also select an M48A5 Patton, M60A3, M3
Bradley or M1A1 Abrams for the mission. You also select your driver,
gunner, loader, ammo and armor. Your main job is Commander but you can
be Driver or Commander/Gunner anytime you want. After each mission
your personnel file is updated. Once you are in the tank the disk drive
is not used. Moving from one station to another is done in a flash.
Scrolling is very smooth, graphics and sound are just as good.
I only have two complaints: 1. There is no terrain or anything to
hide behind. The tank does dip and buck as if going over irregular
ground but no trees or burned out buildings to hide behind. 2. I
haven't been able to make a backup and this worries me as this disk is
getting well used. Other than that it is a great program and the
missions get real challenging.
Squint Skinner
PS: I would like to hear reviews, tips and tricks of programs you like
and dislike.
Posted for a friend who has no UNIX access. I will forward any e-mail
replies to him. We have nothing to with the company that made and sells this program he is just a happy customer. I haven't tried this program.....
___________________________________________________________________________
Ronald Bannick Tektronix Inc. ronb@pical1.LIM.TEK.COM
11k Plug-ins P.O.Box 500, M/S 47-247 ronb@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM
LIM Product Test Beaverton, Oregon 97077 phone----(503) 627-3408
uucp {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!tektronix!teklim!pical1!ronb
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__________________________________________________________________________
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Ronald Bannick Tektronix Inc. ronb@pical1.LIM.TEK.COM
11k Plug-ins P.O. Box 500, M/S 47-247 (503) 627-3408
LIM Product Test Beaverton, Oregon 97077 ronb@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM