doug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/12/88)
After more playing with Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer for the C-64,
I'm lowering the grade I gave it from B to C+.
Why? Bugs. Specifically, the "recording" features do not work in either
the Follow-The-Leader scenario nor in the Racing scenario. And come to
think of it, how *could* they work? The disk has no write-enable notch!
[You wanna use a notcher on YOUR disk and see if it works? Go right ahead.
Let me know what happens...]
As a result, both of those scenarios are much less interesting than they
should have been. I'd already downrated AFT to a grade B because of lack of
long-term interest; with the bugs in the recording feature there isn't even
middle-term interest. So, down to a B- for having had such fundamental bugs
in the first place, and down to C+ for significant loss of "fun value".
I have also figured out the general "mapping" scheme. The world is divided
into 16 areas, a 4X4 square, each area 40 miles across (hence the ability
to jump 40 miles North/South/East/West on the "location" menu). One area
is completely empty. The others each consist of 9 sections (in a 3X3
square), with little square markers at the corners.
Contrary to the documentation, there are only 2 airports: the main one and
the one 40 miles east.
I'd already complained that the simulated F-16 has a Flaps switch. I've
been told that the SR-71 simulation shouldn't have a Flaps switch either.
I've never seen so many bugs in an Electronic Arts product before. It's
clear that they really wanted the C-64 version on dealers' shelves before
Christmas, and the quality of the product seriously suffered. I hope they
plan to correct the bugs, and also to replace any buggy versions already
in customers' hands. But I'm not holding my breath...
--
Doug Pardee -- Edge Computer Corp., Scottsdale, AZ -- uunet!ism780c!edge!doug,
{ames,hplabs,sun,amdahl,ihnp4,allegra}!oliveb!edge!doug, mot!edge!dougcs64wes@sdcc14.UUCP (OUSLEY) (01/13/88)
First of all, "notchers" are just hyped versions of hole punchers,
and second, I have used a hole punch on all of my disks (double-
sided double-density, of course) for five years now with NOT ONE
failure.
Also, have you considered making a BACKUP copy on another, non-
write-protected disk?
-Jonathon Chance
{I have given you the power!} {Who is number one? }
{Do you understand? } {You are number six. }
{I have given you the power } {I am NOT a number ! }
{of the Q! Use it. } {I am a FREE MAN! }
{I have seen attack ships burning off the shores}
{ of Orion... }lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) (01/13/88)
In article <1019@edge.UUCP> doug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes: >I've never seen so many bugs in an Electronic Arts product before. It's >clear that they really wanted the C-64 version on dealers' shelves before >Christmas, and the quality of the product seriously suffered. I hope they >plan to correct the bugs, and also to replace any buggy versions already >in customers' hands. But I'm not holding my breath... I think my favorite "EA-bug" was in the Pinball Construction Set. It never seemed to fail...I would be working on a pinball setup for about an hour and a half, and the game would just plain crash. After a couple I got wise and started saving my work periodically, but the damned game still crashed. It was always after about an hour-and-a-half. Made me rather annoyed that such a great game had such a bad problem. I never figured out what did it either. It always crashed at some random time between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. Poor quality control, if you ask me. I wonder if they ever fixed it? -Chris -- Chris Lishka /lishka@uwslh.uucp Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu "What, me, serious? Get real!" \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka