MSMITH@UNB.CA (MRK0000) (02/28/90)
Well, I just received my order of 'recreational diversions', aka games. I spent a few hours trying 'em out; ugh. I've a friend with an I've Been Misled, 386SX VGA (poor sap, I know...) - trouble is, his version of Tetris is, I feel, better than mine. My keyboard response is very sluggish, not to mention their choice of colours. Double UGGHH! The 'alley' that the blocks descend through is _white_, of all colours- not terrifically easy on the ol' optic nerves... and the blocks them- selves? The VGA game has nice, pretty, two-colour blocks (the block colour with a nice perimeter colour), whilst ol' Ami version has only a black perimeter (that's two colours, you say... well (1) technically, black isn't a colour, and (2) black doesn't _look_ as nice as the VGA game's perimeter.) The VGA blocks just look better - better coloured blocks, too. I'm not sure why the writers thought pastel-coloured blocks on a white background would look better than 'regular' colours on black, but they sure don't (maybe the Amiga-port writer is secretly working for one (ar ALL) of C-A's competitors. That'd explain the colour scheming, anyways. But why, oh why, the keyboard sluggishness? (If it isn't obvious, it was on the VGA system that I got addicted to Tetris. And possibly on my version that I break the addiction.) Out Run. Nice opening. Relatively true-to-the-arcade-version graphics, and digitized voice and squeeling tires on the opening screen, too. Again, joystick response is pretty sluggish, tho' that may be intentional (?). I've only been able to make it past a few checkpoints, so it should hopefully hold interest for awhile. Block Out. Haven't booted it yet. (Hey, after starting this 'evalua- tion' at 11:00PM, 'evaluating' for 3-4 hours, some of us gotta go to bed at 2:30AM, get up for work, etc... Shinobi, Shadow of the Beast - same as above. Night all. Mark ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neil Bennet wrote 'Last Word' for the March issue of OMNI. Topic: The Engineering of Bacteria to Gobble up all sorts of Slime, etc. To quote: "These microscopic soldiers of fortune take no prisoners. They live by the coccus credo: "I have seen the enemy, and he is lunch." (But, politician are cautious of giving bacteria any REAL political power...) "Politicians will never put the full faith and backing of the United States government behind any force that could consume their voters." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Remember, just because you're paranoid DOESN'T MEAN people aren't out to get you...