c60c-4iu@web-4f.berkeley.edu (Gary Arnold) (03/21/91)
I thought everyone out there would like a short review of the new game OIDS. It's always frustrating to try to find good games for the Mac, and even then, they aren't all that you expect, so I figured, What the hey? First, if you like Continuum, you'll love OIDS! It's very much like a "super-Continuum". You fly through around a "larger-than-screen" planetoid, shooting various bad guys (who shoot back) while trying to rescue the OIDS "Defender style". The graphics are excellent and the scrolling is smooth and fast. My only gripes about the speed and scrolling are these: 1) When there are a LOT of enemies, bullets, missiles, etc. on the screen, things can slow down a little (not really enough to make it hard to play). I'm playing his on a Plus, so it shouldn't be as bad on faster systems. And 2), if your shields are activated and you hit the ground, you bounce. But when you DO bounce, the scrolling takes a big "leap" to keep up with you. A little distracting, but again, not too bad. OIDS comes with a fairly good screen editor, but there's a lot of room for improvement. For example, when you get near the edge of the screen, it scrolls to the side (or up or down). But that gets in the way sometimes (the "scroll area" seems a little too large) when you want to draw near the edge of the screen. You get near it and ZOOM, there it goes! Another problem is that the tool palette can neither be moved nor hidden, so it sometimes gets in the way of drawing. The documentation sucks. It basically tells you the storyline and some info on how to use the editor. They don't tell you what the different enemies are (it's pretty easy to figure out, but it's still nice to know ahead of time), and unfortunately it doesn't mention what the different "galaxies" (levels) are like. (Ex: What's the difference between "Cosmoids", "Newbekuloid", "Gravdromeda" and "Trianguloid"?) All in all, I heartily recommend OIDS to anyone who likes a good space shoot-em-up. It's worth every cent of the $32 I paid for it! (BTW, it's available via mail order from Mac's Place). Hope this helps some prospective buyers decide on whether or not to buy it! Gary Arnold I don't work for FTL, Software Heaven, or Mac's Place! c60c-4iu@web.berkeley.edu