lee@quincy.cs.umass.edu (Peter Lee) (12/05/90)
Well, I've been playing the sequel to "Pool Of Radiance" for about a week now, and I thought I'd share my impressions: First, as someone noted previously, the game is an OBVIOUS port from a non-mouse based system and almost no effort has been made to make it mac-like. Among the list of annoyances -- there is no way to turn off the sound (it ignores the sound settings in the control panel), you cannot choose the names of your saved game files (they are lettered A-J) and when you double-click on a saved game, it insists on taking you through the lengthy opening sequence (no shortcut that I can find to bypass it), then asks you which saved game to load anyway. As with its prequel, it pays attention to the arrow keys only sporadically, sometimes requiring to use the 7 and 1 keys on the numeric keypad to scroll with. Among the most annoying new features, also mentioned by the previous poster, is that it only allows one character of type-ahead, making it tedious even to use the keyboard at times. On the plus side, it's a cool adventure. As with PoR, the world is large and interesting (as a side note, while PoR came on 3 disks, compressed with StuffIt, CAB comes on only two, unstuffed disks. So far, however, it seems to have at least as much to explore as it's predecessor). Both games succeed in having the nicest mixture of plot/adventure with combat/hack'n'slash I have yet found in a computer game -- reminiscent (not surprisingly) of a well written TSR AD&D Module. Also, the combat algorithm has definitely been speeded up. On the bugs/"features" side -- the character importing and creation routines are not very well thought out. First, to import characters from PoR, you need to run PoR to remove the characters from the party (this is NOT the same as "dropping" them). Next, although your items and money aren't imported, if your PoR character had an attribute-enhancing magic item (such as Gauntlets of Ogre Power), the character will be brought into CAB with their stats permanently enhanced. Finally, if you roll up a new character in CAB and choose the "Modify" option, you can raise all of that character's stats to maximum. Oh the whole though, I found that I got over most of the interface annoyances fairly quickly (I now play with a pair of headphones lying next to the mac, plugged into the speaker jack to mute the sound) and I'm definitely hooked. -- |- Peter E. Lee, Staff Assistant -| | Software Development Lab at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst | | lee@cs.umass.edu or Fuligin@umass.bitnet or (413) 256-1329 | "When you expect whistles, it's flutes. When you expect flutes, it's whistles"
xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jamie Osborne) (12/06/90)
I, too, have been playing Curse for about a week. I must say that I
am not impressed with the interface. In fact, I went back to POR and decided
that the quality of the interface had DECREASED from POR to Curse. So many
other games, like Might and Magic and Bards Tale at least took the time to
implement many of the intuitive uses the Mac interface offers for this kind
of game. Unfortunately, Curse all but completely ignores these.
I am extremely disappointed, and I do not intend to purchase the next
installment (if/when it comes out) of this series. I sincerely hope that SSI
does not base a decision to offer the further TSR games in Mac based on the
sales of Curse.
The adventure itself is fun. The interface makes me wonder if there
exist any Mac-types at SSI.
As for the sound, it can be toggled by hitting cntl-s at any time.
Should have been a lemming and bought SimEarth...
-J
--
James W. Osborne | email: xerox@mac.dartmouth.edu
Systems Programmer and starving student | Disclaimer:I didn't mean it! Really!
"The best thing you ever done for me is to help me take my life less
seriously. It's only life, after all." -Indigo Girlsstuckey@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Anthony Jerome Stuckey) (12/06/90)
xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jamie Osborne) writes: > I, too, have been playing Curse for about a week. I must say that I >am not impressed with the interface. In fact, I went back to POR and decided >that the quality of the interface had DECREASED from POR to Curse. So many >other games, like Might and Magic and Bards Tale at least took the time to >implement many of the intuitive uses the Mac interface offers for this kind >of game. Unfortunately, Curse all but completely ignores these. //// I must say that i thought the PoR interface to be the most wonderful I have ever come across. The ONLY time that the mouse was ABSOLUTELY needed was to atart the game. At ALL other times, there were key options available to be used. Beautiful.. Simply Beautiful. I could even respond to dialog boxes by hitting "y" or "n" or whatever else. Beautiful. From what I have heard here, the quality of the interface has decreased. > The adventure itself is fun. The interface makes me wonder if there >exist any Mac-types at SSI. //// The PoR interface made me wonder the same thing. i finally decided that they MUST have hired people who had never used the mac before. there's no other explanation for the beuaty and simplicity of the PoR interface.
farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) (12/07/90)
xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jamie Osborne) writes: > The adventure itself is fun. The interface makes me wonder if there >exist any Mac-types at SSI. No Mac-types exist at SSI. All of their Mac versions are done by contractors. They are, however, sensitive to the fact that Mac users find their games irritating because of the lack of "Maclikeness". Keep reminding them of this, in a kind and courteous fashion, and they might start paying more attention to interface issues. Then again, they might not - the Mac versions amount to a drop in the bucket for them. I don't want to get into the "Well, if it only worked like a normal Mac application it'd sell gazillions of copies" argument, but I will say that I believe that that's wrong - even if sales increased by 100%, it would STILL be only a drop in the bucket, compared to IBM PC sales, or even Amiga sales. -- Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us