pyppad@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Dale) (05/08/91)
The June issue of Amiga Format (no. 23) has a complete copy of Balance of Power (the later version with advisors and MultiPolar option). As to be expected the docs in the magazine are minimal. Any pointers from those lucky people who have been playing this game for any length of time ? As a side note, the coverdisk war is really hotting up with a game of this quality making it onto a magazine cover. What I consider one of the best review mags, Strategy Plus, has said it too now has to provide a cover disk to keep up with competition which will result in a price rise. This I think is a shame as it stands so well by itself. The UK is awash with mainly game review mags and their coverdisks all costing 2.95 (or 3.95) sterling. How is it in the States and elsewhere ? What goes onto most coverdisks ? Is the balance between game demos and more serious software correct ? Personally I'd like to see a magazine which costs less without a disk. Very often the demos are shoot 'em ups which don't interest me and add a quid to the price of the mag. On the other hand we've had Lemmings :-) as a demo. Amiga Computing has to rate as one of the best coverdisk mags out of the UK as it consistently has good quality, mainly PD utility based software (SID and MED3.0 to name but two). Anyhow, off the 'box. How about those BOP tips ? Paul
jamie@sievax.enet.dec.com (Jamie Badman) (05/09/91)
Yes, it is a shame. There's one new magazine that I really like called Amiga Shopper though. It has stated that there will be NO games reviews and NO coverdisks... and it's a very thick mag (admittedly on toilet paper!) for just 99pence! It has some very good reviews, write ups and technical tips. It's only on issue 2 but I think it's very promising. Certainly the best Amiga mag value for money-wise at the moment. Incidentally, did anyone think that the advertising in the Amiga Format mag for the Balance of Power coverdisk was false ? It gave the impression that Balance of Power 1990 was being given away when in fact it was just the original BoP. Cheers, Jamie.
cmp9133@sys.uea.ac.uk (A.C. Lock) (05/10/91)
pyppad@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Dale) writes: >The June issue of Amiga Format (no. 23) has a complete >copy of Balance of Power (the later version with advisors >and MultiPolar option). As to be expected the docs in the >magazine are minimal. Any pointers from those lucky people >who have been playing this game for any length of time ? The basic strategy of the game is the domino theory. If you can pile enough troops and military aid into friendly countries which border on the one you wish to control, then you will be able invade with more troops and fund more insurgency than you would be able to otherwise (a la' Gulf War) Obviously the opposing superpower may not like this, so it is a good idea to move slowly with takeover bids, eg increase government intervention from 1000 to 5000 instead of 1000 to 500000. On later levels you may not even have to invade, because the country might Finlandize, leaving it basically under your thumb. A lot of points can also be obtained, just by improving relations with countries, this means increasing military and economic funding, signing treaties, and ensuring good trade. Also always check to see what actions the Russians have done this turn, and question them if you think you have a chance of winning. A lot of the time they will give up without a fight. On a slightly different issue, Amiga Format claims to have provided the complete list of passwords, which are required to get past the built in copy protection, but this is not the case, since they have only printed about 50% of the total passwords. If you wish to get the whole list, load the BOP executable into a text editor such as lse , ced or something similar, go to the end of the file, and scroll backwards until you come across a whole lump a text, which contains some of the passwords that you already know, then delete the crud above and below it. You will then need to format this bit to make it more legible and save it as a file called 'bop:bop.passwords'. When the protection comes up, open a shell on you workbench and 'type bop:bop.passwords' and read off the appropriate entry. >Personally I'd like to see a magazine which costs less without a disk. >Very often the demos are shoot 'em ups which don't interest me and add >a quid to the price of the mag. On the other hand we've had Lemmings :-) >as a demo. Amiga Computing has to rate as one of the best coverdisk mags >out of the UK as it consistently has good quality, mainly PD utility >based software (SID and MED3.0 to name but two). Yes Amiga Computing/Format do have some nice utils, but they keep spoiling by: a. Not publishing the complete distribution (eg With Med 3.0 they did not include any programmer dox, or code) b. Packing a bit of software with a non-standard packer so that you have grind your teeth waiting for the workbench screen to stop wobbling, even though you have the program installed on the hard drive c. publishing crap demos for some crap game which are basically adverts at your expense. By the way, the magazines actually get paid to publish these things ( the last issue of AF had TWO of these) d. Wasting about 10% of the available disk space, with absolutely massive icons, which eat tons of memory, and which take ages to load Since I joined the net, I have been less inclined to buy these expensive, magazines, because most of the pd software they publish can be found complete in some ftp site. If you want to read a less expensive magazine, then I would recommend Amiga Shopper which only costs 99p :- three pounds cheaper than Amiga Format's last issue ! Regards Adam Lock
sss10@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Homicidal Lunatic) (05/10/91)
In article <1058@sys.uea.ac.uk> cmp9133@sys.uea.ac.uk (A.C. Lock) writes: >pyppad@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Dale) writes: > > > Also always check to see what actions the Russians have done this turn, >and question them if you think you have a chance of winning. A lot of the >time they will give up without a fight. > I played this on a M*c and no matter what I did, I ended up starting a Nuclear war most of the f*cking time. If I challened the Soviets over a Xfering of a loaf of bread to any country, we'd end up moving to Defcon 2-4 usually. A very frustrating game. IMO. > >Regards > >Adam Lock **********************************PiRho**************************************** "All power comes from the barrel of a gun" // sss10@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu \\ // Amiga makes it possible \X/
kent@vf.jsc.nasa.gov (05/16/91)
In article <1058@sys.uea.ac.uk>, cmp9133@sys.uea.ac.uk (A.C. Lock) writes: > > On a slightly different issue, Amiga Format claims to have provided the > complete list of passwords, which are required to get past the built in > copy protection, but this is not the case, since they have only printed > about 50% of the total passwords. If you wish to get the whole list, > load the BOP executable into a text editor such as lse , ced or something > similar, go to the end of the file, and scroll backwards until you come > across a whole lump a text, which contains some of the passwords that > you already know, then delete the crud above and below it. > You will then need to format this bit to make it more legible and > save it as a file called 'bop:bop.passwords'. > > When the protection comes up, open a shell on you workbench and > 'type bop:bop.passwords' and read off the appropriate entry. > If you are brave you can use a disk editor to change all the passwords to be the same word. Directly modify the executable. You would have to reverse engineer the data structure that is holding the passwords. I tried to do this with a copy of my ORIGINAL Empire. The passwords are encoded in the executable. you can't just find them laying around. So I did it the hard way, I built a manual list of words and put them on a text file on disk. I think the password method is the way to go as far as copy protection is concerned. I just get tired of it after a while. I realize the software makers need to protect their sales. I have no gripes with the realities of copy protection. I just wish it all would be HD installable and you could backup the orginals. -- Mike Kent - Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Company at NASA JSC 2400 NASA Rd One, Houston, TX 77058 (713) 483-3791 KENT@vf.jsc.nasa.gov