moynihan_r@apollo.HP.COM (Robert Moynihan) (01/10/91)
In article <5188@bwdls58.UUCP> keithh@atreus.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) writes: > > I'm sick of being robbed by these incompetant boobs who have never > heard of play-testing or beta-testing. SSI's much vaunted Pool of > Radiance falls into the same category: A good game, that is > hard-drive installable to their credit, which fails miserably > because nobody tried to play the goddam thing before they shipped > it. Perhaps I'm a little sensitive to the issue since I spent two > years doing human factors and user interface R&D but ARGGGGHHH! > Glad to hear I'm not the only one that thinks the Amiga port of PoR was a poor excuse of a game. I got it for the C-64 a couple of weeks before I got my Amiga. I loved the game, but thought it was too slow to play. I therefore waited anxiously for the Amiga version to come out. Now I don't know about you, but I think that any game that's a year late to market, as this port was, would have been given a few basic tests...like can you have combat without a software failure...like can you rest to gain spells without a software failure...like can you just walk around town and outfit your party without a software failure. It's pathetic. I sincerely hope that whoever was in charge of testing PoR for the Amiga is currently looking for other employment. I was fortunate. I went back to the Walden Software I got it from and told them what happened when I tried to play the game. The manager offered to give me another copy, but I told him it would just have the same problem. They had an A-500 with 1 meg in the store, so I loaded up my game, popped in the save disk, and quickly went to the point where it would bomb. *CRASH*. Then, I took the one they offered to give me in exchange and did the same thing. *CRASH*. I said I didn't like the idea of spending my money on that kind of shoddy merchandise, and asked to exchange it for another game of equal value. They said that'd be OK, so I took Might & Magic II instead. All in all, I think SSI is going to take a major bath in red ink from their poor performance in producing this game. I know my once-high opinion of their software has taken a big tumble. So, until you hear of a new release of PoR, *DON'T* buy it! If you do, it'll be money wasted. Bob ============================///==================================== moynihan_r@apollo.hp.com /// "Winners are losers who got up and Plink: Moynihan \\\/// gave it just one more try." Hewlett-Packard/Apollo \XX/ -Dennis DeYoung
clinth@ashtate (Clint Helton) (01/11/91)
In article <4f1b9675.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> moynihan_r@apollo.hp.com (Robert Moynihan) writes: >In article <5188@bwdls58.UUCP> keithh@atreus.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) writes: >> >> I'm sick of being robbed by these incompetant boobs who have never >> heard of play-testing or beta-testing. SSI's much vaunted Pool of >> Radiance falls into the same category: A good game, that is >> hard-drive installable to their credit, which fails miserably >> because nobody tried to play the goddam thing before they shipped >> it. Perhaps I'm a little sensitive to the issue since I spent two >> years doing human factors and user interface R&D but ARGGGGHHH! >> > >Glad to hear I'm not the only one that thinks the Amiga port of PoR was a >poor excuse of a game. I got it for the C-64 a couple of weeks before I >got my Amiga. I loved the game, but thought it was too slow to play. I >therefore waited anxiously for the Amiga version to come out. Now I don't >know about you, but I think that any game that's a year late to market, as >this port was, would have been given a few basic tests...like can you have >combat without a software failure...like can you rest to gain spells without >a software failure...like can you just walk around town and outfit your party >without a software failure. It's pathetic. I sincerely hope that whoever >was in charge of testing PoR for the Amiga is currently looking for other >employment. > >I was fortunate. I went back to the Walden Software I got it from and told >them what happened when I tried to play the game. The manager offered to give >me another copy, but I told him it would just have the same problem. They >had an A-500 with 1 meg in the store, so I loaded up my game, popped in the >save disk, and quickly went to the point where it would bomb. *CRASH*. Then, >I took the one they offered to give me in exchange and did the same thing. >*CRASH*. I said I didn't like the idea of spending my money on that kind of >shoddy merchandise, and asked to exchange it for another game of equal value. >They said that'd be OK, so I took Might & Magic II instead. > >All in all, I think SSI is going to take a major bath in red ink from their >poor performance in producing this game. I know my once-high opinion of their >software has taken a big tumble. So, until you hear of a new release of PoR, >*DON'T* buy it! If you do, it'll be money wasted. > >Bob > > >============================///==================================== >moynihan_r@apollo.hp.com /// "Winners are losers who got up and >Plink: Moynihan \\\/// gave it just one more try." >Hewlett-Packard/Apollo \XX/ -Dennis DeYoung I suspect that the problems you are haveing may be to different production runs of PoR. I have been playing it several weeks without major problems. I completedthe first four commissions and am working on clearing the temple of Bane. It didcrash repeadedly in the library when I tried saving the game, but when I recoppied the game disks the problems disappeared. BTW I had been playing with my friends copy of the game and liked it enough to buy it. The copy that crashed was my friends copy. The copy that runs is the one I bought. I hav I have an Amiga 500 modle P (only 6 months old) with 1 meg RAM and an external floppy drive. I have been very happy with the game!
uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) (01/11/91)
[]
Wow, Champions of Krynn was an excellent product, runs fine on my 3000 and
is HD Installable. I would expect the same from PoR. Too bad.
Now what about Curse of the Azure Bonds, does it work OK?
Should I buy it?
-Roger
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd ucsd nosc}!crash!pnet01!uzun
ARPA: crash!pnet01!uzun@nosc.mil
INET: uzun@pnet01.cts.comstx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu (01/12/91)
In article <22565@well.sf.ca.us>, farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes: > Please, please, PLEASE let SSI know when you find problems with their games. > Particularly when you find Amiga-specific problems, or bad ports. They are > GREAT folks, who are trying to do the best they can on a machine which they > don't really understand (although they're getting a lot better about this). > They're quite committed to making their games good - reminders of where they're > falling down are taken to heart. > > -- > Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us Do I just write to the address on the box or is there a number I could call? FLAME ON Pools of Radiance is one of the buggiest most annoying games on the face of the Earth! And what really pisses me off is the fact that I enjoy the game so I can't just toss it aside! Twice in the Kobold cave I have fought through the first wave of kobolds and be well on my way to defeating the second when the machine will lock up and guru! I cause this just by moving the character. It can't handle the Haste spell I guess. Flame off I REALLY want to talk to the people at SSI (I will cool down a bit first) a phone number would be appreciated. I guess the thing that ticks me off about this particular encounter always ending up in a guru is that by the time it guru's I have invested 45 min of time in the battle! Has anyone else seen this bug? How did you overcome it? Is Curse of Azure Bonds as buggy?-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu Kevin Whyte Proud Owner of an Computer Services Box 45 Mankato State University Amiga 1000 stx@att1.mankato.msus.edu Mankato MN 56001 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hclausen@adspdk.UUCP (Henrik Clausen) (01/12/91)
In article <4f1b9675.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>, Robert Moynihan writes: > In article <5188@bwdls58.UUCP> keithh@atreus.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) writes: > > > > I'm sick of being robbed by these incompetant boobs who have never > > heard of play-testing or beta-testing. SSI's much vaunted Pool of > > Radiance falls into the same category: A good game, that is > > hard-drive installable to their credit, which fails miserably > > because nobody tried to play the goddam thing before they shipped it. [Reports of PoR crashing a lot] > All in all, I think SSI is going to take a major bath in red ink from their > poor performance in producing this game. I know my once-high opinion of their > software has taken a big tumble. So, until you hear of a new release of PoR, > *DON'T* buy it! I bougth it a few months ago, and while it certainly ain't bugfree, I have never experienced all the problems you have. I have played the game from scratch twice, (to get at all details), and it's certainly workable. Wild boars take the machine with them when they roll over and die, so be quick on those. When finishing the game, one of my fighters died so badly it crashes with a division by 0 on raising him. Annoying, but I certainly had my fun with the game. Now, with Chaos Strikes Back in order, and SimEarth coming Real Soon Now (I hope), I don't intend to spend any cash on SSI games for some time to come. > If you do, it'll be money wasted. In fairness, it wasn't for me. BTW, it ran fine and fast off my A3000's harddisk. A few problems with some CPU bound timing where noted, but no big deal. -Henrik ______________________________________________________________________________ | Henrik Clausen, Graffiti Data | If the Doors of Perception where cleansed, | | ...{pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax! | Man would see Reality as it is - Infinite. | \______cbmehq!adspdk!hclausen___|_________________________________W. Blake___/
dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan) (01/12/91)
[long rants about bugs in Pool of Radiance not quoted] Um, I went through the game TWICE without a single guru, bug, critter, error, or other such failure. I've got a 2000 with 1 meg (512K chip), three floppies and a GVP 25 MHz 030. dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com ...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I don't understand why you make such a big deal out of everything...haven't you learned; if it's not happenning to me it's not important?" -Murphy Brown
amiga-relay@ee.udel.edu (01/13/91)
From: "Paolo V. Troia" <W_TROIA@upr1.upr.cun.edu> In article <1991Jan11.200726.1@vax1.mankato.msus.edu>, Kevin Whyte (stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu) writes: > Pools of Radiance is one of the buggiest most annoying games on the face of >the Earth! And what really pisses me off is the fact that I enjoy the game so >I can't just toss it aside! [...] >Is Curse of Azure Bonds as buggy?-- No, it isn't. I'm near the completion of the game and the *only* bug I have found is that you cannot select the active character with the arrow keys but only with the mouse (which is certainly a trivial problem). Other than that I have no major complaints. I have the game installed in my HD and it has never crashed. Whatever faults Pool of Radiance has are not shared by Curse of the Azure Bonds (or Champions of Krynn, for that matter). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paolo V. Troia | Universidad de Puerto Rico | // Amiga w_troia@upr1.upr.clu.edu | Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez | \X/ o nada! --------------------------------------------------------------------------
amiga-relay@ee.udel.edu (01/13/91)
From: "Paolo V. Troia" <W_TROIA@upr1.upr.cun.edu> In article <6834@crash.cts.com>, Roger Uzun <uzun@pnet01.cts.com> writes: >Wow, Champions of Krynn was an excellent product, runs fine on my 3000 and >is HD Installable. I would expect the same from PoR. Too bad. > >Now what about Curse of the Azure Bonds, does it work OK? Yes. I bought Curse of the Azure Bonds and am very happy with it. I have basically no complaints about this game except that you can only select the active character with the mouse and not with the keyboard (for all other options you can use either the mouse or the keyboard). I have it installed on my hard drive and it has never, ever crashed on me (I'm nearing the completion of the game). In fact, I like it better than Champions of Krynn. Champions is a little more buggy but the combat and animation are faster and smoother. I remember an annoying bug with the Spiritual Hammer spell: basically, it remained displayed as still effective even when the duration of the spell had clearly expired. As I recall, if you used the hammer then it would seldom strike an opponent although it looked as if everything else was normal. The program user interface is essentially the same as in Champions but the menu selections now have an embossed 3-D look. The program uses code-wheel manual protection, it's HD installable and it does multitask. I only wish the graphics were more up to Amiga standards (they're bassicaly a port of the EGA version of the game), but I don't think this detracts too much from the game. >Should I buy it? If you liked Champions then you'll like Curse of the Azure Bonds as well. I certainly would reccomend it to anyone looking for an adventure game which closely follows AD&D's rules. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paolo V. Troia | Universidad de Puerto Rico | // Amiga w_troia@upr1.upr.clu.edu | Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez | \X/ o nada! --------------------------------------------------------------------------
stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu (01/13/91)
In article <1882a203.ARN14ea@adspdk.UUCP>, hclausen@adspdk.UUCP (Henrik Clausen) writes: > > I bougth it a few months ago, and while it certainly ain't bugfree, I > have never experienced all the problems you have. I have played the game > from scratch twice, (to get at all details), and it's certainly workable. > Wild boars take the machine with them when they roll over and die, so be ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That is the same battle I have fought twice now. The machine crashes after I have slain all the wild boars and am moving my characters to finish of the kobolds. How did you avoid the crash? > quick on those. When finishing the game, one of my fighters died so badly > it crashes with a division by 0 on raising him. Annoying, but I certainly > had my fun with the game. (stuff deleted) > -Henrik > ______________________________________________________________________________ > | Henrik Clausen, Graffiti Data | If the Doors of Perception where cleansed, | > | ...{pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax! | Man would see Reality as it is - Infinite. | > \______cbmehq!adspdk!hclausen___|_________________________________W. Blake___/ I found the number to SSI in the brochure that accompanied the game. I am going to call them monday and see what they have to say. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu Kevin Whyte Proud Owner of an Computer Services Box 45 Mankato State University Amiga 1000 stx@att1.mankato.msus.edu Mankato MN 56001 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) (01/14/91)
stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu writes: >I REALLY want to talk to the people at SSI (I will cool down a bit first) >a phone number would be appreciated. The main phone number is (408)737-6800. It's a voicemail system, so you'll have to get to the operator, then ask for Customer Support. -- Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us
hclausen@adspdk.UUCP (Henrik Clausen) (01/14/91)
In article <1991Jan12.181018.1@vax1.mankato.msus.edu>, stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu writes: > In article <1882a203.ARN14ea@adspdk.UUCP>, hclausen@adspdk.UUCP (Henrik Clausen) writes: > > Wild boars take the machine with them when they roll over and die, so be > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > That is the same battle I have fought twice now. The machine crashes after I > have slain all the wild boars and am moving my characters to finish of the > kobolds. How did you avoid the crash? I can't really tell, 'cause I don't know! I've fought that battle much more than two times. This triple encounter was (IMHO) the thoughes of ALL in the game. Wild boars in the wilderness have the same effect. When you get wild boars a little below 0 HP, they stand up and grin. I believe that they will only last for a while and then drop dead spontaniously, and that's where the bug lives. So kill them wild boars seriously, to -10 HP or so. If they stand up and grin, get 'em real fast! Anyway, I didn't use any haste's, but lots of Stinking Cloud etc. > I found the number to SSI in the brochure that accompanied the game. I am > going to call them monday and see what they have to say. Will be interesting... I'm pretty sure there's more than one release of the game according to peoples experience. According to my friend who introduced me to SSI games, Champions and Curse are not buginfested like Pool. PoR on Amiga had a very difficult birth, and there was lots of time pressure to get it on the market. To their credit, all three games I've tried worked on my A3000. -Henrik ______________________________________________________________________________ | Henrik Clausen, Graffiti Data | If the Doors of Perception where cleansed, | | ...{pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax! | Man would see Reality as it is - Infinite. | \______cbmehq!adspdk!hclausen___|_________________________________W. Blake___/
lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu (wayne wallace) (01/16/91)
Add me to the list of unaffected. I fought the boars, et al, solved the game, all without a single crash. My system is a 2500/20 w/ 3 megs & 40M HD. Naturally I ran it off my hard drive. Maybe there are little idiosyncracies in certain amiga models that cause the crash ? Wayne