elf@sumax.seattleu.edu (Elf Sternberg) (01/06/91)
Either I am incredibly unlucky, or I've got a major complaint about PowerMonger. I am now on my third (yes, Third) copy of PowerMonger, having returned the other two to the point of purchase. I have a base Amiga 2000 with one external drive and NOTHING ELSE; my diagnostic routines report full-power on all the chips, memoryis fine, and I just had the drives cleaned. It takes four or five re-boots to get PowerMonger to get past the Scenario selection screen. I have had the program freeze up on me several times. Sometimes, the program freezes up for up to thirty seconds before recovering. The fact that you input your name at the beginning of the game and yet load other names from saved games; the fact that the name routine does not always apply to you (or else your wife is sleeping with someone else while you're out conquering the world), and the entire saved-game routine itself, lead me to beleive that certain portions of this game were not well tested. It may be that the disk uses that special Non-Standard dos to squeeze an additional couple of KiloBytes out of the drive because the program is so big that they need that space, and the drive is being pushed to and sometimes beyond it's limit. I surmise that Bullfrog was coming up close to their contractually promised Christmas release date and rushed PowerMonger into production before testing was really over. However, I love the game. If you think it's too complicated, go play Pac-Man. As a wargamer since 1976, I've loved wargames on almost any scale, and PowerMonger has some utterly fascinating strategies. And the realtime aspects are perfect. All in all, I am impressed with Bullfrog's vision, and their programming talents. I just wish they'd taken a little more time, and a little more thought. _________________________________________________sig 39________________ Elf Sternberg | Nuke: To destroy, obliterate, demolish, wipe out, elf@halcyon.wa.com | mung, hash into little bits, waste, screw up, or ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| make FUBAR, by means of atomic weapons, or with a | computer. | - Amiga Reference Manual Libraries and Devices ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~