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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~