dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Francis Heffernan) (12/03/90)
If anyone out there is considering Accolade's Star Control, GO FOR IT! The only bad parts are that a) it doesn't use the mouse or menus- it's all keyboard or joystick control, your choice which and b) I'm not sure if it will multitask- it takes up 800K to run and I've only got a meg, so I have to boot off its disk to play. The GOOD parts are a) halfbrite graphics (very nicely done), b) NO on-disk copy protection (code wheel ONCE when you start the game), c) supports ALL Amigas from 1000 to 3000 and d) hard drive installable (though I don't have a HD yet...sob.) Except for the fact that they left the IBM user interface intact, it's a very good port. I figure we spend enough time bitching about the bad ones that we should mention the good ones when they come along. ;-) The game itself is sort of like Archon in space; each of two sides has a variety of starships with various strengths and weaknesses, and each also has a special power- one ship can teleport, another has a cloaking device, another launches autonomous fighter craft, et cetera. You can play with one player or two in three modes: Practice (ship to ship combat), Melee (each side gets a fleet of ships and you square off) or Full Game (you battle each other on a star map, with strategic concerns like colonization, mining and ship production). Nine scenarios are provided for Full Game, with a scenario editor included so you can modify the provided ones or make entirely new ones. A keyboard editor lets you change the keyboard controls if you don't like the defaults. The heart of the game, starship combat, is like Asteroids/Space War. Newtonian movement (except for the Ariloulaleelay Skiff, which is a "UFO" with inertialess drive) with a planet in the center of the screen providing gravity effects. Each ship's weapons behave differently, from exploding crystal shards to homing plasma torpedoes to good old fashioned heat-seeking nuclear missiles (the Earth Cruiser uses MX-Surplus missiles, with SDI-surplus point-defense lasers...) Little asteroids float across the screen, just to get in the way and screw you up. It's a lot of fun, and well worth the thirty-someodd dollars I paid for it. 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
spierce@pnet01.cts.com (Stuart Pierce) (12/04/90)
Star Control is very fun, but I don't believe it has 64-color half-brite graphics. I did some screen snapshots and my picture viewer tells me they are 5 bitplane pics (32 colors). Stuart W. Pierce
dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Francis Heffernan) (12/05/90)
|MesgID: 6060@crash.cts.com | |Star Control is very fun, but I don't believe it has 64-color half-brite |graphics. I did some screen snapshots and my picture viewer tells me they are |5 bitplane pics (32 colors). | |Stuart W. Pierce a) I didn't think it'd be possible to get at it with a screen grabber... b) If that's only 32-colors, it's a damn good 32-colors... 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
yorkw@stable.ecn.purdue.edu (Willis F York) (12/06/90)
Well I got this Game It's COOOOOOOOL. Anyone want "technicial suggestions" to make the game work BETTER? 1) The program DOES NOT use ADDBUFFESR in the startup-sequence, Fix this. 2) Use FASTMEMFIRST (Edit S:startup-sequence) 3) USE FACCII with a HUGE (well Goodly sized) buffer and those disk acess's to disk 2 just dissiappere. THE game is REALLY KICKING on a 3000! I Mean it becomes a REAL arcade game. And using the GOOOD type monitor on the 3000 makes the colors look coool IT IS 32 COLORS! . -- yorkw@ecn.purdue.edu Willis F York ---------------------------------------------- Macintosh... Proof that a Person can use a Computer all day and still not know ANYTHING about computers.
ben@contact.uucp (Ben Eng) (12/11/90)
I have just purchased Star Control by Accolade. After glancing over the documentation, installing the game on my hard drive (1.3 MB disk space used), and load it up for about a 5 minute test drive, my very first impression is "duh... how do you play this game?" It looks like it is a lot more sophisticated than your standard shoot 'em up type game. There are several canned scenarios, and an editor is supplied to create new ones. Overall, it looks like this game is pretty solid. The user interface seems okay (user configurable; joystick or keyboard), the graphics are adequately done, and the documentation is well done (for a game). There is no disk-based copy protection, but includes a decoder wheel (the sucker is an annoyance, but it allows the game to load from hd). Maybe I'll follow up on this game if it is any good when I finish writing my exams. Ben -- Ben Eng | ben@contact.uucp (416)-431-3333 150 Beverley St. Apt #1L | Bix: jetpen Toronto, Ontario M5T 1Y6 | UofT Engineering Science: engb@ecf.toronto.edu _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_| Home: (416)-979-7885, (416)-979-8761
ztsindi@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Bill Gant) (12/17/90)
Posted for Clayton J. Miner...Text to Follow ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Todd G Vaarwerk | Bitnet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS | | State University of | Internet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU | | New York at Buffalo | VAARWERK@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU | |---------------------------------------------------------------| | Disclaimer: Believe what you want .. I trashed all my views of| | reality ages ago d8-) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- >It looks like it is a lot more sophisticated than your standard shoot >'em up type game. There are several canned scenarios, and an editor >is supplied to create new ones. Yup. It is definately more than justa shoot 'em up, although that aspect of it can be alot of fun if you and a friend are in a hurry. Definately take more time with this game as I think you will enjoy it alot. Some parts of the port are little lacking, but overall a great game. The best part is that the scenario editor is very easy to use, you can whip up a new scenario in less than 5 minutes. Just wish that there was a ship editor as well... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Wing Commander Skeksis - Reality Engineer | |---------------------------------------------------------------------| | Clayton J. Miner | Bitnet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS | | -------------------- | Internet: ZTSINDI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU | |---------------------------------------------------------------------| | The views of this post are not the views of this host organization. | | They ARE, however, the views of the SysOp of the Known World BBS. | | 300-1200-2400 bps, 24 hours mostly. A SkyLine BBS. | | (716)-883-3083 | -----------------------------------------------------------------------
colas@lemur.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo) (12/26/90)
In article <1990Dec23.224309.25283@isis.cs.du.edu>, bscott@isis.cs.du.edu (Ben Scott) writes: > A wonderful, terrific, fabulous game I played on a decked-out IBM a few > months ago and which is now out on the Amiga, better than ever. I tried it, and I was instantly transposed 10 years before on my apple II ... Obviously: "Try it before buying", not everyone have the same gaming criterions