tj@anaconda.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R Johnson) (12/14/90)
Subtitle: Things the magazine reviews don't tell you. Anyone considering the purchase of Corporation (by Core Design Ltd.) should be aware of the following problems: 1. The game will not run in 68020 mode on my A2620 card. A3000 owners are out of luck with this one. It's probably because all those extra instructions on the 020 and 030 chips just really overload the machine and would make the animation too slow. And that FPU just takes too much power to leave any left for truly smooth scrolling. 2. The game does not multi-task. Big surprise huh? You must boot to start and boot when you are done playing. 3. The game is not hard disk installable. In fact, it has some kind of horrible disk protection that gronks the disk every so often. Because of 1, 2, and 3, a lot of people probably won't buy the game. Don't worry, though, Core won't get mad at you, they will just chalk up the lost sales to piracy. 4. Every time you initially load the game you must sit though a long intro. After you have seen this once, there is really no use viewing it again, but there is no way to skip over it. 5. You can save your game to a formatted disk, but the program does not have a format capability built-in. 6. A bug in the 3d routines sometimes lets you look through walls. 7. I've only played the game for a few hours and it has already crashed twice on restarts. 8. And speaking of restarts... When you die---and this happens a lot---you only have ten seconds to insert your saved game disk. If you don't get it in in time, the program makes you select and equip a new character. To get back to your saved game you either have to kill the new character or reboot, which is a lengthy process. 9. The building graphics are really poor. They could have at least done some texture mapping. When you are close to a wall you can't even tell if you moving---the viewport is just a solid gray wall. As for gameplay: for now I'll reserve judgement. The authors certainly don't know much about monotonicity---I just keep dying and dying. There is little guidance. It reminds me a lot of Drakkhen where all you do is die, die, die. ---Todd -- Todd R. Johnson tj@cis.ohio-state.edu Laboratory for AI Research The Ohio State University
levin@world.std.com (Levin F Magruder) (12/14/90)
In article <86769@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <tj@anaconda.cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: > > Subtitle: Things the magazine reviews don't tell you. > > Anyone considering the purchase of Corporation (by Core >Design Ltd.) should be aware of the following problems: > > 1. The game will not run in 68020 mode on my A2620 card. >[amusing speculation about why deleted] > 2. The game does not multi-task. . . > 3. The game is not hard disk installable. In fact, it has >some kind of horrible disk protection that gronks the disk every so often. > 4. Every time you initially load the game you must sit though >a long intro. . . . > 5. You can save your game to a formatted disk, but the program >does not have a format capability built-in. >. . . > 7. I've only played the game for a few hours and it has >already crashed twice on restarts. >. . . Points 3,4 and 7 bother me. I'm going to call Briwall today, and this was one of the games I was going to ask if they had, after having heard here that the game was good. Now, I'll hold on. I can't tolerate games that crash frequently, especially ones with long, non-bypassable intros. So, as has often been noted here, readers of net news don't care what programs I buy, software companies do. I suggest that when someone has a post of this nature, they include the software company's address and permission to reproduce the post, so that some like me can write them a letter saying: "I was going to buy Corporation, and then I saw this! Let me know if you address these problems, and maybe I'll buy the game at that time." I assume such a statement will be within the guidelines when this new comp.amiga.review group gets set up.
dvljhg@cs.umu.se (J|rgen Holmberg) (12/15/90)
In article <1990Dec14.151006.18864@world.std.com> levin@world.std.com (Levin F Magruder) writes: >In article <86769@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <tj@anaconda.cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >> >> Subtitle: Things the magazine reviews don't tell you. >> >> Anyone considering the purchase of Corporation (by Core >>Design Ltd.) should be aware of the following problems: >> >> 1. The game will not run in 68020 mode on my A2620 card. >>[amusing speculation about why deleted] >> 2. The game does not multi-task. . . >> 3. The game is not hard disk installable. In fact, it has >>some kind of horrible disk protection that gronks the disk every so often. >> 4. Every time you initially load the game you must sit though >>a long intro. . . . >> 5. You can save your game to a formatted disk, but the program >>does not have a format capability built-in. >>. . . >> 7. I've only played the game for a few hours and it has >>already crashed twice on restarts. >>. . . > >Points 3,4 and 7 bother me. I'm going to call Briwall today, and this was >one of the games I was going to ask if they had, after having heard here >that the game was good. Now, I'll hold on. I can't tolerate games >that crash frequently, especially ones with long, non-bypassable intros. > >So, as has often been noted here, readers of net news don't care what >programs I buy, software companies do. > >I suggest that when someone has a post of this nature, they include >the software company's address and permission to reproduce the post, >so that some like me can write them a letter saying: "I was going to >buy Corporation, and then I saw this! Let me know if you address these >problems, and maybe I'll buy the game at that time." > >I assume such a statement will be within the guidelines when this new >comp.amiga.review group gets set up. Since I never saw the intro when I played it there is a way to get straight to the game. There is also a way to load a saved game without killing your char. Sorry, I don't have the game anymore so I can't tell you exactly how it's done but I had to correct these obvious errors. /Jorgen -- ******************************************************************************* email dvljhg@cs.umu.se - other ways to communicate are a waste of time. Everything I say is always true, just apply it to the right reality. "Credo, quia absurdum est."
gilmore@macc.wisc.edu (12/16/90)
In article <86769@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, tj@anaconda.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R Johnson) writes... > 1. The game will not run in 68020 mode on my A2620 card. >A3000 owners are out of luck with this one. It's probably because all >those extra instructions on the 020 and 030 chips just really overload >the machine and would make the animation too slow. And that FPU just >takes too much power to leave any left for truly smooth scrolling. I understood all your reasons but this one. Are you saying that 020 and 030 chips are slower because they're more complex?
takeuch@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Travis L Takeuchi) (12/22/90)
In article <86769@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <tj@anaconda.cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: > > Subtitle: Things the magazine reviews don't tell you. > > Anyone considering the purchase of Corporation (by Core >Design Ltd.) should be aware of the following problems: > > 1. The game will not run in 68020 mode on my A2620 card. >A3000 owners are out of luck with this one. It's probably because all >those extra instructions on the 020 and 030 chips just really overload >the machine and would make the animation too slow. And that FPU just >takes too much power to leave any left for truly smooth scrolling. Well...I can see that being a minus. But this game was imported in from europe (need I say more?) . > 2. The game does not multi-task. Big surprise huh? You must >boot to start and boot when you are done playing. I don't see the big deal with that, I mean Dungeon Master does'nt and neither does it sequel. > > 3. The game is not hard disk installable. In fact, it has >some kind of horrible disk protection that gronks the disk every so often. I agree with you on this point, the copy protection is pretty bad. Not only that, the protection doesn't even work. > > Because of 1, 2, and 3, a lot of people probably won't buy the >game. Don't worry, though, Core won't get mad at you, they will just >chalk up the lost sales to piracy. > > 4. Every time you initially load the game you must sit though >a long intro. After you have seen this once, there is really no use >viewing it again, but there is no way to skip over it. You don't have to do that if you don't want to. Just boot from disk 2! > > 5. You can save your game to a formatted disk, but the program >does not have a format capability built-in. No problem! Just format a disk after or before you boot :-). > > 6. A bug in the 3d routines sometimes lets you look through walls. Hmmm... haven't noticed that yet but then I've only played a total of 3 or four hours. I'll have to look into that one > > 7. I've only played the game for a few hours and it has >already crashed twice on restarts. The game hasn't crashed on me yet but then again, I haven't played it extensively (I'm still playing Xenomorph: Good game, a few flaws, not as smooth a dungeon master but worth it nonetheless.). > > 8. And speaking of restarts... When you die---and this happens >a lot---you only have ten seconds to insert your saved game disk. If >you don't get it in in time, the program makes you select and equip a >new character. To get back to your saved game you either have to kill >the new character or reboot, which is a lengthy process. See the reply for point (4) or rebooting > > 9. The building graphics are really poor. They could have at >least done some texture mapping. When you are close to a wall you >can't even tell if you moving---the viewport is just a solid gray wall. You mean real-time texture mapping? Can they do that? Are there 3-D games out there that actually have texture mapping? I don't mean to sound facetious but I honestly don't know. > > As for gameplay: for now I'll reserve judgement. The authors >certainly don't know much about monotonicity---I just keep dying and >dying. There is little guidance. It reminds me a lot of Drakkhen >where all you do is die, die, die. The controls are a little difficult to discern but a quick read through the manual helps alot. Takes some getting used to. As for dying alot, that's true about Drakkhen, you certainly die alot before you get to level 7 or so (I got my characters up to level 24 and they were still dragon bait, especially in the desert.) > > ---Todd >-- >Todd R. Johnson >tj@cis.ohio-state.edu >Laboratory for AI Research >The Ohio State University -Trin Takeuch@ccu.umanitoba.ca