coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) (12/21/90)
In the deep dark distant past, I asked people to send me reviews
of Amiga wargames, so that I could gather together in a single place
information that might be useful. I received a fair number
of responses, but then my thesis interceded and so the information
sat and collected dust. Having recently found myself with a bit
of spare time, I decided to return to the project and the results
follow.
I have noticed that a fair number of new wargames for the Amiga have
appeared recently, so if you have new reviews please send them in to
me and I will add them on to the list. Periodically I will repost
the list.
Terry Coatta (coatta@cs.ubc.ca)
Dept. of Computer Science, UBC, Vancouver BC, Canada
`What I lack in intelligence, I more than compensate for with stupidity'
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Amiga Wargames Information
**************************************************************************
Product: Kampfgruppe
Manufacturer: SSI
solitaire/two player, well Amiga-ized (much more playable than the 8-bit
versions, fairly fast, manual look-up protection, multitasks
Tim Trant <tim@power.ele.toronto.edu>
Good tactical level WWII armour game. Will install on a hard disk
although the manuals don't tell you how (I think I had to actually
use FileZap to edit the executable and remove references to ``df0:'').
Good graphics and sound. The user interface is acceptable, but
non-intuitive in some respects. I would prefer a more standard
Amiga style interface. I have version 1.4 of the game and there are
bugs. The saved game file requester chops the first letter off of
every file name displayed (quality control?) and there is a tendency
in large battles for 1 or 2 units to go beserk and start wandering
around the battlefield in a random fashion (this is a feature maybe?).
The map editting mode is nice, but it is difficult to create completely
new maps due to lack of features (no flood fill with a certain terrain
type for example).
Terry Coatta <coatta@cs.ubc.ca>
Kampgruppe isnt bad but very old (ported by the same guy who did the
2 civil wargames.
Robert Lindsay <robert@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu>
==========================================================================
Product: Gettysburg
Manufacturer: SSI
Solitaire/two player, well Amiga-ized (much more playable than the 8-bit
versions, fairly fast, manual look-up protection, multitasks
Tim Trant <tim@power.ele.toronto.edu>
I've played a lot of them. SSI two civil war games Gettysburg and Chickmauga
had some bug but were fairly good and ported by a dedicated amigan who rewrote
the originals from BASIC to C and added mouse support.
Robert Lindsay <robert@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu>
=========================================================================
Product: Reach for the Stars
Manufacturer: SSG
"build an empire" space game. solitaire -> 4 player, unprotected,
multi-tasks, OK speed, good opponents, lots of rule variations
(what I really want to see is _Carriers at War_, updated and as
friendly & capable as RFTS is)
Tim Trant <tim@power.ele.toronto.edu>
========================================================================
Product: Waterloo
Manufacturer: SSI
European imports. ST/IBM ports, slow, no sound, disk protected, takes
over machine, one or two players, quite interesting game ideas but it
wasn't worth the hassle. same designers have produced _Austerlitz_, _
Borodino_, & _Armada_
Tim Trant <tim@power.ele.toronto.edu>
=======================================================================
Product: White Death
Manufacturer: Command Simulations
I purchased White Death from Command Simulations several months ago and I
have not been pleased with the product. First, the game demands that you
not run Workbench so it can use most of the chip mem. Second, the game
will crash reliably if you, playing the Russian side, skip your turn until
the Germans attack one of your units. Third, the user interface is very
awkward i.e. flipping views back and forth to see if a unit can be placed
on a particular hex, etc... Also, the documentation is confusing for the
novice wargamer.
Will Fiveash <emx.utexas.edu!waf2000!will@uunet.uucp>
<...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!waf2000!will>
Command Simulation 2 games Blitzkrieg at the Ardennes and White death are
pretty good and they are the only wargame company to have a toll-free help
line 1-800-242-1942.
Robert Lindsay <robert@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu>
=======================================================================
Product: Universal Military Simulator
Manufacturer: Intergalactic Development Incorporated/RainBird Software
Pretty good, although the computer intelligence could be better. Is
supposed to allow for any time period, but it really only good for World
War I and before (it stinks for long-range fire and vehicles). If you like
"classical" wargames (maneuver & melee), you'll be happy. Oh yeah, has a
map/army/scenario builder and 2 data disks. HD installable.
Gregory Stelmack <stelmack@sunrise.ec.usf.edu>
======================================================================
Product: Empire
Manufacturer: Public Domain Software
Awesome!!! Up to 48 players vie for control of a world. Note that
I refer to the PD version here. Requires one person to sort of relinquish
control of his machine if more than 4 or 5 play (BBS style), but it is worth
it. This one has been in the UNIX area for a while and has come a long way.
No graphics, but good strategy/limited intelligence. Very involved. HD
installable.
Gregory Stelmack <stelmack@sunrise.ec.usf.edu>
======================================================================
Product: Red Lightning
Manufacturer: SSI
Pretty good, with acceptable AI (although 2 players would be better).
WWIII in Europe, NATO vs. Warsaw Pact. HD installable.
Gregory Stelmack <stelmack@sunrise.ec.usf.edu>
Red Lightning is just a straight IBM port : ugly graphics and interface.
Robert Lindsay <robert@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu>
Red Lightning was a little slow in moving as compute (but there is
alot to move). Graphics we're as good as you need for a wargame,but
screen scrolling was alittle awkward. Their was no way to move the
screen once a unit was selected,unless you unselected it. The game
had multiple levels of skill on the computer side and several variants
depicting how much forwarning of the war there was. These options I
liked greatly. The computer could also controll the special forces and
air war for you if you wanted to concentrate on the land battle only.
The troops we're broken down to equipment by nationality,and each pice
of equipment was rated indivualy,no generic rateing.This I liked the most.
<motcid!marble!dusek@uunet.UU.NET>
======================================================================
Product: F-16 Combat Pilot
Manufacturer: ?
More a flight simulator, but it the first with squadron tactics. It's
nice to have some fellow pilots up there. Lots of strategy to go with the
Arcade. Floppy only.
Gregory Stelmack <stelmack@sunrise.ec.usf.edu>
======================================================================
Product: North & South:
Manufacturer: Data East
Too much time not doing much of anything. No ability to just wait,
and suffers from being too easy.
Gregory Stelmack <stelmack@sunrise.ec.usf.edu>
Another one that's really slick. Although the boards is rather limited
(american Civil war theater), the game is still fun although usually very
short.
J. Stelly <wakres01@pa.usl.edu>
======================================================================
Product: Empire
Manufacturer: Interstel
I was skeptical when it said, "Once you start, you can't stop!"
Well they were right! Whether it's against the computer, or 1 or 2
opponents, the game is tremendously enjoyable!
Joseph Chung <joechung@ocf.berkeley.edu>
I have played Empire and find it to be a fantastic game of
strategy. The computer opponents are not that good, but the handicapping
system can compensate for that - and human opponents are more fun anyway.
J. Stelly <wakres01@pa.usl.edu>
Hard drive installable and has manual-look-up-the-word protection. You
can have up to three players (human or computer) and can select their
difficulty (standard/expert). It also has a play by mail option as well.
The objective of the game is to build up an Army and crush your opponent
(or accept his surrender when he offers it :-) You go about doing this
by moving about the landscape conquering cities and expanding your domain.
The world around you is all dark an unexplored so as you move around, more
of the landscape will be revealed to you. With cities you can produce
armies, fighters, troop transports, destroyers cruisers, aircraft carriers,
submarines and battleships. Only armies can conquer a city and you need
troop transports to carry them over water to other landmasses (hence
the need for a strong naval support at times). The game comes with
several landscapes already made and also has an editor so you can make
your own. You can also make this game as easy or as hard as you want by
adjusting the production rate and combat efficiency. By increasing or
decreasing production, that controls how fast you crank things out of the
cities. With combat efficiency, the lower it is the harder it is for one of
your pieces to conquor another piece. If you make things difficult, a game
of Empire can last for hours, even days. I'd definitely recommend this
game. Make sure you get the latest version, 2.05 I believe.
David Poland <2FLNTOPAZ@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
======================================================================
Product: Storm Across Europe
Manufacturer: SSI
There is a bug in the amphibious assault portion of the game, which
results in a lock-up when you try to do an amphib attack with a very small
number of troops. This bug has been fixed: look at the version number which
appears when the game starts up, and if it says "1.0", you have the older
version - contact SST tech support for the upgrade to 1.1. The game does not
appear to operate correctly under AmigaDOS 2.0 on an A3000. This bug has
NOT been fixed as yet (although investigation is under way). The only
solution at this time is to run the game only under 1.3, where it appears
to operate correctly. With a little luck, I'll have this one whipped
before 2.0 goes into ROMs.
Mike Farren <farren@well.sf.ca.us>
======================================================================
Product: Operation COM*BAT
Manufacturer: ?
Not a simulation of anything in particular, just a tactical
tank battle game with simple rules and user interface. Each player, which
can include the computer, or a modem player, controls a force of approximately
20 armoured vehicles and must defeat the other player by destroying the
enemy's headquarters.
There are four types of combat units: heavy armour, light armour, heavy
artillery and light artillery, plus supply trucks for re-supplying the combat
units with fuel and ammunition. Each type of unit has characteristics of
movement range, gun range, attack strength, fuel and ammunition capacities and
defense strength. The units are moved by selecting a unit with the mouse and
then a destination. Units fire by selecting the unit, then a direction (one
of eight) to fire. When an enemy unit is hit, it sustains damage equivalent
to the attack strength of the attacker, and is destroyed when its defense
stength is reduced to zero. Units also can run out of fuel and ammunition,
so you have to pay attention to their supply status and get the supply
trucks to them in time.
There are six different maps to choose from: Rocky Canyon, Jungle Ruins,
Desert Dunes, River Meadow, Marshland Bog, and Archipelagos. Each is 32
squares horizontally by 20 vertically and presents a different tactical
situation. There are also four different unit mixtures to choose from as well
as other options, such as to use air support, to allow units to shoot twice,
and whether or not to allow terrain to block fire.
The game display is split horizontally, with the top half a perspective display
in lo-res of the units and terrain, and the lower half a med-res control panel
showing a map grid, control buttons, and the statistics of the selected unit.
This split works pretty well, but makes vertical and diagonal movement
difficult (but not for the computer player!) because you have to point to your
destination and the game always centers the selected unit in the play area.
That's not much of a strike against the game, but it can be frustrating to
watch the computer make moves that you cannot. Each player's turn is timed
as well, so I ran out of time trying to decide what to do. This never happens
to the computer player. Fortunately, you can increase the time limit for the
turn.
So far, I've only played against the computer, and it has beaten me five games
out of six (with the computer playing at novice level). I would recommend
this game to anyone who wants a strategy game with simple rules, fast play,
and the capability to run on two machines over a phone or null modem.
Edgar LeBel <edgar@csri.utoronto.ca>
===========================================================================
Product: Fire Brigade
Manufacturer: ?
Rating: Terrible. I played this game for a week about a year ago before
giving up in frustration. The user interface is terrible. It is
unresponsive and prone to crash the game if you do things like click
too fast, before it's finished redrawing the screen. If you could get
past the user interface, the game system looked moderately interesting,
but I didn't get past the UI. I sent in my registration card with details
of some of the bugs and have not hear anything back about any upgrades,
etc., so the game has remained in its box for a long time...
Jeff Kelley <idacom!jeffk@uunet.UU.NET>
===========================================================================
Product: Second Front
Manufacturer: ?
Rating: Very good. I bought this game 10 days ago and have played it
a LOT! The user interface is acceptable, though a tad unresponsive
at times. Some simple mistakes (like selecting an empty hex, then
"March Mode") will cause the game to lock up, but they are easily
avoidable if you're careful. The game system is excellent. The
scope of the game and the choices you can make (like what kinds of
tanks to produce, whether to strip troops from Africa or France to
go East, etc.) make it a lot of fun. The computer opponent, unfortunately,
is not smart enough to challenge a competent human playing either
the Germans or the Russians. The game uses "look up word in manual"
copy protection, not disk-based copy protection.
Jeff Kelley <idacom!jeffk@uunet.UU.NET>
===========================================================================