Path: news.uh.edu!barrett From: teler@cs.huji.ac.il (Eyal Teler) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Four shareware games by Incinerplex Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games Date: 8 Nov 1994 15:51:45 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 382 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <39o6qh$sqg@masala.cc.uh.edu> Reply-To: teler@cs.huji.ac.il (Eyal Teler) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: games, missile command, checkers, auto racing, strategy, shareware Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu PRODUCT NAMES Incinerator Checkers Conquest Mangled Fenders Conundrum BRIEF DESCRIPTION Four shareware games by Pete W Storonskij - two arcade games and two thinking games. The reviewed versions are the unregistered games. A further review of the registered versions may follow in the future. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Incinerplex Games, Pete W Storonskij Address: 200 A Street Lincoln, NE 68502 USA E-mail: pws@cse.unl.edu The unregistered versions are available on Aminet: Incinerator game/shoot/Incinerator.lha Checkers Conquest game/think/Checkers.lha Mangled Fenders game/misc/MangledFendersDe.lha Conundrum game/think/Conundrum.lha LIST PRICE $10 (US), or the equivalent in any (relatively stable) currency. This price is for five games - the four mentioned, plus an improved version of Incinerator, Castle Incinerator, featuring different graphics. $10 is the latest offer, and earlier offers exist for the separate programs (some of them, at least), so registering just some of the games should be possible. Alternatively you can send a PD program you wrote yourself (shareware, freeware...). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Should work on any Amiga, although the documentation mentions incompatibility of Mangled Fenders with the A4000 and Enforcer (!!!). According to the programmer, this is a fault of the programming language, which could mean that the same holds for all the games. On the other hand, the documentation of Incinerator claims that it runs on the A3000, A1200, and any earlier models. Go figure. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 500, 1MB Chip RAM, 2MB Fast RAM Fujitsu 100MB SCSI hard disk in A590 1084 monitor Kickstart 1.2, Workbench 1.3, ARP INSTALLATION It's as easy as unpacking the archive into the directory of your choice. You can also drag the icons (two icons, plus the docs one, if you like) wherever you want, using the Workbench. After installation, you can run the games from either Workbench or from the CLI (shell, whatever...). OVERVIEW I'll give a short review of each game. Specific likes, dislikes and bugs will be given within each review, in addition to the sections at the end (after the four reviews), which address the four games together (you get them all together for $10, after all). I must admit that this review is only an initial impression, as I haven't played the games very long. However, the games are simple enough, so my views of the games will likely not change much even if I continue playing them. INCINERATOR Remember Missile Command? (Ah, the good old days...) This is a newer and a bit more sophisticated version. Both you and your enemy (the computer or another player) have cities, and both of you attempt to destroy each other's city, using the missiles at your disposal, and helicopters, which can cause mass destruction. On the defense side you have two laser canons, activated by the left and right mouse buttons, as well as a protective shield to the city, and a limited supply of super bombs (which destroy all the missiles on the screen). You alternate turns - one turn you defend the city, and the next you attack your enemy's city. There's a two player option, which apparently lets both players defend, then both attack. Unfortunately, I don't know if this is really the case, as the unregistered version stops the game after just two rounds (defense and attack for a single player, or defense and defense for two players). There are three difficulty levels, so if you destroy the incoming missiles too easily (and it's quite easy at the low level), you can move to a higher level. Graphics-wise, the game gives a 3D view, with the city in the foreground and hills in the background, behind which the missiles are being fired. The city is well drawn, but the missiles are just short yellow vectors (which is about the most you can expect from such small objects). The two player option seems to have a few glitches - both in the graphics, at the start of the round, and in the gameplay, as sometimes you just wait and no missiles are coming. CHECKERS CONQUEST You know Checkers? That's it. There are two players, either human or computer, and the computer player has four levels. The game itself has quite a lot of options, including the ability to take your moves back, to edit the board, to switch sides, and several other options, including the ability to select the design of the checkers. The lowest level is naturally quite easy. I haven't played the higher levels, so I can't comment on the difficulty. (Sorry, losing to an A500 just makes me feel so insecure. I can't face that. Either that or I'm a lazy reviewer. :-)) Graphically the game looks good - both the board and the checkers are well drawn. MANGLED FENDERS Crashing into cars, that's the name of the game. There are up to six cars, viewed from above, which crash into one another, and into the walls of the screen area in which they all roam, looking for prey, fighting the war of survival (ahem...). The opening screen displays the six cars. Each car can be controlled either by the computer, a player, or not play at all. Up to four people can play at the same time: two using joysticks, and two using the keyboard. If you like challenges, you can also control several cars by one player (they'll all move in the same way) - I'm not sure this was intentional on the part of the programmer, but it's there if you want it. There are power-ups which appear and can be picked up, and you also have money to buy extra features (cause more damage, etc.) or fix your car between rounds. You get more money at the end of each round, depending on how fast you were destroyed, compared to the other cars. Control is inertial, so you accelerate and decelerate in forward or reverse and turn left and right. I found it quite difficult to control the car. It's quite easy, for example, to get stuck in the side of the playing area without an easy way to get out, making you a sitting duck (it happens to the computer controlled cars, too, and you can take advantage of that). This is the game I enjoyed least. The graphics are OK, but not great; the control method is unwieldy; the collision detection is quite dodgy (cars should crash into each other, not over each other); and it's just not that enjoyable. The game may be more fun when played with a few more people, but frankly I didn't want to subject more people to this type of punishment (OK, so I may be exaggerating a bit). CONUNDRUM At last, a game which is not so easy to describe (damn, I have to think a bit). You have a set of hexagonal based tiles on the screen that you have to get rid of by using other tiles given to you randomly one after the other. Each tile has a number on it, and by putting another tile near it the two will negate each other. For example if you put a "5" tile near a "3" tile, you'll get a "2" tile and a grey tile, so you got rid of the "3" tile, and have a "2" tile to get rid of. Since a tile can touch up to six other tiles, it can negate several tiles at one time, thus a "5" tile put near a "3" and "2" will turn the three of them into grey tiles. As the game progresses, you get tiles with higher numbers that are more difficult to negate, of course. You also get limited in the number of levels you can negate. This starts from 6 at the lowest level. If, for example, you can negate only 2 levels, then putting a "5" near a "3" will result in a "3" and a "1", and putting a "5" near a "4", a "3" and a "2" will result in a grey tile (the "5"), a "2", a "1", and another "1" (or perhaps a "3", a "1" and a grey tile, depending on the order they are checked). On higher levels you also start with columns of grey tiles already lining the sides of the screen. Luckily you also get exploding tiles at these levels that can clear either a line of the screen (in several directions, depending on the tile), or an area around the hexagon where they are placed (which must be free, like any hexagon you put a tile on). Any numbered tile cleared by the explosion is replaced by a bonus fruit, which will give you extra points should you decide to put a numbered tile there. The game is over once you fill the board completely, without getting rid of all the numbered tiles. The exception to this rule are the bonus levels, which appear once every 10 levels from the 5th one. You can't lose the game in a bonus level. This is the game I enjoyed most. The graphics are simple but well drawn and effective, and the game itself is quite interesting. One down side is that while you can start from levels 1,10,20,...,100, you can't pick one of the really difficult levels to start with, which means that you have to start from 100 every time. I got to a bit over level 140, and I would have liked the option to try again the level I failed, instead of having to start again from level 100. This, plus the randomness in the game, really detracts from the level of strategy it could have possessed - the ability to play the same round over and over, trying to find a way to finish it. It's still quite interesting even so. There are a few minor bugs, like a bonus level which doesn't announce itself, but there's nothing which really affects gameplay. DOCUMENTATION Each game comes with a doc file, and an icon for the file (which wants 'c/muchmore' - this is not included in the archive). The documentation itself is probably the worst part of each of the programs. While it's easy to see the modesty (not) of the programmer, it's not easy to understand the game from the docs. In fact, it's sometimes just a case of running the game and trying things, because the docs sometimes don't even describe the basic controls. Another down point is that each paragraph is made of one line, meaning that words are being cut at the end of the line, unless you load the docs into a word processor, or use a reader with a word- wrap facility (can muchmore do that?). Other than that, I found it amusing to read the docs. The programmer does have a sense of humour, and his humility is something out of this world ;-). It's also nice to see how the price and offers changed during the past year (the price I mentioned above is the latest; prices for separate games are mentioned in some of the docs). To conclude - the docs are enjoyable, but really don't have much to do with the games themselves. Definitely the worst part of the games. I'll give the docs 2 stars out of 10. LIKES The graphics are perhaps the best part of the games. From the icons through the opening screens, and to the games themselves, the graphics range from quite good to very good. The games creator calls himself an artist, not a programmer, and it shows. There are no special graphical effects (such as a demo programmer could create), and the games were possibly programmed with AMOS, but the graphics are of high quality. One thing I especially liked in the graphics was PAL support. It's not that common in games, especially those written in the US. The games also work in NTSC, so everyone can be happy (well, perhaps not everyone - due to my primitive machine I couldn't test if the games could be mode-promoted). The fact that you can quit every game and return to Workbench is another plus. It's also very easy to install the programs anywhere you like (I ran them from the RAM disk), and to run them. Both arcade games have a cheat mode (I haven't tried to find how to activate it) that should appeal to gamers who like this kind of thing. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS What I disliked most was the documentation. It's simply worthless (except for a bit of amusement). Another dislike is that the games disable multitasking when run (one reason why I guessed they were written in AMOS). There are no other general dislikes I have with this game range, but you can see specific dislikes (relating to each individual game) in the reviews above. BUGS There are only very minor bugs, like the display glitch in Incinerator's two player mode. One common bug is that when I ran the games from the ARP shell, I got the message 'Unable to load ""'. The games run very well even though I get this message, and I see it only when I exit the game. VENDOR SUPPORT I haven't contacted the programmer. Actually, he has contacted me, to ask me to review his games. The impression I got from reading the docs is that he simply writes one game after the other (all the games were written over the past year), which probably means no new versions for older games. Then again, he did create a revised version (with new graphics) for Incinerator, so who knows... CONCLUSIONS I'll give a general rating out of 10 for the range, with specific comments about the specific games. Note that 10 means "The best I would expect". A checkers game may get a 9 for graphics, the same as a DOOM-like game, because I have different expectations from them (the nature of the graphics is naturally different). Also something like Lightwave for $10 would get 20 or so (out of 10) for Value for Money. That's why I also explain what I mean. Graphics 8-9 The graphics are quite good. In fact, they might deserve a better rating, considering that I gave 7 to War Wizard ;-). The one I liked best in this respect is Checkers Conquest, after that Incinerator, Mangled Fenders and Conundrum. Sound 0-4 Sound ranges from none to some minimal effects. Playability 9 (5 for Mangled Fenders) Most of the games are very easy to play, and you can quickly get into them. After a few games you even find out what the documentation forgot to mention. ;-) Addictiveness 7 The games are nice, but just don't have the depth of play or another gripping feature that will keep you awake at nights. In the case of Incinerator, this is mainly due to the limited nature of the demo. Lastability 7 Again, the limited nature of the Incinerator demo hurts here. Checkers Conquest is just not all that exciting in my opinion, and Mangled Fenders - well, you know what I think about it. Conundrum kept me playing for a few hours, and could keep me up for some more, but having to start from 100 each time will probably get on my nerves eventually. Luckily there seems to be a random element to the levels, which keeps the interest up. Value for money 9 Five games for $10 is what I consider value for money, especially considering the fact that they look good and are mostly enjoyable. I gave them just 9 because I still consider "Eye of the Beholder 2" for $15 better value for money (it was reviewed in c.s.a.reviews). Then again, the fact that you can register using any currency is a boon to players outside the US. Conclusion 8 It's a good selection of games, with good graphics and a varied gameplay. Being able to pay in any currency certainly encourages to register. I may be cheap and pay a little less than the full price, as I don't like all the games (besides, don't I deserve something for reviewing them at Pete's request? ;-) ), but the point is that I'll pay. I hope to see more games from Pete. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 Eyal Teler. All rights reserved. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews