¢ADDING A MOUSE¢¢by Kevin Cooke¢¢Part 4¢¢ Well, I'm back again and this time with a review of none other than SPECIAL FORCES (OPERATION BLOOD II).¢¢ In case you haven't seen the first Operation Blood game, it was a clone of the arcade wargame Operation Wolf and succeeded quite well in recreating the fun and atmosphere of the original. Incidentally, a light-gun version of the game was also made available at a later date allowing even more control options.¢¢ So, what is Special Forces doing in my Adding a Mouse column? Well, as you should have guessed by now, it contains the option to play with not only a joystick but also an ST or Amiga mouse. So, on with the review...¢¢ Special Forces comes in a plastic sleeve of the sort which seems popular with game publishers nowadays. Inside of the sleeve is the red Special Forces disk, a brief but acceptable instruction sheet, and the inlay sheet.¢¢ The first thing to note is that all disk drive enhancements need to be shut down if Special Forces is to load. This, unfortunately, means that if you've upgraded your 1050 with a US Doubler, you won't be able to run the program as it can't be shut down! Copy protection on these games is obviously needed but a way which does not annoy US Doubler drive owners (like myself) really should be found - I had to swap my disk drives around to use this game.¢¢ Anyway, the game first loads a very impressive title screen. "SPECIAL FORCES" is printed at the top of the screen in large letters and a scrolling message is at the bottom of the screen. However, the most impressive part of this has to be the tank which drives from one side of the screen to the other, shooting at you on it's way! The graphics of the tank are excellent and animation is very smooth. From the title screen, you can choose which controller card to use before starting the game. A quick press of the relevant controller's fire button and the game loads.¢¢ When the game screen first scrolls into view, you will probably think "Ugh!" almost straight away. The colour scheme used gives only a few colours - everything seems to be in shades of yellow, brown and grey!¢¢ The men and vehicles in Special Forces are all well defined. Animation of the men is especially good and adds to the realism factor. The armoured vehicle in Operation Blood has been replaced in Special Forces with a jeep. Also, the original helicopter has been replaced with a plane. The programmers have even gone one step further and added moving boats as an extra enemy to attack. If it wasn't for the poor colour scheme, the graphics would probably be considered incredible for an 8-bit!¢¢ Whereas in the first game extra bullets, energy, etc. were lying on the floor, they now parachute from the sky. At first they seem very hard to shoot but you do find that it gets easier as you play for longer.¢¢ One thing which I haven't mentioned is that, as well as receiving energy (as in Operation Blood), you also receive a supply of lives. This makes the game quite a bit easier than Operation Blood but at the same time longer lasting and so more appealing.¢¢ As well as music on the title screen, there is also music between the levels. These tunes are well done and may even get you humming along occasionally.¢¢ Control of your gun sights is always very smooth allowing precision shooting. Gameplay is exciting and very addictive.¢¢ Unfortunately, the game is too easy when using a mouse. Whereas a joystick can only tell the computer a direction to move the sights, a mouse tells it the direction AND speed allowing the cursor to be moved more quickly and so more enemies to be shot. This does take some of the fun away - I completed it on my third or fourth go. However, on the last section you get a big surprise in the shape of.... well, lets just say something a little tougher to destroy than anything you get to meet beforehand!¢¢ Overall, Special Forces IS excellent, despite the ease in completing it with a mouse. If you own a joystick, don't hesitate to buy it and if you own a mouse... buy it anyway! Great fun and well worth the money.¢¢ Next time I'll take a look at the Multi-Mouse system.¢¢¢¢MOUSE TRIVIA¢¢ Does using a mouse make your wrist or lower-arm ache? Maybe you need a wrist rest, available from most computer shops. All this does is support your wrist to prevent it from being left in a bad position for any significant period of time. However, most wrist rests have a fairly steep price tag and so can only be considered a good purchase if you ever have problems with your wrist or lower-arm. Try before you buy may be a good recommendation!¢