AMOS PD CD/amospdcd.iso/totallyamos/issue4.dms/issue4.adf/reviews/4.seq

Text File | 1992-03-10 | 9KB | 184 lines

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^3                  R E A D E R S '   R E V I E W S .

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^1 Some of the following programs have been reviewed in previous issues
^1of  Totally Amos, but we did invite you to send in your views on Amos
^1programs, Rick has taken us up on our offer.

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^6            AMOS Public Domain reviewed by Rick Corbett.


^7                       Save The Trees (APD343)

^5 This  program  starts  with  a  plea  from  Thirsk  School  in North
^5Yorkshire to help with their tree distribution project to improve the
^5environment before moving on to the game.

^5 Save  The Trees, by Mark Potter, is a "green" game in which you, the
^5driver  of  a  bulldozer,  have to protect a number of trees from the
^5unwelcome  attention of a group of woodcutters intent on denuding the
^5landscape.   All  very  admirable  and  ecologically sound up to this
^5point.

^5 However,  you  don't climb out of your bulldozer and try to convince
^5them  of the error of their ways.  No Sirree!  You mow them down with
^5the  blade  of  your  'dozer.  Hmmm!  A bit less public-spirited now,
^5isn't it!

^5 The  woodcutters  are  quite  nimble little folk so to help you out,
^5your  'dozer  is also equipped with missiles - must be a little known
^5factory  option  from JCB.  If you splatter all the poor unfortunates
^5in  level  I then their mates retaliate by charging again.  This time
^5they  enlist  the help of their own mechanised vehicles - can't say I
^5blame  them  really  - which can blow up your 'dozer if they run into
^5you.   Once  more they all advance on the trees......  and so it goes
^5on  with  more  and  more  trees,  woodcutters and their vehicles per
^5level.

^5 Each  level shows the number of trees remaining and your score based
^5on  how  many "splats" you've accomplished - it makes Rambo seem like
^5Mary  Poppins.   Collision  detection  is  good  and the graphics are
^5alright,  not  brilliant,  although  the woodcutter sprites are quite
^5small.   The  Jan  Hammer backing music is quite jolly (!) and can be
^5switched to and from sound effects (yech!).

^5 I  suppose  this game will appeal to quite a lot of kids but I can't
^5help  thinking  that  zapping aliens is a little less personal.  (No,
^5I'm not a woodcutter!)

^5 Still, it's all in a good cause, 'innit!.  If you run out of 'dozers
^5the  "green"  theme  suddenly  returns  with  a  message  that  reads
^5"Disaster  - the destruction of the trees leads to the destruction of
^5the  atmosphere.....   The  human  race  becomes  extinct....Life  is
^5reduced  to  single cell organisms....  It takes millions of years to
^5restore  the  balance."  Makes you think, doesn't it!  (I feel a song
^5coming  on...Yes,  it's  a Gilbert and Sullivan opera chorus - bit of
^5culture   creeping   in   here....    All  together  now..."Ohhhh...A
^5woodcutter's lot is not a happy one".)

^6                           Shapes (APD237)

^5 I  like this game....  not a murder in sight.  Shapes was written by
^5Mike  Archer  as DiscWare - he requests you send him a PD disk if you
^5like it otherwise future programs will be released as Licenseware.

^5 The  game features one of the most colourful screens I have seen and
^5challenges  you  to  fit various numbers of odd shaped blocks into an
^5even odder shaped outline - sort of like Tetris without the fally bit
^5- all within a time limit.  If successful, a password is provided for
^5the  next  level.   It's a simple concept but very difficult to play.
^5The backing music is excellent but quirky and features mostly nursery
^5hits set to an upbeat tempo.  Nice one!

^6                  Silver Bars & The Enemy (APD315)

^5 Anyone  remember "Hunchback" in the arcades, later implemented on so
^5many  machines?   Silver Bars & The Enemy, by Andreas Andreou, is the
^5first clone I have seen on the Amiga.

^5 If  you've  never  had the pleasure of playing the original then the
^5instructions  are  simple  -  get  from the left of the screen to the
^5right where the silver bar is.

^5 This would be easy were it not for the cannonballs that roll towards
^5you,  the  holes  you have to jump and the arrows overhead which just
^5happen  to appear when you need to jump.  Just to make life even more
^5difficult, there is a time limit on every level which is indicated by
^5the silver bar gradually fading away.

^5 Luckily,  by pressing "P", you can pause for breath.  I'm assured by
^5the  author  that  there  are 40 levels to complete.  Somehow I doubt
^5I'll  ever  reach  the end - I can only reach level 6 at the moment -
^5but  it will not be for lack of trying.  This game has that wonderful
^5"Oops  -  that  was  silly,  I'll just have another quick go" factor.
^5It's  certainly  not  the  most graphically impressive game I've seen
^5recently but it sure is addictive.

^5 Also  on  the disc are screenshots of two other games the author has
^5written.  These can be viewed by pressing either number 1 or 2 on the
^5second page of the title section of the game.

^6           Understanding AMOS and Bobalizer V1.4 (APD151)

^5 The  title  of Understanding AMOS is a bit misleading.  Instead of a
^5comprehensive guide, it's a single tutorial about the use of "screen"
^5commands.   It's  well  thought  out,  occasionally humorous and much
^5better than the manual for explaining how to get started with what is
^5perhaps the most important set of commands in AMOS.  There are plenty
^5of  examples  and  demonstrations with options to re-read sections if
^5required.   It would be nice if Steve Bennett, the author, built upon
^5this  and  wrote  a  series,  perhaps  sponsored  by  Europress,  the
^5publishers of AMOS.

^5 Bobalizer  is  an  AMOS  music bank player written by Mark Venn.  It
^5lets  you  load your AMOS music banks into it and play them.  You can
^5also  fiddle with the volume and tempo of the music or turn the audio
^5filter  on  and  off.  Four "bobs" - blitter objects - bounce in time
^5with  each channel of the music.  All very simple really!  The author
^5admits  there  are a couple of bugs in his program and describes them
^5in the instructions that are included.

^6                      Boucher's Games (APD301)

^5 This  one's  a bit of a misnomer really.  There ARE two games on the
^5disc,  Defender and Snake!  but also 3 utilities, AFP, AMOS Text v1.2
^5and Ghettoblaster.

^5 Defender  is  a marvellous adaptation of "Missile Command" where the
^5crosshairs  of your mouse-controlled laser cannon must be lined up on
^5the  bomb-dropping  alien  spacecraft  which  zig-zag  above  a  city
^5enclosed  by a dome.  An occasional smart bomb appears which, if shot
^5at  quickly  enough,  can  be used to destroy the remaining attackers
^5before  their bombs penetrate the dome and cause a nuclear holocaust.
^5Using  the  lazer  too  much makes it overheat so you can't just fire
^5haphazardly  hoping  to  get lucky.  It's fast and furious action all
^5the way with great sound effects as well.

^5 Snake!   is  a  joystick-controlled  "Caterpillar" clone which shows
^5time bombs instead of the original mushrooms.  The snake's tail grows
^5longer  each  time it "eats" a bomb.  If you don't reach the bombs in
^5time,  they  explode leaving a lethal craters.  Running into your own
^5tail or touching the sides of the action area are also lethal.

^5 My only gripe was that it did not appear to be possible to quit back
^5to  the  Workbench.   There's not much more I can say about it except
^5that  it's good, it's fast and it's furious.  P.S.  I discovered that
^5I  could cheat by holding any of the keyboard keys down - this slowed
^5the  game  down  to a more playable speed - but I'm not going to tell
^5you this.

^5 Two  of  the  utilities  are for ASCII files.  The first, AFP (ASCII
^5File  Printer)  formats  and  prints  them using Pica or Elite and an
^5Epson compatible printer.  The second, AMOS Text, lets you read them.
^5Neither  are  graphically stunning - they don't need to be - but they
^5are simple and effective.

^5 The last program, Ghettoblaster, is an AMOS music player designed to
^5look  like  a  ......guess!   A screenshot appears of a ghettoblaster
^5complete  with aerial, speakers, tuner and cassette deck with digital
^5tape  counter.   When  a  "tape"  is  loaded  from disc, the cassette
^5buttons  are  automatically  operated  and  the cassette spools start
^5revolving,   the  tape  counter  starts  and  playback  begins  while
^5multi-coloured  rainbow  bars  for  each channel flash in time to the
^5beat.

^5 It  looks  good and sounds amazing even through a monitor, even more
^5so  when  it's  hooked  up to a hi-fi system.  Only three "tapes" are
^5supplied but instructions are included for adding more.

^5 Boucher's  Games  is  an  excellent collection of programs, all with
^5.doc files, and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

^2 CAUTION  -  This disc is so full that if you save your high score to
^2disc  in  Defender  it  is  written  over  the  Disc-Validator  in L:
^2directory.  This is yet another Public Service Announcement.

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