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Der Mediaplex Sampler - Die 6 von Plex
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6_v_plex.zip
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DISK1
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GAMES_36
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4DBOX.ZIP
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4DBOX.IBM
Wrap
Text File
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1992-07-07
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3KB
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53 lines
4-D BOXING (IBM VERSION NOTES)
Life is filled with mysteries. There are classic questions that the great
philosophers have pondered throughout the ages: Why are we here? Is there
life after death? Is there really always room for Jello? Who's on first? Now,
to that illustrious list, we can add: What's the point of a software company
going to such great pains to make motion look realistic, and then taking
equally great pains to make the characters look so unrealistic? Mark my
words: Faces will be slapped, wars will be fought, lives will be lost over
this very issue. Case in point: 4-D BOXING "with Tru-Motion."
The IBM version of 4-D BOXING is supplied on four 5-1/4" diskettes, (3-1/2"
disks are available separately), complete with a setup program to configure
the game and install it on your hard disk. The game uses the manual copy
protection method; in this case, you match up an animated boxing figure
onscreen with a postage-stamp-size drawing in the 50-page manual.
The game can be played from the keyboard (which is perfectly adequate) or
with a joystick. Mouse support is provided, but only for the intermediate
scenes, not for the main action. There's a tiny bug involved with using the
mouse: When you select your opponent, you're supposed to tap on little on-
screen "arrows" to move the highlight bar over a boxer's name. Your impulse
might be to directly highlight the name of the guy you want to fight (I know
it was my impulse, anyway). All this did was to lock up my computer
completely. Erase all your basic instincts and tap on the little arrows,
okay?
4-D BOXING supports CGA, EGA, MCGA (16-color), and VGA (16-color). And how
good is Tru-Motion, "the most fluid, lifelike sports animation ever?" Pretty
darn good. Movement on the upper body, the arms, the head, are all extremely
realistic. The fighters' feet seem to glide across the ring, which is almost
comical as they move toward each other. Outside of that, the action looks as
right as I've ever seen it, considering that the fighters all look like angry
Legos.
There's sound board support for the AdLib, Roland, and Sound Blaster cards,
and if you own one of those, you're in for a treat. On my Sound Blaster, the
music was terrific, kind of a big-band/hip-hop groove thang complete with
digitized voices and instruments. There's digitized speech from the ring
announcer, and digitized sound effects throughout.
Okay, so I've told you that the action looks good, the sound is hot, the
fighters look goofy. What have I left out? The name. 4-D BOXING. The
fourth dimension is time, no? So the name makes you think of time-travel
(well, it makes _me_ think of time travel). 4-D BOXING has a lot of features,
but time travel ain't one of them. Why? I don't know. Third base.
4-D BOXING is published and distributed by Electronic Arts.
IBM Version Notes are copyright (c) 1992 by Steve Schechter. All rights
reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.