Well, the name of the foot of the intro screen should be a dead
giveaway to any true Amiga Games player. Edgar M Vigdal!! The
programmer responsible for that shoot fest known as Deluxe Galaga!! Edgar returns with WarBlade .... better known as Deluxe Galaga. The P.C. beta version is now available for download at his site. http://www.warblade.as/index.html Why he changed the name I've no idea, maybe to distinguish between
the two or because he has new ideas with this version of the
game. Whatever!! This version of the game requires DirectX ver.7 or better to run. As
it's an early beta, Edgar warns on the page that there are parts not
working yet. The beta I downloaded was Beta 3 and it comes in a Zip file. The
file is approx. 4.6mb, so it's quite a bit larger than the original
version on Amiga. Unzip the archive and you are left with the parent
directory and sub directories called Data, Gfx and Samples. Simply
click on the Warblade exe to start the game. The game has very few options yet. First thing you notice. The game looks absolutely tremendous!!! It
is so much bigger and more colourful now. I've included a few screen dumps to show what I mean, but you really
have to play the game to get the full effect. Edgar has locked this
beta at 70hz, but it flies. This beta only has 5 levels released but
the full version should include a level editor. All the familiar
parts of Deluxe Galaga are there, albeit in more colourful aspect.
The explosions are gorgeous and wait till you see the Saucer if you
are slow in finishing a level! Oh wait, didn't I include a picture
of that? All the best graphics in the World can't compensate for a lack of
gameplay, but then again, Edgar hasn't been guilty of that in the
past and this is no exception to his previous outings. The gameplay
rocks!! It might only be a Beta but if the finished game plays anything like
as well, I'll be very happy. I was used to getting to Admiral rank
in Galaga and having millions of points, in this version I'm lucky to
get to level 5. In the old Galaga, I was used to getting a good gun,
then waiting for the Money ship .. I haven't even seen the Money ship
yet. But it ain't going to beat me, I whupped its ass before and I'm
damned if I won't this time All the old favourites are there, including the Meteor Storm, the
Shop, the Match Pairs game etc. So far I haven't seen the Money
Sucker, but I'm sure it will appear sooner rather than later. Amiga users would recognise this game with no trouble. My other big
difference is using the keyboard instead of a joystick. As expected, the game is nowhere near finished yet, but hopefully
soon, it will be. And then, of course, it will be reach in the
pocket and pay the guy again. Maybe he'll give a discount to Amiga users who paid the shareware the
last time? Anyway, I look forward to it. So if you own a P.C. and you miss the
rush of playing Galaga (since its mentioned on the UAE notes as
having problems with sprites), fret no more. Download this version
and give it a go. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!!