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Games World

David Bradforth on games.

News

Since we last had a Games World within the magazine, the Wakefield Show has come and gone; the normally quiet summer season has remained pretty much so and there are still very few signs of life in the RISC OS gaming market. Despite this, there have been a small number of news items; what follows are summaries of only items we have had confirmed as true: RISC World will no longer be publishing any gaming reviews/features unless we believe the product(s) will be released.

Eternal Destiny for under a tenner!

Rob Templeman began work on Eternal Destiny, the first-person shoot-em-up, over five years ago. When the title was finally released on CD-ROM, in early 1999, it's publishers Tau Press Ltd clearly thought they'd be onto a sure-fire winner. However although it is a very good game it isn't quite Quake and at it's price tag of £35 it was just a bit too expensive.

All of that has now changed. Advertised in recent issues of Acorn User, Destiny is now available for £10 to non-subscribers, or £8 to subscribers. At this price, it's certainly a bargain and well worth buying at once.

For further information, please contact Tau Press Ltd on +44(0)161 429 8902.

New game from Paradise

As Andy announced in his last column, Paradise - the creators of the superb Burn 'Out amongst other titles - were at Wakefield, but he was unsure as of what they'd be doing.

The answer is releasing a new games title: Overload. Overload is a fast, frantic arcade shoot-em-up! Powerful, varied weapons must be used to complete a series of missions over the action packed scrolling levels.

Whilst travelling through a small planetary cluster, you receive an urgent distress message. Intelligent life does exist in this system! You quickly despatch your explorer craft and set down on the first of the planets. Gameplay takes place over a number of areas over the different planets of the system. Your task - to rescue the beings of the worlds and destroy the invading alien craft! Along the way, you will encounter more fearsome invaders - only by learning how to use your varied weapons will you stand a chance!

Available is a free demonstration, which we've placed onto this month's disc to save you some download time. We at RISC World like demos: try before you buy works for me every time!

In addition to the demonstration's features, the game contains:

• Over 20 frantic action packed levels
• 5 graphically varied planets, increasing in difficulty
• much larger and more intense levels
• more varied enemy invaders, planetary beings, and scenery
• full access to all of the weapon systems - Lazers, rockets, and bombs!
• password access to all planets
• hidden bonus features, cheats, and levels
• a stunning end of game surprise!

If after playing the demo you're hooked and wish to buy it, send a cheque/postal order for £12·99 (made payable to 'Paradise Group' at Paradise, 38 Marlborough Drive, Sydenham, Leamington Spa, Warks CV31 1GD.

R-Comp Summer Specials

R-Comp Interactive is pleased to announce two Summer 2000 special offers!

For the month of August, we are offering two very special deals for anyone in the mood for fun! That's right - great game bargains for the holidays! And its never too early to stock up for Christmas either!

• Buy one game, get a second half price.
• Buy two games, get a third FREE!

Please note that in each case you pay for the higher priced item(s), and get the cheapest one half price/free. There will be no extra for carriage in UK, but there will of course need to be extra for carriage overseas according to weight, as always.

You can find details of all the games including those by Artex and ProAction from our website. If you have any doubts about suitability for use on your machine please either email or ring us before ordering.

If you'd like to order over the phone, give us a call on 01925 755043. Otherwise, you can fax/email your order, or order online at http://www.rcomp.co.uk/

This offer ends strictly on August 31st, so make sure you don't miss out! Yes, I'm aware that we've passed August 31st: I have, however, convinced R-Comp Interactive to extend this offer to RISC World subscribers for exactly two weeks following the publication of this issue!

New Games Editor for RISC World

Oh yes - that's one thing I haven't done yet - introduce myself! My experience is indeed cross-format PC, Macintosh and Acorn which gives me the ability to see the good bits and bad bits between each market. Over the coming issues of RISC World, you may on occasion notice some things which have grabbed my attention during the writing period for this column.

If it's relevant it may appear; if it's not it may appear - it depends largely upon my feelings at the time. Should some of this material seem familiar to former Archimedes World readers: Dafyd McFlanders was a pen name I chose to write that column. It is no longer appropriate in the current climate, and I'd rather put my full name against articles anyway.

If you have any queries relating to the games market, any news, hints and tips or review submissions you can contact me by post c/o the RISC World office, or by email to gaming@riscworld.com. I shall use your suggestions to shape this column into that requested by most.

Previews and Reviews

My brief for the preview section is very much the same as for everything else: unless I'm convinced as to the imminent availability of a product, I'm not likely to include it in the column under any circumstances. Over the past few years, the RISC OS market has suffered a number of major knockbacks in terms of titles announced, but later cancelled.

One such example was The Chaos Engine, pretty much finished in 1994 but cancelled by its publishers Renegade due to poor returns on previous games titles. This was, however, picked up later in the day by R-Comp Interactive and has recently been released.

We will be bringing you a full review of Chaos Engine next issue, but this month we are looking at the TBA Games CD.

Budget Reviews

A new regular section to cover the popular trend of cheap software, this month we dig into the archives of The Fourth Dimension, with a selection of reviews originally published in Archimedes World. You are most welcome to submit your own nostalgia reviews for inclusion in this section: postal submissions will be the most useful, and we'll contact anybody we wish to use.

Company Contacts

A compiled list of addresses, phone numbers, e-mail and URLs for all the developers and publishers on the RISC OS gaming scene. We have taken the liberty this month to update the list to have more relevance to the gaming market, with details of what each company offers to the market. We've also added a number of further contacts, which should assist anybody hunting down those elusive games.