Amiga Mag HDD Backup/Amiga Mag HDD Backup.zip/Amiga Mag HDD Backup/Alexander.img.bin/Alexander.img/Infinit40/zeewolf/Zeewolf.txt

Text File | 1983-05-04 | 4KB | 67 lines

Zeewolf
Rob Hays
    Games involving helicopters generally fall into one of two
catagories; full simulations such as Gunship 2000, or arcade
shoot-em-ups along the lines of Desert Strike. Zeewolf, from
Binary Asylum, falls squarely into the later category.
    There are four types of missions you may be assigned;
search and destroy, airlift, escort, and rescue. Each type has
its own problems to solve and restrictions to overcome. For
instance, one mission calls for the destruction of ground forces,
but you have no ammunition. To complete the mission, you must
airlift a tank to areas near enemy installations, wait for the
tank to attack and destroy the target, then airlift it to the
next location.
    After each mission is completed, a report is presented
detailing your effectiveness and bonus awards. After every four
missions, a password is given that will allow you to restart the
game from this point.
    The main screen is dominated by a view of your helicopter
and its immediate surroundings. As you fly around the combat
area, it is almost as if your viewing area was defined by black
curtains that objects passed through to suddenly become visible.
This effect can be particulary disconcerting when approaching
the aircraft carrier where many missions end, as you can go from
flying over open ocean to hitting the sides of the ship with
little or no warning.
    The upper left corner of the screen is a large-scale map of
the vicinity, with enemy and friendly positions marked. The
upper right corner shows the view from the gun camera mounted on
your helicopter, and lets you know where your current weapon is
targeted. Weapons consist of a cannon, air-to-surface and air-to-
air rockets. Not all weapons are available for all missions, and
it is almost a sure bet that the one you really need is out of
stock at the supply depots. Bar graphs for fuel level on the
left and armor level on the right complete the main screen.
    Alternatively, you can bring up the tactical screen, which
relegates the view of your helicopter to the upper left corner.
The major portion of this screen is devoted to a larger area map,
which shows the locations of all units. Also available is a
review of your current mission objectives, with those objectives
pinpointed on the map for you.
    Game control is either by mouse or digital joystick, and can
be switched at any point in the game. The game is definitely
easier to control with the joystick, although the mouse control
allows more precise movement. I found that a trackball was even
better than a mouse for precise control. Commands for landing,
lowering the cargo hook, and weapon selection are handled through
keyboard input.
    Graphics, while adequate, are nothing special. These consist
of filled polygons which give the general appearance of the
different objects. This does have the advantage of allowing fast
screen movements. The game was smoother on a 25mhz 68030
processor than on 7mhz 68000, but was still playable on the
slower machine. When played on a standard A-1200, there was no
noticable difference between the 14mhz 68020 and the faster '030.
    Zeewolf comes on a single disk, and while the combination of
disk-based and manual-based copy protection seems overzealous, it
is really not that intrusive. Since there is no game saving,
there is little danger of trashing a non-replaceable master disk.
If this concerns you, the game seems to load everything it needs
at startup, so you can even remove the disk from the drive while
you play. Zeewolf requires 1 megabyte of ram, and I tested it on
an A-500, A-1200, and an A-3000, with Kickstart 1.3, 2.1, and
3.0.
    While it may not break new ground for helicopter games,
Zeewolf guarantees a lot of sweaty, joystick-twisting hours.