Fresh Fish 8/FreshFishVol8-CD1.bin/useful/reviews/software/games/incinerplexgames

Internet Message Format | 1994-11-08 | 16KB

Path: news.uh.edu!barrett
From: [e-mail] (Eyal Teler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Four shareware games by Incinerplex
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games
Date: 8 Nov 1994 15:51:45 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 382
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
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Message-ID: <39o6qh$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Eyal Teler)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: games, missile command, checkers, auto racing, strategy, shareware
Originator: [e-mail]


PRODUCT NAMES

    Incinerator
    Checkers Conquest
    Mangled Fenders
    Conundrum


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    Four shareware games by Pete W Storonskij - two arcade games and two
thinking games.  The reviewed versions are the unregistered games.  A
further review of the registered versions may follow in the future.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        Incinerplex Games, Pete W Storonskij
    Address:    200 A Street
            Lincoln, NE 68502
            USA

    E-mail:        [e-mail]

    The unregistered versions are available on Aminet:
        Incinerator        game/shoot/Incinerator.lha
        Checkers Conquest    game/think/Checkers.lha
        Mangled Fenders        game/misc/MangledFendersDe.lha
        Conundrum        game/think/Conundrum.lha



LIST PRICE

    $10 (US), or the equivalent in any (relatively stable) currency.

    This price is for five games - the four mentioned, plus an improved
version of Incinerator, Castle Incinerator, featuring different graphics.

    $10 is the latest offer, and earlier offers exist for the separate
programs (some of them, at least), so registering just some of the games
should be possible.

    Alternatively you can send a PD program you wrote yourself
(shareware, freeware...).


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

    Should work on any Amiga, although the documentation mentions
incompatibility of Mangled Fenders with the A4000 and Enforcer (!!!).
According to the programmer, this is a fault of the programming language,
which could mean that the same holds for all the games.

    On the other hand, the documentation of Incinerator claims that
it runs on the A3000, A1200, and any earlier models. Go figure.


COPY PROTECTION

    None.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    Amiga 500, 1MB Chip RAM, 2MB Fast RAM
    Fujitsu 100MB SCSI hard disk in A590
    1084 monitor
    Kickstart 1.2, Workbench 1.3, ARP


INSTALLATION

    It's as easy as unpacking the archive into the directory of your
choice.  You can also drag the icons (two icons, plus the docs one, if you
like) wherever you want, using the Workbench.

    After installation, you can run the games from either Workbench or
from the CLI (shell, whatever...).


OVERVIEW

    I'll give a short review of each game.  Specific likes, dislikes and
bugs will be given within each review, in addition to the sections at the
end (after the four reviews), which address the four games together (you get
them all together for $10, after all).

    I must admit that this review is only an initial impression, as I
haven't played the games very long.  However, the games are simple enough,
so my views of the games will likely not change much even if I continue
playing them.


INCINERATOR

    Remember Missile Command? (Ah, the good old days...) This is a
newer and a bit more sophisticated version.

    Both you and your enemy (the computer or another player) have
cities, and both of you attempt to destroy each other's city, using the
missiles at your disposal, and helicopters, which can cause mass
destruction.  On the defense side you have two laser canons, activated
by the left and right mouse buttons, as well as a protective shield to
the city, and a limited supply of super bombs (which destroy all the
missiles on the screen).

    You alternate turns - one turn you defend the city, and the next you
attack your enemy's city.  There's a two player option, which apparently
lets both players defend, then both attack.  Unfortunately, I don't know if
this is really the case, as the unregistered version stops the game after
just two rounds (defense and attack for a single player, or defense and
defense for two players).

    There are three difficulty levels, so if you destroy the incoming
missiles too easily (and it's quite easy at the low level), you can move to
a higher level.

    Graphics-wise, the game gives a 3D view, with the city in the
foreground and hills in the background, behind which the missiles are being
fired.  The city is well drawn, but the missiles are just short yellow
vectors (which is about the most you can expect from such small objects).

    The two player option seems to have a few glitches - both in the
graphics, at the start of the round, and in the gameplay, as sometimes you
just wait and no missiles are coming.


CHECKERS CONQUEST

    You know Checkers? That's it. There are two players, either human or
computer, and the computer player has four levels.

    The game itself has quite a lot of options, including the ability to
take your moves back, to edit the board, to switch sides, and several other
options, including the ability to select the design of the checkers.

    The lowest level is naturally quite easy.  I haven't played the
higher levels, so I can't comment on the difficulty.  (Sorry, losing to an
A500 just makes me feel so insecure.  I can't face that. Either that or I'm
a lazy reviewer. :-))

    Graphically the game looks good - both the board and the checkers
are well drawn.


MANGLED FENDERS

    Crashing into cars, that's the name of the game.  There are up to
six cars, viewed from above, which crash into one another, and into the
walls of the screen area in which they all roam, looking for prey, fighting
the war of survival (ahem...).

    The opening screen displays the six cars. Each car can be controlled
either by the computer, a player, or not play at all.  Up to four people can
play at the same time: two using joysticks, and two using the keyboard.  If
you like challenges, you can also control several cars by one player
(they'll all move in the same way) - I'm not sure this was intentional on
the part of the programmer, but it's there if you want it.

    There are power-ups which appear and can be picked up, and you also
have money to buy extra features (cause more damage, etc.) or fix your car
between rounds.  You get more money at the end of each round, depending on
how fast you were destroyed, compared to the other cars.

    Control is inertial, so you accelerate and decelerate in forward or
reverse and turn left and right.  I found it quite difficult to control the
car.  It's quite easy, for example, to get stuck in the side of the playing
area without an easy way to get out, making you a sitting duck (it happens
to the computer controlled cars, too, and you can take advantage of that).

    This is the game I enjoyed least.  The graphics are OK, but not
great; the control method is unwieldy; the collision detection is quite
dodgy (cars should crash into each other, not over each other); and it's
just not that enjoyable.  The game may be more fun when played with a few
more people, but frankly I didn't want to subject more people to this type
of punishment (OK, so I may be exaggerating a bit).


CONUNDRUM

    At last, a game which is not so easy to describe (damn, I have to
think a bit).  You have a set of hexagonal based tiles on the screen that
you have to get rid of by using other tiles given to you randomly one after
the other.

    Each tile has a number on it, and by putting another tile near it
the two will negate each other.  For example if you put a "5" tile near a
"3" tile, you'll get a "2" tile and a grey tile, so you got rid of the "3"
tile, and have a "2" tile to get rid of.  Since a tile can touch up to six
other tiles, it can negate several tiles at one time, thus a "5" tile put
near a "3" and "2" will turn the three of them into grey tiles.

    As the game progresses, you get tiles with higher numbers that are
more difficult to negate, of course.  You also get limited in the number of
levels you can negate.  This starts from 6 at the lowest level.  If, for
example, you can negate only 2 levels, then putting a "5" near a "3" will
result in