=============================================================================  AMIGA SOFTWARE UPDATE ============================================================================= C O N T E N T S 1 - New releases 2 - Reviews * Lemmings II - Psygnosis * B17 - Microprose * Sleepwalker - Ocean * Xcopy - Cachet Software Latest Game Releases This list was compiled by Martin Jansen exclusively for Newsflash Magazine. It contains all new releases and coming releases (MAY/JUNE 1993). AMIGA GAMES ----------- Super Hero ---------------------------------------- Psygnosis Walker -------------------------------------------- Psygnosis Lemmings II --------------------------------------- Psygnosis Creepers ------------------------------------------ Psygnosis Hired Guns ---------------------------------------- Psygnosis Legend of Myra ------------------------------------ GrandSlam Dune II ------------------------------------------- Virgin Gunship 2000 -------------------------------------- MicroProse Arcade Fruit Machine ------------------------------ Zeppelin Action Sports ------------------------------------- Microids Amberstar ----------------------------------------- Thalion Hannibal ------------------------------------------ StarByte Body Blows ---------------------------------------- Team 17 Combat Air Patrol --------------------------------- Psygnosis Bards Tale Construction Set ----------------------- Electronic Arts Valhalla ------------------------------------------ Optyk Sleepwalker --------------------------------------- Ocean KGB ----------------------------------------------- Virgin Transartica --------------------------------------- Silmarils Premier Manager ----------------------------------- Gremlin Battle Isle Data Disk #1 -------------------------- Blue Byte Fly Harder ---------------------------------------- StarByte The Chaos Engine ---------------------------------- Renegade Nick Faldo's Championship Golf -------------------- GrandSlam Whale's Voyage ------------------------------------ NEO Lethal Weapon ------------------------------------- Ocean Wing Commander ------------------------------------ Origin Flashback ----------------------------------------- US Gold War in the Gulf ----------------------------------- Empire Creatures ----------------------------------------- Thalamus Goal! --------------------------------------------- Virgin Gulf War II --------------------------------------- Entertainment Int. Arabian Nights ------------------------------------ Krisalis Soccer Kid ---------------------------------------- Krisalis Desert Strike ------------------------------------- Electronic Arts B17 Flying Fortress ------------------------------- MicroProse Scrabble ------------------------------------------ US Gold Litil Divil --------------------------------------- Gremlin Perfect General Data Disk ------------------------- Blue Byte Cells - the Game of Life -------------------------- Linel Space Crusade Data Disk --------------------------- Gremlin Lion Heart ---------------------------------------- Thalion Bug Bomber ---------------------------------------- KingSoft Zyconix ------------------------------------------- Accolade WWF Rampage Tour ---------------------------------- Ocean Euro Soccer --------------------------------------- Flair Pool ---------------------------------------------- Virgin Street Fighter II --------------------------------- US Gold Dragons Lair III ---------------------------------- ReadySoft REVIEWS LEMMINGS II Title : Lemmings 2, The Tribes Publisher : Psygnosis Supplied by : Psygnosis Review : Peter Wijgerse Introduction. Do we really need an introduction?? You've got to be kidding. Everybody knows the original lemmings. And if you don't... tough luck. Oh well, here's a little info: Lemmings are cute little furry animals who wander mindlesly around until they get themselves killed. They just walk on until they bump into some- thing, and they will turn around and continue to walk some more. Now it's up to you to save some of these sorry creatures, by guiding them towards the exit. Lemmings II is basically more of the same as the first versions. But because of this it's still fun to play. What they have done is giving you the chance to play with over fifty different types of lemmings. The following story will make it clear. Once upon a time the lemmings lived happily on Lemming Island. Divided into twelve tribes they didn't bother each other and just kept doing the things they always did (getting themselves killed). Unfortunately there was a prophecy about a GREAT DARKNESS, and guess what, it came true. In order to save all the tribes, they had to built a huge vessel. This vessel would allow them to escape. But they also needed the power of THE TALISMAN to complete this awesome task. The talisman was broken into 12 pieces (one for each tribe) and they must be brought together in order to get full power. This is where the game starts. You are shown a map of the island with the 12 tribes shown upon it. You can select any one of them to start with. They start on the outer edge of the island and have to move inward to the centre. To achieve this not so easy task you must guide them through 10 puzzle infested levels. If you complete a level ( or make a complete idiot of yourself) you can go back to the map to select another tribe. This way you won't get stuck at one level, you can always switch to another. There are also some new icons at the bottom of the screen. You now can speed up things a little by pressing the speed-up button ( this speeds things up, you know). Also available is a fan...a fan? Yes, a fan, you know, to blow wind in your face. But we will get to that later. Each tribe has a different theme, there's a circus world, a shadow world, a space world, mediaeval, outdoor, egyptian, beachbum, sports, cave, polar and highland world and a classic world ( based on the classic lemmings). These themes provide you with different puzzles, icy slopes in the polar world, dinosaurs in the cave world and spooky things in the shadow world. But your lemmings have a few tricks up there sleeves too. I the old one you only had eight types of lemmings, now you have over fifty. You can't use them all at the same time though, but a few types are appointed to each level. There are six different groups you can divide the lemmings in. I'll give a few examples of each one. Wind skills: (this is were you get to use your fan, remember). - Ballooner : Will float into the air and keep rising until it goes pop. You can blow him with the fan. - Hang Glider : Will sail downwards at an angle until he hits the ground. Ground skills: (the basic remove this dirt and dig holes skill). - Flame Thrower : Will burn down an obstacle in front of him. - Bomber : Will lay a bomb at his feet, and manages to survive it. Building skills: (you know, bridges and.....hmmmm, bridges). - Platformer : Builds a horizontal platform across anything. - Glue Pourer : Poures glue (to fill holes). Shooting skills: (shoot everything that moves, and if it doesn't ....). - Roper : Fires a grappling hook with a line. - Thrower : Throws a rock that sticks to the landscape (?!). Movement skills: (to move or not to move). - Booter : Wears special boots, will walk anywhere (even on the cei- ling, eat your heart out lionel R.). - Swimmer : Swims (what more can I say). Misc skills: (the vague, not so easy to place,or plain useless skills). - Diver : Dives off cliffs (it says so in the manual). - Superlem : Flies into the air and follows your cursor (and he doesn't need a phone boot to change). The classic lemming skills are also available. The last bit coming up now; how does it play ?. It plays like a dream, it hasn't lost anything of it's original playability and even manages to improve upon it. The graphics are good with lots of funny animations and there's lots of new music to listen to. I guess the only thing left to say is.... go out and get yourself a copy (original,that is) right now, or you will miss something you may regret later. The scores Playability 94% Graphics 93% Sound 92% Lastability 94% (after completing a level you can retry it to get a better score) Total mark 93% SLEEPWALKER GAME : SLEEPWALKER (A1200-version) PUBLISHER : OCEAN DESIGN : CTA Developments REVIEWED BY: Huub Hoogeveen The story of Sleepwalker is as follows; Ralph the dog (You) has a sleepwal- king master (Lee) who has to be saved as he has the nasty habit of doing this in the dangerous streets of Kipsville. As you try to guide that poor defenceless kid safely through the six levels of the game, you can be squashed, run over, be roasted and even be skinned. This won't harm you much (you'll just have to face these rather comic situations) but unfortunately the hazards have more effect on Lee and may wake him up. Because Sleepwalker is not very easy to play there's an extra option to practise by choosing the Training level. The game has the following six levels: - City - Zoo - Graveyard - Construction works - Factory - Centre In each level you can try to obtain several bonus-balloons and when you can spell the word BONUS there's a bonuslevel waiting for you. In this bonuslevel you can earn extra attempts by collecting red balloons. You can also try to collect extra icons. When collected in the right order they spell out one of the hazards Ralph would like to see Lee get in- volved with (because in his dreams Ralph is not that lovely dog we know). In the last level you have to kick Lee back in his bed so you can finally watch the end-scenario. Sleepwalker is basically a nice game with funny speech by Lenny Henry, good sound effects, smooth gameplay, limited disk swaps, and cartoon-like graphics but it has also a few weak points; - there's no password system, - sometimes it's hard enough to play the level without guiding the kid in time to the end of the level - you don't immediately see the effect of the extra icons in the bonuslevel - when you fail a little it's frustrating to see that stupid sleepwalking kid walking in the water because it takes a few seconds to react because you have to watch your failure - no scroll-mode When you play the game more often there's a possibility you'll become obsessed to finish this game, however I think 'Ralph's nightmare' is a better name than Sleepwalker. Addictiveness 75% Originality 90% Sound 90% Graphics 95% Playability 80% Lastability 80% ------------------ Total mark 85% B17 GAME : B-17 FLYING FORTRESS PUBLISHER : MICROPROSE DESIGN : MICROPROSE UK REVIEWED BY: Peter Wijgerse Yep, another flight sim from the boys of Microprose. But it's one with a twist, YOU DON"T HAVE TO FLY !!. Don't get me wrong now, you can still fly if you want to. This sim is based around flying the B-17 Flying Fortress on bombing missions to Germany (or France or other hostile countries) during the second world war. First let me introduce your plane. The B-17 is a bomber with a ten crew members. It was capable if flying deep into enemy territory, dropping its payload (read bombs here), and return home (in England). It flew during daytime and protected itself by travelling in large numbers. Flying during the day meant that they could bomb more precise. Each member of the crew had their own specific task, but could replace certain members, if qualified. When you start the game you first get your mission briefing. This will show you what place to bomb, and how to get there and how to return. You also get to see a secundary target in cause you don't get a change to bomb the first one. You can only bomb one because you drop all your bombs in one go. After the briefing you will by placed in the pilot's seat at the beginning of the runway, waiting to take off. Accompanied by other B-17's, you'll fly to your target and do what you have to do. While you are flying you can switch between the different crew members. The others will remain computer controlled and act as humanely as possible (that is, they mess around a lot). You don't even have to control the character you're currently viewing. If you don't interfere, he'll just keep doing what he was doing before you came to him. But for the record, you can control every aspect of this plane, and some things you have to solve, the computer won't do it for you. You are able to control all the gunners, the navigator/radio man, the bomber, and the pilots (yes, there are two pilots). In case of emergency, you have to step in. If there's an engine on fire you have to put it out. If a crew member is wounded you have to help him and replace him with another one if needed. So how does it play ? Well.. it's not your everyday flight sim, no superfast jets and missiles, radar and dogfights. Flying a B-17 is like driving a ten ton truck. You can fly it, but you can't make rolls and loopings with it. But then again, this game is based around controlling a machine and its crew. Besides flying there are lots of other thing to do, shooting down enemy planes ( and don't shoot your friends !!), navigating and bombing. Because of this kind of total control the game gives you plenty of action and lastability. And if you know microprose, there is the usual roster activity and promotions you must get your hands on. Graphically the game looks good, the 3D action is very smooth and the ingame graphics are very clear. There are lots of external views, and you don't have to worry about flying the plane, because the computer will take over. There's also the director mode. This will show you all the action from various viewpoints, it's a nice way to show the game to your friends. The sound is excellent too, with a nice tune in the intro and some very good sound effects. Playing from floppy, may take some disk swapping, but from a harddisk it plays like a dream. And ofcourse there is the 230 page manual, which makes quite interesting reading with lots of funny facts and interesting stories. So now the verdict. This game is.... guilty. It's guilty of being more than just a flight simulator. And for this reason you should buy it. It plays very easy with enough action to keep you on your toes. And if you like this game, go out and rent a video called 'Memphis Belle'. I saw it while I was playtesting the game, and it looked like they made a film about this game. You could learn some nice tricks from the film, (like when your engine is on fire you should dive to get an airspeed of over 300 MPH, this'll put out the fire, and it works in the game too !!). So.. this rounds it up for this game , now I can't wait to get my hands on gunship 2000. Addictiveness 83% Originality 90% Sound 89% Graphics 90% Playability 91% Lastability 92% ------------------ Total mark 90% XCOPY We all know Xcopy, don't we. For the people who are new in the AMIGA scene a short introduction: The last years some utilities have become a sort of standard in the AMIGA market; PowerPacker for crunching, Noise/Pro-tracker for music, Dpaint for artwork, Diskmaster for filemanagement and Quarterback for backing up your harddisk. In this time Xcopy became more and more popular and beat other popular copiers like Marauder Copy, Fcopy, Dcopy and others. I know there are many Workbench freaks who prefer to use Superdupper but the majority of users prefer to use Xcopy. On a computershow in Holland I received the April version of Xcopy directly from the makers: Cachet Software. At the office I tried the disk and I was pleasantly surprised when a fast bootmenu popped up. Ofcourse I started Xcopy to see the new version but except new graphics I didn't find new features. Also a version number was no longer in the software. The program still works fine and this version was working correctly on my A1200 (kick V3.0). The main features: - Copy modes * Doscopy > normal diskcopy * Doscopy + > normal diskcopy + repair of damaged tracks * Bamcopy > copies only used tracks * Nibble > copies protected software, with index option on you can e.g. copy IBM disks without problems. - Tools * Optimize > reorganises your disk for optimal use * Format > formats a disk * Qformat > formats a disk with existing AMIGA format on it faster * Erase > erases a whole disk * Install > installs a bootblock on your disk(s) * Speedch > checks your drives * Drives on > use this option if you forgot to switch your external drives on and you want to use them after all Another useful option is the 'diskinfo' which shows you the diskname and which tracks are used. With the 'directory' option you have a chance what is on your current disk to avoid 'erase' mistakes. As a bonus the buyer of this excellent product receives a few extra handy utilities: - X-it > a diskdecoding utility for protecting sensitive material - Xlent > a filemanager with all the basic functions like copy, move, delete and other features - Xpress > a simple but easy-to-use harddisk backup program - Qued > a very basic texteditor which is certainly not my favourite but it is just an extra utility For more information: Cachet Software Ostendstrasse 32 7524 Ostringen Germany Phone: +49 725 322 411 Fax : +49 725 322 450 Special thanks to Claus Peter Lippert for his kind support. =============================================================================  AMIGA SOFTWARE UPDATE =============================================================================