AMIGA aktuell International - games section
|
AMIGA aktuell International - games section
|
This is a more unusual test of an unusual product: In December 1999 an audio CD-ROM was published by Ruben Monteiro, which was expected to have some of the best Amiga compositions. The music was expected to recorded with state-of-the-art studio-audio-technology and so be made available with the best possible quality. This was enough to get interested in this CD and to make a closer look.
The CD is designed professionally and pressed (!), which is not the usual way in these times. Such a CD could also be found in a music store, because it is designed very professionally. On the CD is a data track in addition to the 18 music tracks with known remakes of Amiga games.
On the data track you find an entertaining, rendered MPG video, which shows a nervous Windows user, fishing out his old Amiga. The video demonstrates, that the Amiga is just "immortal" and so explains the CD title "Immortal". In addition there are many informations abou the music tracks on the data track. These informations were designed very professional, too.
These music tracks are on the CD:
| Track 2: | Shadow of the Beast - Intro |
| Track 3: | Shadow of the Beast - Eerie Forests |
| Track 4: | Shadow of the Beast - The Cavern |
| Track 5: | Shadow of the Beast - Beast`s Stronghold |
| Track 6: | Shadow of the Beast - Underwater |
| Track 7: | Shadow of the Beast - Game Over |
| Track 8: | Dafel: Bloodline |
| Track 9: | Project X `99 |
| Track 10: | Superfrog |
| Track 11: | The Final Odyssey |
| Track 12: | Blockhead II |
| Track 13: | The Strangers |
| Track 14: | Harlequin |
| Track 15: | Utopia |
| Track 16: | Space Station 3000 |
| Track 17: | Gunbee F-99 |
| Track 18: | Turrican |
| Track 19: | Alien Breed 3D |
All the music tracks are in top quality on the CD. You can really hear, that they are complete new recordings. But it is remarkable, that some quite unknown tracks like Blockhead II and Harlequin were added to the collection. There may have been better tracks. But maybe, they will be on a successor.
The CD-ROM makes a good impression. The professional design and the music tracks are convincing. This CD-ROM is a must for any Amiga music fan, even if the price of 40 DEM (approx. 20.41 Euros) is a bit high. But if you hold the CD in your hands, it is understandable. So, let's take a look to the evaluation, which is, of course, a bit different than the one for the games:
| Name: | Immortal |
| Manufacturer: | Monteiro Music, Ruben Monteiro, Portugal |
| http://www.monteiro-music.com (e-orders possible) | |
| Price: | 18.99 US-Dollars |
| Disks: | 1 CD |
| Genre: | Music CD |
| Language: | Englisch |
| Manual: | Englisch |
| System: | OCS/ECS/AGA |
| CD-ROM | |
| Conclusion: | Professional created music CD, which really can be recommanded for Amiga music fans. |
| Evaluation: | |
| Graphic: | ---- |
| Sound: | 8/10 |
| Handling: | 7/10 |
| Game fun: | ---- |
| Over all: | 75% |
The place: Cologne, the date, November 13, 1999. Nearly on the same day one year after I bought the long awaited Foundation on the Computer '98 in Cologne, Germany, I got the update to Foundation - The Directors Cut.
Back at home Foundation was more and more forgotten, because WipeOut 2097 went also into my bag. But short time after when I got bored about playing WipeOut remembered another CD I bought on the show. Right, it was Foundation. So quickly open it and take a look, I watched the CD a bit skeptical, because it was none that was pressed, but it was a "burnt" one, that smiled blue at me (I strongly hope, this is all right, because I bought it from EPIC). Well, I thought, don't worry and put the CD into the tray - hurry. And so it was done.
The first change I saw was, that the CD has got a Newicons as icon, after the obligatory double click on the icon the drawer opened, fortunately there are more Newicons and there was also improvement in the program. While Foundation was revision 1.12 at that time revision 1.25 smiled at me and what is more pleasant, there is no longer a difference between the AGA and RTG version. Foundation can be started clicking on the same icon and you're in, if you defined the desired resolution in the Foundation-Prefs. It is also no longer necessary to install Foundation DC to hard disk. Now it is possible, to start it directly from the CD, but it is still possible to install it in parts or completely to disk. You just have to drag FoundationPrefs to the desired directory on the hard disk, start the Prefs, go to the sub menu Installation, select the desired program packages and click on Install - and the party begins.
But now, let's come to the game. First, an Amiga is required, which has in the best case a graphics board, but for the beginning an AGA mode is fine. It doesn't matter for the RTG modes, if you are a fan of CyberGraphX or Picasso96, both are supported. The minimum Processor is a 68030, but it is much better, if you have a 040 or 060 doing the work in your computer. The good sound is made either by the original Paula or by an AHI installation. But I have got problems, if I play Foundation with AHI-sound, because there are sometimes audio loops, so I used good old Paula for sound output, which is no difference in my opinion, because there are played the CD-Audio tracks (if you like). In addition the computer should have at least 6 Megabytes of RAM, but this is ridiculous compared to the memoryhungry games for Wintel computers. Or do you have a different opinion?
If you once started the game you are greeted by a completely rendered intro, which can be deactivated in the prefs. If you are in the main menu you have got the choice. Either you decide for a conquer game. There are 40 of them, but you can play only one after the other, so there is no free choice, no, it's the same method as in the Settlers, one level after the other. Or you decide for a "common" game, in which you can choose which terrain and how many opponents you want to fight.
It is e.g. possible to play alone or against up to 3 computer controlled opponents in the terrains summer, winter, darkness or lava with the technical level 1 to 4 as well as basic support low, medium or high to reach the target "destroy enemy", quot;80% of the country" or "burn enemy". When playing the conquer game you get your target said, but I must confess, that I didn't come further than the fifth scenario.
There is not much to say about playing the game, it works approximately with the same principle as "The Settlers". Build mines to get raw materials, melt raw materials to gold or stell. To build a farm to get food, build farm houses, where the farm-girls, to get offsprings, build a church (or crematorium), to transform the dead bodies to magic, the magic and gold as well as other raw materials, stone, wood etc. to build houses using magic.
Yes, right, here the houses are not just build like with the Settlers, but a magician comes, uses his magic and you get your house at once, if you got the desired raw material, the building is built quick. The people are also more intelligent, so they don't need roads to come to their target places, but they look quite big compared to the buildings, but that can be handled. What is also very positive is the possibility to trade. If got low on some raw materials you can trade them against those you have too many and maybe win anyway. With the settlers you depend the desired raw materials, with this game you can lack of one or the other raw material and make it. If you completed your mission, you get a statistics after that, which shows, how many people you or the opponent had, how many years were required to complete the mission, the number of killed enemies and your own casualties.
The gameplay compared with Foundation has been strongly improved in speed, but I cannot recommend it to anyone, to start the game in a 1024x768 resolution, because in this resolution the game stuttered over the screen, even with a 060, that works in my 4000, unfortunately the PPC is not supported. Maybe this changes with the next game Foundation's Edges, which is to come this year, as you know. Another negative point are the mouse controls, which are are too sensitive. One short click on anything you are three menues too far ahead. In addition is the mouse pointer not 100% identical with that you click on. The clicked object is always a bit more left from the pointer, that means, you can enter the wrong menu or click on the wrong object by mistake. Positive is the possibility to play Foundation DC in a window on the Workbench and that the game runs in a multitasking environment, so I can run NCoder on the PPC and did not recognize any slowdown. It should also be possible to let other programs like Tornado 3D do their work on the PPC, while playing some rounds Foundation on the 68k.
Unfortunately I also did not find any possibility to play against multiple human opponents, either a splitscreen nore a two-player-mode like in "The Settlers", nor the possibility to play using a TCP/IP network, either local or using the Internet. Well, maybe the successor will have this feature.
In the end I have to say, that for those, who already own Foundation, have no advantage in buying Foundation DC, because the game itself did not change and a free patch is available in the web. But for those, who do not own either nor the other and have the desired requirements I can recommend it, because the price of 49.00 DEM (approx. 25.00 Euros) is really good, if you are interested in strategy games, of course.
Source:
Epic MarketingPrice: 49 DEM (approx. 25.00 Euros).
Michael Scholz <MGF-Design@gmx.net>
Racing game: Max Rally by Fortress
Price: 25 Euro Min.: Amiga with 2 MB RAM
With Max Rally there is a new buggy race in the style of Micro Machines on the market. Up to four players can drive in top view and try to win against the opponents or the against the time running off in 26 levels and four environments. The low system requirements make you expect no graphical sensations, but the possibility to connect two Amigas by Null modem cable to play at two monitors is state-of-the-art.
The Game
The game, which is on two floppy disks, is delivered in a nicely designed CD cover, which shows in addition to the rendered touring car there is a funny "FLOPPY disk" logo, which is in the style of the "COMPACT disc DIGITAL AUDIO" logo. A printed manual is not included, but an extended ReadMe file is included. But this is not necessary for playing and the hard disk installation is also fool proof (3 MB are required, but the start from floppy disk is also possible).
There are three game modes, where you can select from. In "Championship" you race against three computer controlled opponents. You can call yourself a winner, if you win in all of the 26 levels, which you can play in any order. If you are second or worse, the level is considered as lost and has to be raced through again. After the fifth race not won the Championships are over. As an additional motivation the best lap is recorded and the course is put into the Hall Of FAme. A good thing is, that you can save it and reload it in any other Max Rally game, but only the better high scores are used. To optimize those records, without being disturbed by other buggies, can drive a course in the "Speed Trial", while the best lap is recorded. It should also be mentioned, that there are "Challenge" levels within the Championship. In this one you race through a space environment and have to drive to certain stations. The screen scrolls continously, but independent from the touring car pilot, so you have to watch out not to drive too slow, because you might become overrolled and so the level would be lost. For those, who like having company, there are the Multi-Player races. In those races the screen is divided into two parts, but unfortunately this serves only two players at the same time. But if there are two Amigas, you can connecto two computers with another and so four players can be involved. But you need two bought versions of Max Rally. Another and new Multi-Player option is the Battle in Max Rally. In this one you have to show your opponents your rear lights. All the players drive on the same screen, but the "camera" is positioned on the first car. Who manages it to stay on the screen alone, gets one point, but you have to get five points to win.
My high quality experiences
"Am I already in or what?" (Rem. of the transl.: following a well-known German commercial), this is how my first reaction
could be described. But it didn't mean "That is really easy), but more a "Was that all?" You could expect more than
average PD-niveau from the game graphics from new games, but in this point you get disappointed. The AOL homepage is more
fascinating than that ;-( But don't worry, less can be more from time to time, even (well in my opinion especially)
PD-games have their attributes, because the most important thing is the fun when playing a game and this is why I started
the race. But on the second view there wasn't any satisfaction: Normal controls (with skids in the curves (, if you know
what I mean)), a unspectacular course and no highlights at all. Unfortunatel more than Right/Left/Accelerate/Slow down is
not possible. The only special feature is the "Turbo", which you can use once per race, if you didn't use it by accident.
This mode accelerates your car as they say from 0 to 110 within some milliseconds. The various environments (forest, space,
ice and dunes) offer some graphical changes (just in space you have to watch out not to drive off the road and to discover
the deep space). An overview about the complete course during the race would have been nice, too. A good idea is the
possibility, that you have to select one of six different drivers, who has different skills than the other ones. But I
was unable to find out, where the differences are.
To be honest, the single game could not keep me in front of the screen for long, so I have not won any Championship, yet.
The idea, that only a first rank leads to success, is something special, but unfortunately this ends in some boring
single races with some courses (the number of laps can be changed in a Multi-Player game only) and a total failure with
other courses. The Multi-Player race offers more, but the duel/fighting feeling could have been designed better.
So it is very difficult to herass someone by plan or to push him off the street. Real fun is the Multi-Player-Battle.
The concept may be easy, but it can bring you hours of fun.
Unfortunately, Max Rally suddenly crashed a few times on my computer, which was due too little free RAM. With "Boot with no startup-sequence" and start from Shell the game didn't make any problems at all.
Conclusion:
Max Rally is a nice, little Buggy racing game with some interesting possibilities. But the real special features are missing, so there is just medium fun. The only exception is the Multi-Player-Battle. Due to the middle-class graphics it is hard for the game to set apart from PD-games, which quite often have a very funny concept. For game freaks and also A500 users the release of Max Rally is an enrichment.
I don't want to scare off someone with this test. Often, the game was evaluated better in tests of competitors. You can make your own mind, if you download the demo version from the Internet, which won't be a mistake.
Chrismän
Contact: http://www.allcomm.co.uk/~fortress
The test sample was provided by CS&E Ltd. (http://www.csande.co.uk).
Christian Keller <chrisman@bigfoot.de>
