Ñ THE SEARCH FOR PD GORE! ----------------------- By Andrew Campbell ° PD is commonly used as an excuse to release extremely violent or sexy demos and games. I have no wish to argue the cases for and against such things in this article, but to merely take a look at what's on offer. I also intend to discuss how we AMOS coders can go about making our own bloody special effects, but that - as they say - is another article... Each disk I review will be given a GORE RATING. Here's the run-down: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * * * * - absolutely dripping with blood and guts! GET IT. * * * * - very gory indeed. Definitely worth a look. * * * - reasonably horrific but could be better. * * - totally lacking in proper, hard-core blood. * - playschool material. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of the disks reviewed are quite old so you may have problems getting hold of them. Try NBS Public Domain (check out the mags for the address of this cool library!) because they keep stock of some of the best ye olde disks. Without further ado, let's split some skull... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Å ORK ATTACK (PD game) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well I must admit I have never seen such an over-rated PD game! It's quite nicely programmed and it's even fun for a few seconds, but the gore is tame and why some libraries have rated it a "16's or over" I shall never know! All you have to do is drop rocks on orks that are climbing up a wall to attack you - when you hit them, you get a little red blob. But to be honest the blood-splatting effects are really very unconvincing. Extremely dull. GAME - * * GORE - * OVERALL - * * § STREET FIGHTER III (PD animation) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now this is quite a good laugh. There's a warning about how violent the disk is before it starts, which is good, and then you're treated to a series of very gory (if somewhat jerky) animations involving the Street Fighter characters slicing each other up! Some original gore effects here along with sick humour and even a bit of on-screen sex! Definitely one to show your psycho mates! ANIMATION - * * * GORE - * * * * * OVERALL - * * * * * Ð FRAXION HORROR DEMO (PD demo) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an old disk but still one of the best gore demos PD has ever seen. There's about four animations to watch involving reasonably sized sprites killing each other with guns and chain-saws! Some sound FX add a bit of atmosphere and there's some very good user-interaction in the form of PLAY/FAST-FORWARD and RE-WIND! Cool! Hardly the X rated production most PD libraries made out, but good anyway. ANIMATION - * * * * GORE - * * * OVERALL - * * * * ª THE TERMINATION DEMO (PD animation) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ah it feels good reviewing my own software (hehehe!). Here we have 8 exceptionally sad dudes strapped into torture chambers ready to be blown or torn apart by guns, chains, knives and crushers! The people are very small but there's some horrific sound FX in there too - like manic laughter and high-pitched screaming. You can even click on the victims for a run-down on WHY they're gonna be killed! Neat. ANIMATION - * * * * GORE - * * * * * OVERALL - * * * * * (ha!) >>>> NOTE: Look out for the AMOS source code for this demo soon! ¤ SCANNER EXPLODING HEAD (PD animation) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If this wasn't in black and white it would be even more horrible than it already is! My copy of this disk vanished longsince, but as far as I can remember there's two animations to watch: (a) the exploding head and (b) exploding eyes! Anyone who's seen the film SCANNERS will know that the actual head-blowing scene is by far the best bit - if you want to watch it over and over again in minute detail (even if there is no colour!) dig up a copy of this excellent digitized animation! ANIMATION - * * * * * GORE - * * * * OVERALL - * * * * ¦ BUDBRAIN II (PD demo) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This two disk megademo contains a rather atmospheric film on the first disk that, despite being split up into parts, is damned excellent. The demo has been correctly labelled "Over 18's Only" by PD libraries because it contains some quite explicit VIZ-type adult jokes at the end. The film is really good but only to watch once. The rest of the demo contains above-average effects and the odd weird animation. Not A1200-compatible either, which is a shame. ANIMATION - * * * * GORE - * * OVERALL - * * * Ë ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (PD game) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This first version of the Blitz Basic (barf!) game is crap. There's hardly a drop of blood in sight. In fact the only "horrific" bits are when you shoot the zombies and get to see a bit of their insides. Hardly stomach-churning stuff. Not a bad Operation Wolf-type game but hopeless for gore. GAME - * * * GORE - * * OVERALL - * * Ð ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE 2 (PD game) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey, now what's this? Extreme amounts of spurting blood and guts? Surely not! Not in a Blitz Basic (barf!) game as well... why yes it seems so. Here we have a sequel that really is quite gory as well as good fun to play! Nice sound FX and graphics and some super-smooth animation/special effects. I like it - worth a look indeed. GAME - * * * * GORE - * * * * OVERALL - * * * * ° ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ... and I'm afraid that's all I have found in the murky depths of PD! If anyone discovers a PD game that actually exceeds the normal blood allowance level, do let me know. I was going to include Black Dawn 2 in this list but it's only alien blood that spurts so I didn't bother. NEXT: How to make GORE GAMES with AMOS! Watch this space! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The END.