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Games section
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We all know that every now and then we are going to have to resist the urge to take up bomb, mine or flamethrower and kill a really irritating neighbor. Unfortunately big brother is watching and we all decide the time in pokey isn't really worth it.
But if you have a computer at home - Dynamite be blessed - you don't have to pass up the chance to put bombs under their evil backsides - in cyberspace. Without all the usual repercussions!
DYNAMITE is a clone of the popular and well known Bomberman idea. Bomberman was developed in the mid 80's and fast became a cult game spawning addiction problems similar to Pac-Man, Tetris and the games of the Super Mario-series. In 1989 an official amiga-conversion appeared called "Dynablasters". On its heels followed the shareware program "BlitzBombers" .
Dynamite and its forefathers have a simple premise: Wander in a labyrinth where it is your goal to kill your opponent with high-explosive bombs.
The labyrinth consists of strong walls that cannot be destroyed by bombs, and less strong walls that break down after a detonation in the neighbourhood. Behind these walls from time to time the laws of reality are suspended: for example more bombs can be laid at the same time, the range of a detonation can be increased, the player can run much faster, can be teleported to another position in the labyrinth, or can catch an opponent by using a remotable bomb. And when megatonnes are not enough, flamethrowers to roast the foe may be found in the extensive weapons repertoire of Dynamite. Of course there are also "negative" extras, for example one which reverses the controls completely.
Most of the elderly Bomberman-Clones have a more or less boring one-player-mode, with boring computer-controlled sprites walking through the labyrinth. Dynamite blows off the one-player-mode and looks to the multi-player experience via the internet. The game becomes fast moving, needing a lot of strategic thought even against human opponents.
The Dynamite download archive can be decompressed to a harddisc partition but does not contain all the necessary program files. The potential explosives expert has to download the "amarquee.library" and "identify.library" as well.
At first start, Dynamite the game presents itself on workbench. With a high screen resolution, the graphics look a bit shrivelled but appear in the familiar bomberman outlook. Thanks to MUI, Dynamite may be brought to a lower resolution.
There are different graphic sets available. When you tire of the original bomberman graphics you can try the Simpsons-family or even an Boing!-bombs laying Bill McEwen.
Before gamestart you have to connect to the internet. You can only explode when you are online. All working Dynamite-Servers are found automatically, and there are no further hurdles to enjoy the addictive pleasure. Those of you who have to worry about online costs should be warned!!
As a bonus Dynamite includes a chat-function. During short breaks between matches one can trade insults with gamers from all around the world. With a flatrate, your Amiga can become a Dynamite server on the internet.
Dynamite doesn't need a highend amiga. A system with a 68020-processor and AGA-chipset is enough, but to enjoy the game you should have at least an 68030 and a gfx-card. Dynamite requires 2MB Chip and 4MB Fastmem to provide a smashing Dynamite-feeling.
Negatives are hard to find in Dynamite. Ok, the sound is a bit thin. But as Dynamite is a freeware-game, (no costs = big fun) we can live with it.
Perhaps we'll meet sometimes for a competition on internet...
Rüdiger Grünewald <rudi.g@t-online.de>
