Games section

4. Review: Cheatmania

Cheatmania is a hot one for the gamblers (and not only for them). If you cannot afford to go to Las Vegas or you could but are just simply afraid to go the casino because you lose (who knows, maybe you could win), then it is time to check your gambler's abilities playing this game.

Cheatmania is, next to Monster Mind or the upcoming Poker Challenge, one of the simple, in theory, games created by Stylon Crew. This team consists of sceners. Program/Code was made by Twystor, nice, 256 coloured graphics was made by members of Scoopex, TRSI, Kefrens and by individuals like Made and Hotshot. Everything has been given nice atmospheric sounds composed by XTD and Odie. Great mix, isn't it? But what is the game?

Cheatmania is a "simulator" of a one-armed bandit (I guess you call it that in English too) made in a horror style. During your trip your car breaks down. It's raining, a storm is brewing, and only flashes of lightning reveal the surroundings. Between the lightning you notice the castle and decide to go in there. Happens to me all the time.

Our one-armed bandit is quite unusual. On the wheels, instead of traditional fruits like plums, cherries, bananas, apples or other cute pictures to give different prizes, we have spiders, beasts, skulls, pentagrams or Jack'o'Lanterns. There are four wheels instead of the usual three (or five or six if you're Australian), so there is more variation, at the cost of a lower probability of winning (ditto if you're Australian). Basically you have to get three or four of the same symbol to line up on the wheels.

Very important is the bet. Make it bigger (up to $10) and get a bigger probability of winning and also of trying your luck and skills in one of the many bonus games.

Yes! Cheatmania is not just pulling a handle to have another spin, it is also playing bonus games like shooting at the bugs, catching symbols, guessing where the crystal is and so on. The sort of games depends on the bet. For $3 you get Beast Mode, $5 triggers Skull Mode, at $7 Cash Mode kicks in and for the maximum $10 bet Jackpot Mode. Each mode offers special games.

This is not all. When you win sometimes you can multiply the prize up to six times. Here you have to show how good your speed is. If you get multiply by six you also win the chance to play in another bonus game. A special bonus game is also available after achieving the number of the devil - 666.

To sum up, there are 11 games. Each has many variations depending on the symbols that show on the wheels. Add to this 6 special bonuses and you have to admit that Cheatmania makes playing a one-armed bandit a little more interesting and stops the player getting bored.

But there's more. The author thought that playing for play money can sometimes feel pointless, so Cheatmania lets you spend the money you win. For $50, buy the chance to practise one of the many bonus games. For $150 enter the gallery and buy one of the many pictures. These pictures, like all the graphics in the game, are made in a horror style and I liked them. There are about 40 of them. As well as getting to look at them, the pictures are saved to disk by way of a prize. They are saved as an IFFs so you can add them to your collection. For me it is great idea! You know what you are playing for.

As you can see playing Cheatmania is not only based on luck but also on your own abilities like speed and similar. It makes you take a chance and in all this there is some purpose (the pictures).

Cheatmania is a very nice game. It is a perfect example of how a simple game can be made interesting with great audio-visual effects. Cheatmania requires AGA Chipset, at least 1.7MB of Chip Ram and about 3MB of Fast Ram. Before starting the game you have to define a path where the pictures will be saved. Cheatmania can be obtained from the author or from Aminet. It is freeware.

Sebastian "Mailman" Rosa (sebastian.rosa@wp.pl)

Addendum by Christian Aichinger: The archiv is arround 13MB in size. So, while downloading you can go to drink a big cup of coffee ;).