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{subhead}Ballmaster Review{def}{p}
Review by Vincenzo Morra
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{bold}LET`S PLAY WITH SOME BALLS!!{nobold}
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Long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away... ops, that is another story.
Long time ago there was an old puzzle game called Logical which was developed for our old, basic Amiga with a 68K processor and the 1.3 Operative System.
Back in the present time there is a game called Ballmaster which has been developed for our beloved Amiga taking into consideration the present hardware.
The two games are pretty similar, although Ballmaster have introduced some new ideas that could potentially make it an addictive experience.
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There are two versions of the game (AGA and ECS), each available in their
own archive on Aminet or the author website, and the only difference is, obviously, the quality of the graphics.
The version I am reviewing is the one for the AGA system.
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The game only works if you have the old, trustworthy Commodore 1084 (or similar), which can display 15Khz frequency.
Before playing I would advise you to access the option menu and switch off the music.
It is not bad but can become quite repetitive, especially if you play for long time.
As soon as you begin the first level of the game you will see, on the top of the screen,  a tube with a small coloured ball rolling left and right into it.
Different wheels, with different slots, to accommodate different balls sit in various places on the screen, all connected by tubes.
As soon as there is an available space in a wheel the ball will leave the top tube to sit in a slot.
The aim of the game is to fill every single wheel with four balls of the same colour. Once you fill a wheel, these balls will disappear and a red light, positioned in the middle of the wheel, will turn green.
The purpose of the game is to turn all the lights green so to proceed to the next level.
There are balls of four different colours in the game: red, yellow, green and blue.
In some levels a special white ball appears from time to time which you can use instead of any other ball and will be regarded as a sort of joker ball.
You can rotate the wheel using the right mouse button while the left one will let you send the ball out of the wheel into other tubes or other wheel slots.
Sounds complicated? Well cheer up because it is not over yet!
To make your life slightly more difficult there are two different time limits to take into consideration.
The first one is the time limit for the whole level. Then there is a time limit for the ball to leave the top tube.
So it is your job to complete the level in time, ensuring that the balls do not roll in the top tube for too long.
Quick and lateral thinking are essential skills needed to play this game.
At the bottom of the screen you will find the time available to finish the level, the number of wheels left to fill to complete the level, the order of colours you have to fill the wheels with and  the combination of colours that is required to fill a wheel.
Indeed, if this option is active the wheels with four balls of the same colour will not be regarded as full until you have made the combination shown at the bottom of the screen.
If you make the combination required fast enough you get additional time to complete the level.
You will also be aware of which coloured ball will appear next in the top tube by looking at the NEXT slot at the bottom of the screen.
In order to improve the gameplay the author has included special elements such us auto-wheels that rotate by themselves, arrows which once placed in a tube will determine the direction the balls have to move to, colour filters which will only allow specific coloured balls to pass through, colour machines that can change the colour of balls and teleport that will transport a ball to a different area of the screen.
A very good idea that help the game to be less repetitive
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If you enjoy been challenged then you can activate the PROFI mode from the option screen.
When switched on, it will give you a chance to fill every wheel only once and, while in normal mode the game will empty the wheels every time the green light goes on, in PROFI mode that will not happens.
Now, if you take in consideration that the wheels are positioned in different parts of the screen, and you will need to shift balls from one wheel to the other in order to solve the puzzle you can easily realize how much more difficult the PROFI mode can be.
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The game can become quite addictive, especially once all the special gadgets are introduced.
There is a password system that will save you from starting the game from the first level.
Once I played the game the first time I noticed an incompatibility with a mouse connected to a Punchinello device. Things improved once I disabled the Punchinello driver and used a normal Amiga mouse.
The sounds effects are pretty good and the graphics, although spartan, is definitely appropriate for this game.
It would have been nice to have the opportunity to play this game in a window on the Workbench. Maybe a future version could include a RTG option.
If you are a type of person that loves puzzle game than this is definitely a game to add to your collection.
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{bold}Available from{nobold}:{p}
Home Page:  http://damir.gajba.net ({link http://damir.gajba.net/}Go There{end}){p}
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 73%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 71%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 86%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 83%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}        : 85%
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