Aurora Works may not be a name that is well known in the Amiga market, but they do have some big plans for the Amiga.

Even though they have been around for quite some time, they have yet to release their first Amiga game, Hover Bomber which will hit the shops soon. The game is very similar to Bomberman, and builds upon it with features that'll bring it upto date.

Unfortunately, the game will be likely to be GFX Card only, since AGA can't handle running the game in any screenmode higher than 320x240, so this caused the game to miss it's intended September release and also it being too much work to get the AGA version up to scratch. It is possible that the authors will release the AGA version as Freeware after the commerical release of the GFX Card version.

At the moment, the game is being planned to run in 3 selectable screenmodes, 8- bit, 16-bit and 24-bit with the 8-bit version running fine on an 030 with a Zorro III GFX Card. The preferences screen at the start will allow to choose the screenmode, audio settings (via AHI), network play settings (TCP, Modem etc) and also the option to load new maps, sfx, etc.

But internet play will only be possible if all players are on fast connections which are relatively close together as the game is very fast paced and requires a lot of data to be exchanged.

The game should be out for before Christmas and will be CD-ROM only.

Aurora Works have a number of games on the cards, but they are keeping details of them close to their chest. Zone 99 was going to be their first release, has now been put back and will be released after the two strategy games that they planned which will both have internet support and will not have the same limitations as Hover-Bomber. One of these games is being described as a sort of multiplayer space conquest title, with both of these games being AGA compatible.

Another game called Betrayed is set for a Christmas '98 release, but will be PPC only. More on these games and others from Aurora Works as soon as I get them, but for more information on Aurora Works and their games, why not goto their website at:- Aurora Works.