Received: from decwrl.dec.com by s.ms.uky.edu id aa29965; 2 Aug 90 21:09 GMT Received: by decwrl.dec.com; id AA24584; Thu, 2 Aug 90 14:03:11 -0700 Message-Id: <9008022103.AA24584@decwrl.dec.com> Received: by limbo; Thu, 2 Aug 90 13:34:50 pdt From: The Moderator Date: Thu, 2 Aug 90 13:34:47 PDT Subject: Digital Games Review Digest, #7 Reply-To: Digital Games Review To: Digital Games Review Digest X-Mailer: fastmail [version 2.02] Digital Games Review Digest, Number 7 Thursday, August 2nd 1990 Today's Topics: Atari ST: Gauntlet II Genesis: Target Earth Genesis: DJ Boy NES: Pin Bot NES: Ms. Pac-Man NES: Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers GameBoy: Lock n' Chase ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mjv@brownvm.brown.edu (Marshall Vale) Subject: Atari ST: Gauntlet II Gauntlet II is the sequel to the very popular multi-player game Gauntlet, both created for the arcades by Atari Games. The theme of the game is to control your character through a never ending series of dungeons, collecting both health, power and treasure along the way (in a sense, "running the gauntlet"). There are a few differences from Gauntlet 1 (G1) and Gauntlet 2(G2). The same four characters are there: Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard, and Elf. However, now you can choose which character you are even if another player is the same character (for example you could have 2 elves playing). New monsters are slime puddles, IT, super sorcerers, the mugger and super fast version of all the monsters. Some other additions are: walls that you can push around, secret walls that you can shoot to reveal a suprise, invisible walls, locked chest that you need a key to open, a very nasty and mean dragon and the secret room where all your characters desires are fulfilled (at least when it comes to magic potions, that is). With that overview, I'll move on to the conversion. Again, this review was done on the Atari ST but I doubt that versions on other systems should be all that different, but just in case the old adage "your milage may vary" applies here. The conversion was done by US Gold, an English company that specializes in coin-op conversions. To their credit, US Gold did a wonderful job. The sprites in G2 are a bit smaller and less detailed than in the arcade version but the overall appearance of the screen is much better proportioned than in the conversion of G1. The playability has also improved greatly from G1 in that now the screen scrolls very smoothly and keeps a better speed. G2 is able to keep up even with lots of characters on the screen. The colors match to the arcade very well and aren't as glaring as in G1. Nearly all of the sound has been included from the arcade! This was a rather serious omission from G1. It was sampled at a fairly high quality and sounds wonderous. The significant problem with the sound was during the treasure room, the mighty voice would start to count down from 10 seconds when you had 5 seconds left. This was probably do to a problem with the timing being different on European systems. All the levels are there from the arcade with only two mistakes that I could notice (an extra wall here) unlike G1 which had some serious mistakes. There were a few bugs and problems that I encountered. First, in the arcade version of G2, you are able to kill Death but shooting him with 9 super shots. However, this doesn't work in the conversion which can cause some serious problems. Slime puddles will follow you which they aren't supposed to; they're supposed to move totally randomly. There are couple of other mistakes that actually help you significantly but I don't want to give the game away so if you'd like to know them, ask me via email. There were another couple of problems. When you get close to the dragon he blasts you with a very deadly flame. The problem is that the flame shouldn't go over walls but in the conversion it does. There are some levels that you need to walk past the dragon (with a wall between you) but he'll just waste you for at least a couple of hundred health. That's a serious problem for one level in particular. Another problem is that you don't have very much control of the teleporters. If you know how to use them (by jumping in them when its either pulsing or shrinking and moving the stick) you control where you appear. But, they pulse the teleporters way to fast in the conversion so its now a matter of luck. The most serious problem was with a rather unique feature. There is an adapter that hooks up to the parallel port that adds two more joystick ports thus have the possibility of four players at once. However, if you have a printer cable plugged in, even if the printer is off, the game thinks that there is a joystick there and adds a characters and ruins the game. This means that if I want to play it, I have to remember to unplug the printer! Also, the game is beatable. Though there is no finish you can get to a point where you are just invinceable like in the old original arcade Gauntlets. My record was somewhere over a hundred levels with 1.5million points after 6 hours of play before I quit. If you'd like tips and hints, just drop me a note. Overall, I would highly recommend Gauntlet 2. Although the characters take little getting used to, the nearly flawless translation of gameplay makes this a very fun and enjoyable game. The inclusion of a few tricks that help a person keep on going help people from getting to frustrated with it and enjoy most of the levels. The high quality scrolling and smoothness of play is complemented by the timely injections of "Elf needs food, badly" screaming out of your speaker. The game works especially well with two people as when one person dies, if the other player is still alive, they game immediate join back in as the same or another character. The version distributed by Mindscape (I have an early import from the UK) is NOT physically copy protected rather employing the "look the word up in the manual," form so you can easily make back-ups (hooray!) Graphics 9 (It looks sharp!) Sound 7 (Picks some funny times to play the sounds) Playability 10 (One of my favorite games) Conversion 9 (No serious omissions like G1) Manual 3 (What did you expect?) Overall 9++ Gauntlet II for the Atari MegaST from Mindscape Corporation Note: Gauntlet 2 is available for the Atari ST, Amiga, IBMs and maybe a few others and is published by Mindscape. The 4-player adapter is works on the Atari and Amigas and maybe the IBMs (or whatever has a parallel port). Other games besides G2 use the adapter also. It retails for around $39.95 but can be found for around $25 if you look. ------------------------------ From: Dave Taylor Subject: NES: Pin Bot Pinball games, with the little metal balls and flippers, continue to keep a niche for themselves in the increasingly video oriented arcade marketplace. Video game companyes, however, haven't taken it laying down, and every popular home video and computer system has at least one or two "video game" pinball games available, even the Nintendo GameBoy with "Revenge of the 'Gator". For the Nintendo Entertainment System, "Pin Bot" is the latest contribution to this niche, offering a single playing field (or board) and a well done 'feel' to the game. The left paddle button is the entire directional pad (a press anywhere on the pad, in any direction, is "push left flipper") and the right paddle button is "A" or "B" (they are the same in this game). Keeping the button pressed results in the paddle staying up as if on a real pinball game too, so you can 'catch' the pinball and then roll it down the flipper to aim at a specific point. The low resolution of the NES graphics, however, and the small size of the video monitor compared to an actual pinball playing area both contribute to the greatest limitation of this game; it's just bloody hard to figure out what's going on, where you are, and where you're supposed to be aiming. To ensure that the player could always see their flippers on the screen, the game 'splits' the screen when the ball moves up the playing field so that you end up with this schizophrenic top and bottom of the board displayed, but no middle! It's most confusing, and even after playing for a while it doesn't seem to become any more natural. The playing area is also at a 'cant' with the top of the playing board narrower than the bottom, so the scrolling mechanism is yet that much more confusing since you end up with a narrow-to-mid-wide section, a small black line, and then the bottom, which is much wider. It's an unfortunate attempt at a solution to this problem and one that significantly decreases the playability of the game. However, as pinball simulators go, it's quite good, and if you can overcome the difficulty of the scrolling and perspective, as well as the coarse graphics resolution on the playing area, it can be rather fun. Certainly they managed to capture much of the 'feel' of a real pinball machine, with the lights and noises, as well as the dynamics of the flippers themselves. It's not like a real pinball game (which I'm quite fond of) but it's not a bad substitute. Graphics: 5 (the Turbografx Alien Crush is vastly superior!) Sound: 8 Fun Level: 7 Overall: 6 PinBot, for the Nintendo Entertainment System from Nintendo Corporation ------------------------------ From: mfrose@caen.engin.umich.edu (Martin F. Rose ) Subject: Genesis: Target Earth In the year 2101, soon after launching an expeditionary mission to seek out new life in the cosmos, Earth is devastated by a global war. Many decades later, it is rebuilt and surpassed. New technology allows mankind to live anywhere, and space colonies soon dot all the planets in the Solar System. Bringing an end to this long period of peace and prosperity is a new enemy from the stars. Known only as "Chron", they strike out with lightning speed and fury at Earth and all its outposts! The defense forces are engaged in a valiant battle to preserve the human race, and they need your help, Rex! At the start, you are a hotshot Armored Cyborg Suit operator (not unlike the suits used in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers") at a military base on Ganymede. Suddenly, the Chron attack your base! Enemy ships and troops are swarming all around! Sure hope that gun's loaded, dude... Thus begins the first of your eight missions in TARGET EARTH, a new game for the Sega Genesis. In it, you pilot your Assault Suit and lead your troops against a ruthless, seemingly tireless foe bent on your destruction. (Melodramatic, ain't it?) The opening sequence is excellent, and should be seen in its entirety at least once. Pressing the A button or Start moves you quickly to the title page and the New Game/Options selection. Game options are fairly standard; there's a sound/music test, a game difficulty adjustment, a data room which keeps records for this power-on cycle, and adjustments for the game controls. The game includes a "Pad Reset" feature which can be enabled here; if you use it, pressing C and Start at the same time resets the game. Once the game starts, you are dropped (literally) onto a calm moonscape in a white Cyborg Suit. You are surrounded by brown Suits--friendlies. After a moment's meandering, a call comes in--the Chron are coming! Time to meet the controls: the D-button controls your movement (in all four directions, when you're in space), button B jumps and button A fires the weapon you have currently selected. Weapons can be changed by pausing and selecting with the D-button, or by pressing the C button while playing. Aiming your gun depends on your Aiming Mode, selected from the Options screen; Mode A points your gun toward the direction you move the D-button, while in Mode B, pushing up raises your gun elevation and pushing down lowers it. The graphics don't have the nifty multi-plane look of most every other Genesis game, but are still good and convey your motion nicely. Explosions are well done, though. Game sound and music are good, but not as good as Revenge of Shinobi or ThunderForce II. Completion of each stage depends on your completion of the mission given to you during that stage. Opposing you are scads and oodles of green and blue war machines shooting at you and exploding on you. Yes, enemy explosions are bad for your health, so don't get caught in a swarm of enemies or you may hurt yourself more than them. Bonus weapons appear at the end of each stage, depending on your score. Bonus points are added at the end of each round depending on how well you accomplished your mission for the round (failure to accomplish your mission results in a GAME OVER--you don't have to die to lose). Okay, let's tally up those statistics. GRAPHICS Not excellent but very good. Being the only white Suit on the screen is a definite plus, and since your movement is very crucial to gameplay, perhaps it's for the best that the background scrolling rate is no different than the foreground. This game is a good example of the Genesis rendering a complex scenario better than most competing machines could. SOUND/MUSIC Also, very good. The soundtrack is extremely varied, from acid punk to neo-classical new-age, but can get on your nerves after a long period of time. MANUAL Terrible. Aside from listing your weapons in full, the manual for this game actually tells you less about the game than I just did. In particular, it does not explain Aiming Mode B at all. DIFFICULTY Insane (and the other two difficulty levels are *harder*!). Besides surrounding you with enemies on all sides, the game designers saw fit to only give you two continues. I have achieved Stage 3 and nearly succeeded (if but for a tactical blunder on my part), and I have yet to repeat even that minor feat. Overall, I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10. It's well done, but the excessive level of difficulty makes it a frustrating experience. This game is in desperate need of some serious 'Easter eggs', though I'd settle for more continues. TARGET EARTH, for the Sega Genesis Systems from NCS, distributed in the US by Dreamworks. ------------------------------ From: Khaled Amer El-charif Subject: Genesis: DJ Boy [Note: currently, only the Japanese version of DJ BOY is available in shops and mail order companies that carry Japanese items. The menus, scores, etc... are all in English, but the manual is in Japanese. The game is an action game, though, so instuctions are not that important, and if you can read your way through Hiragana symbols, they are provided in the manual] You play DJ BOY, a roller skate champion out to rescue his kidnapped girl friend from a gang of bad dudes. This is a scrolling game on roller skates, where you have to fight your way as you skate on streets, bridges, etc..., and as you are being attacked by various thugs on roller skates, too. The skating action is fast and made more complicated by various obstacles that you have to maneuver or jump over. You can : - Punch/Kick in both directions (forward and backward) - Jump/Jump-Kick in both directions - 'Double Punch' (this is more of a defensive maneuver, as you punch in both directions at once to clear ennemies when they try to surround you). The game consists of 5 levels, Level 1: Warm-up level, good for practicing the above moves. You skate your way in the streets of a city, while being attacked by 'not-too-tough' guys. You then go into some sort of underground subway, where you also have to avoid dynamites as the bad guys attack you. Boss : Very sick idea - I don't know if the guys from Kaneco are going to change that when they release the game in the states, but as it is now, you are attacked by a huge, fat lady who tries to kick you and... knock you out by farting in your face (some sort of explosive fart, and yes, the sound is rendered very well by the 9 audio channels of the Genesis). Level 2: Pretty much similar to level 1, except for added obstacles you have to jump over, and large patches of oil where skating becomes tricky. Boss : A big guy with some sort of mechanized movement and tricky leg moves. Level 3: Inside some sort of circus, with people on mono-cycles, clowns, etc... Yes, the game gets a bit repetitive (punch, kick, punch, kick...). Boss : Two clowns mounted on springs, they move fast, oscillate back and forth, and like to explode in your face when you break them up. Level 4: The toughest level. You skate on a bridge, with a nice 'sunset' background. The bridge is full of gaps that you have to jump over, obstacles, rocks, dynamite, and bad guys. Boss: The boss here is an exact replica of yourself - your very own 'shadow' (players familiar with Double Dragon II will know what this means). Basically, your equivalent in muscles and flesh, who can do all the moves you can, so, watch out for this one - except that he is not very smart. Level 5: Here is where you have to take on all the previous bosses one after another, to reach the end of the level where you fight a fire-breather (who could make a lot more use of his fire breathing ability if he would actually try to aim the fire at you, instead of aiming it straight up in the sky). Finally, it is the 'Return of the Farting Woman' - but watch it, she now has a Karate Black belt, and she has aquired the ninja art of stealth (as ninjas disappear in a puff of smoke, she now disappears in her fart... nice twist.) At the end of every level, you can purchase power-up items (increase the maximum capacity of your energy bar, replenish your current energy bar, buy power-punches and kicks, fast roller skates, a protection helmet, or an extra-life). The graphics are nice, as expected on a Genesis/MegaDrive, with cartoon-like caracters and colors, nice backgrounds and in some levels several scrolling backgrounds for a 3-D effect. All in all, the game itself did not impress me , especially when I compared it to what can, and is being done (by a few games) on the genesis. The game gets repetitive, and because it does not offer you a large combinations of maneuvers, there is not much strategy involved. I finished the game in less than 3 hours of play (alltogether), so the money investment was less than wise, as far as I am concerned. All the bosses are very easy once you learn how to use the jump kick from a correct range, as you will be able to stay out of their reach and kick their butt, and the only level that gets a bit hairy is the one on the bridge, but by the time you get to it, you would have bought all sorts of power-ups. I somehow have the feeling that this game has been made with youger players in mind. Graphics : 8 Sound : 7 Playability : 3 Overall : 5 (rent it, or buy it if you can get it for $25 or less) DJ BOY for the Sega MegaDrive Machine (Japanese version of the Genesis) released by Sega in Japan, original game by Kaneco. DJ BOY will be released in the US by Kaneco sometime near October. ------------------------------ From: Dave Taylor Subject: NES: Ms. Pac-Man Of all the arcade video games that I've played, Pac-Man probably stands out as one of the few that I enjoyed from day one. (another is Lunar Lander, though looking at the game now I can't imagine why I thought it was so fun!). The original Pac-Man, and indeed the sequels, including Ms. Pac-Man, are all from Atari Corporation, so it isn't surprising to find that Tengen, the games developing and marketing arm of Atari Games, is responsible for an excellent port onto the Nintendo Entertainment System. Offer much more in the way of customizability than could ever be present in an arcade game, this cart allows one player, two player, various difficulty levels, various types of puzzles, and even a choice of which level to start on. With two players, we've found that the most enjoyable is "2 player cooperative" where both Pac Folk are on the screen at the same time, trying, together, to get all the power dots. When either player dies, both restart on that level, so a strategy we quickly learned was for one to dive into the midst of the ghosts while the other sits by a power pill. When totally surrounded by the bad guys, the adventurous pac player yells "NOW!" and the other eats the pill. The ghosts turn blue, and can easily be picked off! Unlike many of the clone games and games based on PacMan, Ms. Pac-Man enjoys the same straightforward game play and mechanics as the original arcade version; mazes are littered with power dots and the occasional power pill, the ghosts -- with different behaviours -- start out in a box in the center of the maze, and when eaten while blue because of a power pill, their eyes (or soul?) zip back into the middle and then re-emerge as new bad guys. One thing that is rather confusing about the Tengen version of this game, however, is that the level of resolution and size of the playing area and characters results in most mazes being larger than the screen display. This means that as you go along the mazes are often scrolling up and down (but smoothly) and it's easy to forget where the ghosts are and get zapped. With two cooperative players, in fact, it's easy to end up with one trapped because they're on opposite sides and the cart is favoring one player over the other. It's weird. The different levels of difficulty available are 'easy', 'normal', 'hard' and 'crazy'. Crazy is just that; everything goes so fast that it's almost completely impossible to control the character and you end up zooming about in a blur until you smash headlong into a ghost. It is fun, however! Reflecting the extra space on the cart as well as the problem with the screen size, there are four different types of puzzles available too, including "mini" (fitting 99% on one screen) "arcade", "big" and "strange". The arcade puzzles offer the most satisfying Pac-Man experience, and with "normal" difficulty, it's just like having an arcade PacMan game on your TV! Strange puzzles are just that; strange. They start out pretty tame but soon it's incredibly hard to get through the level; we were stuck on the level 12 maze for quite a while in cooperative mode. Once you've reached beyond the first seven levels of the game, it appears that you get infinite continues, allowing you to gradually improve your ability without having to back to puzzle #1 each game. A nice feature! Overall, this is a terrific port of the original Ms. Pac-Man game and just as enjoyable as the arcade version. It even has the "they meet" "the chase", "the stork visits" and the other amusing interludes! One thing I will say, though, is that it's fairly difficult to *not* have a joystick to use when you're playing; I continued to have 'hardware problems' and making wrong turns while playing the game. Btw: our best cooperative game score is 55,000 or so, and the current record for individual is 38,000. Graphics: 8 Sound: 8 Fun Level: 10 Overall: 9 Ms. Pac-Man for the Nintendo Entertainment System from Tengen / Atari Games. ------------------------------ From: nancy@Intuitive.Com (Nancy Louie) Subject: NES: Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Fat Cat and his evil minions are trying to take over the city and the only thing preventing this dastardly deed are the exploits of Chip 'n Dale and the Rescue Rangers! Worse, Fat Cat has actually kidnapped Gadget, everyone's favorite Rescue Ranger, and is holding her hostage! Based on the popular Disney chipmunk detectives, Chip and Dale with the help of their Rescue Ranger sidekicks, including Monterey Jack (Monty to his friends) and Zipper, must rescue their pal Gadget. One or two players must hop, jump and run through dozens of levels of amusing and inventive terrain, including a flower garden, a jumble of power lines, a chemistry lab, a diner (with hot water bubbling in the sinks!), and even some amazingly tall trees. The game terrain is full of boxes (that often hide stars, flowers, and other useful objects), apples, and other objects that can be picked up and thrown at approaching bad guys, whether they be the fearful but stupid mechanical dogs, the deadly killer bees, the robotic rats, or even the racquet roo tennis ball lobbing kangaroos. Since Chip and Dale are both pint size characters, they can also hide inside wooden crates and steel boxes, with only their blinking eyes showing through. It's a nice way to avoid getting caught when at the very last second a creature is rushing at you, and it's also a safe way to kill bad guys too, since when they touch the box you're hiding in, they die. After playing quite a few different games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, we have agreed that this is probably the best example of what a talented team of artists and animators can do with the limited NES technology, and it is a most appealing result. The graphics are quite amusing - the peering eyes when one of the characters is hiding under a box, for example, always makes us laugh - and the depth of detail as you continue through the game is amazing. One of the other funny tricks in the game is picking up the other player and carrying them around like a box or apple. It's fun to watch the hapless chipmunks' legs wiggle as he's carried around by the other player! Another thing that makes this fun is the fact that it's not just a mindless exploration game. In some areas, your timing and placement has to be just right or you'll kill yourself. It adds an extra bit to the game to make it more fun ... This is truly one of those games that shows off the capabilities of the NES setup, and is terrific fun to boot! Highly recommended for young and old alike, it's a great time for everyone, even the spectators! Graphics: 10 Sound: 10 Fun Level: 10+ Overall: 10 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, for the Nintendo Entertainment System from Capcom USA ------------------------------------- From: Dave Taylor Subject: GameBoy: Lock n' Chase Of the various video games that enjoyed tremendous popularity in the 70's boom years, perhaps none were so ubiquitious as PacMan, from Atari. Based on the premise that your character, the pacman, has to zip around a maze collecting 'power dots' while avoiding the clutches of bad-guy ghosts, it was a simple and addictive game that continues to appear in arcades around the world. With its small size and easy controls, the GameBoy seems like an ideal candidate for a translation of this early arcade game, and Data East has done just that with their nifty new Lock n' Chase title. The premise of this version is that you're a bank robber breaking through more and more difficult levels of security, trying to get to the vaunted African Star Diamond. Problem is, the police are hot on your heels and there are more of them than of you! This amusing and enjoyable cartridge features six levels of puzzle, each with three different puzzles. Most of them are simple "run around and get the dots, money bags, and diamonds, before the cops catch you" variety, but a number of interesting additions show up too, including: sleeping cops that only wake up when you run into an alarm clock (typically stuck in the middle of a narrow passageway. walls that aren't as substantial as they appear; you can sometimes sneak through a wall and avoid the cops following you! doors that open when you press on them, and close after you, allowing your escape (since the cops can't open them alone) Throughout the game you also have a weapon on hand that when used creates a temporary barrier that prevents passage. This can be good or bad; you can trap the cops in a corner - garnering points - or you can trap yourself in a dead end with the cops at the end! Walls can't appear anywhere, however; levels that allow this defense have tiny protrusions which 'support' the wall when created. Further, you can only have two walls in the maze at a time (and you can't rush their decay either, alas!) Between levels you get to spin a slot machine -- once for each diamond that you acquire along the way -- with matches giving you more lives, gold, and other useful treasures. Between levels there is also a nice animated sequence, where you dash out of the bank and into some form of escape vehicle or other (including a car, balloon, and jet pack!) and go to the next level. The last two puzzles are of special note; 6-2 is one that will probably take you quite a while to figure out since there are seemingly dots that are just plain inaccessible, and 6-3 (the last puzzle) because it's a great combination of Boxxle and the Lock n' Chase idea. Completing the last puzzle gets you a congratulatory message, followed by the credits for the game and then the information that there are yet more levels of puzzle to try!! To get to them, you press A A B B A B B while at the main titles. Worthy of note is that the game offers infinite continues, something that I feel is a vital ingredient to an enjoyable game. After all, the reason I purchase games is to have fun, not to feel that I have to spend years of my life learning how to go from 'ground zero' to the top levels of the game without losing a life. Graphics: 9 Music: 9 Fun Level: 10 Overall: 10 Lock n' Chase for the Nintendo GameBoy from Data East ------------------------------ To join this group or have your reviews appear in the next issue, please send electronic mail to Dave Taylor at the following address; digital-games@digital-games.Intuitive.Com We welcome reviews of games for any computer system, including the IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Lynx, Sega Genesis, Nintendo GameBoy, NEC TurboGrafix, Amiga and so on. The views expressed in Digital Games Review Digest are those of the individual authors only, and do not represent the views or opinions of Intuitive Systems or any of our affiliates worldwide. The copyright of each article is that of the original author, and the copyright of the digest itself, as well as the name "Digital Games Review Digest" are noted here. ********************* End of Digital Games Review Digest *********************