ST SOFTWARE NEWS by Richard Karsmakers
Long time no seein', and that's why I again have a lot of
programs up my sleeve to talk about in this issue of ST NEWS.
After an example of Mr. Wim Denie of the SAG, I will from now on
give all games a simple rating, scaled from 1 (extremely utterly
horrible vomitingly bad) to 10 (God damn bleedin' excellent).
Let's start right away with the worst program to appear on the ST
software market since the launch of the previous issue of ST
NEWS: "Indiana Jones" by U.S. Gold. Expectations were very high
for this game, and these even raised to heights much like my
phonebill when I saw the truly impressive front picture - the
head of the one and only Harrison "Indy" Ford accompanied by the
movie logo "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". I remembered
the screenshots I had seen from the arcade version (and which can
also be found on the back of the package) and I didn't have much
trouble imagining myself sitting behind my poor ST until the sun
would rise again beyond the far away horizon - desperately
fighting for the very end in a maze of caves and rail circuits
while evading monsters and other rabble with a melting joystick
in my heavily sweating hands. But it just wasn't to be like that.
I listened to the first notes of the popular movie tune touching
my inner ear and started wondering. Why would they have written
such a daft tune in which the original composition was barely
recognisable in a game of such high standards? Or.....wouldn't it
be a game of these suspected high standards? Pressing the
firebutton acknowledged my sudden fears, revealing the actual
game: A fiasco that would even make the programmer of the
horizontal scroll in "Gauntlet" blush to the roots of his hair.
The actual game graphics really are no match whatsoever to the
arcade version, the scrolling is really terrible (both horizontal
as well as vertical!) and the animation is not what I would call
'swell' either. The only thing of which the player can perhaps
sense that is must have been really good is the actual musical
compositions. Although converted into ultimately clumsy beeps and
bleeps, the composition can be heard to have been good in its
basics. When looking at a game like this "Indiana Jones", I
really feel ashamed to have an ST and just wish that the
programmers would have waited a year or so longer to finish their
game (hoping that it would be better in that case). Real trash,
this one! My rating (and I feel I'm being extremely generous): 5.
Much more fun to play is Infogrammes new game "Sidewalk". In the
game, you're a person whose motorbike has been pinched. By
scavenging town and talking to all kinds of lowlife, you'll have
to find back all parts of your bike so that you have easier means
of transportation. This seemingly simple quest has to be
performed in an adventure-like environment, where the joystick is
key to your success - a joystick-driven adventure, so to speak.
The graphics are very well drawn (black'n'white graphics on a
color monitor, very cartoon-like and funny sometimes), the music
is what I'd like to call 'alive', the sound effects are very good
and the setup is one flooded with humour. During gameplay, one
runs into all kinds of people, varying from flower-power
guitarists to scum that's very good in handling clubs and other
slamming-gear. When meeting a character in the game, you can
choose if you want to ask something, you can run or you can
choose to fight. Asking seems like a real pacifistic way of
completing the game, but the games itself determines what you
ask. And if it decided to let you ask the time, you'll probably
get the answer "You've got a watch yourself, birdbrain!". A very
nice game to play. I'd consider giving it a 7.5 as rating.
The U.S. company Analog has also recently published a very nice
game. It's called "Floyd the Droid on the Run" and is really very
simple: You are Floyd that can shoot in eight directions, and you
have to blow away one object from the screen on level one, two on
level two, etc. (until the computer gets an overflow, I suppose).
The intro music is a little bit daft (even out of tune
sometimes?), but this is largely compensated by some good
digitized stuff that's included in the game to make it fill a
single sided disk I suppose. Graphics are a little bit large but
very well drawn (I bet you've always wanted to shoot a C-64
system - now's your chance!). Just don't shoot the Atari signs,
as they give you energy if you touch them. A very addictive game
indeed - I'd give it a 7.
Alligata has made all ST users happy with their new game
"Addictaball". This is, in fact, a game very much like all
"Arkanoid"-like games, but very soon you'll find out that it has
this touch of difference ("Vive la Difference"): The blocks that
you'll have to bust away are constantly scrolling down, thus more
than once manouvering you into very hazardous situations
(because, as you might have guessed, you are not allowed to touch
any of these). The setup is thus just different from the other
"Breakout" games, which makes it fun to play in spite of the fact
that it's 'again another one of those games'. The biggest
disadvantage is the copy-protection of the game, which nearly
kills my Cumana disk drive when checking it (which is done every
time a game is started). I hope I can present them my drive's
repair-bill next time it's busted. Hmm. I think it's worth an 8,
but I really dislike the fact that they torture my poor disk
drive, so I'd give an 8-.
The Public Domain circuit has also experiences some nice
additions recently. Suddenly, all crackers seem to start writing
demos (although none of them actually succeed in making anything
equal in quality to the TEX stuff - more about one of their
upcoming demo later). The 42-Crew has recently done a demo in
which they use many colors, scrolling, music and digitzed speech
in the intro. Not really stunning, but I would definately not be
able to do it myself...
From HCC (not to be mistaken by Hobby Computer Club in the
Netherlands) a demo called "Colorshock" came forth. Indeed - some
good artwork, many (many!) colors and some music make this a very
nice demo indeed.
But the best demo to be conceived in the past couple of weeks is
TNT-Crew's "Love Spy" demo. It features a high-quality music mix
that takes about four and a half minute to listen to, a 'game' in
which you have to blast away Amiga logos (I really like that
part). A part of the demo containing a couple of hundred colors
is also very impressive. The actual demo (with the digitized
"Love Spy" music mix - I think it sounds somewhat like the "Bad
Cat" tune at some moments) features graphics color animation,
scrolling and digitized music at once (something that was thought
to be impossible on the ST - and which was often said by those
stupid Amiga users). It only works on color, one megabyte and a
double sided disk drive.
But let's return to commercial software once again. There's
Strategic Simulations Inc.'s new game "Rings of Zilfin". It's not
one of those games I really like playing, but I can safely say
that it's very well presented, designed with good graphics and
very reasonable sound effects. In the game, you're a man with a
price on his head (placed there by the forces of evil) that has
to start a quest in search for the Rings of Zilfin. For the
freaks, I think this game rates at 8.5 (you can even select
difficulty levels). For normal people, I'd give it a 7.
From Electronic Arts is "The Bard's Tale", a game that was
originally written for the Commodore 64 and Amiga. I am glad to
be able to tell you that the ST version beats both other versions
(also that from the Amiga, although the music is of course a bit
better there). The game starts up with a swell picture of the
bard playing his lute (a picture that is not even present in the
Amiga version, haha!) and after some time of loading starts.
First, you have to establish a group of magicians, conjurers,
hunters and other various people that can start wondering around
in the land of "The Bard's Tale". It is a kind of adventure,
which is a crossing between "Alternate Reality" and "Phantasie".
The graphics (and animation) are good (you actually see life-like
wizards, hobgoblins and other creatures). Sound is moderate. I'd
give a 7,5.
Also from Electronic Arts is their new music program "The Music
Construction Set", based on the original Commodore 64 version but
with slick touches from Amiga's "Deluxe" music tool and some
additions that may be called ST-specific (such as MIDI options).
Basically, the program offers the same options as Activision's
"The Music Studio", but the MIDI options are not as elaborate.
More about "The Music Construction Set" in an upcoming issue.
A program about which you can also read more (a full review, to
be more precise) in an upcoming issue of ST NEWS is Electronic
Arts' "Marble Madness". I have had the pleasure of playing it
recently, and I must admit that it's almost equal in quality to
the Amiga version (except for the sound, of course). The graphics
are great and the scrolling and general animation is also good.
One of the better games on the ST now!
People seem to make a sport a making as many "Breakout" clones as
possible. Now, Cursorsoft has launched a very compact program
called "Chamber". It's a very fast and smooth non-nonsense
program that consists of two pictures and about 17 Kb of program.
That's what I call no-nonsense! Luckily, you can select between
moderately fast movements and ultra-fast movements by pressing
the right-and left mousebuttons respectively. I'd give it a 7.
By the way: Here's a trick for "Arkanoid", supplied to us by our
Belgian reader David Ewan: When the coinup screen is displayed
(and loading has stopped), you should press "CAPSLOCK" and then
type "DEATHSTAR". If you then go on you can play the game and go
to the next level by pressing "S". Also try "CAPSLOCK" and then
typing "PAJ" (the programmer's initials) and see what happens...
But the best "Breakout" clone yet conceived (and I am actually
afraid that this one has finally beaten "Arkanoid"...) is ASL's
"Impact". The graphics are good, there are even more bonus
elements, an editor is supplied with the program, the sound
effects are really terrific (be they digitized), the animation is
perfectly smooth, and it has an addictability rating of 10 on the
scale of Plutos! Laser-resistant blocks, more different bonuses
and the superb sound make it utterly attractive. I'd give it a 9!
From the German company Kingsoft comes "Soccer King". In spite of
the fact that this is the first actual soccer program (not some
kind of stupid football manager), I fear it isn't really superb.
It is better than the Commodore 64 version of the popular game,
but I still feel that it can be done a lot better on the ST. I
just hope that the Microdeal "Soccer" that will be launched on
November 20th will be better! The graphics are a bit rude,
playability isn't as good as the '64 version and the horizontal
scrolling is even worse than the one found in "Gauntlet". No.
This is a 6,5.
In the previous issue of ST NEWS, you could already read
something about a demo slideshow of a drawing program called
"Spectrum". This was not yet another drawing program, but a tool
that would allow you to useALL of the ST's 512 colors at once on
the screen. Well, the program has been launched now and I have
been able to work with it for a short while, in which a got two
impressions: Not really userfriendly, but bleedin' good!
According to some of the demo pics (e.g. a Sun), stunning stuff
must be possible using this program. Pity I didn't find a routine
to use these pics in your own programs. I hope to feature a full
preview of this game in an upcoming issue of ST NEWS. For those
of you who are interested: The program is for sale through Antic,
and a lotta picture using 3-512 colors can be fetched from a
bulletin board in the U.S. In case you have the immediate desire
to let your telephone bill rise to heights much like mine, you
should not hesitate to contact them (the actual writers are TRIO
Engineering) at Download Library 12 of the U.S. CompuServe (type
GOATARI16). Together with Digital Vision, they are now working on
a program that will allow an effective number of about 25,000
colors in a digitized picture with the Computer Eyes hardware
(the Amiga's HAM mode only has about 3000 colors). So that's
something to reckon with, I gather. An 8.
The Cinemaware (Mindscape) product "Defender of the Crown" has
also finally reached the legions of fanatic ST users. I have had
the chance to play with it for a while just before this issue of
ST NEWS was completed, and I hope to feature a full review in an
upcoming issue. For those of you who can't wait: The graphics are
similar to the Amiga version, the music (by David Whittaker) is
excellent, some additional sequences are added (that were NOT
present on the Amiga version) and the plot is still quite boring
but a little more difficult than Amiga users were used to. The
product features high quality and I'd give it a 9.
Another product that I have only seen slightly (and of which a
true review will be published in an upcoming issue of ST NEWS) is
Palace Software's "Barbarian - The Ultimate Warrior". Reasonable
graphics, good digitized sound effects (good music), delicious
sadistic plot (knockin' someone head off, for example), etc. An
8.
A program that might very well be the best 3D shoot-'em-up is
Novagen's "Backlash" of which I have seen a preview version. I
hope to be able to review this one soon as well! I think it would
be a 9,5...
In exchange for some ST NEWS promotion in their new demo, I have
agreed to launch a truly extensive promotion campaign for the new
demo to be launched by The Exceptions (the people that also do
the music for ST NEWS) in cooperation with the Dutch Muggers
Association (nice to hear that these frustrated "Farmsong" guys
can also do something different than just making dirty programs).
This new demo, that will be appropriately called "B.I.G. Demo"
(although nobody yet knows what B.I.G. actually stands for), is
supposed to be ready within two months after the launch of this
issue of ST NEWS. Everybody must have heard of the previous demos
by TEX already: "TEX Demo II", "TEX Demo III" and the "TEX Super
Neochrome Dia Show" (with border scrolling!). They have already
said several times that they will quite making demos, but it
seems that DMA has now talked them into a truly giant and
stunning demo-project. The new TEX demo is supposed to include
ALL musical compositions that Rob Hubbard ever made on the
Commodore 64 uptil now (although, according to TEX' music
programmer, Mad Max, "W.A.R." is very difficult and "Knuckle
Buster" will probably turn out to be impossible on the ST as it
uses Commodore-64 specific soundchip hardware tricks), many
impressive graphics (also in the border), several scrollings (of
which one, the one in the border, will turn out to be of world-
record length - 32 Kb!), and of course a great many colors on the
screen (at least, far more than the regular 16 colors). At the
moment that I write this, over 60 pieces of music were already
finished, and they were working hard on the graphics and the
codeing. ES from TEX even went as far as to confide to me that
their machinelanguage specialist, - ME -, will explain all there
is to know with regard to using border graphics at the very end
of the world-record length scrolling message. The demo will still
work on a half-megabyte machine and single sided disk drive, and
therefore they will have to use bootcode and advanced crunching
techniques (512 Kb on a single sided disk with no extra tracks,
so said ES, is very difficult indeed). Keep an eye on this or
similar columns of mine in ST NEWS or other magazines! This new
TEX demo will, as they like to put it, "Stun the demo world all
over the globe". Pfff. That's something to watch out for, I'd
say. When I wrote this, Mad Mad has already finished the musical
compositions for "Gerry the Germ" (7 tunes), "International
Karate" (the 10-minute tune), "Samantha Fox Strip Poker" (2 tunes
as well as several sound effects), "Warhawk", "Thrust", "Action
Biker" (a Rob Hubbard oldie, all 3 tunes included), "Formula
One", "Commando" (3 tunes, rewritten from "TEX Demo II"), "Hunter
Patrol", "Monty on the Run" (all 3 tunes revamped), "Chimera"
(both tunes, of which one was included in the previous issue of
ST NEWS), "Crazy Comets" (2 tunes, improved versions of the ones
included in "TEX Demo III"), "Battle of Britain", "Human Race"
(all five tunes, if which the fourth is better known to ST owners
as the tune from Microdeal's "Goldrunner"), "One Man and his
Droid" (improved "TEX Demo III" version), "Auf Wiedersehen Monty"
(these are a massive 13 tunes, of which the title tune was
included in the "TEX Super Neochrome Dia Show" - now without the
use of a digital drumkit), "The Last V8", "Flash Gordon", "Star
Paws" (three tunes), "Sanxion" (loading music as well as the
original music), "Delta" (many tunes, and an additional "Delta
Preview" track), "Confusion", "Bump, Set and Spike" and lots
more. The latest version of the preview I received contained some
good graphics, rasters and 86 musix (in 96 kb music data). I
think I can safely give a rating to this one already: 10!
Now, let's start with the list of software that has to come out
for the ST soon. In this table, the following conventions are
used: * Means that the game is launched already; # Means that a
demo has been seen; ~ Means that screenshots of the ST version
have been seen.
- Rainbird: Time and Magic, Under Westminster's Bridge, Knight
Orc*, Tracker*, Gnome Ranger, Universal Military Simulator, Dick
Special#, Jinxter#, Carrier Command#, Advanced OCP Art Studio*
- U.S. Gold: Indiana Jones*, Solomon's Key, Gauntlet II~, Masters
of the Universe, Charlie Chaplin~, Impossible Mission II (from
Epyx), Outrun#, Alternate Reality II, Famous Courses of the
World (extension for Leaderboard)
- Microdeal/Michtron: Goldrunner II#, Omega Run#, Leather Neck#,
Airball*, Airball Construction Kit*, Tanglewood#, War Heli#
(from Argonica), Make it Move II*, Journey into the Lair (with
laserdisk), Fright Night#, Tune Up*, Soccer, Strikey's Revenge
(from Strike-a-Light), GfA Basic Companion*, Perfect Match*
(Soccer, Tanglewood and Leatherneck are imminent releases - date
set to November 20th 1987)
- Psygnosis: Terrorpods*, Barbarian*, a new space shoot-'em-up
game of which the name is not yet known#
- Ocean/Imagine: Whizball#, Head over Heels, Eco#, Army Moves#,
Where time stood Still, Top Gun, Slapfight, Renegade will be
launched after all (?!?!), Deathstar, Tai Pan*, Combat School,
Platoon
- Starsoft (Germany): The Last Disk Utility*, Copystar 2.2*
- Microprose: Kennedy Approach, F-15 Strike Eagle*, Gunship,
Airborne Ranger, Project: Stealth Fighter, Moebius
- Activision: Super Sprint~, Enduroracer#, Rampage, Lock On,
Championship Sprint, Wonder Boy, Championship Baseball, Game
Maker (including Library disks), Portal, Quartet, Spindizzy,
Larrie~
- System 3: Bangkok Knights, The Last Ninja, International Karate
II
- Novagen: Backlash*, Mercenary II: Damocles
- Domark: Jeffrey Archer (Not a Penny more not a Penny less),
Star Wars
- Infogrammes: Les Passengers du Vent II*, TNT*, L'Affaire,
Sidewalk*, The Three Musketeers, Precipe, Waterski World
Championship~, Prohibition II, Get Dexter II, Stryfe II,
Pigalle, Tin Tin, Crafton II, Phoenix
- The Edge: Risk, Warlock, Inside Outing, Garfield, Fairlight
Trilogy, Bobby Bearing
- Virgin: Deluxe Scrabble, Dan Dare
- Martech: Zoids
- Tynesoft: Blood Seven
- Micro Illusions: Faery Tale, Land of Legends, Turbo, Galactic
Invasion, Firepower, Musix X
- Nexus: Micronaut One, Nexus, Chameleon~
- Audiogenic: Impact*
- Sierra on Line: Police Quest, Thexdor, Space Snatchers,
Mickey's Space Adventure, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the
Lounge Lizards*, Space Quest 2
- Magister: Powers of Armelin
- Elite: Buggyboy, Battleships, 1942, Paperboy
- Firebird: Enlightment, Bubble Bobble~, Thrust, Warhawk, Harvey
Headbanger, Mission Genocide, Pandora, Black Lamp, Genesis#
- Electronic Arts: Marble Madness*, Bard's Tale*, Skull Diggery*,
Music Construction Set*, Deluxe Paint, Return to Atlantis,
Empire*, Earl Weaver Baseball
- Mirrorsoft/Master Designer/Mindscape: Spitfire '40, The Bermuda
Project, Deja Vu, Shadowgate, Uninvited, Defender of the Crown*,
Sinbad, King of Chicago, Orbiter, Falcon, PT 109, 3D Helicopter,
Fleet Street Publisher V1.1*
- Eidersoft: Pro Sound Designer monochrome versie, Xenon,
Metropolis*, Pro Midi, Pro Light, Pro Drum
- Melbourne House: The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Aargh,
Metropolis (kinda Brataccas), Roadwars, Rockford, Kelly-X
- Digital Research: GEM Draw+, GEM Graph, GEM Wordchart, GEM
Write, GEM Paint
- Brøderbund: Print Shop, Karateka, Lode Runner, Print Shop under
GEM
- Computer Concepts: FastBasic*, Calligrapher
- PSS: Spy Catcher, Battlefield Germany, Leathernecks, Fortress
America, Final Frontier
- Beam Team: X Synth Transformer*, X Notes, X Script
- EH Services: Erebus*
- Palace Software: Starship, Barbarian Warrior*
- Precision Software: Superbase Professional, Paint Pro, Text Pro
- Mastertronics: Chopper, Outcast/Renegade*, Turbo ST, Strike*,
Tasar
- English Software: Leviathan, Elektraglide, Knight Games
- Sublogic: Scenery disks voor FS II, Jet, Star Scenery Disks~
- Strategic Simulations Inc./Origin: Phantasie III*, Auto Duel*,
Ultima IV*, Shards of Spring, Rings of Zilfin*, Ogre*
- Llamasoft: Colourspace II#, Die Filth# (like Gridrunner on the
good old VIC 20 and Commodore 64)
- Loriciels: Bob Winner*
- Faster than Light: Dungeon Master#, Sundog II, RPV#, Oids#
- Infocom: Stationfall*, Hollywood Hijinx*, Bureaurocracy*,
Lurking Horror*, Nord & Bert couldn't make Heads and Tails of
it, Plundered Hearts, Beyond Zork
- Pengiun: The Coveted Mirror
- Final Frontier: Space MAX, Lunar MAX
- Jagfire: Alien Fires
- Micropool: Nuclear Embargo
- Microleague: WWF Wrestling*, Microleague Baseball*
- Beyond: Star Trek
- Konami: Nemesis
- Logotron: Xor
- Accolade: Hardball*, Test Drive~
- Tommy Software: Dizzy Wizard*, Trash Heap*
- D3M: Tonic Tile*, Football~
- Polarware: Frak & Ernest Adventure, Guitar Wizard, Rainy Day
Games
- GfA Systemtechnik: GfA Draft Plus*, GfA Basic V3.0, GfA Movie#,
GfA Basic V2.02*
- Rainbow Arts: Bad Cat*, Street Gang, Sky Fighter*, Down at the
Trolls~, Dragon's Flight#
- Atari: Crack'ed*, Moonbase
- Starsoft (U.S.): Aliants*
- Creative Computer Design: Tempus*, Tempus Word
- Antic Publishing: Cyber Studio*, CAD 3D V2.0*, G.I. Sound
Tool*, Spectrum (512-colors drawing program)*
- G DATA: G-Diskmon II*, G-RAMDisk II*, AS Sound Sampler II*,
Disk Help, Interprint (versions with and without RAMdisk),
Harddisk Help & Extension
- Progressive Peripherals and Software: Wizard
- Go! (Probe): Trantor#
- Omikron: Omikron Basic*, Omikron Basic Compiler*
- Codemasters: BMX Simulator, Grand Prix Simulator
- Alligata: Addictaball*
- CRL: Academy (Tau Ceti II)*
- Ubi-soft: Iron Lord, Zombie
- Aackosoft: Flight Deck, Police Academy II, Indy 500
- Pandora: Into the Eagle's Nest*
- Durell: Saboteur II
- Adventuresoft: Bushido
- Kuma: K-Roget*, K-Rikki, K-Occam, K-Scope, K-Expert, K-Spread
2*, K-Graph 2*, K-Word 2*, K-Comm 2*, K-Switch (MEGA ST Version
in preparation)*
- Advance: Butch Hardguy
- Cascade: Air Combat Emulator II
- Systems Architecture: The Ancient Mariner, Dimension 45
- Hybrid Arts: MIDI Maze# (spel)
- System Exclusive: ICONIX
- Steinberg: Pro-24 v. 2.2*, Masterscore
- Caged Artist: FB01/DX 21/27/100 Editor, Kaway K3 Editor,
Oberheim Matrix-6 Editor, Lexicon PCM70 Editor
- Compu-Mates: Korg DW Synth-droid
- C Lab: X-Alyzer, Creator
- Aegix: Perfect Patch, Four Patch+
- Jellinghaus: C-Mix
- Gremlin: Alternative Games, Lineker's Soccer, Blood Valley, 3D
Galax*, Night Raider
- Avant Garde Systems: PC-Ditto (IBM Emulator; color as well as
monochrome versions available)*
- Hewson Associates: Ranarama, Uridium(*?)
- Gilsoft: Professional Adventure Writer
- Proco Products: ProCopy 1.41*
- Prism Leisure: Addictive, Endurance, Football Manager II, Turbo
ST
- Quicksilva: Terramex
Note with regard to the trustability of this list: This list of
software to be launched soon is based upon the latest news that I
have gained from letting others and myself call software houses
and reading a lotta computer magazines (thanks to Adrie "Rambo"
van der Weÿden). System 3 is a company that you can call several
times on one day and then you will hear different things with
regard to "The Last Ninja". At least, some graphics are ready so
the game should be ready as well within some time (rumours about
it not coming out at all are hereby discarded). Since programmers
at Ocean seem to die on the job (angry wives hit them on the
heads with kitchen equipment, they get a heartattack behind their
computer, etc.), nothing is sure with regard to their releases.
"Renegade" was positively NOT going to be launched ever on the ST
some weeks ago, but recently Mr. Miles Rowland told me it was
being launched after all. I'll try to keep all of you posted in
the next months before Christmas...
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.