MIXED REVIEWS 1 ~SECOND.FIL~ ///////////// 'He who insults heaven, has MIXED REVIEWS no one to direct his prayers to' ~MOUSE.BLK~ //////////// by Slimer Confucius ----------------------------------------------------------- ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// --------- TAUTOLOGY --------- 'Time is an ever onwards moving fasttrain on the track of eternity. We jump on one of it's wagons and may ride along for only a while. It delivers all of us to our endstations were we have to jump off, because nobody is allowed to ride till the end....' Funny how strange things spring in your mind while you take a shower, hum. This is actually a review article about a game in case you didn't noticed that already. This game was originally coded for the ST by 'Delta Force' and they named it 'Match-It'. Now another democrew has done a version for the Falcon and that one goes by the name 'Tautology'. The game seems to based on the Oriental boardgame Shanghai. The playing rules are relative simple and it basically comes to matching two identical tiles with each-other within a certain period of time. However the tiles can only be matched if they can be linked by an imaginable line. Further more there are some special tiles that can be linked to a series of others. You can get stuck with some tiles that can't be reached because of the wrong use of these special tiles. You are then checkmated and the game is over. Like I said before the game is relative simple... 'Tautology' is quite comprehensive with a lot of options and features. You can choose between different sets of tiles and you also can turn the time on/off. There are many more options available. A highscore table is also present that automatically saves your achievements. The game has good graphics and runs in the true color/overscan mode on RGB monitors. It runs also on VGA monitors but the score and other information is placed outside of the screen (caused by overscan). This doesn't have to be a problem, it stays playable. The game is accompanied by a module that gets on your nerves after a while, however you can turn it off. We can conclude that 'Tautology' is a good Public Domain game with good graphics and sound. It's very addictive and you keep playing it to achieve an even higher place on the scoretable. I hope that the coder 'Mr. Pink' enhances the game to be used decently on a VGA monitor and with the mouse instead of the joystick ! Code : 7 Graphics : 7 Sound : 7 Playability : 8 (could be improved by the use of the mouse) Addiction : 9- ----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- GUTS DEMO BY ALLBRAN -------------------- In my everlasting quest for demos, I stumbled upon a new demo by an unknown crew. They go by the name of 'ALLBRAN', at least that name keeps popping up in the demo. Somehow the name seems like something coming from Middle East or so... I think that the demo must be more interpreted as being a dentro were several effects pass the revue. Those effects include plasma, a dot tunnel, zooming objects, some colorcycling, rubber balls and few other things. Everything gets thrown at you in an couple of minutes. For sound they have chosen for a looped sample which ofcourse like all looped samples gets on your nerves soon. There are only one or two really nice effects in this dentro, making it an average production. There are only a few remarks that I would like to cast upon this product of diligence. Several times the words 'Design rules' gets transformed on the screen, but which design is meant here !? I don't find the colors appealing, the effects original or the looped sample ripe for an Oscar. Beside all these things there is the sudden ending of the demo, it just stops... Code : 7 Graphics : 7 Music : 5 Overall : 7 (esp. for the fact that it runs on VGA !!) ----------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- WEIL SONDST GULLE AM BACH BY AURA --------------------------------- This 'shorttro' is already a couple months old and was made for the 'Fried Bits' coding convention in Bremen. It actually won the first price in the competition and left quite an impression on the audience. This 'shorttro' is basically a demonstration of the capabilities of the DSP chip. It's divided in two stages, the first one revolves around 1400 dots that form a cube. That cube has 'Aura'(also dots) written in the middle of it. The whole lot gets rotated and moves over the screen with an impressive speed. Quite breathtaking and restoring everyone's fate in the possibilities of the Falcon again who doubted them. Another amazing thing about this 'shorttro' is, that it is all real-time calculated, according to the ape who walks by on the screen that is. A module track is playing throughout the show, it's a 'normal' replay routine executed by the 68030. It's a pity that there is an occasional hick-up every now and then, and the music sometimes even crashes ! The second part of the 'dentro' contains 400 points connected to 200 lines. This means that all kinds of vector objects are formed on the screen. It has something of a CAD/CAM demostration. Also quite impressive. A very nice demo indeed, a pity about those bugs though.... Code : 8+ Graphics : 8 (It has an impressive title pic) Music : 7+ Overall : 8 It has to run on both RGB and VGA, but it only works properly only on my RGB ! ----------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- X-OVER DEMO BY X-OVER --------------------- I'm not quite certain if this a STE or Falcon demo (or both?)but that's not really important with this "demo". Why is "demo" standing within quotation marks you might wonder, simple, the word is to far-fetched for the program reviewed here. Lets have a look, Some 'unfilled' characters form the word 'XOVER' in the upper part of screen. After this process, the characters get filled with a blaze of colors, bringing tears to your eyes. A starfield (more like a snowstorm) unveils itself behind the colorful logo.... Hang on, there is even more, they invented a text-routine and the computer actually writes its own text ! Brilliant, clap ,clap,clap ! There are now a dozen people gazing at my monitor with eyes filled with unbelief. Who could imagine that technology would bring us all such miracles as these.... If they showed this to a couple of bushmen a century ago, the coder would have been seen as god.... The text in this single 'demoscreen' explains the cause of all this misery, the whole things revolves around a module ! According to the text-writers, the module was worth it's own demoscreen. Well it's up to you to decide if this module is that good, if I also do a run down on the module there will be nothing left ! Coding : 5 Graphics : 5 Music : 7 Overall : 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------- TECHNO DRUGS BY N.L.C. ---------------------- When Omega decided to create their 'Grotesque demo' they never could imagine that many would follow their lead. Ofcourse the kind of demo that Omega did was not an entirely new concept, but it never was that well executed. It was because of that high set standard that many tried to dethrone Omega. Even on the Falcon the slightly enhanced version of the demo is hard to beat, the Mugwumps did a good try with 'Spychedelic Knockout' though, although their concept is more based on colorcycling. Another attempt comes from N.L.C. from which I'm not sure if they are German, French or even English ? They have taken several effects from Grotesque only to insult them in a soporific 'slideshow' ! They start with the name of the demo(more a dentro)explored by a spot- light...From then on it's transforming 3D objects, spinning logos and several other effects. The lot is accompanied by a techno-module from dubious (sound) quality. All the effects pass the cathode-ray tube in a relative slow speed. There are only a few boring effects spread over quite a long period. At the end of the show all the effects pass the revue once again in a much higher speed (just like Grotesque)and the show stops. I can conclude here that this demo is far below par, especially for the Falcon. You won't catch ophthalmia from it, that's for sure..... CODING : 7 GRAPHICS : 7+ MUSIC : 7 OVERALL : 6+ (It runs of VGA though !) ------------------------------------------------------------- ------ PLUTOS ------ This is not a particular Falcon game, as a matter a fact its a ST game. So, don't expect fancy graphics or a brilliant soundtrack. The graphics are functional and so is the sound, the game must have it from it's playability. I must say that the game is quite old already, but you know how it goes when you don't have decent software for your computer. Plutos is a vertical shoot-em-up(though I rather prefer shoot em' down)with a small difference. With normal shoot-em-ups you don't have to worry about fuel, except for Plutos that is. If you don't manage to shoot enough fuel objects, you become a sitting duck. There waves and waves of baddies coming down to shoot at and there are also other objects to destroy. When I switched on my accelerator things moved twice as fast, making the game almost impossible to play. Even on the VGA it's quite tough. The game is PD and can be obtained from most of the PD libraries. Lets hope that somebody does a full colour/DSP version of the game(hint), till then..... CODE : 8- GRAPHICS : 6 SOUND : 5 PLAYABILITY : 8 OVERALL : 7+ --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ STARDUST TUNNEL SEQUENCE CONVERTED BY AGGRESSION ------------------------------------------------ Here we go with another demoversion of a game. This time it is a game converted from the Amiga to the Falcon. Well, game is a bit exaggerated in this case, it's only a part of it. I don't know what the actual game looks like but the converted part looks rather nice. I'm a bit sceptical about the release of a fully working version as many previews on the Falcon never made it to a mature version. Lets hope that Aggression finishes this project, we could use some good games ... LETS TAKE A LOOK, Lets see what Aggression has so far ... The opening screen is a black screen with 'Stardust' drawn on it in gold. Shortly after that you get dropped in the middle of the tunnel sequence of the game. Module sound accompanies the spaceship as it makes it's way through the blue squared tunnel. The tunnel is filled with hundreds of 'golden' objects that come flying towards the spaceship. You must dodge them or take them out with your onboard laser cannons. You can either use the joystick or the keyboard to do this (about the mouse I'm not sure). When a 'golden' object gets hit, it will explode. There are some nice soundeffects to make it even more spectacular. The graphics effects, especially the explosions are nicely done and look realistic. The instrument panel with the score and other stuff on it, isn't really working yet. After the short but exciting journey the end is near ... A screen with dot explosions (dot fireworks) and information pops up. I franticly press the spacebar, esc and any other button on my battered keyboard but no avail, the resetbutton is the only way out. A bit slovenly from the part of the coders. On the other hand the demo works on both RGB and VGA monitors. Well, it's no use giving this demo any ratings because I rather test the fully working version of the game ! ----------------------------------------------------------------- ~MINT.PAL~