============================================================================== Rock 'N' Roll Clams Disk .............. 2 disk Caspian Software HD Install ........ Yes Atari ST/STe/TT030 and Falcon030 Double-sided Drive req. Suggested Retail ...... $ 39.95 Minimum Memory .... 1 Meg STeve's Price ......... $ 34.95 Rating ............ Excellent You Save .............. $ 5.00 Contoller ......... Joy/Pad STeve's Item Number ... # 23541-A Monitor ........... Color ============================================================================== Falcon030 Owners... This game will work ============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STeve's NOTE: Will work with the new Jaguar Powerpad. Powerpads are compatible with STe/Mega STe/TT030 and Falcon030... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PreFace - About the Game... """"""""""""""""""""""""""" "There's a Motion in the Ocean..." Help Caspar Clam and Band Shake, rattle and roll their way from the Bottom of the Ocean to the Top of the Charts! Get out of your shell and hang on to your pearls as you send the Record Business into a spin!!! Get ready for twice the fune and twice the action as you and another player race against each other to be the first to form your band. Not only will you have the regular game obstacles to contend with but you can also make things difficult for your rival, so watch out! You only have a limited amount of time, so go spin your Clam through screen after screen of fast arcade action, collection the various instruments and power-ups that will help you to claim your fame! This game features FAST SCROLLING (Reminds me of Sonic the Hedge Hog) and with an Atari STe/Mega Ste/TT030 and Falcon030 you have the option to use the new PowerPad. All versions feature Music and sound effects and yes Rock 'N' Roll Clams may be installed on your hard drive... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NEXT TITLE ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| --------------------------------- """""""""" --------------------------------- ============================================================================== CANNON FODDER Disk ............. 3 disk by SENSIBLE SOFTWARE HD Install ....... NO for Atari ST/STe Minimum Memory ... 1 MEG Suggested Retail ...... $ 59.95 Supports: ........ N/A STeve's Price ......... $ 49.95 Rating ........... A MUST HAVE You Save .............. $ 10.00 Controller ....... Mouse STeve's Item Number ... # 23011-A Monitor .......... Color ============================================================================== Falcon030 Owners... This game will work ============================================================================== Preface - About the Game... """"""""""""""""""""""""""" G. Richard Yamagata Copyright 1994 All Rights Reserved """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" CANNON FODDER (CF) is, in my opinion, the best commercial game release of 1994 (so far and there is nothing else that I have heard being planned that comes even close). ST Format agrees and ranked it a massive 93% and gave it the coveted ***ST FORMAT GOLD*** award rating! This game is by SENSIBLE SOFTWARE, the company that produced SENSIBLE SOCCER and MEGA-LO-MANIA, both ***RATED ST FORMAT GOLD*** classics that defined their genres, soccer simulation and 'god' game. All other games of those types are measured against these SENSIBLE games! I could compare the game play of CF with some other game to give you an idea of what it is like; but heck, this is a unique game, a stunningly new concept in game play execution for the ST! Where other games pale and are down right boring (like OMNITREND's BREACH), this is fast, fierce, real time arcade action. You hesitate, you think, and your squad is dead! Like real war, only intuitive reaction from actual combat experience will get your group through to the next level or mission. THE GAME PLAY CANNON FODDER is basically a tactical military simulation taken at the squad level. Before each level of action starts, a briefing screen tells you exactly what you must achieve to finish the level. These start out simply, ordering you to kill all enemy troops. They progress to destroying buildings, vehicles, and saving hostages. You control a squad, each trooper depicted on the screen with his own name, rank and abilities. They are led around the screen by left mouse clicks. You basically shoot the enemy and blow up their buildings and vehicles with right mouse clicks. The weapons are machine gun, grenades and rocket launchers, each with their unique characteristics -- but explosive! But the variety does not stop there, at higher levels you get to load your troops on tanks, jeeps, skidoos (a half tracked vehicle for snow), and the crowning touch of all, a helicopter! And from each you can fire unique weapons, like high explosive shells from the tank's cannon, or 60mm burst from the chopper's machine guns. The enemy buildings range from primitive huts to cabins to gun emplacements and bunkers. The terrain is also varied with unique characteristics of which you must take stock to succeed from jungle to desert to arctic and to rocky mountains with deep gorges. Taking in all this variety, each mission is a unique learning experience! The mouse interface is simplistic and easy to master. You can split your squad into 3 groups and control all easily. The advantage of multiple groups is that you can create a massive crossfire that just cleanses the screen of the computer controlled enemy. Accessible by mouse click in the lower left hand corner of the game's play screen is a map overview icon. This map function is necessary for success in playing this game, for without it you do not have any idea where your mission targets are located, let alone where you are. With 25 single or multi-level missions (a total of over 60 levels) you will be hard pressed to finish this game. Each level is successively harder, starting from trivially easy to insanely vicious, but CF's progression of difficulty is evenly paced and not unfair. And, it is not just the enemy soldiers and their progressive use of vehicles that keep you interested and on your toes. Like in real war you have to worry about LANDMINES, booby traps, quick sand, and a river dwelling green thing that munches your men unless you shoot it. The beauty of CANNON FODDER does not end there. Not only is it an exercise in graphic and animation diversity, the programmers have well thought out the artificial intelligence routines of the computer controlled enemy troops. An example of this, I had used 1 too many handgrenades and needed just 1 more. Right besides the last building I needed to blow up with that 1 grenade to finish off the level was a stack of them. I moved the squad in to snatch them up and suddenly from all directions and from the door of the building, enemy troops appeared and wiped out my squad in a deadly crossfire. It takes some forethought and programming skills to pull off such a well orchestrated ambush, and so nicely baited. Another fine touch, if your troops outnumber the enemy, some retreat to blend into the tree line, only to run out when your back is turned and open fire upon your squad. This excellently planned action does not end with these examples, enemy troop armed with rocket launchers, enemy tanks, enemy helicopters, etc., all are programmed with their unique set of tactics that become increasingly difficult to cope with at higher mission levels. CRITICISMS This brings me to the difficulty that I have in actually purchasing CF for my family. What I have to mention are the gruesome graphics. As you shoot the enemy, bloody bits of them fly about the screen. You can continue to shoot them, blasting their red pulpy bodies, so as to make their red smears traverse the screen. On top of this, you can wound an enemy soldier, blowing him open with red entrails hanging out, and he will be wiggling his arms in pain and shooting at you at the same time. For the ultimate in horror, the same thing can happen to one of your troop. All you can do is put him out of his misery and blast your buddy into a bloody pulp. It must be noted the size of these characters are only 3/4ths of an inch tall, but it shows how much a creative artist can depict using limited space and pixels. You may ask why I would even worry or concern myself with the adult realism of the game. I have a 3 year old that loves to play LEMMINGS THE TRIBES and the two THOMAS TANK ENGINE games. I just as soon not have something like this in the house. There is all this talk about the need of a rating system on software. I say if the parents just sit down and play test the software before letting the kids get a hold of it and apply some common sense, they do not need a rating system, let alone government intervention and regulation. Secondly, saying that CF is an accurate wargame simulation is an understatement. It is so realistic, I think it would induce delayed combat stress in even Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf. As an example, after getting troopers Jools and Jops through 4 missions, comprising 5 or 6 levels, Sgt. Jools was leading his squad of 4, when suddenly someone stepped on a mine. While stunned from the explosion and loosing 3 men, the enemy came charging in from 3 directions firing, and in a few seconds everyone in the squad was dead. This is truly a grunt's worse nightmare! This is not a game for young children and combat veterans that suffer from the DTs. It may be that for some, this realism is an excellent reason to purchase and play this arcade-combat simulation. REDEEMING FEATURES CANNON FODDER is not just a game of bloody death and destruction. You must try to get as many of your squad through the mission to be used in the next. This not only is a redeeming feature of the game -- trying to establish a value upon your soldiers' on-going survival, but it also increases the shelf life of the game. You can play over and over, trying to improve upon your mission survival rate and get your squad leader promoted to the highest rand possible by the end of mission 25. Each member that thus survives is promoted and in turn his bullets and rockets travel farther, attributed to his growing combat experience. Members that are killed are replaced with buck privates with limited shooting range. Also, your number of replacements seems to limited to a platoon, 52 individuals. Once these are all gone, you must restart the game from mission 1. But, you have the magic of the save game option. You can save the game at any level and return to it, if you have a favorite group of intrepid troopers you have grown fondly attached to, which you will. This in itself makes CF a wonderful game with which to unwind. You can play a level, save it and come back later. It also has a pause function you can use to freeze the action to recover your wits when the action gets fast, furious and the fortunes of war turn against you. And if you just let the program sit on the loading screen, a CF tune starts issuing forth from the speaker. The song is reminiscent of MONEY, by PINK FLOYD, but instead of MONEY it is WAR! This sampled song is pretty catchy and a treat to experience all by itself. And why the song? It is to get you in the mood for WAR! In the final analysis CANNON FODDER is a superiorly programmed combat simulation with an arcade flavor. This game should be a welcome addition to almost anyone's software library, especially the ST game connoisseur that collects only the games that are destined to be classics. I would like to thank STeve Kipker for letting me extensively play test this game at his shop, STeve's Atari SALES! in Woodland, CA.