Subject: REVIEW: Four shareware games by Incinerplex
From: [email-masked] (Eyal Teler)
Date: 8 Nov 1994 15:51:45 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAMES

	Incinerator
	Checkers Conquest
	Mangled Fenders
	Conundrum

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Four shareware games by Pete W Storonskij - two arcade games and two
thinking games.  The reviewed versions are the unregistered games.  A
further review of the registered versions may follow in the future.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Incinerplex Games, Pete W Storonskij
	Address:	200 A Street
			Lincoln, NE 68502
			USA

	E-mail:		[email-masked]

	The unregistered versions are available on Aminet:
		Incinerator		game/shoot/Incinerator.lha
		Checkers Conquest	game/think/Checkers.lha
		Mangled Fenders		game/misc/MangledFendersDe.lha
		Conundrum		game/think/Conundrum.lha

LIST PRICE

	$10 (US), or the equivalent in any (relatively stable) currency.

	This price is for five games - the four mentioned, plus an improved
version of Incinerator, Castle Incinerator, featuring different graphics.

	$10 is the latest offer, and earlier offers exist for the separate
programs (some of them, at least), so registering just some of the games
should be possible.

	Alternatively you can send a PD program you wrote yourself
(shareware, freeware...).

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	Should work on any Amiga, although the documentation mentions
incompatibility of Mangled Fenders with the A4000 and Enforcer (!!!).
According to the programmer, this is a fault of the programming language,
which could mean that the same holds for all the games.

	On the other hand, the documentation of Incinerator claims that
it runs on the A3000, A1200, and any earlier models. Go figure.

COPY PROTECTION

	None.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 500, 1MB Chip RAM, 2MB Fast RAM
	Fujitsu 100MB SCSI hard disk in A590
	1084 monitor
	Kickstart 1.2, Workbench 1.3, ARP

INSTALLATION

	It's as easy as unpacking the archive into the directory of your
choice.  You can also drag the icons (two icons, plus the docs one, if you
like) wherever you want, using the Workbench.

	After installation, you can run the games from either Workbench or
from the CLI (shell, whatever...).

OVERVIEW

	I'll give a short review of each game.  Specific likes, dislikes and
bugs will be given within each review, in addition to the sections at the
end (after the four reviews), which address the four games together (you get
them all together for $10, after all).

	I must admit that this review is only an initial impression, as I
haven't played the games very long.  However, the games are simple enough,
so my views of the games will likely not change much even if I continue
playing them.

INCINERATOR

	Remember Missile Command? (Ah, the good old days...) This is a
newer and a bit more sophisticated version.

	Both you and your enemy (the computer or another player) have
cities, and both of you attempt to destroy each other's city, using the
missiles at your disposal, and helicopters, which can cause mass
destruction.  On the defense side you have two laser canons, activated
by the left and right mouse buttons, as well as a protective shield to
the city, and a limited supply of super bombs (which destroy all the
missiles on the screen).

	You alternate turns - one turn you defend the city, and the next you
attack your enemy's city.  There's a two player option, which apparently
lets both players defend, then both attack.  Unfortunately, I don't know if
this is really the case, as the unregistered version stops the game after
just two rounds (defense and attack for a single player, or defense and
defense for two players).

	There are three difficulty levels, so if you destroy the incoming
missiles too easily (and it's quite easy at the low level), you can move to
a higher level.

	Graphics-wise, the game gives a 3D view, with the city in the
foreground and hills in the background, behind which the missiles are being
fired.  The city is well drawn, but the missiles are just short yellow
vectors (which is about the most you can expect from such small objects).

	The two player option seems to have a few glitches - both in the
graphics, at the start of the round, and in the gameplay, as sometimes you
just wait and no missiles are coming.

CHECKERS CONQUEST

	You know Checkers? That's it. There are two players, either human or
computer, and the computer player has four levels.

	The game itself has quite a lot of options, including the ability to
take your moves back, to edit the board, to switch sides, and several other
options, including the ability to select the design of the checkers.

	The lowest level is naturally quite easy.  I haven't played the
higher levels, so I can't comment on the difficulty.  (Sorry, losing to an
A500 just makes me feel so insecure.  I can't face that. Either that or I'm
a lazy reviewer. :-))

	Graphically the game looks good - both the board and the checkers
are well drawn.

MANGLED FENDERS

	Crashing into cars, that's the name of the game.  There are up to
six cars, viewed from above, which crash into one another, and into the
walls of the screen area in which they all roam, looking for prey, fighting
the war of survival (ahem...).

	The opening screen displays the six cars. Each car can be controlled
either by the computer, a player, or not play at all.  Up to four people can
play at the same time: two using joysticks, and two using the keyboard.  If
you like challenges, you can also control several cars by one player
(they'll all move in the same way) - I'm not sure this was intentional on
the part of the programmer, but it's there if you want it.

	There are power-ups which appear and can be picked up, and you also
have money to buy extra features (cause more damage, etc.) or fix your car
between rounds.  You get more money at the end of each round, depending on
how fast you were destroyed, compared to the other cars.

	Control is inertial, so you accelerate and decelerate in forward or
reverse and turn left and right.  I found it quite difficult to control the
car.  It's quite easy, for example, to get stuck in the side of the playing
area without an easy way to get out, making you a sitting duck (it happens
to the computer controlled cars, too, and you can take advantage of that).

	This is the game I enjoyed least.  The graphics are OK, but not
great; the control method is unwieldy; the collision detection is quite
dodgy (cars should crash into each other, not over each other); and it's
just not that enjoyable.  The game may be more fun when played with a few
more people, but frankly I didn't want to subject more people to this type
of punishment (OK, so I may be exaggerating a bit).

CONUNDRUM

	At last, a game which is not so easy to describe (damn, I have to
think a bit).  You have a set of hexagonal based tiles on the screen that
you have to get rid of by using other tiles given to you randomly one after
the other.

	Each tile has a number on it, and by putting another tile near it
the two will negate each other.  For example if you put a "5" tile near a
"3" tile, you'll get a "2" tile and a grey tile, so you got rid of the "3"
tile, and have a "2" tile to get rid of.  Since a tile can touch up to six
other tiles, it can negate several tiles at one time, thus a "5" tile put
near a "3" and "2" will turn the three of them into grey tiles.

	As the game progresses, you get tiles with higher numbers that are
more difficult to negate, of course.  You also get limited in the number of
levels you can negate.  This starts from 6 at the lowest level.  If, for
example, you can negate only 2 levels, then putting a "5" near a "3" will
result in a "3" and a "1", and putting a "5" near a "4", a "3" and a "2"
will result in a grey tile (the "5"), a "2", a "1", and another "1" (or
perhaps a "3", a "1" and a grey tile, depending on the order they are
checked).

	On higher levels you also start with columns of grey tiles already
lining the sides of the screen.  Luckily you also get exploding tiles at
these levels that can clear either a line of the screen (in several
directions, depending on the tile), or an area around the hexagon where they
are placed (which must be free, like any hexagon you put a tile on). Any
numbered tile cleared by the explosion is replaced by a bonus fruit, which
will give you extra points should you decide to put a numbered tile there.

	The game is over once you fill the board completely, without
getting rid of all the numbered tiles.  The exception to this rule are
the bonus levels, which appear once every 10 levels from the 5th one.
You can't lose the game in a bonus level.

	This is the game I enjoyed most.  The graphics are simple but well
drawn and effective, and the game itself is quite interesting.  One down
side is that while you can start from levels 1,10,20,...,100, you can't pick
one of the really difficult levels to start with, which means that you have
to start from 100 every time.  I got to a bit over level 140, and I would
have liked the option to try again the level I failed, instead of having to
start again from level 100.  This, plus the randomness in the game, really
detracts from the level of strategy it could have possessed - the ability to
play the same round over and over, trying to find a way to finish it.  It's
still quite interesting even so.

	There are a few minor bugs, like a bonus level which doesn't
announce itself, but there's nothing which really affects gameplay.

DOCUMENTATION

	Each game comes with a doc file, and an icon for the file (which
wants 'c/muchmore' - this is not included in the archive).

	The documentation itself is probably the worst part of each of the
programs.  While it's easy to see the modesty (not) of the programmer, it's
not easy to understand the game from the docs. In fact, it's sometimes just
a case of running the game and trying things, because the docs sometimes
don't even describe the basic controls.

	Another down point is that each paragraph is made of one line,
meaning that words are being cut at the end of the line, unless you load the
docs into a word processor, or use a reader with a word- wrap facility (can
muchmore do that?).

	Other than that, I found it amusing to read the docs.  The
programmer does have a sense of humour, and his humility is something out of
this world ;-).  It's also nice to see how the price and offers changed
during the past year (the price I mentioned above is the latest; prices for
separate games are mentioned in some of the docs).

	To conclude - the docs are enjoyable, but really don't have much to
do with the games themselves. Definitely the worst part of the games. I'll
give the docs 2 stars out of 10.

LIKES

	The graphics are perhaps the best part of the games.  From the icons
through the opening screens, and to the games themselves, the graphics range
from quite good to very good.  The games creator calls himself an artist,
not a programmer, and it shows.  There are no special graphical effects
(such as a demo programmer could create), and the games were possibly
programmed with AMOS, but the graphics are of high quality.

	One thing I especially liked in the graphics was PAL support.  It's
not that common in games, especially those written in the US. The games also
work in NTSC, so everyone can be happy (well, perhaps not everyone - due to
my primitive machine I couldn't test if the games could be mode-promoted).

	The fact that you can quit every game and return to Workbench is
another plus.  It's also very easy to install the programs anywhere you like
(I ran them from the RAM disk), and to run them.

	Both arcade games have a cheat mode (I haven't tried to find how to
activate it) that should appeal to gamers who like this kind of thing.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	What I disliked most was the documentation.  It's simply worthless
(except for a bit of amusement).  Another dislike is that the games disable
multitasking when run (one reason why I guessed they were written in AMOS).

	There are no other general dislikes I have with this game range, but
you can see specific dislikes (relating to each individual game) in the
reviews above.

BUGS

	There are only very minor bugs, like the display glitch in
Incinerator's two player mode.  One common bug is that when I ran the games
from the ARP shell, I got the message 'Unable to load "<whatever game>"'.
The games run very well even though I get this message, and I see it only
when I exit the game.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	I haven't contacted the programmer.  Actually, he has contacted me,
to ask me to review his games.  The impression I got from reading the docs is
that he simply writes one game after the other (all the games were written
over the past year), which probably means no new versions for older games.
Then again, he did create a revised version (with new graphics) for
Incinerator, so who knows...

CONCLUSIONS

	I'll give a general rating out of 10 for the range, with specific
comments about the specific games.  Note that 10 means "The best I would
expect". A checkers game may get a 9 for graphics, the same as a DOOM-like
game, because I have different expectations from them (the nature of the
graphics is naturally different).  Also something like Lightwave for $10
would get 20 or so (out of 10) for Value for Money.  That's why I also
explain what I mean.

	Graphics	8-9
		The graphics are quite good.  In fact, they might
		deserve a better rating, considering that I gave 7
		to War Wizard ;-).
		The one I liked best in this respect is Checkers Conquest,
		after that Incinerator, Mangled Fenders and Conundrum.

	Sound		0-4
		Sound ranges from none to some minimal effects.

	Playability	9 (5 for Mangled Fenders)
		Most of the games are very easy to play, and you can
		quickly get into them.  After a few games you even
		find out what the documentation forgot to mention. ;-)

	Addictiveness	7
		The games are nice, but just don't have the depth of
		play or another gripping feature that will keep you
		awake at nights.  In the case of Incinerator, this
		is mainly due to the limited nature of the demo.

	Lastability	7
		Again, the limited nature of the Incinerator demo hurts
		here.  Checkers Conquest is just not all that exciting
		in my opinion, and Mangled Fenders - well, you know
		what I think about it.  Conundrum kept me playing for
		a few hours, and could keep me up for some more, but
		having to start from 100 each time will probably get
		on my nerves eventually.  Luckily there seems to be
		a random element to the levels, which keeps the interest
		up.

	Value for money	9
		Five games for $10 is what I consider value for money,
		especially considering the fact that they look good
		and are mostly enjoyable.  I gave them just 9 because I
		still consider "Eye of the Beholder 2" for $15 better
		value for money (it was reviewed in c.s.a.reviews).
		Then again, the fact that you can register using any
		currency is a boon to players outside the US.

	Conclusion	8
		It's a good selection of games, with good graphics and
		a varied gameplay.  Being able to pay in any currency
		certainly encourages to register.  I may be cheap and
		pay a little less than the full price, as I don't like
		all the games (besides, don't I deserve something for
		reviewing them at Pete's request? ;-) ), but the point
		is that I'll pay. I hope to see more games from Pete.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1994 Eyal Teler.  All rights reserved.

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