Subject: REVIEW: CyberSphere
From: [email-masked] (Marcel Offermans)
Date: 14 Oct 1994 20:29:03 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	CyberSphere

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A "BreakOut" style action game that can be played by one or two
players.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Psycon Software
	Address:	Box #73067
			206 - 2525 Woodview Dr. S.W.
			Calgary, AB  T2W 6E4
			Canada

	E-mail:		[email-masked] (Clay Hellman)

LIST PRICE

	The shareware fee is $12.49 (US).

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		1 MB RAM required.
		Mouse (or joystick) for each player.

	SOFTWARE

		None.

COPY PROTECTION

	None.  The program can be installed on a hard drive.  It doesn't
require you to boot from the original disk.  The program saves its high
scores in the current directory.

MACHINES USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 3000/25, 8 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM
	1 internal 880K floppy, 1 external 880K floppy
	Quantum LPS 120 MB hard drive
	Maxtor 120 MB hard drive
	Samtron SVGA monitor
	Bausch 2400 baud modem
	AmigaDOS 3.1

	Amiga 2000C, 1 MB Chip RAM
	1 internal 880K floppy
	XT-Bridgeboard
	AmigaDOS 1.3

	Amiga 1200, 4 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM
	1 internal 880K floppy
	40 MB hard drive (formatted with MuFS)
	Blizzard 1220 board
	AmigaDOS 3.0

INSTALLATION

	If you want to install CyberSphere on your hard drive, all you have
to do is copy the executable onto the hard drive.  If you have an AGA
machine, you should copy the included AGARun utility too.  The whole process
is very easy and doesn't need nor use the Commodore Installer program.

	One thing that isn't mentioned in the manual is that you MUST run
CyberSphere from a Shell.  It will crash ungracefully if you attempt to start
it from the Workbench.  Keep in mind is that the high scores are saved in the
current directory.

REVIEW

	After trying the Cybersphere demo that appeared on the Aminet ftp
sites, I was hooked on this game immediately.

	The idea behind the game is a very simple one.  The game is played
in an arena that consists of several walls, bricks and your paddle.  You
control the paddle by moving it left and right.  With the paddle, you bounce
a ball against the bricks and walls, which deflect the ball.  Each brick
disappears after being hit, though some bricks must be hit several times
before they disappear.  The bottom of the screen is open, and you must
prevent the ball from slipping past your paddle and disappearing.  This
becomes more and more difficult because the speed of the ball increases as
you keep it in play longer.  The object of the game is to remove all the
bricks.  When you achieve this, you go to the next stage.

	You control the paddle with a mouse.  Although it is possible to do
it with a joystick, this is strongly discouraged because it is a lot more
difficult.  When the ball hits your paddle, it bounces back up at an angle
relative to the spot where the ball contacts the paddle.  This is how you
can aim at targets.

	Your paddle can be enhanced in several ways by picking up special
"items."  Special items and gems appear when you destroy a brick.  They fall
down the screen and can be picked up by your paddle.  Some items are "width"
which makes your paddle wider, "hold" which allows you to hold and aim the
ball, and "fire" which adds two guns to your paddle that can be used to
smash bricks.  Other special items influence your score, make the ball slow
down, add an extra ball (up to three balls can be in play at once), install
a guard shield at the bottom of the screen so the ball can't leave the
screen, add an extra life, or enter a bonus stage.  When you're in a bonus
stage, you can't lose a life.  If you lose the ball, you will simply return
to the stage you were in before you entered the bonus level.

	If you want to go head to head with a friend and have two mice, there
is an excellent two-player option.  In two-player mode, the game is slightly
different.  The bonus stages disappear, and the maximum number of balls is
two.  Player one starts at the bottom of the screen with a blue paddle and a
blue ball, and player two at the top with a green paddle and a green ball.
The principle is still the same, except that each player can score points
only when the ball is his color.  Each time the player hits a ball with his
paddle, the ball changes to his color.  The player who loses the last ball
loses a life.  In addition to achieving a high score, it is also important to
get a higher score than your opponent.  At the start of each two-player
game, you must enter the names of the players.  Cybersphere remembers the
number of wins that each pair of opponents have scored against each other.
This information is saved together with the high scores.

	Cybersphere's main menu lets you start a one or two player game, set
several game options, and quit (which saves the high scores).  The options
include selecting either mouse or joystick, turning music and sound effects
on and off, listening to them, and most important, setting the difficulty
level to either Novice, Normal or Expert.  In the Novice level, the last of
the five "sectors" isn't available.  Each sector consists of 7, 8 or 9
stages.

DOCUMENTATION

	The registered version comes with an 8 page printed manual that
explains everything you need to know clearly.

LIKES

	The game plays like a dream.  The controls are very responsive, and
after some practice, it is easy to aim the ball precisely.  The nicely drawn
and animated graphics complement this very well.  The sound effects and music
are nice and can be turned on and off individually, which is a good
thing.  The two player option is also very neat.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	I found the game a bit too easy.  Adding more difficulty levels
would solve that.  Furthermore, I'd like to see a high score list for each
individual difficulty level because, in my opinion, you can't compare scores
you reach at Novice level with ones you reach at Expert level.  Of course
I'd like to see a level editor too so everybody can make new sectors.
Furthermore, it would be nice if you could save the options.  Finally, I'd
like to see a fully multitasking version of Cybersphere.  Especially on
computers with a faster processor, it would be nice if you could run some
background processes while playing.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Obviously, this is not the first game of this type.  Games like
Arkanoid or BreakOut come to mind.  Personally, I have played Poing and Poing
2 a lot.  I don't know if any of you have ever heard of them, but they play
like Cybersphere, only everything's rotated 90 degrees.  Poing does
multitask, but has much simpler graphics.  Poing is a lot more difficult and
that's perhaps why I found Cybersphere a bit easy.  When you take everything
into account however, Cybersphere is the better game of the two (and the
author of Poing was the first to admit that :-)).

BUGS

	Cybersphere crashes when you try to start it from the Workbench.
This should be fixed.  Furthermore, it locks up if DSound is playing a
large sample from disk when you start Cybersphere.  I haven't discussed these
bugs with the author because they can easily be avoided.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	There has been no need for me to contact the vendor, but Clay Hellman
appears on comp.sys.amiga.games every now and then, so he seems to be
supporting Cybersphere rather well.

WARRANTY

	There is no warranty.

CONCLUSIONS

	This is a very good product.  It looks and plays like a commercial
game, but it's much cheaper.  I'd give it 9 stars out of 10.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	I'm placing this review in the public domain.

- Marcel Offermans
  [email-masked]
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