Subject: REVIEW: Fighter Duel Pro Flight Recorder
From: [email-masked] (James Coulter)
Date: 12 Apr 1993 16:02:08 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Fighter Duel Pro Flight Recorder

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	The Flight Recorder is used to generate records of your flights (in
one or two player mode, called "demo" files) or generate motion files (for
Lightwave, Imagine, Videoscape, or VistaPro, called "path" files).  Path
files must be converted within the program to the desired format.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Jaeger Software
	Address:	7800 White Cliff Terrace
			Rockville, MD 20855
			USA

	Telephone:	(301) 948-6862
	E-mail:		GEnie: M.SHAW15

LIST PRICE

	$79.95 (US)

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Two megabytes of sequentially addressed Fast RAM.

		Joystick(analog or digital)

		Two player option requires a null-modem or an external Hayes
		compatible modem (1200 or 2400 baud).

	SOFTWARE

		Kickstart 1.3 or later.

		On AGA machines, you must turn off promotion and set the
		pointer to "lo-res."

COPY PROTECTION

	None.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga B2000 with A2091 SCSI controller, A2320 display enhancer,
	and A2620 68020 accelerator board.
	6MB Fast RAM, 1 MB Chip RAM.
	AmigaDos 2.04

REVIEW

	The main reason why I purchased the Flight Recorder was to be able
to view flights of other players.  Unfortunately (for me at least), the
Flight Recorder seems more geared towards animation use.  While the program
does a great job of recording flights (complete with flap, throttle, gun,
and even view panning usage), it lacks some other features I expected.  The
Flight Recorder is able to play against Fighter Duel Pro in two player mode.

	Your perspective is the only one recorded.  After you've completed a
two player duel, you must get the opponent's demo file to see the battle from
his view.  In addition, the output files can be very large:  thirty minutes
of two-player flight yields an one megabyte file.  Fortunately, these demo
files compress at about a 60% ratio (with lh5 compression, e.g., "lha").
Still being a 2400-baud modem owner, transferring my demo file and getting my
opponents' files is cumbersome.

	When playing back demo files, you have little control.  You cannot
jump to specific points, no external viewing is possible, and you cannot cut
out sections of a duel.  All that is offered is pausing.  After playing the
demo you must reboot.

	To play back demo files requires the Flight Recorder.  It would have
been nice if some form of external player was included.

	Despite the listed memory requirements in the manual, I could not
get the program to work in a 1MB Chip/2MB Fast environment.  Even took
drastic measures such as booting from floppy and disabling all hard drive
partitions.

PROGRAM OPERATION

	The Flight Recorder takes over the machine; this precludes any
access to floppies or a hard drive, so it must record all information in
RAM.  The more RAM you have, the longer you can record.  To retrieve the
data, you have to warm-boot and immediately go back into the Flight
Recorder.  From there, the program will know if there is a recording in
memory.  So far, this has worked without any problems. 

DOCUMENTATION

	The package includes the original Fighter Duel Pro manual and a
Flight Recorder supplement.

BUGS

	Sometimes demo files of one-player flights do not play back
properly.  If recording two enemy planes, one appears to get lost in
sections.  Occasionally, it just appears to freeze.  This has happened
numerous times, but two-player flights record fine.

WARRANTY

	90 days.

CONCLUSIONS

	If you want your fights with Fighter Duel recorded, this is the only
choice.  It records duels with perfect authenticity, but it lacks playback
features that I want.  Currently, I have no use for the animation aspects of
the program.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        Copyright 1993 James D. Coulter.  All rights reserved.

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| James D. Coulter              FIDO    :1:153/911                       |
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|"Punishment is a crime." \X/                                            |
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