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Nuclear Waste Dump
Preview

       WTF is Nuclear Waste Dump? Well, it's a small game which is 
       currently under development by Paradize, an Atari crew that 
       lately acquired a new member called Minz. It also seems that 
       Minz will completely redo all graphics of the game since STS who 
       was supposed to do the job quitted the project. The coding is 
       done by Simon Sunnyboy and the music, hmmm we don't know yet, 
       the preview contained a nice tune by Lotek Style.



Game Modes
        The game principle is quite simple you have to pile up barrels
        with nuclear waste on your screen until your waste disposal
        storage is filled to the ceiling. Unfortunately there is one
        thing you have to keep in the back of your mind all the time,
        never put barrels of the same colour next to each other,
        otherwise everything will blow up. So far so good, you can
        arrange the barrels in harmless pattern for some time, but those
        things keep appearing at the top of the screen and start falling
        down after shorter and shorter time periods. In the beginning
        you have time enough to move the barrel horizontally to a save
        drop-place and press space to release the barrel. (I wonder why
        you are allowed to drop them if they are so very dangerous :)
        Anyway with time the period you are allowed to move the barrels
        gets shorter and shorter until the barrels will just fall from
        the sky. Sounds not fair? Well it isn't. Nuclear Waste Dump is
        one of those games you can't win. After some time it gets
        impossible to even move your barrel before it drops
        automatically. I guess the Job description doesn't sound too
        good eh? Better look for some other place to work at :). In the
        current build of Nuclear Waste Dump there is only one game mode
        included.



What about the
graphics and stuff?
        Since the game is a very early preview it only featured concept
        art and music. The pixels were not really what you would call
        earth-shattering but the contained chipsound by Lotek Style was
        really nice. Minz has already done some promising graphics for
        the game, they are still in an early stage but they are
        lightyears ahead of the concept graphics from the demo version I
        got.

        The game mechanics work fine, but I would spend a bit more time
        on the game design and especially the order in which the barrel
        colours are chosen. Sometimes it's almost impossible to find a
        combination that will not explode since barrels of the same
        colour keep coming, predefined barrel colours for each level
        would solve the problem. Also some more game modes wouldn't
        hurt; they would also improve the lastability of the game. And
        last not least keep in mind, gamers actually like winning a game
        :)



Overall
        Nuclear Waste Dump looks more like a mini game than a standalone
        game to me, at least in the early state which I received for my
        review. If you take the mini-games contained in the latest
        Paradize release called Pooz, you can only call them addictive.
        Especially "kolmik" certainly has the potential to get you
        addicted. However we are talking not talking about Pooz here and
        NWD surely has a lot of potential. The question is: Are the
        authors are willing to see what this game could be? Considering
        the planned release date, and the current workload that Simon
        Sunnyboy is under atm, I doubt there will be enough time to
        fully expand the possibilities that lie within the game, well
        let's see...

                                       Cyclone / X-Troll for Alive, 2005-11-12



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       Game Title: Nuclear Waste Dump

            Genre: Action

Supported Machines: [X] ST [X] STE [X] TT [X] Falcon [?] CT60

   Minimum Memory: [X] 512 kb [ ] 1 MB [ ] 2MB [ ] 4 MB [ ] more

  HDD Installable: [X] yes [ ] no

   Coding Laguage: GFABASIC

      Description: A little action puzzle game. Barrels full of
                   different nuclear waste products need to
                   be deposited into a concrete well. Make sure
                   no fallout or explosion occurs!

      Game Design: Simon Sunnyboy

           Coding: Simon Sunnyboy

          Artwork: MinZ

            Sound: Music undecided, Digi effects by Aldn

    Current State: In development

  Planned Release: Paracon 2005

          Website: http://paradize.atari.org

          Contact: marndt(at)asmsoftware(dot)com
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Alive 11