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Even more stuff from Dbug!
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The Dbug empire strikes back with four new compilations, 175-178. This time
there is lots of new stuff, including the latest releases of the hyper
productive Reservoir Gods, as well as older, previously unreleased games. Good
to see that, coz I'm such a nostalgic guy ;)
This is actually my first review for the great Alive diskmag, so take it easy,
in case this is not the best/most entertaining/whatever review you ever read!
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Dbug 175
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* GodPey >O:-)
* Walls of Illusion
As the intro starts, we are informed that the crew who refuses to die, the crew
who keeps the old school days alive, is back! Indeed, this is the case. Hmm,
let's see what we have here... First of all, there is a nice background music
which, I think, I haven't heard before. The tune by Animal Mine is called
"Infinity" and, as the name indicates, it goes on and on and on... :) The pic by
Pursy is also nice, although I have no idea what it's supposed to be. Kinda
looks like a heavily armed, giant cyber-bug to me. The rest is nothing special,
the usual (fast!) scroller in the lower border. All this was coded by Showaddy-
waddy.
Now for the games. Probably all of you know "GodPey", so I won't go into detail
here. It is probably the most addictive game by Reservoir Gods so far. Your goal
is to connect tiles of different shapes to make them form a line across the
screen. Sounds easy, huh? But it isn't, coz the tiles are moving while you try
to connect them! Aaargl! Well, there is even much more to do, there are
different stages and it is possible to gain experience points. As you gain more
experience points, you will receive all kinds of vegetables as a kind of trophy,
which your alter ego in the game decides to wear on his head :) Cool idea and
definitely a cool game! Music and Gfx are both well done.
The second game in this compilation is called "Walls of Illusion". Cool, a role
playing game! I love RPGs, but unfortunately they are very time consuming, so I
can't tell you much about it. Looks VERY much like the good old Dungeon Master
to me. It also includes sampled sound fx, which is a plus, considering it once
was a shareware game. Might be worth a closer look.
Conclusion: Leech this compilation and enjoy. Both games are of high quality.
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Dbug 176
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* Under Pressure
* Hero
* Pacific Assault
The intro seems to be a one man effort, everything was put together by famous
music hacker Grazey. Not much more to say about it, the intro consists of a very
basic plasma effect and some mediocre music.
The first game, "Under Pressure", was obviously inspired by the old C=64 classic
"Mechwalker". It's very similar and, to be honest, extremely dull and boring.
Yes! Running sideways, in front of a more or less black background, combined
with bad scrolling isn't that interesting! Positive aspects: Controlling your
mech is easy and all sprites are so huge that you can't miss them. Next game
please...
"Hero", again a RPG. Battled a monster. Died. Baaad graphics and no sound at
all. Next!
"Pacific Assault", a World War II scenario shoot'em up, coded with the Shoot'em
up Construction Kit. Graphics, scrolling and sound fx are ok for an SCK game.
The enemy logic effectively simulates Japanese pilots trying to commit suicide.
Conclusion: This compilation isn't exactly worth its diskspace.
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Dbug 177 a+b
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* Premier Manager II
* Double Juggle Vegetabobble
This one has a cool intro by Cyrano Jones. Nice rasters and good music. And it's
a fat release, consisting of TWO disks. Nice!
"Premier Manager II", a soccer manager by Gremlin, is perhaps one of the last
commercial games that was released for our beloved ST. I usually don't like
games like this, but it seems to be well made. Good graphics and apparently lots
of options. Probably one of the better games of its genre.
"Double Juggle Vegetabobble", another fun game by Reservoir Gods. Hmm...makes me
wonder why they love vegetables so much? You control the bionic arms of Charlie,
a poor guy who has to juggle with vegetables to make a living, while suffering
under his cruel boss Doctor Helmut "Bumpkins" Hasselhof. Needless to say I'm
terribly bad at it! (I think I reached about 30 points.) This game is nothing
special but it was fun for a few minutes.
Conclusion: Get this compil if you like to play with...balls ;)
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Dbug 178
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* Trash Heap
* Starball
DBug's latest release provides us with the coolest intro so far, put together by
Showaddywaddy and coded by Hari Seldon. We see some sort of futuristic
"landscape", scrolling upwards, with two frantically moving spaceships in front
of it. Looks a bit like an enhanced version of "Goldrunner". Hey guys, make a
game out of it, it looks cool! Plus, there is a Dbug logo, some dot curves, two
scrollers and a very old Big Alec tune.
"Trash Heap": I really have no clue what this game is about. Apart from the good
intro music and the cool 3D effect (it supports 3D glasses) I tend to say it
deserves its name. It's also very ooold stuff, coded in 1987. Your mission is to
control some sort of ??? battling other ??? in space(???). At least I think so..
Hmm...better read the readme file next time, eh?
"Starball": Aaah! I'm sure you know this game! If not, what are you waiting for?
This is simply the best pinball game for the Atari STfm. I even prefer it over
"Obsession", although it has only one table. It's great! Tons of cool ideas,
very smooth scrolling, more than 16 colours, sound is also ok...
Conclusion: If you don't know Starball yet, get it now!
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Final words
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The mixture of new and old games is a good idea. I just wish the quality of the
older games would be better. Stuff like "Hero" or "Trash Heap" is hardly more
than a diskfiller. All in all, I liked these compilations, with the exception of
#176.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- ST Michael
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