Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Article 40360 of comp.sys.amiga
Path: shlump.nac.dec.com!decuac!haven!ames!sun-barr!newstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%[email protected] (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: New videogame offering 'Beast'
Summary: Pretty whizzy graphics
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 2 Oct 89 20:53:54 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected] (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 86
Xref: shlump.nac.dec.com rec.games.video:3876 comp.sys.amiga:40360

So I went out looking for a new videogame experience and came up with
a new Psygnosis game called "Beast". A couple of things struck me about
the game. First, it is indistinguishable from an arcade game in my opinion,
and two it actually has the nerve to use some of the custom hardware the
Amiga provides for games. That said, on with some of the basics.

Common Formats (representative game): TopView (Xevious), SideView (Menace), 
	TopView-3D (Zaxxon), SideView-3D (Renegade), 3D-TopView (I Robot), 
	3D-Internal (Hard Drivin), BackView (Sega Turbo), 
	FixedView (Centipede).

Game Format : Sideview, Hack-n-Slash type game. The player is an artificially
	created beast with augmented speed, strength, ugliness etc. 
	
Concept : Like a lot of games that are 'tendoesq this is a game whereby
	the main character has to explore around and come up with things 
	to advance in the game. Unlike something like DungeonMaster it is
	set in a arcade type environment (lots of things to run and punch
	and kick at.) 

Features : Really nice graphics (what else would you expect from Psygnosis)
	and ok sound. The game play is acceptable, but sometimes a bit to
	arbitrary in how quickly it kills you off. 

NonFeatures : Little or no, "skip-past-this-boring-shit" features. When you
	die you get a full 10 - 20sec shot of a graphic with some 'emotive'
	music playing in the background. No amount of clicking, firing, or
	keypresses will move you on to the startup screen again. 

All in all I would reccomend this game, it is fun to play. And it comes with
a free T-Shirt (size large) so there.

Technical stuff now, if you just wanted the review skip to the next message :

Technical flaming below ...

The manual includes a section from the programmers, I can't quite figure
out what purpose it serves. There are three possibilities :
	1) The programmers wished to brag about what they had accomplished.
	2) Psygnosis wanted to get an antipiracy message out.
	3) It has some useful information in it somewhere.

This section bothered me on several counts, not the least of which was the
programmers threatening to work exclusively on game cartridges if the
piracy problem didn't let up. That's great and it gives the forces of 
truth and justice another opportunity to point out to pirates that sort
of damage they really do, even though they believe in their own mind that
they don't cause any harm. But what it fails to note is that if they spent
9 months working on all of these custom scrolling routines and such like
that made the gameplay so smooth, then how come they are going to trash
all of that work to go work on Nintendo cartridges?! I believe the answer
lies somewhere in the part of this section that reads [paraphrased]
"... we started college but couldn't cut it so we dropped out to write
games full time ..." It occured to me that these guys may have written
a bunch of whiz bang scrolling routines that are *hard coded* into the
stupid game. And that suggests that maybe they should have stayed in 
college a couple of more years. Why not build a scrolling "system" 
whether it is a compiled system or a runtime system that can be used
for *any* game. Then of your 9 months, some large fraction of them would
be reusable into any game you built? [Since I'll be in London later this
month I'll see if I can look these guys up and ask them.]

The last thing that truly bothered me about this manual was the stuff about
how there was 3.5 megabytes of data (and only 2 880K disks) and how these
guys were such hot shots, and they left the other 2Meg on my A1000 untouched
when they ran so they always had to re-read all their data when restarting
the game! What is so damn difficult in looking at the exec lists for memory
before you blow it away to see if there is anywhere to store this data of
yours? Anyway, if you are reading this and you are thinking about programming
a game, think about this :

Piracy is currently a fact of life. Decide ahead of time if you can make 
money with only 2% of the market and then get to work. Secondly, the more
code you can reuse in games the more valuable the time is spent in developing
it. If you spend 6 months (~$30,000 in "programmer time") in writing a 
damn good set of routines, and you use them in 5 games, you only have to
make back $6,000+ on each game to recoup your costs. Secondly, don't 
worry about stomping the OS out of existence when you run, but before you
start you should ask it for as much information as possible so that you ca
can make good use of the available resources.


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: [email protected]
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"If I were driving a Macintosh, I'd have to stop before I could turn the wheel."

    The game is impressive until you notice..
    
     o The invisible boarders around the nasties that allow you to dispatch
       some very quickly.
    
     o Triggers for nasties in the same place each play.
    
     o Will someone please document all the tricks. I'm running out of
       patience not getting beyond the first level.
    
     o Blitter not used.
    

    I'm hoping to get a hold of this sometime in the near future after
    seeing it on an amiga in Microbyte Newcastle.  Is the T-SHirt any
    good?
    
    Why are they so short sighted when it comes to piracy.  They say
    they will just do cartridges because copying isn't done on those?
    Did they say that or that it's not as big a problem.
    
    Well sorry to burst their bubble but it is.  Reading an article
    in New Computer Express the other week, I read how the Japanese
    companies who produce the cartridges are being ripped off.
    
    I read that when a cartridge is released in Japan, a professional
    pirater will buy it, somehow get it into some memory, from which
    he/she will then make pirated circuit boards. 
    These boards will then reach Europe or the U.S.A. before the official
    boards and people will buy them being none the wiser.
    
    The only difference is that the pirated boards are slightly larger
    in appearance, and may not come with the official sticker on it. 
    
    They have been found in actual s/w or computer shops.
    
    If anyone wants more info, i'll bring in the mag and enter it in
    here.
    
    PIRACY is a real problem, I think there should be a note on Piracy
    so people can air there views. 
          
    Rob. B.

    
    The t-shirt I got was size XL, black, with a reasonably nice
    Roger Dean painting on it.
    
    The game has nice music, graphically looks very nice, but they
    sure could use a little help on the gameplay.  As a Psygnosis
    Barbarian clone, it's not too bad, but waiting for that "you died"
    sequence to finish is the pits.
    
    -Dave

    well I got too se a key,use a teleporter,learned how to kill the
    nasties with the swords,and axs,and saw the monster on the back
    cover with the crystal ball.He was tossing it up and down.I was
    killed off before I could find out if I can take it from him.I
    hope it is not for looks only.
    							bill

    re. -1
    
    spoiler for nasty with the red ball....
    
    In between the breaths of fire, get as close to the creature as
    you can and squat down. Then timing comes into play, after a breath
    stand up and punch, then squat down again. Continue to do this until
    the ball is gone. Then move away, you should notice something different
    about your character after successful completing this.
    Try doing different things.(ie jump, punch)
    
    				-Paul
    

    WOW!! How do you get that far...I think the game is TOO tough to
    play!
    
    matt
    

    The tough part is sitting through the reloadind cycle.Due to this
    I haven't played as much as I would like.I have come to the conclusion
    that the game is not worth the time it takes to play.This is sad
    because the actual play is very nice.I won't buy another product
    form this company unless they change policy,and allow the game to
    be played from ram:.As for their threat to forgo amiga programming
    for consols I feel this is what they should do.At least this would
    be a useable product.(if you have kids you could rent it to play)
    							bill

    Hi guys, 
           I just bought the game, it is great except for waiting for
    that death screen to be cleared.  I discovered once you make the
    globe disappear, you go find the part where the big thing with the
    dripping fangs comes at you.  Use your laser punch power to kill
    it, be carefull as soon as it touches you, the Death screen comes
    again.

    Re-1
    
    Having got the key, regained maximum strength, wasted the "globe",
    and gained laser power, I then go through the teleport and up the
    ladder to the left. Once at the top, I go right, the disk is accessed
    and this 'orrible nastie with the fangs comes at you. You can't
    go back because of a wall/statuesque "thing". The problem I have
    is that I cannot destroy this beast and I've tried everything. Is
    there a special secret or sequence for doing so. You've obviously
    cracked it - please could you share it with me.
    
    Many thanks,
    
    Clive.

    You can kill it, it just takes a lot of shots.  I advance to the right
    until I see it, and start shooting as fast as possilbe.  Then when it
    almost touches me, I run to the left until I get a lead.  Then I turn
    and shoot again.  I keep repeating this until its dead.  It will chase
    you to the left, but it will reverse directions at least once, before
    you get pinned to the statue "thing".  When it reverses direction,
    chase after it and shoot, but be careful when it changes direction
    again.