Received: from uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU by terminator.cc.umich.edu (5.65/1123-1.0) id AA07708; Tue, 17 Mar 92 18:20:04 -0500 Received: from Virginia.EDU by uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU id aa29895; 17 Mar 92 17:13 EST Received: from fermi.clas.virginia.edu by uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU id aa29780; 17 Mar 92 17:09 EST Received: by fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (AIX 3.1/UCB 5.61/1.34) id AA36494; Tue, 17 Mar 92 17:09:34 -0500 Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 17:09:34 -0500 From: Greg Lindahl Message-Id: <9203172209.AA36494@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU> X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.3 5/22/91) To: pa@Virginia.EDU Subject: Portable Addiction # 11 [ I just pass these along. If you'd like to unsubscribe, send mail to portable-request@virginia.edu. -- greg ] +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ PORTABLE ADDICTION ISSUE #11 MARCH 15th 1992 THE NEWSLETTER FOR THE ATARI LYNX, SEGA GAMEGEAR AND NINTENDO GAMEBOY +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Tjerk "MegaJerk" Heijmens Visser ......... (EDITOR) Yiri "Neuromancer" Kohl .................. (EDITORIAL ASSISTANT) Alex "Killer of Laura Palmer" Borburg .... (GAMEBOY STAFF WRITER) Thanks to ... The Funtronics Computer Shop, The International Lynx Club, Robert Jung, Andre "ALU" Luyer, The Tom, Amsterdamned BBS, Alizera Malek, Mr. Doom and all the others that made this most excellent issue possible... Please mail your comments, flames and/or suggestions to : tjerk@nikhef.nl on Internet or bd831 on Cleveland Free-net. You can also reach us now on THE DARKSIDE BBS. The telephone number is : 020-6969263. It is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Fido Node Number is: 2:280/403.16 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ CONTENTS: Editorial .................................... by Mega Jerk Hot News And Gossip ....................................... Indianna Jones III (Game Gear) ............... by Yiri Kohl Talk with Atari .............................. by Mega Jerk Waganland (Game Gear) ........................ by Yiri Kohl Toki (Lynx) .................................. by Mega Jerk Video Game Ratings Report ................................. NINTENDO: THE CREATION OF AN EMPIRE .......... by Yiri Kohl Cattrap ...................................... by A"TKOLP"B +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Editorial: Again we didn't see much new things this month, not even a new Game Gear game in Holland. The Lynx II did arrive in the stores, and Xybots seems to be on sale now everywhere but Atari has had it for allmost 2 month now! So this month I talked with some Atari guys, and in this issue you can all about it. As for the Game Gear things have been ultimately slow. I thought slow imports were copywritten by Atari, but Sega can do that stuff too I see. But we are all waiting for the spring..... Cause we will see a bunch of new games then. And not only for the Lynx, but also games like Streetfighter II and F-15 Strike Eagle for the Game Boy!!!!! Though spring is in a few day's, I guess that we'll be waiting for this much longer..... Hell, we can only hope...... That was a bit of News 'n Gossip in this section, but there is many more elsewhere in this issue (Namely: The talk with Atari.....) Tjerk "Mega Jerk" Heijmens Visser Editor (Hoping for a video game burst out next month!) +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ . + . + . . . + . H O T N E W S A N D G O S S I P + . . + . + . . Atari: Well, I went to the CeBit on saturday the 14th. And guess what, NOTHING! What a surprise! Lynx: Atari Corp. is now/has been selling a D-cell battery pack for the Lynx. It's a large plastic case, into which you place 6 D-cell batteries. You then plug a cable from the case into your Lynx, and you get lots of game-playing time without interruption (no exact "number of hours" were given). The case has a clip so that you can wear it on your belt (or on the edge of your pants pocket, or wherever), and a loop to carry it with. Price is $15. Batteries not included. GameBoy: Last month we had the Hyperboy, by Konami. Now there is the Game Plus. It also has a joystick, and most of the Hyperboy's gadgets. Next month we'll have a full hardware review of it! No other news about the Game*Mate sadly....... +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------REVIEW--------------------+ Machine : Sega GameGear Title : Indiana Jones III Review by : Yiri "Neuromancer" Kohl Players : 1 +----------------------------------------------+ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the GameGear follows exactly the same storyline as all the other versions of the game. The game is played over six 8-way scrolling levels, and your task is to discover the Holy Grail. Your trip begins in America where you find yourself battling your way through the caves of the Coronado and running the lenght of a moving circus train. Then it's on to Germany where you must battle your way thru the Castle of Brunwald. And so the game goes on and on till you reach the final level, where you must find the Grail. This level is more of a race against the clock where you have to run from left to right and jump over chasms and traps and the like. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Well, the game is less exciting than you might expect, and to be honest I found it quite frustrating. The controls of your Indy aren't quite what they could have been, and the game is rather slow and sluggish. This is also due to the lack of animation frames, though the sprites are all drawn quite well. The game looks and sounds good, but I think most people would agree with me when I say that the game is actually a slow, frustrating, sluggish and awfull attempt at bringing in BIG money using a name of a big movie. The game is supposed to be a cross between platform and arcade- adventure, but if you closely examine both these aspects, and then try to find either of them back in THIS game, you will be disappointed. The part of arcade-adventuring consists of finding certain objects like your whip, and these objects are SO easy to be found 'cos there's only one way thru each level. Then the platform-part is the most recognizable of the two, but here it's obvious that the programmers failed here horribly. If you want to have some good platform fun, buy Sonic... It's the direct opposite of Indy, but that's what makes it so good! Sorry, but I can't recommend Indy to anyone who's from this planet. Avoid! +-->RATINGS<------------------------------------------------------------+ Graphics ..... 7.0 - All quite good, but there's a lack of animation. Sound ........ 5.0 - Crunch, crunch when you walk and clap when you hit someone. Pathetic music. Playability .. 3.5 - Could've been some fun if it wasn't so frustrating Lastability .. 4.0 - You want to see what's next, but you won't want to play the game no more!!! Overall ...... 4.0 - Though there are game worse than this, it isn't very good! Actually it's a load a rubbish. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------TALKS WITH ATARI----------------+ With : Paul Groen By : Tjerk "MegaJerk" Heijmens Visser +----------------------------------------------+ While I went to Atari Benelux with some guy's of the International Lynx club to have a talk about Atari support for the club,we also talked about other things.... So here is a list of facts given by Paul Groen: - There will be a development system for the Lynx on the ST (We doubt it) - There is another chip in the Lynx II, Mickey and Suzy are replaced by the Ajax.... (We doubt that too, the Ajax is also the name for another Atari Mega STe thingy.....A HD-Drive actually.....) - The Jaguar will be a "Real" 64 Bit system (Not a parralel 32 bit) with True Color for about the 400 to 600 Dutch Guilders (About $ 300,-). Atari Germany said the same, but they kept their price fix safe, and said that it would be cheaper than the Neo Geo. - Atari sold thousands of 2600 systems in Holland while Atari does not push it anymore. One of the reasons for these relatively high sales- figures is the Dutch mentallity: Doesn't matter how bad it is, as long as it doesn't hurt the wallet....:-) Atari Germany did also sell a great bunch of 2600's, 40.000 to be exact. - The Lynx will be supported by big add campaign this summer. - On the Atari Messe in Dusseldorf in august (21st till 23) the Lynx will be in the spotlights, meaning : The Lynx will get a lot of attention for it there. - Paul Groen also said that Nintendo blows much of their profit on commercials. Those commercials don't have the same effect as in other countries. - And the Sega has priced itself out of the market with the Game Gear so he doesn't expect it to be al succesfull as commonly suggested. - Thomas Huber had recieved a preproduction card of Rampart. He has send it to a German Computer/Video magazine (we don't know which one......) So Germans can expect to read a review of it in their local mags soon. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------REVIEW--------------------+ Machine : Sega GameGear Title : WaganLand Review by : Yiri "Neuromancer" Kohl Players : 1 +----------------------------------------------+ Altough I'd never heard of this game before, it seems that it's already available on a number of format. Yet the other version are said to be educational, this version is a straight-forward platform extravaganza! You play the role of a small baby dragon, whose land is being terrorized by an evil magician. So you set out to find the evil wiz and kick him to another world. There's only one problem though, as you're so young that you haven't even learned how to breathe flames yet! Instead, our young friend has a far more sadistic, fiendish and above all a very deadly weapon! Japanese text symbols!!! AAARGH! Yes, it's true, our baby dragon can spit Jap text symbols! By collecting power-ups you can get even more bigger text symbols. And the bigger the symbol, the longer the nasties are knocked out when hit by one! And while collecting these power-ups, your madness meter will rise, too. (wot da heck is a madness meter, you might ask!). When you have collected four power-ups the dragon goes hay- wire and you can storm around and hit baddies without being killed for a short time. And then there's more! Some objects in the scenery reveal, when shot a few times, other power-ups which give you extra bounce-power, free lives and even whole levels full of killable enemies for you to bump up that score. The object is to get to the wizards castle at the other side of your island (the map section look a suspicious lot like SuperMario World 4!). To do this you must survive numerous levels full of platform action. The game doesn't have a name as big as Sonic the Hedgehog, but it's ten times harder and millions of times bigger! There are massive levels and sub- games for you to explore (yes, subgames! No end-of-level-guardians here but jolly subgames where you play agains a creature that invites you to play, say, pick-a-pair). The game has the playability of a mario-game, so it's a definitive "must-buy". The graphics are great (altough not all of the landscape is drawn with great care) and so is the sound. The only slight drawback is that the game's in Japanese, but who cares!?!? It's just plain great! +-->RATINGS<------------------------------------------------------------+ Graphics ..... 9.5 - VERY cute, and above all very clear. Sound ........ 8.5 - Excellent sound, lot's of jolly tunes. Playability .. 9.7 - A cross between Wonderboy and Mario! GREAT! Lastability .. 7.8 - It's huge and it's tremendous fun! Overall ...... 9.2 - Rush out and buy it... NOW!!!!!!! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +-------------------PREVIEW--------------------+ Machine : Atari Lynx Title : Toki Review by : Tjerk "MegaJerk" Heijmens Visser Players : 1 +----------------------------------------------+ Due to lack of new games for the Lynx, we're going to give you a preview of Toki. It will hit the stores any moment now (Well at least we hope so). Of course the story line is all crap...Your girlfriend has been kidnapped by some jerk, and you have got to save her (what a surprise.....). But if you could stand this load of crap and have played the game on the Amiga, or in the arcades you could see that it not only has very good graphics and fine sound, but it wasn't the usual Shoot-Kill-Walk-Shoot-Kill-Walk game. When it was released in the arcades, the jump/spit on your enemies was a nice relief from the other stuff. But it doesn't have something special, there is nothing in the game that makes it stick out far above the crowd of all the other games in this genre, but then again it isn't a total carbon copy either. The original designers did take a bit of effort to give this game something else. I can't see why you should buy Toki in stead of another game. But as there are not many platform games on the Lynx (Only Pacland and maybe one or two others) I would cetainly suggest you take a look at this game when it will be released, judging on the Amiga version. But I've heard from several people that this game looks quite good too on the Lynx. And it is also very faithfull to the other versions of Toki. That means that this game will not be one of the easiest to finnish. Now, lets wait and see........ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------- +-----------VIDEO GAME RATINGS REPORT----------+ ------------------------- Atari Lynx: Title Rating Votes cast 1) Checkered Flag 9.0 24 2) Robotron 2084 8.6 18 3) Klax 8.4 29 4) S.T.U.N. Runner 8.4 24 5) Warbirds 8.3 32 6) Chip's Challenge 8.3 27 7) Shanghai 8.1 9 8) Awesome Golf 8.0 12 9) Todd's Adventures In Slime World 7.8 26 10) Scrapyard Dog 7.8 12 11) Zarlor Mercenary 7.6 19 12) Xenophobe 7.5 20 13) Roadblasters 7.5 15 14) A.P.B. 7.4 18 15) Blue Lightning 7.2 23 16) Ms. Pac-Man 7.1 10 17) Xybots 7.0 6 18) Gates Of Zendocon 6.9 19 19) Rampage 6.9 17 20) Qix 6.7 7 21) Ishido: The way of the Stones 6.7 3 22) Blockout 6.5 11 23) Electrocop 6.4 20 24) Rygar 6.4 7 25) Ninja Gaiden 6.3 12 26) Fidelity Ultimate Chess Challenge 6.3 7 27) Pac-Land 6.3 6 28) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure 6.2 10 29) Viking Child 6.0 7 30) Paperboy 5.7 11 31) California Games 5.6 32 32) Gauntlet III 5.2 17 33) Hard Drivin' 4.7 7 34) Turbo Sub 4.5 6 35) Tournament Cyberball 4.0 8 36) Robo-Squash 3.4 9 Sega Game Gear: 1) Sonic the Hedgehog 9.0 5 2) Joe Montanna Football 8.0 2 3) Super Monaco G.P. 8.0 2 4) Berlin Wall 8.0 1 5) Junction 8.0 1 6) Dragon Crystal 8.0 1 7) Shinobi 7.5 2 8) Slider 7.5 2 9) G-Loc 7.3 3 10) Ninja Gaiden 7.0 2 11) Clutch Hitter 7.0 1 12) Space Harrier 7.0 1 13) Castle of Illusion 6.7 3 14) Devilish 6.5 2 15) Factory Panic 6.0 1 16) Gallaga '91 6.0 1 17) Woody Pop 6.0 1 18) Columns 5.4 7 Nintendo Game Boy: 1) Nemesis II 10.0 1 2) Pipe Dream 7.0 4 3) Super Mario Land 9.0 10 4) Final Fantasy Legend II 9.0 2 5) Boxxle 9.0 1 6) Matchmania 9.0 1 7) Parodius 9.0 1 8) Probotector 9.0 1 9) Scrabble 9.0 1 10) Sword of Hope 9.0 1 11) Yakuman 9.0 1 12) Gargoyle's Quest 7.8 4 13) Final Fantasy Legend 8.3 9 14) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adv. 8.0 1 15) Castlevania II 8.0 1 16) Choplifter II 8.0 1 17) Dr. Mario 8.0 1 18) Puzznic 8.0 1 19) Side Pocket 8.0 1 20) Megaman 5.0 2 21) R-Type 5.5 2 22) Tetris 7.8 12 23) Metroid II 7.7 3 24) Tetris 7.5 16 25) Castlevania 7.5 2 26) Nemesis 7.5 2 27) Revenge Of The Gator 7.7 3 28) Skate Or Die 7.5 2 29) Golf 7.7 3 30) Chessmaster 7.0 1 31) Crystal Quest 7.0 1 32) Daedalus Opus 7.0 1 33) Dynamaster 7.0 1 34) Lock 'n Chase 7.0 1 35) Qix 7.0 1 36) Ishido 6.5 2 37) F-1 Race 5.8 4 38) Batman 6.0 1 39) Puzzle Road 6.0 1 40) Solar Striker 5.7 3 41) Kwirk 5.0 1 42) Shanghai 5.0 1 43) Bases Loaded 4.0 1 44) Bubble Ghost 4.0 1 45) Paperboy 4.0 1 46) Play Action Football 4.0 1 47) Quarth 4.0 1 48) Sneaky Snakes 3.0 1 49) Boulderdash 2.0 1 50) Robocop II 2.0 1 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +-----NINTENDO: THE CREATION OF AN EMPIRE-----+ By : Yiri "Neuromancer" Kohl +----------------------------------------------+ Although Nintendo started out somewhere around 1870 as a small company that produced playing cards, it's now the biggest and best-selling console manufacturer in the world. How did they do this? Let's take a look at the most obvious reasons first... Nintendo has always been the first to develop something new and exciting. They started out producing those small LCD handheld games, but soon a true console followed.... the NES. Altough the GameBoy hasn't been around for THAT long, in Japan the machine is now about 8-10 years old! Nintendo was also the first to start the creation of a 16-Bit console (Yes, people, it was even released in Japan before the Genesis was available in the west!). Their Famicom (SNES) was a huge success, and during the production of the new console there was already a shortage of it!!! Even before the official release date, about one third of the Japanese population had ordered their Famicom, which resulted in TREMENDOUS high prices for those models that were to be exported. Then there's Nintendo's marketing. It's by far the best in the world, as even the most avid Lynx phreak would fall for a TV-ad for the monochrome GameBoy. There's a lot of good service if you buy Nintendo products, AND you are assured a certain level of support: There will never be the chance that Nintendo will stop producing games for your newly bought console! To maintain quality there are even special schools in Japan named.. you've guessed it... Mario-schools! Here Nintendo is teaching groups of young people how to produce games as addictive as Mario. (The staff at Nintendo isn't that young anymore and there have to be game-developers when they quit!). But then there's probably their strongest and most fearfull weapon!...... Their Copyrights!!! +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------REVIEW--------------------+ Machine : Nintendo Game Boy Title : Cattrap Review by : Alex "The killer of Laura Palmer" Borburg Players : 1 +----------------------------------------------+ Yes, another puzzle on the Game Boy. This time you must solve a hundred puzzles set in an underground labyrinth. The story: Catboy and his girlfriend Catgirl are trapped in the labyrinth because they have awoken a monster during their picnic (?). The monster has put an evil curse on them, and changed them into cats. There is one way the curse can be removed. All they have to do is solve the puzzles. But the problem is that the labyrinth is set right in the heart of the monsters' den. The game itself is very funny, and the puzzles are quite difficult. The graphics are quite nice, but a bit simple. You can compare this game with Boxxle, a golden oldie on the Game Boy. The music is also ok. After you have finnished a puzzle catgirl or catboy makes a jump. Another good thing about this game is that when you're dead you don't have to start all over again, because after every puzzle you've finished you'll get a password. It is addictive if you don't have any puzzle games, but if you do it's nothing new. +-->RATINGS<------------------------------------------------------------+ Graphics ..... 7.5 - Simple but okay. Sound ........ 8.0 - Nice music and sound. Playability .. 8.0 - Easy controles, nice puzzles. Lastability .. 8.0 - Because of the passwords you'll go on. Overall ...... 8.0 - Nice but nothing new. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+