Best PD game in my opinion...
Richard McGowen
game. It is what went on to become Dr. Plummets (sp?) House of Flux. (With
the title change and story being against the wishes of its author. They also
made him add a joystick option which totally kills the playability of the
game.) If there is enough demand, ie more than one person mails me, I will
put the game (Grav Attack) onto abcfd20. A word of advice for those that have
Dr Plummets HOF, use the keyboard and give the game a chance. And for those
of you that haven't seen it, you would be surprised that Grav Attack is in the
Public Domain.
Scott J. Novell
>The best public domain amiga game in my opinion is Grav Attack. Very addictive
HE IS SO RIGHT!
When I firt got my Amiga 1000, GravAttack was the first pd/shareware game
I truly fell in love with. I spent a good three months or so playing the game
nearly non-stop. There are seventeen levels in all, and I reached level 14
before I got stuck, stuck bad. In the instructions, the author (Scott someone)
lists an address where you can send $10 and get a list of the secret bonuses
(play the game and you will understand). Well, I sent the money and also
included a kinda joke-hate letter, asking how he could make the game so hard
and asking what was going on in level 14 (the gravity changes in different
ways on each level, and I just couldnt figure out the gravity for level 14).
He wrote back saying he enjoyed my letter, toldme what was going on in level
14 (Im not telling), and that he knew (at that time) only one other person
that had made it to level 14, a person from Electronic Arts!
For any Amiga owner who doesnt have this game, GET IT! The graphics are
not mind-blowing, the game itself is not very complicated, but I found it
VERY ADDICTIVE!!!
By the way, Richard McGowen, what level did you get to???
Richard McGowen
I made it to Level 14 also. My housemate Greg Orchard is the only person
I know of (with the exception of Scott) to have solved the game. If you
have Dr Plummets and look at the default high score list for all-play you
will see a Richard M. Dr Plummets is like Grav Attack but has an additional
11 levels, improved graphics, and 4 missions instead of just one. For those
that might be interested in publishing their own games, I will let you know
of some of the not so fun things that happen when you try to do so.
Microillusions gave Scott a "producer". This wonderful persona wanted to
change many things in the game, the Title being just a start. He got some
one to write a story line (that has nothing to do with the game), got someone
to make a title screen, someone to add some dippy music, and forced Scott to
put all of these things into his game that he had been working on for over a
year. At one point they even made him change the ship so much it was
unplayable. The thing I love most about Grav Attack is the attention to small
details that Scott incorporated into it. The feel of the ship is so good that
levels that look at first to be impossible become very fun to fly, once you get
the hang of it. If you get two astronauts on the screen at the same time
they will be moving in different ways. And the most creative thing of all is
that every single level in Grav Attack has a secret bonus as well as there
being 5 universal bonuses. Microillusions also made him take these out
as they would be "too confusing". Argggh.
Unfortunately Scott Hjalmer Peterson is no longer alive and able to write games
for the amiga. He took his own life with a bomb he built about 2 years ago.
He was a genius, an artist, and one of only two people to waterballoon David
Huffman (ala Huffman coding) while he was giving a lecture.
If anyone has questions about the Secret Bonuses or Grav Attack, feel free
to write me. Also look forward to seeing GravAttack on abcfd20.
Brian Bishop
I recently picked up a copy of a new Amiga adaptation of "Prince of
Persia". This game looked so good when it first came out, that I almost
bought the Apple II version and took out my old Apple II to play it! The
programmer (Jordan Mechner) used film of a real person running around to
generate the animation for your character (it looks definitely
rotoscoped). It's amazing how lifelike the movement is, even though your
character is made up of only 3-4 colors. The basic idea is that you are
trying to rescue a fair maiden taken by the Prince of Persia into his
castle. You start in the dungeon, and have to work your way up to the
castle. There are twelve levels. Among your obstacles are: floor panels
that fall away when you run onto them, deep drops you must jump across,
closed gates, secret panels that open the gates when you step on them,
evil swordsmen that you must swordfight, steel 'chopping walls' that
rhthymically smash together.
Are the graphics and animation 100% up to amiga standards? No. I can't
honestly say that they are. But is this a playable game? Yes, it most
definitely is. There is a practice mode up to the fourth level (there
are twelve levels total). After the third level you can save one game to
disk. There is a time limit, so eventually you have to replay lower
levels for faster time, (assuming you screwed up on the earlier levels).
Other than this limitation, there are 'infinite continues'. I kind of
like this. You can keep going when you die, but you can't rip through
the whole game in an evening.
The amiga version was done by Dan Gorlin, who wrote the Apple II
version of choplifter, if anyone out there is on old Apple II hack (like
me!).
Highly recommended, with the given provisos.
Brian Bishop (br...@grebyn.com)
P.S. If anyone can tell me how to get past the mirror that blocks your
way on level four, I'd appreciate it :-)
patrick_atoon
>P.S. If anyone can tell me how to get past the mirror that blocks your
>way on level four, I'd appreciate it :-)
Be sure you've got all your lives left, then JUMP through it.
Only 8 to go now! See ya,
Patrick.
P.S.: Thanx Alf, for your hints. Too bad you ain't got no Amigaaaaa ;-)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Patrick Atoon | See y'all at Amiga'90 in Koeln (Germany) |
| University of Nijmegen | on 8,9,10,11 november. Be there or be square. |
| E-mail: ov...@cs.kun.nl | |
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