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Southern California Distribution Issue 01 Part 04
November Reviews
Product: Bettleguese
By: Game-Tek
Graphics: CGA/EGA
Controls: Keyboard, Joystick
Sound: PC Speaker
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 11/11/90 - 12:23am
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 4 - Basic lame EGA graphics. The colors were
predominatly purple and red. Looked a lot more like
CGA than EGA.
Design: 2 - What is the object of this game? Kill all the skeletons?
Seems pretty pointless.
Sound: 2 - Very annoying music that keeps repeating.
Playability: 4 - Decent playing ability. Keyboard control is okay.
Didn't try the joystick.
Overall Rating: 3
Summary: Don't waste your time downloading this game unless you
enough file points or ratio to waste. This game is a
waste of time.
Reviewed by: Genesis
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Product: Big Business
By: Digitek Software
Graphics: CGA/EGA/VGA-16
Controls: Keyboard/Mouse/Joystick {Analog or Digital}
Sound: PC Speaker/Realsound & Adlib?
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 11/08/90 - 10:48pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 6 - Quite good for 16 color VGA.
Design: 2 - Yuk! This game needs more menus! I have no idea what
the fuck is going on!
Sound: 2 - Strange. I ran and quit this game several times. The
first time it ran in VGA, then EGA, then CGA. A couple
more times it ran in CGA. When it was in CGA I heard
some Realsound coming through the PC Speaker. In the
other graphics modes I got no sound. The INCFO File
Says Adlib is supported, however, even after manually
installing sound.com prior to loading, I heard no
Adlib whatsover.
Playability: 3 - I'm sure it's fine if you know what keys to press!
Overall Rating: 5 - This game has potential, I'm sure, but I need dox or
something to know what the hell is going on here.
Summary: Basically seems like a nice little simulation of the business
world. Apparently the player (1 to 3 can play and also vs.
the computer) owns his own business and must look after and
manage every facet of the business from the company's stocks
to it's employees. Basically your "home base" is the board
room at your company, with all the main employees gathered
around the table staring you down. From there you can go
to other parts of your business and run things. The proper
keys to use to get around are a mystery, however, and I
really didn't feel spending like any time figuring the shit
out. I'd say if you want to play this game either wait for
some dox or plan to spend a few hours figuring them out for
yourself. This game has a good sense of humor though, which
helps to alleviate some of the boring and tedious aspects
that you would expect in playing a "business simulator".
Reviewer: Genesis
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Product: The Blue Max: Aces of the Great War
By: Three-Sixty Software
Graphics: CGA/EGA/Tandy/Hercules/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse
Sound: PC Speaker, Adlib, Soundblaster
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 10/19/90 - 11:53am
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 8 - The graphics are the high point of this otherwise
average game. Great detail.
Design: 7 - One of the better dogfight games as of late, but
many are tired of this sort of game.
Sound: 7 - The game has great music and the sound effects are
excellent.
Playability: 6 - The controls are a little slugish but otherwise good
enough. Your basic controls for an airplane
simulation.
Overall Rating: 7
Summary: This game is one of the best dogfight type of games that
I have seen to date. For those of you who are tired of
the high tech dog fights then this is definately the
game for you.
Reviewed by: General Zennor and Genesis
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Product: Centerfold Squares
By: Artworx Software Co.
Graphics: CGA/EGA
Controls: Keyboard/Joystick/Mouse
Sound: PC Speaker
Cracking Group: EMC
Release Dt/Tm : 11/11/90 - 8:51pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 3 - Ack! Nude bitches in EGA? No thanx.
Design: 5 - I like the design - it's easy to quit to DOS.
Sound: 2 - Fucken annoying ass PC speaker bullshit sound.
Playability: 6 - Keyboard control is slow and sluggish, mouse control
is much better.
Overall Rating: 4 - Without the MCGA files that this game apparently supports
but are mysteriously missing from the archive - this game
ain't worth your trouble, unless you're an Othello fanatic
or something.
Summary: This game is over 2 years old and I've had it for at least
that long. Why the fuck EMC decided to release it after
it's been out so fucking long, I'll never know. I was kinda
hoping it would have the MCGA files. I figure that'd be the
ONLY reason anyone would wanna re-release this lame piece of
shit. I think what happened was that some lamer bought the
game two years ago and released it then on his own. No crack
group had ever laid claim to it so EMC came along, stuck a
few ANSI's in it, released it, and in doing so really fucked
up whatever reputation they had, if any. At least this is
how it appears... It's not like we need a new cracking group
or anything, but if you must make a group, find something
that actually needs to be cracked and/or released first.
And preferably something alittle fresher than a 2 year old
ware.
Reviewed By: Genesis
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Product: Operation Harrier
By: ???
Graphics: CGA/EGA/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard (At least that was all I could get to work)
Sound: PC Speaker
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 11/12/90 - 11:36am
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 8 - Very good VGA graphics. Not up to par with Wing
Commander, but good in their own right.
Design: 6 - Your basic shoot 'em up plane game with objectives.
Sound: 2 - Lame old PC Speaker.
Playability: 5 - Decent enough playing ability. Keyboard controls
were a little weird however.
Overall Rating: 6
Summary: Not too bad a game but I think that everyone is getting
tired of these plane games where the object is to blow
away the bad guy and his planes. Not really worth
downloading but better than some games.
Reviewed by: General Zennor and Genesis
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Product: Interphase
By: Image Works
Graphics: CGA/EGA/Tandy/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard, Mouse
Sound: PC Speaker, Adlib
Cracking Group: THG
Release Dt/Tm : 11/11/90 - 1:06pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 9 - The graphics are excellent. Great detail.
Design: 7 - Game looks interesting enough from what I played.
(Which wasn't much since I couldn't figure out
what to do)
Sound: 5 - The sound was pretty much annoying for the most
part. Nothing that really deserves too much notice.
Playability: 6 - I couldn't really figure out what to do in the game,
but from what I did play it seemed a little
difficult to maneuver around.
Overall Rating: 6.75
Summary: The game seems interesting but what the object is is
beyond me. Maybe if the cracking group would take a
couple of extra minutes to include a brief command
summary it would make the game a little more enjoyable.
Reviewed by: General Zennor
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Product: Covert Action
By: MPS Labs
Graphics: C/E/MCGA/Tandy/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard/Joystick
Sound: PC Speaker/Adlib/Roland
Cracking Group: THG
Release Dt/Tm : 11/14/90 - 1:06pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 8 - Excellent, although they do look alittle 16-colorish in
some places, the graphics and animation are fairly decent.
Design: 8 - Wow there's lots to do in this game! The menus are very
constructed and offer a myriad of selections to aspiring
secret agents. The action scenes and information scenes
are constructed nicely.
Sound: 7 - Not bad on the Adlib. Good music and sound effects too.
don't have a Roland, but everyone knows the sound on a
Roland is gonna blow you away no matter what the game.
Playability: 9 - Great playability with the joystick, especially during
the action scenes.
Overall Rating: 8 - A great looking and sounding game, very playable, with
an equal balance of problem solving vs action type gaming.
Summary: I really like this game. You get to play an undercover CIA
agent. Cases get assigned to you which range from local
disturbances to international threats. You get to pick the
the difficulty of your mission. You must gather evidence
against your adversary(ies) arrest them when you have enough
evidence for a conviction. A nice balance of action scenes,
gunfights and such spice up the action. Some dox might help
you to figure out what's going on alittle better, but even
after spending only about 1/2 hour on this game I felt pretty
much in control of the commands. The game seems to present
a nice challenge and one that doesn't seem like it will get
too boring after only a few plays.
Reviewer: Genesis
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Product: Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Off-Road Racing
By: Virgin Games
Graphics: CGA/EGA/Tandy/VGA-16
Controls: Keyboard, Joystick
Sound: PC Speaker, Adlib
Cracking Group: THG
Release Dt/Tm : 11/05/90 - 11:36am
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 7 - The graphics are nothing special. Basic graphics
display.
Design: 6 - Basically a good takeoff of the arcade game. Not
quite as easy to play but overall decent.
Sound: 5 - Sound basically sucks. Just your average music.
Playability: 4 - The keyboard keys are very difficult to use and the
joystick is almost as difficult. This game would be
much better if the IBM supported a steering wheel.
Overall Rating: 5.4
Summary: This is not one to go out of your way for. If you like
off-road racing then you might enjoy it but I found it
Difficult to control therefore not very enjoyable to
play.
Reviewed by: General Zennor
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Product: Link's Golf
By: Access Software
Graphics: C/E/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard/Joystick/Mouse
Sound: Realsound/Adlib/Soundblaster
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 11/05/90 - 9:33pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 10 - Awesome 256 color VGA - no argument there.
Design: 8 - Not bad. Standard golf game design.
Sound: 8 - OK Sound, bird chirping sound effect gets alittle old
after awhile, though.
Playability: 9 - Very good playability, especially with a mouse. However,
and this is a BIG however, everytime you take a shot, the
graphics get redrawn making the game very slow.
Overall Rating: 8 - Easily the best golf game out right now.
Summary: Well this golf game looks great for those who are into golf
games.. personally I'm not into em. But this game has great
looks and sounds and lots of little goodies to keep you busy.
The major drawback is the time it takes to constantly redraw
the screen after every shot you take. Even on a 386-33 this
game is slow as shit. It really discourages you from playing
the game to any extent whatsoever. This game is die hard
golf fans with a lot of patience.
Review by Genesis
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Product: Rescue Rangers: The Adventure in Nimnuls Castle
By: Hi Tech Expressions
Graphics: CGA/EGA
Controls: Keyboard, Joystick
Sound: PC Speaker
Cracking Group: PE
Release Dt/Tm : 11/06/90 - 11:51pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 5 - Decent EGA but not terrific. Kinda distorted
characters.
Design: 3 - Only 3 levels. Not a new idea. Your basic kids
game.
Sound: 2 - Crappy internal sound. Very annoying music.
Playability: 6 - Plays quite well. Good response between joystick and
computer.
Overall Rating: 4
Summary: This is your basic kids game. Not for the pirate
community persay. I would not go out of your way to
download this one unless you have a younger brother or
sister or son or daughter.
Reviewed by: General Zennor and Genesis
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Product: Super League Soccer
By: ???
Graphics: CGA/EGA
Controls: Keyboard, Mouse
Sound: PC Speaker
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 10/31/90 - 10:18am
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 2 - Lame EGA graphics. These could have been made a
whole lot better.
Design: 2 - This game does not even come close to the other
soccer games that have been released as of late.
Sound: 1 - What sound?
Playability: 2 - I found it very hard to control the players let
alone get a hold of the ball.
Overall Rating: 1.75
Summary: DO NOT waste your time with this game. What can you
expect for 80k?
Reviewed by: General Zennor
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Product: Space Ace
By: ReadySoft
Graphics: CGA/EGA/VGA/Tandy
Controls: Keyboard/Joystick
Sound: PC Speaker, Adlib, Soundblaster, Tandy 1000
Cracking Group: INC/PE Joint Release (THG Released Stolen INC/PE Version)
Release Dt/Tm :
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 10 - Awesome graphics. By far the best to date. Looks
very much like in the arcade.
Design: 7 - Another copy of an arcade game and also an Amiga
game. They did a pretty good job too, except they
left a lot of exciting parts out, which in turn
makes the game too short to be worth the trouble of
downloading.
Sound: 9 - Sound is very good when played over the
Soundblaster. Excellent speech and music.
Playability: 6 - The reactions between the computer and the joystick
are very slow. When you have graphics such as this
game it is gonna slow the game down but it is almost
pathetic how slow it is. You must be pushing the
direction you wish to go long in advance or you will
not make it.
Overall Rating: 8
Summary: This is by far one of the better games of the year but
because of the slow reaction times of the joystick and
keyboard it still does not deserve the best game of the
year. If you have the credit take the time and download
this game otherwise it is not really worth it. I have
finished this game without the cheat in five minutes.
Reviewed by: General Zennor
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Product: Stunts
By: Broderbund
Graphics: CGA/EGA/MCGA/Tandy/Hercules/VGA-256
Controls: Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse
Sound: PC Speaker, Adlib, Soundblaster, Roland, Tandy
Cracking Group: INC
Release Dt/Tm : 11/02/90 - 8:45pm
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 10 - The graphics in this game are very good. Good clear
horizons. Good detailing and shadowing.
Design: 8 - Great concept. Good designing on the part of the
programmers. The course editor is awesome.
Sound: 9 - The sound on this game is excellent. When two cars
are racing you hear two distinct cars. Plus the music
is really great too.
Playability: 8 - The controls are very good also. The joystick is
responsive, but not too responsive as in Test Drive
III where you just touch the joystick and you are
doing 360's.
Overall Rating: 8.75
Summary: This game is a definite must get, especially if you like
driving simulations. The overall game is awesome to say
the least. Congrats to INC on releasing this first.
Reviewed by: General Zennor
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Product: Lost Patrol in Vietnam -=VGA=-
By: Ocean Software
Graphics: This version is -=VGA=- ONLY
Controls: Weak Keyboard, and Joystick
Sound: I.B.M. Internal
Cracking Group: The Humble Guys
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 8/10
Design: 8/10
Sound: 3/10
Playability: 6/10
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Summary: In this game you are in a group of troops lost in the Vietnam
jungle and must direct your troop to safety, not the greatest
game but it is interesting and if you have the time to play
adventure games GET IT!
Reviewed By:
Space Ace
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Product: Das Boot
By: Three-Sixty Software
Graphics: C/E/VGA-256 Color
Controls: Mouse/Keyboard
Sound: Adlib/SB
Cracking Group: THG also PE
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 10 - Fucking Rad Ass 256 color VGA, no flicker, smooth
animation - the works
Design: 9 - Practice missions as well as actual missions available.
Full menu support.
Sound: 10 - Awesome Sound effects! Sounds rad on a SB
Playability: 8 - A little difficult to control, but easy to get used
to for the most part.
Overall Rating: 9+
Summary: Another rad game is released from Three Sixty Software, the
makers of Blue Max. Much of the same sound effects and
graphics from Blue Max were used in this game. This is
basically your average submarine simulation, but with a
few new twists. For instance there is an anti-aircraft
option that let's you blow away oncoming planes with your
deck guns as they try to bomb your ship. This mission is
especially hairball with lots of action. The rest of the
game consists of Submarine missions or campaigns that you
can select which range from sub VS sub to torpedo run. The
game is very action packed, and will probably appeal to you
even if you hate the average sub sim. I give this game a
very high recommendation as you can see. For only a 3 disk
game which are around 100-200K each, this game will blow
you away, and you won't lose much credit leeching it.
Reviewed by: Genesis
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Product: King's Quest 5
By: Sierra
Graphics: C/E/VGA-256 Colors!
Controls: Joystick/Keyboard/Mouse
Sound: Adlib/Soundblaster/Roland/etc...
Cracking Group: THG also INC
Ratings
-------
Graphics: 10 - Excellent 256 color VGA in ALL parts of the game.
Design: 10 - Sierra seems to have reformed their game design to the
point where no typing is necessary, and only clicking
on icons is required - I like it.
Sound: 10 - As usual, great music and sound board support from
Sierra.
Playability: 10 - Very easy to play and move around with the new icon
system.
Overall Rating: 10
Summary: The long awaited King's Quest 5 is finally here, and it's
approximately 9 megs ZIPPED! I really feel sorry for THG
and INC couriers because they both released a version. For
the record THG released the game first, however INC's version
was not far behind. Be careful as some people seem to be
combining different disks from the THG and INC versions, and
they do not seem to work together. Another thing to be wary
of is the "Not Enough Hunk" message you may get after KQ5
drops your ass to DOS. This means you dont have enough free
RAM, and the best thing you should do is rename your
config.sys and autoexec.bat and then reboot without them
being loaded. Alot of people don't like Sierra games, and
this is your average Sierra Adventure game, so don't get too
thrilled. But in my opinion the new 256 color vga coupled
with the anticipation of thousands waiting for this game to
be released make it a definite 10. Even if you hate Sierra
games, this one is worth taking a look at.
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