Other games deserve special mention because they are interesting, or games that are good but need some polishing. A few of these games were great at the time of their original release but have since been pushed into this section as newer games are released. However, since these games broke ground for the games we have today we should not quickly push them aside, and will remain here as games that are still better than most of the pack.
1) Blackjack Deluxe 1.9.1
Circumflex Software
Shareware Registration
P.O. Box 1480
Havertown, PA 19083
Shareware Fee - $25.00
Blackjack Deluxe is a very good implementation of the game blackjack. The player starts the game by choosing how much money he/she would like to bet. After betting the player then proceeds on whether or not he/she would like to double, split, hit, or stay with the current cards. The game can be set so that comments will be given as to whether or not a correct decision has been made as to the decision made. This game is good for the person who wants to vastly improve their skills at the game. If you were planning a trip to the casino I would highly recommend this game to perfect your skills at the game. The amount of help available is also a plus. Help even goes as far as teaching the player how to count cards, a trick that can be invaluable if mastered. In addition to the game play the graphics are extraordinary. My only complaint is that this game can wear off quickly because there is very little to do besides playing the traditional game. I must commend the authors for making sure the game runs on every computer from the Mac Plus through the PowerMac.
DAVE'S RATING ***
2) Bloodsuckers 1.1 / 2.0
Pangea Software
10918 Kirwick
Houston, TX 77024
Shareware Fee - $5.00
Bloodsuckers is a shooting gallery type game where your goal is to protect your arm from being sucked into oblivion by hoards of blood-thirsty insects.
The object of this game is to kill the insects before they suck the blood out of you. As you increase through the levels you must swat more insects faster to stay alive. I don't know what it is, but this game has what it takes for some people. As a matter of fact there is a high score contest going on at the college I just graduated from. Maybe I got out just in time. Bloodsuckers is the type of game that kids thirst for (you go out and kill all of the bad guys). The graphics are the best part of this game - they are more interesting than any I have ever seen before. On the positive side I have a tremendous amount of respect for the authors because they ask that the shareware fee be sent to the American Cancer Society. Way to go. Version 2.0 is PPC native.
DAVE'S RATING **
3) Chello 1.1
James Preston
1904 Miraplaza Ct. #23
Santa Clara, CA 95051
Shareware Fee - $5.00
For all practical purposes Chello and Ataxx (reviewed elsewhere) are the same game. The difference is in the interface. People all have their own opinion on how a game should be and I prefer Ataxx's interface. The difference is that Chello uses a window versus Ataxx which utilizes the full screen. Other differences are that Ataxx randomly chooses the board that you will play on where in Chello you choose what board you want. Chello has the advantage in the area of board editing - you can't in Ataxx. The last big difference is that Ataxx has five levels of play versus Chello's three. Overall the games play the same. Play both and choose the one you prefer.
DAVE"S RATING ***1/2
4) Hemiroids 1.1
Sean D. Ansorge
Freeware
HemiRoids is yet another Asteroids workalike, and is free; see "Legal Stuff", at the end of this document.
HeimRoids started as an educational effort on my part, to see how you get a Mac to draw bright colors on the screen and play annoying sounds at the same time. Whee! It has since of course become a cult smash and a public nuisance, netting me hundreds of e-mail messages and almost ten minutes of fame.
HemiRoids was nominated for the 1993 MacUser ShareWare award for best shareware entertainment product, but it lost to Maelstrom and Bolo, which is pretty much what I expected, but hey, it was nice to be nominated, especially in the company of such products that were so obviously the result of so much work, and just to make this sentence even longer I'd like to say hi to my mom. Hi.
I'm working on a new game which if things go well will be released commercially some time next year. It's one heck of a lot more fun than HemiRoids, so look for it when it comes out. The current title is PegLeg, and that probably won't change `cause I really like it.
Hemiroids is very similar to the shareware game Maelstrom. Both are based after the game Asteroids. This, however, is where the similarity stops. Hemiroids has very goods graphics and excellent sound but the lack of varying types of enemies and goodies make this a second class Maelstrom. However, the game runs so smoothly that its other faults can be overlooked. If I could ever tell the author one thing it would be to make the bullets fired from your ship smaller. How can a ship fire something so good. Check out Maelstrom first then enjoy this one.
DAVE'S RATING **1/2
5) Infotron 1.0
Q Software
9113 Fairview Rd.
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Shareware Fee - $10.00
Long ago in the heyday of computing, there existed a programmer/hacker type named Alan Henderson. He sat in front of his computer all day, punching away at the keys. Between trips to the coffee pot, vending machines, and cold water
dispensers, he worked day and night on creating the ultimate program which would bring him fame and fortune. (Alan politely asked us not to disclose what this program was. Sorry.) Alan also had a gumball machine which sat next to his
computer. He neglected the gumballs, and never ate them. The gumballs got bored and eventually fell asleep because they simply had nothing better to do.
Unfortunately for the gumballs, the computer was controlled by an evil and
devious CPU that wished to cause them great harm. When the gumballs' guard went down, the computer began to send out electrical sparks which melted many of them, causing them to die a slow and agonizing death. This, of course, woke the remaining gumballs up. (Have you ever heard a gumball scream in terror? Well, you will...) The commune of gumballs quickly determined that they must stop the computer at all costs. Murphy, a bright red gumball from the center of the dispenser, agreed to go and stop the computer - despite the deadly risks involved. He forced his way out of the gumball dispenser, and managed to enter the computer through the floppy drive. Once inside, he was confronted with more than he could handle - the computer had prepared for his arrival.
The devious CPU, who will remain nameless (Pentium), had set up mazes, traps, and pitfalls for Murphy. Murphy quickly discovered that in order to escape from a level, he had to collect a certain number of infotrons (the "keys" to the exit) and get out of the level before he got killed. As Murphy, you must destroy the evil CPU and save the gumball population from imminent destruction!
(Don't get mad at us for such a lousy story - we write code, not prose.)
One of the more interesting games that I have seen in a while. You are the gumball (Murphy) and you must eat all of the Infotrons in order to make it to the next level. First of all the sound and graphics are outstanding. Beyond that the game is 50 levels of puzzles that you must complete. Each puzzle gives you a different challenge that you must overcome. You control Murphy with the keyboard and move him around while he tries to gobble all of the Infotrons. Watch out though because eating the wrong piece of the puzzle can lead to your death and thus the end of the game. Altought the game ends with the death of your player you only go back to the beginning of that level. Once you have completed the level you don't need to look back. While I think this game is outstanding I do have a few problems with it. First of all you must restet the preferences every time you start up. Secondly the levels require so much dewterity that they can be almost impossible to overcome. If the key movement were a little bit more responsive this game would be truely oustanding.
DAVE'S RATING ***
6) Ingemar's Skiing Game 0.9.9u
Ingemar Ragnemalm
Plöjareg. 73
S-58330 Linköping
Sweden
Shareware Fee - $10.00
This is a game that I started on long ago, really long ago. The first version was made in Basic on my old Speed9 computer, in the early 80's. My sprite routines for the Mac (SAT) first started working at all back in 1991, in the form of an early Slime Invaders (B/W, released in spring 1992, colorized 1993). I decided to revive my old game as my second sprite-using Mac game. It got to playable state, though it was far from pretty. All the graphics was quick hacks, just to get it rolling. At version 0.9, I put it aside in order to make some other games.
It took until the summer 1993 until I finally made any more significant development on the game. Now it has color, supports external files, looks quite a bit better, the stupid "score" and "cup score" windows are replaced by a board with game results and a newspaper, some new objects are added and there are robot players. During the last months, it has moved from being a dust-collecting hack that I shouldn't have listed among my "playable" games, to one of the best - probably the most original one so far.
This game is good when two or more people have the need to challenge each other to claim victory. As a game for one person it quickly gets old. The graphics are just too simplistic to keep a person's attention for more than just a few minutes. Ingemar hit the spot with Bachman, but has failed to live up to that level with his subsequent releases.
DAVE'S RATING **1/2
7) Mille Bornes 1.21
Greg Abbas
114 Woodland Dr.
Cary, NC 27513
Shareware Fee - $10.00
Mille Bornes requires a 13" (640x400) or larger 8-bit color monitor. Also, it requires system 7 for the sound to work. It should work on any machine that meets the above spec's, although it has been tested only on the II and IIcx. There are a few memory leaks, so if you get "out of memory" messages, try increasing the partition.
The non-computerized version of Mille Bornes is available from Parker Brothers. Mille Bornes was first written (as far as I know) for the Macintosh by Robert Harris, and released under the name 1000 Miles. Thanks to both Parker Brothers and Robert Harris — parts of this program are based on each of their games.
Good adaptation of the Parker Brother's Card game from Greg Abbas. On the machines tested it seems to crash every once in a while. Needs to be polished a bit.
