Fresh Fish 10/Fresh_Fish_10_2352.bin/useful/reviews/software/games/roketz

Internet Message Format | 1995-06-28 | 16KB

Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett
From: [e-mail] (Leon Woestenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Roketz
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games
Date: 28 Jun 1995 18:50:43 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 404
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3ss8a3$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Leon Woestenberg)
NNTP-Posting-Host: astro.cs.umass.edu
Keywords: game, shoot-em-up, race, shareware
Originator: [e-mail]


PRODUCT NAME

    Roketz, full registered version 1.3

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    A "Shoot and Race through Space" game.  Race and/or fight against an
opponent with your custom-equipped space fighter.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        The Farm
    Address:    P.O. Box 410
            Tallinn EE0900
            Estonia
            Europe

    E-mail:        [e-mail] (Ott M. Aaloe of The Farm)

    Apart from The Farm's address, there are registration sites in
the UK and USA.  Their addresses can be found in the free demo version.


LIST PRICE

    $15 (US), DM 25 or UK 10.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

    HARDWARE

        An Amiga 1200 or Amiga 4000 is needed.

        PAL capable television set or monitor.  I could not test
        this game under screenmode promotion.

        Fast RAM is recommended for hard disk owners, as they may
        need to boot without startup-sequence and Workbench to get
        the game running.

        At least one joystick is advisable, as playing this game
        with two players on one keyboard might be troublesome.

    SOFTWARE

        Nothing special really: the diskfont.library and
        mathtrans.library must be available.  These come default
        with the Workbench, and are present on the Roketz disks as
        well.


COPY PROTECTION

    None.  It is illegal to distribute the registered version,
and as your name is in the startup screen, you will be kept from just
doing that. :-)

    The limited demo version is meant to be copied, and is freely
available at Aminet FTP sites and other public domain sources.

    The program can be installed onto hard disk, and can be run from the
Workbench by it's icon.  After installation, you do not need the original
disks any more to start the game.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    An Amiga 4000/040 with 2 MB Chip RAM and 8 Mb Fast RAM.
    High density internal disk drive.
    540 MB Quantum IDE hard drive.
    Workbench under Kickstart 3.1.
    Philips Television/Monitor for PAL/NTSC.


INSTALLATION

    The game was shipped onto two double density disks that
contain a bootable, ready-to-run game that does not need disk swapping
during the game.

    The installation procedure is just as it should be; Start from your
Workbench, insert the first disk, click on the install icon and the
Commodore Installer program will ask you where to install Roketz.  There are
no assigns made, which is a definite plus.

    If you already had the demo installed onto hard disk, you can
optionally overwrite this with the registered version.  The high scores and
other statistics will remain.

    Easiest installation process I've ever seen for a game.  It works
just as it should work.


NOTE

    This review describes the full registered version version of
Roketz.  There's also a limited demo version that is freely distributable.
The full game differs only in the number of available levels, ships,
engines, weapons and equipment systems.


ROOKIE ROKETEER

    The freely distributable demo from Aminet got my attention and was
the beginning of my career as a "Roketeer"; that's what a spaceship pilot
in Roketz is called.  The demo features two levels whilst the full
registered version has six levels.  A level consists of large playfields,
with space, objects and rock.  Levels represent planet environments in a
futuristic world where men are Roketeerz, and Corvettes are Roketz.

    You choose your Roket from the available models, four in the full
version.  Each Roket has distinct flying characteristics and carries an
onboard cannon, as well as a specialized weapon.  These are different for
each model, giving a lot of combinations to choose from.  Personally, I like
the "HPD series homing pod" weapon which flaks a cloud of bullets which home
in on the enemy's Roket.  Cool or what?!

    But then, why would you need weapons?  You can also gain points by
racing the circuit that is set out in each level. (Sometimes knowledge of
the Estonian language seems handy when trying to race a circuit, as there's
graffiti all over the place :-) You would just choose the fastest Roket and
set record race times; no weapons needed.


THINK AGAIN

    Think again.  There's an opponent who wants to rock you, and who
wants to beat your record lap time.  Apart from the gravity field, this is
your worst enemy, and he or she (Yes, there are Miss Roketeerz as well :-))
is equipped with a load of weapons to bring you down, quick.  So, in order
to race, you need to fight.  In order to fight, you need to race; as often
the escape can be your only way out to return to your docking bay, where you
can quickly land to refuel and rearm, before the enemy finds you sitting
duck on your dock :-).

    As a Roketz pilot, there are a lot of things on your mind: Is my
fuel low? Do I have any XYZ weapons left? Who's on my six? What's that
plopping sound I here? I have to cut this corner here, then bypass or shoot
the enemy who's blocking the race circuit a split second in front of me.
What are those plasma sparks right ahead of me?!! Don't worry, it's just a
teleporter that will warp you to the other end of the level..!


BACK TO REALITY

    OK, back to reality for a moment.  The title screen that introduces
the game is very nicely raytraced.  The theme music guides you from the
title screens into the setup screens where you can enter yourself into the
pilot database, which at least has one "anonymous" player and one "CPU"
player.  Apart from those, every pilot's personal log will kept, along with
all your flight statistics, such as the number of kills, your win/lose
ratio, race lap records and much more.

    Also, you can setup your Roketz' configuration here: model, engine,
weapons, fuel, armament load, special equipment such as "life recharger",
"bumper field generator" or "Zion panic shield".  (Have a guess yourself
what these might be...)  For each Roket, your personal weapon setup will be
saved, to save you from the hassle to setup your preferred flight machine
again and again.  A very nice feature indeed.

    All those settings are defined using big, easy-to-understand icons.
Also, the controls can be chosen; either one of the joysticks, or keys on
your keyboard.  In case you don't like the default keys as controls, you can
define them yourself.  Everything is saved to your pilot file.  Hundred
percent comfort.


AT YOUR DISPOSAL

    To avoid there being one perfect Roket configuration, the game
offers you a number of credits that you can exchange for goodies, such as
fuel, weapons and add-on systems.  Each credit represents one life, i.e., one
Roket ship.  Therefore, a well equipped Roketeer has a small number of
lifes, and must use his (or her) goodies well to get out of the battle as a
winner.  There's a minimum of five lives, and a maximum of ten to start with.


GOAL OF THE GAME

    If you end the battle with zero lives, you are a loser.  If not, you
are a winner.  Simple as that.  Period.


ENTERING THE ENVIRONMENT

    After the setup, which is only needed after game startup, the level
selector appears, consisting of ray-traced imagery of the available levels.
After the selection of the battlezone or circuit, depending on your motives,
the level is loaded from (hard) disk.  During loading, a short description
of the environment is displayed, showing that the game authors have a good
fantasy, as well as a good sense for humor.  (Did you ever space-race in the
let-overs of the Fisney (tm) amusement park?  I bet you didn't :-)


GRAVITY'N'ROCK

    After loading, the splitscreen fades in, showing both Roketz in
vertical position at their landing platforms.  Roketz are vertical take-off
and landing craft, so you may need to get acquainted with the controls in
the beginning.  After vertical