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Text File | 1992-03-06 | 11.2 KB | 230 lines

PAUL'S COLUMN ------------- Well, I hope some of you have responded with some of your own views concerning the subject's covered in last month's column. If you have written to CHANNEL Z, well done! I was beginning to get very disillusioned with the response I was getting to my article's and comments i.e. NOTHING! If you didn't reply, well, that's your decision, but the point about doing articles in disk magazine's is so you can air your own opinions and views, without the danger of you letters being edited by the likes of Amiga Format or CU Amiga. Have none of you got your own opinions? Haven't you read an article in a magazine that has made you boil with anger, you have!, then get fingers to keys and express your feelings. Right, the main news is of course the imminent takeover of Commodore. It seems the rumour mongers have been going overboard over the last couple of month's, telling us of Commodore's ultimate demise. Rumour's, hmmm, they are an evil thing. Many arguments have been started because of such childish thing's. Who starts them? Probably the same people who have nothing interesting to say, so instead, make up complete and utter crap about a subject they nothing about in the first place. I must admit, it is worrying when you here that the makers of the computer you have paid hundreds of pounds for is going to close down. You cannot help but believe certain rumours, especially when you have heard that Commodore have made a financial lose in AF and in CU. So now Commodore US is no more. Well, let's face it, the Amiga was never strong in the USA. (Excluding the A4000). The Amiga is still very strong in Europe and hopefully, will be for a very long time. Samsung and Hewlett Packard have been mentioned as possible interested party's in Commodore's future. No one know's for sure, but, whoever takes over the rain's, will, hopefully, realise they have the most loyal customers around. We all have to be positive and keep our chins up by continuing to support Commodore, we are Commodore's future and together we can make the Amiga name live on! When it comes to news about Commodore, I have taken the attitude of only believing what is said about Commodore, when it comes from the mouth's of David Pleasance or Colin Proudfoot. I for one have a lot of admiration for David Pleasance. Throughout Commodore's financial crisis he has always put across a positive and forward looking attitude, he has never been negative. He could so easily have done the same as Kelly Sumner (Ex MD), i.e. Thinking that Commodore was at an end, quit his job like a Captain leave's a sinking ship, and take a career dive by starting up a third rate Software Publisher. I pity you Mr. Sumner, as do many fellow Amiga owners, you showed that when the pressure was on , you could not cope, and, being the spineless individual that you are, have since lost all your respect within the Computer industry. We laugh at you, I laugh in your face, when Commodore hopefully are back in the black, and begin to grow again I, as will every Amiga and Commodore owner in the U.K. will know, it was no thanks to YOU! A new Amiga Magazine was published recently, called 'Amiga Pro' it is in fact two mags, one for Amiga's in general and one for 32bit Amiga's, CD32 included. On the whole a very interesting read, but I couldn't help but realise that the magazine in general, took a much too negative attitude concerning the future of the Amiga. What Did you think? There were some good articles from programmers and developers in the first issue, these included Andrew Braybook, Archer Mclean and Martin Kenwright, the boss of 'DID'. It is his comments and views that I would like to respond to. He gave me the impression that Amiga owners should be privileged in some way, that DID are still supporting our machine. His overall view is that the Amiga including the Mighty A4000, is outclassed by the 486PC. Well lets have a look at YOUR history, shall we Mr. Kenwright. Let's look at your first product, 'F29-Retaliator'. Bugged beyond belief on its initial release, (Try flying under a bridge or past a mountain), an over praised 3D engine (Objects suddenly appearing from nowhere.) Need I go on. Not a very good start eh! Ahh Yes, then we have 'RoboCop 3'. Has anyone seen the film yet, you have!, well the film I saw only had the remotest similarity to the game, and DID were supposed to have access the script! Robocop 3 also suffered from delayed mouse response, dated visuals, occasional software crashes, and poor sound. We are not doing very well so far are we Marty. Then of course there is 'Epic' (Stop laughing at the back!) a game that was so rushed and under playtested that the average player finished the hole thing in a matter of 2 hours. It was bugged, you were incompetent enough not to take out the cheat mode, the story fell in on it's self if you failed certain missions. On the hole, a game that re-defined the words amateurish, pathetic and over hyped. Finally we have 'TFX'. I have yet to play it on the A1200 or CD32, but's lets have a look at some of the comments about the PC version. You need the fastest 486 (No surprise there, your programmers need a fast processor to make up for there sloppy programming). It suffers from intermittent software crashes, has long delays while accessing the HARDDISK! The CD-ROM version suffers from unbearable music that you cannot switch off, and very poor CD accessing, in fact some reviewers actually recommended the floppy version compared to the CD- ROM version. Well not exactly a history to be very proud of, eh Mr. Kenwright. You should be glad that AMIGA owners still buy your products. The fact you say that the Amiga is outclassed by the PC is proof that your programmers are incompetent, if they new the full capabilities of the A1200, CD32 and A4000, and could get the best from them, you would not be whining like a little girl about the Amiga being to slow. There are many games and simulators available on the 16Bit A500, that, 4 years ago, would have been programming miracles. It has just taken that long for the programmers to get to grips with the machine! So before you start making a fool of yourself in a magazine again, make sure your staff know the full capabilities of the Amiga hardware, because at the present moment, they do not! I hope that has put you and A1200 owners throughout the world straight on a few truths. You have a long way to go yet before you are producing software like 'F1 Grand Prix' and 'Frontier.' The prototype CD1200 has made an appearance at last! Commodore said that all being well it should be on sale in September. They are now saying that it might not see the light of day until 1995. I say, if they brought it out in time for the 'World of Commodore show' in November, (If there is still going to be one!) they would sell thousands of them and absolutely clean up during the Xmas period. We all know that 90% of A1200 owners would buy the CD1200. Let's just hope Commodore's new owner doesn't put off the CD1200 for to long!!!! What the magazine's seem to have failed to point out is that the CD1200 requires Kick-start 3.1, or even 4.0. This must obviously mean that all A1200 owners will have to replace there Kick-start Roms. Unless of course Commodore have managed to somehow incorporate the extra commands in the CD1200 itself. This is a bit of a bummer for all you A1200 owners out there with machines still under warranty! On the subject of the CD1200 plugging into the trapdoor, we all know this will mean that all the owners who have accelerators or ram expansions will be a bit miffed, and rightly so, but how long will it be before someone releases a piece of hardware that fits between the trapdoor and the CD interface allowing users to use a Accelerator/Ram expansion as well. Surely it is possible, come on GVP, Powercomputing, and the rest of you, you would sell thousands and thousands of units. Is the technology available though, I don't know? You cannot help but get drawn into the hype concerning the 'Super Consoles' at the moment. Everyone seems to be ranting on about the Jaguar (A super console that is cartridge based? I think not!) SONY PSX, Saturn, Project Reality and 3DO (Complete with bugged CD drive), without the slightest mention of he CD32. Well all I can say is the CD32 is here NOW! Games are available NOW! Expansions are available NOW! Every day that passes finds programmers getting to know the machine better and better. You can have the most powerful console ever made, but if no one knows how to get the best performance from it, the software is going to be trash. It was good to see that the preview screenshots to 'Simon the Sorcerer II' look like they have been hand drawn. They look absolutely superb. It is good to see that Adventure Soft have chosen to use this method, as most adventure games now seem to be just Digitised fuzzy backgrounds (Innocent Until Caught anyone!) I hope the Graphic Artist is not a dying breed when it comes to adventure games, but, with the advances in technology used during the production of most adventure games now, how much longer will there be a need for one? 'The First Encounters' the sequel to 'Frontier' is in production. Well to say I am excited is an understatement. Although after seeing 'Frontier' on the CD32 I'm not so sure. I must agree with the comments made in CU, I mean, what a wasted opportunity that was. With the scope that is available to them, 'GameteK' port the floppy version directly over, without the hint of tweaking! 600K of data stored on a disk capable of 600MB. What a waste! The 'Blizzard 1220/4 Turbo Memory Board has been released, including built in 68EC020 28mhz processor and 4mb of ram. An astonishing price of £219, an absolute bargain, and up until a couple of months ago would have sold like hot cakes. The problem is, now we all know about the CD1200, who's going to buy a trapdoor expansion. Poor timing, or unlucky timing for the Blizzard, I don't know! Team 17 have made a wise decision and injected some new blood into there system in the shape of BLOODHOUSE. Team 17 know promising programmers when they see them and looking at the screenshots to 'STARDUST AGA' they certainly look promising. Although, screenshots can be misleading? (Can't they Darren!) Finally, June saw the release of 'Elf Mania', finally a beat-em-up worthy of the Amiga. The screenshots look stunning and there is supposed to be all sorts of programming trickery. The programmers have obviously gone to a lot of trouble to bring us an exceptional game, so reward them by BUYING IT! You went out and bought Streetfighter II in your thousands and that was trash, so do the same with 'Elf Mania' knowing this time however you will be rewarded with a quality game. It was sad to see PSYGNOSIS releasing licenced trash in the shape of 'Bram Stokers Dracula, Last Action Hero and CliffHanger.' All of which are poor, rushed, poorly programmed garbage. There was a time when PSYGNOSIS wouldn't have had the nerve to release such tripe. How times change!!!! That's it this month, I hope I have kept you interested and remember if you want to comment on anything I have said, write to CHANNEL Z! (C) P.Horton for CHANNEL Z.