Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5166396" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 180: April 1992part 4/6The role of computers: Last month, we saw the plight of Amiga become hinted at. This time, it's the Atari Lynx that we scent the blood of. 3 years in, and they've just sold their millionth cartridge, and have a library of 40 games. That's fewer products than D&D has managed in the same timespan. Hell, it might be fewer sales than Palladium has managed as well. Compare that to the gameboy and it all becomes a bit risible. Castles: The northern Campaign is an expansion for the original Castles. It improves on it quite substantially, adding lots of new options on both the military and trading fronts. This pushes their verdict up to 5 stars. Castle of Dr Brain is another educational game. It doesn't really hold up to their scrutiny, with the normal difficulty level easily completed, and no interesting ending to reward you for that. Elvira II: The jaws of Cerberus is another one that improves on the original, with more action, better graphics, better sound, and tons of items and spells that you'll need to apply carefully to progress. Get ready to juggle that equipment list again. Hyperspeed is another game that is left behind by the advance of technology. If it weren't for Wing commander raising the bar, this'd probably be a 5 star one. As it is, it'll just have to settle for 4. Nova 9 is a 3D shooter. This is one area that technology is definitely having an impact on. Anyway, with both ground and space based missions, there's plenty of enemies to kill and power-ups to collect. They quite enjoy it. The Simpsons Arcade game gets a relatively weak review, being mostly mindless combat. This is another one I burnt a ton of money on at the arcade one summer. Having got to around level 7, I really wanted to finish it, but kept on dying and ran out by around level 9. I wan't even really enjoying it that much. Repeating patterns, eh. V for victory: battleset 1, D-day utah beach, 1944 is another 5 star one. Looks like wargames are also exploiting the new technology out there. The number of scenarios isn't huge, but the interface is very good. Still, it'll take you quite a while to do each one, so it's not wasted money. Back to the future III gets a fail result, both on a gameplay and a technical level. Recent advances in graphics really have spoiled them, and this just feels like a cheap cash-in. Novel ideas: Looks like they're giving the huge world-changing events a miss this year. Instead, it's sequels to their bestselling series that are getting the big fanfare, as they want to milk the cash cows without disturbing them too much. Moonshaes: the next Generation. Yet more Dragonlance prequels. Existing authors have to come back to their old works and try to recapture the magic, while new ones have to learn the history and try to fit into the existing canon. As ever, they have little bits of info on the writing process and difficulties involved, which may or may not be accurate, and will hopefully make you want to buy the stuff. As usual, this column has nothing particularly essential worth reading. The power of the pen: It's survey time again, for approximately the 7th time in the magazine's history. What do you want more, less or about the same of? Not brilliantly phrased, as I always read everything, whether I like it or not. Nothing much else to say here. What will the replies be this time? See you in the editorial in a few months time. The dragon's bestiary: Battering rams are another creature based on a dreadful pun name. Like the Death Sheep, they might be a bit amusing, but they can still mess your day up, and in this case, break down many obstacles as well. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> not with a druid who has a flock of these as an entourage. Gorse are teeny little fairies with magic that lets them control thorn bushes. Ahh, the old spike up the arse trick. That alway's gets a giggle.  Since they have only 1 hp and come in large numbers, using magic while hiding in the bushes from attack, this is definitely one a flamethrower would aid in dealing with. Looks like they're treading the fine path between humour and usefulness well this year. Quakedancers are real thunder lizards, looking much like brontosauri, but actually causing earthquakes as a hunting mechanism. Another one that's a serious monster (with very serious damage outputs indeed as it gets bigger), but can also be a bit goofy and amusing. Still, none of these guys are disbelief suspension breaking to me. They can join the queue of monsters to use.</blockquote>

Verification