Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!texsun!newstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Omega - New Game from Origin
Keywords: BattleTanks
Message-ID: <129150@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 12 Dec 89 23:58:47 GMT
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Lines: 54

Well, I've been looking for it for a while and I finally found it. There
was this game on the Apple II way back when that was called something
like BattleRobots or something. Anyway, the player would write a program
in the Robot language and pit it against other robots which were also
programmed. The goal was to have your robot survive. This was, in my
opinion, an excellent use of the simulation ability of personal computers.

Now Origin Systems has updated the concept (their Tanks now) and called it
OMEGA. The new features are that you can pick your chassis (you`re funds
limited until you reach "OMEGA" level), pick your weapon, pick your
scanner, and pick the size of your gas tank. Then you program this thing
and when you are satisfied it is ready, you apply for advancement. 

The motif of the game is that you are a top secret cybertank designer and
you get promoted based on how well your tank designs do. When you are a 
pro (omega class) designer you get to take on the world. Also Origin is 
running a contest to compete in with other human built tanks. 

Strengths of this version :

	The battlefields are much more detailed, having both immovable and
blastable obstacles. They are also larger than the old battlerobots fields
so the navigation part of the program becomes more significant. The execution
of the game, the editor, simulator, jokes are all pretty well done and it
can be installed on a hard disk which is a big plus. 

Weaknesses of this version :

	The early advancement tanks aren't to tough to beat. I used the
sample tank "alpha" that I built in the tutorial and it stomped the challenge
tank "dinky" 9 battles to 1. Also the supply of ammo is unlimited so a lot
of successful programs just blast, blast, blast. Differences in the options
on the tanks don't translate well into battlefield advantages. Generally
you want the most you can afford of everything. The weapons are all about
the same from Turbo Laser up through Nuke. I was suprised you had to hit a
tank the same number of times with a Turbo Laser as you did with a nuke to
kill it. This seems non intuitive, but since the laser was cheaper and fired
faster than the nuke, I use them in all my designs. :-)

Overall impressions :

	I like this game a lot. I started writing it a couple of times
because the Amiga didn't have one available. I'm not sure if my version
would be better, I suspect the detail I would add (like explosive armor,
missles) would not work well. Clearly a big feature would be the ability
for people to exchange tanks and see how they did against each other, I
haven't tried that yet. For people who liked the Apple II version this is
a must buy, if you are more into arcade games you can skip it.


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"If it didn't have bones in it, it wouldn't be crunchy now would it?!"