Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!unido!fauern!tumuc!lan!tensi
From: tensi@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Thomas Tensi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: New Games
Message-ID: <3330@tuminfo1.lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de>
Date: 10 Jul 90 08:49:24 GMT
References: <3416@crash.cts.com>
Sender: news@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de
Organization: Inst. fuer Informatik, Technische Univ. Muenchen, West Germany
Lines: 60
In-reply-to: spierce@pnet01.cts.com's message of 6 Jul 90 06:36:02 GMT


				  Klax Review
				  -----------

Game idea:
----------

   In front of you you have a big assembly line coming in from the horizon,
   which is divided into 5 subtracks. On each of the subtracks numerous square
   blocks in several colours and with random space between them move towards
   the front end (which is facing you).

   They would finally fall off but you have a movable paddle to catch them
   before they fall. As soon as you have caught a block (or several; you can
   stack them on the paddle) you can drop it on one of five adjacent block
   piles with limited capacity. Now similarly to tetris blocks stored there are
   removed if you happen to make a row, column or diagonal consisting of at
   least three blocks of the same colour. The blocks above move down to fill
   the empty slots.

   Each level gives a certain task to be performed: e.g. do 5 diagonals or
   survive 40 blocks and so on.

   The game terminates either if a certain number of blocks fell off without
   getting caught or all the block piles are full.


Opinion:
--------

   Nice game, but I don't find it too addicting. I'm angry that it's long-track
   copy-protected (I could live with that), but they didn't put the high score
   table in a separate file and thus it can't be cleared easily (at least they
   don't tell in the instructions... or would you fiddle around with a sector
   editor on your only copy??). The graphics is ok but sometimes I have some
   problems to distinguish the blocks on the paddle.

   Joystick, keyboard, but no mouse support. Nice sound.

   I bought it for a party but as soon as your game is over, the score vanishes
   quickly. Considering the high score table problem how do you find out who
   won the competition (I scored ... ooops, it's gone! ... damn)?

   And by the way: if they support a keyboard why don't they allow to type in
   the name with it when you enter the high score table? Stepping through the
   alphabet with a single key is fine for arcade machines but not for computers
   with at least 27 keys left...

Recommended, but I'm not too enthusiastic about it.

                Thomas Tensi

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Tensi, Institut fuer Informatik, Technische Univ. Muenchen,
Arcisstr. 21, 8000 Muenchen 2, West Germany
        | E-Mail:
        | tensi@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de                (X.400)
        | tensi%lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de@relay.cs.net   (arpa/csnet)
        | tensi%lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de@unido.uucp     (uucp)
        | tensi%lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de@ddoinf6.bitnet (bitnet)