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From: adam@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Adam Glass)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Omega?
Message-ID: <2862@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 6 Jul 90 00:16:44 GMT
References: <1990Jul5.175346.22846@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: adam@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Adam Glass)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Carnegie Institute of Technology
Lines: 51

dhsu@Neon.Stanford.EDU (David Hsu) writes:
> hi, i was at egghead the other day and saw this game called omega
> which dealt with making a simulator for tank design or something like
> that

OMEGA is a game where you write a program ("AI") to control a tank
whose objective is to blow up other tanks and/or destroy their base.
You can build your own battlefields, you can make teams, and you can
design your own simulations.

The language is very high level. "SCAN FOR ENEMY TANK" and "FIRE
WEAPON AT OBSTRUCTION" are sample instructions.  The language supports
labels, rather than line numbers or addresses.  It doesn't support
very complicated math, and doesn't have trigonometric functions, but
you can basically do everything you want with the language.
Incidentally, the language is algebraic -- you don't have to think in
postfix (which I would have preferred.)

It's a gross port -- though it uses menus, dialog boxes, scroll bars,
text fields and SFGet and SFPut, it does it by itself -- it does not
use the toolbox routines.  This is a problem if you have a macro
program to scroll up or page down for you.  I've seen the version of
OMEGA that runs on the Apple IIe, and the graphics are virtually
identical, but you can shrink the window with the zoom box on the Mac.
The Mac version uses digitized sounds.

You get 1000 credits to start.  You buy a chassis, a weapon, a drive
system and a scanner.  You then write the brains of the tank, which
can be debugged in a test scenario.  Eventually your tank will be good
enough to be pitted against the computer.  If you win more than 6 out
of 10 battles, your security clearance is upgraded, and you get 1000
more credits to spend on parts.  This cycle repeats 10 times or so
before you 'win' and get an unlimited budget.

I've gotten pretty close to winning the game: I think I have two more
computer robots left to fight (Panda and Ogre.)

I must say I was disappointed by the monotony of tank-explosion
sounds, the poor quality graphics (Apple //e style,) and the ease of
which a decent program can shred the computer's first five tanks -- I
had advanced five or six levels before I even knew it.

The manual is fantastic (especially the reference manual,) the
packaging standard (i.e., not of Infocom quality), the game fair.  It
was able to hold my attention for a thrill-filled, fantastic,
contiguous 20 hours, but after that, I lost interest.  I still play
it, but I don't play it that often.  Your milage will vary.

But first and foremost, the Mac version is a port, not an original
work -- rather disappointing from a company as good as Origin.

Adam