Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!pasteur!scam.Berkeley.EDU!hale
From: hale@scam.Berkeley.EDU (Greg Hale)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Armor Alley
Message-ID: <28094@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 23 Sep 90 10:19:17 GMT
References: <7194.26FA4B18@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Lines: 50

Sonny.Shrivastava@f555.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Sonny Shrivastava) writes:

>I'm constantly frustrated by game developers bringing 16-color games to 
>market.  Are we back in the old days if IBM CGA color, or what?  The Mac 
>supports 256 colors, so why don't game developers utilize this?  I can't 
>believe 256 color games will be slow - with 16, 25, and 40 MHz CPUs, I think 
>the systems should have no problem coping.
> 
>Are these game companies just lazy to make fancy colorful games?  I'm 
>confused, and would appreciate any clarification anybody has to offer.  I 
>love 256 color games - Tetris, Ishido, Shanghai 2.0, Where in Time is Carmen 
>Sandiego, etc.  I wish all games went to 256 colors, but that's asking too 
>much.  A game like Armor Alley SHOULD be in 256 colors, and there should be a 
>special Mac II version which will use the entire screen.  I'm tired of color 
>software limiting itself to the screen size of an SE.  If the thing runs in 

Dear Frustrated,

In writting Armor Alley, we were under a number of constrains.  The most
pressing of which was time.  Currently, Armor Alley runs on all versions of
the Macintosh from the plus up.  This includes: System 7.0, and Apple's
unreleased machines.  In providing this compatiblity we wrote special code
for page flipping, regular drawing, color quickdraw, and 16 color mode.
While we would have liked to have provided 256 color mode and a enlarged screen
there simply wasn't enough time for adding the resulting combinations, which
only a small minority of users would be able to take advantage of.

However, if sales are good, I intend to add inter-zone play, 256 color mode,
an enlarged screen, scenairos w/ editor, custom helicopters, etc... to version
two of the product.

The Apple II version, Rescue Raiders, appears to be one of the most popular
games to pirate.  Everyone said they loved it, but no one bought it.  If
Armor Alley, isn't pirated there will be version two VERY soon.

Sonny, is the game not worth buying due to the lack of 256 colors or an enlarged
mode?  I've found that the best games I've played were completely text: nethack,
hunt, and empire.  The visual attactiveness of a game helps to sell the game,
but is soon forgotten and taken for granted.  The content of the game is what
provides long term enjoyment.

Many people complained about the lack of sound in Rescue Raiders.  I found
soon they were making their own sounds (with great enthuasim).  I think that
the imagination is the most vivid colorer.  I feel that I may have taken away
some enjoyment from the purchaser in adding attractive sounds to Armor Alley.

Best Wishes,
Arthur Britto II

PS  If you hate the enemy, Greg Hale did a good job.