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From: jtgorman@cs.arizona.edu (J. Taggart Gorman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Carrier Command
Message-ID: <547@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 19 Nov 90 21:33:26 GMT
References: <1990Nov19.024516.13579@athena.mit.edu>
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.games
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 43

In article <1990Nov19.024516.13579@athena.mit.edu> dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick) writes:
>I saw the new game "Carrier Command" at Egghead yesterday.  Anyone out
>there played it?  Care to post a review?  The description on the box
>looked interesting, but it was obviously an IBM port, so I would like
>to know how good a port it is before I think about getting it.  

  First things first, it's not new.  It's about two years old.  (I'm on
campus and don't have it near me.)
  The game itself is a nifty idea.  In the near future, an energy starved
earth is looking for new sources of energy.  One country finds this new
chain of volcanic islands in the (Pacific, I think) ocean.  The country
decides to harvest the volcanic energy as power.  They decide to build two
*massive* carriers to remote build factories and power stations on these
new islands.
  But wait, something goes wrong!  The second carrier is built with no crew -
it is *totally* automated, and the computer program has been re-written by
terrorists.  They threaten to destroy the island chain with the carrier unless
their demands are met.  Thus your mission, as commander of the first carrier
is to stall the enemy carrier from destroying islands, and maybe even
destroy it, if possible.
  This is no simple undertaking.  You yourself must capture unoccupied and
enemy islands and use them to your benefit.  All islands produce resources
which are used to build missiles and weapons for your ship and fuel.
  Your carrier is equiped with 4 attack jets and 4 landing craft (basically
tanks.)  You choose how to arm them and where to send them.  The planes
are useful for recon and the tanks are how you convert islands to produce
for you.

  For a port to a Mac Plus, it's okay, but I think it will leave color users
wanting more.  The box shows color, but our version does not, and in some
places color would help.
  As for the game itself, it kept me occupied for a week (until I got 3 in
Three!  That is *addicting*! :).  The hardest part is figuring out how to
take enemy islands.  When I first started playing, I couldn't take a single
enemy island without losing half my APC and getting my carrier badly damaged.
I now have a trick that lets me take an island with little or no loses.
  The only real complaint that I have is that you cannot find the enemy
carrier on your main map.  The only way to find it is to nearly run into the
damn thing.

|     John Taggart Gorman Jr.    | "I'm a no rust build up man myself."
|                                |          -Christian Slater
| jtgorman@caslon.cs.arizona.edu |             in 'Heathers'