Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!corton!mirsa!kish.inria.fr!buffa From: buffa@kish.inria.fr (Michel Buffa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games Subject: Re: FAUG demo of Powermonger by E.A. -- long review Keywords: simply incredible Message-ID: <9424@mirsa.inria.fr> Date: 12 Dec 90 08:58:37 GMT References: <1950@unlisys.in-berlin.de> <1990Dec5.110344.6364@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1787@seti.inria.fr> <1990Dec10.133123@avahi.inria.fr> <22110@well.sf.ca.us> Sender: news@mirsa.inria.fr Reply-To: buffa@mirsa.inria.fr Organization: Inria Sofia Antipolis Lines: 90 Nntp-Posting-Host: kish.inria.fr In article <22110@well.sf.ca.us>, farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes: > colas@avahi.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo) writes: > >PS: Just PLEASE stop bashing about non-use of OS resources. I think that by > >making it fast loading, without disk access during playing, and with no > >disk-based protection, Bullfrog is really trying to make life easier on the > >player, so I feel it a bit unfair to criticize them, especially from people > >who didn't try it!!! For instance, Marc Farren, instead of speaking of > >overlays, etc, did you realize there is no disk accesses during game? > > That's Mike, not Marc :-) > > So what? There's also no multitasking, and no hard drive. Hard drive compatibility would have been great, but multitasking makes only bad games when animation speed is essential. I enjoy a good > game as much as anyone, and will likely buy this one (I really liked Populous), > but that doesn't change the fact that it's just sloppy. No disk accesses? > What the hell difference do disk accesses make, if you can limit them to > the times when there's going to be a break in the game action anyway? I > presume that there are things like setup screens, option screens, and the > like, just like in Populous - so what do you lose by having those loaded > only when needed, since they are going to cause a break in the action > anyway? And with the extra memory you've just gotten as a gift, you can > give me back my system, which is worth a few seconds delay any time, as > far as I'm concerned. True. > Hell, at the very least they could check to see if the system's already > up, and run with overlays if they need to, and otherwise take over everything. > Even DPaint gives you the option of overlays or not. But no - Bullfrog has > to decide FOR me what's right and proper. Not to mention the fact that > they're going to be sitting there, letting most of MY memory go to waste, > idling away its time, and probably getting into trouble :-) > > -- > Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us You compare Powermonger and Dpaint. Are you mad ??? I haven't got 5 megs of memory, and I don't want disk access only because one crazy programmer wrote his game so that people with a lot of memory won't have any disk access. Powermonger is nice in the fact that it didn't make any disk acess once the games is started. Between a lot of disk access (overlays) and multitasking (which I really don't care on my "normal" amiga) and people with a lot of memory happy, and no disk acess for everybody (more fun to play a game without disk access) and some Mike Farren's unhappy on the net, my choice is evident. And don't forget that in the world thare are 5/6 of Amiga 500 with 512k, single drive. HEY MIKE ! What games did you write so that you can give such "good" advices ? Did you write better games than Populous and Powermonger ? Using only the Rom code ? Well, why don't you write your own version of Powermonger, with multitasking capabilities, overlays everywhere, HD installability, full compatibility with every computer on the earth, better animation, better graphics... Why aren't you on the cover of a magazine ? I'm really fed-up with all these people who talk about programming techniques and never wrote a GOOD game. Mike, I tried once one of your game in a shop, and I'm sorry but it was terrible. The animation was slow, slow... Ans so long to load with a single drive... I can not even remeber the name of this game. Tell us what good games you wrote. We'll make a vote, and if it seems for everybody that they are good games, then we will listen to you. Bullfrog wrote Populous, wrote Powermonger, Flood. They are all good games. Do you think they never thought about writing the game only using the Rom code, multitask, and so on... They are good programmers, they are not Dumb people. They certainly tried this before and discovered that making a good scrolling with the Scrollraster function is impossible, that multitasking games that use a lot of computing power are too slow on Amiga without accelerator cards. You know mike, in 10k, you can put a lot of nice sound effects. I prefer programmers who give me good sound effects (like in Powermonger) than programmers who write a bad multitasking OS friendly game with poor sound effects. Tell me ONE good arcade game that multitask on the amiga. And don't forget, I want to know the games you wrote. -- ------------------------------------------ Michel Buffa: Projet Robotvis, INRIA, France Internet: buffa@sardaigne.inria.fr Surface Mail: Michel BUFFA, INRIA - Sophia Antipolis, 2004, route des Lucioles, 06565 Valbonne Cedex -- FRANCE Voice phone: (33) 93.65.78.39, Fax: (33) 93 65 77 65 ------------------------------------------