Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!well!farren
From: farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: FAUG demo of Powermonger by E.A. -- long review
Message-ID: <22195@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 16 Dec 90 06:06:25 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> <90347.103037DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu>
Lines: 23

DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu writes:

>I hate endless disk access; I hate ANY disk access!
>I'm sure lots of people feel the same way. The most playable games usually have
>little or no disk access.

You weren't listening carefully.  I don't like disk accesses in the middle of
a game, either, but if they're carefully designed so that they only occur
during otherwise "normal" breaks in the game, then it doesn't make that much
of a difference - the additional annoyance factor is minimal.  Certainly,
disk accesses right in the middle of play are a pain, and shouldn't be there.
But disk accesses to load in the next level, or to load in the "control panel"
overlay, or the like, just don't make that much difference.

In the name of honesty, I must admit that Storm Across Europe has too many
disk accesses.  In order to get it to fit into 512K, I had to do some strange
tweaking, including running it with overlays.  The only time it's a real pain
is on a single-floppy system, but even there the disk accesses are at "normal"
points within the game, so it doesn't annoy nearly as much as it might.  Still,
I offer no excuses - I done it wrong, and the only excuse I can offer is the
time constraints I was working under.
-- 
Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us