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From: colas@avahi.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Chaos Strikes Back: Initial Review
Message-ID: <1990Dec17.131644@avahi.inria.fr>
Date: 17 Dec 90 12:16:44 GMT
References: <86793@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
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Reply-To: colas@avahi.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo)
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Having already played CSB on an atari, I can 
In article <86793@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, tj@pons.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R
Johnson) writes:
> 	The hint oracle is designed to read a CSB saved game disk and offer a
> list of hints on the area surrounding your characters.  I haven't tried this
> yes, because I'm not ready for hints. 

The hint oracle is very well designed, because its hints are obscure enough
not to spoil the game. You can use it without being afraid to lose interest
in the game.

> [Note: This is from the manual.  I didn't try selecting heros this
> way, but it seems strange that they wouldn't directly save a CSB game from
> the prison.  Perhaps the saved game disk also has some extra data on it that
> the game needs.]

It seems that the save game file has all the dungeon (all levels) stored in
(monster position, stats...) etc, so it is very version-dependent. 
Besides, it is a way to reduce the size of the main code to fit it in 512K,
since CSB can run on 512K Ataris. (On the amiga, the extra 512K is taken by
the sounds, which are MUCH better than the atari ones...)

> The dungeon is filled with traps, teleportors,
> pits, and fake walls.  

Yes, you must always have an eye on your compass while playing.  Moreover, if
instead of just passing on some places, you sit there for more one second, you
are teleported to a same-looking corridor elsewhere!!! (I played for 1 month
before discovering this)

> You can easily get trapped so that you can't get back
> to certain parts of the dungeon.  

I don't think so, as far as I know, you can always get back, everything is
reversible (but it can take time :-)). The only annoying situation is falling
in the trap that says "drop your belonging", wher you must drop EVERYTHING to
get out, and them go looking for your items that have been dispersed in the
whole dungeon... (of course I always restarted when it happened to me!)

> I have yet to kill a single
> knight, which is what I am stuck trying to do right now.

They are nearly insensitive to fireballs. The best way is to quaff 2 or 3
strenght and dexterity portion, and have your back row preparing VI potions to
re-live your fighters during fight.

> Finally, mapping is a little bit tougher than in DM.

I thing much tougher :-), so DON'T look at maps, it will spoil much of the
fun! be prepared to have tons of little bits of papers with parts of a level
in it, since you spend your time climbing up/down to small parts of a level.
One of the challenges is to put back all the pieces. Fortunately, you are
always teleported on the same level.

> 	CSB feels quite a bit different from DM.  There is a lot less guidance,
> unlike DM which provided a lot of hints at the start of the game.  
>...  My initial impressions after playing CSB for
> about 6 hours is that it is just as much fun as DM.  

ditto!

> My biggest gripe is that CSB doesn't support my hard disk for saved games.

My biggest gripe is that it is disk-protected. Imagine my panic when DM on my
ST ceased to work due to disk failure!!! Fortunately it was some kind of dust,
since it re-worked after blowing on the disk with a camera cleaner. So, I
would advise you to try to backup CSB as soon as possible. (I bougth a
hardcopier just for this purpose!)

> I wish I could say the same about Captive and Corporation.

Do you mean that they aren't good games, or just that you didn't try them?
I am interested of review of Captive, especially by people having played both
DM (or CSB) and captive. Corporation doesn't seem to be worth time or money.

Ah, also:
f140003@pollux writes:
> I got the game last night and I'm probably almost 1/2 way done

??? Are you a mutant from outer space (I mean, somebody able to correctly fold
a road map :-)), I think most mortals will spend a lot of time with CSB, if
they don't look at posted maps, which will destroy game fun.

parker@cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (James Parker) writes:
> Have fun and save some dragons for me, guys!!

You will enjoy the room with 3 regenerating tougher-than-DM-dragons, then :-)

--
Colas Nahaboo, Bull Research France -- Koala Project -- GWM X11 Window Manager
Internet: colas@mirsa.inria.fr, Phone: (33) 93.65.77.70, Fax: (33) 93 65 77 66
INRIA Sophia, 2004, rte des Lucioles, B.P.109 - 06561 Valbonne Cedex, FRANCE