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From: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: EA Screws ST Owners Again
Message-ID: <228@stag.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Oct-87 22:08:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: stag.228
Posted: Mon Oct  5 22:08:38 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Oct-87 23:17:53 EDT
Organization: Mindtools ST Access Group, Plymouth, MN
Lines: 56
Keywords: Marble Madness


Well, after reading the new OSS Pascal 2.0 manual and seeing how poorly things
like VDI were supported, how poorly the manual was put together (as if they were
planning on forcing all owners to buy the Tacklebox ST package), and most of
all after I couldn't get my DISKTOP to compile with the new 2.0, it probably
was not very oppurtune timing for Marble Madness to come out...I haven't done
a product flame in two years, so lets see how I do :-)

/* Flame On *)

Well, it seems that every year Electronic Arts does something to get Atari
owners all riled up...First it was when they made all the snide comments about
the Atari 800 being a dead machine (in response to why they were not producing
software for that machine, but for the Commodore 64), and then they decided to
develop primarily for the Amiga because they "didn't feel the ST would survive"
(extracted from comments in the EA Go #$%^* Yourself article that circulated
the ST boards over a year ago.) But that is old stuff.

Today we got in Marble Madness for the ST. I think I can keep this to a short
low tech analysis, starting with 5  words...What a piece of trash. Very poor
graphics (not close to what can be done on the ST), buggy play (the ball
'tracking' is slightly out of phase with the screen), and poor animation
(ball doesn't even disappear when going behind small projections...) I
would rather play Zombie on the 8 bit Atari...guess that isn't a fair
comparison (Zombie is much better than MM on the ST). This is kind of a
Deja Vu to the earlier experiences with EA...what were those exciting
packages...financial cookbook?, golden oldies (eliza, life, pong)?,
artic fox?, etc.

Does someone at EA have it in for upper management at Atari or something?
Logic would dictate that the company at least put out the best software
that the machine they are porting the software to would handle. I played
Marble Madness on the Amiga before I got rid of it (the Amiga) and there
is no reason that the graphics couldn't have been even better and smoother
on the ST...(or the 8 bit Atari for that matter)...EA has always indicated
that one reason they have such poor Atari sales is because of piracy by
Atari owners, I would rather think it is more the quality of their software
by the time it gets ported to the ST (and the 8 bit systems).

(* Flame off */

Sorry people, only a few companies get me irritated like that (and no,
Atari isn't one of them...I personally like my ST and what I have learned
on it, so could care less when/if mega's or PC clones come out...although
a high speed transputer would be an intriguing add-on with Tom Hudsons' SW).

On the good side, Gauntlet and Boulderdash Construction Set are two
VERY nice games...at least some companies out there know how to design
good game software. oops...almost forgot Midi-Maze which is probably
the most addicting game I have ever played (if you can get two or more
ST owners to bring their machines over to your house).

  -Todd Burkey
  trb@stag.UUCP

(of course if MULE came out for the ST, you know who would be first in line)