Issue 4 PDF - Downloads at abime.net

Fruit Mania
Author: Axiom
Fruit machine simulators have
always occupied a less than illustrious
area of the video gaming world.
In the 8-bit days they were cheap
and cheerful budget releases (the
first game I ever bought was Vegas
Jackpot by Mastertronic, fact fans),
yet from the mid-90s onward they
didn't even merit commercial
release any more, popping up
instead as obscure PD games. Aw.
One of the main shortcomings
common to the genre is the blandness
of the simulated machine in
comparison to the real thing.
Whereas modern fruit machines
have oodles of modes and submodes,
inviting a great variety of
strategies and a frenzy of odds
calculation, the typical computer
� Methinks hi-lo is the value bet here.
version is very light on features so
tends to have resolutely one-dimensional
gameplay. I've always
thought it a little strange that this
particular gap has never been
closed: it's a bit like the problem
pinball games used to have before
Pinball Dreams rewrote the rules.
Sadly, the evolution of video game
fruities seems to have got stuck
sometime around 1989 and the
genre still awaits its landmark title.
Main shortcoming number two, of
course, is the fact that you can't win
or lose any money. This one can't be
helped, but it means that even the
greatest, most accurate conversion
EVAH would still fall short of the real
thing. The game can still be enjoyed
in its own right, but the lack of any
stake beyond virtual money
means that it loses a large
part of its appeal.
Given all of the above, how
does Fruit Mania fare? Not
too badly, it has to be said.
Garish and noisy and hectic,
just as fruit machines should
be, it has four reels and a
goodly number of subgames
(activated by the time-honoured
method of lighting the
Xenon III
Authors: United Graphic Artists
Proficiency with these things is apparently
a sign of a misspent youth. Carl Stapleton,
it turns out, is very handy with them.
� Oooh yeah. Come to papa.
Sometimes you just have to admire the cheek of some people. Adrian
Simpson checks out a not exactly official tribute to a famous shmup series.
Evaluating a Shoot 'Em Up
Construction Kit (SEUCK) game is
like reviewing a home video. There
is no expectation that the film will
feature great cinematography, acting
or direction and its appeal is
solely to those who feature in it or
knew great aunt Fanny before the
cat fell asleep on her head as she
slept and smothered her.
Similarly, the fascination of a
SEUCK game is to those who constructed
it (unless you happen to
take a perverse pleasure in playing
awful games). The SEUCK was a
great tool for those that wanted to
try a bit of game development but
had no coding experience and for
whom Easy AMOS was a bit too
complicated.
Based on the C64 utility, the
Amiga SEUCK allows a player/
would-be-programmer to create
basic shoot-'em-ups. The result is
understandably generic, and either
vertically scrolling or single screen
shooters. The games are usually
obviously built with SEUCK; certain
features cannot be concealed.
A disturbing number of SEUCK
games spawned not one, but a
whole series. However, these were
often some of the better examples
of the art and noticeably improved
as the series progressed. They were
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game title via reel numbers or a skill
stop, then stopping the insanely fast
subgame selector) that add amusing
variety. Gameplay overall is a tad
shallow (spin, hold, light letters,
activate and play subgame, repeat),
but it does what it sets out to do
pretty well and it definitely has that
'one more go' thing going on. The
graphics are pleasant and the sound
beeps and buzzes and clanks along
energetically.
One oddity is the inclusion of a
'rounds' system: instead of the
usual open-ended, play-til-you-runout-of-money
malarky, Fruit Mania
consists of a (selectable) number of
10-spin rounds. Once they're used
up, it's game over, regardless of
whether you're doing brilliantly,
terribly, or somewhere in between.
often based on famous shooters: Air
Ace was 1942, Serene was Xenon 2
and Raid was SWIV.
The admission of the futility of
reviewing a SEUCK game is somewhat
negated when the author
throws his creation out to the world
and even more so when he not only
bases his game on a famed shoot-
'em-up but calls it Xenon III: The
Making Of... It's unclear as to what
it's a making of!
The game is bog standard SEUCK
with very basic Xenon 2 'influenced'
graphics, giving the impression of
how Xenon 2 might look if it were a
one-night stand the morning after
the beer goggles had worn off (Ooh,
tell us more - Asst Ed). The awesome
Assault On Precinct 13 music
is absent but bleep-bleep sound
effects are present.
reviews
� Zap! Zap!
� The reels of steel.
Er, what gives there then? Is this the
Amiga equivalent of those nagging
'please gamble responsibly'
adverts? Who knows. Still, I suppose
it adds a certain structure to the
whole affair, and it could well make
for an exciting finish in two-player
mode.
All in all, there's not much to it,
but Fruit Mania is a perfectly
respectable virtual one-arm bandit.
Nothing remarkably innovative or
different, but just the thing to while
away a spare twenty minutes now
and then.
RATING
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After playing
through Xenon III and seeing the
'Level 2' background image for the
tenth time I came to the conclusion
that it is unfinished. It's clear that
some work has gone into the game
and it obviously isn't meant to be a
serious follow-up to Xenon 2 but it
also fails in every way by being dull,
having bad graphics and sound,
being repetitive and lacking any
variety. Like all SEUCK games it
reveals the limitations of the tool.
Stick to the 'prequel'!
RATING
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� Zap! Za-- ah, bugger it.
apov 4
43