Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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In fiya seconds you will bejearthroken
28 AM I GA COM PUTING Au g u st 1989
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Setting the benchmark
E winners — the solicitors. R-Type
Vis
the result of another case where the
Elosers
won. Factor 5, a German soft-
Rware
house wrote a scrolling shoot-
'em-up called Katakis.
Y
This was published by US Gold
cuntil
Activision complained that
oKatakis
looked too much like R-Type,
ua
licence Activision guarded with
rzeal,
as you would if you had paid
hem, the Japanese originators, lots
t
and lots of yen.
c US Gold had Katakis modified to
alook
less like R-Type and called the
sresult
Denaris. So Factor 5 wrote two
e games which looked pretty similar.
But the best was yet to come. Katakis
h
was such a good R-Type ripoff that
athe
Germans were chosen to produce
s the official version.
t They have done a brilliant job.
w Purely in the interests of research I
visited an arcade to check out the
o
original. I used not to be very good at
R-Type, but after three days' intensive
practice on the Amiga version I
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o
.
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sailed through the first two levels of
the arcade version.
Friends in the arcade were well
impressed. This reveals two things
about the conversion. First, the
timing and feel are spot on. Second,
the Amiga version is much harder
than the coin-op with standard settings.
Increased difficulty is no bad thing.
At 20p a go there is a strong disincentive
to practice. If you've shelled
out 100 times the amount and then all
the games are free, you'll play until
your fire button finger is sore. Then
you will play some more.
The programmers clearly know
and love the Amiga. The game oozes
slickness. Graphics are not quite up
to the money-munching original but
they are pretty close.
Speed does not seem to be affected
by swarms of encroaching aliens, the
massive end-of-level guardians nor
your unleashing megatonnes of death
by building up loads of weapons.
Pick up a shield, ripple lasers, side
firing lasers, seeking missile and
some side shields and no enemy
poses a real threat. But if your finger
slips on the sweaty trigger and you
lose a life at a crucial moment, it is
still playable.
Dedicated garners will argue that if
you lose extra weapons early you
might as well give up and go back to
the start. This takes some patience
because you have six credits and the
temptation is to use them regardless
of tactics.
A well-programmed conversion of
one of the best games in the arcades
is the most you can hope for. The
music doesn't grate. neither is it
great, but the result is spot on.
Denaris may be a better game for
its deviation from the original, but
R-type is the benchmark by which
other games of this ilk must be
judged.
Simon Rockman
EZ1.19
Electric Dreams
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Overall 11 11—
86%
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Sound
Graphics
Gameplay
Value