Reviews (1-E)

SCEE 2ndpal.zip PAL Second Offence (Mobius Codeworks)

SCEI 3dra.lzh NTSC 3D Dragon Paster (Soluze Developers)
Has a sequel ('Dragon Paster 2')
Source is included.

SCEA aaa.zip NTSC ??? (Clint Kelly)

SCEA aiko.zip ? Aiko Fighting Demo (Walter Griswold)

SCEI airbob.lzh NTSC Airbob (???)

SCEE ama_pal.zip PAL Amateur Wars (Nick Ferguson)

SCEE analog.zip BOTH Eyes (Mobius Codeworks)

SCEE analog.zip PAL Analog Pad Diagnostics (James Shaughnessy)

SCEE baby.zip PAL Grooving Baby Demo (Mobius Codeworks)

SCEI baku2.lzh NTSC ??? (???)
Source is included - easily converted to PAL.

SCEA ballpad.zip NTSC ? (Ed Federmeyer)
Source is included - easily converted to PAL.

SCEE bankvalt.zip BOTH Lock'n'Chase (Jonnathon Tann)
Apparently based on an old Intellivision game, Lock'n'Chase casts you as the criminal element in a bank raid. Pursued by four policemen around a single-screen maze, you must collect all of the golden nuggets before you are able to progress to the next level. Bonus objects appear in the middle of the screen to boost your point score. Gameplay is very similar to 'Pac-Man' but you are additionally able to shut gates behind you to slow the police down.
The game plays fairly smoothly. The bad (or should that be good?) guys aren't overly intelligent, but give you a reasonable fight. Currently only a one level game, and it will be interesting to see whether there will be any exploration offered (as could be the case with more than one exit per level). The gates don't work perfectly (as is acknowledged) and phantom gates sometimes appear when you start a new game. No matter what the author says, the music fits the type of game well - a tinkly shanty type of tune.
Overall, a small but fun diversion.
(JTR - Reviewed 21st April 1998)

SCEE barry_b.zip PAL Barry? (Robert Swan)
Source code is included.

SCEE bezier2.zip ? Bezier Curve Example 2 (Lars Barstad)

SCEE blur.zip PAL Blur (Mobius Codeworks)
Source code is included.

SCEA bgdemo.zip NTSC Background Demo (Eric O'Laughlen)
Source is included. Easily converted to PAL.

SCEE bike.zip PAL Bike Simulation (Olly Read)
Work submitted for Middlesex University's 3D games course.

SCEI bills110.lzh NTSC Bill Gates Shooting (Takuya Iwano)
A neat 2d shoot'em-up created with transparent lines. Occasionally spoilt when your ship gets hit by an unfairly speedy bullet. Would be greatly improved with sound, but fun nonetheless.
Saves high-scores to your memory card.
Source is included - easily converted to PAL.
(JTR - Reviewed 7th January 1998)

SCEI bm.lzh NTSC Brain Measure (Yuichiro Okamura)
Very difficult lateral-thinking puzzle game.
You must initiate complex chain reactions to destroy all of the bubbled arrows. My advice is to make sure you watch the entirety of the demo before you start playing.
You are thankfully able to save your position to memory card.
Pretty graphics, some very funky music and truckloads of squiggly-text instructions.
(JTR - Reviewed 8th January 1998)

SCEE bom.zip PAL Bom (Peter Hardy)
Work submitted for Middlesex University's 3D games course.

SCEA break3d.zip NTSC Break-3D (Ed Federmeyer)
A polished 3D interpretation of 'Break-out'.
The evil wall marches down the screen, Space Invaders style. With your trusted bat and balls, you have to destroy the bricks before they roam over the finish line.
The game can be played with standard or analogue pads and (somewhat unfairly) the game is many times easier to play with the analogue pad. As the levels progress, you gain an extra ball in play - up to a maximum of ten. This curiously renders the walls easier to destroy the further on in the game you are. Maybe allowing only a certain number of balls to be lost for each life would have rectified this.
The game contains twelve fitting tunes and, besides these niggles, is quite fun to play.
(JTR - Reviewed 21st April 1998)

SCEE bte.zip PAL Between the Eyes (Lewis Evans)
A superbly psychadelic 3D racing game played inside 64 twisting tubes.
In half of these the ship can be moved horizontally and in the other half vertically. Though this feels less restrictive than it ought to do, I'm sure it should be possible to allow full freedom of control.
The in-game music is good, but very repetitive and the ability to use your own music CDs is a very thoughtful bonus. The tube wall textures react to the sound and the game is bursting with demo fly-by options (which are supremely crafted). This would look great projected on a club wall.
The competitor ships follow the same course in a tight line - better AI and fairer collision effects would be good. A distance-to-goal marker would be an excellent addition. The two-player mode is smooth, but the view can be a bit constricted and is especially confusing when the wall textures are dark.
Sometimes the track disappears because the wall textures are black (eg. level 33) - if this is intentional, a direction arrow would be useful. The game occasionally flickers frames, with levels 32 and 64 seeming to be particularly bad for this and the camera mode sometimes crashes the game.
Overall, a visually intense action-packed game which is well worth adding to your collection (this has advanced from the demodisk version).
Zip file is larger than one HD floppy disk and takes a while to load.
Heaps of documents included (not all relevant).
Full source code is included.
(JTR - Reviewed 4th February 1998)

SCEE car.zip PAL Car (Yep Luen Yuen)
Work submitted for Middlesex University's 3d games course.
Source code is included.

SCEE cartag.zip PAL Car Tag (Matthew Follett)
Work submitted for Middlesex University's 3d games course.

SCEI cos11.lzh NTSC Cosmo Fight (Nemo)
A competent 3 level horizontally-scrolling shoot'em-up game.
Features nice weapon powerups and occasionally very crowded screens. Very atmospheric music flows during the game (which could be turned into something fantastic with a dancey beat).
Let down by poor enemy AI and an imbalanced power-up scheme. The first gun power-up is pretty much a necessity for the beginning of each level, but appears at very random intervals. The speed power-up can make your ship movement stupidly sensitive - a fault found in many games, including classics like Nemesis (Konami).
Source code is included - Easily converted to PAL.
(JTR - Reviewed 18th January 1998)

SCEA crush1.zip NTSC Crushfoot the Robot (Ed Federmeyer)
A preview of a promising looking 3d maze-stomping game.
The hires interlace view makes it stand out, but the palette could do with jazzing up.
Source is included - easily converted to PAL.
(JTR - Reviewed 18th January 1998)

SCEA cubedemo.zip NTSC 3D Cube Demo (Ed Federmeyer)
Source is included - easily converted to PAL.

SCEE dash.zip ? Dash (Ramon De Abreu Ventoso)

SCEI decomprs.lzh NTSC ??? (???)

SCEA doteater.zip NTSC Dot Eater and the Blobs (Ed Federmeyer)
Source is included - easily converted to PAL.

SCEI drapas2.lzh NTSC Dragon Paster 2 (Soluze Developers)
A pretty looking 3d fantasy role-playing game (though the 3d is utilised very little). Generally excellent, but severly let down by the combat method - after the first few easy fights, the bad guys either pummel you relentlessly or you find a safe spot inches away from them that renders you invulnerable.
The music is nice although I'm unconvinced concerning the integrity of the musician. The maze and dungeon sections are set to 'Tubular Bells' and the final battle is amusingly backed by 'Fame'.
All this is rounded off with an 'interesting' end of game picture.
Reams of Japanese text will make playing bewildering (but not impossible) for English speakers.
Source code is included.
(JTR - Reviewed 7th January 1998)

SCEI dungeon.lzh NTSC Dungeon-a-go (Infowave)
Kind of like Pacman on speed, Dungeon-a-go places you in a 3d maze made from Mac desktop patterns. The object is to pick up all of the pills on a level, but if you get in trouble you can spit these at ghosties to stun them and retrieve them later. Special bonuses come by way of a mega-fast speed power-up and an Earthquake pill which tips the maze over.
There are three perspectives, eye-level, slightly behind the head and the long-view (by far the most useful).
The game would most certainly benefit from the inclusion of a pause mode.
English text. Also sports VERY irritating music!
(JTR - Reviewed 8th January 1998)

SCEI earth_p.lzh NTSC ??? (LowTec)

SCEE edge1.zip PAL Edge 1-Year-Competition Entries (Various)
Blitter Boy in Operation: Monster Mall (Chris Chadwick)
Bouncer 2 (Scott Evans)
Combat3D (Andrew Langstaff)
(A) Dog Tale (Ira Rainey)
Gravitation (James Shaughnessy)
Hover Car Racing (Richard Smithies)
(The) Incredible Coneman (Reptile Design)
Inertia (John Reynolds)
Invaders From Mars! (Ben James)
Jagot (Kenneth Vingaard)
Net Yaroze Intro (Luca Cappellini)
One On One (Ramon De Abreu)
Revolution (Robert Swan)
Rocks'n'Gems (Mage)
Sam the BoulderMan (James Hobden)
Snowball Fight (James Rutherford)
Sphere (Peter Dollochan)
Super Ramp Skater Deluxe Turbo Alpha Plus 3D (Doug Day)
Z2 (Mobius Codeworks)

SCEI escape.lzh NTSC ??? (???)

SCEA evdemo10.zip NTSC Escape Velocity (Scott Cartier)
A very promising looking 2D space survival game.
Scott intends to put the emphasis very much on realism and this is very evident from this 5 level demo. Your main difficulties will be battling with the gravitational forces grappling at your ship and keeping your inertia in check as you hurtle from the start planet to the destination planet.
The game is quite colourful and some of the planets look quite pretty, although in the current version (and I'm told this will be rectified), your ship is only about the size of a pinhead. Collision detection is for the most part very accurate and the laser turrets track your position very well, though the gravity meter sometimes goes a bit haywire.
The author seems to have a good idea where he is heading and I'm eagerly awaiting the next version to try out.
Takes a while to load.
(JTR - Reviewed 4th February 1998)

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