September 1989 Number 63 Features SSI's "Curse of the Azure Bonds" 8 Star Saga Two: The Clathran Menace 32 Scorpia Explores Another "Forgotten Realm" Masterplay's New Adventure Game / DeNardo & Lombardi Epyx's "The Omnicron Conspiracy" 14 Linking Up for "Tournament Golf' 38 "We'd Tell You More, But . ." / Dennis Owens Playing a "Mean[er] 18" / Major David S. Stevens SSI's "Hillsfar" 16 Hints for Infocom's "Arthur" 40 "It Takes A Thief" To Be The Best / Roe Adams Scorpion's Tale Offers "Roundtable" Discussion The Sounds of Silicon 18 "Name The Game" Contest 42 CGW's Test Lab Explores IBM Sound Boards Win A Free 3-Year CGW Subscription / DeNardo & Sipe "Chessmaster 2100" vs. "Sargon 4" 20 Software Toolworks and Spinnaker Face-Off / Roy Wagner Departments It's A "Grand [Old] Fleet" 22 Letters from Paradise 4 Taking A Peek 6 SimCan's World War I Naval Combat Game / Lt. H. E. Dille Conversions Received 6 SSI's "Red Lightning" Strikes Twice 26 Rumor Bag 7 Modern Warfare on the ST and IBM / M. Evan Brooks Inside The Industry 11 Game Ratings 24 Here Comes the "Fire King" 28 CGW Hall of Fame 25 SSG's Action/Role-Playing Game / Douglas Seacat Reader Input Device 48 How to Plan for a Long "Journey" 30 Cover Art from "Curse of the Azure Bonds" 1989 TSR, Inc. All Game Hints from Abroad / Roe Adams rights reserved. Used with permission. Letters forces received reinforcements, but only The following items which I gave a in the nick of time. Their salvation was lar- "down-check" to in my review would re- gely due to the possession of a core of quire a prohibitively expensive re-write of elite fighting units, well armed and sup- the entire code: plied, supported by saturation bombard- 1. Fire control being tied to the unit's ment from air and artillery. vice weapons; In most battles, victory was dependant 2. Reactive armour interaction with small upon such factors as timetables, weather, arms fire; supply and sheer luck. Having read inten- 3. The inability for the sely on the subject, I was awestruck by second-in-command to take over; the accounts of individual bravery and 4. The reaction of an entire formation to self-sacrifice, depravity and barbarism. It one unit coming under fire; and was a war which, in many ways, 5. The firing of missiles only on the 3rd Parallel Viewpoints developed the doctrine of modern war- pulse. fare and could easily have become WWIII. As of this time, there are no firm release As a long-time fanatic of CGW, and It is amazing to me that a non-program- dates for the revised Apple/C-64 versions lucky winner of the famous CGW writing mer such as myself could ever be in- of the software. As mentioned above, the contest (#30, p. 35), you may recall my volved in the production of a software documentation is not expected to be cor- name. By the way, thank you again for package. I hope my good fortune will en- rected en masse. the all-expenses-paid trip to Monona, WI, courage other readers to do whatever Nevertheless, Overrun! which I won as a result of the afore-men- remains an they can to benefit the computer gaming achievement in wargaming. Both fun and tioned contest. industry. With any luck, CGW will always challenging, its complexity and depth of My interest in Jay C. Selover's article on be there to tell us about it. detail are awesome! If you aren't sure, go SSG's MacArthur's War was unique, Daniel H. Antolec defend the E4 or Hamadan! since I had the honor of working with Monona, WI SSG on that project. It was my respon- Buddy Knight sibility to conduct the research, create the Ed: Thanks for the information. But Sherman, TX scenarios, construct the maps, and write what we really wanted to know was: Ed: The article written by Buddy (COW the articles. I knew that a review in CGW what was the highlight of your all-ex- #61) stated that most of the would be an acid test, since CGW pense paid trip to Monona? problems/gripes would be corrected in reviewers always write frankly and such Version 1.1. The use of the term, "most," reviews carry a great deal of weight. I was was overzealous and the context sug- very pleased with Mr. Selover's opinions Enthusiasm Overrun gested that an updated version was im- on MacArthur's War and wish to offer minent. The reality is that updates occur some additional information which The fog of war is ever-present. I recently on an "as needed" basis. Overrun! will should interest the readers. found that I have contributed a certain need to sell thousands of units before it Mr. Selover's comment regarding the re- amount of "fog" concerning SSI's Over- becomes economically feasible to search behind MacArthur's War is quite run! and what will and will not be produce an updated version. correct. I logged 400 hours of research, upgraded/corrected in future versions. covering 40 books, over 100 actual battle Concerning the documentation, SSI in- maps, and interviews with Korean War formed me at the time I was preparing Boring Into CGW's Style veterans. The result: 10 historically ac- my review that the documentation errors Gentelmen [sic], curate battle scenarios, each with several would be corrected during the next print- variants. The variants were based on ing of the Rulebook and Briefing Manual. Yours is without doubt the single most documented and speculated 'What IF?" Apparently, unknown to the individual as- boring magazine I've read to date. To be situations. sisting me, SSI had placed a single order fair, I made the huge mistake of giving you two chances to redeem yourselves. I agreed with Mr. Selover that the first covering the entire expected production You failed horridly [sic]. Bad writing and several months of the Korean War was run. This will, unfortunately, preclude the an upsetting overabundance of wargame one of a "certain sameness", but found reprinting of the entire documentation in reviews make for serious [unreadable, that fascinating. In contrast to the vast corrected form. damaged in mail] time, put 'em down for number of WWII battles, most if not all of In my review, I unintentionally may have the [unreadable, damaged in mail] read- the Korean War battles represented in worded things to imply that SSI was cor- ing. I won't buy it again. MacArthur's War were crucial. The out- recting all of the items mentioned as er- come of a given battle could well swing rors or problems in the software. For Vance P. the momentum, or result in utter victory that, I apologize. That kind of influence Salt Lake City or defeat. There was a sincere urgency on the part of a reviewer is rare. During Ed: Just in case we didn't know where and desperation, magnified by the vast my discussions with SSI, shortly after you stood, you certainly made it clear in differences between opposing forces. Overrun!'s release, the only items which your R.I.D. article ratings [Letters (F), UN Forces found themselves fighting were mentioned by SSI as items being Abrams Battle Tank Review (F-), losing efforts early in the war, with little considered for correction were the follow- Napoleonic Scenario (F--), Are You ing: realistic chance of defeating their enemy; Saved? (F), Batman Review (F-), Hidden they were buying time with their blood. A 1. Missing units, such as the Marine Agenda Review (F-), Scorpion's Mail fighting withdrawal is certainly one of the LAV-AT and LAV SPT PLTs; (F-), Presumed Guilty Review (F+), Fan- most difficult of military tasks, and the 2. Lack of a FOG-M platform in Europe tastic Voyages IV (F), Journey Review communist forces were specialists in en- (for which FOG-M was primarily (F+), and Rumor Bag (FF-)]. Garth circlement. As a rule, communist forces designed); and Fitzmorris was so upset by your rating tended to possess greater numbers, but 3. Correcting the "bug" which prevented and vote to "Dump the Column" that he lacked air support. Later in the war, UN artillery units from changing states. wore his bag backwards for two weeks. Taking A Peek Cinemaware 4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Westlake Village, CA 91362 THE KRISTAL: The player takes the part of Dancis Frake, space pirate, in this adventure/arcade game. Piloting spaceships, shooting down aliens, swordfighting, interacting with the local inhabitants, and piecing together clues to the location of the long-lost Kristal of Kronos will keep players hopping from planet to planet. The good-looking graphics and arcade sequences mesh nicely with the adventure elements. Amiga ($49.95). Circle Reader Service #1. EeeZee Systems, Inc. 2899 Agoura Rd., Suite 550 Westlake Village, CA 91361 KONKERS: Billed as a memory/skill game for two, this unusual card game plays somewhat like Canfield-style double solitaire. Two players race to play cards from their hand to the play field in Ace to King order. Points are awarded for each card played, with a special single most challenging job in the world bonus for playing the Konker card. IBM of sports is to take an expansion sports ($39.95). Circle Reader Service #2. team and develop it from a cellar-dweller into a championship club. It takes years, but it can be done (The NY Mets baseball team being the most classic ex- ample). With Omni-Play Basketball you are given the dual roles of General Manager and Coach.