The holiday of DOOM BY NATHANIEL TUNBRIDGE While you may have thought spent most of Christmas in Hell. Not just any hell, either. This was the most that the most important event eagerly awaited hell in his- tory. From id software, Iwhich gave us Wolfenstein 3-D, in computing was Windows comes the most important event in computers since their incep- tion, the unparalleled gaming (or maybe OS/2), Nat experience that is . DOOM. The plot is simple and hideous. Something evil has emerged Tunbridge sets the score from the Gateway that had been created as part of research into interdimensional travel by the straight with his review Union Aerospace Corporation on Mars. As the only living security guard shoot me with a rifle, but who ended up for 50,000,000 miles, it's up to you to inves- being thrown backwards while being of DOOM. tigate. gouged by my machine pistol bullets. This DOOM's game screen is much the same was a Former Human. By the end of the as Wolfenstein's in that there's a view of game I had come across Sergeants, Imps, your surroundings with an information bar Demons, Spectres, Lost Souls, along the bottom (although in DOOM you Cacodemons, and Barons of Hell. There's can expand your view to full-screen). Move- also the boss monsters: the near-invincible ment is smoother and faster than ever, at 35 Cyberdemon Lord and the truly hideous frames per second (faster than most car- Spideremon. To combat these mutants you toons) but gameplay has been deepened have seven different weapons, including with the addition of switches and levers. The rocket launchers, plasma rifles and a graphics have as much similarity to Wol- chainsaw! There are also special items to fenstein as the special effects in Jurassic Park help you, such as radiation suits, different do to Blake's Seven. The walls, ceilings and types of armour, computer maps, and ar- floors are all fully texture mapped, giving tefacts such as soul spheres and blur orbs. unparalleled detail, but it's id's incredible The range of environments is stunning. achievements in the area of light-sourcing Rooms can be of any size or shape and that, when combined with the awesome walls can be of any thickness. The walls dynamic directional 3D sound, make could be made of metal plates leaking rust, DOOM the most realistic virtual reality game plain grey slates streaked with grime, ever. The further away an object is, the wooden boards banded by iron, bizarre darker it becomes (and the less sound it hieroglyphic panels, pink pulsing flesh, makes). Corridors recede into darkness, and sandstone blocks covered with ivy or racks if there's no light sources around, there's no of computer terminals. Ceilings may sud- light! The readouts from your weapon pro- denly plunge down to just above your vide a very faint illumination if you're close head, rise to a cavernous vault, or disap- to an object, and when you fire any of the incendiary weapons, the spark provides a little light, but there's still an awful lot of The Holiday of Doom pitch black rooms to cross, with monsters Distributor: Manoccom lurking around every comer! Phone: (07) 368 2366 And what monsters! The first to die was Price: $69.95 a bloodied, rotting zombie who tried to APC MARCH 1994 PAGE 229 pear entirely to reveal the sky and Vis- ceiling turrets and electric barriers, but it's here, Android. With left, right and central tapro-style mountains in the distance. really just Wolfenstein in space. ramps, bumpers, skill shot and side vents, There are stairs, lifts, slime pools and There are even some areas which use all the usual elements of a pinball game are lightwells, corrugated iron barrels filled the same graphics files as Wolfenstein here. What makes this one impressive are with explosive waste, and a variety of dis- (remember the grey stone walls flecked the polished graphics that give a fairly membered and eviscerated humans. My with blood?). Sound is dynamic and direc- deep 3D feeling, and the sound, which is favourites include the conveyor belt of tor- tional but kept dropping out. There are a constant litany of clunking, squeaking tured souls in the Unholy Cathedral, and white-coated bio-technicians, a wide and beeping. Other tables include the 50s- the sea of fire in Mount Erebus. The climax range of slavering mutants, and weapons style Magic, the Formula One theme of occurs in a vast marble arena open to the ranging from a pistol to a plasma discharge blood-red sky of hell itself. unit to shoot them with, but it's all so passe. DOOM is so far ahead of everything Buy the indescribably superior DOOM in- else, it's difficult to fully comprehend, let stead for the same price. alone describe. It' a quantum leap, a new Nat Tunbridge standard. The multi-player option allows four players to play and interact within the same network game, making DOOM by far Duke Nukem II the best truly interactive virtual-reality game I've played. A few words of warning, Distributor: Manaccom though. There are impaled and crucified Phone: (07) 368 2366 humans depicted in this game. Detailed Price: $49.95 full-body explosions occur. It contains fre- Much along the lines of the first, this game quent high-level graphic violence, and I begins with a long introductory sequence Crash and Burn and the stunning, futuris- wouldn't give it to any child under the age where Duke is captured by the evil Rigel- tic Enigma, where a constantly morphing of 12 who you wanted to remain sane. For latin and imprisoned on their ship. Breaking background accentuates the fact that older players, however, this is the best out with the use of his explodo-molar, Duke bumpers only appear when a ball hits game ever made. DOOM simply must be must find a way back to dear old Earth! them, and the rest of the time there's just experienced again and again. There's plenty of demanding platform- your flippers over the void. style gameplay to be had. Duke can upgrade Within the obvious limitations that a PC his pistol to a laser, a flamethrower or a presents, this is a great effort at simulating Blake Stone and rocket launcher. There's a huge range of pinball, although it's perhaps a little pricey. `Duke merchandise' items to be picked up For pinball addicts, recommended. the Aliens of Gold in order to increase points, such as Nat Tunbridge Distributor: Manaccom televisions, mobile phones and so forth, as Phone: (07) 368 2366 well as the usual powerups (including Price: $69.95 cooked or uncooked turkey), plus special Brix This offering comes from Apogee, which items such as fans that elevate Duke and was originally involved to some extent with bars for him to dangle from. There's an Distributor: Manaccom Wolfenstein 3D. This is an attempt at follow- earthquake level with collapsing temples Phone: (07) 368 2366 ing up that game without the benefit of the infested by androids and cybersnakes, and Price: $49.95 id games team. Even without taking the further levels have a slaughterhouse, green- This is a remake of a very old arcade game, (awesome, hulking) presence of DOOM house and computer theme. and may strike younger users as being a into account, it's a rather disappointing ef- Duke fans will probably enjoy this, but variant of the current arcade game which fort. British agent Blake has to work through I couldn't see anything here that hasn't requires players to spin different shaped six levels to kill the evil Dr Goldfire. been done 20 times better by our very own falling blocks in order for them to fit in with From the first second it's clear that Australian-made Halloween Harry, espe- those below. Don't be fooled kids, this Apogee has re-used the Wolfenstein game cially the sound and graphics. I'd like to game is not only boring, it's unoriginal too! engine without making any great effort to suggest in the strongest possible terms that The bricks of the title are square blocks extend it. The game screen contains upper you check out the far superior Harry with different coloured shapes on them. and lower information bars which make the before buying this import, which is They can be moved sideways, and will fall view of your surroundings smaller than Hmmm. to the ground, sucked by the remorseless ever, but then, there's not really much to see. Nat Tunbridge spell of gravity, if unsupported. When two A limited amount of detail has been added or more shapes of the same type are to the ceilings and floors, there's armoured manoeuvred next to each other, they dis- Epic Pinball appear. The aim of the game is to eradicate all of the blocks that appear on each Distributor: Manaccom screen. Obviously various obstacles ap- Phone: (07) 368 2366 pear to make this difficult to do; moving Price: $79.95 blocks, different-shaped fields of play, odd The problem with most PC pinball games numbered amounts of (yawn) blocks, acid is that they fail to transfer the excitement pools, lasers, strange (snore) blocks. of the pinball arcade onto a computer. This A game this simple needs some stun- is one of the more successful attempts, ning graphics and sound to keep the inter- thanks to some great graphics and sound. est up. Brix has neither of these.