🚀 go-pugleaf

On 10-Sep-09 23:07:24, Henry said
>Hi



>Mantis only mentioned being "inspired by Warhead" in the manual - I
>don't know if there was any formal connection. Mantis was an early 90s
>10-floppy epic with digitised video cutscenes, so a budget that could
>have stretched to actors and actual scriptwriter rather than a
>typewriter and two monkeys...

Two?! We used to dream of having two monkeys.  :)

>> Well on the Amiga, Star Crusader used basic polygons and Wing Commander
>> used scaled sprites, which just didn't really cut it for me, but I
>> completed the CD32 version and thought it was actually pretty darn good.

>That was true on the PC too. I agree it's a bit disconconcerting when
>a carrier instantaneously jumps through 45 degrees, but it's not as
>though you need to line yourself up to land on it - I never found it a
>gameplay issue. (The later WC engines seemed a bit more fluid, too.)

No, not gameplay - I just happen to "believe" in polygons more - eben if
they are as basic as the ones in the Amiga version. I know a lot of folk
preferred the sprite effect.


>The graphics were quite good but Star Crusader never seemed entirely
>finished... for example there was a hex-based map of the play area
>that you could use to send the rest of your squadron on patrol or
>attack missions - but success or failure at this didn't appear to
>affect the flow of the game at all.

Yes - it was certainly not without its imperfections. It did have at least
one brabch in the plot though where you decided if you were going to join
the underdogs and fight the Empire though - which was quite cool.


>>
>> Not here... there was a predictive aiming reticle, that worked pretty well
>> - for my money Star Crusader was one of the best dogfighters, maybe the
>> best on the Amiga,

>Possibly my brain-cells going a bit after all these years then.
>Unless they finished the game off whilst "porting" it to the Amiga or
>some such stunt.

That would be a first.  :)

I remember you could choose the configuration of the 3 multi function
display screens at the base of the display, and there were quite a few
funcyions to choose from. One was supposed to show a small polygon
rendition of your target, at it correct aspect relative to you. This never
seemed to work properly on my Amiga, so I didn't use it. Perhaps what your
describing was associated with that screen.

Actually in order to get the game working at a decent framerate I had to
use John Girvin's patch, as well as copying the fastexec.library into ram
- I think. After that if flew in comparison.

Mind you, you hear people complaining about 30 fps these days, and I
suspect they would describe it as "unplayable".  :)

>I definitely recall the occasional stealth missions, and I'm pretty
>sure the predictive aiming had to be done through a small display at
>the bottom left. You'll know if I get bored this weekend - I'll dig it
>out and check the manual.

Yes, I remember the stealth stuff, very cool. Suddently it was like you
were playing Microprose's Silent service again - and you had a special bit
of kit (a cloak?) with its own display.

                  All the best,
                        Angus Manwaring.       (for e-mail remove ANTISPEM)

I need your memories for the Amiga Games Database: A collection of Amiga
Game reviews by Amiga players http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/AGDB.html