er

* DMA to A3000 motherboard space

* Address and data parity control support

* Interrupt controller (4 lines to each PCI card)

* Compatibility with all A3000 processor card models

* Simultaneous operation of up to three PCI and up to three Zorro III/II cards

eu-shop.elbox.com/en_US/p/Med...000Di-MK-II/56


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REVIEW: SGT. HELMET ZERO [PLUS/4]
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Machine: 64K only (Plus/4 or expanded C16)
Region: PAL / NTSC
Released by: Assassins
Coding: KiCHY
Graphics: KiCHY
Music: Csabo
Original by: Mojon Twins

Following the success of 'Uwol: Quest for Money' three years ago, KiCHY is back with another port of a Mojon Twins game. Sgt Helmet Zero, originally released for the 128K Spectrum back in 2009, is now available for the Plus/4 (or C16 expanded to 64K).

Uwol was notable, at the time, for managing to squeeze a 48K Spectrum game
into the humble C16, while still retaining all the elements of the original version. The result was a great game, albeit an obvious Spectrum port. So this time, with Sgt. Helmet Zero, the 16K restriction has been lifted, allowing the developers the freedom to create an enhanced version especially for 64K machines.

THE STORY

In the desolated moors of Khartadmocia, the behated ghost of war is still present. Two evil landowners who used to practice slavery and human trafficking had long since fallen in battle 'cause they stepped over a banana peel and broke their head. But all the war refugees were still there, guarded by automatic security turrets and the evil Grunge Wizards.

Khartadmocia's government, finally free from the tyrants, is aching to free their refugees. But as every soldier from the two parties died in the civil war, they have to resort to the yellow pages to look for a nice, not very expensive mercenary. Luckily enough, Sgt. Helmet only fights for honor and duty, and while someone pays his vices, everything is alright. So, with no second thoughts, he flies to Khartadmocia, to the aforementioned moors, which he'll have to pass through while recovering each one of the forty refugees still wandering around there.

LOADING

The game loads to a nicely pixelled logo then, after some credits, the title screen appears complete with an accurate rendition of the original AY chip tune. Quite an achievement given the TED's limited two channel sound capabilities. A word of advice here, if you want to play this game with an emulator, I would recommend using YAPE rather than VICE. The C16 and Plus/4 emulation in VICE isn't as fully developed as the C64, and can sometimes be glitchy, particularly with modern games.

PLAYING THE GAME

Upon starting the game you are thrown straight into the action. Your
character descends right into the path of a turret and enemies begin to spawn almost immediately, barely giving you any time to admire the gorgeous
graphics. The visuals are much enhanced over the Spectrum version, with a
good mix of multicolour and hi-res tiles. The characters are clear and well animated with very little colour clash. This game looks far more like a
native Plus/4 title than previous Mojon ports for the C16 or C64. The
playable area is a little small, but this is to be expected with Spectrum conversions, given the limited size of the display on that machine.

The action takes place over four different levels of flip-screen platforming and frantic shooting. The aim is to advance through each area towards the exit, freeing all ten refugees on that level. Meanwhile, the Grunge Wizards and automated turrets will do their best to make sure your mission does not succeed. The placement of some of these refugees is a little tricky,
requiring deft movement and accurate timing. Fortunately, Sgt. Helmet can be controlled mid-jump, useful for getting out of tight spots and negotiating
some of the harder to reach platforms. The controls are fluid and responsive, reminiscent of KiCHY's previous game, Adventures in Time, which is certainly
no bad thing. The original Spectrum version feels slightly wooden in comparison.

You start the game with 100% life which is depleted whenever you are hit or make contact with an enemy. As the life counter diminishes, a Doom-like face in the status panel changes to reflect your current state of health, gradually turning from normal into a skeleton. When your health reaches zero you lose one of your four lives. The screen can often get very busy. At any one time there are usually four or five hostiles shooting at you, with each hit
draining your life by 5%. It might not sound like a lot but, with so much happening on screen, you can easily see your life drained to zero in a matter of seconds.

Every enemy takes multiple hits to destroy, during which time you are vulnerable to their attacks and, if you stop moving, you are as good as dead. Thankfully, downed enemies and turrets will sometimes release a pill that resets your life back to 100%. Collecting these pills is essential to making progress through the game. Killing all the enemies on-screen isn't
necessarily the best strategy (unless you're aiming for a high score).
Wizards quickly re-spawn and it is all too easy to lose more life trying to kill them than you would by ignoring them. A balance needs to be found
between shooting enemies to get the extra health and avoiding them so as to reduce the amount of damage taken. Sgt. Helmet might look like a simple
game, but it is far from easy.

The music is excellent throughout and changes between levels. A very upbeat military sounding tune pounds away during levels 1 and 3, while a mellower
tune plays on levels 2 and 4. An option for sound effects would have been a welcome addition. Now onto a couple of minor niggles. Firstly, while the level design is good overall, it does have an over-reliance on 'leaps-of-faith'. Luckily, the tight controls allow recovery from a bad jump so, in practice, this doesn't hinder progress or cause an unfair loss of life.

Secondly, when you die you can sometimes find yourself re-spawned in the
middle of a swarm of enemies or falling back down into a pit. There is no invincibility period, so this can result in taking a lot of damage or even losing another life. It doesn't happen often enough to be a major problem though.

SCORES

Graphics: 9/10
really show off the Plus/4's capabilities
Sound: 8/10
nice music, no sound effects
Gameplay: 9/10
challenging but not impossible
Overall: 9/10

Not quite perfect but nevertheless a highly enjoyable game. One of the best releases this year.


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REVIEW: PITFALL [VIC 20 WITH 16K]
Created By Victragic
By Commodore Free
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REQUIREMENTS

* Pal Vic 20
* 16k ram expansion
* joystick

Pitfall was originally released on the Atari 2600 by Activision way back in 1982. In an interview the original developer David Craine, explained he had; "created a realistic running man; but didn't have a game to put him in", after a little doodling on paper; the game started to form, and "the rest was history". A detailed history on the game is available from Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall!

The technical achievement of the game can't be underestimated, smooth
animation and flicker free graphics; and all on such limited hardware, the developer had to be congratulated, And so he was; with the original game quickly became a smash hit. The game was converted to a number of formats,
and a version even exists for the Vic 20, (System 3 released a conversion; and to its credit the game does work on an unexpanded Vic, but it looks like it
was written in basic www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-09Nt4HoHo it's very flickery
and unrealistic to the original,) so was it possible to convert a more realistic version of the game to the Vic? is that why no one had ever tried; because they knew it couldn't be done?

GAMEPLAY

You are Pitfall Harry; you must progress your way through the jungle; you have to negotiate numerous hazard

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
* Origin: Dragon's Lair (39:901/280)