textfiles/games/REVIEWS/omega.rev

 OMEGA

 Another day...time to go to work. I shuffle into the kitchen and scrounge
something to eat. The last few days have been rough. My latest designs don't
seem to be making it, and OSI is getting restless. I have to show them I'm not
washed up. With a sandwich in hand (a portable breakfast), I head for the OSI
terminal. I need a good AI design! I'm getting nervous...something has to pop
soon. I put the OSI system disk into the drive and activate my remote terminal.
The all-too-familiar title page asks for my security clearance. I remove the
system disk and insert my ID disk. Pressing the verify key, I take a deep
breath. OK, here goes...whew! My name is still validated; I haven't been fired
yet. I enter my password and prepare to have my retina scanned. I peer into the
scanner while hitting the appropriate key. Access approved! I still have a
chance! I quickly select "Design Cybertank" from the main screen:

 Cybertank DESIGNER: RANDY

 SECURITY CLEARANCE: SECRET

 Cybertank NAME: LORD

 Time to see what this baby can really do....

 OMEGA is a hybrid tank/simulation/war/programming game from Origin, designed
and programmed by Stuart B. Mark. The object of the game (job?) is to build a
Cybertank using a certain number of credits, design an artificial intelligence
(AI) worthy of your work, and then kick a little...uh, I mean destroy...the OSI
Cybertank so you can move to the next clearance level. Once you do that, you'll
be given more credits to work with, and an even harder OSI Cybertank to
eliminate before graduating to the next level. After you reach a certain point,
your credits become unlimited, but the object of the game remains the same: You
must design the ultimate Cybertank. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version;
Apple II, Amiga, and Atari ST version notes follow.)

 OMEGA's command interface is similiar to that of the Macintosh, Apple IIgs,
Amiga, etc.: You move the screen pointer to the top of the screen, select a
function from the menu bar by "clicking" on it, and then move the pointer down
to highlight the desired command on the pull-down menu.

 You can select from four pull-down menus: "Tank Icon" lets you specify the
input device (keyboard, joystick, or mouse). "Employee" options restart the
game, adjust your evaluations, and quit. "Simulate" includes start, continue,
design, or print a simulation; delete a design; and delete a saved simulation.
"Design" allows you to design, test, or delete a Cybertank; design a
battlefield; and run the duplication module.

 Frequent random messages scroll across the screen from various world news
sources; the Guide calls this "email," but I can't figure out what it has to do
with the game.

 When first creating a Cybertank, the program sends you to the chassis
development module. Here you select the tank class, fuel cells, drive system,
weapon type, and special items. After you decide on the physical design of your
Cybertank, it's time to work on its mental capabilities. In the AI design
module, you "program" your Cybertank using English commands. (It didn't take me
long at all to write a fair program.)

 Now, it's time to test out the tank. First, you must "Authorize" it. The
authorization feature checks your program for errors and examines your chassis
design to make sure the required elements are included. If the tank has been
successfully designed, your next step is to set up a simulation. Choose a
primary tank (Tank Number One) -- more than likely, the tank you just made --
then select the tanks you'll battle against. You can have up to six tanks doing
battle at the same time. Next, pick the battlefield. (The game only comes with
three predesigned battlefields; if you want something different, you'll have to
come up with it yourself.) You may also select "team play," in which two or more
tanks on one team try to outdo two or more tanks on an opposing team. (This is
an advanced option.)

 When you "Start a Simulation," you'll be underway! Should you feel you have a
winner, go to the "Employee" menu and select "Clearance" evaluation. If you win
seven out of ten battles against the OSI Cybertank, you'll move up one clearance
level and earn a thousand extra credits to use. If your program really botches
up badly, you can run it through a "debugger," which also lets you alter most of
the variables in the program -- a handy feature! Finally, you can write a
program that lets you control your Cybertank _manually_ on the battlefield. If
you're fast, you might make it through all the levels this way.

 OMEGA is wonderfully implemented. I've loved every second of playing it, and
I'm _still_ playing it. The game comes with three manuals: the New Personnel
Orientation Guide, the Cybertank Engineer's Handbook, and the Reference Guide.
The short Orientation Guide leads you through starting the game, and shows you
how to run a simulated tank battle. The Engineer's Handbook is massive; it's
well over two hundred pages long, covering everything from progressing through
the game to advanced options, like team play.

 The MS-DOS version of OMEGA runs on the IBM PC, Tandy, and 100% compatibles,
and is not copy-protected. You'll need at least 256K of available RAM, and more
memory helps. As I mentioned above, this version offers three input devices:
keyboard, joystick, and mouse. I don't have a mouse, but I found the keyboard
easier to use than the joystick, whose pointer was difficult to control. The
game comes on two 5-1/4" diskettes only, but you can copy the program files to
one 3-1/2" disk if you have access to a computer with drives of both formats;
otherwise, Origin will exchange your disks by mail for a nominal fee.

 The graphics modes supported are CGA, EGA, Hercules, and Tandy. The EGA
graphics are fine. You can easily tell where your tank is; none of those
mixed-up graphics where everything looks like a big blob of color. (The program
automatically selects the graphics mode, so I couldn't try out the CGA
graphics.) Sound is nothing special. At 12 MHz, game speed is more than
adequate.

 I'm sure I could go on and on about OMEGA, but I think you have the idea: It's
great! And what's more, once you make it through all levels -- having designed
what you deem the ultimate Cybertank, you can trade programs with other players
all over the country via modem!

 In the back of the OSI Engineer's Handbook, it says this is the first game
Stuart B. Mark has had published. I don't think it will be his last.

 APPLE II VERSION NOTES

 While OMEGA is a terrific game on the IBM, it falls a bit short in the Apple
version (for IIe and compatibles). Everything is exactly the same as in the IBM
edition -- everything except the graphics, the editor, and general playability.
The Apple version is not copy-protected, and requires at least 64K of RAM.

 When I first tried to play the game on my Apple IIgs, I ran into several
problems and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I booted the System disk from
my 5-1/4" drive, with the user disk in the 3-1/2" drive. This didn't work at
all: The program kept asking me for my user disk. I tried to run the game on my
IIe with a new user disk, and after being instructed to swap disks a few times
(something that didn't occur on the IIgs), I entered OSI control and everything
worked fine. When I tried out the new (IIe) user disk on the IIgs, it worked
there as well. So if you have a IIgs, I suggest setting slot 5 in the control
panel to "Your Card," which will disable the 3-1/2" drives (make sure to disable
all but the 5-1/4" drives). You should now be able to make a user disk; if not,
take the software back and get a refund!

 OMEGA for the Apple uses the same interface and keyboard commands described
above for the IBM. The mouse, joystick, and keyboard serve as input devices; I
used the mouse and joystick. The game responds well to joystick control, but the
mouse is a dream -- a great improvement!

 Graphics are terrible, however. The tanks look like boxes with rectangles on
top (maybe they are?), and in battle, the entire screen seems just plain dull.
If you're using a monochrome monitor, it's pretty hard to tell what's what.

 The game plays very slowly on a IIe running at 1 MHz; if you have an
accelerator chip, it will help. I played the game mostly on my IIgs. It runs
just about right at fast speed (about 2.8 MHz), but 4 MHz would be ideal.

 The editor you use to program the AI is _horrendous_. Lines don't wrap around
right, some of the code used in the IBM version won't work without heavy
modification, and if you type more than two or three lines, the editor doesn't
recognize the last line.

 OMEGA is a wonderful game, but the Apple II version of OMEGA is not. If you
have a choice, buy it for the IBM PC. If not, well...it's still fun to play, but
entering a program is much more tedious than it should be.

 AMIGA VERSION NOTES

 The Amiga version of OMEGA is virtually identical to the IBM-PC version. It
requires a minimum of 512K RAM, and is not copy-protected. The mouse control is
quite smooth; anyone who knows how to move around the Workbench will have no
trouble with the OMEGA interface.

 Game play requires a combination of mouse and keyboard use, but the controls
are simple to manage and understand. The programming editor is also similar to
the Notepad utility that comes with the Amiga's OS, and thus easy to handle. The
game is supplied on one 3-1/2" disk; your backup play copy of this disk has
plenty of room on it for your tank and battlefield files.

 Color and sound, while certainly not spectacular by Amiga standards, are fully
adequate for gameplay. The battlefields and tanks are nicely detailed and
shaded, and the various control access panels have a solid "metallic" feel to
them. There seems to be plenty of room in RAM for complex programming designs,
though it has been reported that on the A1000 the access to and inclusion of
program capsules may be problematic. Tank designs are easily interchangeable
with those from other systems.

 ATARI ST VERSION NOTES

 The Atari ST version of Origin's OMEGA is much the same as the IBM version;
everything noted in the main review applies to the ST. Furthermore, since the
IBM's EGA graphics worked well, you can correctly assume that the ST's graphics
are at least equal. The bad news is that the disks are 720K, so in addition to
512K of RAM, a color monitor, and a mouse, you'll need a double-sided drive. Not
only does Origin have no plans to transfer OMEGA to single-sided disks, but the
720K requirement is not even indicated on the game package.

 The ST version is not copy-protected. Multiple drives and a hard drive are
supported, but it should be noted that disk access is not at all bothersome. The
game package weighs about 30 pounds.

 Although the Origin/COMPUTER GAMING WORLD cybertank programming tournament is
over, you can still be mildly entertained (as well as stimulated intellectually)
-- by OMEGA. The ST version looks just fine, is easily controlled with the
mouse, and despite the standard-issue battlefield graphics, the ideas of the
program -- strategy game, war simulation, programming environment, and
construction set -- mesh smoothly into a clever and novel program.

 OMEGA is published and distributed by Origin.

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