textfiles/games/REVIEWS/robosp.rev

 ROBOSPORT

 ROBOSPORT is war by proxy. The manual for this game opens with the
"ROBOSPORT world preservation decree," which reads: "In the beginning there
were humans. Humans made robots and gave them intelligence. Unfortunately,
humans never gave themselves intelligence. Humans crave senseless violence
and destruction. They revel in competition. They find pleasure in planning
and execution of battles. They need war." The manual tells players that this
is the reason why supercomputers forced humans to make war like this in 2010.
I have a sneaking suspicion that people will play this game because it is so
much fun! (This review is based on the Macintosh version.)

 The game allows several human or computer players to pit teams of heavily
armed robots against one another in a variety of arenas. Each player takes
turns to enter orders using a simple form of programming. Once all the robots
on each team have been programmed, the turn can begin. The actual battles are
displayed on a scrolling map of the arena, in the form of a video which can
be player forward and backwards at different speeds, or paused. As the movie
of the turn is played, the robots run and hop about, fire their weapons, and
generally run amok. The animation and sound effects on the Mac version are
excellent. I particularly like the way in which the robots give out a small
laugh when they destroy an enemy robot. In addition, the whole game can be
stored as a movie to be played back once the battle has been lost and won
using a special player application.

 After an attractive introductory sequence (with digitised speech), the game
opens with a simple scenario editor. This allows players to select the number
of teams, and one of several arenas and games. There are three different
types of arena - circuit board, suburbs and what looked like Beirut to me.
Each offers different tactical problems and opportunities. There also a
number of games to play. These all seem to have evolved from childhood games.
Each team has a home base, and some of the games involve a kind of baseball
using these bases, others involve rescuing hostages from opponents' bases.
One is simply a slugfest; a battle to the death.

 Lastly there can be up to four teams, and each one can be human or computer
controlled. There is also a custom game option, which allows a player to
create custom scenarios. These can vary the size and composition of teams,
the AI strategies of different computer controlled players. The custom game
also offers a wide variety of variations on the standard playing arena. In
all there are so many options for changing the game, that it is proabably
fair to say that there is an infinity of battles waiting to fought.

 The multiplayer option on the mac allows up to four human players to compete
over an Appletalk network, or two over a serial (null modem) or modem link.
The computer players can be set to play in a defensive, highly aggressive or
crafty way. I found it quite easy to beat the computer opponents on the
introductory scenarios, but on all the scenarios I designed myself, I was
soundly beaten nearly every time, despite giving myself extra robot warriors.
This is a testament to the strength of the AI in the game, and to the variety
of games that ROBOSPORT can create. I found that "crafty" computer controlled
teams were very adept at ambushes, and in turning my carefully constructed
defenses into a shambles. The aggressive enemy launched massive human-wave
(or should that be robot-wave) attacks on my bases, and was often very
successful, even at some cost. Because the enemy's robots are not shown
unless 'scanned' by a friendly robot, it is hard to judge the computer's
overall strategy. Nevertheless, on any but the basic games, I always felt
that I was facing a worthy opponent.

 The user interface on the Mac version is extremely easy to use. The robot
programmes are represented graphically on the top of the screen, while
location and movement during the programming phase are shown on the arena
map. As each new sequence is programmed in, the movements of these robots are
shown on the map as a new sequence is input, allowing the player to co-
ordinate maneouvres. Robots can be programmed to move, duck and hide, and to
scan and shoot. Their movement on the map is input simply by clicking the
mouse at a given location, and the robot will move along the quickest route
to that point. A robot may move as far as its speed will allow it to in the
time available. Each order or movement takes a certain time, and each turn
has a fixed length. There, is however, no obvious limit on the number of
orders that can be issued in a turn, providing that it does not take longer
than the length of the turn to execute them. They can carry a variety of
weapons, including grenades, machine guns, and missiles. Each has different
characteristics, such as range and accuracy, that change their effectiveness.

 Often several robots with different weapons have to operate in teams in
order to ensure a good balance of weapons. When replayed the weapons produce
different sound effects and animations. For example, a missile creates an arc
of smoke with the appropriate sound effects. Although the maps are two
dimensional and viewed 'top-down' the effect of the animation and sound
effects is to make the movie playback look like a cartoon. The robots move in
short hops, and have little exclamations when hit or destroyed adding to the
visual appeal of the game. The windows on the Mac version are resizable, and
can be viewed in 16 colours or in mono. In Maxis's previous games, the Amiga,
PC and ST translations have resembled the Mac version very closely, even to
the extent of having resizable windows. Although I have not seen any other
versions of the game, it seems safe to assume that they will resemble the Mac
version closely.

 I discovered no bugs while testing the game. I found the manual an good
guide to playing the game, not least because it contained some useful
tactical hints. I also liked the box, which has on it what seems to be a
computer generated image of robots fighting. It looks like it was done using
MacRenderman - a 3D photorealistic image generator on the Mac. It is a
striking image and a good representation of the game itself. My only niggle
was that the game did not have any kind of provision for tournement play or
for league tables of teams, as in many of the football manager games. If it
were played regularly by groups of friends, it would be a good idea to keep
track of their successes and failures. The provision of a movie recorder
which can save an entire game for later viewing is only a partial
compensation for the lack of this feature.

 Overall, this game is an excellent concept, excellently implemented. It
should appeal to any human who likes senseless violence and destruction. It
might also appeal to those who likes a little strategy with their flash
graphics.

 I tested the Mac version. It uses no physical copy protection, but requires
players to enter details from the manual each time the game is loaded. It
requires 1MB of RAM for mono, and 2 for colour games. It will run on Plus,
SE, Classic, SE/30, LC, Mac II, IICX, IICI, IIFX, and portable. It supports
the Imagewriter and Laserwriter.