76 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
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STELLAR 7
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In the never-ending quest for new games, we often run across
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retreads of old games, all gussied up with new ribbons and bows in
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an attempt to trick us into believing we have something really new.
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Case in point: STELLAR 7. (This review is based on the IBM-PC
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version.)
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In STELLAR 7, you find yourself at the controls of the Raven,
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Earth's most sophisticated assault vehicle. You have to fight off
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the forces of Arcturus, and then pursue them throughout the galaxy,
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fighting them on a variety of worlds until you eventually get to
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their home base, where you have the opportunity to wipe them out for
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good.
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You get a cockpit-eye view of the world, looking out the viewscreen
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of the Raven as you're attacked by various types of land and air
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enemies. A radar screen on the bottom portion of your screen shows
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their positions relative to you, and you zoom around, blasting away
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until you've destroyed everything in your path, at which point a
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gate appears and you can warp to the next planet.
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Gee, sounds an awful lot like the old arcade TANK game, don't it?
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The one where you're sitting in your tank, looking out the front
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window, zooming around blasting away at everything in your path? One
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thing, though, is that STELLAR 7 is a darn good version of TANK,
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with a few extra wrinkles added.
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Those wrinkles include some of your armaments: You have a "cloak"
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to make you temporarily invisible, as well as a "Cat's Eye," which
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allows you to see cloaked enemies. You have two types of cannons, a
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thruster for short bursts of speed, and a "jump thruster" that
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allows short periods of "vertical lift" (flight).
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Perhaps a more interesting addition is the idea that if you destroy
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three of the same type of enemies in a row, you can collect a "power
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module" that recharges your tank's (oops...I mean your _Raven's_)
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systems.
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Frankly, what won me over to this game were the superb introductory
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screens, with excellent VGA graphics and animation. The screen of
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the enemy leaving the mothership was worth the price of admission
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alone.
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STELLAR 7 arrives on four 5-1/4" and two 3-1/2" diskettes. An
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install program is included that places the files onto your hard
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drive, after which there is no copy protection. The 32-page manual
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is well organized and to the point, and includes a fold-out
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quick-start and reference card.
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STELLAR 7 can be played with a joystick or a mouse, or from the
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keyboard. In this case, the keyboard is perfectly adequate for
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maneuvering your Raven.
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Graphics modes supported include 4-color CGA, 16-color Tandy or
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EGA, and 256-color VGA or MCGA modes. The screen shot on the front
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cover, and the two screen shots on the rear of the box, faithfully
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depict the superb VGA graphics. Animation is smooth and quick.
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Every possible audio board seems to be supported here, including
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Roland MT32, AdLib, and Sound Blaster, for sound effects and for
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music. If you have either the Tandy TL or SL, or the Sound Blaster,
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you'll also get digitized speech effects.
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STELLAR 7 may not be all that new, but it does update a classic
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game with state-of-the-art visuals and sound. If a lot of work
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didn't go into the conception of the game itself, at least a ton of
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work seemingly went into the look and feel of STELLAR 7, with the
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result being an exciting, fast-paced shoot-'em-up that devotees of
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arcade-style games should greatly enjoy.
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STELLAR 7 is published by Dynamix and distributed by Sierra
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On-Line.
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