66 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
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LIVING JIGSAWS
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What was your first jigsaw puzzle like? Was it one of those with pieces that
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fit into an outline of the United States? Or perhaps something a bit more
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difficult, such as: "Polar Bears in a Blizzard"? Whatever your experience with
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jigsaws has been, it couldn't have prepared you for Miles Computing's LIVING
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JIGSAWS. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)
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LIVING JIGSAWS is just what the name implies: jigsaw puzzles with animated
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pictures. "Yawn," you say? But wait: Not only do the completed pictures move,
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the incomplete pictures and their loose pieces writhe with color and movement. A
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piece which may have been green a moment ago will suddenly change before your
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eyes as some object in the picture moves across its surface, turning it bright
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crimson with black spots, then green again. Or a single, tiny bird on a blue
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background will suddenly disappear, never to be seen again.
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So much for this intriguing new approach to jigsaw puzzles. Oh, you want more?
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Try this: These pictures are beautiful, interesting, and delightful to watch
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after they're completed. They're professionally drawn and animated, with vibrant
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colors, and at least one has totally non-repetitive animation.
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Sound too easy? Don't you believe it! You can choose from four skill levels
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(super easy, easy, medium, and hard), and within each of the skill levels,
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choose the type of pieces you want. Each skill level has a selection of eight
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puzzle-piece types. The first puzzle I tried, I chose super easy; even then, I
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was unable to complete it without help.
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There's all sorts of help available in LIVING JIGSAWS. A little gnome sits
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patiently behind a wooden door on your screen; if you need him, knock on his
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door. He'll come out, pick one of the loose pieces at random, stroll over to the
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incomplete puzzle, and plop it into place. If that kind of help is a bit too
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much, you can use one of the built-in helps accessible via the function keys --
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from turning off the animation to putting all the pieces in their proper places.
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If you take too much time to pick up or place a piece, the cursor (a tiny hand)
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will begin tapping its fingers in irritation.
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LIVING JIGSAWS comes on six unprotected 5-1/4" diskettes (four of which contain
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nothing but picture puzzles). There's a program for installing the disks on a
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hard drive (highly recommended); you can play from the floppies, but be prepared
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for a lot of disk-swapping and slower game response. Copy protection is
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manual-based with 5-character passwords printed on that funny brown paper
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everybody's using these days. CGA (256K), EGA and Tandy (384K), and VGA and MCGA
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(512K) graphics modes are supported.
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There are only two drawbacks to the game. First, you can play with either the
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keyboard or a Microsoft-compatible mouse; however, the mouse has a totally
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unacceptable user interface. Instead of being "free floating" on your screen,
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the program "forces" the mouse pointer to an available option. I found the
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keyboard to be more intuitive for selecting pieces and options.
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The second drawback is in regard to speed. This problem is even mentioned on
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the "System Information Sheet." If your clock speed is less than 12 MHz, LIVING
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JIGSAWS will drag. One way around this is to turn off the animation; the other
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is to get a faster CPU.
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Don't let these minor shortcomings stop you from purchasing this game. By no
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means is LIVING JIGSAWS "child's play." It's adult entertainment all the way.
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But let the kids play with it now and then; they'll enjoy it, too!
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LIVING JIGSAWS is published by Miles Computing and distributed by Electronic
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Arts.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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