86 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
86 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
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BERMUDA PROJECT
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BERMUDA PROJECT is a graphic action-adventure written by Mirrorsoft
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and published by Microdeal, the game division of MichTron. Loosely
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connected to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, BP offers
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excellent graphics, easy gameplay, witch doctors, hostages,
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scorpions, piranhas, save option, mouse control, and copy
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protection. The Atari ST version, which requires 512K and a color
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monitor, is the basis of this review.
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While many Microdeal games are just plain tough (think of JUG or
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TETRA QUEST or GOLDRUNNER II), BERMUDA PROJECT is closer to an
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introductory level of difficulty. For the most part, the puzzles are
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logical, straightforward, and not too tricky, which means even a
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newcomer to graphic adventures shouldn't have much trouble. Although
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there seemed to be a frustrating glitch in the game's opening
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puzzle, no one else I know of (including Microdeal) has had a
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problem with it. In any case, the game is easy to learn, and play is
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smooth.
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While you're on a private flight from New Jersey to Barbados, your
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plane encounters a storm and is struck by lightning. It crashes on
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an uncharted Caribbean island, and although you survived, you're on
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your own, with no guarantee that you'll remain alive. Thus, your
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BERMUDA PROJECT is to stay alive long enough to get off the island.
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The island is part desert. You'll need to find water (that doesn't
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have piranhas in it) and something to put it in; you'll also have to
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deal with the scorpions. The natives are savages with primitive
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hairstyles; they kill first and ask questions later. There are sand
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traps in the desert, sometimes with bodies in them. Furthermore,
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there's another plane on the island: It didn't crash; it landed. The
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passengers disembarked, opened their luggage, and then vanished.
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The ST screen display consists entirely of the island, which
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scrolls as you move your character. The landscape changes color,
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depending on the terrain. There are rocks, bushes and plants,
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cactuses, huts, palm trees, and a river that divides the island. The
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voodoo village is surrounded by a large fence whose turrets are
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topped with skulls.
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BERMUDA is entirely mouse-controlled. Move the mouse and you move
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your character; move him to the edge of the screen and he'll walk
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along, unattended, until an obstacle stops him. Press and hold the
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right button to bring up the command window (Examine, Get, Drop,
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Use, Attach, Detach, and Options); move the mouse to highlight a
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choice and press the left button to invoke it.
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Selecting Examine (or any command) brings up a second window with
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another menu, which again is invoked with a left-click on the
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highlighted choice. Selecting Options lets you save and reload up to
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four game positions (you'll need a formatted disk), restart the
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game, or check your progress, which is indicated by a percentage.
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The BERMUDA PROJECT package comes with two copy-protected disks.
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The instruction manual doesn't tell you much about the game itself
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(enough to play it, of course), but it does have an article called
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"The Bermuda Triangle: A Legend Revisited," which told me a few
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things that I didn't know.
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BERMUDA is an easy and enjoyable game. Graphics and animation are
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excellent. You can hear the sound of the sea. The mouse worked
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better here than in most mouse-driven games, and play is
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straightforward and uncomplicated. Description windows have
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appropriate pictures, along with text descriptions that scream for a
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good copy editor.
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The command parser is adequate; items usually have only one use and
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puzzles have only one solution, which means that game responses to
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commands other than those which solve the puzzle are the same. This
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is a problem that afflicts many graphic adventures, since more time
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is spent creating screen images than on ferreting responses to all
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the weird input gamers think up: Parsers these days have nothing in
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common with those of Infocom, or even Magnetic Scrolls. However,
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these comments are not meant to dismiss BERMUDA PROJECT, which is a
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good-looking and easy-playing game worth your time and effort.
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BERMUDA PROJECT is published by Microdeal and distributed by
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MichTron.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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