123 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
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PT-109
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PT-109 by Spectrum HoloByte is a torpedo boat simulation in which you man the
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helm of a PT boat and undertake missions to the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific
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Ocean, Solomon Islands, and New Guinea. This review is based on the IBM version
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of the game.
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Forty-five different patrols are included, representing the four theaters of
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operation. You can select patrols individually or choose a campaign consisting
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of up to ten patrols. Your orders on the various patrols will instruct you to
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sink enemy ships, pick up downed fliers, drop off/pick up commando teams, and
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drop off island watchers.
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The enemy comes in many flavors: cruisers, destroyers, escorts, patrol boats,
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flak tankers, barges, submarines, freighters, fishing boats, troop carriers,
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tankers, cargo, and enemy aircraft. The instruction booklet lists all the enemy
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types, maximum speeds, and armaments. They game adds another nasty little
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feature to watch for: mines! Included in the game package is a booklet about PT
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boat tactics.
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The view from the cockpit of your boat is divided into four 90-degree segments:
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front (bow); left (port); rear (aft); and right (starboard). Your weapons
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consist of torpedoes (of course); rockets; 20mm bow cannon; 50mm forward and
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port machine guns; 40mm aft cannon; and depth charges. I found the most
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effective weapons to be the rockets and the torpedoes. The 50mm does a decent
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job, but the 40mm and 20mm cannons aren't good for much more than enemy
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aircraft. The depth charges are almost worthless, because there's only a small
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chance that you'll hit anything. Machine guns can be fired in both modes, manual
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and automatic.
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The cockpit view fills the upper portion of the screen, while the lower half
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displays your operational and tactical control panels. Your operational panel
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includes: gauges for temperature, fuel, direction, speed, and rate of play
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(which changes your position relative to real-time play); a status indicator;
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the map toggle (cockpit vs. map view); and throttle and rudder controls.
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Your tactical panel controls your ship's weapons and flares (most of your
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fighting is at night); smoke (the enemy can't hit you if they can't see you)
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muffler (reduces both the engine's sound and speed); and binoculars (standard 7X
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power). Your tactical panel also includes a radar display with ranges from 2 to
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32 miles in diameter. This comes in very handy because most of your operations
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occur at night; it's hard to see in the dark. All options -- both control and
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tactical -- can be controlled from either the mouse or keyboard. I prefer a
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combination of the two: I like controlling the rudder with the right and left
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arrow keys, and selecting weapons using the mouse.
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In addition to the cockpit detail, you can display a map view of the area,
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which includes islands and other land masses. The map has two different display
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sizes (30 miles and 600 miles) and indicates your patrol route.
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Your craft comes equipped with a radio. If you get in over your head, you can
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radio for additional PT boats or air support. If they are available, they will
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be dispatched and will contact you when they are within range. Be careful not to
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fire at your own ships or planes! It's also good to keep your base informed of
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your progress. That way, if you sustain heavy damage and need to abandon ship,
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you'll have a much better chance of being rescued. Additional messages that you
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can send include SOS, enemy spotted, enemy engaged, request additional
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instructions, arrived at rendezvous, and returning to base.
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The game includes two nifty time-saving features: Autopilot lets the executive
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officer take the helm and begins tracing the patrol route that is indicated on
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your map; Rapid Deploy speeds up by a factor of eight the time it takes you to
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travel somewhere (it can get pretty boring just watching the oc for hours at
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night). Anytime the enemy is within range, the program will disengage the
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Autopilot. Autopilot and Rapid Deploy can be used in combination, but you can't
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use either when general quarters is in effect, or while in Cockpit View.
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In addition to the various patrols and campaigns, you have four levels of
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difficulty from which to choose, "1" being the easiest and "4" being the
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hardest. Those levels affect several aspects of the game: damage from enemy
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gunfire; time to perform repairs; distance to the enemy before they spot you;
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reliability of your torpedoes; chances of being hit by the enemy; amount of
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damage that can be repaired, etc. A game can be saved in progress as long as you
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are not at battle stations. When you are playing a campaign and have completed a
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patrol, you'll be assigned another. After you have successfully finished a tour
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of duty, you'll be assigned to another campaign. Once you have completed 35
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patrols, your name will be placed in the Top Skipper's Roster. The game ends if
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you and your crew are killed.
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PT-109 supports both CGA and EGA modes (VGA works fine, but only produces EG
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resolution). The EGA graphics are pretty good -- medium level resolution for
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displays control panels (16 colors), and lower resolution for all other screens.
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The enemy vessels are detailed enough so that you can distinguish the various
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types of ships. Hits by rockets and torpedoes are graphically depicted (little
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explosions), as are misses. Daytime, night, dusk, and dawn are also indicated --
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from white, to gray, to very dark gray. The later and darker it is, the harder
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it is to spot enemy ships. You can, of course, use flares to light the place up,
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but remember: If you can see them, they can probably see you! There are limited
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sound effects on the IBM; however, they're not bad, considering the hardware's
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limitations.
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The machine requirements for the CGA version are an IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible;
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DOS 2.0 or later; 384K of memory; and an RGB monitor. The EGA version requires
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an IBM AT or close clone, IBM PS/2 Model 50 or above, or 386 clone; DOS 2.0 or
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later; 512K of memory; a 1.2 megabyte 5-1/4" disk drive; and an EGA card and
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monitor. In both versions, a mouse is optional.
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I did run into several bugs and problems while playing PT-109 over a period of
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two weeks. The program crashed a few times with a "divide by zero" error; it
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also froze the computer whenever I used the Rapid Deploy and Autopilot functions
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together during enemy vessel encounters. (Spectrum HoloByte has released an
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updated version that supposedly corrects these bugs.) The animated sequence of
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attacking planes is somewhat choppy -- as if enough frames weren't included in
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the animation sequence. The animated sequences for the enemy ships looked
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somewhat better. My only other major complaint is that the game slows down a lot
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when you encounter a large number of enemy vessels: Your commands back up in the
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type-ahead buffer.
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PT-109 is not copy-protected at all; it doesn't even require you to enter a
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designated word from the manual. The program can be run from a hard or RAM drive
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without worrying about a keydisk. Spectrum deserves a lot of credit for this and
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earns a big round of applause from me. I wish more game companies would drop
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protection altogether.
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Overall, I like the game, but the program slowdowns I mentioned are quite
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annoying. Therefore, I rate PT-109 as only fair.
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PT-109 is published and distributed by Spectrum HoloByte.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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