60 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
60 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
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OMNICRON CONSPIRACY
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Tired of mundane, magic-infested adventure games in which everythsing is
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predictable, or
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at least close to predictable? Well, Epyx has come up with a
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change of pace. In the universe of OMNICRON CONSPIRACY, you leave behind the
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hustle and bustle of our present world, and enter a strange universe of the
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future. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)
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The game begins with you -- Star Police Captain Ace Powers -- standing in your
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bedroom doing absolutely nothing, when your PAL (Personal Automatic Link) floats
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into the room and tells you to get a move on. Well, you'd better do s
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OMNICRON takes place in space, on the world of Cron, and on other planets in
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the universe. Most of the action occurs on Cron. There, you must gather
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information from citizens and, basically, walk all over the world. The
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inhabitants are some of the strangest creatures you've encountered in a computer
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game. (At one point, I was accosted by a jumping octopus.)
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You can interact with the individuals on Cron, but most don't have much to say.
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Some will try to sell you weapons, drugs, or other items. If you don't like the
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people, you can always kill them with your ALSWELL (Automatic Laser System with
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Energy Light Load). However, you shouldn't go around zapping the people you're
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supposed to be protecting...unless they really tick you off. Your mission -- at
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least it appears to be your mission -- is to put a drug ring out of operation.
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Your inventory includes the ALSWELL, a Star Police Badge, and a Metacard that
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you shouldn't leave home without. Unfortunately, you can carry only six items at
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a time, and you really shouldn't leave your ALSWELL lying around. During the
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game, you come across many more items that would be nice to have at hand.
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There's a rest meter at the top of the screen that tells you when you're about
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to collapse from exhaustion, and a life meter at the bottom of the screen that
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informs you when you're about to get tired of life.
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OMNICRON comes on four 5-1/4" disks. If you don't have two drives or a hard
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disk, be prepared for frequent disk-swapping. The program is copy-protected. It
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uses the key-disk method, so you can copy the game to your hard drive or to
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floppy disks for backup.
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The graphics are wonderful. The program supports CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy
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16-color, and Hercules modes. I wish I could tell you how OMNICRON looks in CGA
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and EGA modes, but I could get the game to run only in MCGA. (The program kept
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telling me that my VGA card wasn't compatible with EGA or CGA.) The MCGA display
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is very detailed.
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The sound is okay. (Of course, not much can be expected from an IBM speaker.)
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The game has two speeds: normal and fast; both are fine. You can control Ace
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with either a joystick or the keyboard, and both are easy to use.
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OMNICRON's documentation is inadequate. The main section of the manual is only
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six pages long; for a game of this complexity, I expected a lot more. The
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remainder of the manual explains how to win the game (although it doesn't give
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explicit answers).
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OMNICRON CONSPIRACY is published and distributed by Epyx.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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