115 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
115 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
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RED LIGHTNING
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RED LIGHTNING (RL) is an advanced-level simulation of World War III battles in
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Europe. The game is written by Norman Koger (STELLAR CRUSADE), published by
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Strategic Simulations, and distributed by Electronic Arts. RL offers good
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graphics, excellent gameplay, three scenarios based on conflicts between NATO
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and the Warsaw Pact nations, five levels of difficulty, all kinds of modern
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weapons (including the Stealth bomber), a two-player mode, a save-game option, a
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mouse-controlled GEM interface, and no copy protection. The Atari ST version is
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the basis of this review; Amiga version notes follow.
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Unlike the impenetrable STELLAR CRUSADE (Mr. Koger's previous SSI release), RED
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LIGHTNING is clear and down-to-earth. The mouse works perfectly and play is
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straightforward. In SSI terms, the Advanced rating actually means Incredibly
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Difficult (much like Introductory really means Intermediate). This shouldn't
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deter you from buying RED LIGHTNING, although its $59.95 retail price may
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encourage you to locate an economically-benevolent software dealer or a
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mail-order house on the verge of bankruptcy.
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The three scenarios of RL are Red Lightning, "Lions & Tigers & Bears...," and
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Gathering of Hosts. A scenario can be short (20 turns) or long (60 turns). You
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may set a scenario in any season, and the resulting weather conditions will
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affect airpower and chemical weapons -- both of which can used or not used. You
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can control either NATO or Pact forces, or you can play with a friend. The
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difficulty levels are Pushover, Moderate, Challenging, Hairy, and Hideous.
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There are four Control Levels: Limited Intelligence, Sub Divisional deployment,
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Air Campaign, and North Atlantic/Special Operations. Setting Limited
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Intelligence to "On" puts you on a par with the computer, which always functions
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with limited intelligence; "Off" informs you of the location of all enemy forces
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at all times. Setting Air Campaign to "On" gives you control of your air forces;
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"Off" hands over control of air forces (for both sides) to the computer.
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A turn consists of six phases, beginning with a Save Game opportunity: Pact
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Orders, NATO Orders, Joint Air Combat, Joint Ground Combat and Movement, and
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General Resolutions. Each player studies reports from the Info Menu, and give
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operational orders to air forces (if selected), airborne and marine and special
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forces, and amphibious forces; also, movement orders are given to divisions,
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brigades, and regiments.
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On exiting the Orders Phase, movement and combat take place, casualties are
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counted, the turn is resolved, and a new turn begins with the Game Save
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opportunity. An interesting feature of the Resolutions Phase is National Morale.
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All countries except the Soviet Union are affected by combat and hex losses,
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which reduce overall morale. If a nation concludes a separate peace treaty, that
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nation's forces are removed from the map and the entire alliance loses morale.
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The Atari ST screen display consists of a hexagonal map of central Europe. The
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map can be scrolled by clicking the mouse pointer on the buttons to the right of
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the map; other buttons enable/disable unit icons and hex possession. The "O"
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button displays, at a much-reduced scale, a strategic view of the map; clicking
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on a location centers the tactical map on that location and removes the
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strategic view. Additional information can be gleaned by moving the cursor to a
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map hex and pressing the mouse button.
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Above the map are the Menus: Info, Orders, and General. From the Info Menu, you
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can study five reports: Strategic, Political, Full Hex, Weather, and Supply Net,
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each of which provides a wealth of information. The Orders Menu gives access to
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Air Operations (including data and drawings of individual aircraft), Special
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Operations (from which intelligence-gathering and harassment activities can be
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assigned), and Unit Movement. From the General Menu, screens can be erased and
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redrawn (useful for two human players), and the game can be exited.
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Other than typing in a filename for a saved game, RL is controlled completely
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with the mouse, which pulls down menus, highlights and selects options, brings
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up related informational displays, and scrolls the map.
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The RED LIGHTNING package comes with two disks that are not copy-protected.
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(There are documentation checks.) You can make single- or double-sided backups,
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or copy all game and scenario files to a hard drive. Strictly speaking, a hard
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drive (or a double-sided drive, for that matter) is not necessary, because once
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RED LIGHTNING is loaded, it's resident in memory. If you have more than 512K of
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memory (the minimum you'll need to play), you can save games to a RAM disk, a
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nearly instantaneous operation.
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Also in the package is an instruction manual, which showcases clarity in SSI's
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usual manner. On the scenario disk is a 64K ASCII file that, when printed,
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becomes what SSI used to call a Briefing Manual. There is a colorful, laminated
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map of central Europe.
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Like all SSI war simulations, RED LIGHTNING plays perfectly. In fact, with the
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mouse-controlled GEM interface, it plays even better than perfectly, if such a
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thing is possible. Map graphics are clear and bright and large; report screens
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brim with information; and nothing gets in the way of play. Although RL is an
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operational-level (rather than a tactical) simulation, the designers included a
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stunning variety of details -- many of which may be less than accurate, due to
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the classified nature of the information. RED LIGHTNING is easy to play, but
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tough to play well. The only drawback is its rather steep price.
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AMIGA VERSION NOTES
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As with STELLAR CRUSADE, SSI has done an excellent job of converting RED
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LIGHTNING for the Amiga. Both games (designed by Norm Koger, Jr. on an Atari ST)
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make best use of the 16-bit machines' calculations abilities. The graphics do
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all they need to do for the purposes of the game, and the mouse-controlled
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interface is fast and easy to manage. The design of the game itself has
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obviously made conversion easy, as it requires nothing particularly tricky in
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either the visual or sound departments.
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The game comes on two unprotected disks, and can be installed on a hard drive.
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It is essentially memory-resident, so few disk accesses take place during play
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(only for saves and loads). It can be windowed into the background, making it
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possible to multi-task, though you need more than 512K of memory.
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RED LIGHTNING has become one of my all-time favorite strategy games, and I gave
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it a top rating in the "Best Amiga Games of '89" article in TEG. Based on the
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recent work they've done, I'm looking forward with great anticipation to future
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releases of SSI games.
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RED LIGHTNING is published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and distributed by
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Electronic Arts.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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