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                 ^3R A V I S H I N G   R E V I E W S .

                        ^3Written by Ben Ashley

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^7 I  think  the  AMOS  PD library, is THE best PD library around.  The
^7service   is  great,  the  people  are  nice,  and  the  software  is
^7outstandingly  excellent.   Down  with the MACHINE CODERS, who reckon
^7AMOS  is  a  good-for-nothing.   For  a Basic language, it beats all.
^7Even  `C'.   Well, I`ve taken it upon myself, to review some software
^7in  the  PD  Range.   It`s  in  no  particular  order.   They are not
^7necessarily  NEW  programs.   But  they  all  deserve  a review.  So,
^7without further ado.............

^4  The Reviews.......

^6I  review  things in my own way.  I tear them apart, e.t.c.  Find out
^6the  Unknown,  and  things  like  that.   So,  I`ll  now give you the
^6low-down...

                 ^2 L.P.D 40 Sprite Bank Editor v2.0
                 
                        ^2by : The Blitter Boys

^7 This  has  to  be  a REALLY useful utility.  And it does not just do
^7it`s  job.   The presentation on this peice of software, is second to
^7none.   It`s  purpose,  is to organize sprite banks.  Y`know, copying
^7single  sprites  from  one  place, to another.  It`s very simple, and
^7allows  you  to create a single bank, from LOADS of other banks.  The
^7AMOS  file requester has been murdered!  At Last!  The File Requester
^7in  this  program,  is excellent.  Device lists, and other functions.
^7Also,  the  directory  is kept for when you next enter the requester.
^7For  the money, this is one of the best licenseware releases yet, and
^7I, for one, await their productions.....

^3Comments: 
^4 Hardly  any  quibbles,  and  it  works  at  a  fair speed.  The only
^4problem,  I  have EVER had, is a quick software failure on one of the
^4SPRITE demo`s.  I think this was just a one-off though.

                          ^5Rating : 91 %   

                   
                      ^2 L.P.D 17   Dogfight II

                        ^2by : Shadow Software

^7 Yet another quality licenseware release.

^7 This  time  though,  it`s  war.  This is a game, where it is all-out
^7action from A to B.  No resting here!

^7 First  you  get  to choose what type of game you want to play.  This
^7varies  to  single  1  player  vs All, or 8 way battle, or a computer
^7demo.   You  get  to  say  whether the 8 planes are human controlled,
^7computer  or even non-flying.  After this, you can set the sides.  So
^7you could have you, and 6 other planes on the blue side, and a sinlge
^7plane  on  the  red  side.   MMmmm,  that  makes it a bit easy to win
^7though.

^7  During  the fight, each player has 10 lives, including the computer
^7planes  (  Although you can set a BIAS, where computers have twice as
^7many lives as the human players, or infinite ).  You start off with a
^7bog-standard  gun,  but shooting BIG planes, and BIG helicopters, you
^7can  get  bonus weapons, such as homing missiles, and EXCELLENT flame
^7throwers.

^7 When  you get shot down, you parachute out.  After a bit, your plane
^7regenerates,  and  you  can  continue.  You can only bail out 3 times
^7though....   Problem  is,  is  that  other  players  can  shoot  your
^7parachute, causing you to lose a life.

 ^7 There  are different types of level.  There are TIMED LEVELS, where
^7the  game  only  goes on for a certain amount of time, and then after
^7that, if the battle still rages, a winner is then decided.  There are
^7DEMOLITION  LEVELS, where if anything collides with anything, then it
^7blows  up!   These are fun, and are usually over pretty quickly.  And
^7then,  there  are  AA  FIRE  LEVELS,  where  a shot is fired from off
^7screen,  ready  to  hit  any plane!  Sometimes levels are mixtures of
^7these 3.

^7  The  only gripe I could find, is the fact that the High Score table
^7is not saved, so, well, you can`t have ALL-TIME GREAT pilots can you?

^4Comments:
^4  The  only  thing  DOGFIGHT  II suffers from, is lack of speed, when
^4lots  of  bobs  get  moving  around.   This  can  cause  you, to make
^4unnecessary mistakes.
 
                           ^7Rating :  88 %


                      ^2A.P.D 131 Armageddon Demo

                            ^2by :  Syntex
 
^7 Demos, Demos, Demos.  What on earth would we do without them?

^7 Syntex,  a  group  which produces some neat stuff, have made quite a
^7name  for themselves.  They have LOADS of releases.  Although this is
^7the  only demo I have seen so far, I know others are totally awesome.
^7(From reading about them!)

^7 This  demo  kicks  off, with a small animated intro, showing a SPACE
^7SHIP,  getting  the Micro`s kicked out of it.  Then, it goes into the
^7main part, which is the nicest part of the whole demo.

^7  Using  the  mouse, you control a space ship, and you select a demo,
^7from  a  choice  of  4.   But, alas, the demos, are not anything new.
^7They  generally  stay  to  the same theme, ie, scrolly, maybe some VU
^7bars,  and  something happening.  The graphics are excellent, and the
^7routines  are  good  (Apart  from  the VU Bars, on one of them, which
^7don`t quite work!).

^7  I  did  not find the music too good though.  It`s a pity, because I
^7know  they have some better demos.  But still, it is worth a look, if
^7you are a collector.

^4Comments:  Nothing really.

                           ^7Rating : 60 %  
 
                      
                        ^2A.P.D 83   AMOS Paint

^7 Old,  I know, but I thought I had better review it, because a lot of
^7my  friends  have asked about it, so I`ll BROADCAST, what I seriously
^7think.

^7  It  takes the usual form, y`know, lines, circles e.t.c, e.t.c.  The
^7panel  is at the base of the screen, unlike DPaint`s, which is on the
^7side.   The  panel  can be moved downwards though, to allow access to
^7the lower part of the screen.

^7 You  can  edit in 2-64 colours, although HAM pictures can be loaded.
^7There is a Magnify function, but it is not very good.  If it was more
^7like  Dpaint`s,  then  AMOS PAINT, would be an excellent thing.  As I
^7usually   use   the   magnification   function   a   lot,  it  was  a
^7disappointment,   to   see  this  one,  but  still,  you  can`t  have
^7everything.

^7  You  can  load  IFF and Compacted pictures, and save them as IFF or
^7Compacted,  so  it`s good for converting IFF to Compacted pictures at
^7the  same  time.   It`s a worthy package, but it does not quite reach
^7the mark.
 
^4Comments:
^4  Apart  from  the  odd  graphical  glitch  ( Sometimes, the box that
^4follows  you  mouse  pointer around, showing your current ink colour,
^4gets pasted on to the screen.) It`s fine, and smoothly running.

  ^7                         Rating :  71 %

^6 Well,  that`s  all of my reviews for this issue of TOTALLY AMOS.  In
^6future  issues, I`ll be trying to cram loads more in.  Also, it would
^6be  good if people could send in views, on other people`s reviews, so
^6one  big  argument  can  arise.   Well,  I`m  signing  off  now,  and
^6remember.......

                     ^2When in Dire Straits with AMOS,
                     ^2and your Program is in CHAOS.
                     ^2Get a cup of coffee, you`ll feel alright,
                     ^2and don`t program too late at night.

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