** 1 page PD/Shareware review / 650 words ** Bombaman v1.0 Jonathon Adams keeps his head down long enough to gather his thoughts... ** BOMBFRON.GIF here ** ** BOMBAMAN.GIF here ** ** BOMB.GIF for decoration anywhere ** Bombaman is a multi-player battle game for the STe which has been under development for two years by Kevin Callahan. Bombaman is programmed entirely in optimised 68000 assembly code and it takes advantage of the extra STe only features which makes for lots of high speed action on-screen simultaneously. The plot is simple. Your little guy runs around trying to kill the other little guys by laying bombs to destroy blocks until you find yourself facing your enemy who's doing the same thing. The last player left standing wins the round. Bombs explode North to South and East to West and as blocks are destroyed bonuses and powerups appear which can be picked up and used to assist you. Between two and four players can play, two using the normal ST joystick connections and another two using Powerpads or joysticks modified to work with the extra STe joystick ports - details to do this are included in the accompanying text file. Bombaman runs from floppy or hard disk and the available Options include control of player selection, play area selection, sound calibration, instructions, credits and resetting the scores. The original soundtrack consists of three channel chip music which can be turned off if desired - it's not MOD music, but since the processor is already working overtime that's probably a good thing. Dropped bombs pulsate slowly then pulsate rapidly one second before exploding when they may start a chain reaction triggering other bombs. Sprite movement is silky-smooth and the control method is easy to get to grips with. This version is faster than other ST versions and doesn't suffer from the annoying "getting caught on wall corners" problem which spoils other versions. The graphics are both colourful and cheerful and are due to be revamped because Kevin thinks some of the graphics which look weird on some of the battle grids. The characters run amusingly, bombs pulse smoothly and the explosions look good. To keep the action moving there's plenty of power-ups including extra bombs, extra range, speedups, slowdowns, reversals, immunity, invisibility, global-effects, ghost-bombs, autolay, short and long fuses, kicking bombs, throwing bombs, molotov cocktails, mega and mini explosions, random effects, plunger, bonus extensions, bonus terminations and more! When you pick any of these up, your guy is identified as having the bonus by graphics around his head. Some bonuses only last a while whereas others remain for the duration of the battle. The ability to kick and throw bombs or molotov cocktails at opponents also sets this version apart from its peers - it's very satisfying tossing a well-timed bomb to trap your opponents. The control method for throwing and kicking is easy - lay a bomb, look in the direction you want it throw or kick it then hit fire again. Thrown bombs bounce off the arena walls so be careful not to trap yourself! Finally, if you're taking to long to kill off your opponent/s a warning heralds the appearance of zombies which harass everyone triggering bombs in their wake and bringing the battle to a climatic conclusion. The unregistered version has a limited number of battles and fewer game arenas so do register your copy or as Kevin says "If no-one registers, I'll soon get the message!" ** product boxout ** Bombaman v1.0 Author Kevin Callahan 97 Egmont Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 5AN, England Email: Kevin.Callahan@atn.png.po.gpt.co.uk http://www.biles21.demon.co.uk/bombaman Status Shareware. Send œ5 Sterling plus an SAE (or an international reply coupon) or your email address in return for which you'll receive a full version. Requires Atari STe, 1Mb minimum Pros Fast multi-player fun, makes use of the wasted border area Cons No option to play against computer or via the keyboard Ratings 86% Graphics 75% Sound 82% Gameplay 81% ** /product boxout **