{fh200AA00Quickie PD Game Reviews
{fb1000000
by Mike Williams


{fb1FF5555             HEXATOMS

{fb10000FFAuthor{fb1000000 Orion of Bitbox

{fb10000FFPlot{fb1000000 Players take turns to place dots in a hexagonal array. When a hexagon has as many dots as it has adjacent hexagons it explodes, scat- tering the dots into the adjacent hexagons. This may cause the adjacent hexagons to then explode, causing a chain reaction.

{fb10000FFPlayability{fb1000000 There are so many hexagons on the board, and the computer moves so slowly, that a game takes rather too long. The computer plays an extremely weak game, and would be very easy to beat if it were not for the fact that cheats when it gets into real trouble. When the computer has few pieces and no good moves, it makes a move to the top left hexagon, even if that move is illegal.

{fb10000FFGraphics{fb1000000 OK

{fb10000FFFeatures{fb1000000 None

{fb10000FFTypical Duration{fb1000000 20 minutes


{fb1FF5555             HEXTRIS

{fb10000FFAuthor{fb1000000 Mads Meisner-Jensen

{fb10000FFPlot{fb1000000 Tetris but with shapes made of hexagons instead of squares.

{fb10000FFPlayability{fb1000000 It's a pretty reasonable variation of tetris. The change from squares to hexagons makes an interesting difference.

{fb10000FFGraphics{fb1000000 OK

{fb10000FFFeatures{fb1000000 Variable height and width.

High scores (only for standard size) saved to disk.

Pause control.

Several different sprite sets.

Control key redefinition or mouse control.

{fb10000FFTypical Duration{fb1000000 5 minutes.


{fb1FF5555             HIGHLOW

{fb10000FFAuthor{fb1000000 Michael Spearpoint

{fb10000FFPlot{fb1000000 It's Play Your Cards Right. Try to guess if the next card is higher or lower.

{fb10000FFPlayability{fb1000000 There's not a lot to it.

{fb10000FFGraphics{fb1000000 Nothing special.

{fb10000FFFeatures{fb1000000 None

{fb10000FFTypical Duration{fb1000000 2 minutes.


{fb1FF5555             IMPACT
{sgi1
{fb10000FFAuthor{fb1000000 unknown

{fb10000FFPlot{fb1000000 A variant of breakout. The gimmick in this case it that there are two flying saucers that can get in the way of the ball. There are 15 predefined screens. There are also tokens which fall down from time to time, but they don't appear to have any effect on anything.

{fb10000FFPlayability{fb1000000 Overall it plays pretty well. Sometimes the flying saucers get in the way, but sometimes this can be useful.

{fb10000FFGraphics{fb1000000 Quite good.

{fb10000FFFeatures{fb1000000 Screen designer.

{fb10000FFTypical Duration{fb1000000 6 minutes.


{fb1FF5555             INFECTION

{fb10000FFAuthor{fb1000000 A. M. Flintham

{fb10000FFPlot{fb1000000 Its a rather odd board game.

{fb10000FFPlayability{fb1000000 It's not an easy game to get a feeling for. It's not easy to decide whether that move you just made was a good or a bad move or why. The computer can be told to use any of five different strategies, but, by playing them against each other, I've determined that they are very similar in terms of playing strength.

{fb10000FFGraphics{fb1000000 OK.

{fb10000FFFeatures{fb1000000 1 to 4 players (games with 1 player are pointless), any or all of whom can be the computer.

{fb10000FFTypical Duration{fb1000000 1 minute.