Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Recommending a game is difficult without knowing you and your family
    much better.  I like F/A-18 Interceptor and Fairy Tale Adventure,
    and so did my 12-year-old son, but my wife and 16-year-old daughter
    didn't find them at all interesting.  Your tastes may differ from
    all of ours.  I suggest you visit a well-stocked dealer and try
    out lots of games.  Bring the wife and kids, and buy something for
    everyone.
        John Sauter

    Fred Fish disks, however, are pretty well covered in a number of
    places.   There's at least one note in this notesfile listing the
    contents of Fish disks 1-latest.  A DIR/TITLE=FISH should show you
    that.  A number of the Fish disks are even on-line... although I
    can't remember exactly where at the moment.  
    
    All that failing, drop by your local magazine dealer of choice and
    pick up a copy of "Amazing Computing" magazine.  In the back, you'll
    find a listing of Fred Fish disks 1-latest.  
    
    Both the Amazing list and the notesfile list have descriptions of
    each of the different tools/games/utilities/whatever.  

    
    					John

      As far as games go I have purchased Roger Rabbit. But haven't
    tried it yet. (Christmas present you know.) But of what I do have
    Earl Weaver baseball is one of the better ones. as well as Sinbad
    or Three Stooges. There are games for every taste. 
    
      Look at the previous notes and you will find a rating system on
    some of the more resent games. 
    
     I am also finding out the Amiga games are running cheaper than
    Nintendo, without loss of graphic power. (Let's see Nintendo top
    Dragon's Lair!!!!!).
    
                                               happy holidays
    

    
    Word processors... again, very personal.  WordPerfect is suitable
    for writing War and Peace, and is the best selling WP in the world.
    However, the current release can't handle Amiga graphics or bit
    mapped fonts.  But it is file compatible with IBM versions up to
    5.0.
    
    ProWrite and Excellence! are somewhat similar in that they are fully
    Amiga-tized (they can import and manipulate color graphics and
    fonts).  Both support PostScript output.  Excellence! has more bells and
    whistles, but costs almost twice as much as ProWrite.  Either one
    is very gratifying to use. 
                                                         
    Graphics... DeluxePaint II is still the standard bearer, and probably
    one of the best microcomputer programs ever written.  ExpressPaint
    claims more features, but I haven't tried it personally.  There
    are a few second generation paint programs that utilize HAM mode
    for incredible color effects (all 4096 colors on screen at once)
    like DigiPaint and Photon Paint.
    
    Deluxe PhotoLab has been getting rave reviews.  It has most of the
    features of t he various paint programs, plus the ability to create
    10' x 10' HAM posters.
    
    Ed.
    
    

    
    
    "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" is a real let down.  

    If you intend to run Roger on an unexpanded Amiga, then be prepared
    for 'loads-a-disk-swapping', it takes 8 disk swaps for the first
    part of the game to load!
    
    When you die the whole game must be rebooted before you can play again!

    Your money would be better spent on some of the 'classic' amiga
    games, 'F-18 Interceptor' is one of them.  Of the more recent games
    Speedball come highly recommended, from the writers of Xenon.
    
    Herbie.
    
    

    
    That's a shame about "Roger Rabbit". I've run it (in demo mode,
    of course) from my hard disk after a friend bought it and it runs
    really well.
    
    For arcade action at a really reasonable price I'd suggest you find
    a copy of the "Awsome Arcade Action Pack, Volume 1". It's 3 games
    of which all are arcade quality and a real blast. Sidewinder is
    the BEST! Be ready for a sore hand!

    Depending on your tastes Rocket Ranger is a fun one as well. A little
    too hard but great animation and good game play.    

    Ray
    

    
    I'll throw in a plug for Starglider II.  Incredible 3D solid graphics,
    fast, and the game even has a plot.
    
    Ed.

    I recommend FirePower and Emerald Mine.  They are cheap (less that
    US$20 each), and both have two player mode.  Remember to buy joysticks.

    For something complete different, try MindWalker.

    Chong.

    For animation, check out Fantavision from Broderbund.  It's really
    neat and easy to use.
    
    To use it, you have to design what the first step of the animation
    looks like, and the last step.  The program then calculates what
    the frames look like in between.
    
    For example, if you have a blue square in one corner, and a yellow
    triangle in the opposite, the object metamorphasizes and moves between
    the two points.
    
    It is possible to add sound effects, and load pictures created with
    a paint program to use as a background.
    
    List price is about $60.  If you want to do animations, but don't
    want to spend <$100 on deluxe video, and don't have much memory
    (it runs fine on my 512K 1000), GET IT!

    re: Roger Rabbit
    
    make a copy of it (no copy protect, uses look up keyword in manual
    protection), edit the s/startup-sequence file to remove the ENDCLI
    command.  That way when the game ends, it will drop you back to
    the CLI instead of the Workbench.  From the CLI, all you need to
    do to restart it is type the name of the program, rogerrabbit.
    At least that's what works on an 1Meg A2000 with 2 floppies.
    
    re: games
    another vote for Awesome Arcade Pack.  A great deal for the price
    if you like great graphics and lots of things to shoot at (and lots
    of things that shoot at you)
    
    -dave

    Awesome Arcade Pack?

	I saw a set of three games being sold at a booth at a
	computer show in Marlboro.  I think it was this set.
	Is sidewinder a 3D fly over a landscape and shoot things
	kind of game.  The one I saw started off on a grey
	surface and if you wiggled the joy stick right and left
	you craft started to fly.

	All this because I want to get the game but want to
	make sure its the right one.

					Dean Cromack

	p.s. at the show it was priced at $35

    
    RE .11
    
    I think the game you are talking about is Xenon!  It's a vertical
    scrolling 'zapper'.  Wiggle the joystick left and right (pressing
    the space-bar has the same effect) and the tank changes into an
    aircraft, another wiggle and the tank returns.  The background on
    the first level consists of grey(ish) tiles...
    
    
    Herbie.
    

    
    Agreed, it sounds like Xenon. The great thing about the "AAAP" is
    that you really get 3 games, all of which are excellent. My favorite
    is Sidewinder but Xenon is good as well.
    
    It's well worth the $35.00!
    
    Ray

	I just reread some of the other replies in this note.
	The set I am thinking of included Xenon, speedball and
	one other.

	What is sidewinder like?

					Dean Cromack

    I've only heard of one 3-pack of games for the Amiga.  That package
    includes Xenon, Sidewinder, and some other game (speedball?)
    Sidewinder is less 3d than Xenon, but has better explosions.  It
    also doesn't have that critter that is so hard to get past.  But
    it's the same type of game, lots of things shooting at you, and
    you have unlimited shots.
    
    -dave

    The third game in the adventure pack is Blastaball.  It's an arena
    game in which two tank-like skimmers and a puck slide around on a
    low-friction field.  The object is to put the puck into the other
    player's goal by peppering it with bullets from your tank.  You can
    play player-vs-player or player-vs-computer. 

    - Z

    In XENON how do you get past whatever that thing is at what I assume
    is the end of the first level?                                   

    I think those things are called Sentinels, and I've never gotten past 
    one.  There's another note in here that describes one technique - you 
    can hide in a corner where the Sentinel can't get you, and then sneak 
    out and blast away at a soft spot in its middle somewhere.  It's 
    never worked for me.  Another annoying thing - I go sailing down into 
    the end area with a ship with lasers and extra energy and everything, 
    and as soon as a Sentinel appears, I get transformed back into a tank.

    - Cliff