Page 17 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #5

I don't know, maybe I just don't “get it” on some of these games. I would be
open to suggestions or comments from our readers as I have been wrong before.
At one time or another the following games were considered by me to be unplay-
able:

TOMARC THE BARBARIAN

The objective here is very familiar: locate
the sword that breaks the lock, and res-
cue the maiden from her prison. I’m not
sure what possessed the designers to
think you could do two things effectively
at the exact same time, but having to
switch back and forth between two to-
tally different screens just doesn't cut it
(if you have a loose joystick, you will find
yourself changing screens accidentally). Other bad points: You can suffer damage on
another screen even if it isn't visible, jumps are hard to gauge, and the dungeons are so
rat-infested that it is hard not to land on one! I have succeeded in winning a few rounds
by finding the sword and freeing the maiden from the cage (which, by the way, reminds
me of a go-go dancer in a disco), yet I always incur some damage. Like Ghostbusters II,
it seems like the game requires as much luck as skill to survive.

FINAL APPROACH

I probably read the instructions too quickly and
gave up too easily on this game. When one of my
user friends explained it to me, I found it to be a
challenging, original game that requires more fi-
nesse and patience than most. Ever wonder why a
job as an air traffic controller is so stressful? You get to
be a trainee in this game and find out. You are an air traffic con-
troller who has four chances to keep planes from collisions or near
misses while trying to land as many as possible. You gain control of a
plane by using the joystick cursor and pressing the fire button. Guide
the plane to the dotted line at the beginning of the runway. When it is straight on top of that line, release it by press-
ing the red button. Quickly move the cursor down to the center button on the bottom of the screen, then fire to get to
the next screen. If this doesn't work, you probably missed the button and lost the black cursor against the black back-
ground. Move it up and repeat. Screen 2 requires that you gently keep the nose of the plane on the glide path until it
lands. If you veer off at the last second you will not get any new points and will suffer a point deduction. You
can also get a deduction for letting a plane fall off the radar screen. So things can get pretty hectic at
times. My best score on the easiest version was 380 points. Since I am slightly impatient, if I don’t
start off with a plane near the final approach, I usually hit reset.

KARATE CRYPTS OF CHAOS

Probably the worst karate tourna- Navigate the maze from a first person per-
ment video game ever made, and spective, destroy enemies, find power-ups to
graphically, a real ugly game! It gain strength, and find the exit door to the next
basically looks like two stick figures level. I couldn't make any sense of this game for
dancing, but if you can keep kicking rapidly, the longest time. Eventually I was able to under-
you will win each round and go from a white belt to stand the logic and managed to draw maps of the
a black four types of mazes (they were published in Digital
belt. There Press). I was able to contact the programmer via
is absolutey email and he gave me the bad news that this
no logic to the game does not have an actual ending or final
increased screen.
levels, as I
have beaten a
black belt with
my white belt.
Now that should
be totally impossi-
ble!

Classic Gamer Magazine December 2000 17