Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1993-November - Vol 15 Issue 9

STAR*TECH Journal
m
November 1993
AMOA '93:
THE Goon, THE BAD & THE NoT So SURE
This year's AMOA show was
held in Anaheim at the Con-
vention Center (Oct 22-24)
where operators and distribu-
tors from all over the world
gathered to view the fall
lineup of new games, pay hom-
age to the creators of the great
money makers and to visit
Disneyland.
with as many as seven. Ac-
cording to Ed Boon, he has hid-
den so much (including him-
self)in the game, that the play-
Virtua Fighters holds a close
second to MKII. With the box-
ing ring style platform to fight
on, and switching perspective
as if you are watching a match
on television. This gives the
game true depth. Virtua
Fighter also uses the same
polygon engine used on Virtua
Racing.
After paying tribute to the
amusement gods and gazing
upon Magic Kingdom, I have
compiled my hits and misses of
the new games.
Star Trek the Next Generation
is a pinball just begging to be
played. With thousands of
trekers and the playability,
CD like sound and speech of all
the major cast members
makes this one a must get pin.
With eight different missions,
it's Warp Factor 9 to the banW-'
THE Goon
Mortal Kombat II I believe is
the real winner of the show. Ed
Boon has done it again X5.
With seven new fighters for
the players to master and five
of the most favored players
from the first MK with addi-
tional moves. Each with two
finishing moves and at least
five secret moves and some
shutting off the blood and fin-
ishing moves are available as
well.
ers will still be discovering
things 9 -12 months after they
start playing. And options like
Indiana Jones the Pinball Ad-
venture is another pin I found
most enjoyable. Twelve adven-
November 1993
ture modes, six ball multi-ball,
three video modes and a tilting
mini playfield invites players
to join Indy in the search for
the Ark of the Covenant, Sa-
cred Sankara Stones and The
Holy Grail.
Two Minute Drill is a redemp-
tion game that will challenge
any arm chair quarterback.
With real NFL digitized
graphics. Avoid the defensive
lineman's arm to complete
four passes and bring your
m
was that you can't feel the
road. The car just seems to
float over the road and the
steering was not very respon-
sive.
Air Combat did not live up to
expectations, with Namco call-
ing it "The most authentic ar-
cade flight simulator avail-
able". Maybe graphic wise, but
certainly not playability wise.
F15 Strike Eagle was more
authentic. I tried to avoid the
targets, buttheywouldalways
"I tried to avoid the targets, but
they would always end up in
front of me -making it too easy
to destroy the enemy aircraft.
It has a nice seat, though."
team to victory. The harder
you throw the more yards you
gain. Move into the red zone
for an extra play. Try to im-
prove your stats with each
game with four different skill
levels to choose from; from
~gh school to NFL Pro.
THE BAD
Ridge Racer was very disap-
pointing. The biggest problem
end up in front of me -making
it too easy to destroy the en-
emy aircraft. It has a nice seat,
though.
Wipeout is a great name for
this pinball. Every time I
stopped by the booth, I would
find a problem with one of the
pins. No sound, display freak-
ing out, switches not reading,
trapped or drained balls or
STAR*TECH Journal
even thinking the ball had
drained while it was still actu-
ally in play.
THENoTSoSURE
Tales From the Crypt has good
playability and some nice fea-
tures, but the theme I feel is
wrong for most locations.
Since most games that are
commonly found in family ar-
cade enters, this one comes
from the pages of a goulish
comic book and HBO's blood
bath show of the same name.
The two just don't mix and
they shouldn't. We have adult
sections in video stores, with
this game we'll need adult sec-
tions in our arcades.
Cyber Sled is another one that
I'm not sure about. I found it to
be a little boring, but so was
Gun Busters and it made a lot
of money in a short period of
time. Just wait and see how
this one does on the charts.
Visions of Reality is the best
virtual reality game I have
seen so far, but the LCD dis-
playisn't there yet. It was real
grainy and dim. The price is
outrageous, but so were calcu-
lators when they first came
out, and now you can pick one
up for a few dollars. So, for this
technology, we may have to
wait for a few years until both
the game and the price get bet-
ter. For now, if you want to
spend alot of money, you'd be
better off going with Battle
Tech.

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