December 1995
16YEARS OF
STAR* TECH ON
CD-ROM
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
PIN EXPO '95 NEW GAME COMMENTS
Stephen Jonke
Tournament Player
Greenbelt, Maryland
All previous editions of STAR* TECH
journa4 Volumes 1 - 16 (March 1979 -
February 1995) have been scanned onto
a single CD-ROM disc with a custom
Multi-Media Microsoft Windows Program
which places thousands of articles at the
fingertips of coin-op game technicians.
POINT AND CLICK MENUS
Select from a list of manufacturers:
Then select the game or topic you want
to view. From there, just point and click
and the issue which contains your
choice will be displayed. Either scroll
through the pages or go directly to the
article of interest.
REQUIREMENTS
All that's needed is an IBM compatible
computer (386 or better) with Windows
3.1 (or later) and a CD-ROM player. All
the technical information published in
ST J during the past si~teen years will
be yours in seconds.
PRICE
$388. US funds. COD ok in USA. Price
includes shipping US and Canada.
Other countries add $9 via air.
Expo was great this year as usual,
having had a chance to play all
the new games I figured I'd offer
some brief comments on all of
them.
JOHNNY MNEMONIC
I was disappointed in this game,
probably due to all the extremely
positive comments on the
internet that had me expecting
instant greatness, but admittedly
I only played it 3 times. The
playfield seemed pretty restric-
tive and even, dare I say it, a bit
klunky! I think the playfield was
described best as "awkward".
That's a good way to put it. I'm
sure I'll give this game more
plays if it shows up locally, but I
felt that at the Expo there were
so many other games that
seemed more fun to play that]M
wasn't worth waiting for.
NOTE
Only 100 ST Jon CD-ROM discs were
made by STAR* TECH Journal. The
next run will be in March of 1997 and
will be available first to purchasers of
the initial disc (at half price). Once you
are a registered user of ST J on CD-
ROM you will be offered future CD-
ROM releases at 50% off.
MolNFO
For more information or to order call,
fax, email or otherwise beam your re-
quests to Star Tech Journal. Inc. PO
Box 35, Medford, NJ 08055. Phone:
609/654-5544. Fax: 609/654-1441.
Email: startech@cyberenet.net
WHO DUNNIT
At first I didn't like this game at
all, but after looking at the rule
sheet that was given out at the
Expo it made more sense and I
ended up really liking it. I doubt
it will do well with the average
player on the street because it
seems you have to have the rule
sheet and the "background story"
to even enjoy the game, let alone
understand it. If you know and
understand the game rules,
though, it's a lot of fun.
I'm not sure that I would like the
roulette wheel if it were not on
tournament settings. With it al-
ternating between losing and
winning it adds an element of
strategy to the game that will be
lost if the roulette wheel is ran-
dom. If this game shows up at a
location around here I would
probably play it in tournament
mode because of this. I think
Barry 0. is improving his games
quite a bit - Dirty Harry was not
as bad as many have said, and
Who Dunnit is quite good. He
does things a bit differently then
the others and that's a good thing.
APOLLO 13
This is unquestionably Sega's
most "solid" feeling game and
also their best looking game to
date. The flippers seem a lot bet-
ter then previous Sega efforts.
The playfield and backglass art-
work is great and I also liked the
metallic-blue habitrals - they are
really nice looking. The anima-
tion and sound were better then
usual for Sega as well. The
multiball start animation and
sounds were especially satisfying.
Some of the mode animation was
cheesy, though.
13 ball multiball is completely
silly, but is pretty funny. You can't
shoot at anything when there are
13 balls in play because you just