INTO
THE UNKNOWNReviews
The first review this time is a little bit different. Those of you who are familiar with Terry's games, will know that he has one of the non-sporting kind in his range. This is 'Wings Over France'. A war game set in the 1st World War. I have played the game a couple of times, although never to completion (one of my outstanding gaming tasks). To whet your appetite for the game, Terry has provided the following piece. The second review is from Jonathan Bowen, and concerns the boxing game 'Let's Rumble'. This is a quick play version of Championship Boxing, and comes packaged with CB. The third review is on the 'Premiership Football game. This has just had the Premiership 2003/04 season extension set issued by Owzat games.
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INTO
THE UNKNOWN
(An introduction to 'Wings over France' by
Terry Goodchild)
There
had been a hard overnight frost and the ground
crackled under their feet as they made their way
across the grass to the airfield where the runway flares were just being
lit, stabs of flame breaking the
blackness and
briefly silhouetting the figures of the air mechanics as they went about their business.
'Tiny' Street shuffled along beside his Flight
Commander, his chubby face partly visible from the glow of the cigarette that was
rarely out of his mouth when he was on the ground,
but the bulk of his sixteen stone body no more
than a vague shape in the darkness. 'Tiny' had
bagged his first Hun just two days ago, diving out
of the clouds onto a Roland two-seater too busy
spotting the fall of German shells over the front
lines to be aware of the danger, and a
three-second burst had ripped through the fuselage
and split open the pilot's skull. As he had
circled round for a second attack the Roland
seemed completely unaffected, then the pilot
slumped forward onto the stick and the nose dipped
down sharply. For a split second 'Tiny' had seen
the sheer terror in the eyes of the navigator in
the rear seat as the machine began to spiral down
towards the ground 6,000 feet below, a
thirty-second journey to certain death.
Guy,
Grafton's brown cross-bred labrador, lolloped
along beside his master, as close as he dared
without getting under his feet,
waiting for the moment when they would stop by the
airstrip and Guy would have his head rubbed
briefly and his flank patted, and
he would go scampering off to the comparative
warmth of the workshop on the edge of the field
where he would stay, head resting
on his outstretched paws peering out across the
grass until his master returned. Even dogs needed
the comfort of routine, though Grafton.
He
undid the top button of his leather jacket,
minutely adjusted the knot of the red scarf he
always wore beneath the jacket for the third time
(always three times, never more) and rebuttoned
the jacket. He glanced behind him aware that the
third Flight member
had dropped a few strides back. 2nd Lt. Thomas
Blake hurried to catch up, nearly colliding with
his Flight Commander who had
stopped to send Guy chasing off to claim his place
in the open doorway of the workshop. This was to
be Blake's first mission, having arrived at Amiens
just three days before from Flight School in
England looking even younger than his 18 years
with his well-scrubbed fresh complexion and the
lop-sided self-conscious grin when he was at a
loss for a reply. Grafton had taken Blake up for
two follow-my-leader flights behind the lines,
increasing his logged solo flying time by nearly
fifty percent in the process, and had been
appalled at Blake's obvious unreadiness for combat
flying, but now the Allied Air Offensive had begun
he would have to take his
chance like everyone else, and every mission he
completed would provide that valuable experience
that was his best hope of survival, slim as that
was.
The
three Sopwith Pups were lined up on the airstrip,
oddly lit by the flickering flares, looking frail
and insubstantial with their mass
of wires and stressed canvas. Grafton glanced over
his shoulder as he hauled himself into the
cockpit, noting the gash of yellow light
on the eastern horizon that heralded the dawn. Hun
country, the unknown, his 73rd mission, Dawn
Patrol, April 1st 1917. He settled
into his seat, rubbed the glass on the instrument
dials with his gloved hands to clear the
condensation, flicked on the switches and shouted
'Rotate' down to the air mechanic by the
propeller. The mechanic took up the compression,
thrust downwards,
once,
twice, three times, then, with a couple of belches
of oily smoke, the 80 hp rotary engine fired into
life. Grafton waited while the two other machines
were started, then turned briefly to right and
left to give the thumbs up to his two pilots,
released the brakes and began to bump forward over
the frozen grass. Gradually building up speed, the
bumping and vibration increasing, four flares from
the end of
the runway he eased the stick forward to bring up
the tail, checked the speedometer, then pulled
back on the stick and felt the Pup
lift smoothly off. Airborne he never failed
to feel the exhilaration, the freedom, of flight,
the sheer joy of uninhibited movement, the rush of
air, the flapping canvas, the singing wires.
Grafton
circled round towards the east, noting the yellow
streak bleeding higher up into the sky, climbing
steadily all the time,
checking to right and left to see his two wingmen
keeping station, peering down towards the airfield
where the flares were already being extinguished.
Checking the compass he maintained a steady course
of 50 degrees, aiming to overfly Bapaume and cross
the
double line of trenches just north-east of the
town. In twenty minutes they would be over the
Front Line where those poor bastards
in the trenches endured a life of hell, knee deep
in mud for much of the time, shelled and machine
gunned constantly, suffering the indignities of
trench-foot, lice and dysentery and maybe hoping
at best for a minor wound that would enable them
to escape back to base hospital for a few days of
comparative comfort.
As
the sky lightened the cloud base seemed to descend
so Grafton levelled the flight out at around 8,000
feet. Below the dark shape of the ruins of Bapaume
appeared through the mist, then ahead they saw the
flash of guns and heard the muffled thunder of the
morning artillery duel start up. They flew on, the
snaking lines of support and front trenches just
visible far below. Then the Archie found them,
a loud crack and a brown smudge in the sky forty
feet in front of Grafton announcing its arrival.
Even in the half-light the smudge expanded
outwards as red hot fragments of metal, each with
its own tail of curling smoke, spilled out of the
exploding shell. Like the patter of hailstones the
shards of shrapnel tore into the canvas wings,
then a second and third crack nearby soiled the
air again with brown stains. Grafton glanced over
to 'Tiny' and pointed upwards, then repeated the
signal to Blake who was beginning to weave from
side to side in a futile attempt to avoid the
explosions. They climbed 200 feet or so, enough to
confuse the archie batteries for the moment,
leaving the brown eruptions below them. Grafton
swung round to the north east, following the
trench lines, waking up a new battery of archie.
He glanced over to his left again, wondering how
Blake was coping with his first contact with the
enemy, and gave him the thumbs up. Welcome to the
War, he thought.
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Let's Rumble is a
quick-playing boxing game that uses the ratings
included in Championship Boxing. It provides
for the possibility of knockdowns (including
multiple knockdowns in a round), knockouts,
technical stoppages,
cuts, a clash
of heads, and
fouls. A roll of two ten-sided dice determines the scoring in each
round (a fighter's
rating is arrived at prior to
the start of the bout using a combination of the
Domination Factor, punching
accurracy, and
ability
to avoid punches of the fighter). Unless there is
a chance of a knockdown, referee stops
fight, cut,
or foul no additional dice rolls are required. The
ten-sided dice are then rolled to determine the
judges scoring. The
knockdown procedure does
involve multiple steps and is the most complicated
part of the
game (a flow chart is
provided to
illustrate the steps). Preparation prior to the
start of the bout can be done in
a moment, and a
ten round bout can be completed in five to ten
minutes.
It is difficult to
judge the accuracy of a boxing game. Both
unpredicatablity and realism need to be part of a
sports simulation. A
boxing game should be able to create realistic and
plausable results, with the occasional upset, by
rating many different aspects of a boxer's skills.
Championship Boxing does this. My initial
impression of Let's Rumble is that it also does
this.
An early issue of
Replay Report contained a quick-playing boxing
game using Championship Boxing's ratings called
Quick K.O. The
game was designed by Graham
Mitchell. Using Quick K.O. I, many years ago,
selected sixteen heavyweight fighters and matched
them
in a single elimination tournament. For
comparison I mathed the same fighters using Let's
Rumble. First round fights were ten rounders,
second round fights were twelve rounders, the
semi-finals and finals were fifteen rounders.
The results with Quick K.O.:
Muhammed Ali (decision) v. Ken Norton
Joe Louis (decision) v. Max Schmeling (Louis was knocked down in the 9th round)
Jack Johnson (decision) v. Larry Holmes
Rocky Marciano (decision) v. Floyd Patterson
Jack Dempsey (KO-3rd round) v. Evander Hollyfield
Gene Tunney (decision) v. Ezzard Charles (Charles was knocked down in the 6th round)
Mike Tyson (KO-9th round) v. Sonny Liston (Liston knocked down in the 7th round)
Joe Frazier (KO-1st round) v. George Foreman
Muhammed Ali (decision) v. Joe Frazier (Frazier knocked down in the 4th round)
Joe Louis (decision) v. Mike Tyson
Jack Johnson (decision) v. Gene Tunney
Rocky Marciano (decision) v. Jack Dempsey
Muhammed Ali (KO-4th round) v. Joe Louis
Rocky Marciano (KO-15th round) v. Jack Johnson (Johnson knocked down in 8th round)
Muhammed Ali (decision) v. Rocky Marciano
The results with Let's Rumble:
Muhammed Ali (decision) v. Ken Norton
Joe Louis (decision) v. Max Schmeling
Jack Johnson (TKO-6th round, referee stopped fight due to cuts) v. Larry Holmes
Rocky Marciano (KO-8th round) v. Floyd Patterson
Jack Dempsey
(KO-10th round) v. Evander Hollyfield (Dempsey had
been knocked down in the 3rd round and was
trailing on all three
cards entering the 10th round)
Ezzard Charles (Disqualification-6th round) v. Gene Tunney (Tunney was disqualified for a foul)
Sonny Liston (KO-3rd round) v. Mike Tyson
Joe Frazier (decision) v. George Foreman
Muhammed Ali (decision) v. Joe Frazier (Frazier was knocked down in the 7th round)
Joe Louis (KO-4th round) v. Sonny Liston
Jack Johnson (decision) v. Ezzard Charles
Jack Dempsey (TKO-7th round, referee stopped fight due to a cut) v. Rocky Marciano
Joe Louis (KO-12th round) v. Muhammed Ali (Louis was trailing by 7,5, and 4 points entering the 12th round)
Jack Dempsey
(KO-13th round) v. Jack Johnson (Dempsey had been
knocked down in the 3rd round and was trailing by
6, 6, and 3
points entering the 13th round)
Joe Louis (decision) v. Jack Dempsey (Dempsey was knocked down in the 8th round; scoring: 148-138, 147-138, 147-139)
Both quick-playing games are enjoyable and, I think, realistic. My slight preference is for Let's Rumble.
I would suggest that
changes be made to the Round Scoring Chart. This
chart is divided into six columns depending on the
difference in margin of points scored. There are,
in my opinion, too many possibilities for a 10-10
round. If the scoring in the round is even there
is
a 60 percent chance of the round being scored
10-10. If the margin is 1 to 4 points, there is a
70 percent chance of the round being scored 10-10.
This may be a typo. I have made some adjustments
to this chart.
The other adjustment
that I have been experimenting with concerns
stamina. The game rules make no allowance for
adjusting the stamina rating for fights of
different lengths. I have added two to the stamina
rating for a 12 round fight and three to the
rating for a
15 round fight. I have subtracted two from the
stamina rating for an 8 round fight and 3 for a 6
round fight. I am also considering whether the
Foul Chart should be slightly adjusted to lessen
the chance of a foul.
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AN HISTORIC SEASON TO
REPLAY
Love
'em or hate 'em, the 2003/4 English domestic
season belonged to Arsenal, unbeaten in their 38
league
matches despite the attentions of spend,
spend, spend Chelsea and the
(maybe-not-quite-so-this-season)
competitive
Manchester United. The rest were nowhere but the
battle for the final European spots for next
year
was full of tension, so overall this wasn't a bad
season for us replay gamers.
While
'Premiership Football' will not give you detailed
match replays (you really want to replay 380
matches in detail? If so you have
a choice of 'Soccer Replay', 'Final Score' and
''Full Time' for that) it will provide a setting
for a thoroughly enjoyable week-by-week league
replay. More than just a result generator
'Premiership Football' provides, abstractly,
injury and suspension problems, transfers
in and out and above all the ever-changing league
table as first one team then another puts together
a run of results, or suffers a
slump in form.
I suspect this is the one game in our range that most users see through to the bitter end, its quick-playing nature and that need to complete just one more week's fixtures before staggering off to bed made for some bleary-eyed late breakfasts in my own final play-testing of the game. Arsenal remaining unbeaten? Doubtful, in any context that was a one-off performance - maybe that's another good reason for playing the game!
'Premiership
Football 2003/4' edition is available from 'Owzat
Games, usual access via the HoBSRG front page
(www.sportsgameshop.com).
For
those who have earlier versions and found the
goal-scoring a little on the generous side you
will
find we have 'tweaked' that aspect to get the
regulation number of 1-0s for Arsenal !
I'm currently working on the 2003/4 season Division 1 for this game (not sure how I work that into a game called 'Premiership Football !) and this will be released by 'Owzat Games shortly.
Terry Goodchild
1/6/04