news & notes

The Old Soft Show

Last year's entertainment software sales were rather lackluster, but there was no hint of malaise at CES in June, and no lack of new titles either.

Accolade took a shot at role-playing adventure games with Conspiracy: The Dead-lock Files, a graphics adventure featuring digitized photos: The Third Courier, an espionage game set in Berlin; and Don't Go Alone, a mystery game that has you battling ghosts in a haunted house. The company maintained its stand in the sports arena with Hard-ball II. The Cycles (motorcycle racing), and Heat Wave (powerboat racing). To round out the new offerings, there's Eye of the Storm, a Vietnam-battle helicopter simulation.

Taito's Arkanoid II promised to be a smash, with its built-in construction set, moving blocks, Ad Lib-board sound, and other surprises for pod-and-block heads. Qix, Rambo III, and Target Renegade were also among Taito's planned arsenal.

Spectrum HoloByte put the pedal to the metal in its street-racing simulation. Vene brings the streets of San Francisco to your screen using the same 3-D solid modeling techniques found in the company's Falcon AT game. You can choose any route as you race from one point to another, dodging trolleys, pedestrians, and city traffic. Bullitt was never like this.

Origin showed Omega, a battle game in which players program cyber tanks and then send them out to fight. The game will be available on a variety of computer platforms, allowing players to fight across operating system lines via modem. MPS Technologies (formerly MicroProse) also showed its tank game, MI Tank Platoon. With this simulation, players command a group of four tanks rather than the lone rogue tank offered in other tank games. The company also planned to release Sword of the Samurai.

For its part Broderbund showed its new Carmen Sandiego and Print Shop packages. It also previewed a bundled package. Bank Street Writer Plus. Where in Europe Is Carmen Sandiego?, and Type!, all titles in The Family Software Library. Under affiliated labels, you can expect to see Licence to Kill (arcade adventure), Ancient Land of Ys, and Murder Club (both role-playing games).

Electronic Arts blew the whistle on two sports games (John Madden Football and Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoff) a jet-fighter game (F. 16 Combat Pilot) and a martial-arts game (Budokan). Epyx countered with Revenge of the Defender, Ishido (a strategy game that calls for ordering "runic tiles"), Snow Strike Project Neptune California Games II, and Purple Saturn Day (kind of an intergallactic Olympics).

All in all, it looks like we computer users are in for a lot of fun for the rest of the year.

—Peter Scisco