1133 reviews from "Pelit"-books

1991 KevätSubmarine sims keep seeping to the surface at a steady rate, the latest being 336 Pacific's Das U-Boot.

As the name suggests, Das U-Boot simulates German Second World War tubs. 336 Pacific, however, has chosen an action line instead of hardcore realism, which gives the game a different target audience from, say, Silent Service II.

I've never before seen external camera angles in a submarine game, those standard fixtures of flight sims. Das Boot has them, viewed both from below the surface and from above. And they're useful too, especially when you're trying to weave your way through a minefield. On top of the normal submarine action, the player's metal coffin is hunted by aircraft, which can be knocked down with either the 88mm AA gun or the AA machine guns.

The emphasis on action brings a few unrealistic touches with it, such as turning the U-boat through 180 degrees in 0.01 seconds. Submarine skippers would sell their souls for a feature like that.

But that hardly matters; even as a mongrel Das U-Boot works well. The biggest minus comes from wandering around at sea, since at times the enemy just can't be found anywhere at all.

The sound effects (with an AdLib) are surprisingly good, and the beautiful 256-colour VGA graphics are a real treat for the eye. The vector graphics are shaded according to the light source. Apart from a little over ten ALT+key combinations, playing is comfortably handled with the mouse.

Das U-Boot is a punchy submarine game for those to whom absolute realism is not an end in itself.

1987Blasting again, for a change. This time you're supposed to defend New York City from UFO attacks. The action of the entire game can be boiled down to the familiar phrase "kill or be killed".

In U.F.O. the blasting is the same as in plenty of other shooting games, i.e. evil beings coming in from the sides and from above have to be destroyed with a fighter craft that moves sideways along the bottom of the screen. Between the levels there's a sort of stretching break, during which you have to fly at high speed along a winding route without bumping into the edges (too often).

Actually there'd be nothing in UFO worth reviewing if its graphics weren't excellent for a shoot-'em-up. Although everything happens in two dimensions while you play, special effects have succeeded in creating a sense of depth. For instance, when the ship flies off into the city in the background, it shrinks as it moves further away. All the objects and critters on the screen are highly polished in appearance. The backgrounds of the levels are especially fine; no effort or colour has been spared in making them.

In terms of interest, UFO sits at the middling level of shoot-'em-ups. Apart from the graphics, this is nothing special.

1990 SyksyTen out of ten for timing. U.N. Squadron, converted from Capcom's coin-op, deals with the wars tearing the Middle East apart - although instead of Muslim Hitler Saddam 'Goddamn' Hussein, they are being stirred up by an arms dealers' cartel's superweapons. Three brave pilots in their different planes go into horizontally scrolling battle and kill in the name of peace, which is probably the most popular reason for war throughout the ages.

It's hard to come up with anything to say about U.N. Squadron. It's a completely normal shoot-'em-up with the usual extra weapons, giant monsters (tanks and planes, actually), playability and sounds. Then again, plus points do trickle in from the extra weapons, which are quick and easy to collect, and from the humane difficulty level.

The ST version is quality work. The screen scrolls in two-layer parallax more nimbly than usual, and generally speaking the graphics and the sound are both pleasant, as is the playability. The bullets do have a tendency to get lost in the background at times, though.

The C-64 version that happened across my eyes was a preview copy containing only the first level. The graphics looked very nice until we got into the game. The sprites were perhaps a little too far on the microscopic side; a few other graphical blunders are obviously down to it being unfinished.

U.N. Squadron is like a bullet fired at close range: it goes in one ear, out the other, and leaves only an empty feeling. We've seen these before, and a well-executed collection of clichés just can't get anyone excited.

1988U.S.A.A.F. is yet another new version of the Second World War air battles over the European theatre. And by no means one of the weakest. SSI has once again done commendable work and produced a realistic simulation of the war's ferocious air battles. The game depicts Germany's efforts as it tries to keep the Allied armadas out of the skies above its industrial centres.

The game is the most typical SSI product imaginable: standard graphics, standard sounds, the well-established menu system, all functions on the keys, a game speed that is by no means especially high (the price of versatility) and the disk drive grinding away every so often. On top of that it contains a few interesting features, such as deciding which aircraft types are built in the factories.

The battles begin in August 1943 and end with the collapse of Germany, so a budding air force commander has enough of a career ahead of him for a few years to come.

Generally speaking, U.S.A.A.F. is a perfect example of a strategy game in which there is nothing bad, but on the other hand nothing especially praiseworthy either. Despite its averageness it manages to hold your interest for a long time: versatility and realism rule the roost, even if there is nothing out of the ordinary. For those interested in air warfare, U.S.A.A.F. is a gift from the heavens.

1991 KevätThe gunboat isn't one of the most common subjects for simulation. I wonder whether that's because pottering about at the other end of a periscope offers more tactical options. In U.S.S John Young this problem shows immediately, because although the effort is a hard one, the result is nothing much to write home about.

In the missions, which you pick from day and night scenarios, you blast ships, oil rigs and submarines to scrap. Since the action is tied to the surface, the approach is thoroughly straightforward too: you charge onto the scene and then it's fire below the belt.

The most interesting part of the armament is the 180 and 420 millimetre guns, with which you can bracket the enemy into your sights. Using torpedoes is also possible, but far too slow in a tight spot. You see, you don't have to hang around in the vicinity for very long before the boat's hull starts to resemble Swiss cheese. To sink even a slightly bigger convoy you have to resort to computer-guided missiles, which in turn are boringly easy to use. Somewhat more interesting fiddling is offered by puncturing submarines with depth charges.

The watered-down action and the scarcity of tactical patterns make the game feel too shallow to be worth immersing yourself in. The radio, navigation, engine room and other menus add no essential elements to the game, at least not to the action part. And even that little includes completely pointless ideas, such as a food gauge, whose steady ticking suggests the crew does nothing but loaf around in the mess wolfing down crispbread. Had they thrown in some forces of nature to toss the boat about and some meaner hi-tech, the result would have been a considerably more interesting product.

1987Although there are more games based on the budo arts than there are budo arts, Martech's brand-new release fills a certain gap. Uchi Mata, you see, is a judo game that captures the intense atmosphere of the tatami in a pretty versatile way. There are throws and trips aplenty, and there are even illegal holds in there, and if you use them the other side takes the win.

Versatility comes at a price. Tossing the opposing pair of pyjamas around is harder than in, say, the Fist games. What counts is a good grip, the right timing and a sequence of moves performed on the joystick. The instructions (soomekeel - that's Finnish - included too) give an example of a couple of throws, from which you can work out the principle. Thank heavens the match options also include a practice mode, and with its help the judo-ing actually starts to come off. "It's the judoka who hits the deck that hollers," as a Japanese philosopher once remarked. Your Japanese vocabulary grows as well, since the name of every successful throw is shown at the bottom of the screen.

The graphics are rather successful. The fighters are big and decently animated, even if at times they bring to mind the last tango of Frankenstein's monsters. The music can be turned off, and the "oof!" & "aaagh" sounds give a real sense of atmosphere. To sum judo up: Uchi Mata is excellent as a two-player game, but I still refuse to understand people who have the enthusiasm to play games like this on their own. A change from karate games, anyway. That is the way of bushido.

1987At last, at last, owners of machines other than the Apple II can collect the complete Ultima tetralogy too. Ultima I isn't just the prologue to the world's best role-playing series - this is history!

Ultima I, like the other Ultimas, is a role-playing game in which the player takes on a new identity inside the machine.

The adventurer can choose from four possible careers: fighter, thief, cleric or wizard. There are likewise four races, but only two sexes.

The goal is to get the head of the evil wizard Mondain adorning the tip of a spear, but before this dream comes true our brave adventurer is forced to trek not only through deep dungeons but also through boundless space.

In familiar Ultima style, our spotless adventurer travels around the map and can visit castles and towns to do some shopping. Compared with the later Ultimas the towns are bare, since each one fits on a single screen. Commands, of which there are rather few, are given by pressing a key. The player can also visit dungeons, which are shown in vector graphics. Deep in the dungeons you'll find not only hefty monsters but also items you need to complete the game.

The graphics are similar to Ultima IV's. Battles are fought on the main map rather than on separate battlefields. The spells are simple classics - Magic Missile and suchlike - so all in all Ultima I is a fairly simple role-playing game.

Even though Ultima I has been given a cosmetic makeover before its release, it's still no new Ultima IV. The size of the game alone tells you that: just one disk side.

But that doesn't make the game any worse. An Ultima is always an Ultima, even if you marinate it in white wine. After all those thousand-and-then-another-thousand-details role-playing games, Ultima's functional simplicity is manna. First Age Of Darkness is no museum piece but a valuable and long-awaited addition to the role-playing world.

1987Somewhere in the labyrinths of Time lurks Minax. The brave adventurer must learn to use the time doors, solve a whole bunch of riddles and even pay a visit to outer space, not to mention killing thousands of monsters, before a visit to the sorceress's castle guarantees the end of Minax's era.

This is the game where the Ultima saga got its start, because unlike Ultima I, which in its day came out only for Apple machines, U2 was available for almost every Yankee computer. And deservedly, number two rose to become a cult game.

The execution is familiar from the other Ultimas. Commands are given from the keyboard (with the mouse on the ST), with nearly every key standing for some command, and a rather drab little graphic moves around the map, this time representing a single man. Dungeons and towers are shown in 3D.

Although time has had a good gnaw at part two, it's still an enjoyable game. The biggest flaw is the huge number of dungeons. Since you can't map them as handily as in III and IV, trudging through them turns into a tedious experience. Luckily you don't have to go into them.

The struggle for existence is tough. Everything costs money and money is tight. Unfortunately fighting is just about the only way to get money, so you have to do a lot of it, and little by little it starts to get on your nerves.

The magic system is a tad simple. The spells are real bread-and-butter basics, and besides, a player with so much money that they can afford to invest it in expensive combat spells has, by that stage, such a hero that the spells hardly need using anyway.

Ultima II has nevertheless kept that Ultima magic on which the tetralogy's sovereign position at the top of the gaming world rests. That's why, despite its shortcomings, Ultima II is still a highly recommended experience. Hello Minax, here's lookin' at you!

1987Ultima III: the game that shook the world! Ultimas I & II had already created a cult of devoted Ultima players, but it took Exodus to make Lord British break through all over the world.

No wonder. To this day the only computer role-playing game that's better than Exodus is (you guessed it, kids!) Ultima IV. After this game, Lord British's demigod status is plain to see.

There's no point saying much about the plot, so as not to spoil the suspense for those who haven't played the game yet.

For the first time in the Ultima saga, Evil is up against more than one hero, four this time. Except in battle, the whole gang is steered as a single figure as they move about Sosaria.

When a battle starts, a separate combat screen loads. The monsters and our boys alike break down into their prime factors and take each other's measure. New to the arsenal are long-range weapons such as slings and bows. You do get fed up with the battles as the game goes on, though, that's how plentiful Sosaria's monster population is.

The spells have become more varied. Wizards and clerics alike get some twenty different spells each. Some are combat spells, some are more of general use. The Euro-Ultima's shortcoming is that the spell manuals are missing, so the only way to find out what the various spells do is by experimenting.

The dungeons are also essential to completing the game. Luckily a magic gem or a suitable spell will bring up a map. It also shows any interesting things there may be on that particular level of the dungeon.

Commands are given the same way as in the other Ultimas, i.e. every key corresponds to a command. With the YELL and OTHER commands you can type in some more exotic command yourself, such as BRIBE.

There are more commands than in II, and there are enough problems to keep the tension from fading. Getting money is no longer the same kind of problem it was in II. You can sell surplus equipment, trips down the dungeons pay off financially, and a clever party might even manage to break into a rich merchant's back room.

Exodus is an extremely well designed and executed experience that is guaranteed to spark a craving to play. This gem ought to be found on every home's software shelf.

1987I stepped through the door. An assorted selection of orcs, demons and other pleasant acquaintances looked up from the corpse they were gnawing. "Time for a quick lunch!" came a cheerful cry. "Chill out, boys!" I exclaimed wittily, and blasted the nearest one with an ice ball spell. "Well spoken, Lord Nirvi," Geoffrey remarked, and went on, "Not yielding an inch - but thirty inches straight through!" and perforated the intruding demon with his sword. Down in the dungeon sauna, a truly horrific bloodbath was had.

Some Monday mornings you wish you lived in a world where you could adventure across land and sea, fight dragons instead of a cash shortage, and where magic meant something more than a rabbit and a silk hat. That wish is hardly going to come true, but a step in that direction is Ultima IV, the latest arrival in the Ultima family. The Ultimas are Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing games in which the actions of the player's computer personification are affected by various attributes, such as strength and intelligence. Ultima IV is as broad as it is deep. Dozens of towns, villages, castles and whatnot to visit. Each with dozens of inhabitants who have names of their own and whom you can, and in fact must, talk to in order to find out what the game is all about. Some are willing to come along, and although you start the game alone, by the end an eight-strong party is required. Naturally, nobody is going to set off on a journey with a thief and a coward. That's right, Ultima IV is a game in which the player's morality plays an important part. The seer Hawkwind, who is worth dropping in on every now and then, tells you about it and how it is developing.

On top of all this there are several deep dungeons, dozens of different spells with different effects, a legion of monster species and an enormous playing area, roughly six times the size of Ultima III's. A score of quests and a hundred adventures guarantee that the need for something to do gets thoroughly satisfied. Already the hand is starting to grope for the sword hilt and the wife to pack provisions for the road!

The execution of the game (or rather, the experience) may shake off a couple of joystick commandos along the way, since to anyone used to present-day super-graphics and mega-animation the sight may look rather austere. On the left side of the screen is a "map", on which the band of warriors appears as a single man in the middle with the terrain around it. On the right side is a text window, plus the names and general condition of the valiant troupe. When a battle breaks out, a combat area is loaded in which the forces - the good, the bad and the ugly alike - scatter into individuals. The towns, where the plucky party gets to buy weapons, food, herbs and other necessities, are also stored separately on the disk. When the three-dimensional dungeons are loaded separately as well, is it any wonder that Ultima IV takes up a whole IV disk sides, or 680 kilobytes? All commands are given from the keyboard, where each key corresponds to one action. For example, A is attack, S is search, and three excellent and two thick manuals tell you the rest. If this sounds "difficult" and "complicated", that is a gross misjudgement. Ultima IV is a game that is easy to get into, hard to get through and impossible to get away from.

1989 SyksyThe scourge of compilations has already managed to ravage the world badly, but now they have started defiling those few sacred values still left in our world: THE ULTIMAS!

Once the mental earthquake has passed, the wreck of a player finds inside the box three floppies, on whose surfaces glowing magic runes reveal that they contain Ultimas I to III. The box also holds a couple of quick-reference guides to the game, a manual into which the instructions for all the Ultimas have been crammed, and three downright titillating maps.

You'd think the Ultimas would be familiar to everyone by now, or at least heard of. The compilation is a superb chance to get your hands on the older Ultimas, which have been hard to find anywhere. Many Ultimaniacs have played through all the others except number one, precisely because it's been so hard to come by. So now: go for it!

Playing Ultima I, you notice that it really is olde. Somehow everything gives off an antique, spartan feel. The sound effects (sparse as they are) can luckily be switched off. But the most important thing, the Ultima magic, is already there. Controlling one single character feels a bit odd after other, multi-character games (Mars Saga), but you get used to it. The lack of a healing option is puzzling, but ways of restoring your character to a more living state do exist.

Ultima II is a little more advanced. The action still takes place with you at the controls of a single character, and it has a lot in common with U 1. It also still holds true that a thief gets to hang on to his money.

U3 is a legend in itself, and there's no need to pour out any more praise for it - plenty of others have already done that better.

If there is an adjective to describe this 'compilation', I'd be keen to hear it too. But dim as I am, I'll have to make do with drooling in front of the package and making sacrifices to Lord British.

For role-players Ultima Trilogy is an essential package: three superb (more or less) RPGs at a low price.

1988We had been wandering in the mountains all day, fighting orcs and other strange creatures. Iolo had been poisoned by a snakebite and night was coming on. The situation was starting to feel desperate, until we spotted a town nearby. For some reason our relief turned to despair when, on entering the town, we noticed a poster promising a reward for our heads (detached, of course)...

Like a traditional role-playing game, the package of the latest Ultima contains plenty of stuff. The box holds four disks, an instruction booklet, a quick reference card, the Book of Lore, a map, an amulet and an excerpt from Lord British's travel journal.

Ultima belongs to that small group of games whose manual really is worth reading before you venture into the game. It's also a good idea to keep the quick reference card close by, in case something happens to slip your mind. Although the game feels difficult and even awkward to play at first, you soon get used to the system. The game's author has clearly tried to make it as user-friendly as possible.

Every new Ultima has always been bigger and more complex than its predecessor, and Ultima V is no disappointment in this respect either. The adventure has eight dungeons, over thirty towns and more than two hundred characters the player can talk to.

As everybody knows, the ruler of Britannia is Lord British. He and a band of his loyal warriors set out to explore the vast network of caves lying beneath Britannia, in other words the Underworld.

While they are exploring these uncharted caves, the band is attacked. Some of the men die and Lord British is captured. In the rightful ruler's absence, Blackthorn, corrupted by the lust for power, has seized control. He rules as a dictator, aided by the horrifying creatures of the Underworld.

You have been summoned back to Britannia to help rescue Lord British. When you set out, there are only three of you. Iolo, Shamino and you.

As in the previous Ultima, the player has to cherish their virtues, since only by acting in a morally right way is there any chance of solving the game. So you mustn't make bashing orcs your life's mission, at least not if you want to rescue Lord British.

The first task at the start of the game is to create your character. An old gypsy woman asks questions that weigh up the player's virtues, i.e. valour, honesty, honour and other such frivolous nonsense. After all, it's orcs we came here to bump off.

Those who have played Ultima IV and want to keep their favourite character have been given the chance to bring this old friend into the game.

The game has well over two hundred characters you can talk to. From every character you can find out at least their name and their job. It's also worth trying to ask about subjects that are somehow connected with the person in question. For example, if you meet a hunter, it's worth trying to talk about hunting and things related to it.

Likewise, the game's characters can ask the player questions. It pays to be honest in your answers, since the aim, after all, is to follow the virtues. It would be best to keep a record of the people you have met and of what they have said. It's worth chatting to the same people more than once.

Since the game is played in real time, you should think about whether there's any point going to see a merchant in the middle of the night. The shop is bound to be closed, and the merchant probably won't like being disturbed.

There are ten characters in the game who can join the party. Some of them may want to come along, others have to be asked. The party can't, however, number more than six people at a time.

Ultima V has a new combat system. The individual characters are given orders in turn until the enemy has been defeated or the party has been wiped out. As in role-playing games, the characters' order stays the same throughout the battle.

In combat it's worth favouring long-range weapons (spear, bow and arrow, spell) if you have any with you. Most of the time you can harm the enemy without putting your own party at any risk at all. Unfortunately, at the start of the game the party has nothing but swords and a few spells, so close combat can't be avoided.

The good side of combat is that once you've beaten an opponent, you get to keep their belongings. You can find gold, food, weapons and so on lying about the battlefield.

Some of the player characters can make use of magic. The player has an eight-circle magic system at their disposal, with 48 spells in it. A spell needs the necessary ingredients, such as garlic and ash. The ingredients can be mixed in advance so that the spell is ready for use straight away. In the heat of battle there's no time to go mixing ingredients.

Although the spells are effective, there are certainly opponents they don't help much against. Opponents can turn invisible, poison you, walk through walls or even possess a member of the party.

1990 SyksyThe first part of the Ultima saga came out as far back as 1980. Since then every instalment of Ultima has been a legend even before its release. Does Ultima VI continue this time-honoured tradition? The plot of Ultima VI picks up where Ultima V ended. Although a little time has rolled by since Lord British and the Avatar (that is, the player) last saw each other.

The seat of evil familiar from Part Five, the Underworld, has collapsed, and evil has taken a new form: the Gargoyles. Nobody knows exactly where these rascals have come from or why they are destroying even whole villages in Britannia. Rumour has it they are after the Avatar in person (to be delivered preferably in one-kilo bags, naturally). Since hardly anyone wants a new pet for themselves, the mission is unusually clear...

For backup, the player starts out with three old pals. Both the player and the other members of the party are real novices at the start, but to everyone's delight U6 also offers the option of using old game characters, in which case some of their attributes carry over.

The party can hold at most eight people, although Britannia has vastly more adventure-hungry folk than that. Usually all the members of the group move together, but the player can also pick solo mode for one of the members, in which case they move only that one while the rest of the group stays put. If the group leader, say, gets paralysed in combat, control always passes to the next one. And if that sounded confusing, that's exactly what it is in the game too, since some commands can only be given in party mode, which muddles things even further.

Another feature that gets in the way of playing is movement. The group members are pretty thoroughly interactive, so they also wander around a lot on their own. This, among other things, is why my first game lasted just under a quarter of an hour - I decided to go and take in the scenery on the coast of Britannia, but apparently I walked too briskly, because after admiring the sea for a moment I noticed I was all alone. I didn't have to suffer the loneliness for long, though, as I soon felt a warm breath on the back of my neck... Funny how those demons tend to get so people-friendly at times!

By far U6's worst blunder is in its playability. Unlike the earlier Ultimas, the sixth one's user interface is built mainly for the mouse. Why? The old system at least had some of that 'handed down from father to son' glow. Oh, the misery, when someone used to keyboard control tries to poke at slightly undersized icons with the mouse. Good thing there's keyboard support too, at least.

To get everything possible out of the PC version of the game, in my opinion you have to own a 386, since the game feels a bit clunky even on a 286 (though there's no point getting too fussy: there's going to be a C-64 conversion of the game too, after all). It would also be advisable to own a VGA display and preferably a music card as well.

Ultima VI's graphics were clearly made for a VGA display in the first place. The programmers' laziness shines through in the EGA version: the colour choices are dreary, the animations jerky and the graphics grainy. In places it's impossible to tell members of your own gang from the enemies, and what the icons mean only becomes clear by trying them out. The VGA graphics, on the other hand, look downright delicious.

Without a sound card, U6's sound on the PC is limited to a few familiar blurts. With the basic sound there's (thank God) no actual background music at all. With a sound card you get to enjoy considerably nicer sounds, including background music that changes every now and then, sparing the nerves of the player and everyone around.

U6's game area has grown significantly compared with its predecessor, although the actual map of Britannia hasn't seen any big changes. The area's mighty size comes from the fact that the towns and the terrain are now on the same scale. The terrain has been given a level of detail that brings more realism to the game (alongside the pretty graphics sections). Sometimes, though, it feels as if the game's 'realism' is tearing the player's nerves to shreds. A small tree can block the way to the other side of a god-awfully huge mountain range.

Ultima's expansion work also shows in the revamped way of communicating. When talking to people you no longer have to guess at keywords; instead they are in a different colour from the rest of the text. This makes playing easier, but on the flip side the conversations are really extensive and rambling. There are so many interactive characters that at times you get downright desperate.

Naturally there have also been additions to the membership of the monster club, and to the spells. The spells are now in plain language, and mixing the ingredients happens automatically.

Although plenty of people will surely think Ultima VI is the Ultima of all time, nothing will change my position: in my opinion the best Ultima is still number five. The reason is mainly the new user interface and the sheer scale of the game. In U5 you at least still felt you had the threads somehow in your hands. In the sixth one they slip away for good. On top of that, my copy of the game at least was a tiny bit buggy.

Despite everything, Ultima is always Ultima!

1991 KevätThe six-hundred-cc Honda roars into the bend with the rider's kneecap grazing the surface of the asphalt. After crunching through a couple of advertising hoardings and drilling a couple of holes in the tunnel walls, the bike is held together by nothing but baling wire and goodwill, but so what: the golden-locked maidens waiting at the finish are already shimmering before the rider's eyes and he can taste the champagne. As you may have guessed, The Ultimate Ride promises furiously fast moments at the handlebars of a motorbike.

They've at least tried to squeeze everything out of the subject. You can choose from six big-cc motorbikes, various race circuits and scenic routes set all around the world, which at their best have terrain resembling a roller coaster. If the ready-made routes aren't enough, you can build more with the help of an editor.

The execution, though, is another matter entirely.

The interlude pictures of the motorbikes are gorgeous, and the wealth of options, right down to meticulous tuning of the handling, promises a lot, but the game doesn't deliver any real riding pleasure. The screen update is unbelievably choppy, even though not much stuff has been crammed onto the screen. With the scenery jerking towards you one frame at a time, the sense of speed is non-existent.

The steering, which is based on leaning the bike, does at least make an attempt at realism, but a proper feel for the controls is out of the question, since in a tight bend your mount ends up ten metres into the bushes in an instant, even though the speed seemed to be thirty kilometres an hour. You can improve the smoothness somewhat by turning all the graphics into silhouettes. The result, however, isn't much of a boost to playability, but mainly the crude graphics becoming even uglier.

The idea would have had the potential for a Test Drive-style bike game, but the finish is shoddy right down to the sound, which is mostly the pathetic putt-putt of a scooter. The game offers little more than guaranteed disappointment.

1988Lef', lef', lef'-two-threee, squaaad HALT, left tuuurn, dress, strategy game fans off to buy UMS, MARCH!

This program has been awaited with bated breath. One moment you could read about it in foreign trade publications, the next its screenshots were adorning MikroBITTI's new software page. At last it's here, and the expectations have not proved to be in vain. UMS really is something new on the strategy game front.

True to its name, the program is really versatile. The ready-made battles included are, admittedly, set on real historical battlefields (Arberla 331 BC - Gettysburg 1863), but with the program's battle editor it is possible to bring before the player the decisive battles of the Second World War as well as a whole host of fantasy or science fiction battles.

Creating your own battle starts with the map. UMS is unusual in that the player views the landscape obliquely from above, as if from a balloon. The terrain is built from a grid, which shows differences in elevation far better than the usual changes of colour. Forest can also be placed on the terrain, and like the elevation it plays its own part in how the battle goes. It's also possible to put the most important place names on the map to make the objective of the battle clearer.

Creating the units is easy too. UMS comes with a set of ready-made unit symbols, from elephants all the way to paratroopers. You can also create units of your own using five user-definable unit types. Each unit can be given a name, strength, symbol, speed, efficiency and, where needed, a range as well, if it's a matter of catapults, fireball-spewing dragons or artillery. Each unit type also has a certain base effectiveness by which its strength is multiplied when the results are calculated. So a single oliphaunt can make a really ugly mess when it charges a hundred-orc-strong unit of light infantry.

The actual battle is created by placing the units on the terrain made earlier. In a historical battle the positions should match the original as closely as possible, but sometimes it's fun to clown around a bit and, say, add a tank to Napoleon's forces at Waterloo...

Of course there's something to criticise in UMS as well. Map creation in particular has been implemented far too simplistically, meaning that making a historically accurate map can take a really long time. On top of that, the lack of lakes and roads can make it hard to lay out some battles. Just think of the battles on the Karelian Isthmus in the Winter War and the Continuation War, where it was precisely the waterways that proved decisive.

A little more work could also have gone into the program's logic, so that, for example, it wouldn't ask for a target for an artillery regiment that has not a single enemy within range. Or so that the program could also assess the outcome of the battle against objectives set in advance and casualty figures (which it does calculate).

All in all, though, UMS is a truly excellent program that can be recommended to all fans of strategy games. More ready-made battles on disk should still be on the way from Rainbird, and if you reckon you've managed to create an exceptionally excellent battle, you can always try pushing it on Rainbird for them to sell on.

1990 KevätThe film The Untouchables is set in 1920s Chicago, in the days of fedoras and Prohibition, when gangsters lugging violin cases around were part of the street scene. The bad guy's role naturally goes to Al Capone, and his arch-enemy is Elliot Ness and the elite squad of detectives he leads.

Ocean's roll of honour has already piled up a hefty heap of successful film licences. The Untouchables continues the formula that proved its worth in Robocop and Batman, meaning the game has many parts, plenty of action and a dash of brain-tinkering for spice. Except that this time the game concentrates purely on the action side and gets whatever's inside the violin case playing.

There are six parts to the game in all. In the first section Ness raids Capone's illegal liquor warehouse, where ten pieces of evidence have to be found. In practice this is done by shooting the key men hopping about on top of packing crates, whom you find by following an arrow that appears at the top of the screen. It isn't easy, since the warehouse is full of trigger-happy folk, the time limit is tight, and the body often slumps down in such a spot that one of the henchmen manages to snatch the evidence. The rest of the game alternates between scrolling sections and Operation Wolf-style shooting sections.

The implementation, on little brother and big sister alike, follows the typical Ocean-style grooves. The background graphics are more functional than aesthetic, but there are some cheering details too, such as a poster advertising Chaplin's "Modern Times". The characters are sharply drawn and well animated; Ness's coat tails, for example, flap amusingly when he drops from a bit of a height. The difficulty level is a matter of taste, but it could have been reined in a little, since even the first part felt overwhelming when merciless slogging rarely got you even a 50 percent result. In this respect the Amiga version earns bouquets, since progress is considerably easier.

There isn't much to knock in this Ocean film licence either. A slight hardening into formula is clearly already looming, but for now at least you still get enough for your money.

1987Once again the solar system has become the object of hostile aliens' interest. The 15 most mineral-rich planets in the galaxy are under siege by the enemy's super-dreadnought-class battleships. Suitable minerals are being harvested from the planets' cores to power the battleships' reactors.

The Manta-class space fighter you pilot is beamed to each endangered planet in turn. Your mission is to destroy the enemy's hold on this part of our galaxy.

First you have to succeed in destroying the fighters that defend the battleships, which attack in waves, as well as the gun emplacements on the battleships' decks. Once you have rendered the enemy ship harmless, you still have to land on the ship's runway and remove as many mineral rods as possible from its reactors before the ship explodes into the void.

The game's graphics are excellent, and so are the sound effects. Controlling your ship feels a little difficult at first, but practice makes perfect.