THREE 3D-CONSTRUCTION KIT GAMES
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      Ghost Ship, New Stubb City and Operation Meteor
                     On SynTax Disk 834

                Reviewed by:  Phil Richmond

"GHOST SHIP" is written by Paul Timson who also created the music,
gfx, sfx, scenario and game design.  It was constructed using
Incentive's 3D Construction Kit.  One dark, stormy night the
cruise ship Y.T.S reports strange craft flying overhead and hours
later all crew and passengers disappear! You are sent in on a solo
mission to find out what's happened and locate the hidden 'red
box' which contains the information. Once found, HQ will send a
dingy for you.

The game starts with you swimming in the sea and you need to head
for a rope which, once climbed, will deposit you on deck. Once on
board you can begin to explore, taking care not to fall overboard,
and investigate the numerous rooms and cabins, where you will need
to locate and collect various objects and use them to solve
puzzles eg: operating devices, opening locked doors and activating
machinery.  You interact with the game via an on-screen panel at
the base of the screen which contains direction arrows, a message
bar and score/life indicators. You use the mouse to fire/pick
up/use and activate objects.  It's also possible to look up/down,
stand/crouch, and turn left/right, forward/backward.

Now I am not a particular fan of these type of games, having seen
one or two of them before, but I reckon I completed about half of
the quest before I gave up - so I didn't get to meet the alien
that was hiding somewhere on the ship.

Out of the three games, this was the one I enjoyed the most.  I
was quite impressed with the interface and the inventive puzzles.
There is a save game facility.

"NEW STUBB CITY" was written in 1992 by a New Yorker.  It was
written using Domark's Virtual Reality Studio.  Very similar to
the system used on the above game and with similar game controls.
In this one you play the role of Beorge Gush, a drug enforcement
agent. Your mission is to wipe out and rid New Stubb City of the
evil Crack Babies which are costing money and filling up the inner
city hospitals. The babies appear as white 'triangles' on screen
and come in various sizes.  Search high and low and around corners
and blast the critters!  Again, you use the mouse and on-screen
panel to move around.  You start off on the outskirts of a mean
and menacing high rise city which is nicely presented on screen.
(Well, as nice as you can get considering the chunky 'blocky'
graphics which are a feature of these games)

A quick practice ZAP! on a Crack Baby and then you're off in
earnest wending your way down the mean and moody streets of this
sprawling metropolis, entering doorways and hunting for the
varmints! There's lots of them to dispose of too.  And what's more
- some of the little rascals can move around, making it a tad more
difficult to hit the blighters.  Of its type, this again, is one
of the best I've come across.


"OPERATION METEOR" has no accompanying documentation so you are
left to guess at the object of the game. It appears to revolve
around collecting a certain amount of 'keys' which you will need
to get into buildings/rooms. This game uses the 'Freescape' design
system and runs a bit slower than the other two. The graphics
panel and presentation are not as good either.

You have to explore a house, garden and outbuildings surrounded by
a walled enclosure and presumably have to find a device of some
sort to prevent a comet crashing to Earth.  There is a time limit
for completing the game.

 Remarks
 -------
It's easy to access the doc files and run the programs as the disk
autoboots and has a front end devised by Terry Brawls.  Virtual
Reality? Erm.. not exactly.  DOOM? No way.

The graphics are created with squares, rectangles, triangles and
polygons so they tend to look a bit 'blocky', plain and not very
detailed. I played the games on an A1200 and I would imagine
moving around may be a bit slower on an A500+ or an A600.  Still,
they are typical and quite good examples of what can be achieved
with the 3D Kit.

If you have never played a 3D Kit game and are curious about them,
then it could be worth your while examining this set of three or
checking out some of the other 3D Kit games in the SynTax Library.











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