| Electranoid Pixel Painters, 1994 | |||||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||||
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Electranoid is like an enhanced version of Arkanoid. There are one-hit, multi-hit and unbreakable bricks, and the usual assortment of power-ups, such as being able to catch the ball, split the ball in three, or fire lasers, as well as missiles which can destroy an entire column of bricks. What makes Electranoid unique is that there are two kinds of enemies that dramatically alter the gameplay. Menacers come in six varieties, and release balls of their own. Those balls each have a different effect, such as making the paddle hard to see, turning regular bricks into multi-hit bricks, or turning them into bricks that can only be destroyed with the ball from a red Menacer. You can keep Menacer balls in play, but if you drop your regular ball, you lose a life. There are also four kinds of Destroyers, who release balls that will destroy your paddle. There are 100 levels in the registered version.
I have found no ordering information for this game.
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| Fuzzy's World of Miniature Space Golf Pixel Painters, 1995 | |||||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||||
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Fuzzy's is a miniature golf game with beautiful graphics, a lively soundtrack, and whimsically creative holes. Many holes are broken into two or three stages. Instead of trying to see how low a score you can achieve, your goal is to actually complete the course! The scoring system is cumulative: each hole has a par, which is the number of strokes you get to complete the hole, and any remaining strokes are carried over to the next hole. It's fair to reward the player for being under par, but one problem with this approach is that it penalizes bad play on any hole. If you have a bad start, you may not be able to recover. When you run out of strokes, the game ends. You can't save your game, and there are no level codes. It's quite possible to carry 10 extra strokes throughout the first 9 holes, so the par in later holes starts to becomes unreasonable. For instance, Hole 14 is a two-stage par 5 but, with conservative play, the minimum number of strokes required to complete the hole is 7, and it's unreasonable to expect anyone to complete the hole in less than 8 to 10 strokes. The shareware version is a sample of the holes in the registered version (1=1, 2=5, 3=9, 4=11, 5=14, 6=15), but that doesn't leave time to carry enough bonus strokes into the back nine. Having played hundreds of rounds, I am confident that, with perfect play, it's impossible to get past Hole 6 in the shareware version. There are 18 holes in this game, with an unknown number playable in the shareware version. Fuzzy's World of Miniature Space Golf v1.00s Shareware (2030k) I have found no ordering information for this game.
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| Xatax Pixel Painters, 1994 | |||||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||||
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A sidescrolling shooter with power-ups, in the tradition of R-Type. It's the 23rd Century, and alien invaders called Xatax are consuming entire worlds, and mutating themselves as they do. Basically, destroy everything and avoiding getting hit by anything. Destroyed enemies sometimes leave power-ups that upgrade your weapon, add missiles to your ship, or add a pod that follows you and adds to your firepower. You lose an upgrade when you get hit, and if you're already fully downgraded, you die. Buildings and enemies have a great three-dimensional look to them, and the soundtrack is decent, if monotonous. "One hit kill" games can be frustrating and depend heavily on level memorization, but there are three difficulty levels to make it easier on beginning players. There are 3 episodes in this game, with only the first episode playable in the shareware version. Episode 1: Defending the Guilds Xatax v1.00s Shareware Episode (738k) I have found no ordering information for this game.
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