Roids v2.3- by Matt Ion

In The Beginning. . .

Back in the Neogamix Era of home computing (around 1982), my brother bought one of the hottest new things in home entertainment: the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. In what was to become a computing tradition, it came with some bundled software to get the neophyte user started. . . including what may be one of the greatest video games ever coded: Asteroids.

The years since have begat many variations of this popular purveyor of mindless violence (what's so violent about blowing up a buncha rocks, anyway?) including this offering from Leonard Guy and Hungry Man Productions.

A New Twist On An Old Favorite

Roids v2.3 (gif 4.2k) for OS/2 adds a few new twists to the classic shoot-em-up, not the least of which is the use of OS/2's multimedia extensions for sound effects (try piping your sound card into a subwoofer, then ramming your ship into a Roid!) that leave the old Atari whimpering in your little TV speaker. Explosions are far more spectacular, especially when your ship is smashed into so many bits of debris.

The movement of the game is also different. Rather than fly your ship around a static screen, the ship stays centered while space itself whizzes by. This adds the challenge of never knowing exactly what's coming along your flight path. Well, almost never--there is a useful little radar scope, showing the "universe" and its inhabitants. . . and your place in it.

Better Computers = Better Bad Guys

In addition to the namesake obstacles, there are now Tetra, triangular yellow space-mine-like entities that float merrily around, growing until they split, amoeba-like, into four baby Tetra. Eventually, they'll multiply to the point where, as the author puts it, they, "slow your screaming Pentium system to a crawl!" They don't attack and on their own are fairly harmless, but as we all know, running into a solid object of any kind in outer space tends to have disastrous effects on one's vessel.

As the levels of play increase, new bad guys join the fray. First come the Bulbs, little blue octagons that will intelligently track and envelope one's ship, rendering engines and shields inoperable. While that may not seem so bad, keep in mind that this leaves the ship virtually indefensible against speeding Roids and meandering Tetra. To quote again from the online help, "The only way to dislodge a Bulb is by A) dying or B) blasting your way out with your cannon. I recommend the latter."

Finally are the Snipes, insidious, hard-to-kill little fiends that will fire large bursts of projectiles without provocation (although provocation does little to help matters). To plagiarize one more bit from the online help: "Snipes are extremely trigger-happy and have been known to shoot at each other, setting up a crossfire usually seen only in L. A." It's times like this you really start to appreciate the guy who thought of shields for spaceships.

All This, And Control Too!

Fortunately, this is one variation that has a sense of fair play: your ship's shields never seem to wear out. If you really wanted, you could just activate them and bounce (and boy, does this puppy bounce!) around the universe, destroying everything you bump into. . . but then you'd miss the cool cannon sounds. The ship, like everything else, obeys the laws of physics: once you're moving, you keep moving until you either run into something, or hit the cheat key that stops the ship cold (get out those G-suits, boys and girls, we're talking major deceleration!).

All the controls, the use of sound, the detail of the display, the level of play, and the overall speed of the game are fully user-customizable. There doesn't appear to be joystick support in this version, but again, it can be configured to use whatever keys are comfortable (I prefer the regular cursor keys for movement, the spacebar for a fire button).

Remember, There Ain't No 10s

Obviously, nobody's perfect. So what's the downside here?

My biggest gripe is probably the jerkiness of the sound, but that's more the fault of MMPM and lame sound-card drivers than of the game itself.

As for a wishlist (unlikely, as the author has informed me that 2.3 will be the final release for 'Roids, other than bugfix updates), some sort of rockin' Buck Rogers background music would be neat, but not necessary. Joystick support seems to be the only thing missing, although since I don't have a joystick, I can't say for sure.

It's been suggested to me that some form of 3-D graphics would be cool, but personally, I think it would add too much baggage and get a little too far away from the original. As it is, the game can be run fullscreen, or in a resizeable PM window.

Okay, How Much Machine Does It Take?

Any system that runs OS/2 should do it. My current setup is a 486sx33 with 16MB RAM, ATi Mach8 (8514/a) video, and 8-bit mono SoundBlaster 2.0, but I've played it on a 386sx25 with 8MB RAM and a non-accelerated Trident TVGA8900 video card (it's hurtin' with sound enabled, but if you can stand blasting things in silence, it's quite comfortable).

Roids is "nagware"--a "Register me!" reminder pops up every time you start the program, but no features are disabled. Registration, which entitles you to all future updates, is US$10.

I'm told a registered version is also included with IBM's Family FunPak as well as Stardock's OS/2 Essentials, under the name Havoc, but as I don't have either myself, I'll have to take it on faith that it is indeed there.

Gentlemen, The Envelope Please. . .

Overall, since there ain't no tens, I'd have to give Roids a 9.5. Hey, what can I say, Asteroids has always been one of my favorites, and this is probably the best remake I've ever played. Okay, it's a bit biased, but don't take my word for it. Click the link below and try it out for yourself!
Roids v2.3
Author: Leonard Guy
Registration: US$ 10
Matt Ion is a Vancouver, BC-based freelance OS/2 consultant, sysop of Canada's largest all-music BBS, wannabe writer, full-time Mr. Mom, and general all-around modem geek.

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