Masterroids v0.9- by David Seldon

Are you a classic arcade game addict? Do you crave the simple shoot 'em ups of days gone by? If you want that simple minded violence with a touch of slick modern graphics and sound effects then Masterroids is for you. This shareware game takes Asteroids to new heights by spicing up the "asteroids", bad guys and little extras with sharp 256 colour graphics (gif 10.7k), great animations and first class sound effects.

Installing Masterroids is as simple as most shareware. You can simply unzip the program and run (it uses the EMX.DLL runtime library but this file is included in the .ZIP file) or, if you like, use the included install utility to create a desktop object. No changes are made to system files and uninstallation is a simple matter of deleting all the files in the directory. The documentation that comes with the game (in ascii text format) is thorough and clearly explains how to set up and play the game.

There's More

And it's not just a one player game anymore. Masterroids allows up to 4 players simultaneously so you can really gang up on those poor defenseless asteroids, and not so defenseless aliens. For all you deathmatch freaks, shooting other players' ships won't destroy them, so you won't find satisfaction here. You can bounce other players' ships by shooting them though and carefully placed fire could result in a collision between your target and an asteroid so there is some hope for the sadistically inclined.

The entire game is extremely configurable, even if some options are a little on the technical side. The keys used to control the ships are user selectable, as are ship colours, special abilities (hyperspace, shield, extra speed), difficulty and various settings like shooting range, thrust, and speed. If you have problems or want to tweak your system's performance you can also get dirty with sound, multimedia and priority settings.

As I said, the graphics are outstanding. The "asteroids" are actually different globe shaped objects on each level [level 2 (gif 1.7k), level 3 (jpg 1.7k), level 4 (gif 2.3k), level 5 (jpg 1.7k)] and new bad guys (jpg 1k) and surprise "extras" (gif .6k) appear as well. The sounds are very good but you could probably argue that they're not quite as good as the ones in Roids by Leonard Guy. The explosion animations alone make this game slick looking though. Very nice!

The Downside

The game isn't all good though. Some users will notice a significant loading time when sounds are turned on. Likewise, when the game ends it can take a long time to release control completely and purge itself from memory. In the author's own words, "MASTERROIDS loads up to 3 MB data, so your computer should have a minimum of 8 MB RAM," and he recommends that, "you have no other programs running in the background." Obviously this isn't the kind of game you would want to run on a 4 meg machine. Although the game is being distributed as shareware and registrations are being accepted the official version number is still 0.9 so it's safe to assume the author intends to address some of these problems.

Not necessarily a drawback but worth mentioning is the author's interesting way of annoying shareware defrauders. The unregistered version has the usual nag screen and limitations of game play (it only goes to level 5 and you can't pick up all "extras" or save your changes to the configuration) but there is an extra twist. The opening and closing nag screens have seven check boxes and an OK button in the shape of a clock face that must all be clicked before the dialogs will disappear. This means everyone will be reminded that this is shareware every time he or she opens and closes the program.

So How Is It?

This game is fun but how can any version of Asteroids not be fun? The animation is smooth even on a 486 and there's enough challenge available to keep most people interested. The superb graphics and sound effects add the touches of professionalism that make this game a keeper. Despite its ancient origin, for the low registration price of US$20 Masterroids is a winner.
* Masterroids v0.9 (zip 907k)
Author: Roman Komary
Registration: US$20
David Seldon is a part time language teacher and part time student. When he's not travelling or playing games he enjoys surfing and skiing.

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