Before I joined BAUG, I knew very little about PD. Most of the programs I'd seen had sounds rivaling a dying calf in a hail storm, and graphics that would make my old Apple IIe look like a god. But along came two titles which would forever modify my cranium. The first of which is a devious little piece of insanity called "POING".

POING is an ARKANOID/BREAKOUT type clone with an attitude. Created by Paul Van Der Walk, at first glance it appears as your standard "break the little blocks with the ball-Oh How Cute!" game. However, instead of a paddle on the bottom of the screen breaking the blocks at the top, it plays a "squash" type of play. The paddle is on the left breaking the blocks on the right. So instead of wearing out my mouse going side to side (like I did when I became addicted to ARKANOID), I can now ruin it by frantically going up and down. Now here is where POING really takes a left turn. The object is not so much to break out all the blocks (although it helps), but to hit the "back" wall of the screen ten times, each time weakening it a bit. On the tenth hit the wall disintegrates allowing the player to proceed to the next nerve tingling/hair pulling level of doom. Upon missing a ball with you do not lose a life, oh no, missing a ball sends you back to the previous level where you can scramble like a madman to catch it as it moves faster than the speed of sound. If you miss it you go down again, and again, and again; faster, and faster, and faster and THEN you die. Catching the ball gets you back in the game at the level you saved it, losing it starts you back at level one with tears in your eyes. At this point your blood pressure hits four digit numbers.

Unlike ARKANOID, where each level was the same every time you played, in POING each level is a different randomly selected screen. So what was level 43 one time could be level 2 another. POING is also loaded with "toys". Getting the "S" block will slow the ball and the "B" throws in another ball in the same way as ARKANOID. But in addition are some unusual ones. "Y" will send the ball traveling back and forth on the Y axis until it hits your paddle. "T" is trace mode, which lets the computer take over playing for 10 seconds or so. This gives you time to rest your hand or try to catch one of the several meals you just played through. The nastiest one of all is the dreaded "G". This makes the ball stop behaving normally and makes it act like a "rubber ball"."G" pills are more frequent in the higher levels and usually result in me jumping up and down on my mouse in frustration, only to come right back for more. The music is very simple, but quite entertaining, sounding something like Buddy Rich on a drum machine after too much black coffee. All in all POING is a good game if you like doing nothing else for weeks on end.

The only way I could shake the "POING on my back" was to get addicted to another slave master of a game. Only this time, I took someone with me. The dreaded game is DELUXE PACMAN.

My girlfriend and I have always had different views on computer games. Where I could play for hours on end, she was more happy finding ways to get me to shut it off and, preferably, heave the computer out the window. I would say,"But Karen, you'll like this game. try it." Her reply to this was usually something like, "Shut that thing off and heave it out the window." Well, to make a long story short (too late) I finally got her to sit down and try DELUXE PACMAN. Now we actually fight over who gets to be player one. We are hooked big time, and to be honest, it's quite frightening. I never thought I'd hear her say anything like "So how do I boot this thing up?" I may have to get her her own AMIGA.

Anyway, DELUXE PACMAN (DP), is as you may have guessed, a beefed up version of the classic, pacman. DP looks and sounds just as good if not better than the original arcade version. Gameplay is fast and the intro tune is creative. Created by Edgar M. Vigdal of Norway(who by the way has some very creative spelling of words in english), DP is one of the best arcade games ever created. There are 20 progressively harder levels, some of which are played at blinding speed. 3 levels of play make it great for any skill level. As with POING, the "toys" really make this game. There is glue which slows the ghosts to a crawl so you can devour them easier. Dynamite which self destructs all the ghosts and gives BIG points for it. A "SPEEDY-PAC" mode which moves pacman at speeds which defy logic. There is even a gun to chase the ghosts with and blow them away. Grabbing an "extra" will take pacman to a bonus level where he tries to clear it all for REAL BIG points. All this combined means hours of eyes bloodshot from staring at the screen, callused fingers, and me suddenly pricing new joysticks.

Both DELUXE PACMAN and POING are great arcade action. The funniest part is, I now own about 30 commercial software titles which for the last 3 months or so have become experts at sitting on the shelf gathering dust. While I wind away the hours playing PD games that I picked up for the price of a floppy. Both these games are also on AMIGA WORLD'S top ten PD games of '92. If you have a busy social life or a job that demands long hours, I strongly suggest not picking up these games. My hands are starting to tremble just thinking about them, looks like another long night ahead of me. Just one more time...God help me...just one more time...

Dr. Torgo