Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 257

Game report: Cute creatures are hot, space battles are not By Bruce Chadwick hat's this? Perched high on the video-computer-game bestseller list are a leaping frog, a medium-rare hamburger and second shoot-'em-ups," said Arthur Schill, editor of Video Game All Stars, a national newsletter about video and computer games. "They want something longer. Video manufacturers realized that by shifting to strategy games, they could dramatically increase their market." The game designers themselves enjoy bigger challenges, ana many preter strategy-aaventure to snooi-em- Ol -Cx cO ups. The destruction games are too easy to said Richard Levine, oMmagic, who rOA aesignea Microsurgeon; a meaicai' game, and Truckin', a colorful game an energetic miner named Bounty Bob. Whatever happened to the mayhem and violence of Space Invaders and Asteroids and all those other destructive games that kids loved and parents hated? There is Zap! Pow! an amazing shift going on in the billion-dollar video-computer-games market.

The blow-'em-up games, which captured such a large share of the market last year, are on the way out; and strategy-oriented, nonviolent games with cute characters and snappy music are Beep, beep on the way in. The popular nonviolent games include: Burgertime Intellivision, a giddy game in which tiny throw pepper at nasties and, when they immobilize enough of them, get around to making hamburgers. It sounds silly, but it's enthralling. which players race over U.S. highways carrying cargo.

"Part of the reason you see so many strategy games is that the designers enjoy making them." One big new factor in the shift, according to Mark Blank, vice president of Infocom, which creates the detective and adventure-text stories, is the desire on the part of the players to participate. "The secret dream of everyone is be a real, live character in a story," Blank said. "You're not much of a character if you just hold down a button and DTogger Li arker Bros. a game -V in wnicn a little trog, trying to una a home, leaps between cars and onto mow up tnings. nut as in our text lily pads and logs in a river.

Miner 2049er Tigervision, "one energetic Frogger ts just one of the charmers now popular with game 20-hour story, and if, by what you do, you change the game or win or lose it, then you've really found something different." Some software companies never produced shoot-'em-ups in the first place and are proud of it. Ken Strottman, vice president of Mattel, said: "Ever sirlce we started selling video games; sports has been 50 percent of our business. Now strategy games make up a good percentage because they, like sports, call for thinking and planning. We just never saw violence as a good idea or one that could of the hottest new games around, which features Bounty Bob racing through mine shafts to pick up tools. 1 Pitfall Activision, a delightful adventure game in which Pitfall Harry swings on vines, races over pits and leaps over crocodiles in his quest for pots of gold and silver.

Deadline Infocom, a top-selling computer game, which has no graphics at all but offers a tantalizing detective venture in novel form, in which the players get to solve the mystery. In addition, Atari and ColecoVision are having great success with race-car games. Broderbund's Choplifter is a game utilizing a defensive helicopter to rescue people; Epyx's King Arthur Heir is a scrolling adventure hunt, and Sierra On Line's Curse of Cranston Manor is a graphically brilliant murder mystery. Parker Bros, has a whole new line of video and computer games of which the ago," said Tandy Trower, director of marketing for Microsoft "The technology permits more complications. A shoot-'em-up is really nothing more than a one-dimensional shooting gallery." The market is changing, too.

Bill Hogue, president of Big Five Software, one of the makers of the snazzy Miner 2049er, sees more women using video games. "They don't want to blow up spaceships, ''t he said. "They want something unusual, something visually pleasing. They buy strategy games." Others believe the expansion of the video-game market into different age groups has helped push violent games toward the back of the rack. "Adults are not interested in playing 30- majority are nonviolent QBert, Popeye, Risk, Chess; "What we're seeing is really a natural shift," said Bruce Cummings, an official of Softsel, which monitors more than 3,000 games.

"The first games were violent because that kind of game is the easiest to make and provides the most action. This second wave of games is adventure-and strategy-orientea because some people tire quickly of and others want games that make them think." 1 There are other reasons. "I think the technology of computers and video games has improved dramatically, and now the strategy kind of game is far more visually exciting than a year Editor Schill said parent-teacher groups opposed to violent video games are very receptive to strategy games. "They see them as entertaining ways to make kids think and learn," he said. "They realize kids won't give up their video games; so they promote nonviolent games.

It seems towork New York Daily Nwj Game reviews: Checking out Bert and Pole Position By Steve Stecklow ven if you've never set foot in a video arcade, no doubt you've heard of Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkev Kong. But while those only hop on a diagonal, and each time he lands on a cube, the color changes. When he has landed at least once on every cube, he moves on to the next pyramid. The challenge is to avoid a series of assailants, including colorful balls, a snake and other baddies, while trying not to jump off the pyramid accidentally. As each new pyramid appears, play becomes increasingly difficult.

The game speeds up and QBert faces new challenges, such as jumping on each cube twice. Points are collected along the way. The Intellivision version is remarkably similar to the arcade version in terms of graphics, difficulty and sound effects. There are nine game levels, and one or. two people can play.

Moreover, the hand-' controller disc, which generally hinders play in maze games, works terrifically well in QBert. It's not often easy to isolate exactly what makes a video game great. Generally, the best test is how long it takes before it is relegated to the closet. QBert, a very clever and incredibly ad-. dictive game, should provide entertain-' -ment for a long time.

ing lap that must be completed to earn a chance at the Grand Prix. And the graphics are quite colorful although, as usual, not nearly as impressive as the arcade version. The object in both rounds is to finish the race in the shortest possible time. There are other cars on the course although they look 'more like boxes and the player must learn to switch between high and low gears to avoid crashes. Fortunately.

crashes are never fatal, but they do tend, to slow you down. In many ways, the game is similar to Activision's Enduro, a top-selling game also for the Atari 2600. The main differ- ence is that Enduro is an endurance race that lasts a long time, while Pole Position is a race against the clock. No matter how good you are, the game never takes longer than a few minutes. Atari also plans to release Pole Position for the Atari 5200, and a version I saw looked great.

But if you own the 2600 and Sou enjoy racing games, this Pole Posi-on isn't bad. Knight-Ridder Newspapers In my mind, it's the best game that has come out for Intellivision in years. Q'BERT Parker for Atari 2600, $35. No matter how much the technology improves, Atari 2600 games will never match those for Intellivision or ColecoVision. QBert is a case in point.

The basics of the game are all here. But the pyramids are smaller, the graphics much less sharp, only one person can play and the joystick is difficult to maneuver. In addition, there are only five game levels and each one has four rounds. Though the game is fun to play and should provide much enjoyment to the younger set, perfectionists who frequent arcades are Tbound to be disappointed, especially when they get a. look at the Intellivision version.

POLE POSITION Atari, for Atari 2600, $29.95. This is a racing game with realism that has made it extremely popular in the arcades. The Atari 2600 version certainly pares favorably with the arcade version. Like the arcade game, there a qualify may be the biggest household words when it comes to video games, there are several other games that, despite not having received as much publicity, are still considered classics. Two of the most popular arcade titles are QBert and Pole Position.

Both are now available in home versions, and one of them Bert-could become a home classic. Q'BERT Parker for Intellivision, $35, At first glance, this game bears at least three key similarities to Pac-Man namely, a cute hero, colorful enemies that constantly pursue him and two escape hatches. But QBert hardly can be placed in the same class as the multitude of Pac-Man clones. The object here is to hop QBert along a simulated three-dimensional pyramid that is made up of cubes. The figure can "CHICA.GQ TIBUN Ats.

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