-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PCM Online August 1995 - BBSCON Edition FIRST THINGS Contents: [] The Issue at Hand: Editor's Notes -- Sound the Trumpets! [] README: The 100 Most Popular Games in the World --PCM Online carries Jojo Productions' hot list! Entire contents copyright 1995 by Falsoft, Inc. PCM -- The Premier Personal Computer Magazine -- is intended for the private use and pleasure of its subscribers, and reproduction by any means is prohibited. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The Issue at Hand \|/ by Lauren Willoughby ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Blab about Windows 95's debut this month, and more blab " SOUND THE TRUMPETS! The much-heralded debut of Windows 95 is scheduled for August 24th. Thanks to Falsoft's beta-testing, I'm already running the final release version (Build 950r-6, if you wanna get technical). Pretty cool -- and compatible with my Windows 3.1 programs. The only thing I've found I can't run so far is Xplora 1: Peter Gabriel's Secret World (an artsy multimedia CD-ROM program with music videos). Older Windows 3.1 programs look sharp in Windows 95, and they even inherit some of the new interface features -- little improvements, things like more responsive mouse/menu action. When you click to pull down a menu and move your mouse down the list, the highlight moves with you. And if you move your mouse left or right to adjacent menu options, those menus pop down immediately, not requiring a second click. We've also received a beta of Microsoft Office 7.0. Since I've only had a few hours to play with it, I can't report much yet, but I like some of the new features in Word 7.0. There's a highlighter button up there next to the bold/italic/underline buttons -- yes, you can highlight words or whole paragraphs, just as you did with markers in college! The default "marker" is yellow, but you can choose other colors too. This is better than changing font colors, because you may just want to draw attention to words onscreen, not on the printout. I'm a color- code freak, and I love it. Word 7.0 has gotten more intelligent about helping you correct spelling and grammar errors. The program's resident "English teacher," ever-vigilant, watches everything as you type it. If you type a word that's not in the dictionaries, it marks the word with a wavy red line. It catches instances of double capitals (changing "THe" automatically into "The") and also corrects common typos (like "teh") on the fly. >>[ This Month's VISA Statement ]<< Not content to let the plastic cool off, I did it again: I found some great prices on computer stuff and did what comes naturally -- charged it! (If only my family would understand that I'm *saving* money here. ) I want to tell you about my bargains. Here's what I bought: the 1280MB, 10ms Western Digital IDE hard drive (Model WDAC31200N); and a Creative Labs multimedia upgrade kit featuring a Sound Blaster 16, double-speed CD-ROM drive, and a bunch of cool graphics programs. I *really* needed the hard-disk space, because I've been FTP-ing software like crazy over the Internet, and it's been months since my poor 340MB hard drive had more than 10MB of free space. I got my new drive from Drive Outlet Center ("DOC") of Mundelein, Illinois. It cost $314 -- that was the absolute lowest price I could find on that drive at the time (mid-July). Fedex two-day shipping cost $16. I try to keep up with prices, and Drive Outlet Center consistently seems to have the best. (For quotes, call 800-610-1616, or fax 708-970-9003. Nope, they're not paying me, in case you're wondering.). I may have to call them again soon. I've developed a burning yearning for a VESA Enhanced IDE I/O board (with two 16550 serial ports, high-speed parallel ports, some caching -- oh, my!). I bought the multimedia upgrade kit in early May. In fact, I was shopping for Mother's Day presents at the mall when I spied the box displayed enticingly on a shelf at Babbage's. From across the way, and through a stand of potted trees, the price tag of $199 shone like a beacon. The rest is history. $199 is not a bad price for a Sound Blaster 16 (heck, I paid $159 for just an 8-bit Pro board three years ago), a double-speed CD-ROM drive, and lite versions of graphics programs that list in the high triple-digits (Altamira Composer, Kai's Power Tools, PhotoStyler). Yeah, Babbage's is blowing out the double-speed kits to make way for the quad-speeds, but this is still a great bargain. (Though I had a hard time explaining it to my mother, who said, "You bought yourself $200 worth of computer thingeys, and all I got were two lousy cassette tapes?!" ) Ed Ellers, PCM's Technical Editor, nice guy that he is, offered to install my drive for me. (I've never FDISKed -- it's a phobia thing.) Little did he know about the sound card and the CD-ROM drive, but when I arrived with an armful of shopping bags, he resigned himself to the inevitable. Since Ed knows his way around jumpers and interrupts (while I trip over them), it was a piece of cake for him to get everything working fantastically. He even installed Windows 95 for me -- along with Warp! (Thanks, Ed!) >>[ Operating System Shuffle ]<< More conservative computer users pulled me aside and yelled, "You're crazy! You wanna put Windows 95 and Warp on the *same drive?* You're asking for trouble!" But I've proved them wrong so far. Ha-ha! Take that! I have not just Windows 95 but OS/2 Warp running on my system from Drive C, thanks to V Communications' System Commander utility (and Ed, who did the installation for me when I got squeamish). When the computer boots I pick my operating system of choice from the menu, and System Commander takes care of whatever needs to be done with the master boot record, partition tables and configuration files. System Commander can boot up to 100 operating systems this way! Right now I'm pretty happy with Windows 95, DOS 6.22 and OS/2 Warp -- but I'm casting lustful eyes upon Linux. What the heck; I can afford the disk space (for now). I don't want to give away too much about System Commander, since Jim Yearwood is covering it in his "Been There, Done That" column this month. But I have to say I haven't experienced anything horrible or fatal. If I was asking for trouble, trouble decided to pass on by. I can't wait to see what all the fuss is about OS/2. >>[ A Visit From the Graphics "Cover Boy" ]<< We had a visitor early this month (July). Maurice Hamoy, the Communications VP from Inset Systems, came to demo a beta of HiJaak 95. (If you've seen the HiJaak Graphics Suite box, you've seen Hamoy; that's his face image-edited into various "looks.") HiJaak 95 is a Windows 95 version of Inset's popular image viewer/conversion utility. It does something really, really neat -- it hooks into the guts of the Windows 95 system, making it easier than ever to look at your graphics. Let's talk a little Windows 95 background. When you're in Explorer -- a sort of souped-up File Manager, you see program icons next to files to help you visually identify files by type. For example, a Word document file has a little picture of the Word icon next to it. A .PCX file, or any other graphics file recognized by Windows Paintbrush, has a picture of the Windows Paintbrush icon next to it. HiJaak goes Windows 95 one better with graphics files: it doesn't show you little icons of a program that can merely *load* the picture, it *shows you the picture itself* -- in thumbnail form. And HiJaak 95 recognizes more than 70 image file formats! Now you won't have to guess which picture is "hiding" behind a filename -- you'll know at a glance. People who deal with lots of images will *love* this. HiJaak 95 also lets you catalog and search for files by typed descriptions -- and find images by embedded text. Did you know CorelDRAW! .CDR files contain embedded, descriptive keywords? We didn't, until Hamoy told us. (Wonder if Corel knows? We couldn't find mention of it in the manuals. ) This makes HiJaak 95 a spiffy companion for CorelDRAW! HiJaak 95 will even catalog images on other media, such as backup floppies or Photo CDs. If you right-click a thumbnail to load a Photo CD image, the program will prompt you to insert that disc. Remember I said HiJaak 95 "hooks into the guts of the Windows 95 system"? Well, what this means is that HiJaak 95 becomes part of every Windows 95 program -- you can view, image-edit or print images from every program's Open and Save As dialog boxes. You don't need to go looking for a HiJaak "group" or "folder," because none is needed. HiJaak embeds itself into the system -- it becomes part of Windows 95. Microsoft left hooks that allows programmers to integrate their utilities into Windows 95. HiJaak 95 is the first program we've encountered that takes advantage of these hooks, but we can hardly wait to see the kinds of things that will show up. Imagine what an embedded Norton Desktop will look like! -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- README ~~~~~~ THE 100 MOST POPULAR GAMES IN THE WORLD PCM Online is proud to be an authorized distributor of Jojo Productions' Net PC Games Top 100 list, a chart that gauges the popularity of PC games. Anyone who can send e-mail can vote, which has enabled the Top 100 list to become a great way to measure the worldwide success of games both commercial and shareware. The Top 100 list comes to us from a generous guy in the Netherlands. We're not sure in exactly which section of PCM Online to put the Top 100 list, so for right now, we'll put it here. Below is an edited version of the latest list, from July 31. (The editing involved is to make the information fit within our self-imposed 73-character line length.) But the list is compiled weekly, so you may want to look for the latest version on the Internet. It's updated every Monday in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games newsgroup. You can also catch the list on Jojo's Web page -- http://www.xs4all.nl/~jojo. The best way to get the Top 100 List is, simply, to VOTE! When you vote, the full list is sent to you automatically as an e-mail message! Plus, if you vote, you'll add to the pool of voters, making the list more accurate. Here's how to vote. Compose an e-mail message listing up to five games. You have up to 20 points to allocate among the games, but you cannot give more than five points to a single game. The message should take the format of , like this: 5 Dark Invader [1435] 4 Mysterious Forces 2 [1322] 5 Super Fighter [1502] 2 Magic of Zuul 4 [] 4 The Lost Tycoon [] Then send your message to jojo@xs4all.nl. (That's JOJO@NX4ALL.NL) Note that you have to look at a list first to find the ID numbers for a game. If you're voting on a game so new it hasn't earned a Top100 ID number yet, just include empty brackets. If you want more info on voting, send an e-mail message to jojo@xs4all.nl with the text "send doc" in the Subject line (NOT the body of the message). And now, the list! -=*=- THE INTERNET PC GAMES CHARTS This week the votes from 773 people have been used to compile this chart. The charts are checked out weekly by most game developers and publishers. Let them know what games you like and start voting for this list now! Send your votes to jojo@xs4all.nl and you'll get the next chart sent to you personally. You can ask for the document that tells how to vote. Just | send a message with subject line 'send doc' and you'll know all about it. And with subject line I mean SUBJECT LINE, not the body of the message! The format for every line with a vote is: points title [ ID ]. YOU MUST INCLUDE THE ID NUMBER, and between brackets! It is NOT optional. You can allocate a maximum of 20 points, BUT NOT MORE THAN 5 FOR ONE GAME. An example can be found at the bottom of this list. LOOK AT IT FIRST! These charts are published on the Internet with a delay of one week. If you send your votes, you will receive the charts one week earlier. [Editor's Note: we've posted the new "Download Top 40" list over in the Software Shopper section. It contains shareware, freeware and demo versions.] The following Top 100 contains the best full-price PC games in the world. The list includes commercial retail games and registered shareware games. Vote for a game in this chart if you think other people should buy it too. ======================================================================== Commercial Top 100 Edition 135 - Week 31 - July 31, 1995 ======================================================================== TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) Cat ID Points ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 ( 1) 31 Descent {R} Parallax/Interplay AC [1565] 477 2 ( 4)^135 Civilization MicroProse ST [1002] 389 3 ( 2) 42 Doom 2: Hell on Earth Id/GT/Virgin AC [1502] 371 4 ( 6)^ 41 Galactic Civ. (+Shipyards) {O} Stardock ST [1508] 371 5 ( 3) 23 Dark Forces {C} LucasArts/Virgin AC [1585] 327 6 ( 5) 36 Warcraft: Orcs and Humans Blizz.Interplay ST [1528] 324 7 ( 7) 12 Terminal Velocity {R} Ter. Real./3D Realms AC [1616] 256 8 ( 8) 42 Master of Magic SimTex/MicroProse ST [1501] 257 9 ( 11)^ 95 Master of Orion SimTex/MicroProse ST [1344] 238 10 ( 10) 17 X-COM 2: Terror f.t. Deep Myth./MicroProse ST [1600] 226 11 ( 9) 15 Jagged Alliance {C} Sir-Tech/Mindscape ST [1605] 199 12 ( 15)^ 35 Panzer General SSI/Mindscape ST [1522] 204 13 ( 12) 13 Full Throttle {C} LucasArts AD [1612] 183 14 ( 14) 54 Tie Fighter (+add-on) LucasArts/Virgin AC [1473] 185 15 ( 13) 67 U.F.O.: Enemy Unknown (+X-Com) Myth./Micr. ST [1437] 174 16 ( 16) 33 Wing Commander 3 {C} Origin AC [1562] 168 17 ( 18)^ 85 Doom (+Ultimate Doom) {R} Id AC [1386] 145 18 ( 17) 31 Heretic {R} Raven/Id AC [1566] 133 19 ( 22)^134 Dune 2: Building of a Dyn. Westwood/Virgin ST [1110] 131 20 ( 20) 8 Stars! {R} Star Crossed ST [1629] 111 21 ( 24)^ 81 SimCity 2000 Maxis/Mindscape ST [1399] 126 22 ( 19) 31 Rise of the Triad: Dark War {R} Apogee AC [1564] 93 23 ( 27)^ 33 Magic Carpet (+add-on) {C} Bullfrog/EA AC [1549] 113 24 ( 36)* 4 STAR TREK TNG: A Final Unity {C}Spectrum H. AD [1641] 143 25 ( 21) 37 Transport Tycoon MicroProse ST [1521] 87 26 ( 23) 36 Nascar Racing Papyrus/Virgin SP [1529] 93 27 ( 25) 10 Virtual Pool {R} {C} Celeris/Interplay SP [1620] 98 28 ( 26) 132 VGA Planets {R} Tim Wisseman ST [1131] 100 29 ( 28) 71 Myst {W} {C} Cyan/Broderbund/Elec. Arts AD [1426] 95 30 ( 30) 43 Colonization MicroProse ST [1496] 97 31 ( 31) 41 One Must Fall: 2097 {R} Epic AC [1505] 88 32 ( 32) 134 Star Control 2: Ur-Quan Masters Accolade AC [1116] 90 33 ( 29) 31 Little Big Adventure (+Relent.) Adeline/EA AD [1538] 73 34 ( 34) 40 Wacky Wheels {R} Beavis/Apogee AC [1509] 62 35 ( 39)^ 15 NBA Live 95 {C} Hitmen/Electronic Arts SP [1602] 70 36 ( 37)^ 18 Bioforge {C} Origin/Electronic Arts AD [1599] 63 37 ( 35) 22 World at War: Stalingrad Atom./Avalon Hill ST [1584] 56 38 ( 33) 9 Psycho Pinball Codemasters AC [1621] 46 39 ( 41)^ 44 System Shock Look.Glass/Origin/Elec. Arts RP [1438] 65 40 ( 42)^ 91 Epic Pinball (+Silverball) {R} Epic AC [1359] 67 41 ( 40) 37 Under a Killing Moon {C} Access/US Gold AD [1517] 59 42 ( 44)^ 16 Monty Python's Waste of Time {C} 7th Level AC [1588] 69 43 ( 43) 34 Roids {R} {O} Leonard Guy AC [1531] 65 44 ( 38) 23 Mortal Kombat 2 {C} Midway/Acclaim AC [1582] 36 45 ( 47)^ 32 U.S. Navy Fighters {C} Electronic Arts SI [1543] 59 46 ( 46) 59 The Settlers (+Serf City) Blue Byte/SSI ST [1458] 56 47 ( 52)^108 Betrayal at Krondor Dynamix/Sierra RP [1275] 68 48 ( 48) 77 Pinball Fantasies Dig. Illus./21st Century AC [1416] 54 49 ( 45) 43 NHL Hockey '95 Electronic Arts SP [1493] 42 50 ( 50) 45 World at War: Op. Crusader Atomic/Avalon H. ST [1489] 50 51 ( 57)^108 Syndicate (+add-on) Bullfrog/Elec. Arts AC [1271] 62 52 ( 49) 8 Flight Unlimited Looking Glass SI [1632] 45 53 ( 51) 103 Warlords 2 SSG ST [1284] 48 54 ( 55)^126 X-Wing (+Imperial P.,B-Wing) L.Arts/US Gold AC [1169] 52 55 ( 56)^ 84 Sam & Max Hit the Road LucasArts/US Gold AD [1379] 52 56 ( 66)^ 5 FX Fighter {C} Argonaut/GTE AC [1639] 61 57 ( 63)^ 11 SimTower Handbook/Maxis ST [1617] 55 58 ( 54) 11 1830: Railroads & Robber Barons Sim./Ava. ST [1614] 39 59 ( 60)^ 69 Raptor: Call of the Shadows {R} Cyg./Apogee AC [1434] 49 60 ( 59) 6 The Perfect General 2 QQP ST [1626] 47 61 ( 53) 17 Discworld: The Problem with Dragons Psygn. AD [1596] 30 62 ( 62) 82 Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers Sierra AD [1377] 45 63 ( 64)^ 86 IndyCar Racing Papyrus/Virgin SP [1375] 48 64 ( 68)^135 Links 386 Pro (+add-ons) Access/US Gold SP [1006] 49 65 ( 61) 133 Railroad Tycoon MicroProse ST [1121] 36 66 ( 58) 52 Jazz Jackrabbit {R} Epic AC [1479] 28 67 ( 65) 125 Empire Deluxe (+add-ons) New World ST [1177] 38 68 ( 73)^ 3 Hi-Octane {C} Bullfrog/Electronic Arts AC [1643] 45 69 ( 69) 116 7th Guest {C} Trilobyte/Virgin PU [1230] 32 70 ( 67) 133 World Circuit (+F1 Grand Prix) MicroProse SP [1123] 26 71 ( 77)^ 5 Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo {C} Gametek AC [1628] 38 72 ( 80)^132 Ultima Underworld 2 Look.Glass/Origin/EA RP [1127] 41 73 ( 71) 70 Ultima 8: Pagan Origin/Electronic Arts RP [1401] 25 74 ( 82)^ 2 Space Quest 6: The Spinal Front. {C} Sierra AD [1684] 36 75 ( 79)^ 27 Video Poker {R} {O} IBM EWS ST [1571] 32 76 ( 70) 11 Ravenloft 2: Stone Prophet {C} DreamF./SSI RP [1606] 21 77 ( 87)^ 2 Buried in Time {C} Sanctuary Woods/US Gold AD [1687] 38 78 ( 76) 34 Boppin' {R} Accursed Toys/Apogee PU [1526] 22 79 ( 84)^ 86 Slicks 'n' Slide {R} Timo Kauppinen SP [1352] 28 80 ( 78) 96 Privateer (+Righteous Fire) Origin/EA [1337] 19 81 ( 83)^ 5 Slipstream 5000 {C} Gremlin/US Gold AC [1638] 24 82 ( 74) 47 1942 Pacific Air War MicroProse SI [1460] 14 83 ( 75) 6 Frontier: First Encounters Fron./Gametek ST [1624] 15 84 ( 85)^ 2 SuperKarts {C} Virgin AC [1685] 25 85 ( 81) 11 Championship Manager '93 Domark SP [1592] 17 86 ( 89)^135 Darklands MicroProse RP [1008] 24 87 ( 72) 5 Mordor {R} {W} MakeItSo RP [1634] 6 88 ( 88) 18 Pizza Tycoon {C} MicroProse ST [1594] 19 89 ( 86) 26 Cyberia {C} Xatrix/Interplay AC [1574] 14 90 ( 92)^ 14 Woodruff and the Schnibble {W} {C} Sierra AD [1603] 18 91 ( 95)^ 86 Rebel Assault {C} LucasArts/US Gold AC [1374] 19 92 ( 93)^ 68 Battle Isle 2 (+add-on) Blue Byte/Accolade ST [1439] 16 93 ( 90) 27 Aladdin Disney/Virgin AC [1578] 13 94 ( -)^ 27 Trickle Down {O} Multigrain ST [1563] 25 95 ( 99)^ 46 Lode Runner: The Legend Returns Sierra AC [1487] 17 96 ( 91) 6 3D Cyber Puck {R} Ticsoft AC [1633] 10 97 ( -)^ 1 Micro Machines 2 {C} Superson./Codemasters AC [1686] 17 98 ( 94) 7 Daedalus Encounter {C} Mechadeus/Virgin AD [1609] 10 99 ( 96) 9 Jewels of the Oracle {C} Eloi/Discis AD [1615] 10 100 ( -)^ 49 Theme Park Bullfrog/Electronic Arts ST [1459] 18 Dropped Out: ( 97) 47 Xquest {F} Atomjack AC [1482] ( 98) 12 Robot Battle {R} Brad Schick AC [1608] (100) 32 The Incredible Machine 2 Sierra PU [1537] The following games have not yet received enough points to enter the Top 100: ======================================================================== New Contestants (Runners Up) Edition 135 - Week 31 - July 31, 1995 ======================================================================== NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) Cat ID ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tip 1 5 Tony LaRussa Baseball 3 Storm./Electronic Arts SP [1642] Tip 2 9 Many Faces of Go Ishi ST [1630] Tip 3 2 Savage Warriors {C} Atreid/Mindscape AC [1690] Tip 4 10 Johnny Mnemonic {C} CineActive/Sony AD [1627] Tip 5 4 Simon the Sorcerer 2 AdventureSoft AD [1679] Tip 6 1 MechWarrior 2: The Clans {C} Activision AC [1697] Tip 7 8 Lords of Midnight: The Citadel Maelstrom/Domark RP [1635] Tip 8 4 PowerHouse {W} {C} Impressions ST [1678] Tip 9 1 Prisoner of Ice {C} Infogrames/Philips AD [1698] Tip 10 6 Confirmed Kill SI [1640] Tip 11 3 International Tennis Open Infogrames SP [1688] Tip 12 1 Dungeon Master 2 FTL/Interplay RP [1699] The Internet PC Games Charts WWW site has 'officially' opened its doors to all voters and readers. It gives you the Commercial Top 100 and the Download Top 40 in all their glory. In 2.5 years the Internet Charts have grown to be the most popular international games charts on earth. They are compiled by hundreds of voters all around the world. The charts are copied in dozens of BBS-es, magazines and newspapers, and many, many messages with praise and support have been received from game developers and publishers. Check out http://www.xs4all.nl/~jojo and see what it has in store for you: [] A very good looking graphical version of the latest charts, every week. [] An new voting form that makes it very easy to vote for favourite games. [] Free games to win each week, supplied by twenty developers and publishers. [] A list of all authorized distributors of the charts, all around the world. [] All editions of the charts from previous years in zipped files. [] The history file, with statistics for all games that ever hit the charts. [] The document that tells how to vote and how the charts are compiled. [] And a small picture of me, to convince even the most cynical. ;) Now, go on... have a look. ======================================================================== | TW : This Week | The Internet PC Games Charts are compiled using | | LW : Last Week | votes sent by gamers from all over the world. | | NW : No. of Weeks | The latest charts are published every Monday on | | - : New Entry | Usenet in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.* newsgroups.| | ^ : Climbing |--------------------------------------------------| | * : Bullet | If you send your votes, do it like this: | | AC : Action | > 5 Dark Invader [1435] | | AD : Adventure | > 4 Mysterious Forces 2 [1322] | | PU : Puzzle | > 5 Super Fighter [1502] | | RP : Role-Playing | > 2 Magic of Zuul 4 [] | | SI : Simulation | > 4 The Lost Tycoon [] | | SP : Sports |--------------------------------------------------| | ST : Strategy | (c) 1995 all rights reserved | Jojo Productions | | {F}: Freeware Ver.| The Internet PC Games Charts | Balderikstraat 16 | | {D}: Demo Version | are published for the gaming | 3032 HC Rotterdam | | {S}: Shareware Ver| community. Distribution of | The Netherlands | | {R}: Registered V.| these charts is granted only | jojo@xs4all.nl | | {C}: CD-ROM Only | by written permission. | | | {W}: Windows Only |--------------------------------------------------| | {O}: OS/2 Only | On the WorldWideWeb: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jojo | ======================================================================== -=------------=- T-H-E E-N-D F-O-R N-O-W -=------------=-