Get set... Here goes...From Albany, NY comes a new Sound Blaster magazine! //======= //======// // // //=====// // // // // // // // // // // // // // // \\ // // // // // // \\ //======// // // // // \\ //=====\\ //=====// // // \\ // \\ // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // \\ // // // // // // // // \\/ // =======// //=======// // // //======\\ // \\ // ______________________ \\ // \Volume 1- Revision 4/ \\ // ~~~~\March 1993/~~~~ \\ // ~~~~~~~~~~ \\ // _____________________________ \\ // _______/Sound Blaster HeadQuarters...\______ \\ // /THE source for SoundBlaster News and Reviews\ \\ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \\/ Table of Contents: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Topic: Page: ~~~~~~ ~~~~~ Welcome to SBHQ! 1 (Introduction) Commercial SB Game Reviews 3 (Ultima VII, King's Quest VI, Ultima Underworld II, Space Quest V) Additional Feature: CD-ROM Game Review 7 (Monkey Island for CD-ROM) Shareware/PD SB Game Reviews 9 (Wolfenstein 3-D, Ken's Labyrinth) Shareware/PD SB Utility Reviews 11 (MODEdit v3.01, Visual Player v1.0, WOWII v1.31, SB Studio v1.10) MOD Corner 15 (Discussion of the latest MODs and MOD programs...) SBHQ BBS List, March 1993 19 (List of BBSs with good Sound Blaster support) What's ahead? 20 (The future of SBHQ...) Credits 22 (Who did what for SBHQ #1) The Survey 23 (What d'ya think?) ________________ Info about SBHQ| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SBHQ Volume 1, Revision 4 March/April 1993 SBHQ hails from Albany, NY Co-written by John Townsend and Ken Krouner Edited by John Townsend Next issue should come out in mid-April... I hope to have someone else help with getting new hardware news... I hope to have a review on the SB 16, as well as the latest commercial and shareware game reviews, another column of the "MOD" Corner, and a much bigger SB BBS list.... Read on and enjoy! -John Townsend, editor (1) Welcome to Sound Blaster HeadQuarters! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi to all you Sound Blaster users out there, and welcome to the first issue of SBHQ, the "Sound Blaster HeadQuarters"... SBHQ isdevoted to anything pertaining to the Sound Blaster/SB Pro/SB 16/etc. cards.I'll use this space to talk about the reasons for starting SBHQ... I'm writing this intro on Sunday, March 7th... I had just logged off of a local BBS, and downloaded a few back issues of Sound Blaster Digest. If you're not familiar with the Sound Blaster Digest, it's a very well done monthly Sound Blaster "electronic magazine"... I noticed that the most recent issue I had was dated around March or so 1992... I wondered if maybe the new issues simply hadn't come around to this area yet, or if something happened to cause the people who made SB Digest to stop... Either way, I thought that it would be interesting and fun to put out a SB magazine like that myself... I don't know what the public reaction will be to SBHQ, but if people like it enough, I'll continue to work on it, either monthly or bi-monthly, depending on how much new material I get... In this first issue, I've divided the information into various sections... (2) I have sections for reviews of both Commercial and Non-Commercial software, discussion of MOD files (Anyone who owns a Sound Blaster card should check out MOD files if you haven't already... I am an insane MOD collector, and MODs are no doubt the best music you can get out of your SB/SB Pro), a BBS list, and a discussion about the future of SBHQ... This is a first issue, so it's just a "test run"... I'm sure that provided I get a positive response to SBHQ, we'll be able to make improvements with every issue... I would greatly appreciate if you would distribute SBHQ to your local BBS's, and even non-local ones, if you call them... I want SBHQ to be available all across the country, and to be read by as many people as possible... :> Hopefully, this will be successful... Note to Shareware authors: If any programmers out there make good Sound Blaster supported games or SB utilities, and would like them to be reviewed in SBHQ, send them to the following address: John Townsend 45 West Erie Street Albany, NY 12208-2426 Thanks for your support! Commercial Game Reviews (3) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, let's jump right into reviewing some commercial games... Ultima VII- The Black Gate, by Origin In Ultima VII, the latest of the popular Ultima series of RPG's by Richard Garriot (aka Lord British), is a truly magnificent game with beautiful 3-D 256-color VGA graphics, and wonderfully realistic sound effects... But of course, an RPG must be more than just graphics and sound, and this is where Ultima VII shines above most computer role-playing games... A role-playing game is not simply any game with a fantasy setting, based on "D&D"-type rules and strategical battles... Ultima VII captures the essence of what a ROLE-PLAYING game was meant to be... There are HUNDREDS of characters to meet, each with amazingly (for a computer game) well-developed personalities. Ultima VII truly draws you into the quest, with a mysterious plot that is the most fascinating of every game I've ever played... The graphics are absolutely stunning, and the Sound Blaster music is excellently done, creating a great atmosphere (No SB Pro stereo though :<)... 386/VGA/2 MB RAM (21 meg approx HD space... Plays smoothly on 386-33 mhz w/ 4 MB RAM) Graphics: A Music: A- Challenge: A+ Lasting Interest: A+ Overall: A (4) King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow by Sierra On-Line The King's Quest series is no doubt THE most popular of the "3-D animated adventure game" series... Although there are many other excellent games of this nature equally deserving of this praise out there, King's Quest most certainly has a right to its success... Designed (as the others were) by Roberta Williams, King's Quest VI is a beautiful addition to this monumental series... Sierra again shows off beautiful artwork, although as with their other games, the animation is less than perfect... The story behind KQ6 is as follows: Prince Alexander, seeking his love Cassima, sails to the land of the Green Isles. He finds, however, that with the death of the King and Queen, the land is now administrated by an evil Vizier, Abdul Alhazred who plans on marrying Cassima... In exploring the isles, Alexander encounters many challenges, which should provide a good challenge for all gamers out there... King's Quest VI has to be one of my favorite games of its type... The background graphics more than make up for Sierra's usual mediocre animation... The music is absolutely excellent, with beautiful love ballads, ominous tunes, and majestic, adventurous themes... The opening cartoon (full digitized speech) is truly magnificent... 286/VGA/EGA/640K RAM/20meg HD space Graphics: A Music: A Challenge: B+ Lasting Interest: B Overall: A- (5) Ultima Underworld II, by Origin/Looking Glass Designs For those unfamiliar with the Ultima Underworld games by Origin, they are revolutionary RPG's utilizing an impressive "virtual reality" graphics system... The view is 3-D, and the smooth motion truly makes it seem like you're "really there", in 256-color VGA... The musical score, as well, is excellent... Although, once again, no SB Pro stereo, the songs are still quite impressive... In UU II, you again take on the role of the Avatar, who is attending a celebration at Lord British's castle... Suddenly a huge blackrock gem surrounds the castle, trapping some of Britannia's most prominent citizens inside... You, the Avatar, must travel through different dimensions to discover just how to free yourself and your companions from this prison... Ultima Underworld II features a system improved over that of the original Underworld, with a larger view window and much better digitized monster graphics... This game should keep players interested for a long time, and the virtual reality graphics are truly a breakthrough for anyone who hasn't experienced these kind of graphics before... 386/VGA/2 MB RAM (approximately 15 meg HD space... runs smoothly at full detail on 386-33 w/ 4 MB RAM) Graphics: A- Music: A Challenge: A+ Lasting Interest: B+ Overall: A- Space Quest V: Roger Wilco in the Next Mutation (6) This also is a 3D adventure game by Sierra On-Line. In this game you are Roger Wilco (wacky space guy). You are trying to save the universe from pukoids, an evil mutation created race. For those who haven't played any of the SQ games Roger was a janitor who always dreamed of being a captain of a ship. Well in SQ5 you are a cadet and thanks to a mouse messing up the computer you get a perfect score on your SAT's and are made a captain. Cast of Main Characters: Roger Wilco: You (the hero) Captain Raemes T. Quirk: you're commander (bad guy) Ambassador: Beatrice (girlfriend) Ratings: Graphics: A+. Perfect and painstaking. Music/Sound: A. Nice realistic music and sound. Lasting Interest: A-. Very fun and funny. Not bored after 2 weeks. Challenge: C+. Easy to beat but hard to acquire all the points. Overall: B+. Wonderful addition to the series. by Ken Krouner (7) CD-ROM Review: The Secret of Monkey Island The Secret of Monkey Island by Lucasfilm is a 3D adventure game that takes place in the time of Pirates in the Caribbean. You are Guybrush Threepwood, who is trying to become a pirate. You start out on a cliffside and need to go into the nearby town and talk to other pirates and they will help on your quest. After you achieve piratehood you need to aquire a ship and crew and rescue the Governor. Cast of Main Characters: Guybrush Theepwood: You (good guy) Governor Marley: Elaine (girlfriend) LeChuck: Ghost Pirate (bad guy) Ratings: Graphics: B. This game has very good graphics but there wasn't much improvement for the CD-ROM. Music and Sound: A+. This game has great Calipso and Reggae Music. Sound (8) card creates great sound effects. Challenge: C. This game isn't very challenging but is fun and funny. Lasting Intrest: A-. Now I'm not bored of this game and I've beaten it 22 times and I still love it. The only thing keeping it from an A or A+ is you just keep beating it and beating it. Overall: B+. Averaging all other ratings gives me an accurate rating. Review By: Ken Krouner Shareware/PD Game Reviews (9) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wolfenstein 3-D, by Apogee/Id Software Wolfenstein 3-D is one of the premier shareware games out today... It features smooth-scrolling 256-color VGA graphics, SB supported music, and digitized sound effects... Wolfenstein consists of 10 levels. You, as the character of William "B.J." Blazkowicz must fight your way through each of these levels, to reach the boss at the end of the 9th level (Level "10" is a secret level)... The graphics are reminiscent of the Ultima Underworld games, although of course the detail level is somewhat less (and therefore the scrolling rate is somewhat better)... The music is quite catchy, and does a good job of setting the mood of the game... The digitized sound effects as well are nice... The guards shout and you, the dogs bark, you hear the fire of the guns, etc. All in all, a superior shareware game... 286/VGA/640K RAM, runs beautifully on my 386 w/4 MB RAM... (approximately 1 meg HD space... episode 1 is Shareware, however episodes 2-6 must be bought... $30 for episodes 1-3, $25 for 4-6, $50 for 1-6...) Graphics: B+, Music/Sound: B+, Lasting Interest: B, Overall: B+ Value for money: A- (10) Ken's Labyrinth, by Ken Silverman I have only seen this game on one BBS locally, so I don't know how well distributed it is, but it definitely deserves recognition... Another of the "virtual reality" games (a la Wolfenstein 3-D and Ultima Underworld II), the graphics equal, if not surpass Wolfenstein, and although the scrolling is somewhat slower, it is still very smooth... The music is excellent, with a different song for every level, and all of them are really great... There are wonderful digitized sound effects like the opening of doors (very realistic sounding)... You can collect various weapons varying from regular fireballs to energy balls that ricochet off walls... The best thing about the graphics is that the scenery is very diverse, so it doesn't get dull and repetitive... Also, the price of this game ($10 for 10 more levels, $20 for 20 more levels) is VERY reasonable... VGA/1 MB RAM (author recommends 386 for a playable speed, but the game supports 286's and PC/XT's as well.) (700k-1 meg HD space, runs very smoothly on my 386-33/4 MB RAM...) Graphics: A-, Music/Sound: A, Lasting Interest: B for demo version (only 5 levels), probably A for full game), Overall: A Value for money: A (11) Shareware/PD SB Utilities Review: MODEdit v3.01, by Norman Lin MODEdit v3.01 is the latest version of probably the most well known MOD editor... It has an interface dramatically different from the previous versions, which might be confusing at first... However, it looks to be an improvement over the previous interface... Also, MODEdit v3.01 features real-time recording from the keyboard... Unfortunately, I can't accurately review this feature until I register the program... MODEdit is designed to be easy enough to learn and use so someone with no previous experience could pick it up and write a MOD of good quality... Everyone with a Sound Blaster should pick up this utility... Even if you're not already into mods, you wlll be after seeing the quality of songs that this program can produce... Ease of use: 8/10 Usefulness: 9/10 Overall: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 (At $15, this is one of the best deals out there!) (12) Visual Player v1.0 **INCLUDED W/ THIS ISSUE OF SBHQ!** Visual Player 1.0 is one of the best-quality MOD players out there, and it's even more impressive considering its size of under 50k... Visual Player has a nice VGA graphics display, consisting of separate oscilloscopes for each of the four channels, volume bars for each channel, and a nice spectrum analyzer. VP 1.0 supports many output devices, including the SB and SB Pro (stereo!)... It also supports various kinds of home-made DAC's... Sampling rates go up to 22000 hz w/ the SB and SB Pro, resulting in top-quality sound... Summary of Visual Player v1.0 (MOD Player) - 22000 hz max sampling rate - SB support, SB Pro stereo support - VGA graphics display - 4 separate oscilloscopes, volume bars, realtime spectrum analyzer - Pattern count - Channel muting, skip forward/ahead in song Rating: A-, registration $35 (13) WOWII v1.31 by Jan Ole Suhr The MOD player WOWII is my personal favorite... It's the best MOD player I've ever seen, and I have a lot of them. :> Featuring a nondocumented VGA video mode, 320x240 256-color, this has some of the best VGA graphics I've seen in a MOD player... It has many excellent features, which I'll go over in a second... WOWII can play through a SB or SB Pro (stereo!)... It has a time display, pattern info, sample info, volume bars, separate oscilloscopes and a spectrum analyzer... WOWII is about 200k total, but 160 or so of that is the graphic file, and it compresses to about 50-60k... Sampling rates up to 23000 hz... Summary of WOWII v1.31 (MOD player) - 23000 hz - SB, stereo for SB Pro - 320x240 256-color VGA display - 4 separate oscilloscopes, volume bars, spectrum analyzer - Pattern count, sample info - Channel muting, rewind/fast forward Rating: A, registration $20 (14) Sound Blaster Studio v1.10 by Hennig Hellstrom This graphics of this MOD Editor/Player are the absolute best... It has a unique oscilloscope unlike anything I've ever seen before... It's like it comes out at you... All this is in 256-color VGA... It also is very configurable, allowing you to edit many features of the program, including color, sampling rate (up to 22000 hz), etc... It is the only MOD Editor I know of that supports SB Pro (stereo!)... It also supports SB and the Gravis Ultrasound... You can record/edit your own samples too, and it has many sample editing features similar to those of VOC editors like Blaster Master. Unfortunately, the unregistered version of this excellent program is very limited (It shuts itself down after every 15 minutes, and you can't save anything), and the registration price, although not unreasonable for a well done piece of software like this, is a bit on the expensive side at $65... While there are not as many features as MODEdit v3.01, SB Studio is far more visually pleasing, and there's more sample recording options... It's a matter of personal preference... (I don't rate graphics of utilities, but the visuals of SBstudio are great!) Ease of use: 8/10, Usefulness (demo version) 5/10 (of course, the full version will be much better), Overall: 8/10, Value for money: 8/10 (15) The MOD Corner :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to the MOD Corner... In this first issue I'll spend the following two pages discussing what a MOD is, how to hear these things for yourself (although I already reviewed a few MOD utilities above), and talk about some of my favorite mods... 1) What's a MOD? Although I imagine a great many SB/SB Pro users out there have heard of or played mods, there are probably some people out there who haven't, so, I'll start explaining... A MOD is a digitized music file, which USUALLY originates from an Amiga computer... It consists of up to 31 digitized instruments, which can be played back at various pitches, creating a truly awesome music file... With a SB Pro and the right software, these come out in stereo... 2) Where can I get mods? Mods should be available on many local BBS's, and if you've never looked (16) before, check the BBS you've downloaded SBHQ from, because most likely it carries mods too... 3) I have a MOD! How do I play it? To play mods you need a MOD player program... There are a great many of these out there... The most popular one is TrakBlaster v2.0, but my favorites are WOWII and Sound Blaster Studio, although they might be hard to come by... I also have included one of my featured MOD players, VP 1.0 with this issue of SBHQ... If you decide to register VP, please send a copy of SBHQ to the authors... 4) Wow! Mods are awesome! Can I make one? Of course you can! And it's easier than you think... You don't need to know a lot about computers, computer music, musical theory, programming, or really anything at all to create a MOD... Just get your hands on a popular MOD Editor... MODEdit v3.01 comes to mind, and you should be able to find it rather easily... Check out the BBS list coming later in this issue, or write me... (17) 5) Being the MOD expert you obviously are :), what are some of your personal favorite MOD's? There are definitely a lot of them out there, but the my favorites of the ones I've seen are the following: BEY.MOD (Beyond Music), SPACE.MOD (Space Debris), RESNANC2.MOD (Resonance II) BOESEN.MOD (Boesendorfer pss), BLINYZ.MOD (Blinyzq51), ASPHYXIA.MOD (Asphyxiated), MOONGATE.MOD (Temp), MYSTERY.MOD (Mystery), KLISJE.MOD (Klisje Paa Klisje), RAINYNT.MOD (Rainy Night), PHANTASM.MOD (Phantasmagoria) BLUPRINT.MOD (Blueprint), KINGBORN.MOD (A King is Born), IMAGWOMN.MOD (Imaginary Woman), DAISYCHN.MOD (Daisy Chain), 12WAR.MOD (12th Warrior), LABYRINT.MOD (Labyrinth_sfx), DEMONS.MOD (Demons Soundtrack) If you want one of these, just let me know... Send me a disk and I'll send it back to you filled with MODs... If you happen to have a MOD and you're thinking "This MOD is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than any of those...", I'd really love it if you could send it to me... Your generosity will NOT go unrewarded... If you want any of the above Shareware games/utilities just leave me a note, or if you want me to search my MOD collection and find some (18) for you, just say... I'm interested in hearing about any other insane MOD collectors out there... I have 290 or so of them, totalling about 35 megs... As you can see, I'm addicted to mods... 6) Closing out this month's MOD Corner Well, this part was easy for me to write... Stay tuned to future issues for more of the MOD Corner... A few notes to close out on... If you're an aspiring MOD composer, or a MOD utility programmer, I'd absolutely love to see your new work... If you send me a copy of your new song or new player/editor, I'll be sure to repay you... I'll do what I can, which includes the following: 1) Uploading it on SB BBS's everywhere :> 2) Giving it a mention here in SBHQ... 3) If it's a utility, I'll review it... If it's good, that should enhance your reputation... :> Registered version appreciated... :> 4) Sending you MOD's or MOD utilities of my own... #'s 2 and 3 might not seem like much now, but I hope to get many readers to SBHQ, and the more you distribute it, the more the info gets around... (19) SBHQ BBS List: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The SBHQ BBS list won't be too big this issue :>, but if you read this, and run a BBS that carries SB files, just send me a letter, and I'll put YOU in here! :) So long as you promise to carry and distribute SBHQ... :) You'll have unlimited fame and fortune... :) (518) 783-1742 Channel 62 BBS, many MOD files and MOD utilities! (518) 583-9291 Other Worlds BBS, CD-ROMs full of SB stuff! (518) 756-7695 Dynamic Actuality, Amiga BBS with great MODfiles! (518) 766-5074 Amiga Central, 200+ excellent mods! (518) 446-9335 Galactic Euphoria BBS, Amiga board w/ excellent MOD files! (518) 346-1427 Dragon's Lair, CD-ROMs full of SB stuff! (203) 646-3058 The Music Channel, one of the biggest music BBS's in the USA! (214) 964-3743 The Music Connection, another HUGE music BBS! Many of these BBS's, especially the latter two, should have great music files of all formats (the Amiga BBS's will probably only have mods) and the latest Sound Blaster programs... (20) The Future of SBHQ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is probably the most important part of this magazine, at least to me... After reading many issues of Sound Blaster Digest, it became my goal to put out a successful Sound Blaster electronic magazine that would be distributed worldwide, and hopefully become as popular or more popular than the SB Digest... I have limited access to big music boards... The 518 area code (Albany, NY and surrounding areas) is not an extremely good one for BBSing... I'll have to rely on people that call LD in the USA, or even to other countries to distribute SBHQ for me... So please, if you like SBHQ, which I hope you will, please upload it to as many boards as possible for you... The Sound Blaster Digest had special "subscription" offers, where for like $20 or so you would get the latest issues of the magazine on disk with the latest SB songs/utilities selected by the editors... If you think SBHQ is up to that caliber where you would be willing to buy subscriptions (I promise I will continue to improve the quality of my magazine and include the latest SB utilities and songs...) please let me know in the survey following... Sound Blaster Digest also carried advertisements... If you want to advertise in SBHQ just, as I've said a lot, write me at the address which I gave at the beginning of the issue (and will give again on the next page) let me know... (21) I won't charge for advertisements, because at this point the viewing base of SBHQ is non-existant, and I have no idea whether we'll be successful or not. If you want to make a donation, I'd be eternally grateful, but this is by no means required... Again, programmers out there, I'm very interested in seeing your work and would be happy to review it if you'd send it to me... I can't guarantee great reviews, but I'll reimburse you in some way for your support of SBHQ. All filled out surveys, comments, requests, ads, donations, disks, etc. can be sent to the following address: _____________ /John Townsend\_ _/45 West Erie St.\__ /Albany, NY 12208-2426\ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for your support of Sound Blaster HeadQuarters! (22) Credits for SBHQ #1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SBHQ Chief Editor: John Townsend SBHQ Assistant Editor: Ken Krouner Reviewers: John Townsend Ken Krouner MOD Guru: John Townsend As you can see, at this time, SBHQ is a small operation... (23) The Survey ~~~~~~~~~~ Please fill this out and mail to me at my address, given twice throughout this file... Thanks for your support... What is your name? :) What did you like about the first issue of SBHQ? What do you think we should change in future issues? Would you download more issues of SBHQ? Would you consider donating a small amount of money to the editors of SBHQ? Would you consider "buying a subscription" to SBHQ? -(including 12 issues and the latest songs and utilities with each issue) If so, how much would you think would be a "reasonable" price? What are your favorite Sound Blaster songs (any format)? What are your favorite Sound Blaster utilities (any format)? On a scale from 1 through 10, how would you rate SBHQ #1? Will you give SBHQ to your friends? Will you upload SBHQ to BBS's? IF SBHQ gets a large amount of users, would it be reasonable to ask to pay for advertisements? ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````