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                      STUNE - THE BATTLE FOR ARATIS vo.82
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development ... STUNE DEVELOPMENT TEAM (Charon, Thothy, Spion of Escape...)
system ........ any TOS machine  including clones, but needs  XBIOS sound output
                and at  least 1 MB of RAM, fast  machines  urgently  required as
                well as higher resolutions with at  least 16 colours... harddisk
                and FastRAM will speed up the game a bit more...
source ........ http://stune.atari.org
contact ....... stune@gmx.net

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It took a long  time untill I thought  to review this game, because it is a GEM-
game (but features a nice fullscreen option, hehe) but because  I'm a bit fan of
realtime strategicals  I finally decided to take a closer look to this game too,
especially because there are no games of this kind around on  the Atari machines
at all.

Just in July there was a new update of the game released and untill now I wasn't
very interested  in it because  I didn't liked the grafix  design, not to say it
looked crap so far and I hoped to see Spion's  grafix in this version, but I was
disturbed, 'coz it features still this simple look, even it was done by Spion...
Yawn... I must say that I expected a bit more...

Anyway, because I downloaded it now I will write a review about it anyway.

STUNE  has two big  idols, at first the  game "DUNE" where the  story is more or
less borrowed  from as well  as the  title (DUNE - THE BATTLE FOR ARAKIS) and at
second the gameplay reminds hard to the COMMAND & CONQUER games.

The story  isn't the  thing I would  be interested  in, because  it features the
eternal fight of the computer systems against MICROSOFT as  background. Just the
names are a bit changed like "Gill Bates", "Acoris", "Macrosoft"... not the joke
I would laugh about.

In STUNE you  have to  harvest  the "Saft" (juice) that  gives you  the power to
conquer the planet Aratis or better to free it from the Macrosoft guys.
Therefore you have to build refineries, harvest the "Saft", build powerstations,
barracks, firms  and so on, to  produce weapons and to  train soldiers  to fight
against the enemies forces and outposts.

Ok, that's a short overview of the game and story. Let's take a closer look now,
with moondogs strategical corner... ;)

Demo Mission 1

This starting  mission is  quiet easy, no question, eh? You just  have build one
or more  refineries or  better a whole base, including a  small firm  as well to
produce more powerful weapons. You start with two fight  buggies as well as with
some infantery units.
The  things  to do... explore  the map, harvest  the "saft" and  kill all enemie
units. The enemies  don't have  an own outpost and so they aren't a  big problem
here.

My tips... if you  have found  the "saft" fields (use your  buggies to  explore)
than build  more than  one refinery. In the  beginning the  costs are  higher to
build them but with more harvesters you will get much more money in shorter time
and you can build a real powerful force to kick the Macrosoft's away.
For this  the use of  the small tanks is the best in my  opinion. Those powerful
weapons you should use in small groups of 3 or 4 vehicles and because the enemie
units are stand alone ones at all they're all very fast just history.
Ok, the "saft" fields are located in the south of your  base (a fairly big one),
one in north-east.
The enemies are  spread over the whole map, but mainly you will find them in the
four corners of the map. Be careful with the enemie  units in the  north-western
corner, there is  a fight buggy as well as a big tank, the  most powerful weapon
in this  mission at  all. Another powerful  enemie  unit, a  rocket launcher, is
located in the south-western corner.
Some small hint  for later missions... if  your tank units are too much damaged,
they aren't able to move anymore. Therefore you can use them still as fire point
to damage or  even eliminate enemie units which are crossing their fire line. So
don't think you don't have to care about them anymore when  they aren't moveable
anymore!

Demo Mission 2 - Operation Sandsturm

Here comes the first mission where you need a bit more brain  because the enemie
isn't just spreaded all over the map, no, he has an  own outpost too and so he's
able to renew  his forces and if you don't move quick he has the power to attack
your own base before  you have an  own powerful army or at least saved your base
against him with turrets or sandbags.
Unfortunately several bugs seem to fight against me as well, so my units started
to fight against themselves, fired their rockets into directions no enemies were
no enemies are located, furthermore it happened that my small factory, which was
builded close  to the barracks  was out of order, because  when I  clicked on it
just the info window of the barracks appeared on the screen.
Later on one  of my infantery units was turned  into an enemies  rocket launcher
unit but was fighting on my site, at least the info window said this to me. Also
the "saft" level  scale in the info  window showed me some crap  instead of real
numbers... and it was going on  in this way, the  barracks turned  into a power-
station, the small factory into a refinery and so on...
And after  the sprites appeared as splittet images  on the screen  I stopped the
mission... esp. after I tried to sell the buildings that changed into something,
but I sold all others, even if I don't clicked on them... huuuu...

So moondogs' strategical tips aren't tested at all this time. Just a few hints.
The big "saft" field is  located in the  center of  the map, south-south-east of
your base again. The enemies outpost is located  in the south-east corner of the
map. You have  to start as fast as possible to harvest  the "saft", build two or
more refineries and some turrets to secure them a bit. Maybe it is better to let
some rocket launchers  patrol in the  area of your base because  the enemy units
can be fighted with them more powerful.

The enemies  are going to  attack you  very fast (in mission one they don't even
moved towards your base), and not  only with buggies or  so on, after short time
waves of tanks, buggies and  rocket launchers are  coming over  the "saft" field
and it will be a hard fight.
Furthermore you have to build power stations again and again  because a critical
energy level will handicap you much more and especially  the radar station can't
work without it.

Last but not least you should create a powerful army very fast, around 4 rocket-
launchers  and 4 small tanks should do it and if you can strike the enemies base
very fast (destroy the refineries at first!) the victory should be yours. And in
this phase also "STUNE" shows  that nearly any  strategical war game  is more or
less just  based on an  economy war game... if your  enemy is bombed  out of the
"saft" fields  he is  at his  end for  sure, no "saft" = no money = no  firms or
barracks = no weapons and soldiers...

Ok, because  of those bugs it is a bit problematic to hold up  the motivation to
play the game but it is still a pre-1.o version  and so you  can't expect a full
running game at all.

That's for the playing site. As mentioned at the beginning, the grafix are still
very simple in comparison with similar games on Amiga or PC. I don't speak about
the 16colours  version, I speak about the 256colours  version. Even  if a bigger
palette was  used it looks very similar to the 16colours  version... furthermore
the used colours are all others than a pleasure for my eyes, especially the ugly
yellow  background  bothered me. I know, the game plays on  a sand  planet, just
like its big idol, "DUNE", but  for what there  is a 256colours  version done if
those colours aren't used.
Furthermore  the style of the grafix is a bit  too simple  sometimes, especially
all the  buildings, trees, mountains and  so on are  looking a bit  childish and
will kill a lot of the good atmosphere.
And before  someone is kicking me for those  critics I just want to mention that
I did some grafix for a strategical game in 16 colours about 5 years back for an
unfortunately not finished or even started .tnb. project, that looking even with the used 16 colours more friendly...
There were  thought for  the ST conversion of the  PC game "HISTORY LINE" and if
there is someone interested in them, just mail me at moondog@atari.org

Hui... nothing more to say, just as also the status window used ugly colours and
stats grafix...

The sound. The game  features, on a faster machine ofcourse, sampled  sound like
a woman voice  informing you about the things going on, such as  some production
is finished, some building is ready to set or as some unit is  lost in the fight
with the enemy. Furthemore you have the possibility to play modules in the
background on a Falcon. On ST/STe or TT machines you need XBIOS compatible sound
to play  the samples, but THOTHY did  a small  utility "X-SOUND" brings  it in a
very unstable way also to this machines... maybe on the slow machines like ST or
STe you should  use the chipsounds instead of the samples. But I must say that I
don't tested the game on my STf or STe.

The controls  via mouse are easy and for any player of strategical games, on the
Atari or any other  machines as well, it should be really easy to use. There are
shortcuts for the keys but all things running  fine with the mouse as well, just
as moving your units around, selecting and  deselecting units and  buildings and
so on. On bigger  maps in low resolutions it  could be a bit problematic because
using the  scrollbars of the GEM window  costs time  and so it can  be that some
unit is lost before you reach the point where it was located.

In the fullscreen mode  it is enough to move the  mouse onto the  borders of the
screen to scroll it but, and I'm very wondered about myself, I prefered the GEM-
version after some playrounds. Huuu!

What else? Atm there is a highscore list included but it seemes to save the just
the scores of every round... maybe they will be updated after finishing the next
one, dunno, because I failed several times to finish the second mission, because
of the bugs  mentioned above and the problem that the enemy is  too powerful for
me... maybe I will try some more playrounds in the next days...

Some features lost? Yeps... "STUNE" comes along in 6 languages, such  as german,
english, swedish, polish, czech  and french  and so  it is  thought for  all the
countries which still feature a larger Atari scene.
A save-function is planned, untill  now the game can just  save the  settings in
the options menue.
Theoretically "STUNE" runs in all  resolutions but  is it needed  to convert the
graphics for  4 colours and monochrome  resolutions. If it is sensefull  to play
the game in those resolutions is more than doubtful.

Furthermore it is all other than doubtful that  it makes sense to  play the game
on an unaccelerated ST or STe at all because they're surely too slow, especially
if the missions are going to be more complex.

"STUNE" features also a Network game mode, you can play via linking two machines
together or even via Internet, all you need is another player. Because I haven't
an Internet connection on my  Ataris an because  I'm the only  Atari user in the
surroundings of maybe 3o kilometers (of my knowledge) it wasn't possible to test
this game mode as well.

But as the  readme file already said, there could be  several problems using the
network mode, because  it is of advantage to use a machine of  the same speed as
well as the usage of the same version of "STUNE".
I dunno how much  versions are around at all, I for myself just have two, but as
the history text shows  there are around  5 or 6 versions  around, featuring the
network mode... so better download the same version at first...

Hmmm... what else? That's all I think... some lines left for the final words...

Last words...

"STUNE" is one of the most interesting game projects for all TOS machines at the
moment and maybe the only realtime strategical  for those machines as well. This
version gives a good view onto the game, esp. for a GEM game it is  done fine in
my critical eyes.

Therefore it  lacks a lot stuff on the graphical side... too simple, too bad use
of the possible  colours, esp. in the 8bit version. For  16 colours  the graphix
are ok, but I would prefer some little changes in the palette as well.
Unfortunately  there are  no animations as well but the  sprites are  very small
and at  least on  RGB you surely will get problems  to check them  out at all in
higher resolutions.

The sound is on Falcon quiet ok, featuring  sampled voices  and effex as well as
the possibility  to play module sound  in the background. If  you just  have the
possibility  to use  the chipsound effex it will  loose a lot of  atmosphere for
sure...

The controls are ok, it runs  fine with the mouse but I would prefer some little
improvements too, just  as group your units will  dragging a box  over them with
the mouse. For hardcore players some useful keyboard shortcuts are included too.

Some  features like  network playing and  so on are  giving a nice  direction in
Atari gaming as well, just  as the compatibility with  all clones  offers a wide
range of users of the game. I'm waiting for the next versions!

The  ratings  are given  for two  configurations... low level (16 colours, chip)
and hi level (256 colours, samples and dsp module sound).

low .. video - 55%  audio - 35%  contr - 75%  play - 7o%  motiv - 65%  ov - 6o%
hi ... video - 3o%  audio - 75%  contr - 8o%  play - 85%  motiv - 8o%  ov - 7o%

Some questions? ... on low level (ST for example), the grafix are better for the
capabilities of those machines, the audio ofcourse not (what about chip musix in
the background?), controls normally the same but the restriction to low res will
handicap you on bigger maps, same goes  for the playability which suffers  under
the low res problem too... after all  the lack of  noises in the  background and
the problems mentioned before will also lower the motivation.
Ofcourse  the visuals  are the only  drawback for hi level  machines, because of
their better  capabilities in  resolutions, audio and so on  they're raising the
playability and motivation a lot...

Hu... I think its time to end it here... this is maybe the  longest games review
I wrote so  far for UNDERCOVER... and it took me two days to finish it and maybe
a week to check out the game at all, played around 2o rounds to check it out and
had a lot of quarrels with my girlfriend because she got nerved of  my penetrant
keyklicks and the hours I spent in front of my machines... ;)

Anyway, for a hard renewed version of "STUNE" I would do the same again... hu!


.tSCc. no promises - no demands!                                         moondog
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