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                         LYNX: "ALIEN VS PREDATOR" PREVIEW
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tested on: HANDY LYNX EMULATION on Pentium 233 MMX

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Rumours  said it  since long  times that there  are actions  to bring the famous
Jaguar 3D  shooter "AVP" to Atari's handheld and to say the truth I never really
expected that those  rumours containing  some real  knowledge. I  always thought
that there are just some people thinking about since I heard about so many games
for all the Atari machines that never saw the light of  day or better that never
a guy started to convert or create in the end at all...

And so I was  kind of afraid as the playable preview of "Aliens Vs Predator" for
the LYNX finally appeared on several LYNX ROM pages that already all disappeared
again. And since I didn't found a working download today  for that ROM image I'm
very happy that I downloaded it as it was appearing first in the net.

A big drop of vermouth  is the fact that this preview shows up that the works to
complete this game  are frozen or  better stopped  forever and this is a bit sad
since this game shows a very further stage of development in  comparison with so
many other games just like "Eye Of The Beholder" for example.

Before I start the  usual review I have to point out some things about "AVP" for
the LYNX. In comparison with the Jaguar game it is much different since the LYNX
doesn't offers  the power for  real 3D environments (just check my article about
3D engines on the LYNX!) and so it was hard to port the  Jaguar game idea to the
LYNX at all. That finally brought  the programmers to  the point  to create some
blockscrolling shooter, a very strange  solution, but  as you can  read then, it
works out fine.

Ok... let's go for a closer look onto the game.

"AVP" starts with the usual  introduction and  right after the title and credits
screens you can go your way into the  game as US Marine  or as Predator. That is
the first big difference to the  other "AVP" games on  Jaguar or PC. In the LYNX
adaption  it isn't  possible to  take the Alien  and as the game shows it wasn't
even a problem of the preview since there seems to be no Alien storyline in here
at all.

Anyway, after you have  chosen your destiny you'll get the briefing for your 1st
mission and so  you have  to collect  a bomb, place  it and  leave the area. The
whole scenery looks quite good for the possibilities the LYNX offers. As written
in the beginning "AVP" doesn't  features a texturemapped 3D scenery but "only" a
blockscrolling bitmap  scenery. But  here I have  to admit that  the well chosen
colours and nice  designed grafix are able to overplay that lacking feature very
well. The whole dark scenery is able  to create some atmosphere you even miss on
some look-a-like games on the ST.

It depends on  the actor you  have taken how your screen looks a like. While the
US Marine has the wellknown motion tracker in one corner of the screen and a gun
trembling on the screen, the Predator just got a lance to attack the enemies.

But here starts the problem with the preview version. It is  playable at the one
hand, but on the other hand a lot of features aren't working well. So the motion
tracker doesn't show any friend or enemy. Furthermore the guys running around in
the floors looking like Marines as well, but you get points for killing them, it
doesn't matter if you play Soldier or Predator. If you press the A-Button you'll
get an character  screen, showing the items you collected (aka bombs), your ammo
and life energy and a map, that doesn't work at all.

Strangely the enemies  don't try  to attack  you anytime, they're  just  running
through the floors, appearing here and vanishing again very fast. So I guess the
A.I. of the game doesn't run at all.

Another problem is that always only  US Marines are running  through the floors,
no  Alien or Predator in sight at all  and if you  say that I  didn't moved into
higher levels I must admit that I  had the noose very full after  I checked that
the third  Marine mission is just the  same "collect and drop  bomb - search for
the exit" mission  as the ones before. That  really doesn't  save the motivation
esp. when the dungeons of the  Alien ship you reached by  this time are so  damn
complicated that you aren't able to find your way back without drawing the whole
map onto paper since the auto-map function isn't enabled in this preview. If you
matched it to find  an Alien please  mail me asap  since I want to know how they
act and look like.

Some more words? As said I  reached up to level 3 of  the Marines  mission but I
have to admit that I didn't  tried out the Predator mission so far as well since
you have to do  the same things here (search for a bomb...) and  here I think it
is dull for a  Predator to search for  a bomb since I remember that creatures to
be fearless  hunters that don't care much  about destroying  a space ship but in
collecting the heads of their enemies.

What is left to say since I want to stop this  short preview  here? IF, but only
IF, the game would be finished and feature some more ideas and better story line
as well as game feautures, it really could be a burner on the LYNX but since the
game title screen shows  the year of 1994 I doubt  that we will ever see it in a
full playable version. That is really  sad since  the game features really great
grafix, esp. in the sequences between the missions the pictures are very nice as
you can  see on our  screenshots. But so  the nice works  of the artist are just
wasted, too bad. Even  in this early  stage of  development the  game is able to
create some horrible atmosphere, but I have  to admit that  the beeping chip msx
doesn't help  here much. After all this preview  leaves the bitter  taste to see
something great that never will be reality at all... :/
So if you're really interested in the things that maybe will never see the light
of day in a finished version, go and leech the ROM file from the internet.

Unfortunately I can't give  you a running URL atm since  all pages that featured
this  ROM file (as well as other ROMs) suddenly  vanished  or the  servers  that
still offer it  are down atm. If you're interested  in getting it anyway you can
mail me as well and I will send it to you.

.tSCc.  no pr0mises - no demands!                               moondog . o3/2k2
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