RE: Hi hoPart of the problem with SAM games programming was it had about 1/4 the power it really needed to do the system justice -- unless you wanted to use Mode 2. Unfortunately, by that time, everyone wanted to have a Spectrum/AtariST crossover (the Atari was yet another machine which didn't have enough horsepower for its specs).
*sigh* The XBOX, surprisingly, is the same. It has about 1/2 the power it needs to live up to its full potential. (And 1/4 the memory). Stick a gig of memory in that thing, and you'd have a console that no other could beat. Simon ---------------------------------- From: Graham Goring When you don't have the power, you have to limit your options and while that sometimes leads to better design, it mostly leads to arse games. J I mean if you look at most of the SAM Coupé's software it was generally not that great with only a few standout games that showed signs of ingeniousness (such as Water Works which was brilliant - what happened to Martin Bell?). Maybe it was down to a lot of people using stuff like SCADs (which sounded like a disease at the best of times) which produced flawed software (and similarly GamesMaster had some vile limitations) instead of coding their own from scratch, but the fact remains that most SAM games weren't exactly stellar. However I'd argue that the problem with most PC games these days is that they're either all "me too" products or they're infuriatingly over-designed to the point that unless you're familiar with the genre, they're impenetrable. These days games are generally far better put together and designed than they used to be, but our expectation levels are similarly higher so we don't really notice it.
