771320 11 745001 PLAYSTATION 2 GUID UMBLE encounTERS Operates on, _ —rW&HUARTERS ONLY Hold two quarters TOGETHER and insert in slot- TURN HANDLE TO RIGHT to receive package. AdiViaoN PACKAGE OF ONE Operates on TWO QUARTERS ONLY Hold tv.3 quarters TOGETHER and insert in slot- TURN HANDLE TO RIGHT tOv^eive package. USE 2 QUARTERS BACK TO BACK J &+1 YET TO BE CLASSIFIED M< r /°Orc, T dit t ,s '° 5*V r S?f 7 ' 4 #/ f -/> V 7°^/ 0 0/ ". '‘iMSStf &%, * HARD STEEL MAKES A LITTLE GO A LONG WAY! A OEVICE DESIGNED TO PROLONG MALE CLIMAX WHILE STIMU : . .LAUNCHER IN THE" RIGHT PLACE! ■ Operates on • TWO nilARTFRS ONI V >f feu WArtr lo ✓ ^«6 RAy W<17/ 'lovRsetf 4 »HYPER contents I II Welcome back to Hyper. Take a look around, we’re sure you’ll find it nice and comfortable in here. We’ve done a bit of redecorating, fixed a bit of the furniture, repainted the walls and even added a few extensions! First off, you’ll notice that there’s more informa¬ tion packed into Hyper now, with reviews in particular being extra sweet. We’ve also decided to final¬ ly bring you Game Boy reviews every issue, so look out for more than just the four games we reviewed this issue to kick things off. There’s also going to be a contin¬ ued effort from the Hyper team to make sure there’s an even balance of games reviewed for every system. So whether you own one console, or two, or a PC and a console. Hyper will let you know what are the best games. We’ve also decided to be a bit tougher with our scores, so when you see a Big Rubber Stamp, you know it’s all that. Phew, we’re trying to pack a lot more into Hyper these days, that maybe we’ll have to take a look at making the magazine bigger in the near future... Oh and if you’re wondering where the poster is this issue, we decid¬ ed that a review of Ready 2 Rumble boxing on the Dreamcast was proba¬ bly more important. If you’re dying to slap some stuff on your walls, then go check out the current Hyper Poster Book 3 with Sonic on the cover. Keep sending your letters in to freakscene@next.com.au, and for those of you with Hypermarts to send in, you’ll be pleased to see we have a new hypermart@next.com.au email address. Okay, now off you go and enjoy this 06.NEWS TRAVEL BACK IN TIME. DOLPHIN DELAYS. EMOTION ENGINE 2. PLUS MORE... 14 .ANIME 15 .ARCADE MODE 16 .WAREZ PERIPHERAL STEW. 18 .NET TRAWLIN’ 19 .VERSUS MODE 2D MARIO VERSUS 3D MARIO. 22 .MULTIPLAYER 23 .WIN WIN WIN 24 .EYE CANDY SCREENSHOT HEAVEN! 26.PREVIEWS WARCRAFT 3. DONKEY KONG 64. AND MORE! 34.FEATURE PLAYSTATION 2 - INSIDE, OUTSIDE. THROUGH. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SONY’S NEXT PLAYSTATION. 44.SUBSCRIPTIONS WIN A DREAMCAST AND THREE HOT UBI SOFT RACING GAMES! 48.REVIEWS THE HOTTEST GAMES ADORED AND ABUSED. 87 .GAME BOY POCKET SIZED REVIEWS! 88 .REVERSE ENGINEERING THE WORLD S COOLEST HOME CONSOLE EVER? 1 864 I 19: 3-1 reviews 50.FINAL FANTASY VIII- PLAYSTATION 54.READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING - DREAMCAST 4 58.. .RAYMAN 2 - NINTENDO 64 60.. .AGE OF EMPIRES 2- PC 62..MORTAL KOMBAT GOLD - DREAMCAST 64 .HOT WHEELS - NINTENDO 64 65 .JET RIDER 3 - PLAYSTATION 66 .ORAKAN-PC 68.COOLBOARDERS BURRRN - DREAMCAST 70 .WCW MAYHEM - NINTENDO 64 71 .MISSION IMPOSSIBLE- PLAYSTATION 72 .PRINCE OF PERSIA 30 - PC 74 .UEFA STRIKER - DREAMCAST 75 .WU TANG: TASTE THE PAIN - PLAYSTATION 76 .SPEED DEVILS - DREAMCAST 80 .STARFLEET COMMAND - PC 81 .SUZUKI ALSTARE RACING - DREAMCAST 82 .XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS - PLAYSTATION GRAND THEFT AUTO 2 - PC HELL NIGHT - PLAYSTATION PANDORA’S BOX - PC TRAITORS GATE - PC/MAC PAPYRUS - GAME BOY COLOR SPY VS SPY - GAME BOY COLOR TOP GEAR RALLY - GAME BOY COLOR POKEMON YELLOW - GAME BOY COLOR 34 . PIATSTATM 2 - INSIDE, OUTSIDE, THROUGH. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PS2 IS RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. CHECK OUT OUR HUGE SEVEN PAGE GUIDE TO THE SYSTEM. ALL THE FACTS AND THE LOW-DOWN ON THE UPCOMING GAMES. 44 . WIN A HOT OOI SOFT RACINE PACK 0 A SEEA OHEAMCAST! SUBSCRIBE TO HYPER THIS MONTH FOR A CHANCE TO WIN SPEEO DEVILS. MONACO GP 2 AND SUZUKI ALSTARE RACING FROM UBI SOFT - WITH A SEGA DREAMCAST CONSOLE! FINAL FANTASY VIII IS HERE! THE SEQUEL TO WHAT IS PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS PLAYSTATION GAME EVER HAS FINALLY ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIAN STORES. LET HYPER GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE HIGH AND LOW POINTS OF SQUARE'S NEW RPG. contents 74 December 1999 Editor: Eliot Fish Art Director Brooke-Star Elliott Deputy Editor: Cam Shea Publisher: Jim Flynn AOVERTtSWG Advertising Manager Anthony Hennessey Sales Executive: Kylie Evans Advertising Production Manager Emma Beck Ph: 02 9699 0333 Fax: 02 9310 2012 Production Manager: Melissa Doyle Circulation Director Mark Rogan Finance Director John Mullins Managing Director: Phillip Keir Subscriptions Enquiries ph: 02 9699 0319 Fax: 02 9699 0334 email: subs@nextcom.au CONTRIBUTORS: Dan Toose, Kevin Cheung, Tim Levy, Andrew Robertson, Arthur Adam, Troy Gorman, Adam Duncan, Jackson Gothe-Snape, Tim Coleman, Soumali, DMC, Tony Montana, Frank Dry. Chupa-Chups. Printed CTP by: Offset Alpine Distribution by: Gordon & Gotch Customer Service Ph: 1300 65 0666 Fax: 1300 65 0777 All copyrights reserved by Next Publishing Pty Ltd ACN 002 647 645 ISSN 1320-7458 WWTETOHYPffl! 78 Renwick St Redfern, NSW 2016 Fax: (02) 9281 6188 E-mail: freakscene@nextcom.au Hypermart hypermart@next.com.au 6 »HYPER news LETHW. ENFORCERS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, Six years ago, three obsessed gamers got together to create HYPER magazine. Thanks to their refreshingly freaky nature, gamers all around the country have since been informed and entertained with 74 huge issues of the most hardcore, sexy and complete guide to gaming that you can pluck from the newsstand. Honest reviews, no bullshit and a healthy sense of humour has been our general aim and here we are today with all of those goals still in place. We’ve spent thousands of hours in front of TV screens and computer monitors to make sure we are Australia’s best gaming magazine, but as you may have noticed, a few things have changed around here. The reason? Well, maybe it’s the approaching millennium, maybe gaming is changing and we’d like to reflect that shift or possibly it’s just something in the water. Whatever the reason, all you need to know is that Hyper has grown up and mor¬ phed into a bigger, better and more balanced guide to all aspects of gaming. The new look Hyper you see before you now has come straight from the heart of real gamers - including one Fishy staff member who has been loving it up with Hyper since it began back in 1993 - so you couldn’t be in better hands! From the first funky issue starring the beautiful Chun-Li of Street Fighter 2 Turbo on the cover, to this very issue (number 74) proudly displaying the wonderful! piece of PlayStation RPCing - Final Fantasy VIII - on it’s cover, Hyper has been doin’ it in style. Stick with us and we’ll guide you through the deadly battlefield of the I next console war and help you find the right games to satisfy your freaky gaming urges. As our first Editor, Stuart, used to say all those years ago.. Hype it up! HYPER #1 WHAT WERE THE BIG REVIEWS? fssUE^ Streetfighter 2 Turbo (MD/SNES) - "This is THE game all Mega Drive owners should own." - 96* Zombies Ate My Neighbours (MD/SNES) - "It’s origi¬ nal, it’s funny, it’s action packed." - 90% Aladdin (MD/SNES) - "Why can’t all games look this good and play this well?" - 94* Landstalker (MD) - "Sega Japan have come up with another classic RPC...” - 92* Thunder Hawk (Mega CD) - "Stop telling your friends what the Mega CD can do - show them.’’ - 94% Wing Commander Academy (PC) - "A very fine addition to the Wing Commander series. Enlist in the Academy today!" - 90* WHAT WAS NEWS? The 3DO - we all thought it was amazing. The future of gaming. A must-have console. Ahem. Project Reality? Sega announced their 32-bit Satum and Nintendo were working on a 64-bit console called 'Project Reality’ which could display Silicon Graphics quality visuals! Okay, so they didn’t quite get there with what was eventually to become the Nintendo 64. Sonic Arcade - Sonic was about to hit the arcades in a revolutionary 3D third-person platformer which would ’revolutionise arcade gaming’. Or so we thought. Mega CD - Yes, the ill-fated Sega Mega Drive add-on, the Mega CD was already getting a canning in the pages of Hyper. To quote - "Just bought a Mega CD? Pissed off at the piddly amount of games on the shelves, and the crap quality of the ones that are?". Of course, we also thought some of the games were good enough to rate over 90%! Multiplayer gaming. Nintendo were only just bringing out the SNES MultiTap, Sega were releasing their own MultiTap for the Mega Drive, and we thought it was all warm and wonderful. Of course, back then, the inter¬ net hadn’t really boomed in terms of serious multi¬ player gaming. Virtual Sex - Our feature on virtual sex had all sorts of crusty politicians getting all hot and bothered. Did we corrupt the minds of Australia’s youth? We hope so! $4.91 NZ$1 95 VIRTUAL SEX MORTAL KOMBAT FULL GORE MODE ALADDIN THUNPERHAWK BATTLSNANIACS M FINAL FIGHT DARK SUN SONIC CD POCKY AND ROCKY STREETFIGHTER 2 TURBO HYPER FIGHTING ON MEGA DRIVE ♦ SNES news READER HILARITY GOES HERE CAPTION THIS! Think you have what it takes to make the Hyper team laugh so hard that milk comes out our nasal pas¬ sages? Okay, then...want to win big prizes? We thought that would change your mind. Well, here’s your chance to be famous. Take a look at this screenshot we selected with the Hyper random-screenshot-genera¬ tor, and think of a funny screen caption. The funniest entry will not only win you a fabulous prize, but it will be printed in the magazine! Write your entry on the back of an envelope, along with your name and address, and post it to Caption This, Hyper, 78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW 2016. Be quick! MP3 ENHANCER - COOLEST/MOST USELESS MOD OF THE MONTH As you’re no doubt aware, mp3s have taken the net by storm. Mp3 is an audio compres¬ sion algorithm that packs near CD quality audio into a much smaller file size (close to a ten to one ratio from CD audio to mp3). Consequently, this small file size enables you to download and trade music online with ease. The trade in mp3s is absolutely massive on the net with basically everything available some¬ where - and often before the official release. In any case, instead of a paltry 74 minutes of audio, a CD-R can fit approximately 650 minutes of mp3s. This is where the Mp3 Enhancer comes in. It’s an addon for the PlayStation that plugs into the parallel port and allows you to play mp3 CDs through your PlayStation. It’s a nifty little device, and one that tech heads will eat up. The mp3 decoding process is handled by the PlayStation’s hardware, not soft¬ ware, so it will run smoothly all the time. You can save your playlists to the mem¬ ory card, and a remote control the size of business card will be available for it shortly. As cool as this may sound though, we can’t imagine how many people will get much use out of it. After all, if you own a PC and a CD burner and want to rip your audio CD collection to mp3, then you might as well play them through your PC. If you don’t own a PC, then chances are that you won’t be able to get your hands on MP3 CDs or that they’d be illegal... and we wouldn’t want that, now would we? ONLINE GAMING FOR THE CONSOLE MASSES!! Sega fans rejoice! The next installment of the classic Phantasy Star series has been announced - "Phantasy Star Online’’. It’s the second of the four new Sonic Team games to be announced and after years of speculation, is awesome news for Phantasy Star’s cult like following. Little is known about the game at this stage aside from the fact that it will be an online RPC for the Dreamcast (and just what Sega need to get gamers excited about online gaming). It will also be playable offline. Sony aren’t going to be left out though, and Squaresoft have (all but) announced that a network compatible Final Fantasy title is on the way for PlayStation 2. It’s still a long way off, as Sony’s recently announced propri¬ etary cable network isn’t going to happen until sometime in 2001. What we do know about the title though, is that it’s going to be produced on an unrivalled scale - even greater than Shenmue’s. According to a report in the Wall Street journal, Square CEO Tomoyuki Takechi has predicted a budget of around $40 million US for a PlayStation 2 Final Fantasy game. Steven Spielberg, James Cameron - watch out - Square are coming to get ya! ^ OVERFLOW Refusing to be bullied by the loss of the WWF license to THQ, or by sports heavyweight EA capturing the WCW license, Acclaim will soon announce that they’ve got the next best thing - the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) license. For those that don’t follow wrestling (like us, for instance), the ECW is kinda like a bloodier, less popular alternative to WWF and WCW. Apparently Mankind got his start there, so it will be interesting to see how freakish their other wrestlers will be. Oh, and as a side note, Hyper would like to say (with extreme sarcasm) “Yay, more wrestling games”. Get exit the pitchforks and the overalls, because Redneck Rampage is coming to the big screen. Do we care? Hell no. Should you care? Probably not. After living with piss poor film-to-game conversions, and abominable game-to-film conversions (Street Fighter the movie anyone?) for many years now, the Hyper crew tend to be highly sceptical of live action films of videogame licenses. Tomb Raider or Resident Evil are one thing, but Redneck Rampage? There are few directors capable of making this one watchable, our personal choice being Peter Jackson (of Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles fame - amongst many others). Instead, Sony have acquired the talents of Betty Thomas (Private Parts) to direct the film. Unfortunately though, the rumour is it's not going to be the all out B- grade schlockfest we'd hope it to be. More info on the trilogy of Zelda titles making their way to the Game Boy Color. Each title will be based around one of the Triforces - Power, Wisdom and Courage. “Acorn of the Mystical Tree" will be the first game released and will represent power, with a focus on fighting. The Wisdom and Courage chapters will both follow several months later. Our bet is that the Wisdom chapter will probably have something to do with Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid films, and that Courage will probably be an exploration of Link’s ambiguous sexuality... or maybe not. Sounds like Donkey Kong 64 could have some cool hidden gems on it. An insider has informed us that the original Donkey Kong game is on the cart as well as a classic Rare game from the Eighties called Jet Pac. Hopefully the original DK is selectable, but Jet Pac will probably be hidden away... »HYPER 8 »HYPER news NINTENDO’S DOLPHIN DELAYED? Nintendo's next console, code-named "Dolphin" could meet some unexpected delays. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and other legendary Nintendo characters recently made a few comments about the future of the machine and the development time needed for the games he’d like to make. Nintendo have already pretty much confirmed that the console will not be unveiled until the Spaceworld expo which isn t until August 2000. This late appearance of the machine points to a 2001 launch date - much later than the late 2000 date initially hoped by both Nintendo and gamers around the world. Knowing that Miyamoto loves to make sure his games are perfect, means that there might even also be fewer titles at launch than Nintendo may need to impress. The Dreamcast for instance had a huge software lineup at launch, giving everybody a good idea of what the console was capable of, but Nintendo are stubbornly sticking to their "quality over quantity” theory. Will Nintendo get it right this time? __ FANCY FEA In more posi with S3 inc compression exactly does realistic Just take a engine the S3 comp: the days of games will the games w The techniqu< at a more e being suppi such as text I > displl Quake TURES? ive news, Nintendo have signed a deal porated to include their fancy texture in the "Dolphin" graphics chip. What lis feature mean? It makes for lovely photo- res and incredibly sharp resolutions! ok at this comparison between the Unreal yed on a Voodoo 2 card and then using [riession techniques. Lovely. Finally, it seems b urry, foggy and downright ugly Nintendo long gone. Of course, it also helps that ill be DVD based as opposed to cartridge! allows for more complex textures displayed fficient and speedy rate, and it’s currently rted in a number of high-class PC titles 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. ■ GETTING GIBBY PS2 - ON THE DREAMCAST EMOTION ENGINE 2? Sony are already discussing the Emotion Engine 2 and graphics synthesiser which would be released in 2002 and the possibility of an Emotion Engine 3 in 2005! Incredibly, Sony Executive Ken Kutaragi has stated that Emotion Engine 2 could possibly be able to produce 700 million polygons per second! 700 million? My Cod. The current Emotion Engine and graphics synthesiser inside the PS2 can do around 70 million per second, so... er... that’s quite a leap! ■ Sierra have all but confirmed that a version of Half-Life is coming to the Sega Dreamcast. Whilst this is good enough news in itself, it also seems that this version of the game will support the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse and have multiplayer options to take advantage of the Sega console’s online capabilities. The port will also sport some graphical improvements, which is always nice to hear. Hopefully we can also expect other big titles to follow... Quake 3 Arena on Dreamcast and playable online? Mmmmm! ■ MIC27( you mere not ftorn no&le, &nt jour testing is to reign as King. * Command your knights in menacing formations. + Dominate the worlds marketplaces. * Embody the spirits of William Wallace, Saladin. Barbarossa, Joan of Arc. and Genghis Khan. + Listen to monks speak of thirteen unique warriors and civilisations, all in their own dialects. ♦ Achieve victory through conquest, economic stranglehold, or exploration. * Find more glory at uituui.micro$oft.com/jiame5/aiie^ heD W A BIG * R dD I'fkUBBER® -,- \V r .AMP ~ - 1 — Gaming !QN€ O * I V r ^p 10 »HYPER INriNITE IMPROBABILITY HERE WE COME! news NO CODE Capcom have announced plans to release a deluxe port of Resident Evil 2 for Dreamcast before their much anticipated Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The Dreamcast edition of Resident Evil 2 (Biohazard 2 in japan) will be out in Japan sometime in December and will feature a host of graphical enhancements, and possibly new characters/weapons/playmodes. Unfortunately, Capcom have also announced that Code Veronica has been delayed again and won’t be out until early next year. Will RE2 on Dreamcast be enough to satiate our bloodlust? We suspect not... but it will come with a Code Veronica demo disk. Whilst we’re on the subject of Code Veronica, Capcom have confirmed that it will be one of the first Dreamcast titles to utilise the zip drive add on, and the Dreamcast’s online capabilities. The possibilities are delicious, but we’ll have to wait until more concrete infor¬ mation is unveiled. ■ 1- Are you a hoopy frood who knows where his towel’s at? Then you may already know what l’m about to say. No - it’s not that the answer to life, the Universe and everything is 42, nor is it that the secret to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss, or even that getting eaten by the rav¬ enous Bugblatter beast of Traal is preferable to listening to Vogon poetry. It’s actually the highly improbable news that before the Earth is demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, the most important five book trilogy of all time will be adapted into a real-time 3D action adven¬ ture game for several different platforms. Little is known about this momentous potentiality save for the knowledge that Octagon Entertainment, Pan Interactive and The Digital Village plan to bring the mis¬ adventures of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android to digital life somewhere around late 2001. Okay, I know that’s a bloody long way off and that we have scant little information on the game (hence the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy related silliness), but it's still cool news nonetheless. Let’s just hope that they do a better job than Infocom’s tragic text based adventure of the early 80s. ■ SHENMUE DELAYED Due out in japan around the time you read this, Chapter One of Shenmue. . err... won’t be. After its no show in a playable form at the Tokyo Game Show, it hardly comes as a surprise that Yu Suzuki’s masterwork has been delayed again and won’t be out until March next year. Like it or not, the delay is a very brave decision on the part of Sega. Shenmue is perhaps the one title that will make or break the Dreamcast (and Sega) in Japan, so despite the short-term annoyance for fans, the bottomline is that if the Shenmue team need a bit more time to tweak and perfect one of the most ambitious titles of all time, then surely they're entitled to it. Nintendo did the same thing with Mario 64 - and that’s the game that will perhaps go down as the greatest console title of the current era. Let’s hope Sega can pull off a similar feat. The more we hear, the more comprehensive Shenmue sounds. You’ll be able to access all sorts of useful infor¬ mation, like an in depth database documenting your movements during the game. From where you’ve been and when, to maps of the entire gameworld, to biographical information. Also at your fingertips is a list of all the moves you’ve learned thus far in the game. This suggests that action sequences won’t be restricted to the simple "press the button at the right time" method that we’ve seen so much of, but will also include real time fights. We already know that you’ll be able to stroll into arcades and play classic Sega games like Space Harrier. Outrun and Hang-On, but your scores in these arcade perfect games will be saved. You can then send your scores to a Sega website to be ranked amongst the top 1000. ■ COMPETITION WINNERS Yeeeeah! You just scored free stuff! Unreal Tournament Peter Baker, NSW Trevor Smith, NSW Peter Paskulich, WA J. Atkins, NSW Jacob Enkera, QLD Shannon Caldwell, Vic Tony Hawk Skateboarding Aura Interactor Ben Van Wees, WA Benjamin Jarvinen, QLD Jackson Christie, Tas Craig Pegler, WA Jason Phu, WA John Pace, Vic Chris Tregea, NSW Robert C. Haynes, WA Mark Hillman-Bamon, NSW Jake List, NSW Cale Antonelio, Vic Darrell Cree, NSW WORLD CIRCUIT RACING I (smittr) I (liholatiom) $ 1 995 Grand Prix 2 (G). The game includes every aspect of the real grand prix experience: in-depth car set-ups, practice and qualifying sessions as well as realistic world circuits, teams, drivers and engine makes. [Sf ATICYl si I* Mi ll R S TTk ultimate venioo of the beat-Milling atmtegy Civilization II (G8+). Civilization is in your hands. Make every critical social, economic and political decision as you build an empire to span history. Use skill and strategy to command armies, influence historical events and negotiate with rival empires. Mastermind (G). Outsmart opponents with the colourful PC version of the original game. ( ACTIO 1 Hedz (?). An adrenaline-pumping, shoot-’em-up game, where you alter your fighting abilities and physical characteristics by changing your head. THE COMPUTER SPECIALISTS SYDNEY METRO • AUBURN SUPERSTORE • BALGOWLAH SUPERSTORE • BLACKTOWN • CAMPBELLTOWN • CARINGBAH SUPACENTA • CHATSWOOD CHASE • GORDON CENTRE • LIVERPOOL MEGACENTA • MOORE PARK SUPACENTA • PENRITH - WILEY PARK NSW COUNTRY • ARMIDALE • BATHURST • COFFS HARBOUR • DENILIQUIN • DUBBO • ERINA • GRAFTON • INVERELL • LISMORE • MAITLAND • MOREE • MUDGEE • NEWCASTLE SUPERSTORE • NOWRA • ORANGE • PARKES • PORT MACQUARIE ■ TAMWORTH • TAREE • WAGGA WAGGA • WARRAWONG • YOUNG ACT • FYSHWICK • WODEN PLAZA BRISBANE METRO • ASPLEY OPEN 7 DAYS • CARINDALE • EVERTON PARK OPENS NOVEMBER • MT GRAVATT • OXLEY • GOLD COAST OPEN 7 DAYS • NOOSA HEADS OPENS NOVEMBER • TWEED HEADS SOUTH OPEN 7 DAYS QUEENSLAND COUNTRY • SUNSHINE COAST OPEN 7 DAYS • BUNDABERG • CAIRNS OPEN 7 DAYS • GLADSTONE OPEN 7 DAYS • MACKAY • ROCKHAMPTON NORTH • TOOWOOMBA • TOWNSVILLE MELBOURNE SUPERSTORES OPEN 7 DAYS • DANDENONG • GREENSBOROUGH PLAZA • MARIBYRNONG • MOORABBIN • NUNAWADING • PRESTON • VICTORIA COUNTRY - OPEN 7 DAYS • ALBURY ■ BALLARAT • BENDIGO • GEELONG • MILDURA • SHEPPARTON • TRARALGON • WARRNAMBOOL ADELAIDE - SOUTH AUSTRALIA • ENFIELD OPENS NOVEMBER • MARION OPEN MON-SAT WESTERN AUSTRALIA • ALBANY • BUNBURY • BUSSELTON • CANNINGTON • GERALDTON • JOONDALUP NOW OPEN • KALGOORLIE • KARRATHA • 0 CONNOR NOW OPEN • OSBORNE PARK • PORT HEDLAND • PORT KENNEDY The computer products in this advertisement may not be on display in Karratha franchised store NORTHERN TERRITORY - DARWIN OPENS NOVEMBER TASMANIA OPEN 7 DAYS • HOBART CITY • GLENORCHY • ROSNY • LAUNCESTON • BURNIE • DEVONPORT • ULVERSTONE Some goods may not be on show or available at each Harvey Norman Franchised store. HN20587 12 »HYPER news intelligence PICK YOUR IQ ■ The convergence of consoles and PCs continues I unabated. The next intruding peripheral announcement comes from Digital I Intelligence and Sega. Digital E Intelligence will be providing their Picture IQ technology for the I Dreamcast, making it the first I console to offer extensive v. digital photo capabilities. Picture IQ will allow Dreamcast users to effortlessly edit, enhance, organize, store and share their digital photos. Peripherals that take advantage of the embedded software technology will begin shipping early next year in Japan. At a basic level, Picture IQ will enable gamers to map high res images of their face onto game characters, or decorate the game world with their own images. This alone has us very excited - the Came Boy Camera is one thing, but this will take the concept to a new level. Other uses for the technology haven’t been announced. More details as they come in. Recently announced for the PlayStation 2 launch next March in Japan, is this amazing new peripheral which takes advantage of the PS2’s much-hyped "Emotion Engine". Called the PS2 Neural Transmitter, it slots into each of your ears much like an old set of Walkman headphones. Whilst playing a game which sup¬ ports the peripheral, the Neural Transmitter will actually simulate human emotion via high-pitched frequen¬ cies directly into your neural cortex. The first game reported to utilise this feature will be Square s Final \ Fantasy IX, in which the game actually provokes the player to cry during the intro FMV in which a character \ \ \ loses a loved one in a battle sequence. The impact this will have on gaming is simply unfathomable! I \. 1 WHO WANTS TO DOWNLOAD DVDS? Telstra recently announced plans to introduce high speed internet access using their existing copper wire network in the near future (i.e. the next twelve months). A pilot project for ADSL technology (asynchronous digital subscriber line) should have started by the time you read this. This is good news for all the netheads out there who are sick of having to put up with 56K home connections, or prohibitively expensive cable modem connections that come with tiny download limits, especially since cable is so affordable stateside. ADSL technology will allow for internet access around 100 times faster than standard 56Kbps connections. Telstra are hoping to have the project completed, with Alcatel providing the underlying infrastructure, by August next year. Whether or not this technology will be affordable to home users remains to be seen, as Telstra are yet to announce a pricing scheme. Rumour has it that Optus will also be introducing Australian-side cable modem connections. Apparently they plan to have the service available late 1999 or early 2000. Okay, with the small fry news out of the way, we can move on to the biggie. Telstra are heading a consortium planning a new international subma¬ rine cable linking the East Coast of Australia with Japan and, via onward connections, into Asia and the already established "Northern Global Highway” submarine cable network to North America. Once given the go ahead, the project could be ready for service in 2001. Sit down before you read this next bit though. The proposed Japan-Australia cable will have a design capacity of 640 GIGABITS PER SECOND - that’s potentially 500 times the combined capacity of the existing cables connecting Australia to Asia and North America. All we can say is a big "woo hoo" and "hell yeah” - and let’s hope it happens. jansst jxau ;eaj auies aqj aAaiqoe ueo noX ji aas pue ‘suoije|n;eibuoo uaq; aoaid SMau a>fej e buiaq ioj \\ pa>pid noX ji ^noX ueo a|osuoo aqi inoqe papoxa buiaq ioj sn auieiq i 4 ueo noX "bupiiM aAijeaiD jo jiq e jsnj spm t ia;;iuisueii jemaN ti zsd sip jnoqe nodal aqj os Xe>jo qo aouanniaiui Jeiajjiije You just can't leave them alone ATARI PlayStation . :" : IB f fjft u*» flP Six action-packed new games from Atari. You won’t be able to keep your hands off them n 6 0 1999 Hasbro Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 0‘Bert S> 1999 Columbia Pictures Industries. Inc All rights reserved Q'Bert TM. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders www.atari.com <4 SERIALEXPERIMENTS — CAT!GORY Drama PRODUCTION COMPANY Pioneer LDC/Triangle Staff ANMIT1M: I PUT : I JAPAN Nf S3 LOW mm . I 15 years ago, we first questioned whether androids dreamt of robotic sheep; and from there, a new generation of appreci¬ ating different levels of "humanity” was bom. Stories like Ghost In The Shell broke new ground in showing how our percep¬ tion of "humanity” could be augmented through modem technology, but none had gone so far as Serial Experiments Lain, which questions "existence” itself through that same technology. Lain Iwakura is a junior highschool student who is drawn into her rapidly developing technological surroundings after receiving an email from a classmate who had committed suicide days earlier. The email said that she wasn’t really dead, and that she continued to live out a readily tangible existence online. The story then becomes one of discovery and exploration as Lain interacts with other people on a kind of nether-realm that exists between life and death. Serial Experiments Lain is rich with social commentary and philosophy, and has almost no plot focus whatsoever, save for the chronological passing of time. It's highly recommended if you’re after something cere¬ bral. If not, avoid it like the plague. THOSEWHOHUNT CAT (GORY Action/Comedy PRODUCTION COMPANY Croup TAC/Amuse ANIMATION I PUT: I JAPANMESS LOW IKIAll I.S This is one of those titles where only a description of the plot will make any sense. The show is about three charac¬ ters, Jumpei (the tough guy), Airi (the Hollywood actress) and Ritsuko (a deadly weapons specialist). These char¬ acters somehow became trapped on a mysterious land of swords and sorcery, and the only way they can get back to Japan is through the help of an elven priestess performing an ancient spell. Unfortunately, during the ceremony, the priestess was distracted, and the spell exploded into five fragments that were tattooed on the bodies of elves that shared a psychic similarity to the priestess. In order to get home, the five elves have to be found, and the spell fragment on their bodies have to be re¬ transcribed on to a sacred spell book. Unfortunately, the identities of these elves are completely unknown. Therefore, the mission of our three pro¬ tagonists is as follows: to strip every elf in the land and find the spell frag¬ ments that are on some random part of their body. And yes - they quite literal¬ ly walk up to any elf and rip off their clothes in public. Occasionally, they might ask politely first. Those Who Hunt Elves is the funniest series available in a long time, and it is sure to leave you in tears. You could quite literally call it Slayers, but with the kind of outrageous slapstick humour only previously seen in Dragon Half. The fact that the main characters are armed with modern weaponry is also used to good effect. Those Who Hunt Elves is strongly recommended. THE GALLERY All import videos supplied by The Cartoon Gallery. QVB, Sydney Their website lists over 2,300 anime items. Phone: (02)9267-3022 http://www.cartoongallery.com.au serial experiments lai arcade mode THUNDER MIDWAY In the near future, the Earth’s water level has risen somewhat due to the polar caps melting as a result of global warm¬ ing. A clan of opportunistic racing rene¬ gades have decided not to moan about the increase in real estate prices, and instead make the best of the situation by holding illegal high speed (35okph*) power boat races on courses that were once swamped by traffic (New York) and tourists (the Pyramids). Hail Hail the Mighty Hydro Thunder. Midway, the company who brought us Atari's San Francisco Rush, has trans¬ ferred all of the good stuff from the Rush (creative track design, big jumps and beefy engined racing vehicles) and added a few things to bring us one hell of a joyfully addictive racing game. There are thirteen fine looking boats to choose from and all have different attrib¬ utes in top speed, boost speed, stability, impact resistance, handling and of course the mighty hull activation speed. The mighty hull (best said in a Schwarzenegger accent) is a condition your boat reaches (it flashes white) when you reach full boost. Cive me Boost. Boost is the power up that will send your boat soaring over mas¬ sive jumps, adds an extra 50-100 kph to your top speed and allows you to (heh heh) take out any opposition with your Mighty Hull. Boost fuel canisters are locat¬ ed around the course in both obvious and hidden locations and their whereabouts is the key to success to this game. The eleven tracks will take you on a world tour from the Arctic Circle to a flooded Theme Park and all tracks abound a-plenty in jumps and secret shortcuts. All the tracks are an A to B affair, so getting to know the positioning of all the good stuff will take a little while - though this is good for replay value. Can you recall the mucho bass exhaust from Rush? The excellent seat console set-up is back with those funky speakers located in the seat’s headrest for that full stereo effect. I’m not sure if it is a bass speaker in the seat, but whatever it is causes the whole seat to shudder when at full boost or when you hit something. So whether you are racing a friend to the next boost fuel, getting some major air, enjoying the lush graphics and awe¬ some sound effects or just admiring the aqua physics, you will find yourself being immersed in the addictive game- play that should see an increase in power boat sales this summer. One Mighty Hull to go please Mr Boatmonger! P N Jr QUICK & CRASH NAMCO Take me back to the old school. While everyone is moving forward in to the future, Namco has decided to release a circa 1976 light gun game in which your aiming and quick draw abilities are tested in 4 differ¬ ent sequences. The only modern things are that your abilities can be measured in thousandths of a second and the final stage features the world’s first virtual destruction sys¬ tem which features targets that shat¬ ter with an explosion if hit. To make things a little more chal¬ lenging, you only get 20 bullets to shoot the plastic trap targets and of all things a non-digital coffee mug! This is all very ’gee whiz’ stuff though nonetheless worth checking out for the novelty value. 6.5/10 COMING SOON TO AN ARCADE NEAR YOU... STAR WARS: POD RACER FROM SEGA! SAN FRANCISCO RUSH 2049 FROM MIDWAY! M All games reviewed in Arcade Mode can be played at Galaxy World. 5 »HYPER 16 »HYPER warez SIDE WINDER DUA PLATFORM: PC DISTRIBUTOR: MICROSOFT R.R.P: $99.95 ^ SUPPORTS: USB The "3D” controller is making another return, this time in the form of the Side Winder Dual Strike. Hardware manufacturers still seem intent on trying to develop a controller to replace the trusty mouse and keyboard combination for first-person and third-person games. Whilst it’s easy to be completely skeptical when it comes to yet another device pur¬ porting to finally be the solution, we must say that the Microsoft Dual Strike is the closest thing yet to an intuitive 3D game controller which isn’t completely useless! The left hand and the right hand control dif¬ ferent aspects of movement - from strafing to ’mouse-looking’. The right hand controller is designed to feel like the character’s aiming hand and head, whilst the left hand controls most of the body move¬ ment. There a whole bunch of programmable buttons on the Dual Strike - six standard buttons, two triggers and a shift button which means you can bind more than one function to a single button. VERDICT We ran around inside Quake 2 killing off a few more Strogg to test out the Dual Strike, and were quite surprised at how quickly we became accus¬ tomed to the device. There's no doubt that joystick users could now switch to the Dual Strike for greater control and a more immersive experience, however it still can’t beat the keyboard and mouse for ultimate accuracy and response. Definitely, the Dual Strike functions better with third-person games, as you can see your character on screen which reduces the immer¬ sion factor and makes it easier to get your bearings. Overall though, it’s hard to recommend the Dual Strike unless you feel uncomfortable with the old keyboard mouse combination. GUILLEMOT SHOCK 2 INFRARED CONTROLLER PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION DISTRIBUTOR: UBI SOFT R.R.P: $TBA The Shock 2 controller is a super comfortable alternative to the standard Sony Dual Shock PlayStation controller. There’re a few reasons why the Shock 2 is cooler than your average unofficial peripheral. Firstly, the Shock 2 is available as a very convenient Infrared controller, with all the functions you need out of a game pad. It also comes packed with a bonus memory card, which is very good value. The Shock 2 Infrared allows you to sprawl out on the couch, wander around the room, answer the phone, take a piss or do whatever you need to do whilst still staying in control of your favourite game. Having no con- w, troller cord attached to your console is a serious bonus to your gaming sessions. / Check it out. GUILLEMOT FERRARI RACING WHEEL PLATFORM: CONSOLES/PC DISTRIBUTOR: UBI SOFT It’s time to drive away in style. Guillemot have signed a deal with Ferrari to use the Ferrari name on their line¬ up of PC and console steering wheels. With an improved overall aesthetic, using the Ferrari wheel looks like it should improve your overall popularity with members of the opposite sex and possibly even double your income. Seriously, the wheel looks pretty darn special - just check out the smooth grip, solid pedals and ooh that Ferrari logo! We can’t wait to improve our social standing with one of these babies. SHOCK ‘N’ ROCK PLATFORM: GAME BOY COLOR DISTRIBUTOR: LIVEWIRE R.R.P: $59.95 Game Boy gaming just not giving you the thrill you’re after? Possibly all that’s missing is a set of phat speakers to blast out those awesome Game Boy ditties. Maybe you even need to get yourself a thudding force-feedback device for your Game Boy. Well, you may be in luck with the Shock ’n’ Rock! This funky snap-on device is a set of stereo speakers with a built-in amplifier (with external headphone jack), force-feedback vibration pack and even a io-hour rechargeable battery. All in the one smooth gadget. EVOLUTION CONTROL SYSTEM PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION DISTRIBUTOR: GAMESTER R.R.P: $129.95 You may be wondering what the hell this is. Well... the Evolution Control System is a fully motion-sensitive control system for your PlayStation games. Designed to provide accurate and dynamic control in any game which supports analogue control, the Evolution Control System is suitable for space combat games, first-person shooters and racing games. Slip the glove on and it pro¬ vides you with the motion-sensitive movement of your character or vehicle, with the control grip giving you access to a variety of programmable buttons. Not every game works terribly well this way, and you may find yourself returning to the faithful analogue stick control after playing with this for a while. Still, the Evolution Control System offers something unique, which may be just what some of you are looking for to spice up your gaming. If you’ve got the money, it may be worth trying out to see if it suits your style. But much like the Microsoft Dual Strike, this isn’t going to change the way you game - it’s just a strange attempt at providing a unique alternative. 17 »HYPER net trawling COMING SOON...ULTIMA ONLINE 2 Yeah! Ultima Online is coming! For a PEEK AT WHAT'S IN STORE, GO NOW TO THE official site! http://www.uo2.com Make sure you’re Flash equipped and then get on over to the spunky web presence that Sierra have knocked together for their new 3D strategy title Homeworld. It’s a pleasure to poke your mouse around the various sections of the site, digging up Homeworld news, support, information, cool downloads like full audio soundtrack files and the Unit Viewer, merchandise, gameplay tips... trust us, there’s plenty here to keep you happy! Post to your heart’s content on their messageboard or just use this official site as a launch pad into Homeworld website fandom. Sleek. HTTPV/WWW.HOMEWORLD.NET/ Now that we’re all locking ourselves away to play with Squall and his buddies, it’s a good time to hit the web up for some Final Fantasy grub. Seriously, there’s a billion, trillion Final Fantasy websites on the web... but a few of them rock very hard. If you’re after some seriously detailed infor¬ mation on what is in the game and what it all means, including access to music, desktop art and walkthroughs, then take a wander through FF8 Source. http://WWW.FF8SOURCE.COM/ rrm If you’re wondering where to get hooked up with some good AOE 2 resources, then stop off at the official site for some links. Strategy games as good as this one always develop a really strong online community. Microsoft aren’t silly, they’ve gone to the trouble of finding all the cool AOE2 related sites and listed them on their website. Follow this URL to get the list of Age of Kings fansites. HTTPV/MICROSOFT.COM/GAMES/AGE 2/COMMUNITY.HTM One of these hot sites is the aptly named... http://AGEOFKINGS.COM/ What's New features Screenshots Multimedia Press COMMUNITY Requirements Seeing as some of you will be wasting away the hours playing Starfleet Command, we thought we’d bring your attention to a most important matter. It seems that an online petition has started to bring back Captain Kirk from his humil iating death in Star Trek: Generations. Hmmm. Well, maybe someone cares. http://WWW.BRINGBACKKIRK.COM/ Sega Dreamcast finally have an official Australian website. Pop along and take a look at what they have in store for Dreamcast owners here in Oz. Beware, the site is "in development”. http://WWW.DREAMCAST.COM.AU/ B«cfc r«r>r4 c & ca 0 a a * a & ei Horn* F.rorrttf HlHory S#*r<*i - Itnpr $m*l»*r Prinl M*M Pr*F«r*fie** E Mdrm ▼ |Mtp th **rrMlud*M cWwfw/WwvorM/mtro Mml probably attribute f that to his ability * to speak. This ver¬ sion of the Italian plumber proba- bly has a greater j ^■1 knowledge of more ._ ■ worldy matters too, ^ seeing as he actually has the ability of mov- ■ ■ ing his head. This is a ^ politically correct Mario, animal patting Mario, tree-hugging Mario. The fire is gone. c TH * T i3: l Whilst 2D Mario has the attitude, style and power, and age, we don’t know which is more appealing. M aspects of the fat pipe-fixing, pasta slurping gamin* now we tend towards the )D Mario has the looks and the brains. In this day aybe Future Mario will be able to combine all these hero and put the issue to rest once and for all. For ough exterior of 2D Mario! Shigeru Miyamoto has already let the cat out of the bag when it comes to Super Mari this mean a goatee? Smoking habit? Maybe future Mario will get around with a pipe (he’s been with Luigi long enough), so maybe Super Mario 2 is going to educate the Yoshi has to factor into things somehow too... hey anything can happen in videogan > 2. Mario is going to be older and more mature. Does and slippers. Either that or he’s going to be married laming world on same-sex relationships. Of course, 5 > d3dAH« 6T »ELIOT FISH THE EPIC ADVENTURE TO SAVE PARADISE MOW AVAILABLE OI\l PC CD-ROIVI www.startrek.com www.activision.com AcIiVisiOH Follow orders from Captain Picard, using your Tricorder and Communicator to gather helpful facts. Mission-based action welcomes players of all ability levels in an adventure of stealth and combat. Picard. Data. The U.S.S. Enterprise crew. You joined the Federation to serve with these legends, and suddenly your dream has become a reality. Nine months after Star Trek: Insurrection , you find yourself embroiled in a plot to harness the immortality powers of the fountain of youth planet. You must engage alien forces and outwit your foes in a series of challenging missions...or else the Federation will fall victim to its ruthless archenemy. TM. '. & 1999 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision. Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. y-*' t : flT , ffl rl \ JtV j P ' \-/m Explore a mysterious, ancient Star Trek civilisation, lushly re-created in immense 3-D environments. Take on foes with deadly weapons, such as phasers and—for the first time ever- the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. »ANDREW "STROBER" ROBEr] multiplayer gaming. SYDNEY GAMERS LEAGUE f ♦ f The Sydney Gamers League (http://sgl.golsyd.net.au) Quake2 finals were held in August. The day consisted of Duel matches and the final of the Team DM 4 on 4 comp. Python was tipped to win the Duel comp from the start, and noone really gave him much trouble. Out of all the Duels he played all day, the closest score difference was 23 Frags which was achieved by socceroo (the run¬ ner-up). Python took home a 56k V.90 modem thanks to our sponsor Golsyd (http://www.golsyd.net.au). The top 3 clans, Draconic Guild, Black Hand and Vortex, also battled it out at the finals day to see who was the best Quake 2 clan in Sydney. BH and vTx had to go to war first to see who would play DG in the final. BH had first choice of maps, and they chose the map "Strike”. It was a very tight game with BH taking off first and getting heaps of frags. vTx were not going to go quietly, and they came back. The game was filled with stress with BH ahead but vTx not far behind them the entire way. The sec¬ ond map was vTx’s best map, q2dmi. Python was the star of this game as per usual. The vTx total frag count was 69, and python alone scored a massive 65 frags. BH won the semis, since they won 2 maps when it was best of 3 maps. BH went into the finals with a great chance of winning, since they had the Duel winner Python. DG chose the map q2dms. BH have been practicing this map a fair bit since they knew that DG liked the map. DG took off from the beginning, and even tho BH came back strongly near the end, it just wasn’t enough to win. The next map was chosen by BH. They chose q2dmi, and since DG lost to vTx the last time they played on this map, BH had a very good chance. DG went into this match with 1 game up and in a bet¬ ter frame of mind, because BH knew if they lost this, they would lose the finals. DG came together like they never did before and their team work was the best it has ever been. DG took off like a shot gun shutting down Python and taking control of the map. BH made a short come back, but it was nothing threatening. DG won the SGL Quake2 Team DM 4 on 4 comp. The day went off without a hitch and the network was excellent thanks to the great ClanLANd (http://clan- land.dhs.org) network equipment. Now Fresh and DG go to the ACGP finals to play Australia’s best. Fresh came third in the duel comp and since Python can’t make it due to his HSC and socceroo can’t make it due to other commitments, Fresh will be rep¬ resenting NSW. Next Season SGL is going to start a Quake3 and RTS league. If you live in Sydney and you enjoy LANning, goto http://sgl.golsyd.net.au and check it out. Dear StTober, How come when I play online games, I keep getting killed? Am 1 doing something wrong? From LardArse (via Email) Dear LardArse, You keep getting killed because... you are a bad player. This leaves you with two choices. Practice or take up basket weaving. You would be surprised how reward¬ ing a good basket can be when done correctly! Remember; When playing a new game, if you don’t get anywhere in the first 10 minutes, quit. Strober comas HUGE EXCLUSIVE RAYMAN 2 GIVEAWAY! FLOATY GLITTER PEN RAYMAN 2 FOR NINTENDO 64 OR PC RAYMAN BUSINESS CARD HOLDER Rayman 2 is arriving on Nintendo 64 and PC this month and to celebrate Ubi Soft have put together a fantastic prize pack¬ age exclusive to Hyper readers! A huge bundle of cool Rayman 2 stuff has arrived at Hyper Headquarters, and we’re happy to announce we can giveaway 10 massive prize packs along with 3 very special first prize packs for the first three correct entries drawn. The prizes consist of the following mad gear... 3 FIRST PRIZES consisting of... 1 copy of Rayman 2 for Nintendo 64 or PC (you must specify on your entry) 1 cool inflatable Rayman chair 1 swish Rayman stopwatch 1 Rayman designer clock radio 1 bubble-faced Rayman wristwatch 1 Rayman floaty glitter pen 1 set of Rayman trainer shoe laces 1 engraved silver-coloured Rayman business card holder ...phew!! 10 RUNNERS UP will receive... 1 Rayman floaty glitter pen 1 set of Rayman trainer shoe laces 1 engraved silver-coloured Rayman business card holder 1 bubble-faced Rayman wristwatch RAYMAN TRAINER SHOE LACES COOL INFLATABLE RAYMAN CHAIR RAYMAN DESIGNER CLOCK RADIO SWISH RAYMAN STOPWATCH Rayman 2 is a gorgeous platformer, so you really don't want to miss out on all this exclusive gear! To be in with a chance to win this great stuff, do your best to answer the following question... WHICH COUNTRY WAS THE RAYMAN 2 CAME MADE IN? Write the correct answer on the back of an envelope, along with your name and address and whether you want the PC or Nintendo 64 version of the game. Then mail it to: G’DAY RAY, HYPER, 78 RENWICK ST, REDFERN, NSW 2016. Thanks to Ubi Soft for this great gaming giveaway! BUBBLE-FACED RAYMAN WRISTWATCH 23 »HYPER 24 »HYPER PC/PLAYSTATION 2 Though it’s being developed for PC, we’ve had solid reports that this interesting and sparkling 1 ife- sim/shoot-'em-up combo from Computer Artworks in the UK is planned for the PlayStation 2. The idea is that you control creatures in an ever-evolving environment and attempt to stop a virus from destroying everything, combining action with sim-like variables. Your character, the Cenohunter, can evolve after extracting DNA from a victim and morph to take advantage of whatever strengths your opponent possessed. Certainly the game has a strong visual appeal, but it seems we will be waiting until 2000 to get our hands on a functioning version of the game to see if the gameplay makes any sense whatsoever. COMPUTER ARTWORKS (Slave Zero VCCOLADE )REAMC AST/PC This is one of those games that literally Jmakes you dribble all over your shirt People here at the Hyper office been checking on me to make sure I hadn’t passed out with my eyes Veil... Like a trout between the Slave Zero is simply stunning! The engine is called the Ecstasy Engine and there’s absolutely no doubtinc [that. The environments are buzzinc vith life, and your character Sla Zero completely dwarfs most of his (surroundings. The game will also 16 player multiplayer mode although we’re not sure how that vork on the Dreamcast and if it will playable over the Dreamcast Network Slave Zero is all about creating mass carnage, but... it looks too pretty t Ismash! We want it now! eve candy 25 »HYPER 26 »HYPER Before we’ll be rolling in the gaming good¬ ness of Warcraft 3 sometime towards the middle to end of the year 2000, we should have been able to completely have devoured the delicious-looking Diablo 2 - also from Blizzard! PLATFORM PC AVAILABLE Not soon enough CATEGORY Role Playing Strategy PLAYERS IS PUBLISHER Blizzard in» sight tracked with whilst attempting to com¬ plete their mission objectives. These encounters will affect the game in a positive or negative way, hence the ’role-playing' tag Blizzard have now slapped on the game. Your party will even encounter towns that are not related to your mission, for a more engrossing exploration process as you get sidetracked with quests. When exploring, cut-scenes may ensue, util¬ ising the new 3D engine, with non¬ player characters possibly joining your party or giving you cool magical items. The world simply has more of a non¬ linear design to it, although it is still structured for comprehensive strategy warfare. Sounds a bit like some of the elements of Diablo and Myth may have found their way into Warcraft. us to "Role Playing Strategy", a pleasing twist on the Real Time Strategy genre. Warcraft 3 will finally give the series another whole layer of depth and interaction. Games will be played out with a smaller group of units, allowing the player to become more attached to their bunch of characters who will develop as the game pro¬ gresses. The world out there which is covered in the Fog of War, is now populat¬ ed with wan¬ dering mon¬ sters and non¬ player characters which your units will be able to be side- I There’s a storm brewing. In fact, a blizzard you could say. Warcraft 3 is no longer a well-kept secret and developer Blizzard are proud to give the world a glimpse at the next great strategy title in the classic series. After taking a minor detour through space with Starcraft, it’s back to those hairy Ores and cantankerous wizards. Not content enough with the classic Warcraft for- A young Ore by the name of Thrall was captured by the humans after the Dark Portal was destroyed, but thanks to his natural Orcish beefiness, has managed to escape to discover what hap¬ pened to his fellow Ores. Sadly, most live in tidy little law-abiding towns, which isn’t very thirsty and orcish at all now is it? Thrall joins together with some rogue Ores and they form the new Horde, with Thrall as its Warchief. The human armies of Azaroth are getting geared up to fend off these Ores, when a third race enters the fray which threatens to wipe out everybody. The demonic Burning Legion come from somewhere in the heavens, and their insatiable lust for magic and power threatens to strip the land clean of every other living creature whether Ore or Human. How will the humans and ores fight back against the Burning Legion whilst still resolving their own war? We’ll hav to wait until we can play Warcraft 3! Yay! Blizzard has remained cagey about whether Warcraft 3 will appear on any of the videogame consoles. A Mac version is almost guaranteed, but we'd like to be able to play Warcraft 3 on our Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 or 128-bit Nintendo console! Hopefully, console gamers won’t be left out in the dark. GET TO KNOW YOUR OF The three main races - in terms of the greater plot of the game - are human, ore and the demonic Burning Legion, there will be a total of six different races to play as in the land of Azeroth. Each race will require the player to develop vastly dif¬ ferent tactics due to a greater variety of capabilities for each race. The Humans for instance, will include Elven and Dwarven units, and the Ores will have Trolls and Minotaurs under their command. Warcraft 3 is based around the idea of having a certain number of Heroes to control throughout your game. These are the units which rise in level, can be equipped with an inventory and who will play a greater role in determining how your game progresses. Each player’s town will contain a ’Keep’ where you will create your units and heroes. The Keep is naturally a main target, so the game will revolve around keeping it protected whilst upgrading it and it’s units. It sounds like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 has had an influence here as well. Resource management is still going to play a huge role, with gold being your true source of power. Gold can be acquired in Warcraft 3 by solving mini¬ quests or crushing a few wandering monsters with your heroes! Blizzard have chosen a 3D engine this time around, finally doing away with the simplistic 2 D animation of the other games in the series. The gaming per¬ spective is now much lower to the ter¬ rain, with the camera fixed on the hero you currently have selected. Blizzard are aiming to make the default camera view completely suited to all aspects of the game, to save the player having to read- will seem to 1 alter the game’s effects and unit behaviour v be customised. Warcraft 3 already sounds like it’s going to suck away a few months of our lives, and the editor promises to almost ensure we won’t be in the standing position until it’s — m time to see the family doctor about the haemorrhoids! 1 just their perspective constantly as they play. Clearly, the artists working on Warcraft 3 are a frighteningly talented bunch, so a polygonal Warcraft game sounds good as guns. The designs show truckloads of personality. One of the features of Warcraft 3 we’re getting really excited about is the inclu¬ sion of an all-new, all-powerful editor. Not only will we be able to restructure campaigns, create custom units and 28 »HYPER PLATFORM PC AVAILABLE December CATEGORY Actisn/Adventure P LAYERS 1 PUBLISHER LucasArts The last time we took a look at Indiana Jones, he was cowering under his Fedora whilst the Star Wars Episode One juggernaut trundled out of LucasArts. Happily, we can report that Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is back on the hot plate, and LucasArts are gearing up for it’s hotly anticipated release. Having not released an Indiana Jones game since the classic point-and- in » sight f INDIANAftJONES click adventuring of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, many are concerned that this time around, Indy’s new 3D engine means more 'Tomb Raidering’ than puz¬ zle solving. Now that Hyper have had a chance to take Indy home and give him a good examination...er... let’s re-phrase that shall we? Now that we’ve had a chance to play through an unfin¬ ished version of the game, we can give you the low-down. No prizes for guessing that Infernal Machine is indeed a '3D platformer’ version of the Indiana Jones legend. The first thing that strikes you when getting behind the controls, are the obvious simi¬ larities to... yes... Tomb Raider. We hate to have to admit it, but the original Raider is now following Lara’s footsteps. Of course, Indy has the bonus of all those cool moves that Lara couldn’t rip-off, such as getting out the bullwhip and giving it a good crack and Indiana is far cooler with a Colt .45 too. Visually, Infernal Machine is (very predictably) gorgeous at times, although the design of the environments doesn’t seem to offer a great deal more than ’platforming’ duties and the poly¬ gon count seems a little lower than expected. Indiana’s animation is top- notch though, and the controls feel intuitive. When entering combat, Indy has a bit of a problem aiming his gun (using the Tomb Raider auto-aim con¬ cept) which can make it difficult dis¬ patching the Russian baddies (yeah, what’s with the distinct lack of Nazis?), but third-person games all seem to suf¬ fer from this minor problem. GODLESS COMMUNISTS Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was also making it to the PlayStation, but it seems that LucasArts have abandoned it which is surely disappointing to console gamers everywhere. Could we see Indy on Dreamcast? Possibly. LucasArts have a knack at presenting their games with a great story and heaps of character, so playing Indy is still quite compelling, regardless of the fact that it seems to lack anything innovative or exciting for it’s genre. Overall, this is Indiana Jones through and through, and it feels good to finally get to take part in more of Indy’s action elements... that’s what the films were all about, right? AI\ID THE INFER MACHINE in» sight puts him away to be C ^ played with ^Kg later. Thus, Buzz Vr and the gang set ▼ ^ ^ j out on a rescue * mission hoping to ^ return home before Andy comes back from summer camp. In all seriousness though, Toy Story 2 is a 3D platformer that follows the story of the film across seven worlds. The play¬ er controls Buzz Lightyear in his quest to rescue Woody, and fight off the toy col¬ lector’s evil minions. It’s looking quite good, and certainly it’s an improvement over A Bug’s Life. Buzz can do all sorts of platformy moves, from double jumps and rope climbing to riding flying foxes. One of the most promising aspects we noticed is that the cam- era sits quite a bit back from Buzz, creating a much needed sense of scale, allowing you to plan your movements better. Hopefully as entertaining as the movie promises to be. ■ According to a completely insane guy we talked to at Central Station, Toy Story 2's plot is going to take a more adult tack than the previous film. He described it as a cross between Reefer Madness, Menace to Society and Edward Penishands. Allegedly, what happens is that medieval torture master Andy has shipped off to summer camp, and left the toys to their own devices. The bugger didn’t leave money or any of the essentials - coffee, 40 ounces, Phillies Blunts or groinal attachments. What are the toys to do? Before they could bake up irf* some special brownies, a nasty toy collector came along and stole Woody. He’s never V seen a Woody this big - apparently it’s a collector's 1 item. The collector polishes his new Woody furiously and then & ^ At this stage, Thrasher looks like it will get everything right, with freeform environments, professional motion cap¬ ture, an awesome hip hop soundtrack and baggy pants galore. You’ll have six skaters to select from, and their skills will range from ultra-techy to ultra- burly. There will be 15 completely inter¬ active stree* ments. and several real life skate spots to rip up. Your skater will also have a damage meter (or. as we like to call it, a Stack-O- Meter 1 ), so if you stack too many times you’ll snap your board... and probably your neck. Skateboarding is notFcrime... if you can avoid the cops that is. Rather than skat¬ ing withftjcon- ventional time limit, you'll have to skate hard before the corc show up to beat you down. Better yet, you must Skaters rejoice! Coming soorr from Rockstar games is Thrasher: Skate and Destroy, and it's looking good... very good. After all, who better to go up against Tony Hawk than Thrasher magazine? It’ll be heavyweight versus heavyweight. their tazars) and get to pile qi the&i^ior your score to count. Sound|KnWplhould have included a ^HWA track in the game... heh. Thrasher: Skate and Destroy has been ^Ked back to January 2000, so you can Bpect a very polished game by that ?tage. A good thing too, because Thrasher will need to be something very special to compete with the current king of the deck Tony Hawk Skateboarding. PLABOIM PlayStation/Nintendo 64/Dreamcast PU8USHIR Disney Interactive PLATFORM PlayStation AVAIUHI January 2000 CATEGORY Skateboarding PUBLISHER Rockstar/Take 2 Skating with several othe* competitors srTu_rtar«ously A better career mode than Tony Hawk Skate boarding 29 »HYPER 30 »HYPER in» sight PLAIMET OF THE APES WATFWBI Dreamcast/FC AVAIIAIU late 2180 CATiCIIY Actiiu/Hventire PIAYI8S 1 _ PliliiSHER Fn Interactive When the Planet of the Apes film came out, it was truly frightening. This was no kids movie. The apes were quite happy to torture and hunt humans, and they weren’t exactly pretty to look at either. This is hoping we will experience the same kind of dread in the Dreamcast game. mm mr APE ESCAPE Charlton Heston was the man. Not only did he kick arse as Ben Hur in his sturdy chariot (which was the inspiration for the Pod Race sequence in The Phantom Menace), but he starred in the awesome cult film Planet of the Apes. Next year, we’ll all be able step inside Chuck’s shoes and see what it felt like to be a slave to the simians in the Dreamcast game based on the film. Set in the dark sci-fi setting of a gruesome parallel future Earth, the Apes have evolved beyond man and taken control, enslaving us all. Ulysses is the human hero of the game, and must get about the creepy 3D land¬ scape solving both fiendish puzzles and getting dirty in hand-to-hand combat against the nasty apes. MONKEY MAGIC Cameplay looks like a combination of Metal Cear Solid style stealth with third- person perspective action. Developer Visiware are currently slaving away like monkeys to bring both the visual appeal of the cult film and the intrica¬ cies of the classic novel by Pierre Boulle to the game, and from what we’ve seen they are doing a remarkable job. Planet of the Apes on Dreamcast is a great indication that some games aimed pri¬ marily at more mature gamers are com¬ ing to the console, to help balance out the plethora of 3D platforming games currently in development. Planet of the Apes should be a nice gritty challenge that pulls no punches. We can’t wait to see how this turns out. m»sig> NKEYKON TV IP PLATFORM Nintendo 84 AVAILABLE December 1 CATEGORY 31 Platfermer PLATERS 1-4 1 1 Rare/Nintendo Finally, we’ve been able to catch up with our hairy friend and get a little 'hands on’ action. Hold on, let us explain! We’re actual¬ ly talking about Donkey Kong 64 from Rare making its way to our Nintendo 64. Donkey Kong (funny, when you think about it, what has a Donkey got to do with any¬ thing even remotely gorilla-related?) is almost upon us for Christmas, and luck¬ ily we’ve been able to actually play through some of the game to get a better idea of what to expect in the final "bursting with megs’’ cart. SHOW ME THE MONKEY It’s stunning to see what Rare manage to squeeze out a Nintendo 64 console, and it makes us wonder why it seems so hard for all the other games devel¬ opers to achieve similar results. Is it money? Time? Whatever it is that the other develop¬ ers don’t have, Rare must be loaded with it, as they seem to know how to make the N64 sing with visual and aural goodness. The preview we were lucky enough to take a look at, involved a lengthy Donkey Kong Rap, complete with old Cranky on the turntables. Cute. The new cast - Donkey, Diddy, Lanky, Chunky and Tiny, each possessing their unique attributes, all leap around the screen with true character and style. Rare have excelled with better music, animation, light¬ ing and design than we’ve pre¬ viously seen from them before to make DK64 immensely playable from the get- go. There is also a multiplayer side to the game, which is just as entertaining as Diddy Kong Racing’s 'deathmatch' modes. Donkey Kong is equipped with a coconut shotgun, whilst Diddy packs two peanut pistols, so there isn’t just head-jumping to be done. The meat of Donkey Kong 64’s gameplay though, is still col¬ lecting bananas. However there are other elements too, such as a limited amount of out-of-reach golden bananas and in some instances, keys which unlock other areas to explore. So back¬ tracking, Donkey Kong 64 is shaping up really nicely! Let's just pray that Nintendo are nice enough to sell the cart with the 4MB Expansion Pak packed in. © experimentation and a bit of lateral thinking will be required. Rare’s 3D Donkey Kong 64 engine is lush and gorgeous, though not far removed from Banjo Kazooie. Donkey Kong 64 has a sense of epic landscape that other N64 platformers can’t achieve, with some levels revealing themselves to be much larger than you initially think. The old mine-cart levels are back, but this time we play them from a third-person perspective travelling into the screen which results in a far more hair-raising ride. Of course, DK64 requires the 4MB expansion pak to run, but the results are spectacular. ★ 32 »HYPER looming THE BIG HYPER LIST OF GAMES TO BE RELEASED WITHIN THE NEXT MONTH. RELEASE DATES - THOUGH SUPPLIED BY THE GAMES DISTRIBUTORS - ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ★ Stuff to get sweaty over! /A Sd#' [21 ■■■ — "’Til D pq S3! _ SOUL CALIBUR N64 NOVEMBER Disney Magical Tetris Donkey Kong 64 Knockout Kings 2000 Kobe Bryant Courtside 2 NBA Live 2000 Nightmare Creatures 2 Rainbow Six Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Skate Space Invaders Sprocket Supercross 2000 Top Gear Hyperbike Top Gear Rally 2 Vigilante 8 WCW Mayhem Gameboy NOVEMBER 2001: Toon Odyssey Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 4 Cat Woman Daikatana De Ja Vu 1 & 2 F-15 Strike Eagle FIFA 2000 Knockout Kings Missle Command Mission Impossible Mr Nutz Muppets NHL Pro 99 NHL 2000 Papyrus Ronaldo Football Space Invaders Supreme Snowboarding Suzuki Alstare Racing T0CA Touring cars Thrasher Tin Tin and the Sun Temple Tom & Jerry Tonka Raceway Total Soccer Track and Field Oecathalon WCW Mayhem Wicked Surfing World Rally Worms Yoda Stories PlayStation NOVEMBER Ace Combat 3 Arcade Party Pack Demolition Racer Die Hard 2 Dune 2000 Ehrgeiz Grudge Warriors International Cricket Captain Johnny Herbets Grand Prix Knockout Kings 2000 Le Mans Medal of Honor Music 2000 NBA Live 2000 Nightmare Creatures 2 Premier Manager 2000 Prince Naseem Boxing Rainbow Six Rally Masters Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Riding Star Sheep! Supercross 2000 The Golf Pro Tomb Raider 4 Tomorrow Never Dies Urban Chaos Vigilante 8 WCW Mayhem Warpath. Jurassic Park Worms Pinball Wu Tang: Taste the Pain Xena: Warrior Princess Dreamcast NOVEMBER Buggy Heat Dynamite Cop 2 Metropolis NBA Showtime Slave Zero Soul Calibur Vigilante 8 WL Soccer PC NOVEMBER Airport Inc. Arcatera Bombing the Reich Demolition Racer Desert Fighters Diablo 2 Die Hard 2 F-18 Half-Life Opposing Force Harley Davidson: Road to Sturgis Hyper the Time Quest Le Mans Michelle Kwan Figure Skating Music 2000 Nox Pharaoh Quake 3 Arena Shanghai Dynasty Slave Zero Spec Ops 2 Star Trek: Hidden Evil Supreme Snowboarding Tomb Raider 4 Tribes Extreme Ultima Ascension Urban Chaos WWII Flight Combat 95 Alio Of Empires II: The Aajp Of Kinj^s (MA15+) Conqper nival empires in this real time strategy game. Players are challenged to build their nations into great cultures through combat economic, trade and diplomacy features. Travel back in time to a place where royalty ruled the land. A M Fokemon Yellow 0 * GameBoy Color (0). The special Pikachu edition in a series of Pokemon games for your GameBoy Color. You can watch Pikachu follow you around because he won’t go in his Pokeball. There is also a feature for making stickers with the Game Boy printer. 95 Segp Rally 2 Dreameast Sega Rally 2 is one high-speed, off-road racing thrill-ride. Burn through brutal terrain as you navigate treacherous tracks and unpredictable weather. Maximise your champion potential by fully customising your mean racing machine. 95 Speed Freaks PSX (6) Speed Freaks is a character-based racing game with rich, hi-res graphics, fantastic sound and a true split-screen four player mode. It is one of the fastest, smoothest, most addictive arcade-style racing games on the market CLASSIFICATIONS: (G) For all age Recommended for persons 15 year HN20599 AUBURN SUPERSTORE BALGOWLAH SUPERSTORE BLACKTOWN CAMPBELLTOWN CARINGBAH SUPACENTA CHATSWOOD CHASE GORDON CENTRE LIVERPOOL MEGACENTA MOORE PARK SUPACENTA PENRITH WILEY PARK A heaven for gamers, kids. mums, and dads alike, with a huge range of titles to choose from. There is something to suit everyone and prices that won’t break the bank from as low as $H.95. Our staff can offer advice on all aspects of the latest and greatest games available for your PC. Nintendo Color Game Boy or PlayStation, so why not check out one of the most exciting areas of the store. ARMIDALE BATHURST COFFS HARBOUR DENILIQUIN DUBBO ERINA GRAFTON INVERELL LISMORE MAITLAND MOREE MUDGEE NEWCASTLE SUPERSTORE NOWRA ORANGE PARKPQ PORT MACQUARIE TAMWORTH TAREE WAGGA WAGGA WARRAWONG YOUNG FYSHWICK WODEN PLAZA ASPLEY OPEN 7 DAYS CARINDALE EVERTON PARK OPENS NOVEMBER MT GRAVATT GOLD COAST OPEN 7 DAYS NOOSA HEADS OPENS NOVEMBER TWEED HEADS SOUTH OPEN 7 DAYS SUNSHINE COAST OPEN 7 DAYS BUNDABERG CAIRNS OPEN 7 DAYS GLADSTONE OPEN 7 DAYS ROCKHAMPTON NORTH TOOWOOMBA TOWNSVILLE DANDENONG GREENSBOROUGH PLAZA MARI8YRN0NG BALLARAT GEELONG SHEPPARTON TRARALGON WARRNAMBOOL • ENFIELD OPENS NOVEMBER • MARION OPEN MON-SAT • ALBANY • BUNBURY • BUSSELTON • CANNINGTON • GERALDTON • JOONDALUP NOW OPEN • KALGOORLIE • KARRATHA • 0 CONNOR NOW OPEN • OSBORNE PARK • PORT HEDLAND • PORT KENNEDY The computer products in this advertisement may not be on display in Karratha franchised ROSNY•LAUNCESTON BURNIE • DEVONPORT • ULVERSTONE Some goods may not be on show or available at each Harvey Norman Franchised store no Hu gooo $81 kQE| Rally Championship P 2000(G). Features multiple driving positions, fully operational 3D dashboard instruments, a superb selection of top rally cars, new crash, collision and damage routines and comprehensive multi-player options. 34 »HYPER playstation 2 i: playstation 2 The most anticipated new home gaming console is Sony's PlayStation 2. Thanks to the incredible long-term success of the first PlayStation, there are millions of gamers all over the world who are happy to save their bucks and wait a whole year for the PS2. Are they crazy? Are they blindly fol¬ lowing a mega-corporation? Or are they wisely waiting for what will be the greatest gam¬ ing console ever designed? Let Hyper make things a little clearer for you... Eliot Fish takes a long, hard look at what could result in either boom or bust for Sony Computer Entertainment... 35 »HYPER 36 »HYPER playstation 2 WHAT IS FACTP Cold hard facts on the PlayStation 2 (or PS2 as we should start to refer to it) have dribbled out of Sony about as easily as blood from a stone. Even if we planted a 'mole" over at Sony's offices to rifle through desk drawers and poke behind cupboards to uncover some hot PlayStation 2 infor¬ mation, we’d probably only end up with a broken con¬ troller and a mangled copy of Playboy. This kind of super¬ secret development only really rivals that of the next Star Wars movie (and actually, a link between the PS2 and George Lucas isn’t so far-fetched as we’ll explain a bit later), so what DO we "officially” know? What can we rely on as 110% absolute fact? Well, considering Sony’s own paranoia over industry-polluting rumours flying about the internet, we can only hope that what they announce as fact is indeed that. From what we have seen of the PS2 technol¬ ogy demos, it seems that everything they boast they can achieve with the hardware will indeed turn out to be true. There’s no doubt that many people have remained quite skeptical about whether Sony can manufacture the machine that they said they would, due to the costly, cut¬ ting-edge technology involved. But now we’re been treat¬ ed to finished designs of the console itself and developers the world over have been receiving expensive develop¬ ment kits, we can safely assume that Sony simply put their money where their mouth is. The PlayStation has dominat¬ ed the home console market for such a long period of time, that Sony are in a very comfortable position. Essentially, they have the money and the market penetration to ensure that the PlayStation 2 sells absolutely millions of units at its launch. In fact, Sony are so confident that they jokingly hope to have 5 million PS2 units ready for the Japanese launch on March 4th, 2000. Never has an upcoming home games console had such a sure-fire chance at successfully dominating the industry for a second time in a row. Of course, Sega have a head start and Nintendo have a longer development period for their hardware design, so it could be just as easy that Sony become the pickle in the sand¬ wich instead of the meat. Microsoft are also lurking around the comer with a top-secret console... Will gamers be willing to pay extra for DVD capabili¬ ties? Do people simply think the console’s design looks stupid? PS2 will still have to prove itself in the console playground, regardless of how good it looks on paper... THE OFFICIAL TECH SPECS. .. Suggested Retail Price (Japan): 39,800 Yen Available: March 4th, 2000 (Japan) / Late 2000 (Australia) Accessories: "Dual Shock n 2 analog controller High capacity 8MB Memory Card Playstation Demo Disc AV Multi cable AC power cord Dimensions: 301mm (W) X 178mm (D) X 78mm (D) 12" x 7" x 3" Weight: 2.iKg Ulbs iooz) Media: PlayStation CD- ROM, DVD-ROM, PlayStation CD-ROM Formats supported: Audio CD. DVD-Video Interfaces: Controller port (2) Memory Card slot (2) AV Multicable output (1) Optical digital output (1) USB port (2) i.Link (IEEE1394) (1) Type III PCMCIA card slot (1) PlayStation 2 Basic Specifications and Features CPU: 128 Bit "Emotion Engine" System Clock Frequency: 294.912 MHz Main Memory: Direct RDRAM Memory Size: 32MB Co-processor: FPU (Floating Point Unit) Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 1, Floating Point Divider x 1 Vector Units: VUo and VUi Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 9, Floating Point Divider x 3 FPU performance 6.2 Gigaflops Graphics "Graphics Synthesizer" Clock Frequency: 147 456MHz Embedded Cache: VRAM 4M8 Pixel Configuration: RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8:32) Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 million polygons per second (without effects) DRAM Bus bandwidth: 48GB per Second DRAM Bus width: 2$6obits Sound: SPU2 Number of Voices: 48ch plus software Sound Memory: 2MB IOP: I/O Processor CPU Core: PlayStation CPU* Clock Frequency: 33.8688MHz or 36.864MHz (Selectable) IOP Memory: 2MB Disc Device: CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Device Speed: CD-ROM 24 times speed / DVD-ROM 4 times speed ...AND WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN THE PRICE: The price of the PlayStation 2 here in Australia is a very difficult figure to nail down. Current estimates for the US price are around the $400 mark. This would roughly mean that an Australian price could be anywhere from $400 to $600. Some even speculate we would be paying up THE MEMORY CARD: At a whopping 8MB, sounds very handy indeed. The transfer rate will be 250 times faster than the current memory card, and it will also have an authentication and encryption system called the "MagicGate" which we can only assume has something to do with downloading stuff off the PS2 network onto your Memory Card via the PS2. THE POCKETSTATION: Will also be compatible with the new PS2, although this hasn’t been mentioned in the offi¬ cial specs. Also, the Bandai Wonderswan handheld will be PS2 compatible via the WonderWave add-on which communicates with the PocketStation via an infrared device for some strange hand-held crossover gaming. SLOTS AND CHIPS USB PORT: USB is the new way for PC users to connect external devices, so no doubt your funky PS2 addons are attached here. Printer? Hard drive? Mouse? Keyboard? We’ll see. TYPE III PCMCIA CARD SLOT: This gives the PS2 room to expand with devices like a cable modem which you will have to buy seperately. i.LINK (IEEE1394): This is a high performance port (also called Firewire) built in to connect devices which need a super-fast bandwidth. Sony haven’t revealed what this has been designed for. THE EMOTION ENGINE: The much talked about emo¬ tion engine is the PS2's CPU running at a clock speed close to 30oMhz. The Sega Dreamcast’s CPU runs at 200Mhz and the next Nintendo console’s CPU runs at a reported 400Mhz. Whilst 30oMhz may not sound like much when you put it into a PC context, it’s not really how you can judge a console. These consoles are designed to be dedicated to producing 3D graphics, whilst PCs are not. They way the unit is designed and how it functions with the graphics chip is the all- important info. THE GRAPHICS SYNTHESISER: This is where the PS2 chums out all the special visual effects that will make your eyes pop out of your head. Texture maps, filtering, light¬ ing, mip-mapping, bi-linear filtering, anti-aliasing, tex¬ ture-correction and Z-buffering to name just a few techy terms will simply mean the most realistic graphics yet seen on any platform. Full-screen anti-aliasing will allow "PSE WILL STILL HAVE TO PROVE ITSELF IN THE CONSOLE PLAYGROUND. REGARDLESS OF HOW GOOD IT LOOKS ON PAPER... THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS Who’s responsible for designing the look of the PS2? His name is Tadahiro Gotoh, and he's younger and better looking than you’d expect. No wild crazy Einstein hanr or small spectacles, no mutant head or strange humpback - this guy is a futuristic console designer and you can see it in his walk, baby. With its sleek black and blue case, funky legs and an almost retro grill to the spine of the box, the PS2 is both adored and abhorred. Tadahiro Gotoh was inspired by "OuteT space, earth and water” which may help to explain why the console looks the way it does... Yeah okay, buddy. IS THIS TADAHIRO GOTOH? OUR SPIES INFORM US THAT IT COULD INDEED M... STYLIN'* to $800 again, just like some of us did when the original PlayStation was first released. Certainly, it’s all speculation at the moment, considering the Sega Dreamcast will be much cheaper by the time the PS2 arrives. Sony would want to ensure that gamers don’t perceive the PS2’s price to be bloated in comparison with the other consoles on the market, regardless of it’s power. It’ll certainly be more expensive, but maybe not as high as we think. ACCESSORIES: There will absolutely, without a doubt, be a PS2 keyboard and mouse, wheel and other as-yet-unan- nounced peripherals. For now though. Sony have decided to just tell us about the new Dual Shock 2 controller. Surprisingly, the design of the PS2 Dual Shock is hardly any different to the classic PSX controller. It is black which is nice, and the unseen feature is that all the buttons are ana¬ logue except for the "Start” and "Select" buttons. How will it feel to the touch? How will the standard buttons function in normal games? Is there a hidden button beneath the controller they haven’t told us about yet (like Nintendo kept the Z-Trigger quiet)? We won’t know for sure until developers start yakking about the games they’re working on. Still, an all-analogue controller sounds cool, and it will work with all the old Dual-Shock compatible PSX games! for smooth lines and none of those jagged edges you see when polygons rescale in real-time. Bezier curves will allow for rounded polygons, rather than roundish-looking polygons made up of triangles. This is where all the cool stuff gets calculated. Polygon crunching, though, is where people get confused. Sure Sony say the PS2 can chum out 75 million polygons per second, but this is without all the effects which make the visuals look so smooth and realis¬ tic. Once you add lighting and all the other layers of candy, plus intensive CPU calculations like AI, the graph¬ ics slow down to a figure somewhere around 20 million or less. Still damn impressive though. SOUND: Not much to explain here except that it sounds very impressive. The PS2 will support Dolby Digital, Aurreal 3D audio, DTS and other unannounced formats. THE I/O PROCESSOR: This is how the PS2 will be backwards compatible with the current I PlayStation games library. Basically, the PS2 | contains an old PlayStation CPU and CD-ROM drive, so it can understand the old PSX game discs and allow you to play them. It won’t make them look better or even play faster, KjJ although it’s possible that some ^ 1 SONY Developers will release ’Special Editions’ of older games which include enhanced graphics, if indeed the hardware allows them to utilise both the I/O Processor and the Emotion Engine at the same time. The I/O processor will also handle other functions for normal PS2 gaming. DOES THIS HOLD A DRINK OR WHATP A unique design element of the PS2, is that it has a Disc Tray instead of a lid which flips open. More like a PC tower design, the tray will not only prevent dam¬ age being done to the PS2’s insides, but it should also stop the "swap trick” and other lid-related woes. Interesting that it functions on its side! THE HYPER VERDICT ELIOT FISH: "I like it. Sexy and sleek. It also stands up like a PC tower which appeals to my boffin side. I’d love to see a PS2 in a silver and clear casing like a Mac C4 though.” CAM SHEA: "PC Tower? More like a heater. Slap some fake wood panelling on it and you’ve got yourself the mutant offspring of an Atari 2600 and an Intellivision. That said, it is starting to grow on me. After seeing the New Ridge Racer in motion, I’m frothing at the mouth.” Information is being leaked that the PS2 Hard Disk add-on will be available by the end of the year 2000. A whopping 50 Gigabytes in size, the user will be able to download media and store it on the Hard Disk for later viewing/listening/playing. Let’s hope it’s cheap, because at that sire, it’s far, far bigger than most current PC Hard Disks! E-DISTRIBUTION AND THE REALM OF DIGITAL MOVIES Sony don’t seem to be content with just making games. Their plans include producing and distribut¬ ing digital movies for use with the PS2 by the year 2002. Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi has even revealed that Sony have already contacted big name film creators such as George Lucas (the man behind the Star Wars saga) to investi¬ gate whether or not they would be interesting in pro¬ ducing digital movies for the PS2. The PS2 would be linked to a whole new network tied up with Cable TV to allow for downloading of these films directly into your console. Besides the obvious capability of dis¬ tributing new games via this new network directly to PS2 owners, Sony are keen to offer other mediums such as digital films, music and possibly even other as-yet-unannounced concepts via their new service. Sony have chosen to name this new network "E- Distribution”. To quote Sony themselves - "With an Ethernet connection to a broadband network such as digital cable, PlayStation users will be able to download data-intensive computer entertainment content to hard-disc drives to be provided by Sony Computer Entertainment.” Of course, we know that the PS2 is DVD compatible straight out of the box, so probably not all of these digital movies would have to be accessed via the E- Distribution network. We can safely assume that PS2 movies will be available for purchase alongside PS2 games on the shelf of your local store. playstation 2 A QUICK EBIPI1 _ Why only two controller ports? It seems a bit short sighted to not provide Instant four-player gaming. Do Sony really need to rake in extra cash from PS2 MultiTap sales? We're not very happy about this decision at all. 37 »HYPER 38 »HYPER 1 playstation 2 THE GAMES What will the games be like? This is the big ques¬ tion. It’s a no-brainer that they are going to be visually impressive, but can new ground be broken in terms of gameplay? Possibly. In fact, it looks as if we can say definitely! The genre which SquareSoft have labelled their PS2 game, The Bouncer, is "Playing Action Movie". This may be a nice way of saying "Action game with lots of FMV bits" or "Pretty to look at but on rails”, but from what we have seen of the game in motion, The Bouncer looks impressively hard to pigeonhole. The lines between FMV and gameplay are getting blur- rier. Then there’s a game such as Dark Cloud which seems to push the RPC into sim territory - on a console! These games are going to hopefully offer something special. gran turismo aooo Sony Category: Racing How real can a racing game get? Gran Turismo 2000 for the PlayStation 2 is frighteningly close to actually hopping behind the wheel of a brand new car and cutting sick like a madman. Besides the fact that the cars look like they are right off the showroom floor, the environments simply have an insane amount of detail, and when it comes to the driving mechanics, this is hardcore. GT 2000 looks like a relentless sim which requires the gamer to know the real ins and outs of their four-wheeled beast, despite having arcade-friendly features. A sure-fire hit. TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT Namco Category: 3D Fighting It’s slamming shit up at the arcades and the PS2 version should hopefully be the same kind of improvement on PS2 as Soul Calibur was on Dreamcast compared to it’s arcade counterpart. This means that the PS2 is going to have a kick- arse classic fighting title at launch, apart from the other fighting games also on the way to the PS2. There will be about 34 playable characters in the final cut which is quite astounding. The speed of the game has certainly been improved, and ’tag¬ ging’ with your chosen characters now more effi¬ cient than the arcade version. Namco haven’t elaborated yet on extra gameplay modes or improved features, but we can only assume they will ensure this is the best Tekken game ever. Until Tekken 4 of course. THE BOUNCER Square Category: Playing Action Movie or Seamless Battle Action System This is the PS2 game most people were talking about at the Tokyo Game Show. Square have a knack for presenting their games in the most cinematic way possible, and the Bouncer is no exception. Gameplay seems to be like a cross between Fighting Force, Final Fantasy and Shenmue from what we can discern by watching rolling demos of the game in action. It sure looks amazing. Characters seem to blend seam¬ lessly from stunning FMV to full-on controllable fist-fights. Some of the effects in the game truly show off the PS2’s power, from gushing life-like water to fire and smoke you can almost smell. There seems to be an option for a four- player action/adventure, although we were only shown a single-player game. The sooner the world gets to play this game the better. REISILIED Konami Category: RPG Featuring a wide-eyed Anime-style female lead character, Reisilied looks like Konami's effort to bring an epic Role Playing Game to the PlayStation 2 before Square have a chance to return us the land of Final Fantasy. Gameplay seems to involve traversing a fantastical land in real-time, only to enter into a battle-mode which is turn-based. ETERNAL RING Sony Category: First Person Shooter Before we see Quake, Unreal, Half-Life or any other First Person Shooter on the PS2, we will most likely be getting gibby with Sony’s own Eternal Ring. Set in a dark fantasy setting, Eternal Ring should satisfy the evil urges of the PS2’s more mature audience. ONIMUSHA: THE DEMON WARRIOR Capcom Category: Survival Horror meets Ancient Warrior Warfare Capcom have taken their Survival Horror concept and expanded the gameplay to include a bit of platform- ing, a bit more role-playing and a more hardcore approach to battle involving a tad more strategy. Featuring some incredible-looking Full Motion Video of warriors slaying each other, Onimusha is guaran¬ teed to turn heads simply with it’s standard of graphics. Stunning. STREET FIGHTER EX 3 Capcom Category: Fighting It’s Street Fighter. It’s 3D. It’s on PS2. That’s cool enough. DARK CLOUD Sony Category: RPC Dark Cloud looks like it should break the shackles of the Final Fantasy style RPC. A unique feature allows the player to rebuild the landscape and create their own towns which can then immediately be explored in-game. More sim features in RPCs can only mean greater depth and longterm playability. ARMOURED CORE 2 From Software Category: Action The original Armoured Core was one of those PlayStation delights for freaks into big robot action. Armoured Core 2 is being developed and it’s looking damn sexy. WIPEOUT GOLD Psygnosis Category: Racing Yeah baby. At time of going to press, Wipeout Cold (working title) had only just being leaked, just the fact that it’s in development is enough good news to last us until the PS2 Australian launch a whole year away! playstation 2 FINAL FANTASY Square Category: Multiplayer RPC The only word we have on a Final Fantasy game from Square for PS2 is that there will be one. Oh, and it will be ’network’ compatible suggesting that it’s a multiplayer RPC of some kind that could possibly be enjoyed on the PS2 with friends. Is that the sound of my knees knocking? Final Fantasy IX could be for both PSX 1 £ 2 with Final Fantasy X being the networkable PS2 title. Time will tell. NEW RIDGE RACER Namco Category: Racing Drool. Dribble. Drool. Mmmm... New Ridge Racer. Well, we don’t really know if this is what it will be called when it’s released, but when they say ’new’ they mean it! We have been watching the demo of Ridge Racer on PS2 over and over and still we can’t believe how gorgeous and real this game looks.# Sure the Ridge Racer girl is cute, but the cars and tracks just look better! The trees on the side of the track look almost like each leaf has been rendered seperately, and the way the PS2 can draw the backgrounds is unlike anything we have seen before, with a real sense of depth and scale to the city and it’s elements. Awesome. Oh we didn’t mention how fast the game plays? Damn fast. SILENT HILL 2 Konami Category: Action/Adventure Yes, a sequel to this survival horror title has been announced for PS2. Konami are cooking up quite a few things for the console, including a new Contra title too we hear. We’ll see how they take advantage of the PS2 S hardware... JAPANESE TITLES IN DEVELOPMENT [SUBJECT TO CHANEE1 A-Train 6 - Simulation (Artdink) Flower Sun and Rain - Action/Adventure (Ascii/Grasshopper) Panic Surfing - Sports/Action (Ascii/Opus) Billiards Master 2 - Sports (Ask) Sidewinder Max - 3D Flight/Shooting (Asmik Ace Entertainment) American Arcade - Pinball (Astroll) Pro Mahjong Kiwamc Next - Boardgamc (Athena) Mobile Suit Gundam - 3D Action (Bandai/Bc) Onimusha - TBA (Capcom) Street Fighter Ex3 — Fighting (Capcom) lakemasters Ex - Fishing (Daiz) Battle On The Ghat - Racing (Ecseco Development) Xfire - Action/Shooting (Electronic Arts/Square) Bbdaooo - Simulation (Enix) Bust A Moves - Dance (Enix) Exotica - Action/RPG (Enix) Fighting Qts - TV Game (Enix) Sonnette - Love Sim (Enix) Star Ocean 3 - RPC (Enix) Armored Core 2 - Action (From Software) Eternal Ring - RPG (From Software) Bakuryua - Sports (Fujimic) lade Cocoona - RPG (Genki) Fly High - Racing (Gust) Bloody Roar 3 - 3D Fighting (Hudson Soft) Bomberman 2001 - Action (Hudson Soft) Ai Igo 2001 ~ Board Games (14 Corporation) Ai Mahjong 2001 - Board Games (14 Corporation) Ai Shogi 2001 - Board Games (14 Corporation) Sky Surfer - Sports (Idea Factory) Wild Wild Racing - Racing (Imagineer) 1 On 1 Government - Action (lorudan) Tetsuman Menkyokaiden - Board game (Kaga Tech/Chatnoir) Kcsscn - Real Time Simulation (Koei) Mahjong Taikai - Mahjong (Koei) Shin Sangokumusou - Action (Koei) Soldnerschilda - Simulation/RPC (Koei) Drum Mania - Action (Konami) Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu 7 - Sports (Konami) Jikkyou World Soccer 2000 - Sports (Konami) Gradius - Shooting (Konami) Mahjong Yarouze - Board game (Konami) Reisilied - RPG (Konami) Fx Pilot - Flight/Shooting (Locus) Tuning Car Race Game - Racing (M2to) Magical Sports Catch Bass Club - Sports (Magical Company) Magical Sports Koshienzooo - Sports (Magical Company) Magical Sports Progolfer - Sports (Magical Company) Todai Shogi Shikenbisha Dojyo Shogi (Mainichi Communications) 500 GP - Racing (Namco) New Ridge Racer - Racing (Namco) Tekken Tag Tournament - 3D Fighting (Namco) World Neverland 3 - Simulation (Riverhillsoft) Ide Yohsuke No Majan Kazoku 2 - Board Game (Seta) Perfect Golf 3 - Golf (Seta) Dark Cloud — RPG (Sony) Den-Sen - Action (Sony) Fantavision - Action (Sony) Splash Dive - Action (Sony) Gran Turismo 2000 - Racing (Sony/Polyphony Digital) The King And l - RPG (Sugar £ Rockets/Sony) IQ Remix - Puzzle (Sugar £ Rockets/Sony) Popolocrois lii - RPG (Sugar £ Rockets/Sony) Tenchu 2 - Action (Sony) WRC - Rally Racing (Spike) The Bouncer - Playing Action Movie (Square/DTeam Factory) Shanghai) - Puzzle (Sun Corporation) Street Mahjong Trance Majin2 - Board game (Sun Corporation) Panzercentury G Breaker - Technical Simulation (Sunrise Interactive) 3d Golf-Sports (T£E Soft) Go By Train - Simulation (Taito Corporation) Choro Q Hg - Adventure/Racing (Takara) Ninja Gaiden(Kunai - Action (Tecmo) Unison - Action (Tecmo) Robocop - Action (Titus Japan) Roadsters Trophy 2000 -Racing (Titus Japan/Yuke's) Baki The Grappler - Action (Tomy/Arc) New Cool Boarders - Snowboarding (UEP Systems) Let’s Become A Pilotl - Simulation (Victor Interactive) F-i - Racing (Video System) 3D Real Drive - Driving Simulator (VR-i Japan) Soul Surfing - Action (Warashi) Morita Shougi - Board game (Yuki-Enterprise) 39 »HYPER 40 »HYPER playstation 2 DRUM MANIA Konami Category: Beat Sim Yes, and you thought it was safe to buy a PlayStation 2. Ever since Beatmania, Konami have never stopped developing new games in this genre. Drum Mania looks like one of the better ones, complete with funky sticks. With it’s unique drum-pad peripheral, Konami are going to bring this upcoming arcade title straight to PS2. Don’t bet any money that this is the last of this style of game from these crazy developers either. Yikes. MUNCH'S ODDYSEE Oddworld Inhabitants Category: 3D adventure For a while now, we have been aware that an Abe game would make it to the PlayStation 2, as Oddworld Inhabitants have been quite upfront with their enthusiasm for the PS2 tech specs. Well now we can finally get a look at what the game is going to look like, and frankly we are completely floored. If the gameplay is as good, then Munch’s Oddysee is going to be truly amazing! Oddworld Inhabitants have already stated that the game is being developed for PC hardware which doesn’t currently exist! THE COMPETITION Does the PlayStation 2 have anything to fear? SEGA The Dreamcast is already available, so everyone’s wonder¬ ing how Sega feel about the oncoming PS2. We thought we should allow Stephen O’Leary, communications man¬ ager for the DTeamcast here in Australia, to give us his perspective on how the Dreamcast will fare against Sony... DREAMCAST VERSUS PLAYSTATION 2 The word from Stephen O'Leary, Australian Dreamcast Communications Manager. "The Dreamcast system represents state-of-the- art graphics technology that makes new advances in creating 3D graphics that allows it to display levels of detail far in excess of what today’s high end PCs can provide. Even the recently announced PlayStation 2 console doesn’t feature many of the 3D graphic features supported by the Dreamcast’s chipset, and with the Dreamcast’s ease of program¬ ming and various API libraries (like Open CL, and Direct 3D) Dreamcast owners will be ensured many of the world’s best videogames. Dreamcast is the first console to adopt the standard development system for all PCs across the world today: Windows CE. This has resulted in an unprecedented 300 software development companies signing up to develop Dreamcast software. An unmatched 18 titles were recently released in the US, where in the first 24 hours, trading resulted in a massive $98,000,000 in stock sold across the counter. 300,000 units have already been sold within the first 2 weeks of trading, which is 8 times faster than Sony managed to sell the PlayStation when it was released in the US. Ozisoft will be setting up a dedicated server for internet connection, where users will be able to get online anywhere in Australia and access the great ser¬ vice we are establishing. You’ll be able to read all about Dreamcast games on the official website, down¬ load new mini games for your Visual Memory System, watch videos and listen to your favourite music on¬ line, and even do on-line shopping for all the items your heart can desire. On-line gaming will kick off early next year and there will be 12 on-line games by mid to late 2000. You’ll even be able to play games on¬ line and order a pizza at the same time, which will be delivered to your front door! Dreamcast also has expansion in mind. There will be DVD add-ons to play movies, cable modem for super¬ fast download speeds, zip drives to allow you to save any data you find on the net, and there’s a huge range of peripherals that is more comprehensive than any other console - heck we’ve even got a Fishing Rod!" NINTENDO Nintendo seem quietly confident that their next con¬ sole will have no problems with either the Dreamcast or the PS2. The extra development time they have had to design the hardware could mean that they are last out of the gates, but with the most impressive technical specs. Their choice to go with DVD over cartridge or CD- ROM is a major step in the right direction. MICROSOFT Microsoft apparently have a console in the works code- named the X-Box, a DVD machine using a special version of Windows 2000. Nothing much is known at this stage, except that it would have an internal Hard Disk, and would be a direct challenge to the PS2 in the year 2000. Microsoft isn’t giving anyone a straight answer yet. CIIIENT LIST OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN 0EVELNPER1 SIRNEN TO MARE P«1 IRFTUf ARE... 7 Studios 3DO Europe Ltd. Acclaim Entertainment. Inc. Acclaim Entertainment (Europe) Ltd. Activision. Inc. Activision UK Ltd. Agetec, Inc. Argonaut Software Ltd. American Softworks Corp. Codemasters Software Co., Ltd. Atfus U.S.A. Inc. Core Design Ltd. tungic Software Disney Interactive Inc. Capcom Entertainment Eden Studios SA Cemy Carnes EidosPk Crave Entertainment Electronic Arts Ltd. Digital Anvil Eurocom Developments Ltd. DreamWorks Interactive. LLC GTi Software Europe Ltd. Eidos Interactive Hasbro Interactive Ltd. Electronic Arts. Inc. infogTames Entertainment SA Enix Corporation Kalisto Entertainment SA Fox Interactive Konami of Europe GmbH GT interactive Software Corp. Lego Media International Hasbro Interactive Inc. Lionhead Studios Ltd. Humongous Entertainment, Subsidiary of GT Interactive Software Corp. Rage Software pic incredible Technologies, Inc. Reflections tnfogrames Entertainment Inc. Revolution Software Ltd. Insomniac Games Square Europe Ltd. Interplay Entertainment Corp. Take 2 Interactive Software Europe Ltd. Konami of America. Inc. THQ International Ltd. LucasArts Entertainment Company Travelers' Tales UK Ltd. Midway Home Entertainment Ubi Soft Entertainment SA Mindscapc unit of The Learning Company, division of Mattel. Inc. Virgin Interactive Entertainment Europe Ltd. Namco Hometek. Inc. Haughty Dog. Inc. Nevcrsoft Entertainment Oddworld Inhabitants Red Storm Entertainment. Inc. Shiny Entertainment. Inc. Siena On-Line Square Electronic Arts LLC. Stormfront Studios Sunsoft, U.S.A. Surreal Software, Inc. Take 2 interactive Software, Inc. TerraGlyph interactive Studios The 3DO Company THQ, Inc. Thus Software Corporation Ubi Soft Entertainment Inc. Universal Interactive Studios, Inc. Working Designs lilt I ROCKSTAR GAMES presents a DMA DESIGN game YET TO BE CLASSIFIED PlayStation ^d>HRRi l ...an evoluMo HOMEWORLD ..THE UNIVERSE OF STRATEGY GAMES AS WE KNOW IT, HAS CHANGED FOREVER! The next' dimension in real iime strajegy gaming. Homeworid simultaneously delivers cinematic quality graphics, stunning special effects, brilliantly rendered ships and an innovative interface. \ ^ - iht mm allUo) 3 D Real Timi Bthatibyi- I ^ ifPP ‘ ? £ l.- m l . - GABRIEL KNIGHT™ 3 - BLOOD OF THE SACRED, BLOOD OF THE DAMNED™ ..THE BEST-SELUNG ADVENTURE SERIES IS BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! Unravel a real life enigma involving the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar and a society of vampires. Find the mysterious lost treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau. M if. mm n loo if of »li« sot red GABRIE KNIGHT3 Hloorl of the immnrfl Impressions PHARAOH FROM THE CREATORS OF THE AWARD WINNING CAESAR TRILOGY! BUILD A KINGOOM. RULE THE NILE. UVE FOREVER. Pharaoh takes you be ck in time to the ancient land of Egypt. Destroy enemies in land and naval combat of simply build the perfect Egyptian city. _ I iHj t m m 1 w © 1999 Sierra On-Line Inc. All rights reserved. Sierr trademarks of Sierra On-Line Inc. All other trademar CAESAR II JUST PLAY! GAMES The Besf of fhe Besf-Selling Games. in gameplayl! .JAKES STRATEQC COMBAT TO ENTIRELY NEW LEVELS OF REALISM! Prepare fo fake more fhan 100 of fhe mosf vicious ferrorisfs B and criminals on fhe mosf realisfic facfical firsf-person combaf B simulafion ever creafed. \ HALF LIFE: OPPOSING FORCE •THE OFFICIAL GAME EXPANSION FOR HALF UFG Remember fhesotdiers-whcrg gv e' y o u s u mdch frouble in Half-Life? Now you're one of fhem - and life is nof so easy as parf of fhe Opposing Force. h “S logo, and Sierra Studios are trademarks or registered u the property of their respective owners. & oprosim! Jr proudly distributed by // ERR /1 dataflow Setting the Standard subscriptions liTm Speed Devilfe ^ SiS n z n uki Alstare Racing UO OJU %v id * Monaco Grand Prix 2 sags® ¥ ^ _ _ t-u :«I(W subscriptions MWUMNGim You heard us right! We want to give away three hot racing games and a Sega Dreamcast console to some lucky reader! Just think - the power of this next generation hardware could be yours in time for the big games of Christmas! Ubi Soft have three great racing games for the Dreamcast this month - Suzuki Alstare Racing, Speed Devils and Monaco Grand Prix 2 These great games span everything from awesome arcade action, to fast-paced motorbike racing to the tricky simulation of a full-blown Grand Prix! Thanks to Ubi Soft, a lucky new subscriber or re-subscriber BER SUBSCRIPTION WINNER console & three games, nnon Mundy-Castle, Tasmania. __ Only erUne* completed w* these Term and Conditions 2. Competition begns at 9em November 1999 and entnee doee at 6pm 15th Decent** 1999. 3- In detornmng ehgibtty the judge’s decaon • foal and no coneepondence «i be entered nto 10th December 1090 at Next ^AAotag Pty lid, 78 RenwicJi Street Redlem NSW 2016. 5. Prizes must be taken as offered and are not redeemable for cash The promoter m not rmporwfcle for ireadrected or loet mai. 6. 1 receive a pnze . The first pore pacfc wrmer wil recede a Dreamcast console (RRP $499 00). xl copy of Suszuki Atetare {RRP $04.06), il oopy of Monaco GP 2 (RRP $84.95) and il copy of Speed Davila (RRP $04.86). TNae nemer up Dreamcast game s^Xied at RRP $04.06 Tolal pn» value • $1060.70. 7. The «mneni wi be notified by mad and results pubfiahed in the February neue of Hyper on sale 20th December 1999. T>» promoter« Ned PiAWwg Ply Ltd ACN 002 645 047 of 78 Renvwck Street. Redlem, NSW. 2010. TP Renting will get to take home this awesome gaming package! Once you get your hands on this Dreamcast and these games, you’ll be the envy of all your friends and a Hyper subscriber to boot! It doesn’t get much cooler. Three lucky runners-up will also win one of these Dreamcast games each. Subscribing to Hyper is as easy as filling out the form below and mailing it off to ensure the next full year of monthly Hyper entertainment is delivered direct to your doorstep. Don’t miss out on all the hottest news and hardcore reviews - subscribe today and WIN! HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Call us tollfree on 1300 36 1146 Monday to Friday 9am-6pm EST Fax a copy of the completed form, with credit card details, to: 02 9699 0334 Cut or copy the form and post it with a cheque or money order, or your credit card details, to: Hyper Subscriptions Reply Paid 634, 78 Renwick St Redfern, NSW 2016 Please tick I'd like to subscribe for myself □ I'd like to send a gift subscription □ 12 months (12 issue) at $49.95 (save $21.45) □ Enclosed is a cheque/money order made payable to Next gaming for $.. Or charge my credit card: Visa □ Mastercard □ Bankcard □ Card Number.__ Expire Date... Signature. Offer only available to Australian Residents. Expires 01.12.99 check out our website at http://publishlng.next. com.au/subs Please print » H Y 0 O 7 4 My Full Name. My Address. Suburb. Postcode. My Telephone Number__ My Email Address. Please send a magazine subscription to □ Full Name. Address. Suburb. Postcode. Telephone. Please send a gift card to Me (so I can write it myself) □ Gift Recipient Q 45 »HYPER You ore the Commander. Control a Battalion i.m wiiirf-? UE 4 a • Take on morphing enemies with advanced unit tactics like choosing the best weapon and mine-laying. Instant action and strategy missions get you into the solo or online warfare. Face the front lines in first-person, calling in airstrikes and commanding futuristic customisable vehicles, including tanks, walkers and hoverbikes, via a powerful interface. Use the terrain to your advantage on five completely 3-D planets. Form massive armies, construct bases and deploy your defenses across an alien solar system. Battlezone Critical Acclaim: Action Came of the Year CGW and PC Games % Editors 9 Choice Award G3 GAMER EDITORS’ CHOICE Action Game of the Year Runner-Up Strategy Game of the Year Runner-Up PC Gamer llllirtiyms c ° m ‘" q *°° nTO STRATEGY GUIDES —Ii ^ Activision ,s a registered trademark of Activision. Inc. C 1997 1999 Activision. Inc. Battlezone is a trademark of Atari Interactive Inc . a Hasbro company. Combat Commander is a trademark of Activision. Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Auo^fton. All nghts reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. PETT 992865 Activision TUT ■ II SI 48 »HYPER game of the month PLAYSTATION PAGE 50 FINAL FANTASY VIII The series returns with all new characters and a brand-spanking new look. Let s take a look inside the latest Final Fantasy to see if Square still have that magic touch... review intro 50 54 58 60 62 64 65 66 . 68 . 70. 71. 72. 74. 75. 76. 78.. 80.. 81.. 82.. 84.. 86 .. 87 ... REVIEWS ...FINAL FANTASY VIII - PLAYSTATION ...READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING - DREAMCAST ...RAYMAN 2 -NINTENDO 64 ...AGE OF EMPIRES 2- PC ...MORTAL KOMBAT GOLD - DREAMCAST ...HOT WHEELS - NINTENDO 64 ..JET RIDER 3 - PLAYSTATION ..ORAKAN-PC ..COOLBOARDERS BURRRN - DREAMCAST ..WCW MAYHEM - NINTENDO 64 ..MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - PLAYSTATION ..PRINCE OF PERSIA 30 - PC ..UEFA STRIKER-DREAMCAST ..WU TANG: TASTE THE PAIN - PLAYSTATION SPEED DEVILS - DREAMCAST ROAD RASH - NINTENDO 64 .STARFLEET COMMAND - PC SUZUKI ALSTARE RACING - DREAMCAST XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS - PLAYSTATION GRAND THEFT AUTO 2- PC .HELL NIGHT - PLAYSTATION PANDORA'S BOX - PC TRAITORS GATE - PC/MAC PAPYRUS - GAME BOY COLOR SPY VS SPV - GAME BOY COLOR TOP GEAR RALLY - GAME BOY COLOR POKEMON YELLOW - GAME BOY COLOR c HM THE HYPER CREW'S TOP 5 r What we play when we get home from playing games. Eliot Fish • Editor Asheron's Call - PC This new online RPG from Microsoft is in the Beta stage, and I'm lucky enough to be taking part in the Beta Test. It's a smooth, lush, action-packed fantasy world and I'm loving every minute! 2. Wipeout 3 - PlayStation 3. Quake 3 Arena Test PC/Mac 4. Soul Calibur- Dreamcast 5. Final Fantasy VIII - PlayStation Cam Shea - Deputy Editor Age Of Empires 2- PC I can't go to bed before 4am anymore... I’m so tired. 2. Quake 3 Arena Test - PC/Mac 3. Tony Hawk Skateboarding PlayStation 4. Wipeout 3- PlayStation 5. Strawberry Shortcake - Atari 2600 THE NEW HYPER REVIEW SYSTEM! TAKE A LONG HARD LOOK AT THE COLOURS AND THE CONTROLLER ICONS. THESE ARE YOUR GUIDES TO THE PLATFORM FOR EACH REVIEW... 9 »HYPER reviews PSX FANTASY Does the latest in the series live up to the hype? Kevin Cheung summons us a review... : Ini Shick. Mfiry Card While there’s no doubting that Final Fantasy VIII is the singularly most anticipated sequel to an RPC on the PlayStation, Australia stands in the unique position of being one of the only countries in the world that never official¬ ly played any Final Fantasy game prior to Final Fantasy VII. This eighth installment will essentially only be our second taste of Squaresoft's mastery of the RPC field. Those of us who’ve already experienced the wonderment of Final Fantasy VII, or were lucky enough to experience any FF AWESOME MAGIC ATTACKS _ Final Fantasy VIII features some of the most awesome magic attacks we've ever seen, especially the Guardian Force Attacks. When selected, the game will enter an automated sequence where you’ll witness the awesome power of the magic you’ve summoned as it rips every bad~guy on the screen into shTeds. games prior to that, will be all too aware of the sheer vastness of the Final Fantasy mythos. It’s so complex in its develop ment and plot that to the newcomer, we live in a completely alien universe of our own. To any of you newcomers out there, get ready to be blasted into a completely new world. Final Fantasy VIII is one of those games where once you’ve finished it, your life feels as though it has taken a new direction. FROM STUDENT TO MERCENARY Final Fantasy VIII puts you in the shoes of a young SeeD Academy student named Squall Leonheart. Squall is stationed at the Balamb Gardens branch of the academy, where he is entering into the final stages of his training as a SeeD mercenary. At the opening of the game, Squall and his arch-rival Seifer are locked in combat with each other to prove once and for all who is the better between them. Squall blacks out, and later awakens in the campus sick bay. From there, we are introduced to the other supporting characters in the game, namely Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, and Quistis Trepe. From there, we leam that Squall must team up with Zell and Selphie, to perform his final examination. This examination involved taking on a real assign¬ ment, executing it against live tar¬ gets, fighting under the risk of being killed in action, and being evaluated on his performance as both a warrior and a leader. This exam is an incredible adventure in itself, involving a hideous creatures appear on the island and attack everyone. The order is given to evacuate the island. This mission is a precursor to the incredible story that lies ahead, where a mission to assist a small resistance group to assassinate Vinzer Deling, the President of Galbadia, reveals a grander and more sinister plot by a mysterious witch named Edea. By the time you reach Galbadia’s capital, you realise that resistance group that Squall is initially assigned to help. However, contrary to what many cynics may believe, they actually start out completely ambiva¬ lent of each other, with only one objec¬ tive on their minds: to complete the mission. What stands out about the love story between Squall and Rinoa is that it’s built on very realistic terms. TRADING BLOCKINESS FOR REALISM in linn iKiiiim mi cup menu jiciiii 111111 emu hi MASTERING TNI GUNB1WDE _ Unlike the conventional gun or sword that was used in Final Fantasy VII, Squall and Seifer are armed with a rather unique weapon called the Cunblade. Essentially, it's a very large meat-cleaver with a gun barrel running down its spine, allowing you to put a bullet through an enemy. massive sea-borne military inser¬ tion on to the island of Dollet Dukedom, which is being invaded by the fascist state of Galbadia. The mission is simply to neutralise the Galbadian forces within a certain territory. For the most part, the mis¬ sion runs along smoothly, but when Squall’s team stumbles across a transmission tower that Galbadian soldiers are toying around with, she has been controlling Vinzer Deling’s actions all along, and that the threat being posed by Galbadia to the world is in fact all attributable to her. By the time you figure this out, Edea has captured and brainwashed Seifer, and you are left with no choice but to stop her. Through the entirety of the plot runs a blossoming love story, which serves as Square’s central theme to the story. Rinoa Heartilly is the leader of the Without giving anything further away of the plot, Final Fantasy VIII is more intense and more involving than its pre¬ decessor in every way. The first and most noticeable change is in the style of graphics that have been used. Cone are the gouraud-shaded SD anime charac¬ ters, and in their stead is a realistically modelled cast of heroes, villains, gods and monsters. As with the previous FF outing, the characters are usually set against a series of luscious pre-rendered backdrops. Most people will be quick to point out that the characters look some¬ what pixellated, but this reviewer would submit that it’s tolerable, and further that the new design offers more innovations and advantages that wouldn't have worked in the previous game. For one thing, the realistic modelling seems to make the action seem more believable, and at times more human. Subtle anima- “GET READY TO BE BLASTED INTO A COMPLETELY NEW WORLD.' 51 »HYPER 52 »HYPER THE CHARACTERS OF FINAL FANTASY WIN Age: 17 Height: s’8" Date of Birth: August 23 Weapon: Cunblade Special Skill: Renzokuken Squall is one of two students in all of Balamb Carden to use the Cunblade, consid- ered to be one of the most difficult weapons to master. Squall is considered by many to be cold and at times ruthless, which is an image he is perfectly happy with. Age: 17 Height: 5’2" Date of Birth: July 16 Weapon: Nunchaku Special Skill: Slot A transfer student from Trabia Carden, Selphie is the outgoing and generally friendly member of Squall’s team. Even though she has one of the most powerful Limit Break spells, she comes across as more of a party-goer than a mercenary. Rinoa Heartilly Age: 17 Height: 5’4” Date of Birth: March 3 Weapon: Blaster Edge Special Skill: Combine (Angelo) Rinoa is a member of the Forest Owls, a resistance group that is trying to free its homeland from the dictatorship of Calbadia. Rinoa is stubborn, naive, and highly emotional. Irvine Kineeas Age: 17 Height: 6’o" Date of Birth: November 24 Weapon: Cun Special Skill: Shot The lady’s man of the team. He puts himself out as a mysterious loner and expert marks¬ man. but when things come down to the crunch, he drops his act and becomes some¬ what of a nervous worry-wart. Zell Dincht Age: 17 Height: 5V Date of Birth: March 17 Weapon: Clove Special Skill: Duel Zell is your good old-fashioned bare-knuck¬ led fighter. He's wild, hot-headed, ener¬ getic, and usually comes across as a bad- tempered young knave. Quistis Trepe Age: 18 Height: 5’6" Date of Birth: October 4 Weapon: Chain Whip Special Skill: Blue Magic Quistis starts out as Squall's instructor, and she is the youngest instructor in all of the Carden. Quistis has the unique ability to learn other people’s abilities, and it’s later revealed that she herself is in love with Squall. tions like the dismissive wave of a hand looks infinitely more elegant in the new form than if it were done with a chunky SD anime hand. With that approach in mind, Squaresoft have adopted several other techniques of adding to the atmosphere and realism of the game. Firstly, the three characters in your party now appear simultaneously and follow you around whilst running on the screen. Secondly, instead of having just a flat pre-rendered backdrop, Square have simulated a shifting camera focus. In other words, when you run from the fore¬ ground to the background, the fore¬ ground will become slightly blurred as you disappear into the horizon. But above all else, you cannot look past the incredible FMV sequences. Incredibly well directed, packed with detail and movement, and absolutely awe-inspiring, there isn’t a single scene where you don’t want to hit the record button on your VCR. GIVE US THE ORCHESTRATED MUSICAL SCORE! This more mature approach can also be observed in the musical score of the game. As veterans of the previous FF game will know, the music is typically melodra¬ matic to a fault. Nobody can forget how certain members of the Hyper crew used to march around the office wailing Aeris’ done-to-death theme at the top of their lungs. This time around, Nobuo Uematsu has composed a much more subtle musi¬ cal score, employing better sound sam¬ ples and using Faye Wong’s brilliantly- performed ’’Eyes On Me” as the central theme. Whilst the music is admittedly still in Midi form (we would’ve preferred fully orchestrated music in a big way), it’s still quite catchy. As if to tempt us with the future possibilities, the opening FMV of the game, entitled Liberi Fatali in the credits, is actually fully orchestrated and one of the most brilliant pieces we’ve ever heard in a videogame. As far as being a sequel goes, Final Fantasy VIII retains many of the same control and interface concepts that have been implemented in the previous FF games. In other words, you use the same controls to navigate your charac¬ ters around, press the same buttons to talk to other people, and make similar menu selections while travelling between towns, caves, and castles. During the turn-based battle sequences, your characters are given the opportunity to attack at the expira¬ tion of a power-up period, where you can choose to attack, cast a spell, use an item, and so on. REPLACE MATERIA SLOTS WITH JUNCTIONS The main changes that have been made to the gameplay have been in the magic system and the new junction System. On the magic side of things, players no longer have to Seifer Almasy Age: 18 Height: 6’2" Date of Birth: December 22 Weapon: Cunblade Special Skill: Fire Cross Seifer is Squall's main rival in the Balamb Carden, and is also a member of the Carden’s Disciplinary Committee. He’s highly skilled in the art of warfare, but his ego seems to leave a bigger impression on people. Edea the Witch Age: Unknown Height: Unknown Date of Birth: Unknown Weapon: Unknown Special Skill: Ice Strike Whilst virtually nothing is known about Edea, it’s clear enough that she is plotting something sinister. Initially, she appears to be working alongside the Calbadian presi¬ dent, Vinzer Deling, but it later becomes clear that he's just the first stone in the path. worry about topping up their MP at save points to perform the best magic spells on demand. Instead, you have to use a ’’draw” system to suck magic spells out of your opponent. Once that’s been done, you can either store the spell away for later use, or you can use it immediately against whomever you’re fighting. On one hand, this produces a new element of strategy to spell-casting where you’re forced into managing your magical resources instead of just exploiting the regular top-up. On the other hand, it doesn’t take long for you to figure out that you can just keep on drawing out as many spells as you can from an oppo¬ nent until it decides to run away. The junction System is a slight varia¬ tion on the Materia System of FFVI1 and the job System of FFIV, where equipping your character with certain Cuardian Forces will determine your character’s abilities. When you start the game, the Final Fantasy the movie, is the CCI feature which everyone is still talking about. Currently, it won’t be out until 2001, " 7 m but there’s a rumour that it will be downloadable to the PlayStation 2 via the e-distribution service for viewing in the comfort of y^fowr hpme! Will NOW DID All cn STOCI Will nm IIIICIlll! NAMII? Breaking away from the traditional airships that have been seen in the previous Final Fantasy games, Squall and his party will travel around in a brand new flying craft called the Ragnarok. This incredible looking machine has the ability to travel through space and time, and... hopefully we didn’t give away too much of the plot there. only thing you can do is attack, and nothing else. All other actions are only made possible when you have equipped a Cuardian Force, which allows you all sorts of capa¬ bilities ranging from your stan¬ dard item and magic commands, as well as special abilities that are earned by the Cuardian Force itself as it gains more experience through its user. For instance, if you’ve earned enough experience, your Cuardian Force will display an ability to increase resistance to magic by 20%, which you can then equip. You can only junction 5 abilities at a time, so you’ll have to choose the abilities that best suit the situation. To complicate things further, each Cuardian Force has its own individual abilities. Attack fi™ • , *r* tock Thunder Cast PLOT-O-METER PLUS Cmptlliig gameplay ail gorgeous FMV. MINUS Nit mugli if a challenge. OVERALL VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 93 88 90 93 An enthralling game from beginning ti end. but too easy for its own good. DUMBED DOWN FOR ENGLISH? In spite of the excellent new plot and marginal improvements to the overall presentation, there is one particularly glaring fault in the game: it is too easy. And by that, we’re not simply bragging about how skilled we are, but rather, we felt that it is genuinely too easy for the average gamer. In fact, we even compared the English version of the game to the Japanese version. We dis¬ covered that the English version has less enemies to fight, that the enemies and bosses attack less frequently and inflict less damage, and that your attacks seem more powerful. Battles where we’d just make it by the skin of our teeth in the Japanese version, we cruised through without even breaking a sweat in the English version. Considering that Western audiences have had experience with many other RPCs before, it seems like a slap on the face that we should be told we’re not smart enough to handle a harder game. In the overall scheme of things, everyone’s going to buy Final Fantasy VIII no matter what’s said about it. Is it the greatest RPC ever made? No. In fact, the ease with which you can exploit the Draw System combined with the easiness of the game generally make it almost unacceptably easy. In spite of that, it will still take up 3 months of your life and change many of your perceptions on things in gener¬ al. Why? Because the story is such a vast improvement over what’s been offered before. Square's attempt to craft a believable love story is certainly a highlight. What this game offers over its predecessors is a much more mature and believable (if one could believe it) storyline that doesn’t break out into the typical world domination spiels. This story stays focused on the main charac¬ ters throughout, and it’s the develop¬ ment of these individual characters that makes the story so much more capti¬ vating than any other game on offer. Final Fantasy VIII is a fantastic game - just don’t expect any major improve¬ ments over number 7. ■ 54 »HYPER reviews READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING Cam Shea punched a green grocer to get his hands on a copy of Ready 2 Rumble.. available NOW CATEGORY Arcade boxing PUYERS 12 PUBLISHER Midway PRICE $94.95 BATING M SUPPORTS VMU. arcade stick The change in a man like vC/ Ceorge Foreman from an imposing behemoth oozing power and composure to a small giggly dude with his own infomercial and a mystifying level of enthusiasm for a fat-free horizontal grill, is an interesting parallel to the evolu¬ tion of boxing in general. From its glory days when the sport had character, vitality and pride, to the boxing dark ages of today, with few bright sparks and scandal after scandal leaving boxing nothing short of laughable. Perhaps Midway decided that if real life boxing was a joke, then a game based on it should be too... and it is. Not in a Roy and HC "This game’s a hopeless joke” way, but in a cartoony, arcadey and above all entertaining way. NO DISRESPECT TO GEORGE FOREMAN INTENDED... HE'S STILL COOL Indeed, Ready 2 Rumble is a refresh¬ ing change of pace for Dreamcast fighting games, and will appeal to out play mechanics with plenty of room for strategy. It looks fantastic as well, with glossy high impact graphics that will knock you senseless. freaks and newbies alike. The game- play is quite simplistic, but this actually works in its favour. After all, the Dreamcast already has sev¬ eral top quality "hardcore" fighting games, from Marvel Vs Capcom to VF3TB, so it’s nice to have a playable game that doesn’t require a Phd in knob twiddling to master. Ready 2 Rumble has no massively difficult combos, just well thought Midway have obviously worked hard on imbuing Ready 2 Rumble with as much personality as possible. The eighteen strong character lineup is a motley assortment of kooky freaks, each beautifully rendered and packing HYPER SAID KNOCK YOU OUT... Ready 2 Rumble’s personality runs deeper than simply having a cast of ’’colourful characters”. Each fighter’s face is animated so that their expres¬ sions change throughout the bout, steps before toppling. Punch him somewhere sensitive and he’ll fold faster than superman on laundry day. My favourite aspect of the graphics though, has to be the real time dam¬ age mapping. As the fight progresses “as the fight progresses both the characters' faces TURN FROM JUST PLAIN UGLY TO COMPLETELY SMASHED UP.” their own attitude and style. They’ve left realism at the door when it comes to fighting styles, so you’ve got every¬ thing from let ’’Iron" Chin’s martial arts inflected boxing (Shaolin style?) through to Big Willy Johnson’s ”1 say, I learnt to box in my tenure at Oxford, eh what" fisticuffs style. from ’’determined” to ”oh my god, this massive guy is kicking the crap out of me". The KO animations are similarly cool. Smack your opponent hard across the head and he’ll tail spin all the way to the canvas. Pop a nasty upper cut to the jaw and he’ll stagger back a few both the character’s faces turn from just plain ugly to completely smashed up - eyes blacken, bruising appears and teeth are even knocked out. Although it doesn’t add anything to the gameplay, this feature certainly adds to the impact of the blows and the spectacle of the fight. WHAT’S 60IN6 ON IN THE CONSOIE HOOP? As for the PlayStation and N64 versions of this game, I have a sneaking suspicion that they probably won't be as much fun. As much as we advocate gameplay over graph¬ ics, much of Ready 2 Rumble's charm DOES come from the gorgeous graphics. Sure, the fighting mechanics are solid, but the speed, smoothly rendered characters and real time damage modelling simply won’t be con¬ veyed accurately on the other systems. Our call? Get yourself a Dreamcast or try before you buy. »HY 56 »HYPER Am I too much of a cynic or should we just let the "Let’s get ready to rumble" catch- phrase die already? Not in the eyes of Midway at least, as they’ve actually paid Michael Buffer (the guy who hollers it out at the start of WCW bouts) to appear in digital form at the start of each fight. Not only that, but there are huge banners with his cheesy visage and even a ring with his face on the surface - eewwl Still, he's certainly got it down pat, and it does add to the comic value of the game... Yes sir, the graphics are impressive, but they’re not in the same class as Soul Calibur. The backgrounds in particular fail to impress, as they feature the same old poorly animated sprite MICHAEL BUFFER BEAB5 HIS UBLY HEAP based crowd as seen in most wrestling games. Even so, you won’t notice them as you’ll be too busy pummeling, pummeling and pum- meling some more! Complimenting the beefy fighters and their beefy moves (1 was gonna say beefy blows, but that sounds a little too... ex... y’know) are the crisp and powerful sound effects. It all adds up to a sense of real world weight. You can literally see and hear the force in the blows and feel the thud when a big body goes down. Y0USET00 CAN HAVE A BLUE HAVEN POOL... Ready 2 Rumble’s gameplay is firmly arcade - there’s no pretense to real¬ ism here. The gameplay is simple but speedy, and accessible for almost anyone. An additional feature to the standard attacks are the rumble moves. As you land hits on your opponent, the word ’’rumble” begins to appear at the bottom of the screen. Once you have all the letters, pressing both the trigger buttons will send you into rumble mode. This means that you’ve fAAfllfll If you'd like to buy one of George Foreman’s Fat-Free Grills, the "Fusion" Grill, then hop-along to the National Order Center, http://www.shopcyberworld.net/fusiongrill.htm basically got unlimited strength and can string together a very fast series of blows for some awesome combos. The trigger buttons also control a wide array of dodge and duck moves, but the defensive side of Ready 2 Rumble is barely worth men¬ tioning, as an all out attack strategy will work better than trying to duck and weave. Ready 2 Rumble has two play modes - arcade and champi¬ onship. Arcade holds no surprises, but the Championship mode tries to bring a little more depth to the game. You start out with three boxers available (with the rest to be unlocked), each with little to no skills. You must train them and take them up through the rank¬ ings of each fighting class. There are two types of fight - prize fights and title fights. Winning a title fight takes you up a ranking, whereas prize fights are all about getting that green. You can bet on the outcome of a prize fight, and over double your kitty in one foul swing. This cash can be used to train your boxer, whether it be on the heavy bag, or the more tradi¬ tional route of just stuffing some ’roids down his throat (hey, they’re "nutritional supplements" okay?). TAKE THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! The more you train and fight, the more your boxer’s stats go up and the more he can do. Each boxer’s levels have a real impact on his abilities in the ring. When you start out, fights feel very different to arcade mode combat. In arcade mode, your boxer’s strength bar (the blue bar below the health meter) recovers fast, allowing you to let fly with several punches in quick succession. In training though, it recovers slowly meaning so you have to wait for it to build up again after striking the opponent. As you train your boxer the speed with which this bar recovers improves. Thus, championship mode gives you a good feel for each boxer’s abilities and you can actually see them improve. Whilst single player mode is a lot of fun, there really isn’t enough depth to keep you addicted for too long. Fortunately, all is forgiven, because the two player mode rocks very hard indeed. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by Ready 2 Rumble on Dreamcast. It’s one of those games that will appeal to a wide range of people - it’s easy to pick up, addictive and doesn’t take itself too seriously. ■ 57 »HYPER 58 »HYPER AVAILARlf Now CATEEORY 31 Platformer PLAYERS 1 PUBLISHER UbiSeft PRICE $99.95 RATINE G SUPPORTS Rumble Pack Rayman 2 never seem to hold that great sense of vastness as Banjo- Kazooie and Mario 64 do, but nevertheless, they are still big enough to give any gamer an enjoyable romp. TWO THUMBS UP The gameplay has obviously bor¬ rowed heavily from the tightly tuned for¬ mulae of Banjo and Mario, with cleverly crafted objectives, character interaction and a high level of exploration, which never seems to get as tedious as many non-linear QCV It’s no surprise that the French concocted Rayman. The French after all, are an odd race of people. Rayman, an assembly of brightly coloured polygons, is not the kind of macho, weapon-toting hero that you’d find hanging around East Timor, but rather a timid goof-ball who is at home saving his Smurf-like universe from evil. Akin to his cousin, Ed, from the not-so-terrific Tonic Trouble, Rayman lacks limbs. This may pose a problem for you and me, but in effect, his lack of appendages is bene¬ ficial, allowing our hero to perform a multitude of manoeuvres. However, Rayman’s true talent lies with his hair¬ piece which acts as a mini-helicopter game that Rayman must pilot in order to pass certain points. Get ready to water ski, sail boats and straddle a pulsating, bucking red rocket (sounds a little x-rated, eh?). TREE HUGGING HIPPIE GRAPHICS Rayman, like many gaming heroes, has cast aside the shackles of his previous world I’m sure hippies in the 6o’s frequently visited. The best word to describe the visual feast in Rayman 2 would be ’fruity’. Within this beautifully con¬ structed, ’fruity’ world, Rayman 2 manages to maintain a healthy frame rate whilst displaying sharp and detailed backgrounds and characters. We can also be thankful that the dreaded fog factor has been pushed way into the back¬ ground. If you stand on a ledge and peer out over the land- QOOb LOCK RAYMW... A SNARE IN A LARI RAYMAN THE GREAT ESCAPE Rayman is back for another, so Arthur Adarffgets legless withjjrn... “RAYMAN 2 DIFFERS FROM YOUR EVERYDAY 3D PLATFORMER...” and allows him to hover for short peri¬ ods of time. Other than relying on his magical toupee, Rayman is capable of many run-of-the-mill moves such as, swimming, rolling, punching, shoot¬ ing and climbing along ceilings. But the fun doesn’t stop there. There are a plethora of vehicles throughout the two-dimensional world, and is back in an adventure that gives Banjo and his orange chicken a run for their money. The texture-mapped environments are vibrant in colour and kaleidoscopic in design, with twirls and arcs dominat¬ ing most patterns, leaving you with a scape, you’ll find it strange that the programmers have managed to keep a clear, fog free view where many others have failed miserably (and deserve to be beaten with a wet salami if you ask me). The level designs differ greatly, some are quite expansive whilst others smaller and more linear. The levels in platformers sometimes do. Rayman 2 differs slightly from your everyday 3D platformer, bringing the gameplay into a more action-based affair than simply butt-stomping and collecting fairies. Rayman can wonder about anywhere, allowing players to inves¬ tigate and complete the game at their own leisure. However, wherever Rayman goes, there will be missions and tasks for him to nut out. Rayman 2 isn’t limited only to platform mayhem, as there are a truckload of mini-games sprinkled throughout. Some mini-games involve racing opponents, working out puzzles and accomplishing tasks in set times. Unfortunately, as much fun as all this is, there’s always a sense of having seen it all before. The mini-games are what you would find in other platformers. This may not be a bad thing, but then again it isn’t very original either. At the end of the day, Rayman can hold his detached head up high, as this title brushes aside the multitude of mediocre platforms available and stands out amongst the competition. Why does Rayman 2 work so well? It’s a combina¬ tion of fast-paced action with plenty of explo¬ ration and mini-games to keep anybody busy for hours. Rayman 2 is well worth the purchase for anybody wanting a fun filled three-dimensional platformer. ■ MUN-K AZOOI Flaunting an equally bright and colourful world as Banjo-Kazooie, Rayman 2 remarkably displays slightly sharper visuals. Banjo-Kazooie though has the upper hand when it comes to its larger free roaming levels. Character design for both are cleverly constructed, but both differ to some extent. Rayman 2 has a mixture of highly detailed characters and some that are quite bland, whereas Banjo’s character designs are generally more constant yet middle of the road. Inc of the best 31 platformers nailable! MINUS Lacks that certaia something to pat it ia the league of Baajo and ca. VISUALS SOUND EAMIP1AY 93 87 90 OVERALL cn O 90 I worthy contender that raffles Kazaaie's orange feathers. 60 »HYPER AVAILABLE Now CATEGORY Real Tine Strategy PLAYERS 18 PUBLISHER Microsoft PRICE $81.95 RATING G REQUIRED P166. 32MI RAM DESIRED Pll or III. 64MI RAM or higher It was always going to take some pretty outstanding games from Microsoft for them to dump the dubious image they had amongst the gamers out there as they started to publish more and more titles. Age of Empires was without a doubt, the game that made a lot of gamers take Microsoft a lot more seriously. Now we see Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings, which takes the series further through time, adding some nice interface improvements along the way. For those of you not familiar with the original, it is a real time strategy game that plays much like the Warcraft games, but has a far more extensive technology tree to develop. the latest game, AOE2 has received enough of a visual overhaul to warrant some praise. This time around, somebody explained the concept of scale to the art team, with troops now looking the right play in a very high resolution though, as in low resolutions like 800x600, you lose too much of the screen to buildings. Age of Empires fans will be all too familiar with the problem of losing you to look, but not actually to check by clicking. A big thumbs up also for the improvements in the appearance of elevated terrain, it looks spot on now. No longer are units forced to walk around in a disorganised mess, as there is now the option to group them into formations (Myth has finally influenced the other RTS games). The effect is minimal in small skirmishes, but when it comes time to send large amounts of units into battle, it can be the difference between win¬ ning or losing. Also useful is the way a mixture of units will all travel at the speed of the slowest unit so they don’t get separated, but if you select some of the fast units and tell them to go else¬ where, they will haul off at top speed. In an effort to help separate the differ- AGE OF _ EMPIRES 2 Just another upgrade, or something genuinely new? Dan Toose gets intimate with the elephants. “IN an effort to help separate the different forces with more than just A DIFFERENT COAT OF PAINT, THERE ARE NOW THIRTEEN DISTINCT CIVILISATIONS.” ORGANISED CARNAGE While looking similar to Age of Empires, to the point where many folks will rub their eyes to make sure they’re playing size next to the building they came from. Amusing as it was to have your peasants twice the size of a house, it’s a good thing this has been fixed. This forces you to track of units behind trees and other structures... Fear not, for now all units get a bright outline once behind a structure of any kind. It still requires ent forces with more than just a different coat of paint, there are now thirteen dis¬ tinct civilisations. Each civilisation not only builds structures that suit their own Goths. You’d think they’d assault the enemy with old CDs of the Cure or Bauhaus. Thankfully they just used big fat axes and swords. They were Germanic you see, not melancholy. MINUS No verbal prompts for emergencies. Walls create stalemates. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 85 81 92 OVERALL 90 culture, but also has distinct bonuses in different areas (like more efficient farm¬ ing, etc). Furthermore, each civilisation has a unique unit type, such as the Japanese Samurai, or the Briton Longbowman. Naturally, it would seem stupid to have a Japanese peasant saying, "Whatcha want now guvner?’’, and thankfully each civilisation speaks its own language, although it does sound like the expense of hiring people who spoke these languages natively was spared. YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME... There is still one major problem with the game that could have been fixed, and that is attack notification. Yes, the game does inform you that King Such-and- such’s forces are attacking you, and that’s all good and well, but the question II LITTLE TWEAK HERE, A LITTLE TWEAK THERE... The interface changes are extremely welcome, and with a hotkey assignment option, you can pretty much get the ball rolling in any area without even having to go look at it. There are some basic improvements which are blatantly stolen from other games, such as unit queuing, and gathering points. Some of the more original ideas such as the ability to garri¬ son units so they can heal themselves, and also act as a defensive force within a town, are most welcome. If your town is under attack, you can ring the town bell, which gets your villagers inside to safety, and has them fight back with bows and arrows from inside. This makes attacking a town an act that requires a decent force and some preparation. of where is an important issue. In a par¬ ticular instance, I was attacking a castle, and the enemy infantry came out to meet my forces. I received the notification I was being attacked and thought nothing of it. As my assault was dying out and was proving unsuccessful, I return to my base to produce more units, only to dis¬ cover it had pretty much been annihilated. Some basic verbal prompts like "Your village is under attack”, would have made all the difference. The other issue with AOE2 is walls. On one hand, they’re great in that a walled town is hard to assault, and walls are quite easy to build. On the other hand, this produces stalemate situations, which while being extremely realistic, it also means that games tend to drag out for a very long time. So is Age of Empires 2 good? Well, yes, it’s very good. It’s easily the most comprehensive real time medieval strategy game around. The AI is brutally hard, due to its speed, rather than cleverness (in fact the computer does some laughable things). There is a history section which explains everything in great detail, and an in game tech tree, which is some¬ thing more games should feature. Anyone who liked AOE will love this, and the rest of you should at least give Age of Empires 2 a look, as it’s far from shabby. ■ bimm ■- EDUTAINMENT-O-METER 2> PLUS Fast II makes for difficult CPU opponents. Much nicer interface than AOE. Taking the original game to a new lovol with lots of polish and clever new ideas. 61 »HYPER 62 »HYPER The things we do for you readers. Eliot Fish wastes good gameplaying time. AVAIlABIt: Now CATFtlRY Fighting PLAYERS: 12 PUBLISHER Midway PRICE: $94.95 You know, life was going real- vC/ ly well and 1999 was chugging along nicely. In fact, I’d never been happier in my life. Until... one fateful day when a dark cloud descended over the office. A pack¬ age was awaiting me at reception which would change my life forev¬ er. I had to play Mortal Kombat Cold. It’s taken a while to recover from this experience, nursing myself back to health with sessions of Final Fantasy VIII and System Shock 2. Now I feel recovered enough to talk about it. Deep breath. If the Dreamcast wants to get off to a good start, games like Mortal Kombat Cold should just be buried somewhere out in the New Mexico Desert along with those old copies of ET for the Atari 2600. Not only is this an old game with a few lame extras, but it’s an embarrass¬ ment for what is technically a good console. Mortal Kombat Gold makes the Dreamcast look bad. Something which it simply does not need. RETURN OF THE WOMBAT Okay there are some gamers out there who love Mortal Kombat. Unfortunately, why they love it is a mystery lost in time. Is it the Fatalities? Well, they are enough for a chuckle the first time you see them, but they’re only entertaining once real¬ ly. Is it the blood? Not when it’s the big chunky red pixels which fly across the screen with three frames of animation. Is it the colourful characters? Hmm... not when most of them share the same moves and look about as lifelike as a pair of shopfront mannequins on a moving walkway. What is it then? Frankly, none of us can figure it out. Surely, after playing Mortal Kombat Gold on the Dreamcast, the series will have few fans left. All you have to do is slip in a copy of Soul Calibur and play that for five minutes to relish what good animation, gameplay and character design is all about. Mortal Kombat was funny about 3 years ago, and now it’s just a blight on the fighting game genre. It may look 3D, but gameplay is 2D and not even as interesting as Street Fighter 2. If you are remotely interested in killing some valuable gaming time with this poor excuse for a game, then here’s what you can expect... Nothing new. Mortal Kombat has not evolved one iota since the last time we played it. Sure they added five new char¬ acters, weapons and a few other token new features, but the basic fighting mechanics have not been improved or even altered in any attempt to keep the series moving along with the times. The piddly selection of punches and kicks, combined with the generic throwing moves (which most of the characters per¬ form the same way) is about as exciting as putting anchovies down your pants. The character animation is so stilted and unrealistic that you can’t even enjoy watching the admittedly nice-looking characters in action. Didn’t they realise they were making this for the Dreamcast? Mortal Kombat Cold looks reviews “MORTAL KOMBAT WAS FUNNY ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO, AND NOW IT'S JUST A BLIGHT ON THE FIGHTING GAME GENRE.” MORTAL KOMBAT GOLD $$>$$> S>8>$S>S>S>S>S>$S PLUS Plays fast and looks about as good as MK4 arcade version. The gameplay. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 76 75 59 OVERALL 60 I Whilst reviewing Mortal Kombat Cold. Cam was playing Asteroids on the Atari 2600 next to me. Funnily enough. ■ Asteroids drew more of a crowd in the office than MK Cold on the Dreamcast. Does that say it all? These are the same fatalities we were looking at two years ago. Yawn. About the only redeeming features I can think of when it comes to Mortal Kombat Cold, is the fact that it looks about as good as the arcade version. Fans of the game will probably think that this is radical, so if you’ve always loved Mortal Kombat for whatever that mystery reason is that the rest of us can’t fathom, then this is probably one of the best ver¬ sions you can get your hands on. Maybe we would have been excited if this wasn’t just such an obvious retread bashed out for gamers who were proba¬ bly hoping for a next-generation Mortal Kombat experience. Co buy Soul Calibur or Powerstone instead for some quality fighting gaming. ■ marginally better than Mortal Kombat 4 on PC, and that came out years ago. SICK PHATAUTIES Be thrilled for more than five minutes with Endurance mode, Tournament and a Two-on-Two mode which func¬ tions like a tag team match, but don’t expect to get past the fact that the gameplay is seriously dull no matter how it’s presented to you. The weapons for instance, just seem like a totally useless addition. Never were they even vaguely useful, and really they just seem to be included for visual effect. In some stages there are dodgy looking boulders sitting on the floor which can also be lifted and hurled at your opponent, but it’s all just like a bad puppet show. If you manage to get through and win a tournament, you’re awarded with one of the ren¬ dered cutscenes which will pretty quickly put you to sleep. Only a select few have anything remotely cool about them. Performing Fatalities is still where the biggest kick lies. Sad isn’t it. You’ll find yourself laughing, but probably because they just look so cheesy and juvenile now. BETTIB THAN THE GAME? In the United States there has been a Mortal Kombat TV Series, live action no less, that has been keeping the fans happy. Called Mortal Kombat Conquest, we can only hope AutTalian viewers will be spared! Low-budget Mortal Kombat action... Doesn't even come remotely close to the other Dreamcast fighting games. 63 »HYPER 64 »HYPER reviews AVAILABLE Now CATEGORYRacing PLAYERS: 12 PUBLISHER [lECT RONIC ARTS PRICE $99.95 Don "The Snake” Prudhomme, was the first ’Funny Car' driver to run the quarter mile in under 5.20 seconds and the first to break 250 KMH! Co the Snake! HOT WHEELS TURBO RACING Hyper's resident sandpit Evel Knievel, DMC, bullies the other kids into giving him first go.... Everyone out there probably had vC/ one of these little suckers when they were younger. Hot Wheels cars fos¬ tered the hoon in every child, and prob- of them. The concept behind this game is seemingly a blend of San Francisco Rush, rollercoaster design, and a dash of skating. There are 12 tracks across 4 worlds: Wild West, Glacial Rift, Haunted Highway, and Volcano Island. These tracks have tha mad stylin’ goin’ on, with more ludicrous twists and turns than a daytime soap plot. There are corkscrews, loop the loops, massive “...MORE LUDICROUS TWISTS AND TURNS Corkscrews etc) off the copious jumps littered throughout the courses. These build up your turbo bar, and can be strung together for mega turbo power. Winning involves pumping as many speed ups out of your car as possible (hence the name 0’ the game). THAN A DAYTIME SOAP PLOT. ably began many a career in drag racing and low riding. So what could be cooler than getting to live out your childhood speedfreak fantasies? Well, quite a few things actually... GET A BIT LOOPY Hot Wheels Turbo Racing is really about one thing. Stunts... and plenty hills and drops. There is barely a stretch of straight to be seen, and a huge selection of around 40 sports cars, hot rods, and 4WDS to fang around them in. There are also several modes, including an airtime chal¬ lenge, which rewards dope stunts. The key to this game is busting these skate-stylin’ moves (Fakie’s, Tabletops, Stacking is commonplace, but can be rectified with copious turbo use, and is positively encouraged when it is into a smaller opponent who comes last as a result of your prang. MAYBE NOT SO HOT AFTER ALL Despite the fantastic premise, the game falls short in many areas. It’s not that this is a bad game, so much as superbly average. Visually the game is uninspir¬ ing. The colours are garish, and the tex¬ tures plain. Despite the turbo name, Hot Wheels lacks in the speed department. Especially when your car isn’t turbo- ing, the action is pretty slow. The AI also fails to excite. Your five opponents always race in a pack, so it is easy to slip from first to last with one failed stunt. Perhaps most annoying is that the races are 6 laps long. A 7-8 minute race is verging on the ridiculous, espe¬ cially when your opponents don't make you sweat for first. This game is not about speed, but stunts and stacks. The great attraction is the track design, but once you get over the short term thrill of pulling loop the loops, corkscrews, and bustin’ air, there’s not much that keeps you coming back for more. ■ Plaii visuals, short term appeal. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 70 70 73 OVERALL Hot Wheels just manages to fall short of the ramp. let Rider 3 joins the less-than-distinguished company of Streak and 3Xtreme as one of the lamest examples of "Xtreme" sports videogaming ever. reviews GUTCH-O-METER CCv The concept behind the Jet Rider series is essentially extreme sports meets Wipeout - anti-grav bikes racing on tracks designed not for ultra fast cruising, but to take you to the EXTREME. It’s an interesting concept but unfortunately, the Jet Rider games have always fallen short of the mark. Jet Rider 3 proves to be no different. This game actually seems to have been designed by the guys from the Pepsi Max ads, AVAILABLE Never, we hope! CATEGBRY Extreme racing PLAYERS 1-2 PUBLISHER Sony PRICE Til lATINS G SUPP8ITS Dual Shoch. Memory card Three strikes and you're out. DMC delivers the verdict. over a weekend when their ’Extreme Unicycling’ competition was rained out, and they had nothing better to do. WOAH! DUD(E)! This game is so full of holes it’s difficult to know where to begin. The graphics have been improved over the last instalment, but the textures are still very dirty and pixelated. Of particular note are the appalling ’lava’ effects on the Volcano Island course, which look more like a sea of moving red lego blocks than molten magma. The track design is one of the strong features of the game. They are full of large drops, obstructions, short cuts, and sharp turns. However, the intended EXTREME-ness of the tracks is swamped in a mire of bad design and execution. Firstly, the graphics are sometimes so indistinct as to leave you unsure of where to turn next. Secondly, the cam¬ era tracking is badly implemented, so that if you ride up the wall of a course, you can’t tell which way you’re going. All this might be forgivable if the physics engine was any good... or more to the point, if it even existed. But alas, the bikes handle with the finesse of fly¬ ing bricks. The controls are sloppier than the morning after a vindaloo. STICK IT TO THE MAN! For those of you who were offended by the billboard presence of Red Bull in Wipeout 2097, Jet Rider 3 will have you foaming at the mouth with righteous anti-corporate indignation. Advertising has been plastered over literally everything, from the bikers uniforms and the bikes themselves, to countless trackside billboards. Even the intro features the ’sponsors’ prominently. Slim Jims, Kawasaki, Body Clove, Mountain Dew (made of course by PepsiCo), and even Doritos... aarggh! One of the riders is even called ’The Max’, a nod in the direc¬ tion of those Pepsi-fuelled boofheads. As a stand alone product Jet Rider 3 is an embarrassment. When compared to the likes of Wip30ut, it’s nothing short of an abomination. Recommended as a drinks coaster only (preferably for your Pepsi Max). ■ TRIDER3 The oily thing this game is good fir is filling 65 »HYPER 66 »HYPER reviews DRAKAN Swords, dragons, ponytails... looks like a job for Dan Toose! AVAI IAREE: How CATEGORY Action/Adventure MAYERS: 18 PUBLISHER P sygnosis PRICE $79.95 RATIH6: MA15* _ _ DUMB MU. 3211 Mil, 31 acctltrittr RESIBEB: P2 266.64MB RAM. Voodoo2 or Better SUPPORTS: Joysticks. Direct 31. A3D and EAX audio To be honest, when I first saw Drakan I groaned. This game borrows the camera angle ’fixated- on-the-arse-of-an-anorexic-pony- tail-wearing-chick-with-attitude’ from Tomb Raider, and the basic controls and interface from Heretic 2. However, it was a nice surprise to dis¬ cover that Psygnosis have added new elements, and broken some “rules” to ensure Drakan is actually a new gaming experience. You play the part of Rynn, a young female warrior, who gets jumped by some Wartoks (Orcs/ogres), and wakes up to find her village destroyed, and IS THAT A DRAGON BETWEEN YOUR LEGS OR... Something that immediately sets this game apart from being a total Tomb Raider clone is the gorgeous environ¬ ments. Like Acclaim’s Shadowman, and off of Arokh. Flying into a big clearing, landing next to a house and then rummaging around inside all takes place so smoothly... it’s fantastic! Animation throughout the game is excellent, and Drakan offers funky shad- ster gibs tend to bounce around uncon¬ trollably when they should come to rest. Moving lips on Rynn during conversa¬ tions would have been nice too. The combat AI is a bit simple to fig¬ ure out, with most monsters simply throwing to hit the spot you’re moving to, which would be fine, except they do it all so slowly that you can make them throw their attack a mile off target with a tiny sidestep. Some monsters with ranged attacks also do stupid things like fire explosive arrows into the wall just in front of them, killing themselves, and sometimes their allies. However, some of the monsters in Drakan are truly astounding. The spiders and smaller Wartoks simply look cool, but when you’re first attacked by a giant or a couple of bladedragons come swoo¬ ping in on you, you’ll be amazed. Even “swipes from your sword will send limbs-a-flyin’ and blood-a-spurtin'!" her younger brother missing. Rynn finds one survivor, who gives her the information she needs to awaken Arokh, an old dragon from the old Order of the Flame (ye olde U.N. Peacekeeping force). Her quest to find her brother leads her into a much larger and more desperate adventure... there’s nothing tile-based about the game whatsoever, and the overall effect is extremely organic and realistic. Running from an outdoor setting to an indoor setting (or vice-versa) is seam¬ less, unless you’re hitting one of the very few level boundaries. Also pretty much seamless is the ability to get on ow effects, similar to Requiem. The shadows aren’t very sharp, but they look right, and behave in a very realistic manner. If you like it gibby, then Drakan will satisfy. Swipes from your sword will send limbs-a-flyin’ and blood-a-spurtin’! The only problem here is that bits of broken furniture and mon- more amazing is what the giants use to attack you with... like Wartok corpses! RYNN, RYNN, WHY DON'T YA GIVE ME A CALL? The controls work like Heretic 2 when on foot, and like the Descent games when flying around on Arokh. This makes it I ■ Totally addicted? For news on patches, funky wallpaper, links to fan sites and everything remotely Drakan. go visit the official website - http://www.drakan-game.com/ moves to make the action more com¬ plete. However, there's no doubt that anyone who is into medieval fantasy stuff will be sucked right in and have an absolute blast. ■ PLUS Stunning environments. A true sense ef adventure. A few A1 bugs. Needed mere RPG elements. GAMEPLAY OVERALL MORN ENJOYED IRE TIME IKY SPENT AT TIE EICAl HIE LIGHT DISCO ZEIIA INFERENCES PC CAMES? treat. You do get a block option with most weapons, but it seems to have next-to-no effect. How about a shield please? Whilst dazzling, Drakan could have been much better. There are some clip¬ ping and AI issues that should have been addressed. In some places it is possible to slip through walls, and in one instance I was simply jumping along, only to be stuck in mid-air, and then have myself explode in a shower of gore. These gripes however are nowhere near as serious as the length of them may imply, as the game is addictive and entertaining. It could have been more so by adding a bit more strength into one (or all) areas of the game, like more RPC elements and funky inventory options, or more an ideal mouse and keyboard game (if you’ve put off learning how to play action games this way, it’s time to learn). Rynn can carry a variety of weapons and items in an inventory that looks remarkably like Diablo’s old square tile system and it works well. Puzzles in the game are far less mun¬ dane than most games in the 3rd per¬ son action/adventure genre, with no tedious backtracking required. Although, having one or two real brain teasers would have been nice... it was a tad too simple overall. The multiplayer maps included with the game are really quite bland and for the most part lack any real imagination. Despite the option of ground combat, aer¬ ial combat, or a hybrid of both, the game is not a multiplayer winner. It’s a single¬ player adventure first and foremost. Considering how similar the game is to Heretic 2, melee combat should have been better. You have a good variety of weapons, but pretty much no variety in moves. With so many of your opponents having greater reach than you, a lung¬ ing attack would have gone down a IT’S HUVE lust like Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Rynn from Drakan has a real flesh and blood counterpart. Unfortunately, she doesn't respond to keyboard commands. 11 MUSIC DORKS LOVE Sad fantasy gits (I’m one, so don’t take offence) will love the soundtrack to bits. It’s one of the few games you may actually want to tum the music up for. Also of high quality is the voice acting and sound effects. All the characters sound cool, and avoid saying anything dicky that will make you cringe. An excellent fantasy adventure game. Here’s hoping we see a Drakan 2. 67 »HYPER COOLBOARDERS: > FULL BURRRN / Expectation can be a cruel mistress. Does Cam Shea get burrrned? CATEGORY Arcade snowboarding PUBLISHER: Sega PRICE $54.85 SUPPORTS VMS After a brief hiatus during w' which 989 took control of the Cool Boarders franchise (for Cool Boarders 3 on PSX), UEP Systems are back for more action. This is great news for fans of arcadey snowboard¬ ing, because no other PlayStation snowboarding game compared to the thrills and speed of Coolboarders 2. Gamers who’ve played Cool Boarders 2 will be at home here. The track design, control mechanics and even the announcer are all trade¬ mark UEP Systems efforts. The only significant changes are the intro¬ duction of the block button and that there are less trick buttons, and hence, less tricks. *' 10 ~ 0 ? C ' SS m 29 - C’ tS JS firms r.s*r Pwkr**1 SNOWBOARDING SHIRT OFF IS A GRRR THERE ARE LESS TRICK BUTTONS, AND HENCE, LESS TRICKS.' OL >- IT S GNARLY UP THERE, BE CAREFUL... AS THE ANNOUNCER SAYS Amazingly, there’s no championship option as such, or even other com¬ petitors to race against. It’s a single player race against the clock that will get lonely with extended play. The courses are basically linear, but there are many wide open sections and dis¬ guised branches. Highlights include caning through a snowy wilderness complete with towering waterfalls and rays of sunshine peeking between the tall trees, boarding along a railway line with a train hot on your trail, and an evil ice run complete with a mas¬ sive prehistoric skeleton. Unfortunately, the courses also have sections where the path is ambiguous, leading to many unexpected deadly falls. The track design simply doesn’t approach the insanity or frenetic pace of the later tracks in Cool 2, and get this - there are only six of them! This in itself isn’t a crime, but in combina- You will no doubt have noticed the three "r’s" in the game title. What does it all mean? What arcane life-affirming message are UEP trying to express? After meditating facing a wall in the corner of the office for three days, the meaning finally became clear. UEP are pointing out just how M Xtreme" this game is. It all makes sense now, but I still think it’s a little too deeply metaphorical, and a bit hard for the average gamer to grasp. Are three r’s really enough to underline how "totally radical" this game is? Personally, I’d suggest a good twenty or thirty as a minimum. Fortunately. Australian gamers won’t need to decipher such baf¬ fling nonsense, as Full Burrrn is being released in the West as "Rippin’ Riders", which is... ahem, much better. I - Maybe UEP systems just needed to visit some gnarly snowboarding sites, http://www.snowboarding.com/ i ■ HOLDING * MIBHOH UP ID MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY Okay, okay, before I launch into a tirade about how annoying and stereotypical the characters are, I'd just like to acknowledge that I do realise that character design is largely periph¬ eral to the enjoyment of a snowboarding game, and that I support, in principle, the idea of wacky, funny characters. With that out of the way the characters in Full Bumm will really grate on your nerves - especially in combina¬ tion with the cheesy American announcer. There are six dudes with 'tudes to choose from, each with three outfits. To give you an idea of what they're like, I've put together a couple of character bios. Name: Acceie (pronounced "Axl") Defining characteristics: Stereotypical hard rockin’ dude. Outfits: A disgusting black and red leather number; jeans and no top (just tatts). Dialogue: Aside from howls of vicarious delight, he also has some tragic Austin Powers- isms, like "Let's rock'n’roll baby". Name: Bob Defining Characteristics: Stereotypical reggae guy. Outfits: Tropical clothes with beat box slung over shoulder He appears to be gifted in the art of snowboarding in trainers. Dialogue: Shouts stuff like "Ha ha sumbodee stop me" (what sage advice, I wish somebody would bloody stop him) as he squeals, laughs and ragga scats his way down the mountain. I’m yet to hear him say "pass the dutchie on the left 'and side mon" but I’m sure it’s in them somewhere. The only thing missing from the character line¬ up is the cute ditsy Japanese girl who giggles and says stuff like "yay, I did it" as if she can’t believe that a girl can snowboard. Hang on a sec... there she is! f 49 m 99 L aL fWT J (/ * rcr fMw ' e #?-/r i . f 9 tion with a chronic lack of options, the longevity simply isn’t there. There are no ghost races, no decent trick- based courses, no championship option, no alternate camera angles and almost no inspiration. SHRED ME DEAD Graphically, Coolboarders is impressive, but not overly so. As nice as it does look, the reality is that achieving these kinds of results really isn’t that hard on the Dreamcast, But Full Burrrn just doesn’t have the attention to detail that a polished product invariably possesses. Take 1080 on the N64 for instance, it has a much more realis¬ tic look to the way the boarder interacts with the snow - the trail behind the board, the rippling clothes, the rider animations and the way the boarder shifts weight around are all outstanding. Granted, Coolboarders isn’t attempting to be realistic, but even an arcade snowboarding game will really benefit from these kinds of details - it just makes the package that much more appealing. Even so, the environments are often very nice, and aside from the unforgive- able slowdown at the beginning of Dancing Devils, the impression of speed is excellent. Cool Boarders: Full Burn is yet another example of a potentially awesome game rushed to release well before its time. With any luck, it will receive a major overhaul before it comes out here. ■ PLUS A lot if fun until you’ve unlocked all the courses. MINUS Shameful lack of options and tracks. No opponents in races. Get that work experience kid outta there! VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 83 62 80 OVERALL Fill lurrrn coitioues In the tradition of Cool loardors 2 except with about half the courses aid optioos. Fill lori? More like Half lakod. 69 »HYPER 70 »HYPER reviews Want some wallpaper of your favourite Beefcake? You sick puppy! Head over to http://www.wcwmayhem.com WCW MAYHEM Yep, it's those beefy blokes in their underwear. 1K>y Gorman gets personal... f f AVAILABLE November CATEGORY Wristliag a PLAYERS 1-4 " PUBLISHER Electronic Arts ^ PRICE $99.95 ^ RATING 6 SUPPORTS Controller Pak. Memory Pak $$>, Professional Wrestling. It’s as Australian as apple pie and cheerlead¬ ers. I like all of them hot and tasty, but that’s another story. I also enjoy men covered in oil and the way they wrestle into many positions of love. My favourite move is the one where you get to place your face near their hairy butt holes and the way you can get your ass spanked, but I have digressed again. BEEFCAKE. BEEEEEFCAAAAAAKE! WCW Mayhem marks Electronic Art’s debut into the world of N64 profes¬ sional wrestling games. The previous WCW games were published by THQ and used the now famous grappling method for control. This method sepa¬ rated the WCW games from being nothing more than fighting games wearing tights. The game engine has proved to be so good that THQ are continuing to use it for their upcom¬ ing WWF games. Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, EA must love THQ. EA’s wrestling engine is a total rip off from the earlier WCW games. This is the fourth WCW game so there is a fair bit of competition for "Best Wrestling” game. EA met this chal¬ lenge by including a couple of new features, such as backstage wrestling and a triangle match. There are some fun hidden characters, including managers and "Mean" Cene, the com¬ mentator, but these hardly make up for the fact that this is WCW Revenge with a paint job. The paint job isn’t even that good. The wrestlers all look like dwarves with their tiny little legs which brings up a few questions. Is this "Snow White versus NWO”? Can you unlock Sneezy, Sleepy and Dopey? Is this how munchkins spend their time now that the Wicked Witch of the West is dead? SHUT UP! JUST FIGHT, DANGNABBIT! This is the first attempt at commen¬ tary in an N64 wrestling title and it’s easy to see why. Cartridges simply do not have the storage space necessary to hold all the speech required to keep it interesting. Sure, the crowd and commentary react according to what’s going on, instead of being an endless loop, but after the third or fourth "He’s laying it all on the line” you may find yourself reaching for the volume control. Fortunately, all the different aspects of sound have separate volume selections in the options menu. The sound effects for the beefy boys hitting the mat sounds a lot tougher than these pansies look. If you slammed this version of Goldberg he looks like he’d run off and cry to his mummy. There is also some major glitching, involving characters not only being out of £5Q the hitman miHIHi reach but also facing the wrong direction while slamming your mon¬ key ass down. Overall WCW Mayhem is a fun game to play, especially with a few friends, but it adds very little to existing games and, since this is an EA title, a lot more was expected. ■ GOLDBERG 373 iiifiEm l Mr W; IIIJJJU A>W // PLUS Oie if the best wrestling games on N64. Lacks originality. Copies WCW Revenge too closely. VISUALS SOUND GAMIPLAY 70 68 72 GTS scon NORTON WHI1110 MU! BONDING IMS HUT 'LlLlsLL STEVIE RAY GTS OVERALL 72 Nit a great start fir El's foray into wrestling. Mission Impossible 2 was recently being filmed in our very own city of Sydney. To find out more about the upcoming spy sequel, go check out this unofficial site - http://home4.swipnet.se/w-49193/mi2/index2.htm With the next Mission Impossible < 4 / film on the not-so-distant hori¬ zon, PlayStation owners have had a long wait for their version of a game that wasn’t particularly well received in its much delayed N64 incarnation. Not only that, but in the interim the stealth action genre has been blessed with the masterful Metal Gear Solid and the reasonable Syphon Filter. So how does Mission Impossible fare on the PlayStation? Umm... unremark - ably is probably the best answer. It’s a good conversion, and an improved game in some ways, but the changes are mostly superficial, with the core of the game being exactly the same. WHY DOES THE VOICE ACTING ALWAYS SUCK? The PlayStation version initially looks quite a bit crisper than its low-res, high-fog N64 brethren, but after a short play you’ll realise the visuals are just as flawed. The graphics are pixel- lated, the polygon count on the char¬ PLUS Improved graphics, varied gameplay and the quicksave option. MINUS Still feels dated, could be much smoother, and new levels would have been nice. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 78 79 79 ovniu > 78 Mission Impossible is a solid game - just don't expect a religious experience. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE After getting sick and tired of being referred to as "99", Eliot called Cam Shea on his shoe phone and gave him Mission Impossible to help satiate his spy urges... acters is noticeably lower (the faces in particular look appalling), and worst of all, the game runs at a distractingly low frame rate that only serves to fur¬ ther highlight the sluggish controls. Overall, the PlayStation version does look better, with some decent in-game reflection and transparency effects. The intro is also rather slick, and there are around 20 new movie sequences. All the game’s dialogue has been re¬ recorded to take advantage of all that extra storage space, but the voice act¬ ing (and bizarre accents) is second rate at best. The most important change in the PlayStation version is the addition of a "quicksave” option which allows you to save (and load) the game at any point in a level. This really does make the game a hell of a lot more enjoy¬ able. Instead of being forced to repeat long and tedious sequences until you get absolutely everything right, you can simply hop back to your last quicksave point. PLOT MATTERS Mission Impossible has the same set of levels as the N64 version (with a few extra mission objectives thrown in), which is disappointing. Even so, the variety in missions and gameplay is still a strong point. Roughly following the plot of the film, you’ll be doing everything from sniping enemy agents whilst high atop a train station, to breaking into the CIA’s mainframe vault, to a tense showdown on a crowded train. The mix of stealth (using the facemaker to assume another identity is undeniably cool), action, funky gadgets and unpre¬ dictable gameplay certainly make Mission Impossible an entertaining play. Unfortunately, one can’t help but feel that with a little more inspira¬ tion, and a little more playtesting, Mission Impossible could have been so much more... again. ■ “THE VARIETY IN MISSIONS AND GAMEPLAY IS STILL A STRONG POINT” 71 »HYPER 72 »HYPER AVAILABLE Now CATEGORY Actioo/Adventure PLAYERS 1 PUBLISHER Red Orb PRICE $89.95 I s M REQUIRED P166 MMX.24MI RAM, 31 card DESIRED P2-306. 64MB RAM. Voodoo2 or better COv It was seemingly eons ago that I w' first recall playing Prince of Persia... Hang on, it WAS eons ago, back in 1989. Many younger gamers will look at this new addition to the franchise and declare it to be "a Tomb Raider clone”. The truth is, Tomb Raider was really a Prince of Persia clone, but 3D. Jordan Mechner, the original creator of the POP series was recalled to co-author the story of the latest version of the game, Prince of Persia 3D, which really brings the series up to date. IS THIS TOMB RAIDER 4? The most obvious change from the old to the new is the visuals, going from 2D to 3D. In a nutshell, this really does thanks to Tomb Raider, because it offers very little in terms of new moves. The game plays almost iden- “there are some rather annoying THINGS WITH THIS OTHERWISE ENTERTAINING ACTION ADVENTURE." make it look like Tomb Raider, especial¬ ly with the somewhat slow pace of the game that we’re accustomed to with Lara. Unlike Tomb Raider though, there’s no apparent tile based system, making for much more natural looking environments. Well, to a point. Prince of Persia 3D has some unforgivably poor ways of dealing with views out into the distance, with blurry, low detail bitmaps of a picture that is meant to look like what you see in the distance, but really looks like a painted wall, because it’s so damn close. The flaw with backgrounds does not stop the game from looking good as a whole. The models have far more charac¬ ter and style than Tomb Raider, and are very well animated. The lighting is also quite nice, but without shadows, POP3D is a smidge behind the eight ball there. It’s a real shame for Prince of Persia 3D that it has been heavily cloned Another classic game goes 3D. Dan Toose holds our hand through this one... PERSIA 3D Prince of Persia is now available on Came Boy Color! This is the original game with a few added bonus levels and it looks great. Relive the legend on a handheld! SUCK HIS HAND Excellent puzzles and level design. Sluggish cnntrols and viewpoint problems. VISUALS EAMEPLAY tically to Tomb Raider 3, except with the addition of swinging on ropes, the ability to climb up and down poles and ropes, and a different combat system. The combat system is extremely simplistic, and somewhat buggy, though it is far more cinematic than other games thanks to a dif¬ ferent viewpoint and music once you draw your weapon. The inclusion of a few extra weapons other than your sword do little to enhance melee combat, but the wrong. In gameplay terms, the controls are somewhat sluggish, except for the jump function, which happens right when you press it (vital to surviving in this game). Not only are the controls a bit spaz, but also as you turn, the view¬ point doesn’t follow immediately, but instead a moment later. This leads to sit¬ uations where you have to wait to see if you’ve turned the right amount, and when time is of the essence, this is mon¬ umentally frustrating. Prince of Persia 3D is a good action adventure title, that beats the Tomb Raider series in several ways, but is held back by some really silly prob¬ lems that could so easily have been fixed. It offers a great epic adventure with fifteen challenging levels, many different opponents and some absolutely fiendish traps. Further patches may iron out issues like the camera problems, or the buggy com¬ bat AI. Let’s hope so, because it’s a very good game otherwise. ■ THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE The puzzles and traps are far more inventive than in the Tomb Raider games, with the lack of a tile-based system allowing for more complexity. This offers a far greater challenge, which is good, but be warned, the learning curve is amazingly steep. Things get tough early on, rather than easing you into it. This is very much a game where you save every time you pass a trap or complete a puzzle. There are some rather annoying things with this otherwise entertaining action adventure. Most annoying is having to download a 6.1MB patch straight away. Having to download a patch is bad, but one that large just to start is downright The plot is simple, but satisfying in context. The Princess you married was actually arranged to marry someone else, Rugnor, the unusually hairy eater of Snappy Tom, and son of the Sultan's brother, Assan. Rather than complain in a diplomatic fash* ion, Assan has you ambushed and thrown in jail and the Princess is taken away to marry Rugnor. Naturally, you're pissed, and set about freeing yourself to rescue your wife. bow becomes extremely useful, both for taking out guards, and hitting switches to overcome obstacles. ONCE UPON TIME THE BOOP OLD DAYS Here it is, the original Prince of Persia! This is the game which spawned endless clones, with it's beautifully animated 2D scrolling action. Most of us failed high school because of this. An extremely challeaging actien adventure game, with a few niggling issues. 73 »HYPER 74 »HYPER available Now CJW60BV Sports PUTEB: 1-2 PUBUSHH Infogrames PRICE: $94.95 With the Dreamcast’s sheer w grunt, the possibilities for a new generation of sports games are fright¬ ening. The day where accurate clip¬ ping, superb texturing, lifelike sound @T rr rf j i UEFA STRIKER He'd kill us if we didn't let him review it. Jackson Gothe-Snape dribbles on our Dreamcast... Yet UEFA Striker definitely has its graphical strong points. The stadiums As we went to press, Police were combing Rio to arrest soccer star Edmundo, who vanished after a court upheld his convic¬ tion for manslaughter. Cripes! is the ’expert’ thoughts from Ron Atkinson and Ruud Gullit - after young Ruud’s little excursion with Newcastle, do we really need his opinon? REALISM, OR JUST POT LUCK? Yet a football game can still dominate if it plays right. UEFA Striker unfortu¬ nately falls into the bracket of ’just IT’S DFFICIIH The game bears a UEFA license, so it includes most of the major European club, along with plenty of international teams. The rosters are a little out of date, but there is an editor to right any wrongs. “UEFA STRIKER UNFORTUNATELY FALLS INTO THE BRACKET OF 'JUST ANOTHER FOOTBALL GAME'.” and the sense of realism that these factors create is now not far away. Can one of the first DC sports titles bring us this day? HOW RUUD... UEFA Striker’s graphics are a tad dis¬ appointing. They are definitely up there with the best console football games, but they are well within the Dreamcast’s limitations. I saw another Dreamcast sports game, NFL 2K, run¬ ning before I played UEFA Striker, and NFL 2K put Striker utterly to shame. and crowds are the best yet in a foot¬ ball game, and the motion capture is as good as we’ve seen. Yet the rest of the game looks average, on par with FIFA 99 in all areas. Also, there seemed to be a bit of an unpolished feel, with things like players placing the ball on the spot for a penalty not quite look¬ ing right. The sound is similarly a tad scrap¬ py. Sure, you have commentary, but it’s only detached comments. The effects are pretty standard, with noth¬ ing overly ear-catching. Worth a note another football game’. It is definitely above average, and provides solid entertainment, particularly to football fans, but a standout, it will never be. However, the game does succeed in forcing you to play football in a realis¬ tic manner, with the centre of defence hard to puncture as it is in real life. You are forced to play the wings, or just get lucky through the middle. It is much more difficult to string a few passes together than it is in other games like FIFA99 or ISS, and the uses of some of the buttons are question¬ able. Another disappointing element is how much the controls struggle in confined areas. Passing is rather tough when in close, particularly with opponent pressure. Depending how you look at it, this can be the way football is in real life, but in the game it just feels like the receiving ball ani¬ mation is keeping you from getting a quick pass away. To conclude, I’m going out on a double-reinforced limb and saying that there will be far greater soccer games to come on the Dreamcast. This is the first of the first wave of titles, so you can rightfully expect much better things in the coming years. However, UEFA Striker is an above average title, that will no doubt offer you some quality gaming hours, especially for football fanatics. ■ PLUS Nice stadions aid a training node. MINUS Unpolished, with a few ainoyiig gameplay quibbles. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 79 75 80 OVERALL Net groindhreakiig. hat a decent play. Yeah boyeeee. When the homies Papyrus takes a leaf out of Disney’s platforming bible. Feeling very much like Aladdin on the SNES or a similar such Disney title, Papyrus is a very nicely made platformer. The animation in the character, control and level design is all top notch and it’s a pleasure to explore the i ancient Egyptian levels. A little \ puzzling needs to be solved, with plenty of jumping, swinging, and OOV This rocks. We remember long vC/ ago, Spy Vs Spy being one of the coolest games on the Commodore 64! On Game Boy, things are not too dif¬ ferent. Despite the graphics being quite small and a little hard to see exactly what’s going on at times, this is perfect two- player mayhem. Each player OCv Pikachu is so popular that a vv special edition has been special edition has been released of the Pokemon Game Boy title. Essentially, the game is exactly the same to Pokemon Red and Blue I despite a few minor changes. The obvious dif- ference, is that Pikachu T f f II is your first Pokemon and will follow you around the map doing all the usual cute stuff. If you play Pokemon Yellow long enough, you’ll notice that you can evolve your Pokemon a little differently too. Really, despite the additions, this is only for those of you who have either not played through Red and Rally racing on Game Boy? How can vC/ this little handheld provide even a remotely interesting rally expe¬ rience? Rally is all about grind¬ ing your gears and powerslid- ing around muddy embank¬ ments, flying in-between trees and catching serious air off nasty lumps on the track. Kemco have done a very good job of bringing some rally-ific fun Racing CATEGORY $59 Kemca PUBUSHfR Game Boy Color aaly TOP GEAR RALLY m 11 ftlllli I^S» 0000B PAPYRUS AVAILABLE Now Platfarmtr CATECBffY $49 Ubi Soft PUBLISHER 0 LU iskOL/ti m Game lay Calar only raiHIT 88 »HYPER The early-80s home console of choice was eas Let Cam Shea guide you through the ins and outs of this classic p; Despite its now legendary III status, when the Atari 2600 launched, there was no ^ I real fanfare and no indi¬ cation of the impact that Atari would have in forging a new home entertain¬ ment medium. As you'd expect, the gaming landscape was radically differ¬ ent back in the late 70s. Until the Atari 2600 and the Fairfield Channel F, both of which featured exchangeable car¬ tridge based games, computer games were either arcade cabinets, or single game handhelds (namely Pong). Indeed, the notion of being able to play many games using the one box was a foreign concept and initial sales of the system were low. After all, when it was released in October 1977. an Custer’s Revenge <><>-• -» A <> 47 Pole Position Atari 2600 would have set you back $200 US (which works out to be the equivalent of well over $500 US now)! It wasn’t until lanuary 1980, when Atari acquired the rights to an exclu¬ sive home console port of Space Invaders that the system really started selling. Coming smack-bang in the middle of the Space Invaders epidem¬ ic, this was the first arcade game to be ported to a console, and it resulted in a blinding success for Atari. The Atari 2600 came to be the most popular home console of the early 1980s, despite numerous competitors. In the grand scheme of computer games, the legendary Spacewar devel¬ oped on the mainframe PDP-i at MIT may have been the first computer 1 River Raid game, and the various pong handhelds may have been the first portable sys¬ tems, but the Atari 2600 will go down in history as the console that helped forge the absolutely massive home videogame market... as well as being responsible for almost destroying it. In 1983/84, the bottom fell out of the mar¬ ket, and the reign of the 2600 was over. There are numerous reasons for the console crash of '84. Aside from the fact that the Atari 2600 hardware was over 5 years old, the market was absolutely saturated with titles. There were no restrictions as to who could make and sell games for the system, opening the door for a huge amount of shite soft¬ ware, with many low budget games thrown together to cash in on the fad. the Atari 2600 of gaming hardware.. Atari themselves didn’t help, with a ter¬ rible port of Pacman and an abysmal E.T. game (more details on these two games in a future Reverse Engineering) that left both gamers and retailers dis¬ enchanted, not to mention the millions of unsold copies. Both were to become landfill in New Mexico! It's worth searching out an Atari 2600 even now. Not only is it gaming histo¬ ry. but the system has awesome kitsch value. Could a console be any more stylish? After all. this huge lump of plastic did have a series of switches along the top (including one for black and white televisions), and a sophisti¬ cated fake woodgrain finish along the front. Mmm... fake woodgrain. Only the PlayStation 2 looks more retro than this! 133 * II 111 Outlaw Froggc Popeyc Classic games for the Atari 2600 Over 1000 games were released during the 26oo’s lifespan, many of which were complete bollocks, thanks largely to the lack of a licensing system, and the ease with which games could be made. This even extended to promotional games like Kool-Aid Man (the forerunner to the classic Pepsiman on PlayStation). Thanks largely to software from Atari and Activision, many seminal classics were also produced. These include: Commando, Double Dragon, Pitfall. Rampage. Fast Food, loust, Adventure (one of the first RPCs), Breakout, Defender, Asteroids, Moon Patrol. Pole Position, Frogger, Q-Bert, Battlezone, Sentinel. Centipede, Robotron, Gauntlet, and River Raid. Memories... cam sin-a (ix-pim i.iiu.g Hmmm . October 1977 the month that the Atari 2600 was released, yes. I remember it well. Being such a hardcore gamer I just had to get my hands on this sexy new hard¬ ware. Despite the significant handicap of being a mere four months old, I remember queuing up at the local store waiting for the machine that I'd preordered three months earlier. Until that time, the only game i d played was handheld Pong during my ' foetal" stage Actually... I didn’t get an Atari (or any real interest in games) until I was seven or so. By this stage, the Atari 2600 was practically dead, but that didn't stop me from envy¬ ing many of the classics. ust do it! Memories... t ii<>i ii*h (Editor) I begged my parents for an Atan 2600 until they were driven completely round the twist. Eventually I got one. but not before being given a sad little Hanimex system in a lame cheapo attempt at shutting me up. What were they thmkb»g?l I had to have that Atari, dammit! Once I did get my grubby little paws on the thing, it proved to be worth every cent. My parents happily didn't hear from me for another * or 5 years! So... you want to play an Atari 2600 but can't find one? Well, the internet is chockablock full of tribute sites, many of which have Atari 2600 emulators and game roms for download. Of course, the whole emulation scene isn’t exactly welcomed by the big boys of the games industry. After all, if a company like Activision wants to release a classic hits com¬ pilation for a modern machine, they don’t want their games widely available for free. Even so, emulating and running Atari 2600 roms is widespread amongst retro fanatics. Roms are easy to find because you’re legally entitled to keep a copy of each game you own. Thus, to legitimately download roms from the internet, you must already own the original software — the rom is for "backup” purposes only. If your Atari 2600 is busted, and you can’t use your carts, you’re legally allowed to download and play the games you already own. Of course, this opens a loophole for unscrupulous types to download games irrespective of ownership, and run them illegally. Naughty gamers, naughty! nvmvnima afc*ma*\ 2600 facts ###*##**##*##*###*********####**#******************« Atari was formed on June 27.1972 by Nolan Bushnell. The name Atari comes from the Japanese board game CO (it’s like the equivalent of check in Chess). The Atari 2600 had a blistering clock speed of 1.19 MHz and 128 bytes of RAM. During the development of the Atari 2600. its code name was "Stella”, which, inci- dently, is also the name of one of the more pop¬ ular emulators available on the net. The Atari 2600 is also known as the VCS (Video Computer System). Atari was sold to Warner Communications for $28 million in October 1976 in order to finance the machine’s launch. In 1980. several key programmers left Atari to form Activision (the first third party software company). The actual Atari logo represents Mt Fuji. There were a huge number of unau¬ thorised Atari 2600 imitation mod¬ els released worldwide - especially in Asia. The system was so popular that many of the competing systems had add-ons to allow the user to play 2600 games. The Atari 2600 had a brief revival in the late 80s, but was officially dis¬ continued in 1991. ATARI make more home video games than anyone Have you played ATARI today? 89 »HYPER 90 »HYPER cheat mode Sega 1902 555 444 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Sega PC 1900 142 100 Calls charged at a rate of ti.50 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Roadshow Interactive 1902 962 000 Calls charged at a rate of $1.00 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Microprose 1902 262 667 Calls charged at a rate of Sijo per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Sony Powerline 1902 262 662 Calls charged at a rate of $1.50 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Electronic Arts 1902 261 600 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Virgin Interactive 1902 220 058 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. GT Interactive 1900 957 665 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. TARZAN PLAYSTATION The following cheat code will vc/ give you the option to freeze time, have infinite lives, and loads of fruit. On the title screen which shows the start game option at the top of the menu enter the following combination of buttons: Left, Left, Right, Right, Up, Down, Left, Right, Up, Up, Down, Down. Once you have entered the correct combination of buttons, scroll down through the list of options and you will find a new option. If you now select this option you will find a level skip menu. Highlight the level you wish to play and enter the following combina¬ tion of buttons: Li, Ri, Li, Ri, Li, Ri, Li, Ri, L2, R2. Now press the X button to select the level. When you are in the game, if you pause the action you will see a new option called Cheat Menu. If you access this option you will be able to switch on and off the various cheat options using the left a right direction¬ al buttons. Press the X button to con¬ tinue once you have selected your options. POOL SHARK PLAYSTATION To access all of the pool tables, vOr from the main menu select options, and then select character set¬ up from the next menu of options. Now select which player number to change and select to change the character name. Now change your selected char¬ acter name to the following numbers and letters: C, W, i, 2, (Space), 4. A, P. If you now select the match option from the main menu you will be able to select all of the pool tables from within the game. MONSTER TRUCK MADNESS 64 NINTENDO 64 Aztec Valley track: vO/ Complete a circuit on easy. Alpine Challenge track: Complete a circuit on medium. Death Trap track: Complete a circuit on hard. Get Sound Effects: Press Up to get various effects Horns: You can press Down to use the horn. Different horns are given during each race Low Rider: At the code screen put in YRDR Alternate textures: Enter IMPNC as a password. Full-time missiles: Enter Y WNT I as a password Weird Mode: Enter JMPR as a password Get Packer Smasher Truck: At the start screen press C-Down, C-Up, A, Z, R, B. ASSAULT SONIC ADVENTURE DREAMCAST OOv Play as Super Sonic: w Beat the game with all six start¬ ing characters to unlock Supersonic. Play as Tails: Controller two may be used to control Tails after he is obtained in the game. Note: Shields, invincibility and extra life boxes have no effect on Tails if collected. Full pause screen: Pause the game and press Y ♦ X. Hidden artwork: Place the game disc in a PC compatible CD-ROM drive to find several rendered images from the game. Alternate Twinkle Park Race views: Press Up during the Twinkle Park Race level to change views. PLAYSTATION For the level vCr skip, infinite all, and the FMV cheat called Goodies from within the game, on the press start screen enter the follow¬ ing combination of buttons very quickly. Triangle, Square, Circle, Left, Square, Triangle, Square, Circle, Left, Square. Once you have entered the cheat code correctly and within the time restraint, the screen will flash white with a whooshing sound effect and the cheat name ’goodies' will appear at the top of the screen. Once this cheat has been activated you will find an additional option within the options menu called Goodies. This cheat option will allow you to choose which level you wish to play, gives you all weapons with infinite ammo and infinite life, as well as the option to view all of the in-game Full Motion Video. For the retro look cheat enter the following combina¬ tion of buttons very quickly. Left, Left, Left, Left, Left, Left, Left, Left, Left, Left. Once you have entered the cheat code correctly and within the time restraint, the screen will flash white with a whooshing sound effect and the cheat name Retro will cheat mode appear at the top of the screen. To increase the speed of your chosen character, on the start screen enter the following combination of but¬ tons very quickly. X, Square, Triangle, Circle, X, Square, Triangle, Circle, L2, R2. Once you have entered the cheat code correctly and within the time restraint, the screen will flash white with a whooshing sound effect and the cheat name ’speed run’ will appear at the top of the screen. When you now press the cir¬ cle button in-game, your chosen character will speed up. To flatten the 3D mesh of the characters, on the press start screen enter the following combination of buttons very quickly. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, X, Circle. Once you have entered the cheat code correctly and within the time restraint, the screen will flash white with a whooshing sound effect and the cheat name ’Nakomi’ will appear at the top of the screen. For the big headed player cheat, on the press start screen enter the fol¬ lowing combination of buttons very quickly. Square, Circle, Circle, Square, Up, Square, Circle, Circle, Square, X. Once you have entered the cheat code correctly and within the time restraint, the screen will flash white with a whooshing sound effect and the cheat name Bighead Players will appear at the top of the screen. For the big head alien cheat, on the press start screen enter the following combination of buttons very quickly. Square, Circle, Circle, Square, Up, Square, Circle, Circle, Square, Cross. Once you have entered the cheat code correctly and within the time restraint, the screen will flash white with a whooshing sound effect and the cheat name Big Head Aliens will appear at the top of the screen. MORTAL KOMBAT GOLD DREAMCAST At the "Press Start Button" screen, quickly press Up(2), Down(2), Left(2), Right(2). If you entered the code correctly, you will hear a laugh and the word "Outstanding" will be spoken. Then, enter the options screen and press L ♦ R to display a cheat menu with the following options: Easy Endings Enable the "Easy Endings" option on the cheat menu. Then to see a charac¬ ter’s ending, start a game in arcade mode and defeat just one character. Fatal 1 Enable the "Fatal 1” option on the cheat menu. Then to finish your opponent, press High Punch. This will let any character perform their first fatality. Fatal 2 Enable the "Fatal 2” option on the cheat menu. Then to finish your oppo¬ nent, press Low Punch. This will let any character perform their second fatality. Pit Fatal Enable the "Pit Fatal” option on the cheat menu. Then to finish your oppo¬ nent, hold Down and press High Punch. This will let any character perform their level fatality. Danger Enable the "Danger" option on the cheat menu. Then, both characters health bars will be very low, enabling one-hit deaths. Kombat Kode Allows the following cheats to be acti¬ vated: O: No Kode 1: Big Heads 2: Throwing Disabled 3: Max Damage Disabled 4: Max/Throw Disabled 5: Unlimited Run 6: Free Weapon 7: Random Weapons 8: Armed 8 Dangerous 9: Many Weapons 10: Silent Kombat ii: Explosive Kombat 12: No Power 13: No Rain 14: Weapon Kombat 15: Noob Saibot Mode 16: Red Rain 17: Coro's Lair 18: The Well 19: Elder Cods 20: The Tomb 21: Wind World 22: Reptile’s Lair 23: Shaolin Temple 24: Living Forest 25: Prison 26: Ice Pit 27: The Church 28: The Netherrealm 29: The Soul Chamber 30: Ladder Stage TRAP RUNNER PLAYSTATION To have an alternative piece of background music playing while fighting, on the push start screen enter the following combination of buttons; CIRCLE, R2, Ri, TRIANGLE, X, SQUARE. RIGHT, L2, Li, UP, DOWN, LEFT. If the cheat code has been accepted you will hear a whooshing sound. When you now begin your battle, an alternative piece of background music will be heard. To access the three bonus characters; Australia’s Largest Hotline * A large range of USA (ntsc) Titles Ml CiC m Ml Ace Combat ? M? Aetna Soccer 2 M3 Aetna Saccar 3 14/ Akua The Heartless M7 Alone in the Dart 2 •(War 2 3 1 2 3 Tan PM 2 Ml Crusader No Remorse 332 Dead In The Water 330 Army Men 30 Ml Dead or AAve 113 A niton senna Kart Duel M2 Death Trap Dunpeon Ann B Movie •21 •21 •22 •23 •24 •28 •21 •27 •28 •32 I •33 I i Tosh i Tosh . It M7 Me Hard Trtogy i tool •71 Dynami •7? Element •73 ESPN Extreme Games •79 ff A 91 •7» FV A 99 •71 Hunting Force •71 Fighting Huston Kt-Mv •71 Final Doom Me Final Fantasy 7 333 Fisherman s Ml: A Bass Mi Formula 1(7 M2 Formula 191 M3 Formula Karts 08 Mental S Hera's V s a. 01 Metal Gear S«M 02 Metal Slug 03 Micro Machines V3 343 MMary Madness 0J Monster Trucks 129 Molo Racer 06 Moto Racer 2 12 Motortwad 128 MT1 Dirt Cross 09 N2B Nitrous undo 130 Nascar 98 131 Nascar 99 02 MA Uve 98 133 MA Urn 99 04 MA Shoot tat 91 05 Heed lor Speed 2 lit) Peed lor Speed 3 324 Peed For Speed Mgh 1 01 HR MU 08 HR Gameday 99 09 Mt 98 MO NHL 99 Ml Mt Face 01198 M2 I MS I HO Rival Schools 171 Riven: Sequel to N 173 Rouge Trip: 2012 335 Rograts Search ft 174 Running w«d 17 SCARS 176 Shadow Master 17) Shane Warm 99 T78 Side Pechat 3 337 Sdent MM 179 SPn City 2M8 00 SluH Monkeys 0? Smash Court 2 03 Soul Hade 06 Smtro the Drapen 07 Star Wars Masters Of Ter. lie Street Fighter Cefl 2 Mi Street Fighter JUMplia 02 Street Racer 339 Street SkBer 334 syphon Filar 03 Tates of Destiny 04 Tafckeo 2 05 Tekhen 3 08 Ten Pin Alev 07 Tenchu 08 Test Drive 4 1M Test Drive S 2M Test Drive Off Read 2D1 Test Drive OTt Road 2 282 Terns Phis 283 The Fifth Bement 2B4 The Lost World 288 The Unholy War 206 Theme Hospital 28) Thame Park 288 Thrift KM ?09 Thunder _ 20 Tiger Woods 99 211 Time Crisis 21? Tohal 2 213 Toci Touring Car 214 Toca Tounng Car 2 215 Tokyo Mgtiwsy 216 Tomb Raider 217 Tomb Raider 2 218 Tomb Ranter 3 219 Tomba 1 221 1 Makm„._ 221 Treasures of the Doeo 222 Triple Hay 98 223 Tripie Play 99 224 Twisted Metal 225 Twisted Metal 3 228 V Rady 227 rs 228 Vigilante B 229 VMX Racing 238 VR Powerb oa t 211 War Games 23? WarCrafl 2 233 Warhamraer 214 WCW Nitre 1 WCW/NWO TtaRdar 736 WCW V sTht 237 Wdtl 9 238 Wild Arms 219 Wipeout 2097 248 WWF In Yarn House 281 WWF War Zone 242 X-Mon Vs St. DREAMCAST NOW AVAILABLE! All you have to do is call and give the number corresponding to the game 1902 211 937 323 Vtrtua Fighter STB PlayStation NEW!!! 385 MU 2DM 38€ NR Xtrame 2 397 Astertx 31 DRIVER MB Bust A Groove 2 378 Ace Combat 2 B 371 Big Air 3*8 CMC 2 381 Blood Uros 38? Snow Racer 98 383 Sports Car GT 385 V-RAUY 2 3Bt Warzone 2001 389 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 480 Wipeout 3 481 South Park 40 ? Omo Crisis 483 WCW Mayhem 404 G-Pobce 2 Weapons of Justice 485 legacy at Cam 486 Tanan NINTENDO 64 NEW!!! 31- Washerman Bass Hunter 64 392 Al-Star Basahal 99 394 Monster Tract Madness 64 372 Beetle Adventure 373 Fighting Free 64 374 WWF Attitude STS Super Sma 378 World Driver Championship in nil WARS Episode 1-Racer 30 Quake 2 Milch M 378 Superman 4f7 Duke Nuke Zara Hour 488 toad Rash 64 IPS 410 WCW Mayhem 411 Gatin 40 ABupsUfe 4M * 1.95 Per Min. Higher rate trom Mobile or Public Phones 92 »HYPER cheat mode Elg, Dyn, and Rem, on the push start screen enter the following combina¬ tion of buttons; L2, Li, UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, SQUARE, X, CIRCLE, TRIANGLE, Ri, R2. If the cheat code has been accepted you will hear an explosive sound. The bonus characters are selected by either pushing left from the character Van Raily, or right from the character Tenrou Ugetsu. This cheat is only available in the Vs Computer mode of the game. To change the clothing of the charac¬ ters, on the push start screen enter the following combination of buttons; R2, Ri, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, X, SQUARE, RIGHT, DOWN, LEFT, UP, Li, L2. If the cheat code has been accepted you will hear an electronic sound. To select an alterna¬ tive costume for a character, before pressing the X button to select a charac¬ ter, press the select button and the characters name will change from a blue colour, to a red colour. This cheat is only available in the Vs Computer mode of the game. WWF ATTITUDE NINTENDO 64 Play as Chyna: Beat the game as Triple H in chal¬ lenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as referee: Successfully complete career mode as "Stone Cold” Steve Austin to unlock the referee in PPV events. Play as Head: Beat the game as Al Snow in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as Sable: Beat the game as a female created wrestler in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as Shawn Michaels: Beat the game as Badass, Road Dogg, or X-Pac in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as Sgt. Slaughter: Beat the game as Shawn Michaels in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as Paul Bearer: Beat the game as The Undertaker or Kane in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as Godfather: Beat the game as D-Lo Brown or Mark Henry in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as Marc Mero: Beat the game as Goldust in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Play as jerry Lawler: Beat the game as Owen Hart or Jeff Jarrett in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Hello ladies costumes: Beat the game as Val Venis in chal¬ lenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Additional female clothing will be available in creation mode. New duds costumes: Beat the game as Mankind in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Additional male shirts, jackets, masks, pants, and accessories will be available in creation mode. More hair: Beat the game as "The Rock” Rocky Maivia in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Additional facial hair will be available in creation mode. No scrubs mode: Beat the game as the Trainer in chal¬ lenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting, jobbers are disabled in this mode. No wimps mode: Beat the game as Faarooq or Bradshaw in challenge or career mode under the normal or hard difficulty setting. Blocking is disabled in this mode. G-POLICE 2 PLAYSTATION For Level 1 Enter P, 0 , L, I, C, E. For Level 2 Enter 0 , C, T, 0 , P, I. For Level 3 Enter B, R, A, I, N, S. For Level 4 Enter F, I, N, G, E, R. For Level 5 Enter B, A, N, A, N, A. For Level 6 Enter J, U, N, G. L, E. For Level 7 Enter V, 0 , 0 , D, 0 , 0 . For Level 8 Enter S, Q, U, E, A, K. For Level 9 Enter D, U, N, D, E, E. For Level 10 Enter T, E, A, P, 0 , T. For Level 11 Enter B, U, T, T, E, R. For Level 12 Enter I, N, D, I, G, 0 . For Level 13 Enter S, T, R, 0 , U, D. For Level 14 Enter E, L, I, X, I, R. For Level 15 Enter L, I, Q, U, I, D. For Level 16 Enter S, T, A, P, L, E. For Level 17 Enter S, H, I, R, T, S. For Level 18 Enter A, P, P, L, E, S. For Level 19 Enter C, A, D, G, E, T. For Level 20 Enter T, A, N, U, K, I. For Level 21 Enter S, A, L, A, D, S. For Level 22 Enter D U, F, F, C, 0 . For Level 23 Enter P H, 0 , N, E, S. For Level 24 Enter A S, S, E, R, T. For Level 25 Enter 0 X, Y, G, E, N. For Level 26 Enter j 0 , Y, P, A, D. For Level 27 Enter A C, T, I, V, E. For Level 28 Enter M E, N, A, C, E. For Level 29 Enter W I, N, D, 0 , W. For Level 30 Enter A G, E, N, D, A. The following password is entered in the password option of the game. When you have entered the password correctly you will see the word ’cheat’ in the bottom right corner of the screen. Select ’end’, then return to the previous screen and select the ’data¬ base’ option. When you get to the ’database’ option screen you will find that all movies, music, artwork, and the fifteen secret missions will be open. To gain access to the hidden database options enter: U, T, 0 , P, I, A. LIBERO GRANDE PLAYSTATION Within the Namco title Libero Grande there are ten hidden play¬ ers for you to find on completion of various tasks within the game. To gain the hidden character Arnold Lang, (alias for the American defender Alexi Lalas) you must have a total score of over 8000. To gain the hidden charac¬ ter Ruprech Goes, (alias the Dutch cen¬ tre mid-field player Ruud Gullit) quali¬ fy in all events in the game. To gain the hidden character David Magellan, (alias the Argentian central mid-field player Diego Maradona) you will need to score a total of at least 1500 in all events. To gain the hidden character Gregorio Zonaras, (alias the Italian striker Gianfranco Zola) complete the arcade mode in default settings. To gain the hidden character Maurice Poulenc, (alias the French mid-fielder Michel Platini) you will need to achieve an overall accumulative score of 100 with any team in ’Vs-CPU’ mode. The following hidden characters are gained by simply winning the interna¬ tional cup with any team. When you first complete and win the internation¬ al cup, you will gain one of the hidden characters. Using different teams will present different characters. The hid¬ den characters, which can be gained by winning the international cup, are: Roland, alias the Brazilian striker Ronaldo. Minoru Kai, alias the Crotai Zargreb striker Kazuyoshi Miura. Edgard Cailaux, alias the Manchester United striker Eric Cantona. Powel Gardner, alias the Middlesborough centre mid¬ fielder Paul Gascoigne Gerald Wells, alias the AC Milan striker George Weah. KINGPIN PC Cheat Codes for Retail Version Edit the file AUTOEXEC.CFC (found in Kingpin’s "Main” directory) and add cheat mode the following line: set developer i You may now enter the following codes by pressing the single quote O key while playing and typing the desired code in the console window. * immortal — immortality * give all — all weapons, ammo and health * give weapons — all weapons * give health — full health * give cash —100 Dollars * give armor — full armour * noclip — walk through walls * give (item) — special item Use Quake II Maps in Kingpin To use the maps of Quake 2 in Kingpin, do the following: 1. Download a Quake II editor like quark or qped 2. Load it up and open the paki.pak in your baseq2 directory 3. Open the maps folder and right click on the ones you want 4. Choose EXPORT FILE and save the bsp in you kingpin/main/maps folder 5. If you don’t have that folder, make one. Make sure you export the folder textures and place them in the kp texture directory. GET BASS DREAMCAST Female character: Select arcade mode. Then at the level selection screen, press A ♦ B. Bonus practice levels: Successfully complete arcade mode once to unlock three new levels in practice mode. Successfully complete Lake Paradise in consumer mode to unlock the Palace level in practice mode. Successfully complete Lake Crystal in consumer mode to unlock the Falls level in prac¬ tice mode. Change lure color: At the lure selection screen in consumer mode, press Up or Down to change the lure color. Sonic lure: Successfully complete all five tournaments in consumer mode. RAMPAGE II UNIVERSAL TOUR PLAYSTATION The following passwords are used to activate the hidden characters. To enter the password, simply select the Password Option from the main menu and enter the correct letters and numbers. When the password is accepted, you will hear a pinging sound and be automatically taken back to the main menu. Only one hidden character can be accessed at one time. To access the hidden character Ceorge, enter: S, M, 1, 4, N. To access the hidden character Lizzie, enter: S, 4. V, R, S. To access the hidden character Ralph, enter: L, V, P, V, S. To access the hidden character Creen Myukus, enter: N, 0, T, 3, Y. To access the hidden character Purple Myukus, enter: B, 1, C, 4, L. To access the hidden character Noobus, enter: S, R, Y, 3, D. The following password will give you access to a secret cheat menu. When the cheat menu is activated you will be able to access it via options on the main menu. The cheat menu will then give you the following cheat options; A selection of which city to battle in. The ability to listen to all of the in game sound effects. To increase or decrease the amount of damage sustained. To change the number of lives you have from 1 to 100. To select and watch all of the in game movies. To gain access to the cheat menu, sim¬ ply enter the password: B, V, C, C, Y. THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 DREAMCAST Training mode and boss mode: Successfully complete original mode to unlock training and boss modes. Blood selection: Successfully complete original mode to unlock a blood colour option. Infinite super ammunition: Successfully complete training mode with a five red star rating on each stage. Then infinite super ammunition that kills with one hit will be unlocked. Infinite continues in original mode: Successfully complete training mode with all five red stars. Then, successful¬ ly complete boss mode with all five red stars. Finally, get two stars in fight all mode. Then the "Continue” option will change to "Free Play”. Note: For the Japanese version of the game, successfully complete training and boss modes. Bonus options in boss mode: Successfully defeat and obtain a rank¬ ing for all bosses in boss mode to unlock "Emperor" and "Fight All Bosses” options. Napalm gun: Kill the first three zombies in level 1 with perfect head shots. If done correctly, the napalm gun will appear on the ground. All items in original mode (Japanese version): Successfully complete training mode on all five difficulty settings to receive all items in original mode. Bonus room (Japanese version): Successfully complete the game with¬ out any hostages being killed. WARNING: Modifications can deteriorate the performance of your system and damage your laser or main board when improperly installed using cheaper quality components readily available on the market - Blade uses the highest quality components which are professionally installed by experienced technicians. PLAYSTATION™ CONVERSIONS • Playstation™ / videogame System Conversions to play ‘All’ Countries Games • Fully Modified Games Consoles Available! • 3 Years Warranty On Conversions! • Why ‘chip’ your PSX - NEW “Action Replay” allows you to play all countries games without the need of internal modchips which void your warranty. Also expands your standard memory card save capacity by (x5). Latest Bios and Comms Link card also available. • Figurines Action Figures Magazines • Video Game Figurines Toys • Keyrings • Collectables T-Shirts • Wall Scrolls NTSC Conversions Adaptors Replacement Parts PSX Mod Chips Cables Convertors Accessories PSX-VCD Adaptor - play VCD movies on Playstation C.O.D. ORDERS WELCOME AUSTRALIA WIDE 461 Logan Road Stones Corner (Corner of Cornwall Street) “Sony" & “Playstation” are registered trademarks of Sony Corporation (SCE) - Mod chips are not a Sony product Opening any product voids the manufacturers warranty. Blade Electronics is not a Sony Dealer. Blade Electronics does not condone the unauthorised copying or reproduction of video games software. Blade Electronics does not deal with any unauthorised NTSC or Pal games. 94 »HYPER incoming mail HYPER LETTERS 78 Renwick St. Redfern, NSW 2016 Fax: (02) 9281 6188 E-mail: freakscene@next.com.au OLD ACID Dear Hyper, I consider myself an elderly gamer in my late 20s and I enjoy hammering away at my N64 enjoying life away from Uni. However, I feel as if there is a void in my life, a gap which, quite frankly needs to be filled. So, after spending several hours in front of the eye magic that is Diddy Kong Racing, I started flicking through my issue of Hyper to see if I missed anything. Near the end of my magazine, I came across a marvellous section named Retrospect. The memories came flooding back as I read through your tributes to Lode Runner, Moon Patrol and the crazy game Q*Bert. The gap was filled. Automatically I blew the dust off my Apple II CS and loaded my 6” floppy of Moon Patrol into the hard drive. I now remember how addicitve and chal¬ lenging Moon Patrol is and I sat there for an hour or two trying to get from A to Z. Sadly my time playing these games were short as my II CS monitor isn’t as reliable as it used to be. So to you Hyper, I congratulate you on putting such a section in your mag to give the older gamers flashbacks of the good old days. Before I finish, I would like to ask a question regard¬ ing Smash Brothers. The computer outlet in which I shop at said that Smash Brothers may not be receiving an Australian release. Is this true? If not, when would it be coming to Australia? Thank you very much and keep up the good work. ACID P.S. I am using a different name to prevent being bashed up by my friends for liking Diddy Kong Racing. Dear ACiD, We're a bunch of sappy nostalgics too! 'sniff* As you will have noticed this issue, our Retrospect section has transformed and mutated into a new regular section called Reverse Engineering. Look forward to some more cool stuff in here from now on! As for Smash Brothers: it's OUT! Go get it now ma man! DUMPING ON DREAMCAST Hello Hyper! I hope you guys print this letter! You probably won’t though! I just want to say how dis¬ gusted I am by some of your recent statements. In one of your old maga¬ zines you stated that you were sur¬ prised that the Sega Dreamcast was not doing as well as the PlayStation or the N64 in Japan. Well, let me enlighten you. The Dreamcast sux. Yes I really believe this. Why? Because it offers absolutely nothing new except nice graphics (although not much of a leap in itself). There is nothing that stands out about this machine. It seems to have been thrown together quickly just so Sega can grab some cash in its early release! Christ, they even had to go to Microsoft to borrow their operating system. At least the PSX2 will offer some new stuff. At least it will be rev¬ olutionary. Why? It will be DVD! It has something new and exciting known as the emotion chip. It will be back¬ wards compatible with the current PSX games and peripherals. And that’s only what we know at the moment. You guys used to say that graphics were secondary to gameplay. This idea has seemed to have died since the DC came out. Are you guys biased or something? Personally 1 still believe there is more to a console than its graphics. Oh yeah, one last thing. Consoles do differ! You sometimes review the consoles but in the end you tell your readers to make their own decision. Show some balls. Tell us which is the best console! Consoles are as different as the games which come on them. Some consoles do suck (Sega Saturn springs quickly to mind as the worst console this century!). There is no such thing as the perfect console. Review the bloody things and give them a score. SONOFSUNS Sonofa... sun, First; let me point out that you accuse us of being biased and then you whinge and complain that we don't tell you which console is best! So... sorry if we're confused, but you can't seem to make up your mind if you want us to have an opinion or not We'll just continue to remain objective when it comes to the con¬ sole wars. The Dreamcast is a very good machine and has some great games, so if you've got the cash, it's worth buying it for that reason alone. Did you forget that the Dreamcast has a modem and lets you play multi¬ player online games? Is that not a new and exciting feature?! PS2 looks awesome, but we still don't know if the games will be that amazing. There's no question that it has some exciting features and it could be a tough fight for Sega. But don't forget Nintendo, as they will be launching AFTER the PS2 with another DVD machine, and they will be desperate to reclaim their con¬ sole crown from the SNES days. In terms of graphics over game- play -you only have to see our Dreamcast Expendable review from last issue (50%) for evidence that we are aware that pretty graphics don't mean shit. Oh, and there were plenty of other dodgy consoles which deserve the title of "worst console this century" rather than the Saturn - like the Atari Jaguar! Hehehe. A COLOURED VIEW Dear Hyper, Your mag is so good that the amount of money I’ve spent on them, I could have bought a game for my N64! Anyway, here are a few ques¬ tions that have been bothering me. Have you ever noticed that every time a new console comes out it’s either black, grey or white? Don’t Nintendo, Sony and Sega think that we would rather prefer a see-through N64, or a fluro green PS or an orange Dreamcast? When they do release a coloured console, it’s always limited edition and costs more. Don’t expect me to pay an extra $20-$so for a different colour console. Congratulations to Nintendo for releasing official N64 controllers which come in a range of different colours, and it doesn’t cost a cent extra to purchase a blue con¬ troller or a red controller. Look at the Came Boy, they come in different colours and they don’t cost more than the previous Game Boys. How much extra does it cost to add colour to a piece of plastic outer casing? Look at the new iMacs, they now come in dif¬ ferent colours. If you can have a transparent red PSX controller, why not the console itself? How about the N64 carts, Zelda 64 was gold and Turok 2 was black, why not a blue Perfect Dark cart? If you had a choice between a gold Dreamcast and a nor¬ mal white-grey Dreamcast which were the same price, which would you buy? The gold of course! Hopefully someone out there will read this letter and do something about it. B.V.M P.S. I own an N64, and 1 would like to know if Capcom is planning to release a Street Fighter for the System? Thanks. :) Hi B.V.M, Possibly a reason that new consoles are also a fairly neutral colour, is that they want it to appeal to everyone. If you hated orange, and the new Dreamcast was orange, maybe it would turn you off it? Probably not, but it makes more sense for them to release the hard¬ ware in one easy to like colour. We're sure it would cost them a bit extra to manufacture a variety of colours too. Still, it is possible to have custom made cases made for your machines at certain establish¬ ments around town. Not that we'd know of course. Oh and Street Fighter on the Nintendo 64 is 99% not going to happen. Sorry. DON’T DO IT! Hi guys, I’d just like to say "top stuff’’ on a great mag... and isn’t there going to be a Half Life sequel? And will Quake 3 run without a 3D card? Please publish this or I'll kill myself. SPICE P.S. Did you know I’ve been collect¬ ing Hyper since 97 and I’ve only missed an issue once. You guys rock man, yeah baby. Spice! I hope this letter isn't printed too 1 Ultima Ascension - a review next issue? We wish! incoming mail Awesome reader art here from Jon Kerney! You rock Jon. fi/T COnBHT UOIT VTM PI^OT: £GSOO 3AIKUA B W*8M» M Ii » rnutreoic «>*tH «M 4 © -H** W«N '«**• T1A* g» WTH rM io M«t Wt mu TW| «—wW«v» MMt > _ xra® SKyw am. Jo «w* CMAMtftUA late! There will definitely be a Half- Life segue! and Quake 3 requires a 3D card to run. If you're serious about PC games, then you should definitely go get a 3D card - some are very cheap now. P.S. You missed an issue? You traitor! Guards arrest that man! VGA EH? Hey guys and girls! Creat mag! Anyway, I have a few questions about the Dreamcast. I was reading Hyper issue *72 and you guys said Soul Calibur supports the VGA box. Does this mean that Soul Calibur will run above 640x480 res mode? Does this also mean that Dreamcast games that don’t support the VGA box will not run, or will not run above 640x480 if they are plugged in my PC monitor via the VGA box?, How much will the VGA box cost? Thanks anyway and keep up the great work! ARNOLD SWARTZNEGGER Arnie, VGA mode is a mode that has to be activated by the Dreamcast itself through software. Most Dreamcast games run at 640 X 480, and this is VGA resolution. Even so, some games that do run in this res do not sup¬ port the VGA box. The Dreamcast can render screens internally at 1600 X1200, so support for HDTV can be activated through software in the future. If a game doesn't sup¬ port the VGA box, it just means it won't run in a higher resolution. Ozisoft currently have no price for the VGA box here. DREAMY QUESTIONS Hey Hyper, Word on the streets is that there is a new shipment of fish which is fresh, though starving consumers are reluctant to wrap up their greasy chips with HYPER mag pages because the ink that the crew pens their reviews with is too strong to digest, (groan). Could you please enlighten me by answering my 8 totally serious questions? 2) Where did the term ’’gibbed” originate? 3) Frame Gride looks dope. What is the size/scope of the playing fields? 4) Being that the Dreamcast (unoffi¬ cially endorsed by S. Freud which would make for a smart ad cam¬ paign) has a 'Power VR’ chipset 8 ’Microsoft’ type OS, may Sega release an internal DC CD-ROM drive for PCs? S’cuse the prema¬ ture speculation (or is this notion more like ejaculation)? 95 »HYPER 96 »HYPER incoming mail 5) Any news on Toy Commander? 6) Is Code Veronica DC a Resident Evil type game? 7) During the time leading up to the launch of the DC, is it possible for us peasants of the general popu- lai to get our mitts on a DC now to enjoy consciously 6 apply for an email account when the online OS is ready, so we don’t have to sit about with crayons writing letters to our faithful mags in order to pass the time having sold out on our old systems? 8) Will 'Perfect Dark’ have a top score system availability? I hope to take a Came Boy Camera shot of my bacon to stick on my cus¬ tomised multiplayer character’s blank face and call myself Cheeky Bumhead... Or better still take a shot of my continental sausage & 2 eggs, to stick on my character’s blank face and call myself Dickhead. I’m outta here, like a crazy taxi, BREIGN 1 Dear Breign 1, I'm assuming your first question was the one asking if I'd answer the questions. 2) According to the Hyper gaming dictionary , "gibbed" originated some¬ where in the bowels of id Software to describe the gorey depictions of busted bodies. Probably derived from the word " giblets" - as in chunks of fleshy chicken. Eww! 3) Frame Gride does look dope indeed. The size of the arenas is hard to describe - look for¬ ward to our big fat review coming soon. 4) This sounds incredibly unlikely. Who then would buy a Dreamcast if you could just whack a drive in your PC) 5) Yep, we hoped to review it this issue, but Sega wouldn't give it to us. Next issue. 6 ) Absolutely. 7) Well, it should be out now, so who cares. 8 ) Er... a Top Score table) Probably. But what's that got to do with being a Dickhead) FIJIAN FRIEND Hi Hyper, My name is Kunal. I live in Fiji and here we receive games quite late. I bought a Nintendo 64 a couple of years ago and I am a proud owner of games like DKR, Mario 64, MK4, Turok, Quake and some others. My friends own PlayStations and I am usually ashamed of my N64 ’cos I always lose a debate with my friends when determining which system rulz. JL \0 49 ; i J GAMES ARE GOOD Dear Hyper, Have any of you ever thought how much knowledge you have gained just by playing games? Before I purchased my PlayStation years ago I never thought about it but lately it somewhat surprises me. To begin with 1 will start with Cran Turismo. I am definitely not a car buff. Sure I know of a few models, mainly Holdens and Fords but since CT I would see a car and instantly know what it was. I have never seen a Toyota Supra, MR2 or a Nissan Fairlady Z but when I see one waiting at traffic lights I surprise myself. "Hey that’s a Fairlady Z". The same can be said for the Ace Combat series. I’m spotting planes as if I was with the Air Force or something. F4S to F22S and Mig 21s to SU27S. All this thanks to games. However it’s not just what model of car of aircraft. Also, the quotes said by Me Ling in Metal Gear Solid. ’’He who knows when enough is enough will always have enough." This is absolutely great stuff. I still have not started on the FIFA series but you get my point. Games are endless amounts of fun and enjoyment but also allow you to benefit by teaching you something. As for all the violence, the good guy/girl always wins. That’s a message in itself and where are the parents when they let their children play these games? Let them play Mario Kart instead if they are so worried. One question before I go, will we see many after Christmas releases for the PlayStation? The inflow of games has definitely been slowing down. K. MCRAE PS: All you readers that have not subscribed yet, what are you waiting for? You won’t regret it! Hey Mr. McRae, We agree. Just this week, we've learned how to carjack, rob a bank and perform a gangland execution thanks to computer games! I was also concerned about how silly I would look on the weekends, not knowing how to ride a Dragon bareback, but thanks to Drakan... As for PlayStation releases slowing down, well that's just natural isn't it) The console has been around a looooong time and the new PS2 arrives next year. However there are plenty of cool games still on their way - Gran Turismo 2, Resident Evil 3 and Grandia. P.S. Thanks for the plug. Did you win a Dreamcast or something) Gamester PSX Dual Force Wheel. Don’t forget to include your contact details ON your letter. You’ve won a Gamester Steering Wheel! For PlayStation. yjjgigip incoming mail next issue I have a few questions: 1. Does N64 have a modem? If yes, then where could I get it? 2. Is it true that "DreamCast’’ is a big flop? 3. What are the best racing games developed for N64 so far? 4. Will N64 create any hand-held portable consoles like Sony and Sega have? KUNAL Hi Kunal! Don't feel ashamed of owning a Nintendo 64. Not when you could have bought a Saturn. 1. Not yet 2. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Ask me again in 12 months. 3. Beetle Adventure Racing is rad. The others come down to personal preference. Wipeout 64? 4. You mean like the PocketStation? Well, the Nintendo Game Boy is being made more com¬ patible with its console counterpart and look forward to the Game Boy Advance being more compatible with Nintendo's next console. LIGHT GUN GRIEF Hi there, In the September issue of Hyper where you reviewed House of the Dead 2 with Sega’s lightgun, you left me skeptical on whether to pur¬ chase Sega’s lightgun, or wait for another 3rd Party developer to pro¬ duce a more accurate one. How do you rate the lightgun, and will a dif¬ ferent (and more accurate) one be available soon afterwards? HAS Hey Has, / think you misunderstood me in the review. The Dreamcast Lightgun is excellent! I had a gripe that the calibration in the game seemed a little sloppy, but the gun itself rocks. Playing HOTD2 is sweet! THE RETURN OF MAT BRADY Dear Hyper, I think Pokemon Snap should have received a high amount of praise for finally coming up with an alternative to games that "shoot things”. Let’s face it, if females are to be respected in the games indus¬ try then more alternatives like the clever Pokemon Snap are certainly needed. Even the reviewer (male) mentioned that he would like to have been given a gun in the game. Why? So it can be just like EVERY OTHER GAME? This is clearly a game that would have been more suited to a female reviewer I think. Without sounding like I am attacking you, do you even have a female reviewer? I don’t want to come off sounding like someone who supports the typi¬ cal female stereotypes for the sake of tokenism or political correctness, but I can’t help but make this observation. MAT BRADY Hi Mat, Good to see you still exist! With our Pokemon Snap review, we were just joking when we said it would be fun to shoot the little buggers. It wasn't a serious criticism and the game scored well! just because it's a "cute"game and doesn't involve firepower doesn't mean it's more suited to girls. I know quite a few female Quake players who love some fast gibby action. Hyper has had a few female reviewers in its time, and in fact. Pandora's Box this issue was reviewed by a female gamer. It's funny, though, she WAS saying it could have done with a rocket launcher ... ZELDA MADE ME SPEW! Dear Lord Seafood, I am writing this letter to you guys to bring up the topic of playing games for pro¬ longed periods of time. Most people don’t take any notice of the little messages in instruction booklets etc. about resting for 10 minutes every hour whilst playing. I myself thought that they were just there to scare people, until it affected me. I was over at my friends’ house and I had just bought Zelda for my Nintendo 64. My friend and I started playing at around 9am and played until about midnight (only stopping for 10 minutes for lunch and dinner) before going to sleep. We woke at about 6:30am and played until about 2pm before giving in to hunger. As we were getting lunch, I suddenly felt sick, I also went pale and broke into a cold sweat. About 2 minutes after it started I suddenly lost my sight and it was about a minute before it came back. It took about half an hour before I returned to normal. Now I bet you guys think all of this is made up, but it’s not - it really happened. Since I experi¬ enced this it has totally changed the amount of time I play games. So next time you see a warning, take notice, it’s there for a good reason. Remember, moderation is the key. Keep up the good work! SEAN MCKELLAR Hi Sean, Hope you're feeling better. Take it easy, and remember that when gaming for long periods, you should urinate at regular intervals. Urn... are you sure you didn't just eat some horrible shit for lunch? Surely guys your age can't cook. ONCE AGAIN, WE’RE TURNING TO YOU LOT FOR ADVICE. TAKE PART IN THE ANNUAL HYPER READERS’ SURVEY! WIN PRIZES! BE FAMOUS!* VOTE ON YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES! TELL US WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT HYPER AND TELL US WHAT STINKS! WE CAN TAKE IT. PLUS! ALL THE BIG XMAS GAMES REVIEWED. YOU WON’T BELIEVE YOUR EYES... ON SALE DECEMBER 1ST! ‘ Possible Urn. Actually. It’s complete bullshit. But y’kno tv. mre gotta gat you 97 »HYPER 98 »HYPER hypermart Nintendo 64, 3 con¬ trollers, RF unit, rumble pack and controller pack all for $210. I am also sell¬ ing WCW/NWO Revenge for $60, WWF Warzone for $40 and Goldeneye for $30. I am selling PlayStation games Shane Warne ’99 for $50, Crash Bandicoot, Loaded and Destruction Derby all for $25 each and Total NBA ’97 for $30. Everything is as new, so if interested, please phone (08) 9307 6680. N64, 2 control pads, a rumble pack, memory pack and 9 games - Banjo Kazooie, Zelda, Goldeneye, 1080, Bomberman ’64, Wave 1 64, Mario Kart, Blast I Corps and Extreme F — All in good condition, and most cofne with box and manual. All for $450. Plus, a guide to Banjo Kazooie and an A-Z Cheat Book Free! Call Michael on (03) 9597 0017. P.S. I’m filling to haggle a little. N64 Games: Banjo azooie - $45, Mission: Impossible - $50, Super Mario 64 - $30, Fi World Grand Prix -$30, or $130 for the lot. All boxed with manuals, all Ai condition. orices negotiable. Cali Ice on 0412 662 053. Coffs Harbour. NSW. N64 Games: Goldeneye - $40, Bomberman Flero - $30, Buck Bumble - $40, Wave Race - $30, Racer (Star Wars) -^50. Call Jamie Gosson or (02) 6568 3695. Super Sega Saturn Sal^Q Sega Saturn with two controllers and 11 games including, Virtual Fighter 1 £ 2, Fighting Vipers, 1 Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, World Wide SoccJ ’97, Daytona USA, Panzer Dragon 2, Virtual OnJ^ Christmas Nights ar Virtual Cop with g j/ Also two demo ccj| All with instructions and in great condition. The lot for $500 0 N 0 . Call Tom, after 2pm on (07) 5529 9904. Gold Coast area preferred. Sega Saturn for sale with 2 controllers - $70. Also, the following games are for sale: Darklight Conflict - $30, Dragonforce - $50, Exhumed - $30, Duke Nukem - $40, Quake - $40, Independence Day - $30, Space Hulk - $30, House of the Dead - $50, Warcraft II - $50, Last Bronx - $50, Touring Car - $50, Panzer Saga - $50, Enemy Zero - $50, Bomberman - $40. Other accessories also avail¬ able. Ring (03) 9752 8239 and ask for Kristian. Metro Melbourne preferably. PC Games - I would like to sell my Terminator Sky Net for $25, The Lost World Chaos Island for $30 and my Star Wars col¬ lection including Dark Forces, Rebel Assault, Rebel Assault 2 (2 discs), T/E fighter and Making Magic, all for $60. Call Fang on (02) 9726 3829. Sydney only. Sony PlayStation - unwanted present, per¬ fect condition. Complete with two controllers (Dual Shock), memory card, official PlayStation carry- pack and Tomb Raider 3. Complete with warranty, instructions and all pack¬ aging. Will give away 3 additional free games to the successful bidder. Only $270 ONO. Please call Luke on (02) 9571 9560. PlayStation with mod- chip, RF adaptor, 2 con¬ trollers, memory card, Mad-Katz steering wheel and 1 analogue con¬ troller. Still with boxes. As new. Games include: 7 demo discs, Pitfall 3D, Dead Ball Zone, Coolboarder 2, Ace Combat 2, Bushido Blade 2 (NTSC), Gran Turismo, PGA Tour 97 and Time Crisis w/Cun. Will sell all for $500 ONO, or will sell separately. Call Clinton O’Hanlon on (02) 9755 1040 after school hours. CD-R, Sony 42X read, i6x write. Brand new, worth heaps, perfect condition, sell for $500. Atari Lynx, Games include Surfing, Skateboarding, Racing, BMX, Basketball and Bikini Volleyball. Perfect condition, sell $150. Phone Shane on (07) 5497 8742 between 5-8 pm. Will swap any 2 of the following; Tomb Raider (SS), Virtua Fighter 2, UMK3 (SS), Fighters Megamix and Daytona USA for any of the fol¬ lowing; Discworld 1 or 2, Dragonforce, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Burning Rangers, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Wipeout 2097, Sonic Jam, Sonic R, Steep Slope Sliders, Dead or Alive, Torico, Shining The Holy Ark, Shining Force 3, Marvel Super Heroes or Albert Odyssey. Write to me at 17 Holmfield Avenue, Clarendon Vale, Hobart TAS 7019- TAS preferred. Saturn games; Resident Evil, Virtua Cop £ gun, Daytona CCE, Virtua Fighter 2, Athlete Kings, Nights, Virtual On and Blam Machine Head. Make an offer - will sell or swap. Please e-mail me at eeeoo7hotmail.com or snail mail me at Timothy Fridey, 72 Tulloh Street, Colac VIC 3250. Sega Saturn games and 3D controller pad: Fighters Megamix, Last Bronx, Manz TT Superbikes, Mr Bones, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Sonic 3D Blast and Streetfighter Alpha 2. Must be boxed with man ual and in good condi¬ tion. Also looking for a Advertising in is free for private advertisers, and make sure you include your phone number (inc. area code). Send them to: HYPERMART, 78 Renwlck St, Redfern, NSW 2016 or email: hypermart@next.com.au copy of King of Fighters ’95 for Sony PlayStation. Contact Carlo on (07) 3899 9857. NOD pewter figurine as included in the Tiberian Sun Platinum edition. Will pay up to $30. Also looking for Vectrex con¬ sole and carts. Price negotiable. Call me on (02) 4621 2339 (ask for Paul, or e-mail me at squigys>acay.com.au ) Hey all you Homie babes out there! I’m a sweet and sexy 16 year old homie chick looking for male penpals age 16 and up. I enjoy the good things in life, so get writing! Ana — 380 Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road, Wishart, Brisbane 4122. Hi, my name is Matt, I’m 16 and I’m looking for some penpals. I like PlayStations, Soccer, chicks, internet and music - especially Slipknot, Rammstein, Fear Factory, Coal Chamber and stuff like that. If you think you’d have anything in com¬ mon with me (male or female), write to my lonely mailbox at: 97 Stirling Street, Bunbury WA 6230. P.S. I would like to write to some people from WA, but it’s not important if you're not. Hi, my name is Nic. I am looking for a M/F penpal between the ages of 10- 15. My likes are Pokemon, Neon Genesis and N64. Write to 10 Kagoola Street, Banyo QLD 4014. Please send mail. My name is Shane and I’m a 14 year old male wrestling and N64 fanat¬ ic. So if you’re a chick between the ages of 13- 16, write to me at 184 Oakey Flat Road, Morayfield QLD 4506. Hi, my name is L. Kumar and I’m 18 years old and love to make friends. I’m looking for a penpal aged 15-18 and I make sure that all letters get replies. I own a PC and my favourite game type in PC is the first person shooter. I have Unreal, Mega Racer, Mortal Kombat 3 and Hexen. Above all I’m looking for Quake II for PC. Please reply to PO Box 10549 Laucala Beach Est, Fiji Islands. Male, 24, looking for penpals, aged 17-25, sex no problem, have large range of taste in most popular things, would greet anyone who writes back to Paul at 14 Flower Street, Elizabeth Downs, SA 5113. Hi, my name is Jam^s, my friends call me Con and anyway, I’m looking for a penpal (obviously). I’m 12, and I’d prefer to write to a female 12-14 years old. I absolutely love my magical grey box, and especially Hyper. My favourite games are the Street Fighter series, the Mortal Kombat series and the Tekken series (just about any fighting game). My favourite bands are Unwritten Law, Green Day and Korn. Write to 6 Stephenson Street, Leumeah NSW 2560. P.S. My favourite sports are Soccer and Rugby League. Hi! My name’s Angela - I’m 15 years old. I like playing soccer and listening to silverchair, The Offspring, Korn, Blink 182 and The Living End. My favourite soccer team is Manchester United. I’m looking for a 15-18 year old guy with similar interests. So get your pen and start writing! Send your letters to Angela Neill, 8 Willoughby Street, Colyton NSW 2760. Send a pic if you like. Reply guaranteed! fwe VEU WFEflncmiE?. The all new and improved Hyperactive is here • news previews review chat code download prizes J* http://HYPERACTIVE.COM.AU MAG PC-CDROM CHAT SEGA ARCADE NINTENDO 64 PLAYSTATION EXHIL4RATION! o Stunning 3D graphics P 4 of Australia's hottest tracks including Bathurst o Multiple Camera Angles o High performance multiplayer options o Different race modes o Change gears with Ford vs Holden o Race with the best!!!