THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407160045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THE GATEWAY
EXPLORING THE COMPUTER WORLD
SOURCE: BY TOM BOYER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
THE COMPUTER can be a wonderful brain-teasing tool, yet a lot of computer games increasingly resemble TV and Nintendo. Dumb. Why spend $1,500 for a high-powered computer so your kids can sit passively, push a couple of buttons and watch action video?
Today, we make a case for the intellectual value of a new PC game called Sid & Al's Incredible Toons. It's a game for cartoon control freaks. Instead of watching someone else's action sequence - Sonic the Hedgehog comes to mind - you build your own by picking from dozens of characters and objects that interact in remarkably varied ways.
The star of the game is Al, an Oscar Madison-type feline, pot-bellied, clown-nosed and lazy. He snores on the set until he smells something to eat or is bothered by Sid the mouse. Sid is agile, mischievous and always willing to halt what he's doing to devour a slice of cheese taller than he is. Both thrill to bananas and bubble gum.
Sid and Al's world is enriched by dozens of objects that can be strung together in endless chain reactions. A ball dropped on Hildegard Hen will compel her to lay eggs, which drop to Chow-Man, who eats them and starts powering a treadmill, which trips a trap door, dropping a piano. . . .
What makes this game better than a standard Rube Goldberg contraption is the programmer's magic, which permits the critters to behave differently in different situations. Eunice Elephant is huge and powerful - she shrugs off the piano and tosses it with her tail. But if she sees Sid, she hops up on her toes, screaming.
The goofiest part is the interaction between Sid and Al. If they're placed near each other, Sid sticks his huge tongue out at Al. Al wakes up and ferociously pounces at Sid. A cartoon fight follows: fists and feet visible from a cloud of dust. Finally, Al has Sid wrapped up, tosses him into the air like a piece of candy, opens his mouth wide, and, well, you can imagine.
Objects left nearby can help Sid's chances. If he finds a pencil before Al gets him, he erases Al's legs, turns him into a punching dummy and practices his right cross on the helpless feline.
A magnifying glass introduces heavy psychological overtones. When Sid looks through it, Al sees a devil and runs away terrified.
If there's a pack of gum, whoever reaches it first blows a bubble and floats away.
The ambitious can take on a maddening series of puzzles featuring nearly finished action sequences. I know people with graduate degrees who have gotten completely hooked on the sheer complexity.
But the 'toons can be as simple as you like. My 5-year-old enjoyed bouncing Al and Sid indefinitely on air cushions, just to watch their faces. Then she discovered the hat pin and the fire-breathing dragon.
So what does she learn of value? Who knows, but I think there is something here. It is important in this world to know how to organize and sequence things, to use different tools, to anticipate people's loves and hates. At the very least, this comical entertainment beats watching Nintendo characters jump, kick and slash their way across the screen. MEMO: Sid & Al's Incredible Toons costs $30 to $40 and requires a 386 or
faster PC, VGA graphics, at least 2 megabytes of RAM, a memory manager,
DOS version 5 or later, and 5 megabytes of hard disk space.
If you have an idea for The Gateway, call Rob Morris at 446-2346 or
send a message to robm(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Fans of Sid & Al's Incredible Toons have their own publication.
Al E. Cat is in PC game called Sid & Al's Incredible Toons.
Sid Mouse is Al's agile nemesis.
by CNB