Workbench Pong - Amiga Game Review



WBPong
Amiga Workbench Game
2017
RJD/R16815
*Video from RJD showing the development (Appears to have been taken down)

Though it never sold any copies, it is likely the most popular game of all time is Window's own solitaire. From kids to adults, at work, school, or at home, it's a game countless people who were lost in the day turned to for a little pastime. A simple yet addictive game of cards that runs in a window on your desktop. Countless desktop games were made for Windows, though you'll be harder pressed to find a variety on the Amiga.

On occasion, perhaps through a Fred Fish disk, you would indeed come across the odd "Workbench game". I've got a Tetris and Mindsweeper clone, a Yaztzee game, even a solitaire game. All run right on top of Workbench 1.3, and cooperate with the Amiga's multitasking. WBPong is actually a new effort from my friend RJD, who was looking for unique ways to challenge himself in terms of coding.
^Loading it up and instructions on my altered WB1.3 and classic blue

Designing for Workbench Intuition, RJD made his own Pong clone, the very first game consumers could buy and hook up to their televisions. There has always been something incredibly addictive about the repetitive nature of a Pong game. Games like Breakout and Arkanoid would reinvent the classic 70's game into the 80's and beyond. Don't forget your gaming roots, there is always a place for Pong in your life.

I hope everyone out there is familiar with the basics of Pong, because I don't teach gaming history that you should already know. There's a normal and hard difficulty setting and despite not being too good at the game yet, I have the most fun in the harder difficulty, as it's faster. Beyond what you should know about the game and are accustomed to, gameplay is occasionally altered with the random placement of a dead paddle. It might be closer to the computer, it might be closer to you, it might indeed be cause for a few grumbles as it causes the computer to score on you. The placement of the extra paddle also notes the bonus round, in which points are increased. ^Gameplay screens

Depending on who's losing, the game will take pity on them at certain points, making paddles shorter or longer to hopefully make the game more competitive. While for the most part the game runs rather smooth, I have noticed it can bog down from time to time. Coupled with overall slower keyboard controls, you won't be getting the sense of the originals paddle controls. This is when the "save our soles" option comes in handy. Pressing the "S" key will automatically place your paddle at the current position of the ball, to hopefully offset the keyboard controls. Try to use them sparingly, as I believe you only have two uses per life.

In the end it's Pong, a game we've all seen before, but you've never seen it run on top of Amiga Workbench like this. This is why it impresses me. Sometimes I turn on my Amiga not really knowing what I'm going to do. Sometimes I get a little restless when I'm writing a document. Sometimes we're just bored and we happen to be in Workbench. No one is ever ashamed of hitting up Window's solitaire during these moments, I truly feel all us Amiga lovers will get a big kick out of loading up Workbench with its own set of "desktop games". I've yet to actually win a game of WBPong. I've gotten pretty close a few times, but there's certainly some things you've got to get used to with this version. But that's okay, because I've had a blast losing quite honestly. It's a great game to waste several minutes on from time to time when you can't think of anything else to do.

Please check out my video review for WBPong, download the game, and look into the development process with a video (video has been taken down) from RJD.

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Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 11, 2017 at 5:24 AM

    Great review. and thanks for the support!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shot97 RetroNovember 11, 2017 at 10:19 PM

      No problem! Thanks for making the game and telling me about it!

      Delete

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