TBA, sadly, didn't have any new games on display, although this was possibly the first time Mirror Image and Merp has been available at a show. TBA didn't think enough of the game to have it on display, however, preferring multiple copies of the game they were most heavily promoting, last year's Cobalt Seed for which they were handing out colour A4 fliers. By the end of Saturday they'd sold out of the game.

Cobalt Seed is an "into the screen" scrolling shoot'em'up with 3D texture-mapped graphics, and uses TBA's TAG game engine. It wasn't discounted for the show however, which seems odd to me since it's tempting just to order it from a reseller for less, with TBA in turn getting far less money. But then if they sold out I suppose most people don't care.

The best bits of the TBA stand were the bits that weren't on display. TBA's TAG 2 engine, which includes a lighting model with proper shading and is the result of over three years of development, looked impressive, although it's pretty much a StrongARM only thing, with all but the simplest models running too slowly on an ARM 710 (Darkwood, anyone?). Still, it was impressive enough, although I was a bit surprised at its lack of speed, and its object culling seemed a bit trigger happy. The clipping and texture mapping seemed fine, however, and it's probably not optimised yet - so maybe it isn't fair to comment on what was merely a project in progress. The rally game in development using it looked promising, although I hope the visuals will be backed up with a suitable driving model.

TAG 2 is free to developers, although any games developed using it must be sold via TBA, who will naturally deduct royalties. As well as being able to chuck 3D objects at the screen it also includes more general game management code, and desktop designers. It was actually pretty impressive - it was very easy to alter the game parameters and then rerun it, and it appeared stable. TBA mentioned last year that they could run Cobalt Seed with their new TAG 2 engine and it would all work properly, complete with depth shading. I cynically thought that this might be an exaggeration, but it's actually true - I saw it running, although the shading isn't that impressive, really. The graphics weren't designed for shading, apparently, so the game won't be available in this form.

They have two new game compilations due out soon. First up is The Real McCoy 5, which includes a new game called Anti Grav, complete with typically poor graphics, Chopper Force, Demon's Lair and Pandora's Box. I'm not sure this is all worth £34.95...

The other new release, Logic Mania, includes a Pipemania-clone called Gloop; a vaguely Tetris-genre game developed from a program published in *Info in Acorn User called Tilt; and two simple-looking puzzle games called Blindfold ("A game of memory. Negotiate the maze - blindfold!". Sounds fun! Not.) and Atomix ("Calculate molecular construction"!). This compilation also costs £34.95.

4D's upgrade policy continues to disgust all right-minded people. How on Earth can they warrant charging £17.50 for most of their upgrades, some of which are very simple!? None of them are improvements, merely fixes. At least they have the decency to recommend that you buy Game On! first since "this may be the cheapest option".

The Fourth Dimension are now selling Superior Software's entire back catalogue of game releases - and at full price! And that's without either Risc PC or StrongARM compatibility guaranteed.

Obviously hoping to cash in on the emulator craze, 4D are now also selling a large range of Acorn 8-bit software, with the Superior Software catalogue, their own games and Aardvark games. Interestingly, they hope to release previously unreleased gams, including Beeb versions of Break 147 and Superpool, new Aardvark games, and Repton Infinity ports of Psyanki and Man at Arms.

Funniest promo award goes to 4D for this:
Dumpmaster £9.95 - Take screenshots of our games, for inclusion in your own fanzines, or maybe to promote us!

What can I say!? (Dumpmaster is a Beeb program, by the way).

Werewolf Software were the only company with a brand new game (4Ds' weren't available) - the imaginatively named Tanks. Whilst the game looked fun to play, it's hardly likely to win any awards for originality or graphics. It's one of those simple games where you stand on a hillside, lobbing missiles at your enemies. The most similar commercial game is probably Worms (on which this may well have been modelled). This is the sort of game which is brilliant fun with lots of people - and Tanks allows 12 at once, which must make for some hectic gameplay! I'm not so sure about its merits as a one-player game, however, although it does include computer-controlled opponents.

As you earn money by killing your opponents you can upgrade your tank to buy newer, better weapons, including missiles, lasers, shotguns, MIRVs, Nukes, Funky Bombs, shields, parachutes, tracers, deflectors and others. Or so the flyer says.

Apparently the game sold well, so hopefully it'll inspire Werewolf to produce something a bit more adventurous next time...

And Finally...

I found the Oregan demo, by the way, unintentionally hilarious (for me, but not for the poor guy presenting it). Cineworks crashed on loading its second movie - which seemed rather like a word processor crashing when you enter text! It also appeared horrendously slow, but this was apparently due to the CD-ROM drive on the demonstration computer being broken. The software crashed a few times, and at one point a nice blank error box came up, which Oregan tell me was due to bugs in other software installed on the machine - quite believable given the amount of unfinished, not properly-tested software being run and installed on it over the course of the few days. When the machine was reset the errors occurred again. It must have been a nightmare for the speaker...