OMNICRON CONSPIRACY

 Tired of mundane, magic-infested adventure games in which everythsing is
predictable, or 
at least close to predictable?  Well, Epyx has come up with a
change of pace. In the universe of OMNICRON CONSPIRACY, you leave behind the
hustle and bustle of our present world, and enter a strange universe of the
future. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 The game begins with you -- Star Police Captain Ace Powers -- standing in your
bedroom doing absolutely nothing, when your PAL (Personal Automatic Link) floats
into the room and tells you to get a move on. Well, you'd better do s

 OMNICRON takes place in space, on the world of Cron, and on other planets in
the universe. Most of the action occurs on Cron. There, you must gather
information from citizens and, basically, walk all over the world. The
inhabitants are some of the strangest creatures you've encountered in a computer
game. (At one point, I was accosted by a jumping octopus.)

 You can interact with the individuals on Cron, but most don't have much to say.
Some will try to sell you weapons, drugs, or other items. If you don't like the
people, you can always kill them with your ALSWELL (Automatic Laser System with
Energy Light Load). However, you shouldn't go around zapping the people you're
supposed to be protecting...unless they really tick you off. Your mission -- at
least it appears to be your mission -- is to put a drug ring out of operation.

 Your inventory includes the ALSWELL, a Star Police Badge, and a Metacard that
you shouldn't leave home without. Unfortunately, you can carry only six items at
a time, and you really shouldn't leave your ALSWELL lying around. During the
game, you come across many more items that would be nice to have at hand.
There's a rest meter at the top of the screen that tells you when you're about
to collapse from exhaustion, and a life meter at the bottom of the screen that
informs you when you're about to get tired of life.

 OMNICRON comes on four 5-1/4" disks. If you don't have two drives or a hard
disk, be prepared for frequent disk-swapping. The program is copy-protected. It
uses the key-disk method, so you can copy the game to your hard drive or to
floppy disks for backup.

 The graphics are wonderful. The program supports CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy
16-color, and Hercules modes. I wish I could tell you how OMNICRON looks in CGA
and EGA modes, but I could get the game to run only in MCGA. (The program kept
telling me that my VGA card wasn't compatible with EGA or CGA.) The MCGA display
is very detailed.

 The sound is okay. (Of course, not much can be expected from an IBM speaker.)
The game has two speeds: normal and fast; both are fine. You can control Ace
with either a joystick or the keyboard, and both are easy to use.

 OMNICRON's documentation is inadequate. The main section of the manual is only
six pages long; for a game of this complexity, I expected a lot more. The
remainder of the manual explains how to win the game (although it doesn't give
explicit answers).

 OMNICRON CONSPIRACY is published and distributed by Epyx.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253