Intrigued at what this MMX technology lark was all about I installed the game, Rebel Moon. I'd never heard of it and so was sure it was going to be dire, but what the heck, I was bored. They game installed fine but crashed when run. I rebooted, tried again - crash. So I reinstalled. Still no luck. I rooted around on the CD-ROM and in the game's directory. No give-aways. Oh well, let's try this sampler thing then.

I have to say I was quite impressed. It uses this new Intel Indeo Video Codec which with MMX let me have fairly good quality and smooth full screen video. Never one to complain at such features I shut up and watched the videos of all the dire titles on offer (and a couple of not-so-bad ones too). I have to nominate Eraser Turnabout (a CD-ROM sequel to the movie Eraser) as the cruddiest title on the CD and of all time. Think 1991 interactive movie type game where you basically suffer a similar fate as when playing Mad Dog McCree (and other interactive movie "wonders") i.e the interactive bit is limited to finding the right place to click on. I decided that I didn't need an educational tour of the Human Body and so decided for a game called POD. Its a racing game and I like racing games so expecting some simple unlock sequence I clicked on the button saying "How to make this your free bonus".

There are loads of CDs which let you do that nowadays, if you like it enter the key and use it to your heart's delight. There was a key printed on the CD packet and the CD was made by TestDrive Corporation which made me think it would be one of those. But oh, no. It gave me a list of numbers to call around the world. I found the UK one, dialled and waited. After getting through several operators I found someone who could help me - apart from the fact she seemed extremely unaware of English as a language. I had to repeat everything I said about five times. She asked my details and wrote them down on a piece of paper! (I'm sorry, am I too avant-garde?). Then asked for credit card details. Why? It was free wasn't it? Of course it was but it cost around £10 to have it sent to the UK. Where were they sending it from, Nairobi? Well no "free game" for me, I'll spend the tenner on some quality shareware instead. You would have thought better from Intel, no?

The moral of the story is "There's no such thing as a free lunch" I didn't get one free game, let alone the two I should have had. Hmpf. Back to Diablo.

© 1997 j-dom media. contact us.

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by Jason P. Kitcat [e-mail him]