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GameBiz - The Magical Years review
by Playbahnosh
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Producer: Osiris Games

Publisher: Osiris Games

Year: 2004

Multiplayer: No

My rating: 4.5

Size: 4,66 mb

Compatiblitly: XP


Do you ever wanted to design games? Do you ever dreamt of having your own game
developer company, your own crew and your own company HQ? GameBiz gives you 
the opportunity to show your skills in the gaming world, with a twist. Say, do
you ever wanted to be there when Mario or even Pong was released? Maybe release
a game that would now be freatured on Abandonia? Of course you do! :D 

GameBiz takes you back to where everything started. 1984 - the Magical Years. 
You found your own game developing company and race against the great developers
in history. Wanted to release a better game, sweep Doom, Diablo or even 
Half Life 2 from the charts and rewrite gaming history? Here's your chance!

[b]Gameplay[/b]

You start out with 500000 and 1 million as a loan, a small HQ building and a 
no-name publisher. Your task is to raise to the top of the charts with your 
games, and become the greatest game developer of all times. Needless to say, 
this is not an easy task.

First you have to start your game project. Select the name and the genre
of your game and the platform (Amiga, Genesis, Amstrad... You choice :D ). You
must select the game technology too. If you want a cheap game, choose old 
technology or up-to-date, but you can also "Push the limits". You can also
select an advertising form from the local newspaper to worldwide TV coverage.
If you are happy with your settings, you can start developing. You can also
hire assistants to speed up the development in programming, music, or design.

When your game is finished, you can release it and make some serious money if 
the market is right for it. Yes, the market is changing. Sometimes the gamers
want Action games, sometimes RPG or Sports. Try to satisfy their needs.

Later in the game, software piracy will become a major concern, and your old
development tools won't produce much success either. You must research new 
tools, anti-piracy defence and also porting tools to release your games to a 
different platform. Without research, your games won't make it to the top 100.
You can hire new managers and buy bigger HQ building and better equipment. Ever
wanted Sid Meiyer as your project leader? :D 

There is much more you can explore by yourself, and maybe develop a No. 1 game.
Try your skills and battle for the charts! Game on!

[b]Graphics, Sound and Controlls[/b]

GameBiz has a basic, yet exellent layout and it is not over-designed. You can
easily see the news, the platform and genre panel, and the menu layout is also
good. Well done!

Music, ah yes! GameBiz has an awesome collection of MIDI songs, from the themes
of the great classic games to general music. A huge addition to the game. You 
will experience constant nostalgia hearing the music of the Magical Years.
And the sound is pretty well suits the game too.

The colors are easy on the eyes, and the starfield on the backround is calming.
You can access any info you want with only one click. Nice!

[b]Technical issues and Compatibility[/b]

The game has some bugs, and tends to freez sometimes, but if you save often it
won't be a problem. It runs fine on any Windows based PC.  Please note, that you
cannot save while developing a game! Also the music player is malfuntioning 
sometimes, so you are better off listening to the songs from Winamp.

[b]Final Words[/b]

GameBiz is and exellent game in it's genre, being a freeware this is even more 
awesome archivement. Despite some minor and major bugs, the game's atmosphere
is great and very well worth playing. You don't like a game? Try to do it better
in GameBiz! :D 

Playbahnosh

[/END]


Evaluation:

Pro: Great gameplay, Cool music, You can hire Sid Meiyer :D 
Con: Some minor bugs

Comp. spec.: Runs fine on XP.

My rating: 4.2

Written by Playbahnosh © 2005