"Maelstrom brings Classic Gaming to Mac in a BIG WAY!"

Maelstrom. If you've been a Mac User for a few years, you simply HAVE to be familiar with this classic shareware game. Right here is the game that started Ambrosia Software down its road to 'certain perfection." Right here is a game that should be on every Mac User's favorite list. Right here is a game that PC users will never play.

When Maelstrom first came out, it was viewed as a remarkable shareware game that came out of nowhere. Its developer, Ambrosia Software, was instantly riddled by recognition and awards by Mac fans all over. The Mac Platform didn't have much for games at this day and age, but this game captured the attention of an entire community. Maelstrom may have had as much to do with large-name developers finally taking up the Mac Cause as Bungie's efforts in the Marathon games did.

Maelstrom is a remake of the classic arcade game Asteroids. If you've played Asteroids, y'know what to expect. If you haven't.. well, shame on you. It's your single mission to blow up a bunch of rocks floating around in your limited vision of space. Why? Cuz if you don't.. you die. Probably because every time you try to fly away, you show up again on the opposite side of the screen! The only problem is, when you shoot those big rocks.. they turn into SMALLER rocks! And when you shoot those rocks, they turn into smaller YET rocks! Ohhhh.. enough to give a guy a headache.

Luckily, Maelstrom, unlike it's vector-based arcade original, gives you some extra tools to fight with. I bet you wish you could have a rapid fire machine gun in the original, don't cha? Well, you can nab it here.. and watch asteroids fly apart! You start with a limited shield that you can use to protect yourself from about three or four blasts. And every once and a while, canisters will pop up... open them and grab whats inside to refill your shields, extend your points, or enhance your weapons. There's even an item that will shoot everything on the screen (except for you) once! Bonus multipliers will pop up randomly, giving you the chance to multiply your bonus at the end of every wave... and then, sometimes, lo and behold, another poor, misguided ship will show up, spinning while burning, crying for you to "HELP ME!" Pick him up.. and you'll have an extra life.

Of course, if Ambrosia stopped there, it would have been fine. But they didn't stop. They KEPT GOING! Things get more complicated when you find that the rocks have gained allies too! Alien UFOs.. some big, some small, will randomly drift on the screen shooting in all directions. Take them out for some easy points.. and to save your butt! Metal asteroids sometimes appear.. impossible to destroy, shooting will only make them go faster... and when they hit.. kaboom! And of course, blackholes. They don't appear often, but when they do, get as far away as possible! Your only hope is that that hole sucks in all the rocks before it sucks in YOU! A blackhole means almost certain death.

Sounds like fun? To most people, it is. Asteroids was a game that wasn't played to get from point a to point b, like most games these days, but instead to get as high a score as possible. The game keeps track of your high scores, of course, and you can always go back and get better ones. The game always takes place on this ONE SCREEN, never changing. If you're looking for an epic space opera, look elsewhere. If you're looking for plain old fashioned fun.. this is it.

The game uses some nifty graphics, at least for the day. The ship and the asteroids are completely computer generated, and are animated fluidly.. so fluidly that you could almost swear those asteroids were made of billions of tiny polygons. The graphics are small -- a necessity for this type of game -- but the detail and animation more than make up for it. Wait till you see the nifty animation of the blackhole opening up! Waahoo!!!

Sounds are exactly what you'd expect. Shots from your ship make the obvious "shoom" sound that sounds like a parody of Star Trek. Asteroids blow up with a very predictable "kaboom." Some of the other sounds are rather strange though... for instance, if you shoot a help canister out of the sky, you'll be rewarded with a sound clip of Ren from Ren and Stimpy crying, "You IIIIIIdiot." At the end of each level, when you're bonus is being calculated, if you did particularly well, you'll be granted from a sound byte from that one "She's Unbelievable" song. Don't get any bonus points, and you'll be rewarded with, "Two nothings is nothin." Short little high quality sound clips that set this game apart from other arcade games. The music is.. well.. neglible. The only music is a two note Jaws like theme that plays in the background while you pick away at the huge rocks.. getting faster and faster as the rocks get faster and faster.

The control, so essential to a game like this, is pretty close to the arcade original. You turn your ship, thrust it, shoot, and turn on your shields with the greatest of ease. Of course, your ship also suffers from inertia -- to be expected in the plane of no air resistance known as outer space. At first, dealing with this may seem hard to cope with, but its part of the game itself.. and with a little practice, you'll be countersteering with the best of them.

The game starts of easy.. a couple of rocks to destroy. But if you don't think it ever picks up, try this... hold down the shift key while you click on new game and pick level 60. You won't last longer than thirty seconds, I promise. Nothing like fifty some rocks bouncing around the screen like vulcanized rubber!!!

Classic Games, to me, are the cats meow. They are easy to sit down, play, and play and play and play.. and compete with your friends over. If you want a good diversion game for your computer, one that you can sit down and take up some time with while you're doing other things... get Maelstrom. It beats the same old Tetris, hands down. If you're looking for a space epic, try Ambrosia's Escape Velocity.. that'll be more your speed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99