This is the third installment in my series “A different way to play” about front-end clients for BBS door games.
OOIITERM
OOIITERM (also called “Overkill Ansiterm”) was a front-end for Operation Overkill II. Its purpose was to render the game’s interface instantly for users who had slow modems. It also offered optional SoundBlaster sound effects.
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| This animation shows the OOII interface as rendered in a traditional terminal | This animation shows the interface as rendered in OOIITERM |
Above you can see a comparison of the OOII interface as rendered in the terminal Telemate (left) and in the front-end OOIITERM (right). In Telemate at 2400 baud, the rendering is slow enough that you can actually see the menus being drawn line by line, while OOIITERM at the same modem speed displays the menus instantly. Clearly this faster rendering would have been attractive to users with slow modems.
Graphics were not improved in OOIITERM; the game looked the same as if you played it in a traditional ANSI terminal. But OOIITERM did offer greatly improved sound: short musical sequences, sampled speech, and sound effects. These sounds would play at key “cinematic” moments, like starting the game, engaging in combat, or when your character reached a new experience level. Watch the video clip above to hear a short sample of the audio.
You can experience these enhancements today using the modern-day terminal SyncTerm. It supports OOII’s special emulation mode and includes the sound effects.
READ MORE
Click these links to read the rest of this series about front-end clients:
- A different way to play, part 1: Front-ends
- A different way to play, part 2: Pit Terminal
- A different way to play, part 3: OOIITERM
- A different way to play, part 4: GTERM
- A different way to play, part 5: TWTerm
YOUR MEMORIES
Did you ever use OOIITERM (or SyncTerm) to play Operation Overkill II? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments.