LAKERS VS. CELTICS

 Regardless of the date on your calendar, it's always basketball season when you
boot up LAKERS VS. CELTICS from Electronic Arts. (This review is based on the
IBM-PC version.)

 LAKERS VS. CELTICS is a sports action game that allows 5-on-5 competition
between players you've selected from among eight NBA teams plus the East and
West All-Stars. Once you've loaded the program, you must answer a trivia
question in order to satisfy the off-disk copy-protection routine. After
correctly replying (by consulting the handbook provided), you'll see the game
option screen, from which you may specify single or tournament play; competition
mode (player vs. player, computer vs. player, or computer vs. computer);
controller (keyboard or joystick); arcade or simulation; pre-season, regular
season, or showtime; period length; and sound/music.

 Next, you'll pick your teams: Celtics, Bulls, Pistons, Knicks, Lakers, Sonics,
Suns, Jazz, East All-Stars, or West All-Stars. Then the roster screen appears,
listing all the players and their corresponding statistics. This is where you'll
have the opportunity to make substitutions.

 Finally, it's time to play ball! Press the spacebar, and the timer begins. A
game consists of four periods; in case of a tie, overtime periods continue until
one team wins.

 Unlike professional basketball, there's no home-team advantage in LAKERS VS.
CELTICS. The home team begins play on the right side of the court, and at
half-time, the teams switch. Offensive players can pass, fake, and shoot;
defensive team members may change players, steal, and block.

 The included stats are taken from the '88-'89 season. Your players are modeled
after real-life basketball players, with accurate jersey numbers, strengths, and
weaknesses: Kareem skyhooks, Jordan dunks, Bird shoots 3-pointers, and Isaiah
has his finger-roll hangups.

 Standard rules of basketball are in effect: traveling, charging, fouls,
24-second shot-clocks, 19-second backcourt violations, 3-point shots, 5-second
in-bound violations, penalty situations, and 5-minute overtimes.

 LAKERS VS. CELTICS comes on two 5-1/4" diskettes, with 3-1/2" diskettes
available via mail for an additional $4.50. The game runs on IBM PC/XT/AT,
Compaq, and Tandy 1000 machines and compatibles. It requires 384K of RAM and DOS
2.1 or highter. Joysticks are highly recommended, as is EGA or Tandy 16-color
capability (or better). You really do need at least EGA, because CGA doesn't
clearly display the players' numbers, or the colored jersey that signifies the
controllable player. The program supports Roland MT-32, AdLib, and CMS sound
boards. Sound effects include the referee's whistle, a dribbling ball, and a
swishing net.

 In general, this game is entertaining and fairly realistic. However, I found
playing defense very difficult, because it was easy to activate the wrong
defender. In terms of desirable enhancements, another diskette with all the NBA
teams would be nice. It'd also be useful to incorporate an automatic compilation
of stats at the end of each game, so that the players' total points, etc., would
be available. Finally, the ability to alter players' strengths in order to
create super-teams would be a fun -- as well as functional -- feature.

 Apart from these omissions, LAKERS VS. CELTICS is an impressive game. Playing
5-on-5 basketball is quite an undertaking. Gameplay is fast, and EGA/VGA
graphics are very good. With a few improvements, this could become an excellent
sports simulation. As it stands, I give the game 2-1/2 stars out of a possible
four.

 LAKERS VS. CELTICS is published and distributed by Electronic Arts.

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