The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I recently purchased Fractal Mapper v2.0 from NBOS Software.

Please, under no circumstances, no matter how tempted you are, do NOT buy this piece of software.

Fractal Mapper has several shortcomings, any of which could be crippling, but taken together make this program utterly useless.

1. I ran this program on a PC with: P200MMX, 32MB RAM, 512 L2 cache, 2 MB video card, a fast hard drive, and Win95 OSR/2 and it was slow while performing some of the niftier functions. P100s with 16MB need not apply.

2. Lines drawn over a certain length would cause the program to hang. Fortunately, it did not crash the machine entirely. You could work around this as long as a land mass had a relatively short coastline. :-)

3. No layers. Crappy CAD programs have this. Without layers, this program is little better than a simple bitmap editor.

4. Limited object editing. Better hope you get it right the first time. If that land mass you just drew isn't to your liking, too bad, draw it again, and again, etc. Sure, you can change the fill color and display order, but that's about it. You can't change the size of an object, rotate it, or perform a little nip and tuck. If you don't like it, you have to delete the object and start from scratch.

5. Unpredictable output. The fractal part of Fractal Mapper is that the program can take a perfectly straight line that you just drew and make it crooked as all hell. What I thought that the fractal part meant was that it would allow unlimited levels of zoom by extrapolating detail. What it really means is that it draws crooked lines. Like I couldn't do that myself. :-) Unfortunately, because the objects do have that fractal quality to them, it makes it very difficult to design a map. You just have to try it and hope for the best. And because of the limited editing, if you don't like the result, you have to redraw the land mass or other object rather than just making a few adjustments.

6. I could go on, but what's the point?

I wish I had saved my $31.50 and put in an order for Campaign Cartographer 2, maybe another $50 would have made the difference.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

Fractal Mapper v2.0
Author: n/a Category: Software Company/Publisher: NBOS Software Cost: 31.50 USD Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Jon M. Berg on 11/18/97. Genre tags: none	I recently purchased Fractal Mapper v2.0 from NBOS Software. Please, under no circumstances, no matter how tempted you are, do NOT buy this piece of software. Fractal Mapper has several shortcomings, any of which could be crippling, but taken together make this program utterly useless. 1. I ran this program on a PC with: P200MMX, 32MB RAM, 512 L2 cache, 2 MB video card, a fast hard drive, and Win95 OSR/2 and it was slow while performing some of the niftier functions. P100s with 16MB need not apply. 2. Lines drawn over a certain length would cause the program to hang. Fortunately, it did not crash the machine entirely. You could work around this as long as a land mass had a relatively short coastline. :-) 3. No layers. Crappy CAD programs have this. Without layers, this program is little better than a simple bitmap editor. 4. Limited object editing. Better hope you get it right the first time. If that land mass you just drew isn't to your liking, too bad, draw it again, and again, etc. Sure, you can change the fill color and display order, but that's about it. You can't change the size of an object, rotate it, or perform a little nip and tuck. If you don't like it, you have to delete the object and start from scratch. 5. Unpredictable output. The fractal part of Fractal Mapper is that the program can take a perfectly straight line that you just drew and make it crooked as all hell. What I thought that the fractal part meant was that it would allow unlimited levels of zoom by extrapolating detail. What it really means is that it draws crooked lines. Like I couldn't do that myself. :-) Unfortunately, because the objects do have that fractal quality to them, it makes it very difficult to design a map. You just have to try it and hope for the best. And because of the limited editing, if you don't like the result, you have to redraw the land mass or other object rather than just making a few adjustments. 6. I could go on, but what's the point? I wish I had saved my $31.50 and put in an order for Campaign Cartographer 2, maybe another $50 would have made the difference. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)