Time passes
and seasons change but retrogames remain as entertaining as ever.
Welcome to another packed issue of The Retrogaming Times! I am
always impressed by the different gaming interests of our staff and the
opinions and stories they share in their articles. Remember that
if you are reading this issue, you can contribute to a future one as
well! Take a look at the outstanding issue presented below and if
you're feeling inspired, send in an article of your own!
The cover
story leads things off this time, as Merman looks at all the Commodore
64 games released by Sirius Software, a company that had a brush with a
lot of big names at one time or another. Don Lee continues to
modify his home retrogaming workout with Wii Fit Plus and the once
hugely in demand Wii Balance Board. In space no one may be able
to hear you scream but they can sure hear frustration as Space Panic
mutates in Arcade Obscure. After a year of amusement park
closures and restrictions, Dan Pettis explores an 8-bit parkgoing
alternative with Adventures in the Magic Kingdom on the NES.
Jerry Terrifying outlines his encounters with the Intellivision, diving
into the library and hardware quirks of this very popular piece of
vintage gaming. The Magic Kingdom isn't the only MK that Dan
Pettis has on tap this issue, as he returns in Caught On Film with a
review of the sequel to 1995's Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation. Video game development is often a long road with
many pitfalls and setbacks, with the true story of how many popular
games came to fruition buried in secrecy. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is
one such game and George "mecha" Spanos delivers a detailed look at
what has been decoded concerning Sega's iconic blue blur. School
is back in session with the final of the first three original games for
the Tomy Pyuuta, a Space Panic clone with a difference by the name of
Monster Inn. All that and more are ahead in this issue of The
Retrogaming Times!
I want
to
again remind our readers if
they
have comments or questions about anything covered in the newsletter, or
there is something they would like featured in a future issue of The
Retrogaming
Times, to contact me directly at trt@classicplastic.net!
Of course article submissions are also always open. If you have
something
ready to go, the address is the same, trt@classicplastic.net. "If
there is something you want to write about, send it in!"
If
you're stir crazy at home and are a retrogamer, there has to be
something on your mind - let us know by submitting an article!
NOTICE: Due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic, many shows and events have canceled, postponed, or
modified their dates. For the latest on the events listed below,
please visit their individual websites or contact their relevant
customer support channels as the current situation continues to
unfold. Thank you.
~
~ ~
KansasFest, July 19th - 25th 2021,
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
KansasFest is
an annual convention offering Apple II users and retrocomputing
enthusiasts the opportunity to engage in beginner and technical
sessions, programming contests, exhibition halls, and camaraderie.
KansasFest was originally hosted by Resource Central and has been
brought to you by the KFest committee since 1995. For photos, videos,
and
presentations from past KansasFests, please visit the official
website.
If there is a
show or event you would
like listed here, free of charge, please contact David directly at trt@classicplastic.net.
Please include a short official blurb about your event along with any
relevant
links or contact information and it will be published in the next issue
of The Retrogaming Times. The event listing will remain posted
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Check out
these great events, shows,
and conventions and let them know you read about them in The
Retrogaming
Times!
More
C64! - The Bright Stars of Sirius Software
by Merman
Sirius, the Dog Star, is
the brightest star in the sky over Earth.
Sirius Software Inc. was a short-lived but bright star in the early
software industry and created a dozen Commodore 64 games.
Picture the scene - at
the Computerland store in Sacramento, California, employee Jerry Jewell
gets talking to a young Iranian man. Nasir Gebelli was a regular
visitor and demonstrates some of his Apple II software to Jerry - and
Jerry likes it so much, he quits to set up his own software company
with the store's owner Terry Bradley to market Nasir's software. That
included the landmark E-Z Draw on Apple II, one of the first graphic
editors for home computers. Nasir was paid royalties rather than a
fixed salary and responded by writing eight games in a year -
reportedly earning him nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The
company mascot was a jolly alien that appeared in several games and on
cover artwork.
The
title screens of the 12 Sirius Software release on Commodore 64.
Sirius Software Inc.
expanded rapidly in its first two years and sought out new markets
beyond the Apple II. Other talented programmers who worked for the
company included Tony Ngo and Paul Allen Edelstein. It also saw the
start of programmer Mark Turmell's career, years before his Midway
arcade hit NBA Jam, and future Epyx star Chuck Sommerville also spent
time at Sirius. With Sierra On-Line thriving thanks to its line of
graphic adventures, Sirius tried to follow suit. And then the big money
arrived - 20th Century Fox Video Games offered a lucrative deal to
publish Sirius titles on Atari 2600, including tie-in titles to Fox
movies. The deal turned sour with the "crash" of 1983. As companies
turned their back on video games, Sirius claimed Fox owed over $14
million in unpaid royalties. Fox refused to pay, and Sirius would not
recover from the financial blow. Although Alpine Encounter (1985) and
Bob Blauschild's Escape from Rungistan (1986 conversions to PC-88 and
FM7, based on the 1982 Apple II original) were released later, the
company was in steep decline from 1984. InfoWorld had named it the 15th
largest software company in 1983 based on $15 million of sales, but by
the next year it was almost over and done with.
The story of Sirius and
Jerry Jewell was featured in Steven Levy's 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of
the Computer Revolution (published by Doubleday). After 160 releases
across multiple formats, the star had burned out. So now it is time to
look back at the Sirius releases for the C64, with a couple of
interesting titles that are still very playable.
Note: in the list below,
release and copyright dates have been checked with a few sources. This
can be complicated, with some games displaying a different year to the
actual release. It is often down to being a conversion of an older game
from a different format.
FAST EDDIE, 1982 Kathy Bradley (game
design by Mark Turmell)
Fast Eddie is on a
treasure hunt, climbing up and down ladders. Roaming the platforms or
standing in the way are the Sneakers, and Eddie must jump over or avoid
them. At the top of the screen is the tall High-Top, carrying the key.
Once Eddie has collected nine prizes, High-Top shrinks so that Eddie
can jump over him to collect the key on his head and unlock the next
level. Scoring is simple, 10 points for the first prize and increasing
by 10 points for each prize; the tenth prize with its bonus 90 points
is optional. An extra life is awarded for completing each screen. The
enemies were based on the ones that appeared in Mark Turmell's first
ever video game - 1981's Sneakers for the Atari 2600 (a Space Invaders
clone). It is an amazingly simple score-chasing game, gradually
becoming more difficult as more Sneakers start moving. I did like that
the prize changes shape for each level, but the gameplay is very dated
now.
Kathy Bradley also
programmed the VIC-20 version of Fast Eddie.
The
prizes
become fish on level 2 of Fast Eddie, while grabbing all the telephones
on level 5 reveals the key at the top.
TYPE ATTACK, 1982 Ernie Brock & Jim
Hauser
On the planet of
Lexicon, letters have started to fall from the sky! Luckily, the
inhabitants are great typists who can repel the falling letters and
symbols by typing them on a keyboard. Educator Jim Hauser teamed up
with Sirius programmer Ernie Brock to create this typing tutor game
mixed with Space Invaders. Each lesson starts with two waves of
Character Attack, where a formation of single characters appears and
descends towards the bottom of the screen. If a letter or symbol is at
the bottom of a column, the player zaps it by pressing the matching
key. Any mistake drains the player's energy (shown on the right), and
later lessons add shifted characters. To complete the lesson the player
must finish the Word Attack wave by typing in a series of "words" made
up of that lesson's keys correctly - but can delete mistakes in this
section before hitting Return. A Bonus Words section then offers more
points. There are 39 lessons to complete, at a speed ranging from 1
(slow) to 99 (incredibly fast). The final score is based on the typing
speed in words per minute (WPM, shown by the bar on the left of the
screen) and the number of letters destroyed, minus points for mistakes.
The disk version can save the high scores to beat another day. An
interesting twist on the typing tutor format but ultimately short-lived
in excitement.
Shooting
the
letters A, S and D on lesson 1 of Type Attack, and then tackling Word
Attack on lesson 2.
GRUDS IN SPACE, 1983 Chuck Sommerville &
Joseph Dudar
The funny description on
the back of the box was inspired by the way Valley Girls spoke, but the
in-game descriptions were rather more formal. President Fred asks you
to help a spy stranded on Pluto, by obtaining the spaceship fuel and
taking it to him. However, the Solar System has been invaded by an
alien species known as Gruds and things are not that simple.
This text adventure has
a large graphical view of each location, with a bar at the top showing
the location name and possible exits. Traveling around your ship and
exploring the galaxy, you use simple commands such as EXAMINE, TAKE and
SHOOT GRUDS. There is a short disk access between screens, and the
display has an annoying "flicker" in emulation. This is down to the
graphic drawing routine requiring a particular make of NTSC chip inside
the computer. The spot sound effects are a cute addition, examples
including your spaceship engaging warp drive or when you use the
teleporter. With multiple planets to visit and some obscure puzzles,
there is a real challenge here.
This is the only game on
Joseph Dudar's resume, but Chuck would go on to greater fame working on
the Epyx Games series, the Atari Lynx handheld and his classic puzzle
game Chuck's Challenge.
Setting
the
warp drive for Saturn, and finding a Grud outside a cave on Saturn.
REPTON, 1983 Dan Thompson & Andy
Kaluzniacki iOS 2011
For UK fans, the name is
confusing. First there is the town in Derbyshire famous for its
exclusive boarding school, and then there is a best-selling series of
games called Repton. This started on the BBC Micro with the C64 only
getting a conversion of Repton 3. In this game the planet is called
Repton, defended by the Starfighter Armageddon under the player's
control. This has an invincibility shield (active when not firing) and
Nuke Bombs to destroy everything onscreen (released by pressing Space).
A radar display shows where enemies are, with threat warnings appearing
onscreen in large letters. The screen scrolls horizontally left and
right like Defender, with a couple of twists.
The animated
instructions introduce the various enemy types and explain your
objectives, or the player can enter Training Mode to get used to the
controls. You must defend your base, which is made of blocks. The
Quarriors will try to steal these blocks to build an enemy base, and
the bigger that base gets the more enemies are launched. Nova Cruisers
split into smaller ships when shot, and Minelayers drop deadly mines.
Drayns steal energy from the Grid to power the enemy base. By flying
through the energy beam, the player gets the energy back, to be
deposited in the Power Transformer. This also allows you to gain extra
Nuke Bombs. If the Grid is fully drained or the enemy base completed,
you enter a new phase as you try to destroy the underground reactor.
The graphics are reasonable, although some may dislike the green and
purple colour scheme. It is quite complex to get to grips with but
shoot 'em up fans will love it.
Dan Thompson is
predominantly associated with the Atari 8-bit and Apple II, while Andy
went on to work for Infocom, Accolade and LucasArts. Andy would be
behind the 2011 remake of Repton for iOS. However veteran programmer
Jeff Minter of Llamasoft was strongly critical of this new version,
claiming the graphics were poor and the onscreen controls were clumsily
done.
Putting
yourself into the energy beam to recover stolen energy from a Drayn,
and the ship is shielded while you are stationary.
SNAKE BYTE, 1983 Dan Stanfield & Ray
Elzey (game design by Chuck Sommerville)
The packaging had the
tagline "Antidote for Boredom" under the drawing of a snake eating an
apple. The player can choose how many the Perilous Purple Plums are
present, adding difficulty. On each level the snake must eat ten apples
to unlock the door to the next level. A timer counts down, and if the
snake has not eaten an apple in time then three more apples are added
on the target amount needed. As the snake eats, its tail grows and will
kill the snake if it collides with it. The Plums bounce around off the
walls, the snake's tail and each other and will kill the snake if they
hit its head.
Irritatingly the
controls are keyboard only, with the choice of IJKM being tough to use.
Graphics are simple and sound is just beeps. There are much better
Snake games on the C64.
Dan was the programmer,
while Ray produced the music and sound effects. The original game
design was by Chuck Sommerville.
Bouncing
purple
plums can add to the difficulty, while eating enough apples opens the
door.
SQUISH 'EM, 1983 Tony Ngo
This was based on an
Atari 2600 prototype called The Fall Guy, but it was only released on
that format by AtariAge in 2007 (based on the Atari 8-Bit). Sam must
climb vertically-scrolling buildings to collect suitcases filled with
money. Sam can only move up if there is a girder above him to climb,
else he must move left and right to find one. Creepy monsters and
falling objects will knock Sam off. He can stretch his legs up and then
stamp on the monsters. This will disable them for a short time, but
they will reappear.
This is a simple
premise, seemingly inspired by classic arcade game Crazy Climber. The
graphics are ok, with colours changing as you progress through the
levels. There is also a nice screen shake effect on Game Over. But it
will not hold your attention for long.
Dodging
a
falling object on level 2, and about to pick up the briefcase (when Sam
will parachute down to the bottom of the building to start again).
TURMOIL, 1983 Jeremy ("Jay") Jones
(game design by Mark Turmell)
Starting out on the
Atari 2600 in 1982, this fast-paced shoot 'em up was converted to other
formats. Your intergalactic fighter is trapped in a chamber with seven
corridors. Aliens, including a familiar ship from the earlier Fast
Eddie, will move at various speeds along the corridors. Your ship can
travel up and down the central lane, shooting to the left or right, but
stay in one corridor too long and an indestructible Ghost Ship will
hurtle towards you. Every now and then a glowing Orb will appear - race
towards it and grab it for bonus points, but you must return it to the
centre of the screen before the Ghost Ship catches you. Leave an Orb
too long and it will shoot towards the middle and kill the player on
contact. If an Arrow makes it across the screen without being shot, it
turns into a Tank. A Tank can only be destroyed by shooting it from
behind; shots at its front will merely push it backwards along the
lane. There are nine levels to conquer featuring multiple waves of
enemies. You start with five ships and gain an extra ship for clearing
a level, with up to six in reserve.
This is very much an
old-fashioned blaster, probably better suited to the Atari 2600 it was
designed for. There are some good presentation touches, including the
title screen's rainbow-coloured logo and the full-screen rainbow effect
introducing each level. Sprites are a mixed bag, with the Orb being
incredibly simple. Sound is alright but doesn't stretch the SID chip.
Jeremy Jones was known
as Jay Jones when he created the C64 conversion of Turmoil. He also
programmed the VIC-20 version of another Sirius title, Deadly Duck.
Grab the
white
Orbs before they shoot at you, and these Tanks can only be destroyed
from behind.
WAVY NAVY, 1983 Rodney McAuley
Take control of a PT
boat (patrol torpedo) as it battles giant waves and the enemy attacks
from above. Kamikaze planes dive towards you and helicopters fly down
to shoot at you. At higher levels bombers fly across the screen, mines
float by on the waves and Exocet missiles zoom by. The boat moves left
and right, its path altered by the huge waves. On the main menu the
player can choose from 1 to 4 players with joystick or keyboard, at one
of three difficulty levels (beginner, advanced, expert). Completing a
level earns you a higher rank. This was the game that inspired this
feature when I saw it on a Twitter thread. Looking back, it is an
interesting variation on Galaxian with the well-rendered waves adding a
new twist.
Rodney McAuley is
credited for the game design and programming on all three versions of
Wavy Navy - C64, Atari 8-bit and Apple II. Paul Lutus created the
Electric Duet music driver used for the Apple II version's music, which
creates the illusion of two separate channels of sound by combining
waveforms.
Dodging
the
helicopter's cannon fire, and trying to destroy the second formation.
WAY OUT (aka WAYOUT), 1983 Paul Allen Edelstein
Called "A 3D-Action
Maze" on the packaging, the player must find their way out of 26
different mazes. This is an early example of a first-person perspective
game. Fortunately, the player has a map-making kit and a compass to
help them; an "automap" is drawn as the player explores. Unfortunately,
the lurking Cleptangle beast will steal these useful items if it
catches the player - but they can chase it to retrieve them. The wind
is also blowing, meaning the player cannot move against it. Small
moving fireflies give a clue to where the wind is blowing. Find the
exit and your score is the number of movements needed to complete the
level, with the game disk saving the best scores for each maze. The
player can also save up to nine games in progress to be reloaded later.
The movement takes a little getting used to, especially from a modern
point of view. The graphics generate a good illusion of being in a
maze, and the automap is helpful. Working out a quicker route to get
that elusive high score can still be fun, even after all these years.
Paul Edelstein is
credited with the Apple II, Atari 8-bit and C64 versions. The sequel
was known as Capture the Flag, with a split-screen display designed for
two players. One was the Invader, trying to break into the maze and
escape with the flag for a point. The Defender must simply run into the
Invader to capture them and score a point. The game then randomly
generates a new maze. Both games used innovative interactive music
developed by George "The Fat Man" Sanger. Separate bass and melody
lines would be played, and as the player got closer to the exit or an
enemy/opponent, the music layers were changed.
Pursuing
the
distant Cleptangle as it has stolen the map maker and compass, while
the fireflies buzz around you.
THE BLADE OF BLACKPOOLE, August 1983 Tim Wilson
In a fantasy land, the
player must find the magic sword Myraglym, last seen near the lake at
Blackpoole. The game has 60 locations, with each having a graphical
picture shown at the top of the screen above the descriptive text and
player inputs. The parser accepts slightly more complicated commands
than the typical verb noun structure that was common. It does have an
interesting limit on the player's inventory, meaning they can only
carry six objects at once. The maximum possible score is 500, with
points earned for solving puzzles and reaching locations.
The C64 version uses a
similar graphic engine to Gruds in Space, designed to give extra colour
in the image - at the cost of some flicker in emulation. The parser is
reasonable, accepting quite a few words. It is a long quest to solve
and the inventory limit does make certain sections difficult -
especially with so many red herrings lying around. There is a lot of
disk access to load in the pictures, which then redraw every time you
pick up an object (to remove them from the scene). This really slows
down the pace of the game.
Tim Wilson coded the
Apple II version and is credited with the C64 conversion the following
year. He would go on to code David Lubar's brilliant Pastfinder for the
C64 too.
Talking
to a
friendly bartender, and stuck in some quicksand...
BANDITS, October 1983 Leonard Bertoni (game
design by Tony Ngo)
This single-screen
shooter appeared on Apple II and Atari 8-bit, before Leonard created
the VIC-20 and C64 conversions. Supplies at a lunar base are under
threat from the attacking aliens, so the player must use their missile
base and its shield (limited by an energy bar shown at the bottom of
the screen) to protect the vital fruit. If an alien picks up a piece of
fruit from the supply domes, the player can shoot it to regain the
piece before the alien leaves the screen. Later levels introduce more
enemy types, including drones that zigzag down the screen,
Centipede-like strings of enemies that drop bombs and the clusters that
break into bouncing balls.
French magazine Micro 7
gave the C64 game a favourable review. "Arguably the best game of Space
Invaders. The waves follow each other and do not look alike. The
colours, graphics and animation are exceptional, although they were
originally created on Apple. There is no music, but good sound
effects." After the interesting intro animation and the mothership
dropping the player off, the in-game graphics are quite nice with the
different types of fruit well drawn. Sound is reasonable for the time
but nothing special. It does have an addictive quality as you try to
get further and beat your high score.
Designer Tony Ngo also
created Squish 'Em and the Activision classic Park Patrol. The
Activision Atari 2600 game Spider Fighter, the first by designer Larry
Miller, has similar gameplay (protecting fruit from being stolen) and
has had a recent C64 remake. Both may have been inspired by Stratovox
(known as Speak & Rescue in Japan), a 1981 arcade game that was one
of the first to feature speech. Stratovox had aliens attempt to abduct
human colonists, who would shout "Help Me!" when abducted.
Underneath
the
bouncing balls from cluster enemies, and a bandit makes away with a
bunch of grapes.
CRITICAL MASS, November 1983 Bob Blauschild
When the United Nations
receives a threat to destroy five large cities with nuclear weapons, it
is up to the player to travel the world to stop the evil Count
Stuportino and find his hidden lair. From a faulty elevator in New York
to a water-ski contest in Miami, the Eiffel Tower to the island of
Martinique, the player uses basic verb noun inputs to solve the puzzles
and plays some simplistic arcade sequences to stop the Count - against
a time limit that could see the game end in a not-too-subtle mushroom
cloud.
The graphics draw
quickly but are typical of the line drawings of the era. There is some
humour in the game, from a message self-destructing in classic spy
fashion to the sudden appearance of a bomb. But the arcade sequences
make things much harder for an adventure player, and some of the
puzzles are very tricky to work out.
This was Bob's second
game, after 1982's Escape from Rungistan for Apple II (also published
by Sirius).
Happy May everyone! I
hope this
issue finds everyone well. Work was quite busy from January until
the end of March, however since the second quarter started things have
slowed down a little bit. On a personal note, I was able to get
my first COVID-19 vaccine shot this past Sunday. I'm happy as my
side gig of officiating high school sports (basketball and volleyball)
is also beginning. I admit to being surprised to actually have
games to work this season. It will be good to be get into a gym
and be part of some sports activities as an official. Hopefully,
I'll be able to play some sports myself at some point in the near
future.
Last
issue I mentioned I had picked some programs and I would comment on
them. For this month, I'm going to talk about Wii Fit Plus for
the Nintendo Wii. Why did I decide to get Wii Fit Plus and the
associated balance board? As I've written about previously, most
of my exercise in the past year has been at home. I've used a mix
of machines and Nintendo Switch / Wii programs. But doing the
same thing over and over again can be pretty boring so I like to have
some variety to mix things up. When I saw Wii Fit Plus and the
balance board on eBay, I read some old reviews and thought it might be
worth a spin. The purchase was not cheap but I thought I would
get some use of out of Wii Fit Plus. After using it off and on
for the past couple of months, I will say that it was worth the
purchase.
Wii
Fit Plus has a variety of short (a few minutes) exercises including
aerobic, yoga and strength exercises using the balance board (though
some don't need the balance board). Wii Fit Plus can also allow
you to group favorite exercises together into a workout plan.
There are also some pre-defined exercises you could do also.
However you couldn't group the aerobic exercises together which was
disappointing. Upon my first few days of testing, the short
aerobic exercises were ok though some admittedly were a little slow and
boring. Certainly not enough to get my heart rate going.
Through the last past few weeks, I also tried some of the yoga
exercises. I will say that yoga is pretty difficult. I may
be in decent shape but I don't think I have great balance! Wii
Fit Plus also has some strength exercises but i have not tried them out
yet as I do strength work through a few other means at the
moment.
The
main functions I have found the most useful recently are Free Steps and
Free Run. Basically you just load the program, get to either Free
Step (using the balance board) or Free Run (no balance board, jog in
place), set up the duration (10, 20, or 30 minutes) and you can begin
exercising. Why have I used these two functions more
recently? Because once you have things setup, you can switch your
TV back to a TV program and exercise while the Wii talks to you through
the Wii Remote. Really the talk is just motivation and a talking
timer but it's useful to be able to exercise while watching TV instead
of having to stare at the Wii program screen instead. The Free
Step is good for me when I want some light exercise. The Free Run
gets my heart rate going more and I definitely break a sweat even
though it's not the hardest exercise I've ever done.
All
in all, I'm glad I picked up Wii Fit Plus and the balance board.
While I may not use every feature regularly, I found a couple of things
useful and I could see myself using those features long after things go
back to normal. It will be nice to have some exercise options to
fall back on when I'm not out and about in the future. See you next
issue!
When
released by Universal in 1980, Space Panic presented a novel concept: a
playfield made up of multiple levels with ladders running between
them. Rather than an open expanse or a flat maze, the action took
place vertically on multiple floors. While it predated similar
arcade climbing games such as Donkey Kong, Space Panic really shouldn't
be considered a platforming game as it lacks any form of a jump
mechanic. Instead the only ability of offense or defense the
player possesses is the power to dig holes, making Space Panic more of
a climbing and digging game, similar to the later released and
massively successful computer game Lode Runner. However being first
doesn't always make you best - or even all that good.
Armed only
with a
shovel, the player must run along platforms and defeat swarms of
aliens. This is accomplished by digging a hole in a platform,
coaxing an alien to fall into it and become trapped, then filling the
hole back in to knock the alien off the screen before it can climb
out. If an alien is allowed to climb out of a hole, it will fill
it in and resume its pursuit of the player. The further an alien
drops, the more points it is worth. Additional points can be
earned by dropping aliens onto one another, either passing below or
trapped in multiple aligned holes. However this is difficult to
set up and tends to be more of a surprise rather than a strategy - at
least to me. Thankfully the player may fall through a fully
excavated hole to the platform below without penalty and this is often
a way to escape and trick a pursuing alien.
Digging
a hole with an alien close by (left), the worst explained enemy
mechanics screen ever (center), working fast to bury an alien (right)
The twist to
this mechanic, and ultimately what makes the game extremely difficult,
begins on the second stage. From stage two onward an alien that
climbs out of a hole will mutate into the next strongest type of alien,
three types in all - red, green, and white. These more powerful
green aliens appear as stock beginning on the fourth stage and require dropping
through
two floors or to have another alien dropped onto them from above to be
killed. If these aliens climb out of a hole, they mutate again
into the even stronger white aliens. The white aliens require
dropping through three floors or to have another alien dropped onto
them while they are climbing out of a hole directly below to be
killed. Eventually the white aliens will begin to appear as stock
at the beginning of a stage, creating a massive disadvantage for the
player right from the start. Honestly the hole digging, trapping,
and filling mechanic is frantic enough without expanding it twice -
each time doubling the effort required to defeat a single alien.
Additionally you have to be sure an alien is totally in a hole before
approaching to bury it, otherwise it'll spring across the gap and kill
you instantly. In fact the alien to player hit detection can be a
bit strange as it is very easy to have an alien kill you when you're
anywhere near one, sometimes feeling as no contact was even made.
Thankfully
player movement is reasonably quick with good response both when
running along platforms and scurrying up and down ladders. There
is both a button to dig and a button to bury (or a "holing" and
"closing" button on the original arcade cabinet - yes, HOLING and
CLOSING), with the respective action performed in the direction the
player is facing. Resist the urge to tap the button and just hold
it down for maximum effectiveness. Although the controls are
pretty snappy the are betrayed by some game design choices. The
multi-drop higher power aliens wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to
be nearly pixel-perfect in aligning holes down through multiple
floors. The individual sections of a floor aren't divided into an
easily interpreted grid or equal spacing that can be quickly
ascertained. This makes it unreasonably challenging to dig a hole
precisely where you want. This isn't because the control lacks
responsiveness, as stated earlier input is actually quite quick and
prompt - the problem is everything
is quick and prompt. The entire game moves way too fast for what
it throws at the player. The swarm of aliens will be right on top
of you at a moment's notice, giving next to no time to formulate a
strategy. Your character may not swing his shovel slow but
compared to everything else in the game it sure feels that way.
If you could simply lay out traps and wait for the aliens to come to
you things would be easier but your oxygen supply is always
decreasing. This also functions as an end of stage bonus, with a
point value given to remaining oxygen. Oxygen cannot be
replenished and it drains pretty quickly. There is a bit of a
nice touch here though, as the player's face will turn red when oxygen
level is critical and his movement will slow just before death.
Perhaps this is a bit morbid for a game where the player controls what
amounts to a stick figure but it's an interesting detail nonetheless.
Dashing
to get set up when more powerful aliens are near (left), it's all too
easy to get overrun (center), dropping a green alien two floors (right)
Sound is very
basic but reasonable given the game's vintage. It's mainly just a
few beeps and bops on tap, although I like the "woo... tsssh" sound
when aliens fall through a hole. Following suit the graphics are
very simple but nice for what they are. I do find it strange that
a "space" game that features an oxygen meter has an everyday stick
figure man as the player character. Wearing a space helmet would
make more sense and I doubt would be outside the game's graphical
limits. The later Colecovision conversion of Space Panic did just
this, cladding the player in a space suit complete with a bubble
helmet. The three types of aliens look alright with clearly
defined colors to denote what strength they are but they don't have
much personality beyond that. Unfortunately the aliens' movement
seems to be totally random. This makes setting up a sequence of
holes overly difficult sometimes. While they can be lead around,
more often than not an alien in close pursuit will simply go another
way, while another alien three floors away will zero in on the player
out of the blue. Coupled with how fast they move and the
different requirements to defeat them, the frustration factor can
quickly build which prevents the game from building any form of an
addictive quality.
On its surface
I don't think the concept of Space Panic is bad or something that was
half-baked, only to be enjoyable once it was powered up with the
generation of arcade platform games that would follow it. The
mechanics of the game are sound, they are just poorly implemented and
unpolished. To some this won't be an obscure game, as the
aforementioned Colecovision version was reasonably popular but I have
never come across a Space Panic cabinet at any arcade show or retro
arcade, nor have I met anyone who had an affection for the arcade
original. Coleco actually took quite a few old obscure arcade
games they could get the rights to cheaply and converted them into much
enjoyed games on their home console. I vastly prefer the
Colecovision version myself in every way. Sure it's still not a
spectacular game but it has way better graphics and really nice
sound. It also plays far slower, giving the player time to
actually strategize and react. That idea of strategy being the
most important aspect of this style of game would be something Lode
Runner would expand most on, utilizing a much larger playfield and
building in puzzle elements for its primary challenge over simple high
speed difficulty. I really can't recommend the original arcade
Space Panic but if it looks interesting do check out the Colecovision
version, as well as a game inspired by Space Panic - Monster Inn -
featured later in this issue.
Capcom
was responsible for some incredible licensed games for the NES based on
Disney properties. We're talking stone cold classic games like
DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and many more. These are not
only among the best licensed games on the Nintendo Entertainment
System, they are some of the absolute best games for the console,
period. But one of their games that seems to have been lost in the
magical shuffle is based on taking a trip to the actual Disney theme
parks: Adventures
in the Magic Kingdom. This
game may not be among Capcom's best Disney related work, but it is
still very enjoyable while it lasts, and features a unique mini-game
based concept for a video game of the era. Although this game is far
from perfect, there's still lots of fun to be had and it deserves not
to be forgotten.
Not to be confused with the stubby
Disney
Adventures magazine that you used to see at grocery store checkout
lanes, this game is a collection of five different mini-game levels and
a trivia question quest based on some of the most popular theme park
attractions of all time. The game begins with an opening scene
featuring Donald, Goofy, and Mickey, where you learn that wacky ol'
Goofy Goof has lost six super important silver keys inside of the Magic
Kingdom. I don't know why Mickey and his friends trusted that bumbling
goof with those ultra important keys, but anyway, Mickey wisely assigns
you to collect these keys instead of Goofy, so that they can open the
gates of the Magic Kingdom.
After this opening scene, you and
your
playable character are transported inside the park to the game's
overworld hub. Your playable character is wearing a pretty strange
outfit, you're a boy dressed in a giant orange cowboy hat and boots.
It's a weird look and it would've been a really nice feature to be able
to swap the gender of your character and be able play as a girl. It
would've been nice for female gamers to have a character on screen to
better identify with. Capcom eventually did make it up to the gaming
girls of the world with a very solid Little Mermaid game, based on the
classic Disney film, that was released on the NES the following year.
The overworld area features a bouncy
tune
reminiscent of the first few Pokemon games and a colorful but sparse
rendition of the inside of the actual Magic Kingdom. Here you can walk
to the five different attractions in any order you choose, or find
other NPC tourists who will challenge you to a trivia question. There
are four different types of gameplay here: two side scrolling
platforming stages, a racing level, a downhill train ride, and a first
person flight through space. The main collectibles of the game are
stars, found in each level except Space Mountain, which you can redeem
for power ups by pressing the Select button. These perks include extra
health, extra lives and temporary invincibility, which is useful since
this game, while not being quite "NES hard," is still a little bit
challenging at first.
Mickey and the gang
wisely ask for your help finding the keys (left), the overworld hub
inside The Magic Kingdom (center), the view on Space Mountain (right)
The two side scrolling levels are
based on
the most famous rides included in the game: Pirates of The Caribbean
and the Haunted Mansion. In both of them your character has pretty
floaty physics and can jump really really high. So high in fact, that
changing your direction multiple times in air is pretty easy. These
floaty physics will take time getting used to for gamers more used to
the shorter hops Mario and Mega Man take. The frame rate is also a
little wonky at times, making jumping a little trickier than in those
games. Of the two platforming stages, the Haunted Mansion stage is much
more straightforward and easier as your character begins with candles
to throw at oncoming ghouls. It's no Castlevania but it does have a
spooky atmosphere and a catchy background song with a little bit of a
hip-hop beat. The Pirates of The Caribbean stage finds you rescuing six
hostages with a much more non-linear stage design. For most of the
Pirates stage, you have no real attack against the enemies other than
pushing the occasional barrel at them. In either stage you have only
three health pieces and there is also a ton of pushback after you are
hit, so it's much better to kill all of the ghosts you can in the
Haunted Mansion stage and avoid the baddies whenever possible in the
Pirates of The Caribbean stage.
But the most visually impressive and
interesting stage in the game is the mini game based on Space Mountain.
I may be just a tad biased as, full disclosure, it's my favorite ride
in real life as well. It is fairly simple, kind of like an outer space
game of Simon, but therein lies the charm. From a first person style
view inside of your cockpit, directions and button commands flash on
the screen and you must enter them as quickly as possible. The margin
of error is pretty slim, especially as the game goes on. It's both
exhilarating and disorienting as you watch stars whiz by your spaceship
as you attempt to match the icons that display on the screen to avoid
crashes and to blast other space rocks and ships. The way the stars
whiz past your ship is similar to the look of outer space NES shoot 'em
up Gyruss. The fast paced music that plays in the background of this
attraction only adds to the intensity and excitement of this
challenging segment.
The next two sections are also
vehicular
in nature: Big Thunder Mountain and Autopia. For the section based on
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, you speed down the screen in your
runaway train as you avoid boulders and closed road signs in order to
get to the bottom. It has a good sense of speed but is fairly short and
otherwise forgettable. Finally of the five mini-game attractions
featured in Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, the Autopia one is by far
the weakest of the bunch. It's a top down racer with weird controls and
simply put, the NES did not really have the horsepower to properly
convey racing in this style but being able to make your car jump off of
ramps is admittedly kind of cool.
Jumping around in the
Pirates of the Caribbean level (left), one of the trivia questions
(center), riding on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (right)
After you've finished the trivia
quest and
have collected all six silver keys, you simply enter Cinderella's
Castle in the center of the map and the ending of the game begins.
There's no final boss to battle, that's all folks. In fact there are no
real final bosses in any of the levels except for a ghost you must bust
before finishing the Haunted Mansion stage. It's a little bit of an
anti-climactic ending, so if you were expecting a battle with a giant
robot mech version of Mickey or a horde of angry tourists to defeat,
you're out of luck. I'm fine with it but if you're one of those players
who loves seeing a crazy screen filling boss to conquer before the
credits roll in your game, you're out of luck here.
Overall
I'd say that this is
certainly not
Capcom's most magical Disney related work but I do think there's
definitely still some fun to be had here, particularly in the
platforming and Space Mountain stages. These parts are so good it made
me wonder how good they could've been if they were expanded upon or if
they were fleshed out in their own full length games. But Adventures in
the Magic Kingdom is a fun, nostalgia inducing trip for kids who played
this game back in the day, and for classic gaming lovers who haven't
tried it yet. It is not a must play game for every player but if you
are a theme park aficionado, a fan of Capcom's various other Disney
games, or if you are feeling cooped up at home and want a perfectly
safe way to virtually visit a theme park, then visit in classic 8-bit
style with Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. With unnecessary travel
still not the best idea with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it's a
great time to give this game a try and see what theme park adventures
you can have from your own home.
When I first started
collecting heavily around fifteen years ago I started amassing consoles
I had never heard of growing up. Anything older than the Nintendo
Entertainment System was largely a mystery. So from time to time
I would check ebay for various systems. When looking for an
Intellivision I was unhappy with the ebay pricing and thought I would
take a gamble on an untested $10 Intellivision. It didn't
work. So I sat it in a box and there it lay to this day. A
few years later a buddy of mine, Kyle, familiar with my affinity for
old video game junk would give me another untested Intellivision.
It also didn't work. Well dang. At this point I did a
little research.
There seems to be a
fairly common issue with the Model 1 Intellivision. There is a
big fat capacitor that suffers from cold solder joints and just ends up
coming loose from the board. Occasionally slapping the system around
will make the capacitor make contact with the board again and you can
get a game to work for a moment. That's a good sign! All
you have to do is reflow that solder joint and you're back in
business. However I never found myself in a hurry to attempt this.
Eventually my
girlfriend would find a Facebook posting for a Model 2 Intellivision
with 16 games mostly complete for $40. So I hopped in my vehicle
and headed on over to the owners house and secured an Intellivision
II! The first game I tested out with this bad boy was Frogger,
which was an excellent home conversion of the arcade classic.
Going through the collection of games, few held my interest but one
game stood above all others. Beauty and the Beast. This
title is clearly inspired by Donkey Kong but I actually enjoyed this
much more than Nintendo's gorilla combat infused dating
simulator. Also check out the artwork in Beauty and the Beast's
manual. Truly a work of art.
My game collecting
addiction takes me to many places but none quite so ghoulish as the
estate sale. People lined up like orderly vultures ready to pick
through the collections of the deceased that the survivors don't have
the space to keep. I tend not to spend too much time going to
estate sales as the companies that run them price things using ebay as
a guide, there is much more competition there and deals hardly ever
tend to happen. However my third Model 1 Intellivision this time
with a box and a loose copy of BurgerTime were picked up for $25.
At this estate sale there was a bidding system using printed
cards. I made my offer for $25 and hoped for the best.
Seems I was the only one pining after the Intellivision. This one
actually fired up and worked for about 10 minutes. Then that dang
capacitor was rocked loose from that cold solder joint.
One of these days
I'm going to get a wild hare up my butt and crack all three Model 1
Intellivisions open and reflow that solder. There's plenty of
reason to do it as there are a few titles that are incompatible with
the Model 2 Intellivision, so I have heard, and of course I love the
70's aesthetic. As I sit here hammering away at the keyboard
thinking about my relationship with the Intellivision, I have an
Intellivision classic en route that I cannot wait to play. Utopia
is often described as the first God game. This is a two player
competitive game, where like Sim City, you build up your civilization
on a land mass. Unlike Sim City you can send marauding hordes of
banditos to the other player's island to lower the population's
happiness and lower the other player's score. Sounds pretty
excellent and I can't wait to get that in my hands and force my loving
girlfriend to give it a shot with me.
Caught On
Film - Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
How To Annihilate A Movie Franchise
The second Mortal Kombat film,
subtitled
Annihilation, opens in
virtually the same way as the first movie. Some guy screams "Mortal
Kombat," we see the same flaming dragon logo, and the subtitle of the
movie flies into place. But this trick does not work nearly as well
this time around. By copying the opening of the original nearly note
for note, a feeling of deja vu will wash over you. It diminishes the
impact of what was a very exciting opening in the first movie. The same
thing can be said for the rest of the movie too, as it falls victim to
similar diminishing returns. It tries too hard to recapture the magic
of the first Mortal Kombat movie by doing virtually the exact same
things the first one did, while also featuring a toxic mix of lame
dialogue, unintentional comedy and overstuffing. The element of
surprise the first movie had is gone and this second movie ultimately
falls flat on its face and is nowhere near as good as the first was.
But if you lower your expectations and enjoy campy movies that are so
bad they're good, then maybe you'll get a kick out of this second MK
movie.
Annihilation picks up where we left
off at the ending of the first movie when, after a killer cliffhanger,
big bad Shao Kahn descends on Earthrealm to wreak havoc. Despite the
epic sequel teased at the end of the first movie this movie starts out
with a thud as Shao Kahn, in an extremely plastic looking skull mask,
delivers a cringey monologue about the earth being destroyed in a
biblical style seven days. He's also flanked by an unintimidating
looking goon squad of henchman characters plucked primarily from MK3
including Ermac, Rain, Sheeva, and Kintaro. Just when it seems like the
movie can't possibly get any lamer, silver haired Sindel as played by
Musetta Vander saunters into the frame and spouts an epically cheesy
line at princess Kitana, "Too bad you... will die!!" If you're
interested in watching a clip of this, it's currently viewable on
YouTube in a video titled "Worst Line Ever," and even though that
sounds like a overly harsh thing Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons would
say, the scene is pretty hilariously cringe inducing.
Raiden played by
James
Remar looks... different
Unfortunately there are lots more
unintentionally funny moments to come. Since they couldn't convince
most of the cast to return from the first Mortal Kombat movie, Raiden,
Sonya, and Johnny Cage all look weird and out of place as played by
different looking actors. The only main actor from the first one who
returns is Robin Shou, who did a spectacular job during the fighting
scenes as Liu Kang in the first film. Picking up this second
installment exactly where the first one left off makes the replaced
actors seem even more blatantly out of place. The new Johnny Cage's
first line of the movie, "this is not good," sets an ominously
unintended bad omen for the rest of the movie.
Not only did many of the key actors
not come back for this movie, the director unfortunately changed too.
Gone is Paul W.S. Anderson, the mastermind behind the camera for the
first movie. As a reportedly huge fan of the video games, he was
responsible for nailing the proper look and tone of what a live action
Mortal Kombat movie should be. In his place, director John R. Leonetti
subs in and does a decent job making sure things still look like the
video games, but the tone of this movie is just way off. With the
cheesiness and ridiculousness ramped up to dangerously high levels,
it's pretty darn impossible to take this film seriously.
Unfortunately the movie never fully
recovers from its weak and cheesy opening moments. After the whimper of
the opening scene, there's a lot of redeeming to do and the movie does
get slightly better, but never reaches the highs of the first movie.
After the opening our main heroes are almost immediately split up to go
on separate missions, and they ride off in some American Gladiator
looking gyroscopes. Liu Kang and Kitana go on a quest to find
Nightwolf, who looks like a sillier version of the WWE's Ultimate
Warrior and is wearing a ton of eyeliner. While Raiden and Sonya travel
to recruit her famously metal armed cop partner Jax to give them a hand.
The second Sub-Zero
and
Scorpion get in a much needed fight
Not only that, but there are just an
overwhelming amount of other new characters crammed into this movie,
many of which are introduced only to die within moments of showing up
on screen. I'd like to give the film makers credit for taking a big
swing by including so many of them, but they really should've saved
more of them for a potential third movie. It just makes it extremely
hard to get emotionally invested in these new characters when so many
are gone within minutes and not given much else to do. With everything
stuffed into the movie, I'm a little surprised that the guy who says
"toasty" from the games didn't appear. But the crazy thing is this
movie could've been even more jam packed as Kabal and Stryker are
mentioned but never show up on camera. Hopefully the soon to be
released new Mortal Kombat reboot will be better at working a lot of
characters into the story more organically.
One of the main things I thought was
missing from the first movie was a battle between Scorpion and
Sub-Zero. Thankfully, this movie has them fight for a scene but that's
about it. In a plot arc matching the games, the Sub-Zero of this film
is the brother of the deceased first one, including his trademark
scarred eye. He takes over the mantle of Sub-Zero and gets in a battle
with Scorpion, despite the yellow ninja having pretty definitively died
in the first installment after having part of his skull chopped off and
then exploding into a massive ball of fire. Although I guess being an
undead ninja specter will help you come back to fight another day
despite that explosive demise. Anyway, they both pop into the movie for
one scene and then are never to be heard from again in just another
example of the wasted potential of this movie.
The overwhelming box office success
of the first movie did not translate to better effects or a better
looking sequel. The costumes of the new characters are severely
lacking. Shao Kahn looks like a Power Rangers villain in his iconic
skull mask and even weirder out of it, sapping the intimidation factor
away from the big bad. As Kahn, Brian Thompson does his best to make
the character scary, but his performance is practically all shouting
and not very menacing. It's like an amped up version of Cary-Hiroyuki
Tagawa's Shang Tsung from the first movie, but it lacks the smarmy
charm that made that a fun scenery chewing performance. Cyborgs Cyrak
and Smoke look rubbery and Jax's arms are not very convincing as well.
Worst of all is fan favorite character Baraka, who just looks plain
ridiculous, despite having his trademark sword arms. The movie was
perhaps just a little too faithful to the increasingly over the top
looks of the characters in the games and it just didn't translate well
to the big screen. Also somehow the special effects and computer
animation got worse, and the climax is a mess of silly looking computer
animated characters smashing against each other.
Shao and Sindel
enjoy a nice horse ride
The fighting is this movie is also
much weaker than the first film. Perhaps feeling the pressure from
Congress and the parents of America to tone it down, the fighting is
much more cartoony. It's weird to say this about a movie that involved
a sorcerer stealing souls and a rubbery looking four armed monster, but
the first movie was much more grounded in reality, especially in the
fight scenes, which looked extremely brutal and painful. Those ones
effectively captured the pain you'd expect a Mortal Kombat fight to
inflict upon its kombatants. But the fights found in this sequel for
the most part do not. At least they had the common sense to get stellar
fighter Robin Shou back for the sequel, but he doesn't have as much to
do in this one and his fight scenes lack the pop and emotional
intensity they had in the last movie.
Thanks to the lukewarm at best
audience reception, and a massive underperformance at the box office,
this film seemingly killed the Mortal Kombat live action film franchise
for good. But like an undead ninja rising from the grave, the film
series will be resurrected in a new rebooted film appearing in theaters
and on HBO Max this April. It took over twenty years to get another one
made and hopefully the filmmakers behind the new movie have learned a
few lessons about what not to do from this cautionary tale of a film.
Here's hoping that the new installment will be closer to the quality
level of the original Mortal Kombat movie and can satisfy gamers and
critics alike while avoiding the many mistakes that were made by this
franchise annihilating misfire.
One of the most
compelling development stories of the 16-bit era was about Sega's Sonic
the Hedgehog 3. Finally gaining their footing in the 16-bit war against
the Super Nintendo, Sonic the Hedgehog notched wins in 1991 and 1992
with the original game and its sequel. For 1993 however they had
different plans for the series' third outing. Sonic 2 had its share of
developmental struggles. Series Lead Programmer Yuji Naka and Designer
Hirokazu Yasuhara departed Sega of Japan to cross over into the United
States under the direction of Mark Cerny at Sega Technical Institute
(STI). STI consisted of staff from both the United States and Japan,
and Sonic 2 was the first crossover effort to utilize both.
Difficulties arose due to different languages and respective cultures
in the studio, as well as a race against time to get the game out for a
November 1992 release. As a result, a time travel concept (later
revisited the following year in Sonic CD) and several levels were cut.
Sonic 3 would thus employ a different development strategy, giving Naka
an Executive Producer title and to not impose as strict of a deadline
to have the game made by. This meant there would be no compromises to
the game's core concepts, and Naka would be given an all-Japanese team
to work with, leaving the American staff idle for a time until they
were given a different project to work on.
Naka was adamant
about not repeating the same game again, so Sonic 3 was intended to be
a much larger and deeper gameplay experience over its predecessor. Sega
held a contest for a new character to appear in the game, which would
become Knuckles the Echidna. With the game taking place on Angel
Island, Knuckles was the protector of the island and the Master
Emerald. After being duped by Dr. Robotnik into thinking Sonic was
coming to steal the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles bolted into action to
serve as a foil throughout Sonic's adventure. The levels consisted of
unique paths depending if you played as Sonic or Knuckles, enabling
access to different and sometimes more challenging sections depending
who you played as, as well as different bosses at points. The game was
supposed to weigh in at 14 playable Zones, and the sheer memory
capacity needed to fit the whole game had become a problem. To produce
32-megabit cartridges for the Genesis wouldn't have been cost effective
for the company or the consumer, so Sega had to come up with alternate
plans for dealing with this conundrum.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Japanese cover art (left), and North American cover art (right)
With Sonic 3 not
slated to be ready in 1993, and growing quite infamous for its many
delays to the point Sega had to address it, the company had come up
with an alternate block of Sonic games to take its place. Sega of Japan
produced Sonic CD for their Sega CD add-on, making a bigger adventure
with time travel (repurposed from where it was inevitably not used in
Sonic 2) and a Redbook CD audio soundtrack. Although released in the
summer time, it would continue to be aggressively plugged for the lucky
few that actually bought a Sega CD. STI's American staff were tasked
with creating Sonic Spinball for the Genesis and Game Gear, a
pinball-themed game where Sonic is the ball and he must reclaim the
Chaos Emeralds from Dr. Robotnik to destroy his fortress. Sonic Chaos
was a Game Gear release that saw Sonic and Tails both as playable
characters with unique abilities such as being the first game where
players could control Tails' flight. Lastly there was Dr. Robotnik's
Mean Bean Machine also on Genesis and Game Gear, a reskinning of
Compile's Puyo Puyo using characters from the animated Adventures of
Sonic the Hedgehog series. In all, there were a whole lot of offerings
of Sonic games to go around in Sonic 3's absence.
With 1994 nearing,
Sega entered into a promotion through McDonald's to serve Sonic
3-themed Happy Meals, consisting of the Happy Meal boxes decorated with
stage art from the game and toys based on the characters. The looming
issue was Sega had no game to release for it, yet. To overcome the
cartridge memory problem and to meet their new deadline a decision was
made to split the game in half. Thus Sonic 3 saw release in February
1994 on schedule, but at a much smaller 6 Zone campaign and with only
Sonic and Tails playable. A later release that year with the remainder
of the content would be announced in Summer 1994. It was there Sonic
fans were greeted with Lock-On Technology, an innovative cartridge that
flips open to plug another one into it. This would be known as Sonic
& Knuckles: a standalone campaign of the second half of Sonic 3 was
in the cartridge, or you could plug Sonic 3 into it and assemble the
full game as Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It was kind of gutsy to expect
players to buy two separate games to make one, but an additional
incentive was included with the ability to lock on Sonic 2 and play as
Knuckles in that. In 1994 however, seeing these two games, nobody
outside of Sega or STI were aware that Sonic 3 & Knuckles was
intended to be just one whole game all along.
Rounding out the new
gameplay features are the Insta-Shield for Sonic, performed by pressing
a button after jumping. Additional power-ups such as the Flame Shield
(prevents damage from fire attacks), Lightning Shield (makes nearby
rings gravitate to the player), and Water Shield (enables breathing
underwater) unlock special moves when playing as Sonic. Knuckles has
different abilities from Sonic or Tails in that he can climb walls,
glide downward through the air, and also break through otherwise
unbreakable walls with his spiked fists. He does have one disadvantage
though with a lower jumping height. This is predominantly the mechanism
for determining the unique paths for characters, keeping Knuckles out
of reach of places Sonic or Tails can jump higher to reach or blocking
Sonic or Tails behind the walls only Knuckles can break. On the Genesis
in Sonic 3, Tails has been given the ability to fly on command for a
limited time and also dog paddle swim underwater. All of these features
greatly increase the gameplay depth for Sonic 3.
Sonic & Knuckles
Japanese cover art (left), a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cartridge connected
to a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge (right)
One of the more
prevalent elements of Sonic games lie within the great background music
heard throughout. With the departure of composer Masato Nakamura (of
the J-pop band Dreams Come True) there was a vacancy at the music
composer role. Michael Jackson, in an impromptu visit to STI, would
wind up netting the job and assembled a crew consisting of various
artists that worked on his albums - Brad Buxer, Cirroco Jones, and
Bobby Brooks to name a few. Sonic 3 also had contributions from Sega's
Sound Team and Cube Corp. Jackson's team would go on to assemble 41
themes but with a combination of Jackson's turbulent personal life
matters and an alleged dislike for the sound reproduction capabilities
of the Sega Genesis, they would drop out of the project. Buxer would go
on to issue a few musical numbers in the style of Jackson instead. To
date there's much speculation as to Jackson's final involvement and if
his material was used and he went uncredited, but his collaborators
seem to indicate most that he wasn't pleased with how the music sounded
on Genesis vs. the real recordings they did.
After Sonic 3's
release Sega entered the PC market branding their games under the Sega
PC banner. Sonic CD (known as Sonic PC early in development) would be
the first release, followed later by Sonic & Knuckles Collection.
The Collection entry came with options to play just Sonic 3, just Sonic
& Knuckles, or Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Curiously back then fans
noted that the music in a few of the Sonic 3 stages were entirely
different, coincidentally Brad Buxer's music being the ones replaced.
What went unknown for many years, until 2019 when a Sonic 3 prototype
emerged, was the Collection music was actually from the prototype
before the Jackson team's contributions were added. Adding to the great
mystery of the game, it continues to be one of the only Sonic games
that hasn't been re-released in recent times, indicating that the Team
Jackson material is embroiled in a rights ownership or royalty dispute.
Brad Buxer revealed sometime later that the music he wrote for IceCap
Zone was based on a song he recorded with a New Wave band in the 80s,
which would later go on to see a retail release chock filled with
IceCap Zone art on the vinyl sleeve. (!!)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
received a variety of revisions throughout its development cycle. It
also had a certain chronology based on which character you played as,
further adding to its depth. Sega were highly protective of their
prototype builds of the game after numerous thefts of Sonic 2
cartridges throughout its production. As such, a number of Sonic 2
prototypes were demonstrated over the years, but for Sonic 3 it seemed
any would be ever elusive and never see the light of day. Courtesy of
drx from Hidden Palace the November 3, 1993 prototype of Sonic 3
emerged, and showcased a very different perspective from the final
game. (This will be referred to as Sonic 3 Proto from this point
forward.)
Sonic 3 Proto comes
with a Level Select option built in, and contained all the Zones that
had been worked on up to that point. The levels that came to be known
in Sonic & Knuckles were almost all inaccessible, with exception of
Flying Battery Zone. With the decision already having been made to
split Sonic 3 into two separate games so as to dedicate time to getting
the first half finished and handle the rest of the game later,
alterations to the Zone order had to be made. Flying Battery Zone was
to take place between Carnival Night Zone and IceCap Zone, but the
implementation of Knuckles as a playable character later would have
left him with only three complete Zones to play through, far too short
of a campaign for a standalone game. With the Zones having unique paths
for Sonic or Knuckles, Flying Battery Zone would become notable for not
having one for Knuckles. Also one of the more famous "bugs" was the
Hang Mobile boss had Dr. Robotnik in the cockpit instead of Knuckles'
nemesis Eggrobo. These various quirks with Flying Battery Zone were the
byproducts of Knuckles having not been originally intended to play in
it at all. Sega even admitted they just didn't draw the Eggrobo sprite
for the boss some time later.
Sonic 3 was dubbed
internally as Sonic 3A, while Sonic & Knuckles was Sonic 3B, making
the case they were to be two halves of the same game. The release
schedule for Sonic 3 was unusual in that the North American release in
February 1994 came first, and it wouldn't surface in Japan for another
2 months. Sega's original plan for Japan was to release Sonic 3C, known
as Sonic 3 Limited Edition, carrying the entire game in a single
cartridge as opposed to the Lock-On Technology method that was used.
This idea was eventually scrapped, and as it never materialized it was
unknown if Lock-On Technology to be compatible with Sonic 2 would've
been an option for this version at all. Prototypes of this exist, the
last being Sonic 3C 0517, which features the full-fledged Sonic 3 &
Knuckles experience under the Sonic 3 name albeit with some bugs.
Quizzically, Sonic 3 & Knuckles weighed in at 32-megabits and the
Japanese Limited Edition was slated to be 24-megabits, which begs the
question how a significant size difference in the memory capacity could
even happen.
Although both Sonic
3 and Sonic & Knuckles were pretty highly regarded upon release,
it's a bit comical looking back to reviewer critiques citing that Sonic
& Knuckles was too similar. Why wouldn't they be similar though?
They were supposed to be the same game. With a lot of Sonic 3's design
elements marking a stark departure from the norm dictated in Sonic 1
and 2, it has raised many debates not just as to whether it's the best
of the classic Sonic games, but as being the best platforming game ever
made. For being planned to be a single game, its become a game that can
be played a multitude of different ways, and if you're very crafty, you
can even break the game to mix-match characters into paths they
shouldn't belong. All in all, this is a celebration of one of the
16-bit era's crowning achievements. To garner the true scope of what it
took to get there would require a gigantic book. There are still many
secrets and unturned stones in this saga that Sega have yet to shed
light on. Until then it will continue to be one of the most talked
about tales in video gaming lore. This has been a very
compelling topic to revisit after over 25 years since playing through
with each character and collecting all the Chaos and Hyper Emeralds.
It's amazing it's such a widely discussed topic today and has seen new
life with a variety of fan community mods.
Labeled as the
second cartridge in the Tomy Pyuuta lineup, Monster Inn feels cut from
a completely different cloth than Bombman and Saurusland, the games
that bookend it. While Bombman and Saurusland have a rather simplistic and similar feel to
one another in terms of visual design and gameplay, Monster Inn
attempts to present something more akin to contemporary arcade
games. These would soon become the mainstay of the Pyuuta library
with straight up arcade conversions and arcade style original games
dominating the release catalog. Monster Inn falls in between
these two categories, as while it is inspired by an earlier arcade game
it also incorporates some new gameplay mechanics and challenges.
Monster Inn
takes place within a castle (or is it an inn) featuring six floors with
ladders linking the multiple floors in different ways. The castle
is inhabited by monsters that will roam about, freely climbing and
descending the ladders and walking along the floors. Armed with a
pickaxe, the player is tasked with knocking out sections of the floor,
coaxing a monster to fall into the gap, then filling the area back in
with the pickaxe while the monster is trapped. If this sounds
similar to Space Panic, an arcade game released by Universal in 1980,
you would be correct. The basic design and objective of Monster
Inn is most certainly lifted from that earlier title. Monsters cannot be
harmed unless they are trapped in a gap and contact with one at any
time will cost the player a life. Additionally if a ladder is
atop or below a floor it cannot be knocked out, limiting the amount of
areas that can be used to trap monsters. A gap is only filled
back in if a monster is dispatched with the pickaxe while trapped or if
the monster is allowed to climb out of the gap on its own. While
the player cannot cross a partially cracked floor or open gap, he can
fall though a fully open gap without penalty as long as there is solid
ground below. This is a good strategy for a quick escape when
monsters are in hot pursuit and multiple floors can be fallen through
without harming the player.
In addition to
the monsters appearing at the beginning of a stage, there will be a set
of double doors that first appear on the second floor. These act
as a fast escape warp, similar to the hyperspace button in
Asteroids. Standing in front of the doors and pressing either Up
or Down will enter them and warp the player to a new location after a
moment. Interestingly the doors also move to the same new
position as the player, so pressing Up or Down once again will warp the
player and the doors again as well and this can be repeated.
Although there are only a handful of places the doors move to, which of
these locations you will reappear at is random - sometimes reappearing
in the same place you began and sometimes reappearing directly on top
of a monster and losing a life. Often in stages that feature five
monsters at the start, using the doors to get to a more advantageous
area of the castle can be a useful strategy.
Disembarking from the
doors to an empty floor (left), the egg hatches and ends the game
(center), defeating a monster with the pickaxe (right)
Each stage
features a timer in the form of a monster egg that will appear on the
uppermost floor of the castle. The egg starts out white and
static, looking like nothing more than decoration but it will soon
begin to flash pink as it prepares to hatch. Once the egg hatches
the entire screen will be bricked over and the game will end - no
matter how many lives may remain in reserve. The monster egg can
be picked up at any time by standing in front of it and pressing the SR
button. Once picked up it can be carried anywhere and set down by
pressing SR once again. If the monster egg is taken to the lowest
floor of the castle and thrown into one of the two pits bonus points
will be awarded. Eventually another monster egg will appear at
the top of the screen, beginning in its restful state. No only
does the monster egg introduce a bit of risk / reward to the gameplay
as disposing of them yields the most points, it also serves as a way to
reset the use of the egg as a game-ending timer. Thankfully the
pickaxe can still be used when carrying the egg but if an egg hatches
while being carried it will still end the game. The monster egg
adds some pressure as without it the game would feel pretty lethargic
in some spots.
Movement is
reasonably responsive although it is hampered by the stiff input of
either the Pyuuta Joy Controllers or Joy Stick. The SL button is
used for the pickaxe, with the player chipping away in the direction he
is facing. As described above, the SR button is used to both pick
up an set down a monster egg. Facing in the direction of a pit on
the lowest floor and pressing SR will toss the monster egg off the edge
into the pit. With all that is going on at once I found over all
control responsiveness to be really good, especially for an early
Pyuuta game, with the pickaxe motion being surprisingly fast.
There are still a few moments of input stall here and there but nothing
that will cause much frustration, at least in my opinion - although as
usual it's a shame this hardware has such stiff controllers.
Audio is
surprisingly good for a Pyuuta game, with a soft and even sound
package. At the beginning of a stage an audio cue plays as each
monster appears, the "pat-pat-pat" of the players footsteps is nice,
and the pickaxe makes an appropriate chipping sound when used.
The monsters make little chirp and step noises as well, all in relation
to how many are currently left in a stage. The only loud sound is
an alert from the egg as it begins to hatch. This is still
reasonable as it's a critical alert and doesn't overpower the other
sounds. For the Game Over music a few bars of "London Bridge" are
used, which seems fitting considering the core gameplay mechanic
revolves around things falling down. There is also a short melody
played on the title screen while the player character runs along the
bottom of the screen swinging his pickaxe, which I believe may be an
original composition. I actually found the title screen melody a
bit irritating at first but after playing the game for awhile it got
stuck in my head. There are some Pyuuta games with really grating
audio but Monster Inn isn't one of them.
When played on a Pyuuta all numbers
display correctly (left), grabbing the egg and making a run for it
(center), disposing of the egg for big bonus points (right)
Sprites are
all single-color and while not exceptionally detailed, they each have a
bit of personality and a tiny bit of animation. There are three
different styles of monsters to avoid and dispatch and although their
designs are simple I really like them. They actually remind me a
bit of the troggles from the "Munchers" educational series of games by
MECC, although that series came years after Monster Inn and is
unrelated. I also really like how when the player falls though a
gap he does a little spin before landing on the floor below and he also
has a humorous little death animation. Another nice touch is that
the monster egg shrinks and is carried by the player when picked up,
still retaining its flashing cue when about to hatch. As with
many early Pyuuta games there is some text corruption when played on a
Tomy Tutor or later model Pyuuta hardware due to differences in the
system ROM character set. In the case of Monster Inn this
corruption has to do with all scoring and point displays outside of
monster egg disposal bonuses. The game still plays fine but high
score games obviously lose something when you can't see your
score. For this one I would recommend playing on original Pyuuta
hardware or using the Pyuuta driver in MESS / MAME, which will display
the game as intended.
While Monster
Inn may not set your world on fire, I found it to be a very enjoyable
and fun little game. In addition to adding in more monsters, up
to five on a stage at most, later stages also increase game speed with
everything moving faster. This includes how quickly the egg
begins to hatch and monsters appearing to both be more aggressive and
more difficult to coax into gaps. The AMAteur mode starts off a
bit slow for my linking but PROfessional mode gets things off to a
quicker start and is my recommendation for most people once they
understand the basic concept. As much as I really like Bombman,
of the three original Pyuuta games this is the one I've come to enjoy
most and the one I think would have been acceptable to release
stateside on the Tomy Tutor. As if Tomy knew that arcade style games
would have more appeal than original titles, the other three cartridges
that round out the six first-generation Pyuuta games from 1982 would be
just that - licensed arcade conversions. However the first of
those would be an arcade game even more obscure than Space Panic...
As always, a
huge thanks to those who acquired, archived and added these
Pyuuta cartridges to fill out the entire Tutor / Pyuuta library in MESS
(Multi Emulator Super System), particularly Team Europe. It is
due
to the efforts of these hobbyists that we are able to enjoy these games
and ensure the Pyuuta's place in video game history is preserved.
Thank you!
Every Friday on The Retrogaming Times
Facebook
page (facebook.com/theretrogamingtimes),
we present a Weekly Retrogaming Trivia question. This
just-for-fun
trivia challenge provided each week is an opportunity to test your
arcane
and oddball retrogaming knowledge. The answer to the question
from
the previous week is posted along with a new trivia question every
Friday!
Below is the recap of all
questions and
answers posted between this issue and the previous issue:
02/26/2021 - WEEK 203 Question: Red
Falcon is the antagonist of what influential run and gun game?
03/05/2021
- WEEK 204 Question: What game
featured a Trance Vibrator accessory intended to increase vibration
feedback?
03/12/2021
- WEEK 205 Question: What is
the name of Harrier's dragon companion in Space Harrier?
03/19/2021
- WEEK 206 Question: "Demons
of Death" was a subtitle tacked on to the NES release of what classic
Namco shooter?
03/26/2021
- WEEK 207 Question: Calypso
is the host of what vehicular combat tournament?
04/02/2021
- WEEK 208 Question: What is
the name of the player's ship in Xevious?
04/09/2021
- WEEK 209 Question: The goal
of what radical Atari 2600 game is to complete thirty tricks and get to
school in under five minutes?
04/16/2021
- WEEK 210 Question: Better
known for his Nintendo adventures, how many Atari 2600 games did Luigi
appear in?
04/23/2021
- WEEK 211 Question: An
upside-down version of what Apple II game can be found on the flipside
of its diskette?
Red Falcon is the alien
invader that Bill and Lance go to war with in Contra
(left), Mario Bros. on the Atari 2600 is a very playable and decent
looking conversion
(right)
Answers: Week 203 Answer: Contra. Week 204 Answer: Rez, for the
Japanese PlayStation 2 release. Week 205 Answer: Uriah. Week 206 Answer: Galaga. Week 207 Answer: Twisted Metal. Week 208 Answer: Solvalou. Week 209 Answer: Skate Boardin'. Week 210 Answer: One, Mario
Bros. Week 211 Answer: Karateka.
Karateka side A
(left), and Karateka side B that features the same game except
upside-down as a joke
(right)
We
need your questions! If
you have a trivia question you would like to submit for possible
inclusion
in the Weekly Retrogaming Trivia question pool, e-mail it to trt@classicplastic.net!
If you question is selected to be featured, you will be entered in our
year-end prize drawing!
May is
generally the big kick off month for events and conventions that I
attend, with Memorial Day Weekend considered both the first and biggest
convention weekend of the year. It has also become the de facto
beginning of the summer for many years, influencing film openings and
media releases. Since 2012 the month of May has meant one thing
to me: preparation for FanimeCon, an annual celebration of Japanese
animation and comic art (as well as all the other fandoms that modern
conventions have embraced) held in San Jose, California. As the
years have gone on my involvement with the convention has grown, not
only cosplaying as vintage video game and anime characters, but also
hosting retro gatherings and vintage anime panels. It's also one
of the few places I can still have really good matches against other
people in the 90's arcade mecha fighting game VirtualOn. With
large in-person gatherings still prohibited or restricted in the area,
the convention will have a limited virtual presence for 2021, electing
to roll forward once again to 2022 to resume as it was before the
pandemic.
Myself at FanimeCon
2014 as an amalgamation of Taizo Hori / Dig Dug's appearances over the
years, namely in Namco X Capcom
While I fully
understand and support this decision, it does feel strange to be
sliding into another May without the preparation and anticipation of
the convention season. However I know another restricted Memorial
Day Weekend this year affects far more people than convention
attendees. I touched on something similar to this in closing out
the previous issue, musing how convention vendors have been greatly
affected by the evaporation of the convention schedule. Who
should not be overlooked or forgotten are all the people who work to
support the facilities and areas where these events take place.
Hotel staff, convention center facilities, concessions, street food
vendors, businesses and restaurants in the area of the convention
grounds, city funds gained form parking fees, shuttle and cab drivers
(independent or otherwise), greater area mass transit, and the list
goes on and on. For my kick off convention, millions and millions
of dollars are generally pumped into the downtown economy outside of any events taking place
within the convention center itself. That's all money that
supports local businesses and local residents - and that large amount
of money changing hands occurs during that one weekend alone.
Things are
looking up, at least in my area, and as the year continues on there may
be some of these events with modifications or limitations. I do believe
it will rebound going forward, and the events that have been outright
discontinued will be replaced with other new events, but I think it
doubly important to support the infrastructure that has been greatly
affected by over a year of convention pause. I am thankful to
have had the opportunity to obtain a vaccination and hope to be able to
support these businesses and workers in the near future. Who
knows, maybe you'll be sitting across from me in a game of VirtualOn
sometime later this year. Until then, please everyone do take
care of yourselves.
Thank
you once
again for reading The Retrogaming
Times. We'll be back on July 1st with our next issue.
Be sure
to follow The
Retrogaming Times on Facebook and join our community for the latest
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Retrogaming Times Info Club on Twitter features up-to-the-moment
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and notifications for all things The Retrogaming Times! I
sincerely
hope you enjoyed this issue and that you will return to read the next
issue
and possibly submit an article yourself. Remember, this
newsletter
can only exist with your help. Simply send your articles
directly
to me at trt@classicplastic.net or check out the submission guidelines
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retrogaming
tradition!
