Strange dreams, deadly seagulls, eerie
dungeons and dodgy heavy metal… Just another week of retro as far as Shaun
Bebbington is concerned.
Shaun has a passionate interest in 8-bit
computing and gaming, and has been finding novel ways to use retro technology
since 1994.
Jeffrey Daniels has recently released a new
game for the unexpanded Commodore VIC-20, which is based on a dream that he
had. You’re presented with a static screen in which diamonds and a single heart
are randomly placed within the playing field, and it’s your job to navigate a
tired chap around this to collect either or both if you can. You’ll have to be
quick, though, because there’s not a lot of time per game.
Commodore
VIC-20 and 64 computers.
It’s actually not purely entertainment
software as you would expect it; this production is more of a concept that is
supposed to provoke an emotional response in you, so it’s more of an allegory,
which makes it conceptually interesting for such a simple game. Try it for
yourself and see what you think. It’s available to download from
tinyurl.com/Vic-20-dream.
Meanwhile, for the Commodore 64, The New
Dimension has recently released On The Farm III – Sheep Invasion.
Created by AchimVolkers, your task is to control a seagull, hailing from ST.
Ives in Cornwall. After becoming tired of nicking pasties and other such
delights from the local tourists, this gull has decided that farm crops are
much tastier. Therefore, you must keep the sheep from eating away at the crops.
A certain number must be warned off by ‘bombing’ them, and if there’s some of
the crop left by the time you’ve reached your quota of sheep disposal, then
it’s onto the next level with an increase in difficulty as you go. It’s a
fairly simple static screen shoot-‘em-up, which becomes fun from about level
four onwards. To download this, head over to tinyurl.com/OnTheFarm3.
Another Crawler
.
Released
in 1995, Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol is a role-playing game for the PC
created by David
The highly regarded Oric-1 [and Oric Atmos]
development group Defence Force has recently released a new ‘dungeon
crawler’-style game for the quirky 8-bit micro computer. This production, Mordoric,
is based on a 1995 PC game called Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol, and
more information about the PC original may be found at www.decklinsdemise.com.
After choosing your character attributes,
you’re then tasked with exploring the dungeons while facing each peril that
crosses your path, find gold pieces and upgrade your armoury and other such
adventure-type things. To find out more about this exciting development, browse
over to tinyurl.com/Mordoric.
Game of the week: Metal Warrior
Metal
Warrior
Platform:
Commodore 64/128
Developer:
LasseÖörni
Website:
covertbitips.c64.rog
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
the Metal Warrior series of games are among the best from the
post-commercial era of the old C64, so this week, I’ve donned my old MegaDeth
T-shirt, been practising air guitar and played this classic from 1999 a lot
too.
It’s set in the year 2010 in some alternate
reality in which heavy metal music and freedom of expression is being
suppressed by the powers that be, and it’s not a nice place to live, especially
if you’re an avid fan of the musical genre. Sadok, lead guitarist for the
war-metal band CyberPriest, was yet another victim of assassinations carried
out against such high-profile groups and artist, and without proper
investigation of his death by the authorities, Ian decides to take matters into
his own hands, grabs some fire-power and goes in search of answers in what is a
‘run-and-gun’ role-playing game.
Some elements of the gameplay remind me of
a little-known 1987 game by Mastertronic called Rapid Fire, but it has
much more polish and depth. The storyline alone makes it worth investigating,
as it’s surprisingly well scripted. Although there are the odd glitches with
the graphics, this is nothing that will put you off for too long.
