GROW: Heart of the Alien

Developer: Interplay Entertainment
Platform: Sega CD
Year: 1994
Design: Jeremy S. Barnes, Michael Burton & Doug Nonast
Genre: Platformer / Action adventure

Picking up where Another World left off, Heart of the Alien puts you in control of Buddy, Lester's alien friend. At the end of Another World, Lester is carried away in Buddy's arms on the back of a pterodactyl heading for Buddy's home village. If you pay attention in the first minutes of the game, what you are shown are the events that led to Buddy being captured in the first place, how he ended up in a cage together with Lester, and some small glimpse of what he was doing while you were controlling Lester in the last game. I especially like the part where Buddy crashes through the colored glass mosaic and joins Lester, because that scene had a strong impact in Another World, so stitching the two games together in this manner is genius.

Sadly Eric Chahi, the creator of Another World, had nothing to do with the design of Heart of the Alien, and I guess that shows in a lot of ways. The storytelling is much less potent, the level and puzzle design not as finely tuned, and as a result the overall game is not nearly as strong as its predecessor. That being said though, if you're a fan of Another World, you should definitely give this game a go; and while Chahi may be missing, this game does bear the name of one of the veterans within the industry: Brian Fargo of Fallout fame. Fargo was credited as being the executive producer on Heart of the Alien. Initially Eric Chahi was on board, and was asked what he would do in a sequel. His answer was that it could be interesting to redo Another World from the Alien's point of view. The developers from Interplay may have misinterpreted this, or simply found the idea to be uninteresting, since they instead chose to continue the story where Another World left off. Subsequently Chahi made a public statement saying that the game did not represent his vision of the world.

The story of the game is as follows: Once Buddy returns Lester safely to the ruins of his village, he sets out to recover his weapon, a kind of laser whip that doubles as a laser blaster, and then returns to the prison to free his people from the oppressors. Strangely enough Lester joins you twice on this adventure, even though you just left him unconscious and badly wounded in your village... Of course Buddy succeeds in his quest to free his people, and the end scene is a happy picture of aliens enjoying life in their village which has been restored to its former glory. As for Lester though - well I'll let you find out about Lester's fate yourselves. Suffice it to say that the ending is way less open than it was in Another World, leaving nothing for the player to interpret and build new stories upon.

If you know what you're doing, and you have got luck on your side, you should be able to complete this game in about 25 minutes, but don't think that means the game is easy! This game is hard, even harder than its predecessor, but I found it to be also fair, so when you die for the 100th time you still only blame yourself and not the game. There is this one point though, where you are facing two guards at once... Boy, if I hadn't used save states for that I would never have gotten past that place. Taking care of a single guard soon becomes second nature, but taking down two guards that are positioned such that their shields protect the both of them is damn hard.

The gameplay builds on what was established in Another World, but it further extends on this by introducing Buddy's laser whip, which can be used Indiana Jones style to swing over gaps and other dangers. There are also some places where Buddy can jump upwards and grab onto ledges, reminiscent of Prince of Persia.

All in all I rather enjoyed Heart of the Alien and it is definitely a title that I'd want to find for my Sega CD, but that could just be me, a huge fan of the prequel, looking at it through the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. If you enjoyed Another World, and would like to see what Interplay could do with that license, please give it a go. You'll probably be a bit disappointed with the story, but gameplay wise it's still a good game I think. If Another World was a 9 out of 10, I'd say that Heart of the Alien is a 6 or 7. It's definitely one for the fans ;-)

Until next time... stay retro!

GROW: Knight Games

Title: Knight Games
Developer: English Software
Publisher: English Software (later Mastertronic)
Year: 1986
Systems: C64 (reviewed), Amstrad, DOS (CGA/EGA)

Knights in shining armour, damsels in distress, chivalry, quests, kingdoms.... all the things we have seen a million times in gaming.  From Dragon's Lair to Skyrim, the trappings of the middle ages, with the immediacy of pre-fire powder weaponry and a world in which danger lurked around every corner, the dark ages call to us even today, enticing us to dream of adventure and danger, fame and fortune!

Of course the reality of the medieval knights life was a bit less swashbuckling and a bit more mundane.  It was mostly posturing, killing peasants that dared to rise up and the rules of chivalry gave great leeway for sacking, pillaging and raping.  So how would one show off as a real knight?  Why with tournament shows of skill!

This brings us to today's gem from years gone by: Knight Games.  Coded and designed by John Williams, with graphics by Colin Brown, it brought the expositional martial arts of medieval knights to our 8 bit computer screens.  At a time when sports games were all the rage, Knight Games added an innovative twist to the genre.

There are eight events (even though two of them are basically what Ryu was to Ken, simple graphical remixes of one another).  There are five weapon based one-on-one contests: Swords (twice), Quarterstaffs, Ball and Chain (no... you don't club each other with your spouses... ZING!  Ok... that joke was just horrible, I'm sorry), Axes and Pikes, in addition to two shooting galleries, once with long bows and once with crossbows.

The one-on-one contests are great two player fun, with a myriad of offensive and defensive moves available through a combination of the eight directional points of the joystick (horizontals are defensive moves, up, down, left and right are offensive) and the fire button activates walking.  An at first awkward choice from a modern standpoint but at the time a very unique solution that gave the action a feeling of immediacy through translating movement into combat as opposed to the pressing of a button.  The moves at times seem slow and plodding, but given that you are wearing full plate in all but the quarterstaff event, this seems perfectly legitimate and appropriate.

The shooting galleries involve multiple moving targets, with reloading times and wind factors coming into play.  Nothing spectacular, but still good fun when competing against human opponents.

The graphics are quite stunning, especially for 1986, even if the backgrounds are stationary.  They do invoke a rather epic feel.  Considering this was released the same year as Defender of the Crown, it truly can hold its own on a tiny little C64.

While it does feel a bit slow today, it remains a unique experience.  No magical special moves, no wild jumps through the air.  Knight Games gives us medieval one-on-one combat like it never existed before, or since on home computers. (the closest comprison I can draw is Square's PSX classic Bushido Blader)  If you have a buddy, plug in some old one button joysticks and have a few rounds.  I guarantee you'll have fun and wonder just how much brain damage a quarterstaff to the noggin' really would do.

--Trantor

Computer Game Museum Berlin - Visit

Hi guys,

In December, I took a trip to Berlin to visit the Computer Game Museum there.  It was a really awesome little place, curated with a ton of original hardware, recreations of classic games, a replica 80's arcade, recreated period rooms and a bunch of displays on the history of gaming.  So here are some pics to share with ya all.  :)


This is a recreation of a machine from the 50's being demoed with TicTacToe.  The input was a telephone dial.  Really fun and smart.


Recreation of a 60s computer demo from a world's fair, playing a line crossing game.  Damn good AI.
 
Display about the old Winky Dink and You TV show, that had kids sticking a piece of plastic on their tv screen and then following the announcer's finger with a crayon to create pictures.  Basically the first interactive TV program.  Very cool and weird.


Recreation of the original Brown Box designed by Ralph Baer.  Not sure if this is one of the many replicas he built himself or not.


Computer Space... sadly not up and running... still... Computer Space.  The sign said "Do not touch".  I touched. 


And more Computer Space... seriously, is that not the coolest cabinet EVER?!?!


Original Pong Arcade cabinet.


Innards of said Pong cabinet.

Apple II Plus signed by Woz.


One long wall of the museum was dominated by a set of displays with classic consoles and computers, organized by year, with pull out boards giving info on each of the systems.  There were a lot of them, so just a few highlights here.

And another massive wall was this display.  Using a small joystick, you controlled a green target pointer across the wall and this would trigger a demo of the game in question as well as a screen with game information.  The games were given markings related to their societal impact, technical innovation, originality, etc.  Some pretty interesting choices that all made a lot of sense, inclusing Mystery House, E.T., Elite, Lemmings, Leisure Suit Larry and Pokemon.  Here some highlights:

There were also a ton of games to play, usually highlighted for specific game play experiences. 

Wipeout in 3D

A car racing game where the acceleration was connected to a stationary bike.

Five Player Pong

Poly-Play, a multi-game arcade cabinet, and the only arcade game ever released in East Germany.  It is running on what was then standard Z80 based computer hardware (got to play it for the first time a few weeks ago at a museum of East German computer tech, that's here in my town of Halle... probably should have written a post about that as well).  The games are all completely atrocious and/or derivative.  But still interesting to see it.

Then they also had display corners set up to recreate period gaming scenarios, including a 70's living room with a Pong clone console:

An early 80's game room (with a C64 running a Galaga clone) and home office (with a Hercules graphic PC and a weird little ASCII graphics game):

A late 80's kid's bedroom (with an NES running Zelda):

 

 And finally a mid 90's college dorm room (with a PSX running Tomb Raider):

There was also a mock Arcade, with four player Gauntlet, Super Hang-On, Centipede and Puck-Man (yes... the original board, not the US Pac-Man release) as a table top game.

And a quick video:

There were also a ton of displays, covering history, industry personalities, controllers, etc.  All with little interactive video displays, interviews with creators (very cool interview with the curator of the MAME project, talking about preserving data) and old news footage.  There was even a really cool ad video for Habitat the first graphical MMO by Lucasfilm (which looks to be running off of the Labyrinth engine)
I found the film on youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVpulhO3jyc

Ok, so if you're in Berlin, definitely check it out.  Also all displays are both in German and English.

GROW: Another World

Review by @madsdk

Developer: Delphine Software
Platform: Amiga
Year: 1991
Design, graphics & programming: Eric Chahi
Music & Sound: Jean-Francois Freitas
Genre: Platformer / Action adventure

Another World is not just a brilliant Amiga game, it is by many considered a landmark example of cinematic storytelling in games. The game was created as a single man's vision of how a cinematic platformer should be; how it was possible to tell a story through the actions of the game, rather than merely telling it in cut-scenes in between periods of action. In many ways, Another World is what Dragon's Lair should have been, a tightly scripted action-adventure, where you actually feel in control, even though you are most of the time following a very narrow path of actions that the designer wants you to follow. Not until in recent years have I played platform games that could mimic the filmic style of Another World, and even then, in my opinion it has yet to be bested.

Apart from the excellent cinematic storytelling, what really sets Another World apart from its contemporaries is its use of rotoscoping, an animation technique where animators trace over real footage frame by frame, in order to get realistic looking movement in the animated characters. Eric Chahi recorded footage of himself jumping, falling, crouching, walking etc., and then he traced over these recordings to create the polygonal representation used in the game. The love and care is immediately visible in the game, just take a look at Lester's movements throughout the game - he, and the other characters, have a massive amount of realistic frames of animation, and discovering these are an absolute joy. Chahi was also not afraid of creating whole animations that were used only once, adding to the filmic nature of the game when character suddenly burst through walls, crawl through narrow passages, help each other climb to high places and more.

 

The protagonist of the game is a young scientist, called Lester, working within the field of particle physics. One late night while Lester is working on an experiment using a particle accelerator, lightning strikes and the electricity enters the accelerator, sending some sort of shockwave of energy at Lester, which teleports him to a strange alien world. Lester reappears under water and as the player you have to start the ascend immediately, otherwise you'll die less than five seconds after the game has started. And die you will in this game - a lot! If you know the path through this game, you can complete it in something like 25 minutes, but the challenge of the game is finding that path. You have to learn when the enemies will appear, how to fight using the versatile laser gun, and how to solve the environmental puzzles along the way. This is done by trial and error, so you'll watch Lester die in a myriad of ways, before you finally find the correct way through to the end.

 

The laser weapon, that Lester picks up early on in the game, is very versatile. It has three firing modes: a quick tap of the button fires a single laser shot, holding the button down a short period of time, until a small orb of energy appears at its muzzle, will create an energy shield that protects you from enemy fire, and holding the button down for a long period of time collects a massive amount of energy, that can be used to break down walls, metal doors, and energy shields. Learning to use this gun is paramount to your success in the game, so start playing around with it as soon as you pick it up.

Spoiler warning for a 23 year old game: The game's ending is rather ambiguous and sees Lester carried away by his alien friend on top of a flying beast of some sort - a pterodactyl I think. Lester is badly wounded and whether he survives or not is left to the player's imagination. One thing is for sure, he does not return to his own world. Chahi wanted the ending to be ambiguous so that fans themselves could make their own conclusions. Chahi didn't get to decide that though, and a sequel named Heart of the Alien was released for Sega CD in 1994, picking up the story from right where Another World left off.

If you want to experience this masterpiece yourself, you can take your pick of platform. The original was designed, developed, and drawn on the Amiga by Eric Chahi, but it proved such a success, that it has been ported to numerous platforms. It has even been re-released a number of times, most recently for its 20th anniversary in 2011, and this edition has now been released on iOS, Android, PC, PlayStation 3, 4 & Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Xbox One. But if you, like me, enjoy seeing the artist's true creation, you'll have to pick up the Amiga version. The DOS version also comes highly recommended, as it contains an extra level designed by Chahi just before the amphitheatre scene.

Until next time... stay retro!

GROW: Star Wars Rebel Assault

Review by ThoRn (@RetroGameRevive)

Developer(s)	LucasArts
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Designer(s)	Vince Lee
Platform(s)	Sega CD
Release date(s)	November 1993
Genre(s)	Rail shooter (Interactive movie)
Mode(s)	Single player
Distribution	CD-ROM

What does Star Wars and Christmas have in common?..... Well...  Nothing really if you try and find the similarities between the two but for me Star Wars Rebel Assault, Christmas Holidays and my Childhood go hand in hand.  In Australia being in the southern hemisphere we obviously have our Christmas during the summer and naturally the summer holidays is the perfect time for an 11 year old to let loose, which consist of two main things:  Riding our bikes and playing video games.  Now, I was never fortunate enough to have a Mega CD of my own but luckily I had a friend that did (if you read my 'Night Trap' review...  Same friend).  It was the summer holidays between grades 6 and 7 and we spent 90% of that summer playing Rebel Assault.  

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we go back to 1994/1995 and get all nostalgic about some FMV Star Wars on my favorite console of all time.....

STORY

You are Luke Skywalk errrrrr?  I mean Rookie One, a moisture farmer from Tatooine (sound familiar?) who has decided to join the Rebel Alliance in an attempt to defeat the empire.  You start out with a couple of training missions to get you used to the style of gameplay but before you know it, you are in your X-Wing taking on Tie Fighters and making an attack on the Imperial Star Destroyer, Devastator after it has captured the blockade runner  Tantive IV.  

The story tries to follow as close as it can to Episode IV 'A New Hope' and Episode V 'The Empire Strikes Back' with the two main battles from those movies, 'The Battle of Hoth' and 'The Battle of Yavin' (Death Star Attack) both making it in to the game.  I will just note very quickly that the Sega/Mega CD version is missing a chapter based on the Imperial Probe Droids that is available on the PC, MAC and 3DO version but I honestly don't think it takes away from the game at all.

Even though the story does jump from Episode IV to Episode V and then back to IV again, it still makes sense to the plot of the game and after all, what could be more satisfying then taking down an AT-AT on Hoth and blowing up the Death Star?

GAMEPLAY

As one of the first FMV games released it was a true pioneer of the genre, even though it was a genre destined for failure.  Nonetheless it was still a Star Wars Rail Shooter which immersed you in to the world of the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire.

The game consists of both flight and on foot stages (well, only one stage being on foot).  Both of these game types used the same cross hair style shooter mechanism although during the flight stages you are also required to to use the directional pad to maneuver the ship to avoid obstacles that would cause damage to the vessel.

If you have played any other rail shooters in your time, this game really doesn't differ a great deal and wont take too long to master.

GRAPHICS & AUDIO

As the High Priest of the Church of the Sega/Mega CD I find it very difficult to speak ill of my beloved Mega CD but when it comes down to it, we all know the limited 64 color pallet doesn't produce the greatest in video quality and unfortunately this game does lack in that department more than other FMV games released on the console.  You will encounter times when you cannot tell the difference between objects and will crash in to things which can become quite frustrating but after you have played it a few times you get used to the visuals and can start to enjoy the game for what it is.

It's CD quality Star Wars audio, need I say more?  From the very beginning you are treated with the Star Wars theme and a voice over narrative of the plot to get you in the mood.  The game is full of clear speech and great music but being an early CD game, you will have to deal with the break in music during a mission as the track ends and restarts but other than that it sounds great and really helps create an immersive environment during the battles.

CONTROLS

This is the part where the game gets a lot of negative comments as it was originally designed to be played with a PC flight stick but I really think it's just a matter of getting used to the control style.  There are really only a couple of missions that would have made full use of a flight stick but LucasArts worked around it by using the diagonals of the game pad as a sharp turn and the standard 'left/right' as a softer turn.  It's a little hard to explain as I can't recall any other games using this style of movement with a digital pad but if you do decide to give this game a crack I do strongly advise you just be patient with the control learning curve and it will feel fluent soon enough.

But on the flip side you only need to worry about one action button.....FIRE!!!

OVERALL

I think the best advice I can give with Star Wars Rebel Assault is patience is the key.  Take the time to understand the color palette (basically distinguishing the difference between solid objects and shadows) and the controls.  It's by no means perfect but when you get the hang of things, this is one great rail shooter and easily goes down as one of the great Star Wars games of the 90's.

May the Force be with You.

Until next time...  Stay Retro

GROW: Troddlers

Troddlers
Review by @madsdk

Developer: Atod Design
Publisher: Storm (The Sales Curve)
Platform: Amiga
Release: 1992
Genre: Puzzle platformer

This week's retro review if of a brilliant puzzle game that a lot of people have never heard of. The game is called Troddlers, and was developed by little known Swedish developer Atod Design. If you're into puzzle games at all, please give the video review a look, I'm sure you'll enjoy Troddlers. Don't fret if you're not into Amiga gaming - Troddlers was released on the Super Nintendo as well for you console loving people.

Merry christmas and a happy new year to all of you! I hope the new year brings you lots of retro gaming joy.

GROW: Midnight Resistance

System: Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
Released: 1991
Developer: Data East
Publisher: Sega of America
Designer: Koji Akibayashi
Genre: Run 'n' gun

Midnight Resistance started out in the arcades back in 1989. It's a standard run 'n' gun game of the fairly easy kind, but what made it stand out in the arcades was its rotatable joystick - like in the popular Ikari Warriors, released in 1986. By rotating the joystick you control the direction in which your avatar is shooting, meaning that, unlike most other run 'n' gun games, you can move in one direction while shooting in another direction, which leads to some brilliant gameplay and excellent boss fights.

The Sega Mega Drive / Genesis version of the game is of course missing the rotary joystick, and the standard control setting (mode A) follows the more classic setting of shooting in the direction the joypad is pressed, but allowing you to freeze the shooting direction by pressing B. I bet you could get used to controlling the game like that, but for me the game plays as a hot mess when using control mode A, so the first thing I do when booting up this little gem, is to switch to control mode B-2. In the B-1, B-2, and B-3 control modes you rotate the gun by pressing the B button, and after a little while this becomes second nature. This way you can play the game _almost_ like it was meant to be played.

The story of the game is simple: Your family has been kidnapped by a mad scientist, so being the super buff mercenary that you are, you of course set after the bad guys to rescue them. The game takes you through a total of nine very different levels, taking you through a dystopian, and somewhat weird, future. What makes this a really strong title, is the great diversity in the stages - no two stages feel alike, and no two boss fights feel alike either, making this an all over enjoyable experience to play. The game is somewhat easy on the Mega Drive, but not too easy if you ask me, and if I have to be perfectly honest, it fits perfectly with my temper for playing old games. When you, like me, have other obligations and thus limited time for playing games, a game such at this one, that you can quickly pick up and master, fits just fine. It's a game you can learn in half an hour, and you can probably learn how to get to the final stage in a couple of hours, but in order to beat it on a single credit you'll still have to work on it for a while - I know I haven't gotten there just yet.

In each stage you collect a maximum of six keys, and these can be used at the end of the stage to upgrade your primary and secondary weapons. The primary weapon being your rifle, and the secondary being different versions of missiles and bombs. Sometimes you can even purchase extra lives. My primary weapon of choice are the three-way rifle that shoots one bullet straight out and two more at 45 degree angles - extremely useful for clearing the screen of bad guys. For secondary weaponry, I prefer the homing missiles. They do a fair amount of damage, and I don't have to worry about aiming them at anything :-) I'm sure that you'll find your own favourites, whether is be the flame thrower, the shotgun, the three-way rifle or another gun, they are all useful in their own right.

 

Being a very popular title, Midnight Resistance was ported to a number of home computer platforms apart from the Mega Drive. In my opinion, the home computer versions suffer badly from the bad controls though, seeing as they only have a single button on the joystick.

Midnight Resistance is an excellent title and one I think should take pride of place in any Mega Drive collection. If you've never before encountered a run 'n' gun shooter that decouples the direction of character movement from the direction of shooting, I'd strongly recommend that you give this game a try.

Until next time... Stay Retro.