SNES mini announced - includes Star Fox 2!

While the announcement of the SNES mini is hardly a surprise, especially given the runaway success of its 8bit sibling, the inclusion of Star Fox 2 certainly is. The sequel to arguably one of the finest games of the 16bit era was cancelled late into its development and never saw the light of day (aside from a leaked prototype ROM).

I missed out on the NES mini, mainly because I assumed that Nintendo would keep on churning them out for a good while, so I'm much more tempted this time around. No word from Nintendo Aus/NZ so far about a release date for here [Update: NZ release is set for 30/09, which is the same day as elsewhere], but hopefully it'll be in line with the rest of the world.

The game line up is cracking, too:

• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Donkey Kong Country
• EarthBound
• Final Fantasy III
• F-ZERO
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby's Dream Course
• The Legend of Zelda™: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man X
• Secret of Mana
• Star Fox
• Star Fox 2
• Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting
• Super Castlevania 4
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario World
• Super Metroid
• Super Punch-Out!!
• Yoshi's Island

Review: "The Camp" (C64) by Protovision

Way back in the mists of time (well, 1982) my parents took me and my sister out of school for a few months to embark on a trip around the UK, Europe and the US. For the European leg we jaunted about in a campervan, staying at campsites (and occasionally on roadsides) along the way. My memories of that time are sadly vague - my main recollection is the ridiculously rough toilet paper that one had to endure in the bathrooms. I’m talking really rough. Like coarse sandpaper. I forget what town it was, but I actually kept a piece of it in my jacket pocket to remind me of the horrors, and it was still intact when we got home.

The setting for this game is based on an actual German campsite the creator(s) spent time at during their formative years, and there is a nice nostalgic feel to it all. Along with the disk (in a rather nicely decorated sleeve), the package includes a campsite newsletter, a beer mat, a lump of charcoal wrapped in foil, a peppermint teabag and, yes, a piece of camp toilet paper (though an acceptably soft piece - I guess the world has progressed... or maybe we were staying at the wrong campsites). Unsurprisingly, one should read through the newsletter as it does contain some important clues.

The adventure begins with the player waking up in a dark hut with a terrible headache, and it soon becomes apparent that your friends and the camp staff have all disappeared. Looks like it’s going to fall on you to figure out what happened to them.

Developed by TUGCS (The United German Commodore Service) using the “D42 Adventure System” for FORUM64’s 2015 Adventure competition, the game was picked up for a proper release by Protovision. Rather than the player entering text commands, there are a small number of actions, some of which take one or two objects to act on. This certainly reduces the frustration of trying to guess specific words on top of tackling the puzzle at hand, but there are some weird inconsistencies (e.g. in one puzzle it was surely possible to both move or open a particular object, but only one verb was accepted).

Each location is accompanied by a picture, the quality of which varies a bit, but overall they’re good. Adding to the atmosphere is the sound - both FX and some decent tunes. I got the impression these are significant, but I must admit I could never quite figure out in what way.

One of several amusing Bush related jokes.

I found the humour to be rather fun. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it is very German, and often reminded me of amusing things my German friends say. I suspect there are number of in jokes that completely passed me by - it was always hard to tell if I was missing something or whether the translation didn’t quite work. There are a tonne of 80s references, most of which I’m pleased to say I got.

The game is unforgiving, and makes no bones about it. In fact, soon after you start it nudges you to perform an action and then gleefully points out you should’ve saved before hand. That’s not the last time you can do something which seems innocuous, yet will eventually prevent the game from being completed.

Due to the graphics and sound, moving between locations always incurs a disk load, and with the game split between two disk sides this can be a bit tedious. I first fired it up on one of my real C64s, but soon switched to an emulator, bumping up the CPU speed during loads.

I’ve played a fair number of adventure games in my time (though I don’t consider myself an expert), and there were a small number of - in my opinion - completely baffling puzzles. I managed to get quite someway into the game before throwing up my hands and searching the internet for hints. The funny thing is that even having discovered a walkthrough, the fact that it was in German combined with said puzzles not making much sense, there was still plenty of figuring out to be done.

Perhaps the biggest annoyance is that the exits of some locations don’t make any geographic sense - e.g. you go north, then continue north, and end up back where you started.

Gripes aside, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had here. Given that this was a compo entry, I was impressed as to the number of locations and general quality of puzzles.

I love the fact that in this day and age a C64 adventure was created and sold in a package with Infocom-style “feelies”… It’s even more impressive considering that this is a translation from the German original.

Verdict

👍

"The Camp" can be purchased direct from Protovision.

This month in... Zzap!64 '87

News

Firebird closed a deal with Activision/Electric Dreams which would see the budget publisher re-releasing a slew of older titles from the US for £1.99 each.

No changes at Zzap! this month, though Julian Rignall got engaged to Glenys Powell, the “ever-effervescent” Editorial Assistant.

Zzap! launched in Italy. Note the lack of “64” - Speccy, Atari, MSX and C16 gamers would all be catered for.

The Sensi Software lads were wrapping up their next game: the awesome "Wizball”. Interesting that the news snippet makes mention of a “do-it-yourself” tune from Martin Galway?

Palace’s rather nice looking sword fighting game "Barbarian" was about to hit the shelves. The head chopping action would commence next month.

Compunet “legend” Ubik had written a compilation of four classic arcade games, namely “Space Invaders”, “Asteroids”, “Snake” and “Space Wars”. "The Big Four Pack"would be released by Firebird, who had also snapped up the rights for what would become one of the best coin-op conversions around: "Bubble Bobble”.

"The Detective" from Argus Press would see the player attempt to solve an Agatha Christie style murder in a big mansion. I actually randomly played this the other day and was baffled… maybe next month’s review will help.

Ocean had published Dinamic’s "Army Moves”.

Production delays had kept Ariolasoft’s "They Stole a Million" from reaching retail, but those looked to be resolved.

TV cartoon series "MASK" was getting the game treatment by Gremlin. The team handling the development were the same ones responsible for the well received "Gauntlet" ports. The Sheffield based software house also had "Thing Bounces Back" and "Deathwish III" on the way.

Andrew Spencer, creator of the absolute C64 classic "International Soccer" was back with "Street Sports Basketball”.

Martin Sneap (aka MAT from Compunet) was handling the C64 conversion of "Shadow Skimmer”.

Even though Jon Williams was still working on "Oink!" he had already begun to plan out his ”Knight Games" sequel.

Features

An interview with Douglas Adams about his recently released projects: a book called “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and a new Infocom adventure, “Bureaucracy”.

A comic that had started out as a fanzine a year earlier had ended up a surprise hit. Zzap! talked to two of “Oink!” mag founders, Mark Rodgers and Patrick Gallagher, as well as Jon Williams who had been tasked with bringing it to home computers.

The issue came with a cover tape packed full of some special goodies:

• "Gribbly’s Special Day Out" Andrew Braybrook/Hewson
• “The Day the Universe Died” Sensible Software (Demo of some 3D objects for an upcoming game.. maybe)
• “Made in France II” Llamasoft (Mini-game)
• "Revenge of the Mutant Camels II" Llamasoft (Demo)
• “Mix-E-Load” Thalamus (Special version of the interactive music loader from Delta)
• “The Last Ninja” System 3 (Just a series of screens as a teaser for the upcoming game)
• “Thalamusic” Rob Hubbard (Perhaps the highlight of the tape - a recording of the Sanxion loading music performed by Rob on actual synths).

The developer diary of Andrew Braybrook’s "Morpheus" continued. This month saw him wrestling with artist’s block (unable to come up with any good sprite designs for the first 2-3 weeks), unreliable hardware and the details of the control scheme.

Zzap! Back took another look at the big games reviewed in the January & February 1986 issues. These were:

• "Koronis Rift" Lucasfilm/Activision
• "Ballblazer" Lucasfilm/Activision
• "Robin of the Wood" Odin
• "Fight Night" US Gold
• "Bounder" Gremlin Graphics
• "The Eidolon" Lucasfilm/Activision
• "Revs" Firebird
• "Desert Fox" US Gold

Notable Previews

• "Shadows of Mordor" Melbourne House

Notable Reviews

• "Zenji" Firebird/Activision - 91% Sizzler “It’s simple in concept, incredibly addictive and hellishly difficult to put down.“
• "Gods and Heroes" Power House - 84% "An excellent platform game which offers plenty for those willing to perserve."
• "Zolyx" Firebird - 90% Sizzler “One of the simplest and most addictive programs around. Try it if you think you can stand the pace.“
• "HERO" Firebird/Activision - 86% “HERO looks awful, sounds terrible but plays beautifully.”
• "The Big Sleaze" Delta 4/Piranha - No score? “The graphics are great and the vocabulary has been very well thought out - in fact I’d go so far as to say that what’s here is the best of Delta 4’s programming efforts to date.“

Charts

Games

1. "World Games" Epyx/US Gold
2. "Leader Board" Access/US Gold
3. "Gauntlet" US Gold

Music

1. "Sanxion" Thalamus - Loading Music - Rob Hubbard
2. "Knucklebusters" Melbourne House - Main Theme - Rob Hubbard
3. "Green Beret" Imagine - Loading Music - Martin Galway

This month in... C&VG '89

News

This month saw C&VG getting a revamp based on reader feedback. Coin ops and consoles would get more pages, the adventure section got a make over, there was more space dedicated to previews and overall there would be a lot more colour. The announcement of these changes referenced the fact that some features were dropped, but they didn’t actually specify which. Somewhat worryingly, there were no adventure game reviews - just some tips. The beginning of the end?

Rumours were circulating that Acorn was on the verge of doing a deal with Amstrad to have the main Archimedes boards repackaged as something targeted towards the game market. The Archimedes was an undeniably impressive machine, but the costs put it way out of reach of the average consumer (the A440, a top end model, retailed for an eye watering £2499 plus VAT), so a more budget focussed model would make sense.

Microprose bought Telecomsoft from BT and signed up the next two Freescape 3D games ("Dark Side" and "Total Eclipse”) from Incentive.

Charity OXFAM were on a drive to take donations of unwanted games.

Electronic Arts launched a new range of budget re-releases. The “Software Classics” range included such titles as "Bard’s Tale”, "Marble Madness" and "The Archon Collection”.

Frustrated adventurers would now be able to call Activision’s help line (apparently staffed by one person: Julie Barwick) for assistance with titles from Infocom, Sierra and Micro-Illusions.

C&VG apologised for a “cock up” in last month’s review of Pac-Land. The game should’ve been awarded a healthy 77%, but instead got 57%. Amusingly enough, the correction included a misspelling of “report”.

Features

The Golden Joysticks winners for 1989 were:

• Best Graphics 8 Bit: ”Armalyte" Thalamus
• Best Graphics 16 Bit: "Rocket Ranger" Mirrorsoft
• Best Soundtrack 8 Bit: "Bionic Commandos" US Gold
• Best Soundtrack 16 Bit: "International Karate Plus" System 3
• Programmer of the Year 8 Bit: John Phillips
• Programmer of the Year 16 Bit: The Bitmap Brothers
• Best Simulation Game 8 Bit: "Microprose Soccer" Microprose
• Best Simulation Game 16 Bit: "Falcon" Mirrorsoft
• Best Adventure Game 8 Bit: "Corruption" Rainbird
• Best Adventure Game 16 Bit: "Fish" Rainbird
• Best Coin-Op Conversion 8 Bit: "Operation Wolf" Ocean
• Best Coin-Op Conversion 16 Bit: "Operation Wolf" Ocean
• The C&VG Console Award: “Thunderblade” on the SEGA
• Software House of the Year 8 Bit: Ocean Software
• Software House of the Year 16 Bit: Mirrorsoft
• Game of the Year 8 Bit: "Operation Wolf" Ocean
• Game of the Year 16 Bit: "Speedball" Image Works

Notable Previews

• "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Lucasfilm/US Gold
• "Crazy Jet Racer" Probe
• "RVY" Microprose (unreleased?)
• "Tangled Tales" Origin
• "Vette!" Mirrorsoft (unreleased?)
• "Out Run Europa" US Gold
• "Xenophobe" Microprose
• "Navy Moves" Dinamic
• "Silk Worm" Virgin
• "Xenon II - Megablast" Bitmap Brothers/Image Works
• "Skweek" Loricels
• "Red Heat" Ocean
• "Microprose Soccer" Sensible Software/Microprose (16bit conversions)
• "Let Sleeping Gods Lie" Empire
• "Power Drome" Electronic Arts
• "Licence to Kill" Domark
• "Gemini Wing!" Virgin
• "Shinobi" Virgin
• "Xybots" Domark

Notable Reviews

• "Stormlord" Hewson - C64 89% Spectrum 87% C&VG Hit “Another terrific arcade adventure from Raf Cecco, who once again shows there’s life in Clive’s old dog yet.”
• "Forgotten Worlds" US Gold - Amiga 92% C64 90% Amstrad 88% Spectrum 87% ST 87% C&VG Hit ”On the Amiga, the graphics are wonderful, with beautifully-drawn parallax scrolling backdrops and excellent alien sprites. It’s an absolutely stunning conversion - the best I’ve seen from US Gold - and is easily THE BEST Amiga shoot ‘em up to date.”
• "Bio Challenge" Delphine/Palace - Amiga 88% C&VG Hit “Fabulous music, unusual gameplay and exotic graphics make up for a basic lack of variation in the gameplay.“
• "Voyager" Ocean - Amiga 85% ST 83% “Voyager brings the classic Battlezone concept up to date by keeping the same basic formula, adding hordes of different aliens and play strategies and stunning Starglider II 3D filled vector graphics.“
• "Renegade III" Ocean - Spectrum 84% Amstrad 83% C64 82% “The graphics on all versions are excellent, with whacky cartoon-style sprites giving the game a humorous look and making the game even more fun.“
• "Blood Money" DMA Design/Psyclapse - Amiga 85% PC 85% ST 84% “A smidge more variety would have helped the quality of the gameplay match that of the graphics and sound more closely, but there’s still no denying that Blood Money is a damned good blast.“
• "Lords of the Rising Sun" Cinemaware - Amiga 90% C&VG Hit “Superb graphics, sound and gameplay are combined to produce one of the best Cinemaware games to date.”
• "Kick Off" Dino Dini/Anco - Amiga 88% ST 84% “The options available may be little more than you’d expect and the display at best functional, but what makes Kick Off special are its playability and atmosphere - especially when there are a couple of rabid footie supporters competing.“

Charts

All Formats

1. "Robocop" Ocean
2. "Treasure Island Dizzy" Code Masters
3. "Dragon Ninja" Ocean

Amiga

1. "Falcon" Mirrorsoft
2. "TV Sports Football" Mirrorsoft
3. "Super Hang-On" Activision