Cover to Cover: Jaguar EGM Promo (pp. 4-5)

We're paging through Jaguar's 1994 ad insert in Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, and finally getting to some actual game advertisements.  Click to enlarge these for a closer look, I won't have a lot of commentary to add.

Page 4 features Rebellion's Alien vs. Predator, an excellent game that spawned a series that continues to this day.  This early first-person shooter features a boxy Wolfenstein-style engine, but the detailed, digitized character models and wall textures, with claustrophobic, tense play, made it a memorable experience.

id Software was also a supporter of the Jaguar, bringing a half-resolution, music-free, slightly-truncated but still very playable version of their seminal shooter DOOM to the console.  And I have to give Atari credit for the "Oh @#%!! Out of ammo!" caption, capturing the game's feel nicely:

More to come next weekend!

Cover to Cover: Jaguar EGM Promo (cover - p. 3)

Back in the mid-1990s, Atari's Jaguar console was trying to gain a market foothold.  It was a tough road -- the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System were still going strong with solid software support, the 3DO was out and arguably flashier with its CD-ROM standard hardware, and Atari was having a hard time convincing gamers and developers to commit to its new system. 

The struggling Atari lacked the marketing capital to run a major television ad campaign, and mainstream retailers were quite happy with the Sega and Nintendo lines; the demand for the Jaguar was failing to materialize according to plan.  So the company engaged Sendai Publishing to include a 16-page full-color brochure in an issue of the company's popular Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine.  (I'm inclined to believe that Sendai's design department had a hand in it, as well, as some of the "new" material looks a lot like the EGM of the time.)

The cover features Atari's always striking Jaguar logo, which promised mind-ripping 64-bit power that the software library didn't always live up to.  There's also a good picture of the memorable "toilet" CD-ROM add-on:

Good thing I didn't sit down!

Atari's promotion, like its Lynx ads at the time, treated the hardware specs as the main selling point.  The Jaguar was a complicated system, with a mixture of 64-bit and 16-bit processors that made programming the beast a bit daunting.  Witness the carnage as Atari attempts to link the system's raw power to the gaming experience, both overstating -- "combat games that'll drain pints of your blood" sounds dangerous -- and misstating -- what the heck is 850 million pixels-per-INCH rendering speed supposed to mean?

Feel the turf burn!

There's no question that the system had power -- the Cinepak rendering did make Dragon's Lair look better on the Jag than on the competing 3DO and Sega CD systems, and Jeff Minter was clearly able to synthesize psychedelic gaming intensity out of the complex array of processors.  And Atari's foray into VR gaming was forward-looking, although it never came to market despite its "Coming Soon!" promo below.  The table-of-specs marketing approach, used to sell stereo systems and home consoles in decades past to a knowledgeable geek-insider market, was starting to become obsolete as video gaming became more mainstream.  I doubt this carried a lot of weight with mid-90s EGM readers:

Tote bags!  Oh yeah!

The hardware was impressive, but you'll note that none of the awards listed on the right were for specific games.  The Jaguar's power didn't necessarily lead directly to great software -- the few third-party publishers that did produce Jaguar games generally played it safe, producing experiences that were not too different from the 16-bit systems already on the market.   We'll take a look at the Jaguar's library as this cover-to-cover series continues.

East vs. West: Dungeon Explorer II (1993)

I wrote about the original Dungeon Explorer a few months back, and realized I'd never played Dungeon Explorer II, the Super CD-ROM sequel released by Hudson Soft four years after the original.  This one even came to the US for the TurboDuo courtesy of TTI, as the original NEC-published game was fairly popular here, though I only own the Japanese version so my comparison will have to rely on a few YouTube clips.

The title screen, as usual, is largely the same -- the US version simply omits the line of Japanese text from this display:

The opening animation emphasizes the various character classes that can make up the player's party, introducing each in dramatic fashion as they work together to fight off some attackers, and take time to strike a pose for the camera.  There are eight character types available in this CD-based sequel, an upgrade compared to the HuCard original.  Each class is represented by an individual with a given name, for example, Liot the Bard:

These names are Americanized in the TurboDuo release, so that Liot becomes Riot, Eflaim the Wizard adopts the new moniker Efrem, Alden the Hunter is now Ardin, and Sepia the Thief is shortened to Sepi.  Sorn the Cleric and Alex the Fighter retain their original names, and Dooze the Dwarf is Americanized to Dorz.  The oddest renaming is that Feena the Elf becomes Fina in the American version.

After we start the game proper, there's a second opening animation, beginning with a black-and-white flashback to the first game's finale (SPOILERS!):

Clearly, the defeat of the evil NATAS (see what they did there?) was only a temporary thing, as now the land is under demonic attack once again:

There's a new Big Bad on the scene, an elfin sorceror who invades the king's castle to seize power directly:

And a Princess is kidnapped by a minotaur -- I presume the gentleman pictured above has something to do with this turn of events:

And then we select a character class, wait for up to four additional friends who are joining us in co-op multiplayer via the TurboTap to do the same, and we're off.

What's most surprising about Dungeon Explorer II is how very little it varies from the original formula; it looks like Hudson Soft simply dug out the old code and assets, built some new maps and added a little CD production value. It uses the same muted, darkish color palette, and follows the same RPG-lite format -- we wander around town and talk to various people to learn about bosses lurking in nearby dungeons:

Even the town interiors look much the same as they did in the original game, and the early dungeons create a sense of deja vu as well:

Fortunately, there has been considerable design improvement in the dungeon maps -- there are more environmental hazards, like the lava in this early level, requiring players to manuever more carefully, especially in a crowded multiplayer scenario.  Diagonal areas requiring the player to attack at an angle create a little more challenge, forcing us to dodge and parry the creatures emerging from the monster generators before we can get a clear shot at the source:

And the bosses are more varied and imaginative -- the first dungeon features this pair of leaping wolflike creatures, along with a nasty little sphere that doesn't attack aggressively but does quite a bit of damage if we aren't keeping track of its whereabouts:

The CD-Audio music sounds very nice quality-wise, but some of the arrangements are surprisingly cheesy.  The castle theme in particular sounds like a late-1970s American TV series, with soaring strings and safely inoffensive percussion, and the CD remix of the first game's outdoor exploration theme suggests that Tiffany is going to break in with a vocal part at any moment.  But the dungeon theme is pretty good -- the squealing electric guitars still sound dated, but at least it fits the theme of the game and it stays listenable in the face of repetition.

Dungeon Explorer II feels more like a remake of the original than a true sequel -- the gameplay introduces almost nothing new, but the CD format does allow for a lot more variety.  If the original had never come out, this would still be a competent little Gauntlet-style game, and fans of the first one will likely enjoy this one.  It just feels more like a substantial expansion pack than a new game.

---

The American version is fairly hard to get hold of, but the Japanese edition turns up fairly regularly.  You may be able to find it for import purchase here, though this one is popular enough that it's actually easier to find at Amazon:

The LoadDown -- 07/05/2012

Happy (belated) Independence Day to our U.S. readers -- it's the dead of summer and a quiet time for new game releases.  But there are quite a few new titles available for digital download...


WiiWare -- A new release at last, with Let's Create! Pottery making the trip over from the iPad. It's not a game as such, but allows users to shape virtual clay on a pottery wheel, then decorate and fire it.  Like making real pottery, except without the messy cleanup and real objects to show for it.

Wii Virtual Console -- Another SNK Neo*Geo title arrives, as the crazy mechs and cyborg athletes of summer take to the field in 2020 Super Baseball.

DSiWare --  Two new titles, though they look a bit like stragglers as the 3DS becomes more of a focus.  Topoloco is an educational title teaching kids about topography, which is more complicated than what they used to call geography when I was in school, but kids are smarter nowadays and memorizing the capitol cities of the 50 United States seems like a waste of time in the age of Google.  3, 2, 1... WordsUp! is the old "here are some letters, assemble as many real words as you can" puzzle; I was never very good at this as a mini-game in RockStar's Bully, but I wouldn't say it's not fun.

3DS eShop --  Lots going on here.  The eShop releases 2 worthy NES games as part of Nintendo's "8-Bit Summer" series -- The Legend of Zelda, and NES Open Tournament Golf from 1991.  Akari by Nikoli is yet another puzzle game from Nikoli; this one looks like a hybrid of Sudoku and Minesweeper.  Family Tennis 3D is a multiplayer tennis game, if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to Mario Tennis Open, and if (as the official Nintendo video clip seems to indicate) the voices are still in the original Japanese, that might even make it a more entertaining buy.  There's also a free demo of the retail co-op multiplayer RPG Heroes of Ruin.

XBox Live Arcade -- Three new titles since our last update.  Mini Ninjas Adventures is a Kinect title based on the Mini Ninjas action series, with a similar third-person fighting perspective and simple, fun full-body fighting controls.  Spelunky is a rogue-like dungeon... climber, I guess, with randomly-generated caves and retro-style graphics, coming to XBLA after success as a freeware indie game on PC and Mac.  Bellator: MMA Onslaught is a one-on-one fighter based on the Bellator Fighting Championships, a mixed martial-arts event. 

PS3 on PSN --  Two new games here.  Dungeon Twister is a turn-based strategy title based on a well-established board game, with a room-twisting mechanic allowing players to hinder the rival adventuring team's progress.  Bellator: MMA Onslaught also arrives on the PS3.  There's no truth to the rumor that either version contains a hidden bonus round challenging players to fight vandals swarming the title screen, trying to erase parts of the "B."

Video Game Bankruptcy Then and Now

The recent demise of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, developer of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, was really no surprise when it happened in June, following a substantial staff layoff in May, following a minimal-content "trailer" released for the company's planned MMO Project Copernicus.

I've just been catching up on the circumstances, and thinking about the mid-1980s industry crash, when many companies were forced into bankruptcy as retailer skittishness and customer boredom caused the U.S. industry to implode in short order.  Some products and intellectual property switched hands, like Imagic's titles which were acquired by Activision; others basically vanished into obscure asset pools, making it difficult to track down the rights should anyone hope to produce a remake or sequel today.  Everything happened so quickly that most publishers either folded or got out of the video game business, moving into home computer software or refocusing on existing lines of business; Quaker Oats doubtless lost money on its U.S. Games division, but the breakfast market remains viable to this very day.

38 Studios' wind-down is quite a bit different from the general situation circa 1983.  While some creditors and employees are still owed money while the bankruptcy gets sorted out, and may never get paid in full, the studio's failure isn't a bellwether for the industry as a whole.  And a rival studio reportedly held a job fair next door to its offices, snatching up talent,so the human impact is mitigated.

Today's industry has seen a bit of a slowdown -- we're in the tail-end of a console generation, and the global economy has not been great for a few years.  But why did 38 Studios go under?  Business is always complicated, but my guess would be that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning simply failed to earn its investment back, and that the studio's executives could see failure looming even as the next game took shape.  A new developer, even one backed by a deep-pocketed entrepreneur like former star pitcher Schilling, takes a big risk when it develops any new game.  And a big-budget AAA title like Kingdoms of Amalur would have had to be a monster hit to justify the investment, with a scenario developed by author R.A. Salvatore for a reported fee of $1.7 million, and art design by Spawn creator Todd Macfarlane.  It's not unusual for a new game to cost tens of millions to develop -- but those blockbusters generally come from well-established developers and publishers with many irons in the fire, and not from ambitious startups with one or two products in the works.

By all accounts, 38 Studios' output was of high quality, and their debut title featured a deep storyline, well-written dialogue and imaginative character design; the game earned a respectable Metacritic score of 81.  Nobody on the team was slacking, and had KoA: Reckoning been successful there certainly would have been solid, improved sequels in the pipeline.  But there's a reason creative projects need budgets and producers willing to enforce them -- if all the financial eggs are in one basket and that game isn't a big hit, then it's all over.  Running into a competitive brick wall like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim certainly didn't help; even though it preceded Kingdoms of Amalur's release by three months, it's still selling well at full price some seven months later, and with literally hundreds of gameplay hours on offer, many RPG fans could scarcely be bothered to consider the new kid on the block. 

It will be interesting to see if anyone acquires the Amalur intellectual property -- the universe is well-defined and gorgeous to look at, and if 38 Studios had had the chance to amortize that investment over a longer series of games they might have survived.  But, as I'm sure Mr. Schilling knows, sometimes a swing for the fences is less effective than a well-targeted bunt.

Adventure of the Week: King Tut's Tomb (1978)

This week we'll be looking at one of Greg Hassett's early text adventures, King Tut's Tomb, written in BASIC and published in 1978 for the TRS-80 Model I computer.  Ports also exist for the Commodore PET and C-64; no publisher is identified here, but the game appeared in type-in form in Bob Liddil's The Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures.  This proved very important as I tried to solve this one!

The game begins with a minimal title screen:

This release predates wide availability of lowercase kits for the TRS-80, so commands must be entered in all uppercase characters or they will not be recognized.  As was the case with several of the author's other games, LOOK is treated as a room-level look, and there's no EXAMINE verb for closer inspection, though READ applies in a few cases.  Nor is there a TAKE verb, only GET works.  Young Mr. Hassett's spelling remains uneven, but there's no questioning his coding skills -- performance is very good for a BASIC-language adventure.  This game's theme and certain elements are clearly influenced by the Crowther/Woods Colossal Cave Adventure, or possibly by the Radio Shack release Pyramid 2000, which borrowed heavily from the early sections of that game.

I would normally suggest that interested readers explore King Tut's Tomb independently before diving into my comments, but in this case there's a significant caveat -- the version I found in the online archives cannot be completed.  It appears that whoever typed KINGTUT/BAS in decided to swap some of the map data around, and prevented the player from returning to the tomb's entrance in the process.  Some of the errors are typos, some look like intentional transpositions, but the net effect is that I was not able to finish the game until I sat down with the Captain 80 book and corrected a number of lines of code.  Other versions may be accurate, but at least one TRS-80 edition is broken.  So don't feel guilty if you opt to proceed directly into the...

***** SPOILERS AHEAD! *****

(Note that my directions in the game's early stages may be wrong, as I had not yet corrected the map data.  I didn't go back and correct my notes after fixing the problem, so you will get to witness a little extra confusion!)

We begin the story standing outside AN ENOURMOUS [sic] PYRAMID -- and in this case, the misspelling is due to the anonymous typist, not Mr. Hassett's original listing.  There are some basic supplies on hand -- a package of food, an ancient torch, and THERE IS [sic] SOME MATCHES HERE as well.  (Greg Hassett was a skilled and precocious coder, but most of his games could have done with a little proofreading.) 

There's nowhere to go but E into the Pyramid -- and even though I went in without the matches or a lit torch, and IT IS PITCH DARK, we can still see that HOLY BAND-AIDS! AN ANCIENT MUMMY WALKED IN TO PUT ME TO DEATH!  If we do nothing, then this surprisingly spry collection of bones and bandages is suddenly charging at us, killing us in short order.

This is a randomized event, but when the player meets such an untimely end, the game will "TRY AND REINCARNATE YOU" -- borrowing from the original Adventure, we are reincarnated in a puff of orange smoke.  We can do this twice, but it's only marginally useful as some of the items we need get left wherever we were last standing, forcing a collection trip to resume play.  It's usually best to RESTORE (the SAVE goes to cassette only, so an emulator with save state support is easier to work with.)

With a lit torch, we can find an OPAL DRINKING CUP.  To the south we are CRAWLING OVER A JUMBLE OF BROKEN ROCK, another Adventure-inspired reference it would seem.  Further south, through an AWKWARD N/S PASSAGEWAY, we suddenly find ourselves in the 1970s again, in a game room with A STEVE MARTIN POSTER, referencing Martin's novelty song hit, King Tut.  READ POSTER yields, "BEST FISHES -- STEVE MARTIN (KING TUT)."  Time to put on our cruel shoes, because comedy is not pretty.



Further south, we find ourselves at the west end of a temple, where we discover a GOLDEN CHALICE.  Going west again leads us to a TWISTING CORRODOR [sic], and a maze.

The torch is remarkably brief in duration -- mine ran out just a few rooms into the pyramid!  Fortunately, we can LIGHT TORCH again after it goes out, we just need to carry the matches with us.  Checking out the east end of the temple this time yields a golden key, and nowhere else to go, really, so we'll have to deal with the maze.  It's not a complicated maze, just a couple of rooms, but the other rooms in this area are also a bit mazey.

There are a number of treasures lying about in the royal chambers on the other side of the maze -- a PLATINUM SPEAR in the annex, an ALABASTER NECKLACE in the JEWELRY CHAMBER, and a RUBY EARRING in the QUARTERS OF PRINCESS ANKA. 

In THE ARTIST'S STUDIO we find a JADE STATUETTE -- but another randomized threat rears its ugly (I assume) head, as THERE IS A THREATENING LITTLE GOOBER IN THE ROOM WITH ME.  A peanut?  We can try to KILL GOOBER, but THE GOOBERS ARE IMMORTAL.  Eventually this fellow throws a knife at us, fatally, so we probably need to dispose of him somehow.  We can't FEED GOOBER -- THERE IS NOTHING HERE IT WANTS TO EAT.  (EXCEPT PERHAPS ME!)  But it doesn't attack immediately, so we can do a little more exploring while it follows us around.

An EGYPTIAN LIBRARY contains the fabled BOOK OF THE DEAD, which is written in EGYPTIAN HYROGLYPHICS [sic].  A disappointing WINE CLOSET (ALL CHEAP STUFF) contains a GOBLET OF WINE.  A hard-to-visualize BEDROOM DESIGNED FOR THE AFTERLIFE leads to a STABLE and then to a WARRIOR'S QUARTERS where a GLASS MEDALLION awaits.

There are a ton of treasures in the game -- there's no SCORE room identified, but if we bring the treasures to our starting location we are awarded points.  There's an eight-item inventory limit, so we will have to make multiple trips, and doing this efficiently presents the game's primary challenge.

A ROYAL THRONE room contains AN IVORY THRONE.  When we encounter the MUMMY again, we can try to BURN MUMMY and LIGHT MUMMY and TORCH MUMMY, to no apparent avail.  Except the mummy does seem to leave us alone if we try?

South of the HIGH PRIEST'S CHAMBER we suddenly find out that I'M IN THE KING'S HAREM.  Fortunately this is just a location name, and the King is nowhere in sight.  A SNAKE PIT contains a FIERCE SNAKE.  KILL SNAKE suggests only that THAT IS A STUPID THING TO TRY!  But the snake doesn't actually block our passage, and if we can get the the threatening little goober to follow us in here, we get some relief as THE GOOBER SEES THE SNAKE, LEAPS UP AND RUNS AWAY!  He will return later to harass us, though.

There aren't many puzzles as such in this game.  We just have to round up the treasures -- all we can carry -- and get them out the door.  Except (or so I thought before figuring out that the map data was incorrect) we can't get out the same way we came in, it seems.  There's a LABYRYNTH [sic] OF PASSAGES DESIGNED TO KEEP OUT TOMB ROBBERS, which we will probably need to navigate to get back out (or not, actually, pending code corrections.) 

The labyrinth contains a GIANT PEARL, and leads to a locked gate that can be opened with the golden key.  This leads to the BURIAL CHAMBER where KING TUT'S COFFIN lies.  But we're no closer to an exit.

I broke down and asked for HELP -- but IT'S AGAINST COMPANY RULES TO GIVE AVERAGE ADVENTURERS HELP.  We can OPEN COFFIN, but can't seem to PUT or INSERT anything in it, or ENTER it.   

The randomness extends to a couple of specific scenarios -- on one retry, instead of the HOLY BAND-AIDS! message, I got SUFFRIN' SUCCOTASH! when the ancient mummy walked in to put us to death.  And at another time, in KARMAK'S CATHEDRAL, I saw that THE MUMMY IS CHARGING AT ME!! but HE SLIPS ON A CONVENIENTLY PLACED BANANA PEEL AND CRACKS HIS SKULL. THE BODY VANISHES.  Odd.  Good luck?

This time, looking at the Book of the Dead, I attempt to TRANSLATE BOOK -- and it works!  IT SAYS: GOOBERS HATE SNAKES.  MOM IS FLAMIBLE. [sic].  This is unusual because Hassett's games don't usually employ a lot of special-case verbs; apparently trying to BURN MUMMY still makes sense, maybe it just doesn't produce a visible response.  If we FEED SNAKE, then we can carry it around and avoid goobers. 

I'm stuck -- can't seem to find my way back out after going in.  But two different walkthroughs at CASA are inconsistent with my navigation (prior to fixing the bugs) -- I can't follow the paths they suggest, those entrances are closed off.  Looking at the code -- how do I get back to room 6?  No path is apparent from the data.  Both walkthroughs suggest that there should be a path from room 18 (end of the maze) east to part of the labyrinth; this map is different but can be navigated.  What seems to be missing is a path that goes east, back to the Entrance to the pyramid.

Something else is wrong with this version -- the mummy walks in, and if we BURN MUMMY we get WHAZZAT? but the mummy still disappears.  Time for a little research -- this game's source code was published as part of The Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures.  If only I could find an original listing!  Ah, I did!  Amazon is sometimes just the ticket.

There are definitely changes in the map data -- these appear to be intentional but end up breaking the game.  This is not a comprehensive list, I know I fixed a few other things to get this into playable shape.  But to provide a flavor of the issues... line 219 is incorrect; data for second room should be "2,7,3,6" but is entered as "0,2,7,3."  Line 227 should have "9, 13, 5, 0" but has "5, 13, 0, 0."  Line 237 should be "18,37,15,18" but is "15,37,0,18".  Line 239 should be "14,0,0,24" but is "13,24,0,0."  Line 246 has a typo, the last value is "026" but should be "0."  Line 240 repeats data from the line before it.

Whew!  With all those fixes, the walkthrough at CASA is almost good now -- we just need to improvise a bit when the little goober shows up or the torch goes out.  And with a few saves and restores, victory is finally ours, with all the treasures gathered!

After quitting and getting the bonus point evaluation, I found that I'd only earned 200 of the 207 points possible -- that is, 25 of the 32 possible bonus points.

So what did I miss?  And is it worth going back for them?  Another look at the code indicates that anything above 182 still qualifies us as an ADVENTURER GRANDMASTER.  We earn points for visiting certain locations, I believe I got all of those; we lose points if we run out of matches or take too many moves, no issues there.  Some points are based on the number of matches left in inventory, and I used several relighting the torch when I could have carefully navigated in the darkness.  And we can earn some points for bringing non-treasure items of significance out to the entryway.

Good enough -- solving the mystery of King Tut's Tomb was not as difficult as solving the mystery of the anonymous typist, so I'll call this one complete.  There are still several Greg Hassett TRS-80 adventures I haven't tackled, and I intend to get around to them in due course.

Physical Reality, Virtual Reality

I'm always fascinated by the way our brains work when it comes to games.  It doesn't take a lot to fool us into feeling like we have "been" to a place that exists only as a map in a computer, if we have had to do the work of learning our way around it.  It seems that the process of exploring and discovering triggers the brain's handling for real-world geography, even when the world we're working with is completely virtual.  What we see and hear and sense feels immediate and "real," but it's all being processed and interpreted by our brains; our internal hardware can't necessarily distinguish between real and virtual inputs at a certain level.

So it was interesting to hear from Mr. Neil Bradley this week, the at-the-time uncredited author of an old SoftSide text adventure I covered a while back called Crime Adventure.  He emailed, and I reproduce with his kind permission, this interesting bit of background:

I wrote it originally for the TRS-80 Model I. It was based on my Portland, Oregon neighborhood at the time. There's a 7-11 at 114th & Halsey that I called the "arcade." There was a Gateway bowling alley on 102nd that I moved right along side it. The Tsein-Tsein Chinese restaurant is across the street. Mr. Fenwick was actually Mr. Forsberg, a nice old guy who lived up the street from me who was BIG into golf. There was a family of Gypsies who lived nearby (inspiration for the fortune teller). Wow - this is bringing back memories!

So apparently it can work the other way around too -- creating a virtual recreation of a familiar environment can also encode memories associated with that environment.  Neato!