PrinceWatercress plays Alien Jailbreak - The Longplay

...and now, the whole game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Alien Jailbreak is a text adventure from the BBC Micro that was originally started in the 1980s yet stayed dormant and incomplete for years until it was found and completed by Lurkio in the 2010s. It's a rather short text adventure, and while the sci-fi setting makes for a nice change of pace (compared to the other text adventures that I've played), it does end on a cliffhanger that will, sadly, never be resolved.

When you start the game, you'll get a short list of some of the commands that the game understands: L, LOOK, I, INVENTORY, X, EXAMINE, N, S, E, W, U, UP, D, DOWN, GET, DROP, OPEN, CLOSE, ON, OFF, SAVE, LOAD, ABOUT, HELP. (The game does not understand "TAKE," so don't use it.)

It was all going so well...

You had just hauled a massive cargo of food and liquor (plus a mindfuggering stash of narcotics) to the homeworld of the notorious Synn system, which was on the very edge of Stellafed-controlled space.

Not only had they given you an unusually generous payout for your trouble, but they'd even invited you to join the party. The more the merrier, they'd said. Those crazy guys! How could you refuse?

Hours - or was it days? - had passed in a rush of toxic ecstasy. You'd indulged in all the pleasures that Synn had had to offer, till your brain and body were screaming for mercy.

And it was in this befuddled state that you decided to stumble back into your ship and head for home, even though you could barely walk in a straight line, let alone navigate half-way across the galaxy in a Stellafed trading vessel.

So perhaps you shouldn't have been altogether surprised to wake with a start and realise that (a) you'd fallen asleep at the controls of your ship, and (b) its defence systems were sounding a red alert.

Now, as you desperately try to wrap your pickled head around the computer's sensor readings, it slowly dawns on you that an astonishingly powerful tractor-beam appears to have locked on to the ship, which is hurtling towards the surface of an alien planet at homicidal speed.

You have no idea how you got here. Where the hell is "here," anyway? Is someone trying to kidnap you? Or kill you? Or, worse, steal your ship?

You're just about to start cursing Vog for creating drink, drugs, the people of Synn, interstellar travel, space, and life itself, when the ship suddenly crash-lands on the alien planet, hurling you across the cockpit with what you can't help thinking is cruel and unnecessary force.

Reeling from the impact, not to mention several nights in Synn, you're only dimly aware of the shadow figures that come aboard and steal the ship's power booster.

It's at this point that your addled brain finally admits defeat and you slip into sweet oblivion...

STELLAFED COMMUNCATIONS LOG

"This is listening station Ebdu, with an urgent report for Stellafed Communications HQ."

"This is SCHQ. Go ahead, Ebdu."

"One of our citizens appears to have been kidnapped by target QUAKE."

"Please repeat that, Ebdu."

I repeat: QUAKE has kidnapped a Stellafed citizen."

"Please identify yourself, caller."

"This is Intel Officer Gruntt."

"Officer Gruntt, I would remind you that target QUAKE is currently at the top of the Galactic Governmental Threat List. All comms regarding QUAKE must be taken extremely seriously. This is no time for jokes, Officer Gruntt."

"No joke, SCHQ. This is Grade-A intelligence."

"Please ID the kidnapped citizen."

"He's already a Subject of Interest to us: a petty smuggler codenamed SIDETHORN."

"SIDETHORN?! Trust that jackass to land himself in deep skakk. He'll keep."

"Er, with respect, SCHQ, I don't think he will. We had an implant on SIDETHORN's ship and managed to record a brief snatch of conversation between QUAKE agents when they came aboard. Transmitting recording now..."

"Take the intruder to the interrogation room."

"Yes, Commander. But what if he refuses to talk?"

"In that case, terminate him."

"Oh. I see. But SCHQ's decision remains unchanged: We shall continue to monitor the situation. No immediate action."

"So a citizen of Stellafed has been kidnapped by Public Enemy Number One, who might be about to execute him, and we do nothing?!"

"Firstly, you would do well to remember your place, Intel Officer Gruntt - if you wish to carry on being Intel Officer Gruntt, that is."

"I'm in no way tryi-"

"Secondly, we don't want to take any action that might reveal that we routinely bug our own citizens."

"I understand, but-"

"And thirdly, what exactly would you have us do? Vog knows what'll happen if we actually try to engage with QUAKE - and the last thing we need now is a war with a mysterious and powerful enemy whose mere existence we dare not make known for fear of causing mass panic across the galaxy."

"Of course, I fully suppo-"

"This conversation is terminated, Officer Gruntt."

"But-"

"SIDETHORN will have to look after himself."

TOP SECRET PRATS 3 SECURE CHANNEL

You are "Sidethorn." You are stuck on a planet you do not even know, and not only have you been kidnapped, but your ship's power supply has also been stolen. You need to get out of this place.

You start in a dingy prison cell with no doors or windows. You are strapped to a hard metal couch, connected to a mindprobe. EXAMINE MINDPROBE to find out that it is a Neurocellular Matrix Scanner Mark X111, which is banned due to requiring the subject's brain be removed. You'll also find out that wires lead from the ceiling down to a circular blade. PULL WIRES to stop the mindprobe and release the fetters holding you to the couch. If you EXAMINE WIRES, you'll find out that they still buzz with electricity as they hang down from the ceiling. If you GET WIRES, you'll shock yourself to death and you'll have to start over.

From here, STAND UP and TAKE BLADE. If you EXAMINE BLADE, you'll find out that the blade has a shuriken-like appearance. If you LOOK, you'll notice there is an air vent. OPEN AIR VENT, then ENTER VENT. You'll enter the air ducts, unable to see. The game will tell you where cool air is blowing from, so go in the direction it blows from with the first letter of NORTH, SOUTH, EAST or WEST where necessary. You'll eventually feel it blowing from below if you keep going in the right direction. You can use either D or DOWN to go down. In the next room, which is the central cooling complex, you'll find a torch. TAKE TORCH, then TURN TORCH ON before you go UP so you can see while in the air vents. (If you EXAMINE TORCH, you can see if the torch is on or off.)

From here, you're left to your own devices to map out the vent system, which is actually pretty big and makes up the majority of the game's map. After getting the torch and turning it on, go UP, then E, S, E, E, S, S, W, S, and then DOWN. This will drop you into the junk room with the remains of robots ready to be re-used. You'll find a metal hand. TAKE HAND. If you EXAMINE HAND, you'll find out that the robot hand is hollowed out and that you can wear it like a glove.

Go UP, then go W, N, W, S. When you're able to go down, DROP TORCH and DROP HAND. Go DOWN to land in a chemical plant, and take the Dacanium crystal. You'll need this to power your ship back up. (If you came down here with the torch and the hand in your inventory, the magnet that is picking up the ore will pick those two items up and drop them into the furnace, making the game unwinnable, as you'll need the hand to complete the game.) Go UP, then TAKE TORCH and TAKE HAND. Thankfully, the torch will still be on.

From here, I split the directions into groups of four, since you'll need to go a bit of a distance for what you need to do next:

NESE

NENN

WNNN

WNEE

SEEE

SESD

When you're able to go down, you'll find out that a closed vent is in your way. OPEN VENT before you go DOWN. Once you go down, go south twice. Going south once, leads to a passage leading to a plaque with useless information as well as two store rooms with nothing useful in them. After going south twice, go west to enter a computer room. EXAMINE MONITOR, and you'll find out that whoever took you hostage is aware of your escape in what is known as "Dome 1" and and that they want you - as well as someone named Xandros - executed.

Go back east, then go south again. Follow the junction west, then go west again. You'll come across a robot. If you stay around this room for two turns, the robot will kill you. THROW BLADE at the robot to kill it, then go north. You'll end up in a teleport with a control column in the center. EXAMINE COLUMN to find a touchpad on the column. EXAMINE TOUCHPAD to find out that it is a control pad for a teleporter. WEAR HAND, then TOUCH TOUCHPAD to teleport. (If you do not WEAR HAND to put the android hand on first, the teleporter recognizes you as an intruder and kills you.) Once you teleport safely, you'll get the ending. Sadly, it ends in a cliffhanger. Nevertheless, you just beat Alien Jailbreak!

You've escaped the mindprobe, found your ship's power booster, and teleported out of Dome 1, where you'd been imprisoned, and you're now in transit to Dome 2.

But you don't think you can relax just yet. For one thing, your captors seem to know that you're free and are probably looking for you. For another, you're far from certain that Dome 2 will be any better than Dome 1.

But surely it can't get any worse, what with all the killer robots and deadly mindprobes lurking round every corner?

But what if killer robots and deadly mindprobes are de rigueur on whatever planet this actually is? You still haven't figured out where you are, nor do you know why you were captured, or what the robots were trying to probe your mind for...

Who are these frukking robots anyway? As far as you knew, sentient robots that were capable of building a complex civilisation like the one you appear to have sleepwalked your way into are unknwon to Stellafed.

So where are you, and what are the robots up to?

Perhaps the mysterious "Xandros" they were so frightened you might speak to can tell you - if the two of you ever meet, that is. The problem is that you've never heard of Xandros before, so how will you recognise her? Is Xandros human or robot?

Is she in Dome 2?

Why is this teleport taking so long?

Perhaps you'll discover the answers to these and other fascinating questions in the second, scintillating part of Alien Jailbreak...

Map by unknown user, "rainbow color edit" made by PrinceWatercress. Original map can be found here. 

PrinceWatercress plays Spider-Man for Atari 2600 - The Longplay

...and now, almost ten commentary-free minutes of gameplay! Enjoy!

Let's Play

The Green Goblin is terrorizing New York City and has planted superbombs all over New York City. It's up to Spider-Man to climb up the buildings, get to the superbombs and defuse them before running out of web fluid and falling to his death.

Controlling Spider-Man is easy. By holding Up on the joystick and holding the fire button, you can extend a web further up the building. You can only grab onto the building itself, and you won't be able to connect to any empty spaces or windows. You can also hold Up and Left or Up and Right while holding the button to go to the side and get to other parts of the building in order to stay alive and keep a grip on the building. Once you stop the web on a solid surface, hold Up on the joystick to pull yourself upwards.

Your score is at the top center of the screen, with your lives at the lower-left and your web fluid meter on the lower-right. At the bottom of the building, there are criminals looking out of the windows, and if you touch them while swinging to the side, you'll get a few points for your score as well as some extra web fluid, which you can keep track of at the lower-right corner. The web fluid acts more like a timer, however, and you'll need to get to the top of the building and defuse the superbomb quickly.

You'll only be able to get point and time bonuses from catching criminals about four times before you stop getting them, and if you catch too many criminals, you'll start hearing a low-pitched sound that indicates that the timer on the superbomb has been activated...so be careful.

As you go higher up, you'll start seeing what look like girders. This is the high voltage tower, and the tower will get more narrow the further up you go. It makes more sense to climb onto bigger surfaces than small ones, and you'll want to get used to the timing of when you let go of the fire button as you climb upwards. Doing that will make a big difference between grabbing onto a solid surface and plunging to your doom. If you start falling, you'll still be able to save yourself if you still have web fluid. Just shoot the web like normal and make sure the web line hits a solid surface.

As you climb up the building, you'll see bombs that will flash red before exploding. The explosions will cause you to fall, but if you can touch the bombs while swinging to the side before they blow up, you can defuse them and get points and time for it, and you'll get more if the bombs are flashing red. You'll also run into the Green Goblin, and if you come into contact with him in any way, you will get knocked down and you will be forced to stick back onto the building to recover. 

At the top of the building is a box with a checkerboard pattern. This is the superbomb. You'll need to move into it from the side in such a way that Spider-Man touches it, but his web does not. Just like with everything else, if Spider-Man's body touches something that isn't Green Goblin, you'll score points, but if the web you're shooting does, you'll fall down. Getting Spider-Man to touch the superbomb in any way before you run out time/web fluid will defuse the superbomb and send you to the next level.

You'll score points for when you catch criminals and defuse bombs, and the more you do in a level, the more points you'll get when you defuse the superbomb. It takes 10,000 points to earn an extra life, and you'll need to learn how to get points to make this easier to do and also a lot more fun.

If you hit the ground from any height, you will lose a life no matter what. While you can recover by shooting a web shot and having it stop on the building so you can pull yourself up, if you run out of time/web fluid, there is going to be nothing that you can do, and you'll be forced to start the level over. Be ready to do what you need to do.

As you progress from level to level, the buildings will get taller and taller, and the time/web fluid meter will empty faster and faster. The game is easy to play, but it gets difficult to master, especially when you get onto later levels. Green Goblin will show up before you reach the top of the building, the criminals get harder to nab, and getting to the top gets harder. For some reason, I was able to manage a run that got me halfway up the fourth building before I ran out of lives on the longplay. That's something.

The very first Spider-Man game was a simple affair, but beneath the arcade action lies a game that forces you to strategize. You can get some extra web fluid early on, but it gets much harder to do the further to get, and learning how to quickly climb a building becomes a must. Learning how to recover quickly so you don't have to recover a lot of progress also becomes a necessary skill, especially when you start having so little time to get to the superbomb. As mentioned before, the game is easy to learn, but difficult to master, and when you can get to the superbomb, you definitely feel like a superhero. While there's not any crime-fighting, there's definitely a lot of saving to do, and you'll be doing that in spades here.

The graphics are basic, but you can easily tell who Spider-Man and Green Goblin are, as they both have the right colors. You don't have to guess what's part of the building and what is not, and once you get the basics nailed down, the gameplay isn't that bad. The sound is as arcade-y as you would expect from a 2600 game, and the musical ditty that plays when you start a new game definitely feels Spider-Man-esque. Later games would have Spidey doing more things, but the thrill of shooting webs, catching criminals and going up a building is captured well in Spider-Man's first video game adventure, and it is definitely one to recommend.

PrinceWatercress plays Bomb Jack (ZX Spectrum) - The Longplay

Of course I would do better with the longplay after relearning how to play the game during the Let's Play. Of course.

Let's Play

Bomb Jack is a 1984 platformer-style arcade game from Tehkan, which would later become Tecmo. In this game, you play as Bomb Jack, and you have to avoid enemies while picking up all 24 bombs on the screen. Some of the bombs have lit fuses, and as you pick up lit bombs, more will be lit, and you'll have to pick those up, too. Those will usually be in the line of bombs where you find a lit bomb. The more lit bombs you pick up, however, the more bonus points you'll get...if you get more than 20 in total when you complete a stage by grabbing all the bombs, that is.

Left and Right on the Kempston joystick allow you to move around, while the fire button jumps. Pressing the fire button mid-jump lets you stop rising upwards and start dropping, and if you keep tapping the fire button repeatedly, you'll be able to float in mid-air, which makes it easier to grab bombs and avoid enemies. If you hold Up before jumping, you'll perform a high jump.

As you grab the bombs, enemies will pop up. You'll be avoiding mummies and birds that both move back and forth and fly around the screen respectively, but eventually the mummies will tumble to the bottom and turn into flying saucers and slugs that will seek you out and destroy you if they get to you. The birds are just as bad as the transformed enemies, as they will constantly take the shortest path towards you and constantly get in your way because of that.

As you play, power-ups will also show up. The B icons will give you bonus multipliers up to 5x that will multiply the amount of points you get from grabbing bombs, while the E icon will give you an extra life if you're lucky enough to encounter one and grab it. Unfortunately, the E icons are the only way to get bonus lives in this game, as you cannot get any off of points. The P icon is the most important, however, as it turns the enemies into bonus coins for a short period, and if you can grab these coins before they turn back into the enemies, you'll get rid of the enemies for a brief time and you'll get points for it.

There are five backgrounds in all, and once you see all five, they will loop. As for the level designs themselves, however, they do not seem to loop like the backgrounds do, and there is also no ending.

Despite my initial misgivings with the game, I ended up enjoying it. You can tell which bombs are lit just by paying attention a little bit, and it's actually easier than I expected to see where both I, the enemies, the bombs and the platforms are despite the obvious limitations in the ZX Spectrum's hardware. The gameplay was pretty responsive and did not give me any trouble, and once I learned how to high jump, control my jumps, and even float, things got a lot better. Even the gaming press in the UK loved this port, with Crash! giving the game a Smash award and a 92% rating, calling it a great arcade conversion. It was also #2 on the UK sales charts in 1984, kept off the top by Green Beret, only to make it to the top of the all-formats chart two years later when it received a budget re-release. If you're looking for arcade action for the Speccy, this is a really good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Venture for Atari 2600 - The Longplay

...and now, Venture for the Atari 2600, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Venture is a game by Exidy in which you go through a world with several buildings that you need to enter, get the treasure out of and then get out of in one piece. The game was ported to a good amount of systems back in 1982, with the Atari 2600 being one of them.

You start out in front of a bunch of purple buildings. The single lone purple pixel that looks like it is out of place is you. Yes, you actually control this pixel. This pixel is you. By going into the gaps in the walls of the buildings, you can enter the buildings proper. Here, you can move around, but you can also press the fire button to fire arrows at enemies - something you can't do in the overworld where you're one small, tiny pixel. The arrows have limited range, but you have an unlimited amount of arrows and you can never run out. The dot near the happy face that represents your character indicates where you will fire, and that dot will change position every time you move in a different direction, and the direction that you last went will be where you fire your arrow. Enemies hurt you not only when they are alive, but also when their corpses are still on the screen; if you touch the enemies' corpses before they disappear off the screen, that will cost you a life. As mentioned before, you'll want to get the treasure in the building, then get back out through any of the gaps in the building walls, which counts as both entrances and exits. If you take too long, an indestructible demon that can travel through walls and will always take the shortest path towards you will show up, and if it touches you, you're losing a life.

At the top of the screen, you have your current amount of points in the center, and your lives will be the squares in the upper-right corner. Lose all your lives and the game is over. Sadly, you cannot get points out of extra lives in this game.

The hardest part of the purple buildings is the building in the upper-left part of the map. Here, there are moving red walls, and if any of them touch you, you will lose a life. You'll need to line yourself up with the gaps and make your moves quickly in order to get in the center, grab the treasure and get out before the indestructible demon shows up and ruins your day.

Once you collect all of the treasures in the purple buildings, you'll move on to the blue buildings. This is more of the same, and sadly, there isn't any moment on the blue map that matches the building with the moving walls on the purple map. Once you collect everything in the blue buildings, you'll have completed one loop of the game, and you'll go back to the purple map, but this time, the enemies will be faster and will move around more randomly. The second loop is also much more difficult compared to the first one.

The game does not seem like much, but it does make history as one of the first, if not the first, popular adventure-style games (other than Rogue) to be played from a top-down perspective, and even predates the very first Zelda game by a few years. The graphics are very simple and very identifiable, and gameplay is pretty simple, and while the first loop of the game is easy enough to get through, the second loop and every loop after that is a lot harder to clear. While this port is much more scaled down compared to the arcade original (there are two maps instead of three, graphics are more rudimentary, far less treasures are available to collect, and no music plays at all), it is still a decent effort and well worth putting in your Atari 2600 library.

PrinceWatercress plays Coconuts for Atari 2600 - The Longplay

...and now for a longplay of this game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Coconuts is a really simple one-screen game for the Atari 2600 from 1982. You play as jungle explorer Stanley I. Presume, and you have to move around to avoid coconuts thrown by a monkey at the top of the trees. That's it. That's the game. You move left and right with Left and Right on the joystick, and those are your only controls. By holding the stick in a direction, you move faster. The fire button is used to start the game and is used to start playing again when the monkey takes a break from throwing coconuts, which also allows you to take a breather for as long as you need. Stanley moves more quickly on B/Novice than he does on A/Expert. You have three points of protection: the umbrella on top of your hat, the hat on your head and your head itself. If you get hit on the head without any head protection, the game is over. If you reach 500 points, you'll recover the last piece of head protection that you lost, and you'll be able to do it again if you reach 1500 points, which can be pretty difficult to do. Points are awarded by dodging coconuts. You'll get five points at first, and that will slowly increase in five-point increments all the way up to twenty points.

It's a simple and fun game and there's not much to it, and what you see is what you get. This could have been considered a classic if it were released a couple of years earlier, but by 1982, there were much more complex games around, and by this point, you had a lot of the Atari classics such as Centipede and Missile Command, and even Nintendo's own Donkey Kong kicking around in the arcades. Still, if you're looking for a simple game for the Atari 2600, this one is a good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Whoopsy - The Longplay

Now for the game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Whoopsy is a game for the BBC Micro from 1985 where you're playing as a baby who was to avoid his mum and collect his toys, all the while taking a dump on the floor in order to keep as much distance between yourself and your mum as possible. Collecting all the toys takes you to the next level. As you're doing all this, you'll only have a limited amount of "whoopsies" that you can make (read: taking a dump on the floor), and you'll also have to avoid the moving toilets, as touching the toilets causes you to lose one of your whoopsies. If you get caught by your mum, you lose a life and you also receive some slightly annoying red and blue flashing. Lose all your lives, and the game is over.

: moves up, / moves down, Z moves left and X moves right. Space lets you take dump on a floor aka "make a whoopsy." Escape lets you back out to the main menu. Joysticks can also be plugged in and used; just switch to joystick control on the main menu. You can change those keys at any time in the main menu, which I gratefully welcome. 

When you leave a whoopsy on the floor, your mum will not be able to harm you; instead, she will go right for the whoopsy and clean it up. As soon as she gets to the whoopsy, however, the whoopsy disappears and she will immediately get back to chasing you. No cleaning animation or anything of the sort occurs; the crap is gone and she gets right back on you immediately. The placement of your whoopsies is absolutely crucial because of this.

Bonus lives are awarded at 50,000 and 100,000 points, assuming you can make it that far.

On the main menu, you'll see the top nine scores, you can start the game, change the difficulty level from 1 to 9 with the number keys, switch the music on and off, and switch between keyboard and joystick controls. Space Bar starts the game.

As soon as the game starts, you have to make a whoopsy in order to move. I'm not making the rules here; you actually have to use one of your whoopsies to get everything moving. At least you can plot your course before you take a dump on the floor, so that's a plus. Also, I'm beginning to wonder if what I'm typing is what it will sound like if Aqualung from Aqualung's Game Reviews ever sat down and reviewed this game for YouTube.

At the top of the screen, you'll see your high score, your current level, your current score and the amount of bonus points you'll earn - which slowly ticks down as you play the level - when you clear the level. To the right of that is your amount of whoopsies, and to the right of your whoopsies is your current amount of lives. You'll start in the lower right, while mum starts in the upper left. The toys will be randomly strewn about, and when you collect them, they will re-appear in the crib on the lower left. The whoopsies you have will help with that, but there's a catch: you cannot collect any toys while you have a whoopsy on the floor and your mum is rushing to clean it up. If you try, you'll just move straight through them. You'll have to take a dump, get to a toy, get moving once you collect the toy that you've grabbed, grab a few more toys and make a whoopsy at the right time, and you'll need to do this in such a way that you'll always have a few whoopsies on hand in order to keep distance between yourself and your mum. Not only that, you'll also have to move around in such a way that your mum cannot catch up with you, as she moves faster than you do.

When you complete a level, you and your mum will be back to their original starting positions, and you'll gain three more whoopsies for the next level. You'll also have to collect more toys to get to the next level. In case you lose a life from colliding with your mum in any way, you'll go back to the lower right, but at least you'll get three more whoopsies to make up for it. 

I like this game, although a few things could have made it more fair. You could have had a little animation of mum cleaning the whoopsy up that could have bought you just a little more time. Also, not being able to collect toys while a whoopsy is in play can be a bit irritating. While it gives the game a stop-start motion that you at first get used to before eventually mastering and manipulating in order to get through each level with as few headaches as possible, it can also be a bit of a burden even when you get a grip on how the game wants you to play it. It really feels like the game wants you to play it in a certain way if you want to get a high score and succeed.

As for the rest of the game itself, the game controls wonderfully, and I didn't run into any errors of any kind. The graphics, being the basic things that they are for any BBC Micro game, as identifiable, so they work in that regard. The fact that there is always music playing is a nice touch, but you may still find yourself turning it off, as it can get annoying fast. This is a fun and mischievous game for the venerable Beeb, but while it is easy to play, it is challenging to master, and it is definitely a game to get a grip on if you want a challenge for an arcade-style game.

PrinceWatercress plays Donald Duck in Deep Duck Trouble (SMS) - The Longplay

...and here's the game in one sitting, minus commentary! Enjoy!

First | Previous

The story begins with Donald Duck asking Huey, Dewey and Louie where Scrooge McDuck is. All of a sudden, Scrooge is floating around like a balloon due to a curse from a mysterious pendant he found in a shrine on an uninhabited island. The pendant must be returned to the neck of a goddess statue inside the shrine, or else Scrooge is cursed to be a balloon forever. He gives Donald Duck his adventurer's diary to retrace his steps and find the island so he can return the pendant.

Donald Duck arrives at the island...and the adventure begins.

At the beginning of the game, there are four places you can go: the jungle, the valley, the inlet or the volcano. I start with the jungle.

The Jungle

Only those who possess the jungle king's crown may pass.

Scene 1: Savanna

Left and Right on the D-Pad let you move left and right, Button 1 attacks, and Button 2 kicks.

The heads up display is pretty simple. In the upper-left corner is the amount of lives you have, and in the lower-left is the amount of health you have.

Instead of being able to swing hammers or throw flying discs, you kick at things like blocks...and that kick has some nice animation going for it. You will have to kick blocks into enemies in order to move on, but you can also jump on them if a box is not available. To kick blocks, you'll need to walk into a block, keep holding the D-Pad towards the block, and then press Button 1.

Enemies include wolves that poke their heads out of the ground, sugar gliders that fly off branches, jumping kangaroos, and rolling snakes, You can sometimes get ice cream for replenishing your health if you defeat them. You can use blocks and other things if you want, but you can also jump on them to defeat them.

Kicking blocks can also reveal power-ups, such as money bags for points and ice cream for health. While the light brown blocks just go up and crumble upon landing, the dark blue ones travel forwards and can bounce back and forth in pits. This allows you to travel across spike pits, which is good, because spikes hurt. 

Chests contain better power-ups. A chili pepper will make Donald Duck run very fast, allowing him to plow through enemies and large walls of blocks. The effect only lasts for a short time. You can also find a cooked chicken that restores all of your health.

The ostriches are like those horses in the first stage of Sunset Riders: you have to jump from one to the next and get to the tree branch at the right side, or else you're dead.

After you complete a section, you'll get bonus points for the round as well as for how much health you have left before going to the next one.

Scene 2: Jungle

Whenever you get hit, Donald will get angry and will be unable to move for a second. The animation is very much Donald and very well done, but it gets a little annoying after a while.

The snails slowly move back and forth and hide in their shells. The snakes pop their heads out of the trees to get in your way.

Look high and low for things. You never know what you'll find. You'll mostly want to stay on the top, however, if you want to get through the scene.

Some vines take you to other places, while there are also pairs of vines that raises one vine while you stand on - and lower - the other.

The red flower shoots out projectiles, but it only does it once.

The leaves in the trees have to be kicked loose with a block, and once you do that, you'll be able to ride it down to another area.

You'll eventually encounter a gorilla. Instead of fighting him, you'll be running away. Be ready to jump over spike pits and on top of walls, and watch out for the fruit that drops down from the top of the screen. For some reason, the blue flowers on the ground seem to hint as to when you need to jump. At the end, the gorilla will run into a huge tree, revealing the jungle king's crown and sending you back to the world map.

The Volcano

The jewel made of fire will light the way.

Scene 1: Volcano 1

The bats will simply fly forward.

The moles will pop out of the floor and throw rocks at you, but you can jump on the rocks.

The crickets will jump back and forth.

The craters will shoot out lava, which will push a rock upwards to use as a platform.

In the second section, the bats will keep reappearing from certain spots and fly towards you as you make your way down. If you defeat a bat, it doesn't come back.

When the screen shakes, watch out for rocks from above. Be ready to hide under the nearby platforms where rocks can't reach you. 

The boulders moving back and forth in the spike pits allow you to get over the pits. Thankfully, you can stand on them, and Donald will do the rest. It's up to you to hold Left or Right and then jump off when necessary.

Scene 2: Volcano 2

The boulders will now be in lava. At least the lava isn't instant death.

Doors in the wall will lead you to new areas.

The platforms above the volcanic cones will be knocked upwards by the lava coming out of the cones. 

The flames move in a sine wave pattern. Some flames will come out of the lava and slowly move straight up.

There are also narrow platforms that sink in and out of the lava. Time your movements so that you get on them when they are coming up, and get to the next one.

The spiders swing back and forth like a pendulum when you jump on them once. Another jump on the head will defeat them.

You'll eventually enter a vertical auto-scrolling section where the lava rises from the bottom...and you can't afford to slow down here. Some platforms will rise with the lava, but will eventually be gotten rid of when they hit a ceiling. The treasure chest here contains a chicken, but it's more of a speed trap than anything else. I don't even bother getting it because of that. 

When you reach the rock at the end, you'll be running across the volcano. Be ready to jump over boulders that come at you from both sides of the screen, and should you fall into the lava pit, it will not instantly kill you. When you reach the end, a rock will hit a wall, revealing the Ruby of Fire, giving you one more treasure and ending the level.

The Inlet

Seek out the Golden Fang.

Scene 1: Under Water

The stage starts with Donald Duck putting on a pink shirt and diving gear before jumping into the water. This happens automatically, and you have no control over it.

Gameplay underwater is mostly the same, except you can swim by jumping repeatedly. Unfortunately, you cannot defeat enemies by bopping them on the head.

Enemies include eels, fish, manta rays and even rocks from undersea volcanoes. If you plug a block into a small gap, you'll get rocks, but you can get power-ups...even an extra life.

In the second section, you will have to deal with schools of long fish. You'll have to go up, wait for one to pass by, then swim around while trying not to get hit by them. Watch out for the red fish and the sea urchin that moves back and forth on the ceiling at the beginning.

In the third section, you'll see urchins that stay in one spot. To the right of the start of the section is an extra life.

The thin blue-green fish that look like knives will drop down when you get close enough, and slowly move back up. You can walk across the gaps as they move back upwards.

The big snoring fish will try to suck you in. When they close their mouths, there won't be a current pulling you in any more; instead, you'll be pushed back (and hopefully, not into the spikes).

A bottomless pit with bubbles at the bottom will push you up.

Scene 2: Sunken Ship

The clam will chomp upwards in an attempt to attack if you get too close. Unfortunately for them, they can only jump so high.

Keep in mind that you need solid ground to kick a box, crate or chest...even if that means that the solid ground is another box, crate or chest.

The anemones will send any block sent into it up or down at an angle, depending on whether they are on a floor or ceiling. You'll need to do this to break some crates blocking your path.

The pink fish will puff up when hit with a block and slowly follow you.

The broken portholes will fall down when approached.

If you reach the surface of the water, get up on the platform from underneath to kick the box into the ceiling, breaking it to fill the area with more water and reach new areas.

The boss is a shark. This time, you'll be chased upwards. Pay attention to the shark to see where it will bite you from, and watch out for any ceilings, as they will immediately block your path and cause you to take an unwanted hit. Make sure you're not too far down so that the shark bites you.

You'll eventually reach the top and get back on the boat...and the shark will lose its golden jaws on the hook, allowing you to take the Golden Fang to end the level.

The Valley

The quill of the falcon will show you the way.

Scene 1: Valley

You'll be jumping up platforms and avoiding bees at the start. At least you can jump on their heads afterwards.

Updrafts will send you to higher areas, but be careful not to fall into bottomless pits after being carried upwards.

The mountain goats will leap from one platform to another, and can be used to get to other areas.

There are multiple paths to take, and in case you defeat bees en route to a higher one, try looking for a lower one.

The logs that fall down the waterfalls can be used to go upwards as you jump from one to another.

At the top-right corner of the first section, there is a block that unleashes a geyser when kicked. The geyser will take you to another area above the clouds.

Blocks can be kicked upwards to break frozen waterfalls down and use them as platforms to reach new areas. They can also be forced downwards by mountain goats, so be careful. Bringing snow down can reveal some platforms you can use to get to the end, so keep an eye out for bright spots in the walls.

Scene 2: Ice Cavern

At the start, you'll be forced down into an ice cavern. The tiny abominable snowmen can be simply jumped on, but they also like throwing ice, too.

The ground is slippery in this section, and you can slide down quickly on the slopes.

The diamonds just gives you points.

Ice cubes act just like the light brown blocks, and they can sometimes be instantly replaced when used. They can also knock icicles off the ceiling to use as platforms across water. If you fall into the water, it is instant death.

To get past the yellow narwhals, kick an ice cube so it lands on the nose.

Be careful on ice platforms above water, as some segments will be raised from below by narwhals.

In the second section, you'll be riding ice platforms across water. Be ready to duck at times, as there are low spiked ceilings and the ramps will send you and the platform into them.

The third section is vertical. Be careful where you kick an ice cube, as it can send a small snowball tumbling down. Sometimes, you'll want this, as this will allow you to make room for new areas as well as to get out of the cave.

You'll then meet the falcon, who carries you to another area before chasing after you. This time around, the screen scrolls down as well as to the right, and you'll have to jump over bottomless pits as well. Whatever you do, don't let the falcon five into you, as it can grab you and potentially drop you above a pit.

You'll eventually run into a block that causes a geyser to blow the falcon away, allowing you to get the Quill of the Falcon and clear the level.

With all four treasures, Donald will throw the treasures in a sacred lake in the middle of the island to reveal the shrine. Welcome to the final area!

The Shrine

The correct path shall be one of one hundred.

Scene 1: Shrine 1

The first section has you jumping over water pits as piranhas jump in and out. You'll also start seeing a thing that will recur every now and then: expansive spike pits where you have to kick an iron block into it and then jump on it when it returns to travel over the pit.

The purple crabs come down from the waterfall endlessly.

In the second section, you'll have to kick a block into a crack in a low ceiling to get some water to leak out, which in turn will slowly push you to the right when you stand on it. Be ready to duck to avoid spikes.

In the third section, hit the chest at the far right, then keep running up the slopes and hitting each chest, grabbing chili peppers as you go.

In the fourth section, you'll see jars that shoot out crabs endlessly as long as you keep defeating them. The crabs only leap out to the left, though.

In the fifth section, you'll be going down slopes while trying not to fall into spikes. The platforms are safe zones, but only before they fall down under your weight. If you reach solid, even ground, however, spikes will start coming out from the left. You'll want to avoid those, too.

Use the chili pepper in the chest at the end of the sixth section to get through the wall of blocks.

Scene 2: Shrine 2

The ghosts move and back and forth, and stop to take a humanoid form. You can jump on them while in humanoid form to get past them.

Be careful on the platforms that move on the track on the background wall. If you see any statue heads in the wall, be ready to jump over their fireballs when you're lined up with them.

If you see a circle with an arrow on a background track, you can kick a block into it to change its direction, keeping the platform from hurling you into impending doom.

The blocks that look like a bridge inside the background wall go in and out. When they are bright, that means they are currently jutting out of the wall and you can stand on them. Just be ready to move before they recess back into the wall.

The statues with the spear will jab at you if you get too close. Jump before you reach to avoid getting skewered.

The torches that move up and down are platforms, but you can only stand on them when the fire is out. When the fire is out, however, the room goes dark, so you'd better know where to land before the flame comes back up.

The weights that slowly move up and then quickly drop back down can be used as platforms.

The ghosts in the third section will fly towards you, but you can jump on their heads to get rid of them. Also in the third section, you'll have to time your movements so that you can travel across a pit while two platforms are moving on background tracks at the same time.

The bridge at the end of the third section takes you to the fourth section when it disappears as you stand on it, sending you down a pit. 

In the fourth section, you'll have to ride a log. The ancient tablets of the duck pointing will tell you whether to go down a pit or continue to take the high path in this auto-scrolling section. If you take the wrong path, you won't be reaching the end of this world.

The Statue

To reach the statue, you must pass the final trial.

Scene 1: Statue

The floating heads shoot fireballs at you and fly forward in a sine-wave pattern. Jump over the last two and avoid their fireballs.

You'll then face the final boss: the goddess of the temple. She will fly around, and when she fires a laser at the ground, the laser will produce a block. Avoid the debris that is produced from the laser, and kick the block into the goddess.

Every once in a while, the goddess will shoot four small fireballs downwards; avoid those. She has a shorter pause before the four-way shot compared to the laser shot.

After enough hits, the goddess will float upwards, then start teleporting all over the room. She has a five-way shot as well as a spiral shot that will fly towards her outstretched hands. There are three places where she can stand - the sides and the center - and she will do the spiral balls at the sides while shooting the five-way shot at the center.

At this rate, you won't get any more blocks, so wait for her to teleport to one of the sides and wait for the spiral balls to diminish. If you can time it right, you'll be right above her head as soon as the balls start to disappear, and you'll be able to hit her.

When you beat the goddess, Donald will put the necklace back on the goddess statue, then a crown will appear on its head. Donald takes the crown and heads home with it, then puts it on only to become a balloon himself. Scrooge, Huey, Dewey and Louie head back to the island to get Donald un-cursed while Donald is carried around on a string. The game then ends.

PrinceWatercress plays Rising Damp - The Longplay

Now for the game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Despite having the same name as a 1970s British sitcom, this has nothing to do with the show starring Leonard Rossiter or Don Warrington. Instead, this is a type-in arcade-style game from Issue 4 of Acorn Programs from June/July 1984. In this game, you move left and right to collect all the droplets that you can in a bucket before the strength of the floor below your bucket completely weakens and gives way from all of the falling water droplets. In each stage, you have 60 seconds to survive until the carpenter shows up and re-strengthens the floor. The strength of the floor starts out at 100, but goes down by 5 every time a water droplet hits the floor. 

The game starts out easy, but by the time you reach the third screen, the game becomes near-impossible to complete. It is very possible for a droplet to drop down in an area that you can't reach despite your best efforts, even when there are only so many areas in the ceiling where the water drops can drop down from at that point due to how fast the droplets are coming from. Good luck trying to reach even the fourth screen in this one. One session of this game will only last a few minutes, at most.

Is the game playable? Yes. Are there any problems with the controls? Absolutely not, from what I gathered. At the end of the day, this game gets really hard, really quickly, but at least it's enjoyable for what it is and how long it lasts. The graphics, while pretty crude, are easily identifiable and easy to pick apart. You'll only hear sounds when you either miss or catch a water droplet, but given how the BBC Micro is, especially with games from the first half of the 1980s, it's serviceable and something I can't complain about. It may be one of the earlier type in games for the system, but it's good for what it is.

PrinceWatercress plays Pendragon - The Longplay

...and now for the game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Pendragon is a clone of Pengo for the BBC Micro written by Gordon J. Key and published in Volume 4, Issue 4 of Micro User from June 1986. Much like in Pengo, you'll be kicking blocks around not only to make a path around the level, but also to temporarily get rid of enemies.

In this particular close, you play as Polly Pendragon, a parrot working in a sugar processing factory. The factory is infested with an enemy known as "the yellow peril" (we're better than that), which eat the sugar as well as attack anyone who is in the factory. You'll need to keep them at bay while pushing four large emeralds into each corner of the room in order to move on to the next room. If you run into an enemy, you're losing a life.

Z and X move Polly Pendragon left and right, : and / move up and down, Space pushes the block you are facing, and M toggles the music, which can get a little annoying after a while.

You start out by facing one monster in the first stage, two in the second and the maximum of three in the third. After that, it's three monsters for every stage after the third. Dealing with enemies is easy: just kick sugar cubes or emeralds at them. It is possible for your attack to miss the enemy, causing them to be unaffected, so keep that in mind. Enemies are best dealt with by giving yourself some space and hoping that the enemies line up with you so you can kick something at them. The more distance you have, the better, for it they are right near the sugar cube you are about to kick, they will destroy it before you can attack. Thankfully, they can't destroy the emeralds.

Placing the emeralds in the corners is a pretty unique way of clearing the stages compared to Pengo as well as other Pengo clones, but it is possible to kick emeralds around in such a way that you cannot get the emeralds into all four corners. If that happens, kiss your chances of moving on to the next level goodbye.

After making a Let's Play out of this game, I wasn't as frustrated with this as I was with Mango. The game controls well as Mango did, and I had a little more room to maneuver. I also liked some of the presentation, such as the diamond on the title screen opening up when you press Space, the instructions being typed out one letter at a time, and the vortex that gets drawn on the green screen before the game begins. 1986, from what I've gathered from the games I've played up until this point, signifies a time when people who were still making BBC Micro games even after the 16-bit micros started taking over knew more about how not just to make a game, but also do some pretty impressive stuff. With that said, this is one of the better arcade-style games that I've played for the BBC Micro, and it's hard to believe that this is a type-in game. If you're looking for a good Pengo clone, this is a good place to start.

PrinceWatercress plays Mango - The Longplay

...and now for another look at the game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Mango is a Pengo clone released for the BBC Micro in 1987 and published by Blue Ribbon Software. In this game, a bird-like creature named Mango is trapped in a refrigerator with entities known only as "The Heat Men." In order to defeat them, he must not only kick the ice cubes at them to hit them, but he must also make a path for himself and get distance between himself and the Heat Men by kicking paths through the walls of ice cubes in the refrigerator. After defeating all of the enemies on a screen, Mango heads to the next level.

Z and X move Mango left and right, : and / move up and down, and Return pushes and/or melts the ice cube you are facing, depending on whether the ice cube you are looking at is obstructed. Kicking ice cubes will be the way of getting rid of the enemies, but you will need some distance between yourself and the Heat Men in order to more easily get rid of them, as they can destroy the ice cube you are above to kick ahead if they get right next to it.

S and Q turn the sound on and off respectively, Copy pauses the game, Delete un-pauses the game, and Escape abandons the current game and takes you back to the controls screen, where you can also choose between three difficulties before playing.

If you can line up the three bonus blocks with the "B" on them, you can get extra points, but good luck getting that to happen with the enemies constantly chasing you around.

With each level comes more and more enemies to take out. Be ready to kick ice cubes and even the bonus blocks to get rid of the enemies when they pop out of the eggs that spawn on screen. Also, points give you extra lives, but you'll need a lot of them: 5,000 for your first and 10,000 for your second.

Despite my frustrations with Pengo clones, I eventually warmed up to this one (as well as the game that I'll be playing after this) after getting better with the game. I like the idea of having to defeat all the enemies to move on to the next level, but the fact that the enemies seemingly move faster than you and tend to move around the block you want to kick more often than not even on the easiest difficulty level makes this anything but easy. The graphics are pretty basic for a game from 1987 yet easily identifiable, and the arcade-like sound is sparse yet is able to get the job done while not getting too annoying. The play control is pretty responsive, too. It may not be graphically impressive in hindsight, but it's still a fine Pengo clone worth playing once you get used to it.

PrinceWatercress plays Fall Down - The Longplay

...and now, all the modes I can play, minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Fall Down is a homebrew game for the Atari 2600 programmed by Aaron Curtis and self-published in 2005. In this game, two players - one red and one blue (blue-green in the PAL version) - fight to stay on the screen and score points by capturing platforms as they scroll upwards. To capture a platform, one must fall through a gap in the platform before the other person does. The first person to fall through the gap gets the point. Of course, there's always the danger of being scrolled past the top of the screen, which will take a player out of action temporarily and give the other player a bit of an advantage in the form of being able to score a lot of points uninterrupted. The game ends when both players are scrolled past the top before either person can be re-spawned.

Controls are easy. You just move left and right with the joystick, and you can use the fire button to use the power-ups that you collect during the game. Players can bump into each other, but there are "pass-by" modes that allow players to walk through each other. Sometimes, you'll find dots on the platforms, and if you can pick them up, you can do all sorts of things with the fire button, such as turn the other person invisible, switch places with the other person, create a gap where you are standing so you can get an easy point, and much more.

The game is one of the first homebrew games to use Richard Hutchinson's AtariVox to save high scores as well as provide in-game speech when someone wins or achieves a new high score.

There are eight different game modes:

• Human vs. AI (red human and a blue computer chip): a simple game against the computer. See if you can get more points that the computer-controlled opponent!
• Human vs. AI, easy mode (red human and a blue computer chip, with "EZ" in white at the bottom): Same as above, but the computer isn't as smart. Use this mode to get used to how the game works.
• Human vs. AI, pass-by mode (red human and a blue computer chip, with a white arrow pointing downward at the bottom): Same as the first one, but both players will pass through each other if they come into contact instead of bumping off each other.
• Human vs. AI, invisibility mode (red human and a blue computer chip, with a white eye at the bottom): This mode is pretty cool. This is the same as Human vs. AI, but the background changes from red to blue and back again at regular intervals, causing one player and then the other to be unable to be seen, making things a lot more difficult. Hope you can keep track of a player that you can't see!
• Single player (just a red human): See how well you can keep up with the eternally scrolling screen and see how high you can score as you drop from platform to platform without having a second player in the picture.
• Human vs. Human (a red human and a blue human): Your standard two player mode. See who can score the most points!
• Human vs. Human, pass-by mode (a red human and a blue human, with a white arrow pointing downward at the bottom): same as Human vs. Human, but both players pass through each other on contact instead of bumping into each other.
• Human vs. Human, invisibility mode (a red human and a blue human, with a white eye at the bottom): The invisibility mode, now with two players! Compared to the human vs. computer version, this one can be really fun at parties.

To switch between, hit the Game Select switch on the title menu.

This is a really fun game. The premise is simple and the game controls pretty well, but this is one of those games where anything can happen. While the game is fun enough on its own with the single player modes, the two-player mode is where this game gets a lot more exciting, especially if you have a few friends over. When it comes to homebrew games, this one is loads of fun.

PrinceWatercress plays Pressure Gauge - The Longplay

...and now, the game minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Pressure Gauge is a game written back in 2000 as a college exercise by John K. Harvey, and was inspired by the Steamwood sections in Brave Fencer Musashi.

If you flip the Game Select switch, you'll get a small text crawl in the center of the screen as well as some rainbow colored bars. 

The only button you need to play the game is the fire button. When you start the game, you'll notice a small bar on the left followed by a gauge to the right that slowly fills up. When that gauge is anywhere near the range where the small bar on the left is, press the fire button. This will fill up a second gauge to the right. If you do this right, you'll fill the gauge to the right up; if you get it wrong, the gauge will go down. There is also a gauge in the center telling you how much time you have left. If that gauge goes all the way down, the game is over. To fill it up, you'll need to clear the current level and head on to the next, and you can see which level you're on by looking at the bottom of the screen.

As you go through the game, the game gets faster. From Levels 6-10, you'll go back to the beginning speed and work your way up again, but the lights will flicker, causing you to be unable to see your line and gauges for a short time at regular intervals. From Level 11 onwards, everything will be random, and the small line on the left may be in a different range on the gauge entirely.

Everything about this game may simple, and there may not be much to the graphics, but the gameplay is easy to figure out, and once you do, it definitely has an addicting nature to it. This one is all about the gameplay, and this game definitely keeps you on your toes while taking a small idea from a then-somewhat recent video game and running with it. This is definitely one game to try if you come across it, and don't be surprised if you find yourself spending plenty of time with it.

PrinceWatercress plays Freddy and the Spiders from Mars - The Longplay

...and now, the game minus commentary! Enjoy!

Let's Play

Freddy and the Spiders from Mars is a type-in game for the BBC Micro from 1985, from Issue 38 of Input Magazine.

Freddy is a window cleaner with an intense dread of spiders. He's been to his doctor and innumerable specialists who cannot cure his condition. Things are so bad he now has a recurring nightmare, concerning a Martian spider, a collection of balloons, and his favourite hobby, archery.

Frequently he wakes up bathed in sweat after dreaming of beings stranded on his ladder equipped with a supply of arrows. He has been trying desperately to burst balloons, which if allowed to reach the spider's cage above hie head, unlock the doors which imprison the beast.

Help Freddy burst the balloons, or he'll end up as the spider's breakfast! Points are awarded for each balloon Freddy bursts. If he lets through three balloons, the Martian spider is released.

A and Z move up and down, while Space fires an arrow. At the top of the screen, you'll see your current level, how many balloons you have left before moving on to the next level, your current score and the high score for the current session.

As you can probably guess, you'll be climbing up and down a ladder while firing an arrow, hoping to hit a balloon. You can only have one arrow on the screen at a time, so you'll really need to be good with your shots, especially when the balloons, which always show up one by one, show up at different points from the ground. If you can time things right, you can stand in a certain spot on the ladder, fire at a certain point depending on how close the balloon is to you, and hit the target every time.

As mentioned in the instructions, you can only miss three balloons before the Martian spider is freed and Freddy gets eaten in his absolutely nonsensical dream. Thankfully, whenever you reach a new level, all of the walls blocking the Martian spider from being unleashed will be restored, and you'll be back to the three misses. But beware, as the balloons move faster which each new level, and they get pretty fast pretty quickly. I usually never make it past level 3. As a result, sessions of this game do not last very long.

The game is great for what it is, especially when you consider that it is a free type-in game. The graphics are easily identifiable, the only sound you get is the balloons popping, and the controls work like they should. However, like most of the other games that I've played for the BBC Micro, you'll get enjoyment out of the game for a few minutes max before moving on to something else. Is the game still worth looking at? Well, yes. I still have an itch to shoot down some balloons, even if poor Freddy is going to be devoured before Level 3 is over every single time.

PrinceWatercress plays Metal Force - The Longplay

...and now, the whole game, minus commentary! Enjoy!

First | Previous

Believe it or not, this game was made in South Korea, which I know more for PC games and the Pump It Up series by Andamiro than I do for console games (even though I've played the first three Super Boy games from Zemina, which was also from South Korea).

I later found out halfway through making this Let's Play that the game was not released for the South Korean version of the NES, also known as the Hyundai Comboy; the game was only ever released on the Famicom. Nevertheless, I do cover Samsung exporting all the Sega systems up to and including the Sega Saturn to South Korea and Hyundai doing the same for the Nintendo consoles up to and including the Nintendo 64.

Mission 1: Space Colony

Left and Right let you move left and right, Down ducks, B attacks and A jumps.

Some enemies will give you power-ups in the form of domes with spinning objects. The dome with the spinning chip will switch between the default wave attack and the boomerang attack. The wave travels to the end of the screen, but the boomerang has less range as the expense of being able to return to you after being thrown. The dome with the pill in refills 50% of your energy, which is at the top center of the screen. The dome with the lightning in it increases the amount of projectiles you can have on-screen at a time, up to four. The dome with "1UP" in it is an extra life. The dome with what looks like a bamboo rod in it is a continue that you can use in case you lose all of your lives. You can see how many weapon power-ups, lives and continues you have by pausing with the Start button. 

Landing in spikes will cause you to lose half of a full health bar, so don't do it.

The orb enemies will shoot at you if you get close enough to them, and they are only vulnerable when they open up to shoot a bullet, so you'll want to be fast and shoot them. The humanoid enemies will jump at you for a flying kick or slide if you get close enough to them, so you'll want to hit them from a distance. Enemies have a brief period of invincibility when you hit them, but once you get used to the timing on the invincibility, you can easily take them out. 

The boxes with the X on them contain power-ups, all of which we've mentioned earlier.

When you go down after the start, head to the right for an extra life.

To climb a ladder, jump into it, then press Up or Down to grab on. Up and Down will allow you to climb the ladder up and down, respectively. Unlike the [i]Mega Man[/i] games, you cannot attack while on a ladder.

The orb that keeps opening its mouth will slowly fly towards you, but it goes down in one hit. The robot enemy that stays still and blocks your shots with its shield will let down the shield and open up to shoot a bullet at you if you get close enough, and it is only vulnerable when it is open.

The white-and-orange discs are platforms that will whisk you away in a certain direction if you land on it. These platforms will be able to take you to places you normally wouldn't be able to go.

The small things that look like robot heads are fall-away platforms. You've seen one at the start, but you'll see more here. Be careful when on them, as you do not want to fall into spikes. They can come at you from seemingly out of nowhere, so be ready to hit them, especially when some of them can contain health or extra lives.

The tanks take two hits to defeat, and as they move back and forth, they will turn towards you and fire at you at regular intervals. 

The domes with the two laser cannons that move across the ceiling will fire lasers downward if it is next to you. Once the lasers are out of the way, immediately move past it so you don't get shot.

The spinning spiked cylinders move up and down and cannot be destroyed; like all enemies, they can do contact damage if you run into them.

Near the end of the level, take the platform on the right so you don't have to deal with the spike pit below.

Each level has an end boss, and your first boss is this robot that looks like a Mouser from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Keep away from it, and when it stops to open its mouth, shoot at it as you jump over the projectiles and use the platforms above the floor to your advantage. After attacking twice, the boss will briefly move faster before returning to its regular speed. Once you know how it moves around, it's a pretty easy boss.

Mission 2: Under Ground

The stage starts with a ton of platforms you can jump on. To take out the small, yellow flashing things on the ground that hurt you when you run into them, duck down and attack. You'll want to do this, as they will jump upwards and hit you if you try to leap over them.

Be ready to attack anything that flies at you, as they usually carry power-ups. The first flying enemy you'll see here will have health, so make sure you kill it. It will look like a flying gray dragon, and it will try to home in on you, even doubling back to do so.

The yellow things with the white "eyes" that shoot missiles at you are vulnerable when their eyes are open.

In the next section, you'll meet the robot heads on small legs. If they have their white "tops," they will simply  walk back and forth, and they will speed up if they hit you; if they don't, they will move around for a brief instance before self-destructing.

The subsequent long passage will have a few new enemies. The dragonfly enemies will track you if you try to run under it, while the white orb enemy with the porthole will shoot bullets around the room clockwise.

The helicopter enemies will try to descend into you to hit you from above. The gold flying enemies with the propellers will drop down when you are close enough, and they will always drop health if you destroy them.

To beat the boss, you'll want to jump up and hit it from the highest platform. The boss will occasionally drop down and cause debris to shoot down; you'll want to avoid the debris as you continue to shoot at the boss. If you know what you're doing, you can defeat this boss quickly.

Mission 3: Factory

All of the enemies from Mission 1 are back here.

You won't be able to walk through the bottom of the stairs at the start, so you'll need to go around them.

The big turret shoots out a three-way shot.

The lava will take off half of a full health bar, just like the spikes, so don't drop into it. Also, because lava exists, the falling platforms are back, and you'll need to get your jumps down pat and make progress without hesitation.

At one point, the circles in the wall spell out the word Open, a reference to the developers.

This level is the debut of the conveyor belts. Thankfully, you can easily tell which direction they are going by seeing which direction everything on them is rotating in.

The boss here is a cyborg enemy that can take multiple hits. He will walk back and forth for a bit before jumping up, shooting a projectile at your current location, and rocketing to the other side of the room like a fireball. He will also perform it if you attack him. You'll want to stay to one side, hit him, then get to the other side while avoiding both the boss' attacks, including the fireball. It is possible to hit him as he drops down, but getting that greedy for an extra hit is not exactly advised. After enough damage, it's on to Mission 4.

Mission 4: Planet Cave

The walker enemy at the start will turn and jump towards you and then attack whenever you attack. Sometimes, you can avoid a fight with them just by leaving them alone. You'll be avoiding a few enemies just to get through this mission more easily.

The orange humanoid enemies will shoot you when you are lined up with them. There is a delay between when they draw their guns and when they shoot, so you can get your attacks in before they do.

The rock droppers are much like the laser shooters from Mission 1. If you're on a higher platform, walk off the edge and keep walking to get onto the next platform.

To get to the window you can see in the lower-left corner at the start, you'll need to jump into the wall to the left of the rock droppers. You'll then find a ladder leading to a continue.

Avoid the smoke coming out of the pipes, as it will damage you.

The conveyor belts are back and in greater numbers. Pay attention to where they are going as you run across them to get where you need to go. If you need more time to figure out where they are going, pause the game and watch them, as the conveyor belts are still animated when the game is paused.

You'll need to fall into a wall while holding left to get a hidden 1-Up.

You'll be seeing lava near the end, and you'll want to avoid falling into it and losing half of a full health bar.

The boss here is a mech that just walks back and forth briefly before disappearing when the screen shakes. Keep shooting at it, and when the screen rumbles, pay attention to where the mech lands and stay on the opposite end of the room so that you don't get hit, as both conveyor belts in the boss room will push your towards the lava pit in the center. Also, watch for the smoke coming out of the pipes; you don't want to get hit by that and knocked into the lava below. From here, it's on to Mission 5.

Mission 5: Planet No. XIV

There's a plane enemy carrying a health pick-up that you can shoot down at the beginning of the stage. Be sure to do so.

The dragonfly enemy will fly towards you if you get close enough to it. 

The 1-Up in this stage is in plain view in the second section; just climb up and go left at the start of it.

You'll be dealing with an upper path and a lower path, and you'll need to chose between them at the end of the second section. Regardless of which path you choose, you'll have to deal with the waterfalls that will drag you off to the side and off the platform that they land on. They're much like the waterfalls from Toad Man's stage in Mega Man IV, and it's pretty awesome that the developers were able to replicate them.

The UFO enemy will give you a 1-Up if you shoot it down.

The boss here is a robot panther that runs back and forth. Shoot it, then jump back to the left where the door is and avoid the rocks that come down from the top of the screen when it headbutts the wall. 

Mission 6: Sky Maze

Shoot down the flying enemies that you see at the beginning when they come down for health, as you'll probably need it coming in. Be sure to duck while you're doing it so you don't get shot by the nearby turret.

For the first section, I take the high road the whole time, and keep shooting while riding the platforms to ensure that I don't get hit. I eventually have to get back down, though. Watch out for bottomless pits!

The second section has you climbing up a tower. Take care of all the enemies that you can on your way to the top, and watch out for the moving spike cylinders.

After that, you're in another maze. Not surprisingly, I take the high road most of the time and take out any enemies I can, including the turrets, and I'll have to get back to the bottom to reach the exit.

The boss is a combination of a rock dropper - which we've seen before in Mission 4 - and a mech that jumps up and rockets from one side of the room to the other. The mech boss is easy, as you can just shoot it and then jump over it, but the rock dropper complicates things a little bit. Remember that you have to be standing close to where the rock dropper is to get it to drop rocks. 

Mission 7: Planet X

The flying enemy at the beginning will drop projectiles where you are at and will keep following you until you destroy it.

Some of the enemies from Mission 4, such as the rock dropper and the walking mechs, return here. The walking mech near the end of the first section has a 1-Up if you destroy it on a platform.

The second section has a lot of the enemies with the blasters. You'll need to avoid getting shot while climbing up a ladder, then hug the left wall on the subsequent pit to take out all the enemies carefully and get yourself a continue. Be ready to jump to the left off the platform near the end when you see the edge of the floor near the top so you don't get hit by spikes. 

The UFO enemy has a five-way shot that we can finally see now that we have to get away from it in order to shoot down.

The pipes that shoot out the gas are back; avoid the gas/smoke/whatever it is that comes out of them.

You'll need to jump on the white parts of the wall at the end of the section with all the humanoid enemies to get to the ladder.

The boss is a flying purple ship that will shoot a five-way shot at you. Avoid the projectiles, jump and shoot, duck when it comes your way, then run to the side opposite the boss and repeat the process. If you know what you're doing, you can beat this boss easily.

When you beat the boss, you'll see the ending sequence. The hero escapes before the base self-destructs, and you'll have to return to base back on Earth in order to take care of things there. Unfortunately, the sequel never happened, as the publisher and developer of this game both stopped developing console games. Regardless, you just beat Metal Force!