Break Time

Posted on March 12, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

It pains me to have to take a break from the game-a-day routine. The fact is I have lots of other things I either need to do or want to do. Thus, I’m going to take at least a few days off from doing new games and blog posts of each. The good news is that maintaining this blog for the last 2+ months has helped me to develop an amazing amount of discipline. Hopefully, I can channel that discipline to do what I need to get done. Hopefully, I will still find time to write up some little posts here and there and perhaps re-play some of the games covered so far.

I still have around 1/2 dozen games to get into the database. Plus, here are the most recent entries thanks to this blog:

Who Shot Johnny Rock?

Posted on March 11, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

This is my first exposure to this curious genre of American Laser Games interactive movie shooters, a genre mashup that came about before anyone was likely aware of the concept of a genre mashup. Allegedly, Who Shot Johnny Rock? was wildly popular along with other games from the same group, the most famous of which was Mad Dog McCree. Maybe these games worked better in the arcade where players got to use a gun instead of a mouse. I do remember seeing such games in the arcade and they certainly were novel, which is great for an arcade run.

Unfortunately, I think novelty was probably the one and only thing this game and others like it had going. At first, I thought that maybe this would be an I-movie type game. But as I started it up, I remembered that this was from the Mad Dog McCree folks and that shooting would somehow figure prominently. So a lounge act by the name Johnny Rock has been brutally riddled with bullets. His now-former fiancee enlists the help of you, a private investigator, in order to find who killed him in this quasi-noir 20s-style detective comic story. The whole affair begins in a surreal enough manner. She wanders into your office but there is a thug close behind. You have to plug him fast before he can do you first.

Who Shot Johnny Rock? -- client oblivious to shooter

The woman continues as if nothing is wrong, even as goon after nameless goon files through the door, or crashes through windows to put this P.I. on ice before you have a chance to accept the case. Shoot or be shot.

The mechanics of each possible encounter are as such: The encounter is a FMV scene that has a slight window of opportunity to react after the character actually brandishes a weapon. If they don’t show a weapon, no matter how suspicious or overtly threatening they appear, you are treated to a funeral scene where someone patiently and condescendingly tutors you on how not to screw up. If you don’t shoot within the proper window of opportunity, then it’s off to a hospital cutscene where a wisecracking doctor removes the foreign material from your body, but only if you have $400; otherwise, he leaves you for dead and it’s off to the morgue for a sly comment courtesy of the undertaker. If you happen to hit the hostile presence within the window of opportunity, you get to continue the quest/case.

There is a minor adventure element at work here in that you have an overhead city map that allows you to select where you would like to visit next. You must visit the hangouts of the “Four Diseases” — big time gangsters in the city — to learn what they know. But not without a major shootout first, one for each locale. The game is primarily trial and error, mostly error on my part. But what it lacks in playability, it makes up for in comedy relief. When you take out this random henchman during the pool hall shootout, he actually leaps forward onto the table to die:

Who Shot Johnny Rock? -- pool hall shootout

This game was also available on the Philips CD-i and Sega CD systems. I can’t imagine having to play this on a system with no mouse! To have to react to the characters using only a control pad — ouch.

See Also:

Mad Dog McCree for the Sega CD — I was right, it’s a nightmare to control

At MobyGames:

Who Shot Johnny Rock?

Astro Assembler

Posted on March 10, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Astro Assembler comes from a brand new batch of obscure software recently procured from an eBay store. It’s another lost gem courtesy of PC Treasures, Inc., the publisher responsible for all of those Super Target dollar specials that I have reviewed thus far. It finally occurred to me to investigate their website this evening and I realized that there must be well over 100 games in their OEM catalog that I don’t have and that probably aren’t in MobyGames yet.

One reason that a number of these games are not yet in the database is probably that a number of them were licensed from non-American development houses (whereas the vast majority of MobyGames records come from American games). Based on some of the names involved with this game, I am guessing it comes from Portugal even though the main title looks somewhat Japanese at first glance:

The box copy sells the title as a relentless action game. Let’s see if it lives up to the hype. What kind of game are we dealing with here? It shapes up to be a vertically scrolling shooter, what I liked to call fly-through, shoot-em-ups when I was growing up. Gradius and R-Type seemed to be the archetypes and were always among my favorite brainless action games though they were frustrating beyond belief, principally due to the fact that one hit did you in. Astro Assembler is no exception to the rule.

AA is gorgeous, to be sure, though a little sparse on music despite the promise of 15 CD audio tracks in the game. The graphics shine throughout. 3D rendered spaceship enemy sprites swoop from different planes onto yours for the attack. The scrolling starfield and tumbling background asteroids are beautiful, and the explosions are crisp.

It takes me awhile to settle on a satisfactory control scheme. There are several default keyboard layouts from which to choose. I can’t get used to any of them. Finally, I remember to plug my gamepad into my new computer and I have that option available to me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work! When I configure for joystick, I can navigate the game menus just fine but the in-game ship won’t respond to me. Fortunately, I found the option to customize a keyboard control scheme and I come up with a halfway decent one.

One of the first features I noticed was that holding the fire button results in a rapid, continuous stream of fire. This seems like the desirable approach. However, this type of offensive power only works against flying opponents. There are all types of things to hit on the ground (various solid objects passing beneath you in space). These include enemies and powerups that need to be hit before collected. Nailing these targets requires a missile and missiles aren’t fired as quickly as the main cannon, though you can speed up the rate of fire by manually firing.

I should mention that the “Assembler” part of the title comes from the feature that allows you to assemble various upgrades to your craft if you gather enough powerups. I would show you this if I could possibly make it far enough into the game, even on the easiest skill level.

So committed are the authors to maintaining an authentic arcade feel that the high score initial entry mechanism forces you to cycle through letters using the left and right controls and select initials with the fire button. I only mention it because it’s sort of a pet peeve when PC games don’t take advantage of the keyboard in these situations.

At MobyGames:

Astro Assembler

See Also:

Astro Assembler Archived at Internet Archive

Tek Kids Closure

Posted on March 9, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

Tonight was the night that I set out to achieve closure on the whole Taco Bell Tek Kids Flash-Ops series. To pump me up for the occasion, I purchased a representative selection of fine Taco Bell cuisine, including nachos, burrito, taco (chalupa, to be technical), and that curious Mexican/Italian crossover fare, the Mexican pizza. All are pictured here next to the 4 Tek Kids games destined to become merchandising classics:

Click for larger image

Fortified with the foregoing food powerup items (as in the game), I was ready to load up the Aqua Zone and Sky Fortress episodes again, ironically attacking them with the pacifist strategy I had worked out. Don’t shoot anything, just maintain power levels by picking up fuel tanks, plus the occasional Taco Bell powerup if I accidentally bump any bad guys. It takes a little while and some practice but I finally make it to the end of the Aqua Zone where the Tek Kid takes out this aquatic structure:

This is strange because I thought the target was an underwater sub. Then again, the sub shown in the intro might have just been your ride to the scene. Similarly, the X-perimental aerial aircraft carrier Albatross is not seen at the start of Sky Fortress, only a large, civilian-style jet presumably to launch you into your mission. Here is the assault on the airborne aircraft carrier:

Sky Fortress -- Taking Out The X-perimental Aerial Aircraft Carrier Albatross

This is even stranger since I distinctly recall from the intro of Sky Fortress that they were supposed to recover the XAA Albatross on behalf of the U.S. Air Force. Someone up the chain of command is going to give these Tek Kids a time out. But I now have all the codes:

Aqua Zone: 4GH7
Polar Challenge: PXM6
Data Island: AR93
Sky Fortress: 8E3H

Selecting a specific letter from each code yields the final secret code of AGMH. This triggers the final sequence where the 4 Tek Kids take their spaceship up to Havok’s orbiting satellite, where he probably, and foolishly, believes that he would be safe from spying minors.

The preceding screenshot captures the Tek Kids’ abject astonishment when they find Dr. Havok and realize that he has totally ripped off Doctor Octopus.

Our young heroes defeat the madman by moving around so quickly that the tentacles become tangled and then they maneuver behind to press some auto-destruct button on the suit, which destroys the suit but not the human. A suit from the bureau comes up to the spaceship to apprehend Dr. Havok and congratulate you, thus ending the south of the border odyssey.

Tek-Kids Flash-Ops: Mission: Sky Fortress

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

It was another late work-related night. You know what that means: Another Taco Bell Tek-Kids game! Actually, this is the last one that I have in reserve: Mission: Sky Fortress.

Wouldn’t you know it, that wily Dr. Havok is up to his old dirty deeds again when he steals a technological device capable of great destruction. The game acknowledges the passé nature of the good doctor’s exploits by stating that the device will be used for his usual evil purposes, implying that even the game engine is getting tired of this schtick. Conspicuously absent is any overriding environmental theme. Get this, though: the device in question is eXperimental Aerial Aircraft Carrier, the XAA Carrier “Albatross”. I wonder if our brilliant mastermind is aware that that’s not exactly a revered bird of prey?

The gameplay features the same dual-maneuvering gameplay mechanic as seen is Mission: Aqua Zone. Using the cursor keys maneuvers your craft in the same direction as the key pressed while aiming the target zone in roughly the opposite direction, making it extremely difficult to collect items and line up shots at the same time. Oh, and the primary enemy in this episode is the flying monkey drone; that’s worth mention.

I plan to replay both Aqua Zone and Sky Fortress soon so I can complete both missions and unlock the secret mission using codes from all 4 regular games. The strategy will be a pacifist approach: just concentrate on collecting fuel tanks and dodging enemies until the end of the mission.

Independence Day (Windows)

Posted on March 7, 2007 by Multimedia Mike

I have to qualify the platform of this game with the title since I also have the Sega Saturn version which will probably come up in the experiment sooner or later. Indeed, Independence Day, based on the 1996 movie, has a total of 3 platform ports including the PlayStation, and none have screenshots in the database. Why the mystery? I shall be the brave soul to take on the savage aliens.

I suppose I’m lucky in a way since I generally get to experience these older games with the maximum features on offer. ID4 for Windows allows the player to select between a 3D MMX software engine and a Direct3D HAL engine. Naturally, I choose the latter hardware option along with 11 kHz stereo audio rather than the plain monophonic option. High-end.

The object of this game is to fly a jet, shoot down alien fighter craft, and ultimately bring down a bunch of gigantic alien ships. I see from the instruction manual that the control scheme is slightly reminiscent of Descent, which strikes me as a bit cheesy. Fortunately, it’s not precisely the same; the jet is always moving, never stationary although you can throw on the “air brakes” to slow way down temporarily.

Independence Day -- Aiming For A Generator

The beginning of the game shows you some cinematics lifted from the film. The jets approach the big ship, get their collective rears handed to them, and then fall back to the Grand Canyon to continue the battle. Strategically, no voices or likenesses of actors from the movie are ever heard or seen. Unlike in the movie, one of the city-destroying alien ships follows you to the Grand Canyon. You first mission is to take out its 4 shield generators and then fry its main cannon.

So you’re bounded by some uninspired canyon landscape below, a flat spaceship surface above, and the alien forcefield on all sides. Boundaries, we need boundaries. Also, all objects are essentially rubber in this game. If you hit anything, you sort of slide and bounce off into a different direction. Sometimes your aircraft sustains damage as a result but you have the check your power meter in order to know since there are no audible or visual cues to indicate hurtful encounters.

I realized that I’m thinking too hard about the game at first. The gameplay isn’t complicated and you don’t have to aim. When you fire your bullets, the cannon just points to wherever the auto-aiming facility is pointing. The alien fighters would be impossible to hit were it not for the audible “You’ve got tone” chatter from your wingman to indicate that you really ought to fire off a missile. Hitting the generator requires constant sweeps back and forth past the stationary targets until I remember about those “air brakes”. Eventually, I somehow bring down one of the big craft. The game rewards me with an overly long sweep of practically the entire unremarkable ship along with clipped canyon polygons below.

All told, I find the controls to be incredibly awkward. I can’t wait to see how the design crew transposed all the controls onto the Saturn controller.

When I procured and investigated the Sega Saturn version of this title many years ago for the purpose of multimedia study, I found that it had a number of multimedia files bearing the extension .egg. I was always curious if the other platform ports used the same format. Amazingly, no! At least the Windows port uses uses yet another custom file format, this one with the extension .yqs, and it’s a completely different format inside.

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Month: March 2007