Tearaway Thomas (Amiga)

Developer:

Global Software

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

Amiga

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This week on Super Adventures I'm having a quick look at obscure platformer Tearaway Thomas.

It might seem a bit weird that I'm playing an Amiga game called Tearaway Thomas right after playing an Amiga game called Rolling Ronny last week, but that's because they're both filed away into the same folder in my brain. I'm finally making an effort here to learn which is which and more importantly what they even are.

As far as I can tell this is the first and last commercial video game these folks ever made, presumably because it's such an incredible work of art that they decided that trying to follow it up would be pointless and it was best to quit while they were ahead. Or maybe it's real bad and it shamed them into exile. I can't remember, that's why I'm replaying it now.

Stargate (SNES/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Probe/Tantalus

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Release Date:

1995

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Systems:

SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis

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This week on Super Adventures I'm still celebrating Star Trek's 50th anniversary by playing games that have some vague connection to the series. This one's got 'Star' in the title, it's set on another planet, and it's based on a long running movie/TV franchise, so it's ticking lots of boxes. In fact the 'Stargate' TV spin-offs were often the closest you can get to proper 'Star Trek' without getting sued by both CBS and Paramount.

But Stargate the game is an adaptation of the original 1994 movie that kicked the franchise off, released a year after the film for Super Nintendo and Genesis/Mega Drive consoles. That's the SNES title screen you're looking at up there, with its narrow resolution and extra colours, but I'll be getting around to the the Sega version as well eventually.

'Stargate' isn't a particularly great film, but it cheats by having an iconic theme by Bond composer David Arnold powerful enough to make scenes of extras walking across a desert outside of Yuma, Arizona feel like the most epic sci-fi adventure since 'Return of the Jedi'... which used the place for Tatooine now that I think about it. Anyway, if there's one thing that absolutely works about that movie it's the music, so of course the game drops it entirely, replacing it with a title theme that sounds like it's been borrowed from an Amiga game. It's not all that bad though really, here have a YouTube link if you're curious.

There'll be movie SPOILERS below this point, so stop reading here unless you've seen it or don't care.

Arabian Nights (Amiga)

Developer:

Krisalis

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

Amiga, CD32

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It's been exactly 30 years since the first Amigas hit stores, so today on Super Adventures I'll be celebrating by taking a look a classic Amiga exclusive! To be honest I only just learned about the Amiga's birthday from Twitter, so it's pure coincidence I'm playing this now (the game probably won't even run on an original A1000), but the timing worked out eerily well.

You can probably already tell from the title screen that Arabian Nights is all about managing your own 'One Thousand and One Nights' themed theme park! Actually no it's just another platformer from the golden age of running and jumping. That roller coaster is really a mine cart, the pirate ship ride is probably an actual pirate ship, and the guy floating around on a balloon likely didn't win it with his archery skill in a carnival game.

Despite the title, it's not an adaptation of any 'Arabian Nights' story in particular either, though if Scheherazade had gone on for a 1002nd night she might have gotten around to it. It's got that same kind of 'swords and flying carpet sorcery' fantasy setting. I know all this because I dug the game up from my hazy childhood memories, and I'm very familiar with it. Well, the first 20 minutes anyway (I didn't have much patience back then)... but I promise you I'll show you least three proper levels before I turn it off this time. Maybe more if it has continues!

Vice: Project Doom (NES)

Today on Super Adventures, I'll be playing this NES game for an hour or so. The Japanese call it Gun-Dec, but in America it's known as Vice: Project Doom. It doesn't seem like it ever reached Europe, but here I shall call it Vice Project: Doom, because that just flows better to me somehow.

This had better be about a vice cop who ends up being the one man who can stop a supervillain's scheme to doom America by dumping cocaine into the water supply or... starting a chain of casinos in... high schools or something. I dunno, I just want to see a proper b-grade 80s action movie plot here.

Unreal (Amiga)

Whoa, look at the size of that title screen! That ain't normal for a 16-bit game man; you could fit six SNES title screens into that thing with room to spare.

Today on Super Adventures, I'm putting an hour or so into classic Amiga game Unreal, published by Ubisoft in 1990, eight years before Epic and Digital Extremes would borrow the title for their first person shooter and the infamous engine it runs on. I don't actually know much of anything about this Unreal though, except that it was ported across to the PC and Atari ST a year after the Amiga version, and the title screen is insane. It's a hand-pixelled reproduction of the cover to the 1979 edition of the Michael Moorcock novel 'Lord of the Spiders', which makes more sense when you know that the painting was also used for the game's box art. I guess someone at Ubisoft was a fan.

NHK Okāsan to Issho: Niko Niko Pun (TurboGrafx-16)

And the latest game for my year-long epic marathon through the alphabet is... another PC Engine game. If you're wondering why I'm playing this so soon after Neutopia, well, amazingly this the only game beginning with 'N' left to play on my requests list. I've got the names of 11 A games scrawled down there, 15 S games, even 7 W games, but this is the one and only N. And now that I'm playing it there are in fact no Ns.

There's a whole lot of words in 'NHK Okāsan to Issho: Niko Niko Pun', but if you break the title down it's pretty straightforward. NHK is Japan's public broadcasting organisation (equivalent to Britain's BBC), Okaasan to Issho is a long running TV series for children, and Niko Niko Pun was a segment on that series. I know absolutely nothing else about the series, but judging by the characters on the game box I'm guessing it's for children. Young children.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (PC)

Huh, is that red rabbit's arm bracer melting? Oh wait, I think that's actually his tongue dripping.

It's been over two years since I played the original Jazz Jackrabbit for the site and I figured it was about time that I got around to the sequel. Plus I keep getting requests for it, so that was another big hint that it's overdue.

Silent Hill (PSX)

It occurs to me I've been getting a bit too comfortable with my genres lately. I'm trying to explore the whole weird and wonderful world of video games here, but I've ended up with a site full of first person shooters, RPGs and platformers instead.

So today I'm finally getting around to another requested game: the original Silent Hill on the original PlayStation, one of the original survival horror games. Honestly I'm not expecting to like this much as survival horror isn't really my thing, but I will try to give it a fair shot. You can all laugh at me as I get hopelessly lost and fail to solve basic puzzles.

I suppose I should "start" the "game" then.

Cadash (TurboGrafx-16)

As requested, today I'm taking a look at Cadash, on the TurboGrafx-16 console. This is a port of a 1989 arcade game of the same name, and looking at those flames on the logo I'm guessing it's mostly going to be about walking to the right and hitting things with a sword.

Konami Wai Wai World (NES)

I love Super Mario Crossover (browser game link), and I'm kind of surprised Nintendo hasn't taken the idea for themselves yet. Someone put Mario, Mega Man, Samus Aran, Simon Belmont etc. together in one game, and for once it wasn't in a fighting game or a racing game! Uh, not that there's anything wrong with those genres, it's just not really their natural habitat. So when I found out there was a game called Wai Wai World starring famous (pre 1988) Konami platformer heroes, I thought it might be worth a look.

I just hope they don't make me play as that Captain America wannabe sticking his head through the title screen.

ActRaiser (SNES)

By request, today I'm going to find out what ActRaiser is.

It seems that the US, Japanese, and European versions of this are all slightly different, though I'm not really sure what was changed. I do know that the European version I'm playing has an extra 'Action mode' available, which I'm not going to pick. Plus they've given the game a difficulty select screen, though like usual I'm just going to leave it on the the medium setting.

Spider-Man (GBC)

Today I'm taking a look at Spider-Man on the Game Boy Colour, because if there's one thing this site needs it's more platformers based on comic books.

This may look like your average 'hero poses above the city on a rooftop' title screen, but it actually has a bit of story leading up to it.

Mega Man (MS-DOS)

I couldn't play NES Mega Man without playing the DOS game too. It's an important piece of video game history.

Apparently this was pretty much entirely made by one guy and is a completely different game to the NES version, but hey it might be good.

Mega Man (NES)

No one's dying to see any screenshots of this game, but I had to get around to playing a Mega Man game sooner or later, and I decided to make it sooner.

Earthworm Jim (Genesis/Mega Drive)

I'm playing this one by request... kind of.

Earthworm Jim was the first game by the makers of Global Gladiators, Cool Spot, Aladdin etc, after they split from Virgin Games to form Shiny Entertainment. So I'm planning on comparing it to those games incessantly throughout the post.

Aladdin (Genesis/Mega Drive)

A.k.a. Disney's Aladdin I suppose.

There's a few different Aladdin games, but this is the Genesis/Mega Drive variant, by the makers of Global Gladiators and Cool Spot and probably lots of other games I haven't played yet.

Sega's sound chip pulls off a half decent version of 'A Whole New World' here, but the Amiga and DOS versions surprised me by having actual vocals come in during the chorus. Though you only get the one line, and it's cut off at the end.

"A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only..."

We're only...? Only what?

Magic Pockets (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 7

That's the most hypnotic title screen I've seen since Xenon 2. It's got the standard Bitmap Brothers blue and orange colour scheme, but where's the shiny metal?

The title screen music this time is a conversion of 'Doin' the Do' by rapper Betty Boo, only without the vocals (youtube links). I have to admit that I actually like the track, though maybe I'm just nostalgic. I used to play this game when I was very young, so there's a chance I'll actually know what I'm doing in this one.

Gods (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 6

Shiny metal text, blue and orange colour scheme... yep this looks like a Bitmap Brothers game to me.

The title screen music (youtube link!) is 'Into the Wonderful' by Nation 12, converted into mod form, and it ain't bad. Doesn't really fit the image at all, but I couldn't really care less.

Extreme (ZX Spectrum)

The humble rubber keyed ZX Spectrum home computer is 30 years old today, so I thought I'd put a Speccy game on to, I dunno, celebrate or whatever.

I haven't had much luck with Spectrum games so far, but this one has to be good, surely? It's got a naked dude with robot walker legs and a Stormtrooper helmet setting fire to shit with a flamethrower while flexing! You just don't see that kind of thing on title screens these days.

Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle (MS-DOS)

The poor kid looks like he's been dropped on his head a few too many times. To be honest I was expecting Commander Keen to be somewhere between Duke Nukem and Buck Rogers, not a pale guy in a crash helmet and magenta t-shirt.