Dinosaur Detective Agency (Amiga)

Developer:

Maximum Effect

|

Release Date:

1993

|

Systems:

Amiga

---

This week on Super Adventures I had a sudden urge to play Dinosaur Detective Agency for the Amiga, and I'm as confused as anyone about it.

I'm surprised I even remember the game, as if you add up the number of minutes I've spent playing the game they'd be less than the number of years since I last booted it up. In fact I was expecting the hero to look more like Sam Spade than Sherlock Holmes. Naughty game, encouraging kids to smoke pipes.

Hang on, does that say "1993" down there? Wow, what are the chances of this coming out the same year as 'Jurassic Park'? To be fair dinosaurs were already plenty popular before the movie, so I wouldn't say this is cynically cashing in on a fad. Because if they were he'd be riding a skateboard like Radical Rex.

Bonk's Revenge (TurboGrafx-16)

At last I've finally gotten around to playing another requested game: Bonk's Revenge for the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, aka. PC Genjin 2.

This is the second in the Bonk/PC Genjin series of games, which were actually based around a character from comic in a PC Engine magazine (the name's a clever pun, see, as genjin means caveman). So this guy was basically Hudson's own Mario or Sonic, the mascot for their console. Though weirdly this is the first in the series to be exclusive to the system, as Bonk's Adventure came out on like four other formats. I played it for the site a couple of years ago on an Amiga, where it was called BC Kid just to confuse things even more for no good reason.

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (SNES)

Another game based on a movie.

Did they just flood fill the outline of that text? Look at the inside of the letters b, e and a.

Oscar (Amiga CD32)

Oh great, another Sonic the Hedgehog wannabe.

BC Kid / Bonk's Adventure (Amiga)

GOOD RETRO GAME WEEK, day 2.

BC Kid, also known as PC Genjin, FC Genjin, Bonk's Adventure... the game's got a lot of names.

The Amiga version of the game is actually available as a free download from the developer's website here: Factor 5 downloads.

Doraemon: Nobita no Dorabian Night (TurboGrafx-16)

Seems like we're going to be visiting ancient Persia. Wow, what is up with that guy's eyes?

Jurassic Park: Trespasser (PC)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 16.

Okay this is the last one, I promise. I couldn't finish my Jurassic Park 'week' without including Trespasser. It just wouldn't be right.

Warpath: Jurassic Park (PSX)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 15.

Damn, fifteen games so far? I had no idea there were so many of these things. I'm going to have to bring this to an end or else Jurassic Park week might end up lasting another month.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (PSX)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 14.

Any resemblance to characters or events from the movie is purely coincidental.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (GB)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 13.

Presented in Super Game Boy-vision, to save us having to look at green monochrome again.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 12.

Well, say goodbye to Isla Nublar, we're probably stuck at Site B for the rest of the games. I wonder why these games all have the characters, logos, settings, everything from the movies except for the music. Would they have had to license that separately or something? The music in this sounds like it belongs more in Street Fighter 2.

Jurassic Park 2 (GB)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 11.

It doesn't quite have the same visual impact as having the number scratched in with dinosaur claws.

Jurassic Park II: The Chaos Continues (SNES)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 10.

Man, it's lucky that they decided to call the second Jurassic Park movie 'The Lost World' instead of 'Jurassic Park 2' or else this could have gotten confusing.

Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 9.

I'm not sure why this is called the 'Rampage Edition', when it's actually an entirely different game to the other Mega Drive/Genesis platformer. Couldn't they have just gone with 'Jurassic Park: Rampage'?

Jurassic Park Interactive (3DO)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 8.

The most dramatic title screen yet. The title feels a little pretentious though. This isn't a mere game, this is Interactive multimedia.

Jurassic Park (Sega Mega CD)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 7.

That's pretty understated compared to the other games. They didn't even add the red lines to the centre of the letters. The music's pretty bad though, it's a shame none of these games have used any of the John Williams movie soundtrack.

Jurassic Park (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 6.

That looks cool. Very dramatic. It seems that the artist got bored adding anti-aliasing to the tyrannosaurus bones halfway through though, and couldn't be bothered getting the text looking right.

Jurassic Park (Master System)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 5.

It doesn't look that bad for a Master System game.

Jurassic Park (Amiga)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 4

It looks nice enough, though it's not as flashy as the SNES version.

Jurassic Park (SNES)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 3.

Whoa, that looks much better than the NES and GB versions. Weirdly I have to control the pointer with the d-pad to select menu options. And the pointer has momentum.