Forbidden Forest

As the Halloween season draws ever nearer, I’d like to present one of the first games that I ever found truly terrifying (of course, I was four years old at the time).  No, it’s not a survival horror…it’s an old Commodore 64 action classic called Forbidden Forest.

The work of a single programmer, Paul Norman, the game was being programed as a means of learning 6502 programming.  At the time Paul worked for a small software company which was going out of business, and representatives from another company, Cosmi, were visiting for the purpose of buying office furniture, saw Paul at his desk working on the game, and hired him on the spot.  The game was released in 1983 under the Cosmi label and became one of the more well-known and highly-regarded Commodore 64 games released.

The plot of the game is simple: you are an archer journeying into a haunted forest to find and slay the Demogorgon, an immense beast terrorizing the land.  During your hunt you will have to fend off giant spiders, dragons, snakes, skeletal warriors and eerie phantoms.  Each level was unique, with a new foe to face before you could progress.  Some levels required simple action tactics as you fought off waves of spiders creeping out of the trees.  In others, you yourself were the hunted as a dragon would stalk you through the woods, giving you little time to react before roasting you alive.

The game is notable as an early example of parallax scrolling (multiple background layers moving at different speeds to create the illusion of depth) as well as being one of the first games to feature animated blood and gore.  The latter is perhaps one of the title’s most defining aspects.  Rather than just a simple graphical representation of blood, the game contained fairly brutal death scenes.  Capture by a giant spider would result in an extended scene of the player writhing back and forth as the spider attacked, spraying animated blood in increasing amounts as the brief scene played out.  The game also had a day-night transition, complete with a moon that slowly crept across the sky from left to right as the forest grew darker and darker as one progressed.  By the time one reached the Demogorgon, the forest would be pitch-black and one’s foe could be seen only during flashes of lightning that revealed his location as he crept ever closer, stalking the player in the dark.

The game was popular enough to result in a sequel, released in 1985 under the title Beyond the Forbidden Forest.  An even more ambitious title, it was advertised as being in “OmniDimensional 4-D”, meaning that the player could walk and shoot into and out of the foreground, in addition to just left and right.  An aiming mechanic was also added, as two bars appears at the side of the screen to show the up and down angle one’s arrows would travel, which could be adjusted according to where one wanted to shoot.

Unfortunately this mechanic over-complicated the control scheme and resulted in gameplay that was clunky and inelegant.  Despite its ambition the sequel just wasn’t as much fun and isn’t as well-remembered today.

In 2003, the series was revived somewhat with a release in 2003.  Titled simply Forbidden Forest, it was a budget title co-developed with Webfoot Technologies.  The gameplay was brought into the third dimension, but although the theme of the original could have translated into an excellent survival-horror game, the resulting budget-priced title boasted lackluster graphics, a “forest” that felt more like a pleasant woodland resort and enemies who were far too generic to be frightening.  The best thing about the title was the re-orchestrated main theme and the fact that the CD contained a Commodore 64 emulator and copies of the original two titles.

Dark Ages

The influence of Apogee (later 3D Realms) was significant in its time.  Credited with developing the common Shareware method of game distribution in 1987, wherein titles were released in episodes with only the first released for free (known at its beginning as the "Apogee Model"), they also developed a string of hit titles, some of which continue to the present day (Duke Nukem).  They also had the distinction of publishing ID Software's Wolfenstein 3D, which, although not the first First-Person Shooter, often regarded as the granddaddy of them, bringing the genre great, widespread fame and leading the way for ID's runaway hit Doom.

Amongst their smaller achievements, Apogee is also credited with released the first shareware game to utilize soundcard support.  It might be easy to take this sort of thing for granted nowadays, but prior to this point in time, when otherwise excellent games were tied down to sharp auditory bleeps and blips from the extremely low-fi built in PC speaker.  Soundcard support was a huge deal.

Unfortunately, Dark Ages, although grandfathering this support on the shareware scene, was not otherwise a stand-out title.  Graphically flat and not particularly interesting, it was by no means a bad game, just not a very good one in a time when titles like Commander Keen, lacking soundcard support but trumping Dark Ages on gameplay, were already out on the scene.  It is a title that has largely been forgotten and is rarely mentioned, but nevertheless it deserves a small place in the spotlight if only as a milestone on the gaming timeline.  It also bears the distinction of being designed by Todd Replogle, who later that same year would release Duke Nukem.

That said, the game can be entertaining in its own right, even if it is weak when held against its compatriots.  Apart from its technologically advanced (for its time) music and sound, the game had a "high-fantasy" setting that brings to mind arcade games like Rastan.  You control a magic-wielding warrior prince who fights to free his kingdom from the evil wizard Garth, who has plagued the land with hordes of undead minions.  Gameplay and level-design are very straight forward, and basically you fight your way back and forth across fairly simplistic landscapes until you finally reach your journey's end.  Nothing special, but fun if you're in the mood for something simple.  Apogee would revisit this high-fantasy "babes and barbarians" style setting with much greater effect in 1995 with Realms of Chaos.  3D Realms released Dark Ages as freeware in 2009.

Monster Bash

Growing up, I was drawn to macabre tales of horror, and my imagination ran wild to think of ghosts and ghouls prowling the night.  The fact that I was afraid of the dark did little to dissuade this pursuit.  I was only afraid of the dark, because I knew what dwelled there...

That history doubtless set the stage for an imagination that was all too ready to leap upon the classical macabre stylings of games like Hugo's House of Horrors and, a personal platforming favorite, Monster Bash.

Monster Bash was released by Apogee in 1993.  Apogee, one of the early pioneers shareware gaming, had a string of excellent platform games in the 90s.  Most people immediately recognize the name Duke Nukem, which continued into the 3D era, and many remember with fondness Commander Keen, but there was more to the Apogee story, and some titles that never resulted in a franchise have sadly fallen into the void, which is a shame.  Among these is Monster Bash, a tale of a young, pajama-clad, sling-shot wielding Johnny Dash who, on a dark and stormy night, uncovers a plot by villainous vampire Count Chuck to steel the dogs and cats of the world and transform them into monsters.  Johnny sets out to free his own kidnapped pooch and the other stolen dogs and cats of the world, and his quest takes him running through zombie-filled graveyards, twisted sawmills, haunted houses and bizarre laboratories.

The gameplay was solid.  Each level had a largely open environment, with Johnny hunting down the location of the cages dogs and cats.  Once they were all set free, one could move on to the next.  Controls were tight, and the music was exciting.  I always felt that Johnny Dash would have made a fitting cousin for Billy Blaze of Commander Keen fame, and was disappointed that the game didn't produce more titles.

The real standout aspect of the game is the presentation.  The graphics are beautiful for their time, a mix of bright, colorful locations melded with what are probably some of the goriest elements you'll ever find in what is otherwise a kid-friendly platformer.  Bloody spears, some covered in unidentifiable entrails, jut out of the ground.  Zombies explode into bloody chunks upon death, and sometimes their heads will continue to roll along the ground and attack the player until squashed.  It's all in good fun and contrasts spectacularly with the otherwise kiddish presentation, making it a joyful romp through a nightmarish world.  To any fans of classical PC platform games, I highly recommend it.

Scooter's Magic Castle

I was probably about twelve when my family purchased our first PC, and the Commodore 64 was packed away and largely forgotten.  That initial, off-white tower of magic came with a bundle of educational software titles.  Most people tend to get their guard up when talking about "edutainment", a field rife with titles that are more lecture than game, but the bundle of CD-ROMs that arrived with our first PC was a treasure-trove of entertaining gems.

Granted, a lot of this material was intended for a younger audience than myself at that age, and fell right into step with my little sister who was four years behind me.  But did I care about that?  Not on your life.  Fun was fun, and in the cozy confines of your parent's basement den, who cares if you're playing Wolfenstein 3D or Gus Goes to Cybertown?

One of the most entertaining titles to come with the PC was Scooter's Magic Castle, released by EA-Kids (yes, EA of Electronic Arts fame.  This was before they became the tyrannical company everybody loves to hate).  Although the presentation is much like an early-learner Adventure game, it is in fact far more open-ended.  In the game, you follow along with a little elf named Scooter, a bouncy little fellow who could have walked right out of a Disney film, and explore a magical castle filled with mini-games.  Like many kid's games of this sort, you can click on all manner of objects to reveal fun animations.

Games encountered within the castle are often simple, but very well presented with bright colors and lively animations and sound effects.  They include a musical memory game, a fishing minigame and (a personal favorite of mine) a color-mixing game wherein you mix together various colors to bring to life a clownish Frankenstein's monster.

With its colorful presentation, perky animation and bright, upbeat music, it is easy to lose an hour exploring Scooter's Magic Castle.  The game is easily available for download on the net from various Abandonware sites (although it may require some emulation to run properly), and it is well worth a look.  It still holds up today, having more charm and fun than much of the shovelware that tends to be pushed out under the banner of education.  Even as an adult it is a charming little diversion, and if you've got young kids, they're sure to love to fall in love with Scooter.

Hugo's House of Horrors

I love a good Adventure game, be it text-only, graphical/text or point-and-click.  One of my favorites is the Hugo series, the first of which, Hugo’s House of Horror, was released in 1990 by Gray Design Associates.  The game is fairly short and not overly complex, although some of the puzzles can be real brain teasers.  It is possible to kill off your character, but although there are a few death traps they are not so common as to be detrimental to the gameplay.  The game has a charming graphical presentation and a solid dose of humor.

The objective is to lead Hugo on a quest to rescue his girlfriend Penelope, who hasn’t been seen since entering a creepy old house on a babysitting job.  The house, it turns out, is home to a mad doctor and a host of ghouls, and they have their own nefarious plans in mind for poor Penelope.

You control Hugo via the arrow buttons, and interact with your surroundings and communicate with the denizens of the house through a text prompt.  The text entry flows smoothly, and recognizes both full sentences as well as brief, keyword oriented commands.  The game recognizes commands outside of those required by the gameplay, so you can sometimes get humorous responses depending on how you choose to speak to Hugo.

The game was followed by two sequels, each following the same basic play mechanics.  The second, Hugo II: Whodunnit? is my personal favorite.  This time you take control of Penelope who is visiting her rich Uncle Horace.  Shortly after Penelope and Hugo arrive at her uncle’s country manor, Hugo disappears and Penelope discovers that her uncle has been murdered.

The game feels bigger and more open as you explore the manor, speak to the other guests and house staff and attempt to piece together what happened.  It’s not unlike a single-player game of Clue.  Following along with the quirky humor present in the first title, there is even a scene in which The Doctor (of Doctor Who fame) and a Dalek make a brief appearance.

The last title of the adventure trilogy, Hugo III: Jungle of Doom, while entertaining in its own right, feels small and stale next to its predecessors.  The humor and quirks are toned down as Hugo must quest through a jungle after a plane crash to find an antidote to the venom of a large spider that has bitten Penelope and left her in a coma.

It is not a bad title by any means, but after the quirky adventures of the previous two titles, it is a bit of a disappointment as a follow-up.

The final Hugo game was a huge departure.  Nitemare 3D retells the story of the first title, but instead of a comical adventure game, Nitemare 3D is a first-person shooter in the vein of Wolfenstein 3D, albeit stronger focus on puzzles.  Overall the level design is fairly solid and requires more thought than simply running and gunning.  Simple puzzles, secret areas and the occasional environmental curve-ball (such as having the power go out and needing to find a fuse box to turn the lights back on) keep things interesting.  There are also a variety of enemy types, some of which are more susceptible to certain forms of weaponry than others (witches against wands, human scientists against revolvers, etc.)

Although not the most polished presentation of an early 3D shooter, the gameplay was interesting and unique enough that I have fond memories of playing it, and also of being thoroughly creeped out by the first level’s dark and dreary organ music.