Dangerous Dave

Dangerous Dave (1988) was designed by John Romero, an action-puzzle game which accompanied an article on a BASIC add-on for UpTime, a disk magazine released for multiple home computing platforms.  It was one of the earliest games John Romero programed, and created an early, minor gaming hero in the form of Dave.  The game was simple, the objective being to obtain certain items scattered through rooms full of traps.

In 1990, John Romero, John Carmack and Tom Hall, original founders of Id Software, were working for a publishing company called Softdisk.  While there, Carmack developed a way to create rapid side-scrolling graphics, a feat that had been problematic on the PC because redrawing the entire screen as it moved tended to cause significant slowdown.  Carmack had the revelation that if the largest graphical area that is on-screen in a game (the background) was a stationary image, then the game would run much faster since only small portions of the screen would have to be drawn in motion.  Putting this into action, he recreated the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3, and inserted sprites of Romero's Dangerous Dave character in place of Mario.  This demo was titled Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement, and the performance was so good they knew they had something special on their hands.  While still working for Softdisk, the team began their own private project, a full recreation of Super Mario Bros. 3 which they intended to sell to Nintendo.  However, upon seeing the demo Nintendo informed them that they had no desire to expand into the home computer market.  Fortunately for them, Scott Miller of Apogee Software discovered their work and immediately snatched the boys up, and the newly-formed Id Software began developing shareware games under the Apogee publishing label.  Their scrolling technology would be used to produce one of their first hits, Commander Keen.

Still under contract to produce games for Softdisk, however, and so to fulfill their obligations to Softdisk they released several minor titles under that label.  One of these was Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion, released in 1991.  In it, Romero's character took on a new life and a personality.  A pickup-driving, shotgun-toting redneck, Dave must enter a zombie-filled mansion to rescue his little brother Delbert.  The game had a sense of humor and also a reasonable amount of blood, as killing enemies would cause them to explode into gory chunks (Monster Bash and Bio Menace by Apogee would use similar gory deaths).  Gameplay was fun and Dave's method of attack was unique: Dave's shotgun holds eight shells, but Dave has an unlimited ammo supply.  Any time you stand still, Dave will reach into his pockets and begin loading shells, if needed.  This is a slow process, so strategy and skill come into play: make your shots count, and be sure to find safe places to load up.  You can also shoot diagonally up and down, which is good as enemies will often crawl along the ceiling or floor.  Although short (the whole game is about a third the size of most Apogee-branded releases) it has charm and a solid entertainment factor.  In 1993, the game was re-released by publisher Froggman under the title Rooms of Doom, with Dave and Delbert renamed Jake and Mickey.

After this, Softdisk would release two more entries in the Dave franchise, although they would no longer be programmed by John Romero and company.  The first of these sequels, Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue (1993), involves Dave's quest to save his brother Delbert once again, this time from the evil Dr. Nemesis.  In Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion, any time an enemy killed Dave, the player would be treated to a small close-up of Dave getting attacked in comical fashion.  In Dave's Risky Rescue, the gore-factor was increased by extending these animations.  For instance, in Haunted Mansion, if a wolf attacked Dave you'd seen him get thrown to the ground by the beast.  In Risky Rescue, the animation would continue to show blood and Dave's severed head go flying.

The last game of the franchise, produced by Softdisk in 1993 (the same year as Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue) was Dave Goes Nutz, which has Dave again seeking to rescue Delbert from Dr. Nemesis, but this time Dave has been locked up in a mental hospital filled with zombies...or are they nurses, and has Dave truly lost his mind?  Retaining the increased gore of Risky Rescue, Dave Goes Nutz continues with the dark humor of the series, yet seems much more disturbing when you place it in the context of a mental hospital.  After this title, Dave would disappear from the scene, though he has been ported to different systems.  Notably, Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion was ported to mobile devices in 2008.  Although Dave never achieved the fame of Duke Nukem, he was a precursor of things to come and part of the early history of John Romero and Id Software.

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator was for me an unexpected gem on the PC.  Released in 1999 by Monolith productions, I purchased a copy only because it was being sold at the time in a twin-pack with Shogo: Mobile Armor Division.  It was probably a couple of months after purchasing it that I actually installed the game and gave it a shot, and man had I been missing out.

Part of my lack of enthusiasm at the time was an only passing interest in RPGs and the fact that I didn't care much at the outset for the game's pre-rendered 3D graphics.  That, and the fact that I only had it because it came with another game I wanted contributed to me tossing it aside.  Shortly after diving into it, however, I found myself caught up in an RPG game that stood to give Final Fantasy a run for its money, at least on the PC market where RPGs of that nature were not in abundant supply.

The game has a complex and rather unique storyline, blending together sci-fi with religion and mythology pulled largely from Babylonian sources with a dash of Christianity for good measure.  The game takes place on the world Septerra, a bio-mechanical planet with a computer at its core, continuously orbited by seven, independent continental layers.  Each floating layer bears its own culture, with the highest layer assuming itself to be the favored of God, citizens referring to themselves as the "Chosen".  Every 100 years, the orbit of the layers lines up so as to create a direct hole from the surface to the core.  This allows sunlight to reach the core, activating its machinery and allowing the use of two specials keys to unlock it.  Supposedly this act will open up the "Kingdom of Heaven", but the keys have been lost for ages.  The game takes place as one of the "Chosen" means to gain forcible entry into this Kingdom of Heaven, despite the disruption this may cause for the other layers.

If you've played Final Fantasy, you know what the gameplay is going to be like.  In fact, the game involves a close variant to Final Fantasy's Active Time battle system, wherein each character waits for a gauge to fill before they can perform a new attack.  In Septerra Core, however, all characters have "levels" of attacks.  A brief charge allows a minor attack, and the longer one waits the more power will go into it.  There is also a magic system that uses collectible cards to perform actions such as summoning elemental gods, and consumable combat items.

One of the more engrossing features of the game for me is that it contains full voice acting from actors that are actually pretty good.  It also has a decent musical score.  Fun bit of trivia: the game was scored by Marty O'Donnell, who later scored Halo: Combat Evolved.  Steve Downes provided minor voice acting for Septerra Core and was recommended by Marty O'Donnell as a potential voice-actor to provide the voice of Master Chief, a role he was subsequently given.

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division

This game is awesome.  At the time that I discovered it (in a bargin bin at Wal-Mart, being sold as a twin-pack with Septerra Core, which will get its own post), I was just getting in to anime and coming off of the entire Robotech series.  The idea of stomping around inside a giant mech was fuel for fantasy, and unfortunately the games I had played dealing with mechs usually fell into the MechWarrior/Earthsiege manner of play, where mechs were basically just cumbersome, walking tanks.  Nothing like the athletic Veritech fighters in Robotech.  Shogo got it right.

Shogo has two play modes that you switch between: piloting a giant mech, and entering buildings on foot.  Both game modes are well executed.  At the start of the game you choose a mech from one of four models with their own attributes (such as overall attack power and speed).  This mech will be yours for the remainder of the game.  The game controls much the same when you are in your mech and when you are on foot, but when piloting your mech you always feel so big and powerful.  The levels are designed so that you have a sense of scale, and in addition to combating other giant mechs, you will have to contend with human soldiers as well.  Crunching your way through city streets stalking mechs between buildings while taking fire from soldiers atop the same gives you a great feeling.  You might think that going out on foot would be disappointing, but there is some great combat that takes place in these parts, and the closed quarters, the quicker movements of your character and the sweet weaponry makes both modes of play a fun experience.

The game offers a couple of points where you must make decisions.  Nothing complex, one decision may alter the narrative somewhat, but a final decision, as a twisting plot unwinds, will determine what your final mission is to be, and what you will face at the end.  There are two possible end bosses, a scenario where you must face a giant mech on foot, and one where you must a man being protected by a large alien life form.

Something that kept combat interesting is that Shogo incorporated random "critical hits" into play.  Usually found only in RPGs, at any point in time a strike against an opponent might result in a critical hit that would do significantly more damage.  The flip side to this coin is, enemies could also score critical hits on you, so you need to play with skill because having a full life bar isn't going to guarantee you come out on top if you go toe-to-toe.

Unfortunately, like many games that deserve better Shogo sold below expectations.  Two expansion packs were planned, but later canceled.

Guardian Saga

Guardian Saga by 9th Bit Games is a charming RPG title released in 2011 for iOS.  One need only look at the screen shots to understand that this title is a homage to Dragon Quest and other such early console RPG games, and for that, it gets it right.  The visual style, animation and chiptune music all fits perfectly within that realm.  It will immediately take you on a grand nostalgia trip.

Unfortunately, that trip proves very brief.  The problem with Guardian Saga is that it does one thing very well: evoke the feel and style of old-school console RPGs.  The trouble is, beyond its sense of style, it is seriously lacking in substance.  You see, Guardian Saga is easy.  Starting out, you'll find yourself grinding to level up, and the first time you encounter a wolf it'll probably eat you for breakfast.  But with a little time grinding you'll quickly be able to cut your way through most of what the game throws at you.  Emphasis on "little"; it doesn't take long to turn yourself into a powerhouse who can mow through everything.  I'd say around the half-way point in the game you'll be coasting, and by the time you reach the final boss, it's a serious letdown.  I honestly wasn't expecting the game to end when it did, because completing it proved so fast and easy.

...notice I used the word "fast".  That's point two against Guardian Saga: it is very, very short.  The game has five main dungeons and a few other locations to explore.  The problem is that the overworld and the dungeons are all quite small, and combining that with the general ease of the game makes the experience all-too short.  Just when you're expecting the game to open up and really get going, the credits roll.

Combine all of that with the extreme simplicity of the game, with few items and few spells and few reasons to keep exploring, and it's all a recipe for a letdown.  It's charming, it's fun for awhile, but ultimately it's like eating cotton-candy: sweet for a moment, but just when you get a taste, it's gone and you're still hungry.  There's more of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest than Dragon Quest in this RPG, and it's a crying shame because there is so much potential here.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance

Back in the 80s, the PC had not yet taken hold as the definitive home computer system, and as a result game were often released cross-platform on many different systems than we generally see today.  SSI (Strategic Simulations Inc.) released a whole series of titles based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons property and ruleset.  Heroes of the Lance, one of these titles, was released in 1988 and ported to at least 9 different platforms.  This sometimes resulted in wide variances in overall quality, even though gameplay often remained more or less unchanged between versions.  Systems like the Commodore 64 possessed better graphics than the ZX Spectrum, and far better sound and music than most PCs at that time.  Console ports like the Nintendo sometimes proved to be a middle-ground when dealing with titles ported from the home computer market.  In the case of Heroes of the Lance this rings somewhat true: Character graphics are sharper than their pixelated C64 brethren, and yet not as detailed, large and colorful as their MS-DOS counterparts.  Regardless, the look, especially of the dark, ruined city of Xak Tsaroth, remains much the same.

The game is based off of the first Dragonlance campaign module, "Dragons of Despair", and the first Dragonlance novel "Dragons of Autumn Twilight".  You take a party of eight heroes into the ruins of Xak Tsaroth in search of the Disks of Mishakal, guarded by the dragon Khisanth.

Many of the AD&D games released by SSI were more traditional role playing games, but the Dragonlance series focused on action-adventure gameplay.  Heroes of the Lance is a side-scrolling game.  Your eight heroes are pre-selected and have their own weapons and statistics lifted directly from the AD&D rulebook, although in practice they play much the same apart from some having ranged attacks.  You can switch between them at will, but only one will display onscreen at a time.  If a hero dies, he or she is permanently dead, and the game ends when all of your heroes are killed.  The home computer versions of Heroes of the Lance received much praise upon their release, but the NES version is often regarded as one of the worst titles on the console.

The reason for this may have more to do with expectations than with the actual game.  Heroes of the Lance is challenging and at times frustrating, involves a certain amount of trial and error and it can be confusing to navigate (one peculiarity is that you encounter doors along your journey that you can enter on the top and bottom of the screen, but both top and bottom doors always lead to the same location).  It's very easy to kill your characters and there is no way to save.

For my part, I enjoyed Heroes of the Lance.  It did in fact feel much more like one of the early home computer games than what you would expect out of a typical NES title, but growing up with a Commodore 64 I couldn't find fault in this aspect.  It just feels different...perhaps it is the slower pace, not sure.  The empty, colorless ruins of the city, often blasted for not having any variety or interest, served only to feed my imagination.  There were subtle changes here and there, and the dark, old-world architecture of the place made me feel like I really was wandering through an abandoned, expansive city, filled with dark shadows, evil spirits and history.  This is, really, part of the reason I play games: to seek out new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before (if I may borrow from Captain Kirk).  One needs an escape from the real world with its workday drudgery and stress, and taking a stroll through the Mushroom Kingdom, questing through the land of Hyrule or, in Heroes of the Lance, stalking cautiously through the dark, empty ruins of Xak Tsaroth is a welcome journey.

Jewels of the Oracle

In 1993 there was a game called Myst that became something of a sensation.  A puzzle and adventure game, it dropped you on an island full of mystery and left you there.  I remember that I wanted to like Myst, but I just couldn't get into it.  I wanted to dive into puzzles, and Myst was a world where you had to figure out just what the puzzles were.  I didn't have that kind of patience.  Thankfully, Jewels of the Oracle arrived on the scene in 1995 and gave me exactly what I was looking for.

The game places you in an underground cavern exploring ancient ruins that are the doorway to a civilization that predates all modern ones.  The caverns are dark and their contents are old, yet ornate and beautiful at the same time.  It makes you feel like Indiana Jones.  The objective is to solve a series of individual puzzles, each associated with one of the primary values of the civilization.  Doing so will properly prepare you for life amongst them and open the doorway to the city.

Jewels of the Oracle is a beautiful game for its time, and the sound effects excellent.  Especially noteworthy is the music.  There are unique tracks for each challenge, and they are all engrossing and atmospheric, with an ancient-world sound to them.  They can get your blood pumping or fill you with a sense of foreboding as you tackle each new puzzle.

The puzzles themselves are well-designed.  Some are renditions of classic logic puzzles that have been around for a long time, while others are more original.  Some are relatively simple to figure out, others are not only real head-scratchers but contain clues that you can discover here and there throughout the caverns.  If you see etchings or symbols on the walls, take note: they might make sense when you enter the proper room.

Providing guidance is the city oracle, a stone face that speaks to you and sends you on your way as you enter the cavern.  It will offer hints, if asked for, during gameplay.  Sometimes the hints are useful, sometimes they're almost as hard to figure out as the puzzles and sometimes they're more general statements of wisdom than actual hints.  But his dark voice and slow, archaic speech help draw you in to the environment.

Solving some of the puzzles makes you feel positively brilliant.  In my case, however, there was one task I never completed, and so I found myself barred from the city.  There is no time limit or way to lose the game, but after spending hours on "The Assembly of the Planners" I eventually gave it up.  This is a classic "fit the pieces into the mold" puzzle, and I have never been good at them.  It finally occurred to me, after studying the puzzle for some time, that it is possible to solve it by completing only half of the puzzle and then mirroring he other half, as it is completely symmetrical.  This effectively cut my work in half, yet still I found myself caught in a web of frustration.  I still think about returning to the game someday and finally completing that blasted puzzle.

The game received a sequel in 1997 titled Gems of Darkness (released in some areas as Jewels II: The Ultimate Challenge), but despite a strong reception for the first title and gaining excellent reviews, this second title did not receive as wide a distribution and failed to make much impact.  Pity.

The Great Giana Sisters

The Great Giana Sisters is one of those classic games that emerged by totally and unapologetically ripping off another.  And that's not saying it's not a great game, it is, and frankly I'm glad it developed enough of a following to stick around.

Developed by Time Warp Productions and released in 1987, The Great Giana Sisters was a Super Mario Brothers clone released to various home computer markets, most notably the Commodore 64.  The game was so much like Mario (albeit with female protagonists) that it caught the notice of Nintendo, who supposedly played a roll in having the game removed from stores.  But the game's solid design and popularity in the home computer market ensured that it became a fan favorite and continued to spread, copy protection not being what it is today.  The early computer market was rife with crackers who could distribute large quantities of fully-functioning software on floppy disk, often out in the open.

I played the game as a kid, but at the time I did not realize it, because a hack of the game floating around converted some of the sprites to resemble Super Mario Bros., a nod to its close similarity, and also changed the title of the game to reflect this.  Not owning a Nintendo at the time, this was the first Super Mario Bros. game I ever played and little did I know it wasn't even a real Mario game.  Of course that didn't matter since it was an entertaining title regardless.

Time Warp Productions began work on an official sequel, but fearing legal trouble they altered the graphics to reflect a futuristic theme and changed the sisters into robots.  This game was released under the title Hard'n'Heavy, but one look at the game reveals its true intended identity, as even the robot player character looks more like one of the Giana Sisters in cosplay than a truly unique character model.

The game was beloved amongst C64 enthusiasts and would for years be considered one of the top games on the system.  It was also renowned for Chris Hulsbeck's original musical score, with the title theme and main level theme often being remixed.

In the 2000s, the game saw a revival as the Giana Sisters got a new, official game.  Giana Sisters DS was released in Europe in 2009 and America in 2011 for the Nintendo DS.  This new title also included a remake of the original game as unlockable content.

In 2010, the DS title was ported to iOS and Ouya with updated, HD graphics and touch controls.

Most recently, 2012 saw the release of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, a downloadable title for Windows and later XBox Live, Playstation 3 and Wii U.  It began life as a Kickstarter campaign called Project Giana.  Noteworthy on this latest release is the return of Chris Hulsbreck, the title's original composer.  The game met with solid reviews upon release.  Hopefully we'll see more of the girls in the future.

Bible Builder

Bible Builder was released by Everbright Software in 1992.  These were still the early days of the PC, when DOS was in common use and "multimedia" was the greatest thing in the world.  The gaming scene was still young and dominated largely by platformers and adventure/RPG titles.  Wolfenstein 3D would be released this year, beginning the FPS revolution.  The period saw a lot of educational software that was supposedly going to revolutionize learning.  Some were actually good, and made excellent use of the technology available, while other were complete garbage that amounted to little more than a slow, confusing to navigate textbook.

Into this realm stepped Bible Builder, a trivia game designed to increase Bible knowledge for those who had an interest in the topic.  The thing that made it stand out in a sea of educational products and games is just how good it was.  Even today, trivia games are cheap and easy to come by and often dry and lifeless in the extreme.  What made Bible Builder different is that it took the trivia concept and pulled it off with so much style that it just came alive.

Bible Builder sports beautiful graphics for its time and a midi soundtrack that sounded great (on the FM synthesis hardware of its time, at least), and it interjected enough variety into the gameplay that it was easy to forget that it was basically just a trivia game at its heart.

The basic premise of the game is that you have to collect fragments of a bible verse and then correctly tell the game where in the Bible the verse is found.  The playfield is laid out like a book with several bookmarks.  Select a bookmark to view an animated scene and its accompanying question.  Questions are multiple choice and involve general Biblical knowledge, geography (where Biblical events took place) and identifying hymns based on a midi rendition of the melody.  Correctly answer a question and you get a fragment of scripture, which fits together with others like a jigsaw puzzle.  Within each scene there are many clickable "hot spots" that explain the scene or just provide humorous commentary when you click on them.  Increasing the difficulty is a timer in the form of a candle to the left of the screen.  As you visit scenes, this candle begins to burn down.  Once it burns out altogether, your time is up.  The game has several levels of difficulty, some of which give you ample time to visit and answer each question, while high levels give you only enough time to collect a few fragments of a verse before you must identify it.  The game is not afraid to pull verses from areas of scripture that are less commonly known, so having a Bible handy to do some digging is usually key.

A testamony to the excellent design of the title is that the quality and fun-factor are not strictly regulated to the Christian market.  Currently the game holds a "Top Dog" rating from homeoftheunderdogs.net.

Motocross Madness

I've never had much interest in sports, yet I've always loved the idea of sports and playing sports-related video games (with the exception of football...I can't get into any variety of football).  One sport that has always caught my attention and been something that I feel like I could actually get in to (assuming I had the free time and the money) is motocross.  There's just something exciting about the concept of jumping onto a dirt bike and racing and jumping over terrain that seems designed for anything but a race.  The first motocross games I can recall playing were side-scrollers: Kick-Start on the Commodore 64 and Excitebike on the NES.

Then, in 1998, came Motocross Madness, a game published by Microsoft in the days when their creativity was not hampered by trying to contrive another chapter of Halo.  Motocross Madness took dirt bikes and introduced them into an open 3D arena that can best be described as fun.

The game did not provide much in the way of customization.  Basically you could change the color of your bike and the outfit of your biker.  Environments were broad and open, but lacked features beyond the ground, as though the whole world were a desert.  Yet, once the game started and you experienced the roar of your engine and the overwhelming sense of speed, none of that mattered.

Motocross Madness offered several methods of play.  You could execute mid-air stunts for points (points being awarded for the difficulty of the stunt, and how many you could string together in one jump) in a timed stunt arena.  You could enjoy a checkpoint race in Baja mode across varied terrain, or race laps on special terrain maps or in supercross arenas.  Either way you chose to play, the speed and the ridiculous amount of air-time you could achieve made it a rush.  Adding in other racers made it even more challenging as you strove not only to win, but to avoid collisions.

The game's environment was expansive, but did have its limits.  The common, outdoor area much of the game takes place on is walled on all sides by cliffs.  With the game's crazy physics, however, it is possible to launch yourself close to the tops of these cliffs, dig in with your tires and make it to the top.  Does the map end?  No, it keeps stretching on as far as you can see.  That's not to say there is no real boundary, though.  Attempt to drive very far past the cliff's edge and the game suddenly and unexpectedly launches your biker a couple hundred feet into the air to send him crashing like a rag doll back in the play area.  The first time I experienced this, it caught me completely by surprise and I couldn't help but repeat the action several times thereafter.  It's little touches like that which let you know the developers had as much fun making the game as you have playing it.

Motocross Madness had a sequel in 2000 which added additional play modes and enhancements such as buildings and trees to the otherwise lifeless landscapes of the first.  I never played this title but reviews laud it as a significant improvement over the original, which had already received excellent reviews in its time.  After that it was a period of silence and it looked like the series was done, until 2013 when Microsoft revived the series with an XBox Live release.  Also titled Motocross Madness, it brings the game into the current generation and uses your Live avatars as the racers.  I still need to check this one out, but it looks impressive and reviews have been high.