Games

This years’ Classic Gaming Expo and the 10th Anniversary of Digital Press happen to coincide. Obviously, DP wanted to do something special to mark the occasion. What better way than to release an original game for a classic system? Several game developers were contacted, but the job went to Daniel Bienvenu, who had written a few homebrews for ColecoVision (BUSTin Out, Dac-Man). Joe Santulli came up with the title and concept and provided support. A lot of people pitched in to help. Daniel brought in Sylvain (‘Sly DC’) De Chantal to design most of the levels and assist with the graphics. Marcel de Kogel wrote the emulator the game was compiled and tested on. As the project neared completion, Dave Giarrusso designed the artwork for the label and the instruction manual (as well as the full page advertisement shown in the last issue of DP as well as the CGE2K1 show program). Even veteran homebrew author John Dondzila lent his expertise on coding and debugging the program. Most of the communication and brainstorming was done via the Internet through email and instant messenger—something the designers of old didn’t have at their disposal. Finally, when the game was complete there were ten levels. After the game was downloaded to a ROM, it was discovered that it wouldn’t load an the actual console! After nearly giving coordinator Santulli a heart attack, John Dondzila was consulted and solved the problem. During his testing there were issues that had to be addressed such as heavy flickering and fatal errors. These were eventually worked out, and Santulli survived from near-coronary condition. Ironically when the bugs were fixed it freed up a lot of storage, so an additional ten levels were eventually added. There was not much time left but Santulli, with the aid of fellow CGE organizer and DP guy John Hardie managed to do the soldering and construction of 40 cartridges in time for a Classic Gaming Expo release. When the scheduled release time arrived at the show a long queue had formed. The games sold out within ten minutes. Even the promotional posters (with Dave G’s artwork) were taken. Most Expo-goers managed to at least play the demo that was set up. Their comments were consistently positive.

Wing War is a rather unique game that was only available in Europe, even though it was announced for the US market and is the only Imagic title that was not released in the US. The gameplay is a little like the classic arcade game Joust, except it's a bit more complex and involves a lot of exploration. A mystical dragon sets out to find crystals of fire, air, and water, in order to gain special powers, and eggs which will hatch into new dragons. The dragon must defeat enemies by shooting fireballs, which is accomplished by pushing the joystick upwards and in the direction the player wishes to shoot in. Some enemies can be killed with one shot, others with two, and some take more and more fireballs to be killed as the game progresses. What is truly unique about this game is that the fire and water crystals must never be dropped off consecutively, or else they will destroy one another. An air crystal must separate the two. Also, players must learn to conserve fireballs, otherwise they will find they have no way of defending themselves against their enemies. Wing War is a very unique game, and a shame it was never released in the United States.

Your starcruiser lands in the hostile city of Araknid to collect precious Crystals needed desperately on earth. Your equipment: the mighty Ram-car. Use your Ram-car to bump Krystaloids, transforming them into precious Crystals! But watch out for the evil Destructor and deadly Insektoids, protectors of the Krystaloids! Can you collect the invaluable jewel-like Crystals and fly home? This is one of the few Colecovision games to make use of the Expansion Module #2, the Steering Wheel Controller. You steer your armored Ram-car through Araknid's maze searching for Krystaloid insects. Ram them to form Crystals, then push the Crystals to the starcruiser.

Fortune Builder has it all! Educational and fun, FORTUNE BUILDER lets you plan, build and run your own community. Race against time to achieve your financial goal in a One-Player Game or compete with another tycoon in a Two-Player Game. Either way. Fortune Builder is a challenge. Your community will be laid out on a map of undeveloped land, consisting of a seacoast with beachfront. two mountain ranges, midlands, a river and a lake, with a main highway running north and south. You'll start with a fixed amount of cash, enabling you to buy and build a large variety of proper-ties: hotels, condos, marinas, factories, malls, gas stations and numerous other facilities. The challenge is to build them where they will draw the most traffic, thereby increasing profits. And all the while, you must keep an eye on bulletins that may affect your efforts, watching for changes in every-thing from consumer trends to the weather. Fortune Builder teaches problem solving and helps you learn, in a way both fun and realistic, about economics, geography, sociology, investments and the effects of the environment and current events on industry and the marketplace.

The goal of the game is to shoot at targets, while carefully avoiding running out of bullets. Three rows of targets scroll across the screen in alternating directions; these include rabbits, ducks, owls, and bonus items. If a duck target crosses the bottom row without being shot, it will come to life and begin flying down toward the player. Any ducks that reach the bottom of the screen in this manner will eat some of the player's bullets. Objects also periodically appear among the targets that will give the player extra bullets or points when hit. A spinning wheel with eight pipes sits above the rows of moving targets; these pipes and all targets must be shot in order to complete the round. At the end of each round, the player receives bonus points for all bullets remaining in his supply. He then plays a bonus round, where a large white bear with a target walks across the screen. Each time the bear is shot, it rears up for a second, then begins walking more quickly in the other direction. The object is to shoot the bear as many times as possible until it escapes off the screen. Following the bonus round, the next wave begins. Later bonus rounds add more bears to the screen. In higher levels, there are more duck targets and fewer extra bullet targets, putting a premium on accurate shooting. The game ends when the player runs out of bullets.

Released in 1983 on ColecoVision, by Big Five Software.

You are Pippols, a brave boy, who is seeking the Holy Gem to bring back light to the world. Watch out as the fairies of darkness will try to stop you in your journey across the various countries of the world of Magic. The MSX version of the game was brought to the SG-1000 in Taiwan.

Stinger is a tank-shooter with several enemies, levels, power-ups and items to pick.

In Venture you control the adventurer Winky who sets out to collect treasure. You start out on an overview map of a dungeon which shows several rooms containing treasure. Since you cannot kill any enemies while rummaging through the dungeon corridors you have to dodge them on your way to the treasure rooms since they will kill you instantly. After entering one of the rooms you are able to fight the various monsters lurking in the rooms while you collect the treasure. Be careful not to linger to long in the treasure rooms because an "Evil Otto" like monster will appear which is invincible and will hunt you down until you leave the room again. After having collected every treasure in every room of a dungeon you move on to the next dungeon.

Tunnels & Trolls is the second ever fantasy role playing game published. A fantasy role playing game is a game where a leader, usually known as the gamemaster, has created an adventure for a group of friends, and the friends play the game and try to solve the problem or rescue the princess or kill the dragon or whatever. Ken St Andre read and tried to understand That Other Fantasy RPG, and decided that he could invent one that was easier to understand and so T&T was born, over 30 years ago. The game has gone through several editions since then, but it remains popular and is played all over the world. A group of five of us created the latest version: the Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls.

Yucatan Sam explores the temples of Quintana Roo searching for the keys to open the ceremonial vault and acquire the riches inside.

This platform game is about solving arithmetic problems. In the equation one number is missing, you 'll have to find the right number. This game is aimed at young children to help them learn arithmetic problem solving or playing with numbers. Some monkeys are minding their own business when they see a number missing from their arithmetic problem. Who took it? Another monkey, a crab? And where could it be? The only way to find that out is to go looking for it. Guide your monkey across the screen and up and down platform levels. Watch out for the crab! If its claws bite you, you lose a monkey. Jump up and pull down shades to find the missing number. When you find it, catch the number bar. Then send it up to your helper monkey. Find three missing numbers and earn bonus points!

SubRoc 3-D is a shooter, where you look through a periscope and shoot at both sea and air-targets. The arcade version features 3-D effects.

Greetings, Professor Falken. Shall we play a game? This strategic game is based on the popular 1983 movie of the same name, starring Matthew Broderick. It might remind people of Missile Command but the action is slower and spread over six screens which represent different areas of the U.S.A. Enemy missiles, planes, and subs will attack and you must direct your own forces, which include missiles, planes, subs, and satellites, to intercept them. Each type of defense has strengths and weaknesses (missiles are fast but limited in range, planes are slower but have unlimited range). Satellites are a better all-around defense but are only available every so often. Some weapons aren't available in certain areas, and some enemies are resistant to certain weapons, so you must alter your strategy accordingly.

Tutankham is a combination of the maze, action and shoot 'em up genres. Taking on the role of an explorer grave robbing Tutankhamun's tomb, the player is chased by creatures such as asps, vultures, parrots, bats, dragons, and even curses, all that kill the player on contact. The explorer can fight back by firing lasers at the creatures, but he can only cover the left and right directions. The player is also endowed with a single screen-clearing "flash bomb" per level or life. Finally, each level has warp zones that teleport the player around the level, which enemies cannot use. To progress, the player collects keys open locked doors throughout the levels, searching for the large exit door. Optional treasures can be picked-up for bonus points. Each level has a timer; when it reaches zero the explorer can no longer fire lasers, and once a level is cleared the remaining time is converted to bonus points.

ColecoVision version of the popular game Bejeweled made by Daniel Bienvenu. The core game remains the same: matching up three or more of the same jewel by swapping their positions with neighboring jewels on a grid.

Front Line is a vertically scrolling action game. Your mission is to infiltrate enemy territory and destroy their fortress. To reach the fortress, you will have to make your way through varied and dangerous terrain. Jungles, deserts, brush, and rocks all slow your progress, plus each area has numerous enemy fighters and tanks trying to stop you. To help get past these obstacles, you are armed with a machine gun and grenades; at some points in the game you may even come across an abandoned tank which you can control to increase your odds of survival. When you reach the end of the level and successfully destroy the fortress, the game will repeat at a higher level of difficulty. Gameplay is for one or two players, and four different skill levels are available.

Q*bert is an isometric platform game with puzzle elements where the player controls the titular protagonist from a third-person perspective. Q*bert starts each game at the top of a pyramid of cubes, and moves by jumping diagonally from cube to cube. Landing on a cube causes it to change color, and changing every cube to the target color allows the player to progress to the next stage.