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= "VIC-20 Cartridge Software Reviews" =
= (One section of four total) =
= AKA: Cartzilla! =
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= Release date: February 14, 1999 =
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Copyright notice: (c) 1999 Ward Shrake. All rights reserved.
However, the author and copyright holder grants his permission
to any individual(s) for any non-profit use of this document. I
just ask that any such people will be fair and honest in giving
me my due credit for any and all work that I have done, just as
I have gone to great pains to credit those before me. Thanks!
Visit "VIC-20 Digital Archaeology" on the web:
http://members.aol.com/wshrake/index.htm
Also be sure to check out: ftp.funet.fi
(See the /pub/cbm/vic20 directories.)
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GAME NAME: Dancing Bear
COMPANY : Koala Technologies
AUTHOR : See Trivia. (1983)
GAME TYPE: Not really a game. Maybe call it an "entertainment experience"?
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 1 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Cute. A bit simplistic, perhaps, but very cute! One bear plays
the piano while another bear dances onstage. Not quite like the
modern phenomenon of Full Motion Video, so don't be scared away.
SOUND : Not bad. Considering the Vic's limits, not bad at all!
TRIVIA : Screen credits say "Produced by Audio Light" and list the names
of Greg Hospelhorn, Rosemarie Rotunno and Rick Parfitt.
COMMENTS : There is a review found in the spring 1984 Power Play, pages 82
to 84. This says that the cart was part of a package intended for
children. The package included a Koala Pad device, which was also
later made for the Commodore 64, and for other computers. The
review says that, as a package, this was intended to let children
choose dance steps for the bear onscreen. The steps could then
be played back. To do all this, you used a plastic drawing stylus
on the Koala Pad, with a supplied graphical overlay. (Does anyone
have any of the overlays? Can you copy or scan them in for us?)
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GAME NAME: Deadly Duck
COMPANY : Sirius
AUTHOR : unknown (1982)
GAME TYPE: Original game, perhaps similar to Imagic's "Demon Attack".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Plain-looking due to the black background screen, but well done.
SOUND : Simple effects and not many of them, but it suits the game.
GAMEPLAY : Good. The dropping bricks which temporarily box you in may be
either loved or hated, depending on the player. But it is fun.
OVERALL : Fun enough. Demon Attack and others were really just upgrades of
Space Invaders, with various twists. Each has its pros and cons.
COMMENTS : Game is really only 4k in length, although it takes 8k to run.
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GAME NAME: Deadly Skies
COMPANY : Tronix
AUTHOR : Thomas Kim (1983)
GAME TYPE: Variant of arcade coin-op game "Carnival".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Good. Nicely done side-scrolling, clean object definitions, etc.
SOUND : Average to good. Just sound effects, but they are done well.
GAMEPLAY : Fast to frantic. Avoid flying objects out to get you, while your
helicopter drops bombs on ground-based targets.
OVERALL : Very good. A nicely done update of the carnival game theme, with
fast play action and good gaming suspense. How high can you score?
TRIVIA : This is a 4k game internally, although it requires 8k to run.
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GAME NAME: Defender
COMPANY : Atarisoft
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Authorized translation of the arcade game "Defender".
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 3 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Impressive, but not perfect. The movement is pretty jumpy, to get
as much onscreen as they can and move it as fast as they have to.
SOUND : Good. Some of the sounds are very nicely done if a little rough.
GAMEPLAY : Good. I generally rate all home versions of Defender pretty easily
however as I don't think many home machines handle Defender well.
It is just too fast and demanding a game to copy it perfectly.
Only Jeff Minter's Jaguar game "Defender 2000" gets that nod.
OVERALL : Try it yourself. Fans may find some imperfections but someone
who is not familiar with the original game may not mind them. The
arcade original was a love-it-or-hate-it proposition, anyway.
REVIEW : "One of the best macho, shoot-the-works, blast-everything-out-of-
the-sky games in the world. The joint is swarming with enemies of
all kinds, and you've got to rescue your humanoids and blow those
creeps out of the sky. An excellent translation of the classic
arcade game." Seen in Jan 1985 Computer Games, page 15.
REVIEW : "The macho game: Defender. Defender is a game of superlatives. It
requires the best hand-eye coordination of all the games (with
the possible exception of its sequel, Stargate), and it is the
most difficult to teach. Many think it is by far the best, most
exciting, and most challenging game there is. Others believe it
to be undeniably the worst, the most difficult to understand, the
most frustrating, and the most pointless game of all. Defender is
the ultimate macho game -- women rarely play it -- because it
requires loud, frequent blasting of the enemy." (Seen on page 54
of "Score! Beating the top 16 video games" by Ken Uston, 1982.)
REVIEW : "Defender has very complicated controls, and you will never be
more than a novice without mastering them, learning to use them
as automatically as you breathe.... Mastering Defender requires
some perserverance, but most players find the effort worthwhile."
(From pages 76-78 of "How to master the video games", 1981, by
Tom Hirschfeld. Bantom Books, ISBN 0-553-20164-6.)
TRIVIA : The arcade original was a 1980 Williams effort. It is widely felt
to be one of the most demanding and difficult videogames ever
devised. Nearly two decades after its initial arcade release the
original still commands much respect from those who've played it.
Eugene Jarvis, the original programmer, deserves a hall-of-fame
award for making it, IMHO. "Robotron" should seal that deal....
TRIVIA : Here's one to keep you awake at night, wondering. Inside the code
of the game itself is this message: "COPR.HES,1983 V1.1x". Wow!
COMMENTS : To give you an idea of how hard the original arcade game was, I
once watched a 5-year old play against his older brothers. The
five year old, on tiptoes, couldn't even see the screen. He was
in "Use the force, Luke" mode the whole time. His scores and his
brothers scores weren't much apart. After seeing that and seeing
how quickly my quarters were disappearing, I decided two things:
(A) I loved the game and (B) there was no way I could afford it!
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GAME NAME: Demon Attack
COMPANY : Imagic [720050-1A]
AUTHOR : See Trivia. (1983)
GAME TYPE: Translation of Atari 2600 game "Demon Attack".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Excellent technically, but may look plain at a glance, due to
the empty black background. The game was faithfully ported over
from the popular Atari 2600 console, and looks as good or better.
SOUND : Very good. No music, just sound effects. Just like on the 2600.
GAMEPLAY : Addictive. This was a very popular game, then, and still fun now.
OVERALL : Very good. This game was good enough to spawn many imitators.
AD TEXT : "First, Bill played Demon Attack. Wave after wave of deadly
demons bombarded Bill with lasers. The tricky demons split into
two, even let loose with a few fireballs. But somehow Bill
managed to wipe them out and take off into space searching for
the demon's home base. Unfortunately for little Billy, he found
it.... Let this be a warning to all you cocky, know-it-all, self-
proclaimed video game wizards out there: Laboratory tests have
proven that IMAGIC games, when played in large doses, may be
hazardous to your self-esteem and cause chronic Hugedigitosis
(sore thumb). In other words, our games are created by experts
for experts." (Partial ad, seen in Jan 83 Electronic Games.)
REVIEW : "A classic shooting game in the tradition of Space Invaders. But
this time the aliens swoop in from the sides of the screen and
chase after you. There are over 80 waves in the game, and each
one is slightly different -- so you're always trying to get
better and see what the next wave looks like. Multicolored aliens,
terrific animation and explosions. Warning: Prepare to become
addicted." Seen in Jan 1985 Computer Games, page 15.
TRIVIA : Box art says "Game program designed by Bruce Pedersen."
COMMENTS : Another Imagic game that has trouble running well on the PC Vic
Vic20 emulator. Apparently, this is because it uses raster scan
effects, a very sophisticated programming technique. This fact,
coupled with the 4k total code length, makes me wonder if this
game was made simply by altering the source code to the original
Atari 2600 version? Maybe. It seems possible. Can anyone confirm?
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GAME NAME: Dig Dug
COMPANY : Atarisoft (Licensed from Namco)
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Authorized translation of Atari's arcade coin-op "Dig Dug".
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 1 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Fairly good, all in all. Not perfect but not bad, either.
SOUND : Pretty good. You can tell they tried but the song gets old fast.
GAMEPLAY : Fair. I'm much more satisfied with the C64 version, myself.
OVERALL : Decent as a stand-alone but mixed as a copy of the arcade game.
Another game rushed out in the last days of the Vic's lifespan?
REVIEW : "If you liked the arcade game Dig Dug, you'll enjoy the home
game just as much. It's nearly a perfect duplication of the
original. If you didn't like the arcade game, you won't like this
either. It's a slow-moving, cute game in which you dig your own
mazes underground. It is original, but some players find the
whole concept a little vague." Seen in Jan 1985 Computer Games,
page 15. Rated a "B".
TRIVIA : Internal messages date the game code at "27 OCT 83". (At $a013.)
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GAME NAME: Donkey Kong
COMPANY : Atarisoft (Licensed from Nintendo)
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Authorized translation of Nintendo's arcade coin-op.
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 1 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Good. A little crude but recognizable. Well, maybe really crude?
It's hard to believe Atari did their best, with 16k to play with?
Other people made really good games, with only 4k to work with.
Purists will note some missing between rounds graphics, as well.
SOUND : Good. Recognizable sounds all around. No complaints from me.
GAMEPLAY : Good. Seems to me to be a good enough conversion in this respect.
(Gameplay is generally very important to me. I am usually willing
to forgive lapses in graphics to get good gameplay.) After all,
this game is fun enough on even the sub-mini B&W Gameboy system.
OVERALL : Good. Perhaps I'm under-rating the game a bit as it has never
been one of my all-time favorite games. But it plays just as good
as the arcade original or any other home system, in my opinion.
REVIEW : "The classic arcade game has been faithfully reproduced, for
those who still want to play it. As Mario the carpenter, you have
to put up with a lot of harassment to rescue your girl from the
ape at the top of the screen. You know the story. Four screens --
Girders, Rivets, Elevators and Conveyer Belts -- are in most
versions of the game. The graphics and sound are pretty good. In
the Atari version, it's easiest to get up those ladders." Seen
in Jan 1985 Computer Games, page 15.
TRIVIA : Mario makes his debut on the Vic20 machine! And soon to come, the
Nintendo home system that took over the post-crash gaming world!
This point in time is right at that turning point, from hippies
running the gaming industry to it being run by corporate types.
TRIVIA : This game was one of three still listed as being sold as late as
1989, per "A MENU information directory for Commodore Computers",
Volume 5 Number 2. There were far more PET entries than VIC-20
entries throughout that book, however most were not entertainment
titles. That book lists this cartridge as being $20 in 1989. This
cartridge ISPN # is 05750-415. See also "Ms. Pac-Man" and "IFR".
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GAME NAME: Donkey Kong Jr.
COMPANY : Atari
AUTHOR : unknown (198_)
GAME TYPE: Vaporware. (Translation of the arcade coin-op game.)
TRIVIA : This title may have been written by a Greg Hightower. A fan of
the TI-99/4A system gave Ward a URL to a web site he made, that
claims this title and two others were written by his company.
(See also "Jungle Hunt" and "Track & Field".)
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GAME NAME: Dot Gobbler
COMPANY : Machine Language Games
AUTHOR : unknown (198_)
GAME TYPE: A Pac-Man clone, most likely highly unauthorized.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Not perfect, but pretty darned good given the Vic's limits. The
movement of the characters is smooth enough. The maze itself is
drawn pretty well. Your basic "way too close to the real thing"
Pac-Man clone; everyone would recognize the game immediately.
SOUND : Good enough, but it isn't a clone of the Pac-Man original. More
like a new bunch of sounds, rather than copies of the old ones.
GAMEPLAY : Pretty good! The game surprised me. The speed options are a nice
thing to have. I love speedy Pac's, so this game made me happy.
But others that like slower-paced maze games aren't left out.
Having the whole maze on screen at once makes it more fun, too.
OVERALL : Really nice. Not perfect, but what is? All in all, a great find.
TRIVIA : Apparently this is a 4k game, although it requires 8k of RAM.
TRIVIA : The case size is physically smaller than most Vic20 carts. It is
maybe 1/8th of an inch smaller than a normal Vic20 cart, but much
smaller from side-to-side. Dimensions are: 4.25" wide by 3" tall.
And the plastic on the case is gorgeous looking. A marbled blue
and white plastic. Cart collectors should love this game; it is
really hard to find, looks good and different, and plays well.
TRIVIA : On the back of the cartridge itself, there are some instructions.
(These are printed on a 3.5" x 15/16" gummy-backed label; you
can't get much more low-buck than that!) They say "Push 1 - 9
for how fast, push F7 to cancel jitters, push CRSR down to scroll
screen, push 1 or 2 for # of players, hit fire button to start".
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GAME NAME: Dragonfire
COMPANY : Imagic [720052-1A]
AUTHOR : See trivia. (1983)
GAME TYPE: Translation of the Atari 2600 game "Dragonfire".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Very good. Uses raster effects like the other Imagic games. Has
more than one screen, offering more variety than some others.
SOUND : Average or better.
GAMEPLAY : Very good. This is the major thing that Imagic excelled at!
OVERALL : Very good. A simple but fun game. Excellent, addictive gameplay.
AD TEXT : "Dan Sonnet thought he could take the heat. What's the matter,
Dan? Having a little trouble keeping up with Imagic's new game
Dragonfire? But we thought you were so tough, so cool. We never
thought an expert like you would have so much trouble sneaking
across the drawbridge to the castle. Just look at you jumping and
ducking and dodging that Dragonfire. Why, if we didn't know better
we'd say you were scared right out of your pantaloons. Well,
surprise, surprise. You made it inside the castle. Let's see how
fast you can swipe that treasure before you get hit by the
dragon's fireballs. Ouch!!! Ooooch!! Aghhh!! Shame on you! At
this rate, Dan, you're not even going to make it past the first
level. You should know by now that Dragonfire and all Imagic games
are created by experts for experts. And frankly, Danny boy, you
just don't qualify." (Seen in Electronic Games, Mar 1983, page 11)
AD TEXT : "Dragons rule! The young prince hopes to defeat them -- but first
he must reclaim the king's treasures. The Prince attempts to cross
castle bridges. Hatchling dragons try to prevent him. They hurl
deadly fireballs at the agile Prince. He leaps, ducks and sprints
to avoid them! When the prince gets across the bridge, he finds a
splendid storeroom -- and its ferocious guardian! He can take
every treasure he touches. He must grab them all before a magical
exit appears and he can escape. But the dragons become smarter
and faster! Their fiery breath spells doom!" (From the box art.)
TRIVIA : Box art says "Program designed by Tim Yu." Who programmed it?
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GAME NAME: Droids
COMPANY : TG Software (Apparently licensed from Solitare Group)
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Original space maze / puzzle game.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Well done. This title was (I presume) made to match the
Atari home computer version closely, judging by the ad's
emphasis on the Atari's graphics. Not bad at all.
SOUND : Good. Nice title music, game music fits the game's mood.
GAMEPLAY : Good, but hard to describe. It is a real time game. You have
only so much time to finish each level. The game tension is
fine-tuned, or so it seems. Not too easy, not frustrating.
OVERALL : I like it, even without the instructions. I'd probably like
it more if I had a clue what I was doing!
AD TEXT : "Or escape into outer space with DROIDS (tm). It takes speed
and precision to outmaneuver the berzerk droid crew. Can you
lock them up before they destroy you and your spaceship? Good
luck!" (Seen in an ad for this game and NightStrike, on page
69 of the Oct 1983 issue of Compute! magazine.) The same ad
also says the game has seven different levels of play.
TRIVIA : This game was released on both this system and the Atari home
computer line. Seems to be fairly rare on both systems?
COMMENTS : Edward Geist found a level cheat; at the title screen, if
you type "RFV" your game starts on level seven, not one. (I
would venture to guess those were the programmer's initials?)
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GAME NAME: Face Maker
COMPANY : HES (Licensed from Spinnaker) [C324]
AUTHOR : Jay Stevens (1983)
GAME TYPE: Educational. Intended for very young children.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick. Disable bank 1 if present.
COMMENTS : Not given a very thorough review due to its non-game nature. The
basic idea is for toddlers to do simple memory drills, and to
assemble funny looking faces onscreen, out of parts like noses,
eyes, moustaches, etc. Should be fun for its intended age group.
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GAME NAME: Fast Eddie
COMPANY : Sirius
AUTHOR : Kathy Bradley (1982)
GAME TYPE: Original climbing game.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Almost Atari-2600 like in its looks. Still, the characters are
easy enough to make out. Simple-looking, but what the heck?
SOUND : Average.
GAMEPLAY : Fast and seemingly well-balanced play. Run around, grab all the
stuff, jump over your antagonists, etc. Simple, but can be fun.
OVERALL : I tend to agree with the review below. I'd take more games like
this one over disappointing arcade conversion, etc.
REVIEW : "This climbing game sends your on-screen alter-ego, Fast Eddie,
zipping up and down ladders and darting along five floors in his
quest for prizes. The valuable items float overhead, some
stationary, others bopping along at a healthy rate of speed. With
the 10 prizes per screen appearing two at a time at different
locations, Eddie's task is not an easy one.... Game designer Mark
Turmell, and Kathy Bradley, who converted Fast Eddie for the Vic-
20, have produced a fun game. If not exactly state-of-the-art, it
does a good job with the computer's capabilities. The graphics are
okay, and the play-action adequate. Not a game to write home
about, but not the worst way to pass an evening either." (Seen in
Electronic Games, Dec 83, pages 80-81. Review by Charlene Komar.)
REVIEW : Also reviewed by Compute's Gazette; page 102, October 1983 issue.
TRIVIA : Don't confuse this game with "Fast Freddie", a rare arcade game
that featured a side-scrolling character that hanglides. The two
games have similar names, but are otherwise very different.
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GAME NAME: Final Orbit / Bumper Bash
COMPANY : Sirius
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Two games in one: a space shoot-em-up and a pinball simulation.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Good or better. The space game looks brighter, more colorful than
the pinball game, but both are technically impressive. Neither
raster effects nor bit-mapping are standard options on the Vic20.
SOUND : Good. Mostly just sound effects, but they work well enough.
GAMEPLAY : Both games play well and as you might expect for their game types.
OVERALL : I really like the pinball simulation. It may not be as realistic
as simulations on other (later, more powerful) machines, but it is
fun just the same. One of my favorites! The space game is OK but
I just don't usually get excited by that type of game. Try it.
TRIVIA : This cartridge is odd in a number of ways. It has two 4k games
inside one 8k chip for one. But only the pinball game had any
copy protection code in it. This may mean that both games were
originally intended to be on separate cartridges, but were later
combined into one game cartridge. Anyone know more about this?
COMMENTS : To flip between games use the "C=" key in the lower left corner.
The space game controls with a joystick, as you might expect.
The F and L keys control the pinball flippers. Press F to load a
ball into the ramp, L to adjust, both F and L together to start.
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GAME NAME: Fourth Encounter
COMPANY : Thorn EMI [THC 22005]
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Original vertical shooting game.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Average or better. Displays some technical finesse in the things
that it does, but they are subtle enough to be missed by most of
the gaming public. Does a good job of moving multiple objects on
the screen at once, even if each of them looks fairly simple. Or
odd. The opening wave looks like flying carrots to me.
SOUND : Average. Your "ship dying" sound can get annoying after a while.
GAMEPLAY : Average. Not bad, but not stunning either.
OVERALL : Maybe a little more tweaking in what was there to make it a truly
interesting shooting contest? Most of the essential elements are
there but they lack that last little oomph to be really great.
REVIEW : "What's wrong with this game? Let us count the ways. It's a
ripoff. The first three 'encounters' are your standard Galaxian-
type enemies buzzing around you. The fourth is original, but is
so hard you'll feel frustrated instead of challenged. Aliens
gang up on you from below and there's nothing you can do about
it. The points are too low. Stay away." Seen in Jan 1985 Computer
Games, page 16. They rated the game a "D".
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GAME NAME: Frogger
COMPANY : Parker Brothers (licensed from Sega)
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Authorized translation of the arcade coin-op "Frogger".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Poor. Very uninspired. Like they didn't know the Vic20 very well
or they just didn't care. Most likely, the latter.
SOUND : Good. Effects OK, song good. But it doesn't play during the game!
GAMEPLAY : Fair. Most of the mechanics are there but something still lacks.
OVERALL : Poor to fair. I can't even seriously call this version "good". If
you really want a good version of the original Frogger try the
one Starpath made for the Atari 2600 (via their Supercharger).
REVIEW : "Either you love it or you hate it. Maneuver your frog up the
screen without getting hit by cars, eaten by snakes, smashing
into walls or drowning. Bouncy music and colorful, cartoony
graphics make this the ultimate cute game of all time. The only
question is, with so many interesting new games coming out, do
you still care about getting this old frog to the other side of
the road?" Seen in Jan 1985 Computer Games, page 16.
TRIVIA : The original arcade game was put out in 1981 by Sega, who had
licensed it from Gremlin. According to information seen in the
"2600 Connection" newsletter, Frogger was based on a game from
Atari called "Space Race". Frogger is definitely better known.
The arcade cabinet artwork included tire tracks near the screen.
TRIVIA : This game had 8k of available space to use, but may have been
rushed out the doors. Whatever the reason, not all that space was
used for game code. About 3k of the 8k is empty. Poor choice!
Note that early ads from Parker Brothers show they were making
and selling C64 and Vic20 games at the same time ... I can only
assume they put far less effort into the Vic20 market's game,
figuring that you had to take whatever garbage they offered you.
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GAME NAME: Fun with Music
COMPANY : Epyx
AUTHOR : Bob Campbell (1983)
GAME TYPE: Educational. Teaches musical notation.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Paddle controllers. Disk or tape drive optional.
GRAPHICS : Looks pretty good. Backgrounds are plain, but this keeps you
focused on the musical notes, which is as it should be. Smooth
enough animation and scrolling. Nice effects, here and there.
SOUND : Given the limits of Vic20 sound, this is a very good job. It
should be good, given the nature of the cartridge, and it is.
GAMEPLAY : Try it and see; some people seem to really like it. The object is
to jump over the notes and to run away from the yellow thing that
comes from the left of the screen, in the actual game portion.
OVERALL : Without the instructions, it wouldn't be fair to give this a
comprehensive evaluation. But it looks well done, all in all.
TRIVIA : This was made for other computers, as well. I recall Atari 8-bit
being mentioned, in other people's (Internet) cart lists and/or
original ads by Epyx. More info, once we find some instructions.
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GAME NAME: Galaxian
COMPANY : Atarisoft
AUTHOR : See Trivia. (1984)
GAME TYPE: Authorized translation of the arcade coin-op.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Blocky and fat but they move reasonably well. The designers were
apparently convinced from the start that the Vic20 couldn't handle
the original graphics "as is". Before you agree totally, take a
look at "Star Battle" ... Atari's is colorful, Commodore's hi-res.
Neither reach arcade emulation perfection. It's a give-and-take.
SOUND : Good. Most of the sound effects are very well done.
GAMEPLAY : Not bad at all. They captured the arcade look and feel pretty well,
all in all. Galaxian was basically an updated Space Invaders game
(diving aliens), but wasn't as fast-paced as later vert shooters.
The one-bullet-at-a-time was that way in the arcade, by the way.
OVERALL : Aside from the blocky lo-res graphics, not bad. Give it a try.
REVIEW : "A faithful adaptation of the arcade hit, but who wants to play
Galaxian in 1985? The game is a cross between Space Invaders and
Demon Attack. Shoot down rows of marching aliens that leave their
ranks and sail down to attack you. Ho-hum." Seen in Jan 1985
Computer Games, page 16. They rated the game a "C".
TRIVIA : Internal binary codes reveals this message; " 1984 designer
software bill bogenreif 6". (See it at $AFD8 to $AFFF.)
TRIVIA : From Jimmy Huey via the I'net: "The programmer was Alan Pavlish
(sp?). (he also wrote Crater Raider for Boone Software). Alan
is now at Interplay. Designer Software was the developer; Bill
acted mainly as the producer. I don't think Atarisoft programmed
any of their carts in house. They were all contracted out to 3rd
party developers. Pac-man was also programmed by Designer
Software. The original programmer abandoned the project in the
middle and I finished the game."
TRIVIA : This is one of only two 8k games by Atari; the rest were all 16k.
(Pac-Man being the other 8k cart.)
TRIVIA : I have no idea why they waited this long for this cart to be made
in the first place. Galaxian was popular for years before they
got around to releasing a version. Why? I can imagine the "gaming
crash" of '83 or '84 left Atari internally disorganized; other
reports have so indicated. This cart and "Jungle Hunt" are the
only two cartridge titles to have been released with an onscreen
date of "1984", even though internal messages sometimes date the
games well into December of 1983 or even into January 1984. Not
even Commodore released any carts beyond 1983. They shifted to
the C64 and so did the rest of the marketplace. This definitely
helps to explain why Galaxian is such a hard cart to find, but it
doesn't help to explain why Atari missed such big opportunities.
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GAME NAME: Garden Wars
COMPANY : Commodore [Vic-1932]
AUTHOR : unknown (1982)
GAME TYPE: Original game, involving mazes and shooting.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Very Atari-2600 looking. Almost surreal in some ways. Trippy.
SOUND : Average or better.
GAMEPLAY : I think you either need to (A) be on heavy pharmaceuticals or (B)
have the original instructions to understand this game. But the
gist of it is the standard run-around-in-a-maze-and-shoot-things.
Things seem to move quickly but your movement controls are picky.
OVERALL : You decide. I'm staying neutral on this one!
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GAME NAME: Ghost Manor
COMPANY : Xonox
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: Original game, released on multiple home gaming systems.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Crude. Almost Looks like a direct port from the 2600 machine.
SOUND : Average.
GAMEPLAY : Awful! One of the most boring games I've ever played. Maybe
very small children will find its pacing to their liking. Maybe!
OVERALL : Disappointing, even for a Xonox game. The best I can say about it
is that maybe we're missing something, without the instructions?
With a light gun to shoot the objects this might be ok, but....
TRIVIA : Most games by Xonox have a reputation among most classic gamers
as being of the lowest possible quality. I most certainly agree!
It is interesting to note, however, that internally the cart were
made of very high quality parts, suited best for mass production.
How's that for misplaced priorities? Making many games, all bad?
TRIVIA : Cart label reads: "Plays on Vic20. Use Joystick controllers.
Turn off console when inserting cartridge. Read instructions
before playing." My cart was a single-ender, by the way, not a
double. Which makes no sense, as this isn't stand-alone material.
COMMENTS : Try pressing F1 then F5 to start the first level. Touch the ghost
as many times as you can, then you progress to the next level. If
you just stay in the center he'll come to you, but you have to be
moving in some direction or it doesn't count. Such fun! Whoopee!
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GAME NAME: Gold Fever
COMPANY : Tronix
AUTHOR : Corey Ostman (1983)
GAME TYPE: Original climbing game.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Another "hi-res" eye test, uh, I mean game. Seems to be built
on character graphics. Some cute animation on the characters.
SOUND : Average.
GAMEPLAY : Not bad. You have to know that ladders are ladders, and that they
invisibly extend up and down. You'll see what I mean, when you
try it. After learning that, its just a simple matter of running
around collecting all the gold then finding a level's exit door.
OVERALL : Not bad on its own merits but pretty good for a 4k game! Could be
fun to play just seeing how many levels you can beat. As intended.
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GAME NAME: Gorf
COMPANY : Commodore [Vic-1923]
AUTHOR : Group effort; see comments. (1982 Commodore & 1981 Midway)
GAME TYPE: Authorized translation of the arcade coin-op game "Gorf".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Fair to good. This looks oversimplified at a glance but the real
arcade machine was the same way. A fairly good copy all in all.
SOUND : Average for a home machine. The arcade original had built-in
speech capability, which just wasn't possible to duplicate on
most home machines. (The C64 has it, but only if you bought a
special piece of add-on hardware called the "Magic Voice." I
typed up all the phrases once, and put them on the Internet.)
GAMEPLAY : Good. A simple-but-enjoyable multi screen space shoot-em-up.
OVERALL : A decent copy of an arcade classic. Fun enough, but no speech.
AD TEXT : "(The smash-hit arcade game!) Midway's incredible coin-operated
game is now on cartridge for the VIC! Includes 4 completely
different games, multiple levels of difficulty, some of the best
cartoon graphics ever devised for video games. Invaders, gorfies,
death ships, saucers, aliens ... it's terrific!" (Seen in the
Spring 1983 issue of "Commodore Power Play" magazine, page 104.)
REVIEW : An article in the Summer 1983 issue of "Commodore Power/Play"
magazine, pages 38-39, lists ways to use progamming bugs to get
very high scores. The article was written by Jeff Bruette, one of
the Commodore programmers that helped to make this very game.
TRIVIA : Onscreen messages credit the following people as authors of this
version: Bill Hindorff, Andy Finkel, Jeff Bruette, Eric Cotton,
Mike Scott, and Jimmy Snyder. (Displayed in that order onscreen.)
TRIVIA : It must have been very interesting to have been around the folks
at Commodore in their earliest Vic20 years. This is one of the
first game clones actually OK'd by the company that owned the
rights. (Earlier games had been made, released, then yanked off
the market.) Perhaps because it was so unusual for Commodore at
the time, ads then would not let you forget that this conversion
was perfectly legitimate and approved by the copyright owners.
TRIVIA : It's interesting to note that these officially sanctioned carts
were some of the first to have been copy-protected, even in ROM.
If you copy the ROM's image to RAM (from an unmodified cart) the
resulting image will not run in RAM. My question is, whose idea
was this; Commodore or Bally/Midway? (Does anyone know for sure?)
I can see BM wanting to protect their stuff, as the whole reason
they were collaborating was Commodore tried to infringe on them.
But if it was Commodore's idea, how hypocritical were they? Am I
too harsh? Over half their first 12 carts are questionable! They
make their system popular on the merits of other's games and then
decide to protect later games from their own customers? Who did
they think they'd attract with that type of marketing? Yeesh!
Then again, maybe BM saw it this way, and *demanded* protection?
COMMENTS : In the first mission, you can wipe out the entire bottom row of
bad guys before they start firing back, if you shoot carefully.
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GAME NAME: Gridrunner
COMPANY : HES (Human Engineered Software) [C312]
AUTHOR : Jeff Minter (1982)
GAME TYPE: Variant of the arcade coin-op "Centipede".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Simple but effective. The game doesn't seem to lack anything.
SOUND : Good. Mostly laser blasts and the like but it all works well.
GAMEPLAY : Very good. Fast-paced and addicting. If you've never seen the
game its a bit like Centipede on steroids, with extra features.
OVERALL : Very good. Jeff Minter made his reputation on games like this.
AD TEXT : "$5 says you can't beat Gridrunner. Gridrunner is the toughest,
fastest, arcade quality game ever to challenge a Commodore or
Atari computer owner...." (HES ad, Compute's Gazette, Oct83 pg 19)
AD TEXT : "Is Gridrunner unbeatable? No one, not even the author, has ever
achieved the last Gridrunner. It is an extremely fast-paced arcade
quality game designed to test your coolness under fire and chall-
enge your reflexes. As the pilot of Gridrunner, a combat ship, you
must annihilate the various enemies traveling along the 'Grid.'
High scores are possible only through the mastery of the patterns
of the X/Y zappers and the Gridsearch Droids which, when destroyed,
mutate into potentially lethal pods. Gridrunner has 32 levels of
difficulty (20 levels in the Vic 20 version). To this date, the
13th level has been the highest achieved." (HES ad, July 1983
Compute's Gazette magazine, page 31.)
REVIEW : "...Gridrunner is about alien Droids in the year 2190 who are
stealing electricity from Earth's orbiting power station, the
'Grid.' To stop them, a combat ship patrols the Grid. In the game,
the Grid is a large lattice on the screen, and Earth's combat ship
moves along the lower portion, firing on segmented Droids, dodging
the X/Y zappers, and eliminating mutating yellow pods which some
times lodge in the lattice." (Text from an article about Jeff
Minter. See page 52, August 1983 Compute's Gazette magazine.)
TRIVIA : A 1996 Sony Playstation game was released with the same name.
What's up with that? Wonder if they knew and did it on purpose?
COMMENTS : This is a 4k game internally although it requires 8k to run.
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GAME NAME: HesMon
COMPANY : HES (Human Engineereed Software) [C302]
AUTHOR : T. M. Peterson (1982)
GAME TYPE: Utility cartridge, used to read and write machine language code.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Keyboard.
COMMENTS : Not given a very thorough review due to its non-game nature. To
really use this cart, you'll need the original instructions. And
a good understanding of 6502 machine language programming. Among
those who had such needs, this was once a very popular cartridge.
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GAME NAME: HesWriter
COMPANY : HES (Human Engineered Software) [C304]
AUTHOR : By Jerry Bailey (1982)
GAME TYPE: Utility program. A word processor.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Keyboard.
COMMENTS : Not given a very thorough review due to its non-game nature. To
really use this cart, you'll need the original instructions. It
is really doubtful that many will use any memory-limited word
processor in this day and age. However, keep in mind that Bill
Shakespeare had only a sharpened feather and a bottle of ink...
compared to that this is high tech! Any WP beats a typewriter.
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GAME NAME: Home Babysitter
COMPANY : Commodore [Vic-1928]
AUTHOR : unknown (1982)
GAME TYPE: Educational / entertainment for small children.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Big and simple. It fits the theme and does the job well enough.
SOUND : Interesting. The ABC song is kinda cute, I think. The memories...
GAMEPLAY : Geared to a very low age bracket. For its market, its pretty good.
OVERALL : Should work well at its intended purpose of entertaining toddlers.
It may even help teach them something in the process. If nothing
else, they'll learn the very basic concepts of using a computer.
TRIVIA : The title screen calls this program "Home Babysitter II". Why?
Was there another one put out on tape, or planned as a cartridge?
What happened to #1? Tape? Or am I missing something obvious?
COMMENTS : The cartridge includes sections on counting, learning your ABC's,
and assembling funny faces on the screen. Small children will
need some adult help to get started. Once they know the keys to
press (remember that pressing RESTORE takes you back to the main
menu, for one) they may do just fine on their own.
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GAME NAME: Household Finance
COMPANY : Creative Software
AUTHOR : unknown (1983)
GAME TYPE: "A home application program."
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Keyboard.
COMMENTS : See "Personal Finance" by Commodore. Creative licensed this title
to them. The two seem to be identical, other than the titles.
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GAME NAME: IFR (flight simulator)
COMPANY : Academy Software
AUTHOR : Rom Wanttaja (1983)
GAME TYPE: Flight simulator. (Instrument flight only.)
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Average. Just a display of gauges on a cockpit; no scenery of any
kind. Yes, this is functional and fits the theme -- instruments
only -- but the gauges are still not quite graphic masterpieces.
SOUND : Good to very good. I like the engine idling noises and such.
GAMEPLAY : That depends. I like it, but mostly because of all the cool ways
I've found of crashing. It doubt it was intended to be amusing
but it is the way I play it! (Useful info ... hit "E" to eject!)
OVERALL : You have to have a taste for this sort of thing. More realistic
flight sims exist today (at least speaking graphically) but this
one has its individual charms. Overall, not bad for Vic20 flight.
Probably excellent, if you just want to fly by instruments. For
its time, this was probably amazing... and for 8k it still is!
REVIEW : "Has a quality of realism which sets it apart from others, even
those I've tested in flight school." -- Compute's Gazette.
"Great program!" -- Info-64. "It is tremendous fun." -- Compute's
Gazette. "Flight tested by an air traffic controller, two skilled
pilots and an elementary school class. Highly recommended by all."
-- Midnite Gazette. "This is an unbelievably realistic simulation
of the difficulties facing a pilot in instrument flying. I'm a
747 pilot and I think that this simulation could do a lot to
improve the reactions and instrument scan habits of even very
experienced pilots." -- 747 pilot. (Power Play, Feb/Mar 85, pg 31)
TRIVIA : The author recently contacted Paul LeBrasse, making some nice
remarks on our Vic20 resurrection work. (Thanks!) He also said he
writes books for a living now, so check that out. He claims that
this cartridge sold 30,000+ copies on the Vic20 alone. This is
believable, if you've ever seen how steadily his ad ran in any of
the big Commodore mags back when. He later made a version for
the C64 computer as well. (Thanks for all the info; appreciated!)
TRIVIA : This game was one of three still listed as being sold as late as
1989, per "A MENU information directory for Commodore Computers",
Volume 5 Number 2. There were far more PET entries than VIC-20
entries throughout that book, however most were not entertainment
titles. That book lists this cartridge as being $30 in 1989. This
cart ISPN # is 00462-100. See also "Donkey Kong" & "Ms Pac-Man".
COMMENTS : You definitely need the original instructions if you hope to fly
the plane with any degree of success and actually land it. But
you can also have fun discovering keypresses by Zen, as I do.
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GAME NAME: In the Chips
COMPANY : Creative Software
AUTHOR : Gene Genoar (1983)
GAME TYPE: "Concept home education program"
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 3 & 5). Joystick.
COMMENTS : Not given a very thorough review due to its non-game nature. To
really use this cart, you'll need the original instructions.
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GAME NAME: Jawbreaker II
COMPANY : Sierra On-line Inc. [JBL-401]
AUTHOR : Doug Whittaker (1982)
GAME TYPE: Maze & eating game. Original, but flavored by Pac-Man just a bit.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Good. Large and blocky, but it doesn't really seem to detract.
SOUND : Good. Decent theme music and some nice sound effects.
GAMEPLAY : Good. Probably best played by younger children or those who like
games that are somewhat slower paced. But it can be fun.
OVERALL : Good. Nothing sensational perhaps, but a fun look at a simple
game with some personality. A cute "alternative" game, for those
times when you're sick of the same-old-thing syndrome?
REVIEW : "Your character is a set of teeth that moves around gobbling dots
and avoiding faces in a maze. In the four corners of the maze are
power dots. Consume one and you can pursue the faces instead of
the other way around. From time to time, candy appears at the
center of the maze. It's worth a lot of extra points. This sounds
a lot like Pac-Man, but the game play is really quite different
because of the construction of the maze. It looks like a five-
story house with continuously moving doors." Seen in Jan 1985
Computer Games, page 17. The game was rated a "B".
REVIEW : I can't find the article now, but I know I read of at least one
reviewer that liked this game a lot, from way back when. (Sorry!)
TRIVIA : Released on multiple hardware systems as were most On-line games.
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GAME NAME: Jelly Monsters
COMPANY : Commodore [Vic-1905]
AUTHOR : unknown (1981?)
GAME TYPE: Clone of arcade classic "Pac Man". Apparently very unauthorized.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick or keyboard play.
GRAPHICS : Some flicker and occasional glitches, but overall very good. Uses
up nearly all of the screen for its maze, unlike Atari's version.
Impressive technically, considering the hardware limitations!
(Q: is the flicker due to this being a PAL-based/European game?)
SOUND : Sounds closer to the original than Atari's official version does.
GAMEPLAY : Not bad at all! Beats most other game console versions by a mile.
OVERALL : Very good. It's hard to believe this was done on a 3k computer!
Atari should have just slapped their name on this one instead.
TRIVIA : This is another one of Commodore's earliest-released carts that
is heavily rumored to have been a "way too close to the original"
clone of an arcade classic, so it was pulled off the market. This
is probable as Vic-1922 is another Pac Man clone, but has been
changed quite a bit from the original. Probably due to its legal
status, this is one of the harder Commodore cartridges to find.
COMMENTS : Use the cursor keys to center the screen image at start-up. This
is not a bug, per se, but a built-in feature of the Vic20.
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GAME NAME: Joust
COMPANY : Atari
AUTHOR : unknown (198_)
GAME TYPE: Vaporware. (Translation of the arcade coin-op game "Joust".)
AD TEXT : Shown in an ad in Compute! on page 4, june 1984 issue. This ad
shows computers lined up, with boxes of Atari games piled up on
top. The effect was a list of sorts; what games had come out for
each system. Stargate was no longer listed, but now Joust was
shown for the Vic20. No screen shots or other "proof" were shown.
I really doubt we'll ever see a production cart, but perhaps a
prototype exists somewhere? (On cassette or disk, most likely.)
TRIVIA : The original arcade game, by the way, was a 1982 Williams effort.
One of its main claims to fame was that it was the first game to
allow two players to play at one time, instead of taking turns.
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GAME NAME: Jungle Hunt
COMPANY : Atarisoft (Licensed from Taito)
AUTHOR : unknown (1984)
GAME TYPE: Translation of the arcade coin-op "Jungle Hunt".
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 3 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Fairly good. They got all the individual elements into the game
but each of them is a bit blocky; almost abstract looking. The
usable screen is cut nearly in half. Is that good or bad? The
horizontal dimension is more important to the gameplay than the
vertical one is and it creates a cinema-like widescreen effect!
Besides, the arcade original wasn't really a graphic masterpiece.
SOUND : Good. They captured the feeling of the arcade game fairly well.
GAMEPLAY : Good. Simple perhaps, but fun. Captures the arcade's feel well.
Master each screen's required skill, and move on to the next one.
Each task is fairly simple to master but keeps you coming back.
OVERALL : Good. I liked the arcade original quite a bit. Although this is
not a perfect translation it captures the look and feel well.
Perhaps a good game to try if other games frustrate you easily?
TRIVIA : This title may have been written by a Greg Hightower. A fan of
the TI-99/4A system gave Ward a URL to a web site he made, that
claims this title and two others were written by his company.
(See also "Donkey Kong Jr." and "Track & Field".)
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GAME NAME: Jupiter Lander
COMPANY : Commodore [Vic-1907]
AUTHOR : Hitoshi Suzuki, HAL laboratory (1981)
GAME TYPE: Clone of the arcade game "Lunar Lander".
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Keyboard controlled.
GRAPHICS : Fair, but better than I remember the original arcade game being.
The original game was one of Atari's first B&W vector graphics
units, produced at roughly the time "Asteroids" came out.
SOUND : Good. Simple, but fits the mood of the original game.
GAMEPLAY : Hard! Some people may find it frustrating, at least at first.
Modern players may feel its too much work and too little reward.
However, this is pretty much true to the original arcade game.
OVERALL : It definitely represents a piece of gaming's early history. Try
it yourself, then decide whether that is good or not.
AD TEXT : "Pilot your 'Jupiter Lander' through the treacherous crevices of
a mysterious planet. Variable rocket thrust, anti-gravity, horiz-
ontal retros." (Seen in Spring 1983 Power Play magazine, page 102)
REVIEW : "This is a pretty slick lander game with some interesting
variations. The best point is that it provides a close-up of the
landing site." (From Electronic Games magazine, Nov 1982, page 49)
TRIVIA : Definitely gives one a feel for how far home computers had grown.
This is arguably as good as the original arcade version was.
TRIVIA : Commodore may have gotten away with copying Atari's 1979 coin-op
game "Lunar Lander" when they made this game, primarily because
Atari apparently copied theirs from an earlier PDP-11 game of the
same name. This game is very *deeply* rooted in gaming history!
TRIVIA : Also sold as "Vic Super Lander" with different colors and texts
but otherwise the same, says Marko Makela of ftp.funet.fi fame.
COMMENTS : See on-screen instructions for keys; 3 function keys are used as
upward thrusters, A and D keys are used to move left and right.
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GAME NAME: K-Razy Antics
COMPANY : CBS Software (by K-byte & Kay Enterprises co.)
AUTHOR : unknown (1982)
GAME TYPE: Original maze game, ported to many platforms.
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 3 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Mixed results. Mostly, its done very well, but with some slight
imperfections or things that could have been done better. For
instance, the ant animation is good but the anteater's is fair.
SOUND : Average.
GAMEPLAY : It looks like it has a lot to it but I didn't quite "get it". I
didn't have the original documentation so I'll cut it some slack.
OVERALL : See gameplay. It has potential, if one understands its rules.
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GAME NAME: K-Star Patrol
COMPANY : CBS Software (by K-byte & Kay Enterprises co.)
AUTHOR : unknown (1982)
GAME TYPE: Original horizontally-scrolling space shooter.
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 3 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Simple, both in coloration and general shape.
SOUND : Average. Just sound effects.
GAMEPLAY : Too slow paced for me to enjoy much. Maybe a good beginning game?
Not much reward for the player as I see it. Just target practice.
OVERALL : I didn't play this game much. If it just repeats the same idea
over and over, at a snail's pace, I'd say they wasted the 16k.
It did include some novel ideas, but none that I think really
made much of a difference in the overall gameplay experience.
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GAME NAME: Kids on Keys
COMPANY : HES (Licensed from Spinnaker) [C325]
AUTHOR : Frank Tendick (1983)
GAME TYPE: Educational.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Keyboard.
COMMENTS : Not given a very thorough review due to its non-game nature. To
really use this cart you'll need the original instructions.
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GAME NAME: Kindercomp
COMPANY : HES (licensed from Spinnaker) [C322]
AUTHOR : Jonathan Creighton (1983)
GAME TYPE: Educational.
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k in banks 3 & 5). Joystick. Disable bank 1 if present.
COMMENTS : Not given a very thorough review due to its non-game nature. To
really use this cart you'll need the original instructions.
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GAME NAME: Lazer Zone
COMPANY : HES (Human Engineered Software) [C3__]
AUTHOR : Jeff Minter (1983)
GAME TYPE: Original shooting game.
REQUIRED : 8k RAM in bank 5. Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Plain black background looks, well, too plain before you begin to
play. You'll be thankful for the lack of distractions, later on!
SOUND : Very nice sound effects and lots of them.
GAMEPLAY : Geez! Too much to keep track of simultaneously until you develop
new skills to. Which means, you play it a lot. This is not to be
taken as a complaint, by the way. It will keep you coming back.
OVERALL : Thank you, Mr. Minter. Another ballistic blast-fest to enjoy! But
as said elsewhere, this game requires more than just a good aim
to feel you've mastered it. The unusual play mechanic offers a
nice respite from the same-old-same-old videogaming blues.
REVIEW : "Jeff Minter's latest, Lazer Zone, has a novel play-mechanic. The
computerist controls shooters which move along the bottom and
righthand edges of the playfield depending on which direction the
player pushes the stick. There's a lot of subtlety along with the
shooting in this one." (Seen in Electronic Games, Sep84, page 64)
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GAME NAME: Lode Runner
COMPANY : Broderbund
AUTHOR : Mike Wise and Doug Smith (1983)
GAME TYPE: Climb and run game, with some puzzle-solving aspects involved.
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 3 & 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Plainly colored but detailed enough. Great character animation.
SOUND : Average.
GAMEPLAY : Wonderful in any of its ports. Extremely well balanced and paced.
OVERALL : A classic game. In any of its versions, on just about any gaming
platform, Lode Runner can offer hours of contented entertainment.
AD TEXT : "...You will maneuver through scene after scene, running, jumping,
drilling passages and outfoxing enemy guards in a secret under-
ground hideaway as you pick up chests of gold stolen from the
citizens of the Bungeling Empire. There's no end to the thrills,
chills and challenge." (Partial text from Broderbund ad in Dec
1983 Compute's Gazette.)
TRIVIA : See the entry for Apple Panic for some historical notations.
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GAME NAME: Lunar Leeper
COMPANY : Sierra On-line Inc. [LLL-401]
AUTHOR : Dr. Bob of I.C.G (1981)
GAME TYPE: Original space game, heavily influenced by coin-op "Defender".
REQUIRED : 16k RAM (8k each in banks 1 and 5). Joystick.
GRAPHICS : Nicely done. A static screen shot will not show off the wonderful
character animation. One of the best efforts on the Vic20. See it!
SOUND : Average or better.
GAMEPLAY : Fun. Sort of like a simplified Defender. You are still trying to
rescue land-based people in a space ship but you have fewer
enemies to contend with here. Some may consider that improvement!
OVERALL : This is a very well done game. Especially due to its youthful
age (1981) this is a very impressive piece. Play it. Show it off.
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End of this section of "CARTZILA!"
(See the other three sections or the
full document for more information.)
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