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Post by Bobinator on Oct 15, 2017 16:43:47 GMT -5
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Post by Bumpyroad on Oct 15, 2017 16:56:24 GMT -5
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ruzan
New Member
A winner is you!
Posts: 15
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Post by ruzan on Oct 16, 2017 8:54:15 GMT -5
I loved the old apogee platformers. However, they could get so non-linear that they become confusing messes, this game is no exception. What a great article!
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Post by spekkio on Oct 16, 2017 9:59:31 GMT -5
So this game was released after Jill of the Jungle but had a 16 color palette? I guess that gives credence to the secret "Apology Mode" in Jazz Jackrabbit.
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Post by elektrolurch on Oct 16, 2017 10:12:44 GMT -5
Uhm, I'd like to challange some content here:"While the quality of their output varied from game to game, there’s no doubt that they were the best source of console-style action games during the DOS era."
Nope. What about epic megagames or id software? What about commander keen, jill of the jungle, jazz jackrabbit?
I was playing a lot dos-plattformers in the early- mid ninties, and I personally liked Apogee's efforts the least....
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Post by dsparil on Oct 16, 2017 11:13:49 GMT -5
Uhm, I'd like to challange some content here:"While the quality of their output varied from game to game, there’s no doubt that they were the best source of console-style action games during the DOS era." Nope. What about epic megagames or id software? What about commander keen, jill of the jungle, jazz jackrabbit? I was playing a lot dos-plattformers in the early- mid ninties, and I personally liked Apogee's efforts the least.... Yeah, "best source" as in quality is stretching it, but best as in most prolific is more accurate. Strictly speaking, Epic didn't actually make that many platformers. It's just Jill of the Jungle, Xargon, Jazz 1 and Jazz 2 plus Electro Man as publisher. id only has Commander Keen which Apogee published anyway with a few Dangerous Dave games/episodes as spiritual predecessors. Apogee has Pharaoh's Tomb, Monuments of Mars, Arctic Adventure and the original Keen trilogy in 1990 alone. They developed or published 12 more before Duke3D. |
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Oct 16, 2017 13:21:17 GMT -5
Possibly my favourite among Apogee platformers. Some of what are listed as flaws were strong points for me - it was fun to take the stones' physics into account, for example to have them fall into small holes to clear them of evil skulls or broken lance tips. I recall a section where you had to be extremely careful of what lances you could destroy, jump over, or crawl under. Also, as noted, pretty gruesome.
According to Joe Siegler, there was a sequel/upgrade planned which would have also included levels that didn't make the cut in the original, codenamed Monster Bash VGA.
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Post by Elvin Atombender on Oct 16, 2017 15:36:35 GMT -5
I recall a section where you had to be extremely careful of what lances you could destroy, jump over, or crawl under. And speaking with pointy things on a stick, I remember a frustrating section in level 2 (or was it level 3? Can't remember right now) where you ride a spear over a pit and you must time your jump perfectly, or you smash into a wall and end impaled by the pit's spears. That said, I agree on this game being one of Apogee's most solid games even though the difficulty was infuriating at times. Another little touch I like is the death animation of the skulls, which I always found pretty hilarious...and let's not forget that when you kill every skull in a level you're awarded with 50k points! |
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Post by Bobinator on Oct 16, 2017 18:45:34 GMT -5
Uhm, I'd like to challange some content here:"While the quality of their output varied from game to game, there’s no doubt that they were the best source of console-style action games during the DOS era." Nope. What about epic megagames or id software? What about commander keen, jill of the jungle, jazz jackrabbit? I was playing a lot dos-plattformers in the early- mid ninties, and I personally liked Apogee's efforts the least.... A fair point. Epic and iD's stuff were great, too, and I didn't mean to imply they weren't. If you go back and check the article again, you'll see I've changed that line to "one of the best". That's what's great about this new site. In the old days, I'd have to email somebody in charge of the HTML, tell them what I wanted changed, and wait for them to get around to fixing it and hoping they didn't forget entirely. Now? I hold all the power. I could change anything I wanted about this article and you could never tell. Fear my Orwellian powers. Fear them. |
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Post by elektrolurch on Oct 17, 2017 6:29:16 GMT -5
Yeah, "best source" as in quality is stretching it, but best as in most prolific is more accurate. Strictly speaking, Epic didn't actually make that many platformers. It's just Jill of the Jungle, Xargon, Jazz 1 and Jazz 2 plus Electro Man as publisher. id only has Commander Keen which Apogee published anyway with a few Dangerous Dave games/episodes as spiritual predecessors. Apogee has Pharaoh's Tomb, Monuments of Mars, Arctic Adventure and the original Keen trilogy in 1990 alone. They developed or published 12 more before Duke3D. I remember a lot of the apogee plattformers to be very samish, but I guess I just was not a big fan, heck, I did not even like the Duke Nukem plattformers that much... A fair point. Epic and iD's stuff were great, too, and I didn't mean to imply they weren't. If you go back and check the article again, you'll see I've changed that line to "one of the best". That's what's great about this new site. In the old days, I'd have to email somebody in charge of the HTML, tell them what I wanted changed, and wait for them to get around to fixing it and hoping they didn't forget entirely. Now? I hold all the power. I could change anything I wanted about this article and you could never tell. Fear my Orwellian powers. Fear them. I fear them, but am still thankfull that you used them.  |
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Post by Dracula on a bike on Oct 18, 2017 1:18:51 GMT -5
Strictly speaking, Epic didn't actually make that many platformers. It's just Jill of the Jungle, Xargon, Jazz 1 and Jazz 2 plus Electro Man as publisher. There were also the Safari Software games that Epic published, including the platformers Space Chase and Heroes: The Sanguine Seven. |
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Post by dsparil on Oct 18, 2017 3:07:01 GMT -5
The platformers made by Safari weren't published or ever sold by Epic. I think they had a soft policy against EGA-only games.
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Post by Weasel on Oct 18, 2017 7:53:08 GMT -5
The platformers made by Safari weren't published or ever sold by Epic. I think they had a soft policy against EGA-only games. Which doesn't explain Overkill. =P |
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Post by dsparil on Oct 18, 2017 8:26:38 GMT -5
I feel silly not remembering that Overkill is EGA. I just played few minutes of it and it is seriously the best looking EGA game to the point where it doesn't even look it. The CGA mode on the other hand...
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