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everygame · 2 months

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Batalyx (C64)

Developed/Published by: Llamasoft Released: 10/1985 Completed: 18/05/2024 Completion: Played every single game extensively.

Following on from the critical–and it seems commercial–failure of Mama Llama, which Minter put down to his twin bugbears (distributors failing to distribute, and game reviewers being lazy dicks) you would hope Minter would make something a bit more straightforward and commercial again–at least as commercial as Revenge of the Mutant Camels, anyway. But no, he doubles down on making things as hard for himself as possible by putting out Batalyx, a six minigame collection that doesn’t even work like you’d expect a minigame collection to.

You see, instead of just, like, selecting each game, playing it, winning and losing, you instead select an amount of time you want to play Batalyx for and can then switch between games whenever you like, with the goal of either getting an overall high score or receiving “completion icons” for “completing” each mode. You’ve essentially got infinite lives as a result, with dying generally only costing you time or opportunity (making it harder to reach an icon, or bumping you down a level and lowering your multiplier.)

There’s some sense to the design–as the timer ticks down, the games get harder, so if you’re trying for completion, you should play the games you’re worst at first. But it also doesn’t make a ton of sense because if you’re playing for high score it only really makes sense to play the one game you’re best at (or which you can score highest at.)

One wonders, almost, if Minter’s time spent designing his visualisers Psychedelia and Colour Space have leaked into his game design here. Games are no longer something to be beat (the completion icons a pretty flimsy sop to that) but something you stick on for an hour to zone out to pushing buttons and looking at the pretty colours while you listen to Dark Side of the Moon or something equally tedious [“Hey!”--Pink Floyd Dept. Ed.]

That said, there’s a slight case of multiple discovery here, in that Minter, sort of, accidentally has created Hudson Soft’s famous “Caravan mode” without realising and I believe before they even did. You can make the time limit as short as five minutes and then concentrate on playing a single game as well as possible, and so that's what I did. It doesn’t really work. But here’s my take on each mode individually anyway.

Hallucin-O-Bomblets

A perfect example of Minter’s gung-ho attitude to new ideas and his blindspot: he hits on an interesting design, creates it, gets personally very good at it, and then doesn’t consider that him being able to play it doesn’t make it even parsable never mind playable to anyone who didn’t come up with it. Here you have the interesting idea that shooting is how you move, so you fire bullets and the inertia moves you backwards, and you do this in an Asteroids-like wraparound screen as Ancipital-style wacky enemies show up.

The problem is that because you move in the opposite direction that you’re pointing the stick, you feel like your controls are completely reversed and end up flying around the screen wildly slamming into enemies, which deducts from your chance to actually complete the mode. This makes you play extremely conservatively, trying to move as little as possible and snipe enemies, trying to move yourself back into an advantageous position by quickly firing in the opposite direction you just did, but as a result it’s got the feel of playing Irritating Stick with your wrong hand while hanging upside down, as you gingerly attempt to survive. Just doesn’t feel very fun.

Attack of the Mutant Camels 2

It’s strange to demote the sequel to something you previously released as a full game to a mere subgame, but I suppose you have to reckon with the incredible speed at which games were evolving within just a couple of years. This doesn’t really live up to the original unfortunately. Minter was clearly enamoured with the graphics of the flawed Atari 8-bit version and gets some of that spark here with colour-cycling camels and the floor scrolling from a confusing perspective, but everything gets a bit more clumsy as the camels get smaller, leap around and you can have more than one on screen at a time–and they like to clump up together. Controls are more in line with the C64 original, but it doesn’t really seem to help as you can’t predict Llama leaping and when you kill one a new one falls on the screen basically where you are, making a nonsense of the original Empire Strikes Back concept that you’re pushing the attack back each time you take one down, And you can warp between levels whenever you want which is a quirk of the new “infinite lives” system–you can warp to a high level to kill camels that are worth more points, and if you die you just get bumped down a level. I almost feel like this undercuts the caravan-like 5 minute mode–there’s probably an ideal amount of time to spend warping to then rack up a high score, so it’s probably “solvable.” It’s clumsy to play either way though, and remains a disappointment– never mind that The Empire Strikes Back is still better, the original on C64 is still better!

The Activation of Iridis Base

Another pure example of Minter’s design philosophy and his priorities; not just gung-ho towards his ideas, but also led by vibes rather than what might seem like the obvious path. At first glance this looks almost like Yoshi’s Safari, where you, riding on the back of a camel, are shooting with a crosshair as the camel gallops forward (a clever re-use of the floor scrolling from Attack Of The Mutant Camels, actually.) But you aren’t doing that at all!

Jeff notes in the manual that he had originally planned it like that, but he strung all the projectiles into a string and thought it looked so good that he decided to build around that. The major problem is that the game he designed around that is basically just a reaction test that asks you to push your stick in the direction a tiny indicator box on the screen asks you to (sometimes holding the fire button as well.) This means that you spend the entire time staring at this tiny screen and not the interesting graphics! There’s almost something self-sabotaging here about taking a game that could easily knock the C64’s take of Space Harrier* into a cocked hat and instead make something literally less interesting than Simon.

*Remarkably, in the sixth issue of Minter’s zine, produced after Batalyx was finished, Minter raves about how cool Space Harrier is in arcades and how much he’d like to replace his difficult to maintain Tempest machine with one. How could he not see the potential here???

Cippy On The Run

A gag name based on the combination of the diminutive for the lead character of Ancipital and beloved C64 platformer Monty On The Run, it’s almost hard to not start to get kind of annoyed with Minter by this point in Batalyx, because it’s starting to feel like just a grab-bag of half-finished ideas that aren’t amounting to anything. Here he has a different take on the Crush Roller maze painter from Hover Bovver by tossing the maze out completely and transporting it to a side-scrolling level that will call to mind Sheep In Space for the real heads, as you play the Ancipital as he runs and fires nonsensical symbols wildly colouring in the floor or ceiling he runs across (as you can flip between floor and ceiling) as you attempt to colour in both in full.

There are gaps in the floor you need to jump over and there’s also spheres flying about everywhere that, should they hit the floor or ceiling, change that section of floor into something that will affect the Ancipital’s movement (make him jump, teleport, etc.)

“I had a lot of fun with this one. It was just a case of sitting down and coding and seeing what came out” sez Minter, and you can tell, because there isn’t really anything here other than, I imagine, the exercise of making it. I imagine the idea is that you’re supposed to be navigating the levels, hopping between ceiling and floor while blasting spheres, but the two aspects–colour the floor, blast enemies–conflict, because you can’t blast them successfully unless you’re hopping between floors, and if you’re hopping between floors constantly, you’re making it a nightmare to try and get the floor all coloured in because you’re constantly skipping areas and the enemies end up colouring the floor because you’ll never blast them all. You can either noodle around blasting them for what feels like forever or run full tilt colouring the floors in and trying to avoid the damage they do, and neither really feels like anything you’d want to do. Jeff!!!!

Syncro II

Have to admit my patience has been utterly sapped by Batalyx so far–and I have to restate I played Ancipital for ages and really enjoyed it, so I’m not just a hater–and I basically threw my hands up as soon as I started playing this one. There are a couple of spheres rolling about on screen, and then you are expected to make panels on the floor move in the opposite direction of the spheres to ultimately make them stop, with the goal to make all spheres on screen stop moving. This is based on a type-in/demo that Llamasoft has previously released called Syncro that looks a good bit more understandable (featuring Ancipitals on conveyor belts, or something?) but this version is almost completely baffling unless–as I assume Minter does–you have a really fine understanding of the velocities of the spheres on screen and exactly what speed you want to set the panels at. You could probably spend a lot of time learning this, but it would be miserable waste of time I’m afraid.

Psychedelia

The final “game” of six, Jeff craftily recycled Psychedelia as a pause mode of sorts. It’s a bit impaired, however, because while it’s easier to use than the full thing (good!) you don’t actually get a full-screen to look at the nice patterns with as it’s all kept within the existing UI, and it gets rendered pointless as a result.

Will I ever play it again? There is not a single game on this that I’d like to play again for a second. Final Thought: I described Mama Llama as an example of the perils of genius–someone who has simply gone to a creative place that I don’t think anyone else could follow. I desperately want to say it’s like Scott Walker went straight from Scott 4 to recording Tilt, but firstly, that’s probably baffling to anyone reading this, and secondly, Tilt is actually very good, not just frustrating. Batalyx is like Scott Walker went from recording Tilt and suddenly just put out an album that consisted of a six tracks where he just kicked a set of bagpipes up and down a set of stairs for an hour (which now I say it, doesn’t sound that unlikely) and said the correct way to listen to it was to skip between the tracks whenever you got bored of them. It sounds clever, but you’re still just listening to a set of bagpipes being kicked up and down the stairs.

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#gaming #video games #games #txt #text #review #llamasoft #batalyx #1985

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gertlushgaming · 6 months

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Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review (PlayStation 5)

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review, 42 of the weirdest, trippiest, sheepiest games ever created. Enter the mind of Jeff Minter, the legendary creator of Attack of the Mutant Camels, Gridrunner, and Tempest 2000, in this interactive documentary from Digital Eclipse.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review Pros:

- Graphics are from every generation. - 3.97GB download size. - Platinum trophy. - You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game. - Interactive documentary gameplay. - You work your way along the timeline of events. - Videos can be fast-forwarded, rewound, and paused. - Subtitles can be turned on and off with a button press. - High-quality video. - Simple controls. - You can turn menu music on and off. - Clear crisp and clean menu system that is just so good to look at. - An excellent time capsule. - If you have played the Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration you get that again but for the one game. - Thumbnails for the games show the original box art and original scans of the floppy discs. - There are four chapters to the documentary and each has a completion percentage. - Original scans of paperwork, notes, concept art, letters, and more. - All images can be zoomed in and out and pan around. - Attack the documentary in any order you like. - Such high production value. - Full games list - - Sinclair ZX81 - 3D3D - Centipede Commodore VIC-20 - Abductor - Andes Attack - Deflex V - Gridrunner - Hellgate - Laser Zone - Matrix: Gridrunner 2 - Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time - Ratman Commodore 64 - Ancipital - Attack of the Mutant Camels - Batalyx - Gridrunner - Hellgate - Hover Bovver - Iridis Alpha - Laser Zone - Mama Llama - Matrix: Gridrunner 2 - Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time - Psychedelia - Revenge of the Mutant Camels - Revenge of the Mutant Camels II - Rox 64 - Sheep In Space - Voidrunner Sinclair Spectrum - City Bomb - Headbangers Heaven - Rox III - Superdeflex Atari 8-bit - Attack of the Mutant Camels - Colourspace - Gridrunner - Hover Bovver - Turboflex Konix Multi-System - Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 Atari ST - Llamatron: 2112 - Revenge of the Mutant Camels - Super Gridrunner Atari Jaguar - Tempest 2000 Reimagined - Gridrunner Remastered - A real joy to experience. - It's such a fun amazing insightful trip into the mind of one of Britain's most popular and famous Developers. - You get a glimpse into how the British gaming scene was in the early days like events and the art of selling. - Play all original and concept games. - High-scan images of the cassettes and box art with all of them in 3D. - Each timeline has an explored percentage and makes a noise to say you've done it. - Handy just play the games option. - 43 games to play including the different versions of the same game. - You can launch games from the timeline. - An excellent mix of games and mini-documentaries laceEvery game has a fast save/load feature. - Each game has a screen mode, filter, and border settings. - Stick settings can be adjusted – Invert the axis and sensitivity sliders. - You can reset games. - All games can be quit and returned to the main menu. - This shows again why Digital Eclipse is the team to deliver these exceptional museum pieces. - You get to see how devs used to show off and introduce their games to the public. - Full history of the Llama obsession? - Shows how the game used to be whacky, fun, a bit out there and dare I say experimental. - Gameography shows each game in a list. Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review Cons: - No cheats or adjustments are built into any of the games. - Doesn’t have any online leaderboards. - Uninspiring trophy list with nearly half of them being for one game. - The background music is not great. - Timelines in this one seem a bit more subdued with a lot of images and only a few videos per chapter. - Doesn't include the newer games like PSVR games and Atari branded games. (more an FYI) - Needs a physical release. Related Post: Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft Review (PlayStation 5) Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story: Official website. Developer: Digital Eclipse Publisher: Digital Eclipse Store Links - PlayStation Read the full article

#PlayStation5 #RetroGaming

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retrocgads · 2 years

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UK 1985

#UK1985 #LLAMASOFT #ACTION #C64 #BATALYX

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everygame · 1 month

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Iridis Alpha (C64)

Developed/Published by: Llamasoft Released: 1986 Completed: n/a Completion: Played it so, so much and still only managed a measly score of 8740.

The thing that strikes me most about Jeff Minter after, by this point, playing nearly every game that he released until 1987, his most prolific period, is his contradictions. His games have wacky narratives and comical graphics, but also have complex designs. Then despite those complex designs, they lack strict rules to game feel, and can feel not just sloppy and frustrating but almost unfinished in some cases–like half-formed ideas, untested by anyone but Minter himself. And Minter would be quick to attack on being accused of this–clapping back in his newsletters, in a public spat with Zzap 64–but by all accounts otherwise an incredibly gracious person with a ton of time for his fans.

With that in mind, it’s kind of hard, frankly, to not be frustrated with Minter’s progress in this period. To not question if there’s some sort of unconscious self-sabotage in his releases from the high point of Ancipital, with Mama Llama and Batalyx simply incomprehensible. It feels like there’s a chip on Minter’s shoulder; that in his mind he’s showing that games are more than just action adventures where you pick up objects and take them to another room or shooters where you shoot everything you can see, but his designs are so uncompromising that no one can follow him where he’s going. And yet where he’s going often seems led by whim rather than reason.

Which brings us to Iridis Alpha. A second attempt at an overhaul of the Defender-a-like after Sheep In Space, which has all of the issues discussed above, Iridis Alpha pushes things even further than Mama Llama in terms of complexity, but is actually controllable at all, so it’s at least got that.

You play a pair of “gilbys” which are robots that either whizz around like the ship from Defender or which walk back on forth on land shooting bullets in the air like a popcorn popper if you land. Your goal is, ultimately, to survive all the waves of enemies on a level and then move to the next one.

However.

After the first 3-wave level, you’re doing this with both Gilbys at the same time, one on the top screen, one on the bottom, and you switch between them by flying through warp holes left by the enemies you kill. You have to switch between each ship regularly because if you don’t, you build up entropy in the side you’re not controlling, which leads to a death.

In addition to this, you can’t just blast wildly. Every enemy you kill gains health, which is good, because as usual you die if you take too many hits. However it’s also bad, because if you gain too much health, you also die. Meaning that you either have to take some hits or land on the ground so your Gilby can discharge some of their power (which eventually leads to a mini-game where you can gain extra lives.)

There also is an extremely complex level map that I will simply express to you now that I do not understand.

The thing that strikes any player of Iridis Alpha is that it honestly feels very good to play. Your gilby stays locked in the center of the screen; acceleration and speed feels good, the auto-fire is rewarding, and while it’s a little annoying trying to take off from the ground when you’ve landed, it’s not insurmountable. Within the first waves you’re only controlling a single Gilby, so you start to pick up the energy managing mechanics. You think–adding entropy to this won’t be too hard. I can do this.

Anyway then the next thing that happens is that the third wave features ships, "lickers", that stick to you and drain your health until you explode, and they seem to do this immediately, unfailingly and be nearly impossible to shake off so you lose all your lives and have to start again.

It is the closest, it feels, that Minter has come to straight up telling the player to fuck off.

The lickers appear. This person's game is already over, they just don't know it yet.

A game like Mama Llama is simply idiosyncratic; Hell Gate is simply pushing intensity as far as it can go. But this is naked contempt. Minter has created a hard game that requires optimum concentration, but he won’t actually even let you play it to the fullest unless you can beat a truly cruel difficulty spike that isn’t even fun in the name of making it brutally clear that he’s making a “thinking man’s shooter.”

You see, the trick here is that it’s a harsh lesson in that you can’t just use auto-fire the whole time. In order to survive this wave, you have to learn to manoeuvrer your gilby at the maximum speed you can manage, avoid the ships in front of you, and quickly turn and fire briefly to spawn lickers, who begin to track you, but die if they don’t touch you within a second. Fire constantly, you spawn them in front and too many. Don’t go fast enough, they get you. Go too fast and they fly off screen before they die.

It’s probably the worst brick wall I’ve ever faced in a video game. This isn’t, say, an exacting jump in The Lost Levels; this is having to track several things at once while having complete mastery of controls. Managing it with one gilby is a nightmare and I certainly haven’t reached the point where I can do it with two–once you unlock the “full” game they show up with regularity and you have to beat the third wave licker gauntlet for a second time upside down, providing a second difficulty spike and by that point, honestly, the game feels to chaotically unfair to want to push through.

It is astonishingly frustrating, because otherwise the game has an interesting design and feels good! You start to wonder if there’s some kind of unpleasant gatekeeping here; notably the number of enemies left in a level is listed in hexadecimal so it’d be gibberish to anyone except another programmer.

The message is clear: you aren’t part of the club. The question is how much you want to try to be.

Will I ever play it again? For me, there's a limit. The lickers are it.

Final Thought: Unusually, there actually sort of is a club for Iridis Alpha, unlike, say, Mama Llama, and the very few members seem invested in having you join it. You can read an entire book that goes over the assembly code of the game–I would argue possibly the least commercial book ever published–and there’s even a YouTube video from someone laboriously trying to explain how to play it that seems to be narrated by Jerry Springer (though he doesn’t make a point of explaining how to get past the licker ships, absurdly.) There’s even an unlisted video I found that’s another play guide too!

I appreciate this kind of thing, but seeing a rare few putting this kind of effort to express the artistry of Iridis Alpha only makes me more disappointed in what it is, a game that no human past 1987, who hasn’t just stumped up £12.95 saved up from their paper round, is going to put their time in to get past the third wave in. Christ I played it for days on end and I can’t do it consistently and using rewind feels like a cheat.

There are more missed opportunities in Minter’s career, but this might be the most insane own goal.

#gaming #video games #games #txt #text #review #llamasoft #jeff minter #iridis alpha #1986

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