20 Years in the Making

Another look back over the games of yesteryear this time following a long standing victory which as the title suggests has been 20 years in the making. Batman the movie was out in 1989 across a range of computers, slightly different on the various systems probably the best of which was the Amiga version but never had this one in the day (by the time the Amiga came in it was all strategy epicness for ours) but in a boredom day I've hunted out the C64 game and FINALLY knocked the Joker from the top of Gotham cathedral (no spoilers surely, you'll have seen the film if you're ever going to by now!).


Why the heck did I decide to do this? Boredom, but a lot of the time it's the older games that can keep you coming back. I enjoy more recent ones of course, I'm a self professed nerd and am more than happy with just playing games, but some times the older ones just get across a feel. Batman : Arkham Asylum was one of my favourites last year and captured Batman perfectly but the old C64 game? Did exactly what a film cash in should do it captured the spirit of the film and followed the plot well.

Start off on foot fighting off cops and gangsters through AXIS chemical plant before knocking Jack Napier to his demise. Sadly Jack becomes the Joker and he's raided an art gallery where Bruces bit of skirt (has to be one in a Batman movie for some reason...) was so now you need to drive her to safety at the batcave (see above screenshot). Once there we need to find out the chemical forumla of "Smilex" which is a basic concentration type game. Once the formula is solved we must stop the Jokers gas balloons from seeping out into the atmosphere in the batwing before a big final confrontation. 5 levels in three different styles and all following the story.

This just made it a fun game, you don't have powerful weaponry particularly or loads of fancy gadgets it's pure A-->B even if the method of transport is different. The beauty is, in playing this now it shows that wasn't just nostalgia that puts it in high esteem, some games leave you unfulfilled going back (no tai prossie reference Lanky...) like the hilariously easy and weak Donalds Playground kidfest mentioned earlier (also played today!) but this didn't. I still enjoyed it, I still hated trying to avoid the spikes up my jacksie in the cathedral and judging the timing as I accidentally release more gas into the streets of Gotham and though I'd never done it before I got sense of achievement when I finally completed the game. Will I play it again though now? Not in the near future but one day when boredom sinks in, on a wet evening, I'm sure I'll be back in the tights playing one of the few movie tie-ins that still works.

Donald Ducks Playground

I admit it, starting a blog and having this as the opening topic may not be the most sensible for my reputation, but I'm going ahead with it anyway. In my normal bored state I was browsing forums and saw someone fighting their corner that "Nintendo invented the mini game genre" which led me to this gem from my childhood on the old C64.

Like all games, this has a plot and like most from the era it's dead simple. Donald Duck as a miserable bugger is trying to work four jobs to make enough money to buy various items for his nephews and put on a playground for them to play to their hearts content. I think this was a bribe to stop them telling social services about his foul mouthed tirades (including racial abuse according to comments made in '88s "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" towards Daffy Duck...) and his refusal to wear something on the lower half of his body. Either way old school developer "US Gold" put together this game of challenges.

The four jobs are basic mini games. The Greengrocers, which saw you sorting stock coming off the back of a delivery, it's thrown at you in a particularly cavalier fashion so I just used to let it fall on the floor most of the time. The Toy Store which involved stacking the shelves, or matching the toy with the same colour and shape on the shelf. Airport baggage handler which meant putting cases in the right place so they don't miss the flights and finally "railroad controller" which meant changing the switches of the lines to help a train get from A --> B. Then exchanging your hard earned cash for swings ladders and so on. After your purchases you get to watch a little blackmailer go and play on a couple of the bits before buggering off for more extortion.

Ultimately though I have fond memories of it and isn't that what a computer game is about? It's simple and fun (or at least was, must hunt it out some time just for old times sake) and supposedly educational though learning the abbreviation L.A.X did nothing for me, it's just a song by "the attractive one from S Club" isn't it?

Right enough on the nursery games, next time I rant about how flipping hard it was to find your way around Greendale in the Postman Pat game for the speccy...