 AEG's T3 is a game of great scale and depth and probably the game event of the year. C64.sk doesn't want to bring you a review based just on a few levels' experience, so check the progress of our main reviewer Wotnau burning the midnight oil at the game in this T3 diary, parallelly with Vip, adding his experience in the discussion section. The review is now available, enjoy!
It's done! Game completed, diaries are finished, the review is published. Wotnau dedicates his victory over Morgul II to Womana/Studio Style and ThunderBlade/Protovision (recently married).
Level 5 - Home again
Level 4 - Great Gianna's Brother
Level 3 - Enforcecan, Canakis and T3can
Level 2 - Return of the Dungeon
Level 1 - Welcome home"
Wotnau
[1] :
31. Aug 2004 00:49
Wotnau, if you want, I will follow up and add my experiences in this box. We’ll be something of a parallel diary team =).
_V_
[2] :
31. Aug 2004 03:34
It’s a great idea, VIP! Just one little request - if you can bear the temptation, please if you get further than me, don’t reveal too much in advance... Anyway, just after I posted the first part, I had my first bad experience with the game but could fix it, it seems. More in the part for Day 2, now I need some sleep. But... but... well... just did my homework for today (Level 1-2). I’ll post the diary for Day 2 in the evening again. But... I had a wee peak at 2-1. Man... Looking forward to your experience. :)
Wotnau
[3] :
31. Aug 2004 09:39
Very funny review :) I like your style ..
Tdj
[4] :
31. Aug 2004 10:32
The Dark Judge: It’s not a review, it’s a diary, you know. :) The review will follow somewhen when I’ve finished the game.
Wotnau
[5] :
31. Aug 2004 10:47
But he likes your style, and he is not alone. ;-)
Roman
[6] :
31. Aug 2004 12:37
This game will get a full review in the UK-Based magazine Retro Gamer for the next issue!
[7] :
31. Aug 2004 19:20
Well, at the moment I’m at 4-2, but I’ll let my part progress at about the same speed. I’m probably going to take a gaming break during the weekend (Padua meeting yay! =), so you can hugely catch up with me then.
_V_
[8] :
31. Aug 2004 21:39
By the way, CreamD, or someone who knows as well, how do I separate the paragraphs in this comment box again? I don’t want to post my contribution as one giant text block...
_V_
[9] :
01. Sep 2004 00:54
?
[10] :
01. Sep 2004 00:56
grrr...
<br>
[11] :
01. Sep 2004 00:57
enter this (<br>) and you get a linebreak, I mean.
[12] :
01. Sep 2004 01:55
so Steppe’s example showed how to not do it; split it in several posts :)
Yep, "
" will do fine!
Nafcom
[13] :
01. Sep 2004 01:55
ah I see now why ;) ...
Nafcom
[14] :
01. Sep 2004 09:53
Thank you, guys =). Next is teh diary, entry 1.
_V_
[15] :
01. Sep 2004 10:01
Turrican?
The parallell gaming diary/blog/scroll
by _V_
For?word
Hello and welcome to Turrican?. Be my guest. Another day, another prize, but remember: Shoot or die! *insane laughter*
These words, spoken by Markus Wiederstein and sampled Jeroen Tel, kicked off the Turrican-mania which took the c64-loving world by storm in 1990. I got swept away - at the time - as well after having barely recovered from the graphical, sonical and fantastic shoot’em up violence which was Katakis.
I experienced it from the start - read the interview with Manfred Trenz in the 64’er, where he announced an even bigger project than Katakis, played the preview level of Hurrican (it’s first name) to death around 1989. Eventually, I bought and received the complete game, which was then re-christianed to Turrican and was blown away even more.
Turrican 1 oozed quality from start to finish. A beautiful realisation, the closest the little breadbox could ever hope to be to Metroid on the Nes. Technically brilliant (at the time), what with multidirectional parallax scrolling
, huge worlds and gigantic boss monsters. It was brilliant.
I played it to death and pretty much forgot the world around me until I was able to finish it without losing a life. After that, I wanted to finish it without losing a life. After that, I wanted to have as many lives on the counter as possible.
Then, in what seemed a few moments later, a friend shows me his brandnew Amiga 500 and a game called Turrican 2. "They made a sequel!?", I squirmed, "Put it in!!", I screamed. And so we played Turrican 2. After leaving my friend’s house, there was only one goal in my life anymore: to acquire an Amiga 500 and play Turrican 2 until I die. The soundtrack was gorgeous, the graphics were killer and so was the gameplay and overcool anime intro sequence.
A bit later, I read in a subsequent 64’er that Turrican 2 was also coming to the c64. The only goal in my life changed a little bit: to buy the c64 version and play Turrican 2 until I die. And so I did, well, except for the ’until I die’ part. But, to be honest, Turrican 2 on the c64 didn’t blow my socks off as did the Amiga version. The missing soundtrack from Chris Huelsbeck really hurt, the anime sequence was now in hires only, the graphics were less flashy. Luckily, Manfred Trenz made up for this by increasing the pace (Turrican 2 c64 handles considerably faster than the Amiga version) and keeping the superhuge bosses, so that at least the core gameplay remained intact, and in fact got a little better. It just didn’t have the audial delight of the Amiga version.
Then, the c64 party ended. Turrican 3 was released, but only for the Amiga. It didn’t matter too much, since the game wasn’t as great as its predecessors, except that it still had a full and godly Huelsbeck score.
Until now. Smash Designs proudly released their Turrican? for the c64, a tribute to Turrican, an amalgam of the first two versions to bring back the glory. The question is, have they succeeded? I just _have_ to find out.
Thus, I present to you my personal recount of exploring Turrican?, in diary form and to run parallel with Wotnau’s experiences. Read his tale as well - I think that both our stories combined will give you a crystal clear view on what this game is about and if it manages to live up to the near-mythical legacy left behind by its predecessors.
Anyway - it’s time to shoot or die!
Not?
I am going to ignore most bugs appearing in the game, unless they really hamper the gameplay experience. Slowdown, disappearing sprites (after having been visible), etc. will be ignored. Yes, that’s quite forgiving, but as a fan of the series, I have to be.
August 31st, 19:22pm
Mood: Neutral
Music: Rinne Radio
As we speak, I am having a second look at the ’Return of the Darkness’ prod, released by Smash Designs at Breakpoint 2004, the party with the now legendary Amiga demo competition (side note - watch Silkcut somehow and be inspired). This because it is the official background story of Turrican?, and I want to get into the proper mood before kicking off world 1-1. It seems that AEG had the same feeling as me at the time: a hires low quality intro as in Turrican just isn’t good enough.
Return of the Darkness features the usual scrolling text, but accompanied by some nice multicolour pictures. They fulfill their role well and detract just enough from the spelling error-laden scroller. Let me run that by you again: laden. At some point (quite early, actually), I expected the text "Colonel, someone set us up hours disappearing ship!" to roll by. Seriously.
The errors don’t bother me; in fact, it put me in just about the right mindset - after all, the Turrican atmosphere is all about the base who are belong to the Machine. Also, there is a funny little wink to the Matrix with an agent Smith lookalike making its appearance. Why AEG didn’t write a little "Mr. Mc Guirrrrrre, at last we found youuu..." teaser is beyond me.
So, after getting the backgroundstory straight, I boot side 1. After the same Smash Designs fadein routine, which is taken from the Turrican 2 Rainbow Arts fadein routine (Amiga), the Turrican? logo appears, along with a very solid conversion of the Amiga Turrican 3 track. I am not sure at this point whether or not it’s a level tune or a title tune. It does sound good enough and that’s what everyone needs. Also kudos to AEG for a quality rendition of the Turrican 3 logo. The skulls on the hiscore list, however, are not so great. Something much nicer could have been placed there - the picture from Bren McGuire sipping on a cocktail from ’Return of the Darkness’, for example, would fit quite nicely, and be more appropriate than the skulls.
Of course, I came to play, immerse myself into the world of Turrican once more and kick some some with Bren the badass. The fire button gets pressed.
World 1-1
Ah, the good old loading screen from Turrican 1. Again, it brings back memories, as does world 1-1. It feels like saying hello to an old friend - this looks just like world 1-1 of Turrican 2. Even moreso, the music is an adequate conversion of the Amiga tune of world 1-1 of Turrican 2. And that, dear reader, makes me smile broadly, for I am one of those players who prefers a solid soundtrack over effects anytime. Although I knew beforehand that Turrican? would feature a soundtrack, I am happy to hear it executed this well. I know some of you die for sound effects, but... I need a Huelsbeck-ish fix. Hopefully, though, it won’t all be just conversions of the Amiga soundtracks in the other worlds. I would also like to hear some new creative input. We’ll see.
Intermezzo
Ehm... What happened? How does this connect with Return of the Darkness? There, we saw Bren, on Earth, running for some firepower. Now, we see Bren on alien soil duking it out with the Darkness. Someone connect the dots for me, please? Here’s how my imagination tries to understand:
[Bren] *panting* "Colonel! *huff* It’s my war now!"
[Colonel]"Excellent, mayor! Here are the keys to my ultrafast spaceship! Please go to Avalon 3’s last known location at once, try to find whatever planet you found back then and crashland it to save the Earth!"
[Bren]"Okay! But... I also need a good Turrican suit!"
[Colonel]"There’s one in the trunk - I never leave home without them!"
[Bren] *catches keys* "Thanks, sir!"
[Colonel]"One more thing, mayor!"
[Bren]"Sir?"
[Colonel]"Don’t scratch the leather. And you pay the gas, got it? Oh, and if Britney calls, tell her I’ll drop by around 7:30. If it’s my wife, tell her I’ve got some serious overtime - you know, what with the alien invasion and all".
[Bren]"... yes sir."
/Intermezzo
Already a few monsters attack me. Walker boy makes a happy entrance and yes, you can still jump him Mario-style. The other creature is a Bee, also an old acquaintance, and is offed easily and effectively with the surround laser, which, unfortunately, is less impressive than Manfred’s version. Oh well, it serves its purpose.
Moving to the left and jumping up, my first 1Up of the day is collected. Cool, it’s the artwork from the Amiga (the heart-shaped life powerup is funky as well). So predictable. So Turrican. To the right I go and pass some more monsters (including a gatling gun firing in random directions (yeah, I am as amazed as you) and the familiar scatterbomb), acquire the multishot (which goes 5 splits, as usual) and spot a waterfall. It strikes me that the waterfall animation is such that you can see two layers of water drop independently. Quite nice. Mental note: check Turrican 2 and check if it also had that feature. I also note that Turrican has quite a nice set of shoulder pads, namely those from the Amiga version, which is definitely the right call from AEG.
I continue the fairly easy battle, a bit disappointed in the somewhat artificial jumping of Bren. I drop down onto a platform. Boom! Surprise! Apparently, six monsters were also on the platform, but they didn’t bother showing up until I actually landed. Down goes the health bar. Not quite cool. Oh well, I’m still feeling and playing Turrican. Eventually, I enter a cave and see a set of many, many balls. Big balls blocking the way. Balls which Bren usually blasts away quite easily. Except that this time, he doesn’t succeed - hmm. I switch to surround laser, which works. Phew.
The cave is soon penetrated, and I kick some solid behinds, although the ’sudden appearance’ feature of the monsters takes quite some pace out of the game if you wish to conserve life. Maybe I’ll find a solution to this next time. Anyway, I fight, I fight, I fight, then I enter a large clearing and want to jump up to what seems like a platform.
Oops! Suddenly, the screen scrolls down, and poor Bren is stuck in the background. I move the joystick in all directions, but alas, he cannot move. Adding insult to injury, a giant fist appears in the background as well. It _can_ move, and quickly decimates my helpless Turrican. A minute later, I’m staring at the title screen.
*fast forward*
... so this time, I don’t jump at the clearing and do get to admire the huge fist in all its glory (credit where it is due, AEG did a very good rendition of the Turrican 3 fist, with added rotation, very cool), plus Bren can now actually move. The fight is on. In the beginning, I got crushed. Byebye first life. But, one tends to notice patterns, and in this case, the fist left the right area completely untouched. Therefore, I positioned Bren there, activated the surround laser and kept the fire button pressed until the fist gave up. Since the clock stops during boss fights, time is irrelevant. Just get the job done.
More cave to explore. I do so, exit the cave, amass more life, which forces me to speed through the cave again. Eventually, I manage to find the exit (simply took the wrong turn after exiting the cave) with about 20 seconds to spare. Man, that’s tight. Exactly how I like it.
Current impr?ssion
So far, it’s looking good, even with the boss fight debacle at the start. We’ll see if world 1-2 keeps it up...
_V_
[16] :
01. Sep 2004 19:58
Vip: Wonderful! How about making the final review a common article where we’d also point out our common opinions as wells as the most significant differences? Anyway, so far we’re on the same track except that boss thing. As I wrote yesterday that in Manfred’s games every boss just belongs where it is and you convinced me that the Amiga version was before the C=64. So if Manfred just ported the Amiga version to the C=64, I’d be wrong. You made me check on Manfred’s involvement in Turrican on Amiga - he did the game design in Turrican I and II but not in Turrican III. Which explains why I don’t like the boss, ported from Amiga Turrican III. :) Your comparisons and experiences from the Amiga version are great, as all I know from Amy is Turrican II, which I played just once, so I like to learn about the music and stuff.
Wotnau
[17] :
02. Sep 2004 02:46
Common article? I’d love to =). And you’ll see that there might be a few differences of opinion today, so I think it will be a nice review. It’s true that Turrican 3 wasn’t by Manfred - the game wasn’t that great imo, not because of a lacking Manfred, but because the spirit just wasn’t there, except for Huelsbeck. Oh well, coming up is the next big chunk. Enjoy!
_V_
[18] :
02. Sep 2004 02:46
September 1st, 22:43pm
Mood: Turrican n?rd, huh?
Music: Silkcut
World 1-2
Again, I wake up in the middle of something. A couple of powerups are flying by, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to collect them. Of course, if I had reacted a little faster to their presence, I wouldn’t have lost some life, but everything’s still cool.
That’s strange, the amount of powerlines is back to 3, even though I’m positive I capped it to 5 in the previous world. Oh well. Not that I use them often anyway. I crack my knuckles and begin exploring the world seriously. Wise from the previous world, I advance slowly, triggering only a few monsters, eliminate them, then move on and repeat the process. It proves to be a bit tedious, but luckily there’s a gorgeous soundtrack playing in the background. It’s not a remix from any Turrican tune I know, but it does sound Turrican enough for me.
Meanwhile, I notice that the path diverges into two ways: up and where I am now.
I decide to stay on track, but a bit further, there is a choice to be made.
Either I try the the higher parts, or I drop down. I decide to do neither and attempt a jump into nothingness. Sometimes, the world of Turrican rewards you for being a bit reckless.
In this case, I got lucky. I flipped into a ’secret area’ with many, many steel
balls. A heart-shaped life powerup appeared, which I gratefully wanted to accept,
but - what was that? Apparently, the life bar refills itself if you simply jump
in close proximity to the powerup without actually picking it up... *very*
interesting! I refill the life bar, shoot monsters until they’re all gone, then
jump into the powerup for a second refill.
Time to bust some balls. I do so, work myself to the top of the secret structure and happily collect two 1ups. Then, I have to go back down, but running is a bit slow... wait, why not go gyroscope? I kneel, press the long one and a-rollin’ I go, all the way down the structure. After that, there’s no other way out - I have to drop into the lower part of the main area.
Hordes of monsters whir into life as I fall down, but I am protected by the gyroscope form. Marble madnessing down until forced to return to Bren’s main form again, a few Walkers are offed as I penetrate the main structure of this world. The structure isn’t too complex - I guess it’s all still warming-up.
Meanwhile, time elapses, and I have to begin thinking about finding the exit. Plowing through, I eventually reach a long drop down into an area with a large waterfall. I dive in, which nets me an extra 1up. Reckless. Reward. Sometimes.
Quickly I get out of the waterfall again, because the time limit is breathing heavily down my neck. I throw myself off a hill and enter a suspiciously large clearing... hmm... I decide not to jump at this point.
Soon enough, a very fast spaceship emerges. Very. Fast. Lightning-warp fast, even. There’s no way Bren is going to survive the vertical laser beams it’s hurling at him. I go gyro and plant him into the right corner of the area. Hmm. Looks like the vertical lasers never reach our hero there. Cool, I go into main form and activate the surround laser. Like the battle in the previous world, all that needs to be done is keeping the button pressed and wait. Phew, am I glad
this loophole exists, because tackling this metallic speedjunkie laserspitter
head-on would have been suicide.
Whoa, exit already? Okay, I guess... onto world 1-3...
World 2-1
...or world 2-1, if you will, which is a successful mix of the ’blue’ worlds from
Turrican 1 and the ’Rock’ worlds from Turrican 2. The music is industrial-ish,
usually meaning a ’factory’ type level. And it shows - there are barely any
moving opponents, just a few walkers and the omnipresent power up. Oh, and some
missiles. Did I mention that you can’t shoot the missiles yet? No? Well, you
can’t shoot the missiles. You _can_ shoot the turrets from which these missiles
are launched, but if you try, you’ll notice that they take aeons before giving
in. Even when using the lasers or scattershots.
Blerrr. Don’t like that - it costs a lot of time, and time happens to be the main enemy in this world: with only 400 seconds on the clock, you can’t afford to kill all the turrets present in the factory. So once more, it’s gyro to the rescue. Whenever you enter a long stretch, scope through quickly to get some serious ground covered. I do this, explore the factory and come to following interesting conclusions:
- whenever the path splits, explore both splits. There might be some 1ups or
powerups waiting, and those babies are always welcome.
- Somewhere halfway the factory, there is a wide jump you must clear. Twice. If you miss either of the jumps, you’ll fall back to the beginning of the world, and you might as well kiss a life goodbye, because there’s no way you’ll get to the exit in time.
I learnt this the hard way, losing a couple of lives. Hrm. But then again, it’s
this kind of play I always enjoyed. AEG emphasised this part of the game more
than Manfred and I’m not complaining. Hehe.
Eventually, I have to remove some blocks with the surround laser to make my way down. Way, way, down. I then reach a part where the path splits up in three. I check out split one. Oops, rock block. Split two then. Another rock block. Split three? Phew, no rock block. I go through and fall down, netting myself a 1up. Sweet. Then comes a long stretch, so I go into scope mode and whizz onwards...
...oh dear, the scrolling and the clock stop. This means only one thing - boss! I scope to the middle of the clearing and wait. Ouch, that’s-a big-a meatball coming! I park Bren to the left and wait to examine the attack pattern. It turns out that this is very easy - lots of shooting, with lots of jumping, then a brisk walk to the left (without touching Turrican) and back, after which it all repeats. Quickly, I know what to do - I approach until in range, kneel down and surround laser the boss while it dances sur-place. Once it begins to walk, I retreat to the left and shoot like there’s no future for Earth. Soon enough, it bites the dust and I’m free to leave the area...
...except that Bren suddenly explodes. Spontaneously.
[Bren]"Well, yeah, I’ve had enough for the day!"
[V]"Umm..."
[Bren]"Look, all us videogame characters lose it from time to time, okay? I’m no different from you, human-boy. I get tired. I want a break."[Bren]"Just pretend that this never happened, aight? Besides, you still have 6
clones to play with. See you in the afterlife, bucko!"
I feel as if I’m in the afterlife, too, as my next clone... err, Bren awakens in a differently coloured world (the background colour set itself to orange). I can still move around though, so I proceed, slaser some blocks and... don’t meet a darn thing. Easy enough, but I think something went wrong. Perhaps the explosion after the boss battle decided to destroy everything on the map and freeze itself on the orange colour? Either way, I scale the area quickly and manage to leave with only a few seconds left on the clock.
World 2-2
Strangely enough, this world passes me by without too much attention, except for the soundtrack, for which I have a boon since it’s a sound conversion of the Amiga title track of Turrican 2, which is simply an amazing composition by Chris Huelsbeck. The c64 rendition is as close to the original as it could be, so kudos. For the rest, I stick to the principles learnt in the previous world - examine each split for goodies, go gyro whenever possible - and manage to complete the world comfortably, thanks to a much more generous time limit. No boss monster here. Onto the next one!
World 2-3
Ooh, a cutscene! I always love cinematic development in a game, just hadn’t expected it to take place in the Turrican universe, since the predecessors never did this. Well, there’s a first time for everything. It’s a very cool scene in my book, with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour, so I’m not going to spill it here. Play it for yourself, or wait for Nostalgia’s [+69] trained, one-sided, IFFL-linked, 100% bugfixed version to see it with your own eyes. I’ll give you a short summary, though:
- Bren makes eye-contact with The Machine. It turns out that his archnemesis is
actually his cousin’s friend’s acquaintance’s roommate’s niece’s father!
- The Machine invites Bren to join him for Spring Break.
- Bren likes the idea, and together they booze until morning and see lots of booty.
- After that, The Machine gives Bren the One Ring, telling him to throw it in the hot lava of Mount Doom in the province of Mordor
- Bren joins the Fellowship of the Ring, marries the elven princess and lives happily ever after.
Or I could be making this all up in a failed attempt to take your attention away from the real cutscene. But I’m probably telling the truth. Always trust me.
A commendable effort by AEG, and it is with great pleasure that I turn the disk
to head into world 3-1...
Impr?ssion so far
Still no reason not to call this Turrican. Great stuff, and the music has gone up in quality, too. Me happy.
_V_
[19] :
02. Sep 2004 14:30
Vip: and why the spirit wasn’t there in T3? Because there was no Manfred as game/level designer. ;) But I think it was unfair from you to leak the twist in the plot with our hero making peace with The Machine. The reader should turn into a player and find out him-/herself. Anyway, if only good old Tolkien knew... And I’m pretty much waiting for your part on the flying levels, and even more on 4-1 - there my feelings are really mixed (tribute value vs. playability). Oh well... My flying experience to be published in the fall of the day (or long before the dawn of the next one at least... hopefully).
Wotnau
[20] :
02. Sep 2004 22:33
to be honest i se no difference between this part of turrican and previous ones. i’ve noticed some sprite bugs e.g. bullet that doesn’t disappear. highscore skulls rulez :D:D:D
jammer
[21] :
02. Sep 2004 23:22
September 2nd, 21:45pm
Mood: Adrenalin
Music: Tournesol
World 3-1
Oh man, how I love side-scrollers. It started with Katakis years ago, after which there were some teeth to be put in (no particular order): Armalyte, Io, R-Type, X-Out, Enforcer. And, of course, the shooter levels in Turrican 1 and 2. To be honest, of these, Armalyte is the best in my books because of the great graphics and challenging gameplay. But I did play the other ones to death as well. Later on, I moved to Amiga and Playstation one where I got to play classics such as Apidya and Einhander, but that’s neither then or now.
Right now, I’m hitting the red zone in level 3-1, where I am greeted by some very slick parallax scrolling. Possibly one of the best parallax scrollers ever done, in fact. From Turrican 2, I recall that using the laser is the best idea, so whenever powerups fly by, I try to keep the laser active. No powerlines or other tricks are available here, so the chant’s all about manual dexterity, keen evasion and knowing when to shoot.
New enemies abound. We have stationary missile towers, two kinds of fast spaceships, bigger spaceships sporting triple beams, a really big spaceship firing ’star’ missiles - photon torpedoes by common tongue - and the background. Yep, the background. If you fly into it by mistake (the smaller background elements are particularly nasty), the energy gauge will deplete faster than you can say "Oh crackers"! Keep a good lookout for yellow-coloured background elements and you will be okay.
So, there I am, dishing out pain with my wee little spaceship. The level is not
so hard, as long as you consider following things:
-Get all the flying powerups, but make sure that you end up with the laser. There are some invincibility powerups waiting to be collected for an easy ride through the level.
-Moving the ship backwards goes at the same speed as the level actually scrolls. This means that if you pass a powerup or 1up (the tiny clones of your spaceship), you will not be able to get it. Always be in front of the -up to be able to collect it.
I do all this, and reach the end of the level with a fully powered laser and two extra lives. Then, the boss monster arrives. It looks quite small, but if you consider the size of your spaceship, the boss is actually huge and a cross between a fish and the eye boss monster from Turrican 2 (world 1-2, I believe). it is only vulnerable when the eye opens. Unfortunately, the opening of the eye also seems to be accompanied by some extremely fast horizontal laser which reduce your energy quickly.
At first, I try to move in the opposite direction of ol’fisheye in a fast up-down manner, hoping to avoid its laser beam that way. It works, but a few mistakes here and there cost me a life. And a second. Meanwhile, my opponent isn’t even phased. Not good. Then, I got a strange sense of deja-vu:
[Bren]"...Ahh, you’re making me spacesick with all this up and down!"
[_V_]"But it’s the only way to keep you alive."
[Bren]"Oh yeah, and you’re doing a great job. I’m getting slaughtered, man! Now do something meaningful!"
[_V_]"Hmmmm.... fast opponent, fast laser... that’s almost like the boss in 1-2 except that it’s all horizontal, now. I could try the tactic I used there."
[Bren]"Sounds great! Now do it before I have to bite the dust - again. Bren out."
[_V_]"Wait, wait, wait... how am I even able to talk to you again?"
[Bren]"Fairies."
[_V_]"Wha?"
[Bren]"Bren out."
Okay, after that little promenade down insanity lane, I install Turrican’s craft in the lower corner and keep tapping the fire button until the boss and my thumb explode. This was great.
World 3-2
And it gets better, even. After a very short excursion against familiar spaceships and stuff, the spacecraft suddenly enter an alien environment. Instead
of spaceships, the enemies are organic, huge and more than willing to kill. On
the menu are some jiggly bullet-chuckers, alien machineguns, huge cannons and
equally large spiked balls which split into 4 small spiked balls when shot. They
are handled with relative ease until all goes quiet.
"Boss time? That was fast", I think, "...can’t be right".
But there it is, the front part of what must be a very big spaceship. It shoots some harmless bullets at me, to which I respond with all the laser power I’ve got. The ship goes away, and then decides to frag my itsy bitsy ship with one destructive up-down full-scale strike. Shock and awe from my side. That was my last ship. I just got p0wned.
*fast forward*
...I manage to evade the deadly strike by sustaining only minimal damage. The ship leaves and I prepare for a calmer moment, only to have the ship blast me into tiny fragments of cosmic dust with some superfast laserfire. A few cycles later, I get p0wned. Again? Me, p0wned in a Turrican game? I’m beginning to like this level.
*fast forward*
...up/down strike - check. Laserfire - check. Slow bullet onslaught. Launch of
smaller spaceships - check. Slow bullet onslaught, the sequel - check. Cyle
repeats - check. My turn to p0wn this bully. Time for world 3-
Oh, 3-2 continues? My oh my, how cool! I knew that it wasn’t the end. The rest of the level is much like part one, except much longer. After the mid-boss, however, this bit is a piece of cake. But then, everything goes black again. Real boss
this time?
Yeppers. This time, it’s a rendition from the crusher boss from Turrican 2, which was featured in 3-3, I believe. Except that this one doesn’t have a fragile core which opens from time to time. This one just flies about, crushes you like a bug and annoys with small (well, small...) rotating beasts it throws at you. Because of it, you are - a first - forced to move around the screen actively to evade all its attacks. Retaliate and shoot the middle part whenever you can, or when it stands still. Of course, I only found this out after being flattened like a pancake for a couple of times.
*fast forward*
Nope, I get massacred here, too. Still trying to cope with those rotating pests.
*fast forward*
I become 1337 and slaughter the crusher boss without taking damage. My adrenalin levels also have risen by 700%. I feel majorly badass. You will, too, if you play this level.
World 3-3
And boy, do you need that adrenalin. The parallax scrolling layers (where AEG winks at us: "Hey, multicolour hexagons! You KNOW what’s going to happen, don’t you? Muahahahaha") tip me off - we’re going to go really fast really soon. I prepare myself mentally by channeling the Ki within my soul. Or I just begin memorising the map so I’ll know where to go next time. Pick your choice - both are right.
So I begin memorising. "1ups, diamonds and laser powerups there, down, down, up, down. Okay, that’s cool". Meanwhile, the level scrolls at a breathtaking pace, and I try to keep the ship alive. I fail several times, but luckily, the few 1ups I collect help. Then it’s time for AEG’s nasty little trick.
The fast scrolling stops.
Of course, my brain still thinks it has to move up to survive. So I press up and voluntarily crash my plane into the background. Boom.
[Bren]"How stupid can you be?! I’d like to see you in my place, chump."
[_V_]"The fairies did it! Look, there, a 1up."
[Bren]"Don’t change the subject."
Then, the scrolling restarts. I push my reflexes to the max, get through without much of a hassle and finally end in a large clearing. That means... yep, a boss. At first, I laugh. What a pathetic little guy! The laughter stops after the miniature chomps straight into my ship, eating up half the energy gauge. Not funny. I retaliate with all I’ve got (which would be a fully powered up laser), then notice that AEG has another little surprise for me...
I will not spoil this one. See it for yourself, but when it comes up, you’ll be mentally giving AEG a high five. I survive it by tapping the fire button with ludicrous frequency. The boss evntually croaks, and I fly to safety. WOOHOO! What a level! The speed! I feel great, all powered up. Whatever’s next - bring it on!
Impr?ssion
Yeah! More of this! _V_ SMASH! ROOOOAAAARRRR!
_V_
[22] :
03. Sep 2004 01:01
Vip: We _ARE_ two mentally connected Turrican nerds. I’ve just posted my diary of the flying levels to find yours being posted already and find out that you are not going to tell the reader what happens in the end of 3-3, either. :) And we even both use that nasty Scottish word wee. ;) (I don’t know how that’s connected with Turrican but anyway...) I wonder what you have to say on Great Gianna Turrican. ATM I’m rather frustrated. :D
Wotnau
[23] :
03. Sep 2004 23:09
Heheh, well, to be honest, I was a little concerned that you might spoil it, but then I brushed away the thought. We care too much about this genre to spoil the really nice and cool stuff =). Anyway, here’s what I think about the next worlds. I might be flamed for it, but it’s my honest opinion, so I have to stand by it.
_V_
[24] :
03. Sep 2004 23:10
September 3rd, 21:40pm
Mood: ...
Music: N-Joy of TsW feat. Simona - Stormlord - Seneca’s Marble Pack
World 4-1
...
...
Remember when I said, "Whatever’s next - bring it on!"? Well, I should’ve kept my big mouth shut. I just don’t know what to say. I have been playing this world for a while now - and been dying regularly in it - but my mind still can’t grasp what happened here.
Well, actually it does. This part is in a sense - and mildly put - a ’tribute’ to SNES Turrican’s sideways scrolling levels. Sideways scrolling, as in ’no multidirectional exploring allowed’. You simply start at point A and scroll from left to right to point B. As linear as it could possibly be, and you can’t scroll back to an earlier area. Now, because of gameplay reasons, this means that the gyroscope disappears. Byebye gyro. Also, we don’t want Turrican to jump out of the screen, so his jumping height has been reduced. Resulting in me feeling as if I’m being neutered. To make up for it, you do get an extra continue.
[Bren]"Hey, _V_!"
[_V_]"..."
[Bren]"Wanna know *why* this happened?"
[_V_]"..."
[Bren]*drops Turrican suit with a resounding THUD*
[_V_]"..."
[Bren]"This things weighs 80kg. why dont _YOU_ run around in it for a couple of hours, then tell me if you can still jump as high as in the beginning."
[_V_]"..."
[Bren]"That shut you up, huh?"
[_V_]"Wha? Did someone say something?"
Okay, no reason to get melodramatic. Perhaps this is only for one level. And perhaps there are some exciting enemies in here? Unfortunately, nope. The enemies consist of the following creatures:
- Walker with hard hat. You first have to shoot the hard hat off before the Walker can be killed/squashed. Funny touch.
- A black turret system which launches flying projectile launchers on a regular basis. Fairly innocent.
- A black mother ball generating black baby balls of the same size at speeds unmatched by, well, anything. Stand under the mother ball to toast it with the surround laser, or you will be the toast. Quite dangerous.
- A saucer swiftly flying from right to left, dropping a slew of bombs. Fairly annoying
- A giant, brown insectoid. Doable.
- A spiked ball on a black ball chain. Jump over the spiked ball to avoid. Manageable obstacle.
- Flames gushing from the underground. They stop periodically, so you can get by them then. Easy enough.
- Chasms. Lots of’em. Happy fun fun!
Positively mindblowing, no? You will have to wade through countless screens fighting these minions and jumping chasms which are now terrifying thanks to the reduced jump power. The laser is your best friend in this level, so _if_ you get some powerups, make sure you end with the laser. Or the scattershot, that one’s good too, except that things might get tough with the mother balls if you can’t get below them in time.
Note that I said ’if’. You see, powerups fly by high and float upwards when shot. Should you shoot them while they’re relatively high, you won’t be able to get them because Bren can’t reach them anymore. Therefore, try to hit them when they’re low. "Hmm, how about 1ups, then?", I hear you wonder. Well, they _may_ appear at random if you blast a hidden bonus block. Unfortunately, shooting bonus blocks yield very random results. Sometimes you get 2 1ups and a slew of powerups, sometimes you get zilch. Oh well.
...
My excitement from the three previous worlds is virtually shattered by this long, long, repetitive world. Fun is nowhere to be found (’Ooh, a large chasm jump! Ooh, four large chasm jumps with enemies! Ooh, three large chasm jumps with flames! And a spiked ball! Feel the fun fun!’), and no amount of tricky platform jumping remedies this. However, I’ll put a big band-aid over this level. I’ll overlook it because this things get better soon. Maybe historically, this was AEG’s first work on Turrican? and he wanted to keep it because of its meaning to him.
Even so, it probably would have been better to put a level such as this at the beginning. Growth is always better than decay, and the player will suddenly feel ’liberated’ and happy once he notices that the game character has new abilities. This was done in SNES Turrican, where the first levels were like this, final level going over into multidirectional scrolling.
...
So I feel like I’m wading through the Dah Quan river in Vietnam, catch a few leeches and finally reach the end, having died once to the clock because I chewed up seconds to find the bonus blocks. Boss time, and I have to say this one’s the saving grace of the world. It’s a smaller version of Turrican 2’s huge face monster in world 1-1. He brought his brother along for the ride and together, they give you a sweet time. Tactics? Jump, move, shoot, left-right. With the laser for maximum damage if you have it. Shortly after, the foes go down, and I go for the next area, hoping that we’re back in multidirectional country. Turrican country.
World 4-2
But it’s not for today. This might as well be World 4-1 continued. It plays out in exactly the same long-winded way, except that the ’fun’ has been increased
twofold by using enemies which you can’t shoot because they’re in the background. Yay, that’s great. The boss enemy is, well, new and unique, and by the time you
reach him, you just want to get it over with as soon as possible. Use all the
powerlines you’ve got and just blast this one head-on into submission.
At this point, I pray to the heavens that there won’t be a 4-3. My prayer is
answered, as it’s time turn the disk after which world 5-1 begins to load.
Impr?ssion
Well, what can I say apart from "..."? Not much, except for an undying whir in my brain demanding that the final levels are again of the quality of worlds 1, 2 and 3. I can be very forgiving about bugs, but worlds such as these inspire long-winded tedium. If they were shorter, more varied, if it had more excitement, surprises, then, maybe this would have been a nice detraction from regular gameplay. As it stands, it’s rather the opposite.
On monday, I’ll report about the depths of 5-1, 5-2 and 5-3. Will it bring back the spark from the other worlds? You will find out then, or probably by reading Wotnau’s excellent diary which will undoubtedly update over the weekend. After that, we can hit the review. Later, and thanks for reading so far!
_V_
[25] :
04. Sep 2004 01:39
LOL! You’re speaking my mind, except that this time I thought "Well, maybe I’ve been to hard to the game so far, let’s make it up by not slamming too hard on this level." Anyway, this time I won’t speak about any mental connection because it must be anyone’s most sincere prayer, not just ours, to the heavens that there’s no Level 4-3. :) Have a great weekend! I hope to catch up with you again so that on Monday both of our diaries are finished.
Wotnau
[26] :
05. Sep 2004 19:47
someone ate the article! wotnau to the rescue!
[27] :
05. Sep 2004 19:56
>someone ate the article!
it must have been morgul II who found it embarrassing to see his defeat announced to the c64 community.
Turrican 4
[28] :
05. Sep 2004 21:34
Yeah, sad thing. I was able to triumph over the Emperor but am unable to retrieve the article from the Unpublished-yet pool where it went for reasons unknown to me. I get php errors all the time, and one more when I tried to post this reaction. :) Maybe I’ll have more luck tomorrow or some of the other C64.sk editors can fix it. CreaMD’s been also trying to help, and that even though he’s on his sister’s wedding right now (yes, Womana is his sister :)). Please have patience, reading the diary will hopefully be worth it. In the worst case I’ll paste it here until the main article gets fixed. :)
Wotnau the Victor over Morgul II
[29] :
06. Sep 2004 13:20
Big thanks fly to mighty MacGyver who fixed the bloody problem! Cheer up, dlz and Turrican 4!
Wotnau
[30] :
06. Sep 2004 20:47
I dont know any game with "up, up and away", but the c64 manual has this:
1 REM UP, UP, AND AWAY!
5 PRINT "{CLR/HOME}"
10 V = 53248 : REM START OF DISPLAY CHIP
11 POKE V+21, 4 : REM ENABLE SPRITE 2
12 POKE 2042, 13 : REM SPRITE 2 DATA FROM 13TH BLOCK
20 FOR N = 0 TO 62 : READ Q : POKE 832+N, Q : NEXT
30 FOR X = 0 TO 200 ^------ GETS ITS INFO. FROM DATA*
40 POKE V+4, X : REM UPDATE X COORDINATES
50 POKE V+5, X : REM UPDATE Y COORDINATES
60 NEXT X
70 GOTO 30
200 DATA 0,127,0,1,255,192,3,255,224,3,231,224 <- INFO. READ IN FROM "Q"
210 DATA 7,217,240,7,223,240,7,217,240,3,231,224
220 DATA 3,255,224,3,255,224,2,255,160,1,127,64
230 DATA 1,62,64,0,156,128,0,156,128,0,73,0,0,73,0
240 DATA 0,62,0,0,62,0,0,62,0,0,28,0
Zed Yago
[31] :
07. Sep 2004 00:24
September 6th, 23:14pm
Mood: Guess
Music: Moon Titan prv
World 5-1
After a short but more than worthwhile break, it’s time to reassume my role as an avatar for virtual Bren McGuire. Amazingly, my hand hasn’t rusted in the slightest, and I reach World 5-1 with over 10 lives left. I take in the surroundings, which look awefully familiar... yes, it’s reminiscent of the final world in Turrican 2. To be honest, I hadn’t expected anything else - each previous Turrican had strong xenomorphic influences in the final worlds, so it’s very nice to see it return here.
Okay, time to move. Yeah, this is Turrican 2 Amiga, world 5-1 and no mistake. The layout is different, but all the rest feels the same. My mind revives the killer instinct from that times, and I warp through the level without a glitch. There are only a few opponents, such as a sideways shooting laser cannon, diagonally flying green... things and red bats. The latter have learned to eat Bren’s life gauge for breakfast, so avoid them or try to shoot them preemptively.
Everything is going great while I memorise the map - next time I’ll be sure to get those 1ups. I’m a bit reckless though, and lose energy to the green flyers. Not that I mind - I’ve got over 10 lives, remember? Eventually, I die (to the green flyers, while moving up on a speeder) and get ready to use the next Bren clone. Then, the game freezes.
I have said that I’d be forgiving about bugs. But not for this one. For a gamer, there is NOTHING more infuriating than a crash _in the final stages of the game_. Especially if you already played for an hour. And VERY especially if you just worked your way through World 4 again.
Allow me to capture this glorious moment using the wondrous world of emoticons:
O_o
>_<
>(
XOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!111111
No, it wasn’t lol at all.
[Bren]"HAHAHAHAHAH! Well, it’s LOL for me ^_^"
[_V_]"..."
[Bren]"Hey, don’t look at *me* like that. It’s not *my* fault."
[_V_]"I know. So I’m gonna go at it again."
[Bren]"WHAT? You’re going to do all this again?"
[_V_]"*I* suffer, *you* suffer."
[Bren]"..."
[_V_] *to the fairies* "_V_ out."
Seriously, though, folks, it seems that this is a pretty major bug, since Wotnau encountered it as well. Follow his advice - I can only repeat it: if you are low on energy and are sure that you will be killed if you move through a certain area, don’t move at all and wait until the timer runs out.
*fast forward*
At this time, I hadn’t figured out that it was a major bug yet (and hadn’t read Wotnau’s experience). I thought it was just a sad occurence which happens only rarely. Oh yeah, another round of World 4. I’m _loving_ this. At least I get to warp through World 3 again.
*fast forward*
I finally get through 5-1. The unspectacular exit makes me suspect the worst for 5-2...
World 5-2
The end zone. This is it. This is what it has all been coming to. La grande finale. Fate, inevitably shaped by a heart-wrought desire to experience it. And all that call, y’all.
I finish it.
...what, ya expected an in-depth description of the level, battle strategies and more? Have I spoiled you that much? Sorry, but no can do. Check it out yourself. All I can say is that I liked it a lot, and the game was finished with just a few lives left. You’ll find out why, I’m sure. Perhaps one small tip: using the tactics mentioned in all the previous parts (sans gyro) might be the key to unlock your victory...
World 5-3
My work appears to be done, as this is the end sequence. I make the V sign, read through the end text and nod understandingly to the various topics brought up by AEG. It’s now behind us, both of us. A strange statement, I agree, but it gets stranger still: we both had to do this, go through with it. Wotnau too. You, too. Why?
...Because it’s Turrican.
All right, that’s it, my friend. Bren’s world is safe, and with that, I close the
diary and hide my common life from you again. Thanks for reading, and see you in the review!
Post scriptum:
[Bren] *in spaceship, heading back to Earth* "Pffffffffft."
[Bren] *sips from cocktail just made in replicator* "Ahh, finally some rest. Well, that’s the last one. If ever there’s going to be a next time, they better get my son for the job."
[_V_] *ominous voice* "BOO! Safe at last... but for how long?"
[Bren] "AHHHHH! Don’t do that!"
[_V_] "Hehehe."
_V_
[32] :
07. Sep 2004 09:49
I wonder if "Up, up and away" is a level from Trailblazer (original release, not one of the hacks). My second suggestion would be Pogo Joe, but I don’t think that’s it.
Anders Carlsson
[33] :
07. Sep 2004 19:54
can i play T3 trough the CCS??
urfin
[34] :
07. Sep 2004 20:51
Why don’t you just try it?
[35] :
07. Sep 2004 22:38
I think the loadersystem likes VICE more, especially if you’re going to cheat with savestates :)
[36] :
08. Sep 2004 12:55
Would it be possible to use the text from this review for Commodore Scene fanzine?
Regards,
[37] :
08. Sep 2004 18:45
@Shaun: As far as I am concerned, you can use either excerpts or the full text of both my diary and my part of the review, which is still to be published, under the condition that I’ll see the final version of the article (I’d just like to authorize it so that I’m sure things aren’t taken out of context). How about you, Vip?
Wotnau
[38] :
08. Sep 2004 20:29
@Shaun: Sure =). You can use my parallel diary too, under the same conditions as Wotnau stated.
@Wotnau: How shall we do the review? As far as I’m concerned, I’m ready.
_V_
[39] :
08. Sep 2004 23:58
_V_: Drop me an e-mail at (my nickname) @c64.sk so that I know where I should send my part to. I started working on it today and want to e-mail it to you tomorrow whatever state it?s in, as I?ll be outta town for the weekend anyway. You?re free to edit my part as well as suggest the format or changes to it, as judging by the diaries, I think working together will work out and your changes will make sense. :) After we?ll both have had our basic say, we can either have an IRC session and finish it online or exchange 2-3 more e-mails - and I think by next mid-week at the latest it could and should hit the Portal. What format do you prefer? I offer .txt, .doc or .rtf.
Wotnau
[40] :
09. Sep 2004 09:53
Wotnau: Okay, sounds great =). I’ve always been a sucker for .txt, but for a review, some proper formatting might be nice, so hit me with .doc.
_V_
[41] :
11. Sep 2004 10:38
Hi, "up up and away" is from the movie Spider-Man IIRC.
[42] :
11. Sep 2004 12:05
I am not so far with the game like you, i just played the first two levels. I think, it must have been a big work to do this game and i appreciate that.
But there are a few bugs in the game, which makes it
sometimes difficult to play. It crashed two times in the middle of the level, one time the big macho suddenly disappeared(Which made it unvulnerable, but not Bren ;) ) and if you use repeating fire with weapons, which emit many bullets, then the scrolling
and the music slows down and the screen flickers.
Did anyone else made this experience? Is there a way, too get around it, or is a bugfix allready in work?
Dont get me wrong, its a great game and i know how much work it is to do big games like this. Let me give one example: Godot!
Godot is a really big and great tool, and it is modular, too. But the anoying thing about it is: The keybord input routine is not comfortable.
Sometimes you can live with it, sometimes not.
Tiny inconsistencies can be quite a motivation killer!
Monte Carlos
[43] :
11. Sep 2004 14:42
Yes, you’re not alone in your bug-sightings, and no, there won’t be an official fix at least..
[44] :
11. Sep 2004 18:53
This would be really sad!!! Turrican 3 is a good product and only a few things are missing. It is a little more work and one loose everything if one don’t do it !
Do you know from AEG, that there will be no bugfix?
Monte Carlos
[45] :
11. Sep 2004 19:03
The endscroller (and also the recent release of sourcecode) strongly hints at AEG knows all about the bugs but wants to wash his hands clean of the project :)
[46] :
12. Sep 2004 16:20
Lasse, why don’t YOU give us a fixed version? =) You are very experienced with this kind of a game.
ThunderBlade
[47] :
12. Sep 2004 18:15
Actually I am not, I’m lame technically :) MW games are focused on completely different things although superficially they are like Turricans. Btw. the code is quite horrible, take a look and you’ll understand why I’m not that eager.. And I guess in the end fixing the game would still need binpatching it the old fashioned way as the full code/data wasn’t released in source format. But look at the positive side, there’s still room in the world for another bugfree & excellent Turrican game. (No I won’t be coding)
[48] :
13. Sep 2004 12:38
@Wotnau: Sorry, misunderstanding... I thought you’d email me your part of the review and figured that you would find my email address at CSDb. Anyway, here is my email (somewhat spamproof) address: v(at Ibiza>padua.org.
I’ll make sure to finish my chunk of the review immediately as I get your part.
_V_
[49] :
13. Sep 2004 19:30
[47] Actually I was discussing with Thunderblade about technical aspects of your games and your abilities and I was telling him that technically your game engines are very advanced, so either my judgement is wrong (which I would never ever admit except if being tortured by listening to finest collection of worst "sids" ever released :) or you are one hell of a humble person (which I already did know). b) is correct.
CreaMD
[50] :
13. Sep 2004 22:32
Well, I wouldn’t have the patience or skill to optimize bullet & collision routines so that there can be 64 of them onscreen without slowdown, create huge parallaxes etc. That kind of technical things, which are important for Turrican (or Katakis) style games Rather, I think, well now there’s already 3 enemies onscreen, ok it’s on the verge of slowdown, let’s play some catchy metal music so the player doesn’t get too bothered :) Or actually in an agent game slowdown can be thought of as bullettime (TM)
[51] :
14. Sep 2004 00:06
I’m sure there will be some C64 game with bulettime animations (although I would rather see John Woo jumps (tm)) sooner or later. ;-)
CreaMD
[52] :
14. Sep 2004 23:33
@_V_: Hopefully, you’ve got it in the mail.
Wotnau
[53] :
15. Sep 2004 11:34
now that the v1.1 is released, please update your diaries accordingly to the current status of the game.
diary lover
[54] :
15. Sep 2004 12:33
;-)))))
CreaMD
[55] :
15. Sep 2004 13:06
Seems (from the .txt) mostly about small bugfixes, like some enemies not giving score. No word of the lockup bugs. But it did prove me wrong that there wasn’t going to be a fix from the author.. hope he fixes the rest too :)
[56] :
15. Sep 2004 13:26
@_V_: I’ll try to check out the fix tonight and if it works out, I’ll do some last-minute corrections to the review when I get it from you. :) Anyway, judging by AEG writes in the text, the major bugs are still there. We’ll see.
Wotnau
[57] :
16. Sep 2004 12:36
@diary lover: Of course, we will change the header of our diaries to Turrican 3 v1.0 ;)
_V_
[58] :
16. Sep 2004 15:43
Hmm, from the .txt file, I’d say my portion of the diary is unaffected, safe for the bonus block fix in world 4. Mwoah, ’s okay.
As for Wotnau’s review, I received it yesterday after fixing my internet, which was down for a couple of days =(. Will send my part tonight or tomorrow morning.
_V_
[59] :
16. Sep 2004 18:27
@_V_: Owkee dowkee, I’ll take some screenshooooots in the meantime.
Wotnau
[60] :
17. Sep 2004 12:36
@Wotnau: Gurrrr.... I’m 50% complete, but got really tired around 2am, so I’ll have to finish it this evening. I’m sorry, Wotnau. =/
_V_
[61] :
17. Sep 2004 13:20
@_V_: I’ll stay tuned. But please keep in mind that tomorrow morning I’m leaving for holidays. :> If you don’t make it, I’ll mail you the screenshots and it will be up to you to finalize the whole thing ;)
Wotnau
[62] :
27. Sep 2004 00:38
Hi, just a small update: I have sent the Turrican 3 review to CreamD for finalisation. Apologies for the delay are in order - the main problem was that we still needed to do screenshots for World 4 and 5. That task was mine, and the idea was to use WinVICE’s recording capabilities to record progress through those two Worlds, then make the screenshots. In theory, this was going to be a piece of cake.
In practise, this was a nightmare. I found out that (a) it’s best to record only one level at a time, as recording malfunctions may appear after about 10 minutes (b) The ’do not die while going up in 5-1’ bug likes to pop up unexpectedly and (c) yours truly had to learn the difference between the words ’recording’ and ’playback’ the hard way.
Again, I’m sorry, but I hope that the review will make up for it. Wotnau promised you an extensive review, and an extensive review it is. =)
_V_
[63] :
28. Sep 2004 17:42
Back from my holidays. I’m really curious about the final outcome, as it’s been a long time since I was a part of the reviewing process. ;)
Wotnau
[64] :
28. Sep 2004 18:37
It’s now in the hands me and maccie. Patience pleze.
CreaMD
[65] :
01. Oct 2004 12:12
So, when will you Turrican masters create a nice "longplay" for us who aren’t as skilled? :)
AmiDog
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