While it seems this is not the most popular game in the Jumpman series, this was the only Jumpman game I had growing up. This is another game that's frustratingly difficult but very fun. I think it's also one of the first games I tried to speedrun, as you could change the game speed at the beginning for some insanely fast gameplay.
This is also the first game here to include an intro. Intros are a strange and mostly forgotten thing. When someone cracked a game (and pirated games were the norm, I think I only owned one uncracked game), they would sometimes add an intro screen telling who cracked it and when. Most of the time, the graphics and sound in the intro are better than the graphics and sound in the game. Apparently this one was cracked in 2003, but this intro is still typical of games from the 80's.
The point of this game is to collect all the "bombs" from the level by jumping between platforms, ladders and ropes and dodging bullets, fires, etc. Each level presents a new challenge, setting fires when you get bombs, removing pieces of the platforms, etc.
The video features the first five levels of Jumpman Junior. Growing up, Hellstones was the furthest I could ever get, but now I'm able to get past that pretty easily. The level after that, Figurit's Revenge, is even harder, requiring you to collect the bombs in a specific order to complete the level.
Overall it's a fun game, even today. Though some levels (like Figurit's Revenge) would be considered completely unfair, most of them are still fun to play.
Space Taxi is easily one of the most memorable games on the Commodore 64. Virtually everyone had it, virtually everyone loved it. Space Taxi combines great controls with simple gameplay and inventive level design to make one of the best games for the Commodore.
The concept of the game is simple. Fly around the level in your taxi, pick up fares and drop them off at their destinations, all the while fighting gravity, navigating tight spaces, managing your fuel and dealing with the unique challenges each level presents. The faster you get your fares to their destination, the more points you get.
There are two real attractions to the game. First, moving the space taxi is fun. Using the thrusters to control your taxi has a very organic feel as opposed to the rigid, robotic movements of other games. The one and only thing you do throughout the entire game is fun on its own, but the level design pushes it over the cliff.
Space Taxi features top notch level design. Only the first few levels in the game are static, the remaining levels have shifting platforms, projectiles that can kill you, black holes and magnets that suck you in, wind, and even a level that randomly reassigns your controls. Playing the game on random mode (the levels you play are chosen at random) means you'll never know what to expect.
Space Taxi takes skill and practice. Not only do you need to learn how to delicately control the space taxi, but also learn the 24 levels in the game. While there is no 2-player mode, there is a multiplayerhot seat mode that will allow you to compete for the highest score.
The following video is about 7 minutes of gameplay. Three levels are shown:
Turbo-charged Taxi. Your taxi is much faster than normal. Fine control movements are difficult, you have to use very short bursts of your thrusters. You also burn through your fuel extra-fast.
Electroids. You have to navigate your way through electric fields. Match speed with the gaps and try to wait until they line up.
Shift-o-Rama. Make your way through a screen full of moving shapes. I actually found this one most difficult because even though the shapes move predictably, they only move once every second or so, making it difficult to remember where you are and which way the shapes are going to move.
And of course you can't forget the speech in this game. Speech was something special on the Commodore. It was pretty difficult to do, especially since the sound chip couldn't do samples at all. Hearing the tiny speaker in your ancient TV spew "Pad four please!" was great. But listened to now it just sounds like someone scraping a microphone across the carpet.
If you want to play this awesome game for yourself, grab a copy of Vice and the disk image.
On the technical side, I switched from xvidcap and avidemux to just recordmydesktop. I wrote a little script to grab the position of the Vice window and record only that part. It only outputs OggTheora, but Youtube can import that just fine. It doesn't really work with any video editors I know of though, I'm working on that.
On that topic, if you know of any good video editors on Linux, I'd like your input. I have Cinelerra working, but the captures and encodings it makes are blurry and the sound is choppy. I'd really like to be able to make compilation videos, and I don't want to have to install Windows to do it.
I used to play games on a Commodore 64. It was the only computer I had until the late 90's, and for the most part the only gaming I ever did. We had an Atari 2600, but the Commodore was a lot better. Later we had a Sega Genesis, but I still kept coming back to the Commodore games. Even now, I install an emulator every now and then (I like Vice) and play the games I used to play.
It hit me that a lot of you might have played these games, or might be interested in seeing what gaming was like then. It didn't take me long to set up xvidcap to record Commodore games from the emulator and avidemux to do some minor editing. The result is this blog.
Here's a short test video of Space Taxi.
So what is this blog? Put short, reviews of 25 year old video games with nice long gameplay videos. Some things like load times have been removed by the emulator (thank god), so the videos should be about 90% real gameplay with short loading screens and menus. I'll try not to judge the games from a modern standpoint as expectations when it comes to games have changed quite a bit. I'll also be giving links to the disk images on various sites so you can give these games a try yourself!
