Invaders from a distant star have turned Earth into a desolate wasteland, and humanity has only just survived. Only one man, known as The Vindicator, can fight the evil invaders and take back Earth. The battle takes place over three parts. The first part is a tortuous maze where you kill aliens for ammo and search for parts to build a device that will enable you to eliminate the invaders. In the second part, you take to the air, and in the third part, you race across the surface in your high-powered jeep for one final battle against the giant guardian of the catacombs. The standouts are the music and graphics, in particular exploring the maze in the first part. It’s smooth and amazing to play and the sprites are detailed with good animation and use of colours. An interesting note about the game is that it was billed as the sequel to Green Beret but plays nothing like it.
See also: Green Beret.
The year is 2525; an armada of space stations sent by the evil Tangent Empire is approaching Earth. The only way to destroy this invading force is to infiltrate the enemy with your SR-88 Strategic Battle Tanks, better known as Vindicators. You must negotiate each space station’s heavily guarded corridors, and destroy the control room. Replenish your tank’s ever decreasing fuel supply with canisters located throughout the many levels. Collecting stars enables you to buy power-ups and special weapons in shops that are useful on the many enemies and the prerequisite big bosses. Essentially a re-packaged Ikari Warriors, the cute graphics are let down by the tricky controls of your tank’s movements and firing, making this a difficult challenge.
Ever dreamt of keeping Richard Branson as a pet? Imagine if Richard were kept in a cage, but not just any cage – one surrounded by deadly waters? Well, I have some very good news for you. In this re-enactment of one of his famous record attempts, you can do just that. You must feed Richard and run his business interests. You must protect Richard from all manner of nasty comeuppances on the high seas. Or, you know, maybe you might let Richard starve, or go bust, or drown. It’s up to you. The game is colourful and cute, the sound almost non-existent, and the gameplay consists of running between different areas of your boat, but you are Richard’s God and there is a particular malevolent charm to be had from that.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
ChinnyVision.
Your dog W. Camelot is ill. Some viruses are causing the problem and it’s your job to get rid of them! You can achieve this if you manage to complete all 50 levels of this hardcore puzzle challenge. To begin with, the graphics are in Mode 1 with high detail and smooth movement. The presentation of this great game is influenced by the demo scene. You may choose to listen to music or have sound effects only during the game. The gameplay is challenging while the levels are intelligently designed. Besides this, I found it interesting to try to solve them; you will not get bored or frustrated. The difficulty escalation is just right. Bear in mind that it is not an easy game. Overall, once more the CPC proves its ability to provide excellent puzzle games.
Vixen
(Martech, 1988)
Vixen is the only surviving human on the planet of Granath – a planet where giant dinosaurs still roam. As Vixen, you must wander the planet, killing all the monsters with a crack of your whip and leaping from platform to platform. Gems can be collected for bonus points, and you can also collect fox heads. When you collect enough of these, the next time you reach your lair, you are transformed into a fox and enter a bonus stage where you collect more gems. The cover of this game caused a lot of controversy, because it featured the snarling Page 3 model Corinne Russell in the guise of Vixen. She doesn’t feature in the game, though, which is a very average platform game with nothing that makes it stand out from any other platform game.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
Viz: The Game
(Virgin Games, 1991)
The computer game based on the profanity-laden comic sees three characters from the comic – Biffa Bacon, Johnny Fartpants and Buster Gonad – racing in the Fulchester fun run, with Roger Mellie (the man on the telly) providing the commentary. The race consists of five levels, and you must win each level if you want to go to the next one. Before each level, there is a sub-game where you can earn tokens which allow you to use special powers in the race. However, winning is extremely difficult, since any contact with obstacles or the other characters severely harms your chances. Your opponents are also suddenly able to overtake you if you go too far ahead of them! The graphics aren’t bad, and the music is fairly good, but the novelty of the swearing soon wears off to leave a very poor game.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Xyphoe.
Volley-Ball
(Chip, 1987)
Play a game of volleyball with another player or against the computer. You can only score points when you are serving, and the first team to reach 15 points wins the game. First impressions are good, with a nice little tune and colourful, well drawn graphics (although both teams wear the same colours). However, it’s a frustrating game to actually play. The players can’t move diagonally, and when you are trying to bounce the ball, it’s difficult to judge where it is going to land, and worst of all, the computer becomes very confused as to which player you should control. The result is that the computer is far superior to you and always wins. It’s slow as well, and it’s not a game you’ll stick with for long.
Surprisingly there have been a few volleyball games released for the CPC. This particular one features large sprites with some reasonable animation at times, but that is where the plus points end. It’s slow and rather unresponsive, and it has some nasty sprite flickering and a harsh Mode 1 colour scheme (although the palette can be altered). There is some music which is average, and some sound effects which are fine. It’s a disappointing simulation of a niche sport, though. Check out Beach Volley by Ocean for something far better.
My memories of this game are vague, but if I remember correctly, it was nearly impossible. You had to make your way from top to bottom, jump over floating monsters, obtain a rolling pin, then catch your friend playing his computer. The big sting in the tail was that if you catch him too early, he kills you, and if you catch him too late, he kills you. It’s probably the most unforgiving early CPC release. It’s the usual bland platform fare with the usual mix of monsters, and the sound, while basic, works OK. I could never get off the first level, though.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Novabug.
VS4
(Bretagne Edit’ Presse, 1987)
You have to leave the VS4 base and return to your home base on Venus, but first you must explore VS4 and find the evacuation sphere that will fly you home. This game consists of two parts. The first part sees you exploring a large maze of rooms avoiding enemies. Any contact with them will reduce your energy. The rooms are drawn in an isometric perspective, and while the graphics are not too bad, some terrible choices of colours are used in a lot of the rooms. Once you’ve located the sphere, you then play a simple 3D shoot-’em-up with enemy spacecraft heading towards you, which features poor graphics and flickery sprites. The sound effects in both parts consist of little more than white noise. Despite these flaws, overall it’s not a bad game to play if you like exploring mazes.