Meet Maze-Man, the C64's official* nineties mascot! He's the fastest dot gobbler around the electronic circuits! He's dexterous, he's clever, he's a pointy-eared troll with a toothy smile that puts your average ice hockey player to shame!
* by which I mean not official at all
Once again, the creator of the cover took some extensive artistic license. Neither the player sprite nor the maze looks anything like what is depicted here. I'm not complaining, though, because replicating the game's actual look would've resulted in something resembling a color vision test with an off-brand Pac-Man in the middle.
All in all, this cover image is not too bad. There are quite a few things wrong with Maze-Man's upper body proportions. I mean, try imagining him without the shirt. Actually, don't. I'm sorry I even suggested that.
I like how his spiky hair and ears line up with the mountain backdrop. Whether this alignment is on purpose or not, to me it conveys that he is a part of this world. While faces aren't the artist's strength (as you'll eventually see when I get to issue 03/90), this one's done well enough to bring the guy's opinion of the maze behind him across.
Cover Lines
- Maze-Man is described as "lost in the labyrinth". Once you see the game, you'll realize that this is overselling the complexity of the maze aspect a bit.
- Speaking of overselling things, TX - The Game's cover line calls it a fascinating action game, which is a borderline lie.
- The third game, Decton, did not make it onto the cover. Apparently, it wasn't certain if the game would be completed in time to be published in this issue. In the end, it got released on this disk, but with the level editor missing.
- I can't say that I've used any of the utilities listed on the cover, except for the Intro & Demo-Designer mentioned in the bottom strip. I used that one several times to snazz up some of my BASIC games.
Magazine
This issue's introduction article is prefaced by this awesome image. As I mentioned before, the artist who made most of the pictures for Magic Disk 64 and Game On certainly knew how to dither. This picture's more abstract subject matter also plays to his strengths.
Early ray tracing was obsessed with metal balls, so it's possible that this image was based on a computer-generated rendering. I also get a strong album cover vibe from the picture, but I can't tell for sure.
While the artworks for the recurring magazine sections remained the same as in the previous issue, a couple of new ones got introduced here. Above is the picture that leads to the so-called black market article. The artist went with the "behind closed doors" metaphor but left the key in the hole which kind of defeats the purpose.
I always liked the idea of a club having a castle as its headquarters and meeting place. I imagine the members dressing up like medieval lords and conversing in phony Elizabethan English. Speaking of phony, that castle looks way too small in relation to the tree towering in front of it. The keep also seems to lack any real depth, which makes me think this is just a folly.
The longer I look at the picture, the stranger it gets: That tree to the far right is growing straight out of the road. Either that, or it spontaneously uprooted itself and started to migrate towards the castle.
Despite all that, I like what the image is trying to convey; a not so serious way of aggrandizing the magazine subscription and make it look like an exclusive club for highly discerning individuals. Who like to meet up in fake castles.
Articles
- In the reader mail section a person complains about the lack of "more intelligent" games available on Magic Disk 64. The editor agrees that many of the published titles are merely clones of older games. Evidently, it took them a while to get away from that bad habit, because the next issues of Magic Disk 64 and Game On would both have variations of Pong(!) on them.
- One of the full price games getting a review in this issue is Origin's Space Rogue (referred to as Space Rouge throughout the article), which can be described as a mix of Elite and a role-playing game. The reviewer's main criticism is the long loading times. Considering how complex the game is, it's a wonder it even made it onto the C64.
Notable Games
Maze-Man
TX - The Game
Decton
Other Notable Software
Intro & Demo-Designer
Geninus!
Ecstatic Code
Summary
Games-wise, this edition of Magic Disk 64 is a bit of a dud, especially compared with the previous issue. Maze-Man is the most playable of the three games, though it never compelled me enough to play more than a couple of levels. TX is a bit of a disaster, and Decton's difficulty is absurdly high, showing open contempt for the player.
Trying out the utilities, namely the Intro & Demo-Designer and Geninus!, proved to be way more entertaining, and in the latter case, even educational.
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