Megamax

Published on Game On 04/90

When platform games emerged in the early eighties, there was this period in (European) home computing where single-screen titles like Manic Miner were regarded as genre archetypes. This resulted in a lot of games in the same vein with awkward controls where each jump was a leap of faith and being one pixel off the mark often had disastrous results. Megamax is very much informed by these quirks and therefore feels like a platformer from the very distant past.

The title screen certainly looks very "old school" for a game released in the early nineties, with a logo consisting of chunky, double-sized sprites. The reveal of the letters is accompanied by the kind of screechy sound effects that movies or TV shows still like to use whenever somebody is playing video games somewhere off-screen. The game transitions into a piece of music from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. At least that's what HVSC's SID Tune Information List says; I would not have recognized the melody otherwise. It sounds pleasant enough, though, if a bit plain. Manic Miner also made extensive use of classical music, but its arrangement of the Blue Danube is an assault on the ears.

The title screen reveals that Megamax was originally created in 1985. That means it was already five years old when it got published in 1990, which explains why it feels a bit out of date compared to Game On's usual software titles.

The creator of the game, Frederic Thiesse, is already a familiar name on this blog, as he also made Maze-Man. Megamax is two years older but got published three months later. I guess CP Verlag had the rights to several of Thiesse's titles and didn't much care for releasing them in order. It didn't matter anyway, as they didn't have a connecting story or anything like that.

Speaking of which, Megamax's backstory is not described in the game itself. It could instead be found in the magazine part of this Game On issue. The problem is, I currently don't have a copy that can successfully start the magazine, so I'll just have to piece together past events by playing the game.


LEVEL 1

The start of the first level provides some food for speculation about what's going on. I can see apples, cherries, spikes, several gray spiders (or jellyfish) and one very sad ghost. I'm controlling what looks like a somewhat rotund, bald man who is completely naked and very happy about it:

The game already gets bonus points for having an unusual protagonist. It's not very often that a radiant nudist takes up the role of the kingdom's savior. I'm just assuming there is a kingdom that needs to be saved.

It is Megamax's mission to collect all apples and then exit through the ornate white square. Unsurprisingly, his state of undress renders him completely defenseless, thus he should avoid touching any enemies or stationary hazards.

While the ghost doesn't actively pursue Max, he has the annoying habit of getting in the way, and he does so right at the start.

The ghost looks like he was exiled from Pac-Man, likely due to his lack of a distinct color. His diagonal movement pattern probably didn't help either to fit inside a maze consisting exclusively of right angles. The forced expulsion would also explain the wild mood swings he's exhibiting while floating around.


The placement of that apple on the right side is rather cruel, but it's also a good showcase for the game's rigid jumping mechanics. Once you press the fire button, you lose any control over Max until he lands back on his feet.

The jump needs to be very precise here. Otherwise, Megamax will either miss the apple or hit his head on the stalactite and lose a life. The latter just happened to me, even though Max's sprite technically didn't overlap with the deadly protrusion. I've played this game many times before, but I still haven't gotten used to the guy's jumping distance.

The conveyor belts not only move Megamax when he stands on them, they also add a sideways momentum to any jumps, meaning it's impossible to jump vertically or the opposite way.

Getting through the left half of the level is a rather stressful affair: As soon as Megamax picks up the apple, he gets transported to the left by the conveyor belt. I have to jump immediately or he will end up touching the deadly spider/jellyfish in the corner.

The light green platforms rapidly dissolve when Max stands on them, thus I have to ascend them quickly. What's more, I'll have to climb these platforms a second time later on, so I can't just let them disappear entirely.

At the top, another conveyor belt awaits. This one requires a precisely timed jump. My timing was off by a fraction of a second, and Megamax sailed right past the platform leading to the top left apple. I also have to be careful not to fall down. Max can't survive a drop that's higher than three blocks.

In keeping with its inspirations, the game doesn't hesitate to dish out hard lessons in the very first level. In these kinds of platformers, each stage is more like a puzzle than a fun space to explore freely. I need to figure out the correct way to navigate the obstacles as well as the order in which they need to be tackled.

I have to get that apple inside the pit and then jump out before Max sinks down too deeply. Then I have to climb up to the conveyor belt again and jump over to the right side. The cherry grants brief invulnerability to our hero. While Megamax is flashing (arguably, he's doing that all the time), the ghost and any lethal objects are harmless to the touch. Max can still fall to his death, though.

To reach the last apple, I have to get under the stairs somehow. Since Max automatically climbs any steps if he walks close to them, I have to jump from the right distance instead to make him phase through them. That's the kind of logic you can expect from eighties platformers.

The final move is a leap of faith, more so than the other jumps so far. If Megamax reaches the exit square with all apples collected, he immediately leaves the stage, and the lethal falling height gets ignored. Level completed!


This is as good as any time to address the in-game music which is astounding for all the wrong reasons: It is the saddest rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ode to Joy I've ever heard on the C64. The tune only uses one of the SID's three sound channels and lasts an epic 23 seconds before it pauses for a moment and then restarts. While it gets the melody right, the meter is way off, and it sounds like a novice flute player who is rattling off the notes as quickly as they can to be done with the whole ordeal as soon as possible.

This is the comical opposite of the original composition. Ode to Joy is the climax of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony where an entire orchestra plus a choir goes Super Saiyan and fires on all cylinders. In Megamax, it's reduced to a single, unfiltered triangle waveform that ambles around in the background, hoping that it doesn't get noticed.

For some reason, I still remember my cousin's comment on the music when we played the game 28 years ago: "This is what Darth Vader listens to during his time off." You know what, I wholeheartedly agree.


LEVEL 2

Level 2 starts with a series of drops down disappearing platforms between rows of jellyfish. It looks harder than it is, I just need to gently nudge Max left and right to avoid touching anything unhealthy.

The real challenge awaits on the left side of the screen where I have to jump up a lot of conveyor belts that just love to catapult Megamax right into his demise.

It took me several tries to figure out where to position Max so he wouldn't end up in the arms of a jellyfish on either side. Note how the ghost almost crossed my way. As I said before, he's very good at doing this.

As you might have guessed from the rather simple look of the game, it was written in BASIC. Not in its entirety, though, which becomes apparent if I press the RUN/STOP key while the game is running: The program ungracefully exits to BASIC, and part of the level gets overwritten by the system's READY message. If I move the cursor down, the entire playfield eventually scrolls off the screen. Curiously, the ghost sprite still moves around and the music keeps on playing. Both are controlled by assembly routines that run independently of the BASIC code. I can look at the program with LIST, and the levels are listed as rows of strings right at the start. All the (non-moving) elements of Megamax's stages are made with a custom character set. I can even go and edit these lines to change elements in the levels. Assuming I don't accidentally introduce any errors to the BASIC code, the game still works if I re-start it with RUN.

LEVEL 3

The third level introduces a stationary Tesla coil that periodically emits deadly sparks. Other than that, the platform layout once again demands some precise jumping. The invulnerability cherry on the right side is pretty much mandatory to pick up because you can't make it past the jellyfish at the bottom otherwise.

I should probably mention that I'm playing with emulator savestates here to spare myself the agony of having to restart many, many times. There is a lot of trial and error involved, and the game goes back to the very beginning after four deaths. If I look like some Megamax pro player, then that's just because I save & reload a lot until I can finally get past the difficult parts.

The Game Over message actually reveals something about Megamax's enigmatic plot:

It seems our noble quest involves leaving this stronghold. Considering that Max is not wearing anything, he was possibly stripped and made prisoner by whoever resides in this keep. If that's the case, then this antagonist already shows more sense than most video game villains who don't understand that they should empty the hero's inventory before throwing them into a cell.


The next few levels do not introduce any new gameplay mechanics, so let's just skip ahead.


LEVEL 6

Level 6 introduces a bouncy pad that causes Max to jump involuntarily when he steps onto it. It dramatically increases Max's jumping distance which helps to cross that row of jellyfish. Incidentally, I screwed myself by jumping over them because I forgot to collect that apple on the left first.

By now, the ghost moves at a much faster pace which only raises the likelihood of a head-on collision.


LEVEL 7

This stage brings a switch to the table that suspiciously looks like the switches from Manic Miner. It even has the same functionality, i.e. it makes part of a wall disappear. The similarities are pretty blatant:

Look at this shameless Megamax rip-off!

LEVEL 8

At this point, the game is starting to notice that the player almost made it to the last level. Consequently, it brings out the big guns, in a very literal sense. Max not only has to avoid the ghost, he now also has to dodge missiles that are being ejected periodically from the mobile rocket launcher at the bottom. The ghost is still the bigger threat as you can see in the above animation where it expertly manages to fly exactly into my jump trajectory.


LEVEL 10

This is it. This is the final level. I have to say, for all its faults, Megamax sure knows how to go out with a bang. Just look what's happening on the screen here. Now, Max even has to put up with man-sized bugs that are crawling across the screen.

Aside from the apples, our protagonist also has to collect the two swords before he can leave the level. I first thought the blades would help me kill the bugs, but they are not meant for actual use it seems.

Due to the many moving enemies, this level is quite hard to get through. Even if you time your jumps right and let the ghost get out of the way, there is still a good chance that the rocket launcher decides to release a missile right when it's passing underneath you.

With a bit of perseverance (and *ahem* savestating), I managed to collect everything and make a jump for the exit. Now for the ultimate question: Is there a proper ending? Well, yes, sort of. But it's weird. Let me show you:

I get the feeling something went wrong here. The ending screen goes past in a split second, complemented by an exasperated "BLARGH!" from the SID chip, and then we're immediately dumped back to the title. I had to pause the emulator at the right time in order to make a screenshot:

Honestly, that picture raises more questions than it answers. Is that guy in the window the antagonist? He looks rather sad, probably because we just nicked his two swords. Why is Megamax so much smaller than his supposed adversary?

Whatever the purpose of the magic swords was, the Era of Darkness has indeed ended, seeing how the blue of the sky even penetrates the stronghold's walls. Maybe the blades have reality-altering properties, which would explain why the sun has a freaking face on its fiery surface.

Anyway, that's the end of the game.



CONCLUSION

Megamax was very obviously inspired by the classic Manic Miner. It doesn't quite reach the quality or charm of its inspiration, though.

This doesn't mean the game is devoid of any appeal or merits. While the graphics are quite plain, there are at least some cute details, like the ghost that changes its facial expression depending on its moving directions, or Max's constant state of undress.

Plain is also a fitting description for the music. Compared to the audio experience Manic Miner has to offer, Megamax is actually a step above. For one, it gets all the notes right. Still, its rendition of Ode to Joy probably isn't going to win any prizes.

The controls are quite responsive, despite this being mainly a BASIC game. I'm not a fan of the awkward jumping physics, but a Manic Miner clone probably has to implement them like this, or it would feel like a different game. For my taste, the level design leans a bit too heavily on how Max controls and leaves little margin for error when precise moves are required.

I'm not sure what the story is behind Megamax's name. Honestly, there isn't much about him that warrants the 'mega' prefix. He has a crazy high jump, admittedly, but one with zero air control that can quickly lead to his untimely demise.

Ultimately, let's not forget that Megamax was initially programmed in 1985, and for its age, this is quite a decent budget title. If you are in the mood for a Manic Miner-inspired C64 title that was actually made in the genre-appropriate era, then this is potentially worth a try.