Tower of Terror

Published on Golden Disk 64 09/90

Tower of Terror is a platform game in which you play a valiant knight on a quest to free a maiden of noble descent from the clutches of a villainous wizard. The fair lady has been carried off to the top of the eponymous spire of suffering, which you must now ascend in order to rescue her. Succeed, and her hand in marriage will be yours because that's totally how love works.

The game opens with this glorious intro pic which just screams to be looked at in detail:

Crystal Fever

Published on Golden Disk 64 09/90

Crystal Fever is a Boulder Dash clone that also takes cues from Kingsoft's Emerald Mine series of games. It has quite a few shortcomings, but I'd still count it as one of the more successful Boulder Dash variants on the C64.

Let's go explore some caves and get rich quick!

Or die trying!

I was never quite sure if the guy's expression in the title screen was meant to show elation or fear. I mean, sure, being chased by green suckerbats is no time for celebration, but if you squint your eyes a little, the miner's mouth starts to look like a smile. What if the titular crystal fever overrides rational thought? What if it alters the afflicted's mind and makes the collection of crystals seem to be their only pursuit in life? Besides, a sane person probably wouldn't run with a stick of dynamite in their pocket, especially not with one they found just lying around in a cave.

Krypton

Published on Game On 02/90

Krypton is a chemical element that is categorized as a noble gas. Xenon is also a chemical element that belongs to the noble gas family. Both names were used for games that happen to be shoot 'em ups.

While Xenon by the Bitmap Brothers is widely remembered, especially its sequel on the Amiga, the same can't be said for Krypton. Admittedly, the latter only saw releases on a diskmag. And yes, I'm using plural here. More on that later.

The game opens with this title screen where the Krypton logo seems to have slipped halfway down the screen. It's totally static, even though it is entirely made up of sprites, and there would be enough space for a classic sine curve movement. Admittedly, there is something to be said about deliberately holding back and not overdoing it with stuff moving about on a game's title screen.

Magic Disk 64 01/90

Cover
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.

MegaParatrooper!

Published on Game On 02/90

Today on Adventures in 16 Colors I take a look at MegaParatrooper!, a multi-stage game that switches genres so frequently that you spend more time waiting for additional parts to load than playing the actual game. I'm not exaggerating.

That is certainly one of the largest title logos I've come across in a while. It also belongs to one of the worst games I've had the pleasure to review so far. We've officially reached a low point in software that got published on Game On.

Geninus!

Published on Magic Disk 64 01/90

Since we're still in the middle of Edutainment Month, here's a look at another utility that could be interpreted as educational: Geninus! is a tool to create sine curves for sprite animation. I guess the name is a portmanteau of generator and Sinus (German for sine), since it is, in fact, a sine generator. I would've called it Sinerator instead, to keep the words in the right order, but Geninus! is a fine name as well, especially with the added exclamation point.

This isn't a very complex program, but I still wanted to put it in an article, mainly because of its presentation and how, back in 1990, it introduced me to sine curves in a very practical way.

Intro & Demo-Designer

Published on Magic Disk 64 01/90

April is Edutainment Month, and I'm using it as an excuse to waffle about something else than a game. Intro & Demo-Designer is a creation utility for intros and demos. Admittedly, that stretches the definition of edutainment a bit, but I expect to be more entertained (and possibly educated) by this program than the more recent games I had to endure on this blog.

Don't judge the program by its very plain welcome text. This tool packs quite the punch, and it allowed twelve-year-old me to spruce up several of my rather rudimentary BASIC games.