The All New Alan Cartridge Files
Part 1
By Wayne Womersley
Part 1
By Wayne Womersley
Greetings
my fellow Commodore fanatics, great to be back with you all
again. Commodore Scene may have gone but I have returned stronger
and more powerful than ever. Unfortunately TERMINATOR 2, PANG and
TOKI reviews I did have disappeared so I will carry on from where I got
to, perhaps one day these files may turn up or I may re-do
them... And finally many, many thanks to Richard Bayliss for
allowing these files on his wonderful site... CHEERS DUDE!
Alan Cartridge walks a short bridge...
Time for some more Cartridge fun!!!
Many thanks to Allan Bairstow for lending me these Cartridges, Cheers - You're a Star!
CENTIPEDE - ATARISOFT 1983
This is really classy old style arcade action at its best. The idea being to shoot the 'CENTIPEDE' that works its way down the screen from left to right, top to bottom towards you. As you shoot the CENTIPEDE it fragments into smaller CENTIPEDES making your job harder. There are also Mushrooms and Insects that appear that you can shoot for points. Plenty of frantic joystick blasting action on offer here. If you've ever played JEFF MINTER'S 'GRIDRUNNER' or 'MATRIX' you'll have an idea what this game is like.
Until I played this version my favourite game in this style had been TONY CROWTHER's game 'BUG BLASTER' released through ALLIGATA. Centipede has all the trademarks of a good conversion, fast, smooth gameplay, faithful sound effects and above all else it's a great game! The sad news I'm afraid is that you're not getting anything different if you have it on tape, disk or cartridge, all versions appear to be the same! But with gameplay this good - who cares? The good news is if you got the original ARCADE SPECIAL of COMMODORE SCENE it's on the coverdisk - GO PLAY IT IMMEDIATELY! DO check out TONY CROWTHER'S 'BUG BLASTER' as well, personally I think TONY's Version has better graphics and some nice extra touches. Many thanks to SHAUN BEBBINGTON who managed to get me the Cartridge of this game off EBAY, it only cost 7 quid, that included postage and packing - Bargain!!! SHAUN tells me the Commodore 64 version is VERY similar to the ATARI 2600 version.
MS PACMAN / ATARISOFT
One of the many follow-ups to the original PAC MAN, this game was also featured on the coverdisk of the ARCADE SPECIAL. Its basically PAC-MAN but with a female character the player controls. Until I played this my favourite game of this type had been Munch-Mania by Mastertronic (Programmed by Martin Ellis who also programmed PHANTOM OF THE ASTEROID!). This is a very faithful recreation of its arcade parent, granted the screen display isn't the correct dimensions like the arcade version (the game fills the top and bottom borders in the arcade!) but the control method 'feels' right for this sort of game. They've even got the jingles from the arcade game in here too! Top geek points if you spotted JIM CARREY playing on the arcade machine of this in the film 'MAN ON THE MOON’! It's fun if a little limited, also there have been so many PAC MAN conversions I didn’t really feel this added anything new or significantly different to this style of game. Fingers crossed PROTOVISION will finish and release PAC-IT soon - I've high hopes for this game...
REVENGE OF THE PHANTOM NERDS (PART ONE)!
There's been quite a few of those plug-in T.V. Joysticks just recently, there's another NAMCO joystick out which features MS PAC MAN- It should be good 'cos the first one is Ace!!!
WAKKA, WAKKA!
Ms PACMAN is ALWAYS popping up on EBAY so why not check it out, you've no excuse, it's SO easy to get hold of...
Alan Cartridge walks a short bridge...
Time for some more Cartridge fun!!!
Many thanks to Allan Bairstow for lending me these Cartridges, Cheers - You're a Star!
CENTIPEDE - ATARISOFT 1983
This is really classy old style arcade action at its best. The idea being to shoot the 'CENTIPEDE' that works its way down the screen from left to right, top to bottom towards you. As you shoot the CENTIPEDE it fragments into smaller CENTIPEDES making your job harder. There are also Mushrooms and Insects that appear that you can shoot for points. Plenty of frantic joystick blasting action on offer here. If you've ever played JEFF MINTER'S 'GRIDRUNNER' or 'MATRIX' you'll have an idea what this game is like.
Until I played this version my favourite game in this style had been TONY CROWTHER's game 'BUG BLASTER' released through ALLIGATA. Centipede has all the trademarks of a good conversion, fast, smooth gameplay, faithful sound effects and above all else it's a great game! The sad news I'm afraid is that you're not getting anything different if you have it on tape, disk or cartridge, all versions appear to be the same! But with gameplay this good - who cares? The good news is if you got the original ARCADE SPECIAL of COMMODORE SCENE it's on the coverdisk - GO PLAY IT IMMEDIATELY! DO check out TONY CROWTHER'S 'BUG BLASTER' as well, personally I think TONY's Version has better graphics and some nice extra touches. Many thanks to SHAUN BEBBINGTON who managed to get me the Cartridge of this game off EBAY, it only cost 7 quid, that included postage and packing - Bargain!!! SHAUN tells me the Commodore 64 version is VERY similar to the ATARI 2600 version.
MS PACMAN / ATARISOFT
One of the many follow-ups to the original PAC MAN, this game was also featured on the coverdisk of the ARCADE SPECIAL. Its basically PAC-MAN but with a female character the player controls. Until I played this my favourite game of this type had been Munch-Mania by Mastertronic (Programmed by Martin Ellis who also programmed PHANTOM OF THE ASTEROID!). This is a very faithful recreation of its arcade parent, granted the screen display isn't the correct dimensions like the arcade version (the game fills the top and bottom borders in the arcade!) but the control method 'feels' right for this sort of game. They've even got the jingles from the arcade game in here too! Top geek points if you spotted JIM CARREY playing on the arcade machine of this in the film 'MAN ON THE MOON’! It's fun if a little limited, also there have been so many PAC MAN conversions I didn’t really feel this added anything new or significantly different to this style of game. Fingers crossed PROTOVISION will finish and release PAC-IT soon - I've high hopes for this game...
REVENGE OF THE PHANTOM NERDS (PART ONE)!
There's been quite a few of those plug-in T.V. Joysticks just recently, there's another NAMCO joystick out which features MS PAC MAN- It should be good 'cos the first one is Ace!!!
WAKKA, WAKKA!
Ms PACMAN is ALWAYS popping up on EBAY so why not check it out, you've no excuse, it's SO easy to get hold of...