I was 12ish, me and my family I had an Amiga 500 (not 500+, not 600, and certainly not 1200), Xenon had been played to death and Menace just got impossible.\u00a0 I was impatient!\u00a0 Gaming was far more creative back in the early 90\u2019s.\u00a0 Developers didn\u2019t have the technology available to them to create massive MMO\u2019s, or sandbox style GTA games.\u00a0 They relied on their \u2018imagination\u2019.\u00a0 Whatever that is\u2026<\/p>\n
This leads me on to Electronic Arts and Bullfrog.\u00a0 Remember Populous?\u00a0 What a game.\u00a0 Never completed it, didn\u2019t really care, played it for years (and incidentally is now out on gog.com for $5.99, whatever that is in her majesties currency \u2013 a bargain!).\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to talk about that, groundbreaking as it was, I want to talk about one of their hidden gems that, apparently, and much to my surprise was a box office flop.\u00a0 Flood.\u00a0 What a cornucopia of unbridled irreverence this game turned out to be.\u00a0 I stumbled across a copy of this via my cousin who used to procure illegitmete copies of Amiga games via his science teacher.\u00a0 Anyway, the protagonist of this game is a green amorphous character called \u2018Quiffy\u2019 (I had to look that up on Wikipedia, his name) and you lived in the sewer.\u00a0 Your task was to escape through the flooding sewer you lived in collecting \u2018trash\u2019 as you go along, defending yourself with an assortment of weaponry.<\/p>\n
The graphics were quirky and comic.\u00a0 The settings were excellent and well drawn (again, in the days of sprites!), colourful and creative.\u00a0 The sound was the same.\u00a0 When you picked up any items of trash it made a crunch noise.\u00a0 In today\u2019s gaming currency of mp3\u2019s and gigabytes of data for each game you\u2019d not be impressed, but given that the individual sound files would be measured in bytes rather than megabytes, I\u2019d say proportionally they were much more pleasing!<\/p>\n
Playability on this title was second to none.\u00a0 Always challenged and always enjoyable, you could walk on the walls and ceilings (I think?), spraying your enemies with fire from any choice of the wide array of weaponry at hand.\u00a0 Now that last bit was the most memorable bit of this game for me.\u00a0 You could pick up, throughout each different level, a varying selection of terror weapons.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to cheat here so I\u2019ll remember what I can.\u00a0 There was a flame thrower, grenades, boomerangs and dynamite.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to check Wikipedia for any more \u2013 turns out there were shurikens as well.\u00a0 Nice one.\u00a0 The highlight of the weaponry was the flamethrower \u2013 it would appear as if from nowhere, as big as yourself springing forth from you \u2018hand\u2019, emitting an enourmous line of flame.\u00a0 Every now and again, when you tried to pull this weapon out (fnrr fnrr) you would release a rubber chicken instead.\u00a0 Outstanding.<\/p>\n
Now on to the enemies, I can\u2019t really remember these so have reverted, again, to Wikipedia to refresh my memory.\u00a0 \u2018Bulbous-headed Vongs\u2019 apparently, some kind of squid thing that drops further litter for you to clear up.\u00a0 Bastards.\u00a0 There was also a giant teddy bear enemy called a \u2018Psycho Teddy\u2019.\u00a0 It had teeth in its gut\u2026 one touch from it and you were dead.\u00a0 Ace.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like nostalgia much, you only remember the good bit\u2019s of the past usually, but that is just my cynicism.\u00a0 It was a game that show-cased creativity and wit that seems to be\u00a0 rationed nowadays.\u00a0 I suspect you can get a copy of this game along with any Amiga emulator on the internet.\u00a0 I\u2019m not condoning piracy but have a look anyway.\u00a0 Now enough of my getting older \u2018everything was better in those days\u2019 outburst.\u00a0 This was a good and memorable game. If you want more details, have a look on Wikipedia.\u00a0 I\u2019m now going, I have things to do.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Flood_(video_game)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was 12ish, me and my family I had an Amiga 500 (not 500+, not 600, and certainly not 1200), Xenon had been played to death and Menace just got impossible.\u00a0 I was impatient!\u00a0 Gaming was far more creative back … Continue reading