Tuesday, June 14, 2016

A Prehistoric Tale



The Lost Boys!!

If there were ever giants that graced the Atari ST demoscene, it's these fellas. In 1990, they ventured into the commercial gaming industry with A Prehistoric Tale, published by the mighty Thalion but how does it play and can a demo group make a decent game? I mean, we all now remember TCB's Enchanted Land. Talent doesn't always equal great gameplay :/

Those who remember Chuckie Egg or Panic will feel right at home with this game. We have been teleported back in time when dinosaurs roamed with a constant threat of being eaten alive. But this is the time for sexy cavewomen who all happen to look like Raquel Welch. We are tasked to collect dino eggs so all mammals don't become extinct.

Take these to the teleport for safekeeping but, there is a time limit and you can only carry only three eggs at once (unless you use an egg basket). To make matters worse, the teleporter changes location after each use, lots of spiders and other prehistoric critters constantly appear, and you should watch out for the swarms of Pterodactyls!

The graphics are reminiscent of the 8-bit days but use a beautiful 16-bit quality. It's almost like we're playing a demo by The Lost Boys because of the look and palette used and I love it. The audio excels, all thanks to Jochen Hippel and I'm sure you'll be tapping your foot along to his gorgeous chiptune beats. To say this game sounds fantastic would be an understatement.

A Prehistoric Tale is actually straightforward but hiding underneath a humble exterior is a worrisome experience that keeps you on your toes. Even the most gifted player will struggle at first, practice and you will love it. Superb game.

Downloads are available on a floppy disk and 8BitChip has a hard drive version.


Is that a teleporter or has he simply eaten all his Ready Brek!


The pixel art animation when dropping off a ledge is hilarious!!

The Lost Boys archived collection on Demozoo

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