Denton's Great Escape
Those who have been following AtariCrypt for a while might remember my review of Where Time Stood Still? A stunning open-world-like adventure by Denton Designs that I originally played as a kid on my ZX Spectrum. Thankfully, our Atari ST conversion is superb, but many were disappointed by its 8-bit appearance. You may also remember that in the review I mentioned another game of theirs I loved: The Great Escape.
Cue the music...!! Yes, The Great Escape was another favourite of mine, and I lost hours of my teenage years to it. It's a prison-break adventure obviously based on the incredible movie where we are a P.O.W. trying to escape from a nazi prison camp. It's displayed in glorious isometric 3D, but don't let the black-and-white graphics put you off; this is an immersive open-world adventure. I remember spending hours sneaking about and crawling underground, avoiding the nazis and their restrictive prison routine.
So why am I telling you this? Long story short, my bestie, Claude, and I have been beavering away to convert the original. In fact, there are now three versions of this olde classic I'd like to share with you:
- The original game in all its monochrome glory. [ST/STe]
- The same game but colourised to feel more "wartime". [STe]
- Ultimately, I wanted something that wasn't just a port, but more "16-Bit". So we painstakingly (it took ages!) remade it to look more like what a possible official release might have looked like. [STe]
Bearing in mind that all this took much longer than Creatures or Shadow of the Beast, I like the results. The original port works on any ST and is as faithful to the Spectrum as is possible. The colourised version uses some of the STe hardware, and I really like the atmosphere it creates. The third increases the screen size, adds lots of new sounds, features superb music, and is generally the best version to play.
It's done a good job, but I'd love to hear your feedback. Funky images and links inbound...
- Download my Speccytacular new Atari ST/e game(s) at Atarimania.
- The original game (and tons more) are at World of Spectrum.
- The Great Escape is enhanced, so it makes it to my ever-growing list. Check that out!!
- Wanna see more of the ST junk I've made? Of course, you do :)
This was the first port and duplicates the original ZX Spectrum game.
I ditched the monochrome display for "wartime" colours. I really like this!!
I couldn't end it there and needed to create a better POW camp. I love the grunge!
