Michigan Mike And The Lost City Of Zorog

We’re off to Zorog!

Michigan Mike is a 1994 platformer developed using GFA Basic by Gordon Storey. It features an Indiana Jones wannabe who's got himself into a spot of bother and desperately needs our help to escape...

The story follows a 1930s explorer named Michigan Mike who becomes separated from his expedition in the South American rainforest. After being rescued by the "Ohla" tribe, a village fire leads the tribe to blame Mike. Your objective is to navigate trap-filled jungle levels to recover five pieces of the Great Ring of Zorog and place them on an altar to save your soul and escape with your life.

As you would expect from any platformer, each level has poisonous critters and many traps like crumbling rocks, acid pools, and spikes. However, Mike's energy levels are slowly depleting, which is really annoying because it forces you to rush. Of course, touching the nasties only increases that energy loss, so collect food to replenish him. That said, it's worth watching him die just to enjoy the explosive graphics! Evil, ain't I?

Michigan Mike And The Lost City of Zorog is a no-frills platformer with great joystick controls, making it very playable. He may have big feet and freaky eyes, but I've enjoyed this. My only gripe is the energy meter, because it goes down far too quickly. Not a great platformer, but far from being a bad one. Worth playing.

• Atarimania download https://www.atarimania.com/michigan-mike-city-of-zorog_9964.html
• Atari Legend download https://www.atarilegend.com/games/michigan-mike-the-lost-city-of-zorog
• AtariUpToDate download https://atariuptodate.de/en/3836/michigan-mike
• We have loads of other "PD" platformers if you click right here!

Sleuth

I've been searching...

After the jaw-dropping Berzerk, I searched what might lurk inside the ST's archives. Eventually, I found Sleuth, a PD game released by Larry Scholz of MajicSoft in 1993. The year is 2525, and man's existence is threatened by evil cybernetic organisms (yup, robots!) created by Dr Spirit. A simple storyline for a familiar game. Okay, it's not what you would call an authentic clone (ahem), but the premise is there for another Berzerker!

We are Inspector Sleuth and about to infiltrate the doctor's lair to show these clumps of metal who's in charge! Gone are the randomly generated screens, replaced with a map populated by six different models of the doctor's robots. These range from the Hemroid, which is a low-level (wait for it) "pain in the butt" to the Hopperoids with warp technology, so don't get too close. Come on, you must love Larry's humour?

Movement and firing are performed in all eight directions using the joystick. Defend yourself using an armour-piercing gun that features a nuclear charge to incinerate all robots from the inside out. You still need to stay clear of the electrified walls, and if you hang about for too long, something freaky appears after a short time to chase you across the screen. Now we're back on the familiar Berzerker ground lol.

So, is it better than Berzerk? Not on your nelly! Sleuth feels like a tacky ripoff with rubbery controls and dodgy graphics. I can imagine that shocks you. Have I just wasted your time writing this mini-review? No. Regardless, Sleuth is a good game in its own right and is nice to play something different. You may have noticed I've not mentioned the audio? The chip fx are good, but the music? Wait and see for yourself!

For what it's worth, my 8-year-old daughter loves this shooter. She played several games badly and never understood why the walls killed her. But, she loved it!! I must admit, so did I. Remember, it's not Berzerk, so keep an open mind and give it a fair playtest. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Sleuth can be downloaded over at the legendary Demozoo website.

IGNORE the graphics!! Gameplay counts the most, whether it's perfect or not.

Shamus shoots anything that looks... weird. Don't think, just shoot!!