Tony - Montezuma's Gold

Montezuma's Gold

Many excellent productions came from this year's Silly Venture but it was a platformer that caught my eye. Tony Montezuma's Gold is a conversion of the C64 original by Rafał Dudek, based on explorer Tony Halik. Coded by ST legend, George Nakos (aka GGN), its gameplay is like a mash of Rick Dangerous and Pitfall Harry.

"Embark on a pixelated journey inspired by Tony Halik, the real-life Polish explorer and filmmaker whose adventures spanned continents and decades. He was exploring ancient civilisations for NBC, Tony's love of discovery knew no bounds. Now it's your turn to step into Tony's digital shoes and unravel the mysteries of Montezuma's Castle in this nostalgic 8-bit homage."

You know me. I love platformers, and this one is outstanding with superb joystick controls that feel natural and responsive. Each screen features ledges to jump, spikes to avoid, crushing pillars, and more. Look out for helpful items like keys to unlock doors and potions to help prevent death. Only four items can be carried at once so think before blindly encumbering yourself with something you might not immediately require.

Most games are tough and soon I'm searching for a trained version. Let me ask, are there any LAMERS here? I'm looking for a show of hands... Good, because there is an option for infinite lives in the game's settings. What a fantastic feature albeit at the expense of labelling you a lamer. Don't care; I've no shame :D

You may have looked at the graphics and assumed they were high-resolution. No, this is in low res with a black-and-white design by Rafał Dudek. His effect works flawlessly to represent the aged theme but, can be tinted using a variety of colours. Likewise, the audio can flip between sound effects or music, but you would be insane to disable the incredible tunes by Adam Gilmore. A minor quibble, I only wish the STe hardware was used so (as an option) we might be able to hear sampled sound effects alongside the incredible music.

I've only been playing for a short while, but I'm eager to report this as a wonderful platformer. It's extremely playable, and I'm enjoying the exploration and old-school excitement of reaching new screens!! Heck, I even managed to map the first level. I hope to find time over Christmas to complete all of the levels.

Don't waste any more time reading. Download the demo before purchasing the game - enjoy!!

+ Demo and full commercial game https://monochrome-productions.itch.io/...atari-st

+ The boxed version https://retronics.eu/?a=cat&id=50&l=en

+ Silly Venture 2024 https://demozoo.org/parties/4780/#competition_19577

+ GGN https://demozoo.org/sceners/10489/

+ Rafał Dudek https://www.youtube.com/@rafaldudek3731/videos

+ Adam Gilmore https://www.mobygames.com/person/5192/adam-gilmore/credits/

Settings can be changed for colour tints, sfx/music, and even a lamer mode!

The first level begins in the jungle. Loads of pitfalls and great fun.

The swamp level is a lot tougher. Go lamers!

The catacombs crank up the difficulty but remain so playable.

I mapped the ST's first level. Scroll back up for the download link!

Smile and be as happy as Tony because the ST has a brand-new platformer!

The Bugziacs man did us proud for a wonderful conversion!!

A boxed version is available to pre-order!!!!

Slightly Magic

Heavy on the Magick

Almost all ST users have played one of the Dizzy games. Code Masters had this type of puzzler nailed! Not all their games featured an egg and, like our favourite viking, this game also follows the same premise of collecting useful items to solve puzzles. This time we are a character called Slightly. What an odd name, eh?

Slightly Magic was developed by Colin Jones, a name you should remember from Rock Star Ate My Hamster? As storylines go, this one is weak but, long story short, Bigwiz is a wizard who unwittingly left us in charge. The goal is to rescue Princess Croak from a sunburnt dragon using magical spells scattered about the lands waiting to be found. Yep, you heard correctly, a dragon that's been in the sun for too long.

What medication was Colin on? Anyhow, let's have a peep at a couple of troubling screenshots...

When I first played, I struggled to jump onto the middle platform. So practice!

You will never get the metal pin from that side of the screen. Hey, don't get burnt...

Rescuing Princess Croak

Fans of Dizzy will instantly feel at home. Slightly can explore the rooms looking for helpful items the game's characters demand. That often grants passage to a different part of the map with more similar puzzles. Interestingly, some items are merged together to create spells - like a hearing spell for the deaf guards. Others scare ghosts, grant safe passage underwater, and enable us to fly like a wibbly-wobbly bird.

Getting around each room is a cinch albeit initially awkward because Slightly moves quickly. This made it difficult to master jumping which became apparent on the second screen. The room features a wide gap to leap, which I struggled with. Heed my advice and practice jumping here before continuing on.

Multiple items can be collected and hitting the fire button displays our inventory unless you're close to an item. The puzzles start easy; providing dragons with the correct buckets of water. Once their thirst is quenched, the game opens up with some rather obvious dilemmas to solve. For example, scissors to cut the string of a yoyo. A magnet that attracts a metal pin. It's hardly rocket science and kept me intrigued to the end.

Leap with joy because there are no time limits to ruin the experience. Also, the monsters will not instantly kill you. However, there is an energy meter that drains if you come into contact with them. Once depleted, you lose a life. It's now that you shall notice stars in most rooms. Collect them to replenish the energy.

In terms of places to explore, this game isn't very large. The puzzles give the illusion of a larger world, as you'll constantly experiment to figure out what works. There is much guesswork and lots of backtracking before you gather what goes where. An obvious mechanic for a game like this and I enjoyed it a lot.

However, there are some niggles with the map layout. It often makes no sense with many screens looping around without reason. I also noticed several rooms that lay on each other (the first is near the deaf guards). These abnormalities didn't make sense and caused me problems. So, I decided to map the game before I kicked the ST's monitor through the window!! You heard me, just keep scrolling to download that.

How about an image of a giant's bald head? Yeah, some puzzles make little sense, like this one...

An angry giant (with no body)? Well, I'd be angry being a bald severed head!

I never did figure out how to crawl and collect that star. Maybe a bug? Maybe it's me!

Aesthetics

Graphically, this game is gorgeous using cartoon styles any Dizzy fan will adore. The intro is fantastic with dancing dragons that you meet later. Each room features a comical theme I found joyful and cutesy, especially on the underwater stage. Slightly has a peculiar walk that looks odd but his movement is smooth and graceful. The enemy's motions are also ultra-smooth with humorous detail; I liked the sinister Cheshire Cat, the menacing ghosts, and the wibbly Octopuses. However, the two guards are my personal favourite!

It’s safe to say that Keith Ross created exceptional artwork but some areas left me wondering what drugs he could have been on. For example, the giant's head doesn't fit the rest of the game and feels like a late addition. The ugliest graphic is ironically on the most beautiful level - a witch that looks like I drew her!

Thankfully, the audio follows a constant level of awesomeness. There are no effects but wonderful chip music by Allister Brimble plays throughout. It's a lovely tune that blends into the background perfectly.

Let's take one final break before the gripping conclusion I know you're eager to read...

Ghosts'n Goblins vibes with a sinister cat lurking in the trees. Lovely graphics!

Absolutely killer artwork. Animated too. I loved this amazing logo.

CryptO'pinion

Slightly Magic will appeal to fans of the genre. I had a bunch of fun - feeding water to dragons, exploring a spooky forest, and rescuing the princess from the sunburnt dragon. Who thinks of these stories?

Unfortunately, many of the puzzles lack consistency, being either too easy or overly obscure. Other parts are rubbish, like riding tiny bubbles to reach higher platforms - quite difficult and badly conceived. Of course, I got through all these troublesome areas because I was having fun with the adventure.

I can't say it's Code Masters' best effort but I enjoyed it (nearly) as much as Spikey in Transylvania. A challenging puzzler without the refinement of Dizzy but worth playing. My rating is a respectable 70%.

+ Great floppy disk options at Atari Legend https://www.atarilegend.com/games/slightly-magic

+ 8BitChip has adapted a cool version for hard drives https://atari.8bitchip.info/ASTGA/S/slightm.php

+ Gears Of Games has a good channel but wasn't quite as impressed ;) https://youtu.be/...

As always, this image is a thumbnail so click here to download the high-res original.