World Championship Boxing Manager

Do not talk about fight club

Outside of stock car racing, I can't say that I'm a sports fan, and Boxing is something that has never appealed to me in the slightest. In the interest of keeping things as varied as possible, I'm always looking to try new stuff. So, I downloaded World Championship Boxing Manager by Krisalis, which they released in 1991.

I admit to being dubious about anything with "manager" in the name because it usually means boring or for the uber-geeks. Then I noticed AtariMania had this listed as STe Enhanced, which whetted my appetite. Well, what can I say, I'm a sucker for anything STe enhanced!! Let's just hope I don't die of boredom. Ha!

Let's take a peep at some screens that push the ST to its limits... ahem...

  
Here's the place to get things organised and to ensure the care of your fighters. Gripping stuff!

Silly faces you can punch!

We're first greeted by a range of dodgy blokes, who are all after a contract, so pick who you fancy before heading out to the office. It's here you can arrange a fight, train, view contracts, and even watch a fighter receive his physio. The fights are watched from behind the commentators, who will describe everything that is going on for each round. However, I soon felt the life force drain from me, so I hit the fast-forward button!!

I can't say I was converted to the sport, or even hooked on this style of game, but I continued on and headed back to my office to see what other wonders awaited me. I noticed hands on the right side of the office, but clicking did nothing, so I figured it was just part of the background. Until I clicked the filing cabinet...

I almost spat my coffee out when I began to watch my assistant walk across the office - an eye-popping moment in 16-bit sex appeal. Walking in those heels obviously looks tough, but she certainly excelled at handing over my documents!! Come on, I'm sure a better use of the STe palette could have been made. lol

It's time for some more screenshots...

  
The car animation is cool, as are the opening scenes within the stadium. Very exciting!

The CryptO'pinion?

Boxing Manager isn't a bad game whatsoever, and I imagine it will appeal to sports and strategy fans. Sadly, it wasn't something that I found particularly entertaining. Except for the girl strutting her stuff and flashing her legs and boobs. Yep, I can imagine the folk at Goliath Games had themselves a right laugh making this!

Strictly one ideally suited for Boxing enthusiasts with lots of spare time on their hands.

(Mantronix #6) is great floppy disk at Atari Legend.

Dark Mode

FTL!

Finally, Amazon delivered a new ST book - Faster Than Light. It's a cracking read, and I couldn't help but giggle when reading about ST Writer's dark mode. This line hit home with me about Dark Mode: "The ST had that in 1985". Today's companies would rave about a feature like that. As if it were brand new.

Absolutely superb STuff!! Get this book, it's brilliant!!

Blob Race

Worms. Gambling. Death!!

Introducing my daughter to gambling isn’t necessarily a good idea, but I thought racing cute blobs would be worth the risk of the police knocking on my door. Yup, you heard right, today we’re betting on cute green blobs. It’s similar to the horse racing machines at the seaside arcades, but it won’t cost you a penny!

Tidbit... 

Developed by Kev Davis back in 1991, Blob was never released for some insane reason.

Well, not until 1994 after he saw an unreleased beta on a Menu Disk...!

You know me, folks, I’m a huge Atari ST game fan, and our PD scene is truly something special. There’s so much out there just waiting to be rediscovered. It’s often where you’ll find hidden gems and innovative ideas from passionate people. Well, Blob Race is just that, and I must say Kev has a great sense of humour!

What am I waffling on about? Let's take a look at a screenshot before you read on...

Ricky D. would be proud of that boulder... until it squashed a blob to death!

Wacky Races

Racing a blob is pure gambling without the risk of losing real cash. We start with £100 in the kitty. It’s similar to the arcade games: choose a likely winner from six candidates. Each blob has a name and unique characteristics: speed, reaction time (how well it maintains speed), and the number of tricks it can perform.

Blobs can also possess special tricks against competitors, such as throwing bombs, riding a bike, and sprouting helicopter wings. And if that wasn’t enough, some blobs can teleport or explode!

The betting system is simple but different from what you might expect. First place wins your winnings at the specified odds. Second place gets half of that, and third place returns your money. Finish worse and you get absolutely nothing. This system actually works well, encouraging longer play.

It's time for another glorious screenshot of technically amazing graphics...

One gets crushed by a ton weight, and another develops helicopter hair.

High Roller Racing!

This is a simple yet incredibly fun game where you pick a blob and watch it squelch across the screen. The humour is superb: the falling ton weights, bombs, and other worm-like incidents are hilarious. The news headlines are also funny: avoid cliches like the plague!! Things like that pop up and had me in stitches.

My only criticism is the short length of each race, but otherwise Blob is ace and gets a thumbs up from both of us. In fact, my daughter is now a hardened Blob gambler. What have I done to her? lol

Look, gather the family, or play solo. But play this game - you’ll love it!!

• Grab the download and give this stupid game a run for its money. Let me know what you think.

Nightbreed - The Interactive Movie

When they could make great horrors

I remember watching Nightbreed and absolutely loved it. Okay, it was a little cheesy, but I'm a fan of most horror genres, and Clive Barker never disappoints. It had such a different twist to its style and atmosphere, and I loved the idea of Midian with its freaks being the good guys. Something I didn't expect at the time.

Being the weirdo that I am, I would have loved to see Midian for myself one dark night - armed with nothing more than a flashlight!! Alas, it was never meant to be, until now that is!! Thanks to Ocean and their amazing dedication to movie tie-ins, I finally have their Nightbreed, which tries to follow the original plot. This time it's what's called an interactive adventure, umm, with some arcade action thrown in for good measure.

Let's stop the natter and check out some of the screenshots from this scary game...

Don't listen to the bad man...

Hey, check out that 90s hairdo (and Aaron's nipples! lol)

The gameplay area is large and feels a lot bigger thanks to the laborious car journey!

Armed with a torch, we head into the dark woods!

As Aaron Boone, we begin our adventure in the doctor's office, listening to his lies. Yup, he's trying to trick us into a confession for something we haven't done - our world is collapsing in on itself. After this introduction plays through, we're presented with a map of the area. Here you can travel to three possible destinations: the redneck police station, an ever-attractive asylum, and the mysterious Midian Town.

To drive, we use the overhead map by using the mouse and clicking each intersection of a road. Watch out for hidden roadblocks that present a decision: do you smash through like a rebel or turn around to find an alternative route? Keep your eyes on the fuel gauge, I wouldn't like to get stuck on these roads at night...

Deciding where to go is up to you, but look at the map before you start burning fuel. And then think to yourself, what would Aaron Boone do? Everything may look similar, but each action you take (generally) has a different outcome: I made my way to the hospital in my first game, but (ahem) that didn't go very well.

Not well at all, actually! Check out the screenshot I got to see on my first game...

What a nightmare it is to be shackled and caged like a beast!

Arghh!! Caught and locked away in a padded cell for the rest of my days!

Just listen to his howling!! Wow :o

I've been eaten, again!

After many failures, I restarted and headed to Midian. Here, I was given three options: I chose to enter Midian itself, which is something I was really looking forward to. However, I think this was a bad choice because I was instantly torn to pieces by a Berserker without any chance to defend myself. What an ending!!

I tried again with my venture into Midian. This time, I was set upon by something that was extremely vicious. However, this is where I finally got to see Nightbreed's action scenes as I fled like a scared chicken. This part has you banging on the mouse button to separate two sprites at the top of your screen - representing you and the monster. I escaped, but trigger-happy cops were waiting!! I found myself in the morgue. Wow!

As you can see, my fortune in this game is pretty terrible. Let's see some screenshots...

I made a poor decision, and the doctor was waiting for me...

He brought the cops. Who shot me into pieces!

Midian is full of freaks... but I gotta admire the artwork and a dodgy game of chase!!

Horrorscope!

Visually, Nightbreed doesn't fail to impress with loads of gorgeous artwork. I love the eerie tones that make use of great palette choices to honour the movie's atmosphere nicely. Sadly, the animations are pretty lame, and I dare you not to laugh when being chased. However, it's this part where I thought Aaron looked like David Boreanaz [that vamp Angel] as his image wobbles back and forth. Or is it just me?

The audio is excellent. Okay, I'd have liked more background sounds, but what we have is sampled and pretty darn awesome. Easily my favourite sound effect is when we're captured and held captive in the asylum: this is probably one of the scariest samples I've ever heard in any game. It's incredible. Listen to it!!

Remember when I said I found myself in the morgue? Well, that doesn't necessarily mean game over...

Oh no, I'm not doing too well... Well, I did end up in the morgue, so that's never good!

Well, I never expected that... this is turning into an old Hammer House of Horror movie!!

The CryptO'pinion?

I’ve enjoyed Nightbreed’s strange storyline and unsettling visuals, which I’m sure Clive Barker would appreciate. The game offers quite a challenge, but I was left a little disappointed: considering this is an interactive adventure, I imagined a lot more "interaction". I felt forced into following a predetermined and limited plot, so one wrong move, and you're dead. It's supposed to be a free-roaming adventure!

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t another Dragon’s Lair, and I’m sure fans will find something enjoyable in this movie tie-in. I loved the ability to venture into Midian, but I simply feel more could have been done to exploit the storyline, and variety of Midian monsters. It’s not a bad game but not a great one either.

Here are more screenshots to tempt you to downloading Nightbreed for floppy or hard drive!

Boogey Man

Bogey?

Scouring through the ST archives, I found something called Boogey Man, by Anthony Hamilton. The screenshots reminded me of an old 8-Bit game, but it really isn't anything close to what I expected.

This is a tough one to describe... we are Burt, a guy who loves to collect snot. And there is plenty of that popping up all over your screen in both small and large doses. There are nine levels in all, which might sound too easy. It's not because the controls are super-sensitive, which makes the entire experience very chaotic as you agonisingly attempt to carefully navigate, avoiding the nasties. Yes, it's as mad as it sounds!

There are bad guys which come in two flavours: a Blob and a Spike. Touching either kills you instantly. Watch the timer, which is just another way to lose a life - and you can see that happen to me near the end of my recording. A boogeyometer is shown bottom/right to display how much snot remains to be collected. Once accomplished, an exit door appears on the right, and we can leg it to the next level for more snotty fun.

Right, it's time for a screenshot, so let's begin with an informative one...

Burt seems to love snot for some peculiar reason, but look out for the nasties who wanna stop you.

Aesthetics

The visuals are basic and very 8-bit, which is something I admire because it often works very well. Interestingly, this game runs in Medium resolution, which explains the fine details and lack of colour. I liked the sprites, especially Blob, but there's nothing here pushing the old ST, of course, and that's fine.

The audio will certainly entertain the kids. Oh, and the big kids, like me. I absolutely loved it, but I should say nothing more to spoil your surprise other than Anthony made excellent use of MasterSound!!

Struggling to understand just why I played this game? Better check out this screenshot then...

Gameplay relies on fudgy controls to make it feel chaotic. Can you beat level nine?

The CryptO'pinion?

Whatever you're thinking when you saw the screenshots - don't. Since when did the visuals matter? The idea and gameplay are humorous and incredibly entertaining. Yes, the controls initially feel too snappy, but you will get used to that, and anything different would just make the game too easy. So it's perfect as is.

Boogey Man is a ridiculous game and one I'm sure your kids will love for all the obvious reasons. I loved every second of it, and I've heard there's a Boogey Man II listed on AtariMania... dare I try the sequel? LOL