Crash Time Plumber (longplay recording)

> Update: Read our review featurette about this beautiful game!!

Crash Time Plumber is an astounding platformer but I struggled to beat level 6 with my joystick skills. So that meant there was only one thing left to do - cheat! The later levels are killers!! Even with a cheat, all I would do is die-die-die!! But, eventually, I did it, as you can see in the recording. I dare anyone to complete it without extra lives...

This is most definitely one of my favourite platformers. It's nothing less than infuriatingly awesome!!

Insecticide

This game is bug-ridden!

This game feels familiar but, this time we're a ladybird who kills insects with her Spit Laser weapon! Yep, Insecticide is a Robotron-inspired shoot 'em up by Peter Hague where each screen is littered with two types of critters for us to destroy: those that move (kill 'em quickly) and the sleepy ones that offer extra points or bonuses. Controls are easy in all four directions plus a diagonal flying manoeuvre for quick motion.

Shooting the moth, which dallies at the top of your screen, gains extra speed - but only for the current level. Weirdly, you shall hear "Nairobi" when you kill it but this makes sense once you've read the docs. I know, who reads the docs? Every eighth level a "parent" turns up for a battle which makes a nice boss fight that isn't too difficult. This doesn't ruin your momentum so you're soon fighting the insect hoard once again.

I seriously doubt that Llamatron fans will be convinced by Insecticide? However, this is a fantastic game in its own right and definitely worth playing. What it lacks in originality it - more than - makes up with great gameplay, jazzy colour cycling and sampled sounds. I've enjoyed this silly alternative to the Robotron theme.

One final word to make you play this fantastic game: Nairobi!!!!!

Download the newly updated version of Insecticide released yesterday :-)

Ironically, it's had many bugs squashed so fine on all computers [thanks PP!!]

Shadowlands

Stay Awhile and Listen

Shadowlands is a 1992 RPG by Domark and developed by Barry Costas who created another personal favourite of mine Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters. I've wanted this game for years, and I finally have it proudly displayed on my ST shelf!! Will it live up to my expectations after all these years?

The story is based on an ancient legend of a warrior prince who was slaughtered on the battlefield. Somehow, our dead dude has magically awoken to find himself alive and kicking with the nifty ability to mind-control. So he has selected four loyal subjects to venture back into the Shadowlands and wreak his vengeance!

I don't know about you, but I'm excited and need to see some screenshots!! Onwards we go...

Earlier messages may appear rather obvious but reading them can be rewarding later on...

Don't be so quick to begin your adventure - take the time to look around this open area!

The graveyard proves a little clumsy for our warriors to navigate but the dungeons are fine.

It's that time... Dungeon Crawl time!

As you would expect, the gameplay is in real-time with characters, puzzles, and beasts to kill. We begin with the option to use the default characters or manually generate their attributes, which I suggest you do. The first level begins outside in a woodland graveyard with useful pickings before taking the plunge into the depths.

Our adventure begins once inside the creepy dungeons but the first thing that hits you is the lighting. This is incredible using a technique called Photoscape that adds a gradual gradient to the light around a character carrying a lit torch. This makes the dungeon spooky with its disturbing atmosphere. The audio isn't too shabby with fantastic title screen music and sampled sound effects throughout the game.

Let's crack on and see a few of the puzzles with some of that cool lighting...

I love how subtle many hints are! They nicely use silly wording to give you a hint.

Sometimes it's far too subtle but at least it tries to help you and I love that!

Now it's time to spend a quid... All brilliant puzzles help make this game so interesting!

Bring friends... and a torch!

Playing Shadowlands is an instant, and fascinating, experience. In fact, I couldn't wait to leave the graveyard to venture into the depths to see what nasties lurked. As you can see, we're in charge of four characters and each can lead and be controlled independently using their avatars along the bottom of the screen.

The first thing that hits you is the skills and lacking progression. Each character can offer similar talents and fight as well as each other. This takes away some of the RPG aspects as Shadowlands is more of an exploration puzzler in the dungeons. Treat each character as a solid member of your party rather than unique.

It's not always necessary to remain as a group. Sometimes, it's best to go alone when scouting in search of items. However, idle warriors should still be vigilant for critters that like to nibble!

Your four loyal subjects will need replenishment so eat, drink, and rest whenever possible but be wise and use your stock sparingly. Flasks can always be topped up from fountains but nothing stops you from having a sip or two while there. Torches are most helpful as it's so dingy plundering through the grim levels but, once again, use these sparingly and extinguish any idle ones in your inventory to make them last longer.

All dungeons should be this scary!! Hey, let's check out some more screenshots...

Look out, something hideous is creeping up on you!!!

The warrior is now a bag of bones... Perhaps he should have read the notice below?

Well, come on, it does say in plain English what not to do. He asked for it! lol

Run, think, shoot, live!

Soon into your first game, you realise how awesome the user interface is for controlling your A-Team. The inventory screen can be accessed at any time with a single right-click and is a cinch to use with extra functions like swapping items or grouping the adventurers into structured squads rather than a clumsy mob.

Each level has a superb design without losing your bearings. It's a good idea to read everything you come upon because not every puzzle is obvious; it might be a masked trap that conjures something nasty. Always beware!! Also, look out for switches, wall slots, or even rickety floor panels. Other puzzles are a fun play on words such as "weight and see" (a great way to get rid of any useless items).

Weapons vary and can be just about anything you can carry, and there are many impressive items just waiting to clobber your foe. Look around right at the start for something helpful... However, it's always good practice not to feel like you need to fight everyone all the time - sometimes it's best to simply walk away.

Enough of my boring jibber jabber, let's see more screenshots...

Okay, I've got the key to the teleporter. Where is that?

Here it is. Okay, you first! No way!! (this is how my mind would work if I was there!)

The Magician finds three suspicious holes - will he choose the correct one or will he perish?

The CryptO'pinion?

Shadowlands is epic and I'm enjoying ransacking the dungeons. However, it has a few niggles. I failed to get the save game function to work no matter what I tried (not much of a problem today when using the emulator's snapshot feature or the hard drive version). Also, guiding our loyal subjects can sometimes be awkward as they struggle to walk around the graveyard and through the odd open doorway. Yes, they're a sandwich short of a picnic and often need a gentle push to help them out. Let's end this pickyness.

I've featured a few adventure/RPGs over the years and I thought nothing would live up to Dungeon Master! Shadowlands is more of a lite RPG without aspects like races/skillsets or levelling/progression. Regardless, this leaves you to concentrate on the terrifying environment, how to beat the puzzles and stay alive.

This is truly one of the most rewarding dungeon crawlers I have ever played.

Install to hard drive with the snapshot-save feature!!
Are you stuck? AtariMania has some game tips.

Of course, Shadowlands wins the accolade of an AtariCrypt SMASH award. Easily!!

Anarchy

Too quick for this old man!

Running this humble website means that I get to play tons of Atari ST games - it's hard work but somebody's gotta do it!!! (don't hate me lol). Quite often, I will revisit games that I remember being good at in the hope it will make for a good review. Today, I thought it would be a good idea to play the amazing Anarchy by Psygnosis [Wayne Smithson/WJS].

Anarchy is basically a shameless Defender clone albeit with tremendously fast visuals, great audio and exciting gameplay. It's fun and challenging running at a jaw-dropping 50/60fps (to think WJS didn't use the Blitter!!). Yeah, I remember this being a wonderful example of what the ST was capable of when in the hands of a developer who cares.

However, as I've gotten older, I've started to realise that there are some games that I shouldn't boot up anymore. Games that push my reactions too far and Anarchy has proven to be my new personal gaming nightmare!! Yep, I was all over the place wondering just what was going on as I died over and over again. In the end, it was fun but disastrous!

A furious shooter that looks, sounds, and plays brilliantly. It's my reactions that need improving to appreciate it!

... So, what is your "Anarchy" ??

Tetris

Another lost Atari ST game has been found and preserved inside the archives of AtariMania. Yes, it's (yet another) Tetris clone originally developed back in 1991 by Tassos Seizis and graphics by his brother John Seizis. Sadly, it was never released - until now!! I'm not a huge Tetris fan but today is a good day for all ST nutters!!

Click the link above and get this downloaded. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Escape 2042

Fancy playing a slick new game?

Escape 2042 has just been released for the Atari STe by Cedric Bourse (yes, he of Yopaz IceStar). It's an exciting new platformer with great gameplay mechanics, ultra-smooth scrolling, and DMA sound effects. It's something else alright!! The game can be downloaded for only a few pounds, which is insane value for money, I'm sure you'll agree. Your purchase will get you both the floppy disk and hard drive versions.

The only requirement is an Atari STe with 1MB of RAM (2MB for HDD installation). Additionally, a boxed release is planned for later in the year for all interested!! (I hope to buy this - sadly, now sold out) :(

The story goes like this: In the year 2042, a socialist government is in power, but nobody had foreseen progressive dictatorship that settled in. The elites of the government hid behind a sham democracy, disconnected from the life the people were leading and acted solely in their own interests.

The regime considered the dissidents as conspiracy theorists, treated them like terrorists and locked them away in highly-secured prisons, to prevent them from telling the people the truth about the manipulating medias accomplice of the government power.

You are Shun, a computer engineer and member of the Truth Defenders coalition.

After a clandestine operation to inform the people, you are locked away in the highly-secured prison Bulor 24. But your knowledge of security systems will enable you to escape.

Your turn now to escape as fast as you can from this place!

Links and Screenshots

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• Escape 2042 download page - https://orionsoft.itch.io/escape2042
• YouTube promotional video - https://youtu.be/aEo9V6zCZeY?si=...
• Yopaz Ice Star -  https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2015...
• Cedric's profile on Demozoo - https://demozoo.org/sceners/10490/

The Atari STe looks good, with detailed visuals and ultra-smooth scrolling.

Watch out for those cameras flipping between two points of view. Time those tricky jumps!!

Rolling Ronny

A wheelie good platformer

This is an attractive platformer developed by Carsten Neubauer of Bones Park and published by Virgin Games in 1991. Before I begin, we're not using our feet as this is a rolling platformer - because we're on skates! This is in the quiet town of Fieldington, a lovely place that has just suffered the theft of its crown jewels. I know, I know...

Fortunately, the gang of bumbling thieves were thankfully disturbed but they still had the time to hide each jewel inside glittering boxes and scatter them about the town before fleeing. Why? I don't know but Scotland Yard then decided it was a good idea to enlist Ronny as their secret agent to recover the stolen jewels in return for a generous reward.

Ronny uses his skates to get around this oddball town but he can still climb ladders and leap across most platform gaps. He will need every ounce of agility to avoid and kill the nasties that lurk here. And there are a number of silly creatures so defend yourself by hitting the fire button to fling your supply of killer salamis. Yes, you heard me correctly!

This is starting to sound rather unbelievable, right? Well, I think we need a screenshot then...

Ronny needs to watch out for various nasties, even those cute little birdies!

Run, Jump and Kill

Any platformer needs decent controls and thankfully, these are responsive and allow Ronny to leap from ledge to ledge but, as usual, reaching for the function keys to activate a gadget is a bit of a pain. The status panel displays various pieces of information: love hearts indicate health, a clock is counting down, the number of remaining jewels, and the gadgets enabled. Along the way, you can be stopped to run errands for extra credit. This is an excellent way to top up your earnings.

Ronny's inventory is his four spare pockets to store cool gadgets - which are essentially power-ups. These provide a variety of functions like a Super Jump or the Magnet which attracts any out-of-reach items. There is a massive range of different power-ups and I really like Power Sneeze!! Coins can be collected to spend in the town's shop. However, be wise and leave enough cash for your bus fare which is the method you take to play the following level. How very odd!

I love it when a platformer like this actually comes with gameplay that matches the aesthetics perfectly! The controls are a joy and complemented by interesting ideas and amusing mechanics. Simple, and it works. Why didn't I know about Rolling Ronny back in the day? I missed this one and I'm gutted about that!

Right then, let's take a little break for another colourful screenshot with our red-nosed fella on skates...

This jump across the water looks tricky! Surely, I can make it in one?

16-bit Sex Appeal

The visuals are fantastic with superb cartoon quality, comical sprites and very smooth scrolling. It's obvious that colour is a big deal because of the richly decorated backgrounds, even the title screen is a stunning Spectrum 512 image. I believe this was Bones Park's only Atari ST game and they should be proud of their achievement.

The audio is nice with a sweet title tune (that I can't get out of my head) all thanks to Adrian Dalecki. The neat sound effects are accompanied by an obsessive tune that manages to get my foot tapping. No complaints from me!!

And on that note, let's view the final screenshot...

Hang on a moment, there's an actual droplet of water chasing me? Or is it a ghost lol

The CryptO'pinion?

As platformers go, Rolling Ronny doesn't exactly break the mould but the addition of a skating clown is a rather odd idea that works (even if he has mad hair - well, just look at the hideous barnet - lol - brilliant). There are a few niggles which I didn't care for, the most irritating is failing to collect enough cash for the bus fare. I hate that as I've done it many times!!

However, there is something about this quirky and extremely entertaining game that I love. It's so much fun - for all the family - whilst offering a challenge that keeps you coming back for more. This ain't no lame Amiga port, it's obvious that a lot of love went into making Rolling Ronny. One of the best platformers for the Atari ST. Yes, I actually said that.

Floppy & hard disk versions from Klaz!