Rick Dangerous description
Somehow sultry day in July 1988, Simon Phipps and Terry Lloyd was thinking about the theme for the new game, which they were asked to do for the Amiga svezheokrashennoj company Core Design (subsequently received wide recognition due to the large number of quality games on the Amiga and later Tomb Raider on PC). Simon and Terry wrote a list of topics for the game, but soon he uncrossed remained only the phrase "adventure in the style of Indiana Jones". Indeed, despite the huge popularity of film in 1981, playing games that would allow you to plunge into the same adventure as Indy: rolling hero behind huge boulders, poisoned daggers, deadly traps that you have to jump... a long time was not (and, in my personal opinion, Rica no one in this respect is still not surpassed). So the boys took a clean sheet of paper and wrote something like: "Rick Dangerous! Vertically scrollimage game where you have to climb the ladders and platforms, mostly down. The levels relate to each other story that is told with the help of small cartoon. Play the game Dangerous adventures of Rick (the hero) in the style of Indiana Jones, it had different enemies (soldiers, bandits from Casablanca, Malta). Rick can stop the pursuers in a variety of ways: for example, activating traps around your weapon. At his disposal:
Gun (with limited ammo)!
Big stick.
...and some sticks of dynamite (the equivalent of bullets limited in number).
Title screen Highscore table
Simon actually individually implemented these ideas - painted graphics (Terry Lloyd helped with the graphics), and programmed version of the game for the Amiga and Atari ST (which as a result and became the best among all the others). The graphics in the game deserves a separate discussion - it is surprisingly good and unusual. On the one hand it is a Comedy and parody: look how ridiculous all hands and feet are the enemies of himself and Rick, when they kill you! And the characters themselves are very funny - a small, flattened, not at all scary. But on the other hand, paradoxically, the atmosphere of this adventure is not lost - the game is very addictive, despite the fact that you have to constantly start over.
Rick lands in the middle of wild goolus A boulder rolls after Rick - sounds familiar huh? Collecting masks may not be as easy as it seems Guess what this bat is for
And the replay will have a lot of traps in the game await at every turn! The creators managed to make the gameplay was not repeated and every step had to be done, and then expecting that something will fail, you are out of the poisonous dart from behind a corner, or giving a piece of the wall. In the game 74 different enemies and traps - and each one is special and also well animated!
Sometimes you have to blast walls to clear your way Traps everywhere
Level design is also a lot of positive emotions - how colorful and varied they are made. The first level, which, however, very difficult to pass on the adventures of Rick trapped in the cave in the Amazonian forests. In the best traditions of Indiana, the level starts with the fact that Rick is running away from rolling behind a huge boulder. After there will be more levels in the Egyptian pyramids, the castle and at the missile base, but, as I said, to reach them is very difficult. In fact, 6 life, 6 bullets and 6 sticks of dynamite - is extremely small, because traps at every step, and many of them are quite complex, and the further - the more difficult.
Rick heads for the pyramids to recover the jewel of ankhel
In addition to the difficulty of the game will have to adapt to the controls in the game - it is very unusual. Key action key plus up is to shoot, the key action plus key down - put the dynamite, then Rick can poke the enemy with a stick using the action keys plus key right/left, but this is good enough: the enemies only stop. In MS-DOS version control is even worse - will have to get used to that instead of arrows you need to use ZXOK.
In General, the DOS version of the game loses much of the original (Amiga/Atari) in all respects - a stripped down animation, less colors, no music and great cries of "Waaah!", when enemies die. And, of course, problems with the management. So I personally recommend to play the original to appreciate the game fully. Also, you should play the second part and both parts Switchblade (on PC not out) also made by Simon Phipps.
PS: many years Later, Simon Phipps lovingly remembers about the game and even made the layout for Rick's paper-cut!
Want to play Rick Dangerous online now, play it on your browser here.
Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com