The Def Guide to Zzap!64

iain wrote:I really should have had more fate in phpBB though.

Fate or faith? All very Freudian!

Mayhem wrote:I recall Lloyd saying back in 1987 in one letter page that the technology required to put Defender of the Crown onto cartridge would cost the same as a disc drive.

I think Lloyd was perhaps talking bollocks at the time...

Maybe you're all right about re-re-re-reviews and stuff, but I would really fancy another couple of pages of Zzap!Back, possibly done by ex-Zzapers like in 107 (what about a late issue like 81: Creatures 2, First Samurai, Winter Camp etc.?)

SLF wrote:Maybe you're all right about re-re-re-reviews and stuff, but I would really fancy another couple of pages of Zzap!Back, possibly done by ex-Zzapers like in 107 (what about a late issue like 81: Creatures 2, First Samurai, Winter Camp etc.?)

I'd like to continue Zzap!back, although I'd rather it took off where the last one finished, which would mean covering issue 25. This'd mean going over

Hollywood Hijinx (90%), Impossible Mission (95% - if we include Past Blasters), Into The Eagle's Nest (90%), and maybe Nemesis (80%), POD (84%), Ranarama (87%) or Shockway Rider (86%).

CraigGrannell wrote:I'd like to continue Zzap!back, although I'd rather it took off where the last one finished, which would mean covering issue 25. This'd mean going over

Hollywood Hijinx (90%), Impossible Mission (95% - if we include Past Blasters), Into The Eagle's Nest (90%), and maybe Nemesis (80%), POD (84%), Ranarama (87%) or Shockway Rider (86%).

Not a bad selection at all -- and I'd be up for one of the Zzap!Back opinions, if Paul or Robin dropped out. I didn't like Into the Eagle's Nest much at the time (or Shockway Rider OR Ranarama, for that matter), but Impossible Mission deserves all the praise it still gets.

So, yeah, I think another Zzap!Back would be nice.

g.

Indeed a lovely bunch of games to Zzap!back.
No (future) issue should be without a zzap!back section, it was one of my favourite parts of Zzap. I loved the zzap107 version too, pretty cool.
Ranarama & Nemesis in my opinion were classic games that really grew on you if you gave it a chance (especially Ranarama) and I think they got slightly underrated. So that's gonna be an interesting feature to read!

And oh yeah, Impossible Mission is totally ACE. Only the major impact it managed to cause those days, graphically, sonically & gameplaywise.
Incredible. (just a little hard to get into)

Impossible Mission is still worth 95%

One of the greatest platform games of all time...

I found Ranarama quite addictive once I got over the Speccie graphics and dodgy sound. Capturing runes to build up your arcane arsenal and then desperately trying to find more runes before your power drained got very frantic but was always a lot of fun.

Of course, Impossible Mission needs no hyperbole.

YES Ant, so you know the feeling!
Ranarama could have sizzled IMO, not too far behind Paradroid me thinx.
Ta!

gordon wrote:I didn't like Into the Eagle's Nest much at the time (or Shockway Rider OR Ranarama, for that matter), but Impossible Mission deserves all the praise it still gets.

POD, on the other hand, is still one I play now and again, but then I'm a big Grid Runner fan. IM is good, too, although unlike most people, I preferred the sequel.

I didn't like Shockway Rider at all and Eagle's Nest was pretty limited. The lack of on-screen bullets was rather off-putting.

Isn't it great that we all have these different opinions? I thought everyone would at least have agreed about IM, then Craig says he likes the second one better...

g.

gordon wrote:Isn't it great that we all have these different opinions? I thought everyone would at least have agreed about IM, then Craig says he likes the second one better...

g.

Opinions are indeed often strikingly different, and those on c64 games do not make an exception.

I agree with Craig about the sequel being better than the original, but I'm no big fan of IM2 either...

Mind you, there are only a couple of the old classics I really enjoy (namely Dropzone and Archon), for most of the rest I can see their clever design and all but I by far prefer games from 1987-1988...

SLF wrote:Mind you, there are only a couple of the old classics I really enjoy (namely Dropzone and Archon), for most of the rest I can see their clever design and all but I by far prefer games from 1987-1988...

Now Dropzone, *there's* a great game. I slightly prefer the Atari800 version, but I don't think the C64 Dropzone's gameplay has dated one bit...

g.

gordon wrote:Isn't it great that we all have these different opinions? I thought everyone would at least have agreed about IM, then Craig says he likes the second one better...

Well, I'm one of the few people who likes both of them. Most people seem to like only one or the other. I do think that the original is the (slightly) better game, but the second one was great too. IMHO a textbook example of how to do a sequel.

gordon wrote:Now Dropzone, *there's* a great game.

Now *there's* a game I could *never* get into... and yes, I have tried (Defender variants in general have always left me cold).

Oh aye... both IM games are good... but IM1 is the real classic

Or more precisely I find IM2 to be far too easy...