MegaZoid
Hello all. I started messing around with MZX many years ago. I've always poked my head around various MZX sites and have played many MZX games. Megazoid is the results of what I've learned over the years. It started out to be an animation character set. But low and behold it turned out to be a bit more than that. I wanted to see what I could stretch out of a single board. Not quite a game, not quite a demo. It is what it is. I've learned a heck of a lot making it and it's been fun. Hopefully someone can learn something from it.
When and if I ever finish/continue it I'm not sure of. I'd like to wait until MZX3 comes out to continue work on it. I've already reached a robot limit and my soundcard isn't DOS compatible. Anyone wanna write some music? I'm also stumped in areas (the boss) and have plenty of bugs to fix. But I figure I myaswell release what I got. Well, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it. Just a note, opening the game in the editor may ruin some gameplay enjoyment.
Thanks for downloading my game.
When and if I ever finish/continue it I'm not sure of. I'd like to wait until MZX3 comes out to continue work on it. I've already reached a robot limit and my soundcard isn't DOS compatible. Anyone wanna write some music? I'm also stumped in areas (the boss) and have plenty of bugs to fix. But I figure I myaswell release what I got. Well, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it. Just a note, opening the game in the editor may ruin some gameplay enjoyment.
Thanks for downloading my game.
Link
Last modified 2011-09-17 22:29:00
A neat little platformer from the old days. It's a single-board Metroid clone divided into a little under 25 small rooms. You get an ice beam, missiles and bombs.
What the game doesn't explain is that you start with 100 low-strength bombs, and you need those to find two mandatory secret areas. Fortunately you're given plenty of bombs to use... but remember to press Insert to switch to low strength bombs as soon as you start the game.
Unfortunately there's some bad bugs in this game. The jumper engine has a really nice feel to it, but the enemies damage the player WAY too quickly for a game that has absolutely no health power-ups. And they can cross room boundaries occasionally and cause a few frustrating game overs.
On that note, the room switching code is also messed up--sometimes if the player crosses into another room it won't scroll to that room. You can fumble around and sometimes the viewport fixes itself, but more often than not you'll be killed by an enemy you can't see.
When you get the missiles, remember to shoot five, and ONLY FIVE at the red doors. If you accidentally fire a sixth missile at the door before it opens before it opens, it will jam permanently and you'll be unable to continue. Ugh.
The worst part is, the final boss can't be killed! There's nothing in its code except movement commands. So once you've made it to the final boss, you've made it to the end of the game.
The graphics are pretty awesome, an aesthetic imitative of Metroid. I was really impressed by it back in 1999, and still like it a lot. There is no music and only PC speaker sound, which is unfortunate in this case because a good song and some custom sound effects would have had a good effect on this game.
This game is fun and presents a serious challenge to the player. Too bad about the bugs, short length and unfinished final boss.. two stars, but it's definitely worth checking out. It would have been a three or four star game with a few hours' more effort.
What the game doesn't explain is that you start with 100 low-strength bombs, and you need those to find two mandatory secret areas. Fortunately you're given plenty of bombs to use... but remember to press Insert to switch to low strength bombs as soon as you start the game.
Unfortunately there's some bad bugs in this game. The jumper engine has a really nice feel to it, but the enemies damage the player WAY too quickly for a game that has absolutely no health power-ups. And they can cross room boundaries occasionally and cause a few frustrating game overs.
On that note, the room switching code is also messed up--sometimes if the player crosses into another room it won't scroll to that room. You can fumble around and sometimes the viewport fixes itself, but more often than not you'll be killed by an enemy you can't see.
When you get the missiles, remember to shoot five, and ONLY FIVE at the red doors. If you accidentally fire a sixth missile at the door before it opens before it opens, it will jam permanently and you'll be unable to continue. Ugh.
The worst part is, the final boss can't be killed! There's nothing in its code except movement commands. So once you've made it to the final boss, you've made it to the end of the game.
The graphics are pretty awesome, an aesthetic imitative of Metroid. I was really impressed by it back in 1999, and still like it a lot. There is no music and only PC speaker sound, which is unfortunate in this case because a good song and some custom sound effects would have had a good effect on this game.
This game is fun and presents a serious challenge to the player. Too bad about the bugs, short length and unfinished final boss.. two stars, but it's definitely worth checking out. It would have been a three or four star game with a few hours' more effort.