Time Bandit (Atari ST)

I must have heard the name "Time Bandit" for twenty years now, without having played it. I definitely remember reading a review of the Amiga version in ZZAP! that sang its praises very highly, but it didn't excite me overly as I didn't reckon there was much chance of me ever playing it. Of course, I didn't bargain for emulators back then, did I?


Snakes. Why does it always have to be snakes?

I haven't got the Amiga version of this, but I just fancied giving it a go, so off to the Steem Engine I went. On loading it up, I was a touch underwhelmed. It seemed like a cross between Gauntlet (which I quite like) and Tutankham (which I hate). A mixture of "quite like" and "hate" would not appear to be the recipe from which a good game is made. Still, I plugged away, wondering if there would be a bit more to it than that.

There is, and there isn't. The gameplay doesn't exactly change... you run around mazes, shooting critters and collecting keys and treasure. But it's not a soul-crushingly hard as Tutankham, and it's a bit more interesting than Gauntlet, as well as being less overwhelming. Although it's challenging, you're given a bit of room to breathe.


Waka waka... what's going on here?

Time Bandit is also set up in a more interesting way. To start with, you wander a small map which features around twenty locations, ranging from pyramids to amphitheatres to spaceships. There's even a Pac-Man area, which is a bit weird. It doesn't really fit, but it adds a little bit of variety, I suppose.

When you enter a location, you'll soon find that it doesn't take long to complete it. Initially that's a bit worrying, but you can re-enter a location once it's been completed and you'll find that you get an entirely new level. Yep... there are something like sixteen levels in each location. That's more like it.


Are you not entertained? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

It's not all simple blasting (or dot-eating), either. Certain locations add complications, whether relatively simple with the addition of ladders to split levels or more involved... for instance, once aboard a spaceship, the computer will probe you for answers or information before allowing you into certain areas, or outside you might find a farmer who appears to want to sell you a sheep...

Time Bandit is a good game, with enough of its own ideas to distinguish it from the games I mentioned earlier. It looks and sounds a bit rubbish, and the actual playing area only fills about half of the screen, but that doesn't matter at all. Once again, a lucky dip into an unknown past has proven successful...

The Chaos Engine (Amiga)

You can tell from this that I've got some pretty big gaps in my gaming knowledge.

My mate Stephen owned an Amiga back in the day. I could never afford one, but I used to go to his house regularly for next-gen gaming sessions (I had a Commodore 64). But for some reason I never played this game, which is odd, given that it's ideal for two players. I can only think I wasn't going there as much when he bought this.

He gave me all his gaming stuff a couple of years ago, but it's all sat in the spare room until today when, at last, I dug out the Amiga 1200, and after an age spent trying to tune the telly in, I had it up and running. I figured a renowned classic like The Chaos Engine would be a very good place to start.

And I was right. The Chaos Engine is still a really good game. It makes me think of a cross between Gauntlet and Mercs, with more depth and less volume of enemies. That's not to say it isn't a challenge, though. It's all too easy to get carried away and go charging up the screen, only to blunder into a couple of enemies and find yourself dead. Better to rein yourself in, take your time, make steady progress.

Even going slowly, though, there's plenty of hot fire button action. I played for about an hour and, not having used a proper joystick in donkeys' years, I've got a bit of a claw thing going on with my right hand now, and I've only scratched the surface so far. Games are going to last a lot longer, the more I play. That could be a problem!

The Chaos Engine is typical Bitmap Bros shmupping. Shoot stuff, collect the Cheerios (oh alright, coins), get to the end of the level, upgrade your skills and weapons. There's nothing wrong with that predictability... the system works, which is all you want.

Something else that works is the AI of your partner. If you're being attacked by two enemies and you attack one, your partner will generally attack the other one. Why do programmers have such a hard time implementing that today? It helps to make the game just that bit more enjoyable.

I'm very happy with my Amiga haul, and although I know that many of the games won't have aged well, I'm looking forward to working through them, whether they're games I've played and loved or otherwise. The Chaos Engine has been a great start, and I'm definitely going back to it... sometime tonight, in fact.