Retrogaming: test of Rick Dangerous (Core Design, 1989, Amstrad CPC)
After Mach 3, let's cross the Channel and have a look at this awesome British game from the end of the 90's!
Reminder about the rules for testing
- I'll spend maximum one hour on the game - which is super short for Rick Dangerous ;)
- I'll briefly present the game: story, what the goal is, who created it.
- I won't be rating it, as it's very subjective, but will rather list what I liked and didn't like.
The Game
Cover
Here is the game's cover - very "end of 80's" style
Goal
Rick just crashed his plane in South America, and has to escape, using his gun,
and helped with some dynamite and a stick.
Rick can walk, jump, crawl, shoot with his gun, and throw dynamite at his
enemies.
There are 4 missions, each one composed of 30 areas - basically in order to complete a mission, you need to keep going to the next screen/area, without dying.
Commands
- O = up,
- K = down,
- Z = left,
- X = right,
- SPACE = fire,
- H = pause,
- Q = quit.
Loading
Just run run "rick in Amstrad's BASIC and the game will load.
There's no cover loading, you'll jump straight into this screen -
hit Fire (Space) to start.
Test
Start
You're then presented with a short explanation about what happened:
And then off you start!
Basics
The screen indicators are super basic:
- your score (in green)
- number of bullets
- number of dynamite sticks
- number of lives
Playing
Rick is pretty easy to control, he can walk to the left and the right of the
screen, jump and crawl.
Using the space bar gives some options:
- Space + Up: shoot a bullet
- Space + Down: throw dynamite
- Space + Left/Right: use your stick to temporarily stop enemies.
There's a bunch of obstacles you have to avoid, otherwise you'll die: arrows, fences/harrows, and of course enemies.
The missions
Mission 1: South America
As stated above, you start the game straight in South America.
Once you start moving, you'll see a huge rolling boulder, which obviously you
want to avoid, so you have to keep moving!
The difficulty level of this mission is average - understand: it's not easy, but
unless you have played before, it'll take you some time to finish it, as there
are some hiddens traps, meaning that you'll certainly die a number of times
before succeeding.
I recommend writing down the traps so that when you try again, you know
precisely where they are :)
Another option, if you're playing on an emulator, is to use the emulator
snapshot option - provided it has such an option of course.
I know, it's a bit cheating, but in my case I said I'd play not more than 1
hour, so I had to ^^
Mission 2: Egypt
With South America behind you, you're now heading to Egypt where you'll have to
rescue the jewel of Ankhel.
Note the (British) humour above - "Can Rick save the gem (of Ankhel), or will he
just get a broken ankhel?" :-)
This mission is a lot more coloured than the first one - which makes sense since
it's happening inside an Egyptian pyramid.
The approach is the same as before, i.e. you'll have to walk, jump, shoot, avoid
poisoned arrows if you want to succeed.
I found this level to be a little bit harder, but still manageable.
Mission 3: Schwarzendumpf Castle
Once you've managed to escape Egypt, you're back into Europe, where you'll have to rescue a commando in the so-called Schwarzendumpf Castle (litterally "black, dull castle").
I must admit this mission was clearly more difficult, and I'm glad I could use
my emulator's snapshot option, as I died a few times before finishing it.
There are some screens where what you have to do is hidden, and if you don't do
it, or take the wrong exit, then you're back to a previous screen and have to do
it all over again!
Mission 4: Missile Base
Finally, the last mission happens on the enemy's missile base, where Rick tries to stop them from attacking London.
Once again, this mission has plenty of (nice) colours.
I hit the "1 hour rule", so I didn't finish that level, but the difficulty was
significant, compared with the other missions.
Conclusion
What I liked:
- That's a pretty long game - and in a good way! 4 missions, with each 30 areas
- The gameplay is super easy, you need a few seconds to know the keys and off you go!
- It didn't really age - I was 11 when Rick was released in '89, and 32 years later, I still enjoy it
What I didn't like:
- Difficulty is a bit high, especially near the end. If you don't have an emulator's snapshots, or a mod with unlimited lives, then starting over again and again will have you give up pretty quickly
- The graphics are colourfull, but they are also a bit ugly, especially compared
to the Atari ST or Amiga version
- that's because the CPC's Mode 0 is being used: 16 colors, but a resolution of 160x200
- using the CPC's Mode 1 (resolution of 320x200), although limited to 4 colours, would have allowed far finer graphics.
- Some may argue that the game is a bit repetitive, but isn't that the case with any platform game?
TL;DR
I love Rick Dangerous. It's fun, it's addictive, it's colourful, it takes time to finish it - in a word, go for it!
I'm still pondering whether one of my following tests will be Rick Dangerous II, as I remember having even more fun with it when I bought it - so stay tuned :)
Tags: Amstrad, Geek, Emulation, Retrogaming