Posted September 07, 2010
Write about him/her here! It's kinda like the hundreds of "What's this game?" threads you see floating about.
Tyrian is enough of a classic to "not count" as obscure, but how many of you actually remember the name of the protagonist?
One of my favourite shareware publishers way back when was a subsidiary of Epic Megagames, name of Safari, and my favourite of their titles was Traffic Department 2192. It was one of those games that had a story gripping enough to make you want to attempt that really difficult mission "one more time" just to see what happened next. Lt. Marta Velasquez is the daughter of Capt. Ric Velasquez, the requisite "dead daddy whose shoes you have to fill after watching him die at the hands of the baddies". This sector of known space is run by the Vulture Cult, and the only resistance is the planet's Traffic Department, a police force-turned-rebel-alliance (they've even got the orange pilot suits!). Gameplay takes place in the city streets, on a Pac-Man style grid. The story is told via headshots of the characters and their dialogue displayed underneath.
I think the most memorable part of the story telling is the language, which is shamelessly vulgar (there's an alternate, PG version which you can select at game start, but where's the fun in that?). I think whoever wrote the dialogue was making fun of the sort of movies about Police Department precincts in cities that are practically run by gangs and drug lords and other anarchist forces (think Predator 2). Lt. Velasquez is subject to and holds her own against the sexist advances of her precincts dispatch officer, and other such male characters (both human and otherwise, this not being Earth). Each "episode" has about twenty missions, and over the course of the game Velasquez is captured, brainwashed, blown up, left for dead, given cybernetic replacement parts (a la end of Empire Strikes Back), and a bunch of other stuff.
I think the lack of fame for this game stems from Epic's history of lack of support for games that aren't immediately cash cows, as evidenced by other really great underdogs like "Fire Fight" (which I'd really like to see sold here if at all possible), Fire Fight's spiritual predecessor (which actually had it's origins on the Amiga, in the same way "Boppin'" did) "Zone 66", and the Jazz Jackrabbit games.
TD2192 can be found and downloaded (it's freeware) at RGB Classics, and while you're there, look for the online version of "Redhook's Revenge" and test you're pirate knowledge!
Tyrian is enough of a classic to "not count" as obscure, but how many of you actually remember the name of the protagonist?
One of my favourite shareware publishers way back when was a subsidiary of Epic Megagames, name of Safari, and my favourite of their titles was Traffic Department 2192. It was one of those games that had a story gripping enough to make you want to attempt that really difficult mission "one more time" just to see what happened next. Lt. Marta Velasquez is the daughter of Capt. Ric Velasquez, the requisite "dead daddy whose shoes you have to fill after watching him die at the hands of the baddies". This sector of known space is run by the Vulture Cult, and the only resistance is the planet's Traffic Department, a police force-turned-rebel-alliance (they've even got the orange pilot suits!). Gameplay takes place in the city streets, on a Pac-Man style grid. The story is told via headshots of the characters and their dialogue displayed underneath.
I think the most memorable part of the story telling is the language, which is shamelessly vulgar (there's an alternate, PG version which you can select at game start, but where's the fun in that?). I think whoever wrote the dialogue was making fun of the sort of movies about Police Department precincts in cities that are practically run by gangs and drug lords and other anarchist forces (think Predator 2). Lt. Velasquez is subject to and holds her own against the sexist advances of her precincts dispatch officer, and other such male characters (both human and otherwise, this not being Earth). Each "episode" has about twenty missions, and over the course of the game Velasquez is captured, brainwashed, blown up, left for dead, given cybernetic replacement parts (a la end of Empire Strikes Back), and a bunch of other stuff.
I think the lack of fame for this game stems from Epic's history of lack of support for games that aren't immediately cash cows, as evidenced by other really great underdogs like "Fire Fight" (which I'd really like to see sold here if at all possible), Fire Fight's spiritual predecessor (which actually had it's origins on the Amiga, in the same way "Boppin'" did) "Zone 66", and the Jazz Jackrabbit games.
TD2192 can be found and downloaded (it's freeware) at RGB Classics, and while you're there, look for the online version of "Redhook's Revenge" and test you're pirate knowledge!
