20 tons
(http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000024)
has anyone played this true gem? do you believe all levels are possible to finish?
(it's funny the game was even not reviewed in magazines and remains almost unknown till now.)
has anyone played this true gem? do you believe all levels are possible to finish?
(it's funny the game was even not reviewed in magazines and remains almost unknown till now.)
Post edited by cichlasoma on
Comments
That's because it was only released on a the collection 30 Games and on the Spectrum tape mag Spectrum Computing. It was never released on its own.
There was some reviews of 30 Games, but 20 Tons was never mentioned. Probably because there was a lot of better known games on the collection.
BTW, you can compete on 20 Tons at HARP if you like:
http://www.zxspectrum.homeactionreplay.org/index.php
Bye.
Just had a go of it. 'True Gem' ?? Thought it was dire, a ton of other better Boulderdash games than this one. Abysmal. No wonder it was a cover tape. If this was reviewed in a mag as a full priced game it would get a pretty low score. Even for a cover tape its very poor. Looks like a game from 1982 or something, considering it was done in 1985 its bad
Pete Cooke did write some of the best Spectrum games of all time - Tau Ceti, Academy, Micronaut One, Stunt Car Racer, Urban Upstart, etc. - but this is more of a doodle from him.
for me, it's much more playable than any boulder dash like game i've ever tried and at the moment, the most playable speccy game at all :)
more complicated graphics? what for???
(i advise not to judge it before you try to finish several levels.)
(i consider THIS ONE to be an immortal game. why to play micronaut one or stun car racer today?)
Are you honestly saying its the most playable Speccy game you're playing at the moment ? Hmmm !
But again i'm not surprised there wasnt a review for this
(yet, i have to admit, i play speccy game mostly on my pocket device recently, which can have its effect.)
I thought smoking dope was illegal in your country ? ;)
Enthusiasm for obscurity is one of the things WoS thrives on. 20 Tons is not my favourite game but good on you Cichlasoma for making a virtue of it. I will report back if I get through enough levels to show off8-)
There are several more Boulder Dash games in the archive so I believe including Down to Earth and Earthshaker both of which have their fans (and Repton as mentioned in another reacent thread). I haven't got around to any of these yet though. Any views on these?
i believe, designing the levels could take more time than programming the game in this case - and some of them are excellent in fact. (yet, i believe, n. 5 cannot be done for a simple reason...)
(am i mistaken? :) )
oops! it'd mean a disappointment for me... i've never really got into the original BD, will have to check it...
I'd say that is good news for you if you like 20 Tons. I'd be surprised if you don't rate it highly.
i played boulder dash a bit then in the days as well as recently, but haven't ever been captured by it. i definetely find "one screen mode" od 20 tons superior to BD's annoying scrolling & find 20 tons overall better looking (and feeling and playing generally :) ) i just didn't know, the later levels are similar to 20 tons ones...
btw, the boulders in BD could weigh 1 ton AT MOST - which alone shows obviously, cooke's game is at least 20 times better. (simple maths!)
Sorry, its terrible.
back to BASICs!!!
(if anybody knew another such an excellent action-puzzle blend, preferably with 1-screen levels, let me know, please. (not necessary on speccy - it's hard to believe, speccy woold have been so lucky to host more than one such a gem.))
One screen action-puzzle? Solomon's Key and Deflektor. I'm sure there's a lot more :)
yes, i know these, as well as rockman e.g., am looking for more ones; 20 tons wins by far for me, random behavior of the nasties creates great variability (how simple...)
btw, i find it quite strange to mock 20 tons because of its graphics TODAY and play BD instead! :-) i think, p. cooke purified the BD's principles ingeniously getting rid of all the superficial confusing and annoying "effects".
and a question more - talking about a controversial topic already - could somebody give me a hint to understand, what's there interesting about chuckie egg? i've tried it out recently again and i cannot help thinking that somebody saying it's better than 20 tons has to be simply joking.
Chuckie Egg is a wonderful playable game. Some great levels, a lot of action, once you've done all the levels it then changes and the big bird chases after you to give it some variety.
Brilliant platform game.
I would like to say on record that i do honestly think you are the ONLY person to think 20 tons is better than Chuckie Egg ! Has this 20 tons game hypnotised you or something as basically the game is totally shit !
http://www.homeactionreplay.org/search.php?gamename=20%20Tons&tourney=2
Probably very bad, but you might enjoy them :)
Bye.
And that's where you are wrong. I happen to have three co-incidental happenings colliding into whatever this post may be about ... which I believe would be this:
1. I, Skarpo, never liked Chuckie Egg. I remember loading it up, back in the day, and having these feelings of expectations, excitement and curiousness all going on at once. I had heard the hype, I wanted to definitely play this game, enough people said it was better than sliced bread, toasted or not.
The game sucked, it was boring ... it had all been hype ... the disappointment ... the wasted money.
2. I, Skarpo, did not know the game 20 tons existed until a couple of days ago. Intrigued I played it ... and was not disappointed. I actually liked it, and would recommend it to other players who like puzzlers and Boulderdash-type games.
3. I, Skarpo, am not quite sure if I would say that this particular game is worthy being in the top 5 favourite of my games ... maybe top 20 ... and maybe in the top 5 of the Boulderdash-genre.
So ... erm ... my bed beckons!
Zzzkarpo
8-}
Maybe you should start a poll :)
If 20 tons was any decent then you would hear many more people praising it, magazines at the time raving about it.
WOS lists such as these ones..
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/playstats.html
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/bestgames.html
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ystop100.html
I take much more notice off than a couple of WOS'ers.
Anyway i give up, i'm sure its an old april fools joke or something or cichlasoma has been taking strong medicine for a while.
20 tons better than Chuckie Egg, laughable
I mean that above, just crazy. Some people might not be that keen on Chuckie Egg thinking someones joking saying its better than 20 tons ????? I give up, some people serioussssly must be joking or be posting this from Broadmoor with comments like the one above ! I give up ! The nuts win !
(i'm quite curious, how long will it take 20 tons to get before elite in WoS top list when getting known now.)
unfortunetally, 14 does seem impossible to me. yet, a little improvement in the editor makes a great one out of it.
(if anybody would be interested, i can provide the improved levelpack or a snapshot of the game including it :))
(15 seems pretty challenging, btw. :))
could you reveal me, how to replay these rzx files??? :-?