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'V' anyone play this?

Evil StripeEvil Stripe
edited December 2010 in Games
I was a big fan of the tv series, but never managed to track the game down on the CPC464.

Does anyone play this at all, and is it any good?

Tempted to get it for old times sake.

Adam
Post edited by Evil Stripe on

Comments

  • BiNMaNBiNMaN
    edited November 2010
    I've tried to play it and never understood what it is you're actually supposed to be doing in it

    always kinda hoped there would be a recording in the rzx archive, so I can watch the game being done so I don't have to bother
  • GeeKayGeeKay
    edited November 2010
    It's not one that I have fond memories of I'm afraid. Didn't have a clue what to do and it really wasn't any good.
  • Evil StripeEvil Stripe
    edited November 2010
    Lol....A typical example of a game having a good cover and naff all else then.
    The price seems to always be around the ?4 mark, which I think is quite high if it's a pile of poop.
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited November 2010
    Thought this was another terrible game from Ocean. Its funny as back then in the mid 80's you didnt have many huge blockbuster US shows, just i think Dallas/Dynasty. V was this huge hyped show from the US, remember as a kid watching it and finding it boring until that famous moment when you discover the aliens were lizards !

    Nowadays it would be ruined as people would find out from the web what the storyline was and tell everyone.

    But anyway back to the game ! Despite the show being about these aliens as lizards there wasnt one lizard in the game ! Just robots if i remember rightly ? Thought the game was such a let down, boring as anything and one of the games where it seemed Ocean just rushed out to get the license and release any dross.
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited November 2010
    A very very boring game with a very very boring & monotonous map.

    In some 'C90' games, if you don't have the instructions and you don't know what to do, at least you can enjoy exploring, looking for keys to open doors, etc. But in this f*ck*ng game you only bump into strange robots (does anyone remember these robots in the TV show?) in a ,as I said above, boring map.
  • GrazGraz
    edited November 2010
    See also

    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29248&highlight=V (official 1986 game)

    and

    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=28514

    The game's okay, but it'd suit the new series more than the original, cuz there are remote robots in the new one.
  • jpjp
    edited November 2010
    Impossible Mission - way better than V, you have an idea of what you have to do, and can be completed!
    jp nz | TZXs updated with new loading screens | youtube bits and bobs
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited November 2010
    Never got into Impossible Mission, dont know why C64 owners raved about it. I know it was better on the C64 but still a very average game
  • jpjp
    edited November 2010
    psj3809 wrote: »
    Never got into Impossible Mission, dont know why C64 owners raved about it. I know it was better on the C64 but still a very average game

    That's probably the speech phrases - I remember being very impressed when my next door neighbours loaded it. Sadly lacking in the Spectrum port
    jp nz | TZXs updated with new loading screens | youtube bits and bobs
  • PegazPegaz
    edited November 2010
    Impossible mission appeared in 1983, with digitized speech, quite good graphics and animation for that time, so maybe that's why is so popular among c64 owners.
    http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/yu/index.php
    http://zx-pk.ru/
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    edited November 2010
    Yeah Impossable Missions on the Breadbin was okay, quite something back in 83.

    V on the other hand was a steaming pile of sh*t. Loved the show though.
  • Evil StripeEvil Stripe
    edited November 2010
    Retrobrothers wrote: »
    V on the other hand was a steaming pile of sh*t. Loved the show though.

    Ashame really, as there was loads of potential given the material.
    If I could code, I'd have a crack at something like this. Making right was done wrong the first time around.

    Adam
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    edited November 2010
    Evil Stripe wrote: »
    Ashame really, as there was loads of potential given the material.
    If I could code, I'd have a crack at something like this. Making right was done wrong the first time around.

    Adam

    Yeah, you are right, there was/is a lot of potential for a good game. It was such a lazy tie-in and one of many that plagued the 8-bits in the 80's.
    (such as Knight Rider, Street Hawk, Airwolf etc)
  • RNDRND
    edited November 2010
    I still have my original cassette, but never really got into the game.
    Facebook @nick.swarfega Twitter: @sw4rfega
  • torottorot
    edited November 2010
    There's been numerous threads about this game, cos there's something about it initially that shows it might be showing you the tip of the iceberg, but its just a promise of a depth that just doesn't materialise.
  • fogfog
    edited November 2010
    I.M was out in 84 on c64.. and maybe 85 on speccy ?

    if you got into it and sorted the puzzles. well.. you had to get into it really

    try alien3 on c64 or megadrive / snes , maybe thats what V should have been like
  • PegazPegaz
    edited November 2010
    Well, some sources tells that the US version came out 1983 and the others in 1984, but even author of the game says in this interview, that he is not quite sure. ;)

    "One debate that has been had is when was the game actually released. You said that it took roughly 10 months to program, which leads to think it did come out in 1984, even though all the packaging for the game says 1983.

    I'm afraid I can't be of much help there. It's possible that the game was released in 1983 in the US and in 1984 in the UK, but I?m just guessing.."

    http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/interview/caswell.htm
    http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/yu/index.php
    http://zx-pk.ru/
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited November 2010
    Retrobrothers wrote: »
    [...] It was such a lazy tie-in and one of many that plagued the 8-bits in the 80's.
    (such as Knight Rider, Street Hawk, Airwolf etc)

    Airwolf?! I disagree with you... I find Airwolf very difficult but also very funny! Good game!
  • RickardRickard
    edited November 2010
    I have always suspected that the game V was not actually written as the V game, but some random space game later rebranded as "V" after the license was bought.

    Besides the obvious missing lizards and the repetive map, the idea with the symbols that has something to do with disarming bombs is a little complex for this kind of title. From what I remember the manual did not really explain a lot about this either.

    Most other movie/TV tie-ins was quite simple and had some kind of very easy recognizable theme from the original, and this was something very different.

    If the maps would have been more different and they had throwed in some lizards which fired lasers back at you I think it could have been a decent game.
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    edited November 2010
    JuanF. Ramirez wrote: »
    Airwolf?! I disagree with you... I find Airwolf very difficult but also very funny! Good game!

    I know! It was a Crash Smash and all, (and i got it for my birthday) but I didn't really like the game.

    Insanely difficult and nothing really to do with the show. I wanted to be rocketing MIG's, strafing ground targets etc etc. It didn't even have the famous theme music!

    I liked the graphics but the game left me cold - I vented my frustrations here :-P
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited November 2010
    I cant believe people who cant get past the first wall though.

    Liked Airwolf back in the day, often played this game, tricky but the walls were actually the easy bit. Just press up/down and fire so you fire horizontally. Its easy. Dont even have to bother with the second wall
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    edited November 2010
    psj3809 wrote: »
    I cant believe people who cant get past the first wall though.

    Liked Airwolf back in the day, often played this game, tricky but the walls were actually the easy bit. Just press up/down and fire so you fire horizontally. Its easy. Dont even have to bother with the second wall

    Yeah, the wall is easy. I actually got to scientist no.5 and was on my way back out before losing my last life. I was so utterly frustrated and bored with the game by this point I never played it again.

    Nice graphics though.
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited November 2010
    Quite a sad state of affairs when it was still better than Blue Thunder ! Surely one of them could have been a great shoot em up.

    Airwolf i did like but Blue Thunder, eeuurgh.
  • jpjp
    edited December 2010
    I see from the what's new page Pavel has mapped V and it's huge! :-o
    jp nz | TZXs updated with new loading screens | youtube bits and bobs
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited December 2010
    Urgh ! That game looks dull as anything. Still cant believe theres no lizards in it. Complete waste of money in my view. Sure i bought it in the 80's, very disappointing
  • RickardRickard
    edited December 2010
    jp wrote: »
    I see from the what's new page Pavel has mapped V and it's huge! :-o

    What a work from Pavel! It is extremly large. And as much disappointing of course..

    How many unique rooms seems to be on this map? Five perhaps, out of maybe thousand screens. What were they thinking?
  • Evil StripeEvil Stripe
    edited December 2010
    You've all convinced me. I'm going to get a copy to see for myself how awful it really is.
  • Alessandro GrussuAlessandro Grussu
    edited December 2010
    I don't think it's awful - repetitive maybe, but at least it's competently programmed. The basic idea is not bad, but is too thin to support a whole game - it should have been a part of a greater total, like the similar level found in Freddy Hardest.
    Spectrumpedia, the most comprehensive book ever written about the Spectrum - Zankle Soft - Corrections for games incompatible with the +2A/+3 - TAP files for DivIDE/DivMMC - SetoLOAD fast tape loading scheme
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