you could call 'the youth of today' would sit and play these games? And for
how long before becoming bored? Is it not the test of a great game that it's playable through all decades, both in the past and the present?

Personally, I realise that some software houses were just knocking out another title that was basically different graphics and music. The engines behind the games had been honed to perfection to squeeze everything out of the machine. The missing thing was the game and the gameplay. Once the chicken and egg of engine and gameplay had been reversed to put the engine first, didn't things get samey? As we look on with nostalgia now, should we only think about how great everything was and how these people were gods of programming and never
to be bettered, to be worshipped for the digital history they provide? Or should we also remember the bad bits behind closed doors? If you want my opinion, the book highlights the fun to all the rubbish. Yes, I like that
retro warm feeling when loading from tapes. It takes me back to when I was a child; however, even I can't sit for 20 minutes while "arcadia" loads (or doesn't as the case may be)! But I could sit for 3 minutes or so while a speed-loader does its thing, displaying either a picture or a countdown until the game starts. This I feel is part of the gaming fun! The rubbishness is something that can work you up to anticipate the game, while at the same time, some of the games were pants, laughable clones, sometimes even of themselves. And the actual number of really exciting and imaginatively created programmes was small.

Isn't life just like this? Everything we buy is over-hyped. We're told
wondrous things about a product, but once we get it home, we realise that it actually doesn't work as well as our old product it's replacing. Do we really need a special vacuum for laminate floors, or is a common brush good enough? Should everything really be 99% sanitised from bacterial infection?

I think our memories gloss over with age, but it's good to remember the bad as well as the good. We can't just remember history as being good or bad: we need a sort of grey in-between area where all the facts combine. The book leans
more towards the dodgy end of stories, but perhaps it's trying to make up for lost time, to redress the imbalance of hype a bit?

For retro to celebrate the good and the bad, the truly great and the utter dross, we really need to celebrate the grey. What do you think? Send in your comments about what you think retro should mean remembering.

Nigel
Commodore Free


*************************************
REVIEW: LITTLE SARA SISTER
FROM FLIMSOFT
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Firstly, this seems to be a Great Giana Sisters remake for the Commodore 64; Great Giana Sisters was removed from sale mainly because it resembled a well-known title by a large games company. I think they had to go for a Wii when they saw it. Although the company didn't sue, it put pressure on the release, saying it was too much like their version. So it was decided to
remove the title for fear of legal action. However, it does seem that a large number of copies exist in the wild because the original title does crop up on eBay from time to time, often selling for hundreds of pounds.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Giana_Sisters www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMTdr026bZU

BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY

This Flimsoft version is actually 3 versions all rolled up into one package. Added to this, you also have access to an editor for the levels. The Flimsoft version has version 1, 1.5, and finally version 2. Some of these have been knocking around for a while on various sites, but to have them finished and made into a single release with professional packaging will be welcomed by
many users.

Starting with version one, you can use a joystick in port 2 to select your version, then pressing fire starts the selected version to play. A brief loading-screen sets the scene for our heroine. Pressing fire then takes us
onto the game

It's obviously a platform game then. You collect the white diamonds and jump on, or avoid the nasty creatures, at which point the music starts to play. The music is actually a nice tune for the game, while the graphics look quite crude, with plain backgrounds and a few clouds on level 1. The animation is fairly minimal.

Most platform games are of course the same idea, jump over things or on them and collect things. It's nothing that hasn't been done before a number of times. I also found it quite tricky to master the game with the speed and accurate jumping that's needed. I found that some of the creatures seem to stick in places so that it became impossible for me to move past or over them.

Version 1.5 is more of the same

We start with another custom loading screen. Pressing fire then takes us to
the main game. The music for this version is credited to Richard Bayliss. The fire button then takes you to the game playfiled. The music is bouncy and jolly, but the graphics remain the same, as does the gameplay. Jump on or over aliens and collect diamonds, and through this you will eventually come to a door and reach the next level. The levels are different to the first version.

Version 2 is more of the same?

However this version does have a useful feature, you could say it's a self-cracked version, because it has a trainer built into the game. Just
before the main loading screens, you get options to have unlimited time,
lives, an option to make the enemies harmless, to transform platforms into solid items, to start at a specific level (from 1 to 8), to skip levels with the c= key, and even to see the ending before you play the game!

Personally I think the music on this version is the best for the game. Apart from that, it's more of the same. It's a nice trilogy of games, however it's
no Giana Sisters killer. The games saviour is the level editor. It also has a sheet explaining how to edit the levels, so when you tire of the game as is, you can customise it to your liking. How long will it be before you're playing a level that spells out your name or some swear word!

You can watch the game being played here

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ni8V4-Pjdo

SCORES

Graphics: 5/10
Sounds: 7/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

The level editor is a welcome addition and the games play well enough, but it could just do with an extra bit of polish to the graphics and the backgrounds. You will soon know if you will like the game, but complements to Flimsoft for professional packaging.

The game is also available as a digital download for £1:99 so you can't really use the excuse that it's too expensive.

Maybe this could set a trend; just think if all releases had a crack intro where you could select infinite lives, time etc. And they all had some sort of level editor included either as an extra that ran on another machine or even better within the game itself. My thoughts are that this would be a welcome addition to all future releases. What do you think?

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