Game Frenzy

In this month's issue, Dave Eldar recalls memories of the Bitmap Bros' "The Chaos Engine."

With palms sweaty, hearts a'pumping and aching fingers pressed tight to our black bug joysticks, we waited like gladiators for the gates to be opened, listening for the words to set us aflame.

PLAYERS ACTIVATED

Yes, you guess it; I'm talking about the best two-play game in the history of the gamey-verse, the one and only 'The Chaos Engine'. This game dominated my 13th year on this planet, and my brothers 15th, whilst annoying the hell out of my 17 year old sister Maggie, mainly because we used to connect our 1200 through her stereo with a ten metre audio cable my brother had made with some cellotape and then crank it up to 11 (thanks, Spinal Tap).

Ok, time to stop effusing and start writing.

The Chaos Engine, released in Feb 1993 by the legends that are the Bitmap Brothers (and I agree with Andy Korn about Speedball 2 - oh for them to come back to the Amiga now), was a sort of top down shooter for one (good) or two (fantastic) players. Things to like about it are many:

1. Storyline - Some Baron mucking about with time, space, computers and sticky back plastic builds a machine called The Chaos Engine which goes nuts and twists the land, people and animals into something deadly. You (and your co-player) can take on the role of a mercenary (chose from 6, all with different capabilities and weapons) to march through the four worlds, find the Chaos Engine and destroy it, making everything okay again. I can't remember the 6 now but we did have nice names for them - Goggs, Poser, Goddie, Wiggie - based upon their looks and movement. It did actually make a difference to the game depending on which characters you picked, which was a nice touch, giving lots of replay value.
2. Production - in finding the screenshots, I forgot how lovely the game looked. Everything was hand drawn and rendered in such a way that the game seemed an organic whole and it just oozed quality, sucking you in to become part of it. Being based in Victorian England you get this great HG Wells 'Time Machine" approach with brass, pipes and steam, knobs and sliders. Just lovely.
3. The Worlds - each of the four worlds was so very different that it was almost like four games in one. Rather than just wrapping the same game play in different graphics, the baddies were different, the landscapes offered different possibilities. Each world itself was a complete whole with nothing out of place, adding to the sense of completeness.
4. Variability - even in a single world, different things happened depending on what you did and the order in which you did it, meaning that you could reappear at different places or different entry points into the next level.
5. Upgrades - responsible for more dead legs than even Sensible Soccer, Upgrades were must haves if you were to get on in the game, both those picked up in the game and those bought at the shop. Oh the joy of out maneuvering my brother and getting the coins whilst he got the ugly end of a jumping frog.
6. Two player - it was just great. Of course you helped each other but only in the sort of 'lets go on a double date but you get the ugly one) kind of way.
7. Passwords - great way to be able to restart with all your loot and powers intact. Bit of a pain if you lost the bit of paper though or your idiot brother spilt Tizer over it.
8. Audio - for me it is the audio that comes back. Great music, sound effects and of course the stentorian tones of the announcer. Would make for a great dance remix. In fact 'The Chaos Engine' would be a great band name. Hmmm, perhaps with Audio Evolution on my AmigaOne.only Amiga makes it possible. The other winner for me was the way the music changed depending on your situation. Nothing happening and it was 'da de da de da', in the middle of a punch up and its blazing out and the best bet, just as you are walking into some danger, the audio cues that make your spine tingle - why can't they do that sort of thing now?!!!!!!

The only bad thing was the amount of joysticks I went through before I got a bug. Only having 4 way whilst your brother had 8 way because he'd broke your joystick but then stuffed your face in the bin was a distinct disadvantage, but I won out in the end - my house and car are nicer than his and he has to teach psychopathic 16 years olds in Stalag Comprehensive whilst I have a nice office with a view of the river.

Could it be improved? I don't know. The graphics could be polished a bit more and with bigger resolutions you could see a bit further. Perhaps have separate screens per player, although then that would get rid of the social nature of the game, almost like a three legged race, because you couldn't ever go far from each other. Team against team would be a good idea. I'm not sure making it 3D would improve it - a lot of the fun was seeing where you had to go. Perhaps 3D with a map?

I am hoping that it will run on AmigaOS4 when it comes out as I'd love to play it again and this time, my brother would be stuck because once I got to fifteen, I sprouted whereas he didn't. Dead leg anyone?

Written by Dave Eldar