ZX HSC Round 1 - Bomb Jack / Penetrator

[R-Tape]

Nozhdyve 1260

A tournament game should give you some sense of progression and achievement;

a simple, repetitive

Yes it's certainly these, but that's no bad thing IMO.

and shallow title like Nozhdyve does not.

It has less depth than a lot of games, but I wouldn't call it shallow. There may be less things to focus on, but you can look at them in greater detail. Maybe it shouldn't count (but for me it does), but there is also the whole black mirror backstory to think about.

There is no progression to make,

Scorescorescorescore!

no skill to hone...

Couldn't disagree more. I think there is actually a lot to this. You need to get a feel for the controls, the amount of space you need to do a hard right/left, learning how to do a quick shimmy if you're hemmed in by a wall. You need to recognise the various ways the teeth appear, and when collecting an eyeball might put you in jeopardy. It's a bit like being a cricket batsman: you have to repeatedly react, quickly, to something coming at you in varying directions, angles and speeds; and you can't lose you focus.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

People who get more than 1,000 points in Nohzdyve... what do you eat for breakfast???

[R-Tape]

People who get more than 1,000 points in Nohzdyve... what do you eat for breakfast???

PORRIDGE!

(not my picture btw!)

[smurphboy]

People who get more than 1,000 points in Nohzdyve... what do you eat for breakfast???

More importantly. How is your brain coping with all that scrolling. It's a very trippy game when played at any length.

[smurphboy]

Nohzdyve : 1220



The game is growing on me. It's trippy but you can get into a really zen state where you disconnect your brain from the process and just let your fingers react to what you see, zero cognitive load. Almost like juggling, you have to stop thinking about it and just do it.

No progression or strategy to speak of, but strangely addictive.

[Alessandro]

Some versions of it do. Melbourne House reissued it (in 1984, I think) with Kempston compatibility. If I recall correctly, it doesn't require you to select a Kempston option.

Edit: previously I wrote that this version had not been preserved, in fact that's only partially true because the TAP file in the archive works with the Kempston keyboard emulation. No TZXs of it seems to exist, however.

It has less depth than a lot of games, but I wouldn't call it shallow. There may be less things to focus on, but you can look at them in greater detail. Maybe it shouldn't count (but for me it does), but there is also the whole black mirror backstory to think about.

Which is completely unknown to me since I do not watch that series. I am not a fan of TV/Internet series in general to be honest (with some notable exceptions like The Young Pope and The Man In The High Castle). In addition to that, complex stories cannot do much if the game is bad. The Great Space Race had a long and complex history behind it - think about the biographies of every character - but it was a complete waste of code.

Couldn't disagree more. I think there is actually a lot to this.

A lot? It's just going left or right trying not to be hit by the flying false teeth! It reminds me of one of those homebrew games on tape magazines of the 1980s made by readers in 10 minutes of their spare time. Shallow, pointless and utterly unsatisfying. And it gives me hallucinations after a while, as if it weren't enough

People who get more than 1,000 points in Nohzdyve... what do you eat for breakfast???

These days my breakfast consists of two slices of soft cereal bread with two different kinds of jam, a fruit and espresso coffee. I could hardly eat granita con la panna e la brioscia in the morning as many of my fellow citizens would do, too heavy for me I would have a granita and brioscia (without whipped cream) as a break at 11 am however.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

[Juan F. Ramirez]

No progression or strategy to speak of, but strangely addictive.

That's the idea!

[Alessandro]

A big thank you to [mention]Rorthron[/mention] for the tip about the Kempston version of Penetrator. After trying several emulators to remap the keys, I felt mostly at ease with RealSpectrum DOS emulated through DOSBox, that is to say, an emulator within an emulator - square emulation maybe? Rorthron earns a granita with brioscia and is entitled to choose between coffee, strawberry, mulberry, almond, lemon, pistachio and peach, all topped with fresh whipped cream (except for lemon of course!)

Here is my new score: 34,550. I foolishly lost three lives in the second run cyan level due to those *%&@#! alien heads (which for some obscure reason are called "paratroopers" in the instructions).

[Morkin]

Bomb Jack - 162,570 (no change)
Penetrator - 87,290 (no change)
Nohzdyve - 920 (new!)

I'm getting the Nohzdyve 'eye scroll', so I better stop playing it now...

...Anyone who's playing Penetrator with a joystick, question: isn't it a bit of a pain to fire the laser, prodding the joystick right...? Or is there another method?

[R-Tape]

Nohzdyve 1320.

There comes a point when you get in the zone and everything seems to slow down. Then you glance up at the score, and if it's anywhere near your personal best then it suddenly becomes a jittery nightmare.

[smurphboy]

Nohzdyve 1320.

There comes a point when you get in the zone and everything seems to slow down. Then you glance up at the score, and if it's anywhere near your personal best then it suddenly becomes a jittery nightmare.

I did that. I looked at my score and died as I lost the zone.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I'm out so I tried to play Bomb Jack (24,060) and Penetrator (2,110) with my phone, you know, touch screen controls, ... terrible experience, as you can imagine...



I can't even reach level 2 in Penetrator!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Nohzdyve - 920 (new!)

920???

Tsk, tsk!

[R-Tape]

I'm out so I tried to play Bomb Jack and Penetrator with my phone, you know, touch screen controls, ... terrible experience, as you can imagine...

Oh hell yes. Nohzdyve must be a bit better I presume?

[R-Tape]

Nohzdyve 2860



I got nearly all the points on the first life. I was getting worried it was never going to end!

I think once you've worked out a strategy, no impossible situations can arise, so—gulp—in theory, you can keep going forever.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

[mention]R-Tape[/mention] 's current mood:

[Freespirit]

Nohzdyve 2860



I got nearly all the points on the first life. I was getting worried it was never going to end!

I think once you've worked out a strategy, no impossible situations can arise, so—gulp—in theory, you can keep going forever.

Great score, you are now one with the game.

[Morkin]

Flippin' eck..! Some scary Nohzdyve scores going on.

...Having said that, I just beat my record, and the thousand point barrier... 1160.

[Mousey]

Current scores:

Bomb Jack - 1,423,260 (unchanged)
Penetrator - 37,070 (unchanged)
Nohzdyve - 1,250

I was determined to get over 1,000 and wouldn't you know that I'd die on 990? A few goes later I managed to beat it though.

[SCREENSHOT TO FOLLOW - can't seem to upload images at the moment?]

Nohzdyve 2860

I got nearly all the points on the first life. I was getting worried it was never going to end!

That's an absolutely awesome score R-Tape, well done!

[akeley]

Scores are all great and good (keep'em coming) but we were supposed to chat about the games too. It's in dem rules folks!

So, do you know any interesting trivia & tidbits about these games?

I've been trying out Bomb Jack on other formats. C64 version was godawful: lurid colours and everything big and silly looking. Amstrad one I think is the best, because the controls are supertight, you can stop on a dime and walk on air. The gfx is also better than C64. Spectrum one compares very favourably to Amstrad gameplay wise, but also gfx is great because it has so much detail, even if less colour, and it's cleverly composed.

I did try arcade too but only briefly. It is, unsurprisingly, best overall, but the gulf is not as big as in other cases.

[Mousey]

I've been trying out Bomb Jack on other formats. C64 version was godawful: lurid colours and everything big and silly looking.

There is an updated version of Bomb Jack being developed for the C64 (Bomb Jack DX) which looks fantastic, but there haven't been any updates since Dec 2019, so I'm not sure if the project has permanently stalled or is just on hold for now:
https://compidiaries.wordpress.com/

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Comparing Penetrator with the game it was inspired from, Scramble, the original arcade has a fuel counter that must be fed by shooting fuel deposits or the counter reaches zero and you lose a life.

Fortunately Penetrator doesn't have this feature!

[Morkin]

Nohzdyve - 1,250

Grrrr...! Going to have to have another go now..

So, do you know any interesting trivia & tidbits about these games?

The main bit of trivia (I think) I know about Penetrator, a landscape editor was used to create the levels, and the author decided to leave it in the program, meaning that users could create their own landscapes. Inspired idea IMO. Had lots of fun designing levels back in the day.

[akeley]

Comparing Penetrator with the game it was inspired from, Scramble, the original arcade has a fuel counter that must be fed by shooting fuel deposits or the counter reaches zero and you lose a life.

Fortunately Penetrator doesn't have this feature!

It does, in a way. You are supposed to destroy the radars, or otherwise the game will get harder (has to do with rockets starting frequency/accuracy?) which is represented by the "Danger" meter.