Poll: The last Ultimate games (1986/1987)

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Inspired by a link Pete Prodge provided in other thread about the Ultimate last games, I think we could discuss the games Ultimate made in the downhill years. Those who -probably- were not made by the Stamper Bros but the US Gold team, as it can be deduced by what Chris Stamper told in the CRASH interview ('What was the last one we developed as a team? It was Gunfright, I think')





I had to vote to Pentagram as a fan of Sabreman games, but I must say I enjoyed Cyberun a lot back in the day. That mix of Jet Pac and Lunar Jetman worked.

I hardly played the others, found them very boring.

[Alessandro]

Bubbler, quite hard but intriguing and very different from everything else Ultimate had ever produced - and not only them.

In my opinion, Pentagram was good but too similar to Knight Lore and Alien 8, Cyberun was not bad but rather shallow, and Martianoids... well, the less said, the better.

[Morkin]

I voted for Cyberun.

Certainly not on a par with the Ultimate 'classics'.

The playing area window was too small, but I liked the way your ship slowly got upgraded as you collected parts. When I first played it I was desperate to see the 'sail' installed.

Pentagram was OK but I had grown a bit tired of the Knight Lore clones by then. I thought Bubbler & Martianoids were a bit rubbish, but then expectations were still high when they came out.

[Edit: Heheh, I just read digitizer's review of Martianoids:
"it was like somebody trying to play Where The Streets Have No Name on a kazoo... except that prior to taking to the stage they'd dropped the kazoo in a communal latrine, and so they spent the whole gig spitting and barely touching the instrument to their lips." ]

[MatGubbins]

Pentagram - slower than watching paint dry. There is a game here, but the instructions are useless. Jumping and riding on the back of some of the nasties can be fun. Great ending.

Cyberun - Huge maze of a planet to explore, lots of things to collect and do. Let down by lots and lots of aliens and nasties that kill the player way too quickly to be game over. Can only be completed with unlimited lives and a few days to spare.

Bubbler - Once the control system has been mastered it becomes a great game. Death is a little unkind from the tunnels, the amount of nasties that bounce around and the tough time limits. Huge maps to explore.

Martianoids - Oh dear... oh well, farewell. The Ultimate turd on the top of a lovely cheesecake, and they wanted us to eat it. Stick a lives poke in, start the game, bung the mhz up and it might complete itself by the end of the day, it did for me.


It is a tough choice.....

[Morkin]

I'm still amazed that SU somehow managed to give Martianoids a five star review. "Ultimate is back in the game." Not sure where that came from...

[Ralf]

Pentagram - doing the same thing again and again.

Bubbler and Marianoids - I never cared about them much and never got what I am supposed to do.

Cyberun - it gets my vote. It's technically very impressive game - colourful, fast, smooth all directions scrolling game. Again I
never played it properly but I appreciate it

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I had the feeling Cyberun will win!

[Blerkotron]

Cyberun isn't great, but it's easily the best of the bunch. Pentagram is just dead boring, the other two are genuinely awful.

Cyberun's main problem is that it's just too damned hard, but I played a lot of it back in the day with a bunch of POKEs added.