Blood Money (video game)

Gameplay

Blood Money is a shot them up with multidirectional Défilement inspired by the Jeux of arcade. The challenge is composed of four Niveaux of play set out again on four planets with the environment and fauna varied: Gibba , with the decorations High-tech, Grone , a Watery world , Shrek , with the polar Climate and Snuff , a ic ground Volcano. On each level, the player controls a different machine: a Helicopter, an Underwater , a Spationaut and a Spaceship. The vehicles have the characteristic to be able to turn indifferently to the left or the right-hand side of the screen.

At the beginning, the player has the choice to explore Gibba or Grone but as of the end of the level, it can reach another planets. The levels consist of labyrinthian caves which are traversed according to a rather slow scrolling forced, at the same time in a horizontal and vertical way (with the chances of the junctions). The enemies met are diversified with the already traditional Boss of end of level.

As its title indicates it, the Argent is in the middle of the problems of play. With the manner of Fantasy Zone (1986, Sega), the destroyed enemies release from the coins to the more or less important value. While managing to recover them (they fall quickly with the bottom of the screen), the player garners a gold mine which it can spend in the shops positioned here or there on the level. The stores propose eight items which relate to the improvement of the armament, the improvement of the constitution of the vessel and the attribution of an additional life.

The play proposes to a mode two players, particularly interesting taking into account the principle of play (a player kills the enemies while the other recovers the money) but also of its difficulty, considered important in mode solo. The player only begins with three lives, and although each machine has a bar of life, a simple contact prolonged with an enemy shooting can entirely consume it. Moreover, after each death, the player loses all the profit of the improvements carried out.

Development

Blood Money was conceived by Dave Jones, young a 23 year old programmer of Dundee, in Scotland. It was about its second commercial play after Menace , another shot them up left in 1988. Still studying with the Institute of Technology of Dundee, Dave Jones programmed the play in the room of its family home, wedged between two Amiga, a Atari ST and PC 386-DX with 25 MHz new bright burning coal which had just provided him Psygnosis. Impassioned Plays of arcade, Dave Jones ambitionnait to create a play which would produce the same feelings, with a progressive raised challenge and an attractive realization.

One of the objectives of the development was to use fully the palette of the Amiga. The scrolling hardware of Menace , which limited the number of colors, was abandoned and famous “the Blitter” of the machine exploited to manage it. Mr. Heli (1987, Irem), and its system of Scrolling, was a source of inspiration. After the initial work of writing, the programming began in January 1989. Ken Russel and Mike Dailly, later to the origin of Lemmings , contributed their share to the development. This one would have lasted eight month on the whole.

Graphics, considered to be pleasant but unequal, were carried out by Tony Smith. Certain enemies, particularly those of the Watery level , remain impressive of share the quality of their Animation S. the developers were amateurs of Salamander (1986) and one finds by bit the organic graphic style suitable for the play of Konami.

Ray Norrish composed the music of the play, a single topic common to the whole of the levels, and David Whittaker took care of carried out the sound effects. The player is obliged to make a choice between the musics and the sound effects. The introduction of the play at the time had marked the spirits, less for its visual composed of effects of Zoom on Sprite S of Météorite S, that for the sample involving truffle of digitalized voices which accompanied it. The adaptation on Atari ST was carried out by Wayne Smithson, which founded WJS Design shortly after. Relatively near to original grinding, this version with the characteristic to propose a completely different music, composed by Tony Williams.

The version Commodore 64 was programmed by Mike Dailly with a music of Fredrik Segerfalk.

Exploitation

Marketing

Left on Amiga in principal the European countries starting from May 1989, the play was marketed with the the United States thereafter. The version ST, whose bearing took a little delay, was shifted of a few months, and the other versions were finished for spring 1990. The play was sold with the market price, that is to say approximately 200 frankly S for the versions 16bits.

Blood Money left in a context strong competition. The kind was very popular in arcade and many plays of quality arrived this year on microphones 16 bits: Denaris , adaptations of Forgotten Worlds , R-Type and Silkworm , or Xenon 2: Megablast and Battle Squadron at the end of the year.

The play was republished in 1990 in compilation Triad Volume 3 and in 1991 in range budget, under the label Sizzlers.

Reception

Blood Money received appreciations contrasted in the specialized press. Its Jouabilité, its mode two players and the quality of its realization were generally well appreciated but its difficulty was however considered frustrating. The adjustment of the difficulty in the plays multijouor at the time was often based on the mode two players.

The French magazine Tilt (18/20), filled with enthusiasm, insists particularly on the strategic dimension of the play, which obliges the player “to use of trick and patience to overcome. ” CU Amiga (76%), irritated by the experiment of play - and perhaps also by the personality of its creator - concludes that the play “is well built” but “that it is simply not it as much as it believes it. ”

Amiga and/or Atari ST
ACE 740/1000 • C+VG 85% • CU Amiga 76% • Gen4 d' Or 93% • ST Amiga Format 92% • Tilt 18/20 • Zzap! 94%

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