3D DRAGON PASER | 3D FIGHTING TRIAL | 3D GAMING ENGINE | 4 OTHELLO | ADVENTURE GAME | AIRBOB | ALIEN LOOTER
Hello and welcome to the first proper installment in our new feature, “Yaroze a Day!” In this series, we’ll be covering the catalogue of games compiled in the unofficial “Net Yaroze Collection 2014,” and giving each individual entry a brief exploration and review. We’ll be attempting to keep this up on a weekly basis, with seven games being discussed per article. As we’ll be going in alphabetical order and starting from the top; this first installment will serve to cover the entries beginning with numerical characters, before moving into the first few titles beginning with the letter “A.”
For those of you who haven’t already read our primer on the subject of the hardware and introduction to this series; you can find it here, and get better acquainted with the scope and goals of this feature. Otherwise, you’re obviously free to continue reading this article, and discover the amateur-developed games within!
We begin our tour with something like a proof-of-concept for an action RPG; having been developed as far as the point where you can kill enemies with a sword, gain EXP, level up, and even cast some fire magic. Unfortunately, that’s really just about all there is to do in 3D Dragon Paser — at least as far as I can gather. Having found no exits or hidden passages within the relatively small forest stage, the full extent of this adventure seems to be an agonizingly slow grind against waves of infinitely respawning green blobs, wherein you’re given a single point of health and a tiny allotment of magic with which to wage your war.
Drawing inspiration from the Zelda school of top-down perspective and poking-driven sword combat, you can certainly picture in your head how this demo could be further developed into something serviceable. On the other hand, the complete lack of HP and MP-restoring pick-ups (aside from three scattered treasure chests serving to partially fill the latter) perhaps speaks to a plotted punishing difficulty / intended “hardcore survival” style of gameplay? At the very least, it looks and controls half-decently [by the standards we’ll soon be setting here], and certainly demonstrates the potential for what could’ve been a decently compelling action RPG.
As a matter of fact, Soluze Developers will return later in this series with a “sequel” to 3D Dragon Paser — aptly titled Drapas2 (an abbreviation of “Dragon Paser 2,” in case it isn’t clear). We’ll see what’s changed and iterated on from this proof of concept, and how much progress the developers were able to make over the course of a scant few months.
Two identical twins take to trial by combat [in three dimensions], here in 3D Fighting Trial. Battling against one of the ugliest backdrops I’ve ever seen in a video game – fighting or otherwise – you and a second player (no option for a CPU opponent) can execute a small handful of moves mapped to Circle and Square, and determine who is the best at mashing said buttons. With a character model looking like a discount cosplay of Regina from Dino Crisis, I honestly expected to be able to pull out a gun for a special attacks. Instead – as far as I can tell – there are no special attacks. Can’t give everything away in the “trial” version, I reckon.
I could nitpick some of the finer details here; like the lack of timer, AI-controlled opponent, or most other basic features and functionalities. Or perhaps the fact that you can’t actually knock your opponent out by depleting their health? But of course, this is just a demo we’re talking about here — a glimpse at an early prototype by a likely one-man team. It hardly seems fair to criticize it past a certain point, as who knows what the developer had planned for the future of this game? This is another one of those recurring hang-ups you’re gonna hear about from me, where I can’t bring myself to be too mean to such an obvious work in progress. Hell, I even feel a little bad about knocking the character model, as it’s honestly decently detailed and animated enough. So before you pass your own judgments on the quality of these features, ask yourself honestly if you could do a better job all by your lonesome.
All that being said: The background and ground textures are still absolutely heinous. Damn grass looks like the forest from E.T. the Extraterrestrial, I tell you what.
Advertised as a engine for some unspecified genre of 3D game, this software ostensibly serves as a brief demonstration of its functionality. To this end, you’re able to zoom around a small racetrack-esque stage as a strange placeholder model — a two-color circle surrounding a tile with an exclamation point on it. If that’s too much of an eyesore for you, you can toggle to a first-person view. The general genre vibe I get from this whole demo is that of a racing game; given said camera options and track layout, as well as the sense of speed and tight control.
The only odd thing about that theory is that there are also a pair of item pick-ups, which you can drive over to obtain and press one of the two shoulder buttons in order to consume. These don’t seem to have any actual effect mind you, so the mechanic is purely a superfluous one within the scope of the demo. Perhaps these were intended as the foundation for some sort of car combat / Mario Kart-esque item system, and presented here as a demonstration of being able to track individual variables for at least two different types of items? Or maybe – just maybe – I’m reading entirely too much into something too simple to truly guess at.
Something I will compliment here is the use of a darkening distance fog effect to cloak elements loading / fading into view. It’s a nice visual touch we won’t see too often here on the Yaroze — with most games simply opting to magically appear objects [with no transition] as they pop in and out of view. In this regard, the potential for this engine proves quite impressive, and makes one wonder what an end product of it might’ve looked like? Unfortunately – as per the current archives – this is the only release we’ll be seeing from developer Bruce McNeish; and as such it seems that no follow-up exists.
I’m gonna be honest with y’all: I love me some Reversi. I had a version of it that I played on my TI-83 graphing calculator through all of high school, and I think HAL Laboratory’s Othello might have also been one of the first NES cartridges I ever owned? Never actually played a proper table-top session of it, funnily enough, on account of never really knowing anyone else who was as into it as I was. I even distinctly remember trying to convince some nerds from the school chess club to give the game a go, but getting absolutely nowhere with them. If you ask me personally, the only way to play chess is Kung-Fu Chess — between sessions of Shizmoo Games’ Sumo Volleyball.
I find mentioning Kung-Fu Chess as being somewhat fitting, as 4 Othello isn’t exactly the strictest variation on Reversi / Othello. Which is to say, Othello was never intended for more than two players, whereas the “4” in 4 Othello is meant to indicate a four-player take on the classic game. Functionally, this amounts to controller pass-and-play between four competitors, with all the other standard rules of Othello in effect: Players are assigned a distinct color of tile, and aim to conquer the board by creating connecting lines (either cardinally or diagonally) and forcing any tiles in-between to convert to their own. In table-top settings, this lends itself far more naturally to two-player play; where tiles are black on one side and white on the other, and can be flipped over to indicate ownership. By comparison, swapping out individual tiles with one of four different colors on a turn-by-turn basis could prove to be tedious. But with the power of a game console to sort out the business of swapping tiles, this process is near-painless!
All that being said; we are talking about a fairly basic tabletop-to-digital game here, as depicted with some of the most rudimentary graphics imaginable and little else in the way flourish. There’s not even a title screen, for pete’s sake. But does 4 Othello really need to be more than that? It’s a novelty take on Othello that you can potentially play with three of your friends — or even just two, if each player takes control of two colors. Something like an option for designating CPU players would’ve been neat, but probably quite complex (if you’re looking to have them perform anything more sophisticated than “randomly”). I may just be a sucker for Reversi, but I believe 4 Othello is a real winner here.
Of note: This marks our first run-in with the mysterious developer “Kame” — otherwise known as Nahoisa Kamei. Over the course of this feature, we’ll be encountering no less than eighteen more games released by this individual, rating him as perhaps the most prolific author within the entire Net Yaroze community! Whether he will manage to top this stellar first impression remains to be seen…
To alleviate any potential confusion here: “Othello” is the name Reversi has more commonly been marketed as since the 1970s; thanks to a set of rule changes originally instituted in Japan, and to a Mattel trademark on this updated title,
Apparently, this game right here is one of “the big ones” in terms of Net Yaroze notoriety. Robert Swan’s Adventure Game was one of the handpicked few to have made it to European demo discs; likely on the merits of its [subjectively] witty writing, relatively polished presentation, and functional combat mechanic. In other words: It has the feel of a fully-realized game — even if it would likely rank at the lower end of things if actually evaluated on that scale. Before we delve more deeply into it, let me just say that I personally didn’t care for Adventure Game in any of its aspects; even if I recognize that it’s a comparatively ambitious / polished game compared to much of the rest of the Net Yaroze library. And so, while I fully respect and appreciate Mr. Swan’s efforts here, I’m gonna have to spend some time here talking about why it didn’t quite click for me.
The narrative is presented as pastiche of every RPG trope in the book; with knowingly irritating NPCs announcing to your player character exactly what archetype they’re meant to fill. Town guards are either dullards or needlessly aggressive, a beggar follows you and requires ten-plus dialogue prompts to dismiss, and helpless townsfolk wonder aloud if a hero can save them from mildly irritating birds. As the generic hero character, you take on this quest with all the enthusiasm of a bored teenager; breaking the fourth wall in order to “silently promise yourself that whatever game you play next, it won’t involve medieval peasants,” and retort to your quest giver that “this game is far too linear to allow me to do anything else.” All this – and what feels like a hundred more jokes about how the NPCs lack animations / are permanently stuck in place – adds up to a exhausting self-deprecation overload. Your mileage may vary, but the bit got old quick by my books.
There’s some combat too between all that talking! It consists of you stabbing your sword in forward-facing direction, paired with trudging tank control movement that ensures you’ll take a full half-second to spin 180° and take care of any birds who might get behind you. And it is exclusively birds you’ll be fighting, by the by; usually in swarms, and able to drain health from you on contact. In effect, this means that every fight will play out with you walking onto a new screen, getting mobbed by six or seven birds, and having to mash the attack button while spinning in place. To top that off, there are a couple of screens where you have literally no chance of being able to dispatch of all your avian enemies before they manage to drain some health from you, which – when paired with an inability to heal – can utterly doom some playthroughs. The game’s “Help” screen (accessed from the main menu) provides controls for switching between some potentially useful items and magic… but neither mechanic seems to actually exist in the final product.
Alright, alright — that’s enough ragging on this poor old game. There are certainly plenty of positives to be found in it; including a decent variety of environments you’ll manage to travel between, paired with a decent variety of music also composed by Robert himself. About the only assets in this package that Robert wasn’t responsible for are the character graphics (credits to his brother Barry) and title screen (attributed to one Tracy Sullivan). And as your mileage may vary when it comes to the game’s humor, the fact that there’s plenty of dialogue to be exchanged may be a plus for some as well. Add this all together, and it certainly makes for a wholly unique entry in the Yaroze’s catalogue, at the very least. It’s as I said earlier: Adventure Game is an admirably ambitious thing, but it just wasn’t for me. Certainly one to give a shot yourself, and see how it treats you.
Robert Swan would actually go on to work at SCEE for a brief spell; as well as serving stints at UK studios Exertris, Climax London, and NiK NaK — all before establishing his own “company” in Aah Games. By measure, his short-lived label’s three contributions to the market were a pair of Xbox Live Indie Games released in 2010 (Aah Impossible Rescue and Aah Little Atlantis), and a browser game imaginatively titled PocketZeldaStationAdventure. With his company website having since gone defunct, and a LinkedIn profile indicating a current role as “Head of Slots Development at Golden Hero Ltd,” it’s fair to say that Mr. Swan has lived something of a nomadic life within the games industry, and seemingly worn every hat there is to wear at some time or another. And by his own personal reflection, he owes it all to the Black Pearl:
“[The Net Yaroze] directly related to me failing my degree — I spent so much time having fun mucking about that [my university] course became mundane and I ‘accidentally’ missed lectures and exams! I have almost nothing but great memories of the Yaroze — it gave me a focus for games development and started the career I love.” ~ Robert Swan
I daresay that Airbob is one of those “hidden gems” I’d been hoping to find in our exploration of the Net Yaroze archives! Granted, it was notable enough in its time to have made it to demo disc — if only within the pages of Japanese mags. Honestly though, it’s simple and intuitive enough to not require translating, and could’ve have just as easily been slotted onto one of the North American or European demo discs. Oh well: We can at least enjoy it now, some 20 years later!
Airbob consists of a series of two connected minigames; wherein you steer a bobsled down a perilous track, fly off a ramp, and then proceed to perform aerial acrobatics (in the form of some pseudo-QTEs) before pulling a parachute and sticking a landing. It’s all short, sweet, and to the point, with runs likely to clock in at under two minutes. It’s effectively like playing Mario Party’s ‘Bobsled Run’ and ‘Bandstand’ minigames back-to-back — which I realize might not sound like the most flattering example to some, but still sounds pleasant enough to me. To add an additional bit of flourish to all this: You can even select from one of six hailing nations for your team at the top of the game, each with their own stat variations. Japan hosts ‘Team-Sukiyaki,’ America is proud to present ‘Team-Dead Cross,’ and even Jamaica attends the games by way of ‘Team-Cool Bone.’ The team decals and outfits are all as distinct as they are goofy, and really serves to kick the whole presentation up a notch.
Simply put, it’s simple fun; plain and simple. In a way, I feel like it might be a perfect example of the “ideal” Net Yaroze game: Delivering a concentrated mechanical experience, making the most of limited graphics, and hooking you in with an addictive little gameplay loop. It’s the sort of game you’d wanna build a leaderboard around on a Web 1.0-lookin’ webpage, where folk would be encouraged to take photos of their CRT monitors with their high score displayed before sending them to a designated AOL email address. In lieu of all that: Someone should do their best to completely recreate this game in Unity or something, and just put up an online leaderboard in that. Whichever’s easier, y’know?
The polished presentation and design here are definitely benefited by the fact that no less than four folk worked together on this game. While all their names do prominently display on the title screen, the image compression is a bit too rough for me to be able to discern what they are for myself. For the purposes of archival, the 2014 Net Yaroze Collection records these individuals as ‘K. Okada,’ ‘H. Endo,’ ‘J. Suehiro,’ and ‘M. Taniguti.’ I have to imagine this was some sort of group effort within a university game design course, or some sort of academic pursuit to that effect. And if I’m right on that hypothesis, I’m telling you that this crew deserved A+ all around. Cannot recommend enough giving this charming little game a chance.
“Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, it’s bobsled time!”
For the record: My high score is 627. Definitely need to work on the bobsledding portion a bit more, but I feel like I’ve got the aerials on lock.
I’ve heard that one of the best kind of games you can pick for your first time game development project is a fixed shooter / Space Invaders-type game. Between either that or cloning Pong, I feel like going the shmup route gives you more space for creativity, as well as likely providing more to learn from design-wise. In any case, the fixed shooter feels like a hard genre to screw up, and can only benefit from whatever ideas and iterations you might have on the basic formula. Sure enough, Alien Looter serves as a totally serviceable entry to this format; as it attempts to stand out from the pack by providing a slew of power-ups to players, and plays at a frantic pace.
Predictably, you control a spaceship able to move left and right across the bottom of the screen, and attack formations of aliens / other spaceships appearing from the top. You dodge incoming fire while thinning the herd as efficiently as possible, and are greeted with a new wave of baddies after clearing out the last enemy on-screen. Some divergences from formula here are a lack of shields / barriers near the bottom of the screen that you might be able to take cover behind, and a complete lack of breaks between waves: The moment you blow up that last foe, another 34 more instantaneously appear and begin firing at you, giving you no moment to rest. Call it slapdash programming or a deliberate design choice in order to maintain a constant momentum. Either way, it keeps you on your toes from beginning ‘til end.
As mentioned earlier, the main draw here is your expanding arsenal of options (side ships / turrets) and improvements to your primary laser. By a certain point, you’re able to spit dozens of bullets per second, and clear entire waves just as quickly. It’s a satisfying rhythm to get into, as quickly monotonous as it may be. If you really wanna bust the game wide open; you can just stay in the corner of either side of the screen, and spam bullets so quickly that incoming enemies will be unable to pop a shot off before being exploded. With a level count providing room for four digits, you could theoretically ride this wave for upwards of tens of thousands of roughly identical stages — with a pool of minor variations in alien ship design between them. This is arcade gameplay distilled to its most simple, easily-exploitable form. If you feel so compelled to chase ridiculously high scores with minimal effort, Alien Looter is there for you.
Alien Looter will mark our first encounter with Ben James in our journey: Another name we’ll soon see recurring, and with another one of the Yaroze library’s most notable European titles to his name. More on these details as we move forward; including the elusive details of what Ben’s up to now career-wise.
“You Curse to Yourself Loudly.”
That’ll just about do it for our inaugural entry here! Next week will see us continue to cut a swath through titles beginning with the letter “A,” and perhaps discovering a few new contenders for the best of Net Yaroze. Stay tuned, so on, and so forth!
