___________________________________________________________________________ __ __ ________ _______ | \ | || _____| / ______| NUMBER 2 - 13TH MAY - 1998 | \ | || |_____ | \____ _ ___ _____ _____ ___ ___ | |\ \ || _____| \_____ \| | | __||_ _||_ _|| __|| _ | | | \ || |_____ _____/ || |_ | _| | | | | | _| | | |__| \__||________||______ / |___||___| |_| |_| |___||_|\_\ E-MAIL : mnielsen@get2net.dk WWW : Http://www.internet1.net/~nesworld --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello again.... I've changed the name of the letter a bit. Since there's absolutely no news about the NES these days, then why call it a news letter? :) So the name will from now on be NESletter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NES WORLD CREW Editor: Martin Nielsen (mnielsen@get2net.dk) Co-Editor and writer: VmprHntrD (tanooki@flash.net) Writers: M. Wilson (MWilson327@aol.com) James (james@midnights.net) You wanna write stuff for NES WORLD's NESletter? then e-mail us at "mnielsen@get2net.dk" and let us know. We're mainly looking for people who could write some funny stories, like NES dreams they've had. We're looking forward to hear from you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- INDEX Here's what we've created this time. * VANCE KOZIK INTERVIEW, PART 2 By Martin Nielsen Part 2 of the interview, which wont be added to NES WORLD yet. It uncovers who the person behind the name Nina, who made almost all graphics for the Color Dreams (Wisdom Tree) games, is. * GAME REVIEWS - The Smurfs (Infogrames) by Martin Nielsen - Destination Earthstar (Acclaim) By Martin Nielsen * NEW GAME HINTS AND CHEATS * HYBRID HEAVEN VmprHntrD takes a look at a couple Bobble Bobble games for the Gameboy and the TurboGraphics16. Totally non-NES released this time, but we promise it wont be like this always :) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VANCE KOZIK INTERVIEW PART 2 (By Martin Nielsen) VANCE KOZIK: NinDraw program was used to draw sprites, animations and backgrounds. NES WORLD: Wow, it sure would be cool to check it out :) VANCE KOZIK: I'll see if I can dig up a copy... it's probably on a backup disk buried in a box somewhere. :-) NES WORLD: By the way, most of the graphics were made by "Nina". Was that a nickname for someone or.....? VANCE KOZIK: Nina Bedner... now Nina Stanley did almost all the graphics for the Wisdom Tree games as well as Menace Beach. She's really good. She's a professional painter when she's not doing video game artwork. Trivial note: Her father is Owsley Stanley (Bear), who's quite famous in the LSD / Grateful Dead circles... NES WORLD: How many Color Dreams and Wisdom Tree games did you program?, Menace Beach, Spiritual Warefare and? VANCE KOZIK: Well since Color Dreams actually did the coding for the Wisdom Tree games (they came up with the content), I was pretty much involved in all of the Wisdom Tree games as well as Menace Beach and I did a couple of levels on Perterminator (absolutely horrible game that was being made when I first started with the company). I did 1/3 to 1/2 of the levels and character programming on Bible Adventures, King of Kings, Spirtual Warfare, Exodus, Joshua and Bible Buffet. I also did all of the music for Super 3-D Noah's Ark (not that it's great or anything). NES WORLD: Did Color Dreams have any relations to the other unlicensed companies like American Video Entertainment? I mean, did you ever share information and such? VANCE KOZIK: No... everything was reverse engineered in house by our then and current resident genius / mad scientist, Dan Lawton. NES WORLD: Are Color Dreams games freeware today? or are they owned by Wisdom Tree? VANCE KOZIK: I believe Color Dreams own all of the games... the people that run Wisdom Tree only own the name "Wisdom Tree" and the right to sell the games. NES WORLD: Do you remember if Nintendo ever sued Color Dreams for violating copyrights or something? VANCE KOZIK: You'd have to look through old press reports for that... no one here remembers... I'm guessing there may have been a threat but no lawsuit ever came about because we were within our legal rights. NES WORLD I e-mailed Wisdom Tree about a month ago, asking about their NES cartridges. It turns out that they still have most Color Dreams carts in stock and are selling them for like US$10-15 :) VANCE KOZIK: That's funny. No wonder why they snuck them out of the building. NES WORLD: Oh yeah(!) It seems like Color Dreams (only the black cartridges though) are the only unlicensed games which will work in a European NES unit without a converter. Did you ever plan on releasing the games in Europe? (My Menace Beach manual is written in German, French and English) VANCE KOZIK: The program and video chips just need to be put on a newer board that did a better job of zapping the Nintendo key chip in order to work in Europe. By that time, Wisdom Tree was successful and the Color Dreams titles were just left for dead (except for the last one, Menace Beach included). NES WORLD: How did you start working for Color Dreams? VANCE KOZIK: I was working at a TV station in San Antonio, Texas (my degree is in Radio/TV/Film). An old friend of mine from when I lived in Germany was now living in Southern California and said he could get me a job at this video game company he was working for. He said I would be hired as a manager to supervise the programmers/artists in the Tustin office to make sure the games got out in time and the quality was good. He said I had only three days to make up my mind and be out there. So I left my girlfriend, cat and job all within 3 days and was out in California. I did not know how and did not want to manage people... I figured I would get my foot in the door and then work my way into game design/programming. As it turned out, my first assignment was to evaluate Pesterminator and offer suggestions on how to improve it. The game was and is still just awful... levels were boring, game play was awfull, joystick/here response was choppy, etc. When I wrote up a long list and told my opinions to the programmers and artists, they wouldn't even turn to look at me... it was a really bad experience. Luckily, I was turned into a game designer a couple of months later and I started Menace Beach (unfortunately with a really bad game engine / programming language which I pushed to its limits). NES WORLD: Did you program videogames before you started working for Color Dreams? (if so... for which company and for which systems?) VANCE KOZIK: I did game programming back in 82/83 when I was 17/18 years old. The same friend who got me the job in 90 got me a job back in 83. It was for a company called Cosmi (later Swift Software) who made disk and cassette-based games for the Commodore Vic-20 and 64, Atari 400/800 and TI-99 computers. It was back in the days when one person did the entire game... design, programming, graphics, levels, music, sounds, etc. I made a game called Slinky for the Atari 400/800 which got ported to the Commodore 64. It was a Q-Bert knock off. I also ported a Com-64 game called Forbidden Forest for play on the Atari 400/800. I basically learned 6502 assembly on the job and didn't get the time to develop any original material. By the time I did, I was completely burned out and too young to handle living on my own in California, so I moved back to Texas to go to school and didn't program games again until 1990. Now that you're completely bored... : -) I hope I've answered all of your questions, Vance Kozik --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GAME REVIEWS .-------------------------------.---------------------------------------. | Title : Destination Earthstar | Game Review by Martin Nielsen | | Maker : Acclaim | | | Year : 1989 | Note: | | | | | Type : Space-thingy | | | No. of Players : 1 | | | Cart size : ??? Mbit | | `------------------------------ï`---------------------------------------ï I bought this game in a package of 4 games, and I didn't know which games. It turned out that one of them was Destination Earthstar, by Acclaim. My first look at the box made me say "Hmmmf... Elite clone". And I was kinda right. But unlike Elite, Destination Earthstar has almost no action at all, only a few enemies here and there. The control is EXTREMELY bad and ummm... no story really. So I quickly powered off my NES and threw it back in the closet, thats why this review is so short. Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, ZzzzZZZzzzZzzzZZZzzZZZzzzZZZzzZZ. .-------------------------------.---------------------------------------. | Title : The Smurfs | Game Review by Martin Nielsen | | Maker : Infogrames | | | Year : 1995 | Note: | | | | | Type : Platformer!! | Only released in Europe. | | No. of Players : 1 | Multi-language: French, English, | | Cart size : ??? Mbit | German and Spanish | `------------------------------ï`---------------------------------------ï Oooh! Who wouldn't wanna help a little blue guy who is missing some of his friends? You would?!? Ok then, go buy this cart because this is exactly what you're going to do here. 3 smurfs are missing, captured by an old goofy wizard. Your quest is to go to the wizards house and get your friends. Easiers said than done mate! Because you have to smurf across a river, control a stork over some mountains, walk through a spooky mine, walk through a spooky forrst where you meet a black smurf, no racism in this game! nope! The game is a typical platformer with very cute graphics, way above NES stardard. The sound is also worth listening to (!). There are 6 stages in the game, and the game has 3 difficulty settings which means that it should be challening for everyone... and sure is. Even on the easiest setting, the game is hard to complete, especially when you reach the mountains where you have to fly on the back of a stork and walk though the snow with no boots on, ssiiizzzzxxx!. Sadly this was one of the last European NES games, along with Aladdin and Lion King, so thats probably why it only was released in a few countries and never brought to the US... same goes for Aladdin and Lionking. If you know someone in Europe, the I highly suggest that you tell them to look for "the smurfs", though it might be like searching for a needle in a bundle of hay, same goes for Aladdin and the Lionking (Lionking is probably the toughest to find since it was the last game and produced in a very limited number of copies). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW GAME HINTS AND CHEATS SHOCKWAVE (By Martin Nielsen): Level 1 (MINER WORK) - DPI Level 2 (FOUR CONERS) - TTV Level 3 (TELEPORT TRAP) - DTG Level 4 (FOUR ON THE FLOOR) - PQD Level 5 (HALL OF MORE DOORS) - TUQ TROLLS ON TREASURE ISLAND (By Martin Nielsen): Gift Wrapped (Level 1) : Treasure Chest (Level 2) : Toast Your Toes (Level 3) : Parlor Game (Level 4) : SH7HK5 Safety Doors (Level 5) : GK1P1V Gumballs (Level 6) : 9WLO2N Catacombs (Level 7) : FLWL0T Little Lamb (Level 8) : L-5-M3 Ice Capade (Level 9) : JCZR71 No Turning Back (Level 10) : 49FX3M Snake Pit (Level 11) : Easy Does It (Level 12) : Which Way is up (Level 13) : DUDES WITH ATTITUDE (By Martin Nielsen): (Level 1) : ZM1HDB Up a Gum Tree (Level 2) : SYQ6P5 Nutcracker (Level 3) : RZLZJ1 Jungle Treasure (Level 4) : Q0S5M3 Sewrvy Derby I (Level 5) : MWN9B7 Zooooooooooom (Level 6) : 4S5SXQ Burried Treasure (Level 7) : WLZF6N Roundabout (Level 8) : 2D1DwB Death Spiral (Level 9) : 2J9RDB Nutcracker (Level 10) : RZLZJ1 Doom Lagoon (Level 11) : Riverside (Level 12) : 7D4N1F Diaminds Galore SOLOMON'S CLUB (By ExYOOPER@aol.com) Here is a list of the passwords to for Solomon's Club with a full set of items (bullets, hammers, water guns, hourglasses, shoes, and hat) LEVEL 1 1 O8 8888 2 CVJB 8888 3 GVJD 8888 4 RVJH 8888 5 XVJS 8888 6 XVJY 8888 7 8VBY 8888 8 CYDY 8888 9 MYHY 8888 10 TYSY 8888 LEVEL 2 1 TZ 8888 2 QZVJ B888 3 OZVJ D888 4 8ZVJ H888 5 ?ZVJ S888 6 ?ZVJ Y888 7 CZVB Y888 8 QZYD Y888 9 4ZYH Y888 10 KZYS Y888 LEVEL 3 1 KZ Z888 2 6ZZV JB88 3 TZZV JD88 4 CZZV JH88 5 2ZZV JS88 6 2ZZV JY88 7 QZZV BY88 8 6ZZY DY88 9 XZZY HY88 10 RZZY SY88 LEVEL 4 1 RZ ZZ88 2 JZZZ VJB8 3 KZZZ VJD8 4 QZZZ VJH8 5 VZZZ VJS8 6 VZZZ VJY8 7 6ZZZ VBY8 8 JZZZ YDY8 9 ?ZZZ YHY8 10 8ZZZ YSY8 LEVEL 5 1 8Z ZZZ8 2 MZZZ ZVJB 3 RZZZ ZVJD 4 6ZZZ ZVJH 5 6ZZZ ZVJS 6 GZZZ ZVJY 7 JZZZ ZVBY 8 MZZZ ZYDY 9 2ZZZ ZYHY 10 CZZZ ZYSY SOLOMON 1 CZ ZZZZ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- HYBRID HEAVEN (By VmprHntrD) Game: Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III * Gameboy * * Turbo Grafx 16 (Turbo Express) * (C)Taito 1991/Ocean 1991 (C)Taito/Working Designs 1991 1MBit / B&W only / Mono 3Mbit / Color / Stereo Todays comparison as seen above for the premiere of the section Hybrid Heaven in the NES World Journal is Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III. Today we will examine the differences between the games on there respective systems. Starting off with the Gameboy release which came just a few months later than the TG16 version we find that there were some slight though minute improvements over the TG16 release. Noticeable from the title screen is that animated parasols drop from the sky adding a little more pizazz to the title screen. But beyond that the games which at first seem mostly similar are actually quite the opposite. As the game progresses on the Gameboy copy we find that the world map from the TG16 is missing and was replaced with a multi level scroller representative of each world with its name in tow by a bird with an attached banner. The TG16 copy though is different in that you see a part of space with many planets and you see Bubby (or Bobby) take off from their world to the one crying for help. When you eventually get into the game play some of the levels are found to be similar and some have been made quite a bit easier on the Gameboy. Not only that but the enemies, characters, levels, and boss of each area have been simplified, even the items and how they are distributed. Parasol Stars on the Gameboy isn't that much of a treat if you want a challenge. Many levels have been doctored to make it so you can go places you couldn't before, and the enemy count per level is also a bit lower. I'd say though the worst of the changes in the Gameboy copy is that some of the enemies are hard to detect if they've been stunned or not because they don't change color. This can become quite frustrating when you try to knock an enemy out which is usually uniform, but you can't remember if you stunned it or not. And to make matters worse we find that the animations are severly choppy on some moving sprites like the bubbles and some characters too. When it comes down to it, if you had to make a choice the slightly older hybrid for the TG16 is where I'd lay my money down on. This game has every advantage over the Gameboy leaving the obvious color and superior sound to the side. The sprites are large, the details are amazing, all the characters are fully intact, there are even little graphical touches that make it great, and you can even save your best 5 scores too on the TG16 edition of this game. It's quite sad really because if Ocean had allowed maybe another megabit in size for the game all these problems could have been easily ironed out which would have made this port superior. And now for the rating I give each of these games on my scale of 1 to 10 covering these factors: graphics, play control, game design, satisfaction, and sound. Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III Rating System * GB * * TG16 * Graphics: 6.5 7.5 Play Control: 7.0 7.5 Game Design: 7.0 8.0 Satisfaction: 7.0 8.0 Sound: 6.5 7.5 Total Scoring: 6.8 7.7 Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition Gameboy (C)ACCLAIM/TAITO 1997 1MBit / Black & White / Mono Here we go with a review of the recently released Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition for the Gameboy, a second in a series of fun puzzle games from Taito. In Bust-A-Move 2, unlike its predecessor you have a few more choices avaliable to you. From the beginning you can choose a time attack mode, or a standard game mode, which really isn't so standard when you get down to it. In the Time Attack mode you can go at it alone to beat your best times, or you can go head to head against a somewhat vicious computer controlled opponent. After beating the enemy in this game you get to advance farther over a world map to your final objective. In the main game though, there is quite a bit more variety involved in that you can choose your own path which branches out. At the beginning you can choose to go to one course or another, and do thies each time you pass that section of levels. This I found to be quite an intriguing way to play the game in that it can be quite different each time, and if you can make it to the top, depending on the path you took you'll get a different and possibly better ending. Now when we look to the internals to the game even this part of the game has had a bit of an overhaul. Some of the game screens are now twice as large adding for more mayhem. And if this wasn't nice enough there are now many new different kinds of bubbles and blocks which can either block your shots, or when it attaches to a certain bubble, it'll knock off all the bubbles of the game type. Now many might think that it would be hard to play and have percision on the small screen, but it's really not bad once you get used to it. Because of the ability to hold down one of the function buttons while moving the pad left to right, you can fire off very precise shots, or let it go to swing it back and forth quickly. Overall this game is very pleasing and is a proud and fine port of the arcade. My only real gripes with it is that there is no 2 player option, and no Super Gameboy enhancements in graphics or sounds, but that's minor in the grand scheme. And now for the rating I give each of these games on my scale of 1 to 10 covering these factors: graphics, play control, game design, satisfaction, and sound. Rating System * GB * Graphics: 7.0 Play Control: 8.0 Game Design: 7.5 Satisfaction: 8.0 Sound: 8.5 Total Scoring: 7.8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is it from us this time, but we'll be back in June. By then we'll hopefully have our American Video Entertainment interview ready, we're having a chat with Richard Frick who ran AVE. So until then... have fun with whatever you're doing :) - Martin NEXT ISSUE: out around 20th June 1998 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------