AtariAge Forums: AtariAge Forums -> Planet Bob

Hi there!

Move over Gauntlet, here comes:

Garrison (1987):

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/garrison.gif

Program: Jörn Galka
Graphics: M. Drechsel
Musician: Ramiro Vaca

Ratings:
Zzap! Rating: N/A
Lemon64 Rating: 7.2

Before continuing this series with Turrican 2, I'm a little backtracking to Garrison, whose Amiga version actually came out even before Great Giana Sisters, so technically it's the oldest Rainbow Arts game featured, albeit the C64 version seen here came out after Giana Sisters. (Speaking of the latter, before I forget => Giana Sisters is coming soon for the DS! ...

Hi there!

Move over Katakis, here comes:

X-Out (1990):

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/xout.gif

Program: Jörg Prenzing
Graphics: Andreas Escher
Musician: Michael Hendriks

Ratings:
Zzap! Rating: 82%
Lemon64 Rating: 8.2

At first glance a sequel to Katakis or yet another R-Type clone if you prefer, still the story of this one is a little different. As far as I remember, did Rainbow Arts try to create an Arcade machine at the time. When at some point this got shelved, the graphics and probably other things got salvaged into X-Out (=> "Crossout", I'm sure you guessed it ).

Since the main Rainbow Arts staff was busy with Turrican I/II at the time, it can be considered a production of their B-Team I guess. At least the Miggy version had music from Chris Hülsbeck and the C64 version graphics from Andreas Escher once again.

I decided to feature the C64 version here. No special preference here, but besides...

Hi there!

Move over Metroid, here comes:

Turrican (1990):

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/turrican.gif

Program: Holger Schmidt, Manfred Trenz & Achim Moller
Graphics: Manfred Trenz, Sebastian Dosch & Andreas Escher
Musician: Chris Hülsbeck

Ratings:
Zzap! Rating: 97%
LemonAmiga Rating: 8.53

Turrican continues the series of hits for Rainbow Arts, that was started by Giana Sisters and Katakis. And again it were the same people responsible for the success.

Turrican was created on the C64 and the Amiga at the same time. The game was designed by Manfred Trenz, who also did graphics for both versions and programmed the C64 version himself. The Amiga version was programmed by the mighty Factor 5 once again. Responsible for the music as usual was Chris Hülsbeck certainly.

I played both versions start to finish this weekend. While it's an incredible technical achievement for the little C64, it wasn't the Turrican I remembered. Especially the lack of music...

Hi there!

Move over Penguin Kun Wars, here comes:

Grand Monster Slam (1989):

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/gms.gif

Programmer: Rolf Lakämper
Graphics: Hartwig Nieder-Gassel
Musician: Chris Hülsbeck

Ratings:
Zzap! Rating: 71%
LemonAmiga Rating: 7.39

Now, this one is special in many ways. First thing you'll notice is that I'm actually writing about a sports game! Yup, I really do like this one. I guess it's because it's not based on any real life sport, but a fantasy sport, so my mind is kinda tricked into thinking "video game" instead of "sport simulation" ...

Hi there!

Move over Sisters, here come:

Hard'n'Heavy (1989):

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/heavy.gif

Programmer: Armin Gessert
Graphics: Manfred Trenz, Andreas Escher
Musician: Chris Hülsbeck

Ratings:
Zzap! Rating: N/A
Lemon64 Rating: 7.7

Now, Hard'n'Heavy is a tricky one. Remember when I said that Nintendo forced Giana Sisters off the market? Well, Hard'n'Heavy is the inoffical sequel to it. In fact, it is so inoffical, that it wasn't even released under the Rainbow Arts label. Still, all just camouflage. It's a full blown Rainbow Arts title, that was supposed to be Giana Sisters II until those legal issues hit it like a roadblock.

The credits I list above are a bit guesswork. When playing you can immediately tell that it's the same engine/framework than Giana. Even the players "Hard" and "Heavy" just look like Giana and Maria with helmets. The only source of Credits you can find within the game is the...

Hi there!

Move over R-Type, here comes:

Katakis...

Hi there!

Move Over Brothers, here's the:

Great Giana Sisters...

Hi there!

With the System 3 series finally outta the door, I thought about doing a series of articles regarding the games of the legendary german developer "Rainbow Arts" next. Since they did well over 50 games during their time and started with a series of really substandard crap, I did some preselection of the titles I have some personal interest to review:

Great Giana Sisters 1987
Katakis 1988
Hard 'n Heavy 1989
Grand Monster Slam 1989
X-Out 1989
Turrican 1990
Turrican II: The Final Fight 1991
Turrican 3 1993
M.U.D.S. - Mean Ugly Dirty Sport 1990
Mad TV 1991
Z-Out 1991

As usual, this ain't put in stone and if someone is really interested in me reviewing one of their other titles, feel free to request it

(BTW: I will also still do articles for the Graftgold and System 3 series on request. Just let me know if you're missing one in particular and I will do my best to deliver it... )

Greetings,
Manuel