Stumbling Tours: Epic Megagames Part 2 - Ventures in VGA!

[davidn]

Watch on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_sDBGjEWM4

Continuing my look through the back catalogue of the great Epic Megagames, covering their history from ZZT to Unreal Tournament! This episode is about the first four graphical games that Epic released in 1992 - it’s called Ventures in VGA even though one of them isn’t.

Features Jill of the Jungle, Kiloblaster, Brix and Overkill.

Comments

[kjorteo]

I find the level of animation in the Jill games very striking, almost closer to the Prince of Persia end of the spectrum than comparable Apogee titles. Was this common for that era? I was really expecting you to mention it because it stuck out to me so much, but apparently not :)

I never understood two types of acid mechanic in Brix D: (Or Water vs. Quicksand as I always thought they were and called them, though the editor implies it's actually Water vs. Acid.) I mean, I understood it--like you said, they introduce them both early on and it's easy to learn from observation what each of them does. But I never understood why!

These are fantastic, thank you so much for all the research and effort you put into them :D

[davidn]

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying them! The water in Brix does seem a strange addition, because it completely changes the object of a level from matching bricks up to a trivial "get this brick here" - there's no way for it to accept one non-matching brick but not all the others, so there's no opportunity to set up a clever maze where you need to thread a single block out without matching it, because you could just throw them all in the pond at any time.

You make an interesting point about Jill, because I'd never even thought of that - in terms of most games of this time, her running animation is fairly realistic and she does look very much like a human. However, she doesn't really move like one, being able to leap at least twice her height, has total air control and is able to take a lot of damage from enemies without flinching. The feel, more than the appearance of the sprite, seems to be the defining difference here.