Excitebike

Excitebike
for the NES

For its time, Excitebike was a substantially entertaining game that was incredibly simple yet highly addictive. Excitebike had a certain arcade-brought-home formula that added a brand new feel to gaming.

Excitebike seems to be one of the many attempts at Nintendo to have a complete collection of sports games on their console. When you buy an NES, you can do all kinds of things! You can golf, play baseball, play football, ice hockey, tennis, and now even ride dirtbikes! Wow!

The general idea of this game is just the classic beat the high score and challenge your friends type of thing. You play as a little pixelized man on a motorcycle. There's different tracks and obstacles with 2 modes of play. All you have to do is just get to the finish line as fast as you possibly can. The trick to doing so is knowing how to control the bike so you have no falls, tumbles, or bad landings. There's all sorts of ramps, ditches, and dirt that can throw you off at any moment. There's only 5 tracks though, so if you play them over and over, you start to memorize what comes up next. The more you practice, the better your time will be.

Game Mode A is playing solo. Like Time Trial on Mario Kart. You pick which track you want and go at it. Once you get bored with that, you enter the big leauges of Game Mode B. In this mode, there's other bikers racing on the track with you. You aren't really racing the bikes to the finsh line, but they add a slight bit of challenge because they can trip you up if you run into them. Game Mode B is for those who get lonely racing by themselves.

The only thing missing here is a 2-player mode. There could have been some really fun multiplayer variants here, but sadly, Nintendo didn't feel up to it apparently. I've never played Excitebike with anyone else, but I guess if you had a couple buddies you could take turns and try to beat eachother's time. I suppose that would be just as much fun.


The final mode is Design Mode; the favorite of a lot of people. You have complete freedom to build your own original tracks and race them in Game Mode A or B. There's options for all the ramps and obstacles you've seen in the built-in tracks and all sorts of fun possibilities. Of course, there is an ENORMOUS dissapointment. Once you build your dream track, you can't save your masterpiece. That's right. Turn off your NES, and your creation is gone forever. So enjoy it while it lasts! This game was released very early on in the NES's life so I guess they simply hadn't developed the technology and programming techniques for saving something like this yet. Supposedly, there was a peripheral released at some point, which I don't know much about, which allowed you to save your tracks to tapes. VHS tapes I believe. It probably wasn't worth it.

If you were, like me, one of the lucky ones to own this game on NES back in the day, you can really appreciate this game for what it is despite its simplicity. Playing this game on an emulator in this day in age doesn't do it justice. The way video games are made and the way we play them has changed drastically since 1983. Most people simply can't appreciate the classics like they could when they were kids. Excitebike really played a part in defining the genre of racing games. I've played PS2 games where you ride a four-wheeler and the angle that you tilt the analog stick will affect the way the vehicle lands after jumping a ramp. Just like Excitebike. People often forget that modern games get a lot of their concepts from the simpler days and just throw 3D graphics on top.

Thanks for reading guys. More sweet classic goodness to come!

Bump 'n' Jump part 1

Bump 'n' Jump
for the NES
by Data East
(click images to enlarge)

My first ever video game console was the NES. My parents bought it for me at a garage sale for a bargain. I was only 4 or 5 back then and I'd never even heard of Nintendo. Of course this was back in 1995 so the NES-era had long since come and gone and the SNES was in its prime. I was absolutely crazy for my NES once my dad hooked it up for me. I couldn't pull away from it. With it I got some pretty good games. Of course I had Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt with the lightgun (orange version), and I had some other less popular games like Legends of the Diamond, a baseball game, and Dick Tracy.

I also had Bump 'n' Jump. It was one of my favorites. Bump 'n' Jump was originally an old 1983 arcade game release in Japan by Data East. It was ported to the NES in 1988 with better graphics, music, and an all-around better home experience. I spent hours in front of this little game, smashing cars and trying to clear all the levels I could. I don't think I ever really did beat this game; it just got too tough for me.

Instead of doing a normal game review, I decided that since I never beat the game when I was a kid, I want to see if I can do it now on an emulator. I'm going to record the footage and walk you through the game, reviewing it at the same time. Here we go.

Level 1:

The game starts as your girlfriend is being drove off in some badass looking muscle car. So you follow the kidnapper in your dinky little Hot Wheels car. The first level in the game has some pretty terrific music. It's upbeat and memorable. Jumping makes sort of a dramatic sound effect and interrupts it quite a bit, which is weird, but it's not a big deal.

The first level was pretty simple. Just keep driving until you see the flashing arrow, which alerts you that you're going to need to jump across a gap soon. You aren't supposed to jump as soon as you see the arrow; it just means that you'll see the gap coming within a matter of seconds. Usually the only way you'll die in this level is if you're jumping around and smashing other cars while the arrow flashes, you won't land in time to make the jump across the gap and you'll fall into the water. I remember I used to think that if I landed on that little rectangular stretch of land in the water that looks like an airplane runway, I could safely land and jump again. But nope, even if you hit that, you'll die.

The only other hazard is running off the road. When cars bump you, it's not a light tap; you get bumped hard. If you feel like you're getting overwhelmed by the other cars, it's best to keep hitting A and jumping, staying in the air. But as soon as you see the flashing alert, make sure you stay put and get ready.

The graphics on this level are great. They're very colorful. There's lots of detail, like the houses on the right of the road, and all the scenery between the gaps. The perspective is a bit off; the cars are the same size as the houses. But NES was never good at perspective, so that can slide.

Level 2:

Level 2 isn't terribly different from the first. This time, we're driving through a big city filled with houses, factories, and skyscrapers. It's a bit harder because there's a lot more cars on the road and the road is narrower. As you can see, instead of jumping over gaps, we're jumping over huge overpass bridges. Why are we jumping? Because obviously going THROUGH the tunnel is lame. I used to try and go through the little black tunnel openings, but you always just crash.

Anyway, there isn't much to say here. The level design is very similar to the first but with a slight increase in difficulty. The music is different and has a "big city" tune. It's not as memorable as the first level, but it's still great. I got through this level with no problems. At the finish line, you will see a very attractive and innocent female holding a checkered flag, whom you land on and seemingly crush in a violent fashion. On to the next level!



Level 3:

Alright. No more playing around. This is where it gets damn serious. This is the first level that is actually hard to beat. I had nightmares about level 3 when I was a kid. It seems to be no different now.

You start off driving down a country road with lakes and houses on the sides. Again, you gotta love the detail Data East put into this great port. The road is also red, likely due to the amount of blood this level has spilled from anyone who dares to play it. I maybe made it past this level once as a kid.

Anyway, you'll first notice this level has a lot more cars than usual. They're faster, smarter, and pay a lot more attention to their goal of running your ass off the road. The first problem you'll encounter is the extremely narrow spaces. At some points, as you can see, the lakes cut into the road and make it smaller. The grass does the same thing. The grass is apparently made of neon green steel, so if you run into it, you'll be minced like an onion. Basically, don't touch ANYTHING but the road.

For once, it's important to pick up the fuel cans in this level too. It seems to drop more quickly here. Most of the time you'll be jumping around like mad to avoid all the cars pushing you around in the narrow spaces, so when your fuel runs down, you'll need to try and stay on the ground and man it out so you can wait for a fuel can to drive over.

Level 4:


In this level we're taking a nice drive through the mountains, enjoying the fresh air, cool breeze, and trying not to get pushed into the jagged rock at 70 mph. Surprisingly, I think this level is easier than the previous one. Of course by this point I've turned on infinite lives and I've died a quite a few times, though. This level is different because of the curvy roads snakelike roads. You have to jump a lot more often because, in addition to all the cars, there's boulders and construction barriers in the middle of the road.

Again, I just love the details in this game. There's always something to look at. The shadows of the mountians, the cute little apple trees, and the houses sitting on top of the rock. I think the setting is just perfect.

This level is a little tricky at first, but you'll be relieved when you find how quickly you'll get to the end. This level was far shorter than level 3.

To be continued!

Alright, there's four levels down. I've decided to break this up into parts, because after level 4, things start getting SERIOUS. We've only scratched the surface of this game. In the next part, we'll go through some more levels and go more in-depth about the gameplay itself. Good lord, I just hope I can make it through this game alive.

Stay tuned!

Featured GCS 1: ZZT

Featured GCS 1

ZZT

ZZT is a DOS-based game creation system (GCS) made by Tim Sweeny in 1991. Sweeny went on to be the leader of Epic Games, famously known for the Unreal series. ZZT isn't an abbreviation for anything. It was just a random name Sweeny came up with to make sure that ZZT showed up at the bottom of software directories.

At first glance, ZZT doesn't look like much at all. It's a little game using simple ASCII graphics, which is something that was very outdated even for 1991. By that time VGA games were just beginning to gain strength. Since it was supposed to be a simple text editor, Sweeny apparently felt that ASCII characters were just fine. After working on his text editor for awhile, it seems he got bored with the idea and took a completely different direction. After moving the cursor around the screen with the arrow keys, he somehow got the idea to make a game instead.

After ZZT's core engine was completed, Sweeny went on to make a total of 4 games, along with a demo of ZZT's engine and a "tour" of his game worlds. He released ZZT as shareware in 1991. It came with his first game, Town of ZZT, along with his demo of the other games you could get if you paid and registered ZZT. Later ZZT became freeware.

Sweeny's games were a mix of puzzles and action sequences. They were all quite long and the puzzles got increasingly difficult. Generally, his games were well designed. Above is a screenshot of Dungeons of ZZT.

Of course, ZZT wasn't popular because of the little puzzle games that came with it. The REAL success of ZZT was due to the level editor which was built right in. In an interview, Sweeny said he was very surprised that people were so fascinated with the editor. He didn't realize it would be so popular. It was simple and easy to use. It came with a very flexible proramming language called ZZT-OOP (ZZT-object oriented programming). To the right is a screenshot of ZZT in editor mode. After ZZT became popular on AOL, users came up with hundreds of different ZZT games of all types. ZZT wasn't at all restricted to just puzzle games. There are many great RPGs, space shooters, strategy games, and more.

ZZT, surprisingly, actually gained a reputation as having nice looking graphics after a ZZTer by the name of Gregory Janson found several exploits in the editor and created the Super Tool Kit (STK). The STK took advantage of a glitch that occured when an object used ZZT-OOP to place terrain over certain text characters. The result of the glitch was different colors. Originally, Sweeny only included 7 different bright colors in the editor for some reason. The STK changed this and added several new colors. This is where ZZT gained an entirely new dimension. Some users actually turned ZZT into somewhat of a paint program. Below are screenshots demonstrating the graphical power that the STK unlocked.

Trust me, these low-quality screenshots don't do these games justice. Still, if you compare the screenshot of Town of ZZT at the top of this article with these you can really see what a breakthrough STK was. It's quite a mystery why Sweeny didn't include more color options to begin with.

Today, the ZZT community is alive, but just barely. If you're interested in ZZT, you can try out right now. Head over to z2 (www.zzt.org), the main hub of ZZT activity, and download a copy of ZZT. You can download hundreds and hundreds of games to play and even make your own. I reccommend you start out playing the featured games, my favorites being Burger Joint and Evil Sorcerer's Party.

I hope you've enjoyed this article and you now have a small glance at what ZZT is. There's tons more content I can cover, so a follow-up article will likely come soon. Comments or emails with your thoughts or criticism are greatly appreciated.