CYBER-CHICKEN (CPC)
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Publisher: Marco Sowa.
Developer: TFM. Released: December 2013. Genre: Gallery shoot 'em up. Other formats: PC. Posted 8th July 2015. By Chris Weatherley © 2015 |
Of late, retro systems all across the board have been treated to an impressive influx of homebrew and independent game releases. Many of these stem from avid fans of a certain brand or developer competitions. One game to emerge as a result of both in 2013 was Cyber Chicken, or as it was originally titled, Cyber Huhn. The competition in question was to create a quality game on the Amstrad CPC platform, but only using 16k of memory. That's right. 16k! Less than half of the file size of this very document I am writing. Modern gamers tend to forget the massive technical limitations developers were up against, so to make a playable, visually pleasant and absorbing game is an achievement to say the least. Cyber Chicken didn't even win said CPCwiki competition; that honour went to the slick shooter Relentless. But as the runner-up, the producer chose to release this poultry slaughter-fest as an official, if limited, physical title. Let’s see where Colonel Sanders gets his stock from.
Coming from modest roots, you could mistakenly think that Cyber Chicken could be a bit of a turkey. But great effort was made to ensure this would be a fine game, even taking into account the memory restrictions. However, for a full release the game was given an upgrade. Two versions of the game came to the public mirroring the practice used by developers of Amstrad software back in the early nineties. Here I look at the 64k tape version of the game, but the 128k version is extensively extended. This I will come to later, but for now I'll discuss the merits of what we get from lasering down cybernetic chickens flying in space on the 464. The plot is simple; after surviving an attack of the alien robot chickens, Earth has to defend again from another onslaught of the evil fowl. On the edge of Earth's atmosphere you are tasked with gunning down the incoming chickens before they reach our home planet. This is not as easy as it sounds, as like ants, the chickens come in great numbers, so your solitary ship has some serious work to do.
If this is what you're seeing through your telescope...
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...then you've had too much to drink. Or we're being invaded by chickens
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As an on-rails shooter, the game is extremely easy to get into. No frills, no gimmicks, from the moment you start, chickens are flying across your viewpoint, seemingly lining up so as to end on the Sunday dinner table. Their numbers increase at a quick rate however, so you have to keep this in check quickly. The first few levels see the chickens drifting across, coming both towards and to your right at the same time without retaliation. Some decent sprite scaling is invoked here. In the later levels they start to get a bit miffed and return fire to devastating effect, again using the smooth scaling for their gunfire. You are not only against the chickens, you also have a time limit to take into account. If too many chickens reach earth, or in the 64k version disappear of the left side of the screen, then it’s doom. And if you fail to destroy a certain amount before your time runs out, it's game over. Simple premise, but is one to raise a smile and a challenge simultaneously. On a basic level, it's all about what high score can you achieve.
The title screen is a textbook example of how to draw fine graphics with the mode 0 of the CPC, and you are treated to alternate versions in the 128k version, all of which are impressive. The title screen is simple in layout, with nice rippling effects on the text and is easy to navigate. Options are plentiful also, all supported by one of the best compositions heard on the CPC. The Tom & Jerry coders are responsible for this utterly awesome music, which plays throughout the game (the 128k version has even more excellent tracks). This presentation is high quality, and is a hallmark of modern CPC independent games. In the game proper, you have a cockpit view out of your unnamed craft, gun turrets extending out in front so to aim at the next despicable chicken that crosses your path. The set up is simple but effective; nothing else is really needed to enhance a game of this type. Star Wars Arcade for example?
The primary gameplay view is rendered in the CPC's mode 1 four colour aspect and thus produces detailed sprites, smooth scrolling and accurate collision detection. True to reality, shooting the lasers at a far off chicken target creates a delay before impact, so timing is crucial, as opposed to capping off a cheeky cyber-fowl at point blank range. Laser shots can missed of course, so will drift off into the void of space. General responsiveness is top drawer, the pace of the game is consistent if a bit ponderous at times, and the quick and smooth scrolling is welcome. The scrolling has an acceleration factor too; the more your press in a directed, the fasted the movement becomes. Colour limitation can make the space arena a bit bland and samey however, and there always seems to be a lot of empty but star litter space around. This can make targeting and searching for chickens a bit tricky, given that no radar map is displayed. Too tricky in fact. Suddenly finding a group of chickens to close to the left is common should your aim or concentration stray at any time. Upon being hit, the chickens blow up with a classic reference to old skool shooters by displaying your score in their remains.
The title screen is a textbook example of how to draw fine graphics with the mode 0 of the CPC, and you are treated to alternate versions in the 128k version, all of which are impressive. The title screen is simple in layout, with nice rippling effects on the text and is easy to navigate. Options are plentiful also, all supported by one of the best compositions heard on the CPC. The Tom & Jerry coders are responsible for this utterly awesome music, which plays throughout the game (the 128k version has even more excellent tracks). This presentation is high quality, and is a hallmark of modern CPC independent games. In the game proper, you have a cockpit view out of your unnamed craft, gun turrets extending out in front so to aim at the next despicable chicken that crosses your path. The set up is simple but effective; nothing else is really needed to enhance a game of this type. Star Wars Arcade for example?
The primary gameplay view is rendered in the CPC's mode 1 four colour aspect and thus produces detailed sprites, smooth scrolling and accurate collision detection. True to reality, shooting the lasers at a far off chicken target creates a delay before impact, so timing is crucial, as opposed to capping off a cheeky cyber-fowl at point blank range. Laser shots can missed of course, so will drift off into the void of space. General responsiveness is top drawer, the pace of the game is consistent if a bit ponderous at times, and the quick and smooth scrolling is welcome. The scrolling has an acceleration factor too; the more your press in a directed, the fasted the movement becomes. Colour limitation can make the space arena a bit bland and samey however, and there always seems to be a lot of empty but star litter space around. This can make targeting and searching for chickens a bit tricky, given that no radar map is displayed. Too tricky in fact. Suddenly finding a group of chickens to close to the left is common should your aim or concentration stray at any time. Upon being hit, the chickens blow up with a classic reference to old skool shooters by displaying your score in their remains.
Dear God, when did James Pond get so mean?!
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Triangle formations suggest fowl play (sorry)
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The audio can be split into two separate judgements; the SFX, should you choose, is loud and rather good with zaps and bangs aplenty, again in a very retro manner, but it's the aforementioned soundtrack that takes the real plaudits. On the 64k version both cannot be heard at the same time, but this is not the case with the higher graded 128k code. Also, the levels are trimmed down to a relatively easy four stages whereas the 128k port gives a more challenging 8 stages. This is a major downer on the lower memory version in my view. But as they say; you get what you pay for.
Cyber Chicken is not the kind of title to break any significant ground on the whole. Yes, it can display a maximum number of sprites given the hardware and generate a high frame rate, but this doesn't take away the general simplicity and short life of the game. No power-ups, no bonus stages and no in-game story make it straightforward and somewhat plain, but what it does have it does well. Smooth and neat graphics, a suburb soundtrack and basic honest-to-goodness shooting fun. From the even more stripped down original version, both the higher memory editions are impressive given the circumstances from which there are derived from. It's a fine example of a homebrew for an old system, and given a bit of a makeover, maybe could be one of the CPC greats. And let’s face it, unless you’re an avid bird fancier and a strict vegetarian, shooting space chickens is always a bit of a laugh, right?
Cyber Chicken is not the kind of title to break any significant ground on the whole. Yes, it can display a maximum number of sprites given the hardware and generate a high frame rate, but this doesn't take away the general simplicity and short life of the game. No power-ups, no bonus stages and no in-game story make it straightforward and somewhat plain, but what it does have it does well. Smooth and neat graphics, a suburb soundtrack and basic honest-to-goodness shooting fun. From the even more stripped down original version, both the higher memory editions are impressive given the circumstances from which there are derived from. It's a fine example of a homebrew for an old system, and given a bit of a makeover, maybe could be one of the CPC greats. And let’s face it, unless you’re an avid bird fancier and a strict vegetarian, shooting space chickens is always a bit of a laugh, right?
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VERDICT
Visual: 7/10
Audio: 8/10 Gameplay: 7/10 Longevity: 5/10 OVERALL: 7/10 |