Montezuma`s Revenge Featuring Panama Joe

Transcription

10/17/2014
Hardcore Gaming 101: Montezuma's Revenge
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by Sam Derboo - February 1, 2014
Montezuma's Revenge Featuring Panama Joe / Montezuma's Revenge! / Panama Joe - Atari 8-bit, Atari VCS, Atari 5200,
ColecoVision, Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Master System, ZX Spectrum, iOS (1984)
Atari 5200 Cover
BCI Software Re-Release Cover
ZX Spectrum Cover
In the Golden Age of video games, there was no shortage of opportunities to explore the ruins of ancient
civilizations. From Tutank ham in the arcades to Aztec on the Apple II, raiding virtual tombs in exotic
locations soon became a sport as popular as fending of space invasions or eating dots, thanks in no
small parts to the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. When reviewing the C64 title Fred,
Electronic Games wrote in its March 1985 issue: "Tombs are getting almost as common in computer
software as dot-lined mazes."
Montezuma's Revenge wasn't the first to pair this setup with side-view arcade platforming action. It is
preceded by both Pharaoh's Curse and Spelunk er (although that didn't get widely known until the rerelease by Brøderbund shortly after Montezuma's debut). It also couldn't really compete with the technical
marvel of Spelunk er's enormous multi-scrolling maze. But other than its forerunners, it was built on more
systematic mechanics inherited from Donk ey Kong, and is all the more playable for it.
Advertisement
Quick Info:
Developer: Utopia Software
Parker Brothers
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Designer:
Robert Jaeger
Genre:
Platforming
Themes:
Graverobbing
Indiana Clones
Older than the NES
Even though the game is named after a stomach condition, which refers to tourists not being able to deal
with Mexican food, Montezuma's Revenge takes the term literally and takes place in an Aztec tomb,
although the Dio de los Muertos style skulls all over the place really are the only element where that
shows. The Indiana Jones lookalike of choice this time is named Panama Joe. Parker Brothers was so
proud of that name, they even put it in the title - the "featuring" byline should amusingly return twelve
years later with Tomb Raider. Joe is controlled the same way as Jumpman/Mario in Nintendo's genredefining masterpiece, so his jumps have a fixed length that cannot be influenced in mid-air. He also
doesn't survive any falls that go down more than his own height, which often is very counter-intuitive for
those who have grown up with Super Mario Bros., or anything that came later. Most of the stage props
are also inspired by Donk ey Kong: The rooms are made up of ladders, conveyor belts, and ropes (from
Donk ey Kong Jr.). New are platforms that phase in and out, usually above fiery pits that turn poor joe into
a cloud of smoke if he falls into them. There are also a few poles he can only slide down, but not get
back up again.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/montezuma/montezuma.htm
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What really distinguishes Montezuma's Revenge from Donk ey Kong, though, is the fact that Panama Joe
has to explore a giant pyramid that made up of up to 100 screens. Right from the very beginning, the hero
is confronted with the choice between two locked doors, which both lead to a quite non-linear adventure.
There are three different colors of doors, and of course they require appropriately colored keys (say hi,
Doom). Joe can only carry five items at a time, though, and the space is shared with a number of other
useful utensils. Oddly enough, it's also not possible to pick up any more treasure when fully packed, even
though the gems don't actually use up inventory slots.
Just walking down empty halls would be boring, and the tomb of Montezuma holds some more active
dangers than the traps. The aforementioned skulls come in rolling and jumping variants, and are the most
basic enemy type. Spiders are more tricky, as they can follow Joe up or down the ladders. The snakes
finally just sit around, but they have one dangerous advantage: When Panama Joe manages to get hold
of a dagger, he can stab one enemy with it by touching it, but only the snakes are immune. At least the
game is so fair as to remove any enemy after the hero collides with it once in the first few stages, so he
doesn't end up wasting all his lives on the same beast. Every once in a while, Joe can also find an
amulet, which is used instantly and renders the creatures harmless for a few seconds.
Montezuma's Revenge (Atari 8-b it)
While the whole pyramid is huge and confusing, the game starts out gently: Most of the right half is
sealed off in the first stage, while the left half gets closed for the second. Only from the third stage
onwards the player has to deal with the full 100 screen maze. Stage 4 adds more enemies and moves
around a few items, but from then on all following stages are the same, with one exception: It gets darker
and darker. From the very beginning, Joe has to find a torch if he wants to see anything (except enemies)
on the lowermost floor. This darkness keeps creeping up with each stage, until the whole tomb is pitch
black. From stage 5 onwards, it becomes essential to memorize the more dangerous rooms to survive.
At the end of each stage awaits a time limited bonus round, where all Joe has to do is jumping around
ropes to grab more treasure.
The whole process is iterated nine times (and the final variant repeated indefinitely), and that's just about
all there is to Montezuma's Revenge - at least to the version Parker Brothers released for Atari
computers. The game that the designer and programmer Robert Jaeger demoed earlier at CES
(presumably Winter 1983 or Summer 1984) was very different. For starters, there is an animated title
screen, followed by an intro introducing the hero, who used to be a sombrero-wearing Mexican named
Pedro, before Parker Brothers jumped in to cash in on the Indiana Jones craze. The game suggests that
there are multiple Pedros, who are shown waiting in line to get their turn whenever the player fails. Inside
the game, the rooms are decorated with spiderwebs and painted pottery, adding to the Aztec tomb vibe of
the game.
The eponymous Aztec king in the unfinished prototype...
So much for the cosmetic changes, but Parker Brothers also took out a few gameplay elements. In the
prototype, bats appeared on the screen to grab Pedro when he was lingering around certain rooms for too
long, and some ropes started burning when a screen was entered, putting more time pressure on the
player. But the biggest omission certainly was Montezuma himself, an immortal giant in the final room.
Apparently Parker Brothers wanted to keep the game at 16kb memory to make it fit on an Atari 5200
cartridge and didn't want to bother creating two versions (which is odd because they ported the game to
many platforms later). But the publisher also has to be credited with some significant improvements: In
the original prototype, half of the pyramid was nothing but empty rooms, and there was only one correct
path to the bottom. It was also ultimately incomplete: There was no way to defeat Montezuma, as Robert
Jaeger couldn't come up with a proper resolution. The final version, put together by Bob Halliday and
Chase Sebor, offers a very different and more satisfying adventure, and Parker Brothers managed to form
what was basically just a solid engine and a set of rooms into a challenging and exciting quest,
Montezuma or no Montezuma.
Montezuma's Revenge Prototype (Atari 8-b it)
A multiplatform publisher out-and-out, Parker Brothers did the usual porting spiel for most of the popular
consoles and home computers at the time. While the Atari 5200 version was identical to the original, the
game had to be stripped down for the older Atari 2600. The pyramid has only 24 rooms and the fire pits
look like quicksand (with a cool palette rotation effect), but all the main elements are in there. It's
certainly one of the best among the few platforming games for the system. The final contemporary
console version was for the ColecoVision, which aside from a brighter color palette and slightly lower
resolution is also mostly the same as the original.
The home computer ports reintroduce the additional background elements from the prototype, but none of
the more interesting elements. The Commodore 64 unsurprisingly does the best job, its only fault being
Panama Joe's walking sound effect, which sounds like someone is working an air-pump (although it
wasn't much better on Atari computers, it's particularly annoying here). The Apple II and CGA IBM PC
version suffer from the usual limited color palette and terrible controls. The IBM version also has timing
issues and needs to be throttled down manually using DOSBox.
Montezuma's Revenge (Commodore 64)
Somewhat later appeared a ZX Spectrum port for the UK, just named Panama Joe. This also has a
downsized pyramid, but worse is the slow pace and the terrible hit detection - grabbing items out of the
air requires pixel perfect positioning. It does hold one surprise, though: Montezuma is back. Although he
looks really ugly here, and the way to get past him is a bit lame: He keeps stomping on the floor, causing
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Panama Joe to fall down a story, killing him unless he's on the lower end of a ladder. All Joe has to do is
wait on the ladder for the longer gap between two stomps and drop down a hole under Montezuma's feet.
Montezuma's Revenge (Commodore 64)
... and on the ZX Spectrum.
Five years after Montezuma's Revenge was first published, Parker Brothers brought the game to the
Master System. This version boasts eleven levels, although the later ones still only have minor differences
in their layout. However, every tomb comes with a textual description, and until halfway through an
additional hazard is introduced each time. The second and third stages reintroduce the Bats and burning
ropes from the original prototype, and the fourth simply makes red keys extremely rare (which is
annoying and can get Panama Joe stuck if he ever opens a wrong door by accident).
After that follow all-new elements: Tomb number five is inhabited by mummies, which are immune to all of
Panama's tricks and are also the only enemy who can move between rooms. This transition opens a
short time window where they are present in neither room, though, which makes it possible to sneak past
them. The sixth stage (the highest one that can be selected from the start), has rooms where a huge
rock comes rolling at potential grave robbers, although this trap is not staged very well and doesn't pose
much of a problem. Stage number 7 finally ads a huge pit that spans multiple stories, and a parachute
Joe can find to glide down safely. The final five tombs have descriptions of their masters that grow
increasingly frightening, but they don't actually mean anything. Sadly, no King Montezuma here, either.
Montezuma's Revenge (Master System)
The established mechanics have also changed a bit: Since the Master System controller offers two
buttons, the amulet can now be saved for later and activated with the second button when needed. In dark
rooms, ladders, ropes, conveyor belts and items are displayed alongside the traps and enemies, which
makes it much easier to navigate without the torch. Curiously, the pause button on the system enables
cheating: The disappearing floors and traps keep running their interval when paused, so it's easy to just
press pause just before Panama Joe loses the ground under his feet, and unpause once the floor is back.
Finally, the bonus area at the end of each stage has been compressed into one single room, with spikes
closing in from the floor and ceiling.
A major graphics update for the Master System was no surprise, and aside from a cutscene that shows
the hero entering the pyramid before each stage, Parker Brothers have added a lot of different tiles and
decorations for the walls. The backdrop is still pitch black, though. Unfortunately, no music during the
game was added. From the old home computers it was to be expected to hear nothing but some bleepy
sound effects and a short jingle whenever Joe picks up an item or gets an extra life. On the Master
System, however, the silence is a bit of a disappointment.
Would b e scary, if he'd actually show up.
When Montezuma's Return was released in 1998, it contained the original Montezuma's Revenge as a
bonus. It was the very original version, the unfinished prototype with Pedro. That choice is not as odd as
it might sound, giving the divided name rights between Jaeger (for Montezuma's Revenge) and Parker
Brothers (for Panama Joe). It is embedded in a custom emulator, which runs the game just fine, although
it uses much more garish colors than modern emulators.
Montezuma's Revenge was also flattered with two fan remakes for Windows. The first one, created by
Bartosz Duzy in 2004, is modeled after the C64 version (with identical sound effects) but comes with new
high resolution graphics. The second by Bad Mouse Digital Art was released in 2006 and takes more
liberty, by transforming the game into 2.5D with adorable cartoon sprites and a less restrictive inventory
system. Unfortunately, it is rather picky about the PCs it choses to run on.
In 2012, Rob Jaeger's new company Normal Distribution published a remake for iOS devices. This
features widescreen graphics and a rather questionable new look. But the game can also be switched to
"Retro" mode. This doesn't look exactly like the classic game, but rather bathes the pyramid in trippy
pseudo-retro colors.
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The iOS version in "Retro" graphics mode.
Links:
Digital Press - Interview with Robert Jaeger
Bad Mouse Digital Art Homepage for the 2006 fan remake.
Normal Distribution Homepage of Jaeger's current company.
Montezuma's Revenge (iOS)
View all "Montezuma's Revenge Featuring Panama Joe" items on eBay
Comparison Screenshots
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Atari 8-b it (prototype)
Atari 8-b it (final)
IBM PC (Montezuma's Return Bundle)
Colecovision
Commodore 64
Apple II
IBM PC
ZX Spectrum
Atari VCS
Master System
Windows (2004 Fan Remake)
iOS
Montezuma's Return! / Max Montezuma / Mystery Island - IBM PC, Windows (1997)
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American Cover
European Cover
After Montezuma's Revenge, Rob Jaeger moved on to other endeavors. In Winter 1985, Parker Brothers
announced a sequel called Barbados Booty, which would take the treasure hunt under the sea, but that
never manifested. It took nearly a decade for Jaeger to return to the games industry in some capacity
with his new company Utopia Technologies and a series of touch screen mini game machines called
Countertop Champion. It was the same company that finally wound up creating a follow-up to his classic
hit in 1997.
That of course was after Doom and Quak e had transformed the genre landscape for PC games, and thus
Montezuma's Return not only goes the 3D route, but it is also played entirely in a first person view.
Platforming from that perspective has a lot of detractors, and those who consider it fundamentally flawed
won't be converted by Montezuma's Return, either. For everyone who's on the fence, though, Rob
Jaeger's pioneer effort makes things as easy to get into as possible. A decade before Mirror's Edge, Max'
excact position can always be determined by looking at his feet. His arms are also fully rendered and
visible whenever he grabs onto a rope or a bar. When jumping on moving platforms, he keeps roughly
aligned relative to his last standing point, unless player input disrupts the connection. Furthermore, a
subtle kind of bond and a brief, cartoon-like suspension in mid air close to an edge keep the hero from
falling down all-too easily.
The fighting mechanics, on the other hand, are pretty bad. Every conflict is solved in hand-to-hand
combat, and it is as dull and as bad as melee combat in FPS games usually is. Every fight is just the
same string of "dash forward, strike, retreat, repeat". To drag out the fights even longer, the player has to
mind a fatigue meter, which recharges rapidly, but is depleted just as quickly. Max Montezuma can
punch and kick, but the latter is useless, as its slower, causes more fatigue and doesn't do noticably
more damage. All that isn't too bad for the biggest part of the stages, as most enemies can just be
avoided, but there are a few mid bosses that guard essential key items. The bosses are the worst,
though, and they get only more and more annoying as the game goes on. The worst one is an obese guy
that keeps pushing the adventurer away and can hardly be even reached, and when he is finally brought
down, he pops into several smaller versions of himself. There are also a few puzzle fights that don't work
all that well, like a boss who has to be hit by a mechanical hammer, but the perspective and rapid
movement makes it a game of luck. That said, the only really hard battle is against Montezuma himself,
but that one is really mean, mostly because the giant Aztec king can only be hurt at jumping height and
the controls in mid-air are so wonky. Jaeger stated in an interview that he originally didn't even want to
have fighting in the game, but apparently there was a lot of power struggling within the team. The only
reoccurring bad guys from the classic games are the skulls, although they appear not as enemies but as
indestructible traps.
German Cover
Quick Info:
Developer: Utopia Technologies
Publisher: WizardWorks (US)
Take 2 Interactive (UK)
Software 2000 (Germany)
Designer:
Robert Jaeger
Genre:
Action: 1st Person
Platforming
Themes:
Graverobbing
Indiana Clones
Montezuma's Return (Windows, Glide)
The platforming challenges are all quite interesting and well-suited for the perspective. The game overall
isn't too hard, and there are only a few inescapable lava pits that can be frustrating. That doesn't apply for
the last stage though, which is full of mean death traps, and will probably require a few more attempts
than the rest. It's especially nice how the rudimentary physics are incorporated into the challenges, so it
is sometimes necessary to run up to a ramp to jump higher. When Max falls from too much height, he
loses a bit of health and sees stars for a while (except when he lands on sand), which makes the view
hard to control for the duration. The various elevators and other contraptions that propel the hero around
are fun, too. The hardest part has to be the giant hamster wheel, where Max has to keep running and
jumping over suddenly appearing gaps to get the machine moving upwards - a true hell for spatial
orientation. Weirdly for a first-person game, Montezuma's Return uses a traditional platformer lives
system, even with extra lives gained by score. The number of tries is reset for each level, though, and
thankfully there is a quick save made before each boss fight.
But there are not only hazards waiting in the tombs. Each stage holds a fixed amount of treasure which
at first simply adds to the score and counts down a number. When all treasures in a stage are found,
however, a bonus stage is unlocked, where yet more treasure awaits being captured. This starts with a
harmless room full of trampolines and jumping diamonds, but gets more and more dangerous as the
game progresses.
The visual design is very cartoonish, and enemies are all weirdly deformed and with stupid grimaces. For
every single enemy type there is a separate FMV animation, which shows the hero get killed off in
sometimes cruel, but more often hilarious Bugs Bunny style ways. Oddly, there's an astonishingly high
number of wrestling moves represented here.
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Montezuma's Return was first released in 1997, featuring builds for MS-DOS and Windows. A year later,
Utopia Technologies delivered an upgraded version, which adds an expanded, more exciting beginning for
the first stage, where Max Montezuma falls down from his lightning-struck plane into a deep canyon. In
this new version, stages are not unlocked by linear succession, but aligned in a pyramid shape, where
each completed stage unlocks those directly below. Only king Montezuma's tomb requires all other
stages to be solved before entering. There's also an entirely new area called "Rat Race," which is on the
easy side and even contains more than enough treasure to reach a 100% rating (exceeding it is counted
like failure, though, so it can be necessary to purposefully ignore some to unlock the bonus round).
The DOS version is gone in this release, but in turn Glide support is added. With a 3DFX graphics card
(or, nowadays, a Glide wrapper program) simple bump mapping and colored lighting become possible,
which makes the tombs much more atmospheric and especially improves the visibility of water surfaces.
In some areas, however, the flickering light meant to simulate torches can get quite annoying. All in all,
the Glide version is still the better looking one, especially because it avoids some color issues the Direct
3D build might have on newer systems.
Montezuma's Return (Windows, Direct 3D)
Comparison Screenshots
Direct 3D
Glide
Direct 3D
Glide
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FMV Scenes
Additional Screenshots
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Montezuma's Return! - Game Boy, Game Boy Color (1998)
Quick Info:
Developer: Tarantula Studios
Publisher: Take 2 Interactive
Genre:
Platforming
Themes:
Graverobbing
Indiana Clones
Game Boy Cover
The Game Boy incarnation of Montezuma's Return was not developed by Robert Jaeger and his team, but
outsourced by Take 2 Interactive as part of the publishing deal. It's much closer to the 1984 original,
though. The mechanics are almost identical, and even some of the rooms have been recycled. Only the
level design has gotten much more complicated, even though it once again takes place in a pyramid.
There are now doors that lead to several different layers of the tomb, and the fact that rooms don't fit on a
screen anymore makes orientation only even more difficult.
Montezuma's Return (Game Boy)
There is one new enemy type: Native American warriors, who shoot arrows at the hero. Exclusively for
avoiding these, it's now possible to duck. There are a few new traps, like spikes coming from the floor or
ceiling, and elevator platforms, but otherwise it's mostly the same. The same as Jaeger's original version,
that is, so burning ropes and bats are included. Even Montezuma himself returns, and this time he is
actually beatable. The way to defeat him is to gather a bunch of daggers and jump by his head several
times, which leads to a disappointing one-screen ending.
Even though the Game Boy Color appeared also in 1998, Montezuma's Return was still made with the
original monochrome Game Boy in mind, so instead of different colors the keys have different shapes. A
Game Boy Color version was also available, but it does nothing to change that.
Montezuma's Return (Game Boy Color)
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Montezuma`s Revenge Featuring Panama Joe

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