Coryoon: Child of Dragon - NEC PC Engine - 1991

Coryoon: Child of Dragon is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up for the PC Engine released only in Japan in 1991.  More specifically, it belongs to (and I hate this phrase) the 'cute 'em up' genre.

Without a manual it's hard to be precise on the exact plot.  The intro shows a princess and Coryoon, her pet dragon.  In a flash of lightning an evil ne'er do well appears and, for some unexplained reason, transforms the princess into a little girl.  You are then thrown into the game as Coryoon, presumably to catch up with the evil doer and ask him to change the princess back if he would be so kind.

As with most games like this, it's the graphics that first catch your attention.  The flicker-free sprites are fast, well drawn and colourful.  The background is bright and colourful with multiple levels of parallax scrolling.  The music is ultimately forgettable but quite jolly and matches the graphics well.  Underneath all the pretty bells and whistles is a solid shoot 'em up.

The game is played over several stages made up of different environments.  Each stage has a mid and end-of-level boss.  The enemies are mostly made up of various types of birds and animals.  When killed they drop fruit which can be picked up for bonus points.  The enemies come in thick and fast without any slowdown and the screen can get very busy.

One of the easier bosses.

With Coryoon being a dragon his main weapon will be his breath.  This starts out as the usual rapid fire pea shooter.  Not pressing the fire button charges up a shot similar to the beam weapon in R-Type.  When Coryoon puffs out his cheek the weapon is charged and releases a powerful ball of flame when you next press fire.

The main weapon can be powered up by collecting orbs dropped by a stork.  The orb alternates between red, yellow and blue so you can choose your upgrade.  The red orb gives you a powerful, but short range fire weapon.  The blue orb gives you a longer, but thinner laser type weapon.  The yellow orb gives you a multi-way shot.  Each type of shot can be powered up a further two times by picking up orbs of the same colour.  If you are hit while carrying an upgrade, you lose the upgrade.  Get shot again and you lose a life.  If you do lose a life you carry on from where you died.

Making good use of the fire weapon.

As well as dropping fruit the enemies occasionally drop Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs.  The Diamond changes Coryoon into a miniature version of himself.  It means he is harder to hit, but he loses the charge shot.  The Heart gives you two fairies that circle Coryoon and act as a shield.  They can alternatively be locked above and below your dragon.  The Spade is a single use smart bomb that clears the screen when detonated. The Club acts as a fruit magnet and draws fruit to Coryoon when holding down button I.  Only one of these power-ups can be active at once.

Carrying the diamond makes Coryoon harder to hit

The final power up can be obtained by killing a chicken that occasionally appears.  The chicken provides a small dragon option that darts around the screen taking pot shots.  It disappears, however, when you encounter a boss

The games biggest draw is also its biggest drawback.  The screen can get very busy which, combined with the games speed and bright graphics, sometimes makes hard to figure out what's going on or why you lost a life.  You start the game with 5 lives and plenty more can be gained as your score goes up, but there are no continues. The bundles of extra lives make the game quite easy, which suits me fine and I can see myself coming back to it a lot.

Example gameplay...

Cyber-Lip - SNK Neo Geo AES - 1990

 

Cyber-Lip is an early title for the Neo Geo AES.  It was released in 1990 - the same year as the console itself.

The plot involves a malfunctioning supercomputer that causes all the military androids under its control to run amok.  As always, only you can save the planet.

The game is a run and gunner set across seven stages.  The player takes control of Rick (or Brook in two player mode).

The main sprites are rather, er, spritely.  The protagonists move around quickly and can jump, duck, hang off rails, and are able to shoot in four directions.  The default weapon is a fairly rapid laser gun which is handy as the enemy androids can come in thick and fast.

Certain opponents drop lettered icons which add additional weaponry to your arsenal.  These include a bazooka, grenades, flame thrower, wide shot and a faster firing version of the standard laser.  All these extra weapons can be cycled through and each have a finite supply of ammo. There is an ammo store midway through each stage where they can be topped up.  In addition a Core Bot can be collected.  This is a drone that orbits the player and can absorb a number of bullets before it disappears.  You are also up against a strict time limit and will lose a life should this count down to zero.

Each stage ends in boss that must be defeated to progress.  I was particularly impressed the first time I met the monstrosity at the end of the first level.

The game runs at a good pace and there are no complaints about the controls which are very responsive.  The graphics are colourful and fast, and there is very smooth parallax scrolling.  The music playing throughout the game is fairly quiet and not particularly memorable.  For the most part it is drowned out by the louder sound effects which is just as well.  I have no complaints about the difficulty level either – the learning curve is set just right.

In terms of pacing and game play, if not graphics, Cyber-Lip is a little reminiscent of Metal Slug. According to Wikipedia some of the team that developed this release went on to create the latter game so they do share the same DNA.  Cyber-Lip is bog standard run and gun fare but, as an arcade quality title, that extra polish makes it good enough to get onto the blog.

A hint of what is to come.

 Example gameplay.....

Champions of Krynn - PC (MS-DOS) & Commodore Amiga (1990)

Champions of Krynn marks the start of a new trilogy of Gold Box AD&D games from SSI.  Where Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds were set in the Forgotten Realms universe, this is set in the Dragonlance universe and differs in many ways starting with character creation.  I will be playing the Commodore Amiga version for this blog entry.

As this is the first game in a series you have to create a party of up to six characters from scratch.  There are seven races to choose from – Human, Qualinesti Elf, Silvanesti Elf, Mountain Dwarf, Hill Dwarf, Half Elf and Kendar.  Kendar are new to the series and have their own unique weapon, the hoopak (spelt houpak in-game), for which they gain combat bonuses.  The hoopak can be utilised as both a ranged and melee weapon.  The Kendar can also taunt the enemy by using the Yell command in combat.  Affected opponents become enraged and take penalties to their THAC0 and Armour Class.

In addition to the regular fighter, ranger, magic user, cleric and thief character classes, you can also choose to become a Solamnic Knight.  Knights can only be human and must be lawful good (my least favourite alignment to role play).  They start the game wearing plate mail and carrying a long sword but must pay a tithe when entering outposts due to a vow of poverty.  The tithe is a percentage of any coins the knight is carrying and changes depending on which ‘Order’ the Knight is following.  The manual says that at least one knight is needed to complete all the quests in the game.  In addition to winning in combat and finding treasure, the Solamnic Knights also gain experience by doing 'knightly' deeds (whatever they may be).

Other differences concern clerics and magic users.  Clerics can choose a god to follow, each deity providing a bonus spell or ability.  The selection of gods depends on the alignment of the cleric.  Dwarven clerics can only worship Reorx who gives bonus of +1 to THAC0.  Mages come in two guises - Red Robe or White Robe, again dependant on alignment.  The main difference is the type of spells they have available but as both can cast magic missiles, stinking clouds and fireballs I wasn't overly concerned.  Each type of mage is also affected by the phases of the moons which govern bonus spells, saving throws and their effective level.

One major change Champions of Krynn has over the Forgotten Realms universe is the racial limits.  In the Forgotten Realms games, any non-humans had limits on what levels they could reach.  There are still limits in the Dragonlance universe but only for certain classes.  For example, elves can reach maximum levels as clerics, rangers and magic users.

Rolling good characters does not take long as the values given are on the generous side.  This came up after only a handful of re-rolls….

I am slightly concerned my party may be lacking in melee characters – I would preferably have had one more.  The manual shows a lot of undead creatures in the bestiary which is why I have four characters who can cast cleric spells and ‘turn’.  This is the party I have chosen….

Crockett – a male Solamnic Knight

Lumley – a female Solamnic Knight

Grout – a male Hill Dwarf fighter / Reorx cleric

Varley – a female Kendar thief / Paladine cleric

Carraway – a male Qualinesti Elven White mage / Majere cleric

Hazel – a female Qualinesti Elven Red mage / Shinare cleric

The game starts at an outpost in the northwest corner of the world map.  You are joined by another Solamnic Knight, Sir Karl, and have options to visit the Commandant's office, training hall, temple, vault, bar, inn or the armoury.  The Commandant tasks you with investigating the nearby town of Throtl and to report back if you see anything suspicious.  On the way you come across a caravan being attacked by draconians.  After escorting the survivors back to the outpost you hear sounds of a fight coming from the Commandants office.  You find Sir Karl standing over the body of a Sivak draconian that was impersonating the Commandant.  Sir Karl says the outpost is severely lacking soldiers and you must return to Throtl and find a patrol led by a knight called Caramon that had not yet returned…..

I will note my thoughts and experiences below….

• I found the early game very tough going for my level 1 and 2 party with evil Warriors, Mages and Clerics being encountered early on.  Not yet able to cast fireballs, my most frequently used spells were sleep, magic missiles and hold person.   Draconians also seem partially immune to magic. 

The fourth or fifth location.  In Pool of Radiance I would still be fighting Kobolds at this point.

• The manual puts an emphasis on draconians in the bestiary.  Draconians are created by corrupting metallic (good) dragon eggs and most have rather unpleasant consequences for the party in their death throes.  Baaz draconians turn to stone which can trap weapons until combat is over (the manual suggests doubling up on melee weapons).  Kapak draconians have a chance of paralysing when they hit and dissolve into pools of acid when they die.  Sivak draconians are powerful fighters who get three attacks per round.  Bozak draconians can cast spells and explode when they die.  Auraks can also cast spells and are immune to ranged attacks.  They seem to have a couple of lives and burst into a blast of magical energy when they eventually perish.  

• Steel coins seem to be the main currency.  I found some copper and platinum pieces but no gold.

• Graphics and sound have been improved no end over the previous games.  Static graphics are still in 16 colours but their quality is much better.  Spells now look and sound more like you imagine they would.  There are also more spot effects in combat.  

• Unfortunately, the 3D view is still the same.

• Collecting coins and looting dead opponents is not as initially important as it was in Pool of Radiance.  There is only a small selection of weaponry and armour to buy in the outpost armoury and levelling up at the training hall is free, as opposed to 1000gp in the previous games.

• The world map has been reduced in importance over the previous games.  Half the map is unused and wandering off the beaten track results in monotonous encounters.

• Although the game uses the same combat mechanics as the previous Gold Box games, I didn't find them as enjoyable.  There seem to be fewer types of enemy with most battles fought against draconian or human opponents.

• As usual, notes and letters found in the game are written out in full in the Adventurer's Journal.  A lot of them referred to the Solamnic Knights as the 'good army' which sounded plain odd.  Did they refer to themselves as the 'evil army'?

• I found Champions of Krynn to be very linear.  It was basically go to Sir Karl and later the commandant, receive a quest and return once complete.  Even then the game managed to get its knickers in a twist.  The last quest I received from Sir Karl was to collect a silver rose. I returned to find he had been taken prisoner and had perished whilst escaping.

Wha..?  I hadn't given the rose to him yet!

• Each quest involved exploring one or more 16x16 maps.  Each area was only used once – there was no point returning to previously visited locations.

• Mapping the game also took a long time as there seemed to be a combat every few steps. Some of the enemies came in combinations that didn't make sense - giant centipedes teamed up with giant rats and snakes.  Wouldn't the rats have made an easier meal for the snakes than armour clad warriors?

• The overarching story involved an antagonist called Myrtani who is secretly in the process of creating draconians from good dragon eggs.  I was under the impression Mrytani would be an evil wizard but it turns out he himself was a draconian, but that’s by the by.  Anyway, with this draconian army and an army of undead (controlled by a Death Knight) he intended to take over the world.  It was up to me to put a stop to his actions.  There were mentions of a ‘good’ army but they only put in an appearance after the game was effectively over.

• I didn't like the last 20% of Champions of Krynn as it was unsatisfying and felt quite rushed.  One moment I was investigating the city of Sanction, and the next I was whisked off by gold dragons to some flying citadels and then onto the end game.  All my characters were weighed down with unidentified treasure from fixed encounters and were badly in need of levelling.

• Combat seems to rely as much on luck as it does on skill.  In the final encounter against three red dragons my party was massacred before I had a chance to react.  I remember I had used a scroll of protection against dragon breath earlier so reverted to a previous save.  On working my way back to the final fight I forgot to use the scroll yet only one of my characters took any damage.  A lot of battles followed this pattern.

The End...

That'll be right.  Turn up late, take my good gear and bugger off.  Bastards.

At least someone appreciates me.

Despite my criticisms I did enjoy Champions of Krynn, just not as much as the earlier Gold Box titles.  As Zenic Reverie prophesied in his comment at the end of Curse of the Azure Bonds, “Enjoy these first two, as the rest of the series gets kind of stale from what I recall”.  I think he may be right.

Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC (MS-DOS) (1989) & Commodore Amiga (1990)

Bollocks.  I had to play Pool of Radiance on an older PC while my newer one had the motherboard replaced.  I thought I had moved all the files into a single folder and safely backed it up.  Now I can’t find it anywhere – my maps, saved game, manuals and game disks have all gone.  In fact the only proof I have of ever playing Pool of Radiance is this blog.

I now have to recreate my party from scratch and they will start at a lower level than they had previously reached.  I didn't even get to utilise one of the two new character classes added to Curse of the Azure Bonds – Paladin and Ranger.  For some unknown reason, I have always held a deep seated loathing of role-playing lawful good characters – goodbye Paladin.  I had intended to make Skimbleshanks a Ranger/Thief instead of Fighter/Thief but that option wasn't available so, for the sake of continuity, the whole party will remain the same.  They will start at level 5 – my PoR party would have been at least level 7.

I will be playing the Amiga version again because of the improved graphics and sound.  It was released in 1990, a year after the DOS version which was the pick of the initial releases.  The game uses the same gold box engine as Pool of Radiance so I won't describe it's workings again in this post.

The Adventurers Journal says our party were on their way to Tilverton to find a runaway princess.  Princess Nacacia of Cormyr was recently spotted in the vicinity and there is a large reward for her return.  On the road to Tilverton our intrepid band - heroes of Phlan, slayers of Tyranthraxus, liberators of Valhingen Graveyard – were mugged.  Curse of the Azure Bonds begins with our party waking up in Windlord's Inn in Tilverton with all their magic items gone and some symbols imprinted on their sword arms.  They do, however, have 300 platinum pieces each.

Convenient that.

Speaking to the innkeeper reveals our party were brought in a month ago by a group wearing red robes.  She said we had the markings when we arrived and suggested we speak to Filani the sage about them.  She also mentioned an armoury across the road which would be our first port of call.   The armoury only sold non-magical weapons so with our 1800 platinum coins we could afford the best weapons and armour it had to offer.  Although Tilverton itself is quite small it contains the inn, the armoury, a pub, a general store, a training hall, a temple and the sage.  The town gates are blocked by guards telling us to move on as the Royal Carriage is expected.

We went to speak with Filani who was able to tell us a bit about the bonds by way of an entry in the  Adventurers Journal.....

After wandering around some more and overhearing snippets of conversations from the invisible townsfolk, the Royal Carriage arrived.  The bonds on the party’s arms began to glow and they were compelled to attack the carriage.  The occupant shouted he was not the king and the glow faded, but the Royal Guard charged us.  After one fight we surrendered and were thrown in jail.  A short while later we were rescued by the thieves guild who returned our weapons and took us to their base.  

The guildmaster informed us the Fire Knives had kidnapped the princess and taken her to their hideout in the sewers.  During the meeting the Fire Knives infiltrated the guild and killed the leader.  While mapping the hideout there were quite few combats with Fire Knives, attack dogs and monkeys armed with slings.  We enter the sewers leaving one room unopened as the door couldn't be 'bashed' or 'picked'.  After another combat I replaced a stinking cloud with a knock spell and returned to the door.  It turned out to be a treasure room that held a good stash of money and magic items that will have to be identified later.

We headed back into the sewers which contained some otyughs and a secret thieves guild training hall where I could level up my characters.

We then battled our way through the Fire Knives hideout to the leader who was holding the Princess Nacacia and the kings impersonator captive.  Before the leader could invoke our bonds the Princess managed to free herself and hit him over the head. Just as we won the ensuing battle, the bonds disappeared, and the King and his guards burst in.  Nacacia persuaded him not to kill us, but we were banished from the lands of Cormyr.  We now find ourselves viewing the world map just outside Tilverton.  The guards won't allow us to enter so my next plan of action is to head to Shadowdale to get all my loot identified, to sell what I don't need and to train up any characters that need it.

Sounds like my kind of town.

After that I am not sure where to go.  I will summarise my thoughts and experiences below.  Although I won't need them again, here are my maps of Tilverton....

• Some of my concerns from PoR regarding the interface have been addressed in Curse of the Azure Bonds.  It is now possible to make more use of the mouse, including selecting a target for spells and missile weapons.  The commands are on buttons so you can either click on them or use the keyboard as before.  It's still a pain in the arse to use though.

• One aspect of combat has been made worse – you can no longer see an enemy move when they are off screen.  This makes hunting for fleeing enemies unnecessarily long-winded. Additionally, during the first fight in the thieves guild, it was impossible to differentiate between friend or foe as the icons for all the thieves were the same.

• What has happened to the sound?!  There is now only one short tune played at the start and end of combat which is noticeably worse than the one in PoR. The scream I praised in the first game when someone dies now sounds like a klaxon.  Casting some spells produces a weird warbling noise.  There is also an annoying sound every time you take a step.  In fact, the only decent sound effect is a satisfying 'thwack' when an attack connects.

• For the few times I could be bothered picking up treasure after random battles I only took gems and jewellery   I had been picking up platinum coins but they encumbered my characters so much it wasn't worth it. The best items are dropped in fixed encounters anyway.

Nah, give it to your favourite charity.

• The over world map can no longer be explored as in Pool of Radiance.  There are several towns and cities and you travel directly to them.  You have choice of travelling by boat, trail or wilderness depending on the terrain.  There is always a chance of a random encounter en route.

 

• During my wanderings I met a grey cloaked character at some standing stones. He hinted that I should firstly head south to a Wizards Tower.  I couldn't see the tower on the map so headed to Hap which was on the southern border. The town was overrun with Drow.  Defeating these opened up some caves which ultimately lead to the tower.  When fighting a Draco Lich at the end of the caves I found combat is not as random as it seems.  If you are defeated in combat and try again making exactly the same moves hoping for better dice rolls you'll be disappointed - I found the combat was scripted so it is exactly the same each time the combat was played right down to who hits/misses and the amount of damage inflicted.  This was confirmed with a -7 AC Drow Lord at the top of the tower which I couldn't get past.

This was the first time I noticed something wasn't quite right with combat.

• Reloading, I decided to revisit Phlan which turned out to be just a menu town, then onto Zhentil Keep which was an ideal place to grind a couple of levels.  After that the tower was quite easy and my second bond was removed.  A tavern tale in Phlan gave a nod to Pool of Radiance.

• I am enjoying combat more than Pool of Radiance.  It's mainly due to the wider variety of opponents, some of which are immune to magic, making battles a lot more tactical than just walloping the nearest enemy.

• It was indicated my next stop should be the green clerics to the northwest.  Before hunting them down I stopped off at training hall as Skimbleshanks was ready to go up a fighter level.  I had forgotten about racial limits and found she had already peaked at level 9.  I then headed onto Yulash and the Pit of Moander.

• It was tough going through Yulash just to get to the Pit of Moander.  Once there I was joined by Alias and Dragonbait (who are pictured in the cover art).  We stumbled upon a ceremony attempting to summon Moander, the god of rot and corruption, into the physical realm using the power of my bonds.  When the power was used, the bonds dissipated allowing us to disrupt the service.  We had to fight a group of cultists then three 'Bits o' Moander' which had managed to come through the portal before it closed.  Behind the altar was a nice cache of treasure.

I soon put a stop to the summoning of Moander.

• With only two bonds left my next destination was nearby Zhentil Keep.  Due to rumours being spread about my party by a halfling, all the inhabitants gave me wide berth.

Well, nearly all the inhabitants.

• The halfling was a bard called Olive Ruskettle and she helped me enter the Temple of Bane.  She led me to Dimswart, a sage who was able to tell me more about my bonds and said I needed three artifacts to defeat Tyranthraxus (I already had two of these).  Working my way through the temple there were a few tough fights and, like Moander, there was some treasure behind the altar.  A mysterious robed woman said I was trapped and she could show me the way out. Instead she led us to the lair of a beholder called Dexam who wanted to study my bonds (how he planned to do this with no hands I don't know).  We were interrupted by Fzoul Chembryl who was the person that bonded me and demanded we be released.  Dexam disintegrated him which in turn removed the bonds.  Having no more use for me, Dexam left us to his guards.  Battling my way through the lair I eventually caught up with Dexam again along with the robed woman who turned out to be a medusa.  The ensuing fight was very difficult and left two of my characters dead.  Most of the enemy could be taken down with fireballs, but the beholder was immune and it took two rounds (and a couple of reloads) to take him out even using haste and buffing spells on my fighters.

• Searching outside some of the menu towns reveals extra areas for optional side quests.  One of these is a quest to destroy the infamous Beholder Corps.  It's seemingly impossible to complete without the dust of disappearance and very easy with it.  Either way it gives out a lot of experience.  

• Heading back to the standing stone, the grey robed figure reveals himself as Tyranthraxus and heads off to Myth Drannor.  

• To reach the final showdown there are three 16 x 16 areas to get through.  Your bonds have been weakened when the 'Nameless One' reads out the scroll to dispell them so you are no longer under control.  Tyranthraxus appears in the form of a storm giant behind several dozen margoyles and flanked by eight high priests.  Tyranthraxus can cast devastatingly powerful lightning bolts, even targeting invisible characters.  The priests can cast 'hold person' and 'slay living' spells.  It took several attempts but I managed to defeat him in the end.  My tactic was to have my spell casters use area affect spells on the margoyles and priests before they themselves were taken down.  My melee characters would take on Tyranthaxus and mop up any monsters left.

 

Like Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds has an awful interface, awful graphics, awful sound and is a cracking game.  This time I'll make sure I keep my characters safe for Secret of the Silver Blades.

The end (spoilers)

Cyclone - Sinclair Spectrum - 1985

Cyclone, programmed by Costa Panayi, is his follow up to T.L.L.. It makes use of the same skewed top-down view, only this time you pilot a helicopter instead of a Tornado.

Your main mission is to collect five crates of medical supplies which are randomly placed on a series of storm hit islands. The crates are winched aboard the helicopter by hovering low over them.  One difference between Cyclone and T.L.L. is that you can change your viewpoint between North and South to enable you to find crates which would otherwise be hidden by the terrain.  You can collect bonus points by rescuing people from the islands as well as the medical supplies.

The islands can be navigated via a map which can be called up at any time.  The play area is not wraparound this time so you can’t take any short-cuts between the islands.  The map also shows the position of the cyclone which travels randomly around the area.  Getting too close to the cyclone adversely affects the handling of the chopper causing it to crash if you stay in the area too long.  If you can successfully land the helicopter on a flat peace of terrain or a landing pad it is possible to weather out the storm.  The landing pads can also be used to replenish your fuel supply.

Adding to the difficulty is a time limit.  This can pile on the pressure when you are halfway through time limit and haven’t found any crates yet.  Low flying jets also make an appearance and must be avoided – you get a warning when they are in the vicinity.

The graphics are good for the time with smooth scrolling and minimal attribute clash.  The sound is adequate just consisting of the engine noise of the helicopter.  This is another excellent Spectrum game that I find as playable no as it was back in the day. 

The map can be called up at any time.  It show the location of the cyclone and your helicopter.

Your main objective is to pick up the medical supplies.