Mister 8

The Zapper

I was going back and forth on what the first theme of the month should be here at Mister 8, when I started thinking about the first spy comic I ever drew. I was in the first grade, and was hanging around with a kid who liked spy video games. He and I collaborated on a spy comic that adapted the plots of some of the games he liked. I didn’t have a Nintendo of my own, and so I never played the games I was adapting until much later, and…well, let’s just say that the words “loosely based” might apply here.

…So I want to cover some of the classic spy NES / arcade games this month, starting with the two that I definitely remember drawing.

…And to be honest, once I thought of the headline, I couldn’t resist.

1. Elevator Action

According to the wikipedia entry on Elevator Action, the player takes on the role of Agent 17, alias Otto, and has to retrieve secret documents from a building full of enemy agents, using a tricky system of elevators and escalators to navigate floors, before reaching his awaiting ride in the basement. This one is fondly remembered by many of my friends, and was recently ported to the Wii via the Virtual Console. The game started as an arcade machine, with pretty awesome art.  Here’s a video run through of level one of the NES version:

And you can play yourself through a java-based emulator at vNES.

My first-grade comic version of Elevator Action featured a fedora’d nameless spy who took on villains who looked like Dr. Robotnik, though they preceded him by years, and culminated in a Spy v. Spy-type joke in which the hero spy slams one door so hard that it slams all other doors in the building, crushing the heads of the villains in the process. Top class stuff.

2. Spy Hunter

This is one of those games, like Contra or Galaga, that seemingly everyone has played and has fond memories of. Another that was originally an arcade game, Spy Hunter came in both stand-up and sit-down versions (though I never played the latter, I imagine it was something like the set-up for Outrun). The music was allegedly originally the James Bond Theme, but was replaced with the Peter Gunn Theme when rights could not be negotiated.

The goal of Spy Hunter seemed to be to rid the roadways of other secret agents, driving cars with guns, hub spikes, and helicopters that dropped bombs. At the beginning of the level, and after each life lost, a new car (the G-6155 Interceptor) would be delivered from the back of a tractor-trailer. Throughout each level, the player would get opportunities to drive up road ramps into the back of other trucks to receive an upgrade.

Here’s a video that demonstrates both game play and the minimalist version of Peter Gunn:

There have been sequels, most recently Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run, starring Dwayne “Rock” Johnson. This was meant to be a tie-in to a film directed by John Woo, but that production hit some bumps and is now being helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Here’s a trailer for this latest game, that covers the history of the Spy Hunter franchise (including an interview with Spy Hunter creator George Gomez):

As with Elevator Action, there’s a playable java version online at vNES.

The Prisoner for the Apple IIe

The theme for this month’s Themed Thursdays was spy-themed Nintendo games, but I don’t want to stop talking about Patrick McGoohan-related things just yet. So I’m going to expand the topic to video games in general and discuss what was one of the first video games based on an already-existing secret agent property: The Prisoner for the Apple IIe, and its sequel, The Prisoner 2.

Prior to today, I’d never played this games, but I am a fan of text adventures in general. This one’s a bit different, and in many ways, the connection to the Prisoner is tenuous, but still a fun look at what early computer games were about.

In the game, the player takes on the role of a retired spy named “#”. At the beginning of gameplay, the player is shown the code that contains the top secret information behind the player’s resignation. When the player wakes up on The Island, s/he first has to navigate the invisible maze to leave the cottage, and then has to navigate a confusing assortment of buildings, including a library and a carnival.

I’ve not made it all the way through the game, but have encountered a number of interesting puzzles and tricks that the computer uses to try to get you to reveal your resignation code (including an instance of using your resignation code in a real-looking error prompt). It’s an ingenious structure designed by Edu-Ware, primarily designer David Mullich, that regularly breaks the “fourth wall.”

There are a handful of interesting apocryphal trivia items passed around about this game, including that it was used in training by the Central Intelligence Agency. One item that turned out to be true was the fact that the game, though it bears the Prisoner name and logo, was unlicensed! Says Mullich in an interview with Tea Leaves:

My idea was to create a game that was merely inspired by The Prisoner television series, and so I renamed The Village as The Island, No. 2 as The Caretaker, and so on to avoid copyright infringement. However, when Edu-Ware told me that they planned to call the game The Prisoner and use the television series’ title font, I asked them to get permission from the show’s copyright holder, ITC Entertainment. I later found out that all they did was call ITC and ask if they minded if they created a Prisoner-themed restaurant, and when they replied that they didn’t care, Edu-Ware took that to mean that they could get away with releasing the game without acquiring the copyright. Nobody outside the game industry paid much attention to computer games in those early days.

Apple IIe Prisoner 2 Cover

The game led to a sequel, The Prisoner 2, that incorporated graphics, and changed a few of the puzzles around. A review in Analog Magazine declared the following:

Prisoner II is a superb package (I dare not call it a “game”) that should provide weeks of entertainment. It goes far beyond the traditional “collect the right combination of treasures” adventure, and includes some diabolical arcade-like sequences to frus- trate you even more. I’m told that it is possible to escape from the Island. If you succeed, you will never forget it.

In the end, the solution to the game involves imagining the Island as a metaphor, just as the solution to McGoohan’s original vision for the TV show involved approaching the Village as metaphor.

SPOILERS FOLLOW:

The title, even the cover art seen for The Prisoner 2, point you to the idea that the Apple IIe itself is your prison. As Mullich told Tea Leaves:

While [Edu-Ware] realized that it was a groundbreaking game, there were concerned that I had designed it so that you could win the game from the beginning if you knew what to do: visit the Caretaker and tell him “The Island is just a computer game.” I argued that it was thematically imperative that you could win the game from the beginning, since your “imprisonment” was entirely due to the fact that you were freely choosing to spend your time playing this computer game. We argued all night about it, and I threatened to quit if it was changed, and so the game was released intact.

If you’re interested in playing the games, there are options available. A disk image of The Prisoner is available on VintageGaming.org, which also offers a design manual authored by Mullich for The Prisoner 2. The disk image can be opened using an Apple IIe emulator, which are available in abundance via a simple Google search. The sequel is available for play on the Virtual Apple 2 website.

Girl Who Was Death Spectrum ZX Cover

As with the Prisoner games released for the Apple IIe that we discussed last week, I’d never heard of the following games, nor even the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, until I did some Googling.

The ZX Spectrum is apparently the first mainstream home computer in the UK, was easy to program, and stored games and software on cassette tape cartridges. I believe it to be similar in capabilities and time of release to the Commodore 64 I enjoyed as a kid.

A number of Prisoner text-based adventures, of the open door / get item variety were released on the Spectrum, and thanks to website World of Spectrum, most of them are now playable online!

In chronological order, with as much info as I’ve been able to dig up on them:

The Prisoner (Bradbury) Loading Screen

Date Unknown – The Prisoner – Carol & Paul Bradbury (Text adventure with illustrations)

World of Spectrum info. page

World of Spectrum gameplay page

The Prisoner (Flame) Loading Screen

1984 – The Prisoner – Flame Software (Text adventure with illustrations)

World of Spectrum info page

Comments from the author, Stephen Preston:

Having watched the Prisoner repeats on the new Channel 4 in 1984, I became inspired to write a game based on the series. The format suited the adventure game very well – an enclosed island from which you must escape. What was different about this game from other adventures though was it had rather a lot of complex discussion about freedom and individuality mixed into the “take plank, use plank on hole” type cliches. Unsurprisingly, the concept and solution to the game was actually written by my dad, upon which I coded it into the final product. As such it is a rather peculiar game with many odd moments that baffle and then surprise, however the solution is best kept close at hand as the game is incredibly difficult to solve, therefore I should pay a visit to my attic to get the solution for you guys if you ever fancy meeting “Number One”! If the solution is listed, you’ll know I’ve done it!

Game map from the author, Stephen Preston, at World of Spectrum

Hints and walkthrough at The Tipshop.

Scanned instructions from World of Spectrum

World of Spectrum gameplay page.

The Prisoner (Shailes) Loading Screen

1985 – The Prisoner – Spoof Software (Text adventure)

Written by Francis A. Shailes, additional design by Gregory D. Shailes

World of Spectrum info page

World of Spectrum gameplay page

Hints and walkthrough at The Tipshop (might not be accurate — I saw no mention of the need to regularly eat or ways to deal with darkness)

Review from Sinclair User Magazine

Review from Computer & Video Games Magazine

Number 6 in the Village Loading Screen

1987 – Number Six in the Village – P.R. Software (Text adventure)

World of Spectrum info page

World of Spectrum gameplay page

World of Spectrum gameplay page for second edition

Game map from World of Spectrum

Hints and walkthrough from the Tipshop

Scanned instructions from World of Spectrum

The Girl Who Was Death Loading Screen

1987 – The Girl Who Was Death – Stephen Preston (Text adventure with illustrations)

Based on the single episode from the Prisoner that was taken from an old Danger Man script

Comment from author, Stephen Preston:

This adventure is probably my best achievement and was actually written over 18 months without much break. The game got so large that it had to be divided into two parts, with a data loader allowing the user to bring his time used and inventory over from part 1. Originally each part was on either side of a cassette. Overall the game added up to something like 92K of data, huge at the time! The game was positively reviewed by a couple of magazines at the time, but the greatest thing for me was beating the Scott Adams score for his latest adventure – for it was Adventureland on the Vic 20 (owned by Gareth Davies!) back in 1981 that first introduced me to the concept of the adventure game, one which I found thoroughly exciting. Looking back, the game could have been a lot better. It is linear in its strategy, and follows the adventure of the Prisoner episode it is based on very strictly. As such it is atmospheric and faithful, but loses flexibility and mystery. The input syntax is also a little limiting. Despite all this, it retain a lot of charm and proved popular with fans of the series.

World of Spectrum info page

Game instructions from World of Spectrum

World of Spectrum gameplay page

Walkthrough from the Tipshop

Review from Crash Magazine

Review from Sinclair Magazine

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

I first saw this item in a photograph advertising the Geppi’s Entertainment Museum of Baltimore and have been curious about it since. This week, I found one online in an ebay auction. I’ve contacted the seller, Joe, and he has kindly consented to let us use pictures of the board and game pieces here for our Harry Palmer discussion.

Joe’s auction for the complete game ends on July 7, and bidding currently rests at the low price of $25.00. Joe describes the game as follows:

“The IPCRESS File,” a board game issued in 1966 by Milton Bradley. Game No. 4643. A suspense / espionage game modeled after the popular 1965 British espionage film starring Michael Caine as “Harry Palmer, the cool
British agent,” and Len Deighton’s 1962 novel, “The IPCRESS File.”

• For 2 to 4 players
• For ages 10 to adult
• Object: Get the “Double Agent” before he gets you
• Average play time 25 minutes

The game is 100 percent complete. It includes board, 24 cards, four agent pieces, four stands (one for each agent piece), two red-and-gold dice and original box.

IPCRESS File game box

IPCRESS File game board

IPCRESS File game pieces

Another view of IPCRESS File game box

Again, if you’re interested, don’t forget to bid!

I recently downloaded an emulator and a handful of ROMs from Nintendo games that I played as a kid, and wanted to post about a handful of them here. I’ve been meaning to post about some of these early games since last year, but Patrick McGoohan’s death derailed my posting plans.

1. Mission: Impossible

This one was based on the 1988 Mission: Impossible series, put out by Konami in 1990. The late Peter Graves assigns your missions in this overhead style action game. As you can tell from the video above, the best thing about this game is the introduction. Otherwise, gameplay is surprisingly frustrating. A side-scroller would have been more effective.

2. The Mafat Conspiracy

This is one of my all-time top 10 favorite NES games, especially now that I have a map to the mazes. The gameplay is fun, and as a kid, I pretended that Duke Togo, aka assassin Golgo-13, was actually James Bond. There were so many cool things about the first three levels of this game that I’m looking forward to finally finishing the rest of it as an adult. Check out the awesome intro imagery at 2:36. This was the second Golgo-13 game, but I never owned the first.

3. The Hunt For Red October

In this ridiculous game, you control the titular submarine like a fish while shooting a variety of objects. NES games based on movies were usually crap. This one was at least better than games based on Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Days of Thunder) films. As a kid who spent time doing a book report on Hunt For Red October and begging to see the film the second it was in theaters, I wanted to play as Jack Ryan. Apparently, there’s a level at the end of the NES game that I never reached where you actually play as Ramius, running around the October defusing bombs.

4. Man From UNCLE

I didn’t own this one either, but I’m including here because neither did anyone else. When following on the success of the Mission: Impossible licensing, Ultra Games / Konami looked further back in the spy-fi archives and created a game based on the adventures of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin (who was the second player character in this side-scrolling shoot’em up, reportedly just a recolor of the Nap Solo sprite with blonde hair).  Each cut scene featured an introduction from Alexander Waverly, and there’s where the trouble began. While they had the rights to use the images of actors Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, they hadn’t sought approval from the estate of the late Leo G. Carroll. This held up release of the game to the point where Konami moved onto other projects. The video above is taken from a bootleg ROM distribution that unfortunately crashes once you click past the menu screen.

What’s your favorite spy-related NES game? Let me know in the comments section!