25 Years of The Secret of Monkey Island - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#67

The Secret of Monkey Island is turning 25 years this month (October of 2015), so let’s celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest point’n’click video games ever made!


Support the show on Patreon:

http://www.patreon.com/PixelTHING


If you're into retro - or not so retro - stuff, please subscribe at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePixelTHING

and visit:

http://www.facebook.com/PixelThing

&

http://twitter.com/Pixel_THING

Fuzzball (1991/1992) Commodore Amiga Review

Developed by Scangames Norway and published by System 3 Software – Europe’s number 1 name in original games -, Fuzzball is platforming cuteness that you could even play with your girlfriend!

"In one particularly stormy night, the great Wizard had stepped outside for a drink with his buddies leaving his apprentice all by himself in the mighty castle. He had this great chance to snoop around through one of the wizard’s chambers. The chamber had a strange aura about it and the apprentice could feel the electrical energy generated within the air by the heavy storm blowing outside.

The mischievous apprentice had come to the chamber to have another look at the big old chest, the contents of which had been a closely guarded secret by the wizard for years. The apprentice wanted to know why the wizard would not show or even tell him what was inside.

Through the book of spells, he found one to “open”. He thought “this is it”! After reading the spell, a magic glow appeared in his hand. But he forgot to read the entire spell. The storms outside were higher and the boy’s eyes lit up with excitement as the magic began to appear in his hand. He aimed the glowing energy at the lock on the chest and then launched his creation at the target.

In an instant, the lid of the chest flew back and hundreds of strange fluffy balls began to leap from the chest. Fuzzball after fuzzball leapt to their freedom and began to fill the chamber. “What have I done”, screamed the young apprentice. The stream of fuzzballs seemed endless, and as they hit the floor they began to grow and grow.

Trying to reverse the spell, he brought another spell. The magic energy engulfed the young apprentice in a huge blue flash of light. He turned himself into a large blue fuzzball.

The great wizard returned to find his castle full of fluffy balls and told his apprentice that he could only return to his human form once he had collected and returned all the fuzzballs and all the jewels they took with them, back to the strange old treasure chest from whence they came."

This is the premise of Fuzzball and to complete each level, you'll have to collect all the items, food and treasures, while, at the same time, avoiding, or killing, various enemies. You will face mostly other fuzzballs, but also other creatures.

Each level is only a single screen filled with platforms, and can take a while to complete.

Throughout the castle there are several areas that are decorated in different styles. As well as the standard medieval decor you will also visit the gardens, an oriental type of place and a rather cold dungeon that has ice over the floors. 

Each of the areas is filled with loads of rooms to make a grand total of 50 levels.

Touching an enemy once means instant death, so, to survive in Fuzzball, you'll have to plan every move carefully, otherwise you'll die very quickly.

As you rush around the platforms collecting the gems, a clock counts down. When the time runs out, a gate opens and the level becomes infested with flying insects that will hunt your ass down.

Fuzzball was also planned to be released for the commodore 64 and a two level preview was even available to the readers of Commodore Format magazine but, because of inside conflicts, the game was abandoned in its final stages.

  

Back in late 80s early 90s, System 3 software was also responsible for publishing other extraordinary great titles, such as: Myth History in The Making, The Last Ninja trilogy, Tusker and Flimbo’s Quest.

If you're into retro video gaming related stuff, please subscribe at http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePixelTHING and visit http://www.facebook.com/PixelThing & http://twitter.com/Pixel_THING

Support the show on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/PixelTHING

Commodore and the Amiga Mistakes

Since Commodore took over the original Amiga Incorporation company, marketing and development strategic errors succeeded in flurry.

The Amiga Lorraine - the first Amiga, shown in 1984 - was initially thought to be a computer solely for gaming, but it’s development turned it into a complete home computer based on the Motorola 68000 processor that deviated it from the concept of console gaming.

It was at this point that Commodore entered the game and made ​​their first mistakes. They focused Amiga’s marketing into business and companies, despite their known multimedia capabilities. The Amiga also forced its users to acquire a dedicated colour monitor.

Only upon its release, Commodore realized that the Amiga was a creative machine and not to be used in dark offices with piles of paper to process.

Noting that, an external TV modulator, with a weak inspiration in terms of design (the A520), was announced after the release. However, its high price scared many customers.

This obstacle was only overcome a year leter. They started to include the A520 TV modulator inside the Amiga 500 package as part of a bundle thus making it less costly to purchase.

In July 1985 the original Amiga was renamed and marketed as A1000. Two years later, in 1987, the brand new Amiga 500 was a sales success. Besides this, it also appeared, in this same year, the Amiga 2000.

However, the development of a new chipset and a more visually appealing AmigaOS stagnated for years until the arrival, in 1990, of the A3000. This allowed the competition to catch up and even surpass the Amiga extraordinary features leaving Commodore in their dust. This lead to an accelerated development of the brand new ECS chip and the AmigaOS 2, which took about a year. Thus, theoretically, the A3000 could have been released in 1988, in other words, two years before its actual release, as well as future Amiga models, the A4000 and the A1200. This interregnum of two years in the shadow of the success of the Amiga 500 was the first big hole in an extraordinary vessel that started, at this precise point, it’s fast sinking.

In 1990 was launched the Commodore Dynamic Total Vision, best known has the CDTV. The company knew that this product was a total flop and forbid retailers to place it next to other computer products in their stores. They just did not want for it to be referred to as an Amiga.

The CDTV was basically an Amiga 500 inside a CD player case with a CD-ROM drive. The simple addition of a floppy drive and a keyboard would have allowed users to enjoy much of the existing Amiga 500 collection of software. But Commodore would not budge. For a year, its high price and the attempted removal of the product from the Amiga family was a mistake for which the unit and the brand itself never managed to recover. Commodore eventually renamed it to Amiga CDTV. But it was too late.

Due to the huge and unexpected sales success of the "A500 Cartoon Classics" pack, Commodore was obliged to anticipate the arrival of the Amiga 500 +. Needless to say, it resulted in an awful surprise to resellers. The Amiga 500 + was, without notice by Commodore, included in bundles and put on sale, which caused embarrassment to stores and driven customers to despair, because much of the already released software was incompatible with the new ECS chipset and AmigaOS 2.04 operating system from the A3000 model.

It was a very unhappy Christmas for many, and just the opposite for others, because they were unknowingly given a machine updated with a new chipset and OS.

The year was 1991 and a plan to replace the bestselling Commodore 64 was on the move. This would probably be Commodore’s biggest mistake: the Amiga 300. It was even referenced by the brand itself as a "complete and utter fiasco".

The company was desperate to withdraw Commodore 64 after 10 years on the market, despite the huge success that sales continued to demonstrate mainly in Europe. They intended to sell the Amiga 300 with a slightly higher price tag than the Commodore 64, but at least €120 cheaper than the A500+. It was, however, the first to include an IDE interface for hard drives and, to keep the price low, the keypad was eliminated. The Amiga 300 had its launch scheduled for spring 1992 and would refresh the line of 16-bit computers preparing for the arrival of the Amiga 1200, with a more advanced AGA chipset, which came in the autumn of that year. Commodore UK's strategy for Europe was to enter the holiday season with a good amount of A1200 and A300 machines at around €450 and €250 respectively. Bundles with Lemmings and Deluxe Paint III were planned and organized in a newly converted Timex factory, in Scotland, acquired by Commodore. When the machines were about to go into production, Commodore International pulled the rug forcing a 180 degrees sharp turn. The manufacture of the A500+ was becoming too expensive and their production is, therefore, canceled. The A300 was repositioned as a substitute for the A500+ and, to obtain a quick profit, was labeled at the same price of €350. To be seen by the public as the successor to the A500, the A300 was simply renamed to Amiga 600. The first motherboards still have 300 printed on them. Unsurprisingly the machine did not sell well, and to drain the huge stock of A600, the start of production of the Amiga 1200 was postponed. As a result, the available A1200 units for the 1992 Christmas sold out quickly leaving many customers angry and disappointed.

Commodore had, in 1993, the opportunity to emerge and prosper in the world of consoles with the Amiga CD32, but, once again, missed the chance.

Two years before the rise of the PlayStation, the CD32 had more than half of the emerging European CD-ROM market, annihilating, by Christmas of 1993, not just the PC CD-ROM but as well the Philips CD-i and Sega Mega-CD. Due to financial problems, Commodore was not investing in software development and the console could not stand out from the remaining Amiga family, as their extraordinary abilities were not being exploited. The first units also came with an annoying problem in the CD player lid that pulled the disc up preventing it from rotating. Just putting something heavy on top could be a solution for this situation. A very serious manufacture flaw. It would have made more sense to use a drawer for the CD, just like the one used, three years earlier, by the failed CDTV.

After all these strategic errors, the inevitable eventually take over Commodore International. It filed for bankruptcy in April 1994. Auctioning of the company was completed in March 1995 with some stakeholders. Escom appeared in a position where they could take the reins of the company, but its future intention was simply to use Commodore’s logo on PCs. In the other corner of the ring were the managers of Commodore UK - David Pleasance and Colin Proudfoot - who possessed the necessary funds and a well-designed strategic plan relocating the company's headquarters to Maidenhead - UK - as well as changing the name of the company itself. Evolving technologies would be resumed which included an upgraded A1200 with an integrated CD-ROM (repeatedly dubbed A1300), a renewed CD32 with a CD drawer and a new Amiga CD64 that would support HDTV.

However, the auction was won by Escom who kept everything, but it ended itself also in bankruptcy a year later.

Before that, Escom had managed to reintroduce the A1200 and the A4000 on the market, but unfortunately due to growing economic difficulties that the company was being targeted, only at the beginning and 1996 could market the A4000. This was identical in all respects to the Amiga 4000T, the tower model that Commodore had developed shortly before being sold at auction. However, due to Escom’s tough financial time, the model was never announced in advertising. Worldwide, it is estimated to have sold just about 2000 units.

Mistakes are costly. Commodore paid really hard for them all and, unfortunately, the Amiga family was the main victim.

We could today be facing a completely different reality in the personal computer panorama.

Amiga was a fairly resounding name in the late 80s, early 90s. Electronic saloon games of the season were the major drivers of the success of the Amiga 500 due to extraordinary conversions of arcade classics made ​​for this machine. All children and youngsters wanted to have an Amiga, despite its price being an obstacle to most families.

It has currently legions of fans around the world and Amiga family products are greatly coveted by collectors.

If you're into retro video gaming related stuff, please subscribe at http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePixelTHING and visit http://www.facebook.com/PixelThing & http://twitter.com/Pixel_THING

Support the show on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/PixelTHING

Amiga: os Erros no Desenvolvimento e na Estratégia de Marketing

Desde que a Commodore se apoderou da original empresa Amiga Inc., os erros estratégicos no marketing e no desenvolvimento sucederam-se em catadupa.

Amiga Lorraine

O Amiga Lorraine - o primeiro Amiga, demonstrado em 1984 - foi inicialmente pensado como sendo um computador exclusivamente para jogos, mas o seu desenvolvimento transformou-o num completo computador doméstico baseado no processador 68000 da Motorola que o afastava do conceito de consola para jogos.

Modulador de TV A520

Foi então que a Commodore entrou no jogo e cometeu os seus primeiros erros. Focalizou o marketing do Amiga para o negócio e para as empresas, apesar das suas conhecidas capacidades multimédia. O Amiga obrigava os seus utilizadores a adquirir obrigatoriamente um monitor a cores dedicado.
Somente aquando do seu lançamento, a Commodore se apercebeu de que o Amiga era uma máquina criativa e não virada para ser utilizado em escritórios obscuros com amontoados de papel.
Entretanto, um modulador de TV externo (o A520, com uma fraca inspiração em termos de design), que possibilitava a sua ligação a um televisor caseiro, foi anunciado após o lançamento. No entanto, o seu preço elevado estava a mostrar-se de difícil introdução em casa dos clientes.

Amiga 500

Esse obstáculo apenas foi ultrapassado ao fim de um ano de comercialização do recém-chegado Amiga 500, um computador com um design mais atraente e ideal para ter em casa, quando se iniciou a inclusão do modulador de TV A520 no interior da embalagem como parte de uma bundle box tornando, assim, menos dispendiosa a sua aquisição.

Amiga 2000

Com o Amiga original a ser renomeado e comercializado como A1000 (Julho de 1985) e com o sucesso de vendas que foi, em 1987, o A500 (que no fundo era uma versão mais acessível do A1000) surgiu também, nesse mesmo ano, o A2000. 

Amiga 3000

No entanto, o desenvolvimento de um novo chipset e AmigaOS visualmente mais apelativo estagnou durante anos até à chegada, em 1990, do A3000. A concorrência aproveitou este fato conseguindo aproximar-se e, inclusive, ultrapassar a Commodore. Esta teve que acelerar o desenvolvimento do chip ECS e do novo AmigaOS 2, o que levou cerca de um ano. Assim, teoricamente, o A3000 poderia ter sido lançado em 1988, ou seja, dois anos antes do seu real lançamento, assim como os futuros membros da família Amiga, o A4000 e o A1200. Este interregno de dois anos à sombra do sucesso do A500 foi o primeiro grande buraco num extraordinário navio que, a partir desta data, deu início ao seu rápido afundamento.

Em 1990 a Commodore demonstrou, uma vez mais, a sua falta de visão. O CDTV (Commodore Dynamic Total Vision) foi colocado no mercado, mas impedido pela própria marca de ser apelidado de Amiga. Inclusive, a Commodore ordenou aos revendedores que não o colocassem à venda na secção de computadores das suas lojas. 

Commodore CDTV

O CDTV era basicamente um Amiga 500 numa carcaça de um leitor de CD. A simples adição de um leitor de disquetes e um teclado teria permitido aos utilizadores desfrutar de grande parte da colecção de software já existente do A500. Mas a Commodore não cedeu.
Durante um ano, o seu preço elevado e a tentativa de afastamento do produto da família Amiga (passou, eventualmente, a chamar-se Amiga CDTV) foi um erro do qual o aparelho e a marca nunca conseguiram recuperar.

Quando o Amiga 500+ chegou aos revendedores, meses antes do previsto devido ao enorme e inesperado sucesso de vendas do pack "A500 Cartoon Classics", resultou numa (má) surpresa para todos.

Amiga 500 Plus

O Amiga 500+ foi, sem aviso por parte da Commodore, incluído em bundles e colocado à venda, o que causou embaraços às lojas e desespero aos clientes, pois grande parte do software já lançado era incompatível com o novo chipset ECS oriundo do Amiga 3000 e com o sistema operativo AmigaOS 2.04.
Foi um Natal bastante infeliz para muitos, e precisamente o oposto para outros, pois foram, sem saber, agraciados com uma máquina atualizada com novos chipset e OS.

Amiga 300 mais tarde renomeado para Amiga 600

Estávamos em 1991 quando se desenvolvia aquele que iria ser o maior erro da Commodore: o Amiga 300, referenciado pela própria marca como um "completo e absoluto fiasco".
Foi inicialmente pensado como substituto para o Commodore 64, que a companhia estava desesperada por retirar após 10 anos no mercado apesar do enorme sucesso que as vendas continuavam a demonstrar principalmente na Europa.
O plano era vender o A300 com um preço ligeiramente superior ao C64, mas pelo menos €120 mais barato do que o A500/A500+. Foi, no entanto, o primeiro a incluir um interface IDE para disco rígido e, para manter o preço baixo, foi eliminado o teclado numérico.
O Amiga 300 tinha o seu lançamento programado para a Primavera de 1992 e iria refrescar a linha de computadores de 16 bits preparando-se para a chegada do Amiga 1200, com um mais avançado chipset AGA, que chegaria no Outono desse mesmo ano.

Amiga 4000

A estratégia da Commodore UK para a Europa era entrar na época natalícia com uma boa quantidade de máquinas A1200 a €450 e A300 a €250. Bundles foram planeados e organizados com o jogo Lemmings e o programa Deluxe Paint III numa recém-convertida fábrica Timex na Escócia adquirida pela Commodore.
Quando as máquinas estavam prestes a entrar em produção, a Commodore International puxou o tapete forçando uma viragem brusca de 180º. O fabrico do A500+ estava a tornar-se dispendioso sendo, assim, cancelada a sua produção.
O A300 foi reposicionado como substituto do A500+ e, para obtenção de lucro rápido, foi etiquetado ao mesmo preço deste, ou seja, €350. Por forma a que fosse visto pelo público como o sucessor do A500, foi simplesmente renomeado para Amiga 600 (as primeiras motherboards ainda possuem A300 impresso nelas).



Sem surpresas a máquina não vendeu bem, e, para escoar o enorme stock de A600, o arranque do fabrico do A1200 foi adiado. Em resultado, as unidades de A1200 disponíveis no Natal de 1992 esgotaram rapidamente deixando muitos clientes furiosos e desapontados.

Amiga 1200

Amiga CD32

A Commodore teve, em 1993, a oportunidade de emergir e singrar no mundo das consolas com a Amiga CD32, mas, uma vez mais, desperdiçou a oportunidade.
Dois anos antes do surgimento da PlayStation, a CD32 tinha mais de metade do emergente mercado CD-ROM europeu, aniquilando, no Natal desse ano, não só o PC CD-ROM como também o Philips CD-i e a Sega Mega-CD.
Devido aos problemas financeiros, a Commodore não estava a investir em desenvolvimento de software e a consola não conseguia destacar-se da restante família Amiga, pois as suas extraordinárias capacidades não estavam a ser exploradas.
As primeiras unidades vinham, também, com um problema irritante na tampa do leitor de CD que puxava o disco para cima impedindo-o de girar. Apenas colocando algo pesado em cima se poderia contornar essa situação. Uma falha gravíssima. Talvez fizesse mais sentido que a CD32 possuísse uma gaveta para CD como aquela utilizada, três anos antes, no fracassado CDTV.

David Pleasance e Colin Proudfoot

Após todos estes erros estratégicos, o inevitável acabou por tomar conta da Commodore Internationl. Entrou em falência em abril de 1994. A venda em leilão da companhia ficou concluída em março de 1995 com alguns interessados. EsCom surgiu numa posição em que poderia tomar as rédeas da empresa, mas a sua intenção futura era simplesmente usar o logótipo Commodore em PCs. No outro canto do ring estavam os gestores da Commodore UK - David Pleasance e Colin Proudfoot - que possuíam os fundos necessários e um plano estratégico bem delineado relocalizando a sede da empresa para Maidenhead - Reino Unido - assim como alterando o próprio nome da companhia. As tecnologias em desenvolvimento seriam retomadas o que incluiria um A1200 atualizado com um leitor de CD-ROM integrado (por diversas vezes batizado de A1300) e uma renovada CD32 com gaveta para CDs. O plano previa também um Amiga CD64 que suportaria HDTV, em 1996/7.

Amiga 4000T

No entanto, o leilão foi vencido pela EsCom que ficou com tudo, mas que acabou, também ela, na falência um ano mais tarde.
Antes, a EsCom ainda reintroduziu o A1200 e o A4000 no mercado, mas infelizmente devido às crescentes dificuldades económicas de que a empresa estava a ser alvo, apenas no início e 1996 conseguiu comercializar o A4000. Este era em tudo idêntico ao modelo A4000T (torre) que a Commodore havia desenvolvido pouco antes de ser vendida em leilão. Contudo, devido ao difícil momento financeiro que a EsCom atravessava, o modelo nunca foi anunciado em campanhas publicitárias, estimando-se que apenas tenha vendido cerca de 2000 unidades em todo o mundo.

Erros custam caro e a Commodore, com a sua família Amiga, pagou bastante por todos eles.
Poderíamos, hoje, estar perante uma realidade completamente diferente no panorama dos computadores pessoais.

Amiga era um nome bastante sonante no final dos anos 80, início de 90. Os salões de jogos eletrónicos da época foram os maiores impulsionadores do sucesso do Amiga 500 devido às extraordinárias conversões de grandes clássicos das arcadas feitas para essa máquina. Todas as crianças e jovens queriam ter um Amiga, apesar do seu preço ser impeditivo para grande parte das famílias.

Atualmente possui legiões de fãs por todo o mundo e os produtos da família Amiga são enormemente cobiçados por colecionadores.