| ARCHIVE STATS |
262 games
79 downloadable
1226 MB archived |
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| INDIVIDUAL GAME LISTING |
Tsunami 2010  
"Psychaedelic oldschool abstract electronic space-shooter pixel-overdose fun in 96kb!" This is what Tsunami 2010 promises, and it has all of it: it's not simply a clone of Tempest 2000, but an even better game. In case you don't know what Tempest is, the original version is a 1980 arcade game in wireframe graphics, while Tempest 2000 was programmed by the great Jeff "Yak" Minter, and was one of the few good games for the unlucky Atari Jaguar console (a PC conversion exists). It's a bizarre shooter: in every stage, your "ship" is on a side of strange-looking tunnels or grids. It is capable of moving on lanes on the perimeter, and must destroy the enemies coming from the opposite side before being able to warp to the next stage. Like many classic oldies, a simple concept and great gameplay.
Tsunami 2010 not only takes back the old fun, it's also an incredible programming exercise, since the game resides all in 96,000 bytes. You could think graphics are quite simple, like the 1980 original, then: wrong, they are really stunning. Tempest 2000 was already abstract and psychaedelic, this is at least five times more. The moving forms, the flashy colors, the light effects, the myriad of particles, are really something to see, though seriously headache-inducing and hallucinating at times [obviously, if subjects suffering from hepylepsia should already be careful about "regular" games, make them stay away from this one!]; no screenshot can give justice, you got to see them moving. Such graphics can give some "embarassment" even to the most powerful configurations if you are using the highest resolutions and detail levels, but don't worry, you have plenty of them to choose a combination suiting your system, though you will lose part of the visual impact.
The built-in tunes are nothing special, but you can't protest since, given the little space, it's surprising the presence of music at all! However, the game allows you to use music CDs, or audio files in MOD format, to give it a better soundtrack; the two packs of mods available at the official site are a good start.
But, putting the technical showcase aside, what makes Tsunami's gameplay better than the illustrious originals'? Well, there are some new bonuses, the best being one allowing the ship to jump off the grid. With it, you can still be able to destroy an enemy even if it reached your side. The enemies leave particles you can get, helping increase the score multiplier bar under the lives indicator: the more is filled, bigger the scores and bonuses you can get. A trigger-happy attitude is not recommended, since not only your bullets fill the screen with light and particles (so that too much mean less visibility), but they make the score multiplier go down. So keep cool, aim, and shoot as little as possible.
All these little innovations enhance the original gameplay greatly, without perverting its original essence. There are lots of levels, and often the action gets quite frantic, especially after new and deadlier enemies are introduced. True, the gameplay can become repetitive after a certain amount of time, but it will be long before I grow tired of playing. The only big gripe is about the lack of an option to configure the keyboard, but it's little compared to the high qualities of Tsunami 2010, a game that is classic and very modern at the same time.
| PC REQUIREMENTS: 800 mhz cpu, 64mb ram, radeon or geforce graphic card, windows (recommended) |
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REVIEWED BY Gendo Ikari
STAFF RATING 9/10
USER RATING 7.5/10
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FILE SIZE 98 KB
FILE DATE Apr 18, 2003
UPLOADED Oct 16, 2004
DEV TOOL unknown
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NO DOWNLOAD |
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NO DEMOS 