Games that remind me of my childhood Number 31 : Total Eclipse (Commodore 64)

As most regular visitors to my blog knows, I have a massive soft spot for the Freescape 'solid 3D' adventure games from Incentive Software.  Released for most 8-bit (and some 16-bit) computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. the series of games included Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse and Castle Master (as well as Total Eclipse II Sphinx Jinx and Castle Master II The Crypt available through the Home Computer Club), not to mention the many Freescape games people made with the awesome 3D Construction Kit, including myself!

Total Eclipse got a massive 94% in Zzap 64 magazine exactly 30 years ago this month, and it's still a great game to play today, providing you don't mind the slow screen redraw.  Moving away from the sci-fi setting of both Driller and Dark Side, Total Eclipse is set on the 26th October 1930, and you must (well, according to the game instructions) reach and destroy the shrine of the Sun God Re at the very top of the Pyramid (should that be Ra?) within 2 hours before the moon eclipses the sun, showering the Earth with massive meteorites and bringing an apocalyptic end to civilisation as we know it.

Virtual Reality - The nearest to actually being there.  It's probably the closest I'll ever come to visiting Egypt!

Inside the pyramid.  Watch out for traps!

Now, for anyone feeling a little pedantic, I've done a little bit of research, and it appears Egypt had no solar eclipse on that date.  There was a solar eclipse on October 21st 1930, but totality was only visible in Niuafo'ou, Chile, and a small part of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. 

ANYWAY, I digress.  Total Eclipse was/is a classic game and a fantastic example of early virtual reality at its finest.

Front Box Art

 

Back Box Art. 

 

Instructions.  I wonder who won the competition to see the eclipse in Hawaii back in July 1991

 

The other side of the instructions.

 

The Commodore 64 cassette.  Total Eclipse was on side 1

 

Side 2 of the cassette featured Total Eclipse II The Sphinx Jinx

 

Zzap 64 review from 30 years ago!  Issue 46 February 1989

 

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 45 - Heaven In My Hands (Level 42)

My first STRMOMC for 2019 is this classic from Level 42, called Heaven In My Hands, and was appropriately chosen because I finally reached my own personal Level 42 yesterday. Yes, I've reached 42 years old, and another year closer to getting my pension.  Woohoo!

Happy New Year 2019

Here we are again.  Another January 1st signalling the start of another year.

I've been a little quiet on my blog lately, with most of my postings and ramblings appearing on other social media sites instead (Facebook and Twitter).  For 2019 I plan to post more of my photography and any other creative projects I work on here.

As a whole, 2018 has been a slick, fun, happy year to be honest, so I'm going in to 2019 with high hopes that we'll get a repeat.

So, here I am now in my 42nd year on the planet Earth, wishing you all a very happy New Year

LOAD
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
SEARCHING
FOUND 2019
LOADING
READY.
RUN

USS Buran

I've been a bit quiet here this year, but here's a post to end 2018 on....

A few pictures of my USS Buran model from the Star Trek Discovery Starships Collection from Eaglemoss, with the usual post-production done to them.

Bourton-on-the-Water Model Village

It's the last day of the summer holidays (well, I've been working in the school all holiday, so for me it's no different I guess), and we decided to take the kids in to Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloustershire to visit the model village.

Now, I'm well in to models and I find anything miniature to be fascinating, but I've only ever been to one other model village in my life and that was Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth.  Bourton's is nowhere near as big or as detailed as Merrivale, but it certainly is nice, and well worth the entry fee.

My only complaint is that the paths are too narrow.  It's a bit difficult to get some good photos without someone behind wanting you to move out of the way.

Some of the buildings lack the detail seen in other model villages (such as cars, pedestrians, interior details, moving parts etc.), and could probably do with a bit of maintenance to spruce them up a bit. 

The model village itself is a scaled reproduction of Bourton-on-the-Water, so it's quite fun to see the model village within the model village.  In fact, to be exact there is a model village inside a model of the model village in the model village!

If you're passing Bourton-on-the-Water, definitely pay the place a visit.

http://www.themodelvillage.com/

Gaming Memories - "Last Ninja 2" for the Commodore 64

Boy, I hated this game when I first got it.  I read loads of great reviews about the game, saw the graphics in Commodore User, but when I played it and couldn't figure out how to cross the river to reach the end of level one, I put the game away in frustration, not to play it again until a few years later when I finally figured how to beat it! 

 

Since then, it has easily become one of my favourite Commodore 64 games of all time.

 

Anyway, whilst rummaging through some old Commodore magazines from 30 years ago, I found this from August 1988 and issue 59 of Commodore User.  This was my first glimpse of Last Ninja 2.