Cholo's Vids - Dandy - Amstrad CPC

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Dandy - Amstrad CPC
31 July 2011, 10:39 pm

 

	Dandy - Amstrad CPC Ok, This game wont win any awards, that is for sure. And as this is a Gauntlet type game it is kinda pale in 4 colours compared to its 16 colours and came out a year before this one. Dandy only has 15 levels (+3 bonus levels). Of cause Dandy dont have level-skipping so that does make it a bit more equal in game time at least. Graphics is a bit more detailed than Gauntlet thanks to the use of Mode 1. Second, let me apologuise for the length of the video .. its actually one of my very first attempts. Some of the detours i do is on purpose tho (need keys). The reason i upload this early version is that further attemps pretty much all failed due to the massive bugs. Gameplay: Picking up spells to help you is mostly useless as its randomly gives you either paralize (Doh! most of the enemies dont move anyway), confused (as they arnt already that) and Wipe (this one is extremely usefull of cause, but as you only have a 1/3 chance of it happening .. ). Running fast thru the mazes is needed as you loose health with time. Kinda silly as with only 15 levels you really want to take your time and explore the mazes instead. Also what it the point if you dont have the time to stay and kill the "enemy-spawn houses" ?? After every 5 levels you get a bonus level filled with treasure. This is really nice as you can exchange treasure for more health to stay alive. Enemies are fairly dim and dont change in difficulty or design at all. Most of them arnt moving either so most of the time you ...	From: CholoCPC Views: 0 0 ratings
Time: 43:12	More in Gaming

Source: Uploads by CholoCPC

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[Cholo]

Full text here, as it didnt fit in the youtube description:

Ok, This game wont win any awards, that is for sure. Disturbingly bugged as well. No music either. Barely any sfx either. And as this is a "Gauntlet" type of game it is kinda pale in 4 colours compared to Gauntlet that has 16 colours and came out a year before this one. Also Gauntlet 2 showed up pretty much at the same time as this. Biggest difference is probably also the no. of level as Gauntlet has like 100+ at least and Dandy only has 15 levels (+3 bonus levels). Of cause Dandy dont have level-skipping so that does make it a bit more equal in game time at least. Graphics is a bit more detailed than Gauntlet thanks to the use of Mode 1.

Second, let me apologuise for the length of the video .. its actually one of my very first attempts and i got a bit confused in there at least twice. Some of the detours i do is on purpose tho, as if you run completely straight you will run out of keys. Anyways, the reason i upload this early version is that the previous attemps pretty much all failed due to the massive bugs in the game (mostly portal freezing).

Gameplay: Your average dungeon crawler type game, where the main point is to stay alive while collecting as much treasure as possible and make it thru the mazes. Picking up spells to help you isnt importent as the spell is mostly usless as its randomly gives you either:
- paralize: Doh! most of the enemies dont moves anyways and only the moving enemies get "frozen" .. so once you shoot just one enemy another starts moving again.
- confused .. enemies will probably just block your way anyway and gets harder to shoot as they dont line up in a row anymore.
- wipe: this one is extremely usefull of cause, but as you only have a 1/3 chance of it happening .. like you can easily use 10 spells in a row and not get one .. you cant rely on it.

Running fast thru the mazes is needed as you loose health with time. Kinda silly as with only 15 levels you really want to take your time and explore the mazes instead. Also what it the point if you dont have the time to stay and kill the "enemy-spawn houses" ?? After every 5 levels you get a bonus level filled with treasure. This is really nice as you can exchange treasure for more health to stay alive.
Enemies are fairly dim and dont change in difficulty or design at all. Most of them arnt moving either so most of the time you just concentrate on "digging" a route past em.

Two Player co-up: Is the game's one saving grace. Game gets a lot harder too as you need to share the loot/health. Also you cant just run in shooting wildly anymore (as you can hit each other). It also gets harder as there is less room for both players to navigate as those mazes are pretty narrow too. Going from map to map is done when both player exit the same exit, so you cant split up. This works pretty well for most, but there is some spots where the level design makes it "uncomfortable" close to you being stuck trying to go the same way.

Bugs: is what really drags down this game. So many of them. Most are noticeable is the odd spawn point where you end up inside a wall or "enemy lair". Sure some of the enemy positions can be excused by "having to find the right way in the maze" .. but there is so many where you aint got a choice and you start wondering if the programmers tested the game even once. The most annoing bug is the "portal" bug. Using portals is a pain already as it just seem to randomly "port" you to one of the other portal on the map. Also as you dont port onto the next portal (but slightly to one of the sides of the portal) you can get stuck in walls. Sometimes the game just freezes up when you enter a portal too .. either like run into a infinite loop where the game is still running (and you can still use the key for treasure to health) or the mega-freeze of doom.
Lots of fairly harmless bugs too (like you cant shoot an enemy standing at an exit or graphics errors when using spells or enemy lair only half empties).

The bonus level timer: Why is it even there? Its dosnt seem to matter if you exit before the timer runs out as you dont get portaled untill you exit yourself anyways. Maybe you get bonus points if you manage to get all the treasure before time runs out? (never managed to do that even once). Also i have tried combinations as i wondered if it affected the "ending" but nothing happens. Odd useless timer for no reason at all.

The game "ending": what exactly is supposed to happen at the final lvl i donno. Ive played both the tape and the disc version (and on 2 different emulators .. emulating both 464 and 6128) and they all end the same pretty much.
There disc version is shown here where you enter the final room in the bonus lvl and the whole thing start flashing and goes into a slow grind. Tape version does exacly the same flashing/grind but the "press play" message used to show between level starts flashing (in a unhealthly unnormal way) too. It dosnt start the tape or anything and in both versions you can exit/enter the room and go back to the bonus stage if you want.

All in all: Playable but feels very unfinished.

By Activision 1986

[Gryzor]

Was this a budget release? If so, not hald-bad, especially for 1986.