DOS Days

Rick Dangerous

Released: December 1989
Published by: MicroPlay
Developed by: Core Design Ltd
Author(s): David K. Pridmore, Stuart Gregg, Terry Lloyd, Robert Toone

 


Introduction

Rick Dangerous was Core Design's first ever title, arriving in 1989. Initially it came out for the 8-bit computers: Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC464. For DOS, it was published by MicroPlay, a small division of MicroProse.

In homage to big movie screen stars like Indiana Jones, Rick Dangerous sets off on an adventure in search of the lost Coolu Amazon tribe. His plane crashes, leaving him in the midst of a hoard of angry Coolus. He must escape in order to reach the pyramids of Egypt where he will discover a hidden Nazi base.

Rick Dangerous is a flip-screen platform game set across over 100 screens. Use your gun and dynamite [sparingly!] to defeat the Coolus, but watch our for traps, of which there are plenty.

Rick Dangerous was re-released on the Kixx budget label in 1991.

System Requirements

System Requirements 8088/8086 CPU and 384 KB of memory
Graphics support: CGA, Tandy/PCjr, EGA
Audio support: PC speaker or Tandy/PCjr
Peripheral support: Keyboard only
Original Media One 5.25" DS/DD (360 KB) floppy diskette or one 3.5" DS/DD (720 KB) floppy diskette
Installed Size 282 KB


From where can it be run?

Rick Dangerous will run directly from the floppy disk.

 

Copy Protection

Rick Dangerous has no copy protection.

 

How to Setup

There is no installation program or setup utility for Rick Dangerous.

 

Problems

Symptom: The game hangs on startup after I choose a graphics option.
Cause: You are running the game on a machine that's too fast.
Resolution: Switch off cache(s) or use a slowdown utility to get your machine down to XT/286/386 speeds.

Keys

Z = Left
X = Right
O = Up / Jump
K - Down / Duck
Space = Fire (combined with Up for gun or Down for dynamite)
P = Pause

 

To Quit the Game

Press ESC at any time to return to the DOS Prompt. There is no confirmation message.

 

Supporting Documents

 

Additional Files, Drivers & Utilities

 

Save Games

Unfortunately, Rick Dangerous has no functionality to save your progress. When you die, you start from the beginning of the current chapter.

 

Versions of the game known to exist

Version Date Comments
1.0 Dec 1989 Initial public release.


Original Floppy Disk Contents

The floppy disks have a volume label of 'IDANGER'. This Kixx re-release disk has a volume label of 'KIXX'. Here are the disk's contents:

    Disk 1 of 1 (any media):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    RICK     CGA             97,485 04-08-1989 13:55
    RICK     COM              3,535 12-07-1989 13:34
    RICK     EGA            123,271 04-08-1989 13:50
    RICK     TND             64,273 04-08-1989 13:54
        4 File(s)           288,564 Bytes


    Some versions of the game have LOADFIX.COM and a batch file that uses it to run the game. It's designed to help when running a program above the first 64 KB of conventional memory. When running an executable file using LOADFIX <exe>, it can help if you get a 'Packed file is corrupt' message.

Screenshots


EGA graphics

 

Review

Having previously played Rick Dangerous on a Commodore Amiga, I knew what I was getting myself into. However, that version has nice graphics, music, and sound effects. Not in this PC port sadly... you're limited to EGA 16-colour mode, which starts off ok with the usual intro page, but once in the game you soon realise it's difficult to spot certain things. CGA 4-colour graphics make it almost impossible.

Like many, I found this game enormously frustrating. It's simply too hard - the level design, while sometimes good, is utterly ruined by the fact you cannot see what's on the next screen and completely hidden dangers are everywhere. It reminds me of Monty on the Run (or was it Auf Wiedersehen Monty?) where you have to get past crushers that come down randomly. The limited EGA colours don't help here. Falling down from one screen to the next could mean you land on spikes, or you approach a wall (that looks identical to other walls) and spikes come out killing you instantly. When you die Rick starts from the beginning on the current chapter, so it's back to square one with each minor mistake.


Me attempting to play Rick Dangerous

 

All of this results in the entire game being one very long, tedious memory test, and ultimately takes any joy out of playing it. If you've never played Rick Dangerous before, give it a go and let me know how you get on. On every format the game is the same (very hard), but at least the C64/Amiga/Atari ST versions keep you a little more interested with decent audio.

I want so much to like Rick Dangerous, but really can't.

Graphics: I've seen worse use of EGA colours for sure, and Rick Dangerous is actually nice to look at. It's not until you play the game when you start to realise the flawed use of just 16 colours. Each of the four chapters looks distinctly different, and do a good job in evoking the location you are in, but to die because you didn't see the spikes, well, what can I say? Tandy/PCjr is similar to EGA, while CGA is hopelessly poor. The game just had too much complexity in its graphics tiles for 4 colours to work at all. 5/10

Sound: Non-existent. In my opinion, this was a rushed port to hit the shelves for the Christmas period, with little attempt to create something people wanted to play. There was a high bar set with the Amiga and ST versions, and even the C64 version had decent music. By the end of 1989 the Ad Lib and Creative Game Blaster were already out, and the Sound Blaster had just arrived, so there's no excuse for not adding better audio support to this game. 0/10

Gameplay: Oh dear... Core Design, why do you hate us so much? What appears to be a promising platformer almost immediately turns into a source of great frustration and annoyance. I'd like to think we're all up for a challenge when playing a new game but Rick Dangerous is unrelenting from the very start. Running away from a huge boulder Indiana Jones-style is fine, but it's the poor level design that really grates. No game should have you move into a screen and instantly die because you never knew what was there. All it would have taken was an option to be able to quickly 'view' in the direction of the next screen, while keeping the game flip-screen. Moving Rick around has some flaws too, with the need to be almost pixel-perfect when getting up or down ladders, getting timing just perfect, and oh, the unintentional double jumps. The way you shoot your gun or drop a stick of dynamite is also poorly done. Just have two separate keys instead of 'fire + up' and 'fire + down'. And then there are 100% hidden dangers like spikes coming out of walls. All these design decisions really kill what would otherwise have been good. 4/10

Lastability: It really depends on your patience. If you're a total "completionist", this game will chew up many days of your time. It should be the sort of game you look forward to picking up for 30 minutes and then dropping. The mental and emotional scars it leaves behind probably mean you won't be coming back to it for years, if at all. 3/10

OVERALL: 4/10