The Sequels

[Mike]

#10547

It’s not the focus of this month but I thought it would be fun to bring up that it does have sequels, since I didn’t even know about this until a few years ago.

The one being covered this month isn’t even the first in the series, that would be Halloween Harry, a 2D single screen game for the Microbee in 1985. It’s a computer I never knew about
https://www.mobygames.com/game/86068/halloween-harry/

In 1996 we got Zombie Wars, which is probably lesser known because it’s Windows only and unable to be played in DOS Box like the previous game. This one is much closer to the Halloween Harry we’re playing and allows you to play as two different characters
https://www.mobygames.com/game/1977/zombie-wars/

There is also an upcoming Halloween Harry game. I’ve been following development of it on social media and that has been fun
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3040430/Halloween_Harry/

[TigerQuoll]

#10550

Cool find Mike! I’d never heard of the 1985 game either.

The Microbee was a nifty little Z80 based system here in Australia in the 80s, which I think typically ran CP/M. I’d love to get my hands on a working one, but they’re getting very pricey…

Clearly the name “Halloween Harry” was recycled, but I think it’s debatable whether one is really a sequel of the other.
I always thought the title was a bit odd for a sci-fi game about aliens. One would expect something more like Monster Bash?
Maybe Harry had a career change, and it IS a legit sequel!

I had heard about zombie wars, but didn’t know much about it. I have a feeling it was not considered very good, but I can’t seem to find many reviews for it.

Nice to see a new one on the ay though, and by the original developer!

[Mike]

#10551

“I always thought the title was a bit odd for a sci-fi game about aliens. One would expect something more like Monster Bash?”

Well, I think that’s why the one published by Apogee was later renamed to Alien Carnage. IIRC Apogee was worried that people were going to think it was a seasonal game

[Coops]

#10565

Would you believe my kids’ school (NSW, Australia) was still using a Microbee for their bell system up until about 5 years ago? Then one day I was in their front office and saw it was gone. I should have asked what they did with it (especially as it might have been in a box somewhere, ready for a good home), but I didn’t and I think it’s too late to ask now. I hope it wasn’t thrown out after all it’s years of service.

[TigerQuoll]

#10567

At the risk of derailing this topic into the wholly non-dos related:
That is wild, coops! Using a microbee in the 2020s unironically? It shows they must have made them very reliable.
I think you should still ask what happened to it! No harm in just asking.

The computer room in my primary school was stocked with Apple II computers (europlus I think) when I first started there in 1990, and one day they were all gone and replaced with what I seem to recall were IIGS machines.
I find myself often wishing my parents had gotten hold of one of them. Probably could have got one for a song.

Anyway, ahem… Halloween Harry sequels. They sure were sequely, weren’t they?

[DJ_HiP]

#10570

Very cool Mike! I had read about the earlier game but from what I understood John Passfield had abandoned the text version to work on the graphical, so I never knew it was released!

And also never knew there was a 16bit windows sequal, very typical of the time however, I’ll be interested to try it to see how it changed.

And yes I’ve also followed the new steam version, it will be interesting to see how it lands, it’s atleast still the original creator releasing it.

[Dreamkid]

#10697

I never knew about the first game or sequel before reading this. Diane being a playable character seems awesome!

[dr_st]

#10700

Having watched a review of Zombie Wars, I find it surprising that a sequel was released 2.5-3 years later, which didn’t look better and didn’t play better than the original. I suppose the hope was for a low-effort game based on the existing engine for some easy money. I wonder if it recouped the investment.

[Pix]

#10744

I played the first few levels of Zombie Wars last night. It does look a little better with some extra animations and it all feels slightly smoother to me. I’m not sure how much engine reuse there is – it’s Windows only using WinG so no DOS support. The flamethrower is more of a regular gun now and the jetpack handles differently with some sort of hover mechanic. It doesn’t look like the exact same engine on the surface.

It plays a bit better I feel. You don’t have to find every hostage now, just get to the end of level. Where it’s possibly worse is that I’m finding I only need to use the one gun. Grenades are truly useless this time around as they don’t explode on contact. Buying ammo works very differently with cabinets selling everything at the one place. I had to read the manual to figure out how to buy anything.

I’m quite liking the sequel anyway. It’s one of the more impressive Windows 3.1 games I’ve seen for sure (not saying much admittedly). Kind of strange to be releasing it when 95 was presumably already out. I’ll persevere with it and see if I can finish it off.

[Pix]

#10757

I’ve finished Zombie Wars now. I prefered it to the original overall. It has some relatively impressive prerendered 3D animations at times, including the final boss, which were a nice touch. The bosses were nothing amazing but certainly a step up. The gameplay was largely along the same lines but the addition of a shield did change things up. Also there were so many more levels, this game is big. I was finding myself just running through quickly the further I got rather than chasing after the hostages. It’s not easy and you’d have to spend ages to 100% it. I’m not that much of a fan but it was OK, and still felt very much like a DOS platformer for better or worse. The best aspect of these games was definitely the graphics rather than the gameplay but given the limited options I probably wouldn’t have been too unhappy if I’d picked this up in a bargain bin back in the mid 90s.