(Various Home, System 3, 1989)
I loved history class, I was never a fan of school in general, but I always enjoyed learning about the past. Especially when our teacher got in trouble for showing us Full Metal Jacket when we were all about thirteen. We can all learn a lot from "The way things were" and whilst the mass media loves to claim how human beings have "never been worse" a mere glance at any book recalling events from any time period often shows that life has always been tough and for every villain, there is usually at least three more heroes.
Myth: History In The Making is an old-school game about a very different kind of history. A young man is chosen by the Gods and pulled through time and space in order to defeat Dameron, a demon who has risen to tear the universe asunder with the help of many mythological creatures.
An action-platformer with puzzle elements, Myth sees the player control the letterman jacket wearing jock as he fights his way through the various time zones, battling an army of Ray Harryhausen style minions using the weapons and magical items bestowed on him or found along his journey.
Many classic characters from Mythos are all present and correct, Achilles, Medusa, Skeletons, Harpies, Norse Vikings, Odin, The Hydra and many other creatures you remember from your favourite stop-motion movies. The young hero must vanquish these beasts using knowledge learnt from their respective legends (Attacking Achilles on the heel, using the Gorgon head against the Hydra etc) As a result it helps the player to be well versed in mythology, though hints are given in the game's instruction manual for the ignorant.
Myth was a very ambitious game and British developers System 3 did an excellent job of squeezing the very best out of 8-bit computers like the Spectrum and Commodore64 to great a colourful, fast moving and visually impressive adventure. It is a great testament to the team that they created such a well animated and attractive looking game on formats that many thought had already peaked in terms of their technological capabilities.
The various timezones are nicely realised and a very imaginative series of puzzles and boss battles await the player who is able to make his way through the constantly re-spawning enemies and avoid the many deadly traps, pits and gaping chasms.
As a kid I really loved the concepts in this game, Myth appeals to that classic childhood adventure idea of being "sucked into" a universe. Kind of like that Captain N: The Games Master show but without the hot princess or the raping of Simon Belmont's dignity.
Myth should be readily available to those versed in emulation, I would strongly suggest giving it a go and logging it into your gaming CV. Relatively unknown, Myth is an absolute classic that deserves to be experienced by all.
It is a reminder of how a format's technology never truly peaks and there is always "one more game" to be squeezed out.
2 comments:
I'd forgotten all about this game. So did most Atari ST owners, as it never actually got a full release.
There was a really impressive demo on the cover of ZERO magazine, too. I wonder what happened?
My mate was pretty scathing about the main protagonist. He was always whining on, saying that he should be a normal boy, whereas the demo had a blue-haired muscle-bound troll (he was a C64 fan).
Indeed, the NES version also re-skinned the main character, making him Conan the Barbarian. Literally.
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