Jurassic Park

Amiga, Jurassic Park (1993) game

Games in olden times were tough. They were made tough to increase the lifespan because developer teams were a lot smaller, as were budgets. So the makers wanted players to be beaten back more than they wanted them to succeed or they'd see the limitations of the game, and if they completed them quickly and easily they wouldn't have got their money's worth. Over the years, as teams and budgets increased, along with expectations, they realised that the carrot approach worked better than the stick, and so games became a mainstream pastime, the encouragement of the games improving vastly on the old formula of challenge-reward ratio. Consequently, like a number of similar games I played on the Amiga back then, I was never able to complete it, and with a newfound attraction to the old computer after getting a scandoubler and unlocking the Amiga's potential once again, I was looking for another 'Elf' or 'Alien Breed II' - both games I never had the skill or patience to complete as a youngster, but have subsequently beaten in recent years. 'Jurassic Park' was a prime candidate as it wasn't one of those you had to finish in one sitting (such as 'RoboCod'), but had a password save system. And it was a game I'd enjoyed, but had simply been beaten into submission by, as well as having completed the Game Boy version and considering that to be one of the better games on the handheld console.

The appealing thing about this game, and many of that era, are the pixel graphics, and while I wouldn't say this was a standout in that regard, they are varied in their depictions of different kinds of rock and foliage that was the restriction of the story's setting. The sounds were good, as you'd expect from the Amiga, while the music (which some levels didn't even bother with), was fine, especially the atmospheric theme in the last levels as you hurry through the darkened corridors of a 3D bunker, and the use of context-sensitive music to announce the proximity of deadly Velociraptors both added to the tension, but also provided sufficient warning to prepare you for the encounter, so if anything, it might have been better to avoid music in those levels, if anywhere. Not that the themes were memorable, they were basic fare, and what was really missing was the film's famous score, strangely absent for a film-licenced game. But for a licence it was pretty good - so often you used to get a poor game disguised in pretty visuals, banged out quick to hit the lucrative window of the film's release, as has become the staple pretty much ever since. The difference with this game is that, while it was praised at the time for its graphics (you only have to read the box to see that), it was also a large, challenging game.

At heart it's a simple shoot-'em-up from a top-down perspective, something that allows it more scope than the more common 2D platform shooters, with more directions to move in. There's an impression of freedom that you can go anywhere (within the paddock fences), so that's a big plus, and there's an element of collecting, too, with first aid kits (oddly featuring a black 'X' rather than a '+' though rectified in the 3D sections), ammo, and the occasional piece of equipment to find, such as keycards or dynamite, berries or embryos. You're constantly beset by nasty little Compsognathus' (or 'compys'), that nibble away at your health (neatly represented by a spinning DNA strand), and causing general annoyance, though the worst creatures for that were the irritating dragonflies that would buzz around your head nipping at you. The simple task of getting from A to B was broken up by levels with differing objectives, such as the need to collect as many berries as possible to distract the adult Triceratops for long enough you could dash past without being crushed under trunk-like foot. The section I got stuck on in my original play-through twenty years ago was the Stegosaurus paddock where you had to traverse rocky hill areas using moveable blocks to get up or down the maze-like structure, all the while being dogged by the Pteranodons or dragonflies, and the rocks bouncing down on your head, caused by the Stegosaurus' tails beating upon the cliff faces.

Back then I didn't have the patience to explore the area enough to work out the solution was as simple as dropping two rocks onto each other to provide a tall enough platform to jump down onto without dying, and when I had so many games to play back then, and less of a mentality to finish everything, I never did get up the impetus to keep going, feeling lost when I tried to push the rock over to the broken rock bridge, every time confounded by it falling into the abyss because that wasn't the solution. It didn't help that it was extremely tedious to get to that part of the level because first you had to go through the Triceratops paddock in which the berries had to be collected, then one Triceratops bypassed, then a second Triceratops dodged while it repeatedly rammed you, slowly disintegrating the wall you needed it to destroy so you could get past! It was all too easy to be crushed underfoot at this point (until I discovered a glitch where you could hide in the corner and it wouldn't be able to touch you), so to go through all that before you even had a shot at working out the rock block puzzle was just too much. Especially as you only get three lives before having to go right back to the start of the last password point.

I felt elation at finally defeating the level, but was quickly stuck again when I came upon the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock - the fleeing Gallimimus were a delight to see, but when repeatedly eaten by the T-Rex I was back to despairing of finishing the game. Again, the solution was simple, though requiring a greater degree of skill to accomplish, and this is where I should add a note of excuse: I was using a CD32 controller, ideal for these kinds of games and far superior to the blister-inducing joysticks I used originally, but earlier in the year something under the control pad broke, meaning every so often the wheel holding the directions twists round, completely ruining the control. I had to quickly twist it back to the correct orientation before it would work again, resorting to rubber bands to hold it more firmly in place. All this is relevant for the simple fact that defeating the T-Rex was a case of getting every one of the sticks of dynamite you had at your disposal for maximum impact: running left-to-right you had to chuck it behind you as the T-Rex approached, but throw it too soon and you'd have less time to get to the end, too late and he'd catch and gruesomely gobble you up, and the sting in the tail was you had to have pushed an oil drum off a cliff at the start of the level, enabling you to use it as a bridge across a small pit, then throw your last stick in there to fire the pit, separating you from your ugly predatory nemesis. It was all too easy to misjudge the timing, throw the dynamite in a diagonal direction by mistake, so the blast would miss, and anyway, it wasn't true to the film, because you learned there to stand stock still so it wouldn't see you, the way the encounter played out in the Game Boy version.

Fortunately for me, the approach to that part of the level wasn't as tedious and convoluted as the Triceratops' so I eventually achieved victory, but the last outdoor levels were a big maze of paddocks which you ended up going round in a circle through, especially the last little bit (though I enjoyed the rafting down the river section), because the map was mislabelled, so the exit gate seemingly wasn't on the map, but it was actually designated the same letter as another part of the key, forcing me to go back round before I eventually got it. Often the challenge with these kinds of games would be unfair, getting stuck was expected, but it was only these three occasions (if you count the Stegosaurus paddock which didn't hold me back for long), although one thing I did find unfair was that the code for a level would be up on screen for so short a time you had to rush to get it down (a jumble of letters and numbers, not memorable), so that I eventually resorted to taking a photo of the screen! It was also true that the weapons in the game were basic and not fun to use. The standard taser was my weapon of choice because you only really had to worry about a dino when it came near you, and a blast of this was sufficient, plus you weren't going to miss at close range, whereas the only other weapon was a gun you could pick up ammo for, but to turn and face an enemy behind you, you had to move in their direction, meaning you'd often nick some of your health in the process and could even miss because you didn't have a steady stream of bullets like the electric charge of the taser. I think there were two different types of ammo, but I avoided those pickups to stick to the taser. It was probably truer to the film, Dr. Grant wasn't a gun-toting Schwarzenegger, but it would have improved the game to have a variety of arsenal to play around with. That's an example of where a licence can curb the fun.

In the final levels, creeping round the bunker, it became a first person shooter, and an entirely different game. Usually games don't have great last levels as all the effort's gone into the opening, but this was a worthwhile reward for getting so far. From the box you could see that such a level was there to find, and early on you get a taste of the gameplay when you traverse an empty bunker, so I, and I'm sure everyone else that played the game, were encouraged to look forward to taking on raptors in a 3D environment which was impressive for the time. It took some getting used to at first, after the precise graphics of the majority of the game gave way to blocky, low-res, inferior imagery. But it dripped with atmosphere and once the eyes adjusted, it was pretty good. I often found myself focusing on the small top-down map, rather than the main game window, anyway, to get around quicker. And, like the paddocks, it wasn't a small area, with even some outdoor sections I didn't expect, though with extreme pop-up and poor textures. But there were also some nice graphical attempts at flourishes, such as the dinosaur mosaics on the wall in the visitor's centre, or the blocky figures you meet of the characters, like Hammond, just about recognisable, so it was clear that work had gone into providing a memorable conclusion, even if it was like playing two separate games.

It's worth noting the impressive graphics of the main dinosaurs: the adult Pteranodons that would scream as they flew over the screen, hurling boulders at you as they went, were quite intimidating. The Triceratops' dark, mean faces and thundering charge; the T-Rex and its rumbling chase; even the passive Brachiosaur in the river, the herd of charging Gallimimus and the tail-smashing Stegosauruses, all gave the game a scale that dwarfed your little Grant and the tiny children he's out to rescue. For that, I was glad to be able to return to it after so many years, another uncompleted game firmly under my belt, but it didn't stop it from being, in the majority, a test of patience and resilience rather than a fun challenge, one of those that's a relief to complete rather than one I'd want to revisit again. For the time it has some impressive attempts at going beyond the most basic, with 3D levels, large dino sprites, and a sprawling layout, but I don't feel they did enough with the levels they created: what if they'd added collectables into the mix to encourage exploration, rather than it being a chore to find the exit. I would also say that it ends abruptly, as many games did, with some animated video that recalls the film's finale, and a 'The End,' where I'd have liked the film's rousing theme to come in, cycle the credits, give me time to come to terms with my accomplishment. Taken as a whole, I couldn't recommend it now, and judging from the fact I gave up on it originally, I wouldn't have recommended it then (even though I have a happy memory of having a mate round to play this game after school, while drinking Coke!), but at least it's done and I can retire from the Park. Except it does make me want to see the films again…

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