Black Viper
Black Viper, developed by Lightshock Software and published by Neo Software in 1996.
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Screenshot |
Player's Review
"In the not-too-distant future the world is devasted by a nuclear conflict. The Redemin mercenaries control the streets. You are Efrim Kadan, leader of the rebellion and your aim is to liberate your people!"
Quite a late game for the Amiga but still commercially viable, just about. By 1996, all the big Amiga publishers like Psygnosis, Ocean, Codemasters and the likes had moved on with just Team17 hanging in there for another year or so. Now it's time for new developers and publishers to spring up and cater for the Amigas remaining days. From Lightshock Software, an arcade style post apocalyptic racer emerges and published by Neo which I think had only released 'The Clue' by this point but both Lightshock and Neo would go on to bring us Fightin' Spirit, an impressive Neo-Geo style arcade fighter.
Black Viper was released on floppy and will work on any Amiga between the A500 and 4000. The game arrives on five floppies with one being the intro. The game takes a long time to load, especially the levels as assets take a long time to decompress and nothing seems to get stored in ram for later use (even with extra ram available). I'm not sure if the game takes any advantage of AGA when run on the 1200 as I cant see any visual differences between the two setups. The CD version has an animated intro and other interlude sequences during the game and is bootable on a CD32.
The game looks plays a bit like Crazy Cars III except you are on a bike with weapons. You are not so much racing as getting between road points within a time limit (Radiation Exposure). Out for to long, game over. There are multiple routes between the start and end goals and its only through multiple plays you will find the easiest route for you. Between stops you can fix up the bike and buy weapons before moving on. Whilst riding, there will be many vehicles in your way which you can shoot for reward points. Just don't shoot the innocent as they will cause you damage. Along the way you can pickup powerups to replenish bike health, Anti-radiation (extra time) as well as shield boost. When getting the shield it is also a good idea to turbo boost if you have it making good use of the invulnerability for a few moments. It should be noted you get only one life and no continues so you need to slow down occasionally and not scrape the barriers.
The longplay aims to show as many stages as the game allows as you can go back and ride on alternate routes. It doesnt change the game ending but allows you to score high if that's your thing. Somewhere around the middle of the game I disable Audio SFX to allow the music to be heard without interruption. A good chunk of loading time has been cut out as well.
Overall, its not a bad game but also not without it flaws. The most obvious one is the obnoxious sound effects with weapon sounds that are too loud and overpower everything else. The game whist fast moves at a weird half framerate and it can be difficult to react to what's going on. Powerups whizz by with no chance to collect and often the collision detection is not on your side and claims you didn't ride over it. The other vehicles can clump up around you making them difficult to shoot at and even knock you around. Some items in the shop are outrageously expensive and also one use.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:00 Title Screen
00:08:18 Road 1
00:12:23 Road 2
00:17:13 Road 3
00:20:41 Road 4
00:25:31 Road 5
00:29:55 Road 6
00:34:30 Road 7
00:38:05 Road 8
00:42:34 Road 9
00:47:08 Road 10
00:51:14 Road 11(SFX Off)
00:55:36 Road 12(SFX Off)
01:00:29 Road 13 (SFX Off)
01:05:47 Road 14 (SFX Off)
01:09:40 Road 15 (SFX Off)
01:14:53 Road 16 (SFX Off)
01:18:35 Road 17
01:23:24 Road 18
01:27:44 Road 19
01:32:12 Road 20
01:36:42 Road 21
01:41:05 Road 22 (Music OFF)
01:44:50 Ending
-----------------------
01:50:18 Road 23
01:54:10 Road 24
01:57:40 Game Over
Quite a late game for the Amiga but still commercially viable, just about. By 1996, all the big Amiga publishers like Psygnosis, Ocean, Codemasters and the likes had moved on with just Team17 hanging in there for another year or so. Now it's time for new developers and publishers to spring up and cater for the Amigas remaining days. From Lightshock Software, an arcade style post apocalyptic racer emerges and published by Neo which I think had only released 'The Clue' by this point but both Lightshock and Neo would go on to bring us Fightin' Spirit, an impressive Neo-Geo style arcade fighter.
Black Viper was released on floppy and will work on any Amiga between the A500 and 4000. The game arrives on five floppies with one being the intro. The game takes a long time to load, especially the levels as assets take a long time to decompress and nothing seems to get stored in ram for later use (even with extra ram available). I'm not sure if the game takes any advantage of AGA when run on the 1200 as I cant see any visual differences between the two setups. The CD version has an animated intro and other interlude sequences during the game and is bootable on a CD32.
The game looks plays a bit like Crazy Cars III except you are on a bike with weapons. You are not so much racing as getting between road points within a time limit (Radiation Exposure). Out for to long, game over. There are multiple routes between the start and end goals and its only through multiple plays you will find the easiest route for you. Between stops you can fix up the bike and buy weapons before moving on. Whilst riding, there will be many vehicles in your way which you can shoot for reward points. Just don't shoot the innocent as they will cause you damage. Along the way you can pickup powerups to replenish bike health, Anti-radiation (extra time) as well as shield boost. When getting the shield it is also a good idea to turbo boost if you have it making good use of the invulnerability for a few moments. It should be noted you get only one life and no continues so you need to slow down occasionally and not scrape the barriers.
The longplay aims to show as many stages as the game allows as you can go back and ride on alternate routes. It doesnt change the game ending but allows you to score high if that's your thing. Somewhere around the middle of the game I disable Audio SFX to allow the music to be heard without interruption. A good chunk of loading time has been cut out as well.
Overall, its not a bad game but also not without it flaws. The most obvious one is the obnoxious sound effects with weapon sounds that are too loud and overpower everything else. The game whist fast moves at a weird half framerate and it can be difficult to react to what's going on. Powerups whizz by with no chance to collect and often the collision detection is not on your side and claims you didn't ride over it. The other vehicles can clump up around you making them difficult to shoot at and even knock you around. Some items in the shop are outrageously expensive and also one use.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:00 Title Screen
00:08:18 Road 1
00:12:23 Road 2
00:17:13 Road 3
00:20:41 Road 4
00:25:31 Road 5
00:29:55 Road 6
00:34:30 Road 7
00:38:05 Road 8
00:42:34 Road 9
00:47:08 Road 10
00:51:14 Road 11(SFX Off)
00:55:36 Road 12(SFX Off)
01:00:29 Road 13 (SFX Off)
01:05:47 Road 14 (SFX Off)
01:09:40 Road 15 (SFX Off)
01:14:53 Road 16 (SFX Off)
01:18:35 Road 17
01:23:24 Road 18
01:27:44 Road 19
01:32:12 Road 20
01:36:42 Road 21
01:41:05 Road 22 (Music OFF)
01:44:50 Ending
-----------------------
01:50:18 Road 23
01:54:10 Road 24
01:57:40 Game Over
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