We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
Time Scanner
Time Scanner, arcade conversion by Spidersoft and published by Activision in 1989.
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Player's Review
"Suddenly one day it happens! You are travelling. And without warning you have fallen into a time warp. A Fate. A Doom. Beyond anything you could imagine awaits you. Now! it tempts you in. Time Scanner - The Ultimate Experience in Pinball!"
Probably one of the better pinball games on the C64 but that doesn't make it a great game. It appears to be a conversion of the spectrum game yet somehow comes of worse than that in the use of colour and the almost unplayable speed of the gameplay. Especially during multi-ball, the game chugs along at maybe half a frame a second. The music is ok but soon gets repetitive annoying as its short and loops over and over.
The longplay didn't turn out as well as I had intended. Not helped by the slowness of this version but the ball just would not go where I wanted it to causing it to take longer to hit required targets. Especially on the initial volcano level which is usually a quick table, I just could not get the ball into the central ramp needed to highlight a letter. Yet if I don't touch the controls and let the game play it self I can highlight multiple letters before losing a ball ... geez. You do get Left/Right and upper nudges to help guide the ball where you want to.
The game is set on four tables which you have to play in order. No option to choose starting table as in other versions. Volcano should have been the easiest table but I somehow managed to drag it out. Then it's onto the pyramids which is a fairly straight forward level but getting back onto the top level can be challenging as well as getting extra ball lit. It was at this point I realised I could not activate bonuses while in multi-ball so I had to let them go once I got the ramp lit up for extra in order to show it.
The third table set in the ruins looks like it should be a quick table but if you get trapped in the lower half, it seems to take some effort to get back up top. Even when I got two balls locked quickly, the third wasn't going to allow it self to be gotten quickly dragging out the table longer than it should. The final Special table isn't too bad in that it will allow you to stay on the top half where needed most of the time. It just takes too long to destroy all the letters in the style of breakout.
Overall, its a nice pinball game but it doesn't play well on the Commodore64. I would recommend playing any other version. I can actually appreciate the Spectrum version more after this. Once the game is completed I allow the remaining balls to drop and have the game play it self.
00:00:00 Volcano
00:17:10 Pyramid
00:32:25 Ruins
00:48:28 Special
Probably one of the better pinball games on the C64 but that doesn't make it a great game. It appears to be a conversion of the spectrum game yet somehow comes of worse than that in the use of colour and the almost unplayable speed of the gameplay. Especially during multi-ball, the game chugs along at maybe half a frame a second. The music is ok but soon gets repetitive annoying as its short and loops over and over.
The longplay didn't turn out as well as I had intended. Not helped by the slowness of this version but the ball just would not go where I wanted it to causing it to take longer to hit required targets. Especially on the initial volcano level which is usually a quick table, I just could not get the ball into the central ramp needed to highlight a letter. Yet if I don't touch the controls and let the game play it self I can highlight multiple letters before losing a ball ... geez. You do get Left/Right and upper nudges to help guide the ball where you want to.
The game is set on four tables which you have to play in order. No option to choose starting table as in other versions. Volcano should have been the easiest table but I somehow managed to drag it out. Then it's onto the pyramids which is a fairly straight forward level but getting back onto the top level can be challenging as well as getting extra ball lit. It was at this point I realised I could not activate bonuses while in multi-ball so I had to let them go once I got the ramp lit up for extra in order to show it.
The third table set in the ruins looks like it should be a quick table but if you get trapped in the lower half, it seems to take some effort to get back up top. Even when I got two balls locked quickly, the third wasn't going to allow it self to be gotten quickly dragging out the table longer than it should. The final Special table isn't too bad in that it will allow you to stay on the top half where needed most of the time. It just takes too long to destroy all the letters in the style of breakout.
Overall, its a nice pinball game but it doesn't play well on the Commodore64. I would recommend playing any other version. I can actually appreciate the Spectrum version more after this. Once the game is completed I allow the remaining balls to drop and have the game play it self.
00:00:00 Volcano
00:17:10 Pyramid
00:32:25 Ruins
00:48:28 Special
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