The Hellion

Want to talks about games you like, would like to see developed on the Oric, it's here.
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Steve M
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Steve M »

Sparky Plugs - Sparky is a nickname for an electrician. (?)
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Chema
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Chema »

My two cents :)

062 - JUMPIN JACKS
Could it be a reference to the song 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' from the Rolling Stones (1968)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpin'_Jack_Flash

009- MUTANT LEMONS
Maybe a reference to the film 'The attack of the Killer Tomatoes' from 1978 (which were mutant tomatoes)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_ ... r_Tomatoes

013- |JET-SET|GAR|
Probably a reference to jet-set willy? (released in 1984 too), but mentioning Gary instead of Willy.
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Steve M
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Steve M »

Jumping jacks may refer to the game of Jacks - the shapes are odd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacks_%28game%29

jumping jacks can also refer to a star jump or an old toy that had a man strung up on stick which jump around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_jack_%28toy%29

I'm guessing from the shapes of the pieces that it may be a jack-in-a-box that's jumping around. We don't see Jack though so it may be the game - I'm not sure.


Eugene's Hind Out is a toilet pun referring to Eugene's Hide OUt in Manic Miner as stated but becoming Hind to refer to hind-quarters - i.e. back end whcih gets placed on the toilet. Enemy is flying toilets.

Flying Pickets has what appears to be pick axes. Play on words?

Fly by Night was a famous album by the Canadian band Rush.

Everust - I think the enemies are little Everest mountains capped with snow.
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Symoon
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Symoon »

Thanks again for help guys.

Steve: I think you are mixing the level Everst Ascent (mountains indeed) and Ever Rust which looks llike opening windows (?)

About Eugene, I now discovered the whole story. Quite funny. It should be in CEO-Mag in January or February, but I can't resist publishing it right now.

Level 86 – EUGENE|SNAVE
I was intrigued by the multiple references to "Eugene" (level 42, Manic Miner ...). I finally found what it was about. Eugene Evans (hey look, Evans is "Snave" backwards!) is a former young video game programmer, who worked more or less with Matthew Smith, author of Manic Miner. Eugene had then predicted that this game would not work. Imagine how Matthew loved this. So he decided to integrate, into Level 5 of Manic Miner, a caricature of Eugene Evans: the big guy with glasses. As for the toilets, it was a request from Matthew's little brother, aged 3 years! Guess if they were part of "Eugene's Lair" by chance...
Fun Fact from then: Matthew was so eager to show this caricature to a friend, that he sent it over the phone - a Spectrum loading the drawing while the other was saving it.
Also note that Eugene Evans was portrayed then as a videogames star, earning lots of money and driving sports cars... A fake reality only made to create buzz around Imagine, the company that he co-founded, and that would disappear 18 months later.
All this also explains the 42th level of the Hellion, called Eugene's Hind-Out.
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Symoon
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Symoon »

Abut Fly By Night: could be Rush, but from 1975.
In 1983 another song called like this was released, see; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_into_Light.
There's no way to be sure?

BTW does anyone know where are the authors of The Hellion now?
And did you know the game was released on C64? (explaining "the best buy" level !)
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Steve M
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Steve M »

Symoon wrote: Steve: I think you are mixing the level Everst Ascent (mountains indeed) and Ever Rust which looks llike opening windows (?)
Ah, in that case it is named after the firm called Everest who make windows. (double glazing.) It's a pun suggeesting they don't last too long.
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Symoon »

Great, thank you Steve!

Now:
050 - IT'S OUR GAME
konwing the game was released on C64 (with few different levels or level names BTW), and knowing that the ennemies in this level are Atari logos, could this just be something funnyy meaning "Atari, leave us alone"?
Or maybe "it's our game" was a slogan for some Atari advert?
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Re: The Hellion

Post by Symoon »

Hehe, just tried the C64 version. It's bugged and prevents from going further than level 76!
A few levels change (no more Ultra levels, and some jokes at authors or companies have vanished).
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