Ulises (DOS, Opera Soft, 1988)

I've never been much of a computer gamer. I was born around a time when up to date gaming on the computers was just a bit too much for my pocket. However I was born so late that I never really got to see any of the older 16 bit computers in action, let alone used them, so I was kind of out of luck on that front either. And as for the console gaming market, well....

Unfortunately, I also grew up in a post communist country where the existence of the NES is an obscure footnote which barely anyone knows about or gets covered in any detail. Even if there will be a programme on TV about old school gaming, it will mostly just focus on old 16 bit computers, and maybe, maybe have an Atari 2600 make an appearance. The system was never permitted to be sold here officialy, due to it being a "luxurious" product of "capitalist burgeois classes" and thusly something not compatible with the "socialist way of life". The only memory people in this country have of having played any of the classic NES staples were possible due to ill-documented famiclones smugled from Poland which thus received no widespread circulation.

However, the computer scene wasn't exactly well represented either, as gaming was generally frowned on as an unnecessary side product when compared to industrial and business usage. In fact, old news coverage of a computer "expo" from the 80's stated that "the only aspect of computer programming not present is gaming, as an evolutionary dead-end". This coupled with high prices and state mandated wages in state owned companies in an unfunctioning isolated economic system meant that computers were not very common, and home brew games (as there were few, if any, official game releases in the country) were thus also not very widespread.

I am adding this just as an explanation as to how my country could have so little exposure to gaming, on either platform.

In the west however, things were different. Not only were there official releases and ports of games by big gaming publishers released for the various home computers, there were also many original studios and publishers putting out original content. Less famous then the various British developers would be the company Opera Soft. During their short time in operation (they formed in 1987 and seem to have not released anything of note after 1990, going out of business in the early years of that decade) they published a handfull of games, none of them being much remembered today, beyond a game version of The Name of the Rose.

This game came out in 1988 on a variety of platforms, though only the DOS version is covered. It concerns Ulysses, also known as Odysseus, though the game itself doesn't have much to do with the mythological figure. It's basically a platformer where you jump over gaps, climb ropes and try to rescue a bunch of identical godesses who don't do much but stand around in semi risque attire.

Sadly, it's one of those platformers. The kind where there wasn't any thought given to enemy placement and they just constantly respawn over and over again. It becomes incredibly overwhelming, especially when trying to platform. And since you can't turn around when climbing up a ladder, this makes the game very frustrating.

Which is a shame because there is some genuine level design, the backgrounds are never the same for too long and, even if there are only six enemy tpyes, there are noticeable differences between them: the birds just fly at you, the minotaurs chase you and then turn into super fast bulls that charge you, the centaurs shoot arrows at you which can't be avoided, the fire demons which sort fly at you at an angle and the fire skeletons which shoot fireballs at you and don't die but who'se sprites don't actually hurt you and the.....giant geographical globes kinda roll in your general direction.

Not helping matters is the control scheme. Whoever thought the buttons should be Q (UP), A (DOWN), O (LEFT), P (RIGHT), Space (attack) and Entet (pause) has never even glanced at an average keyboard layout, which makes it very confusing to correctly jump over gaps at first.

One odd question though, could this have started out as a game staring Thor ? The blond haired Ulysses could very well fit the bill and there's the fact his weapon (and the icons which indicate how many lives he ha sleft) is a big ol' hammer, which isn't something one would associate with Greek myths.

Overall the game, while looking nice for 1988, would probably drive you crazy if you tried to complete it without save states.