#03 31 октября 1995

Part 4 - Games that make you jump?

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*  PART 4  - GAMES THAT MAKE YOU JUMP? *
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By Stephen Smith(stevo@jonlan.demon.co.uk)

A while a go many of you may have seen the
post  I  made  to  our  very own newsgroup
asking if anybody had experienced any part
of  any  game  that  had  made them mildly
jump,  or  given  them  a  bit of a shock.
Obviously a computer game will not have as
much  success  at doing this as a knitting
neadle  connected  to  the mains, but it's
all  relative.  You  can  be  playing away
harmlessly when suddenly the biggest nasty
you've  ever  seen suddenly appears on the
screen and promptly kills you.

My  best  example  of  this is Bugaboo the
Flea (Quicksilva). There is only one nasty
in  this  game, a giant yellow dragon-type
thing,  and  you can quite often be trying
to  complete  the game for about 5 minutes
before  you see it. But when you do it's a
mad  frantic rush to try and get away from
it before it touches you.

So  anyway,  here  is a small selection of
the replies I received.

Hmm.  Football  Manager  made me jump when
the  opposition beat me on the easy level;
I  was supposed to win every game as well.
More  accurately  though, Knight-Lore made
me  jump  when  he turned into a Werewolf.
Mind  you, I was only 8 when the game came
out. (Andrew Malcom)

Timegate  also  could have the same effect
upon stumbling into the timegate. The blue
corridor  would suddenly appear and it was
often before I could get needed repairs.
(Kurt Prochnow)

Manic  Miner;  There  you were, making the
same  old  known  movements  once again to
pass  screen x, and suddendly you made the
wrong  move  for  a  1Oth of a second and,
without any advice... FLASH! -Jump- You're
dead. (Paolo Perrotta)

I  remember  a bit in Pyjamarama where you
were in a sort of tunnel (I think) where a
cannonball/boulder/something      suddenly
appeared  and splattered you to the floor.
I'm  not  100%  clear now, it's been a few
years... (Dimitris Kogias)

Has  to  be  Alien,  esp when you have one
person left and the tracker starts beeping
or  when you are on you way to the shuttle
and  the  Alien suddenly appears! (Matthew
Pimm)

Heh,  of  course there's the time in Laser
Squad  when  you  find  out  that  the guy
you're playing against knows how to hide a
grenade   in  a  plant  pot  ;)  (Jonothan
Henderson)

Now   DeathChase,   by   Micromega(?)  was
scary  -  cruising along at top speed, and
suddenly  WALLOP  -  straight  into a tree
with  a  horrible  jarring  noise!  (Greig
McGill)

Only  one  game  ever  made me go WUH, and
that  was  the  original  "Alien" strategy
game  (can't  remember who it was by). The
very act of just being stood in a corridor
with  the  motion  tracker beeping in your
ear and knowing the alien is around is bad
enough.  But  when  you move into the room
with  the  alien  is  and  it  jumps out -
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHH!
Time to change your trousers! (Blood)

Although  I never played it, one game that
I  thought  might  make  you jump would be
when  the  face  appears in Soft & Cuddly.
Anybody else?

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