Preliminary: Wow, with the sound and the slightly clunky controls, I figured this is just another Manic Miner derivative game. But instead I quickly noticed the ahead-of-its-time Look, the 90s DOS vibe (and so early in late 88!), the reasonable difficulty curve as you ease into the mechanics like learning in Level 3 that you get weapons (tho I didn't like how the spider spawned at the edge of the visible screen, I eventually got it right), the feeling that it will continue to grow as each level comes, there only being 10 levels so it feels doable, the list goes on! What a surprise! This feels like the true start of the 90s DOS platformer era I've been anxious to see!

Well, I got to the end of level 3 with the Jetpack, but figured it was worth properly playing it on my own computer rather than via Internet Archive. It's worth it, surprisingly! The Sound is still terrible for 88 but the Look, Play, and Feel (with being such an early example of a genre I love) are great!

Day 1

Sure, it doesn't have the smooth controls of the NES platformers of its time, with its antiquated Manic Miner cloned Sound, but it has mid-jump movement and the controls were quickly learned. I'm grateful there were no convoluted mazes and no time limit, just pure fun with one hit deaths and very limited lives , but only 10 levels to figure out!

Day 2

Well, it's getting a bit more frustrating, but so it goes with later levels, higher difficulty, and the early DOS scene. The clunky controls were taking its toll, as were the Manic Miner similarities (I can't believe I have nothing else playing, just these Manic Miner cloned sound effects of falling and jumping :-p ). But something had me keep pushing through. I think just the Feel of it being such an early example of the "revival" of the Manic Miner type games but in the DOS Look and world. Level 5 had quite the Look change from the previous levels, as seen below

The jumps between scrolling sections were quite annoying, as were the tight jumps in general due to the clunky controls. I've gotten too spoiled with NES and arcade games :-p Normally I'd just drop a game of this nature, but again, something about the return to the indie computer game roots is nice.

Well, shoot after doing a bit more research turns out this must be the 1990 DOS version of the original 1988 Apple II release >.< Well, that explains a lot! Argh!

Welp, that's a disappointment. Right as I was learning about the secrets and warps and whatnot. The 1988 version is... underwhelming. And fits right in with the home computer platformers of its time. Too bad. I will keep this as a status update, but yeah, moving on from the 1988 version.