Stroper

Stroper description

The Spanish arcade game for the IBM PC is quite rare: the corresponding version became available to the General public only in August 2019. The plot outlined in the manual, but it's so crazy (in the bad sense of the word) that it would be fair to summarise it briefly, dropping obscure humorous references. So, the action takes place in the XLI century, where long-distance space flights and the contacts between the different sentient races have become commonplace. In the Universe, however, things are very turbulent: from prison escaped a terrible villain NEXFI, under the banner of which stood not only a race of beings called "Arañas-Alien" (which can be roughly translated as "spiders-aliens"), but all kinds of mutants who were born as the result of some terrible experimentation. The whole fraternity seized power on several planets, and some "good force" send "superspy" on a small spaceship in turn on each of them, in order to destroy it all Arañas-Alien agents and eliminate the base invaders.

The game is divided into levels, always preceded by a short Intro showing the landing of our boat at a specific celestial body. Driving, however, we have directly our hero, acting very similar to each other (regardless of stage) corridors conditional "bases" consisting of interconnected stairs four floors; the figure of the character displayed on the screen in the long term "side view", always appears on the third. The hero has the skills to go up and down on the stairs, and armed with a photon Blaster with very little ammunition; in addition, he has a limited (although very important) supply of oxygen (the atmosphere neither in the planets nor in the constructed buildings - and the local inhabitants of the air, apparently not necessary), gradually declining (the number shown in the scale in the lower left corner of the screen).

The main task in each level is to destroy all Arañas-s Alien, looking like a funny smiley big-eyed balls on the legs and four handles (that is, the limbs seem to only six, not eight, as it should be spiders...). This is done in a highly original way - with the help of grills available on the second, third and fourth floors of any database. If the protagonist was close to that object and nearby is the substance of the aforesaid kind, it is necessary to raise the grate so that it fell into the open hatch, then slamming it - it will lead to the destruction of the foe (visualized as the disappearance). In addition, no less important is the gathering of hearts: here is not bonuses, and some "samples" that the hero must take. Finally, in the PC version (unlike everyone else) there was a third goal, though like as not required: the character is recommended to find and activate the self-destruct mechanisms on each of the bases, presented in the form of "computer terminals". In the right part of the screen displays, from top to bottom - following "indicators" (all - with appropriate symbols): the number of remaining alive Arañas-Alien s; the stock of the charges photon pistol; the number is not found until hearts; "life" available to the protagonist.

Enemies - apart from the above-mentioned "aliens" - Stroper in four varieties, and each of them deserves brief consideration. Black furry balls with great speed rolling around on the floor, not able to cause the hero direct damage (and he can't do anything to them), however physical contact with them - often completely inevitable for a few seconds flips the image on the screen upside down (which is unpleasant, but tolerable). Bipedal crabs - the most unpleasant of all the opponents: they are not only fast, but also know how to suddenly jump from one (any) floor to another above or below (if there is one), and besides invulnerable for the Blaster. Bipedally sheep in the mantles (in the user's manual titled "Horny vamps") are moved slower and the time - not that long, but in General is quite "sufficient" - can be "calmed" by the shot (after getting they're funny "dance" in place, and in this state, you pass by them is perfectly safe), but then "come to himself" (so to kill them will not work). All three of these types of creatures may not fall into the open us floor grate, but not able to navigate stairs (they just pass by them) and to overcome the sometimes encountered on the road barriers (the latter, however, is not available and our hero).

Arañas-Alien s - the only local inhabitants who know how to climb the stairs; in addition, they can "teleport" - that is, suddenly disappear and appear somewhere elsewhere in the level (just note that visible to us at a particular point in space is only a small part of the scene); this, in particular, usually (but not always) happens when they face barriers, but sometimes occurs in other situations (including in the approach to the stairs: rise or fall, they often only in the case when they recently did the hero, and might otherwise pass by or disappear); the shots from the Blaster on these creatures, like crabs, do not apply. As mentioned above, the hero is "life", however, any health within them there is no physical contact with crabs, sheep and Arañas-Alien AMI leads to instant death, rendered in the form of becoming the protagonist in the skull with a tuft of hair; if the "attempt" he left, then rebirth takes place instantaneously (at a random point on the third floor of the current stage), all achieved by the time of his death, the results are stored.

Each level contains a "pass" - doorways in the walls; the hero at the start always appears about one of those. During the passage, it is possible (although this is not always necessary, and not very convenient) to use for safe movement between the different parts of the stage (including sometimes this way you can move to another floor). The main purpose of these "elements" in another: as soon as all Arañas-Alien you killed and hearts collected, begins to fill the unobtrusive scale in the upper part of the screen, and we need to complete this process, be sure to stand in front of any such opening, so that there was an automatic transition to the next stage (if you do not have time to do some character will die). The maximum amount of "clips" from a photon Blaster to eight units of ammunition. Fill them with passage by a periodically occurring accumulations of outdoor units, having the form of parallelepipeds, each such "group" gives one charge (if you already have the aforesaid maximum, then raise it a similar action will not work). Near the location of the above-mentioned "arsenals" sometimes (not always) are indicating the direction of the arrows.

Provide oxygen hanging in the air the inverted pyramid (on each level there is only one such), always restoring his stock to the maximum regardless of the current indicator. Please note that at the next stage we come with the same supply of air, which finished last, so even if you play very well and do it quickly, then at least two or three times for passing to the above bonus in any case have (because if there is nothing to breathe - that character, of course, immediately perish). On the walls of any of the levels there are levers, and involuntary (occurring when passing by) switching some of them (but not all) leads to "off the light", which complicates orientation; in order to re-fill the area, simply to pass the same switch in the opposite direction, but circumstances often are such that a number of actions you have to perform in the twilight. In no case do not approach close to a large transparent containers and a liquid - contact with these objects leads to death.

Enemies usually are not inclined to pursue the hero on purpose (although sometimes it happens), but to play Stroper still not easy: the number of adversaries is relatively large, plus crabs, as already mentioned, are able to jump from one floor to another, - in this connection, to approach first the grill, open it and wait for you to come to her Arañas-Alien, almost never will work; although in some cases this tactic works in General here you need to move almost constantly possibly still trying to memorize the "architecture" of the levels. In the upper right corner of the screen is a radar showing all enemies on the level of points, but it does not benefit from very much.

There are two graphic modes - CGA and EGA (the latter, interestingly, with four colors); the game looks like in both is quite acceptable. Probably many will not call her "beautiful", even for its time, but she executed it in the spirit of Spanish fantastic arcades of the second half of 80-ies and early 90-ies of XX century, characterized by specific and unique charm, and this palette is one of its major components. It is worth noting also shared humorous and some "good-natured" atmosphere, as well as very low (in fact) the level of violence, moreover, is also quite coarse-grained, but the level of difficulty, again, is quite high, therefore, to recommend Stroper children is not worth it. Yes, this thing called hardly the worst creature Zigurat, published at the dawn of the existence of the company whose employees allegedly have already "exhausted," and I must admit that such verdicts are partly justified, because the process, unfortunately, is very monotonous, and the scenery of the levels, as mentioned above, differ very little (in fact - the only "colour backgrounds"). Still, fans of old and moderately (i.e. in a sufficient degree, but not "furious") hard arcade this game is sure will like.

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Source: Archive.org