Revenge of the Mutant Camels

Revenge of the Mutant Camels

Developer(s) Llamasoft
Publisher(s) Llamasoft
Designer(s) Jeff Minter
Platform(s) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS
Release date(s) 1984 (C64), 1992 (Amiga, Atari ST, DOS)
Genre(s) Shoot 'em up
Mode(s) Single player, Two player
Distribution Floppy disk, cassette

Revenge of the Mutant Camels is a surreal horizontally scrolling shooter computer game, designed and programmed by Jeff Minter and released on the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The Commodore 64 version of the game was commercially released; the versions for other platforms, which had significant gameplay and graphical enhancements and were released several years afterwards, were distributed as shareware.

Gameplay

A sequel of sorts to Attack of the Mutant Camels (also known as Advance of the Mega-Camels), this time the player controls a camel. The camel is armed by default with small blue shots, but can obtain other weapons and weapon upgrades by collecting power-ups during the game.

In all but the Commodore 64 version, the camel is teamed up with a bipedal goat, who can be controlled either by the computer or by a second player. If the camel crouches down, the goat can mount it and ride on its back, enabling them to focus their firepower.

The game features a host of bizarre enemies, including: British telephone boxes, Polo mints, exploding sheep, skiing kangaroos, guys sitting on flying toilets and even the jet plane controlled by the player in Attack of the Mutant Camels and a wave of Jeff Minters. In versions other than the Commodore 64 version, a variety of power-ups are available, including ecstasy tablets (for a turn of speed), spliffs (to fly over life's troubles) and apples (because they're good for you).

Unlike Attack of the Mutant Camels, it is possible for the player to win Revenge; after 42 waves of enemies[1] were defeated the player was declared the winner. In the Commodore 64 version, this was indicated simply by the message "WELL DONE! YOU HAVE SAVED CAMELKIND!" being briefly flashed over the playfield before the game restarted on the first level.

The theme music for the Commodore 64 version was arranged by James Lisney and was based on Ballet égyptien by Alexandre Luigini.

Development

Revenge of the Mutant Camels was announced in the Dec 1983/Jan 1984 issue of Commodore Horizons with a prospective release for mid-December 1984.[2]

Ideas for various attack waves were created by Minter whilst on holiday in Crete and written down in a notebook. An innovation at the time was that this was the first UK program to use a fast loader - the German TURBO system.[3] Minter was influenced by the reaction to the game Manic Miner having 20 levels so improved on this by creating 42 different levels for Revenge.[4]

Sequel

Llamasoft (including series creator Jeff Minter), developed a sequel to Revenge of the Mutant Camels entitled Revenge of the Mutant Camels II for the PC, the title was published by Kool Dog Entertainment which is a sub division of Guildhall Leisure which has since closed down, however, due to poor sales and reception the title was withdrawn from shelves just weeks after release.The plot is a continuation of the story from the original Revenge of the Mutant Camels.

For Amiga there is also Revenge of Mutant Camels II which was released with poor reception[5] by Mastertronic in 1988. This release did not involve Minter himself, but in 1992 Minter released his own Amiga version entitled simply Revenge of the Mutant Camels as shareware game (this is similar to Atari ST version).

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.medwaypvb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gruntingoxfiles/Revenge%20of%20the%20Mutant%20Camels.htm
  2. ↑ "And now ... Revenge of the Mutant Camels". Commodore Horizons (Sunshine Books, Scot Press): 9. Dec 1983 – Jan 1984.
  3. ↑ http://www.devili.iki.fi/pub/Commodore/docs/Project64/games/yak10.txt
  4. ↑ http://www.medwaypvb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gruntingoxfiles/Revenge%20of%20the%20Mutant%20Camels.htm
  5. ↑ 38% from Zapp, 48% from The Games Machine

External links