Did you know about.....Powerplay (piss-poor Atari ST port) vs Powerplay (Enhanced)??

[DrBong]

Oki doke peeps, so did ya know about the two versions of Powerplay?!

If not, then all is revealed in the all new, all singin', all dancin' split of HOL entries for Powerplay - the original Atari ST port (released in '87, DOS format) and the enhanced Amiga version (released in '88, NDOS format).

http://hol.abime.net/6118 <--------- Powerplay (original Atari ST port)

http://hol.abime.net/1128 <--------- Powerplay (Enhanced)


Dunno about you, but the enhanced version is more fun to play than the original release. The trouble is......they could've done so much better with the enhancements.

At the very least, the character graphics & animation could've been far better in-game (consider that Battle Chess was also released in 1988!).
Additionally, how hard would it have been to have commissioned someone to produce a menacing, forboding soundtrack befitting of the Herculean task of defeating the Greek Gods in the ultimate battle of knowledge and wits!
Finally, why remove the quiz question editor from the original release? If it was as poor and confusing to use as Arcana claimed, why didn't they just simply improve it like they did the graphics (or just leave it in as is, if they really couldn't be bothered)??

Don't get me wrong - Powerplay is still fun to play if you like quiz games, but it could've been a damn sight better.....not to mention it was damn good to get those few grumbles off my chest!

Now down to some real business in this post. Has anyone got a Spanish version of the original DOS release of Powerplay published in 1987?
Also, has anyone got any WHDLoad versions of the original 1987 DOS release?? Any or all language versions would be welcome!

EDIT: There are a few Spanish releases in TOSEC (one labelled from 1987 even!), but they're all NDOS releases of Powerplay (Enhanced) from 1988.

[DrBong]

I've managed to fill part of my own upload requests here! Here goes:

(a) Find the WHDLoad version of the original 1987 DOS release in English in the Zone. I don't think it's available elsewhere as I was only able to turn up the French and German versions in the usual places (e.g. EAB FTP site, WHDownload etc).

Unfortunately, I think the slave needs an update as all 3 language versions locked up regularly at specific points in the game on my A1200/030 under WHDLoad 18.1.

(b) Find an ADF of the original 1987 DOS release in English in the Zone too. There's a cracked version in TOSEC by Delta Force (DF), but the ADF I've upped is from an original boxed copy and avoids having to go through the lame cracktro of the DF version.

Both are in the Zone. Enjoy!

BTW I'm still looking for the Spanish DOS version of Powerplay released in '87 (ADF, WHDLoad or whatever), if such a version was ever published. The credits in-game suggest that it does exist, but the Spanish version was published by MCM rather than Arcana.......so who knows!

Many thanks for this.

I remember having both versions back in 1988, have got the originals somewhere. Played it a lot with friends and played the C64 version a lot before the Amiga version as well.

[DrBong]

No worries and welcome to EAB! I never got to play Powerplay on the C64 before jumping ship to the Amiga in the late 80s.....but the ST/Amiga versions from 1987 look and play pretty similar for mine. Still quite fun, especially with friends, but they hardly take advantage of the power of the 16-bit machines.

The same probably applies to the enhanced Ami version released in late '88. If only the publisher had injected the character animation, humour and stereo sound of Battle Chess, they could've had a real winner on their hands. As it turned out, they released a couple more 8-bit style games for the Ami before closing their doors, with a bunch of planned releases going down the gurgler with them (Powerplay data disk, Mars Cops, Crater Wars and I, Android). Pity as all the games they released showed potential and Mars Cops was shaping up to be a 16-bit release with a bit of depth.

[jbenam]

It's great seeing you back in action, DrBong! Thanks for your efforts, much appreciated

Originally Posted by DrBong

No worries and welcome to EAB! I never got to play Powerplay on the C64 before jumping ship to the Amiga in the late 80s.....but the ST/Amiga versions from 1987 look and play pretty similar for mine. Still quite fun, especially with friends, but they hardly take advantage of the power of the 16-bit machines.

The same probably applies to the enhanced Ami version released in late '88. If only the publisher had injected the character animation, humour and stereo sound of Battle Chess, they could've had a real winner on their hands. As it turned out, they released a couple more 8-bit style games for the Ami before closing their doors, with a bunch of planned releases going down the gurgler with them (Powerplay data disk, Mars Cops, Crater Wars and I, Android). Pity as all the games they released showed potential and Mars Cops was shaping up to be a 16-bit release with a bit of depth.

Thanks for the welcome .

Been lurking for a while but I had to thank you for putting these up in the zone.

I do remember Powerplay on the the Amiga as it so unusual to have two versions of the same game available in the late 80's.

I remember not being very impressed with the first version which was just a basic ST port but the second version was an improvement. It's a shame more companies didn't release enhanced Amiga versions back then!

[dirk_the_daring]

Dr Bong, as far I know, there isn't any Powerplay Spanish edition of the non-Enhaced version. At least this game was reviewed in april 89 by the "almost only" spanish game magazine first on the ST (Micromania nr 12), also in spanish language with the non enhaced version, and a just a month later there we got a second review for the Amiga version, and that review was about the enhaced one (Micromania nr 13).
Keep in mind some games arrive later to spain, and more if they have to be translated. So about the credits you talked, who knows, maybe the started to translate the early version but when they get the second they thought it was no sense to launch both or they refer to the Atari version.

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by emux

I do remember Powerplay on the the Amiga as it so unusual to have two versions of the same game available in the late 80's.

I remember not being very impressed with the first version which was just a basic ST port but the second version was an improvement. It's a shame more companies didn't release enhanced Amiga versions back then!

Yeh, unfortunately a lot of game publishers in the early days probably didn't think it was worth paying a dedicated Amiga dev team if they were already investing money in an ST version. The ST was outstripping the Amiga in terms of sales on both the hardware and games software in Europe (and in the U.S. to a lesser extent). Easier just to get the ST coders to crank out a quick ST port for the Amiga conversion, or commission a lone Amiga coder to do a quick conversion on the cheap.

Arcana were a little different, though. They were a small homegrown outfit who developed all their early game releases in-house. Powerplay was one of them, but they bucked the trend and may well have been the first Ami publisher to release an enhanced update of a game.

Arcana obviously valued customer feedback and didn't want to alienate original purchasers of Powerplay when the enhanced version was released......so they offered them a free upgrade if they sent back the original release game disk. With one of my boxed copies, I actually received a letter Arcana sent to one of their customers who took advantage of a free upgrade and scanned it for HOL:

http://hol.abime.net/6118/miscshot


Interestingly, the letter was sent by their then-PR manager Emma March. Why is it interesting? Well, she might've had a big hand in the company going down the gurgler. It seems that she and Nick Tuckett (the main coder of Mars Cops) ran off together 2 weeks before Mars Cops was due for release! Classic!!

http://amr.abime.net/review_26469

Originally Posted by dirk_the_daring

Dr Bong, as far I know, there isn't any Powerplay Spanish edition of the non-Enhaced version. At least this game was reviewed in april 89 by the "almost only" spanish game magazine first on the ST (Micromania nr 12), also in spanish language with the non enhaced version, and a just a month later there we got a second review for the Amiga version, and that review was about the enhaced one (Micromania nr 13).
Keep in mind some games arrive later to spain, and more if they have to be translated. So about the credits you talked, who knows, maybe the started to translate the early version but when they get the second they thought it was no sense to launch both or they refer to the Atari version.

Muchas grazias Dirk! I suspected what happened was exactly what you describe, but I was hoping that there was a Spaniard like yourself on EAB who either bought the game or could tell me about any Spanish magazine reviews. I did do a web search for a Spanish game review or advertisement, but couldn't find any. Thanks once again!

Anyway, for now I will only list a Spanish release for the enhanced version of Powerplay in HOL. If by some miracle someone finds a Spanish version of the original release, then all the better......but, like you, I doubt it exists.

[dirk_the_daring]

DrBong, yeah you can be quite sure, I have been looking for the info on the mags:
Micromania 11 April 89
Powerplay Atari ST review
+ Advert of the game distributed by MCM
Micromania 12 May 89
Powerplay Amstrad CPC review (here they said although the game was some years old, is now when the spanish translations are ready)
Micromania 13 June 89
Powerplay Amiga mini-review (were is said that the game "has use good of Amiga graphics and sound capabilities" (these mini-reviews were used just to tell you if the game was very similar or not to a previously version reviewed) an image of the enhanced version is shown)
+ A shop catalog with prices for ST and Amiga, and they are the same price (the standard price for MCM games with a hard plastic case package (quite good indeed)), the most important, no two versions found for the Amiga catalog.
+Interview with Max Taylor from Arcana, telling the distribution agreement with MCM.

[dirk_the_daring]

So, surely that version never published here, but as you said perhaps it existed, as the atari ST review also said that translation was done by arcana, not by the distributor. MCM was quite good and quality distributor and not very greedy (usually their games were cheaper even having better package than others like Erbe) so if they had a better version is sure they launched only that one.
We spend lots of afternoons playing this game, with an Amiga, with an Atari, and in that times, never heared about 2 different versions on amiga, just that Amiga and Atari had some notable diferences.

[DrBong]

@Dirk
Excellent work in digging out all that material from the Spanish review mags! You have now been immortalised in the HOL Contributors Hall of Fame for your efforts

Based on your info., Powerplay (Enhanced) has been updated and MCM is now listed as the publisher for the Spanish release "Powerplay: El Juego De Los Dioses".

I've also created separate HOL entries for the original releases of Powerplay in German and French:

- Powerplay: Das Spiel Der Götter <------ German release

- Powerplay: Le Jeu Des Dieux <------ French release