Hunter memories

[gkb]

Hello all.

As a former A500 owner, I have been reading these forums for a while with great interest and amusement, so I thought I would sign up and start posting.

With this in mind, I thought I would start with some memories of one of my favourite Amiga games - Hunter!

I used to play this a lot with my brother, and we worked out quickly that it was more fun to blow the missions off and just wander around the map raising merry hell.

A few highlights:

- Buying surface to air missiles and then using them to take pot shots at the seagulls. We used to get a huge feeling of achievement when we got one. Kaboom!

- Launching flares inside buildings was always good for a chuckle.

- Using the space bar to get out of a vehicle in motion could be used for good comic effect, as if you aimed the vehicle well before bailing out it would continue on into enemy territory. You could then hear the enemy missile launchers attacking it in the distance. Bonus points if the empty car ran an enemy soldier over.

- A favourite of mine was to drop the suitcase bombs inside houses and then run back outside. You would then hear an explosion, and then:
"You have destroyed a toilet for -20 credits."
"You have destroyed a sofa for -10 credits."
Oh, how we laughed.

- We got into a situation once where I had to get away from an enemy tank - on a bicycle. My brother kept shouting: "Pedal faster!" at me.

- Once, a seagull landed on the ground. Odd. Walked the hunter up to it. Next thing - "You have boarded a seagull.". The hunter started flying through the air, and he looked like he was swimming. I could not control him. It was very trippy. This only happened once - a seagull never landed again. This happened when I was playing on my own. I told my brother later, and he must have thought I was on drugs.

I read that there is a hidden vehicle in the game, so I might start playing again to see if I can find it.


Anyone else got any memories of this game?

[CodyJarrett]

Welcome to the EAB!

The hidden vehicle is the Amphiunisuperduperbigmobile. Check out my thread about how to find it.

[gkb]

Thanks - that looks hilarious!
Will fire up FS-UAE tonight and have a look.

[jotd]

I've never played that game too much, but when people spend hours trying to do unexpected / unscripted things in a game it is a good indication that the game is great.

[Superman]

One of the first games where you really could roam around and do whatever you liked and it was great fun. Loads of different vehicles to drive the helicopter being one of the best if you could last more than 10 seconds without being hit by a missile.

[Cherno]

Started a similar thread long ago: "Hunter HD" - Fan Remake & nostalgic discussion of a classic Amiga game

I started work on a remake in Unity and also in GZDoom:
[ Show youtube player ]

I hope I will find the time to work on it again some day. Hunter was always intriguing to me even though I seldom played it. The graphics, military adventure theme and open world were something else in 1991. The only two things that would make the game a hit would be a free camera and better aiming controls, everything else works fine as it is.

Originally Posted by gkb

- Using the space bar to get out of a vehicle in motion could be used for good comic effect, as if you aimed the vehicle well before bailing out it would continue on into enemy territory.

Works great with the bicycle which you could jump off while driving and it would keep going in circles forever. A truly zero-emission vehicle (or perpetuum mobile!)!

The interview with developer Paul Holmes is a good read as well: Interview with Paul Holmes

[gkb]

We used to do the same thing with the bicycle. It looked a bit spooky I thought.

You could also do the same gag with the rowing boat and windsurfer. This was quite handy, as you could send it into enemy waters, and then travel into the same area yourself in the rocket boat and all the missile launchers would fire at the empty vehicle and ignore the vehicle you were in.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by jotd

I've never played that game too much, but when people spend hours trying to do unexpected / unscripted things in a game it is a good indication that the game is great.

The hallmark of my favourite type of game today: a game which does not make things possible but rather tries to not make things impossible. Games built up out of systems that can be combined rather than alternated.

[acidbottle]

There was a coverdisk demo on, if memory serves correct, CU.

Played it for hours, thought it was the whole game until you died! When I did one afternoon complete it it was a relatively short demo, but was the first real sandbox game I think I played, great fun and messed about for ages in it.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by acidbottle

There was a coverdisk demo on, if memory serves correct, CU.

Just had a quick look and found the Zero demo that is limited to 2 minutes: http://amr.abime.net/issue_385_coverdisks

I guess this wasn't the demo you played. Maybe somebody remembers if there was a different demo version on a another coverdisk.

[Crumpster]

Originally Posted by CodyJarrett

Welcome to the EAB!

The hidden vehicle is the Amphiunisuperduperbigmobile. Check out my thread about how to find it.

This is amazing! The damned thing's near invincible.

[Megalomaniac]

Just had a very quick play and I get a feeling of why it's so popular. Whereas most 3D games on the Amiga seem to have aged poorly due to either slow 3D or too little to do, this one feels like a full breathing world in impressive fast 3D. I couldn't immediately work out how to talk to the first guy I encountered (at X190 Y44) though, so I'll leave it for now.

[gkb]

So - I found the hidden vehicle.

Getting into the hidden room takes a lot of trail and error - when you swim north, watch the co-ordinates.
You need to start at 200/249, then go north. If you get to 200/251, you have missed - so go back to 200/249 and swim north again.
A good tip for this is to start by going as far left as you can - if you go to 199/249, nudge the hunter right until it ticks over to 200/249 - then perform the above procedure.
If you miss, go back, swim slightly to the right, and swim north again.
You will know when you are about to enter the hidden room, as you will swim north for a while and the co-ordinates will not change.
This is a bit of a faff - but getting the vehicle is worth it.

It is almost indestructible, and you can destroy things like missile launchers by running them over!
It is fast and agile - indeed you can spin it round when it is stationary.
You can also launch all weapons from it.
It also drives over the sea!

Now that I have a save where I just left the hidden room with it, I might play through the hunter mission using the vehicle to get around.
I am guessing this won't take me long!

[Twiggy]

Wish the WHDload had some cheats for this one. Be good to have unlimited time to just roam about.