Black Cyclon The Game (released in 1993) Eric Frey and Earl D.Squirrel have to find the prototype of the D1-A planetbuster, by chasing the space pirates that haven stolen it. Their quest leads them to the home planet of the pirates, where many horrors await them! A bit of luck and a strange conversation or two will help keeping Eric and Earl alive. Interaction with the environment, frantic action and devious puzzles abound in this arcade adventure. This is the only one parallax game that (a) does have an amazing storyline which (b) is completely not to be found in the actual game. Ahem. Basically, this is a very much improved variation on the vectron/magnar theme. Technically it is much more clever, which allowed for some strange tricks with electric lights, puzzles and the infamous computer effect. That said, it's a very good entertaining adventure/blaster if you have the nerve to complete any level above 2. It therefore satisfies the hardest blaster fanatics around, but it's too difficult for novices. Being more complex than Vectron, it's a good blast. And quite difficult to finish too. It is probably the most difficult game we've ever made, so if you think you're good at this kind of game, try to complete Black Cyclon! In fact, it is so difficult that even Pat and I can't finish the game. It's that hard. It's quite ok, yet difficult, until the last level. In this level, face huggers and fast homing aliens fire so many bullets you'll get nervous even thinking about it. Pat found this unfair, because he considers himself a very good games player, saying "if I can't finish it, it's impossible to complete!". Decide for yourself if this is "hubris" or just the plain truth! There's always a way out. In this case, there are a few amazing cheat modes in Black Cyclon. Anyway, I enjoyed making it very much, and Pat had drawn (as always) much more graphics than I was able to use, and ended up using much of my own graphics too. Anyway, we used a lot of graphics that had never made it into Magnar in the first place. The tips section reveals some of the game's features, so check that out. Level 2, which is the first challenging bit in the game, caused many problems for players. It features power switches, prisoners, crystals, traps, gun turrets, laser beams... at some times it all becomes a tad difficult. Look at the next screenshot to see what I mean. And that's just level 2!! Between all this I started to work on Blade Lords, which was a good departure. And then... we jumped into Akin!!