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                            "ROGER" by B.BROS CREATION
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system .. STe, 1 MB RAM, STEEM, RGB

genre ... jump'n'run

release . o1/o4, originally finished in 1994

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Here we have  another goodie that was digged out  lately and it  is something to
feed  the hungry Atari gambling comunity, as "ROGER" is  a pure jump'n'run  game
for joystick fanatics  and overall, for STE owners  only (if you don't count the
STEEM users).

Somehow "ROGER" wasn't released  back in 1994, I don't know why, if they haven't
found a distributor or  what ever, too bad, as  it is, said right now, really no
bad game and so I wonder why it was laying so long around on some disx as it may
have fit  very well in the  short STE mania of the middle nineties (if you're in
the business  that long you may remember the short era that brought the STE some
very nice games such like Obsession, Substation, Team and a few others.)

Anyway, finally we  the authors  have released  it for public now, 1o years late
but you know the old saying, better late then never.

As written  in the  info, "ROGER" is a pure  jump'n'run and it  reminds  in some
points to "Zool" maybe. You  take over the role  of Roger, a  little silver ball
with legs and arms who wants to get married with his girlfriend Georgette but as
it seems something went wrong as he has to finish all the levels of this game at
first  to reach  his goal, the wedding. Unfortunately  the whole  readme file is
written in french  and so not  that easy to  understand, thanks  to some bits of
french that stay left in my mind from school, I could get on several points...

To reach his goal Roger has to survive 25 levels in 5 different worlds. There he
has to collect  a special number  of points, 1oo  to be precise, to get onto the
next  level. Those points  he can get  while collecting  some  objects  that are
spread over the  levels that are  18 screens in  size each. Therefore he can run
around and jump. On the level there are  bubbles spread  and if Roger jumps into
a bubble  he gets shot out  of it upwards. This is very usefull as he can't jump
very high and so he can reach even higher platforms in the level.

There are also other objects spread over the levels, such as thorny balls and if
Roger gets  in contact with them he loses some of his life  points. Therefore he
can collect goodies, to fresh up his  health and to  gain some extra time. Time?
Yes, you have to play against the clock and the time limit is quite hard, so you
have to act fast  and to collect possibly every time goodie if you want to reach
the next level.



Jump into the blue pills helps you to jump onto higher platforms.

If you survive a level or better if you  finish the levels in  time you get some
special points for the lives you still have left and the time you  didn't needed
to solve the level. At a  special number  of points, 2ooo to be  precise you get
an extra life and believe me, you will need it...

Yes, you really need it as the game isn't that easy. You have to think and react
very fast to collect every object you need to get to  the next level. The screen
scrolls in every direction  quite fast and  you can get out of control very fast
and lose  your orientation. So the game is only digestible for hardcore joystick
gamblers and jump'n'run lovers. If you  aren't fast enough your 3 lives are fast
given away and you have to start again...

The styling of the game is well done, the intro and stuff is doing its job good,
the styling is a bit different but looks nice to me, the in-game  grafix are ok,
even  tough the  animation of our  hero could be  done a little  bit better. The
background grafix are a bit trist therefore, but the scrolling is well done. But
as the game is quite fast you may have no view on the surroundings anyway.

The sound is coming along  as sid sounds, together with  some sampled special fx
in the game  itself. The control  over joystick  is realised  very well  and the
saveable highscore should help the motivation.

So, what? Time to blow away the dust from the joysticks and to start a new round
gaming on Atari, no? And for  the not so  hardcore players  the game  features a
trainer option now :)

Final words ... "Roger" leaves  a quite good impression, even  1o years after it
                was finished. The grafix stuff is ok, the musix nice even though
                they are ripped and the game features sampled fx. The control is
                realised well, a highscore raises the motivation, so what do you
                need more? Get the  game as stand-alone or on a D-BUG menu, but,
                get it...


_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o1/2k4_