AL82 Retrogaming Longplays | Octapolis Longplay (C64) [QHD] @AL82RetrogamingLongplays | Uploaded 1 month ago | Updated 14 hours ago
Game Info
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Developer: Jukka Tapanimäki
Publisher: English Software
Year of Release: 1987

Plot (from Game Manual)
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By the year 3897, the Galactic Imperium was mightier than ever. One by one, it had swallowed up all solar systems and alien races. The dreaded fleets of the Imperium were feared all over the Galaxy, and with good reason: one fully armed battle cruiser was enough to blow up
a whole planet. No one was strong enough to resist the power of the Imperium.

Except for a small defiant planet which had eight towering cities rising above its barren surface: the planet of Octapolis. Its secret weapon was one of enormous mental power. In the vicinity of the
planet, the most valiant enemy space warrior became a bumbling idiot and even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence began to contradict the Laws of Robotics.

The Imperium hadn't attacked the planet of Octapolis for centuries. To space pilots it was just a black spot on the space map, the Zone of the Evil Eye, as they called it. No one even dared to talk about Octapolis any more, but in the deep secrecy of the Galactic Intelligence Agency (GIA) a most cruel and desperate series of experiments were carried out. They kidnapped innocent space pilots,
and sent them inside the zone, and hoped that somehow, somewhere, they could find one who has immune to the immense mental power of Octapolis. If they could only reduce it just a little, then a gallant battle cruiser could get close enough to wipe out the planet. It took GIA 200 years to find such a pilot - YOU are that pilot!!

Game Review & Impressions
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My first experience with the games of the late Jukka Tapanimäki was Zamzara, a technically proficient and engaging shoot 'em up given away on a Commodore Format Power Pack tape in the early 90s. I loved Zamzara, so when I learned Jukka had also created Octapolis, I was keen to see what it was all about.

The game is really a hybrid of shoot 'em up and platforming genres, with each stage divided into two sections. A stage commences with a shoot 'em up section heavily inspired by Sanxion and Uridium, both iconic C64 games, where the player needs to wipe out waves of enemy craft until permission to dock with the enemy installation has been granted. The top half of the screen shows a side-on perspective, which should be used to adjust the vertical height of your craft to hit incoming ships. The bottom half shows a top-down view of proceedings, which should be used to navigate and eventually land on each installation.

Having docked with the enemy base, the game switches to a flick-screen platforming mode. The objective here is to traverse a series of interconnected rooms, each containing multiple platforms, the majority of which are patrolled by aliens or robots that will kill you on touch. Some of the smaller enemies can be dispatched with zap from your handy ray gun, but larger ones are impervious to damage and must be avoided. The key to success here is to plan the safest route through the room, carefully timing your jumps between platforms so as not to fall foul of their hostile inhabitants, and making doubly sure not to fall to your death off the bottom of the screen.

Octapolis is hardly original in terms of its design, it's impressive that Tapanimäki not only coded a proficient clone of Sanxion, but produced all the sprites and artwork as well. I think £10 for the tape version was probably a little bit pricey, given the game's repetitive nature, but it's a polished product for sure. Zzap!64 magazine awarded the game 86% in 1988, which I think is a fair appraisal - not a classic, but a polished and playable game from a developer who probably doesn't get as much recognition as he deserved.

Chapters
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00:00 Attract mode
00:30 Gameplay
15:50 Ending