ADG Episode 151 - Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure

[@torgo_]

This is my favourite dos game of all time. I spent endless childhood evenings playing the shareware version. Whenever I play this, my nostalgia glands literally gush with warm fluttery glowing sensations.

[@johnnyjohn9961]

7j557j7j5 yeah me too loved this game growing up ... begged my parents to get me the full version after i was hooked on the shareware

[@torgo_]

johnny walnuts Sadly it was nigh-impossible to get full registered versions of games in Australia in the early 90's, even shareware copies were hard to come by. Only now as an adult I've finally been able to try episodes 2 & 3, thanks to Gog! Sometimes I play Cosmo on my big plasma with a wireless controller, it's a magical experience.

[@Kopoane]

You mentioned the supposed target audience. I first played the shareware version at like 4 or 5 years old and I think that was part of the intended age range, I had no problem playing and replaying the first episode. Somewhat my first touch of platformers in general (in a time when it was enough to push buttons and have things change on the screen). The level design is unusual in the sense that there's so much optional stuff to collect. You can speedrun the forest levels pretty fast, but it'll take a good while to collect *everything*. I think this is interesting for a kid-friendly game because it supports different playstyles quite naturally. It also had a ton of variety, like you have a hoverboard level all of a sudden. But the registered episodes do indeed get very difficult, I barely have the patience for them as an adult.

[@wardrich]

I remember a weird glitch in the shareware version I had where I'd suddenly become invulnerable by the time I got to the level you have to fly around in. No idea what caused it, but it was my favourite part as a kid haha

[@AlexeiVoronin]

The early Keen games had 5 bonus pickups. Duke Nukem had 6. And Cosmo has... more than 30 (not counting health pickups and the like)! Various plants, minerals and gizmos that give points varying from 200 to 3200. The designers really went crazy with the items. Don't be fooled by Cosmo's cute and child-like graphics - the game is fairly challenging even to old veterans. It's a good workout for me even nowadays. That's why I don't consider it as innocent as it tries to present itself. You won't fool me, green alien dude! Notice that this game was made during that period when Duke Nukem was still called "Nukum" :D

[@chriskallen1]

When you described the jumping bug, I knew the problem almost instantly. The frequency at which input is polled makes a HUGE difference in control responsiveness. The best way is to poll is to do it in real time, logging the key press and release events the moment they occur from the keyboard interrupt. HOWEVER, this game updates the screen at a lower rate. I suspect this update rate is throttling the jump polling if it occurs at JUST the wrong time between frames, so that the keypress events are discarded. C64 games were notorious for this as well.

[@BBHood217]

Had this game come out much later, that part with Duke would've gone like this: *free Duke* *get shot* "Damn, those alien bastards are gonna pay for putting me on ice!"

[@GatorRay]

And then when they shoot Duke's ride he says "NOT AGAIN! DAMNIT I can't catch a break today"

[@tompinks_]

Wow thanks for covering this one Gemini, I'm one of those who played the shareware episode as a child and found it kinda tricky to play already, now I wanna give the whole game a try and see how I manage (probably quite poorly...) Anyway, keep up the good work man and best of success with this latest season! Cheers :)

[@RatelHBadger]

In my mind, Duke Nukem, Jazz JackRabbit, Cosmo and Commander Keen all live in the same crazy game universe.

[@StephanS]

This game is surely intented for kids, since kids in the early 90s had to be good players or no players. This was a time before all the Minecraft and CoD kids were even born

[@andrewdupuis1151]

this game is for anyone i was in 30s when first play it

[@timlwetzel]

Ooo fancy new intro! :P Also, now I know what game this Cosmo's OST I own goes to. Interesting...

[@Krivulda]

Funny is - I played this game A LOT but never found anything about that bug. Maybe it is because I played it on 386

[@ThommyofThenn]

6:16* isn't that how you're supposed to climb? i've it very fast but if there is an intended way to climb, i would be interested.

[@Pixelmusement]

When I said "immediately" I meant it literally; you only move up a tiny amount if you try it that way. What you have to do is let go of the directional controls when you jump off of the wall in order to go straight up, then press against the wall when you're ready to cling to it again. If you try to press against the wall for the entire climb it will take MUCH longer to go up. :P

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@Pixelmusement Ok that makes more sense, thank you. I was thinking my technique was kinda janky looking and too button-mashy

[@andrewdupuis1151]

great game brought it on 3D Realms meany years ago

[@Nickelodeon81]

I played the hell out of the shareware version of this game. Interesting that the full version was so difficult. Still, I probably would have persevered as I didn't have many games to play back then except for shareware.

[@jacobthesitton9142]

When I play this game nowadays I get no music because I don't use Dosbox and all my laptop uses an incompatible audio chipset so I just have good ol' PC speaker sound :P

[@Kire667]

I'm glad I beat the shareware version and not the Dark Souls episode 2. This, Bio Menace, Commander Keen, and Duke Nukem were my favorites. Just found this on Zoom as I couldn't buy Duke Nukem Manhattan Project anymore on Steam. And I was looking for Crusader No Remorse and it didn't exist, but this came up.

[@AlexeiVoronin]

BTW, I'm surprised you didn't mention what real-life song the game's title screen music is based on ;)

[@Pixelmusement]

+AlexeiVoronin I didn't know it was...? :o

[@AlexeiVoronin]

@@Pixelmusement Search for "ZZ Top Tush". This, more than anything, makes you wonder what the game's intended audience was ;)

[@Cephalopod51]

Your observation about the jump delay makes sense. I often wondered why my jumping felt off at times. And I would think the level designers would know better than to make the level you find Duke Nukem so difficult to beat. The interesting thing about this game is the antagonist and setting. Cosmo's parents were well looked after by that one blue alien, but who were the rest of the creatures who were trying to kill Cosmo? Did the blue aliens or the bad aliens rule this world? And who was the villain? The villain seems like an alien version of Dr. Proton and Dr. Robotnik, who created a few of the aliens you fought, and was trying to capture you for experiments. Why couldn't Apogee just explain who he was? Dr. Proton and the Rigelatins got explanations. Why not this guy?

[@vect0r85]

Life doesn't give you checkpoints :P

[@Pixelmusement]

+vect0r85 Yeah, but you're supposed to be playing games to ESCAPE from life. :P

[@grahamwilson4053]

If someone reimplements this game with quicksaves or at least checkpoints I will give it another go.

[@deedoubs]

"The game has unlimited lives and the ability to save your progress, but that doesn't make it any easier..." -- dafuq? Compared to the alternative I'd say the ability to try again from any point without having to start the entire game over after dying three times is going to make any game a lot easier.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Dee Doubs Perhaps... but without mid-level checkpoints, this means if you die, you do the ENTIRE level all over again. Besides, difficulty is more than how lenient death is, it's also the controls, the gameplay, even the aesthetics themselves can be a factor depending on how they've been crafted. :B

[@Gooberslot]

I don't like this new widescreen format. It just wastes space for anyone not using a 16:9 screen.

[@Pixelmusement]

***** Which is the extreme minority at this point in time and I've had numerous requests over the years to go up to at least 720p. :P

[@Gooberslot]

You can go 720p without adding black bars. That way the video would look optimal on all monitors. BTW, 4:3 might be rare now days but I don't think 16:10 is an extreme minority.

[@IllidanS4]

Not that bad if you don't use fullscreen. But yeah, the black bars at the sides are wasting space.

[@master9147]

Gemini must be comic book guy then. :p