Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality - ADG Episode 261

[@verysoftwares]

oi oi! this is a rare game you've gotten your hands on. the first Captain Comic is one of the earliest games i ever played, never knew about the sequel. it's really enthralling to see Michael Denio's passion project expand like this! it's an explosion of new content and game states to a familiar engine, even with some Metroidvania-esque progression, whoa. thanks for the well-documented video, strong start to a new decade for sure.

[@lilwyvern4]

Aww yiss, ADG is back, kids! The one thing about Captain Comic that I can't overlook is how his sprites seem to be traces of tall Mario's sprites from the original Super Mario Bros.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

...man, I really want there to be an ADG Filler episode about cool weird anti-piracy failstates in DOS games now.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jomaster The Second They're incredibly poorly documented to put it mildly and it's way beyond my skill to actively search for them; Finding one here was completely by chance. :B

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Yeeeah, that's understandable. = ^ = Lack of documentation strikes again...

[@DigitalDesires87]

Woah, I played this as a kid in the 90s and had completely forgotten it up until now. Nostalgia just hit me like a ton of bricks, great video! Thanks for bringing back those memories!

[@GeneralVanRyberg]

I once asked John Romero if he knew about Captain Comic, back when they created Keen and he confirmed he played that game and was impressed by it. It's a shame the author never got the success in gaming that he deserved. To @Pixelmusement : thanks so much for this video, I absolutely love the ADG episodes. Glad I'm a Patreon now!

[@Pixelmusement]

+GeneralVanRyberg I would be surprised if Romero had no idea about Captain Comic. There were very few scrolling platformers on PC back then due to hardware limitations, so the ones which did exist and weren't garbage really stood out; part of why Commander Keen really got heads to turn as it was the first PC game to do smooth full-screen scrolling at a high framerate! :B

[@GeneralVanRyberg]

@@Pixelmusement It [episode 1] may have been the first EGA game that I have seen and played, it will always have a special place in my gaming history memory :) I remember also having a hacked version that gave unlimited lives... which was fine, until the very last scene of the game :D

[@scottbreon9448]

The dude kind of hurt himself by associating with Color Dreams for the NES version. Which, BTW was abysmal. If you want to play Captain Comic, stick to the DOS version. I get why he did it. But Color Dreams weren't exactly known for putting out quality games.

[@najarati]

I loved this game as a kid, even more than the first! It was a huge inspiration for some of the early (and amateur) character designs I'd go on to create growing up. It's pretty difficult, but not impossible. I completed it multiple times as a nine-year-old kid. Thanks for reviewing the game. I'd love to see an indie studio pick up the series and develop a third adventure for Comic.

[@Extrema22]

I've enjoyed this and the first CC a lot when I was a kid, even though I had almost no idea what to do. Thanks for showing the rest of the game since I've never made it past the starting area :P

[@Mech4]

I only ever played a version of this game with that copy protection room active. Shame as I would have liked to see the rest of it. I remember once I was playing it with some friends and we managed to get the game running in a CGA graphics mode where everything was coloured yellows and reds. Looked neat and it felt like discovering a new aspect of the game.

[@lifeforce2921]

I had this game as a kid and never managed to get anywhere in it past getting to other realities. I always wondered if I was just bad at games as a kid, or if the game was incredibly difficult and it's reassuring to find out that apparently it wasn't just me. I also have, to this day, never played the original Captain Comic. I should probably remedy that at some point. XD

[@AmyraCarter]

7:04 I welcome a minimally invasive DRM. Looks like a fun platformer to me, despite the flaws present. Like many other games, this is a game series that flew under my radar. Still fun to look back on though.

[@root42]

Good grief. Captain Comic was a staple of 1990 shareware distributors. Never knew there was a successor!

[@RetroSwim]

19:05 -- Kaizo Blocks :)

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

The one thing I wonder with that copy protection is whether it generates a random code on a machine by machine basis. If one was to copy it onto another machine, would the cached code be invalidated? Probably way too early a game for that trick to work but it makes me wonder though. Bit of a bummer about the lack of refinement in the difficulty though, the curse of the solo developer, sadly… at least without a testing crew. Though I'd have though the publisher might have had feedback, but being their expertise was in non-game software, I expect not…

[@Pixelmusement]

+hellfire64 The game can be played straight from the floppy disk so I'm not sure how exactly the copy protection is doing its thing.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

@@Pixelmusement Interesting, so I'm guessing the slider on the write-protect tab was present? (it was hard to tell from the clip where you were showing it). That makes it even more bewildering.

[@rancid83]

​@@Pixelmusement The copy protection simply adds an extra file that contains the information whether you got it right. So: no file = ask; file with correct stuff = everything's cool; file with incorrect stuff = pit of despair.

[@Pixelmusement]

+rancid83 Actually, it writes the data into the profile save data, as profiles are stored separate from actual save data, and I can also confirm from my testing that the game will ask for a code every time it doesn't detect a correct code on startup, whether the profiles haven't been created yet, or the profiles contain no code or an incorrect code.

[@rancid83]

@@Pixelmusement Yeah, I actually went back and found my old, not at all legitimately acquired, copy :) Looks like the FR.CFG file contains the information on whether the code has been entered (renaming the file made the game ask for the password) -- and the cracked version you mention probably simply made the game "accept" any code because my current copy wouldn't let me past the password entry at all with incorrect answers. But I definitely remember ending up in the piracy pit of despair as a kid and being annoyed at not being able to keep playing :D

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

I don't know if it's official or not, but the original Captain Comic also has a version for NES. I'd like to see someone tackle that version, if it doesn't get a ADG Filler video!

[@Pixelmusement]

+Cyberbrickmaster1986 Michael actually worked for Color Dreams for a period of time, so it's fairly likely he had SOME input in the NES version.

[@shdon]

I have the NES version. It is much inferior to the DOS version and much, much more difficult. That is because the enemies keep spawning and even at the very start, there are crawling caterpillar enemies that cannot be shot. Also, the movement patterns on the red and blue birds are different from the DOS version. I can beat the DOS version, but quite literally cannot even get past the opening stage on the NES version.

[@antdude]

I remember playing the original(?) game on my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC when I was a teen.

[@7thDementia]

I find it clever when devs alter the game when the copy protection fails. Serious Sam 3's immortal Arachnoid, GTA IV's constantly drunk camera/cars that degrade, Arkham Asylum's disabling of the glide, stuff like that. :D

[@Tim.Hammer]

As a developer, when I watch these videos, I feel like I would really love to remaster both Captain Comic games.

[@Pixelmusement]

Given the Crystal Caves remake which came out lately you could always see if you could track down Michael Denio and see if he's interested in such a thing, or you could always make your own game in a similar style with your own characters and story. :B

[@Tim.Hammer]

@@Pixelmusement Yeah, I've already got my own characters and games in development, so I can check that off. I just think it would be super nostalgic to remake these, basically sticking to the content, but updating the art and gameplay, and fixing buggy inventory issues. I've never had much luck in tracking down some of these more obscure older developers, even if I were to really take this idea seriously. And if I succeeded, I might end up biting off more than I can chew. Still, the idea really attracts me. The second episode is a bit intimidating, but remastering the first game would probably be a walk in the park. =)

[@Tim.Hammer]

@@Pixelmusement And also, yes, I played that new Crystal Caves remake. It was crazy fun, and I loved the more pleasant color palette and smoother movement. My only disappointment is that, if I had done it, I would have probably preferred to do it the same, but actually with crisp, high-res art. I can understand keeping the charm of the old pixels, but I thought they did kind of a shabby job reconciling the two, with many of the pixels overlapping oddly and not scaling correctly, as the movement grid was not locked to the pixel size. In my mind, that's a no-no for pixel art. Still, that's just me being nit-picky - overall, I loved playing it. It was an unexpected surprise. =)

[@Pixelmusement]

@@Tim.Hammer I only have a problem with chunky pixels being misaligned when the gameplay itself depends on pixel alignment to some degree. Since the gameplay in Crystal Caves HD is silky smooth it doesn't bother me there. :B

[@Tim.Hammer]

@@Pixelmusement True, that's a fair point, and that silky smooth movement feels good during gameplay. To me, it's more of an aesthetic issue. I guess to clarify, I'd say that I don't mind sub-pixel movement; but I do mind sub-pixel "stopping." Basically, if an object or character isn't moving or stops moving, it should align with the pixel grid. So, Milo could walk perfectly smooth, negating the resolution, but once the key is released, I believe he should stop at the next rounded pixel and fall in line with the others. And this same principle should also apply for other objects. I say "should," but this is obviously just my opinion, and one I hold myself to strictly in my own work. This is a minor gripe; I know I take pixels more seriously than is necessary, haha. Honestly, it was just really nice to play the game, and the episode they added was also excellent.

[@negirno]

Yeah, this difficulty increase because the developer/level maker is accustomed to the game is a real and sadly way too overlooked problem in FOSS games. Maybe you could review some of them someday (if there's no FOSS game reviewer already)?

[@wardrich]

TIL: There's a 2md Captain Comic game

[@Pixelmusement]

+wardrich I never knew about it for the longest time either. :o

[@nodakamakadon]

I wish I'd known back in the day. Not that I won't play it now, hah.

[@aeonicbutterfly9662]

Same. I played the daylights out of the Shareware for the original, off of an old shareware CD, but I never knew it had a sequel. Oh how I wish I could go back in time and order some of these games now. I had to sit on owning Jill proper til basically GOG had it up for free. I was lucky that Crystal Caves was still available for purchase for a very long time, until it was bundled with the Apogee classics pack. Granted I still got that too, because I am a sucker for these things. Never had old enough hardware to transfer floppies or anything useful, and don't have the space to make it useful, but do I feel good properly owning them now. :)

[@executivebexley252]

Captain comic 1 was the first game I played on a pc! Never knew it had a sequel, my first pc had captain comic 1, Orion (I think that's what it was called) and Thomas the tank engine

[@executivebexley252]

Orion odyssey! The jetpack platformer just found it, oh the memories... Of never completing games just playing level 1 over and over

[@NellWatson]

I assume that the codesheet generates a code based upon the serial number of the hard drive or something, thereby frustrating a copied installation.

[@MordacksOrgan]

Yeah, I remember Lemmings did something similar, except that it checked for the presence of the original floppy disk upon first launch.

[@ToddBarchok]

I had both Captain Comic games on the family computer growing up. I liked this one better than the first, because even though the gameplay was harder, it was possible to mostly brute force your way through because of the save system, whereas the first game had to be completed in one sitting. I also absolutely love the minecart and sledding section, even if they are a bit brutal. Unfortunately, Captain Comic 2 ends on a massive cliffhanger, and Michael A. Denio never made another game, reportedly because the sales for this one were way too low and he stopped making games as a result. (you mentioned this a bit in the description, but yeah...)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Todd Barchok I wouldn't call it a MASSIVE cliffhanger, given that there's not really much of a way for the third game to continue the current-timeline story, so it would've likely been its own self-contained story anyways. :B

[@najarati]

Oh, is that why it never continued? I always wanted to see how the story would progress following the end of the second game. As a kid, I was disappointed by the cliffhanger ending because I wanted to see how things resolved, hah! Still a cool ending, nevertheless.

[@travisbeamon5356]

Thanks for the review! I'm glad i got to donate to a show i very much enjoy ! :)

[@RetroSwim]

Travis the MVP!!

[@powpuck5031]

I just now noticed that the artist of the boxart had autographed their work on the bottom right next to Comic's left knee. It's more or less illegible in the video and scans available online. So is it?

[@Pixelmusement]

The artist signature simply says "Dickson". Not sure exactly who it belongs to.

[@MajoradeMayhem]

Happy New Year!

[@Pixelmusement]

+Majora de Mayhem Happy New Year! :D

[@7thDementia]

I would say it's also similar to Leisure Suit Larry 2 as well, since that's the hardest entry in the LSL series. XD What is it with sequels being similar to, but harder than the game that precedes them?

[@Pixelmusement]

There's a surprisingly simple answer to that: The developers have adapted to what they created and so need to make sequel material more challenging to keep it interesting for themselves personally. This happens freaking EVERYWHERE, and heck, can even happen to an untried developer mid-development depending on how the development cycle is going! :P

[@Vokabre]

5:21 Two options: "Captain Comic II" or "Stock Market: The Game"

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Think I might have an EGA addiction.

[@MontieMongoose]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

@@MontieMongoose True

[@querpmuerp]

Thank you! I loved the first game and it still holds up quite well even today despite all it flaws.

[@LeonardGr]

What was the clue on last episode?

[@AnnCatsanndra]

Deeply flawed frustrating design, but still seems like it might be fun to play.

[@White_Tiger93]

Adaptive tile refresh

[@AlanaLecter]

Your voice sounds a lot like you haven't shaved your head and sent me your hair yet.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Alana Lecter You realize 99% of my audience probably isn't aware of this running joke between us and may take that seriously, right? ;)

[@RetroSwim]

@@Pixelmusement That just makes it funnier for us. :)

[@wardrich]

@@Pixelmusement congrats on your first stalker! This is how you know you've made it to the big leagues. 🤣

[@jesusbear7367]

*Grabs a bucket of popcorn*

[@AlanaLecter]

@@Pixelmusement joke...?

[@zintosion]

Yo Happy New year Gemini

[@Pixelmusement]

+zintosion Happy New Year! :D

[@Roobar_Plays]

You forced me to watch the nature realm on other videos and I really don't get it why you blacked out the video. It wasn't as bad as you described it. And you you literally showed just a few seconds.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Roobar ??? Uhh... this is the first time I've ever shown Captain Comic II in a video so you MUST be thinking of someone else. Besides, I blacked out a LOT of the storm effect, more than a minute's worth in this video. It's barely tolerable for me, but I know I can tolerate some visual effects better than others, so given that, I felt the safe thing to do was decrease the brightness for those sensitive to rapid flashing like that.

[@amandakelly7991]

I remember this game being difficult and anoying as hell but was easy to make a cheat for it.

[@turbinegraphics16]

Looks like a fun game but this would have been considered below par if it was on nes in 1990.

[@Pixelmusement]

+turbine graphics 16 Definitely. Due to differences in architecture, platformers generally worked out way better on sprite-based systems. Once PCs got enough speed going and the Id Software guys figured out some slick smooth scrolling, that's when things finally started to change for PC platformers. :B

[@TheMoogleMaster]

I never knew there was a Captain Comic II, I used to play the first one a lot.

[@Camper_Lv]

When you mention earlier review, maybe, just maybe give a link to it?

[@oz_jones]

There was a sequel?

[@Pixelmusement]

+Osmosis Jones Apparently! :B

[@MechagirlSachiko]

Interesting game. Despite its flaws, I'd like to try it and see how far I go. But alas, my laptop has no disquette slot, so unless GOG.com makes a surprise release, playing it is beyond my capabilities. Fingers crossed for a future GOG release!

[@jakesbase5657]

Just what I need to detox on a Saturday morning

[@MaximilienNoal]

I played this a lot on the Amstrad CPC... It was fun.

[@GamingWolf_Plays]

looc si sdrawkcab oediv taerg

[@Pixelmusement]

+GamingWolf Plays Eerga uoy dalg! ;)

[@MarquisDeSang]

This game has as much flaws as the 2019 "Control" game. Sad that some game designer never learn.