Converted for the Atari 8-bit computers by Chuck Peavey for Sculptured Software, and published by Mastertronic in 1987.
Music and sound effects for the Commodore 64 and Atari 400/800 versions by David Whittaker.
Converted for Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Tom Lanigan and Ed Knight for MC Lothlorien Ltd., and published by Mastertronic in 1989.
---
INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS
Even with my severe off-blog workload, I simply couldn't let May pass without at least one Mastertronic comparison, and so I picked one of the few ones left somewhat at random - a game that I had never given any notice before now. The single point of inspiration for choosing Panther was its positive comparison to a more classic diagonally scrolling isometric shooter, Blue Max, which was one of the first comparisons I ever made for FRGCB. The comparison is inevitable at any case, since the original C64 version of Panther was written by the very same person, who converted Blue Max from the Atari computers to the C64, Peter Adams.
---
DESCRIPTION & REVIEW
If we wanted to draw some more specific sources of inspiration for Panther, the most immediate games would be Choplifter and Blue Max 2001. Panther is a forwards-only going, diagonally-scrolling isometric shooter, in which you control a hovercraft of sorts with a much easier controllability than either of the two source games. Between attack waves, you will come across structures, from which you must rescue people who are waving at you, by landing near the structure, and the idea is to rescue as many people as possible and deliver them to the city at the end of the map. Unlike in Choplifter, even if you crash or get shot after picking up people, the rescued people stay in your cargo, so at least you need not worry about that too much.
While Panther is perhaps more instantly playable than at least Blue Max 2001, it quickly proves itself a less finetuned game than either of its muses, although some people certainly might like it better that way. There is a good reason, though, why clones rarely get the classic status as their sources of inspiration have, but it's not a bad alternative for a sub-genre, that is ultimately not nearly as well represented as it deserves to be, in the otherwise endless sea of shoot'em-ups.
---
LOADING
Just as most other Mastertronic games were, Panther was released primarily on cassette for all three platforms it was released on, although the Commodore 64 and Atari versions did have the game also released in disk format as a double-feature with L.A. SWAT. In fact, the disk version was released as a flippy, with the two games featured on one side for the C64, and the other side for the Atari computers. So, perhaps I should have made this into a two-fer? Well, due to my forced time constraints, perhaps I'll do L.A. SWAT next year. Anyway, here are the tape loading times for Panther...
 |
| Loading screens, left to right: Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Atari 400/800. |
ATARI 400/800: 8 minutes 21 seconds
COMMODORE 64: 3 minutes 54 seconds
ZX SPECTRUM: 4 minutes, sharp
As usual, there's nothing particularly interesting here. The loading screens are a bit more interesting than usual, because the C64 loading screen clearly uses hi-res mode, which makes it look similar to loading screens on the ZX Spectrum. However, the Spectrum version wasn't released until three years after the original, and the loading screen there is completely different. Both are nice in their own way, and the Atari loading screen is nothing to talk about.
---
PLAYABILITY
In all the years doing this blog, I don't think I have ever come across a game that starts right away once it has finished loading, but now, Panther is the first game to take that honour. If you want to consider that a good thing, that is. If you don't, the SPECTRUM version starts off in a more normal manner, with a controls menu screen. The other two versions only support joystick, so have no need for a control options menu.
This difference between the SPECTRUM version to the other two is only the first in a series of many. Once you start the game, you will notice the screen size is considerably smaller in the SPECTRUM version, with a much larger portion of the screen being taken by the info display by percentage than in the other two versions. This somewhat helps with the scrolling speed at its highest, but it makes the area of vision and movement much smaller, so there's not as much room to see or do anything. Probably due to the machine's screen mode and the forcedly diminished action screen size, the SPECTRUM version also has a slightly skewed point of view - not straight isometric diagonal, but something a bit different - the actual term for it might be trimetric, I'm not sure. Additionally, the collision detection is a bit unfair when trying to dodge enemy bullets or vessels, so you would be very lucky indeed to make it past the fourth area - which I will get to a bit later on.
I haven't even mentioned the most notable of differences yet, although I grant you, it's not necessarily the most important of them all. In the C64 and ATARI versions, your ship accelerates and simultaneously climbs when you pull the joystick down, and decelerates and dives when you push the joystick up. For the SPECTRUM version, these controls are completely opposite.
Now that we have gotten all that out of the way, let's focus on the game content for a bit. Almost immediately after you take off, you are attacked by a single enemy vessel, which is labeled as Alpha wave. This gives you a chance to get used to the controls and the necessity of keeping an eye on your altitude versus the opponent's. Sometimes, the enemy vessels adjust their altitude according to yours, and in later attack waves, which will consist of an increasing number of enemy vessels, the enemies will fly around in a more random manner, making themselves as difficult as possible to hit or predict. The attack waves will appear at progressive intervals - seldom at first, but in later levels, they will appear closer together. This all wouldn't become as frustrating and difficult as it is, had you been given the ability to shoot more than a single bullet at a time.
All three versions have the attack waves perform more or less differently. In the C64 original, all the enemies shoot straight in your general direction, but the earlier enemies tend to keep their distance. The ATARI version has the enemies rather difficult to hit even from the beginning, and they can also shoot behind them from an area outside of the screen, once they have passed your immediate vicinity. In the SPECTRUM version, the enemy behaviour is almost completely different from the other two versions. Firstly, they always arrive on the screen on ground level, whereas in the other two versions, they arrive on the same altitude as you are at the moment of contact. Secondly, they like to roam around aimlessly for a few seconds before they decide they want to kamikaze on you, if shooting doesn't bring the wanted result. They also have a tendency to lose their way off the screen once they have flied past you. What is common in all three versions is, that if you get killed during an attack wave, the attack wave vanishes after the occurrence.
The other interwoven part of the game is rescuing people from designated constructions. In the first two areas, you will come across small triangular entrances protruding above the ground, which will have small pixelated people waving at you to be picked up. Land somewhere near the building, and a random number of people will run into your hovercraft, one by one. Usually during this operation, an attack wave will start closing in on you, so chances are, you will not have enough time to rescue everyone from the building. If you're playing for a high score, though, rescuing people is the most effective way to gather score.
This part of the game is what adds a certain Rogue-like element to the game, since the levels are all randomly generated, as far as I know. No game has ever been exactly the same upon starting it, and you might go an entire area without having to land to rescue people if the game decides so. This aspect of the game is equally random on all three versions.
And finally, we get to level design, which offers the last point of comparison. As a rule, most of the levels consist of a good amount of safe areas to land onto, but there are obstacles - buildings and such - that you need to avoid crashing into. The game starts from a desert-like area with a railroad going through it almost to the end of the area, and some scarcely planted buildings and trees here and there. The second area is a derelict town with a few different types of buildings all over the place. For some reason, the ATARI and SPECTRUM versions rarely offers any rescue points in the second area - even rarer in the latter. The third area is where the really important differences start occurring, as the area is almost entirely made of water. In this area, the rescue points are some sort of oil drilling platforms or some such things, and the thing to note here is, that in the SPECTRUM version, the platforms are smaller than your hovercraft, so it's practically impossible to land on one, unless you know the hit area exactly. Next, you come to an area, where you are instructed to fly under radar - another town area, but more specifically a war zone, with rockets flying at you if you hover too high above the ground. Again, the SPECTRUM version differs by throwing rockets at you despite your altitude, and you are not even given the instruction to do such a thing.
This is as far as I have ever gotten in the SPECTRUM version, thanks to its impossible collision detection, but it is also as far as I have ever gotten in the ATARI version, thanks to its much more formidable difficulty level. Panther goes on to throw a series of super difficult plasma attacks after this section, after which you reach the place where you can drop all the rescued people into a flashing pyramid-like thing, which I assume is a teleporter. And then you restart with a higher difficulty level. In some ways, Panther feels like a game authored with Sensible Software's infamous Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit, but thankfully, it's much too complex for that, not only because it's a diagonally scrolling shooter. The C64 original is, as expected, as well balanced as it gets, but the other two versions aren't too far behind.
1. COMMODORE 64
2. ATARI 400/800
3. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
---
GRAPHICS
If you don't take the loading screens - where available - into account, Panther really doesn't have a lot of graphics outside of the in-game graphics in it. If you want to compare it to Blue Max, which you are likely to do, the amount of variety in the game's background graphics is the compensation for not having a title screen. That is, unless you're playing the SPECTRUM version, which does have a title screen.
 |
| Title screen and key definition screen from the Sinclair ZX Spectrum version. |
Now, onto the game itself. We focus on one area at a time, two screenshots from each area, and then ending with the fourth area, since it's the last common one I managed to reach in all three versions.
 |
| Screenshots from the first area, left to right: Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
Your mission starts from a wasteland-like area, with a long straight stretch of railroad splitting the view until almost the very end of the area. All three versions have their own general colour for the area, which is some sort of brown in the C64 and ATARI versions, and the SPECTRUM version goes with yellow, which would make it more like a desert - which is supported by the tape inlay instructions. The resident terrain obstacles and ornaments are trees (SPE) or cacti (C64/ATARI), telegraph posts, oil pumps and the occasional triangular bunker entrance.
 |
| Screenshots from the second area, left to right: Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
Concerning all the moving elements on the action screen, it's clear to see, that the ATARI version has the least detailed objects from the three, making it the least impressive version to look at, even though all the action is fast and furious enough. Yours and the enemies' bullets are small, but strikingly visible in their chosen white colour, and the enemies' colours make them easy to figure out, what kinds of enemies are you up against. The sprites in the C64 version are notably less undramatic, but have no notable visual design in them, that would make the game look particularly interesting. With lots of action on the screen, the C64 version suffers from plenty of sprite flashing. The colour coding for the enemies is of supreme importance, and the rescuee's animation is nice, but the thing I am personally most thankful of is the large and highly visible bullet sprites. The SPECTRUM version's good visual side is the pretty designs of yours and enemies' vessels, as well as all the things on ground level. The bad side is, the bullets are barely visible in a moving scenery due to their relatively small size, particularly when the bullets overlap other heavily textured terrain bits, so getting hit by an enemy bullet is unnecessarily common. Also, I'm not sure about whether all the enemy aircraft looking exactly the same in the SPECTRUM version is a good thing or a bad thing, because there seem to be no discernable behavioral differences, either.
 |
| The moment of switching between two areas. Left to right: Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
 |
| Screenshots from the third area, left to right: Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
Area 3 happens entirely over a stretch of water, so it's very blue all over, unless it's yellow, and the one possible solid element on the water is an oil drilling platform, which would have some rescuable people on it. In the C64 and ATARI versions, the platform is big, black and ugly, but at least you have a chance to hit it with some certainty. In the SPECTRUM version, the platform is small and cute, but practically impossible to land on. As for the water element, the waves are nicely animated in the C64 and ATARI versions, but not in the SPECTRUM version.
 |
| Screenshots from the fourth area, left to right: Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
The last area I will mention is the second city area, with the SAM defence systems. It's a much drabber looking area than the first town, with a burnt grey ground and blue buildings. The missiles coming at you are white and light grey on the C64, and flashing with the same colours on the ATARI, but the SPECTRUM version continues with the monochrome yellow and black theme, and the missiles look more like burning meteorites.
The thing that I really like about the SPECTRUM well above the other two is the Game Over message, which is loud and clear, in the middle of the screen, and it loops through all the possible colours in the machine's palette. In the C64 and ATARI versions, the Game Over message is displayed just as small and insignificantly as all the other messages in the designated message space.
Game Over screens, left to right: Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
I find it a bit strange, that Panther's design feels the most complete on the ZX SPECTRUM, thanks to its title screen and nicely visible Game Over message. However, the overall lack of colour and the often invisible bullets make the effort of making the game look nice a bit of a waste, when it's just not very practical. With the ZX Spectrum being powerful enough to make isometric adventure games like Knight Lore and Head Over Heels work much better than on the C64, getting smooth and fast scrolling in an isometric game is more natural for the C64 and ATARI computers. And while the lower resolution graphics tend to look a bit ugly, in Panther, the ugliness is preferred thanks to its subject matter. The ATARI version has better scrolling, and smoother changes in scrolling velocity than in the other two versions, but it has considerably less focus on designs, particularly the info display colouring. So, once again, we have a clear order.
1. COMMODORE 64
2. ATARI 400/800
3. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
---
SOUNDS
One of the most striking or memorable features in Panther is its theme tune by David Whittaker. Oddly, the SPECTRUM version being officially only released as a 48k version, you might have expected at least a single-channel beeper tune for the options screen, but it doesn't have any music in it at all. There are some scarce beeper sound effects, which do their job well enough, but hardly replace a good theme tune.
Both the C64 and ATARI versions were programmed to feature music and sound effects simultaneously. There are enough of sound effects in the game to be effective in that regard, such as "ding" sounds whenever you pick up a rescuee, and a couple of different kinds of gunshots and explosions. Although there are some obvious characteristic differences between the C64 and ATARI sound chips, the only real difference of import is the way the sound effects interrupt the music. In the C64 version, the sound effects have a way of replacing some of the less important channels, such as the bass line or the percussive track, so they very rarely get in the way of the real musical content. In the ATARI version, it's the other way round, and the sound effects tend to replace the main melody line at any given time, and that's enough to force it to take the second place.
1. COMMODORE 64
2. ATARI 400/800
3. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
---
OVERALL + VIDEO LINKS
Honestly, before starting to write this comparison, I had never even tried out playing Panther on any platform, and I was somewhat hoping it would be a good candidate for getting a winner other than the C64. But so it goes, that the platform of design takes the cake once again. Not that the Atari version was all that far behind.
1. COMMODORE 64: Playability 3, Graphics 3, Sounds 3 = TOTAL 9
2. ATARI 400/800: Playability 2, Graphics 2, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 6
3. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM: Playability 1, Graphics 1, Sounds 1 = TOTAL 3
For those of you, who want to have a more fulfilling Panther experience on the ZX Spectrum, there is an enhanced version for the Russian 128k Spectrum clones by SG-Team, with AY-music and font ripped straight from the Atari version, and the random generated level design is more balanced in its randomness. The modified game was distributed as an SCL disk image file on Russian boards, which I will not be providing a link to, but you should be able to find it easily enough by googling for a bit. This hack does make the Spectrum version considerably more enjoyable, but the graphics are still very monochrome.
Another reason to pick this game for this May's sole Mastertronic entry was, that it already had a couple of readily available video comparisons on YouTube, so I didn't have to try and do it myself. Here's different takes from ChinnyVision and Theshadowsnose.
That's it for now, I hope that filled some sort of a void. Next month should be slightly less busy for
me, so expect at least a couple of comparisons in June. Thanks for reading, see you later!
No comments:
Post a Comment