Very exciting first-person adventure with a gripping story. It's also very commendable that the game is available in two languages. The graphics and sound are really well done. However, the rather cumbersome menu bar navigation is somewhat off-putting. A SCUMM-like control system might have been a better solution. Our German-language review can be found at 00:44:16. English subtitles are also available. Subscription to our YouTube and Twitch channel is welcome. 🙂
Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me, but I remember the SCUMM games on the C64 as being very sluggish. They don't work so well with joystick controls, and the inventory is quite confusing. Evil Spirit is (in my subjective opinion) easier to play once you understand the controls. For example, it's not necessary to pick up an item to use it, as you did. You can use it directly from anywhere. Nevertheless, thank you very much for trying it out, and I'm glad you enjoyed it somewhat :-)
Without the throwing item it can be quite hard. Also sharp stuff isnt that effective, but there is an alternative in that chapter, if you dont have one.
T-shirt has been re-used quite a long time ago already 😄 I have been even more eco-friendly in Chapter 3, near the big hole - but I used even that already - and my only remaining container is green, and nowhere to make it transparent, except for myself which is not healthy, so I could recycle.
I've also tried to create a medieval flashlight - in hope for some critical fears - or something - but looks like a no go.
I guess I just made too much mess 🥲 (because I've realised that I can actually run from brown triple-K only after I've wasted all my health and warfare - should have read Page 10 more throughly before playing the game 😅)
If you manage your resources well and know which fights to avoid, then the combat aspect of the third chapter is a walk in the park. And yes, sometimes running away helps in an unwanted encounter ;-)
This is amazing! Will have a blast with this. Just wanted to say, I hope you guys consider adding mouse support to it, because this games screams and begs for mouse support, now that we have thousands of C64U gamers who all potentially can hook up any USB mouse ...
That's an interesting suggestion. I never considered it, as I never had a mouse for my C64 and didn't know anyone who used one. The game's control scheme is optimized for a joystick, so I don't see a practical way to add mouse support later with reasonable effort. Therefore, it would only be an option if we were to make another title of this type.
That sounds still great, to me. The option to have that many mouse users, I mean more than the Commodore 64 ever saw in the past, now that the Ultimate and the C64U are gaining in popularity, and even that TheC64 can do mouse, this all makes strong case, I guess. You've made amazing strategy games before, both turn based and RTS types, and perhaps some of those would greatly benefit from mouse controls. Some reminded me of the Battle Isle series, and I really enjoy those. But it's probably mostly the RTS type game that adapts the best to having a free mouse cursor, and icons/buttons. Every time I see a new game with that (recently we even got a new first person shooter on the C64 with tank mouse support), I know it's gonna be exciting. :]
I'm still not sure if every one of these games would benefit from mouse control. The interfaces for the other games were also designed for the most efficient joystick operation. Nevertheless, it's worth considering :-)
Ooh of course not every single one, but I'm maybe some future ideas would mesh very well :3. Sorry for the wall of text by the way, I'm just excitable ^^.
I must say - I love the controls implementation. I've always rather avoided joystick controlled adventure games because of the slow and cumbersome controls. But here, the controls are genius. As described in one of the comments below - the joystick movement is reduced to the minimum. But since the scheme is new, it needs a little bit of the time to get accustomed to - but once you get it, it plays great.
One minor improvement idea that I feel would be super handy, is to have a support for 2nd fire button to return to the previous menu quicker - especially useful for inventory menu, so there is no need to move cursor to "quit" tile to go back
For example, the Cheetah Annihilator (from C64GS), which uses PotX for the second button - which is iirc the same as the second mouse button, so if you'd be implementing mouse support, you'd have right-mouse button "menu back" functionality already in place 😄
I'll keep that in mind. Another idea I have is to remove the exit slot in the inventory and instead use the scene boundaries to exit the inventory. This would create an additional inventory slot, and you could exit the inventory from half of the available slots. Of course all of this would only be implemented in future games.
A question - when I start the new game all I get is the GUI with flashing joystick and a beating heart - the play area is black and the game doesn't react to any joystick movement in neither port 1 nor 2, is this normal and I just don't know how to start or is something glitching up? 🤔
I've found the problem - seems the game is not compatible with DolphinDOS kernal (to speed up the disk drive).
When used with DolphonDOS, after selecting "new game", instead of "a week ago..." There are couple of color flashes (white, red, cyan) and then the frozen GUI with black game area appears, and the music is not playing, just the few notes then silence.
I'm not familiar with DolphinDOS and just looked at the description. We use almost all of the C64's memory for code and data. Perhaps the expansion also requires some RAM, and that might be causing a collision. But even without a fast loader, Evil Spirit's loading times should be very reasonable. However, I'll keep it in mind and perhaps include it as a possible technical issue in our manuals in the future. Thanks for sharing the problem and the solution!
DolphinDOS was like one of the very first on-board kernals to speed up loading times. Alongside JiffyDOS. We are talking 40 years ago here when they came out. You may be able to get them online to insert into VICE and test that way too.
Great release! I love how you always tackle different genres with your games, but they all have that same sense of personality and polish. Thank you for continuing to support our humble Commodore!
Thank you for the feedback :-) The controls are different from comparable games. The idea behind the concept is to avoid unnecessary joystick movements. It will certainly take some time getting used to at first, but I'm sure it's worth trying, as it's quite efficient and (hopefully) allows you to focus more on the game itself instead of navigating menus.
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Very exciting first-person adventure with a gripping story. It's also very commendable that the game is available in two languages. The graphics and sound are really well done. However, the rather cumbersome menu bar navigation is somewhat off-putting. A SCUMM-like control system might have been a better solution. Our German-language review can be found at 00:44:16. English subtitles are also available. Subscription to our YouTube and Twitch channel is welcome. 🙂
Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me, but I remember the SCUMM games on the C64 as being very sluggish. They don't work so well with joystick controls, and the inventory is quite confusing. Evil Spirit is (in my subjective opinion) easier to play once you understand the controls. For example, it's not necessary to pick up an item to use it, as you did. You can use it directly from anywhere. Nevertheless, thank you very much for trying it out, and I'm glad you enjoyed it somewhat :-)
Excellent new adventure game. I added it to my video along with other games released in April.
Great video! Thanks! :-)
Is it possible to get stuck in Chapter 3?
There is a passage with triple the surprise and I don't seem to have anything to cope with that.
Without the throwing item it can be quite hard. Also sharp stuff isnt that effective, but there is an alternative in that chapter, if you dont have one.
If the alternative is the red bundle, I read but left the know-how behind me - is it still usable?
I also got the blunt stuff and the bright stuff. And just 11 health 😑
The red bundle is part of a puzzle. The know-how not necessary. But you can do more with a TShirt than just wearing it.
T-shirt has been re-used quite a long time ago already 😄 I have been even more eco-friendly in Chapter 3, near the big hole - but I used even that already - and my only remaining container is green, and nowhere to make it transparent, except for myself which is not healthy, so I could recycle.
I've also tried to create a medieval flashlight - in hope for some critical fears - or something - but looks like a no go.
I guess I just made too much mess 🥲 (because I've realised that I can actually run from brown triple-K only after I've wasted all my health and warfare - should have read Page 10 more throughly before playing the game 😅)
If you manage your resources well and know which fights to avoid, then the combat aspect of the third chapter is a walk in the park. And yes, sometimes running away helps in an unwanted encounter ;-)
This is amazing! Will have a blast with this. Just wanted to say, I hope you guys consider adding mouse support to it, because this games screams and begs for mouse support, now that we have thousands of C64U gamers who all potentially can hook up any USB mouse ...
That's an interesting suggestion. I never considered it, as I never had a mouse for my C64 and didn't know anyone who used one. The game's control scheme is optimized for a joystick, so I don't see a practical way to add mouse support later with reasonable effort. Therefore, it would only be an option if we were to make another title of this type.
That sounds still great, to me. The option to have that many mouse users, I mean more than the Commodore 64 ever saw in the past, now that the Ultimate and the C64U are gaining in popularity, and even that TheC64 can do mouse, this all makes strong case, I guess. You've made amazing strategy games before, both turn based and RTS types, and perhaps some of those would greatly benefit from mouse controls. Some reminded me of the Battle Isle series, and I really enjoy those. But it's probably mostly the RTS type game that adapts the best to having a free mouse cursor, and icons/buttons. Every time I see a new game with that (recently we even got a new first person shooter on the C64 with tank mouse support), I know it's gonna be exciting. :]
I'm still not sure if every one of these games would benefit from mouse control. The interfaces for the other games were also designed for the most efficient joystick operation. Nevertheless, it's worth considering :-)
Ooh of course not every single one, but I'm maybe some future ideas would mesh very well :3. Sorry for the wall of text by the way, I'm just excitable ^^.
I must say - I love the controls implementation. I've always rather avoided joystick controlled adventure games because of the slow and cumbersome controls. But here, the controls are genius. As described in one of the comments below - the joystick movement is reduced to the minimum. But since the scheme is new, it needs a little bit of the time to get accustomed to - but once you get it, it plays great.
One minor improvement idea that I feel would be super handy, is to have a support for 2nd fire button to return to the previous menu quicker - especially useful for inventory menu, so there is no need to move cursor to "quit" tile to go back
Which controller were you thinking of exactly?
For example, the Cheetah Annihilator (from C64GS), which uses PotX for the second button - which is iirc the same as the second mouse button, so if you'd be implementing mouse support, you'd have right-mouse button "menu back" functionality already in place 😄
I'll keep that in mind. Another idea I have is to remove the exit slot in the inventory and instead use the scene boundaries to exit the inventory. This would create an additional inventory slot, and you could exit the inventory from half of the available slots. Of course all of this would only be implemented in future games.
Thanks :-) I'm very glad that it worked out for you the way we had intended.
Downloaded it and for now, I played "chapter 0". Will go to chapter later tonight and I hope I will go as far as I can.
Let me know how far you get :-)
I will... But not before saturday, I have two busy days in front of me.
very good
Thanks :-)
I can hardly wait to play this game...heheh
Hello Windigo!
A question - when I start the new game all I get is the GUI with flashing joystick and a beating heart - the play area is black and the game doesn't react to any joystick movement in neither port 1 nor 2, is this normal and I just don't know how to start or is something glitching up? 🤔
I've found the problem - seems the game is not compatible with DolphinDOS kernal (to speed up the disk drive).
When used with DolphonDOS, after selecting "new game", instead of "a week ago..." There are couple of color flashes (white, red, cyan) and then the frozen GUI with black game area appears, and the music is not playing, just the few notes then silence.
Hope it helps.
I'm not familiar with DolphinDOS and just looked at the description. We use almost all of the C64's memory for code and data. Perhaps the expansion also requires some RAM, and that might be causing a collision. But even without a fast loader, Evil Spirit's loading times should be very reasonable. However, I'll keep it in mind and perhaps include it as a possible technical issue in our manuals in the future. Thanks for sharing the problem and the solution!
DolphinDOS was like one of the very first on-board kernals to speed up loading times. Alongside JiffyDOS. We are talking 40 years ago here when they came out. You may be able to get them online to insert into VICE and test that way too.
Thanks, I will try that.
Just FYI, the game works properly on both JiffyDOS and SpeedDOS (slightly slower fast loaders)
Do Poly Play use twitter? Had no response from them ( messages ) etc
I can't tell you that, as I don't use it. I communicate with them via email, but sometimes it can take a while to get a reply.
good job guys! Bellissim
Thanks :-)
I am so excited to play this!
I hope you like it :-)
Now is is my kind of game ;)
I'm glad to hear that and thanks for the article :-)
Awesome game!
Awesome video! Thanks :-)
Great release! I love how you always tackle different genres with your games, but they all have that same sense of personality and polish. Thank you for continuing to support our humble Commodore!
I agree. So many good games! I have a folder on my new C64U filled with just all of their great games.
That's great to hear. Thank you so much for your feedback :-)
Honestly, thank you for keeping on! Love your strategy games so much!
As long as there are still people out there who appreciate it, all the hard work is worthwhile. Thank you so much for your kind words :-)
It looks great, but the controls are confusing me in a 'Denton Designs' kind of way 🤣
Thank you for the feedback :-) The controls are different from comparable games. The idea behind the concept is to avoid unnecessary joystick movements. It will certainly take some time getting used to at first, but I'm sure it's worth trying, as it's quite efficient and (hopefully) allows you to focus more on the game itself instead of navigating menus.