Super Mine-Field Review for Intellivision
Background
Super Mine field is a relatively new homebrew for the Intellivision released in 2016 and brought to us by Collectorvision. It was inspired by the Memotech MTX version of the same game. The Memotech MTX series of computers were created by a company called “Memotech” in 1983, 84 in the UK. They were Zilog Z80A based with memory configurations varying from 32K to 128K. It reminds me somewhat of, like a UK version of the Commodore 64 but they were technically more similar to MSX computers. Although before working on this review I had never heard of this system, the Memotech MTX was a really neat little looking device. Super Mine-Field is a single-player, single life, game.
Gameplay
When you first power on the game, as is the case with Jawcrusher, you are presented with a screen proudly showing a map of Scandinavia declaring the software was programmed in that region, accompanied by a short musical tune. The Scandinavian flags are not displayed here, but do show up in the later release of Jawcrusher.
Following that screen, we are brought to the main title screen. I appreciate the simplicity of the title screen while at the same time I admire the multi-colored display of the words “Super Mine-Field”. “Mine-Field” is written enlarged and is split into three colors, the top layer is Purple, the middle layer is white and the bottom layer is a shade of green. The title screen encourages you to start the game by pressing the Disc or Button on your controller.
Pressing the disk takes you to the new Map summary or STATUS screen, which smoothly scrolls up from the bottom. Here you see what level you are about to play displayed across the top, followed by the number of invisible and visible mines and the total count of mines you are about to be faced with. Your current score as well as the high score is also displayed. The processing percentage also ramps up to 100% at this time. My thinking is this is the point at which all the mine locations are determined randomly. The processing percentage display can be interrupted by the controller in order to start the game faster. This screen is unique to the Intellivision version.
You see, as the games programmer Claus Baekkel explained it to me, the Memotech MTX version did all the calculations for all of the maps at the beginning of the game whereas, on the Intellivision and Colecovision versions, due to their memory restrictions, this had to be done on a level by level basis. If no controller button is pressed the game cycles between this title screen and the game’s credits scroll up from the bottom.
Pressing the controller will initiate a new game. There is a nice transitional circular screen erase effect that occurs at this point. The map also smoothly scrolls in from the bottom. Once in place, the game randomly drops in the trees as well as other game items. In Super Mine-Field you control your character who is only able to move horizontally or vertically. Your goal is to move from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen while dodging randomly placed mines, NOT all of which are visible. You do have a little bit of help though.
On the top right portion of the screen is a mines detected indicator, represented by a red uppercase “M” with a white digit beneath it. This lets you know how many active mines are within your immediate vicinity. Keep in mind it does not keep track of mines located diagonal to your position. If it reads zero, then you can safely move in any direction, If it reads one, then one mine is nearby, two, then two are near. If it reads three, then your only move is to step one back in the previous direction to avoid being destroyed. Just below the Mines indicator is the current level or map indicator, represented by an uppercase “L” with a digit just beneath it. Below that, your score is represented by a red uppercase “S” and is displayed vertically in a white font.
The border surrounding each map is loaded with mines and is therefore off-limits. The border characters resemble an upper case “X”. There are a few more challenges thrown in that might slow you down from arriving at your destination. Some maps contain water which cannot be directly crossed but have bridges covering them. Do not enter the water, this will end the game. Starting with map three, the game introduces a mine sweeping tank, which moves horizontally across the screen but appears on randomly placed rows from time to time. This minesweeper not only sweeps up some of the mines but places them in new spots, both visible and invisible.
Note: The memotech MTX version also throws in spiders as an additional barrier. These spiders were not implemented in the Intellivision version.
Should you run into a mine you will explode and your tombstone will be placed in the location you perished. At this point, the game is over and you are quickly brought to the game-ending screen, which is a zoom-in of your tombstone. It reads “R.I.P. GAME OVER”. Your final score and high score are displayed on this screen.
In addition to all the barriers thrown at you, Super Mine-Field does have bonus reward boxes spread through each map, a minimum of three bonuses each. Every bonus collected will earn you an additional two hundred points. This is enticing but often times will lead you into dangerous territory. One thing to note about the blue bonus characters, they are also mine free, so for example, if you are next to a bonus and your Mine indicator reads two, it is still safe to proceed to collect the bonus, because the bonus does not conceal a mine. Upon successfully navigating to the top of the map you will have completed the round. There are a total of nine maps in Super Mine-Field. Once the final map is completed you are rewarded with a final game completion screen and the marines Hymn is played, the oldest official song in the United States Armed forces, according to Wikipedia. The image displayed is awesome, resembling the imagery used on the box art, more on that later. If I am being ever so slightly critical, he looks more like a crazy naked guy running through the mine-field, than he does a robot or alien of some kind.
In my correspondence with Claus, he indicated to me, with few exceptions, the mines are completely randomly placed on the maps and it is, therefore, it is entirely possible, in the later levels, a map may not be possible to complete. However, he did say he tried to make sure at least one of the bridges on the river maps could be crossed.
Controls
At first, when playing this game the controls seemed difficult. I would press up, then try to press back down for example but was having a hard time getting it to work. After some clarification by Claus, it started to make sense. He said the game is looking only for up, down, left, or right so if you accidentally press in a diagonal direction it won’t register. With that tip, I was finally able to more accurately play the game with less frustration.
Scoring
There are only three ways to score in Super Mine-Field. Moving around in new territory will award you 25 points for each new area. Collecting the animated blue bonus will grant you 200 points and completing the round will award you an ascending bonus starting at 250 for completing the first map and incrementing by 250 points for each further map completed, culminating in a final bonus of 2,250 for the ninth and final map.
Strategy
The first thing you have to do in this game is to get acclimated to the controls. I recommend moving around each map slowly to become aware of the surrounding mines. If the mine detector is triggered most of the time you can reverse back in the opposite direction and try a different path. With practice, you’ll learn to use the process of elimination to determine the best path to take. If your ultimate goal is level completion, then ignore the animated blue bonuses and B-line toward the top along the safest path. Should a tank cross directly above or below you, do not immediately move up or down in the direction of the tank, since some mines may have been moved. Your mine indicator does not at first register these moves. Be careful. In the earlier rounds, you can move around more freely because there are fewer mines on the map. Remember repetition is king, if you die, start over and keep trying.
Graphics
Speaking to the graphics of the game you do have to remember this game is running on an Intellivision from 30 years ago. With that in mind, I like the graphics a lot. I mean yeah, they are basic and blocky, but you can tell some effort was put into it. For example, on the title screen, the game’s name is multicolored, the games map smoothly scrolls onto the screen, the status screen is cleared in a circular fashion. If you drown in the water there is an animation. There is an animated blue bonus on the maps and when the game ends there are nice game completion and death scenes. When you die the small tombstone displays. All of these things add polish and make it more interesting to play.
Sound
Again the sound effects are pretty basic in Super Mine-Field. There are not a whole lot of sounds in the game.
There are a few music tunes which play during at the following times:
Scandinavian introduction, Level completion, Game Completion, Game Over, and tombstone screens.
There’s a level generation sound effect. There’s a death by water sound effect. You have a sound for picking up the bonus. A sound for the tank moving across the screen. A sound for death by a mine. A separate sound to indicate you are near one mine, a slightly higher pitch sound for two mines indicated, and yet an even higher pitch to indicate three mines are nearby. You can almost play by the sound alone, moving in a single direction until you hear a sound.
Level ramp-ups
Amazingly Super Mine-Field has no options to change things up, like say for example the difficulty ramp-ups. Well, really this is not necessary as the game does a good job of slowly introducing new elements, increasing the difficulty as you progress through the various maps. It took me several hours before I was finally able to complete all nine maps. In the second map, a water element is introduced in which you must cross using a bridge. In maps three and up, tanks are introduced to literally mix things up. I suppose the game could have used one more moving barrier such as the spiders which were a part of the Memotech MTX version, but really in my opinion it is difficult enough as is.
World Records
I was unable to locate any official world records for Super Mine-Field, but I did request the game be added to highscore.com for friendly competition.
Easter eggs
There are no Easter eggs in Super Mine-Field
Suggestions for Improvement
There’s not a whole lot of things I could think of to improve this game. One simple suggestion I would have liked to have seen implemented would have been when the level is completed or you meet your maker, currently, the game reveals all of the hidden mines on the map which is great. On that reveal screen, it would have been nice had the hidden mines displayed in a slightly different color, just to differentiate them a little better. I would have liked for there to have been some kind of difficulty settings like easy, medium or hard.
Packaging
The box artwork is really cool and serves it’s intended purpose, much like how Atari and Intellivision used to do in the old days, evoking your imagination. It looks like a robot making its way through a mine-field with a tank roaring by in the background. The box itself is red and there are a couple of gameplay screenshots on the backside. The game’s title is displayed in what looks like a purple gradient, the same design carrying over to the cartridge, manual, and overlays. Although it is nice they included the overlays, they are not necessary to play the game. The manual contains the same imagery as the box and if you look closely in the background you will notice what looks like an upside-down rainbow. There’s a lot of detail in the artwork, well done.
Game variations
As mentioned earlier this game is a conversion based on the Memotech MTX version. The Colecovision version is also a faithful port. Both of these versions ONLY have one map which allows for a 32 by 23 playfield whereas the Intellivision version has only a 20 by 11 map, which may make it feel a bit more blocky, not that this is a bad thing.
Podcasts / Other Video Review coverage
Super Mine-Field was mentioned a couple of times on the Intellivisionaries Podcast including episode 27, titled “Rick Rolled Retro”
http://intellivisionaries.com/episode-27-rick-rolled-retro/
Purchasing Information
Although the boxed cartridge version of Super Mine-Field is sold out and discontinued by Collectorvision, you can still pick up the ROMs for both the Intellivision and Colecovision versions over at
http://www.mtxworld.dk/romstore/
For $10 each. The ROM can be played using the LTO flash cartridge or via emulation. If you are the type of person that would rather try before you buy, Claus has recently released a playable demo version of the game. The demo is a stripped-down version, of course, containing only one playable level and has the following restrictions:
The game ends when:
Player Escaped the Minefield
Player Died or
The player has moved more than 31 steps.
Limits:
No Scandinavia Map Intro
No Credits
No Tank
No Beach, Ice and River map
No RIP/Game over
Conclusion
Super Mine-Field is a surprisingly fun game to play. I was pleasantly surprised by this game. I guess for some reason my expectations were sort of low. Of course, I had never played any version of this game before.
One of the great things about this game is its instant replay value. As soon as you achieve your high score you just know you can beat it with one more try. The game’s programmer was aware of this addictive quality and programmed it such that you can quickly start a new game by pressing only the disk a couple of times to restart a new game. This is extremely convenient.
I have to say due to the addictive qualities of the game, I find it hard to stop playing. Even knowing and having completed all nine maps is not a deterrent to keep playing. You can always try to go back and improve your score. The Intellivision version improves on it’s predecessor by adding eight additional maps of gameplay including, the road, river, beach, and snow maps. It has also added really neat game-ending graphical screens not present in the prior versions.
The other impressive feat of this game is that it was developed using INTYbasic, which is a basic compiler than runs on the Intellivision. Overall this is a fun game, easy to learn, and one more thing it does that not enough games these days do, it makes you THINK, exercises your brain a little. Highly recommend.
At this time, I would like to thank Claus Baekkel for asking me to review his game and for answering all of my questions.
http://nanochess.org/intybasic.html
Youtube Description:
This is my review of Super Mine-Field for the Intellivision.
My review of Claus Baekkels Jawcrusher for Intellivision:
https://youtu.be/uZsbW2QaRd4
Purchase the ROM here:
http://www.mtxworld.dk/romstore/
Mentioned in this podcast:
http://intellivisionaries.com/episode-27-rick-rolled-retro/
Publisher:
http://collectorvision.com/
Learn more about INTYbasic:
http://nanochess.org/intybasic.html
Youtube Original Post Date: 05/12/2018
