Remember Shareware? Those big “demos” offering about a third of a game for you to try out before buying it, free to distribute to whomever you wanted? Thats how games got around back in those days, back when we didn’t have that series of tubes called the Information super Highway, now we’re going back into the Dark Ages! You know when you’re old if you can remember the days without the internet, still with everything so readily available nowadays I can’t but feel that there was a lot more value over a game that you acquired back then, but that’s probably a personal opinion.
Anyhoo, back to Shareware. Shareware games could come from, well anywhere! from friends, family, computer magazines, that smelly kid from school you name it. Now if you were lucky you got a clean disk with a neat sticker on it describing a list of contents, most magazines did this very neatly, but most of the time, it was usually a blanque sticker with a cryptic description on the front like: Rott.arj or ComKeen4.zip, giving a slight indication of the contents. The worst were those oddly coloured, non labeled floppy’s you never knew what horrors they contained and for some reason they always made weird noises in your floppy drive, making you rue the moment you ever slid it into your computer.
But then again, it also added a sence of mystery and discovery, what did the floppy hold? what kind of game could a Rott be? and how in the hell was I supposed to extract an ARJ file again? We had an enormous pile of disks at home and scrounging through this Treasure trove had often led to some very interesting revelations, and i’ll be tapping into it regularly on TVGH to share my findings, first up: Boppin’
I fired up Boppin not knowing what to expect and was greeted by the all familiar Apogee logo, as you know Apogee means action, and when a game starts with that particular screen I know i’m in for a good time. Some of my favorite classic games hail from the Apogee library and you’ll see many of those pop by in the future. Now the first thing that struck me as odd, where the two Triangle shaped characters sitting on top of the Apogee logo waving at me. I cocked a brow in confusion and pressed on be greeted by the next screen, depicting a bloody Teddybear emanating a haunting laughter. My other brow joined the already cocked one and I wondered what kind of madness I had stepped into.
Well Madness is the right word, just explaining the storyline is enough for a man to lose his sanity, lovecraftian style! but since I’m already running up and down the stairs of madness on a regular basis I’ll give it a shot anyway.
Imagine a multitude of universes each created by someone or somethings imagination, among one of these is the homeworld of videogame characters Yeet and Boik, called Arcapaedia. (lost yet? I know I am!)
Whilst playing their arcade games they discover that all of the in-game monsters have gone missing. apparently they have been stolen by Hunnybunnyz and hidden into various shapes throughout the universe. To make sure that there’s something to fight against, the two heroes set out to release all the monsters back into their games. Let’s get Boppin’!
Now read that three more times and plug your fingers into your ears to prevent your brain from oozing out and you’re set. The story sets the tone perfectly, as in you have no Idea what to expect.
The gameplay of Boppin is as unique as it’s storyline, i’d never seen anything like it. The only thing that comes close to comparing is a game like Tetris on the Gameboy, except imagine holding the console upside down while playing it.
Wherein Tetris blocks of various shapes fel down, and it was up to players to fit them al neatly together to remove them from the playing field, in Boppin you have to shoot blocks upward to create various shapes to be able remove those.
Boppin adds the extra challenge, that each block created for the player to launch upwards is made of a certain object, shape, material, that can only be matched up with the same kind that are up in the playing field. And if that wasn’t enough, the only way to release the aforementioned monsters is to line the blocks in certain shapes, like Crosses and Squares. and if you think that’s complicated, here’s the fun part, you can only launch the blocks upwards at 45 degree angles, miss your target or hit a block of a different pattern and you can kiss your Hit points goodbye, complete with the wailing cry’s of the protagonists. Launch too many shapes in the wrong directions and it’s game over.
Explaining the gameplay is way more complicated then the game itself, it’s very easy to pick and the controls are right on. Yeet and Boik can move around the field horizontally so you can line up each throw with ease, there are also elevators and directional pads placed around each level that can give you some leverage or allow for some crazy shot combinations. The game is even better with two players, both players can play at the same time and help each other out or steal some high scores with cunning trickery, just don’t be surprised if you get a keyboard jammed in kneecap.
At the end of each stage when all the blocks are removed from the field, you get an overview ot the monsters you released and you move on to the next stage, and that’s one of the best parts of the game. Each stage is completely different from the next, sometimes you’re in a garden, throwing diamonds, in the next stage you’re on a cirquit board smashing chips around. you’ll move from sushi tables, to blueprints and badly drawn school doodles each with their own set of items to throw around. This makes you want to keep on playing, just to see what kind of wacky world is hanging around the corner. Each world features it’s own music and they really enforce the theme of the stage, you’ll find yourself humming along in the late hours of the evening while you’re squinting at the screen looking for the right angle to throw that obsidian jewelstone.
The graphics and humour in Boppin’ are crude and effective, the monster sprites look great and each stage has a vibrant feel and while they are totally different from each other the whole style stays consistent. It’s always a surprise to see what kind of funky monsters are released in each level, and the variation of shapes to throw around makes each level something to look forward to. Yeet and Boik are very likable and I still giggle when I fail a level and they blow their own brains out or perform seppuku out of sheer frustration.
Boppin’ is a real hidden gem and unfortunately not well know among gamers of old. It’s one of those “ow god is it midnight already?” games and still holds up to this day, it features a simple but solid concept that is very well executed. I recommend it to any puzzle fan to grab a friend and waste the wee hours in the night, heck even if you’re not into these kind of games I’d still tell you to give it a whirl.
Read it all with a big grin on my face 😀