Mayhem in Monsterland
Encyclopedia
Mayhem in Monsterland, released in 1993, was a game produced for the Commodore 64
home computer
. Its titular hero, "Mayhem", was a yellow triceratops
blessed with the gift of speed. His goal was to return his world from sad to happy, ridding the world of monsters along the way. The game featured effects not previously thought possible on eight-bit computers, and was the first C64 title to have a real feeling of speed, a "console-esque" feature the developers wanted.
A new game for mobile phones starring Mayhem, Mayhem's Magic Dust, was released in 2004. It was developed by Infinite Lives.
The game was released on the European Virtual Console
online store for the Nintendo
Wii
system on the 17 October 2008, costing 500 Wii Points
.
, who had previously made Creatures and Creatures 2, which featured Clyde Radcliffe as the main character. Mayhem was far lighter in tone than Creatures, which featured end of level action puzzles that if not successfully accomplished, meant death by various gruesome machinations.
Mayhem in Monsterland featured both high-quality graphics and high speeds, a combination that had never before been seen on the C64. This was made possible by taking advantage of a bug in the computer's graphics chip, the VIC-II, that allowed scrolling the entire screen up to the width of one screen -- 320 pixels -- in hardware. Normally the C64 can only scroll the screen 7 pixels in hardware. This technique had been used in demos
before, but it is believed that Mayhem in Monsterland was the first commercial game to do this.
An apprentice magician dinosaur living in Monsterland, Theo Saurus, made a mistake while practising a spell one day. He turned the lands Jellyland, Pipeland, Spottyland, Cherryland, and Rockland into sad places, void of color or life. Theo began living underground in a hidden cave to avoid the wrath of the other monsters until discovered one day by the hero of the story, Mayhem. Mayhem promised to bring Theo the necessary magic dust to transform Monsterland to its previous happy state.
There are two types of quota to be met
Magic dust quota: Enemies must be defeated to gain the magic dust. Enemies may be killed in two ways. Enemies may be bounced on. Mayhem bounces upwards a small amount when destroying an enemy like this. Once the lightning power up
has been obtained, enemies may also be charged at with speed in a special attack.
Monsters are not always simple to dispatch as some have spikes and others shells. Soft spots on such enemies have to be found by the player in order to defeat them.
Star quota:Happier music plays once all the enemies are defeated. It is then a race against the clock to collect the quota of stars and to get to the exit to complete the stage. The faster a star is rotating, the more points it is worth.
The 'Super-Star' bonus (all stars collected on a stage) can only be obtained on the first and last stage of the game on the cassette, disk and cartridge versions of the game.
magazine, which later awarded it a 100% score in its final review. This came a year after Creatures was chronicled in Zzap!64 magazine. The editors also subsequently gave the game an excellent review.
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
. Its titular hero, "Mayhem", was a yellow triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
blessed with the gift of speed. His goal was to return his world from sad to happy, ridding the world of monsters along the way. The game featured effects not previously thought possible on eight-bit computers, and was the first C64 title to have a real feeling of speed, a "console-esque" feature the developers wanted.
A new game for mobile phones starring Mayhem, Mayhem's Magic Dust, was released in 2004. It was developed by Infinite Lives.
The game was released on the European Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
online store for the Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
system on the 17 October 2008, costing 500 Wii Points
Wii Points
Nintendo Points are a currency that Nintendo uses for its Wii and Nintendo DSi systems through the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop respectively...
.
Development
Mayhem in Monsterland was produced by Apex Computer ProductionsApex Computer Productions
Apex Computer Productions were the brothers John and Steve Rowlands, British based game designers and programmers on the Commodore 64 in the late 1980s and early 1990s....
, who had previously made Creatures and Creatures 2, which featured Clyde Radcliffe as the main character. Mayhem was far lighter in tone than Creatures, which featured end of level action puzzles that if not successfully accomplished, meant death by various gruesome machinations.
Mayhem in Monsterland featured both high-quality graphics and high speeds, a combination that had never before been seen on the C64. This was made possible by taking advantage of a bug in the computer's graphics chip, the VIC-II, that allowed scrolling the entire screen up to the width of one screen -- 320 pixels -- in hardware. Normally the C64 can only scroll the screen 7 pixels in hardware. This technique had been used in demos
Demo (computer programming)
A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
before, but it is believed that Mayhem in Monsterland was the first commercial game to do this.
Story
Gameplay
At the beginning of each stage the goals are displayed to the player.There are two types of quota to be met
Power up
Power up may refer to:* Power-up, a video gaming term* Power Up, an American non-profit organization* Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, a 2005 book by Chris Kohler...
has been obtained, enemies may also be charged at with speed in a special attack.
Monsters are not always simple to dispatch as some have spikes and others shells. Soft spots on such enemies have to be found by the player in order to defeat them.
The 'Super-Star' bonus (all stars collected on a stage) can only be obtained on the first and last stage of the game on the cassette, disk and cartridge versions of the game.
Reception
The game was chronicled during production in Commodore FormatCommodore Format
Commodore Format was a British magazine for users of the Commodore 64 home computer. All sixty-one issues of the magazine were produced by Future Publishing. These came towards the end of the machine's commercial life - from October 1990 until October 1995....
magazine, which later awarded it a 100% score in its final review. This came a year after Creatures was chronicled in Zzap!64 magazine. The editors also subsequently gave the game an excellent review.
See also
- Creatures
- Creatures II: Torture TroubleCreatures II: Torture TroubleCreatures II: Torture Trouble is a platform game for the Commodore 64 computer, released in 1992. It was developed by Apex Computer Productions, the company started by two brothers, John Rowlands and Steve Rowlands .It is the sequel to Creatures.-Gameplay:The game is composed of three islands,...