Xenon 2 Megablast
Encyclopedia
Xenon 2 Megablast is a computer game originally produced for the Amiga
and Atari ST
, and later converted to the PC, Sega Master System
, Sega Mega Drive
, Acorn Archimedes
and Game Boy
platforms. The sequel to Xenon, it was designed by the Bitmap Brothers
(although coded by The Assembly Line
). It became one of their most well-known titles, and is a classic of its genre.
. Unusual for the genre at the time, the player's spaceship
can reverse the scrolling of the play area for a limited distance; which is used in the game for defeating bosses, avoiding enemies and escaping dead ends. This game consists of five levels which are each divided into two sections.
The game has a generic sci-fi theme and almost no plot, focusing instead on presentation and gameplay. Indeed, it was the quality of the music and graphics that led to the game's memorability. The graphics bear the trademark "Bitmap Brothers" appearance, with realistic and detailed renditions of rock
and metal
objects. The enemies are mostly various nondescript organic creatures, plants, bacteria-like lifeforms, though the final levels feature robotics, mechanical enemies, and various artificial hostile entities.
The player of Xenon 2 Megablast must rely heavily on power-up
s, which may be gained by shooting power-up containers that appear through the levels. When an enemy or a wave of enemies are destroyed they leave behind credits in the shape of bubbles. Small bubbles are worth 50 credits and large bubbles are worth 100. When a mid-level boss or end of level boss are destroyed, they explode to reveal lots of credit bubbles. Credits are then spent at a shop owned by Colin The Alien (who bears a remarkable resemblance to the alien from the film Predator
). Power-ups of various sorts may be bought there. Accumulating power-ups rewards the player with more heavy-duty firepower. The shop appears mid-level and at the end of the level.
At later levels, getting credit bubbles becomes easier, as certain areas contain an endless supply of enemies - strange bee-like creatures and killer kites - which will always drop a credit bubble upon dying. If the player stays long enough, making slight movements backwards, he can get an enormous amount of credits. This is where a major glitch occurs in Xenon 2; if you accidentally "over-collect" the credit bubbles trying to maximize your money to the highest possible amount, the money amount will simply over-lap back to zero, and the player only finds this out upon finishing the level. So if the money counter is over-lapped, and the player is left with something like 200 or 500 credits, the game becomes next to impossible, and the player has to start all over again.
The PC version of Xenon 2 contains a cheat mode: in the graphic menu press F7, then to activate, press the "i" key while playing in order to become invincible.
musician
Tim Simenon
to include the 1988 Bomb the Bass
hip hop
track "Megablast (Hip Hop On Precinct 13)" as theme music, which is also the origin of the game's subtitle. In turn, this song features many samples from Sly and the Family Stone song, "You Can Make It if You Try", and its theme seems heavily inspired by the The Splash Band track "The End (Disco Version)" released in 1984, which is itself based on the theme of John Carpenter
's film Assault on Precinct 13
.
There are two versions of the track in the game: a nearly faithful rendition (only missing a few spoken lines) as the loading music, and a simplified version as the in-game background music. The Amiga version of the loading music is based on the same track, but significantly different, with such changes as helicopter sound effects at the beginning and end.
The game was one of the first instances of a computer being programmed to play a pop single with reasonable accuracy. Sections of the music were sampled and then re-sequenced. In the cartridge-based console versions, the music is radically simplified, being purely synthesized and lacking the voice samples of the computer versions.
gave the ST and Amiga versions scores of 94 and 96%, respectively, praising graphics, sound and gameplay and calling it "utterly superb".
Xenon 2 Megablast is widely regarded as one of the most difficult shoot 'em ups of the Amiga and Atari ST game era of the 1990s; in light of the effort required to complete the game, fans (including Peter Molyneux
of Bullfrog Software) were said to have been greatly disappointed by its outro
: the shopkeeper, in his usual setting, congratulates you for finishing the game, and tells you you can now turn off your computer. Then the screen goes black, and waiting will not help. However, in the PC-Version when you hit fire in this screen the game starts from the beginning in a special mode: Most enemies have more health, which increases the difficulty a lot.
In contrast, Amiga Format
's review of the CDTV version (Issue 39, October 1992) was very harsh: they rated it a paltry 32%, commenting that, while innovative at the time it was first released, the game had aged poorly and its gameplay was not well balanced.
A recent retrospective look on the Mega Drive version by HonestGamers echoed the sentiment that it had aged very poorly. It also complains about the scaled-back soundtrack and how the console port drops the last level entirely. It scores it a low 3/10.
attached to PC Format
magazine. Within the issue were tutorials on its creation. It is also available for download from the Bitmap Brothers site. Despite the "new" visuals, Xenon 2000 lacks the original game's electronic soundtrack.
, paid tribute to Xenon 2 by naming the most powerful weapon in The Last Eichhof "Xenon 2 Cannon".
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, and later converted to the PC, Sega Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
, Sega Mega Drive
Sega Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
, Acorn Archimedes
Acorn Archimedes
The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltd's first general purpose home computer to be based on their own ARM architecture.Using a RISC design with a 32-bit CPU, at its launch in June 1987, the Archimedes was stated as running at 4 MIPS, with a claim of 18 MIPS during tests.The name is commonly...
and Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
platforms. The sequel to Xenon, it was designed by the Bitmap Brothers
Bitmap Brothers
The Bitmap Brothers were a UK based video game developer founded in 1987. The company entered the industry in 1988 with the scrolling shooter Xenon. They quickly followed with the classic Speedball...
(although coded by The Assembly Line
The Assembly Line
The Assembly Line was a British video game development company which created games for the Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Amiga systems. Recognised for the quality of its programming, it mostly created 3D action or puzzle games...
). It became one of their most well-known titles, and is a classic of its genre.
Story
After the Xenites' defeat in the Galactic Conflict which took place in the first Xenon, they have returned with a plan to wipe out the player's history by planting four bombs in space-time areas. The Megablaster pilot will have to fend off the bizarre wildlife around them. It is necessary to destroy the largest animal in each area as they have been fused with the bomb; once the creature is slain, the bomb is shut off.Theme and gameplay
Xenon 2 Megablast is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em upShoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
. Unusual for the genre at the time, the player's spaceship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
can reverse the scrolling of the play area for a limited distance; which is used in the game for defeating bosses, avoiding enemies and escaping dead ends. This game consists of five levels which are each divided into two sections.
The game has a generic sci-fi theme and almost no plot, focusing instead on presentation and gameplay. Indeed, it was the quality of the music and graphics that led to the game's memorability. The graphics bear the trademark "Bitmap Brothers" appearance, with realistic and detailed renditions of rock
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
and metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
objects. The enemies are mostly various nondescript organic creatures, plants, bacteria-like lifeforms, though the final levels feature robotics, mechanical enemies, and various artificial hostile entities.
The player of Xenon 2 Megablast must rely heavily on power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s, which may be gained by shooting power-up containers that appear through the levels. When an enemy or a wave of enemies are destroyed they leave behind credits in the shape of bubbles. Small bubbles are worth 50 credits and large bubbles are worth 100. When a mid-level boss or end of level boss are destroyed, they explode to reveal lots of credit bubbles. Credits are then spent at a shop owned by Colin The Alien (who bears a remarkable resemblance to the alien from the film Predator
Predator (film)
Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Kevin Peter Hall. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox....
). Power-ups of various sorts may be bought there. Accumulating power-ups rewards the player with more heavy-duty firepower. The shop appears mid-level and at the end of the level.
At later levels, getting credit bubbles becomes easier, as certain areas contain an endless supply of enemies - strange bee-like creatures and killer kites - which will always drop a credit bubble upon dying. If the player stays long enough, making slight movements backwards, he can get an enormous amount of credits. This is where a major glitch occurs in Xenon 2; if you accidentally "over-collect" the credit bubbles trying to maximize your money to the highest possible amount, the money amount will simply over-lap back to zero, and the player only finds this out upon finishing the level. So if the money counter is over-lapped, and the player is left with something like 200 or 500 credits, the game becomes next to impossible, and the player has to start all over again.
The PC version of Xenon 2 contains a cheat mode: in the graphic menu press F7, then to activate, press the "i" key while playing in order to become invincible.
Soundtrack
The Bitmap Brothers co-operated with the BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
Tim Simenon
Tim Simenon
Tim Simenon is a musician, composer, record producer, and label boss, most famous for his work as Bomb the Bass.-Debut:Tim Simenon's music career began aproper in the mid 1980s, DJing at London's Wag Club...
to include the 1988 Bomb the Bass
Bomb the Bass
Bomb the Bass is the umbrella title for the output of British musician and producer, Tim Simenon. The band, which has evolved its style over the years, has been classed as electronic or dance....
hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
track "Megablast (Hip Hop On Precinct 13)" as theme music, which is also the origin of the game's subtitle. In turn, this song features many samples from Sly and the Family Stone song, "You Can Make It if You Try", and its theme seems heavily inspired by the The Splash Band track "The End (Disco Version)" released in 1984, which is itself based on the theme of John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
's film Assault on Precinct 13
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 film)
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American action-thriller film written and directed by John Carpenter. It stars Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against an attack by a relentless criminal gang, along with Darwin Joston as a convicted murderer who helps him. Laurie...
.
There are two versions of the track in the game: a nearly faithful rendition (only missing a few spoken lines) as the loading music, and a simplified version as the in-game background music. The Amiga version of the loading music is based on the same track, but significantly different, with such changes as helicopter sound effects at the beginning and end.
The game was one of the first instances of a computer being programmed to play a pop single with reasonable accuracy. Sections of the music were sampled and then re-sequenced. In the cartridge-based console versions, the music is radically simplified, being purely synthesized and lacking the voice samples of the computer versions.
Reception
UK magazine C&VGComputer and Video Games (magazine)
Computer and Video Games is a video game magazine and website published in the United Kingdom.- History :...
gave the ST and Amiga versions scores of 94 and 96%, respectively, praising graphics, sound and gameplay and calling it "utterly superb".
Xenon 2 Megablast is widely regarded as one of the most difficult shoot 'em ups of the Amiga and Atari ST game era of the 1990s; in light of the effort required to complete the game, fans (including Peter Molyneux
Peter Molyneux
Peter Douglas Molyneux OBE is an English computer game designer and game programmer. He created the God games Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Black & White, among others, as well as business simulation games such as Theme Park and more recently, the RPG series Fable.Despite the success of his games,...
of Bullfrog Software) were said to have been greatly disappointed by its outro
Outro (computer gaming)
In computer and video gaming, the term "outro" refers to a sequence of graphics and music presented to the player as a reward for successful completion of the entire game. Outros are also commonly referred to as the game's ending...
: the shopkeeper, in his usual setting, congratulates you for finishing the game, and tells you you can now turn off your computer. Then the screen goes black, and waiting will not help. However, in the PC-Version when you hit fire in this screen the game starts from the beginning in a special mode: Most enemies have more health, which increases the difficulty a lot.
In contrast, Amiga Format
Amiga Format
Amiga Format was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future Publishing. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling ACE to EMAP, Future split the dual-format title ST/Amiga Format into two separate publications...
's review of the CDTV version (Issue 39, October 1992) was very harsh: they rated it a paltry 32%, commenting that, while innovative at the time it was first released, the game had aged poorly and its gameplay was not well balanced.
A recent retrospective look on the Mega Drive version by HonestGamers echoed the sentiment that it had aged very poorly. It also complains about the scaled-back soundtrack and how the console port drops the last level entirely. It scores it a low 3/10.
Xenon 2000: Project PCF
It is a remake of the first level of Xenon 2, originally published on a cover diskCovermount
Covermount is the name given to storage media or other products packaged as part of a magazine or newspaper...
attached to PC Format
PC Format
PC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication since 1991, it is part of Future Publishing's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to...
magazine. Within the issue were tutorials on its creation. It is also available for download from the Bitmap Brothers site. Despite the "new" visuals, Xenon 2000 lacks the original game's electronic soundtrack.
Trivia
Alpha Helix, producers of the game The Last EichhofThe Last Eichhof
The Last Eichhof is a freeware shoot-'em-up game released for MS-DOS in 1993 by Swiss company Alpha Helix. The player controls a beer bottle and destroys bottles belonging to rival beer companies. There are 5 levels; between each level, the player is given a chance to buy extra bottles, each with...
, paid tribute to Xenon 2 by naming the most powerful weapon in The Last Eichhof "Xenon 2 Cannon".