Santa's Xmas Caper
Jingle bell-end?
Antique Code Show So let’s just get one thing straight: 99.99 per cent of Christmas-themed games suck.
I might make an exception for Christmas Nights on Sega depending on my mood, but, hey, it’s that time of year again and between the overwhelming urge to take a machete to every brightly tinseled tree I see, there must be time to reminisce about a simpler life that included Santa's Xmas Caper.
Santa's eyes roll at his fate - and so do ours at this game
Oh and before I start this retrospective, this is not a review of the Spectrum version of Santa's Xmas Caper or the Amstrad Santa's Xmas Caper, all games that look completely different but present the same theme. I'm looking at the 1992 Commodore 64 version, also by developer Zeppelin Games
Even veggies chuckle at the turkey drumstick helicopters
No, I haven’t started on the absinthe eggnog. Yet.
This single-player platformer was basically aimed at children but I remember this game being way too easy and cheesy even for my little sister. Way to a festive fail, Zeppelin. Make your games just about as long as it takes to open a present and then watch us revel in the disappointment.
Cake incoming
Like its suspiciously Christmassy sounding but soul-bleedingly twee soundtrack, this game is rather pathetic, an attempt to corner the Christmas market that reeks of an X Factor number one. But just like X Factor, this drivel is not to be taken seriously and should be taken for what it is: pure festive kitsch.
So listen up:
Next page: Bad Santa
COMMENTS
I think...
Your screenshots are from the Amiga version. Is this the high standard of reporting we've come to expect from the Register? I think not!
A christmas game, delivered 18 months late and in Spring?
Dude, you have a great career awaiting you in Government IT.
GJC
Lemmings
Goot article, even if the game was more tat than "antique". There was at least one Lemmings Christmas edition IIRC.
Such is the nature of hobbies and projects done as a labor of love, not following any schedule.
For what it's worth, I did release the game last Christmas. Feedback was positive and I was even asked by the community to extend what was essentially a single-screen demo into a full-fledged, multi-level game.
Writing games for ancient, arcane devices--in Assembly Language--is not an easy task.
-dZ.
Xmas Lemmings
I seem to recall that there was a Christmas patch for the Acorn Lemmings that replaced their green hair with a santa hat. Could be mistaken about that though, too much tipple between then and now :-)
