Jurassic Park Longplay (Amiga AGA) [QHD]

Developed and published by Ocean in 1993

Ocean's track record with games based on movie licenses was hit and miss, but this effort, based on the blockbuster Spielberg movie (and book by Michael Crichton), demonstrates high production values, even if the gameplay doesn't always find its mark.

Following the plot of the film somewhat loosely, players control Dr. Alan Grant, trying to survive the perils of the dinosaur theme park and find a way off the island. It's a curious blend of traditional sprite-based 2D sections, interspersed with first-person levels in 3D environments.

In fact, it's the 3D sections which are probably the most impressive part of the whole experience. I suppose that, given how ground-breaking the film was in terms of CGI imagery, Ocean felt the game had to deliver a similar level of technical wizardry.

Consisting of about one third of the entire game, the 3D makes the 2D content feel rather antiquated by comparison, and I wonder if it would have been more successful if the game had focused on refining and expanding these sections, rather than the more traditional 2D elements, with their somewhat contrived puzzles.

As for the AGA version of the game, I'm not exactly sure what difference the chipset brought to the game, as the 2D sections look pretty much identical to the OCS/ECS version. However, the beefed up 68020 CPU meant the performance of the 3D sections was a lot better, especially compared to the A500.

Credits
Coding: Andy Miah, Robert Walker, Leslie Long, David Chiles
Graphics: Matthew Wood, Julian Holtom, Warren Lancashire, Colin Rushby, Jack Wikeley, Bill Harbison, Ilyas Kaduki, Ray Coffey
Music: Dean Evans

Time Codes
00:00:00 - Credits
00:02:03 - Level 01
00:16:24 - Level 02
00:29:37 - Level 03
00:31:00 - Level 04
00:39:32 - Level 05
00:45:13 - Level 06
00:49:51 - Level 07
00:52:39 - Level 08
00:56:30 - Level 09
01:01:02 - Level 10
01:04:29 - Level 11
01:07:00 - Level 12
01:10:21 - Level 13
01:13:09 - Level 14 (3D section)
01:35:40 - Ending

#jurassicpark
#dinosaurs
#retrogaming