The Adventures of Captain Comic

aka: Captain Comic: The Adventure
Moby ID: 497
DOS Specs
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Description official description

You are Captain Comic, galactic hero. Your mission is to recover three treasures from the planet Omsoc, which have been stolen away and hidden on the remote planet of Tambi.

Captain Comic is a platformer featuring a huge nonlinear playfield divided into several different terrains. As Comic, you must search throughout Tambi for power ups and items that will aid you in your quest to recover the three treasures. The Captain's main weapon is 'Blastola Cola', a can of drink that allows him to hurl fireballs at his foes. For each can that he finds, an additional fireball can be thrown.

There are many different paths that are available from the start, but without the right item or weapon, it can be impossible to progress through certain paths, or even to commit suicide. It's up to the player to decide the correct route to take, and which places to return to at a later time.

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 57% (based on 5 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.6 out of 5 (based on 47 ratings with 8 reviews)

For once, I agree with Tomer Gabel!

The Good
I really liked the fact that it was on loan from the local library, so that I couldn't throw it out the window. I mean, it was a perfectly good floppy disk (a floppy floppy, BTW) otherwise. The basic concept is also nice...

The Bad
...too bad the game is crap. I quite frankly had no fun at all playing it. The gameplay is reminiscent of the most irritating CBM 64 platformers, and the graphics are amateurish at best.

The Bottom Line
It really was the first EGA platformer I ever played, but I feel about as nostalgic about it as one would feel about one's first enema. Or something. I assume. Haven't had one myself. Not ever. No sirree...

DOS · by Late (77) · 2001

Not classic, but not horrible either.

The Good
Well, do you know how rare it was to find a good platformer on PC? We had 2 companies: Apogee and Epic. This was a nice little diversion.

The graphics aren't great, but they don't suck either. I guess they're pretty good for the time.

This also is a very good way to get your little brother away so you can play Captain Blood in peace.

The Bad
Control. The control was, in a word, pathetic. What the heck were they thinking? It responds 20 minutes after you hit the key!

Also, the speed was slow on older machines, but in the day of Pentium III, that isn't a problem.

The Bottom Line
Not great, but not horrible either. A good diversion for a few hours. After that, it will annoy you.

DOS · by emerging_lurker (160) · 2000

A fun game, but it can use a little more.

The Good
This game has a good mix of fantasy, science fiction, heroism, and humor in it. It has a superhero with a funny name who goes to a planet named after a type of computer. He has to recover three treasures commonly used in fantasy stories that were stolen from another planet (that name is really cosmo spelled backwards). Michael sure used many good tricks while making this game.

Michael also does well with his use of story setting, items, and enemies. Rather than having a planet with one type of landscape, he combines several lands including a medieval castle landscape, an alien moon, and an indoor space station, which make the game interesting. Instead of aliens, goblins, and robots, Michael uses other types of enemies like evil birds, evil bees, evil toads, little UFOs, atoms, and even beach balls, which aren't used in most games and make the game even more fun. As for the items, some, like the jumping boots, are commonly used in Mario games, but like everything else in the game, most are not common in other games. The game graphics are old, but they look really colorful and are brighter than most 80's games. I think the game is really fun.

The Bad
Although this game is fun it really leaves plenty of room for other things. Every time you start a new game everything is the same. The Difficulty level is the same; there is no option to make the game easier or harder, and the levels always have items and enemies in the same places. The pause menu only has a quit option, rather than other choices like sound on/off, clear high score, and load/save. Michael also could have added a more challenging way to get the treasures when you come up to them, like solve a puzzle, or fight a boss. Also, if it's a planet with a castle, a space station, and several indoor areas, why are there no people and only animals? The story also could have gone into a little more detail, like show whatever stole the treasures.

While the graphics are alright, the sound effects and music are really lacking. A lot of it is very brief and quiet, and the theme song is a Marine Corps theme. I 'm sure Michael could've thought of his own theme.

The Bottom Line
Unlike most 80's games with the same graphics and sound as this one, it does lack a bit. Most fans of these games may put this game down, but I still think it is worth trying because it still has that good combination of game elements, and new elements not used in most games.

DOS · by Andrew Shepard (1389) · 2007

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cancelled port

Ron Risley's PAL port from the NTSC NES version was complete, but never marketed.

Development

After Scott Miller saw Captain Comic, he tried hard to recruit the author, Michael Denio, but Michael didn't have faith that shareware games could make money, and so he stayed at his normal job.

Music

For the NES port, the programmers chose classical music from the public domain so that they would not have to pay royalties to other music companies.

Names

The planet "Omsoc" where the treasures are stolen from is really "Cosmo" spelled backwards. Michael Denio used this trick for naming several things in the series.

Theme song

The theme song for Captain Comic was traditionally a rendition of the United States' Marine Corps Theme.

Information also contributed by Andrew Shepard and Sciere

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by IJan.

NES added by lugnut.

Additional contributors: Frenkel, Shoddyan, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 30, 1999. Last modified March 23, 2024.