Peach the Lobster

Peach the Lobster

Release type: Demo game
Release date: 1994
Levels: 10
Author: A-J Games
Related games: Demo

I designed this game for the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM. The idea was that RSD deserved its own mascot, to help give the company an identity. The solution: throw a lobster in a track suit, and rip off the general design of another mascot game.

It's unclear what happened to Peach’s other six limbs. Maybe they’re under his clothes?

By the summer of '94 I was comfortable with importing graphics from Deluxe Paint, and indeed a bit more skilled at it. I even managed to pay some attention to the theme and storyline. Yet I was just as distracted by the process as on Crullo, and so made some strange errors of judgment.

All of the monsters are one block tall, and Peach is two blocks tall. His only attack is with a claw gun, which shoots from above the waist. This means that, all things being equal, there is no way to hit the enemies. Oh, if you screw around and fight with the game you can eventually kill them. It's just a nuisance to do.

The grasslands of Peach the Lobster

Again when designing the levels the game pays little attention to the character’s abilities. If a jump requires the player to hammer on the jump keys and glitch out the game, apparently I saw no problem with that — so long as the jump was possible in the end. If it was possible to avoid an enemy, even if it was nearly impossible to do so, then that was enough.

So the game is tough, and mostly due to avoidable design flaws rather than a healthy challenge. Even so, RSD seemed to like it. Late in the year, they put out a Game-Maker demo that consisted of a slideshow squeezed into the opening moments of Peach. Peach also became a starting point for several late-era users, and developed enough of its own life to become a test case for DOSBox, and receive an unsolicited entry on MobyGames.

- EJR Tairne

Story

The land of Norumbega was a generally happy one. Almost all of the regions got along well -- the country, city, sea, caverns . . .pretty much everything -- except for the Dark Quarter.

This is the land where the evil Fang Duck dwells. Suddenly, around a year ago, an urge stuck him to take over all of Norumbega and populate it with his minions, the ducks.

As war was virtually unknown in Norumbega, it seemed as if no one had the power to stop Fang Duck. That's where Peach stepped in.

Peach's coastal home, populated by land crustacions, received word of the invasion much after the fact. For some reason or another, Fang Duck missed this community entirely.

Dismayed at the news, the community leaders called on Peach, the fastest land lobster in Norumbega, to sneak in and oust Fang Duck. Fang Duck would not expect any attack; he would assume that he had destroyed all his adversaries.

Armed with a claw gun, not really a weapon, but the closest thing to it, Peach started his journey.

Instructions

Level 1-2 of Peach the Lobster

Get items by shooting a monitor with your claw gun. The item will be released and fly to you.

Movement techniques

To slide, run and duck. You can scoot under things using this technique. If you need to reach high objects, you can jump high by pressing all the jump keys rapidly.

Objects

100 Points Monitor: Gives you 100 points (duh!)

Shell: Gives you one Hit Point

Shell Monitor: Five Hit Points

Lobster: Gives you a life

Rounds

Grasslands: The main territory of Norumbega. There are many species of flowers and plants here; rolling hills and waterfalls abound; and this is the safest place in Norumbega. In 1-2 you will encounter suspension bridges.

Atland: The sunken original civilization of Norumbega. A thousand years ago, for mysterious reasons, this entire section of land sank into the ocean. Watch out for idols, and in 2-2, be wary of where the current brings you.

Norumbegan Caverns: The ground Norumbega is on is riddled with natural caverns. Long ago, someone filled them with everburn torches. No one knows why. 3-2 takes place on the windy mountaintops.

The Techno-Castle: This is Fang Duck's fortress. While the technology here isn't all that advanced, it gets the job done. Be careful of stray lasers and techno-ducks.

Fang Duck's Lair: ????

Well, that's it -- go play the game!

Credits

Character, background, monsters, sound, general idea: Eric-Jon Waugh

Help with monster/round ideas: Strahd

Several BBL's for Round three: James Faux.

Concept of a lobster in shoes: Mom

And Fang Duck, too: Mom

Programming / Game Engine: RSD's GameMaker V3.00

Availability

This game is distributed as gameware with Game-Maker 3.0, as well as several of its demo incarnations -- including the CD-ROM Today Disc #12 (June 1995), in its Game-Maker Demo incarnation.

The game also seems to have been made available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:

• Mustang - 203 Games (January 1995),
• Action-Games Top-Selektion (199x), and
• Taifun Collection CD A (????).

Archive History

Peach the Lobster was retained as part of the archive from the game's inception.

Links

Articles

• The History of A-J Games, Part Eight
• The Integrator (DIYGamer)
• Laser Light (DIYGamer)

Listings

• MobyGames entry
• archive.org entry
• demu.org entry
• Squake.net entry
• Game Classification entry
• Adventure Legends entry

Abandonware/ROM sites

• Emuparadise entry
• The ISO Zone entry
• My Abandonware entry
• old-games.com entry
• old-games.ru entry
• Play DOS Games Online entry
• super-emulation.com entry
• XTCAbandonware review

Social Media / Discussion

• hihidanni (6:58 PM - 29 Jun 2014) (twitter)

Other links

• Abject Suffering, episode #95: Peach the Lobster
• DOSBox compatibility
• Portal of Evil TV
• Play Peach the Lobster online

Downloads

• Peach the Lobster (932.7 kB)
• Level 1-1 map (303 kB)
  • Level 1-2 map (167 kB)
• Level 2-1 map (601 kB)
  • Level 2-2 map (482 kB)
• Level 3-1 map (159 kB)
  • Level 3-2 map (96 kB)
• Level 4-1 map (411 kB)
  • Level 4-2 map (230 kB)