Yuphex
Yuphex is one of Matt Bell's later games, and probably the most accessible of the bunch. The title refers to the second planet of the Yuphlaxian star system, one of the worst possible targets for a holiday. The player controls a squat, through spry, reptile who finds his vacation on the verge of ruin due to an unexpected supernova. The task is to find several pieces of shielding, so that the player can dive into the nearby sun and defuse a bomb.
The game is basically a character platformer, with standout design and a few neat elements. Especially notable are the space ship sequences; rather than a straight level-to-level progression, the game offers some freedom of exploration on an overworld map (quite similar to the star map in Nebula) and an endgame inside the sun itself.
Yuphex is long and fairly difficult, yet thanks to the responsive controls it basically feels fair. Thanks to the lush environments and some imaginative variation in play styles, the game always seems to change just enough, at just the right moment, to avoid feeling repetitive.
The platforming avoids much of the usual frustration in a Game-Maker game, as the reptile rockets out at forty-five degree angles, allowing plenty of room for aerial maneuvering. Platformer design is always a bit twitchy and weird in the Game-Maker engine; rather than fight the engine, Matt Bell worked with its qualities to produce a dynamic, responsive control set. For anyone struggling with jumping behavior, dissection of this game in Character Maker should prove educational. The only downside is in the weird scrolling behavior to the resource interpreter and engine, Xferplay, which can often lag behind the character's motion and thereby glitch the game into an unrecoverable situation.
Likewise, the visuals display a simplicity yet attention to detail that lends the game a sense of place found only in the top-rung Game-Maker games. Everything feels hand-drawn and organic, lending the environment a deliberate naturalism. There is a bit of repetition in the background tiles. Otherwise, this is a really cozy-feeling game world.
Contents
Story
You (a crocodile like alien being who really proves that Green Men Can Jump) have just entered the Yuphlaxian Solar System for a nice, relaxing vacation. You pull out your holographic tour guide and begin reading.
The Yuphlaxian Solar System:
- Accomodations: C-
- Consumer interest: C
- Cleanliness: D+
- Accessibility: B- to C+
- Friendliness: F
- Affordability: A++
The Yuphlaxian Solar System is so named for its second planet, Yuphex. Yuphex is pinkish in color because everything, EVERYTHING, on it is alive. Even the soil squishes beneath your feet. It is usually not a good idea to visit this planet. Zip, the innermost planet, is very spatially challenged. It is an oblong astroid which was brought to the galaxy from the Darquan System in 3328 to add to local tourist revenue. After tourist interest dwindled, the planet became a habitat for obsolete (but still dangerous) robots. Slimex, the local slime world (every galaxy has one), is the outermost planet. It came as a free sample from an Astonian used planet dealer.
Suddenly, the emergency radio spits out a message. Terrorists have planted a bomb near the surface of the sun. It will blow up in exactly 24 hours, causing a sudden increase in solar output that will quickly lead to a supernova which will destroy the entire Yuphlaxian System.
You mutter to yourself, "Good riddance! This place is such an eyesore. I never wanted to come here anyway." You lazily reach over to press the hyperspace button in order to get out of here. After a few seconds, it becomes apparent to you that the hyperdrives are not working. Now that you're stuck here, you might as well save the place. In order to disable the bomb, you need to fly into the sun without being burnt to a crisp. To do that, you must find the four shield pieces scattered about the planets. Have fun.
Instructions
- F1: display these instructions
- F2: status
- F5: Save game
- F6: load game
Save game allows people who want to make the game easier to save their game every two seconds and load right away if they die. It is entirely possible to beat the game without saving.
You start with 10 lives. Whenever you lose a life, you have to restart the level. You also start with 255 hit points. Whenever you're hit by an enemy, you lose some of those hit points. If you lose all of them, you die. Food helps replenish lost hit points.
Moving around the Yuphlaxian System
Use the up, down, left, and right keys to move your spaceship. In gravity-free space, all your movements build up momentum. That's why You don't stop moving when you stop pressing an arrow key. To enter a planet (or the sun), just touch it.
In the close up planet views, the arrow keys move your spaceship, but without momentum. To land, go up to the area on the planet that looks "uncommon", like the dark hole on Yuphex.
When You're walking on the planets (except for Zip), these are the keys to use:
- left: walk left
- right: walk right
- up: jump straight up
- Up-right (Pg Up): jump up and to the right
- Up-left (Home): jump up and to the left
- ' ' Space Bar: spit green goo (You will spit in the direction that you most recently moved.)
If you find a shield piece, press P to pick it up.
On Zip, all eight arrow keys (including the diagonals) make you roll in those directions. When you have all 4 shield parts, just fly into the sun and touch the bomb to disarm it.
Note: the extraordinary jumping power of the character can overload the graphics engine, causing the game to freeze and the character to move to a different place on the screen and begin to float. At this time, the only way to stop this bug is to save your game frequently.
Another Note: the character will jump the highest when the arrow key is held down. For a smaller jump, tap the arrow key. Also, at some points in the game, it is necessary to change direction in mid-air by holding down the up key and then holding down the up-right or up-left key (or vice versa). Practice it a few times to get the hang of it.
Yet Another Note: In case you missed it, your only weapon is your spit (Space bar).
Credits
Game design, music, graphics, text, animation, character, etc: Matt Bell
Programming: RSD
Title Screen: E-J Waugh
Testing - Aaron Bell
Availability
During the early 1990s the game also was available for download from GameLynk's Frontline BBS.
Also available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:
- Terry Blount's Cream of the Crop #6 (1994),
- Gold Medal Software (1994),
- Super Oz Software's Sprint Games and Entertainment 6 (February 1995),
- Night Owl Games 3 (1995),
- Software Vault: Sapphire (1995), and
- International Software Values' 10 Tons of Games Mega Collection 1 (June 1997).
Reviews
Indeed, Yuphex is fairly difficult to play, especially given the size of the maps that you have to explore, the absence of hints on where to go and the fact that 255 hit points won't protect you from being killed without any chance of defense in some situation, because some monsters are stronger enough to keep hurting you again and again.
Another annoying thing is that you usually start close to an "exit point" that make you go back on the solar system map. In your first approach, chances are that you'll spend more time in space than on planets regardless of your intent.
I've been impressed, however, by the manoeuvrability of movable platforms, which I could never got working as correctly in my own game. And the idea of an asteroïd where gravity direction changes as you move around is just brilliant !
- - Pype/PPP Team
Links
Downloads
- Yuphex (819.5 kB)
- Yuphex (Earlier version) (648.8 kB)
- Yuphlaxian Solar System Map (47.7 kB)
- Close Planet views (134 kB)
- Yuphex landing scene (325 kB)
- Yuphex Map 1 (380 kB)
- Yuphex Map 2 (428 kB)
- Yuphex Map 3 (379 kB)
- Slimex landing scene (183 kB)
- Slimex Map 1 (386 kB)
- Slimex Map 2 (436 kB)
- Zip Map 1 (161 kB)
- Sun Dive Map (94 kB)
