Capn Zapn 1: Kozmik Journeys
Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1992 (original release)
Levels: 6
Author: Gary Acord
Website: Acord Games
Registration bonus: Capn Zapn 2 and Capn Zapn 3, hint sheet, secret bonus game, copies of all shareware games, membership in the Zapper Game Club
Registration price: $20
Related games: Superheroes, Anyworld, Penguin Pete, Terrain
It can be difficult to unpack the work of Gary Acord. Each of his games is a magpie's nest, built of found pieces and frequently revised into a shape that satisfied and reflected his person. You can pick back through the generations, build a timeline for a game's versions and a place of origin for most of its elements. To do so would tell you a bit about Acord's interests and way of thinking, but it would do little to illuminate his games' ultimate forms and behaviors.
Of Acord's frequent themes, one of his most regular is his love of superhero comics. In his various biographies he announces with some pride an early investment and status in comic book fandom, an interest that he seems to have maintained through the decades. Of his seventeen Game-Maker games, at least nine overtly involve superheroes (including his game Superheroes) and most of the rest seem informed by Silver Age logic and narrative tropes.
Just as the games comprise a tangle of whispers
A collection without a taxonomy; a moment-to-moment congregate, rather than an organized vision; an intuitive snapshot of an unfiltered cloud of interests.
It's unclear what distinguishes Capn Zapn from Major Marvel.
Contents
Story
You are Capn Zapn, space explorer, traveling to other worlds collecting treasures and fighting monsters.
Superhero adventure game with arcade-style action, easy-moving character, scrolling screens, fully animated enemies & bizarre worlds.
Instructions
- Arrows move around
- Spacebar fires weapon
- Z jumps left, X jumps right.
- A fires secondary weapon.
- N, M tight squeeze left or right
- P picks up objects. B drops bombs.
- F1 is help screen.
- F2 is inventory/health screen.
- F3 joggles sound
- F5 saves game. F6 loads game.
Credits
Some background graphics ripped from Jill of the Jungle
Resources
- Levels 1, 2, and 6 appear mostly original.
- Levels 3 and 4 are based on Penguin Pete.
- level 5 is based on Terrain.
Availability
Distributed through contemporary bulletin boards, through the author's Website, and through several third-party mirror archives.
Also available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:
- Mustang - 202 Games (September? 1994),
- Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #3-10: Education (August 1995)
Links
Interviews / Articles
- Inside the Mind of Gary Acord (Gamasutra)
Listings
Misc. Links
- Please Register This Shareware tumblr
- Dattorz plays Woman Warrior, Capn Zapn, and Arcade Ricky (twitch.tv)
- Play Capn Zapn online
Downloads
- Capn Zapn (988 kB)
- Level 1 map (? kB)
- Level 2 map (? kB)
- Level 3 map (? kB)
- Level 4 map (? kB)
- Level 5 map (? kB)
- Level 6 map (? kB)
