Calimero II
The first Calimero game, Calimero against the Black Empire, was the Martins’ first ever attempt at a platformer, developed in BASIC some four or five years before they discovered Game-Maker. The game involved a black-feathered bird wearing half an egg as a helmet.
Somewhat late in their Game-Maker career, they chose to take advantage of a design cul-de-sac and insert the character into the skeleton of Panzer III. The result, Calimero II, comes off as sort of a cross between Wonder Boy and Sonic the Hedgehog (particularly the latter's Marble Zone), with maybe a bit of a Codemasters flavor.
Although again they chose not to pursue the game to completion, the game does exhibit several advanced — or at least fascinating — techniques. To facilitate a Sonic-style vertical spring, they employed a complex lock-and-key system that momentarily flipped the gravity on all the background blocks. The character can throw apples along a wave pattern, and can do it quickly enough to establish a sort of an unbroken wave beam.
With a bit of adjustment, and some improved jumping behavior, Calimero II could have really gone somewhere. You can feel that this game was never a priority, though — not in the same way as some of PPP Team's other projects.
Gameplay comparison
RSD's engine resulted in several technical changes over the previous Calimero game. To wit:
- Calimero can now take several hits before dying (versus the one-hit kills of the original).
- A gravity-affected jetpack (keys .,1,3) replaces the gravity-cancelling helicopter from the original. This means, among other things, that you have to sacrifice a life to get out of the cave where you found that power-up.
- Once acquired, power-ups (particularly the jetpack) are retained for the duration of the game, as compared to power-ups that only last as long as you're alive in the original.
- There are now little matches and flame monsters strolling around.
- You can dispatch some monsters by throwing apples (keys /,*).
- You can now control your flight after touching a "bumper".
- If you fall from the sky, you now safely land on the ground. In the original non-scrolling 8-bit scenes, falling in the wrong section of the screen could kill you, making the clouds much more hazardous to navigate.
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