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
FULL ENTRY COMING SOON!
It can be difficult to unpack the work of Gary Acord. Each of his games is a magpie's nest, built of found treasures and frequently revised into a shape that satisfies and reflects 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 some about Acord's interests and way of thinking, but it would do little to illuminate the game's 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 trumpets an early 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.
Attempts to disguise provenance by inserting new tiles nearly at random; their properties, their imagery; their role in the scene. Exits from one map to another may be anywhere, and may not be labeled. There is no clear progression from one map to the next, as each level tends to lead to several others, most of which lead back. There is no strategic or experiential reason to backtrack; rather, it's crafted as a confusing web.
Just as the games comprise a tangle of whispers... [the mechanics, operating on a situational rather than a universal basis; dream logic; he seems aware of the games' strange reasoning, pitching it as "surreal".]
A collection without a taxonomy; a moment-to-moment congregate, rather than an organized vision; an intuitive snapshot of an unfiltered cloud of interests.
Characters form and disperse and reform -- sometimes as other versions of themselves, sometimes as other characters entirely. [We discussed "definitive" versions of characters, and a DC-style multiverse.] This manifests in the same forms reasserting themselves with new names and slight variation, and in characters simply changing mid-game for no clear reason. Even within an individual manifestation, characters animate in jarring and unpredictable ways, often contorting or shape-shifting on a whim.
A roiling stew of Platonic elements, asserting themselves in a nondeterministic sequence of often disorienting relationships.
His games embody a continual work in progress, each fragment responding to the whims of the moment rather than an overarching philosophy or identity.
Capn Zapn is one of Acord's earliest efforts and one of his most representational.
It's unclear what distinguishes [the character of] Capn Zapn from Major Marvel. [Insert his explanation here.]
To what end? What does Acord mean to express here?
Pretty straightforward structure compared to other Gary Acord projects.
| Previous | Current | Next |
|---|---|---|
| (Overview) | Capn Zapn | Ultimare |
| Capn Zapn series | ||
Contents
Story[edit]
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[edit]
- 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[edit]
Some background graphics ripped from Jill of the Jungle
Resources[edit]
- Level 1 seems to be an edit of level 2 or 3 from Nebula.
- Levels 2 and 6 seem to be edits of the map from Animation.
- Levels 3 and 4 are areas from Penguin Pete.
- Level 5 is the map from Terrain.
Background tiles include imagery from Jill of the Jungle. Other background elements are from Nebula, Animation, Penguin Pete, Terrain, and possibly one of either Sample or 'Houses.
Monster sprites include elements from Pac, Peach the Lobster, Penguin Pete, Terrain, Wolfenstein 3D, and Acord's earlier game Icemare.
Elements from RSD's games tend not to accommodate for the difference in palette, resulting in a rainbow appearance.
One of the monster sprites is Acord's own face.
Availability[edit]
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)
Archive History[edit]
On November 7, 2010, Demu.org maintainer Swizzle pointed out the archive of Gary Acord material on the site -- which was swiftly added to the Game-Maker Archive.
Links[edit]
Interviews / Articles[edit]
- Inside the Mind of Gary Acord (Gamasutra)
Listings[edit]
Misc. Links[edit]
- Please Register This Shareware tumblr
- Obscure Indie Gaming World: Dattorz Playing Capn Zapn (YouTube)
- A and Jay marvel at Capn Zapn (DOS) (YouTube)
- Play Capn Zapn online
Downloads[edit]
- 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)
