Shorty Da Pimp: Aliens Stole My Hoe!
Version .001 Beta
Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1994
Levels: 5 (in demo version)
Author: Terry Chatman
Registration price: $5
Registration bonus: 25 more levels
Related games: Nebula
Shorty Da Pimp claims to be a demo of an upcoming 30-level masterpiece. In its distributed form, Shorty consists of two levels (across five maps), lifted straight from Nebula. The item and monster placement may be adjusted, but the tiles and geometry are unchanged.
That’s sensible enough, for a designer’s first game; one takes the provided gameware, and alters it just enough to make it one's own. That’s part of the learning process. You would expect a designer to keep such a game private until he completed an original project, but hey. Maybe the world needed to see this.
What raises more questions is the character sprite. For the protagonist, Terry Chatman ripped the character sprite from id Software’s Commandeer Keen. In 1994, doing so must have taken some serious work. So Chatman was willing to spend hours ripping and tweaking a highly recognizable character sprite, but was unwilling to design his own maps or background tiles. At least the guy knows what he wants when he sees it.
At this point it would be easy to shrug Shorty off as random clutter. But then comes the twist: Chatman's sprite edit transforms Keen’s helmet into an afro, and gives his skin a shot of melanin. According to the story, aliens have “done stole [Shorty's] Hoe. And i’m countin’ on ya to get my hoe back.” Those aliens also have developed technology that drains the color from Shorty's cheeks; whenever he gets injured, Shorty turns pale and screams “I’m white!” The goal, therefore, is to recover your prostitute and to make every effort to stay black. A more noble mission, it is hard to imagine.
So there we have it. Nebula, plus a sprite edit of Billy Blaze. And yet the framework takes the game on a weird tangent to the left, across what probably should be a tired line of racial comedy but which in context is just bizarre enough to be inexplicably charming.
Contents
Story[edit]
'Sup... My Name is shorty the PiMP and aliens done stole my Hoe. And i'm countin' on ya to get my hoe back... My second PiMP's done told me that these aliens have weapons that will and can turn me white ... they done said if i get my a#$ beat i'll stay white 4 eva.. now i'm countin' on ya to guide me safely through da aliens crib.. and bring my hoe back to me, and keep me BLACK! I've equipped my self with my .38, for my gun. Bottles, Gasoline, and alotta newspaper for da fire bombs... now it's all up to you!
Instructions[edit]
IN SHORT:
To Shoot Da Gun. -- Tap da Space Bar
To Throw fire bombs -- Tap da Enter key
Keys -
- 9- Jump Right
- 7- Jump Left
- 8- Jump Up
- 6- Right
- 4- Left
- 2- Down
GOOD LUCK!
Credits[edit]
Storyline:
- C.H.
Graphics, Character:
- C.H.
Background:
- Greg Stone
Monsters:
- Joan Stone
Scenes:
- Gregory Stone &
- C.H.
Resources[edit]
- Background blocks, maps, monster blocks, and monsters borrowed from Nebula.
- Character blocks borrowed from Commander Keen.
Availability[edit]
During the early 1990s this game was available for download from GameLynk's Frontline BBS.
Archive history[edit]
This game was introduced to the archive in c1994, through download from the Frontline BBS.
Links[edit]
Interviews / Articles[edit]
Listings[edit]
Misc. Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Shorty Da Pimp (387.8 kB)
- Star map (102.0 kB)
- Level 1 map (201.9 kB)
- Level 2 map (159.4 kB)
