Tomarc the Barbarian (1983)

 

Tomarc the Barbarian was released by Xonox for the Atari 2600, Colecovision, and Commodore computers in 1983. Xonox wasn't an acclaimed studio and is arguably the kind of lame outfit that contributed to the 1983 console gaming crash in the U.S. with its awkward, buggy releases.

Tomarc was actually supposed to be a Thundarr the Barbarian game, but Xonox was unable to secure the license before release, possibly because the Thundarr people didn't like what they were seeing from the game...

As the cover helpfully explains, Tomarc is a barbarian hero who needs to rescue his girlfriend, Senta. Tomarc is stuck in a cavern and has to find his sword while avoiding killer rats, before ascending to the dungeon, while Senta is trapped in a cage and has to cast energy bolts (see, this all makes sense if the characters were to be Thundarr and his sorceress companion, Princess Ariel) to ward off vampire bats. The most interesting thing about the game is that you have to handle these goals simultaneously. By pulling down on the joystick, you switch characters when you hear a danger signal go off.

Unfortunately, that's just about all the game has going for it. Senta's side isn't much of an issue since you're just aiming and shooting at enemies from a stationary position, but Tomarc's section is a platforming game and the platforming simply isn't fun. You have to master the angle at which he leaps because if he bangs his head on a surface, he falls and is stunned for a few seconds. It results in a game in which you feel less like a dynamic fantasy hero and more like a clumsy dork. 

On the whole, the Colecovision version is probably the one to play. The Atari 2600 version to its credit plays faster, and Tomarc better resembles a barbarian hero than the stocky green/blue/red-clad guy in the CV version, but the CV version has an exclusive second level in which Senta is imprisoned by a giant spider and Tomarc has to scale the spider's web while avoiding the spider's smaller offspring. Senta's role is much the same as the first level except she's now blasting spiders instead of bats. The CV version also has superior graphics, although the tradeoff is its slightly slower pace and the spider level seems to be buggy in that Tomarc can get stuck on certain strands of the web, unable to grab another or sometimes even forced to remain on invisible strands. Regardless, though, it's a very missable game and flunked its part in advancing the sword-and-sorcery concept in video gaming. Probably for the best that Thundarr never got a video game adaptation back then. A Thundarr game now, with graphics that could faithfully adapt Alex Toth and Jack Kirby's designs for the show, could be fun...

Tarzan (1984)

 

Last post I made an aside about the lack of games based on Edgar Rice Burroughs's stories, so I figured it would be good to have a look at one of the very few, Tarzan, produced for the Colecovision. (I'm not counting the several games based on the animated Disney movie, as that version is more Disney than Burroughs.)

Tarzan isn't what most people would describe as sword and sorcery, but as one of Robert E. Howard's favorite authors, ERB's action-packed stories provided a major foundation for the genre. I've noticed over the years that while Howard fans generally enjoy ERB's work, the feeling isn't always mutual as ERB purists sometimes scoff at the lack of romance in the work of Howard and writers that followed him. Anyway, on to the game!

As the manual states, "Cruel hunters and the Beastmen of Opar have abducted Tarzan's tribe of Great Apes and imprisoned them in cages throughout the jungle. It's up to you to save the apes from being shipped out of their jungle home to zoos." I've noticed a lot of modern takes on Tarzan tend to fixate on conservation/ecological themes, as if Tarzan was like a politically incorrect forerunner of Captain Planet. But to the game's credit, at least we do get something involving the city of Opar, and the manual identifies many of the supporting characters in the game by the names Burroughs gave them: Nkima the chimp, Bolgani the gorilla, Histah the snake, and Gimla the crocodile.

The game plays like a Pitfall-inspired platformer. Tarzan must run from one end of the jungle to Opar, freeing apes from cages along the way. You also rescue Nkima, who's supposed to follow you and alert you to dangers such as pit traps, but Nkima will leave you if you pass too close to bananas and his warnings are often useless anyway. Bolganis will rush you and hunters will try to shoot you, but you can either punch them out or avoid them by taking to the trees and swinging through the canopy. Histah will hide in the bushes and leap out at you if you come too close, and Gimla will attack you if you take to the water. Despite the technological limitations, the game does an effective job at presenting Tarzan's toughness, speed, and mobility. 

Approaching Opar, Tarzan will start encountering the beastmen (no La in the game, unfortunately), and when you arrive the temple, you have to scale the levels of the temple and free the last of the apes while beastmen harass you on the levels and the temple idol at the top shoots flames down at you. After managing the climb to the top, you have to push one of the Colecovision's keypad buttons to have Tarzan make the victory cry of the bull-ape, which causes the idol to fall, and then the game restarts at a higher difficulty.

It's a standout game for the system, but unfortunately it didn't release until 1984, i.e., post-video game crash when game distribution was collapsing, so it's fallen into obscurity. As of the present, it doesn't even appear to have an entry on Mobygames.com. The controls can be a little bit fiddly but nothing that can't be gotten used to, and it plays fast and has nice graphics and music. 

Supplemental reading: The Return of Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1913)