Outrage Review

It’s not exactly “standard practice” for an 8-bit video / computer game to take 30 (Thirty?!) years from conception to release, but Outrage is one of exceptions within the exceptions for sure. And we all love a good Commodore 64-game related story with a happy conclusion – No matter how long it takes, right…? It’s not that the game has taken 30 years to develop, but there’s pretty much everything else that happened in those decades…!

The background story for the game takes up one page of the 28-page game manual (And it’s a classic and really motivating story driven by revenge.), but the story behind the game takes up a full seventeen pages. (That’s four chapters!) And it’s both a great, sad, inspirational, and a fascinating read. With that very welcome happy conclusion.

Austrian Demo- / game developer Cosmos Designs (CD) got a majority of their games published by companies like CP Verlag / Game On and Markt & Technik when the C64 was on its commercial decline. And this went on up until the bitter end in 1994. Most of CD’s games (Super Nibbly, the “Fred’s Back”-trilogy, Ballfever, Crossfire, etc.) were programmed and pixeled by Hannes “Mc Sprite” Sommer with Karl “Mc Lord” Sommer composing the music. Cosmos Designs was founded in 1989 by Arnold “Arny” Blueml and Mc Sprite before the line-up was completed with Bernd “Panther” Buchegger. Panther eventually decided to create, design, and code a Hawkeye-style Shoot ‘Em-Up, and to cut a long story short: Setbacks followed setbacks, which included everything from publishers going out of business to the “death” of the C64…

But before that happened, Outrage reached a complete “alpha stage” and was sent to floppy disk producer / game publisher Boeder as a part of a game development competition. Boeder was co-operating with the famous 64’er magazine and Outrage got nominated along with Cosmos Designs’ Cosmox and X-Ample’s Genloc. The winners would also get their game published…!

Not so…

And Shit happened…

The following two decades famously saw the preservation / resurrection of the C64 propelled by the gradually better and better emulators, the subsequent and re-newed interest in its rich software culture, and the search for all the “games that weren’t”. (www.gamesthatwerent.com – Excellent site.)

Cosmos Designs would later come in contact with publisher Protovision, but the process to get the game out was usually two steps forward and one step back. Until Psytronik got involved. But spare time was understandably always an issue. And so even more years passed… 2005 to 2010… Followed by another decade. But now, it’s here – Polished, complete, and most of all released on both physical and digital formats. Outrage is “likely [Cosmos Designs’] last release”, so it’s a C64-treasure like few others in the category of games that almost were forever lost.

STORY

Outrage takes place on an alien planet where everybody you know and love have been brutally killed following a cowardly attack and a failed attempt to defend your home base. It’s therefore time to grab a gun and start exterminating the enemies… And everything else that might get in your way…!

THE GAME

Amazingly varied side-scrolling levels. A ton of enemies, lifeforms, and creatures. And you.

Outrage is mostly about running, jumping, and dodging various hazards. And shooting at everything that moves. Most of these “moving everythings” leave a coin behind when they vaporize after being blasted. Collecting coins (Before they disappear within moments.) accumulates your score account, and the currency can be spent in shops materializing as glowing platforms every now and then throughout each level. And offered in the shops are: Extra lives, energy, more powerful guns, Rapid Fire, and Smart Bombs, i.e., Everything you need.

There are three different types of firepower to aid you in your non-stop killing. Your default gun has unlimited bullets, but isn’t particularly powerful. The other three more powerful ones run out of ammo once in a while (Check the counter on the screen.), which logically means that you have to buy it in the shops by selecting the respective weapon. Prices vary, naturally. (But it’s the Extra lives that are expensive – 500 credits.)

And out on the horizontal battlefields, you can’t hang around for too long either. You frequently lose energy, probably due to the bad atmosphere in the surroundings. And at the end of each level, there is a Boss. It comes as no surprise that the Bosses need a swarm of bullets to croak. And since they also very fond of shooting back at you, you have to use different strategies to defeat each one of them.

Some sections of the stages, just like in Hawkeye, occasionally have platforms and constructions above the ground level, which means that you can choose if you want to run on the ground or get on the platforms. (Sometimes, it’s even necessary when there is no ground to begin with.)

Outrage certainly displays its influences in a shine that instantly reveals that the developers are from the Demo scene. And if you have ever played Boys Without The Brains’ masterpiece Hawkeye, you know immediately what the game plays and even feels like. (The levels scroll in two directions, so you can always run back where you came from to crank up the score.) But it goes without saying that Outrage has features that weren’t present in Hawkeye. The shop is one. So are the imaginative and very good-looking Bosses and enemies. And the overall design.

CONTENT

The core of the game is its five fairly long levels. This isn’t a game that you’ll rush through on your first try / tries. There are constant surprises. (Many of the life-decreasing kind.)

Before the game loads up, you can read through an in-game 37-page version of the “Military Training Manual”, which includes some neat PETSCII-art by Cal Skuthorpe and a great tune (by Karl Sommer) that sets the mood. And there has to be a “spectacular ending sequence” as a reward for fighting bravely till the end.

CONTROLS

Joystick in Port #2. Its left- and right directions are for running. The up- and the respective diagonal directions are for jumping. And down is for crouching. And the Fire-button is your best friend in Outrage.

The F3-, F5- and F7-keys are for selecting the different weapons. (As long as you have ammo for them.) F1 selects the default blaster. And speaking of blasting: The Space-bar detonates a Smart Bomb.

GRAPHICS

The game was designed by coder and graphics artist Bernd Buchegger, and it’s quite clear that one heart and one soul was put into the production. It looks really, really good. Hawkeye-good, if you will…! (And in some ways even better…)

The classic-looking loading screen was done by one of the Kings of C64-loading screens – Steve “STE” Day.

SOUND

Karl Sommer’s music is nothing less than excellent as usual. I already mentioned the “Military Training Manual”-tune, and the title-screen track is just another one of the SID-Greats. The sound effects and the seriously good in-game music was made by Roy Widding. You’d expect a different tune for each level, and that’s exactly what you get. In other words: Stellar work in the sound department. (As well.)

SUMMARY

Getting such a well-made C64-game as Outrage in 2020 must be considered a luxury for anyone who enjoyed these types of classics back in the days and who has any kind of connection to them. (And wishes to keep it that way – 8-bit nostalgia just keeps getting more and more momentous.) And who knows – This might very well be the first C64-game that someone plays today before getting hooked on the C=. It definitely has the power to reel interested parties in.

The digital download (Very cheap!) includes the disk- and the cartridge image as well as a PDF-version of the game manual.

Protovision has additionally released a physical Limited Edition with the cartridge, or the disk AND the cartridge, plus a printed manual, a small and extremely cute weapon for “revengeful activities”, and a Polaroid-style photo of the development team in modern times. (The box was illustrated by current gen C=-graphics wizard Trevor Storey.)

Additional note: Before Cosmos Designs shifted to developing games only in 1992, they also created a whole bunch of original Demos like Mega-Demo ’90, Cosmail, Wise Brains, It’s A Nosey, etc. (Living Chips from 1991 was the last one.)

Game Website: www.outragegame.com
Developer Website: www.cosmos-c64.com
Available at: http://protovision.itch.io / https://www.protovision.games/games/outrage.php?language=en

Developed by: Cosmos Designs
Published by: Protovision / Psytronik Software
Genre: Shoot ‘Em-Up
Players: 1
Released: 2020