Safari Sam

Safari Sam was released from the Sam Coupé sometime in 1994, a collaboration with Derek Morgan (of SAM PD) who provided the theme and level ideas. It was developed in SCADs

Safari Sam is a platform game I developed for the Sam Coupé, sometime in 1994 — I didn't have the optional system clock for the Coupé so there are no timestamps on all except one file, but the copyright message says a year earlier — The game is a standard platformer where you control ‘Sam’ as he makes his way home through the tropics after an untimely plane crash. It was built using the Sam Coupé Arcade Development System (SCADS) and written in Basic with the SCADS extensions.

Screenshots

Packaging

Instructions

Story

"Sam woke at about 12 o'clock, he was supposed to be going to the Bermudas for his holidays and so he got himself packed and set off in the general direction of the airport.

After taking a few 'short-cuts' and arriving 3 hours late he expected to be prodded away and be made to buy a new ticket. But as he walked into the terminal he heard over the intercom that his plane was just arriving, and was late due to engine trouble.

He was rushed through the security gates and then put on the plane. As far as luxury goes this plane wasn't what you'd call very good, but it flew, for a while anyway.

'Last Chance Airlines' had always had a bad reputation but Sam being the sort of trusting (stupid) person he was decided he would put his life in their hands.

The engine roared and rattled into action then cut out with a bang. A few hours passed and then the engine started going again.

Sam was sat next to a small child of about three who insisted on showing Sam his dead beetle collection, but they were all the same which made it that bit more depressing.

As they flew over the sea the child started to count the waves and insisted that Sam should help...

"....10232.....10233..." the counting went on, and on, and on, until the child went to sleep. Sam took to reading the In-Flight magazine...

'Arts, Crafts, Explosives' was the rather ingenious title....Inside were things that had been designed to tranquilise any scared people who were on their first flight, using a special technique known as boredom..

...Then came the bang, the engine stopped and the plane began to slow down, then stop, then fall extremely fast towards the floor.

The floor grew closer and closer and closer and then the small child woke up..Totally oblivious to what was happening he started to count the trees that they were about hit..

Sam being a rational person began to scream, clutch his head, and beg for mercy and things...

Then as the plane his the first bunch of trees the plane disintigrated and Sam was left there falling in his chair...

Crunch! Sam (and his chair) hit a branch, the chair continued plummeting downwards while Sam sort of sprung up & down & up & down constantly...

Sam then began to fall towards the floor and he hit it with a whimpering sound that sounded sort of like "Awooouhahooow".

When Sam came round it was night time, he knew his time had come, his time to fight for justice to lay down his life to save those of others, to find a gun...

"Aha" he said as a gun materialised in a sort of Star-Trekky manner.

He took the gun and set off on his Journey Home."

Controls

To have even the slightest chance of completing this game you should know the following things. As you know you can set the keys from the Options menu, but also at any point in the game you can also change your keys:

F1 - Joystick 1
F2 - Cursors, SYMBOL
F3 - Joystick 2
F4 - Q,A,O,P, SPACE

Also during the game pressing F0 will display the Quick-Guide help which shows:

Points Scored for killing things.
The damage taken from certain objects.
The key changing F keys.

How to die

There are 2 ways to die:

Running out of energy. As soon as your energy level reaches 0 you will die.
Falling Off The Bottom Of the Screen. By doing this you will die instantly.

In both cases you will return to the first level of the game.

Completing the Game

When you finish the 3rd level you will have completed the game, you may get a chance to enter your name in the scoreboard and the you will restart on level one at a higher difficulty setting.

Sam has a great deal of respect and stuff to animals and so if you kill one you will lose points. Shooting your food is alright - It cannot be destroyed. On each level there is a key that needs to be collected to exit the level. If you miss it you will have to go all the way back to get it.

Acknowledgements

The following acknowledgements are taken from the game, and list contributors to the game itself and other tools/systems used in its creation.

Credits

Programming - Martin Fitzpatrick
Graphics - Martin Fitzpatrick
Sound FX - Martin Fitzpatrick
Game Design - Martin Fitzpatrick & Derek Morgan
Main Idea - Derek Morgan
Music - Rik Moore

Thanks

Geoff Winkless For the KEDisk Screen Compresser
GLENCO Software For creating SCADS
FRED For E-Tracker
Rik Moore For managing to write such good music at such short notice
Derek Morgan For designing Safari Sam when I was in a period of hopelessness as far as ideas went.
Whoever It Was For the untimely power cuts at all stages in making this game
And lastly, You... ..For buying this game and supporting my work.

Thanks once again for buying Safari Sam, hope you enjoy it! .

Reviews

This review of Safari Sam originally appeared in Fred 59, July '95, and is written by Colin Anderton.

Sam (unfortunately not the robot - I don't think) is going on holiday. Whilst taking a number of short-cuts to the airport, he ends up three hours late. Luckily (ahem), the plane hasn't left yet due to engine trouble. Sam boards the (very dodgey) plane and after a couple of attempts, it is skyborne. Living up to its reputation, the plane conks out and begins to fall out of the sky.

By a lucky coincidence (which is necessary else it wouldn't be much of a game!) Sam survives the fall with only a bang on the head. A gun materialises in front of him as Sam finds himself in the jungle. He picks up the gun and begins his journey home.

Safari Sam is a platformer (hooray). It's a relatively small game with only three levels and has been written in SCADs by Martin Fitzpatrick. Sam must collect the key on each level then reach the exit, killing nasty hunters that get in the way and doing his best not to kill the little animals. The controls are the usual for a simple platformer - left, right, jump and fire.

To review the game properly, let's go back to the start. Safari Sam comes on one disc. Upon booting there's a simple, but very very nice introduction. The menu is excellent with plenty of options including difficulty, toggle FX, change keys (which can also be done in the game), story and instrcutions. The menu is simple to use, with a reasonable e-tracker tune (by Rik Moore) playing, the instructions are clear enough, the story is long but humorous enough to stop you getting bored and the grammar is nearly perfect.

After you've decided on what options to select, you can start the game. A different little picture greets you at the start and finish of each level, all adding to the professional feel of the program.

Then the game starts. The sprites are average sized (about 8 by 12 I think), the graphics are nothing amazing, but adequate and easily recognisable (and all done by Martin). The enemies are very nice in that they fire back a lot (as they would if it were realistic) and don't just walk around like lemons waiting to be shot. Your life is in terms of energy, so one shot won't kill you.

The idea is to jump about, shoot all the men in your way (without wasting all your ammo) and reach the end of the level. It is a really simple game, and there isn't much to it apart from that. You die when your energy runs out or when you fall off the bottom of the screen (very annoying). It's definitely not a game which will stun you with it's new ideas, but it does have a strange addictive quality to it. You have only one life, so if you die on level 3, you go back to the start of level 1. When you complete the game, you start again on a higher difficulty.

It is nice to have another platformer released, even if it is a SCADs game. It's also nice to see that F9 software are releasing plenty of decent budget games, although I hope they don't release too many that aren't up to the required standard.

Overall, it is pretty obvious that Safari Sam is a pretty standard average game. Martin has done a very good job of turning what could have beena pile of rubbish into something that is nice to look at and enjoyable to play. I doubt its lastng qualities after you have completed it, and I also doubt it'll take long before you do get through the game (remember, it only has 3 levels). However, if you like the odd platformer or are looking for a little budget game, have a look at it.

Rating	Score
Playability	61%
Lastability	43%
Graphics	55%
Sound	50%
Overall	57%