Captain Blood
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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You play a computer game programmer (Captain Blood) who finds himself trapped in one of his own computer games. Worse yet, you've been cloned. Each of your five clones has made off with a quantity of your bodily fluids and is hiding out on a planet somewhere in the galaxy. Because of your depleted bodily fluids, you're gradually turning into a machine. You need to find and assimilate those clones before the transformation is complete.

Alternate Titles

"L'Arche du Capitaine Blood" -- French title
"Die Arche des Captain Blood" -- German title

Trivia

A sequel to Captain Blood was planned for release at the end of 1988! I don't know why it was dropped, but a short interview with Philippe Ulrich and Didier Bouchon (in Tilt magazine, March '88) gives a tantalising glimpse of what could have been:

Q. What are we your projects for 1988? Will we see Blood in a new adventure?

A. The development of a second scenario for Blood is in progress. The game system is similar to the previous episode. It is a war against the KINGPAK, which are not the stupid, greedy beings that we know. In their history, they have a social organization, a culture, laws. The interface graphics, all the characters, their knowledge bases will be different. There are sixteen families of characters. They are much more intelligent, are equipped with memory and the capacity to communicate between themselves. The game's characters will have different knowledge and reactions according to each player.

To give you an idea, the conversational base in the first game is 4 KB, and 32 KB in the second. Then we envisage the release in October 1988 of another Blood adventure, which will be even more advanced. This game will contain a space flight simulation part, an arcade part with space combat and a contact part with the extraterrestrials; the interactivity will be larger in each section of the game. In the first game, it is necessary to successfully teleport your enemies into the Ark to kill them whereas, in the next one, the Ark evolves/changes considerably; more sophisticated weapons, the appearance of shuttles and especially Blood will be able to leave the Ark.

Q. Will the players finally see his face?

A. Yes, and the player will be able to put himself in the skin of Blood or that of his/her partner Torka, the Ondoyante. Already present in the first game, she also plays an important part in the second episode.

Interview by Dany Boolauck, Tilt n°52 March 1988, p24
Source: http://cpcrulez.free.fr/games_ERE_informatique88.htm

You can read more about Exxos (the guys who made CB) and their happy electronic weird freaky babies over at everything2.com, where some helpful soul has decided to write all about it.

In December 2002, Edge magazine in the UK put out a special edition, called Retro, dedicated entirely to classic videogaming. In amongst a whole host of interesting articles, interviews and features, a select few classic games were 'retroreviewed', each getting its own one or two page spread. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Elite and Rogue, Captain Blood was one of them! OK, so they only gave it 7 out of 10, but it was still great to see it in print. Here's the summary box from the review:

They don't make them like they used to. Almost 15 years since Captain Blood's release, there is little to compare it to. Experienced today, its shortcomings are more glaring, and its influences dated, but the bold self-assurance and polish stand up to scrutiny. Dedicated followers of eye candy owe it to themselves to see the infamous hyperspace sequence at least once. 

The Atari ST version was the only version to feature spoken Bluddian.

Bluddian is the language the inhabitants of the Hydra Galaxy use to communicate. In the game, you can speak to the aliens by using Bluddian symbols: there are symbols for about every concept in the game. In the Atari version, each time you clicked on a symbol or that Alien speak to you, the Bluddian words are played on the speakers ("numh" for yes, "duhm" for not...) - if you play enough, you can actually learn how to speak Bluddian.

Captain Blood was the first game released on ERE Informatique's "Exxos" label (in Europe). The other two games in the Exxos series were Purple Saturn Day and Kult (released as Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess, in the U.S.). After that, the core of ERE Informatique (and Exxos) became Cryo Interactive Entertainment.

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The original version of Captain Blood was for the Atari ST. It was converted for the following other systems: Amiga, PC, Apple IIGS, Thompson TO8, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

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Some versions don'* include the trademark Jean Michel Jarre title music ("Ethnicolor"). Instead, it has a beeper tune composed by Charles Callet.

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The manual states that the game is limited to 45 realtime hours. This is not true (There is no limit, AFAIK).

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The original European manual included an *excellent* short story (in seven chapters), called "The Ark According To Captain Blood". The U.S. manual only had a short synopsis with some major details omitted or changed.

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Possible spoiler(?):

One interesting feature of the Atari ST original was that it was open-ended. When you 'won' the game, it actually continued, with you still being able to continue playing. i.e. There was no real ending to it. When you think about the game plot, this lack of an ending actually makes perfect sense. This feature wasn't implemented in the PC version (or in most of the other conversions).

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The EGA version of the game was only available in the U.S. Europeans were limited to playing in CGA.

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The U.S. version of the game was censored for nudity! The Ondoyante (naked in the European release) had a bikini-type-thing pasted on.

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There are 32,768 unique planets in the game!

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From the (European) manual:

"This software explores a new concept, the BIOGAME. The characters can evolve, be born, die, trade information and generally get on with their own independant lives. Strange things can happen; planets can appear or disappear overnight, the behaviour of matter is out of our control!"

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This game was one of the first to use fractal techniques, to generate its flying sequences and rotating planets.

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One of the game's alien races, the Croolis, also appears in the second Exxos game, Purple Saturn Day.

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Referenced in: Purple Saturn Day manual Dune manual

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Two sequels have been released, both by Cryo. The first was Commander Blood (1994), followed by Big Bug Bang (1996). Commander Blood was distributed worldwide (by Mindscape). Unfortunately, it was a complete commercial failure. Therefore, Big Bug Bang was only released in France, and without any advertising. The sequels feature several of Captain Blood's characters and alien races, and (although very different from the original game) were created by a team headed by Philippe Ulrich and Didier Bouchon (Captain Blood's authors). 

Captain Blood was followed by Commander Blood in 1994, but the two games share little in common beyond their titles. (Editor's note: They have more similarities than that, like contacting some familiar alien races, but they do indeed look very different.) 

It is rumored that a Tandy 16-color graphics version exists, since a slip of paper inserted into the box mentions that it "will be available soon", and that "you can exchange your current disks for a Tandy 16-color version" by contacting Mindscape.

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Description from the packaging:

Five clones scattered throughout the galaxy, draining your life force. You must find and assimilate them before the ship's auto-bionic functions take over completely... and render you inhuman.

Death-defying flights through hyperspace and dangerous terrain lead to strange worlds with alien inhabitants: Migrax, Croolis-Ulv, and the beautiful and beguiling Torka. They have the information you need to find and destroy your clones- if you're clever enough to get it.

Features:

Revolutionary graphics and visual effects.
Innovative icon-based language for interplanetary communication.
Superb music and sound effects.
Humor, challenge and intrigue.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/captain-blood
