Captain Comic

Nintendo console exclusive

The Adventures of Captain Comic is a platformer featuring a huge nonlinear playfield divided into several different terrains. As Comic, you must search throughout Tambi for power ups and items that will aid you in your quest to recover the three treasures. The Captain's main weapon is 'Blastola Cola', a can of drink that allows him to hurl fireballs at his foes. For each can that he finds, an additional fireball can be thrown.

Released: 1988
Platforms: MS-DOS NES SAM Coupé
Genres: Metroidvania Platformer Shooter
Developers: Michael Denio
Publishers: Color Dreams
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: United States

About

The Adventures of Captain Comic is a platform game written by Michael Denio for MS-DOS compatible operating systems and released as shareware in 1988. It was one of the first side-scrolling games for IBM PC compatibles comparable to those on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it presaged a trend of shareware platform games in the early 1990s. A version for the NES was later published by Color Dreams as an unlicensed title.

A sequel, Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality, was released in 1990.

›Story

You are Captain Comic, galactic hero. Your mission is to recover three treasures from the planet Omsoc, which have been stolen away and hidden on the remote planet of Tambi. Your task will not be easy, you will need to gather tools to increase your fighting and defensive capability, navigate dangerous terrain, and avoid or destroy a horde of deadly creatures. It will take all of the Captain's skill and wit to see the treasures returned to Omsoc.

Keywords

death
side-scrolling
bird
backtracking
teleportation
high score
superhero
single-player only
developed by one person
upgradeable weapons
unlicensed game
collectibles

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is divided into eight major areas, and each contains three smaller zones. Transitioning between zones plays a short tune, all enemies are removed from the screen, and Comic's position is saved.

Comic has twelve "shield" points which act as health. Each time an enemy hits him, two points are removed. When at zero, Comic dies on the next hit. Occasionally, shields can be found which instantly replenish the health to full, or if it is already full, give an extra life. Comic starts with four lives, and an extra life is given for each 50,000 points earned if Comic isn't already at the maximum of five extras.

Story

Captain Comic is on a mission to the planet Tambi, where the quest begins. Comic must find three artifacts: the Mystical Gems of Lascorbanos, the Thousand Coins of Tenure, and the Crown of the Ages. To find them, he must travel through many varied environments. The game is completed when Comic is in possession of all three treasures.

Development

Michael Denio previously wrote an interactive demo of a platform game called The Adventures of Captain Pixel of the Galactic Security Patrol in 34010 AD for a TMS34010 coprocessor board. The credits screen has a 1987 copyright notice for the graphics. The TMS34010 is a CPU with graphics-oriented instructions which was later used in arcade video games such as Narc and Mortal Kombat.

Denio wrote in the introduction to the Captain Comic manual:

Legacy

A sequel from the same author was published in 1990 as Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality.

In 2012, PC World called Captain Comic the twelfth greatest shareware game of all time, writing that "it inspired many other shareware authors, including the folks who would later create Commander Keen."