• Completed and Reviewed by Vinny Mainolfi (& Frank Gasking)

You may or may not know this, but back in the late nineties, I wouldn't touch any game that was created using the 'Shoot-em up Construction Kit' utility - not even if you paid me! To me, every single game looked the same, and most of the time, the creator really had no sense of design and didn't really think outside the box. Then, I started playing SEUCK games that were created by Alf Yngve and my opinion of SEUCK started to change. THEN, Jon Wells started doing clever things to Alf's games and added things like music, title screens, 'get ready' & 'game over' screens, high scores and... wait for it... proper game endings!

The final level is complete and the jewels are ALL MINE!

Pop! Pop! Pop!

And so the epilogue begins...

...and what a lovely story too ;-)

The End.

HOW WAS IT COMPLETED?: Of course I bloody cheated! I actually used an infinite lives cheat and pumped the speed up to 500%.

SO WHAT HAPPENS?: You reach the final cave that houses all the jewels you could ever dream of. Then, the ending tune kicks in along with a pulsating red-blob effect. The epilogue then starts to scroll upwards (see above screenshot for text) and then the ending is complete. The game then flicks over to a 'name entry' screen that has a new piece of Feekzoid music.

COMMENTS:

• Vinny: Now here's the thing: this game was originally created by Alf Yngve using Sensible Software's 'Shoot-up up Construction Kit'. On top of the game, Jon Wells cleverly added a title screen, scroller & music, in-game music, border sprites, a 'get ready' screen, a hilarious 'game over' screen, AND he found space to add this great little ending. That really is an achievement in itself. I know for a fact that if Jon had more space, he would have created a top-notch ending. Saying that, this is worthy of a look and listen and certainly ends the game with satisfaction.

I'm going to score this high because of the great atmospheric music, and the achievement of fitting in an ending with such limited memory space.

• Frank Gasking: It's hard to expect too much from a SEUCK game for an ending, as you haven't got much in the way of space and map pointers, and you really want to concentrate on just getting a good game squeezed in. With Archetype, you get a small scene to collect some treasure, which would normally be award enough, but Jon has managed to squeeze in a little extra with an ending story. Overall, its nothing spectacular, but for a SEUCK game this is more than enough and is a satisfying end to a great little enhanced SEUCK game. - 5/10.

Just in case you didn't know: Archetype has been re-released on tape by Psytronik. The package is made up of a deluxe full colour artwork inlay and tape label and is accompanied by a FREE game, Cops III. It would sit proud in any C64 Freak's games collection. All this for only £3.99. CLICK HERE to order your copy :) Advert over (heh-heh).

FINAL SAY: It's worth of a mention :-)

G.E. RATING: 6 / 10

CLICK HERE to view more endings.