Frak! (4.6Mb)
I’ve included Frak!, as we come up for the project 3rd Anniversary to show that you don’t need a fast PC or a (huge) very recent game, to play games that are a challenge and a lot of fun to play. Frak! originated as a BBC game that was then implemented on the C64, as being a competent and unusual action platform game. Today’s post is for a stand-alone PC remake version, though you could get the BBC or C64 Rom download and then play using a suitable emulator. The remake is a fairly faithful rendition of the original version. I haven’t successfully played through all of the 10 levels twice through to see if the game and platforms play upside down though, as in the C64 version third time around! The BBC version had just 6 levels, still enough to pose a considerable challenge!
You play as Trogg the caveman who has an extendible yo-yo to deal with enemies, dangerous balloons and deadly daggers. There are six kinds of enemies Scrubblies, Hooters, Poglets, Bunyips, Ice Warriors and Trogg Clones each with their own type of behaviour. You encounter each new enemy type on each of the first six levels respectively. Similarly to the original game, collision detection isn’t perfect, so getting too close to enemies, balloons and daggers can result in Trogg’s untimely death. You have 3 lives per game and restart from the beginning if you die. It’s quite a challenging game to play; the more so as the screen scrolls making learning levels trickier. You can see even less of the screen at a time with the PC version! When Trogg dies, the word, (presumably expletive), ‘Frak!’, appears on the screen - hence the game’s title. Falling off platforms is also not recommended, losing Trogg a life each time he hasn’t a platform to land on.
The main visual difference between levels apart from the background color and different enemies is the use of ladders, ropes or chains for climbing. Sound is basic though effective, and music can be turned off via the menu or using the ‘F2’ key in-game (‘F1’ restores the music). Graphics are delightfully retro with a large cartoony Trogg and large enemies on-screen. While enemies movements are not animated, and Trogg has very basic animation, the game is colorful and a delight to play. Each level has a time limit, and is played in the dark if you go over this limit, though there are light bulbs (shouldn’t these be candles?!) for Trogg to find to further light up his travels. Trogg can also collect treasure though there is no need to collect these to complete a level. Trogg has to find and collect all of the keys on a level to be able to proceed to the next level. A high score is also displayed, and if you do really well a ‘cryptic’ code message is given such as ‘Hairy gonks hit crazy beetles slowly’ is given, as what was a previous verification for the old on-line scores table.
The ‘W, A, S, D’ keys are used to move, combining these as necessary to jump diagonally. The ‘Spacebar’ selects in menu, advances dialogues and fires Trogg’s yo-yo. Holding the Spacebar further extends Trogg's yo-yo up to a maximum of the width of the level which may extend beyond the viewable area. You are unable to move while Trogg has his yo-yo extended. The 'Esc' key quits, and screenshots can be taken using the 'F10' key. Enemies when hit, rather nicely get bowled off of the platform they are on! The four extra levels have been taken from the BBC Electron version of the game. Trogg’s placement sometimes needs to be pixel perfect with very accurate timing to complete later levels!
Frak! plays full-screen using part of the screen for the playing area, which may scroll L/R/Up/Down, directly in XP. Win 7 and Vista users should set the game exe compatibility properties (right click on game exe, select properties then compatibility tab) to XP SP2 with 640x480 resolution and 256 colors. Ignore a rapidly 'scrolling' menu (some graphics cards may cause this) as the game itself should still play normally. It may take a few seconds to get to the intro screen, so don't worry if the screen goes blank or turquoise for a few seconds while loading!
You can find extra screenshots by scrolling down the download link webpage. There is a Frak 2 which you can get, along with a BBC B emulator to play it HERE. The cheats also found there for Frak! only work for the BBC version.
Frak! almost starred on the 60th issue Anniversary cover of Retrogamer magazine, just being pipped at the post by Super Mario Cart!
I’ve enjoyed playing Frak! immensely over the years, starting from when it was first available on the BBC B computers! If you don’t mind the very retro graphics, it’s a tough but very enjoyable platform game to play!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgiA10MfOu4
Download HERE ------- (the download link is the small paperclip symbol to the right of the date of posting at the top for the first message on the page, just beneath the topic title) --------
