Dinosaur Detective Agency Maximum Effect / Alternative Software 1994

This is a platform arcade puzzle, originally released for Amiga computers in 1993 and converted to PC. The action takes place in a surrealistic world, which formally represents our planet near the end of the Cretaceous period (according to the user's manual, 75 million years BC), but at the same time inhabited not only “ordinary”, but also anthropomorphic dinosaurs - completely bipedal, reasonable and even civilized: wearing clothes, having houses and working for the benefit of society. The main character is Sherloch Ness, an amusing private detective in a checkered cloak and hat, who has a rather impressive belly, but is also capable of a good jump. His task is to consistently help his four clients solve their problems; so, the first case is dedicated to exposing the bank robber at the request of the director of the designated institution, - and then it will be necessary, say, to return the pet to the inconsolable honorable lady. The overall entourage initially seems funny and colorful not only externally, but also "essentially" - in other words, it seems that we have a kind childish platformer with a side view. But actually it’s not at all true: it's extremely complex and not even every hardcore lover, not to mention the average player, will “submit”. So, the first "surprise": our character is in principle not capable of killing enemies (the number of which is quite large) without detriment to himself - in the event of a collision with them or, for example, landings on their heads are killed (which is shown absolutely bloodless they just fall outside the bottom of the screen), but Sherloch loses one of the "health points", the stock of which is very, it should be noted, not numerous - expressed in the form of copies of his head in the lower left corner of the scale. You can correct your state of health by collecting externally identical to these "divisions" of bonuses - however, such ones are relatively rare. Therefore, in most situations of opponents - fortunately those who are not inclined to purposeful pursuit and moving along strictly defined trajectories to and fro will have to be avoided in one way or another, most often by jumping over, which is sometimes very problematic to implement technically. True, the protagonist has one means of self-defense, even if not lethal: it is, surprisingly, a camera whose flashes for some time (not too long, but usually still sufficient to perform the necessary action) immobilize the adversaries. Of course, the stock of these "charges" is also by no means infinite: their number, displayed in the lower part of the screen, is filled with bonuses in the form of bluish light bulbs; There are no more often these things than “health points”, and most importantly, they should be applied “wisely” in principle, because they will be useful at the end of the task. most often - jumping over, which is technically very often problematic. You will need not only relatively high finger dexterity (the hopping component is simpler here than in the "cult" subgenre games, although the same moving platforms are quite present in, say, trolleys as well as the abyss), but also logical thinking, and sometimes non-standard. As we move forward, we will have to solve all kinds of puzzles that are not so complicated, but sometimes not obvious and annoying (due to the overall intensity of what is happening), and this may not only be a trivial activation of a button, but also, for example, the need to push a stone block down, to make the rail track for the trolley function (although the analogous paths in the same location, outwardly no different from this, for some reason, work and so). In addition, there are occasional "plot" bonuses - a kind of "evidence" that is highly desirable to take. Each level ends with a “duel with the boss” - but the implemented one is also very atypical: it is necessary to take a picture of the offender in a strictly defined manner, which will be quite difficult to achieve (and the flash bonuses mentioned above are needed mainly for such “fights” and not for fussing with "ordinary" opponents), - plus the number of "snapshots" to be done by itself depends on the number of "physical evidence" found earlier.
Screenshots
Full Demo 527kb (uploaded by Old-Games.ru)
included in Kids Rule OK 2 - Floppy Image ISO Demo 1.2MB (uploaded by Internet Archive Software Collection)


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