Space Chase

Here's a game from years gone by - Jason Storm in: Space Chase, deveolped by Safari Software and published by Epic MegaGames in 1993 for DOS computers.

Space Chase is one of the many DOS "classics" I had the fortune to grow up with. It's a lightweight 16 colour sidescrolling platformer in the vein of the original Duke Nukum and the Commander Keen series, except unlike those, nobody remembers it. It didn't get any sequels and Safari Software went on to produce better things like Traffic Department 2192 and Highway Hunter (before being bought out by Epic)

Time and time again I've revisted Space Chase and its many episodes. When I first played it, having installed it from it's brand new floppy disk, I could safely say it was an "okay" game, (bare in mind of course this was the mid-90s and I didn't know much better). Now in the grand year of 2009 having played both the best games and worst games ever created... it's still an "okay" game.

Space Chase has numerous flaws, many of which I'm only starting to fully understand today. The graphics aren't brilliant, the gameplay is very basic and sometimes broken, the music is awful and the sound effects are pumped out of the built in PC Speaker (and in the case of DOSBox - pumped out of the emulated PC Speaker which in many cases sounds worse).

Yet, it's not a terrible game. Sure some parts will melt your brain but there's still something appealing about walking around in very ridgid 16 colour worlds picking up lots of items. I'm compelled to like it despite its flaws, and since we've known each other for so long it's difficult to lecture it this far down the line. But then again, that MIDI music is terrible and is now haunting me like many awful yet catchy tunes in the past.

What's the point of this post? Dunno, but it's Space Chase - it doesn't really get any publicity at all, ever.