PULSE-POUNDING Arcade Action!
RADIOACTIVE Roleplaying!
The Ultimate Post-Apocalypse Saga!
ARE YOU MUTANT ENOUGH TO HANDLE IT?
In a world devastated by nuclear holocaust, the pure-blooded humans have sworn to exterminate their mutant cousins. Only you can prevent it!
You're the hottest slicer in the village—that's why the Himukk picked you.
"If the humans attack," he said, "we're slag." See what's got'em wadded up, and try to fix it.
You've been trekkin' for days, hammerin' buzzars and turkels, huntin' the Oracle. For all you know, you're already too late.
With a blade in your hand and a oozee on your hip, you can take those snaky spuds. You hope…
I don't know how you guessed it, but you're right: This is the original advertising blurb, the text on the back of the box to be more exact, not my personal opinion.
Being a great fan of both Wasteland and the Fallout series, I am always interested in post-apocalyptic games. So I came across this one.
Bad Blood was released in 1990 for the PC and 1991 for the C64.
The PC version was re-released in 1994, and this is what I played.
There is a persistent rumor that this version is somehow enhanced,
the VGA graphics are supposed to have been added at this time, but
that is nonsense. The only difference is the time stamp on the
files. It should be obvious because the 1990 copyright is right on
the VGA graphics, sound effects come via the PC speaker, and the
setup knows about Adlib but not about SoundBlaster.
Bad Blood is an Origin game and uses the same perspective as Ultima VI (it was first introduced in Times of Lore), a perspective that tends to give me a vertigo but is not so bad if I cling to the armrest of my chair real tight. The mixture of speaker sound effects (every step you take—a click) and Adlib music is weirder.
As in most RPGs of the time, only part of the screen is reserved for the map. Here, this part is represented as the screen of a 70s style TV. The buttons serve as a reminder of the few keys you need for gameplay: Talk, Inventory, Examine, Use, Options (Fighting is done with the space bar, or you can use a joystick). I liked this bit a lot, the soda bottle at the right hand of the TV, which serves as a life meter, seems a bit oversized, and you don't see very well how much life you have left. The idea isn't bad though.
There is no character creation, you can choose between three heroes, a mutant, a mixed-blood woman, and a pure-blood human male. The more mutant they are, the stronger they are, but they will have more trouble talking to the humans. And that's what the whole game is about—compare the blurb—preventing a war between humans and mutants. So your choice of character is mainly between battle-oriented and dialog-oriented gameplay.
I did not get very far in this game. The irritating thing is that you don't really know what to do, where to go after you have picked up everything in the village, and if you are not used to the controls, you will die easily in the beginning.
No, it's not one of the great games, but definitely worth a try if you are interested in the post-apocalyptic genre. Besides, it is one of the first games by Chris Roberts, who would later on create the legendary Wing Commander series.
Just like the contemporary Ultima VI, Ultima VI plays all the sounds over the PC speaker. For the music, there are various choices, including the Multiwave Innovation (Innovation Sound Standard), a little known and little supported sound card featuring two SID chips. Most likely you will have to do with the AdLib music, which I found more annoying than soothing, as one reviewer described it. Roland MT-32 is supported, but a generic wavetable device won't work under this setting. Under Windows, you might be able emulate it with a card of the AWE32 family:
Yes Ultima VI can have wavetable sounds if played in a Windows 95 DOS Box (Not native DOS). This requires a recent set of Win95 AWE Drivers and the AWE Control Panel—check your driver / setup disks or Creative's FTP / WWW site. Have a copy of the MT32 Soundbank (synthmt.sbk) handy also, as you'll need it.
What you need to do is:
- Fire up the AWE Control Panel and turn on MPU401 emulation. (Found under 'Device')
- Select the MT32 Soundbank as necessary (Synth tab)
- Select MT32 / LAPC-1 in the Ultima VI install / sound setup
- Fire up U6 in a DOS box and enjoy!
This is a quote from Michael Fleming's Ultima and the AWE FAQ. Since the two games are technically identical, I have little doubt that it will work with Bad Blood as well (actually, I suppose it will work with any game that supports the Roland standard).
