Amiga Port Authority
presents:

Reviewed by Mathew R. Ignash (mathewignash@comcast.net) - Last updated on September 13, 2002.

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Vital Data:

Created By: Gremlin, 1991.

Ported to Amiga by: Gremlin, 1991.

System requirements: The AGA version needs Kickstart 3.0 or higher, AGA chip set and a joystick and 2mb of chip RAM. If you want to install it to a hard drive it takes up about 2mb of space. Their is also ECS Amiga version.

System recommended: If you run the game from floppy disk, some extra drives would be handy.

System Friendlyness Scale: 12x45x789x - The game does not multitask, only generates PAL output and will not utilize RTG software.

About The Game:

Synopsis: An Amiga platform game that was heavily inspired by Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, Zool was made by Gremlin Graphics for ECS Amiga systems. It was later ported to AGA systems, CD32 and a number of other platforms. I am reviewing the AGA version here.

The story: As Zool, the Ninja from the Nth Dimension, you battle through several different levels, fighting manic toys, rioting sweets, lethal tools and all manner of fairly imaginative nasties, each level culminating in a boss of some description. You can jump about, climb walls, fire and spin about in a way particularly lethal to the indigenous denizens of the various habitats.

The AGA version adds more elaborite backgrounds and colors to the ECS version. The CD32 version adds a ray traced intro animation and and an additional level. Their were supposedly NTSC and PAL versions of the CD32 port and it sold for $45 in the U.S.

A JST hard drive installer and patcher is available on the Aminet which makes the AGA and ECS game useable on most Amiga systems. Without it the game must be rebooted from floppy, with a PAL degrader, and uses a code wheel. There is a cracked version floating around the internet that removes the code wheel, but it cannot be installed.

FAQs:

Reviews:

Acorn Gaming: Gareth Moore gives the Acorn port of Zool 4 out of 5 stars. http://www.acorn-gaming.org.uk/Reviews/Zool/

Amiga Format: Rob Mead gave the CD32 version of Zool 93% in the Christmas 1993 issue.

Amiga Format: They judged it the number 18 Amiga game of 1993 in their Christmas 1993 issue.

Amiga Games Database: A review of the AGA Amiga Zool. http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/DBM/Zool.html

Amiga Game Zone: Geoff Miller gave the CD32 port a B and said ''A killer intro makes this the ultimate Zool... until Zool 2, of course.'' in the January 1994 issue.

Amiga Power: They gave Amiga Zool 90% in issue #18.

Amiga Power: They gave Amiga Zool AGA 78% in issue #24.

Amiga World: Peter Olafson said the elaborite backdrops of the AGA version hide the critters in the May 1993 issue.

CD32 Gamer: They gave the CD32 port of the game 60% in their April 1994 issue and said ''Masses of hype, masses of onscreen colour, a great FMV-style intro and impressive CD soundtracks. Pitty gameplay's so limited.''

CD32 Gamer: A CD32 Zool demo was included on the August 1994 cover CD-ROM.

Elspa: According to their survey released in January 1994 Zool was the number 25 Amiga ECS game and the number 1 CD32 title.

Usenet: A review of ECS Amiga Zool by Michael Richards posted on comp.sys.amiga.reviews http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/docs/rview/Zool.txt

Extras:

Aminet Zool files - http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminetbin/find?zool

Cheats for Amiga Zool - http://netrover.com/~timt/classics/z/zool.html

JST Amiga hard drive loaders - http://jffabre.free.fr/amiga/patches.html