Nebulus


Poobik The Hare

Still Fresh
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
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73
NEBULUS also known as Tower Toppler/Castelian on various other systems

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available on

Amstrad CPC, C64, Speccy, Atari 8bit, Gameboy, NES and Atari ST

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One of the best (and cutest) platform games ever made for any retro system and looking even better with it's appearance on the GP32 through use of an emu (amstrad in this case). but available on many systems and should be available on your emu of choice.

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Nebulus places you in the roll of Pogo, who's task it is to destroy 8 towers by reaching the top of each one, thus triggering them to collapse. Naturally, you can't just swan up the towers and various obstacle are thrown your way by means of disappearing platforms, enemies you have to shoot or jump over and a level timer. after beating a level you will go to a bonus level in which you enter a sub and sale to the next tower, shooting and collecting fish along the way to earn extra lives (the Spectrum & Amstrad versions don't have the bonus level).

Reaching the top of each tower is made harder in that the game has a convincing rotational 3D scroll effect (a great feat of programming for its time) that allows you to travel around and up the tower, entering and exiting various doors to emerge at different parts of the tower smoothly without ever going to the edge of the screen.

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The game has ever more devilish puzzles with speed being of the essence due to the on-screen counter counting down incessantly and you will find a high feeling of suspense, as you can't tell what you'll encounter round the next spiral turn.
The enemies/obstacles consist of flashing blocks and bouncing balls (with some balls only being momentarily stunned) to name a few, that can be zapped to add points.

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Overall, Nebulus has little to fault, although clambering back to the top when you have tumbled from a peak can be tiresome. Otherwise, Nebulus is a fun game with an original approach to the platform genre, a classic, that has stood the test of time.

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nice review! I do think I remember someone else talking about this game though...

but anyway, I'll have to give it a go.

P.S. Nice idea there with showing the screenies from all the different sytems.
 
Thanks for sharing this wiht us and giving the screen shots of the different systems was great!!!!

This looks like a really cool game and will have to try it on NES for sure!!!
 
There also was an entry on GBAX compo last year or the year before with a remake of this game on the GBA .
 
ST looks very cool, haven't tried it though. Also Kirbys Adventure does the same scrolling effect on the NES.
 
The ST one is very very good (one of the best, or the best), and should run great in CaSTaway :) Sound very good too if memory serves..

jeff
 
Great review

Used to play this game a ton on my Spectrum, although monochrome the graphics were very good.

Thats what i love about a lot of old 80's retro games, they were so original, to me Nebulus was very different from what was around at the time and was a superb game.
 
The Atari ST version was definitely the best version of the bunch.

I just found out recently about the gp32 when I thought about getting a PocketPC to run CastCE, and somebody told me the gp32 ran ST games much better than a 400MHz XScale Dell Axim PDA.

So I'm debating whether to get the gp32 because you can't find it anywhere in the US.
 
Ahh the guy from Atari-Forum, welcome!

You might want to buy from GBAX as they ship internationally. There are US GP32 owners on here as well and I'm sure they will be able to give you any advice you need.
 
onlysublime posted on Jul 19 2005 at 07:58 PM said:
The Atari ST version was definitely the best version of the bunch.

I just found out recently about the gp32 when I thought about getting a PocketPC to run CastCE, and somebody told me the gp32 ran ST games much better than a 400MHz XScale Dell Axim PDA.

So I'm debating whether to get the gp32 because you can't find it anywhere in the US.

I have played CastCE on my Asus 620 400mhz pocketpc and will have to say it is not a patch on Castaway on the GP. I had nothing but problems with CastCE, Crashing with-in a couple of minutes of playing a game, The controls are crap when compared to the GP (even though the A620 has the best pocketpc controls for gaming) and the compatability did not seem as good as castaway on the GP.

Trooper
 
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