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The X68000 boots!
Almost all X68000 games boot directly from the floppy disc.
The music is being played through the X68000's internal sound chip, the Yamaha YM2151.
Geograph Seal also supported the Roland MT-32 midi add-on. Old school!
Bonus! If you can decipher what the narrator is saying during this horribly compressed voiceover, you've got mad aural skills!
That's AURAL, not...
Never mind.
Cinematic! The background is a bitmap graphic, while the ships are flat-shaded polygons.
A similar technique was used by LucasArts' in their X-Wing games.
Our first glimpse at the mech the player will be piloting for the duration of the game.
And the first of the parallels I will try to draw between Geograph Seal and EXACT's next game, Jumping Flash!
Informative!
Geograph Seal begins by depicting the player being air (space?) dropped onto an enemy planet.
Each level of Jumping Flash! begins in much the same way.
In GS, the player is piloting a biped mech.
In JF!, the player IS a biped mech.
Remember "Robbit"?
Anybody?
...
Fine. Moving on.
Yeah! Blast those...triangles.
This pre-mission map sequence looks an awful lot like the one EXACT would later implement in 1997's Ghost in the Shell; a game built on a modified version of the engine used in...
Wait for it...
Jumping Flash!
...
*cough*
Okay, on to the controls.
The X68000 used a joystick with two independent fire buttons.
The mech in GS basically controls like a tank.
Up to move forward, down to move back, left or right to rotate
One button fires, the other jumps.
Those flashing red arrows either side of the crosshairs indicate the direction the player needs to rotate to face attacking enemies.
All enemies are clearly labeled as...ENEMY.
Handy.
The object of this opening mission is to destroy a preset number of enemy installations.
Completing that goal will gain you access to the end of mission boss.
Enemy mechs are regularly air-dropped into the area, as seen here.
Smaller mechs and turrets can be cleared from the area.
Larger enemies will occasionally drop items, like this one that automatically replenishes the players' shield.
Your mech is equipped with four upgradable weapons.
Unfortunately, swapping weapons on the fly can be a bit of a hassle.
Due to the limitations of having just two buttons, weapons can only be changed by pushing up or down on the joystick, while simultaneously tapping the fire button.
Needless to say, in the heat of battle, your mech is unfortunately prone to random bouts of weapon cycling.
Uh oh. More mechs about to drop in.
Two targets left.
One.
Feckin' turrets!
The map screen is accessed by pressing the fire and jump buttons together.
Weapons can also be changed here.
On your left, you will see the gate that leads to the end-of-mission area.
Yes! Eat it, you lousy targets!
Now, back to that gate.
...
Where was it, again?
Um.
Check the map.
Everything looks the same!
More feckin' mechs.
GATE!
Hooray!
Uh oh.
Why can't I hurt it???
Let's try jumping on it!
And...dead.
Now to lay claim to my terrible performance.
And that, folks, was Geograph Seal for the Sharp X68000.
Thanks for watching, and hopefully I'll see you back here for another episode of Computo Obscurio soon!
Keep watching www.giantbomb.com/profile/limpingfish/blog for more information.