Talk:Jetpac/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Ritchie333 (talk · contribs) 14:47, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

This is the very first computer game I ever had and I still like playing it 32 years later. So with a nostalgic tear in my eye, I'll take this on. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 14:47, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

I've done a little bit of copyediting.

Lead

• A two paragraph lead is about right for this article
• "he must rebuild his rocket in order to escape a planet" - I seem to recall the original instructions just said you were exploring planets, without escaping per se - can you check?

• You're right; I think it makes more sense that he is exploring planets and not constantly landing on them to escape them again! Rephrased. JAGUAR  18:41, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

• The information about basic gameplay and the Interface II release are not in the body.

• Now mentioned in the Background section JAGUAR  11:51, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Legacy

• There's an uncited end of paragraph here

• Done, added the Rare Replay ref JAGUAR  11:51, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Background

• Like Atic Atac, I think we should put some development background in here. From that old Crash article (where we got the Sabre Wulf written after Knight Lore bit) you could talk about how the Stampers weren't particularly impressed technically with the Spectrum having seen lots of hardware, but realised it would be a good selling computer and make their games financially successful.
• Some technical data might be worth adding; In Knight Lore's GA review I dropped in a source that shows Jetpac used what it called planar sprites, which basically have no masking and just overlap colour.
• Also worth mentioning the game ran on the 16K Spectrum; I suspect people won't even remember they existed.
• How does Jetpac Refuelled differ from the basic game?
• There have been some unofficial remakes
• And of course, Jetman had a long running comic strip in Crash!

• Thanks, I'll add all of the above into the Development section. I'm all sorted now! I've found the complete history of Jetpac (p 50) in a dedicated issue of Retro Gamer! This alone should make a good development section. JAGUAR  19:18, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

• I've made a start on the development section, trying to summarise every one of the points above into the section. Jetpac Refuelled is mentioned briefly in the legacy section. I hope I haven't left anything out? JAGUAR  21:40, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Summary

• Again, I'm not sure how to proceed, there's only about 4.5K of prose, which is very short for a GA. I think for such a pioneering game, we can do more than just the basic reception. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 19:22, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

• Thanks for the review. I thought it might be too short and really I should start implementing Background and Development (if possible) sections in these Spectrum articles. I'll see what I can do. JAGUAR  19:25, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

@Ritchie333: I've made a development and release section, let me know if you feel that anything else should be added in there? Thankfully Jetpac has good overall coverage and a few retrospective interviews here and there. I managed to summarise all of the points you mentioned above into that section. This game is one of the only Spectrum games I never get bored with, and am actually quite good at it! JAGUAR  17:45, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

@Jaguar: I did a few copyedits, but the article looks a lot better and I can't think of anything else to put in it. So I'll pass it. Well done, we've got some great articles for Ultimate now! Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 16:50, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks again, Ritchie! This has to be my favourite Ultimate game. I'm going to get on with expanding the rest of the Ultimate titles (the ones that are part of the Rare Replay topic anyway), and if all goes well I might move onto other titles as seeing that they're extensively covered on magazines like Crash and Retro Gamer. JAGUAR  18:54, 24 August 2015 (UTC)