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GAMES THAT MAKE YOU JUMP

By Stephen Smith (stevo@jonlan.demon.co.uk)

A while a go many of you may have seen the post I made to our very own newsgroup asking if anybody had experienced any part of any game that had made them mildly jump, or given them a bit of a shock. Obviously a computer game will not have as much success at doing this as a knitting neadle connected to the mains, but it's all relative. You can be playing away harmlessly when suddenly the biggest nasty you've ever seen suddenly appears on the screen and promptly kills you.

Screenshot

My best example of this is Bugaboo the Flea (Quicksilva). There is only one nasty in this game, a giant yellow dragon-type thing, and you can quite often be trying to complete the game for about 5 minutes before you see it. But when you do it's a mad frantic rush to try and get away from it before it touches you.

So anyway, here is a small selection of the replies I received.

Hmm. Football Manager made me jump when the opposition beat me on the easy level; I was supposed to win every game as well. More accurately though, Knight-Lore made me jump when he turned into a Werewolf. Mind you, I was only 8 when the game came out.
(Andrew Malcom)

Screenshot

Timegate also could have the same effect upon stumbling into the timegate. The blue corridor would suddenly appear and it was often before I could get needed repairs.
(Kurt Prochnow)

Screenshot

Manic Miner; There you were, making the same old known movements once again to pass screen x, and suddendly you made the wrong move for a 10th of a second and, without any advice... FLASH! -Jump- You're dead.
(Paolo Perrotta)

Screenshot

I remember a bit in Pyjamarama where you were in a sort of tunnel (I think) where a cannonball/boulder/something suddenly appeared and splattered you to the floor. I'm not 100% clear now, it's been a few years...
(Dimitris Kogias)

Screenshot

Has to be Alien, esp when you have one person left and the tracker starts beeping or when you are on you way to the shuttle and the Alien suddenly appears!
(Matthew Pimm)

Only one game ever made me go WUH, and that was the original "Alien" strategy game (can't remember who it was by). The very act of just being stood in a corridor with the motion tracker beeping in your ear and knowing the alien is around is bad enough. But when you move into the room with the alien is and it jumps out - WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHH!
Time to change your trousers!
(Blood)

Screenshot

Heh, of course there's the time in Laser Squad when you find out that the guy you're playing against knows how to hide a grenade in a plant pot ;)
(Jonothan Henderson)

Now DeathChase, by Micromega(?) was scary - cruising along at top speed, and suddenly WALLOP - straight into a tree with a horrible jarring noise!
(Greig McGill)

Screenshot

Although I never played it, one game that I thought might make you jump would be when the face appears in Soft & Cuddly. Anybody else?


[Contents] [Part 3] [Part 5]