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‘He wasn’t just any pest control man! He was the Exterminator...’
In 1989 Gottlieb/Premier released a very popular coin-op named ‘Exterminator’. The cabinet design of that game was very curious: it looks like a house with a roof covering on its top. But that reflects the topic of the game very good – similar to the design of this arcade video game, the gameplay itself was very curious, too...
In contrast to the many action coin-ops like Sega’s ‘Shadow Dancer’ or Atari’s puzzle double pack ‘Tetris’ and ‘Klax’, ‘Exterminator’ represented a welcome change at this time. In late 1990 publisher Audiogenic (‘Exile’, ‘Loopz’) ported the extraordinary game to all popular home computers – including the C64...
‘Verminator’...
You play the part of a vermin exterminator. Of course your job is to free houses from bugs. The game starts with a cool intro tune by David Whittaker (‘Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show’, ‘Speedball’, ‘Back to the Future II’). Now you’ve to choose between one or two player game - then you catch sight of a housing estate. The exterminator’s car stops in front of the first house. After he’d entered the building, a floor plan of the house appears. There one of the several rooms (kitchen, bedroom, attic, garage etc.) flashes up: here the following action takes place...
‘Cybernator’...
When you play ‘Exterminator’ the very first time, you’ve the feeling that you play a kind of ‘cyberspace’ program - instead of controlling a ‘normal’ game character, you just see the right hand of the bug killer! The room is shown in 3D-style. Next all-around vermin appears: flies, moths and wasps buzz through the whole room, spiders crawl on the floor, cans and even toy tanks roll towards the player and fire at him...
Unlike to the curious game play, the control is very ordinary: by pushing the joystick in one of the eight directions, you’re able to move the hand. If one of the insects is in your reach, you can catch it by pressing the fire button. But beware of the wasps – if the player tries to grab these dangerous stingers, they’ll attack him and he loses a little bit of ‘juice’ – the player’s life energy! When it’s exhausted, you’ll lose one of your credits. By grabbing glowing objects, you’ll gain extra energy or increase your score...
Moving the joystick clock or anticlockwise, the hand begins to shake – by performing this gesture you’re able to scare the wasps off. But there are two other actions: when your hand isn’t too close to the floor, the player can pound on the ground. By pressing the fire button and moving the stick down simultaneously you’ll perform that move. With that technique you’re able to crush spiders, cans and even toy tanks! By moving the hand to the right side of the screen, the exterminator fires energy projectiles towards the enemies. If you hold down the fire button, the hand fires permanently – by moving the stick to the left or to the right at that moment, you can alter the shooting angle. Now you’ve the chance to destroy enemies which are located in the rear sections of the current room...
To complete a room, you should pay attention to the ground - every time you’ve killed an enemy, the tiles on the floor change colour (player one = blue; player two = red). Once the player has turned one of the six vertical columns completely to his colour, the room is finished and the next follows. When you’ve finally cleaned up the whole building, the exterminator drives to the next house and the action starts anew...
‘Frustrator’…
The degree of difficulty is very high. Especially in the later levels, the player must possess very good reflexes. Unlike to the original arcade video game and the 16-bit conversions, the C64 adaption has no simultaneous two player mode. When the first player has finished a room, player two takes control over the hand – now he has to complete the same room again. That’s very disappointing, because the simultaneous two player mode was actually the highlight of the game...
All in all ‘Exterminator’ is a nice alternative to other ‘mainstream’ games. It has that certain 'je ne sais quoi' and is one of the few innovative games like e.g. ‘Lemmings’, ‘Klax’ or ‘E-Motion’. Okay, it can’t reach the quality of the green haired suicides or the multicoloured blocks which lies on the assembly line - nevertheless it’s an enjoyable program with an exotic game play and a good coin-op conversion...
‘Exterminator’ is a very curious experience - perhaps it should be ported to Nintendo’s Wii...
Downloads: Music, Advert
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| GRAPHICS - 8/10 |
Similar to the original arcade video game the graphics are kind of photorealistic – very impressive! The animations of the different insects, spiders and rolling cans are nice to watch. But the motions of the hand (grabbing, pounding, shooting) are the real highlight – very realistic! Good work...
| | SOUND - 8/10 |
Apart from the shooting fx and an occasionally buzzing, there is no sound to hear. The different background tunes as well as the title tune are very cool and intoxicating – a typical David Whittaker score...
| | PLAYABILITY - 7/10 |
At first it’s a strange feeling to control just a hand, but after a few minutes you’ve accepted that fact and performing the several actions is no problem. As mentioned before, the degree of difficulty is very high. On 16-bit computers you’ve the chance to play the game with a second player simultaneous – that makes the game far easier. Sadly this option isn’t contained in the 8-bit version...
| | OVERALL - 7/10 |
‘Exterminator’ is a very inventive and funny game and was one of the few innovative programs in 1990. Apart from the missing simultaneous two player mode it’s a very good coin-op conversion, too. Not bad...
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