Description

Gordo 106 - The Mutated Lab Monkey is a game released on the Atari Lynx in 1993. The plot involves a renegade monkey, Gordo, that breaks out of a lab and frees all the animal captives....or something, yeah.
This marks the first submission for Atari Lynx. The motivation of this project was to complete my All Platforms Challenge. I went through the complete set of Atari Lynx games including homebrew games. This game represents what I thought was the most entertaining and publish worthy of the set. Thus it is my best attempt at completing the challenge!



To watch this on the emulator you need Mednafen 1.1.
Windows should use the front end provided in the download link. Linux users will have to compile. You MUST use revision 144 in order to play this file! Later versions are only compatible with .mc2 file format and only PCE games.
You also need a lynx BIOS to run the game in the emulator. And it must be called lynxboot.img.


Basic Game Info

There are two items that Gordo can collect:
  • Apples - These are your weapons. You can throw them to kill enemies.
    • However, the throwing animation is slow, you can't throw while jumping, and most enemies take many hits to kill.
  • Bananas - This increases your health; a must have for this game!

The difficulty in real time of this game is absolutely evil. Half the enemies are almost the size of the screen and do tremendous amounts of damage. You invulnerability period is very short. If you get into a bad position surrounded by enemies you can be clobbered from full health down to death in a matter of 1 second! Those same enemies take 5-6 hits to kill which is a very long time because Gordo's throwing ability is quite slow. In almost every case an enemy is too close to you to kill it before it hits you. This means every enemy in the game requires either blowing through it by taking damage or repeatedly retreating in order to kill it.

Moves/Tricks

Double Tapping left or right will send Gordo into running speed where he flails his arms like a madman. The basic strategy of the TAS is to do this as much as possible.
Gordo's jump height can not be adjusted.
Health never refills! Health is the greatest resource in this game considering half the enemies are about the size of the screen and the hit boxes of everything is huge. So a big part of a TAS is planning the collecting bananas and where to take damage.
One way of conserving health is to take damage from a lesser enemy and use the invulnerability period to go through a more powerful enemy.


When running, Gordo can't get apples or bananas on the ground. However, if you jump on the frame is on top of one, he will grab it. Gordo also can't get items while he is invulnerable. This is the reason I sometimes stop for seemingly no reason.
Gordo will stay running after jumping as long as you are holding right on the frame you land. This fact can be exploited to keep him in run mode even while moving in different directions or pausing to wait for events.

Summary

  • Takes damage to save time
  • Genre: Platform
  • Emulator: Mednafen1.1

mmbossman: Sorry adelikat, I too hope the site will have a Lynx run someday, but people seem to agree that this shouldn't be the first. Rejecting due to viewer response.
FractalFusion: Accepting for publication into Vault.

Ilari: Processing

Experienced player (953)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 936
Location: Castle Keep
Note that nowhere i mentioned entertainment for the purpose of my argument, quality or quantity factor are all but subjective i think.
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
Derakon made a good point there. Just because one isn't a player, doesn't mean (s)he doesn't know anything about TASing or is not qualified to vote and/or express their opinion about what ever is going on here on the site. Sticky is a vested member and has been here for at least 3 years, so I think he knows a little something about the site and TASing. And now a little something about the movie: I personally liked the action, though it's not the best game for TASing. I voted yes and I think it's a good addition to the site. Hopefully I'm allowed to express my opinion and not get yelled at :(
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User, Experienced player (531)
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
There was less than 100 games made for the Atari Lynx, and this was the best game you could find? I have to say if thats the case then much like Atari 2600 games I don't consider this platform good enough to publish anything. I was skeptical about SMS when TASing became possible, but over time it's justified it's existence. As for the game itself it has horrible music, sound effects,animation and at best below average game play. Meh vote
Joined: 2/7/2008
Posts: 185
Mitjitsu wrote:
There were fewer than 100 games made for the Atari Lynx...
Sorry, this has been annoying me recently. 'Were' is used for multiple people/items. 'Was' is only used for a singular subject. 'Less' is only used when the item cannot be counted - e.g. less milk, less data, less time, less entertaining. When items can be counted, use 'fewer'. E.g. Fewer millilitres of milk, fewer kilobytes of data, fewer minutes, fewer games.
I'm just some random guy. Don't let my words get you riled - I have my opinions but they're only mine.
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
Bezman, you might want to read the second paragraph of [URL=http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxlessvs.html]this[/URL] article. It's debatable whether it's a mistake and recent tendencies go towards giving up the strict distinction, making "less" usable in all cases. (no source, too lazy to google for it)
Active player (497)
Joined: 11/19/2007
Posts: 128
Horrible game and boring run. Voting No.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: Minnesota
I think some of my post was lost in translation, but c'mon arukado, no need to attack me.
arukAdo wrote:
This is not quantity here, most obviously, unless you consider the 68 previous movies from adelikat been also just a matter of quantity.
The quantity I was referring to was the number of movies on this site. I don't care how many videos adelikat makes; the man is a machine! More power to him. This game, on the other hand, doesn't add anything to this site. A bad-generic platformer that doesn't hold up compared to most gameboy games we have on the site... something is wrong here.
Voting yes, new system, meh system, but still new, and open more tasing possibility, this is original.
Let's get the system in here! Hell yeah dude. Just not this way. This game sucks, as stated before. Why not get a different, better game published?
Now if you ask me, half the nes games are crap and of the average same "quality" as this, they dont deserve to be on tasvideos.org for such ? i dont think so...
Some of these games are entertaining to some. I can't imagine sitting through some RPG I have never played, but raping a pokemon game entertains me. I find it difficult to believe that anyone is entertained by this movie, aside from the "Haha! THAT MONKEY IS CRAZY! LOLOLOL YES VOTE FOR SILLINESS!" Once the shiny-hilarious-newness wears off, I believe people will see it for what it is: kinda crappy and not tasvideos material. I don't feel like fighting. I don't care if the game is published. I just think that people should not vote yes to a bad game because it is a new system. There may be better games... considering the shit this one is, I hope so.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Expert player, Site Developer, Site Owner (3581)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4736
Location: Tennessee
Sticky wrote:
I just think that people should not vote yes to a bad game because it is a new system. There may be better games... considering the shit this one is, I hope so.
Well, I played the entire Lynx library. This is the most publishable game I found. Hate to break it to you. EDIT: I'd like to represent the Lynx console as a site Admin. As a TASer I'd like to complete my (somewhat arbituary) all Platoforms quest. If there is a game for Lynx that someone here could enjoy, I'd like to know. I'll look into TASing it.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Player (208)
Joined: 7/7/2006
Posts: 797
Location: US
This game and system are just bad. The music and graphics are both quite painful. Gameplay is very bland. The physics engine sucks. Honestly, the recent Somari TAS was far more entertaining than this (ignoring flaws). I know adelikat wants to TAS all systems, but I think this is just an unreasonable goal. Next we're going to TAS a Tamagotchi because it's a newly emulated system. You should redefine your goal to be 'TAS all currently published systems on the site' Honestly I would rather see Atari 2600 runs than this, at least they could provide nostalgia and beat records. I feel kinda bad for anyone who had this system as a child. Conclusion: I don't think that 'publish a lynx game' is a good argument.
Joined: 2/7/2008
Posts: 185
Kuwaga, I'll read that later. Ta.
adelikat wrote:
If there is a game for Lynx that someone here could enjoy, I'd like to know. I'll look into TASing it.
Qix! PLEASE!!! Chip's Challenge was an excellent game but would make a terrible TAS. Qix, on the other hand, is a game I've enjoyed on various platforms, still isn't on the site and seems like it should have some real potential for superhuman play. I've always died in that game, though, so I don't know if it's endless. If so, maybe it's possible to max out the score? I imagine that seeing the enemy put into a tinier space than any human could to be rather exciting. Of course, depending on the scoring system (I don't remember it exactly), lower % scores may be more efficient in a points race. Either way, the game deserves a TAS. I won't offer you money as a bounty but if you do it, I will draw you a picture of anything.
I'm just some random guy. Don't let my words get you riled - I have my opinions but they're only mine.
adelikat
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Emulator Coder, Expert player, Site Developer, Site Owner (3581)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4736
Location: Tennessee
If it is on other platforms, perhaps it is correct to do one of those ports instead?
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Joined: 2/7/2008
Posts: 185
Well, either this or the NES version would be great!
I'm just some random guy. Don't let my words get you riled - I have my opinions but they're only mine.
Joined: 2/20/2010
Posts: 209
Location: I'm in space
I've enjoyed most of adelikat's previous TASes, but this one is of a game so hopelessly uninteresting that even the most technically competent run would be sleep-inducing. Like several others who have posted, I had to skip over a few minutes of the video to stay awake. Sadly this reasoning leads me to vote NO. Incidentally - this being my first post, I'd like to add that I've been a faceless lurker on tasvideos for a few years, and in that time the site had become my absolute favorite. Long live TAS-ing! =)
Oh, play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the space cops.
Active player (405)
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 708
Wow, so much to comment on. Didn't really find the movie entertaining. Voting meh. I have to totally disagree with arukAdo: I think his argument is like the people who say "I'd like to see you do better." Just because you haven't actually done it before doesn't mean you have no right to an opinion on a subject. I've never produced a Hollywood motion picture, but I feel qualified to say that Manos: The Hands of Fate is a terrible movie. Someone doesn't have to be a TASer to comment on a movie and telling them they have no right to express their opinion is insulting and uncalled for. As for the grammar issue, it's hard for me to take this side, but I think Bezman is nitpicking a bit too much for the Internet. Trust me, I get annoyed when people have horrible grammar too, but: 1. There are a lot of non-native English speakers here so let's give them a little slack. 2. I wasn't even fully aware of the whole "less/fewer" issue so I feel it's not a very pressing issue. 3. Frankly if I commented on every error I'd see I wouldn't be getting any sleep. If someone screws up "your/you're" or "there/their/they're" I have to say something because that's really basic, but pick your battles, man. That said, thanks for making me aware of that rule.
Experienced player (821)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
I vote a resouding meh. Having TASed a game with horrible controls and weak gameplay before (32x spiderman), I can appreciate that this is clearly tool-assisted, and definitely does not look like it was produced in real time. However, it was rather repetitive and lacked a lot of things to hold my interest, even though it was relatively short. For anyone thinking that you need to have TASing experience to know what an entertaining movie is, just shut up. This sites primary goal is to produce entertaining movies for a broad audience, one that consists primarily of people who have very little experience with the process of TASing.
Living Well Is The Best Revenge My Personal Page
Samsara
She/They
Expert player, Senior Judge, Site Admin (2121)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Sticky wrote:
Sorry guys, but I have to say that is bullshit. I get the feeling people are abstaining because they want a lynx title on the site.
I abstained from voting because I didn't finish watching the run (couldn't, rather), and I find it disrespectful to vote without watching a movie in its entirety. I apologize if my personal standards of respect give off the impression that I'm desperate to see another system have a published run.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
I vote Meh. The novelty value of the game being published is nice (No matter how unnice it is being when trying to encode in HD... which will not be coming from me), but the run as a whole, just... bleh. It's not the run, it's the game.
Joined: 11/9/2008
Posts: 108
Location: New Orleans, LA U.S.A.
yea dude this game sucks. try qix! i love that game, and i see no reason not to attempt the lynx version. praying to god that there is a better game for this system. i feel for adelikat wanting to do a game from every system, but man this game seriously blows major ass. not gonna vote, couldn't finish movie, wouldn't mind seeing it published. also, I'd actually be pretty down to see a tomagatchi TAS lol
__--N0ISE
Joined: 1/26/2009
Posts: 558
Location: Canada - Québec
Must other good/ok game are also avaible on other platform... hmm After a little searching... maybe S.T.U.N. Runner might worth a try, since it should be better than the arcade version.
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada
Samsara wrote:
I abstained from voting because I didn't finish watching the run (couldn't, rather), and I find it disrespectful to vote without watching a movie in its entirety.
If I can't watch a run to the end, I vote No.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Expert player (2578)
Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
One of the previous comments makes me wonder: Submission #2571: Newbie's Bad Game Choice in 08:37.54 or Submission #2571: Expert Player's Bad Game Choice in 08:37.54 Wich one would receive more No votes?
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (39)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1911
Location: Floating Tower
N00b running it, easily.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Joined: 11/2/2007
Posts: 103
like I said in chat... What game YOU want to watch shouldn't affect a publication if the TAS itself is solid. There's a huge air of self-serving here on TASvideos and it's going to have to stop. You don't have a website to watch your own TASes of your own favorite games. You have a website so everyone can watch TASes of games THEY want to see. There's no such thing as poor game choice. Unless there's little to no luck manipulation going on in a run and/or it's simple or the game is too easy, there's no such thing as a bad game choice. Wow, bad games on the Lynx. BIG SHOCKER THERE. Give it up. I've seen a decent number of well TASed games get rejected and these were games I would have watched. I don't see anywhere on the site where it says "We only TAS good/popular games hurdy hur", so what's the deal?
Expert player (2578)
Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Sir VG wrote:
N00b running it, easily.
But both of them completed the game in the same amount of time, wich means both have the same "bad quality"... Is it easier to vote No on a bad game choice just because it was made by a newbie? Never mind, I'm just wondering.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Editor, Experienced player (893)
Joined: 1/23/2008
Posts: 529
Location: Finland
I watched it all the way through and thought it was alright. Is there something wrong with me? The "no OSHA compliance" architecture, as well as the comical outlook of the game was of interest to me. As if the levels were the real world, only how a monkey would perceive it... From a pure TAS exercise standpoint, it wasn't a good game choice but not hopeless either. But I'm refraining from voting because there is too much I can't foresee.