It came from the desert
At a time when the Commodore Amiga was a popular computer, Cinemaware made some really great games for it and it came from the desert is one of them.
It has all the hallmarks of a Cinemaware game with great graphics and a unique blend of action and adventure. Originally it was released only for the Amiga but a DOS version was later released and a Megadrive version too although the latter does not have the adventuring parts and is action oriented.
The intro shows the desert being hit by a meteor close to a small town called lizard breath. You have been sent to investigate this meteor but in the process you find that there have been some unexpected sideeffects because of the radiation. You start off in your home and Guss, a local, brings you some samples from near the crashsite. You find that one of the rocks has a strange glow and wonder if you should send them to a goverment lab. After you leave your home you get a birdseye view of lizard breath and all the places you can visit. When you investigate a local rumor about a cow that was founds headless at a local farm you are suddenly attacked by a giant ant.! If you are able to kill the ant you can pick up a piece of it for analysis at the lab. With the help from the professor and some other locals other you must gather enough evidence to convince the mayor that something terrible is wrong and that he has to act before it’s too late. Not all of the locals are on your side though, the local gang is out for you and some weird cultists are also hanging around in town. You’ll get into knifefights, fly a plane and poke around the mining tunnels to get all the information you need and finally to save lizard breath.
This game has a wide variety of characters, action and adventure and is blended together extremely well. None of the action sequences are so hard you get frustrated and there is plenty to explore in this little town. There is a sense of reality in the game as well because shops open and close on regular hours and you have to get enoug sleep or you’ll end up in the hospital where you will loose precious time. Even then though you can choose to escape the hospital in a great action sequence where you have to hide from the hospital staff en make it to the front door.
The graphics in the original (Amiga) version are top notch with matching sounds effects and some speech. The controls at times can be sluggish because you cannot move the cursor with your mouse but only with a joystick/keyboard. This does not destract too much from the game though.
You’ll have plenty of fun trying to complete this game because it is very varied and even after you finish it there are plenty of things to see that you missed the first time round. I was able to sneak up on the fortune teller and Bert the newsreporter making a shady deal but I have only ever seen this once.
Cinemaware released a great game with it came from the desert and even though many people were dissapointed that it was only released on the Amiga at first the game has been released as freeware so everyone can now enjoy the game. I did not know that a DOS version was available until many years later. I can recommend this game not only to Cinemaware fans, for which it is a MUSTHAVE, but to anyone who enjoys a good game.
Overal rating: 9/10
This game was released for many different systems here are some notes:
| Amiga | Released in 1989. Game has been tested and completed with winUAE v0.9.91. The graphics who at times can be a bit sluggish in the action sequences are top notch. The zipfile includes an empty save disk. On a technical note, disk 3 contains an error if you try to copy the files but I completed the game without it ever saying so in the game so it should be no problem. |
| DOS | Released in 1990 port done by level 9 computing. Game has been tested but not completed on a DOS and Win2000 PC. The 16 color ega/vga graphics are not as good as the original Amiga ones but gameplay wise it is all there. The faster loading times is a real plus but there can be some graphic problems such as flickering screens. If you experience such things try selecting another graphics card in the setup menu by starting the game with “desert /i”. |
| Megadrive/ Genesis |
Released in 1993. Game has been tested but not completed with WGens 2.11. This game is actually very different focussing only on action. It’s has a topdown view and you carry a flamethrower. For some reason the ant are reduced to half a man’s size instead of as big as a house. This version is no good. |
| PC-Engine/ Turbo Grafx |
Released in 1992. (thanks to Jaime Araiza for providing the game) This port was done by the same people who ported lords of the rising sun to the turbo grafx (cd). The game uses a lot of digitized and full motion video so it’s completely different in looks to the others. The game is also less openended in that you only get to select a limited number of options on where to go and what to do next. The minigames are also different from the others and the story is a bit more bizzar with the ants challenging and talking to you in some sequences. I didn’t burn the image but mounting the .cue file in a cd-emulator let me run the game without problems, I guess burning a CD should work just as well. |
| Date added | Dec-02-2004 11:50 |
| Name | It came from the desert |
| Developer | Cinemaware |
| Publisher | Mirrorsoft |
| First released | 1989 |
| Genre | Adventure |
