AND THE PLANETEERS

ON CHRISTMAS MORNING OF 1991 MANY LUCKY KIDS WOULD WAKE TO FIND THE AMIGA'S CARTOON CLASSICS PACK UNDER THE TREE. ALONG WITH LEMMINGS, BART SIMPSON VS THE SPACE MUTANTS AND DELUXE PAINT III WAS CAPTAIN PLANET AND THE PLANETEERS, DEVELOPED FOR MINDSCAPE BY ANTONY CROWTHER, JASON KINGSLEY AND THE LATE BEN DAGLISH

- JAMES KONIK

In the early Nineties, cartoon hero Captain Planet made his way to consoles and computers, with his Planeteers in tow. On the Amiga and ST, this took the well-trodden form of a multi-level platform game. But Captain Planet was not your run-of the-mill platformer. Each of the five Planeteers has their own level, with the characters' abilities changing the way you navigate the environments. Each level also progresses on to a vehicle section, adding further variety, and there are different tasks on each one, such as rescuing animals and clearing up pollution. On the sixth, and final level, you become Captain Planet himself, and can switch between all the powers you've unlocked to take on the obstacles in your path, before a final showdown with boss Duke Nukem.

Lead developer Antony Crowther was responsible for the Amiga and Atari ST versions of the game, and he agreed to talk to us about the game's development. Tony had started out in the 8-bit days, developing a number of well-received C64 titles, such as Blagger and Wanted: Monty Mole before moving onto the Amiga. Captain Planet was planned as a platformer, a genre that Tony had plenty of experience in.

Tony's new project came right after Knightmare, a well-received adaptation of the popular TV show that appeared on Amiga and Atari ST. "I had just completed Knightmare, the follow-up to Captive, and Mindscape said they had another project in mind. The only problem was there was a time limit in place," Tony tells us. Despite being quite an important licence, Tony admits that there was little handholding from the IP owner. "I was given some documentation, some scripts and some artwork images, and left to go design a game," explains Tony. "I probably still have them in storage, so it felt like I was given a free rein."