Chimera 2012

4 Replies

It’s been a few years in the making as you can probably guess from the URL I’ll be posting being “Chimera2010″ but that’s not really important. What’s important is that at long last Chimera has been recreated for the PC after over 25 years. And that’s great news. It’s even better news that it’s from the original author too. Which is fabulous. Although I’d argue that he’s wrong to say it’s not a very good game but that’s a fight for another time.

Anyway, it’s one of those them thar isometric things that became rather popular in a post-Knight Lore world but as well as the ever important exploration element there’s a bit of the old survival stuff also as you try not to kill yourself by not munching or drinking things as you meander around. Ok, ok, it’s not exactly Project Zomboid or anything but what do you expect for 1985 and £2.99? Exactly.

Here’s the Atari XL version for the uninitiated:

Also! Radiators. I’ve often thought games don’t have enough radiators. Can we get a game about radiators made in 2012 now? Anyone?

Ok, here’s the link. Mac version at the moment with a Windows version due to drop in no time at all. Get it! EDIT: PC version also! Go!

JOURNALISTIC HEADHUNTER DISCLAIMER: Hello! I am in the credits of this game. I’m only really in the credits for encouraging it to be made so you can all kill me later or something. Get in the queue, basically.

  • http://twitter.com/ElectronDance Harbour Master

    We didn’t have many of these things on the Atari but we did have Chimera. Which… I didn’t like too much. Died all the time. Still, I am intrigued, because I’ve seen the author Shahid around the Twitters a few times.

    • Rob Remakes

      I do like the chunky graphics on the Atari version though, they’re lovely.

      • http://twitter.com/shahidkamal Shahid Kamal Ahmad

        I’m trying to find someone who’ll be able to extract them from the original for me, I’ve not had any joy with the Mac emulator. Once I get them, I will stick them in as a selectable skin. My aim is to make all 4 8-bit version of the game playable. BTW, I’ve done 7 versions of this game now myself. Is that a record? (I know I’ve taken a stupidly long amount of time to do it!)

  • AmazingJas

    Even though I never played this, I had super fond memories of it. Reason was they did a development diary serialization in one of the magazines of the day (maybe ‘Your 64′?). And it was one of the key motivators in my journey towards games programming. Thankyou chimera!