The Terminator (MD) Findings

[The Jackal]

Furnessly's Beta Arnie image has been removed from Imageshack. I can't find it anywhere else either, which means there's a good chance it's lost. That would be a shame if true.

[The Jackal]

Necrobump because I recently played through the game again: the game is super short. They ramped up the difficulty with unfair enemy spawn rates just to hide the fact the game was either unfinished or simply because (as it is a Probe game after all), they were being lazy and just wanted it out the door as quick as possible.

Complaints I have: level 1 is the hardest level in the game. They give you a crap grenade, hide the machine gun behind an overpowered robot (on Normal difficulty - on "Easy" the gun is placed to the right as soon as you enter the base), send countless waves of enemies which spawn endless in tight corridors, then they have you race to the end with a strict time limit to exit the level. Other levels are a cakewalk compared to it.

Another annoyance is the health pickups are just straight up broken - you have to kill enemies for them to drop them, and it's totally random. Sometimes two will drop when you're at full health, then later when you're at near zero, you can kill as many enemies as you want (or so it feels) and none will drop.

Nostalgia aside, the only thing going for this game is the awesome music by Matt Furniss and the SFX, as well as the visuals. The gameplay is awful.

[Mega Drive Bowlsey]

Ah the memories...Alongside Sonic 1 and World Cup Italia '90, The Terminator was my first ever Mega Drive game, and I love it! It's possible to complete this ludicrously short game in under 15 minutes (I have), but I just have so much nostalgic love for it. The music is fucking awesome and the action frenetic. I have no idea why it only has four short levels, but Virgin made up for it with the excellent Mega CD version of the game.

[MrMatthews]

This was one of the first Genesis games I rented. I remember not being too frustrated by it’s relentless difficulty, although I could barely get past the first stage. I might be mistaken in this, but I swear there was a level select option available, I seem to remember getting to skip ahead to the Tek Noir stage, although I may just remember watching the attract mode.

I’ve wanted to own the game ever since, but watching it played through now, it looks pretty rubbish.

[LinkueiBR]

Furnessly's Beta Arnie image has been removed from Imageshack. I can't find it anywhere else either, which means there's a good chance it's lost. That would be a shame if true.

No one has this image anymore? :'(

[cabear]

i live in a small town, and as a kid genesis games were kinda rare to rent here, with nes games being the norm. my local adventure video finally decided to rent genesis games, so one day when i walked in with my aunt i was greeted by a huge selection of new games to try out! holy shit! this was a game i rented... i took it back before they closed and rented 3 three stooges videos instead.

[The Jackal]

I might be mistaken in this, but I swear there was a level select option available

There is a level select, but you need a Game Genie to access it. The button code listed on cheats sites is for the CD version, and won't work on the earlier cart release.

No one has this image anymore? :'(

Sadly, I think it's lost to the wind. I tried to go through the ROM with Tile Layer Pro, and yeah, it's just a mess of bits and bobs. Well above my understanding.

[OverDrone]

It may be super short with a off kilter difficulty curve, but there are things that are still appealing about The Terminator. Like the impossibly rapid-fire shotgun blasts for one. The graphics were pretty good too, from a time before western devs started overusing dithering on MD.


But yeah, at the time I took it back to the shop too

[Bottino]

[molul]

Hey, you are not alone in liking this game! I've had it since it came out when I was a kid and I still play it often to this day. It's so short that I can beat it in exactly 10 minutes every time I play, but that makes it great for whenever I need to just waste 10 minutes. It is still fun to go through whenever I play it, even though I have probably beaten it about 100 times now lol. I guess it takes some getting used to, and it kind of sucks that you only have 1 life and then you have to start the whole game over if you die - but it is so short that it hardly matters anyway.

10 minutes? But with some cheat or playing normally? :O

[GelmiR]

Furnessly's Beta Arnie image has been removed from Imageshack. I can't find it anywhere else either, which means there's a good chance it's lost. That would be a shame if true.

Is this it (at the bottom of the image)?


Source: Spritedatabase.net

[The Jackal]

Is this it (at the bottom of the image)?


Source: Spritedatabase.net

Nice find. Yeah, it was the first image at the bottom. The rest of those sprites I've never seen. Def an early (and more detailed!) version of Arnie, wonder why they removed it? Also some of those frames of T-800 are unused.

Very nice my friend. Repped!

[GelmiR]

Thanks And you're welcome!

[Mega Drive Bowlsey]

10 minutes? But with some cheat or playing normally? :O

lol trust me he's right, it is possible to finish the game that quickly with no cheating. For me the game's brevity is one of it's charms. It's literally a quick hectic adrenaline pumping blast.

[molul]

Yes, I searched in YouTube after watching this thread and I saw it. Very funny, although if this game was 60€ back in the day, I wouldn't have been a happy customer xD