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Expedition Amazon (C64)


SoulBlazer

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So, in the hopes of maybe turning other people onto a obscure (and I think quite fun) C64 game, let me present: Expedition Amazon, copyright 1984 from a small company called Penquin Software.

 

I obtained this game when it was the 'featured game' of the month from Lodestar, a great magazine on disc that I had for many years and a wonderfull way to get software and games for my C128 (from 1985 until 1994). I never could get far in the game as a kid. There was only partial instructions provided with the game (rewritten by the Lodestar people) and I never did find full instructions, nor see the game for sale in the store.

 

Recently I found the game again and played it again. With the help of save states in the emulator, I was able to get quite far, but STILL could not beat it. I still can't find any instructions online, nor any hints or walkthrough.

 

I thought I would share the game with others, partly in the hope that others can see this fun game and partly hoping someone can get far enough to beat the damn thing and end 25 years of suffering. ;)

 

Took me quite a while to find the game for download originaly, so to make it easier for you to obtain I have attached the ZIP file here. Just unpack it to get the .D64 file.

 

Here's a review of the game I ripped from the site I finally found it at:

 

 

"Expedition Amazon starts out in Flint, Michigan. You are an explorer going to the Amazon. You start off with a crew of four, and hop on a plane. Once the plane lands, you start exploring the jungle. You have to watch out for hazards all over the place, including traps that will lead you down into underground passageways. If you don't have a torch, you will end up completely lost and will have to wander around blind until you find a way to get back to the surface.

 

You collect artifacts (read: treasure) along the way, and sell these when you get back to Flint.

If one of your four explorers dies, you can always hire a new one back in Flint. Also, as you progress and find more valuable treasures, you are able to purchase additional equipment, including a radio to call your pilot, and a boat to allow you to cross the water without getting eaten by the fish. Additional purchases include flashlights, firearms, and various other exploring accessories. The more money you make, the more equipment you can buy.

 

The Expedition Amazon map was incredibly large, and the temples that speckled the landscape provided for hours of touring. As I explored the various temples, I often found myself falling into unseen dungeons and pits, and having to explore these areas in order to find my way back up to the surface. In doing so, I I often ran into poisonous snakes, bats, and other hazards that would cause damage to me and my crew. It could be tricky at times to explore without getting killed. But, as mentioned earlier, you could always just hire a replacement. The only issue there was that the replacement was not as experienced as the deceased character, and had fewer hitpoints, and was not able to detect obstacles or traps as easily.

 

Having played a great number of video games throughout the years, it is nearly impossible to pick a favorite, but Expedition Amazon is certainly in my top ten. The adventure possibilities are endless, and each trip from Flint to the Amazon provided me with more adventure than the one before, resulting in a huge replay value.

 

This game provided me with hours of entertainment, and would have provided me with even more, had my 5.25" floppy not become corrupt from being used so much. I would recommend this game to any classic gamer looking for something different. The plot and gameplay mechanism set this game apart from all of the other games of this generation, and has set aside this game in my memory over all the others I played back in the early years."

 

If there is intrest I'll be happy to share other obscure games from my childhood from the C64 that I really enjoyed on a weekly basis, maybe we can get some stuff going on here. :)

 

I see also in the notes this game was made for the Apple II as well, however, I don't know anything about that version nor where to find that one at.

 

Please let me know what you think, and enjoy!

expedition-amazon.zip

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...

"...25 years of suffering." Well said. Expedition Amazon worked its way under my skin in the eighties. I finished it last night. Since there is nearly nothing online about this relatively obscure game, I am here to offer hints or discuss should you want to go back to the jungle. Peace.

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Holy crap, I forgot I even posted this! :)

 

Thank you for the response. I believe I still have my save state near (what I think) is the end of the game. The instructions provided by Loadstar with the game were abridged (as I said, I never DID find the instructions) but they mentioned you had to find a way into the 'final temple' from the bottom level of one of the ruins, and that once you were in that 'final temple' the POV changes, and they gave keypreses to use to navigate around.

 

Well, despite mapping the entire game (all 10 sectors of the jungle plus all the underground ruins) I never did locate the entrance to that 'final temple'. I believe I was in the right ruin, with the bottom level (5 or so?) being a poison trap where you couldn't spend long. Nasty place.

 

So if you can help me out by telling me which ruin to go into, and how to find the entrance to the 'final temple' to beat the game, I would be much in your debt. :)

 

One other thing I always wondered over the years -- the merchant in the town where you buy your supplies from. If you try to haggle with him he just repeats one bad joke after another until you hit a key and then agreeded to buy. Is there ANY way to haggle him?

Edited by SoulBlazer
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Directions can be found here: http://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=expedition

As far as I know, there is no haggling with Pedro. If I understand where you are in the game, the following will get you to the next stage. It is encoded so that anyone who scans this won't unintentionally read an unwanted hint. I can be more specific if need be. For the record, I played on an Apple II emulator. It's awesome to find somebody else who has played this. Have fun.

KEY: 01 = A, 02 = B, ..., 26 = Z

130116 200805 161509191514 18151513.

0415 141520 1205012205.

15141225 151405 13211920 19211822092205.

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  • 7 years later...

Update after many years.

I never did beat this game, and lost my save files, but decided again recently to try this game AGAIN to see if I could finally beat it.

The poster who helped me all these years ago looks to be long gone, but I know this post comes up in Google search, so I'm hoping SOMEONE can help me.
 

I'm hoping you may recall what you did in the poison room to advance to the last area, as there's NO other information out there about this game but your articles.  Your article says you just 'found' an event that knocked your party out.  I've tried MANY times to wonder around the poison room without finding that.  Do you recall where it was?  Do you need to leave the screen?  Do you need all four people alive or just one is fine?  Does the location of the event change each time you go down?  Anything at all that you (or anyone else!) can recall would be of huge help.


If anyone can finally help put this 35 year old game to bed for me, thank you in advance!

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  • 1 year later...

I've attempted to play this game several times over the years, but have never really gotten too far.  But, perhaps I should really try to sit down and give this game a focused effort.  This game does have a lot of different elements of game-play wrapped up into it; quite unique, actually.  Penguin Software released another obscure and unconventional game through the Loadstar disk mag. called "The Bouncing Kamungas".  I did a review about it on my blog, HERE.  As a video game company, they chose some pretty interesting titles to produce.

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I managed to beat the game. Here is how I did it:

 

First, save up enough money for the Loran (which costs almost $100k). With it, you can hit the N key for Navigation. Basically, this just tells you what map number you are in, how many levels you are in below ground (if any), and what space you are on within the map. This will help you map out the game and determine which map numbers you have missed. A "map" is one screen, so if you leave the screen, you are moving to a new map.

 

You can find the Incan tablet which translates the parchments and inscriptions as follows:

Go down the main temple (the big one, on the screen where you first enter the jungle). This is Map 16. Go one screen left to Map 14, then left again to Map 12, then go "south" one screen (not downstairs) to Map 11. On Map 11, you find a space which will cause you to fall down to Map 21 on the second level below ground. This is one of those areas cut off from the main level 2 dungeon. Anyway, there should be a tomb on Map 21 which contains the Incan tablet. At least, that is where I find it, but it might be randomly distributed for every game. Since this is a "hidden" area of level 2, I suspect the tablet is always there.

 

With the tablet, you can backtrack and read all the inscriptions you could not read before (in various tombs), and read the parchments that are randomly found as loot after battles. These give you the clues to find Ka. For the record, the entrance to the final stage leading to Ka IS in the poison room. However, it is a random event (Gas) that sends you to this final stage. If you are using an emulator, save state before going down to the Poison Room. The Poison Room has a weird bug that took me a while to figure out. Normally, when you go down stairs, you are asked to either go Upstairs (U) or Leave the stairs (L). However, in the Poison Room, hitting either U or L sends you into an endless loop of being asked to hit U or L. So instead, hit nothing until you start to suffer the effects of the poison and the game stops asking you to hit U or L. Then run around looking to trigger the Gas random event. Sometimes you will die before this happens. If so, reload the save state and try again. It took me a few tries. If you found enough clues, you should be able to figure out what to do from there. 

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