Myth – God of War for the jilted generation.

Where to start with this slice of fried gold? It is easily one of the best games by one of the best developers on my favourite system ever created. The construct made of condensed genius and a SID chip, the Commodore 64. This game is so entrenched in my nostalgic memories of the past I apologise if this sounds like an extended anecdote rather than a game feature. My love affair with this game started over fifteen tears ago back in 1991. I had received my first C64 for Christmas and with the help of a friend and the first issue Commodore Format magazine I started to build up my game collection with my Christmas money and by copying my friend’s best games using my family’s twin deck hi-fi.

‘intrigued when I found’

Amongst the best games I bootlegged was The Last Ninja (Although this edition was on an Ocean compilation called ‘The in Crowd’) and a fighting game called IK+ both made by System 3. The System 3 back catalogue nowadays reads like a mini best ever-game list for the C64 the Last Ninja trilogy, International Karate and IK+, Turbocharge, Vendetta and C64 swan song Silly Putty. Having found both ‘Ninja and IK+ to be highly enjoyable I was intrigued when I found a copy of Myth: History in the Making for the C64 in the Taunton Micro Centre.

Featuring some great box art of the different mythological monsters in the game surrounding a bloke wielding a sword and wearing a red baseball style jacket, this was corrected in the print ads so it matched the games main sprite with a black jacket. It also came in what was then the biggest game box I had ever seen I quickly bought it with the remainder of my Christmas money and went home.

‘the epic struggle ahead’

A long load time increased my eagerness and when it stopped, I found myself seeing a striking woman saying “Welcome to Myth.” it only lasted twenty seconds before it ended and then resumed its loading but upon hearing what was then my first taste of digitised speech I was myself speechless. Did my computer just speak to me? It did bloody hell this is great! Just as I was getting over the digitised speech, the Myth main theme started to play while the game was still loading the first level. Another amazing composition by Jerome Tel (Cybernoid, Hawkeye, Outrun Europa, Robocop 3, Supremacy) it almost lasted to the first stage was ready to be play and set the scene nicely for the epic struggle ahead.

The first stage is set within Hades and requires you to kill enough of the wandering harpies using your punch or kick to collect a set of dropped fireballs that can then be used to destroy one of the many animated skeletons on the stage to steal its sword. Having acquired a sword and some additional fireballs you then need to make a sacrifice to the devil! When a skeleton is destroyed, its skull flies of a distance and by using this you can drop a skull into the flaming gorge at the bottom of the map without getting yourself burnt to a crisp. Doing this summons the devil who can then be dispatched using more fireballs after he disappears the devil’s trident can be taken and used on the manticore to clear a path to the next stage.

‘Viking longboat to summon Odin in the form of a crow’

It all sounds simple but back in the pre-internet days before gamefaqs it involved reading the game manual repeatedly for clues and days of experimentation to find the right strategy. Each stage had such mythological puzzles that had you beheading the medusa to then use the head to destroy the three headed hydra or destroying a statue by attacking its weak spot the heal (Achilles you see?) or even slaying the crew of a Viking longboat to summon Odin in the form of a crow. All while a thunderstorm rages on leaving the screen black for extended moments with the Viking still trying to get to you.

The game continued in this vain of platform-puzzle-action until the last stage that had you flying along in a short but sweet shoot-’em-up section. Greek, Norse an Egyptian mythologies where all used for different stages and all looked unique and exquisite despite the limited graphics of the time. The aforementioned longboat stage had an amazing (for the time) lightning effect that would flash lightning across the screen before returning to pitch darkness and rumbling thunder and the hydra stage with total silence save for the echoing sound of your footsteps and jumps across the caverns platforms and the hydras growling maws.

Overall, it was another class product from System 3. All this despite a dodgy conversion to the NES as a Conan title and the C64 cartridge version that required you to enter a code before it would let you play it on any non-C64GS machine. It is just a shame that both this and the ‘Ninja franchise disappeared during the 16 bit era only to be remembered by people like me in fond nostalgia.

‘..the pilot informed us there was a kid in the cockpit with a knife and he was proceeding to Havana’

Nice article, however this is a hijack. Myth may have been a stone-cold System 3 classic for all fans of Commodore’s fudge-coloured monstrosity but it was also one of the kings of the Speccy cosmos also.

Whilst not having the SID-inspired audio qualities of the C64 version and being crammed into 48k of memory (albeit thanks to a rather annoying multiloader), Speccy Myth managed to turn its fair share of heads when it was unleashed onto Uncle Clive’s rubber beermat.

Whilst not having the SID-inspired audio qualities of the C64 version and being crammed into 48k of memory (albeit thanks to a rather annoying multiloader), Speccy Myth managed to turn its fair share of heads when it was unleashed onto Uncle Clive’s rubber beermat.

This was thanks to System 3 defying the old myth (ho!) that the Speccy cannot do colour. Myth proved it can and that it can look like 8-bit sex. Just look at the screens, man! The varied levels all have their own character whilst some of the bosses are truly awesome.

The combination of puzzle solving, platforming and combat ensured that this title would remain high in the all-time voting charts at the fantastic ‘World Of Spectrum’ archive site despite the aforementioned multiloader and a rather uninspiring final level which plays out as a rubbish horizontally scrolling shooter.