The Chaos Engine
From Sega Retro
The Chaos Engine is a 1993 top-down run-and-gun game developed by The Bitmap Brothers for the Commodore Amiga and subsequently ported to a variety of platforms, including the Super NES and Sega Mega Drive. It was published by Microprose in Europe and Spectrum HoloByte in the US, where the game was renamed Soldiers of Fortune (a romanticized, now obsolete term for "mercenary") and a character name and background changed slightly.
Contents
Story
In a steampunk Victorian-era England, Baron Fortesque, a brilliant scientist, invents the Chaos Engine, a primitive computer that goes mad and overtakes its creator to take over the world by altering humans and animals into beasts, among other terrors. Six mercenaries are lured on a potentially-rewarding quest to infiltrate the quarantined Britain, find the root of the problem, and bring a full stop to it.
Gameplay
The game is a top-down run-and-gun. Players choose two mercenaries from a group of six as they try to get through the wasteland Earth has become and destroy the Chaos Engine. The game consists of four worlds with four levels each. The playable characters have various qualities that affect gameplay, such as speed and combat ability. The players are provided with a certain amount of money to start the game and must hire the chosen characters at their set prices. The game can be played with one player or with two players simultaneously. In single-player games, the computer controls the second player. The players must traverse through each level, picking up power-ups, gold, and keys to pass through the various puzzles and mazes. A number of nodes, which appear as white towers, must be activated (by shooting at them) to open the final doors at the end of each level.
Characters are moved in any direction with the D-Pad. They fire their primary weapons with 
, which can be aimed in eight directions with the D-Pad. Characters cannot fire and move at the same time. Their primary weapons have unlimited ammunition. Pushing rapidly gives a higher firing rate than holding the button. Each character starts with a special weapon that is fired with 
. These weapons have limited charges. Characters can obtain multiple special weapons over the course of the game, which are switched with 
.
Some levels have multiple exits, which affect the starting points of the next level. Hidden exits generally lead to starting points that net more gold. Various secret passages exist, similar to previous Bitmap Brothers game Gods. At the end of the level, detailed statistics show how many items, gold, and so forth were collected, giving the player an idea of the remaining secrets per level, although it is often not possible to collect all items due to branching paths.
A password system is in place to record the player's progress. All purchased items and power-ups are converted to gold when using a password, allowing the player to respec their characters, but the score is reset.
Upgrades
At the end of every second level, players have a chance to spend their collected gold to upgrade their weapons, increase the number of hit points of their character, purchase new items and improve other character attributes. The available upgrades are:
- Extra Life: Gives the player an extra life.
- Skill: Increases maximum life and gives access to weapon power ups and character specific special weapons.
- Health: Increasing health also unlocks new items.
- Intelligence: Only for CPU-controlled characters. Characters with higher wisdom act smarter in combat (for example, evading enemy fire).
- Weapon Power-Up: Based on skill. Increases firepower.
- Special Weapons: Based on skill. All characters have different special weapons to use.
Characters
| Mercenary | |
|---|---|
Balanced character with average stats. He gets First Aid but much later compared to the Scientist.
| |
| Brigand | |
Same as Mercenary, except he focuses his firepower towards the front.
| |
| Gentleman | |
Low health and firepower but very fast and has nice collection of support weapons.
| |
| Navvie | |
Most powerful character in the game in terms of sheer firepower.
| |
| Thug | |
Same as Navvie, except his weapon affects a larger area in return of slower fire rate and less accuracy.
| |
| Scientist | |
Since he starts with First Aid, he is generally chosen as CPU controlled character. Very fragile. Called Preacher in the original version.
|
Items
| Weapon Power-Up | |
|---|---|
| Permanently increases the character's firepower. | |
| Special Weapon Charge | |
| Gives one special weapon charge. Maximum 6 for each character. | |
| Silver Keys | |
| Opens up new areas to continue the level. | |
| Golden Keys | |
| Opens up secret areas filled with power ups. Not necessary for completing the level. | |
| Coins | |
| Used for purchasing new items from the shop. Silver coins give 5 credits, and gold coins give 10 credits. | |
| Food | |
| Gives a health boost. The pick-ups with a golden can recover more health. | |
| Extra Life | |
| Gives the player an extra life. | |
| Telephone | |
| Opens up new areas and teleports the other character to the same location. | |
| Death Zone Token | |
| Checkpoint where players are revived after losing a life. These tokens also revive CPU or player-controlled characters. |
Special weapons
| Air Burst | |
|---|---|
| Fires a mine that floats and explodes overhead, damaging all enemies in the higher ground with a shot burst. | |
| Bomb | |
| Black gunpowder bomb. Thrown towards the location that the character is facing. Fires 8 shrapnels around. Can be thrown at upper or lower floors. | |
| Distract Monster | |
| Drops a device on the floor that draws all enemies towards it for 5 seconds, allowing player to kill them together. | |
| Dynamite | |
| Thrown towards the location the character is facing. If hits an enemy, it causes heavy damage. If thrown to the ground it detonates after a few seconds, damaging all enemies on the screen. | |
| First Aid | |
| If used as a special weapon, it recovers some health. If picked up from the floor as a power-up, it recovers both soldiers' health fully. | |
| Freeze | |
| Freezes all enemies in the level for 5 seconds. | |
| Map | |
| Shows a top-down map of the entire level. | |
| Mine | |
| Destroys any enemy that steps over it. | |
| Molotov | |
| Throws a flammable bottle of liquid towards the direction character is facing. Bursts into a circle of fireballs that travels towards the edge of the screen. Can be thrown at upper or lower floors. | |
| Party Power | |
| When activated, both characters gain full firepower for 5 seconds. | |
| Repel Monster | |
| All enemies run away from the characters for 3 seconds. | |
| Shield | |
| Completely negates any damage for 5 seconds. All enemies that the characters touch while shield is active are destroyed. | |
| Shot Burst | |
| Fires bullets in a 360-degree ring around the character. |
Worlds
| The Forest | |
|---|---|
| The Workshops | |
| Fortesque Mansion | |
| The Cellars | |
History
Sequels and re-releases
According to Mike Montgomery from the Bitmap Brothers, 32X and Mega-CD ports were considered, but no publisher could be found.
The Chaos Engine 2 was originally planned to receive a Mega Drive port but was canceled during development. Mike Montgomery of the Bitmap Brothers stated that they could not find a publisher for the sequel. At some point, a demo version with very limited content was leaked.
| “ | We did work on a version, and it has been leaked. I am told there is a demo version on the Internet somewhere. We could not get a publishing deal at the time for it, so we didn’t have the money to do any more work on it. | „ |
Versions
- The Mega Drive/Genesis EU Version has a difficulty option, but the US version doesn't.
- The Preacher was changed into a scientist in both PAL and NTSC version since religious themes were often censored in US or European console games.
- The original Amiga release was a PAL region game, thus the PAL version runs at the correct speed, both in terms of music and gameplay. Forcing the game into 60Hz mode makes the game play too fast. The NTSC version actually plays too fast compared to the Amiga original, although the music speed was adjusted. All versions have a bit of slowdown, likely due to the CPU controlled partner. Scrolling is also is a bit choppy in both version, but less noticeable in the faster NTSC version.
- Compared to the Amiga version, the contrast has been increased and all stages have a color scheme neither found in the original Amiga version nor the Amiga AGA version and the ports to SNES and Amiga CD32.
Localised names
| Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| English | The Chaos Engine | The Chaos Engine |
| English (US) | Soldiers of Fortune | Soldiers of Fortune |
Production credits
- Design: Simon Knight, Eric Matthews
- Graphic Design: Daniel Malone
- Graphic Conversion: Herman Seranno
- Original Code: Stephen Cargill
- Code Conversion: Glyn Kendall
- Additional Code: Mike Montgomery
- Original Game Music: Richard Joseph
- SFX: Richard Joseph
- Sound Conversion: Jason Page (at Graftgold)
- Title Music: Joi
- Project Management: Graeme Boxall
Magazine articles
- Main article: The Chaos Engine/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Physical scans
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80 |
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| Based on 34 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, US |
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 Cover
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 Cart  Manual   Poster |
| Mega Drive, EU |
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 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, AU |
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Technical information
- Main article: The Chaos Engine/Technical information.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GamePro, "December 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 65
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mega, "April 1994" (UK; 1994-03-17), page 31
- ↑ Computer Trade Weekly, "" (UK; 1994-06-27), page 27
- ↑ Interview: Mike Montgomery (2006-03-14) by Sega-16
- ↑ File:Soldiers of Fortune MD credits.pdf
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 6 No. 12 December 1993" (US; 1993-1x-xx), page 86
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 226
- ↑ Velikiy Drakon, "xxxx xxxx" (RU; 1997-10-18), page 78
- ↑ Velikiy Drakon, "xxxx xxxx" (RU; 1997-12-07), page 89
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 212
- ↑ Console Mania, "Febbraio 1994" (IT; 1994-0x-xx), page 95
- ↑ Consoles +, "Juillet/Août 1994" (FR; 1994-0x-xx), page 122
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 192
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "May 1994" (UK; 1994-04-15), page 102
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "February 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 40
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 359
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 9, "" (RU; 2002-xx-xx), page 48
- ↑ GameFan, "Volume 2, Issue 1: December 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 28
- ↑ GamesMaster, "April 1994" (UK; 1994-03-17), page 38
- ↑ Game Informer, "January/February 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 44
- ↑ Hyper, "July 1994" (AU; 1994-xx-xx), page 36
- ↑ Joypad, "Juillet/Août 1994" (FR; 1994-0x-xx), page 144
- ↑ MAN!AC, "07/94" (DE; 1994-06-08), page 70
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "May 1994" (UK; 1994-xx-xx), page 44
- ↑ Mega, "April 1994" (UK; 1994-03-17), page 28
- ↑ Mega Force, "Juillet/Août 1994" (FR; 1994-07-04), page 82
- ↑ Mega Fun, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-23), page 124
- ↑ MegaTech, "April 1994" (UK; 1994-03-18), page 68
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "April 1994" (UK; 1994-02-28), page 50
- ↑ Player One, "Juillet/Août 1994" (FR; 1994-0x-xx), page 98
- ↑ Play Time, "8/94" (DE; 1994-07-16), page 138
- ↑ Power Up!, "Saturday, July 02, 1994" (UK; 1994-07-02), page 1
- ↑ Sega Magazine, "June 1994" (UK; 1994-05-15), page 94
- ↑ Sega Magazine, "August 1994" (UK; 1994-07-15), page 95
- ↑ Sega News, "Prosinec 1996" (CZ; 1996-1x-xx), page 26
- ↑ Sega Power, "March 1994" (UK; 1994-02-03), page 42
- ↑ Sega Pro, "September 1994" (UK; 1994-08-11), page 54
- ↑ Sega Megazone, "September 1994" (AU; 1994-0x-xx), page 34
- ↑ Todo Sega, "Julio 1994" (ES; 1994-0x-xx), page 40
- ↑ Tricks, "2/95" (RU; 1995-xx-xx), page 17
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 10
- ↑ VideoGames, "December 1993" (US; 1993-1x-xx), page 102
| The Chaos Engine | |
|---|---|
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