Classic: The Adventures of MicroMan

By: Derek Yu

On: June 9th, 2009

The Adventures of MicroMan

I decided we’ll have one last day of Classics Week before we return to new news. There are a few interesting games people mentioned that I wanted to cover before we go!

Man, seeing this (submitted by Bood_War) brought back a crusty memory or two. The Adventures of MicroMan is moderately fun but not a terribly exciting game series by today’s standards. However, it’s notable for being (I think) one of the earliest platformers on Windows 3.1 to feature smooth animation and sound effects, thanks to creator Brian Goble’s Windows Animation Package (WAP). You probably saw the game on one of those 1000-in-1-type Windows CDs back in the day.

You can download the shareware version of the first adventure and find out more about it on Andrew Turnbull’s MicroMan fan page. Classic DOS Games also has a shrine that includes walkthroughs for the first two games in the series (adventures three and four were planned but ultimately unreleased). Also, a new version of MicroMan is being sold by Brian’s casual games company HipSoft ($19.95).

TIGdb: The Adventures of MicroMan

Posted in Platformers, Windows | Tags: BrainGoble

Ghede

Wow, blast from the past. I had forgotten this one. I think this was one of my first videogames…
Kynes

Hah, I remember playing this years ago on some massive shareware collection, Galaxy of Games I think it was called. Both the original and the sequel were on the disc and were great fun.
Benerhos

I loved this game when I was young. I had it on a shareware compilation too, probably the same. Definitely a classic.
Xion

holy shit I remember this game. So…this was officially the very first indie game I’d ever played, then?
CherryT

I can’t believe that you guys posted this. I have been trying to remember what this game was called for SO LONG. It was probably one of my favorite games (even if I only had the shareware version) when I was young; I remember wasting hours away trying to survive the huge maze and getting out of the pool early just to play it.
Archagon

You mean I’m not the only one who knows this game?!

MicroMan and Captain Comic were the games I grew up with.
Tacroy

Wow. I must have played this game so long ago that I can’t even consciously remember it any more – looking at the image and the fan site, I feel a distinct sense of deja-vu, but everything’s slightly off.

Maybe I never did play this game, and there was another one from around that time that was almost but not quite exactly like this one?

I have to admit though, those invisible elevators sound really really familiar somehow.
Alex

I thought the theme was classic games and not terrible games DUR HUR
Brandoman

Yup, didn’t even remember this game until now. Gonna have to give it a try again. Also, did those a billion in one shareware game discs have an official name? I’ve been trying to find info on them for a while now since I had a few when I was younger!
MWB

I got my copy of it off a 250-1 cd if I remember correctly. Something definitely stood out enough for me to remember it… Not sure I’d pay the price for it though.
http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

OMG i remember that game on my 486.

Also Castle of the Winds.

Also please, Derek, post this one
http://www10.caro.net/dsi/decker/
Is a very good cyberpunk RPG, i loved it
wlievens

Awesome. I still remember the opening sound effects … m i c r o m a n !

Only ever played the demo though.
http://www.toadsanime.deviantart.com/ Toadsanime

Well, holy crap. I saw this hear and was almost blown away.
Being only 16, I used to play this when I was very little. ‘Twas an epic game, I must say.
http://www.toadsanime.deviantart.com/ Toadsanime

Saw this here, I meant. Felt the need to point out that really ridiculous typo, so sorry for the double post.

Am re-downloading MicroMan now, too.
Ivy

I remember this game! I thought it was crazy difficult, but maybe it’s just because I was 8 when I was playing it. I still remember beating that big purple boss for the first time. I think my dad had told me it was impossible so that I’d stop playing it.
Bood_War

Bood_War angry with new version!
BlackRaven

Awesome! This was one of the first games I played back in the early nineties
Codemonkey

I had this game on Galaxy of Games! Another awesome one was “kill the rats!”.
Nikica

Oh the memories come back again thank you for reminding me of this game.
Bob

Ahh, good ol MicroMan.

I still have the shareware CD that I originally played it on.

Good times.
Archagon

I’m surprised that pretty much everyone here played this game! Wonder how that happened?
http://www.mawsoft.com/blog Impossible

Microman! I played it a long ass time ago on one of those shareware CDs.
Xeno

holy crap i used to love this game!!
if i remember it was either kind of glitchy.. or kind of crazy. :D
Lischo Pine

Oh, this was my first video game!
(except, how I did hate that final boss…I actually exploited the before said glitchy features of the game to beat him)
Wolfgang Wozniak

I had this game on floppy!

I guess this was my first indie game then.

>.>
clawdaw

Haha, pretty sure this was the first indie game I played. I used to love this game, and I still can hear the cheesey voice sounds when you pick up items like “Guided Missle”, I loved it!
steven pavelish

Awesome game!