Orat Sportz: Soccer?

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Quillax
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Orat Sportz: Soccer?

Post by Quillax »

Some of you people might've known about the Keen fangame Bloog Sports: Soccer. In the text file included, it's written that the game is based on Orat Sportz: Soccer. I've always wondered if that game is available anywhere. In the past, I've tried looking, but to no avail.

Has anyone heard of this game before, and perhaps even have a copy of it? A review on DOS Classics points out the "cameos" in Bloog Sports: Soccer, but the reviewer probably never heard of the game and was just speculating. The author for the Keen fangame has a Hotmail address shown in the text file, but I'm not sure if it's still around or being used.
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Re: Orat Sportz: Soccer?

Post by Snortimer »

I would guess that it was an even more obscure KNP game made by Dr. Zingers before he came to the Keen community? This guess is based on:
- The installer seemed to have installed Bloog Sports: Soccer on my computer in a "SPORTS2" directory. Perhaps Orat was "SPORTS1"?
- the blue Bloog is mistakenly called Blue Orat once in-game
- I've only heard of that game mentioned in the readme. Maybe it was previously released on some forum that is now long gone, or even only released locally among his friends/family?

As for the email, why not email it to check if it still works? I mean, it probably doesn't after 25 years (since the game was released in Feb 1999), but you never know... my Yahoo email that I still use is probably about that old...
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Re: Orat Sportz: Soccer?

Post by Quillax »

Snortimer wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 7:39 - The installer seemed to have installed Bloog Sports: Soccer on my computer in a "SPORTS2" directory. Perhaps Orat was "SPORTS1"?
That's odd. When I tried the installer myself, it wanted to install to "c:\windows\games". Not sure why it did "SPORTS2" for you; could it be an OS thing? Or is there more than one installer for this game out there?
Snortimer wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 7:39 - I've only heard of that game mentioned in the readme. Maybe it was previously released on some forum that is now long gone, or even only released locally among his friends/family?
Good point in that Dr. Zingers could've made the game himself. It's possible that he wanted to share something in a Keen fansite or community, and decided to take this game and put a Keen coat of paint on it.

Image

The alien and ship on top of the screenshot above looks like a leftover from Orat Sportz: Soccer, and it also looks like it was drawn with MSPaint or some other cheap paint program, which fits with some of the other custom graphics (e.g. the goal lines). Even if Dr. Zingers didn't make the game, I'm certain that it was made by an amateur with little to no experience with KNP and game development, so it can't be a pack-in game with some distribution of KNP (those sort of games may not be the best in gameplay, but their assets are professionally made without a doubt). Though, if the game was made by some random amateur, then why would Dr. Zingers edit this game of all things?
Snortimer wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 7:39 As for the email, why not email it to check if it still works? I mean, it probably doesn't after 25 years (since the game was released in Feb 1999), but you never know... my Yahoo email that I still use is probably about that old...
I wasn't sure if a Hotmail address would still be up after all this time, especially now that Hotmail got changed to Outlook.com, but I guess it's worth a shot. At this point, it seems like only Dr. Zingers would know the answer. I might send e-mail at some point...
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