The Hellion

[Symoon]

I'm currently doing an article for the CEO Mag, about The Hellion levels.
I'm trying to find the different references in each level.

One I can't understand is "leak year" (level 40).
I guess it's a pun with "leap year", but would anyone here have an idea of what "leak year" is supposed to mean, and what the ennemies are supposed to be ?


Thanks !

EDIT: just realised they are supposed to be LEEKs ! So, it's a triple pun ? Leap, leak, leek ?

[ibisum]

One of my most favourite games ever on the Oric!

Yes its a triple pun - those are indeed leeks!

This is fun - what else you got?

[Iapetus]

Nice game, thank you for mentioning it here. Frantic action!

[Symoon]

Reminder: ORPHEUS 1984 HELLION 101 Deadly Waves Created by John Cumming , Ian Marshall , Gary Munro Special Thanks to Cam Shaft.

Here is what I found so far. If you have more details or ideas about what's written here, they are welcome Being French, I suspect I might miss some things from UK's culture.

001- ORPHEUS 1984
Name of the editor of the game and release date, in other words the copyright!

002- NOVEMBER THE 5 TH
Reference to November 5th festivities, celebrating the failure of the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 5th 1605.

003- SITTING DUCKS
Reference to Michael Bedard's drawings?

004- TRAFFIC||LIGHTS
No reference?

005- CYCLOSTICKS
No reference?

006- BRIGHT-IDEA
Flashing bulbs, symbolizing a bright idea.

007- DEVIOUS PLATES?
No reference?

008- THE PRIZE GUYS?
A wink to John Webster's stop frame advert for yoghurt?

009- MUTANT LEMONS
No reference?

010- COSMOS|COMPUTER SOFTWARE
A company that made some Oric games.

011- BAV'S REWARD !
A smile with money... For John Cumming?

012- DRAGON TAMER SODI
A reference to Dragon Data's computers' logo. What/who is Sodi?

013- |JET-SET|GAR|
Would Gary Munro be a jet-setter?

014- EVIL ED
Evil dead? Looks like TV sets... Strange.

015- BILL AND BEN
It's about "Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men", a TV program for kids.

016- ENCOUNTER
Reference to Paul Woakes' game Encounter: the ennemies explode in lozenges.

017- BANANA SPLIT
The dessert!

018- FLIP-FLOP
No reference?

019- VADER'S REVENGE
TIE fighters, from Star Wars!

020- THE TARDIS
From Doctor Who's British programme, this is a time machine and spacecraft.

021- |CHERRIE'S
No reference?

022- HAPPY FACES
A wink to the yellow happy faces we all know.

023- CYBOTROID
Direct reference to the game Defence Force (Tansoft)

024- LEFTOVERS !
No reference?

025- TINY BUGS
Tiny bugs, hard to "fix" !

026- BROKEN HEART
No reference?

027- THE PARAS
Reference to Lothlorien's game? Or simply to paras?

028- WRONG NUMBER?
Reference to Manic Miner, level 7?

029- QUITE LATE
A joke about Sinclair's QL computer, whose deliveries started late after orders.

030- BUTTERFLIES
No reference?

031- ULTRA|VIOLENT 1
A remake of The Ultra's level 1

032- NO COPYING OK
The anti-pirates level, against copying!

033- COOL ICES
No reference?

034- POLE-O-MINT
The sweets!

035- SON OF PACMAN
Shoot Pacman! (well, his son)

036- ULTRA VIOLENT 2
A remake of The Ultra's level 2

037- EVEREST||ASCENT
Reference to Richard Shepherd's game (C64/Spectrum)

038- OOPS LIPSTICK
Expression when lipstick stains are left on someone after a kiss?

039- THE BEST BUY
"The best buy", with a Commodore logo!

040- LEAK YEAR
Pun between leek, leak and leap year. Leek year?

[Symoon]

Hi, would anyone know if "ranting rocket" has any meaning in English, apart the fact that it could describe agressive missiles?

[dave3622]

Hi, would anyone know if "ranting rocket" has any meaning in English, apart the fact that it could describe agressive missiles?

I think I can safely say it has no meaning whatsoever, at least not in the north of England!

edit - ranting means having a one-sided argument where you don't shut up and just keep going on and on and on...

[Symoon]

Ok thanks David! Not easy to translate puns or cultural references when you're from another country

[dave3622]

014 - Evil Ed. This is a reference to ' Evil Edna ' who was a character from the cartoon ' Willo the Wisp '. She was an evil television set

[Symoon]

Hey thanks, that's great!
I carried on a while ago... And more to come later, especially about "Eugene".

041- ULTRA VIOLENT 3
A remake of The Ultra's level 3

042- EUGENE'S HIND-OUT
Wink to Manic Miner's 5th level?

043- L.A. 1984
Olympic games in Los Angeles in 1984.

044- FLYING PICKETS
Reference to The Flying Pickets, a British a cappella vocal group that had a hit in 1983?

045- BUBBLES|
Unlikeley: reference to the arcade game "Bubbles", released in 1982?

046 - ULTRA VIOLENT 4
A remake of The Ultra's level 4

047 - EYE EYE !
Pun with "aye aye", meaning "right now" in the Navy?

048 - BIC BOOGIE
BIC pens dancing. Is there a pun here?

049 - SPACE INVADERS
The classic!

050 - IT'S OUR GAME
Atari logos... What does the screen title mean?

051 - ULTRA VIOLENT 5
A remake of The Ultra's level 5

052 - WHAT'S UP DOC
Carrots attacking, on the famous Bugs Bunny's sentence.

053 - FLY|BY|NIGHT
Despite a curious name, I didn't find any obvious reference.

054 - RETURN OF THE INVADERS
A wink to level 49! The game "return of the invaders" will be released in 1985.

055 - BOMBS AWAY
Bomb dropping! Possible reference to the song by The Police, released late 1980?

056 - ULTRA VIOLENT 6
A remake of The Ultra's level 6.

057 - ZORGON'S|RAGE
Evocation of Xenon and Zorgons Revenge games, with an army of ugly Zorgons.

058 - QUADNOG
Another reference to one of Zorgons Revenge levels!

059 - RED WINE
Just some red wine!

060 - SERVICE STATION
A break at the service station? Beware the signs!

061 - ULTRA VIOLENT 7
A remake of The Ultra's level 7.

062 - JUMPIN JACKS
A pun with the puppet and the car jacks that are jumping...

063 - BIG FOOT
A pun with Bigfoot's legend and... Big foot?

064 - BARREL OF FUN
Another pun - having a barrel of fun?

065 - TAP DANCE
Did you expect Fred Astaire?

066 - ULTRA VIOLENT 8
A remake of The Ultra's level 8.

067 - NO ENTRY
More signs.

068 - SPARKY PLUGS
Pun between spark plugs and… Sparky plugs!

069 - STICK INSECTS
Stick insects are supposed to take cover by imitating nature… In 8 colours?

070 - DUSTY BIN
Probably inspired by Dusty Bin, the mascot of the UK 3-2-1 TV show, that begun in 1978.

071 - ULTRA VIOLENT|9
A remake of The Ultra's level 9.

072 - AN APPLE A DAY
Proverb: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Also refers to Apple?

073 - CHERRY CAKE
Nothing special?

074 - |BONY|FACE|
Bony faces, that's the least one can say!

075 - |THE BELLS
Could refer to many things! Lou Reed released "The Bells" in 1979...

076 - ULTRA BORE
11th level of The Ultra (the 10th has been forgotten?). One could think the authors got bored of re-making these levels, as The Ultra had 5 more, left aside here.

077 - SWARM
Lots of birds... No reference?

078 - EVER RUST
Pun with "Everest", but what are these things?

[Antiriad2097]

My thoughts to expand/explain a few of the earlier levels:

002- NOVEMBER THE 5 TH
Reference to November 5th festivities, celebrating the failure of the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 5th 1605. It is also referred to as 'bonfire night', hence the enemies on this level take that form.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_night

003- SITTING DUCKS
'Sitting ducks' is a commonly used phrase meaning 'an easy target', as in 'if we attack them while they're eating lunch, they'll be sitting ducks'. Its usage predates Bedard's art by a significant margin - you can find its usage in many an old war film from the 60s for example. In terms of the game, its beig take quite literally as the targets are indeed ducks. The phrase itself derives from hunting:
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/sitting+duck

004- TRAFFIC LIGHTS
Another literal reference to the enemy design for the level, traffic lights are the 'red/green/amber' signals found at road junctions and crossings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light

005- CYCLOSTICKS
A play on words I think, with its roots in 'glow stick':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick
We have enemies that are sticks, but they have a cyclic rotation animation, hence cyclostick.

007- DEVIOUS PLATES?
A clever one. There is the obvious literal reference to enemy design, this time square 'plates' (of metal?). They could be considered tricky in their attack pattern, hence the use of 'devious' to describe them. Its also a play on words though, alluding to the arcade game Xevious where the same enemies can be found.

008- THE PRIZE GUYS?
A wink to John Webster's stop frame advert for yoghurt. 'The Prize Guys' was a major advertising series in the UK for Prize yoghurts with several themed ads.

009- MUTANT LEMONS
I can't help but think this is a literal description of the enemies, perhaps poking fun at an attempt to draw something in the style of a meteor that once coloured looked more like a lemon with a green growth on top. It may also be a sly reference to the other Oric shmup Xenon 1, with 'Xenon' being a mutation of 'Lemon', since that game also features a meteor level.

012- DRAGON TAMER SODI
A reference to Dragon Data's computers' logo. SODI may be a subversion of SDI, becoming the Strategic Oric Defense Initiative, since SDI was a hot topic around then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_ ... Initiative

[Steve M]

Ranting Rockets may be a reference to various sci fi tales about sentient bombs where they arrive at their destination and then think about whether or not it is a good idea to blow themselves up or continue to exist. Sometimes they talk to people and discuss the dilemma.

In another meaning 'ranting' is the kind of hopping step that morris dancers do, so ranting rockets are ones that are dancing around.

[Steve M]

Ultra violent is also a play on words - i.e. ultra violet.

[Symoon]

Thanks you guys, all this is very interesting, and sometimes you bring me the light
Antiriad, were the glow sticks already so popular around 1983-1984?

Devious plates and ultra violets - how didn't I see these?

[ibisum]

Glowsticks were definitely a late 70's, early 80's phenomenon.

[Steve M]

Not sure if it's relavant but an aye-aye (eye eye) is a weird looking creature with big eyes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aye-aye