Captain Comic

Captain Comic
NES Box Cover Art
Developer(s)	Michael Denio
Publisher(s)	Unknown (MS-DOS), Color Dreams (NES)
Designer(s)	Michael Denio
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, NES
Release	January 5, 1988
Genre(s)	Side-scrolling Platformer, action-adventure game
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Adventures of Captain Comic (or just Captain Comic) is a 1988 MS-DOS action-adventure platform game, reminiscent of Metroid, and is one of the first side-scrolling platform games for the IBM PC. It was developed entirely by Michael Denio. The PC version of the game was distributed as shareware. Later a version for the NES was published by Color Dreams as an unlicensed title.

In the game, the player takes control of Captain Comic, who is on a mission to the planet Tambi, where the quest begins. Comic must find three artifacts, namely the Mystical Gems of Lascorbanos, the Thousand Coins of Tenure, the Crown of the Ages. To find them, he must travel through many varied environments. The game ends when Comic is in possession of the three treasures.

Its author, Michael Denio, writes in the introduction to the game's manual:

The Adventures of Captain Comic started out as an experiment to test the viability of two theories, the first as to whether a real arcade type game can be done on a standard IBM PC with an EGA card, and secondly, given the first can be done, if it is possible to make any money doing it. Well, I've come to a conclusion on the second point, but I'll let you judge the first point for yourself.

The Adventures of Captain Comic was developed as MS-DOS action-adventure platform game by Michael Denio in 1988. The game was inspired by Metroid and one of the first PC platformers. The PC version of the game was distributed as shareware. Later a version for the NES was published by Color Dreams as an unlicensed title.

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Wikipedia