Magic Pockets Amiga Bitmap Brothers 1991

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Magic Pockets

The Bitmap Brothers of the U.K. released Magic Pockets for the Atari ST and Amiga in September of 1991. Magic Pockets is a platform game notable for its variable, upgradeable and chargeable Pocket Power mechanic. 

An ST-first, Magic Pockets presents and plays similarly to Gods of 1991. As such, Magic Pockets' screen-scrolling and sprite-shifting are not smooth but there are many big objects on-screen simultaneously. As with Gods, Magic Pockets motion is mechanical and its gameplay is methodical, rather than arcade-like.

However, Magic Pockets gameplay is simple in comparison to Gods gameplay. For example, there are no switches, no ladders and no buy/sell merchant interface in Magic Pockets. In addition, Magic Pockets lacks the sky gradients of Gods.

In Magic Pockets players assume the role of The Bitmap Kid, who seeks to recover four of his Best Toys from the four worlds of PocketLand.

The Bitmap Kid can walk left and right, jump, jump-spin and throw objects from his magic pockets via Pocket Power. The magic objects can be lobbed, pitched, charged and powered-up; they also bounce and ricochet. Varying from world to world, such projectiles take on the form of Whirlwind, Cloud, Snowball and Ice Cube.

The Nasties of PocketLand are vanquished by projectiles or by spinning into them. Enemies can be stunned or trapped within charged projectiles. For example, a charged Whirlwind can catch Nasties or be used to spin into the air whereas a charged Snowball can smother Nasties or be rolled into them.

Depending on context, The Bitmap Kid can also float in the air, ride a bike, punch, deep-sea dive and fire laser beams and fireballs. The Bitmap Kid can also destroy destructible blocks with Pocket Power.

Pick-ups include invincibility, nukes, drinks, sweets, potions, silver stars, gold stars and power-ups.

Published by Renegade, Magic Pockets was programmed by Sean Griffiths and Mike Montgomery, drawn by Mark Coleman and composed by Richard Joseph. For the Magic Pockets intro Richard Joseph re-orchestrated Betty Boo's Doin' the Do of 1990.

Magic Pockets Features

• 16-color 320x200 display (no copper list gradients)
• 320x192 active drawspace
• 16x16, 32x16 and 32x32 sprites
• Multi-directional variable-rate but non-smooth screen-scrolling
• 4x Worlds (The Four Corners of PocketLand)
• 26x platforming stages
• 4x bonus stages
• 10x Power-ups (e.g., Pocket Power rate of fire and power)
• 10x point-bonuses (100-1000 points)
• Floating point-indicators
• 3x Chalices: Bronze, Silver & Golden
• 20x different Nasties
• Secret Rooms
• TV Map screen
• Bubble Gum Machine (flight)
• Transporter Helmet (teleport)
• End-stage stat-tracking
• Animated intro & outro
• Password System

Magic Pockets Worlds

• The Cave (5 stages)
• The Jungle (6 stages)
• The Lake (7 stages)
• The Mountain (8 stages)

Magic Pockets Bonus Games

• Bike Race (The Cave: Bike)
• Beat the Gorilla (The Jungle: Boxing Gloves)
• Find the Treasure (The Lake: Diving Helmet)
• Transport to Get Home (The Mountain: Space Hopper)

Amiga Magic Pockets was distributed on 1x 3.5" 880kB DD diskette. It was not installable to hard disk drive.

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