Now this little gem is Hoi AGA Remix by Team Hoi in 1993
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, I AM 21 AGAIN, HORRAH! – Ahem – I got carried away THERE, But gosh, what a nice lovely present for my Birthday eh? – Thanks to Team Hoi 🙂
I announced this Bonus Game in January, originally this was a Commercially released Game, just known as Hoi in 1992, But for reasons stated below, it was released as Hoi AGA Remix in 1993 as Freeware
Well what can I say about this Great Game, You star as HOI, who can start with a maximum of 9 Lives, and trust me, You will need them, There are 5 Levels to select, There maybe only 5 levels, but they will tax you to the hills, as each is a lot different to the last, and they are all quite challenging to play
On each level at set intervals, there are Checkpoints, which you can walk over and you will colour cycle to confirm you have touched that point, if you die from then on, you will respawn at that point
At various points on the levels, you will see levers, these can activate lifts, or platforms, or fans, or other objects, which will aid your level progression
I know you can select ALL the levels, But start off on Level 1, as that is the original starting point of this wonderful game!!
In Level 1, which begins at a Boot House, you need to progress onwards and pass enemies such as flying bees, bouncing balls, and even Walking Bombs which will follow you around to try and explode you to oblivion!
In Level 2 which I have to say is my personal favourite, I just love the Music, and even the Death Sound, and the Workmen characters, and there is a Dog what walks across the screen, as well as Planes at the start, so much is going on here, this is why it remains my favourite level of them all, and half of Level 2 was released as a Demo on Amiga Action Issue 37 from October 1992, which incidentally I recorded before I knew about this, so the Demo version is also included in the video above
In Level 3 you get to fire projectiles at the flying enemies, in order to eradicate them, the first one needs to be defeated in order to open the locked gate, which will then allow you to progress
In Level 4 theres a lot of diving and underwater elements, and you have a limited air supply, which if it runs out, means you lose a life, this level will test your skills at avoiding underwater enemies and you will have to do a lot of ducking and diving in between to avoid being caught by the fish and eels which lurk below the depths
In Level 5 which is the hardest of levels, and has a lot of flashing colours in it, so is unsuitable for those who have epilepsy, and you must basically run quickly to make sure you do not fall off the crumbling platforms which will follow you throughout the level, so it is litterally a race to the end
There is some really decent wonderful background music throughout all of the levels, including a death sound, and a Stage Clear sound, and they are all completely different on each level, making it so unique
Hoi is certainly one of those wonderful games what will keep you coming back for more, I especially love the Hoi character, I am sure you will also agree, Hoi looks kinda cute 🙂 – If only he was real eh? sigh
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This brings back so many memories of me getting the Amiga Action Issue 37 from October 1992, what featured this Game on its disk as a Demo Version, then because the lazy bozos at the magazine could not be bothered to create a menu for the disk, which left you to type in “hoidemo” and press Return to load it
I actually loved the Hoi Demo Title Screen Music (YouTube Link) so much, I used to leave it on that for ages before actually clicking the Left Mouse to load the Demo properly, also the fact I did not have enough pocket money at the time to go and buy the Game, making me play the Demo over and over for a few weeks till I could afford to buy it
When I did buy it I basically played it till the cows come home for weeks on end, trying in vain to get past the levels, always getting killed at the stupid points, such as those Bouncing Balls on Level 1, they can be quite difficult to pass, and the Worm-type things on Level 2, as well as the initial Traffic Light, which if you went past on Red, You would be killed by a Car (well not if you jumped over it lol)
Thankyou so much to Team Hoi on the English Amiga Board forums for allowing me to release Hoi AGA Remix to you all, Much appreciated Team HOI 🙂
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From Developer Team Hoi: Hoi AGA is indeed freeware. The publisher [Hollyware] of the original 2-disk version didn’t pay our royalties, so the contract was breached, and a year after that we decided to release an AGA Remix for free, so everyone could enjoy Hoi for free. The AGA Remix is the preferred version because of some minor improvements, the Workbench UI and the unlimited lives option.
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Publisher: Team Hoi
Developer: Team Hoi
Code: Reinier van Vliet
Graphics: Metin Seven
Music: Ramon Braumüller
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