Whilst Apogee were better known for publishing action games they also had some puzzle games in their catalog. Todays game, Paganitzu is one of those puzzles games, having some features in common with Sokoban. I’m just playing the shareware episode, but you can still buy Paganitzu on steam or through the 3drealms website. It was originally released late 1991 and made by Keith Schuler.
The story of the game is fairly simple, it’s a continuation from the first game. Alabama Smith (totally not a rip-off of Indiana Jones) had gotten famous from his exploits in Chagunitzu. Now his fame is fading and he is busily researching a new pyramid to raid, that is Paganitzu. The game starts having just entered the pyramid.
The game is like Sokoban in that it is played on a grid of tiles with items you can push around to solve problems. Unlike Sokoban there are hazards in each level that will kill you if you’re not careful. Spiders move quickly, usually hugging either the left or right wall and snakes spit fire at you if they catch sight of you. Your task is to collect all the keys so you can move through the pyramid to accomplish the greater goal of the story. In some parts of the levels you will find hints, parts of the story, or little jokes that add a bit extra to the experience.
CGA and EGA graphics are supported, with EGA looking reasonably nice but CGA not looking so hot for some of the more detailed graphics. Animations are pretty good in general with the exception of the player or enemies moving. Each entity sort of jerks a whole tile at a time, some with no animation at all. I suspect this is because it’s a tile based game. PC speaker is the only sound device supported, with only a few bleeps and bloops for various events, it’s not annoying but is totally optional.
The controls use the normal cursor arrow keys on the keyboard, so the control layout is generally fine. However I’ve found that the game doesn’t buffer key presses and doesn’t always accept input when you’d hope. This left me sometimes mashing the keyboard trying to move as fast as I could, but actually moving significantly slower instead. This made some puzzles harder to finish than they needed to be.
The levels and progression are generally well done, although there are a few levels that are out of place because they are easier or harder than they should be for that point in the game. The shareware episode I played today is 20 levels long, although I wasn’t able to complete that set in the time frame I had to play. The two registered episodes each have slightly different mechanics and hazards, so are refreshingly different from the shareware portion.
Despite the control issues I managed to almost complete the shareware episode in roughly 2 hours, getting stuck on level 19. Only because I couldn’t move fast enough to escape the spider and block it in. I did for the most part enjoy playing Paganitzu, and I recommend it to people who enjoy puzzle games.
sparcie 
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