Screenshot of the day: Brataccas

Brataccas is one of the first 16-bit games I ever saw; it was being demoed on an Atari ST at a computer shop round about 1986. I never actually played it, and by now I kind of don't want to, because the idea of Brataccas seems more interesting than the game itself could be. It belongs to a time when the potential of computer games seemed to be infinitely expanding as a result of the leap to 16-bit, and the graphics -- a bit ugly to my eyes now -- impressed with their big, tall, colorful sprites. The detail on the hero's space helmet, for example, was still something you didn't see too often in games. Beyond that, Brataccas seemed not to belong to any existing genre. Was it a platformer? An adventure game? A beat-em-up? An RPG-lite? It seemed to be none of those things. In retrospect I guess it appears similar to a pre-SCUMM adventure like Labyrinth but with some living-world stuff thrown into the mix. Whatever labels you might retroactively put on it, at the time it just seemed gloriously oddball, following its own peculiar path. Maybe I will play Brataccas someday on an emulated ST or Amiga, but if I do, I'll have to bid farewell to the indeterminate Brataccas in my head. Thanks to Mobygames user "Luckspeare" who uploaded the screenshot.