Immies & Aggies

Name:	Immies & Aggies
Company:	Zimag
Model #:	715-111
Programmer:	Unknown
Year:	1983
Released?	Yes (see below)
Notes:	Released by Suntek as Spectracube Invasion

Talk about a game with convoluted history!  It was once thought that Immies and Aggies, along with Pizza Chef, Spinning Fireball, and A Mysterious Thief, were all original games developed by a PAL company called Suntek.  However after much research it has been determined that these are in fact original NTSC games released by two different companies called Zimag and Vidco, which may have been related somehow.  So why were these games developed for the NTSC market but never released?  Read on to find out.

Immies and Aggies is an odd shooting game that involves marbles (yes marbles).  For you see, Immies and Aggies are actually types of marbles (Aggies are agates, while Immies are glass imitations of agates), although from the game graphics you really can't tell.  In fact the graphics consist mostly of squares that appear to be randomly placed around the screen.  If you squint and stare really hard at the screen you can almost imagine that those squares are anything (marbles, alien bases, E.T. carts, etc.).  However the poor graphics really don't distract much from the poor gameplay.  There's a reason these things weren't released in the US...

The goal of the game appears to be to shoot the proper colored marble (square) with your little blaster.  On the top of the screen there is colored box that displays the current color, while several different shaped squares will appear in a random pattern in the middle of the screen.  As the colored box slowly disappears, you must shoot as many squares matching the current color as you can.  Many times there will not be any squares of the proper color, so you will have to wait a few seconds for more squares to appear.  Once the colored box completely disappears, it will be replaced by a new color which you will have to match.  

Occasionally as you shoot the squares strange little oval shaped enemies will roll towards you from one side of the screen (evil marbles?).  You can either choose to avoid them, or shoot them for points.  Since these enemies move so slowly and don't follow you, they are never a threat and are completely pointless.  In fact the only challenge in the entire game is to keep from falling asleep while playing this dud.  There are 14 different variations, but all they do is slightly speed up the time it takes for the color to change and the speed of the enemy marbles. 

Immies & Aggies seems more like an unfinished programming experiment rather than a complete game.  Not only does it lack any challenge, but it's absolutely no fun.  According to the Zimag catalog Immies & Aggies was planned for a spring of 1983 release, so apparently they thought this game had promise.  Although Zimag thankfully went under before they could release this game, Suntek decided to release this game as Spectracube Invasion to a poor unsuspecting European public.  There's a reason that some games never get released...

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