The Great Giana Sisters
From C64-Wiki
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Contents |
[edit] Voting
| Voting of the C64-Wiki-User (10=the best Vote): | ||
| 8.73 points at 91 votes (rank 7). You need to be logged in to cast a vote. | ||
| C64Games | 10 | (11th November 2005 - "highlight" 33659 downs) |
| Lemon64 | 8,4 | 6th October 2006 - 179 votes |
| GameBase64 | 10 | 12th August 2003 - Classic! |
| Happy Computer | 79% | Games Special 3/88 |
| Kultboy.com | 8,64 | 11th May 2007 - 34 votes |
| ASM | 10/12 | Issue 2/88 |
| Powerplay | 80% | Edition 2/87 |
| ZZap64 | 96% | Edition 7/88 |
[edit] Description
One night, when little Giana from Milano was fast asleep, she had a nightmare. Giana found herself in a wondrous world with strange creatures, who want to prevent her from going home. Here everything was huge and strange. Giana can only leave this world, if she finds a huge jewel. On the way she can collect diamonds and many extras. Fortunately she is not alone, because her sister Maria has also this dream. The world consists of 33 levels and in the last stage Giana can find the needed gem, to return to her world.
[edit] Design
2-D Screen, whose contents scrolls to the left out of view. Sound and music are well harmonized with the game. The sprites are cutely animated. Very good playability by the exact joystick query. If played with two players, the second player steers Maria, who has different colour of hair and clothes.
[edit] Hints
[edit] Controls
- The game is controlled by joystick in port 2 of the C64. At every re-start you can choose whether to play with Giana (press 1 or fire button) or Maria (press 2). With the joystick you steer to the right or left and you can jump, when you press the joystick upwards. The longer you press, the longer Giana stays in the air. By combining running and jumping, longer jumps are possible.
- The fire button comes into play, when you make a small punk out of Giana or Maria. The hairdo is hidden in one of the stones. Now she can also destroy stones and has the possibility to find thunderbolts later. The thunderbolts are activated by pressing the fire button. There are three thunderbolts: the simple bolt (vanishes with the first contact with a wall), the double bolt (the shot is reflected by the walls)and the strawberry, which makes the shot hit the nearest target automatically, also through walls.
- In the highscore list the name is entered over the keyboard and finished by pressing the "Return" key. By pressing "F1" the highscore list is saved on disk. By pressing the fire button after you have finished entering the name, the game is restarted without saving the highscore list.
[edit] Tips
- With the target-searching shot (strawberry) you have to be careful! Some monsters "catch" this shot and are not killed by it --- instead the shot comes to rest on the back of the monsters. For this time you cannot shoot again!
- After the strawberry there is an alarm clock, a bomb and a water drop. The alarm clock and bomb are activated by the space key. The alarm clock temporarily stops the time (which is practical, e.g. to jump easily over to bouncing balls), the bomb kills directly all killable monsters on the screen and the water drop makes immune against fire (Be careful: in some versions the water drop doesn't work properly). Alarm clock and bomb have to be collected again after use.
- In the game there are hidden WARP-spots (Warp-Blocks).
 Warp-Block from Stage 3 to Stage 6 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 6 to Stage 9 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 8 to Stage 11 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 17 to Stage 20 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 19 to Stage 22 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 22 to Stage 25 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 25 to Stage 28 |
 Warp-Block from Stage 28 to Stage 31 |
[edit] Solution
[edit] Cheats
Pressing the keys ARMN at once => jump into the next level! Alternatively you can add the I key: ARMIN, which reminds of the developer Armin Gessert.
Pokes
The following pokes can be entered after a reset:
Disk version
poke 8257,173 $2041,$ad unlimited lives poke 7450,000 $1d1a,$00 unlimited time poke 6664,096 $1a08,$60 bridges indestructible sys 2127 $084f start without highscore load sys 2098 $0832 start with highscore load
Tape version
poke 8207,173 $200f,$ad unlimited lives poke 7400,000 $1ce8,$00 unlimited time poke 6614,096 $19d6,$60 bridges indestructible sys 2080 $0820 start
[edit] Critics
Sledgie: "The game reminds me a bit of the Mario series by Nintendo. Just with sisters instead of brothers. This was also the reason why it had to be taken from the market: Nintendo filed a lawsuit. "The Great Giana Sisters" has nevertheless its own style. In parts there are really difficult passages and the time limit is very short. Otherwise it is again and again fun to play. Also in the 2-player mode (which sadly only works by turns) you can fight about points."
Guybrush: "One reason not to like the Nintendo-mob...they have allowed the Sisters to be forbidden because of these two annoying, moustache-wearing overall-plumbers. Thank you for nothing, Nintendo ;o)!!!"
Jodigi: "Just a great game."
triton: "It IS a cheeky Super-Mario copy, but what a copy! From the design of the levels and the graphics to the striking sound everything corresponds. A jump'n'run game without bric-a-brac, as it should be!"
87.160.253.59: "In my opinion this is a game, that the world not necessarily needs, except if you don't have a Nintendo, then you need the game ;). However, I like the music in the game very much, but you should hold your horse when talking bad about the talking down by Nintendo, because if there wasn't an original there cannot by a copy. So it would be better to thank Nintendo that out of their idea emerged another classic game."
Gamemaster: "When I played this game in the late 80s on the C64, I was captivated. Ingenious appearance, great levels, and very much draft for a jump'n run. Applause for Chris Hülsbeck for this incredible soundtrack, that even today makes for a catchy tune. Shortly after that I got my NES with the plumber game. Of course, Mario could enthuse me more, it had the better controls, better graphics and a gameplay that I sense still today is absolutely perfect. But the disadvantage was that Mario was played to the end too fast and the sisters were (due to the controls) to hard. As in every jump and run you came a bit further with every try, which characterizes both games positively. In my opinion the game is one of the cheekiest theft of all times, but also one of the best. There is nothing to accuse Nintendo for, as in these times the market was very different. Today Nintendo would not really care about it much, as they pride oneself when somenone copies (most of the time poorly) from them and are used to their innovations being nicked. Regardless of the prohibition of Giana Sister, everybody had it anyway."
Shakermaker303: "A very known game on the C64. Greatly made, the many colours, the nice animations, the cool music and the wit of the game. It really is very classic and that's why I give the full 10 points."
Shmendric: "At those times I played it for hours, in turns in the two player mode. It belongs into the list of 64's classics rather far up, no doubt."
Patrick: "After so many years I recover this game!!! Thank you for this great page. I played this game for nights in the early days! A game one should know!
Whatever: "Why is this wiki page trying to sell me Great Giana Sisters? It's a fun enough game, and it was also a flagrant copy of the design of Super Mario Bros. The end."
Keule: "Giana-Sisters is the jump'n'run per se...especially the addictive playability makes it for me one of the best, if not THE best C64 game ever. 10 out of 10 points!"
[edit] Miscellaneous
The unofficial successor was Hard'n'Heavy, which originally was issued under the title "Giana Sisters 2: Arthur and Martha in Futureworld".
Manfred Trenz mentioned in a forum, that the idea of a Mario clone came from the then label boss, and did not, as often assumed, arise by his initiative.
After a plagiarism trial by Nintendo, Giana Sisters was taken off the market, because it was, according to Nintendo, too much based on Super Mario Bros. The idea of the sequel has been dropped, and the original Giana Sisters 2 later finished as Hard n Heavy, where the players are "Heavy" and "Metal", 2 robots that trapped on the Mars. The game graphics and gameplay didn't get the same reception as its predecessor, but the music in the game by Chris Hülsbeck is widely considered as a classic too.
[edit] Cover
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 German cassette cover ... |  alternative English cover ... |
[edit] Disk-Label
[edit] Clones and hacks
The first unofficial Giana Sisters hack, called "Giana Sisters 2" was created by the team "New Wave". It has 32 new levels, and has a feature to play these mixed with the old ones in the "grand loop" section. Stage 33 for the new levels doesn't exist, and a bug occurs in the game when stage 32 is finished.
Several more Giana Sisters hacks have been made with the german level editor called "Giana Sisters Construction Kit". The program was made by Professor Knibble and Sandy, and has a german tutorial as well. The editor has no level packager, and has several bugs which makes it hard to use.
Known hacks written with the construction kit:
- Gitty's Dream I
- Gitty II
- Power Sisters I
- Frankie's Horror Trip I
- Frankie's Horror Trip II
The latest Giana Sisters hack called "Giana Sisters II" was released in 2005, and is often considered as the best one. It was created by the team "7A3" in 1993, originally with a commercial purpose. It fixed some of the original game bugs, removed some sprite issues, added better collision detection, and added 40 new levels. Some of the enemies were changed, and the hack also has some new features like swimming and flying. The leveldesign here is very faithful to the original game.
A hack called "Super Mario Bros" was released by the team "Abyss" which changed Giana's sprite to Mario, and changed some other sprites as well to make to game look more mario-ish. The end result was a disappointment as the new graphics doesn't have the quality of the original game.
"I Want More Diamonds" is a Giana sisters based platform game, but was made with a different engine.
[edit] Remakes
Giana's Return is a free, inofficial follower with coloured graphics in retro style. There are 7 worlds with each 8 levels and and each one end boss to manage. Homepage
Giana Family is a remake, where the graphics have not really changed. But the fun is still there. Download
[edit] Video
Video longplay "The Great Giana Sisters (warpless)" by "DerSchmu"
[edit] Highscore
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[edit] Links
| Wikipedia: Great_Giana_Sisters |
- C64Games.de - Game No. 65
- Lemon64 - Game No. 1091
- Gamebase64.com - Game No. 3275
- Test Report No. 229 on
- ZZap64 test report
- TheLegacy entry no.5578
- The Great Giana Sisters at MobyGames
- selmiak's fan-Site (with all level maps, many infos und links)
- Fan-Site
Videos
- Download Video at C64-longplays.de 104 MB
- Video at YouTube (Longplay by DerSchmu)
- Video at YouTube (Stage 1-3 by Chris97)
- Video at YouTube (Stage 22-end by Chris97)
- Video at YouTube (Interview with Chris Hülsbeck of Tilliamable part 1/3)
- Video at YouTube (Interview with Chris Hülsbeck of Tilliamable part 2/3)
- Video at YouTube (Interview with Chris Hülsbeck of Tilliamable part 3/3)
- Video at YouTube (Floppy Fans #1: The Great Giana Sisters)
- Video at YouTube (Floppy Fans special: The Great Giana Sisters - Extended Version)
