Mortadelo y Filemón: El Sulfato Atómico

Mortadelo y Filemón: El Sulfato Atómico (transl. Mortadelo and Filemon: The Atomic Sulfate) is a 1998 graphic adventure game developed by the Spanish company Alcachofa Soft and published by Zeta Multimedia.[2]

Mortadelo y Filemón: El Sulfato Atómico
Spanish cover art
Developer(s)Alcachofa Soft
Publisher(s)Zeta Multimedia
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseNovember 1998[1]
Genre(s)Graphic adventure
Mode(s)Single player

Gameplay and plot

An adaptation of the Spanish comic series Mort & Phil by Francisco Ibáñez,[2] specifically the 1969 first long story El sulfato atómico,[2][3] it follows the secret agents Mort and Phil as they attempt to steal a chemical weapon from the villainous Republic of Tirania.[1] The player controls the two agents separately to solve puzzles,[4] in a manner that has been compared to the gameplay of Maniac Mansion.[5]

Development

El Sulfato Atómico was the first original, non-educational game bankrolled by Zeta, and was created with input from Ibáñez.[2] Alcachofa head Emilio de Paz noted that the author provided model sheets for the cast, sketches for the backgrounds and other assistance.[6] According to de Paz, Alcachofa chose to adapt Ibáñez's first story because it was longer-form than most Mort & Phil comics, although the team borrowed "gags and other elements from many other" installments in the series.[7] He noted that the game's budget was "very, very limited".[2]

Reception

El Sulfato Atómico was commercially successful. With sales above 70,000 units, the game "multiplied by 50 the money [Zeta Multimedia] invested in the development", according to El País.[8] Carlos Burgos of PC Manía praised El Sulfato Atómico, writing that it "will delight young and old."[4] MeriStation's Jordi Espunya was less positive, criticizing the game's length, simplicity and audiovisual fidelity.[9]

Legacy

El Sulfato Atómico was the first installment in a series of adventure games based on Mort & Phil. While the comics had previously inspired arcade-style games during the golden age of Spanish software, such as Mortadelo y Filemón II: Safari Callejero, Alcachofa Soft's project marked the beginning of a new strain of adaptations.[10] Zeta Multimedia proceeded to publish a follow-up to El Sulfato Atómico in 1999: Mortadelo y Filemón: La Máquina Meteoroloca, developed by Vega Creaciones Multimedia rather than Alcachofa.[2] Based on the Mort & Phil comic El Estropicio Meteorológico,[10] the game was again created with assistance from Francisco Ibáñez.[2] According to the magazine Dealer World España, Zeta pushed La Máquina Meteoroloca as one of its "star products" during the Christmas 1999 shopping season.[11] The game drew a positive review from PC Manía, whose Carlos Burgos deemed it "excellent" and more faithful than El Sulfato Atómico to Ibáñez's series,[12] while Spain's PC Actual declared Vega's game "a bit monotonous".[13]

Vega was shuttered in the first half of 2000, and Alcachofa returned to creating Mort & Phil adventure games after La Máquina Meteoroloca's release.[2] The developer handled the remainder of the series,[10] which became its best-known body of work before the launch of Murder in the Abbey (2008).[14][15] Micromanía reported that the Mort & Phil games helped to put Alcachofa on the map.[16] Summarizing the company's history in 2008, Julio Gómez of Vandal wrote that Alcachofa ultimately saw "its fortunes joined to" El Sulfato Atómico.[17] Alcachofa's second Mort & Phil title, Mortadelo y Filemón: Una Aventura de Cine, debuted in 2000.[10] It launched as two games—respectively subtitled Dos Vaqueros Chapuceros and Terror, Espanto y Pavor—sold separately for 3,995 pesetas each.[18] Combining the two opens access to a third episode, Parque Jurásico, to complete the full Una Aventura de Cine product.[10][18] The combined game also features local and online cooperative multiplayer support for two players.[18]

Alcachofa followed Una Aventura de Cine in 2001 with Mortadelo y Filemón: La Sexta Secta.[19][10] It was again composed of two individual games, entitled El Escarabajo de Cleopatra and Operación Moscú, that combine to form the complete product.[10] The final entry in the Mort & Phil adventure game series arrived with La Banda de Corvino,[10] launched in 2003.[20] Like its predecessors, it retailed as two complementary episodes, this time under the names Mamelucos a la Romana and Balones y Patadones.[10]

In 2019, Erbe Software re-released the game on Steam,[21][22] alongside several other Mort & Phil titles by Alcachofa.[22]

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See also

References
  1. Staff (November 1, 1998). ""El sulfato atómico", Mortadelo y Filemón se convierten en el título y los personajes de la nueva aventura interactiva de Zeta Multimedia". Dealer World España (in Spanish). IDG. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019.
  2. Prada, Carolina (July 13, 2000). "Desarrolladores "made in Spain"". El Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 12, 2001.
  3. Macías, Gerardo (March 27, 2019). "Con licencia para matar, pero de risa". Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 23, 2019.
  4. Burgos, Carlos (November 1998). "Pantalla abierta; El Sulfato Atómico". PC Manía (in Spanish) (73): 323.
  5. El Gran Tarkilmar (December 1998). "El club de la aventura; El eterno conflicto". Micromanía (in Spanish). Third Época (47): 196–198.
  6. Álvarez, Raúl. "Entrevista a Emilio de Paz". Macedonia Magazine (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 26, 1999.
  7. Alvarez, Raúl (December 1, 1998). "Alcachofa Soft". MeriStation (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 11, 2019.
  8. Avellaneda, Elena (November 13, 2008). "Un campanazo en la abadía". El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 23, 2019.
  9. Espunya, Jordi (January 7, 1999). "El Sulfato Atómico, made in Spain". MeriStation (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 29, 2001.
  10. Escandell, Daniel (2015). "La construcción transmedia y sus fronteras entre cómic y videojuego. La industria española frente a la estadounidense". In Florenchie, Amélie; Breton, Dominique (eds.). Nuevos dispositivos enunciativos en la era intermedial (in Spanish). Éditions Orbis Tertius. pp. 264–269, 278. ISBN 978-2-36783-061-2.
  11. Staff (December 1, 1999). "Kit Navidad de Zeta Multimedia especial para dealers". Dealer World España (in Spanish). IDG. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019.
  12. Burgos, Carlos (February 2000). "Un cómic hecho aventura gráfica". PC Manía (in Spanish). Second Época (4): 158.
  13. Martínez, Javier (February 2000). "Niños; Mortadelo y Filemón: La Máquina Meteoroloca". PC Actual (in Spanish) (116): 364.
  14. Otero, César (March 31, 2012). "Regreso al Pasado: Aventuras Gráficas Españolas". MeriStation (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 11, 2019.
  15. Gavilán, Pep Sánchez (August 24, 2007). "[GC] Los españoles Alcachofa Soft muestran The Abbey en Leipzig". MeriStation (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  16. Staff (March 2006). "Retromanía; Aventuras españolas: Una gran tradición". Micromanía (in Spanish). Third Época (131): 151.
  17. Gómez, Julio (March 14, 2008). "A Propósito de las Aventuras Gráficas". Vandal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 1, 2011.
  18. "Incompetentes habituales: Mortadelo, Filemón y la TIA". 26 January 2015.
  19. https://web.archive.org/web/20040116111403/http://www.meristation.com/sc/juegos/todosobre.asp?c=GEN&j=2492
  20. https://web.archive.org/web/20040906121819/http://www.meristation.com/sc/juegos/todosobre.asp?c=GEN&j=4246
  21. González, Alberto (April 17, 2019). "Erbe lanzará Dráscula, Mortadelo y Filemón: El sulfato atómico y SleepWalker en PC". Vandal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 29, 2019.
  22. Castillo, José Carlos (August 13, 2019). "Mortadelo y Filemón regresan a los videojuegos". El Correo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 13, 2019.
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