For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Jackster's The Apprentice (CD-i) maps.
Marvin is the young apprentice of the wizard, Gandorf S. Wandburner III. To complete a series of tasks for his master, Marvin must traverse six sets of stages to retrieve what Wandburner asks him to find. Will Marvin succeed in this exceedingly cute CD-i adventure?
The CD-i is host to numerous games that feature full-motion video or animation, but The Apprentice looks and plays like a traditional sprite-based platformer, only slightly upgraded technically from what you would have expected from the 16-bit consoles that ruled the first half of the 1990s. But that's not a bad thing - the game is charming, with its adorable art and superb soundtrack. It's a standout CD-i title, despite (or maybe because of) its non-resemblance to most other games on that platform.
Each set of stages is presented as a day. Marvin will climb up five towers for most of these days, though on the second day, he dives down a well. As you can guess, the platforming action is very vertical. You certainly couldn't call this a side-scroller. All the stages, including the bonuses, are only one screen wide, though several screens tall. And Jackster, who, as of now, is the only mapper to contribute directly-ripped maps for CD-i games, has captured these slender stages for us to enjoy. The Apprentice needs to be appreciated! Not just the character, but the game! There's more to the CD-i than non-canonical Zelda games (though Jackster has also mapped those).
So to recognize the effort put into mapping a great game on an infamously unpopular console, Jackster's The Apprentice (CD-i) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for December 2022.
