The Humans (video game)

This article is about the GameTek video game. For The Humans new wave band, see Humans (band).

The Humans
Developer(s)	Imagitec Design
Publisher(s)	GameTek
Designer(s)	Rod Humble
Platform(s)	Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, Game Boy, Amiga, 3DO, PC, Jaguar, Lynx, Nintendo DS
Release	1992
Genre(s)	Puzzle game
Mode(s)	Single player

The Humans is a computer game published by GameTek, in which the player guides a tribe of humans through the course of evolution to modern man. Included on this quest is the discovery of spears, fire, wheels, rope, and torches. Anachronistically, one of the humans' main enemies are dinosaurs. The game bears a slight resemblance to the Lemmings series of games, even if this game is about direct control of the protagonists, rather than giving them tasks. The Jaguar and Lynx versions of The Humans were published by Atari, and were titled Evolution: Dino Dudes and Dinolympics respectively.

Gameplay

There are up to eight humans in a level, out of a possibly larger tribe. If a human dies, he is replaced by one from the tribe, if any are left. The amount of tribe members is set per game, not per level, thus it may be worthwhile to replay a level in order to get more humans through. If too few humans are left in the tribe, the game eventually ends as several levels require a minimum number of humans to be solved. Luckily, some levels have prisoners that you can rescue to add to your tribe.

The player controls one human at a time, and can switch back and forth. In many levels, the humans have equipment that they can pick up, use or throw.

Abilities

The basic ability of all humans is to form a stack by climbing onto each other's shoulders. This allows them to reach higher platforms, after accounting for wobbling. Flying pterodactyls can be used as transportation to get even higher.

The first item found is the spear. It can be brandished to keep enemy humans (or dinosaurs) at a distance, and can be thrown to kill such (which requires aiming similar to Scorched Earth games). However, the most important trait of the spear is using it to pole-vault over gaps (then throwing it back to let the next human vault over).

The second item is the torch, which is identical to a spear except that it cannot be used to pole-vault. However, some levels contain small bushes that are impassable, but can be burnt down with the torch.

The third item is the rope, which unsurprisingly can be used to climb down ledges.

The fourth and final item is the wheel, which is rather hazardous. It cannot be picked up, but a hapless human can mount the wheel and ride it. When rolling down an incline, this gathers enough speed to jump over large holes.

Some levels contain a shaman as part of the tribe. The shaman cannot use items, but can be used to conjure them after ritual sacrifice of a tribe member.

Re-release

The Humans was re-released with the The Humans 2: The Jurassic Levels expansion pack on CD as just 'The Humans', the OEM Dos CD version was renamed The Humans 1+2 and included English, French, German, Italian and Spanish versions. There is no enhanced CD audio soundtrack for this version, it retains the original midi soundtrack and so uses only a fraction of the space on the CD.

There are a number of changes and bugs in the CD versions:

• A save system was added allowing you to continue latter retaining your tribe and score.
• The password for Level 81 (Level 1 of Humans 2) still has it's original password 'Darwin' which is the same as Level 1 making it inaccessible from the password screen and only available by completing level 80.
• Level 117 (Level 37 of Humans 2) in this version was modified from the original and is bug ridden and not completable. To get around this you will need the password 'Scary Man' for level 118.

Sequels

• The Humans 2: The Jurassic Levels (1992) - An expansion pack for The Humans with 80 new levels, released as The Humans: Insult to Injury in the US.
• The Humans 3: Evolution Lost In Time (1995) - A new engine, controls, graphics and levels.
• The Humans: Meet The Ancestors! (2009) - New humans which are all aesthetically different, adding The Woman, The Boy, The Girl, The Baby & The Village Elder.

External links

• The Humans series at MobyGames
• The Humans: Meet The Ancestors!