Hoi

Overview

Hoi, sometimes known as Hoi, Let's Play!, is a side-scrolling platformer developed by Team Hoi and published by Hollyware Entertainment for Amiga computers in 1992.

The first game by the Dutch studio, Hoi stars the titular green dinosaur as he journeys through the Madlands as a rite-of-passage to find true love. The game is known for its variation, with each of the five levels having a variety of different challenges and gimmicks. It is best known for its fifth and final level, whose various strobing effects can cause epileptic seizures (with the back of the game's box giving an epilepsy warning, the first known computer game to do so).

Despite its positive reception, it was later revealed that Team Hoi was not paid the expected royalties for the game (past a $200 advance) by Hollyware, and that their original intended publisher, Innerprise, was suspected of leaking an early version of the game. Due to not having the money for legal action, Team Hoi instead released an updated version a year later as freeware. Known as "Hoi AGA Remix", and named after the recently-released Amiga chipset of the same name, this version features cosmetic updates and new game options (at the cost of the original intro and title sequence).

The game later received a spiritual successor years later, with Moon Child.

Levels

• The first level is a straight-forward platforming romp through nature while collecting black diamonds.

• The second level has Hoi making his way upward through the scaffolding of a construction site while deactivating sirens. Later in the level, he has to make his way across temporary platforms.

• The third level, set in a bizarre alien structure, gives Hoi a jetpack and the ability to spit orbs at enemies (which can drop coins to collect). Part of the level has puzzle sections involving pushing groups of blocks, with one section involving a second Hoi that players switch between.

• The fourth level is back in nature, and Hoi can now swim underwater and collect and drop devices for specific objectives (such as a key for a door and explosives for a rock blocking the path). He also now has an "air" gauge, which can be refilled in multiple ways (including carrying an oxygen tank). Later on, Hoi encounters invisible platforms and must solve a series of memory puzzles before a sequence involving a motorized stroller.

• The fifth and final level is a short but very challenging sequence where Hoi must quickly traverse a two-minute platforming course as the level falls apart behind him. To make things more difficult, the level's background and foreground are constantly flashing and changing (which could potentially cause epileptic seizures).

Mini-Games

At certain points, Hoi can gain extra lives by successfully partaking in mini-games throughout the game.

• In the second level, Hoi can move up and down an elevator while launching arrows at dynamite floating down from balloons (similar to Pooyan).

• In the third level, Hoi controls a spaceship as he shoots down aliens descending from the screen.

• In the fourth level, Hoi can fish from a shoe-sized sailboat.