Nicky Boom

Nicky Boom turns a simple platformer about throwing apple cores into a high-speed exercise in survival on the MS-DOS platform.

Defeating Zoldrane takes more than good timing on your jumps

The premise of Nicky Boom is straightforward enough for a early nineties arcade platformer: an evil sorceress named Zoldrane has kidnapped your grandfather, the custodian of the forest folk, to wring out his magical secrets. To save him, you guide young Nicky through eight sprawling levels grouped across four distinct environments, starting in damp swamps before pushing through dense forests and into Zoldrane's castle. Your primary defense consists of tossing leftover apple cores at hostile wildlife or stomping on enemies from above, but clearing a stage demands far more than basic platforming skills.

Designed by Alain Lambin and Dominico Manfredi for Microïds, the game weaves genuine puzzle mechanics into its side-scrolling structure. You are constantly hunting for specific items to clear your path. Floating dynamite and flying bombs let you blast open hidden stone barriers to reveal secrets, while stray logs must be collected to construct makeshift wooden bridges over deep rivers. You will also collect ladder extensions to reach high platforms, keys to unlock doorways, bouncy balls, potions, shields, extra lives, and a spyglass that reveals hidden items across the screen.

The speed of the MS-DOS port changes everything

When Microïds brought their game from the Commodore Amiga to PC displays in 1992, something got lost in translation - and something got wildly accelerated. Reviewers at the time noted that the Microïds conversion lost the original digitalized sound effects and atmospheric visual effects, settling for slightly muted colors. Instead of rich sampled audio, the MS-DOS game relies entirely on AdLib and Sound Blaster FM synthesis to play its cheerful music tracks.

The real issue for modern players, however, is execution speed. On PC hardware, the game code runs far faster than it ever did on the Amiga, turning what was once a measured platformer into a manic test of reflexes. Enemy sprites dart across the screen at breakneck speeds, turning precise jumps into guesswork and making evasion nearly impossible. Touch an enemy hit-box for even a moment and your health bar melts away in under two seconds, forcing you to carefully inch forward step by step to avoid sudden death.

Huge levels make every death a setback

Even back in 1992, contemporary magazines pointed out that the levels in Nicky Boom felt excessively large. German publication Amiga Joker handed the title a 64% rating, praising its colorful presentation and level puzzles while noting how easy it was to get hopelessly lost. Teleporters scattered around stages warp you to off-screen secret rooms, but without a clear map, navigating the maze-like environments before hitting a checkpoint can quickly lead to exhaustion.

Because the rapid pacing makes dying so easy, most players who beat the game relied heavily on built-in cheat codes rather than raw patience. Typing TRONIX at the password entry screen unlocks infinite lives, along with function-key shortcuts for instant invincibility (F1), maximum bombs (F2), max keys (F3), and level skips (DEL). If you just want to skip ahead to specific stages without typing the master cheat, you can jump straight to world entry points using password codes like MEDIT for level two, KRATTY for level three, MIRTES for level four, or ARRAX and JANIR for worlds five and six.

The underlying game engine created for this release proved durable enough that Microïds recycled and tweaked it for two subsequent action titles: the 1993 sequel Nicky 2 and their 1994 soccer-themed platformer Carlos. Yet it is the original adventure that people remember for its odd mix of cute apple-tossing action and punishing PC speed.

Play Nicky Boom online now

If you want to try this piece of Microïds history yourself, you can play Nicky Boom free in your browser right here. There is nothing to download or configure, letting you jump straight into Zoldrane's forest and experience its unrelenting pacing firsthand. Just remember to hunt down those dynamite pickups early, keep your eyes peeled for hidden teleporters, and keep the master cheat code handy if the lightning-fast collision damage gets the better of you.