Reviews of 8 and 16 bit hardware and games with the emphasis on using the original hardware. All the footage capture on this channel is from the real deal, no emulation unless otherwise stated.
Specialising in the Amstrad CPC, Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, MSX, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, BBC Micro, Atari XL/XE and many many more.
Nice vid! But you should have taken the best 8-bit original into your selection: The msx feud! this conversion has got the resolution the speccy uses, but the full soundtrack and even better colours! Thanks anyway!
I had the misfortune to be given this poisoned chalice to work on back in the early 80s. Even if you leave out the creepy Savile connection, it's a strong contender for the title of "worst game idea ever conceived". A game in which you have to clean up dog p**s??? Oh, and the poor sod who was given the C64 port to work on, was shafted big time not only on this project, but I gather he got a no-lube ramming by whoever conned him to work on that other anomination, SQIJ. Ah, the joys of the games industry in the wild west 80s.
Few years since I reviewed it but my memory says I thought it was OK. 'Job simulators' seem to be an actual genre now so it may have been ahead of its time. At least on the Z80 systems it was worth the 2 quid entry fee.
Actually had one like this years ago. Ordered from a place called Comput Ability. I wasn't happy with that scanner. So I returned it and order the Sharp JX 100 Color Scanner. Still have it today! Haven't used my Amiga 1200 computer in a year. About time for me to get out and start playing with again.
@@chinnyvision Unfortunately almost nobody does. I record real screens while playing. It is not too bad. Especially with a joystick on a 1m cord it is quite easy. I even record VFD handhelds while playing, that IS hard, as the button caps come off if you open the case for filming the tube.
❤ good to see innovative fresh games continuing to be produced for the VIC 20. This an impressive follow on from Cheese and Onion. Certainly pushing the limits of the machine which is helped by elite developer skills, what we know today that we didn't know then, technical resources of today and retro enthusiasm. This game reminds me of Citadel for the BBC micro. The VIC 20 is such an interesting machine in terms of its limitations, including making graphics and smooth animation by character redefinition. The limitations give it an endearing 8 bit personality, overcoming them is the best reward, intellectually and from others admiration of the work.
Of course Cheese And Onion is by Misfit not Hewco. Got confused as both are published by The Future Was 8 Bit. Also I played the game again last night and still can't get that snorkel!
Apparently there's a modern god game where if you end up installing a puppet government in Australia, the country gets renamed The Emu Empire and Rod Hull is the president.
@@chinnyvision In Dutch we have a saying; "Onkruid vergaat niet." Literally: "Weeds don't perish". Almost always used self-deprecatingly with tongue in cheek.
Great to see a new video from you. It does look a pretty enjoyable little platformer. I wonder, given its relative simplicity, that it might get ported to others systems or remain a VIC-20 exclusive.
@@gregor I'd love to make a C64 version. It would need some redesign as the locations are 16x16 in size. I could certainly double the width of the level graphics but would have to think about what to do about the height. BTW, the game appears a simple platformer but looks are deceiving as there's quite a lot to discover :)
I've interviewed Andy Hewitt for issue 262 of Retro Gamer, talking about how he made this. It's good fun and great to see some of the brilliant recent games on VIC-20.
I spent so much time finding the lyric I wanted and extracting Rods singing for the intro I didn't have time to do a load of other references. I played it on the Discord. Someone said it sounded like arthritis had a voice.
The more generous collisions is something you see is more modern games for current platofmrs too, better to let the player brush against a few pixels than collide with ones that aren't used by the enemy shape. Maybe learning a bit from the popularity of bullet hell shooters?
Yes, collisions were a bug bear of mine as they were often unfair and sometimes there to make the game more difficult I guess so you didn't complete them so quickly. In Emu I purposely gave an allowance of a one pixel overlap...I think it's difficult enough like that! I wanted to make a classic platformer with some modern touches to make it more accessible.
I never said I was stopping altogether I just said regular videos were coming to an end and that they'd be videos as and when I felt like it. There's already been one on CV2.
I remember this game. My sister and I used to play it on Amstrad CPC when we were kids. It definitely looks like a classic 1980s arcade game Pac-Man by Namco (now known as Bandai Namco Entertainment as we know). It was kinda fun. I thought that insane chef as a main villain was going to be appeared in the game but he doesn't appear. I call him, 'Mad Chef' 🤪🧑🍳 or maybe 'Mad Cook'! Anyway greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪
I had this back in the day on the Speccy. Very hard game & yes very Wacky game. It does have some similarites to the Amstrad version, it may have been Written by someone else.
Holy smokes... This came out a year _after_ "Tomahawk" on the Speccy? Which was a very decent flight sim for the time (albeit of a helicopter gunship) with colour, 3D vector graphics, ground-features, ground and air enemies, a proper campaign mode with an ongoing real-time battle happening around you, a map... just a different league entirely. We don't talk about Lenslok (tm) though.
I used to get turfed to my Grandmas most weekends back in the day, with the Atari 800xl in a suitcase... I've never come across the Atari 8 version of this, but we loved Vegas Jackpot after countdown on the tv had finished of course. Memories.. I'm now 47. Edit, and don't have a gambling adiction lol
Co tu dużo gadać. Spierdolona wersja i tyle. Za dzieciaka pamiętam tylko 3 rzeczy, oprócz tego, że nie dało się grać. Mianowicie, zarąbista muzyka, że typek miał wykrzyknik zamiast ręki (śmiech!) oraz że jak dotarłem pod schody i spadłem do piekła, to mam traumę do dzisiaj 😎
Great video with some excellent reviews. It was my first home computer. Ikari Warriors I feel is a really good port, given the limitations. Lacking some features but the main elements are there. Simultaneous 2 player mode and tanks. He can only shoot forward though whilst enemies can shoot diagonally, lol. But it just makes it more tactical. Good fun to play. My favourite C16 game of this genre. Terra Cognita is a tough game, but beatable. One of those games where you need to memorise the map. Autozone is a classic, but way too difficult to complete. I did beat it once with a 255 lives cheat, but it took ages. Same with Green Beret which really is as bad as you say. Likely the worst game of all time, but the same can be said for Ghosts 'n' Goblins on the C16. Saboteur is indeed a strange one. The game is more or less there, it's just the graphics. I shall give it a C for effort for trying to achieve the impossible. Tom Thumb is a bonafide classic. I too am surprised that it fits within the C16's memory. It is a huge map. One of the best platformers on the C16. The C64 & Vic-20 versions are rubbish. Timeslip is another classic. It recently received an excellent C64 port by the same coder. Did you know that like Trailblazer, A.C.E was also first coded on the C16, and then the other system versions, including the Plus4 followed afterwards? The C16 is such an underrated machine. Most who diss it has never even played the games, just 8-bit snobs. Lots of great titles, some even better than the C64 version, such as Big Mac, Squirm, Tom Thumb and (arguably) Kikstart, which also received a C64 port. Tutti Frutti was a C16 only title but also received a C64 fan port which I helped playtest. Actually plays better with an excellent SID rendition of the main tunes. Heck I also like the average Monkey Magic just for its sheer simplicity and colourful graphics. Thanks for the video. Brings back lots of nostalgic memories.
I was at a friend's house in Bristol when Rich came round to show us the C64 version in progress. It was playable, but woeful, and AFAIK just abandoned. 73 de Biggles.
Thank you for all the great videos, of which I have only seen a small percentage and done a lot of skipping. Still great work. I cannot seem to shake the thought that this might be a sign of the times. You are most definitely younger than me, but how young can you be and still remember the 8-bit micros? Will there be any to take over or will the scene slowly wither and die now? And more importantly - what will you use all that spare time for, you lazy bum? :-) (Maybe you said in the video, I was cleaning downstairs with the volume turned up)
