Telenet actually was working on a Mega Drive game in 1990 called Road Busters that looked very much like a sequel to this. You drive a big rig vertically past attacking vehicles, more Mad Max 2: Road Warrior than Convoy in theme. But they never released the game. :(
Ahh, the American dream: driving a truck while delivering packages to Nasa with the license to kill anybody on the road. . Haha, great video as always. . .
I love how "Hi-Speed Scroll" is a legit marketing point - I think the MSX2 did just come out to offer truly smooth, high speed scrolling? Also, seeing a big rig truck with trailer go to 200 km/h (~124 mph) is impressive and slightly terrifying to imagine in real life - if I'm on the freeway and I see one in the mirror coming at me at that speed, I'd definitely lose my Taco. The game is no Truck Heck, but it looks pretty decent for 1985!
Haha. I doubt they meant to actually refer to the speed of the scrolling, though. Since it was 1985 PC's, I imagine they were bragging that the game has scrolling at all... and that the action is fast-paced.
@@BasementBrothers I missed that part in the video, but if they wrote that, I think OP is correct. The MSX2, released in 1985, included a vertical scrolling register, allowing pixel-by-pixel scrolling for games like this. I believe its horizontal scrolling options were also improved from the original MSX, which was "famously" held back by its lack of scrolling capabilities in that time period when games like Xevious and Mappy were hot in the arcade. The Famicom, released in 1983, had been designed with smooth scrolling in mind, and it had many faithful arcade ports before SMB completely sealed the deal.
Japan's concept of how the American trucking industry worked in the 80s is probably on par with what any American thought of how anything worked in Japan in the 80s too.
This reminds me a lot of Konami's Road Fighter which was a big hit for them on computers at the time, though there were plenty of other overhead-view "stay on the road and ram people" games around...
This reminded me of a game that I can't seem to find any information on anymore. As a kid I would go to the convince store buy some 7th series Garbage Pail Kids and stick around to play this game. It was called Stocker. You were a red big rig. It had a similar top down view. You basically had to drive from coast to coast. Even the music is still stuck in my head. Wish I could find it again.😊
Okay absolutely love the intro and outro! Nice touch 😊 Interesting how many versions are available, but being a simple game made it easier to port. Definitely makes me think of Spy Hunter or Action Fighter. One of those early Arcade style racing games that always used the spy backstory. Probably why they added the same thing to this game 😂 still, definitely more unique than other clones. One of those that are easy to learn but hard to master type arcade games 👾
Reminds me of Road Fighter which came out the year before in 1984 in arcades. I had it on NES and played it to death. You could knock cars into the barriers without slowing down.
@@BasementBrothersIt is a fun game. I'm not familiar with the Arcade version but the NES version has the same cars in the same place every time which sort of sucks. Looks like it was released on MSX too.
I think this was your funniest episode yet -- I definitely LOLed quite a few times. ;) Also, the Large Marge scene from Pee-Wee was a really nice touch! Game looks more fun than I ever would've expected, TBH. I might have to check out the MSX version sometime!
Personally I think of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode "Riding with Death". Although the TV show that Riding with Death was re-edited from, Gemini Man, originally aired in 1976. However Riding with Death aired in 1981, so it still "technically" counts as something from the 80's.
Wow, I was surprised to see that the game looks as fun as it does! Laughed out loud at the ridiculous story bit, I thought you were making it up. Thanks for another day in Paradise, Mr. Jakes!
12:17 - A bit of a nitpick, but the NEC PC-6000 series is not much older than the NEC PC-8800 series, they're actually from the same vintage, it's just the PC-6000 series were sold as a cheaper alternative.
This feels like Big Rigs, if it was actually good. Or Desert Bus, at least in concept. My uncle's a trucker who hailed from Florida, and he still delivers there, so I suppose the palm trees are accurate. :p
For me, an European, it's seems very accurate simulator of american truck in 80's xD Jokes asides clearly simpler game from simpler times, but its must was quite popular if there are versions for every computer available in Japan in that time. Interesting.
I am an AMERICAN mouse and they even let me drive the trucks sometimes. They usually end up regretting the decision, but too bad for them. It's the law!
It's a shame they didn't know about the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Secure Transportation under the US Department of Energy. They transport nuclear material in classified, highly secured tractor-trailer shipments, try to hire ex-special forces when possible, and have a surprising degree of authority. They even monitor upcoming road conditions.
PC 88 feels like the definitive version of ZX spectrum with high res and better soundchip, And PC 98 a definitive version of MSX with high res and better soundchip too
I have been wanting this video for quite some time. I wonder how realistic it will be… Will it give American Truck Simulator a run for its money? Time to watch and find out! Thank you!!
@@BasementBrothers Bro you are God send for that .Just curious How did you get started building your collection for these Retro computers since games for those systems are hard to get
Yahoo auctions is the place to get them. It was a lot easier for me since I've been living in Japan and thus don't need to use an expensive proxy bidding service.
A license to kill and take all the NoDoz you want to.😉 I think they did a pretty good take on trucking to make it interesting, coming off that era of brief fanfare for the profession Eg. Convoy movie. Although I have heard of the truck culture in Japan with the highly decorated rigs. I had an idea for something like that but it was more of GTA slant of drug running, lot hookers, and highway bandits. Some truckers have some wild stories but the majority of the time you just drive from point A to B lol.
Compared to its modern Czech cousin, American Truck Simulator, this game might not be very realistic. But it's closer to what I imagine driving trucks in the USA is like. At least, in terms of road safety (or rather, the total lack of). The story is quite a curveball, though.
i bet if you look at the dust flaps on our "American Truck" you'll see Yuko from Valis and the words "Haulin Ass" under it... also how dare those 80's era japanese programmers at Telenet put Camel at the bottom under Salem and Kent (what the fuck is Jakes?)... camel is only beat by Lucky Strikes.. lucky strikes means fine tobacco... i love the japanese version of american culture...
@BasementBrothers Arcades were Sega's strongpoint, so I'd be surprised if they weren't :) I admit, I'm curious about Bakusou Dekotara Densetsu series, but that's a different generation of machines entirely.
I'd heard of this one from the likes of EGGch on youtube but never got around to checking it out. I mean it seems interesting? don't know why some versions have bombs though, interesting choice there.
The driving in this game is a little too accurate to real life as american truckers definitely drive this way. I guess every trucker in the US thinks they are a spy for NASA. That said did you see the original version of Xanadu has actually released on the nintendo switch as Egg Console Xanadu, was a surprising but welcome classic release for the games anniversary.
I don't know which is more absurd: The fact that there is a "Spy Hunter" for 18 rigs, or this company could have thought that each State had its own branch of NASA.
Yeah. I definitely planned to include a comment on that in the video at one point, but guess I forgot when I was actually writing the script. I try to take good notes but that kind of thing happens all the time.
Nice attempt by Telenet, but it's not the true American Truck experience without arm wrestling competitions and fighting Mortal Kombat characters in Chinatown.
@@BasementBrothers Yes. The original version of the "The Tower" (later released in the US as "SimTower") was just called "Tower". Although looking at the requirements, I guess it required a PC-9821 with the Japanese version of Windows 3.1, so maybe that doesn't qualify.
👮♂️ "What's gotten into you, rookie?! That's not the spy... that's American Truck! Let em through!" 😎 "Oh don't worry about it. Have a nice day, officer" 🚛 Now Ive got the American Truck song stuck in my head lol
