The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[FLips]

8 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

The "best" version of Zool is a modern remake made by a team of students, it takes all the best bits of each version in one package and just runs perfectly with no tinkering, I was playing it on my ultrawide monitor, using all the space of the screen. Looks gorgeous and while it'll never play the greatest with it being Zool and all I've enjoyed it.

I have seen that and debated it a couple of times! It definitely benefits from the zoomed out camera as a “feature” holding a lot of the platformers back here are not being able to see what’s coming. Magic Pockets, Zool, Leander, Fire and Ice and a bunch of others would be better games for it.

[FLips]

Another day and another round. Probably the last big one before I settle into the games I have and start giving them a better revisit.

Dune II

Excellent little RTS and the Command & Conquer roots are plain as day, even down to the voice lines for units. I enjoy the presentation and the economic focus over brute force. The campaign was interesting in that you choose your next level by making moves on territory. Easy to learn as everything is explained in-game. 
A few things holding it back like not being able to select multiple units and some pretty slow scrolling, but a great game nontheless. Doesn't quite break my top 5 but it's in the top 10 easy.

Turrican II

I wanted to see everything this game has to offer as I can't get further than Stage 2, so I put the Infinite Lives cheat in and finished it. Wow. The game just gets better as it goes in nearly every way. Level design is top notch and more varied than I was expecting and the soundtrack is full of absolute classics, "The Wall" being an all timer. If it had some minor quality of life improvements it would be flawless. I can say hands down now it has the best overall soundtrack on the Amiga and I can't see it being beaten.

Shadow of The Beast II

I'll always have a soft spot for this trilogy so I'll try to be impartial. The opening cutscene is impressive and the world and music of the game will always be interesting to me, but the game is shit. The worst of the three games by far. Less graphically and audibly impressive than the first game, less playable than both the others.
Go right at the start instead of left? Soft locked. Don't kill that enemy that flew past your head? Soft locked. There is a dozen ways you can do the most basic of actions in the first ten minutes of this game that will disable the possibility of finishing it. It was clearly never bug tested, or if it was then I imagine those testers weren't employed much longer.
Being a Mega Drive player I always heard of the fabled "Ten Pints" cheat on this version and I honestly thought it was my saving grace to see it through. Nope. Got to a pit with a demon and two levers in it. Demon hits the lever and traps me in the pit, can't get out and can't die. Soft locked.
The music, graphics and that beautiful game over screen are all that's saving this from being the worst game I've played so far. If we're talking playability alone it's a 0/10 and sinks to the very very bottom.

Lemmings

What is there really to say? It's Lemmings. Addictive "one more go" gameplay makes this an ease to pick up and have a go of. The levels being well balanced to make you think but not have you stuck for hours (at least early on). Not personally in my top games as I'm not one for puzzle games really but I can see why it got as big as it did and why people would love it. Fun puzzler. The thinking man's Worms.

Lionheart

Couldn't really decide what I thought of this game. The graphics are decent but never blew me away the same way SoTB 1 or Ruff N Tumble did, the music is average and the controls pretty bizarre but somehow as a game it works in a bubble as a pretty decent little action platformer. Despite the combat being wonky the game made it work pretty smoothly, the platforming was well done and it's not really like anything I've played before. Had Psygnosis wrote all over it without being a Psygnosis game.
Some better music and a little more restraint with the combat and this is pretty much a solid Castlevania game but it falls just shy of reaching those highs.

Myth

Sadly another game on my "Can't work out what to do" pile. Interesting concept and nice to look at, it has pretty smooth platforming but bravely decides to use the James Pond 3 combat system of holding attack and then pressing the direction to hit that way. It wasn't bad by any means but I could not figure out where to go. If I went up top there was a dragon with no obvious hitbox for either my fireballs or sword to hit, and if I went the lower patch there was a jump with an invisible wall that you can't make.
Overall like Second Samurai this is decent but I just got stuck.

Robocop

Please be honest with me, does the Amiga have a bunch of infuriatingly hard games or am I just bad at them? This was a fantastic little run and gun (more of a slow walk than run) that I could not do the first level of. ED209 rocks up and just blasts you. He walks right across the screen and he gives damage if you touch him. I had a handful of goes and tried moving far left, walking through him, shooting him, everything. He wouldn't die and I was too slow to outrun him so I'd just die repeatedly.
It's a fun game and well presented but how do I finish the first level? It's nuts.

Cadaver

For reasons I can only assume being that it was one of their first games, this is the worst Bitmap Brothers game I've played so far. It's not awful for the type of game it is but holding it to the standard they've produced so far it just didn't have much going for it. The first sin being a forgettable title screen which BB usually knock out the park. 
Never been a huge fan of isometric controls and the menu system is a bit all over the place. Looks fairly decent though and not a bad games by any means. Just not my sorta thing.

None of these games have entered my top 5 but I can see why Dune II and Lemmings would be in other people's as they're pretty fantastic for what they are. I'm probably going to go back to Robocop and Myth at some point and try to figure them out. SoTB2 nose dives to the bottom of the pile much to my own disappointment. Still can't get over that Turrican II soundtrack. Wow.

[patiirc]

1 hour ago, FelatioLips said:

Another day and another round. Probably the last big one before I settle into the games I have and start giving them a better revisit.

Dune II

Excellent little RTS and the Command & Conquer roots are plain as day, even down to the voice lines for units. I enjoy the presentation and the economic focus over brute force. The campaign was interesting in that you choose your next level by making moves on territory. Easy to learn as everything is explained in-game. 
A few things holding it back like not being able to select multiple units and some pretty slow scrolling, but a great game nontheless. Doesn't quite break my top 5 but it's in the top 10 easy.

Turrican II

I wanted to see everything this game has to offer as I can't get further than Stage 2, so I put the Infinite Lives cheat in and finished it. Wow. The game just gets better as it goes in nearly every way. Level design is top notch and more varied than I was expecting and the soundtrack is full of absolute classics, "The Wall" being an all timer. If it had some minor quality of life improvements it would be flawless. I can say hands down now it has the best overall soundtrack on the Amiga and I can't see it being beaten.

Shadow of The Beast II

I'll always have a soft spot for this trilogy so I'll try to be impartial. The opening cutscene is impressive and the world and music of the game will always be interesting to me, but the game is shit. The worst of the three games by far. Less graphically and audibly impressive than the first game, less playable than both the others.
Go right at the start instead of left? Soft locked. Don't kill that enemy that flew past your head? Soft locked. There is a dozen ways you can do the most basic of actions in the first ten minutes of this game that will disable the possibility of finishing it. It was clearly never bug tested, or if it was then I imagine those testers weren't employed much longer.
Being a Mega Drive player I always heard of the fabled "Ten Pints" cheat on this version and I honestly thought it was my saving grace to see it through. Nope. Got to a pit with a demon and two levers in it. Demon hits the lever and traps me in the pit, can't get out and can't die. Soft locked.
The music, graphics and that beautiful game over screen are all that's saving this from being the worst game I've played so far. If we're talking playability alone it's a 0/10 and sinks to the very very bottom.

Lemmings

What is there really to say? It's Lemmings. Addictive "one more go" gameplay makes this an ease to pick up and have a go of. The levels being well balanced to make you think but not have you stuck for hours (at least early on). Not personally in my top games as I'm not one for puzzle games really but I can see why it got as big as it did and why people would love it. Fun puzzler. The thinking man's Worms.

Lionheart

Couldn't really decide what I thought of this game. The graphics are decent but never blew me away the same way SoTB 1 or Ruff N Tumble did, the music is average and the controls pretty bizarre but somehow as a game it works in a bubble as a pretty decent little action platformer. Despite the combat being wonky the game made it work pretty smoothly, the platforming was well done and it's not really like anything I've played before. Had Psygnosis wrote all over it without being a Psygnosis game.
Some better music and a little more restraint with the combat and this is pretty much a solid Castlevania game but it falls just shy of reaching those highs.

Myth

Sadly another game on my "Can't work out what to do" pile. Interesting concept and nice to look at, it has pretty smooth platforming but bravely decides to use the James Pond 3 combat system of holding attack and then pressing the direction to hit that way. It wasn't bad by any means but I could not figure out where to go. If I went up top there was a dragon with no obvious hitbox for either my fireballs or sword to hit, and if I went the lower patch there was a jump with an invisible wall that you can't make.
Overall like Second Samurai this is decent but I just got stuck.

Robocop

Please be honest with me, does the Amiga have a bunch of infuriatingly hard games or am I just bad at them? This was a fantastic little run and gun (more of a slow walk than run) that I could not do the first level of. ED209 rocks up and just blasts you. He walks right across the screen and he gives damage if you touch him. I had a handful of goes and tried moving far left, walking through him, shooting him, everything. He wouldn't die and I was too slow to outrun him so I'd just die repeatedly.
It's a fun game and well presented but how do I finish the first level? It's nuts.

Cadaver

For reasons I can only assume being that it was one of their first games, this is the worst Bitmap Brothers game I've played so far. It's not awful for the type of game it is but holding it to the standard they've produced so far it just didn't have much going for it. The first sin being a forgettable title screen which BB usually knock out the park. 
Never been a huge fan of isometric controls and the menu system is a bit all over the place. Looks fairly decent though and not a bad games by any means. Just not my sorta thing.

None of these games have entered my top 5 but I can see why Dune II and Lemmings would be in other people's as they're pretty fantastic for what they are. I'm probably going to go back to Robocop and Myth at some point and try to figure them out. SoTB2 nose dives to the bottom of the pile much to my own disappointment. Still can't get over that Turrican II soundtrack. Wow.

For Robocop stand far left of screen and hammer fire whilst jumping up and down. Try and save 3 way shots, jump the bullets and voila. You can also hit him off screen too which helps. 

It's a hard game, notoriously so but appears to be easier on the home versions. https://robocoparchive.com/games/atari-amiga-r1.htm

C64 version was bloody hard too. It's definitely not you. Hopefully will get a crack at the arcade version later in the week as it's been a while. 

Shame that Myth and Cadaver didn't work out, definitely enjoying the write ups though. 

 

[FLips]

Just now, johnnyboy said:

I find a lot of old games tough in general.  Didn't you also play Project X earlier on?  A game so hard most people never got beyond the second level.

I never got beyond the first! The first boss rinsed me.

Also @patiircI tried that Robocop strat and still can't do it!

[Jazzy G]

Don't forget to play Amiga Robocod. I know you prefer James Pond 3, but I have such find memories of Amiga Robocod. 

Super cars 2 is a fun top down racer.

Lotus 3 has a pretty good soundtrack, and you can generate tracks by typing random words into the editor. 

[Merzbow]

A lot of old action games are like 30 minutes long, ain't they? It's wild how much we paid for some of them, the only longevity being that they're so brutally hard you'll never see the end.

One for the fighter fans here, Jackie Chan In Fists Of Fire is actually pretty damn decent, isn't it? I stuck it on on my RetroPi and while it's pretty brutal I had fun as it's surprisingly really damn responsive compared to pretty much every fighter that used digitised graphics.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Merzbow

[FLips]

20 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

A lot of old action games are like 30 minutes long, ain't they? It's wild how much we paid for some of them, the only longevity being that they're so brutally hard you'll never see the end.

One for the fighter fans here, Jackie Chan In Fists Of Fire is actually pretty damn decent, isn't it? I stuck it on on my RetroPi and while it's pretty brutal I had fun as it's surprisingly really damn responsive compared to pretty much every fighter that used digitised graphics.

I’ve not heard of that but I used to love Jackie Chan Stuntmaster back on PS1!

[Merzbow]

It's wild, feels like a hyper paced SNK game and any move can be cancelled... probably not balanced at all and all three Jackie characters are OP

 

[FLips]

That looks absolutely wild.

[TildeGuy~!]

I’ve got both on my Pandoras Box, the first one Jackie Chan: The Kung Fu Master doesn’t even let you play as Jackie. 

[Devon Malcolm]

@FelatioLips Myth was a notoriously absolutely ridiculously solid game. Never get far with it on C64 after several thousand goes.

[Jazzy G]

I managed to make it as far as the chimera boss at the end of the first level. For some reason it was released as a Conan the barbarian game on the NES. 

[FLips]

3 hours ago, jazzygeofferz said:

I managed to make it as far as the chimera boss at the end of the first level. For some reason it was released as a Conan the barbarian game on the NES. 

That’s the dragon thing I was talking about! No way to beat the thing!

[patiirc]

13 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

I never got beyond the first! The first boss rinsed me.

Also @patiircI tried that Robocop strat and still can't do it!

Oh crumbs, I'll try and fire it up later if I get a chance, so used to playing the arcade version and getting absolutely rinsed on the junkyard level, I may have missed something. 

Edit 2m 20 ish jump and fire method 

With triple shot

Edited April 25, 2022 by patiirc
Added Vid

[Merzbow]

I just bought one of these for 18 quid, anyone else use them for emulators? It looks to be a pretty decent pad and probably much better for 2D games than my Xbox controller.