90s side scrolling at it's cruelest - Abuse (1996) Retrospective

I am back! With a full blown retrospective this time! Come jump into the brown-tinted nightmare world of Abuse, a little 2d run and gun mostly forgotten by time
Let's jump right into it!
You can get the full game + sourceport right here:
antonior-softwa...

[@plaguis1391]

This game was a staple on those old "10,000 games" CDs. It was also one of maybe 3 games actually worth playing on those things haha. Also where I first discovered Dink Smallwood. Good times.

[@INFILTR8US]

I love Dink!

[@stoogesmetal]

Dink Smallwood hahahahaha. That game was awesome!

[@HardGayMoose]

How funny, I found an old cd and was just looking up gameplay of all the games

[@mcgibs]

God I loved those shareware compilation CDs. They're great if you were one of those 1 new game a year kids with ultra stingy parents.

[@natedisrud]

Yes! I was born in 93, and couldn't for the life of me remember the name of the game abuse Until now! Spent alot of time in that game off of one of those multi game cd packs.

[@user-yz6rw3si3e]

If I remember correctly, the original game had its sfx tracks saved as *.voc files or some other Creative labs proprietary wave audio file format. My brothers and I had fun back when we still in school, replacing the alien sounds with recordings of our youngest brother saying "Ya-ya ya yo yo yo!!!" so whenever the aliens appeared, it would play back our brother's voice recording.

[@BunkerDweller]

Once again youtube's processing has screwed me over by glitching out my pixelated title/end cards, so it just seems like I'm gonna have to deal with it. Otherwise I hope you enjoy the video. I have some more coming along soon, some more retrospectives, some others about different topics, so stay tuned for that.

[@Schiggyyy]

Love this game! I find it very interesting how you described the feeling of "fighting against the developers" and that the developers "want to kill you". I totally agree. Also here is a quote by the devs on why they named the game Abuse: "We chose Abuse for our first game name because the game involved knowing full well that pressing the buttons in all those rooms was going to bring down hoards of howlers, but you would do it anyway, abusing yourself."

[@SerTomKatze]

I was worried you where gone bro. Glad to see someone actually making worth wile content still kicking around

[@EggBlunt]

Man, I was worried and missed this channel. I'm glad you're back.

[@jimbo2revengeance]

Mouse aiming was implemented in Doom, even back in the day, it operated more like joystick aiming, but it was there. Quake also supported keyboard aiming, featuring aggressive autoaim. Mouse aiming was preferred by most developers, however mice themselves were still not standardized as necessary PC accessories. That only changed once windows started dominating the PC market.

[@Mazut0]

First games with a "freelook" mouse camera that I know of were Terminator Future Shock, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake

[@jimbo2revengeance]

We are not talking "free aim" we are talking "mouse input"@@Mazut0

[@Exgrmbl]

@@Mazut0 marathon came out a year after doom and had freelook mouse aiming controls.

[@einokeino303]

In the tv-series "ER", one of the nurses is playing Doom with mouse only. Looks weird and funny.

[@bhante1345]

I was way too young to be playing this game when we got a copy of it, but that genuine sense of fear kept me coming back. Played it recently for the first time in 30 odd years, still amazing controls.

[@manafbenayache1880]

well back then i was playing it with my brother pal!

[@John3_16_]

Awesome video! Was searching for an abuse video and this was it. You earned my sub.

[@MajandraFan]

The version of Abuse I played in 1996 had a storyline where it was set on an alien planet and the enemies were aliens. This "mutated prisoners in a prison complex" thing seems to be a last-minute story change for copyright reasons. Abuse works best with no music, just ambient sounds and terrifying alien ambush shrieks.

[@MajandraFan]

The mechanical legs let you run across lava to get secrets, usually behind destroyable walls.

[@kabardino1337]

There were thousands of flash games with this type of presentation and gameplay, I guess this is what inspired them

[@thuggeegaming659]

Yeah, unfortunately those were very low quality games, but there's a new indie game called Another Space Opera, that implements a right analog stick to aim your weapon independently of movement. It's extremely good, check it out!

[@OperatorMax1993]

Oh yeah, like Thing-Thing. We actually found the creator (Weasel) and brought him to a server. After asking him multiple questions (the soundtrack composer DJ Rockwell, what happened to Dashkin, his status, etc.) And after one question on whether Thing-Thing was inspired by Madness Combat : he never was into MC, his inspiration was Abuse

[@jjforcebreaker]

Recently replayed it, it's still rough and great in spots. Thanks for the retrospective!

[@neskey]

glad to see you back! don't worry about not having a proper uploading schedule, as long as you upload every once in a while

[@agauerm]

I loved this game in the 90s, ahead of it's time. It was the 1st Aliens Vs. Predator lol

[@dimitri_1of1]

I was introduced to this game thanks to Wii Homebrew. I played a fair bit but I haven’t been able to play it since the Wii Era. Recently got a Legion Go and I’m planning on reliving this game

[@Moo19990]

Glad you are back

[@TheUntypicalGerman]

I was 7 years old when I played Abuse and it gave me the creeps and a few nights of nightmares :D

[@LastGenRichtofenn]

here before this channel blows up

[@Robsenairgun]

I remember as a kid i play that game demo in a Black "best of" cd . It scared me so hard as a kid and was so scary but i played trough it for like 60-70 times :D good old times

[@thisismyname5657]

Man I totally forgot about you happy to see you back hope you're doing well

[@dykomsoftware]

Loved the video dude! Watched for reference! I've been building a game for several years that's an homage to Abuse, called Arksync. You nailed it comparing Abuse to Doom or Quake. Thanks for the deep dive!

[@CarlHammarstrom]

Was just going to make a comment about Arksync when I saw this post. It's been a long time since i played Abuse but now after seeing this video i see were the data panel in the duct next to the shooting range in is a reference to. =)

[@dykomsoftware]

@@CarlHammarstrom You're the first I know of to notice the reference. Stoked!

[@RemiRecluse]

Wow what a coinsidence!! I have been looking for this game forever, played it a ton as a kid but forgot the name and haven't seen it since I was 10 years old (28 today). So today I searched all kinds of keywords to find it on google but found nothing. I eventually decided to look on list after list through different years of videogames to find the damn game and finally stumbled upon a list of best videogames of 1995 and there it was! But I wanted to see more gameplay to reawake memories so searched for it and first thing that came up was your video and it was uploaded yesterday!? I'm not religious in any way but if there was ever a sign that I should sub to someone, that's it. Great video man!

[@sucktitles]

Started this one up just now decades after the first time and damn is it a hidden gem that should have had way more attention than it did. Near perfect gameplay design and atmosphere is creepy AF. Those 100 mutants hanging cocooned on the ceiling, invulnerable but you get anticipation stress of when they're going to pop, making that off-screen "thud" sound.

[@priscillaquinn9505]

I had a 250 games collection when i was 10 in the 90s My first pc game with this on it

[@vonbeaver99]

I remember when this game came out and playing it on my brand new compaq presario with an amazing 24 megs of RAM

[@dabogabo]

This kind of controls is relatively modern, more popular actually in late 2000s and early 2010s. It reminds me of the Trine games and Gunpoint.

[@sziklamester1244]

A gem what not so much people know it exists. Nowaday people whom making platformers and shooters not remember this nice stuff. Once I make a game with this theme I will use Abuse as a baseline. Someone maybe could remake this game on Godot. Open source engine free to use and possible a skilled indie could remake it. I personally would like to do if I have had more skills.

[@KingofGermanic]

That intro was vaguely Ross's Game Dungeon reminiscent, you wouldn't happen to be inspired would you lmao

[@BunkerDweller]

Inspired? More like ripping off lol

[@KingofGermanic]

@@BunkerDweller lmao. Considering how infrequently he posts we need more videos like his and yours. If I could offer a piece of advice it's that you need to find your own style. He's got a very announcer like voice and his cadence fits it, you don't but you keep his cadence. not trying to be rude or undermine the effort you put on but hey if I can advise...

[@BunkerDweller]

@@KingofGermanic Yeah that's true, I'm far from a good narrator or announcer. Without a script I'm a pretty bad speaker period.

[@bixenter]

loved this game so much in 90's. Dreamed of a sequel many times. I also did build some maps for it. All is lost of course. All sequel needs is a good fps rate and more enemies. The level editor is also freaking amazing in it with the flexible events system. It was possible to make some weird things in it.

[@ColonDee.]

A video talking about a game that marked my childhood, with Army Warehouse music playing at the intro, I know I'm in the right place

[@manafbenayache1880]

i have played this game on my pc a long long long long time ago ! and my version had no music just effects maybe i guess it was made that way ! i enjoyed it as much as it scared me as a kid !

[@JR-gl1nx]

Thanks, I had memories of this game from childhood but couldn’t remember what it was and have never seen it mentioned.

[@AngelloProduct]

Partially true PCs shooters like doom had an optional feature where you can walk with wasd and mouse. despite being an early concept at the time and to players who weren’t aware of the feature.

[@thuggeegaming659]

You could aim with the mouse, but remapping the keyboard keys to wasd was a pain. There wasn't a convenient way to to it using the setup tools it came with, but using a 3rd party utility was possibly, albeit somewhat janky and cumbersome. Chocolate Doom is the way to go these days for a modern control set-up while playing a more classic version of Doom without any major improvements.

[@Alfenium]

I love that side scrolling gunplay, Reminds me of some flash games I used to play when I was lil'.

[@JohnSmith-ib2zk]

Holy bejeezus he's alive!

[@Kiowan918]

I used to love this game when I was a kid, the shareware version, like many shareware games was a game in itself and enough to satisfy you. I also liked the fact that the aliens were basically from Aliens, not sure how they got away with that without getting sued. I remember replaying it maybe 10 years ago, and after seeing this video I'm now wondering if I actually just replayed the shareware version as I don't remember all the extra weapons and monsters. I'm gonna find it.

[@franklinstine4544]

I haven't Watched this vid yet but FINALLY somebody talks about this game and it pops up on the website. All I could find are long plays. Even of you trash the he'll out of it I'm giving you a like just for covering it lol

[@franklinstine4544]

Just watched the video when you were talking about standards that was hardware limitations if that's what you ment my bad. The legs, you know how in Mario you can sprint across lava if its only every other block... It does that, and finally they made this as an avp game (alien vs predator) so they changed some stuff that is why the enemies are denim iron knockoffs.

[@franklinstine4544]

Damn near knock off.* (They almost had the license but it fell through.) Sorry I'm on a scrappy kindle so it auto correct like hell

[@JohnnieEpic]

If i remember correctly there was a built in level editor you could access from dos command prompt too

[@Alfboyz]

My cousins had this on MS-DOS. It was too hardcore for me back in the day.

[@Gemini3K]

It reminds me of Super Metroid. I had it back in1996 and it was really cool to play but the rollerball mouse wasn't as smooth as the current infrared mouses of today. This was a case of a game that was ahead of it's time and I hope to good someone can remake it for the modern age even though it held up pretty well.

[@SkoomaFish]

ABUSE on mac lead me to MARATHON, and Forge and Anvil editors.. some of the best 10,000s of hours i've ever spent. That and Escape Velocity.. Contra set the stage

[@Nvd1987]

oh mannnn... this game was mind bogglingly difficult. one of the HUNDREDS of AWESOME games I had in DOS/W95 growing up when you can have hundreds if not thousands of awesome games of similar quality and playability, that didn't need RTX 9000 with 5000W of power and 9 TB of storage.

[@ORLY911]

The way you describe how the game makes you second guess everything and wonder what will or wont be a trap makes me think of my first experience with Serious Sam (as well as others). Dunno if you played those but man, let me tell you first time you play first encounter you'll be hearing a certain sound in the back of your head after your done playing it for the day

[@whinegummi6329]

Ffs why did I find this channel so late... Better late than never.

[@slayerd357]

Wait...Congratulations You're Howling? That's simultaneously the best and worst ending ever!

[@AtlasEcliptica]

Great video!

[@lionelstarkweather982]

I played the shit outta this game when i was 9-10, around 2002. Being the only other game i had besides hexen 2, i got quite good at it and finished it a lot of times. I imagined how the halls were full of mutants climbing on top of each other and shooting at me. Quite a nostalgia trip

[@eaglesblades]

Very happy to see you back, pal.

[@Triknor]

Speaking of classic Mac games, if you’re intrigued by the mouse shooting mechanic, you should try the Dark Castle games. You need to set up the vMac emulator but it’s worth it. Like many classic Mac games it’s pretty unique. I suppose if you could imagine a proto-Metroidvania, better-animated version of Donkey Kong mixed with the humor of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with this method of projectile aiming you get something close to Dark Castle.

[@ColdSpyderBuck]

Thanks so much for the link, Andy. I played this when I was a kid and couldn't find a way to get this fucking game to work on any PC since my old one broke down, and I'm not a fan of using dos box. Best abandonware ever. Also Super Turrican kicks ass

[@jojotoofor9eight766]

4:15 this is untrue. While Wolfenstein and Doom were popular with keyboard aiming, the mouse was always able to be used from the start. If you go in Wolf3D's options, you will see mouse settings. Same for Doom. To further prove this, all testing for Doom's gameplay was done with a mouse, and all of the demos were also recorded with mouse look.

[@bunnyonabunwithagunnicepun5689]

Return of the King

[@mercenary621]

Nice to see someone talk about this neat game. Hope it gets a proper remake one day. I’d recommend for you to play Butcher if you want a neat spiritual successor to Abuse, albeit with significantly lower graphical fidelity funnily enough. As for old platformer shooters, Alien Soldier along with Gunstar Heroes are some of the best you can get.

[@KanoWhite53]

Awesome man. I and a friend actually made game that's a love letter to this control scheme. It's called Lost Assassin on Steam. It's still in development but I always loved side scroller mouse aiming

[@ChinacatSunflower0]

Just found this game when looking up open engine game recreations. I wonder how well the sprites would look upscaled with something like ERSGAN upscaler. Would be neat to see a shareware port (levels 1-4, with data files needing to be provided for the rest of the game) of this game on either the PlayStation 1 - using PSXNOOB-SDK, or Nintendo 64 - utilizing the official SDK or LibDragon. (along with different sound effects and music (considering those weren't released to public domain). There was to be a weapon called the Death Ray within the game, and is still within the game files, but this never released in the actual game itself (coding wasn't done afaik) - there are still some sites that host add-ons and such, one of them a coded Death Ray.

[@KrazyKain]

Great video :) I used to play this a fair bit, even installed it on my school computers so we'd play deathmatches over the school network. Actually got our lecturer to join in a couple of times after our exams when we had no lessons :D One thing your video didn't seem to cover though, the free version, and version I think you played, is called FrAbs (Free-Abuse) it's actually a custom, fan made level pack. So FrAbs is freeware, but Abuse is abandonware. I only ever played FrAbs myself, so I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling that the official campaign is probably not as brutal. Fan campaigns have a habit of being kind of bullshit. From what I can tell FrAbs has the same first 4 levels as the main game, because those where in the shareware version.

[@MajandraFan]

The hardest difficulty was always insane.

[@silviupanait8861]

This game needs a remake

[@williammacintosh1742]

Awesome you're back man! :D

[@Maggerama]

Welcome back!

[@petwisk2012]

I think every computer i Sat from 2000 to 2011 i instaled This game such a great experience ALL the crepy noises keept you from relaxing even when nothing was there i learn to avoid It ALL i even Made a mistake by saving on the bomb Room one Second before they explodes(softlocking my ass) One hell Of a good time i need to find a good source Port to replay It because its good

[@RaymondoPerson]

I'm the polar opposite when it comes to arcade/console vs PC preference (Doom & Doom-likes being one of the exceptions) but your analysis of the gameplay is pretty excellent. It's definitely a "getting into the mindset of the developers & finding patterns to predict enemy swarms & traps" game like Blood or 1001 Spikes, but it also reminds me of Super Meat Boy in a way since the save/checkpoints subtly break the game down into segments you gotta replay & find & a strategy for. I don't have trouble playing console side-scrolling run & guns because I just put myself into a completely mindset when I play something like Metal Slug or Contra, though Super Turrican kicked my ass & I could barely make it anywhere (for different reasons; I made it through Mega Turrican quick)

[@rocketboy352]

So like, who are you? Why was I subscribed? What video of yours did I even watch in the first place? I'm so confused. But hey, this was fun to watch!

[@BunkerDweller]

You probably subscribed to me from the 4chan Steven Universe video from a few years back, since that's the one that blew up. Lotta people found me through that

[@KudoRedfox]

"Oh boy i love abuse!"

[@melom8276]

broooo hear me out imagine this game in vr

[@melom8276]

@@chyza2012 like a from the ground up new game like this but in vr

[@user-fu5xn6iu1s]

I like dogs the most in this game.

[@sebastianvakarian9773]

You remind me of Ross Scott. I like Ross. Subbed.

[@shizophreanick]

Best soundtrack

[@michaelr9839]

The old games from the 80s and 90s were not for the faint of heart. These game didn’t care about excuses. Blaming the developer is weak sauce. It’s all about the experience. Good, bad, and ugly.

[@weedsmonker420]

Hope you're doing well brother, looking forward to more

[@DaiHachiHachi]

I remember trying Butcher when that came out and people saying that was sort of like this; first time actually seeing Abuse gameplay and it looks great.

[@jorts_master69]

Oh man I love Butcher. Ball-crushingly hard but visceral and fun as fuck

[@unbearifiedbear1885]

So true.. You want a genuine ridiculous challenge; play an old game

[@swat37]

When Andy uploads....

[@missz4637]

Never heard of this before but it looks interesting. Hopefully it'll run.

[@fuzzywzhe]

I believe this game was written in some sort of script language.

[@feenix219]

To each their own. The mouse and that kind of aiming turns me off completely.

[@technomancerhammerballs8816]

You'd actually enjoy ranger x, your aim isn't locked to your view, however it is locked left and right but I never found this to be an issue

[@tobiascolin4068]

Good! Keep going, great videos

[@simbasingh5733]

I have this game on the psp

[@Lord_Deimos]

I used to play the shit out of the shareware version, it was very fun

[@hexrockstar]

i finished this game. it was fucking hard.

[@Maxi-gz3ke]

Hey im searchin for a game where u are flying with a Shuttle like a hovercraft in like a jungle Area and Lookin from the top on it. u can fly free around in the area like in Abuse. Not straight like Raptor call of shadows. Cant find it pls help. Thx

[@SirLordMasterSaverKangDrPaulAs]

5:16 This game sounds like poison for Pigroachs

[@einokeino303]

Nintendo fanboys could only dream of such controls.

[@iainbaker6916]

Games where the devs actively hate you? Sign me up 😈 The name ‘Abuse’ warns you that it’s basically a F YOU! simulator. Another example is the notoriously punishing mods for stalker called MISERY.

[@Gruntvc]

I've never even heard of this game. Looks fun, definitely willing to try it as it's Free. Shame it hasn't been remastered for both current consoles and pc. Looks nearly as crazy as Contra Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. That's available on Steam and consoles thanks to the Contra Anniversary Collection. Ever play any top down shooters like: Loaded or Project Overkill?

[@SvenTheViking]

So regarding difficulty, you’re saying the game feels like abuse?

[@ZiggityZeke]

This was really fun but almost unplayable on the wii lol

[@chrisbriault7234]

I got the game, and it looks worse than this. It seems it has less colours, is there settings? Couldn’t find it.

[@Drazog]

Armajet has similar controls

[@HorrorUberAlles]

It's such a crying shame that this game is not on GOG.

[@BunkerDweller]

dude this game is literally free antonior-software.blogspot.com/2016/05/abuse-1996-sdl-port-09a.html

[@Samaelxz]

Nice

[@danialtarki572]

Pretty sure 60 FPS isn’t bad, but okay, I guess.

[@marcellosilva9286]

As a fellow zoomer and Mega Man fan, I'm disappointed and disgusted at your inability to adapt to traditional 2D action game controls, especially when said games were designed for them, using Super Turrican as an example isn't exactly fair too, because that game isn't the most balanced side-scroller around, and finally, Ranger X for the Genesis has a control scheme dedicated entirely around being able to shoot and move in different directions, though you can only shoot left and right, so that might not satisfy your boner.

[@BillyLegumbres]

I just very rencently downloaded the 20th anninversary edition, works like a charm and it even has the soundtrack tbat was missing, the only detail is that I don't get how to make the window where you play it to be full scale, any help please?

[@BunkerDweller]

wherever you extracted the game, read the 'readme.txt' file, which should give you step-by-step instructions on how to change it to fullscreen or windowed, as well as changing the scale and resolution. Then go to your 'user' folder, open 'config.txt', and then you should be able to modify the game for resolution, fullscreen, etc. I highly recommend sticking to 320x200 and using 2x scale. It's not entirely full screen, but it is the best you'll get without needing a higher resolution. Higher resolutions can actually break the game but spawning in enemies that are further away, so I'd stick with the 320x200 default.

[@BillyLegumbres]

@@BunkerDweller okay thanks man.

[@rthj6446]

1996??? Same year as Diablo 1. Feels off by a decade. Yea. I actually think google got this wrong. But I cannot be certain ofc. Im so confused.

[@LateralTwitlerLT]

Huh. And here I was sure my memories of me using a "controller" aka joystick when I played dos games in the 90's were real. But I guess a zoomer not only knows better - but best.

[@joym3357]

3:20 sounds like you just have bad taste

[@trancendedsoul]

15FPS is easy to play with. LOL

[@DeafCope]

review cave story

[@SheolAbaddonus666]

I tried playing Castlevania and after 15 minutes wondered how anyone could think it's fun. The oldest game I'm willing to play is Wolfenstein 3D. Sidescrollers have not aged well.