[AMSTRAD CPC] 👮 Jail Break - Longplay & Review! 🚨

#amstrad #amstradcpc #amstradcpc464
Longplay and review for "Jail Break" on the Amstrad CPC!
It's coin-op conversion time to the CPC! With another classic(?) from Konami hot on the heels of Green Beret - but this time Konami are going it alone handling the ports themselves! What could possibly go wrong?
Prisoners have broken out of the jail and taken the warden hostage. You as the lone cop, have to battle over 5 stages rescuing captives along the way, to regain order and release the warden! Let's find out how to beat the Amstrad version and how it compares to the arcade original and the other conversions...
(For Henri Medot - a member of the AMSQUAD and Patreon!)
(c) Konami 1986
www.cpc-power.com/index.php?p...
konami.fandom.com/wiki/Jail_B...
www.mobygames.com/game/jail-b...
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Background music featured - "Equinox" by "24:7" - 247retro.bandcamp.com/
00:00 Intro
00:43 Game Intro & History
03:26 Arcade Coin-op Version
07:51 AMSTRAD Version
10:18 Longplay Starts

[@henrimedot]

Thank you so much for this video Xyphoe. I feel really proud and honored you dedicated it to me. Anyway GG you did an amazing play here. I remember being so disappointed and frustrated when I bought this game back in the day. It was so damn difficult. I can't rate it more than 4.5 out of 10. I still own it though.

[@Xyphoe]

My pleasure Henri! Hopefully my tips will help you beat it, if you ever decide to go back to it!!

[@rickyzambrossiakachristian5727]

Always a great pleasure to watch your videos. Thank you for your commitment to our beloved cpc, Mr. Xyphoe!!!

[@Xyphoe]

My pleasure! Thank you for your support :)

[@the_king_bro_pros9370]

I loved the arcade never knew there was a port on amstrad

[@ninjazhu]

amazing to see this game played fully, i am one of the ones who can't get past about 10 seconds into the game

[@Xyphoe]

Thank you! Hopefully with my tips here you'll be able to play it for more than 10 seconds!!

[@clauderains1534]

I actually had this I remember seeing an advert for the arcade...

[@GamingRoomOficial]

cool. I'm embedding this to my Jail Break's article.

[@frishnit]

I had no idea that there was a legacy from Green Beret to Jailbreak to Iron Horse! Now I think about those games I can totally see the links, but a great insight to share. I can tell they link, as they're all absolutely rock solid! I was desperate for this game to be good back in the day as I loved the arcade. The difficulty was beyond little me - the perspective was tricky to work out. Was never sure why they threw diamonds at you, either!

[@Xyphoe]

Yea Konami made good use of that game engine sadly with diminishing returns it seems, each game getting tougher - I could barely progress anywhere in Iron Horse - that game swallowed my 20p in seconds!! As for Jail Break CPC weapons.... last time we played in on the Amstream Retrounlim memorably called that 2nd weapon the "Dildo Launcher" now I can't unhear that!

[@juanpedropalencia]

Oh! CPC+ Cassette !!!! 😍

[@robsmall6466]

I liked the first impressions segment. Keep it up please 👍

[@Xyphoe]

Thanks Rob, do you mean when the game first starts up and I just give off the cuff impressions of it?

[@robsmall6466]

@@Xyphoe Yes. It's like when we all played the game for the first time. Coming home, waiting for it to load, checking out the loading screen and then the initial impressions. It's colourful ( or not 😅 ), scrolling is good, controls are responsive etc.

[@FhargaZ]

5:40 silly dev 😄

[@davidfernandezsabio3844]

Hope you can make a future video of another Konami's ports on CPC(Nemesis,Salamander,Jackal,Typhoon)....

[@Xyphoe]

Hi David, yes I definitely have plans to! Maybe I might do them next.... not sure.... could be a bit of a Konami fest! Who knows! xD

[@bobfromsoireegames4309]

Great video! Conversion not so much ;)

[@ojbeez5260]

Jail Breaking - before iPhones!! ;P

[@Xyphoe]

Yea it's been awkward doing Google searches for "Jail break" because I get billions of results for jailbreaking iPhones etc! Made research a bit awkward for this! lol

[@TheTomimt]

Damn... I did have the Konami release of this back in the day.

[@Xyphoe]

Do you still have it? These Konami releases are highly collectable and worth quite a bit of money now on eBay!

[@TheTomimt]

@@Xyphoe Sadly no. All of the stuff was sold off when we upgraded from Amstrad to PC.

[@carn9507]

4:24 Shirtless Batman? :O

[@Xyphoe]

Haha yea! I guess they made him shirtless just to differentiate him enough to avoid copyright issues? I dunno... Japanese game designers eh!

[@billhimself5176]

Finished this game when I was young but I must admit that this game was very frustrating and overall too hard. I would not play it today 😓 Nice review tho 👍

[@Xyphoe]

Thank you! It's actually quite short as you can see from the video, so if you follow my tips you can make good progress and actually becomes not too hard once you know. But I don't blame you for not wanting to play it!

[@luffy-yy9zc]

big memory on arcade....I escaped the cpc version 😓😓😨😨

[@Xyphoe]

Do you mean you beat the CPC version or escaped not buying it? xD

[@luffy-yy9zc]

@@Xyphoe I didn't try to get it 😜

[@davidfernandezsabio3844]

Yea the best Konami's port on the CPC as Jackal,Nemesis and Salamander were awful and that was a shame as Imagine took the Salamander port....

[@Xyphoe]

Yea I mention Salamander a few times in the commentary thinking that was a Konami release.... but actually it ended up being released by Imagine in the end (I had to at the last minute add some text before rendering clarifying that) because the team was the same ones behind Nemesis (same graphic artist - Stuart Ruecroft who also did Jail Break too). I guess that port fell apart as did the Konami team and Imagine/Ocean rescued it last minute - pure speculation.

[@nobkare]

what name is race game on intro?

[@Xyphoe]

Chase HQ :)

[@DunkzGam1ng]

Am I the only person who likes Nemesis?

[@billhimself5176]

No, I like it too. Not a great port of Gradius but still a decent shooter for the CPC... As long as you remove the music 😂

[@Xyphoe]

I don't think Nemesis is the worst game ever, nor even worst arcade port either... it's just a pretty pathetic effort really. It's .... OK at best. I still think Jail Break is coded better.

[@DunkzGam1ng]

@@billhimself5176 I still have the music in my head 35 years on! I like it! [Takes off rose tinted spectacles]

[@AnthonyFlack]

I completed this back in the day (Nemesis and Jackal, too). What can I say, choice was limited. Honestly I still thought Jail Break was the worst of the lot. Tedious gameplay and not allowing diagonals is bizarre. To be fair the arcade game was pretty rubbish to begin with, although the vehicles do look cool (but not on the CPC!). It's trash really, innit. I don't think I could give this more than 4/10 and that's being kind. Funny how the hostages claim to give you "5000" points but actually give you 500. Also funny how the cop digs his own grave and hops in it when he gets shot.

[@Xyphoe]

I need to go back and play Jackal again, but that has to be the worst by far surely. From memory it only has 1 mission! And plays horrible. I would disagree that the arcade original of Jail Break was rubbish though.

[@AnthonyFlack]

@@Xyphoe I really try to like the arcade game because I am nostalgic for it in a lot of ways... but the collision detection is rough, and it's crazy twitchy... things come at you at a hundred miles an hour. And the weapon system doesn't really work. I get more enjoyment out of playing Green Beret, but I will always get a kick out of the cop pulling up in his cool squad car at the start. The game had real style. It's been a long time for me since I played Jackal on the CPC as well, and of course the conversion is AWFUL, but I still liked it more back then just because the underlying game has a bit more to it. Nemesis was the best one IMO, not because they did a good job of it, it was just a harder game to ruin. Perhaps if they took away diagonal movement...

[@Xyphoe]

I'd say drop the dip switches down to 'Easy' in MAME for Jail Break and increase the life counter and you'll have a much better time of it, you should find yourself getting to level 3 soon enough (and then the bullshit kicks in!)

[@billhimself5176]

@@Xyphoe I prefer Jackal, it's several missions like the arcade but the window is too small and you can't anticipate enemies outside screen. Still more fun than this one imo

[@psychodraculo]

61%? I have to respectfully disagree with a smile! It was unplayable back in the day! Horrible overall, however every time I load this it does bring back memories... 5% is good lol

[@Xyphoe]

Try playing with my 'top tips' and see how you get on.... and then see if you revise your score! xD

[@psychodraculo]

@@Xyphoe I completely understand your strategy even from your explanation and the video obviously. Absolutely I will try it. You know back in the 80's for many CPC games it felt that if you didn't know exactly the "How to play the damn game" rules, you struggled like a maniac! Lol! That made it beautiful also. Countless debates about arcade conversions!

[@Xyphoe]

Nah to be fair this conversion is bulls**t with the hitbox / hit detection, it took a few playthroughs and careful studying to see 'Ahhh it only registers hit on the torso / upper third of the sprite' then it was the case of figuring out 'what if I stay at the top of the screen' .... but then you have the problem of hostages spawning at the top so adjust to 'stay in the top third just below the top' with 'keep firing behind you whenever you can' bit! And then add on the 'go down and under bullets ... then go back up the screen when you can' thing. Took some playtesting that! But you wouldn't have the patience for that crap as an 8 year old!

[@psychodraculo]

@@Xyphoe I know, and you had to move constantly from what I saw. You know what, it's not a great game, it's terrible, but it's all we had

[@Robahue]

Yeah I remember this arcade in Spain as not a very popular arcade. I like it though...

[@Xyphoe]

Yea I found it hard to gauge just how well the coin-op did in arcades, there's just no data anywhere I could find. I don't remember seeing it in any of the arcades I went to, but by the time I was old enough to go to them in the late 80's this one was out of circulation by then being released in 1986 I guess.