Antarctic Cruise: After Burner / Penguin Land | Segaiden

[@anactualmotherbear]

I love Penguin Land. It was the first Sega Master System game I ever played when I visited a kid that had both a Sega and Nintendo console. It would end up being the game I immediately sought out the minute I got a Master System for myself when I was an adult collector.

[@Sixfortyfive]

One of the most interesting things I read about After Burner's development was that Yu Suzuki, during his opportunity at checking out a fighter jet in person during development, remarked at how a real jet actually had *simpler* controls than many contemporary simulator games of the day, and that he actually streamlined After Burner's controls a bit as a result of that.

[@slightlyevolved]

Yeaowch. Could you imagine how much harder it After Burner would have been if we'd needed to use it with a 14 way dual stick with thumb hat controller?

[@satoukazuma7952]

The first console game to ship with an internal lithium battery was Mirai Shinwa Jarvas on the Famicom, from June 30th 1987, a good 50-ish days earlier than Penguin Land... (EDIT: Nope, it was Morita Shogi from April of that year!) If you were to remove the "on a console" restriction however, then the absolute earliest example--that I'm familiar with at least--would be the MSX conversion of Hydlide 2, from November 1986. However, the actual concept of an internal battery apparently dates back even further, to 1984, in Atari's High-Score Cartridge for the 7800, which never actually got an official release (though carts were manufactured).

[@JeremyParish]

Thanks! This information is annoyingly difficult to track down. I've been hunting for these specifics for ages.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Jarvas has an absolutely badass cover that I hope was buyable without all the hype text all over it, even if it was just done as a phone card or some other ephemera.

[@satoukazuma7952]

@@JeremyParish After looking into it a bit more, it looks like "Morita Shogi" (Seta, Apr 14 1987) was actually the 1st instance of a console game with internal S-RAM, at least according to its Japanese Wikipedia entry. I surely wasn't expecting a board game instead of an RPG to be the 1st, which is probably why I overlooked it. Much apologies for spreading misinformation!!

[@JeremyParish]

Oh, interesting. I've referenced the Morita Shogi series before, but only in light of the insanely powerful (and expensive) subprocessors Seta added to the later games. Didn't realize its legacy of extravagance went that far back.

[@satoukazuma7952]

@@JeremyParish Yes, shogi requires quite a lot of computational power, significantly more than chess! And of course, the original computer version of Morita's Shogi is what brought Koichi Sugiyama and Enix together... when he wrote in to complain about it :P A very historically important piece of software indeed.

[@NORMALLYRETRO]

For a Macross/Robotech lover, After Burner felt like gaming heaven.

[@lilwyvern4]

Macross has lots of missiles, After Burner has lots of missiles. That about sums its up.

[@fangjokerLS]

"BEST Products," Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long, long, time.

[@GeekatHome]

As a kid, I recall renting Afterburner and discovering that corner/immunity trick on my own Even at six, it struck me as weird

[@tolindaniel]

I originally consumed After Burner on the Atari ST, which is somehow even worse, and I still absolutely love it. It's a true testament to just how solid that game really is.

[@rchassereau2]

I know I've said it before, but every Wednesday right around now I get done with the worst task I have to do for work every week, and knowing these vids are my reward afterwards really helps me get through it, always appreciate them.

[@mendez704]

I still remember the thrill I had when I saw that moving cabinet that Afterburner offered for the first time...

[@FrothingManiac]

I remember playing Penguin Land during "toy day" at school, where everyone brought in their toys to share, and inevitably the kid who brought in the 999 games in 1 cartridge on their Game Boy was the most popular kid for the day (this happened like four times between different kids)

[@JohnZyski]

Penguin Land was one of our first SMS games, we were very happy with it. Played it for a very long time.

[@MrTableDesk]

I came across an Afterburner 2(I think it was 2 anyways) sit-down cabinet in Japan on a trip back in 2013. I was not prepared for how much of a rush that game was, lol. If arcades weren't dead over here, that game could come out today and still be a hit.

[@genericnamehere7602]

And it really is pity about sad state of arcades here, too. So many fond memories were made there. My dad and I used to compete in the original Time Crisis in time and accuracy. He also still loves the House of the Dead franchise at 65 years old.

[@lilwyvern4]

@@genericnamehere7602 It's sad, but I get it. There aren't that many experiences (outside of the general vibe, of course) which an arcade can give that you can't get anywhere else. Really the only thing they have going for them are gimmicks, light guns, token games, that sort of thing. There's also the whole cruel difficulty thing, which is a rather hard sell to many. Still, there's nothing like the cacophony of an arcade. The dim lighting, the attention-demanding attract modes, the scent of cheap junk food, it's just a comfy place.

[@IanSane]

When I was a kid we had a Chuck E. Cheese style place called Wonderland and it had a deluxe After Burner cabinet, right next to the OutRun deluxe cabinet. There has been a lot of justifiable criticism of the Master System's marketing but the best ad campaign they had was Sega's own arcade machines. You saw those in person and thought "how do I get this at home?" Unfortunately I don't think a lot of the other kids knew there was a Sega system with these games on it.

[@TheKayliedGamerChannel-YouTube]

Loved playing Afterburner and Penguin Land as an early teen, cool share! 😄👍

[@RabbitEarsCh]

It's amazing how big the gulf between the games that pushed consoles at the time, and what is ultimately timeless on the console. Not just here with After Burner being vastly outclassed by the availability of the original (or even just the Genesis version!), but sports games as well, many of which today are some of the only retro games that you can still get for like $5 but helped a lot to put Sega on the map in the US in the 90s. All this to say: I'm glad this Penguin Land series got so much love. After so many halfhearted puzzler attempts that have gone through your channel it's super clear when someone has a powerful vision for their brain teaser game. Also, what is it with great puzzler design and penguins? Amazing Penguin really was Amazing, too.

[@lonecom685]

The animation on that penguin is really good. Something I would expect out of a DS game

[@SynthatronPrime]

I love that these various series, especially Segaiden, give your a chance to talk about arcade games so much. It's like a 2-in-1 series!

[@thecunninlynguist]

loved the sit down after burner machine. Always wanted one for my home haha....or the Super Hang-on bike

[@magusesper616]

the Gary Shandling show ahh the nostalgia. thanks for the videos duder.

[@MaidenHell1977]

What a great episode. I love this channel and I love Jeremy. I remember blowing my last $20 on a school trip where we stopped at a mall and they had a sit down roll cabinet of After Burner back in like 1990 if I recall correctly.

[@Dilios_of_Sparta]

Wow... the snippet of Garry Shandling at the beginning of the video was so nostalgic and heartbreaking... I remember watching his show (reruns) on Fox back in the 80s. I miss Garry Shandling's humor so much... so sad he's gone... RIP Good snippet choice, Jeremy!

[@Yungbeck]

omg That GameBoy port of Penguin Land was on this pirated 50-in-1 cartridge we bought on holiday in Spain. Classic, there was something about it, good tunes.

[@lupinzar]

"After Burner" is still one of my favorite pieces of video game music of all time.

[@Monkey_SK]

OK everyone, if we make a list of games for Jeremy, he can have a word with his auntie about getting us that lovely 20% discount.

[@theirishcowboy]

i have been looking for over a decade now for that oversized after burner poster i saw in sega challenge as a kid - one day ill find it!

[@EvilCoffeeInc]

When you lead in with five minutes praising the arcade game, I started to get a sinking feeling about the Master System Afterburner port. Still, it was good in arcades and still is!

[@ttvp]

Heck, I really missed out by skipping RetroWorldExpo this year, lol. Cool to see you filming in front of the actual cabinets for games!

[@Larry]

The arcade game was After Burner II, while the SMS port is just After Burner. So, did they base the SMS port on the original version of the arcade game, rather than the well known arcade revision, or just thought it was silly to have a "2" on the end?

[@Sixfortyfive]

After Burner II is one of those weird cases where Sega just put out a minor update to the arcade game shortly after its initial release and slapped a whole new number on it for some reason instead of just classifying it as a revision of the original game. The same thing more or less happened with Quartet and Galaxy Force.

[@JeremyParish]

Super Hang-On, too. And Super Zaxxon! They just added some tunnels and changed the robot to a dragon!

[@Sixfortyfive]

@@JeremyParish Super Hang-On definitely clears the "sequel" bar imo.

[@Larry]

@@Sixfortyfive I think it's the Japanese confusing a Version 2.0 update with what we would consider numerizing as a sequel.

[@billcook4768]

Hello you.

[@owllymannstein7113]

My introduction to Penguin Land with it on a weird Coleco branded Gamegear/Master System handheld. I dumped so many hours into that game and Columns/Super Columns

[@gullpayne]

Another excellent video very easy to listen to and understand 👍👍

[@menhirmike]

The biggest omission of After Burner compared to the movie is the complete lack of slow-motion topless men playing beach volleyball.

[@katherineberger6329]

With Kenny Loggins's most (unintentionally? Possibly?) homoerotic song playing in the background.

[@billcook4768]

@@katherineberger6329 Unintentional? I don't wanna be the mouth around your fire. I don't wanna be obsessed by my desire With the boys. Playing, playing with the boys. I'll be staying, playing with the boys

[@katherineberger6329]

@@billcook4768 I only say possibly unintentional because I have no idea what the songwriter's intention for that song is. It FEELS obvious, but that's through 30 years of increased visibility for gay men.

[@a.calder8217]

It says something when the deeply closeted (at the time) gay man Mac made his homoerotic Lethal Weapon 6 movie in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ("It's a love story between two men!"), they parodied the volleyball scene from Top Gun by doing a shot for shot remake, except intentionally homoerotic.

[@edwardperkins1225]

Yeah, that omission is fine with me!

[@TeruteruBozusama]

Seeing someone actually know how to play penguin land somehow blows my mind as I had the prequel on a GB multicart and there was so much I didn't understand back then 😅

[@Choralone422]

After Burner in the arcade was quite a trip to experience all around, especially to pre-teen me. After Burner on the SMS was just ok at best. I played it a couple of times at the home of the one school friend who owned a SMS at the time, mostly because his parents were loaded and he had ALL the systems. But I had to give Sega some credit for trying to make it work on the SMS hardware.

[@rowtow13]

Speaking specifically of the arcade versions, Out Run and Hang On have aged well in that they're still fun to play today, but After Burner is both still fun to play and still weirdly impressive in its own way. Still very fast and very flashy. I never saw it in its natural element, an 80s arcade, but I imagine I would have been staring at it with my mouth hanging open if I had.

[@EvanCWaters]

After Burner was pure spectacle in the arcades, yeah. There just wasn't anything like it. (I seem to recall it was one of those expensive cabinets, ranging from 50c to a dollar per play.) It's a bit like Ghosts 'n' Goblins, which most people ever barely saw any of beyond the first few screens, but man those screens.

[@tolindaniel]

This is the theme to Gary's show, the theme to Gary's show This is the music that ya hear while you watch the creeeeedits!

[@michaelcirco3948]

We grow WHEAT in Kansas, Jeremy. WHEAT

[@Bubblun1]

and Corn is Iowa!

[@JeremyParish]

Listen, I've eaten enough Chex to know that wheat is pretty much just brown corn.

[@MasterShake9000]

Sir, you’re thinking of Nebraska or Iowa. Kansas is a wheat state - that score was gluten-powered!!

[@Riz2336]

I have a Japanese import of afterburner II for the sega Saturn, damn good arcade port

[@bryanjensen2614]

I probably spent enough quarters on Afterburner and Space Harrier to pay my mortgage.

[@alanelkins2408]

"rolled his eggy babies to the comforting bosom of the Master System"

[@MichaelHeide]

0:46 "I mean, it completely lacked the romantic tension between the film's leading man and..." I was half expecting that sentence to end in "the rival pilot Iceman, played by Val Kilmer".

[@JeremyParish]

No, those two were clearly hot to trot.

[@ScottALowe]

I don't normally get motion sick but After Burner makes me motion sick with the horizon turning with the plane constantly.

[@billcook4768]

Fortunately (?) even though I’m prone to motion sickness, I never last long enough in Afterburner to have issues.

[@justabaldguy]

+10 for "nuclear wessles"

[@Phreno_Xeno]

Never made the Robotech connection until now. I clearly see it. Itano circus indeed.

[@darktetsuya]

wasn't too familiar with the original afterburner (was probably way too intimidating for young me much like outrun, haha.) but I did spend a few credits on the sequel CLIMAX when my local bowling alley had it. was definitely quite the rush!

[@billcook4768]

This is the theme to Jeremy's Show, The theme to Jeremy's show. Jeremy called me up and asked if I would write his theme song. I'm almost halfway finished, How do you like it so far, How do you like the theme to Jeremy’s Show.

[@edwardperkins1225]

Sega had me thinking SNES rotation wasn't unique because of Afterburner on SMS. Well done Sega! How'd they get rid of the cut out around tiles like SMS Space Harrier had? Maybe with less overlap than SH some kind of tile merging is possible? I guess the 4 megs went to all the scales and rotations of enemies and backgrounds, it's more repetitive than you'd think based on other games that size. The in the corner for 12 stages feature was a poor one for invalidating those stages and making it boring, but you can choose to not play that way and have fun. They just should have given more lives to fix it. I think the enemy patterns are more repetitive than the arcade though at least it's got a proper boss. You must shoot down all of the last ones missiles while hitting its weak points, or you will die. I've played the arcade with the moving chair. The up and down turns the angle of the chair in the best feeling way.

[@punk51984]

Whoa an "It's Garry Shandling's Show" clip and some Top Gun? You're getting a thumbs up right off the bat.

[@thejackal007]

After Burner for the arcade is still a game that holds up rather well so long after its release. Penguin Land, though fun, definitely isn't the best classic penguin game (that has to be Pengo, in my opinion). What arcade is this at, anyway? Looks like a blast.

[@EricHostile]

I feel like I'm the only one that loves Afterburner on the SMS 😢

[@JeremyParish]

Somebody's gotta!

[@hwogrillo]

Great, now I'm gonna have the Garry Shandling song in my head This is the theme to Garrys show, the theme to Garrys show. This is the song you hear as you watch the credits.... Masterpiece

[@theblackrabbit1710]

Finally. The best is back.

[@JeremyParish]

I’ve been here all along!

[@RalphBarbagallo]

IMHO at the time Afterburner on SMS was impressive. Until you found the corner trick.

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

penguin land looks more like a 16 bit game than an 8 bit game, especially when compared to doki doki penguin land on sg-1000 the odd thing is, while penguin land has so much more animation and detail and is more "fluid" per se, something about the way doki doki penguin land plays seems just so smooth in comparison

[@JeremyParish]

The SG-1000 version was definitely created in league with the Devil to be able to pull off such smooth animation and precise collisions on that hardware

[@GSidoti]

Your commentary is always as entertaining as your documenting of console gaming is incisive. Your doing god's work. A god, at least. LMFAO @ "unpurged body thetans."

[@JeremyParish]

Well... technically, Xemu isn't a god

[@GSidoti]

@@JeremyParish Xenu/Xemu wants you to think that.

[@JeremyParish]

Man, Xemu is almost as much of a weirdo as Tom Cruise

[@AggelosKult]

I'm currently playing penguin land. Quite frustrating

[@MrNoobed]

My ys game still has saves on it. Kinda shocked

[@jasonblalock4429]

Funny, I've been playing Lost Judgment, and Penguin Land is one of the games Yagami can get for his Master System. Maybe I should give it a try. (I'd mostly just been playing Alex Kidd, haha.)

[@absolutezeronow7928]

1988 on Master System appears to begin well with After Burner, which is pretty comparable with Top Gun with the added bonus of the Sega Enterprise, and Penguin Land, which is good but probably not what America wanted. And next time, one of the better 1980s games inspired by Aliens.

[@mausmalone]

♫ This is the theme to Garry's show. The theme to Garry Shandling's show. Garry called me up and he asked if I would write his theme song. ♫

[@ferhound]

14:25 "your eggy efforts" you are a master at wording.

[@billcook4768]

Never realized Jeremy hated Tom Cruise. But now I’m trying to figure out the best video game based on a Tom Cruise movie. Top Gun? Rolling Thunder? Last Samurai? Risky Business?

[@ginormousaurus8394]

Ironically, the best video game based on a Tom Cruise movie might be The Mummy Demastered.

[@skippermatt7939]

Rolling Thunder? You mean Days of Thunder?

[@billcook4768]

@@skippermatt7939 Whoops, yep. Days of Thunder.

[@a.calder8217]

Mission Impossible for the NES is based on the 80s reboot of the 60s TV show, not the movie with Tom Cruise, but any game with the Ultra Games label is usually a good time.

[@fazares]

i own japanese penguin land...very cute but a little too hard for me...about AB...i own the saturn and md (md mini 2) ports

[@leerkeller]

The listed release dates for TMNT 2, and Ninja Gaiden are wrong. The months are right but the years are wrong. March 89 for Ninja Gaiden US. TMNT 2 is Dec 90 Japan and Nov 91 EU.

[@jamesmoss3424]

Afterburner is a Sega arcade legend. 😀👍🎮

[@a.calder8217]

Perhaps Penguin Land never got a American Game Boy release simply because Nintendo did not want a SEGA game on their handheld, especially after the "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" ad campaign, and the only unlicensed publisher who would have brought it over, Tengen, didn't deal with Game Boy games thanks to the system's bootstrap rom making piracy tougher by forcing them to include Nintendo's name on the logo in the BIOS, creating a case of copyright infringement. (Thankfully, SEGA v. Accolade ended that era of preventing unlicensed games)

[@massivepileup]

After Burner Climax clarifies that you're fighting against Z, totally not a name used by any army today, nosir!

[@JeremyParish]

Double yikes on that one

[@cr-nd8qh]

Not bad

[@philmason9653]

"This is the theme to Gary's show..." Always up for another SeGaiden! Minor stylistic discussion - not that things like this should decide editorial content, but folks in arcade circles have long used 'quarter muncher' or 'quarter gobbler' as a bellwether to mark writers who don't understand the scene, or who aren't up to the task of the games. Is this people being defensive and somewhat in denial about a hobby which quite deliberately seeks to shake them down for all they're worth? Yes, I certainly think it is. But in their defence, it's a stereotype which emerged through many, many lazy or dismissive magazine reviews over the years. Anyone going in knows that high difficulty is generally a fundamental premise of the arcade category to begin with, and are often attracted to these games for that very purpose. So "quarter" remarks came to be seen as superficial and inherently dismissive. For what it's worth, having watched a billion of these videos over the years I certainly don't think that represents you.

[@billcook4768]

Just my experience: I grew up spending endless hours in arcades. From the age up pinball right up to the superscaler era. I not only use the term quarter munch, but have no problem with others who use it. It perfectly describes a certain type of game.

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah, quarter-muncher isn't synonymous a with bad or badly designed game. Something like After Burner is utterly, shamelessly ravenous for your cash, but it's so damn cool you don't even mind pumping endless coins into the slot.

[@philmason9653]

@@JeremyParish yeah, and the fact that devs were consciously thinking about average {denomination of coin} per minute/hour in design shows it's undeniably true. I'm sure Afterburner's average take had to be incredibly high to convince operators to bite on a cab that elaborate and pricey, especially the sitdown version.

[@MiguelPaulettePerez-bj8ml]

"Hell-Hot" - J.P in '23.

[@JeremyParish]

I'm Hell-Hot EVERY year, my friend

[@MiguelPaulettePerez-bj8ml]

@@JeremyParish Too cold to hold.

[@chichib8814]

Afterburner>super thunder blade

[@slightlyevolved]

9:30 I know it was most likely just a slip of the tongue, but it would have been a Lithium-metal battery, not a Lithium Ion. The first commercial LiIon wasn't even released until 1987, and stuuuupid expensive.

[@JeremyParish]

Not being a tech guy, I actually didn't realize that lithium and lithium ion batteries are not the same thing. Now I know.

[@slightlyevolved]

@@JeremyParish Ah, well, not unexpected. Hard to believe that LiIon wasn't even the main type of battery for laptops or cell phones until 2003-ish, but with their release almost perfectly coinciding with the absolute LAUNCH of cellphones and laptops around them, it more or less has become almost the only battery type we use. We won't get into most LiIon now are actually Lithium-ion Polymer. Thus have spoken the Gnerd. I'm going to see my way back to my lonely home of solitude, when I can yell at clouds, kids on the lawn, and argue with people on reddit that the word Bok Choy should be in the Klingon dictionary....

[@RabbitEarsCh]

I've got a degree in chemistry and I didn't even know the distinction here either. Granted, electrochem was never my strength, but that's still fascinating.