Battle of the Ports - James Pond 2: Operation Robocod (ジェームスポンドII コードネーム・ロボコッド) Show

[@rafaellima83]

I absolutely LOVE this game. I really think it's one of the best platformers game of its era. The level design is great, it has lots of secret areas and stuff to discover, it's very fun to play, the bosses are well designed... and all its cutesy is so... cute and fine too look at :) Also find funny you say the SNES version is great, because it was the exact opposite feeling I had when I tried it out... the slowdowns and lower resolution really bugged me a lot coming from have played the Amiga and Mega-Drive versions to death. I had never heard the CD32 soundtrack, from what I heard here, it put a smile on my face. I really love the melodies of the tunes on this game (I really think Richard Joseph was a GREAT, GREAT musician who is way underrated), and hearing them with CD quality is really, really nice :) And.. I always find amazing how Tiertex got so much work and managed to survive for SO LONG making shit after shit after shit. It's really amazing. And that Game Gear version... shit, they had to redo the graphics and make stuff smaller... there's no way someone will be able to play the game with such a zoomed-in screen. Goddamn it. And MS-DOS version is missing the parallax? How come even the Game Gear version managed to have and the PC couldn't do it? While Chris Sorrell was the main coder, designer and graphic artist on this, Steve Bak had some hand on level design too (and also handled the ST port), and Richard Joseph did all the music and sound. I say this because its sad to notice 2 of the 3 guys who worked on the game aren't around us anymore (RIP Steve Bak and Richard Joseph) One curiosity, while you complain about the sound of the game. I once read Richard Joseph saying this game was the game he had less memory to work ever on Amiga, he had like 20k to fit all music and sound effects. Still amazing what he managed to pull it off, considering it. :D

[@sjorspion]

- 1:12 Grab them in this order: C(ake)-H(ammer)-E(arth)-A(pple)-T(ap) for invincibility - 1:19 Grab them in this order: L(ips)-I(cecream)-V(iolin)-E(arth)-S(nowman) for full lives. - If you walk left in the first level use that exitpole and all levels/doors are unlocked.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Dean Ashton who worked on the Amiga 1200 and CD32 versions, has stated he'd originally been tasked with bringing the game to the CDTV, after the original coder ran into issues, but once everyone realised there was no viable market, it was moved to the A1200. He doesn't know if the 5 extra levels that were added, were left over from the original or the SNES build Millennium were working on

[@shotgunl]

Great video, Mark. We really appreciate the sacrifice you made by playing these ports so that we don't have to hahaha.

[@davidmuldowney]

Master system and Game Gear versions look beautiful! I was always impressed by the Mega Drive version's graphics and agree the controls were slippery, but it was just a matter of putting in the hours to get used to it.

[@solarflare9078]

Both the Amiga and Game Gear share the same master palette and same amount of colors onscreen. That's why they look identical

[@Ryuhei64]

Wait, that music at the beginning is an homage to the one on Robocop 1987, but it's... basically a copy!

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, pretty much so. So close I was worried about a copyright strike.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

@@RetroCore It's a wonder how they got away with this for over 30 years of constant re-releases!

[@LeShark75]

I didn't realise there were other versions beside the original, but that's what happens when you own the Amiga version.

[@StormkeeperPU]

I knew about the MD version as I recall the cheat code provided in Gamesmaster (despite living in Ireland at the time, I had access to a lot of UK TV channels and magazines!), as well as a PC version because I still have most of the collection it featured on. I probably saw the C64 version in a review though as I feel like I probably saw it somewhere, though I can't fully recall, nor do I know I was aware of other versions at the time! I do have a copy of all 3 games in the series for MD now though!

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

This game never actually died. There was also one on PS1, PS2, DS and even the Nintendo Switch. The PS1 version was also available one time on PS3. They were all pretty much the same, but with deminishing quality with each release.

[@88craigv]

I had the master system one myself, got it for my 6th birthday I believe. Hardest game I ever played as you say it was very slippery but mastered it eventually, I remember telling my aunt so excitedly I finished it and she did not care lol.

[@RetroCore]

Lol, oh I know that feeling. You'll be so proud of such an accomplishment yet nobody except yourself cares.

[@jmbenetti]

Nice one. I only knew it by name, but I love when there's a lot of ports.

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

Robocod is an awesome game. First played on the Atari STe the Amiga. Another great Video retroCore.

[@TheBurk1989]

Oh man this is pretty special to me. This along Chuck Rock 1 is my very first gaming memories I can remember. I was maybe 3 or 4 years old playing on our Amiga. Because of that I have a little bit of a soft spot for this game. Never been able to beat it legit without the cheatmode yet, so I have to get revenge on it someday. The other parts in the series though I'm not a fan of. Great video again Mark! Btw when I saw that Tiertex logo on the Master System port I said Uh Oh! out loud to myself and then immediatly after you said it was total crap just as we all thought it would be. :D

[@gentarofourze]

Master System was the version I had, when I saw the 16 bit versions I wasn't impressed as they didn't seem any better. When I played it i couldn't stand it at first, but grew to love it after I got to know the physics of the game then doing things like using the plane were fun.

[@TonimanGalvez]

The CD32 version is the best for me. Quite amazing that the game gets to be released for C64.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

The future releases would all use the CD32 soundtrack. Just as well, because that's the best version of the soundtrack.

[@BlUsKrEEm]

I love the Game Gear port of the game. It was my introduction to Euro games as a whole (I'm American) and I have a ton of nostalgia for it. As a Game Gear collector I am so jealous of the British library. It's one of the few systems where you guys may have done better than Japan and North America.

[@RetroCore]

Sega was very popular in Europe during the Master System and Mega Drive days. I guess that's why there were so many good Game Gear releases.

[@DW_Korell]

@13:44 I just tried loading up the MS-DOS version using DOSBox 0.74 and the music plays fine. I am wondering if you just ran the ROBOCOD.EXE executable or started it by using the ROBOCOD.BAT batch file. See, the batch file launches the executable with a /s parameter (s for sound maybe?). Anyway, by using the batch file it plays the music fine, but if you just launch with the executable then there is no music.

[@RetroCore]

That's probably why I had no music. Oh well.

[@metalcoola]

James Pond 4 was supposed to be made thanks to kickstarter, but it got 15.000 pounds out of planned 100.000, and campaign got cancelled 12 days before it ended. Robocod was pretty fun, but i always sucked at it, and had to use cheat codes.

[@rafaellima83]

Hadn't heard about it, I would have contributted to it, if it was done by Chris Sorrell.

[@metalcoola]

@@rafaellima83 Yup, it was, but..campaign itself was...let's just say, it wasn't very good.

[@solarflare9078]

Remember how I mentioned Desert Strike had some delayed sound effects? I just remembered this game used the same sound driver as Desert Strike and man, 6:36 just hurts

[@ECTOdash1]

I had it on the Master System and was none the wiser about it being a bad port. Also bought the PS1 version when it became downloadable on PS3 because that seemed so bizarre.

[@david-spliso1928]

To be fair they did well with the Atari ST version considering how fast the game has to move with no hardware scrolling available. If they'd made an STE enhanced version (the STE can do h/w scrolling) and the scrolling was choppy then criticism would be more valid, but as it is, it's fairly impressive. :thumbs up:

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

It was never well suited to a stock ST, but when your looking at a version with a greatly reduced playing area, plainer backgrounds and choppy scrolling, you wonder if it was worth the effort

[@ayth81]

I liked it a lot on the ST back then. I don't remember having many or any better platform games.

[@Nozzat]

Absolutely loved this game as a kid on the MD!

[@xXTheoLinuxXx]

It was an impressive game. It wasn't easy to get penguins at the Noth Pole.

[@spacefractal]

Im do like that way you need to activate the cheats in this game, example collecting the items in a contain order in the hub level: [C]ake, [H]ammer, [E]arth, [A]pple, [T]ap PS. Im really liked the game back in the days as kid, but its of course taste in mind.

[@Dreddtube]

I knew about that cheat but I swear that you just made me realise the meaning of that sequence that writes "CHEAT" with first letters of each item! For my defense, I'm a belgian French native speaker and I never read the meaning in any magazine back then. But anyway, thanks for this, it solves one of the many young gamer mysteries that lies unsolved in my memory :)

[@StormkeeperPU]

I still recall that cheat from Gamesmaster... It worked on the PC (and the MD version that it was originally given for), and I imagine that it works on every version!

[@Larry]

You said at the beginning of the video some ports used elves instead of penguins, do you happen to know what versions do at all? Also, Cake, Hammer, Earth, Apple, Tap. then walk left instead of right on the first level... The cheatcode to unlock the whole game :P

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, I know the cheat 😋 hate the game though. The ones with elves will be the newer remakes.

[@MarcSola7]

As far as I can recall, the elves version are on PS1 and GBA and oh, they are both horrendous.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

The Fact Hunt Guru, asking the community to do his research for him, most odd 🤔

[@jazzygeofferz]

St some point the whole game has been redesigned. I'd imagine they lost the penguin licensing as loads of the levels are different as well. Lips, Ice Cream, Violin, Earth, Snowman.

[@souljastation5463]

@@jazzygeofferz I had no idea that the penguins were tied to a commercial product until very recently, mind blowing.

[@IdmodeOmega]

Loved this game on my amiga 1200!

[@CommodoreFan64]

I had a bootleg copy of the C64 version I found on the early internet, and I guess being American, I never could get into most Euro-platfromers, as something almost always seemed off about them like random enemies, and odd level layouts, well outside of Giana Sisters on the C64, which is fantastic, and is one of my favorites of all time.

[@RetroCore]

Doing worry, I'm British and I think most Euro computer games are crap too.

[@BinBowie]

Just to let you know, the Master System version of the game does indeed include parallax scrolling, but only if you play the game on a PAL console. Playing on a PAL console also enables the snow in the HUB world as well.

[@RetroCore]

That's kind of dumb. I wonder why it is like that? Good old tiertex messing everything up.

[@spacefractal]

a late repley. This is property because they might have move cpu cycles on the pal machine. ntsc require more tighter code. Its is only one of the very few advancement when playing pal version when done property. but fails most of the time. Most Mega drive (and any other consoles) games did not bother with PAL at all example (pretty much none was fullscreen and they just plays slower), where its understandle you perfer NTSC here.

[@bhirawamaylana466]

When James Bond meet RoboCop and become cartoon character instead.

[@aqarius5740]

I was very impressed with the Master System version which, by the way, does have parallax scrolling in the PAL version.

[@dcikaruga]

There is an Acorn Archimedes version too.

[@scm64entertainment44]

12:19 i can't believe tiertex developed this port. oh boy!

[@kellinwinslow1988]

It's a weird series of games. I can see your points on it Mark. It's got issues for sure as many Euro games did then. I've played all the James Pond games and like this one the best. It's not amazing but I really enjoyed playing it on the Mega Drive. It's colorful and controls decent. It's a good platform game for kids for sure. I still remember when my younger brother finished the game when it came out. It would make a good PSN or Switch release although I don't know who has the rights now.

[@alanharrison2726]

It's out on switch . I own it. It's good.

[@kellinwinslow1988]

@@alanharrison2726 That's cool. Pity I don't own a Switch.

[@TheRealPatete]

@@alanharrison2726 Switch version is terrible, better stick with the Mega Drive one.

[@alanharrison2726]

@@TheRealPatete , I agree , I have both , but definitely play switch version more ,

[@Sut1978]

I never noticed the ST struggle with scrolling back in the day. I really notice now though after playing consoles. Some programmers could get decent scrolling on the ST others not so much.

[@rafaellima83]

I think it depends a lot on how complex the game is.

[@RetroCore]

Yep, consoles really did show up the downsides to computers.

[@solarflare9078]

I'm always confused by these people that berate Super Mario Bros 2 (Japan), Rock/Mega Man X6, and Sonic CD for their level design YET give all these Euro games a pass. At least those games I have listed has a sense of direction and some thought in enemy placement. All these Euro games just place anything wherever they please and it ends up being a total mess of confusing level design. James Pond 2 is no exception.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Agreed, and a lot of Euro-platformers seemed like unfinished tech demos to me, that made them not worth my time, however there have been exceptions like Giana Sisters that used sensible level design.

[@RetroCore]

Agreed 100% 👍

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

Mega Man X6 is an abomination.

[@solarflare9078]

SuperPlumbus Idk Disagree. It's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be, barring some exceptions. If you've been to this channel more often, you'd understand. Mark had been through some truly crap games before that make X6 look like a masterpiece.

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

@@solarflare9078 J's Reviews would like a word with you.

[@keyserxx]

Cake, Hammer, Earth, Apple and Tap. I played Amiga and Amiga AGA back in the day. I'll be getting a MiSTer for my CRT soon so I can check all these out. You can crouch land on top of an enemy to do double damage btw.

[@KISSbestfan]

Thats another one up for Amiga. Not a bad effort for it's times

[@Alianger]

Horizontal screen cropping makes the SNES version play worse, though they did improve the camera as in the MD one. On amiga you can see how the screen starts scrolling too late. I'd say the hit detection is also a bit worse in the SMS version (which is also missing a bunch of levels).

[@elbitxo5945]

just tried both MD and SNES versions out of curiosity, and the SNES game definitely plays a bit better. It's not as slippery and the jump is somewhat more manageable. The character also sticks to the left side of the screen when walking to the right, unlike the MD version, so the lack of horizontal resolution is not a problem at all. Both games are pretty mediocre, tho.

[@Alianger]

@@elbitxo5945 It's still a problem in various parts of the game, you only tried them briefly

[@nickmalcom6360]

there were 2 versions of the snes port, one for the UK, and one for the US. from what I can tell the main difference is in the music being dun in a slightly different soundfont.

[@RetroCore]

That's strange. I can understand making a UK one with Penguin biscuits and a US one without but changing just the sound font? Maybe they wanted the US version to sound more mensing.

[@user-te1le7ck6b]

@Retro Core can you tell me which version your ost at the start and end of the video is from ? As I can’t find as good as a version as your rips ?

[@RetroCore]

Ah, that's from the Amiga CD32 version.

[@user-te1le7ck6b]

Retro Core thanks mate much appreciated

[@luisemilio1143]

There’s another Snes version of James Pond 2 by ASC corporation, it’s better known as the american and japanese version. It’s the exact same game, but the music is slighty different. The Ocean version was composed by Keith Tinman, while the ASC version was composed by Richard Joseph (the original composer of the game)

[@RetroCore]

Strange that the overseas version would use the original composer while the UK release didn't. I guess he wasn't happy with what Ocean had commissioned.

[@googleboughtmee]

I just came across a review for the NES version of Robocod, in NMS magazine issue 8. It only got 70% which for them means a dud. Not much info about it on the net.

[@csikocska]

I had the Sega Mega Drive version of James Pond 2 and I quite enjoyed the levels and music of that game. :) I didn’t mind that I missed the previous James Pond game, because I tried out on a Sega emulator and well, I didn't like the whole game mechanic. I also played the Sony Playstation version and I didn't know that the music was reused from the Amiga CD32 version. :D Maybe I will make a review video about all 3 James Pond games.

[@videogamebookreviews]

Mark, one funny thing about BotP is that even though there are so many thousands of different games available, you sometimes choose games you don't even like! Yes, most games on anyone's favourites list will have a bad conversion or even several bad ones, but when you consider a game to be rubbish across all formats, do you not wonder why you bother? :-) Cheers!

[@RetroCore]

Sadly I don't choose them, the viewers do, lol. I'd been asked to cover this one countless times.

[@Retro-Fez]

I love robocod on the megadrive i played it endlessly and still do 👍

[@RetroCore]

There are a lot of people who have fond memories of the game but for me all Euro platformers left a horrible taste in my mouth. Well, except Yogi bear on the SNES for some reason.

[@amerigocosta7452]

R.I.P. Richard Joseph (musician) and Steve Bak (ST coder). Yes, Robocod is not on par with console games but for an euro-platformer on home computers, I'd say it's still pretty good..or it could have been a lot worse!

[@bgpixlarn6855]

Not gonna lie, I think I like the ST's music best in this one. Looked unplayable though...

[@OM19_MO79]

It's always boggled me why this game has so many ports.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Up there with Zool for myself as an vastly over-rated game, that ended up being ported to so many systems, yet there never seemed to be the demand for it. Seem to remember the coder not being a huge fan of the Amiga hardware and absolutely hating the ST hardware, compared to the consoles. These attempts to do console style games on the home micros, should of stayed on the home micros. I've seen ST reviewers try and hide the fact the ST version is Dire, by just mentioning the nice looking sprites and good use of colour and not warning people of the games awful scrolling and small game window. If your going to play it, avoid the ST version.

[@eng3d]

It was shilled in every magazine back then but it wasn't a great game but so-so. However, apparently, the publishers invested a lot in this game, so the number of ports. IMHO, they tried to create a franchise

[@rafaellima83]

The coder was Chris Sorrell... I remember he saying he actually was a big fan of the Amiga Hardware and he had to pest off Steve Bak (RIP) a lot so Vectordean could make a game that had the Amiga as its main system instead of the ST.... and when Steve Bak finally let Chris do his own game on the Amiga, it was the biggest hit Vectordean ever had (exactly the first James Pond)........ After James Pond, if you look at the credits of Vectordean games, you'll see Steve Bak actually was less involved with the "making" of the games. I always found this interesting, I dunno if he just felt tired of doing that stuff or he just accepted other people could actually do better than him.

[@rafaellima83]

I am also going to add.... it's a great game. Even on the Mega-Drive, it stands on its own IMO.

[@rafaellima83]

@@eng3d James Pond was a big hit for Millenium on Amiga and the ST. And I am pretty sure this was also a big hit on sales for the Amiga, so it made sense to port it to other systems. (The first James Pond also got a few ports, I had the Mega-Drive cartridge of it, I am sure it was released on other systems too). James Pond 3 was the only game on the franchise that wasn't born on the Amiga though.

[@StormkeeperPU]

I recall having to play the MS-DOS version without sound too, as either I was yet to get my Sound Blaster 16 at the time, or I couldn't get it working! Either way, it makes me think that I should see if I can get it working under Dosbox or the Pentium laptop I have!

[@RetroCore]

I never thought of that. I don't want a retro desk top due to space but a retro laptop would be perfect. The problem then is connecting the VGA out to my video capture hardware 😢

[@StormkeeperPU]

@@RetroCore Yeah, I started to consider the idea of retro laptops as a way to save space (after watching a video about DOS laptops from The 8-Bit Guy a few times), especially if I wanted to do some multiplayer gaming, but getting older laptops that fully support DOS (most notably the sound card) tends to be a bit trickier and more expensive! Currently, the oldest pair of laptops I have only support Windows 98, although there is the option of something like the OPL3LPT for sound as well, but it's not going to be a perfect solution, plus you need a port replicator or PCMCIA card for the parallel port that solution uses, plus you'd possibly need speakers for output of sound, as well as patching games to support the hardware. It sounds a lot more involved than it actually is, but I would say that having a laptop with the legacy ports built in is much easier to work with! My Pentium laptop luckily has native Sound Blaster Pro support via pure DOS, but I sadly have an issue with the screen that I need to properly diagnose and repair. I also can't recommend the laptop, despite it ticking all the boxes because I have been unable to locate any additional ones as of yet, and the name "Pico Model 98" hasn't really brought up many promising results as of yet. I am currently working on finding something comparable to it that is a lot more common, and I'd be more than happy to let you know of my findings when I finally locate something, though I do also have a spreadsheet of all the laptop models I have (it contains hardware specs, ports, etc), or want to look into further if you want me to link you? As for connecting a VGA out to a capture card, you could use a VGA to HDMI converter, although I am aware that you have possibly gone down that route already? There are some port replicators for some laptops that do add a DVI port (though I'm not sure how that would work with HDMI converters, if they exist), but at the same time, you're looking at Windows XP era laptops by this point. They should be able run a lot of games for Windows 98 all the way up to XP (naturally), so you would be covered for most older versions of Windows, though for DOS, you'd need something like Dosbox, which wouldn't be hugely different to running it on a newer PC, unless you want to make use of the legacy ports for some reason. I ultimately think that older laptops are a good solution for if you need legacy hardware to run older software and use older hardware, but choosing the right laptop can be tricky too, given that apart from the storage drive and the RAM, it's really only certain laptops that allow you to replace the CPU and graphics card (and even then, it's within a limited scope of upgrades), so it's definitely worth considering what you need a laptop to do with regards to running older games, because you likely won't be able to do everything on a single laptop in terms of covering all OSes!

[@luisemilio1143]

AAHHH the C64 intro music is soooo good!! Unfortunately no one knows who composed the C64 version :/

[@RetroCore]

As often is the case 😢

[@Hexagonaal]

Deepsid has Richard Joseph as the musician

[@forcedfeedbackclassicgamer5499]

I can totally understand your disdain for this game...

[@andyukmonkey]

The AGA Amiga version has slightly improved music too.

[@carlosbragatto]

Made fun of ST scroll using the MSX 1 as a collateral? KUDOS, sir.

[@thepumpkingking8339]

I thought the ST port was the Master System version.

[@david-spliso1928]

To be fair they did well with the Atari ST version considering how fast the game has to move with no hardware scrolling available. If they'd made an STE enhanced version (the STE can do h/w scrolling) and the scrolling was choppy then criticism would be more valid, but as it is, it's fairly impressive.

[@Pete5475]

The Master System version does actually have parallax scrolling though, weirdly, it depends on what you play it on. Playing the game on a base Master System 2 includes the parallax scrolling, but playing the same game on (in my case) the Mega SG, the parallax isn't present. Also I mostly played the Mega Drive version but going to the MS version later I never felt the controls were any different.

[@RetroCore]

Ah, I was playing it on a Japanese Master System. So strange why parallax only appears on certain models.

[@tobiassoderlund7098]

Pete Gibbins I can not try it out at the moment, but if my memory serves me correctly it (also?) depends on if the game is run in 50 or 60 Hz. I was always impressed with the parallax on the Master System version which I ran at 50 Hz on an original PAL console before I had the means of running it in 60 Hz on my Mega Drive with 60 Hz switch and a Master System-adapter... and when I did I wondered where the parallax had gone. Concerning the slippery controls, well... it just feels like it is running too fast in 60 Hz on the Master System.

[@tobiassoderlund7098]

Pete Gibbins Oh, and then I realised that many people already had mentioned this.

[@Pete5475]

@@tobiassoderlund7098 Yeah, that would make sense, as much sense as it could make at least. Thanks for the reply!

[@Johannes_Tube]

@Retro Core I know you said you don't like the game, but you're supposed to press down mid-jump for a stomp-type attack that will kill most enemies in a single hit. It's kind of a beefed-up version of Mickey's butt stomp in Castle of Illusion (which Robocod nicks quite a bunch of game elements from, by the way). Maybe keep that in mind if you ever have to re-record footage from this game. :-D I always thought this game was very solid for an Amiga platformer until the level design decides to go out of its mind in the later levels. The new levels in the Amiga AGA version and later are godawful, if you ask me, though. They are already way too spaghetti-ish at the beginning of the game!

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, I figured that out after trying to defeat the boss on the GB version. In that game you must push down to do any damage at all.

[@GreatHealer.]

Surprised this game has not had a remake/reboot.

[@RetroCore]

It has. That version is on the GBA, DS, Switch and PS2.

[@peristrojka]

I have the master system version and it has ‘parallex scrolling’ unlike in your video. Are you running it on emulator?

[@RetroCore]

Nope, real hardware. Maybe there are two revisions of the game?

[@genstarmkg5321]

@@RetroCore Apparently this is one of those games that run differently depending if it's an NTSC Master System or if it's a PAL Master System (Which also may explain the slippery controls since it seems that it wasn't ported correctly to NTSC) though I'm not sure. It could be that there are also different revisions. Here is a video for example of the MS version with parallax: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZrOoqOVrZaWgLM Tbh, this whole affair is weird.

[@solarflare9078]

Quick little error in the description: Mega Drive comes in at 5:35, not 5:53.

[@RetroCore]

Oops, I'll fix that. Thanks.

[@solarflare9078]

Np. Always would love to help on your amazing shows here!

[@SelfIndulgentGamer]

Ah, one of my big box Amiga 500 game favorites :) I never understood why the FMV was so bad on the CD32, considering how good Chuck rock 2's FMV is. :)

[@RetroCore]

I think chuck rock 2 is actually animated by the Amiga and not actual video footage. I'd have to go back and check to be sure though.

[@spacefractal]

btw its a game that really show what its was a Amiga game and not a console game: Great use of copper and great uses of transparency, also the game was on one disc (about 880kb). Here im do admist im do still most keen on the Amiga version rather than console versions. The Game Gear port is not the worst port Tiertex im have seen at all.

[@iXien]

This a very special game on Amiga, back in late 1991. So many colors, hyper fast scrolling in 50fps with parallax, transparency, numerous bonuses and animated monsters, different musics with SFX at same time, huge and numerous levels including hidden ones, all of this packed on only one floppy disk 😃 ! Level design was very nice two and gameplay was lovable with the expandable body of James Pond, rolling and flying vehicles (including a weird bathtub in which James wear a lovely old bathing cap), elevators and bumpers, one way roads and the ability to choose between two different levels to start on the hub each time you master a boss (one boss for two worlds). I ear well when elitist console gamers say that a game is "consolish" which mean in their mind that they think someone just try to recreate the fun of console games. But here for me it's not a try, it's a success! Alone, Chris Sorrel, managed to create a very nice platform game. It's not consolish, it's just as fun as we expect of any platform game back in the beginning of the 90's, the problem is more that it was sadly quite rare on computers (but 1992 was arriving to compensate for that). But I can understand that the pitch, the universe, the character design and the musics can displease. It's all really European and even from the end of the 80's console players were already immersed in the japanese culture in gaming. So playing a pond wearing a Robocop suit, fighting against a mad scientist straight out of a 50's TV episodic show, destroying cute serpents or creatures made of pastry in worlds remembering western toys is far from the Japanese imagery 😉. Musics are interesting too as they completely appeal to the universe but yes, these classic melodies are once again a very European approach (remember Lemmings? About that, an interesting Battle Of The Ports can be made with this one) but are indeed irritating after a while. What is sure is that they make good use of Paula on Amiga. AGA version is more impressive than you tell with even more colourful backgrounds (psychedelic?) and special effects. And yes scrolling is really smooth (ECS is very smooth too on A1200, showing it's just a question of CPU) and CD32 offers (for once) the most successful version on Amiga hardware. I'm not surprised by the MD version that shows that European developers weren't really comfortable with MD hardware to convert existing games. SNES is impressive, SMS/GG is just what we can expect from a Tiertex work and GB version shows once again how a successful developer on computers like OCEAN can fail on console systems. It would be very interesting to discover why and how this game arrived on so many systems because even me that really like Robocod consider that its qualities don't explain that it has been converted on new systems more than 15 years after its first appearance (but by the same obscure publisher on many versions). When I saw it was arriving on Switch, I just laughed a lot 🤣 ! You told in the introduction that you prefer not to show the PS2 and DS versions as level design is really different. I suppose it's the same for the PSP and Switch versions but what about GBA and PS1 versions? Will you do a Battle Of The Ports for other games from the series 😉 ?

[@RetroCore]

I don't think I'll do any more James Pond games. They really don't appeal to me.

[@iXien]

@@RetroCore 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@rafaellima83]

Just commenting to say I agree with all your points. I also thought the game was incredibly fun to play. It had lots of cool features, secrets to find, the level design was really cool to toy with, the boss designs was pretty cool, the game was very playable, the difficulty level was spot-on.... it had SO MUCH stuff to figure out and find but without ever feeling the levels were too big (which IMO was always a problem with european platform games), the stretch gimmick was really fun to play with and felt very fresh and new.... The GB version was just published by Ocean. It was developed by Data Design who really made some bad stuff. But not on level with Tiertex. Oh no, no one ever reached the shitness level of Tiertex. Ever. :D

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

They changed the penguins to elves in later releases due to the license with Penguin biscuits running out. Though as an Australian who eventually got around to trying those biscuits, I will say our Tim Tams are way better!

[@RetroCore]

Tim tams can be bought here in Japan. I always thought they were the Australian Penguin 😅

[@ennahh76]

Could the slippery controls be intentional seeing that he is a fish?

[@RetroCore]

Good excuse but more likely due to poor game physics.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Oh boy this is one of my childhood favourites, Yeah Sonic and Mario were better, but I had a ton of fun playing this on the mega drive, for me its one of the best western made platformers, never knew it had that many ports though.

[@Asterra2]

8:45 Wouldn't have killed them to force the sound effects through two channels, with the other three now being unused, so they wouldn't still be coming exclusively out of the left speaker. Was also waiting for the GBA version, which I recall beating, in honor of the Amiga version of my past. The GBA version is excellent-basically the Amiga version, lower resolution of course, better sound, music is a bit better too since the Amiga voice restrictions didn't exist.

[@RetroCore]

The GBA version along with versions after that are more of a remake. The stage designs are quite different too.

[@beakermann]

Love the intro. Great vid of stuff ya hate!

[@WeskerSega]

The Master System version features parallax scrolling too, but you have to play it at 50hz for the game to display. If you play it at 60hz, then it doesn't. Such a bizarre decision, as the Game Gear version shows they could have done it at 60hz on the Master System version too. There's also a bunch of other graphical effects (like snow at the beginning) being displayed at 50hz but missing at 60hz.

[@RetroCore]

That explains why. I'm using a Japanese Master System.

[@WeskerSega]

@@RetroCore Yeah, it's logical given your situation. Still, it's strange they could do the parallax scrolling and graphical effects in the 60hz Game Gear version, but couldn't on the 60hz Master System version and those appear only on the 50hz Master System version. Maybe it has to do with the fact the Master System version was designed to be sold on 50hz regions (that is, Europe and Australia) so they didn't bother to replicate this on 60hz because they didn't consider it really necessary.

[@williamwilliam9993]

CD32 version does now have intro video and CD audio arranged soundtrack it is identical to original amiga version

[@jbmaru]

I wanted that game when I got my Mega Drive, but ended up not buying it due to hit titles taking priority. Do you use DOSBox?

[@RetroCore]

Yes, I use dosbox.

[@gonzaloares7141]

Glad to see the Game reviewed has a c64 Port! Have You changed your mind?

[@RetroCore]

Changed my mind about what?

[@gonzaloares7141]

@@RetroCore about making a show without a c64 Port. You said that the show after the hiatus won't have a Game with a c64 versión. Then, You published the James pond 2 show...with a c64 port

[@Majorhappysaccount]

The master system version also has parallax scrolling, you need to run it on pal 50hertz systems.

[@matttheshadowman2790]

Is it me or is Tiertex's best work seemingly on the Master System, I mean this version of Robocod isn't good due to the control but it at least looks and runs pretty well and their other efforts on the console seem to be not the complete pits like many of their other ports.

[@RetroCore]

I would agree with you. Maybe they farm the Master System ports out to another company?

[@wilkiedriver]

So, the CD32 version had a commercial from the first James Pond game?

[@RetroCore]

Seems that way 👍

[@JorgeAraujo97]

I don't know why you hate this game, it's so cute. xD

[@RetroCore]

I'm just not a fan of its style.

[@Pridetoons]

He hates Ape Escape too so...

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

@@Pridetoons He does?!

[@chris.bilson]

Cute but crap

[@Pridetoons]

@@Nathan-rb3qp Yup, and I'm not talking about the PSP one.

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Martini for me Mark. Shaken...not stirred. 8^) Anthony..

[@IanMicheal]

Well done :) enjoyed this i dont always agree with you but your one of my fav channels :) i think you got this close to spot on.. I would say amiga cd32 is the best of a not a great game.. Snes version is not as smooth as the amiga ... Not something you hear ever day lol

[@FromWitchSide]

All that europlatformer talk made me look back into Mr Nutz, I didn't realize how Sonicy :P it was back then.

[@RetroCore]

And still not that great.

[@naviamiga]

Always played the Amiga version, but nice to see the Master System / GG version worked out. What happened to the Atari version? Poor conversion there as I'm sure it had the power to do better.

[@miikasuominen3845]

How about 3 hours of streaming, while you play this excellent game? ST-version, with headphones???

[@RetroCore]

Oh man, your sick 😂

[@topofbones]

I only played the colorful and ultra sluggish Master System version. It's a fish that walks with his tail. What do you expect? XD

[@WrightOffsGaming]

Hat's off as always for you tolerance for retro pain, I think this is the first time one of your vids has made me angry thanks Mark. I hate this game so much and now even more after watching all the other versions, thumbs up for the C64 game though for the effort.

[@RetroCore]

Lol, you should have been me having to play it. I really dislike so many Euro games. Its so strange too. Being British I should like them but I find the art style, level design, play mechanics and audio to be insulting.

[@WrightOffsGaming]

I couldn't have said it better myself 🤣 it's weird though how lifeless euro games can be, it's not just a retro thing either with a lot new games of this Gen being just boring tbh.It's pixel art that's my bugbear with a lot of it being ugly and looking like it's been used because the developers are shit artist's. Maybe a bit controversial but I love retro and I don't remember my Thunderforce games looking like the crap that's getting churned out today.

[@RetroCore]

Oh man, the whole pixel art thing is annoying. Any game I see with so called pixel art is ignored. I mean, Retro games never looked like these games.

[@WrightOffsGaming]

I'm glad it's not just me then as I thought I was sounding like a right miserable old bugger moaning about this lol. It's so true though looking back at older games we love that they don't look anything like what's considered pixel art today. Am I missing the point here lol.

[@ZZombyWooff]

I beat this fucking game like 27 years ago. now I have to do it again? FUCK. arghh..

[@RetroCore]

Lol, nice quote from Clarence 😎

[@uubrmanx]

There's also a Switch version of this game. I don't know if it's based on this version though.

[@BloggosPow]

YES someone else who hates Robocod!!

[@jessragan6714]

Me too! Me too! Over here! (frantically waves arms)

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I never understood why this game was so popular. To me its just another animal mascot platformer in a sea of them.

[@RetroCore]

A poorly playing one at that.

[@genstarmkg5321]

I see what you did there.

[@solarflare9078]

Genstar MKG You mean.... you SEA what he did there? ... ... ...I'll... SEA myself out.

[@FuzzballRenakitty]

Never was a fan of this game... I don't know why though.. just something about it...

[@mightyfilm]

Product placement in games will always somehow mystify me.

[@philbc3]

Did you give the PS1, PS2(!) and GBA ports a miss because they didn't bring much to the table?

[@RetroCore]

They're more like remakes so I left them out.

[@131457c]

I rented this game for the Mega Drive when I was 12 years old and I hated it so much. I only played it because I already spent the money on it and it was such a dull platformer. After i returned it, I never touched it again. Although I was amazed by the Master System graphics when I saw a friend of mine play it on the rental store. They looked almost like the Mega Drive. I'm still suprised that there are so much versions of this crappy game!

[@saturndual32]

I dont understand why on this case you choose not to feature the Playstation and GBA versions. You say cuz they feel like remakes, but on other videos you feature completely diferent games as long as they share the same name. Like the Road Rash video featuring the 3DO and Game Boy versions.

[@RetroCore]

Time and the fact I hate this game more than you can imagine. The other times I feature one "remake" is because it's just that, 1 or 2 at most. If I included the GBA version then people would expect the PlayStation, PS2, DS and PS4 as well. No thanks.

[@Archimedes75009]

No Archimedes or RISC PC version? You could even use a Raspberry Pi and use ADFFS to demonstrate them, as they are freely downloadable with this application.

[@RetroCore]

It's not a case of not being to run the game it's a case of not having the game.

[@RetroCore]

Also, please read the text when the screen shots are shown.

[@Archimedes75009]

@@RetroCore Max gbp30 to spend to buy it from CJE micros

[@Archimedes75009]

@@RetroCore Just rename your videos 'Battle of the ports except the Archimedes version as I just don' t bother doing a serious job, I am a pro Amiga fanboy anyway'

[@david-spliso1928]

@@Archimedes75009 Stop being a whiny brat.

[@retropowerit]

Just imagine me back in time in my fav store with Robocod in front and Streets of rage 1.. and the store clerk suggesting me.. go buy james pond is far better than this streets of rage. I did not listen to him.. I loved beatem ups and It seemed to me quite some good cover art that streets of rage cover. I bought it. And I've never been happier in my life for a game. I also learned to not ever ever listen to a store clerk anymore!

[@RetroCore]

You made a very wise choice that day.

[@teeveeparty]

Haha that's like when a clerk tried to talk me into buying Madden instead of Super Castlevania IV!

[@craigix]

The Master System does have parallax scrolling on real hardware, your emulator is just maybe set up wrong.

[@RetroCore]

Ah, I was actually using real hardware. Since I've been living in Japan for 23 years I use Japanese consoles which are NTSC. It turns out that the untalented people at Tiertex programed this game in such away that parallax scrolling only works on a pal system. I didn't know about that and to be honest it should even be a thing. Some nice people in the comments pointed this out to me. Upon checking the game in an emulator under PAL mode I could see the parallax and snow on the overworld map.

[@noobdave]

There’s also a gameboy advance port and a ps1 version

[@user-te1le7ck6b]

Never owned the game but the soundtrack sounds quirky which I guess is a good thing.

[@oscarzxn4067]

Interesting to see that you think the SNES version is the best because SNES Drunk mentioned it as one of the games that was better on Genesis, in this case because of the controls I don't know what to think now

[@solarflare9078]

Just form your own opinion if you like. They're both the best versions of this game, but each have their own strengths. (Mega Drive: Higher res, less slowdown. SNES: Much better color depth, tighter controls. Sound is up for debate.)

[@RetroCore]

I do think the SNES version has the tighter controls.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

The PS1 version was based around the Amiga CD32 version with altered levels and elves instead of penguins. It also had a different, but still awful opening intro FMV. Future releases were based on that version, with the quality deminishing over each release. And that is why I never bought the Switch version, despite having a soft spot for this game.

[@RetroCore]

I just think it's a crap game full stop. Even back when it was new I never liked it.

[@jesuszamora6949]

The SNES seems the best, but being king of the isle of misfit toys is little honor. Still, better than James Pond 3. I'm surprised Orion Pictures didn't sue the pants off the devs for that music.

[@kellinwinslow1988]

The SNES looks good but the Genesis version actually controls better.

[@RetroCore]

I'm surprised too. Maybe Orion had gone bankrupt by this point?

[@PhotoRealisticBeaver]

James Pond 3 was the only games in the series that I actually enjoyed. I'm pretty sure I played it all the way through on the CD32.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Biggest of all for me was that the system's market share was becoming large enough that a game could 'lead' on the Amiga without having to be reined back in order to make a decent ST version. 🤣 Source: www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-04-the-making-of-robocod

[@rafaellima83]

That was something Chris Sorrell was bugging Steve Bak for a long time. James Pond was already done this way, it was their first game made with the Amiga as a lead (not considering Yolanda which wasn't even a serious title on Amiga and I am even surprised it got released at all).

[@daveruda]

I think this was considered a very good platformer for Amiga at the time. Personally was never hooked.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

See what I mean about the ST Press? and these are just the commercial press reviews. The One for ST Games (Nov, 1991) Absentees notwithstanding, RoboCod is one of the most addictive games to date and consequently one of the best. The graphics are soooo cute and the tunes range from a brilliant parody of the RoboCop theme tune to a jolly Christmassy score. RoboCod may never win any awards for originality, but it does take some of the better features of the best of the current arcade crop and wrap them into an unputdownable package. Suffice to say, if you only buy one arcade game this winter, buy RoboCod. 93 Atari ST User (Feb, 1992) It's the best platform game to surface (sorry) on the ST for a long, long time, and it pushes the computer's abilities to the maximum, It has set the standard against which other platform games will be judged, and is a worthy winner of the Gamer Gold. 90 ST Action (Mar, 1993) Console-style platform games come to the ST with a band. Coded by the man who wrote the first ever ST game - Steve Bak. 86 ST Format (Feb, 1992) Each mission has been designed well, with an emphasis on making you think before you leap. Your skill and dexterity are just as important as they ever were, but now you've got to explore much more, just so that you can figure out the way to the imminently exploding penguins. Exits and bonus rooms are scattered far and wide, sometimes even hidden completely, so you can spend hours just mapping out each level to find all the special bits. There's no shortage of things to do - and you can return to the same bits time and time again, only to fine something new. 83

[@david-spliso1928]

The game does actually play pretty well considering. To be fair they did well with the Atari ST version considering how fast the game has to move with no hardware scrolling available. If they'd made an STE enhanced version (the STE can do h/w scrolling) and the scrolling was choppy then criticism would be more valid, but as it is, it's fairly impressive.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@Rooflesoft Games 87% from Zzap64: www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displaypage.pl?issue=087&page=054&thumbstart=0&magazine=zzap&check=1

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@david-spliso1928 I'm not knocking the ST hardware for what it was, i owned a 520STFM for a number of years, it's just games like this, Shadow Of The Beast, Final Fight, Wokfchild etc, needed to be written for the STE, not older ST machines. If only Atari had gotten the STE out when originally planned.

[@david-spliso1928]

@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148 Yeah the STE should have been released in 88. It's a shame its hardware was barely used commercially. But I like clever coding on relatively underpowered machines and the scrolling on this isn't all bad, considering it all has to be done in software.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@david-spliso1928 Tramiel all over, reveal hardware to press in terms of details, way too early, Final hardware arrives late and not the Amiga beater you were claiming and to sour it even more, have the old STFM selling alongside the STE initially..