Battle of the Ports - Secret Agent - Sly Spy (シークレット・エージェント) Show

[@Frikinautas]

As a hardcore Bond fan it's great to see tributes to forgotten 007 gems like the fight with the JIM suit guy from “For Your Eyes Only” (quite a distressing and clautrophobic fight) and the motorbike chase on “Never Say Never Again”. I swear every day that passes by, I love Data East more and more. Also, I have to get that soundtrack from the Amiga version: Groovy as heck!

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Dean Belfield of Software Creations, was behind the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions, he made the decision to code a unique game for both systems, rather than port the arcade game, which up until given task of converting, he had never seen. The strict commercial deadlines meant smooth scrolling had to be sacrificed, something he regrets.

[@RetroCore]

Home micro game ports back then were a right shit show. No code. No time and no support. It's no wonder most games sucked.

[@markmeric8580]

The C64 version is by far the best of the 8 bits. Detailed sprites and backdrops, smooth full screen scrolling and the best music :)

[@marcocorona3842]

Never knows there was a C64 port for this game. And it was amazing too. I wonder to have the possibility to play it in the future through some emulator.

[@stunthumb]

Quite a nice port on the ST, I didn't appreciate at the time just how close it was to the arcade version. For me though, my favorite game in this style was Midnight Resistance - it was like our version of Metal Slug and Contra. We always had Turrican of course, but you had to be in the right mood to play that.

[@RetroCore]

+stunthumb Midnight Resistance, another cool Data East game. I first played that on the Amiga at a friends house. I eventually owned it myself on the Mega Drive.

[@turrican3839]

The C64 has a criminally underrated soundtrack man

[@BlockABoots]

C64, has the best scrolling/movement again!!. When i used to look at the screen shots on the back of the game cases, i always though the C64 version look worst off than the Amstrad, but had i know at the time how the C64 games moved my opinion of the C64 would have been very different!

[@RetroCore]

+BlockABoots yep, the C64 can produce some silky smooth motion.

[@inphanta]

I always thought CPC games only really looked good in screenshots, but playing them is an entirely different matter. I never really rated that computer much, tbh. Other than a few more colours and a faster processor (to compensate for lack of custom hardware), it couldn't really touch the C64.

[@zemaj0]

great video that's always back in the day I used to have the Atari ST version

[@RetroCore]

The ST version is really nice. Far better than the Amiga port. The ST was the "loosers" system back in the day but from what I've seen, as far as arcade Ports go it's the "winners" system.

[@fallofsaigon]

Another GREAT choice! AWESOME! :)

[@retrozone_rrf]

And underwater stages is a tribute to Thunderball

[@skins4thewin]

These systems were seriously strapped for RAM and it shows. So many end up cutting out sound effects or even sound altogether to be able to run even halfway decently. It's a real shame that they couldn't have packed a bit more RAM into these machines.

[@RetroCore]

It is a shame but you have to remember that in the 80s RAM was very expensive.

[@turrican4d599]

Amiga was capable of more ram.

[@SirJonSoda]

This game reminds me of Rolling Thunder, which I love dearly. I was somewhat disappointed to see that all ports were released only for home computers, but got quite impressed by the C64. Looks like it would be and excellent port if it had sound effects along with the great music. Gotta check it out

[@RetroCore]

I think you'll like the C64 port. It's rather good for the platform.

[@Konuvis]

This game looks awesome. don't know how I never heard of it before.

[@willrobinson7599]

No idea why the amiga version had massive panel and the atari version didn't. Much more colourful but slow and bit Jerky. Think the amiga version just lacked the final polish to make it good

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

Looks like Data East were looking for a certain license and couldn't get it...

[@RetroCore]

+Shinku Quickman it seems that way.

[@PAKA62]

+Shinku Quickman It makes sense because this game was released around the same time as License to Kill.

[@genstarmkg5321]

@@PAKA62 (no pun intended)

[@kenwheeler3637]

I had never heard of this game. I would have liked to hear what he sound effects were like in the ports where the choice was either SFX or Music. Interesting run and gun game. Reminiscent of Rolling Thunder.

[@itsmatt517]

Aren’t spies supposed to keep a low profile?

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Gonna stick with my emulated copy on the Wii. ;)

[@johnhamill7358]

Great video one of your best. I loved watching the difference between the ports. Shame it wasn't on the SNES, and Mega Drive

[@RetroCore]

Glad you liked it.

[@inphanta]

I first played this on a friend's ST and thought it was great, I later got the C64 port which I think is excellent; it was especially good hearing what the music was "supposed" to sound like after the squeaky ST tunes. I'm shocked by the Amiga port as I thought it would be better than the ST version, but it looks like a lazy rush job. Nice music though.

[@RetroCore]

In most cases the Amiga ports are just lazy ST conversions.

[@marioghernandez4960]

That title screen effect you used was quite nice

[@RetroCore]

Thanks. That took me ages to figure out how to make the circle scroll.

[@losalfajoresok]

Never played the C64 but I can see my 9 years old self playing a lot because of the graphics and the gameplay. They really look very close to the source game.

[@RetroCore]

+Lord Alfajor yep, I agree. The C64 port is very impressive.

[@batlin]

This was one of the games I played most on the C64, aged around 9. I used to pause it just to listen to the amazing soundtrack. Great stuff.

[@bombjack1984]

Nice to see the Amstrad getting its own version instead of a lazy Spectrum port, even if it has no sound. Cheeky of the developers to use a likeness of Timothy Dalton (Bond at the time) on the title screen and adverts. So the C64 version has another comfortable win, being the only port to be full screen AND run at a full 50fps. And no, you're not ripping on the Amiga, developers just had a really hard time getting arcade style games to run smoothly while filling most of the screen. I'd say only Rainbow Arts/Factor 5 really got the Amiga to sing (Turrican, Katakis, BC Kid etc.), I remember being quite disappointed when 'upgrading' from the C64. Fortunately the Mega Drive came out soon after...

[@RetroCore]

+bombjack It is funny that in this day and age I see the Amiga as an underdog but back in the late 80s it was the almighty king of computers while the ST was the sad man's choice. How wrong we were.

[@nekononiaow]

The Amiga was by far the most capable machine but there many other factors which contributed to it having horrible ports. The first of which being that the ST initially had a much bigger market share in Europe. Publishers targeted the ST first, where all animation had to be done via the CPU and ported it to the Amiga verbatim without taking advantage of its custom chips where it suffered because of its higher color count and slightly reduced CPU speed. In essence, it is commercial considerations which made these Amiga ports sub par because they were just ST versions barely and badly adapted. Every game where the Amiga was the lead platform ended up being better by a wide margin, alas, the ST being initially the best seller meant that Amiga ports were just an afterthought.

[@bombjack1984]

+Laurent Giroud True, development teams were often stretched having to do so many ports so they'd have to take such a strategy, which is a shame as the Amiga did have the potential. It's the same reason the Amstrad and MSX got so many Speccy ports, even though they're better hardware.

[@bombjack1984]

+Retro Core I'd still say the Amiga was the better machine over the ST, which really was quite underpowered for gaming bar a decent CPU. Funny how the C64 keeps winning out in these - hardware sprites and scrolling plus a lowish resolution usually allows for a nice smooth full-screen display. It was very well designed hardware.

[@RetroCore]

The was a reason why the C64 was so popular :)

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

ST Action magazine were really harsh on the ST version, awarding it 57% at full price and 7% on the budget re-release, Reviewer claimed he completed it, with 2 lives remaining, on his first attempt.

[@pepitaux13]

The Amiga port is just a shame, knowing what it is capable of

[@1983parrothead]

While many consider Goldeneye 007 on N64 to be the best James Bond game, it's 3D graphics. But if you want the best 2D James Bond game or something similar, perhaps Secret Agent/Sly Spy is your best bet. I could be wrong. The same White House background graphic was also used in the US and European versions of Bad Dudes VS. DragonNinja in its ending. The Japanese version had a different ending.

[@RetroCore]

Good old Data East recycling assets. 😀

[@JudgmentStorm]

@@RetroCore Even the dog yelp from Dragonninja is in there. The cola cans you pick up for extra life are the same exact ones. And that's got to be Karnov playing the role of Oddjob.

[@1983parrothead]

@@JudgmentStorm The map screen style seems to be recycled from Atomic Runner Chelnov's map screen. Captain America & The Avengers and Edward Randy use the story scene style that was also used in Atomic Runner Chelnov's story scene. Cola cans might also have been used in Crude Buster / Two Crude.

[@Scopie33]

The Atari game thunder jaws had a similar underwater section although I'm not a fan.

[@SushiSunshine2000]

This game looks like fun. I'm not a hardcore bond fan but I do enjoy the odd Bond movie now and again. I have Goldeneye 007 on the N64 and it's really fun.

[@RetroCore]

It's a pretty good game. If you like games such as Rolling Thunder you'll get on well with Secret Agent.

[@mleolv426]

Those dogs really have your number hey. The parallax on the c64 really look great especially the water scenes.

[@RetroCore]

+Matthew Leo I'm sure when you kill the dogs they have the same death sound as those on Elevator Action Returns. It must be like a stock dog death sound effect.

[@joystickjedi]

Fun game, kinda had that Bad Dudes flavaa.

[@RetroCore]

+joystickjedi and a dash of Data East Robocop too.

[@lurkerrekrul]

I never played this game back in the 80s, but watching the videos, I don't think I would have liked it much. It seems to be one of those games where no matter how good you are, there's no way to avoid getting hit and losing energy. There are just too many enemies to be able to shoot them all without getting hit. A lot of European games on the C64 seemed to be like that. Enemies gang up on you, coming from both directions, bullets come flying out of nowhere (not so much in this game, but in others), etc. I always got really frustrated with games like that.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, the game can be a little overwhelming at times. This is the reason I really hate Western light gun games. The Japanese ones such as virtua cop, house of the Dead, time crisis always make it bossible to hit everything but crap like T2 Arcade game, area 51 or revolution X just throw so much at you that it's impossible to not take a hut.

[@lurkerrekrul]

To be honest, I've never played any light gun games in the arcade. I saw the T2 machine once, but after watching a guy play it, it became clear that the game was really unfair. I've played some of the home ports of light gun games on the Amiga and C64, and never cared for them that much. Games like Operation Wolf, T2, etc. Even with a mouse, there's always too much to shoot. Even the shooting gallery type games designed for those systems always seem to quickly become too overwhelming.

[@JudgmentStorm]

@@RetroCore T2's arcade version is impossible to clear with just a single credit. I played through once recently & needed 25+ credits to do it. It's a shame that Williams/Midway went overboard with the difficulty- that does kind of ruin it slightly. The Mega Drive version of T2 Arcade is somewhat more fair, though the truck level is still quite a bastard.

[@JudgmentStorm]

@@RetroCore I've finally 1CCed it... not an easy game at all. You don't want to rush through it, or too many enemies are going to get on you at once. Also, the jump kick does 2 bullets of damage (that'll kill a tiger with 1 hit!). If you see someone unloading all their bullets before a boss battle, that's why.

[@starsecream]

Don't remember this game, but seems very similar to the Data East Robocop game, but with a 007 theme.

[@RetroCore]

+starsecream your pretty much right. There's a lot from Robocop in this game including his head!

[@enricomazzarellosimracing6502]

Best version C64 indeed, beside the graphics, it is the smoother version ( graphic is either not bad at all for C64 ) , and gameplay seems to be the most similar to the arcade

[@BlockABoots]

Any plans to do UN Squadron/Area 88??

[@RetroCore]

I do as I own the original area 88 on the SFC. Just need to check out how many ports it has. Need at least 4 versions for the show.

[@RetroCore]

+BlockABoots That's a lot of ports. Looks like it will be covered :)

[@Scopie33]

I'm impressed by the 8 bit versions, I only played the Amiga version but don't remember it running so slowly. A emulator issue perhaps?

[@RetroCore]

+Scopie33 no, it does actually run that slow. Take a look at the games timer and you see it counts down at the correct speed.

[@genstarmkg5321]

Maybe you had an A1200, which is an Amiga with higher specs.

[@MrNightshade2010]

i remember this and another spy game came out and the only difference was the other game you had these flying suit lvls which would switch to a behind the back perspective ....... and it was called special agent .. something ... i forget the rest of the name lol found it it was called : S.P.Y: special project y

[@Laserdreamz]

Cool wasn't too aware of this title reminds me of an Atari arcade one where he's fitting sharks etc, looks good on most formats

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, surpringly it's pretty sold on most formats. I'm not sure what that Atari game is though.

[@JudgmentStorm]

@@RetroCore The Atari one is Thunder Jaws.

[@nimaiiikun]

reminds me of rolling thunder

[@hybridplc]

Shame it never had a Mega Drive release :(

[@MrDerOutsider]

+SLaCK Gaming ikr

[@RetroCore]

+SLaCK Gaming it sure is. I'm surprised it was never considered.

[@hardwiredxs]

Definitely a good machine for this kind of game! Just look at revenge of Shinobi!... Very similar in gameplay style...

[@Maru96]

+SLaCK Gaming Game is too short to bother and no co-op.

[@jeremym9011]

I actually like this game. I wish it was on the Genesis/Megadrive with Hitoshi Sakimoto doing the music.

[@ShadowSumac]

And I thought Splatterhouse was bad with its "totally-not-Jason"... I mean, I could understand how DE could get away with "homages" to the James Bond series, but calling the agent "007"...?! It's a miracle that James Bond rightowners did not noticed or did not care about this game back in this day. C64 version as always impressive, considering its hardware. Amiga and Arcade look best though.

[@RetroCore]

I would imagine the western version would have been changed but to be honest I've never checked. Actually did you know that the Japanese call him "Zero Zero Seven" rather than "Double O Seven" like we do in English.

[@ShadowSumac]

Retro Core No, I did not know that. Thanks. Actually, if I did not know that he is called "Double O Seven" in the movies and books, I would have called him exactly "007".

[@phoenixkaidan8915]

almost like rolling thunder on mega drive but this is better and has more variety

[@waldnew]

A decent cpc port for once, shame about the sound

[@Yasin_MN]

Wait, so all the European home computers got decent ports? Blimey, whatever next? It's funny though how the strongest computer hardware wise got the weakest port. I'd say the C64 version is the best, but I'm very partial to SID chiptunes, so I may be slightly biased.

[@RetroCore]

I have to be honest, I'd probably go with the C64 version myself. It has the arcade presentation, great music and some quality graphics but most importantly it plays well.

[@robdimambro1674]

Who DIDN'T enter their secret agent code as 007 when they played this?

[@PhantomFrogBatman]

How did this never make its way onto the Genesis/Mega Drive?

[@RetroCore]

It's a mystery. maybe Data East at the time were too busy with Nintendo's BS 3rd part arrangement.

[@hardwiredxs]

I've already stressed the st port nature for the amiga, so my post is about the game. I remember loving the árcade and naturally the amiga version! After all it's a 007 rip-off - a good one! It all feels natural and on the ball regarding the design! It offers a good balance regarding gameplay styles (love the underwater scenes). Just the end stage bosses feel somewhat repetitive, but it was common practice back then...

[@RetroCore]

+João Ralha yeah, that's the biggest problem with this game, poor end of stage boss fights.

[@pikakai]

Why does the Amiga port have lag? I thought it was the most powerful computer out of the rest in terms of specs.

[@MrDerOutsider]

+Kai Attree shitty programming and more hardware intensive graphics...

[@RetroCore]

+Kai Attree because it was an over rated machine. The ST was the underdog but even that managed a better port.

[@nekononiaow]

That is not correct, it was not overrated, hardware wise the ST is no match but hardware specs are not the gospel that publishers sing: market share is. The ST market share guarantee it was the publishers's lead platform of choice, Amiga ports were just a side bonus because it could simply run the ST program with very few changes which obviously meant none of its powerful custom chips would be used. Since the Amiga CPU was clocked about 10% lower than the ST this guaranteed that any game with less than 10% margin would suffer from slowdowns, even more if they had adapted the graphics to 32 colors which increased the amount of memory to animate in real time. It is not technical considerations which produced these horrible ports but marketing ones: the best selling machine got the best ports because it was most profitable. The other, most powerful machine, got the cheapest possible adaptations from that initial version, and unsurprisingly, they were horrible. ;)

[@hardwiredxs]

+Laurent Giroud right on the ball... Programming on St das easier because there was no need to pay attention to custom chipsets -it was simples m68000 programming. St porting to the amiga got pragmatically to be a choice for most devs. Except when the Devs started to actually get on to the Amiga core. The St was inferior to the amiga technically... But also true is that in the right hands both machines could do magic - look at Turrican 1 and 2 - both versions are impressive and although the amiga version is better is not by much...

[@dlfrsilver]

The ST was the lead selling MACHINE, but certainly NOT the leading selling SOFTWARE computer. I have found the market numbers from back in the day, and the ST was NOT a profitable computer, hence the OBLIGATION for the companies to port and code on the Amiga. The companies just couldn't survived if they had to make games only for the ST And the ST just could not technically lead the market as well, it was an old machine already when it was sold. What we call the moore law :)

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

I just thought of something. If you want to play these kind of games with music and sound fx, you could with some erta wires connect one joyustick to two amigas or sts and use the main computer for video and sound efects and the second computer only for music! Has anyone ever tried that? I'm curious. Remembering how I love the Amiga version. I guess it really sums up the amiga for me personally, Great music, pretty great (for the time) graphics, poor gameplay.

[@RetroCore]

That wouldn't work I don't think. The game only allows you to choose music or sound effects once regardless of how many player are playing.

[@NoPonyZone]

I have the Bootleg version on my jamma cabinet

[@MrNightshade2010]

wow the amistad could give the 7800 and nes and c64 a good run when it didnt get crappy zx ports

[@RyumaXtheXKing]

Request: Dragon Breed

[@RetroCore]

+Ryuma King Dragon Breed you say. Hmm, it's a possibility.

[@mastersproutgamer9327]

Mark Smith 2015/2016: Tim Follin, Matt Furniss Mark Smith 2022: Matt Follin, Tim Furniss.

[@RetroCore]

Ah, but I got it right on the Robocop 3 video 😁

[@WadoRyu93]

It's rare to notice it, but, the Atari ST version is better than the amiga version !

[@RetroCore]

Actually, quite often the St version will be better because most if the time the Amiga game is ported from the ST.

[@YukkuRim]

I was made laugh by american parachute lol.( ･∀･) Data east has a sense of humor.

[@RetroCore]

+YukkuRim ゆっくりゲームチャンネル Data East always did funny things. Did you know that Robocop's head is in this game!

[@JudgmentStorm]

I'm feeling this & some other changes may have been done to keep the lawyers at bay. They were cutting it pretty close at times, with certain bosses based on existing Bond villains. Also, on the title screen, the main character looks more like John Travolta than Timothy Dalton (007's actor at the time).

[@JasperTedVidalTale]

I Wish Its A Japanese Parachute Since Data East Is A Japanese Game Company