Battle of the Ports - Turrican II: The Final Fight (Turrican II：ファイナルファイト) Show

[@dreamcastfan]

Universal Soldier was such a great film. Who doesn’t remember that awesome scene where Jean Claude Van Damme curled up into a ball and rolled around while fighting a 20ft tall Dolph Lundgren? Manfred Trenz must have really loved some of his sprites in the sideways scrolling shoot ‘em up levels as almost identical ones turn up in Rendering Ranger.

[@krissymarklewis1793]

my fave scene lol.

[@dazrael5658]

Turrican II is a great game but it’s arguably the music that is the real star. I still think it’s one of the best game soundtracks ever written with some endlessly listenable tracks scattered throughout. Probably Chris Huelsbeck’s greatest work, phenomenal.

[@atomiswave2]

That rotating laser effect on the Commodore 64 is particularly impressive

[@rafaellima83]

The soundtrack on this is really something out of this world. And Chris Huelsbeck is a freaking God, nothing else to say :)

[@amerigocosta7452]

@@rafaellima83 Huelsbeck told a few years ago during an interview that he's not a formally trained musician or composer and he does not read the sheet playing. Yet he has always been able to do what he does!

[@dazrael5658]

The fact that he managed to get the Amiga to sound like that, in game to boot, was incredible. His Apidya soundtrack was just as good.

[@rafaellima83]

@@dazrael5658 Gem'X and Jim Power also are amazingly good.

[@rudycassiano]

Another excellent video! Congrats for your work. keep our joy in remembering these precious things.

[@WrightOffsGaming]

Brilliant episode thanks Mark, the pinnacle of Amiga games for me, I love the super long Introduction with that stunning music.

[@MechaFenris]

"console quality" :) I remember the days of computer v. console.... Amiga still rules. :) :) :)

[@jackburton6239]

Amiga had the best music. Changing disks and load times are rough though.

[@iXien]

@@jackburton6239 We immediately recognized the ones that played the game on the cracked version of the game 🤣 The original game is stored on a single disk and loadings are faster. I remember well the cracktro in which the guys tell you to switch disks when screen is flashing. Just crazy, so much 'Amiga days' 😉

[@fungo6631]

It IS console quality. But since it's not a Japanese made game it's not. There were much worse actual console games, as can be seen on AVGN.

[@docwhogr]

Turrican 2 for DOS directory needs to be on C:\TURRICAN and copy the SMD / OMD / CFG files to same directory to work properly...

[@justinmohns8279]

You can use the Set command aswell - set t2dir=c:\turr2\cfg

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for the information.

[@KillThad]

@@RetroCore Yeah, it's finicky to get working on DOSBox, but it really is the best version.

[@spacefractal]

scrolling in world 3 is howover very bad in the boss fights. there is suddently no scrolling there for some odd reasons.

[@reagandow850]

I just read the “warning” for the first time. I’m still In stitches!! Awesome Job as usual Mark.

[@RetroCore]

Got to put that there to to set things straight 😅

[@rafaellima83]

I recently had a throwback session on my Amiga and played all Turrican 3 games. Turrican 2 is a game with some gameplay flaws, but it's just so well put together, everything fits so well. Graphics are great, music is just freaking awesome. (FREAKING awesome. It's probably Chris Huelsbeck's best work and this says a lot consideting how amazing all of his work is). My fav game on the series isTurrican 3, but it's easy to see why this game had such an impact on Amiga, there was nothing like that on the system at that time. It is a very good game, and there weren't many Amiga games that were this ambitious, so well-produced and properly done on the system. It's really a staple of the Amiga games library. Regarding the MS-DOS version, it was released FOUR years after the Amiga version, maybe that's why they could enhance the GFX so much. Regarding sound, it's 100% identical to the Amiga version. Chris Huelsbeck is credited for doing the music on that version too (the only person on the original team which also worked on this version) and I believe he just ported the TFMX routine to the Soundblaster and used the exact same files it was on the Amiga... it is *identical* on everyway. It just shows how insanely good that game is on the audio department... they felt they could enhance graphics a lot and at that point PCs could do sound better than Amigas already too, but they felt zero need to mess with the music (and sfx) of that game. Regarding Universal Soldier on the Mega-Drive, one thing you could had mentioned is that they also added an unnecessary password system, making an easy game even easier. Yeah, Turrican 2 is kinda long, but not SO long it *requires* a password system... and without the shoot'em up levels the Mega-Drive version is actually a tad shorter (even with the new levels, they are shorter than the shoot'em up levels of T2).

[@jackburton6239]

I prefer the art in the Amiga version to the Dos version. The worse part of the Dos is the lack of scrolling vs level 3 boss.

[@HuntersMoon78]

I loved the ST version of T2 and when I played it on my C64 recently I was blown away

[@HuntersMoon78]

Oh also press "S" on the ST version to disable the sound effects and enjoy the glorious chiptune music.

[@MarcSola7]

The PC version uses the same music and sound effects from the original Amiga version, this was back when most PC game developers realized that they can get the same quality of music from the Amiga onto the PC. Epic Games (Epic Megagames as they were called back then) was one of the many companies that were aware of the Tracker music. To be honest, I don't know why Sun-Project botched the graphics up too, the Amiga has that nice Anime style on the intro, something that was common in early 90's european games.

[@schizogony]

I like the fluid animation Bren McGuire has when doing that standing 360 gunfire sweep.

[@HairDom]

Thanks, enjoying these non-arcade port shows much more than I thought I would.

[@RetroCore]

Glad to hear that.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

+1

[@amerigocosta7452]

Seeing this game on a Commodore 64 in 1992 was incredible. The machine was pretty much dead but why did it have to die when it could do things like that? (at least that was what my kid self thought at the time!).

[@dartsma464]

Did people still buy C64 games? Did people still buy C64 machines? Depending on the answer to that, we can probably tell why the support for the platform died

[@amerigocosta7452]

@@dartsma464 I know it now, but my younger self was not ready to let it go. Especially because upgrading costed money!

[@dartsma464]

@@amerigocosta7452 Happily we as a community still can continue supporting and enjoy retro computing. We have many 1000s of games to play with and software to explore. Even some new titles that still pushes our platform of choice. Super Mario on the C64 and Pinball Dreams on the Amstrad CPC are good examples of what is possible. Sadly Nintendo stopped C64 Mario and Pinball Dreams is still waiting for approval from Rebellion before official release

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

What a great way to start my day. When I suggested to start home ports it was for two reasons. One for you to see that great games. The second reason was also to see what the Amiga could do if the coder wasn't lazy :-D Great job Mark.

[@RetroCore]

Ooh, I was always aware of great games on various platforms :) I'm glad you liked this episode.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Apparently the massive guy in space suit at the end of the game, isn't a massive sprite, it's 'background'. At this point your standing on 2 platforms, which are sprites, not background graphics. Very clever coding

[@RetroCore]

It wouldn't surprise me. Many games on the Master System use backgrounds for big enemies.

[@crispymolecule]

Form what I remember, there are some slight inaccuracies on using a Mega Drive pad on the Amiga version in this video: The second button was not mapped to "Jump" but to the power line smart bomb (space bar). I was endlessly confused back in the day why o why they did implemented the second button but basically wasted it like this. Jumping was annoying on the Mega Drive pad because you had to press up or the upper diagonals, which was quite fiddly compared to a joystick. Also, having to press the shooting button sooo fast and so many times to get somewhat close to the fire rate provided by my Competition Pro Star, especially when using the "ball" shot, made me forego the pad in favor of some classic chunky stick action. For many other games on the Amiga, I preferred the pad, but here - not so much.. Still, one of my fondest gaming memories. I got the (slightly schmaltzy) orchestral reinterpretations of the music on vinyl recently:)

[@paulrahme]

I remember being pretty amazed at the time playing the MS-DOS version, that is had smooth scrolling. That was unheard of on PCs in those days.

[@Ezyasnos]

Not in 1995 when it was released it wasn't. Jazz Jackrabbit was out ~2 years already. I know as I got it too back then. Together with Rayman.

[@paulrahme]

@@Ezyasnos Good point, guess I meant it was still early days for Mode X and most games still didn't support smooth scrolling!

[@atomiswave2]

Good old new battle of the ports. Thanks Mark

[@Larry]

Which Turrican was it that infamously use music from the 1986 Transformers movie?

[@RetroCore]

The C64 original Turrican 1. It's the music used for the title screen which is a copy.

[@daniel_lucio]

Oh my God, what did they do with the Spectrum version? Luckily I never came across this version at the time. On the MSDOS port, you're probably setting up soundblaster16 with DMA 1, use 5 insted, then the correct setting is PORT220, IRQ7, and DMA5, also, if you're using DOSBOX hit CRTL+F1 and map directions keys to your DPAD (dont forget to set input keyboard in setup)

[@adamhenry6793]

ZX was a weird console.

[@aj_gen_ace]

Sometimes I wonder why did they even bother trying with the ZX? Almost all their ports to that console were ugly as sin.

[@adamhenry6793]

@@aj_gen_ace Tho, The colors are fun to see.

[@HungarianDerrickRose]

@@adamhenry6793 The Speccy was no console, it was an 8 bit home computer.

[@adamhenry6793]

@@HungarianDerrickRose A fun one at best.

[@msolom9521]

Atari ST bgm sounds close to CPC version ... I think the speccy version is due to R TYPE speccy conversion (lot of games same era try to do this) ... but less skills

[@MrSEA-ok2ll]

One of my favourite games of all time via my Amiga 500. Back in the day I was so pleased with my Amiga that I skipped both the NES and SNES generation until the 3D0 and Playstation came out.

[@Charlie-Cat.]

I'm glad the sequel was shown in the Battle of The Ports" back-to-back. Mark. Good call. 8^) Anthony..

[@Turricanbronko]

Thanks, always nice to see! :) Even though they can be glitchy in the latest T2002 version :/

[@jasontennant8994]

Great video featuring some of the finest in Euro-tat tech. Find this one alongside the Konix console and Xenon games.

[@RetroCore]

I always wanted the Konix System.

[@actuallyusingmyrealnameher5061]

Another great comparison video, cheers!

[@Artsensei86]

Turrican 2 music is so good even in the lesser systems sounds great

[@rafaellima83]

Yeah, everytime I see it on a lesser system I just find amazing how freaking good the music is. It's not just the Amiga power behind it, it is really an insanely good composition from Chris Huelsbeck. It just works on anything.

[@Artsensei86]

@@rafaellima83 seriously even the gameboy one was awesome

[@solarflare9078]

Except the SNES and maybe the Mega Drive port.

[@Artsensei86]

@@solarflare9078 I dont know they still sounds great compared to other games in the genre

[@GodfathersGodfathernet]

I really like Universal Soldier for the Genesis. I just wish it was released as Turrican II instead of slapping a movie license on it and changing the sprites up. That, combined with the issues of the first Turrican on the Genesis I've always seen as a big disappointment for the console. There really was potential for an excellent Turrican trilogy on the console.

[@FuzzballRenakitty]

It could have been awesome for sure, lil more time with the music and not taking out the shooting stages

[@solarflare9078]

Yeah, Turrican MD sucked, Universal Soldier (Turrican 2 MD) was alright, and Mega Turrican (Turrican 3 MD) was amazing

[@bENOFFICIALMASSIVE]

Man, enjoying your content lately! I played Turrican just the other day I think on SNES or Mega Drive for the first time. I might have played it back in the dsy but I don't remember. Keen to try this one now!!!! Enjoy your weekend m8!

[@DragonsLoverQc]

For the DOS version, as stated earlier, you need to set a command to the appropriate directory where the game is installed. The music and sound effects are exactly like the Amiga version.

[@Angellmbrr]

I played this game on my Amiga but never cared to finish the game or advance further in it, I got bored after I got into the water level. I just wanted to insert disk 1 and hear 7 minutes of the intro song "The final fight". Pure bliss by Chris Huelsbeck. Truth is... 90% of the time I loaded the game I didn't play it.

[@RetroCore]

Well, I guess playing just for the music still counts when it's as good as this.

[@Colin_Ames]

Another great video Mark.

[@alistairwalsh1022]

Subbed. Found the Spectrum version of the original. You could also use the Master System pad on this game, and the original Turrican, (on Amiga and ST) to give a 2 button experience. Still had to whack the spacebar though

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for subscribing, Alistair.

[@andersdenkend]

That DOS version of Turrican II intrigues me to no end. I would love to know more about it. Why did they re-do all the graphics? I mean, it looks gorgeous imho... but still..

[@SeekerLancer]

The DOS port is really good, if not as iconic as the Amiga version. A shame you didn't get the sound working right because it is a fantastic way to play the game.

[@amerigocosta7452]

About the ST version I never liked it too much because the playing area is smaller and the frame rate is even so slightly worse compared to the Amiga but I honestly believe this game maxes out what the ST can do as far as action games are concerned. Multidirectional smooth scrolling with high quality music and sound effects and plenty of sprites on screen all at the same time? No way!

[@DutchRetroGuy]

The ST version is genuinely impressive to me. Sure, it runs at half frame rate compared to the Commodore & console ports, but the game is slow paced enough for that to not really matter as much as you might think. Factor 5 were very good at this stuff.

[@Lorfarius]

Once that Amiga starts the ST version can just go straight in the bin haha

[@volkte37]

Nailed it with the comments about the cheap deaths etc. Also the camera allows the player to he far too far to the right. But it's still great, although I find the music plays a big part in that.

[@RetroCore]

That camera issue was such a common problem with computer games.

[@rafaellima83]

The "Camera lets the player go too far to the right" coupled with the "continuous damage while touching an enemy" features are two of my big problems with Turrican 2 that really makes me like less the game than I would. At least damage was properly done on T3.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@rafaellima83 The continuous damage is something I'm really struggling with, playing it now on PS4, having not touched it in all the years since the ST version came out.

[@krankymann]

You only need the Amiga version, the perfect single floppy game.

[@Slickstaff_Stainpants]

they crammed something like 2 meg on the disc

[@Atrophyed]

It's a 2 disk game.

[@Slickstaff_Stainpants]

no, just 1. maybe the version you got was on a blue disk with handwriting on it :)

[@natr0n]

Another enjoyable episode.

[@NightSprinter]

Yeah, the DOS version was one of those finicky ports. You really needed to keep at a 486 DX4 100 to the SX-33 in order for things to work. I was able to get sound to work on a machine I put together, and let me say, THE best audio option amusingly was the Windows Sound System driver. Supposedly, the Ultrasound driver was rather buggy (despite the card could easily handle in hardware audio from a direct Amiga port), but it would have static at times in a best case situation. If you had any 16-bit sound card with a DAC by Crystal Semiconductor, ESS/EnSoniq, or OPTi, you'd get clear and crisp playback of both music and sound both in 16-bit quality and stereo. I know most are loyal to the Sound Blaster (I mean, I basically grew up with the brand since an IBM-compatible was brought home), but it might be worth getting something like an Aztech Sound Galaxy or similar.

[@NightSprinter]

Kurt Pedersen Oh, don't get me wrong, I haven't personally had issues on my end. Just keep in mind for showing off DOS ports, Mark most likely uses DOSbox.

[@topofbones]

In general terms, all this games are a better experience played with a Megadrive control pad. Glad to see another game of the franchise in BotP!

[@iXien]

Not on Computers on which a lot of action and platform games were calibrate to be played with a joystick, making them more playable with Speedking, Navigator, Competition Pro or any other arcade stick style controller.

[@DonnyKirkMusic]

whoa, that gameboy port is legitimately impressive

[@HuntersMoon78]

So is the C64 version, my jaw dropped when I first saw that running on my real C64

[@ultimateman55]

Couldn't get the sound or controller working for the DOS port? Par for the course.

[@jackburton6239]

The Dos port is freeware and works fine with my Dual Shock 3 that my computer treats as an Xbox 360 controller.

[@ABlackFalcon]

The Genesis version is a really great game, I'd probably call it one of the most under-rated games on the console... sure the Amiga version is even better, but it's also fantastic. It's got the same great gameplay as the Amiga, very good music, and solidly nice graphics. The new levels are alright, too. Graphical looks aside they fit in reasonably well with the game, and I enjoyed them. Plus, it's got password save! Universal Soldier (the console version here) is the only Turrican game with saving, and I, at least, love the addition. It makes the game a lot more fun to play than the versions that make you start the whole game over from the beginning all the time. It's really good, definitely an A-grade classic for the Genesis in my book.

[@GodfathersGodfathernet]

100% agree.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

ST, CPC and ZX Spectrum owners were very fortunate to get conversions of this 😊 Rainbow Arts Product Development Supremo, Teut Weideman, said if he'd had his way, he would BURN them all, to him, they were all dead in 1991. Plus, the ST original specifications were not good enough, single sided drives etc and now coders forced into writing for the lower spec machines.

[@MrRedFoxorMrelzorrorojo]

Man, I'm a fan of the Turrican series, but my personal favorite is Super Turrican.

[@RetroCore]

I do really like Super Turrican too.

[@spacefractal]

Also there is a "Turrican 4" sound album with named "Turrican - Rise Of The Machine". etc how the music would have been if Turrican 4 was created for the Amiga. Its a excellent soundtrack in true Amiga form. Sorry if this is treated as a ads, im is just a fan of thoes games.

[@spacefractal]

also if you take time to discover secrets, this game does contain a LOTS of extra lives. In the commodore 64 version example, you can collect a least 100 extra lives (also its was fun to find them too). So cheap death its should not really been so much a issue me thinks and its a awesome game and allways loved the soundtrack.

[@miikasuominen3845]

ST port was pretty good. Loved the music, which was the main interest of the game. Playability was better, than on an average Euro-platformers (which is to say, they're mostly horrible). Hippel made the music on ST, which is to say, no-one could probably made them better on ST...

[@IcebergGamingTop10s]

Funny, I haven't thought about this game in 30 years. I owned the C64 version, but in my mind it looked as good as the Amiga...

[@RetroCore]

Ah, the power of nostalgia.

[@nekononiaow]

Great video, thanks Mark! Turrican II Amiga is truly the king of the hill (for once!). Finally an Amiga game which is not simply an ST port and uses the machine correctly, demonstrating a clear advantage over competing supports. Obviously, the MegaDrive and SNES versions would have been much better than the Amiga version (the system are both way more capable after all) if they had been coded properly but it seems this was not meant to be.

[@rafaellima83]

Maybe not the MD version. The Amiga can do some neaty stuff the Mega-Drive can't handle, and it also has much more colors to be chosen ( 4096 against 512). I believe T2 doesn't make much use of copperlists for palette effects, so at least the raster effects probably could be made on MD withouth much hassle :)

[@froedlmetallmann4643]

14:00 Look at him run to the music. XD

[@geoserenity]

I never knew universal soldier was actually turrican 2. Informative as usual...

[@olekoshkin]

You can run dos floppy version with sound if you mount game folder as disk c: in dosbox.

[@sourekpetr]

DOS port: Dunno if I remember it correctly, but it needed a lot of „base“ memory, which was 640k. I remember I used to have autoexec.bat with menu for these kind of games. (for Music) Never had joystick, so I was playing it on keyboard and played through a lot.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, a few people have mentioned specifically that the game needed special setting for sound. Whish I knew this at the time.

[@FuzzballRenakitty]

Good stuff! Nowhere near as many turd ports as the original first game! c: The Megadrive version came on its own weird square cart too, boxed copies can be harder to find because it came in a cardboard box not a plastic case~ ..if only Factor 5 had snagged it not Codewankers...then we'd have a port on par with Mega Turrican I bet. Imagine the OST if it was actually done with love and care~!

[@RetroCore]

Sadly all Accolade games came in cardboard boxes and on those oddly shaped cartridges.

[@averageradiantreplays7702]

I remember watching an Spanish documentary on how Turrican was made, and it seems it took what the devs liked from other games and I can see why... Those STG levels REALLY look like Gradius in the background, but that's fine! The game is so well made and made WITH LOVE, yes, I say WITH LOVE because you can't find NOTHING ALIKE on the Amiga this well made, or at least in that era were Tiertex and bad made games were the order of the day. 16bit Machines rule that game, C64 has a very good version and the rest well... Let's just say they got bad luck, I still can't believe how in the name of f*ck the Code Monkeys could screw the game on the consoles... I really can't believe that Still nice BotP! One of my favorie games and funny things, I used to play all the ports and yes, the ZX Spectrum is one of the worst ones.

[@retropowerit]

Ok.. let me say kudos for finding the air buster and darious homage.. but helas you misunderstood the power of that game. First it was a CONSOLE GAME ON A PC.. and it was an AMAZING console game on a PC. The Amiga was capable of such an incredible version of the game that even the good pc version that came out 4 years later it is nearly the same game!! The playability, the huge levels.. hidden bosses.. shooter stages.. the IMPOSSIBLE music was REALLY DEVASTATING. I remember getting MUSHA ALESTE on the megadrive and this game on my Amiga and it was like having the same machine with arcade games and graphics and sound! Turrican 2 was the peak of computer gaming in the 16bit console era.. it was the miracle of a small team and european talent.. the controls were tight, the sound effects perfect, the stages and style.. UNIQUES and not to be seen in japanese games. Surely Universal soldier was a cash in and a testament to the power of the real 16 bit version running on Amiga and ST demonstrating that it woul took some time to Factor 5 to achieve the same performance on the sega and nintendo 16 bit monsters. Later Turrican 3 proved that Amiga was REALLY near the megadrive powerhouse and even superior for sound quality and programmers gimmics.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

I absolutely love this game (so much that I still have the three original versions I bought - the C64, the Amiga and the PC version), so thanks for the video. It made my day :) As usual, I do have a question: You note that the Atari ST version has less slowdown than the Amiga version. As it happens, I'm really familiar with the Amiga version and I've only ever seen it slow down during bosses exploding. Is this what you mean? Or are there other areas in which you've seen it slow down? I actually think the ST version is rather impressive, given it doesn't use any STE features. It does run at a much lower frame rate than the Amiga/C64/console ports, but it still impresses me nonetheless. Personally I think they'd have done even better by replacing the title tune with a chip-tune. Those can be pretty epic on the ST with it speedy processor to drive them. As is, the sampled version is a bit too noisy for my liking. The MS-DOS version is probably the best overall, but I just can't get myself to like the main character design change or the new walkers. As I recall you did need a pretty hefty PC at the time for it to run smoothly though and I can remember I had a hell of time getting it to work on my PC. All this said, I still think the C64 version is actually the most impressive. Sure, it misses out on music, but it's all there and it all runs at full frame rate. Really well done for a machine that was ten years old at the time.

[@RetroCore]

In the Amiga version if you allow too many enemies to be on screen at once it does start to slow down where as the ST doesn't BUT the ST game is running at a lower frame rate which maybe why it copes better.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Retro Core huh, I never actually noted the slowdown. Guess I just destroyed too many enemies too quickly for it to happen 😅 Thanks for the info.

[@GlenLehane]

As with the first game, owned the C64 version, but also played the ST version. What a sequel! That super smart bomb was always a lot of fun to pull off, with the lack of music on the C64 making it actually seem a little more dramatic when you used it. The C64 version, like the first game, actually had some really good sound effects. But I have to admit, the ST's music gives it a slight edge over the C64 version. Why tie in Universal Soldier for the console ports? It doesn't even make sense! There is no rhyme or reason to it. There was enough in that movie to make a decent original game in it's own right, why reskin Turrican 2 and slap the Universal Soldier name onto it? At least it was better than the first Turrican game on consoles

[@BlockABoots]

Great Video Mark!. Have you considered getting a MiSTer FPGA device, includes a lot of the systems you regularly cover in Battle Of The Ports!??

[@RetroCore]

No, I'm not interested in those systems at all. I have a pretty powerful dedicated emulation PC which wipes the floor with the likes of the MiSTer. I don't think FPGA on a system like that has any advantage over a more powerful software emulation based PC. I do like dedicated hardware that has really been scrutinised such as the Analogue Super NT and Mega SG however. They are more like a real console to me where as the MiSTer comes across as a Raspberry Pie.

[@krissymarklewis1793]

The only thing I don't like on the DOS version is that his head is too big, apart from that it's mint.

[@thrillington2008]

Classic Euro action but here in the states we got the shitty Universal Soilder tie in and it was rushed

[@RetroCore]

Unlucky man.

[@Asterra2]

I mean, Turrican II on Amiga had 7-digital-voice music and was legitimately better than most Sega Genesis / SNES games. But the real shocker is that it plays on hardware first released in 1985, yet is competitive with Japanese consoles from half a decade later.

[@RetroCore]

I would not say it's legitimately better than most Mega Drive / SNES games. It is a great game and arguably the best game of its type on the Amiga but to say its better than most 16bit console games is silly. If this Turrican was on a console as it is on the Amiga it wouldn't be praised for amazing gameplay. Its just a good game that really stands out because its nothing like a computer game and is more like a console game.

[@Asterra2]

@@RetroCore I think you're neglecting to account for the fact that the libraries of the SNES/Genesis did not comprise of solely the ~50 games you fondly remember. Trust me: _Most games on both platforms are manifestly inferior to Turrican 2._ If you want to argue that the SNES/Genesis libraries were more technically accomplished due to the platforms' more focused and modern hardware, go right ahead, but that does not equate superiority as a game. If Turrican 2 had come out on the SNES as a 100% faithful iteration of its Amiga counterpart (technically impossible due at the very least to the SNES' limited sound RAM, but also improbable since it would have required a 12- to 16-megabit cartridge), it would today be well-known for its soundtrack, especially the title music, and about as familiar to people as Super Turrican ended up being, even though Turrican 2 is the longer and more varied game.

[@RetroCore]

I know just how much crap was on the Mega Drive and SNES with 90% of the crap coming from the US and Europe. But then again the Amiga is also full of crap with around 90% of arcade ports being really bad. 12 to 16 megabit cartridge was nothing special once the 90's came along to be honest. There's a fair few 32 megabit carts out there. May classic Mega Drive games are 16 megabit such as Streets of Rage 2 or Splatter House 3. Same for the Super Nintendo.

[@MRSTU1210]

Turrican 2 was an amazing port on c64 and Amiga but universal soldier on mega drive was the same game but different skin

[@solarflare9078]

Yeeesh. What's up with the dislikes? There was 4 with only 45 likes when I came to watch it! Regarding ports, I think I'm able to more comfortably make a list with this one: 1) MS-DOS (I haven't checked if the sound truly wasn't working or if that's just how the game is, but if it's the latter, then it should drop 2 places EDIT: Just checked it out. The sound seems to be actually there and pretty good too. I think I'll keep it here.) 2) Amiga 2) Atari ST 4) Commodore 64 (original) 5) Mega Drive (Now it's time to actually talk about the ports.... while this is a huge step up from the original, it still is far from perfect) 6) SNES (Wow.... they didn't even try with the audio. It sounds like an NES. The smaller res also hurts it considerably) 7) Game Boy (OOF to the missing stages and small sprites. Again, like the Mega Drive version however, it doesn't suffer as much from the original...) 8) Amstrad CPC (Nice graphics, let down by playability....) 9) ZX Spectrum (ARGH.... why do ZX Spectrum ports almost always have to suck?! The color literally looks like vomit and it looks awful to play)

[@turricanrocks1552]

Funny how Universal Soldier on SNES had awful music, while the title screen sounded pretty good.

[@RetroCore]

Probably Amiga owners upset by something I said.

[@solarflare9078]

@@RetroCore Or perhaps it could be those ZX Spectrum owners and biased journalists whom you pissed off with your constant bashing on all the ZX Spectrum ports. (Even though it's always well-deserved)

[@zanegandini5350]

Wow, I couldn't help but smile at how excited you were talking about the Amiga version. It's rare you ever sound hyped up like that, so it goes without saying that you deeply enjoy this game, at least on the Amiga. I'm surprised the C64 original still has no music during gameplay, that's honestly quite rare for the C64 as opposed to the other 8-bit computers of the time. The ST port is pretty good as well, and it's a damn shame you couldn't configure the MS Dos version properly, as it has the best graphics by far and appears to play very smoothly with no noticeable slowdown. I agree that something feels off about Universal Soldier on the Mega Drive. It plays fine but the graphics and level designs are uninspired, and the sound is a mixed bag. Given that the Code Monkeys were in charge, however, it's a noble effort. Just wish it had slightly more polish. The Game Boy port of US is impressive for what lacking hardware it's on, making it probably one of the best run'n'guns on the handheld. The ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC ports suck as usual, once again making me feel sorry for anyone who could only afford one of those instead of the C64 or Atari ST. And thank God the SNES port wasn't released in the state it was in, it sounds AWFUL. It actually sounds like they took low quality recordings from the Mega Drive port and played them back as samples on the SPC700. No effort was made there at all!

[@amerigocosta7452]

Trenz has said that there was so no way to add music in the platforming levels with their multi-directional scrolling as the hardware was used to its fullest capacity. And it must be true since the C64 is doing hi-res animated background in parallax and plenty of sprites at 50Hz. See there is music during the shoot'em up sections since the scrolling has only one direction there, then there was room for more audio.

[@timoheinonen9570]

Turrican 2 on ZX Spectrum is bad game, but at the same time there are many games on C64 that suck just as bad or even worse. One thing that annoys me on C64 Turrican 2 port is that the player sprite lacks animation frames and sometimes it looks like you are shooting from your dick instead of your weapon. Compare it to Amiga version and they are worlds apart. C64 users usually have to settle either for music or sound effects because of the limitations of the SID chip and Spectrum wins in this department. Add GS soundcard to Speccy and Amiga quality audio is then possible.

[@RetroCore]

I did. I had very good time playing the Amiga version. Trully a great game.

[@zanegandini5350]

@@amerigocosta7452 I didn't think PSG sound used up much, if any, hardware power/memory. At least that seems to be the case with other soundchips like the Texas Instruments SN76489. Just shows how little I know about these sorts of things.

[@zanegandini5350]

@@timoheinonen9570 Yeah, but at least the C64 had some truly great titles that make the system worth owning or at least emulating. I haven't seen anything to that effect on the ZX Spectrum, though I'm sure it has to have at least a few.

[@Clay3613]

Now onto Super Turrican? Will you be covering the expanded version on the Analogue?

[@RetroCore]

I'm afraid there are no ports of Super Turrican. It was only released on the SNES.

[@rickhunter1070]

I'm not gonna lie this game was hard for me.on the Amiga. I beat it using a hacked copy with cheat codes.

[@RetroCore]

Hey, nothing wrong with that.

[@moomah5929]

Did you play the PC version under DOSBox or a Retro PC? On my Retro PC using a Yamaha Audician 32 Sound Blaster Pro sound is working, even in stereo. In DOSBox anyway. Joystick I didn't test yet, as the only Gameport controller I own is a MS Sidewinder Freestyle pad and it's D-Pad is just horrible. Never had a controller with such a bad D-Pad before. EDIT: Gave the controller a try and it doesn't work, but it also doesn't work in GODS (both running in pure MS DOS 6.22). Under Win 98 SE the controller works. Next Battle of the Ports will be Turrican 3 / Mega Turrican? Played the first two games on C64 before getting a MD and getting Mega Turrican for it. One thing I really find a bad design choice in all three games is that the timer doesn't reset on death. Btw. trained version for the win, eh? :P

[@RetroCore]

I was playing under Dos Box. I'd like to cover Turrican 3 but there's only one port and that was on the Mega Drive.

[@moomah5929]

​@@RetroCore Yeah, I guess is makes no sense to call it a Battle of the PortS if there was only one. ;) Did you get it to work with setting the paths like it was mentioned by docwho and Justin Mohns? You can combine them in a batch file. SET T2DIR=c:\DOST006\CFG CD C:\DOST006 C: T2.EXE PAUSE It's strange that you could get the game run perfectly graphics wise though as for me not having the correct paths cause the graphics to be completely messed up. Btw, if you have a turrican.exe (ba HYBIRD) it works under real DOS without paths set, but doesn't work at all in DOSBox.

[@MarcoPolo82]

00:40 Is a Gundam White Base knock-off?

[@RetroCore]

defiantly inspired if nothing else.

[@maxabillon]

Thank you , I think the PC version the best followed by the Amiga/CDTV Version, Have full sound & CD track music & even enabled the Xbox one X Pad - left stick moment & each button for special, jump & normal fire. using DOSBox 0.74

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Turrican II is more Turrican 1.5 in reality, an awful lot of the ideas planned for the original, which were dropped due to time and memory issues, were used to develop the sequel.

[@madsceptictrooper6803]

I guess Super Turrican and Mega Turrican won't be featured in any battle of the ports. Many people say Turrican 2 is the best one but I find the graphics, soundtracks, gameplay mechanics and level designs in both Super Turrican and Mega Turrican more impressive.

[@RetroCore]

At some point for sure but I beleive Turrican 3 only has two versions. Amiga and Mega Drive.

[@spacefractal]

Today got my Amiga working again with a tf328 expansion to my CD32, so hence im for fun tested all 3 Turrican games how buttoms was used connected with a standard Sega Megadrive 3 button joypad. Actuelly here ONLY Turrican 3 worked with UP on the second button, if joypad option is selected. The first two games used the second button for the secondary weapon as well the whell. Still its a great game for sure and you dont need to use the spacebar at all! The Amiga does property not work the select wire on the button, hence you often only see 2 buttons to been used. But its better than one :-).

[@cestusfr]

That atari ST music! so typical.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

Which version on mega drive aka mega turrican has All the sprite rotation and all that good stuff?

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Mega Turrican has the sprite rotation and other nifty tricks. That's essentially Turrican 3 (which is how the Amiga version was named).

[@beagsx3]

I never really understood the universal soldier game. I know it's fine to take the odd liberty with titles, but what has it got to do with the film? Well, apart from the crude dolf level one, boss. On a different note, I still have my big box cpc cassette in mint condition

[@losalfajoresok]

when and why the SNES was released on Internet? do you know something about it?

[@RetroCore]

I'm not sure what you are asking.

[@losalfajoresok]

@@RetroCore Sorry, i forgot to write "when and why the SNES VERSION was released on Internet?"

[@solarflare9078]

Looking back at the Mega Drive and maybe the SNES versions, it's quite impressive how the game doesn't suffer from any slowdown despite the amount of action onscreen. Perhaps The Code Monkeys were actually good coders after all. It's just a shame that they couldn't code actual good stuff....

[@Frikinautas]

As I said last week, Universal Soldier on the Mega Drive is an average but enjoyable game. And I happen to love the movie, too, so.. Too bad about the shooter levels, but I always had an affinity with levels based in derelict urban sorroundings, and a junkyard is as derelict as it comes. That said, the original Commodore versions are the way to go (I didn’t know about the PC version: sure it looks nice!)

[@MrNightshade2010]

does anyone ever say anything nice about euro pc games? you know this series is ripe for a modren/reboot version......

[@amerigocosta7452]

I suspect the Turrican franchise is in some sort of legal limbo or something. A 3D Turrican for the PC was rumoured and previewed in the late 90's but after that nothing official came out, just a bunch of homebrew and commercial games inspired by the franchise.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

@@amerigocosta7452 sadly, AFAIK this is indeed true.

[@frankschneider6156]

Hey, the best game of all time is from Europe: Elite

[@ravengaming2597]

As a former C64 owner, I approve of the Spectrum port.

[@rob4222]

I think the PC port is the best of all. I like the different graphics and it uses the Amiga music. Some Turrican facts: www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/facts/

[@willrobinson7599]

Trust accolade to turn turrican into universal soldier lol Loved the c64 version till I played the amiga one, like u I play with a megadrive controller so no more push up

[@gameguy73]

I have super turrican 2 for the Super Nes it came with the Super NT. I don't know if it saw release though. I know the version of Super Turrican that comes with it is unreleased.

[@RetroCore]

Super Turrican 1 and 2 were both released on the Super Nintendo. The first game even got a Japanese release on the Super Famicom.

[@turricanrocks1552]

@@RetroCore which was the ONLY Turrican game to be released in Japan.

[@aj_gen_ace]

Here's a few games with multiple ports: Mortal Kombat 4 Sonic The Hedgehog/ Sonic 2 Sonic Adventure Sonic Heroes Sonic R Sonic CD Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/2/3/4 GTA III/Vice City/San Andreas Aladdin Resident Evil 2/4 NBA Jam Rayman 2 Final Fantasy Angry Birds Prince of Persia Just a wishlist for the future.

[@frankschneider6156]

Angry Bird is not a game, but an insult

[@RetroCore]

I'll add some of them to the list for future shows.

[@CaptainDangeax]

I was able to run Turrican 2 on the MSDOS PC with sound, but I had real SB AWE32 hardware and a special config.sys / autoexec.bat with no emm386 loaded. Anyway, once again the Amiga version shows up while the C64 puts all other 8 bits to shame. the MS DOS port is not that bad, thanx to faster CPU and 256 colors.

[@glenndoiron9317]

IMO the MSDOS version is better than the Amiga version. Too bad you didn't get the sound/joystick working on your setup.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Yeah, it is. Then again, it's not too strange considering it was released 4 years later and you basically need a very fast 486 or a pentium to get it to perform optimally. Amiga's are great machines, but the A500 ain't in the same league as a 486 with Super VGA :)

[@kattmonstret]

Since you are doing console ports now, any plans for Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy? Seems they have enough ports to warrant a Botp :)

[@RetroCore]

Possibly in the future. I have a lot of other games waiting to be done first. I'll add them to the list.

[@jasejj]

No no no. Can't possibly do a game where the Speccy version is top!

[@johns6265]

Other versions have their merits but it's the Amiga version that represents Turrican 2 as it was intended to be, the soundtrack was intended to sound like the Amiga version and the graphics were intended to look like the Amiga version. Once again, the console versions should have been great but they didn't work out. At least there was a patch to fix some of the problems of the Megadrive version of the first Turrican, fixing the problems of the 'Universal Soldier' portof Turrican 2 is a bit of a tall order for a patch, in many respects the Megadrive port of Turrican 2 is even worse.

[@RetroCore]

They'd have to completely remake the the Mega Drive version.

[@jesuszamora6949]

Interesting that the Amiga version used the Genesis controller. Surprised that wasn't an option with more games. Would have made the games hella better.

[@RetroCore]

Most developers were just lazy.

[@jesuszamora6949]

@@RetroCore There IS that, yeah.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Well you can use the Mega Drive controller for every Amiga game, but generally only one of the buttons works.

[@PG-gs5vb]

For PC version of Turrican II I recommend the unofficial Windows port called T2002 - check static.turricanforever.de/download/Games/T2002-all-included.zip

[@RetroCore]

Ah, that would have been nice to have.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Gone back to this on PS4. European game design brought to you by Dairylea or what? Memory test of where enemies are going to appear and carpet bomb you, power up drones that zap your energy and as for the bloody time outs 😭

[@StevenCusic]

Differences between mega turrican msdos cd vs floppy/hdd?

[@RetroCore]

No idea. This video isn't about Mega Turrican.

[@StevenCusic]

@@RetroCore ha i meant turrican 2. Must be subconsciously thinking of mega turrican because i love it. Dos turrican has me intrigued though

[@RetroCore]

Oh, I don't know. I wasn't aware there was a CD version for DOS.

[@StevenCusic]

@@RetroCore yup found this looking for longplays kzbin.info/www/bejne/aavRlYCeo7GeoJY

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Retro Core IIRC Turrican 2 DOS was a CD only game. I had the CD version for DOS and it’s identical to what you’ve shown. Audio for the PC CD version was the same mod files as the Amiga used.

[@davidvfx]

doubts that intrigue me: why do you start with the C64 version? Was it the first version that came out? something else both in the C64 and Amiga versions I have noticed for more that you are attacked by enemies and you do not get the life bar down at all.

[@RetroCore]

The C64 was the original game but the Amiga game was released first due to the C64 version not being completed in time. So since all versions are based upon the C64 level design means that should come first.

[@davidvfx]

@@RetroCore and the life bar?

[@DutchRetroGuy]

@@davidvfx well, I'd guess he's using a trainer. And considering the amount of game versions he needs to play to make each one of these videos, I say: more power to him. See, I've done a few KZbin videos that featured edited snippets of game play like Mark uses (but then only featuring a single game version at a time) and you need so much more video material than is shown to get the results to look nice. It takes a long time, especially with so many versions.

[@RetroCore]

I was using a hacked version so I could get further in to the game within less time.

[@RetroCore]

Indeed it does. For this video I have about 5 hours of footage. Quite a lot for a video that's under 20 minutes in length.

[@DragonSlayerKyo]

Okay code monkeys, what the heck? why does the audio in the Gameboy port sound fuller than the Mega drive version? The Mega drive can do so much better, and Mega Turrican/Turrican 3 is a great example! again, the computer ports are the best of the bunch, despite the MD and GB being decent this time around... but I still don't think i'd take those if I had a choice.

[@RetroCore]

I'd have to say that the Amiga version when played with a control pad is the best by far.

[@JAYWAY1982]

Isn’t Terminator CD actually a reskin Turrican sequel?..

[@amerigocosta7452]

No, Terminator on Mega CD has nothing to do with Turrican, the only thing they have in common is that they are both western developed run and gun games.

[@user-rd5wj2mm8n]

Love the port battles. One thing however. "Console quality" means nothing. For example, the countless crappy NES games.

[@RetroCore]

Good point. That phrase basically means an image of a smooth multi scrolling game at 60fps which fills the screen (almost fills the screen in Turrican II's case). Even crappy console games are full screen and at 60fps.

[@jasejj]

To me, console quality in this era meant "yet another boring scrolling game". All the inventiveness of the 8-bit micro era was lost around this time. I have no nostalgia for the SNES or MD at all.

[@user-rd5wj2mm8n]

Yes. I'm probably just being pedantic. Got to say however I owned Turrican 2 on Amiga 500 back in the day. Genuinely legit.