Cannon Fodder: The Complete History | Retro Gaming Documentary

Today we take a look at Sensible Software's often misunderstood home computer classic CANNON FODDER! We look at its creation, its sequels, its canceled follow ups and the controversy surrounding its release! | Grab yourself a Vapor95 t-shirt here and use code "SlopesGameRoom15" for 15% off! :D vapor95.com/SlopesGameRoom15
💕 Patreon: bit.ly/37yWxjx
💞 KZbin Member: bit.ly/313TGg3
💖 Stream Donation Link: bit.ly/2uBw9a6
👕 Buy a T-Shirt: bit.ly/37veE9X
🕹️Play Asia affiliate link: bit.ly/36xyu3b
---
📱 Follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook linktr.ee/slopesgameroom
🤖 Discord: / discord
---
🔴 Subscribe: goo.gl/0cmnO6
🔴 2nd Channel: goo.gl/MDskmO
🌐 Website: slopes.site
📧 Contact me: [e-mail]
---------------
One of the most beloved wartime games of the '90s that is sadly forgotten by the majority of the world (outside of the UK) is CANNON FODDER!
With that said, at the same time, Cannon Fodder upon its release, also had plenty of detractors and in today's video we look back at one of the most beloved, forgotten, misunderstood and to some... hated war game series to ever exist
Covering everything from the early days of SENSIBLE SOFTWARE leading up to the initial release. We also talk about the overlooked sequel and of course... the mess that is the third entry too!
If you want to know more about Sensible Software and Mirrorsoft then I highly suggest you go and check out ‪@Kim_Justice‬'s videos. Make sure to subscribe too as she pumps out some of the best videos in the retro gaming space
Mirrorsoft: • MIRRORSOFT: Tetris, S...
Sensible Software: • THE STORY AND GAMES OF...
+ 1 more random video I really liked: • The Story and Games of...
---
+ Let's give a massive shout-out to the 2 following channels that provided voiceovers for this video...
‪@Nostalgianerd‬
‪@RoseTintedSpectrum‬
---------------
⌛ The Complete History Series…
goo.gl/CMCMvQ
The ultimate in-depth documentary look at all your favourite gaming franchises such as... Metroid, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Strider, Metal Slug, Parappa the Rapper, Toejam & Earl, Earthworm Jim. Space Harrier, Jet Set Radio, Crash Bandicoot, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fight and many many more
---------------
⌛ The Kick-Scammer Series...
goo.gl/BB7DyX
Join us as we look into some of the very worst Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns ever!
---------------
⌛ Random Video Games Fact Series…
goo.gl/eJwsYP
The Strangest Video Game Facts found on KZbin
---------------
⌛ Quickshot Series...
goo.gl/r32WH7
Random bite-sized gaming facts
#TheCompleteHistory #CannonFodder #SensibleSoftware #MegaLoMania #RetroGaming #VideoGameFacts

[@slopesgameroom]

Grab yourself a Vapor95 t-shirt here and use code "SlopesGameRoom15" for 15% off! :D vapor95.com/SlopesGameRoom15

[@mrmysterious8124]

Can you look at the History of Primal Rage🦍🔥🦖

[@chaoslab]

Be nice to see something on Andrew Braybrook.

[@thomaskrogh1244]

gonna love the recruitment office next to the cemetery live one's enter dead one's get buried. if cannon fodder was going to remade they properly change recruited to conscripted/drafted. for a game not taken seriously having your men bleed out to death and can give him mercy by killing him that's pretty serious.

[@thorian1991]

can you look at dynamite headdy please!

[@cellphonesmartphone7496]

you should see the port of cannon fodder on GBC

[@StooCambridgeArtist]

Great job on this mate! Finally got to watch it. Appreciate the kind words and commentary on our game. It was a lot of fun to develop with many, many late nights, but would I change what we did? Never! It's a project I feel immensely proud to be associated with and once again, thanks for covering it! Just don't mention that poppy! 😉🤣 Talk soon! - Stoo

[@twistedtrackstravel8771]

Bring back Cannon Fodder! I want to play this on my xbox, the same format just in todays graphics

[@organismseven3700]

@@twistedtrackstravel8771 This! Please make this happen!

[@chinefina]

Brooooo! You're Stoo one of the first few soldiers?? Maaan, I spent so many hours on my amiga as a tween tryin to keep you alive 😂😂

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Well it turns out, after decades of thinking I had... I've never actually played Cannon Fodder 2. You live and learn.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

I played it briefly. It just doesn't feel the same as the original to me. It's like How the original Syndicate is just so awesome but all other attempts to improve on it somehow made it slightly worse.

[@dataterminal]

Formatting a save game disk on the Amiga, it told me tp put a banana in the floppy drive, and pour coffee in the vents. Ahh good times, I miss that Amgia.

[@HaukLanglo]

I never forgot one time I got an "Banana in disk drive error!"

[@darrennichols5230]

Loved this game! Trying to keep Jools and Jopps alive to get them to the highest rank :).

[@J0MBi]

I knew someone else who tried that, a lot of extra reloading 😂

[@Captaraknospider]

I loved jooles

[@herrerasauro7429]

I love Cannon Fodder, I played it randomly in my youth by booting up random games from a ROM disk full of SNES games and playing it for a few hours. It along with Uniracers, Aerobiz Supersonic and a few others were the games I consider "hidden" gems I found on that list. It's great I can see the history of the series.

[@YukaTakeuchiFan]

Great taste, dude. Uniracers and the Aerobiz series were my personal jam as well. Many happy days with rentals relentlessly cheesing the whole "still win a gold medal if you select bronze and beat the unicycles that DON'T stomp you into the ground at the slightest mistake" oversight in Uniracers...

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Plays great on the Amiga mini. It was the first game i played on it to try it out :)

[@laughingseal2282]

I like how you do some nice research and just don't regurgitate wikipedia content. Great content as always.

[@slopesgameroom]

I appreciate that!

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

As an American, I have inadvetantly owned and been playing Sensible Software's games for decades. Sensible Soccer as Championship Soccer '94 on my SNES, Megalomania as Tyrants: Fight Through Time on Sega Genesis, and Cannon Fodder on my Atari Jaguar. Cannon Fodder is by far my favorite, and I struggle to put it down when I start. I still have it complete in box on my Jaguar, and I still own the rest as well. Sensible Software is not forgotten here!

[@robertboucher3217]

Another great documentary! Cannon Fodder one in my school in South Wales was absolutely everywhere. Literally the most talked about game that era. The phenomenal music is such a masterpiece in it's own right. I don't know why I never played the others but I think I never will, one was enough for me, I don't think I'd appreciate the time travel. Who knows maybe I moved onto another system not long after perhaps. Keep up the great complete histories mate, I'd love more Amiga or even Amstrad. I know I've mentioned Chaos Engine once before...

[@s4tchm0j0n3s]

The intro song to this game has lived rent free in my head since the early 90's. I must reference it or sing it out loud at least once a month.

[@01302]

Looking forward to watching this tomorrow, cannon fodder and lemmings were my childhood games, both franchises seem so overlooked now.

[@alexelectricx]

I'm not sure Lemmings would translate well to a modern adaptation. Some franchises are best left in our fond memories.

[@liamodell7191]

I'm American and I got Cannon Fodder for my Amiga 500 but it was a pirated copy. Mostly because there wasn't any stores anywhere near my area that sold Amiga games until 1994 and I lived next to a collage town where C64 and Amiga 500 groups were letting people copy pirated games and software. So that was my only access until our mall opened up in 1991 and Electronic Boutique moved in around 94-95. I got a copy of the game before then and loved it ever since.

[@osenator]

We played this game a lot in Ottawa, Canada.... that song.... so much flashbacks !

[@ScaleHangar182]

I am that old. Remember playing both Canon Fodder games on my Amiga 500+ (And that music was awesome!)

[@Mat_1000]

That was around that time that my dad bought me my first PC when I was a kid and that I started to switch from Megadrive to PC, and Cannon Fodder was one of the first games I played on my computer. Really loved it! It was one my few favorite games back then. I tried to play it again like 2 or 3 years ago, and I still love it, but I was stuck in a level, I don't remember well, I think it was an snowy level, and enemies kept spawning forever from houses, I kept killing them, but they kept coming. I gave up after some time. Sadly it cut my motivation to finish the game. But I know it still has a special place in my heart and I'll go back to it, maybe sooner than I think, because just watching this video makes me want to play it again :D EDIT: Ok, I've just played it again, and I was stuck at mission 3, the snowy level as I said. In fact, last time I played I was stuck there just because I'm stupid and was firing on explosive crates to destroy houses, while what you have to do is walk on those crates to get grenades, and then use those grenades to explode the houses... -_- Duh! :D I wasn't getting stuck like that when I was a kid, so it means I'm way stupider now than what I was back then! Woooo! Scary! :D

[@conqc20]

Loved the theme song "WAR...Never been so much fun". lol

[@martintaylor4543]

There's been quite a few attempts to recreate the magic of both Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer and I've never played anything that's quite managed it. Brilliant games that played a huge part of my childhood.

[@Demicleas]

The first example that comes to mind is tiny troopers. Tbh I think that was the only attempt that succeeded.

[@baitrunner1000]

Just want to say we love you dj slope. Keep doing your thing

[@nftscreenshotter6436]

So good to see some love for Kim Justice. They make some of the absolute best gaming content, and with a super likeable personality. As an American, I love experiencing the enthusiasm for these magical titles that were massive success stories over in Europe. There really is a magic to that British passion for the micro computer era that sparks my love for gaming in a really fresh and fun way. Thanks for what you do, Slope and Kim!!

[@HaukLanglo]

I wrote a paper on the RTS genre as a student back in 2005. I concluded that Sensible Software invented all the components in Mega Lo Mania and Cannon Fodder, but that it took Westwood Studios to combine it into modern RTS.

[@elDoochebag]

This needs to be re-released again today. Let's set up a KickStarter!

[@StooCambridgeArtist]

Would love to do a proper CF3! - Who knows - One day perhaps?

[@samroberts7404]

@@StooCambridgeArtist is this really stoo?!? Was always heartbroken when you died

[@samroberts7404]

It is on GOG for a couple of quid....

[@TsukiZer0]

@@samroberts7404 and there's a source port for it.

[@organismseven3700]

@@StooCambridgeArtist Hmm, that seems as likely as Half Life 3. Please try and make this happen for real!

[@zom247]

Woo hoo! CF history. Cheers Slopes. "War has never been so much fun..."

[@magregory1985]

Absolutely love cannon fodder, it's always my go to when I've a itch to play amiga again, dam it there we go i want to play it now

[@iggyfer97]

Great vid! I remember getting CF2 for Christmas. Still remember it being on display in Electronics Boutique. I don't think I ever got further than the first desert levels though (until I played it with an emulator years later). It was so difficult.

[@Elkott]

I used to love playing this on the Mega Drive

[@TearofOblivion]

Here in Sweden Cannon Fodder was a popular gameNot Command and Conquer level but above the Dune game.

[@CT16Resident]

I had forgotten about cannon fodder! Thankyou!!!

[@anthonykearney608]

Love mega lo mania and cannon fodder. Still play both of them to this day

[@IanKsblvrd]

You did a very good job with covering this masterpiece. I would like to see a special complete history of Sensible Soccer too. It remains one of the most addictive soccer games of all time, especially if you play with friends on the Amiga. We reunited and played and it was sooo fun.

[@BlastProcessing]

Cannon Fodder was one of those games I wish I was able to play when I was younger. I can appreciate it now, but I think I would have been obsessed with it if I had played it back then. Nice one!

[@PLightstar]

Just heard you on RetroHour. Loving this Cannon Fodder doc, one of my all time faves and thanks to Evercade I can replay through it whenever I want.

[@Anonnymouse53]

WizBall! Man I had forgotten all about that until I seen this 5 second clip. I played the crap out of that as a nipper.

[@chip5541]

American here and I love Cannon Fodder. I had it for the Amiga, not the PC.

[@emanmodnar2]

I seem to remember someone downloading a demo of the game onto the family PC from Happy Puppy, back in the day. I had a few PVP guilds in different games named Cannon Fodder in memory of the little, quickly dead sprites.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Yeah it was a real triumph to get right through without losing any lol

[@r.a.w.talentart]

I miss this game, first played it on the Amiga then got it for my Megadrive, classic. Need to play it again. Great vid as per usual

[@CanuckMackem]

After all these years, when the song came on I knew all the words instantly. Just a classic game.

[@Rick_Ibbott]

Cannon Fodder was a game that a friend showed me saying "Listen to this"... Fantastic intro (Amiga). And yes, i hated losing men and seeing that hill fill up with graves... The music on that one screen is burnt into my brain. Great stuff.

[@chris_is_here_oh_no]

Amazing video, very in depth!

[@TheCthultist]

Man, I had so much fun with the demo of Cannon Fodder, having no clue what was going on and just constantly replaying what was essentially one small segment of the game… good times…

[@Sabre_Wulf1]

I would often try and take 'jools' and 'jops' as far as I could without death. Once they died...I restarted, I was gutted they died. What a total classic ! Amiga all the way for me on this one.

[@steam-SMOKEY]

Oh im getting old, I Had cannon fodder on a floppy disk 😆

[@jamiepeter3567]

I played cannonfodder on the mega drive, rented it from blockbusters

[@KMmouse20]

... I didn't realise Wizball was Sensible! I love that game!

[@christopherkelly577]

Return Fire on 3DO was also a superb combat themed game...superb.

[@antster1983]

The SNES and Mega Drive versions were compatible with the SNES Mouse and Mega Drive Mouse accessories. However, neither of each version's instruction manuals mention its functionality.

[@CloudWalkBeta]

never realised the MegaD even had a mouse accessory! I figured I was just really bad at the game XD

[@NoResultsReturned]

❤❤ Jules, Jops, and Stu ❤❤ I used to get upset when they were killed (and start again!) Outstanding game.

[@ivanlyutiy7437]

war has never been so much fun

[@featuremusic8354]

Loved that. So many great memories playing that game.

[@8StringFuryGaming]

Impressive work as always Slope.

[@Gamesta100]

A game I have started so many times but never got very far into. It's probably my all time favourite game to start and never finish lol

[@thisnthat3530]

Interesting... I always thought the "This game was not in any way endorsed by the ROYAL BRITISH LEGION" message was just another piece of humour like the title music and pictures.

[@magnuslauglo5356]

Absolutely brilliant game. Very simple to pick up on, but the levels get very challenging.

[@timinou9915]

First time I hear of this game , nice video 🍻

[@danbauer3669]

I loved this game as a kid. Don't know where to play it today, unfortunately.

[@slopesgameroom]

The pc versions are on gog

[@mikehanson277]

I loved this game. Had a demo of it on one of those "101 games" CDs, that I played repeatedly. Didn't realize that it had a bigger reputation across the pond than it did here in the States.

[@AbuHajarAlBugatti]

The PS 1 demo CDs with huge collection of game demos were the best

[@WanderlustZero]

They once said they wanted to merge Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer and make an 'Escape to Victory' tie-in. Miss these lads :')

[@CloudWalkBeta]

Cannon Fodder was certainly one of the gems I played on the Megadrive as a kid, the only other gem that came close to it had to be Landstalker. These games probably spurred me to return to find more gems later on that I missed the first time and I still love to hear documentaries like this video talking about how the games ever came to be. It also kept me interested in the Indie gaming scenes, these small companies produced humble games that were always WAY MORE FUN to play than any Triple A titles.

[@TwoBlackMarks]

I remember playing this on my brothers Amiga, I never finished it. But it is probably on a top list of some sort, if I had one. I do have it on Mega Drive, maybe I should try it again some day.

[@mole28]

Great video! I always thought that the game "Tiny Troopers" looked and played a lot like Canon Fodder. Is it possible that any of the Sensible team had anything to do with that game?

[@gardeniachan8780]

Ahh yes My one of the first games in genesis library, thank you for bringing this up

[@robcrompton7632]

Cannon Fodder - best game I had on the A500. Cannon Fodder 2 - felt let down.

[@dabradmp1]

I remember playing this on my old PC in a promotional Demo CD with like 50 demos on it. I also played it on Gameboy Color

[@JamesWon6]

Love this game, just played it a couple of weeks ago. Just setup a retro game pc with 1000's of games and only played Cannon fodder.

[@dustybunny6716]

One of my favorite games on my 3d0. Tiny troopers is a nice call back

[@DJPeterJames]

Yay cannon fodder! I’ll snuggle up on the sofa for this one. Viva la amiga

[@mattyboy2024]

I'm here via Kim's recent get Jools & Jops to mission 8 challenge funnily enough, great retrospective

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

And then there's Stonkers on the ZX Spectrum.... Wonderful stuff!

[@mattjames6349]

The mouse explanation clip - In the early 2000's at college on a jobcentre IT course, I was made to watch one video explaining that a monitor is like a television... On the Amiga though I was playing this and Syndicate at the same time. I'm sure I don't need to explain what an awesome combo that makes for... and War has never been so much fun was just a song Jon Hare wrote after having an argument with his wife. :)

[@NoResultsReturned]

Syndicate was the bollocks. It was all about the gauss gun :)

[@mattjames6349]

@@NoResultsReturned I did one assassination mission with it . I couldn’t work out a technical and safe way across and just thought screw it and just launched a missile at the side of the building ! Collateral damage did the trick. Not technical but got the job done !

[@jonnyboy1925]

I STILL can't believe that people at the time couldn't see the anti-war message in a game called Cannon Fodder. Here is a quote from the manual for all the enraged tabloid readers at the time who never bothered to look past the box art: "And on a more serious note: Don't try playing this a home, kids, because war is not a game - War, as Cannon Fodder demonstrates in its own quirky little way, is a senseless waste of human resources and lives. We hope you never have to find out the hard way." Then you realise that those little crosses are because of your tactical mistakes. Cannon Fodder isn't about the soldiers, it's about YOU.

[@Burningwithecstasy]

Fun game. I never made it past level eight.

[@thebluelunarmonkey]

I only had the demo floppy for PC that came with a gaming magazine. But still remember Cannon Fodder and other memorable games from the 90s: Syndicate with similar gameplay ... now that was a cool game with cool sounds. X-COM too. Populous comes to mind too as a cool game in that era, but different gameplay. I would say one of the predecessors of Cannon Fodder was a DOS game I played in the 80s: The Ancient Art of War.

[@slopesgameroom]

Seems like you and I would get on very well :D

[@Mikey-zj8bn]

I'm from the US and played cannon fodder as a kid loved it I just remeber it getting boring halfway thru and I'd stop but I did play the hell out of if

[@lasskinn474]

If cannon fodder could've used one extra thing it would've been keyboard moving.

[@CloudWalkBeta]

I think you just made me realise why I play Realm Of The Mad God so much XD It's... not quite Cannon Fodder, but it is a bullet hell with permanent death, and the controls are like a natural progression from Cannon Fodders Controls.

[@jhelmuth]

I'm in the US and I got was obsessed with a Cannon Fodder demo I got on a demo compilation disk. I could never find it anywhere to buy though, so I never got to play the full game. Looks like I'm going to check out Open Cannon Fodder.

[@catnip420]

Brilliant series, I still remember the intro song after all these years.

[@mrmysterious8124]

Can you look at the History of Mega Man🔫🤖

[@iliketodraw6364]

Good Idea

[@tellybuster]

Never really played the second (in fact, until I recently got back into Amiga emulation, I’d forgotten it existed) but loved the seeing the not-Dalek. Also makes the manual for it sound like Virgin just basically chucked the Chaos Engine story at it 😂

[@MetalMonkey1453]

Somewhere in storage, I actually have a copy of this for the 3DO. I didn't even know it was from a UK developer, hahah. Also got OG Doom and Guardian Wars. Those are the ones I remember playing most, anyhow.

[@cutieincosplay]

😸 I've enjoyed these Kickstarter video series, weird since I only used it for shenmue 3 and nothing else 😅

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

The promotion may have good intention but the timing was really unlucky. Still, glad that we still had this played back in the day.

[@bujler]

Never knew that Wizball was from Sensible Software.

[@CondemnedToBeMe]

yeah Kim Justice is very underrated!

[@plisskensghost2951]

Hey Slopes when you doing a complete history of the rise and fall of Top Hat Gaming Man & Lady Decade 🤣🤣🤣

[@garylshawiii483]

Thank you for sharing these UK only sleeper games-now all I can think about is how good a sequel or remaster/collection would be on the switch…twin stick action shooter RTS with a cheeky anti war message YES PLEASE (Also big beat em up fan picked up Final Vendetta per your recommendation and I love it final fight with a UK vibe good stuff)

[@kaibomo]

I'd only ever heard of this game because of the technically impressive "FMV" intro on the Game Boy Color version

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

It's a big shame that other war games that constantly get new releases aren't even half as fun. Also a shame that there were so few US releases, and that neither the SNES or Genesis/Mega Drive ports were among them. There was a DOS release, (which is the version offered on GOG), but it used Adlib sound, so no singing "War Never Been So Much Fun" on the game's title screen. The Jaguar version had the full theme, but who owned a Jaguar anyway? Then there's the Game Boy Color version, as impressive as it is for having _its entire sound being digitized_ rather than being standard 8-bit tones, it doesn't have the complete version of War. (The original FMV's pretty funny though.) As for Cannon Fodder 2, it never saw a US release, outside modern digital on GOG alongside the first game. Outside better advertising, Cannon Fodder might've stood a better chance over here if the SNES and Genesis versions hit US shelves, then at least there would've been a chance the game could've shown up at your local Blockbuster or whatever rental store you had, curious gamers would look at it, rent it, and spread word of mouth if they liked it.

[@mickwhite3640]

Consistently excellent videos.

[@slopesgameroom]

Glad you like them!

[@NateTheGnat]

I bought this game in America in the 90s for PC. We did have it but it was pretty obscure.

[@lutfimakarim8258]

The Complete History you didn't know you wanted.

[@TottenPoncho]

I remember the demo in the style of sensi soccer n the salivating 2 month wait turning into many more months of waiting.. n waiting.. the wait just made it hit harder on release. What a game. Who's up for paintball !!??!!

[@fnjesusfreak]

I actually got this game off GOG even though I'd never myself played it. Would've been nice to see on the Apple IIgs - bet it would've done a pretty good job with it.

[@PixelzNcreatureZ]

I bought a box of random Jaguar games and this was one of them. I thought it was a fun game

[@jayjayrocket]

The only other game that has me attached to individual troops is the XCOM games

[@aangryy3099]

The Music in this is still nice to listen to. oh what a game

[@mr.pavone9719]

I enjoyed Cannon Fodder but I've always felt it needed the option to put your squad in some simple fireteam formations: Column, line, vee and wedge. That alone would have made the ambushes, and assaults you'd make, more manageable. They could have been bound to hot keys and quick to do while playing.

[@lukeliederbach7623]

Slope you sir are an absolute legend

[@slopesgameroom]

Thanks mate

[@DEVILTAZ35]

The original is the best non adventure point and click game of all time :) . Best theme song in a video game for back then too lol.

[@VBrancoPT]

I played the Sega Mega Drive version. The game itself is... so dark and messed up. Sending people to war and if they die, you can see their graves in the background. Damn...

[@Idiotatwork]

Did like megalomania...was one of the first games I bought when I got my amiga as I'd been drooling over the pics as an early teen reliant on zx speccy graphics for several yrs before I finally joined the 16 bit era

[@caphowdy666]

Something that pissed me off with this game is that I got it again years later on GOG (the PC CD version it says) and they got rid of the song ... well the lyrics anyway. Nothing like ruining someones memories by being all PC.