Commodore 64 Arcade Multiversion : SPECIAL

[@officialalexanderoneal]

I visited John Tweedy when he was in the middle of programming Ikari Warriors ..

[@BastichB64K]

What !! Really ?? Any context how that happened? I'm interest

[@OnionFestival-si7tr]

wow, thats odd because his name is John Twiddy not Tweedy. Lie much?

[@officialalexanderoneal]

@@BastichB64K we got to know him through the commodore club we used to go to.

[@officialalexanderoneal]

@OnionFestival-si7tr OK.so I misspelled his surname..

[@BastichB64K]

Thats cool dude , very interesting 😀👍

[@pacbilly]

I know you said you weren't able to cover them all. Does that mean we can expect a Part 2? You could probably just roll your Zaxxon video into the midst of Part 2. And hopefully you could also cover Donkey Kong and Congo Bongo. Flying Shark and Sky Shark. Turrican, Crystal Castles, Circus Games, Renegade. Plus the US versions of Arkanoid and Operation Wolf have 1351 mouse support, while the Euro versions don't.

[@BastichB64K]

I haven't decided if a part 2 is gonna happen yet . There are still quite a few double arcade versions left like the ones you mentioned although Turrican was not an arcade so that doesn't count. I can only do versions where there are significant differences to talk about with op wolf and arkanoid ... Theres nothing besides mouse support which gives no content really . Donkey Kong , Mario Bros (Arcade) and Congo Bongo have lots though so I will see later , I got to many other videos to focus on at the mo 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Cheers for watching as always

[@Nolasco.]

This was an eye opener 😅 Thanks dude 👍🏼

[@BastichB64K]

No probs , I'll have a follow up to this in a month or so with another slew of C64 double game versions .

[@retro_noix]

This is a great video... always wanted to see and compare different versions.

[@BastichB64K]

Thx for watching 😀👍👍

[@amerigocosta7452]

Both Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. (not Super Mario Bros. mind you!) received two very different ports for North America and Europe but what's unusual is the timing of these version: the former region got cartridge ports in the early 80s by Atarisoft while the latter got two cassette/disk ports by Ocean in the late 80s. Apparently they don't share a single line of code. The European ports look like attempts to ride the coattail of the popularity of Super Mario Bros. which wasn't available for license, of course, hence Ocean resorted to those older games.

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah , there might still be enough 2 version arcade conversions for another video in the future . Im not a huge Nintendo fan so thats why they weren't here and the fact that theres too many 🤣👍 thx for the extra info

[@burrfoottopknot]

Have forgotten about all these variations but thanks for the great memories and hope you make more!

[@BastichB64K]

Cheers thanks 👍👍

[@JasonOakley]

I had no idea there were so many multi-country releases of these games! :)

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah and that's not even all of them !!

[@CJWarlock]

Great episode. I've enjoyed watching it. :) Nicely narrated and the games' versions are analyzed justly.

[@BastichB64K]

Cheers and thx for watching

[@dennyhaynes3]

Love these type of videos, hope you're considering doing a follow up. Space Harrier was slaughtered in the magazines but for me it was a fantastic coding achievement by Chris Butler. Chris had to program a game which had dedicated chips onto a 64. I prefer the US version though I did buy the original in the UK. I had so many fond memories that particular Christmas. Enjoyed that 👍

[@BastichB64K]

Thx for watching, I don't think there's enough material for a follow up , i can only think of 3 other examples , congo bongo , donkey kong and apparently Wizard of Wor has 2 versions but i cant figure out the which is which as info is so obscure on that one

[@shapes2000]

Very interesting and well presented video! Loved UK Ikari as a kid.

[@BastichB64K]

UK Ikari is awesome 🕹️👍

[@OperationPhantom]

Nice to see the varying regional attempts at Arcade conversions side by side, the difference in quality is at times shocking!

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah its sometimes such a massive difference its crazy 😵👍

[@TW-SB]

While I didn’t have Frogger, I had Road Toad.

[@BastichB64K]

😂😂 like I said so many clones of it 😂👍

[@bugjamdrm6747]

Road Toad is a very cool name though. Never heard of it

[@commodore64club44]

Long ttime without seeing a new doc from you! Continue with these, is gold! :D

[@BastichB64K]

Thx for watching

[@pacbilly]

Also... She's an 8-bit Lover! I didn't notice that little nod to the double Phils on my first watch.

[@BastichB64K]

🤣🤣👍 finally somebody got the subtle joke 2 Phils , 2 Versions 🤣🤣👍

[@arostwocents]

I think US Bionic Commando looks much better. Its so much clearer and easy to read. The character isnt distinct from the background on the UK game. They should have put a black border on the sprites so they stood out when the background and foreground use the same colours.

[@BastichB64K]

I'll respectfully disagree , thanks for watching the vid I appreciate it .

[@skywalkerranch]

BastichB hits it out of the park once again. This guy gives 110% constantly. Thanks once again for all your efforts.

[@BastichB64K]

Cheers , be sure to check out the second part of this series aswell for another slew arcade doubles 👍👍

[@braillynn]

I'll admit I haven't really watched your channel since October as my life kinda fell apart. Watching this video, I missed how great your videos are.

[@markmacrae8158]

Hope things have worked out for you now.

[@BastichB64K]

Damn sorry to hear that dude , I hope things have turned around 😎👍👍

[@rinazzle]

I never knew there were so many variations before! In Australia we mainly had the UK versions of games.

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah I had mostly the UK versions but I did have a few cracked US versions

[@reinhard3209]

Great video once again! 👍👍 Thanks Brendan and cheers from Germany. 😉

[@BastichB64K]

Thank you , it was fun to make but took waaaaaaaay longer to make than i had planned 😂😂

[@davidepalombo2141]

I really loved the usa version of street fighter with its small but nice graphic. It also has the special moves of Ken and ryu 😊

[@BastichB64K]

Its waaaaay better than the UK version for sure

[@CreationBrosZone-km5be]

This is cool enough even for Ace Rimmer! Btw: the Space Harrier theme was nicked from...I mean, it is an "homage" to the Blake's 7 theme tune ;)

[@BastichB64K]

🤣👍 man I love Ace Rimmer , what a guy 😎👍 as for the Blakes intro thing ... There are definite similarities in the intro but im not convinced it was an intentional omage ... The likelihood of Kawaguchi even seen Blakes 7 at that time is unlikely 🤣 nevermind tha fact that its so subtle anyway . Blakes 7 is almost completely non existent outside of the UK and this is coming ng from a person thats lived in multiple countries and been to hundreds of conventions and have never seen a singles Blakes anything . But who knows thats just my opinion anyway , thanks for the interesting comment 👍👍👍👍👍

[@CreationBrosZone-km5be]

@@BastichB64K Lol. Yes, old Blake's 7 is pretty obscure but if I ever find that evasive link between it and Space Harrier, the cookies are all on you. Seriously though, the "reimagined" tracks that came out of SID somehow improved on originals -- see Rob Hubbard's "Master of Magic". "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast".

[@BastichB64K]

@@CreationBrosZone-km5be 🤣👍👍👍

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

What's the name of the song between 28:59 - 29:34? I keep hearing this song, but I'm never told the name of it, despite asking this question quite a few times.

[@BastichB64K]

No idea what its called its just a free song in the KZbin creator music section

[@mr_teeney]

Never understood why there was US and UK versions of the same game. Was it the 50Hz PAL vs 60Hz NTSC? That UK users usually used cassette while US users used disks? Was it licensing??

[@BastichB64K]

My guess is licencing was by region back then as opposed to worldwide because there were 1000s of games that got simple Hz changes without issue

[@colinthomson7518]

I love frogger

[@BastichB64K]

Great game , simple yet addicting

[@uriinbar6046]

the uk double dragon theme is one of my favorite sid tunes, i don't know why you consider it mediocre. it was actually the first track on a mixtape i made back then, and the first one i played on a sid-themed event i hosted a few years later. but the really lame thing about both versions is the lack of throwable objects, half the fun of the original version. i used to have a never-ending contest with my friend who owned a pc, and although the cga graphics looked like crap, it still had that one mechanic which made it that much more enjoyable

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah so many issues with those DD games , the DD sid is fine its simply not as good as it could have been thats all , if its one of your favs then awesome nothing wrong with that 🎶🎶👍

[@MarquisDeSang]

In 10 years, we will be able to ask an AI to make any game for us : The Last Ninja 4, 5, 6. Gianna Sister 2, 3... Turrican IV for any system in the style of the originals. It will be weird to have games custom made just for us with infinite number of levels, enemies... And the AI will be able to mix game genres on the fly : Space Invader mixed with Street Fighter.

[@BastichB64K]

Well not sure about that but time will tell i guess

[@weirdtoddedd2082]

New subscriber!! Channels awesome.

[@BastichB64K]

Thx a lot , enjoy 🕹️👍

[@jasonz7788]

Really cool thanks 👍

[@BastichB64K]

My pleasure ✅✅

[@merman1974]

Space Harrier's conversion uses software sprites for enemies and obstacles - they are made up of characters, moving in "steps" towards the player (which is done with the hardware sprites). I enjoyed it but it does feel less impressive when you have seen other machines (Mega Drive, Amiga). With Rampage, I'm wondering if it's down to the C64/C64C change in the SID chip? The UK version definitely feels like it is filtering the sounds. UK tape version of Out Run had different loads with different routes. Missing out the junctions was a major failure of both versions. I preferred the US version of Street Fighter, the overlaid fighters are much better than the expanded Tiertex mess. With those Capcom USA games, it's a real shame there wasn't a UK version of The Speed Rumbler... I've included the UK version of Afterburner in my forthcoming book C64 Nightmares, looking at over 100 terrible titles. It was such a terrible effort for a well-known license. Coming soon from FUSION Retro Books...

[@BastichB64K]

Oh man Speed Rumbler is an arcade fav of mine ... The US c64 version is terrible 😂 its true i wish there was a UK attempt and as for UK afterburner ..😱😱 . Look forward to your book 👍👍

[@lurkerrekrul]

Another game with two completely different versions was Congo Bongo. Like Zaxxon, there was both a cartridge and a disk version, with the disk version being vastly superior to the cartridge game. As for Space Harrier and Outrun, I've always had the opinion that both games could have been better if the programmers hadn't tried to make them single-load games for the UK/European market. Outrun in particular could have had the arcade's branching paths if they didn't have to cram the entire game in memory at once. Likewise, Space Harrier could have been more faithful to the arcade if they only had to worry about fitting one level at a time into memory. Of course I realize that making the games multiload is no guarantee that they would have been better. The Amiga versions of both were terrible, despite the Amiga being much more powerful and having a floppy drive as standard.

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah I also think a lot of games were rushed for deadlines , if some of these guys had more time I think the results would have been better + the teams were usually 1-3 people 😱

[@lurkerrekrul]

@@BastichB64K I'd really like to know why the Amiga and ST versions of Alien Syndrome were missing two levels. It's not the greatest port, but it was decently playable, and both the graphics and sound weren't too bad, but the fact that they left out two levels kind of kills it for me. The C64 version had all the levels, but the scrolling sucked to the point that I found it almost unplayable. Oh, that reminds me, Alien Syndrome had two versions on the C64. They look the same, but the UK/European version uses "push" scrolling, where the screen doesn't scroll until you get near the edge, it scrolls until you're back in the center, then it waits for you to get near the edge again. The U.S. version also doesn't scroll until you get near the edge, but once it starts scrolling, it keeps scrolling as long as you're moving. Unfortunately in both versions, you need to get dangerously close to the edge, which makes it much harder to avoid running into aliens.

[@gdawwg1125]

I never understood why there were different versions for us and Europe

[@BastichB64K]

I could not find any solid reason , my guess is licencing worked differently then maybe by region hence you could sell rights to multiple companies for the same game because there were 1000's of games that simply got 50hz to 60hz conversions without issue

[@markc871]

On a side note the Double Dragon on the Amiga was also terrible but the Double Dragon II The Revenge was fantastic.

[@BastichB64K]

At least it wasn't only the C64 version that was terrible then 😂👍

[@markc871]

@@BastichB64K I wasn’t aware that DD2 was good on the 64. Will have to check it out.

[@Christians_Retro_Gaming]

Very enjoyable to watch! So glad I had the good version of Ikari Warriors back then. Regarding the waist gap in the Double Dragon sprites, 8-Bit Show And Tell has a long and interesting video about this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqXWl59tbraLrs0

[@BastichB64K]

US Ikari is one of the worst games ever 🤣🤣 , I'll definitely check out his video, i must have missed that one somehow

[@Hold_My_Pocket]

Easy lover! C64 version

[@BastichB64K]

Hell's yeah 🎶🎶🎶😎👍

[@VIC-20]

I think the VIC-20 does great game sound effects! Music, not so much.

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah it was just a joke , there are C64 games with worse sound fx than a vic but the music is a no contest

[@carlopepi]

How about super locomotive, loco, suicide express, black thunder basically the same game all done by tony crowther

[@BastichB64K]

Already covered all those on the channel

[@maxmirni2768]

US Ikari makes me spew up

[@BastichB64K]

My god that game is bad 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[@maxmirni2768]

as does US Bionic commando. Uk Bionic has one of my top5 soundtracks ever.

[@BastichB64K]

@@maxmirni2768 true that 👏👏

[@thedddemon]

Donkey Kong I think too?

[@BastichB64K]

Yeah theres an Atarisoft and Ocean version

[@thedddemon]

oh and I don't want to be annoying, but Bionic Commando also had an infamous US port!@@BastichB64K

[@BastichB64K]

@@thedddemon yeah its literally in the video 🤣

[@thedddemon]

sorry I missed, rushed through it before work this morning! Will watch again! @@BastichB64K

[@BastichB64K]

@@thedddemon no probs 👍👍

[@CondemnedToBeMe]

👍👍👍👍🕹🕹