DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH | Commodore 64 (1990)

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Which was the toughest Cartoon-To-Commodore-64 game out there? 😇🕹👌 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= More from 1990: tinyurl.com/1990-C64-GAMES My Top Picks: tinyurl.com/CCGS-BEST-GAMES

[@1stBlood]

Scooby do? By elite?

[@Syragar]

@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Of the games I've played, probably Transformers. That said... this game looks pretty hard, too.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

@@1stBlood Oooo yeah, a tough game that one! Gah! 😇🕹👌

[@Dorelaxen]

Man, the Commodore had a licensed game for absolutely EVERYTHING. I loved the cartoon, but never played the game. The Phantom is fairly well known, though. Even had a mid 90's movie starring Billy Zane!

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

So many cartoon conversions... all of them incredibly difficult to play! 😇🕹️👌

[@krugos1978]

This would stress me out nowadays, lol, but I would have loved it back in the day. Here in Venezuela, the cartoon Defenders of the Earth was very popular. Here in my country, I think Phantom was more well-known than Flash Gordon. The Phantom comic strip had been published in the local newspapers for decades and everyone had heard of the character even if they didn't read the comic. He was, however, more popular for my father's generation. My father and his friends remembered it fondly from their childhood in the 1940s.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

It's a tough game indeed... I remember the cartoons as a kid too, good times 😇🕹️👌

[@barkingboyuk]

I'm sure I had this from a Commodore Format magazine. I don't remember playing it, so I probably didn't think much of it 😂 I did like the cartoon so would have given it a try at least.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Haha yeah it came with Commodore Format Power Pack 23... all the way back in August 1992! I bought it in 90'... but if I'd have known, I'd have definitely waited 2 years to get it free with a magazine haha 😇🕹️👌

[@SensiofRabbitude]

The Phantom was one of the biggest comics in Australia. They'd sell more Phantom comics down here than your traditional superheroes, sometimes twice as much as the rest combined. Not sure about the overall comic status in 2024 but it was at least true at some point. We actually hold the record for the longest run of Phantom comics in the world with a continuous publishing schedule from 1948 to the present day. So 76 years now. Mandrake and Lothar I'm semi-familar with, because it's from the mind of the same guy, American comic creator Lee Falk(rip). Mandrake didn't have the same impact or longevity though, I don't think anywhere. Lothar was almost like a servant to Mandrake I think but became more of an equal with changing times. They did crossovers on rare occasions and both were at the Phantom's wedding. Strangely enough, I'm actually the least familiar with Flash Gordon, mostly because he wasn't a big thing in my formulative years. Retroactively I love that cheesy 80s movie now.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Can't beat a bit of Flash Gordon.. especially the 1980s movie where Brian Blessed plays the Prince Vultan says "Ah well... who wants live forever?! Diiiiive" haha classic 😁🕹👌

[@SensiofRabbitude]

Words cannot express how much Brian Blesssed adds to anything he is in.

[@vidarlystadjohansen9829]

looks hard. the Phantom and the Flash were the only ones I could name in this group

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Mega hard... if you don't keep moving from screen to screen you'd literally just get blown up anyway. Tuugh game 😇🕹️👌

[@ArttuTheCat]

I have never seen the cartoon series - nor either played the computer game of DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH 😹. I remember seeing the add of this game from the old magazine. It was either COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES or ACE. It was somewhere in the early 1990's. During that time, i was a little boy. I still have the old cartoon tie-ins , TRANSFORMERS (Activision), THUNDERCATS and MASK I-III for the Commodore 64. All of them are the tape versions. 😺👍🕹️

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Some of those cartoon game conversions were super difficult! Even though I love them all due to the graphical representations of the cartoons - I was a big fan of them all as a kid 😇🕹️👌

[@lordtraust]

The Defenders of the Earth was a weird cartoon which was only made due to the DC & Marvel cartoon shows and King Features Syndicate wanted to cash in as well. The worse thing was them changing the lore of the Phantom and making him more magical.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

I remember watching the cartoon somewhere around the mid-80s... and was pretty into it! That intro music was pretty decent too 😇🕹️👌

[@markadshead4214]

Flash Gordon needs to have word with his agent for signing up to this! Only ever played the other FG game which I think you covered a while back.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Yeah the original Flash Gordon was a much better game and that 1980s film was great for its day! Brian Blessed delivering his great line... "Second Wave.... Diiiive" 😁🕹👌

[@InspiralJez]

Ming the Merciless is not just known for his fine vases but also for a race of people called "mingers!" haha!

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Hahahaha very possible! 😇🕹️👌

[@Evilkingus]

The Phantom was pretty big back in the day.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

I think he's shrunk since then 😇🕹️👌

[@energylab227]

Thundercats was ridiculously difficult.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Yeah, Thundercats was tough... touch anything, you die! 😇🕹️👌

[@Syragar]

At first I thought, "I've never seen this game... nor the cartoon." Then realized after watching some of the clips of the cartoon that I may have actually seen this cartoon before... but don't remember much about it. I've probably only watched an episode or two... and probably not the entire episodes. LOL As for the game... it looks kinda interesting, but repetitive. It looks like it had the potential to be much better if they added a bit more variety and it wasn't bombarding you with enemies non-stop.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

The constant bombardment of enemy after enemy meant you never really had much time to relax into the game... and if you hang around on one screen too long, you get missiled to death anyway - have to keep on the move! Haha, hectic game 😇🕹️👌

[@Darkuk]

You know, I'm not sure if I had this or not. I'm sure I did but have no memory of it looking like this. Wonder if it was included on a C64 power tape.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Yeah, it came with Commodore Format in 1992... Power Pack 23! 😇🕹️👌

[@sterling7]

I suspect The Phantom is to the Americas a bit like Dan Dare is to the U.K. His strip ran in a lot of American newspapers- may still do so, for all I know. A lot of people over here might not be "fans" of the character, but will have heard of him. Lothar and Mandrake? Er, not so much (others can feel free to correct me on that one). The C-64's 8-sprite limit seems to manifest as "spawn a new enemy the instant as one is destroyed" in some developers' games, seemingly without much awareness as to how futile such a loop makes it feel to bother destroying enemies in the first place. It's kind of unfortunate.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

The constant loop of enemies becomes very tiresome very quickly... also, you get sore thumbs bashing them to shoot the bad guys! Not a game which will have much longetivity, but one that I thought I should cover... all the same 😇🕹️👌

[@sambradley8069]

Never had the chance to play this. Nice graphics but seems very hard and hectic.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Very hectic... you literally need to keep running and keep shooting 😇🕹️👌

[@1stBlood]

When he's not down the pottery 🎉😂 funny as fook mate love it, allways raises a smile from me pal 🎉

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Haha glad you're enjoying the jovial reviews - sometimes it's difficult to resist 😇🕹️👌

[@craigwise6374]

I really like this game but i did rage smash a couple of joysticks lol good times

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Haha yeah you'd need a pretty indestructible joystick for the amount of hammering it takes to play this game alright 😇👌🕹🕹🕹

[@1stacbats]

I like the look of the game but glad ive never experienced it lol

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

Yeah it is one of those games that are good to look back upon retrospectively, yet... if you never played it, you're not really missing out on much 😇🕹️👌

[@exidy-yt]

Yeah, this looks like pretty forgettable schlock to me. Never played the Amiga version and would have had no interest in the C64 version had I still had mine by 1990. Graphics look decent though, too bad they were wasted on this game.

[@CheekyCommodoreGamer]

You didn't miss much to be fair.... was too tough to be fully enjoyable too 😇🕹️👌