Fast cars and casual Saxon: Super Sprint & Defender of the Crown | NES Works 139

[@briancross7835]

Xmas of 1990, I received Defender Of The Crown & Silent Service. Two historical sims at the same time! I loved them both and can say they are two of my all-time favorite NES titles (if not video game titles, period). And I went on to get a degree in History with emphasis on WWII and naval combat.

[@ginormousaurus8394]

I also played historical sims on the NES (e.g. Defender of the Crown, Silent Service, Desert Commander, Nobunaga's Ambition, North & South) and went on to get a degree in History.

[@ValkyrieTiara]

Years ago, when you first started the SG-1000 series I said that one of the things I like about this channel's retrospectives (and part of why I think this kind of preservation is important in general) is that I always felt like there was a massive disconnect between, as we saw it here in the west, the leap from 2600 era graphics and the NES. Being able to see the SG-1000 in action filled in that gap and helped me understand the "true" evolutionary path of video game consoles. In this video we got to see something similar, and perhaps even more important. Whereas the gap between the 2600 and NES is so obvious to the casual observer that even 10 year old me was able to pick up on it, and thus would know to look for the missing link there, I would never have guessed that Super Off-Road (one of my all time favourite arcade games) had a predecessor beyond MAYBE RC Pro-Am. I'd never even heard of Super Sprint before watching this video, and without this kind of documentation this history could easily have been lost in just a few short decades. Great video as always, Jeremy!

[@ginormousaurus8394]

In North America the ColecoVision occupied the midway point between the graphics capabilities of the Atari 2600 and the NES. The ColecoVision launched in North America in 1982 but it was discontinued in 1985. The SG-1000 hardware was similar to that of the ColecoVision.

[@jaymorrison8419]

In other regions, MSX also

[@ValkyrieTiara]

@@jaymorrison8419 The MSX was a pc platform and can't really be compared to contemporary consoles. Just as one comparison, the original model MSX retailed for 60,000 yen vs the SG-1000 or FamiCom's 15,000.

[@anonymousm9113]

True, for most of us, the behemoths in 1980s American video game consoles were the Atari 2600 (VCS) and the NES. Some of my friends had the former system, and I'd play some games like Adventure and Haunted House without knowing what I was doing or even what I was looking at. One day, probably around late 1986, a friend got the new NES and invited me over to play. The graphics and games were amazing! Mario looked like a person (as opposed to a square or a few pixels), and when I got the fire flower, I loved the fact that he spit out pepperonis (hey, I was eight, and he was Italian, after all). When I beat World 1-1, only to go into the sewers, I was in awe. There was more than just one level? Excitebike was equally neat, as my little person rode a realistic-looking motorcycle, and I could even design my own courses! Atari's graphics paled in comparison to those on the NES, just as early NES games' graphics were primitive compared to those in later games (SMB vs. SMB2 vs. SMB3, for example).

[@jaymorrison8419]

@@ValkyrieTiara i was just thinking in terms of how msx fills in some gaps in the history of gaming. early and abundant konami and compile, to name two developers. it's true that i have owned a number of msx computers, so i may be a bit biased haha. i also own an sc-3000 currently :]

[@Koexistence13]

The driving in the Out Run video capture was tremendous

[@thisvampireheart1]

@@Koexistence13 🤣🤣😂

[@JeremyParish]

It was from a LaserDisc that Sega sold for actual money so it had damned well better be top-tier play

[@Koexistence13]

@@JeremyParish i remember those. Big money for the player and the laser disc's themselves. Had to flip the disc about an hour in to see the rest of the flick which contributed to lack of sales along with the prohibitive price. Picture and sound were great for back then if you had the latest TV.

[@kennethchia4194]

It was giving me anxiety, driving off the road like that for so long

[@Koexistence13]

@@kennethchia4194 didn't seem to slow down

[@TheNovastorm]

Oh, hey! I was one of the few that had Super Sprint as a kid! It was fun! I think one of my enduring memories of it was playing against my uncle, who drove with such precision (and mopped the floor with me every race) that I was CERTAIN my controller was malfunctioning. I'll have to revisit it someday.

[@supercrownjosie7732]

soon, October 1989 will be upon us, and Cinemaware/Beam's ultimate 80s child disappointer with it: The Three Stooges (NES). a game that, as a lifelong Stoogehead, I have received twice (NES and GBA conversions respectively) as gifts from my darling mother. thanks, mom.

[@SonofMrPeanut]

I finally encountered it via the GBA port, which incidentally might be the most appropriate form factor for it.

[@vaguerant]

A weird thing about that GBA version is that it was later ported to the aging PlayStation *1*. GBA-to-PS1 ports are my favorite weird thing to happen in gaming; there's more than you'd think.

[@amiga_vision]

Try it on its native platform, the Amiga! Still a simplistic collection of mini-games, but at least it looks pretty great.

[@mattsweeney3790]

3 stooges wasn't THAT bad... I mean, it's not good, but there's a lot worse.

[@luissopelana]

The Commodore 64 version has ENORMOUS loading times. Like, 15 to 20 minutes for EACH MINIGAME. Ah, the memories of reading whole chapters of a book (heavy into Stephen King back then) or having a full dinner while I waited for something that lasted a couple of minutes at most...

[@luissopelana]

5:59 I like how the fire from the previous blue cars aren't even out when the next ones are already flying into the smoldering heap. 😂

[@Bubblun1]

Super Sprint was one of my first childhood NES games. I'd never played the arcade version so it was just a random toy store 'that box art looks good' find. Mastering the controls when the game stages start to loop with increased difficulty was the key. I put countless hours into it with 2 player sessions with friends. I'm glad to hear some retrospective love for its charms, even if it doesn't have an actual ending. Definitely not an A-tier game but has a lot of redeeming qualities.

[@thejackal007]

6:05 The definition of insanity. Poor blue car.

[@wyvern2917]

We count only blue cars.

[@leegoldsmith2028]

You grabbed an arcade clip in which one car throws itself off the edge of the road and explodes over and over with every respawn like Phil Connors on Groundhog Day. It was mesmerizing.

[@AmicusRyelei]

Defender of the Crown only covers England and Wales so technically it's not about conquering the island of Britain but a large part of it.

[@roguerifter9724]

While games that let me control Robin Hood, one of my favorite literary heroes and the protagonist of the first book I read, never gets old something about sending him and his men on a rampage through an enemy camp the night before my army crushes them feels so right.

[@treymoney]

11:50 Worf: I am NOT a Merry Man

[@OldNick999-real1]

Video stores carried Tengen games. I do remember renting this a while back. I’m glad to see Tengen games getting talked about. They should count as well as the rest of the official games.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Yes, they weren't completely out of public eye.

[@evenmorebetter]

I was really young when the whole NES/Tengen thing went down, but my neighborhood independent video store was the only place I remember seeing unlicensed Tengen NES games for sale out in public. I had friends and family that had several of them though and was never sure where they were finding them.

[@OldNick999-real1]

@@evenmorebetter I have received Gauntlet for Christmas one year and I’ve found Rolling Thunder at KB Toys. The rest, I found at retro shops.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@OldNick999-real1 I had Road Runner.

[@OldNick999-real1]

@@ChristopherSobieniak I have that one too. The most recent one I found was RBI Baseball.

[@jamesmoss3424]

Super Sprint Tengen on the nes is excellent. 😀👍🎮

[@thisvampireheart1]

Many memories of playing this in multi-player crashing each other's cars lol so fun.

[@chrismoberg1581]

As always an excellent video. I appreciate the series so much and look forward to it every week.

[@LJW1912]

You hit the nail on the head with Defender of the Crown. I live in England, and most people were Amiga fans at the time. Seeing the NES version was so bizarre, as the biggest thing going for the Amiga version has always been it's graphics. I think the game was made quite quickly, and I would guess it didn't want to scare off any players with gameplay being too complicated either

[@Jordan3DS]

Defender of the Crown reminds me of Persona 5 Tactica or Super Mario RPG; all are simplistic introductory games in their genres that pale in comparison to the big boys.

[@mattsweeney3790]

Robinhood standing next to a large onion, which was the style at the time...

[@fangjokerLS]

The tornado in SUPER SPRINT reminds me of Mathman's nemesis, Mr. Glitch.

[@HallWall311]

He'll eat YOU if you are wrong!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

​@@HallWall311"Mathman, Mathman, divisible by 4!"

[@rodneylives]

Mr Glitch was voiced by Jim Thurman, creator of the Teeny Little Super Guy and Turkey Television's Thurman T. Turkey, among other things! I _think_ he also animated the Whammys from Press Your Luck, but I am not sure of that fact.

[@dmleach]

The Insidious, Cantakerous, Diabolical, Reprehensible, Terrible, Devious Mr. Glitch?

[@joeboo8626]

I saw a Sprint 4 game in Galveston, TX around 1993. Thought it was amazing to see such an old game. But... that would be like seeing Street Fighter IV in an arcade now. Not a big deal at all. Funny how perspective of time is seen as a teenager vs a middle aged man.

[@aducharme01]

And... this isn't Phantasy Star. Wasn't expecting to be blue-balled by a youtube video today, but here we are.

[@JeremyParish]

You’ll be ok

[@aducharme01]

@@JeremyParish Haha, yeah probably. just gotta keep looking forward to it.

[@psychodiagnostik]

DotC looks amazing on Amiga, I'd never seen that. I played it lots on NES as a kid, I remember if you lowered the lance too much you'd kill the opponent's horse & be banned from tournaments.

[@JesseSlater]

If I had a nickel for every video I saw this week that talked about Defender of the Crown, I would have two Nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's kind of weird that it happened twice. (The other was Jacob Geller's recent video about the best looking video games over time, which obviously focused on the C64 version.)

[@XanthinZarda]

We're fast approaching the swan song of the NES, and the date of my birth. Which is another fascinating aspect of this retrospective. I've always wondered if a software title released on my birthday. But we're still not yet to German Reunification, so I have a while yet to wait. Considering the SNES would have been in deep development at this point and early physical testing, (one assumes) one has to imagine how soon teams in Japan were chomping at the bit to get to it!

[@KnivesOut86]

Owned defender of the crown as a kid, never made it further than the first castle siege lol

[@atoth62]

I think I rented it once or twice. Never got that far into it though.

[@Scarybug]

Just remember getting banned from ever going to a tournament again because I accidentally hit a horse while jousting.

[@melasnexperience]

"Let's port a game expressly designed around the Amiga's strengths by making quasi-realistic & in-depth graphics the focus more than gameplay and port it to the NES!" - someone who was, I hope, hopelessly inebriated.

[@renihs]

Love your videos. Keep up the amazing work!

[@Davidka_I]

Any Wednesday with an update from Video Works is a good Wednesday.

[@jasonhunter2819]

I rented Defender of the Crown like 4x, I loved that game for some reason lol

[@murphiverse]

Defender of the Crown was one of my favorite PC games back in the day. I was a Geoffrey Longsword main but went Wolfric the Wild when I was feeling spicy. The NES version definitely lost something in the translation. (I think the Amiga version is the best way to play the game.) If you were good at the castle defense mini-game you could defend castles with just one soldier posted. I was a big Nobunaga's Ambition fan back then too. Defender of the Crown was my gateway to that great game! :)

[@jackill2611]

Thank you sir! I'm always in tune for extra NES game review. Keep on going please!

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Defender of the Crown definitely has nods to Hollywood films and Ivanhoe as a few of the playable characters are from Ivanhoe.

[@jasonblalock4429]

As a kid I really liked Defender of the Crown, and I *loved* Rocket Ranger. (I might be the only person to say that.) The blend of strategy and action actually fit pretty well on NES, even if the graphics weren't great. Also, I enjoyed the branching narrative element where you didn't have to win every single battle or event, with games' stories shifting based on your performance. That was rare at the time!

[@bfish89ryuhayabusa]

Enjoyed hearing that snippet of Dr. John playing "Iko Iko". Got to see him do that in 2009 or 2010. His version is the only one other than the Dixie Cups original that matters. (Speaking of the Dixie Cups, it took me decades to notice that "Iko Iko" and "Chapel of Love" were from the same group. I heard them in such different contexts that I never thought about it.)

[@Belgand]

Although the era-appropriate version for 1989 would be The Belle Stars' version, which became a hit in the US in early '89 due to being used in the opening of Rain Man, released in December '88. Like the Los Lobos cover of "La Bamba", Billy Idol's "Mony Mony", Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now", George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set on You", and other songs whose covers were huge hits in the late '80s. And not just because all of those became big enough to see Weird Al parodies.

[@7kurisu]

while its interesting to know the amiga release of defender of the crown was a graphical showcase with mini games, as a kid my brother and i played a fair bit of Defender of the Crown. While youre right that it did nothing terribly well on a platform that had nailed arcade action even in its black box days (NES golf and tennis still playable today), it was just a revelation to get a smorgasboard of gaming genres all on one cartridge at the time. you could RP as a cast of characters who start in different regions, paint a map with strategy elements, sports games with the jousting and tower defense with the crossbow rampart sections. very ambitious for the NES, i feel its a concept that wasnt nailed until probably mount and blade warband for the PC

[@trapmouth]

6:04 Alright, THIS time it won’t explode

[@andrewkaye2108]

I played Indy 800 ,back in my younger years. It took up a big portion of space. Every car was a different color, which would have been next to impossible in gamings B&W days. I also played Tank 8. Same thing, only each player controls a tank in a mammoth battle fest! Good times. :)

[@whookidd1979]

I still love RC Pro-Am on the NES. What are my favorites. They even have a hacked wrong online to play Mario kart characters. People who make those ROM hacks are amazing

[@ccharalara1]

FYI (and sorry to be a pedant), but defender of the crown’s map isn’t Britain, it’s England and Wales (excluding Scotland, which is part of the Island of Britain). This is because in the time period when its set, Scotland was a sovereign realm not massively involved with England&Wales. Great video nonetheless!

[@JeremyParish]

That's fine, I wasn't trying to provide a comprehensive overview of the history of Great Britain

[@ccharalara1]

@@JeremyParish 😂

[@joemccallister4883]

I like the name "Skate 'n' Die!" better.

[@thetylife]

One of my personal favorites ...Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat also bit off of Super Sprint...It came out towards the end of nes's run and is a far superior game.

[@darktetsuya]

I remember renting Super Sprint on NES back in the day, fun little racer! appreciate the tweaks they made to the steering so that it's a lot more forgiving, for sure. one I may have to look up here in the near future! Defender of the Crown... well I did find it an interesting concept. A strategy game that let you fulfill all your renfaire fantasies? although in practice it was probably executed poorly.

[@justin_messer]

Actually, all Tengen carts were subject to being yanked off store shelves and were to be given to Nintendo to be destroyed after Tengen lost the the lawsuit over the 10NES/Rabbit chip.

[@JeremyParish]

I did not realize that. It doesn't seem like retailers were especially diligent about that given how many Tengen games exist in the wild today...

[@justin_messer]

@@JeremyParish yeah, it’s in the verdict and judgement of the Nintendo v Atari Games lawsuit. If there tons of Tengen carts in the wild there are a few possibilities. 1. As you stated, stores were slow to comply with the court order. 2. Tengen carts were very popular and what we have in the wild accounts for pre-lawsuit sales. 3. And one I lean towards: that Nintendo allowed sales to continue for those Tengen carts already manufactured provided that Atari Games give them a royalty on every cart sold and that no new games could be manufactured by Tengen. This would explain why Mindscape and Namco would publish Tengen carts going forward.

[@iamthebiggs252]

I always chose Wolfric the Wild. You could perform in jousting tournaments and win multiple times, building that purse and building the strongest army to go in an sweep all the other counties.

[@rodneylives]

The Amiga was a system I deeply wanted back in the day, but it wasn't without it flaws. Its custom chips could perform wonders, but ultimately were not up to what was possible, with VGA and a much greater clock speed, on PCs a few years later. Wolf 3D and Doom, as pointed out by John Carmack at the time, just weren't possible on an Amiga. While it could certainly do other things, it couldn't do _that specific_ thing, and that thing was the new hotness that ultimately decided on PCs as the gaming computer of the age.

[@ostiariusalpha]

By "A few years later" you mean _five_ years later; it took quite a while for PC to surpass the Amiga. The Amiga 1200 can handle Wolfenstein 3D just fine, it hangs out easily with any pre-Pentium x86 PC.

[@rodneylives]

@@ostiariusalpha "A few" can mean 5.

[@rasmusdegn9690]

For some reason when i first read the title as "Fast cars and casual Zaxxon" and i was a bit confused for a moment.

[@SimonCallahan]

I honestly wouldn't mind seeing a modern take on Defender Of The Crown. Not just a port or remaster, but a game that uses modern mechanics to replicate the gameplay elements of the original game. The castle siege scenes could be 3rd person action segments, the jousting and tournament events could use the same engine as the castle sieges, maybe something similar to Kingdom Come: Deliverance. In between, have the strategy sequences be similar to a board game, or maybe have an in-game war table and map and use it to move troops around.

[@andrewkaye2108]

Sometimes, a company wisely releases an updated version of an old video game, where the graphics, features and sound are light years ahead of the original. Arkanoid took the Super breakout concept and made a much better game and this one, Super sprint was a definite improvement. Much better graphics, improved tracks, sound and a lot of hazards and power ups helped this game out. Whoever at Atari looked at the old Sprint games and had the idea to update it was a genius. :) Great game.

[@JustinLeeper]

Super Sprint -> Super Off-Road -> Rock & Roll Racing is a great progression IMO

[@JeremyParish]

I think it's beautiful that we're just going to act like RPM Racing never happened

[@JustinLeeper]

@@JeremyParish It’s a fine game, but it’s Rock & Roll Racing with zero rock & roll baby, if ya know what I mean.

[@evenmorebetter]

I always thought it was a little under-recognized that Super Sprint has lineage in Atari's REALLY early top-down racing games. Something interesting for the arcade history buffs, y'know?

[@NotABot55]

14:55 Yeah, because they had a little thing called Nintendo Wars and in the next year, the first Fire Emblem... neither of which had entries seeing release overseas until the GBA. RPGs? Okay, maybe a bit slow starting with the Mother/Earthbound series, but picked up with Super Mario RPG (which gave way to the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series.)

[@waxknucklebearingjuice5592]

Too bad I've been a loyal and bingeful pawn in your KZbin scheme.... I've got a long flight today and this is only 15 minutes long , not nearly long enough. I've already seen everything else you've made in the last couple years.... alas...

[@ryanbennett7638]

Try Retronauts?

[@japangamejunk]

As a kid I rented Super Sprint for weekend plays multiple times... I was always OCD triggered by how the title screen needs to slightly shift to center after scrolling on the screen. Even 35 years later it pops in my head from time to time 😂

[@bxsolx5086]

I was so hoping you'd be back into NESWorks when I checked my notifications, and you are, aha! Yeh.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I was going to say this Defender of the Crown looked an awful lot like a Commodore 64 game, and then I learned that the C64 was indeed one of the many systems to receive a port of it! I don't know that any other version had the bright idea of making your selection cursor a sword laid _across_ the text you need to read, though.

[@ravinraven6913]

Normans were Vikings from Norway. The French were so afraid of them that they just gave them Northern France in what is now called Normandy. The name means North men which is what they called the Vikings. So...they aren't really french. At least not until after William conquered England. The Normans even owned land on the Italian Peninsula, just not from William. But interesting choice for games today. Thanks for sharing.

[@Scarybug]

I rented this game as an 8 year old nerd really into knights and jousting and was SO disappointed.

[@FabioGnecco]

7:00 can you shortcut the bottom section ? ahahhaha thanks for another video !

[@tec5x5]

We so back

[@kommissar.murphy]

1:46 prince William?

[@theblackrabbit1710]

Oh yeah, Sega's rival. Nintendo made cute games for the time.

[@RichardTroupe]

I love this video, not just because of the critical essay but because you talk about how ass-kicking the Amiga was and you used the word 'diegetic'. 😂

[@TonyToon]

Why do I seem recall the NES version of off road being better than the SNES version?

[@ginormousaurus8394]

The NES version supported up to four players while the SNES version supported only up to two players.

[@RussellB]

I love super sprint so much and whenever I gush about it and get someone to play it with me, they are completely unable to understand that you have to pretend to be in the point of view of the car for the steering to work. I feel like that must have been a prohibitive barrier holding back the game's success

[@cooltaylor1015]

Strong disagree on monarchy's place in the modern world

[@Wavyhill]

That poor CRT in the background needs degaussing :(

[@JeremyParish]

No. It needs repairing.

[@VahanNisanian]

Anybody know why Beam Software wasn’t credited for developing the NES version of DOTC?

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Oh hey, The All-Starr Band.

[@rootbeer_666]

Wait, Skate _and_ Die? I can finally do both without being forced to choose?

[@mark6302]

I was too stupid to play DOTC

[@bunnysmacker77]

I wonder if these two games are the most different types in any of your videos. Sure seems that way.🤣

[@lurkerrekrul]

I had a copy of Defender of the Crown on the Amiga. I loved the graphics, but never really cared for the gameplay. As simplistic as it was, I still sucked at the strategy portion of the game. By the time I had money enough to buy more soldiers, the computer had taken over the rest of the map. I moved my brand new army into a neighboring territory and promptly got massacred. To be honest, I didn't really like too many of the Cinemaware games. Rocket Ranger had too much emphasis on the map for my taste, I hated all the minigames in The Three Stooges, King of Chicago never interested me. It Came From the Desert was interesting, but I spent way too much time just waiting for morning so that things would re-open, and I never managed to beat it. I really liked Wings though. I played through that game a few times.

[@francochan]

Hey Jeremy! Where can I buy the shirt you’re wearing underneath that blazer?

[@kaksikymmenta3]

Slicks ’n’ Slide is better.

[@RetroFred]

...episode uhh. 😅

[@jamesmoss3424]

Defender of The Crown 👑 did not work out on the nes.

[@stopmikeandjim3196]

I got Super Sprint for Christmas as a kid, along with a couple other games. All I remember was that Super Sprint was definitely the worst of the lot

[@eagles_s]

Dr John. Your music taste is sooo random

[@duhmez]

A stunnint fact if yall had not thught of it. The official Nintendo publiushed Tetris for nES, is literally the worst tetris that exists. The least features is why. no 2 player was inexcusable too. Also for some reason, almost NO tetris version lets 2 people play at the same time, both solo games, just abigger screen. They ALWAYS make it a battle. WHy can't we play 2,3,4 players a option that each game is solo and nothing to battle with option>? The arcade had this feature and why nowhere else? Tengen tetris maybe has it, I am not sure, never played it yuet myself. Got the rom but forgot to try. Even Tteris PARTY does not have thjis featuire an dit has tons of modes

[@jasontennant8994]

Tengen was Atari.

[@JeremyParish]

That's correct.

[@duhmez]

Defender of hte Crown looked amazing graphicsa, but it really is a crapola terrioble game that is very bad.