James Pond: Underwater Agent Longplay (Amiga) [QHD]

[@ItsBigIan]

I love the bit where James Pond seemingly murders the "lager louts" by, I assume, tricking them into drinking toxic waste.

[@RoqueFortStu]

they may not be dead, the toxic waste probably isn't much worse than what they usually drink- that's our British drunkard culture!

[@2PeteShakur]

"Creating James Pond was so much fun - that was one of the great things about development back then: you had an idea, you tried it out, you expanded it. Very few team interdependencies, no studio bureaucracy, and for the first James Pond at least, no pressure or expectations - the game was whatever we wanted it to be. I always liked the attention-to-detail stuff like changing Pond's expression according to his health level (or number of lives), or letting him pick up and wear silly items like the helmet or shades." -- Chris Sorrell, designer, programmer and graphic artist

[@yumiyoshimura-se6wg]

i loved the look on ponds face after he does the lion roar. 😄

[@srb2Espyo]

Nice run! I remember this game being pretty hard on the Mega Drive. I've got a couple of questions. 1. Why did you avoid shooting enemies sometimes? 2. Why did you avoid touching stationary ducks? 3. When a large number appears in the center of the screen and the action pauses, is that you pausing the game?

[@NTxC]

I'll answer these. 1. Some enemies fire projectiles upon being bubblized and it's incredibly hard to dodge those. 2. Sitting rubber ducks are traps and explode upon impact, instantly killing you. 3. Whenever 500,000 pops up in the center of the screen it means you collected a super hidden bonus of that many points.

[@srb2Espyo]

@@NTxC Ah I see, thanks!

[@dranimations7902]

Ive played the second one alot but never really seen the first one - this looks like a good game also.

[@silviafady76]

It’s adorable, very playable… you can replay it a lot! 😍

[@LPetal86]

Oh yeah! I certainly enjoyed beating _Codename: Robocod_ on the Genesis as a girl and it's interesting to see what the first game was like. The graphics, sound and presentation overall are very nice; that's a darn shame about the game killer bug and inability to outpace enemies. Were patches ever a thing for the Amiga back then, or did you just get stuck with the version you got?

[@AL82RetrogamingLongplays]

As a rule you'd be stuck with the version you'd got - you could return disks if there was corruption or a mastering problem, but a lot of the games were so hard most players would never encounter bugs like the one in the game. Oh, and piracy was totally rampant on the Amiga - 90% of players wouldn't have been able to send their disks back anyway 😁

[@rafaellima83]

The last 2 levels aren't impossible. Level 11 is beatable if you are lucky to not get the version of it where the final mermaid doesn't spawn. But the difficulty level there really skyrockets in a completely unbalanced way compared to previous levels, and there's a LOT of back and forth. If you don't get all the items/power ups on the previous levels you are screwed, but even then it's insanely difficult. James Pond 2 was easier.

[@friedpicklezzz]

I liked the 2nd one more, but this runs more smoothly and even looks a bit better.

[@OldNerdPlayingOldPCGames]

Big like for ya 👍 Old Nerd supporting 👍🙂

[@RoqueFortStu]

a colourful, polished and varied game, but ridiculously hard, I didn't get far without the "junkyard" cheat! My version was legit, i.e. not pirated, but on the final mission there was a bug where the goal counter would just stop counting after you dropped off a number of the items! with the cheat, pressing the D key several times would open the exits, but the ending... well, on par with most game endings from back then!

[@Sleepless-777]

WONDERFUL GAME

[@Joetoep]

I really hated the shipwreck level. But I really love playing this game but I never seemed to finish it.

[@DispairNL]

Loved this game :D

[@IanMicheal]

Game gets some flack but i still like it :) nice play

[@ApologyforPepology]

What's not to like? I loved this and the second one as a kid.

[@yumiyoshimura-se6wg]

i hope mgm didn't sue the guys for doing a ripoff of the mgm logo and used the soundbite of 1980s mgm lion roar.

[@than0zZ]

Better than the sequel imo. score 6/10

[@ryzmaker11]

I thought only the first retail release of the ST version had a bug (which was fixed in the budget re-release) but I didn't know that the Amiga version was also flawed. And do you know if the Mega Drive port has issues? I know that it has some pros/cons compared to the Amiga original version but I only compared the beginning of the game.

[@AL82RetrogamingLongplays]

I've never played the Mega Drive version - I'll check it out at some point 🙂

[@ryzmaker11]

​@@AL82RetrogamingLongplays OK :) I always had a soft spot for the James Pond series. The first that I played was Robocod on Mega Drive back then and it was a blast! That sense of freedom through those vast levels, with fast and smooth scrolling + those cheerful tunes playing alongside, I remember vividly how good I was feeling, almost as if I took drugs or something :v And so, more recently, I decided to get Robocod again + to acquire every other James Pond games that were released for the Mega Drive (including the exclusive spin-off "Rolo to the Rescue") but so far I didn't find the time to play them except a bit of James Pond 3. I wish that the series would have continued after the 16-bit era with some true sequels on, say, the CD32, Jaguar or PlayStation. But I also noticed that the James Pond games tend to be underrated these days. In fact, many Euro platformers from the 8 and 16-bit eras tend to be decried these days. It's as if it couldn't be good if it doesn't play like Super Mario Bros. which is a very narrow-minded way of thinking and completely untrue.

[@neocortexlab]

@@ryzmaker11 yeah... the game was very indie atmospheric ... we have played it on Amiga 600 and then A1200 AGA version and Sega version too with friend. Very colorful and peaceful game

[@nickpeck4561]

@@AL82RetrogamingLongplays It has continues!

[@NTxC]

When getting this game for the Atari ST, go for the GBH release, NOT the Millenium release or else you'll be stuck in Mission 8 because the oil leaks don't spawn at all.

[@movielover4244]

Loved that game

[@Mike14264]

For the Amiga?? Well, that explains the cluttered look of the first game... and the weird, less forgiving mechanics...

[@deceiver444]

Neat design

[@yumiyoshimura-se6wg]

mgm roar 0:11

[@immortalover204]

my childhood.

[@Jewelmen10]

he roared twice

[@gonzothebudgie8923]

Unfortunately that the ending is very simpel.

[@cartoon-nw1vh]

0:11

[@falcofan8521]

2 o niebo lepsza

[@qqqfoxppp2333]

🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭🥺😭🥺😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@qqqfoxppp2333]

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@qqqfoxppp2333]

😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔