The Story and Games of System-3 (FULL VIDEO) | Kim Justice

[@Zsolt_Peter_Kodner]

For much detailed information about The Last Ninja check the movie called 'Moleman 4 - Longplay' because Mark Cale gave statement about this game in this movie! As Cale claimed the System3 did not used the code what written by Hungarians BUT they used the engine called Integrátor what also written by the Hungarian developer team SoftView! So, the Hungarian developers freely "gave" the engine to the System3. I was a tester and I tested the 1st and 2nd levels of the game at that time. The 1st level was in good, finished state but the the 2nd level was full with errors like missed block or wrong block put in place and you can jump off the screen etc. After the System3 took away the projects from the SoftView I was allowed to keep the Integrátor BUT I was not allowed to use it in programs because of the copyright! :-/

[@tablon6948]

You are truly one of my favorite creators on this site, you deserve way more views for content so elaborated like yours, you still have a nieche audience but know that every one of us love your content so much, thank you Kim!!

[@ALLESWIRDHOOD]

Preach!

[@RayTheProducer]

Last Ninja and Vendetta were quite possibly the template for the modern action/adventure game. Way ahead of their time and a remarkable achievement for an 8-bit machine. And that music. Oh my. Wonderful and entertaining program as usual Kim. Wock and Woll on.

[@richardburton4625]

last ninja 2, ik+, vendetta, flymbo... so many great games. this video has brought back a lot of memories for me, great content mate, your a legend

[@Sabre_Wulf1]

Thank goodness you exist on this planet to catalogue the history of gaming the right way. I started on my gaming path from the zx81 like many old bedroom gamers. I was 8 years old. Been gaming ever since. Your videos in 100 years from now will be considered the 'encyclopedia gaming britannica'. Its that important! Thank you for your lifes work in our beautiful hobby. I always show your videos to my kids and all new gamers as a historu lesson.

[@andrewk2996]

Very in-depth, great work putting this together. Played IK, IK+ and Last Ninja a lot back in the day when I was a kid

[@j-lgroen1239]

I always look forward to these videos!

[@DaveMcGarry]

I used to listen to the Last Ninja soundtrack on my Walkman which I had recorded from my C64 through the headphone socket on the TV. Ah the 80s!

[@turrican4d599]

Why not through the audio output on the C64?

[@DaveMcGarry]

@@turrican4d599 I didn't know how to do that!

[@Latchfpv]

it's so trippy to see you wax nostalgic about a system/games I've never ever seen before.

[@rodneyabrett]

Solid high quality stuff as usual. You put a ton of time and effort into these and it shows. Nobody goes through video game history with a finer tooth comb than you do. You leave no stone unturned.

[@costanzax]

this game was amazing , thank you kim for your video

[@sigcane8548]

your documentaries on the english 80s videogame scene are fantastic. Great job!

[@cwxdaf152]

I remember seeing Putty on the gaming programmes as a kid and being blown away by the graphics and weird style of it. Fortunately my parents noticed and bought me my A600 (the pack including Putty,) that Christmas. And, it was the best Christmas ever, I still remember it well, despite having a bad memory for my childhood in general. Unfortunately my Amiga was got rid of over the years, very sad tbh.

[@Nautilus1972]

You are the best at what you do, Kim. Awesome.

[@RyanDanielG]

If you like this kinda stuff I just saw one about the history visicalc. by another boring topic. thats his ch name.

[@mikesavill1474]

As ever a fabulous video. Remember the excitement of the Ninja 2 DIY kit though it was more the hood that caused havoc as opposed to the short lived plastic shuriken. Where is it now? A recent follower of your work and absolutely loving it, many things I wasn't aware of with so many games I blithely purchased and enjoyed in my youth. Thanks for the first class content.

[@fearlessjoebanzai]

Vendetta is my favourite. Closely followed by IK+

[@jamesaitchison9478]

Fascinating documentary, it's basically a time capsule of my entire gaming life from the humble 8-bit days, through the PS1 & PS2 eras, right up to the present day. Big shout out to Silent Bomber, awesome game. Great video Kim, really enjoyed watching this 👍

[@Gylve81]

Good Times! First BastichB 64K did a documentry on System 3. Then you. What a time to be alive :)

[@davephillips6733]

Seriously dude - you just have one of the best thought through channels on KZbin!. Up there with AVGN and Gaming Historian.

[@BlizzardOfSteel]

Totally agree!

[@markveganism5003]

Yeah agreed 👍

[@skijumpnose]

The Last Ninja games on C64 are so impressive looking and awesome to play!

[@babylonastronaut]

That soundtrack...

[@meetoo594]

They were impressive graphically and sonically but the gameplay was fiddly and not much fun. Dying repeatedly trying to walk across a few stones or flailing around in an attempt to find the pixel perfect position to kill an enemy due to the crap controls is not good game design. Fairlight on the Spectrum did isometric adventuring so much better.

[@markwrightrf]

47:42 RIP Archer Maclean. Hero. Legend. Especially on the platform I owned at the time which was a Dixons clearance dumped Atari 800XL which was all I could afford. When this was released shortly after it shone bright like a diamond among all of the Mastertronic crud that was on the shelves. Kudos to Rob too for embracing the POKEY chip at short notice to provide a next-level soundtrack. Wonder if either every got paid by Mark Cole? RIP Archer and Happy New Year to all his loved ones. His legacy will live forever.

[@Galahadfairlight]

There is NO debate about whether or not the Amiga version was complete or not, because I made it happen on Amiga and I didnt have to "finish off" the game to make it fit for release.

[@lucasoheyze4597]

And what happened when you woke up?

[@Galahadfairlight]

@@lucasoheyze4597It was still a fact, a Google search could have saved your blushes. Oh dear lol

[@litjellyfish]

@@Galahadfairlight people nowadays are so distrusting maybe because they can’t do anything themselves. Remember how Strangelove/Razor who did Fuzzball was ask by Cale to do the Formula one game. And when he declined Cage used a loop hole in thieir contract to rip him off.

[@AcornElectron]

Classic games on some classic formats. Keep up the good work Kim and stay safe.

[@steelcurtain187]

Really interesting stuff. Not something I have ever heard much about. Great job as usual

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Thanks mate. I am still absolutely astonished you don’t get millions of views by now as the dedication and sheer quality of your presentations are amazing. Maybe look at doing a collaboration with Metal Jesus or something as I am sure he would be honoured to work with you. You deserve all the accolades and I hope one day you get them. Thank you so much for the childhood memories of the greatest system ever made in the Mighty Commodore Amiga and in previous videos the nod to my all time favourite game on the Amstrad in Sorcery too 😁. I wish every day we could get games this good again as we had back then and probably didn’t appreciate just how special they were as kids. Game prices were so much more reasonable in the 80’s too without having to use serious money. I used to do paper rounds and buy games each fortnight for instance as a kid and it was all just so much more exciting playing Beach head on the Amstrad CPC compared to modern shooters which all tend to feel the same for the most part. I have an Xbox Series X now and love Game pass for at least some of that 80’s Nostalgia but it’s just not quite the same as that time back then so thanks again for the memories.

[@akwalek]

Up to your usual standard Kim ; Great work!

[@IanMicheal]

Hi kim.. just want to say thank you for such a great doco on this .. these guys where my rockstars back in the day why I'm a coder now..

[@HankAstral]

In many ways Last Ninja was the first AAA game.

[@davedogge2280]

not sure about that. There were titles like Apache Gunship which were very triple A that came out a year before in 1986. And you might say 'well Apache Gunship was only for simulation fans' .. not quite .. the missions etc and the game mechanics gave it a more arcade feel, no more complex than say the Battletech 3d games of the 1990s. Microprose was massive back in the 80s

[@HankAstral]

@@davedogge2280 Yeah Microprose were big then - I had 'Airborne Range' which was great and also military based. You could say they wrote the first Call Of Duty type games? Last Ninja was more like the first 3rd person adventure (Tomb raider, Uncharted etc). The gameplay wasn't original but the graphics and sound were incredible for the time. It also had a long advertising campaign like a movie release which must have cost System 3 shedloads. I remember it being in the centerspread of ZZap 64 and all the major magazines of the time. The day it came out I begged my Dad to get it me in exchange for mowing the lawn!

[@davedogge2280]

@@HankAstral I remember the double spread ads in Zzap! 64 for The Last Ninja and some childhood 'friends' came to my home especially to play the game when I bought it. But apart from the graphics and music I wasn't mightily impressed with the game because the controls weren't intuitive or clunky, the combat wasn't that exciting or advanced and the arcade adventure element was no better than some of the Knightlore type games on the Speccy which I found a bit boring to be honest. Mercenary by Novagen came out in 1985 well before The Last Ninja and that was jaw dropping.

[@fandangobrandango7864]

@@davedogge2280 and Elite came out before Mercenary

[@nicktaylor8032]

I agree. I still remember the intro to the instructions. It explained that it was to be the first in a series of INCREDIBLY special games, and despite the often clunky controls, we were all blown away by it. Probably best £9.99 I ever spent in about 8 YEARS of C64 ownership. Aww man, did that system have such a MONUMENTAL influence on me and my mates. I think the original PlayStation, at it's height in 97-99, is possibly the ONLY system I've loved more. And it's VERY close, and for very different reasons...

[@BlizzardOfSteel]

Quality content and channel!

[@lpaul3673]

Finally, a video to get excited above. Awesome Video, Awesome Channel.Keep up the fantastic work :)

[@RyanDanielG]

If you like this kinda stuff I just saw one about the history visicalc. by another boring topic. thats his ch name.

[@Steve_UK77]

Great video! On the last ninja 2, I was always under the impression that Kunitoki had mind control over the modern day people rather than bringing anyone through the portal. That explains the cops and suchlike.

[@brannkos]

I don't know what I'm going to watch when you finish documentaries on all game developers and publishers.

[@khublieoldschoolgamer5737]

System 3 was one of my favorite developers, IK1, IK2, last Ninja, loved my C64.

[@theoneonly259]

Oh yeah. You make great docos. Im always happy when you post a new one. I appreciate the work you put in. edit - Oh crap. This is old content. I take it back! Ha.

[@duckhive]

This was one of my favourites!!!

[@Dkentflyer]

The Atari 8 bit version of International Karate is very special too also made by Archer shame you didn't mention that version.

[@marcraygun6290]

Brilliant content , subscribed obviously

[@nelchid]

7:45. Did anyone else notice the ninja standing behind them in the photograph?

[@iananderson2777]

Thanks. Really enjoying this.

[@marcraygun6290]

That free ninja mask was handy when I needed to go up the fields in the winter

[@-Steven-]

I remember the last ninja was supposed to get a release on the original box there was even a screenshot of a giant spider with the ninja and it looked like they were fighting but then nothing ever happened.

[@KrisGraney]

Myth in the ZX Spectrum was an amazing game. When I upgraded to the a500+, I got myth for it, and was amazingly disappointed that it was not as good as the version I had played in the spectrum. There is a really interesting article online that goes in to why.

[@krissymarklewis1793]

The Amiga graphics were ace but the controls were so unresponsive it was a chore to play.

[@wceinar]

Great video Kim :-)

[@StRoRo]

Im sure during Matt Grey's kickstarter of Reformation (modern remixes of his tunes) he said he needed System3 permission to rerelease the music of Last Ninja 2 as they hold the rights to it. They agreed on the basis they could use it should they do a modern remake of of Last Ninja 2. Soooo, fingers crossed. Saying that, I think that was at least 5 years ago.

[@health_doc]

Thanks. Great content

[@Slydog43UTube]

Thanks, love your vids

[@Nokia3310do]

Great video. I've just been reading about the Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc. case. Imagine if Data East won! There might be no Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, KOF etc. because they're all variations of a timed bout karate tournament. Lots of these have their own white and red karate suit character too.

[@Hytekdk]

I played The Last Ninja briefly on my C64 (Batman: The Movie bundle) around 1990 and as intriguing as it was, I was only 9 years old at the time, and the difficulty was through the roof for me 😅

[@larrylaffer3246]

Videos so nice, I watched em twice. "Now in a convenient package."

[@RyanDanielG]

If you like this kinda stuff I just saw one about the history visicalc. by another boring topic. thats his ch name.

[@wingleburt3146]

Afternoon sorted cheers

[@andrewbeaven2939]

The work that goes in to your documents shows well

[@andrewbeaven2939]

Thank you 👍

[@MrHarney]

Thank you great doc

[@AcornElectron]

I had last ninja on electron… tough? Very. Virtually indiscernible jumps? Definitely. Good game? Yup! Edit: the shuriken. That was bloody brilliant.

[@firedamaged]

I had The Last Ninja 2 on my Amstrad, complete with the giant box, mask and throwing star... Which I threw at a friend and cut his eye. Classic.

[@Nautilus1972]

IK+ on the Atari 800XL was next level.

[@campfiregames9360]

Oh man... ! I´ve just remembered that I ordered their games by sending a postcard to the company !

[@TheMadAfrican1]

Trigger Man was one of the last games I bought for my PS2 during the consoles lifetime (before I started seriously collecting for the system). I had it for less than a day before I took it down the local second-hand shop. Terrible game. Abysmal in every possible way.

[@pbabiesinspace6112]

Chop n' Drop was amazing. Nut punches were awesome. Pacman would occasionally fly by in background. Lolz...I remembered that but forgot about the mini games. And I agree...I had more fun with this with my friends up until SF2. Wait...code to remove pants? Ridiculous headbutts...forgot about that. What a good game. Don't know why these games were so rare in America. I would talk about Blood Money and Shadow of the Beast and everyone only knew Mario 3 and Zelda.

[@budthechud9795]

I think The Way Of The Exploding Fist by Melbourne house was better than International Karate but when IK+ came along it blew them both outta the water.

[@erikpost1381]

I believe the music for Flimbo's Quest is by Reyn Ouwehand rather than Jeroen.

[@execation]

Once again, clicking like before I even watch it 😂❤

[@rodmalecki3907]

Thanks for your videos Kim. Could you please tell me what accent do you speak?

[@fearlessjoebanzai]

HOLY MOLY!!!!!! SYSTEM 3!!!!!!!! MY FAVOURITE C64 DEVELOPER!!! I HATE THEM FOR LIFE NOW!!!!!!!! I was in cex the other day looking for bargains (yeah right), and saw Ferrari Challenge on the Wii. It was 2quid, the screenshots on the box looked really good for the Wii, but I was dubious - my son reminded me of Gamecube racers like Burnout 2 etc, which looked and played great, so now those screenshots didn't seem so far-fetched..... then I noticed SYSTEM3! There's no way my old favourite would do me like that, so I cashed in my life savings and put down all of the two pounds (cash money)... They lied, I cried, my boy almost did died! They are nothing to me now.

[@NobletheSavage]

Always love a Dark Judge nod .

[@shaolin95]

For a moment I saw I was gonna be watching the Computer Chronicles! :D

[@cellariusmack2595]

I never get tired of that intro

[@krissymarklewis1793]

I had last ninja 2 on the speccy, didnt have a clue what I was doing

[@sotkajarvi]

People watch the latest movies...me, videogame documentaries on KZbin! And suddenly I got the urge to play International Karate + and Last Ninja!

[@seanjackson7943]

Any chance of the story and games of elite systems

[@StuartQuinn]

Don't forget the BBC Micro got a port of The Last Ninja

[@boogiestreet594]

Who made your intro?

[@brucx76]

rocking it hun

[@sheepthehack]

When he introduced Archer Maclean.. why did he show a picture of ROBBIE from EASTENDERS!!??? :)

[@gregskuza7166]

International Karate best version is on Atari XE/XL even the music because of 4 channels sounds more complete than on C64 (believe me I love SID)

[@budthechud9795]

The Way Of The Exploding Fist was heavily influenced by the duel stick arcade game Karate Champ.

[@fishy7901]

I had the special edition version of Last Ninja 2, the ninja mask wouldn't fit my massive head.

[@stevenwaite1063]

Crikey the last Ninja games were amazing😁

[@dazsaund3206]

Again i ask. Why does Kim Justice have so few views!!!??

[@hustler666100]

super putty looks like a enemy from breath of fire 4

[@spiderjerusalem100]

The last ninja is neat but i doubt it would have been half as good as Ninja Gaiden.

[@markg5480]

It was great right up until you picked up a NES controller and played Mario/Ninja Gaiden/Metroid/Megaman then you realised that the Last Ninja was utter trash. Calling it god awful is a compliment. However... Myth is an entirely different story, and not because of the great graphics but because of its control and collision detection - absolutely perfect. It played it again the other day for the first time in 35 or so years and it's still great.

[@SuperMookles]

Marvellous.

[@anothergol]

Ah, I've always thought that Way of the Exploding fist was the ripoff (or an earlier game from the same dev). It really is shameless for IK, when the graphics are so similar, up to the heads that are pixel-perfect copies.

[@FezTheSpaceBiker]

Cel Damage was originally an EA release over here, funny enough.

[@Alianger]

5:37 that's a gem of a clip

[@HoosierCallin]

when i think of system 3, i think of mymother'scunt

[@natsume-hime2473]

Kim there's one reason we'll never see another Gungrave game. It's too derivative on Devil May Cry's formula and there are already plenty of games that scratch the same itch. Including the most recent Devil May Cry game and the up coming Bayonetta 3.

[@808v1]

Did the arcade game Karate Champ precede IK/Exploding Fist/IK2? ***EDIT: Forget it, you just answered this at ~17 mins

[@RibbonPL]

Tusker was amazing and, to be honest, better then The Last Ninja.

[@fordprefect80]

An LCD monitor doesn't do The Last Ninja justice in my opinion.

[@arostwocents]

Euro platforming screams hard Brexit? Wtaf? The clue is in the name - EURO platforming not UK platforming. Really, really weird comment of someone who can't help advertise their ignorance regarding the EU. You are probably left wing but don't understand why supporting the EU is the opposite of being left wing - and extremely anti democratic too and I mean everything about how the EU works not just the vote here. I'm sure you believe the EU creates law the same as our parliament - if you believe this I recommend a lot more research. The sanctions taken on nations that try to go against the EU decisions also show the entire unanimous agreement to be a total fraud, when agreement it is obtained through threats as with Hungary recently. Please keep ignorant, far right political views out of the videos. The papers pretending that pro rich fascist policies are left wing due to cultural issues does not make the modern 'left' or the EU any less far right/fascist. (Fascism refers to an economic policy not =racism as everyone seems to think nowadays)

[@davedogge2280]

Am I the only guy that didn't like The Last Ninja back in the day ? the graphics were nice and so was the music but the controls and the gameplay were a bit naff I thought, not that much better than the Ultimate Knightlore type games. I am prepared to be WRONG ON THE INTERNET and corrected !!! (I aint trolling btw)

[@meetoo594]

I couldn't get on with it. It was so fiddly and frustrating to play as half the deaths were due to the crap hit detection and awful controls. No idea why people rave about it, it was a below average game with pretty graphics and sound.

[@davedogge2280]

@@meetoo594 I couldn't agree more. Ben Daglish (RIP) elevated the game with his music but it wasn't enough for me. I dunno how or if the sequels improved it. It was clever marketing more than anything I thought even back in the day. I think in the 1980s if you put 'ninja' in the title all the Terrys, Simons and Andrews would go out and buy it

[@meetoo594]

@@davedogge2280 all the last ninja games are pretty much the same but with different location graphics, they all play badly. Fairlight on the spectrum showed how to do this sort of game right.

[@davedogge2280]

@@meetoo594 I bought Fairlight for the C64 and preferred it to Last Ninja. Less spectacular but a better game I have to agree. (yes it came out for the C64 about a year after the speccy launch).

[@meetoo594]

@@davedogge2280 Never realized it was released on C64, il have to check it out as it was one of the few games I completed without cheating back in the day. It was a proto open world game with the object manipulation. Pity the sequel was broken and uncompletable due to the programmer not getting paid and the software house releasing an unfinished beta version because the coder withheld the finished one.

[@spart361]

£6.50 for a triple a game.....lol

[@xxnoxx-xp5bl]

I've got be honest, I found The Last Ninja to be a fiddly mess. It's up there with Double Dragon and Strider as a game I just don't understand the love for.

[@clauscombat418]

u deaf?

[@xxnoxx-xp5bl]

@@clauscombat418 Not really sure how to respond to that.

[@markveganism5003]

Double dragon is awsome

[@xxnoxx-xp5bl]

@@markveganism5003 I always found it janky as hell. Just doesn't seem to play well even at the arcade. But each to their own.

[@meetoo594]

Striders great, played the Megadrive conversion to death back in the day. Last Ninja was crap and Double dragon has aged very badly, that bit with the spears at the end is a real cheap trick to make you shove more money into the machine as its just random luck whether you die or not.

[@anotherrandom219]

That voice....again...

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

Last Ninja was crap though.

[@RawrX32009]

The NES version is The C64 one isn't

[@mattedgar5255]

How is it offensive if someone white has dreadlocks yet it’s apparently ok for black women to straighten their hair to a Caucasian style?

[@VirtualGhost27]

The word ‘naturally’ was used about 15 times in the first 10 mins. I couldn’t carry on. Run a grammar check on scripts or something. 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@PauloConstantino167]

Hi sweetie do you have a boyfriend?