LGR - Jumpman - Atari 8-bit, PC Game Review

[@pushinguproses]

I absolutely adore how jumpman falls down every level and rocks the entire screen, like he weighs 8 tons.

[@UncleSam2112]

"Don´t die and don´t give up" I wrote it down and I will take this life advice. You learn so much at this channel, not just the awesome content you are producing, but some life lessons as well :-)

[@LGR]

Haha, thank you, glad that stuff doesn't go unappreciated :D

[@LGR]

Two big reasons I'd say: space and aliens were huge in pop culture, largely due to movies like Star Wars, Alien, countless others. Second reason is that it was simpler to make a space game on such limited hardware, as black backgrounds plus a few pixels could be easily seen as "space-themed".

[@Daminite]

I kind of want to see a 2.5d remake with ragdoll physics now.

[@RecklessInternetting]

The dude in the cover looks like Tom Scott and I expect him to teach me about how the Danish say numbers when I boot the game

[@kathleenkelley8651]

Jumpman was one of my very favorite games growing up! Thanks for covering this!

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

Damn, this game has charm! Charisma even! Who would have thought that such a simple-looking 8-bit game could look so _cool_ ?

[@Nexfero]

By far one of the best death sequences Ive ever seen in a game lol

[@yeahgirl11]

@@Diffuse_Yah lol The weird conversations people have about games lol

[@divVerent]

Indeed. IMHO Commander Keen 4-6's death sequence kinda borrowed from this one as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmK6noaCmb6YZ5I (note how hitting the tar again "restarts" the death, this happens on every enemy as well and can lead to rather long death animation; also there's a wellknown glitch regarding making a savegame and loading it while on this state that can be used to beat levels while dying).

[@McN4styFilth]

Phreak, it's so goddamn nice to see a channel like this. I have no clue how I ran across you (maybe Reddit) but I have nothing but good things to say. You got me excited about gaming again.

[@DanIsNotHome]

Man this video takes me back to countless hours playing Jumpman Lives! on the family Tandy HX1000 in glorious 4 colours.. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[@WskOsc]

Your description of the floppy this episode reminded me of my first introduction to them - a hippy first-school (elementary school) teacher who had us geeky kids actually dissect one of the 5 inch disks to see what they're like and how they work. Steve, if you're out there, that day influenced my entire life and cemented my love of technology old and new.

[@ZenPunk]

I think my copy is defective. It flops, but I can't get it to disc.

[@handsomebrick]

When you flop it does it turn into loading instructions like at 1:18?

[@KroltanMG]

A partial fix would be to relabel it as a diskette, but then you might have some issues flopping

[@InterCity134]

This and Loderuner were the keystones of the early 80'a 8-bit game world.

[@LGR]

Absolutely. At least ES1 and probably 2 someday, as those were my favorites. Starsiege was great too though, so yeah, stay tuned for someday!

[@WildDieWoodard]

One of my absolute favorite 8-Bit Atari games! I STILL play it on occasion and its wonderful!!!

[@illusiveamy]

Either this or Donald Duck's Playground were the very first games I ever played. I started quite young, (3yrs old). They were on an IBM PC Jr with that good ol 5.5" floppy. Thanks so much for covering this; it's really exciting to relive the nostalgia.

[@HeDreamtOfAscension]

I'm glad you mentioned Jumpman Lives! I played that game all the time as a kid.

[@MrVenom1974]

I played Jumpman to the death on the C64. It was one of my first games for this systems. This is really great stuff. Thanks for the good memories. ;-)

[@TamsinV]

I caught up! Ahahaha! Having found you through PushingUpRoses when you did the Last Half of Darkness playthrough, I have just now finished watching your -entire- backlog. Love your stuff, LGR. And I love seeing all these things from my early gaming years and before my time (I was born in 88). Keep it up!

[@P0V3RTY09]

A friend gave me a copy of both Jumpman and Jumpman Jr. for my C64 on floppy disc. They were cracked versions which didn't show the destruction sequences but they were awesome games and probably one of my favorites for the system at the time. Thanks for posting this one LGR, you rule!!

[@sulrich70]

I didn’t realise the c64 version had this issue, always thought it was left out on c64

[@quentinbradford8127]

Every time I hear Jumpman my brain immediately goes to Mario in the original Donkey Kong.

[@burgeryoufoundbehindthegrill]

Same here. My first thought was "isn't this copyright infringement?"

[@grimTales1]

@@burgeryoufoundbehindthegrill I wondered that too

[@LGR]

Thank you, that's awesome to hear :)

[@LGR]

eBay. Can't say it's been hard to find one at all, and there are quite a few of them on there right now. You can also find them on places like AtariAge quite routinely.

[@JacobMakesStuff]

Jumpman is basically Super Mario's Cooler lost cousin..

[@BrianPicchi]

I love how every video you make you somehow come up with a new, silly way to describe floppy disks. Never gets old!

[@LGR]

Don't know if it's from anything, but the MOD title is "rsi-rise up"

[@emmakorhonen]

this was definitely one of my favourite games when I was a kid! I'd play it for hours and hours on the commodore 64 I found by the side of the road. Man, now I wanna play it again!

[@LGR]

Ha, maybe it's due to Jupiter gravity or something? Either way, one of my favorite features of the game!

[@rayforceaddict]

This is really making me want to go give Jumpman another chance. I didn't realize the levels got, well, COOL. I thought the whole game was just dodging one or two squares the whole time :D Nice review!

[@SmaMan]

I remember we always called those circle things donuts, since they were always a glazed brown shade in the C64 version.

[@flipidy94]

easily my favourite youtube channel

[@MrNotsoscary]

I think this was the first game I ever played, on the IBM PC. (Had a PC Jr. too, but that came a little later). I remember 30 levels, but I don't remember the level demolition animations... probably because I'm now old. It was certainly my favorite for a long time. I liked hotfoot and the dragonslayer where you got the spear (but lost the ability to jump I think) Thanks for the review, it brings me back!

[@sandmanxo]

I had and still have the C64 version of this game, and it was one of the best games on the system IMO. I really wish I had run across the shareware apogee version back when that came out, I would have played the crap out of it.

[@LGR]

Thank you very much!

[@tschak909]

A tip, play with speed 2... it's a perfect speed.

[@danmanx2]

I had this on the IBM PCjr. It was pretty fantastic. My favorite levels were Grand Puzzle II, Invasion and Jumping Blocks

[@ThomasWinders]

...not to mention the infamous "per pixel contact": if one and just one of your pixels make contact with the bullet (or at least one pixel of your foot doesn't reach the ledge in a jump), BAM! you're dead!!

[@Toad64]

Oh wow, I love this game! I used to play it all the time with my friend on the Commodore 64! I still think it has great level design, it has a simple concept but was able to make some really creative and challenging levels out of it.

[@tarrker]

Jumpman is honestly one of my favorite games of all time. I liked the C64 version the most. The sounds were the best. I haven't played it in over 20 years, tho. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

[@gurtygurt64]

It's from Red Sector Megademo (tune by Romeo Knight), which you can find on KZbin. It's a cover of something older but I don't know what. There's a pretty good remix of it in existence as well, Rise Up by DaXX.

[@waynestock300]

Fond memories of this game on C64.

[@markanne54]

Damn, I'd completely forgotten about this game. I remember at the time thinking of it as just a poor man's Lode Runner, but it's more than that. Good times, good vid.

[@EVANH18]

Congrats on 100K!

[@MrLex86]

Man I sunk so much time into Jumpman Lives! Thanks for the nostalgia trip! Gotta go to GoG now to see if they have it...

[@JohnSTF72]

Very addictive game.The stones were your worst enemies.I still remember the game over sequence.

[@DynamixWarePro]

I have never played this, but as a kid, I used to love playing similar style games back in the day, so probably would have quite liked this one too.

[@eluzai]

Picture being at the bottom floor, and seeing jump man fall at high speeds, spinning very fast in a comedic fashion, and then ploping on the ground.

[@DarkCybrid]

Sounds great, thanks for the reply! Keep up the great reviews too dude!

[@LGR]

I use a Blue Snowball USB mic.

[@Cliffdog01]

Have you ever heard of a game called Elevator? It was preloaded to a 80s computer that my family had. It was nostalgic to me because it was the only time I was better than my brothers at a game and would love to play it again. It looked very similar to the jump man game you just played.

[@OmegaDice]

I had Jumpman Junior on ColecoVision back in the day (nowdays gone somewhere far far away) and I always thought that the levels were pretty much more sophisticated gyms rather than a space station or such :D

[@joechevy2035]

I remember the Tandy knock off, "Module Man." Love this game!

[@RockyCoon]

Hey, this was one of the first games I ever played! Though it was on the C64... a version I notice you don't touch on. There were more than a few differences between the C64 version and the Atari versions, mainly, the between level load was just a block with the name of the upcoming level, and there was no 'controlled demolition' on level end, instead it'd do a flashing of various bits of the level with bits of a harmony joining in when you completely ran outta lives.

[@thot5332]

Guy on the cover looks like tom scott

[@pancudowny]

The last time I heard that theme--the EPYX theme--was when I played Winter Games, an EPYX classic!

[@KurisuKun]

I don't even care for these old games but I love watching your reviews so I do it anyway :)

[@chrisoliver3642]

Jumpman, Burgertime, and Hunt the Wumpus are the 3 games that sparked my lifelong gaming habit.

[@gamedoutgamer]

Good review! Even by Atari 8bit standards this game had simple graphics but the gameplay is good yes. Alternatives to this with better graphics and gameplay are Montazuma's Revenge or Mr Robot (1983 also).

[@slashtiger1]

I LOVE(D) this game for C64! Played three controllers (joysticks) to smithereens with it… Although I don't remember the level layout crumbling to the floor when you died. Maybe that was a feature which was omitted in the C64 version? By the way, I also LOVED playing Jumpman Junior!

[@DarkCybrid]

Do you think you'll ever review Earthsiege (and possibly Starsiege)? Everyone talks about Tribes, and they never give the series that spawned it any love. Earthsiege and Starseige were awesome, more people need to know about them!

[@IhateNamelimitationskk]

Love getting videos early!

[@cfjruth]

Oh man, I had Jumpman Lives when I was a kid. It was a great game. I had no idea that it was an copy of an Epyx game produced by Apogee without the rights.

[@BitHead1000]

Colecovision has a version too! Badass game, great review!!!

[@GamerGoingGrey]

Was that Earthseige I saw in the background? Ihave fuzzy memories of that game. If you ever get the chance to review it I would be glad.

[@LupoAndy]

I hear a tune from the Red Sector Megademo on the Am iga running in the background. :)

[@LGR]

Water, mostly. Heh, sorry for the not-so-thrilling, yet truthful, answer.

[@marquisor]

One of the best platformers ever! Checkout Jumpman Junior too!

[@MarkTheMorose]

Jumpman Junior was, oddly, the first C64 game I got on floppy disk, so it wasn't only on cartridge; porbably because carts were so expensive, especially in Britain.

[@troymeredith521]

Was there another version of Jumpman? This is not the one I remember as a kid playing on my Tandy 2500 computer. It was a DOS game for sure, but the graphics were different. I always died like the 2nd or 3rd level to my memory.

[@Wormetti]

This was my most played C64 game, it's great. You can see a Jumpman mug in my IBM PS/2 videos.

[@dave4shmups]

Excellent review! Atari 1050 disk drives seem really hard to find! But I would love to have one. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get yours?

[@ehenyor]

I love the commentary!

[@artiemilano378]

Hahaha, you’re funny. The dead man part actually made me laugh out loud

[@JasonJrake]

I loved this game as a kid. We had to load it from cassette tapes and it failed on the second tape 9/10 times. On the Atari and commodore versions there’s a secret level showed off to friends and family, but now on an emulator I cannot find it. If anyone knows which level (floor) you get to it from, please remind me. Thanks.

[@jeans1515]

I played this on my c64 SOOOO much as a kid

[@TitanSix]

Jumpman! Woo! Played the hell out of a variation of this that was on the C64 Direct-to-TV.

[@BlueMoon1890]

Tom Scott went back in time and starred in this game's cover art

[@flyingninja1234]

Thank you for clearing up, that this has nothing to do with Mario. I thought that at first. Reading is good! 😀👍

[@ehenyor]

I just heard a podcast where Randy Glover said he wanted to make a better version of Donkey Kong, and he while he didn't purposely name it after Mario (original name Jumpman), he might have done so subconsciously. So, in a way, it does have something to do with Mario. :)

[@spidermcgavenport8767]

LGR would jump man be available for the TI-82 on up calculators?

[@BigBangBlitz]

Jumpman has the very best death animation of any video game character.

[@marccaselle8108]

I got this and Jumpman lives and the Jumpman project working in dosbox.

[@CaptainRufus]

A fine game I am happy to own on my 130xe. Junior is only on the 64 plug n play stick though.

[@sad-death]

hey could you do a review of the original x-com:ufo defense

[@PedroSilvahf]

That dance on 5:21 is awesome

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

Is it just me, or does Jumpman on the cover look like an older Tom Scott?

[@saulcontreras313]

They made a game based on Tom Scott?

[@lynchie137]

Was this ever released to any of the home consoles that were around at the time? If not, then that would be a damn shame, as this game looks to be a lot of fun.

[@Morte.]

I can't help but see the similarities between this and Chucky Egg on the BBC Micro.

[@jasonz7788]

Thanks for the great work Sir

[@nolalilmama]

Where did you find it at? I use to play that as a kid and I am looking all over the Internet for it!

[@StokeCityFC44]

great review as aways man!

[@ReeseKaine]

I wish there was a way to port Jumpman to all the retro consoles. Come to think about it, I wish there was a source code for Jumpman Under Construction (It was a Windows based version with a really intuitive level editor, but the dev fell off the face of the Earth around 2005).

[@TrickyMcnickle]

I absolutely loved this game on Commodore 64. My cousin had it.

[@Viehzerrer]

I think I played this on PC before. I'm not sure which version it was, though. It was quite fun in a Arcade-y kind of way, but without being incredibly cheap and unfair like many actual Arcade games. In any, case it has one of the best death sequences ever.

[@AnonymousNothing]

Do you deliberately rearrange the game boxes that appear in the beginning of the videos on the shelves in the background, or is that just natural cycling?

[@Ifurito]

So many countless hours I spent on that and jr versions

[@Floconbob]

haha i loved this back in the day, there was a time where i only had the dos-version of this and stunts

[@Freako]

What is it that you drink that makes your voice so silky smooth?

[@IceColdRum]

Reminds you of blueprint paper. Which implies you have some experience with blueprints. Do you?