Paradroid (C64) - Review & retrospective

[@meathead919]

The game was amazing. Had huge replay value. Wonderful roguelike style. Sound effects were fantastic. The sound when you're close to dying on low energy, sooo good.

[@NeilDonkin]

Thanks very much for a fantastic trip down memory lane. I absolutely loved this game, but like you, struggled to understand the transfer game. Once I figured that out, I was hooked. Andrew Braybrook was one of my heroes as a kid, along with Rob Hubbard.

[@myblueextremes1526]

Probably my favourite C64 game. I love the presentation, the game play and the sound. Much as many get all misty eyed about C64 music, it was great that this game seem to approach the sound from an atmospheric point of view. Graftgold seemed to put out some great games with awesome ideas.

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Totally agreed. The atmospheric sounds are just perfect for this game, and the weird robotic sounds on the title screen are so fitting. I really feel like they set a benchmark for quality with this game.

[@Jemacaza]

Best C64 game in my opinion. Always loved to play it. Amazing video, very well explained, thank you.

[@cybermodo]

Very nice presentation, and I like your diction + calmness in your voice! Keep up with this good job, you are on the right track! Hail to the mighty C64 and whole happy 8/16-bit world!

[@GDTasker]

Great video. Loved playing this back in the day..............and reading Zzap 64 reviews.

[@Retroblique]

Great overview! It's rare to find retrospectives that go out of their way to explain the mechanics in such detail. Please consider doing more of these!

[@fsddevelopment4513]

I bought this on release after reading Andrew Braybrooks diary in Zzap. Astonishingly slick presentation and depth of gameplay.

[@Se7en20082008]

I remember playing this game back in the 80's and I had it on a c60 with who dares wins 2 and Ghetto blaster. The transfer game took me a while to figure out also. But once I figured out holding down the button did something, I also had to figure out why 001 changed colour for and what I was supposed to do next. This game was quite unforgiving, and a mistake was deadly. My nemesis wasn't 476 it was always the disrupter droids 711 and 742. 834 was the blue orb of death, and the 821 droids were always sought after but difficult to catch. It Always annoyed me that the CPU could fire multiple shots like 883 and 999, but you could only fire one on screen at the same time or till the laser hit something. Great Video and review!

[@sewiet13]

C64 forever - especially the cool sounds!

[@komemiute]

Very sharp writing, presentation and dictation. ^_^ A job superbly done- plus the game's a classic so... Win-Win-Win situation!

[@yopachi]

You made me nostalgic for a game I've never played. Good show!

[@mikerigley1]

I don’t know you could choose sides in the transfer mini game! Another little facet of the game that was beyond most things off the time was that the movement worked on an accumulative acceleration rather than just the 8 directions of the joystick. So if you pushed right you get to full speed in a second or so. But you could then push up to swerve etc. this allowed for bumping into things and bouncing off more realistically. Overall it added to the feel of game immensely and also compounded the scariness when you’d enter room at full speed only to find a 476 behind the door and you’d have to serve our back pedal rather than just instantly switch directions.

[@paulus6809]

Very good video structure and concise overview of the game! I am currently building a game based on this game in university and it´s proved to be really helpful! Keep it up!

[@OperationSubterfuge]

Dude. How have you only made 3 videos? this is phenomenal

[@pixelgoat7317]

I remember being one of like, 5 people globally who grew up on a C64 mostly isolated from the Sega/Nintendo wars of the early 90s (I jest of course.) As an artist still today, my imagination often filled in the spaces when it came to minimalist computer games. I was also amused by the influence device's icon because it looks chill, like it's just being... :|

[@uschifickstuck3418]

Super Spiel das ich damals oft gespielt habe und am Ende komplett gewonnen habe. :-)

[@GamerWizz21]

Very cool presentation, you found yourself another subscriber. Can't wait to see your next content :)

[@lurkerrekrul]

I always had a love/hate feeling toward Paradroid. I loved the idea, the graphics and the whole atmosphere of the game, but I hated the transfer mini-game. Specifically I hated that the damn "pulsers" moved too fast. It took me too long to get them on the specific lines I wanted. I'd overshoot, then have to tap the joystick back and on the higher droids with a lot of shots, I'd often run out of time before using them all. I also never understood the way the energy recharge stations worked. Sometimes you can recharge your droid, but usually you can't. I never understood when I could use them and when I couldn't. I also never knew about the rotation speed back then. I didn't like the Amiga version. The different graphics for the robots were kind of neat, but I never knew what number they represented. The background graphics were too "busy" and I didn't like the fact that the decks only scrolled vertically. As for remakes, there's also a 3D version for Windows that uses classic C64 style graphics, but lets you view the action in 3D. Ovine also made a pretty good remake. The graphics are updated, but remain sort of faithful to the C64 original.

[@lurkerrekrul]

@Truthspoon Yeah, but it could take me 2-3 seconds just to get ONE shot positioned correctly. At that rate, I only had time for 3-4 shots before time ran out. I would have liked it a lot better if the pulsers moved a little slower. As it is, it's more a test of joystick tapping skills, than a test of who can choose the best shots.

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

@Truthspoon Or rather do what I do and wait till the end then panic and not be able to maneuver to the right now :)

[@darinz1]

I bought this game in 86 and still remember the 476 lol

[@PiousMoltar]

I just love the sound effects in this game. So nostalgic.

[@Akiak7]

Mad. That stealth mechanic when hiding behind a wall blew me away

[@G.B...]

Very nice review of a classic.

[@IamDeathIncarnate1337]

great game. it'd be my first pick for a nostagia review too tbh. nothing like layers of strategy and complexity.

[@markhutton6824]

I loved Paradroid on the C64 it is a classic game that I got to "Itsnothardenough" and cleared once... on the loop I was wiped out. I considered myself a winner at that point. 476 is still a number that fills me with dread. Awesome video!!

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Wow, you made it to the loop? I've never even got close. There should be an award for that.

[@MichaelNozyFalzon]

Mate nice video keep them coming.

[@luxdico]

too bad i never got into this game. I just didn't figure it out. And I always thought that the 00 in 001 were actually the eyes of the robot. thx for your upload.

[@ChrisBillows]

This is great. I know of Paradroid mostly through its reputation. You explaining the hacking mini-game was really helpful because when I tried it, it make no sense. 🙂

[@mypkamax]

The 001 droid looks like it has a cartoony face.

[@Naxt366]

Absolutely agreed. One of my top all-time favs ever. One thing: The 3d modeled Droid previews (showing before the locking game) is stunning for that time considered

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Agreed. They look fantastic.

[@paule4566]

Droid 883’s picture was an obvious recreation of a Dalek. “Armament: Exterminator.” “This droid was designed from archive data. For some unknown reason it instills great fear in human adversaries.”

[@madpuppet666]

Great video. Love this game. I actually played the Amiga version first, but its a great game on C64 also.

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Yeah, I mention that briefly at the end. I think your favourite is whichever version you played first. Which is understandable :)

[@bjrnen8505]

Oh, your first video, you say. It was awesome. Beautiful narration and yeah. I guess you said all the is to say about Paradroid. I was looking into the differences between Paradroid, Heavy Metal Paradroid and Paradroid Competition Edition. I just read on Facebook that there is more than one ship to clear out. Wow!

[@zzz7622]

pure nostalgia

[@countzer0408]

I loved both the C64 and Amiga versions of the game. That’s said, there is one thing about Paradroid 90 that always bothered me. It only scrolls vertically, there’s no horizontal,scrolling in it at all. I wonder why Andrew did that.

[@Flatstick]

Can I firstly say thank you for your detailed and clear explanation of the transfer feature. I never played Paradroid back in the day and none of the videos I've seen on KZbin have ever clearly explained what's going on with that. It was very frustrating, but you've cleared that up so thank you! Great first video, I enjoyed it and you've got another subscriber. For constructive feedback, sometimes I couldn't clearly make out everything you were saying, or had to go back and listen again, but I don't know if that's an improvement needed with the clarity of the recording equipment or maybe you're voice to be a bit clearer with more distinction between words or something? But I hope that helps and is in no way meant as a negative. Just something to tweak maybe. Looking forward to your videos. Cheers.

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Glad you enjoyed it. Totally agreed on the latter. There's parts in this video where even *I* can't figure out what I was trying to say. Will work on it :)

[@robertpomfret334]

Thank you for a cool look back at this classic. I prefer the Heavy Metal edition to the original. I agree that there are some cool touches that add to the game - without being vital. The fact that the enemy droids have their own different types of behaviours makes for a superior game. And those levels feel like real places I visited in my childhood. It's such a shame Andy Braybrook has gone back into coding business software. Maybe, just maybe, he'll be lured back to give us a 21st century version of his beautiful game.

[@TheHighlander71]

Well done video. And a great game! It's hard to find a disk copy of this version for a fair price. I didn't know a lot of things about the game you've mentioned in your video.

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Thanks for the comments dude. I watch a lot of your stuff but forgot to subscribe. Consider that fixed :)

[@TheHighlander71]

@@nostalgiatrain6714 Thanks for the sub, but please don't feel like you have to. I've struggled with making scripted videos for the longest time. You seem to pull it off easily. Enjoyed that.

[@JasonM00n]

Cool, I will grab this game!

[@Thonik76]

loved the game back in the day i want a remake for pc

[@sulrich70]

I think AB used gribblys day out scroll code as a starting point

[@MacMelmac]

Loved Paradroid!

[@eightrax]

You have a soothing voice, how about a paradroid 90 vid?

[@nigeltrigger4499]

The later made Quazatron on the ZX Spectrum, was a bit better looking (not sure if it was release on the C64 though?)

[@StepDub]

Best game ever.

[@Cukito4]

Hello! You forgot to say that if both you and your enemy want a specific block, you must wait AFTER the enemy has fired and THEN fire, so your "laser" is still active while your enemy's "laser" has already depleted its charge.

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Yep, that's a good point!

[@yvindwahl8628]

Should be transformed into a polished 3D-puzzler, while keeping the maps, controls and mechanics as authentic as possible...

[@finenebula]

476..... :-)

[@sheepthehack]

Great review.. shame u never continued with this channel.. i think it would have been a great addition to the retro channels on ututbe.. plus.. i agree with cyber.. ur diction is very professional.. and this was ur first vid.. so no doubt u are lacking the confidence of a seasoned reviewer.. this would have come in time.. the key to youtube is consistency.. i hope u pick it up again one day..

[@nostalgiatrain6714]

Thanks for the nice comments dude, much appreciated. I do plan to get back to this very soon, I just picked a really awful time to start the channel :) Hopefully get going again in the next month.

[@sheepthehack]

@@nostalgiatrain6714 looking forward to it man.. SUBBED!!

[@makkus40]

@@nostalgiatrain6714 I really liked your in-depth review style on the few videos you've. Your presentation style and voice are also great! Subbed in the hope of new content.

[@bytraper]

Why didn't you show the far superior Paradroid redux? It has all the bugs from the original games fixed, has both the standard edition as well as the metal edition and adds difficulty and benefits to the original game. Nice vid otherwise, bit you didn't show the awesome disruptor or the security terminal showing the other bots up to 999. Good vid otherwise!