Battle of the Ports - Turrican (TURRICAN) Show

[@SeekerLancer]

I remember being really excited to get my hands on the Genesis port of the game since like most Americans I didn't have an Amiga but I'd heard great things about the series. Man was it a letdown. At least Mega Turrican made up for it.

[@averageradiantreplays7702]

I remember playing ALL the time the Amiga port on my laptop via emulators. I got to the point where looked easy to me... Damn that thing was such awesome.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

The C64 is a little beast.

[@stefano.a]

without ingame music

[@GlenLehane]

This is one of the games that made me proud of owning a C64! For context, it was a declining platform and this game came out when the Amiga and ST were all the rage. I did lament the lack of in game music, and looking back, the blind leap of faith is a little too common, but I still have very fond memories, and this is one of the games that redefined just what a C64 is capable of. I never picked up on the Transformers music ripoff, I might have to watch it again. I never played the Amiga version but it looks fantastic! It really does look (and sound) like the best version. I did play the ST version though. What a blast! So much fun to play! And you're right about the music, lower quality than Amiga, yet terrific in it's own right as a groovy chiptune set. The music on stage 1-2 reminds me of a tune on the ST version of Turbo Outrun. Pleasantly surprised by the Amstrad version, it looks beautiful, better looking and more colourful than the C64 version, though not as smooth. The console versions. The name of the development team is The Code Monkeys. Never heard of them before, but surely that stupid name is a major red flag. How could anyone stuff this up on the Megadrive? That music and sound LOL! The Nintendo version being developed by the original creator, Manfred Trenz, is a perfect example of "if you want a job done properly, do it yourself." I wonder why Psycho-Nics Oscar never got a port? I remember it sitting outside my local milk bar. It was really good! Did Data East even try to get some sort of deal done?

[@turrican3839]

Super Turrican on NES sucks

[@adventureFAN]

Yeah! One of the best games from my Homecountry. I also love the Soundtrack from Chris Hülsbeck.

[@willrobinson7599]

This game and the follow up made us amiga owners proud. We had way too many lazy poor arcade ports by us gold ect This was a breath of fresh air and showed the amiga was capable when the effort was made

[@RetroCore]

Yep, the Amiga can do good games when the devs aren't monkeys. Too bad most devs for the system were monkeys.

[@ash81b4u]

One of the finest games of its era. Loved it on the CPC and Amiga. Good stuff.

[@deceiver444]

The game that totally blew my young gamer's mind on the Amiga in june 1990

[@fungo6631]

Super Turrican on the SNES would have been even more mind-blowing. Too bad they cheaped out on the cartridge size despite FF4 released 2 years prior being twice as big. Even Street Fighter 2 was 16 Mbit. Were cartridges more expensive to make in Europe?

[@jesuszamora6949]

I'm actually impressed by the scrolling on the ST, as so many games are jerky on the platform. Didn't even KNOW about the NES version. Gotta try that out...

[@WrightOffsGaming]

Lovely vid thanks Mark. I loved this on Amiga and never got to play any other versions. That c64 game looks slick.

[@RetroCore]

Turrican 2 coming next week 👍

[@KGRAMR]

I'm a fan of Turrican so it was cool to see this video. Christopher Schmitz (who worked on the unreleased Earthworm Jim for Jaguar) stated in a 2015-2016 interview with E-JagFest that a Turrican title was under discussion to be ported onto the Jag, but never moved foward beyond that phase. I wonder if it was the first one and how it would have looked like...

[@gfbodomi]

I love the Amiga tunes as much as everyone else. But man, the Atari ST chiptunes have their own charm to them.

[@RetroCore]

I agree.

[@chrisnizer]

EPIC classic C64 game! One of the main reasons I picked up a C64-Maxi a few years back was to play this game. Had to find and load the ROMs myself, but it was worth the effort. Thanks for the gameplay my friend, good stuff ! 👍 👍

[@miketate3445]

It is wild how good that rip off of "Escape" is on the C64! Transformers has never sounded better!

[@hardwiredxs]

Nice one! Really loved turrican series on the amiga!

[@illegalquantity]

The Turrican series are one of my favorite action games on Amiga. The Amiga version is so good as if it developed originally for it.

[@RetroCore]

I thought it was an Amiga developed game?

[@lucodeath]

I thought the amiga turrican did have a separate jump button. I used a megadrive control pad with a cracked turrican on the amiga. I could be wrong as it was 25 years ago.

[@ianbaggins5063]

Amiga Turrican 3 definitely had a separate jump button, but I can't recall the first two ever having that option.

[@inphanta]

Nice video. I had this on the C64 back in the day and it was utterly mind blowing at the time and the sequel even more so.

[@turrican3839]

The reason why Manfred Trenz didn't work on Super Turrican 1/2 and 3 was because he was working on Rendering Ranger R2.

[@thenate5367]

Here's a big lore drop: The general consensus from die-hard fans of the series (what few active ones there are like me) is that Bren McGuire (the protagonist of the series) doesn't appear in Turrican 1. Evidence going with this is that Morgul (the antagonist of Turrican 1) isn't even alluded to in the other games. However, you fight the Gauntlet boss from T1 again in T3. If that wasn't Bren in T1, then why would he re-fight it? Some time last September, I emailed Julian Eggebrecht (former CEO of Factor 5, he works at Epic now) this: Alright, so in Turrican 1, you play as some guy who is only referred to as "Turrican". But in Turrican 2, you play as Bren McGuire. Now the real issue is the fact that there are three different storylines for Turrican 2. The first (which we all know) is the intro, where the Machine kills everyone but Bren on the Avalon 1 and Bren swears revenge. But the manual says this: ~~~~ "Morgul, the three-headed incarnation of evil, has finally been destroyed! But you, Turrican, cannot rest because your most dangerous and most noble misscion is yet to commence... A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, brave rebellious fighters destroyed the menacing hordes of the MACHINE and it´s tyranny-spreading satellite, which circled the planet of the brave, the planet called Landorin. The evil moon has gone, but Landorin wasn´t free. The MACHINE still ruled the surface of the planet. The Landorins retreated to the inner core of their world to await their destiny...DEATH. The machines and mutants, however, went on to roam trough the deserted ruins of a long-lost paradise in search of the entrance to the secret caves. Before, the Landorins retreated, they managed to send a desperate cry for help: A last radio signal floats through the endless reaches of the tri-solar system and off to the farthest reaches of the universe. The cry is heard, and a man has to be found... A man with the courage to face the hordes, a man to free the last survivors of Landorin, an man on his most dangerous adventure ever... TURRICAN. Go out to seek the MACHINE and its´ slaves, collect the weapons and ships of an ancient civilisation and free the planet Landorin forever!" This does not mention anything included in the intro besides the Machine. Even worse is that some versions said this on the back of the box: "TURRICAN fought an epic battle against Morgul and won a stunning victory against great odds. Once again he embarks on a rescue mission. Five worlds and twelve levels await him in his Final Fight against the remnants of Morgul's creation." So after that, you'd think "Oh, no big deal, just a little mix-up", right? Well the first boss of Turrican 1 (the floating fist) is a boss in Turrican 3. You ALSO play as Bren in T3. Bren probably wouldn't recognize the fist if that's not him in Turrican 1. But this encounter also seems to imply that it WAS Bren in Turrican 1! Pretty strange, right? ~~~~ A week later, he responded with this: ~~~~ It’s Bren, it always was Bren. The whole Morgul bit was made up by Rainbow Arts’ British marketing agency when they did the copy for the packaging and manuals and we hated it. Hence the real story in the beginning of T2. The fist is re-encountered in Mega Turrican and T3 as part of the scrapyard level, which has a selection of bosses that Bren defeated and have ended up there. Note also the jumping robot from T2 level 1. ~~~~ So there ya have it, you did play as Bren in T1. EDIT: And one more thing, the TG16/PC Engine and Gameboy ports are worse than you think, going as far as cutting out the entire third world due to space restrictions. Not to mention all the Code Monkeys ports have their own story instead of the one in the computer versions' manual.

[@Jinrai]

That's a fascinating bit of info about Bren being the hero of T1. Thanks!

[@Jamesfo8rf]

Another amazing video! Thanks. The Amiga, always had a dedicated button two, but never got used. I think the CD32 joypad had a bit more hardware for a serial communications for the six buttons. I had the honey bee controllers for super street fighter 2 on the amiga.

[@squirrel7212]

I had the Mega Drive version, and i never knew you got more health in the other versions. Seemed tough as nails. No wonder i couldn't beat the first level.

[@TonimanGalvez]

One of the best Amiga game of all times. You may notice the love and care to the Amiga version, but the original C64 version is amazing too. I have to say that the Spectrum version is my favorite too, well, it may be a little bit faster, with ingame music for 128k, but the game is colourful and great.

[@SynthatronPrime]

Gotta love the stolen Transformers the Movie ost music in the opening title screen, lol. Great video as usual!

[@adamhenry6793]

Optimus approves!

[@amerigocosta7452]

On the C64 there is also an other - great and original - intro tune made by Huelsbeck during the first load, before the one showed here and after the "Hello and welcome to Turrican. Be my guest. Another day, another try. But remember, shoot or die, hahahaha" digitised speech (by Joachim Hippel).

[@adamhenry6793]

@@amerigocosta7452 Amazing as it sounds!

[@johns6265]

The Amiga version was the one I played as a youngster and it will probably always be the version I stick with. There are just too many things that don't feel right about the various other ports. The PC Engine and Megadrive should have won hands down as straight ports, just on the strength of everything being mapped to a controller... But fate intervened and things turned out a bit different.

[@Brixman]

The most underrated game franchise. Congratulations.

[@Turrican60]

With respect, you're mistaken - Turrican is not, and never has been, an underrated game franchise. It's widely acknowledged as an absolute classic, and for very good reason. For instance, say "Manfred Trenz" or "Chris Huelsbeck" to any gamer of a certain vintage, and they'll immediately reply "Turrican" without hesitation. There are fan sites dedicated to this game; there have been several Turrican clones produced over the years, plus one can buy the original soundtracks and updated remixes in a variety of forms. If this is an example of an "underrated" game, then heaven help the multitude of lesser-quality games that hark from the same era. The original Turrican set the standard for others to follow, and it's still a great game to this very day.

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

The Amiga intro screen is a rip from Manowar :-D

[@amanloop]

Yup, Kings of Metal cover art

[@amerigocosta7452]

The same image is used on the C64 version, but got cut in the cracked version most people play today.

[@the4thviewer28]

Just bought Gunlord X for Switch after seeing some KZbin vids claiming it’s the new Turrican and I must agree it’s very similar, and that’s a good thing

[@RetroCore]

I've not played Gun lord but from what I've seen it does indeed look like Turrican.

[@dreamcastfan]

Yeah I’ve been playing Gunlord X on the Switch as well, it’s really fantastic. One of the levels is actually called “Factory 5” which is a nice nod to Turrican’s creators. I gave the Dreamcast version a go as well, but it doesn’t seem to have any options to save progress which is a bit of a shame as the Switch version do let you save all the large diamonds collected.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

I hope it or it's predecessor eventually release on other platforms. I'd love to play them.

[@mwaawm]

I got gun lord x but hardly play it...it looks similar but feels nothing like the Turrican games I loved so much back on my Atari ST

[@nemysisretrogaming3771]

I remember wasting many, many hours playing this on the c64. 19 years old and drinking beer.... Games seemed to take so much longer to conquer when under the influence.

[@astracrits4633]

Hol' up Nineteen? **The FBI would like to know your location**

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Turrican on the Amiga gets around the problem of moving that massive fish, by fading the background just before the fish appears on-screen.

[@RetroCore]

The SFC games do that too.

[@Scopie33]

Got this in 1990 when I still had my C64 and wow, one of my altimeter fave games. Once you learn where the hidden 1ups are it's not that hard to finish. Later turrican 2 on amiga had a similar effect on me

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Just picked this up on PS4, now given i haven't touched the original in bliddy years and even then only had the C64 version.. After much faffing with the settings, got it looking how I want on my 4K TV.. Controls as I like 'em... Never tried the Amiga version, so the in-game music is lovely. Games handing me my arse mind 😂

[@Brixman]

2:37 ooooohhhh the goosebumps...

[@amerigocosta7452]

I'm a big fan of the series since back in the day. The C64 was almost in its death bed when Turrican came out (in the grand scheme of gaming - it would sell decently in Europe until at least 1992), but I think Trenz squeezed out every single bit of power from the old breadbin and it was impressive (especially its sequel was incredible on the C64). Granted once you play the Amiga versions it's hard to come back to the less splendid C64 games, I still believe the C64 version of Turrican is the best because the controls are ever so slightly tighter than the 16 bit ones.

[@weegoh8324]

I’m pretty sure the code monkeys who designed some of the console ports were run by actual monkeys, because those versions can rot in hell.

[@RetroCore]

I fully agree.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

The audio on the MD Version is the sort of crap I expected from my ST with it's AY soundchip 😱

[@RetroCore]

Shitty developer for sure.

[@Becka_Harper]

I finally got my CPC back from my moms last weekend, this was the first game I loaded up. It’s showing it’s age, but it’s still an amazing game. I hope we get a remake in the same style but with better controls someday.

[@RetroCore]

There is Gun lord on the Neo Geo, Dreamcast and Switch

[@samghost13]

I Love my Amiga! I Love my Turrican I&II and I Love the Music from Chris! THX for showing us all the great ports and different styles. Awesome!

[@RetroCore]

More Turrican next week!

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Went from C64 Turrican to ST Turrican II. Totally agree, those are classic chip tune tunes on the ST, the harsh sound fx sour it somewhat though 🤔

[@Idelacio]

Oh gods... my parents bought me my Megadrive with three games: the pack in (PAL) Sonic 1, Onslaught and this. Thank gods video game rentals were a thing or I'd have gone right back to my beloved NES. Unsurpsingly I made efforts to buy my next console when the next gen came around... =_=

[@RetroCore]

Oh man, your parents were obviously duped by a shitty sales person. I was lucky when I got my Mega Drive. My mum asked the guy in Dixons what would be a good game for a 13 year old and he recommended the Revenge of Shinobi. Good man 👍. A year later the PAL unit went and since then I've been NTSC all the way.

[@sobesons]

I love your videos! Nice work! Congrats!

[@amerigocosta7452]

Since everyone is adding odd details about this beloved game: it is said that Trenz picked the name Turrican from a Dusseldorf phone directory where he found the Italian surname Turricano. But this surname does not exist in Italy at all, so either this story was made up or the real surname was Turcano or Turriciano.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Interesting. The way I heard it told was that he picked a Greek surname. Seems like a bit of an urban myth then.

[@amerigocosta7452]

@@DutchRetroGuy The Greek surname was supposedly Katakis.

[@connardman]

1:25 This sentence triggered my google assistant.

[@1xWertzui]

What did it do?

[@fungo6631]

The robotic hand in the NES version could have been done using the background layer and a horizontal interrupt to separate it from the BG on the bottom. The BG is already mostly blank so it wouldn't be a problem.

[@fulgenzio1973]

Nice video, Turrican was technically very advanced for the time it was published. Personally I'm not a big fan of the franchise because I've always found it too fast and frantic, but it's a great game.

[@martinefrensoquigomez7835]

Curiosity: Manfred Trenz was actually responsible for literally every development aspect in the NES Super Turrican: he did the graphics, he made the music (with David Whittaker sound engine), he coded the game and if you look at the credits, you'll realize I'm not fucking joking at all.

[@iXien]

That was common on western games during 80's. Lot of legendary western games have been developed by one guy in his bedroom 😉. It was a question of talent and time, what lot of teenagers surely have. And publishers knew that well.

[@IanMicheal]

The C64 is by far the smoothest and best to play :) this option with, you have to have a fire button , for jump . Is being a sook ,I grew up with no firebutton for jump.. It does not effect me at all..

[@w4lsh]

Honestly, imo the 8/16 bit computers being limited to one fire button has resulted in the games (generally) not ageing as well as the consoles from the same era but maybe that's just me.

[@chrisperry5244]

Mate you need to appreciate the wonders of Z and X for left and right, Space Bar for jump and Return for fire. A keyboard can be the ultimate game pad 😊

[@1xWertzui]

The Spectrum version is like an Apogee platformer for DOS. Different but cool.

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

As a lover of all things "robots" growing up, I *devoured* that NES version, but remember finding out later that there were so many others. And one thing that always fascinated me was that no one really could agree on what Turrican looked like, lol. Seeing them all side-by-side at 16:33 is really something; sometimes he's a metallic skeleton demon guy, sometimes a 90's edge lord comic book anti-hero, that one old dude in a knock-off SilverHawks costume -- sometimes he's a robot, sometimes a guy in a super suit/power armor, sometimes a cyborg. Different groups' interpretation of that character has just always been fascinating to me. That being said, screw 'em all - I liked the Mega Turrican design the best anyway :P Fite me, internet! Awesome game to look at for BotP!

[@RetroCore]

Mega Turrican is bad ass.

[@beagsx3]

Loved this game for my cpc, even if I did have the green screen monitor. Was nice to see a game that scrolled well on the Amstrad. Shame the sound effects were pretty sparse though

[@cameroonya1]

Wow simultaneous music and effects with fast gameplay, how is this possible !?

[@RetroCore]

Witchcraft. Or just maybe the developers here don't suck like most of the others.

[@fungo6631]

Speccy Turrican sounds like a Tiger LCD game. Even Tiger LCD games sometimes have better audio.

[@JudgmentStorm]

MD Turrican is running at the correct speed here- looks to me like it was emulated at 50 Hz. When played on a 60 Hz NTSC Genesis, Turrican will run too fast (you'll see it in both gameplay speed & BGM tempo). One thing I hate on the MD version is that you can't fire a powerline or grenade with just 1 button press. First you have to hit the weapon select button 1-2 times, then the fire button. While still recognizable as Turrican's soundtrack, the BGM is a lackluster rendition of it.

[@zenitpro]

I remember playing Mega Turrican on my Mega Drive back in the 1990's, only to discover that it was the second Mega Drive game of the franchise. I loved Mega Turrican, but Turrican, the first game of the series, was pretty awful, as you said. On the other hand, Mega Turrican was chock full of nifty visual effects, such as sprite scaling and rotation, which was pretty much unseen in Mega Drive games of the era. Not to mention the excellent music, which in my opinion, was even superior to the Amiga version, something I could never imagine.

[@RetroCore]

The Mega Turrican music is way better than the Amiga music for sure. I also think the Super Nintendo music blows it away too. There is a 3rd Turrican game on the Mega Drive. It's called Universal Soldier. It's actually Turrican 2 but altered to tie in with the Universal Soldier movie.

[@zenitpro]

@@RetroCore yeah, I heard about it, but never played it though. Maybe I'll give it a try, but I guess it won't live up to the standard set by Mega Turrican!

[@gabrielloko30000]

Finally!!! I waited so long for a BoTP of this game! I'm a little biased with this game and Turrican 2, but...boy the tunes and some gameplay aspects really attract me (Also, i noticed that the Game Gear "port", takes the Turrican 2 level layouts than Turrican 1)

[@WeskerSega]

I love the Turrican series, thanks for doing this comparison. It's true the Mega Drive version is mostly bad, but there's a hack which fixes some of its problems like the colors and also the enery bar depleting speed. The music is the feature which takes the biggest hit in this version. By the way, if you ever do a Turrican II comparison, don't forget to add in Universal Soldier for the Mega Drive, SNES (unreleased version) and Game Boy, as those are essentially the bastardized Mega Drive, SNES and Game Boy versions of Turrican II.

[@RetroCore]

Turrican 2 coming this Saturday. The show is already filmed :). Just needs editing.

[@WeskerSega]

@@RetroCore Oh, that's good to know, thanks! Since you did Shadow of the Beast some weeks ago, will you eventually do Shadow of the Beast II too?

[@ricksloan5588]

Code Monkeys like tab and Mt Dew

[@CaptainDangeax]

C64 or Amiga, the Commodore were really killing machines.

[@RetroCore]

The Amiga version of Turrican 2 is very nice.

[@iXien]

Turrican is surely a pillar of the Amiga game history, maybe even more than on C64. On C64, the game arrived lately. That seems that a lot of players didn't play it from its launch as the had already left C64 for a 16bit system. They know it because it's part of the C64 history and because it's a wonderful game. But for the Amiga owners, 1990 represents the first year from which the games started to really exploit the capabilities of their computer. So nearly everyone on Amiga knows Turrican because we all saw it arrive and... kaboom! At last an action/platform game developed by someone who loved and understood the mechanics of this kind of game (Manfred Trenz) with vast maps, lot of things to discover, smooth gameplay, ingenious level design. At last someone that developed a game taking part of the Amiga capabilities (Factor 5) with cool GFX, 50fps scrolling, lot of sprites, a main character so nice to control and those musics, those SFX! About the gameplay, I understand what you say about the assent while jumping when you change direction. And we can be surprise by the fact we can't pass through some platforms one above the other. For my part, I think that level design and gameplay choices have been made depending on the type of controller used. Nowadays, everybody searches to play on every systems with a D-Pad. It's sometimes a mistake on 80's computers. Turrican is a good example of a game that is really more playable with a joystick (or an arcade stick, I suppose) that permits more easily to move at the good time for jump level or make quarter circles to jump from a platform to another. What is a shame of course is that they didn't make any change for console version while you of course use a D-Pad to play. The console conversions are a good joke for all the computer players 😁. At last, console players can see what we feel when you discover that a very good game has been ruined on your favorite system. You know that your console can make at least the same, maybe even better, but you have to settle for a pile of crap made in a hurry by incompetent people. Frustrating, isn't it 😉 ? More seriously, ST version is impressive, even if a lot of colors, details have disappeared. Scrolling is only 25fps too. As a true CPC lover, I always like the fact that Atari ST uses an YM soundchip, that's the real sound of the 80's as so many arcade and home systems made use of this cheap chip 😅 All and all, the result remains well balanced and still very fun to play. To be honest, I think I just played the C64 version sometimes and see longplays to make me an idea of the original game. Sure it's impressive but I prefer not to talk a lot of it because I really dislike C64 for a lot of flaws imo. It's of course totally subjective. You made me discover that the C64 main theme is a ripp-off of the title theme from Transformers, what give an explanation of the remix included in Chris Huelsbeck 'Turrican Anthology' 😉 Surprisingly, I never played the CPC version at the time, only some years later when I recover another CPC and that I looked again at its games as retrogaming. An impressive version, even if I would like to ear the ST musics played through the AY frequency on CPC (half low). By the way a must for all gaming archaeologists on Amiga. Objectively, music, colors and animation make of Amiga version of Turrican the best one. And the fight against Morgul is just the beginning, as The Machine and its hordes are awaiting on Landorin too!

[@DanielAyy]

I really like that walking animation in the Amiga port. Looks so well made

[@DanielAyy]

@ScouseSG wasn't the C64 the og?

[@enigma776]

@@DanielAyy It was, but I think most people played it on the Amiga.

[@DanielAyy]

@@enigma776 that sounds accurate

[@DanielAyy]

@ScouseSG I see.

[@Martykon]

Very nice video, thank you.

[@RetroCore]

You're welcome

[@HuntersMoon78]

Would have been better if you included the speech from the C64 version, it says way more than the Amiga

[@HuntersMoon78]

@1aki1uke Yep that's the speech

[@malad1]

More fun if you have an autofire joystick. Looks like some of the versions you were playing didn't have it (e.g. Atari ST).

[@AlessandroGrussu]

The Spectrum version is definitely "worth your time", the authors could have gone for a lazy monochrome port (like some horrid coin-op conversions of the era) but luckily they didn't. And on the whole it plays pretty much like the Amstrad version, which is considered under a much more positive light.

[@RetroCore]

I have to disagree there. If the game was mono chrome it would have been much smoother and faster making for a better game. Also, monochrome graphics would be more detailed. Alien Storm springs to mind. That's a great port on the speccy. No colour but it is incredibly detailed and plays well. I should also be clear that I have no nostalgia for any of the 8bit home micros besides the Commodore Plus 4 since that was the only one I ever owned.

[@tomaskonvicka4135]

Sega has Sonic, Nintendo has Mario and Amiga has Turrican. Although he born on C64, Amiga adopted him as his son, gave him a world-famous soundtrack and made him the Amiga mascot. So the best version must be on the Amiga.

[@dlfrsilver]

I fully agree. The Amiga version is better than the C64 version (that's normal!)

[@DeskoDev]

Some notes on the Mega Drive version: - The thing about the health bar draining twice as fast is completely untrue. It drains in the exact same way as the C64 version. Hell, it's more accurate than the Amiga version in that regard since that drains at a fixed rate whereas the C64 and MD versions are dependent on the amount of damage sources Turrican's colliding with; when you're taking damage from a single source, all three versions drain the energy bar at the same rate. - The port was made in 1991. Developers had just started to get the hang of the sound chip around that time. It's bad, but you have to consider the timeframe; not to mention that while it's only used for sound effects T1 is one of the first Genesis games that uses sample mixing with the YM2612's DAC.

[@RetroCore]

I'm sure you'll find many Japanese games with far better sound that were released in 1990, a year before this.

[@DeskoDev]

@@RetroCore I know, but at least they had decent documentation - the music here is still butchered, not gonna deny that, but you have to give them at least a little benefit of the doubt since SoA's documentation was pretty terrible - GEMS wasn't even out during most of this port's development. The biggest issue with this port is the awful enemy patterns, and I have a feeling that those changes are intentional now that I've disassembled the Genesis version - I wonder if Code Monkeys was behind that? Could it have been Accolade? The fact that they nerfed the laser HARD seems to at least hint at the changes being intentional. Either way, while the port sucks, it IS salvageable... unlike the PC Engine port. Still, the Amiga and C64 versions are easily the way to go here.

[@johnhamill7358]

A fab fine video, Really Rad!!

[@pachinko32]

Awesome video. Super channel.

[@SNARC15]

Psycho-Nics Oscar was actually a Data East title, not Irem. I also find it a bit ironic that the Mega Drive follow up, Mega Turrican, was actually published by Data East in the US.

[@RetroCore]

Yes, that is correct. My mistake.

[@CVRJM]

Despite having a Medway Boys cracked version of Turrican on the Atari ST back in the day, I never knew that it supported 2 fire button joysticks until now so I'm itching to try it out the next opportunity I get. 😁 Regarding those nice chiptunes... The ST version's musician, Jochen Hippel ported the Amiga tunes using a "Digidrum routine" which allows sample playback when YM generated music plays using one of its 3 channels with little CPU usage and to me, this outshines the Amiga version due to the lack of custom hardware the machine had in order to do it. One more bit of Trivia, the spoken intro in the C64 version was done by none other than Jeroen Tel. 😁

[@CaptainDangeax]

The scrolling on the ST makes my eyes cry. Ewww.

[@dzoli74]

I prefer the C64 version's resurrection sequence, where you literally pull yourself together from thin air after your death.

[@martinefrensoquigomez7835]

Btw, I almost expected you to say that the Amiga version was the one most people remembered

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Ah, Turrican, the game that inspired NGDEVTEAM to make Gunlord. And we can understand why with this timeless classic Mark. 8^) Anthony..

[@davidvfx]

when playing the Megadrive version I also realized the waste of potential in the graphic and audio capacity; but it is true where they did not have forgiveness is the damage of the life bar, something horrible. Now something that I would have liked to see is port for Atari Lynx which I think would have been interesting.

[@RetroCore]

For the longest time I always thought there was a Lynx port but it seems like there never was.

[@geoserenity]

Me in a beanbag chair: oh cool (starts video) Google: (exits youtube because google play services needs to update) Tablet: (goes flying across the floor)

[@frankschneider6156]

I never understood the lack of self-control in people older than 8 years.

[@RetroCore]

I think it's a joke.

[@geoserenity]

@@RetroCore exaggeration really. ...it more cartwheeled across...

[@GaldirEonai]

Kinda funny to see the consoles get crappy ports of a euro home computer game for a change :P.

[@RetroCore]

Lol, yep, it's a total 180.

[@ExtremeWreck]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is great to see! Also, I find it funny that the Turbografx-16 was released exclusively in North America despite the console being very obscure there. Oh, & the Genesis version is unlicensed BTW with another one that is a tie-in with the Universal Soldier movie.

[@DragonSlayerKyo]

The moral of today's story: stick with one of the amazing computer ports, or the NES version. those are worth your time.

[@deceiver444]

Completed all three episodes on the Amiga but will definitely check the NES version

[@qwertzy121212]

looks like the game gear version is the only one without fucked up scrolling where you have to be like 3/4 of the way across the screen before it moves lmao

[@PierreVonStaines]

I think "More crap from the Code Monkeys" was their tag-line if memory serves me correctly.

[@enigma776]

I thought it was "we through our shit around and see what sticks"

[@RetroCore]

Hahaha, if it wasn't then it should have been.

[@Seth-nt9bf]

"Hello and welcome to Turrican. Be my guest. Another day another try, but remember, SHOOT OR DIE! HA HA HA HA!" Amazing to see this after playing Turrican a lot. I love your videos. ^_^

[@RetroCore]

There's more Turrican coming next week.

[@dangwoot]

I would have loved the atari st version as a kid, what a fantastic soundtrack!

[@IntyMichael]

There is no CD32 version of Turrican. What you mean is the CDTV version! The second fire button activates in the Amiga version not jumping, instead it is for the sideways fire lines and together with joystick down for the transition to the ball.

[@RetroCore]

I know about the CDTV version too but that is also just the normal Amiga version from what I know. The CD32 version is a trilogy compilation featuring all 3 Turrican games. Nothing has changed from the Amiga originals though. It'S probably not an official release.

[@IntyMichael]

@@RetroCore That's a bootleg with the three Turrican games just slapped on a CD.

[@RetroCore]

Yes, that's right. Some people think of these things as being original though.,

[@rob4222]

Finally. Thank you very much :) You could have shown Super Turrican, or will you show it with Turrican 2??

[@RetroCore]

Super Turrican is a completely different game. I've not played Turrican 2 so it might be related to that but it is in no way related to Turrican 1.

[@rob4222]

@@RetroCore Super Turrican is more like Turrican 2. But it is worth to be mentioned

[@RetroCore]

Maybe when I do Turrican 2. I'll see how close it is. The NES super Turrican is different than the original but close enough to be featured in this show.

[@jameslewis2635]

So this makes me think that the Amiga version is probably the best graphically but the Atari version has the best tunes.

[@w4lsh]

Well, it's subjective but the Amiga version definitely has the best music/fx but the Amiga sound chip (Paula) isn't generally considered "chip music", which is maybe why Retro Core referenced the ST using chip music.

[@owenfitzgerald8944]

There must be a way of combining the two :D

[@DutchRetroGuy]

@@owenfitzgerald8944 A Commotari Amigast? I'd be an interesting thing to behold :P

[@lightspeedmurphy7546]

OMG I was gonna mention the crap catalog from Code Monkeys until you mentioned them even going so far of mentioning the Phoenix PS2 not-games. Surprised you also didn't knew Goofy's Fun House which was later recycled to Shrek Treasure Hunt.

[@RetroCore]

Oh, I known about that rubbish too😏

[@10p6]

I would have loved to have seen an Atari 800 and STE version of this.

[@RetroCore]

Ste may have been better than the Amiga?

[@10p6]

@@RetroCore I think closer. The STE did have more capable sound in some ways.

[@BlockABoots]

I can never get into this game i know a lot of people love it but i just not seeing it, i think the fact that you can get damaged without noticing it is real bug bear of mine

[@jothain]

Turrican 2 on Amiga is definitely one of the best games it has. Completed it multiple times. Also one of the toughest games I've ever beat.

[@RetroCore]

That's coming next week.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

@@RetroCore looking forward to it already! Could you perhaps show some of the C64 areas with 'parallax' scrolling in them (say, parts of world 2) for T2? They really impressed me back in the day and AFAIK most other ports omit them.

[@RetroCore]

World 2? Sure, I'll do that far.

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Retro Core thanks! Looking forward to it!

[@DutchRetroGuy]

Best example is in world 2.2, but world 2.1 also shows it (though it also animates there, which makes it harder to notice it’s scrolling at a different speed)

[@pcbjunkie1]

This was a bad ass game. I had this on the C64 and I just stared at it in awe. In addition to being cutting edge, It had some messed up copy protection. Trying to copy the game ruined the disk. Let's just say i had to buy two copies, one for myself and one for my friend who was dumb enough to lend it to me.

[@SuperNitroZ64]

Wasn't this game also on Commodore CDTV?

[@RetroCore]

It was probably a pure Amiga 500 port.

[@SuperNitroZ64]

@@RetroCore 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@musicvideoenhancer]

In the C64 version, they ripped the Transformers song. And in the Amiga version, they ripped the cover sleeve of Manowar - Kings of Metal album... Google it and you see (the warrior in the title screen).

[@romaneberle]

the zx spectrum version is the most spectacular, as always. :-)

[@ravagingwolverine]

Turrican makes for an interesting comparison. This was a game series I wasn't aware of until several years ago. I actually got interested in it a bit backwards, starting with Gunlord, the unrelated homage to Turrican, which is quite good as far as I'm concerned. I then went to Mega Turrican then Super Turrican on the SNES. I didn't like the stage design of the earlier games as much as I prefer straight action to exploration. But I appreciate what the games were. I just checked out the first game a few months ago. The Genesis version was the easiest way to do that. There's a good hack for it that reduces the damage rate which improves the experience. A shame it can't fix the music. There's also a really good hack for the NES game that improves quite a few things, especially the scrolling behavior.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, you really need to use the hack for the Mega Drive version otherwise it's impossible to play.

[@azidahaka2]

Yakumo, my friend, the amount of cheat codes you used for unlimited Health in this video was over 9000 :D Btw you have a message on ag forums -karsten-

[@RetroCore]

Oh yes, need to cheat when playing awful ports 👍. I'll check your message later on 👍

[@Seth-nt9bf]

@@RetroCore I agree. You take WAAAY too much damage in the MD and PC Engine versions.

[@dlfrsilver]

@@RetroCore which are the awful ports ?

[@kattmonstret]

Great video! Was not Psycho-Nics Oscar made by Data East, rather than Irem though?

[@RetroCore]

Yep, you are right

[@KurtWoloch]

I actually think the Spectrum port has very good graphics for a Spectrum game, considering that many Spectrum ports only had monochrome graphics with maybe a few sprites standing out in color, (for instance, look at Paperboy or Enduro Racer), but Turrican actually has got nearly full color which looks very nice. Of course they paid for that by having pretty choppy scrolling and a low framerate.

[@RetroCore]

The full colour is impressive but it damages the gameplay too much. I think the trade off wasn't worth it. A monochrome game would have played and probably looked better. One that springs to mind is Alien Storm. The Speccy version looks quite detailed and plays really well. No colour in it but that did make for a very good Arcade port.

[@HuntersMoon78]

Subbed to your channel

[@RetroCore]

Thank's Hunter's Moon.