The Awful Action 52 on the Mega Drive | Octavius King

[@boffyb]

I can't believe they made a Frogger clone with a dog, then chose NOT to call it Dogger.

[@shia_labeouf]

I guess that might imply an altogether different type of activity.

[@boffyb]

@@shia_labeouf it'd make a hell of a Mega Drive game.

[@xpinkbunnieinwonderlandx8454]

@@shia_labeouf don't think "dogger" was in the vernacular at the time this came out tho, I'm sure dogging has been going on for way longer than it's been called that but still 😹

[@evelghostrider]

Dogger lol lol lol Would that not fall into the mystique game library

[@jamesheyworth4370]

Back in the days pre pooper-scooper ~(70s and 80s)"dogger" was the term we used for todays poop. "Look out you almost stood in some dogger there!". So an aptly named game indeed.

[@superscatboy]

"Why is there a Tutankhamun death mask on the background?" Because that image was doing the rounds in the 90s, I had it on several Amiga PD disks. I expect they were looking for *anything* to put in the background, had a look through the files the already had, and were just like "this one'll do!" then went off for lunch and and nose full of white powder.

[@mightyfilm]

I dunno. I'd tend to think the head of Active did all the coke. These game designs are so lethargic they must've been on heavy downers. And I wouldn't doubt for a second that the King Tut mask was the only thing they ripped off a computer disk.

[@jasonblalock4429]

It's worse than that. The image is the box art from Deluxe Paint, which was one of the first widely popular digital paint programs. Using it here was absolutely shameless; there's no way they didn't know what they were doing. Hell, they may have used DPaint to make this game.

[@iwanttocomplain]

^ I should probably delete that comment but fuck it she stopped posting anyway so it's moot.

[@TimberwolfK]

Is that "please disregard any previous notices" possibly a rather questionable attempt to get around the way that later MegaDrive revisions check for "SEGA" in the cartridge ROM before running the game and display "Produced by or under licence from Sega Enterprises Ltd." when it boots? It was added as an attempt to stop Accolade producing unlicenced cartridges by giving Sega something to sue them for, although Sega vs. Accolade turned into something of a legal odyssey.

[@byronlaw6491]

It’s deffo an attempt to get around the TMSS of later mega drive systems.

[@superscatboy]

I make MD homebrew sometimes, and having to put 4 specific bytes in the right place in the ROM is the most hilarious part of the process. I couldn't come up with a less effective security system if I tried lol Weirdly, you're also expected to put a checksum of the entire ROM in a certain place, and official hardware will reject the ROM if the checksum is wrong. This is still easy to do, but a whole lot harder than writing "SEGA" in there. In other words, they already had a better (but still crap) security system in place but chose to add a really weak one because the thought *that* would stop unofficial carts being made. It's mind-blowing.

[@johnsensebe3153]

Sounds like the predecessor of the Game Boy Advance requiring a bitmap of the Nintendo logo be at a certain place in the cartridge ROMs. At least that would give Nintendo a better legal case than four bytes would.

[@jakelaverde6884]

24:56 Fairly sure that Norman is named after Norman Schwarzkopf Jr AKA Stormin' Norman, a US general who led the coalition forces in the first gulf war, named operation Desert Storm. This came out in 1993, a couple years after the Gulf War started and America was still riding that wartime high, see also Desert Strike.

[@chloedevereaux1801]

actually its normandy .... for the normandy landings.

[@cubeflinger]

I also named my hamster norma (she was a bad ass) after the general.

[@Nx_Joey_D]

Jake is right, “Norman” stems from General Norman Schwarzkopf. A depiction of him is also seen on the title screen of the NES Action 52 title “Storm over the Desert” across from a depiction of Saddam Hussein. In the Mega Drive version of Action 52 Storm over the Desert was ported over as Norman, a call back to the original games title screen but to avoid any legal entanglements on the part of Far Sight.

[@hjalfi]

Clearly there needs to be a modern Action 52 remake. You could do it at a game jam, where each entrant picks up a different game, and tries to do a modern version which is sarcastic as possible.

[@jaysherman2615]

There was an effort years ago called "Awesome 52". The project sadly didn't get too far.

[@carl-wheezer]

I rember how great and oddly informative your former Action 52 video was, I prefer it over AVGN's! Hyped to watch this one

[@Jametsi]

Just found this channel via nostalgianerd's A52 video, and now wonder why didn't I hear about you sooner! Nice combination of humor, rage and great editing. Quality content

[@davedogge2280]

Each one of the 52 games are like a jewel in a crown.

[@eleanorburns8686]

I was myself thinking "Does that sign say 'night shit'?" so I appreciate knowing I am not alone.

[@markiangooley]

Human faeces destined to be composted are sometimes called “night soil,” presumably because they are traditionally carted away at night? Night shit would be apt.

[@branchonequal]

This video is an absolutely DISTILLED experience. ❤ The games though are a "nice"(?) mixture of boring and unnecessarily brutal. 32:23 Here, the roots in Beanstalk look more like turds nailed to a plant. How appropriate.

[@jameshandshoe]

Seeing your videos in my feed make me quite happy. You could make videos about literally anything and I'd enjoy them.

[@Nx_Joey_D]

Why is Tuts funeral mask the background for “Go Bonkers”? .. It was an asset from the software used to make the game; Deluxe Paint or DPaint as it was also known. Deluxe Paint III for the Amiga 500 was one of the software apps used to make the original NES version of Action 52; the cover image was, you guessed it, Tuts funerary mask. Later versions of DPaint were used to make various Mega Drive titles. Although the original developers didn’t make the Mega Drive version two of them did briefly meet with Far Sight and handed over assets from the NES version. This is why a handful of the NES games appear on the Mega Drive cart. Far Sight typically made pinball related games, in 1993 they had no experience making a game like Action 52 and leaned heavily on the NES game & assets.

[@NeilsNonsense]

11:07 "It's like back-of-house at Wetherspoons" 😆🤣 Damn that made me lol! Your international subs may need some help with the reference though 😉

[@MikkoKuusirati]

It's such a knee-jerk reflex, I literally belted out "DAY! TON! NAAAA!" right on cue, in perfect time with you until you started to fade and I cracked up. :D PS. The driver in "Sunday Drive" is obviously not wanking. No, this fine gentleman of culture is merely blasting "What Is Love" on his way to the Roxbury.

[@shia_labeouf]

They had that machine in an arcade near my uni. I used to make my girlfriend play with me because the sexism of "Gentleman, start you engines" wound her up. Still, she always beat me so she had a point.

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

Having played this before I can confirm it's unremarkable crap, which is the worst kind. You still managed to make an entertaining video though!

[@khards42]

That Octav1us 'Simon' game needs to be a real thing and made available on Steam. 😁

[@carl-wheezer]

Would probably be better than atleast 40% of the current Steam library ngl

[@ddjsoyenby]

i'd buy it and play it 500 times a day.

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

As a business owner and salesman I know the feeling on having to "sing for your own supper" that you must have with this channel. It's awesome and shows strength that you can still put out such fun content despite likely not feeling in a "fun" mood....

[@EdinMike]

I genuinely wasn’t aware there was a Mega Drive Action 52 game, even though I grew up in a Sega household. Also “Daaaaytoooooona” gave me flash backs of arcades in the 90s…

[@dodolurker]

I thought it was a Chris Rea reference 😀

[@sporadikstyles]

I still have mine in box, I also had the NES first but my older brother back in the day lent it out and it never came back. My parents ordered it from the home shopping channel (Canada). At best these were shitty learning to code demos.

[@chrisreynolds1980]

Love your videos its the highlight of my day thank you very much:) I used to detassle corn when i was thirteen and saved up to buy the action 52 i was soooooo pissed when i fianaly got it home and powerd up my megadrive i quit the corn detassleing job and sold the action 52 to a friend

[@nohalo3forme]

Interesting to see the pinball game sucks since later on, FarSight would become well known for making pretty darn good digital versions of real pinball tables. Guess everyone needs to start somewhere.

[@hackerx7329]

Yeah, I looked up the companies development history and it looks like other than Pinball Arcade almost everything else they ever developed was either as an outsourced developer for a publisher or as a team to handle a port for a particular platform. But lets face it. I don't care how experienced and talented you and your team are, when you get told to cram 52 games into 2 megabytes of storage including not just the program code but all graphics, sound effects, and music data you really can't expect stellar results. I mean the first Sonic The Hedgehog was only 512K so in theory you might have been able to have had 4 good games crammed into that amount of ROM. But cramming 52 games into that gives you less than 40 kilobytes of storage for each.

[@jamesrodney951]

@@hackerx7329that was quite a mouthful! I guess you’re used to that kind of thing.

[@SeamusMudge]

Only Octy could make the exasperated sentence, "Ugh, God- it's another top-down bullshit one!" nearly cause me to spill my coffee. :D

[@paulharries9558]

Always good to see Octavius.

[@19Flagg19]

Love your videos and your passion, Octavius! Glad to see you doing what you love.

[@iainwalker8701]

The real Sarah will always look perfect to me. I am confident a lot of other fans feel exactly the same about you too. x

[@AdriftForWeeks]

Great to see this on my feed. Hope you're doing well, Sarah!

[@g.u.959]

Fun fact: the same year this came out, FarSight Technologies also released Color A Dinosaur on NES. What a slam dunk of a company, lol.

[@The_Real_DCT]

The Color a Dinosaur featuring music from Tommy Tallirico who later went on to not really bring us the Intellivision Amico probably one of the most lol worthy dumpster fires since the Retro vgs/Coleco Chameleon? Seriously that is hilarious

[@IsaacKuo]

Darksyne looks kinda fun, for those of us who have played a bunch of that type of game (Asteroids, Gravitar, Oids, Thust, Stardust, and so on). On the Amiga in particular, there were just so many of these types of game! Both public domain/freeware/shareware as well as commercial game releases.

[@zh84]

A HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE DOLLARS?!?!? Pardon me while I get my blood pressure down. 5:00 Tutankhamun's death mask was included as a sample image in a famous Amiga graphics program. I bet they pinched it from there. 12:55 "Develeped by" Speling? Wot's that? 25:00 "Norman" is probably a reference to Norman Schwarzkopf, an American general who was quite the public figure in the early 1990s from his role in the liberation of Kuwait. 25:55 "An enemy army that leaves pieces of supercomputer lying around in a field is probably commanded by a piece of string wrapped around the head of a cat." Best line yet 😀

[@jaycee1980]

Yep, it's Avril Harrison's King Tut drawing that shipped as a demo with Deluxe Paint

[@connorgreenwell5731]

This is all so awesome. Ty for existing.

[@thesaferoom6968]

im sure you hear this all the time, but i still love wen some monster or character enters your room XD

[@AirknightTails]

20:17 That "Oh No!" Graphic is so cute

[@balorprice]

That's definitely Baron Greenback at 27m37. Cosgrove Hall IP sirens are going off. Kerching

[@gonzaloNMF]

Yay! Another Octav1us king video!

[@Boogie_the_cat]

King tut is the background of that ball game because the art program used to make action 52 came with that piece of clip art. I used to own it. "Paint shop pro" i think... (?)

[@sotkajarvi]

Game number 17..."Jesus what the shit" I just lost it!! LMAO!

[@joesshows6793]

What irritates me is I got no message this video had gone up. But I am here now!

[@christianfairhurst3877]

You could always do Cascade's Cassette 50 next. It seems to be mainly (in)famous for the Spectrum version but I remember it being advertised for virtually every 80's home computer when I was a kid back then and wondering how terrible the Vic 20 and Dragon 32 versions might be.

[@8-BitRach]

I had the Amstrad one as a kid. And I recently acquired it again in a job lot. Jesus Christ, it's like one of those haunted dolls you can't get rid of.

[@dyscotopia]

I've been under the weather since Friday afternoon and nothing is as comforting as Octavius hilariously recapping terrible video games. What I love about the Action 52s is that they manage to make every other dodgy multicart look like a carefully curated cavalcade of fun

[@barneyjuniorYT]

THIS IS THE GREATEST CHANNEL I'VE WATCHED IN A LONG TIME!! LOVE UR VIDS SARAH KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!❤❤

[@Spellfork]

My super power is stroking cats' bellies without getting scratched! I can also slow-blink my cats into a purring frenzy. Also one of my two cats knows how to open closed doors, we have a complicated relationship but the little bugger hasn't yet mastered the art of turning a key so I can still feel a bit superior ny locking the doors I don't want him to open. The door operating cat is called Bear which is fitting since he's the buffest freaking cat I've ever seen due the the constant jumping up at door handles all day and night. His other hobby is getting stung in the face by bees every summer and looking like he's gone all 15 rounds against Tyson in the ring while drooling everywhere. Wait, this is an Action 52 video!? Nice video, sorry about my cat tangent :S

[@VelvetMetrolink]

16:57 Freeway? When "Dogger" was RIGHT THERE?!?!

[@mightyfilm]

I don't know if it's a knockoff or what, but I remember "Bonkers" as an old 90's Macintosh computer game called "Diamonds." Difference is, Diamonds was actually well designed when it came to levels and challenge. And yes, it was always Breakout with extra steps. Was addictive, though. My neighbors had a Mac back then and they'd let me play the games on it from time to time, and they were all freeware things. So you could have basically played this thing for free...if you could afford a Mac back then, anyway.

[@reyunderscore]

It's ripped of from Crillion, a 1988 Commodore 64 game from .

[@_snaiio5492]

thanks for the lolz! almost snotted on the keyboard a few times in this one :P

[@ratspike8017]

I suspect the Tutenkhamun mask is there because it was an early demonstration of graphics on the Amiga (like about 1985, when it was actually rather impressive) and they just nicked the bitmap out of DPaint. I could be wrong... and often am.

[@Domarius64]

The ship explodes in blood because it's packed wall to wall with crew members :)

[@ddjsoyenby]

she's finally done we appreciate you destroying your sanity for all of us.

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

They ruined Haunted Hills. Simon but with Octav1us made me laugh at loud!

[@Kumimono]

I thought that street sign said Saville at first, and... Lets not think about that.

[@johnknight9150]

As for Game 32, George Michael owned a BMW, and he had brown hair too. So yeah, probably.

[@joeyparkhill8751]

Playing Action52 is the video game equivalent of Courtney Love: it's bad, it's always been bad & has probably been accused of murdering someone...

[@thepolarphantasm2319]

Action 52 may even be a brief period of Billy Corgan's past he doesn't like to talk about

[@VelvetMetrolink]

Live Through This is superior to any Nirvana album, by miles.

[@thepolarphantasm2319]

Best part of action 52: the knockoff rob base song on the startup screen

[@ogxboxmike]

17:41 There is literally a game about stroking a dog now. Called, yes, "Stroke the dog" its in the PS Store for a few quid.

[@frankowalker4662]

Nice one, Octy. I loved it. :)

[@JosiahGould]

As someone with... similar mental processes... I really enjoy watching your videos. Keep at it. I'll keep watching.

[@wickedwhispers595]

Thank you for using freedom units ❤

[@Ale.K7]

I remember playing this cartridge for the first time at a schoolmate's house. Great review of this "masterpiece"! Thanks for suffering through it for us :-)

[@slithymatt]

Sperm Thing Livid is my new band name.

[@wolfgangervin2582]

It's been awhile since I've watched this channel (sorry btw, I've been neglecting my old guard in general)... TIME FOR A BINGE! Also, game 27 annoys me, since the SBD Dauntless was a dive bomber that would promptly get torn to shreds if it tried to directly engage A6M Zeroes. It also exists on the same console as Thunder Force III&IV, which makes it even more pathetic.

[@LordPupazz]

The end of that video was shocking! I had no idea your legs were so hairy! I'm sure someone will be past with a Phoenix Down to get you back up and at 'em soon though :D

[@MasterControl90original]

5:20 ... I think those voices were used on Painkiller too

[@98.11Deet]

Luke dropping the Red Green wisdom. lol

[@TimChuma]

Intruder is just a remake of Beserk from the Atari 2600

[@scorchx3000]

7:22 What the? Turbo has broken into action 52? Turbo tastic!

[@benjaminbeatty5653]

You made the funniest script with the sad crap that you could.

[@glarynth]

Not to be confused with the nocturnal wave-surfing game, Dark Sine

[@instantlymeatified]

Bonkers is similar to Gem Smashers on the gba, same type of game where you have to break bricks with a vertical bouncing ball thing

[@KomradeKD]

Always makes me happy to see you post a new vid! And for what it's worth, I think you're gorgeous.

[@valley_robot]

Sad mate , really sad

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

Methinks that Bonkers rips off the Deluxe Paint King Tut image

[@Okurka.]

Nearly 30 years later Farsight are still making half-finished games.

[@markiangooley]

Daytona is actually in Florida near the ocean and has nothing nearby resembling mountains. Maybe a bit of a mound from a landfill?

[@markiangooley]

Also maybe there are some relatively tall shell middens, probably over a thousand years old. More artificial hills.

[@hotlikewasabi25]

You kidding right Octavius King, you are adorable!

[@fabianpolt8346]

Comedy at its peak! Thank you! I love your jokes amd humour!❤

[@murdocnl]

Ohhhh, very exciting to watch this one.

[@Handlebar-MustDash]

'This crocodile thing with a semi automatic' wish you had stopped at semi.

[@walcodebruyn2135]

Yes another great action 52 Video yay!!

[@blistlelo1700]

Doggy who you can't pet: zero stars! Doggy who you can pet: 10/10 stars! Dead doggy got killed: one stars! Doggy unexpectedly gored up into gory pieces in a kids' game: infinitely minus stars!

[@dylan.t180]

Great video of not so great games thank you for your sacrifice

[@andyhodgson7692]

That Tutankhamun comment 😂.

[@ImmortalThanos]

I literally fell asleep watching this video while sitting in my office chair. Who needs melatonin to silence the demons and fall asleep when you've got Action 52?!

[@dykodesigns]

🤔 Let me guess what art package they used on the graphics….. the first game is a dead giveaway. Looks like they ripped old king Tut straight out Deluxepaint. It appears that Farsight Technologies where not particularly avid users of the software.

[@gbraadnl]

5:00 The kngtut image is a stock/demo image for EA's Deluxe Paint. Notice the AH matk as she deserves to be remembered!

[@rrsaga]

I assure you, we have no mountains in Daytona Beach

[@DrDandan]

Second dog today I've seen get run over 😔.

[@ed_j_webb]

16:51 Haven't looked yet but expect someone has already coded this up into a game.

[@stephenr3187]

You had me at "time dilation"! Subscribe touched

[@AcornElectron]

24:55 I imagine it’s referring to Stormin Norman Schwarzkopf. The American gulf war nutcase.

[@NumptyMcNumptyface]

27:37 - That is quite clearly baron Silas Greenback. Just look at him. Look. At. Him.

[@JampleyDevEs]

It would be nice to see a video about UFO 50 made by you.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

I hate to say that I actually like Go Bonkers...

[@chloedevereaux1801]

everything stops in a time dilation field........ the tut pic is ripped from deluxe paint 3 on the amiga, the ski game is ski free from win 3.0 and norm should actually be called normandy.

[@lifeisraph]

The guidelines for the game, especially with your commentary, are much funnier than the games themselves, it has to be said! :D

[@xbcreations5783]

How have i only just found your videos love your vids :)

[@stingersplash]

Isn't the disregard notices because usually when you turn on a mega drive you get the Sega copyright stuff? Also I swear she played these MD ones before right?

[@MartinWolves]

The dog death is horrific. Flashbacks to when I saw the family golden retriever hit by a car. (Broken leg! But otherwise ok)

[@EonEsper-Kriz]

Never played Boogerman?? Oh man, you so totally gotta review it!! Lol.

[@JudeChavira]

2:34 The previous notice was when you boot up the game on real hardware it says “PRODUCED BY OR UNDER LICENSE BY SEGA ENTERPRISES LTD.”

[@michaelpout9701]

My favourite KZbinr with a new video 👍

[@kirgahn]

DAYTONAAAAaaaaaa...ah 😂 I woke up the children by laughing too hard

[@Roach1]

15:52 was that a dark castle reference?