The Rise And Fall Of Speedball

[@ChrissyCourtney]

as someone who grew up poor with a C64 and a collection of "games" that were all from magazine demo cassettes it blew my mind to go to a friends house who had an Amiga with games like Speedball 2 and Frontier. Speedball 2 seemed like it was from another world

[@laganas2008]

I had an amstrad CPC 464 and my neighbor had an Amiga 500. I was round his house a lot more than he was round mine!

[@wibblewobble1934]

@@laganas2008 I had the CPC 664, the version with the floppy drive, Amiga 500 was my next computer :D

[@laganas2008]

@@wibblewobble1934 I eventually had an Amiga 600. Pinball dreams, deluxe paint 3 etc. Great games.

[@Seventeen_Seconds]

Born in 1980 and grew up with an Amiga playing Bitmap Brothers games. Wouldn't have changed my childhood for anything! Good times.

[@RayTheVideoGuy]

Not only in Europe. Here in the states, we played a ton of Speedball 2

[@madspunky]

I've never seen it played in the USA. Did you play it on the Genesis? What we played in New Jersey was mostly Tecmo (Super Bowl), Madden '92, and NHL(PA) '93-"94

[@notdreadyet33]

​@madspunky I played the hell out of it on Genesis starting around 88. That and Joe Montana Sports Talk Football.😅 Once college started around 93, we graduated to NHL 93, Madden 92, etc

[@Larry]

There were also a ton of Speedball knock-offs for the PS1, Pitball was one I remember, but they were forever gracing those demo discs.

[@funkybuddhaInit]

Came here to say Dead Ball Zone.

[@20Will]

There also was a knockoff on the original Xbox called Death row

[@hughey22]

Developers rebellion just released a new version of speedball on Steam as of November 1st 2024

[@hughey22]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZqpq2OBf7hsqposi=6pxueEVG2rqfjLm7

[@MarkDale]

I just think it comes down to speedball was designed with the simplicity and playability of the joystick. I used to play with either a Competition pro or Zipstick on the Amiga. The introduction of joypads took away the playability of this type of game so I think that was the real end of the era, not the game itself just the controllers that the majority of console players use. If you were to pit two players up against each other on Speedball 2 on the Amiga, one with Joystick, the other with joypad, I think the joystick player would have a very unfair advantage. I'd love to see a follow up that lives up to the Amiga version. I just think it's one of those timeless classics were everything came together just perfectly. Great Video!!!

[@sarat6488]

it's always a good day when Bransfield uplaods, even if i have no idea what he is talking about.

[@Fizz826]

I have speedball 2 on Sega Genesis since high school. Played with my best friend Dave at the time and we had a lot of fun. Wish I never lost contact with my friend Dave.

[@andreamassa2176]

Great memories, there was so much fun with speedball 2 on the amiga 500!!

[@Jayfive276]

As a player of SB2 back in the day I’m watching the footage yelling “use aftertouch! USE AFTERTOUCH!” Also this was a feature in SB2 that wasn’t in SB1. Thought that might have been mentioned at least.

[@sunilCunningham-x9o]

Yep that's right, I bought a Quickjoy joystick with the twist feature just so I could do the swerves to trick the keeper, but it never did a knuckleball/banana like Dino Dini's Kick Off 2. Speedball's pitch needed to be larger and the ball should have kept rolling as you'd expect with metal on metal, they should have-toyed with the idea of static charges, magnetism, and sliding anti-gravity boots too. Team Formation and the introduction of individual fighting styles, special moves to each player would be epic.

[@wimwiddershins]

"Icecream, icecream!"

[@Lenriak]

After beat 'em ups, future sports has been my favourite genre. The King of the Genre; Speedball 2, Deadball Zone and Riot on the PS1, Deathrow on the OG XBox, all great fun. I'll never understand why the whole future sports genre wasn't much bigger.

[@segadriven]

Just dropping by to say I very much appreciate the Frenzal Rhomb reference. Great stuff as usual!

[@haku155]

Always look forward to your uploads! Your fellow UK perspective of retro video games is always a breath of fresh air. You and Larry Bundy Jr would make a cool Collab

[@xxFORDIExx]

Another wonderful video, presented in the way that only Bransfield can. Excellent stuff and being the retro freak I am, it was a rather cozy visual and aural treat. Top marks!

[@shanak123]

I was obsessed with sb2 in the 90s

[@lonl123]

Speedball II is a fantastic game that I have dumped 100's of hours in since the early 90's. Have it installed on my PC as I type this and try and play a couple of games a week. Your review is spot on....now if we could just get a good Rollerball game and we would be in business.

[@drunksupportcharacter]

I think my entire gaming history at the earliest was pretty much just Road rash 2, Alien 3, Speedball 2, a dash of sonic and cru ball. Honestly thats probably the best description of myself i have ever made come to think of it.

[@WinchestrBros]

Very nice. Always look forward to your work, sir.

[@danielmcgillis270]

We used to love to play this game for hours back in the day. A game about pure initiative. Throw the ball at the goalie, he catches it, you slide tackle him take the ball, and score. My favorite was the ambulance coming out to hall the bodies away.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

I put the question of why attempts to update Speedball 2 on the more modern platforms of the era (PlayStation and PC), had always turned out badly, to Mike Montgomery from The Bitmap Bros, some years ago. His reply: Mike That’s a very hard question. I think each version has it merits, but the biggest problem is people’s expectations. There are three main camps: old speedball players who want no changes, old speedball players who want changes and players who never played speedball. It’s very hard to get all three right. Satisfying one camp disappoints the others. We always tried our best to balance everyone’s expectations. Of course, the original gameplay is so good, it’s very hard to make it better

[@askvic611]

Gameplay? All the sequels and remakes couldn't keep up with the style and atmosphere of the original. The bitmaps where a AAA game company back than and everything after Z looked like amateurish fan-made stuff. The bitmaps aren't the same if not with the original crew, as much as I appreciate Montgomery for (trying) keeping the spirit alive all those decades after the split.

[@SteveParkin]

I remember beating nashwan 360-0 once. I was much younger lol. Such fun with friends. Great video

[@McMurchie]

I'm working on a Speedball meets Metal slug game, it's Speedball but with guns, shields and special armour. Maps are larger with automated defences to get passed. Simply because I loved this game so much I want to play more of it, but was inspired by the bombing run in unreal tournament...hopefully I can get something fun for others to play.

[@Ioaneif5]

What's it called?

[@stevenkennett8694]

speedball vr. I'd play that in 15 minute spurts before I got motion sickness.

[@cybermodo]

Speedball fans keep whining for decades about bad followups, but nobody gets into reverse engineering of the old SB2, and/or providing open source versions with lots of modding possibilities. Many good old games, computer or console ones - got this kind of work and such a thriving modding communities formed around them, with massive and varied content to enjoy in. Talking about old stuff - go check Cannon Fodder open variant, for example, or what they do with SWOS (both on Amiga and DOS).

[@graemenicol6377]

I absolutely love SpeedBall only reason I bought a Evercade VS

[@roadie2003]

I remember SB2 with such fondness and spent countless hours playing/fighting and upgrading my team. Back in my C64/A600 days i count this as one of my favourite games ever, along with Turrican 2, R-Type and Syndicate.

[@eniu2487]

I like Your videos, glad I still have like 85% of Your videos in my backlog. Especially the more or less obscure game videos.

[@ThomasLeavitt]

I had an Amiga 500 in the early 1990s in my American West Coast college dorm, along with a 20" color TV and a killer 140W stereo. My dorm room was super popular... I can't tell you how many times I'd wake up at 3 a.m., lean over the edge of my bunkbed, and see people playing Speedball 2. Nothing on the any other platform could compete with the Amiga's HAM graphics and hardware scrolling. The first game that even began to impress me was Castle Wolfenstein 3D, and it was quite crude by comparison.

[@lukasgruber1280]

I never liked sports games, but then one day there was Speedball 2...

[@peteralexander2941]

The bitmaps were one of the few developers at that time that worked on both atari and amiga verions simultaneously, they were very much against st to amiga ports and always made sure their games were just as polished on both platforms. 🙂

[@tdtrecordsmusic]

it took me SOOOOOOoooOOOOooOOO long to find this game. When I was about 7 a friend from out of town would bring this over for sega. He kept this close, only let me borrow it once, but we would play all the time. Never could remember the name, til now !!! on Genesis . haven't played other versions. I kept thinking hyperbowl, or techno hockey... probably why it took so long to find it . yeah, its kinda fun for a bash around

[@cceyxx]

This game was absolutely fucking brilliant. There should be a true to original remake.

[@peterknutsen3070]

15:58 Jason Kingsley has his own KZbin channel, and he has also done several collaborations with other channels such as Lindybeige. There's a fair chance he might notice this video.

[@ShotenX1]

Had never heard of this one before. Looks fun

[@gsittly]

Funny, the punched card is from the university of Stuttgart where I also have studied 😁

[@goranisacson2502]

I have no idea if this was big here in Sweden among our Amiga enthusiasts, for as a child of the NES this all passed me completely by. But it was still interesting to receive a different perspective than my own despite some similarities, which is what I come to your videos for in the first place.

[@ontoverse]

It definitely was! Well, anecdotally at least. I was an Amiga user until 1997 (in Sweden) and especially the first Speedball was popular among kids on the west coast. The music by David Whittaker was undoubtedly a large part of its success. Back then it usually took a couple to several years for products to reach Sweden, but that was changing fast in the early 90s. As Speedball 2 was reaching retailers, UK imports of the SNES were showing up and SB2 was just a bit late to reach the same impact as in other places. I do remember the game stores putting SB2 on display. However, this would also be around the time the Amiga 1200 is making the rounds in magazines and such, so it probably didn't have the impact it could have being a well-known 500 generation game.

[@JamesCorbettMusic5000]

The closest thing we’ve had is Echo arena VR. It’s obviously taken some influence from speedball and was an absolute blast

[@matth7272]

I enjoyed playing the game

[@Yesterzine]

It says something that while still not good the best sequel is Dead Ball Zone which isn’t one.

[@Bighandsdown]

Loved this game. Need an in-depth new version done properly would be amazing

[@mus_cetiner]

Great video.

[@f.g.5967]

I learned about this game thru a list of best videogame OSTs and I cannot disagree

[@ToffaneloChauffard]

I ended up playing it on Amiga Mini using the Xbox controler. I managed to win 4 matches in a row, and it was still as funny as it used to be.

[@deceiver444]

Speedball 1 and 2 were my childhood

[@Alex_Power]

And Rebellion has just stealth released a new Speedball in November 2024!

[@rick-potts]

ICE CREAM ICE CREAM

[@ALbertoDoriguzzi]

Sorry to know you don't have friends… anyway great video 😁👍🏻 I loved speedball 2 soooo much (and also had no friends 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️)

[@daithiflynn1]

Nothing has ever come close to this. And all with one Button.

[@Demyliano]

s/o Toonami Arena for putting me on to thus game

[@longtreecityltc9325]

Best game on my Amiga 2000 in those days!

[@miskatonic6210]

I still own my gameboy with speedball 2. I played it a lot.

[@TheRealKaiProton]

I had a copy of SB2 back in the Amiga days, I was always shite at it, but loved playing it, I always thought that online 3D PC version was the last one, so this was a nice thing to see, for me at least, as well, as thinking over games of RL with my 2 friends an SB edition would be awesome, I guess it would have to have all the crap on top like fortnite to get the younger clicker turkeys involved, but thats all games these days

[@geoffchurchill5492]

this game needs a modern remake!

[@sackoftruth8184]

Rageball was probably the best direction this type of game could have gone

[@HolgerNestmann]

I just finished two seasons today and felt bad to replace barry in league one :(

[@mus_cetiner]

So, the Rebellion Speeball version just got released on Early Access... Have you had a chance to play it?

[@Bransfiiiield]

Not yet! It's on my radar though.

[@user-im2te2fg9y]

they should have changed speedball into a manager series

[@Zontar82]

i always wanted to like speedball 2 i really did but man that freaking high difficulty

[@nigelnichol6486]

League format is killer!!

[@btd5311]

what about crunchball 3000... the whole time you talked about speedball i was thinking of that flash game

[@stingyringpiece]

always great vids, xenon next BF !!!! thanks

[@supafly_8221]

I can't be the only who knew you were gonna be pwned by Steel Fury 😂

[@ryanisstuckin93]

I used to just buy one fast player then run around the pitch collecting all the coins. Obviously making sure I won. It was a blatent exploit. I was an owner of an STE and I was always frustrated that it was held back by the standard ST. Gameplay in games was usually identical on ST and Amiga but the amiga versuons were always better looking and better sounding. There are a few exceptions like Star ray ehich is noticeably better on ST. The STE was made to be on par/better thsn the Amiga but it was pointless when developers didnt utilise the extra power.

[@peterknutsen3070]

It seems to me that all the games made after Speedball II failed to take the "speed" part seriously.

[@goatbone]

What do people think of Ballistix?

[@waahoohah]

On the gripping hand...

[@goatbone]

Anyone think the Mega Drive version is worth playing?

[@MarkDale]

Yeah if you plug in a Joystick.

[@bkdove]

Well... yes, the gameplay is the same, but the audio is not good and the playing court is visually inferior.

[@MarcGameplays]

I prefer the original Speedball 2 to Speedball 2 HD.

[@fredskull1618]

Was “Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball” a knockoff of this game?

[@askvic611]

15:30 funny, someone had exactly that idea and created "speedball arena" on steam somewhere around 2017. But maybe not the best RL ripoff. And super buckyball tournement is another ripoff.

[@SimmeringPotpourri]

You used an image of the 2001 remake of Rollerball instead of 1975 original. Seeing these games out before 2001, I think we can call this a "Whoops". 😉

[@Bransfiiiield]

Yes that could never have been intentional what with it saying "not that one" on the screen and all

[@SimmeringPotpourri]

@@Bransfiiiield WHAT? Well, I definitely missed that. Guess I have egg on my face, don't I? 😑

[@NeilFirth-x1f]

Only bitmap brothers and a amiga will make this game good

[@thisguy6559]

'member Hyperblade?

[@WillBoy182]

ICE CREAM

[@bazza5699]

next do xenon lol

[@monkeyswift100]

Let's just put it to bed.... Amiga was better than the Atari st.... In the same way the SNES was better than the Megadrive... Please leave your disagreements in the box below 😂😂😂

[@Gonzalo33788]

DEAD BALL ZONE FROM PS1 WATCH THIS GAME

[@Lbf5677]

I didn't like any of em