The Story and Games of Cinemaware - Kim Justice

[@dougsha]

Thank you for being so kind to my game, The King of Chicago. I am extremely proud of it. BTW: Bob Jacobs' first sale as an agent was my game ChipWits to Epyx.

[@tawdryhepburn4686]

Doug Sharp I’ve never played the game, but it looks utterly fascinating. Can you elaborate on the decision tree element of the game, specifically the ‘randomness’ mentioned in the video?

[@MrMojoSuper]

I loved The King of Chicago! I played it a lot on my Amiga. Thanks man! :-)

[@maximobriggs8499]

A tip: you can watch movies on flixzone. I've been using them for watching lots of of movies lately.

[@troycase1833]

@Maximo Briggs definitely, been watching on flixzone for since november myself =)

[@issackylo2019]

@Maximo Briggs yup, been watching on Flixzone for since december myself =)

[@RUOK2000]

And this is why I became a Patreon. These documentaries are like the National Geographic of computer and video games. Keep up the excellent work Kim.

[@mark5845]

its true her knowledge is insane, it's like a masters degree! how on earth does she know so much, v impressive

[@KingofCrusher]

Yeah, good 80's/90's National Geographic, not the retard-level shit that they've been putting out for the last 20 years. PBS quality stuff.

[@andyrome316]

Yeah they are very good....they must take ages to make.

[@timgerritsen7579]

Thanks for the documentary. Cinemaware got me into the Amiga in a big way and was the impetus for me to get into the video game industry. I even got to work with John Cutter at Dynamix way back in the day. Wings was an amazing game, and I absolutely enjoyed the hell out of Lords of the Rising Sun, despite the perceived flaws. I do wish you'd do a bit more research on the video game crash of 1983. It was far shorter and had less impact on the computer market in the US than you and other UK documentarians seem to think. First, it was really limited to the mostly to the console market. There was an absolute boom in Computer Gaming in the US as there was in the UK in 80s, and that boom was a minor part of the reason for the Video Game crash here in the US. Many gamers thought "why should I pay $200 for a console when I can get a Vic 20, C64 or Atari computer for the same (or near the same) price?" While the Atari VCS/2600, Colecovision, Intellivision and Vectrex were dying on the vine, the Vic-20, C64 and Atari 800 were capturing a lot of that video gamer market. While in the UK, the Sinclair was the entry level computer to have, in the US we had the Atari and C64 computers to keep us both entertained and to serve as our learning platforms for how to code. While the rich, or those in education had Apple IIs, the various low end computers were a life line for those of us from working class families during that period. The video game crash of 83 really destroyed console gaming in the US until the NES came a few years later, but it did not dim the prospects for computers and computer games here in the way that seems to be reflected in your various videos. Other than that, keep up the great work!

[@Ponaru]

As much as I enjoy your other videos, these are the ones I subscribed for. No one does these documentary style retrospectives like you do. Always impeccably researched and presented, I believe they are your best work. Much love and respect.

[@Bollibompa]

Well, no one is kind of pushing it. The Spoony One and similar creators did them way back in 2013/2014. Now they are extremely popular and many creators make them.

[@thedevilbunny]

A beautiful loveletter to a fine developer. It's nice to see someone who "gets" Wings in the way you did. Wings wasn't a game, it was an experience....a moving tribute in the guise of a video game. I love your stuff Kim...well done.

[@ComMaxil]

Discovering this channel in recent weeks has been an absolute delight, and this video has been one of my faves so far. Cinemaware were so influential on my gaming history. Playing Defender of The Crown at my friends house was what made me want an Amiga. then once i had one playing Lords of The Rising Sun incessantly, nearly beating it before losing my save on a dodgy disk. Then finally Wings was the game that had me upgrading my A500 to 1MB of memory. Great days. Indeed i later bought Wings on my Nintendo DS (though i feel like it may have been a Gameboy version). Was still great fun 15 years later. Such great memories!

[@Huddison]

Cinemaware games stole my teen years - great memories!

[@googleboughtmee]

Kim I'm really freaked out.... ten mins ago I just saw the James & Mike vid on Rocketeer and it reminded me of Rocket Ranger and I wondered what other games Cinemaware did, and then I thought "oh, Kim Justice does Amiga stuff, I wonder if she ever did a video all about Cinemaware games?"... so I searched and found you posted one RIGHT NOW Whaaattttttt

[@davedogge2280]

it's almost like The Mandela Effect but not quite. I think it's simple coincidence !

[@Kris_A]

There are no coincidences, the universe is strange and interconnected... ...I'm not wanting to go all deep of course. Hah.

[@LordmonkeyTRM]

The old collective consciousness.

[@handsomebrick]

This video appeared a few hours after I saw a video about The Kristal, and was confused by the Cinemaware branding on it.

[@onaretrotip]

Fantastic video, Kim! IT Came From The Desert really made an impression on me back in the day. I loved the 50s B-movie style. As you say, that was definitely the epitome of what they were trying to achieve.

[@auritone]

Wings was probably the first game that got me truly emotional. Reading the diary was really horrific at times. The intense dogfights did a great job of portraying how vulnerable the pilots were. An absolute classic. Thank you, for another great video.

[@thomasheaney936]

these docu vids are the only reason why I subscribed to Kim Justice, more please!!!!!

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

Another fantastic video Kim! I've been curious to learn more about Cinemaware ever since I learned about Sewer Shark creator Ken Melville's involvement with them. This was so thorough and beautifully written. To anyone reading this: do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing. It's really well done!

[@MrStephen182]

Someone deserves to have much more subs and views. These game docs that you make are amazing.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Don't FORGET to FULLY credit Kellyn Beeck, for presenting a 6-page design document, to Bob Jacob. The preliminary design specs included:Sword Fighting, jousting, income from territories, raids and ransoms.

[@starlightwitch12]

Nice work on the Cinemaware history video, Kim. Defender of the Crown (the original, Heroes Live Forever and the 2003 remake) was actually one of my favourite strategy games, and in fact the GBA version of DotC introduced me to the strategy genre.

[@antster1983]

The "Wings" name was revived by Namco for "Wings 2: Aces High" on the SNES, developed by Acme Interactive (founded by Bob Jacob post-Cinemaware, later to be acquired by Malibu Comics). The game was renamed as "Sky Mission" in Japan and "Blazing Skies" in PAL regions.

[@jothain]

Wow, I never thought they would've make so bad decision to go FMW. I thought they realized that their charm was those beautiful hand drawn graphics. Absolutely loved It Came From the Desert and Wings. They were so unique games at their time and they captured something that many failed and it was the feel/mood in game.

[@bjornh1527]

Thanks for another amazing chronicle! Wings was one of the best experiences I ever had on a friends Amiga 500. It is very immersive and also very hard. Unfortunatly the dogfighting is tough to control due to the low framerate, but I still love the game. I supported the remaster a few years ago, and while the new 3D graphics lack the charm of the original, it does play smoothly.

[@dennett316]

That 3 Stooges game had a brief cameo in Lethal Weapon 3. Very informative video Kim, great stuff.

[@boblinds]

To reinforce the point, the excellence of Wings was all about the design brilliance of John Cutter. Delighted to hear you praise its uniquely moving place among video war games.

[@electricdreams8237]

Awesome documentary; done with a personal style yet fiercely objective, meticulously researched yet honed to a point . "Definitive" is the term I would use.

[@davidkennedy6208]

Another great TV quality documentary Kim.

[@davidkennedy6208]

In fact far better than the crap they show on TV haha!!!

[@davidkennedy6208]

Mike Smith! Yeah you gotta point there haha!!! Broadcast quality??? Oh crap, that's the same thing!!! Superb quality (I think I'll leave it at that)

[@tawdryhepburn4686]

This video is stunningly detailed and thorough. It’s honestly on the level of a cable documentary. And a good one at that.

[@Midwinter2]

Another terrific video. My parents bought Defender Of the Crown for me the year it came out (at an enormous price - I still feel bad that they paid so much). The graphics were sensational - but it was immediately apparent that the gameplay was very underdeveloped. A real shame; it was one of my first big disappointments with an Amiga game. Sadly, there were many more to follow... However, in Rocket Ranger and Wings I think they got the formula about right.

[@bluespaceman7937]

I've always had this distant fascination with their games, but mostly based on old-school magazine coverage. I never played them as a kid. Sure wanted to though! Good video, my congratulations.

[@bsd107]

Very interesting hearing about their insistence on no more than 2 floppy disks per game. That was a killer issue for me. In 1988, I first witnessed a friend playing Three Stooges on their Amiga, and I was totally blown away. I then bought Rocket Ranger for my IBM PS/2 80286 (equipped with VGA) in 1989, and I was totally pissed when I ran it and found that, despite listing VGA and MCGA video support on the box (both of which support 256 colors at 320x200 resolution), the game actually ran only in 16 color mode. I literally wrote a letter to Cinemaware (this is pre-email days, folks!) complaining about this and telling them to make the PC game in 256 colors. Believe it or not, they wrote a letter back to me, explaining that 256 colors would have required shipping the game on a dozen floppy disks instead of two, and that would be cost prohibitive. I was frustrated but could see their point. I never bought another Cinemaware game, though, because of this. Fast forward two years, and on the same 80286 machine I was playing Sierra Online’s Kings Quest V and Space Quest IV, both of which ran in full 256 colors, and each shipped on ~10 floppy disks! The improvement in graphical quality from this was like night and day at the time. Basically, Cinemaware saving some money on diskette costs resulted in me saving ALL of my money by not spending it on Cinemaware games. Really was a shame.

[@Hainbach]

That was beautifully done. I was a total Cinemaware fan and agree with all points raised.

[@speedyreidy575]

What a fantastic documentary, so well compiled and rich with information. Loved playing Rocket Ranger, Wings and It came from the Desert. Keep up the excellent work Kim.

[@Kim_Justice]

Thanks for watching! Support me on Patreon: bit.ly/2IPA8FJ One time donation: bit.ly/2ssTqaf

[@aidandegg4176]

Loved this vid - was somewhat obsessed with Defender of the Crown on my dad's Atari ST and adored It Came from the Desert on a friends Amiga. I really enjoyed pretty much every game Cinemaware put out (that I played) to a greater or lesser extent. Thanks for another great vid

[@danielmccormick700]

I'd really contest that notion that the Stooges weren't popular at that time in the 80's. Their shorts were playing twice daily on channels like TBS till around '87-'88, Stooge film festivals were still occasionally appearing at art house cinemas, and Columbia released several collections on VHS.

[@piEbo70]

Great video, I was a play tester at Mirrorsoft in 89 and the day tv sports basketball turned up for testing the studio ground to a halt as we played it all day until the manager (who's name escapes me now) came in and went mad at us for doing nothing all day lol.

[@sethc6762]

Thanks so much for this Kim. Your videos are a real treat and really take me back. Would absolutely love for you to cover the game, Another World.

[@toffel]

43:16 I clapped when I saw the Red Letter Media bit.

[@gabrieleriva651]

It broke new ground.

[@LasseSrnes]

Stunning video again! Still remember the day Defender of The Crown arrived in that amazing box in my mailbox. Rocket Ranger, aaah those memories :) 10/10 video Kim!

[@marcozolo3536]

I keep thinking if the Amiga was still around, that Cinemaware would have reached Rockstar games level status and maybe we'd all be playing a It Came from the desert sequel in an open world setting not unlike Elder Scrolls or Red Dead Redemption

[@noiselabproject9659]

awesome, have fond memories of some of these games, especially Wings where a few Musician friends and myself played it a lot during downtime at my commercial recording Studio

[@seanp8220]

What a remarkable guru of knowledge you are Kim. Great videos.

[@EvanCWaters]

As a pre-teen who was inordinately fond of 50s B monster movies, I felt like It Came From The Desert was made for me. I even proudly figured out I had to shoot the ants in the antennae, because that's what they said to do in Them! (It's a shame this genre isn't better explored in gaming. There's the occasional try at it but it can be hard to get the feel right.) I even loved that the box had a picture of a full movie theater, waiting for the show to begin. Really made me feel like this was somehow a movie.

[@Lucasrainford]

I loved Cinemaware games, on the Amiga of course. My favs were Rocket ranger, Wings and It came from the desert. I completed all three, great times. Excellent vid Kim. :)

[@darran311]

I'm a simple man I see a new Kim justice video , especially a documentary, I click it...

[@PenguinDT]

Great classics right there. If I recall right, Cinemaware tried to do a comeback a little while a go. Did that go bust? Also, it brings tears to my eye every time I read/listen to stuff about the ethos of Electronic Arts in the beginning. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster".

[@ElZorroHonesto]

_Did that go bust?_ Short answer: It did. Long answer: A guy named Lars Fuhrken-Batista looked up all the old Cinemaware's assets, bought them sometime around 2001, and founded "Cinemaware, Inc." The idea was to put out straight ports of the original games, "Digitally Remastered Collector's Editions", remakes of the original games, and new IPs. By 2004, they were half-dead, as all they had to show was two remasters (DotC, Three Stooges), three GBA ports (DotC, Three Stooges, Wings), one port of Three Stooges for PlayStation 1, Robin Hood DotC, and High Rollers Casino (what's that? Exactly). None of this saw much success, if any. In 2005 they were bought by a company called "eGames" and reduced to a publishing label called "Cinemaware Marquee", which was also a bust. Most recently, the original assets have been owned by "Starbreeze Studios AB" since 2016.

[@PenguinDT]

@@ElZorroHonesto Damn, such a shame. Some stuff like 'It Came from the Desert' would translate very well into a modern remake. At least Cinemaware bowed out with some respect and didn't have the fate of Intellivision.

[@ElZorroHonesto]

@@PenguinDT I believe the recent "Wings: Remastered Edition" was meant to be a remake and instead became a remaster. There was a remaster of Lords of the Rising Sun in the works that was never released. Rocket Ranger Reloaded was announced, had a successful Kickstarter, put out a couple of demos, and then was cancelled. The latter is a particular punch in the gut for me, as Rocket Ranger is my favorite Cinemaware game and a modern remake would be fantastic.

[@mr.vidjagamez9896]

Had no idea that Cinemaware worked on Disney Cartoon Arcade, I think that was the only game I ever owned for that bizarre hunk of plastic and circuits. I did enjoy many of their published titles when the brand was revived in the 2000s, particularly Darwinia.

[@bedder470]

Your games company docs are your best work I think. Plus you made me do a Three Stooges binge, so thanks!

[@neojeets]

Kudos on the video, Kim. Thanks for all your hard work, I really enjoyed this one.

[@miketate3445]

Wow. This is a spectacular video. I was glued to the screen for the whole time.

[@pauljohnson7548]

Old fart here. I remember when the TurboGrafx CD was about to be released here in the states, there was a tremendous amount of hype in the gaming mags surrounding Cinemaware's Lords of the Rising Sun. The TG-CD port was the first console game ever to be released in the U.S. that featured a full-screen motion video intro. NOBODY talks about that game nowadays, but it was a big deal at the time.

[@colin419]

I loved Wings & it came from the desert. I had no idea things went so bad for them. What a game to go out on. Thanks again for another great documentary Kim :)

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

Another masterpiece Kim. Poor Cinemaware, they really were innovators and defined the Amiga days for me. What a game to go out on with Wings though.

[@BenWard29]

Great job, Kim. I was playing King of Chicago and Rocket Ranger on my Apple IIgs back when I was a little one, and I've been waiting for this for a while. The DRM was killer on RR- I bought it retail but lost the damn code wheel after a year or so. I'd still play it just to maybe get through a couple of take offs without landing in the ocean.

[@akwalek]

Great video Kim, but Lords of the Rising Sun wasn't obscure. I remember that tune that kicks in at 32:31; It's by Alister Brimble & was first featured on an Amiga Forrmat coverdisk (With Xenon 2 demo) First Amiga mag I ever bought.. Ah, memories.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

It certainly wasn't obscure, it was made rather infamous by their response in the magazine, to ACE magazines review of it.

[@andersdenkend]

Oh hell yes. That‘s why I love this channel! Great work!

[@RolexTharsus]

Ah Defender of the Crown... Still haven't won a joust in 28 years of playing it. Great doc as always Kim!

[@LordmonkeyTRM]

Utterly compelling, and highly informative. Nice one Kim!

[@mrmagoo003]

the „lost patrol“-music after the Defender of.... segment really touched my retro :)

[@madcommodore]

Oh and the Sega sprite scaling 3D style sailing between obstacles levels of Sinbad was really impressive on the Amiga 1000 in 1986, the game is also really challenging. The pixel art can let it down a lot though sadly and should have been tidied up but it's NOT better on C64 or ST as DotC is.

[@davedogge2280]

I absolutely loved Defender of The Crown on my Amiga 500, It Came From the Desert was an ok great B-movie game. Sadly I never played King of Chicago and The Rocket Ranger (loosely based on The Rocketeer and other Rocket Man tv serials and movies).

[@RonnieBarzel]

Wow, Cinemaware’s library was quite a bit more extensive than the “Defenders of the Crown” and “Three Stooges” I remember.

[@nicholas_scott]

I loved Cinemaware games back 30 years ago, but never knew about all the drama. Loved this video. I remember when Cinemaware was brought back 10 years ago making ports. They placed all the original games online to download for free! You might still be able to get them off archive.org

[@FCT5809]

These are my favourite types of your vids; this is where you really excel

[@thelaststraw1987]

Always been a fan of Cinemaware, but did´nt know about The Kristal! Looks fabulous. Art reminds me a bit of Sinbad, and I had a soft spot for that. Crazy game, for sure, but full of unexpected surprises...

[@jackreeve3037]

The Atari Ste version of Defender of the crown is my favorite game of all time I first played it in 92 at 3 years old and it blew my mind because I love story based games and DOTC had a much deeper story than was around at the time played almost every version of it since by today's standards it is basic but was way ahead of anything on the ST even 6 years after its release when I played it. Also with the StE's music sounds better to me than the Amiga version glad someone finally gives it its credit on youtube.

[@williamwright9079]

I love Defender of the crown! Good game, gotta grab that middle ground quick or its curtains for you! Thanks for the videos as always! Kim Justice rocks!

[@davidpike766]

Your videos are so well done Kim, thanks for this and the others. I hope you're making good money for this stuff :D

[@davidpike766]

To qualify, I admire the thorough journalism most of all.

[@MinisterSandman]

I was hoping you'd do a video on this. You've read my mind.

[@channelzero2252]

I watched this to kill some time. But this story actually moved me. So I hope, if nothing else, that the folk behind Cinemaware have had good success in their chosen fields since then.

[@JohnThelin]

I think Wings is the only - defnintely the first - longer game I ever finished. Thanks for this.

[@Alianger]

I remember the The Way of the Tiger books having multiple paths to victory, but it's been a while. Anyway, good stuff Kim!

[@Savoy1984]

Great video, one thing I don't think was mentioned though which I think is really cool, the most recent Three Stooges film is a remake of the Amiga Game. Keep up the good work.

[@andy7666]

Wings was the game for me. I played that for so many hours, loved it to bits.. Cinemaware put out some great games on the Amiga.

[@jamesroberts8971]

Great video documentary. Very informative and interesting. I didn't even know about some of the games / conversions.

[@Vlad-bu3mr]

Wings that game gave me chills back in the day and actually made me find out about WW1 which for a child of the 90's is all the praise it needs...RIP Cinemaware you flew to close to the sun as all greats do eventually.

[@yansproductions]

I miss the old ea... Now its just microtransactions and dlcs...

[@robintst]

Another great developer retrospective, Kim, I love when you do these. :D I don't think I played any Cinemaware game on my Amiga more than the Three Stooges. I suppose nostalgia blinds me to it's somewhat shallow design but I certainly had years of fun with it. And this is coming from one of the few and far between American Amiga users. Cheers from across the pond! :)

[@DashingPunkSamurai]

Wow great job Spielberg. no one will ever forget your Commando Cody work! Thumbs Up!

[@HORansome]

This is a great video but I want to hazard one correction: Antheads (Desert 2) was sold as a boxed copy in some stores; I got it from a game store in Rotorua, New Zealand. It came in a smaller sized box than the standard game (barely bigger than a diskette).

[@domicius]

Excellence work, and a very influential company indeed. I played Defender of the Crown many times back in the day on the PC. Its only real competition as entry-level strategy game was The Ancient Art Of War which was nowhere near as pretty! Never did win a joust though... That section was brutal.

[@Icipher353]

Cinemaware were great. I played many of their games back in the early 90's; Wings remains one of my favourite games of all time.

[@stoneocean0065]

Time for some tea I believe ( I have work at 7:30 and I couldn't sleep at all ) the tea will help

[@jrjgames]

Great. Loved 3 Stooges on my Amiga. Load times were excruciating though.

[@Everstar08]

Finally! Another documentary! Thanks, Kim - Made my day ;)

[@TheBeird]

Starts with The Rocket Ranger music, gets me hooked straight away. Thought it was Rocket Adventurer at first. Bloody Konami

[@badnewsbruner]

Absolutely fantastic work Kim :) I LOVE these videos!!

[@MrMojoSuper]

Great documentary! Good job man.

[@Paeronhierta]

How can you 'only' have 42k subs? You're pushing out quality stuff here on the regular!

[@steveetienne]

Ive only just started this video and already i hear the music from Rocket Ranger!! Cinemaware along with the Bitmap Bros were my fave developers for my trusty Amiga. Thankyou for this video.

[@thebes118]

Cinemaware was one of my favorite game makers back then.

[@alexstokoe2542]

That brief flash of the underground nest section on It Came From the Desert gave me such a heart-lurching blast of excitement, because I played that game to death and I only got to that bit once, and didn't make it through. [This qualifier goes on all my posts, but I may have mis-remembered that.] Was there also a bit where you were in a wheelchair trying to escape the ward sister to get out of hospital?

[@Henrik_Holst]

Alex Stokoe yes there was

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

The original artwork for ST S.D.I, was drawn on the ST for convince, but were deemed too poor to be of use, so an Amiga was used to upgrade them.

[@Pokesmol]

Fucking yes an other awesome Kim video with a peep show reference in !! This has made my day !!

[@Scopie33]

Wings and desert were truly great for the time. Such a shame they went under. The last game they were working on was rollerbabes, looked pretty interesting.

[@DeckerFI]

Three Stooges looked astonishing back then on Amiga. It had that chunky PC VGA Adventure game look to it.

[@loganjorgensen]

Funny Cinemaware had just crossed my mind again and here's your video about them. ;) Never played much of their wares but they had tons of magazine print ads and I'd always admire the beautiful painterly art these games had. Definitely a tall order "cinematic" games, such a broad concept that could sometimes make good gameplay and other times very shallow ones IE. mini games and short experiences. From a technical angle I think 16-bit was the bare minimum for their aspirations despite the excellent 8-bit porting, hah don't play the Amiga versions true. What they had in mind definitely would be facilitated better on CDs with the bigger storage and voice tracks while disks and carts were a big crunch to fit into. For example they did nothing but full screen splash style images and big sprites, that eats up diskette space fast heh. I wish they had flourished longer, I would have loved that style of game in the beginning of the CD era rather than all that FMV crap we got. They had stuff like it on Mega CD and PC Engine CD in Japan, it simply worked better to do traditional sprite animation with CD sound rather than fill up 8 CDs with non-interactive FMV.

[@KM-hv1jg]

Awww! I really want to play Wings now. Also, the Mac version of The King of Chicago has a... weirdly appealing aesthetic.

[@pappachook]

Another fascinating doc Kim. Thank you sir.

[@posthumanistpotato]

Cinemaware made a lot of great games, Rocket Ranger and It Came from the Desert are two of my favorite. The TG16 Ant Heads was excellent as well.

[@19822andy]

I owned defender of the crown for the NES. It was awful but it captivated me so I kept playing it anyway. I liked the "management" style play the game had.

[@001lessie]

Compliments on the research. Even as an Amiga buff I am learning some new facts. It came from the desert still is a very enjoyable title btw. Has aged very well. Wings not so much imo

[@keithfulkerson]

I knew the name Jim Sachs sounded familiar. He made a demo for the C64 that featured a ufo and a dinosaur, and looked pretty amazing.

[@teddym2808]

Amazing video by the way, this is such a trip down memory lane for me as I grew up as an 11yo with a C64 then as a late teen with Amiga. A lot of the CW games played poorly but I still stuck with all of them due to the looks which were just flabbergasting for back then (in the best way possible). I really liked RR and IT. They were my two.