I imagine if you're playing Amiga/C64 games with a gamepad you'd be frustrated at having to press up to jump, but everyone used joysticks back then so this was never a problem. It became a problem when games like Mayhem In Monsterland were released on the Wii Virtual Console and nobody thought it would be a good idea to assign up to a button.
Thanks Mez Played both the Amstrad CPC, PC Engine and Megadrive versions quite a bit. The only bad point about the Megadrive version is that there’s fewer enemies in each stage, which makes it harder to get the 7 coloured diamonds on each island before reaching the boss. PC Engine looks to have nearly as many as the arcade. CPC version is blocky and colourful, has all 7 rainbow colours (other 8 bit versions don’t!), but still lots a fun for a broke 90s teenager 😄
I know it's a copyright thing, but for me the worst ports are the ones without the *Somewhere over the rainbow* soundtrack. I just can't play an arcade without the background music I have burned into my brain.
One cool thing about the ports is that the graphics are all fairly exact with the arcade version, because the arcade machine only used 16 colours, so perfect for the ST - I'd argue that the ST version is the best example of an ST port ever.I remember back in the day, some Amiga users complaining that the game doesn't use the full 32 colours available on the Amiga, like the game needs to be more colourful!
1.When Rainbow Islands Extra was released in US in the Genesis Mini 2. This version used the altered US NES theme. 2.The Game Boy Color music is a bit wrong placed (such the Insect Islands used the Bubble Bobble stage theme). Fortunately there's a romhack that fix this problem restoring "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" over the Bubble Bobble stage theme and other misplaced themes. 3.The Master System version (like the US NES version) uses the Altered NES theme for both versions (EU and Brazil). There's another romhack that restores the "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" theme (from an early SMS build) over the altered one.
My first encounter of this was the Amiga version, followed by the C64 version (which I owned) and the ST version. All were great! Still have this on PS2 Taito Legends
I know during this time a lot of Western developers got a lot of crap (rightly so in many cases) but Graftgold really went above and beyond for every version they made of this game. It truly shows what talent can do for almost any project and they did such a great job that they were the ones hired to make the PlayStation and Saturn versions years after the fact. Truly astonishing the ports for systems like the Amstrad CPC and even the old Speccy. However I feel what really makes their work shine is when you compare their NES version to Taito's version for the Famicom. Virtually the same system underneth and I just feel Graftgold blows Taito's effort out of the water in many ways. Publisher Ocean apparently did this because they thought Taito's version wasn't good enough and well, for once, they were right.
Rainbow islands Putty's party is the best version o remake... the cut scene and story is comforting and entertaining, is a reason to play until the end or else to return to play and watch those cute scenes.
One of my favourite arcade games; this and New Zealand Story. I never managed to play the actual arcade games, but I did have them on the Amiga 500 and I found both thoroughly enjoyable. They're just so colourful and with so much to their gameplay. My favourite game that I did play in the arcade was the ultra rare Charley Chuck's Food Fight, which I only found in one arcade.
The Amiga version, is built FROM the ST version, Graftgold considered using 32 colours but it would of meant the game ran slower than the ST version, 20% of the graphics would of had to of been cut, to fit into 512K, others redrawn from scratch and code would of needed major optimising.
Retro Core I didn't, just the NTSC version that had the different first stage music. I remember the PAL version had a bit more color, but played slower and the music wasn't quite as good. I think that one was done by Ocean.
Classic. I would say though that you shouldn't be concerned about having more than 1 rainbow when tackling bosses, at least not the first 7 - the bosses are fairly easy once you know how they operate - one thing to watch for is bosses that follow you to the bottom of the screen, so if one is heading down, jump so it leaves space at the bottom for you to escape.Also worth noting that it has 3 whole extra worlds for those who can manage to get a gem on all the standard worlds. I am on the last boss, and I missed the first 2 gems so have to start again - one day I will get to that Darius level!
I think my first experience of this game was on the ZX Spectrum followed by the Amiga port. After that I bought the Mega Drive version which I loved. At one point in time this was a very expensive game on the Mega Drive. I've not had too much experience with the PC Engine version.
I was first introduced to this game by a friend and C64 owner... I was instantly sold on the awesome cutesy graphics and game mechanics. Such a great game and conversion! Haven't played the Amiga version but I bet it was amazing (despite the missing levels... Not that I would ever get that far to notice 😅). Such a shame it isn't included on the C64 Mini nor the Amiga 500 Mini! 🤷♂️
...and when you mentioned the PS/Saturn versions were identical while we were watching the PS clip, I was thinking 'no way, the Saturn did these transparencies?!?'
The Saturn can do transparencies just fine in 2D. It just needs to be done via software not hardware. THis is harder to do and takes more CPU power which is why quite a few games don't bother. I was playing Keio on the Saturn the other day. It's a very early Saturn game but filled with transparencies. Rainbow Islands on the Saturn and PlayStation really do look the same.
The PC Engine version looks the most appealing to me, as it's the closest to looking like the arcade version and there's more than one button, so you don't have to press up to jump.
@@RetroCore But it's not. I grew up with PC and was used to using the keyboard. I only used a joystick for certain games, but they usually have more than one button. Though I did grow up with PC gaming in the 90s and not the 80s, when controllers were more defined for the most part.
I've heard the computer versions don't have the last 3 islands. My mate adapted a Mega Drive pad by disconnecting the up wire and connecting it to the C button. All of a sudden shit arcade conversions became playable. Games like Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands and Super Hang On actually turned out to be quite fun.
I must say the ports of this game look very amazing. It is a proof, that with good head on your shoulders you can make a good looking port even on weak platforms. Sadly, most of the time, developers of ports didn't care.
I'd just like to say I've tried the PC engine version and it's fantastic. Lovely vivid colours and nice sound, I think I prefer this to the megadrive version and the md version is very good.
Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands were OK for the Amiga. R.I was an ST port, thankfully it was very good on ST. Parasol Stars on the other hand was properly coded for the Amiga.
Rainbow Islands Extra was not exclusive to the MD, it also appeared on the Japanese FM Towns Marty, and of course later on emulated on PS2 on one of the Japanese Taito Memories compilations. The original RI (along with Bubble Bobble) also got released on PC by Empire Interactive, a far cry better than the earlier mediocre Acclaim port, but then again the Empire one is emulated as well. It is also the only later version that did not have it's original music neutered due to copyright of Over the Rainbow (Taito had to nix a sound channel for the western versions, and redid the music for the Japanese PS2 version). ua-cam.com/video/uCK-wAumY-U/v-deo.html this is what Taito Japan did to to the music on the PS2 Taito Memories version, it sounds pretty good too.
@@ThoughtformsOfTheSubconsciousM I know this, I have watched his shows for a few years now, I just posted that Extra wasn't exclusive to one console, not about covering them. Rainbow Islands Extra on the FM Towns isn't emulation either, but a port.
Also the PS1 and Saturn Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands weren't quite arcade perfect. Bubble Bobble had broken physics in the game, and the RI port seems to be based off of other computer ports as the game doesn't have the final 3 hidden islands in it (Islands 7-10). So you don't get to face the true last boss, or get the games best ending.
In my opinion... PC-Engine Version is the best of all. The FM-Towns had a port of Rainbow Islands Extra, but the screen resolution makes an extra horizontal scrolling that it's annoying, but the version is accurated and excellent.
the name of this game is very familiar since I have been around games since the beginning but I never paid any attention to it. I have to say after watching this, the gameplay is very original and it makes me want to give it a play.
I got really far on this game, but the later levels can get tough as hell. Haven't beat it yet, but got a long ways into it. I am talking about the NES version.
Hah! I remember the guys at Amstrad Action used to rave about the CPC port of Rainbow Islands, it's use of colour and gameplay... thanks for the comparison video! I get the feeling you got used to the 'up for jump' control by the end?
Yeah, the CPC port is very impressive for the hardware. as for getting use to the pushing up to jump, no not really. I hated doing that back in the 80's and still hate it now :p The amout of times I'd die playing platformers on my mates Amiga back in the day, hahaha.
Love these detailed comparison videos. Thank you for your time and energy putting them together. I'm currently looking for an arcade perfect version (without buying a cab or emulating on MAME). Since I can't find an affordable version for my NTSC-J Sega Saturn, I'm thinking Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands for the PS1, or Taito Legends for PS2 seem to be the best options? I'm leaning towards Taito Legends since it comes with a few other classics... Anyone know of any other notable differences between the two?
Thanks for watching. I'd go for the Taito Legends version as I heard it is an emulation of the Arcade. Can't get much closer to the original than that.
Man do I love me some Rainbow Islands, it's just so satisfying. Raining death upon your enemies with rainbows, exploding the screen in an orgy of color, point icons, gem stones, and pixel art food icons of almost every type imaginable, ugh it's so awesome! Of the console ports without a doubt the PC-Engine version reigns supreme, it's damn near close to the arcade outside of the constant slowdown and sprite flickering. You'd think the Mega Drive version would've been better since it was made by Taito themselves, but nope NEC Avenue beat them at their own game (although it's the next best port). Just make sure to avoid the PSX / Saturn ports, while they may look identical at first glance they're completely borked. I've never played the Taito Memories version and am not sure if it's a port or emulated but I believe all the games on that collection are interlaced so.. If you're a RBI noob def go with the PCE, it's easier thanks to the slowdown and items take a lot longer to disappear, which is bad for high level players whos best option is still emulation of the arcade orig
Graftgold were Andrew Braybrook and Steve Turner, who made some 8-bit computer classics such as Uridium, Paradroid and Ranarama. I remember the Amiga version being a bit smoother than that, was your capture buggy or is my memory failing? Really love this game, it's great to see so many good ports.
Retro Core That's interesting because I seem to remember the Amiga version was smooth at the time, but then the consoles came along and showed that pretty much all games should run at 60fps, none of this half frame rate nonsense the Amiga got away with for years (apart from Turrican and a few other games). Your 60fps videos really help us see these differences.
@@bombjack1984 Games running at 50hz ware smooth from what I remember on the Amiga but clearly that isn't going to show here unless the youtube clip and emulator used is set to 50hz like the original game intended for the machine.
IMHO, the Famicon/NES version of Rainbow islands is harder than the arcade version/PlayStation/PC version. The level design changes drastically in the 3rd island on the NES version from the PC version.
@@RetroCore instead of rainbows 🌈 you fire out lava (?) that solidifies into rainbow like arches … but it doesn’t seem to allow you to stack very many on top of each other … guess they weigh too much 🤷🤣 … I gave up after level 4 as it got a bit repetitive … wish they released Rainbow Islands on the GBA, it would probably have looked / played great 👍🏼
Yes, they sure do. The extra island, right? I should have mentioned that. Also, many of the ports are missing some of the islands. I think the Mega Drive is the most complete out of all versions.
The Amiga and ST version doesn't have the last 3 secret islands. RI on the arcade has 3 endings, a bad one, a good one and a special one. You don't t get the special one in the home computer because of this. Graftgold said they would have to use one more floppy do add the secret islands, and Ocean was against it, since most people would never reach them anyway, raising the costs of producing the game for nothing.
Speaking of Rainbows, does anybody realize the first few notes of Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz playing in the background?
Mark this is excellent as usual. However, I've been playing this (and other old Taito games) for a while and I noticed some odd things as I was playing various versions worth noting. There are some not entirely obvious ommissions in some ports (no multiplayer in most ports, missing endings and last 3 stages or bonus rooms are gone in lots). You can read more about it here (uridiumauthor.blogspot.com/2018/03/rainbow-islands.html) You notice if you're trying to get all endings etc. Ocean/Acclaim screwed up (allegedly) the floppy versions as they didn't want it to go over 1 floppy, so they cut out large chunks - this affects all of the ports that use Graftgold's code). Importantly - there are three endings to the game; if you can't access the last 3 stages, it's impossible to get the 'good' ending. In the Megadrive port, the first world has a black background and mimics the arcade ROM fairly accurately for 'extra'. They probably neglected to change it when switching to 'original' mode (the programming error you refer to). The FM-Towns (extra), Megadrive (extra + original) and PC-Engine CD versions (just vanilla Rainbow Islands) are the truest ports to the arcade (that contain every level/ending). The PC-Engine CD port is barebones, but a really nice port (my favorite way to play it currently next to the Megadrive port - I can't afford the FM-Towns). As mentioned, due to using the Graftgold code, the Saturn & PS1 versions, unfortunately, aren't arcade-perfect. Possibly the only home version that was technically arcade-perfect would probably be the Taito Memories on the PS2 (which is more likely just running the arcade ROM, so I guess it's not really a port as such).
Interesting. As far as I'm aware (please correct me if I'm wrong), the Mega Drive port is also missing endings in Original Mode...even if you get to the end of Dragon Island with all large gems collected, you still get the bad ending telling you that you need all the large gems and the last 3 islands won't unlock. However, the last 3 islands and all the endings are available in Extra Mode, which is a little weird. It seems to me almost like the port was developed mainly around Extra Mode, and Original Mode was tacked on almost as an afterthought with minimal effort (which would also go some way to explaining why they never bothered switching Insect Island's background to blue for Original Mode either).
I had ZX Spectrum version when the game was first released which I enjoyed. Have you played the sequel Parasol Stars? I think it was released on the Amiga, Atari ST, PC Engine, Gameboy and Nes.
You could say that the AMIGA having up to jump is good and the jump button being a hinderence in some games though. Parasol Stars I find better on AMIGA over the PCE because of the up to jump in that crazy game because you need to be jumping and whacking at the same time and with up to jump it makes it a better control system for that type of game where you have to do both whacking and jumping.
The thing about up for jump is that it doesn't work with joypads. That's why console-centric players complain so much about it. I use an arcade stick with my Amiga and it is perfect with this game.
Just going to point out Andrew Braybrook and Graftgold were behind the fantastic home computer ports and Andrew/Jane Whittaker had ZERO involvement in any of them. Whittaker running around the net and in magazine interviews taking credit for doing the ST and Amiga versions 🙄
You need to stop hating on the push up to jump mechanic. I can understand you finding it awkward if you grew up with consoles but those of us who owned Amiga/ST found it fine and it was actually an advantage in some games (someone mentioned Parasol Stars). I also get the impression that you don't like the Amiga which makes me a sad Panda. It was a great computer for games.
It's not that I hate the Amiga but that I think many of the arcade Ports are really poor. As a kid I would play on my mates Amiga a lot. We loved playing games such as 3D Stunt Car Racer, Rick Dangerous, Xenon 2 and others. Just when it comes to arcade Ports it is mostly pretty poor. As for he push up to jump or accelerate issue, I'll never like that. It just seems a lack of inside to add more buttons to the control system. I know that near the end if the systems life there were some games that used two buttons. It's just a shame that didn't come sooner.
The Amiga suffered from poor ports of quite a few arcade games that much is true, but this is no reflection of the Amiga hardware which was pretty powerful in period, most arcade conversions were done on a shoestring budget to very tight deadlines by pushy publishers who wanted to coin in on the latest arcade releases. Amiga titles designed from the ground up for the hardware in question provide some amazing gaming experiences that are fondly remembered today, most if not all of our UK gaming heritage cut its teeth on the Amiga platform and moved on in later years to become game producing power houses throughout the world. Sadly the Amiga was mismanaged by CBM over the years and is no longer with us, the A1200 was not the system the engineers wanted to build and was years late due to internal politics, before their demise a few prototype Amiga AAA chipsets existed that by all known benchmarks would have left a high end PC in the dust, we are talking 3D0 M2/PS2 levels of performance in circa 1993/4. The Amiga was the last of the home computers that truly had a soul and is sadly missed by many.
While the Amiga version indeed is a great port it is missing the final three islands (as many of the early ports do). And as far as the Mega Drive version goes, besides for some strange reason switching the background colour between the first and third island it also completely messes up the jump mechanics. Platforms you would normally reach in the other versions are just out of reach here. The jump is too low, which really hurts the flow of the game making it quite a chore to play through.
Otaku is the Japanese word for nerd. But it doesn't mean someone who enjoys games or anime but someone who lives in that world or participates in cosplay.
You are being too harsh on the amiga, sure it had a lot of shitty ports, but then you have hidden pretty good stuff like Ninja Gaiden, Snow Bros or Pang. The unreleased Liquid Kids port is quite good too.
Marcel Weber There are good ports on the Amiga, that's true but most of them are complete rubbish. To me the Amiga was the playStation of the time. No matter what something was like it was mostly regarded as being excelent.
Why no Super NES/Super Famicom version?! Why?!? Any single screen enemy clearing (Bubble Bobble-like) game on the SNES at all? Of all the games that got a port to the NES, Sega Genesis and even TurboGrafx-16, why didn’t Super NES fans get a piece of that port pie? I should be seeing people bitching about why they didn’t get a Super Road Rash, Super Outrun, Super After Burner II, Super Space Harrier, Super Klax, Super Splatterhouse Jr. (sequel to that Famicom Splatterhouse game), Super Rainbow Island, Super Snow Bros, Super Bubble Bobble or anything else like that but we SNES fans are grateful for everything else that’s a great port like Street Fighter II, TMNT IV, this and that.
Because this game isn't on the SFC / SNES. There are games released in Japan like Bubble Bobble on the SFC but titles I don't remember off the top of my head. There's only a handful though
The PS2 versions are emulations, mind you spot on emulations, but emulation none the less. I made mention in these comments years back about the FM Towns port, there's only one FM Town emulator, UNZ, and finding the disc images can be a little hard. Plus you must make a boot file for Bubble Bobble in order for Rainbow Islands to work for some reason.
Yet the Taito Memories version actually fills the music back in nicely, sounding fuller, though still different enough to avoid copyright violation. I found a video from Nico Nico all those years ago, ripped it, and put it up on UA-cam (credit of course given to the Nico uploader): ua-cam.com/video/uCK-wAumY-U/v-deo.html
YOU MUST BE TRYING TO FOOL ME; I DON'T BELIEVE MY EYES!! YOU'RE LYING, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!! An arcade game.. an arcade game, in which all of the systems it has been ported to-- An arcade game.. in which all of it's versions... actually made good use of the hardware, and were acutally good?? GREAT, infact?? N-NN-NO! This is not real life; it's not REAL. It can't be real! There's no way of it being real!! It cannot be true!... It's not true; it's not--That would be impossible.. an unpossibility!... Am I still alive? Is this actually real..? All of them, every single one.. every single one of these versions, of these ports! Every port of this game is GOOD! THEY'RE ALL GOOD!! THEY'RE ALL GOOOOD!!! My jaw dropped so hard it feels like it fell from my face! I'm impressed--This is surreal! It's actually surreal! SURREAL!!! Surreal but.. apparently.... a reality.. a... reality. S-SSs...somehow.. somehow... they did it... they did it! They didn't fuck up once! NOT, EVEN, ONCE!!... I.. I don't know if I can even believe in this! I know what my eyes are seeing, but my mind just.. doesn't believe it! Doesn't accept it!.. Doesn't UNDERSTAND it!! Rainbow Island prooves that there is still hope! There is still hope for awesome ports!! This is an event! It's unbelieveable!!!
Seems all ports are good except the Wonder Swan one which should be renamed to "monochrome islands". And the MD version tried to be "edgy" by making all backgrounds black.
Copyright issues. The later versions of the game were required to use different music since the earlier soundtrack was too close to Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
I imagine if you're playing Amiga/C64 games with a gamepad you'd be frustrated at having to press up to jump, but everyone used joysticks back then so this was never a problem. It became a problem when games like Mayhem In Monsterland were released on the Wii Virtual Console and nobody thought it would be a good idea to assign up to a button.
I think Rainbow Islands has the most playable number of ports of any game featured on BOTP so far. Great video.
I think you're right. Even the worst port (The GBC) is playable. It's a fantastic game no matter what platform you play it on.
I spent countless hours playing this game on my Amiga. Great times.
My request for Arkanoid brought me here. This game references Arkanoid, in case you've never played until that point.
It also references to Darius :) I've finished Rainbow Islands a few times. Great game.
Retro Core Arkanoid and Darius were great :D
Referenced? The entire 5th Island is played in Doh's dimension.
Thanks Mez
Played both the Amstrad CPC, PC Engine and Megadrive versions quite a bit. The only bad point about the Megadrive version is that there’s fewer enemies in each stage, which makes it harder to get the 7 coloured diamonds on each island before reaching the boss. PC Engine looks to have nearly as many as the arcade. CPC version is blocky and colourful, has all 7 rainbow colours (other 8 bit versions don’t!), but still lots a fun for a broke 90s teenager 😄
I know it's a copyright thing, but for me the worst ports are the ones without the *Somewhere over the rainbow* soundtrack.
I just can't play an arcade without the background music I have burned into my brain.
I know what you mean. It's part of the game even though it probably shouldn't be.
That’s why the Mega-Drive version is best, the music sounds amazing
One cool thing about the ports is that the graphics are all fairly exact with the arcade version, because the arcade machine only used 16 colours, so perfect for the ST - I'd argue that the ST version is the best example of an ST port ever.I remember back in the day, some Amiga users complaining that the game doesn't use the full 32 colours available on the Amiga, like the game needs to be more colourful!
+stunthumb 32 colours :) I should complain that my Mega Drive copy doesn't use all 64 colours :p than again, even 64 colours is a little sad.
I thinks in this game would be better 32 colours in screen of a palette of 4096 than 64 colours of 512 palette.
@@RetroCore The Mega-Drive version is perfect! Music is even better than the arcade. I just ordered a CIB copy from Japan 🇯🇵
1.When Rainbow Islands Extra was released in US in the Genesis Mini 2. This version used the altered US NES theme.
2.The Game Boy Color music is a bit wrong placed (such the Insect Islands used the Bubble Bobble stage theme). Fortunately there's a romhack that fix this problem restoring "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" over the Bubble Bobble stage theme and other misplaced themes.
3.The Master System version (like the US NES version) uses the Altered NES theme for both versions (EU and Brazil). There's another romhack that restores the "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" theme (from an early SMS build) over the altered one.
My first encounter of this was the Amiga version, followed by the C64 version (which I owned) and the ST version. All were great! Still have this on PS2 Taito Legends
I know during this time a lot of Western developers got a lot of crap (rightly so in many cases) but Graftgold really went above and beyond for every version they made of this game. It truly shows what talent can do for almost any project and they did such a great job that they were the ones hired to make the PlayStation and Saturn versions years after the fact.
Truly astonishing the ports for systems like the Amstrad CPC and even the old Speccy. However I feel what really makes their work shine is when you compare their NES version to Taito's version for the Famicom. Virtually the same system underneth and I just feel Graftgold blows Taito's effort out of the water in many ways. Publisher Ocean apparently did this because they thought Taito's version wasn't good enough and well, for once, they were right.
Rainbow islands Putty's party is the best version o remake... the cut scene and story is comforting and entertaining, is a reason to play until the end or else to return to play and watch those cute scenes.
One of my favourite arcade games; this and New Zealand Story. I never managed to play the actual arcade games, but I did have them on the Amiga 500 and I found both thoroughly enjoyable. They're just so colourful and with so much to their gameplay. My favourite game that I did play in the arcade was the ultra rare Charley Chuck's Food Fight, which I only found in one arcade.
The Amiga version, is built FROM the ST version, Graftgold considered using 32 colours but it would of meant the game ran slower than the ST version, 20% of the graphics would of had to of been cut, to fit into 512K, others redrawn from scratch and code would of needed major optimising.
Sweet, I love Rainbow Islands. I never saw an arcade version around here, but I had the NES version and played the hell out of it.
Did you have the PAL NES version? If so, how different was it from the Famicom version shown on this video?
Retro Core I didn't, just the NTSC version that had the different first stage music. I remember the PAL version had a bit more color, but played slower and the music wasn't quite as good. I think that one was done by Ocean.
RoryDropkick
Apparently the PAL version was by GraftGold who did the home computer ports.
Classic. I would say though that you shouldn't be concerned about having more than 1 rainbow when tackling bosses, at least not the first 7 - the bosses are fairly easy once you know how they operate - one thing to watch for is bosses that follow you to the bottom of the screen, so if one is heading down, jump so it leaves space at the bottom for you to escape.Also worth noting that it has 3 whole extra worlds for those who can manage to get a gem on all the standard worlds. I am on the last boss, and I missed the first 2 gems so have to start again - one day I will get to that Darius level!
+stunthumb Good advice.
I had this on the C64. It was a solid port, up for jump notwithstanding. The PC Engine version stood out the most to me.
I think my first experience of this game was on the ZX Spectrum followed by the Amiga port. After that I bought the Mega Drive version which I loved. At one point in time this was a very expensive game on the Mega Drive. I've not had too much experience with the PC Engine version.
I was first introduced to this game by a friend and C64 owner... I was instantly sold on the awesome cutesy graphics and game mechanics. Such a great game and conversion! Haven't played the Amiga version but I bet it was amazing (despite the missing levels... Not that I would ever get that far to notice 😅).
Such a shame it isn't included on the C64 Mini nor the Amiga 500 Mini! 🤷♂️
ah the memorys amiga 500 never could beat that darn spider
...and when you mentioned the PS/Saturn versions were identical while we were watching the PS clip, I was thinking 'no way, the Saturn did these transparencies?!?'
The Saturn can do transparencies just fine in 2D. It just needs to be done via software not hardware. THis is harder to do and takes more CPU power which is why quite a few games don't bother. I was playing Keio on the Saturn the other day. It's a very early Saturn game but filled with transparencies. Rainbow Islands on the Saturn and PlayStation really do look the same.
The PC Engine version looks the most appealing to me, as it's the closest to looking like the arcade version and there's more than one button, so you don't have to press up to jump.
Don't say that, you'll anger the Amiga fanboys who will no doubt have a good reason as to why pushing up to jump in a platform game is better. 😅
@@RetroCore But it's not. I grew up with PC and was used to using the keyboard. I only used a joystick for certain games, but they usually have more than one button. Though I did grow up with PC gaming in the 90s and not the 80s, when controllers were more defined for the most part.
I just found out, there's an FM Towns port as well, called Rainbow Islands Extra.
Nice, I wasn't aware of that.
Despite its flaws, I still play the Master System version occasionally. That shit is addictive
Indeed it is.
I've heard the computer versions don't have the last 3 islands. My mate adapted a Mega Drive pad by disconnecting the up wire and connecting it to the C button. All of a sudden shit arcade conversions became playable. Games like Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands and Super Hang On actually turned out to be quite fun.
I must say the ports of this game look very amazing. It is a proof, that with good head on your shoulders you can make a good looking port even on weak platforms. Sadly, most of the time, developers of ports didn't care.
Honestly, I think I prefer the music in the Amiga version over even the arcade.
I'd just like to say I've tried the PC engine version and it's fantastic. Lovely vivid colours and nice sound, I think I prefer this to the megadrive version and the md version is very good.
Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands were OK for the Amiga.
R.I was an ST port, thankfully it was very good on ST.
Parasol Stars on the other hand was properly coded for the Amiga.
RI was "OK"?? Apart from the "up to jump" thing it was brilliant if you don't expect it to be the PC Engine CD-ROM version.
Rainbow Islands Extra was not exclusive to the MD, it also appeared on the Japanese FM Towns Marty, and of course later on emulated on PS2 on one of the Japanese Taito Memories compilations. The original RI (along with Bubble Bobble) also got released on PC by Empire Interactive, a far cry better than the earlier mediocre Acclaim port, but then again the Empire one is emulated as well. It is also the only later version that did not have it's original music neutered due to copyright of Over the Rainbow (Taito had to nix a sound channel for the western versions, and redid the music for the Japanese PS2 version).
ua-cam.com/video/uCK-wAumY-U/v-deo.html this is what Taito Japan did to to the music on the PS2 Taito Memories version, it sounds pretty good too.
He never covers emulated versions, they don't count.
@@ThoughtformsOfTheSubconsciousM I know this, I have watched his shows for a few years now, I just posted that Extra wasn't exclusive to one console, not about covering them. Rainbow Islands Extra on the FM Towns isn't emulation either, but a port.
In the P.C Engine CD 💿 and Mega-Drive version Bubby looks Irish, aka the red hair, lol 🧑🏻🦰 Bubby does sound like an Irish name too, lol ☘️
Noticed that the music that plays on the first stage in the Megadrive version is the level 2 theme from Darius?
Hmm, can't say I noticed that but then again I never really played the original Darius much. Mostly played Darius 2.
Lyra it is from the darius island in this game
that's because that level was originally the darius secret level from the arcade.
Also the PS1 and Saturn Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands weren't quite arcade perfect. Bubble Bobble had broken physics in the game, and the RI port seems to be based off of other computer ports as the game doesn't have the final 3 hidden islands in it (Islands 7-10). So you don't get to face the true last boss, or get the games best ending.
the big spider in the c64 port looks like shrek
In my opinion... PC-Engine Version is the best of all. The FM-Towns had a port of Rainbow Islands Extra, but the screen resolution makes an extra horizontal scrolling that it's annoying, but the version is accurated and excellent.
the name of this game is very familiar since I have been around games since the beginning but I never paid any attention to it. I have to say after watching this, the gameplay is very original and it makes me want to give it a play.
You should try it. At first it's a little tricky but once you get use to the controlls you'll love it.
For the PlayStation/SEGA Saturn one, there’s still differences between the two, but not as many.
You should have shown Ocean's NES port of the game. It looks much better than the famicom version.
I got really far on this game, but the later levels can get tough as hell. Haven't beat it yet, but got a long ways into it. I am talking about the NES version.
Hah! I remember the guys at Amstrad Action used to rave about the CPC port of Rainbow Islands, it's use of colour and gameplay... thanks for the comparison video!
I get the feeling you got used to the 'up for jump' control by the end?
Yeah, the CPC port is very impressive for the hardware. as for getting use to the pushing up to jump, no not really. I hated doing that back in the 80's and still hate it now :p The amout of times I'd die playing platformers on my mates Amiga back in the day, hahaha.
Ocean did well giving to a decent developer. Graftgold did lots of great games
Odd how the gameboy colour version had the bubble bobble music
Copyright issues I guess. It did come later.
Love these detailed comparison videos. Thank you for your time and energy putting them together.
I'm currently looking for an arcade perfect version (without buying a cab or emulating on MAME). Since I can't find an affordable version for my NTSC-J Sega Saturn, I'm thinking Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands for the PS1, or Taito Legends for PS2 seem to be the best options? I'm leaning towards Taito Legends since it comes with a few other classics... Anyone know of any other notable differences between the two?
Thanks for watching.
I'd go for the Taito Legends version as I heard it is an emulation of the Arcade. Can't get much closer to the original than that.
@@RetroCore awesome... I now have that on order, along with an ASCIIware arcade stick to get some stick and microswitch kicks XD
Man do I love me some Rainbow Islands, it's just so satisfying. Raining death upon your enemies with rainbows, exploding the screen in an orgy of color, point icons, gem stones, and pixel art food icons of almost every type imaginable, ugh it's so awesome!
Of the console ports without a doubt the PC-Engine version reigns supreme, it's damn near close to the arcade outside of the constant slowdown and sprite flickering. You'd think the Mega Drive version would've been better since it was made by Taito themselves, but nope NEC Avenue beat them at their own game (although it's the next best port). Just make sure to avoid the PSX / Saturn ports, while they may look identical at first glance they're completely borked. I've never played the Taito Memories version and am not sure if it's a port or emulated but I believe all the games on that collection are interlaced so.. If you're a RBI noob def go with the PCE, it's easier thanks to the slowdown and items take a lot longer to disappear, which is bad for high level players whos best option is still emulation of the arcade orig
All games on the Taito memories collections suck due to the horrid screen scaling and nasty filters.
Finally! A worthwhile port to the Amstrad!
Graftgold were Andrew Braybrook and Steve Turner, who made some 8-bit computer classics such as Uridium, Paradroid and Ranarama.
I remember the Amiga version being a bit smoother than that, was your capture buggy or is my memory failing?
Really love this game, it's great to see so many good ports.
I think your memory may be in the land of Rose tinted glasses :) That Amiga version seems to be running fine.
Retro Core That's interesting because I seem to remember the Amiga version was smooth at the time, but then the consoles came along and showed that pretty much all games should run at 60fps, none of this half frame rate nonsense the Amiga got away with for years (apart from Turrican and a few other games). Your 60fps videos really help us see these differences.
bombjack
Thanks man. Yeah, making videos at 60fps does help show the difference.
@@bombjack1984 Games running at 50hz ware smooth from what I remember on the Amiga but clearly that isn't going to show here unless the youtube clip and emulator used is set to 50hz like the original game intended for the machine.
@@bombjack1984 Uhhh, no. Of course 50hz games will scroll ackward, when you upload them at 720p60. The channel owner is an Amiga hater, though.
The amstrad Version is very Impressionen to me
IMHO, the Famicon/NES version of Rainbow islands is harder than the arcade version/PlayStation/PC version. The level design changes drastically in the 3rd island on the NES version from the PC version.
I can imagine if you were accustom to the Arcade layout then the change in level design would cause some issues for sure.
Have you ever tried ‘Cocoto Platform Jumper’ ? … the nearest thing to Rainbow Islands on the GBA (kinda).
Can't say I've even heard of it. Thanks for sharing though.
@@RetroCore instead of rainbows 🌈 you fire out lava (?) that solidifies into rainbow like arches … but it doesn’t seem to allow you to stack very many on top of each other … guess they weigh too much 🤷🤣 … I gave up after level 4 as it got a bit repetitive … wish they released Rainbow Islands on the GBA, it would probably have looked / played great 👍🏼
gbc version of game has unused original theme leftover in files and someone added it back
Nice one.
The CPC version surely is for the CPC "Plus"?
Anyway, good to see a game so well ported on all platforms!
***** Wow, this has to be the most colourful game I've ever seen on the regular CPC!
Nope, as mentioned, this is running on a stock normal Amstrad CPC.
Mysterious Alcohol xD
🏺🥴
The gems also unlock the good ending. :)
Yes, they sure do. The extra island, right? I should have mentioned that. Also, many of the ports are missing some of the islands. I think the Mega Drive is the most complete out of all versions.
The Amiga and ST version doesn't have the last 3 secret islands. RI on the arcade has 3 endings, a bad one, a good one and a special one.
You don't t get the special one in the home computer because of this.
Graftgold said they would have to use one more floppy do add the secret islands, and Ocean was against it, since most people would never reach them anyway, raising the costs of producing the game for nothing.
I hope the Spectrum programmers had a salary raise !
I highly doubt it concidering how the industry was back then.
Bubble Bobble is my fav' but the others are quite good.
Speaking of Rainbows, does anybody realize the first few notes of Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz playing in the background?
Yes. It's one of those famous bits of trivia. It only appears on the original. All later versions had the music changed.
Mark this is excellent as usual. However, I've been playing this (and other old Taito games) for a while and I noticed some odd things as I was playing various versions worth noting. There are some not entirely obvious ommissions in some ports (no multiplayer in most ports, missing endings and last 3 stages or bonus rooms are gone in lots). You can read more about it here (uridiumauthor.blogspot.com/2018/03/rainbow-islands.html)
You notice if you're trying to get all endings etc. Ocean/Acclaim screwed up (allegedly) the floppy versions as they didn't want it to go over 1 floppy, so they cut out large chunks - this affects all of the ports that use Graftgold's code). Importantly - there are three endings to the game; if you can't access the last 3 stages, it's impossible to get the 'good' ending.
In the Megadrive port, the first world has a black background and mimics the arcade ROM fairly accurately for 'extra'. They probably neglected to change it when switching to 'original' mode (the programming error you refer to).
The FM-Towns (extra), Megadrive (extra + original) and PC-Engine CD versions (just vanilla Rainbow Islands) are the truest ports to the arcade (that contain every level/ending). The PC-Engine CD port is barebones, but a really nice port (my favorite way to play it currently next to the Megadrive port - I can't afford the FM-Towns).
As mentioned, due to using the Graftgold code, the Saturn & PS1 versions, unfortunately, aren't arcade-perfect. Possibly the only home version that was technically arcade-perfect would probably be the Taito Memories on the PS2 (which is more likely just running the arcade ROM, so I guess it's not really a port as such).
Interesting. As far as I'm aware (please correct me if I'm wrong), the Mega Drive port is also missing endings in Original Mode...even if you get to the end of Dragon Island with all large gems collected, you still get the bad ending telling you that you need all the large gems and the last 3 islands won't unlock. However, the last 3 islands and all the endings are available in Extra Mode, which is a little weird. It seems to me almost like the port was developed mainly around Extra Mode, and Original Mode was tacked on almost as an afterthought with minimal effort (which would also go some way to explaining why they never bothered switching Insect Island's background to blue for Original Mode either).
Have already checked another version of NES which developed by OCEAN? If not, should check it out! BTW, nice video!
Thanks. I'll take a look at that when I have some time.
aaaand a game without any bad ports! the GBC may be the worst but its just about fine to be honest.
C64 and Pc engine were very good
Loved the Amiga version i even had the PlayStation version now with a Emulator Amiga version is played again on PC even my mom plays the game
Rainbow Islands is one of those games mums actually play. I'd say Puyo Puyo is another.
@@RetroCore mine didnt start until a few years ago :) hmm never knew Puyp Puyo
I had ZX Spectrum version when the game was first released which I enjoyed. Have you played the sequel Parasol Stars? I think it was released on the Amiga, Atari ST, PC Engine, Gameboy and Nes.
I've played Parasol Stars on the Amiga many many years agpo. It was quite good from what I remember.
Retro Core Yeah, there were plans to release it on the C64 and ZX Spectrum as well but were cancelled. :(
May be for the best? Two amazing ports would have been asking a little two much :)
Talking about it, besides the MS/FM version, did any other of the port include the music variation or arkanoid effects? (Minus the MD verison)
Hmm, can't say I know the answer to that question.
i have to say, R I 🏝️ its a pretty imaginative/clever idea implemented into a VideoGame 🏺🥕💎 🐞 🐛🍒⭐
GBC rainbow glitch, ha 🌈
🌈🍧🍨🍩🍪🎂🍰🧁🥧🍫🍬🍭❤️🧡🌈
The game where you shoot rainbows out of your crotch!
Yes, I do watch Guru Larry, why do you ask?
You could say that the AMIGA having up to jump is good and the jump button being a hinderence in some games though. Parasol Stars I find better on AMIGA over the PCE because of the up to jump in that crazy game because you need to be jumping and whacking at the same time and with up to jump it makes it a better control system for that type of game where you have to do both whacking and jumping.
THIS! I even configured MAma so that I have Up for jump in Rainbow Islands.
The thing about up for jump is that it doesn't work with joypads. That's why console-centric players complain so much about it. I use an arcade stick with my Amiga and it is perfect with this game.
Any pictures of the "pool of blood" near the end of the game?
Nope, sorry.
also how about to make battle of ports on mario bros arcade game
I'll never do a Nintendo IP. Nintendo always file claims against videos.
@@RetroCore that's sad
@@RetroCore but haven't you done Nintendo ip one time when you made battle of ports on donkey Kong?
@@SilentRealm6677 Good point!
the megadrive version is in night time
Just going to point out Andrew Braybrook and Graftgold were behind the fantastic home computer ports and Andrew/Jane Whittaker had ZERO involvement in any of them.
Whittaker running around the net and in magazine interviews taking credit for doing the ST and Amiga versions 🙄
You need to stop hating on the push up to jump mechanic. I can understand you finding it awkward if you grew up with consoles but those of us who owned Amiga/ST found it fine and it was actually an advantage in some games (someone mentioned Parasol Stars).
I also get the impression that you don't like the Amiga which makes me a sad Panda. It was a great computer for games.
It's not that I hate the Amiga but that I think many of the arcade Ports are really poor. As a kid I would play on my mates Amiga a lot. We loved playing games such as 3D Stunt Car Racer, Rick Dangerous, Xenon 2 and others. Just when it comes to arcade Ports it is mostly pretty poor.
As for he push up to jump or accelerate issue, I'll never like that. It just seems a lack of inside to add more buttons to the control system. I know that near the end if the systems life there were some games that used two buttons. It's just a shame that didn't come sooner.
The Amiga suffered from poor ports of quite a few arcade games that much is true, but this is no reflection of the Amiga hardware which was pretty powerful in period, most arcade conversions were done on a shoestring budget to very tight deadlines by pushy publishers who wanted to coin in on the latest arcade releases. Amiga titles designed from the ground up for the hardware in question provide some amazing gaming experiences that are fondly remembered today, most if not all of our UK gaming heritage cut its teeth on the Amiga platform and moved on in later years to become game producing power houses throughout the world. Sadly the Amiga was mismanaged by CBM over the years and is no longer with us, the A1200 was not the system the engineers wanted to build and was years late due to internal politics, before their demise a few prototype Amiga AAA chipsets existed that by all known benchmarks would have left a high end PC in the dust, we are talking 3D0 M2/PS2 levels of performance in circa 1993/4.
The Amiga was the last of the home computers that truly had a soul and is sadly missed by many.
I actually rebember a pc port having the background black.....but it may be my bad memory. God knows
Maybe different settings?
👍!
While the Amiga version indeed is a great port it is missing the final three islands (as many of the early ports do). And as far as the Mega Drive version goes, besides for some strange reason switching the background colour between the first and third island it also completely messes up the jump mechanics. Platforms you would normally reach in the other versions are just out of reach here. The jump is too low, which really hurts the flow of the game making it quite a chore to play through.
When talking about the WonderSwan port, you mentiond otaku, which made me want to ask. What is otaku?
Otaku is the Japanese word for nerd. But it doesn't mean someone who enjoys games or anime but someone who lives in that world or participates in cosplay.
Retro Core Okay. Thanks for letting me know~
You forgot the Nindento Ds.
You are being too harsh on the amiga, sure it had a lot of shitty ports, but then you have hidden pretty good stuff like Ninja Gaiden, Snow Bros or Pang. The unreleased Liquid Kids port is quite good too.
Marcel Weber There are good ports on the Amiga, that's true but most of them are complete rubbish. To me the Amiga was the playStation of the time. No matter what something was like it was mostly regarded as being excelent.
Which Ninja Gaiden? The arcade was is a slow mess.. playable, but too slow. It's called Shadow Warriors on Amiga.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is horrendous.
Liquid Kids?? Does it have parallax scrolling unlike the PC Engine Mizubaku Daibouken?
Why no Super NES/Super Famicom version?! Why?!? Any single screen enemy clearing (Bubble Bobble-like) game on the SNES at all? Of all the games that got a port to the NES, Sega Genesis and even TurboGrafx-16, why didn’t Super NES fans get a piece of that port pie? I should be seeing people bitching about why they didn’t get a Super Road Rash, Super Outrun, Super After Burner II, Super Space Harrier, Super Klax, Super Splatterhouse Jr. (sequel to that Famicom Splatterhouse game), Super Rainbow Island, Super Snow Bros, Super Bubble Bobble or anything else like that but we SNES fans are grateful for everything else that’s a great port like Street Fighter II, TMNT IV, this and that.
Because this game isn't on the SFC / SNES.
There are games released in Japan like Bubble Bobble on the SFC but titles I don't remember off the top of my head. There's only a handful though
you missed the fm towns version, ms dos version, java version, ps2 version, windows/xbox version
@@mastersproutgamer9327 well i found footage of rainbow islands extra version for fm towns
@@mastersproutgamer9327 plus rainbow islands haven't been released on virtual console
The PS2 versions are emulations, mind you spot on emulations, but emulation none the less. I made mention in these comments years back about the FM Towns port, there's only one FM Town emulator, UNZ, and finding the disc images can be a little hard. Plus you must make a boot file for Bubble Bobble in order for Rainbow Islands to work for some reason.
Wait... Isn't there some "pool of blood" bullshit thrown in here, near the end of the game?!
Maybe it's melted strawberry jam?
Retro Core According to a strategy guide I found, it's blood.
And the game says "Beware of Skull's blood! If you touch if you will lose all of your lives!"
The Taito Legends version gets rid of one of the sound channels for the level one theme as to not worry about legal troubles for shameless plagiarism.
Lol, back when getting away with stuff was much easier.
Yet the Taito Memories version actually fills the music back in nicely, sounding fuller, though still different enough to avoid copyright violation.
I found a video from Nico Nico all those years ago, ripped it, and put it up on UA-cam (credit of course given to the Nico uploader):
ua-cam.com/video/uCK-wAumY-U/v-deo.html
YOU MUST BE TRYING TO FOOL ME; I DON'T BELIEVE MY EYES!! YOU'RE LYING, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!! An arcade game.. an arcade game, in which all of the systems it has been ported to-- An arcade game.. in which all of it's versions... actually made good use of the hardware, and were acutally good?? GREAT, infact?? N-NN-NO! This is not real life; it's not REAL. It can't be real! There's no way of it being real!! It cannot be true!... It's not true; it's not--That would be impossible.. an unpossibility!... Am I still alive? Is this actually real..? All of them, every single one.. every single one of these versions, of these ports! Every port of this game is GOOD! THEY'RE ALL GOOD!! THEY'RE ALL GOOOOD!!! My jaw dropped so hard it feels like it fell from my face! I'm impressed--This is surreal! It's actually surreal! SURREAL!!! Surreal but.. apparently.... a reality.. a... reality. S-SSs...somehow.. somehow... they did it... they did it! They didn't fuck up once! NOT, EVEN, ONCE!!... I.. I don't know if I can even believe in this! I know what my eyes are seeing, but my mind just.. doesn't believe it! Doesn't accept it!.. Doesn't UNDERSTAND it!! Rainbow Island prooves that there is still hope! There is still hope for awesome ports!! This is an event! It's unbelieveable!!!
It's happened on a few occasions.
I know I know, just couldn't find any other before this one! And, of course, just trying to be a little funny, I guess
Welfz, I was just about to say the same thing! XD
Big Dia uhhhhhhhhhhh ok...
Seems all ports are good except the Wonder Swan one which should be renamed to "monochrome islands". And the MD version tried to be "edgy" by making all backgrounds black.
The st version the scrolling is not so smooth like the Amiga version
Unlike the Amiga and 8 bit Atari systems the ST has no hardware scrolling.
do a BOTP on Ms. Pac-man
Eventually that will come. Some day. I'll need a while to get that made due to the many ports.
22:52 if they are arcade perfect why in the first stage the music is different ?
Copyright issues. The later versions of the game were required to use different music since the earlier soundtrack was too close to Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
@@adafrost6276 did not know that
Most of the 16-Bit ports look great. I'm not a fan of the backgrounds in the PlayStation version (along with the terrible rendered intro video).
I found the Mega Drive version a tiny bit unresponsive and having the first level with a black background pretty much spoils the whole game.
Saturn version doesn't save high scores. Lazy.
What do you expect from a half arsed developer?😁
Bubble on my knobble 2