I refer to the SMS version of Paperboy reusing the CPC graphics. This was debunked by..... me! Yep I checked them back in the original review and found they were not the same.
@06:17 The flickering road in the C64 version of Outrun is actually caused by a bug, which couldn't be identified and fixed in time for the UK release, but it was fixed later for the US release.
I remember my C64 mate preferring my CPC version of Buggy Boy. He said the gameplay was better, graphics better drawn etc. I initially preferred his C64 version as I tended to like faster performance conversions, but I soon began to appreciate why the CPC is better as a game. Outrun I longed for this the moment it was first talked about, and I raced to town on the bus in the hope of buying in December 1987. Got home and was bitterly disappointed, very upset infact. However once I had calmed down, I decided I had spent the money and may as well persist with it and look for the good points. In the end it became one of my most played and enjoyed games in my whole collection. I learned to take specific game routes, to enjoy the faster ones or the most graphically pleasing etc. There is one level with less going on graphically, that genuinely does give a decent impression of speed. WEC Le Mans is one of the few games I managed to complete in my collection. Fantastic conversion and the CPC has the best version IMHO. Oh and for any Atari STE fans of the game, check out the new homemade version called Faster released the other week. Incredible work! ua-cam.com/video/T6nQeMhw2Es/v-deo.html Paperboy I first had on the ZX Spectrum and so by the time I had it for my CPC, I had somewhat lost interest but it was a very good version.
@@chinnyvision He was a militant C64 owner and was quick to mock my ZX Spectrum and CPC games. So whenever he heaped praise on my games, it counted for something I guess. He loved the sports games I had, and was really disappointed in the C64 versions he bought, e.g. Match Day II. I loved playing Milk Race on his C64, but he much preferred the CPC version.
Buggy Boy Commodore 64 is brilliant.. Once you learn the track layout and learn the rhythm of the game it becomes even more addictive.. I absolutely love that game. The more you play it the better you be at it. I'm better at playing it these days than I was when it was released.
Ah, arcades. I didn't have any arcades around me growing up, only a few scattered machines in a few places. My favourite arcade growing up was Green Beret which was really the only game I could reasonably get to until Street Fighter 2 made its appearance. 10p per play. Awesome. I remember running from school to go to the local youth club to get some lunch and wait in line to play my game of Green Beret before I had to run back to school - making a pit stop at the garage across the road to get some hot chocolate. Good times.
Arcades werebthe highlight of my holiday as a kid. So much better than we had at home and each holiday the games looked better than the previous year. I recall playing the full motion space harrier on its release
I'm lucky enough to have an actual Space Harrier upright arcade machine. Old school CRT monster that never gets old. Have an Outrunners too. Brilliant Outrun sequel. They're next to an AfterBurner Climax sit down motion cabinet. You really can't beat an actual machine for the feel, the smell and the overall experience.
Outrun was a case of forcible wish fulfillment. I had it for the Spectrum 128, with its semi-multiload, holding the levels in memory once they'd been loaded in, and my friend had the c64 version. And we played them through, actually put the effort in to get as much enjoyment as we'd paid for, and despite them being objectively sucky, we loved them. Same with Turbo Outrun.
12:35 Strange since I find that color palette quite nice, blue/green is color wheel theory compliant, it is quite low contrast which isn't easily found on old platforms with typically loud bold colors.
Arcades, where the tech was cutting edge, bigger sprites, brighter colours, super fast, amazing sound, ha! You can't get ANY of that at home ...and now let's convert those for home
When computers caught up to arcades about 20, maybe 25 years ago, then it was the beginning of the end for arcades (except for Japan, where they still thrive).
Buggy Boy on C64 is an odd one. The road effect is dreadful. You don’t have to steer around corners. The graphics are merely OK. And yet, like you say, it’s a pretty great game. It has that infectious arcade feel and is a solid example of capturing the spirit or essence of an arcade game often being a better bet than trying to bring everything across. (That was quite rare on the breadbin, but I’d say Power Drift succeeded in a similar fashion.)
The thing about the corner thing is that it should matter. But it doesn't. There's probably a thesis to be written about gameplay controls that should cover that.
So many to choose from. Two that came to mind first were Chase HQ .. played it on holiday in the summer & eventually got the Speccy version for Christmas. Great conversion. Also, Altered Beast won me over with its digitised speech. Waited a LONG time to play the Megadrive version though. Initially got it on the Speccy, but .. just horrible.
That technique used in CPC's Buggy Boy basically involves selecting and repeating certain ink colours, so they don't colour clash when XOR'ed with each other. The downside is you only get 8 colours instead of 16, and only 4 for the sprites. Quite a few games used this method, I don't know what it's actually called. Super Robin Hood was a good example of it, which is why the game appears so green.
I remember them building hype before the Amstrad Outrun release, the magazines only showed the loading screen image, and we all thought it was going to be amazing!!!!....... nope 😢😢😢 As for Paperboy having no sound? Look at other graphically similar games from the time....they had sound!!!
Really enjoyed this, thanks. So much wishful, deluded playground and way-home-after-purchase chatter about various conversions being 'arcade perfect', until the reality invariably hit once the tape loaded up :) But as you say, some conversions at least captured the spirit of the arcade really well and sensibly didn't try to actually replicate it directly
I never played any of these in the arcade, these were before my time. I've played some of them on the CPC though, Paperboy, Outrun (unfortunately) and Space Harrier.
It’s messy but Chris Butler had a good crack and bringing over the manic speed of the original. I thought it was… fine at the time. I’m glad he made it though, because he eventually gave us Power Drift and that was great.
I remember reading somewhere that the Amstrad Paperboy graphics were used as inspiration for the SMS version. So not translated across but perhaps used as a benchmark 🤷♂️
You sure the Amstrad version of PaperBoy was used for the Master System. I've got the Master System version I actually bought it Saturday from CEX complete in box with ten other Master System games.. I spent £280 (all complete and three were £60+ each) I have a big Sega Master System collection, and it just keeps growing. I booted up PaperBoy today, definitely looks nothing like the Amstrad version. The graphics are different and the play erea is bigger on the Master System.
My $0.02 for which game has the best version: Space Harrier - Amstrad CPC Outrun - Commodore 64 (each course is loaded separately from tape or disk in an otherwise linear port) Buggy Boy - C64/CPC tie WEC Le Mans - CPC/ZX Spectrum tie Paperboy - C64
It's really disappointing that Outrun on the C64 didn't include the junctions; as mentioned elsewhere in the comments, there were five separately loaded "courses" of five stages instead. WEC Le Mans is poor on the C64. The weird sparkles are where the VIC-II chip is changing graphics while the raster beam is drawing them. Buggy Boy is one of my C64 favourites, brilliantly playable. Paperboy's background graphics were made like that to make it easier to switch to evening/night mode. The limited sprite colours - you only get a single colour per sprite, plus two fixed multicolours for every sprite onscreen. Space Harrier was always going to be difficult to achieve on an 8-bit home computer, and the gameplay is flawed anyway because your hero blocks incoming bullets. Chris Butler did a reasonable job, I feel, and I enjoyed playing it when I had no other option.
17:01 - As the channel's resident BBC B-lover over the years, I hang my head in shame when I think of the Beeb's horrendous version of Paperboy! I was never an arcade kid, but remember saving my pocket money for ages to get the BBC version, purely from word-of-mouth about the general game and exciting magazine ads. Oh the disappointment! The monochrome graphics I could excuse it it had freed up memory to be good to good use, but the whole thing is just so shoddy and halfhearted. Whilst the BBC was limited as a games machine and no stranger to lukewarm conversions, I maintain to this day that it could have managed far better than this with Paperboy. It reeked of a "just-get-it-out-the-door" effort which likely had been contracted out to whichever "works-for-cheap" programmer to do in a weekend. Actually, maybe a ChinnyVision "Top 5 BBC ports which DID get it right" video might be interesting...
I refer to the SMS version of Paperboy reusing the CPC graphics. This was debunked by..... me! Yep I checked them back in the original review and found they were not the same.
I think the graphics were reused for the PC (DOS) version.
I paid £9.99 for the Amstrad CPC 464 version of Out Run. I hated US Gold ever since.
I'm still scarred by wasting extremely precious pocket money on Outrun too
@06:17 The flickering road in the C64 version of Outrun is actually caused by a bug, which couldn't be identified and fixed in time for the UK release, but it was fixed later for the US release.
The story of the development is horrifying and sadly a rather common one of exploitation in that era.
I remember my C64 mate preferring my CPC version of Buggy Boy. He said the gameplay was better, graphics better drawn etc. I initially preferred his C64 version as I tended to like faster performance conversions, but I soon began to appreciate why the CPC is better as a game.
Outrun I longed for this the moment it was first talked about, and I raced to town on the bus in the hope of buying in December 1987. Got home and was bitterly disappointed, very upset infact. However once I had calmed down, I decided I had spent the money and may as well persist with it and look for the good points. In the end it became one of my most played and enjoyed games in my whole collection. I learned to take specific game routes, to enjoy the faster ones or the most graphically pleasing etc. There is one level with less going on graphically, that genuinely does give a decent impression of speed.
WEC Le Mans is one of the few games I managed to complete in my collection. Fantastic conversion and the CPC has the best version IMHO. Oh and for any Atari STE fans of the game, check out the new homemade version called Faster released the other week. Incredible work! ua-cam.com/video/T6nQeMhw2Es/v-deo.html
Paperboy I first had on the ZX Spectrum and so by the time I had it for my CPC, I had somewhat lost interest but it was a very good version.
As a hardcore CPC owner, I'd suggest not only was your mate wrong but if the C64 lot found that out he'd have been drummed out of the community!
@@chinnyvision He was a militant C64 owner and was quick to mock my ZX Spectrum and CPC games. So whenever he heaped praise on my games, it counted for something I guess. He loved the sports games I had, and was really disappointed in the C64 versions he bought, e.g. Match Day II. I loved playing Milk Race on his C64, but he much preferred the CPC version.
Outrun on commodore had a really funky soundtrack probably the best thing about the game
But if we're talking soundtracks, Turbo Outrun bests it. One of the best tunes on the system so long as you don't have a newer SID.
WEC Le Mans was the best driving game on the Amstrad. (That and Chase HQ)
Continental Circus and Power Drift are also quite good.
Buggy Boy Commodore 64 is brilliant.. Once you learn the track layout and learn the rhythm of the game it becomes even more addictive..
I absolutely love that game.
The more you play it the better you be at it.
I'm better at playing it these days than I was when it was released.
Great video fella. The show show that paperboy was played along with 720 and hypersports was called first class with debbie greenwood
Buggy Boy is such an enjoyable game.
Ah, arcades. I didn't have any arcades around me growing up, only a few scattered machines in a few places. My favourite arcade growing up was Green Beret which was really the only game I could reasonably get to until Street Fighter 2 made its appearance. 10p per play. Awesome. I remember running from school to go to the local youth club to get some lunch and wait in line to play my game of Green Beret before I had to run back to school - making a pit stop at the garage across the road to get some hot chocolate. Good times.
Arcades werebthe highlight of my holiday as a kid. So much better than we had at home and each holiday the games looked better than the previous year. I recall playing the full motion space harrier on its release
I'm lucky enough to have an actual Space Harrier upright arcade machine. Old school CRT monster that never gets old. Have an Outrunners too. Brilliant Outrun sequel. They're next to an AfterBurner Climax sit down motion cabinet. You really can't beat an actual machine for the feel, the smell and the overall experience.
Outrun was a case of forcible wish fulfillment. I had it for the Spectrum 128, with its semi-multiload, holding the levels in memory once they'd been loaded in, and my friend had the c64 version. And we played them through, actually put the effort in to get as much enjoyment as we'd paid for, and despite them being objectively sucky, we loved them. Same with Turbo Outrun.
"Harrier Programmer Keith"
Nothing good ever came from a man called Keith
What about Orville?
@@Price64 I think you just proved his point.
This comment needs more upvotes.
I think these Arcade Conversions were a real mixed bag. Buggy Boy Seems the best.
12:35 Strange since I find that color palette quite nice, blue/green is color wheel theory compliant, it is quite low contrast which isn't easily found on old platforms with typically loud bold colors.
Arcades, where the tech was cutting edge, bigger sprites, brighter colours, super fast, amazing sound, ha! You can't get ANY of that at home
...and now let's convert those for home
When computers caught up to arcades about 20, maybe 25 years ago, then it was the beginning of the end for arcades (except for Japan, where they still thrive).
@swevicus early 2000's was the end of arcades, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 era not before.
1980's and 1990's were the peak of Arcades.
Buggy Boy on C64 is an odd one. The road effect is dreadful. You don’t have to steer around corners. The graphics are merely OK. And yet, like you say, it’s a pretty great game. It has that infectious arcade feel and is a solid example of capturing the spirit or essence of an arcade game often being a better bet than trying to bring everything across. (That was quite rare on the breadbin, but I’d say Power Drift succeeded in a similar fashion.)
The thing about the corner thing is that it should matter. But it doesn't. There's probably a thesis to be written about gameplay controls that should cover that.
So many to choose from. Two that came to mind first were Chase HQ .. played it on holiday in the summer & eventually got the Speccy version for Christmas. Great conversion. Also, Altered Beast won me over with its digitised speech. Waited a LONG time to play the Megadrive version though. Initially got it on the Speccy, but .. just horrible.
That technique used in CPC's Buggy Boy basically involves selecting and repeating certain ink colours, so they don't colour clash when XOR'ed with each other. The downside is you only get 8 colours instead of 16, and only 4 for the sprites. Quite a few games used this method, I don't know what it's actually called. Super Robin Hood was a good example of it, which is why the game appears so green.
I remember them building hype before the Amstrad Outrun release, the magazines only showed the loading screen image, and we all thought it was going to be amazing!!!!.......
nope
😢😢😢
As for Paperboy having no sound? Look at other graphically similar games from the time....they had sound!!!
Really enjoyed this, thanks. So much wishful, deluded playground and way-home-after-purchase chatter about various conversions being 'arcade perfect', until the reality invariably hit once the tape loaded up :) But as you say, some conversions at least captured the spirit of the arcade really well and sensibly didn't try to actually replicate it directly
I never played any of these in the arcade, these were before my time. I've played some of them on the CPC though, Paperboy, Outrun (unfortunately) and Space Harrier.
I really don’t get the hate for the C64 Space Harrier conversion, I have always liked it and had a blast playing it in the mid eighties.
It’s messy but Chris Butler had a good crack and bringing over the manic speed of the original. I thought it was… fine at the time. I’m glad he made it though, because he eventually gave us Power Drift and that was great.
I remember reading somewhere that the Amstrad Paperboy graphics were used as inspiration for the SMS version. So not translated across but perhaps used as a benchmark 🤷♂️
I think wec on the amstrad and speccy uses the same road game engine as chase hq
You sure the Amstrad version of PaperBoy was used for the Master System.
I've got the Master System version
I actually bought it Saturday from CEX complete in box with ten other Master System games.. I spent £280 (all complete and three were £60+ each) I have a big Sega Master System collection, and it just keeps growing.
I booted up PaperBoy today, definitely looks nothing like the Amstrad version. The graphics are different and the play erea is bigger on the Master System.
Apparently I debunked this myself some 9 years ago in the review and forgot!
My $0.02 for which game has the best version:
Space Harrier - Amstrad CPC
Outrun - Commodore 64 (each course is loaded separately from tape or disk in an otherwise linear port)
Buggy Boy - C64/CPC tie
WEC Le Mans - CPC/ZX Spectrum tie
Paperboy - C64
I liked the US version of outrun on the c64,
The excuse for Paperboy on the CPC not having any sound is such a cop-out. They couldn't even spare a few bytes to make a blip sound? It's ridiculous.
It's really disappointing that Outrun on the C64 didn't include the junctions; as mentioned elsewhere in the comments, there were five separately loaded "courses" of five stages instead. WEC Le Mans is poor on the C64. The weird sparkles are where the VIC-II chip is changing graphics while the raster beam is drawing them. Buggy Boy is one of my C64 favourites, brilliantly playable. Paperboy's background graphics were made like that to make it easier to switch to evening/night mode. The limited sprite colours - you only get a single colour per sprite, plus two fixed multicolours for every sprite onscreen. Space Harrier was always going to be difficult to achieve on an 8-bit home computer, and the gameplay is flawed anyway because your hero blocks incoming bullets. Chris Butler did a reasonable job, I feel, and I enjoyed playing it when I had no other option.
17:01 - As the channel's resident BBC B-lover over the years, I hang my head in shame when I think of the Beeb's horrendous version of Paperboy! I was never an arcade kid, but remember saving my pocket money for ages to get the BBC version, purely from word-of-mouth about the general game and exciting magazine ads. Oh the disappointment!
The monochrome graphics I could excuse it it had freed up memory to be good to good use, but the whole thing is just so shoddy and halfhearted. Whilst the BBC was limited as a games machine and no stranger to lukewarm conversions, I maintain to this day that it could have managed far better than this with Paperboy. It reeked of a "just-get-it-out-the-door" effort which likely had been contracted out to whichever "works-for-cheap" programmer to do in a weekend.
Actually, maybe a ChinnyVision "Top 5 BBC ports which DID get it right" video might be interesting...
Yes outrun a massive disappointment. I think i used the soundtrack audio cassette that came with it more in my parents car than i played the game!