The complete Lunar Chase localization was leaked online along with several titles during the Gigaleak. At the same time, the fan translation of X was also released.
6:37 Race Drivin' and Faceball 2000 are also 3D games on the Game Boy. I don't know if Faceball 2000 is true 3D or if it's just raycasting a la Wolfenstein 3D, but Race Drivin' is true 3D. In fact, Race Drivin's engine was also Argonaut's.
Having played this game, this game is comparable to Argonaut's very own Vortex, even using similar assets and functions. ...and X is somehow STILL better than Vortex. Also, once I looked into X's code and found LOTS of English text. Perhaps there's a soft dip switch that can make X run in mostly English?
NukeOTron Aww I would just cry in joy if that's true! I know there was an attempt at a North American release but I would love if someone made an actual full rom hack!! The only English version is just a demo
I find this really interesting. When I was watching the intro and wireframe X coming into view, I was reminded of Mega Man X2's title intro with the spinning wireframe X. Rewatchung the X2 intro, there are definitely more stylistic differences in the X than I had in my mind's eye. And also interestingly -- even though I know it's purely coincidental -- the track played at 4:49 reminded me a bit of the Capcom intro jingle. It was a really odd series of coincidences. Anyway, great video as usual! I hadn't heard of this game and, as always, am glad I learned of it from this channel. The historical context was great.
Believe it or not, but Argonaut actually ported Race Drivin' to the Gameboy, the sequel to Hard Drivin'. It came out after X, and it's much better than the SNES port (which wasn't made by Argonaut and doesn't use the SuperFX chip)
Whoa, I may have heard of X-Scape before but it is even cooler than I thought and will likely be in my library in a matter of hours, once I'm on home WiFi
Mind blowing that this is on Gameboy. Looks like a hybrid of Battlezone and the Empire Strikes Back arcade game. This definitely would've been a must purchase at the time, though.
You know, when I first started watching this video and saw that initial gameplay of X, my first thought was: that kinda reminds me of Star Fox. Definitely can see why now!
Instead of shoving X under the rug, it certainly would have been interesting if they saved it for after the launch of Star Fox and rebranded the game as a portable take on Star Fox for Game Boy in the west.
Always been a tad sad that X never got a translation patch - only real reason I struggled to make progress in it. Meanwhile, Argonaut made at least one other push-the-Gameboy-to-ridiculous-levels that I know, the conversion of Race Drivin - looking forward to see what you think of that when you get to covering it in a few seasons time :)
I'm in preproduction of what will be a Top 100 GameBoy editorial series on my channel, an update from my written articles a few years back. X is certainly an impressive game that made my short list for the top 100, but while it's technically amazing, it ultimately amounts to little more than a slightly more advanced take on Battlezone, and there are simply better games than this.
Something else that's worth pointing out - X is entirely in Japanese with a surprising amount of text which can't simply be ignored since you're given mission goals. For those who lack basic Japanese reading ability, trying to figure out what the game wants you to do even during the first mission can be a lesson in frustration. You said at the end of the video that X belongs in every GameBoy fan's library, which I simply can't agree with. It's worth knowing about, perhaps even worth trying via an Everdrive GB. But owning? X is a curiosity, not a must-own title.
I think you make a good point about UK developers. Where US developers had usually cut their teeth on the C64 - which had a lot in common with the NES - the GB was more like a handheld ZX Spectrum or Amatrad CPC464 which was what most UK developers knew. It's a shame more UK devs didn't jump onto Game Boy, I guess because by then many had moved onto the Amiga and ST and were more interested in exploring those systems capabilities than going back to the restrictions of the 8-bit computers they'd left behind.
I only know about X because of a particular arrangement of one of the Tunnel themes (as performed by a rubber chicken) courtesy of an editor named Mowtendoo, viewable here: th-cam.com/video/etay958QWTg/w-d-xo.html The connections between X and Star Fox are fascinating; can't help but wonder what X would have achieved had it been released stateside.
I still have my complete copy of X since I played through my own "Game Boy World" 10 years ago when I tackled every single release. I'm glad people already mentioned Race Drivin' on GameBoy, also by Argonaut. Surprisingly smooth. GameBoy Days Of Thunder was also ported by Argonaut, check that one out too.
Days of Thunder used the same tech from the tunnel sequence to do the tracks :) I also helped out with the link cable code (X was originally link-able but we dropped it because it wouldn't fit into the game design properly).
Hello What's the relation between this game and the first prototype Argonaut Games showed Nintendo at CES? I've read that Jez San showed Don James a GB turning on with an Argonaut boot up sequence instead of the Nintendo Logo and a 3D game. It was at the january 1990 CES. Was it X? Was it a direct ancestor of this game? Was it something completely different? I'm looking for a video of the prototype or better: a rom!
@@JeremyParish Just in case anyone is interested, Dylan Cuthbert answered me saying that the Game Boy demo Jez San showed Don James at CES 1990 (with an Argonaut boot up and 3D gameply) was maybe called Eclipse. It became X but unfortunately there's nothing left of it.
the design of them was influenced by a ZX Spectrum game called Micronaut One by the very talented Pete Cooke, an amazing coder of that era. I reverse-engineered what they were doing by simply studying the game and guessing.
I think you might be overemphasizing Argonauts role in the development of X a little bit. The game did have Argonaut staffers working on it, but the majority of the development team was from Nintendo.
It may come off that way when looking at the game's credits, but Argonaut Software was at the heart of this title. X in its final form happened because of the 3D wire frame engine that was created solely by Dylan Cuthbert at Argonaut. Without that, the game would probably not have existed in this form or even at all. The developer's involvement comes with only a few names, but their contributions are equal if not greater than Nintendo's staff just because the tech was the one driving force behind X's development. The UK developer had this 3D engine working on a makeshift Game Boy dev unit before the concept of X was even a twinkle in Nintendo's eye. In fact, Mindscape was originally going to publish the game under a completely different name - Eclipse. It was only because of a tech demonstration of this engine that Nintendo decided to take up publishing responsibilities and threw some development talent into it. The game's name was changed to X a few months before release. Nintendo's team worked on the gameplay and audio aspects, but the core mechanics and handling of the flight elements have an uncanny resemblance to the Starglider games - both being 3D games, wire frame-based and flat shaded polygon-based, designed by Argonaut Software. The Argonaut genes in this title are strong.
I'm afraid you're wrong on this one, this game was almost entirely developed by me. I even drew most of the 2d graphics! Sakamoto tweaked the direction here and there, switched the controls about a bit, Gunpei Yokoi made me add a tutorial lol, Totakeke made the awesome soundtrack, but everything else was me, including the design of the missions and map layouts. I was only in the Kyoto Nintendo offices on and off, and for the most part I was working by myself in Argonaut's offices in London.
Dylan Cuthbert Oh my goodness, are you... *the* Dylan Cuthbert? Thank you sooo much for this game! When I first discovered it through Smash, I imported a Japanese copy and also bought X-Scape on the Eshop immediately, I just love the music, and the aesthetic and everything about this game. It really is a technical achievement on the GB and an inspiration to me! As I'm a (very amateur) Gameboy home brew dev
![Game Boy World #060: Cosmo Tank [Atlus/Asuka Technologies, 1990]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8dfG3QbZAfY/mqdefault.jpg)
The complete Lunar Chase localization was leaked online along with several titles during the Gigaleak. At the same time, the fan translation of X was also released.
as usual, amazing work jeremy! i love seeing how many comments hadn't heard of this before this video. im honored my name gets to be on it!
6:37 Race Drivin' and Faceball 2000 are also 3D games on the Game Boy. I don't know if Faceball 2000 is true 3D or if it's just raycasting a la Wolfenstein 3D, but Race Drivin' is true 3D. In fact, Race Drivin's engine was also Argonaut's.
Oh wait, thought of another 3D Argonaut game on the Game Boy: Days of Thunder. It's another racing game.
Having played this game, this game is comparable to Argonaut's very own Vortex, even using similar assets and functions. ...and X is somehow STILL better than Vortex.
Also, once I looked into X's code and found LOTS of English text. Perhaps there's a soft dip switch that can make X run in mostly English?
NukeOTron Aww I would just cry in joy if that's true! I know there was an attempt at a North American release but I would love if someone made an actual full rom hack!! The only English version is just a demo
@@auralunaprettycure Thankfully the full English version has been leaked
@@Cinibonswirl26 really, where?
I find this really interesting. When I was watching the intro and wireframe X coming into view, I was reminded of Mega Man X2's title intro with the spinning wireframe X. Rewatchung the X2 intro, there are definitely more stylistic differences in the X than I had in my mind's eye.
And also interestingly -- even though I know it's purely coincidental -- the track played at 4:49 reminded me a bit of the Capcom intro jingle. It was a really odd series of coincidences.
Anyway, great video as usual! I hadn't heard of this game and, as always, am glad I learned of it from this channel. The historical context was great.
I was able to score a CIB copy on eBay for only $40. Can't wait to get it. Thanks for the cool videos!
That flapping bird ship at 7:53 is from Argonaut's big Amiga/Atari ST/Spectrum game Starglider :)
Believe it or not, but Argonaut actually ported Race Drivin' to the Gameboy, the sequel to Hard Drivin'. It came out after X, and it's much better than the SNES port (which wasn't made by Argonaut and doesn't use the SuperFX chip)
Glad you covered this game. I really love it.
Whoa, I may have heard of X-Scape before but it is even cooler than I thought and will likely be in my library in a matter of hours, once I'm on home WiFi
Wow, I've never heard of this one before. I need to track down a copy. Great stuff, like always!
Mind blowing that this is on Gameboy. Looks like a hybrid of Battlezone and the Empire Strikes Back arcade game. This definitely would've been a must purchase at the time, though.
You know, when I first started watching this video and saw that initial gameplay of X, my first thought was: that kinda reminds me of Star Fox. Definitely can see why now!
Both Race Drivin' and Battlezone for the original gameboy featured other attempts at actual 3D
Instead of shoving X under the rug, it certainly would have been interesting if they saved it for after the launch of Star Fox and rebranded the game as a portable take on Star Fox for Game Boy in the west.
Always been a tad sad that X never got a translation patch - only real reason I struggled to make progress in it.
Meanwhile, Argonaut made at least one other push-the-Gameboy-to-ridiculous-levels that I know, the conversion of Race Drivin - looking forward to see what you think of that when you get to covering it in a few seasons time :)
I'm in preproduction of what will be a Top 100 GameBoy editorial series on my channel, an update from my written articles a few years back. X is certainly an impressive game that made my short list for the top 100, but while it's technically amazing, it ultimately amounts to little more than a slightly more advanced take on Battlezone, and there are simply better games than this.
Yeah, I agree. Crazy what they accomplished, and what they aspired to, but it's kinda... so-so.
Something else that's worth pointing out - X is entirely in Japanese with a surprising amount of text which can't simply be ignored since you're given mission goals. For those who lack basic Japanese reading ability, trying to figure out what the game wants you to do even during the first mission can be a lesson in frustration.
You said at the end of the video that X belongs in every GameBoy fan's library, which I simply can't agree with. It's worth knowing about, perhaps even worth trying via an Everdrive GB. But owning? X is a curiosity, not a must-own title.
Can you imagine if X had a sequel for the SNES and used a SuperFX chip?
I think you make a good point about UK developers. Where US developers had usually cut their teeth on the C64 - which had a lot in common with the NES - the GB was more like a handheld ZX Spectrum or Amatrad CPC464 which was what most UK developers knew. It's a shame more UK devs didn't jump onto Game Boy, I guess because by then many had moved onto the Amiga and ST and were more interested in exploring those systems capabilities than going back to the restrictions of the 8-bit computers they'd left behind.
I wish they'd done an Elite on the Gameboy or GBA.
Home brew devs posted it to GBA. It's so awesome
I hope we can get a fan translation of this game. I've played through it's squeal x-scape I loved it. I really want to play the original.
I only know about X because of a particular arrangement of one of the Tunnel themes (as performed by a rubber chicken) courtesy of an editor named Mowtendoo, viewable here: th-cam.com/video/etay958QWTg/w-d-xo.html
The connections between X and Star Fox are fascinating; can't help but wonder what X would have achieved had it been released stateside.
1 minute in and 2 all time gameboy jams played already
I still have my complete copy of X since I played through my own "Game Boy World" 10 years ago when I tackled every single release. I'm glad people already mentioned Race Drivin' on GameBoy, also by Argonaut. Surprisingly smooth. GameBoy Days Of Thunder was also ported by Argonaut, check that one out too.
Days of Thunder used the same tech from the tunnel sequence to do the tracks :) I also helped out with the link cable code (X was originally link-able but we dropped it because it wouldn't fit into the game design properly).
0:44 this music is so good
This game should have been released world wide.
Hello
What's the relation between this game and the first prototype Argonaut Games showed Nintendo at CES?
I've read that Jez San showed Don James a GB turning on with an Argonaut boot up sequence instead of the Nintendo Logo and a 3D game.
It was at the january 1990 CES.
Was it X?
Was it a direct ancestor of this game?
Was it something completely different?
I'm looking for a video of the prototype or better: a rom!
I would recommend asking one of them directly on social media.
@@JeremyParish I tried to find Jez San and Dylan Cuthbert on Twitter but no luck. I'll try on Facebook.
@@JeremyParish Just in case anyone is interested, Dylan Cuthbert answered me saying that the Game Boy demo Jez San showed Don James at CES 1990 (with an Argonaut boot up and 3D gameply) was maybe called Eclipse. It became X but unfortunately there's nothing left of it.
I made a demo called "Eclipse" that was initially signed by Mindscape, then Jez showed it to Nintendo and they bought out Mindscape's rights.
@@sseb22 The demo has recently been found and archived. Here's a video that showcases it: th-cam.com/video/iD8-gZWrxZw/w-d-xo.html
Incredible, it doesn't even feel like gb at this point.
Buying this game, faceball 2000 port?
Huh. Those tunnel sequences look almost identical to Tunnels of Armageddon, a 1989 PC game.
the design of them was influenced by a ZX Spectrum game called Micronaut One by the very talented Pete Cooke, an amazing coder of that era. I reverse-engineered what they were doing by simply studying the game and guessing.
I think you might be overemphasizing Argonauts role in the development of X a little bit. The game did have Argonaut staffers working on it, but the majority of the development team was from Nintendo.
It may come off that way when looking at the game's credits, but Argonaut Software was at the heart of this title. X in its final form happened because of the 3D wire frame engine that was created solely by Dylan Cuthbert at Argonaut. Without that, the game would probably not have existed in this form or even at all. The developer's involvement comes with only a few names, but their contributions are equal if not greater than Nintendo's staff just because the tech was the one driving force behind X's development.
The UK developer had this 3D engine working on a makeshift Game Boy dev unit before the concept of X was even a twinkle in Nintendo's eye. In fact, Mindscape was originally going to publish the game under a completely different name - Eclipse. It was only because of a tech demonstration of this engine that Nintendo decided to take up publishing responsibilities and threw some development talent into it. The game's name was changed to X a few months before release.
Nintendo's team worked on the gameplay and audio aspects, but the core mechanics and handling of the flight elements have an uncanny resemblance to the Starglider games - both being 3D games, wire frame-based and flat shaded polygon-based, designed by Argonaut Software. The Argonaut genes in this title are strong.
I'm afraid you're wrong on this one, this game was almost entirely developed by me. I even drew most of the 2d graphics! Sakamoto tweaked the direction here and there, switched the controls about a bit, Gunpei Yokoi made me add a tutorial lol, Totakeke made the awesome soundtrack, but everything else was me, including the design of the missions and map layouts. I was only in the Kyoto Nintendo offices on and off, and for the most part I was working by myself in Argonaut's offices in London.
Modern Boxes
Best Gameboy game of all time, I beat it without knowing a lick of Japanese just because I loved it that much. Plus I did have guides.
sorry about the difficulty of that very last mission!
Dylan Cuthbert Oh my goodness, are you... *the* Dylan Cuthbert? Thank you sooo much for this game! When I first discovered it through Smash, I imported a Japanese copy and also bought X-Scape on the Eshop immediately, I just love the music, and the aesthetic and everything about this game. It really is a technical achievement on the GB and an inspiration to me! As I'm a (very amateur) Gameboy home brew dev
@@dylancuthbert2275 You don't have to be sorry, the difficulty is what made X and Star Fox so good.
Japan, America and the UK. The whole god damn world.
Bit Managers made good games for the GB.