Midnight Resistance Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

Developed by Special FX and published by Ocean in 1990.
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Midnight Resistance was one of the first videos that I did when I started doing longplays on my channel. The quality of the encoding wasn't great and it didn't get many views; considering that this is one of the best arcade conversions on the C64, it was worth the effort to replay and get a better quality video uploaded.
Set in a dystopian future, the player assumes the role of a fighter in a resistance movement who's family has been kidnapped by a mad scientist. The objective of the game is to fight through multiple levels of hostiles in order to free you family members from captivity.
Originally developed by Data East and released in the arcades, Midnight Resistance was ported to a wide range of home computers and consoles. Developed by Special FX, the C64 version of the game is an undeniably excellent game and one of the best conversions seen on the machine. I remember loading up the demo of this on a Commodore Format Power Pack tape and wanting the full game then and there.
Just about everything from the arcade version is crammed into the C64 version. The C64 version managed to cram in nine levels from the arcade version, each of which faithfully copies the arcade version, including enemies and bosses.
All of the weapons and power-ups from the arcade (with the exception of the rotating shields) are present. The player has access to a range of guns, as well as secondary attacks (nitro and impressively coded homing missiles) with which to destroy enemies. These can only be accessed by collecting keys from the red ninja-like enemies in each stage.
Perhaps most impressively of all is the way the coder (Robbie Tinman) implemented the eight-way control scheme. Rotating the joystick will cause the player to aim in the corresponding direction, whilst pulling down on the stick will cause the player to go prone. Even then, it's possible to aim in all possible directions whilst prone and the control is as slick as it could possibly have been for joystick with a single fire button.
Ivan Davies produced some fantastic chunky sprites that managed to not only capture the essence of the arcade version, but also managed to give the C64 version a sense of identity in it's own right.
Keith Tinman reproduced the arcade music for the SID chip and did an outstanding job. The music in this game still counts as some of the most memorable on the C64 and is best played as loud as possible.
The only criticism that I have is that some of the bosses can be killed too quickly. Using three-way or the flamer whilst spamming nitro can down the bosses before they've even had chance to start attacking.
The game absolutely deserved the plaudits it received on release and remains, in my opinion, one of the most polished C64 games ever made.
#retrogaming

[@ravengaming2597]

Special FX did a superb of porting this to the humble C64. Kept as much in as they possibly could with as little cut out as possible. One of the true final great arcade ports to the system. Goes to show how bad Imagine messed up the Contra ports 3 years prior.

[@ARX78]

Music is really good in this game.

[@dwb1980]

Last time I see or heard this was back in about 1989. Thanks for posting this. Great game. Fond memories

[@chembleton]

Am I right in thinking if you didn't have enough keys at the end you couldn't rescue all your family and had to pick and choose haha

[@drkamilz]

Good gameplay!
Main character looks like rambo, and some enemies has striking resemblance of El-Gado/Hollyshi..err..wood from Final Fight.

[@TamasKalman]

music is absolutely amazing in this game. beats the arcade or any other version by 100x times. just compare it and it will become clear that the c64 had the best sound chip in the 80s and also just how good work was done during the original music conversion for this game.

[@rootykazooty351]

I love the c64 game, but the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version undoubtedly has the best music (and gameplay).

[@patsfan4life]

Rooty Kazooty you’re comparing a 16 bit port to an 8 bit port....

[@Emulous79]

Excellent game. Almost like a sequel to Green Beret. I was just comparing this version with your Megadrive vid. Funny how some enemies are missing on that version. Always preferred this because of the meaty graphics and easier controls.

[@rootykazooty351]

On the Mega Drive/Genesis enemies vary according to the difficulty setting. More enemies appear when you up the difficulty on the options screen.

[@deg6788]

This is where it all started for me ...had the nightgames pack with this "demo". Best time of my life

[@TheCinderellaman10]

😢😢😢😢😢😢 ffs that hit hard my man the night games pack. I remember walking into Dixons on East ham High Street and my old man paid like £130 I think for the c64 and had this also but also loved paperboy, wonder boy, double dragon and list goes on. Best times for computer and arcade games/machines as that was the start in the mid 80's and it was such an experience watching the slow evolution of gaming on both the computers. Then the amiga or atari then consoles Nintendo, Sega, neo geo and and arcade the pinnacle but when I left secondary school and started college the fun had left. So for me it was late 90's and then left gaming alone. But these early memories are the best 👌

[@74Amighista]

Very good video!
I love this game :)

[@amanloop]

And I thought Mega Drive's version was too easy. This one seems like it's unfinished. Many details missing here and there and you can just plow through the enemies with little effort. It's not a bad version, mind you, but I think that's a rush job and inferior to the other iterations of this great game.

[@DarkButz]

Actually quite the opposite. Considering the C64's hardware and space limitations and the fact the original arcade title was made in 1989, when the system was already quite outdated, they did a very good job.

[@amanloop]

@@DarkButz I agree with that, what I said was a different thing though. Don't focus on the gfx side of things, but the gameplay instead. There are missing things that , ie, the Spectrum and Amstrad versions have and they're not in C64's conversion for no good reason. Check the belts section before the 2nd boss or the way up to the tree in level 3 or the end boss right after (and so on and so on). Designed in a completely different way and they're also made too easy. It takes just a few shots to clear everything there. That's what I meant, I'm not dissing the technical merits of the game at all.

[@DarkButz]

@@amanloop I do realize you were talking about the gameplay, but once again, hardware limitations are the key phrase here. The C64 had a very strict limit for how many sprites can appear on the screen at once. You can already see the sprites flickering whenever the armored car appears. Adding destructible moving belts or randomly moving platforms would cause so much flickering you probably wouldn't see anything.
As for why the Speccy and Amstrad versions had them - in a nutshell they had better CPUs and different methods of handling graphics.

[@amanloop]

@@DarkButz Ok, but still they could've made the enemies tougher to kill, they usually take too few shots to die, even end level bosses, far less than any other version I've seen.

[@litjellyfish]

Sol yes still look at Turrican in the C64. It proves the C64 could handle a lot better conversion. There is tons of way they could have solved the issues discussed. As usual with arcade ports they did not invest so much time and money into it. It’s business and understandable

[@muddyduck64]

When I see this game all that comes to mind is what could have been. A definite Contra knock-off.

[@purplehaze2342]

So every run and gun ever