Battle of the Ports - Flying Shark (飛翔鮫) Show #90 60fps
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There are many vertical shooters in the arcades but not that many made it to western computers and not to many different consoles. Flying Shark or Hishōzame as it's known in Japan is just one of those. In fact, the only console version is for the NES and even then it was developed by a western game studio.
Time Code
00:25 - Arcade
03:23 - ZX Spectrum
05:28 - Amstrad CPC
06:58 - Commodore 64
08:44 - Sharp X68000
10:21 - Fujitsu FM Towns
12:00 - Amiga
13:41 - Atari ST
15:13 - NES / Famicom
Enjoy!
The most well known Toaplan shooter in existence. Taito made themselves proud. I have the NES version. There are two versions on the Commodore 64.
Wow I remember having the Speccy version of this. Enjoyed it back on the day. Loving the FM Towns soundtrack...will get myself one of those one day!
FM towns games generally have arranged soundtracks. It's as if it was mandatory.
Amiga version thanks Henry Clarke for his ST source. Trust me, no Amiga owner was thanking Henry for helping us get a shoddy port that used none of the Amiga's hardware properly, eg hardware scrolling.
However at least you can blow the tops off the 4 x gun turrets to reveal the tanks underneath which from the clips it looks like the X68000 version doesn't include!
Actually this game was very important for Toaplan and the genre. First vertical shooter with horizontal scrolling, very precise and fast bullet patterns compared to other shooters at the time, a much better bomb system than Tiger Heli, high enemy count with varied patterns, ground/air/water types and faster overall speed, FM+M68K formula. The conventions that Hi Shou Zame established were quite influential and paved the way for other Toaplan classics like Twin Cobra or Truxton, recognized games like Raiden just feel like a clone of this game (and "Raiden clones" are just clones of a clone).
Xevious was super important for the time of course, but Flying Shark put the basis for late 80s and early 90s vertical shmups.
The FM Towns & X68000 versions were the closest to the arcade version of Flying Shark.
Despite the good music on the NES Sky Shark, the gameplay was a tad frustrating.
I was hoping to find it online, but I sadly could not - but interestingly the euro c64 version _did_ support a specific two button joystick, which plugged into _both_ joystick ports and used the second button to activate the fire on the other joystick ports. This is not as stupid as it sounds, either, because on the c64 the first joystick port's fire button is actually wired to the same input as the keyboard's space bar, so you could use it in all sorts of games which used the space-as-secondary-fire scheme. (Personally, for a long time when I was a teenager, I had a second joystick on the floor that i'd hit the button with my toe instead of hitting space bar).
It also supports a mode where you pushed up and fire to bomb, but that was super annoying. I think I'm in the minority in prefering the euro version though, since I also like that it has the horizontal scroll like the arcade, rather than being reduced to purely vertical scroll. One thing I did find which was handy, though, was a cracked version where one of the trainers was larger bullets. That said, if you open the monitor in vice and run "f 6100 6140 ff", you get giant square bullets :)
Wow, that twin Joystick port option with two buttons sounds like a great idea for better playability. I'm surprised most games didn't have that option.
yeah, me too - I put that in the same category as games with keyboard controls, but that still only allow for one fire key when two to three are clearly required.
Wow the Japanese 16-bit home computers regularly seem to wipe the floor with the ST and Amiga regarding arcade ports.
+Martin Sutcliffe It's not hard when you consider quality over rushing
out crap was the priority in Japan. many of the Amiga and ST ports are
rush jobs just to cash in :(
+Retro Core couldn't agree more. Back in the early days of the 16bit computers, with some notable exceptions it was a case of rushed ST conversions with Amiga ports followed ( and maybe some PC CGA ports).
This seems to fit the case - never played though. Just the ZX one and briefly at a friends house...
@@RetroCore the game was tailored for the ST. Typically not the computer made for this type of game. So the Amiga version could only be crap.
Martin Howarth of C64 Sky Shark said it was written in under 3 months and he was trying to use sprite multiplexing and masking of background graphics in hardware sprites, to allow things to appear in front and behind the same sprite, Andrew Parton by comparison, who did the Pal version for catalyst Coders, said he was given 3 months to convert it, it took 4,and once it was finished, he found it so difficult, he couldn't even play it.
Wow, the x68000 and the FM Towns sure had amazing ports... I bet those two computers were the "PC master race" computers of the time XD
Probably but the people that played those systems proberbly weren't dicks :p
Steve Turner said before Graftgold got involved with the CPC and ZX Spectrum conversions, Firebird would of accepted anything that vaguely looked like the coin-op, just to stave of the lawyers
I love how Tim Follin wrote the NES version's music to only use 3 sound channels so the 4th would be free for sound effects without causing music channels to cut out like most games did. Clearly his work on the C64 with the SID chip that only had 3 channels came into good use here.
+Richard Craig Yeah, he did a very good job there. I really don't like when sound effects take out a channel of music.
I'll go with the speccy version due it's hardware limitations.
The speccy version is good for what it is. I could imagine being very happy with it had I owned it back in the day.
@@RetroCore coded in a mere 6 weeks
This game brings back a lot of arcade memories. Occasionally arcades I'd go to, would have this and other similar types of games on free play, so you could get your fill for free. I've never been a fan of games that make you start back from an earlier point when you die (I prefer just respawning right then and there), so I wasn't eager to play the home port(s) as a kid. If I had had access to an FM Towns back in the day, I would have likely given it a shot. That version really looks and sounds wonderful. Thanks for another great episode.
The amiga and ST pretty much spawn you back where you died but do you really want to play them :)
Cool that you had an arcade with some games on free play.
I love this game. Played it a lot on the Commodore 64 back in the day!
I remember playing this on Taito Memories. The last two have a lot of interesting obscure stuff. (And Dino Rex of all things)
Andrew/Jane Whittaker has sadly been running around the internet and various interviews, taking credit for a lot of the home micro versions of this whilst at Graftgold, he had very limited involvement on the CPC version and was sacked for his coding skills not being upto scratch.
Source:Steve Turner.
Graftgold didn't even do the C64 version Whittaker takes credit for 🙄
Asked you about this, but now I found it. Great game.
Also, forgot to talk about the CPC port.
I though I had covered it at some point. I also didn't know there was a CPC port.
Played the hell out of the nes version back in the day
Sky Shark would have worked MUCH better on the NES if it was done in-house by Taito Japan themselves.
I only own the NES version (Sky Shark). Wish there had been a port to a Sega console.
Poor Amiga. It could have been great but ended up being the all too common low budget ST port.
I'm amazed how the Sharp and Fujitsu versions look almost like emulation. Did those machines sell well in Japan?
+Lord Alfajor Yeah, the X68000 and the FM Towns were pretty popular but they were expensive.
This year there’s a new version of the Amiga
Music in the X68000 port reminds me of the Mega Drive port of Twin Cobra.
Software Creations in nutshell: great music by Tim Follin featured in games that are mediocre at best.
Spectrum Port written in a mere 6 weeks.
I know you have already shown the Commodore 64 port, but there is another one (Called Sky Shark) made by Software Creations. And guess what...Tim Follin composed the music for that one too! It's pretty clear they lazily copy-pasted lots of code for the NES port, just cleaning up the graphics and audio a little
Thanks for the info.
I kind of laughed when you said that the ST has slightly better scrolling as "often is the case" because in most games the Amiga uses it's hardware scrolling capabilities and so the reverse is true. However, arcade ports were usually done in haste and you get one codebase for both machines so the ST's faster CPU helps. Also do you record from an emulator? It seems like you are losing frames while recording. Anyway, these are great videos. well done!
+CFalcon030 For arcade ports the ST version are mostly smoother but I guess with games designed for the Amiga then it would be better I guess.
Yep, I have to use emulators for the Amiga and St because they are really rare systems in Japan. In fact I've never seen either of them over here.
+Retro Core Well, it's a good thing you haven't looked at UN Battle Squadron. Anyway, Flying Shark made it obvious that frames were dropped from the emulator while recording, maybe you could try a different program but it doesn't matter much and explains why you missed that Smash TV offers the option to use two joysticks on the ST (and possibly on the amiga).
X68000 and FM Towns are the best home conversions followed by the NES version.
Wasn't there also a North america version of C64 Flying Shark that had music by Tim Follin, or am I thinking of a different game entirely?
+Louis Gorenfeld (Extent of the Jam) Hmm, I think you are thinking about the NES version. Not sure about an alternative C64 version.
+Retro Core No, EotJ is correct, the US version of the game is called "Sky Shark" (both in arcade and conversions), and was programmed by Software Creations in the UK with Tim Follin music: www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=6886 . It is the much better conversion imo as well. I can't remember the story about why this version wasn't the one that Firebird released, considering it had already released a few Software Creations games by that point (Bubble Bobble being the most notable).
As for the arcade itself, one of my favourite machines I love to hate, because it is brutally hard, but I wouldn't have it any other way!
Mayhemers
I never knew about that. A shame too because it would have been fun to see the two C64 versions running side by side.
Stage 2's theme of Raiden sort of pays homage to stage 2 of this game, at least the first part of it though (and it's a very small snippet used, around 11:55). The snippet typical is several seconds into the theme song. Seibu seemed to love them some Toaplan as Raiden is an homage to the company itself.
Actually listening to the FM Towns stage 2 theme, the entire thing was re-used by Raiden for stage 2. I'll be damned, that's nice. :)
+Bloodreign1 yes, there sure is some fan service in that game. Did you see the Gemini Wing video? Some of the music in that sounds quite like Space Harrier.
Retro Core Gotta love how developers who love certain games always stick something in their own games from those games. In the case of Gemini Wing, I didn't know of that.
Bloodreign1 I've heard it before.
i'm sad that Fire Shark (its sequel) had only 1 home port... :'(
Would have enjoyed the ZX Speccy version back in the day. The team that programmed it Firebird rings a bell, was that not part of Mastertronic or Codemasters ?
+Craig Wilson I'm not really sure who Fire Bird are to be honest.
Wasn't this game also known as Sky Shark, and had different ports under that name? I remember there being a different Commodore 64 port than the one showed, and it had Follin music!
I'm pretty sure Sky Shark is a different but similar game.
I'm really not sure! I always thought Flying Shark was just the japanese name, because afterall, you included Sky Shark for the NES here
There's a fan made new port under development for the Amiga OCS that's very close to the arcade original, certainly as good as the x68000 version.
A bazillion times better than the shameful official port.
I'd like to see that. Saying that, I do remember enjoying the Amiga version somewhat back in the day.
Catalyst Coders did the UK C64 version, Graftgold the CPC and ZX Spectrum versions that's why they differ.
The C64 version featured workman like visuals plane was far too sluggish, very disspointing.
Chalk up another joystick award for home micro ports, but multiple platform review.
They sure loved to give out those joystick awards to not so great games.
@@RetroCore they handed them out like they were going out of fashion
Outrun got them on Seperate reviews for the Sega Master System, and you found big double page adverts for the system from Sega in the mags..
ZX SPECTRUM, CPC etc and there's the U. S Gold adverts.
Reviews were typically little more than a solitary screen shot, a few paragraphs of text.
So which one is the best? X68000 or FM Towns?
I don't remember as it's been a while since I played both.
@@RetroCore would be ok a Flying shark for X68 for 22000 yen?
the sfx remind me of RAIDEN TRAD
FM TOWNS $ X68000 are kings!!
the music of these versions is soooo good!!
Nes version is a crap.
I believe there is an error in this (great) episode of Retro Core. You mentioned that Flying Shark was released on PS2 (at 0:14) but it actually never was.
It's one one of the 4 Taito memorial collections that were released in Japan. I'm pretty sure about that. I have all the discs in the series so I'll take a look just to confirm.
+Retro Core It wasn't. Battle Shark is there, but Flying Shark and Fire Shark are not. I own all four Taito Memories releases AND the two Western Taito Legends releases.
You are right. It's not on the Taito Memories. I just took a look at the 4 discs. I'm sure I read somewhere that it was featured. Oh well.
+Retro Core I don't think it was on any Taito collection, due to Taito only publishing it outside of Japan for arcade and home consoles. The game is actually a Toaplan game. I have Sky Shark on cartridge, so I'll give it a shot and report back for the NES mate.
You are right. I read somewhere that it was on the Taito collection discs but it looks like it wasn't.
love this vid but what happen to ridge racer!??
Unless it was banned in your country it should be here th-cam.com/video/dmwrMZRGFDQ/w-d-xo.html I also just checked on my phone and it was available. Here's a image captured from the phone i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p791/mes1975jp/Screenshot_2015-10-24-19-26-30_zpseheuvmit.jpg
ya the vid is not available in america but the video was cool.
.really? Oh man, that's a bummer. I know JVc hit me for copyright but said the video could still be viewed. Looks like they were lying.
let me see if its still up
So was Fire Shark a sequel to this?
+enigma776 yep, that's right
fire shark is the beeter seqal becus of the power ups
I agree. One day I'll cover that game in Battle of the Ports. I own the Mega Drive version and I think also the PC Engine version. It's a good game.
i never know that there was a pc engien verision
יאן ברסלבסקי לוי I think there is, I will need to check.
FLYING SHARK
Arcade #1
Sharp X68000 #2
FM Town #3 better music sounds
Nes #4
Sinclair #5 gameplay is very good sad no music sounds
anyone knows Friking Shark ^_^ ?
Looks like cute little shmup of the 80-s. Though with the name like this, I almost expected to see some kind of actual flying shark there.
Spectrum port looks really good, considering hardware. If it had less annoying audio it would have been even better.
C64 continues to surprise - the game looks and sounds very nice. But bullets being invisible due to the background is bad-bad thing for a shmup.
NES version looks simplified and that's a pity, that Amiga / ST ports have changed graphics.
Japanese PCs as always have the best ports.
You'll find through the battle of the Ports videos that he C64 was a pretty impressive game system for its time. Many a time it could outshine the spectrum and Amstrad and even the Amiga and St at times.
Retro Core Yeah, I already could have seen it. For whatever reason I always assumed that C64 was capable of only Atari 2600 level of graphics and suddenly it is much-much more.
***** yes, many think that. In the UK Pete would insist that the Spectrum was the better game system but they are wrong in my opinion.
You missed Sky Shark for PC. However, it's pretty terrible, so no big loss.
Yeah, I know about that but as you say it's pretty awful. To be honest I couldn't get it to work. Probably a bad dump. I did consider asking other TH-camrs if I could use their footage like with Zeebo Ridge Racer but time was running short. So I just left it out.
+Retro Core If you need footage of a DOS game, and you can accept a 24-48 hour turnaround time, I am happy to help. I produce high-quality 1080p60 DOS videos and it's no problem to do one or two on demand.
+Jim Leonard that's very kind of you. I may just do that as recording the DOS stuff for me is a pain due to setting up stuff. Takes time that I just don't have.
@@RetroCore Luckily, there was a DOS port included in Gaming History Source's Flying Shark Let's Compare video from what I remember.
OMG you forgot the the MegaDrive version?? EPIC FAIL!!
+BlockABoots No, that was the follow up, Fire Shark.
The title of this game is blatant false advertising.
The Japanese name is worse, Tora, Tora, Tora.
Sorry, but Japan wins ALL the way. It just goes to show you- NEVER let the Non-Japanese handle a port of a Japanese game.
Agreed 99.9%.
the x68000 speed the music all the time for nothing? framerate or something?
I'm not sure why it does that. I tried it in two different emulators with the same results :(
+retrovideogamejunkie it doesnt do that on real hardware im guessing cpu spike?
I think it does.
You are crazy :D The Amiga version is an awful game. :)
I liked it :p
Besides the points you bring (extremeley amateurish gfx and sound), the framerate is bad and the screen ratio is completely wrong, making the game feel really cramped. It plays really badly.