4:13 Jackal NES (2002)?! Just read this: "A ROM image of the NES Jackal is included in the Windows PC compilation Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra released in 2002 in North America. However, the game is inaccessible by legitimate means and can only be found by extracting it from the executable. The game is virtually identical to the original NES release, aside from the updated copyrights date."
My first experience with NES was at the age of 5 at my uncle's house in 1988. This was the game. Holy crap was it a good first timer. Great music and sound, good pacing, good graphics. I sucked at it at 5. I thought the missiles were knives and I assumed were a downgrade to the grenades. I remember thinking the continue option after dying was a choice to get back to the grenades vs. knives. By the time I was like 7 I had it sorted out I think. This game could be my number one if anyone asked me on the spot what my favorite NES game was.
One of my first games i ever played... 4 years old at pontins holidays lol - along with jail break. As an adult it took me years to track down these games from memory for emulation.
I'm amazed at just how much effort they put into the NES port compared to the FDS, or even arcade, versions. That's the only one I played, and I'm pleased I didn't miss out on anything.
i still remember that one of friends father had a pub and they got this arcade in their pub... as we were underage we could only play when the pub was closed from the afternoon till the opening in the evening... we had so much fun with this game... this game is completely predictable... as long as you get the same power ups and dont waste time somewhere... cant forget the empowering music ... thanks konami for golden childhood memories
Gotta love portraits of main characters in Amstrad version, even they think game is awful :) Looks like C64 UK version use same font letter as Green Beret (With should not be surprising, since they are both Konami games, but still...)
I remember playing this game on the nes. I bought it used at a movie rental store where you could rent nes games back around 1990. I had no idea that this was an arcade port till I discovered it on Mame in 2005. Really fun game to play.
Also, I wouldn't even play the DOS version even if the controls can be set properly. It's that farting Beeper Speaker that does it for me. Why does it always sound so awful???
It’s not too often the NES is the clear winner here but, hey, it deserves it. The CPC versions deserves another special award for the tiny window of crappy tiled graphics mixed with “Jackal Karrotk-tur Drawings” by Timmy, age 5, on the side panels.
Listed for the Atari 400/800 in the UK Magazine Adverts, but MISSING from the same Finnish magazine advert. 🤔 Further convinces me nothing was ever started for the A8 version.
I played the Nes version back in the day (a pirate Nes cartridge), quite a lot!!! Love this game! I didn’t know about the FDS version, and I played the arcade just on emulator, I never seen the arcade in person.
Man, this PC port is a torture for the eyes and especially the ears. I´m glad PC gaming evolved so much that many games nowadays have their best versions on the platform.
Excellent as always Mark thanks You have some real shit ports on display here so hats off to you sir for the effort getting them on the screen. I really love the arcade game and never noticed the difference in firing mechanics tbh.
Objectively speaking is Jackal far from being a good game, but I always had a soft spot for it. Maybe it's because I like running over people in my car. A habit my driving instructor in real life never learned to truly appreciate. Oh, BTW, there is a configuration that strongly improves the DOS port experience: just blindfold yourself.
I have to give it to the NES version for being so damn playable. It's smooth, though the FDS version does sound better. what the heck is with that DOS port? It's like Micronics ported it. It's so bad. the CPC/ Speccy ports look like you're playing the game through an empty roll of toilet paper. the speccy version is 48k worth or garbage data. I guess that's a good thing for owners of the lower end Speccy, cause who would want to play it anyway?
This game looks cool I've played obviously similar ones like u mentioned I think Ikari Warriors we had on C64. Theres a cool game out on Switch that takes it back to this old style but u have to level up. U start weak then u play more and get money to upgrade. Its soooo addictive the shooting in its fun cause u use the right analog stick to shoot n aim. Sounds weird but it makes it really fun for mowing down everything. Its a zombie themed one too. I don't usually play smaller games like it but yeh I got so addicted. I just looked and its called Riddled Corpse's. Its exactly this style actually the more gameplay I see. Awesome vid m8!!!!!
The switch game sounds similar to the original mode of the Mega Drive version of Mercs. In that you also start off weak and need to collect item points to buy power ups and so on.
@@RetroCore Ahh cool I know the name! I might have to load it up in Retroarch! :) Hopefully be loading it on a hacked SEGA mini soon. Hey just a question, do u know where to buy the tower attachment for the SEGA mini if ordering in Australia? I tried Play-Asia and Amazon but no go. Theres scalpers on Ebay already. I know Madlittlepixel did a vid on this service that orders stuff in Asian countries then ships them abroad so I might look into that. I just thought since your in Japan area then you'd see places that would have it. Its a ripoff cause it has no function but hey I'm a sucker for these things. If not I'll keep looking, all gd, thanks for your reply m8!!!!!
@@thefroyukenfiles3641 Oh come on, it can't be. That sounds like bullcrap. They were just treating him into composing stuff into crappy games. Heck, Solstice has the music composed by Tim Follin, AND THAT WAS A GOOD GAME!!!
@@ExtremeWreck Hmmm...I'll give you that outlier, but that game's fault was it being too damn hard for its own good. Had to use a 99 lives code just to see the ending!
I love Jackal on NES, I think it's a very underrated gem on the system. Played the arcade version on Mame and never had seen any ot the other versions. When the Amstrad CPC version begun moving on the video I exclaimed basically the same thing as you did but on my mother language, hehe. And the MS-DOS version... way to go, single color background so you have no idea you are actually moving and the screen scrolling. But whatever, obviously this is the smallest flaw on that game, hehe.
I checked who coded the Amstrad CPC version. They are "Programmation : Steve LOCKLEY, David WHITEHOUSE" It's the only known game they have done for the machine. I guess the choose to publish it as they in their mind thought they didn't have time to start over. It seems Steve Lockley also coded Kokotoni Wolf for the C64: m.th-cam.com/video/qOw1jW9sggQ/w-d-xo.html
I checked who coded the Amstrad CPC version. They are "Steve LOCKLEY and David WHITEHOUSE" It's the only known game they have done for the machine. I guess Konami choose to publish it as they in their mind thought they didn't have time to start over. It seems Steve Lockley also coded Kokotoni Wolf for the C64: m.th-cam.com/video/qOw1jW9sggQ/w-d-xo.html
You should try these games for this series: Sonic Adventure (DC, GC, PC, 360/PS3) Sonic Adventure 2 (DC, GC, 360/PS3) Spider-Man (2000) [N64, PS, DC, PC] ECW Hardcore Revolution (N64, PS, DC, GBC) Sonic 3D Blast (MD, Saturn, PC) Sonic R (Saturn, PC) WWF Raw (MD, SNES, GB, GG, 32X) Legends of Wrestling (Xbox, PS2, GC)
The Spectrum version even got half-decent reviews in the magazines at the time. This was why when I had the system I tended to just buy budget titles and pirate the full price stuff... The coin-op conversions were nearly always cynical cash-ins, put out by houses who knew the kids would buy any old crap with the big name on it. The Spectrum and Amstrad platforms were limited, but there was no excuse for non-existent gameplay, especially on relatively basic games like this. It seems that this was actually a Konami release, as opposed to Imagine/Ocean putting it out for them. I hadn't even realised that was something that happened - very few games were released directly by Konami for these systems. They needn't have bothered on the basis of what we see here. It looks like the authors have decided to put as much colour in as possible then sped everything up to hide the resulting 8*8 scrolling. Pile of shite indeed.
European Konami was crap. I don't think one single good game came from that branch . Oh, they published "Frontier: Elite 2" with Gametek, and that was surprising. Other than that, just lots of crap.
I find it interesting that the 8*8 scrolling (grid as Retro Core puts it) for the CPC version is there to put more colour and less colour clash into the Spectrum version
@@dartsma464 Indeed. I did notice that the two versions were made by the same coders, who only seem to have made a few titles for Konami then didn't make much else (unless they went on to other systems). So the two versions were presumably made in parallel and share some graphical features. The Amstrad version has a tiny graphical window and is capable of pushing far more around the screen than is in evidence here, so they were either not great coders (and I don't like criticising individual programmers as they're a lot better than anything I could do) or they were pushed by unreasonable timescales by Konami.
@@paxhumana2015 If you're going to troll you should at least get your facts straight. The Spectrum is an older system than the Vectrex, and was never designed to be a games system in the first place (indeed the manufacturer made no secret of his annoyance that what he saw as a serious computer was being used for playing games at all) . In any case I'm not sure what that has to do with reviews for games on the system - they weren't reviewing the computer itself. You have to see the Spectrum in its historical context. The UK was a relatively cash-strapped country in 1982 and buying games consoles really wasn't a thing. The C64 was too expensive for most Brits at three times the price of the Sinclair machine, which was touted as an educational and small business micro - more an IBM PC on the cheap than a games machine. But kids will be kids and the Spectrum was popular and capable enough to kick off the games revolution here. Once it was in that position it was unstoppable, purely because of its user base and continued low cost. It was never a machine that lent itself well to coin-op conversions. The best games for it were always the ones designed around its quirks and limitations - even in 1982. And by 1986 it was already a toy, dismissed by older gamers as too long in the tooth. The surprise to me was always that the Amstrad was as successful as it was. It was nearly 3 years late to the party, wasn't that cheap and offered little that more established micros couldn't do.
The US NES version also had a dope soundtrack compared to the FDS. About the C64, is it just me, or do both the US and EU versions use the same sound for the bomb?
If I recall, last time, you said you liked how holding the fire button will throw grenades in your Commando BotP, but you seem to be indifferent about it in Jackal. Why's that?
Because the ROM used is one ripped out of 'Konami Collector's Series' for Windows. It, along with Contra and CastleVania were edited to remove the mentions of being 'Licensed by Nintendo', and they took the time to add new copyright dates to match the compilation's release.
One thing, Mark, that I find occasionally a little disturbing. Is the difference of volume in game sounds and your speech... It's a mild annoyance ;) But if you could make the volume difference a little smaller, I would be one happy camper ;D
I do actually check that. It's not so much the volume in some cases but the frequency of the sound. Next week's show, Jim Power had issues with the MD audio been ing too loud so that needed reducing.
I saw your video of After Burner, and when you said the "GBA Sega collection is crap" I was like "SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW". But out true seriousness, what makes you think the arcade collection is bad? I kinda liked it!
None of the ports are anything close to the Arcade originals. They are all poor remakes rather than Arcade ports. The feel of the games is wrong which is the most important point of a collection like this.
@@RetroCore I kinda like the Sega Arcade Gallery, the soundtrack, especially on OutRun, were pretty decent! Maybe great! However if there's one Sega arcade port screwed real hard on GBA it'll be Golden Axe, like....... why did they make the darn game TWICE as fast as the original?! At the GBA game's slightly better than the PC Engine CD version....
i remeber being told this was basically a cross between front line and choplister in a jeep .. i remeber getting cheapshotted when dropping the prisoners off on the nes ...... good pick tho ..... did this use the konami code too ? sad when the nes is beating a pc ........ no one would beleive it these days .......
Konami should have sued to keep their brand from being so prominently displayed on the Spectrum and Amstrad versions. With so much screen real estate devoted to massive Konami logos during play it's hard not to directly associate Konami with these ports. Home computer ports of Konami arcade games tended to be really awful though, like Nemesis for the Spectrum so maybe they just didn't care.
I am pretty sure Japanese companies didn't give a damn about their European ports. It was just extra money in their accounts with zero effort from them. Look also at what US Gold did with Capcom games. And the European Konami branch was pretty shitty anyway.
I played the PAL C64 version and found it indeed horrible, such a disappointment especially comparing it to the NES game wich is certainly a minor classic. I don't know how developers could have coped with the single button tho, probably with some sort of autofire for the main weapon.
Amerigo Costa With a single button joystick there are only a limited number of options of how to implement an action, if the fire button is already used for some other activity: - activity is executed by moving the joystick in a certain direction (doesn't work in games with 4-way scrolling) - activity is executed by pressing the button for a long period, - activity is executed by pressing the button and moving the button in a certain direction at the same time - execute activity by performing a specific joystick movement pattern (eg wiggling the stick fast and repeatedly left and right). - use 2 joysticks (which is typically horrible and only works for Robotron or Battlezone) - use keyboard input (eg space or return) Keyboard input for not too common activities (smart bombs etc) is often a good way to implement it. I agree, it's far from being the ultimate solution, but often it's the best of all not so good alternatives.
I guess you will never make Doom port huh, Doom port at newer console so suck it's even need log in just for play the game, what the f*ck is wrong with them, I willing to pay the game but if I need log in and need internet connection for old game is so annoying, and what is more annoying they slow down the music (at least for Switch don't know for other) how they can screw up when Doom practically already got port official/not official in many thing even in calculator with display, which mean the source code already flying around just need someone to grab it and port it.
@@googleboughtmee true I just want complain about Bethesda decision and I already do that in many of video and social media so this not the first one (of course the comment is different) and once again i want say "DAMN YOU BETHESDA !!!!".
I absolutely loved this game growing up. It was the perfect gem to bust out when my friends were tired with Contra, Double Dragon, and Heavy Barrel.
The weekend doesn't start til I get my Battle of the Ports!
Oh yeah 😁
I used to play the NES version with my father. We enjoyed very much that version.
That game is one of the best shooters ever! Love your reactions on the CPC version 😂👍
One of the great ports I enjoyed on the NES. By far the best port. Once again on the CPC, who fired the turbo!?
4:13 Jackal NES (2002)?!
Just read this:
"A ROM image of the NES Jackal is included in the Windows PC compilation Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra released in 2002 in North America. However, the game is inaccessible by legitimate means and can only be found by extracting it from the executable. The game is virtually identical to the original NES release, aside from the updated copyrights date."
Yes, this is right. Check out the copyright date on the NES version on this video 😉
My first experience with NES was at the age of 5 at my uncle's house in 1988. This was the game. Holy crap was it a good first timer. Great music and sound, good pacing, good graphics. I sucked at it at 5. I thought the missiles were knives and I assumed were a downgrade to the grenades. I remember thinking the continue option after dying was a choice to get back to the grenades vs. knives. By the time I was like 7 I had it sorted out I think. This game could be my number one if anyone asked me on the spot what my favorite NES game was.
I played this game the beginning the 90's. Good memories. Thanks for reminder my youth.
me 2
This game was a lot of fun. This best part about the NES is that it retained the 2 player co-op of the arcade version. Konami was hot back then!
Konami were hot until the late days of PlayStation. Once PS2 had hit they'd lost their magic. The great Gradius 5 wasn't even developed by them.
@@RetroCore back then Konami was hot, now Konami is hot garbage.
One of my first games i ever played... 4 years old at pontins holidays lol - along with jail break. As an adult it took me years to track down these games from memory for emulation.
LOL I died when you cursed at the amstrad cpc version haha
My stomach still hurts. XD
I loved Jackal in the NES!!!
I loved it too it was such a addicting game had a lot of fun with the game.
Great game on the NES, I had a lot of fun with it, thank god I never knew the other versions.
Yep, just imagine if the only versions of Jackal you'd ever played were on the home computers.
@@RetroCore I'm pretty sure such a kid does exist, and today he/she is a serial killer.
The DOS port did indeed have terrible keyboard support -- the delay is the natural keyboard key "down" repeat. It's only playable via a joystick.
But from what I could see in other TH-cam videos, it's possible to fire and move at the same time
@@DanielMonteiroNit They were either using a joystick, or just hitting both the movement and fire keys very rapidly.
That explains why it was so awful to control via the keyboard.
Played the crap out of this as a kid on NES. Thanks Mark
The invading army sure had a lot of faith in that Jeep, I’ll tell you what
THIS BATTLE WILL MAKE YOUR BLOOD BOIL. GOOD LUCK!
The NES port is THE port in this case. Very enjoyable and plays much fair than the arcade. Holy Crap with the CPC one!! XD what are they thinking!?
This battle will make your blood boil! Hahahahahaha, I remember its tagline.
I'm amazed at just how much effort they put into the NES port compared to the FDS, or even arcade, versions. That's the only one I played, and I'm pleased I didn't miss out on anything.
Konami in the 80s was amazing.
i still remember that one of friends father had a pub and they got this arcade in their pub... as we were underage we could only play when the pub was closed from the afternoon till the opening in the evening... we had so much fun with this game... this game is completely predictable... as long as you get the same power ups and dont waste time somewhere... cant forget the empowering music ... thanks konami for golden childhood memories
Gotta love portraits of main characters in Amstrad version, even they think game is awful :) Looks like C64 UK version use same font letter as Green Beret (With should not be surprising, since they are both Konami games, but still...)
Haha 👍
I remember playing this game on the nes. I bought it used at a movie rental store where you could rent nes games back around 1990. I had no idea that this was an arcade port till I discovered it on Mame in 2005. Really fun game to play.
@@paxhumana2015 That's cool. :-)
Yeah, the ones that are NOT the Arcade or Nintendo Versions sucks.
There IS actually a rotary joystick version of this in Mame, so I guess Konami released two versions. I also prefer the eight-way-stick one, though.
The rotary version was a prototype from what I understand.
For me, it's either the NES, the original arcade, or the Famicom Disk...
I want to erase that CPC version from my mind 🤮 What a pile of 💩
Also, I wouldn't even play the DOS version even if the controls can be set properly. It's that farting Beeper Speaker that does it for me. Why does it always sound so awful???
Looks like the idiotic people who made the DOS version never heard of AdLib, don't you agree?
It’s not too often the NES is the clear winner here but, hey, it deserves it. The CPC versions deserves another special award for the tiny window of crappy tiled graphics mixed with “Jackal Karrotk-tur Drawings” by Timmy, age 5, on the side panels.
Listed for the Atari 400/800 in the UK Magazine Adverts, but MISSING from the same Finnish magazine advert.
🤔
Further convinces me nothing was ever started for the A8 version.
Ive never heard of jakel before. it looks good.
Thumbs up! Your videos are very informative and fun to watch.
Thanks!
Never knew this had a arcade release?Hard to believe but I still think the NES is best version in my opinion?😉
Yep, the Arcade was pretty cool back in the day.
Got the NES version in my collection Mark. Love that game. 8^)
Anthony..
I played the Nes version back in the day (a pirate Nes cartridge), quite a lot!!! Love this game! I didn’t know about the FDS version, and I played the arcade just on emulator, I never seen the arcade in person.
I may have saw the real Arcade back in the 80s or maybe that was mercs. It's hard to remember now.
Geat episode again. Looking forward to seeing your take sometime on Impossible mission and it's sequel.
All in good time 👍
@@RetroCore great stuff.
COOOL🎮🎮 the NES version looked the best
I first played this game in the arcade under its alternate title, "Top Gunner"
Also, what I got from this video is to avoid any port not on a Nintendo system...
Man, this PC port is a torture for the eyes and especially the ears. I´m glad PC gaming evolved so much that many games nowadays have their best versions on the platform.
My favourite is nes version
It is logic that Nes version shares a lot of sound and graphics of Contra 😅
Excellent as always Mark thanks You have some real shit ports on display here so hats off to you sir for the effort getting them on the screen. I really love the arcade game and never noticed the difference in firing mechanics tbh.
Amiga version annouced in C.. C. I magazine
Objectively speaking is Jackal far from being a good game, but I always had a soft spot for it. Maybe it's because I like running over people in my car. A habit my driving instructor in real life never learned to truly appreciate.
Oh, BTW, there is a configuration that strongly improves the DOS port experience: just blindfold yourself.
I have to give it to the NES version for being so damn playable. It's smooth, though the FDS version does sound better. what the heck is with that DOS port? It's like Micronics ported it. It's so bad. the CPC/ Speccy ports look like you're playing the game through an empty roll of toilet paper. the speccy version is 48k worth or garbage data. I guess that's a good thing for owners of the lower end Speccy, cause who would want to play it anyway?
Someone should make a rotary version of the arcade to play it how it was intended
This game looks cool I've played obviously similar ones like u mentioned I think Ikari Warriors we had on C64. Theres a cool game out on Switch that takes it back to this old style but u have to level up. U start weak then u play more and get money to upgrade. Its soooo addictive the shooting in its fun cause u use the right analog stick to shoot n aim. Sounds weird but it makes it really fun for mowing down everything. Its a zombie themed one too. I don't usually play smaller games like it but yeh I got so addicted. I just looked and its called Riddled Corpse's. Its exactly this style actually the more gameplay I see. Awesome vid m8!!!!!
The switch game sounds similar to the original mode of the Mega Drive version of Mercs. In that you also start off weak and need to collect item points to buy power ups and so on.
@@RetroCore Ahh cool I know the name! I might have to load it up in Retroarch! :) Hopefully be loading it on a hacked SEGA mini soon. Hey just a question, do u know where to buy the tower attachment for the SEGA mini if ordering in Australia? I tried Play-Asia and Amazon but no go. Theres scalpers on Ebay already. I know Madlittlepixel did a vid on this service that orders stuff in Asian countries then ships them abroad so I might look into that. I just thought since your in Japan area then you'd see places that would have it. Its a ripoff cause it has no function but hey I'm a sucker for these things. If not I'll keep looking, all gd, thanks for your reply m8!!!!!
Oh man, if only Tim Follin were to do the music for the NES version. That would be an amazing combination to see!
It was NES law that he compose music for only crappy games on the console.
@@thefroyukenfiles3641 Why then didn't he do the music for all the version Jackal? 😊
@@thefroyukenfiles3641 Oh come on, it can't be. That sounds like bullcrap. They were just treating him into composing stuff into crappy games. Heck, Solstice has the music composed by Tim Follin, AND THAT WAS A GOOD GAME!!!
@@ExtremeWreck Hmmm...I'll give you that outlier, but that game's fault was it being too damn hard for its own good. Had to use a 99 lives code just to see the ending!
@@thefroyukenfiles3641 Oh, & he composed the music for Plok on SNES. It's dang hard, but fun :D.
I love Jackal on NES, I think it's a very underrated gem on the system. Played the arcade version on Mame and never had seen any ot the other versions.
When the Amstrad CPC version begun moving on the video I exclaimed basically the same thing as you did but on my mother language, hehe.
And the MS-DOS version... way to go, single color background so you have no idea you are actually moving and the screen scrolling. But whatever, obviously this is the smallest flaw on that game, hehe.
The CPC port is unbelievable. How on earth did that get a release?
Retro Core
Greed ? Sadism ? God told em to ?
I checked who coded the Amstrad CPC version. They are "Programmation : Steve LOCKLEY, David WHITEHOUSE" It's the only known game they have done for the machine. I guess the choose to publish it as they in their mind thought they didn't have time to start over. It seems Steve Lockley also coded Kokotoni Wolf for the C64: m.th-cam.com/video/qOw1jW9sggQ/w-d-xo.html
I checked who coded the Amstrad CPC version. They are "Steve LOCKLEY and David WHITEHOUSE" It's the only known game they have done for the machine. I guess Konami choose to publish it as they in their mind thought they didn't have time to start over. It seems Steve Lockley also coded Kokotoni Wolf for the C64: m.th-cam.com/video/qOw1jW9sggQ/w-d-xo.html
I'm not surprised they never made another CPC game. Awful programmers.
You should try these games for this series:
Sonic Adventure (DC, GC, PC, 360/PS3)
Sonic Adventure 2 (DC, GC, 360/PS3)
Spider-Man (2000) [N64, PS, DC, PC]
ECW Hardcore Revolution (N64, PS, DC, GBC)
Sonic 3D Blast (MD, Saturn, PC)
Sonic R (Saturn, PC)
WWF Raw (MD, SNES, GB, GG, 32X)
Legends of Wrestling (Xbox, PS2, GC)
Most of those are on the to do list.
@@RetroCore oh. Forgot about that. Thought I'd remind you.
Why does the title screen for the NES version shown have a 2002 copyright date?
It's probably from the PC compilation game Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra, released in 2002.
@@AllieRX ah, ok.
@@kaikiske7436 Yeah, for some reason, Jackal was hidden away in the game files.
Was going to ask the same thing!
Yep, that's correct.
Hey, Retro Core! Can you do a Battle of the Ports video on Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON?
I actually did virtual o. A long time ago th-cam.com/video/Uqjm-ZBwdik/w-d-xo.html
The Spectrum version even got half-decent reviews in the magazines at the time. This was why when I had the system I tended to just buy budget titles and pirate the full price stuff... The coin-op conversions were nearly always cynical cash-ins, put out by houses who knew the kids would buy any old crap with the big name on it.
The Spectrum and Amstrad platforms were limited, but there was no excuse for non-existent gameplay, especially on relatively basic games like this.
It seems that this was actually a Konami release, as opposed to Imagine/Ocean putting it out for them. I hadn't even realised that was something that happened - very few games were released directly by Konami for these systems. They needn't have bothered on the basis of what we see here. It looks like the authors have decided to put as much colour in as possible then sped everything up to hide the resulting 8*8 scrolling. Pile of shite indeed.
I'm so surprised Konami even allowed these turds of ports to be even released. It doesn't look good for them.
European Konami was crap. I don't think one single good game came from that branch
.
Oh, they published "Frontier: Elite 2" with Gametek, and that was surprising. Other than that, just lots of crap.
I find it interesting that the 8*8 scrolling (grid as Retro Core puts it) for the CPC version is there to put more colour and less colour clash into the Spectrum version
@@dartsma464 Indeed. I did notice that the two versions were made by the same coders, who only seem to have made a few titles for Konami then didn't make much else (unless they went on to other systems). So the two versions were presumably made in parallel and share some graphical features. The Amstrad version has a tiny graphical window and is capable of pushing far more around the screen than is in evidence here, so they were either not great coders (and I don't like criticising individual programmers as they're a lot better than anything I could do) or they were pushed by unreasonable timescales by Konami.
@@paxhumana2015 If you're going to troll you should at least get your facts straight. The Spectrum is an older system than the Vectrex, and was never designed to be a games system in the first place (indeed the manufacturer made no secret of his annoyance that what he saw as a serious computer was being used for playing games at all) . In any case I'm not sure what that has to do with reviews for games on the system - they weren't reviewing the computer itself.
You have to see the Spectrum in its historical context. The UK was a relatively cash-strapped country in 1982 and buying games consoles really wasn't a thing. The C64 was too expensive for most Brits at three times the price of the Sinclair machine, which was touted as an educational and small business micro - more an IBM PC on the cheap than a games machine. But kids will be kids and the Spectrum was popular and capable enough to kick off the games revolution here.
Once it was in that position it was unstoppable, purely because of its user base and continued low cost.
It was never a machine that lent itself well to coin-op conversions. The best games for it were always the ones designed around its quirks and limitations - even in 1982. And by 1986 it was already a toy, dismissed by older gamers as too long in the tooth.
The surprise to me was always that the Amstrad was as successful as it was. It was nearly 3 years late to the party, wasn't that cheap and offered little that more established micros couldn't do.
Looks like the NES port is the only good one of the bunch. I could have sworn I saw this game called "Top Gunner" somewhere.
It did have a different name in American arcades. Maybe that's where you saw it called top gunner.
@@RetroCore Yes, it was definitely called Top Gunner in US arcades.
Amiga port is out
The US NES version also had a dope soundtrack compared to the FDS.
About the C64, is it just me, or do both the US and EU versions use the same sound for the bomb?
They do. I'm sure they share some code.
They also share the idea that everything should kill the player as the water / building thing shows!
@@RetroCore Weird. Seems odd to change the graphics and the way the machine gun works, but to keep THAT.
If I recall, last time, you said you liked how holding the fire button will throw grenades in your Commando BotP, but you seem to be indifferent about it in Jackal. Why's that?
Because in Jackal the response time is too slow and hinders the gameplay too much.
Why does the title screen of the NES port say 2002?
Because the ROM used is one ripped out of 'Konami Collector's Series' for Windows.
It, along with Contra and CastleVania were edited to remove the mentions of being 'Licensed by Nintendo', and they took the time to add new copyright dates to match the compilation's release.
Is there any ways to play this on android? I really miss vcd 300 game especially this game.
Sure, just download MAME for android or a NES emulator.
Arcade and NES for sure. The rest don't compare.
One thing, Mark, that I find occasionally a little disturbing. Is the difference of volume in game sounds and your speech... It's a mild annoyance ;) But if you could make the volume difference a little smaller, I would be one happy camper ;D
I do actually check that. It's not so much the volume in some cases but the frequency of the sound. Next week's show, Jim Power had issues with the MD audio been ing too loud so that needed reducing.
I saw your video of After Burner, and when you said the "GBA Sega collection is crap" I was like "SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW". But out true seriousness, what makes you think the arcade collection is bad? I kinda liked it!
None of the ports are anything close to the Arcade originals. They are all poor remakes rather than Arcade ports. The feel of the games is wrong which is the most important point of a collection like this.
@@RetroCore I kinda like the Sega Arcade Gallery, the soundtrack, especially on OutRun, were pretty decent! Maybe great!
However if there's one Sega arcade port screwed real hard on GBA it'll be Golden Axe, like....... why did they make the darn game TWICE as fast as the original?! At the GBA game's slightly better than the PC Engine CD version....
i remeber being told this was basically a cross between front line and choplister in a jeep .. i remeber getting cheapshotted when dropping the prisoners off on the nes ...... good pick tho ..... did this use the konami code too ? sad when the nes is beating a pc ........ no one would beleive it these days .......
MrNightshade2010
Yeah, it's very unlikely that today an old NES would beat PC graphics, although I know a few PC coders, who could pull this off.
had it right on the Japanese hardware but screwed the pooch in the other ports
Sonic Thrillington I prefer the NES port. Beat it many times.
Konami should have sued to keep their brand from being so prominently displayed on the Spectrum and Amstrad versions. With so much screen real estate devoted to massive Konami logos during play it's hard not to directly associate Konami with these ports.
Home computer ports of Konami arcade games tended to be really awful though, like Nemesis for the Spectrum so maybe they just didn't care.
Im so surprised Konami allowed such crap to be published.
I am pretty sure Japanese companies didn't give a damn about their European ports. It was just extra money in their accounts with zero effort from them.
Look also at what US Gold did with Capcom games.
And the European Konami branch was pretty shitty anyway.
The only version worth a damn is the NES. I never like the arcade version. Same with contra.
jackal is choplifter with a jeep
I played the PAL C64 version and found it indeed horrible, such a disappointment especially comparing it to the NES game wich is certainly a minor classic. I don't know how developers could have coped with the single button tho, probably with some sort of autofire for the main weapon.
Space for bombs ? I mean the C64 wasn't a console so it had a build in keyboard.
@@frankschneider6156 yes, that was common but I never liked having to use joystick and keyboard at the same time.
Amerigo Costa
With a single button joystick there are only a limited number of options of how to implement an action, if the fire button is already used for some other activity:
- activity is executed by moving the joystick in a certain direction (doesn't work in games with 4-way scrolling)
- activity is executed by pressing the button for a long period,
- activity is executed by pressing the button and moving the button in a certain direction at the same time
- execute activity by performing a specific joystick movement pattern (eg wiggling the stick fast and repeatedly left and right).
- use 2 joysticks (which is typically horrible and only works for Robotron or Battlezone)
- use keyboard input (eg space or return)
Keyboard input for not too common activities (smart bombs etc) is often a good way to implement it. I agree, it's far from being the ultimate solution, but often it's the best of all not so good alternatives.
nes top
I guess you will never make Doom port huh, Doom port at newer console so suck it's even need log in just for play the game, what the f*ck is wrong with them, I willing to pay the game but if I need log in and need internet connection for old game is so annoying, and what is more annoying they slow down the music (at least for Switch don't know for other) how they can screw up when Doom practically already got port official/not official in many thing even in calculator with display, which mean the source code already flying around just need someone to grab it and port it.
Not sure that's Jackal's fault to be fair
@@googleboughtmee true I just want complain about Bethesda decision and I already do that in many of video and social media so this not the first one (of course the comment is different) and once again i want say "DAMN YOU BETHESDA !!!!".
True, we a ll know, it's Theresa May's fault.
Nah, I doubt I'll do doom. It's just too much to take on.
@@RetroCore I knew it oh well at least I satisfy after complain it around at Internet and real life.