I didn't get this far in playing the SG-1000 games so I was amazed to see "The Castle" and "Gulkave". I never thought the SG would ever be capable of this. Wow.
@@JeremyParish To be fair, it IS mentioned in the manual. ^^ As an aside, the original Japanese PC version (X1, FM-7 etc.) allowed you to save the game onto tape (at the cost of a life), but due to being somewhat sloppily coded, you could abuse this to actually gain infinite lives. Basically, enter a screen with multiple 1-up potions, collect them all, save (-1 live), then reload. The 1UPs will magically respawn! Collect them all again to make a net profit and repeat as many times as you like.
@@JeremyParish Also, I think you forgot that if you press Button 1, the game's pace will speed up or slow down. This is useful in the escalator parts, for example.
Like you, I could absolutely see a younger me whittling away countless hours over weeks or even months to master the secrets of The Castle, had the stars aligned to alter the circumstances of my birth just a bit. Legacy of the Wizard is a game that a part of me hated as a kid but could never bring myself to truly quit (and that I now wouldn't trade for anything), and I can definitely see some shared DNA between those two titles. Gulkave isn't a game I would have put a ton of time into then, and have even less interest in playing now, but still warms my heart to know that the SG-1000 was something of a "little console that could" and really did have some truly fun high-action experiences inside it just waiting for a skilled developer to coax them out. What a charming and inventive little game. I am especially enamoured with the faux parallax scrolling, giving the game a sense of speed without taxing the hardware or even requiring smooth motion. I'm guessing that each level takes place on a single static screen, with animated scenery to give the illusion of a scrolling stage. A neat trick, and very convincing! Workarounds like that are one of my favourite aspects of older game design.
Jeremy, I know it can’t be easy, what you’re doing here, reviewing every game in this much depth (even the shitty ones), but you should know that your project is truly special and a highlight of my day when you post. I hope you keep up the quality content, I devour every tidbit (ESPECIALLY about the shitty games :)
@@JeremyParish Team Pixelboy/Eduardo Mello ported it to the Colecovision around 2010-ish? If you're looking for any insight on how Compile's magicians performed their tricks, one of them might be your best bet.
Hmm, I heard the familiar Compile 1up jingle during C'So footage. Is this the first time Compile used that jingle because I don't remember it pre-Guardic from 1986.
It's just about as old as the Randar mascot in all their oldest MSX games, yet another flourish of its creators who came from the early type-in PC game scene over there.
Yeah I can definitely see why The Castle and Gulkave get esteem as games. Milon's Secret Castle will likely be covered very soon as far as NES Works 1988 goes. And nice to see Goku in the eyecatch.
Fun fact: Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Sega Master System was originally going to be a Dragon Ball game, but the developers were told they could no longer use the license, so Alex Kidd was created to replace Goku.
I love all of your series, but the Sega fan in me especially loves Segaiden. It's nice to see a reviewer appreciate the good (and bad) about my favorite video game company.
For anyone that likes The Castle, there's essentially a version of it where you can shoot made by the Oliver Twins called Super Robin Hood for ZX Spectrum and NES. I prefer the NES version for it's snappier speed. Either way, I feel like they're companion games.
@@openskiesmedia They're not related, I just mean they feel like two games cut from the same cloth: running around a castle and getting stuff and solving action puzzles with precise platforming.
probably the soonest I've ever seen between 'coming up... ' and actually getting covered in a video. :P c-so sounds interesting at least. definitely miss that era of clever single-screen games with interesting gimmicks. never knew 'The Castle' got an SG port! might have to look into it although no save and not having the extra lives of the FC version is gonna hurt. Gulkave actually sounds neat! a compile shmup on the SG-1000, might have to fire that one up in an emulator.
Ah, that delightful Compile 1UP jingle. Didn't realize they'd been using it for quite so long. Castlequest/The Castle/Castle Excellent is definitely not my kind of game... too drawn out, too puzzly, and too unforgiving. I think the comparison to Jet Set Willy and other ZX Spectrum games of the 1980s is an accurate one.
It probably came to Japan a bit too late for it to influence The Castle, but Revenge did eventually get a Mark III/SMS port of its own. The Castle owes a lot to Lode Runner, Tower of Druaga (much more so than Dragon Slayer), and various Japanese PC adventure games of the period. As Parish suggests, it's a very PC-oriented kind of game to show up on SG-1000 of all places, making it all the more special.
@@JeremyParish I tried super hard to sound posh, fancy English to suit the style of presentation. English is not my mother tongue. Keeping up appearances. Is ruling class something offensive? I imagined the rulers, like queen n'stuff. Probably overdone it, again. Anyway, interesting video, thank you!
TIL how 'antipodes' is pronounced. In hindsight, looking at how varied their catalogue was and how consistently they achieved the impossible on limited hardware, it's surprising Compile remained for the most part a hired gun throughout their (original pre-Raizing) history, rather than becoming a Konami or at least Irem level entity. The Aleste games are no less impressive than the Gradius series (often moreso) and imo blow away 194x, the series Capcom was built on. And Puyo Puyo, the Mega Drive's #1 selling title in Japan by a mile _should_ have made them millionaires. Anyway, another fun episode, thanks.
The Castle is a great game on any platform in my opinion. I'd agree with all of those similarities, but the game also reminds me a LOT of Montezuma's Revenge from the previous year, which is another great game.
The technical ability on display in Gulkave is just ridiculous. Multiple layers of parallax scrolling on the SG-1000?!? You can still see the limitations in areas, but wow... they were really pushing the hardware to the absolute limits of what was possible.
Just wanted to say that I watch every video and you’re still entertaining me and making my life better. I’m working on a documentary for major streaming services about the history of arcade gaming and it would be cool if we could interview you at some point :)
Think Gulkave on SG-1000 is pricy? You need to check out the MSX port. Crazy rare, and last I heard before the time of this comment, going for over $1000 if you could ever find it. Of course to bring things full circle, it was also a Pony Canyon release on MSX. Also, that Zaxxon footage looked like the ColecoVision.
Compile sounds really familiar. Do they still exist? And Im not thinking of compileheart who does that awful made-for-13-year-old-boys hyperdimension neptunia (but also record of agarest war which is great).
Compile broke apart about 15-20 years ago and their properties were sold off for parts to Sega, D4, etc. You're thinking of Compile Heart, which did indeed arise tragically from the company's ashes.
Thats cool. Didnt know the history of compile heart, but ive run into them numerous times in the past 10 years. It was gun-nac I was thinking of. My aunt taught in Japan in the 80s and 90s, so I was the only US kid I knew with an actual famicom. It ran ok on a US Master System power supply, surprisingly.
@@JeremyParish OK, I double-checked. Not sure how, but you DEFINITELY are showing the Coleco version at 1:10 in this video. The ship colors shown are blue fuselage and white wings where the SG-1000 has white fuselage and red wings. The sound is also different, with SG-1000 having music (not good music, mind you) and the Coleco just having diegetic sounds. Maybe some archives got mixed up? I know you showed a sample of the Coleco version back when you were covering Zaxxon...
@@JeremyParish I only spotted it because I played hours of the Coleco game back in the day and it even had a cameo appearance in the horror movie "The Stuff"
I must admit GULKAVE pretty much destroys ORGUSS...but by being a late release, that would be a given...very impressive nonetheless..best sg 1000 gfx along with CHAMPION BOXING :P
Hope to see an official Bionic Commando NES works!!! Is there anyway a SWEET HOME episode could happen or a "GINTENDO" play through? Possible donation of an English translation cart to make it happen. Love your work, thank you for the endless top tier retrospectives and work you put in to everything.
@@ChristopherSobieniak Correct. Pony Inc and Canyon Records were Japanese labels from the late 60s(?) that merged sometime in the mid 80s to become Pony Canyon.
Vintage game prices skyrocketing has nothing to do with the pandemic, instead it's due to the grading bubble. I won't go into detail but it's worth going down the rabbit hole: involving alleged collusion between an auction site and a grading company, alleged conflicts of interest internally, what basically amounted to a promotional appearance on Pawn Stars, and more.
I didn't get this far in playing the SG-1000 games so I was amazed to see "The Castle" and "Gulkave". I never thought the SG would ever be capable of this. Wow.
Thank you for the incredible work. This has been a delightful series.
A million times do your viewers ratify this well-expressed sentiment!
I never realized there was a version of Castlequest released on the SG-1000 in Japan. Very cool! Gulkave looks great too.
The Castle actually gives you infinite continues!! You just need to hold down buttons 1+2 before the final "R" in "Game Over" appears on screen.
Ah, man, I hate those secret continue codes. Just be honest about it! We don't mind!
@@JeremyParish To be fair, it IS mentioned in the manual. ^^
As an aside, the original Japanese PC version (X1, FM-7 etc.) allowed you to save the game onto tape (at the cost of a life), but due to being somewhat sloppily coded, you could abuse this to actually gain infinite lives. Basically, enter a screen with multiple 1-up potions, collect them all, save (-1 live), then reload. The 1UPs will magically respawn! Collect them all again to make a net profit and repeat as many times as you like.
@@JeremyParish Also, I think you forgot that if you press Button 1, the game's pace will speed up or slow down. This is useful in the escalator parts, for example.
Like you, I could absolutely see a younger me whittling away countless hours over weeks or even months to master the secrets of The Castle, had the stars aligned to alter the circumstances of my birth just a bit. Legacy of the Wizard is a game that a part of me hated as a kid but could never bring myself to truly quit (and that I now wouldn't trade for anything), and I can definitely see some shared DNA between those two titles.
Gulkave isn't a game I would have put a ton of time into then, and have even less interest in playing now, but still warms my heart to know that the SG-1000 was something of a "little console that could" and really did have some truly fun high-action experiences inside it just waiting for a skilled developer to coax them out. What a charming and inventive little game. I am especially enamoured with the faux parallax scrolling, giving the game a sense of speed without taxing the hardware or even requiring smooth motion. I'm guessing that each level takes place on a single static screen, with animated scenery to give the illusion of a scrolling stage. A neat trick, and very convincing! Workarounds like that are one of my favourite aspects of older game design.
It has been 0 days since Jeremy Parish mentioned Xevious.
High time for Heiankyo Alien to get another mention.
Same for Sokoban
Can't wait for Ninja Princess!
Hey I played The Castle before, that game is great. Sort of like a beefed-up Montezuma's Revenge.
Jeremy, I know it can’t be easy, what you’re doing here, reviewing every game in this much depth (even the shitty ones), but you should know that your project is truly special and a highlight of my day when you post. I hope you keep up the quality content, I devour every tidbit (ESPECIALLY about the shitty games :)
Getting to Gulkave was an eventuality, but you give it the praise it deserves. It's way beyond what you'd expect on the SG-1000.
I really don't know how they pulled it off.
@@JeremyParish
Team Pixelboy/Eduardo Mello ported it to the Colecovision around 2010-ish?
If you're looking for any insight on how Compile's magicians performed their tricks, one of them might be your best bet.
Video Works Wednesday is the best day of the week
Hmm, I heard the familiar Compile 1up jingle during C'So footage. Is this the first time Compile used that jingle because I don't remember it pre-Guardic from 1986.
Compile made SO MANY games for MSX that I am reluctant to call anything a first!
It's just about as old as the Randar mascot in all their oldest MSX games, yet another flourish of its creators who came from the early type-in PC game scene over there.
Yeah I can definitely see why The Castle and Gulkave get esteem as games. Milon's Secret Castle will likely be covered very soon as far as NES Works 1988 goes. And nice to see Goku in the eyecatch.
Fun fact: Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Sega Master System was originally going to be a Dragon Ball game, but the developers were told they could no longer use the license, so Alex Kidd was created to replace Goku.
I love all of your series, but the Sega fan in me especially loves Segaiden. It's nice to see a reviewer appreciate the good (and bad) about my favorite video game company.
For anyone that likes The Castle, there's essentially a version of it where you can shoot made by the Oliver Twins called Super Robin Hood for ZX Spectrum and NES. I prefer the NES version for it's snappier speed. Either way, I feel like they're companion games.
Huh, I had no idea they were related! I love Super Robin Hood.
@@openskiesmedia They're not related, I just mean they feel like two games cut from the same cloth: running around a castle and getting stuff and solving action puzzles with precise platforming.
16:13 i see you, rocking that 69420 score >:)
In the end, the true hero was... me
probably the soonest I've ever seen between 'coming up... ' and actually getting covered in a video. :P c-so sounds interesting at least. definitely miss that era of clever single-screen games with interesting gimmicks. never knew 'The Castle' got an SG port! might have to look into it although no save and not having the extra lives of the FC version is gonna hurt. Gulkave actually sounds neat! a compile shmup on the SG-1000, might have to fire that one up in an emulator.
Always fun to see Pony Canyon's games here. I'm more familiar with them from some of the amazing soundtracks they did for games like F-Zero X.
Ah, that delightful Compile 1UP jingle. Didn't realize they'd been using it for quite so long.
Castlequest/The Castle/Castle Excellent is definitely not my kind of game... too drawn out, too puzzly, and too unforgiving. I think the comparison to Jet Set Willy and other ZX Spectrum games of the 1980s is an accurate one.
The Castle reminds me a little of Montezuma's Revenge. Looks really cool.
It probably came to Japan a bit too late for it to influence The Castle, but Revenge did eventually get a Mark III/SMS port of its own. The Castle owes a lot to Lode Runner, Tower of Druaga (much more so than Dragon Slayer), and various Japanese PC adventure games of the period. As Parish suggests, it's a very PC-oriented kind of game to show up on SG-1000 of all places, making it all the more special.
if only ColecoVision ever had a game like Gulkave.
It did get a Colecovision release via homebrew, but it's long since sold out.
Splendid informative journal on entertainment for the ruling class. Much appreciated.
Ruling… class…?
@@JeremyParish I tried super hard to sound posh, fancy English to suit the style of presentation. English is not my mother tongue. Keeping up appearances. Is ruling class something offensive? I imagined the rulers, like queen n'stuff. Probably overdone it, again. Anyway, interesting video, thank you!
I wonder if Jeremy has a quick-key combo set up in his editing suite to call up and insert Xevious footage.
TIL how 'antipodes' is pronounced. In hindsight, looking at how varied their catalogue was and how consistently they achieved the impossible on limited hardware, it's surprising Compile remained for the most part a hired gun throughout their (original pre-Raizing) history, rather than becoming a Konami or at least Irem level entity. The Aleste games are no less impressive than the Gradius series (often moreso) and imo blow away 194x, the series Capcom was built on. And Puyo Puyo, the Mega Drive's #1 selling title in Japan by a mile _should_ have made them millionaires. Anyway, another fun episode, thanks.
Fantastic retro gaming content. Thank you and congrats on your great work.
This channel has gone
0
days without a Xevious reference.
The Castle is a great game on any platform in my opinion. I'd agree with all of those similarities, but the game also reminds me a LOT of Montezuma's Revenge from the previous year, which is another great game.
The technical ability on display in Gulkave is just ridiculous. Multiple layers of parallax scrolling on the SG-1000?!? You can still see the limitations in areas, but wow... they were really pushing the hardware to the absolute limits of what was possible.
if they put Gulkave on the colecovision in the early 80s americans would have lost their mind
The castle looks like fun
Just wanted to say that I watch every video and you’re still entertaining me and making my life better. I’m working on a documentary for major streaming services about the history of arcade gaming and it would be cool if we could interview you at some point :)
Think Gulkave on SG-1000 is pricy? You need to check out the MSX port. Crazy rare, and last I heard before the time of this comment, going for over $1000 if you could ever find it. Of course to bring things full circle, it was also a Pony Canyon release on MSX.
Also, that Zaxxon footage looked like the ColecoVision.
Compile sounds really familiar. Do they still exist? And Im not thinking of compileheart who does that awful made-for-13-year-old-boys hyperdimension neptunia (but also record of agarest war which is great).
Compile broke apart about 15-20 years ago and their properties were sold off for parts to Sega, D4, etc. You're thinking of Compile Heart, which did indeed arise tragically from the company's ashes.
Thats cool. Didnt know the history of compile heart, but ive run into them numerous times in the past 10 years. It was gun-nac I was thinking of. My aunt taught in Japan in the 80s and 90s, so I was the only US kid I knew with an actual famicom. It ran ok on a US Master System power supply, surprisingly.
I see Segaiden, I click at Sonic speed.
1:10 isnt that the colecovision version of Zaxxon? The sg1000 looked and sounded different
Well, I only have SG1000 video capture in my archives and have never recorded anything from ColecoVision, so I’m not sure how it would be
@@JeremyParish OK, I double-checked. Not sure how, but you DEFINITELY are showing the Coleco version at 1:10 in this video. The ship colors shown are blue fuselage and white wings where the SG-1000 has white fuselage and red wings. The sound is also different, with SG-1000 having music (not good music, mind you) and the Coleco just having diegetic sounds.
Maybe some archives got mixed up? I know you showed a sample of the Coleco version back when you were covering Zaxxon...
@@JeremyParish I only spotted it because I played hours of the Coleco game back in the day and it even had a cameo appearance in the horror movie "The Stuff"
I must admit GULKAVE pretty much destroys ORGUSS...but by being a late release, that would be a given...very impressive nonetheless..best sg 1000 gfx along with CHAMPION BOXING :P
Sega should have released those three games in the first place. 😀👍🎮
Compile did a lot with pony can
Hope to see an official Bionic Commando NES works!!! Is there anyway a SWEET HOME episode could happen or a "GINTENDO" play through? Possible donation of an English translation cart to make it happen. Love your work, thank you for the endless top tier retrospectives and work you put in to everything.
I am no longer taking topic requests from patrons or anyone else, sorry.
@@JeremyParish Thanks again for your work!!!
I'm sorry, "Pony Canyon" always makes me giggle, I know they're a huge publisher and record label but lol.
Well, Japan and their weird use of English words. I think Pony and Canyon we're once separate companies until they were merged together.
@@ChristopherSobieniak Correct. Pony Inc and Canyon Records were Japanese labels from the late 60s(?) that merged sometime in the mid 80s to become Pony Canyon.
@@ChristopherSobieniak which was also the origin of Mr Sparkle.
Careful with the Toei clips. They might take your video down.
Vintage game prices skyrocketing has nothing to do with the pandemic, instead it's due to the grading bubble. I won't go into detail but it's worth going down the rabbit hole: involving alleged collusion between an auction site and a grading company, alleged conflicts of interest internally, what basically amounted to a promotional appearance on Pawn Stars, and more.
I am familiar with all of this, but that racket is only one factor.
Castle Quest was just dreadful.