The Bitmap Brothers: Masters of 16-Bit Gaming
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2024
- In this video you'll discover (or revive) key moments of The Bitmap Brothers' journey in the gaming industry, one of the most beloved developers from the 16-bit era.
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► Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Xenon
02:35 - Speedball
04:32 - Gaming's first Rock Stars
05:44 - Xenon 2: Megablast
07:03 - Dan Malone and Speedball 2
08:07 - Cadaver
09:15 - Gods
10:00 - Mirror Group's downfall
11:07 - Magic Pockets
11:48 - The Chaos Engine and The Chaos Engine 2
13:56 - Embracing a new Era
15:50 - WW II: Frontline Command
16:22 - Speedball 2: Tournament
16:50 - Ports, re-releases and remasters
18:08 - Rebellion Developments entered the scene
18:30 - The end of the Bitmap Brothers?...
This video wouldn't be possible without the following sources and assets:
► web sites: mobygames.com , lemonamiga.com , pexels.com , youtube.com , archive.org , bigbookofamigahardware.com , longplays.org , artstation.com/danmalone , mylondonwalks.com ;
► game music remixes made by fans:
• "Xenon 2 - Megablast 2017 Oldschool Mix", by HurryKn;
• "Xenon2 2010 Remix", by magic;
• "Xenon - The Real ExaBlast", by Michael GIBS;
• "Xenon 2 Megablast", by Eight.Bit Commando;
• "Speedball (80s Remix)", by Hanz Meyzer;
► literature: "Commodore Amiga in Pixels", by Chris Wilkins & Roger Kean, and RetroGamer magazine (Future plc);
► and the support from my Patrons: AlexModeling, Deckard Games, Eliran Vegh, James cheung, James D Bailey, Jpvn80, Melnikster, Michael, Morais, Nostalgia Nerd, Robin Gruoner, Simon Bryant and Tiago Pereira dos Santos Silva.
► Thumbnail: art by Dan Malone.
● My other channel (in Portuguese) "PXTNG": / @pedropxel
Partner:
CA Noticias - canoticias.pt/
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![The Chaos Engine Longplay (Amiga CD32) [60 FPS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Uq8Nmwn4IQ0/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Chaos Engine Longplay (Amiga CD32) [60 FPS]](/img/tr.png)
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This is TV quality, professionally edited, superbly researched, and beautifully narrated. Amazing work. ;)
Thank you so much, Dan! Glad you enjoyed it!
Take care, mate!
'tis isn't it, superbly done, surprised this guy isn't working of for a TV company or something.
These guys were my heroes back in the day! They really did have a good knack for paying attention to detail, which to this day, we can still talk about them!
Man, the quality of this video is as good as the Bitmap Brothers games.
Appreciate it, Cristian :) Glad you enjoyed it!
For sure!
Fantastic history of the bitmaps. I've been a fan of their work from early on and actually met up with a couple of them briefly at a computer show in London (at Earl's Court) in the early 90's. My friend and I were obsessed with Speedball 2 and we organised a local tournament in my home town, for which the Bitmaps were kind enough to send us some merchandise for (as prizes for the winner). It was nice to be able to say thank you for that in person. Many years later I was fortunate enough to be picked as a game tester for the Speedball Tournament game on PC. It was a worthwhile twist on the original game, but it just didn't work gameplay wise - I sent a lot of recommendations back to them, a couple of which they implemented, but it wasn't enough to fix the fundamental problems. The main problem was that the original Speedball 2 was virtually flawless (other than it being the demise of many joysticks), so it was difficult to measure up. I still occasionally play Speedball on my PS Vita (but it's torture for the thumbs).
Some of my favourite games on the old Amiga. Great memories. Keep em coming please Pixel Coisa :)
Will do! :) Thanks, Elcias!
oh wow, i cant wait for the day to over to sit back and watch this!!
Thanks for the support, Eliran ;) Enjoy!
Back in the day - The Bitmap Brothers, a big name in a small world. A punt we were always willing to take a chance on.....!
Congrats for another great unforgettable video!
Glad you enjoyed it! :) Thanks!
Having "Cracked by Ackerlight" twice in the video earns some major credits in the "that's just how it was" department ;)
I had no idea The Bitmap Brothers were involved with such nefarious people at the time.
Now you know ;)
Thanks for watching! Take care!
I finish Chaos engine so many times when i was a kid in 2 player mode , its still today one of my favorite amiga games. As always great video.
Thank you so much for all the support :)
Take care!
i used to walk past their office all the time at wapping in the 90's. i worked for a courier company upstairs from them
Wow! Nice! :) Thanks for sharing that!
Take care!
I love your documentaries mate i really do !Keep em coming!!
Just awesome! Brilliant! Bitmap Brothers will be in our memory forever. thanks Pedro!
My pleasure, Vitor :) Glad you enjoyed it!
Abraço!
Great documentary, Pedro. You managed to pack a lot of information in 20 minutes, a lot of which I didn't know. Looking at their headquarters, it seems just right that they developed the first steampunk videogame, and a masterpiece at that.
Right? :) Thank you so much for the support, Amerigo!
All the best
Top notch quality as always, I'm enjoying this on tiny pieces. Just.. great work
Thank you so much ;)
Gods was the first game I ever played on the sega mega drive, brilliant soundtrack and brutally difficult by todays standards.
Indeed, it was hard as nails! :) Played it on the PC back in the day.
Enjoyed this. Bitmap brothers is such an iconic dev.
Thanks, Mark! Glad you enjoyed it!
magic pockets, speedball & xenon 2 megablast on amiga... game & music awesome !
Indeed! :)
This was awesome. Thanks so much for creating it, really interesting!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Take care!
Watching this has inspired me to revisit the BB's back catalogue. Great vid!
Excellent video!
Still shaking from the memories I heartly revived, just stepping out of HMV and Virgin @Oxford Str... With titles from this unique superstars on my hands. Ansious to get back home (Portugal) to play it!
The Chaos Engine is exceptional on two players gameplay and, of course, the soundtrack.
Cheers Pixel, you are now just on Top of TH-cam gaming content.
Wow! Thank you so much for those words, Ricardo! Truly appreciate it! :)
Take care, mate! All the best
Excellent vid m8! very well produced and researched. Being an Amiga fan and a Bitmap Bros fan also, there's lots of facts here I didn't know. Took me right back to my Amiga years, best years ever! :)
Glad you enjoyed, Lucas! Appreciate your feedback.
Take care!
Such a great history lesson. Everything is top notch in this video. Incredible!
Thank you so much for letting us enjoy this excellent documentary. Stay safe!
Thank you so much for your feedback :)
Take care!
Ahh dude, I get it that videos like this are a workload, but it's just awesome.
So many research and so much information. It was a pleasure to watch.
Glad you enjoyed it, David! :)
Watching this now, keep up the good work:)
Hey, thanks! ;) Enjoy!
Perfect work about a perfect studio, great job !
Thank you so much! Appreciate your feedback!
Have a great weekend!
A great documentary with a perfect size to it; summarised enough to be easy to listen too but lengthy enough to pack a ton of info in. Little notes and quote were rare but as such well placed and it was an interesting tour of The Bitmap Brother's library. I'd never heard of Cadaver before but it looks quite nice.
Much appreciated! :) Glad you enjoyed it!
Cadaver is a pretty cool experience. Really enjoyed it back in the day ;)
Amazing job as always, keep it! Also, I need to check that Cadaver game, seems very cool!
Thanks for watching, Ivo! Appreciate your feedback! :)
Cadaver is pretty awesome! Loved to play it back in the day, in complete darkness :)
Saving this for the weekend. It is perfect.
I'll be back afterwards.
Thanks, David ;)
Great video ! One of your best ever. Speedball 2 was one of those games me and friends played tournaments on saturday nights in our youth.
Thank you so much for watching, Roger! :)
Take care!
@@itsaPIXELthing : My pleasure ! Not always commenting , but always watching and click thumbs up.
Appreciate it ;)
Nice one Pedro.... I look forward to your Amiga videos the most :)
Thank you so much for your comment, Barry!
Cheers!
Awesome Documentary as usual!
It's is great to know the origins of some of the most beloved games we payed back in the day, and «The Bitmap Brothers were legends back then.
Thank you so much fot his one, was a great watch and highly enjoyable:)
Keep it up!
Cheers Pixel;)
Glad you enjoyed it! :) I know you guys are huge fans ;)
Cheers, mates!
I just want a straight port of all Bitmap Brothers Amiga games to the Switch
Rebellion is surely working on that :)
@@itsaPIXELthing Fingers crossed! The doc was great, congrats!
@@qebo_a.retsis Thanks :)
brilliant video!!! the days of classic games and devs are now long gone. Everything now is run of the mill!!
Thanks for the support, Derek :) Glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely fantastic video, excellent research!
Thanks, Mark! Appreciate it!
This video brings back some very good memories of my younger years. Awesome documentary!
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers! :)
Love you documentaries. Keep up the good work.
Glad you like them! Appreciate it!
Cheers!
great documentary really enjoyed it - thanks
Appreciate it! Thanks
Good content. Good research and good editing. 👍
Liked and ordered your channel. 😃
woow! this one is my new fav video from you!
Appreciate the feedback :)
Cheers! Take care!
Excellent work again. 😊
Thank you so much, James 😀
Another excelent and marvelous video, Pedro. You´re the best. I love your work. Portuguese youtubers rules! :)
Thank you so much for the support, João!
Abraço!! :)
@@itsaPIXELthing Um grande abraço, Pedro! Que trabalho fabuloso tens criado há vários anos. Muitos parabéns e muito sucesso!
Agradeço imenso as palavras, João! Só incentivam a continuar ;)
Tudo de bom e continua aí!
Such great games, Speedball 2 and Xenon 2 were among my favorite games for MS-DOS, they made an incredibly job with the sound conversion for Xenon 2, it's sound track was one of the best you could hear in a PC beeper.
Thank you so much for stopping by! Appreciate it!
Cheers!
This is what the It's a Pixel THING channel is all about.
Entertainment and information in a high quality package.
Continua a brindar-nos com estes trabalhos grande Pedro, e obrigado por mais um documentário =)
Obrigado eu por estares aí para assistir, Johnny! Adoro fazer isto ;)
Thank you so much, mate! Appreciate it!
Esta ideia, derrota um pouco o conceito do TH-cam/partilha digital, mas adorava ver um lançamento físico em Blue Ray, com a colectânea dos documentários do It's a Pixel THING. I would get one on pre-order right away ;)
I'm thinking seriously about that possibility. I have to remake a couple of them first ;)
@@itsaPIXELthing =O please do...isso tem de acontecer.
Awsome video. I liked it alot. Being a gamer from this years back i allways like to see this kind of documentarys with quality, respect, and love for the material as well. Whats the next one? Bullfrog? Rainbow Arts?
Oh, man! I freakin' love Rainbow Arts! :) Thanks for the tip!
And thanks for stopping by! Cheers!
@@itsaPIXELthing Cinemaware maybe? :D One of the first games i played when i was a kid was defenders of the crown. I can still hear the theme song in my head.
Brilliant upload, I love Chaos Engine to this day. Lots of good information and a nice trip down memory lane... 👍
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch it :) Truly appreciate it!
Cheers!
Very interesting learning about this developer. It’s cool that these games are now coming to Evercade
Excelente Pedro, obrigado por mais este documentário. Conhecia pouco dos jogos deles, só o Gods é qur joguei bastante quando era miudo. Um abraço!
Obrigado por estares aí, Ivan! Fico feliz por teres gostado!
Grande abraço!
Fantastic.Thank you!
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
Adoro estes teus vídeos! Aprendo sempre coisas novas! Obrigada pelo conteúdo que trazes!! ^_^
Obrigado eu por estares aí e por deixares o teu apoio, Nicole! ;)
Tudo de bom!
The Big Box versions of The Chaos Engine, Magic Pockets and Cadaver are also gems of my modest collection 😃 😃 Absolutely amazing documentary 💪 💪 Take care!
Thank you so much, Roman! All the best!
AWESOME documentary !
Thanks ;)
Excellent work, man. Icecream, I Scream!
Glad you enjoyed it, mate! :)
Very great job!!!
Thank you, Guillaume! Appreciate it!
Take care!
My uncle used to to work at the bitmap brothers
Nice! :) Thanks for sharing!
That was an amazing feat of journalism Pedro. Been looking forward to that one and it didn't disappoint. Shame Chaos Engine 2 didn't match up to its first outing. What next for you now I wonder. Keep it up.
I'm not convinced that chaos engine 2 was played the way it was designed. Perhaps in the way of competitive play, it may have been released before it's time.
My thoughts exactly
Thanks for this..My first love for entertainment was Amiga so this was very interesting.
My pleasure :) Thanks for watching!
Then i played Xenon 2 for the first time i was "mindblasted?" , graphics and music are awesome !
Speedball 2 was ( in my oppinion ) one of the best sportgames for the Amiga ;)
Elfmania was the last game i bought for my Amiga.
Great vid, jogged lots of memories not least Simon Bisleys cover art for gods! I believe Speedball 2 is among the 25 games pre loaded onto the new Amiga Mini, not sure if thats out yet?
It's not out, yet. But you can preorder it from Amazon ;)
Anyone who knows their Amiga and their games especially these from the Bitmaps should know most of this already.
Thanks for your feedback.
The software devs of the 80's and 90's, with a load of great games!!!!
Indeed :)
Boas amigo! Além de toda a excelente edição e conteúdo do vídeo a verdade é que tens um talento natural para para contar estas histórias.
E claro , aqui estou sempre a aprender algo de novo sobre o antigo 😃.
Parabéns pelo excelente trabalho.
Grande abraço, Renato.
Muito obrigado por estares aí, Renato! Agradeço de coração
Grande abraço para ti e para os restantes "nerds" :)
Great stuff! John Carpenter also deserves a little credit for Megablast
Olá, Pedro! Quando comecei a ver o vídeo, pensei que era um documentário de televisão, que tinhas simplesmente feito o upload, depois é que percebi que não, que foi totalmente feito por ti. A qualidade informativa é impressionante! Gostei mesmo muito! Parabéns! 😊 Entretanto, subscrevi o canal também! Continuação de uma boa semana!
Muito obrigado por assistires e pelas palavras, Joana! Adoro fazer este tipo de trabalhos/vídeos :)
Tens mais uns quantos do género aqui no canal. Diverte-te ;) Entretanto tb irei vasculhar o teu :)
Finally got around to watching this all the way through - very informative and cool! Thanks for all the research and info!
Of all the IP, I would think that the one which would update best to more modern gamers would be The Chaos Engine. Obviously, Steampunk became all the rage, and the basic Chaos Engine gameplay and characters could be translated into the ever popular FPS format.
Looking at all the comments about Bitmap Brothers games being very good looking but not so fun to play ... I dunno, maybe later on, but Speedball and Speedball 2 were so tight! I got to know them on the C64 and Amiga versions respectively. They were wonderful!
I only ever played a demo version of The Chaos Engine, but it was fun enough. Same with Gods - demo only - but that seemed fine also to me.
My pleasure, Isaac! Thanks for watching and for leaving your thoughts :)
Take care!
Adorei o video! Não conhecia muito da história deles. Ainda joguei bastante o Speedball no CDTV do meu irmão!
Obrigado pelo teu apoio, Mike!
Abraço!
Into... The Wonderful...
Great vid!
Ok, some of their best known games are not really very well playable (for example the level design in the chaos engine, or the movement system in gods) but the techniqual realization and particularly the art look were amazing!
Your documentary is well maded too, nice work!
Thank you so much for your feedback, David! Take care!
Que grande trabalho! Pro!! Parabéns.
Muito obrigado, Paulo! Abraço!
Amigo grande documentário adorei ver estas de parabéns pixel vi duas vezes ...:)
Obrigado pelo apoio, K ;)
Os bitmap brothers ,é nome que fica na memória depois de speedball 2 e brutal sports deluxe.nao sabia que houve uma cooperação com a palace software,a editora de cauldron jogo que também adoro !
Excelente review como sempre!
Retro abraços 👍
Muito obrigado pelo apoio, José! Grande abraço!
Loved their games. Polished and original.
How every episode you manage to dig up a game from my dead brain cells... Man I loved that game magic pockets. I never knew that was his name! In my head it was gods but with a kid 😂😆😂😆😆. I played the hell outta that game.
Such a great game :) Loved it so much back in the day!
Thanks for watching and for all the support, mate!
@@itsaPIXELthing man you'r video production is ace... I know the time you put in it, with family job and I guess other hobbies.
👏👏👏👏 Keep up the good work
Retro gaming 😎 Amiga will lives
Thank you so much!
Como prometido cá estou eu. bom trabalho como era de esperar.
abraço.
Muito obrigado pelo feedback :) Fico feliz por teres gostado
Abraço!
Espectacular esta incursao pelo passado. joguei bastante Speedball e Chaos Engine. é bom ver que o legado deles continua, e nas mãos da Rebellion talvez haja mais um momento de gloria em alguns destes franchises. grande abraço!
Conheci-os ainda no Spectrum, com o Xenon. Depois, já no Amiga, foi descobrir o Cadaver e os Speedball, 1 e 2. Já no PC foi onde joguei o Gods, o The Chaos Engine e os jogos da série Z. Pelo meio houve uns quantos que, na época, me passaram ao lado, como o The Chaos Engine 2 e o Speedball 2100. Sem dúvida que deixaram a sua marca. Vamos ver o que a Rebellion faz com este catálogo ;)
Obrigado por assistires, Daniel! Abraço
I enjoyed their graphical style with everything square shaped and this shiny edges. What song is played right in the very end seconds of this documentary?
It's in the description: Speedball (80s remix) by Hanz Meyzer ;)
Cool video. I really like the music selections. There's a remix of Insomnia by Faithless playing from 0:15, who's the remixer?
It's "Xenon2 2010 Remix" by Magic ;)
boy did i love Xenon 2
What a game! :)
@@itsaPIXELthing rorarrororarambo! How do you like my shopkeeper impression? xD
A friend of mine had a pirated copy of Gods and I always felt good devs deserved to have you buy a real copy so I bought Gods. Annoyed to find my game was twice as hard as my friends pirated copy so I sent it back to them telling them to use it as an ashtray. They replied saying thanks for the ashtray and they will put it to good use and that my copy had failed the copy protection. They sent me a working version along with a poster for Cadaver. My graphic art always had a slight Bitmap tinge to them.
Speedball: Cracked by Ackerlight
Fackin enjoyed that
Great memories on the amiga.
Indeed! :) Thanks for watching, Will!
Take care
Best pixel artists eva !
Amazing as always master 😃✌ thank you for this 😃
My pleasure! :)
Bitmap Brothers always made beautiful games but the often lacked in playability. Still a major player on the Amiga scene back in the day and a credit to the platform.
The less said about Maxwell the better ;)
Thank you so much for your feedback! Appreciate it! :)
Maaan, I'd kill for a new Speedball game or just a port of Speedball 2 for the PS5.
That would be awesome :)
Congrats
Amazing video....Speedball and Z are my favorites in this list of great games....
Again Netflix quality content.....
Thank you so much, mate! :) Glad you enjoyed it!
Cheers!
@@itsaPIXELthing 👍👍 thx to you to create this amazing content...
My pleasure :)
571 likes and no thumbs down says it all😊😊😊 loved bitmap games😊 xenon 2 and magic pockets were up there with my faves✌
They made xenon 2 on the master system which is 8 bit 😍
Indeed :)
Ist Gods: Rematered nie veröffentlicht worden? Kann es im eshop nicht finden?!
It seems that it's no longer available on Nintendo's eshop
Killer
Omg!! i always found them so hard as kid now I know why...hahaha..serves me right :)
Nice Borat is doing gaming commentary now! 😂
Yeah! And he's doing a pretty damn good job! ;)
05:35 What magazine is that from?
From issue 77 of CVG (Computer & Video Games) mag, from March of '88, to be more precise ;) Here's the direct link to archive.org where the magazine is hosted: archive.org/details/Computer_Video_Games_Issue_077_1988-03_EMAP_Publishing_GB/page/n19/mode/2up
@@itsaPIXELthing Thank you so much for the detailed reply. It is much appreciated sir. 🙏
My pleasure 😉
Lembro-me de jogar o Xenon 2 com um amigo meu que tinha um Atari ST e ficarmos ambos "parvos" com a música e os gráficos. Penso que era 1990 ou 1991...
Sem dúvida! :) O Xenon 2 joguei no meu Amiga 500, já o primeiro Xenon joguei no Spectrum ;)
Abraço, Alexandre! Obrigado por assistires e partilhares a tua experiência!
in what Language on Amiga they program this games?
There are several Amiga programming languages, like AmigaBASIC, ABasic, AC Basic Compiler, GFA BASIC, HiSoft Basic, AMOS BASIC, Blitz BASIC, PureBasic, etc, etc.
@@itsaPIXELthing withut basci i men studios like psygnosis or bitmap borothers