The History of Berzerk - arcade console documentary
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ม.ค. 2022
- The history of the classic run and shoot maze game spectacular - Please visit my Patreon at / pdbowl
Follow me on Twitter at / pdqc1971
Follow me on Facebook at Patmanqc-His... - เกม
My first memory of laughing was me and my friend Ian intentionally walking into the walls over and over. Don’t know why we laughed so hard for so long
LOL
Hope your friend didn't call you Evil Otto then. ;-)
That's funny, because when my friend Ian walked into the wall, it fried him as soon as he made contact
Berserk on the 2600 was one of my earliest joys as a kid! Thank you so much for publishing this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I really enjoyed it; I'd always play the "children's mode" version and blaze through the game...
Just wanted to say your videos always make my day. I work with students with special needs and I look forward to sharing your work and life with them.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate that :-)
I loved Battlestar Galactica when I was young, so I naturally loved this game when it came out - and it's still very playable today. Excellent video, thank you 👍👍👍
Same here! Thank you
In Europe we got arcade games and movies later. There, some episodes of Battlestar Galactica were merged into a 90 minute movie. I remember seeing Berzerk in my small town in front of the ticket booth. So one day I bought a ticket for Battlestar Galactica in around 1980/1981 and played a game or two of Berzerk to kill the time the movie would start.
Still fun to watch! 😊
While I was never hardcore about this game a former record holder named Joel West was kind enough to come to my house for my birthday years ago when he was nearby (we had been talking online as friends for quite a while at that point), hang out and show me some of his chops on this game. It was a very special moment for me. He has sadly since passed away and every time I see this game I think about him. Thanks for making this.
That is very cool, he was the guy in the documentary?
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries He's been a few documentaries about classic arcade gaming. Chasing Ghosts is probably the most well known. He was a super nice guy.
@@80s_Gamr Very cool, thanks for sharing
Brings back many memories from the 80s. I was hooked on this game. Just the sounds alone made you feel like you were really an intruder ! Miss those days dearly I’m 52 now and arcade 1up should look into being this back for old school gamers
The Robot-emulated voice saying "COME BACK AND FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT!" plus Evil Otto was nightmare fuel for me as a kid.
It was “Chicken, fight like a robot.” 🤣
Clearly you have not seen the anime/manga series of Berserk because Evil Otto and Sinistar would look like Hello Kitty in comparison to the nightmare fuel in that franchise.
When little, I thought it was "Chicken fight. Lightning robot!"
Kill the Chicken
My favorite arcade of all time!
Great video!
Thanks for the visit
One of my favorite games on the 5200. Underrated system that gets a bad rap for the controllers which I don't remember having a problem with as a kid.
I personally went through a dozen 5200 controllers and I think it was the worst controller made in video game history. Least for Reliability. It was the only main issue I had with the 5200. The start, pause and reset buttons also went bad. It was infuriating when it basically left the console unplayable. And as we all know after it was discontinued it was very difficult to even find a controller. I think a couple years later I gave up and then I found a guy who repaired them. But inevitably it was too much of a pain and I sold it. I remember berzerk vividly it played pretty well when the controller did work though and the voice I remember really stood out from the 2600 version.
None of us did either. I remember being shocked by the controllers playing pac man for the first time, seemed unplayable… but after 2 minutes we adjusted and… that was that. I’m easy on joysticks so I had no issues with durability either though a buddy of mine ripped up his rubber boot quickly.
@@GisherJohn24lol! Went through 12 of them did you? By the way Jesus sees the lies you write on here - even though the Bible tells us he looked NOTHING like your Kenny Loggins Jesus pic.
Finally, Patman! Berzerk is one of my all time favorite bowling alley games!!
It's a classic
Oh, this one got many of the quarters back in the day and I was SO happy when the 2600 version was released! Another great video!
I liked this game and the sequel Frenzy, was a nice progression, w/ the ability to make your own exit, and levels like the machine that would churn out robots until you disabled it, pretty faithful version released on the Colecovision
I played the heck out of Frenzy on the Colecovision. It was the best port next to the arcade. I played it using my Super Action Joystick!
This was one of my favorite Atari games when I was a wee one. I was surprised to see this video cause I felt like no one knew this game! None of my friends of other family members had it.
This was my favorite Atari game by far, my cousins and I would spend hours playing this game, for some reason the song funky town always reminds me of Berserk, there's a part that sounds like when the robots were shooting at you!
Great childhood memories!!!
I loved this game when I was a little snot nosed 11 year old. Battlestar Galactica was one of my favorite shows as well. I absolutely loved the Cylons and their vocoded voices. That was one of the things that I dug about this game. Just when I thought I couldn't like you any more than I do, you show Mr. Haney! Now I really like you!
One reason I like this channel is occasionally I get introduced to a classic game I've never heard of. This is one of those times. Very interesting.
Thanks. When I started this channel 3 1/2 years ago I wanted to cover games that a lot of modern gamers might not have seen or remembered. Since then I've covered a lot of well-known games but there are a ton of games that don't get the love that they deserve :-)
I vacationed in Flordia with my parents in 1992 and discovered a Berzerk cabinet in the video arcade on the first floor of the Holiday Villas III condo building we were staying in. The coin slot was a little loose and at one point I thought the machine had eaten my last quarter so I banged it with the palm of my hand to make sure the coin dropped. I was surprised to see I had an extra life and soon realised that you did not need to deposit quarters to play the game, just bang the coin slot and you'd get free plays. I did not get a tan during that vacation.
LOL, that is hilarious.
One of my favorite games of all time right here! The first time I played it was around 1986 at a friend's house on her 2600, and a couple of years later in 1988, I finally saw an arcade cabinet at an amusement park. I'm pretty sure they had two cabinets there, and those were the only two cabinets I saw until 2015 when I made my first visit to the Galloping Ghost Arcade. I also saw and played Food Fight for the first time that night, and again never saw another cabinet until 2015. I'm so excited that Atari acquired Berzerk and Frenzy, along with the other Stern titles they got!
My son did an essay on the curse of evil otto when he was 10. He did his own research and actually liked doing it.
Very cool
I always made a correlation between the robots being a lot like Cylons, now I know why! Great video, keep em coming.
I always thought they looked like the red robots from Black Hole
Thanks, will do!
@@curbydinobot8633 You are referring to Maximillian?
@@Outrider74 yes thats the one
As a kid, this was my favorite Atari 2600 game. Also remember playing it at pizza arcades around Chicagoland. 2600 robot designs were great, they blow up into smiley faces, and even the score font and colors are still awesome. Great nostalgia, thanks.
This game is a classic that I need to go back to. I remember it in both the arcade as well as on my uncle's 2600. Such a good game.
I remember playing it on the 2600 when I was very young. The smiling Evil Otto always scared me because it was like death stalking you, but with a grin. It would be cool if someone were to make a version of the game that does have an ending. Perhaps multiple endings including one where you nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure after all.
Just One Nuke?
How about several Nukes, and if that doesn't work than you go to Antimatter Bomb, and if that doesn't work, they have a backdoor program to create a Singularity.....just to make sure.
I just wanted to say that this is a really fantastic video, and it was very well researched! Alan was actually my dad, and he passed away almost 5 years ago now. I really love seeing how many people in the comments have fond memories of Berzerk and Frenzy. I think the only detail worth adding is that my dat absolutely hated it when the company sold the IP to Atari, since he didn't get shit for it and the 2600 port was really bad in comparison to the arcade game. Ultimately I think that's what led to him not really developing any more games after Frenzy, which is a shame since he had a fantastic creative mind.
I can always trust you to turn my frown upside down! After a long day at work it's absolutely golden to see a new video is uploaded. Stay Awesome!
LOL, that is nice of you to say. Thanks
Another excellent, informative, entertaining and accurate video by your esteemed self. Infinite gratitude!😊🙏
Thank you kindly!
you're welcome. Please tell me the background music and artist you've used at the start of the video. Thanks
@@stevensgoodallsg Yes, it's actually royalty-free sci-fi music I found on TH-cam
Yeah Berzerk was my jam back In the day at Pinellas Square Mall.
Oh man I never thought I'd get to see the LEGEND REB BROWN in a PatmanQC video, but there he is as Captain America!
This game is a classic.
I remember going to a country pub in England .. they had a games room. Berzerk was one of them, complete with the large joystick.
The pub made back their money that day ..
(amazing what you find over here ... I used to call Pac-man "Puckman" .. because an arcade in my own town apparently bought Japanese in 1980!)
Never played the arcade version but I loved the Atari port (that artwork for the game is just brilliant!) I would consider this game along with pitfall to be the major reasons I fell in love with video games in general
My grandma had this on the Atari. Whenever I went to visit, that's where you'd find me. Planted in front of the TV playing Berserk
Yep, this one of my first arcade joys. The sounds were so cool. I didn't know until this video that the robot explosions were smiley faces.
I'm glad my little video could help out :-)
Strange how a story about killer robots suddenly changed into a story about an angry guy chopping up monsters with a big ginsu knife.
It’s a slippery slope
I remember playing this on one of the earliest versions of the arcade cabinets with a black&white screen. All of the later versions had color screens.
I still vividly remember hearing that gorgeous sounding robot voice from the other side of my local arcade for the first time. There’s still something special about hearing this,Sinistar and other’s. I can’t even imagine how many 10p’s I’ve put in them over the years.
PatmanQC,again you’ve started the year with a bang. Love & respect as always to you and yours 🙌🙏❤️
Another great video, I always love watching these great and informative videos on my favorite arcade games.
Thanks a lot
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries you're very welcome
Thank you very much for this video. I was a huge fan of this game which I used to play at an aunt's house on an Atari 2600 whenever I got the chance in the 80s. It really stood out for me amongst the other games. I loved the airbrushed artwork on the cartridge as well.
I never knew that it was originally an arcade game. Besides the digitised voice effects and a few other subtle differences, I've noticed that the robots in the arcade version could also shoot diagonally which they couldn't do in the 2600 version; they could only fire horizontally and vertically. That would have made it even more intense!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it
Intruder Alert Humanoid Must Not Escape! Evil Otto says Welcome to 24 Thousand Levels! That is Evil or you might say Berzerk! The remake of Berzerk used a yellow happy face for Evil Otto which now makes sense after watching the history on the game! Just hearing the sounds makes me want to play this game I remember hearing it at the Arcades! Oh no, nothing was killed during the comments...CHICKEN Detected! Ha-Ha! Thanks again for a wonderful History Patman! The Humanoid known as Patman must not escape!
LOL thanks buddy
Wow one of my childhood favorites
I remember having Berzerk on the 2600. I had a joystick that liked to randomly move down. Using that joystick, I would sometimes drop the gun in-game. No one ever believed me when I told them. You couldn't fire when you didn't have it, but you'd go through the motion. You could pick it up again by moving onto it. Anyway, great video!
How exactly do you drop the gun? What joystick moment?
@@TokyoXtreme It's like up and down at the same time and the fire button. I just had to look it up because I was starting to have doubts about it actually being real, or just some childhood fever dream.
@@TheTaintSniffler I honestly didn’t believe you, but you are correct 😱 Apparently the robots can be killed if they walk into the gun.
I never knew this, thanks for the info
One of my favorite games of all time! The voice, the sounds, it just works.
Exactly, it's like the perfect package for a 1980s arcade game
Before there was the hit "Berzerk", the song was originally called "With a Girl Like You" by Buckner & Garcia, but then the studio said they wanted the new album Pac-Man Fever to have all game related songs. So, they reused the music, and changed the words. The {band, not really a band} R. Cade and the Video Victims, later released the album "Get Victimized". It had sequel songs like "Ms. Pac-Man, and Frenzy, but had their own songs for "Donkey Kong", and Defender "Defender Contender", and mostly instruments song "Scramble", but seemed to be based on the music from the Kiss' song "I Was Made for Lovin’ You". Some of the songs weren't about games but the culture around them, so we got songs like "Change Attendant", it sadly didn't seem to sell very well.
EPIC classic arcade game! When I got a Super Retro-Cade the first ROM I loaded up was Berserk, 2nd ROM was Frenzy. Both get wicked hard real quick but they're a blast. Still love playing them more than 40 year's later.
Yes, it's a timeless classic
This looks like another crazy difficult title...LOL..
This channel has inspired me to take a look back at some of the titles your channel has covered. Since I have a Xbox One, I got the Midway Arcade classics and I have enjoyed it so far.
Thanks for sharing with me a world of gaming that I missed. I was around during some of the days of the arcade but my town didn't have may machines. So, I am enjoying these new games I am experiencing thanks to the Midway Arcade classics.
Thanks Pat. The Superman 3 clip left me scarred as a child. Nothing more terrifying than that woman screaming being turned into a robot. Nightmare fuel for years brother.
No kidding, can't believe they put that in there
Amazing video. Thank you!
Another well done episode! Thank you!
Thanks again!
Played this game at a convention with my dad 13 years ago. Really great game. Those voice sounds do add more to it and made it ahead of its time.
Yes it really did
I immediately think of the bizarre 2600 commercial with the old lady who's obsessed with Berzerk!
i like 2600 the way the screen sets up with the walls collapsing instead of room moving sideways
I played this back on my fathers 2600 as a boy, it was my fav game on the system and a lot of fun for sure. Nice work.
I used to play this all the time on the 2600. Loved it
It was probably one of the best 2600 conversions back in the day
Excellent video! Also LMAO at that Atari commercial. Gee whiz grandma!
Thanks. Atari made some wacky videogame commercials for the Atari 2600. Just look at the joust commercial :-)
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries or Pole Position.
This is great, thanks for covering Berzerk and Frenzy, both great games, Frenzy with the evil Skeletons, Berzerk with the Bots. The Colecovision version of Frenzy was incredible and a favorite game growing up.
I played in that Friar Tuck arcade in Cal City near River Oaks Mall...... great video.
Thanks for this video. Berzerk is my favorite arcade games. They had one in the lobby of the Walmart in my small town. Sometimes My mom would drop me off just to play a few rounds.
Back when number one arcade games were just about everywhere and number two your parents could drop you off in a store and not be worried about somebody snatching you up. I couldn't imagine doing that with my kids nowadays
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries totally agree
Awesome video as always!!! I played this game as a little boy on my Atari 2600 and it's one of the best memories of my childhood. Nowadays I play the excellent NES homebrew version, which even includes the sequel Frenzy. It's a ROM recently programmed by the wizard Robert DeCrescenzo, who made it free to download. It looks just like the Berzerk/Frenzy arcade games and features the robotic voice.
I like Weekly World News too - some of the articles crack me up to no end!
Thanks. That is made for the NES? I will have to check that out. Thank you
My fav game ever along with Robotron, great video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Use to sing along to Buckner & Garcia's Berserk song while playing Atari version.
Is a shame there has not been ports of it during this millenium, I really want to play it.
I'm rooting for Hamster to pick up the rights to release it as part of the Arcade Archives series, but in the meantime I'd say your best bet is to emulate it on MAME.
Emulation is probably your only bet
That 4-legged robot at the beginning was used in the Boba Fett show a few weeks ago. I remember having a love hate relationship with BERZERK at the local Gold Mine Arcade back in the day.
That footage at 0:22 of the guy trying to kick over the real robot was downright freaky.
Excellent coverage of a classic arcade game by the Patman! Berzerk is arguably my favorite game of all time. I had the Atari 2600 version as a kid and had both the arcade upright (which suffered a fatal calamity while being put into storage) and a cocktail table version. Sadly you won't see a lot of Berzerk and Frenzy games these days because the on-board battery Stern used for memory retention can damage the main CPU board. Fortunately there is a JAMMNA replacement board available so with a little rewiring they can be brought back to life.
NOTE No.1: There exists an authorized cabaret version of Berzerk that was manufactured by Stern's distributor in Australia.
NOTE NO.2: There are two deaths (in)directly attributed to the Berzerk game located at Friar Tuck's arcade in Calumet City Illinois. The first death (Peter Bukowski) you mentioned but a second death involving that same machine several years later occurred supposedly a fight over between two guys fighting over quarters left on the bezel to "reserve" a game. [For clarification I shall refer to the participants as "attacker" and "victim"] The attendant on duty kicked both of them out and attempted to send them in different directions to avoid further trouble. The victim didn't heed the attendant's directions and went the same way as the attacker who ambushed him and stabbed the victim to death.
P.S. AFAIK the current fate of this Berzerk machine is unknown at this time.
Thanks. Did not know that about the battery issue. I also wasn't aware of the second death you mentioned either. Thanks for the info
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries No problem.
I like how Evil Otto appears for a spit second when you kill the robots if you look hard enough.
I honestly thought that this was a predecessor to Robotron which i found way more addictive and playable. Love the laid back content and the side by side platform comparisons. Great work!!!
Thank you so much
Love the KISS pinball machine remember playing one when I was young brilliant
So do I, fond memories of that
This was one of my absolute favorites for the Atari 2600. I did also play it in the arcade a few times, though strangely I have no memory of it having voice samples. Is it possible that some machines shipped without them as a cost cutting measure?
I thought I read somewhere that The arcade operator could turn the voice samples off with the dip switch settings but I could be mistaken. I don't think it would be a cost-cutting measure though because that really helped the arcade game stand out.
It's a cool game, but the biggest legacy comes from the games that followed it, particularly the Jarvis games you mention, Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV. Jarvis' goal with Robotron was to create a better Berzerk where the player didn't have to shoot they way they were moving, which led to the dual stick shooter.
As a young kid I had the impression Robotron: 2084 was a sequel to Berzerk. Robotron was a much more attractive game, and had the graphic style that VizKids Jarvis and DeMar used in Defender compared to Berzerk's rather basic presentation. WIthout the voice I think Berzerk would have been a much tougher sell even with the gameplay being solid.
Along those lines, I wonder how Berzerk was inspired by Defender. Berzerk was supposedly released in November 1980. Defender was not released until sometime at the beginning of 1981. Defender was publicly shown at the AMOA show in late September 1980, though it wasn't a standout at that time sales-wise.
Even if Defender didn't have financial hit yet, if could have been inspiring other games in progress. Did Stern change Berzerk after the AMOA show, or where they already aware of the Defender through the grapevine? Two months seems like it might be enough to make the change. On the other hand, given Defender's long development time, McNeil or other Stern people were in the same community as the Midway people and might be have been aware of Defender.
My Dad actually used to own the arcade machine at his house! It was awesome playing that game everytime I spent time at his house without having to pay lol
That is fantastic, always wanted to own an actual arcade unit but never did
Hell yes. Love this and Frenzy.
My first introduction to this was the Dragon 32 version, which was sadly omitted from the video. It played really well and I still play it today from time to time. Like most arcade games on the Dragon, it was a clone and not officially licensed (going by the name of Berserk instead of Berzerk), but played identically to the arcade.1
Dragon 32 was a bootleg which is why I didn't include it, I did check it out though it looks pretty good
Yeah as stated it was a clone (not an official conversion) but did play pretty much identically. Developers for the Dragon (and many home micros) tended to unofficially copy games back then and there were some pretty good versions.
Old ladies saying " Take that Turkey" or " Watch it buster" was classic 80s comedy.
LOL I remember
Oh man did I love this game as a kid! I recently discovered the sequel and pay both of them at least once a month. Even the 2600 version was great!
Samples of 'Humanoid' and 'Intruder Alert' was also used in the classic acid house tune Humanoid by Stakker
Excellent
Awesome vid!!!
Thanks!
I remember playing a game called "Chase" on my junior high's teletype. I had an inkling that a game like that was the inspiration for Berserk.
It sure does sound like this game
One of my favorite games. I remember seeing it in the Harbor House Restaurant, Waterford, Michigan. The synthesized voice was awesome. Took me (as a kid) a bit to realize Evil Otto couldn't be killed.
You can kill Evil Otto in Frenzy, but you had to shoot him several times.
One of my favorites BITD. The Atari 2600 port was great too. Also proud that this game was conceived & developed in the Chicago area (where I grew up). I recently played a Berzerk arcade machine at Hershey Park and makes me want an arcade port for the Switch…
It reminds me of the Horror Film "Chopping Mall", some machines with Artificial Intelligence to defend the Stores in a mall center that some people tried to have a slumber party, not realizing the teens worked there it attacked them after each brutal carnage loaded death the Machines would state: HAVE A NICE DAY. I don't ever remember playing Berzerk but it looks fun, since the opponents can also be killed by walls and there own rounds.
I seen that movie as a young child and it eluded me for decades till I figured out the name....
The Funny bot SP episode reminded me of it....
Also the Robo Sitter ATHF episode...
Not a great movie, but one that was pretty scary for me then...
I can just hear Arnold say "Happy Little Games" in his Terminator voice.
I remember the Atari 2600 port and how decent it was. They eventually modded it to include the voice clips.
Yes I talk about it in the video
There were clones, and for the MSX, there was Robot Wars, by Aacko Soft.
I had a clone of this for apple IIe
Great game, we used to play the hell out of this on the 2600. Still to this day have not been able to complete the 'neck through' shot move.
right, it becomes a required skill in the later levels when you zone in completely surrounded
It takes plenty of practice that's for sure
Evil Otto scared me as a child. I never knew when he’d pop up.
LOL you are not the only one
This was a very popular game in the arcades! I ABSOLUTELY loved the electric voice especially when it called you "chicken" the robots in this game were so desperate to kill you they killed themselves in the process! Great game lots of good memories Thank you so much for this video👍💖😎⭐
0:14 I like how happy you make the robot menace sound. 🙂
LOL, thank you :-)
If I remember correctly, Alan McNeil's name on the cabinet art is one of the first times designers were publically recognized for their work in Arcade games.
That could be, good call
Wow. This took me back to my childhood.
I remember this other arcade game that was similar to Berzerk called Robotron.
Robotron was inspired by Berserk.
Yes, at the end of the video I talk about how the creator of Robotron was inspired by Berzerk
the joystick bit got my chuckling LOL
That was an actual quote
Whenever a robot gets killed in the Atari 2600 version, it becomes a palette swapped Evil Otto before vanishing...
Sampled in the classic rave tune 'humaniod' by stakker .. a massive tune from my misspent youth
I frickin’ love that commercial!
It's hilarious, check out the Joust commercial if you haven't seen it already. They must've been sniffing acid or something when they decided to make it
Nice video, I do miss the good old days of arcades. I had this game for my Atari 2600 along with many others. When I was a kid, I would line up a bunch of games for my 2600 and play them as if its one big game. I would play one game swap out the game and pretend that the next game was just the next level.
Excellent, I never thought to do that. Thanks
Berzerk is so good I made a little Quixel Robot. (They were these rubbery plastic cubes that stuck to each other with water.)
Loved this game in the arcade with the voice synthesis.
Also liked the 2600, and the clone Krazy Shoot Out for the Atari 400/800.
Never tried the crazy shootout game
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries It's crazy. 😋
BTW it's K-Razy-Shoot-Out for Atari's 8 bit line.
still love the 2600 version after all these years
Yes it was good
Good episode. Can you more arcade games from the 70's?
I would say that Berzerk is my favorite game on Atari 2600, I liked it so much that I even did a painting of the game on canvas =)
Excellent
I loved this game on the Atari home system! I used to collect so many extra lives, that I could leave the game, go into the kitchen and make a sandwich, eat the sandwich, drink a coke, and then go back into the living room and I was still in the game.
LOL that's hilarious
The Intellivision home video console version of this game was Night Stalker, which had robots with different powers and spiders and bats.