outrun , last stage : Amiga , ST (GBA)

Finally got the last few conversions that I'm covering for now up on youtube
Amiga , Meg and as a surprise last entry GBA (via a sega compilation).



The Amiga was a sub par conversion of the ST, but my GOD! the intro is unbelievably bad .Someone doing a bad impression of "80's voiceover guy" , with a crappy "art of noise" sample tune playing over it...terrible!!
the Meg was fantastic, but being a sega 16 bit conversion of a sega arcade game , it looks great and plays very smoothly.Its a pity it doesn't have the extra modes the gamegear had, and a bit easy but well worth getting.
The GBA version is a bit blocky on a big screen , but pound for pound is probably closer to the arcade than the meg! Considering its a more "modern" console , its a cheat , which is why I think the meg is probably the best 16 bit version.(its my favorite handheld version though).

In the background mysteriously kega fusion suddenly started making AVI files that I didnt need to convert! Winuae was a bit fiddly to get going but seemed ok .Visual boy was grand except when I was playing the sound kept going ..but oddly enough the recorded AVI was fine! I also have CCS64 working now ( as getting winvice to record avi is a nightmare) so I'll be putting up a quick review of the c64 emulated , to match the spectrum one.
I reckon I need to slow down the output of videos , and spend a bit more time on them , which should hopefully mean I'm ah..and uming less I guess.
Probably look at one or two standalone reviews next.I'm itching to do a few Atari ones.And then start on GAuntlet...All of em!!


I'm probably going to look at

SMS and GG

Why do you fight me computer..why?!?

Master system and its cousin , the game gear reviews done and put to bed, link to follow as soon as I upload it to the youtubes.

Nightmare though , as the emulated outputted video files didn't want to work at all with my pc
much coercing , fiddling and towards the end swearing and praying finally got them working.
Then my Pc ate the commentray I'd recorded.Twice.So the third time I recorded it I was knackered , and my "er" "ah" and "um" quota was quite high!
Both versions are excellent by the way , I'd give em a 85% (sms ) and a slightly higher 86% (GG).
I'll be looking at the Amiga and Megadrive versions next before taking a break for a bit on the conversions and trying maybe a few Atari 8 bit games.

hmm..

So good news , this guy arrived in the post , so a video will follow .Going to be fairly busy over the next few days so hopefully I'll find time to do a proper review.

Atari ST

ST review here
I NEED SLEEP!

Amstrad and Atari

So , the Amstrad version?
Not good , no music , terrible sound, no car animation on crashes , and so blocky it looks like its running on an Atari VCS.Just ....horrible.
I preferred the Atari 8 bit version to it , and that's an unplayable , unfinished demo!

So to get the taste out of my mouth I've reviewed the Atari ST version , as I speak I'm compiling the video so I'll upload it to youtube in the next day or so .It's an improvement on the Amstrad one , but not as good as I would have thought , or liked.
I'm probably going to take a break of a few days on Outrun , I'm reviewing these in the evening , and between , filming , capturing , editing and uploading to YT , I'm getting to bed at around 1am..no fun.
Plus I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on Outrun , I like the game , even if I'm a bit rubbish at it , but theres a lot more games out there I like to play, I'm not THAT obsessed with it.
I'm going to try and look at some obscure atari 8 bit games possibly over the next few days.
I have found though that a mix of "live" and captured emulation works pretty well for these though , and also that my "er..um" count is going down , slightly as I progress , so hopefully these videos are actually getting a bit more entertaining to watch as they start to add up.

Amstrad version
, proper review and such when I get a chance but until then
IT'S TERRIBLE!!

Time capsule

The internets a funny place , I'm having a few problems with Atari ST disks , and I know a while back I worked out a way to transfer st disk image files from PC to a floppy that the ST itself could read, but for the life of me couldn't remember how.
So I start searching , and eventually find a forum post on how to do it.
Half way through reading I glance up at the user details and realise that I'd actually posted it myself a few years back when I was using the ST a lot.
This is the post here
Anyhoo thanks to the past version of me's help I was able to format and recopy files to the ST Outrun disk, so hopefully I'll be reviewing that next.

speeeeeeed

So I wanted to have mess about with outrun on the spectrum one last time before I moved on.
One copy of Spectaculator later and a lot of faffing about and I did exactly that .Its a pity that we couldn't really get games running at that kind of speed in the 80's.
video below

I still prefer playing games on the original machines for the reviews but they do look a hell of a lot better when emulated and captured to video , so might mix the reviews up a bit with some of that in future..

128k of Fun

Tonight I play the spectrum version.
Its a big thing for me as I've always had a grudge against the rubber keyed beast,possibly as I didn't know anyone with one, and when I encountered the retro gaming scene in the UK , to a lot of of people it was the be all and end all of gaming.
How??? with its color clash , monochrome graphics , lack of a good sound chip , and odd controls it was clearly inferior to the c64.Crazy Jet set Willy lovin' loonies , what do they know!
The two spectrum's I had as part of my collection went pretty much unused.
Reviewing the Spectrum version left me pleasantly surprised.
it was slow , but otherwise enjoyable , graphically (once you get used to the monochrome graphics)its excellent , quite detailed and full of cars and scenery.
The branching system works pretty well (if you dont mind messing with tapes)
So bit of a cop out but I'd rate it the same as the c64 , for slightly different reasons!
Video review here.

a bit more about outrun

Couple of things
Firstly thanks to the outrun FAQ at mikes arcade ,
I know that despite what I'd been told the Disk version of Outrun on the c64 DOES'NT have branching paths either, just a menu to load which route to take.

So I got that one wrong

On a slightly happier note it explains exactly how loading works on the Spectrum version, confirming why messing around with tape images on an emulator would load it , but on my real spectrum I got stuck on a loading screen.
So hopefully that'll help when I review the Spectrum version.
This blog's not just about Outrun by the way , I hopefully will be reviewing a few plat formers as well , but I do like comparing conversions.
Back when these games were being sold , very few people had more than one system ,and you basically played with what you were dealt (to mix a metaphor) so having lots of different versions to try is a lot of fun for me.
Oh by the way since I didnt mention it , the Blog name is taken from a Grant Lee Buffalo song called 'It's the life':

" If the life you have created
Has buried you with luxuries out-dated"

I'm not exactly buried , and unlike the protagonist of the song I've a load of life left in me , but I always liked the song , and its a poetic description of the stuff I collect , so it seemed appropriate.

Found "Route b"

So... OutRun
I was a big fan of this in the arcades , dont get me wrong , I was terrible at it , I didnt even know about the branching paths until years later when I actually managed to work out how to use the gears correctly and actually started making it to the further stages.\
I've managed to pick up a few different versions of it over the years , so I figured that that review wise it'd be a good place to start.
The Commodore 64 version while being a bit blocky runs nice and fast , other than the 'tch tch tch' noise you get while breaking there's not much sound , but the rendition of the arcade games soundtrack makes up for it.Oh and its hard
Really hard.


In the video below it actually took me about 10 attempts and two controllers to get past the first stage!








I've also did a bit of checking up on the atari 8 bit version , sadly it looks like its stalled , but I've included a "shakeycam" footage of it at the end of the video review.
Hopefully I should have the video review uploaded tomorrow at some point.
Oh and video reviews , a lot harder than I thought they'd be to do .Unscripted, I have an awful habit of saying "..er" a lot while trying to think what to say .And also I've discovered that the last thing people want to see is a quarter of the screen filled with the back of a reviewers head .I wish I'd discovered this before I filmed 15 minutes of it though.So I had to reload the game , retape it and pretend that it was the first time! Hopefully you wont notice the join.(and hopefully you dont notice where I get the loading screen twice !)

Ok all reviews need a score , I'd say ...oooh how about 80 ..its a good attempt at recreating the arcade , and its playable which is the main thing ..so 80 it is then.

Load "intro",8,1

Hi
What this blog is about is games.
Mainly old games to be precise.
Ideally REALLY old games

Right , at this point most people have backspaced off the page and are off looking for details on "dead island" , for the few of you that are left you've obviously got taste!

What I'm going to try and do over the next while is go through my games collection and review some of the good ones .better still I'm also going to review the really really BAD ones as well.
Hopefully I'm going to use the original computer/console to play them on , and if I can manage it I'll knock up a link to a gameplay vid as well.This is basically to prove that while I may know a bit about games , I am , 30 odd years after I started playing them , still rubbish!
First up I'm going to be looking at Outrun , both on the c64 and spectrum.