I played the Spectrum port dozens of times when i was a kid. One thing to remember is... that well, we played with the Light Phaser, it was one of the best games that used that gun. It made the game really playable dificulty wise.
My favorite part was getting to the end with all the hostages dead. The president isn't happy with you at all and sternly tells you he'll never ask for your help again. lol
ZX Spectrum is an absolutely brilliant version. You start with 5 bombs. Bombs (for pick and use later) and dynamite (exploded when shot) do get dropped during the game regularly. It is a steep learning curve if you only play one or two games for a comparison video. But once you learn all the enemy attack waves it becomes easy. Back in the day I generally would be able to complete this 2 games out of 3 and get to at least level 4 on games I didn't complete.
just realizing that you are on RUclips ! i remember back in 2000, i used to watch your DVD video reference about shmups on various systems !!! cheers ! now i am addicted with your "Battle of the Ports" ! =D
jagripino ah, maybe the older volumes of Retro Core used to be distributed on dvd because there was no RUclips back then and when there was RUclips the image quality was awful in the early days.
Thanks, Gr8fulDead69. I try not to cover Nintendo this and Nintendo that like many channels do. Honestly, seeing anything Mario, Zelda or Metriod sends me to the land of sleep. By the way, the owner of the bar I always drink at is a big fan of the Greatful Dead group.
Nice comparission video Mark as always.Played the arcade version when I was a kid.When the Amstrad CPC entered home I really liked it and was a superb port IMO.Years later I got the PC and the MSDOS port just were superior and man how hard it was!!.BTW I loaded the MSDOS port via DOSBOX emu and got sound from SB.It's better than the crappy Speaker.You should config it to get SB sound rather the speaker.
Great video as usual Mark 👌. The Amiga version was one of my all time faves, until Thunderbolt came out which drastically improved the frame rate. Your eyes did get used to the low fps though and it was a thoroughly great show case for how good the Amiga could be when programed properly
There is also an unofficial port for the Atari 8-bit computers from the early 90's called Operation Blood. Later it was also patched for light gun support.
Pretty good game for the time, it doesn't surprise that had that many ports. I used to play it a lot in old 286 pc, although the display was in black and yellow it was pretty fun.
Great channel! very entertaining! I was wondering if you have ever considered doing an episode on NEO GEO ports and all of the various iterations on all of the different consoles, as well as comparing and contrasting them against one another? It would be interesting to know how each systems hardware limitations effect the ports performance. I probably already asked you this. Anyway, keep up the great work!
Ah, I have done a Neo Geo port show under my other series, Retro Core 5. Check out the playlist to find it. Oh, thanks for watching too. Hope you enjoy the other content I have.
I have really weird memories about this game. You see, it was in an amusement park arcade and then it appeared on a multigame arcade that played PC Engine games. Never actually played it, but because of some strange pop culture osmosis in my brain, the death scene made me think about GI-Joe>GI-Joe's leader was called Duke>Stevie Wonder (my fav solo musician) sang a song called “Sir Duke” and back then I didn't know it was a tribute to Duke Ellington = I still hum “Sir Duke” when I get killed in this game. I adapted a Wiimote to work as a PC lightgun and I have to say the SMS version is a blast, no pun intended. Gotta try the PC Engine version...
you prolly dont care but does anyone know a way to get back into an Instagram account..? I stupidly forgot my password. I love any tips you can offer me
Ocean France had the ST version as lead platform as they were more familiar with it, conversion took between 6-8 months. They used unused assets from the Arcade game.. The open top tank and the games coder actually had a finished version which supported the Loriciels ST Lightgun, but Loriciels and Ocean couldn't reach an agreement, so this version sadly never saw the light of day. 😭
Such a shame how many Ocean OF france's games went un published 😕. They were the best team Ocean had and in my opinion, the only team that could produce anything remotely arcade quality.
One version missed here, the FM Towns version, which looks the best out of all the versions shown here, except arcade, which it matches. Even has background music during stages oddly enough. ruclips.net/video/gZmj3tSLifY/видео.html video of the FM Towns version in motion.
I had no idea the Amiga version was that slow! Pity too, as the screenshots in the magazines looked real nice. Agree about the C64 version, the game is hard to control because you can hardly move the firing position unless you stop firing at all.
Operation Wolf is another great choice Mark. Personally. The arcade version will be #1 for me. I trying the NES,SMS, and the Atari ST versions when I was younger, but the Arcade version is my personal top choice on this timeless classic. Thank you as always Mark. Anthony..
Taito always had an accurate design of their arcade cabinets, just like Sega. The Master System port is as good that Sega realizes a Master System pack with this game and the light phaser. My oncle bought this pack to my cousin a long time ago xD
Sad that you couldnt get the fm towns one working ... if you did not know the pc engine one does have a analog option if using a XHE-3 with msx/x68000 analog controller.
Another nice video, did the Master System version support the light gun ? I may be thinking of Rambo III on the Master System which i had with the light gun and a very good Operation Wolf clone it was.
It sure does and it's great with it. The Master System light gun was the best available on ANY system until the Saturn gun came along. It was so accurate.
Sure I had the light gun for Rambo 3 and think I owned Operation Wolf at one time but such a long time ago, I also had the steering wheel for Daytona and Sega Rally which was a blast ;)
Anyone please could tell me what's the song's name at the end of the video (from 15:50)? I'm sure I've already heard it but I can't remeber where... Thanks.
the DOS version , at least as far as I know, does support the sound blaster (or Adlib as was the case in 1989), however I think its only used for the intro tune, wheres the rest of the game still uses the crappy PC Speaker , if youre using an emulator, it may well be sensitive to the sound blaster setting, or simply having memory issues (Ive got a few old PCs, and many games simply have no music if things like the Autoexec and Config files aren't set up) otherwise its quite a nice port, back in the 80s, and even early 90s IBM compatibles were often behind other computers or even consoles, lacking even basic things like hardware scrolling and being limited to 4 and then 16 colours (at least for CGA/EGA modes) its only with games like Doom and Dark Forces, along with things like the 3DFX cards that the PC started outclassing other systems
I think putting a turd on a plate would be celebrated by most Amiga mags of the time. It doesook great but it by far a good port. It's just way too slow.
@@RetroCore I've seen a lot of videos, especially from the likes of Zeusdaz and Kim Justice, that make the Euro games mags seem absolutely irredeemable. Anyone giving shit like this or Rise of the Robots high marks should have been strung up.
Retro Core An 8bit system on 16bit graphical wheels! It is evident that it fails to move things at blazing speeds with easy like the pure 68000 Genesis, but the color palette and graphical capabilities somehow compensate for this. And this shows in the case of operation wolf too!
Dimitrios Zikos that's true. From memory I remember the main CPU is 8bit (which is why it's technically an 8bit system) but the graphics chip is 16bit. Quite a mix really.
@@GreekRetroGeek Eh, I don't think the PC Engine CPU is THAT slow. If is of any help, it's actually faster than the crap they put on the Super Famicom.
We haven't seen the 8-Bit home computers on Battle of the Ports for a bit, it's a mystery to me why there were so many home ports of Operation Wolf without even light gun support. It's primarily one of those games that needed the original arcade cabinet for the full experience, it's just not the same without the Uzi. Right place and right time I guess.
What's even more odd is that the Arcade game isn't technically a light gun game either. There no optics coming from the gun. It's basically a joystick in the shape of a gun :) pretty cleaver idea when you think about it.
Absolutely right, I guess the plastic light guns must have worked out cheaper so that technology prevailed. The last time I saw a cabinet with a gun that was actually a fixture was Silent Scope, I think.
Unfortunately yes. Operation Wolf only came out in PAL format so it glitches when played in NTSC. There's a few PAL only Master System games that do that. The Master System sure is a great machine. Far more powerful than the NES.
I want to buy one, but it's incredibly expensive here in Portugal. And I'm used to games at 60Hz (Brasil, where the SMS is also dirty cheap). Here is too slow (50hz). I should stick with emulators, for now. From the video, the ST version seems to load from floppies a lot more than the amiga - are you using any Amiga solution to install it to a HDD?
for those interested, the fm towns version can be found here: m.ruclips.net/video/rT3V2_n2yyk/видео.html the graphics and sound are both ok, although the hud is the worst of any version as it is all squashed up on the side of the screen
Retro Core Of course that's a given....in sheer pushing the industry forward terms there wasn't much to touch Sega, they set the standard. And Capcom would be in the running too,not to mention the fallen...Konami too (they were amazing once kids)...theres a strong argument for both of them...I don't know I just love Taito...they never seem to get their dues for how many genius games they made, the full package. I sometimes think Bubble Bobble is the best game of all time...it's perfect.
The c64 version plays a lot better with the c64 light gun, if you don't mind a few siezures. It's not to bad with the regular weapon, but when you pick up the heavy machine gun that's some serious flashing. I think the spectrum version also can use the light gun.
0:42 looks like the emulator got sounds mixed up, the guys boots being tied from the demo intro sounded off while you were parachuting down, making it sound like he hilariously crashed the chute. Anyways, I don't have many versions of this game, just NES and the Taito US and Japanese PS2 compilations. Maybe one day I should hunt down the SMS version, but good old modern TV's, light guns are useless for them, so like the NES version, I'd have to play with a pad (despite owning the damned SMS Light Phaser gun for the SMS version).
Can't say I had an issue in general playing the C64 version, with a proper sturdy joystick, there is a degree of analogue control, that the more you hold the stick, the faster the crosshair moves.
Good job as always retro core! :) Although i think that you were a little hard on the cpc version critic which i enjoyed much back in the days and consider superior to the c64 and zx one. ne of the best games for the cpc in my opinion! Also you were so right about the speed on the amiga 500 version. I used to play it via whdload with my amiga 1200 plus 68030 blizzard accelerator and never had speed problems with it. I never knew that the original was that slow! Through your reviews i understand how poor most of the amiga arcade conversions were but in our childhood the excitement of playing them covered the truth! We in Europe played worst conversions than the ones the japanese players had! Lucky them!
I do like the CPC version and it is an amazing game in the way it runs at a fast pace but it does need some little tweets on the ballance front I feel. Yes, the Amiga 500 is bloody awful for Arcade ports. I'd go as far as saying 80% of them are below average quality.
My question for you is the following: Do you believe that this was the result of lazy programming of the european software houses, luck of access to the source code of the arcade in comparison to japanese console makers or that the amiga was just incapable of handle decent arcade ports;
I think it's a mixture. The game was most likely rushed as with many European Arcade ports. It was also a bit too ambitious with trying to push around more than the Amiga could handle. Home computer devs did that a lot. Console devs would often make compromises to get a game to work where as the Euro dev would try to make the host hardware do everything. This particular game was developed by Ocean France. They are the only talented group in Ocean Imo. They made excellent Ports of Water Kids and Snow Brothers. Two games which also never got released.
Whats with the white bars flashing across the screen on the NES version, and flashing/glitching in the Master System. Is this due to issues with emulation?
That's the screen refresh from the NES zapper. Awful, isn't it! The Master System version is glitching out because it's a PAL only game running in NTSC mode. This causes the game to glitch. Unavoidable I'm afraid unless I use a PAL system which I don't have.
The oficial MSX port (not shown here) is slower than the Speccy version... which honestly makes it a bit more playable . Also shame about the Amiga version once again being a direct crap Atari ST port. It's a shame because looking at its staff screen, it was developed by Ocean France who, later, would make some real amazing ports for the Amiga.
Yeah, I missed out the official MSX version as its just a crappy speccy port. The unofficial remake is so much better. It really is a shame about the speed on the Amiga version because it looks and animates well. If only they'd optimised the game for Amiga hardware.
Honestly, I think that was the case with a lot of Euro MSX games. Seems all they ever did with the platform was plonk Spectrum code over without any optimization. Honestly, I wonder why Taito never made a version on the MSX in Japan. I was under the impression it was a somewhat popular platform there.
great video I used to love the spectrum version I remember a cheat for it if you covered all the keys on the keyboard at certain point it would just skip to the next level why is the Msx version copyright 2006 ?
Good show as always. I just played the original arcade one, but it seems like the pc engine port is the most affordable in terms of gameplay. Where does the opening and close theme come from?
The opening and closing music is taken from the FM Towns version of Operation Wolf. I do have the game but couldn't get it to run past the loading screen :(
I remembered playing this in the arcades a long time ago. A guess I was a bit too young, but I did not like this game due to it's "realism." This was waaaay before Wolfenstein 3D came out. Shooting at humans in a first person mode was a bit new thing to me and this was really early video game "violence." I was most used to side scrolling shooters at the time with less detailed sprites. Times have changed, now I just play a FPS military shooters. I'm glad to at least been "born" at the right time to witness arcade games and video games have evolved from the 1970s to now.
SebasHCG Hehe, no problem. I do have the FM Towns version but I couldn't get it to load past the main loading screen. I wonder if the game needs a HDD before it will boot? Some FM Towns games have strange requirements.
Oh buddy. The laundromat near my very first apartment had the cabinet. Since I didn't have a washing machine or dryer, I spent a lot of time feeding it quarters! At least two dollars a week. Completely hated the NES and SMS versions. I did spend quite a bit of time on the MS-DOS port though. The Adlib sound is worlds better than the PC Speaker. The mouse always makes an excellent substitute for a light gun.(Thats what gives the SNES port of T2: The Arcade Game a leg up over the Genesis port!) The PC Engine version is sadly yet another case of "No, America. You don't get the GOOD games for the system!" As for the Colecovision looking identical to the MSX, if I'm not mistaken, those two platforms have similar hardware.
It's funny how NEC basically brought all the crap to the US PC Engine yet left all the good stuff in Japan. Also funny why the deemed it a good idea to give the system the worst box art in history.
Retro Core I dunno. I still say the Master System wins the awful boxart prize. In the States, the boxart for SMS games is generally awful. A boring grid, with a piece of clipart Grace's many of them. But back to Operation Wolf. Its one of those games that is brilliantly simple, and more proof that while they weren't in the same league as say, Sega, Taito was NO slouch in the arcades.
Ah, yes the good old clip art of Master System boxes. They are pretty bad although the did change the style in the PAL regions after two years. In away those Master System boxes have a unique charm.
They do fail conceptually though, as the whole point of box art back then was to paint a prettier picture for you to envision, than what the in-game graphics could muster. Case in point: The fucking GORGEOUS boxart for Outlaws for the Atari 2600. Its a beautiful, mutli-tiered action filled scene with nice period accurate details, right down to the style of pistols.
DOS seems like it'd be the best one, certainly closest to the arcade, with the PCE at a close second. The Amiga and ST gave me a headache, and the 8-bit micro versions looked way too twitchy. I remember the NES version from my youth. I always hated that huge flash NES lightgun games always had when you used the gun. Only Duck Hunt was really tolerable, as the slow nature of the game didn't turn the TV into a strobelight.
The C64 version supports a dedicated mouse for this computer. The emulator also makes it possible... In those days, the basic kit of a civilized C64 user was a floppy disk drive, a mouse and a cartridge action reaplay. btw. The tape player was for complete amateurs. Most of the serious games came out on floppy disks and what sometimes came out on cassettes was a poor imitation, cut with a razor blade and castrated from many media
I vaguely recall that the PCE version even supports two players at the same time, which is quite a weird feature for the console and for this game in particular.
Ah, then in that case I will do the King Of Monsters for this week's show. I though it had been covered but it turns out that it was a project I had started but never completed.
There were similar shooting games on Amiga working normally without all this slowdown and low framerate. Seems developer who ported it was a total noob.
Amiga Operation Wolf sees the games pacing and difficulty loose the finely graded difficulty curve from the arcade, gone. Your overwhelmed from the off and the awful collision detection just exaggerates the issue further.
Again another joint atari st-amiga dev (the st taking center role and porting 68000 code to the amiga), but quite frankly I think that the dev team stick too much to having beautifull and big graphics (and a lot of them on screen) then rather making it morefluid and playable. Possibly strict deadlines, wich Ocean uk imposed and Ocean france somewhat delivered, but at a cost... Operation thunderbolt the sequel was done much better... But I believe it was then by Uk in house dev team AFAIR...
Watching your video seems to be more action an characters on screen on the ocean ports , specially the 16 bits, rather than the arcade. Maybe some dip switch dificult setting on the arcade or deliberate on ocean part to make the game more challenging?
![1987 [60fps] Operation Wolf Hardest Loop1 (Add Crosshair) (Warning: Flashing)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/y3EDJIV3k-s/mqdefault.jpg)
I played the Spectrum port dozens of times when i was a kid. One thing to remember is... that well, we played with the Light Phaser, it was one of the best games that used that gun. It made the game really playable dificulty wise.
My favorite part was getting to the end with all the hostages dead. The president isn't happy with you at all and sternly tells you he'll never ask for your help again. lol
I bet Roy is over the moon :)
The NES bad ending is even worse. He tells you not to bother coming home. lol
hahaha, nice.
"Don't go home and be a family man!"
Really? Now that's pretty extreme.
ZX Spectrum is an absolutely brilliant version.
You start with 5 bombs. Bombs (for pick and use later) and dynamite (exploded when shot) do get dropped during the game regularly.
It is a steep learning curve if you only play one or two games for a comparison video. But once you learn all the enemy attack waves it becomes easy. Back in the day I generally would be able to complete this 2 games out of 3 and get to at least level 4 on games I didn't complete.
just realizing that you are on RUclips !
i remember back in 2000, i used to watch your DVD video reference about shmups on various systems !!! cheers !
now i am addicted with your "Battle of the Ports" ! =D
Cheers man. Yeah, I've been on RUclips for about 5 years or so now.
What are these DVDs and why aren't them on YT? :-D
sub+1 shmup mate !
SebasHCG cheers man. I hope you like the many videos that have been put together over the years. :)
jagripino ah, maybe the older volumes of Retro Core used to be distributed on dvd because there was no RUclips back then and when there was RUclips the image quality was awful in the early days.
Mark, the reason I love your channel is good variety and it's always good stuff.
Thanks, Gr8fulDead69. I try not to cover Nintendo this and Nintendo that like many channels do. Honestly, seeing anything Mario, Zelda or Metriod sends me to the land of sleep.
By the way, the owner of the bar I always drink at is a big fan of the Greatful Dead group.
@@RetroCore You're welcome and I agree with you. I also love the Life in Japan videos. I really wish I lived there.
Nice comparission video Mark as always.Played the arcade version when I was a kid.When the Amstrad CPC entered home I really liked it and was a superb port IMO.Years later I got the PC and the MSDOS port just were superior and man how hard it was!!.BTW I loaded the MSDOS port via DOSBOX emu and got sound from SB.It's better than the crappy Speaker.You should config it to get SB sound rather the speaker.
The C64 version was a dream to play if you had a mouse.Made all the difference.
Wish I had the mouse. Playing with a joystick was a pain. Funnily enough the ZX and CPC versions were fine with a joystick.
Great video as usual Mark 👌. The Amiga version was one of my all time faves, until Thunderbolt came out which drastically improved the frame rate. Your eyes did get used to the low fps though and it was a thoroughly great show case for how good the Amiga could be when programed properly
There is also an unofficial port for the Atari 8-bit computers from the early 90's called Operation Blood. Later it was also patched for light gun support.
Yeah, back in the day there were many unlicensed rip offs.
Can’t agree about the spectrum difficulty, it was one of the few speccy games I could complete
Same with the cpc version
This game is awesome. I used to draw this game with the guys half flying through the air.
love the sega SMS version! :D good job!
Something... REVOLUTIONARY
Pretty good game for the time, it doesn't surprise that had that many ports. I used to play it a lot in old 286 pc, although the display was in black and yellow it was pretty fun.
The fact that the spectrum port is smoother than the amiga one is rather baffling
Great channel! very entertaining! I was wondering if you have ever considered doing an episode on NEO GEO ports and all of the various iterations on all of the different consoles, as well as comparing and contrasting them against one another? It would be interesting to know how each systems hardware limitations effect the ports performance. I probably already asked you this. Anyway, keep up the great work!
Ah, I have done a Neo Geo port show under my other series, Retro Core 5. Check out the playlist to find it.
Oh, thanks for watching too. Hope you enjoy the other content I have.
I have really weird memories about this game. You see, it was in an amusement park arcade and then it appeared on a multigame arcade that played PC Engine games.
Never actually played it, but because of some strange pop culture osmosis in my brain, the death scene made me think about GI-Joe>GI-Joe's leader was called Duke>Stevie Wonder (my fav solo musician) sang a song called “Sir Duke” and back then I didn't know it was a tribute to Duke Ellington = I still hum “Sir Duke” when I get killed in this game.
I adapted a Wiimote to work as a PC lightgun and I have to say the SMS version is a blast, no pun intended. Gotta try the PC Engine version...
you prolly dont care but does anyone know a way to get back into an Instagram account..?
I stupidly forgot my password. I love any tips you can offer me
@Kristopher Julian instablaster :)
Ocean France had the ST version as lead platform as they were more familiar with it, conversion took between 6-8 months.
They used unused assets from the Arcade game.. The open top tank and the games coder actually had a finished version which supported the Loriciels ST Lightgun, but Loriciels and Ocean couldn't reach an agreement, so this version sadly never saw the light of day. 😭
Such a shame how many Ocean OF france's games went un published 😕. They were the best team Ocean had and in my opinion, the only team that could produce anything remotely arcade quality.
One version missed here, the FM Towns version, which looks the best out of all the versions shown here, except arcade, which it matches. Even has background music during stages oddly enough.
ruclips.net/video/gZmj3tSLifY/видео.html video of the FM Towns version in motion.
My favorite game on Nes.
I had no idea the Amiga version was that slow! Pity too, as the screenshots in the magazines looked real nice. Agree about the C64 version, the game is hard to control because you can hardly move the firing position unless you stop firing at all.
It's a shame about the Amiga version because like you said, it looks great in stills. Shame it's so slow.
Operation Wolf is another great choice Mark. Personally. The arcade version will be #1 for me. I trying the NES,SMS, and the Atari ST versions when I was younger, but the Arcade version is my personal top choice on this timeless classic.
Thank you as always Mark.
Anthony..
Im also a fan of the Arcade but if I had to choose a home port I'd probably go with the DOS version. Just need to replace the horrid audio.
Taito always had an accurate design of their arcade cabinets, just like Sega. The Master System port is as good that Sega realizes a Master System pack with this game and the light phaser. My oncle bought this pack to my cousin a long time ago xD
CMS for music and Speaker for shooting is what I most like, do wolf help or op_wolf help to see the configuration flags
A little disappointed that you couldn't get Adlib (or Tandy, or CMS) working for your demonstration. It has brilliant music.
Sad that you couldnt get the fm towns one working ... if you did not know the pc engine one does have a analog option if using a XHE-3 with msx/x68000 analog controller.
Another nice video, did the Master System version support the light gun ? I may be thinking of Rambo III on the Master System which i had with the light gun and a very good Operation Wolf clone it was.
It sure does and it's great with it. The Master System light gun was the best available on ANY system until the Saturn gun came along. It was so accurate.
Sure I had the light gun for Rambo 3 and think I owned Operation Wolf at one time but such a long time ago, I also had the steering wheel for Daytona and Sega Rally which was a blast ;)
I used too jumped on this cab anytime I could
It sure is a classic. Almost every Arcade back in the day had an Operation Wolf.
Retro Core now try finding one with a working gun haha
Anyone please could tell me what's the song's name at the end of the video (from 15:50)? I'm sure I've already heard it but I can't remeber where... Thanks.
the DOS version , at least as far as I know, does support the sound blaster (or Adlib as was the case in 1989), however I think its only used for the intro tune, wheres the rest of the game still uses the crappy PC Speaker , if youre using an emulator, it may well be sensitive to the sound blaster setting, or simply having memory issues (Ive got a few old PCs, and many games simply have no music if things like the Autoexec and Config files aren't set up)
otherwise its quite a nice port, back in the 80s, and even early 90s IBM compatibles were often behind other computers or even consoles, lacking even basic things like hardware scrolling and being limited to 4 and then 16 colours (at least for CGA/EGA modes)
its only with games like Doom and Dark Forces, along with things like the 3DFX cards that the PC started outclassing other systems
"Memory brings bad jokes", i I remember that the amiga version was celebrated as a great conversion.
I think putting a turd on a plate would be celebrated by most Amiga mags of the time. It doesook great but it by far a good port. It's just way too slow.
@@RetroCore I've seen a lot of videos, especially from the likes of Zeusdaz and Kim Justice, that make the Euro games mags seem absolutely irredeemable. Anyone giving shit like this or Rise of the Robots high marks should have been strung up.
Winner is the PC engine on the 16bit (assuming that the PCE counts as 16bit) and Master System for it's 8bit conversion
Well, technically the PC Engine is also 8bit.
Retro Core An 8bit system on 16bit graphical wheels! It is evident that it fails to move things at blazing speeds with easy like the pure 68000 Genesis, but the color palette and graphical capabilities somehow compensate for this. And this shows in the case of operation wolf too!
Dimitrios Zikos that's true. From memory I remember the main CPU is 8bit (which is why it's technically an 8bit system) but the graphics chip is 16bit. Quite a mix really.
@@GreekRetroGeek Eh, I don't think the PC Engine CPU is THAT slow. If is of any help, it's actually faster than the crap they put on the Super Famicom.
@@genstarmkg5321 did not say it was slow, just had an 8bit architecture.
We haven't seen the 8-Bit home computers on Battle of the Ports for a bit, it's a mystery to me why there were so many home ports of Operation Wolf without even light gun support. It's primarily one of those games that needed the original arcade cabinet for the full experience, it's just not the same without the Uzi. Right place and right time I guess.
What's even more odd is that the Arcade game isn't technically a light gun game either. There no optics coming from the gun. It's basically a joystick in the shape of a gun :) pretty cleaver idea when you think about it.
Absolutely right, I guess the plastic light guns must have worked out cheaper so that technology prevailed. The last time I saw a cabinet with a gun that was actually a fixture was Silent Scope, I think.
10:52 *YOU DEAD*
Cracks me up every time.
Did the SMS began glitching up towards the end of the video? Well, despite the bad sound, it shows how good the SMS could be, when properly coded.
Unfortunately yes. Operation Wolf only came out in PAL format so it glitches when played in NTSC. There's a few PAL only Master System games that do that.
The Master System sure is a great machine. Far more powerful than the NES.
I want to buy one, but it's incredibly expensive here in Portugal. And I'm used to games at 60Hz (Brasil, where the SMS is also dirty cheap). Here is too slow (50hz). I should stick with emulators, for now.
From the video, the ST version seems to load from floppies a lot more than the amiga - are you using any Amiga solution to install it to a HDD?
For some reason the Amiga version comes on two floppies while the ST comes on three. I guess the code could be compressed more for the Amiga version?
maybe the extra hardware on the Amiga allowed it ship with less code (specially the sound and music)? we might never know
@@RetroCore I think the Amiga diskettes used 880 kB while the Atari ST had room for 720 kB
i remember this played the hell out of the nes version
I remember hearing that when the NES port was released on Virtual Console, it could only be controlled with a cursor since there's no Zapper to use.
Nope, it works with the zapper. Maybe the US version is controller only?
I mean when it got re-released on Wii Virtual Console
Oh, yes that is right. They took out zapper support. Probably because Nintendo couldn't be bothered writing emulation support for the Wii remote.
Did you play the Japanese arcade version?, it has bosses and an addition stage i think
Yes, this was the Japanese version but Ive never played the western version much so I can't really tell the difference between them.
Damn! that Amstrad port looked merciless- all in one take?
In reality it was much to easy to complete.
for those interested, the fm towns version can be found here: m.ruclips.net/video/rT3V2_n2yyk/видео.html
the graphics and sound are both ok, although the hud is the worst of any version as it is all squashed up on the side of the screen
I'd say overall Taito are the best coin op maker of all time.
They're good however their hardware was always lacking behind. Basically Taito would copy Sega as did Namco quite often.
Retro Core
Of course that's a given....in sheer pushing the industry forward terms there wasn't much to touch Sega, they set the standard.
And Capcom would be in the running too,not to mention the fallen...Konami too (they were amazing once kids)...theres a strong argument for both of them...I don't know I just love Taito...they never seem to get their dues for how many genius games they made, the full package.
I sometimes think Bubble Bobble is the best game of all time...it's perfect.
The c64 version plays a lot better with the c64 light gun, if you don't mind a few siezures. It's not to bad with the regular weapon, but when you pick up the heavy machine gun that's some serious flashing. I think the spectrum version also can use the light gun.
I've used a speccy gun in the past. It was awful. It was as accurate as a very drunk man trying to hit the drain on a urinal.
ruclips.net/video/7Nb17VjyjEU/видео.html (warning flashing lights)
The FM TOWNS version might be the best port though.
0:42 looks like the emulator got sounds mixed up, the guys boots being tied from the demo intro sounded off while you were parachuting down, making it sound like he hilariously crashed the chute.
Anyways, I don't have many versions of this game, just NES and the Taito US and Japanese PS2 compilations. Maybe one day I should hunt down the SMS version, but good old modern TV's, light guns are useless for them, so like the NES version, I'd have to play with a pad (despite owning the damned SMS Light Phaser gun for the SMS version).
Can't say I had an issue in general playing the C64 version, with a proper sturdy joystick, there is a degree of analogue control, that the more you hold the stick, the faster the crosshair moves.
That's probably why I had issues. I just found the other 8 bit home computer ports to control better. I hear the C64 version is great with a mouse.
Good job as always retro core! :) Although i think that you were a little hard on the cpc version critic which i enjoyed much back in the days and consider superior to the c64 and zx one. ne of the best games for the cpc in my opinion! Also you were so right about the speed on the amiga 500 version. I used to play it via whdload with my amiga 1200 plus 68030 blizzard accelerator and never had speed problems with it. I never knew that the original was that slow! Through your reviews i understand how poor most of the amiga arcade conversions were but in our childhood the excitement of playing them covered the truth! We in Europe played worst conversions than the ones the japanese players had! Lucky them!
I do like the CPC version and it is an amazing game in the way it runs at a fast pace but it does need some little tweets on the ballance front I feel.
Yes, the Amiga 500 is bloody awful for Arcade ports. I'd go as far as saying 80% of them are below average quality.
My question for you is the following: Do you believe that this was the result of lazy programming of the european software houses, luck of access to the source code of the arcade in comparison to japanese console makers or that the amiga was just incapable of handle decent arcade ports;
I think it's a mixture. The game was most likely rushed as with many European Arcade ports. It was also a bit too ambitious with trying to push around more than the Amiga could handle. Home computer devs did that a lot. Console devs would often make compromises to get a game to work where as the Euro dev would try to make the host hardware do everything.
This particular game was developed by Ocean France. They are the only talented group in Ocean Imo. They made excellent Ports of Water Kids and Snow Brothers. Two games which also never got released.
The ms dos version with mouse support is the best ever. lol.
The music makes the game over screen more disturbing than it needs to be for an arcade game.
Whats with the white bars flashing across the screen on the NES version, and flashing/glitching in the Master System.
Is this due to issues with emulation?
That's the screen refresh from the NES zapper. Awful, isn't it!
The Master System version is glitching out because it's a PAL only game running in NTSC mode. This causes the game to glitch. Unavoidable I'm afraid unless I use a PAL system which I don't have.
Awesome
The oficial MSX port (not shown here) is slower than the Speccy version... which honestly makes it a bit more playable .
Also shame about the Amiga version once again being a direct crap Atari ST port. It's a shame because looking at its staff screen, it was developed by Ocean France who, later, would make some real amazing ports for the Amiga.
Yeah, I missed out the official MSX version as its just a crappy speccy port. The unofficial remake is so much better.
It really is a shame about the speed on the Amiga version because it looks and animates well. If only they'd optimised the game for Amiga hardware.
Honestly, I think that was the case with a lot of Euro MSX games. Seems all they ever did with the platform was plonk Spectrum code over without any optimization. Honestly, I wonder why Taito never made a version on the MSX in Japan. I was under the impression it was a somewhat popular platform there.
Reminder to commenters: don't go off comparing MAME to the ports unless you are playing the recent versions: www.bryanmcphail.com/wp/?p=794
Thank you for your great work. Interesting read
great video I used to love the spectrum version I remember a cheat for it if you covered all the keys on the keyboard at certain point it would just skip to the next level why is the Msx version copyright 2006 ?
The MSX version shown here is the "homebrew" licensed version. It only came out in 2006. The original 80's release by Ocean is awful.
Good show as always. I just played the original arcade one, but it seems like the pc engine port is the most affordable in terms of gameplay. Where does the opening and close theme come from?
The opening and closing music is taken from the FM Towns version of Operation Wolf. I do have the game but couldn't get it to run past the loading screen :(
It's so sad that NEC didn't make a light gun for the PC Engine... If they did, it'll require a multitap...
when i read the title i thought its will be like commando, but its light gun based game, well at least its much better than lethal enforce
I remembered playing this in the arcades a long time ago. A guess I was a bit too young, but I did not like this game due to it's "realism." This was waaaay before Wolfenstein 3D came out. Shooting at humans in a first person mode was a bit new thing to me and this was really early video game "violence." I was most used to side scrolling shooters at the time with less detailed sprites. Times have changed, now I just play a FPS military shooters. I'm glad to at least been "born" at the right time to witness arcade games and video games have evolved from the 1970s to now.
i am sad to be the one saying this but ... there is another version.
[FM Towns] Operation Wolf (1990)(Ving) :/
You are sad because it's mentioned in the video description and on the actual video it's self when all the screen shots are shown :p
Is it missing because it's not emulated or did you choose to drop it?
shit, missed it.
if we were in contact before, i bet the FM Towns version will be in this video ;)
cheers from France.
jagripino its sadly missing because I couldn't get it to work. The game just hangs on the loading screen :(
SebasHCG Hehe, no problem. I do have the FM Towns version but I couldn't get it to load past the main loading screen. I wonder if the game needs a HDD before it will boot? Some FM Towns games have strange requirements.
My dog really didn't like the audio in the DOS port. :-D
Hahaha, I'm not surprised.
Don't forget included in compilation for ps2
That's Arcade emulation I'm afarid so I don't count it as a real port.
Brilliant!!!! :)
Oh buddy. The laundromat near my very first apartment had the cabinet. Since I didn't have a washing machine or dryer, I spent a lot of time feeding it quarters! At least two dollars a week. Completely hated the NES and SMS versions. I did spend quite a bit of time on the MS-DOS port though. The Adlib sound is worlds better than the PC Speaker. The mouse always makes an excellent substitute for a light gun.(Thats what gives the SNES port of T2: The Arcade Game a leg up over the Genesis port!) The PC Engine version is sadly yet another case of "No, America. You don't get the GOOD games for the system!" As for the Colecovision looking identical to the MSX, if I'm not mistaken, those two platforms have similar hardware.
It's funny how NEC basically brought all the crap to the US PC Engine yet left all the good stuff in Japan. Also funny why the deemed it a good idea to give the system the worst box art in history.
Retro Core I dunno. I still say the Master System wins the awful boxart prize. In the States, the boxart for SMS games is generally awful. A boring grid, with a piece of clipart Grace's many of them. But back to Operation Wolf. Its one of those games that is brilliantly simple, and more proof that while they weren't in the same league as say, Sega, Taito was NO slouch in the arcades.
Ah, yes the good old clip art of Master System boxes. They are pretty bad although the did change the style in the PAL regions after two years. In away those Master System boxes have a unique charm.
They do fail conceptually though, as the whole point of box art back then was to paint a prettier picture for you to envision, than what the in-game graphics could muster. Case in point: The fucking GORGEOUS boxart for Outlaws for the Atari 2600. Its a beautiful, mutli-tiered action filled scene with nice period accurate details, right down to the style of pistols.
Master System port is the best here, as being the best of the ports that used a light gun.
Where is the FM Towns version?
DOS seems like it'd be the best one, certainly closest to the arcade, with the PCE at a close second. The Amiga and ST gave me a headache, and the 8-bit micro versions looked way too twitchy.
I remember the NES version from my youth. I always hated that huge flash NES lightgun games always had when you used the gun. Only Duck Hunt was really tolerable, as the slow nature of the game didn't turn the TV into a strobelight.
I played the NES version of Operation Wolf & although it's not perfect, it's still worth playing.
Not a BAD game. Worse than the DOS and PCE versions, better than the Amiga and ST.
Amiga port is a lazy Atari ST port
I'm about to have a seizure from the light zapper versions! Aaggg
The C64 version supports a dedicated mouse for this computer. The emulator also makes it possible... In those days, the basic kit of a civilized C64 user was a floppy disk drive, a mouse and a cartridge action reaplay.
btw. The tape player was for complete amateurs. Most of the serious games came out on floppy disks and what sometimes came out on cassettes was a poor imitation, cut with a razor blade and castrated from many media
Most people in the US had a floppy but not in Europe.
Weird how they'd mess up the Amiga version. 10fps is just nuts for a computer with that kind of power.
As always, the developers just didn't bother to use the machine's hardware effectively.
Ocean
PC Engine for the win ;)
I vaguely recall that the PCE version even supports two players at the same time, which is quite a weird feature for the console and for this game in particular.
If I remember correctly, the Amstrad version was too easy! I completed it in the first day.
10:52 "YOU DEAD"
The CPC version wasn’t that hard I used to get as far as level 6 when I was a kid
You've got the skills.
A misspent childhood
Aw. My eyes, arcade version.
Most ports can be played with a light gun
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gun_games#Amstrad_CPC
Officially only the ZX Spectrum, NES and Master System ports work with light guns.
I am not sure what you mean by officially. www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Amstrad_Magnum_Phaser
There was a speccy version with light gun support...wasn't accurate at all tho!
Arcade, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC are the best
The PC Engine version should be the best port, support 2 player coop as well.
You should do the King of the Monsters games.
I've already done King of Monsters 1, I think? If not I'll be doing it soon. I need to check the records.
Retro Core I checked and don't see the 1st game. Yeah you should do that and the 2nd game.
Ah, then in that case I will do the King Of Monsters for this week's show. I though it had been covered but it turns out that it was a project I had started but never completed.
Amiga version on A1200 runs ok
There were similar shooting games on Amiga working normally without all this slowdown and low framerate. Seems developer who ported it was a total noob.
Best playable version is for C64/128!!!
haha! you are finished........ here lol
Git to get that pause in. Funny thing is that they removed the pause from the Amiga version :)
Amiga Operation Wolf sees the games pacing and difficulty loose the finely graded difficulty curve from the arcade, gone.
Your overwhelmed from the off and the awful collision detection just exaggerates the issue further.
Again another joint atari st-amiga dev (the st taking center role and porting 68000 code to the amiga), but quite frankly I think that the dev team stick too much to having beautifull and big graphics (and a lot of them on screen) then rather making it morefluid and playable. Possibly strict deadlines, wich Ocean uk imposed and Ocean france somewhat delivered, but at a cost...
Operation thunderbolt the sequel was done much better... But I believe it was then by Uk in house dev team AFAIR...
Still I remember enjoying operation wolf on the Amiga at a friend's house. Having played only the zx version I enjoyed it a lot... Back then!
Watching your video seems to be more action an characters on screen on the ocean ports , specially the 16 bits, rather than the arcade. Maybe some dip switch dificult setting on the arcade or deliberate on ocean part to make the game more challenging?
All games are played on Normal setting so I guess Ocean decided to increase the difficulty on their Ports.
10:52 You dead. lol
Quality Engrish right there.
PCE FTW
This game is awful! X'D