This was one of those Arcade games that you could hear the attract screen right across the amusement - the whistle of the train and clatter of the wheels on the track. Great memories
Talk about an Arcade game I haven't played in over 30 years Mark. The memories are coming back to me know. Thank you for sharing this with us bro. Anthony..
I don't think I ever even heard of this. I'm impressed with how big they got the sprites for the horse secrtion on C64, especially with the line scrolling, parallax and everything else going on.
Very interesting. This game looks like an inspiration for the action parts of North & South from Infogrames. It's very similar with the fights, the basic animations, even the dogs.
At that time, David Carradine's Kung Fu TV series was reemitted in Spain and still quite popular in the children of our age. We used to refer to this game as "the Kung Fu videogame".
I never have played this game. I believe I've seen the name though, but didn't know what kind of game this was. Interesting. I do like Data East single-plane beat-em-ups though this may be more jank than some of the others. I definitely will have to check this out at least. I have to say that I really like the graphics in the Speccy version for some reason. Usually, I don't like the graphics in the ZX Spectrum ports much, but I do find these quite charming.
A great battle thanks Mark, I remember putting 10p into this at Hornsea, I think i lasted seconds and never played it again lol. I'd say a lot of the new players of these arcade games in Mame don't consider the need to put real coins in to play it and how gutting it was when it battered you. Have to say it's great to see the conversions coming out so well on the big three micros.
Ohh my good old childhood memories coming back:) I spend hours with this game on my beloved C64.. Since 1987... sometimes I play it on emulator. On the emulator, duck on horse and avoid bullets nearly imposibble. On the real hardware it^s easy due to the eight way joystick controls.. ahh such a lovely game..
Interesting. I never encountered this game before. One of the few Old West themed games out there. Looks like it could be fun. I'd say, as far as the ports go, the Amstrad CPC one looks the best. Like you said though, that's some really nice detail on the Speccy version.
the health bar back and forth is interesting lol so is the grand theft horse motif but what was up with all the cowboy games in the 80s ? although this one has to be one of the most original ones ....
Was litterally playing this the other day.... Oh no it wasnt, it was iron horse. Same thing but in a 2.5d streets of rage type game. But its very similar, negotiating a western train whilst robbing it. Avoiding baddies (well - goodies) and telegraph poles etc whilst on the roof. This game reminds me of the c64 game "stop the express" (Which at the time the character on that game i thought was the dangling mascot from rad mobile!! - obviously before i played sonic.) - look it up, youll see what i mean lol (its also a Japanese c64 game!!)
This game may not be good, but if I had to choose one port, maybe I would choose the Amstrad CPC. I was worried the CPC was going to play terrible and have jerky scrolling, but it's actually really smooth and it looks like it played well enough!
If they wanted to make an 8 bit version of Red Dead series, this would be a good place to start for some of the game play mechanics. I don't understand why a cowboy would be using karate instead of a knife & gun, but oh well. I never knew this game existed until just now.
Yeah, not feeling the ports of this one, stuck only on western PC's, not a Japanese PC port in sight, nor any console ports. It's on the Wii's Data East Arcade Classics, that is how I play it if I ever play it (rarely these days) as Express Raider.
I'm not familiar with this arcade game or its ports, but it looks neat for time it was made. My memory can be really bad regarding advancement in arcade games- I would swear that there was far more graphical and gameplay advancement beyond this game in 1987...
Never heard of this one! Not sure if that's because it didn't get much of a US release or I just wasn't playing that many arcade games by the time it came out.
@@RetroCore Few months ago Pixel, Polish retro magazine, interviewed couple of former Karen programmers, and they said salary was reasonable, but best part was having access to powerful PC's, Amiga was already extremely rare and expensive, PC was out of luck for average Polish citizen back in "central economy" times
I played this game with other Data East games on Steam (those are basically arcade emulation) and man, this game is unbalanced and frustrating, and pretty much all of them are. Even the most famous ones like Bad Dudes VS Dragon Ninja are still unbalanced and not so fun to play, I don't think I will never get how Data East became famous. Also looks like all those games on Steam are now delisted.
Best to turn this one off and play Sunset Riders instead. Of the ports, the C64 looks the best. Yeah, there's less colors than the CPC version, but that version has TOO much color, to the point where it looks like it was made in MS Paint. And the animation on the C64 is the best by far, well above the arcade version even. What is it with C64 games always having such smooth animation?
The C64 is the only machine with graphic acceleration. The others have to rely on what little grunt is available from the CPU, and the CPC is further hampered by having to shift twice as much video RAM about per frame than the other two (those colours need to be stored!).
Were any of these official releases though? Seems odd that a small Hungarian outfit would get a licence for something like this and I don't recall this title on sale in the UK at the time. ETA heh, seems it was a US Gold release. Even by their standards the Z80 ports are lame, the ZX version in particular looks like an amateur program in places.
US Gold published quite a few Data East games around that time. Maybe they got a bulk deal on licences. In the US, Data East published the C64 version themselves.
This game seems like it could've been really good if they just made a few changes here and there. Seems like the jump kick in the home computer ports is a little overpowered. Though with such janky game it's pretty understandable
Something I've never understood: Why do these companies set games in the U.S.A. (notice the American flag in the arcade version), and then use European style trains? What's the difference? European train cars only have one set of wheels at each end. All American train cars have two sets of wheels at each end, mounted in a "truck" that swivels to allow the train to go around curves. Also, the cab on American steam locomotives was more of a box, rather than the boot-like version on European ones. You might ask "Who cares? Most people won't know the difference." That might be true, but it still doesn't explain why they do it. It's not like reference photos for American trains are hard to come by. And if they wanted to use European trains to appeal to European gamers, why set the game in America? If I were making a train-based game set in Europe, I wouldn't use American style trains, I'd use European ones.
@@RetroCore I'll admit that I'm not an expert on international trains, as my interest was always in American steam trains from the 1800s, like you would see in western movies. Looking at pictures of Japanese steam trains in Google, they seem to look more like American trains than European. I see some elements that don't quite look American, but the general design seems to be the same. In particular they seem to have two sets of wheels at the ends of each car. Even if they ARE modeled after Japanese trains, the question still stands, why set the game in America if you don't want to use American trains?
This was one of those Arcade games that you could hear the attract screen right across the amusement - the whistle of the train and clatter of the wheels on the track. Great memories
I remember this game from the arcades, was great fun 😊
Thanks Mark 👍🏼
You're welcome.
Interesting title from Data East, doesn't get much coverage, nice one! 🤠👍
Talk about an Arcade game I haven't played in over 30 years Mark. The memories are coming back to me know. Thank you for sharing this with us bro.
Anthony..
No worries.
I don't think I ever even heard of this. I'm impressed with how big they got the sprites for the horse secrtion on C64, especially with the line scrolling, parallax and everything else going on.
Yeah, they did a good job with that horse.
Interesting game! It's sort of like a cross between Chase the Express and Hunchback.
Controls will be familiar to Karate Champ fans and this games action scenes could be seen as setting out the basis for Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja.
Good choice of music at the end.
Thanks. That's from the RUclips music library.
Very interesting. This game looks like an inspiration for the action parts of North & South from Infogrames. It's very similar with the fights, the basic animations, even the dogs.
At that time, David Carradine's Kung Fu TV series was reemitted in Spain and still quite popular in the children of our age. We used to refer to this game as "the Kung Fu videogame".
I never have played this game. I believe I've seen the name though, but didn't know what kind of game this was. Interesting. I do like Data East single-plane beat-em-ups though this may be more jank than some of the others. I definitely will have to check this out at least. I have to say that I really like the graphics in the Speccy version for some reason. Usually, I don't like the graphics in the ZX Spectrum ports much, but I do find these quite charming.
Look for iron horse. Same thing, same era but 2.5d like final fight. Plays less jank.
The speccy version looks quite clean when viewed side by side with the other ports.
Moving train section reminded me of North & South for the NES 😊
I think someone else mentioned that, too.
Spectrum version audio consists of toad croaking sound effect. But, then again, that is Speccy's audio capabilities overall😄
At least the 16/48k speccy. The 128k with the ay sounds was capable of great things
@@GeovaneSanciniSR Sinclair's ZX Spectrum 48k is the one I had available. I can't vouch for 128k version.
A great battle thanks Mark, I remember putting 10p into this at Hornsea, I think i lasted seconds and never played it again lol. I'd say a lot of the new players of these arcade games in Mame don't consider the need to put real coins in to play it and how gutting it was when it battered you. Have to say it's great to see the conversions coming out so well on the big three micros.
I remember the days of putting 10 pence in to an arcade machine and being gutted that game over came around in seconds. 😅
Ohh my good old childhood memories coming back:) I spend hours with this game on my beloved C64.. Since 1987... sometimes I play it on emulator. On the emulator, duck on horse and avoid bullets nearly imposibble. On the real hardware it^s easy due to the eight way joystick controls.. ahh such a lovely game..
Interesting. I never encountered this game before. One of the few Old West themed games out there. Looks like it could be fun. I'd say, as far as the ports go, the Amstrad CPC one looks the best. Like you said though, that's some really nice detail on the Speccy version.
Pumped a lot of coins into this back in the day.
I'm not surprised. It's very unbalanced.
@@RetroCore a bit like myself.
Beware the enemy's super attack: shovelling coal! 4:31
im liked this game as a kid. im had it to c64. long time im played it. all 3 home ports is fine.
I put a few hours into this on the C64, but had more fun with the budget game, Train Robbers by Firebird.
I don't think I've heard of that one before.
the health bar back and forth is interesting lol so is the grand theft horse motif but what was up with all the cowboy games in the 80s ? although this one has to be one of the most original ones ....
Grand Theft Loco(motive)...
😜
Was litterally playing this the other day....
Oh no it wasnt, it was iron horse. Same thing but in a 2.5d streets of rage type game. But its very similar, negotiating a western train whilst robbing it. Avoiding baddies (well - goodies) and telegraph poles etc whilst on the roof.
This game reminds me of the c64 game "stop the express"
(Which at the time the character on that game i thought was the dangling mascot from rad mobile!! - obviously before i played sonic.) - look it up, youll see what i mean lol (its also a Japanese c64 game!!)
Ooh, Iron Horse. I need to check that out while checking the C64 game Stop the Express to see Sonics cousin 😊
This game may not be good, but if I had to choose one port, maybe I would choose the Amstrad CPC. I was worried the CPC was going to play terrible and have jerky scrolling, but it's actually really smooth and it looks like it played well enough!
It's a good effort, especially for an old game.
If they wanted to make an 8 bit version of Red Dead series, this would be a good place to start for some of the game play mechanics. I don't understand why a cowboy would be using karate instead of a knife & gun, but oh well. I never knew this game existed until just now.
Yeah, not feeling the ports of this one, stuck only on western PC's, not a Japanese PC port in sight, nor any console ports. It's on the Wii's Data East Arcade Classics, that is how I play it if I ever play it (rarely these days) as Express Raider.
I'm not familiar with this arcade game or its ports, but it looks neat for time it was made. My memory can be really bad regarding advancement in arcade games- I would swear that there was far more graphical and gameplay advancement beyond this game in 1987...
There were many more impressive games at this time.
Never heard of this one! Not sure if that's because it didn't get much of a US release or I just wasn't playing that many arcade games by the time it came out.
It is pretty old so you may not have noticed this one. As far as I'm aware the US release wasn't limited in any particular way.
My liking trains makes perfect sense because I'm autistic and it's a serviceable game on the coin-op but greatly misses the mark on the ZX Spectrum.
Ah, you're a fan of trains? You'd love Japan. So many train types.
Good stuff as usual, but are we overdue for a life in Japan episode?
Yes. I have some footage that I need to compile together. Will do it this weekend.
I like trains.
I don't think you'll like this game though.
Very old meme reference.
@@RetroCore oh well, there’s always that one train arcade game by sega
@@javaykirk2688 yeah but still.
@@brycehippensteel928 In the depths:)
Seems like it was not uncommon in late 80's to hire programmers from some countries behind Iron Curtain (P.Z.Karen in Poland etc.)
Indeed. They'd probably do a better job due at half the price as well.
@@RetroCore Few months ago Pixel, Polish retro magazine, interviewed couple of former Karen programmers, and they said salary was reasonable, but best part was having access to powerful PC's, Amiga was already extremely rare and expensive, PC was out of luck for average Polish citizen back in "central economy" times
I thought Mastertronic's Kane was a blatant rip-off but I have just checked and Kane has more variety 😜
I played this game with other Data East games on Steam (those are basically arcade emulation) and man, this game is unbalanced and frustrating, and pretty much all of them are. Even the most famous ones like Bad Dudes VS Dragon Ninja are still unbalanced and not so fun to play, I don't think I will never get how Data East became famous.
Also looks like all those games on Steam are now delisted.
Best to turn this one off and play Sunset Riders instead. Of the ports, the C64 looks the best. Yeah, there's less colors than the CPC version, but that version has TOO much color, to the point where it looks like it was made in MS Paint. And the animation on the C64 is the best by far, well above the arcade version even. What is it with C64 games always having such smooth animation?
I'd have to agree that overall the C64 is the best version.
The C64 is the only machine with graphic acceleration. The others have to rely on what little grunt is available from the CPU, and the CPC is further hampered by having to shift twice as much video RAM about per frame than the other two (those colours need to be stored!).
surprising smelly yummi turd from Data East. They released so many great games later on.
Data East's catalogue has a lot of bizzare and crappy games. Still, saying that they also had a lot of bizarre and great games too.
The music from the amstrad reminds me of crazy bus and that’s not a good thing.
Lol, it's not that bad.
How modern can the Battle of the Ports series go up to 8th gen or 9th gen and why?
Probably up to Xbox / Wii. From there everything tends to look the same. I'm not interested in counting framerates and resolution.
@@RetroCore ok
Were any of these official releases though? Seems odd that a small Hungarian outfit would get a licence for something like this and I don't recall this title on sale in the UK at the time.
ETA heh, seems it was a US Gold release. Even by their standards the Z80 ports are lame, the ZX version in particular looks like an amateur program in places.
Yep, all 100% official. Back then it was cheap to get the license to not so popular arcade games, unlike now.
US Gold published quite a few Data East games around that time. Maybe they got a bulk deal on licences.
In the US, Data East published the C64 version themselves.
This game seems like it could've been really good if they just made a few changes here and there. Seems like the jump kick in the home computer ports is a little overpowered. Though with such janky game it's pretty understandable
It can be. The kick and punch in the home versions also seems to be random.
Something I've never understood: Why do these companies set games in the U.S.A. (notice the American flag in the arcade version), and then use European style trains? What's the difference? European train cars only have one set of wheels at each end. All American train cars have two sets of wheels at each end, mounted in a "truck" that swivels to allow the train to go around curves. Also, the cab on American steam locomotives was more of a box, rather than the boot-like version on European ones.
You might ask "Who cares? Most people won't know the difference." That might be true, but it still doesn't explain why they do it. It's not like reference photos for American trains are hard to come by. And if they wanted to use European trains to appeal to European gamers, why set the game in America?
If I were making a train-based game set in Europe, I wouldn't use American style trains, I'd use European ones.
Maybe the trains are based upon Japanese trains? That would make sense as to why the look the way they are.
@@RetroCore I'll admit that I'm not an expert on international trains, as my interest was always in American steam trains from the 1800s, like you would see in western movies. Looking at pictures of Japanese steam trains in Google, they seem to look more like American trains than European. I see some elements that don't quite look American, but the general design seems to be the same. In particular they seem to have two sets of wheels at the ends of each car.
Even if they ARE modeled after Japanese trains, the question still stands, why set the game in America if you don't want to use American trains?
A nice concept, poorly executed.
Indeed. Konami's Iron Horse is similar but way better.
They're all crap. Even the arcade original. Always a shame when that happens.
Yep, they're all a bit crap with the C64 probably being the best of the bunch.
@@RetroCore Its one of those games where you could appreciate what they were trying to do, but they just couldn't get there.
Average game
Average at best.
@@RetroCore Indeed
I used to play it on my Amstrad 6128 in the '80...
Did you enjoy the game back then? I like how they tried to simulate the sound of the steam engine.