Underachieving the impossible: Tank Command & Impossible Mission [7800] | NES Works Gaiden 68

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  • Опубликовано: 18 дек 2024

Комментарии • 105

  • @larryb5677
    @larryb5677 Месяц назад +18

    I can't wait for the SummoningSalt "History of the Tank Command World Record" video

  • @goldenphonautogram6141
    @goldenphonautogram6141 Месяц назад +11

    I was in that Atari IO forum thread! It’s truly an honor to have a cameo in a Jeremy Parish video in some small way.

  • @bloatytoegaming246
    @bloatytoegaming246 Месяц назад +33

    As someone who was gifted Spider Droid and Task Force as a child, the mere mention of Froggo Games sent a chill up my spine.

    • @jessragan6714
      @jessragan6714 Месяц назад +5

      Spider Droid. A bad port of Amidar, somehow made even worse.

    • @coach_troy
      @coach_troy 28 дней назад

      I actually liked task force😅 definitely needed a light gun though.

  • @sassydog5399
    @sassydog5399 Месяц назад +14

    The original Castle Wolfenstein also featured a countdown timer on its searchable chests, but those were presented as numerical values at the bottom of the screen instead of little progress bars. Though it's also a game with randomized layouts and dangerous guards to avoid, so Impossible Mission works as its spiritual successor of sorts.

  • @topdamagewizard
    @topdamagewizard Месяц назад +40

    Jack Tramiel, the Vince McMahon of video games. Inherited a business he hated.

    • @heavysystemsinc.
      @heavysystemsinc. Месяц назад +4

      Nice comparison. As a wrestling aficionado, can confirm this comparison to be pretty good.

  • @Jayce_Alexander
    @Jayce_Alexander Месяц назад +31

    For anyone who wants to know more about Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore and Atari Corp., I would really recommend the 3-part documentary about him on Kim Justice's channel (there is also a video that combines all three parts into a single video about 90 mins in length). It's very well-researched and gives an excellent overview of the man's fascinating life, his career, and his business philosophy and (ruthless) practices. It's a really great watch for anyone interested in the history of this era of Atari, also covering its presence in the microcomputer scene, which was where Tramiel's interests were primarily (and there were plenty of games on those too).

    • @rodneylives
      @rodneylives Месяц назад +6

      Tramiel stamped his influence on the computer industries in many more ways than this. Probably his most lasting legacy overall was when he bought MOS Technologies, who created the 6502 processor, and then instead of investing in them and encouraging them to grow and come up with better designs, he basically soaked up the profits from the chip and used it as Commodore's own fabricator. It greatly helped Commodore in the short term, but it also robbed us of a company that could have, at one point, challenged Intel. If MOS had survived and thrived, they could have filled the microprocessor niche right now that ARM grew to occupy.

    • @Jayce_Alexander
      @Jayce_Alexander Месяц назад +6

      @@rodneylives Yep! Kim talks about that in the doc too! Hugely influential, but utterly ruthless and single-minded, ultimately to the point of being self-destructive, as you illustrate perfectly right here.

    • @heavysystemsinc.
      @heavysystemsinc. Месяц назад +6

      @@rodneylives It's almost as if businessmen with no interest in the industry they're messing with are bad no matter what industry they're invading...good ol' capitalism. No morals, no ethics, just money.

  • @absolutezeronow7928
    @absolutezeronow7928 Месяц назад +10

    The legacy of Cruise Tom's impossible mission on 7800 is saved by Romhackers, something they didn't see coming back then. Anyway, we boldly go forward to 1989 on Atari consoles.

  • @mrb9825
    @mrb9825 Месяц назад +4

    Ive been playing Impossible Mission on a 7800 emulator, because it plays pretty well.
    I had no idea I couldn't finish it!

  • @JesterEric
    @JesterEric Месяц назад +8

    Atari fixed the bug in impossible mission themselves. The PAL version shipped without the bug. Atari had unsold inventory of the NTSC version so never produced a fixed cartridge. The unsold inventory of bugged carts was shipped to S America

  • @Bargadiel
    @Bargadiel Месяц назад +1

    Your content is as always a breath of fresh air, especially in the wake of quite a chaotic last week. Keep up the great work.

  • @Mansini77
    @Mansini77 Месяц назад +18

    So Frogo Games is is the equivalent to Micronics. Gotta love those shadowy devs.

  • @chrismansi4855
    @chrismansi4855 Месяц назад +7

    Boy howdy this got me thinking about how I'd sure love to see you do a one-off episode briefly talking about the major 8/16-bit computer offerings in the U.S. in the 80's. The Atari 400/800's and STs, C64s and Amigas, Apple and PC, talking about their overlap with the console scene and how games differed between their console and PC releases, etc., I'm sure it's the sort of topic people would absolutely eat up.
    Though I recognize that my using the term "briefly" is almost comical, I'm sure there's too much material to feasibly cover in just a single one-off episode. But dreamers can dream 🙃

  • @RonnieBarzel
    @RonnieBarzel Месяц назад +1

    With the possible exception of Super Mario 1 or World, "Impossible Mission" has the most sound effects buried in my mind. From the elevator and Tom Impossible's footsteps to the robots' lasers -- not to mention the "Another visitor..." speech synthesis -- IM is never far from my consciousness.

  • @EddieSlabb
    @EddieSlabb Месяц назад +4

    Jeremy thank you for your videos, your presentation and consistency point towards a diligent and thorough knowledge and passion for our hobby ❤

  • @jeffcox6539
    @jeffcox6539 Месяц назад +6

    "We have visitors. Stay a while, stay forever."

  • @Belgand
    @Belgand Месяц назад +1

    The large orb robot in Impossible Mission makes me think about the Rover in The Prisoner. It's a shame we never got a video game adaptation of that show. Finally, a game where ending with a kill screen would be a faithful adaptation.

  • @Bibvock
    @Bibvock Месяц назад +7

    Impossible Mission😃❤
    I hope someday, you'll be able to cover Mission Impossible for NES😊

  • @wusstunes
    @wusstunes Месяц назад +2

    The 2600 resurgence is neat.

  • @urmie
    @urmie Месяц назад +1

    7800+ is coming out soon funnily enough, should be great.

  • @HPRshredder
    @HPRshredder Месяц назад +30

    7800 bros we are SO BACK

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +19

      Back... ish. This is a very troubled episode (or rather, an episode about troubled games).

    • @HPRshredder
      @HPRshredder Месяц назад +10

      @ 😭😭🙏

    • @BrettDulaney-hf8yd
      @BrettDulaney-hf8yd Месяц назад +1

      My two favorite you tubers talking awesome

    • @thepositiver9977
      @thepositiver9977 Месяц назад +1

      7800 bros stay strong💪😭

  • @SatoshiMatrix1
    @SatoshiMatrix1 Месяц назад +1

    It really is a shame the 7800 never got the games of it's full potential. Froggo's Water Ski is a damn _interesting_ game that is a kazillion dollars but is _almost_ good. Coming back to the 7800 decades later, I am glad to see Atari re-releasing some 7800 games and embracing the homebrew scene. This is one 8-bit machine that deserves more love from NES fans or even gamers of today.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +1

      Yeah I pretty much came to the same conclusion in the episode that’ll go public next week. There’s a l’il spark to Froggo that could have been kindled into excellence, maybe

    • @toastrave7820
      @toastrave7820 10 дней назад

      didn't expect to see you here SAtoshi as i've been of yours for years

  • @slightlyevolved
    @slightlyevolved Месяц назад +1

    You're not wrong, Tramiel didn't believe in consoles and was a computer guy. He bought Atari solely for the ST and XE systems to smash the Amiga. Commodore getting shafted by TI in the calculator wars really made him bitter in matters such as being ousted form Commodore.

  • @gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730
    @gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730 Месяц назад +1

    froggo was a one man team consisting of a time traveler with the intent of making games for the 7800 that would be so unappealing on the shelf and in the system that they would become the rarest cartridges for the system, all in order to capitalize on the retro collecting and retrospective journalism markets later on

  • @youreallyplaythat
    @youreallyplaythat Месяц назад +1

    Impossible mission has a Cart on nes. I think it may be unlicensed. Plays good though

  • @jacobvankempen9405
    @jacobvankempen9405 29 дней назад

    I'm champing at the bit waiting for 16-bit era from my favorite game channel here. As a kid who wasn't allowed to own an NES but was allowed a Genesis, I can't wait.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  29 дней назад +1

      It'll happen soon! Probably in the spring or early summer at this rate. I want to work through some things and lay out the full story of the NES-era 8-bit biz before I move ahead to 16-bit.

  • @stevec4702
    @stevec4702 Месяц назад +3

    Jack Tramiel seems like he would've been a good villain in a 3 Ninjas movie.

  • @ArcaneAzmadi
    @ArcaneAzmadi Месяц назад +1

    Jack Tramiel sounds just like a modern major game publisher CEO. He'd probably get along great with Bobby Kotick and Andrew Wilson.

  • @XanthinZarda
    @XanthinZarda Месяц назад +1

    Ah, Jack Tramiel. If there was anyone who radiated raw, "I'd sell my mother for a dollar" energy in the computer space, it was him. Internal backstabbing, headless operations, neatly folding companies in on themselves and then running away with the money, he truly was the Chainsaw Al of his realm.

  • @Panzer_the_Merganser
    @Panzer_the_Merganser Месяц назад

    0:26 I have indeed cottoned to your mission for this channel.
    I especially cotton Gintendo streams.

  • @Cactrot
    @Cactrot Месяц назад +1

    Thanks, Stone Age Gamer!

  • @michaelsriqui7898
    @michaelsriqui7898 Месяц назад +9

    Atari really is the Roman Empire of gaming. A once great empire eventually split in two with one half continuing fairly successfully for a while, while the other half got sacked and conquered by eastern Europeans and then spent much of the remainder of its life trying desperately to reclaim its former glory, and failing miserably.😂

    • @FallicIdol
      @FallicIdol Месяц назад +1

      Damn. Deep

    • @ginormousaurus8394
      @ginormousaurus8394 Месяц назад

      Atari SA seems to have found a niche in the industry in the last few years. They have acquired Nightdive Studios, Digital Eclipse, MobyGames, AtariAge, and the Intellivision brand name and game library. They published the video game compilation Atari 50, developed the Atari 2600+ console, and have published new games based on old IP.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +4

      Yeah, Atari SA is doing pretty OK. If Atari Inc. was the Roman Empire, Atari SA is currently, uh... post-fascist Italy? (The Atari SA management of a few years ago who wanted to do the hotels and cryptocurrency being the Mussolini in this metaphor, obviously)

    • @michaelsriqui7898
      @michaelsriqui7898 Месяц назад +1

      @@JeremyParish My thoughts exactly.

    • @goranisacson2502
      @goranisacson2502 Месяц назад

      ​@@JeremyParish Considering Italy's bumpy journey since then this simile concerns me, though I AM heartened by the thought of combining extortionist crypto-bros that extract value until nothing is left and make everyone's life worse, and backs against walls.

  • @evad999
    @evad999 28 дней назад +1

    It is possible I am mistaken, but you said that Spiderdroid was "actually a new game" ...but wasn't it a reskin of Amidar?

  • @garion333
    @garion333 Месяц назад

    I like to think of Impossible Mission as the first rogue lite I ever played.

  • @fangjokerLS
    @fangjokerLS Месяц назад +2

    The true Impossible Mission? Getting the 7800 over.

  • @mikececconi2677
    @mikececconi2677 Месяц назад +1

    Your introduction made me remember a conversation I was recently discussing with my brother... we simply didn't know anyone who owned a Master System. Ever. We knew it existed, we saw it in catalogues, but I genuinely do not remember seeing a Sega home product until the Genesis. It was probably on some far rack at like Electronics Boutique or Toys R Us, but it was so back shelf and culturally insignificant, I cannot remember ever noting it once. It's weird to think there were places where it was at-all relevant, at least here Stateside. I know it was, but the whole idea just FEELS wrong. It feels almost as unreal as that imaginary "Xevious" game you made-up as a running gag. It's funny how context shapes reality!

    • @ginormousaurus8394
      @ginormousaurus8394 Месяц назад +1

      I suspect that the Sega Master System had a larger share of the video game market in Canada than it did in the United States. Some Master System games were released in Canada but not the U.S. and it's not unusual to find used Master System hardware and games for sale in the Canadian city where I live. In contrast, I have never seen used Atari 7800 hardware and games for sale in local stores.

  • @falselogic
    @falselogic Месяц назад +1

    Dig that sweater. When do you start adding a fit check at the end of your videos!

  • @philmason9653
    @philmason9653 Месяц назад +1

    Those Froggo games were budget priced, leading me to blow an entire month's saved allowance on Spider Droid because I could afford it. I was pretty disappointed with it.

  • @cirmothe9
    @cirmothe9 Месяц назад

    Kinda random but I was looking at an old pocket games magazine from 2006 and saw your name in an article about the ds lite. Didn't realize I had been reading your content even back then.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад

      That’s funny, we talked about that issue in the Retronauts that went up for patrons last week.

  • @ColdPie
    @ColdPie Месяц назад

    5:03 Thanks.

  • @TheLohoped
    @TheLohoped Месяц назад +1

    Finally, we are back to an actually good console!

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +7

      Hey boys, check it out! We got ourselves a spicy take here

  • @topdamagewizard
    @topdamagewizard Месяц назад +4

    If we make it as a species this series is for sure going in "humanity archive" or whatever they call it in the future. These are legit important.

  • @craigcharlesworth1538
    @craigcharlesworth1538 Месяц назад +6

    Jack Tramiel really only bought Atari in order to take revenge on Commodore for firing him, hence why he really had no interest in the console business because Commodore never really got into that business outside of releasing a couple of crappy consolised versions of their computer formats.
    Really it was all about using the ST to crush the Amiga which... it didn't. Not by any possible metric you want to name. The ST had a couple of good years before it was inevitably reeled in and then passed as both a games and productivity platform by both the Amiga and PC. Atari tried to counter with the Falcon, a computer so obscure I've never met anyone who remembers seeing one in a shop.

    • @FallicIdol
      @FallicIdol Месяц назад +2

      He reminds me of the current owner of K-Mart/Sears

  • @mark6302
    @mark6302 Месяц назад

    well I had no idea Epyx developed the lynx that blows my mind man

  • @dorkidori
    @dorkidori Месяц назад

    heh... yeah boi! you have Urusei Yatsura videos sitting on your shelf in the background :D

  • @tekkensentai
    @tekkensentai Месяц назад +2

    Did the 7800 version of IM have the voice synth? At least maybe the fall scream?

  • @JohnZyski
    @JohnZyski Месяц назад +1

    The 7800 was mismanaged. Too bad... what could have been.

  • @nicktheneshero9010
    @nicktheneshero9010 Месяц назад +5

    Froggo's Spiderdroid is hardly original; it's just Ed Temple's conversion of Amidar.

  • @tec5x5
    @tec5x5 Месяц назад +2

    After the Nintendo's mass roll out of the NES none of the kids I knew had Atari anything not the 5200 not the 7800 you find the occasional 2600 in garage sales and flea markets all the kids had Nintendo my next door neighbor had a Master System but I never touched it it took me be a bit to understand that other consoles existed in those years

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +2

      I also didn't know anyone who stuck with Atari once the NES hit critical mass, but the sales numbers don't lie. Millions of people were out there spending (small amounts of) cash money on these systems.

    • @JB_Hunkamunka
      @JB_Hunkamunka Месяц назад +1

      Even the Virtual Boy shipped some 800k units. There's a lot of people in the world!

  • @SpinningSquareWaves
    @SpinningSquareWaves Месяц назад +1

    13:14 Am I going crazy, or is that a Pizza Tower reference?

  • @milkcarton6654
    @milkcarton6654 Месяц назад +1

    Putting you in the control fo a tank that can be destroyed by a single bullet kinda defeats the purpose of having you control a tank in the first place. It's tragic when devs don't even understand the basic appeal of their game's premise.

  • @MiguelPaulettePerez-bj8ml
    @MiguelPaulettePerez-bj8ml Месяц назад +3

    We were Game Gear kids.... unjustifably jealous of Game Boy kids.... we had Mario Fever... similar to Malaria symptoms.

  • @Obscusion2
    @Obscusion2 Месяц назад

    "And of (Froggo Games' catalog) only one, Spiderdroid, was actually a new game". Actually, looking it up, Spiderdroid was just a reskin of the 2600 port of Konami's Amidar, so Froggo's entire 2600 catalog was just re-releases & reskins.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +1

      Yeah but at least they actually redrew the sprite. That’s a new game, right?

  • @NumberOneHorseDrowner
    @NumberOneHorseDrowner Месяц назад

    Ah, you see it's ironic that it was called "Impossible Mission" because it's not a mission at all, it's a video game.

  • @CaptainRufus
    @CaptainRufus Месяц назад +1

    Poor 7800. No built in POKEY chip. Part of Tramiel confusion Atari. It could have been a contender.

  • @goranisacson2502
    @goranisacson2502 Месяц назад

    I can't say either of these games were to my tastes, both striking me as more 'unfortunate' versions of existing games... but I did learn a lot about how unfair business and life can be and about Jack Tramiel, so that's... some kind of take away here, I suppose. Not sure it's one I like, but it IS a take-away.

  • @apollosungod2819
    @apollosungod2819 Месяц назад +1

    At last, someone FINALLY REVEALS the TRUTH about "Atari Corp" that we knew but most other youtubers would refuse to even mention or address because instead they would push the narrative that Atari never got a "fair" chance... lmao Atari Corp took out the Atari 7800 Pro System AND the Atari 2600 Junior System out of the warehouses and into retail in 1986 massively undercutting the price of the Sega Master System and with arguably a cool tv commercial for that time that deceived kids and young game players into possibly skipping Sega Master System (essentially true power in comparison to Atari and Nintendo) and thus adding to the sloppy 1986 Sega of America into probably not meeting their sales targets although if they had I wonder if they would have hired more staff and actually tried matching what Nintendo of America was doing.
    Then Atari Corp pulled the GXES system which was further confusing in 1987 with a tv commercial mocking Nintendo and why those types of TV commercials are just horrible ideas but hey Sega copied that and remained idiots all into the 90s with flaccid TV commercials that contributed nothing to actual true sales adoption.
    Finally I will say again... Nintendo of America launched in 1985 so in 1986 they dug their beachhead and built up system sales and by relation loyal third parties... Sega really did not really need third parties... in fact they could have supported the Sega Saturn all by Sega headquarters Japan and their contract alliance devs and the fact that Virtua Fighter brought one million Sega Saturns sold by April 1995 which in turn brought S.N.K. as an official third party for Sega aka two arcade giants teaming up but of course Sega of America never supported none of that.
    Nintendo and Nintendo of America EARNED their third parties so in all seriousness they had every right to demand to their third parties to even delay making any games for Sega Genesis lets say especially when they failed to sell one million units from 1989 to 1990 and were only able to increase system sales with what was a dangerous and desperate fifty dollar price cut which only speaks volumes of the incompetence at Sega of America as a 80s and 90s subsidiary branch.
    Atari Corp made their system but then acted like any company shaking their hands was really their enemy and then they cried that Nintendo was playing dirty when they were not.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +3

      Interesting perspective, and yeah, I dig into this a bit more in the upcoming XE Game System intro episode.

    • @apollosungod2819
      @apollosungod2819 Месяц назад

      @@JeremyParish You know I remember seeing the 7800 and 2600 Jr and I thought to myself, if the 7800 plays 2600 games, why make a 2600 Jr? it just seemed weird like "here kid, you're stuck with the 2600 Jr, no suffer" and then more confused when the XEGS commercial aired cause I actually thought it was cool and wanted one BUT I had assumed that because it was one year newer that it could play all 7800 and 2600 games only there was no information or mention and then yeah it was incompatible...
      Makes me feel like some former Atari Corp staff ended up hired at Sega of America... either that or they played softball together way too much... meanwhile Sega and Nintendo only sold one thing until the last year of the 80s and I really wish I could travel back in time and tell Nintendo to launch one year earlier in 1984 against the naysayers and tell Sega to also launch one year earlier and not hire any traitors so that when 1988 comes, we end up getting a more macho name like Sega MegaDrive which would have given them at least a one year advatange to mess up less and become more phenomenal because Atari just deralied Sega's chances,

  • @fazares
    @fazares Месяц назад

    1984 on SMS xD

  • @adamking6645
    @adamking6645 Месяц назад +1

    Did Atari really think console gamers in 1988 cared about Impossible Mission?

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +2

      Hey, man, there was a Mission: Impossible reboot series running on TV in 1988. They musta sold at least a few dozen copies on the back of confusion over the similar titles.

  • @hardrocknguy
    @hardrocknguy Месяц назад

    Looks like Tobey Maguire at 15:05

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +1

      That's because... it is. And Jack Black was in a Pitfall! commercial! And Paul Rudd repped the Super NES!

  • @ValkyrieTiara
    @ValkyrieTiara Месяц назад +1

    A single guy putting out garbage ports of existing titles to home consoles..... Could it be? Froggo? The western Micronics? 😂

  • @nonix81
    @nonix81 Месяц назад +1

    It's so sad seeing ports of some of my favorite C64 games turn into complete rubbish on consoles. Jack Tramiel ruined Commodore.

  • @JGreen-le8xx
    @JGreen-le8xx Месяц назад +1

    Any purist will tell you Impossible Mission should ONLY be played on the C64. Anything less is blasphemy and eternal damnation of your soul. (if there is such a thing)
    Satan's words, not mine (don't quote me)

    • @meej33
      @meej33 Месяц назад +3

      I was a ZX Spectrum fan boy through and through, and the only C64 game I envied was Impossible Mission. I could only play it in snippets as my cousins had it.

  • @jamesmoss3424
    @jamesmoss3424 Месяц назад +4

    Tank Command sucks.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +10

      But it sucks in a good-hearted way, which counts for something.

    • @jamesmoss3424
      @jamesmoss3424 Месяц назад +1

      ​@@JeremyParishthe game is rare.

    • @JeremyParish
      @JeremyParish  Месяц назад +1

      Yes, it also sucks in an extremely expensive way