Rock'n Bolt / Elevator Action / Soukoban retrospective: Blue collar blues | Segaiden
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- Опубликовано: 14 янв 2025
- A bit of an emphasis on day jobs this episode, but fortunately one of these games offers more than mere workmanlike effort. Activision's Rock'n Bolt stands out this week as one of the SG-1000's most appealing puzzlers-certainly a more interesting take on the genre than Soukoban, which gets credit for its primal nature but not for possessing any sort of audio-visual flair. And then there's Elevator Action, a perfectly decent arcade game done dirty by the console's hardware. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the SG-1000's limits do more to hamper this conversion than any other game we've seen on the system to date.
Production note: SG-1000 footage in this episode was captured from a combination of Sega SG-1000 II with (with Card Catcher; RGB amp mod by @iFixRetro) and @analogueinc Mega Sg with card adapter module and DAC.
Video upscaled to 720 with @retrotink339 5X.
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![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Rock'n Bolt was a nice surprise, certainly looks fun.
Sokoban is like a season 1 rival character that suddenly shows up in season 3 when they've been gone just long enough to think you don't ever have to worry about them again
You cannot escape that game, even in another game. Famously, Nethack has some infamous Sokoban levels in its dungeon.
Always nice to hear a They Might Be Giants reference
“When Micronics shows you up, you know you’ve done something wrong.”
Quote of the decade. 🤣
i'm seeing micronics apologists of late, lol
Credit where credit is due
Waiting for the day Jeremy snaps and writes an outlandishly lavish description of sokuban where he had to seek the most obscure words in the thesaurus to describe the game as some sort of extreme mystically powerful entertainment experience we never seen as a joke.
Can't blame Sokoban for effortlessly conveying the claustrophobic existential nightmare that is pushing (never pulling) non-descript boxes inside unnaturally designed mazes (and forever reliving the effort as you retry levels), like a mouse in a lab with only a vague promise of cheese.
I want the Evangelion of Sokoban games, dammit!
Nice They Might Be Giants ref at the beginning! Flood was so great!
Isometric is a form of axonometric. It is easy to keep them straight if you remember that the other forms are dimetric and trimetic. (Isometric uses one single scale for all three axes. Dimetric uses two scales, one axis uses one scale while the other two axes use the other scale. Trimetric uses three scales, each axis uses a different scale.)
Wow, started out with the TMBG reference. Outlandishly well done!
Came to post this!
I don't care much for TMBG in the last 15 or so years, but I loved them back in the day!
Everybody wants a TMBG reference in their retro-gaming video.
i had to pause the video at the beginning to listen to a they might be giants song, thanks
They Might Be Giants reference in the first three seconds, this will be an epic video.
I'll be honest, last time you were pushing boxes in an 80's game I thought to myself "man, I bet he's getting sick of pushing boxes". You saying that made me laugh pretty hard
This may literally be the first time I've heard you refer the company just as "Micronics" instead of its official name, " *sigh* Micronics"
I know it’s a great video when it begins with a TMBG reference.
I would never miss a Jeremy Parish video talking about Soukoban
Join me weekly
I'd imagine the Micronics version of Elevator Action was the defacto port for a lot of people, Anyone who has glanced at a Famiclone over the past three decades would have come across that version! :D
I had it on the Amstrad myself as a kid! :P
didn't they also do that ultra-janky port of GnG for nes? many kids did battle with that game
Of course you had it on the Amstrad. 8-Bit microcomputers were the top-dog in Britain. America and Japan tell a different story, tho.
@@jaymorrison8419 Yes.
Great video! Opening with a reference to a song about fads probably matches with the outlook of some people working in the 80s' video game industry, too!
Great Job as always, Jeremy.
I'm just building hype for the next two libraries he might actually complete with microvision and super cassette vision
Don't forget Game Pocket Computer... I might be able to clear that entire library in a single episode.
Rock and bolt is my favorite game on the colecovision. Such a gem and doesn’t get mentioned enough.
TMBG reference?
yeah
Love that They Might Be Giants references at the start.
"Suck-o-ban"
Truer words have never been written.
Awesome They Might Be Giants reference!
Wow, I've seen 15 seconds of Rock n Bolt gameplay and am immediately sold on it! This looks super fun, it's a shame there was never a release later than the 80s.
Thanks for Rock'n Bolt, going to hunt that one down!
With this and Sindbad Mystery, the SG-1000 library is now complete with a Sokoban *and* Heiankyo Alien-alike.
I'm surprised I've never heard of Rock'n Bolt before now. It seems like a very well-thought-out puzzle game, that probably got overshadowed by Activision's much more action-y fare in those days.
This and Zenji were standouts on the ColecoVision; action puzzle games years before the rise of Tetris.
Elevator action is an fantastic arcade game. 😀👍🎮
Soukoban! Everybody drink!
It won't make the game any more fun, though.
Rock'n Bolt is the first SG 1000 game we've seen that I'm not just interested in for it's historical significance or feel like I'd have liked it as a kid, but actually wouldn't mind playing today just because it looks fun. I feel like a low budget update could sell a few copies on steam/mobile, but the ideal window for that specific sort of game's renaissance may have closed a few years ago without a bigger property attached to it (eg Mr Driller)
**sighs and flips the "DAYS WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT SOUKOBAN" sign back to zero. Again.**
Rock'n Bolt looks like a classic puzzle game. Would be good remade on any platform.
"...so you could say a console game dynasty started here, I guess...if you really wanted to..." - a broken man, 2021
This episode started so promising...
11:12 a rare moment where Jeremy lets his frustrations get the better of him.
I first played Elevator Action I the Sg-1000, maybe that's why I love the version so much. I had just assumed the flaws were part of the challenge. I still have problems playing it on other systems.
I personally think every one of these games are bangers.
Nice They Might Be Giants reference.
Otto can, in fact, jump while the elevator is in motion (in the arcade and NES versions, at least) which is often a crucial way to attack enemy agents waiting on the next floor down. But ducking is naturally out of the question since the up and down joystick motions become elevator controls.
Gotta say, Rock'n Bolt looks pretty good. Soukoban got out puzzle gamed in their own episode.
"As seen on Game Boy Works, and Game Gear, and...the inside of my eyelids, at this point..." 😏
Was Rock'n Bolt the inspiration for the incredibly bizarre Gubble, or am I losing my mind?
...or both. Both is always an option.
Wow! Someone remembers Gubble!
That scrunched up face at the mention of "Micronics" pretty much says it all.
I liked Rock 'n Bolt well enough on the ColecoVision, and this one looks more or less the same, albeit with a cuter lead character. Which leads me to wonder... did Activision's ambitious Fortress of Alcazar make it to the SG-1000 as well?
The real Soukobon was the friends we made along the way.
It's no friend of mine
I feel like I know people who would be into Rock n Bolt right now
Rock'n Bolt looks like if it'd been an indie game published by a small indie label on Steam, it would've done decently well.
A unique spin (hehe) on a traditional game genre.
I wonder if Soukoban actually is/was popular or it was just easy to make.
Considering how many times you had to say the word "lock", I wonder if there any slip-ups when you'd have to pivot back to game title's "Rock".
Rock'n Bolt I have not heard of! might have to look it up to check it out! that elevator action port looked rough.... sad when *micronics* has the better port of a game you know you messed up! sokoban... well I discovered it via the old NovaNET system that my high school had. there was a version of it in one of their games section it was... interesting.
Did Jeremy just make a We Want a Rock reference????
Was that a They Might Be Giants I Want a Rock reference?
Was it? Huge if true
@@JeremyParish
I thought so 😃
On a side note, the title screen music to rock n bolt is the same music for Classic Concentration on c64. A favorite to play with my mom.
Next time on Sokoban Works Gaiden: NetHack
Ah, "Suck*O*Ban", a great ephemeral Jeremy Parish creation now immortalized in video. At least you won't be pushing but never pulling boxes for a while. (Genesis did get a Sokoban game but it would be a while before you would get to that)
Maybe I should save that level to tape and share it online
There's also a new one that was added to the PSN recently.
Another reason Sony needs to be taken down a peg
The real question of which is the worse hell if your own creation: getting stuck playing every version of Sokoban, or the mahjong games for every Japanese launch lineup?
Is there any newer Rock n Bolt style games?
Good question. Idk. Rock n bolt is pretty damn unique. Back then and even now
Don't fret the "Star Lustre". Chalk it up to too many video works gaiden criss crossing. We all get our Famiseganamcosinspace mixed up from time to time.
Rock'n Bolt seems like it would be a fun game, a fun enough game that i would have expected it to be rereleased but instead we get a million versions of Suck o Ban..
Is Rock'nBolt an exclusive for the SG1000
Nope, was also on ColecoVision and some microcomputers.
I played it on the C64 back in the day. Wonder if it's on any retro collection.
@@massivepileup how does it compare to the SG1000 version? Maybe I got to check this out on the ol’ retro pi.
@@JeremyParish great! Really cool looking game! I really look forward to your videos keep up the top notch work!!
I know this is a bit of a weird observation, but "Everybody Wants a Rock and a Bolt to Lock their Rock Around" would make a great Fall Out Boy-esque song title
It’s already a reference to a They Might Be Giants song
I've always been more of an Area 89 kinda guy.
Classic!
They wanna burn the foreheads down
it cracks me up that compile was already working their magic way back then with gulkave, etc.
gulkave is probably the most technically impressive sg-1000 for me
It does pretty extraordinary things with the hardware! I will be getting to that one next month.
At stage it might be easier for you to have a nice relaxing waterboarding session, rather then play another Soukoban style game.
Soukoban's creator must be really good at his own game. After all, he pushed it so that it covered all possible console releases perfectly on the first try.
Weirdly, Famicom didn’t get a Soukoban port until like 1987!
It's weird to think that an important feature such as smooth scrolling was a luxury back then.
Just wait until we get to things like "more than 4 Kb of RAM"
so what is this game now axonometric or isometric? i would like know this because i will lose sleep over this open question
I don't know, this question always gives me a headache
But my bones are perfectly healthy, thanks.
I'm sure this isn't the last we've seen of Soukoban, i'd be astounded if there isn't a Lynx version.
It doesn't, but there's still "Store Keepers" for Game Pocket Computer for me to soldier through.
@@JeremyParish Color me astounded then.
i love how rock n bolt has a "good enough" aspect
ehh, just put one bolt in and call it a day!
I think the builders hired him to work on my house
Yeah the NES port of elevator action is way more playable than that garbage