I saw this game in an arcade 2 or 3 years after its release and was incredibly impressed by the animation. It was waaaaay ahead of its time, graphically.
Hi Mark, Thank you for taking my request with Peter Pack Rat. A beautifully done game with it's animation and sprites that always been overlooked by many in the video game community. Glad that you enjoyed the arcade version since that's the most memorable out of the group. I do have the Commodore 64 port and have it boxed to this day. Keep up the great work for sure bro. Always a pleasure to see you in action. 8^) Anthony..
I've never even heard of this game, not that I've heard of every arcade game, but the fact that it has a C64 port is what make it strange. I've seen many lists of C64 arcade ports and don't recall ever seeing this game listed.
The arcade version at least is a really fun little platform game, of the old school sort where it's all about learning routes and patterns as the three levels cycle. It's a great reminder that Atari were still a pretty big deal in the arcades post crash mid-80s. The ports? If only the license hadn't been published on a British budget label, then maybe some 16-Bit ports could have been added to the roster. The Amiga could have done the game justice.
The Amiga and St could have both done great ports but you just know they would have been crap since Software Creations would have been making the Ports.
Used to play this at Merlin's Castle in San Jose CA. sadly, they went out of business in around 1987. Didn't know that there were any home ports. Fun arcade game.
I think the home ports were only released in the UK and maybe a few other European countries. Strange when the Arcade was practically an American exclusive.
@@RetroCore Let alone also interesting when UK publishers didn't try to re-license their computer titles to the US such as for the C64, it was an odd dividing line.
That PC Engine version would've been nice. It was developed by Tengen Japan who only managed to get one game released on the PCE, Klax. Other games that were in development but weren't released for the PCE include Marble Madness and Off The Wall.
I knew about this game because it was an answer Ashens made when he was a special guest on the Machinima game show "Last Man Standing" (the question was name a game beginning with the letter P).
Nice video, but I'm very disappointed you didn't talk a little more about how incredible the sprites of the arcade version are. I discovered this game on MAME some 10 years ago and was blown away by the spritework and art direction. Shame the backgrounds don't match the amazing sprites
It made sense for Atari to hire an animator when they did for the game. I do wonder what else has Deborah Hayes been up to later on, since her IMDB is very limited to pretty much the first half of the 80's. Mostly working on several Ralph Bakshi flicks and Saturday morning fare. Seems like she didn't stick around in the field very long.
At least I did mention Deborah Hayes 🙂 The animation is very good but it wasn't unique to this game. Other games from around this time period also had some pretty nice animation. And funnily enough they also lacked in the background graphics department.
@@ChristopherSobieniak hardware limitations are the prime reason for this stuff, but they could have worked around the hardware limitations and made some more whimsical and creative environments within said limitations.
LOL the buff picture of Peter seems super out of place. I love the animation work on the arcade version though, Super expressive for an arcade game of its type.
C64 is closest to the arcade, but still, I can tell by watching that it's hella fiddly to control. Considering it was a Atari Games release, I'm kinda surprised at the lack of Tengen NES version.
Thanks for the the love Mark. Lol. One of the things I like about your videos is that you actually bother to show 2nd gen console games like the 2600, Colecovision,Intellivision,the Zed X etc. Not many people do that. You would know better than me but I wonder how many Japanese gamers are even aware that games were created in the west or about consoles before the Famicom. Watching Game Center CX you would think gaming didn't exist until the NES. Understandable but still. Even Sega was created by a Westerner. Interesting history at least.
Ah, stuff such as Game Center CX is aimed towards the causal / semi casual market in Japan. Yoh know, those who remember the Famicom. They tend not to nerd out on stuff different than that although Japanese gamers are aware. If you take a look at Japanese Wikipedia pages it often talks about western home micro ports.
@@RetroCore Cool. I knew that CX was like that since it's mainly a comedy show but it's nice to know that people haven't totally forgotten about how things got started. Thanks for the reply and info.
This is interesting. I thought my gaming knowledge was pretty extensive but I haven't heard of this one. Leave it to Mark to come up with the truly obscure titles. Good job. Gonna have a hard time trying this one out with my cousin Drew though. Lol.
Hi Mark, are you still planning to do a Battle Of The Ports episode on the 1987 Jaleco arcade game Butasan (Known as Psycho Pigs U.X.B on the western home computer ports) in the near future please?
@@RetroCore Glad I haven't lived under a rock and a nice surprise to discover something new. Once again thank you very much for this episode and the ongoing series.
@@skins4thewin It's one of those odd things where it's written on a hard drive itself that is owned by the person who showed those clips on his YT channel, so I don't think it can be externally ported.
Most games don't give the player a choice. Of course many Arcade games have difficulty settings but they're set via dip switches and not available to the gamer to chose.
@@RetroCore Yep, the use of dip switches was a secret only to those vendors/owners of the arcade boards! MAME of course brings that ability to us normally.
@@RetroCore what oh well that mean this game more obscure than I thought, I even knew Mappy who also have same gameplay collect everything but I never see these arcade cabinet at all.
That buff mouse is going to haunt some dreams tonight, damn. That is some modern-day internet furry community fetish art right there, lol. Why did they do that? WHY!? I never heard of this game until now, but it's clear from the original arcade release that they were going for more of a classic Hannah-Barbera or Warner Bros. look a la Tom & Jerry or those Gophers from Looney Tunes. Whoever made the title screen for the home console ports was into some weird sh**, _Jesus._ :P Shame the game never got a good port. Looks like a big leap up from Mappy, but still hanging out in that same kind of "Not quite a single-screen platformer, but definitely not a proper platformer yet"- genre. Since it was Atari, you'd figure they maybe would've brought the IP back for stuff like the Lynx or the Jaguar since those platforms were hurting for platformers. Missed opportunity. This looks like a really fun early 80's arcade title!
@@RetroCore I was just sitting here thinking it reminded me a good bit of an ST game. Honestly, Gauntlet was made on the same hardware as this game, and the ST port ended up pretty good, so... I do actually remember playing this a few times in the arcade. I can't remember now if I ever saw more than one machine. It was definitely uncommon, regardless.
I saw this game in an arcade 2 or 3 years after its release and was incredibly impressed by the animation. It was waaaaay ahead of its time, graphically.
ZX spectrum Peter: "Do you even lift, mate?". Hahaha
Hi Mark,
Thank you for taking my request with Peter Pack Rat. A beautifully done game with it's animation and sprites that always been overlooked by many in the video game community. Glad that you enjoyed the arcade version since that's the most memorable out of the group. I do have the Commodore 64 port and have it boxed to this day.
Keep up the great work for sure bro. Always a pleasure to see you in action. 8^)
Anthony..
The ZX Spectrum port is like "Peter Pack Rat: Deviantart Edition"
I've never even heard of this game, not that I've heard of every arcade game, but the fact that it has a C64 port is what make it strange. I've seen many lists of C64 arcade ports and don't recall ever seeing this game listed.
Maybe it was even obscure on the home systems?
02:16 - OMG, that loading screen has ruined my eyes
It's a shame that I never got the chance to check this out in the arcades. It looks like a game that would have a fair share of my quarters.
The arcade version at least is a really fun little platform game, of the old school sort where it's all about learning routes and patterns as the three levels cycle. It's a great reminder that Atari were still a pretty big deal in the arcades post crash mid-80s.
The ports? If only the license hadn't been published on a British budget label, then maybe some 16-Bit ports could have been added to the roster. The Amiga could have done the game justice.
The Amiga and St could have both done great ports but you just know they would have been crap since Software Creations would have been making the Ports.
Used to play this at Merlin's Castle in San Jose CA. sadly, they went out of business in around 1987. Didn't know that there were any home ports. Fun arcade game.
I think the home ports were only released in the UK and maybe a few other European countries. Strange when the Arcade was practically an American exclusive.
@@RetroCore Let alone also interesting when UK publishers didn't try to re-license their computer titles to the US such as for the C64, it was an odd dividing line.
A good caption for 2:17 "With each passing day, we stray farther from God's light."
RIP headphone users. Man that Amstrad sqeak made my eardrums vibrate
What a amazing little soundtrack for the time! Stage 3 is totally Yoshi's Island title screen and Stage 2 is a sweet little blues.
That ZX Spectrum version is a THICC boi 😂 The arcade version of this is an awesome and underrated game tho
omg, you went deep to find this one.
Beleive it or not but this was a viewer request. I'd never heard of it either.
Too many anabolic drugs for this rat in the monochrome versions... It's a truly gym rat xD
That PC Engine version would've been nice. It was developed by Tengen Japan who only managed to get one game released on the PCE, Klax. Other games that were in development but weren't released for the PCE include Marble Madness and Off The Wall.
Tengen Japan were a very good studio. All of their Mega Drive stuff is well done.
There should be a criminal penalty for porting zx versions to cpc.
And to the MSX as well.
Let's not forget about Chase H.Q. on the Commodore 64 and Ocean's MS-DOS version of RoboCop :shrug:
I knew about this game because it was an answer Ashens made when he was a special guest on the Machinima game show "Last Man Standing" (the question was name a game beginning with the letter P).
Power Rangers. Do I win also?
This is one of the Battle of the Ports where the original arcade outshines the Western microcomputer ports...
Never seen this game in the wild. But it’s beautifully animated👍.
amazing title screen on those UK micros, hahahahaha
damn, this game looks amazing for 1984!
Those title screens are the work of a madman.
Too bad the MSX users missed out, they surely wanted another bad Spectrum port too
You just know that's what they would have been given as well.
@@RetroCore Yep!
Nice video, but I'm very disappointed you didn't talk a little more about how incredible the sprites of the arcade version are. I discovered this game on MAME some 10 years ago and was blown away by the spritework and art direction.
Shame the backgrounds don't match the amazing sprites
It made sense for Atari to hire an animator when they did for the game. I do wonder what else has Deborah Hayes been up to later on, since her IMDB is very limited to pretty much the first half of the 80's. Mostly working on several Ralph Bakshi flicks and Saturday morning fare. Seems like she didn't stick around in the field very long.
At least I did mention Deborah Hayes 🙂 The animation is very good but it wasn't unique to this game. Other games from around this time period also had some pretty nice animation. And funnily enough they also lacked in the background graphics department.
@@RetroCore Sometimes I wonder if it came down to hardware limitations or simply not having the right staff for said backgrounds to be made?
@@ChristopherSobieniak hardware limitations are the prime reason for this stuff, but they could have worked around the hardware limitations and made some more whimsical and creative environments within said limitations.
I did comment before, but it went missing...great vid as always tho
Its a very unusual style to have for an arcade game
I agree. Back then there were a few odd ones.
Good to know Mark. I think you'll like the list I made for you. 8^)
Anthony..
LOL the buff picture of Peter seems super out of place. I love the animation work on the arcade version though, Super expressive for an arcade game of its type.
C64 is closest to the arcade, but still, I can tell by watching that it's hella fiddly to control.
Considering it was a Atari Games release, I'm kinda surprised at the lack of Tengen NES version.
It's funny Tengen didn't try for that console, yet tried to for the PCE anyway.
That earraping whistle in Speccy conversion...
An absolute oddity.
I wonder why Atari never converted this to the likes of the 7800 and Lynx?
Scrapyard Dog seems very influenced by it in places.
one awesome arcade game and a few ports from questionable home computers 😝
Thanks for the the love Mark. Lol. One of the things I like about your videos is that you actually bother to show 2nd gen console games like the 2600, Colecovision,Intellivision,the Zed X etc. Not many people do that. You would know better than me but I wonder how many Japanese gamers are even aware that games were created in the west or about consoles before the Famicom. Watching Game Center CX you would think gaming didn't exist until the NES. Understandable but still. Even Sega was created by a Westerner. Interesting history at least.
Ah, stuff such as Game Center CX is aimed towards the causal / semi casual market in Japan. Yoh know, those who remember the Famicom. They tend not to nerd out on stuff different than that although Japanese gamers are aware. If you take a look at Japanese Wikipedia pages it often talks about western home micro ports.
@@RetroCore Cool. I knew that CX was like that since it's mainly a comedy show but it's nice to know that people haven't totally forgotten about how things got started. Thanks for the reply and info.
This is interesting. I thought my gaming knowledge was pretty extensive but I haven't heard of this one. Leave it to Mark to come up with the truly obscure titles. Good job. Gonna have a hard time trying this one out with my cousin Drew though. Lol.
..
*beefcake rat appears*
GAH, BURN IT WIRH FIRE!!
What about porting that game to a Windows machine something with SVGA or with a HDMI port.
The arcade version might be worth checking out, the ports not so much.
I'd agree with that.
For the second time out of 297, I don't know the game being played.
Let's hope I can make it 3 with next week's show 👍
Amstrad version is also fully monochrome? Never saw this before, the arcade version looks like something to check out :) great vid :)
There's actually a few monochrome CPC games but as you'd expect they're all speccy ports too.
what the heck is that ?!
you caught me by surprise uploading something that i have never seen in my life.
Luv this game!
When you show the C64 game it says Arcade in the top left corner.
He said this video has an error where the C64 and ZX Spectrum ports are labeled as arcade.
Hi Mark, are you still planning to do a Battle Of The Ports episode on the 1987 Jaleco arcade game Butasan (Known as Psycho Pigs U.X.B on the western home computer ports) in the near future please?
I am, yes. It is actually planned for a December show but since I've already filmed some of the footage I might bring it forward.
What a odd game, Arcade looks nice for it´s time, but never heard or seen any Iteration of that game.
You're not the only one. Until it was requested I'd never heard of it either.
@@RetroCore Glad I haven't lived under a rock and a nice surprise to discover something new. Once again thank you very much for this episode and the ongoing series.
Is the PC Engine ROM for this game available online somewhere I wonder? I have never bothered to look to see if it comes in the usual ROM packs.
I don't think so. I had a good look but could find a thing.
@@RetroCore Ah, shame. Looks like a fun lil game.
@@skins4thewin It's one of those odd things where it's written on a hard drive itself that is owned by the person who showed those clips on his YT channel, so I don't think it can be externally ported.
Having difficulty settings in an arcade game is unique?
Most games don't give the player a choice. Of course many Arcade games have difficulty settings but they're set via dip switches and not available to the gamer to chose.
@@RetroCore Yep, the use of dip switches was a secret only to those vendors/owners of the arcade boards! MAME of course brings that ability to us normally.
I see drop of water so I bet these Europe only Arcade game no wonder I never see this.
Hehe, good point but this was actually an American only game. I don't think the drops hurt you in this game.
@@RetroCore what oh well that mean this game more obscure than I thought, I even knew Mappy who also have same gameplay collect everything but I never see these arcade cabinet at all.
That surely wasnt an even battle
Maybe Battle for the worst?
An idea for the sub series !
There is some battle of the ports from bad games :-)
That buff mouse is going to haunt some dreams tonight, damn. That is some modern-day internet furry community fetish art right there, lol. Why did they do that? WHY!? I never heard of this game until now, but it's clear from the original arcade release that they were going for more of a classic Hannah-Barbera or Warner Bros. look a la Tom & Jerry or those Gophers from Looney Tunes. Whoever made the title screen for the home console ports was into some weird sh**, _Jesus._ :P
Shame the game never got a good port. Looks like a big leap up from Mappy, but still hanging out in that same kind of "Not quite a single-screen platformer, but definitely not a proper platformer yet"- genre. Since it was Atari, you'd figure they maybe would've brought the IP back for stuff like the Lynx or the Jaguar since those platforms were hurting for platformers. Missed opportunity. This looks like a really fun early 80's arcade title!
I'm surprised it never got an early Atari ST port.
@@RetroCore I was just sitting here thinking it reminded me a good bit of an ST game. Honestly, Gauntlet was made on the same hardware as this game, and the ST port ended up pretty good, so...
I do actually remember playing this a few times in the arcade. I can't remember now if I ever saw more than one machine. It was definitely uncommon, regardless.
Atari Games was a different company, with different owners.
Hey Mark,
I PM you on Atariage bro. I think you like these games. 8^)
Anthony..
I'll take a look when I get a moment. Thanks.
3:23 WHAT IS THAT?!
Something very dirty 😋
Retro Core EXCUSE ME???
Why do you never cover PC via Steam versions is it because of you not being a digital only person?
I don't care for PC gaming to be honest. I also dont use Steam.
@@RetroCore i also am the same thing consoles and handhelds all the way for me.
You're right Mark the game is absolute bullshit.
The home versions, yeah.
@@RetroCore The arcade original isn't BS to me! It looks good for '84.