While I was never hardcore about this game a former record holder named Joel West was kind enough to come to my house for my birthday years ago when he was nearby (we had been talking online as friends for quite a while at that point), hang out and show me some of his chops on this game. It was a very special moment for me. He has sadly since passed away and every time I see this game I think about him. Thanks for making this.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries He's been a few documentaries about classic arcade gaming. Chasing Ghosts is probably the most well known. He was a super nice guy.
I loved Battlestar Galactica when I was young, so I naturally loved this game when it came out - and it's still very playable today. Excellent video, thank you 👍👍👍
In Europe we got arcade games and movies later. There, some episodes of Battlestar Galactica were merged into a 90 minute movie. I remember seeing Berzerk in my small town in front of the ticket booth. So one day I bought a ticket for Battlestar Galactica in around 1980/1981 and played a game or two of Berzerk to kill the time the movie would start.
Brings back many memories from the 80s. I was hooked on this game. Just the sounds alone made you feel like you were really an intruder ! Miss those days dearly I’m 52 now and arcade 1up should look into being this back for old school gamers
I personally went through a dozen 5200 controllers and I think it was the worst controller made in video game history. Least for Reliability. It was the only main issue I had with the 5200. The start, pause and reset buttons also went bad. It was infuriating when it basically left the console unplayable. And as we all know after it was discontinued it was very difficult to even find a controller. I think a couple years later I gave up and then I found a guy who repaired them. But inevitably it was too much of a pain and I sold it. I remember berzerk vividly it played pretty well when the controller did work though and the voice I remember really stood out from the 2600 version.
None of us did either. I remember being shocked by the controllers playing pac man for the first time, seemed unplayable… but after 2 minutes we adjusted and… that was that. I’m easy on joysticks so I had no issues with durability either though a buddy of mine ripped up his rubber boot quickly.
@@GisherJohn24lol! Went through 12 of them did you? By the way Jesus sees the lies you write on here - even though the Bible tells us he looked NOTHING like your Kenny Loggins Jesus pic.
I vacationed in Flordia with my parents in 1992 and discovered a Berzerk cabinet in the video arcade on the first floor of the Holiday Villas III condo building we were staying in. The coin slot was a little loose and at one point I thought the machine had eaten my last quarter so I banged it with the palm of my hand to make sure the coin dropped. I was surprised to see I had an extra life and soon realised that you did not need to deposit quarters to play the game, just bang the coin slot and you'd get free plays. I did not get a tan during that vacation.
I liked this game and the sequel Frenzy, was a nice progression, w/ the ability to make your own exit, and levels like the machine that would churn out robots until you disabled it, pretty faithful version released on the Colecovision
Thanks. When I started this channel 3 1/2 years ago I wanted to cover games that a lot of modern gamers might not have seen or remembered. Since then I've covered a lot of well-known games but there are a ton of games that don't get the love that they deserve :-)
Clearly you have not seen the anime/manga series of Berserk because Evil Otto and Sinistar would look like Hello Kitty in comparison to the nightmare fuel in that franchise.
This was one of my favorite Atari games when I was a wee one. I was surprised to see this video cause I felt like no one knew this game! None of my friends of other family members had it.
I remember playing it on the 2600 when I was very young. The smiling Evil Otto always scared me because it was like death stalking you, but with a grin. It would be cool if someone were to make a version of the game that does have an ending. Perhaps multiple endings including one where you nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure after all.
Just One Nuke? How about several Nukes, and if that doesn't work than you go to Antimatter Bomb, and if that doesn't work, they have a backdoor program to create a Singularity.....just to make sure.
This was my favorite Atari game by far, my cousins and I would spend hours playing this game, for some reason the song funky town always reminds me of Berserk, there's a part that sounds like when the robots were shooting at you! Great childhood memories!!!
As a kid, this was my favorite Atari 2600 game. Also remember playing it at pizza arcades around Chicagoland. 2600 robot designs were great, they blow up into smiley faces, and even the score font and colors are still awesome. Great nostalgia, thanks.
Never played the arcade version but I loved the Atari port (that artwork for the game is just brilliant!) I would consider this game along with pitfall to be the major reasons I fell in love with video games in general
I remember having Berzerk on the 2600. I had a joystick that liked to randomly move down. Using that joystick, I would sometimes drop the gun in-game. No one ever believed me when I told them. You couldn't fire when you didn't have it, but you'd go through the motion. You could pick it up again by moving onto it. Anyway, great video!
@@TokyoXtreme It's like up and down at the same time and the fire button. I just had to look it up because I was starting to have doubts about it actually being real, or just some childhood fever dream.
Intruder Alert Humanoid Must Not Escape! Evil Otto says Welcome to 24 Thousand Levels! That is Evil or you might say Berzerk! The remake of Berzerk used a yellow happy face for Evil Otto which now makes sense after watching the history on the game! Just hearing the sounds makes me want to play this game I remember hearing it at the Arcades! Oh no, nothing was killed during the comments...CHICKEN Detected! Ha-Ha! Thanks again for a wonderful History Patman! The Humanoid known as Patman must not escape!
This was one of my absolute favorites for the Atari 2600. I did also play it in the arcade a few times, though strangely I have no memory of it having voice samples. Is it possible that some machines shipped without them as a cost cutting measure?
I thought I read somewhere that The arcade operator could turn the voice samples off with the dip switch settings but I could be mistaken. I don't think it would be a cost-cutting measure though because that really helped the arcade game stand out.
I still vividly remember hearing that gorgeous sounding robot voice from the other side of my local arcade for the first time. There’s still something special about hearing this,Sinistar and other’s. I can’t even imagine how many 10p’s I’ve put in them over the years. PatmanQC,again you’ve started the year with a bang. Love & respect as always to you and yours 🙌🙏❤️
One of my favorite games of all time right here! The first time I played it was around 1986 at a friend's house on her 2600, and a couple of years later in 1988, I finally saw an arcade cabinet at an amusement park. I'm pretty sure they had two cabinets there, and those were the only two cabinets I saw until 2015 when I made my first visit to the Galloping Ghost Arcade. I also saw and played Food Fight for the first time that night, and again never saw another cabinet until 2015. I'm so excited that Atari acquired Berzerk and Frenzy, along with the other Stern titles they got!
I loved this game when I was a little snot nosed 11 year old. Battlestar Galactica was one of my favorite shows as well. I absolutely loved the Cylons and their vocoded voices. That was one of the things that I dug about this game. Just when I thought I couldn't like you any more than I do, you show Mr. Haney! Now I really like you!
One of the tricks I'd like to do is line up the lasers perfectly so it goes right through my neck without killing me. Another trick would be to force the robots to walk into each other and kill each other without firing a shot.
It's a cool game, but the biggest legacy comes from the games that followed it, particularly the Jarvis games you mention, Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV. Jarvis' goal with Robotron was to create a better Berzerk where the player didn't have to shoot they way they were moving, which led to the dual stick shooter. As a young kid I had the impression Robotron: 2084 was a sequel to Berzerk. Robotron was a much more attractive game, and had the graphic style that VizKids Jarvis and DeMar used in Defender compared to Berzerk's rather basic presentation. WIthout the voice I think Berzerk would have been a much tougher sell even with the gameplay being solid. Along those lines, I wonder how Berzerk was inspired by Defender. Berzerk was supposedly released in November 1980. Defender was not released until sometime at the beginning of 1981. Defender was publicly shown at the AMOA show in late September 1980, though it wasn't a standout at that time sales-wise. Even if Defender didn't have financial hit yet, if could have been inspiring other games in progress. Did Stern change Berzerk after the AMOA show, or where they already aware of the Defender through the grapevine? Two months seems like it might be enough to make the change. On the other hand, given Defender's long development time, McNeil or other Stern people were in the same community as the Midway people and might be have been aware of Defender.
Before there was the hit "Berzerk", the song was originally called "With a Girl Like You" by Buckner & Garcia, but then the studio said they wanted the new album Pac-Man Fever to have all game related songs. So, they reused the music, and changed the words. The {band, not really a band} R. Cade and the Video Victims, later released the album "Get Victimized". It had sequel songs like "Ms. Pac-Man, and Frenzy, but had their own songs for "Donkey Kong", and Defender "Defender Contender", and mostly instruments song "Scramble", but seemed to be based on the music from the Kiss' song "I Was Made for Lovin’ You". Some of the songs weren't about games but the culture around them, so we got songs like "Change Attendant", it sadly didn't seem to sell very well.
I just wanted to say that this is a really fantastic video, and it was very well researched! Alan was actually my dad, and he passed away almost 5 years ago now. I really love seeing how many people in the comments have fond memories of Berzerk and Frenzy. I think the only detail worth adding is that my dat absolutely hated it when the company sold the IP to Atari, since he didn't get shit for it and the 2600 port was really bad in comparison to the arcade game. Ultimately I think that's what led to him not really developing any more games after Frenzy, which is a shame since he had a fantastic creative mind.
This game is a classic. I remember going to a country pub in England .. they had a games room. Berzerk was one of them, complete with the large joystick. The pub made back their money that day .. (amazing what you find over here ... I used to call Pac-man "Puckman" .. because an arcade in my own town apparently bought Japanese in 1980!)
No the berserkers series is about a "race" of von neuman machines (self replicating self improving AIs) that were originally made as self sustaining automated military hardware in an ancient war between two alien races but managed to outlive their creators and now consider all "non creator" life to be targets for destruction because that's how they were made. They don't "go berserk" they are doing exactly what they were designed to do. Most of these "robots" are actually just fully automated warships, not "robots" in the traditional sense, they are not humanoid just various AI operated war machines and manufacturing and mining facilities.
This looks like another crazy difficult title...LOL.. This channel has inspired me to take a look back at some of the titles your channel has covered. Since I have a Xbox One, I got the Midway Arcade classics and I have enjoyed it so far. Thanks for sharing with me a world of gaming that I missed. I was around during some of the days of the arcade but my town didn't have may machines. So, I am enjoying these new games I am experiencing thanks to the Midway Arcade classics.
Thank you very much for this video. I was a huge fan of this game which I used to play at an aunt's house on an Atari 2600 whenever I got the chance in the 80s. It really stood out for me amongst the other games. I loved the airbrushed artwork on the cartridge as well. I never knew that it was originally an arcade game. Besides the digitised voice effects and a few other subtle differences, I've noticed that the robots in the arcade version could also shoot diagonally which they couldn't do in the 2600 version; they could only fire horizontally and vertically. That would have made it even more intense!
It reminds me of the Horror Film "Chopping Mall", some machines with Artificial Intelligence to defend the Stores in a mall center that some people tried to have a slumber party, not realizing the teens worked there it attacked them after each brutal carnage loaded death the Machines would state: HAVE A NICE DAY. I don't ever remember playing Berzerk but it looks fun, since the opponents can also be killed by walls and there own rounds.
I seen that movie as a young child and it eluded me for decades till I figured out the name.... The Funny bot SP episode reminded me of it.... Also the Robo Sitter ATHF episode... Not a great movie, but one that was pretty scary for me then...
This is great, thanks for covering Berzerk and Frenzy, both great games, Frenzy with the evil Skeletons, Berzerk with the Bots. The Colecovision version of Frenzy was incredible and a favorite game growing up.
I'm rooting for Hamster to pick up the rights to release it as part of the Arcade Archives series, but in the meantime I'd say your best bet is to emulate it on MAME.
That 4-legged robot at the beginning was used in the Boba Fett show a few weeks ago. I remember having a love hate relationship with BERZERK at the local Gold Mine Arcade back in the day.
One of my favorites BITD. The Atari 2600 port was great too. Also proud that this game was conceived & developed in the Chicago area (where I grew up). I recently played a Berzerk arcade machine at Hershey Park and makes me want an arcade port for the Switch…
Thanks Pat. The Superman 3 clip left me scarred as a child. Nothing more terrifying than that woman screaming being turned into a robot. Nightmare fuel for years brother.
Also, am I the only one that was completely confused by that Atari box art? I didn't know what that thing was ... it's a robot shown from behind being shot. I always thought the robot's shoulder was some weird futuristic abstract depiction of Evil Otto with fire coming out of his mouth. I just realized yesterday the whole time it was a robot being blown apart! (I never owned the Atari version.)
Thanks for this video. Berzerk is my favorite arcade games. They had one in the lobby of the Walmart in my small town. Sometimes My mom would drop me off just to play a few rounds.
Back when number one arcade games were just about everywhere and number two your parents could drop you off in a store and not be worried about somebody snatching you up. I couldn't imagine doing that with my kids nowadays
EPIC classic arcade game! When I got a Super Retro-Cade the first ROM I loaded up was Berserk, 2nd ROM was Frenzy. Both get wicked hard real quick but they're a blast. Still love playing them more than 40 year's later.
Awesome video as always!!! I played this game as a little boy on my Atari 2600 and it's one of the best memories of my childhood. Nowadays I play the excellent NES homebrew version, which even includes the sequel Frenzy. It's a ROM recently programmed by the wizard Robert DeCrescenzo, who made it free to download. It looks just like the Berzerk/Frenzy arcade games and features the robotic voice. I like Weekly World News too - some of the articles crack me up to no end!
I loved this game on the Atari home system! I used to collect so many extra lives, that I could leave the game, go into the kitchen and make a sandwich, eat the sandwich, drink a coke, and then go back into the living room and I was still in the game.
My Dad actually used to own the arcade machine at his house! It was awesome playing that game everytime I spent time at his house without having to pay lol
Demo mode on the arcade machine showed that you could dodge a horizontal laser blast by letting it pass through the gap between the stick man's body and head!
If I remember correctly, Alan McNeil's name on the cabinet art is one of the first times designers were publically recognized for their work in Arcade games.
I honestly thought that this was a predecessor to Robotron which i found way more addictive and playable. Love the laid back content and the side by side platform comparisons. Great work!!!
There’s also Berzerk Redux cartridge for C64. It was limited edition. Amok was one of early Vic20 games I played and it’s now also converted for Philips Videopac.
This was my favourite game back in the days (got around 20,000). The emulators suck because when the frame starts you cannot see the robots like you could in the arcade version. In the arcade version I would use that second to plan my moves before they fire. In the MAME version the bots appear and start firing straight away.
There is also a homebrew port for the 7800. It's available from AtariAge and is on the same cartridge as Frenzy, also for the 7800. Both games include the robot voices from the Arcade,
I just loved this game and I would get so full of myself at times. I have it where the blasts would go between my neck and body. My friends would go: “you are so brave.”
One of my favorite games. I remember seeing it in the Harbor House Restaurant, Waterford, Michigan. The synthesized voice was awesome. Took me (as a kid) a bit to realize Evil Otto couldn't be killed.
I played the hell out of this game both in the arcade and on the Atari 2600 back in the day. The only negative thing I remember about it was that occasionally, when starting a level, especially in later levels, it would start you up in some REALLY unfair spawns where the robots would be standing right next to you and shoot you the moment they appeared. In those situations, there was just no way to move out of the way of the robot's laser blasts. The Atari 2600 REALLY suffered from this issue, probably because it had less potential mazes that it could do.
I remember playing this occasionally when I was a kid but I never really connected it with the Berserker series because I usually think of the Berserkers as spacecraft.
Nice video, I do miss the good old days of arcades. I had this game for my Atari 2600 along with many others. When I was a kid, I would line up a bunch of games for my 2600 and play them as if its one big game. I would play one game swap out the game and pretend that the next game was just the next level.
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My first memory of laughing was me and my friend Ian intentionally walking into the walls over and over. Don’t know why we laughed so hard for so long
LOL
Hope your friend didn't call you Evil Otto then. ;-)
That's funny, because when my friend Ian walked into the wall, it fried him as soon as he made contact
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentariesthinking of you today my guy....
All the way in the uk.
You are loved.
While I was never hardcore about this game a former record holder named Joel West was kind enough to come to my house for my birthday years ago when he was nearby (we had been talking online as friends for quite a while at that point), hang out and show me some of his chops on this game. It was a very special moment for me. He has sadly since passed away and every time I see this game I think about him. Thanks for making this.
That is very cool, he was the guy in the documentary?
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries He's been a few documentaries about classic arcade gaming. Chasing Ghosts is probably the most well known. He was a super nice guy.
@@80s_Gamr Very cool, thanks for sharing
Berserk on the 2600 was one of my earliest joys as a kid! Thank you so much for publishing this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I really enjoyed it; I'd always play the "children's mode" version and blaze through the game...
My son did an essay on the curse of evil otto when he was 10. He did his own research and actually liked doing it.
Very cool
I loved Battlestar Galactica when I was young, so I naturally loved this game when it came out - and it's still very playable today. Excellent video, thank you 👍👍👍
Same here! Thank you
In Europe we got arcade games and movies later. There, some episodes of Battlestar Galactica were merged into a 90 minute movie. I remember seeing Berzerk in my small town in front of the ticket booth. So one day I bought a ticket for Battlestar Galactica in around 1980/1981 and played a game or two of Berzerk to kill the time the movie would start.
Still fun to watch! 😊
Brings back many memories from the 80s. I was hooked on this game. Just the sounds alone made you feel like you were really an intruder ! Miss those days dearly I’m 52 now and arcade 1up should look into being this back for old school gamers
Oh, this one got many of the quarters back in the day and I was SO happy when the 2600 version was released! Another great video!
Just wanted to say your videos always make my day. I work with students with special needs and I look forward to sharing your work and life with them.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate that :-)
Finally, Patman! Berzerk is one of my all time favorite bowling alley games!!
It's a classic
One of my favorite games on the 5200. Underrated system that gets a bad rap for the controllers which I don't remember having a problem with as a kid.
I personally went through a dozen 5200 controllers and I think it was the worst controller made in video game history. Least for Reliability. It was the only main issue I had with the 5200. The start, pause and reset buttons also went bad. It was infuriating when it basically left the console unplayable. And as we all know after it was discontinued it was very difficult to even find a controller. I think a couple years later I gave up and then I found a guy who repaired them. But inevitably it was too much of a pain and I sold it. I remember berzerk vividly it played pretty well when the controller did work though and the voice I remember really stood out from the 2600 version.
None of us did either. I remember being shocked by the controllers playing pac man for the first time, seemed unplayable… but after 2 minutes we adjusted and… that was that. I’m easy on joysticks so I had no issues with durability either though a buddy of mine ripped up his rubber boot quickly.
@@GisherJohn24lol! Went through 12 of them did you? By the way Jesus sees the lies you write on here - even though the Bible tells us he looked NOTHING like your Kenny Loggins Jesus pic.
I vacationed in Flordia with my parents in 1992 and discovered a Berzerk cabinet in the video arcade on the first floor of the Holiday Villas III condo building we were staying in. The coin slot was a little loose and at one point I thought the machine had eaten my last quarter so I banged it with the palm of my hand to make sure the coin dropped. I was surprised to see I had an extra life and soon realised that you did not need to deposit quarters to play the game, just bang the coin slot and you'd get free plays. I did not get a tan during that vacation.
LOL, that is hilarious.
My favorite arcade of all time!
Great video!
Thanks for the visit
I liked this game and the sequel Frenzy, was a nice progression, w/ the ability to make your own exit, and levels like the machine that would churn out robots until you disabled it, pretty faithful version released on the Colecovision
I played the heck out of Frenzy on the Colecovision. It was the best port next to the arcade. I played it using my Super Action Joystick!
One reason I like this channel is occasionally I get introduced to a classic game I've never heard of. This is one of those times. Very interesting.
Thanks. When I started this channel 3 1/2 years ago I wanted to cover games that a lot of modern gamers might not have seen or remembered. Since then I've covered a lot of well-known games but there are a ton of games that don't get the love that they deserve :-)
The Robot-emulated voice saying "COME BACK AND FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT!" plus Evil Otto was nightmare fuel for me as a kid.
It was “Chicken, fight like a robot.” 🤣
Clearly you have not seen the anime/manga series of Berserk because Evil Otto and Sinistar would look like Hello Kitty in comparison to the nightmare fuel in that franchise.
When little, I thought it was "Chicken fight. Lightning robot!"
Kill the Chicken
This was one of my favorite Atari games when I was a wee one. I was surprised to see this video cause I felt like no one knew this game! None of my friends of other family members had it.
I remember playing it on the 2600 when I was very young. The smiling Evil Otto always scared me because it was like death stalking you, but with a grin. It would be cool if someone were to make a version of the game that does have an ending. Perhaps multiple endings including one where you nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure after all.
Just One Nuke?
How about several Nukes, and if that doesn't work than you go to Antimatter Bomb, and if that doesn't work, they have a backdoor program to create a Singularity.....just to make sure.
Another excellent, informative, entertaining and accurate video by your esteemed self. Infinite gratitude!😊🙏
Thank you kindly!
you're welcome. Please tell me the background music and artist you've used at the start of the video. Thanks
@@stevensgoodallsg Yes, it's actually royalty-free sci-fi music I found on RUclips
I can always trust you to turn my frown upside down! After a long day at work it's absolutely golden to see a new video is uploaded. Stay Awesome!
LOL, that is nice of you to say. Thanks
This was my favorite Atari game by far, my cousins and I would spend hours playing this game, for some reason the song funky town always reminds me of Berserk, there's a part that sounds like when the robots were shooting at you!
Great childhood memories!!!
Strange how a story about killer robots suddenly changed into a story about an angry guy chopping up monsters with a big ginsu knife.
It’s a slippery slope
This game is a classic that I need to go back to. I remember it in both the arcade as well as on my uncle's 2600. Such a good game.
As a kid, this was my favorite Atari 2600 game. Also remember playing it at pizza arcades around Chicagoland. 2600 robot designs were great, they blow up into smiley faces, and even the score font and colors are still awesome. Great nostalgia, thanks.
Never played the arcade version but I loved the Atari port (that artwork for the game is just brilliant!) I would consider this game along with pitfall to be the major reasons I fell in love with video games in general
I remember having Berzerk on the 2600. I had a joystick that liked to randomly move down. Using that joystick, I would sometimes drop the gun in-game. No one ever believed me when I told them. You couldn't fire when you didn't have it, but you'd go through the motion. You could pick it up again by moving onto it. Anyway, great video!
How exactly do you drop the gun? What joystick moment?
@@TokyoXtreme It's like up and down at the same time and the fire button. I just had to look it up because I was starting to have doubts about it actually being real, or just some childhood fever dream.
@@TheTaintSniffler I honestly didn’t believe you, but you are correct 😱 Apparently the robots can be killed if they walk into the gun.
I never knew this, thanks for the info
Yeah Berzerk was my jam back In the day at Pinellas Square Mall.
I always made a correlation between the robots being a lot like Cylons, now I know why! Great video, keep em coming.
I always thought they looked like the red robots from Black Hole
Thanks, will do!
@@curbydinobot8633 You are referring to Maximillian?
@@Outrider74 yes thats the one
Excellent video! Also LMAO at that Atari commercial. Gee whiz grandma!
Thanks. Atari made some wacky videogame commercials for the Atari 2600. Just look at the joust commercial :-)
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries or Pole Position.
Intruder Alert Humanoid Must Not Escape! Evil Otto says Welcome to 24 Thousand Levels! That is Evil or you might say Berzerk! The remake of Berzerk used a yellow happy face for Evil Otto which now makes sense after watching the history on the game! Just hearing the sounds makes me want to play this game I remember hearing it at the Arcades! Oh no, nothing was killed during the comments...CHICKEN Detected! Ha-Ha! Thanks again for a wonderful History Patman! The Humanoid known as Patman must not escape!
LOL thanks buddy
My grandma had this on the Atari. Whenever I went to visit, that's where you'd find me. Planted in front of the TV playing Berserk
This was one of my absolute favorites for the Atari 2600. I did also play it in the arcade a few times, though strangely I have no memory of it having voice samples. Is it possible that some machines shipped without them as a cost cutting measure?
I thought I read somewhere that The arcade operator could turn the voice samples off with the dip switch settings but I could be mistaken. I don't think it would be a cost-cutting measure though because that really helped the arcade game stand out.
Played this game at a convention with my dad 13 years ago. Really great game. Those voice sounds do add more to it and made it ahead of its time.
Yes it really did
I still vividly remember hearing that gorgeous sounding robot voice from the other side of my local arcade for the first time. There’s still something special about hearing this,Sinistar and other’s. I can’t even imagine how many 10p’s I’ve put in them over the years.
PatmanQC,again you’ve started the year with a bang. Love & respect as always to you and yours 🙌🙏❤️
Evil Otto scared my but the Wall Monsters in Venture terrified me as a kid! That deep Wooowooowooo noise bothers me today lol.
LOL, I hear you :-)
I’m rewatching his videos because I wanna raise his channel’s monetary value
One of my favorite games of all time right here! The first time I played it was around 1986 at a friend's house on her 2600, and a couple of years later in 1988, I finally saw an arcade cabinet at an amusement park. I'm pretty sure they had two cabinets there, and those were the only two cabinets I saw until 2015 when I made my first visit to the Galloping Ghost Arcade. I also saw and played Food Fight for the first time that night, and again never saw another cabinet until 2015. I'm so excited that Atari acquired Berzerk and Frenzy, along with the other Stern titles they got!
That footage at 0:22 of the guy trying to kick over the real robot was downright freaky.
I used to play this all the time on the 2600. Loved it
It was probably one of the best 2600 conversions back in the day
Use to sing along to Buckner & Garcia's Berserk song while playing Atari version.
I loved this game when I was a little snot nosed 11 year old. Battlestar Galactica was one of my favorite shows as well. I absolutely loved the Cylons and their vocoded voices. That was one of the things that I dug about this game. Just when I thought I couldn't like you any more than I do, you show Mr. Haney! Now I really like you!
One of the tricks I'd like to do is line up the lasers perfectly so it goes right through my neck without killing me. Another trick would be to force the robots to walk into each other and kill each other without firing a shot.
In the atari version, the player can position the laser to pass through the neck.
It's a cool game, but the biggest legacy comes from the games that followed it, particularly the Jarvis games you mention, Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV. Jarvis' goal with Robotron was to create a better Berzerk where the player didn't have to shoot they way they were moving, which led to the dual stick shooter.
As a young kid I had the impression Robotron: 2084 was a sequel to Berzerk. Robotron was a much more attractive game, and had the graphic style that VizKids Jarvis and DeMar used in Defender compared to Berzerk's rather basic presentation. WIthout the voice I think Berzerk would have been a much tougher sell even with the gameplay being solid.
Along those lines, I wonder how Berzerk was inspired by Defender. Berzerk was supposedly released in November 1980. Defender was not released until sometime at the beginning of 1981. Defender was publicly shown at the AMOA show in late September 1980, though it wasn't a standout at that time sales-wise.
Even if Defender didn't have financial hit yet, if could have been inspiring other games in progress. Did Stern change Berzerk after the AMOA show, or where they already aware of the Defender through the grapevine? Two months seems like it might be enough to make the change. On the other hand, given Defender's long development time, McNeil or other Stern people were in the same community as the Midway people and might be have been aware of Defender.
Before there was the hit "Berzerk", the song was originally called "With a Girl Like You" by Buckner & Garcia, but then the studio said they wanted the new album Pac-Man Fever to have all game related songs. So, they reused the music, and changed the words. The {band, not really a band} R. Cade and the Video Victims, later released the album "Get Victimized". It had sequel songs like "Ms. Pac-Man, and Frenzy, but had their own songs for "Donkey Kong", and Defender "Defender Contender", and mostly instruments song "Scramble", but seemed to be based on the music from the Kiss' song "I Was Made for Lovin’ You". Some of the songs weren't about games but the culture around them, so we got songs like "Change Attendant", it sadly didn't seem to sell very well.
I just wanted to say that this is a really fantastic video, and it was very well researched! Alan was actually my dad, and he passed away almost 5 years ago now. I really love seeing how many people in the comments have fond memories of Berzerk and Frenzy. I think the only detail worth adding is that my dat absolutely hated it when the company sold the IP to Atari, since he didn't get shit for it and the 2600 port was really bad in comparison to the arcade game. Ultimately I think that's what led to him not really developing any more games after Frenzy, which is a shame since he had a fantastic creative mind.
One of my favorite games of all time! The voice, the sounds, it just works.
Exactly, it's like the perfect package for a 1980s arcade game
still love the 2600 version after all these years
Yes it was good
I remember playing a game called "Chase" on my junior high's teletype. I had an inkling that a game like that was the inspiration for Berserk.
It sure does sound like this game
I can just hear Arnold say "Happy Little Games" in his Terminator voice.
This game is a classic.
I remember going to a country pub in England .. they had a games room. Berzerk was one of them, complete with the large joystick.
The pub made back their money that day ..
(amazing what you find over here ... I used to call Pac-man "Puckman" .. because an arcade in my own town apparently bought Japanese in 1980!)
i like 2600 the way the screen sets up with the walls collapsing instead of room moving sideways
Yep, this one of my first arcade joys. The sounds were so cool. I didn't know until this video that the robot explosions were smiley faces.
I'm glad my little video could help out :-)
No the berserkers series is about a "race" of von neuman machines (self replicating self improving AIs) that were originally made as self sustaining automated military hardware in an ancient war between two alien races but managed to outlive their creators and now consider all "non creator" life to be targets for destruction because that's how they were made. They don't "go berserk" they are doing exactly what they were designed to do. Most of these "robots" are actually just fully automated warships, not "robots" in the traditional sense, they are not humanoid just various AI operated war machines and manufacturing and mining facilities.
I like how Evil Otto appears for a spit second when you kill the robots if you look hard enough.
I remember the Atari 2600 port and how decent it was. They eventually modded it to include the voice clips.
Yes I talk about it in the video
I played this back on my fathers 2600 as a boy, it was my fav game on the system and a lot of fun for sure. Nice work.
There were clones, and for the MSX, there was Robot Wars, by Aacko Soft.
I had a clone of this for apple IIe
Oh man I never thought I'd get to see the LEGEND REB BROWN in a PatmanQC video, but there he is as Captain America!
I remember playing this on one of the earliest versions of the arcade cabinets with a black&white screen. All of the later versions had color screens.
This looks like another crazy difficult title...LOL..
This channel has inspired me to take a look back at some of the titles your channel has covered. Since I have a Xbox One, I got the Midway Arcade classics and I have enjoyed it so far.
Thanks for sharing with me a world of gaming that I missed. I was around during some of the days of the arcade but my town didn't have may machines. So, I am enjoying these new games I am experiencing thanks to the Midway Arcade classics.
Thank you very much for this video. I was a huge fan of this game which I used to play at an aunt's house on an Atari 2600 whenever I got the chance in the 80s. It really stood out for me amongst the other games. I loved the airbrushed artwork on the cartridge as well.
I never knew that it was originally an arcade game. Besides the digitised voice effects and a few other subtle differences, I've noticed that the robots in the arcade version could also shoot diagonally which they couldn't do in the 2600 version; they could only fire horizontally and vertically. That would have made it even more intense!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it
Love the KISS pinball machine remember playing one when I was young brilliant
So do I, fond memories of that
It reminds me of the Horror Film "Chopping Mall", some machines with Artificial Intelligence to defend the Stores in a mall center that some people tried to have a slumber party, not realizing the teens worked there it attacked them after each brutal carnage loaded death the Machines would state: HAVE A NICE DAY. I don't ever remember playing Berzerk but it looks fun, since the opponents can also be killed by walls and there own rounds.
I seen that movie as a young child and it eluded me for decades till I figured out the name....
The Funny bot SP episode reminded me of it....
Also the Robo Sitter ATHF episode...
Not a great movie, but one that was pretty scary for me then...
This is great, thanks for covering Berzerk and Frenzy, both great games, Frenzy with the evil Skeletons, Berzerk with the Bots. The Colecovision version of Frenzy was incredible and a favorite game growing up.
Is a shame there has not been ports of it during this millenium, I really want to play it.
I'm rooting for Hamster to pick up the rights to release it as part of the Arcade Archives series, but in the meantime I'd say your best bet is to emulate it on MAME.
Emulation is probably your only bet
I am working on a 3D version
That 4-legged robot at the beginning was used in the Boba Fett show a few weeks ago. I remember having a love hate relationship with BERZERK at the local Gold Mine Arcade back in the day.
“Have a Nice Day” and “Take Care” both mean the same thing, “Get Lost” 😆
LOL, no kidding :-)
One of my favorites BITD. The Atari 2600 port was great too. Also proud that this game was conceived & developed in the Chicago area (where I grew up). I recently played a Berzerk arcade machine at Hershey Park and makes me want an arcade port for the Switch…
Wow one of my childhood favorites
Thanks Pat. The Superman 3 clip left me scarred as a child. Nothing more terrifying than that woman screaming being turned into a robot. Nightmare fuel for years brother.
No kidding, can't believe they put that in there
Also, am I the only one that was completely confused by that Atari box art? I didn't know what that thing was ... it's a robot shown from behind being shot. I always thought the robot's shoulder was some weird futuristic abstract depiction of Evil Otto with fire coming out of his mouth. I just realized yesterday the whole time it was a robot being blown apart! (I never owned the Atari version.)
I was, too. I thought the robot was some kind of cybernetic insect (those circular things being the eyes).
Thanks for this video. Berzerk is my favorite arcade games. They had one in the lobby of the Walmart in my small town. Sometimes My mom would drop me off just to play a few rounds.
Back when number one arcade games were just about everywhere and number two your parents could drop you off in a store and not be worried about somebody snatching you up. I couldn't imagine doing that with my kids nowadays
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries totally agree
EPIC classic arcade game! When I got a Super Retro-Cade the first ROM I loaded up was Berserk, 2nd ROM was Frenzy. Both get wicked hard real quick but they're a blast. Still love playing them more than 40 year's later.
Yes, it's a timeless classic
I immediately think of the bizarre 2600 commercial with the old lady who's obsessed with Berzerk!
Awesome video as always!!! I played this game as a little boy on my Atari 2600 and it's one of the best memories of my childhood. Nowadays I play the excellent NES homebrew version, which even includes the sequel Frenzy. It's a ROM recently programmed by the wizard Robert DeCrescenzo, who made it free to download. It looks just like the Berzerk/Frenzy arcade games and features the robotic voice.
I like Weekly World News too - some of the articles crack me up to no end!
Thanks. That is made for the NES? I will have to check that out. Thank you
I loved this game on the Atari home system! I used to collect so many extra lives, that I could leave the game, go into the kitchen and make a sandwich, eat the sandwich, drink a coke, and then go back into the living room and I was still in the game.
LOL that's hilarious
Berzerk is so good I made a little Quixel Robot. (They were these rubbery plastic cubes that stuck to each other with water.)
My Dad actually used to own the arcade machine at his house! It was awesome playing that game everytime I spent time at his house without having to pay lol
That is fantastic, always wanted to own an actual arcade unit but never did
Demo mode on the arcade machine showed that you could dodge a horizontal laser blast by letting it pass through the gap between the stick man's body and head!
If I remember correctly, Alan McNeil's name on the cabinet art is one of the first times designers were publically recognized for their work in Arcade games.
That could be, good call
I honestly thought that this was a predecessor to Robotron which i found way more addictive and playable. Love the laid back content and the side by side platform comparisons. Great work!!!
Thank you so much
Another great video, I always love watching these great and informative videos on my favorite arcade games.
Thanks a lot
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries you're very welcome
Great game, we used to play the hell out of this on the 2600. Still to this day have not been able to complete the 'neck through' shot move.
right, it becomes a required skill in the later levels when you zone in completely surrounded
It takes plenty of practice that's for sure
There’s also Berzerk Redux cartridge for C64. It was limited edition. Amok was one of early Vic20 games I played and it’s now also converted for Philips Videopac.
Oh man did I love this game as a kid! I recently discovered the sequel and pay both of them at least once a month. Even the 2600 version was great!
Here after watching Berzerk Recharged let’s plays
Fantastic
Still keeping up prayers for you and your family pat! Looking forward to your triumphant return to the youtube
This was my favourite game back in the days (got around 20,000).
The emulators suck because when the frame starts you cannot see the robots like you could in the arcade version. In the arcade version I would use that second to plan my moves before they fire. In the MAME version the bots appear and start firing straight away.
There is also a homebrew port for the 7800. It's available from AtariAge and is on the same cartridge as Frenzy, also for the 7800. Both games include the robot voices from the Arcade,
Excellent, thanks for the info
I just loved this game and I would get so full of myself at times. I have it where the blasts would go between my neck and body. My friends would go: “you are so brave.”
I played in that Friar Tuck arcade in Cal City near River Oaks Mall...... great video.
One of my favorite games. I remember seeing it in the Harbor House Restaurant, Waterford, Michigan. The synthesized voice was awesome. Took me (as a kid) a bit to realize Evil Otto couldn't be killed.
You can kill Evil Otto in Frenzy, but you had to shoot him several times.
I played the hell out of this game both in the arcade and on the Atari 2600 back in the day. The only negative thing I remember about it was that occasionally, when starting a level, especially in later levels, it would start you up in some REALLY unfair spawns where the robots would be standing right next to you and shoot you the moment they appeared. In those situations, there was just no way to move out of the way of the robot's laser blasts. The Atari 2600 REALLY suffered from this issue, probably because it had less potential mazes that it could do.
Samples of 'Humanoid' and 'Intruder Alert' was also used in the classic acid house tune Humanoid by Stakker
Excellent
I remember playing this occasionally when I was a kid but I never really connected it with the Berserker series because I usually think of the Berserkers as spacecraft.
When I was a kid, had no clue this was an arcade game, but I loved our Atari 2600 version
Nice video, I do miss the good old days of arcades. I had this game for my Atari 2600 along with many others. When I was a kid, I would line up a bunch of games for my 2600 and play them as if its one big game. I would play one game swap out the game and pretend that the next game was just the next level.
Excellent, I never thought to do that. Thanks
The Intellivision home video console version of this game was Night Stalker, which had robots with different powers and spiders and bats.
Old ladies saying " Take that Turkey" or " Watch it buster" was classic 80s comedy.
LOL I remember
I spent hours upon hours playing Berzerk on my Atari 2600 as the rumor on the playground was that you could, in fact, beat the game.