Robocop (Arcade Version) - Review

It's RoboCop. The game of a movie also called RoboCop.

Game: RoboCop
Format: Arcade
Developer/Publisher: Data East
Year Released: 1988
Also released on: Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Apple II, DOS, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Gameboy, TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer, ZX Spectrum 

RoboCop fires fried chickens at some bloke in a window.

I've never watched any of the RoboCop films. I'm not sure why. I'm sure they're great films, but they're not something I've ever felt like making the effort to view. Maybe if I was flicking through the channels looking for something to watch and one of them happened to be on, I'd give it a go. But it's not something that has happened yet - perhaps it will one day. I get the general idea that the films feature a robot who also happens to be a cop, or a cop that is actually a robot. And I guess the robot copper goes around doing his policeman duties to uphold the law and protect civilians, such things like arresting criminals, catching roadhogs, giving directions to folk who happen to be lost, taking statements and doing paperwork.

The video shop here has a rather extreme way of getting back unreturned VHS rentals

Oooof! Right in the conkers!

When RoboCop was first released, I would have been nine or ten. Too young to legally watch the film, although as it was the first film to be scrambled on Sky Movies, and as we had Sky but didn't initially subscribe to Sky Movies, I was fascinated to see how the film would appear scrambled. So I watched the first few minutes of a scrambled RoboCop, until I realised that I was being a bit weird. Back then, RoboCop was cool. Kids at school had RoboCop flasks and sandwich boxes. I had a Mr T flask and a Garfield sandwich box. They wore T-shirts featuring RoboCop and spoke his famous sayings, saying things like "You're move, creep," and, um, that's it. They also said things like "Hasta la vista, baby!" but that wasn't from RoboCop so it's kind of irrelevant. I suppose what I'm trying to get across is that, once upon a time, RoboCop was a hugely influential franchise, and even those who couldn't or didn't see the film, were aware of its presence. So when I came upon the RoboCop arcade machine in some place, I had to have a go of it. Oh yes, even I knew that RoboCop was cool. And I'd be cool too if I pretended to be RoboCop for a moment or two, policing the streets of Detroit and doing whatever it is that a RoboCop does.

A damsel in distress calls for help. Meanwhile man in a window is keeping watch.

Not enough space in the van? Just ride on its roof.

One thing I remember about playing RoboCop as a kid was that it I didn't last very long. I enjoyed it, but my 10p go was over within a short space of time. I'd sometimes splash out and slip another 10p coin into the machine to get a little further, but I think I realised that I was never really going to get very far into the game without needing a lot more money. But, in these modern days of freeloading and playing what you want as much as you want, I decided to revisit RoboCop. Armed with a virtual pile of 10p coins, ready to be inserted whenever I died, I powered up RoboCop, the arcade game, and readied myself for some cyborg crime fighting fun.

Rather than using the crusher thing to crush cars, this junk yard gets people to jump on them. It's slower but much cheaper.

Throwing a balloon at the Hulk.

RoboCop is a side-scrolling run and gun game with beat em up elements. According to Wikipedia, the computer game rights to RoboCop were held by Ocean, so Data East had to license the game from Ocean to produce the arcade game. This meant that an arcade game publisher had to acquire rights from a computer game publisher to make the game. Usually it was the other way round. Oooooh!

The action in RoboCop takes place over seven levels, interspersed with a couple of bonus levels. The game remains pretty much the same throughout. RoboCop wanders through the levels shooting just about anybody who gets in his way, bar a few hostages who he can free by shooting their captors. He can fire in eight directions: up, down, left, right and diagonally. When up close with an enemy, he can give them a smack with his metal-clad arm. RoboCop's standard gun has unlimited ammo, but he can pick up collectables to enhance his weapon. These do things like fire laser-like bullets, multi-directional ammo and the usual kind of stuff. However, these usually come with limited ammunition. There's always a downside to your fun, isn't there? RoboCop can also pick up other guns with more explosive and devastating firepower. Enemies fire at you from all directions and different enemies have different attacks. You'll get used to the attacks quickly, but things also become relentless quite quickly with numerous enemies positioning themselves everywhere. They aren't difficult to defeat, but it's clearing them all off the screen that's the issue. Even so, with a bit of skilful firing, ducking and diving, you can put paid to their hostilities in quite a satisfying way. A boss battle awaits you at the end of each level. Again, once you've learned the patterns and their weak points, defeating most of them isn't difficult, although some of the later ones really do hammer your power bar. During the boss battles, you can also see your enemy's power bar, so you know how close your are to defeating it. This is the earliest game that I have seen this feature in. Or maybe Castlevania was earlier?

My, what a big ball you have.

A bonus level features twice in the game. This is a chance to earn some extra points, get some target practice and increase your power capacity. The bonus level takes the form of a shooting gallery with you simply having to fire a targets within a set time limit. It's nothing too challenging, or that exciting to be honest.

Target practice. Not a lot else to say really.

Man in the window has got his pals to help out.

Most of the early levels scroll left to right, with the last couple of levels going upwards as you make use of lifts to get higher in a building. These are probably the game's worst levels. After a fast-paced action-packed build up, the final two levels are a bit of a letdown. You clear a floor of enemies and what appear to be armed security cameras. Then you take a lift to the next floor up to repeat the process. And you do this over and over again. Ignoring the tedium of the last couple of levels and their never-ending lifts, the game is pure and simple arcade gaming with little to divert your attention from just getting on with firing in all directions and ridding the levels of enemies.

There appears to be some kind of weird orgy happening on floor 4F. Better stay where you are Robocop.

That's one big tin opener. 

Presentation and graphics are great. Each level captures its scene well, and quick intermissions tell the story. Characters are all well animated and are also quite big and bold. There is a bit of slowdown when the action gets too intense, but this is quite rare. Although dark and moody, the graphics also have a fair amount of colour in them to give vibrancy to each of the levels. The soundtrack is also fantastic, with music and sound effects that really suit the style of game. There is also a good amount of sampled speech in the game, with RoboCop saying his famous sayings and generally being quite a chatty robot cop thing. Oh yes, this is a game that showcased some of what the technology at the time could do. It was nothing extra spectacular, but was very good.

CCTV is a bit over the top here. But that little city model looks cute though.

Reminds me of a meeting room at work. Without the deadly
robot though. And less of a view.

RoboCop plays well. Controls are simple and responsive, with shooting, jumping and firing working as it needs to. Being made of metal, RoboCop isn't able to jump that high and isn't the quickest of movers, which can get a bit frustrating when you want him to get out of the way enemy fire. A slight frustration is that the direction he's aiming in sticks sometimes, so you have to re-aim to hit your required target. Another problem with the game is that, especially later on, you can lose your life within seconds of continuing. Although this was obviously so people getting towards the end of the game would spend more money and continue, it does sometimes feel a bit unfair. It's as if you're not given the chance to use skill to battle yourself out of a situation, instead you're paying your way out of it. Keep hitting continue and you'll slowly but surely get through. That said, the game isn't impossible and you can get quite far on one life if you try, something I just couldn't do when I was younger. RoboCop is definitely a quality arcade game, better at the beginning than towards the end. It's completely mindless and lacking in depth, but it offers a good fix of running and gunning action if that's your thing.

It's all over and the end. Boohoo!

RATINGS

Presentation: 81%
The opening parts feel suitably cinematic and set the scene well. There are screens that tell the story but blink and you'll miss them.
Graphics: 85%
Detailed, crisp and well animated graphics. The last few levels are a bit of a let down though.
Sound: 85%
Great. The game features a great soundtrack and high quality sound effects. 
Playability: 77%
Instantly playable but RoboCop does feature some frustrating elements which prevent it from being amazing. The last few levels are tedious and ruin a good build up. 
Overall: 78%
A solid arcade game, and a good movie tie-in. Not perfect, and it's not something that you'd regularly return to, but it's fun when you do.

Great Sports on the Sega Master System

Fairly early on in the life of the Sega Master System, Sega released a series of sports simulations to entertain armchair atheletes. In the order of the alphabet they were Great Baseball, Great Basketball, Great Football, Great Golf, Great Ice Hockey, Great Soccer and Great Volleyball. Of course, claiming that anything's great usually means that it isn't, with the obvious exception of Great Britain, which is great. And possibly Great Yarmouth. As for Sega's "Great" sports games, it would have been much more truthful to call them Not-so-great Baseball, Bloody Awful Basketball, Absolutely Shite Football, Below Par Golf (see what I did there!?), Pucking Unplayable Ice Hockey, Crap Soccer and Terrible Volleyball. But doing so might have hampered sales somewhat. Even so, Sega did sometimes mix up the names a bit. Some games were apparently "Great" in one country but not in another, or games went under the same title in different countries, but were actually different games. Join us as we look back at this not-very-famous series of games to remind ourselves of why some games are sometimes best left in the past, and also attempt to make some sense of their names.

Penalty! Referee! Oh, wrong sport.

Great Baseball
To be fair, Sega's version of America's favourite bat and ball game wasn't that bad. It's certainly not great by any stretch of the imagination, but is at least moderately fun for a short while. Getting into a game is nice and quick, perhaps a little too quick as before you know it, somebody is throwing a ball at you at 100 miles an hour. There's no need to faff around with options and team selections, parameters, preferences and all manner of crap like many sports games of today require you to do. You simply choose a team from the A or the N league, whatever they are, pick a pitcher and away you go. As per the rules of baseball, you take it in turns to bat and pitch. Three strikes and you're out. Oh! So that's where the saying comes from! Well I never. The view when pitching and batting is from behind the pitcher, and looks quite impressive too. When the ball has been batted into whichever random direction it wants to go, the view switches to an overhead one, allowing you to see the playing field, and the little players running around the bases. There are actually two modes of play, one which allows you to control the fielders, and one which doesn't. Things get a bit fiddly when trying to control the fielders, so it's best to let the computer do that so you can concentrate on throwing the ball back to the bases, and to each other, and back again. The game is peppered with little samples of speech, some of which sounds like it is actually based on real words. The crowd noise sounds like a jet engine taking off though. Little tuneful ditties break up the action, and give a jolly feel to the game. The graphics are also quite good. I'm not sure if pushing the d-pad in any direction when pitching or batting actually has any effect on the ball, but pressing it anyway makes you feel like you're contributing some skill to the game.

This version of Great Baseball was released in Europe and the USA. An earlier game also called Great Baseball was released in Japan. It was a bit slower-paced and didn't utilise the behind the pitcher viewpoint, but it was fairly similar otherwise. Japan also receive a modified and much improved version of the European/US Great Baseball, which was known as The Pro Yakyuu: Pennant Race.

Rounder! Rounder! Rounder! Rounder!

Exciting!

Great Basketball
So, we've had rounders. Now netball. As with most of the "Great" games, there is minimal setup required to get you started with a game. In Great Basketball, options are pretty much limited to choosing whether you are playing by yourself or with a chum, and then choosing a country or countries to represent. A nice little national anthem plays for each nation you pick. Gameplay is arcade-style in, er, style. It's fairly easy to score points, and the game is quite fast-paced, but it's just lacking in variety and any sense of excitement. The ball feels a bit floaty and there is no real skill involved in throwing the ball. It's also too easy to foul other players. Sometimes you can manage it without even pressing a button. A tune plays throughout the game which isn't actually that annoying, although it sounds like the snippets of speech have been sampled from some extra-terrestrial species. They definitely don't represent anything heard on this planet. Graphics are colourful although it's often difficult to make out who's who. Again, like Great Baseball, Basketball is fairly fun to play for a short while, and is quite enjoyable with two players, but not necessarily because it's a good game. It's one of those so bad it's good kind of games.

There were no weird naming shenanigans going on here. Great Basketball was Great Basketball everywhere, apart from Brazil where it was Great Basket.

The USA are beating URS. URS? Ursula? Oh! USSR.

Hut hut! Twenty-eight! Fifty-six! Time out!

Great Football
This is Sega's attempt to bring American Football to owners of their 8-Bit box of tricks. They really shouldn't have bothered. It's terrible. There's a choice of what are probably made-up teams from the good old A and N leagues again, and that's about it. In one player mode, you only appear to be able to play in offence, and picking your tactics is a case of waiting for the formation selection screen to scroll through each formation, stopping it when it highlights the one you want. That's if you can figure out how to stop it. I can't, so I just have to wait until it gets to the last one. Surely it wouldn't have been difficult to program some sort screen with manually selectable menus. Gameplay itself is limited to either running with the ball, or throwing it to somebody else and letting them run with it. Okay, that's pretty much what American Football is, but in reality the sport is usually much more interesting than it sounds. The problem is, this version of American Football just isn't much fun to play at all. The sport itself is very much stop-start, but there's too much stopping and not enough doing anything in this game. Oh well.

The same version of Great Football under the same name was released worldwide. Poor world.

Looks like a load of firemen in a field of sheep.

Fore!

Great Golf
Probably the best of the Great series of games, which isn't really saying much. Great Golf is a fun, if simplistic, round of the Royal and Ancient game. It features two modes of play, Stroke Play and Match Play. Stroke Play is your typical get-around-the-course-in-as-few-shots-as-possible mode, whereas Match Play, which requires a minimum of two players, sees the winner declared based on who wins most holes. There's also a club selection screen. Graphics and sounds are average, with the viewpoint from behind the player taking a short while to display, and sound featuring a few effects, short tunes and the odd bits of sampled speech. Gameplay itself allows you to check the wind direction and speed, set your club, stance, direction and power. That's about it. The ball appears a bit floaty, and if you're playing solo, things get dull quite quickly. Incidentally, this was the very first Master System game I ever owned other than the built in Hang On and Safari Hunt, and I have fond memories of playing this with family and friends. Great days.

This version of Great Golf is the version released in Europe and the USA. An earlier game with the same title was released in Japan, but failed to make it out of Rising Sun land. It was an isometric version of the sport. The European/US version of Great Golf was released in Japan as Masters Golf.

Enough of this shit. Get me to the nineteenth hole.

No it isn't.

Great Ice Hockey
There's not a lot I can say about this. It's only compatible with Sega's crappy trackball controller, the Sega Sports Pad. If you don't have one, and probably 99% of Master System owners didn't, then this game was useless. Apparently it's not much better even with the correct accessory. Things don't sound or look that bad, although you can't really go wrong if your task is to draw ice. But how it actually plays is anyone's guess although I'll bet our cat on it that it doesn't play well. It mystifies me why somebody didn't think to make the game work with the Master System's standard controllers, you know, the ones that came free with every console, therefore the ones that everybody owned. Bizarre.

Fortunately, Europe were spared of the horrors of Great Ice Hockey as it failed to get released there. It did get a release in Japan and the USA.

Where the puck's the puck? Oh, who cares. I can't even play this game.

Lots of effort went into designing this title screen

Great Soccer
Sega managed to turn the Beautiful Game into something quite horrible here. You control your players up and down a pitch and attempt to tap the ball into a goal using a terrible aiming system. Your players move slowly and are unresponsive, and they don't seem able to keep control of the ball. As accurately as this reflects England's 2014 World Cup team, it just isn't much fun at all. Like all of the Great games, getting into the game is quick and easy. But having simple and accessible menu screens does little to redeem things. Graphics are depressing, the sound will offend your ears and you'll be turning this game off within minutes of turning it on. Do I not like that.

Again, there were two versions of Great Soccer. This time around, Japan and Europe received the vertically scrolling Great Soccer game mentioned above. The USA's version of Great Soccer was equally as bad, but scrolled horizontally. It was released in Japan and Europe as World Soccer, and released again in Japan as Sports Pad Soccer, compatible with the Sega Sports Pad.

He shoots! He scores! He wants to play something else!

Nice colour scheme here

Great Volleyball
I really wish I hadn't chosen to try to play through these games. The best of the bunch probably was Great Ice Hockey, but that's only because I couldn't get it to work so didn't have to play it. Fortunately, we've reached the final game, Great Volleyball. Unfortunately, it's just as unplayable as the rest. Things sounds ok and look nice and cartoony, but it's hard to control what's happening. I'm never really sure what player I'm controlling, and he just seems to do what he wants, rather than what I want him to do. You have a team of six players, but sometime you are controlling three of them, sometimes one. And the rest of the team that you're not controlling doesn't appear to want to help out. It's confusing and, once again, not fun. The worst thing is that these games would have originally retailed for about £20 each. Maybe more. The complete set would have set you back £140. That depresses me.

Great Volleyball was the same game in all markets. It was crap everywhere.

Spot the ball

It's not great. It's super.

Anyone for Tennis?
This series of games seemed to represent a number of major sports, but Sega don't appear to have served up anything for tennis fans. Or did they? Well, yes, there was apparently a game called Great Tennis. However, this was only in Japan. Great Tennis did make it abroad though. It was released in countries elsewhere on the planet as Super Tennis. Just the same as how the Great games weren't great, sticking Super at the front of something doesn't make it Super. Except for Super Gran  Unsurprisingly, Super Tennis was a simplistic version of tennis. It's a bit fiddly to control, and the ball seems to be quite floaty, but it's not too bad.

You cannot be serious! We've got another 14 years to go until Virtua Tennis comes out?

A quick update, new YouTube vids!

For those who don't know, Classic Gaming UK have a YouTube channel where I attempt to demonstrate my gaming prowess on games of old. Our channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/classicgaminguk or by searching for classicgaminguk on YouTube.

Most of the videos are playthroughs of games, although there are some other old things that may be of interest to people into, er, old things. So far it's limited to old TV adverts, continuity and the like. I have been quite quiet on YouTube recently though. Partly because the redesign and integration with Google+ confused me, and partly because my upgrade to Windows 8 and then Windows 8.1 seemed to bugger up all of the stuff I had set up on my computer for creating videos. They'd either be choppy, blocky, jerky, or just not working at all. I've also recently changed to a new, more powerful, computer, and after a bit of work and effort, seem to be able to make videos again. So, I've decided that a way to bulk up the catalogue of videos in my channel but not to have to spend forever making them, and to also get to play a variety of games too, is too feature videos featuring just the first levels of games. This will give a taste of what the games have to offer, and may even lead to me discovering some hidden gems that I'd like to go further with - maybe even to attempt to complete and feature a full preview. First up is level one of R-Type, a game I recently reviewed. http://classicgaminguk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/r-type-zx-spectrum.html. The review was of the Spectrum video, but the video is from the arcade game. Recording Speccy games is still not working quite right for me!

Burnin' Rubber - Amstrad GX4000

You're fired!

Game: Burnin' Rubber
Format: Amstrad GX4000
Developer/Publisher: Ocean
Year Released: 1988
Also released on: Amstrad 464 Plus, Amstrad 6128 Plus
Available now on: Internet Archive





The Amstrad GX4000 is remembered for two reasons. One, it was a complete flop and two, it had Burnin' Rubber on it. Burnin' Rubber was the GX4000's most popular game, mostly because it was the game bundled with each console. Yep, all 300 of the console's owners were able to enjoy the delights of Burnin' Rubber, an arcade-style racing game designed to showcase some of the abilities of the GX4000.

Oooh, I can feel the excitement building up just sitting here staring at this screenshot.

Smile! There are plenty of other quality games available
for this console. Oh, wait. There aren't. 

For those who don't know, or those who want reminding, the GX4000 was Amstrad's attempt to enter the console market, and the only British console in video game history. An 8-Bit console released in 1990, it was clearly designed to compete with the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System. However, its launch was around the same time as the European launch of the Mega Drive and the Super Famicom's Japanese launch, so it was sharing shelf space, and competing for interest,  with much superior consoles. Added to that was the fact that many of its games were rereleases of earlier Amstrad CPC games that were available on tape at a fraction of the price of the GX4000 cartridge version. Even games programmed specifically for the GX4000 weren't up to much, and most felt a bit like computer games rather than console games. Unsurprisingly, the console didn't generate much interest, its price was slashed weeks after launch before the machine was pulled completely after only a few months. Hopefully Sir Lord Alan Sugar did a few firings after such a disaster.

There's some weird voodoo magic thing going on with my car here..

Signs for Ocean and a tunnel. Who knows what continent
lies at the other side?

Even so, the GX4000 is remembered with a certain amount of fondness in some quarters and has achieved something of a cult status. Burnin' Rubber is often regarded as one of its better games. This is probably due to the fact that there was crap all else available for the console. But even on its own merits, just as a video game, it's meant to be quite good. So, shall we take it for a spin? Eh? Anybody there? Oh right, I'm typing this, not talking to anybody. I'll imagine somebody has said yes then and boldly go onto another paragraph.

So, the idea of Burnin' Rubber is simply to drive a car. Begin with a qualifying lap, and then go onto burning dust and eating rubber for real. On starting up the game, the game's title blazes its way onto the screen over a animated tyre-like pattern. The first thing you need to do is change the controller layout. By default, the game is set so that pushing up on the d-pad accelerates, down brakes and the two control pad buttons control the gears up or down if you're playing in manual. The game is much easier if you set the buttons to accelerate and brake and use up and down to control gears. Or ignore the gears and stay in automatic, which is what I do.

Even before the days of Instagram, games like these featured filter effects that make it look like it was made in the 1970s.

Woohoo! 7th!

As already mentioned, you need to complete a quick lap to qualify for the main race. The qualification race is a good way of getting used to the game, but when you've done it once, it seems a bit pointless. Regardless of your qualifying position, it doesn't take long in the main race to get past the cars in the other qualifying positions. Initially your car feels a bit sluggish to control. It doesn't appear to move instantly to your commands. I guess power-steering was still a luxury optional add-on in 1990. Building up speed is also a bit laboured, and using your brakes or going around tight corners results in you losing the speed you've built up and having to get up to speed again to make the most of the straights. But after a while, controlling the car does become quite natural, even quite realistic, albeit sometimes frustrating. If you're not going too fast, colliding with a car just results in you being nudged to the side slightly. But hit one at speed or any of the objects inconsiderately placed at the side of the road will result in you spectacularly flipping over and flying through the air before magically landing in the exact position you need to be in to continue your race. Rather handily, you car doesn't come to a complete stop when either kind of collision happens, meaning you don't have the issue of having to start up again from being parked. It's the little things like this that make a difference to the game, the sort of things that frustrate you in other racing games.

A bit of a grey moment here. Nice tree though.

Other vehicles can be a bit of a nuisance. Some will just decide to make a random movement across the road purely to get in your way whereas others seem to have a habit of breaking down in tunnels, so it's important to try to avoid them.

Graphically, the game is quite good. The GX4000 was able to display quite a number of colours on screen and had a large pallet to choose from so Burnin' Rubber, being a launch title, shows some of this off. The game is supposedly set over 24 hours and as you progress, day turns to night, night becomes day again and the colour scheme changes to reflect this. It does give the feeling that you're progressing nicely through the race as you pass through each part of the day. Cars, backgrounds, roadside objects are all nicely drawn and the scaling of sprites and items works well. The game isn't the fastest out there, but you do definitely feel a sense of speed when you do have the opportunities to put your foot down. All of the on-screen information you need is nicely laid out and everything feels polished and well-presented.

Oh, what a feeling! When we're dancing on the ceiling 

Is that Cameron and Clegg? Or the Pet Shop Boys. Perhaps
they're the same thing.

Sound however is another matter. The intro music and menu screen music is great, but in game effects are horrible. Your car's engine makes quite a nasty noise, which continues throughout the game. There are some effects from when you overtake or get overtaken, but you really need to keep the sound down if you have any respect for your ears. That said, there is a certain "depth" to the sound - things just don't sound as tinny and high-pitched as other 8-Bit games.

Close, but not close enough. Not close at all actually.

Burnin' Rubber is not a bad game at all, and is quite a good launch game. It has some faults but is definitely one of the better 8-Bit racing games. I was initially put off by the game's sluggish controls and lack of oomph, but felt myself getting drawn into it as I continued to play it. I'm not sure it would really have much longevity, but it's a game I'd be happy to come back to for another go from time to time. It's just a shame that factors at the time meant that the GX4000 was doomed from the start as it had the potential to be quite a good machine.

RATINGS

Presentation: 79%
Well presented throughout. Large text fills the screen when needed, the title screen is basic but does the trick, and the menu system is simple and effective. Nothing special but very professional.
Graphics: 83%
A good use of the GX4000's pallet with changing colour schemes, detailed sprites and good crash effects, as well as nice smoke effects. 
Sound: 50%
Good music, sadly lacking in game, replaced instead by horrible engine noise.
Playability: 78%
Ironically given it's name, Burnin' Rubber is a bit of a slow burner. It doesn't instantly appeal but grows on you if you stick with it and turns out to be rather fun.
Overall: 79%
A good example of what the GX4000 could potentially do. Sadly tarnished by the console's reputation but a decent game overall. 

Begone! And don't forget to look for your missing apostrophe!

R-Type - ZX Spectrum

Game: R-Type
Format: ZX Spectrum
Developer/Publisher: Electric Dreams/Activision
Year Released: 1988
Also released on: Arcade, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, PC Engine/TurboGrafx, Sega Master System, Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Sharp X68000, Sony PlayStation, XBox 360, mobile phones, iOS, Android

R-Type is one of the iconic arcade games of the 1980s. Tough as boots, hard as nails, solid as a rock, you only stood a chance of completing it if you had the eyesight of a hawk and the reflexes of a cat. Or if you happened to be a hawk or a cat with a penchant for playing arcade shooters. As was the tradition back then, successful games tended to find their way out of the arcades and into the homes of computer and console gamers the planet over. R-Type was no exception and was ported to a multitude of machines. Rather remarkably, each conversion was actually rather good. The PC Engine/TurboGrafx game is generally considered to be the best of the bunch, and one of the best games on the system itself, while a splendid version for the Sega Master System was also highly regarded. But it's the ZX Spectrum port which is probably most deserving of praise. As well as being a bloody good version of the game, its existence is something of a technical marvel, pushing Mr Sinclair's baby to its limits and getting it to do things that he probably never thought possible.

The objective of all versions of R-Type is outlined in two lines of text: "Blast off and strike the evil Bydo Empire." No detail is given about what the Bydo Empire is and what it does that makes it so evil. But, striking it involves pitting yourself against a plethora of angry and aggressive alien types over a series of levels. The fact that the Bydo Empire appears to have such an antagonistic arsenal seems to confirm that it is most definitely up to no good, so must be evil.

You take on your enemies in your piddly little spaceship. Well, it looks piddly when compared with the enemies you come up against, especially some of the end of level bosses. But, as with any video game spaceship, it's possible to collect upgrades on your travels to greatly enhance your firepower, turning it into some space-based super destructive light and laser show. You can also power up your beam by holding down the fire button. Letting go of it unleashes a mega blast. A unique feature in R-Type is a collectible pod-like thing. This can be attached to the front or back of your spaceship, offering a smidgen of protection from enemy fire. Or it can be detached and sent off to destroy some of the hostiles that you can't be bothered to destroy yourself. When detached, it is invincible but it leaves you vulnerable. It added a touch of strategy and tactical play to the game. One of the key strengths of R-Type was that, although it was a difficult game, it didn't feel impossible. Your progress through the game is slow, as you eke your way through a level. You play a bit, die, play it again, die again, play again, try a slightly different route, get a bit further, die again, use the same route again, get a little further, die again, and repeat over and over again until you've eventually got your route, the enemy patterns and your tactics memorised to get you through a level. And there's something very satisfying about seemingly being able to fly through the level like a pro, taking out wave after wave of enemies and maxing out your spaceship with power-ups aplenty.

Translating an arcade game to the Spectrum inevitably leads to compromises, but Bob Pape, the man given the task of converting R-Type, did a spectacular job in retaining as much as he could from the arcade version of the game. The graphics are detailed and colourful with no obvious colour clash. Even if there was, there's so much going on that you probably wouldn't notice it. Sprites are recognisable from their arcade counterparts and the effects when firing from your powered up spaceship are remarkable. Special credit must be given to the end of level bosses who are just as fearsome as they are in the arcade original.

The sound in the game is a bit pants. There are no background tunes, although if there were, they'd more than likely be terrible. There are a couple of bits of music which play just before the game begins and when you die, and sound a bit like the phone in 24. But in game sound effects are limited to a put-put-put when you fire, and squelchy noises when you hit an enemy. Other bloops and bleeps and noises make up the rest of the effects. They're inoffensive but not great, but I guess more prominent sounds would get on your nerves after a while.

Most important though is that the game feels like the real thing. The Spectrum version isn't a game loosely based on R-Type - it is R-Type. The original R-Type was all about finding a route and planning your strategy based on what you've learned when attempting it before. And the Spectrum version is the same. The hard bits are still hard, the easy bits (well, easier bits) are still easier. The same enemies appear in the same places, and you have to clear a path in the same way. R-Type is famed for its difficulty level. It was from the eighties when games were tougher and gamers were real men. Or butch women. Throw anything at them and they'd tackle it. None of this modern-day microtransactiony crap where you can buy your way through a game. Ok, we'll ignore the fact that most arcade games could be played to the end if you kept shoving more 10p coins into them and continuing each time you died, which I suppose is actually a microtransaction. Hmmmm, anyway, Like the arcade version, R-Type on the Spectrum is a tough nut, and some might find its difficulty level offputting. Sticking with it does reap rewards, but there's nothing more frustrating than getting your spaceship maxed out to the nines only for you to get shot in the ass by a rogue bullet and having to return to the game with your standard setup. Later on in the game, the going gets extremely tough unless you have a bit of extra help from your weaponary. This isn't really a fault of the conversion, and it's exactly how all other versions play, but it's one of the reasons why R-Type isn't everybody's cup of Yorkshire Tea. There is a bit of slowdown when too much is going on, and it sometimes feels like frames go missing as a way of the game trying to keep up with the action so it loses some of its fluidity. Responsive controls are a must for a game like this and in this version, the controls are fine, although you really need to play it with a joystick or control pad to prevent getting your fingers all a-tangle. One issue, again inherited from the arcade version, is that your spaceship moves a little too slow. Sometimes, an almost-certain death stares you in your face. All you need to do to avoid it is move a little to the right. But, your spaceship just doesn't seem to want to move quick enough. Of course, quicker movement would probably result in less control over it, so perhaps its speed is just right. Who knows?

So, R-Type on the Speccy is a great conversion, and a must-have game for any Spectrum collection. Looks great, sounds shite, plays great. But, there is a problem. And this affects many games converted from arcades to home machines in this modern world of emulation and rererereleases and suchlike. Why would anybody play it today? The whole point of porting the game to computers like the Spectrum was to bring the arcade game to home audiences. The truth is that, although it was a fantastic port of R-Type, the arcade game is much better. And when it's now possible to get hold of the arcade game itself either through official rereleases or through other methods usually involving MAME and a visit to your favourite ROM-hosting website, there is little need to play a conversion of it. You can just play the real thing. The Spectrum version is definitely worth taking a look at and is a great game in its own right, but unless you're the sort of person who wants to complete every version there ever was of R-Type, you'd only really have a go of Spectrum R-Type for curiosity's sake. In a similar way, both the PC Engine/TurboGrafx version and the Sega Master System version were released on the Wii's Virtual Console service. The PC Engine version was clearly the better one, so why would anybody who wanted to play R-Type on the Wii opt to download the Master System version? And, on that note, I shall end my review. I'm kind of depressed now. I've convinced myself that all home conversions are pointless if they don't improve on the arcade version. Wish I'd never have mentioned it now.....

RATINGS

Presentation: 80%
The Spectrum makes a great attempt at emulating the arcade's iconic title screen, continue and high score screens, and things are consistently well presented throughout the game. 
Graphics: 95%
Fantastic graphics which show the intrinsic details of the alien worlds and their inhabitants, with plenty of colour and some amazing effects. Some of the Speccy's best.
Sound: 55%
No music, but the sound effects are adequate. 
Playability: 82%
Challenging initially, but the game lures you in and holds your attention as you know that on each attempt, you can get a little further by finding the optimum route through each level. Importantly though, it's great fun. 
Overall: 85%
A Spectrum classic, and a fantastic conversion of a great arcade game, but slightly redundant today when you can just play the arcade game instead. 

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