The 8-bit GAME COMPARISON Thread

[SirClive]

Buggy Boy Elite - 1988

Another arcade conversions from Elite, and a game I remember very well. I travelled up to London to one of those Computer shows at Ally Pally or somewhere like that in '88 and this is one of the gems I came back with.

Commodore

Buggy Boy on the 64 is a really fun game. It is fast and colourful but is let down by the size of the graphics. Buggy Boy in the arcade had a huge buggy and whereas the arcade is like Maria Whittaker bouncing her boobs all over the place, the C64's are more like Suzanne Mizzi jiggling her fried eggs a litle bit.

Amstrad

The CPC version once again has the tiny little boobie, err, I mean graphics. The colour is shockingly bad and the actual playfield is tiny. The screen I have posted doesn't do the huge border its full justice. The sound is a little basic, but has a great stereo effect when played through headphones. The game is quite fun, but not as fast and manouverable than the Commy.

Spectrum

Look at the bugs on that! The graphics on the Speccy version once again prove that it isn't all about colour (even though there is a decent splash on the buggy). The vehicle is huge and bobs about like the arcade (though maybe a little too much). The size of the graphics though does have a disadvantage as the game isn't as instantly playable as the C64. After a few goes though when you have got over the sea sickness, there is lots of fun to be had. The sound on the 128k version is great too.

Scores

Graphics - 1st Spec - 2nd C64 - 3rd CPC
Sound - Too hard to seperate them as they all have something different to offer
Playability - 1st C64 - 2nd Spec - 3rd CPC

Overall
1st is the C64, for its fast and smooth gameplay
2nd (by a very short margin) is the Speccy. Great graphics and a different approach to the conversion make this a superb attempt.
3rd (by quite a distance) is the CPC. Whilst this isn't a bad game (and reviews on CPCZone score it very highly), it falls way short the other two.

[revgiblet]

(before anyone complains that the Speccie screenshot is not from the same place in the game as the other two it's because I couldn't get my emulator to take a screenshot. If anyone can recommend an easy to use, decent Speccie emulator that lets you take a screenshot then I'm listening...)

I Ball

I Ball was a nice little budget game from Firebird. It was a run n' gun shooter with a difference. The difference is that I Ball, the character you control on his quest to rescue his friends, has inertia and bounces off obstacles. Combine this with the fact that touching an enemy = death and you've got a game where dodging the enemies is as important as shooting them. At first you can only shoot ahead or behind, but as you collect power-ups you become increasingly tooled up. It's essentially Commando meets Wizball.

Commodore 64



Graphics: Good graphics but the colours are a little understated / washed out (delete according to your allegiance).

Sound: Rob Hubbard + SID Chip = awesomeness. Absolutely amazing title tune with a nice "press button to hear speech" feature - ala Ghostbusters. The game itself has a choice of title music or SFX. The SFX are varied and excellent too. Lots of good quality speech.

Gameplay: The inertia and bounce feature make this a tricky game, but it's loads of fun to play. Sometimes it feels a little unfair as you bounce further than you'd expect or I Ball doesn't respond quite quickly enough.


Spectrum



Graphics: The more striking colour scheme gives this the edge over the C64. Larger sprites. Very nicely done.

Sound: Horrible, horrible, horrible title tune (at least compared to the C64 version) and no speech featured. SFX only during the game, and it's a lot more sparse than the C64 version. There is speech in the game, but it sounds like a dalek with a mouthful of gravel.

Gameplay: Interesting. The inertia in the Spectrum version is less pronounced, and the the bouncing less harsh. As a result the game feels smoother, fairer and more responsive. However, the larger sprites make it a lot harder to navigate past enemies which brings this back down.


Amstrad



Graphics: As usual Amstrad owners are palmed off with a badly done Spectrum port. It retains the smaller sprites of the C64 version but with a unimpressive colour sheme and - get this - some terrible colour clash when you or your bullets hit an obstacle.

Sound: Like the Spectrum version but without the speech and slightly worse FX.

Gameplay: Oh dear. Although the small sprites help, the bouncing is much harsher than the C64 version and the handling not as crisp as the Spectrum version. It probably has the best 'firing' in any of the games though.


VERDICT:
In reality it's pretty much a draw between the C64 and Spectrum versions. I prefer the C64 version as the more complete package but there's no shame in preferring the Spectrum version. If it had smaller sprites it would probably have the edge. I can only make two recommendations - 1) At least listen to the C64 title music. It's superb. 2) Don't touch the Amstrad version if you can play either of the others.

[revgiblet]

Lords of Midnight

After Mike Singleton had...ummm...tributed 'Lord of the Rings' with Shadowfax he proceeded to make a turn-based strategy game which was in no way a further...tribute to 'Lord of the Rings'. Controlling a small band of heroes you had to defeat the forces of evil by either recruiting enough allies to win the war or by helping one of your party sneak to the heart of the enemy's territory to destroy an item that gave the bad guy his power. Ummm. No. No tribute there.

Anyway, the game rocked - as did most of the stuff that Mike did.

Commodore 64



Graphics: It's a turn-based strategy game so they're pretty sparing. But what it done is done very nicely indeed.

Sound: No sound whatsoever. In fact, there is no sound in any of the games. However, the 'no sound' given off by the SID chip is, by definition, superior 'no sound' to the 'no sound' given off by the AY chip. The silence of the SID is the Platonic Form of all silence; the stillness of a crisp, winter's morning where the grass is coated with snow and not even the birds are disturbing the peace. So the C64 wins this category by a mile. (That was a joke).

Gameplay: Press a button. Wait for the screen to redraw. Press another button. Wait for the screen to redraw. Select an option. Repeat. Good fun, but I'm knocking points off the C64 version because Luxor got killed by wolves after only three moves.


Spectrum



Graphics: Probably not quite as good as the C64, but they refresh a bit quicker and that's important.

Sound: No sound.

Gameplay: Identical to the C64 version, except the Spectrum version plays slightly quicker so that gives it the edge.


Amstrad



Graphics: Hmmm. The worst of the bunch due to the least amount of colour. But they're still passable.

Sound: No sound.

Gameplay: In my windowed emulator this nipped along like the Speccy version, but in full-screen mode it was slower than a snail being delivered by Royal Mail. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that the windowed mode was the most accurate emulation.


VERDICT:
Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Take your pick. The Spectrum version is best, but the differences between all versions are minor and mostly cosmetic. You'll enjoy whichever version you play.

[tcv]

It's almost like there are different variants?

I'd imagine you've got some kind of hack, all the officially released ones look like my screenshot. (assuming your scrshot is from the start of level 1)

Actually, it's from 3x1. (That was the one I had open at the time. I've been playing this quite a bit recently.

[Antiriad2097]

(before anyone complains that the Speccie screenshot is not from the same place in the game as the other two it's because I couldn't get my emulator to take a screenshot. If anyone can recommend an easy to use, decent Speccie emulator that lets you take a screenshot then I'm listening...)

ZXSpin (or plain old Spin as its often called) will let you do that. The only thing is that you have to remember to add the .bmp extension when you save your screenshot or it throws a wobbler. Other than that it works fine. Its probably a good idea to convert the bmp to jpg before posting it online though. Do this in the app of your choice (e.g. irfanview)

[Dudley]

I used Klive to take the turrican shot for Necro. It does take them in .pcx so you'll need something that can convert, irFan view will probably do it, I used Paint Shop Pro 7 (the last version before it became crap)

[batman877]

Lords of Midnight

Gameplay: In my windowed emulator this nipped along like the Speccy version, but in full-screen mode it was slower than a snail being delivered by Royal Mail. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that the windowed mode was the most accurate emulation.

Wow, the Amstrad is really taking some stick here. Are you sure you guys are emulating it correctly?

Seriously though, was Commando really as unplayable as you say? I-Ball was easily as good as the Speccy version and as for Turrican II, it's beautiful (the C64 version is just as blocky too!) Even Lords of Midnight gets it, when the Speccy version in particular is in no way superior.

[revgiblet]

Even Lords of Midnight gets it, when the Speccy version in particular is in no way superior.

It's now my quest to find a game that's better on the Amstrad and isn't one of the usual suspects (Gryzor etc.)

Wish me luck...

[SirClive]

Seriously though, was Commando really as unplayable as you say? I-Ball was easily as good as the Speccy version and as for Turrican II, it's beautiful (the C64 version is just as blocky too!) Even Lords of Midnight gets it, when the Speccy version in particular is in no way superior.

Sorry but Commando was really that bad and just look at the creenshot for Lords of Midnight, it is plaint to see that the strad can't compete graphically. A lot of these games are Dudley right with his 'Random Colours' quote about the Amstrad.
As I said in a couple of my comparisons, the Amstrad games aren't that bad on their own, they just dont compare favourably with the others.

I think I will do a comparison tonight of one of the big Amstrad games like the aformentioned Gryzor or Barbarian II to see if they truly are that much better.

[Robbo]

COMMANDO

AMSTRAD
The sound/music is terrible throughout and really harsh.

COMMODORE
The sound in OK, but is far from Rob Hubbard's best.

Agreed with you Sir Clive on everything you said on your comparison of the different versions of this game, EXCEPT for these two statements.

I think both versions here have wonderful music.

But like I said, this is just what I think, and you got everything else just about spot on to your credit mate!

[SirClive]

I think both versions here have wonderful music.

But like I said, this is just what I think, and you got everything else just about spot on to your credit mate!

To be honest, I had only just finished playing a 128k hack on the Speccy that had really good music (cheers for the info psj ), so I may have been a bit harsh on the music side.

[Scooby1970]

I thought I would take a look at one of my favourite games ever.... Arkanoid.

C64 Version:


Graphics - 7/10 - The graphics are well defined, the background graphics nice but the colours seem a little drab compared to the other versions. Also, the play area is alot smaller than on the other versions.
Sound - 8/10 - A cracking little SID tune plays, and all the sound effects make good use of SID.
Gameplay - 7/10 - Probably not the best point of this version, however much better playability than the Speecy version.

Spectrum Version:


Graphics - 6/10 - Well laid out and good use of colour for a Speccy. The moving character sprites are not as well designed as other versions.
Sound - 5/10 - Not the best of the three versions!
Gameplay - 5/10 - Ouch! This is a hard one compared to the other versions when using the standard joystick or keyboard options.

Amstrad Version:


Graphics - 8/10 - Great use of colour and well designed sprites. Also use of CPC's overscan made it the correct ratio as the arcade version.
Sound - 8/10 - The AY chip is put to excellent use, with the sound sounding as good as, if not slightly better than the C64's version.
Playability - 9/10 - The CPC version plays like a dream! Everything about it feels like the arcade version.


Verdict:
One of the classic arcade games available on all three formats. Overall the CPC version comes up tops with great use of colour and sound and using the correct aspect ratio with over-scan on an original CPC.

Mark

[felgekarp]

Lords of Midnight

Gameplay: In my windowed emulator this nipped along like the Speccy version, but in full-screen mode it was slower than a snail being delivered by Royal Mail. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that the windowed mode was the most accurate emulation.

Wow, the Amstrad is really taking some stick here. Are you sure you guys are emulating it correctly?

I'm emulating the amstrad via an old shoe box, some blue tac, some sellotape and a set of crayola crayons, how is everybody else emulating it?

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

Why does my NES version look so different?



It's almost like there are different variants?

So nobody bothered reading the Definitive Bubble Bobble (including Rainbow Islands), then? It was, like, ONE issue ago...

(Answer: there were two totally different versions of Rainbow Islands on the NES - a Japanese/US one with completely new levels and changed gameplay, and a PAL one by Ocean that was much truer to the original.)

[tcv]

Why does my NES version look so different?



It's almost like there are different variants?

So nobody bothered reading the Definitive Bubble Bobble (including Rainbow Islands), then? It was, like, ONE issue ago...

(Answer: there were two totally different versions of Rainbow Islands on the NES - a Japanese/US one with completely new levels and changed gameplay, and a PAL one by Ocean that was much truer to the original.)

Oh, I read it. But I was on a treadmill at the time and, well, the sweat kept falling on the book. I'm sorry! *sob*