Action Fighter (Atari ST)
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- Welcome to The Joy of Sticks! Don't forget to like and subscribe but most importantly comment down below. What did you think of the game?
Intro music by midierror: / midierror
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As ever, a huge thank you to everyone at Atarimania and Atari Legend for their amazing work:
- www.atarimania...
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Recorded at 50fps using a real Atari 1040 STe (4mb, TOS v1.62, PAL), RGB SCART, a Micomsoft X-Sync1 and a Startech PexHDcap capture card.
![Atari 2600 Longplay [007] Enduro](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jvli9CXSqP4/mqdefault.jpg)
Bloomin heck, still recovering from the surprise return… another vid already??😮
Blam! Right when you least expect it.
Really like how graphics artist spent extra time making some of those tiny bit of animations, like sparkling water, skid marks, animated wings when the craft goes inside the helicopter, U-boat water splash etc... Core Design really cared about quality. Also can't help it, but for me, the car in-game looks like Mazda RX-8, which was released something like 15 years later.
I really love those little details. I'm surprised they weren't picked up on by the reviewers. The animations on the attract sequence, the skid, the little waving geezer. All these things point to a developer that was all in. Ha! It does look like a Mazda RX-8! Prescient car design from the GFX artist there!
2 posts in a week or so you must of had atari st withdrawal symptoms after a while not uploading for a while :) Never played this so good to see what atari stuff I missed growing up
hehe! More to come, don’t you worry! Great to hear that we are opening doors, hearts and minds for people here on the Joy of Sticks, Nic! Thanks for watching.
I played a ton of this on the Master System. Just watching this brought the music into my brain. It's a shame the ST version doesn't have that. One notable difference is the powerup that gives you a better shot changes from a pellet into a rocket, which goes right through enemies and kills them in one hit. Seems to make a big difference in your effectiveness. A great port though!
I'm always frustrating by losing powerups when you die. It's like "oh you're finding the game hard? Well I'll make it even harder then to punish you for being rubbish!" Makes it almost not worth having all the extra lives. I'd rather have fewer lives and not lose my powerups. Games were so hostile back then. Arcade influence no doubt. Despite playing it a bunch I could never get very far. I had a mate who was good at games and he's the only reason I ever saw level 2.
Ooh! I need to hear the Master System music. I wonder if it will trigger any memories for me.
Difficulty design has come a long way for sure. Games of this era try to ape coin-ops way too much. It took designers a long time to realise that you don't need to elongate a home videogame's lifespan by punishing the player. But then maybe mainstream games have gone too far the other way in their desperation for players to see all the content.
I love the format of these vids, objective gameplay followed by reviews, and find the always lighthearted reception to what is at times unquestionably infuriating gameplay hilarious. The antithesis of angry video game nerd.
That's great to hear! AVGN is a legend, no doubt, but it's nice to hear my more wholesome approach is appreciated too.
Oh what a treat to have this second post from you so quickly! Thank you for this review. You definitely embody the "joy" in the Joy of Sticks. It's just great to watch you play. You could be filming yourself washing dishes with that enthusiasm and positive attitude, I would watch it without a second thought! Not that this game is a chore to play it seems to be very well coded indeed with fast scrolling and tight controls 🙂
Mate, that is so lovely to hear. Exactly what I want the channel to be about and for people to get out of it. Thank you so much for the kind words.
You're on fire! Thank you for those ST videos.
You are most welcome, our kid! Thanks for watching.
Wait. You're back? Oh, we've missed you!
Cheers, Isaac! Good to be back.
The legend is back with the bit between his teeth 😬...what a day ,watching you and just watched the open house at blues with Tom wagner and his plans ..oh my god ..its almost as good as opening your first atari st at Xmas 😅😅
Hehe! What a day indeed. You better go and have a lie down before something else exciting happens.
Hiya, Stickhead! It's great to see some ST gameplay videos, once again! Action Fighter does look like a decent looking game. I always confuse this one with Hot Rod, for some reason 🤔
Hey, man! I don't think I'm familiar with Hot Rod. Any good?
I have fond memories of this one on the 16-bits. 💇♂
It’s a shame the playing field is so small, because it looks like it could be a lot of fun! Anyway, great to have you uploading new ST videos. 😊
To be honest, I didn’t really notice the small playfield until watching the recording back, so it isn’t as egregious as it looks. Thank you for the kind words!
Excellent again. Finished a cracked and trained version a long time ago, cant remember if it has 3 or 4 levels in total. Some of your sound bites had me laughing! One about getting rammed from behind and another telling yourself not to spunk the power-ups away!😄
🤣 Cheers, Bob!
I feel like I could get a bit further with practise, but it is far too punishing when you lose all your power ups to consider completing.
welcome back Stickhead!
Cheers,our kid! Nice to be back.
Another Great Video from you, this reminds me of a game I had for the Spectrum called Stainless Steel.
Ah, cheers Colin. I don’t know Stainless Steel. I’ll have to check it out.
Another video so soon? Excellent stuff! It's great to see you posting again!
Thanks for the kind words, bruv! It’s nice to be posting again.
Tonights viewing sorted... Thanks buddy❤
Enjoy!
What a crazy game, for me it’s too fast and difficult. I love overhead racing games and shooters, but this one was hard as bollocks. Major Motion meets… the hell! Thanks for you video man, addictive medicine for our ST vains.
Yes! You definitely have to hold back and not go top speed. As soon as I started to focus on survival rather than destruction of my enemies I did much better. Major Motion added to the 'to play' list!
@@thejoyofsticks under your own risk! 😅 Major Motion is horrible for ST. You’d better try Mean Machine of The Spy Who Loved Me 😋
😅 Thanks for the warning! I remember enjoying Spy Who Loved Me, so maybe I'll give that a go next.
hey great to see you back. i've not heard of this game, but it combines my favourites spyhunter and a shoot em up.. nice one..
If you like Spy Hunter, you should definitely give this a go. Solid game! Lots of fun to be had.
Cool, You have returned!
Indeed!👋
Good work getting to the second flying stage! This is a solid ST game! Really enjoyed it back in the day, even though I never really got anywhere in it. A manual would have been helpful! 😄
Can you tell from the joy in my little face that I wasn’t expecting to get that far? :D The game was waaay better than I thought it would be too.
@@thejoyofsticks Yeah, suspected as much! 😁 I felt exactly the same when I managed to get to the submarines when I recorded my video about the game, not too long ago. The flying stage was surprisingly fun! If a bit hopeless to get done without powered up shots!
hey game of gears.. love your channel.
Yes, that pea-shooter it leaves you with is terrible. Where did that come from as a game design? “Oh, struggling are you? Just died did you? Well now you’re going to struggle some more! Mwah hah ha!”
@@bazza5699 Thanks mate, glad to hear and I really appreciate your support!
Loved this game!
More! More! More ST videos!!!!! 😃
Your wish is my command! 😁
That was fun watch! Well played on that last go there!
Cheers, bruv! The game surprised me, and then my ability at the game surprised me. It was an evening of surprises! :D
Another nostalgia trip.Oh no more lemmings!...Was a blast in 2player (destroying each others bridges). Happy days
I played a lot of Lemmings, but not the excpansion or the sequel. Something I should rectify. Especially Oh No. I wasn’t that taken with Lemmings 2.
@@thejoyofsticks yeah I am pretty sure my friend had oh no more lemmings for his 1040 ste and I had a 520stfm that was upgraded to a 1meg I think...(Going back a good few years now.I don't think I played lemmings 2.But I did have lemmings demo for my 128k+2 spectrum until I traded towards my Atari 520stfm.I miss my childhood!.But your videos always bring me joy,so THANK YOU 💯👍
@@luapnitsua5859 Are the Oh No! levels very different to the originals? Are they harder?
Bringing a bit of nostalgic joy to people is an absolute privilege. Thank you for the kind words.
@@thejoyofsticks No very similar if I remember correctly.But in 2player you shared the same map but each side/player had to get their lemmings in their own hut/goal so you could really destroy your opponents half/route to their 🛖
Ha! That sounds amazing. Chaotic, but amazing.
It seems this game could benefit by moving the status area from the top of the screen to the right, just to add that little bit more to your field of view ahead.
I suppose it would compromise the breadth of the spaceship levels though.
Yes! Especially during the faster/more vulnerable motorbike bit. I think they might have deliberately limited the play field to help with smoother scrolling, but what's the point in allowing g the player to go extremely fast if it's not worth the risk. That's the genius of the Sonic rings mechanic. Limiting the consequences of crashing out encourages the player to go for it.
I actually had a boxed copy of this game, it came in a tiny unremarkable little cardboard box that reflected my level of excitement after trying it for the first time. I think I only played it a few times altogether. To be fair, I got this game quite late in my ST's lifespan, and it arrived together with several other cheap games including the original Street Fighter (which made everything else in that lot feel much worse than it probably was 😆). Having watched you play it, there seems to be more to the game than I thought back then.
There was definitely more in this than I thought. Sometimes if you go into something with low expectations it can set you up for a good time. What’s the saying? A pessimist is never disappointed? :D
That little unremarkable cardboard box has my interest piqued. I remember towards the end of the ST’s life a bunch of games being released in little blister packs. The height of cheapness, but it was how I discovered Dogs of War which is an absolute banger.
@@thejoyofsticks I wasn't quite as bad as blister pack, but quite dull. Now Dogs of War is a game I would have been very pleased with had I bought it!
I think it was 2 quid. 2 quid!
@@thejoyofsticks 🤯
This version of the game has a fairly big flaw (one that makes the game unnecessarily hard) : like in Spy Hunter, if the countdown timer hasn't yet reached 0, your lives are not supposed to down. I'm wondering the programmers did play the Master system game themselves as surely they would've noticed this.
So only the timer is supposed to result in a loss of life? Is that what it’s like in the arcade? Astounding.
@@thejoyofsticks Not exactly, when the timer is running you have unlimited lives. When the the timer reaches zero, it's replaced the text "rest" and a number showing your remaining lives.
Of course the goal is to crash as little as possible and finish the level while the timer is still running.
Ah, I see. So the crashes are just to slow you down. That would increase the risk/reward and force you to go faster than you feel comfortable. Like it!
This is a decent little game that you'd feel happy to pay around £10 for. It runs smoothly and the graphics, while very 8-bit esque(looks like a Master System game), are reasonably detailed and colourful. Despite having a few flaws, it's an OK game overall. 😃
Spot on, our kid. There was a general dislike of anything that looked ‘too 8-bit’ in the press at that time and I think it caused them to overlook a number of quality games.
Good enough port to make you not want to pay more money for it in the arcades. I used to play it some times (arcades), but definitely not one of my favorites.
It's quite interesting how there were even shoot'em ups in the 80s which had different gameplay between parts of the game. HA! You just mention it how it is more than one game in one, albeit similar games. :)
Hmm...I just made the connection between the flying car here and the man with the golden gun.
I really like how the sea looks in this game. Not sure why.
Well played and as before, one of the games I am sure you can finish if you try for a couple of hours.
Funny you should mention James Bond, but isn't there a Bond game with overhead view driving and your car changes into a boat? Spy.Who Loved Me maybe?
Yes, it was a huge bonus as a kid when you splurged your pocket money and ended up with two or more different play experiences for your cash.
@@thejoyofsticks It sounds familiar, but I can't remember what game does that.
Another Joy of Sticks video?! WHAT YEAR IS IT?
‘This the year of our lord 2024, young Jimothy!
Another game following on from previous comment. Or is it my reactions that let me down? Lol good play Marc!!
Hehe! Cheers, man!
The one I played was Major Motion, this one is way advanced
A few people have mentioned Major Motion, but I haven’t played it. Another one to add to the list!
Yay your back :D
Yay!
Ah good old CVG! Rating 46% the 50hz smooth and colourful C64 version while giving 75% to the Speccy version which barely moves and it's strictly monochrome. LOL. But anyways, I don't mind those early Core Design SEGA conversions (the other one being Dynamite Dux) but some in game music and maybe a bigger play area would have been nice!
I’d forgotten about Dynamite Dux! Me and a friend played the snot out of that back in the day. We even walked around the playground swinging our fists in circles like the wind up punch move (man, we were cool)
Surely you are not bringing into question the integrity of that bastion of journalism, CVG? XD
Had this on a menu disk (automation i think), found it uncontrollable and moved on back in the day. Revisited it after watching your video and really enjoyed my time on it, so thank you... Still think i prefer Major Motion though lol. Cheers mate
Interesting! One of the reviews mentioned bad controls too. Glad I inspired you to pick it up again. 👍
@@thejoyofsticks There are two different versions Of Major Motion out there. One with mouse controls (that's the original as I recall) that doesn't control great. The other, which may be hacked, uses joystick and definitely scratches the spy hunter itch.
@@atari-staffroom Thanks for the heads up! Me and mouse controlled games have had a chequered past, so I'll look out for the joystick Andy.
Sidescrolling mech-game on the SMS? It doesn't really fit the description but I think of the games available back in '88-89, it could be Transbot.
It seems like that must be it, and it's certainly familiar, but I remembered a lot more to it, like an animated intro and more exploration. Maybe my memory is tricking me and amalgamating two games together! Still, Transbot looks fun!
@@thejoyofsticks Found another candidate that might fit on the exploration and animation side while being a side-scroller with a mecha-esque vibe. Check out Cyborg Hunter. But it's a little later release, August of '89 in the UK.
@@kurtangle83 Yes! I think that's the one! I remember the 'wireframe' outline of the robot in the intro and the first person radar style thing. Thank for the detective work!
@@thejoyofsticks NP :)
I played this a fair bit on the Master System as well and was not that good at it. Stage 3 at best even though it doesn't superficially look too difficult
How does the ST version stack up against the SMS version?
@@thejoyofsticks From what you played, it looks really good. A very solid conversation, good scrolling and framerate. I’d have been very happy with it if I’d acquired it from a friend
"Acquired it from a friend" 😂 You absolute pirate, you!
Looks very underated perhaps? I thought the graphics were nicely drawn, colourful and very fast and smooth. Pretty good for an early ST release I think. Well I had to check if it was on the Amstrad CPC and sure enough here it is: czcams.com/video/CmMwxH5AkK8/video.html
Yes! I think it helps that I had low expectations going in, but it controls well, looks decent, has a Daglish soundtrack and some interesting, unique points. 👍
Yeah, when you die you lose everything. Videogames are too generous.
Ha! That's certainly one way to look at it! 🤣